How do I do real pre-production for the things I shoot?
By "real" I don't mean making a list of stuff to pick up at Trader Joe's so I can feed everybody (although that's important) - I mean what are the shots going to look like?
The most obvious way to do this is story boarding...
As you can see, my drawing skills aren't great. But my lack of drawing skill is only part of the problem.
The real questions I want answered are:
Where do I put the camera? Low to the ground, just off the ceiling, eye level?
What kind of camera movement do I want? Hand held, on a track, or on a tripod?
And the list will continue to grow as the needs of the project come to light.
Several years ago I noticed the big budget films were doing something called animatics. They would "pre-visualize" the whole scene in a 3D world and get a clear idea of any issues they'd be facing before getting anyone on set. Seemed like a pretty good idea.
Well, I recently found a low-budget substitute for working in Maya or one of the other high-end 3D programs. It's called Frame Forge Studio 2.
The program is good. There's a room builder, where you can build a virtual replica of your set. There are actors and props - all of which you can manipulate till your heart's content.
Another good thing about the program is you can adjust the camera specs - not only the camera height and placement, but focus and depth of field too!
At $400 bucks, it's not super cheap, but you can find it cheaper on the web. I paid around $250 for my copy.
Check it out. It's a pretty good tool for the Indie director / producer.
2 comments:
i think that iClone from Reallusion would be a better choice. it's cheaper and their site often has good deals. another good choice is Moviestorm, and it's free.
Cool. I'm checking out Moviestorm now. On a mac so iClone's not an option....
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