r/Filmmakers Jun 09 '25

New Rules Regarding AI on /r/filmmakers!

489 Upvotes

Thank you all for participating in the poll! Here are the results. To accurately gauge everyone's collective acceptance vs rejection for each, I've tallied the total votes among all choices as pro/anti for each category. So for example, a vote for 'no changes' would be a -1 to Gen AI, AI Tools, AI Comms, and AI Discussion. A vote for 'Ban GenAI + AI Tools' would be a +1 to GenAI and AI Tools, and a -1 to AI Comms and AI Discussion, etc. So here are the results for each category of AI. Keep in mind that a higher number indicates a stronger group decision to ban the content:

GenAI: +92 (+119/-27)

AI Tools: -20 (+63/-83)

AI Comms: -8 (+69/-77)

AI Discussion: -84 (+31/-115)

From the results it is clear that sub overwhelmingly approve a complete ban on all generative AI. However, people are more or less fine with allowing discussion of AI, and are fairly mixed on the topic of AI Tools and Communication. So here is the new rule for all things AI:

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Rule 6. You may not post work containing Generative AI elements (Midjourney, Neo, Dall-E, etc.). You may use and demonstrate the use of AI assisted tools (ie magic masking, upscalers, audio cleanup etc.) so long as they are used in service of human-generated artwork. AI Communication, like post bodies or comments composed using ChatGPT are allowed only in very reasonable cases, such as the need for someone to translate their thoughts into another language. Abuse of AI assisted communication will result in the removal of the offending post/comment.


r/Filmmakers Dec 03 '17

Official Sticky READ THIS BEFORE ASKING A QUESTION! Official Filmmaking FAQ and Information Post

989 Upvotes

Welcome to the /r/Filmmakers Official Filmmaking FAQ And Information Post!

Below I have collected answers and guidance for some of the sub's most common topics and questions. This is all content I have personally written either specifically for this post or in comments to other posters in the past. This is however not a me-show! If anybody thinks a section should be added, edited, or otherwise revised then message the moderators! Specifically, I could use help in writing a section for audio gear, as I am a camera/lighting nerd.



Topics Covered In This Post:

1. Should I Pursue Filmmaking / Should I Go To Film School?

2. What Camera Should I Buy?

3. What Lens Should I Buy?

4. How Do I Learn Lighting?

5. What Editing Program Should I Use?



1. Should I Pursue Filmmaking / Should I Go To Film School?

This is a very complex topic, so it will rely heavily on you as a person. Find below a guide to help you identify what you need to think about and consider when making this decision.

Do you want to do it?

Alright, real talk. If you want to make movies, you'll at least have a few ideas kicking around in your head. Successful creatives like writers and directors have an internal compunction to create something. They get ideas that stick in the head and compel them to translate them into the real world. Do you want to make films, or do you want to be seen as a filmmaker? Those are two extremely different things, and you need to be honest with yourself about which category you fall into. If you like the idea of being called a filmmaker, but you don't actually have any interest in making films, then now is the time to jump ship. I have many friends from film school who were just into it because they didn't want "real jobs", and they liked the idea of working on flashy movies. They made some cool projects, but they didn't have that internal drive to create. They saw filmmaking as a task, not an opportunity. None of them have achieved anything of note and most of them are out of the industry now with college debt but no relevant degree. If, when you walk onto a set you are overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety, then you'll be fine. If you walk onto a set and feel foreboding and anxiety, it's probably not right for you. Filmmaking should be fun. If it isn't, you'll never make it.

School

Are you planning on a film production program, or a film studies program? A studies program isn't meant to give you the tools or experience necessary to actually make films from a craft-standpoint. It is meant to give you the analytical and critical skills necessary to dissect films and understand what works and what doesn't. A would-be director or DP will benefit from a program that mixes these two, with an emphasis on production.

Does your prospective school have a film club? The school I went to had a filmmakers' club where we would all go out and make movies every semester. If your school has a similar club then I highly recommend jumping into it. I made 4 films for my classes, and shot 8 films. In the filmmaker club at my school I was able to shoot 20 films. It vastly increased my experience and I was able to get a lot of the growing pains of learning a craft out of the way while still in school.

How are your classes? Are they challenging and insightful? Are you memorizing dates, names, and ideas, or are you talking about philosophies, formative experiences, cultural influences, and milestone achievements? You're paying a huge sum of money, more than you'll make for a decade or so after graduation, so you better be getting something out of it.

Film school is always a risky prospect. You have three decisive advantages from attending school:

  1. Foundation of theory (why we do what we do, how the masters did it, and how to do it ourselves)
  2. Building your first network
  3. Making mistakes in a sandbox

Those three items are the only advantages of film school. It doesn't matter if you get to use fancy cameras in class or anything like that, because I guarantee you that for the price of your tuition you could've rented that gear and made your own stuff. The downsides, as you may have guessed, are:

  1. Cost
  2. Risk of no value
  3. Cost again

Seriously. Film school is insanely expensive, especially for an industry where you really don't make any exceptional money until you get established (and that can take a decade or more).

So there's a few things you need to sort out:

  • How much debt will you incur if you pursue a film degree?
  • How much value will you get from the degree? (any notable alumni? Do they succeed or fail?)
  • Can you enhance your value with extracurricular activity?

Career Prospects

Don't worry about lacking experience or a degree. It is easy to break into the industry if you have two qualities:

  • The ability to listen and learn quickly
  • A great attitude

In LA we often bring unpaid interns onto set to get them experience and possibly hire them in the future. Those two categories are what they are judged on. If they have to be told twice how to do something, that's a bad sign. If they approach the work with disdain, that's also a bad sign. I can name a few people who walked in out of the blue, asked for a job, and became professional filmmakers within a year. One kid was 18 years old and had just driven to LA from his home to learn filmmaking because he couldn't afford college. Last I saw he has a successful YouTube channel with nature documentaries on it and knows his way around most camera and grip equipment. He succeeded because he smiled and joked with everyone he met, and because once you taught him something he was good to go. Those are the qualities that will take you far in life (and I'm not just talking about film).

So how do you break in?

  • Cold Calling
    • Find the production listings for your area (not sure about NY but in LA we use the BTL Listings) and go down the line of upcoming productions and call/email every single one asking for an intern or PA position. Include some humor and friendly jokes to humanize yourself and you'll be good. I did this when I first moved to LA and ended up camera interning for an ASC DP on movie within a couple months. It works!
  • Rental House
    • Working at a rental house gives you free access to gear and a revolving door of clients who work in the industry for you to meet.
  • Filmmaking Groups
    • Find some filmmaking groups in your area and meet up with them. If you can't find groups, don't sweat it! You have more options.
  • Film Festivals
    • Go to film festivals, meet filmmakers there, and befriend them. Show them that you're eager to learn how they do what they do, and you'd be happy to help them on set however you can. Eventually you'll form a fledgling network that you can work to expand using the other avenues above.

What you should do right now

Alright, enough talking! You need to decide now if you're still going to be a filmmaker or if you're going to instead major in something safer (like business). It's a tough decision, we get it, but you're an adult now and this is what that means. You're in command of your destiny, and you can't trust anyone but yourself to make that decision for you.

Once you decide, own it. If you choose film, then take everything I said above into consideration. There's one essential thing you need to do though: create. Go outside right fucking now and make a movie. Use your phone. That iphone or galaxy s7 or whatever has better video quality than the crap I used in film school. Don't sweat the gear or the mistakes. Don't compare yourself to others. Just make something, and watch it. See what you like and what you don't like, and adjust on your next project! Now is the time for you to do this, to learn what it feels like to make a movie.



2. What Camera Should I Buy?

The answer depends mostly on your budget and your intended use. You'll also want to become familiar with some basic camera terms because it will allow you to efficiently evaluate the merits of one option vs another. Find below a basic list of terms you should become familiar with when making your first (or second, or third!) camera purchase:

  1. Resolution - This is how many pixels your recorded image will have. If you're into filmmaking, you probably already know this. An HD camera will have a resolution of 1920x1080. A 4K camera will be either 4096x2160 or 3840x2160. The functional difference is that the former is a theatrical aspect ratio while the latter is a standard HDTV aspect ratio (1.89:1 vs 1.78:1 respectively).
  2. Framerates - The standard and popular framerate for filmmaking is called 24p, but most digital cameras will actually be shooting at 23.976 fps. The difference is negligible and should have no bearing on your purchasing choice. The technical reasons behind this are interesting but ultimately irrelevant. Something to look for is the camera's ability to shoot in high framerate, meaning anything above the 24p standard. This is useful because you can play back high framerate footage at 24p in your editor, and it will render the recorded motion in slow motion. This is obviously useful!
  3. Data Rate - This tells you how much data is being recorded on a per second basis. Generally speaking, the higher the data rate, the better your image quality. Make sure to pay attention to resolution as well! A 1080p camera with a 100 MB/s data rate is going to be recording higher quality imagery than a 4k camera at a 200 MB/s data rate because the 4k camera has 4x as many pixels to record but only double the data bandwidth with which to do it. Things like compression come into play here, but keep this in mind as a rule of thumb.
  4. Compression - Compression is important, because very few cameras will shoot without some form of compression. This is basically an algorithm that allows you to record high quality images without making large file sizes. This is intimately linked with your data rate. Popular cinema compressions for cameras include ProRes, REDCODE, XAVC, AVCHD. Compression schemes that you want to avoid include h.264, h.265, MPEG-4, and Generic 'MOV'. This is not an exhaustive list of compression types, but a decent starter guide.
  5. ISO - This is your camera sensor's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive to light the camera will be. Higher ISOs tend to give noisier images though, so there is a tradeoff. All cameras will have something called a native iso. This is the ISO at which the camera is deemed to perform the best in terms of trading off noise vs sensitivity. A very common native ISO in the industry is 800. Sony cameras, including the A7S boast much higher ISO performance without significant noise increases, which can be useful if you're planning on running and gunning in the dark with no crew.
  6. Manual Shutter - Your shutter speed (or shutter angle, as it is called in the film industry) controls your motion blur by changing how long the sensor is exposed to light during a single frame of recording. Having manual control over this when shooting is important. The standard shutter speed when shooting 24p is 1/48 of a second (180° in shutter angle terms), so make sure your prospective camera can get here (1/50 is close enough).
  7. Lens Mount - Some starter cameras will have built in lenses, which is fine for learning! When you move up to higher quality cameras however, the standard will be interchangeable lens cameras. This means you'll need to decide on what lens mount you would like to use. The professional standard is called the PL Mount, but lenses and cameras that use this mount are very expensive. The most common and popular mount in the low level professional world is Canon's EF mount. Because of its design, EF mount lenses can easily be adapted to other common mounts like Sony's E-Mount or the MFT mounts found on many Panasonic cameras. EF is popular because Canon's lenses are generally preferred over Sony's, and so their mount has a higher utility.
  8. Color Subsampling - This is easier to understand if you think of it as 'Color Resolution'. Our eyes are more sensitive to luminance (bright vs dark) than to color, and so some cameras increase effective image quality by dedicating processing power and data rate bandwidth to the more important luminance values of individual pixels. This means that individual pixels often do not have their own color, but instead that groups of neighboring pixels will be given a single color value. The size of the groups and the pattern of their arrangement are referred to by 3 main color subsampling standards.
    • 4:4:4 means that each pixel has its own color value. This is the highest quality.
    • 4:2:2 means that color is set for horizontal pixels in pairs. The color of each two neighboring pixels is averaged and applied to both identically. This is the second best quality.
    • 4:2:0 means that color is set for both horizontal and vertical pixel 4-packs. Each square of 4 pixels receives a single color assignment that is an averaging of their original signals. This is generally low quality. For more info on color subsampling, check out this wikipedia entry
  9. Bit-Depth - This refers to how many colors the camera is capable of recognizing. An 8-bit camera can have 16,777,216 distinct colors, while a 10-bit camera can have 1,073,741,824 distinct colors. Note that this is primarily only of use when doing color grading, as nearly all TVs and computer monitors from the past few decades are 8-bit displays that won't benefit from a 10-bit signal.
  10. Sensor Size - The three main sensor sizes you'll encounter (in ascending order) are Micro Four-Thirds (M43), APS-C, and Full Frame. A larger sensor will generally have better noise and sensitivity than a smaller sensor. It will also effect the field of view you get from a given lens. Larger sensors will have wider fields of view for the same focal length lenses. For example, a 50mm lens on a FF sensor will look roughly twice as wide-angle as a 50mm lens on a M43 sensor. To get the same field of view as a 50mm on FF, you'd need to use a 25mm lens on your M43 camera. Theatrical 35mm (the cinema standard, so to speak) has an equivalent sensor size to APS-C, which is larger than M43 and smaller than Full Frame.

So Now What Camera Should I Buy?

This list will be changing as new models emerge, but for now here is a short list of the cameras to look at when getting started:

  1. Panasonic G7 (~$600) - This is hands down the best starter camera for someone looking to move up from shooting on their phones or consumer camcorders.
  2. Panasonic GH4 (~$1,500) - An older and cheaper version of the GH5, this camera is still a popular choice.
  3. Panasonic GH5 (~$2,000) - This is perhaps the most popular prosumer DSLR filmmaking camera.
  4. Sony A7S (~$2,700) - This is a very popular camera for shooting in low light settings. It also boasts a Full-Frame sensor (compared to the GH5's M4/3 sensor), allowing you to get shallower depth of field compared to other cameras using the same field of view and aperture.
  5. Canon C100 mkII (~$3,500) - This is one of the cheapest true digital cinema cameras. It offers several benefits over the above DSLR cameras, such as professional level XLR audio inputs, internal ND filters, and a better picture profile system.


3. What Lens Should I Buy?

Much like with deciding on a camera, lens choice is all about your budget and your needs. Below are the relevant specs to use as points of comparison for lenses.

  1. Focal Length - This number indicates the field of view your lens will supply. A higher focal length results in a narrow (or more 'telescopic') field of view. Here is a great visual depiction of focal length vs field of view.
  2. Speed - A 'fast lens' is one with a very wide maximum aperture. This means the lens can let more light through it than a comparatively slower lens. We read the aperture setting via something called F-Stops. They are a standard scale that goes in alternating doublings of previous values. The scale is: 1.0, 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64. Each increase is a doubling of the incoming light. A lens whose aperture is a 1.4 will allow in twice as much light than it would have at 2.0. Cheaper lenses tend to only open up to a 4.0, or even a 5.6. More expensive lenses can open as far 1.3, giving you 16x as much light. Wider apertures also cause your depth of field to contract, resulting in the 'cinematic' shallow focus you're likely familiar with. Here is a great visual depiction of f-stop vs depth of field
  3. Chromatic Aberration - Some lower quality glass will have this defect, in which imperfect lens elements cause a prism-style effect that separates colors on the edges of image details. Post software can sometimes help correct this, as in this example
  4. Sharpness - I'm sure you all know what sharpness is. Cheaper lenses will yield a softer in-focus image than more expensive lenses. However, some lenses are popularly considered to be 'over-sharp', such as the Zeiss CP2 series. The minutia of the sharpness debate is mostly irrelevant at starter levels though.
  5. Bokeh - This refers to the shape of an out of focus point of light as rendered by the lens. The bokeh of your image will always be in the shape of your aperture. For that reason, a perfectly round aperture will yield nice clean circle bokeh, while a rougher edged aperture will produce similarly rougher bokeh. Here's an example
  6. Lens Mount - Make sure the lens you're buying will either fit your camera's lens mount or allow for adapting to is using a popular adapter like the Metabones. The professional standard lens mount is the PL Mount, but lenses and cameras that use this mount are very expensive. The most common and popular mount in the low level professional world is Canon's EF mount. Because of its design, EF mount lenses can easily be adapter to other common mounts like Sony's E-Mount or the MFT mounts found on many Panasonic cameras. EF is popular because Canon's lenses are generally preferred over Sony's, and so their mount has a higher market share.

Zoom vs Prime

This is all about speed vs quality vs budget. A zoom lens is a lens whose *focal length can be changed by turning a ring on the lens barrel. A prime lens has a fixed focal length. Primes tend to be cheaper, faster, and sharper. However, buying a full set of primes can be more expensive than buying a zoom lens that would cover the same focal length range. Using primes on set in fast-paced environments can slow you down prohibitively. You'll often see news, documentary, and event cameras using zooms instead of primes. Some zoom lenses are as high-quality as prime lenses, and some people refer to them as 'variable prime' lenses. This is mostly a marketing tool and has no hard basis in science though. As you might expect, these high quality zooms tend to be very expensive.

So What Lenses Should I Look At?

Below are the most popular lenses for 'cinematic' filming at low budgets:

  1. Rokinon Cine 4 Lens Kit in EF Mount (~$1,700)
  2. Canon L Series 24-70mm Zoom in EF Mount (~1,700)
  3. Sigma Art 18-35mm Zoom in EF Mount (~$800)
  4. Sigma Art 50-100 Zoom in EF Mount (~$1,100)

Lenses below these average prices are mostly a crapshoot in terms of quality vs $, and you'll likely be best off using your camera's kit lens until you can afford to move up to one of the lenses or lens series listed above.



4. How Do I Learn Lighting?

Alright, so you're biting off a big chunk here if you've never done lighting before. But it is doable and (most importantly) fun!

First off, fuck three-point lighting. So many people misunderstand what that system is supposed to teach you, so let's just skip it entirely. Light has three properties. They are:

  • Color: Color of the light. This is both color temperature (on the Orange - Blue scale) and what you'd probably think of as regular color (is it RED!? GREEN!? AQUA!?) etc. Color. You know what color is.
  • Quantity: How bright the light is. You know, the quantity of photons smacking into your subject and, eventually, your retinas.
  • Quality: This is the good shit. The quality of a light source can vary quite a bit. Basically, this is how hard or soft the light is. Alright, you've got a guy standing near a wall. You shine a light on him. What's on the wall? His shadow, that's what. You know what shadows look like. A hard light makes his shadow super distinct with 'hard' edges to it. A soft light makes his shadow less distinct, with a 'soft' edge. When the sun is out, you get hard light. Distinct shadows. When it's cloudy, you get soft light. No shadows at all! So what makes a light hard or soft? Easy! The size of the source, relative to the subject. Think of it this way. You're the subject! Now look at your light source. How much of your field of vision is taken up by the light source? Is it a pinpoint? Or more like a giant box? The smaller the size of the source, the harder the light will be. You can take a hard light (i.e. a light bulb) and make it softer by putting diffusion in front of it. Here is a picture of that happening. You can also bounce the light off of something big and bouncy, like a bounce board or a wall. That's what sconces do. I fucking love sconces.

Alright, so there are your three properties of light. Now, how do you light a thing? Easy! Put light where you want it, and take it away from where you don't want it! Shut up! I know you just said "I don't know where I want it", so I'm going to stop you right there. Yes you do. I know you do because you can look at a picture and know if the lighting is good or not. You can recognize good lighting. Everybody can. The difference between knowing good lighting and making good lighting is simply in the execution.

Do an experiment. Get a lightbulb. Tungsten if you're oldschool, LED if you're new school, or CFL if you like mercury gas. plug it into something portable and movable, and have a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, neighbor, creepy-but-realistic doll, etc. sit down in a chair. Turn off all the lights in the room and move that bare bulb around your victim subject's head. Note how the light falling on them changes as the light bulb moves around them. This is lighting, done live! Get yourself some diffusion. Either buy some overpriced or make some of your own (wax paper, regular paper, translucent shower curtains, white undershirts, etc.). Try softening the light, and see how that affects the subject's head. If you practice around with this enough you'll get an idea for how light looks when it comes from various directions. Three point lighting (well, all lighting) works on this fundamental basis, but so many 'how to light' tutorials skip over it. Start at the bottom and work your way up!

Ok, so cool. Now you know how light works, and sort of where to put it to make a person look a certain way. Now you can get creative by combining multiple lights. A very common look is to use soft light to primarily illuminate a person (the 'key) while using a harder (but sometimes still somewhat soft) light to do an edge or rim light. Here's a shot from a sweet movie that uses a soft key light, a good amount of ambient ('errywhere) light, and a hard backlight. Here they are lit ambiently, but still have an edge light coming from behind them and to the right. You can tell by the quality of the light that this edge was probably very soft. We can go on for hours, but if you just watch movies and look at shadows, bright spots, etc. you'll be able to pick out lighting locations and qualities fairly easily since you've been practicing with your light bulb!

How Do I Light A Greenscreen?

Honestly, your greenscreen will depend more on your technical abilities in After Effects (or whichever program) than it will on your lighting. I'm a DP and I'm admitting that. A good key-guy (Keyist? Keyer?) can pull something clean out of a mediocre-ly lit greenscreen (like the ones in your example) but a bad key-guy will still struggle with a perfectly lit one. I can't help you much here, as I am only a mediocre key-guy, but I can at least give you advice on how to light for it!

Here's what you're looking for when lighting a greenscreen:

  • Two Separate Lighting Setups: You should have a lighting setup for the green screen and a lighting setup for your actor. Of course, this isn't always possible. But we like to aspire to big things! The reason this is helpful is that it makes it easier for you to adjust the greenscreen light without affecting the actor's lighting, and vice versa.
  • Separate the subject from the greenscreen as much as possible! - Pretty much that. The closer your subject is to the screen, the harder it is to keep lights from interfering with things they're not meant for, and the greater the chance the actor has of getting his filthy shadow all over the screen. I normally try to keep my subjects at least 8' away from the screen at a minimum for anything wider than an MCU.
  • Light the Green Screen EVENLY: The green on the screen needs to be as close to the same intensity in all parts as possible, or you just multiply your work in post. For every different shade of green on that screen you'll need make a separate key effect to make clean edges, and then you'll need to matte and combine them all together. Huge headache that can be a tad overwhelming if you're not used it. For this reason, Get your shit even! "But how do I do that?" you ask! Well, first off, I actually prefer to use hard light. You see, hard light has the nice innate property of being able to throw itself a long distance without losing all its intensity. The farther away the light source is from the subject, the less its intensity will change from inch to inch. That's called the inverse square law, and it is cool as fuck. If you change the distance between the light and the subject, the intensity of the light will shift as an inverse to the square of the distance. Science! So if you double the distance between the light and the subject, the intensity is quartered (1 over 2 squared. 1/4). So, naturally, the farther away you are the more distance is required to reduce the intensity further. If you have the space, use it to your advantage and back your lights up! Now back to reality. You probably don't have a lot of space. You're probably in a garage. OK, fuck it, emergency mode! Now we use soft lights. Soft lights change their intensity quite inconveniently if they're at an oblique angle to the screen, but they kick ass if you can get them to shine more or less perpendicular on the screen. The problem there of course is that they'd then be sitting where your actor probably is. Sooo we move them off to the side, maybe put one on the ceiling, one on the ground too, and try to smudge everything together on the screen. Experiment with this for a while and you'll get the hang of it in no-time!
  • Have your background in mind BEFORE shooting: Even if your key is flawless, it will look like shit if the actor isn't lit in a convincing manner compared to the background. If, for example, this for some reason is your background, you'll know that your actor needs a hard backlight from above and to camera right since we see a light source there. Also, we can infer from the lighting on the barrels that his main source of illumination should be from above him and pointing down, slightly from the right. You can move the source around and accent it as needed to make the actor not-ugly, but your background has provided you with some significant constraints right off the bat. For that reason, pick your background before you shoot, if possible. If it is not possible to do so, well, good luck! Guess as best as you can and try to find a good background.

What Lights Should I Buy?

OK! So now you know sort of how to light a green screen and how to light a person. So now, what lights do you need? Well, really, you just need any lights. If you're on a budget, don't be afraid to get some work lights from home depot or picking up some off brand stuff on craigslist. By far the most important influence on the quality of your images will be where and how you use the lights rather than what types or brands of lights you are using. I cannot stress this enough. How you use it will blow what you use out of the water. Get as many different types of lights as you can for the money you have. That way you can do lots of sources, which can make for more intricate or nuanced lighting setups. I know you still want some hard recommendations, so I'll tell you this: Get china balls (china lanterns. Paper lanterns whatever the fuck we're supposed to call these now). They are wonderful soft lights, and if you need a hard light you can just take the lantern off and shine with the bare bulb! For bulbs, grab some 200W and 500W globes. You can check B&H, Barbizon, Amazon, and probably lots of other places for these. Make sure you grab some high quality socket-and-wire sets too. You can find them at the same places. For brighter lights, like I said home depot construction lights are nice. You can also by PAR lamps relatively cheap. Try grabbing a few Par Cans. They're super useful and stupidly cheap. Don't forget to budget for some light stands as well, and maybe C-clamps and the like for rigging to things. I don't know what on earth you're shooting so it is hard to give you a grip list, but I'm sure you can figure that kind of stuff out without too much of a hassle.



5. What Editing Program Should I Use?

Great question! There are several popular editing programs available for use.

Free Editing Programs

Your choices are essentially limited to Davinci Resolve (Non-Studio) and Hitfilm Express. My personal recommendation is Davinci Resolve. This is the industry standard color-grading software (and its editing features have been developed so well that its actually becoming the industry standard editing program as well), and you will have free access to many of its powerful tools. The Studio version costs a few hundred dollars and unlocks multiple features (like noise reduction) without forcing you to learn a new program.

Paid Editing Programs

  1. Avid Media Composer ($50/mo or $1,300 for life) - This is the high-level industry standard, but is not terribly popular unless you're working at a professional post-house for big budget movies.
  2. Adobe Premiere Pro ($20/mo) - This used to be the most popular industry standard editor for low to medium budget productions. It is still used quite often, so knowing Premiere is a handy skill to maintain.
  3. Davinci Resolve Studio ($300) - This is a solid editing program built into the long time industry-standard color grading suite. Since Resolve added editing, its feature set and reputation has been on the rise. It's eclipsing Premiere now and set to be the undisputed industry standard for video editing and color grading for all but the absolute highest level productions. This is the best overall choice if you're looking to find your first editing program.
  4. Final Cut Pro X ($300) - This is the old standard for low-high budget editing, replaced by Adobe Premiere and now again by Resolve. It is available on Mac platforms only, and is still a powerful editor.

r/Filmmakers 9h ago

Film Verticals The Movie

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173 Upvotes

My friends and I recently completed a film about Verticals the industry that’s taken over a lot of jobs in Hollywood!


r/Filmmakers 6h ago

Question How do I become an AD?

11 Upvotes

I am currently a senior in college and I live in Arizona where there is not a lot of film currently. I want to eventually become an Assistant Director. Should I move to LA when I graduate? How do I start networking in a way that would get me where I want? Are there programs that I could apply to that would help? Any advice appreciated.


r/Filmmakers 2h ago

General Looking for beta testers - Audio Waveform multiclip Sync App

Post image
2 Upvotes

Hi all. I'm a wedding videographer (Malta) and for the past few months I've been building a small desktop app to scratch my own itch: syncing multicam footage to external audio recorders without paying for a subscription or fighting the built-in sync in Premiere/Resolve when clips are short or cameras start and stop a lot.

It's called WaveXML

You export an FCP7 XML from Premiere, Resolve or FCP (via XtoCC), drop it on the app, and it syncs every camera and recorder by waveform, lays them out on the timeline and gives you back an XML to import. Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows.

What it does well right now:

Ceremony and speeches with 2–4 cameras plus a Zoom H-series, Tascam DR-series or Sound Devices/MixPre. That's what most of my testing has been on.

Short clips (under ~8 seconds) and cameras that stop/start constantly, the stuff that usually gets left unmatched.

Premiere exports with stereo split into two mono tracks, unlinked audio, duplicate clips: those get repaired on import instead of breaking the sync.

Clips it genuinely can't place are put aside and reported instead of guessed.

Where I'm honest about it:

It's a beta. Version 1.0.7 went out today and it's the first one I'm confident in, but it has only seen my footage and about 30 test projects. I need it to see yours.

No frame rate conversion, no pre-transcoding, no multicam clip creation yet. It syncs and places clips, that's it.

If you want to try it: wavexml.com
— enter your email, you get the key and the downloads. - Its free.

What I'd really like back, good or bad: which cameras/recorders you used, whether it got everything, and if something didn't sync, the XML (no media needed) so I can reproduce it. Reply here or hit [support@wavexml.com](mailto:support@wavexml.com).

Happy to answer anything about how it works. Mods, if this falls foul of the self-promo rules, tell me and I'll take it down.


r/Filmmakers 17h ago

Discussion Should I move to a new city for a fresh start after being ostracized by my college film community?

31 Upvotes

I’m struggling with something and could really use some outside perspective.

I used to be part of a pretty close friend group in college, but over time I started feeling like the punching bag of the group. People would constantly make me the butt of jokes, treat me poorly, leave me out of hangouts, and say things that genuinely hurt me. This even extended to the set of my short film where they were rude to my mom (she was the producer on the project) and it upset her. It got bad enough that other people outside the group noticed and told me I shouldn't let them treat me that way.

Eventually, I stood up for myself. Instead of things getting better, I ended up having falling-outs with several people and getting completely ostracized from the group.

Now we're all trying to work in the film industry, and it's incredibly painful watching them succeed together while I feel left behind. They're constantly working on projects with each other and other people from our school. They're getting invited onto sets, collaborating on shorts, and now even making features together. Meanwhile, I feel completely shut out.

What's making this harder is that I've heard they're still talking negatively about me on sets and allegedly telling people not to work with me. I don't know how widespread that actually is, but seeing the same network of people constantly hiring and recommending each other while nobody reaches out to me has been devastating. I keep wondering if I've permanently damaged my chances in this particular city/community simply because of college drama that spiraled out of control. For context they are very wealthy so a lot of people flock to them for their connections and equipment.

Part of me wants to move somewhere completely new and start over. Build a network where nobody knows about the drama, meet collaborators based on who I am now, and stop constantly seeing the people who hurt me succeed while feeling like I'm being left behind. Has anyone in a creative industry ever experienced something like this? Did moving to a new city actually help you get a fresh start professionally and emotionally? Or is it better to stay, build your own network from scratch, and try to outgrow the old one?

I'm honestly exhausted from feeling like one college friend group has somehow continued to control my professional life. I just want to work, collaborate with good people, and stop feeling like I'm watching everyone else's career happen while mine is stuck.


r/Filmmakers 8h ago

Question I’m seriously considering leaving film for comics. Am I giving up too early, or should I listen to what I’m feeling?

5 Upvotes

I’m at a point where I’m seriously questioning whether I want to continue pursuing film professionally.

I went to film school and originally wanted to build a career as a filmmaker. I had a short film in the Atlanta Film Festival but money dried up and I had to spend a year scrambling to make enough money to cover rent and now I find myself feeling like I'm just so behind. Now as a graduate, I’m still struggling to get consistent work and often find myself begging for PA opportunities, while a lot of the people I went to school with are now producing/directing features.

Some of you may have seen my previous post about a falling-out with my old college friend group and how isolated I’ve become professionally as a result. I don’t want to rehash that whole situation here, but losing that network has definitely affected how connected I feel to the industry.

The hardest part is that I genuinely still love storytelling and filmmaking, but I’m exhausted by how dependent the early film career seems to be on networking, getting invited onto sets, knowing the right people, and constantly convincing someone to give you a chance when no matter what I do I'm not given those chances.

I’ve started thinking seriously about writing for comics instead. But I’m also scared that I’m just running away because I’m discouraged.

I don't want to wake up five years from now and realize I abandoned film because I was jealous of people who were ahead of me. At the same time, I don't want to spend another five years desperately trying to break into an industry that may simply not be the right fit for me.

EDIT: From what I’ve been thinking about, I’m realizing that my frustration with film may not mean I want to leave storytelling, or even necessarily leave film. I think I’m exhausted by a particular career structure: networking, access, sets, favors, money, gatekeeping, and constantly waiting for someone else to give me permission to make something. And I think that distinction matters.

Because comics remove a lot of those dependencies. I can write the thing. I can find an artist. I can build the pages. I can finish a complete work and actually put it in front of people. I don’t need a production company, fifty crew members, locations, insurance, equipment, or somebody else’s financing just to get the first version made.

What scares me is allowing this period to become a story about myself: “I tried film. I failed. Everyone passed me. Therefore I should quit.” Because I don’t want to look back five or ten years from now and feel like I gave up on a lifelong dream of making films simply because I was discouraged, behind, or burned out. At the same time, I’m starting to wonder whether choosing comics would actually be giving up, or whether it would be choosing a different way to tell the stories I care about, one that gives me more control over actually making them.


r/Filmmakers 8h ago

Review Production Assistant Resume Review?

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3 Upvotes

I need to know how to word my cover letter, and I need more feedback on what to add remove or specify . I didn't go to school for this, been working my ass off for 5 years in LA on unpaid jobs, I'm not mentioning its paid or whatnot nobody needs to know that. Just need to know what to fix before I apply to production assistance jobs. I studied Poli sci/counterterrorism in Uni but i just put bachelor of arts and left it at that. I'm sure I shot more models but this is just the ones that are popular that I remember. I assisted 3 photographers. I want to work in film productions but I fell into photography because it was easier to get into frankly assisting photographers. Thanks. Also I made a website portfolio https://jenniferndib.wixsite.com/jennifer-dib

Alexe aillon is about to be the daughter in law to pierce brosnan 007 actor, not sure if i should point that out. or that Valentina Ferrer is 'dating' J Balvin

I didnt put any dates either


r/Filmmakers 2h ago

Question Any estabished DFW filmmaker who's available to be a mentor, or interview?

1 Upvotes

Even though this is a homework assignment, I'm trying to get advice from those who made it and build a relationship with them.

This includes people who work at production companies (preferably narrative).

I tried researching directors around me, had problems finding their contact information, and they seem inaccessible.

I'd like an email so we can correspond with each other and schedule an interview (Homework assignment).

Thanks in advance for y'all's responses, looking forward to hear from yall, including feedback on my post because Im honestly nervous and haven't slept yet.


r/Filmmakers 2h ago

Question New filmmaker and photographer

1 Upvotes

So I just graduated, and I wanna start searching for new opportunities for internship or job but I don't know exactly how to start or where to start from, can people with experience tell me a path or how to get accepted if I applied and short cuts of what they learned during years here in Morocco


r/Filmmakers 4h ago

Film I need ideas

0 Upvotes

I'm a student looking for a movie idea to make. I have a little to no budget but I have a crew that can help. All I need is an idea on what to make. Just need a small draft and a genre and we should be all good. Thank you reddit.


r/Filmmakers 11h ago

Question Next step? What else can I do?

4 Upvotes

CONTEXT: I’m a 25 y/o writer-director from Latin America. Went to film school here (2020-2025) and worked my way through it as a 3°AD. I also got selected for a residency (‘23) and an exchange at a great film school (‘24), both in Europe.
I’ve worked in a couple big features (including an Oscar-nominated one) as 3°AD and around 30 commercials as 3rd/2nd AD. Directed one commercial B unit, a couple microbudget music videos, plus a decent short film with a little festival run (including an A-list actor from my country).
Currently, I’m in postproduction (with a distributor attached) of a comedy miniseries I wrote, directed and produced, while working as 3rd AD in a feature by a well-known director.
My question is: WHAT NOW? What should be my next move? Of course it’ll be partially defined by the miniseries’ success (or lack of), but I’m unsure of wether I should make another short film, do a master’s abroad, try to work more and network, make some money as a solo filmmaker for small businesses, create a YouTube channel, etc. I’m also trying to break into commercial directing, but there’s very few opportunities in this state of the industry.
Thanks for reading! Any advice is welcome :)


r/Filmmakers 1d ago

Discussion Do you think M. Night really started a youtube channel to be mentor?

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59 Upvotes

r/Filmmakers 4h ago

Question Should we do an AMA?

1 Upvotes

Hi!

I was one of the producers of Lola Dust, a thriller about an actress who gets implicated in an international scandal and losing agency over her image. The film was done on a fairly low budget and we spent a couple years working on it. The film just got released on Amazon Prime and Apple. I was wondering if you guys would find it useful if I got the director and potentially actors from the film.

Let me know, or feel free to ask me any question you may have for me.


r/Filmmakers 1d ago

Looking for Work I'm creating posters and illustrations for filmmakers.

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126 Upvotes

r/Filmmakers 1d ago

Discussion I spent every dollar I have on this. Does it make sense?

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104 Upvotes

My name is Eric - I’m from Chicago but currently live in LA. I’m a 25 year old music video director most of the time. I work in freelance mostly (specifically music videos) but like many, my first love will always be movies.

I specialize in projects shot on motion picture film specifically. I have had a serious interest in vignette movies for most of my life. For those of you who don’t know its movies like ‘Night on Earth’ (1991) or ‘Wild Tales’ (2014) that I’m referring to.

I was tasked with making a proof of concept for my first feature and we shot it on 35mm & 16mm. It’s written as a vignette movie following nine characters as they seemingly pass around the same pack of cigarettes one random night in LA.

We picked out an excerpt from the movie to shoot for the proof but I felt like over demonstrating the series of stories would have been to our detriment. I wanted to try to really focus on one moment to see how it would feel. The cigarettes are just a vehicle after all.

I wanted to know what people thought of it and want to know if it actually feels like a much smaller part of a bigger picture. I also would like to add that I know the description of our movie being read before watching is important. I really wanted to pursue a feeling.

And before you say it - shooting on film is everything to me. We shot mostly expired 35mm for what I argue was a creative decision but in reality I got way too good of a deal on it. Please don’t tell me digital would make it cheaper. Fundamentally shooting film is what I like doing.

I want to know what people think of this. Please be honest.


r/Filmmakers 4h ago

Question Dedicated hub vs. master headset for on-set intercoms

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone, quick question about intercom systems for film shoots.

We’re looking to upgrade our crew communication setup, and we’re torn between two control styles:

  • A standalone portable hub with a screen and dedicated physical buttons
  • A master headset with the hub built in, managed through a companion phone app

Which one work better for managing the entire intercom system during shooting?


r/Filmmakers 22h ago

Discussion [Crosspost] Hi /r/movies, I'm Casper Kelly, writer/director of Adult Swim's TOO MANY COOKS and BUDDY (out in theaters everywhere now!). AMA!

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22 Upvotes

I organized an AMA/Q&A with Casper Kelly, writer-director of 2014's Adult Swim special TOO MANY COOKS and BUDDY, which is a horror that premiered at Sundance earlier this year and is out in theaters everywhere now. It stars Cristin Miloti, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, Clint Howard, Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon, and Eric Bauza.

It's live here now in r/movies for anyone interested in asking a question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1w661n7/hi_rmovies_im_casper_kelly_writerdirector_of/

He will be back at 3 PM ET today, Thursday 9/3, to answer questions. I recommend asking in advance. Please ask there, not here. All questions are much appreciated!

Thank you :)

Synopsis: Dressed as a unicorn, a beloved children's TV host reveals his true self as a dark and violent force of nature.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sBRb7Mbg0A


r/Filmmakers 1d ago

Film Original (Signs) v My take

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32 Upvotes

Recreated a scene from one of my favourite horror movies in my short-film


r/Filmmakers 15h ago

Tutorial VFX Course for Professional Filmmakers

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4 Upvotes

ActionVFX recently released a course on VFX for professional filmmakers. It teaches compositing in AE, plus how to plan and shoot to prevent VFX headaches in post.

https://actionvfx.com/academy/vfx-for-filmmakers


r/Filmmakers 8h ago

Discussion Looking for critiques and advice for my first short film "Sunset Vagabond".

1 Upvotes

I wrapped this film last year, and like a fool I shot it in HD (not RAW) which came to really bite me in post.

We shot entirely at night, with fire being the only natural light (apart from the very beginning, which we shot at sunset), so keeping it stoked and refueling the tiki torches was probably the biggest struggle.

Anyway, I'm looking for and accepting any and all criticism. I'm done with it, and won't ever be touching it again, but any advice I get from this will be very much taken along to my future films.

https://youtu.be/UegqBlmqeKY


r/Filmmakers 18h ago

Film Legend of Zelda-Inspired Short Film About How The Game Brings Positive Change Into One's Life :)

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5 Upvotes

Wanted to share my lovely little short-film directorial debut, "Chuck and Fern". The movie is inspired by the game The Legend of Zelda, but midway through, we go into the real world to uncover some dark truths and emotions of the player who's playing the game. The transition scene between the game world and the real world was one of my favorites to both shoot and handle so brilliantly by our VFX team. (The incredible Sean Struble, who was working at the amazing Flawless Post.) (Such an incredible post-production house) Woo! We went from a static camera on a rig to handheld, and the scene transitions so flawlessly that I was left speechless and mesmerized.

As a proud Los Angeleno, it was so cool to create the video-game world shot on location at the Griffith Park Golf Course. By bumping up the color and making it more inspired by the cel-shaded game "Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" and many Hayao Miyazaki movies, specifically "Princess Mononoke", you really feel like you're in a fantasy gaming world. Our amazing DP (Adriel Gonzalez) also separated the gaming and real world so brilliantly by using anamorphic lenses for the game world to really immerse us in the world vs. non-anamorphic lenses in the real world to feel vulnerable and intimate.

Another magical piece is that our amazing composer, Charlie Rosen, got an 11-piece orchestra together for this incredible score. The score is inspired by Ocarina of Time with some MIDI music while also blending in the live instruments as an homage to modern gaming and its huge orchestrations. This score makes me cry from sheer magic every time.

Thank you all for letting me share this. Enjoy "Chuck and Fern".


r/Filmmakers 19h ago

Discussion Looking for feedback on a recent short

5 Upvotes

Hey all, looking for fresh opinions/feedback on a short I'm finishing. I've been staring at it for about 13 months, so hard to have an unbiased perspective. Any takers?

A few things I'm wrestling with (for context)

• I don't like the color. Went to a big color house and got a deal (but also an apprentice colorist)

• Second scene in the lobby I do NOT like, but things pick up after that. Not sure there's a lot I can do

• Unsure about the single shot in the last scene. I've got coverage, but always saw this is a single shot in my head.

Say the word and I can send the link. Thanks in advance!


r/Filmmakers 16h ago

Question Lead Producer Search

3 Upvotes

Hey guys! I'm an actor and now, first-time filmmaker. My screenplay's done very well at festivals so I thought, enough already, time to get to work.

Do you have suggestions for the best platforms to find a Lead Producer? Any advice in general would be amazing.

Thanks so much!


r/Filmmakers 11h ago

Film Hello I'm trying to make a movie

1 Upvotes

I wanna make a movie thats simple and it's about zagreb and croatia and alot of that it's bc I'mcin zagreb and I'm from croatia so can I get a lil bit of help