Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking

Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking

by Dan Rahmel
Released August 2012
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781136070532

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Book description


Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking, an ideal book for the rapidly growing number of low-budget filmmakers, provides how-to information on the day-to-day techniques of actual low-budget production. Containing construction details describing how to replicate expensive tools for under $30 a piece, this book provides quick and inexpensive remedies to both the most common and most difficult production challenges. Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking is an invaluable resource to anyone looking to make a film without a big budget.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Halftitle
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Introduction
  7. 1 Safety
    1. Applications
      1. Safety gear
      2. Safety guidelines
  8. 2 Common Materials and Tools
    1. Applications
    2. Tools
      1. PVC pipe cutter
      2. Ratchet strap or ratchet tie-down
      3. Tin snips
      4. Cordless drill
    3. Materials
      1. Metal pipe nipple
      2. PVC pipe
      3. Flange
      4. Union
      5. 90° elbow bend
      6. T-joint
      7. Four-way joint
      8. Corner joint
      9. Threaded adapter
      10. Conduit hanger with speed thread
      11. Eyebolt
      12. Conduit clamp or two-hole strap
      13. Malleable coupling
      14. Locking nut
      15. Galvanized shingle or shingle flashing
      16. Hyco bar or erector set brackets
      17. Bendable wire
    4. Suggestions
  9. Part I: Preproduction Introduction
    1. Applications
      1. Writing a production statement
      2. Begin organizing
      3. Creating a preproduction deadline list
    2. Suggestions
    3. 3 Storyboarding
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Concrete shot understanding
        2. A method of communication
        3. A budgeting tool
        4. A useful checklist
      3. Construction
        1. 3˝ × 5˝ cards
        2. Basic templates
        3. Thumbnail sketches
        4. Adam Actor, Amy Actress
        5. Photographic storyboarding
        6. Presentation storyboarding
      4. Suggestions
    4. 4 Script Supervisor Template
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Script supervisor equipment
        2. Preproduction info
        3. Basic log information
        4. Log notes
      3. Construction
      4. Suggestions
    5. 5 Location Scouting
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Artistic Considerations
      4. Visual Considerations
        1. Sun tracking
      5. Logistical Factors
        1. Surroundings
        2. Sound concerns
      6. Special Day/Date Considerations
      7. Location Layout Templates
      8. Location Scouting Form
      9. Suggestions
    6. 6 Legal Release Forms
      1. Applications
      2. Suggestions
  10. Part II: Camera Introduction
    1. Applications
    2. Suggestions
    3. 7 Matte Box
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
      4. Suggestions
    4. 8 Camera Hi-hat
      1. Applications
      2. Construction
        1. Creating the mounting screw
        2. Creating the swivel flange
        3. Creating the head
        4. Safety bars
    5. 9 Inside Car Mount
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Creating the mounting bar
        2. Creating the head
      4. Suggestions
    6. 10 Camera Glider
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Assembling the head
        2. Assembling the body
      4. Using the Glider
      5. Suggestions
    7. 11 Weighted Tripod Glider
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Suggestions
    8. 12 Wheelchair Dolly
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Suggestions
    9. 13 Tripod Dolly
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Wheel assemblies
        2. T-board platform
        3. Rails assembly
      4. Suggestions
    10. 14 Doorway Dolly
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
      4. Suggestions
    11. 15 Underwater Cam Stand
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Constructing the top frame
        2. Constructing the base
        3. Lower it into the pool
      4. Suggestions
    12. 16 Gray Card Incident Meter
      1. Applications
        1. Shooting on film
        2. Shooting video
      2. Types of Meters
        1. Incident meters
        2. Reflected meters
      3. General Instructions
    13. 17 Lux Incident Meter
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Testing video cameras
        2. Lux to f/stop chart
      3. Suggestions
    14. 18 Depth of Field Spreadsheet
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Terms
        2. Mathematics
        3. DV cameras
      3. Construction
        1. Metric DoF table
        2. English measurement DoF table
        3. Multi-table pages
      4. Suggestions
    15. 19 Slate
      1. Applications
      2. Construction
      3. Suggestions
  11. Part III: Gaffer Introduction
    1. Applications
    2. Suggestions
    3. 20 Electrician’s Belt
      1. Applications
      2. Belt Equipment
        1. Leatherwork gloves
        2. Multi-tool
        3. 6˝ or 8˝ crescent wrench
        4. Screwdriver
        5. Small portable flashlight
        6. Utility knife
        7. Needle nose pliers
        8. Tape measure
        9. Scissors
        10. Permanent marker
        11. Pen and paper
        12. Cheater or ground plug adapter
        13. Cube tap
        14. Gaffer’s tape
        15. Wire cutter/stripper
        16. 3/8˝ wrench
        17. Allen wrenches
        18. Baseball cap
        19. Multimeter/continuity tester
        20. Circuit tester
        21. Light meter
        22. Color meter
        23. Line sensor
      3. Suggestions
    4. 21 Softbox
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Light-socket board
        2. Reflector panels
        3. Reflector panel frames
        4. Attaching the panel frames
        5. Creating the frame stabilizers
        6. Adding the top reflector
        7. Adding the diffusion material
      4. Suggestions
    5. 22 Coffee-can Spotlight
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
      4. Suggestions
    6. 23 Projector Spotlight
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Using the spotlight
        2. Creating projected shapes and cookies
      3. Suggestions
    7. 24 Rotating Socket Light
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
    8. 25 Squeezer
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
      4. Suggestions
    9. 26 Flashpan
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
      4. Suggestions
    10. 27 Barn Door Mount
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. The doors
        2. Creating the frame mount
        3. Mounting the doors to the frame
      4. Suggestions
    11. 28 Light Diffusers and Gels
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Color temperature
        2. Traditional diffusion
        3. Special effects diffusion and reflection
      3. Suggestions
    12. 29 Blue Screen
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Getting the right color
        2. Setting up a compositing wall
        3. Using still camera backgrounds
    13. 30 Gaffer Techniques
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Electrical calculations
        2. General lighting
        3. Lighting layers
        4. Simulating passing traffic
        5. Rigging flying or rocketing items
      3. Suggestions
  12. Part IV: Grip Introduction
    1. Applications
    2. Suggestions
    3. 31 Grip’s Belt
      1. Belt Equipment
      2. Suggestions
    4. 32 C-stand
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Assembling the base
        2. Assembling the post
        3. Assembling the head and arm
      4. Suggestions
    5. 33 Sandbags
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Suggestions
    6. 34 Flags, Reflectors, and Diffusion
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Materials for the frame
      3. Construction
      4. Suggestions
    7. 35 Reflector/Shiny Board
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Creating the base
        2. Creating the reflector panel
        3. Creating the reflector mount
        4. Mounting the panel
      4. Suggestions
    8. 36 Knots, Hitches, and Bends Overview
      1. Applications
        1. Types of ropes
        2. Strength of rope
        3. Cutting and sealing the rope end
        4. Knot terminology
        5. Types of knots
      2. Double Half-hitch
    9. 37 Reef or Shoelace Knot
      1. Applications
      2. Shoelace Variation
      3. Thief knot
    10. 38 Figure-8 Knot
      1. Applications
      2. Twist Method
      3. Traditional Method
    11. 39 Bowline Knot
      1. Applications
      2. Traditional Method
      3. One-handed or Sailor’s Method
      4. Double Bowline
    12. 40 Clove Hitch
      1. Applications
      2. Around a Pole
      3. Around a Stake
    13. 41 Trucker’s Hitch
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
    14. 42 Cable Ties and Coiling
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Choosing tie material
        2. Adding the cable tie
        3. Coiling
        4. Using the ties for differentiation
        5. Light ties
    15. 43 Apple Boxes
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Templates and cutting
        2. Full apple
        3. Half apple
        4. Quarter apple
        5. Pancake
      4. Suggestions
  13. Part V: Sound Introduction
    1. Applications
    2. Suggestions
    3. 44 Boom Pole
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Boom bend pole
      4. Suggestions
    4. 45 Boom Mount
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
      4. Suggestions
  14. Part VI: Art Introduction
    1. Applications
    2. Suggestions
    3. 46 On-set box
      1. Applications
      2. On-set Boxes
      3. Standard Items
      4. Expendable Items
      5. Suggestions
    4. 47 Set Design and Construction
      1. Applications
      2. Constructing a Flat
      3. Making an Arch
      4. Breakthrough Wall
      5. Suggestions
    5. 48 Prop Fabrication
      1. Applications
      2. Prop Examples
        1. Fake binders
      3. Using Polymer Clay
        1. Modeling
        2. Structures and frames
        3. Finishing
      4. Creating Molds
        1. Mold use
        2. Creating the mold
      5. Suggestions
    6. 49 Smoke Box
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Smoke machine
        2. Smoke box
      3. Suggestions
    7. 50 Fake Body
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Construction
      3. Suggestions
    8. 51 Securing Loads
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
        1. Using a packing list
        2. Packing and labeling items
        3. Using a furniture dolly
        4. Ratchet straps
        5. Securing rope
        6. Proper use of the trucker’s hitch
      3. Suggestions
  15. Part VII: Make-up Introduction
    1. Applications
    2. Suggestions
    3. 52 Character Look
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Shirt Comportment
      4. Accessories
      5. Glasses
      6. General Warnings
      7. Blue/green Screen Considerations
      8. Suggestions
    4. 53 Make-up Techniques
      1. Applications
      2. Flat Make-up
        1. Make-up layer order – male
        2. Make-up layer order – female
      3. Effects Make-up
        1. Wigs
        2. Scars
      4. Suggestions
  16. Part VIII: Post-production Introduction
    1. Applications
    2. Suggestions
    3. 54 Skip-bleach Simulation
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Crushing blacks and blowing out highlights
        2. Increasing contrast
        3. Desaturating color
      4. Suggestions
    4. 55 DV Softener
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
      4. Suggestions
    5. 56 Scoring
      1. Applications
      2. Classical Scores and Old Melodies
      3. Scanning Scores
      4. MIDI
        1. Hardware synthesizers
        2. Professional software synthesizer
      5. Mod Programs
      6. Computer-generated Music
      7. Suggestions
    6. 57 Shortcut Keys
      1. Applications
      2. General Instructions
      3. Construction
        1. Final Cut Pro Shortcuts
        2. Premiere shortcuts
      4. Suggestions
  17. Glossary Introduction
    1. Applications
  18. Glossary
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking
  • Author(s): Dan Rahmel
  • Release date: August 2012
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781136070532