Props and DIY camera equipment

I want to say sorry for taking so long to post.  I have been working a lot and have had little time to post. I have however been working on perfecting my PoBoy Dolly/Slider.  I found many tutorials on how to build a camera dolly out of pvc and old inline skate wheels.  This was simple and has been around for awhile.  I made a cool discovery while trying to find a way to mount a set of tracks to a tripod.  I finally came to conclusion that everything would work better if I just had a flat platform to put everything on.  The drawback to this is that a table is heavy and cumbersome.  So while rummaging in the attic I found our old ironing board.  This made a great adjustable platform in which to operate the dolly.  Since I already had one it cost me nothing.  I have seen them at thrift stores for around $3.00 and new ones run anywhere from $10.00 and up.  What I really like about this setup is that it is light and ADJUSTABLE :)  Thats right the ironing board will adjust from 4 inches off the floor up to about 3.5 feet off the floor.  The whole setup cost under 20 dollars.  Check out the video below.

Telling A Story

Well in this day of high dollar software and effects packages it seems that now anything is possible for the novice filmmaker.  For those of us that can not afford the latest and greatest there is still the art of telling a story.  I believe that this is at the core of filmmaking.  I have watched movies in the past where I was caught up in the visual effects so much I didn't realize that the story was as weak as a soggy saltine cracker.  Now please don't misunderstand me I love awesome jaw dropping effects and I would love to have the latest version of Adobe Premier / After Effects to edit all my projects but alas I am just a Po Boy.  So I will dedicate my next projects to the story telling and see if I can do it without special effects. Until next time, It's your thang, do whatcha wanna do.

Mockumentary

Hey here is a fun way to make a video or film, make a mockumentary.  The mockumentary is like a documentary only mockumentaries are fake or spoof other documentaries.  These are simple to do because it does not require that your subject matter be real or that any of your information is factual.  The film itself does not need to have great cinematography in fact the less perfect it looks the more it has that documentary feel.  I found it best to just run and gun with the shots, film it quick and move on with it.  This is also a good way to get experience shooting things out of sequence.  My niece and nephew always ask me to make movies with them, this was a quick and easy way to do that and have a lot of fun in the process.  So don't wait go and make a Mockumentary!  Below is the Mockumentary I made with the kids, hope you enjoy it.

One man's JUNK

Sorry that it has been so long since I last posted.  I just wanted to talk a little about junk, yes junk.  Everyone has some. You probably have some pretty cool junk stored away somewhere right now.  I have found a great use for it, prop building. You would be surprised how many props you can find or make with just a little imagination.  Old cloths make great costumes, old bits and pieces of worn out electronics can be hot glued together to create some great scifi props. Here is a short video on my junk props.

Inspired

Sometimes I am inspired by the simplicity of objects for example a shoulder rig built from PVC.  I thought many times how nice it must be to have a high end shoulder rig with a matt box and follow focus attachment.  The cost of such a rig is however not within my budget.  I then finally came to the conclusion that it made no difference what I used to stabilize my camera as long as the camera was stable.  I then set out to build my own version of a shoulder rig inspired by the frugal filmmaker and knoptop.  I came up with a hybrid of their versions of PVC camera rigs to create my own rig. CHECK IT OUT!

Lights

I apologize that my post have not been more detailed and frequent.  My new camera has taken up a great deal of time with trying to learn how to use it.  There is something to be said for the convenience of the Flip Cam (just point and shoot). No focus, no iso, no Fps, and no adjusting for light. The T3i is a bit overwhelming for the novice (like myself) the first time you try to use it.  I suggest that you read the owners manual first before trying to take pictures or do any filming.  Next watch tutorials and there are plenty of them on YouTube.  The biggest challenge for me is going to be understanding light.  LIGHT can make all the difference in the world as to how your final product comes out.  Starting out I plan to keep it simple and cheap by using clamp lights with CFL bulbs.  Here is a big tip that I learned as I did my research. Whatever  CFL bulbs you decide to use try to make sure that they are all the same type of light for example I like to use the daylight type.  The best feature of these lights are the price and the low heat.  With some experimenting you should be able to find a combination of lights that will work for you.  In a later post I will put in some pics of the lights I have put together so until then, "LET THERE BE LIGHTS".

Well I think that I may have figured the three point lighting thing.  The camera settings took some time. Here is something that I did to test the settings.