One of the more useful items encountered in the quest for how to make DESTRUDO look more like a movie - and less like a video - was this really well-executed instructional DVD.
Available from VORTEX MEDIA, the DVD How to setup, light, and shoot great looking interviews explores equipment, approaches, and issues related to making your video look more like movies - as well as including lots of important info on creating 'talking head' interviews.
The other main issue with indie-short projects is the effective capture of audio. Some people suggest that the sound of your video counts for 2/3 of its overall impact - which is to say, "Crummy audio means your work is perceived as crummy - regardless of what the video looks like". Use of an external digital audio recorder has become almost an absolute pre-requisite. You may wish to learn more about units such as those shown below and consider adding one to your movie-making kit.
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Stu Maschwitz is an amazingly talented post-production super-star. Co-founder of the Orphanage (the legendary guerrilla visual effects studio responsible for amazing and award-winning effects in such movies as Sin City, The Day After Tomorrow, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), this book is a must-have for all those budding filmmakers and students who want to produce action movies with visual effects but don't have Hollywood budgets. The Orphanage was created by three twenty-something visual effects veterans who wanted to make their own feature films and discovered they could do this by utilizing home computers, off the shelf software, and approaching things artistically. This guide details exactly how to do this: from planning and selecting the necessary cameras, software, and equipment, to creating specific special effects (including gunfire, Kung Fu fighting, car chases, dismemberment, and more) to editing and mixing sound and music. Its mantra is that the best, low-budget action moviemakers must visualize the end product first in order to reverse-engineer the least expensive way to get there. |
