Charts are shot for each new roll of film and when the color temperature of the light changes (going from indoor tungsten lighting to outdoor daylight). This tells the lab when they transfer the film to video what 18% neutral gray is so the colors come out accurately.
Film School
Blue Screen – Set Anatomy
A tentacle is being shot on a blue screen so it can later be superimposed over some other footage. The trick with blue and green screen is to light the screen evenly and not have any color spill onto what you want to remove. Normally you'd want a larger screen and to...
Back to School
Vacation is over. Today is the first day of fall semester. There's a pizza mixer at noon so my class, now 2nd Years, can meet the 1st years, the class that will be crewing our films. Here's a lineup of the classes we'll be taking: Filmmaking 3 Screenwriting 2 Advanced...
It’s Now Coffee, Celluloid, and the Tube
I'm now the General Manager of my school's Student Broadcast Center (SBC). It's a Bureau funded by the Student Government that controls two channels available to on-campus residents (not me). I should clarify that, though. We have the ability to control two channels,...
Crew Drills – A Practice Run
For the past three days at The Film School we've been having Crew Drills. Crew Drills are basically a two hour run through of an F3 set. That's enough time to set up, get a shot or two, and then take everything down for the next show. It accomplishes a few things. The...
F3 Explained
In looking at past posts, I realized I never laid out what exactly an F3 is, the project that has and will be taking my attention and life for the next few months. The F stands for Filmmaking. The F1 was our little digital short, the F2 the half day film exercise, and...
Producing Tools
With one producing job down, I've already picked up a few tricks to make things go easier for time two. Below are a few free web apps that help keep things organized (a lot were also used during documentary making). Most have a mobile option, which makes them very...
Scouting for a Corner Office
On Monday, my Producer and I finally got around to doing some pre-production work for my F3. The two main locations I need is an open cubicle area and a really nice corner office, one that is soul-worthy. Most of the downtown area is either government buildings or law...
Prepare to Sell Your Soul
Today is Director's Prep for my film, and the last for the F3 cycle. Between Production Design and Directing, these past two weeks have been the busiest yet. I feel slightly unprepared, mainly because I have no cast. But I do have locations, and they're great, so...