For my Editing Pleasure

I placed an order for 4gb of RAM and an external 1tb hard drive with firewire 800 data transfer.  I'm pretty excited about this.  In my personal theory based on absolutely nothing, this should cut rendering time in half and free up tons of space on my internal hard drive.  I decided to order the memory after watching a youtube video showing just how easy it is to install it to your iMac.  I thought it was an overbearingly tedious task but it seems the hardest thing I'll have to do is loosen a screw.  I'm excited to have my Mac running faster and pray it seriously cuts down on compression time.

DIY Lightbox

Test footage1

This is a short clip of my cats Penny and Huxley.  This is the raw clip straight from the camera with no coloring effects.  It was taken with a Minolta 70-210mm 1:4.5 lens.  It's about the quality of the kit lens.  I've been testing the other lenses that I've procured from craigslist, ebay, pawnshops, and relatives and will post those soon.  With this I was seeing how the camera looked and the ability of the auto focus function.  The tests I've been taking recently is to determine under which conditions I would use certain lenses and trying to find my go-to lenses.  More to come!

DIY Fig Rig

Recent DIY: Light and Sound

My Tascam dr07 mark II came in the mail this week.  Extremely stoked about this little guy.  I love the ability to choose between A/B and X/Y mic positions.  But from watching product tests on Youtube (did I mention how awesome that site is??) it was made very clear that I would need a wind sock.  Now, at a bare minimum a windscreen will cost  you $20.  I don't know about you, but I enjoy having $20.  I also enjoy surprising myself by my creative aptitude, so I decided to sew together my own.  If needed I can provide plans for you if you wish to do this as well.  My mom is a big quilter (and no, she didn't teach me to sew, I learned from youtube) and had this great fur lying around.  I sewed a sleeve out of it and then stitched a rubber band at the bottom to provide tension and grip.  Here's what a free deadcat windscreen looks like...

 I have yet to officially test it, but I did put my fingers in there and blow on it and couldn't feel any air leaking through.  I'll post a test as soon as I can.

My next thought was since that went so well, I might as well continue and make a light reflector.  So I constructed this out of gold fabric glued and then stapled for good measure to cardboard.  The piece of cardboard I used was the back of a large calendar.  Another $0 project for something that would cost $16.

"My Precious..."

So this is my precious, the Sony SLTa33.  It's the little brother of the Alpha55.  This is my first DSLR body and what has reignited my passion for movie making.  It can shoot full 1080HD video in progressive or interlaced.  The reason I went with this over a Cannon is, admittedly, price.  Coming from a zero budget you have to make do with your available funds and resources.  This is key for independent SLR moviemaking.  Be resourceful.  And when you can, build it yourself.  DIY is now my motto and favorite acronym.  Much of what I post will be my personal DIY projects.  That's basically the heart of independent moviemaking, Do It Yourself.  Not only are you the auteur, you are the set designer and the production engineer.  If you dont' know how to build things, start learning.  Youtube is my most valued resource available.  Whatever I wish to learn, I type the key words into youtube and I have multiple instructional videos explaining the process step by step.  Youtube had a huge part to play in my decision to purchase this great piece of machinery.  There are hundreds of videos of test footage out there for each DSLR.  I compared the quality of the shots captured from cameras within my price range and found the alpha33 to be superior in all facets.  Once I decided on my camera, my next crucial resource was ebay, craigslist, and amazon.com.  You do not have to buy your camera new.  If you're on a tight budget you shouldn't even consider that as an option.  This camera with the kit lens is priced on the sony website for $699.99.  It's older brother is about two hundred more.  The a33 and a55 are basically the same camera. I saw no reason to purchase the a55 once I compared the specs.  Without the lens it's market value is $599.99.  Through ebay I was able to find a refurbished body for $510.  With the money saved, I have purchased an arsenal of lenses through ebay auctions and craigslist posts.  BH photovideo is also a great place to find good deals.  They have a used store where you can find lightly used or refurbished items greatly reduced in price.  I haven't spent more than $50 on a lens yet.  And the lenses I've acquired are not crap lenses.  Most are pretty high quality.  What is most important is saving money and being wise about how you spend.  Admittedly I haven't been as smart as I ought to.  Bidding on ebay can become a bit addicting at times.

Backyard Auteur

Hello viewer!  DSLR videography is taking off.  Remember that commercial on television with the basket ball player dunking a ball against a black background then it shows a digital SLR camera, promoting its video function.  If you're like me, the first time I saw that ad I had no clue why that was such a big deal.  My response was "so...?" why not use a VIDEO camera?  The revolutionary jump was beyond my comprehension.  But lately what I've come to realize through talking with my coworkers about DSLR videography is that it means higher quality video (near film quality, yes technology is catching up FAST) for less money!  After I let it sink in I perused youtube and absorbed the test footage on there.  It's incredible and blew me away.  To realize that with little to no budget I can produce pro quality video was mind blowing.  I immediately jumped on board.  Coupled with my new passion for DIY (do it yourself/ aka making shit), I have begun amassing a film studio in my garage.  I've created this blog to provide my experience as well as outside information on DIY filmmaking and promote interest in the independent film community in the Lake Norman area.  So for now welcome to the blog.  You can expect much more to come!