Jul 12

Realism in a Can

I’d like you to meet a little voice. He’s not a very good friend of mine, but he does serve a useful purpose. He is the Voice of Realism and he pops up everywhere. Trouble is, he’s easy to ignore. He asked me to tell you something for him. It is, quite simply, “Listen.” When you’re reading a script, listen for him. When you’re getting ready to film something, listen! Can you hear him now?

“Sure, a sea-faring adventure movie is great, but if all you have is two plastic ships and a bathtub, you might want to reconsider.”

“Crashing through a window? Nice touch for an action sequence, but if it’s done wrong it looks really cheesy.” (iSundae anybody?)

“Spaceships whooshing past the camera would look cool, but not if the animation is poorly done, or the blue screen gets fuzzy.”

Does he sound familiar? The Voice that warns us when we’re getting in over our heads. Why is it so easy to block him out? Read More »

Posted in Blog, Tips and Tricks | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment
Jul 02

Combat Mime Video 2 – Elbow Jab

Here’s the second in a video series from the book Combat Mime by J. D. Martinez. Today, we’re demonstrating an elbow jab. We’ll be using it with the choke technique that we discussed in the first video.

 
Combat Mime Video 2 – Elbow Jab from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Read More »

Posted in Blog, Video | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment
Jun 18

Combat Mime Video 1 – Intro & Choking

You may remember that I had posted a while ago about an article I found on stage fighting. Well, I got a few of the books listed in that article from my library, and I’ve been reading them over the past few weeks. I wanted to show you the one I think is the best.


You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Read More »

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment
Jun 12

Let’s Talk Transitions

There are two things that generally stand out when you watch an amateur video. Shaky footage from the lack of tripod use, and too many transitions. We amateurs love transitions and use them frequently. Too frequently. Why? I don’t know, maybe because any video editing software comes with piles of cheesy transitions, which amateurs think they really ought to use. Well, allow me to write a bit more on this subject, and I’ll shed some light on when to use transitions and when to avoid them. Read More »

Posted in Blog, Editing, Movies, Video | Tagged , , | Leave a comment