Family Fiend Production Still
Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? Ever been on a set or around filmmakers and it sounds like their speaking another language? Are you learning about film making and want to learn some universal terms to help describe what type of shots you want to shoot? Well in this first installment, I’m going to talk about some common film lingo and define it. So let’s get started!
Let’s talk about shots. The shot of Catherine Trail and Jodi Essex above from Family Fiend would be considered a “two shot“. I’m a fan of two shots because you really get to see the interaction between the actors in the scene. The challenge is using it for really long dialog shots, because both actors have to nail it. Although you can always get a two shot then jump in for close-ups.
After the leap we’ll learn the lingo for character shots! Continue Reading…
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago at 1:08 pm. Add a comment
Relax just do it, when you want to get to it. . .
Sounds kind of odd doesn’t it. Oh well. This post is about getting rid of some stress. Any one in filmmaking goes through some stress. Working with other people in general can cause stress and the time crunches on set, flakiness(not like a biscuit), dead lines, different areas of production, different departments, everything coming together at a specific time, etc… is enough to make you need some serious medications. So you need a way to relax and get rid of stress or you will explode.
We all have our ways to relax…whether it’s watching movies(pretty normal for filmmakers for obvious reasons), being outdoors, exercising, shooting black tar heroin, going shopping, listening to music, playing music(one of my personal favorites), dancing, playing video games, I think you get the idea. All of these things keep us sane and if we run ourselves all the time, we don’t do these things and it affects our craft and our relationship with everyone else in our lives because we become moody and mean.
Learn some ways to relax after the leap!
Continue Reading…
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago at 12:00 pm. Add a comment
Don't be a player hater - be a player congratulator!
Couldn’t really come up with a cool image for this. Of course I thought about the Chappelle Show characters for the Haters’ Ball…but that wasn’t very “horror” related. This week I decided to talk about mindset and what I see going on with fans/a lot of the population.
Years ago I heard a story about someone that would go catch crabs with family and they would take a shallow basket to put the crabs in. It sounds odd but apparently that’s all you need. The trick is you have to have a minimum of two crabs in the basket. If there is only one crab it will notice that it can get out and proceed to get out. If you have more than one crab, the others will pull the escaping crab back into the basket. This seems to happen with people as well. If someone is doing well, trying something new or following their dreams…people will tell them they can’t do it or they are crazy for trying it. For artists, this is highly frustrating because we see our visions clearly and want to work towards them. Others just tell you that it can’t be done.
To me this comes down do mindset. Some people have a mindset of scarcity, others have an abundance mentality. I think this is kind of funny in the film business because of the final product. If a movie cost $100 or $200 million to produce the DVD usually cost what? About 20 bucks. Also look at it like this. If you buy DVDs, do you own just one DVD? I really doubt it. If you rent DVDs, do you rent one per year or one per lifetime? No, we rent movies or buy movies all the time. So what is the point of being so negative towards other filmmakers, etc…?
Continue Reading…
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago at 10:20 pm. Add a comment
From The Dig by J. Riddle: Roger Corman has been called a lot of things. Shrewd. Miserly. Maverick. He’s been given titles like King of the Cult Film, King of the B-Movies, and the Pope of Pop Cinema. The last is probably the most appropriate, and not just because it sounds cool and Corman says he likes it. For over 50 years, Corman’s particular breed of low-budget, action-oriented, socially conscious exploitation fare has graced the cinema, to the persistent delight of audiences and, in turn, to his significant profit. He’s brought his talents to bear on every genre under the sun, and has even invented a few of his own. He has a finely-tuned eye for talent–it’s only a little exaggeration to say it would be easier to list the big name Hollywood directors, writers, actors of recent decades who didn’t get their start with Corman than those who did.
Read the rest of the article at J. Riddle’s blog:
via THE DIG: Much Ado About Roger Corman’s Oscar.
Posted 2 years, 5 months ago at 7:44 am. 1 comment
