Until the advent of digital alternatives, the cost of professional film equipment and stock was a major obstacle to independent filmmakers who wanted to make their own films. Studio quality filming typically required expensive lighting and post-production facilities. But the advent of consumer camcorders in 1985, and more importantly, the arrival of high-definition digital video in the early 1990s, have since lowered the technology barrier to movie production considerably. Both production and post-production costs have been significantly lowered; today, the hardware and software for post-production can be installed in a commodity-based personal computer.
Technology and independent films today
Until the advent of digital alternatives, the cost of professional film equipment and stock was a major obstacle to independent filmmakers who wanted to make their own films. Studio quality filming typically required expensive lighting and post-production facilities. But the advent of consumer camcorders in 1985, and more importantly, the arrival of high-definition digital video in the early 1990s, have since lowered the technology barrier to movie production considerably. Both production and post-production costs have been significantly lowered; today, the hardware and software for post-production can be installed in a commodity-based personal computer.
Mid Ohio Filmmakers Association
Website: http://midohiofilm.com/
Your Boot Camp will consist of no more than eight students who will discover together that acting is probably the most challenging and thrilling thing they have ever done. You will learn that if indeed this is for you and you stick with it, you will not only acquire a skill, but you will do something quite extraordinary with your life.
Trailers of Locally Produced Independent Films
"Measured Sacrifice" Trailer
Midnight Syndicate Films and Precinct 13 Entertainment present The Dead Matter http://www.thedeadmatter.com/
A relic with occult powers falls into the hands of a grief-stricken young woman named Gretchen, whose desire to reconnect with her dead brother draws her into the supernatural world of vampirism and the living dead. Drenched in the dark and shadowy music of Halloween horror legends MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE and co-produced by Robert Kurtzman (Producer From Dusk Till Dawn, co-founder KNB FX) and Gary Jones (Xena, Ghouls), The Dead Matter is a supernatural thriller inspired by EC Comics, Creepshow, and Hammer Films, featuring a mix of classic horror themes with modern twists that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats. The movie stars Andrew Divoff (Lost, Wishmaster), Jason Carter (Babylon 5, Angel), Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Lost Boys 2), and legendary television horror hosts Dick Count Gore DeVol Dyszel and Big Chuck Schodowski
Trailer for "Season of Darkness" features Tim Thomerson, Richard Hatch, Tiffany Shepis, Nick Baldasare and Amanda Howell. Shot on 35mm, movie was directed by Jay Woelfel and shot in and around Columbus, Ohio. http://www.jaywoelfel.com/
Trailer Featuring John Brickner
Featured Filmmaker: PETER JOHN ROSS
written by Joanne Fromes and Peter John Ross
directed by Peter John Ross
produced by John Fromes
cinematography by Scott Spears
assistant director - Rachel Hanna
key grip - Derek Rimelspach
art director - Leyna Haller
graphic design - TJ Cooley
Relationship Card™ ® © from Peter John Ross on Vimeo.
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ACTING IN COLUMBUS
NOW ENROLLING FOR FALL CLASSES!
ACTING FOR FILM SCENE STUDY - Acting Fundamentals for stage and film Wednesdays beginning September 16, 2009 7:00pm-9:30pm $200. This eight-week course offers a focused introduction to the acting process. Beginning actors work, stage, and shoot several film scenes during the eight-week session. We work in depth on concepts central to the actor's role development for film.
ADVANCED ACTING FOR FILM - Tuesdays beginning September 15, 2009 7:00pm-9:30pm $200. Here is your opportunity to take on more challenging scenes. To work with people who are serious about the work. This is an on-going class designed to stretch your skills. Actors work, stage, and shoot several film scenes during the eight-week session. Scripts from soaps, sitcoms, dramatic TV and film are used.
CRAFT NOTES by Ed Hooks
It is never too late. Life is not a dress rehearsal.
You have to balance your dream with reality. If you are a person who has the actor dream, I suggest that you start the process by asking yourself what your dream is really all about. (It is important to be very honest with yourself about this.) When you day-dream about acting, where do you see yourself performing? On a movie screen? In a soap opera? On the stage? As a guest on The David Letterman Show? If fulfilling your dream is dependent upon you becoming a movie star or a celebrity, you will be wise to think twice before pursuing it. There is a lot you can do to become a good actor, but there is almost nothing you can do to become a movie or television star. Sure, some small percentage of actors will likely become celebrities, but this requires a lot of luck, fortunate timing and persistence, in addition to acting skill. Dreaming of being a movie star is sort of like dreaming of being the Princess of Monaco. Yeah, maybe it is possible, but it is not a very realistic goal.
How much satisfaction and magic do you imagine acting will provide in your life? How important is it that you get paid to act? Are you thinking of making a living from acting? How much money is that? Could you scratch the itch by performing in non-or-low-paying community theater productions while making your living in a day job? If you intend to be paid to act, then it is a good idea to put on your business-person's hat for a minute and consider a few realities along with your dream.
The frustrating truth is that, especially in the United States, very few people make a living from their art, whether that be acting, music, dance or painting. Eighty-five percent of the members of Screen Actors Guild earn less than $5,000 per year from their craft. In acting, a middle-income group is practically non-existent. There are thousands of actors who are making zilch or close to zilch, and then there are Will Smith, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts - who earn in the tens of millions of dollars per movie. An acting career tends to be feast or famine, starving or being over-fed. For twenty-five years, I was fortunate to be in the middle-income group, but I did that by acting on episodic television shows and commercials. Those kinds of programs are an endangered species in an age of low-cost reality-shows like America's Next Top Model and Wife Swap. Advertisers are in the process of moving their clients' money away from television and onto the Internet. New actors today are going to have to be entrepreneurial, seeking out new venues that pay money.
My point is that, if you want to make a living from acting, you really ought to have a realistic game plan regardless of your age. As Antonin Artaud famously observed in his book The Theatre and Its Double, "The actor is an athlete of the heart." He was correct about that, but actors that get paid are also generally hard-nosed realists that are willing to go out there and play tackle football.
Do you have a feeling deep inside that you have a life-perspective that you want to share with others? If so, I think you have what might be called an "artistic impulse". In that case, it is mainly a matter of pursuing the art form that speaks to you most personally. Art of all kinds is about communicating feelings.
In one sense, deciding to become an artist is like finding religion. You wake up one morning and realize that you simply must do this. Even though becoming an artist may not make good logical sense, you will never feel satisfied until you at least try. There is one more very important benefit to becoming an artist that I want to mention. You will find others like yourself. All of us have a need to communicate. That is, after all, why I wrote these craft notes, and it is why I send you an encouraging cyber-hug.