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The Film Look
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Raiders of the Lost Ark | How did it achieve the film look?

Raiders of the Lost Ark: It’s a classic action adventure film that I’m sure we all watched as kids.  It certainly has, what I would consider, The Film Look. There’s something about it, visually, audibly, and immersively, that screams “This is a great movie experience!”. But how does it achieve the film look? Let’s break it down! 

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DISCLAIMERS:

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How to light a Séance | Lighting Setup #3

We made this music video which had a seance scene and in this video we are going to show you how easy it was to set up.

A link to the music video can be found in the description below. Today we are going to recreate  that set-up. First we tried to set it up in our studio, but because of the lack of space we could not separate our subject from the background. So we found a better location at our friend’s flat which had a perfect layout.

To create the scene with the look we wanted, we placed a round table in the middle of the room with a red tablecloth, placed a chessboard on top of it and placed two chairs at an angle for our subjects. Then we started to set up the lights.

Key Light

The key light is the main room light. It uses an 80 watt bulb with a colour temperature of 2800 kelvin which is a very warm looking light. It was hanging 1.7 meters above the table, and by wrapping the lamp shade with the sleeve of a 5-in-1 reflector we were able to cast the light solely down onto the table. We wrapped it with the silver side on the inside to maximise the brightness of the bulb.

Lighting-Setup-3---Without-Reflector.jpg
Lighting-Setup-3---With-Reflector.jpg

Fill Light

There was not really a fill light in this scene. The red tablecloth did add some fill under the subject's face but it was very subtle. If you need more light for your subject you could change the tablecloth to white which will create more bounce from the light above.

Edge Light

To help set the mood of a Seance we used candles in the background which always look cool, especially when you are shooting at a low F-Stop. If you don’t what to use candles, fairy lights are a good alternative.

fairy-lights-lighting-a-film.jpg

Camera

The camera we used was a Sony A7s. For the close ups we used a 50mm lens set to F1.8 and for the two shot we used a 35mm lens which could only stop down to F3.5, so the ISO changed from 1000 on the 50mm to 5000 ISO on the 35mm lens.

The shutter was set to 1/50 and the colour temperature was set to 2700 kelvin making our key light white for our subjects, but making the candle light a little bit warmer to suit the scene.

In the music version of this set up we filmed it by using a technique called lens whacking which means disconnecting the lens from the camera which allows more light to hit your sensor from different angles. The reason we used this technique is because the location we shot in only had white walls which is not great to look at, lens whacking made the location look a little more interesting.

Here is the setup before, after, and what the final grade looked like.

How-to-light-a-Séance---Before.jpg
How-to-light-a-Séance---After.jpg

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Equipment Links

🎥 This episode's kit/gear/equipment:

US links:

5-in-1 reflector: http://amzn.to/2wYzT5Q

Sony a7s: http://amzn.to/2wZ5gbv

Canon 50mm f/1.8: http://amzn.to/2xHAfMU

Takumar 35mm: http://amzn.to/2wYhmXt

UK links:

5-in-1 reflector: http://amzn.to/2fBrKNs

Sony a7s: http://amzn.to/2fBcsZ5

Canon 50mm f/1.8: http://amzn.to/2fBsH8q

Takumar 35mm: http://amzn.to/2fAYFSd

 

How to light a Séance
lumu-light-metre.jpg

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

How to Write Original Ideas

We sometimes find as writers that we aren't generating unique and original story lines or characters.

“Doc: Here we go, Marty. If my calculations are correct, when the car hits 88 miles an hour, you’re gonna see some serious shit.”

Well, how do we write with originality?How do we write with originality?

Let me show YOU one way that might work.

Sometimes we find ourselves writing things that are more comfortable than compelling which leads to unoriginal and predictability.

During these periods of low inspiration, the first, second, or even tenth thing we write down is comfortable and all too familiar.

”The van side door slides open and a SWARTHY CHARACTER who resembles Yasser Arafat leans out with an AK 47 sub machine gun. He OPENS FIRE. Brown: Run for it, Marty! I’ll draw their fire!

It’s likely going to be something we have heard or seen before, resulting in something boring or cliche. 

“This doesn’t make you a bad writer - it is just how our brains are wired.”

How-to-rob-a-bank-script.jpg

Our natural human instinct is to find comfort. This is why we find change so difficult at times. Well I’ve recently learned of a technique that I want to share with YOU that will push against that comfort by forcing ourselves into thinking deeper.

I’m going to try writing about a bank heist. How many different ways can we answer the question “How do they rob the bank?”.

  • Out of the car, masks on, through the front door with shotguns.  

This is 90% of heist movies, so it’s good we are getting this out of the way! Lets keep going!

  • Around the back, knocking out the security guard who is taking a secret smoking break.

  • Ramming a lorry straight through the lobby window and going in all guns blazing.

  • Hacking into the electronics at night, and robbing it under the stealth of total darkness.

  • Waiting patiently. As a bank teller opens the security door, throw a paper airplane doused in petrol through it. Using a remote spark, detonate it, causing a small fire. The fire alarms go off, releasing the locks so you can break in.

How-to-rob-a-bank-script1.jpg

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Thinking of more ideas from this point is going to get harder, and that’s a good thing! Lets keep going.

  • Drilling in from underneath the bank.

  • The heist team all get jobs at the bank and they rob it from the inside.

  • One of the team acts pregnant, her water breaks at the bank and must get to the hospital. But! Another member of the team backs a truck up to the doors and runs away. The manager, who can’t be dealing with this, brings the pregnant team member through the back. She knocks him out, steals his card, takes several piles of cash from safety deposit boxes, hides them in the hollow cavity of her fake pregnant belly, and escapes out of the front door via an “ambulance” which just conveniently happens to be...more members of the team.

That last one might not be the greatest of ideas, just yet. But developing the idea and changing a few things here and there, you might have yourself a compelling and unique spin on a common action movie convention.

This technique can work with any type of story, whether that be a piece of dialog in a diner, a morning montage, or being shouted at by your principal at school.

By forcing our brains to keep thinking of more and more versions of the same scenario, we find ourselves running out of comfortable solutions, and in turn, we find originality.

So next time you are struggling to write an original scenario for your screenplay, try writing a dozen and going with the last one.

In fact, here is a challenge! I want YOU to write 10 different ways a character is being yelled at by their boss, and put them down below! Let’s see what we can all come up with.

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How to Write Original Ideas

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

3D Printed Camera Equipment

Since this is the future and we can now 3D print things of all shapes and sizes, we wanted to see what camera equipment we could get printed.

Since we don’t have a 3D printer we headed over to our local FabLab.

There are loads of these all over the world so see if there is one near you.

If you are like us and don’t have a lot of experience in creating 3d models we used a website called Thingverse. On this website you can download 3D models for everything from phone cases, shoelaces, masks, and your favourite movie props.

we wanted to print camera related equipment, so we searched camera equipment on the site and these are the items we got 3D printed.

Mini Tripod

3D-Printed-Tripod.jpg

This mini tripod was the first thing we got 3D printed as it is crazy you can print such a thing. It comes in 5 different parts and you need to buy nut and bolts to secure all of the parts together, but they tell you on thingiverse which ones you need.

3d-printed-camera

To attach the tripod to the camera you need to use a standard quarter 20 screw like this one, or if you have a spare quick release plate like we did you can attach your camera using that.

The tripod can hold a DSLR sized camera with a lens and works great if you need to set up your camera for a static shot or even timelapse.

One of the best things about this tripod is that is folds down and does not take up much room in my camera bag.

Sony NP-FW50 Battery Holder

3d-printed-camera-equipment.jpg

The Sony A7 NP-FW50’s are really small and they don’t come with a case so it’s impossible to know which ones have been used, this is unlike our Canon 600d camera batteries.

But using this 3D printed battery clip you can store 4 of them together.

The way we store them is when the battery connector is facing outwards the battery is charged, then when a battery is flat they go in the other way, so you know how many you have left.

There is nothing out there you can buy that does the same job of storing these Sony batteries in this way, it has to be 3D printed.

Studio Battery Dispenser

3D-Printed--BatteryHolder.jpg

This studio battery dispenser is another way to store your batteries. This one stores double AA batteries but on Thingiverse you can also get the 3D models for triple A batteries, 12v batteries and many more.

We have found this to be really handy as it helps not to mix up flat batteries with your charged ones. This is another one of those items I have not seen for sale in a shop.

Battery Case

3D-Double-A-Battery-Holder.jpg

Just like the Sony A7s battery holders, these double A and Triple A battery holders have come in handy to store charged batteries in my camera bag. They no longer roll all over and I know if the batteries are facing down, they have been used. When you 3D print these you have to buy magnets to secure the lids on, which makes it quick and easy to store the batteries.

SD Cards Holder

3D-SD-Card-Holder.jpg

This is an SD card holder which allows you to store your SD cards obviously.

This is the only print I would not recommend as you can not see the front of the SD card so you have to search through them until you find the one you need.

There are many different SD card holders you can buy for a few pound, so just get one of those.

The quality of these 3D prints are really good, and I didn’t expect the plastic to be so tough and they are definitely going to last a long time.

We have been using the Sony A7s battery holder for about a year now and it still works great, and it is such an important item in my camera bag as it keeps the batteries for my main camera organised in such an easy way.

Being able to print the items in bright colours comes in really handy.

When you are looking in your camera bag for the battery clip, the bright yellow just stands out making easier to find since most other camera equipment is black.  

So go to Thingiverse and see what you can find that suits your camera equipment setup. There are loads of different battery holders, GoPro mounts, follow focus rings and you can even 3D print Lens Caps. I know I will be keeping an eye out for new camera equipment designs.

You can find links to all of the 3D designs below.

Mini Tripod: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1460181
Sony FW50 holder: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1094889
AA Battery Mount: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1720118
AA/AAA Battery Case: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:51376
SD Card Organiser: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:989624

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DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Story in a Can #7 | "Harry Potter Fan Film"

In each can there are 20 locations, 20 objects, 20 characters, and 20 scenarios. We pick one from each of the cans and try to come up with a film idea on the spot. Sometimes they are bad, but sometimes we turn the idea into a film.

In Story In a Can #9 Rob and Emily have to make a story about a Character who is a Bar Tender, a location of a Public Toilet, an object of a bottle of syrup, and a scenario of Audition?

Watch the video to see what story was made.

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Map Flyover Title Sequence

When we made our short film Corpse we created this map flyover for the tile sequences at the start of the film. We did not actually use it in the film as we thought it was not needed, but wanted to show people how to create it.

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Map Flyover Title Sequence.jpg

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

When you can't pay your Cast & Crew

When you are funding your own short films, it can sometimes be difficult to find the cash to pay your cast and crew a proper wage.

Instead we rely on volunteer filmmakers and actors. But, this doesn’t mean we can’t offer them something valuable for their time and effort. 

This is what you can do if you can’t pay your cast and crew. 

We aren’t professional filmmakers. Not in the traditional sense at least. We aren’t tied to a studio, we don’t have a budget, we don’t earn a wage from making movies.

We’re amateurs who fund our own short films because we love making them, and the cast and crew who are a part of those films are in the same boat. But this doesn’t mean we can’t offer back something valuable back to those who are helping out.

If you can’t afford to pay your actors, how can you re-pay them for volunteering their time?

Headshots are always a good choice. At our level, most of us are shooting on stills cameras in video mode. Headshots can be expensive for a struggling actor, so if you can shoot them free of charge, you’re on your way to paying back your debt!

DSC00011.jpg

If you want to go the extra mile, shoot a video monologue for them. It doesn't have to be over the top, but something sharp, well lit, and sounding good is a lot better than them shooting it on their phone. You never know, it might help them get their next job!

If they are volunteering in your film, give them a copy of it, without watermarks, for their showreel. In fact, offer to edit their showreel for them! Again, it doesn’t cost you anything but your time, which they gave up to help make your movie.

Paying-your-cast-and-crew

We make our own film posters too, so grab their signature for when they are famous, and print a copy for them to take home too.With crew, it’s a “I scratch your back” sort of deal. Again, if you can’t fork out the cash, make a note of what they sacrificed when they helped you; the hours they worked, the cost and distance of their travel, any kit they brought with them, and their value on set. When they need you, match their value.If you aren’t paying your cast and crew, you should make their time on your film as comfortable and as convenient as possible.

If they need to leave early, they leave early, don’t fight it.

If they can only start late, that's perfect, they start late and you get a few hours with them.

If they need a lift home and there is a car available, taxi them home.

Make their time helping you as simple as you can. Always work around them, not the other way around. If they have to go completely out of their way to help you, they might not bother next time you ask for assistance.

Best of all, feed people. Free food is great, and if you ask them what dietary habits they have beforehand, it's a lot easier to please them. Pizza is a staple student film cliche. But it's not always the best option, so find out what their favorite meal is, and grab the cook book.

When-you-can't-pay-your-Cast-&-Crew.jpg

And when you reach the stage when you CAN pay your cast and crew, remember those who did it for nothing, and maybe give them a call.

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When you can't pay your Cast & Crew

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Story in a Can #8 | "Hook & Crook" with Garth McCarthy!

In each can there are 20 locations, 20 objects, 20 characters, and 20 scenarios. We pick one from each of the cans and try to come up with a film idea on the spot. Sometimes they are bad, but sometimes we turn the idea into a film.

In Story In a Can #9 Rob and Emily have to make a story about a Character who is a funeral director, a location of a Cave, an object of a Shepherd's Crook, and a scenario of Get's fired from there job?

Watch the video to see what story was made.

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

,

Silence your Footsteps and Props

,

So it’s time to record dialogue for your next scene. But footsteps and prop noise keep getting into your dialogue takes. What can you do? This is your answer...neoprene and some double sided tape.

A video from our indie film sound guide is all about minimising noise so you can record clean dialogue whilst actors are delivering lines. Nothing is worse than a coffee cup clinking when someone is speaking because you can’t unbake those sound effects. I’ve put a link down below if you want to learn more.

So what can we do to prevent footstep noise from cast and crew and suppress the noise of props being handled during delivered dialogue?

There is actually a product online called Hush Heels that do the trick. They are pre-cut selects of neoprene material that you can attach to the soles of the cast and crew’s footwear to dampen the noise of footsteps. Easy to use but they are a bit pricey as they only come in packs of 10 for £35.

This got me thinking. Surely neoprene isn’t that expensive! With a pair of scissors and some strong double sided tape, can we whip up some custom sized DIY noise pads?

I looked on ebay and found this A4 size sheet of neoprene for £3.05. Obviously, the bigger the piece you buy, the better value it gets. Together with some double sided sticky tape for £2.50 this has come to a total of £5.55. As we are only using 15% of the whole roll of tape, the cost of materials is closer to £3.43.

Now that we’ve got maths out of the way, let's see if they work!

I taped over the back of the neoprene and drew out some templates based on one of Rob’s fancy shoes; for the heel and the ball of the foot as this is where the foot makes contact with the ground.

minimise-foot-steps

Rob is going to strut his stuff with and without the neoprene pads on a few different surfaces. I’ll place the Decibel metre on screen beside it so you can hear for yourself how well they work.

Obviously, they aren’t silent but they certainly make a difference. When the boom is aiming towards a person's mouth and not their feet, it’s going to be really quiet!

It works with props too.

  • Footage, cups, plates, and pans, with and without the neoprene pads.

Again, we are seeing a big difference in loudness which is ideal if you need a silent set to record super clean dialogue!

  • Footage, cups, plates, and pans, with and without the neoprene pads.

Silence-your-Props-With-Neoprene-Pads.jpg

They work if you need stealthy crew members too. Just add the neoprene pads to their feet and away you go!

The downside to our DIY method is the time is takes to prepare, cut, and unstick the bits from the back of the tape. It’s quite tricky to remove it, and this may waste precious time on set.  

If you need emergency pads of neoprene for the rare case of silencing footsteps and props, take the DIY method. You can always give the backing of the tape a dog-ear for easier peeling during the shoot.

But, if you’re a professional who needs a dozen pairs of heels hushed in just a few seconds, the professional option is probably better in the long run.

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Silence your Footsteps and Props

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

We are starting a Podcast! Vlog #36

For a while now we have been in talks about starting a Podcast that links with the YouTube channel. This week we finally bit the bullet and got ourselves a proper Podcast setup!

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

No Lights | Lighting Setup #2

So what happens if you don’t have any lights, but you need to shoot an interview?

Well this is how we did it.

The title of this video lies a little. We did use a light, but it’s one everyone has access to; the sun.

We wanted to utilise the natural light that comes through our 9 foot window in our studio. So we placed our subject to the left hand side of the window and framing the window completely out of shot.

We could have had the window directly behind our subject, but we would have needed to use lights in order not to overexpose the background. We have a video about this set up here.

Key Light

Our key light was the sun. This was our main and only source of light. We shot on an overcast day so the light was already diffused by the clouds, but we pinned a frosted shower curtain against the window to diffuse it even more, giving us a really soft natural light. For reference the window was 2 meters away from our subject.

No-Lights-Lighting-Setup-Key-Light.jpg

Fill Light

To add light to our subjects face we used a silver reflector which was placed just out of frame. We placed it opposite the window so the maximum amount of light would bounce off it and onto our subject face.

Lighting-setup-with-no-lights

Edge Light

Because the sun was our key light, and directly behind our subject, it also acted as an edge light.

No-Lights-Lighting-Setup-Floor-Plan.jpg

Camera

The camera we used was a Sony A7s, 2 meters away from our subject. We used a Jupiter 9 85mm lens set to f4, an ISO of 200, a shutter speed of 1/50, and the white balance was set to daylight.

If you want to learn more about the Jupiter 9 85mm lens, we have a video about it here.

This lens does flare, and the angle we had it on for this setup, it was flaring a lot, taking the contrast away from our subjects face. To get rid of this we set up a small flag on a light stand, to block the light hitting the lens.

The flag we used was nothing expensive. It was just a black piece of card, but it worked great. Hold the card

No-Lights-Lighting-Setup-Flag.jpg

On/Off

Here is what we started with, and what each light modifier is doing.

Lighting-setup-before.jpg
Lighting-setup-after.jpg

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DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Wireless Shotgun Mic Hack

Today we are going to convert a wired boom mic into a wireless boom mic with a few things you might already have in your kit!

So you may have already seen a really cool video by filmmaker KnopTop on how he converts a Video Mic Pro into a wireless mic by plugging it straight into a lavaliere microphone transmitter which sends the signal to the camera via a paired up receiver. If you haven’t, go check out it, links down below.

Well this idea got us thinking. Can you do this with a bigger microphone, like a one that uses XLR input, and get similar results? Let's do some digging!

Okay, so to begin with, we have the microphone. This is a Rode NTG2 shotgun mic. Unfortunately, it can’t plug straight into a lavaliere microphone transmitter because it doesn’t have the right connections.

The Rode Lavaliere transmitter I’m have here needs a 3.5mm jack. This is fine if you are plugging in something like a Video Mic Pro because it fits, but something like the NTG2 uses XLR and it also needs a bigger pre-amplification to boost the signal.

Basically, the NTG2 needs more juice than this  VidMic, and this RodeLink can’t give it what it needs.

So this is where the Saramonic SmartRig comes in. This is going to be our bridge between the 2 foreign connections as well as the power boost the microphone needs. It has an XLR socket on one end, a 3.5mm jack on the other, and the 9v battery it uses is enough to power a bigger microphone.

Shotgun-Mic-Hack.jpg

Lets hook it up and get it all working!

So now it goes: Microphone, XLR, SmartRig, Transmitter, Receiver, sound.

He has the Lavaliere Transmitter hooked to his pocket with the smartrig attached. The XLR lead is plugged into this which goes up the boom and to the microphone which is currently being boomed onto me as we speak. It’s all held together with a few clips and carbines for fast assembly and disassembly.

It’s technically not “wireless”. There is still a cable running down the boom pole that goes into the smart rig and transmitter. But we aren’t tethered to the camera, so I can move back a lot further than the length of your average XLR cable.

There are some downsides to this setup. Because of the way it’s configured, it is the camera operator who will be monitoring the audio, and not the sound recording.

This video was Sponsored By

http://bit.ly/corruption-pack - With glitchy overlays, distorted logo reveals and more, RocketStock’s "Corruption" is an ideal way to give your project a dramatic edge.

https://bit.ly/track-blue-lounge - Click here to download this episode's track. Check out Premiumbeat.com to discover a huge range of exclusive royalty free music!

Wireless Shotgun Mic Hack

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Does it matter what you shoot on?

  • “Story is king.”

  • “I don't care what you shot it on if the story sucks.”

  • “A fancy camera doesn't equal a great film.”

  • Cutouts of these quotes are placed onto the oak board

I certainly agree with these statements. But I strongly disagree with the following:

  • “The camera doesn't matter.”

  • “The camera is less than 5% of a movie.”

  • “There is no point in getting a fancy camera, just shoot it on what you have.”

  • “The camera isn’t important.”

Cameras are the film! What you shoot on does matter! Let me explain myself. 

The camera is the most important tool you have to create a film. Without a camera you have radio. Without camera OR sound, you have a book.

A cheap, easy to use camera does 90% of what a more expensive one does. But it has limitations.

As you grow as a filmmaker, you don't want to have to be fighting the camera to make the film you need to make. You want to be able to harness the tools that camera is giving you.

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Our season 3 film "Keep The Change" was shot all at night. We upgraded from a Canon t3i to a Sony a7s so we could harness it's low light capabilities and create the film without having the tug back at the lack of light. Could we have made Keep The Change on a T3i? No. We could have made A VERSION of Keep The Change, but it wouldn't have been the same film.

Does an expert carpenter solely rely on his saw? No, of course not. The saw might be the tool he uses the most, but he also has very specific tools for certain jobs. He doesn't want to be fighting with his tools when he creates a masterpiece, he wants to have the tools he needs on-hand so he can create his masterpiece without compromise.

A hollywood camera is the same thing. It's the saw... but it's also the chisel, and the plane, and the hammer, the square, the vice, and the tape measure, all in one. A hollywood production team use the big beefy expensive cameras because they need the perfect tool for the job. They don't have the time to fight with their tools. They don’t have time for unreliable equipment.

For them, time is money. Every mistake they make increases shooting time. What costs more: getting the $100,000 camera compared to a $1000 camera, or having to pay Robert Downey Jr another $250,000 for an extra day because your shot was out of focus...because you decided to shoot on a Canon 5d Mark 2, you know...because the camera doesn’t matter.

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And it works cheaper even shooting with 2 $100,000 cameras! If you can cover two different angles in a scene you have pretty much split the shooting day in half...still cheaper than getting Iron Man back onto the set.

I am comparing extremes here, but it’s still something we can consider. As indie filmmakers we can’t buy a second camera or super expensive camera, but we can make choices to purchase or rent something which will speed up and aid production, and help tell the story which you need to tell.

Now don't get wrong! I loathe the sentence "Oh your film looks awesome, you must have a really good camera!" That's like telling Gordon Ramsey his food tastes great because his oven is expensive!

But as indie and amateur filmmakers, it's our job to know the limitations of the tools we have available, and to utilize them. Challenge yourself, of course! Embrace the flaws, embrace the indie look. Limitation drives creativity. But don't say the camera doesn't matter, because it does. 

It’s all about the right tool for the right job.

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Does it matter what you shoot on

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Story in a Can #7 | "Shop Assistant"

In each can there are 20 locations, 20 objects, 20 characters, and 20 scenarios. We pick one from each of the cans and try to come up with a film idea on the spot. Sometimes they are bad, but sometimes we turn the idea into a film.

In Story In a Can #9 Rob and Emily have to make a story about a Character who is a Shop Assistant, a location of a School, an object of a Light Bulb, and a scenario of Shoot Out?

Watch the video to see what story was made.

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Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!

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Animated Duct Tape Titles

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Today we are going to make some animated duct tape titles just like these using a green screen, some duct tape and a pen, and a window. 

We’ve created stuck-on titles in the past for an episode of our Sunday show, The Film Look vlogs; we used them as lower thirds. The setup worked, but we’ve found a much easier and potentially cheaper way to execute this technique.

Previously we had strung up a green screen, lit it, then shot against a mounted plate of glass on an angle to prevent any reflection. It worked well enough, but sourcing a plate of glass this large is time consuming and can be expensive. Then there is the difficult task of mounting it for shooting!

So what is something most people already have access to that will work just the same? How about a window?

Find yourself a window with a view to outside. The trick to a good key from a green screen is to light it as evenly as possible. If you don’t have the right kind of lights, this can be tricky, so putting the green screen outside is the next best thing. Just make sure whatever location you do use, it is getting caught by even sunlight, or in our case, an overcast day.

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We don't have a collapsible green screen, but we do have these green sheets! So we pinned the sheets to our collapsible backdrop with pegs to remove any creases.

If you have the cash, a proper collapsible green screen is going to help a lot more than our method. We just used what we had access to, to demonstrate the technique.

To avoid any reflections of ourselves and the camera against the glass we took a large piece of cardboard and cut out a hole for the lens. We did this in order to create a consistent reflection which removes background details.

With a studio setup you would have the camera in total darkness to avoid reflection on the glass but since we are shooting during the day inside a house, we found this to be a cheap and effective alternative method that most people can do at home.

Frame up the camera so the green screen covers the whole frame and expose the image of the subject, in this case it's the duct tape titles, and set it a stop under over exposure so you don't blow out the white tape.

Okay, so here’s a rundown of the setup! Green screen outside, pinned out so it doesn’t have creases. The window is in front where we are sticking the duct tape titles, the camera is behind this with a wall of cardboard to create a blank canvas of a reflection.

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Now it’s time to hit record and stick them to the window!

We recorded a bunch of titles including monday to sunday, thanks for watching, and subscribe, sticking them on the window and then pulling them off. So now that we have the footage, let's get it on the computer and keyed out!

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Not everyone has the same programmes on their computers, so I won’t get application specific. I’m using after effects, but I do believe you can achieve this in a range of different editing and visual effects applications.

Firstly, apply the key plugin. I’m using KeyLight. Grab the eyedropper tool and click on your green screen. If you have an even screen, so no creases and an even light, it should get rid of 90% of the green on the first click. There are jog bars you can play around with if you need to tune your key in, and use masks to get rid of large portions which are never touched, such as this corner here.   

With a bit of fine tuning and toying with the parametres, this is the final result.

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Animated Duct Tape Titles

DISCLAIMERS:

Some of these links are affiliate links, if you purchase gear via these links The Film Look will receive a small commission, but there will be no additional cost to you. Thank you!