Easy guide to production
Danny F. Santos is a freelance writer, video editor, social media consultant and all around geek. He’s currently developing several feature film projects and has recently moved from the east coast to the west. You can follow him on Twitter at @dannyfsantos.
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) Part 1 and part 2 of this series was about where to find actors for your film. Now that you’ve secured a number of them for an audition, you have to run an audition! Auditions are long grueling and tedious for everyone involved. This is the one shot an actor … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) In part 1 of this series we covered some places to look for casting. Continuing along that line, lets look at a few more places for casting for your film. Low Budget Guild Programs The guilds and unions have some programs for the low budget filmmaker to hire … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) In this series of posts, we’ll be talking about casting for your film. There are many ways to find actors for your film but not all of them will be available to you, and that mostly has to do with money. But like everything else, money is a double-edged … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleme) When we last left off in part one, we were talking about types of lenses which you can basically divide into either prime or zoom lenses. Prime lenses can be classified as either normal, wide or telephoto. Picking up from there, lets go onto some of the features … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) The title is a terrible pun, I know. If you get it, this should be a nice refresher and if not, this should be a good introduction to camera lenses! And I promise, no more bad puns for the remainder of this post. Types of Lenses Fundamentally, there are only two … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) Continuing from where we left off in the previous part, more depth cues! Haze When you look off into the horizon, you’ll notice the farther something is, the less clear it looks and the lighter the tone. Haze can be caused by dust, natural particles in the … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) In the previous part, we introduced perspective as a visual cue for depth. Perspective is one of the better known visual cues but there are many more that can give the audience cues to depth or a lack there of. Size This is actually a very easy staging … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) In part 3 of understanding space, we introduced the idea of limited space which is a way of giving cues to the audience of depth. But what if you want to create deep space in your frame? In a 2D frame, there are different visual cues the viewer can pick up … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) In part 1 and part 2 of this series on understanding space in film, we explored the idea of the frame creating the illusion of space both in it and outside of it. Continuing with that, we'll introduce some more kinds of spacial concepts. Foreground … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) Last time we were looking at Clerks for lessons we can take away from previous independent films which was shot for under $30,000. Today, we look at a film that was shot for even less, Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi was shot for a little over … [Read more...]
By Danny F. Santos (doddleNEWS) Every film tells two stories, the one on the screen and the one behind the scenes. This is the best part of independent filmmaking, sometimes the story behind the film is just as entertaining. And informative. There’s probably no better place to learn … [Read more...]
In part 1 we introduced the idea that as filmmakers, our canvas is the frame and everything happens inside of it. There are notable exceptions as some films have a live theatrical component to them but for the most part the screen is what you have to work with. What if I told you this isn't … [Read more...]
Space, or the illusion of space, is incredibly important in filmmaking. With it, you control not only what the audience sees, but how you want them to see it. There are a few simple ways of controlling space, the easiest to explain is the frame. The Frame Simply put, stuff happens … [Read more...]
Ever hear the phrase read between the lines or show, don’t tell when it comes to filmmaking? Well, exactly how do you do that? Welcome to the wonderful world of semiotics! What the hell is semiotics? It's a branch of cognitive studies about how human beings pass on information from one person … [Read more...]
Understanding the visual language of film is incredibly valuable, that's why I put such an emphasis into understanding the aesthetics and design of what's in frame and what to leave out. I wanted to take a moment to touch on what I personally base all my visuals on. These are two famous quotes … [Read more...]
Click on the following links for previous parts: Part 1: Color Systems Part 2: Describing Color Part 3: Color Interaction Part 4: Color Schemes Part 5: More Color Schemes Part 6: Psychology of Color Part 7: More Psychology of Color Part 8: Controlling Color There is so much … [Read more...]
