The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap

200 Pages·2007·49.2 MB·English

by  Stu Maschwitz

The DV Rebel's Guide
An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap
Stu Maschwitz
Peachpit Press
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
800/283-9444
510/524-2221 (fax)
Find us on the World Wide Web at: www.peachpit.com
To report errors, please send a note to errata @peachpit.com
Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education
Copyright © 2007 by Stu Maschwitz
Editor: Karyn Johnson
Production Editor: Hilal Sala
Interior designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Compositor: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Copyeditor: Doug Adrianson and Hope Frazier
Indexer: Jack Lewis, j &j indexing
Cover design: Mimi Heft
NOTICE OF RIGHTS All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmit-
ted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other-
wise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting
permission for reprints and excerpts, contact [email protected] .
NOTICE OF LIABILITY The information in this book is distributed on an As Is" basis, without
warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither
the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any
loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions
contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.
TRADEMARKS Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish
1
their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book,
and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by
the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout
this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no
intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is
intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.
ISBN 0-321-41364-4
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Acknowledgments the Ghettocam, my bro is always the first one I turn to when I come to the
shocking realization that computers can't do everything.
I do a lot of public speaking, so I've become comfortable in front of Mad props to the filmmakers who contributed images from their
crowds. But in 2006 I was asked to give the graduation speech at a San work. Macgregor, co-director of Similo, Sharlto Copley and Simon Hansen,
Francisco Bay Area media school, and on the day of the event I felt myself co-directors of Spoon, and Gregg Bishop, director of The Other Side.
becoming uncharacteristically nervous. The reason? I wanted to do a A big shout out to the Adobe After Effects development team, for
good job. I felt like I had something to say, and I wanted to say it well—it their years of patient absorption of my feedback, and for creating the
was important to me not to let those graduates down. This book has single greatest filmmaking tool that doesn't have a lens. Thanks especially
been like that. What I thought was going to be painless blatherings about to Jeff Almasol for the amazing scripts he wrote to turn my onlining toys
stuff I do every day has become a passion project, and the self-imposed into a real toolkit.
pressure to deliver the good stuff has had me dangling from buildings, And lastly, a very special thanks is due to the original Rebel, Robert
watching the sun come up, and imposing no small amount on the good Rodriguez. When I first saw El Mariachi in a dingy theater in Minneapolis,
graces of my friends, family, and colleagues. I had the same sensation that I had when I saw Star Wars at age five—I
There is acknowledging, there is thanking, and then there is recogniz- was looking down the barrel of my career as a filmmaker. I could not have
ing deep indebtedness. Somewhere beyond that is what I must attempt imagined that years later I'd be helping him put his cinematic visions on
to convey about my beloved and luminous wife Michelle. Her support of the screen. In no small part this book is an effort to expand on the teach-
my efforts on this book requires no enumerating, as it quite simply com- ings of his book, DVD commentary tracks, and 10-Minute Film Schools.
poses every ounce of what you now hold in your hands. She even let me His stamp of approval on this book is the best sign I could have that I got
take pictures of her holding big guns—what more could a guy ask for? some of that good stuff into these pages.
My deepest thanks to the cast and crew of The Last Birthday Card,
Skate Warrior, the 2005 teaser trailer, and The Green Project. I may be a
Rebel but thankfully I have never been without my crew.
Thanks to Mark Christiansen for early advice and for occasionally
reminding me of just how much work this might turn out to be. Thanks
to Eric Escobar, filmmaker and friend, for sage council over eggs benedict.
Thanks to Sammy Rodriguez of The Orphanage's editorial department
for authoring the video portion of the DVD. And thanks to my partners at
The Orphanage—Scott, Jonathan, Carsten, and Daniel—for relinquishing
a percentage of my brain to this project.
And on the subject of family, I remain in awe of my brother Eric's
contribution to this book. From careening through Chinatown with a
madman on his heels (a madman with a DV camera, that is) to creating
Drawing Through a Lens 41
Contents
Shoot it, Nerd it, Steal it 42
Lines of Action (Big Red Arrows) 44
Animatics 48
Introduction xi Turning a Storyboard into a Schedule 50
Cut 'em and Code 'em 52
CHAPTER 1: The Approach 1 Binder the Universe Together 56
Work Backward, Not Forward 2 Putting the "Guer" in Guerrilla 57
Mis en Scene, Dans la Cuisine 4 On Asking Permission 57
Break It Down 5 The Pickup Truck Loophole 58
Build It Up 8 Be a Rebel, Not a Jerk 59
What Is Production Value? 14
Image Quality 15 THE CAMERA On the included DVD
Sound Quality 19 Selecting a Camera 2
Locations 20 24p 3
Lighting 21 HD vs. SD 6
Effects 22 Widescreen 8
Stars 23 Wider Screen 11
But Seriously, What Is Production Value? 25 Electronic 16:9 vs. The Real Thing 76
Don't Make Shots, Make a Movie 26 16:9 Adaptor Lenses 19
Settings 20
CHAPTER 2: Planning 27 Crafting the Digital Negative 20
Looking for a Producer? 28 Flatten It Out 23
I Have Bad News for You 28 Cinegamma 28
Resources 29 Detail, Schmetail! 30
A Uniquely Rebel Plan 30 Accessories 33
Your Script 31 Lenses 33
Make Waves 31 Tchotchkes 51
Authenticity 32 Manual Everything! 52
I Am But a Shadowy Reflection of You 34 Exposure 53
Your Storyboards 35 White Balance 64
Learn to Draw Badly 36 Focus 65
Eyelines 38
CHAPTER 3: Shooting 61 Matching Cameras 144
Making Memorable Shots 62 Matching Lighting 154
Slow Down 63 The Blue Screen of Death 157
Think in Thirds 63 Miniatures 163
Make Triangles 66 Scale 164
Free Your Mind and Your Camera Will Follow 68 Speed 164
Tell the Story 69 Hanging Foreground Miniatures 167
Moving the Camera 72 Cleveland for Paris 171
Sticks 72 Matte Paintings for Nonpainters 171
Dollies 73 Copy Paste 172
Slider 77 Virtual Worlds 173
Wheelchairs 79 POV Shots 174
Steady That Cam 81 Guns Guns Guns! 175
Cranes &Jibs 92 A Little About Real Guns 175
Found Cranes 94 The Electric Gun On the included DVD
Playing with Time 94 What Guns Do 176
Slow Motion for Me 95 Blank-Firing Replicas 176
Speed Ramping 103 Toys & BB Guns 177
Undercranking 110 Digital Ordnance 183
Narrow Shutter 112 Handling the Guns, Handling the Gun Handlers 189
Hand-Cranking 115 Guns Shoot Things 190
Reverse It 118 Light Fuse and Get Away 191
Lighting 119 BB Guns 192
God Is Your Gaffer 119 Blood Hits 193
Bounce It or Block It 121 Squib That Which Is Squibable 194
Eventually You May Need, Er, Lights 125 52 Card Pickup 194
Digital Squibs 195
CHAPTER 4: Effects 131 Tinfoil Bullet Hits 199
Special Effects vs. Visual Effects 132 The (Nearly) Free Blood Hit 200
Realism, Schmealism 134 Splitsville 201
Keep 'em Guessing 137 Stunts 203
Treat the Fake Like It's Real 138 Avoid Killing Your Friends 203
Some Effects Basics 143 What Professionals? 205
Reference Is God 143 Cars 211
7
x Contents
CHAPTER 5: Editing 213
Cut Like a Pro 214
Who Shaves the Barber? 215
Kill Your Babies 215
Manufacturing Reality 216
Everything Is Fair Game 217
Invisible Cuts 218
Pacing 228
Do Over 228
Sound and Music 229
Locking Your Cut 230
Prep the Effects 231
The Top Ten Percent 233
Getting a Handle 240
Accounting 241
CHAPTER 6: Onlining 243
The Rules 244
No Mastering in the NLE 246
No Recompression 246
No 8-Bit Processing 247
Be a Pixel Purist 250
Getting Your Movie into After Effects 251
Color Correction 251
Grade in Layers 253
Not So Secondary Corrections 256
Order of Operations 258
Tools of the Trade 259
Color Theory 278
A Sample Sequence 298
Output 307
The Digital Master On the included DVD
Boom. 307
Index 309
xii Introduction Introduction xiii
Why should you make a low-budget action movie? Simple. The people Studios have always spent a lot of money on action films. And once
making the big-budget ones have lost their touch. It's time for the baton they got the idea that polish, body count, star factor, "trailer moments,"
to be passed, and this book will prepare you to receive it. and other easily quantifiable assets could reliably provide a return on that
Action movies—the very term invokes visions of brainless adrena- investment—even without a compelling story to back them up—they
line injections set to techno music. But things weren't always this way. went for it whole hog. Thus we've entered a time when action movies
It's easy to forget that Die Hard has a full 30 minutes of engaging story generally deserve the bad rap they've always endured.
before the first gun is fired, or that Lethal Weapon features an attempted Why did Hollywood freak out when Robert Rodriguez's $7,000 El
suicide so gripping that director Franco Zeffirelli cast Mel Gibson as Mariachi hit the screens? Sure, it was novel that he had made the film so
Hamlet based on that scene alone. It's easy to forget that director John inexpensively, but what the industry really reacted to was its freshness. It
Woo (Face/Off Mission Impossible II) is best not just when his guns are was unlike other movies in theaters at that time. It was a new voice—an
blazing, but when he wears his heart on his sleeve. Who remembers that action movie and a personal story.
Predator is an intricate suspense film for its entire second act, or that The A fresh new voice, by definition, must come in under Hollywood's
Goonies and E.T., The Extra Terrestrial both feature kids who actually talk radar—radar that responds to only one signal: Cash. The Terminator was
like real kids? Or that one of the most captivating scenes in Raiders of made for $6 million. Aliens cost $18 million. La Femme Nikita $5 million,
the Lost Ark is one of pure exposition? Or that The Terminator has a love and Point Break $24 million. Spielberg's directorial debut, Duel, was shot
scene in which you actually believe that the couple, who had first met for less than half a million dollars. As I write this, there are no films in
the previous day, is in love? the box office top io made for anywhere near those low numbers, even
There was a golden era of action films that spanned almost exactly adjusted for inflation—and tentpole films typically cost upwards of
the decade of the 198os. No doubt owing much to the successes of Jaws $250 million.
and Star Wars, the '8os warmed up to the concept of the "blockbuster" The future of the action film genre rests firmly in the hands of the
movie before it was an established genre in and of itself. There was still adept, digital-savvy independent filmmaker with more brains than bucks.
an idea, held over from the '6os and '7os, that a film should be a cinemati- But you probably already knew that. Why else would you buy this book?
cally authored work—and the spirit of summer spectacular one-upman-
ship was a healthy cherry atop a sundae of substance. Even as commercial
directors made the move into film, they created movies, not two-hour Jargon Watch
American Express ads.
Throughout the book, you'll find these Jargon Watch sidebars
You begin to see the end of this great era in the sequels to some of
to help define esoteric film terms.
its best examples. The slickness of these follow-ups became a veneer
so thick it didn't matter much what was underneath. The sequels to Die A tentpole film is one the studio is betting it all on—a big-budget
monster like Titanic or Spider-Man that the studio expects to
Hard, Predator, and others, fun as they are, seem to be set in some fake
be its highest-grossing film that year.
movie reality—whereas the originals, fanciful as they may have been,
took place in the real world.
It's a video camera that costs less than a cheap used car and makes
The Big Idea
images that can be shown on a movie theater screen without anyone
unconsciously cleaning their glasses.
There are plenty of books about filmmaking. Some promise that you Now, what's this?
can make a movie for spare change; others expect you not only to spend
some money, but to actually keep track of it. Most admonish you to aim
low, keep your whole film to one location, shoot it in a week, and avoid
anything in the script that you might be tempted to type in all caps. You
7,
know, stuff like A THUNDERSTORM HITS or THE T-REX ESCAPES THE PAD-
DOCK or EXT. MOSCOW.
0
Screw that. You may have already discovered the dirty little secret of
this book, which is that it's not just for aspiring action filmmakers. It's
0
for anyone whose cinematic ambitions extend beyond the self-imposed 0
restrictions of standard indie fare. If the story about which you are pas-
0
sionate involves exotic locations, visual spectacle, weather, Kung Fu, or
S
any other stuff that makes movies better than plays, then welcome to
the book that won't try to talk you off the ledge. Nope, it'll jump with you,
That's a few computers with specs that were state of the art a couple
just like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon.
of years ago, that are now being recycled for parts. They're no different
Pop Quiz hotshot: What's this?
from computers that high-end visual-effects facilities are still using to
create shots for blockbuster feature films.
Put these two together and you've got everything you need to make a
movie. What's Hollywood got that you don't?
Oh yeah: millions of dollars, movie stars, and hundreds of trained crew
members.
You know what? That's OK. Because you have a couple of things that
Hollywood will never have. The first is a great script. I know, if that was so
easy you'd be a paid screenwriter reading this book atop a giant stack of
cash. Or maybe not. Hollywood buys scripts for tons of money, sure—but
look what they're buying. Your script has the luxury of not needing to be
sellable. Take advantage of that! Pander to no one—tell your story. If you
can do that, you will have a great script.
xvi Introduction About the Lunatic
The other thing you have that Hollywood doesn't is time. Who the hell Birthday Card took more than a year to complete, but by then I knew
cares when you finish your film? There's a festival deadline? Guess what, I'd discovered the method of filmmaking that I would pursue into my
it will roll around again next year. professional career. I left ILM, joined Scott Stewart and Jonathan Roth-
If you're willing to tell a personal story and take your time executing it, bart in a tiny office in downtown San Francisco, and attended the 2000
you can leverage inexpensive, off-the-shelf technology to make a kinetic, Sundance Film Festival accompanied by a front page Hollywood Reporter
exciting film with tons of production value. The key is to exploit the story announcing our new production company, The Orphanage.
strengths of your tools and your life, work around your limitations, and Since then I've directed numerous commercials, with budgets large
think outside the box of Hollywood filmmaking. and small, and tried wherever possible to experience and learn from the
big, expensive ways of putting images on the screen—and continue to
subvert them whenever possible with my DV Rebel bag of tricks.
About the Lunatic :"""1111111111111111•11111111111111111
•
In 1996 I was a visual effects artist at Industrial Light & Magic, George
Lucas's premiere visual effects facility. I had been teaching myself Avid
during my off hours, editing some old footage I shot in film school
(California Institute of the Arts in Valencia). That footage was meant to
be an action-packed mini-feature called Skate Warrior. After completing
my edit, I realized that at no point did my "film" ever need to touch tape
again. I had begun to assemble the 45-minute epic in Adobe After Effects
3.0, and immediately fell in love with the idea of mastering an entire
movie using such a fluid and capable tool. The only thing that was missing
was a shooting format that was as digital as the rest of my workflow.
During a chance trip to a consumer electronics store a few weeks later
I saw the answer to my prayers. There was the Sony DCR-VXi000, a 3-chip
camcorder that recorded to a digital tape format called "MiniDV." It had
In 1999, three employees of George Lucas's premiere visual effects
the strangest little connector on the back—IEEE 1394, or, as I was already
company, Industrial Light & Magic, struck out on their own with a
loving calling it, FireWire. Someday soon, I knew, I'd have a similar port in
simple vision: to change the way movies are made.
my very own computer.
I bought the camera that day, took it home, and in one weekend wrote The company name immediately became synonymous with the
the script for The Last Birthday Card—a 20-Minute short that would "DV Revolution." The Orphanage produced a series of shorts
become the last project I ever worked on at ILM. utilizing existing digital camera technology, and preparing them
for film using their proprietary Magic Bullet technology. They
Chapter Title What Are You Prepared to Do? xix
offered this service to the independent filmmakers who were This book will not offer more than the tiniest bit of advice about writ-
already embracing digital acquisition, and continued to push other ing your script. Books about screenwriting abound, and reading any one
technology companies to support this new way of making movies. of them is an excellent alternative to actually sitting down and writing.
When Sony and Panavision announced their 24p CineAlta camera to
What if I told you your l0th script would be great? Would you still be
the world, The Orphanage was the first company to complete a film
interested in writing the first nine? Well, your l0th script will be great,
with it—and finished it (bigLove, 2001) on home computers. Later
now get to work.
they would be consulted on the design of Panasonic's revolutionary
This book will not beat around the bush. There are lots of ways to get
24p DV camera, the DVX100.
things done—you came here because you want to hear mine. Any time
Magic Bullet went from a service to a product that any DV filmmaker I say "you could do it this way or that way," it will be blatantly obvious
could use, and The Orphanage went from a tiny production company
which way I think is right. You are free to disagree, of course, but you'll
to a top visual effects facility with over 100 employees. While the
never feel like this book is copping out.
folks at Magic Bullet were working on complex computer graphics
And of course, this book will not offer legal guidance. In fact, quite
for films like Charlie's Angles 2: Full Throttle, Sin City, and Hellboy,
the opposite—you may find some decidedly unconventional advice. I'll
they were also quietly developing their own feature film projects
suggest some omelet recipes that most assuredly require breaking a few
out of their Los Angeles office. In 2005, they went into production
eggs. The safety of your cast and crew and anyone who gets in their way
on their first movie, Griffin and Phoenix.
is your responsibility—an important one that no person or book can take
The three founders continue to push the company forward on all
off your hands.
fronts. Scott Stewart writes and develops stories for the feature
films division. Jonathan Rothbart is a visual effects supervisor
on such films as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Superman
Returns. The author directs several commercials a year while
What Are You Prepared to Do?
continuing to pioneer new filmmaking technologies. In everything
they do, at every budget level, the DV Rebel spirit thrives.
The way I make low-budget films is not for everyone. I use an approach
that is postproduction heavy. I integrate my visual effects knowledge into
every aspect of my filmmaking, and am always looking at my film from
50,000 feet, strategizing the best way to get my story on the screen using
What This Book Will Not Do whatever techniques seem best.
Ultimately, you are the author ofyour film. Your sensibilities will inform
your choices, and the film you make will be one that no one else could
This book will not train you to be a producer. It doesn't contain sample
have. Some of the things you read in these pages will sound absolutely
budgets, schedules, advice on how to cheat a camera rental for an extra
crazy to you, but some will cause you to throw down the book immedi-
day, or tricks for avoiding paying people until the last possible moment.
ately and go try them out.
xx Jo Introduction
I hope there's a lot of the latter. I promise you I'll give you the best of Don't Make Your Short in Hollywood
my cool ideas about moviemaking, if you promise you'll give them a shot!
I apologize if you are in Hollywood, although I'm sure you realize that it's
possible to leave, even for a short time. If you're not in Hollywood, or the
The Homework Los Angeles area, rejoice.
Why not shoot a film in Hollywood? Hollywood is where films are
Throughout the book, I make specific references to several movies. It
made! That's exactly why. I've seen a lot of short films, some made in L.A.
will be handy for you to have the DVDs of these films available to study
and some not, and I have come to be able to recognize the ones made in
the techniques and shots I reference. To help you prepare, each chapter
L.A. Quite simply, they have high production value and terrible direction.
includes a list of the films mentioned. Have a good DVD player with easy-
People in L.A. know how movies are made, so they think they know
to-use pause and slow motion controls (a jog/shuttle control is best), and
what it takes to make a movie. To them, all filmmaking requires the
if you suspect there might be some DVDs you're missing, skip ahead to
accoutrements they see on the set of every big-budget effort they've
the lists so you can rent them before you get to that chapter!
ever crewed on or performed in. So they work their favors and get a full
35mm package for free, and a big grip truck and crew for free, and they
weasel their way onto someone else's set the day before it's slated to be
Computers Are the Devil
struck.
And you will make a pact with them. These shorts turn out terrible. The truth is the mechanisms of profes-
This book will suggest a number of solutions for achieving high pro- sional Hollywood filmmaking are cumbersome. They conspire to create
duction value on a shoestring budget. Some of them—in fact, many of mediocrity. It's quite difficult to work through them and create a compel-
them—involve some form of postproduction computer intimacy. ling film. You finagle a fancy Fisher dolly, and suddenly all your shots are
Some filmmaking books assume that you'll be able to make heads or between two and six feet off the ground. You hook up with a great DP
tails of the mock budgets they helpfully supply. Some assume you're the (Director of Photography) looking to build his reel, and suddenly, since
kind of person who can spend $15 at Home Depot and an hour later have you're not paying him, you have no leg to stand on when he takes three
a Steadicam-like device. And yet somehow there's been a taboo about hours lighting an insert of a hand on a phone. Your short winds up under-
assuming that people are willing to teach themselves a little about doing covered and overproduced. And that set? It looks like a set.
computer effects. Well, I have bad news: I don't know any other way If you learn your nunchuck skills with those lightweight plastic ones,
to make movies other than involving computer-heavy techniques from the worst thing you can do is look silly. If you decide to learn using the
day one. heavy wooden ones, you may wind up with a concussion. Beginning
There are some computer-graphics how-tos in this book. I'll try not to filmmakers would do well to avail themselves of the most agile means
assume too much, but I wouldn't use this book as a first step in learning
about digital compositing and effects. Still, this stuff isn't that compli-
cated. All I ask is a willingness to try.