{"id":2823,"date":"2020-05-07T09:47:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww3.ambientskies.com\/5-filmmaking-tools-to-make-your-life-easier-on-set\/"},"modified":"2023-02-24T12:47:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T19:47:48","slug":"5-filmmaking-tools-to-make-your-life-easier-on-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ambientskies.com\/blog\/filmmaking\/5-filmmaking-tools-to-make-your-life-easier-on-set\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Filmmaking Tools To Make Your Life Easier On Set"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you arrive on set, you depend on your tools to get you by. It doesn’t matter what department you’re in, there’s certain things you couldn’t live without on set. The producer who’s connected at the hip to his laptop, the DP who is more efficient with his light meter and the grips who couldn’t live without sandbags. There’s all sorts!<\/p>\n

And when you look at the vast array of filmmaking tools, we could create a laundry list that could go on for miles, am I right?<\/p>\n

So that’s why we’re going to simplify things and hone in on five really important tools that might not be as apparent as let’s say — a camera or a set of lights.<\/p>\n

Tools that really make a difference in the moment on set and that might seem secondary on the scale of importance.<\/p>\n

But you’d be wrong!<\/p>\n

These are tools you NEED! And once you implement them, you’ll never go back.<\/p>\n

So let’s take a look!<\/p>\n

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1. Shot Put Pro – Camera<\/h2>\n

Offloading, ingesting, dumping, whatever term you use — we can all agree that it’s nerve racking as hell when ingesting data from a card to a hard drive. You don’t wanna be ‘That Guy’ that fumbles the ingest by corrupting the card or accidentally formatting before it’s copied. That is seriously the worst. That’s why we back-up what we put in the can. But offloading data to one hard drive at a time can take FOREVER. Talk about watching the paint dry.<\/p>\n

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That’s where software like ShotPut Pro<\/a> slides in to save the day! Quit wasting valuable time copying one by one. With this industry standard interface for offloading video, audio, and photo files, you can easily make multiple verified copies to multiple hard drives from one source. That’s amazing! This nifty product has been out for awhile, but I’ve been surprised to see certain productions not utilizing the program. And if you’re one of them, you need to slap yourself and make use of this essential tool that should be a part of every professional’s arsenal. It’s compatible with Mac and Windows so you have no excuses. Pick it up today and save yourself some much needed hours.<\/p>\n

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2. Storyboards – Everyone<\/h2>\n

There’s almost nothing worse than thinking you can figure something out on the day of production and then getting there and realizing you needed to put in more thought\/effort then you had previously assumed and you know what they say — it has something to do with a donkey. Don’t ever opt to just figure it out on the day of, it’ll come back to bite you in the ass, it does every time. The next move is to organize your thoughts and write down the vision in text form shot by shot. This is always a good idea and something you should do every time. It forces you to cover all bases and shed any lazy habits you might have when approaching shot development.<\/p>\n

But you’ll soon come to realize that the vision doesn’t always translate when it’s left up to the imagination of the reader. And sometimes that can cause problems day of production if people aren’t quite on the same page.<\/p>\n

Storyboards are well known, but not thought of as an essential tool for production by some — and nothing could be further from the truth.<\/p>\n

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When you get storyboards made, there’s nothing left to the imagination. The idea is right there in front of you to look at and any changes desired can be discussed before anyone steps one foot on set. Thankfully there’s talented storyboard artists who create comic book quality storyboard panels that perfectly paint the picture — and they’re not only accessible, but they’re affordable. Most artists will charge around $125 for 2 – 3 panels with color and most likely less for black and white.<\/p>\n

When you implement storyboards for the first time and successfully grab imagery that matches the initial vision, you’ll wonder how you ever did it any other way. It’s so efficient for clarity and getting the entire team on the same page in an instant. It will truly become a valuable tool that you can’t do without.<\/p>\n

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Check out these sites to find qualified storyboard artists:<\/p>\n