Fundraising

Raising funds for any project can be a pain. I mean, unless you are a rich child or know someone with a lot of money raising the funds to create your video project this can be a difficult task.

Now, in the past I have always just scrimped and saved and used the almighty credit card to pay for my film projects, and I've always done my films on the cheap, and when I say cheap I mean the sub 500 dollar cheap for everything. I generally would shoot, direct, write, edit, and any other rolls that needed to be filled.

And I know that by saying this, I might have just scared a lot of the people who might read this, because shooting films for under 500 dollars seems almost imposible, but on an almost anual basis I shoot a film for my own enjoyment in this range, and almost all of that money goes to craft services aka feeding the entire crew, and I aint just talking about cheese sandwiches, though if that's your thing you might want to try and join up with Lloyd Kaufman, and work on one of his films, because according to his book Make your own Damn Movie that is what he feeds his crew.

There are some alternatives though than just using the credit card method to make your money. You could ask your family and friends for money, they might just give it you. You can go around and try to find one of those rich people that I was talking about above, and though I've never done this, everything I've read about financing says that dentists have a lot of money laying around to invest in film projects, which means the next time you are in the dentist seat being freaked out by the cleaning, grinding, scraping, injecting those cavities with metal, you could maybe try to mumble something about that film idea you have.

If this doesn't seem like your thing or desire, I was recently introduced to this idea of community donating/funding platforms by a couple of friends who were raising funds for their individual video projects and I think the idea is pretty cool. The two sites that they turned me onto were Kickstarter and indiegogo.

Both of these website rely on the community of the world to support your project and through supporting your project, you generally give them something at different price points, things like posters, CDs, DVDs, meeting the cast and crew, T-Shirts, a smile. The item/object is really up to you, but there are differences between the two websites.

Now Kickstarter, is a website that deals exclusively with art based projects, and the raising of money through those art based projects. They have a set up that says that you have to raise a certain amount of money for your project, whatever that amount is and if you do not raise that amount then you don't get any of the money and it gets returned to the owners. This can be a good thing especially if say you need a thousand dollars to make your movie and if you don't get a thousand dollars you don't have to worry about half creating your film. The downside to this is that if you could in theory make the movie for 750 dollars and you get that 750 dollars, but not the thousand, then you are out of luck.

Indiegogo, on the the other hand is a community fundraising program that can include anyone for anything. There are people on there who just want to have fun and thus try to raise money to try and have fun. This is a website that is for anyone that has an idea and is seeking funding for whatever their lifestyle is. Indiegogo is different from Kickstarter because you can set it up so that even if you do not reach your goals you can still get the money that was donated through the program and put that towards whatever your project that you are creating. The downside though is that if you didn't get enough money to make the project you were selling to all of your supporters you could be in a very bad place, because you have other people's money and you are expected to try and produce a piece of work for them. So be aware of that.

Personally, after looking at the two choices that my friends suggested, I decided that I was going to try and raise some real serious funds for an upcoming webseries I wrote that I would like to see produced. I thought it over and decided that I was going to go with Indiegogo, because I could set a goal for finances that I would like to reach, as well as being able to look at the money aspect and say that if I didn't reach that amount I would still be able to produce this show, but with a lot less frills. Again, I am someone who generally has created movies for 500 dollars or less in the past.

If you would like to check out my Indiegogo account and see how the fundraising aspect works, I would encourage you to click on my link below, give it a look over and possibly donate to help this project become a reality.

This is a business not just an artform

As with any job, you have to think of working in film as a business and not just an artform.

Now, I'm not saying that you can not work for free on a few projects, or that if you find a project you really want to be apart of to offer up your services and possible equipment to the project for discounted/free, but there is a point where you have to analyze not only what your time is worth, but also if you own your own equipment, what your equipment is worth too.

Because if you think about it, you could be busy everyday. It doesn't really matter at what level of skill you have, if you are honestly trying to get better people will always use you and the skills you have. The reality is though that they will use your skills and either pay you nothing or far little to what you are worth.

I mean think about it, do you have classic training in film like from a college or trade school, that cost you money, probably in the 10s of thousands of dollars.

Also do you have your own equipment, like a camera, microphone, audiorecorder, lights. That probably cost you probably at least 2k if it's professional. My equipment cost almost 5k with my computer.

That means that with your craft you need to try to recover at least that amount, and the question becomes how. True, you can work at a local coffee shop or a big box store to pay off your debts, but eventually and hopefully you will be charging money for your craft, and I would recommend at least 200 dollars a day for shooting and 25 dollars for editing to start out with. I know there are people who wont want to pay that, but you have costs too.

And if you are thinking to yourself at this point at least 200 dollars a day, that seems high, it really isn't, it's actually low if you factor everything into your cost and your return. If you own your equipment, good, but what if you didn't. Have you looked into what it costs to rent gear for a day. To give you an example here are the prices to a local Minneapolis company call Cinequipt, for an extremely basic set up.

Canon 7D w/ 28-135                  - $135.00
Manfrotto Tripod w/ Head           - $20.00
Zoom h4n                                 - $30.00
Sennheisser 66 Shotgun Mic      - $20.00
Mic Cable 25'                            - $3.00
Total                                        - $208.00

The above price is to just rent equipment for one day, not a week, or month, just one day. 208 dollars to rent equipment for a day.

So hopefully with this knowledge, I think that telling someone you are willing to work for at least 200 dollars is not a lot to ask for if you own your own equipment. Hopefully, if you break down the cost to rent equipment to the client they will see that you are essentially willing to work for what it would cost someone to just rent equipment, but it doesn't mean that they will.

People are always going to take advantage of whatever they can and because of that it means that as a professional you will need to stand firm on how you price yourselves out. This doesn't just benefit you, but also the rest of us professionals trying to get by on our crafts.

The Reformed Man

I am a firm believer of working on your own projects, the problem is that often time your own projects don't necessarily bring in any revenue, unless you are able to somehow distribute the project to some online vendor or through advertisements/merchandise.

Case and point is the film I have just finished after two years of work on it. It is titled The Reformed Man and the reason it took me two years is because I was never satisfied with the look of the animation. The basis of the film is that it is a comic book film where all of the pains move as the camera moves with it.

I've included the first couple of the pages from the companion comic book itself and hope to have a trailer up in the next week or so, but I will not be uploading the total film yet as I am going to try and take it through the festival circuit.

DIY Fig Rig

The fig rig is a pretty handy piece of equipment. It allows you to stabilize your smaller cameras with both of your hands. Now Manfrotto sells a fig rig for about 300 dollars on amazon, but you can make one for far less than that if you have some PVC piping, some couplers and a screw.

Now, many people have made tutorials on how to make fig rigs, but I personally have always liked Indy Mogul, and so I have embeded their video below.

To go along with Indy Mogul's PVC fig rig, I have attached images on how things should look.

I have modified mine from Indy Mogul's version, but I think that it works out better, You don't need the bottom plug and you also don't need the 4-way connector which will drop your price by about a dollar and a half, because that is the most expensive part of the whole rig.

I would also recommend a PVC pipe cutting tool, they rang in price usually between 6-12 dollars and can be got at any hardware store. The one I have linked to is ten dollars at the moment.

Now I have nothing against a hacksaw like the one Zack uses, but it's messy, all of the plastic that flakes off as you are sawing back and forth leaves debris on the floor, the kitchen table, etc. It also makes it hard for a clean cut, because you have to get the hacksaw going and that could cost you a quarter inch or more depending on the way you cut.

The PVC pipe cutter just cuts through PVC pipe in less time, usually it takes me about 10 seconds or less and there wont be the mess of debris since it is a clean cut made through pressure. It's also more accurate to what you are trying to design. It is a tool I would recommend especially if you are looking to do more building with PVC than just this one project.

Now, this is probably one of the easiest projects I've worked on, but the hardest part is connecting everything together after you have wiped down both of the primer and then the cement, because once you have the cement added on you really only really have 30 seconds. It should looks something like this when you are done.

Note, this picture has the 4-way on it, but all of the other ones I've put together for people do not, and please excuse the mess.

On a side note, if you need one of these built and for whatever reason, cannot build one. I would be willing to build the item for you for cost of pieces and an hourly rate.

Two Companies Compete with their Perspectives

So, my weekend involved two days of shooting for two different organizations, and both gave different perspectives of how they view themselves and their property.

So, let's start with Saturday or Day 1. I woke up super early, like at 8:15 am early and got ready. I then headed toward the Bloomington Minnesota area and entered the Remada Hotel. I asked directions to where the meeting was taking place and I entered the room. I was surrounded by people who as many people would say have drank the cool aid.

So, as I was about to pull out my camera to start recording some of the presentation to help out the local committee, A woman from up front gave a very big word to everyone. NO RECORDING IN THE HALL. So, I calmly took my Canon 7D and Cowboy Studio and put it back into my bag. I then got a look from the main man I do my filming for Lucky and the two of us went out of the hall and began recording some of the people we ran into from North Dakota.

Afterwards, I went back in and with Lucky's advice/what he wanted I decided to ninja some video shots of Lucky and his business partner giving some advice to how to be a better seller of selling travel to people. Now I'm not great salesman so I'll just give you a link here if you care about traveling for cheap, and you can check out all of the cheesy videos that Lucky and I hope to change to show how people's lives can really be changed.

Now let's compare that with today. Today I was invited to shoot at the Hyatt hotel in Minneapolis for a spiritual health and wellness expo, which had many people speaking who are in the spiritual field, including those that are mediums and intuitive.

I set up my camera alongside my other camera operator and we shot everything throughout the day. They were much more open and because of that, we were given the opportunity to shoot many of the booths, and talk to many of the individuals.

Now I'm not going to upload any of the footage that I shot at the expo from today, because I'm not sure how the expo users want to use it, but I hope to do it soon.

I'll keep you updated.

What a Script should look like

Writing a script is the most important part of a movie, if you don’t believe me think of the last great movie you saw. I bet it had a great story, and even though it might have had great effects and actors it is the story that really made it great.

If you read that first paragraph and don’t believe me then think of Star Wars or Indiana Jones. The original three of each of these films were great, they had good stories. Now think of the more recent Star Wars and Indiana Jones, they had great budgets and great actors, but they lacked the one thing that they needed a great story.

Now, don’t get me wrong they made it big at the box office, but who cares, they defiled their predecessors because they took these great movies and destroyed them. The point of a good movie is a good story.

The thing is though, it doesn’t really matter how great your story is if you can not put it into the right format, because as good as your story might be there are some rules that you should follow so that almost everyone in your production is on the right page.

Now I’ve talked about script writing programs in the past (click here and here for past posts), and I’m not going to force you download anything you do not want to, but I just thought you might like to know what a script should like with all of the elements in it.

Lucky Linda's Body Art Commercial is Live

So we've wrapped up everything with Lucky Linda's Body Art. It was a great project to be a part of especially since it contained mostly my vision, since I wrote, directed, and edited the piece.

It also happened to be the first project for the local start up Local Biz Productions, which is currently based out of the Eden Prairie, Minnesota and is currently taking on new clients to create low budget commercials.

Below you can find many of the links that are associated with the project. As well as the finished commercial. Let me know what you think and check out some of the other posts as well. Also if you are in the Minneapolis area, head on down to Lucky Linda's in Shakopee and give them some love.

The Importance of a Storyboard: A side by side comparison of the storyboard and the finished piece
And we Shot in Shakopee. Thanks Lucky Linda.: Picture copies of the storyboard used
The Head is Done: Image of what the muppet head looked like finished
Head Update
The Head is Built
A Small Setback
Tattoo Commercial

The Importance of a storyboard

Now, I know that I've talked about how a storyboard is important, and how it can make life easier, but I want to show you how side by side with the storyboard that planning actually does help regardless of if it is with stick figures, better looking hand drawings, Celtx's storyboard add ons, or any other storyboarding program. Making a storyboard helps out so much when it comes to production.

I know this because I've worked on productions that didn't have a storyboard of what the director was looking for. It was all in their head, so everyone was sitting around waiting for the director to give his vision for the shot instead of being able to jump to the next shot or scene, while the director was working with the actors.

To give you some perspective, we shot the commercial below in about an hour and a half and that includes set up and tear down times. Because we went into Lucky Linda's with not only a plan of what we wanted to shoot, but also an actual shot list of what we needed to get proper coverage we were able to get in and get out in a good amount of time.

If you've never done a storyboard before I am encouraging you to do one now and if you have done them before I continue to encourage you to do them in the projects you are working on. I hope you enjoy the video below comparing the storyboard we made to how the commercial ended up.

My Equipment

Here is what I am working with in the film world. A couple things that aren't in the pictures below are:

Vivitar 28mm Lens
Vivitar 50mm Lens
Vivitar 80-205mm Lens

But these lenses are available only second hand.

$1,000 Budget

For those who have about a thousand dollars below I have some suggestions for what I would include in a basic filming package. Also if you look over the other packages I've built, I hope you will notice that many of these items reappear and thus show how strongly I feel about them and use them everyday.



*If you can not see the images above, you probably have an ad-blocker installed in your browser, which I completely understand, which is why I have simply listed these items below with links that will lead you to amazon.com

Canon T3i 771.13
Azden SMX 10 84.99
Cowboy Studio Shoulder Mount 26.69
Dolica Tripod 65.99
Transend 32 GB SD Card 43.52

$2,500 Budget

For those who have $2,500 here are some suggestions for what I would include in a filming package. Also if you look over the other packages I've built, I hope you will notice that many of these items reappear and thus show how strongly I feel about them and use them everyday.



*If you can not see the images above, you probably have an ad-blocker installed in your browser, which I completely understand, which is why I have simply listed these items below with links that will lead you to amazon.com

Deadlines are a necessary evil

I am all for hard deadlines, on almost everything especially when it comes to film. And for those of you reading this and just getting into the film industry you should try to get on a hard deadline system too.

The reason I say that I am for hard deadlines is that it keeps me in check, when it comes to getting projects done on time, and it doesn’t matter whether it is for myself or for client. The project gets done. These deadlines force me to prioritize my time in such a way that I make sure that the earliest hard deadline item gets done first, and then the next earliest and so on.

Hard deadlines also often times keep me from screwing around on the Internet, when I know I have work to do. They keep me from checking out Facebook 27 times in an hour for no reason, or they keep me from checking out reddit and digg to often, because even though the fake news can change in an instant. The important news that I really care about I can get when I need it.

I also have noticed that when people give me projects and ask me to edit it and say it doesn’t matter when it gets done, often times it takes me three or four times longer, because either I do the things listed above, or more often then not. These projects get put to the end of the list that never ends, and it’s not that they get put there once, but they keep getting bumped back by the new projects that have hard deadlines.

So after talking so much about hard deadlines, and what they mean to me here are some examples of hard deadlines that the production company two other individuals and myself are starting in regards from when we sell a package to a client and when we want it done.

Please note that all of these days are set for a short 1 day shoot at the client’s place of business or off site location.

Day 1: Meet with client

Day 3: Have script written for client

Day 7-10: Shoot script for client

Day 14-17: Have video edited for client

Day 20: Project done at the latest.

What this means is that within three weeks of meeting with the client we would like the commercial/shoot completely edited at the latest.

The Importance of the Script

The script is probably one of the most important aspects of the movie, if not the most important aspect of the movie that you are trying to make. Now I've been on crews where the script was either small or non existant, and somehow we made the movie, but it wasn't what it could have been.

There were long pauses between scenes that should have been filled with setting up or taring down for the next scene. Actors didn't know lines and what lines they made up on the spot had to be written down so that for additional takes they would be able to be consistant with those lines for editing. There was simply just general chaos around the set and discontentment.

Now the purpose of the script is not to just get the lines of what the actors say or the actions that those actors are supposed to do, but it also serves as time keeper, a scene breakdown, and a prop needing device. To get all of these things out of your script, there is a format that you are supposed to write a script in, and this is not only for your good, but also your cast and crew.

Now, I know the objection, what's the big deal about following a format, and I guess if you want to just shoot movies in your backyard with your friends than it's not a big deal, but if you want to make everything about your production look better you need to follow basic script writing formats and practices. Plus even if you don't want to get any better than your basic backyard films, this will still help you out.

First and formost you need to head over to www.Celtx.com and download their scriptwriting program. It's a free download and will not only help you with writing, but also most of preproduction including scheduling, script breakdown, and storyboarding. To be honest there are other script writing programs that some people might recommend to you, but they can cost an arm and a leg and some of them only do the script writing itself.

After you download the program and open it up, the formatting is fairly simple to deal with. There is a drop down menu, here is what all of the menu items mean.

SCENE HEADING: This is the scene, starts with a either writing INT./EXT. (interior or exterior), then you write where the location is. JIMMY'S HOUSE, THE HOSPITAL, A CAR. then you follow it up with what time of day it is.
ACTION: This is what's happening in the scene, and is pretty straight forward what is happening to your characters, what is the scene like.
CHARACTER: This is a title spot to say which character is going to be saying a line. That Character's name should always be capitalized.
DIALOGUE: These are the words that the character is saying.
PARENTHETICAL: This is when a short action while the character is talking.
TRANSITION: This is for the technical aspect of how you are going to transition from one scene to the next, that could be dissolve, wipe, attack of killer monkeys, whatever you want.
To start out with lets talk about the script as a time keeper,
SHOT: This would be a particular shot, that you need
TEXT: I'm not going to explain what text is, because I think you are pretty smart people.

So, now you can get to writing following these basic principals. I'll follow this post up with another one explaining why following all of these rules are so important, but for now, just get out there and get going.

Also if you like what I'm writing about click the follow button, leave a comment, let me know how I can do things better, because that's my goal.

Some exciting news

So as I wrote about in an earlier post about networking, last year I started working for an established webseries called Transylvania Television as one of their editors. Well that webseries has been given a green light for five half hour episodes that are expected to air in Houston. Now I'm really excited, because most of the work I've been apart of hasn't really hit the television market, and could be really good for not only myself, but also for the rest of the cast and crew that are trying to branch out and try to make this show a legitimate series that could show up some day on some basic cable network.

Now the reason that I am so excited is because the company that was doing the editing of all of the web episodes into these 22 minutes episodes is almost done with the five episode first season and Transylvania Television has actually released an early edit of one of these episodes through their live ustream broadcast that they make once a month. So I encourage you to check out the episode which is below and enjoy.

(Note, if you just want to watch the episode and skip past all of the banter, jump ahead to the 16 minute mark)

Video streaming by Ustream

DSLRs Ups and Downs

DSLRs have become key to the film makers tool kit. They are cheap for what they do in comparison to other film cameras. You can get a decent DSLR for under a 1000 dollars. Now saying this though they do have clear ups and downs for what they do.

Ups
- Cost (Again you can get a decent DSLR for under a grand)
- Ability to take pictures (always a plus when on set)
- 24p and many have 60p options (high speed shooting always has a unique look to it and can be fun if done right)
- Interchangeable lenses (this is a great feature to be able to change lenses for whatever you need, fun fact you can even make that telescope a lens if you have the right adapter)

So with all of these great options what could be the negatives.

Downs
- Monitoring audio (Most DSLRs don't offer live audio levels as you record, which means two things you will not know how strong the audio levels are during recording and generally mean that you have to record separately. This is because a DSLR is just that a DSLR, it was created to be a photo camera and the video part was put in after the fact.)
- Rolling Shutter (because DSLRs record top to bottom in every frame instead of exposing a frame all at once like you would see in a traditional film camera, you have to deal with rolling shutter issues which happens when you pan across something to quickly.)
- Recording Times (Many DSLRs have restrictions on time that they can record per clip. An example is that the Canon line has a 12 minute limit as to the length of each clip.)

At the end of the day though each person has to make the choice if the DSLRs are worth it.

I personally think that they are, though I will admit that they have put me in sticky situations at times and to show this I've linked a clip from today that happened when my mic battery ran out of juice and because I wasn't able to see the levels I didn't realize that I missed it. Good thing the project I'm working on will be just fine.

The video is of the first place winner of the Monster Dash 5k coming across the finish line.

Also for those that are wondering, I use the Canon 7D, which you can check out here.

Building a Brand

Yes, you read that right, a brand. It's one of the most important thing to sell whatever product you have is to be branded. It's also one of the most difficult. How do you seperate yourself from everyone else, what makes you unique, what's your niche. This is one of the main jobs as a video professional, to weed through all of what makes your client the same as everyone else until you find the thing that makes him unique, unlike anyone else.

The reality is that this could be anything from location, to equipment used, to formal training, to product, but it comes down to finding out what makes your client special, and usually involves answering the why question. Why should I use you verses your competitor, or why do I need you more than the other guy down the street.

I'm writing this at the moment, because I am building a brand at the moment for several people as well as myself. I'm trying to get myself to stand apart from my other competition, I'm trying to show why you should pick me over Jimmy or Sally down the street, I'm trying to find my niche in this big city, and if I were blatantly honest this is one way that I am doing that, by writing about my experiences when it comes to film and video.

The image I'm trying to give off is that I know a lot about the internet and network marketing. That I know how how to get hits to your website or blog, because look I've gotten hits to my website/blog. I know how to optimize your website and ad campaign to hit the most amount of people effectively, but that I also know how to create the content for your website to progress you to the next step in your company's direction.

As I talk about branding more, I'll give a concrete example of a client I'm working with, Lucky, now Lucky works for a network marketing company that sells travel to people, and what he gets money for is when people sign up for the travel company through him. So how do we brand him? Well currently we are starting to take down stories of his partners/clients who have gone on trips around the country and have begun releasing them on youtube and his website.

They are simple stories, but they drive home a point that people want to enjoy life, and have fun. This ultimately links back to that if you want to have fun and enjoy life, you will want to contact Lucky, because he is the fun maker, and without him you will not have fun. I've embedded a video so that you can watch the first of these videos that have been released to youtube.

Meeting New People

A big part about trying to be successful in this field is to be able to network with other people. As you network with people who have particular skills you will probably learn about other people who have a particular set of skills, and you will be able to share your skills too.

This is actually how I have gotten a fair amount of my work, networking is probably the most key thing that any aspiring professional should do, especially in the area of Film and Audio.

An example of how networking is powerful is how I met a man who I worked on the 48 hour film festival with last year, and after working with him as an editor and him seeing my skills; he kept his eyes open for potential work for me. When he found another job for me, he put me in with touch with the production company and said that I could lend a hand and help them out in the area of editing, and they took me on to help out with editing up old footage.

Now this company is not a traditional production company that you would think of, they don't make commercials or promotional videos, but they create an adult puppet show done in the same manner as Jim Henson's The Muppets, but this show is called Transylvania Television. The link to the show is here, show them some love please by watching a couple of episodes if you have time.

The reason that I put this out there for the world to see is because I wanted to show how networking is powerful. Now think if I hadn't worked with this guy on the 48 hour film festival, I'd never been able to work on this web show that has had some success, and met even better people to work with on other projects.

So when you get the chance to network do it, because it's what best for you.

And we shot in Shakopee. Thanks Lucky Linda's

So today we shot at Lucky Linda's Body Art tattoo parlor. A link to their facebook page is here

We shot using the Canon 7D with the standard stock lens.  I also got my friend Brian to come along and lend a hand and shoot a bunch of B-Roll for us that we are going to use. He was using the Canon T3i to shoot his footage and I'm planning on putting up some of that random B-Roll tomorrow at some point.

The shoot itself went pretty smooth, except that we didn't have lights and I had to run home quickly and get them. Also, the mouth on our muppet head didn't seem to work when we needed it to either, so I had to put a part of the extra shedding brown cloth over my hand and I had to operate the head manually.

On a plus note though our actress, Destiny, showed up on time and worked out perfectly for the part that we hoped her for. We hope that once we get this commercial finished and out to people that you can help Destiny out who was able to help us out on our shoot even though we couldn't really pay her.

As promised though here is the storyboard for the shoot. In a later post I will tell you how important a storyboard is to a shoot, especially a shoot on a timeline, and no budget.

The Head is Done

After many hours of construction over a few days the head is done. It has gone through two different looks and the one that is made now seems to be the one that we are going to use for the commercial shoot happening later today in Shakopee MN. Here is a picture of the finished head, and as promised, once we shoot the project today I will upload the storyboard from the shoot. Hope all of you readers will keep on reading and give your thoughts and opinions about the projects I'm working on.

Again we based our head off of this Indy Mogul Episode, though I couldn't find a magnetic motor so I used some rope and a pull system. It seems to work well. If you have a chance, give them some love.