filmmaking

Two weeks out. That’s when we start rolling on The Lost Fortune of Oliver Brody. It’s hard to believe, especially with how many things are still left to do. But even with the usual pre-production chaos, I’m feeling confident. ✅ The script works. ✅ My lead actor is dialed in. ✅ My DP and the rest of the crew are rock solid. I know this is going to be a good film. But here’s what’s been keeping me up at night: I don’t want “good.” The gap nobody talks about I think…

It’s been a busy week prepping my new film so far, but I’ve made a lot of progress. So for this issue, I’m going to give you a little pre-production slice-of-life. Think of it like a ride-along for a typical few days of prepping a film. Strap in. This issue of Friday Film Notes is sponsored by: Milanote Milanote has totally transformed how I prep my film projects. Its intuitive, visual interface makes it easy to brainstorm scenes, track timelines, and collaborate with…

Toni and I stepped out of the bustling market, and into a little camera shop I’d visited the last time I was in Australia a couple years ago. She needed some film for her 35mm camera, and I wanted to look at all the old cameras inside. We went to check out, when the young guy behind the counter paused and said: “Oh, I love your YouTube channel.” Me: “Whoa, no way!” Him: “Yeah, wait… what are you doing here?” Great question. It was a weird moment because I hadn’t…

Over the past few weeks I’ve been traveling almost non-stop for family events, location scouting, and the NAB conference. After these were done, I had planned to buckle down and get this upcoming short film ready to shoot by June 2nd. I could really feel the clock ticking, we were weeks away and still had a LOT of details left to sort out. With so much of my time, energy, and money invested in this project – the last thing I wanted was a sloppy shoot. And then we…

This week Toni and I attended NAB – a huge trade show in Las Vegas for all things media and broadcast. There were hundreds of booths from familiar and new companies in the video, audio, and software side of what we do. Also attending were creative professionals, including readers of this newsletter (😍), and some fellow YouTubers. It was my first time going to NAB and I had no idea what to expect, but here some learnings I walked away with… This issue of Friday Film…

Last week, me and my DP/producer Casey flew up to Washington for our second (and final) location scout for my next short film, The Lost Fortune of Oliver Brody. Our earlier Lake Tahoe scout was a bit too rushed and ultimately proved fruitless. But this time we needed to find the place. Not inspiration. Not possibilities. Solutions. So we could lock the locations, figure out the logistics, and start budgeting. So the attitude going into this trip was: This is where…

Today my DP Casey and I flew up to Seattle for a second round of location scouting for my upcoming short film, The Lost Fortune of Oliver Brody—the one I’ve been documenting on the channel. You might remember our first scout up in Lake Tahoe. Beautiful place. Great vibes. Totally unusable. For a number of reasons we had to go back to the drawing board on our hunt for the perfect location. Since then, we’ve done a full test shoot of our shot list, black box theater…

I came across a great series of narrative writing lectures with Brandon Sanderson, the best-selling fantasy and sci-fi author. Besides being an excellent writer/storyteller, a few things make Brandon unique – he’s very entrepreneurial (creating the most-funded Kickstarter of all time for his novels), and he’s an excellent teacher. He lectures at BYU and is kind enough to put them up on his YouTube channel for all of us to enjoy for free. I’ve been soaking them up like…

The Oscars marked a victory for independent filmmakers. The lowest budget indie film in the running for the major awards (at $6M), Sean Baker’s Anora, swept the show! On top of that, the indie animated feature, Flow (budgeted at $3.7M), beat out Pixar’s Inside Out 2 ($200M) 🤯. By the way, if you haven’t seen Flow, it’s on Max right now and it’s amazing. Am I biased because I have 3 cats? Maybe… But in this issue, let’s talk about a less-examined selection of films at…

In a rush today, my DP and I are about to (hopefully) finish the first round of shot listing our upcoming short film! In the spirit of that, let’s analyze some shots from 3 of the modern masters of the language of cinema: Joel & Ethan Coen, and their trusty DP, Roger Deakins. This issue of Friday Film Notes is sponsored by: Audiio Audiio has been a game changer for finding stock music for my edits. Between their LinkMatch & Hans AI tools, you can find the perfect track for…