Expert Village

Expert Village has oodles of instructional videos covering everything from automotive repair to sewing. Of interest to video people are topics like special effects make-up, voice lessons, acting, and indie filmmaking stuff like this video on legal issues by Corey Turner:

Hello I'm Corey Turner here on ExpertVillage.com and today we're talking about low budget moving making. Now within the past twenty-four months I've written, produced and directed two independent films and I've also just wrapped and just finished completely a children's DVD. As I go into every production and especially as I come out of every production, I've learned so many more things and today I hope to pass that information and knowledge on to you. So you've decided that you want to make a low budget movie, but you don't know where to start. Step number one, this is one of the most important things for me, go to your library, your bookstore, search on the internet and find a book that talks about movie contracts. Now if you're a movie maker and you want to be creative and you're ready to start filming, usually you try to rush pass this part of the process, but it is vital. And as we talk on each step of the way, we're always going to revert back to the legal issues and so it's a good foundation to have that right from the start. Now legal contracts, the things you really want to focus on are your actor releases, your location releases, you also want to talk about equipment and music, music is a vital thing. So you want to have the releases so that you have control of that and also you want to make sure that the script, whether it be yours or somebody else's, you've addressed from the very beginning how to handle that and you have the contracts in place to do that.

Under Consideration

Here's a kick-ass "Dio-esque" track for anyone who works with clients on a regular basis. It's from graphic design site UnderConsideration.com.

Video Disk Space Calculator

Here's a handy free app for calculating video disk space. You can also calculate the length of your footage from the file size. It also has a handy printable codec chart with each codec's data rate.

Fonts and Stuff

From DVGuru.com:

Have you ever wanted to add that professional touch to your film/movie trailer/movie poster/DVD cover? Below are a few resources for fonts, logos, and box art templates you can use in your project and increase its production value.

There's a bunch of other resources there, too, so click around. Unfortunately, it's not being updated any longer.

Urban Dirty

Here's a site for free texture stock photography:

Urban Dirty is a regularly updated online photo library featuring 153 gritty, grimy and sometimes slimy images for use in design and artwork creation. For example, here's a desktop wallpaper using an Urban Dirty photo. View the images in small, medium or large, download or edit online and have fun with them.

Are these images free?

Yes. The photos featured on this site are currently free for you to download for both commercial and non-commercial use. All we ask is that you credit urbandirty.com, somewhere, somehow. All photos are licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

NATPE

The National Association of Television Program Executives hosts a conference in Las Vegas every January. This is where all the big-wigs go to buy and sell TV shows and movies. Stacey Parks has a blog with some tips for attendees (scroll down to the Sunday Jan. 14 post). It costs around $1000 to attend, so I probably won't be going next year, but who knows? The thing I like the most was her use of the word "their" in the below sentence:

...so you may get lucky and get to talk to some companies while their standing their at their booth.

In her defense, she used it correctly in the rest of the blog.
The NATPE site has videos from this year's conference for sale at their store for $29.95.

9-27-07 Update: The tips can now be found here (with the same typo). The link above doesn't work. She's now associated with filmspecific.com.

Free Stuff

Indie filmmaker Paul Zadie has a list of free resources for filmmakers. Most of the forms are useless for day-to-day video work, but the software, storyboard sheets, and screenplay templates could be pretty useful. (Warning: He uses those annoying Snap previews on all his links):

Being an indie filmmaker is pretty tough sometimes. The tools required to get the job done can be a little bit pricey, so here’s a list of software, screenplay templates, storyboard sheets and production forms for your use. The important list here is the forms. Keeping proper records and getting the required releases is a must if you are making a film. From pre-production to post-production, forms are some of the most valuable tools in independent filmmaking. Feel free to download these forms for use on your project. They are all in MS Word format. If you do not own Microsoft Word, you can check the software list below for free, open source alternatives.

More Online Resources

Sonnyboo.com, the site of micro-filmmaker Peter John Ross, has a few pages of free downloads for filmmakers (also relevant to video producers). He features music, articles, forms, and a video tutorial, all free for the clicking. There's also a page of stations and shows looking for short films. Some of the information seems a little dated, and some of the article links just go to the Amazon page for his book, but there's plenty of good stuff. If you like what you find, splurge and buy his book about filmmaking or the DVD of his short films.

After Effects Tutorials

Video Copilot, a maker of stock footage and training videos, has a bunch of free AE video tutorials. Topics include simulated light effects (like muzzle flashes or explosions), "iPod Nano" light streaks, and simulating depth of field.

Boing Boing mentions a review by David McKnight of the Spiderbrace Shoulder Support. It's for small cameras like the PD-150 or the Sony HVR-FX1 and is only $70. The review calls it a stabilizer, but Spiderbrace calls it a shoulder support, which is more accurate. I don't think it looks too stable, but it does get a favorable review. The article is from the Cool Tools newsletter and apparently isn't online, so here is Boing Boing's quote from the review:

This stabilizer fits most any video camera and makes all handheld shots steadier, as the weight of the camera is distributed across your body. It is made out of lightweight PVC and the handles are covered with a thick foam cushion, so it's very comfortable. The unit is also machined, as the tubing is strategically bent and shaped at the correct angles. Some devices advertised online are cobbled together 100% from the Home Depot plumbing aisle -- and they look it. This sharp-looking device doesn't draw any attention to itself. It also costs less than any other comparable unit I've seen, and works just as well. While there are many plans on the Internet for making your own stabilizers and mounts, this one is manufactured well enough and at a cheap enough price to not have to build something that looks, well, like I built it. My wife and I run a small video company doing mostly weddings and other events and about half of our shooting time is spent in less-than-ideal conditions. Using the Spiderbrace 2 really helps keep the camera steady for long periods of time, and you are not burdened with a tripod or other unwieldy device should you need to move positions.

A Boing Boing reader added this link to a homemade stabilizer in the comments.

Plotbot

Plotbot is a free on-line collaborative screenwriting tool:

As film school graduates who both work on the web, we thought it would be a lot of fun to have a site where people could write a screenplay together. At first, this was going to be a small, simple application. And then it got out of hand.

We do think that we're on the way toward making a great collaborative screenwriting tool. The public projects are a lot of fun, and the private projects allow people to write together more productively than traditional screenwriting tools.

I don't write with other people, so I haven't tried it yet, but I can see where it could be very useful.

YouTube to Pay You

Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube made a vague announcement this week that said they will start sharing revenue with its users. No details were given, but despite the fact that it sounds great at first, all sorts of problems need to be worked out. ConsumerGeneratedMedia.com had this to say:

Looking ahead to the new YouTube model, if a Super Bowl contest-winner's ad find second life on YouTube, who gets the compensation? The original content creator? The brand? The agency? All of the above? Trust me, this will get really complicated, and even if brands us "fine print" to exempt themselves from compensating consumers, original creators will find a way to raise a stink...or create a viral protest.

And this from Streamingmedia.com:

First is the question of how to value content. The simplistic answer is that value is determined by the number of views; a slightly less simplistic answer is that it is determined by the number of advertisement views or even click-throughs. But if the latter two models are used, consumers will at some point argue that YouTube is shortchanging their content by putting lower-ranking (and lower revenue-producing) advertisements side by side with the consumer's content. Besides the quality of ads versus the quality of content—which isn't currently an issue because revenue sharing isn't in full swing—think of the conundrum facing a church group posting an abstinence video that might be generate revenue from people clicking on ads that have as much in common with the church's message as does a global warming warning video with the polar opposite political opponent who might choose to manipulate particular keywords to get his own message across.

Cost of Music Videos

Here's a rundown of the 10 most expensive music videos ever (as of whenever the article was written).
I'd settle for the budget for Michael Jackson's makeup on "Scream", the #1 video on the list.
On the flip side, this Sarah McLachlan video was made in '04 for $15 - the price of a DV tape. They had a $150,000 budget, but gave it all to charity, as outlined in the video. I guess if you're not getting paid, there's no point in practicing your camera moves (or getting out of the way before the playback starts).
This blog gives a rundown of where it all went, in case you don't think you can sit through a Sarah McLachlan video.

Panasonic HVX200

After reading a few things about Panasonic's AG HVX200, it has become the latest Camera I'd Most Like to Play With. It provides an almost ridiculous number of shooting options, including DV, DVCPro, DVCPro50, and HD. This is from DV.com's review by Adam Wilt:

The HVX200 "Manycam" offers unparalleled flexibility, shooting four image sizes in two aspect ratios at three different bitrates with 11 frame rates plus true single-frame. It records on tape and solid-state P2 cards...

A company in Chicago called Zacuto has developed some custom accessories for the camera. They rent and sell it in 5 different configurations, including a tricked-out "Studio" version for $26,000 (four times the camera's list price). It still has the limitation of two 8GB P2 cards, though (for now, anyway).

Banddot

I've started a new project. It's called Banddot and features interviews with and performances by indie rock bands. Check it out at Banddot.com. Jon Schwab is my co-producer/editor and designed the web site.

Cable Rolling

If you ever shoot any events with a big-time crew for a company like ESPN, one of the most important things to know is how to roll cables using the "over-and-under" method. This helps avoid the cable getting tangled up and makes the next set-up easier. It's not easy to learn without seeing it, but here are two articles that may help.
This one is about audio cables, but the same principles apply.
This one is from Pro Lights and Staging News, which is a little off topic, but it looks like it could have some other interesting articles. I'll check it out further when I have more time. Here's the gist of the article:

How you take it up is important too, for your sanity and the life of the cable. Learn how to over and under cable. It’s really easy. Create a loop a foot and a half to two feet or more. Keep looping the cable again and again, letting it roll underneath itself when it wants to, usually every other loop. To most people this sounds incredibly elementary, but most stagehands around the world don’t do it, either because of ignorance or apathy. That’s why I also suggest that you wrap your own cable. Don’t let a stagehand do it unless you know him or have seen him do it. Usually a quick lesson won’t help either. You can, however, let a hand help you pull or untangle wire. Wrap you own stuff and it’ll last a lot longer. You’ll also keep your sanity the next day when it just flows off the roll as you load in. My experience with triax and BNC cable is that if you wrap them in a larger three-foot or so loom, they last longer and roll out better.

Proper cable rolling might seem like a minor thing, but if you work with a crew that loads and unloads equipment every day, at best, you'll look like an amateur if you don't do it right, and at worst, you'll really piss some people off if they have to re-do all your cables at one in the morning when they're trying to pack up.

AIVF

The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers has a pretty good site with a lot of resources (mostly for docs or feature films, rather than shorter projects like commercials or music videos). There's some good fundraising info there and if you join, you're eligible for discounts on important stuff like health insurance. I'm not a member, but it might be worth joining if you're a freelancer.

Disposable Video Camera

CVS pharmacy will start selling the world's first disposable video camera at the end of the month. It will shoot 20 minutes of video and cost about 30 bucks. But it has no outputs or tape, so if you want to actually do something with the video, it will cost another $13 to burn it to a DVD.

The new camera from San Francisco-based start-up Pure Digital Technologies, doesn't use videotape. Instead, it saves images to internal memory -- like the video mode of a digital camera.

Using just three buttons, consumers can capture up to 20 minutes of digital quality video and sound in either separate segments or clips, CVS (Research) have said.

The video camcorder's 1.4-inch color playback screen lets users watch their home videos and delete unwanted segments. Once they finished shooting, consumers will have to pay an additional $12.99 (£7) for processing the footage onto DVDs at their local CVS store since there's no other way to watch the footage recorded.

It could be handy for emergencies, I guess. I don't think too many consumers will be using these for almost fifty bucks a pop, though. It might be cool for some sort of community video project - give a bunch of kids cameras and let them shoot their own stories, but with only 20 minutes of footage, they'd have to be selective with their shooting.

Home-Made Equipment

Here are a few links with plans for equipment of various sorts:

Do It Yourself Video

Stick to What you Know
go to the "Behind the Scenes" page for some interesting stuff

HomeBuiltStabilizers.com
A bunch of different stabilizers, jibs, and dolly plans

Ron Dexter

I came across Ron Dexter's site today. Wow! There's something for everyone- shooting tips, how to build equipment, even tips on using drywall screws. There's probably 200 film and video related articles here, and all the ones I read were interesting, even if not immediately useful. There are a few typos here and there that caused me to re-read a line or two, but that's a small price for this much info. Check it out.