Everyone loves a great movie trailer. They help create a buzz about your project. They entertain crowds as stand-alone, short-form tidbits of cinematic excitement. And, if you haven't even made a full film, a well-executed trailer can lead to successful financing.Continue reading How to Make a Movie Trailer that Grabs Attention
Inception is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, in large part due to the special effects. Can you build the special effects from Inception scenes with your home setup?In today's post, we’re going to show you how we recreated the VFX explosion animation in the Paris cafe scene from Inception. See how we approach lighting, sound effects, set design, and slow-motion to create a similar visual product for a fraction of the cost.Continue reading Inception Special Effects: Explosion Animation in the Paris Cafe Scene
Whether you’re new to editing or someone looking into more storage options for your workflow, RAID storage might be a viable option. It may be a little overwhelming at first, with all of the options it offers, but RAID has become one of the more reliable systems that exist for creators alike. So what is raid storage, and why might you consider it? Continue reading What is Raid Storage? Options to Safeguard Your Project
Composer Claude Debussy said, “Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.” This struggle is especially true in the world of a cinematic score, where traditional orchestration dominates.Continue reading How to Design a Surreal Film Score like Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
We all know that a great soundtrack can stir emotions in the audience. But few genres have a direct line to the emotional centers of our brain than suspense and horror. Suspenseful music, when done right, can make all the difference. Great horror movie music doesn’t often win Oscars, but it does stay with us long after the lights have gone up. There's an art to using suspense music to create terror, dread, and fear. Here's how some of your filmmakers and composers create horror music by balancing two key elements: horror and revulsion. Watch: Suspenseful Music in a Film…
A lot of debate always surges about who should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. But for this list, we’re turning our attention to the Best Original Song category. There have been plenty of classics and just as many duds over the years, but which one do you think should top the list as the best original movie song of all time?Does Lady Gaga’s performance in A Star is Born overtake that of Barbara Streisand’s? Which Disney song do you think ranks highest? When you look at the Best Original Song winners & nominees, is there a different…
There are many movies about loneliness and even more lonely people who see them. As a filmmaker, working with a lonely character poses the unique challenge of how to stand out. With framing, editing and coloring techniques at your fingertips, what combination best helps your story land?Continue reading How Spike Jonze Shoots Movies About Loneliness
Credits are crucial in music videos. At the dawn of music video, lower thirds stamped the beginning and end of each video. But that was the 80’s. With all the ways to watch video nowadays, how do you give credit where it’s due?Thankfully it’s easy to master the music video title format. Just keep the end goal in mind: to credit your creatives and crew in an engaging way. We’ll show you what credits you need and how to present them. And we’ll also hook you up with a great music video title card template to use for your own…
When it comes to keeping a shoot on budget and on schedule, a clean and organized workflow is everything. Film sets are busy places and as workplaces go, they’re pretty complex beasts, too. Factor in some serious creative personalities, and all that goes along with them, and you start to see just how tough a job it is to keep a film inside its box and on track. The thing is though, it’s not just important to keep everything and everyone happy on set. Spare a thought for the oft-forgotten, post-production workflow of a film’s creation. It’s in the edit…
There comes a point in every video project when you should consider how you’ll use text graphics. Maybe you need lower thirds to fill the audience in, or an eye-popping titles sequence to establish your project’s mood. Solving how to add text to a video can be overwhelming.Continue reading Text Graphics in Video: Top Trends For Video Creatives
