Hullo dear filmmaker,

if you are puling together a no-budget, low-budget, or high-budget projection y'all need to beginning with a blank upkeep. No affair how large or pocket-size your project is, yous always need to have a budget to keep yous in track of everything.

One of the nearly famous software to create and manage your budget is Movie Magic Budgeting. It is very easy to work with and any person can get the hang of it and larn the ins and outs very hands. The down side is that this software costs a lot of coin. I got myself a demo version that only works for a couple of days, and then I had to buy.

Another choice would be excel budgets. They work but as nice and the good office of it is that they are extremely cheap. You simply take to have excel, and if for some reason you can't afford excel, y'all tin likewise go open up role for complimentary.

I am making available here on my website 2 excel budgets that will work for nearly of production needs. I got them from friends and so I inverse them a bit for my needs and taste.
They are based on templates from AICP, which stands for Clan of Contained Commercial Producers. I just want to emphasize that I created these budgets that are based on existing AICP excel budget, but they were built from scratch, tweaked and modified to meet my own needs. I do not claim copyright on them because I took the thought from an existing excel form. They are non password protected, so if you want to change and alter them, past all means, exist free to do information technology. Also if you want to share your work, send me your file and I volition upload hither on my website.

Thank you lot very much for your visit and hope to hear dorsum from you.

Here are the files:
– BUDGET BLANK VERSION 1
– BUDGET BLANK VERSION 2

In that location are 2 software that I need to mail something virtually it. Both are for the field of Assistant directors.

The last ii films that I worked (Apr Apocalypse and Lost Souls) I used this software chosen Scenechronize (more information please visit scenechronize.com).

Information technology is based on cloud computing technology, where past all your data is saved and managed on line. It is very user friendly and like shooting fish in a barrel to utilize. In my opinion it is a Movie Magic Scheduling on line. The advantages of this Scenechronize over Movie Magic is that your data is ever available on line on whatsoever computer, y'all can easily manage changes and updates whenever and wherever yous are, and it is free for a bones use. I believe that Scenechronize it is definitely a step ahead in the game when it comes downwardly to product of films. The disadvantages of Scenechronize are the fact that it is non yet pop as MMS, your options are even so express, and some feature (like inserting new scenes and creating reports) are not as efficient like MMS.

I strong recommend for every 1st AD to take a expect at this software and get the hang of information technology. If you are on a budget and can't afford MMS, scenechronize it is your best choice. It is style ameliorate than Celtx because it has an interface that it is similar to what the industry uses, similar colored stripboards, breakup elements, and DOOD reports. There is also a call sail export to excel that is pretty useful.

The other software that is calling my attention is Movie Magic To Go. It's been quite a long time that MMS doesn't upgrade their system, and now I understand why. They were developing this App that will be very helpful for the AD on set. Information technology is the Movie Magic Scheduling for Ipad. Similar every software delivered past Amusement Partners, this ane is not for free. The good thing is that the price is non as much as MMS. For merely 29,99 you can purchase the App that will bring all your desktop breakup to the Ipad. The amazing matter is that yous can have all your info with you everywhere you keep set. I think information technology volition look very cool for an AD to show the breakdown on an Ipad for a director or producer. Other than the show off value, this app volition also minimize the amount of paper ane has to conduct while shooting a pic. The bad part about this app is that information technology is non synced with the desktop application, and there is no on line version of information technology. Which means that every alter you do on your desktop, will not sync up automatically with the Ipad version. Also if yous have the Ipad version, you still need the desktop version to create the breakdown.

My proposition for the developers of software focused on the Advertising field is to create a synced system like scenechronize, with an App like MMS to get, and integrate the call sheet to an online calendar like Celtx. Everybody, everywhere, will be able to see in real fourth dimension what scenes are being shot, changes, and latest updates. I know that sonner or later, some of the software companies will create something like that.

Then I receive a couple of messages request how I created this integration between Movie Magic Scheduling and Google Calendar. Instead of answering one past one, I decided to create this tutorial that teaches how to practice the integration.

The procedure is pretty simple. We have to create a CSV file using Film Magic Schedule. To do that we need to run a Written report that will transfer all the database info into a pdf file and relieve this pdf to a CSV file.

In order to do that you need the following software:

  • EXCEL
  • WORD
  • ACROBAT READER
  • MOVIE MAGIC SCHEDULING

Part 1 – CREATING THE PDF FILE

Download and import the post-obit written report that I created.

Calendar EXPORT – BY MARIO AMADEU.

To import a agenda yous take to open a Movie Magic Schedule, click on DESIGN, a list of Study Layouts volition announced, click on the IMPORT ICON, select the downloaded file and voilà.

A report called Calendar Export by Mario Amadeu will bear witness upwards. Run the report past double clicking on it and then click on Impress Preview. The content generated will exist barely readable, don't worry most that considering I did this way so the whole information stays in i page for exporting purposes. Print the file as PDF and then you can transfer to excel. The starting time office is done.

Role 2 – CREATING THE CSV FILE

Open the generated PDF file, rotate xc degrees clockwise, and relieve. Select all, re-create and paste to a word Document.

Every line should have a set of information. For some reason the line breaks messes up sometimes when copying and pasting to word. Considering of that, I created one more footstep on word just to make sure everything will be smooth. With the text copied to word, go to EDIT->REPLACE. In the field "Notice what:" type "}", and in the field "Supercede with:" type "^p". Hit REPLACE ALL button.

Notation: if the line breaks are fine, then replace "}" with a "blank space"

Save the file equally txt. Open Excel and click on DATA->GET EXTERNAL Information->IMPORT TEXT FILE. Open up the text file created on discussion and a Text Import Wizard will open.

On step one choose Delimited;
On step two select Semicolon;
On footstep three select the 2d cavalcade and change the information format to DATE MDY
Hit stop.

The excel file will exist created. Select the cavalcade B, Commencement Engagement, and format the column equally a Engagement with format MM/DD/YYYY. Save the file as CSV. Done.

Part 3 – IMPORTING TO GOOGLE CALENDAR

This is the concluding step. To import to Google calendar, you accept to open up Google Calendar and under OTHER CALENDARS click on ADD->IMPORT Calendar. Browse for the csv file you just created, select the agenda to export to, and hitting IMPORT.

If for some reason you go an error message, open the CSV file on Excel and break the tabular array down in less records. Save two or 3 CSV files, each one containing 30 lines maximum. Repeat the first line with the header and save it for each one. Import the files into Google Agenda. DONE.

Decision

The expert office of this integration is the fact that yous can add bandage and crew to the calendar, they can meet details similar maps, clarification, synopses, page count, estimated time and comments. I am pretty sure that more than features will be created in the time to come, and maybe in a next version of Picture show Magic Scheduling nosotros will have this integration congenital in.

What I am working at present is creating fields for call time and more than detailed information like inserting day breaks and so on.If anyone figures new things, delight comment here and share with the world. Thanks.

Bob Primes, ASC produced a documentary that evaluates the new wave of single big chip cameras.

This documentary was showed at the Paramount theaters during the Cine Gear Expo of 2011.

Bob Primes, Image Quality Geeks

I was there for the screening and too could watch a Q&A with the producer Bob, cinematographer Stephen Lighthill, and post supervisor of the documentary Mike Curtis.

This documentary is a advisedly Single Chip Photographic camera Evaluation, shot on 12 cameras . There was an extensive battery of tests that evaluate the following:

  • sharpness,
  • sensitivity,
  • over and underexposure latitude,
  • depression light performance,
  • compression artifacts,
  • colour reproduction,
  • peel tones,
  • shutter artifact

The cameras being evaluated were:

  • Arri Alexa,
  • Sony F35,
  • Red One MX,
  • Panasonic AF100,
  • Sony F3,
  • Phantom Flex,
  • Weisscam HS-2,
  • Catechism 1D MkIV,
  • Catechism 7D,
  • Catechism 5D Mk Ii,
  • Nikon D7000
  • and 2 film stocks: Kodak 5219 and 5213

Earlier we go over the details of this evaluation, permit me explain how they did the evaluation which I think is very relevant. All cameras were recorded in their best output formats, which means that if a photographic camera had as its best output a 4:4:4 12 bit to a external device, that was the way they shot this detail camera in all tests. Also each and every camera had a person called "camera primary" that would be responsible for tweaking the camera for optimum quality. In that location was no color correction on the footage that would disregard the evaluation. The editing was soundless, and then we could focus on the image. Final but non to the lowest degree, they had full control over the whole process from formulation to final cutting, with no interference from whatever of the cameras articles.

With that being said, lets show some graphics taken from the documentary that explain in details the camera performances.

Maximum Resolution

Maximum resolution is the amount of data in one pixel. Every bit yous tin come across in the graphic below, the camera that performs better is the pic photographic camera. Surprisingly enough, the Cherry-red camera is equally skillful as the film cameras in this category. The worst cameras are the DSLRs, which is expected considering they have the worst compression, huge aliasing/moire and terrible recording outputs (they record just on internal cards).

Maximum resolution

Sensitivity

Sensitivity is how well the camera (sensor/motion picture) will capture light. In this regard the moving-picture show cameras were the worst ones, but I did some research and I saw that these 2 film stocks (Kodak 5213/5219) were actually pretty tedious. Correct me if I am wrong, but information technology seems that they are 200 and 500 ISO. Which means that information technology is expected the low sensitivity results. The all-time camera, or the nearly sensitive, was the Canon 1D, that also has the biggest sensor. Of course that everything comes at a price, and in this case is the corporeality of noise that the Catechism 1D has.

The Sony F35 was the one that I was amazed by the sensitivity performance. It is non bad, but the low light performance resembles what the film cameras capture. I would even dare to say that the F35 would be similar to a 1000 ISO Kodak movie stock (if that'due south even a possible consideration).

The Arri Alexa is a very expert camera overall, and I besides like the Sony F3 and the Cherry One.

Sensitivity

Latitude

Latitude measures the corporeality of light a photographic camera/film tin can process and even so creates an adequate image. For example: a good camera has a greater latitude and it will be able to capture in ane frame the highlights and the shadows without any lost of information/detail.

Of course that the film cameras would perform meliorate in this category considering they are flick, and there is no digital sensor capable of capturing so much information than a movie. What I was amazed is how close the Arri Alexa is from the latitude of the motion picture stocks. In the latitude category, nosotros could divide it in three groups. First is moving-picture show and Alexa, then is Carmine and F35, and then is the balance.

Breadth

Over and Under Exposure Breadth

This category evaluates the latitude but having a middle indicate where the prototype is properly exposed and so the exposure is stretched over and nether.

We can see now that the sensitivity evaluation meets with the latitude evaluation at this betoken. The motion picture cameras perform better at over exposure and lack at under exposure. The Arri Alexa is again a very reliable camera, and the remainder is pretty much the aforementioned.

Over and nether exposion

A expert visual comparison would be the following video from Nick Paton, ACS comparing both 7D and Alexa. Check it out!

Rolling Shutter and Compression Artifacts

In my opinion, for the evaluation in this set of test, we tin divide the cameras into 3 categories. The good ones, the non and so bad ones, and the ones that are terrible.

In the skilful ones category there are:

  • Arri Alexa
  • Sony F35
  • Kodak 5213/5219

in the not so bad ones in that location are:

  • Phantom Flex
  • Weisscam
  • F3
  • Red One
  • AF100

In the terrible ones in that location are:

  • 5d
  • 1d
  • 7d
  • nikon

Color

This was a very subjective evaluation and in my opinion there is no way I can even requite my impression. I think that for this evaluation, everyone has to await at the prototype and decide past themselves.

Conclusion

Well, lets get to the bottom of the discussion. In that location is only no amend camera that does everything. Information technology all depends on questions that are not related to engineering science but external factors like:

  • budget or "how much is existence reserved for the camera and/or camera department?"
  • aesthetic or "what is the feeling being sought by the cinematographer?"
  • terminal medium delivery or "where this video/moving picture will be seen?"
  • expertise or "how well the cinematographer uses this tool?"
  • personal gustatory modality or "I don't care what other say, I love the camera I use!"

What makes a good picture is definitely not the camera itself, merely the good use of  objective and subjective visual components.

In this postal service I volition become over all the cracking features that I have on my new website, as well how I built it, explaining the step by step, and so anyone could build their own WORDPRESS site.

I had a BLOGSPOT website where the pattern limitations were upsetting. Changing to WORDPRESS not only gave me better design features, but as well interaction and control features that are simply um comparable with BLOGSPOT. The bad side though is that I had to larn how to build a WordPress site from scratch. I didn't desire to use any available WordPress.com templates considering I didn't like them. So I ended upwardly building my own.

Prior to this experience I didn't have ANY knowledge of PHP, CSS, MYSQL, and DREAMWEAVER. I had to learn everything from the commencement. At kickoff I thought information technology would be impossible, but it is not equally hard as it seems. Of form that I have some knowledge of calculator programming. If I didn't have it, then I couldn't do information technology. I don't suggest for a person that is computer illiterate to leap in hither thinking that they can just do it. It volition be frustrating trying to effigy and managing the gigantic amount of new information. I am definitely not the best teacher, only I will go over how I did it and possibly, just maybe, assist someone who is trying to create their self-hosted WordPress site. Please, don't await to go all the pieces here. If you are trying to go over this route, you will have to do a lot of research and testing on your end.

It took me 1 week and a half to build this website. There are many steps in order to create a website totally customized every bit this one. The steps are: 1- DESIGN, two – LOCAL SETUP, 3 – PROGRAMMING, four – HOSTING, 5 – EXPORTING.

ane- DESIGN

Instead of designing  a site from scratch I started by selecting a custom design from a library of designs that I have. The one that I liked is called Video Flick, from Press 75. I liked the feel of it and the fact that it has a lot of visual links. I started the pattern by changing the width of the posts and also changing the background. I changed the header for the home page to exist unlike than the header of the post pages. I also changed a lot of little other minor things.

Most of the changes happen in the Way.CSS file. The all-time fashion to edit the stylesheet file is to integrate your WordPress theme with Dreamweaver.

two- LOCAL SETUP

To piece of work your site locally and create a unique custom design, the best way is to integrate WordPress with Dreamweaver. There is a tutorial that teaches how to practise this integration. I followed the steps of Lynda.com. This tutorial got me from the noob level to better than noob, just still noob level. If you want to try the tutorial earlier buying it, y'all can always look around for culling ways of getting it.

three- PROGRAMMING

That'due south the hardest part. As soon as I got the hang of it, it became easier. The best way to learn is by trial and error. By the fact that I was working on a local site, I didn't worry about messing up my page. I made equally many mistakes as I could. I just made sure that I had a back upward so, if needed, I could reset everything. The only ii files that I messed with were CSS files and PHP files.

CSS files contain the styles of each chemical element in your page divided by category. Which in noob terms means that to heart a "postal service content" I would accept to set the category responsible for Post Content on a specific CSS file.

PHP files are like HTML files. They contain the  programming of each part of the folio. The style WordPress handles pages is by calling a bunch of dissimilar php files for each office or function of the page. The header of a WordPress page is inside of the header.php for case. The post content of a WordPress site is inside of the unmarried.php page.

The files that I changed most of the time were fashion.css (responsible for all the major styles of everything inside the site), header.php, single.php, footer.php, and functions.php. During this process, I did a lot of Googling and I messed up a bunch of times. As presently as I started to make mistakes, and fixing theses mistakes, I became more knowledgeable to a point of knowing exactly where to find my answers when I needed to change something.

4- HOSTING

As soon as I was done with my LOCAL DESIGN, it was time to transfer everything to a spider web host. At that place are a lot of good places to find a host for WordPress. The one that I selected was GoDaddy because my domain is register there and considering they have a very like shooting fish in a barrel to install platform. I know that you NEED a server that handles PHP5 and y'all also NEED a MYSQL database. It price me 100 dollars for 3 years. For this money Godaddy gave me 10 Mysql databases, 10TB worth of space and unlimited bandwidth. Which is a lot for my small personal website.

5- EXPORTING

To transfer everything to the spider web host was piece of cake. At this point I already knew what folders to copy, what files to change, and how to troubleshoot. A key to this transfer is to keep the folder structure the way information technology is. WordPress has a unique way of treatment the files. I didn't mess with the structure since the beginning and that helped me to have the site without whatsoever code problems.

The new wave of large fleck cameras

Hullo all,

The fast explosion of DSLR shooting speed it up the development of large fleck camcorders. Today the major video camcorder manufacturers are fighting for the best big chip cameras. There are 2 options in the market for the prosumer level and one option for the entry professional person level.

The prosumer level cameras are:

AF100 – made past Panasonic
FS100 – made by Sony (release at the end of the summertime)

Both in the range of Us$5,000

The professional entry level is the Sony F3. It goes for US$15,000 with no lenses and Us$eighteen,000 with three prime lenses.

There are a lot of skilful places to research and empathise the best option for every person. One of the all-time places is the personal website of Philip Bloom. He is a filmmaker with a lot of experience in all of these cameras too DSLRs.

I took a video from his vimeo page and I removed some frames so we could compare side by side the 3 video cameras and the DSLR 5D. The total video can be seen at the bottom of the folio.

Click to overstate

I finally got a perfect working version of my HACKINTOSH system. It took me a couple of months simply I could go my PC to run a Mac Bone with a working Terminal cutting 7, plus Color 1.five.

The way that I did was first getting the right components. The motherboard that I bought was the Gigabyte UD5, processor Intel i7, and Gskill 6gb memory. The adjacent stride was to ready my bios, and download the right software that does the installation. In my case I used the Kakewalk 2.2. It's really easy to install. I used the USB method. It took me a couple of trials just at the end I could go everything working.

I did all that considering I wanted to have the final cut, which is the industry standard for editing, without having to pay outrageous coin for a new hardware. I am a PC guy and in order to buy an used Mac I would accept to literally sell all my pcs and a couple of other things that I ain and still become some money from someone else. Well, now I can say that I am a PC/MAC guy.

My suggestion for someone that wants to build a Hackinstosh is don't practice it. It's not easy and it'south definitely non user friendly process. I know a lot about computers and I had a really hard time. If yous have money to buy a Mac, go ahead and purchase it. It's worth every single penny. I wish I could have a Mac. A Mac computer is made to terminal more any equivalent Frankenstein PC. Just if for some reason y'all want to endeavor, yous tin can follow this simple steps.

I will write a summary of the steps.

1 – Hardware: Gigabyte ex58-UD5 , Intel quad core i7 920, Gskill F3-12800cl7t-6gbpi, Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
2 – Bone: Kakewalk ii.two install, Snow Leopard 10.6 retail
3 – Software: Concluding cutting seven, Color one.5

4 – Brand the USB using a working mac. follow instructions from kakewalk.
5 – Gear up the bios: Prepare Hd to AHCI, Set kicking from USB, prepare Hpet (following kakewalk instructions)
half-dozen – Install osx
vii – Relish and when y'all have coin buy the original, you won't regret.