If you’re like me, you’re probably not a big fan of shakey camera work. A little is cool, but not “Cloverfield” style (at least not for me). One thing that the studios use is the steadicam. Of course if you’re shooting with low or no budget, you can’t afford one of these big pimpin’ Steadicams like the one in the pic. You can however make something that does a decent job with some time and a little money. When shooting “C for Chaos” we made a simple Steadicam to use with the Cannon GL-1. The new Panasonic DIVX-100B is heavier so I’ve been looking for something different to try.
These links all go to video tutorials. Each sort of has their own build type. Some are straight out counter balances some are more complex. Check ‘em out and let me know what you think!
This first video is a tutorial for how we built the steadicam we used. It’s a good tutorial that shows how to build a steadicam with some pipe and fittings. Very easy DIY project!
Build a pro level steadicam for $14 |► Steadicam is important in filmmaking and can help you get the perfect shot. If you are a budding filmmaker and don’t have the cash to shell out for a professionally made model, check out this …
I have completed my in-house small project building the Steadicam from scratch. This is the 2nd try. 1st one was not so very successful or better say stable. 1st try was based on very small u-joint. I kept the old one: …
Josh, thanks for the great tutorial. It was probably the easiest one to build on Youtube. It works pretty well when perfectly balanced, and that’s where the problem lies. DIY steadicams take a long time to fine tune. …
The Jaybilizer 3000 started out as a DIY Merlin-type Steadicam project. I wanted something that was better than the barbell on a stick type of camera stabilizer but not as expensive as a Steadicam Merlin or even a GlideCam 1000. I assembled a couple …
This video demonstrates a steadicam rig that I designed and built for about $12. It utilizes a unique “point-pivot” which eliminates the need for mechanical gimbals, reducing costs and maintaining a full range of motion. Shoot me a message if you are…
I hope this helps to have several styles of steadicams to build in one spot. Please let me know if you’ve built any of these or if you have a video walking people through how to build a steadicam. I’ll check it out and possibly add it.
Part of being a filmmaker is always learning and evolving. So as I find some cool tips, I may as well share them. One place I’ve always gotten really cool tips is from commentary tracks on DVDs of the “Patron Saints of MVP.” We all studied these people. For example, Robert Rodriguez has great commentary tracks on his movies. Grab a journal or a notebook, start the film, but be ready with the pause button because he puts lots of information in his commentaries. I also recommend his book, “Rebel without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player
.” This book lets you see what it’s like to produce a movie with a very low budget from start to finish.
This is not to say that the other elements of filmmaking aren’t crafts, but the script is the first and lowest-level document. Everything has to come from the script at some point. Every character, every setting, every description, …
GP Tips » Low-budget filmmaking tip #165 It’s easy to think you don’t need a script, or that a script is a pain to deal with, or that writing is easy. None of that is true. Although we sometimes joke that “the script practically writes …
Image Source. (Used with permission). Related posts: The Complete Guide to Low-Budget Feature Filmmaking; Budget Filmmaking – 4 Secrets To Making a Great Film With a Low Budget; Movie Training & Film Making Tips – Volume 3.
Before making a low-budget movie, find out what the budget maximum is going to be, and learn how to be creative with money. Shoot a low budget movie on digital tape, instead of film, withfilmmaking tips from a director and filmmaker in this free vide…
If you’re shooting a fight scene, get a lot of coverage. A lot. Every possible angle you can. Overshoot. Maybe even a few takes on slow shutter speed to give you blurry motiony stuff. Whatever. Just get a lot. Your editor will love you …
No matter how cool the makeup effects are, find out how long they take to apply and how long they last under hot lights. Factor that into your schedule. If your schedule can’t afford that, then either change your schedule, or change the …
1. Never Compromise! When you are making a low budget movie, it is important to realize that not everything is going to be perfect. You may have a vision for.
“Low budget filmmaking is a process that can at times be arduous, but the pay-off is one of the most creative forms of fulfillment that can be achieved by a modern day storyteller. It is with this concept that we will cover some of the …
Be aware of legal issues in filmmaking and learn all about release forms for Indie films with expert tips for producers and directors in this free filmmaking video. Expert: Kevin Lindenmuth Contact: www.lindenmuth.com Bio: Kevin Lindenmuth has worked…
This is a DVD extra from my film “Songs About Your Girlfriend”. It gives a little insight into how we were able to make a feature film for under $2000. If this interests you, please check out the rest of the film on my main page.
Fake blood, also known as, Stage Blood is a staple in making horror movies. You need all kinds…Good looking stuff for close-ups, thinner blood for spraying Kill Bill Volume One style. I know our resident make up effects guru extraordinaire, Todd A. Britt, has various recipes for blood. Unfortunately…I don’t know what they are…so…I decided to look online to see what I could find. I’ll include some youtube fake blood recipes here as well.
Use this easy recipe for homemade fake blood to add a scary prop for yourHalloween costume on this free video clip. Expert: Cable Hardin Contact: www.killingtimepictures.com Bio: Cable Hardin has been making films and animations for over twenty years…
Apparently not everyone loves the taste of fake blood.
Anna Paquin says fake blood makes her feel sick. The 22-year-old actress, who stars in vampire TV series “True Blood” opposite her fiance Stephen Moyer, admits the worst thing about the program is the corn syrup used in bloody scenes. …
Filmriot has posted a full interview with Dustin Lee – the screenwriting instructor at Full Sail – over on Youtube. If you’re an aspiring writer and need some ideas or suggestions or some general direction – it is worth your time to check out this interview with Dustin. He offers some basic screenwriting tips, discusses the three act structure and many more subjects over the course of this interview. Highly recommended to writers and storytellers of all media. Remember to keep checking back to Mutantville.com for ongoing genre news and tips and tricks for filmmakers and storytellers alike.
There are a few things that I am asked pretty often. I will not be answering the “what’s wrong with you?” question. Instead, I’ll be answering a question about film terminology.
“What is a Gaffer?” – A Gaffer is the chief lighting technician that is in charge of the electrical department.
Another one I get is “What is a Best Boy?” – This is the assistant to the chief lighting technician or the assistant to the key grip.
Here is a link to an online a film terminology glossary. This has many, many terms, from A/B printing to Zoom and lots in between.
So head over and check it out. Impress your friends, annoy your enemies. Caution: If you use too much of this terminology, you may annoy your friends as well. Hope you guys find this useful!
Greetings! This is NOT a horror related video. However, it is related to filmmaking and if you take any photographs(and who doesn’t) this video can be useful. It discusses the Rule of Thirds. If you’ve studied photography, then you’ll be very familiar with it. The Rule of Thirds is a good way to get your compositions to be more interesting and not have every picture have the object your shooting be dead center. Enjoy!
This is a cool video on……You guessed it! Mark Apsolon shows how to build barndoors on worklights. As you know, Guerrilla filmmakers use worklights all the time for lighting and this should help you have more control of your light. This would work great for green screen work. Mark Apsolon has lots of cool videos on Youtube.
Hello Mutantville! I want to discuss something that helped us out immensely when embarking on our first feature film “C for Chaos.” A few of us had gone to art school to develop our eyes, since of composition, etc… But we hadn’t gone to “Official” film school. We were lucky that Streebo had been studying storytelling since he was young and I had been behind a camera since I was young. Brento had been making and editing movies since he was young. So now that we’ve established that at one point we were all young, we’re ready to move on.
When preparing for “C for Chaos,” we all studied feverishly. We read all the books we could find but another thing was watching movies. I know this sounds like a “Duh” type thing but…we watched them from as if we were making them. Streebo and I would get together and point out camera movement, lighting, pacing, screen directions, composition, coverage, etc… If you really watch and dissect films in this way you can see how different directors can cover similar situations. Some may use more wide angles, some may go in for close ups, etc… Commentary tracks are another great resource. Of course not all commentary tracks are created equal. If you’re a low budget filmmaker then I recommend lower budget movies. Robert Rodriguez has great commentary tracks. Some of his you need a note book and the pause button to keep up. Be sure you keep an open mind when listening to the commentary. You may only get one or two gems, But if it saves you a night of shooting or makes something easier, I’d say that was worth 2 hours of your time. For example, on the commentary for Ronin, he talks about the scene when they’re buying the weapons. They purposefully wet the entire area since they were filming outside, that way if it rained, it wouldn’t mess up their shooting schedule. Either write this stuff down in a journal or file it away in your brain somewhere.
Streebo is a big believer in only watching what you’re filming. So when we shot “C for Chaos” for about 3 years, that’s pretty much all Streebo watched. Thanks to places like Netflix he showed me horror films from all over the world. This can give you a lot of insight into the genre.
So before, while and after making your film, study as many films as possible. Notice I said study and Not watch. Watch is passive. Study is active.
Below Please leave comments about films with good commentaries for other filmmakers to go and study! Thanks!
From ASAP TRIP: The Film Sensei’s Six Quick Tips to Keep Your Indie Film From Sucking!
And here, my loyal students, are those tips to help you avoid some of the pitfalls I encountered as a beginning low budget filmmaker.
1. Lay Off the Zoom!
Yes, I know that George Lucas did it in the new Star Wars films and, yes, I know it was popular in the new Battlestar Galactica show, but all playing around with the zoom on your camera will do is make your footage look like a tourist shooting vacation movies out on the Florida Keys. A really good cameraman can make a zoom look ok (or semi-acceptable)…a really really good cameraman, that is. For the most part, though, a zoom will look shoddy and amateurish. Your best bet is to break your zoom controller or, at the very least, the finger closest to it. A dolly, stedicam or even hand-held track in will all look 1000% better than a crappy zoom.
2. Vary Your Angles
One of the most common mistakes of most new directors and a whole heck of a lot of indie and guerrilla filmmakers is shots all looking alike. Most low budget films are shot very tight and never really open up for a long view – they’re full of close-ups, two shots and cramped quarters. They also tend to be diagram shots framed at eye level. If you want to make your film more excited, or more interesting, pull back for longer shots, tilt your camera, shoot from a bird’s eye or worm’s eye angle – use your camera angles to help set your mood and control your audience’s level of tension/suspense/drama. A good guide is to pull back further than you think you should (or push in further). Make sure to change things up a bit or your footage and your film will become stagnant and boring.
3. Use Proper Lighting
One of the hardest things for most indie, low budget and guerrilla filmmakers to learn is how to properly light for the DV or HD cameras they’re filming on. With a much lower contrast range and higher need for light than the human eye (and film), lighting for DV/HD cameras can often be a bit counter intuitive. In other words, what looks good to your naked eye often won’t work for your finished film. If you’re not careful you’ll wind up with footage too dark to use. If you’ve worked with, or lit for, film cameras then it may take a little while to get used to the change in methodology. I’ve shot with a number of really good DPs recently who made the mistake of lighting for their eyes and not for the camera we were shooting with. Shoot some lighting tests before you begin principal photography so you can get used to your camera’s dynamic range.
4. Write for What You Have
Since most low budget, indie and guerrilla filmmakers also happen to write their own material, the number one thing you should keep in mind when putting your new screenplay together is: write for what you have! The best way to give your film a higher production value is to make use of anything and everything you’ve already got access to. It’s tough to go out and find a cemetary or a muscle car or an airplane, but if you’ve got friends/family with unique locations, props or wardrobe then you can make your little $5000 movie look like you spent tens or hundreds of thousands on it. It worked for Robert Rodriguez and it will work for you.
5. Get a Good Tripod
Hand holding is great on a date with your girlfriend (or boyfriend, we’re not sexist here at the Film Sensei’s DOJO), but it should be used sparingly on a film set. Get a good fluid head tripod and make use of it as much as possible to give yourself a solid base to work from. Remember, hand held footage is great as long as it is used for a purpose and for an effect. If you’re just doing it because you’re too cheap to spring for a good set of sticks then your film will suffer for it.
6. Get a Good Mic
I feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record after yesterday’s post about essential audio equipment for indie and guerrilla filmmakers. However, it’s a point well worth repeating over and over. While your audience may forgive a little wonky storytelling, dark images or even bad acting, the one thing no one will forgive is bad sound. There is almost nothing you can do that is worse than poor sound quality, and nothing that will make you look more like an amateur – well, short of accidentally filming all day with your lens cap on. Decent mics are available even for those of us on a more modest budget and there is absolutely no excuse to be shooting with your camera’s onboard mic – EVER!
There you have it: the extent of my wisdom. Yes, I know there are a lot more things to keep in mind and that will help (like making sure to get a good AD to help run your set properly or not hiring actresses you want to sleep with), but if you follow these six tips you’ll have a good head-start on keeping your first low budget film from sucking worse than a two-dollar whore.
That’s it from the depths of the DOJO for tonight. Until next time, Keep Shooting!
Welcome to Mutantville Productions MVP Blog. Join Streebo, Brento, Geo & the rest of the Mutantville Players as they set sail on the high seas of guerrilla filmmaking in their ongoing quest to bring you the finest in genre entertainment.
From ASAP TRIP: The Film Sensei’s Six Quick Tips to Keep Your Indie Film From Sucking!