Pretty stoked on this one. Got to direct a series of spots for USAA, this being one of them. We built a miniature/scale model of an apartment building on blue screen and shot everything on a bolt. We shot all of our plates in studio to fill the various “rooms” in the building with restaurants, gyms, living rooms, etc. Then went into VFX to add all the little details in and around the building. Was such a blast and a real technical challenge in every sense, particularly given the boundaries of a :15 with pre approved voiceover and trying to make all the timing work. Lots of previz, math, matching perspectives, etc. Lots of great people involved in making this.

If you want to watch a full breakdown/BTS: https://vimeo.com/1215586757?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

Enjoy!

A Joachim Trier summer 🇳🇴
Oslo, shot on Kodak 50D stock, on my Canon Super 8 Zoom 518. Will be back before long I hope.

Kinolime NXT is back for Fall 2026: national scriptwriting scholarship for high school students, submissions open Sept 7

Body

Hey, I'm Oleg, CEO of Kinolime.

I'm here because I care about creative education, and I think there could be more resources built for high school storytellers. Not enough funding for their work, limited audiences, and not many real pathways from a script written in class to something that actually gets made.

Wanted to share that we're running NXT again for the second time, our national high school scriptwriting scholarship program. We were honestly thrilled with how many people showed up last time: hundreds of scripts came in, and our winner is now producing their film with the grant.

The details:

• Submissions: Sept 7 to Nov 15
• Winner: $5,000 production grant + $2,500 scholarship
• Two runners-up: $1,000 grant + $500 scholarship each
• Seven semi-finalists: $250 grant to their school's AV or arts program
• Public voting first, then a judges panel, then a final vote, before we announce the winner Dec 23

What NXT actually is: a national scriptwriting scholarship for high school students, twice a year. Every script that clears round one gets read and voted on by a real community, not just judges behind closed doors.

Who should apply: any current U.S. high school student writing scripts. 

If you know a student screenwriter, or you teach or mentor one, please send them this: https://www.kinolime.com/competition/nxt

Anyone else here mentoring or teaching young screenwriters? We’d love to hear from you.

I'm a full time software engineer that also works in the industry as a DP and gaffer. I was pretty sick of the high cost and terrible UX from current sites/apps that let you make organized shot lists, and production schedules so over the past 3 years I have been developing my own and it is finally ready.

SHOTAGE.io

TLDR; It's not vibe coded, has a free tier, includes pay as you go if you prefer to avoid subscriptions, works on all devices, battle tested on sets, and has a roadmap of features.

Not Vibe coded/AI Slop

I want to get out in front and recognize that any idiot with AI apps is making slop websites to pass off as filmmaking "tools" right now. I can't stop that, but I can assure you that I am a Senior Software engineer that hand crafted the UX, logic, and (importantly) the application security of SHOTAGE.

Features

Automatic Project Setup - First because it's my favorite. Upload a script/screenplay, and you don't have to type out any scene names, locations, characters, or any other data entry. The site will build your project structure for you so you can get straight to shot listing.

Shotlisting/Scheduling - What you expect, but made as intuitive and with as many QOL features as I could think of so you can get your coverage vision from your head to the list as easily as possible.

On Set Tracking - SOOOOO much easier than anything out there. The site is made to be super flexible so you can reorder, add, remove shots and notes while shooting. This was my biggest frustration with what I was using for keeping on track on sets, so I love using this on set.

Cost

First if you wanna use it on a small project right now, it's FREE.

I wish I could let it live out there for totally free, but where I'm at in life and the monthly infrastructure costs to host and operate the site just don't make that possible. That being said, I made it as cheap as I could, I'm not trying to get rich off fellow industry creatives. If it blows up and gains a ton of support to offset the cost, I will revisit the pricing model only for the better so that more features and use can be made free in the future.

I also dislike today's subscription ecosystem and think it's a leech on hobbyists/creatives so while I do offer subs, I also made a way to do Pay as you go so if you are someone who only works on a couple films a year you don't have to have a recurring monthly or annual payment to manage and shut off when you need to.

There's my spiel. I genuinely hope that it helps other filmmakers like it has helped my on my last 4 films. I am open to any and all feedback to make it even better.

I organized an AMA/Q&A with director and screenwriter Michael Sarnoski. He wrote and directed Pig (starring Nicolas Cage), A Quiet Place: Day One, and most recently The Death of Robin Hood (starring Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer, out in UK theaters this week).

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

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1w4bbu1/hi_rmovies_jodie_comer_here_with_michael_sarnoski/

He will be back at 12 PM ET tomorrow (Wednesday 9/2) to answer questions. He is joined by the The Death of Robin Hood co-star Jodie Comer. I recommend asking in advance. Please ask there, not here. All questions are much appreciated!

Synopsis: Grappling with his violent past, Robin Hood finds himself gravely injured after a battle that he thought would be his last. He soon gets a chance at salvation when he meets a mysterious woman and a young girl.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlSDDuWxO_0&themeRefresh=1

Thank you :)

Hello, everyone! Just wanted to share the trailer for our upcoming featurette Where Sins Are Buried (runtime 38 min., shot with a Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k). The film was shot last summer with a three-person cast and crew, and filmed in one week. It is a southern gothic crime drama and is inspired by several directors of the 1970s, primarily Terrence Malick, Robert Altman, and Peter Weir. The full film will be released on our Youtube channel later this week. Any thoughts, feedback, and criticisms are greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

I've been modifying my cart, and after adding a big anker solix c2000 and motorized wheels, the thing can weigh nearly 400 lbs loaded.

The original cable brakes that came with the wheel kit were not going to cut it.. so I decided to integrate a custom hydraulic disc brake system into the forks I had fabricated for the brushless wheels.

It was my first time working with hydraulic brake lines, and took quite a while to find parts, and to design a "one brake lever" solution. Overall this has made the cart dramatically safer on set and make it 100% easier to unload from the van and navigate ramps.

I documented the build here if you are interested in following the build:
https://youtu.be/Xz3B-3wACwE

I’ve been stalking some people on LinkedIn/online bios and it seems like sort of a common path is let’s say “Development Intern” to “Assistant” to working for a studio in sort of a smattering of different roles. On these bios/LinkedIn there is a mix of major studios, minor studios I have sort of heard of (I program local festivals so I am pretty knowledgeable about the 12 studios that flash their logos before indie movies lol)

My background is I went to a university that didn’t really have much industry pipeline. The university was away from big powerhouses, career fairs and networking were pretty bad. Looking at the linkedins, I can tell there is a geographic/prestige advantage a lot of these people had.

I applied to every internship I could find, never got accepted to any known studios, did do two internships with local production companies, one of which went under. I also never could have afforded to move to NYC or LA and work an unpaid internship.

I finally did get an Creative Development position in NYC and my bags were all packed up in March 2020:( Since then I’ve been working steady 9-5 as a teacher, which I could do for the rest of my life if I wanted. But now I actually have the funds where I could move to NYC and LA and not immediantly have to make money.

However, have I missed my shot? Any advice?

So I'm fairely new to the world of filmmaking, always loved movies but only recently got into the actual process of making stuff after much dreaming. I'm 22 right now and mostly self-taught and with some PA experience.

Anyways, I recently made a short horror film this past summer with a few friends of mine. I ended up submitting it to a small local festival near me which was heavily biased towards people in my area and I knew some people who were running it through previous PA work. Lo and behold I got accepted and I just feel kinda... indifferent?

I don't know, but I feel like with this being so early into me actually making my own projects, the expectation of the festival being easy for me to get into, and just the general things I've seen of small festivals being nothing but wastes of money and laurels that nobody cares about- I'm feeling not nearly as excited as I thought I would be.

Anyone have any similar situations? Should I be happy and celebrating this early win? I feel bad that I'm not as excited as I should be right now. Thank you everyone!!

This post is for my own business, I don’t want this to be looked at as selfless promotion, but as a general offer to small film makers out there.

I am a programming student, and I also created a film production company earlier this year. Since I’m in school, and work full time over night, I don’t have much time to create my own films to fill out the app.

I would love to host films of any kind from those willing to add to the database. We will do a formal contract.

I will handle all graphical images like movie covers, thumbnails, and even trailers if none are provided, and I will also handle all promotional material (out of my own pocket)

I will not hold any exclusive rights to any film unless otherwise discussed and signed under contract.

All authors, actors/actresses, directors, etc will be credited within movie detail pages.

My website for my business is dobettermp4.com and I plan to launch my app first to Apple App Store within the next month.

This is not malicious in anyway. I am just a small business owner who happens to go to school for programming and owns a production company at the same time. If you are interested please inbox me and we can discuss the formalities.

A short film I wrote when I first got the new iPhone last fall. Finally got around to filming and releasing it last week. I typically work as a gaffer/key grip and wanted to take a step back from the full crew and camera package and try something completely on my own. I'm not really looking for any feedback on one specific thing, but would love to hear what your favorite or least favorite part is!

Hey guys! My name is Bobby and I am a storyboard artist who has been in the industry for over 12 plus years. I have done various types of projects, from commercials, brand videos, shorts, and a couple low budget movies (tier 1A). Genres I've worked on range from comedy, action, thriller, neo-noir, and rom-coms (I'm also opened to work on other genres too).

I wanted to post that I am available for hire and we can discuss rates based on budget. For reference, I've done both union and non-union work and go by day rate, so I understand not every project will have Marvel type money, but if we feel the project is right for each other, I can accommodate (to a degree obviously).

Feel free to DM me here to inquire anything else of me, i.e. work flow, work history, etc...

I've also added some samples to showcase some of my work!

If you want to see more samples, you can check out my portfolio: https://bobbyk.carbonmade.com/

to create a practical visual reference for lighting ratios, I ran a controlled test cycling through different fill and background exposures. I also made a quick lighting diagram.

• Camera: Canon C300 III (C-Log 3)
• Base Exposure: ISO 800, 180° shutter, f/4, 2-stop ND - The readings are ND-compensated, so they match go from the aperture on the lens.
• Lighting: Exact reflected f-stop readings and relative stop differences (e.g., Fill -1 stop, Background -2 stops) are burned into each frame.

Let me know if you have any questions!

I love nerding out about exposure and this has made it much easier to talk with crew about it.

EDIT based on feedback.

Clarifications

1. A quick note on reading the burned-in numbers: I want to clarify the methodology. The contrast ratios and relative stop differences are accurate and represent reflected readings. However, the raw f-stop numbers I wrote down are "ND compensated" to visually relate back to the f/4 lens aperture. (For example, my actual meter reading for the key was f/11, but I wrote down f/5.6 to offset the 2-stops of ND because I compensate in th light meter).
2. It also says "+1 from key" on the key, which can be confusing so it should instead be "+1 from middle grey."

A Mistake!

1. On the first two images it says f/8 // +1 from key but that is of course +2 from key. I unfortunately can't edit the images now.

Apologies for any confusion.

If you want to see them with another grade and the straight rec709-version, I threw them up on my site here: https://exposurenotes.com/exposurereferences/

I'm shooting a Marx brothers pastiche in an old movie theater in my town, using actors in my local comedy and theater scene. We do have the permission of the theater but we're trying to schedule right now and figure out how to put everything together, so I'd love your help in figuring out shoot time. All my prior shorts have been about two pages long and taken less than an hour, but this is a much more involved production so I'm not as confident in my ability to gauge it myself. I'm not trying to do anything fancy and my hope is to do the theater scenes in a day, but I've overestimated the ease of these things before, so I thought I'd ask everyone here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EzmPBzGw600IllDKT-U-a5Q-7fEZeAIN/view?usp=sharing

So I just wanted to get some feedback from everybody. This was my first time editing in pro res raw I used my Sony Remus lenses all of the lighting is natural color graded in da Vinci resolve I want to know any other color grading tips that you guys would recommend

For the past several months, I've been working off and on building a call sheet template. I realize there are a lot of free ones floating around, but I wanted to build something more capable.

This call sheet template lives entirely inside of Google Sheets and uses scripts to automate the process of building out a call sheet. Instead of tediously entering data cell-by-cell, everything is driven through simple modal windows accessed via a custom menu.

In the Project Setup, you drop in the location and call time and it pulls the forecast, finds the nearest ER, calculates drive times between locations and the hotel, all the stuff that usually requires tedious switching between tabs.

When it's ready to send you can email everyone their PDF + calendar invite straight from the sheet, with a one-tap "confirm call time" in their email body so you actually know who's seen it. Email sends can be scheduled or immediate.

It also keeps a reusable crew library so you're not retyping the same 15 people's contact info on every new job. If you already have a spreadsheet of crew, you can import them.

I've built in a boatload of other features and safeguards that are too granular to list here. (more info: https://www.andrewsaliga.com/product/film-call-sheet-template-pro/)

Over the past 20 years in the industry I've seen a wide range of call sheets, so I built this to make call sheets faster to build and easier for crew to actually read, prioritizing the info that matters most, not just cramming everything on the page. Consider it something in between a basic spreadsheet and a full StudioBinder subscription. (Plus, no subscription and data stays in your own Drive instead of a platform's servers.)

I released it a few months ago, and am looking for feedback on what to include with the next update. I've got 15 demo licenses to hand out to anyone who'll actually run it on a real shoot and tell me what could be improved or added before I keep building on it. Just ask in the comments and I'll hook you up.

Happy to answer any other questions in the comments as well!

Hello all, I’m looking for a video camera recommendation! I’ve had a Canon rebel t6i for several years, and while it’s served me extremely well, as a camera designed for photography it unfortunately suffers from the 30-minute recording limit. I’m hoping to replace it with a video camera with strong optical zoom (I would think 20x or so should be sufficient) and that can record for at least 2.5 to 3 hours uninterrupted. Thankfully the camera will not be moving, so no need for a nice autofocus or any motion controls.

Hoping to find something super budget friendly (under $1k but preferably under $700)… from my searching I think something like the Panasonic vx981 would be really nice, but as its a 10 year old model I’ve been unable to find it with retailers. Does anyone have any experience with more up to date/readily available models that might fit these requirements?

I know a lot of filmmakers end up putting their products on YouTube for free, after all finding a way to distribute your film is one of the hardest things. How would film/tv makers feel about letting start up (not VC start up like mom and pop start up) streaming services use their content for their library without ad share while they test the waters ?

Hi i was wondering does Academic grades matter to get in to Film School.

For example in the UK/Ireland

Or otherwise is it depndnet on judt your creative portfolios?

Do you need good high school grades in order to actually qualify to go to a film school?

If so what grades do you have to show.

Would like some perslective from students and graduates and people looking at film school!