In this installment of Film Making tips, I want to go over budgeting.

Like it or not, nothing in this world is free. Well, almost nothing. You can breathe the air for free but that’s about it. Point is, it costs money to make a movie.

Now, having said that, we live in some great times. Technology has made it so that we can make movies for under $200. Digital movie cameras today are very cheap and the software, even cheaper. In fact, some of the software you can get for free.

Point is, you don’t want to start making your movie without a budget. You need to sit down and figure out what you need and how much it’s going to cost. See, here is what’s going to happen if you don’t do this. What follows is a very simplified example but I am sure it will get the point across.

Let’s say you want to make your first movie and don’t give any consideration to budget or cost. You run out and buy the cheapest digital video camera that you can find and start shooting your movie. Great…now what?

Well, you later find out that because you bought a cheap camera, it doesn’t have certain features that allow easy downloading to PC. So you have to buy some kind of accessory to do this. You later find out that the movie format is only compatible with certain kinds of software that is VERY expensive.

Do you see where I am going with this?

By trying to take the cheap, quick, and easy way out, you can end up spending more money than you would have spent if you planned everything out in advance. That way, you would have gotten a video camera that is compatible with all kinds of software, even free software, and without the need for other accessories.

There is an old saying…haste makes waste.

It is especially true with making movies.

In this installment of Film Making tips, I’m going to share some terms that I think you need to be familiar with if you’re going to make it in this industry.Apple – An apple box is a sturdy wooden box that is used for everything from keeping cables off the ground to giving an actor a heightened place to stand.Blackwrap – Black metal sheets similar in feel to very thick aluminum foil. Blackwrap can be placed on surfaces that will be hot (such as light housings) and will prevent light leaks.Bleach bypass – A technique during development of the film negative that creates a blacker, desaturated final image. Known under a variety of names including silver retention, skip-bleach, CCE, skip bleach, NEC, and ENR.CGI – Computer Graphic Imagery defines any type of computer-enhanced scene, but is most commonly used to describe 3D graphics footage.Cheat – Arranging objects in a frame so it enhances the composition of the shot, despite the fact that may not be in real life.Cribbing – Short lengths of 2 x 4 that are kept on the taco cart and used with wedges to level various things such as dolly track.Cutting – Process of editing a scene so that the various runs of footage fit together properly to tell a visual story.Dolly – A wheeled vehicle that holds the camera to allow for moving shots. There are numerous types of dollies from simple platforms (doorway dollies) to advanced motorized dollies with camera mount arms and hydraulic lifts.Eyeline – The direction an actor is looking in relation to the camera. Usually record in the script supervisor’s notes to make certain eye contact is maintained during reversal shots in a dialogue sequence.Insert – Small amount of footage such as a hand placing a wallet into a pocket that provides either additional information to the scene or exists as a cut-away from the main action.Martini shot – The last shot of the day.And we’ll make that the last term for this issue. In the next issue, we’ll take it from N to the end of the alphabet.

In this installment of Film Making tips, we’re going to finish up our list of terms. Please note, there are a lot more than these. They’re just some that I felt you should know.ND – Neutral Density is a type of gel or filter that decreases the light level while not affecting the color temperature. ND filters are commonly used on exterior shoots on bright days.PA – Production assistant. The PA is the lowest position on a set and usually acts as a gofer for everything from food to supplies.Par – The term PAR refers to a specific type of light bulb (parabolic reflector bulb) where the reflector is sealed into the bulb such as a household flood bulb.Power balancing – The process of balancing power on a generator that has multiple phases. General rule of thumb is to keep all legs within 50 amps of each other.Prep day – The day before principal photography where the electrical staff organizes the equipment, the truck, and all of the gels.Reversal film – Also called positive film (as opposed to negative), reversal film captures the actual image instead of a negative version of the image. Common slide film is an everyday example of reversal film.Room tone – The background noise of the room when no one is talking. The soundman must take about 30 seconds of room tone to make sure that in post-production work (such as an ADR session).Scrim – Used to cut the amount of light from a light without diffusing it. Usually consists of a steel frame with a tight weave metal grid inside.Selective focus – Using an aperture setting to provide shallow depth-of-field thereby keeping only the selected actor or object in focus while blurring the foreground and background.Soft box – Light box fixture that casts a soft warm light. Soft boxes are often hand-made by the DP and are used to provide flattering wraparound light for the actor’s faces, eye lights, or light reflective surfaces.Soft focus – The image captured is diffuse and slightly fuzzy. This technique generally uses a special filter and is often used either for a dream sequence or to soften the lines and wrinkles of an actress or actor.Video village – Location of 1 or more monitors that show the camera image. Often set up for the director to examine framing or when a small set is being used and a minimum of personnel can be near the shooting.Wall plate – Also called a pigeon plate or nail-on plate, a wall plate mounts to a surface with nails or screws and provides a mount for a light fixture, camera, or clamp.Wild track – Sound footage that is taken without accompanying film footage being shot. Often a wild track is extra dialogue (such as ‘Look out below!’) that occurs off camera and will be added in post-production.There you go. I hope you find these useful.