For the longest time I was convinced you needed at least a $500 mic to get decent audio for indie shorts. I saved up and bought a used Rode NT1 for $250 and still felt like my dialogue sounded thin. Then a buddy let me borrow his $40 Behringer dynamic mic just for kicks, and I tried it on a scene we shot in a loud coffee shop last week. The background noise dropped way down and the voices cut through cleaner than with my condenser. I think I was just chasing specs online instead of matching the mic to my actual shooting environment. Has anyone else had a cheap piece of gear outperform their expensive one in a weird way?
I drove 2 hours to this abandoned mill up in Lowell last weekend to shoot a short scene. The light coming through those busted windows was INSANE, better than any diffusion I could rig up. I spent maybe $20 on gas and got 3 usable shots that look like they cost a thousand bucks. Has anyone else found a random location that just worked perfectly for their shoot?
Overheard a sound designer at the coffee shop near my editing suite saying most of those "royalty free" tracks on YouTube are actually stolen from small artists or have hidden copyright claims. He mentioned one guy who used a track from a channel with 80k subs and got hit with a $500 settlement letter. These libraries feel safe because they're free, but you're gambling with your film's release. Has anyone else gotten a nasty surprise from these?
Hey everyone, I'm working on a short film project and we need some realistic college transcripts for a close-up shot. Does anyone know a good printing service that does novelty or replica transcripts? I need something that looks totally legit on camera and won't just look like it was printed on standard printer paper.