Active Film & Theater Posts — Page 6 of 37 « Film & Theater

How To: Set up three point lighting for film making

This video covers the basic positions and uses for three point lighting: the hair light, the fill light, and the key light.

How To: Make gun shot wound FXs with wax and bubble gum

Special effects is swell, especially when it utilizes the wonderful ubiquity of wax and bubble gum to make wounds look unbelievably believable. Ewww gun shot wounds.

News: The N7 Rifle from Mass Effect 3 Replicated in Extreme Detail

There's still about eight months before the final chapter in the Mass Effect series comes out, but some trigger happy fans are already building replica costumes and prop weapons to celebrate the upcoming release. BioWare themselves recently commissioned some of these projects, which were shown at their booth at Comic-Con 2011 a couple weeks ago in San Diego. One of these projects was the armor that turian Garrus Vakarian sports in Mass Effect 3, by Kommissar Props. But even more impressive wa...

How To: Fiberglass a Mjolnir armor mask from the Halo series

Interested in using fiberglass? In conjunction with the 405th, an online e-zine dedicated to Mjolnir Armor costuming for the Xbox Halo video game series, this tutorial shows you a step by step process of how to layer fiberglass on the inside of a costume mask. Materials needed include latex gloves, respirator or ventilation mask, fiberglass resin, fiberglass cloth, scissors, and a foam brush. Be sure to give up the cash for a great ventilation mask... some of these materials can be toxic to y...

News: Tilt-Shift, Time-Lapse Video from Camera Phone Transforms the Real World into a Mini Toyland

This colorful image may look like a miniature set of model cars, foam buildings and painted grass, but it's nothing of the sort. It's a still photo from a time-lapse video that Stu Kennedy shot in his hometown of Lincoln, England. But it's not your ordinary time-lapse. Kennedy used his trusty new Samsung Galaxy S2 and its 8-megapixel camera to capture the video in high-definition (1080p). And that's not all. He also used a post-editing technique called tilt-shift, which transforms the normal ...

How To: Animate GIF files from video using Photoshop CS3

This tutorial shows you how to make an animated GIF out of any video on Adobe Photoshop CS3.

How To: Mount a 1080p camera on a helmet for less than $70

Looking for a way to record what you see from your motorcycle? Check out this video and learn how to mount a 1080p HD camera in a motocross helmet. Capture awesome high quality video of your rides with this 1080p helmet cam mount.

How To: Build a car rig camera mount for cheap

If you're a filmmaker with bigger ideas than your budget, Indy Mogul is here to help with Backyard FX. Learn how to build a camera mount for a car that costs less than 40 dollars. Using suctions cups, you can rig a camera on the front of a car.

How To: Make a fake Glock pistol prop with functional slide, trigger and magazine lock

Using guns in your independent films is risky business, and expensive to boot. Since you probably don't need to actually shoot anything, you can probably get by with a replica prop gun. If you're gonna do that, why not make it yourself? This video will show you how to make a realistic prop Glock handgun with working trigger, slide and magazine lock.

How To: Build the A.S.H.P.D. Portal Gun from Portal and Portal 2

How cool would it be to have your own A.S.H.P.D., aka Portal Gun? Find out for yourself. Learn how to build your own Portal Gun, just like the one in the game, from affordable parts by watching this Indy Mogul Backyard FX video guide.

Westside Story 2011: The Ultimate Dance Off

WonderHowTo user lex lugo of Bootleg Entertainment posted this fun spoof on musical classic Westside Story to the Canon 7D World forum. The short starts off with some pretty (amazingly) goofy dance-offs; stay tuned 'til the end if you dig 2D violence.

News: Shoecam Takes Wingsuit Flying to New Heights

For most thrill-seekers, skydiving alone is an adrenaline rush worth experiencing only once, but for the death-defying, elite skydiver, the wingsuit is the next step in daring midair adventures. But thankfully, we people who like our feet planted on the ground can enjoy the thrill ride via our flatscreens, due to some fearless cinematography from the daredevils themselves. And though there is no shortage of awesome skydiving footage on the web, there is a shortage of camera angles, with most ...

How To: Make your own Boom Pole for recording sound in your film

Silent films went out of style just as soon as it became possible to give a film a soundtrack. This Indy Mogul Backyard FX video will show you, for only forty dollars, you can make your own Boom Pole for rigging a mic to capture sound.

How To: Create a hole in the chest special effect with green screen and gore

Indy Mogul Backyard FX is here with an awesome, cheap, special effect build that will have your audience jumping out of their seats. If you're a filmmaker on a budget you've got to watch this video and learn how to make a hole in the chest effect that look exactly like there is a hole in the actor's chest.

How To: Create a ground explosion SFX for your film on a tight budget

Just because you don't have money to blow doesn't mean you can't blow things up. If you're looking to add a Michael Bay quality explosion to your backyard film project, check out this Indy Mogul Backyard FX video. The total cost of everything you need to make this special effect is less than one hundred dollars.

How To: Build a Pirates of the Caribbean inspired prop sword for thirty dollars

Yar! If swashbucklin adventure be yer fancy, check out this awesome Indy Mogul Backyard FX video to learn how to build a Pirates of the Caribbean style sword prop out of foam. This video explains what materials you need and what tools you'll use.

How To: Build a Tommy Gun prop on a budget

If you're looking to give your Mafia movie a real, authentic, look, but don't have a ton of cash check out this great Indy Mogul Backyard FX video to learn how to build a Tommy Gun. It may not fire bullets, but this fifty dollar prop packs some real punch.

How To: Build awesome Sci-Fi armor for less than one hundred dollars

Looking to create the look of a blockbuster Sci-Fi epic, for the price of a student film? This Indy Mogul Backyard FX video will show you how to build incredible looking science fiction armor out of foam for about eighty dollars. Be sure to follow these instructions carefully and be patient.

How To: Build a Mole Man makeup for 30 dollars

Check out this great episode of Indy Mogul's Backyard FX where you'll learn how to build a Mole Man makeup appliance on a budget. For less than thirty dollars you can create a shockingly realistic, and creepy, Mole Man latex appliance.

Breakfast Interrupted: Tangled Food Captured Midair at 1,000 FPS

They're not the fastest in the world, but Vision Research's line of Phantom high-speed cameras produce some of the best slow motion effects on the web. They can turn violent punches into a chaotic scene of distorted skin and repulsive sweat, or make a night's stay in a hotel room more exciting. Now breakfast gets the Phantom treatment in Breakfast Interrupted, where America's favorite meal gets captured in midair at 1,000 frames per second.

News: Papermation to the Psychadelic Meditations of Dan Deacon

Construction paper animator Jen Stark teams up with electronic music composer/rabble-rousing party-demigod Dan Deacon in the video below, titled "Believer". The animation is fantastic—likely constructed in a process not entirely unlike animator Ryan Kothe's paper Waves and Weaves. The basic principle: stop motion animation; so if you're inspired, start schooling yourself here.

How To: Make your own stop motion animation

You don't need a ten-figure budget to make a great movie! With nothing more than iMovie, a camera, and your imagination you can make a stop motion animation. With stop motion, you can bring anything to life. This is a really fun project for aspiring directors of all ages.

How To: Create a simple low budget shoulder mount for a DSLR camera and accessories

Wow. Forget about buying an expensive pro-style digital camcorder. You can make your DSLR camera into a moviemaker camera with a simple DIY shoulder mount. The goal of this video is to give you a way to create a low budget way of mounting your camera and necessary gear onto a cheap shoulder mount. It works really well. See for yourself!

News: All Hail the Herculean Phantom Flex: 2,564 FPS of Insane Slo-Mo

Slow motion isn't just for blockbusters and indie films. Sometimes it's for pure wonderment, like the bullet that seems to melt away at impact, the chemical burning of phosphorus and gelatin on the head of a match, and the distorted skin and disgusting sweat being thrown from a punched face.

How To: Apply a prosethetic appliance to create a zombie or werewolf attack effect

Are you working on a zombie movie and need to step your gore up? Or do you just want to scare your friends with an ultra-realistic halloween costume? Check out this video that shows you how to apply a prosthetic.

The Joy of Destruction: Smashing, Guillotining, Igniting & More

Why is it so satisfying to squash, snap, squeeze and splatter? You know, squashing a juicy grape, snapping a twig, squeezing ketchup out of a packet—perhaps with your fist—or splattering mud across a sidewalk. But all of these actions are child's play next to animators Laura Junger and Xaver Xylophon's Joy of Destruction. The real joy of destruction is illustrated below—we're talking sawing ladies in half, exploding corn into popcorn with dynamite, burning cities, and rolling over statues wit...

How To: Modify a Glidecam with a Steadicam arm and vest

The lady shows how to make the steadicam arm to work with glidecam stabilizer. The steadicam arm is made such as only a steadicam can be fitted on that. The video describes how to make the usable for glidecam with three simple tools ,a 10 ounce hammer ,a long nose player and a flathead screwdriver. First take out the circular clip with which the post is secured with the screwdriver unscrew and pull the post out .Using the hammer straighten the post .The post will have a scratch but the straig...

News: Zoetrope + Bicycle Wheel = Cyclotrope

Kudos to student Tim Wheatley, who came up with this incredibly nifty DIY animation using a bicycle wheel, cardboard cut-outs, and wire to create a magical reinvention of the classic zoetrope, Earth's earliest form of animation (it first surfaced in China around 180 AD!). Simply give it a spin, and the animation comes to life. Inspired to make your own? First, learn the basic principles of the zoetrope here or here. Next, take a little advice from Tim to add the "cyclo" element:

DIY IMAX: 5,600 Satellite Photographs x After Effects = Fly By Footage of Saturn

The footage you're about to watch may look CG, and while it is indeed animated, the 5,600 frames used to composite this fly by glimpse of Saturn aren't fabricated—they are real hi-res photographs taken by the Cassini orbiter. Outside In—an "IMAX in a basement"—is a DIY not-for-profit IMAX project-in-progress by filmmaker Stephen Van Vuuren.

How To: Build a prop hover board

Ever since Back to the Future Part Two, every kid has wanted their own hover board. Parker put together this tutorial to show how to get one step closer to the dream, by building a prop hover board. You will need a plastic lid, spray paint, hot glue, a small circuit board, Mod Podge sealant, and an old skateboard. Watch this video prop-making tutorial and learn how to build hover board prop.

News: Lazy Teenage Superheroes

With the low budget of $300 bucks, Michael Ashton and pals created the below 12-minute short film entitled Lazy Teenage Superheroes, complete with some pretty great looking SFX. Just shows what you can do with a little ingenuity plus some self-taught filmmaking know-how (and the right After Effects tutorials). Not bad at all. Behind-the-scenes:

News: Let's Wreck Stuff! Cap'n Video, the Original Jackass

We love all things Jackass at WonderHowTo, but before Johnny Knoxville and his pals were sticking fireworks up their butts, snorting wasabi, and taking a shock to the gonads (à la the childhood game, Operation), in the far off land of Ontario, Canada reigned another daredevil—a man named Ralph Zavadil, a.k.a. Cap’n Video. Just as we all winced when Knoxville tore his uretha, community access viewers of the '90s cringed as Cap'n Video bounced off concrete and broke his neck... until Zavadil wa...

News: 8-Bit Your Desk

Well, you might need to take a few lessons in animation first. Another cool 8-Bit animation (previously, Evil Pixels Demolish New York City). This one is short and sweet. And especially beautiful.

How To: Build a prop retro-style ray gun

Indy Mogul shows you how to build retro ray gun prop for your next sci-fi epic!

How To: Slate a film, read a line script and keep a shot log

If you have ever wondered about the functionality of slating during a film shoot, what a shooting script or line script is and how to keep a shot log, then this may be the perfect video tutorial for you, in two parts.

How To: Transform from a female to a male temporarily

Ladies, have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a dude for the day? Maybe as part of a Halloween costume, or even just for fun? No need to get a gender reassignment surgery, take a test drive as a man with the help of a little makeup, ironically enough. You will need eyeliner, makeup powder, and a hat to cover up your hair. Watch this video special effects tutorial and learn how to temporarily change your gender from female to male with a little bit of cosmetic magic.

How To: Make a fake tree for a play

Well it's time to put on the school play! This year, the school's going to put on Chekov's "The Cherry Tree". Only problem? You have no tree. Well, this helpful how to will guide you through the steps to make a light, portable tree that will turn your school play on its head.