My 5 Favorite Field Apps for iPhone

Below are my five favorite apps I like to use when working in the field. I use an iPhone 6, so sorry, Android users. Some of them are on Android, but I’m not sure which ones.

• DSLR Filmmaker Toolkit is a app that includes a slate with shot log, a viewfinder, and a depth of field calculator. I mainly use it for the slate and shot log, as I can email the file to myself as an Excel sheet. It’s a paid app. 
• The Magic Hour app alerts me an hour before and during the magic hour. It also gives me the angle of the sun at my exact location and a countdown to sunset. It is free. Can’t beat that.

Magic Hour

• Dark Sky tells me almost to the minute when rain is coming my way. On the Gulf Coast, this is useful, whether you are shooting or not. You can request a weather report for a particular address and even receive UV and wind reports. I received it for free at Starbucks, but it's a paid app.

Dark Sky

• Google Maps is a no brainer, but it just gets better and better. The app can now calculate your drive time while on route and can let you know if a faster route is available. You can also get public transit routes and bike paths if you lack a car.
• Adobe Hue CC is the newest app in my toolbox. It only came out days ago, but I have already fallen in love with it. It allows you to make LUTs on the go with your phone’s camera. If you are an Adobe Creative Cloud user, you can sync your LUT collection to use back in Premiere Pro or After Effects. App is technically free, but is better with the Adobe CC.

Adobe Hue CC

 Happy Filmmaking!

Best Advice I Received While in Film School: Embrace Magic Hour

Natural light is amazing, especially in the summer. We cannot live without it, it illuminates the world around us, and it delights us with its color spectrum. As manipulators of light, we learn to embrace its properties while controlling its path. We tell stories with it, but often we rely on artificial providers of light, believing natural light to be insufficient or weak for our purposes.

That’s why indie filmmakers should pay homage to the beauty of natural lighting by embracing the “magic hour.” Magic Hour is roughly the minutes after sunrise and before sunset. The sun is at a flattering angle in the sky, resulting in reduced shadows over the face and beautiful natural coloring.

I consider myself a mise-en-scène filmmaker, which means I prefer to use my surroundings rather than edit a look in post. Mise-en-scène filmmakers embrace a cinéma vérité or “true-to-life” style filmmaking. Planning your shoots around magic hour makes use of the beautiful lighting with little manipulation. I took the following photographers about 4 minutes into magic hour. 

Magic hour. Actually #nofilter.

Slightly different exposure.

The following video was also taken at magic hour. Note the color in my skin tone and the vibrant greens. Skin tones tend to have either a blue or green undertone, which magic hour brings out nicely. The result is glowing skin.

Magic Hour Test from lagniappe cinemas on Vimeo.

Although daylight is bluer than indoor tungstens, magic hour light is usually a subtle orange. Mobile, Alabama, nearly has perpetual summer, so depending on the climate and season, your location’s magic hour may be grayer/bluer or warmer in tone.

I use the Magic Hour app which tells me an hour before magic hour occurs and when I am in the magic hour. It’s my favorite astronomic tool for field videography/filmmaking. 

Happy Filmmaking!

Budget Shooting: Still Prime or Cine Prime?

I am in the market for new glass. I shoot both still photography and video, so naturally I wondered if I really need dedicated lenses for both. I shoot Canon.

Convention says yes. Although DSLRs are popular for video production, they have their limitations. Thankfully, someone else had the same question and decided to do a side-by-side comparison.

Canon CN-E Prime Lenses - Non-scientific Comparison - Magnanimous Media from Magnanimous Media on Vimeo.

My verdict? For my purposes right now, there is little difference. I kinda like the look of the EF lenses. The EFs shoot a little warm, but I like shooting warm. Warm shooting is part of my shooting style. I also feel your target audience will not notice the difference if your story is engaging. The CN-E primes do have a larger color range, which could be useful in some low-light situations.

For the price tag, I am sticking with EF lenses until I am shooting a project that needs what the CN-E lenses can provide. Then, maybe I can just rent them from borrowlenses.com!

Happy Filmmaking!

Cheap Lighting Tips

You might have heard of using shop lights as a cheap lighting kit. While they are worth more than their actual price tag, they can sometimes be a pain to work with. Luckily, this tutorial from Wistia.com has that covered. Three-point lighting is easy to master on paper, but each scene requires a different tweak. Think of lighting as an art, not a science.

The Down and Dirty Lighting Kit

Happy Filmmaking!

Quick Filmmaking Technique: Rotoscoping

The rotoscoping technique is back with a vengeance! From Kanye West's "Heartless" video to Charles Schwab commericals, the trend is picking up again. What is rotoscoping? Basically, it's the technique of animating or tracing over either live-action or other representations of people or objects. In its most basic form, all elementary school children have done it to "show off their art skills." You remember? Of course you do.

Rotoscoping is not only the art of making a subject look animated, but it is also responsible for greenscreen effects (Forrest Gump) and those doppelganger effects in some films (Eddie Murphy's Nutty Professor).

Luckily for the filmmaker on the budget, rotoscoping is alot easier and cheaper nowadays. The effect is easily achievable on a computer with high-end motion graphics software. Adobe After Effects is optimal, but you may want to try out some open-source software as well.

When shooting, keep these steps in mind:

• You should plan for rotoscoping prior to reaching post-production stage, ideally, in preproduction.
• Shoot your live-action in a neutral and uninteresting location, such as a soundstage. This will help maintain a clean rotoscoping without looking cluttered.
• Pay close attention to light and shadow during the shoot. You don't want your subjects looking too 2-d!
• Rotoscope only works if your actors actually act. Rotoscoping maintains a human element to what appears to be living 2-d art.

When editing:

• Use a vector technique (such as the infamous "pen" tool) to draw around your characters or objects. Some programs can trace a subject automatically, but always check the accuracy first for a professional look.
• This would be used as a matte, which you can use to onionskin (superimpose) your image to sync with the live footage. Your matte and your live footage should have the same frame rate.
• For Kanye's look, you would need to flatten the colors of your actors. Stick to a limited palatte that creates a "pop art" look.
• For the A-ha or the Charles Schawb look, draw a visible outline around the subject. Make the line as thick as you would like. Emphasize the lines, not the colors.
• In both, resist the temptation to dramatically recolor actors' clothes.
• Don't forget keyframes or rendering!
• Practice before make significant changes to your rough cut.

For more great examples of rotoscoping, check out the master: Ralph Bakshi. His films like American Pop and Lord of the Rings inspired many filmmakers.

Happy Filmmaking!

My light-meter is broken. What now?

It happens to everyone: you are setting up a scene for a day's worth of shooting, when someone either forgot to bring the light-meter, or dropped it in the river, or was too cheap to buy one. What happens now?

Don't fret. You are not out of the woods yet. Lighting is an extremely important element of filmmaking, and no decision regarding it should be taken lightly. However, the shoot must go on. Any DP (that's Director of Photography, although some prefer the title cinematographer) worth their weight in gold knows a few alternatives.

First of all, determine what medium you are filming on. If you are using digital, congrats! This will be even easier for you. Film is a little harder and more costly when you have to reshoot, but it is not impossible to guesstimate your lighting needs.

If you are using digital, I am assuming you have a monitor on-set. Take two crew members of various skin tones--preferably a white crew member and a black crew member--and place them on your main actors' "position 1s" (the first place the actors will be at the start of shooting). Instruct them to move around the scene. Then ask them to trade places in order to visualize how a particular lighting scheme will fall on your main actors.

Things to look out for:

• "Raccoon eyes." Deep shadows over the eyes, unless that's what you're going for.
• Deep shadows over faces, such as noses.
• Hair highlights.
• "film skin tone" matches "real skin tone."
• Actors moving from light to shadow.
• Hard background shadows and areas that lack definition.

Use the monitor, not your eyes. Your natural eyes will always see more detail than the most advanced camera on the market.

If your DP knows the Zone System (and he/she should), this method will be able to help determine the lighting needs. But here is a hint, if the camera looks great on your redheaded PA, but 2 t-stops under with your milk chocolate-colored grip, and you have a "black Irish" actor, drop 3/4-1 1/2 stops, depending on the actual skin tone color and the mood of the scene. It is always better to a little underexposed than overexposed. You start to lose detail when the frame is blown out. Underexposure is easier to fix in post, using AVID or FCP (Final Cut Pro).

Remember not to rush this decision. Take into account:

• Color temperature of your lights
• The mood of the scene
• The actual position of some lights
• Any natural or source lighting (you know, the sun or your lamp in frame)
• Wattage (for safety reasons)
• Your ISO ("film" speed, even in digital)
• Your shutter-speed (usually at 1/60, but could be more or less depending on your situation)

If you start to correct your lighting digitally too much in post, you risk picture-quality. So be careful.

If you are using a film camera, make sure you bring an SLR (Single-lens reflex camera) on set. It can be either digital or film, but preferably digital for instant results. If someone should have one, it should be either the script supervisor (continuity) or the art department (for set dressing reasons). SLRs usually have meters. F-stops equal T-stops in the lay sense. Take several stills of your actor and notice what the meter reads each time. ISOs are different in SLRs than cinema cameras, but if your DP is any good, she/he will know how to adjust. A conversion chart is here.

If this fails or you are overly nervous about lighting, you can always send a PA to a camera store to rent a meter. One of my favorites is called Freestyle, located on Sunset Blvd in LA. Make sure to get that student discount...but you didn't hear that from me.

Happy Filmmaking!