[Mark Suszko]

I think I’d rather shoot a 50 on the gimbal if it’s hand-held.

[Mark Suszko]

My contacts are old, some even passed away… but if you contact Video Replay in Chicago, they can hook you up with a shooter as well as rental and edit packages. Tell Ron I said “hi”.

Another resource is the Chicago production Guide from the Illinois Film Office

https://www.illinois.gov/dceo/whyillinois/Film/Documents/ProductionGuide.pdf

[Mark Suszko]

Might depend on the subject matter and where you’re showing the video. I’ve heard of people protesting -not) being credited, but it’s kind of rare for the reverse… unless there mention could connect them to something unflattering.

Funniest credits issue I ever saw was in the third (?) Indiana Jones movie, where there’s a scene of Hitler autographing Jones Sr.’s book of clues to the Grail. In the credits comes the standard disclaimer that characters are fictionalized, any resemblance, blah, blah, blah… because you don’t want the Hitler family coming after you saying Adolph never autographed a map to the Holy Grail…

[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.

[Mark Suszko]

I’d expect to see entrepreneurs marketing the cards and gear on a lease basis. Create now, pay later.

[Mark Suszko]

True, Blaise, as far as that goes, but I’ll bet you a donut they’re not all using CC versions of Photoshop.

[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?

[Mark Suszko]

You’re probably going to have to invest in a wireless mic at some point, unless you like taping down long runs of mic cable from the people speaking to where the camera will be.

I have the icicle adapter, it’s great because you can choose the mic appropriate to each individual situation, from a lav to a stick to a shotgun… or even tap into an existing PA system audio board with that adapter.

A go-pro or gopro knock-off with bluetooth would relay it’s shots to the laptop, where you then use Wirecast or whatever to stream it. a 4k gopro type camera gives you enough resolution that you can do zooms and pans with the video in post later, mimicking the use of multiple cameras.

Battery life on such cams isn’t great for long events once you enable bluetooth, so I’d add an external USB battery pack to the gopro. Instead of a tripod, if the camera will just be in a fixed shot, you could add an adapter to the top of a heavy mic stand and use that instead. The mic stand ends up less intrusive than a tripod and can be placed in close to the action.

[Mark Suszko]

Don’t know if this can help for sure, but Larry Jordan recently posted how you can create a blank adjustment layer in Motion as a template, bring that into FCPX, lay it over/connect it to your clip (in this case the stacked multiclip) and affect everything connected to it in one step, by loading the desired effects into just the adjustment layer.

[Mark Suszko]

Bounce cards are cheap: a roll of aluminum foil attached to foam core boards from the dollar store. Or just the white foam core itself, at shorter distances. Or a mirror. Or a sheet of rigid, foil-faced insulation foam from a home improvement center, that’s 20 bucks. You can’t say you can’t afford bounce cards; that’s too easy.

You can moderate the light on the talent by flying some white cloth overhead… if you can’t afford real diffusion fabric, there’s a look-alike material sold in the gardening section of home-improvement stores by the 50-yard roll, much cheaper. Or go to a sewing store or even Walmart and get some white organza, maybe a dollar a yard…. Make a rudimentary frame from plastic pipe or wood strips and attach it to some stands, or to two stepladders, whatever’s handy… to make a shady spot with diffused light for the talent to stand in. You could hang netting off the back of the overhead scrim to bring the background down a stop or two. Again, sourcing the cloth from the same places.

Use your creativity when you don’t have money.

Expose for the person and their skin to look correct, and let the sky blow out if you have to. Then replace it later. A very blown-out sky lets you get help from a luma key to replace the sky. Better yet, adjust your framing and camera angles to avoid the sky in the first place.