This category delves into the art and science of lighting and visual effects in filmmaking. We explore lighting techniques, including three-point lighting, natural light, and artificial lighting sources.
I Ruined Three Shots Before I Figured This Out It was the second day of shooting Beta Tested. Green screen up, lights set, actors ready. Everything looked perfect on set. Then I opened iMovie. Green blobs. Weird halos. One actor’s shoulder had basically ceased to exist. I’d done everything I thought was right—smooth fabric, decent … Read more
Three Views After Two Weeks I’ll never forget uploading “Going Home” to YouTube in 2024. Spent six months making the film. Three views after two weeks. Two of those were me checking if it actually uploaded correctly. The third view? My mom. The problem wasn’t the film. It was pretty solid for what it was. … Read more
The $40 Light That Saved My Film I’ll never forget the panic. Three hours into shooting “Blood Buddies,” our main light died. Fried. Just… gone. We had no backup. No rental budget. And an actor who’d driven two hours to be there. My DP looked at me like I’d just told him we were shooting … Read more
White Balance for Video: Filmmaker’s Guide to Perfect Colors We were three hours into shooting “Married & Isolated” when I noticed something off. My actor looked like he’d been living on Mars for a month—skin glowing orange under the tungsten practicals we’d set up in the apartment. The kicker? I’d been shooting on auto white … Read more