Why You Should Employ the Services of a Green Screen Studio

When we watch movies, we might probably get struck with fantastic scenes that look so real. We might get carried away, feeling that we are already part of the scene. However, filmmakers have techniques to come with these amazing shots. One of these techniques is the use of green screen. Such method has been widely used these days to place actors in various kinds of incredible scenes. But actually, green screens are not new in the field of video production. They have already been used for decades. Over time, there are already several advancements with the green screen as well as the technology used to create dynamic backgrounds.

With this practice, a particular actor is filmed in front of a green screen. With the use of software, you can then remove anything green and replace it with a new background. There a few ways to replace the background of the photos. For instance, you have an automatic option that enables you to get rid of the background with just a click of a mouse. You have a number of options to choose from for your new background. For example, you can have one from the camera roll of your cellphone or other electronic device, or you can use the supplied ones. Whether it is a beautiful beach landscape or a particular famous attraction, you can have it as your background. Your chosen new image will then be preserved in your camera roll.

Meanwhile, if you want to employ this kind of method in your video, you don't have to do it yourself. Nowadays, you can employ a certain green screen studio to do this kind of task. There are already several studios today which are proficient enough in this kind of service. They are also flexible according to your demands in order to come up with a fantastic production. In addition to that, they are also well-experienced in the field of video-making and already mastered the green screen method. Thus, they can definitely meet your expectations with regards to your video production.

On the other hand, most of these studios offer the free use of the web as well as a green screen editing bay. With these, you can now turn the two thousand square feet of green and blue screens into a visible reality. What you will just notice is that your creation had already taken shape as these professionals are able to edit resources efficiently and in the shortest amount of time possible.

Exploring The Significance Of Video Production As A Business Marketing Strategy

Plenty of companies invest in corporate video productions, frequently as a business-to-business marketing tool to reach out to a specific audience. Corporate videos are a very effective way of visually displaying merchandise for sale, business intelligence, brand philosophy and services to likely clients.

In an increasingly multimedia environment there is often a crossover among corporate video and other audio-visual and editorial ways of expressing a company's message, such as video content on homepages, Television advertising and world wide web viral videos.

Corporate Video production companies will normally be directed with a brief by their client business from which they elaborate an outline plan of action for audio-visual communication and outlets for it to be broadcast. Several video presentations can be budgeted below 5,000 pounds with a skeleton film crew. Others can be as intricate and pricey as TV advertisements.

The method for creating these videos typically involves a chain of stages. Pre-production takes in the developing of storyboards and a blueprint for airing the audio-visual content. production companies will normally buy into a budget at this stage with their corporate client.

For these videos production companies will bring on board a crew. This will usually involve an Independent Director and a Lighting Cameraman. Regularly, a talent agency will be approached for actors or presenters. Weightier productions could also draw in Production Security.

In Post Production every bit of prerecorded material is taken to a Post Production company for Video Editing, Audio Editing and grading. There is frequently a Voiceover Studio assembly to add commentary for the video. Several videos also use an Animation Production Company.

Finally, an authorized viewing is organised. Clients are called in for a progression of viewings that permit them to be included in the adjustment and look of the content before it is made public and available online.
There are a myriad of jobs at production companies, each involves a specific set of talents. Jobs in Production are split among the stages involved in bringing filmed content to a polished state where it is all set to be screened.

All stages are overseen by a number of Executive Producers representing the financiers, the production company and the customers. The day-to-day managing of the production process and its spending plan is typically governed by a Production Manager who also hires production runners.

Crew hire is at the core of all productions, whether planted in a Film Studio or on location. Jobs range from Rigging Services to camera operators. There are many Specialist Production Services looking after necessary elements like location catering and of course Gaffers and Sparks who maintain the production in electricity.

Help Your Child Pursue a Career in Acting

Career training is a doing that many people opt for. There are many schools that offer the training. Nonetheless, for you to get into the right school, you need to first make up your mind on the kind of career that you are to pursue. There are many people who choose a career for the prestige or the earnings that come with it. However, this is always the wrong way to approach the whole idea. You need to choose or select a career that you love with your heart. This should be a job that you will love waking up to. Choosing a career in acting is a choice many make.

Getting an acting position or being recognized as a great actor is not an easy task. Unlike what many people think, acting is a demanding profession and it needs a lot of hard work and talent for one to make it in the industry.

For one to nurture his/her acting skills, they need to start by gathering all the experience they can get. If you notice that your child is interested in acting, nurturing them for the role from a tender age is ideal. Encourage them to join their school drama club. Take them to the movie theatres whenever you can and get them tutorials on how to become an actor. There are many tutorials online and some are free to download. You can also buy them books and literature on the subject. Do not deny your child a chance to attend after class acting classes. Develop their talents the best way you can.

After they are done with school, you can go out of your way and enroll them in acting schools. There are many acting schools that help people develop their talents. Some of the best schools attract fierce competition for the few available positions. Once they are in, help them sing-up for the right acting classes. Let them choose lessons that they are happy and comfortable with. They will easily excel in a niche that they love.

Knowing the basics of acting is always the first step in the right direction. Once you have known them then cutting out your niche on what you would love to pursue is going to be easy. Ensure your kid enrolls in a reputable school known for developing talents. Also, you need to be ready to invest in the same since many schools tend to charge high amounts for the lessons. The lessons will prepare your kid to be ready for future auditions and give them an edge over other participants. Certificates from training institutions also improve your kid's chances during the auditions.

Filming on Table Mountain - Cape Town's Most Dramatic Landmark

Everyone who visits Cape Town should go up Table Mountain. Its presence dominates the city wherever you are, but soaring up its granite slopes in the cable car brings a new, freer perspective with panoramic views over city and ocean.

These views bring many film and stills productions looking for locations to shoot on top of the mountain. Dramatic shots of a model poised on a boulder with a mountain precipice dropping away steeply and endless vistas of sky, sea and distant blue mountains, make for memorable campaigns. The setting is a gift to adventure or action movies too, both rugged and beautiful and a natural wilderness in the middle of the city.

An experienced local production company will be able to arrange everything for you, but if you are thinking about using Table Mountain for your next production, there are a few things to bear in mind about filming in this awesome spot.

Weather
The mountain top is 1000ft above sea level and is infamous for its 'table-cloth' of cloud. Hot summer days in the city below can be transformed when the wind blows from a certain direction bringing a thick layer of cloud that hovers about the mountain, enveloping it in chill, damp fog and reducing visibility to nothing. There are many days when the mountain top is clear and sunny, but it is unpredictable. You will need to build a certain flexibility in to your schedule so that you can take advantage of the best clear days for shooting there.

Cable Car
Access to the mountain top is either by cable car or on foot. Everything that goes to the top of the mountain must be transported in the cable car. This means that there are weight constraints. Your local film production service will be able to advise in more detail on weight limits.

Permits
Table Mountain is a part of national park and is carefully protected. There are many extremely rare plants that only grow on the summit. Filming activity must take this into account and respect the environment. Details of exactly what you plan to do and which part of the mountain you plan to use must be submitted when you apply for the filming permit.

Safety
Thousands of visitors go up Table Mountain every day in the summer without any problems, but it is a mountain environment so it makes sense to take precautions. Always take warm clothing, as well as sun protection and a hat with you, even on a hot day, as all it takes is for the cloud to roll in for the temperature to drop dramatically. Keep to the many paths and boardwalks -the edge of the mountain is not fenced and there are steep drops! Listen out for the siren that sounds at the top of the mountain whenever weather changes make it advisable to leave the top of the mountain. In high winds or extreme cloud the cableway has to close, and visitors are warned of imminent closing by the siren.

Table Mountain is a unique place and makes an awesome location, so find out more about shooting there from your Cape Town film production service.

Debunking the Fidelity Approach in Film Adaptation

What is film adaptation? It's the process of translating a written text - novel, short story, play, or even comic book - into the visual medium of film. It's a process that has become financially vital to cinema during the film industry's evolution. Hollywood relies so heavily on adaptation is because there is a ready-made story and structure to work from, plus - assuming the source text is popular - an established fan-base, which means a built-in audience. However, when considering this fan-base the most pressing issue is that of the fidelity approach; in other words, how faithful will the adaptation be to the source text? This is certainly a bone of contention for the fans anticipating the movie-version of their favourite story, who believe or hope that the film will be an accurate translation of the book they know and love. Often, the results are controversial because the fidelity approach holds an illogical position of supremacy in adaptation theory; most film adaptations are viewed as inferior to their literary equivalents as assessed by the conventions of fidelity. The following exposes the fidelity approach as outmoded, impractical, and, at worst, even irrelevant.

The 'reading' - or the interpretation - of a text is a tenuously personal process. One reader's views will always differ from another's, throwing the fidelity approach into doubt right away. What exactly is being suggested with the word 'fidelity'? A literal translation of a text could refer to the print and the film following the same narrative path, or maybe a replication of the theme. This is where fidelity becomes a rather vague concept. A film, adapted from, say, a novel can use the same narrative techniques, or follow the same structure, as the source, and yet convey an entirely different theme. Conversely, a film could duplicate the theme of a text while presenting the story in an entirely new manner. Which adaptation is the most faithful? Brian McFarlane states that: "The critic who quibbles at failures of fidelity is really saying no more than: "This reading of the original does not tall with mine in these and these ways." (McFarlane, 1996, p9).

"Hollywood is gonna kill me by remote control."

(Philip K. Dick, on reading the first draft of Blade Runner in 1980, in Kerman, 1997, p91)

After unsuccessful attempts at becoming a mainstream novelist, Philip K Dick turned maverick pulp science fiction writer, changing both sci-fi and film adaptation indelibly. Dick dealt with concepts of human existence and morality though LSD-distorted eyes, and most of his works centre on the false dichotomy of co-dependency-versus-conflict between man and machine. As his work became more popular, and so started to cross the desks of idea-hungry film executives, his oeuvre was soon labelled 'unfilmable'. His works include Ubis (1966), A Scanner Darkly (1977) - the subject of an unseen 'spec' script by Being John Malkovich (1999) scribe Charlie Kaufman, and later adapted by auteur Richard Linklater in 2006 as a rotoscope feature, starring Keanu Reeves - and, most famously, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), which was the basis for Ridley Scott's 1982 classic, Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford.

After only partially reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Scott rejected it as being, "a brilliant piece which in book form would never make a film" (in Greenberger, 1982, p61). Ironically, the film that Scott was slated to direct at that time was an adaptation of James Herbert's lengthy tome, Dune (1965), a book that was for years branded 'unfilmable', even (or especially?) after David Lynch's 1984 adaptation. However, after reading a treatment and first draft of the screenplay for the renamed Blade Runner, Scott signed on to direct.

"[It is like] Phillip Marlowe meets The Stepford Wives."

(Philip K. Dick, in Bukatman, 1997, p20)

Supported by the above quote, an abundance of anecdotal evidence that suggests that Dick hated what Scott and screenwriter Hampton Fancher had done with later drafts of the script. However, the following quote - regarding a rewrite by David Peoples - seems to say otherwise:

"After I finished reading the screenplay, I got the novel out and looked through it. The two reinforce each other, so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel. I was amazed that Peoples could get some of the scenes to work. It taught me things about writing I didn't know."

(Philip K. Dick, in Kerman, 1997, p92)

Dick's assessment implies that the differences between the original text and the screenplay actually strengthen both the adaptation and the source text; that the creation of the latter allows the two mediums combine in some kind of intertextual coherence. One enhances the existence of the other.

Both the novel and the film have the following outline in common: a police officer named Rick Deckard is assigned to hunt and kill a group of escaped androids in future Los Angeles. Yet, the film is not considered to be faithful to the original Dick novel. Science fiction, more than any other genre, is renowned for its devout retinues, or cults. These fanatic collectives dogmatically champion the fidelity approach, and are the most vocal at any sign of divergence from their exemplar; take liberties with the adaptation and prepare for the outcry. With Blade Runner, this outcry was further exasperated by press reports of clashes between Dick and Scott over early drafts of the script and was not aided by Dick's death a matter of months before the film's release date.

The movie was, inevitably, slaughtered by most critics, with the major criticism being that it was not an accurate replication of the book.

"The filmmaker's most important failure lies... in what they... left out from the book or pointlessly downplayed."

(Kenneth Jurkiewicz, in Sammon, 1982, p24)

When the finished film was submitted to the producer, Michael Deeley - late and over-budget - he hated it, claiming that audiences would find it 'too cerebral', despite the more challenging elements of the book already being removed, and insisted that changes were made. He ordered that the ending - which inferred that Deckard himself was a replicant - be replaced with a less-ambiguous, 'happier' resolution, which was constructed using stock footage left over from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) (another adaptation, this time from the Stephen King story of the same name). He also requested a Phillip Marlowe-esque interior monologue (voiceover) be added in order to both explain the film to the audience and to soften Deckard's brooding character, despite vociferous protests from both Scott and Harrison Ford, who played Deckard. Apocryphally, so displeased was he at having been forced to record the voiceover, Ford delivered his line reads poorly on purpose in the hope that they wouldn't be used.

The film flopped on its cinema release, but later achieved cult status on video. This success justified the release of Scott's original vision for the film - Blade Runner: Director's Cut - in 1991, which restored the ending and discarded the interior monologue. This is universally-regarded as the most complete and successful incarnation of the film, and yet this version veers further away from the book than the 1982 cinema release. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? it is made clear at the conclusion that Deckard is thoroughly human; Blade Runner: Director's Cut leads the audience to strongly suspect that he is a replicant. The book and the film even carry different themes: that it is difficult to draw a line between 'real' and artificial life. In Blade Runner, Rick Deckard - our hero - falls in love with a replicant, then discovers he might be one himself; in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Deckard and his wife fail to recognise the injustice that artificial animals (pets) are valued above artificial humanoids (slaves).

According to Geoffrey Wagner (1975, p223) there are three categories of adaptation: Transposition, "in which a novel is given directly on the screen with minimum of apparent interference"; Commentary, "where an original is taken and either purposefully or inadvertently altered in some respect... where there has been a different intention on the part of the filmmaker, rather than infidelity or outright violation"; and Analogy,"which must represent a fairly considerable departure for the sake of making another work of art". But, can Transposition be used as a synonym for fidelity? Note the phrase, "minimum amount of interference". Wagner acknowledges that a text cannot be transferred to the screen without some degree of manipulation.

Simple Tips to Improve Your Nature Filmmaking

With recent advances in technology, the average person now has access to affordable digital equipment that can produce imagery on par with the most stunning commercially produced films. While digital video cameras are capable of capturing beautiful images, users need to know how to use them properly for the best results. While anybody can point a camera at a nature scene to capture great footage, nature filmmaking is not always that simple. The best filmmakers have great equipment, but they also know how to film nature so that the footage turns out spectacular more often than not. Not everyone was born with filmmaking talent, but there are some things that you can do to improve your nature filmmaking.

Perhaps the most important attribute of a skilled nature filmmaker is patience. Filmmaking in the natural world is much like hunting. Hunters are known to sit quietly and patiently in one spot for hours at a time in order to capture their quarry. Filmmakers should be prepared to do the same thing. The great thing about shooting in the digital format is that you do not need to be concerned about preserving film. As long as you have hard drive or SD card space, you can keep the camera rolling while you wait for something magical to happen. However, you do not want to spend more time than necessary editing, so try to run the camera judiciously. If you find a great location known for the presence of wildlife, you might spend a fruitless day in the woods waiting for something to happen, but your patience may also pay off with some exciting footage of wildlife.

Sometimes you simply want to capture a beautiful natural scene in a panoramic video. Panoramic videos are terrific for offering viewers a fully immersive experience. Unfortunately, many amateur nature filmmakers fail to capture panoramas properly. The most common mistake is moving the camera too quickly. While filming, you should always move the camera as slowly as you can, then try to move it even more slowly. While doing this, the lack of speed can seem excruciating, but you will end up with a much steadier shot, and a more organic-looking video of a natural scene.

If you are like many people who have begun a digital filmmaking hobby, you have probably captured some wonderful footage thus far. Thanks to the latest technology, even amateurs are capable of filming professional-looking nature films, but there is always room for improvement. If you are serious about improving your nature filmmaking, you should remember to be patient and work more slowly. Even if you feel like you know how to film nature effectively, these simple tips will improve your work significantly.