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High School Documentary High School Documentary If you are producing a documentary about the school, there are several ways to approach the production with respect to a script. If you are going to interview teachers and students and have the responses make up the narration of the video, then...

High School Documentary High School Documentary Hi, Regarding shooting in high schools, many districts have parents sign blanket releases at the beginning of each school year that gives their permission to videotape their children. If this is the case, all you have to do is get the permission...

Career Advice Career Advice Hi, Grinner's advice is good but getting a job right now will be tough, especially if you are new to Hollywood. I recommend a year in film school so that you can develop contacts and get into the production network. "It is who you know" is very true in Hollywood...

Disc Space Disc Space Not all external drives are compatible with FCP. Using an internal drive is preferable. I would check this first. If you must use an external, look into G-Raid (G-Technology) drives. I am using them and have had no problems. JT

You may be right and you may know more than I do about directing films. I wish you best of luck. JimT

to director 15 to director 15 You do not know what you are talking about. How dare you suggest that teachers in film schools do not how to succeed in the real world. I am in LA, I have worked in Hollywood for over 20 years, I have a national Emmy and a Peabody and I have taught for ten years...

I am responding to your characterization of my response as "minor advice." All I will say is that you should be aware of with whom you are communicating with on this web site. One thing we all have in common is that we are all student filmmakers. The fact that I have been making films and...

Need Help Need Help I think you should seriously reconsider your decision about college. If you don't want to go the four-year route, then look into community colleges. Some of them offer excellent 2 year AS and AA degree in film. A good place to start is the Schools page on this web site...

I have directed a few and produced a lot (hundreds, if not thousands of hours) of talk shows for local and national audiences. Here are my suggestions (in no particular order): 1. First and foremost, listen. Listen to what is being said. You have to understand the conversation so that you...

In My Back Garden In My Back Garden Overall, it is a nice job. Some good videography, interesting angles, nice composition. Editing to the music had some very nice spots. I am not sure I would categorize it as an experimental piece…maybe it is between experimental and a music video. Being...

Camera Purchase Camera Purchase FYI, camera purchase is normally not part of a production budget while camera rental is. Professional film cameras are very expensive so unless you are a studio with a slate of films to produce, rental is much more economic. As a matter of fact, if you are going...

mic mic I suggest that you take a look at the MKE-300. I have used Sennheiser microphones for years and have always been happy with the results. I have not used this particular mic but it seems to fit you needs. The description below is taken from B and H Photo in NY. I can't give the link...

Down-convert Down-convert Your best bet would be to use a camera and down-convert. I use a Z1U and the down-convert works just fine--I am not sure about the FX1's down-convert capabilities. Also, I use an M25U deck in my edit system and it has the same down-convert capabilities as the Z1U...

Viewing Viewing Well done! A beginning, middle, and end in 87 seconds...some directors can't do that in 87 minutes...good job! JimT

Documentaries Documentaries I like to do documentaries that use little or no narration. As the previous post suggests, that means doing interviews, but it really can be more than that. If you can tell the story through the eyes of the people you interview, get their feelings about the...

Definition Definition Here is a pretty good definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyboard JimT

Camera on plane Camera on plane Yes, you can and should carry on your camera. You can use a camera bag or something less expensive. Just provide some sort of padding to protect it from imbeciles who cram stuff into the overheads. As a matter of fact, if you can, keep the camera under the...

Updates Updates As far as I know, new versions of FCP are not downward compatible. I use FCP 5.1 and know that when I open a file from an earlier version it warns me that I will not be able to open the file again in the previous version. You can certainly skip the update but if you do you...

Camera Camera As far as a camera, I used a GL1 for years to do instructional and documentary projects and I was very satisfied with the picture but hated not having sound controls--which the GL2 now has. A new GL2 is going for $1,950 and they even show a used one for $1,650 I have not used...

File Format File Format Your problem could be that the other studio was using FCP 5.1, a "newer" file format. JimT