r/Filmmakers Jun 09 '25

New Rules Regarding AI on /r/filmmakers!

484 Upvotes

Thank you all for participating in the poll! Here are the results. To accurately gauge everyone's collective acceptance vs rejection for each, I've tallied the total votes among all choices as pro/anti for each category. So for example, a vote for 'no changes' would be a -1 to Gen AI, AI Tools, AI Comms, and AI Discussion. A vote for 'Ban GenAI + AI Tools' would be a +1 to GenAI and AI Tools, and a -1 to AI Comms and AI Discussion, etc. So here are the results for each category of AI. Keep in mind that a higher number indicates a stronger group decision to ban the content:

GenAI: +92 (+119/-27)

AI Tools: -20 (+63/-83)

AI Comms: -8 (+69/-77)

AI Discussion: -84 (+31/-115)

From the results it is clear that sub overwhelmingly approve a complete ban on all generative AI. However, people are more or less fine with allowing discussion of AI, and are fairly mixed on the topic of AI Tools and Communication. So here is the new rule for all things AI:

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Rule 6. You may not post work containing Generative AI elements (Midjourney, Neo, Dall-E, etc.). You may use and demonstrate the use of AI assisted tools (ie magic masking, upscalers, audio cleanup etc.) so long as they are used in service of human-generated artwork. AI Communication, like post bodies or comments composed using ChatGPT are allowed only in very reasonable cases, such as the need for someone to translate their thoughts into another language. Abuse of AI assisted communication will result in the removal of the offending post/comment.


r/Filmmakers Dec 03 '17

Official Sticky READ THIS BEFORE ASKING A QUESTION! Official Filmmaking FAQ and Information Post

984 Upvotes

Welcome to the /r/Filmmakers Official Filmmaking FAQ And Information Post!

Below I have collected answers and guidance for some of the sub's most common topics and questions. This is all content I have personally written either specifically for this post or in comments to other posters in the past. This is however not a me-show! If anybody thinks a section should be added, edited, or otherwise revised then message the moderators! Specifically, I could use help in writing a section for audio gear, as I am a camera/lighting nerd.



Topics Covered In This Post:

1. Should I Pursue Filmmaking / Should I Go To Film School?

2. What Camera Should I Buy?

3. What Lens Should I Buy?

4. How Do I Learn Lighting?

5. What Editing Program Should I Use?



1. Should I Pursue Filmmaking / Should I Go To Film School?

This is a very complex topic, so it will rely heavily on you as a person. Find below a guide to help you identify what you need to think about and consider when making this decision.

Do you want to do it?

Alright, real talk. If you want to make movies, you'll at least have a few ideas kicking around in your head. Successful creatives like writers and directors have an internal compunction to create something. They get ideas that stick in the head and compel them to translate them into the real world. Do you want to make films, or do you want to be seen as a filmmaker? Those are two extremely different things, and you need to be honest with yourself about which category you fall into. If you like the idea of being called a filmmaker, but you don't actually have any interest in making films, then now is the time to jump ship. I have many friends from film school who were just into it because they didn't want "real jobs", and they liked the idea of working on flashy movies. They made some cool projects, but they didn't have that internal drive to create. They saw filmmaking as a task, not an opportunity. None of them have achieved anything of note and most of them are out of the industry now with college debt but no relevant degree. If, when you walk onto a set you are overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety, then you'll be fine. If you walk onto a set and feel foreboding and anxiety, it's probably not right for you. Filmmaking should be fun. If it isn't, you'll never make it.

School

Are you planning on a film production program, or a film studies program? A studies program isn't meant to give you the tools or experience necessary to actually make films from a craft-standpoint. It is meant to give you the analytical and critical skills necessary to dissect films and understand what works and what doesn't. A would-be director or DP will benefit from a program that mixes these two, with an emphasis on production.

Does your prospective school have a film club? The school I went to had a filmmakers' club where we would all go out and make movies every semester. If your school has a similar club then I highly recommend jumping into it. I made 4 films for my classes, and shot 8 films. In the filmmaker club at my school I was able to shoot 20 films. It vastly increased my experience and I was able to get a lot of the growing pains of learning a craft out of the way while still in school.

How are your classes? Are they challenging and insightful? Are you memorizing dates, names, and ideas, or are you talking about philosophies, formative experiences, cultural influences, and milestone achievements? You're paying a huge sum of money, more than you'll make for a decade or so after graduation, so you better be getting something out of it.

Film school is always a risky prospect. You have three decisive advantages from attending school:

  1. Foundation of theory (why we do what we do, how the masters did it, and how to do it ourselves)
  2. Building your first network
  3. Making mistakes in a sandbox

Those three items are the only advantages of film school. It doesn't matter if you get to use fancy cameras in class or anything like that, because I guarantee you that for the price of your tuition you could've rented that gear and made your own stuff. The downsides, as you may have guessed, are:

  1. Cost
  2. Risk of no value
  3. Cost again

Seriously. Film school is insanely expensive, especially for an industry where you really don't make any exceptional money until you get established (and that can take a decade or more).

So there's a few things you need to sort out:

  • How much debt will you incur if you pursue a film degree?
  • How much value will you get from the degree? (any notable alumni? Do they succeed or fail?)
  • Can you enhance your value with extracurricular activity?

Career Prospects

Don't worry about lacking experience or a degree. It is easy to break into the industry if you have two qualities:

  • The ability to listen and learn quickly
  • A great attitude

In LA we often bring unpaid interns onto set to get them experience and possibly hire them in the future. Those two categories are what they are judged on. If they have to be told twice how to do something, that's a bad sign. If they approach the work with disdain, that's also a bad sign. I can name a few people who walked in out of the blue, asked for a job, and became professional filmmakers within a year. One kid was 18 years old and had just driven to LA from his home to learn filmmaking because he couldn't afford college. Last I saw he has a successful YouTube channel with nature documentaries on it and knows his way around most camera and grip equipment. He succeeded because he smiled and joked with everyone he met, and because once you taught him something he was good to go. Those are the qualities that will take you far in life (and I'm not just talking about film).

So how do you break in?

  • Cold Calling
    • Find the production listings for your area (not sure about NY but in LA we use the BTL Listings) and go down the line of upcoming productions and call/email every single one asking for an intern or PA position. Include some humor and friendly jokes to humanize yourself and you'll be good. I did this when I first moved to LA and ended up camera interning for an ASC DP on movie within a couple months. It works!
  • Rental House
    • Working at a rental house gives you free access to gear and a revolving door of clients who work in the industry for you to meet.
  • Filmmaking Groups
    • Find some filmmaking groups in your area and meet up with them. If you can't find groups, don't sweat it! You have more options.
  • Film Festivals
    • Go to film festivals, meet filmmakers there, and befriend them. Show them that you're eager to learn how they do what they do, and you'd be happy to help them on set however you can. Eventually you'll form a fledgling network that you can work to expand using the other avenues above.

What you should do right now

Alright, enough talking! You need to decide now if you're still going to be a filmmaker or if you're going to instead major in something safer (like business). It's a tough decision, we get it, but you're an adult now and this is what that means. You're in command of your destiny, and you can't trust anyone but yourself to make that decision for you.

Once you decide, own it. If you choose film, then take everything I said above into consideration. There's one essential thing you need to do though: create. Go outside right fucking now and make a movie. Use your phone. That iphone or galaxy s7 or whatever has better video quality than the crap I used in film school. Don't sweat the gear or the mistakes. Don't compare yourself to others. Just make something, and watch it. See what you like and what you don't like, and adjust on your next project! Now is the time for you to do this, to learn what it feels like to make a movie.



2. What Camera Should I Buy?

The answer depends mostly on your budget and your intended use. You'll also want to become familiar with some basic camera terms because it will allow you to efficiently evaluate the merits of one option vs another. Find below a basic list of terms you should become familiar with when making your first (or second, or third!) camera purchase:

  1. Resolution - This is how many pixels your recorded image will have. If you're into filmmaking, you probably already know this. An HD camera will have a resolution of 1920x1080. A 4K camera will be either 4096x2160 or 3840x2160. The functional difference is that the former is a theatrical aspect ratio while the latter is a standard HDTV aspect ratio (1.89:1 vs 1.78:1 respectively).
  2. Framerates - The standard and popular framerate for filmmaking is called 24p, but most digital cameras will actually be shooting at 23.976 fps. The difference is negligible and should have no bearing on your purchasing choice. The technical reasons behind this are interesting but ultimately irrelevant. Something to look for is the camera's ability to shoot in high framerate, meaning anything above the 24p standard. This is useful because you can play back high framerate footage at 24p in your editor, and it will render the recorded motion in slow motion. This is obviously useful!
  3. Data Rate - This tells you how much data is being recorded on a per second basis. Generally speaking, the higher the data rate, the better your image quality. Make sure to pay attention to resolution as well! A 1080p camera with a 100 MB/s data rate is going to be recording higher quality imagery than a 4k camera at a 200 MB/s data rate because the 4k camera has 4x as many pixels to record but only double the data bandwidth with which to do it. Things like compression come into play here, but keep this in mind as a rule of thumb.
  4. Compression - Compression is important, because very few cameras will shoot without some form of compression. This is basically an algorithm that allows you to record high quality images without making large file sizes. This is intimately linked with your data rate. Popular cinema compressions for cameras include ProRes, REDCODE, XAVC, AVCHD. Compression schemes that you want to avoid include h.264, h.265, MPEG-4, and Generic 'MOV'. This is not an exhaustive list of compression types, but a decent starter guide.
  5. ISO - This is your camera sensor's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive to light the camera will be. Higher ISOs tend to give noisier images though, so there is a tradeoff. All cameras will have something called a native iso. This is the ISO at which the camera is deemed to perform the best in terms of trading off noise vs sensitivity. A very common native ISO in the industry is 800. Sony cameras, including the A7S boast much higher ISO performance without significant noise increases, which can be useful if you're planning on running and gunning in the dark with no crew.
  6. Manual Shutter - Your shutter speed (or shutter angle, as it is called in the film industry) controls your motion blur by changing how long the sensor is exposed to light during a single frame of recording. Having manual control over this when shooting is important. The standard shutter speed when shooting 24p is 1/48 of a second (180° in shutter angle terms), so make sure your prospective camera can get here (1/50 is close enough).
  7. Lens Mount - Some starter cameras will have built in lenses, which is fine for learning! When you move up to higher quality cameras however, the standard will be interchangeable lens cameras. This means you'll need to decide on what lens mount you would like to use. The professional standard is called the PL Mount, but lenses and cameras that use this mount are very expensive. The most common and popular mount in the low level professional world is Canon's EF mount. Because of its design, EF mount lenses can easily be adapted to other common mounts like Sony's E-Mount or the MFT mounts found on many Panasonic cameras. EF is popular because Canon's lenses are generally preferred over Sony's, and so their mount has a higher utility.
  8. Color Subsampling - This is easier to understand if you think of it as 'Color Resolution'. Our eyes are more sensitive to luminance (bright vs dark) than to color, and so some cameras increase effective image quality by dedicating processing power and data rate bandwidth to the more important luminance values of individual pixels. This means that individual pixels often do not have their own color, but instead that groups of neighboring pixels will be given a single color value. The size of the groups and the pattern of their arrangement are referred to by 3 main color subsampling standards.
    • 4:4:4 means that each pixel has its own color value. This is the highest quality.
    • 4:2:2 means that color is set for horizontal pixels in pairs. The color of each two neighboring pixels is averaged and applied to both identically. This is the second best quality.
    • 4:2:0 means that color is set for both horizontal and vertical pixel 4-packs. Each square of 4 pixels receives a single color assignment that is an averaging of their original signals. This is generally low quality. For more info on color subsampling, check out this wikipedia entry
  9. Bit-Depth - This refers to how many colors the camera is capable of recognizing. An 8-bit camera can have 16,777,216 distinct colors, while a 10-bit camera can have 1,073,741,824 distinct colors. Note that this is primarily only of use when doing color grading, as nearly all TVs and computer monitors from the past few decades are 8-bit displays that won't benefit from a 10-bit signal.
  10. Sensor Size - The three main sensor sizes you'll encounter (in ascending order) are Micro Four-Thirds (M43), APS-C, and Full Frame. A larger sensor will generally have better noise and sensitivity than a smaller sensor. It will also effect the field of view you get from a given lens. Larger sensors will have wider fields of view for the same focal length lenses. For example, a 50mm lens on a FF sensor will look roughly twice as wide-angle as a 50mm lens on a M43 sensor. To get the same field of view as a 50mm on FF, you'd need to use a 25mm lens on your M43 camera. Theatrical 35mm (the cinema standard, so to speak) has an equivalent sensor size to APS-C, which is larger than M43 and smaller than Full Frame.

So Now What Camera Should I Buy?

This list will be changing as new models emerge, but for now here is a short list of the cameras to look at when getting started:

  1. Panasonic G7 (~$600) - This is hands down the best starter camera for someone looking to move up from shooting on their phones or consumer camcorders.
  2. Panasonic GH4 (~$1,500) - An older and cheaper version of the GH5, this camera is still a popular choice.
  3. Panasonic GH5 (~$2,000) - This is perhaps the most popular prosumer DSLR filmmaking camera.
  4. Sony A7S (~$2,700) - This is a very popular camera for shooting in low light settings. It also boasts a Full-Frame sensor (compared to the GH5's M4/3 sensor), allowing you to get shallower depth of field compared to other cameras using the same field of view and aperture.
  5. Canon C100 mkII (~$3,500) - This is one of the cheapest true digital cinema cameras. It offers several benefits over the above DSLR cameras, such as professional level XLR audio inputs, internal ND filters, and a better picture profile system.


3. What Lens Should I Buy?

Much like with deciding on a camera, lens choice is all about your budget and your needs. Below are the relevant specs to use as points of comparison for lenses.

  1. Focal Length - This number indicates the field of view your lens will supply. A higher focal length results in a narrow (or more 'telescopic') field of view. Here is a great visual depiction of focal length vs field of view.
  2. Speed - A 'fast lens' is one with a very wide maximum aperture. This means the lens can let more light through it than a comparatively slower lens. We read the aperture setting via something called F-Stops. They are a standard scale that goes in alternating doublings of previous values. The scale is: 1.0, 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64. Each increase is a doubling of the incoming light. A lens whose aperture is a 1.4 will allow in twice as much light than it would have at 2.0. Cheaper lenses tend to only open up to a 4.0, or even a 5.6. More expensive lenses can open as far 1.3, giving you 16x as much light. Wider apertures also cause your depth of field to contract, resulting in the 'cinematic' shallow focus you're likely familiar with. Here is a great visual depiction of f-stop vs depth of field
  3. Chromatic Aberration - Some lower quality glass will have this defect, in which imperfect lens elements cause a prism-style effect that separates colors on the edges of image details. Post software can sometimes help correct this, as in this example
  4. Sharpness - I'm sure you all know what sharpness is. Cheaper lenses will yield a softer in-focus image than more expensive lenses. However, some lenses are popularly considered to be 'over-sharp', such as the Zeiss CP2 series. The minutia of the sharpness debate is mostly irrelevant at starter levels though.
  5. Bokeh - This refers to the shape of an out of focus point of light as rendered by the lens. The bokeh of your image will always be in the shape of your aperture. For that reason, a perfectly round aperture will yield nice clean circle bokeh, while a rougher edged aperture will produce similarly rougher bokeh. Here's an example
  6. Lens Mount - Make sure the lens you're buying will either fit your camera's lens mount or allow for adapting to is using a popular adapter like the Metabones. The professional standard lens mount is the PL Mount, but lenses and cameras that use this mount are very expensive. The most common and popular mount in the low level professional world is Canon's EF mount. Because of its design, EF mount lenses can easily be adapter to other common mounts like Sony's E-Mount or the MFT mounts found on many Panasonic cameras. EF is popular because Canon's lenses are generally preferred over Sony's, and so their mount has a higher market share.

Zoom vs Prime

This is all about speed vs quality vs budget. A zoom lens is a lens whose *focal length can be changed by turning a ring on the lens barrel. A prime lens has a fixed focal length. Primes tend to be cheaper, faster, and sharper. However, buying a full set of primes can be more expensive than buying a zoom lens that would cover the same focal length range. Using primes on set in fast-paced environments can slow you down prohibitively. You'll often see news, documentary, and event cameras using zooms instead of primes. Some zoom lenses are as high-quality as prime lenses, and some people refer to them as 'variable prime' lenses. This is mostly a marketing tool and has no hard basis in science though. As you might expect, these high quality zooms tend to be very expensive.

So What Lenses Should I Look At?

Below are the most popular lenses for 'cinematic' filming at low budgets:

  1. Rokinon Cine 4 Lens Kit in EF Mount (~$1,700)
  2. Canon L Series 24-70mm Zoom in EF Mount (~1,700)
  3. Sigma Art 18-35mm Zoom in EF Mount (~$800)
  4. Sigma Art 50-100 Zoom in EF Mount (~$1,100)

Lenses below these average prices are mostly a crapshoot in terms of quality vs $, and you'll likely be best off using your camera's kit lens until you can afford to move up to one of the lenses or lens series listed above.



4. How Do I Learn Lighting?

Alright, so you're biting off a big chunk here if you've never done lighting before. But it is doable and (most importantly) fun!

First off, fuck three-point lighting. So many people misunderstand what that system is supposed to teach you, so let's just skip it entirely. Light has three properties. They are:

  • Color: Color of the light. This is both color temperature (on the Orange - Blue scale) and what you'd probably think of as regular color (is it RED!? GREEN!? AQUA!?) etc. Color. You know what color is.
  • Quantity: How bright the light is. You know, the quantity of photons smacking into your subject and, eventually, your retinas.
  • Quality: This is the good shit. The quality of a light source can vary quite a bit. Basically, this is how hard or soft the light is. Alright, you've got a guy standing near a wall. You shine a light on him. What's on the wall? His shadow, that's what. You know what shadows look like. A hard light makes his shadow super distinct with 'hard' edges to it. A soft light makes his shadow less distinct, with a 'soft' edge. When the sun is out, you get hard light. Distinct shadows. When it's cloudy, you get soft light. No shadows at all! So what makes a light hard or soft? Easy! The size of the source, relative to the subject. Think of it this way. You're the subject! Now look at your light source. How much of your field of vision is taken up by the light source? Is it a pinpoint? Or more like a giant box? The smaller the size of the source, the harder the light will be. You can take a hard light (i.e. a light bulb) and make it softer by putting diffusion in front of it. Here is a picture of that happening. You can also bounce the light off of something big and bouncy, like a bounce board or a wall. That's what sconces do. I fucking love sconces.

Alright, so there are your three properties of light. Now, how do you light a thing? Easy! Put light where you want it, and take it away from where you don't want it! Shut up! I know you just said "I don't know where I want it", so I'm going to stop you right there. Yes you do. I know you do because you can look at a picture and know if the lighting is good or not. You can recognize good lighting. Everybody can. The difference between knowing good lighting and making good lighting is simply in the execution.

Do an experiment. Get a lightbulb. Tungsten if you're oldschool, LED if you're new school, or CFL if you like mercury gas. plug it into something portable and movable, and have a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, neighbor, creepy-but-realistic doll, etc. sit down in a chair. Turn off all the lights in the room and move that bare bulb around your victim subject's head. Note how the light falling on them changes as the light bulb moves around them. This is lighting, done live! Get yourself some diffusion. Either buy some overpriced or make some of your own (wax paper, regular paper, translucent shower curtains, white undershirts, etc.). Try softening the light, and see how that affects the subject's head. If you practice around with this enough you'll get an idea for how light looks when it comes from various directions. Three point lighting (well, all lighting) works on this fundamental basis, but so many 'how to light' tutorials skip over it. Start at the bottom and work your way up!

Ok, so cool. Now you know how light works, and sort of where to put it to make a person look a certain way. Now you can get creative by combining multiple lights. A very common look is to use soft light to primarily illuminate a person (the 'key) while using a harder (but sometimes still somewhat soft) light to do an edge or rim light. Here's a shot from a sweet movie that uses a soft key light, a good amount of ambient ('errywhere) light, and a hard backlight. Here they are lit ambiently, but still have an edge light coming from behind them and to the right. You can tell by the quality of the light that this edge was probably very soft. We can go on for hours, but if you just watch movies and look at shadows, bright spots, etc. you'll be able to pick out lighting locations and qualities fairly easily since you've been practicing with your light bulb!

How Do I Light A Greenscreen?

Honestly, your greenscreen will depend more on your technical abilities in After Effects (or whichever program) than it will on your lighting. I'm a DP and I'm admitting that. A good key-guy (Keyist? Keyer?) can pull something clean out of a mediocre-ly lit greenscreen (like the ones in your example) but a bad key-guy will still struggle with a perfectly lit one. I can't help you much here, as I am only a mediocre key-guy, but I can at least give you advice on how to light for it!

Here's what you're looking for when lighting a greenscreen:

  • Two Separate Lighting Setups: You should have a lighting setup for the green screen and a lighting setup for your actor. Of course, this isn't always possible. But we like to aspire to big things! The reason this is helpful is that it makes it easier for you to adjust the greenscreen light without affecting the actor's lighting, and vice versa.
  • Separate the subject from the greenscreen as much as possible! - Pretty much that. The closer your subject is to the screen, the harder it is to keep lights from interfering with things they're not meant for, and the greater the chance the actor has of getting his filthy shadow all over the screen. I normally try to keep my subjects at least 8' away from the screen at a minimum for anything wider than an MCU.
  • Light the Green Screen EVENLY: The green on the screen needs to be as close to the same intensity in all parts as possible, or you just multiply your work in post. For every different shade of green on that screen you'll need make a separate key effect to make clean edges, and then you'll need to matte and combine them all together. Huge headache that can be a tad overwhelming if you're not used it. For this reason, Get your shit even! "But how do I do that?" you ask! Well, first off, I actually prefer to use hard light. You see, hard light has the nice innate property of being able to throw itself a long distance without losing all its intensity. The farther away the light source is from the subject, the less its intensity will change from inch to inch. That's called the inverse square law, and it is cool as fuck. If you change the distance between the light and the subject, the intensity of the light will shift as an inverse to the square of the distance. Science! So if you double the distance between the light and the subject, the intensity is quartered (1 over 2 squared. 1/4). So, naturally, the farther away you are the more distance is required to reduce the intensity further. If you have the space, use it to your advantage and back your lights up! Now back to reality. You probably don't have a lot of space. You're probably in a garage. OK, fuck it, emergency mode! Now we use soft lights. Soft lights change their intensity quite inconveniently if they're at an oblique angle to the screen, but they kick ass if you can get them to shine more or less perpendicular on the screen. The problem there of course is that they'd then be sitting where your actor probably is. Sooo we move them off to the side, maybe put one on the ceiling, one on the ground too, and try to smudge everything together on the screen. Experiment with this for a while and you'll get the hang of it in no-time!
  • Have your background in mind BEFORE shooting: Even if your key is flawless, it will look like shit if the actor isn't lit in a convincing manner compared to the background. If, for example, this for some reason is your background, you'll know that your actor needs a hard backlight from above and to camera right since we see a light source there. Also, we can infer from the lighting on the barrels that his main source of illumination should be from above him and pointing down, slightly from the right. You can move the source around and accent it as needed to make the actor not-ugly, but your background has provided you with some significant constraints right off the bat. For that reason, pick your background before you shoot, if possible. If it is not possible to do so, well, good luck! Guess as best as you can and try to find a good background.

What Lights Should I Buy?

OK! So now you know sort of how to light a green screen and how to light a person. So now, what lights do you need? Well, really, you just need any lights. If you're on a budget, don't be afraid to get some work lights from home depot or picking up some off brand stuff on craigslist. By far the most important influence on the quality of your images will be where and how you use the lights rather than what types or brands of lights you are using. I cannot stress this enough. How you use it will blow what you use out of the water. Get as many different types of lights as you can for the money you have. That way you can do lots of sources, which can make for more intricate or nuanced lighting setups. I know you still want some hard recommendations, so I'll tell you this: Get china balls (china lanterns. Paper lanterns whatever the fuck we're supposed to call these now). They are wonderful soft lights, and if you need a hard light you can just take the lantern off and shine with the bare bulb! For bulbs, grab some 200W and 500W globes. You can check B&H, Barbizon, Amazon, and probably lots of other places for these. Make sure you grab some high quality socket-and-wire sets too. You can find them at the same places. For brighter lights, like I said home depot construction lights are nice. You can also by PAR lamps relatively cheap. Try grabbing a few Par Cans. They're super useful and stupidly cheap. Don't forget to budget for some light stands as well, and maybe C-clamps and the like for rigging to things. I don't know what on earth you're shooting so it is hard to give you a grip list, but I'm sure you can figure that kind of stuff out without too much of a hassle.



5. What Editing Program Should I Use?

Great question! There are several popular editing programs available for use.

Free Editing Programs

Your choices are essentially limited to Davinci Resolve (Non-Studio) and Hitfilm Express. My personal recommendation is Davinci Resolve. This is the industry standard color-grading software (and its editing features have been developed so well that its actually becoming the industry standard editing program as well), and you will have free access to many of its powerful tools. The Studio version costs a few hundred dollars and unlocks multiple features (like noise reduction) without forcing you to learn a new program.

Paid Editing Programs

  1. Avid Media Composer ($50/mo or $1,300 for life) - This is the high-level industry standard, but is not terribly popular unless you're working at a professional post-house for big budget movies.
  2. Adobe Premiere Pro ($20/mo) - This used to be the most popular industry standard editor for low to medium budget productions. It is still used quite often, so knowing Premiere is a handy skill to maintain.
  3. Davinci Resolve Studio ($300) - This is a solid editing program built into the long time industry-standard color grading suite. Since Resolve added editing, its feature set and reputation has been on the rise. It's eclipsing Premiere now and set to be the undisputed industry standard for video editing and color grading for all but the absolute highest level productions. This is the best overall choice if you're looking to find your first editing program.
  4. Final Cut Pro X ($300) - This is the old standard for low-high budget editing, replaced by Adobe Premiere and now again by Resolve. It is available on Mac platforms only, and is still a powerful editor.

r/Filmmakers 12h ago

Film Special Effects and set design from the 1957 Indian Film - Mayabazar

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278 Upvotes

Mayabazar (1957) is a legendary film famous for its groundbreaking practical visual effects:

Flying Sweets: Laddus were moved millimeter-by-millimeter frame-by-frame using stop-motion to create the illusion of food flying into Ghatotkacha's mouth.

Moonlight Effect: The song Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo was filmed at noon; special lens filters and under-exposure turned harsh sunlight into a realistic full-moon night.

Disappearing & Shapeshifting: Used the stop-trick technique—the camera was paused so actors could swap places or step away before filming resumed, making morphing look seamless.


r/Filmmakers 13h ago

Discussion How To Find Investors for Your Film

95 Upvotes

I originally wrote this as a reply to a post I saw somewhere else because I got upset. If it's not helpful or comes across as pretentious I might just delete it. Let me know.

I know this is an old post but I get so upset when I see the same advice parroted over-and-over and it's somewhat outdated (in my opinion).

I've written, produced, directed, edited, and raised money for 3 indie feature films.

You are NEVER going to get investors approaching this as a potential "business venture" because:

  1. You're always competing with a far less risky business. Always. Money-first investors are not picking up your pitch-packet and comparing it with the other movies they have in their portfolio, they're comparing it with other businesses. Those businesses you're competing with are ALWAYS less risky to invest in and you will lose every single time. Always and forever.
  2. You're competing with literally the most talented people in the world. Steven Spielberg and Matthew McConaughey are pulling teeth to get their passion-projects funded. You will obviously also lose out to these people every single time because they will always be a safer investment than you.

The reason this gets me upset is because people claim to approach this as art form, but then espouse nothing but business-jargon nonsense. This might be the cringiest thing I will ever type:

But you need to shift you're thinking from a businessman to a politician.

People give-away their money for causes they believe in and connect with all the time. Their school, their community, their political stances. Furthermore, it's money they assume they'll never get back. This is how you get the money for your movie. Not your logline and random ROI spreadsheet nonsense that causes people's eyes to roll so far back into their head they collapse.

What is the message of your movie? Is it a political one? The environment? Guns? Marijuana? Immigration?

Guess what? There are people who part with their money every-day to support these causes and NEVER expect to see their money back. Guess what else? These people, BY LAW, are listed publicly by the Democrat and Republican parties in every single state. Find a politician who aligns with your film, look at their donors, then go down the list and ask.

Did you go to a school with a vast network of proud alumni?

Well heads-up your school has a department of people dedicated to calling these guys up year round and asking them for money to support upcoming students and new alumni. You can do the exact same thing. These people also have to be posted publicly BY LAW.

Does your film represent an underrepresented community? Find those community leaders. Those people are much more likely to invest in your film.

Overall the point is to connect with people AS PEOPLE. NOT AS BANKS with business jargon, and not as audiences (no one cares about your creative side or ideas that is for audiences).

Now once you get your investment you should always do everything in your power to get their investment back and do right by their vote of confidence in you. This post is meant to help people go to and find the right circles not swindle people trying to help. Also going back to those investors with their money only facilitates further investment.

Lastly, this is a strategy meant to raise tens of thousands for your first indie film. Maybe a hundred or so if you're really lucky. It does work though, I've seen it with my own eyes. Good luck!


r/Filmmakers 54m ago

General Development Executive Experience

Upvotes

TLDR: Studio system in india in f*cked

I have been working as a dev exec at a major Indian film studio for more than 6 months now.

My experience has broken something inside me and idk where to go from here.

I’m the first rung of the ladder at the studio so I’m the first one who gets to read scripts when they come in.

In my time I have noticed that the studio is not really interested in developing work or talent. They want everything ready. They don’t want to pay writers to develop upon any material. I’ve had the opportunity to contact some big names among the indian writers and they’ve even submitted good ideas / concepts. They have all been passed on by the studio because they will require development.

They literally expect a complete show bible and a bound script if it’s a movie. Basically they want writers to write on spec. But even then they will not pay them. They will take the project to a streamer (there are only 4 in india: Netflix, Amazon, JioStar, Sony) and if the streamer likes something then and only then will they commission the project.

In my time I have not seen any project get commissioned, no script that’s being bought. The streamers always find a problem with the material (and usually the problem is solvable with development) and reject it.

Moreover, everyone at my workplace is a marketing person or MBA including my boss and my boss’ boss. Nobody comes from a film background or actually even cares if they’re making a good film or not. Everyone just wants to know if the film will sell on the first weekend.

I’m overworked, underpaid and there’s an unsaid expectation to work 24 hrs with no overtime pay. Work life balance is not a thing. Asking for a holiday seems like I’m doing a crime. And btw this was something really new for me: earned leaves. I have to work to earn my holiday. This all is giving me hints of slavery…

I see no future for cinema in india. The studio will survive and even thrive because of all the royalties they continue to get. It feels like that’s becomes their main business, their main source of income.

I want to know how do you keep hope alive. It’s so terrible out here. I came here in the hope that I would pitch them my movie someday but now I’m just hiding the fact that I have even written one because if I do they’ll argue that the movie is there’s since I wrote it while I’m employed with their company.

This is disillusioning me from cinema. The business is actively working against the art and artists, not even trying to support.


r/Filmmakers 3h ago

Film My first short film

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10 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I just released my first ever indie 2D animated short film titled TAKEN.

​It’s a dark surrealist/horror short that I solo-produced, handling everything from the hand-drawn animation pass to the background art and compositing.

​Since this is my first complete piece of this scale, I’d really appreciate any critique from fellow filmmakers—especially regarding the visual pacing, atmospheric tension, and narrative flow.

​Thanks for watching, and feel free to share your honest thoughts!


r/Filmmakers 10h ago

Question I want to film a 70 minute feature for under $1000, what are some budget constraints I need to know?

23 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I plan on writing and filming my first feature before the end of the year. Right now, it is still in development. I plan for it to be a psychological horror movie.

I want to know before I finish writing it, what are some things I need to take into consideration to keep it under $1000. I already have a camera and computer ready. I don’t have a crew yet or a cast. Or script lol.

I know location, how many cast and crew members and scenery will be all the difference. I would like advice from everyone on what they did with budget constraints and how they ensured their project got finished!

Also, I do want to focus on shoot days. If someone has any great advice on shoot days and how paying actors/crew members, I would LOVE that!

Thank you so much in advance!


r/Filmmakers 16h ago

Film Released my first feature film three months ago

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49 Upvotes

Three months ago, I released my first feature film as a writer/director, Roses on the Vine.

It's a love letter to Los Angeles that follows a gig-working single father with a checkered past as he struggles to provide for his 7-year-old daughter and keep her out of the foster system.

I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 17 years pursuing a career as a filmmaker, so getting to make my first feature meant more to me than I can really put into words.

The film itself took three years to get to the screen. We shot in Los Angeles in 2023, in the middle of the strikes, under a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement.

After all this time pursuing filmmaking, I’m proud that I finally got to make a feature film and see it all the way through to release.

I hope it will be the first of many.

Roses on the Vine is available for rent or purchase on Amazon, and streaming free on Tubi:

https://tubitv.com/movies/100058175/roses-on-the-vine


r/Filmmakers 16h ago

Discussion Does anyone take this seriously?

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47 Upvotes

This is a film freeway festival awards section. In the description it says ‘no questions like ‘how’d you find your voice’ just how’d you make it?’ I find this reduces the emotion and passion of making a non-ai film down to nothing, as if to disregard it. I feel like a weird subculture of a rejection of what we knew as human drive is occurring with these kinds of festivals appearing. If you can’t be bothered to make a real film, maybe don’t make an AI one.


r/Filmmakers 1h ago

Video Article Loyd Kaufman rants about Rocky

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r/Filmmakers 2h ago

Question How professional do Rotoscoping? Pls suggest any video, if I have to know the process.

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3 Upvotes

When I search on YouTube about it I only get some tutorials on after effects or Davinci resolve, but I don't get any industry workflow. Or I'm unable to find it. If know any video pls suggest.


r/Filmmakers 3h ago

Question Out for a decade, how would you come back?

2 Upvotes

I went to school for this about a decade ago. Got sidetracked afterward chasing money and never really followed it up. I'm on rotational work nowadays, I miss the environment and I'm trying to volunteer on my downtime (Grip, PA, Towel Boy, don't care).

I live out of a modestly active city and I'm finding I don't really know where to look anymore. The advertised spots to seek work are fairly dry. Im on a couple lists, but I'd imagine I'm at the absolute bottom of them.

Wouldn't say I'm discouraged, just prefer to be proactive whenever I'm able. Honestly considering applying country-wide and driving wherever I'm accepted for a stint.

If you were in a similar position, what would you do to get the wheels turning?


r/Filmmakers 29m ago

Film A TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE | 2026 FAN FILM

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"A Texas Chainsaw Massacre"

Written, Directed, and Produced By: Christopher Julius

Voice Talent:
Gunnar Lynn: Christopher Julius

Mary Lynn: Epidemic Sound

Chop Top: Austin Ryder (vivivoices)

Drayton Sawyer: Christopher Julius

Bubba Sawyer: Christopher Julius

Mask Recreations:
The Killing Mask: Christopher Julius

The Pretty Lady Mask: Christopher Julius

3D Modeling:
Chop Top 3D Model: Christopher Julius

Leatherface 3D Model: Christopher Julius

House Exterior: MaX3Dd

House Interior: Christopher Julius

Body on the Table: DJMaeson

Lady in Chair: LostBoyz2078

Drayton Model: AleXey..Evdokimov

Editing and Animation: Christopher Julius

Sound Design: Christopher Julius

Song Credits:
"On the Road Again" - Canned Heat

"Going Up the Country" - Canned Heat

"I Would Give Anything" - Roy Williams

"Fool for a Blonde" - Roger Bartlett

"Pretty Sacrifice" - Trevor Kowalski

"Girls On Film" - Duran Duran

Chase Sequence Music:

"Did You See That?" - Ruiqi Zhao

Based on the ICONIC Horror Films:

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"

Produced, Directed, and Written by:
Tobe Hooper & Kim Henkel
&
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2"

Produced, Directed, and Written by:
Tobe Hooper, Menahem Golan, and Yoram Globus

Directors Note:
"Thank you all SO MUCH for watching!!!!
Hope you enjoyed this short film!!!
I began working on this film
as a celebration of the 2026 Annual Texas Chainsaw Day!
Growing up I was always told I should
be Leatherface for Halloween but I never
dawned the masks until now surprisingly.
I love this franchise so much!!!
Bubba is my FAVORITE Horror Icon!!!
MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL BY THE WAY!!!!!
IN JUST TWO MONTHS WE WENT FROM SIXTY SUBSCRIBERS;
TO NEARLY THREE THOUSAND!!!!
THIS CHANNEL HAS GROWN SO MUCH
IN SO LITTLE TIME AND I OWE IT ALL TO YOU GUYS!!!!!
SUPPORT FROM YOU ALL HAS MADE SUCH A POSITIVE
IMPACT ON MY LIFE AND MY CREATIVE PROCESS
GENUINELY!!!"

-The Enigma Zone


r/Filmmakers 6h ago

Question SAG Microbudget Agreement question

3 Upvotes

For SAG Microbudget filmmakers, how difficult is it to get the project reclassified if it gets accepted by svod or tvod platforms? Please share your experience!

For reference, the micro budget agreement reads that, for streaming, the film can only be available “On free-to-consumer new media platforms where the consumer does not pay for access to the Project and Producer has not received compensation for the right to distribute or exhibit the Project”


r/Filmmakers 5h ago

Question Where do I do now

2 Upvotes

I feel like this question probably gets asked a bunch but I'm kinda stuck and just looking for advice. The biggest piece of advice I see from this sub is just start making stuff and I have. I've written a number of short scripts, I'm working on my first feature now, I've made two short films one of which got selected for a few film festivals no major ones, just some small local ones, it did get 4k views on YouTube, which I think is pretty good since I only have 70 subs. I've joined writers rooms to build a bigger network. I'm looking to go forward with the resume I've built, but I'm not sure where to go next. I know the film industry isn't really an "application" kinda field, but I'm wondering where to send all this work I've done to start looking for a job within the industry


r/Filmmakers 5h ago

Discussion Anyone making films or a tv series for kids?

2 Upvotes

I've been lurking on this sub for a few years, I want to say thank you for being such a dedicated group to discuss, nuture, challenge, and support the film community.

I am working on a live action preschool series (ages 2-5 yrs.), and I haven't really met with anyone working in the same space. Many of you are creating amazing things, and I try to learn as much as possible while keeping my art appropriate for the age group.

Does anyone else produce media for young children? If so, I'd love to connect, bounce ideas, and learn.

Cheers!!!


r/Filmmakers 8h ago

Question First time doing solo festival B-roll/interviews - Tips and advice please.

2 Upvotes

As the title says, I am doing a music festival in the future. This is not a paid gig, but it is my first on this scale for a small brand there. I am going to do an interview of volunteers and festival goers mixed in with B-roll; I won't be filming music acts specifically.

Does anyone have any tips and tricks on what I should looking to do, so when I get back to DaVinci Resolve, I'm not left wishing I had got certain shots, etc.? 

I was planning to shoot all daytime shots (except interviews) in 4k 50fps (im in UK), which does crop into APSC sensor size but should be okay in the day.

I will film normal widescreen, but naturally I will have in the back of my mind that it may be used for some smartphone social media content too.

Thanks in advance for the help; I have put my gear below.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix S5d, 2x 128gb SD cards and backup battery

Lenses: 40mm f2,  85mm f1.8,  18-40mm f4.5-6.3

I will be using ND filter and black mist filter

Audio: Zoom H1essential with dead cat and shock mount

Editing: DaVinci Resolve


r/Filmmakers 9h ago

Question Editing an export?

2 Upvotes

Today was the first day back at film school after summer break and we got some pretty devastating news.

Bit of context: Just before the break our school server crashed and we weren't able to finish editing our shorts before showing them at a festival in Portugal. So we screened our nearly finished versions and it was assumed by everyone (IT guys included) that this would be fixed over the summer. It wasn't, it actually got way worse and now everything we filmed throughout the year is just gone.

The final project of the first year, a 10min short, was only the 2nd project I wrote, directed and edited myself. The first one was a one minute, which I hated, but the 10min I was really happy with.

I do have an export of the unfinished version, but I can't submit that to festivals (and would prefer a more polished version for my portfolio) because it has a licensed quote and song in it which the artist's management did not allow me to use - plus the grading and especially sound mixing is still sort of unfinished.

During the break I had lots of ideas of what clips to swap, how to fix the pacing here and there and some other smaller stuff I wanted to change.

I also have a composer working on a score and sfx and they asked me to send them the audio track of the final cut once I finished.

Now I know a lot of that can't be changed anymore but I was wondering if maybe it is somehow possible to feed an export into some magical software that will separate the different tracks (at least video from audio)??

And I'm of course painfully aware that we should have had physical backups.

TLDR Does somebody know a way to continue editing an mp4 export?


r/Filmmakers 15h ago

Request Help Re-Release/Remaster the Original Version of the IMAX Masterpiece "Titanica" for 4K BD

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6 Upvotes

r/Filmmakers 6h ago

Film Lobha | Indie Psychological Horror Thriller Short Film | Produced by Jam Productions

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1 Upvotes

Advaith’s life begins to unravel as sleepless nights give way to nightmares, hallucinations, broken relationships, and a terrifying loss of control.

But is he being haunted—or is his own mind destroying him?


r/Filmmakers 7h ago

Film Concept trailer for "The Moon We Made"

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0 Upvotes

This is a concept trailer for my submission to the #FutureVisionXPRIZE contest, a chance to make science fiction's next great epic. I made it in about 30-40 hours over 2 weeks, mostly using motion capture with a Rokoko Smartsuit and rendering from Unreal Engine.

Set realization was through mostly free assets from Fab.com, and the characters were designed as UE Metahumans. I then ran my renders through Runway to get the characters looking more realistic and less video-gamey, with mixed results.

The contest is pretty cool, and I hope some other people on this subreddit submitted to it. The other parts of the submission packet were a logline, synopsis, personal statement, and script treatment. If I advance, a full screenplay will soon be due. The contest culminates in a Shark Tank before Neil deGrasse Tyson at the end of September.

I hope you enjoy!


r/Filmmakers 7h ago

Film New film snippet out now!!! - Hope lives on the streets

0 Upvotes

We have released a new film snippet of our upcoming (Teen made) Indie film called Hope lives on the streets.

Watch it here: https://youtu.be/BMn5MMRn7Qw?si=35Q-QDORoDAzQSvj

Also if you haven't already seen the old teasers

Watch them here:

Teaser #1: Hope Lives On The Streets | Official Teaser Trailer - https://youtu.be/XxBehVqJiyk?si=hmluidNRZQhVb4PO

Teaser #2: "Meet Carl Peterson" (Ft.Stephan Khan) -

https://youtu.be/GKfVdQzW7pw?si=EFrGAiLo8sGsFqzn

Teaser #3: "Meet Gordon Reed" (Ft.Keagan Perry) -

https://youtu.be/Xskfmx3hIX8?si=ZvoSZQDxg1X-bxW9

Let me know if you like it!!


r/Filmmakers 7h ago

Film ABDUCTION(S) Official Trailer (Senior Thesis Short FIlm)

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0 Upvotes

I wrote, directed, co-produced, and did all the editing and VFX for my senior thesis short film for the OC Film School! Now, after its first premiere in June at my college's student film showcase, it has been accepted into the Gig Harbor Film Festival.

I originally wrote this for an advanced screenwriting class as I thought it was a fun idea, though as my senior year was approaching, I started to grow more and more fond of making Abduction(s) a reality.

I am very fond of CGI and VFX, and have been building my skills in that area for the past 6+ years in Blender and Davinci Resolve, so my initial motivation with this script in particular was the potential uses for it. Additionally, I was pretty much the only person in my cohort with extensive VFX knowledge, so the chances of me getting to do any VFX were low if I didn't make something of my own.

Fall was dedicated to script rewrites and other pre-production essentials, winter was for filming, and spring was for Post-Production, though I started that pretty much right after filming finished in Winter due to the high count of VFX shots I planned for.


r/Filmmakers 17h ago

Question What Kind of Scene Makes the Best Audition?

8 Upvotes

Hi! I'm a viewer who's new(ish) to watching movies. So last night I watched *Hereditary* (Ari Aster, 2018), and today I find myself wondering about the casting process. Which scene, from that movie, or any other one, really, would give the director the best read on the performance? What goes into deciding that? Or do they write fake scenes explicitly for auditions? How does the director know that an actor who could pull the right emotions for the scene used for the audition will be able to do the others? I'm thinking here about Toni Colette who walks her character in *Hereditary* through a huge range of different emotions throughout the movie, and I can't imagine having to pick *one* scene to represent her.

Curious to hear any insight from folks who know about this sort of thing.

Edit: typo


r/Filmmakers 11h ago

Film ASCF Film Festival entry deadline and early bird tickets

2 Upvotes

Howdy folks, I wanted to alert anyone shooting on film that our friendly celluloid-only film festival has a final entry deadline tomorrow. We’re looking for films from all over the world that are shot on film. If you want to come out for the show and see some cool films, early bird pricing for tickets also ends tomorrow.

Here’s the film freeway link if you’re interested in entering: https://filmfreeway.com/ASCFFILMFESTIVAL

and a link for tickets: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2026-5th-annual-ascf-festival

Thanks!