Down and Dirty DV Anthony Q. Artis

As promised just (barely) in time for Halloween...I'm giving away my personal recipe for creating really cheap, easy and realistic bullet hole FX.

This is an early sneak preview from the upcoming narrative filmmaking book, "The Down and Dirty DV Filmmaking Guide", dropping from Focal Press next winter.

With a little modification, pretty much this same technique can be used to create all kinds of realistic looking wounds...gashes, cuts, open sores, flesh wounds, deep scrapes, festering boils, warts, vampire bites, werewolf wounds, and mongoose scratches...that's all I can think of at the moment, but you can break out the liquid latex and make-up and use your own imagination.

Happy Halloween everybody!

Earlier this summer I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Christine Evangelista for UBATV.com's filmmaking show, "The Reel" - and here it is. You can see more episodes of "The Reel" at UBATV.com.

Digging through the vast D&D vaults (a shelf and bag full of poorly labeled DV tapes) I discovered a long forgotten episode from NAB 2007 that I shot but never got around to editing.

There are a few cool tools featured here - The Red One Camera, Losmandy SpiderDolly, and the Wrist Shot amongst others. Enjoy.

In episode # 12, Stacey Parks, author of "The Insiders Guide to Independent Film Distribution" and founder of the indie distribution website, FilmSpecific.com, shares her "4 Key Aspects to a Distributable Film".

Part 2 of 2

2 years ago, I interviewed filmmaker, Pete Chatmon, while he was in the process of raising the money for his first feature film, "Premium". He raised all the money and got his film on Starz and Showtime.

Fundraising for a feature film is not just the math of putting together numbers on paper. It's also the business, social and psychological challenges of convincing people (including yourself) that you have a solid plan and the ability to execute that plan to it's fullest possibility.

Not only did Pete manage to successfully raise the money for his first feature, "Premium", he got distribution and ended up on Showtime, Starz and with DVD's sold by major retailers. Here are Pete's tips for how you can get your head right to do the same.

Part 1 of 2

2 years ago, I interviewed filmmaker, Pete Chatmon, while he was in the process of raising the money for his first feature film, "Premium". He raised all the money and got his film on Starz and Showtime.

Fundraising for a feature film is not just the math of putting together numbers on paper. It's also the business, social and psychological challenges of convincing people (including yourself) that you have a solid plan and the ability to execute that plan to it's fullest possibility.

Not only did Pete manage to successfully raise the money for his first feature, "Premium", he got distribution and ended up on Showtime, Starz and with DVD's sold by major retailers. Here are Pete's tips for how you can get your head right to do the same.