The discussion of the Alien series of films and the props used in them is the aim, but if it's got Big Bugs and Big Guns, then they are welcome too!





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 Post subject: Project 2499 - Aliens Fan film.
PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:39 am 
Arcturian
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland
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Ive got an idea in my head, and I shot a few preliminary scenes on Sunday. Just a kind of 'would this work' trial run. Very little, if any, of it is anywhere near ready. Really useful for the experience. So far Ive gleaned the following information:

*I need a camera with manual focus
*I need a tripod with a handle that I can weight into a makeshift steadycam
*I cant rely on audio from the shoot; I need to dub
*Assume nothing. Explain even the most obvious to the cast / crew

Can any other of the film makers on here offer any other advice? Ive had a look at various productions by various members and they give me something to aspire to!

Im just looking for advice on what would be the lowest end camera I could scrape by with, advice on editing, funding, filming.

Thanks so much in advance, all!

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1st Batt. 42nd Regiment - Hadrian's Wall

Area 52 Bioweapons division - Amber T. Alien

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Last edited by Boltrig on Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:55 am 
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Location: Surrey, UK
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whats the idea?
my mini dv cam has manual focus

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:37 am 
Bugger of the Bugs
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Country: United States
Yes, the only way really to give you advice is to know what your idea is. I can't help you if I don't know what you'll need. Well, except for from what you've already posted. But I'll have to post some tips later. I have to go now, so later today.

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:23 pm 
Arcturian
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland
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Im meaning just general tips, like dont zoom mid shot unless its for a specific effect, avoid this lighting, try that etc.

Ive got 2 miniDV camcorders with manual focus, but one of thems in somewhat bad shape, and the two of them just dont have the manual control I need.

I browsed through Pete's thread on Operation Chastity, and had a look at what theyre using for recording equipment. Needless to say way out of my price range. However, some pointers from those in the know on what the minimum price floor is before you start to get the required manual control of focus / depth of field etc to shed the 'home camcorder' look is.

Basically the idea is a story of theft, backstabbing, intrigue, evil corporations and marines. Had it for a while, but recently threw an Aliens universe spin on it. No bugs though...

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Area 52 Bioweapons division - Amber T. Alien

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:48 pm 
Perfect Organism
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Location: Hampshire
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When are you planning on filming, and how many shoots?

Despite my distaste at the concept of an Aliens film with no Aliens, I have a Panasonic DVX-100A that you could use. But others have dibs on it already, so we'd need to come to some arrangement as for who uses it and when.


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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:57 pm 
Arcturian
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland
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Im still in the planning stages. Im just trying to feel out how much capital and organisation this would take.

There's bits of aliens in it if that will pacify Abe....

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Area 52 Bioweapons division - Amber T. Alien

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:59 pm 
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Location: Surrey, UK
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i have a mini dv with manual zoom etc good cam comes with operator and marine armour and rifle, just i have one battery and the life is a bit short on it
but it works and films in widescreen

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:11 pm 
Bugger of the Bugs
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Country: United States
galen wrote:
Yes, the only way really to give you advice is to know what your idea is. I can't help you if I don't know what you'll need. Well, except for from what you've already posted. But I'll have to post some tips later. I have to go now, so later today.


For funding, the best idea is go low budget, so try to see about planning a lot for the ideas and come up with the cheapest way to do this without it looking cheesy. I would say to look at http://www.indymogul.com. It's probably one of the best DIY low budget filmmaking groups out there.

If this is your first film, for editing I would say either Windows Movie Maker or Imovie (depending on what type of computer you use). These are both fairly simple to use, and most computers come with them on it (Macs Imovie, Anything else WMM).

The cheapest video cameras that work pretty well in my opinion are the Flip video cameras. I have two of these and they work great, and only about $110 US. The only problem is that they don't have manual focus, so that could be a problem.

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:22 pm 
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Location: Florida, USA
You also need your camera to have manual iris.

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:57 pm 
Arcturian
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland
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Im just about done editing what footage ive got. Ill stick it up on youtube for a bit once its done and let you see what you think.

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1st Batt. 42nd Regiment - Hadrian's Wall

Area 52 Bioweapons division - Amber T. Alien

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:07 pm 
Arcturian
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QQK1szRDVU

Be gentle!

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Area 52 Bioweapons division - Amber T. Alien

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:52 pm 
Yardbird
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Location: Portland Oregon
Country: United States
Ok just watched it, and here are a few suggestions....

The Pros

1. Love the footage through the video camera.

The Cons
1. Ditch the animated blood splatter. If you want blood splatter go buy some blood
at your local party city, where ever (food coloring and water) film a green screen and splatter
some on your camera lens. Overlay it onto your footage using adobe. Not to hard.

2. Lighting......Since your filming at night, use an off camera light to highlight your actors.
This takes A LOT of experimenting and testing to get it right. Without it, your film looks like
its being filmed through an orange lens.
A good example of what I am talking about is in Alien. The film is dark but yet you can see the
actors clearly.

3. Why would a locked security container be kept outside for someone so easily to take?

4. This is a personal quirk of mine, but snipers don't use silencers. I don't care what you see on
T.V. They use High Velocity Rifle rounds that explode out of a barrel. If you want some stealth kill
use some silenced low caliber pistol action.
Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdHUDn9zseg
Notice how loud it is even with a silencer? I don't understand why hollywood seems to think
a suppressor will turn a high caliber weapon into a bb gun......

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 11:19 pm 
Arcturian
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Service Number: A12/TQ1.0.22156E1
Country: United Kingdom
Cooter Davis wrote:
Ok just watched it, and here are a few suggestions....

The Pros

1. Love the footage through the video camera.

The Cons
1. Ditch the animated blood splatter. If you want blood splatter go buy some blood
at your local party city, where ever (food coloring and water) film a green screen and splatter
some on your camera lens. Overlay it onto your footage using adobe. Not to hard.

Fair enough. I shall experiment...

2. Lighting......Since your filming at night, use an off camera light to highlight your actors.
This takes A LOT of experimenting and testing to get it right. Without it, your film looks like
its being filmed through an orange lens.
A good example of what I am talking about is in Alien. The film is dark but yet you can see the
actors clearly.

I was using a 4 D Cell maglite for parts, but it became too cumbersome for anything mobile. The actual shots will have more suitable lighting.


3. Why would a locked security container be kept outside for someone so easily to take?

We never had the ability to film the container being retrieved. The story is that the container should never have been at that facility in the first place. So although it wont be as easy as seen, it will be relatively easy for the PMC operatives to steal the case out from under the Company

4. This is a personal quirk of mine, but snipers don't use silencers. I don't care what you see on
T.V. They use High Velocity Rifle rounds that explode out of a barrel. If you want some stealth kill
use some silenced low caliber pistol action.
Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdHUDn9zseg
Notice how loud it is even with a silencer? I don't understand why hollywood seems to think
a suppressor will turn a high caliber weapon into a bb gun......

I wasnt sure what to do. The 416 didnt have a silencer, but when I experimented with a loud rifle shot, it just didnt seem to gel. Ill keep experimenting.


Thanks a lot for taking the time to watch it and giving me some feedback. Tis much appreciated :)

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MSgt Samantha 'Boltie' Watters
Chief Medical Officer, UKCM
1st Batt. 42nd Regiment - Hadrian's Wall

Area 52 Bioweapons division - Amber T. Alien

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"Harsh"

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:13 pm 
Miscreant and Foukérre
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland
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Looking good, Boltie!
I have some suggestions for ya - Will grab a beer and a table on Hallowe'en :)

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Wasteland Workshop
Props, cosplay pieces, upcycled ornamentation, and miscellanea;
For the discerning survivor of the apocalypse.
Steve Fletcher : Maker, Scavenger, and Junksmith.
linktr.ee/wastelandworkshop


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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:20 pm 
noiD
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Location: Lac Seul First Nation
Country: Canada
4. This is a personal quirk of mine, but snipers don't use silencers. I don't care what you see on
T.V. They use High Velocity Rifle rounds that explode out of a barrel. If you want some stealth kill
use some silenced low caliber pistol action.
Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdHUDn9zseg
Notice how loud it is even with a silencer? I don't understand why hollywood seems to think
a suppressor will turn a high caliber weapon into a bb gun......[/quote]


Although a suppressor will not eliminate the report of a rifle, it is used to conceal the direction the riflefire came from.

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:35 am 
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Location: Surrey, UK
Service Number: A11/TQ2.0.12153E1
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real snipers dont use them as they are to far away to return fire on

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:37 am 
noiD
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Location: Lac Seul First Nation
Country: Canada
Still handy if you don`t want air support raining down on your position.

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:00 pm 
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Location: Surrey, UK
Service Number: A11/TQ2.0.12153E1
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true but if they are a good sniper all targets would be down and they would have moved locations pretty quickly after the shots were fired

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:27 pm 
Pure 1337

Country: United Kingdom
It's all very mission dependant... If your man is on task to take down a target / group of targets by infilrating enemy territory and making a few hits, then a suppressor could be handy purely to distort the report of the rifle, buying him and his spotter maybe a few extra seconds to get out of their spot and disappear. As it stands, these days Marksmen and Snipers tend to be deployed to support regular-Joe squaddies on ops and (from what I understand) do very little of the super-cool sneaky-beaky stuff, so there's little point in suppressing one rifle when there's forty-odd others plus air support going off full whack around him. On top of that you've got other considerations, like the type of ammunition you want to use, yadda-yadda.

It's your movie man; do what you think works best!


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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:44 pm 
Perfect Organism
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Heh, looks like Sixty knows the most about snipers. ;)

Looks good Bolty. Make the film you want, but try and pre-plan and storyboard every shot before you start shooting proper. Will make it easier in the long run.


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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:56 pm 
Pure 1337

Country: United Kingdom
Looks like Sixty applied what limited real world knowledge he has of the way they work and used Google-fu to provide some kind of confirmation for his ailing memory, athankyouverymuchyoucheekybugger.


Last edited by sixty on Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:01 pm 
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Location: Surrey, UK
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yeah storyboard your shots so that way u have a rough idea of how its going to look
made that mistake once making a music video

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:06 pm 
Arcturian
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Service Number: A12/TQ1.0.22156E1
Country: United Kingdom
The storyboard advice seems to be the one coming up most frequently, So Ive been giving that a go. :) It really does help!

RE: the sniper rifle report, its a HK 416. I didnt have a sniper rifle available :P

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Chief Medical Officer, UKCM
1st Batt. 42nd Regiment - Hadrian's Wall

Area 52 Bioweapons division - Amber T. Alien

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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:16 pm 
Galaxy-hopping garbage man

Country: United Kingdom
I've always understood Marksman to mean someone in the squad who's a good shot, or a Sniper attached to the squad.
Sniper itself refers to the team who do the sneaky-beaky, Tom Berenger bits.

Then again, things change so often and get shuffled around, it's a wonder anyone knows what they're doing.
Half expect to hear my mates were sent into combat armed with an L446 Combat Soup Spoon Mk IV!!


S: "And get me some Hueys"
H: "Some what?"
S: "Helicopters, Howard...."
H: "I thought they were called Choppers?"
S: "Well, now they're called 'Hueys' "
H: "Why wasn't I notified??!!"


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 Post subject: Re: Calling the AL Film makers. Advice needed!
PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:27 pm 
Arcturian
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Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Service Number: A12/TQ1.0.22156E1
Country: United Kingdom
Stat?
Stat!
What does that mean, anyway?
I dont know, but thats not the point.

:D

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Chief Medical Officer, UKCM
1st Batt. 42nd Regiment - Hadrian's Wall

Area 52 Bioweapons division - Amber T. Alien

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