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​One of the hardest things in scriptwriting is to write a good low budget film. http://www.scriptmag.com/features/alt-script-five-good-reasons-to-write-a-no-low-budget-script http://www.scriptmag.com/features/alt-script-four-ways-to-control-your-scripts-budget-without-compromising-the-film

Bought his LUT pack since I always liked his looks. And this is a quick run through of some of them. Cant wait for the new color panel in Premiere so it gets a bit more intuitive and streamlined when using them.

You make short films until you have the resources to make larger films. You publicize and promote them at film festivals, always carrying a screenplay with you in case you meet a producer looking for a new talented director. Either that or you go purely through Internet, do crowdfunding and hope you get millions of youtube views to be noticed. There is only one way to succeed. Use the the resources you have to impress maximum number of people with best work you can do. There was a time when even if you made your own film, you could only screen it to people physically, in a room, etc....now...you upload it once and if its good, it can reach millions. Filmmakers have NEVER had this option before. Ever.

Up for sale are five unmodified Bell & Howell Anamorphic Projection lenses. I bought them a few years ago hoping to modify them and make them available to the anamorphic community (you can read more about that here: http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/6411-bell-howell-16mm-anamorphic-lens/ ). Unfortunately, the costs and turnaround times were prohibitive, so I had to drop the project. But they are still great lenses (single focus!) and can create nice images in the right hands. While these lenses are readily available on eBay, it is difficult to find a decent copy. These five are the better of the nine or so lenses that I have owned. None of them is pristine, so if you are looking for a collector’s item, you’d best look elsewhere. But they are all functional. I’ve priced them according to condition and image based on what I have seen them going for on eBay. These lenses are all fungus-free. Note: I don’t have a macro lens with me right now, so I haven’t been able to shoot close ups of the glass. I will describe them in as much detail as I can. I - The best-looking of the batch. This one looks to be in the same condition as the one that I modified for myself. There are VERY faint cleaning marks on the front element (visible only if you hold it at a certain angle). The rear element has a very faint streak towards the edge (about 1” long). Not sure if it is a scratch, but I haven’t been able to remove it by cleaning it. Focus action is smooth. Comes with original box, and silver ring. - $200 II - Bronze finish instead of black. Slight cleaning marks on the front and rear elements. Very faint smearing on one of the internal elements (may be able to clean it). Some internal dust. Focus action is smooth. Footage looks as good as Lens I! Comes with original box, and silver ring. - $175 III - Black finish has been removed from main body, making it gunmetal gray. This lens has been lots of cleaning marks on the front and rear elements. Some internal dust. Focus is a bit uneven. No box, but comes with the silver ring. - $125 IV - The previous owner superglued a 49mm step ring onto the rear. I haven’t been able to remove it. There are lots of cleaning marks on both front and rear elements, and some splotchy markings in the coating on the rear element. The rear element has a rainbow-colored sheen on it that I have not been able to remove. I also see some internal haze. Focuses smoothly. No box or silver ring. - $75 V - Front element has moderate cleaning marks. Rear element has cleaning marks, and the coating is worn out in a streak right through the middle of the lens. The internal elements appear to be a little hazy. Focuses smoothly. No box or silver ring. - $75 Here is footage of all five lenses (with a quick rack focus test and tilt to demonstrate glass clarity; clearly some are better than others), all at f/2.8 with an Olympus Zuiko 100mm f/2.8 on my 5D3 (raw): PW:B&H Price includes shipping anywhere in the continental US. I’ll take payment through PayPal (as a gift).

​No worries, mercer, I take my words back too. Try not to worry what other filmmakers think, by the way, all that matters in the end is you, your film and the audience. If you can shoot a feature and finish it yourself, then distributors at film festivals will be even more willing to talk to you.

Thanks for the tests! Most of the filters feel kinda Instagram-like. Including the names Mostly because of the lifted black point I think. Might like it more with proper blacks...

Thanks a lot for all the feedback guys. I've been using the Metabones Nikon to MFT and it is absolutely rock solid and I haven't once removed it from my GH4 - it is like a part of the camera. Unfortunately, I can't find anything similar for Nikon F to EF, perhaps this is to do with the flange distance? Anyway, I will try a few out and let you know how I get on!

​You nailed down an important point: production value. An army of robots, attacking a small group of superheroes in a russian town which is drifting off into stratosphere - you can't do that 'on the cheap' (second title of Stu Maschwitz' DV REBEL). You must forgo such stories. No problem. Yes, The Hobbit was unbelievably bad, compared to the LOTR trilogy. But there, I admit, Jacksons vision made his 'army of orks' succeed, I was blown away by that. But let's stop listing the real big budget movies. ​No. You are right, you can't do it alone. You are handicapped already in too many ways. But it has to be possible with a small crew. Let me tell you one of my ideas for a short film (abandoned), just to flesh out things a bit: A big fairground in my town, which has a big japanese community. I saw young parents and their cute little daughter, about five years old. It was in the night, and the girl almost slept. The father tried to impress her by showing off his skills at the shooting gallery. He won her a giant pink teddy bear. But she just took it and showed no enthusiasm. This is how I continued the story from there: The father takes his family to the tunnel of horror, with spectacular ghouls and zombies, the white-water-ride with a giant 3D-shark snapping at them. His childlike enthusiasm (in japanese) borders on ecstasy, but the girl yawns. Then, on top of the Ferris wheel, the child falls off the cabin, and the father can only grip her hand in the last second. Both parents are in panic. The father holds the girl, the girl holds the teddy bear, below them the millions of colored lights and the abyss. In the sleeping girl's dream, she plays with the living pink teddy bear on a meadow. Then she releases the bear and it falls, falls ... into the hands of a young boy on the ground. If the story is worth the effort is only my concern - unfortunately, because I couldn't convince my closest friend- whom I wanted to operate the camera. He didn't see the point (obviously I lack persuasive skill or storytelling skills). That's where the troubles start: If you can't pay your team. The question is, how can you plan sth. like that on a small budget, with a small crew and still with very high production value? Does anybody care later if it was done with AE, Hitfilm or Fusion? Good, cheap, fast - pick any two.

I have to disagree with many posts here. I went with the cheap adapters in the beginning. Mainly because I could not afford a more expensive one. I'm not saying that expensive is always better, but if your adapter doesn't fit or becomes loose in a short time because it is cheaply made you are going to regret it. Mid-shot while you're adjusting your aperture ring your shot is going to be ruined by any play in rotation. I bought a Novoflex a few years ago with my GH3 and would never buy a cheap adapter again. This adapter still works perfectly and fits like a glove. Perhaps others have gotten lucky, but I personally wouldn't chance it. Not sure if there are better options these days, but aside from a Metabones adapter for specific reasons that would be my go-to for sure.

Must be my poor english. Mercer liked your posting, so I guess you didn't hurt him too much. Too many cooks spoil the soup. What you are talking about is an industrial product, not a good film. And regarding VFX, it's accomplished on the backs of many (credits) underpaid modern slaves, who ruin their health sitting 14 hours a day in front of computers. The last film I saw in the cinema was Avengers - Age Of Ultron, and though it was somehow entertaining, it really was a big heap of shit. I never dreamed of making such a film myself (though at age 16, before having seen really good films, I dreamed of making car chases with lots of guns and explosions in James Bond style). ​Excellent check list. For a one-man-band (or a small crew of trusted enthusiasts), you had to delete some of them from the start to make the project manageable. The crucial part would be to leave the right ones on the list. Somewhere I read a wise line: Good, cheap, fast - pick any two. On the short film Ascension (search on Vimeo), the filmmakers say (homepage >making of): Let's start with some numbers: 5 students, 1 year and 2 months of production, 19 000 hours of work, 2 months of calculation on 20 computers, 11 000 final pictures, 4 To of storage and very few sleeping time. Those are numbers that impress me. ​I'll try to, and I start by confessing what I have not achieved so far: pulling off something that I'm really proud of, capturing my dreams on film. Am I alone? Well, if very many had succeeded, I'd expect to see more good short films around. If I finally succeeded, I expect that instead of typing lengthy postings on how to succeed, I'd lean back and dream about the next project ;-) EDIT: As I see it (and I am the TO), this isn't off topic. The software industry (not Quantel or Flame) must be careful to sell their products to us without risking their reputation of being 'pro' (whatever this is supposed to be, in our times). In the beginning of cinema there were the pioneers, and they found out how to entertain and astonish their audience in a playful way. Had they had one percent of the opportunities we have today, they would have happily exploited them without having to compare their work to any industrial standards.

Wish you did finish that project. I like the small size and the huge amount of old school flares. Unfortunately I don't have the time to modify mine either. Selling it too, looks like your IV version. Your first one is a super clean copy. I suggest anyone getting into anamorphic buy one of these. Really a great deal, was my first anamorphic lens too.

​I would not bother wasting another second waiting for Canon Rebel to be worthwhile, never really has been. And next to zero chance any of the next couple of models will be some amazing breakthrough. Cut your losses, and get yourself a Sony A5100 with a focal reducer (cost me US$410 in total for this combo), it will blow the socks off in low light and overall video performance compared to whatever Canon Rebel you're currently using :-) Yes. Also, don't rule out getting an older D5200. Is what I'm often using, and it goes for very very cheap these days, even though it is a great camera: http://www.eoshd.com/2013/02/nikon-d5200-vs-canon-5d-mark-iii/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EANtxttUjIo

​Premiere can use HitFilm Plugins :-) Which is a more than good enough reason for many people to get HitFilm 3, even if they don't intend to use it as a standalone NLE.

I'll second ceico7. Stuff I've got from ebay from untested sources has nearly always proved to be a waste of time/money. So I just pay for that good polish stuff now. The one thing I'll point out is that if the pin is out of alignment it won't matter on the foton-A like it does on other anamorphics. Normally, for example any of the OCT19 lenses, it would skew the image, but that won't be an issues with the foton since it is a two piece lens and the anamorphic portion is aligned to the rails, and not to the mount. So the spherical will be "out of alignment", but the anamorphic part will be aligned, so you won't be able to tell. If the lens is out of alignment and it's a single piece, you can also always loosen the PL and then spin it to alignment and then re-tighten. You just have to be sure and get your back focus correct.

​I briefly tested Hitfilm. Without reading any docs, was able to quickly mix video and particle effects, etc. Yes- you can mix video and motion graphics in the same timeline (there's also an editor/mode for the VFX layers). However, I prefer node-based designs, as they are ultimately the most general and most powerful. Since I have limited time to create video projects (part time), I have a basic constraint for all the tools I use: they must be real-time or nearly so, otherwise I won't use them. Premiere Pro, FCPX, Motion 5, Resolve, and 3DSMax are the current real-time tools in my toolbox. For the green screen laser fight scene our short film, Delta, I did everything in Premiere Pro, and it ran in real-time (or nearly so). After Effects would have required rendering previews and waiting: prefer interactive real-time, and as a video game developer, know most video-related tools are way behind what is possible with current CPUs & GPUs.

The best skill is learning how to learn ;). In first time testing, Hitfilm was much easier to figure out vs. AE and more importantly, much faster. Because AE is so slow and archaic, I only use it as a last resort. AE is long overdue for a rewrite and GPU update. PPro can already use many AE plugins- hopefully Adobe will roll AE functionality into PPro soon.

if you want to wash your head from bad acting/script/cinematography i suggest you watch Inherent Vice... if you like this type of flics i guess KUNG FURY is the one to watch! Most of the raw footage over green screen had been filmed using a Canon EOS 5D and a Sony FS700,

​If you want to make a commercially viable film - of course you have to be held up to the same standards. Have you ever been to a movie and though 'well that looked and sounded like utter sh*t, but hey - they didn't have the same budget, so I guess it's great that they tried'? Those who spend years honing their craft are able to make professional quality projects on much smaller budgets than you would think. You've chosen to be a jack of all trades, rather than hone in on one specific skillset - you could do so and be able to compete with the 'big boys' or even develop a network of people who you can call upon to help you with your no/lo budget projects. Your argument strikes me as being this: I'm a DIY builder. I love to build stuff in my spare time. I particularly like to build chairs that hopefully people will be able to sit on. Here's the thing though - there's builders out there who have done apprenticeships and been working for a very long time and they make these amazing chairs that everyone loves and are perfectly sturdy enough to sit on. Why am I expected to be able to make chairs that are good enough, and sturdy enough, for people to be able to sit on, when I haven't spent years working to be a builder?? ​Why would a sound engineer want the ability to change the colour of the film in their software? I'm sure as a Director, the last thing you would want is the dialogue mixer accidentally screwing with the colour of your film, or your colourist accidentally changing the sound mix.. Imagine all the potential issues if everyone had to work from one project file on one piece of software... ​I don't understand - are you saying that software companies should make one 'post software to rule them all' in addition to all their other seperate, job-specific, stand-alone software..? ​Of course it does - the only thing it doesn't necessarily need to be able to do is apply 'funky' looks via some sort of 'filter bank' a la Instagram. AVID actually has quite powerful Colour Correction tools. In terms of being 'lied to' - the problem lies in the fact that companies like Apple, Adobe, Blackmagic - in general they're targetting the consumers who have throwaway cash to spend on what can often be boiled down to essentially a hobby - and so of course they're going to try and wring out as much cash as possible. It's like the gimmicks they use to sell TVs et al. Professionals see right through that because they have a much deeper knowledge and understanding, whereas the consumers who have this as a hobby are continually looking for that something 'better' that's going to make their footage and films look and sound as good as someone who's spent 25 years honing their skills, as quickly and easily as the push of a button.

No, no, I don't mean fantastic plotlines like King Kong or time travel, I love em...my point is how HUMANS are increasingly handled in movies now...there is a tendency now to make every protagonist a superhero with superhero powers...even looking back at traditional larger-than-life characters like James Bond and Indiana Jones and even Rambo, they were exaggerated but ultimately they had human limits... From a storytelling point of view...it's important for the element of danger to remain in the film for you to really be invested in the action...superhero films don't follow those rules...that is FINE, we expect Superman to fly....but why is Vin Diesel now able to defy the laws of gravity too with that final helicopter sequence? I'm just noticing that the superhero genre is creeping into the mainstream action genre, maybe it's due to the popularity of Avengers, but its kind of spoiling the experience for me personally.

​First off, Blackmagic did themselves a great disservice by calling it the "pocket" camera. That name led everyone to believe it was a "point and shoot". While technically it is, if you are shooting professionally, it isn't. And really, a pro wouldn't expect it to be anything more than what it is. It's a small compact platform that produces pro quality (all be it cropped sensor) images. But as with any pro camera, there are support accessories required. ALL pro cameras require external batteries. 45 minutes on a battery is pretty standard stuff. All pro cameras require external monitors for viewing and focusing. So does the BMPCC. The images this little camera produces are amazing. i've used it extensively to shoot background plates to put behind arri raw foreground elements. beautiful results. If you want to be happy with this camera, buy a good external battery or two, an atomos ninja for recording and viewing and for 3K or less, You've got an amazing B cam than can be a saving grace on any set. If you're looking for a point and shoot.......stick with the GH4

The camera you have + some lights

Yes it is, although most people know the drill on that by now right? Here's the first part http://www.eoshd.com/2014/11/shooting-4k-pocket-camera-exceptional-panasonic-lx100/ I still love it. The best small camera by a mile.