Many consider the Academy Award for Best Actress the greatest honor an actress can receive. Over the years, some of cinema’s finest actresses, like Meryll Streep and Elizabeth Taylor, have been given the award. We’re going to list every actress who has won the Academy Award for Best Actress, then we’ll rank some of their best performances. Continue reading Academy Award for Best Actress — Top 20 Winners Ranked
With new streaming platforms emerging every year and binge watching becoming an art form, the television industry needs more writers than ever. Unfortunately, there is also more competition than ever. Breaking into the TV industry can be tough, but here are the fundamentals you need to know about becoming a television show writer as well as some actionable tips that will help you get that much closer to writing for television.Continue reading Writing for Television — Format, Genre and Structure
You’ve written a script. You’ve polished it, re-written it, performed a table read, re-written it again, you’re sick of the thing. It’s time to let this thing hit the market. But what is the market? How much is a script worth? Is it a feature or TV? How much more do you get for hour-long vs half-hour. Thanks to the WGA schedule of minimums we have the answers to all this! But you don’t need to read the entire WGA minimums document, StudioBinder has all your answers right here. Continue reading WGA Minimums — Writers Guild Pay Rates Explained
Some say that when the editor does their job well, the audience is not supposed to notice. This does not mean that the editor’s job is unimportant. In fact, the complete opposite is the case. Editor’s are responsible for maintaining the illusion of a film and story by hiding the mechanisms at work. The main tool they have to do this is continuity editing.What is continuity editing in film? What are the techniques used to achieve continuity in film? Is there a place for discontinuity editing? We’ll answer all of these questions and more while highlighting some key examples in…
In the era of the digital format, many filmmakers utilize aspect ratio to help tell their story. Screening irregular aspect ratios onto traditional 16:9 screens both in theatres and on TVs require letterboxes. Creating your own letterboxes can be incredibly tedious. Luckily, there are free resources that make letterbox templates of all kinds available. In this article, we’ll take a look at one of the best free letterbox templates package and why it’s so useful to have. Continue reading Cinematic Bars — How to Add Black Bars to Video [Downloads]
When you get yourself a new digital camera, you have to choose between whether you want a crop sensor or full frame sensor. While one could easily say that the differences between the two are in their names (literally fuller frame vs cropped frame), there is a bit more to it than that. So as we dig into the full frame vs crop sensor world, we will talk about noteworthy differences, including which sensor could be best for you and the difference between full frame and crop sensor.Continue reading Full Frame vs Crop Sensor — Everything You Need to Decide
There are a number of different quality lavalier microphone brands on the market and prices can range from cheap and affordable to exorbitantly expensive. Audio fidelity can also fluctuate widely from brand to brand. Knowing which lav mic to go with can be a difficult choice for the independent filmmaker. In this list, we’ll be counting down eight quality lavalier microphone choices, ranking them by price, and helping you determine the best lavalier mic for filmmaking within your budget range.Before we get starts, if you don’t already know what a lav mic is, or if you need a quick refresher,…
Do you want to learn to write like Tarantino? Learn how to make 3 decades of fresh, original movies? Well, I can’t guarantee that, but there’s no better place to start than by reading a Tarantino script. Today, we study his Oscar-winning Django Unchained script, the storyline, characters, and what makes it distinctly Tarantino. The man is known for his writing, let’s find out why. Continue reading Django Unchained Script PDF Download: Plot, Quotes & Analysis
While cinematography has the unique ability to visually draw an audience’s eye to something specific, screenwriters also have a unique tool to draw a reader's attention to a specific scene element within a screenplay. The slug line is one of the best tools a screenwriter has for drawing attention and incorporating visual elements into a screenplay. So what is a slug line and what is it used for? Let’s find out. Continue reading What is a Slug Line? Scene Heading Screenplay Formatting
Most people taking photos do not need a legitimate camera for what they do. For those who do use actual cameras, something akin to a 35mm camera is more than good enough. But what about when you need to take the highest resolution pictures possible? That’s where large format cameras come in. But what is large format, what sort of cameras do you use, and why would you use them? Continue reading What is Large Format Photography — Cameras and Lenses
