Filmmaking is all about telling stories visually. In order to tell a proper story, there are some prerequisites. No. Having a sweet HDSLR rig isn’t one of them. The first thing you need to make a film is a story. The next thing you need is to know that story inside out and upside down. Know your characters. Know their personalities, their habbits, their vices, their hobbies, their desires, their fears. You should know what a character...

Here are a couple of great YouTube videos that I came across. There are some valuable lessons here from some of the world’s greatest cinematographers. Part 1 of the Lighting Segment from “Cinematographer Style” Directed by Jon Fauer. The industry’s best talk about proper lighting and equipment know-hows. Films are much more than a good story or good laughs, its technique and supremely efficient execution is what...

If you’re like most creative professionals, you probably use your computer for editing, graphics, effects, audio production, and any number of other tasks that require maximum performance from your system. You probably also use that same system for many other things that don’t require top performance. My usual ritual when starting work for the day is to set my Energy Saver settings to never sleep the system because there is...

There is a new podcast on the block for creative media producers called MacMediaTech. I was honored to be invited by the host, Kenn Bell, to be a guest on the premiere episode a couple of weeks ago. The other two guests were Paul Del Vecchio, and Matt Jeppsen. This is how Kenn describes the show: Every episode will have four filmmakers discussing three topics. One about the Mac, one about Media (film, TV, Web) and one about filmmaking...

I get this question a lot from freelance editors that are just starting out. They always have a tough time figuring out how to price their services. Creative people tend to have difficulty with the business side of things and get themselves into undesirable situations all too often. Have you ever set a flat rate for a job then found yourself working for peanuts at the end when you did the math? I know I have. I learned a valuable lesson...

I’m as much of a camera nut as the next filmmaker, and I am ecstatic about the giant leaps that camera technology has been making of late. Like so many others, I’m on the Amazon.com waiting list for two Canon 7D bodies, and they just can’t get here fast enough. But I have been noticing a trend in the independent film community lately. It seems that the most important thing to filmmakers theses days is the latest, greatest...

Adobe Kuler is an indispensable tool for anyone that works with color. No matter what variety of media you work with, if you need to whip up amazing color schemes you should be using this tool. If you work on a Mac, this just got easier. Using the Mondrianum 2 plugin for the Apple OS X system color picker, you have access to Kuler from virtually anywhere in your system. Just change your preferences in any app that doesn’t use the...

Why would anyone wake up at 5:00 AM on a Saturday? To see a building implode via dynamite demolition of course. I have never witnessed a building imploding in person before, so I just had to check it out. And since I was going to see this, of course I brought along my camera to gather what could be some valuable DV Rebel footage for future use. Here’s what I came back with from my HVX200 shooting at 60 FPS. I added a little ramp and...

This second installment of the edit faster and more efficiently series is an extension of part 1 File Organization. Now that you have an organization system that works, it’s time to move to the next step in the quest for video editing speed and efficiency – keeping bins organized. Sloppy bins are just as much of a problem, and just as common as a messy file system. Few things waste time like fumbling around and searching for...

My latest endeavor as a Director of Photography was a music video for R&B artist L’ren C‘s track “Ain’t Nobody Gotta Know”. The video was directed by David Bermejo, and post-production services were by Imaginary Digital. L’ren C is holding a special event tonight in Orlando, FL at Vintage. She will be performing live, then premiering the video. If you are able to make it, I’ll see you there. If...