A shocking twist ending is a great way to end a film with a bang but great twists aren’t confined to just the ends of films. The best plot twists catch us off guard, recontextualizing everything we just watched and rewarding subsequent rewatches. There will, of course, be major spoilers to follow, this is your SPOILER… Continue reading Best Plot Twist Movies & Biggest Plot Twists in Movie History
In the world of movie making we have today, any digital device with video functionality can help you tell a story, from your mobile phone to your computer’s webcam. But what about celluloid film? What is celluloid film, even? We still call movies “films,” right? Film stock used to be the only way major movies… Continue reading What is Celluloid Film — A Brief History of Motion Picture Film
Narrative ElementsOpen menu Antagonist Catharsis Motif Plot Protagonist Theme Narrative DevicesOpen menu Deus ex Machina Foreshadowing Irony Personification Plot Twist Red Herring Write Your Script For Free → Peripeteia. Is it a synonym for ‘onomatopoeia’? A fancy potato? A lyric from Mary Poppin’s “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Excellent guesses, but no. Peripeteia isn’t written sound effects, a special… Continue reading What is Peripeteia? A Deep Dive Into a Surprising Plot Device
EssentialsOpen menu What is Sound Design Sound Editing vs Sound Mixing What is Voice Over What is Diegetic Sound What is Non-Diegetic Sound What is a Film Score TechniquesOpen menu Ultimate Guide to Sound Recording Filmmaker’s Guide to Sound Effect Techniques What is a Sound Bridge What is The Shepard Tone How to Design a… Continue reading Best Sites to Download Royalty Free Music for Commercial Use
So you’re knee-deep in Pre-Production, shooting script formatted, script broken down and you’re almost done with the shot list. Then, you receive an updated version of the script, so you import that into your StudioBinder project and then all of the sudden you’re missing shots on your shot list. What happened? Well, typically that means… Continue reading How to Recover Shots Using the Version History Manager
Close UpsOpen menu Extreme Close-Up (ECU) Medium Close-Up (MCU) Medium ShotsOpen menu Medium Shot (MS) Cowboy Shot (CS) Medium Full Shot (MFS) Wide ShotsOpen menu Full Shot (FS) Wide Shot (WS) Extreme Wide Shot (EWS) Create Free Shot List Camera ShotsGet Inspired. Explore More Shots.Master every shot size, and learn how to combine them with… Continue reading Different Types of Camera Shots and Angles in Film
Narrative ElementsOpen menu Antagonist Catharsis Motif Plot Protagonist Theme Narrative DevicesOpen menu Deus ex Machina Foreshadowing Irony Personification Plot Twist Red Herring Write Your Script For Free → What is connotation? We often hear about how certain things have good or bad connotations, but how do we know? We’re going to answer that question by… Continue reading What is Connotation? Definition & Examples
As your filmmaking career progresses you’re going to be working with more and more people all the time. Each new project might be a completely different crew than the last. So, how do you manage this with a production software? Well, with StudioBinder’s Collaborator feature it’s as easy as typing an email. Come along for… Continue reading How to Use StudioBinder’s Collaborator Feature Like a Pro
Exposure TriangleOpen menu What is the Exposure Triangle Aperture ISO Shutter Speed Frame Rate Create your free shot list → We all know the sound that a camera makes. That satisfying click when we press the button and create our photograph. What we’re hearing is the camera’s shutter. That sound is the shutter moving up… Continue reading What is Shutter Speed and Its Role in the Exposure Triangle?
The Spaghetti Western is one of the most iconic movie subgenres of all-time. Spaghetti Westerns originated in Italy during the 1960s under the tutelage of the great Sergio Leone – who garnered international acclaim for his “Dollars Trilogy” starring Clint Eastwood. Between 1964 and 1978, Italy produced dozens of Spaghetti Westerns, most of which were… Continue reading Best Spaghetti Western Movies of All-Time (Ranked)
The ARRI ALEXA Mini is one of the most versatile cameras on the market. We’re going to break down the ARRI ALEXA Mini by looking at its size, specs, price and best use cases. We’ll also look at how some filmmakers have used the ARRI ALEXA Mini for gimbal and drone shots. By the end,… Continue reading Arri Alexa Mini — The Camera of Choice for Hollywood DPs
Editorial DepartmentOpen menu Digital Imaging Technician Film Editor Colorist Ultimate Guide to Film Crew Positions Free Film Crew Management Software → The role of the DIT is one of the more mysterious roles on a film set. This is primarily due to the fact that there are numerous duties that fall onto a DIT. In… Continue reading What is a DIT in Film? Definition & Job Description
EssentialsOpen menu What is Sound Design Sound Editing vs Sound Mixing What is Voice Over What is Diegetic Sound What is Non-Diegetic Sound What is a Film Score TechniquesOpen menu Ultimate Guide to Sound Recording Filmmaker’s Guide to Sound Effect Techniques What is a Sound Bridge What is The Shepard Tone How to Design a… Continue reading Guide to the YouTube Audio Library & Royalty-Free Music for Videos
You’re looking for a movie genre list, maybe for inspiration, but every list you find has too broad or hyper-specific categories that it becomes overwhelming. We’ve created the perfect movie and TV genre list that will explain the various categories of film and television with their specific subgenres, and we’ll also include helpful examples for… Continue reading Ultimate Guide to Movie Genres — 90+ Genre Examples for Film & TV
There’s almost nothing more frustrating than nailing a shot, then later realizing that the footage is shaky and unusable. You know the next step to better content is more stable footage, but you don’t know which options are best for you and your projects.Continue reading 15 Best Video Camera Stabilizers for Filmmakers in 2021
There are many things that define movies directed by Edgar Wright. Brilliant needle drops. Laugh-out-loud moments by the barrelful. And characters subtly telling you at the beginning what’s going to happen throughout the movie. There’s really no such thing as a bad Edgar Wright movie, so consider this a ranking from great to greatest. By… Continue reading All Edgar Wright Movies Ranked — TV, Shorts & Videos Too!
Whenever you read a full-length screenplay, it is important to understand all of the steps that led to the final draft of that script. Stories are often changed and workshopped long before they are written into a screenplay. The pre-writing phase of a screenplay is essential to many writers and a fundamental device used is… Continue reading What is a Film Treatment? Examples From E.T. and The Shining
Mad Men is one of television’s best period pieces. It not only uses the 1960s as a backdrop and setting for the show, it imbues its dialogue, story, and characters with the details of the times. Every character reflects the 1960s in one way or another. In this article, we’ll analyze how Betty Draper’s tragic… Continue reading Betty Draper: How They Wrote Mad Men’s Most Tragic Character
BasicsOpen menu Basics of Film Lighting What Does a Cinematographer Do What is Cinematography What is Digital Cinematography Cinematography Terms What is Motion Blur Lighting EssentialsOpen menu 3-Point Lighting What is Key Light What is Fill Light What is Backlight What is Practical Lighting When is Golden Hour E-BooksOpen menu FREE Ebook: Camera Lenses Explained… Continue reading What is a Leko Light and How to Use It — Lighting Techniques
Editing EssentialsOpen menu What is Film Editing Types of Editing Transitions How to Become a Film Editor What is a Film Cut What is a Freeze Frame DownloadablesOpen menu Free Video Transitions Free Sound Effects for Video Editing Best Free Video LUTs Ding Sound Effect Download Muzzle Flash Effect Download Free Fog Overlay Templates Editing… Continue reading What is a Rough Cut in Film — Stages of Film Editing Explained
