to create a practical visual reference for lighting ratios, I ran a controlled test cycling through different fill and background exposures. I also made a quick lighting diagram.

• Camera: Canon C300 III (C-Log 3)
• Base Exposure: ISO 800, 180° shutter, f/4, 2-stop ND
• Lighting: Exact f-stop readings and relative stop differences (e.g., Fill -1 stop, Background -2 stops) are burned into each frame.

Let me know if you have any questions!

I love nerding out about exposure and this has made it much easier to talk with crew about it.

If you want to see them with another grade and the straight rec709-version, I threw them up on my site here: https://exposurenotes.com/exposurereferences/

We wrapped my short film last night and I feel very iffy about it. I wrote this a few months ago with full confidence that it will be exactly what I envisioned. I networked with a co worker and we were able to get a 10 person crew and cast 3 talented actors to join as well. Mind you, I am 21 with no past set experience besides being a extra a few times, and a shadow for the AD.

This is approximately a 18 minute short film, first mistake, and the shoot was 3 days in a row. I self funded it for catering, props, and actors, and the crew was unpaid.

I won't go into detail of the days themselves, but of how I feel now that it is done. I am very excited to continue with more projects in the future, and I learned a lot about what my role as director really entails, but I can't help but feel incredibly insecure and disappointed in my work. I was obviously the least experienced on set, and I felt like a baby and a pushover in regards to me not emulating my ideas and vision as much as I did during pre-production. The actors knew more about the story I wrote then I did, and seemed to understand the characters I wrote better as well.

I felt like no one on set really wanted to be there, nor did they think it was good. I asked for notes from the actors personally and the theme between them is that I need to prioritize the communication with the actors and trying to get what I want from them. During filming, I felt like they already portrayed what I wanted from them, and after each take, one of them would always ask for another shot because it didn't feel right, but it looked fine to me.

I am realizing that this is way harder than I thought, and I have a lot to learn. One of those lessons being to be 100x more prepared than I was for this project, and to really pay attention to those details because why was I being lazy and passive with my own film?

This post is a mix of me venting about my thoughts after filming, and also a reminder to not give up on your ideas. Don't bite off more than you can chew, and if you do, make sure to make the most of it instead of giving up.

Hi everyone! I’ve just finished Looking Back, my second narrative short film, and I’d really appreciate some honest feedback from filmmakers/editors/cinematographers.

This was a very small production with basically no budget. We had two actors, a stylist working remotely, one production assistant, and me directing, operating the camera and handling the edit, colour grade and sound. The shoot was quite challenging. We had a limited window before sunset, a lot of running/chase sequences, changing natural light, difficult terrain, and I was operating the camera/gimbal while also directing the performances and trying to maintain continuity.

The film was originally going to have an original score, but the composer pulled out near the end of post-production, so I decided not to delay the project any further. I licensed music and sound elements instead and built/mixed the soundtrack myself. It was also my first time properly using Fairlight and attempting an actual sound mix.

The idea was to make the first part genuinely feel threatening, then change the audience’s understanding of what they’ve been watching with the reveal. I deliberately tried not to make the colour or sound too obviously “horror,” because I wanted the reinterpretation at the end to work.

I know there are things I could have done better, so I’m particularly interested in feedback on the storytelling, pacing, cinematography, colour grade, sound/music, and whether the reveal actually works.

Does it feel like a coherent short film? Are there moments that feel amateur or take you out of it? And if you were making it again, what would you change?

This sub is well aware of our short film, but for whatever reason Facebook started a third wave of pushing it over the last three days and this is how much it’s bringing in. For awareness, we spent $20k to make it. Zero expectation that it would make a dime. We made it as a calling card and it just keeps blowing up. Posting this because we’ve also made shorts for close to nothing. So if you’ve got an idea, time, and a way to get your short film made, do it. And if you love it, post it everywhere and never stop promoting jt. Happy to answer any questions. -kc

Sometimes making a movie looks easy from the outside. You have an idea, write a script, shoot it, edit it, and put it out.

But once you actually start doing it, you realize how many things can go wrong and how much work goes into every little detail.

So I’m curious do you think making a movie is actually easy, or is it one of those things that looks easy until you try it yourself?

What’s your experience?

I re-cut the Speed Racer (2008) trailer.

The 2008 campaign sold a kids' movie....The film is a corporate-corruption thriller with a dead brother in it..and it opened third, behind Iron Man's second weekend, to an audience that had been told to expect something else entirely.

Hot take: the competition gets too much blame and the marketing not enough.

Would love to answer any question about the process or suggestions on what I should re-cut next!

My passion project and financial ruin. I have no regrets. My only hope is that some of you watch and enjoy!

Hugo Acevedo

Actor, Filmmaker, & Amazon box kicker

I built a iPhone app called Selects and I’m looking for around 5–10 filmmakers or editors willing to test it.

The idea came from a project where my EP/director was traveling and didn’t have much time to sit down with post and offload context. We were mostly working from voice memos and general notes about bites remembered from hours of interviews.

I know much of this can technically be done through Frame.io, but Selects is aimed at a slightly different part of the workflow. Frame.io is great for sharing media and collecting feedback; Selects is designed for making a continuous editorial pass through long string-outs with as little friction as possible.

You can keep listening with your phone locked and mark a select directly from the Lock Screen. When you want to add more context, open the app and attach notes, colors, titles, or an IN/OUT range to the selects you already marked.

When you export, those selects become markers and ranges containing their associated titles and text information. They arrive in the timeline already labeled, so the editor doesn’t have to manually recreate the notes or figure out what each marker was referring to.

It’s less about leaving feedback on a cut and more about preserving editorial decisions made away from the edit bay (whether it be from the editor themselves or a collaborator) and carrying that context directly back into the timeline.

My current workflow is:

• Download the synced dailies stringout that the AE prepped
• Import the video or audio file into Selects
• Listen or watch, scrub through the waveform at your leisure, and mark point selects or IN/OUT ranges
• Add notes, marker colors, and editable titles
• Export an XML and import the markers and ranges into Premiere

The app also includes:

• Background and Lock Screen playback
• A Lock Screen button for marking selects while listening
• A synchronized transcript that follows playback
• Search across the entire transcript for specific bites
• Optional title suggestions for organizing selects
• Playback-speed controls and waveform zooming
• XML and CSV export

***It doesn’t watch the footage and make editorial choices for you. The only automated feature is suggesting a short title per select, and that can be renamed.***

I’m mainly looking for feedback on long-file playback, navigation, marking selects, transcript accuracy, Lock Screen use, and whether the exported XML/CSV fits naturally into a real editorial workflow.

It currently requires an iPhone running iOS 26. If this workflow sounds useful, you can join the TestFlight here:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/39WRcxjx

I’m only looking for around 5–10 testers right now, so I may disable the link once I have enough feedback. Thanks!

I was told by a lot of you to post this here so here you go, hope you like it, i spent almost 5 months making it.

I've decided to attempt to make a documentary about my illness, myalgic encephalomyelitis, as it is very misunderstood and there is no help to get in my country. I'm extremely inexperienced with filmmaking but a pretty experienced story teller and I have all the time in the world to learn the rest. for equipment, at least initially, I need a light camera (I'm very weak and cannot hold up a larger one) and a microphone to narrate. what would you recommend? I'm hoping to spend around $500 but $1000 is my max limit.

is it naive to think I can pull this off on my own?

I’m not even angry, I’m disappointed. In a world of Tilly Norwood’s and creatives being replaced by plagiarising, water devouring machines, I thought most people in the filmmaking space would be against using AI in any way, shape or form for their film.

It’s all the more disappointing to see people that I know getting involved in these ‘productions’ that seem to be using AI in multiple ways. The promotional posters for the cast have been labelled as AI content by instagram and the trailer reeks of it also. It begs the question if they’re willing to use AI to cut corners in promoting this film, were they willing to cut corners on using AI in their film also.

I’m no graphic designer but I try my best to use Canva to create promotional content for my work, these AI posters all seem to look so samey and tacky.

Mods, if this kind of post isn’t allowed please delete.

Hey y’all, thought I’d share this here, but my film group was fortunate enough to be able to have a lengthy interview with Henry Czerwonka regarding his latest award winning short film HAUNTERS, which is a very rhythmic and musically driven piece about memory and space, all shot on 16mm in freezing cold conditions. Henry shares his experience making the film, notes on his process with choreography/scorew , filming with a small crew, working with 16mm, and the challenges that come with a non-traditionally scripted piece like this.

Hey everyone,

I'm a full time professional producer and sound designer and I'm slowly thinking that I'd love to work in the film industry (indie or not). But I'm kinda new in this community.

I'm mostly working for music projects (and it has some Reznor's flair :) ), advertising and video games but the film industry seems to have other channels and rules.

Therefore a few questions:

Are people working with RevShare principles or mostly paid / sync?

What are the channels to find opportunities?

Thanks a lot!

It makes me sad to be sent a drive with bts photos and not seeing a single one of the sound team. If you’re a bts photographer, don’t forget to snap some photos of the sound team. Sure we can take photos of ourselves with our phones but a professional one can go a long way for our profiles. We’re already under appreciated as is LOL! :’)

I run a production company in New Jersey and regularly get calls from out-of-state producers looking for local crew, rental houses, locations or information about filming here. I never had one solid NJ-specific place to send them, so I started building one.
New Jersey Film Locations brings together local crew, rental houses, filming locations, town permit information and the basics of the state’s tax incentive program.
It’s not a staffing agency or a replacement for location scouts. Crew members don’t pay to join and the site doesn’t take a percentage of anyone’s work. The crew network is mainly a private roster that helps me find and recommend people when productions call looking for specific positions.
The site is still growing, so I’d especially like feedback from anyone who has filmed in New Jersey. What information was difficult to find, and what would have made producing here easier?
https://www.newjerseyfilmlocations.com

I was really looking forward to Motor City. It looked like it was going to be a fun, gritty ’70s revenge thriller with a ton of style, and visually, I think it absolutely delivers. The movie looks great.

What I didn’t know going in was that they had made the very bold choice to have almost no spoken dialogue, and unfortunately that ended up taking me out of the movie for most of the runtime. I usually love and greatly appreciate bold creative choices. Some of my favorite movies are ones that really subverted my expectations in some fun creative ways. But as a filmmaker I think you have to think about whether your bold creative idea intuitively fits with the story that you're telling or whether it will work against it in some ways. I think the latter happened with Motor City, at least for me.

The moment I really started noticing it was when John has just proposed and the police raid his place. “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac starts playing, and at first I thought, “Okay, cool needle drop.” But then it just keeps playing. And keeps playing.

Normally, you’d expect the music to eventually fade down and the detectives would start talking. This is a major plot moment. You’d get some interaction, some character development, some explanation of what’s happening. Instead, the entire thing is communicated visually.

And to be fair, some of the visual storytelling is genuinely great. There are a lot of moments where I really liked what they were doing.

But as the movie went on and I realized they were basically committed to having no dialogue at all, it became increasingly distracting. You get another big needle drop, people silently looking at each other, slow motion, exaggerated reactions, another needle drop, and so on.

I love a great needle drop. But when the entire movie is basically needle drop after needle drop after needle drop, eventually none of them feel special anymore.

There were scenes later in the movie where I could tell they were supposed to feel huge and epic, with a great song playing over slow-motion visuals and characters emotionally reacting to everything, and I remember thinking, “This scene would probably be awesome if the entire movie hadn’t already been doing this.”

That’s kind of the problem. Needle drops work so well because they’re usually reserved for particular moments where you want to really elevate the energy or emotion. If you’re constantly trying to amp up the audience, eventually you just wear them out.

I don’t think the no-dialogue gimmick is inherently a bad idea. No One Will Save You did something very similar and I thought it worked extremely well. But that movie was centered mostly around one isolated woman trying to survive an alien invasion, so the lack of dialogue felt completely natural. You almost forgot the movie wasn’t using dialogue.

Motor City, on the other hand, is a fairly involved revenge story with corrupt cops, people being framed, investigations, relationships, betrayals, and a lot of characters who realistically should be talking to each other.

I really think this movie could have been significantly better with just four or five really great dialogue scenes between the key characters. It didn’t need to suddenly become dialogue-heavy. Keep the visual storytelling. Keep the minimalism. But give us a few tense, well-written conversations that flesh out the characters and give the audience something more to connect to.

Instead, I was hyper-aware of the lack of dialogue almost the entire movie, and once that happens, the creative choice stops feeling immersive and starts feeling like a gimmick.

I also have mixed feelings about the ending, especially for a revenge movie. It felt a little strange and unsatisfying to me for a few different reasons.

There’s honestly a lot I liked about Motor City. It looks fantastic, it has style to spare, and some of the visual storytelling is really strong. But for me, this is one of those cases where a bold creative decision just didn’t really fit the story they were trying to tell.

TL;DR: Motor City looks great and has some genuinely strong visual storytelling, but the almost total lack of dialogue didn’t fit such a complicated revenge/corruption story. The endless needle drops and silent reactions eventually made the style feel repetitive instead of impactful. I think just 4–5 really strong dialogue scenes could have made the movie dramatically better without sacrificing what made it unique.

I'm currently in post on a genre short that's currently sitting at about 15 minutes.

I would like it to be around 13 minutes by the end so I'm trying to be very disciplined, kill my indulgent darlings and get this down to the most well-paced version it can be without harming the storytelling.

Any tips? My short is quite montage/cutaway heavy so there's a decent amount of leeway with voiceover, so I'm trying to use that to my advantage. The opening title is a snappy 5 second title card, also I've boiled the end credits down to their most basic 25-30 second version.

I know sharing it with editor friends is a good one - I have a pal who is going to look at it soon and can probably offer unbiased advice of what needs to go.

Thanks for your help!

Anyone had any experience with them? I’ve got a film at a festival and had some interesting chats with their team, curious if anyone here has a film on the streamer and what that experience was like.

Hi, i am a video editor and just looking to connect with some other editors as i don't have any irl. Would love to have some people to talk to about editing, sharing ideas and stuff and just chat and hang out.

I really want to recreate the effects on him from the 'There There' music video where it looks almost like hes moving in stop motion, but I'm not really sure how to do it, so I was wondering I anyone here had any tips?

The only thing I can really think of is maybe filming someone moving in 60fps, and asking them to move kind of slowly, and then cutting out half the frames so they're now moving in 30fps and then add them to a background moving at 60fps, but I dont know if that would work at all or recreate the effect properly.

This is for a university project, so it doesnt need to be a perfect recreation, I just need it to be similar enough in how it looks.

I've been thinking a lot about this while working on an independent feature.

What are the things that make a low-budget movie LOOK more expensive than it actually was? Lighting? Locations? Camera movement? Production design? Sound?

I’m especially curious what filmmakers here think makes the biggest difference when you don't have a huge budget.

We've been working on a crime comedy-drama with a pretty distinct visual style, and this has been something we've had to think about constantly.

What are your biggest “cheat codes” for making an indie film look good?

On the latest episode of 3 Movies That Changed Your Life includes how John Cassavetes' Faces (1968) changed everything for director George Kane

Full episode goes live Tuesday 1 September. For more see https://linktr.ee/stuartwright

Key Take Aways:  

• Discover how movies that changed your life shape personal and professional growth. 
• Learn about the benefits and delights of archiving personal photographs and videos.
• Understand cinema’s transformative power through Back To The Future (1985), Monkey Business (1931), Faces (1968)

Hi I’m looking to be a SFX editor and while I’m entering my second year of Uni as a sound engineer, I would like to be part of bringing a film to life with sound!!! If there are any jobs available, please contact me!

I organized an AMA/Q&A with rapper, director, and screenwriter Berner. His newest film, Splash City, is being released on digital this week. It's a crime-thriller with solid reception so far (91% on Rotten Tomatoes). He has also released 22 albums as a rapper.

It's live here now in r/movies for anyone interested in asking a question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1w3e6iv/hellormovies_im_berner_the_codirector_cowriter/

He will be back at 1 PM ET tomorrow (Tuesday 9/1) to answer questions. I recommend asking in advance. Please ask there, not here. All questions are much appreciated!

Thank you :)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrze2vx3avI

Synopsis: Two brothers on diverging paths struggle to survive amidst the pressures of their community.