Tips - JFDI Studios

October 3, 2017

Royalty Free Music for your Videos

One of the first things you will discover when uploading your videos to YouTube / Vimeo / etc is that if you have used Copyright music, you won’t be able to monetise those videos.

You will receive Copyright infringement notices, and in some cases your videos will be taken down by YouTube as you don’t have the rights to use the music in the video.

Fear not however as there are many sources of Royalty Free Music on the internet. Sites such as AudioBlocks can be a great source of sound effects as well as music. Personally, I use Artlist.IO for most/all of my backing tracks as their selections are fresh and regularly updated, and at $199/year the price is right too.

Even better, if you sign up using this referral link, you’ll get 2 months for free! (and I benefit too!) .. which is not to be sneezed at!

So go check out artlst.io today and tell them we sent you! 🙂

August 14, 2017August 14, 2017

Backing up with Backblaze

Backblaze offers remote backup services. The 3-2-1 rule of backup is an essential step to ensure your images and footage are kept safe

Why You Should Backup Your Files

In today’s fast-paced world, backing up your files is of the utmost importance. Typically music, movies, films, data files, projects, and photos are all stored in one place – your computer. Laptops and desktops have decreased in cost, and the amount of storage inside them has increased greatly over the last few years. Unfortunately having all of your data in only one place is dangerous.

Computer loss, theft, natural disaster, and accidental deletion, are just some of the ways that you can lose the data you’ve spent so long creating and accumulating. The only way to prepare for the unexpected is to have a good backup strategy in place. There are many different ways to backup your computers, and using multiple forms of backup will minimize the risk of ever losing your valuable files.

Get a Free Trial of Backblaze today

March 9, 2017March 2, 2017

Getting your scifi script off to the right start

A trope is a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression or a significant or recurrent theme; a motif.

Sci-Fi is a wonderful genre, full of story–telling possibilities as endless as the stars themselves. This is true from both a science and fiction standpoint. Far too often however science fiction films rely on the same tried and true methods to keep the audience entertained. This in not necessarily a bad thing, it makes science fiction more accessible to a wider audience. A few years ago science fiction was not as mainstream as it is today. After the success of Star Wars (1977) that all changed

Matt Loggie at raindance talks about the 7 tropes you should use to get your SciFi script off the ground

March 5, 2017March 2, 2017

4 Tips for Success on Film Sets

Brenden Shipman provides some useful insight and tips on how to survive on a film set, especially if this is your first time there!

In his article you’ll learn when to express an opinion, how important the right attitude is to getting the job done and how important it is to listen and when to ask questions.

Following these tips is the first step to elevating your status on set. Remember that popularity can go a long way in this business and you never know who has a job waiting for you one day. With experience comes the confidence of a hardened motion picture technician, worry not you will get there!

March 3, 2017March 2, 2017

Using your camera stabilisation feature

Image Stabilization, or IS, is somewhat standard on most newer cameras and lenses and allows you to shoot at slower shutter speeds (usually two settings slower) than you would be able to without it. However, what are its limitations, when should it be used, and in what shooting situations? In this short video from Adorama, photographer David Bergman explains how the image stabilization feature works on your gear, as well as what you should know about turning it on to make your shots more steady.

This article over at NoFilmSchool goes into the detail and cover some of the gotchas that you should look out for!

March 2, 2017March 2, 2017

6 tips for photographers who want to make films

Though photography and filmmaking are very similar crafts there are definitely inherent technical and artistic differences, and if you’re a photographer looking to get your cinematic feet wet, you might want to learn a few of them. In this video from Mango Street, videographers from White in Revery share some tips on how to make the transition from photographer to filmmaker a little more smooth, as well as what to look out for when capturing moving images. Check out the video and full article over at NoFilmSchool

February 19, 2017February 17, 2017

Scene Transistions

The Royal Ocean Film Society’s video essay on Transitions and the work of David Lean is an emotive view of how to make your edits and cuts better.
This is well worth watching a few times to soak up the real benefits and skill of this master of the edit