u/shaneo632

I'm a low-budget filmmaker making a new short film soon that I'm aiming to submit to festivals at the end of the year.

We have a small crew who will be running lavs and mics to record dialogue, audio will be monitored at all times but I want to make sure audio is absolutely bulletproof in post so we can hopefully mix lavs + boom to get a mix of clarity and bassiness.

I have experimented with phase alignment myself but I'm fairly amateur where dialogue handling is concerned.

Having a tool like Auto Align Post 2 seems like it might be worth it - $400 isn't an insignificant amount of money to me but I'm happy to spend it to make sure my audio is good in post, and then of course I have it for life for future projects.

I handle most post-production aspects myself so something that's intuitive and can save me hours of manual phase alignment, freeing me up to work on other parts of post sounds appealing.

I'll be attaching lavs to talent soon but want to know good practise for keeping them attached down the actor's body, mainly for bathroom breaks so we don't have to detatch/reattach the lav every time.

I have stickies for attaching the lav + fur to their chest, but if they disconnect the lav wire from the transmitter for a bathroom break, the wire would just be dangling from their chest when they go to the bathroom and I imagine it would get in the way and be annoying.

What's a good strategy here? Googling seemed to suggest giving them some medical tape to tape the wire to the side of their waist so it'll be out of the way when they're doing their business. Does this make sense? Thanks!

Soon I'm shooting a few brief shots outside run and gun style - basically I don't want to bring large modifiers with me as we're a small crew and want to keep a low footprint/profile.

The shots in question are quite tight on the subject's face so just might need some light bounced back onto the face and maybe some neg fill depending on the angle.

I was looking into options and kept coming back to the "pizza box" modifier - basically a small version of a bounce board that's enough to bounce light onto a person's face while still being easy for a small crew to carry around in a bag without drawing much attention. Can just get it out, get the shot, put it away and move on.

Does that sound sensible for our limitations? Thanks!

I absolutely love this camera/lens combo and it was a pleasure to take it across Scotland in a variety of weather/lighting conditions.

The sharpness of the lens and being able to shoot both landscapes and "cinematic" close-ups is just incredible.

Bit of a specific question. I’ve made a few shorts where I was both Director and DoP. This gave me a lot of flexibility to shoot crazy insert shots after the main shoot to just punch up the visuals.

For a future short I’m going to work with a DoP. It will be great to offload that work to someone else but I also worry that time constraints will mean we won’t be able to get the inserts and experimental shots I like trying out.

I was considering suggesting that I effectively handle the second unit stuff, using my own gear but keeping consistent with the main aesthetic. But I wasn’t sure if this would risk stepping on the DoP’s toes, I wouldn’t want to offend him, just trying to be respectful of his time while still being able to get the weirder more time consuming surreal shots I like playing with.

Obviously it’s all a conversation and I know second unit is a thing on bigger films but as this is a micro budget piece I’m not sure how common it is. Thanks!

I'm shooting a very low-budget short film in a few months, it's my first time directing actors and I don't want to be dividing my attention between focus pulling and concentrating on their performance.

The scenes aren't very complicated from a focus pulling perspective - a static camera on sticks with a character sat down at almost all times and might move their head in and out of the focal plane a little while they speak. That's mostly it. It's F1.7-2.8 with an MFT sensor so a relatively forgiving focal plane (EDIT: was clearly mistaken about this).

I could probably get away with autofocus as my camera has very good AF but I was also considering putting out the call for a focus puller.

But I'm not using a Full Frame camera - I've got the Lumix GH7 with the Leica 10-25 F1.7 lens, which I know isn't used all that much in major film setups.

I live near Manchester (UK), am I likely to struggle to find an AC/focus puller who can work with my setup? Or will it be mostly all the same to them as they bring their own wireless follow focus, attach it to my lens and can adapt easily?

Sorry if this seems like a silly question but I'm really not sure. The focus pulls are simple enough that I'm considering just asking a filmmaker friend to help out, but thought it's worth investigating a more dedicated professional anyway.

I have a scene where one character is stabbing another to death. The "money shot" is a medium shot pointed up of the actress stabbing a prop knife downward while we will douse her with fake blood.

I'm looking at options and I think that maybe using a pressurised garden sprayer filled with fake blood might be the best option? Most of them have a mist option that will resemble arterial spray but still sprays out a LOT of blood, and you can release the power to make it squirt each time the actress stabs downwards.

I'm not after a massively realistic look - it's OK if it's a bit over the top as the tone is that of a heightened dark comedy. I would rather the blood have more "presence" and be visible on screen even if it's a bit OTT.

Obviously safety is the #1 priority here and I would test it on myself before letting anyone else near it. I was thinking something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pressure-Adjustable-High-Pressure-Pesticides-Fungicides/dp/B09VY711HP

Would love to hear from folk who've pulled off a similar effect before, thanks!.

Basically the most important scene in my short has a character get out their phone and swipe through it to show another character a picture.

Obviously people might be recording self tapes on their phone and I don't expect them to just have another one lying around, what's the best thing to do here?

Just focus on the dialogue and tell them not to bother with a prop? The dialogue relates to what's on the phone so wasn't sure how to proceed. I'm really not terribly interested in how an actor holds a phone, just want to focus on their delivery and expressions. Thanks!