The Best of Filmmaking & Video Production April 2018

This is the 31st instalment of this feature here on Filmmaking Lifestyle, where we chart the best-of-the-best from around the filmmaking and video production world. This article covers the best posts from April 2018.

Every month, I post a round-up article featuring the best things I’ve found around the web on filmmaking and video production. If you missed one, we have a complete archive here.

We’re talking articles, videos, infographics, all sorts. Anything that stands out to me and that I think is worth keeping in an archive, I’m going to include in these reports.

I post these articles at the end of each month, along with all the regular posts you get on Filmmaking Lifestyle.

One thing up front: this is a dated archive. Cameras and software from 2018 have moved on. The business and craft questions in these links often have not — how an indie actually gets seen, whether film school is required, and which commercial paths still pay.

The Best Posts Of April 2018

Howdy.

It’s me again.

Yes, here to breakdown the best filmmaking & video production articles and content from around the web.

April has come and gone, and it’s been another really busy month of growth for the site. Great to see more new faces around the site, in the comments and on social media. And I’ve been really happy to add a couple of new people to the Coaching Program last month.

Don’t forget that you can still jump in and get a running start on beginning your Video Production Business using my Video Production Fast Forward course.

Let’s get into the best from around the web this month!

Filmmaking & Video Production

Here’s an amazing guide to Getting on Netflix as an Indie Filmmaker. From the writer: “I compiled every resource I could find and culled the best of them, then categorized them into chapters. Hope it adds MASSIVE value to you!”

Netflix is not a festival prize. It is a delivery spec, a rights conversation, and a sales path that may or may not want your film. The 2018 checklist will have aged. The useful part is still the same: finish a film that can survive technical delivery, know what rights you still own, and do not confuse a platform logo with a career.

This is cool: 100 Years of Film History Retold with the Best Shot in Each Year.

One shot per year is a parlour game, and it is also a decent way to train your eye. “Best” usually means a frame that still works without the scene around it — light, geometry, a face in trouble. Steal one composition and try it on a real job this week.

You may be surprised, but at Cannes, Christopher Nolan said that he “couldn’t get into film school.”

That quote gets used as permission to skip the work. Nolan’s actual point is that he learned by making films with no money and by knowing every job on the set. Film school can be useful. It is not a required gate. If you cannot get in, the substitute is still shoot, cut, show it, repeat.

Someone’s approaching bands and recording artists and asking them for copyright free music, then sharing with us all. Pretty helpful.

Music is where a lot of otherwise careful filmmakers get lazy. “I found it on YouTube” is not a licence. Asking artists directly, or using a library you can actually clear, will save you a takedown later. Free is only free if the rights survive the upload.

Great tutorial here – Making Documentaries: Step-By-Step: How To Make a Documentary.

Docs are producing, access, and ethics before they are pretty interviews. A step-by-step is useful because it reminds you the film is a sequence of decisions: who you need, what you can film, and how you get out of the edit. Start with the person who will let you in the room, not a drone shot of a city.

So what did we have on Filmmaking Lifestyle this month? It was a hectic and busy month for Filmmaking Lifestyle with 9 new articles posted. This made the month one of our busiest ever!

We started out the month with an article on Client Review & Approval Workflow.

Review is where jobs go to die if you do not run it. One link, one round of notes, one person who can say yes. If six stakeholders all reply in different emails, you will cut the same film three times and still miss the logo. Build the workflow before you shoot, not the night the first cut goes out.

Next up, we had articles on short film ideas and using music in film.

A short is a proof of taste, not a miniature feature. Pick an idea you can finish, and pick music you can legally put under it. Most people stall on exactly those two things.

Following that, we had articles on how to earn money making stock footage and a piece on film investment.

Stock is a volume and metadata business. Film investment is a “do not treat your friends like a bank” business. Clips that are sharp, tagged, and legally clean can earn. A feature that needs other people’s money needs a plan that survives a spreadsheet.

Next up was one of our biggest articles in a while and it was about wedding videography gear. We called it the [Complete Guide to Wedding Videography Gear](https://filmlifestyle.com/wedding-videography-gear/) and it’s a detailed read!

Weddings are still one of the cleanest commercial paths in this industry. The kit list will date. The job will not: two cameras, sound you can hear in the vows, and a backup for the speech. Wedding work is not a lesser art. It is a production with a hard clock.

We rounded out the month three more articles on the best tripods for DSLR, making a low budget feature film and iPhone filmmaking.

A locked-off shot on decent sticks still looks more expensive than a wobbly “cinematic” move. A low-budget feature is a producing problem. An iPhone will shoot a usable image if you hold it still and light the face. The tool is not the film.

Software, Hardware & Visual Effects

140 year old lens on a RED camera?

:

Old glass on a modern sensor is a look, not a flex. You are buying fall-off, weird flares, and an iris that does not behave. Beautiful on a music video. A nightmare if the client wants every pore sharp. Try it on a test, not on the paid day.

Here’s a quick tutorial on

:

Still presets are not video grades. Photo files have more room to be shoved around than a compressed clip. If you convert a Lightroom look into a LUT, treat it as a starting point and expect to pull it back.

Picture Of The Month

This month’s Picture of the Month is a a funny one from Reddit user /Sourcecode12. Here’s how to stabilize a $40k camera using $3 of duct tape!

That photo is the whole industry in one gag. Expensive bodies still get saved by inelegant solutions when the head fails or the weather turns. Tape is not a substitute for a support system you trust. The shoot does not care what the camera cost.

Video Of The Month

Anything else you’ve found in the filmmaking / video production world online? Let us know in the comments below!

What to read on Filmmaking Lifestyle next

If you found this roundup from search, these are the pages that match the month:

• Starting your video production business
• Wedding videography gear
• Get started in wedding videography
• Making a low budget feature film
• iPhone filmmaking and mobile video editing
• Free music to use in your videos

Some third-party URLs from 2018 may have moved.

Catch you soon!