Enjoy our first installment of exclusive behind the scenes interviews with key members of The Storyteller production. Learn more about how the film was made and see footage of the making of!

This video features the brilliant Dan Clarke, Cinematographer for The Storyteller.

Lower your f-stop.

The f-stop is, by the most basic of definitions, a measurement for how much light is being let through your lens aperture. The lower the f-stop, the larger the opening, the more light reaching your sensor (or film). When you play around with the f-stop, you’ll notice that when you are shooting “wide open” – which is to say with the lowest f-stop possible – your focus will become very shallow. This means you can get a nice, blurry background or focus on very specific things in your frame, but it also means that if your subject is moving, it will be very hard to keep focus.

Set your shutter speed accordingly.

This one is a bit tricky. While a longer (slower) shutter speed allows more light to reach your sensor, it does not necessarily result in a clearer image. With a longer shutter speed your images are more likely to blur, especially if there’s any movement at all. As a rule of thumb, to prevent motion-blur when filming, set your shutter speed to double that of your shooting frame rate. So, if you’re shooting at 24fps, the ideal shutter speed will be 1/48 (or 1/50, if 1/48 is not an option). Only make adjustments if absolutely necessary.

Increase your ISO.

Assuming you are shooting on a digital camera, increasing the ISO is the easiest way to lighten up your image. You’ll see it instantly in your viewfinder and the changes can be dramatic. The higher the ISO, the brighter the image. But be careful. Higher ISO will increase the risk of getting a grainy image, potentially ruining the footage. On full-frame cameras you can generally increase the ISO to about 3200, while a crop-sensor camera will be more likely to give you grainy images at around 1600, so increase the ISO with care and be sure to adjust the f-stop and ISO together for the best settings and the clearest image. And though you shouldn’t rely on it too heavily, remember that tweaks can be made in post, by adjusting exposure or brightness.

Control your surroundings.

Since it’s much harder to get good, clear images in low-light situations, do what you can to make things easier for yourself. Stabilize your camera – or have less movement in your shots. Be closer to your subject, so it’s easier to keep focus with a low f-stop. Use a grab-n-go light source, if possible. And keep your camera in manual mode, so you – not your camera – decides which of the above parameters to prioritize in order to get you the best footage possible.

h/t borrowlenses.com for their insight

Here are three ways you can simplify your foray into the cinematic arts.

#1. Ditch the cinema cameras and use your DSLR.

Using the DSLR you’ve already familiarized yourself with will give you many advantages on set. It will be more intuitive for you to adapt your shots. It will be easier – and less costly – to equip yourself with a suitable range of lenses. You will be able to film in places where a cinema camera would stick out like a sore thumb. The list goes on.

#2. Light with a single light source.

Like everything else, this will take some practice to master, but trust me, it’s a lot easier to practice with one light source than it is to practice with three (or five or ten or a hundred). Also, it’s cheaper, you’re more mobile and there’s less that can go wrong.

#3. Color Grade like a boss. Yourself. In Final Cut Pro.

Many things will set your film apart from the multitude of independent projects out there. Good sound, yes. Good story, yes. Good actors, yes. These things will all set you off down the right path, but don’t think that the professional look you’re going for is out of your reach. Add “good color grading” to the list of things that will make your film a winner. Color grading always stood out to me as something you would only bother with if you had the budget and the time to employ a professional. It sounded daunting. But it’s actually a whole lot simpler than you might think. As long as you keep it simple, stupid. Color grade right in the software you’re familiar with editing in. Don’t use tech add-ons or install gigabytes of filters you’re not gonna learn how to use. Just make it look good.

Now that you know to keep all of the above stupid simple, why not pour your creativity into the story itself?

CineFix dives into the holy grail of filmmaking in this video essay on emotion and try to pin-point three distinct ways of visually imbuing a scene with emotion.

So let this be not just a lesson in cinematography and directing, but also in screenwriting. Write around the obvious and let the emotion live in the unwritten layers.

h/t CineFix

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.

By definition a tech scout is an on-location walk-through with your production’s department heads – think director, cinematographer, UPM, 1st AD, production designer, etc. – ahead of shooting at that particular location. This walk-through will give each department a chance to familiarize themselves with the location and the challenges it may bring. In other words, it’s a final preparation of the technical logistics associated with each major shooting location.

So, with terms like “department heads” and “technical logistics” being thrown around you’re probably thinking that a tech scout is something reserved for big budget movies, right? Wrong. They most certainly do it, but if you’re helming a low-budget indie production, you probably have even more incentives to do a tech scout before your shoot. Ask yourself this: Can I afford to rent my location for an extra day, if I encounter unforeseen circumstances? Will my lighting package be able to compensate for any changing conditions? Do I have the necessary means to do extensive ADR on noisy takes? No, you say? Then you better plan ahead.

Typically you will do your tech scout during prep week, about one week prior to the actual shoot, when all department heads are able to get together and finalize their preparations. However, if you have access to your locations even further ahead of time, there are benefits to visiting them.

During pre-production Joe did some initial location scouting and we rewrote scenes once we understood the layout and limitations of the locations available to us, so the script reflected accurately the locations we will be using. – Rachel Noll, writer/producer of The Storyteller

Once you have the script locked in, locations secured and shot lists made, you do the full tech scout of all major locations.

Producer, DP, Director, 1st AD, Production Designer, UPM, gaffer, key grip – they were all there. We wanted to make sure all the heads were clear on the limitations and possibilities of any given location, so we could all plan accordingly. Any limitations on power outlets or lighting sources, etc. we wanted to be able to make a note of, and also have an eye on the production design, possible areas for actor holding, for makeup and hair, and other details, so we were prepared come the day of the shoot. I think all the departments can benefit from a scout prior to the shoot, just to know what they are up against and to be able to plan contingencies or brainstorm creatively if things aren’t ideal or there are any surprises. – Rachel Noll, writer/producer of The Storyteller

Let’s break it down.

Producer – will be working with each of the department heads to accommodate any changes in budgeting due to the limitations or possibilities uncovered during the scout.

DP – will be making sure the planned camera movements will be possible. Are there narrow corners to turn? Will there be shots in harsh light? Your DP might change certain shots to accommodate the locations and retain the overall visual aesthetic.

Director – will be balancing the vision of the film with the circumstances and making any necessary changes in shots to stay as true to the original intentions as possible.

1st AD – is largely in charge of scheduling, background actors, callsheets and script breakdown, so any changes to either of these based on the limitations of the location will be noted and arranged accordingly. Is there a proper holding area for the background cast? Will shooting have to wrap an hour earlier than anticipated due to traffic conditions in the area – and what does that mean for the callsheet?

Production Designer – takes note of anything that needs to be dressed for the shots planned and anything on location that will add to or subtract from the environment she is trying to create. Also pay attention to details like whether the centerpiece executive boardroom conference table that’s been rented for a certain scene is able to fit through the doorframe and whether the colors of the the costumes are going to clash with the wall color.

UPM – the Unit Production Manager oversees all the off-set logistics, as well as day-to-day budgets and production personnel, so if a certain location calls for more lighting than initially planned for, the UPM needs to make sure this can be made available, is budgeted and operable with the hired crew – or make the necessary changes.

Gaffer – is the chief electrician on set and will need to make sure there are adequate power sources for the lights that will be brought in. Will a generator be needed? Are the outlets on separate circuits? What’s the maximum load for each outlet?

Key Grip – will in large part be responsible for making the director and DPs wishes come true, so if there is limited space on set or a shot calls for more equipment than can safely be utilized in a certain location, adjustments must be made in advance.

All of these obviously work together, which is why the tech scout is best done with all department heads at once and not separately. Filmmaking is a collaborative process and the tech scout is the perfect opportunity for everyone to contribute in order to make your film the best it can be.

Not only is it an important part of the final stages of pre-production, the tech scout is also a hell of a lot of fun – it’s great to get a chance to know your crew and to be impressed by what they do. And doing the tech scout also means that we are just days away from shooting – at last. – Joe Crump, writer/director of The Storyteller

In some cases you will need to do your tech scout months in advance, so every single aspect of your shots can be meticulously planned and rehearsed, like for the 2015 Academy Award winner Birdman. Because of the extremely difficult long shots used throughout the film, the crew prepared by drawing up a minimalist (but to scale) version of their theatre location in a warehouse and used that space to rehearse camera movement, cast movement and lighting for weeks before the actual shoot. Imagine pulling this off without diligent planning:

Follow the entire process of making a film – up close and personal – through the trials and triumphs of The Storyteller, as told in our on-going article series.

Watch and learn, friends. The take-away? Even in the fightiest of fight scenes, the importance should not be on bloodshed, but on story.

Instead of shaping, coating and polishing glass to perfection, science will (some time in the future) be turning to titanium dioxide for optimal light and color reflection. And it comes in a tiny package. As in nano-tiny. Which means that, while it sometimes feels good to hold a heavy lens, it will be possible to package powerful lenses in ultra-compact camera bodies. Not hard to imagine what this might do for phone and action cameras, but I’m sure it will also make high-end equipment a lot more agile and versatile.

Hopefully that means that – at some point – even those of us working with zero $ budgets will get access to lenses providing million-$ picture quality.

Check it out, science geeks.

RocketJump Film School did a field test and, I gotta say, I like the results. I completely acknowledge that there are many uses where the cheap lenses would tank, but for a filmmaker on a budget, with little more than a prosumer 4K camera and a creative urge, the cheap lenses can mean the difference between getting a great shot – and staying on your couch, drooling over equipment you can’t afford.

Can you tell the difference?