3 REASONS WHY YOU CAN AND SHOULD BE SHOOTING 4K

Before I start let me just say, today, right now, in terms of film production, there isn't a necessity to be using anything more than the standard 1080 HD that ANY camera worth its salt comes fully equipped to shoot. 1080 is perfectly acceptable and then some and it will be for a long time. 4K is not a necessity by any means, At least not yet. That brings me to the main reason I decided to make the jump.

In the late 90's and early 2000's the video revolution was in full swing. Canon had released the XL1, which, thanks to a slew of indie horrors, including Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (which was actually only partially shot on the XL1) became the go to camera for making video features on the cheap and soon places like Blockbuster had their shelves filled with some inventive (some not so much), low budget horror movies. It was a good time to be a horror fan.

Eventually the HD revolution began as the prices for High Definition tape and cameras finally started to come down and the tech became affordable for your average consumer. In 2009 I made an SD horror feature called Creepsville, exactly the same time the next year I shot my first HD film Slasher House. A year or so later when we started trying to sell them I noticed something disturbing.

A lot of the films I loved as I grew into adulthood were now facing extinction because they were we're shot in SD and without brand recognition they weren't being picked up for rerelease anymore. Most of these titles we're now being deleted from existence, from the point of view of the market anyway. It stands to reason that one day in the not too distant future we'll see the same happen to HD (1080). Which brings me to my first reason.

1. FUTURE PROOFING

For most distributors SD just wasn't an option anymore, they were interested as hell in the High Def film, but they told me in no uncertain terms that "SD just wasn't an option for them anymore" in fact they told me that "Anything produced before 1999 in terms of new films was not worth them taking on". I watched a lot of filmmakers face that struggle as we transitioned into the new High resolution technology (of course there were odd exceptions like Marc Price's Colin that slipped through) and failed to find a home for their Standard Def features.

There is now continued interest from distributors in my HD film Slasher House 5 years on, But no distributor wants to touch the SD Creepsville because its not 'viable' for them to try and shift Standard Definition programming anymore, even though ultimately the film wold end up on DVD which is of course Standard Def, distributors now demand a higher quality master.

So with that said, why wouldn't the same eventually happen with 4K? Well, it might, but the life of any films shot on 4k will be longer than anything shot in SD going forward. 4K resolution also boasts the size (from my understanding at least) as cinema screen resolution, which puts it just higher than digital protections lowest standard (2k). There is every reason to believe that we'll sat at this standard for a fairly long time, if not permanently.

2. ITS CHEAPER THAN YOU THINK

"Surely this cinematic quality comes at a price?" We'll yeah it does, but that price doesn't have to break the bank anymore and in 2016 is not really anymore than shooting 1080p. The truth is, that in the last year, 4K has become a very affordable option for everyone. I looked into shooting in higher resolution in 2014 when we came back from the Premiere of Legacy of Thorn and it just wasn't an option for me as a low budget indie with cheapest options being £4000, before adding tens tuff to make them functional.

Today you can start shooting out of the box for as little as £400 (or less if you buy used) as there are now many more options thanks to companies like Sony and Panasonic leading the charge to bring the tech to the everyday consumer. We're now talking the same price as Canon's latest Rebel (T*i) models but with the added bonus of four times the resolution.

The best part is that, this tech is becoming cheaper all the time, its all ready fallen to 10 times less than it was 2 years ago. Next year it'll be available for much less again and pretty soon, shooting in 4K will become the norm and thats a good thing. I mean, even your phones (mainly Samsung) have been shooting 4k for a couple of years now.

I've detailed a list of 4K options in Part 2 of this blog (coming soon) that range from solutions for the penniless filmmaker to something a little fancier for those with a bit more money to spend, but of course I've kept within the low budget ethos of this blog, It really is worth looking at the options out there now as you'll find...

3. IT REALLY IS BETTER THAN HD

Shot from Panasonic LX100 (4K) : Slasher House 2

This seems fairly obvious, as you are working with more resolution. But I often hear, and have been guilty of thinking it myself "How much difference can it make?". I have to say, in a few short months of shooting both HD and UHD (4K), even shooting 4K compressed to a MP4 container, I would say the difference is VERY noticeable and in a very positive way.

I was concerned that it really wouldn't make a difference, and that shooting 4K would ultimately be a large risk with added expense, but the second I got the rushes back from our first shoot I could see a clear jump in quality, even from the 1080 AVCHD that the same camera also shoots.

Shot from Panasonic G7 (4k) : Slasher House 2

Another worry a lot of people have is the expense of things like storage etc, Obviously the files are about 4 times larger. but buying new harddrives didn't break the bank too much as the prices are dropping so dramatically it set me back the same amount as I would have paid 2 years ago for quarter of the storage, so it kind of evens out, I got two 2GB usb3 drives for around £100 (one edit, one backup) and they run fine on my out of the box 2012 Imac (the cheapest you can buy too).

You should take into a account that a low end machine will struggle with 4K playback from time to time and if you don't have a butt load of Ram, you're gonna have a slightly slower machine when it comes to cutting, but I've found a decent work around that I'll talk about in Part 3 (Coming soon).

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I'll try and cover elements here in more detail over the next couple of weeks.

Please note that 4k is not the be all and end all. Its important that you don't worry about this too much, if moving to 4K is an option, you should certainly consider it for the first reason alone, but its more important that you just keep making movies.

Whether it's on 8/16/35mm film, Analogue Tape, MiniDV, SLR, Compact Camera, your iPhone or a 'Red Max Ninja Dragon T2 Turbo : Street Edition', Don't let technology worry you its all there for one reason. To help you tell stories and in the end it really doesn't matter how you do that as long as you do it well.

MJ

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THE ULTIMATE FILMMAKER TOOL : THE IPAD - THE FILMMAKERS BEST FRIEND

**PLEASE NOTE : I am not sponsored by Apple in any way to write this post , if I was, I would hope they'd send me something better than an outdated, refurbished iPad 2.
You should also note that I'm a Mac user so it made sense for me to go with the iPad, but I'm sure that a cheaper Android (or other) tablet can do just as good a job as this thing.

A decade or so ago, back when I was making short films on a camera the size of a small car (joking of course, but not by much) I remember the feeling of dread as I would stare at the boxes and boxes of equipment and paperwork that needed to be lugged along with me for even the smallest shoot.

Hell, even just doing a reccee (Location scout) would involve me having to load up a large rucksack or sometimes a car with a stills camera, video camera, pile of paper work, scripts, notepads, sketchpads and various other 'useful' items and that was just to look over  a suitable location.

When I started pre production on Legacy of Thorn (My 3rd feature) in 2013 I was looking for a solution for something completely different. For years I had used an old chalk slate to sync sound, but that always seemed a little cheap and we were trying to take a step up.

Looking into a new slate, I started to notice how expensive they were, for a piece of plastic that you write some stuff on they were fairly over priced and electronic ones were 100's of pounds out of our budget. Looking into low budget solutions I discovered that you could actually load one of these things onto an iPad via an app. The only problem was that an iPad cost about 4-8 times more than your standard chalk slate.

After some research I discovered that I could pick up a refurbished iPad 2 for £200 * (which was just over double what I would have paid for the plastic white board slate) and that would come with a decent 16gb memory, that seemed like a good deal if it could do what I needed it to do, but that wasn't quite enough for me to pull the trigger on it. I did some more research.

*You can get a much more up to date iPad for much less than paid for this one today.

To make the investment worth while it needed to be able to take over more than just just marking
duties, it would have to be able to do a whole lot more. It became obvious to me very quickly that not only would I be able to do a great deal of other things on using this little device that could slip in my shoulder bag, in fact, I could almost cover my entire creative process from start to finish.

So here is a list of of the apps I use throughout production from start to finish, some are free, some are cheap, But i've made a point to never spend more than a few pounds/bucks on anything to go with it. So lets get started.

PRE PRODUCTION :

CELTX (£7/$10)
Celtx is a paid app, it costs about £7($10) and although there are free apps out there that do a similar job, I use Celtx on my main laptop and desktop for writing when I'm at home so it made sense to have an app that would be compatible with the scripts I had already written.

The app itself is fairly similar to the desktop edition, with a few things tweaked to make it work with touch screen tech, but nothing major. Since I got the app I've actually written two features on it from start to finish, the small screen size makes navigation a bit more difficult, but its certainly possible to use the app to write your next film.

I paired it with an iMac keyboard to make typing more comfortable, but in a pinch its fine to use the touch screen keys if your out on the road. It doesn't feature then Prose setting that the desktop version has, but that seems tone all thats missing.


PAPER (Free)
Paper is probably the best app on the iPad in terms of sheer value and power, in the last 2 years I've watched it go from a fairly capable, if somewhat limited, tool to a powerhouse for tablet artists. The original version came with one pen tool and a limited colour set. I bought the extra art tools for about £5 and it really opened the app up for me.

The app now comes with all these tools as standard and its still free on IOS. I've used this app for everything from costume design, to storyboarding, to expressing ideas to cast and crew and plotting out movies. Its an extremely powerful tool and probably my favourite to use.

There is an official 'pencil' you can buy for about £50, but i've found that a basic Stylus from poundland (Comes in a pack of 2) works just as good :)


CAMERA (Free)
Your iPad comes with a camera app as standard and its improving all the time with updates and added features. Now instead of taking a whole bunch of gear to a location for reccee's I simply take the iPad and run off some pictures through there.

The biggest advantage of this is that I can send them to other crew members instantly via dropbox, or the cloud and of course I can skim back through them with ease to show team members what we found there.

Its exposure and focus is automatic so it not really any good for judging light levels or anything like that, for that I would take a smaller camera rig if needed, but for grabbing reference pictures its perfect and it means I have my notepad at the ready on the same device should I need to take notes.



VIDEO (Free)
Another app that comes as standard and another app that is extremely useful. Its really just a  functional extension of the camera app and comes with same exposure and focus draw backs, but it has a fair few uses.

There is an app called FilmicPro that costs about £3($5) but it does give you control over exposure/focus.

First of all, Videos of location can be more helpful than stills at times and if I can't make a scout, its amazing to be able to have a video sent over to me from the location. We never set foot in the location from Slasher House before shooting as it was essentially in another country on a small island. Our contact there sent us a video of the place and we could judge its suitability from that.

One of its more interesting uses is the ability to video storyboard. I'll quite often shoot a video storyboard of a scene during a scout to make sure that the location has all my desired angles and if it doesn't what do they have to be changed to. The best part about doing it on your tablet is that you can be cutting the video storyboard (I'll talk about that later) in the car on the way home, If you're not driving that is.

PRODUCTION :

MARKER SLATE (Free)
The main reason I invested in the tablet in the first place was that I was aware that I could use it as a Clapper board and it would look a little bit more professional than using the old skool chalk board that I'd use for the last few years. It was only researching all these other things that it could do that really sealed the deal for me.

If you're shooting sync audio, which we usually do, then you'll usually need to be marking each shot with a slate. The View Finder Marker Slate is free, its a pretty basic clapper, but its everything I need when it comes down to finding and syncing shots in the edit.

There are probably much better slate apps out there, in fact, I know there are, but they cost a fair chunk for an app and the free one I use works just fine.


SIDE BOOKS (Free/£1.50 unlimited docs) 
The days of having dozens of paper copies of the script littering the set are over. We can now take our script in the same slimline package as everything else and share it out with the rest of the cast and crew to read on their phone or tablet.

Side Books is another free app, I just transfer the script onto it before we go to the shoot and then I have instant access to it when we need to check anything or run dialogue. It really cuts down on having a lot of extra paper to carry around etc. Now we can even use it to have people sign releases etc.

I believe there is an extra charge to store more documents of about £1.50, but it stores half a dozen documents as standard as far as I remember.

Note : we usually do have one hard copy just in case. 


LENS+ (Free)

As I've said before, you could easily shoot a decent looking movie on a phone or an iPad now (especially with the quality of the camera in the newer iPhones which now shoot in 4k), whilst the camera app built in to the iPad is pretty basic, Lens+ allows you to emulate some cool, old skool film stocks in the camera itself and it leads to some fun results.

It is by no means professional looking, but its fairly useful for specific tasks. I used it to shoot some old style movie footage on the go a while ago for a prospective project that came out great and I tend to use it for shooting some pretentious behind the scenes on music videos which is pretty awesome if you're a hipster.


PLAY MEMORIES & PANASONIC IMAGE APP (Free)
This a quite app specific, but as I currently use Panasonic Lumix and Sony Action cams these two apps respectively let me use the iPad as a monitor for those awkward shots, such as crane shots, high shots where I can't get a good look at the LCD.

Sometimes I will just use it as general monitor, although being self shooter that doesn't come into play too much, but it is incredibly useful for the action cam that does have an onboard monitor and the Panasonic app even allows you to control the camera remotely.

INSTAGRAM (Free)
Instagram is one of those apps that everyone uses these days. The main reason I find it so useful is that I can take, edit and share pictures directly to our Facebook/Twitter etc from it in seconds and thats very helpful when you're out on set.

Usually we're shooting in some abandoned school, factory, prison, wasteland etc and so wifi access on our sets is usually impossible. If we're shooting for 14 days, that could mean 14 days blackout on social media pages, which as a growing company is not good.

Instagram gives me the ability to send picture updates from set quickly and efficiently using my data plan. It also means that I can snap a picture, upload and then be back to shooting in seconds. You can do it with other social media apps these days, but this my favourite.

POST PRODUCTION :

IMOVIE (£3/$5)

IMovie for IOS is a touch screen, stripped down version of the app that comes pre loaded on Apple machines. This is by no means a pro grade editor, but for cutting quick pre vis stuff on set, its an absolute godsend.

Its does cost about £3/$5 or something like that. but its well worth the money if your looking for something that can do basic edits on the run. That said, with enough storage space on an modern iPad, i'm convinced you could cut at least a short film on one of these things.

I don't use this one as often as I should, but its nice to know its available to me should I need to do editing on the move. Like the desktop version its a very powerful tool, even if its missing one or two of the apps features.



GARAGE BAND (£3/$5)
This is probably my favourite app. Its a touch screen version of the program that comes free with any Apple System although this version will only set you back around £3/$5, it lacks some of the desktops editions functionality, but it more than makes up from it with touch screen keyboards, drums and things like Smart Guitar and Bass and even a full Orchestra at the end of your fingers.

This is one of those programs that I couldn't do without. I've written entire scores and albums using this thing, as well as it being useful for creating general ambience for projects, trailers etc. For about £10 you can also pick up an 'Irig' that will let you plug in mics, guitars and even a full mixing desk should you want to.

I use it as is and its full array of instruments is really incredible and the best part is that you can export your projects to the larger desktop version if needed to take advantage of the mastering tools, a larger array of sounds and of course in my case, auto tune ;)


PHOTOSHOP TOUCH (£7/$10)

This is about £7 and the most expensive app I own I think. Its another stripped down touch screen version of a desktop program, this time its Adobe Photoshop, but it has a lot of the functionality that the full program has, albeit a lite version. It is a bit of fuss to get your head around but its extremely useful for doing any graphic design work on the go.

I use it mainly for colouring as that seems to be its strong point, I can use the Paper app to sketch something out, do some quick, decent quality colouring in the Photoshop app and then message it straight over to cast and crew so they have an idea of whatever it I'm talking about in terms of colour for sets, costumes in my designs. It also has some cool features and filters that are similar to the ones found in the full version.


BLOGGER (Free)
If, like me, you keep online production diaries and write for blogs such as this one, then the FREE Blogger app is perfect. Almost 90% of the posts on this blog were at least drafted via the app. Its almost as fully functional as the full browser version, which of course you can still use via the tablets web app if needs be.

I use it all the time and its super handy to have on set or at home. I'm working on this blog write now using it and I figured it was good app to end on.

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I've been using this outdated, refurb now for over 2 years and I've never felt the need to replace it. I use it day in day out across the entire creative process and beyond it. Its not just a tool I take on set, its a tool that I use all day every day to help me keep on top of all my film related tasks.

It really is the most impressive tool in my whole kit and even though my screen is cracked and its grubby from its time spent in warehouses and abandoned buildings it comes with me everywhere and beyond its filmmaking uses, it serves as a great way to watch movies if I find myself at a loose end and that to me is what makes it a filmmakers best friend.


MJ

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SEEING THE LIGHT : £5 DIY LED lights

MJ Dixon is an Award Winning Filmmaker and Director of Low Budget worldwide releases includingSlasher House and Legacy Of Thorn. He has also seen over 30 music videos and shorts appear on major TV channels around the world as well as running filming workshop The Micro Budget Massacre. He mostly spends his time leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home.

READ FIRST!! Once again, please understand that this is just my outlook and opinion on aspects of filmmaking, Im not saying its right or wrong, it's just how I do things and how I view things, Filmmaking is about listening to everyone, your peers, professionals and everything in-between. This article is here to be nothing more than helpful to people looking to make movies, hopefully thats you.

The simple fact is, production gear can be expensive. Sometimes really expensive, I lately looked into getting some professional led panels for studio shoot and discovers that to get 2 (in reality I would need at least 3) would cost me well over £1000 . Which as a low budget film producer and video director just doesn't come easy. I also understand that money doesn't grow on trees for those of you just starting out, who want to learn the craft of filmmaking. 

A few years ago I was booked by a band to make a professional music video, It was one of my first as an official company and so I wanted to keep it self sufficient. I didn't have a lot of gear at the time as I was just starting out. The video needed some lights and a black backdrop and through some careful planning I managed to pick that up with the deposit the band gave me. However it left me little money left for the rest of the video.

A lot of the scenes they wanted in thier story element needed to be shot outside on the streets and I couldn't take my newly bought plastering worklights because I couldn't afford a generator at the time to run them. So I knew I needed a portable light of some kind, however anything useable and bright enough was well out of my budget. After wandering around the £1 store one day, I came across the I perfect solution.

I found some ultra bright head torches for £1 each, they ran in AA batteries and were pretty bright, brighter than any other LEDs I go had come across. But not still bright enough. I needed a way to triple the power of them.

 Hollow Demise Video Still. Lit with LEDs in an underpants box. 

At home I had a cardboard window box from some underwear I had had gotten for Christmas. I bought a couple of the lights and realised that they lights slotted in perfectly. I dropped 4 lights in and closed the plastic Perspex of the box top over the lamps and it worked perfectly. Actually, too perfectly, the light was too harsh. A sheet of kitchen roll later and the light was diffused enough to use, Albiet handheld. 

Being made of a cardboard box meant that the light probably didn't have too much shelf life, but it worked in the in the rain for the duration of the shoot. It did however mean that I could reinvent the light to have more longevity. 

So I invented the Tupperlight.

Tupperware tub £1, Bright LED Head Torch £1 x 3, 12 Kodak Batteries £1

Make sure your box fits the lights tight to stop them from moving during use. 

 

Add A thin sheet on Kitchen roll for Diffusion if needed. 

This is by no means a 'perfect' solution, it has to be hand held for a start (although i'm sure it would be easy enough to mount of a light stand), but it works and is perfect on a low budget. Everything I needed to build this light featured here, I picked up for £4 (+ £1 for 12 low voltage batteries), This one has three lights, which is fine, my original had four, Although you can make a bigger one with a larger casing with as ,many lights as you want. 

No budget Filmmaking is just about being creative with what you have and even though i have since replaced this cheap solution with more reliable lights I still use the Tupperlight every now and then..

You can check out the video that I used it on below. 

MJ

IF YOU FOUND THIS HELPFUL OR HAVE ANY QUESTIONS THEN PLEASE DROP THEM IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. 

SEEING THE LIGHT : LEDing The Way

MJ Dixon is an Award Winning Filmmaker and Director of Low Budget worldwide releases including Slasher House and Legacy Of Thorn. He has also seen over 30 music videos and shorts appear on major TV channels around the world as well as running filming workshop The Micro Budget Massacre. He mostly spends his time leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home.

READ FIRST!! Once again, please understand that this is just my outlook and opinion on aspects of filmmaking, Im not saying its right or wrong, it's just how I do things and how I view things, Filmmaking is about listening to everyone, your peers, professionals and everything in-between. This article is here to be nothing more than helpful to people looking to make movies, hopefully thats you.

CAUTION : Obviously working with any electrics that create heat is dangerous, make sure any lights you get have the required protective glass and caging and of course just like tungsten lights be aware that, if not set up correctly, then it can, like anything on set, be very, very dangerous.

Last week I talked about my standard light set up, using tungsten worklights. Tne set up itself cost very little and is extremely useful and very bright. However it does have draw backs, mainly in regards to how hot these kind of lights get. Although trust me, shooting in the winter in Northern England you'll apprecaite that a little more.

However our set up has evolved over the last few years to include LEDs. LEDs are cooler, lighter and most of the time safer than having lights that intergaret hot glass and Sensetive bulbs. This being a low budget filmmaking blog though, I have a duty to look at the cheapest alternative first and of course that is certainly tungsten worklights. 

The problem with these lights is that they each run at 500w each ( that's just work lights, we're talking 800w upward for pro lights) so if your heading out to location you're suddenly talking, large loud expensive generators and when you are running and gunning, like we have to do 50% of the time, you need something much more reliable and subtle to get the job done.

This is where I employ Led worklights. We picked up 3 of the brightest we could find (I think 108 LEDs) they cost about £50 each and they are rechargable, making them a great portable solution at about a quarter of the cost of 1 professional led panel. They fit to most light stands and last about 3 hours of constant use, so if you are careful with your usage you can get a full nights shooting out of them.

They have some drawbacks like anything, but low budget filmmaking is about jumping over hurdles in order to bring costs down. Now first of all, led lamps are not quite as bright as you would like unless you start moving into spending a few hundred, so most of the time you have to double the light source. These particular lights are rechargable, making them very portable. Downside is that they can't run off the mains without damaging the battery, so they need to be fully charged after they die out, which takes 3 hours. 

Heres an ebay link for the model we use HERE

And just for price comparison heres the same size tungsten (They are about £5 more with a stand) which is twice as bright HERE

Now the simple solution to this, is to have them on charging rotation. But of course that doubles the price of your set up. If your after something to rival the brightness of of a standard tungsten light you'll want to double that again. So we go from a £150 set up to a £600 set up. This however is still about the price of one pro led panel. So it's still a great option on a low budget production and an option I recommend can you afford to shell out a few hundred pounds/bucks on lighting.

However bare this in mind, no lighting solution is the best solution for every situation. Some days LEDs just ain't going to cut it. Sometimes you need something more powerful. We use anything from homemade LEDs to plastering lamps to pro stage lights depending on the job. Knowing what the best tools to use for each job is what will make your films look better, not the fact that you spent $7000 dollar on lighting panels. 

A lot of our pickup outdoor scenes in Legacy Of Thorn had to be quick, All of them were lit using this portable set up and available light and that is really the secret to make LEDs work in large areas. Using them to highlight what is already there. This way you can still have control over what your film looks like, whilst utilising the light around you. Especially if you do your research into the locations lighting ahead of time.

The trick with lighting is understand the strengths and weaknesses of different types of lights, tungsten lights are still cheaper and in my opinion give a warmer, nicer, brighter light despite thier drawbacks. But I certainly can't deny the usefulness of LEDs and I certainly intend to replace my tungsten kit with them eventually, but for the level of light you need on a film set you can be looking at some serious money.

But a few hundred pounds is still a lot of money for low/no budget filmmakers. However there is a slightly cheaper option when it comes to portable LEDs if your willing to put some time in, but I'll talk about that next week ;)

MJ

IF YOU FOUND THIS HELPFUL OR HAVE ANY QUESTIONS THEN PLEASE DROP THEM IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. 

SEEING THE LIGHT : Our £100 Lighting Set Up

MJ Dixon is an Award Winning Filmmaker and Director of Low Budget worldwide releases including Slasher House and Legacy Of Thorn. He has also seen over 30 music videos and shorts appear on major TV channels around the world as well as running filming workshop The Micro Budget Massacre. He mostly spends his time leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home. 

READ FIRST!! Once again, please understand that this is just my outlook and opinion on aspects of filmmaking, Im not saying its right or wrong, it's just how I do things and how I view things, Filmmaking is about listening to everyone, your peers, professionals and everything in-between. This article is here to be nothing more than helpful to people looking to make movies, hopefully thats you. 

CAUTION : Obviously working with any electrics that create heat is dangerous, make sure any lights you get have the required protective glass and caging and of course just like tungsten lights be aware that, if not set up correctly, then it can, like anything on set, be very, very dangerous.

Lighting is the most important tool at your disposal when in comes to shooting anything. That sounds obvious, I know, but in advent of DSLRs and their ability to shoot in low light conditions, I slowly watched a lot of filmmakers around me slowly begin to ignore lightning all together as they struggled less and less to get a 'usuable' image, and slowly they stop reaching for the best image. 

Shooting in available light, is great. It's cheap, it's quick and it's easy and it's something I employ from time to time depending on the situation. That however simply doesn't always cut it, especially if you want to make dynamic looking films. Shooting in flat available light and colour grading after is brilliant for a quick fix, but really learning to light your films will a world of difference and will set your films apart from the standard colour graded footage that has become so popular in recent years. 

The trouble here, is that lighting equipment can set you back by thousands of pounds/dollars/euros to get a simple set up. The fact is though, it doesn't have to.  Our set up cost us, literally, just over £100 and I've never had to replace it.

Our £100 Lighting Set Up

I've shot for over 3 years now on a set up that cost me £100.75p (that 75p drove my OCD crazy). It's made up of three 500w work lamps and two 500w floor lamps. All these lights have lit everything I have made in the since 2011, including 2 feature film, half a dozen short films and over a dozen Music videos that have aired on major tv channels across the world. They run off a standard mains adapter and fit in a medium sized travel bag (although it is heavy) and it has never let me down. You can buy these things at most hardware shops and if you shop around I imagine you'll find an even better deal than we got. 

For barn doors, my set up becomes super, super low budget. It involves aluminium BBQ trays (6 for £1) and some pretty standard acetate for 50p an a3 sheet from the craft shop pinned to the trays with metal clips that come in packs of 20 from the £store. It's the most low-fi set up you will ever see in your life, but film is about the destination not the journey. For diffusing. I used greaseproof paper, and just cut it to size it cost about 50p a roll. I've bought one roll in 3 years. 

When I'm attaching BBQ trays to sheets of coloured plastic and hooking them on plastering lights, clients, crew, cast all look at me like I'm a mental case. However when they see the final product all that goes away when they see the result that I get. It's doesn't matter how you get your look as long as you get it (safely of course).

It may seem a little crude, but it gets the job done and I swear by in for any filmmakers that struggle to afford equipment. The only small drawback is that using acetate this close to heat source usually melts it out of shape after a day shoot. So I find that I buy new gels as needed per shoot, On average it usually costs me £1 to replace them. 

Lighting Set Up Cost Total = £104.25

The reason they work however is nothing to do with thier wattage, or brightness, or BBQ trays or how they plug in. No they work because I learned how to use them effectively and when you are shooting on something like an SLR, it's more important to understand how to light your scenes than ever, because it's the difference between a 'usable' pictures and something professional looking. 

 

On our latest feature Legacy Of Thorn, almost every scene was lit using this set up. 

I learnt to light properly on digital video and transfered those skills in the advent of DSLRs. it an important skill to learn and once you get it it will change the way you think about your films forever.  

I also understand that LED lights are becoming more common place, but currently a decent 'professional' set up is far from affordable off the shelf, although it doesn't have to be. I'll talk about that next time.

MJ

IF YOU FOUND THIS HELPFUL OR HAVE ANY QUESTIONS THEN PLEASE DROP THEM IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. 

SELECT YOUR WEAPON : What To Shoot Your Indie Movie On

I think its fair to say, that technology has moved on quite rapidly in the last half decade, a positive of this? We now have access to amazing filmmaking technology and that technology is becoming less and less expensive every month. However, the downside? Choosing a camera can be a bit of minefield if you don't know anything about them, and that can lead to worrying about making the right choice. I'm here to tell you that it might not be that important.  

When I was a teenager, back in 90's the simple fact was that you just shot on what you could, because not every family could afford the expense of a video camera. So it was either shoot on your Uncle's VHS-C camera, with its blurry viewfinder ( LCD screens were a dream of the future) or nothing. So I learned not to picky early on, and just work with what I had. 

I just wanted to make movies and it wasn't important to me that I couldn't get hold of the best cameras on offer, I just wanted to make movies and that was that, I would jump any technical hurdle to do it. For me, things have not changed, although they have become much, much easier. 

KNOW YOU ENEMY

First of all let me start by saying that, it IS important to choose the right camera for your project. The approach now for newbies is just to grab a DSLR with a kit lens and think that it will solve all your problems, but the fact is that SLR's aren't suited for everything, although I do agree that they are at least a pretty well rounded camera for a beginner or those on a low budget when it comes to imagery alone, they do come with 'hurdles' that must be jumped. But I'll talk about that another time. 

My point is that choosing the right camera for your project is important. To a degree. Depending on if you're shooting a documentary, a promo, a music video or a narrative will most likely dicatate what kind of camera your going to use. If you have a budget then your choices will grow and if not chances are you'll have to work with what you've got, but none of that should ever stop you from shooting something, because a camera does not dictate how good of a filmmaker you are, how you solve problems does. 

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Camera's are more accessible than ever now, you can pick up a DSLR that shoots Hd footage brand new for £200 right now and start shoot nice looking footage. You can get an HD (Shooting in 1080!) camera with Ninja Turtles stickers on for £30 right now and just start shooting. It's just about knowing your limits, jumping the hurdles and working with them to solve the problems they present to you. You can shoot a movie on you phone now with relative ease, ON YOUR PHONE!!! (Note : this blog was written in 2014)

We shot a little practical joke Trailer for April 1st in 2014, and we decided to try and utilise stuff we had to hand, which was an iPhone and an old rowing machine that we dismantled and used as a slider. It had a few draw backs, but it came out ok for a first crack at using a phone to shoot a movie. 

WHAT YOU SHOOT ON IS NOT IMPORTANT (Kinda)

I went to University with people who wouldn't shoot on anything but film, they refused. They we're waiting till they could afford to shot thier 35mm feature and as a result a lot of them are now married with kids or have full time jobs at a supermarket or a call centre and, of course, never made their movie. The same goes for a lot of filmmakers I meet now, the are waiting for their budget so they can shoot on a 'Red' but of course that budget doesn't come because they won't budge or compromise and so haven't proven they can make anything and probably never will. By the time they can afford to shoot on a Red it will be dead tech and we'll have moved onto 17K or whatever is the future of film format happens to be.

In 2009 I planned to shoot my first feature Creepsville on a £300 Panasonic 3ccd Camcorder (man was 3ccd important back then), about a month before shooting, the Univeristy stores guys told us they had some Sony V1 cam's and that we could borrow them after hours outside of term time when no one was using them. We jumped at it, because although it's important to get by with what you've got, it's also important to shoot on the best possible equipment that you can, as long as it's not harmful to your movie. 

On Slasher House I looked at renting a Red, however the rental for 2 weeks in 2010 was about £5000, that was our entire budget, so that would have left us no money for location, costume, travel, resources, food etc. I decided that it wasn't worth struggling through the rest of the movie with no more resources and so we shot on a Canon 550d (back then with 2 lenses and an SD card cost me £1000) which I bought rather than rented, which meant that we had it permanently for the rest of the films shoot.

The fact is that, you should of course use the very best equipment that is available to you (but that is completely relative)  if you can use a Red or a Black Magic or a GH4 or whatever and can afford the extra cash for storage, then by all means do it. As long as it not detrimental to your project. Ultimately though the truth is this, you can shoot on whatever you want as long as you have a great story (and decent sound!). As long as its engaging your general audience doesn't care if shot on a £40,000 Red setup, a DSLR, A phone or a £30 quid HD camera with Ninja Turtles stickers on it. There really is no excuse. 

Now go shoot something :)

Just remember that what you shoot on is not a substitute for talent or skill and no camera is going to make you a better cinematographer or filmmaker the same way that no camera will make you a worse one. 

MJ

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