[Richard Herd]

The best money you’ll ever spend: https://www.ascmag.com/

[Richard Herd]

Don’t forget a light meter!

There’s three things to remember:
— It’s an art
— Contrast Ratio
— Plan to take an hour per setup

An audio guy I work with a lot (James) is now a fine lighting guy, and a lot of our conversations compare the similarities of micing a drum kit to lighting a room.

A light meter is to lighting as an EQ is to audio.

[Richard Herd]

Here’s the facts: https://www.ascmag.com/store/product.php?productid=5240&cat=328&page=1

I searched google for “american cinematographer and age of innocence” and found the back issue, for $1.

Enjoy!

[Richard Herd]

Two semesters at AAU, SF are called “Demo Reel.” Where all we did was put our stuff together and criticize it. I recall one guy, forgot his name, in the class who shot on miniDV in available light. He screened his footage one day, and it was junk. A couple of weeks later he screened it again. It looked amazing. He applied filters galore to the junk-footage, and it took a week to render! Sure looked good, though.

In addition to demo reel, we had a career development center, where folks worked their butts off getting us job interviews. Reels are important, so are resumes. Basically just a page of stuff you’ve completed and your role on that project.

[Richard Herd]

Just to clarify: Academy of Art University, San Francisco is not AI, although it has a fine success rate, and it was spendy.

I also am a shameless go-meet-people kind of guy.

[Greg Burke] “allot of student indy work but its looks really low budget and crappy not good enough to be put on a reel,”

That’s a golden opportunity, man! You can make that footage look amazing with Apple Color, After Effects, and some sweet sound design and turn it into a 2 minute trailer. Give yourself a professional deadline, too.

Questions to keep in mind for the trailer:
— Who’s the main character?
— What does he or she need?
— Who or what is trying to stop him/her?
— Is this a drama or a comedy?

[Richard Herd]

Are you asking about how to cut film?

The trick to that bit is a locked off camera.

[Richard Herd]

In picking a school, I believe you should search for a few things:

— Make sure it is a demo reel school, so that when you leave you have a reel consisting of your best work.

— Make sure it is a collaborative environment

— Make sure you have access to film equipment (not just video)

— Make sure there is also good opportunities to study math, history, science–a well rounded education

— Makes sure there is opportunity for internships, in professional established businesses, where you can LEARN, not be a coffee-getter or free laborer.

— Be sure your expectations are calibrated properly: that is, it’s very very very unlikely that after you graduate you will be a lead editor on a project.

— Last: work hard now, because the party is bigger later!

[Richard Herd]

Contrast ratio causing reflections can get complicated. Without scouting the location, it’s pretty tough to imagine the room, especially since I used to do audio. I can’t get that room out of my head.

Two rooms, two cameras?
Or Two rooms, one camera?

[Richard Herd]

Here’s an experiment:
— Light the room bright.
— Flag the camera black, if no light hits it, how can it show up?

[Richard Herd]

Here’s the truth, man: the reel I watched ain’t that good. Not trying to be mean, so please don’t take it as such. You might try the demo reel forum and see what critique they can offer. For me, though, I can’t tell if you edited the bumpers or if you edited the shows. I would expect to see a sense of story, something a bit longer. As a consumer of motion picture, I want to feel something as much as being informed. I would expect some current techniques, like layering in After Effects and animating a camera. Cool use of mattes and masks.

Regarding me being lucky (the Tahoe guy), my reel has three categories:
— ads and promotions
— fictional narrative
— music videos

Personally speaking, I am most proud of the fictional narratives. They range from 90 seconds to 25 minutes. It is not currently on the internet, but I should get something together.

Another growth industry is Digital Signage Displays. Hopefully you can google that and see what’s going on: WalMart, Athletes Foot for example have both started DSD networks where they are selling ad space for about $3.00/CPM (cost per thousand). Someone has to make ALL that content.

I got my current job because, when I was a broadcast editor at a production company, I felt like the “boutique” editing shop was a dying business model, as measured by Return on Capital Employed. So when the digital signage network came my way, I jumped at it.

I’ll say it again: Digital Signage Networks.