Film making - Essential websites

Let's start with a video made by IndyMogul. A group of film makers on youtube dedicated to the bettering of their peers. They don't claim to be the best but what they have learned, they share. A great resource for new indy and budget film makers.

DSLRvideoshooter has gear reviews, tutorials, found videos and news for all things dslr video. They often share the important posts from CanonRumours and Photorumours

cheesycam has a wealth of DIY gear tutorials and cheap gear finds. Their posts cover almost all areas of film making, so be sure to look out for posts about audio too.

Can't afford the cheesycam builds? want a familiar and friendly face to teach you how to make things? I've got two people for you: Knoptop (aka Dave) and FrugalFilmMaker (aka Scott). Knoptop has sporadic (and often humorous) tips and tricks videos. Scott regularly puts out Q&A videos regarding things like his site, builds and general video news. Scott also has a regular series for $1 budget gear he finds (very useful as it often has things you wouldn't even have thought of, like doorstops)

dslrfilmnoob (aka DeeJay) makes really high quality 'news and reviews' posts, making sure to go into as much detail as he can. It is quite common for him to make follow up posts detailing any changes, solutions or problems he finds. He also has a few small products he makes in batches, like the zoomH1 shock mount.

Dave Dugdale is your guide through starting in the dslr film industry. From amateur to semi-pro, Dave brings you along with honest and level headed videos showing his progress and teaching you things as he finds them out himself.

Though FStoppers is primarily a photography blog, it has many behind the scenes (BTS) videos and compiled tutorials that can aid any camera operator (whether still or video)

FilmRiot has been running for quite a while now. Aspiring and talented film maker Ryan Connolly brings regular tips, tricks and techniques from Hollywood with a good dose of humour and production value. The film Riot monday challenge is a great community for new and experienced film makers with weekly or monthly challenges requiring a specific technique or style.

Now for the heavy weights; FreddieW (aka Freddie Wong and Brandon) and CorridorDigital (aka Sam and Niko). Four friends in LA making some of the best content on youtube with their recent web-series' (VGHS and SYNC respectively). Special effects, guns, games and behind the scenes on almost all of it.

I think that list should keep you occupied for a while. The worrying part is, I can go on.

Film work

Fever Dreams - In The Negative 16mm film project around the ideas of fever dreams and the surrealness that goes along with the history of black & white 16mm films.



Metropolis - Tokyo A B-roll reel of Tokyo



The Eternal man

 

Commission work for Take a Challenge fundraising campaign.

Design is...

Graphic Design is ideas with clothes on.

Fashion is clothes with ideas.

Humans are lumps of flesh with ideas... and clothes on.

Design is the tangible look of a company, the branding agent, the core of an advertising campaign, and the backbone to non verbal communication.

It is the skin, the flesh, and the clothes of a company.

The logo becomes the face and branding the body.

Design makes an etherial, intangible company into an identifiable, person like, being.

Design turns ideas and concepts into people.

Graphic Design is a way of thinking.

A way of looking at things and a way of solving problems. How does graphic design do all these things? How is it so versatile?

I pose that it is because graphic design does one very simple thing. Graphic design makes ideas real. That is all it does. This seemingly simple task is so efficient that it can take any form you will it to.

Design is human.

We are design. Design is the human aspiration of something better.

In the next stages of humanity; gender, race, and religion will be lost to the greater goal of clarified, direct, reductive humanity.

Design itself is the next state of humanity. “Human plus” by design, our design; Homo-consilium.

But what will Homo-consilium look like? How will they differ? Well, that's up to us designers, makers, craftsmen, to come up with what we will become. It is our responsibility to improve ourselves.

It is our job to fix what is broken. As it stands, our world is broken and in need of fixing. Not just in the physical problems such as climate change but a deeper sociological issue.

An issue where the vox populi are indifferent and gullible. A better form of human may fix that. Be less susceptible to lies about what is good, right, or acceptable. Hopefully they will be able to think independently and not take their ideas from mass media.

The next stage must be better and we mustn’t be afraid to do what is necessary to get there. Morality isn't a thing we should throw out but we must rethink whether certain things are morally wrong.

The use of the dead for scientific advancement was morally wrong before the results out weighed the taboos and sentimentalities of death.

We must make the same attitude change with the unborn dead and of creating new life forms if we wish to truly alter ourselves as a race and as a society.

We must stop ignoring areas left as gods domain, the secrets of the universe and of life can't stay undiscovered if we wish to become anything more than a stage 1 civilisation and a stage 3 life form.

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is often used as the branding agent for companies, the core of an advertising campaign, and the backbone to non verbal communication. In one sense graphic design is the thing that makes stuff less boring. Without graphic design all companies would have fairly similar “visual identities” (for lack of a better phrase), advertising would be less engaging and thus less viable. Design becomes the wrapping paper and bow on the box of whores that is advertising. It's the skin and clothes for a company and it's the interface between mind and screen.

These traits raise a question, “How does graphic design do all these things? How is it so versatile?” I pose that it is because graphic design does one very simple thing. Graphic design makes ideas tangible. That is all it does.

It takes an idea, gives it a way to interact with people, and releases it into the world.

This seemingly simple task is so efficient that it can take any form you will it to. If you need graphic design to solve a problem, it can do it. It wont necessarily fix the root of the matter but it will stop whatever it is from being a problem. If you need it to communicate a message or sell a product, it's got a hole bunch of tricks ready to go.

Graphic design is to aesthetics what a sharpened edge is to making and building.

game play

If you were a politition

What would your manifesto be?

The government is full of lawyers and philosophy graduates. very few understand science or the scientific method. This leads to legislation that doesn't adequately deal with situations where science has an insight or solution. The recent proposal for a badger kull for example had very little evidence supporting it's effectiveness but it had the go ahead for a while, until a scientist said that it would have little to no effect.

So my manifesto would lead with scientific comprehension and understanding of its methods, hence Stephen Hawkings "The Universe in a Nutshell"

The news this past month has been saturated with hate crimes and stories of rape. I can scarce begin to describe the way this makes me feel, yet I am powerless to do anything. If I were a politician however, I might have a chance to change something. Make it more difficult to get away with such crimes would be a good start. I'd do my darnedest to lower the amount of such crimes being committed (how I don't know). If methods are effective, I would put pressure on other countries to do the same. If ineffective, I would still do what I could. 

The next part of my manifesto would there for be the "Sex and Power 2011" report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

So my manifesto is two books (essentially). Science and equality.

All sounds a bit kitch until you remember it's politics.

Something new

Mood altering drugs for those who want to feel depressed.
We've got all sorts of uppers, stabilisers and numbing drugs but no depressors or anxiety causers.
Some drugs do have these things as known effects but they aren't the primary function. There's good reason they don't exist, nobody would want them, not until mood organs take over our emotional responses at least.