Film Production

This article will allow you to follow along with the film credits of a movie so that you can actually understand what all of that means as it's scrolling along. And if you are making a low budget...

Boom operators work with the sound department to assist the production sound mixer for films and television shows. They operate the boom microphone to record ambient sound, effects and dialogue....

The green screen technique is a method used in both cinematography and still photography to composite images. The technique is generally used to superimpose a model or actors over either a painted...

A dolly is a piece of equipment used in film production which allows completely smooth camera moves along a straight line, creating a great effect and view of the action onscreen. Professional...

In the 70's and 80's a lot of us grew up watching horror hosts like Dr. Shock from Channel 17 in the Philadelphia market. He hosted Horror Theater and Mad Theater. In the New York martet you had...

Animation cameras are, in reality, just regular film cameras with the addition of a very important piece of equipment. A long cord with a button on the end of it called a "Remote Switch" allows...

Once used as a tool to capture still life on paper, the camera has turned into a necessary part of daily life. Cameras are now used in everything from photography to filmmaking, to surveillance...

"Snag film" is a term given to a movie that originated on SnagFilms.com, an open and free social network for independent filmmakers to distribute their work on a mass scale.

The jellybean-blue waters and feathery green trees in the hit movie musical "Mamma Mia!" belong to the Greek island of Skopelos. The white sand shore of Kastani Beach is where Sophie and Sky are...

A professional costume designer is required to provide appropriate clothing and accessories for any period in time. The art of costume design helps bolster the characters and the story line in the...

Primary production is the part of the filmmaking process in which the majority of the film is shot on camera. This includes all acting scenes if the film is a narrative piece or all interviews and...

Ever wanted to make a short film but couldn't because it was too expensive? Well it doesn't have to be. I can show you how to make a movie without spending a dime.

To understand how light, 3-D glasses and 3-D projectors work together, you need to understand that your brain uses information from your eyes to sense "visual depth." Imagine that someone throws a...

A script supervisor is a film technician who works beside the director on the movie set. General qualities needed for the job are excellent organizational skills and an unerring eye for detail....

Building on the popular 3D animation, 4D has added a time and space concept to it's dimensions. Animators are now capable to move an object around its own mirror image. This has been a...

The Technicolor process as introduced in 1916 was a two-color additive process that employed double projectors to superimpose the two-color components of the picture on the screen, one through a...

When considering the moviemaking industry, most people immediately think of Hollywood. What many do not know is that the city of Chicago has a vibrant and bustling film community. The third...

Lighting is an integral component to any video. By simply lighting a video properly you can make something simple look a lot more professional than it really is. Luckily, you don't need a lot of...

Pinnacle Studio is a relatively inexpensive video editing program available for the Windows operating system. Made by Avid, Pinnacle Studio allows both novice video editors and professionals to...

Pinnacle Studio is a powerful video editing tool. Specifically designed for non-professionals, the software makes it easy to edit your own videos, add titles and include special effects. There are...

A shotgun microphone is an extremely directional sound amplification device, meaning that it is very sensitive to sounds originating in front of the microphone and highly insensitive to sounds...

Adobe Flash is a powerful program that you can use to create animated movies. The software is easy to learn and simple to navigate for beginners, while including plenty of advanced features that...

The film editing program Pinnacle Studio enables users to take advantage of its chroma key toolbar and green screen technology. You can film actors in one setting and replace it with a different...

The Steadicam is a camera stabilizing system introduced in 1976. It features a vest and a counterweight attachment for your video camera, designed to keep the camera frame as steady as possible as...

While shooting home movies on 8-millimeter (mm) film can preserve your most personal moments, it isn't a practical choice when it comes to lugging an 8mm projector and screen to someone's house...

When creating a television, film, or web video production, it is vital to remember the importance of lighting. Without appropriate lighting, the ambience of your scene will be lost, or worse: the...

You want to be an actor or an actress, but you don't know how to break into the business. Why not be an extra. Casting directors are seeking extras every day!

As 35mm film naturally degrades and deteriorates in quality over time, it might be wise to consider transferring your old films to DVD. You could go to a professional service and pay hundreds of...

Chroma keying is a special effect that revolutionized filmmaking. In video and film production, chroma keying on green or blue screen allows filmmakers to combine shots, change locations, fix...

Planning a film production is an important step in determining of the production process will actually take place. The planning process allows the production team to get an idea of what funding is...

Film crews and photographers use jibs, also called cranes and booms, to elevate a camera for aerial shots. Jibs use a pivoting arm to bring a camera higher or lower while a tripod base stabilizes...

Sergei Eisenstein pioneered the Soviet montage theory and perfected or validated some specific techniques and uses in montage creation. Eisenstein saw montage editing as a contrast to mainstream...

A movie is only as good as its screen play. The screen play has to give the reader an accurate representation of what will eventually be going on during the finished film. A screen play must also...

Claymation, one of several forms of stop-motion or object-animation filmmaking, is filmed as a series of individual frames that are played back at a frame rate greater than 10 to 12 frames per...

There was a time when having an agent was almost the only way you could pitch an animated series to one of the few big production companies. Competition was tough then. The entertainment industry...

It can be a pain to cart out an old 8mm film projector every time you want to watch some home movies. Not only do you have to thread the film into the projector, you have to set up the screen, dim...

Adding voice-overs, remixing, editing or any other reason may require you to remove music from a video. While it may seem like a daunting task, stripping audio is not only easy, but just about any...

Many people assume that to make a film, you need to get a major movie studio to back your production and provide you with money. This is not true. Anybody who donates money to you to help make a...

The tough economy is making it harder for artists to find funding for their film projects. But as the government and private organizations continue to recognize film as an important art...

When the camera moves through space, the viewer experiences the most distinctly cinematic of the motion picture shots. The moving camera is perhaps the most difficult and often the most expensive...

Breaking into Hollywood is tough, even in a good economy. The wariness of studios to take a risk on unknowns has prompted many entrepreneurial filmmakers to raise money to produce their projects....

Most people these days watch movies that aren't playing in theaters or on television via a DVD, which they can rent or buy. The basis of the DVD belongs to an older form of media, the video...

Halogen lights are used regularly in film production as they burn hotter then tungsten lights (normal frosted lightbulbs) and in turn can create brighter amounts of light by using less energy....

The animation in "Nightmare Before Christmas," "Coraline" and "The Corpse Bride" may seem like impossible movie magic, but this particular animation, known as "Claymation," is one of the easiest...

Fake blood can be homemade, though it can be a trial-and-error process. Before making the blood, complete a check list: Decide in advance how much blood you will need, its desired consistency and...

Transferring old home movies or that "blockbuster" movie you made as a teenager to video or DVD can be costly if you take it to a professional. However, you can make the transfer to videotape or...

Are you desperately trying to figure out ways to get more video views on your Youtube videos? Well here are some ways that will help increase your video views! Enjoy

TV media production classes have been around for years, but with computer advancements, the classes have expanded and grown throughout middle schools, elementary schools and high schools. Teaching...

The words "special effects animation" conjure up images of starships blowing away asteroids in some distant galaxy light years away. Although blowing up make-believe spaceships is part of special...

Chroma key is another term for what is commonly called green screening. It is when you shoot a subject in front of a green or blue screen and replace all the green or blue in frame with another...