Hey all,

I got an email recently about a competition for filmmakers. It sounds pretty cool, you should check it out, along with the site!

Last month, Shooting People pulled out all the stops to encourage their filmmakers to enter Mofilm's Barcelona Ad Competition. It paid off, with eight Shooting People members winning prizes, two coming top and one winning the Grand Prize; this filmmaker is now off to make an ad with ‘Avatar’ producer Jon Landau.

As one competition ends, another opens - this time, winners will be flown to New York for Tribeca Film Festival and pick up a host of cash prizes. To enter, filmmakers must make an ad of less than 90 seconds for one of six brands including Nokia, Nature Valley and Best Buy.

Mofilm have again offered Shooting People members an EXCLUSIVE OFFER - all members who enter go into a draw to win a fabulous Macbook. Not a member? No problem. Claim your free trial membership atshootingpeople.org/mofilm.

DEADLINE: 6 April 2010

Best Free Filmmaking Software

Indy productions generally don't have big budgets, and there are a lot of aspiring filmmakers who don't have thousands to blow on the latest Adobe software. Here's Indy Burst's list of free alternatives!

Video Editing:

Jahshaka
http://jahshaka.org/

Wax 2.0
http://www.debugmode.com/wax/
(mainly for effects, but can be used for editing)

Virtual Dub
http://www.virtualdub.org/

t@b Video Editor
http://www.zs4.net/downloads?PHPSESSID=bb92fba60aa136f8dda73ff4a4c283b9

Photo Editing

Gimp
http://www.gimp.org/

Paint.NET
http://paint.net/

Audio

Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Script Writing (Pre-Production)

Celtx
http://celtx.com/

Video Effects

Wax 2.0
http://www.debugmode.com/wax/

Jashaka
http://jahshaka.org/

3D Animation

Blender
http://www.blender.org/

Bryce
http://download.cnet.com/Bryce/3000-6677_4-10696716.html?tag=mncol

Most of these are available for download from Cnet's Download.com aswell.

Though for the most part you won't get the same quality as the pros using the thousand dollar software, these are all great alternatives, that are FREE!
indy filmmaking

DIY $25 Lightkit

In this great Indy Mogul video, they cover how to make a $25 light kit, and the basics of lighting in video.



The video gives a great explanation of 3 point lighting, mood lighting, and free lighting (aka the sun). It also gives examples, which are helpful when describing the mood lighting.

Very cheap, very good ideas, and a great tutorial!