What can I do about this ND filter problem for a scene shoot?

[Todd Terry]

This is one of the biggest non-problems I’ve read in this forum.

The problem: Have no ND filters
The solution: Get ND filters

As I’ve said before, every cine equipment vendor in the world sells them, and they can all deliver next day.

And you don’t have to buy $300 glass filters. In particular Lee makes very inexpensive 4×4 gel and polyester filters that are perfectly serviceable… and if you don’t have a matte box, they even come with a free plastic holder that has this rubber band thing that will let you attach it to any lens, regardless of the barrel size.

If you need ND filters there really are no other solutions that work as well or exactly the same. For example, silks overhead cut light but also diffuse it (and you didn’t ask about diffusing, so assuming you want hard light). Pantyhose on the rear of a lens will cut light a tiny bit, but adds a ProMist look. The solution is using the correct filter.

So… get them. It’s easy.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Mark Suszko]

Maybe a dumb question, since I can’t see a script or storyboard, but, can you shoot the scenes closer to early morning or late afternoon, and not high noon?

And is this a student film?

[Ryan Elder]

It’s just a short film that some other actors I know wanted me to direct, and I wanted more projects to do. Since everyone is volunteering, I didn’t want everyone to have to get up so early on their day off, but I suppose I could have.

However, when the sun rises, you only have like an hour of shoot time before it changes. I tried the whole shooting during dawn or dusk before, and you only have like an hour. If I want to shoot a scene that might take 8 hours, I then have to be reduced to one, that really limits my shoot time.

[Ryan Elder]

Unless maybe I am looking at it the wrong way, and you can shoot an entire scene in one hour, depending on how quickly everyone works?

[Ryan Elder]

As for rental stores that can ship anywhere within 24 hours, where are these places? I cannot find a store that has ND filters of any lens size that can ship that fast, for an okay price that meets the budget.

[Todd Terry]

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/102426-REG

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/102526-REG

For use in a standard 4×4 matte box but both also come with a free plastic filter adapter that lets you attach a 4×4 to the front of any size lens barrel without using a matte box.

Dirt cheap and exactly what you’ve been asking for.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks, but B & H told me before that they just sold products and they do not rent out though.

[Todd Terry]

Then BUY them from B&H, for crissake. They are dirt cheap.

Or buy from Adorama or Filmtools or any of the other scads of vendors.

I wasn’t suggesting you rent filters from B&H, they are a retailer, not a rental house.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Mark Suszko]

Ryan, I sense this is the time to re-evaluate expectations. Look at guys like Roberto Rodriguez and even earlier, Roger Corman. They had very low budgets, but modified their projects to fit what they had available to work with, or looked at existing resources like locations in creative ways. You don’t have the money to imitate a project with a big budget? Or *any* budget? Fine, don’t. This is the ground floor, where you’re at, and that’s okay to admit. Own it. But then, don’t go crying: “I can’t do this, I can’t do that.” Find what you *can* do.

A story I love to tell is about the Three Stooges and their producer. The studio told the Stooges that to save money, they were to use the standing sets left over from other Columbia studio productions, after the movie they were made for was done shooting. So, a big-budget “A” picture builds a set of a railroad train, platform, and multiple cars? Write your next short to use that existing set, before it gets torn down.

Roger Corman famously made (most of) the original “Little Shop Of Horrors” over a weekend, basically on a dare, when a contact at the studio told him there was a standing set available for 2 days on a weekend. He made that set stand in for at least three locations, shooting while the re-painted walls were still wet.

Think like those guys: raise funds for the essentials, then improvise the rest.

Remember too that you need not shoot your movie in story order; that’s hardly ever done. Shoot what’s easy to shoot NOW, then plan out the harder stuff later.

I think one thing that would really help and inspire you is to go to the Film Riot Youtube channel and just watch every video they’ve ever done, just binge the entire channel, beginning to end. That guy’s material was meant for people exactly like you. He’ll show you ways to achieve impressive looks and effects on almost zero dollars, he’ll show you shooting, lighting, and audio techniques. He’ll show you editing and camera direction. The things you need. Absorb his teachings, then analyze your project in terms of what you now know. You may have to modify or scrap it. These are all things that everyone in this business goes thru, the only difference is the scale of it.

So don’t quit. Follow your vision where it leads, but to follow it, you need a base of practical skills and knowledge to work from; trying to learn it as you go is going to be very frustrating, not just for you, but for everyone you’re working with. Start smaller, shoot small, low-stakes scenes, work you way up to bigger action as you gain experience.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks, but I was told before that my footage looked too overexposed, so how do you get the viewer to think that overexposed footage without ND filters is okay? How do you get the viewer to think that the low budget is okay, rather than seeing it as an error?