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...

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’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...

Is it possible to speed up your film or video editing and become more efficient without spending truckloads of cash on the latest bleeding edge hardware? Yes. You can edit faster without spending any money. Increasing your editing efficiency can actually make you more money. With the amount of time I spend working in non-linear editing software, I like to be as quick and precise as I can while staying creative. Speed and efficiency is...

I have never directed a film before so when my assistant editor Adam asked me to direct an entry to the National Film Challenge, I agreed. Who in their right mind would turn down a fun, sleep deprived weekend of filmmaking? Not me, that’s for sure. And fun it was. We had a weekend of DV Rebel style filmmaking with a one day shoot that took place at a small carnival, and a day of intense post-production. The weekend started with a...

If you are involved in post-production, or in filmmaking in general, you should lend an ear to That Post Show. Host John Flowers invited me and Scott Simmons on this week’s show to talk about some post-production goodness. John, Scott, and I have a great discussion about the current state of the NLE software landscape. We talk about some of the projects we use Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro for, and why we...

I’m starting pre-production on my next short film project called Broken Promise. In addition to being Director of Photography on this one, I’ll be producing. That means in reality I’ll be serving as the Producer, Production Manager, Production Coordinator, and Catering. I guess I’m really going to need a good 1st AD. So my first step is doing a script breakdown. I typically use Final Draft Tagger for the breakdown,...

A couple of months ago I was the DP for a music video for singer Raquel Martinez. The video for the song Heaven In My Heart was directed and edited by David Bermejo. I shot this with a Canon XH-A1, Redrock M2 adapter, and some Canon FD lenses. The most commonly used lens was a 50mm f/1.4. The 28mm was used in a couple of shots, but very minimally. This was mainly because we shot with a small crew and just didn’t have the time to...