We’re always interested in stories of up-and-coming indie movie projects.  One such project that caught our eye was  Sledgehammer, an Aliens-inspired science fiction film about a group of space marines marooned on a distant planet full of hostile monsters. The design of the monster was what really did it for me. The concept art, by 3D artist Wesley Griffith (who also worked on Dan Trachtenberg’s Portal: No Escape) shows a nasty spiny insectoid, something like a giant sand flea, sure to inspire the heebie jeebies in any arachnophobe.  Science fiction is one of the most difficult genres in independent film, for obvious reasons:  Science fiction means special effects and special effects cost money! So we had to know, how do you make a critter like that on a budget?

The man behind Sledgehammer is 15 year veteran 3D video game artist Frank Silas, who has worked with  Rockstar Games and Activision Blizzard; he previously directed the award-winning short film Box on a shoestring budget of $2000, but Sledgehammer promises to be a more ambitious special effects extravaganza.  He’s using Kickstarter to raise the money to make this film a reality.

Frank spoke to Videomaker about the challenges of putting together an independent science fiction movie, sharing some tips about finding funding, recruiting actors and creating special effects on a tight budget. Aspiring sci fi directors, take note!

VM: What have you learned from working on Sledgehammer?

FS: I learned about being an Executive Producer. If you are able to bring in active investors at the target amounts you need per film then you can make any film you want. That’s the rub, because those two things are directly proportional. So in most cases you will not be able to make exactly the film you want. I’ve learned to be detached from the details just as long as I like the outcome. I write the script that I want to write, then we shoot what we are able to shoot based on locations, crew, cast etc. Then we edit what we have to turn that into the best possible film it can be. Even in post production it depends on how many people or how much time we can put on to it, but that keeps each stage of the process an adventure, somewhat experimental which frees me to not only shoot more films, but to enjoy the work more. I could see the struggles of other directors who have a crystal clear vision that they want reproduced from their mind’s eye with complete fidelity. I don’t want to struggle against the film making process. I want to enjoy it and I want my crew to enjoy it.

VM: Besides Kickstarter, what other alternative funding options have you explored?

FS: I brought on a couple of friends to help me pay for the live action shoot. That’s what allowed us to shoot the film in the first place. It’s tough to be an Executive Producer on your own film as a Director. Our purpose on Kickstarter.com is to raise funding to create the visual effects for the film. Our studio normally shoots DSLR on Cannon 5D Mark ii and Cannon 7D. With this film we were able to get our hands on a RED Epic from one of the same companies that supplied RED Epics for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. So now we need to do vfx at a very high resolution, which means insurmountable render times unless we acquire the proper software and hardware tools to deal with that.

VM: What advice would you give to other aspiring filmmakers?

FS: The advice I would give to other film makers working on low and micro-budget films is to be a bit more Depak Chopra about it. Your careers will last longer and so will your crews. As for the Sci Fi Film aspect, you’re really going to need to love it. It is the most difficult kind of film to do. It also takes the longest amount of time to make. It cost more than any other type of film to produce, but if you can hit a home run there…those fans are forever. I know, I am a sci fi fan thanks to George Lucas, Ridley Scott, and James Cameron.  Sci Fi raised me.

VM: How did you find the right actors for Sledgehammer?

FS: We screened over 30 actors to discover the cast we have on Sledgehammer! We were very selective about those 30. I promised all of the backers of our Kickstarter to tell them first exactly how we found the actors and what we were looking for. We’ll even show you the process we went through to get them ready in the feature length documentary we are shooting on the making of Sledgehammer, provided our Kickstarter is successful!

VM: What was your idea for how the alien should look? How do you build a good alien when you’re on a budget?

FS: Building an alien on a budget really comes down to what you are trying to accomplish with that character in your film. For us, we knew that there wasn’t just going to be one alien and since I’m a 3D Artist with 3D Artist friends creating our aliens in 3D just made sense. Not everyone can do that on a budget, but we already had that background coming into this production.

With the alien design, I wanted to create something that people have not seen before. It needed to look believable, but not quite like anything else. I call it a cross between JJ Abrams, Starship Troopers, and Avatar. I want the audience to feel scared, intimidated, grossed out when they see it. The thing is the size of a mini-van. Here’s a spoiler, that’s not the only monster in our movie.

To learn more or support Sledgehammer, check out the Sledgehammer Kickstarter page.

You know why filmmakers and videographers always say “We’ll fix it in post“? Because there are some problems that you can’t avoid no matter how many years of experience you have behind the camera.

You probably met these unwelcome guests the first time that you shot any video footage. And maybe you shrugged your shoulders and thought: Well, I’m just a beginner. I’ll learn to avoid these problems soon enough. That works for a lot of the problems you encounter in video production — you eventually develop a “videographer’s instinct” for recognizing violations

of the 180 degree rule and other video offenses before they happen — but these six tough customers never seem to go away. Why not? Well, because half the time they’re due to factors beyond your control. Sometimes you can’t even recognize that there’s a problem until after you see the footage. In any event, these are the little monsters that you can only defeat in post production.

1) Garish or Washed-Out Colors — Ugh! Lurid colors that make a somber scene look like a circus show! Bland, washed-out hues that make a big comedy sequence look like a funeral march! Who needs these?

2) Interlaced Footage — It’s great for broadcast convenience, but now your video has those tell-tale interlacing “lines” that will give your audience a real headache.

3) Shaky Footage — Jostling the camera a little bit can give your video a feeling of gritty realism, like in “Cloverfield” or “The Blair Witch Project.” But too much and no one will be able to tell what’s going on!

4) Weird Electrical Noises – What’s that sound? Surely you were shooting in a silent room, right? Then how can it be that your footage is full of strange hums and buzzes? You might not hear it, but your equipment can pick up annoying frequencies thatyou might miss.

5) Incorrect Frame Rates — Here’s one you probably won’t even think about until it’s too late! When you have to splice your footage together and you suddenly realize they’ve been shot at two different frame rates… that’s always annoying.

6) Unwanted Objects — What’s that boom mic doing there? You’ve seen this goof in even professional Hollywood productions, so you know it’s easy to miss when you’re behind the camera.

There’s probably no stronger argument for why we have post production than that list. Those are certainly some of the most common gripes that we hear from video creators who’re frustrated that they keep finding these “mistakes” in their footage, even after they thought they had carefully sidestepped them. When that happens, all you can say is: Thank goodness for post-production! To learn more about these nasty issues and how to fix them, check out Videomaker’s new Fix it in Post DVD.

If you’ve been shooting for any length of time, you’re already familiar with the basics of lighting. You’ve heard enough about the classic three-point lighting set-up to last a lifetime. But while good lighting is easy with a little bit of knowledge, GREAT lighting takes a lot more preparation. Videomaker has an essential video training toolto help you achieve the best lighting for your production – Advanced Lighting for Video will help you negotiate even the trickiest, most unusual lighting situations.

But there are some lighting situations that you probably thought you’d never encounter. That’s when you need Advanced Lighting for Video. How do you light a commercial product so that people want to buy it? How do you light the inside of a car so that your audience can see what’s happening? Advanced Lighting for Video is the consummate guide to navigating the toughest, weirdest lighting dilemmas.

Setting Up a Studio – What do you need when you’re setting up a studio? Learn what to look for in size, electricity, and sound.

Studio Lighting – Your studio lighting can look professional quality with the right lamps, fixture types and room dimensions. We’ll show you how!

Product Lighting – You want people to buy your product? A little lighting know-how can go a long way toward making anything from a basket of fruit to a used car look irresistible.

Lighting Car Interiors – Inside a car is one of the hardest spaces to light for video. Learn how to light it right inside a cramped space where big lamps won’t fit!

Lighting Night Scenes – Outdoor night scenes can be tricky because bright obvious lamps can easily ruin the illusion. We’ll show you how to use a light touch so your audience won’t wonder where the light is coming from.

Lighting Wide Shots – Lighting a wide shot is difficult if your lamps can’t reach the entire area. We’ll show you how to solve this problem, so that your widest angle shots still look uniformly good.

Professional-looking lighting is within your grasp when you absorb the knowledge on these DVDs. Learn how to conquer any mishap when you have Advanced Lighting for Video. It’s the essential lighting tool for every videographer who’s serious about taking pride in their craft.

To learn more, visit Advanced Lighting for Video!

Many would-be documentarians get trapped into thinking that only sweeping, epic topics are acceptable fodder for documentaries.  They just get stuck in that Ken Burns’ Civil War mode of thinking.  We’ve written quite a few times that doesn’t have to be the case, that you can find the thread of a good documentary story in even seemingly trivial events and mundane lives.  In fact, that’s often where you find the most interesting documentaries!  Small scale documentaries are easier to fund (always a concern for the indie video creator), but more importantly they also often have an intimacy with their subjects that can get lost on more ambitious documentaries.  If you don’t believe me, take a look at the top five documentaries that investigated some weird topics that most people would not have guessed could sustain a whole movie — and came out with masterpieces.

1 The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) – A good documentary is all about interesting characters and human drama. If you can find those two things in your topic, you know you’ve got something with potential.  And you should never underestimate humans’ ability to invest even the most mundane things with profound meaning.  Take video games, for example.  The King of Kong follows video game enthusiast Steve Wiebe as he attempts to best the high score of world “Donkey Kong” champion Billy Mitchell. Most people would hardly think that a movie about two men fighting over a video game could be riveting, but this documentary makes Wiebe’s quest so sympathetic that it’s hard not to root for him to win!

2 American Movie (1999) — Film fanatic Mark Borchardt dreams of making a big Hollywood blockbuster — despite the fact that he lives in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin.  “American Movie” follows Borchardt as he cobbles together his break-out horror feature “Coven” by hook or by crook.  The film mines a lot of humor from its cast of laconic midwestern locals, who all look upon Borchardt’s obsession with bemused sympathy, but it never treats them as a joke. While on one level “American Movie” is the story of one eccentric director, it also becomes the story of all people who struggled to achieve  an “impossible” dream.

3 Bob Smith USA (2005) – This documentary explores something so ordinary that it almost sounds like a joke. Neil Abramson picked the most common, run-of-the-mill name that he could think of, Bob Smith, and then interviewed seven wildly different men with that name, including a yoga instructor, a junk collector, a Christian minister who preaches at children’s birthday parties dressed as a clown and an evangelical atheist who attends cocktail parties dressed as the devil.  The result is a strange and hilarious cross-section of Americana that tells us more about the country’s rich and varied character than you would have thought possible from a documentary about a name!

4 In the Realms of the Unreal (2004) – During his life, Henry Darger was a reclusive janitor in a Chicago hospital.  But in the privacy of his own apartment, Darger created reams of incredible fantasy collages depicting a parallel universe where  children fought a constant war against evil monsters and, oddly, confederate soldiers.  Through both interviews with his neighbors and excerpts from Darger’s journals, the film struggles to understand what compelled Darger to paint such strange but compelling images — and helps us to understand how the act of creation gives our lives a greater purpose.

5 Winnebago Man (2009) – You may already know Jack Rebney as the viral video sensation “Angry Winnebago Man.”  In the mid-80s, Rebney appeared as a pitchman in a series of promotional videos for Winnebago RVs, but it was the out-takes — in which a frustrated Rebney constantly breaks out in bizarre profanity whenever he flubs a line — that captured people’s imaginations.  The videos spread like wildfire over the Internet.  Austin documentarian Ben Steinbauer was fascinated by the clips and sought out to track Rebney down to find out what he was like in person and what he thought of his unexpected fame.  He was surprised to find Rebney living in secluded cabin in northern California.  What could have been exploitative instead turns out to be a fascinating portrait of a man struggling under the burden of unexpected celebrity.

Those are just a few examples of the subjects that can be fertile soil for a good documentary.  You can probably think of many more, just by looking around you.  Still having some difficulty thinking of a topic? Take a look at Videomaker‘s Documentary Storytelling to get some more hints. (Or for more info on the full process, check out Videomaker‘s full Documentary Production series. )

We live in an age were most every family in America owns a video camera and editing software, even if they never sought out either. Anyone with an internet connection can put their video online where it can be seen by everyone on the planet. The web has given anyone who wants it, access to far more information than any film school alone can provide. The world of video production has entered a golden age. There are no more excuses not to pursue whatever goals you hope to achieve with video.

In the late ’90s, when the average middle-class American could purchase video editing software to run on the home computer they already owned, it was clear that we were entering a new era of video production. Consumer camcorders were already common, but with non-linear editors entering people’s homes, so too, was a quality of production reserved only for professionals or those willing to spend thousands on uni-tasking equipment.

Consumer video production stayed at that point for about 10 years, as individuals shot SD footage on their home camcorders and edited on their PC or Mac.  In the last few years, however, we’ve seen a surge forward in the process of consumer level video production. It’s a result of computers and cameras getting cheaper, and moving into every electronic device in the home.

When The Blair Witch Project came out, people were amazed that someone could shoot an entire film that would be released world wide, on a simple consumer camcorder. Today, an iPhone 4S could easily take better quality video and cost significantly less. The only reason, I believe, that we haven’t seen a nationally released film shot entirely on a smartphone yet is simply because an upgrade in picture quality and functionality can be purchased for under a thousand dollars.

It’s not just the cost of quality cameras and accessibility of editing software that is bringing good looking video to the masses, it’s also the size. It turns out that a fluid-head tripod capable of supporting a 3lb camcorder doesn’t cost a lot of money. The same can be said about slider dollies, jibs, and even stabilizers.

Of course some equipment is as pricey as it’s ever been. Lights and microphones, for example, don’t seem to be getting any cheaper, but we live in the age of the internet. It’s much easier to learn from others about how to build your own lighting rig, or even record studio quality ADR straight into your laptop or iPad.

Cameras and editing systems are getting cheaper by the day, and the free flow of information on the internet is making it easier than ever to break into video production. As a result, Hollywood is losing its hold on the film industry, which is a good thing for both consumers and producers of great video.

How can you choose the best video format to make sure that people view and spread your work over the Internet? Find out with our new free guide, What’s the best video format for online distribution?

So you’ve just finished completing the world’s next blockbuster and you want to get your baby on the web fast. The most important preparation is choosing how to format it for the web. Our newest free report explains video formats for the beginning to intermediate user — what the different video formats are and which are the best video formats for web distribution.  You’ll learn the strengths and weaknesses of MOVs, AVIs, FLVs, WMVs, and MP4s, so you can make an informed choice when you decide how the online world will see your movie.

Whether it’s a question of finding the best compression for YouTube or choosing a format that allows your users to interact with the video, there is a video format out there for your exact purposes. Choosing the best video format for web distribution is absolutely vital for getting people to watch your videos on YouTube, Vimeo or other video sharing websites. We asked filmmaker/videographer Chelsey Grasso to decipher the mysteries of getting the best compression for YouTube and the web. Download this all new free report to have all the different video formats explained in plain English.  You’ll never have to worry about your format choices adversely affecting your finished productions again.

Learn:

• Sharing Your Video Masterpiece with the World
• Why Video Formats Are Important
• Getting Down to Business: The Types of Video Formats
• Common Mistakes in Choosing a Video Format
• Tips for Selecting the Best Video Format in Any Situation
• Video Formatting: Wrapping It Up
• Additional Resources

Download your free report What’s the Best Video Format for Online Distribution?