SoundSnap (discovered via Crave) offers royalty free sounds for your filmmaking/podcasting/prank-phone-call pleasure. I’m planning to check it out for a short film I’m editing currently, and I’ll let you know what my experiences are.
Some Good Advice
The UC Berkeley School of Journalism has some pretty awesome people. They even put together a Documentary Cookbook – which gives a brief history of their mission followed by some excellent advice on how to make, in effect, the Ikea of movies – looks really nice, but costs next to nothing.
If you read nothing else, read “Basic Approach” onward. My favorite bit of advice: “Avoid air travel. Is there no good film to be made within 100 miles of home?” That made me think. I live in a place chock full of history, conflict, tradition and rebellion. . . are there no good stories to be told about Cambridge?
There are plenty of narrative films that use Harvard as the romantic, leaf-scattered backdrop upon which any number of fantasies come into play (Elle Woods in Legally Blonde and the romance in Good Will Hunting come to mind). But there’s more to Cambridge than People-Who-Attend-Harvard and People-Who-Don’t. Maybe there’s a story in that.
What’s a Best Boy again?
Skillset has a great list of Film Jobs with descriptions and suggestions for breaking into the roles. It’s very helpful in figuring out who all the different people are who contribute to making a film. It’s also very useful in determining what titles to give your friends and colleagues who did various miscellaneous things for your no-budget indie.
Insomnia Film Festival Advice from John August
John August has some advice for people entering the Insomnia Film Festival over on his blog.
The one line summary? Go funny, get quality sound, and prepare in advance then adapt to the requirements rather than going in blind. Read his post for more.
Permits in NYC
Yes, I’m back. Yes, you will have to wait a little longer for a real post. For now, I just felt the need to share John August’s post on permits and echo his sentiments. I pretty much agree with his assessment that the difference between a couple people with a video camera and a full on film shoot is an important distinction and the former should not be stifled to protect the public from the later.
Edit: Seems that NYC declined the new restrictions.