Low Budget Filmmaking Center

film school move to the business department

onceuponatime — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:25:53 +0000

I was talking to a friend yesterday about our college years and about the film school I went to way back then. So I thought I write a blog about it on this old filmmaking site.
I ended up telling him that I wish I had someone to shout at me way back then the words “Filmmaking is a Business!”. Of course I got into it by way of being charmed by the European Directors style of filmmaking. And of course, if I remember correctly, this was a required course for the film major back then and I had a great instructor, so naturally, I went on through film school with the delusion that modern filmmaking could be like that. No folks, in my opinion, the age of the auteur is bloody dead and has been for a long time.
The Internet may revive some of it via youtube and stuff like that (but will more likely just water it down with crap, here is a blurry film of my dog) Yes filmmaking is show business.
The art could have lived on in the “show” part, and remained a huge part of the film makers culture, but much of the show has been dissected out of it. Even modern day would be auteurs have a tough time getting their films made if they don’t fit some cookie cutter formula.
So I don’t really miss filmmaking that much. I think all the film schools and universities with a film major should just move their film studies into the business department and be done with the whole façade of pretending that there is any art left in it. Any studies of the old European directors should be moved to the history departments to be studied along with other lost cultures and kept far far away from the film studies (i.e. it should not even be a requirement.) All the prerequisites should be business things also, like sales, marketing, advertising and such. Heck there is little need to even learn to shoot and long as you can write checks.
Maybe some of the art form gets to live on in the documentary areas.
Anyway here is a youtube video for ya.

site edits and such.

onceuponatime — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:51:33 +0000

I am going through and editing out some dead links in order to improve the usefulness of the filmmaking archives of this site. I am also going to add some decent nav bars to all of that when I am done mucking around with them.
I am also adding a resources section to this site soon, so stay tuned.

No movie is ready to be previewed until these are edited in: And Things That You Would Never Know Without The Movies

onceuponatime — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:36:25 +0000

I just watched the new Resident Evil film (Extinction). It was very bad, apart from Milla Jovovich being one of the hottest gals in the whole of cinema, but I have had the hots for her since the Fifth Element days. But I found this great and funny post that one of my users compiled for a faq section back in the day that really hit the nail on the head so to speak. I thought of the new Resident Evil flick when I came across these in my archives (especially the bits about guns), so I thought that I’d recycle it to share along with the new site goodies (dale)

(From user nike_a_go_go)

No movie is ready to be previewed until these are edited in: And Things That You Would Never Know Without The Movies:

*Various Contributors

If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick’s Day parade — at any time of the year.
All beds have special L-shaped cover sheets that reach up to the armpit level on a woman but only to waist level on the man lying beside her.
All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French-Bread.
It’s easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the control tower to talk you down.
Once applied, lipstick will never rub off — even while scuba diving.
The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there, and you can travel to any other part of the building that you want without difficulty.
If you need to reload your gun, you will always have more ammunition — even if you haven’t been carrying any before now.
Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language. A German accent will do.
If your town is threatened by an imminent natural disaster or killer beast, the mayor’s first concern will be the tourist trade or his forthcoming art exhibition.
The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris.
A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.
The Chief of Police is always black.
Interbreeding is genetically possible with any creature from elsewhere in the universe.
Kitchens don’t have light switches — When entering a kitchen at night, you should open the fridge door and use that light instead.
If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange noises in their most revealing underwear.
Word processors never display a cursor on screen but will always say: Enter Password Now.
Mothers routinely cook eggs, bacon and waffles for their family every morning even though their husband and children never have time to eat it.
Cars that crash will almost always burst into flames.
A single match will be sufficient to light up a room the size of RFK Stadium.
Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.
Although in the 20th century it is possible to fire weapons at an object out of our visual range, people of the 23rd century will have lost this technology.
Any person waking from a nightmare will sit bolt upright and pant.
It is not necessary to say hello or good-bye when beginning or ending phone conversations.
Even when driving down a perfectly straight road it is necessary to turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few moments.
All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they’re going to go off.
A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.
If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.
Most laptop computers are powerful enough to override the communication systems of any invading alien civilization.
It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts — your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.
Calvin says to Hobbes, “its too bad life couldn’t be more like the movies” Then after contemplation, “But then what would we watch for entertainment?”
Always cut the Red wire!
The plastic insulation on wire conducts electricity, so you only need to twist the two wires together.
No matter where you are in Australia you will always see kangaroos, everybody drinks beer and eats prawns and has a barbie every night and we all talk in stupid accents.
The Good guys always run out of bullets before the bad guys, but the good guys still win.
Why the hell do computers and other electronic thingys always make beepie noises?
In the course of every murder investigation, you will have to visit at least one strip club.
All hand grenades are incendiary.
One guy shooting at 20 has a better chance of hitting someone than 20 guys shooting at one.
If the bad guy delivers a devastating blow to the good guy, he will wait for him to recover and not take advantage of the situation.
All hookers have a heart of gold.
Stacks of empty boxes always get in the way of a good car chase.
During a foot chase, there is always a chain link fence at the end of an alley.
Homeless people are very wise.
Good guys can operate any kind of heavy equipment.
If you kill someone’s brother, they will eventually kill you.
Loose cannons on the police force are the best cops in the world.
Terrorist only attack on Christmas.
If a baby carriage is hit during a car chase, there is never a baby in it.
When a gun runs out of ammo you should just throw it away.
An explosion in a building will send debris or people out the window, but never both at the same time.
Anyone who falls off a tall building will twist onto their back before hitting the ground.
No one ever pays attention to the construction working with the stop sign warning you that the road is out.
You will only figure out who the killer is when you’re in the room alone with him.
There’s no such thing as a good demon.
Lasers travel at the speed of sound not light.
A cell animated film must have songs.
When someone is about to crash their car, they give up on trying to steer and just cover their face.
In space there always seems to be enough air left to keep the fire burning and allow the sound to travel.
The bad guy always has to preach for as long as it takes the good guy, lying deadly wounded on the ground, to figure out some smart move in exterminating him.
The car never seems to start at first try when you are being chased.
Motorcycles seem to have an unlimited amount of gears.
And finally… A normal house door can always be lock-picked in less than 10 seconds

Original source from this site:
http://www.likeastory.com/boards/cgi/noncgi/Forum3/HTML/000017.html

zombies liquid latex and skin

onceuponatime — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:31:42 +0000

Would liquid latex be better to use, and, is it safe to apply liquid latex to the skin…? (headcheese)

(Jeff F) says:

Liquid latex sold in make up shops has most of the ammonia removed and is intended to be used on the skin.
Arts & crafts stores carry mold making latex which is cheaper because it may be a lower grade of rubber with more fillers present…
Molding latex has a problem – too much ammonia in it.
It is intended for fast drying, not skin use, so it must be de-ammoniated.
Pour some latex into a container and stir in about 1/3 the volume of water.
Let it sit uncovered, the odor is caused by the ammonia evaporating. Every so often add a bit more water until the ammonia smell is nearly gone, then seal it up tightly. It will take longer to dry but not smell so much and be irritating.
I sometimes do this with the latex sold for make up use as well.
Latex shrinks as it dries, and the more fibrous material in it, the more it shrinks.
Tissue paper or paper towel are often used to make wrinkled or peeling skin or to build up structures or wound edges, much like you would work with paper mache.
Soaking a cotton ball in latex will result in a lump that takes forever and a day to dry, shrinks tremendously, and is harder than a super ball.
The thicker the latex is, the stronger the end result will be, but the less flexible as well.
You will have to experiment to find the balance between durability and flexibility that you want.
Be careful about putting latex on your skin – it grabs onto fibers like cloth and hair and won’t let go!
You have a lot of fine, hard to see hairs on the face, backs of the hands, and arms.
Latex does not hurt when peeled off skin, but if hairs become imbedded in it, then it will be worse than tearing off a bandage.
Think along the lines of a woman waxing her armpits or bikini lines and tearing out the hair – Yee-Ouch!
Coat the skin lightly with petroleum jelly.
It will make the latex bead up a bit, but will protect the hair.
I like to spirit gum a bit of tissue over each eyebrow or coat them with derma wax before applying latex on top.
If it drips on your clothes and you don’t flood the area immediately with water, you will have an imbedded spot of rubber that will not wash out.
Liquid latex is fun, inexpensive, handy stuff.
Even when you move up to more advanced, flexible false skin materials, you’ll probably still find that you buy liquid latex by the gallon.

References from this site:
http://www.likeastory.com/boards/cgi/noncgi/Forum19/HTML/000381.html

Zombie Makeup Technique?

onceuponatime — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:08:28 +0000

Since my logs tell me lots of folks come here looking for zombie makeup techniques, I have decided to begin by bringing the likeastory old goodies on that topic into the new age with a section on Zombie Makeup: So welcome to the first post of LikeAStory 2.0. I have links to the original content and the old likeastory source material at the bottom. I will put contributors user names in parentheses as well.

(Blood_Man)
I heard you can make a zombie out of latex and tissue but how?

(Critter says):

Put the latex on a small area, no more than you can work on and finish before the latex dries.
While the latex is wet, put a piece of tissue on the surface.
You want to get the tissue pretty soaked through.
Move it around to create your wrinkles, then let it dry.
You can use a hair dryer to speed it up, but remember when the actor says it is too hot, back off.
You can start on the next area before the first area is dried.
After all the latex is dry, you can add your makeup over it.

(more…)

Over 8000 pages of filmmaking Content and discussions exist right now at this site.

onceuponatime — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:34:46 +0000

This site is getting a small make over, likeastory.com, has over 8000 plus pages of discussions on filmmaking. LikeAStory is making some efforts these days to bring some of the coolest of those goodies into the modern age (with rss feeds, and updated articles based on our old goodies. In the meantime feel free to use the search box at the home page to search the filmmaking archives to find many goodies about low budget filmmaking. LikeAstory will be cleaning up the templates of the old goodies as well to ease navigation and make them complementary to the new goodies.

Site Upgrades

onceuponatime — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:11:23 +0000

Site upgrades are underway
LikeAStory is upgrading tons of goodies. We are moving lots of elements around and content.
We will be improving our navigation elements as well as our look and feel in the coming weeks.

So if you encounter any strangeness, know that it will go away soon.