Recent content by rayortiz313

Just get good screenwriting books and follow the directions and write a bunch of crappy scripts and keep writing and studying and you'll get better. The problem is that it takes 5-10 years to get good at it, JUST LIKE ANYTHING ELSE IN LIFE. There's so many screenwriting books that want to...

I'm using Sony Vegas Pro and thought grading in the software is not great, no? My artistic goal is to learn to do phony/cheesy/slightly gaudy saturated monochrome grading for my grindhouse projects (I also I tend to try to steepen the gamma lot for contrast)- this pulls apart the image if done...

Wanted to start using an intermediary codec so I can color grade HDV footage and have it look its best (using a Canon HV20...long story). When I try to track down the codec for my PC , all I get is links to GoPros new software- they seem to have dropped support for their earlier software that...

Hey guys, I was toying around with using the zoom at full wide angle for a wierdo vibe on my next thing, but I dont want the ladies to look too much like freakazoids so I probably wont do it. Anyways... Can someone tell me what generall lens angle is being uses here (dont need an exact...

Hey guys, So I'm doing an 80's grindhouse sci-fi spoof next, and I'm testing out turning up the saturation knob to 11 because I would love for it to look like and episode of Jem. (Test attached). Is there anything on the technical side that I should be worried about? I realize that I barely...

Hey guys, shot this one-man crew style with a Steadytracker and Canon T3i. I accomplished alot of my creative goals, but feel short on alot of others. Oh well. Learning from your mistakes is painful, but such is life. Subscribe to the channel if you're interested in grindhouse-style cinema...

So after spending a week downloading and trying to learn countless complex freeware (ffmpeg, avisynth, avidemux, etc) and being confused and bewildered about how to workflow my 24p HDV footage, and testing and experimenting for days and days, I discover that the "smart resampling" function in my...

Hey guys, Using an hv20 for my next short and can't edit high-def with my current system (looong story). Been shooting tons of tests, and am happy so far, but.... When I shoot in HDV and let the camera downconvert to SD for capture, what exactly is it doing to the HDV image? Is it cropping...

just throwing this out there, for some reason there's some obsession amongst dps with lighting from the back, but 3/4 from the front will give you shadows in the frame just as easily, and if the key is softened you may not need any fill (You'll likely need fill if you light from the back)...

Hey guys, I'm continually collecting information on color temperature and light sources, to use when grading my movies. Can someone tell me what time of day this Deadpool trailer is meant to represent? Its day-for-night, except clearly it doesn't represent the "middle of the night" or it...

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm learning... Shot under a highway overpass and got good soft side light on my last thing. Kind of amazing how well it worked. I was just hoping to add to my bag o' tricks, but between looking up tutorials on it and the advice from you guys, it seems like the...

Hey guys, I know on a sunny day you can get some drama with backlight or whatevers.... but I dread setting up a shoot outdoors and discovering that its mostly cloudy. WHat are the general techniques for dealing with flat lighting during day exteriors? Negative fill with a piece of black...

Thanks guys. Ya know, I had a feeling that was what it might be for.

Not that it matters, much, but: That diffusion panel they often include with an LED light- useless, right? Size is what determines how soft a light is, no? If you just put something in front of a light and it doesn't increase the size/surface area of the source, you're not making the light...

I can almost promise you this is how this was done : If you put a piece of blackwrap on a hard light and poke random holes in it with a screwdriver or whatever, you'll get this effect. Literally put the blackwrap around the light using the barndoors. Leave a hole up top for ventilation...