Bryan Michael Stoller

Article / Updated 09-15-2023

Today’s smartphones are so sophisticated, and the technology so advanced, you can shoot a professional looking short movie, or even a full-length feature on your smartphone. Your phone probably shoots 4K broadcast quality images — something that many older expensive video cameras can’t even do. Some of the advantages to shooting with your smartphone include: You just point and shoot. You don’t have to fuss with bulky movie lenses. No manual F or T stops to deal with. No depth of field or focus headaches. No exposure issues. No need to lug around a heavy, bulky camera. Your phone is always with you — ready to capture that million-to-one encounter or shoot that on-the-spot great idea. Shooting in landscape mode The first thing you have to remember is you’re shooting a movie, not a photo, not a selfie, and not something you’re just going to post to Facebook or Instagram. So, you now have to remember to turn your smartphone sideways. This is called landscape mode. The normal way you’re use to holding your phone is profile mode. Note that landscape mode resembles the dimensions of your 16x9 TV. Note also that when you watch YouTube videos or feature films on your smartphone, you turn it sideways for the image to fill the whole screen. If you don’t shoot your movie in landscape mode, you’ll have black bars on each side of the image, and your movie will not fill the entire screen. So, landscape, don’t profile! Always make sure your smartphone is charged and ready to go. Shooting video on your phone drains the battery faster than talking or listening to music on your phone. Take off with airplane mode You’re moving in for the perfect shot, the actors embrace, and you’re capturing a priceless moment — and then your perfect shot is interrupted by your phone ringing — your camera is ringing! “Cut! Hello? Hi mom, I’m busy, shooting my movie.” It’s happened to me. Go into your phone settings and put your phone on airplane mode. All the functions of your phone will work except your shoot won’t be interrupted by another phone call or annoying text. You want your smartphone to be a 100-percent dedicated camera for your shoot, not a communications device. Steady as she goes Your smartphone is already a sophisticated movie camera. Most smartphones have a built-in stabilizer to ensure steadier shots. Often, you can handhold your smartphone for many of your shots, especially moving or following shots. Steady as a rock For steady tripod shots, you can get special adapters for your phone that have a tripod mount, so you can attach the phone to a tripod for rock-solid shots or for smooth panning ones. You’ll find plenty of smartphone tripod adapters on Amazon for as low as $5. Shooting format and resolution Before you start shooting with your smartphone, you need to go into your camera video settings. You will have a choice of resolution quality. Usually the options are 720, 1080 (2K) and 4K. I’m sure that 6K and up will soon be available for your phone. I recommend shooting on 720 or 2K because the quality is awesome and both resolutions are broadcast quality. If you shoot in 4K, you will very quickly eat up a lot of storage space on your phone. In the video settings, you should also have the choice of shooting at 30 frames per second or 24 frames per second. Choose 24fps for a more film-like look. A great smartphone app called Filmic Pro will add even more professional shooting options to your already advanced smartphone. Saving your movie files Depending on your smartphone’s built-in storage capacity — or if your smartphone has a removable SD memory card — you will have to constantly offload (transfer) your shots to an external hard drive or your computer. If you don’t, your phone’s memory will soon fill up and you will have no more room to shoot anything. Some smartphones connect to your computer via USB and allow you to download your footage this way. An iPhone allows you to wirelessly download your footage from your phone using Airdrop. This allows you to easily and effortlessly download your footage, which then you can erase (trash) off your phone and continue shooting. There’s also a great (free) app called Simple Transfer, which is absolutely one of my favorite apps. It lets you view all your phone’s photos and movies on your computer desktop, and you can choose which shots you want to download from your phone to your computer in one batch — so you don’t have to transfer one shot at a time. I absolutely love this app so much it’s on my phone’s main home screen. Many smartphones are now synced up with the cloud, so, chances are, your smartphone footage will automatically download to your computer if both are talking to the cloud. I can’t emphasize this warning enough. If your phone is talking to the cloud and your footage is automatically downloaded to your computer, be absolutely sure to move those shots (digital video files) to a separate folder outside your camera roll. If you don’t, they will all get erased in the cloud when you erase them off your phone. They will also get erased off your computer and any other device that also talks to the cloud. This is one major flaw of syncing with the cloud — most people think they can trash stuff on their phone to free up memory because it was transferred to their computer and lives in the cloud, but in reality, your computer is talking to the cloud and unless you transfer it out of your camera roll into a folder on your desktop, you’ll lose everything. All your movie files will be saved to your camera roll in your phone and filed under Videos. But move your movie shots out of the camera roll into a special folder that isn’t mirroring your camera roll in the cloud. Miniature camera equipment The great thing about your movie camera being your smartphone is that everything is light and portable. Your phone is also small enough to mount on a car dashboard or adhere to the car window (on the inside) for great single shots of your driver and passenger or a nice two shot from inside the windshield. Or, turn your phone around so it’s looking out your windshield for a nice POV (point-of-view) shot of the road. Use a selfie-stick as your camera crane for high shots or low to the ground shots. (See the following figure.) Cut a slot out of a paper cup to make a tripod to hold your phone — this also works great as a dolly, too — and just slide the cup along a desk top or the floor. Try furniture sliders to slide your smartphone along carpets or hardwood floors for smooth dolly shots. If you want professional-looking dolly shots, check out Dyno Trek. It’s a miniature, motorized dolly system (also called a slider system) built just for smartphones. It comes with tracks that magnetically hook together for flawless, smooth movement. You can dolly in and out and side to side, or turn the track vertically and get dolly-up and dolly-down shots. You can program the speed of the dolly and even set it up to move in sync with your smartphone for time-lapse shots or stop-motion animation. The kit is lightweight and portable and comes in a sturdy carry case. If you have an older smartphone that you put away after you bought the latest and greatest upgrade, it may be time to dust it off. Even though cellular service isn’t activated on your old phone, all its camera functions should be working fine. It’s really an iPod without cellular service. But you still have Wi-Fi! This old smartphone can be used as your action backup camera (make sure it’s not a big deal if this extra phone gets damaged or destroyed). Place it in the middle of a quiet neighborhood street and have your actor in a car drive over and past the camera. Just make sure he knows to keep the smartphone between the tires! Secure this “B” action camera on the outside of your car for some dramatic driving shots. You can even find a car suction cup mounting device for your smartphone on Amazon — or, just use lots of masking tape on the phone to secure it. (I recommend tying the phone down securely — just in case. The wind could catch it and send it flying!) Throw the phone in the air to a friend to simulate the POV of a ball being tossed back and forth. I recommend doing this on the grass in case one of you misses a catch. Use several smartphones to capture your movie Pretty much everyone on your crew (even if there’s just two of you) has a smartphone, so any one of these could be used as a second or third camera on your shoot. If you have two actors talking, you can save time by having one smartphone on each actor, instead of using one camera to shoot each actor separately. You can also use an extra smartphone for your wide shots, and another for close-ups (just don’t get the phones used for close-ups in the wide shot!) Apple’s latest iPhones feature a triple-camera system that allows users to shoot multiple different-size shots at the same time with just one smartphone camera. Apple's iPhones have three different lenses: a telephoto lens, a wide lens, and an ultra-wide lens. Using a revolutionary app developed by Filmic Pro, each lens can record its own file — thus creating three different-sized shots at one time. It’s like three cameras rolled into one smartphone. It’s also invaluable for documentaries and spur-of-the-moment events. Another ingenious advancement with the Filmic Pro app, is the ability to use the iPhone to shoot an interview in which both the interviewer and the interviewee are filmed at the same time. The app records footage from both the front and back camera at the same time and creates two separate digital files. So, you don’t have to have two separate cameras to shoot your interview! This unique technology is absolutely a game-changer for the independent filmmaker shooting with an iPhone and the Filmic Pro app! Great sound on your smartphone, too! Not only can your smartphone shoot great, broadcast-quality digital images, but it also gives you pristine digital sound recording. To get the best of this, plug in a professional directional microphone. You don’t want to use your built-in smartphone microphone because it only picks up good sound close to the phone, or ambient sound from all around your environment. Some wireless sound options can record sound directly into your smartphone without the hassle of tripping over wires. Røde makes the Wireless GO, which is perfect as a wireless, compact microphone for your smartphone shoot. Your Smartphone Is an Entire Production Studio Your smartphone gives you a camera to shoot your movie, and it can give you great sound. But that’s not all. You pretty much have an entire production studio in your pocket! You can even write your screenplay on your smartphone with the Final Draft app. Storyboard on your phone with storyboard apps like Blocker by AfterNow (an absolutely amazing 3D app) and Storyboard Animator for free. You can create a shot list on your phone with an app called Shotlist – Movie Shoot Planning. You can also download stock footage and sound effects right to your phone. In post-production, edit your entire movie on smartphone apps like the free iPhone version of iMovie or myriad Android editing apps. And, when you’ve completed your movie, use your phone to upload it directly to YouTube or Vimeo!

Article / Updated 04-27-2023

Editing is more than just piecing together shots into scenes. Understanding the story and the best way to tell it is an art. Editing controls the feel of your film and can make or break the illusion. To edit well, you need to know on what frame to start your shot and on what frame to end it, when to cut to the reaction shot (a visual response from another actor in the scene), and when to stay on the main character. Some of the elements you need to consider when editing are Pacing: The length of shots and scenes gives the entire film a pace — a feeling of moving fast or slow. You don’t want your film to lag. Scene length: Keep scenes under three minutes if possible, so they don’t drag on and seem monotonous. Order of shots and scenes: By arranging your shots in a particular sequence, you can dramatically affect a scene’s meaning. See the later section “Linear versus Nonlinear Editing” for details. Cutting on action: Most shots cut (or edit) better on action. If your actor is opening a car door, have him or her repeat the action while you shoot it from different angles or shot sizes (such as a close-up or a wide shot). You then can overlap the shots as you cut on the motion. This is also called matching, and it helps hide the cut, making the transition appear seamless. Matching shots: You want to join static shots with static shots, and moving shots next to other moving shots. If you have a fast-paced car-chase scene and the camera is moving wildly to follow the action, a sudden static shot of a car sitting quietly at a stop light will be jarring. (Of course, that may be the effect you want.) Varying the angle and size of shots: A jump-cut happens when shots that are too similar in appearance are cut together, making the picture look as if it has jumped, or that the actor has popped from one spot to another. In order to avoid a jump-cut, you need to vary the angle and size of the next shot. One way to avoid a jump-cut is to shoot a cutaway of an actor’s reaction or of a significant object on-set that you can use to tie two different shots together. An appropriate cutaway can often save the day. Showing simultaneous action: You can cut back and forth between scenes happening at the same time. This is called cross-cutting. Or you can make a parallel cut, which is showing the simultaneous action with a split screen. This was often done on the TV show 24. Choosing the best take (or combining the best of several takes): You shoot several takes of a particular scene so that you have a choice in the editing room. Obviously, the more takes you have, the more choices. You can also combine parts of various takes — the beginning of one take, and the end of another, for example, if you have a cutaway to insert between them — to create the scene you want. Choosing an editor: Cut that out! You need to decide whether you’re going to edit the movie yourself or get a fresh pair of eyes to do it for you. Many directors avoid editing their pictures because they’re too close to the material and want to bring another perspective to the story. That’s why, on a big studio production, a picture editor starts assembling your shots and scenes together as you’re shooting, and a sound editor edits the dialogue and other sound elements. You can place an ad seeking an editor in the classified section of many film and trade magazines like Backstage (www.backstage.com) or search online at www.crewnet.com for an editor near you. Look for someone who has at least a few films under their belt and ask to see a sample of their work — do they cut scenes tight so they don’t lag? However, if you’re on a small production, you’re probably your own editor. You’re in good company, though. Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi and Sin City) prefers to cut his own films. One of the advantages of hiring an editor is that they can start assembling what you’ve shot immediately after the first day on the set. This means that your editor can tell you while you’re shooting whether you need extra footage: a cutaway (a reaction shot or something that helps piece two other shots together seamlessly) to make a scene work better, a close-up of some person or object, or an establishing shot (a wide shot of the location that orientates the audience to where the scene is taking place). Shooting enough coverage You need to shoot enough coverage so that you have plenty of different takes and interesting angles to choose from. Every time you add another angle to a scene, you make it more interesting and less monotonous. Using just one shot in a two-minute scene is like having a stare-down — and that’s just dull and annoying (unless it’s a bet to see who wins). The camera never blinks — that’s what cutting is for. Cutting is like blinking from one shot to the next. When you watch a play, you don’t stare at the stage as a whole the entire time; you concentrate on the individual actors as they speak, or on a prop or action sequence that catches your attention. If you don’t have time to shoot several angles, then create movement in the shot, such as having the camera follow or lead your actors as they’re walking and talking. Make the shot as interesting as possible. Some directors shoot a ratio of three takes to get one shot (3:1), and some shoot ten or more. The editor’s job is to find the best take or to combine the best of several takes with cutaways. As you start to piece the movie together, it magically begins to take on a shape of its own, and the story starts to (hopefully) make sense. Assembling a first cut The first step is piecing together what is called an assembly cut, rough cut, or first cut. This is the most basic cut possible, showing the story in continuity (because often the scenes are shot out of order, out of continuity). Editing the visuals of your movie is very similar to writing a screenplay. The first assembly of footage is like the first rough draft, putting things into perspective and giving you a feel for your story. After you have your basic cut, you start shaping, trimming, and cutting until your film feels complete. Like dancing, there’s a rhythm to cutting — it flows, and everything feels like it’s falling into place. Don’t be discouraged if the first cut doesn’t excite you. The pacing may seem too slow, the performances may appear dull. I’ve often been disappointed with a first cut — and apparently, many big studio directors have had concerns after working on their first cuts. After your first cut, you start to get a sense of how to tighten up the picture. You start to cut out long boring exits to the door, pauses that are too long between lines, or a scene that isn’t working and that won’t be missed if you cut it out entirely. You may even want to reshoot or add a completely new scene to make the picture better as a whole. You need to do a lot of shaping and adjusting before your masterpiece shines through. It’s like molding something out of clay — you have to keep chipping away until you like what you see. Also, remember, you are seeing the movie still in its raw form because color-correction, sound effects, music score, special effects, and other elements have not been added yet. Building a director’s cut The director’s contract usually stipulates whether the director gets to make sure their vision is followed in the editing room by approving the final cut of the movie. This final, director-approved cut is called a director’s cut. The director usually views an assembly, or first, cut (scenes assembled loosely in continuity according to the screenplay; see the preceding section) by the picture editor. The director then gives the editor suggestions on where to place specific shots, close-ups, and establishing shots; how to change the order of things; how to tighten a scene; and so on. Usually, a director gets a director’s cut based on their clout in the industry. Ultimately, the big studio has the final say in the cutting of a picture if the director doesn’t contractually have final cut. For example, Steven Spielberg always gets final say because he’s earned that honor and proven himself to know what works and what doesn’t. George Lucas always has the final cut because he doesn’t report to anyone but himself! With the release of most films on DVD or streaming now, many directors who didn’t have the clout to get a director’s cut theatrically in their studio contract now have the opportunity to get a director’s cut featured as one of the bonuses on the DVD or streaming sites, such as on iTunes. Chances are, you are your own studio boss, so you decide who gets final say on editing. You will probably have the director’s cut because you report to yourself! Photo finish: Finalizing a final cut Many times a studio screens a version of the movie to a test audience (a group of people brought in to watch and rate the picture). The audience members fill out a questionnaire, and the studio (or the director, if they have final cut) evaluates all the comments from the screening and may re-edit accordingly. After all the editing is finished and approved, you create the final, locked picture approved by the studio — or by the director if they have the authority to make the final cut (which you probably do have if you’re an independent director). Now the postproduction work on sound begins, and the composer can start timing the scenes that will be scored (set to music). Listening to the sound editor In addition to editing the picture on your movie, you have to assemble and edit the sound elements. These elements are prepared by the sound editor, who is most often the picture editor and even the final postproduction sound mixer on an independent film. The sound elements are put onto separate audio channels (called tracks) and then mixed down into a final soundtrack that combines all channels mixed together. Some of those edited sound elements include: Dialogue (may have separate dialogue tracks for each actor) Sound effects (can have unlimited sound-effects tracks) Music (usually one or two tracks for music) Ambience (background sounds like birds chirping, an air-conditioner humming, ocean waves crashing, and so on) Dialogue editing is as important as your picture edit. The sound editor has a variety of elements to consider, such as overlapping conversations or starting a character’s dialogue over the end of another character’s shot.

Article / Updated 11-14-2022

Special effects aren’t just limited to illusions that look real only through the camera lens or after the postproduction stage of your film. Makeup is make-believe that can walk and talk without the magic of the camera but through the magic of talented makeup artists. Many people think of beauty makeovers when they think of makeup artists. You don’t normally think of monsters, alien creatures, and flesh wounds — but the world of the makeup artist is a broad one. Applying prosthetics Prosthetics is a term associated with artificial limbs. In the world of special effects makeup, however, prostheses are used to create additional limbs, burn victims, and monster effects (often all the sick, gross stuff). Prosthetic pieces, also called appliances, are usually made of foam latex, which can move much like human skin and muscles. Makeup effects artist David Miller designed the conehead makeup for Dan Aykroyd and the entire Conehead population in the film Coneheads. He also designed Freddy Krueger’s makeup for the Nightmare on Elm Street films. (Miller was working late one night trying to decide on the look of Freddy Krueger and glanced down at his melted cheese pizza — inspiration hit!) By gluing latex prosthetics in sections over his face and head Christian Bale was completely unrecognizable as Vice President Dick Cheney in the film Vice. You can also do mechanical makeup effects, like a head-cast made from an actor with features added to a fake head. I made a cameo appearance as a werewolf in one of my short films several years ago. My sister Marlene, a professional makeup artist, and makeup artist Jack Bricker took a cast of my head by pouring plaster over my face, leaving straws in my nostrils so I could breathe (that was the only time in my life that I’ve ever been plastered). When the plaster dried, they used the mold to design the werewolf head in latex and added hair and an extended muzzle to the dummy head. To save time and money, they only made a half-head because the final shot was a profile, and the camera would never see the other side. Here’s looking at scleral lenses Remember Michael Jackson in Thriller with the devilish eyes? Jim Carrey’s strange eyes in The Mask, and The Grinch? What about the White Walkers with the ice-blue eyes in Game of Thrones? The apes with the black eyes in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey? The actors all had to wear special contact lenses. These special lenses are called scleral lenses, which have funky pupil designs and are fitted to cover the actor’s eyes like conventional contact lenses. Linda Blair wore scleral contact lenses for The Exorcist and then again when I revisited her possessed state in my comedy spoof The Linda Blair Witch Project (see the following figure), where she finds out she’s possessed by famous comedians (did you know that possession is nine-tenths of the law?). You can stream my short on YouTube. Be sure to purchase scleral lenses from an optometrist or from eyewear specialists like Dr. Morton Greenspoon and Dr. Richard Silver, who have designed and provided special scleral lenses for many Hollywood blockbusters (including The Grinch and Men in Black). Although specialty stores, especially during Halloween, carry designer effects lenses, you don’t know if they’re made by a reputable company, and the lenses aren’t fitted to your particular eye shape. Not only could they cause discomfort or infection, but worse, damage to your cornea. Always consult an ophthalmologist before putting anything in your eyes! Take a bite out of this Another skill of the special-effect makeup artist is designing and creating teeth that fit over the actor’s own bite. A mold is taken of the actor’s real teeth — very similar to how a dentist takes a mold impression to fit you for a crown or veneers. The artist then sculpts a new set of molars — from ghoulish monster or vampire teeth to rotten buck teeth like Austin Powers. Refer to the preceding figure for an example of vampire teeth that fit over the actor’s own incisors. Pulling out your hair with lace hairpieces Lace hairpieces, including beards and mustaches, are used on almost every movie, and quite often on the main actors. Sean Connery wore a lace hairpiece throughout all his James Bond movies. You’ve often seen actors that you know are bald in real life sprouting a beautiful head of hair for their latest starring role. Even actors with hair have been known to wear lace pieces when they are becoming a different person on screen, as, for example, Tom Hanks playing Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Lace hairpieces are created by a specialty makeup and or hair artist. Ron Wolek designed and meticulously punched one hair at a time into a piece of lace netting for Ed Asner’s Santa Claus beard in my film Santa Stole Our Dog. Real hair or yak hair is often used. The weaved hair tied into the netting is then cut and shaped like a real haircut, or trimmed into a beard or mustache (often on a mannequin head so the actor doesn’t have to sit there for a long period of time).

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-23-2022

The responsibilities of a filmmaking team can be compared to those of the host of people needed to pull off a fine dining experience from the director/chef to the production assistants/servers. As a filmmaker, you have to be organized enough to know what you need to have in order before you start and what to bring to a location shoot. And, if you can get high production values in your movie for little money, you’ll be all the more successful.

Article / Updated 12-30-2019

The secret to entering film festivals is what I call entry etiquette. Winning is beyond your control, but following the basic rules I describe here brings you closer to that win. Don’t take it personally if your movie doesn’t make it into a festival. With many festivals receiving thousands of submissions annually, a film can easily be overlooked. Sending a work-in-progress — Don’t! Even though some festivals accept works-in-progress, you’re just donating your entry fee to the festival when your movie doesn’t get selected because it isn’t finished. I’ve made this mistake before and want to warn you to avoid it. Wait until your movie is completed — including music and sound mix — before you submit it for consideration. Many filmmakers eager to make the deadline for the big festivals like Sundance and Toronto end up sending a work-in-progress. But the festival selection committee rarely gives an uncompleted film the benefit of the doubt. The unfinished film is viewed alongside completed films and usually loses out. Submitting a work-in-progress wastes your time and money — and the festival’s time as well. Entering the right festivals for your film Your film is in the can, or in the digital realm, and you can’t wait to send it out and start collecting invitations to all the great film festivals. But wait: You have to choose carefully which festival is best to enter. You can start by going to Film Freeway for up-to-the-minute information about film festivals, including entry details and deadlines. Also, going to a film festival’s website enables you to get updated information, including entry rules and regulations. Note that most film festival websites have the extension .org, not .com; many festivals are nonprofit organizations. Film Freeway has become the norm for submitting to virtually any film festival in the world (more on this later in the chapter). So how do you decide which festival is right for your movie? Think about your intended audience. If your movie is a mainstream piece that Star Wars or Avengers audiences would love, it isn’t exactly Sundance Film Festival fare; Sundance often looks for offbeat or controversial films. If your film is about an escaped convict who kidnaps grandmothers, it isn’t going to be accepted at a children’s film festival — unless it’s a comedy, and the heroes are an odd gang of misfits. But don’t enter just one festival — that’s like putting all your eggs in one basket. Instead, choose wisely and be selective, with good insight, how many and which festivals (and categories within) seem appropriate for your film. The following is a list of ten top film festivals, in order of popularity, to consider for your film. The list is a compilation of my favorites, including first-film and independent film-friendly festivals and a family festival dedicated to those rare independent family-produced films. The Sundance Film Festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in January, with an entry deadline in early October. This is the festival of festivals, established by actor Robert Redford and named after one of his favorite classic films, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (That’s why he’s often still referred to as the Kid.) Sundance has become one of the toughest festivals to get a film accepted at. The festival is overloaded with submissions, and a film has to have a sophistication that Sundance audiences and judges have become accustomed to. The festival favors independent films. If your film gets accepted for screening, that’s almost as good as winning — being accepted carries a lot of merit. But it’s a tough one, so don’t rely on Sundance to be your film’s festival premiere. For information, go to www.sundance.org/festival. The Toronto International Film Festival takes place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in September, with an entry deadline in April/May. This festival has been around since 1976 and is considered the second most popular among the elite film festivals, after Sundance. Films are judged on artistic values and subject matter, similar to the Sundance Film Festival. Independent films are especially welcomed. Like Sundance, this festival is also difficult to get into and has become a lot more commercial over the years with a lot of major studios and movie stars premiering their new movies. Go to tiff.net or phone 416-599-8433. Telluride Film Festival takes place in August/September in the mountain village of Telluride, Colorado, with an entry deadline in April/July. The festival is for real movie lovers and accepts all types of films as well as experimental, first-film, and artsy styles. A lot of gems have been discovered at Telluride. Go to telluridefilmfestival.org or phone 510-665-9494. WorldFest Houston is in April, with an entry deadline in February. Like many of the other festivals, it accepts digitally finished films transferred to Blu-ray or DCPs for best quality projection. The festival accepts a wide array of styles, from films with wide commercial appeal to experimental short films, and welcomes family-friendly films as well. This is one of the world’s oldest film festivals (since 1961). Even Steven Spielberg won an award in his early career at WorldFest — as did George Lucas, the Coen Brothers, Oliver Stone, and Robert Rodriguez. This is one of my favorite festivals, run by J. Hunter Todd with Kathleen Haney. They truly respect and love the independent filmmaker. It’s also a really fun festival to attend with lots of things to do, including a boating excursion. For information, go to worldfest.org or phone 713-965-9955. Cannes Film Festival takes place in May in the breathtaking city of Cannes, France, with an entry deadline in March. The Cannes Film Festival is in the elite company of Sundance and Toronto. It carries a different sophistication and is run with the international elegance of a European gala event. The festival accepts higher-profile films, especially with an international flair. Go to festival-cannes.com or email [email protected]. Sedona International Film Festival is another one of my favorite festivals, which takes place in the magical and breathtaking elevations of Arizona surrounded by the colossal red rocks of Sedona. (See the following figure.) The festival, which runs for nine days every February, welcomes all kinds of films and filmmakers. Festival director Patrick Schweiss is one of my favorite festival directors. If your film is selected for the festival, Patrick will welcome you with open arms, possibly provide you with free accommodations during your stay, and will be almost as excited about your film being in the festival as you are! The festival accepts all genres, including a special award category for Best Family Film. Check out sedonafilmfestival.com or phone 928-282-1177. Burbank International Film Festival takes place in September, in Burbank, California (just a few miles from Warner Bros. studios), with an entry deadline in April. The festival accepts most styles of films, especially independent films and films from new and up-and-coming filmmakers. The festival runs for five days and includes seminars with industry professionals and celebrities. Go to burbankfilmfest.org or phone 818-601-2082. Slamdance Film Festival takes place in January, with an entry deadline in October. Slamdance was created in 1994 to catch the spillover of films that don’t get accepted into Sundance. It’s very much a festival for independent filmmakers and first-film entrants who find themselves left out in the cold — even though they have a film that an audience would appreciate and enjoy. Go to slamdance.com or phone 323-466-1786. Heartland Film Festival takes place in October in Indianapolis, and is also known as a very family-friendly festival. So, if your film is family-oriented, this is one of the best festivals to submit to! Go to heartlandfilm.org/festival. Dances with Films takes place in July, in Los Angeles, California, with an entry deadline in April/May. Also known as the “Festival of the Unknowns,” this festival boasts that it features films with no-name directors, actors, and producers. It was originally established to get away from the politics of other film festivals. It’s very first-film friendly and welcomes independent films with great stories. Go to danceswithfilms.com or phone 323-850-2929. The microphone and audio company Røde has their own film festival. The competition, called My Røde Reel, accepts short film entries that used Røde microphones for their production audio. Røde offers over a million dollars in prizes. The requirements state that your film can be up to three minutes long, that you shoot a behind-the-scenes video showing the actual production being shot, that you feature your Røde product or products in your behind-the-scenes footage, and finally, that you upload it to the Røde website. When deciding which festivals to enter, keep in mind deadlines and entry fees are subject to change, so always visit the festival’s website or call ahead. Questions are usually answered quickly via email. You should also find updated info on most festivals on the Film Freeway website as well. Choosing the appropriate genre and category After you’ve selected the right film festival, you have the dilemma of entering in the correct genre and category (explained in detail in Chapter 2). If you choose incorrectly, you could blow your movie’s chances of winning or placing. Some festivals allow you to enter several genres for this reason — very helpful if you can’t decide exactly which genre your movie fits into. Is it a comedy, drama, science-fiction, or fantasy? A combination of several genres? If you don’t know your film’s genre, who does? Usually, the judging committee won’t correct your mistake if you enter under the wrong category. It has too many entries to weed through. If you’re undecided, call the festival and ask its opinion. You can also screen your movie for friends and ask what category they feel your film falls into. Along with knowing the genre your movie falls under, you have to choose the correct category, which is usually one of the following: Animation: Utilizing traditional drawings, stop motion (like Gumby and Pokey or Coraline), or digital computer-generated images (like Toy Story or Frozen). Commercial: A 30-second to 1-minute commercial whose purpose is to sell a product or idea. Documentary: A behind-the-scenes nonfiction (sometimes controversial) production that makes a statement and features the real side of a person or event. First feature: Your first attempt at a feature-length film (at least 90 minutes) with a cohesive story. Independent film (low-budget): A feature-film length production produced with limited funds and independent of a major studio or distributor. Public Service Announcement (PSA): A 30-second to 1-minute commercial making a statement about health issues, environmental issues, or any subject matter that promotes a better society. Short film: Usually under 30 minutes. Encapsulates a complete story with developed characters within a shorter running time. TV movie: Usually slotted within a two-hour time period on a TV network. Produced specifically for the small screen (TV) keeping in mind the TV censors with regard to subject material. TV program: Usually runs within a one-hour time slot. Can be a variety program (such as America’s Got Talent), a reality show (like Keeping Up with the Kardashians — or is it Putting Up with the Kardashians?), or a one-hour drama show. Some festivals accept screenplay submissions as well. So if you have an unproduced screenplay that you’re proud of, submit it to the appropriate festival. I entered my original screenplay Undercover Angel in the Santa Clarita International Film Festival (which became the International Family Film Festival), and it received an award certificate. I then put the award logo on the screenplay to show that it was an award-winning script, which gave the screenplay credibility and raised interest in the project. (The film was produced and released successfully a year later!) A few years later, I submitted my screenplay First Dog to WorldFest in Houston, and it too won a screenplay award — which was a catalyst in getting that film produced as well. Writing a great synopsis of your movie Just like when you had a carefully prepared pitch to sell your movie idea to an investor or distributor, you need to pitch an intriguing synopsis of your movie that will convince the festival screeners to consider your film for their festival. If you write a boring synopsis, they will anticipate a boring film. Picture perfect: Selecting the best photos from your film Photos from your movie are an important marketing tool. Film festivals request still photos from your movie to use in their brochures and marketing materials — should your film be accepted. A picture always draws the reader’s attention to an article and helps the reader to understand and remember the material more than with no photograph. Make sure that you have photos taken on the set. Submit photos that best represent your movie, such as an interesting confrontation between your actors, or something that causes an emotion in the viewer. If you have any name stars, then make sure they’re in the photos. When you send photos from your film to a film festival, be sure to label each photo with the name of your movie. Identify the scene and the actors in the photo with a caption. If the festival people decide to publish the photo in their publicity ads or festival program, they need to have this information clearly marked. Most festivals accept digital photos through email, or the festival can download the photos from Film Freeway’s entry site if you’re a member and uploaded your publicity photos there. Submitting the best format securely Only a few years ago, if you completed your movie on analog or digital videotape (as opposed to cutting on film for release in theaters), you were out of luck when it came to having a festival show your movie. If a festival accepted your movie for screening, you had to provide a 16mm or 35mm film print. Many independent filmmakers were knocked out of the game because their finished projects were on tape or digital files only. You could always transfer your finished video product to motion picture film, but that process was lengthy and expensive and the picture quality would suffer from magnifying grain and imperfections, depending on the quality of the original footage. Now that digital filmmaking has come into its own, all film festivals have video projectors that can project virtually any form of video such as digital files, DVD, and Blu-ray. The bigger festivals also have the capacity to project your film if you provide an external hard drive in the form of a DCP (digital cinema package). Independent filmmakers can now receive equal consideration regardless of whether their project is shot and finished on an inexpensive digital DSRL camera or a professional $100,000 digital cinema camera. Blu-ray or a DCP is the favored format when using a video projector. A Blu-ray can be excellent picture quality if it’s authored and burned properly. Burning your projects onto DVDs or Blu-ray with most computers is easy and inexpensive. A popular software application that burns DVDs and Blu-ray discs easily is Toast by Roxio. It also lets you author your disc with customized menus. You can do lots of other things with the Toast software, like convert formats and even encrypt files. Entering onto the Film Freeway The traditional way of entering a film festival consists of filling out an entry form and mailing it in with your film submission (usually in the form of a DVD screener or, more acceptable, a private online screener) along with your entry fee and supporting materials (still photos, synopsis, and so on). A unique company, Film Freeway, has simplified the film festival submission process for the filmmaker. Film Freeway is a unique service that creates a direct link between the filmmaker and the film-festival circuit by allowing you to submit your film entry online to thousands of film festivals of your choice worldwide and hassle-free. Under their online private screener service, Film Freeway even gives you the option to upload a copy of your movie that can be accessed by the film festivals you choose. You can also provide a Vimeo link, if you have your film on Vimeo. Create a password so only the festival with your private password can view your film. Online film submission is especially invaluable when you’re submitting to more than one festival. Most film festivals accept, and encourage, filmmakers to use Film Freeway. It has become the traditional (and most convenient) way to enter film festivals. Film Freeway collects all the necessary information from you online and then inputs it into the entry forms of all the festivals you want to enter. Your information is customized to each festival’s distinct entry form. This saves you from entering the information every time on individual entry forms for each festival you want to enter. Film Freeway enables you to do a vast search on the site to find the most suitable festival for your movie, enter multiple festivals, upload scanned publicity photos from your movie, and track your entry submissions. Using Film Freeway is free; you only pay each festival entry fee and the cost of shipping a DVD screener of your film (if you don’t upload your movie with a private link). Film Freeway is also working on a service to provide filmmakers the ability to make their own DCP (digital cinema package). This is huge! Sign up for a free account at Film Freeway, and they will notify you with updates on their DCP news as well as keep you up to date on film festival dates and schedules. Getting an entry-fee discount Pretty much every film festival in the United States charges an entry or submission fee, which can range from $20 to $200. Then, if you win, some festivals charge you extra to purchase an award statuette or certificate! Some film festivals offer entry discounts to students and independent filmmakers. Calling and asking about available discounts is a good idea. Festivals know that most independent filmmakers are tight on funds, so many will consider a discount on your entry if you ask — especially if you submit early. Many festivals reward you with an entry discount if you submit your movie early. It’s an incentive to filmmakers to not wait until the last minute. The festival judges need lots of time to sort through and review thousands of films submitted each year. The discount is usually mentioned on the entry forms or festival website and through Film Freeway’s site when you’re researching which festivals you’re thinking of entering.

Article / Updated 12-30-2019

The same computer on which you write letters, organize your bank account, surf the Internet, and maybe even write your script can now easily be turned into a powerful editing machine. Most computers, both PC and Apple computers, are able to edit a movie in a nonlinear environment and are limited only by the size of their hard drives (but unlimited when using external hard drives). In nonlinear editing (NLE), you take all your separate shots, arrange them in story order, and then play them consecutively to form a scene. Every frame has its own individual set of time-code numbers (numbers generated electronically on the video image or in a computer) or edge-code numbers (numbers printed on the actual film stock) that pinpoint its exact starting and ending frames. Computer software can then generate an edit list that accurately contains the hour, minutes, seconds, and frames of your shots and identifies each cut made by the editor. With the right editing software, you have the capability to edit your movie without leaving your computer. (For technical tips on setting up your own editing studio, check out Digital Video For Dummies by Keith Underdahl, published by Wiley.) You can also purchase third-party software programs to perform additional functions like special effects, mattes, and process digital footage to look more like it was shot on motion picture film stock. Hard driving Your computer hard drive stores all your picture information. Because you’ll probably need more hard drive space than the amount that’s in your computer’s internal hard drive, you may want to purchase an external hard drive or two. An external hard drive these days is often compact — about the size of a paperback novel or not much bigger than a deck of cards. External hard drives connect to your computer via USB 3, USB C cables, or thunderbolt for speedy data transfer. Most external hard drives can be formatted for either PC or Mac platforms. The codec (digital file format) you record in will determine on how much storage space you will need on your external hard drive. Examples of certain codecs are .mov, MP4, H264, H265, ProRes 4444, and so on. Each one compresses your footage differently. Some are large files, some are small. H264 and H265 are known to compress large files into smaller files that maintain quality without much loss from image compression. When capturing or transferring high definition footage (depending on the compression), it can equate to around one gig per minute (or more if shooting above 2K) — so a 500GB external drive in high def can hold up 500 minutes. I like to use at least a 4 terabyte external drive, also known as 4TB — 4,000 gigabytes. Cutting it with editing software Without software, a computer has no personality. Add movie-editing software often known as NLE (nonlinear editing) and it becomes a complete postproduction editing suite within the confines of your desk space. You can choose from numerous editing programs on the market that allow you to affordably edit your digital footage in a nonlinear environment. Some computers even come with free editing software. Most software-editing programs use these basic components of nonlinear editing: A bin to hold your individual shots A timeline that allows you to assemble your shots in any order (it resembles individual storyboard panels placed one after another) A main window that plays back your edited footage Titling, effects and transition options All editing software accepts 2K high definition files, but many also work with digital files up to 4K resolution. 4K takes more CPU (computer power) so even if the software will edit 4K footage, make sure your computer has the right operating system, enough memory, and the correct specifications to run very large files. iMovie Many Apple computers come with iMovie, a free, simple-to-use, nonlinear editing software that allows you to cut your movie on your computer. The program also comes with over 80 music soundtracks you can use with your footage. Check out Digital Video For Dummies by Keith Underdahl (published by Wiley), which guides you through the steps of using this effective and easy-to-use software to edit your projects. An Avid Fan Avid, a name synonymous with nonlinear editing, makes the multi-award-winning Media Composer software, which works with Mac or PC platforms. The program works with high definition resolution up to 16K. Many studio feature films have been edited on Media Composer software. Avid’s software is more sophisticated than other lower-priced editing software, but it also has a longer learning curve. The software includes audio tools for post sound. It also includes titling and graphics, along with a variety of real-time effects. Avid charges a monthly or yearly subscription charge to use their editing software. Becoming a Pro with Final Cut My favorite editing program, without hesitation, is Final Cut Pro 10 (FCPX), available for use with Apple computers for $299. No monthly subscription. You own it and the free Apple support is as good as it gets. It’s a professional and powerful nonlinear software program for cutting picture (2K and 4K) as well as audio. It’s much more sophisticated than iMovie or some of the other nonlinear software, and it can produce some amazing results, including titles, effects, transitions, and color-correction. With it, you can repair shaky footage, fix many audio problems, and even create closed captions. The program also comes with an extensive sound effects and music library. This is a whole new reworking of Final Cut Pro, and for those who gave up on FCPX after FCP7 — you need to revisit this amazing software. You can even download and use it for free on a trial basis for a whole month! Check it out at the Apple App Store and download it today (if you use a Mac). This is not only the perfect nonlinear editing software for the novice independent filmmaker, many feature films have been cut using the software, including my film, Santa Stole Our Dog, which was released by Universal Home Entertainment. A lot of great tutorials on YouTube show you how effective and user-friendly Final Cut Pro X is. I won’t cut on anything else! Resolving Di Vinci Blackmagic (the ones that make the cool digital pocket cameras) also developed a widely used nonlinear editing program called Di Vinci Resolve. Depending which version you use, or whether you’ve bought a Blackmagic camera — the editing software may be free to you! Resolve also is known for its powerful color-correcting and -grading software — used by many colorist professionals in Hollywood and abroad. Wonderful Filmora Filmora from Wondershare is an affordable one-time buy of $59 NLE software that is packed with lots of power. The program is easy to learn, and you can find lots of helpful tutorials on the Wondershare website. The program has effects and transitions included. The limitation, though, is that no third-party plug-ins are made for Filmora like there are for some of the other editing programs like Final Cut Pro, Avid, and Premiere. Premiering Adobe Adobe makes popular software programs for the editing world: Adobe Premiere Pro for picture and sound editing (priced at $239 a year). Unless you edit for a living this can be very expensive because it’s a monthly and/or yearly subscription. I have edited with Premiere and definitely prefer editing on Final Cut Pro. I kept running into technical issues with Premiere and found limitations with the software compared to other editing software. Adobe also makes other software like Adobe After Effects (a powerful effects engine) that you can add to your monthly or yearly subscription. Check out Adobe’s products. KB Covers makes really cool keyboard covers, each individually customized to precisely fit over different brands of computer keyboards, including laptops and MacBooks — and are designed to work with many of the major editing software programs, like Final Cut Pro, Avid, and Premiere Pro. Chances are, they’ll have a precision fit cover for your keyboard, designed to work with your editing software. It’s like a short cut for editing, because the thin silicone cover converts your keyboard by displaying all the shortcut keys for most editing functions. These covers can definitely speed up your editing game. Simulating cinema with software Many independent filmmakers desperately want to make a movie that looks like it was shot on 35mm film — but they can’t afford the expense that comes with shooting on motion picture film stock. There are now software programs that will process your digital video footage in the postproduction phase and create the illusion (as best it can) that you shot on 35mm film. These programs emulate the characteristics associated with the look of film stock, such as grain, contrast, softness, subtle shuttle flutter, and saturated colors. The software also pulls down footage shot at 30-frames per second to emulate the 24 standard frames used with motion picture film cameras. FilmConvert is a unique software program that converts and emulates a pretty effective film-look to your digitally shot footage. Red Giant puts out software called Magic Bullet Looks that has settings to emulate particular Kodak and Fuji film stock emulsions. The software also has other color-correction presets and color-correction controls allowing you to start from scratch. Remember though, you may get close, but digital will never look exactly like film, because film is organic and digital is electronic — but advances in technology are bringing them closer. Magic Bullet Looks works with many of the popular NLE editing programs, including Final Cut Pro, Resolve, and Avid Media Composer. This neat little tip could save your production! I discovered a miraculous software plug-in call Neat Video. It is a magical plug-in that fixes dancing grain or noisy footage that appears to be completely unusable — or at least distracting to the viewer. This amazing and powerful software works with many nonlinear editing platforms like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere. It saved one of my movies where some of my dark, underlit scenes had so much grain and noise they were almost unwatchable and wouldn’t have passed broadcast specifications. The Neat Video software quickly smoothed out my shots by removing unwanted grain and noise, and turned some pretty ugly visuals into images of beauty. And the shots passed the strict technical QC test to air on broadcast television and on several popular streaming platforms! Posting your production in your computer After you finish editing all the dialogue and picture elements for your movie in your computer, you’re ready to marry your picture and sound together. If the final production is going to television, DVD and digital streaming distribution (and not a theatrical release), then you can continue to do most of your final preparations in the computer (color correcting, titles, and so on). If you plan on getting a theatrical release for your picture, then you’ll need to have a DCP (digital cinema package) authored by a post-production house. Outputting your masterpiece Once you’ve completed your final cut, you then have to figure out how you’re going to get your movie out of your computer. There’s a variety of ways to output your movie. One way is to make a QuickTime file. Think of a QuickTime file as a container. It can contain different digital codecs including ProRes, H.264, and MPEG-4 MOV files. This file can be exported to an external hard drive or authored onto a standard DVD or Blu-ray disc (depending on the size of the file). Most TV networks and streaming platforms will accept delivery of your movie on an external hard drive. A QuickTime file can even be uploaded and showcased on YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook. If you are entering your movie in a film festival, you can often upload the QuickTime of your movie to a private and secure site that the film festival uses to review entries (instead of shipping out a DVD or Blu-ray disc). If you want to export your edited movie from your computer directly to digital tape which is usually Digibeta tape (sometimes a requirement for TV broadcast or streaming platforms), then you have several options. You can rent a Digibeta tape machine and output the QuickTime file of your movie yourself, or you can take your QuickTime file to a professional post-production facility and have the people there transfer the QuickTime file to digital videotape for you. In the long run, it’s easier to have a post-production house do it, because they will guarantee it’s done right. In this day and age of entertainment outlets, things have changed exponentially in the last few years. No longer is entertainment limited to a few major TV networks. With advances in digital technology, the Internet, and the explosion of wireless communications — we have unlimited entertainment at our fingertips — literally. Netflix brought a new age of entertainment by offering tens of thousands of movies and TV series available to everyone (with a subscription) on your schedule, and at your convenience. On the heels of Netflix, we now have an explosion of more streaming platforms. Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, CBS All Access, Universal, Warner Bros., and even Apple are into the streaming game. I’m just waiting for an implosion. Too many services, too many series and movies. Eventually I think quantity is going to overcome quality. YouTube and Vimeo offers a platform that anyone can upload their short or feature film and can now call themselves a published artist. But looking at the big picture — all these streaming services are going to need content. Maybe this is a good thing for you! If you’ve ever had the challenge of trying to send a digital file to someone (like your special-effects guy) via email but the file was too big, here’s a little secret: Check out www.hightail.com. This site allows you to upload and download files. The cost? Files up to 100MB are free; files up to 25GB are $12 a month.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Making a film requires the talents and abilities of a production team. To understand the roles of a film production team, you can compare the positions of each crew member to the people needed to prepare a fine meal. The following chart lists the common positions found on a typical film production team and explains their responsibilities. Position Responsibility Position Responsibility Writer Writes the list of ingredients Boom operator Gets the microphone in close to hear all the crunches and lip smacking Executive producer Pays for the cost of the dinner Gaffer Lights the food to look good (sets the mood with a candlelit dinner) Line producer Finds where to get the best deals Grips Help with the utensils for eating the meal Producer Purchases the groceries, helps choose the brands Production assistants Act as waiters and busboys Casting director Chooses the food that's ripe for the picking Make-up person Brushes on healthy colors to prepare the food to look appetizing Location scout Locates the dinner location Wardrobe person Dresses the food to look tasty Transportation Transports the guests to the table Production designer Enhances the setting and decorates it for dinner Director Takes all the ingredients and cooks them into a great meal Prop master Supplies the appropriate tableware, including plates and glasses Assistant director Assists the chef Stunt coordinator Rigs the exploding champagne bottles and smashing of silverware Script supervisor Makes sure the chef follows the recipe Editor Serves the meal in continuity (appetizer first, entrée next, dessert at the end) Director of photography (cinematographer) Makes the food look really good Composer Creates the right music atmosphere for enjoying the meal Sound mixer Records all the crunches and lip smacking Post-production supervisor Cleans up the mess