Archive for June, 2010

How To: Make a Movie for Atom.com

Jun 29

Posted by Doug in Online Tools, Tools | 1 Comment

Many DiY-Filmmakers have likely heard of Comedy Central’s online comedy video site Atom.com. With video content provided by big name comedians like Kenan Thompson and Andy Dick, Atom.com is far from being an internet secret.

However, Atom.com prides itself in blending mainstream and indie media. One aspect that highlights this point may also be particularly useful to the DiY-Filmmaker, and that aspect is Atom’s World Famous Cash-Money Internet Comedy Tournament. The rules are simple, and best described by the site itself:

WHAT IS THE TOURNAMENT? The Tournament is a weekly competition beginning April 19, 2010 celebrating the funniest and most popular original comedy videos recently uploaded to Atom.com (“Atom”).

EDLs – Edit Decision Lists

Jun 29

Posted by Adam in Technology, Tutorials | No Comments

For the people who grew up in the non-linear era with Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro, we’re a little spoiled. Actually, a lot spoiled. We can edit something from beginning to end on our computers and not really give that much thought to the process going on underneath the hood.

That wasn’t the case before, and still isn’t the case in many production environments. You see, more often than not, we modern editors are doing something without even noticing: we’re combining offline and online editing. Essentially, it used to be that you captured much smaller, lower quality versions of files, and edited those. That was offline. Then, you’d send your edit to another department (or do it yourself) and they would do the online editing, meaning they would put in the full quality files from the source tapes, color correct, etc.

Now, you probably capture at full HD and edit at full HD because our computers can handle it. It’s simpler, and for a smaller operation, it makes sense.

But even though we’re editing in different ways, the fundamentals under the hood are still the same.

Tags: ,

What is a Codec?

Jun 28

Posted by Adam in Technology | No Comments

Since it’s Monday, I thought we’d go ahead and get a little bit of knowledge going for the week. Then the rest of the posts can be GI Joe videos and fart jokes.

So, let’s talk about codecs. You know you want to.

Tags: , , ,

Options for Self Distribution: IndieFlix

Jun 23

Posted by Adam in Reviews | 1 Comment

I’ve always thought self-distribution and self-promotion were a no brainer for DiY and independent filmmakers. Part of the fun of the process is getting to do all the things that are handled by swarms of hired guns in the pro biz.

Yes, some films need a more professional touch, but for a lot of filmmakers, distributing online themselves is a great option. Plus, it’s a lot of fun. You get to see actual money coming in (hopefully) that people paid to see your documentary or your movie. Even if it is $2 at first, that’s $2 that you made from your own filmmaking blood sweat and tears. It’s a cool feeling.

So let’s take a look at some options to go with for self distribution. This post is going to cover one of the big ones: IndieFlix.

Tags: ,

Podcast Episode #10: Treasured Golden Mystery Eggs

Jun 21

Posted by DiY Filmmaking in Podcast | 1 Comment

Oh man, we recorded this like a week and a half ago but technical problems prohibited its release until now. Garageband be crazy. We’re not audio people. But here it is, episode 10!

We’re talking about a range of things this week, including WWDC stuff, balancing your day job and your film job (if you have a day job that isn’t film) and getting certified in Final Cut Pro. Watch for Lance’s pick this week, it’s a doozy.

Panel is:

Adam (@adamfairholm)

Doug (@thedougmovement)

Lance (@omegabane)

Picks are:

Lance: Farmville for the iPhone (not a joke)

Doug: FenslerFilm.com

Adam: Pantone huey Pro MEU113 and the Pantone huey MEU101

File: http://www.diy-filmmaking.com/podcast_files/ep_10_treasured_golden_mystery_eggs.m4a

Tags: , ,

5 Evernote Uses for DiY Filmmakers

Jun 17

Posted by Adam in Tutorials | 2 Comments

If you don’t know about or aren’t using Evernote, you are missing out big time. Simply put, Evernote allows you to take all types of notes (from text to audio to images) and store them in the cloud. They have fantastic programs on tons of platforms that allow you to access and create/edit notes from your desktop and your phone. Make a change anywhere, and it syncs to the cloud.

I’d recommend signing up for a premium (paid) account, but the basic account is free, and so are the clients.

With a technology like Evernote, use cases are far-ranging and diverse, but today we’re going to take a look at some uses specifically for DiY Filmmakers.

Evernote Box

With Evernote, you can …

Tags: ,

The DiY-Filmmaking Super Hotline New Marketing Plan

Jun 10

Posted by DiY Filmmaking in News, Site News | 1 Comment

Remember a few months ago when we introduced you to the DiY-Filmmaking Super Hotline? And then for four consecutive weeks on the podcast we reminded you about the hotline’s existence and offered you gifts in exchange for your call? And do you also remember that [unless your name is Shaun] you decided for whatever reason that you didn’t want to call us? Good… because we remember that, too.

This made us sad but it also made us realize that the problem starts with us… and so will the solution. This is serious.

In an attempt to boost the number of incoming calls to our Super Hotline, we hired an extremely expensive and famous internet marketing corporation to come up with a more comprehensive marketing plan for the hotline. They determined that the best way to get more incoming calls would be to shoot a commercial for the hotline. A commercial that they were unwilling to let us be a part of. While this move seemed to go against everything we stand for with a DiY-Filmmaking website, they had a really nice powerpoint presentation with techno music that we just couldn’t say no to.

Visual Storyboarding with iMovie for iPhone

Jun 7

Posted by Adam in News | No Comments

As anyone with a Twitter account knows, Apple’s WWDC kicked off this morning with the usual keynote announcing new products. This one was all about the iPhone 4 and its new tech specs and glittery glam.

One thing that struck me was the announcement of iMovie for the iPhone. Bam!

iMovie for iPhone

Tags: , , , ,

Create iDVD Chapter Markers with Metadata Hootenanny (for free)

Jun 4

Posted by Adam in Tutorials | 1 Comment

Editor’s note: Sorry for the lack of posts this week. We’ve been in the planning stages of some DiY overhauls PLUS working on taxing shoots this week. We’ll be back in full force next week.

I ran into a problem this week. I wanted to burn a quickie DVD of a Quicktime file. DVD Studio Pro = overkill for this, so I reached for iDVD. iDVD is quick and dirty, and it gets the job done.

However, I ran into a road block when I wanted to put in some chapter markers, because I needed some chapter markers. You can’t do that in iDVD, so the search for a solution began.

My first try was opening up iMovie to see if it could do anything to help me out. My thinking was “hey, iMovie and iDVD both have “i” in front of them, maybe the work together on this. After 15 seconds, I was out. Don’t try it. It’s scary.

After a few searches on the Googles, I came across Metadata Hootenanny, a free program for Mac OS X (sorry Windows and Linux peeps). Anyways, Metadata Hootenanny allows you to control the metadata for Quicktime files. It allows you to do all sorts of cool stuff, but the feature I was interested in was creating chapter markers.

Turns out it’s easy like easy cake.

Metadata Hootenanny Logo

Tags:

 Subscribe to our Posts RSS Feed

 Subscribe to our Podcast

The internet is chock full of how to guides for doing pretty much anything you can think of to make films on a budget. DiY Filmmaking is a blog that brings you the best and the worst of all that, plus great tips, tutorials, and guides of our own.

B&H Photo - Video - Pro Audio