Need to find a cheap way to add some gory goodness to your next horror project? Try out these three easy practical effects. To celebrate Halloween (or any gory time of year), we’re diving in to one of my favorite aspects of filmmaking: creating practical effects. These practical elemen

Challenge your perspective with these documentaries on filmmakers, their tools, the histories they encapsulate, and the cultural context of their work. From France to Taipei, film evolves and alters the cultural landscape around it. Some films and filmmakers leave an even deeper influence be

This article takes a look at the digital side of the film world, the importance of film grain, and the evolution of getting that “cinematic” look. Film grain has a very different texture and appearance than digital noise. Film grain is the result of washing away the silver halide

In this article, we’ll examine the EVF, its usability pros and cons, and the best options for an indie filmmaking budget. Back in the glory days of film, the only way to see what the camera was seeing was by placing your eye to the eyepiece and framing up the shot. This meant that the

The Ad Astra film editing team sat down with PremiumBeat to describe their process and what it’s like working with director James Gray. The work of director James Gray has always intrigued and impressed me, in that it seems that with each film, he chooses a different genre or environme

How the filmmakers involved with Ford v Ferrari rigged custom vintage lenses to achieve the gritty look and feel of the 1966 Le Mans car race. Director James Mangold and cinematographer Phedon Papamichael were invested in having a ’60s and ’70s film-like aesthetic while shooting

Here are three ways some leading filmmakers have broken new ground and freshened up what could otherwise be shoot-by-numbers footage. If you shoot many dialogue scenes, it’s easy to fall into a routine — a wide to mid shot, then matching over-the-shoulder shots, with some clean singles

Uplighting is a great tool in any DP or gaffer’s tool kit. Let’s look at the main ways uplighting gets used (and misused) in cinematography. Uplight, or lighting your subject from below, gets a bad rap. people generally consider it unflattering on human faces, and it draws attention to

After Effects and Premiere Pro are two of Adobe’s flagship post-production apps. But which one do you need for which task? Let’s find out. When you’re creating a new project, knowing when to use Premiere and when to use After Effects can make or break your project. They are

Let’s take a look at the dolly Francis Ford Coppola developed for some of his most revered films — and how it affected the overall aesthetic. There’s no denying that Francis Ford Coppola‘s narratives always feel powerful — almost inevitable. From his Godfather trilogy to Apocalyp

Filmmakers use various ways to introduce their heroes (and their villains) by shaping the audience’s subconscious judgment. When it comes to movies, we definitely judge a book by its cover, and first impressions last. The first time we see a character forms our ideas about them. If not

When it comes to working as a filmmaker for a living, what are the best gear investments to make money rather than lose it? Here are a few must-haves. As a freelance filmmaker, there’s nothing more daunting than investing in gear. When all is said and done, after purchasing all the accessori

Here are six ways the crop effect in Adobe Premiere Pro will improve your filmmaking workflow — and yield more satisfying results. If you want to be proficient in Adobe Premiere, you’ve got to familiarize yourself with the key effects you’ll be using every day. One of these effec

Here’s some advice on how to use natural light when shooting various exterior (and interior) scenes either low- or no-budget. In the book Cinematography: Theory and Practice by Blain Brown, on the topic of filming in direct sunlight, Brown states the following: And, this is pretty muc

In this roundup, check out some useful strategies from the world of game theory that apply to the decisions many filmmakers face. Game Theory has been around since the 1940s, when John von Neumann and others created a mathematical model for rational decision-making in competitive circumstanc

Is it possible to hype an upcoming blockbuster too much? Here’s what studios face when they release teasers into the market early. You may be hard-pressed to remember a time when you only found out about a new movie by either seeing the teaser poster at the cinema, the trailer at the c

These tools can help you dramatically increase your filmmaking productivity and achieve more than you ever thought possible. Much has been written about utilizing your time to the best of your ability, and I’ve tried most of it.‌ So, I thought it’d be helpful to go over the things that

Practical lighting vs. cinematic lighting — this article examines how to use practical lighting to create a cinematic look. In a perfect world, we would walk into a location, arrange some lamps, and the scene would come to life, perfectly exposed and cinematically lit. Unfortunately, light d

Here are two simple-yet-brilliant examples of how costume design can convey — and even dramatically transform — a character’s arc. Costume design is critical in film and video production. While some characters and scripts don’t call for anything special, the characters still need to look a c

Autofocus has long been a part of documentary filmmaking, at every budget level, but what about the rest of the industry? I’ve used the Canon C200 for a couple of years now, and I have always relied on the Dual Pixel Autofocus. It can recognize and track faces, keeping them sharp at low f-st