Blog
Articles on filmmaking technique, production planning, and industry knowledge.
Showing 12 of 42 posts (Page 3 of 4)
How to Schedule Around Child Actors, Locations, and Weather: The Constraint-Based Approach
Most production schedules are built around what the director wants to shoot. The best ones are built around what the constraints will allow. A practical guide to constraint-based scheduling for child actor hours, location availability windows, weather dependencies, and how to build in the recovery time that every production actually needs.
Skeleton Crew Filmmaking: The Minimum Viable Crew for Each Type of Production
Every additional crew member costs money and adds coordination overhead. A practical breakdown of minimum viable crew sizes for short films, micro-budget features, documentaries, and web series - with the trade-offs for each reduction from the full crew model.
How to Build a One-Page Call Sheet That Works: Department by Department
A call sheet is not a formality - it is the document that allows 20 people to show up at the right place, at the right time, ready for the right work. A complete guide to every section, every field, and the mistakes that produce crew confusion on day one.
The Math Behind a Shooting Day: How Many Setups Can You Actually Fit in 12 Hours?
Most indie film schedules are built on optimistic setup counts that collapse on day one. A practical breakdown of the math behind a 12-hour shooting day: how many setups are achievable at each budget level, what variables compress that number, and how to build a schedule that holds.
Overcranking vs. Undercranking: A Cinematographer's Guide to Speed Manipulation Beyond Slow Motion
A complete technical guide to overcranking and undercranking - covering the frame rate math, shutter angle implications, storage consequences, and the specific narrative uses of each technique beyond the obvious slow-motion athletics shot.
How Many SSDs Do You Need for a Feature Film? A Pre-Production Calculation Guide
A step-by-step pre-production calculation guide for determining exactly how many SSDs or hard drives a feature film production needs, covering acquisition volume, backup redundancy, proxy storage, and the timing of drive purchases versus rentals.
Building a Data Management Workflow for a Small Crew: Who Backs Up What and When
A practical data management framework for productions without a dedicated DIT - covering card offload sequences, checksumming, drive labelling, proxy creation, and how to structure responsibilities across a 2-3 person crew so nothing gets missed.
Shooting for Multiple Aspect Ratios: How to Frame for 2.39:1, 1.85:1, and 16:9 Simultaneously
A practical framing guide for productions that need to deliver in multiple aspect ratios: covering safe area calculations, on-set monitoring solutions, in-camera frame guide setup, and the specific compositional decisions that affect all three deliverables.
Pulling Focus Without a Focus Puller: How Indie Films Manage DoF on Small Crews
A dedicated 1st AC pulling follow focus is the professional standard for a reason. When the budget or crew size makes that impossible, there are five practical focus strategies that indie and documentary productions use to keep shots sharp without a second set of hands on the lens.
What Happens If You Run Out of Cards on Set?
A practical recovery protocol for when your media fills up mid-shoot - covering in-camera offload options, emergency purchasing, and how to restructure the shooting day without losing footage or shutting down production.
Day for Night: The Exposure Math and the In-Camera Technique
Explains the exposure strategy for day-for-night shooting, the stop-loss calculation, sky blocking techniques, and how modern color grading has changed the technique. Includes worked examples from different solar conditions.
Slow Motion in Practice: Frame Rates, Playback Speed, and What Your Camera Can Actually Do
Moves beyond the basics - covers resolution trade-offs at high frame rates, audio capture limitations, lighting requirements for overcranking, and which cameras offer genuine slow motion versus interpolated results.