Videomaker.com posted a few lists of helpful tips for those starting out shooting their own stuff. I’m happy to say I follow most of them. Below are a few of my favorites, with some commentary:

• [No] Headhunting–placing every subject in the center of your frame.
• [No] Backlighting–too much light falling on the background instead of on the subject.
• Use manual focus if your camcorder has it. [You really need a camcorder with manual focus, unless you're shooting a home movie.]
• Set white balance at every location. [Even if you're using presets.]
• Shoot to edit.
• Use an external microphone if you have one. [Period!]

Here’s the link to the article.

The ever-prolific Lee Doll has a new series about to debut called The Fixer. In addition to the usual production team of Lee himself, Rob Long, and Jeff Herberger, one of my oldest friends, Steve Rifkin, wrote the screenplay (and also has a cameo). It stars Brian St. August and Sealed Fates alum Al Guy (who also did stunt choreography). As usual, I’m doing some visual effects. Looking forward to it.

theBlackandBlue Web site posted an article, with a lot of photos, about building your own follow focus for your DSLR camera. Some of them look really nice. Check it out here.

dslr, filmmaking, cinematography, diy

Related articles

• DIY DLSR follow focus with K’nex (makezine.com)
• Camera Hacks: A Follow Focus Rig For a Few Bucks (pcworld.com)

http://www.bachelorsdegree.org has posted links to some great screenwriting and filmmaking sites. Check it out here.

Related articles

• Screenwriting 101 — Alex Garland (gointothestory.com)
• The Business of Screenwriting: Never send out a script before it’s ready (gointothestory.com)

Kangas Kahn Films, LLC, is going back into production this fall with its latest feature “Garden of Hedon.” I don’t have many details, but I did hear the director say it’s a mystery/horror with some elements like “the best ten minutes of Eyes Wide Shut.” So, I guess anything goes in this one.

They’re looking for some extra financing, so please check out the site and consider a donation. There are come cool perks, including exclusive production updates and your name in the credits. From the IndieGoGo site:

“Gardon of Hedon” is a mystery/horror about a detective who wakes up in a surreal house where every pleasure is indulged. Drugs. Sex. Gambling.

It’s all there and more…including murder.

It’s going to be a mix of giallo and fantastique, with a healthy does of American mystery.

People ask us all the time how they can get involved in our movies—well, here’s the chance!

We’ll be shooting it in November, and we need help securing the final funds! (total budget is $20K, of which we have 75%)

Check out the perks! We’ve come up with what we think are some great incentives to donate! Want your name in the credits of a flick? There’s TONS of ways to do it here!

Kangas does have a good track record so far, with his first three films (Hunting Humans and Fear of Clowns 1&2) distributed– the latter two by Lionsgate.

This film will be shot on with a Red. That should be cool!

filmmaking, horror, mystery, financing, indie

Only if you’re clowning around.

Yeah, the lead-in is a bad pun for a link to a great log about how hard it is to complete a feature film and get distribution. Kangas Kahn Films, owned and operated by a friend of mine, has had some success making features. Kangas is most known for the Fear of Clowns films (see… bad pun). The first one was distributed by Lions Gate, and he’s working on a deal for the second.

The logs really drive home how hard it is to make a feature-length film without studio backing. I’ve been reading for a while, and I can soooo relate to a lot of what he says. Sometimes I just laugh hysterically, and sometimes want to strangle the nimrod(s) doing to him what I’ve had done to me.

If you’re interested in making your own movie, read these blogs. If you still want to make a movie, you’re one of us, and have some sort of mental defect — like all us low-budget filmmakers.

Fear of Clowns log

Fear of Clowns 2 log

Hunting Humans saga

filmmaking, distribution, low-budget

FX Text Explosion from DarkCellar on Vimeo.

Last year, producer Lee Doll started filming a pilot series call “The Adventures of Louanna Lee” (sort of like the old Nancy Drew mysteries) with his teenage daughter in the title role. Talk about a great way to stay close to your kids.

Since then, he’s completed and release episode 1, and episode 2 is due out this month. He’s also produced a slew of music videos as well.

I came out to grip a couple of times for the first 2 episodes. It was a lot of fun–especially since I know most of the cast and crew. Among them are Timewarp regulars Leanna Chamish and George Stover, who play Louanna’s mother and grandfather respectively, as well as my buddy Rob Long (production design) and Jeff Herberger (director/dp).

For episode 3, Lee asked if I could do some FX to help spice things up. I was happy to get involved. He asked what I could do–they hadn’t locked the script yet, and wanted to see if I could suggest something I could pull off convincingly. I said, “how about blowing up a building.” He and Jeff liked that idea and they wrote something to that effect into the story. As a proof of concept, they asked if I could do a test shot for them. Jeff sent me footage of what they use as the family house in the show, and the above video is what I came up with. They seemed to like it, so we’re going to do the real shot for the show–though Lee said we might be able to use this shot as well.

filmmaking, vfx, after effects

indie, filmmaking, horror

My buddy Rob Long had some nice things to say about our premiere of Sealed Fates as he sums up the evening. Here’s an excerpt:

All three stories (Brick By Brick, Collections, Man’s Best Friend) had terrific acting across the board; probably the strongest cast that Timewarp Films has had to date – and also one of the largest casts as well.

Click here for the full article.

indie, filmmaking, horror, timewarp

Created by Robert Long II - click for a larger version

Check out the great artwork my buddy Rob created for the film. We also corrected a grammatical error from the previous version. Is there such a thing as a claustrophobic trilogy? I didn’t know trilogies had feelings.