ASK & DISCUSS

I've been asked to supervise the completion of a feature. For those of you that have read my posts over the years, this basically what I do for a living, but this one is a bit dif…

Oops. "They're naive" not their.

Last week I wrote an open letter to Vimeo that was published on well-known filmmaker blog Nofilmschool. In it I was trying to understand why shorts seem to have so little value th…

Actually no blue touch paper to be lit, I completely agree with you. I wish I didn't but you're right. I guess I was kind of trying to postulate an idea about the creative force b…

Hi fellow filmmakers,

A friend of mine would like to know if anyone here can offer (for a price) a crash course on a 16mm Bolex camera?

He is based in West Hampstead and is avai…

Hi. Here's another 16mm Bolex tip: some old TV lenses are also C mount and I found some great ones when looking around, although avoid ones with protuding rear elements as these w…

I have 3 pages, sketching out an act for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and I am looking for a performer. Can anyone offer me any advise as to how I get in contact with performers.…

Correction: "Can't take the posting". I don't know how I am going to break the news to the Plank.

Keith

Hi guys so my usual rental place is experiencing some technical difficulties. Could you recommend a place that has a good deal for weekends? Like pay for 1 day only that sort of t…

Hey I own a 4ft 4bank kino with daylight and tungsten bulbs and c stand. I normally rent it out for 40 a day.

I use FD8 and every time I end a scene and move onto "scene heading", the software jumps three lines instead of two. The only way I can keep two lines between scene endings / begi…

Yes, Peter (above) alerted me to the paper size issue and that's a big issue for me as these days I set my stories in the States to be ptched to American companies / agents etc. B…

I've just moved to Crystal Palace, and I'm building a small greenscreen/photo/mocap studio in my garden. Primarily it's for my own work (VFX) but I'm thinking of renting it out t…

am make sure to ling the floor with the insulation wool. (Knauf Crown Acoustic or similar)

It will be mostly used for filming and I am interested in lenses too.

I also have a 5d mk ii to sell,
Miren.vp@gmail.com

I'm enquiring on behalf of a friend who needs to film a discussion in one room, with the footage being shown live in another - viewable on a computer and/or TV. They need video an…

Great to have so many responses - thanks all.

So for the past 10 months now as an independent film maker i have been working on creating a Pre Production app for the iPhone, a few days ago it got accepted onto the app store. …

Apps in general, don't really use them. Keeping all the documents in one hard-to-update format isn't necessarily an advancement. Different people care about different things. C…

Hi,

I come from a background of television research (and some film). I have wanted to develop ideas of mine for a while but work has always got in the way. I am changing that no…

Hi Monica, I will definitely try to make that. Thanks.

Hello, I'm heading out to LA next week to scope the acting scene out there.


It's my first time to LA and i'm travelling on my own.

Tips, advice and Thanks Giving dinner offers …

Hi Sarah,

What are your goals, exactly? I'm not an actor, so I'm not privy to the inner workings of that world. Every actor I know (which is a lot) bitches about their agent, so…

Very into social media while scripting more work, i wondered if anyone could suggest any promotion ideas as it seems to be 85% branding and the rest is work feel free to consult m…

Hey there
Check out Michael Stelzner-Social Media Examiner on the net It is a newsletter and info about the subject

I am looking to hire either a Sony EX-3 or PMW-300 on a regular basis. I am fully insured.

If anyone has one please let me know.

Thanks John, I'll bear them in mind

anyone have experience with SAG ULB contract? Specifically regarding distribution?

After spewing all this out, I did a little search on SAG and found this interesting article. It mentions the "lien" and SAG having that power on the life of the film (your copyrig…

Hello All !

I recently acquired a Canon 5D MKIII and although I am relatively familiar with the camera and also the 7D, I have just switched from using an HDV (Z7) and obviously …

Alwyne is right. Unless you have Magic Lantern firmware the 5Diii does not shoot in RAW. I would also advise not going down that road for now.
My set up with the 5Diii is to use t…

Hey Shooters,

I've had an idea for a story which I think would work well as both a novel and a screenplay. Normally I stick to one or the other when writing. Does anyone have any…

Hi Liz,

I'm someone who writes novels and then for fun adapts them to screenplay and sometimes also radioplay form. What I've found is that no matter how economically or sparingl…

Hi Shooters. The Rivoli Cinema in Sandown Isle of Wight is earmarked for demolition next year unless I buy it. Ive made an offer which has been accepted and I'm selling everythin…

Hi Bruce, this sounds like an interesting attempt to save an old cinema, but it's going to need more than crowd sourced finance, I'd suggest you need a commercial operations backe…

being wondering about rates for various sides of the Cine industry any standard amounts one should charge?

advice would be useful

Thanks

John

Many Thanks Vasco,

times are uneven pay wise. but thanks for your perspective and I'll think about it.

i would agree with your thoughts about 3months to write a feature screenp…

I am helping out with a short as PM and am trying to find a way to move some kit for a 3 day shoot in the west of Ireland. This is not something I have come up against before. …

Hi Fleur - we are using Nationwide. They were very helpful. Good luck with your shoot :)

I have had a noodle around the stats for crowd-funded film projects and published the results here http://stephenfollows.com/the-statistics-on-improving-your-crowd-funding-campaig…

Hmmmm... that seems odd. If I were donating 1000 bucks to an artist, then see a service fee of 50, I might not go through with that donation. I guess it would depend on how Hatchf…

Shooting People allows ads for screenwriters that pay less than 1000 quid to be listed as "paid." The UK minimum wage, at full time, rolled up with time for holidays, is usually …

Hi,
Just wondered what the current thinking is on having characters who smoke a lot in your screenplay? Good idea or not? I can recall seeing characters smoke in many films, but …

Look at a few scripts of films with smoking characters, and see how other writers deal with it.

To Nicolas Hughes' comment, I've seen that theory in one French book on screenwr…

I thought I could "send to motion" from within fcpx before. Now, it won't let me.

Apparently there's an app called FCPX send to motion in the American app store, but not in the …

Never mind, I found a workaround. I just sent to compressor and used that, I can always delete the layer and send as an overlay or whatever.

I think it might be the operating sy…

A query for Shooting People staff, really, but thought it could potentially benefit anyone who has a film on here.

With regards to the number of views for each film on the SP 'L…

Hi Mark,

That's right, Stephanie's updating the site now, so keep an eye on the leaderboard- and thanks for the support :)

Best of luck,
Sarah