Syncing Up Audio with Pluraleyes
Syncing separate audio and picture files used to be a tedious and expensive lab or post production process. With today’s computer editing systems and products such as PluralEyes, it’s easier than ever to do it yourself. Continue reading
How To Write High Structure, High Concept Movies: book review
Rob Tobin’s excellent book provides a step-by-step guide to writing high concept, structurally foolproof screenplays!
By Peter Bohush
I used to maintain that a book about writing made as much sense as a car about driving. With Rob Tobin’s book How To Write High Structure, High Concept Movies, I will make an exception. Because this is an exceptional book.
The book is exactly what the title states: a step-by-step manual on how to write structurally sound, high-concept, “formulaic” screenplays.
Rob Tobin has read more than 5,000 scripts as a script reader, development exec and script doctor for some big names in Hollywood: Freddie Fields (Glory), Stephen Cannell (The A-Team), Joe Singer (Dr. Doolittle), and Bill Carraro (Frequency). He is also former writing coach and VP of development for The Writers’ Boot Camp.
As his basic premise, Tobin contends that “bad films aren’t formulaic – and that’s the problem!” If more screenplays adhered to the basics covered in this book, they would spot the problems and be able to correct them before turning the script into an awful film. Continue reading
DSLRs: Viva la Revolución!
Shooting video on a still camera? This is no longer as ridiculous as it sounds – and it can revolutionize the way you make your film.
Written by Peter Bohush
The Canon 5D Mark II
In 1998 a major revolution in independent filmmaking occurred with the concurrent introduction of miniDV tape digital camcorders and computer-based editing software. For the first time, filmmakers with low or no budgets could shoot and edit movies in “near-broadcast” quality, right from their home computers.
Some even made it to the big screen, such as The Cruise (Bennet Miller), The Last Broadcast (Lance Weiler), Full Frontal (Steven Soderbergh), Chuck and Buck (Miguel Arteta), and Bamboozled (Spike Lee). The Blair Witch Project was shot on even older technology, Hi-8 analog video.
I jumped on this bandwagon myself, using a small Sony TRV-900 miniDV camcorder to shoot my movie Geezers on the streets of Boston and Worcester and the Mass Pike in between.
And since the data was recorded digitally, even today I can transfer that footage to my computer without any loss of image quality. The Final Cut Pro software I used to edit Geezers is still in use today, although with significantly more power and features.
But wait! There’s more! Continue reading
Canon 5D Mark II – the HOT camera!
CANON 5D MARK II
The Canon 5D Mark II is the HOT camera right now. And we have it! Along with lots of other gear to help your production. Indie features, shorts, webisodes, web ads, commercials, and more.
PhotoFlex MultiDisc & FlexDrop
The Quick Way to Better Lighting and Backgrounds.
Reviewed by Peter Bohush
Note: I first reviewed this product nearly 10 years ago. I can tell you that I still have them and use them all the time.
Shooting video, and digital video in particular, with auto-exposure set on often results in little slivers of shadow in a shot causing an overexposure of the brightest parts of the shot into blinding white. Now you shouldn’t be shooting with auto-exposure on anyway, and you know that. But even with controlled exposure, you must ensure that the parts of a shot you want to look evenly lighted are, in fact, evenly lit.
Enter the PhotoFlex MultiDisc, the cheapest way to fill a scene with light. And the PhotoFlex FlexDrop is the quickest and most versatile chroma background anywhere.
Many cinematographers haul around pieces of foam core to use as reflectors. These work quite well in many circumstances. But they don’t provide the kind of even disbursement of light that a good reflector will.
The MultiDisc is actually five reflectors in one, all folded up into a zippered pouch about the size of a small pizza. There is a translucent reflector/diffuser, plus gold, silver, soft gold and white reflectors on fabric that zip over the diffuser.
The MultiDiscs flip open much like the popular silver car windshield sun reflectors. They pack away in their little pouch for easy storage and transport, and won’t get banged up the way foam core will. Of course, these reflectors can be used in video, film and still photography situations.
Why five colors? PhotoFlex explains it this way: Continue reading
Showbiz Contracts for the Film & TV Industry
The quick and easy way to cover your butt (at least partially!)
By Peter Bohush
Note: This product was first reviewed years ago when ver. 1 came out. There is a new version, slightly renamed, and offered at half the original price. (Imagine a lawyer’s prices going down!) This review should still be applicable to the new version.
People’s Court Case No. 32546
Filmmakers vs. The Rest of the World
This AUTOMATED CONTRACTS FOR THE FILM & TELEVISION INDUSTRY CD-ROM (“Software”) is entered into by and between the undersigned, Mark Litwak (“Noted Entertainment Attorney”), and Oppressed Independent Filmmaker (“Producer”).
1. SCOPE AND DUTIES. Software assists Producers by providing fill-in-the-blank templates for more than 60 contracts for the film and television industry. Includes all of the contracts from attorney Mark Litwak’s book “Contracts for the Film & Television Industry, 2nd Edition.” (Note that Software does not include templates or advice on litigation of any kind, whether in court, in administrative hearings or before government agencies or judicial arbitration such as Judge Judy or the Ministry of Magic.)
