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...

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,...

This is my video camera all dressed up. It is constantly evolving, but for now it consists of a Canon XH-A1, the Brevis 35 Flip adapter, a Redrock Micro follow focus, speed crank, carbon fiber rod support system, Cavision handgrips, shoulder pad, matte box, French flag, 7″ LCD monitor, and a selection of fast Canon FD...

Supertown has been moving along a bit slowly lately. There is no budget and too many characters to count, so shooting happens when our producer, Chris (who is currently in the process of moving to L.A.) manually aligns the planets, which he does a great job of. I think we have one more day of shooting coming up. We have been shooting on weekends and days off every now and then since October or was it November? Not sure. It’s a...

Most crew-members on low budget productions usually wear many hats. Everyone involved does whatever they can to help out on set.  Sometimes a grip has to take continuity photos. There are other times when an actor bounces light. Sometimes a boom operator has to double as a flag. Sometimes that boom operator is the Producer. You never know what you could be doing on set from day to day on a small shoot. You could be the D.P. on this...

Below is a sample clip from a short film that I am currently shooting. This project is being shot over the course of a few weekends. After last weekend’s shoot, I decided to show the director, Sam Rossi, and producer, Chris Naylor, what kind of potential these shots have by giving them a sample shot. Initially, Sam was looking for a dolly back to reveal the characters around the table for this shot, but using a table-top dolly (skate...

I have recently gone on an equipment shopping spree. New camera, sticks, wireless mics, lenses, and other production goodies. Here’s a list at the iD CiNEMA site. My favorite item in the lot is the Steadicam Merlin. I have used a number of camera stabilizers in the past that range from small hand held stabilizers up to full size units from Glidecam and VariZoom. This is the first time I have used a Steadicam product, and I must say...

Supercharge Me! is making the rounds. Jenna Norwood has just returned from a screening of her award winning documentary in Seattle, and now the film is screening at the Central Florida Film Festival this weekend. It screens Saturday, September 1st at 7:30 p.m, and Sunday, September 2 at 8:30 p.m.. I will be at the Sunday screening to help Jenna had out LaraBars, and take part in the Q&A session after the screening. So stop by and say...