If you have never heard the term ‘Day For Night’ before, here’s an ultra-quick primer. One of the main luxuries afforded to you as a filmmaker when shooting during the daytime, the sun, literally disappears come nighttime, so shooting good-looking, non-grainy footage will suddenly require massive lighting setups to cast just enough light on your subjects and backgrounds to make them stand out clearly on camera without making it look like the scene has been lit at all. This is because cameras generally can’t shoot in the dark. What your eyes see at night is not what the camera is going to pick up – hence the unnatural lighting needed. To cut costs (and for many other reasons, like scheduling, location/talent availability, safety, etc.) filmmakers throughout the ages have resorted to the ‘Day For Night’ technique, wherein you shoot your nighttime scenes during the day while taking certain measures that will enable you to pass the footage off as genuine nighttime shots. Some is done in-camera, some is done in post.

Many articles have been written about how to achieve a good ‘Day For Night’ shot. Most focus on a few key parameters, such as avoiding harsh shadows, lowering your exposure, avoiding showing the sky in your shot, using polarizing filters and taking your sweet time in post-production. All valid points, but since you’ll find more than a handful good articles on these subjects elsewhere, we’ll gloss over them without going into too much detail. Instead, we’ll focus on a more mental aspect of the ‘Day For Night’ effect.

First, the classics:

#1 Avoid harsh shadows

To avoid hard shadows in your shot, which is a dead give-away that your scene was shot during the day, be sure to backlight your subjects and try, if you can, to shoot on cloudy days or in the shade. Moonlight casts some light, so it’s not necessary to avoid shadows all-together, but aim for a soft glow around your subject, rather than a long shadow on the ground behind it. Here’s a more in-depth look at different challenges with different, natural light conditions.

#2 Lower your exposure

There’s less light available to you (whether your camera or your eyes) during the night, so have your camera help you a bit on the way to achieving the ‘Day For Night’ effect by lowering your exposure. You definitely don’t want anything in your shot to be blown out or super bright, and you also don’t want to lose too much detail, so manually adjust your exposure to be just a little lower than you normally would have it. The rest you can take care of in post.

#3 Avoid the sky

If you don’t know anything about color-grading, using masks or key frames, you may want to completely avoid shooting the sky. A bright sky in your nighttime shot screams DAYTIME and there goes the suspension of disbelief out the window. That said, a night sky can be eerie or beautiful or set up your shot perfectly, so if you know how to effectively edit the sky in post, go ahead and shoot it. Just keep in mind that in moving shots or action with the sky as a backdrop is going to require a lot of careful editing later. If you can achieve the same results for your scene without having the sky in the shot, you’ll be off much easier.

#4 Use a polarizing filter

Think of the polarizer as a safety net. If you have to shoot against a surface with a glare, such as a body of water or a shiny building, the polarizer will help you avoid anything too shiny to remove in post. You can even leave it on your lense for the duration of the (‘Day For Night’) shoot and not even think twice about it. It’s not going to hurt your shots and it will help if you miss accounting for a shiny surface in your shot setup.

#5 Take your sweet time in post-production

Carefully adjusting your hue, saturation, colors, exposure and shadows will get you far, but it will be your attention to detail that will really sell the shot. Adding artificial light sources, like headlights, streetlights, the glow from a window, the speckle of lights from the windows in a high rise, and so on and so forth, will create the nighttime setting – more than turning of the blue’s and turning down the red’s will ever do. Post-production is where the technical magic is going to happen when you’re shooting ‘Day For Night’, so take your time.

More on the post-production process can be found in this tutorial by Video Copilot.

Which brings us to the point I really want to make:

#6 Tell the story right

As a filmmaker you’re first and foremost a storyteller, so don’t get hung up on technicalities like polarizers or blue hues in post, just to then forget about your most powerful tool of all: the power of suggestion. This is what will take your shot over the finish line. Let’s look at a couple of examples. Say your character is driving all night to meet his lover on a dock four hundred miles away, so they can skip off to a tropical island together. What will make the scene feel like night may be the quiet music on the radio, the coffee he’s drinking to stay awake and the empty road. Or say your character is running through the woods to escape a cloaked villain. Quick cuts to other creatures of the night, being disturbed by the chase, may sell the fact that it’s night: an owl, a critter, a fox, a couple of eyes caught in the glare of a flashlight. Or say you’re shooting an action movie – nothing says night more than night vision.

All this to say that you have more in your tool box than filters and color-grading. Use the power of story to help people believe that it’s nighttime.

Need a good example of a movie that primarily shot ‘Day For Night’ scenes? Check out ’28 Weeks Later’ – because one of the film’s lead actors was too young to legally shoot through the night, most of his scenes were shot ‘Day For Night.’ And it looks perfect.

If you want to tackle this DIY project, be sure to download the handy PDF templates to aid in your endeavors.

#1 Every Frame A Painting

My personal favorite. Every Frame A Painting is like the class you wish you had in film school. It’s a triumphantly unpredictable  bastard of a film analysis class and the rantings of your favorite, passionate teacher. By analyzing certain scenes, director trademarks, genre-specific filmmaking tools or something else you would have never thought to analyze, host Tony Zhou and his expertly edited videos will leave you not only smarter, but inspired and amazed.

#2 Film Riot

Fast-talking host, independent filmmaker and DIY handy-man Ryan Connolly and his rag-tag team of film aficionados deliver tutorials, DIY builds, real-life examples and How-To’s on just about everything you could ever think of related to filmmaking. The beauty of this channel is not so much the hyper-active presentation (though that’ll certainly keep you focused), as it is the way in which these guys manage to take the mystery out of Hollywood filmmaking, while preserving all the magic. Specifically targeting independent, DIY or super low-budget filmmakers, the channel abounds with videos on how to make your film look and sound like a million $ without breaking the bank.

#3 Filmmaker IQ

With a somewhat more technical and perhaps film school-like approach, Filmmaker IQ is an immensely valuable resource. Think of it as a ‘How Stuff Works’ for filmmakers; some topics are highly technical, borderline scientific, while other topics are pure entertainment. Wanna know how a camera sensor works? No problem. Wanna brush up on the origins of auteur theory? Why not. Wanna learn how to light a film noir? You should. And all of that can be done in the same place. Filmmaker IQ.

#4 Indy Mogul

With roughly 1250 videos on their channel, Indy Mogul is almost like a Discovery Channel of the Internet. Before Discovery Channel became all about reality TV, of course. Indy Mogul is an impressive library of engaging video tutorials, hands-on reviews of cameras and equipment, Q&A’s with filmmakers and a whole lot of tips and tricks to up your indy filmmaking game. Now, Indy Mogul hasn’t been active in years, so don’t expect new videos about the latest in gear or software. But do expect to get lost in a massive library of goodies that are equally helpful today as they were 6 years ago.

#5 Now You See It

Similar in style to Every Frame A Painting, Now You See It is sort of a hybrid between film analysis and geeky musings on what makes movies great. Though not always entirely on point, mostly the videos from Now You See It will give you lots of a ha! moments and insightful takes on movies, scenes or techniques you already thought you knew everything about.

Filmmaker meet Vimeo. Vimeo meet filmmaker. Oh, you already know each other? Of course you do. Vimeo is the go-to for high quality video hosting and has long been home to the most beautiful videos on the Internet – with a lot less distractions (oh look, KITTENS!) than on big brother YouTube. You’ve almost certainly also seen their Vimeo Staff Picks; a collection of short films and documentaries highlighting the best and the brightest among new filmmaking talent.

But do you know the Vimeo Video School?

Video School is a curated archive of videos on Vimeo that will help you learn about filmmaking through tutorials, lessons, advice, case studies and interviews with industry pros and creatives. All for the collective betterment of the visual medium and all of us who are trying to master it.

Need the scoop on how to compress video like a pro? Not a problem.

Just getting started with Final Cut Pro X? Check out the complete 17-episode tutorial.

Not sure how to go about shooting on your smartphone? There’s a lesson series for that, too.

And lots and lots of inspiration. Just dig deep.

Any gear-happy hobby will eventually put you in a situation where you have to fly with one or more of your most prized (and probably highest priced) possessions, whether it’s a guitar, a set of golf clubs or, as is the case for most filmmakers, a selection of cameras and lenses. So how do you keep your electronics safe from baggage handlers and gate agents? Photographer Todd Owyoung from I Shoot Shows has written an excellent article on the delicate art of traveling with your gear. Read the full article here – or enjoy this ADD-friendly overview:

#1 Everything is replaceable – but clothing more-so than your camera. So always check in your cotton before you check in you Canon. Carry-on is your friend.

#2 Check and double-check your baggage allowances. It’s easier to stay calm, when the gate agents looks intently at your carry-on bag, if you’re absolutely certain it meets the airline’s weight and size restrictions.

#3 Choose the right bags. Padding is key when traveling with delicate equipment, so make sure whatever bags you use are keeping your gear safe on a bumpy ride. Todd recommends the Think Tank series.

#4 Be prepared to check your gear, if necessary. If you know you’ll be traveling with gear that won’t fit in your carry-on, make sure you’re adequately prepared. Solid shell flight cases are the way to go.

#5 Make nice with the airline staff. Hopefully the staff will show some empathy when it comes time to pick out the carry-on bags that will need to be checked. If not, politely ask them if the airline is going to assume full responsibility for insuring the total cost of the contents of the bag.

#6 Don’t pack in extra or exterior pockets. Use only the ones with adequate padding and protection. Even the overhead bin can be a dangerous place when your fellow passengers are trying to cram in their duty free items.

Now, take a deep breath and get excited about bringing your gear with you on your out-of-town shoot or your epic adventures. Like this couple did:

h/t I Shoot Shows

This is the winning entry from our March contest (thanks for all the great submissions, everyone!) and it serves as the introduction to a series of articles – an online screenwriting workshop, if you will – by Heidi Fuhr, wherein she will break down the ten specific plot points that, whether you’ll admit it or not, make up almost every great story you’ve ever heard or seen. And to put it all into a familiar context, she will be using the pilot episode of AMC’s Breaking Bad as an example.

Buckle up and take note. Here we go.

INTRODUCTION: How Do You Plot Character-Driven Stories?

Is your screenplay-in-progress stuck? Do you have nearly completed screenplays wasting away on your hard drive because you know they’re just not quite . . . right? Are you waiting for the elusive muse of creative genius to strike? Do you have an amazing character, but you can’t figure out what should happen to him? Or do you have an exciting plot, but the protagonist could be anybody?

The best screenplays strike a fine balance between plot and character. Like space and time, plot and character are inextricably linked. I know – it sounds like alchemy, but it isn’t. Creating a good screenplay isn’t as intangible as we like to think. In fact, it’s almost formulaic. Yes, I know; the word “formula” has a sleazy ring to it. We’re artists, not mathematicians! I don’t mean to suggest that screenplays can be slapped together by just anyone who can follow a recipe (unless you write for network TV, maybe). Of course it’s not that easy. But neither is it magical, nor bestowed upon us by story Gods, for whom we’re merely scribes. It’s a skill that can be broken into parts and mastered, with practice.

Almost every great story strikes ten specific plot points in a given order. Yes, these plot points can also be seen in stupid, predictable summer blockbusters; that’s why they make so much money, because they scratch an itch for story that lies deep in the human soul. But the very same plot points can also be found in the most sophisticated independent films, the most prestigious award-winners, and the most revered literary fiction from Homer to David Foster Wallace.

As humans, artists, and critical examiners of fiction in all its forms, the story formula is already installed on our creative hard drives. But story is so intuitive, it can be difficult to recognize how it works. As you learn the basics, you’ll begin to recognize how it manifests in the films and television you watch.

At first, it will seem simplistic. It’s easy to recognize the formula in cheesy, crowd-pleasing slapstick comedy films of the Adam Sandler/Jack Black ilk or the action-packed blockbusters that value explosions and sex scenes over artistic substance. But the more you look for it in the films and television you enjoy, the more you’ll see how versatile it is. In the right hands, this formula can be used with subtlety and sophistication to create an infinite variety of fresh, surprising, and deeply complex stories. This blog series will explain each point of the plot formula, but it will also look closely at how character is interwoven from beginning to end.

The plot structure has been used in some form by generations of screenwriters, centuries of novelists, and eons of storytellers. From Aristotle’s Poetics to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet, writers and scholars have already done the work of nailing down the science of telling a great story. As a screenwriter, you can save a lot of time, and take the mystery out of solving story problems, by learning the age-old formula of storytelling.

PART I – and the rest of the series can be found here, as the articles are published.

Image courtesy Neighborhood Nini

I recently stumbled upon DP Shane Hurlbut’s website, HurlbutVisuals.com, which has turned out to be a great source of know-how from working film professionals, including of course Shane himself. For those of you that don’t know, Shane Hurlbut is an accomplished cinematographer with credits like Need For Speed, Act of Valor, Terminator Salvation, We Are Marshall and Swing Vote to his name. One particular article of his that I’d like to highlight today is his breakdown of how to light day exterior shots.

Before getting into the nitty-gritty, here’s a word of wisdom from Shane.

[Sometimes] you compromise the light to gain the big picture … You do not worry that the light is not exactly how you envisioned it. Making a film is about compromises. Period. If you don’t approach a movie this way, you are being a little naive. It is all about making those compromises and turning them into a positive, every time!

With that in mind, let’s get to it.

1. Use tools for finding the best time to shoot

Shane highlights a few different tools he has used to determine the best times to shoot. Helios is the Rolls Royce of the bunch. Sun Seeker is the runner-up. These are both apps for your smartphone that will tell you where the sun will be at specific times of the day in specific locations, how the shadows will fall and more. Lesson to be learned here? Don’t just wing it. Do your homework before grabbing your camera and your crew. If you anticipate certain lighting needs for a scene or if your director has a particular vision of how the scene should look, make sure you have the elements on your side.

2. Shape the natural light

There are many ways to shape, redirect and/or filter the natural light at your location. According to Shane, know that back light is your friend:

I would always try to look for a back light orientation for your scene. This enables you to shoot for a good amount of time without the light changing. As the light gains its height in the sky, I just slightly rotate my actors to match that rotation, always keeping them back lit. The reason for this is that frontal sunlight can be very harsh at times. It can make it very difficult for the actors to keep their eyes open without squinting. That never looks good unless you are Clint Eastwood and it works like a million bucks. You can bring a bounce in to fill or use as a key light, which is passive. This means using the sunlight, the same source that is back lighting the actor, not adding another light into the bounce. I love all types of bounces no matter what output I need from it.

With the back light working to your advantage, perfect the lighting with negative fill:

Just using a bounce can work great, but there are some times when you want more mood in your scene. That is when you use what is called Negative Fill. During the day, light is all around us. It is coming from the sky, from the horizon, from the ground, you name it. I use large solids, which are black in color, for wider shots and then 4 x 4 solids for close ups that I can work in as a ballet dance with the bounce. Usually I work the bounce. I have a grip doing the negative fill as the actors move if I am not operating.

When shooting a wide shot, I try to shoot them at the most perfect time. Let Mother Nature do the lighting and the contrast control for you. For the medium shots, I bring in 12 x 20 clay coats to reflect a key light source and a 12 x 20 and a 12 x 12 solid for negative fill.

This negative fill can sometimes be a frustrating process because of the daylight coming in from all over. Shaping this light to your liking can feel a little too stylized if you hit it with too much contrast, so beware. If you are in an alley or around tall buildings, then you can get away with steeper contrast. But if you are out in the open, I find that creating a contrast of about 2 to 2.5 stops down on the negative fill is good and plays nicely with almost any scene.

Working in the ability to block a scene where your actors land in a side light scenario is always very pleasing as well. This is done by orienting your actors in a way that they are lit with one side of their face keyed by the sun. Getting this just right is what I learned from Herb Ritts, that perfect angle of light which shapes the face in a way that is beautiful. If you are shooting this kind of light in the morning, then I would shoot the close ups first, while the sun is still in their eyes, before it goes skull eyes. I am sure that you have seen this before. It is when you shoot outside when the sun is too high and the actors look like skeletons because they have these deep shadows in their eyes when the light is too toppy.

3. Substitute natural light with Daylight Balanced Lights

If your scene calls for a more dramatic lighting that Mother Nature can provide, you do have the option of helping Her quite a bit. Enter daylight balanced lights. Shane uses his work on The Rat Pack as an example:

On the The Rat Pack, I lit almost every shot during the day with HMIs. These are daylight balanced lights that match daytime Kelvin color temp, which is around 5500 Kelvin. I would either bounce 18Ks off 12 x 20 Ultra Bounces or drive 18Ks through light grid or full grid diffusion frames. Then I would add a searing back light with a mirror board off the sun, or an 18K spotted in. Sometimes a 7K Xenon was needed. This was the look and feel of this movie. Rob Cohen, the director, wanted the character’s life to be a stage. So every time you saw them, they had the perfect key light, back light and fill level. Most of my other films have been more naturalistic. I don’t choose. I go with the director’s vision and the best way to tell the story.

About Shane Hurlbut:

Shane Hurlbut, A.S.C., is a world-renowned cinematographer who shoots multimillion dollar blockbuster films. Shane brings a level of unparalleled passion and excitement to everything he does. He is an innovative cinematic pioneer that deploys new techniques on every project to challenge him and enhance the quality of his work. He seamlessly blends different camera emulsions to enhance storytelling. One of his recent films, Act of Valor, was shot primarily using the Canon 5D Mark II camera and is the first HDSLR full-length feature released by a major studio.

You – or someone else, it doesn’t matter, it’s a travesty regardless – have put blood, sweat and tears into getting your vision on camera. Whether it’s a short film, feature length, documentary, interview or improv, it takes time and effort to accomplish something watchable. And it can all be ruined by one thing, which a lot of amateur filmmakers fail to handle with the same sort of finesse and creativity that they would, say, a tracking shot:

Bad audio.

Ugh. I’ll say it again. It’s the worst.

But while lav mics, boom mics and a good on-set sound recordist all should be at the top of your priority list when making your budget, there are a few things you can do to up your sound game – even on a super tight budget. Hint: It’s in your pocket.

SIRI will never replace your boom operator, but your smartphone will be a welcome addition to your arsenal when you’re setting out to fight bad audio. Let’s face it, pretty much anything is better than your built-in camera audio. Here are a few ways you can use your smartphone (in this particular case it’s an iPhone) as a sound recorder on set:

1. Find an app you like (and use it often) – Apple’s Voice Recorder gets the job done, but you may find that you prefer working with Griffin iTalk. Do your research and try a few different ones – then buy the premium version, if such a thing exists.

2. Hide your phone close to your face – It sounds silly, but if your actor is wearing a button-down or a jacket, hide your phone in a pocket as close to the face as possible. It’s fairly easy to sync up the sound from your phone with the camera audio, especially if you have a slate or simply clap your hands before starting the scene, so you might as well use the extra source of audio. Even if it’s not perfect.

3. Your earbuds can double as a lav mic – Yes, that hands-free mic on your earbuds is not the pinnacle of audio engineering, but it’s essentially a lav mic just waiting to be put to good use. Put the phone in your pocket and tape the hands-free mic to the inside of your shirt, like you would any lav mic. Make sure the mic points in the right direction, as some earbud mics are directional. Instantly better audio.

4. Mix it up – Import your audio tracks from your iPhone directly into iMovie (or export the files and transfer them to any other editor) and sync up your audio. This is where the slate or the hand clap comes in handy. When your sound is in sync, play around with levels and EQ, so the different tracks blend together. Don’t take this step lightly – it’s all in the mix.

When you’re feeling second rate because you’re not using the fancy gear on your shoot, remember this.

Chroma keying is a technique used to composite (layer) two images or video streams together based on color hues. Commonly referred to as green screen. Now, before you get excited about that fact that you can set up and implement the use of green screens on your own, adding a whole new dimension to your low-budget short film sci-fi vision, please hear our words of caution: Improper use of green screen will positively ruin your film. Use it sparingly – or get a professional involved – if this is a project you want to go places. But hey, if you’re just playing around, do just that. Play around. Have fun.

I found a helpful introductory video that explains how to get started with green screen. At about 7 minutes in it turns into a sales pitch, so go ahead and spend those last three minutes doing something else:

When I first started acting, I was surprised to learn how antiquated the headshot printing process is. What most people do is print a big stack of headshots, staple paper resumes on to these headshots, audition, use a few and then eventually throw away hundreds of unused headshots, because they’re outdated. This was annoying me for several reasons. First of all, why wasted the paper? A rule of thumb is that you need new headshots every 6-8 months. A year, if you’re lucky. Most photo labs that specifically offer headshot printing will sell you prints in large quantities. Hundreds of prints. Commercial auditions rarely ask for a headshot anymore (if you’re SAG-AFTRA, at least), and let’s be honest, do you really need 500 headshots for your theatrical auditions every year?

I didn’t think so.

Second of all, why spend good money on a nice headshot only to ruin it by stapling a piece of paper to the back of it? The staples mess up the composition of the shot that you paid your professional photographer big dollars to take, and if you have a stack of them in, say, your car or your bag, they staples will scratch whatever prints they’re stacked with. No bueno, amigos.

So I did some thinking and here’s what I came up with.

1. Get your hi-res files from the photographer and set them up in Photoshop.

It’s easy. With just minimal Photoshop skills, you can open a new document, size it 8×10 (standard headshot size), add a border and your name – or design it however you want. Import your hi-res headshot image and size it so it fits nicely within your 8×10 canvas and any borders you may have added. Save as JPG in maximum quality.

2. Print small quantities with WHCC.

WHCC is an online printing service that let’s you create an account (they call it a studio), download an app for easy ordering and image uploads, and then order whatever quantities you need, whenever you need them. Free shipping is included. Though this option is slightly more expensive than printing large quantities at a Hollywood photo lab, you will never end up with more headshots than you need and the quality is professional photo studio quality.

3. Print your resume on adhesive paper.

Personally, I use the Avery Internet Shipping Labels. They are a little smaller than the 8×10 prints, so they fit nicely on the back of your headshot. They’re thick and a little rigid, so they make your headshot less prone to bending and kinks. No staples needed.

That’s it! Update your resume, print new headshots and labels as needed and stop wasting money on headshots you won’t be using – or ruining the ones you will be using by stapling them.

But don’t tell anyone. I like it when my headshot stands out from the stack on the Casting Director’s table.