{"id":42788,"date":"2024-09-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=42788"},"modified":"2024-09-16T15:46:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T22:46:33","slug":"movie-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/movie-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Making"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once a week we\u2019ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because\u00a0the possibilities they inspire are new.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How to make an action film<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The DV Rebel\u2019s Guide<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DV Rebel\u2019s Guide<\/em> is currently the best how-to-guide for making films on a budget. It supercedes the former low-rent filmmaking guide, Rick Schmidt\u2019s Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices<\/em>, and his followup Extreme DV<\/em>. This new fantastic manual written by Stu Maschwitz, a co-founder of the maverick special effects company The Orphanage, focuses exactly where budget filmmakers should be. Forget about film, and all its needs. Instead embrace inexpensive HD video and off-the-shelf professional software, like After Effects. This guide rightfully assumes that more than half of your cinematic effort will take place in front of a computer \u2014 even on a film without special effects. The good news is that an HD camera and full software suite are tools within reach of a dedicated amateur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebel\u2019s<\/em> doesn\u2019t cover important artistic issues like gaining self-confidence in your film idea, raising money, fine tuning scripts and honing your hustling skills because these are covered in other books (especially in What They Don\u2019t Teach You at Film School). What Rebel\u2019s Guide<\/em> does cover in practical depth is the technical aspects of making a quality film for as little money as possible. Even better, it\u2019s aimed at an action film, which most budget guides shy from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advice is pithy, spot on, practical, honest, and communicated extremely clearly. It uses lots of photo stills in the book and comes with its own DVD of examples. It very smartly assumes that if you are making a film, you have a Netflix account and will point you to specific example scenes in other films on DVD. And since half of filmmaking is now the work of software, the DVD also includes tutorials and helpful scripts for After Effects. It feels like a workshop lead by someone whose made a few films that look fantastic but cost almost nothing, and that is what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One important point Maschwitz emphasizes: The cheap tricks and rebel attitude he promotes in this book are not only for beginners and starving artists, but are used by the pros when they can. This is another way of saying that, as in other media, the line between the tools and techniques available to amateurs and professionals has been drastically blurred. With skill and moxie, a \u201cused car\u201d budget, and the tools and techniques described in this very fine book, you (the You on the cover of Time<\/em>!) can make a film qualified for theatrical release. \u2014 KK<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grip Alfred Wentzel pushes camera operator Sunel Haasbroek, wielding a Silicone Imaging camera, for the film Spoon. Photo provided by the film\u2019s directors, Sharlto Copely and Simon Hansen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n