Unleash your inner filmmaker. This category delves into the core principles that will guide your creative journey.
When Everything You Shoot Looks…Flat I was about halfway through editing “Going Home” when I realized the whole thing looked like a high school yearbook photo. Static. Lifeless. Every shot at eye level, medium framing, utterly predictable. The story was there. The performances were solid. But visually? It had all the excitement of watching paint … Read more
Quick note: Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you buy something through them, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I actually use. If something’s garbage, I’ll tell youācommission or not. The Puddle That Changed Everything Three years ago, I was shooting B-roll for … Read more
My Expensive Lesson in Dialogue Direction {#story} I’ll never forget the table read for “Going Home.” My lead actor looked up from the script, confused. “Nobody talks like this,” she said, tapping the page. She was right. The dialogue I’d spent weeks perfecting on paper sounded like a robot having a stroke when spoken aloud. … Read more
š What You’ll Learn in This Guide: Real pay rates for union and non-union background actors ($100-$200+/day) Which myths about extra work are destroying opportunities (and which are true) The exact gear that separates pros from amateurs on set How to find legitimate background acting jobs without getting scammed When to do background workāand when … Read more
When the DOP Broke the 180 Rule (And I Nearly Lost It) There I was, standing in an airport terminal at 2 AM with a skeleton crew, shooting a critical scene for “Going Home.” We’d been planning this sequence for weeks. The emotions needed to be perfect. The continuity needed to be flawless. Then my … Read more
The Take That Made Her Cry Alyssa had never acted before. Not in high school plays, college improv, anywhere. Yet here she was on the set of Going Home, supposed to cry on camera after reading shocking news from a letter She was terrified. First take: nothing. She apologized. Second take: forced grimace. More apologies. … 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 Day AI Saved My Shoot (And My Sanity) A few years ago, I was three days from shooting “Dead Space Between Us” when my location scout bailed. No notice. Just gone. I had a skeleton crew, a $2,000 budget, and exactly zero backup locations that matched the dystopian aesthetic we needed. Normally, this is … Read more
The Shot That Changed Everything Three years ago, I was shooting “Going Home” in a cramped Victoria apartment. The scene: our lead actress discovers the final letter from her high school friend’s mother. We’d planned a wide shot showing the entire room, the letter, her hands trembling. But something felt off. My DP looked at … Read more
The Moment I Knew Post-Production Was Going to Hurt March 2019. We’d just wrapped “Going Home” after 12 brutal days of shooting. The crew was celebrating, actors were hugging goodbye, and I was sitting in my car with five hard drives full of footage. 47 hours of raw material. For a 14-minute short film. I … Read more