Comments for 1000 Dollar Film

Comment on Sweded Movies are Pure Genius by “Sweded” Films and Screenwriting « Cliffs and Stiffs

“Sweded” Films and Screenwriting « Cliffs and Stiffs — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:08:27 +0000

[...] has heard the term “sweded,” which refers to a no-budget remake of a popular film. This post at 1000 Dollar Film discusses how one might be able to “swede” their own [...]

Comment on 1200fps at Micro-Budget Prices by John

John — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:47:39 +0000

Clive, I know DSLRs aren’t supposed to have a video mode, but Nikon have just gone and done that very thing! The soon to be launched D90 (which is a 12 mgp DSLR) does 1280 x 720p video at 24 fps, saved as an avi to the camera memory in the form of motion jpg. Yep, you could use your old Nikon glass (Nikons are very good at backwards compatibility like Pentax) and make use of a large sensor, shallow DoF and the sort of ISO sensitivity which only still photographers have had access to until now and shoot a movie. Each movie clip can only last up to 5 minutes, but I think most people could live with that if the image is good. the cost of big capacity memory cards is coming down, and you could always dump them down to a laptop on location. Wow, this is convergence at work, and Nikon don’t have a camcorder market to protect — we might see even more advances next year from them. Don’t know exact price but the D90 isn’t a top model, it’s going to be about £800 I think.

Comment on 3 Common Film Script Errors by Mitch

Mitch — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:49:29 +0000

I couldn’t agree more, Clive. It’s funny how a lot of folks at the micro level (and I know from experience ) will spend a lot of time and their limited funds on getting the right look, but very little time on the things that don’t cost anything: a good concept and a good script. Maybe it’s a lesson that has to be learned the hard way.

Comment on 3 Common Film Script Errors by John

John — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:55:19 +0000

I appreciate Clive emphasizing the importance of sharpening up the basic film idea before writing the long form script (which can be a large time commitment), that in turn saves more time and money by not actually making the film until you know succinctly what your film is about (in order to test whether its interesting enough for the outside world to rent or buy the DVD). The provocative DVD jacket image…10-word tagline…100-word copy, this is where the battle for your film’s future begins, not where it ends up (after shooting). It’s a bit like the psychology of applying for a job (this is on my mind at the moment because I’ve recently been made redundant!): you don’t create a CV to get a job, you create it to get an interview for a job. Following on from what Clive said, you don’t make a film hoping someone will see it, you create a red hot concept to force someone to rent or buy it (THEN they get to see the movie). This idea makes things very much simpler when judging your initial ideas: you simply concentrate on finding a concept (often in the form of a “what if” hook) which successfully intrigues most people you try it on. This excitement will also power you through the process of writing at least 90 pages of original screenplay (not an easy thing to do; you need to have all the excitement you can get to keep you going and see it through).

Comment on 3 Common Film Script Errors by clive

clive — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:22:48 +0000

It wasn’t rude at all… I just assumed you were smiling when you were commenting

Comment on 3 Common Film Script Errors by Morgan McKinnon

Morgan McKinnon — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:03:22 +0000

That was terribly rude of me. I apologize. Sincerely.
I really appreciate your posts…and now that I know…
the smile

:~)
Morgan

Comment on 3 Common Film Script Errors by clive

clive — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:00:15 +0000

Thanks Morgan…

The trick is to remember that I’m smiling when I write… not scowling

and that my only objective is to help film makers make better films, regardless of their budgets…

Oh and that I don’t get paid for doing this…

Comment on 3 Common Film Script Errors by Morgan McKinnon

Morgan McKinnon — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:43:41 +0000

Although what you speak is good stuff…you can really turn people off. Or rather, people will just turn you off. I nearly did.

But I’m tough, so I can withstand the arrogance.

My goodness, are you trying to help people or shoo them away?

I do appreciate the tip concerning dialogue. I’d heard it before…it got through today.

I’ll stop now.

Here’s speaking my mind,

Morgan

Comment on 1200fps at Micro-Budget Prices by clive

clive — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:04:08 +0000

LMAO… of course it’s not an SLR, I mean how fast would than mirror have to be traveling? What a twat I am!
What I should have said is it’s a professional digital camera… I’m showing my age I’m afraid because I haven’t own a professional stills camera since I sold my SLR Nikon F4, which was pre-digital. So, I defaulted to the language I would have used then… when we all called our cameras SLRs without thinking about what that actually meant! (At least I did because I was more interested in the images I could get out of it, instead of the fact that a mirror flipped out of the way of the focal plane in order to achieve it)

The important point is that this ISN’T a camcorder… it’s a stills camera with some movie functions… some fairly interesting functions.

You might want to be a bit less anal about the price though… it’s 799 Euros where I live which is $1,180…and I’m pretty sure if I hunted around I could find a range of prices for that particular camera around the $900 price…

Like for instance over at Digital Rev where it’s $921

What Clive’s not wrong about the price… Huzzah… and that means Paulo “YOU ARE WRONG”

Comment on 1200fps at Micro-Budget Prices by Palo

Palo — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:11:38 +0000

Basically, Casio have just released a $900 35mm SLR, the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1, which will shoot short bursts of JPEG images at 60fps… and MPEG4 HD at 1200fps… no, I didn’t mistype that,

Well you are wrong. It’s not an SLR. MFSRT $999.00.