Merry Christmas and some filming tips

[ickle_jim]

cool tips.. i cant help but think that messing about with party poppers is abit dangerous, but alas...

[Mods]

You'd be surprised, they're very safe, and not dangerous at all.

[img]smile.gif[/img]
m0ds

[Mods]

Merry Christmas to you all, hope you have a good one. I'm getting a VCR for putting my films on, and then for my birthday a few days later, a track dolly, yay! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hope you all get what you want.

Anyway, I wrote some **** , here it is!

THE POOR MANS CHEAP-TASTIC EFFECTS

SQUIBS
(Fake bullet shots). If you want to shoot someone and have blood spurt out of them, you could go and buy squibs and a detonator. This isn't essential! Theres a really cheap and very effective way of doing it. What d'you need? Party poppers and fake blood (hallow'een is good for fake blood, but you can make your own, try adding food colouring to washing up liquid). Take out the top piece of cardboard of the party popper and then take out the coloured paper bits. Now, poor some fake blood in. If you want you can put the other piece of cardboard circle back on top, if you don't plan to tip the thing up, then don't bother putting it back.

Firing the party popper will now create a fairly effective squib effect. Bear in mind it's not that easy to strap it to someones body nor is it easy to detonate from a distance. But it works. Especially for close ups. I certainly made a mess when I did it [img]wink.gif[/img]

STEADY-ISH CAM
Got a decent tripod? One that weighs about 1 or 2kg? Then you've got yourself a steady-ish cam! Mount your camera to it as always, fold the legs right up so they're not extended at all. Now, keep the handle toward you, and the camera facing the other way. Hold the handle with one hand, lift the tripod off the ground to the desired height and walk around. You'll notice, providing you're strong enough to keep at the right height, that your shots are that little bit steadier. Nice. [img]smile.gif[/img]

FALLING STUNTS
Whereas crash mats start at just over 90 quid, theres a much easier way if you plan to do a small fall (i.e. jumping in the air and landing on your front, or being punched and falling backwards). All you need is a good, sturdy air bed. One that you pump up with a footpump. Or, use a rubber dingy. Or, for your smaller falls, simply use an exercise mat available from Argos for a mere ?5. You'd be surprised what an air bed can actually take, they do NOT pop easily at all, which is nice!

Do NOT attempt to do high falls without training or the propper equipment. It can be VERY dangerous.

ZOOM
Want your film/short to look as professional as possible? Don't use zoom. It's that simple! Only use it if you REALLY have to. Why zoom when you can move the camera foward?

TRACKING DOLLY
Not hard to make. You CAN use a wheelchair but there ARE better ways. Firstly, try using a pram, without the bit the baby sits in, which has some form of suspension. You can sit a fairly light person on it, OR you can easily strap your tripod onto it if you've got strong tape or some small rope/large string and you're good with knots. This works very nicely too. May be a little juddery on rough surfaces tho! [img]redface.gif[/img]

There are many more cheap-tastic effects that I've come to learn and will share with you over time.

m0ds

[Curtin-Parloe]

Muhahahahaha!

[Ralph Snart]

I have discovered that almost everything about this concept is dangerous and should be treated with respect and caution.
Canadian film websites speak a great deal about exploding things.
Many years ago I met Kurt Saxon.
we spoke of many things.
Including but not limited to the explosion that almost killed him because the book he was working out of was wrong.