Filmmaking Tutorials, Camera Angles and Techniques, Inspirational and Motivation from a Guerrilla Filmmaker, Lighting and More!

Good evening Filmmakers ^_^

I have found a super great high quality filmmaker channel out on youtube. Unbelievable quality for Indie filmmakers out there. It is called 'Polcan99' and it from Award Winning Cinematographer Tom Antos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/polcan99

Very, very cool stuff. It is amazing what this guy can do, with equipment that is available for most Indie filmmakers. His 'Filmmaking Tutorials' are 'the' best. 10 chapters so far. Check them out, I am posting the first 2, but there are 8 more:

Tutorial 1 – Filmmaking / Shot Design / Cinematography / Film Look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZA9r0iWbdw

Tutorial 2 – Filmmaking / Lighting – Shot Design – Cinematography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5587PORymWI

Another nice video about camera angles and techniques can be found here:

Camera Angles and Techniques

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jURepXxuiGE

And these other 2...

Making A Good Movie (with Sean Astin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK4kAnPcLSU

Indie Filmmaker: Lighting Tutorial and samples

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6JFVHRwJwc

And finally, some inspirational words from Director Dave Shines to motivate you keep moving forward with this awesome, fun, exciting and liberating world of filmmaking:

Guerrilla Film Making Tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6JFVHRwJwc

And friends, that is all; but only for now...

Have a great end of summer guys and a better fall!!

Love and Peace,

Audio: Wireless, Lavalier, Shotgun microphones and more...

Well, I am still not sure which way to go to acquire audio for my movie projects. That is one reason why I haven't started any project with sound yet. Basically I still cannot decide if to go with a wireless system with lavalier mics or with a shotgun microphone and a boom pole with a century stand. I thought about a combination of both, like a wireless system with a shotgun mic. Or both, but budget is on the way, so I will need to pick my poison. As for right now, the moment I am writing these lines, I lean towards a shotgun microphone. Just because I can also use the 'c' stand to hold some light reflectors as well.

That said, here it is what I found on my 'microphones' research and picked as my favorite and most instructive videos:

Shotgun Microphones

I found these 3 videos from the same guy to be very illustrative in terms of showing (by images and sound tests) how positioning your shotgun mic will significantly improve or decrease your sound. Very simple, but guess what? I didn't know! Well, now I know and you might know if you already know or if you watch them up:

Misuse of Shotgun Microphones (My favorite of all three)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smQf9W1tx5A

Best low cost shotgun microphones on a budget

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk65naL4B8k

Misuse of Shotgun Microphones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zm51JFq5WI

The following video does not add too much, but I am adding it because the guy is funny and seems to be quite a popular youtube celebrity:

How to make your Video's Audio better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1MMNywCM2o

This is one about is about testing different types of microphones in a studio. Very good, well shot, and great nicely done sound tests:

Recording Audio in less than Ideal Conditions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwHc7hWGwHc

Wireless Systems and Lavalier Microphones

Wireless Microphone Tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZwV5EVvVgE

Sennheiser Wireless Evolution G2 Tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyVAjZq9HF8

And that is it for now about sound guys. Perhaps you can let me know what you recommend I should get for the audio of my short movies...

Write you soon!

Depth of Field, White Balance, Lenses and your dSLR camera

How'd folks?

Well, I learned a couple of things I did not know about pictures. Even though these links will talk about photo cameras, the concepts you can learn you can also apply on your video camera as well. I found these very helpful, free and well explained tutorials from a very cool teacher called 'Rob Barron' on youtube. He is very mellow and clear with his explanations. And it makes the tutorials fly by. He just gets you into his world of photography. Very talented teacher. I will share with you my favorite tutorials from him and one from Canon about lenses at the end.

Enjoy!:

Understanding Depth of Field

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfOC_Msb1dI

His most viewed tutorial. Very, very nicely explained. The video quality is not the best, but the tutorial is probably one of the best or the best on the net for people like me who had no idea about this topic before I watched this video. Well, I did know some, but now I do now a lot more.

Understanding White Balance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-5HHkUdXTk

His second most viewed tutorial. Excellent really. Now, I get it. Highly recommended, check it out!

Lenses Overview PART1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGAUIBSLJhI

Lenses Overview PART2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTVZ4gfs_mg

Very, very nice tutorial in two parts. If you want to understand the difference between different lenses, check them out. I did not know until I watched them. Great, great tutorial from Rob.

Modes on your dSLR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMABRDGsYv0

The first one of these 3 that seem to be related to each other. The other two were more interesting to me (AV and TV), but this one is great as well. Just adding it first just because is the predecessor of the two bellow.

AV Modes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG7CmMepYHw

Understanding your 'Aperture Priority Mode' (AV mode) on your dSLR.

TV Mode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Re_d6rlSJI

Shutter speed priority. Very interesting as well.

And then he has plenty of other photography related tutorials. Feel free to check them out or not, but I just wanted to share with you these favorites or mine.

Oh! and here it is the one from Canon lenses:

Get Creative – Choosing Lenses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzsTzEt6x-E

Have a nice rest of the summer folks, I will write you soon with more recommendations. I found some very cool tutorials about filmmaking.

And like John Ford once said: “You gotta shoot your way in and cut your way out.”

Ben Tolosa

What's better and why for photo, graphic, sound and video editing: A Mac or a PC?

Legendary debate on the computer and graphic design world. Also among filmmakers. Some people say Macs, some PCs. But what is best? Which one is better for any of the mentioned tasks? Well, I think that ultimately depends on the user and the task or specific task they need to perform. Some may run better on a PC, some on a Mac.

I was reading the following thread:

http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2356

And I have to agree with EV on post #4. Check it out to see what I mean.

My personal preference is: a Mac. Why?.. Well, I grew up with PCs but on November of 2009 I became a Mac user. Partly because at my IT job, we have several Mac users and I wanted to learn the OS X better to support them best.

And that is a big reason why I choose a Mac over a PC, specially for how stable OS X is. In my experience, it does not crash as much as a PC does. I also love the 'plug and playability' a Mac with OS X has. You plug it and it works, not hassle with installing this driver, that is not compatible with something and you need to go to that particular hardware's website to download the right driver and sometimes you need an specific version of the driver to fix a specific feature (like mute control on a laptop). On a Mac, in my experience, it just works. I couldn't say all the time, because I am sure that it happens even on a Mac, I just have never experienced it.

I also read someone saying that at any given time, the very best Mac (best, most expensive and fast computer) cannot compete with the very best PC. And I kind of have to agree with that. BUT...

You have to know what you are doing to put that very best PC together. Know which is the best mother board, the best processor, the best RAM, the best video card, the best etcetera. And to me the down side of that is that you have or will have to deal with all of those several vendors if something goes wrong. With a Mac, it is only one vendor... Apple. Yes, they use Intel, and several different vendors for some parts, but it is them who you need to deal with. And their customer service, again on my experience, is very good. Not to mention that the very best PC will cost you as expensive if not more than the very best Mac.

As you might know, less or none viruses on a Mac. And for any Windows lovers, you can install most versions you like with a software like Parallels (which I also used and works flawlessly).

Final Cut Studio will not work on a PC, but most other video editors will work on a Mac.

Macs are very stylish and usually look better than most desktop and laptop PCs. That does not have anything to do with performing a task, but it is definitely a plus for most people I know.

In conclusion, I would rather deal with only one vendor and with a system that has less problems overall.

Based on my own personal experience and preference, this is my opinion.

Cheers and Peace,

Ben Tolosa

PS: Grab a laugh, watch this Mac vs. PC video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkrn6ecxthM