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...

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...

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,...

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...