"Movie-making is the process of turning money into light. All they have at the end of the day is images flickering on a wall."
- John Boorman -
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Videopia the Book for only $9.99! 236 pages, all original content on EVERY topic from light to copyright.

"In my opinion, the content is worth much more than you are charging for it..."
                            - David B.

"This booklet is a great resource, and worth many times the price. Heck, it's worth four bucks just for the entertaining read alone..."
                            - Shane G.

"This is the best explanation of
Internet video I have ever read."
                            - Mark H.

Resources and References PDF Print E-mail
Read - MetaContent
Meta Movies

Meta movies are movies about movie making! Click here to see an annotated list of some of my favorites.

Books

Click here to see an annotated list of some of my favorite books on filmmaking.

Talent Release Form

I ain't no fancy big-city lawyer, so I make no claims about these talent release forms being good for anything more than making awesome paper airplanes, but these are the ultra-generic, minimalist (read: not scary) forms that I created and use myself (they are modeled on some simple ones we used at Videomaker and Digital Juice):

I also hereby release both of these documents into the Public Domain, without warranty and without malice (I don't know what that means, but it sounds cool), to be reused, modified, republished and used for any purpose, commercial or otherwise (but if you do get rich selling them, you could toss me a few bones).

Internet

These resources are truly exceptional. Highest recommendations and something to aspire to:

Reel Education: 50 Free Open Courses for Movie Lovers - A list compiled by Jessica Merritt of some free, public academic courses and cirriculum you can access online from schools such as Tufts, MIT, Columbia and Princeton. You don't get the lectures or the credits, but, then again, there aren't any pop quizzes either. Note: Not all of the links are valid anymore or are free. The Internet changes. Se la vie.

Indy Mogul - Crazy-fun DIY projects for backyard filmmakers. What makes this site truly exceptional, however, is the professional production of the segments themselves! Even if you have no desire to make a zombie movie, the fast-paced, tightly-edited, entertainingly-delivered episodes are so much fun, they are worth watching simply to study their technique alone!   

BBC Training and Development - This is an amazing free resource for Television production by the BBC. It's basically new-media PowerPoint-style slides, but it's very engaging and thoughtful. I'm not entirely sold on the format, but the structure and information is wonderful.

Make Internet TV - Community-developed project that covers much of the step-by-step technical details of producing online video. Does not currently deal with storytelling or shooting fundamentals, but, since it's a community Website, I guess it's my fault that it doesn't. MITVWiki here we come!

Gear

Lots of places to buy gear, maybe even some better than these, but I've stopped shopping around after visiting these sites:

B&H Photo Video - Check here first for all things video. If you find someplace SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper, IT IS A SCAM! Do NOT buy a camcorder from ANYONE that has a price 25% lower than B&H. There are other reputable and recommended dealers (e.g., Adorama, Sweetwater for audio, etc.) that you can and should shop to see if you can save a buck or two, but watch out for the gray-market scam artists. I'm serious! Trust me!

TechBargains.com - Ooh, naughty daily gear-porn site. Computer stuff, hard disks, blank media, monitors and televisions. Use a little caution with their camcorder links - they sometimes list a deal from one of the rip-off artists above. Learn to love Rebates, just make sure you fill them out right away!

Newegg.com - First stop when I need computer parts. There are a bajillion of other resources, but this is my first stop. And often my last. For blank media, supermediastore.com , but as you know, physical distribution is soooo 20th century.

Stock Media

Soundsnap - Spectacular free resource for sound effects.

The Freesound Project - ANOTHER spectacular free resource for sound effects, this one with explicit Creative Commons licensing. Crap. Anyone making money off of selling sound effects is in trouble.

Friends of Videopia

OK, these are some of my professional friends who I like to argue with and then defer to their superior knowledge:

Web Video Techniques - J.P. Shook is intense when it comes to video encoding quality and distribution infrastructure. I'd listen to whatever he says. Wait a minute: I do listen to whatever he says! 16-pixel macro blocks are important, you know!

Chris "Ace" Gates - Chris Gates is a standup editor, compositor, color corrector camera guy jack-of-all trades. He's just all around very talented - and extremely honest about what he's good at. If you think he can meet a need for you, ask him. If he says "Yes," I'd pay him whatever he asks.

Michael "MVRK" Mavrikios - You need a sound designer? Maverick is your man. Seriously. He will create an audio environment that is better than what you can even imagine.

Chuck Peters - Writer, editor and philosopher, you've never met a nicer guy that can still get the job done. Check out Chuck's site and drop him a line if you need a spokesman for your company!

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