Posted by Mat on 6th, 2009
Welcome to the DOJO!
It is days like today that remind me just how darn lucky I am to make a living doing what I love. You see, today a very good friend of mine name Alex Waxman brought over what has to be one of the coolest toys ever made with an indie or guerilla filmmaker in mind. What he brought over was so cool, in fact, that for a split second I considered hitting him over the head and running away with it for myself. Luckily for him, Alex is a very big guy with a very hard head, so I was too scared to try it.
I’m not going to tell you what that toy was yet. No, I’m going to be a tease and tell you why you, my fellow low budget filmmaker, will absolutely want to have one for your next shoot. Why, if you were in my place today, you too would have contemplated braining one of your best friends in the world in order to make off with his new toy.
What is it that ever low budget, indie or guerilla filmmaker wishes he had more of in his films? The one thing that could make the difference between a sellable film and something that sits on his shelf at home and rots? Nooooo…I’m not talking about more boobies. What I’m talking about is that mythical and ever elusive “production value.” In films, production value comes in many forms: it can be a giant submarine set, or explosives, or a car chase through downtown Chicago. Or, it can come in the form of aerial footage. And that, my friends, is where Alex’s new toy comes in.
If you’ve ever dreamed of getting some low budget aerial footage of a scene, of a car chase, of a neighborhood or of anything else, then the Draganflyer Stabilized Aerial Video System (SAVS) is the answer to your prayers.
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Posted by Mat on 5th, 2009
Welcome to the DOJO!
The number one problem for every indie or guerilla filmmaker out there is: “Where the heck do I find a distributor for my low budget film so people can see it?” In other words, “will I make enough money to pay off all those damn credit cards I ran up to make my film?” Yup, the age old question of what to do with that film after you’ve finished shooting and editing it.
And you thought making a film was the hard part?
Well, like a lot of you, I’ve asked myself those same questions a number of times and have even taken the dreaded path of self distribution. Over the course of following that path, I ran into a very cool little website, Caachi.com, that offers an interesting take on digital or online film distribution. You may be surprised by what I discovered.
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Posted by Mat on 4th, 2009
Welcome to the DOJO!
Is any one else as tired as I am from the holidays? Sheesh, I think I get more worn out from the end of the year holiday “vacation” than from any amount of work. Something about large numbers of relatives and in-laws decending upon my home just plain sucks the energy out of me. I’m ready to get back to work and get some rest!
One of the upsides of this particular holiday season is that I always wind up getting some pretty cool gadgets I might not have otherwise purchased for myself. My beloved wife seems to pay extra attention to all the gear I talk about in the final months of the year, makes a list and then goes out and picks the stuff up. I’m pretty sure I’ve got the best wife in the entire universe!
For this particular Christmas, I found a handy little item waiting for me Christmas morning, the Sony DVP-FX820 Portable DVD Player
…and more than that, I found the answer to my long standing prayers for an affordable solution to the problem of trying to focus a high definition image on my tiny Canon HV20 LCD screen (and the near impossible task of doing so with a 35mm lens adapter strapped to the front of my camera).
As any indie or guerilla filmmaker out there knows, HD (high definition for the neophytes out there) monitors are expensive as heck, which puts them out of reach for most low budget filmmakers. Unfortunately, with more and more of the industry turning to HD for production, it’s quickly becoming a requirement to have one. This is even moreso the case for those of us who have 35mm adapters, such as the Letus, Brevis, JAG35 or TwoNeil adapters, in our toolkits. The LCDs on even the larger cameras can be a pain to focus with and the tiny little LCD on the Canon HV20/HV30 is just plain brutal.
So what are guerilla and indie filmmakers to do? Well, the answer comes in the form of the Sony DVP-FX820 Portable DVD Player. Full Story →
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