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Toolkit

Toolkit

Useful filmmaking gear, DIY Projects, and ideas for building out your kit

Most Recent Articles in "Toolkit"

Page 2

How to Prep Your Camera for a Walkaway

How to Prep Your Camera for a Walkaway

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 4

With walkaways, it’s all about being reasonably paranoid and cautiously careful that anything could happen to it while you’re not there. So by doing these 10 steps, you’ll be able to sleep easy and come to set the next morning ready to go.

Read More
Make These Quick Adjustments Everytime You Move the Camera

Take 5 Minutes to Clean Your Camera at the End of Each Day

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 0

It’s tempting to pack away gear as quickly as possible when wrap is called and get home in time to eek a few hours out of your turnaround. But if you can afford five more minutes, you should take the time to clean your camera properly.

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Be a Faster AC #11: Label Your Cases Inside & Out

Why You Should Always Use Two Latches to Close a Lens Case

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 20

When you fetch a lens from the lens case, do you use one or two latches? I fall firmly in the latter group and always — seriously, always — use two latches on the lens case. And here’s why.

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5 Useful Cinematography iPad Apps

5 Useful Cinematography iPad Apps for Filmmakers

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 17

As part of the iOS family, all of the cinematography apps available in Apple’s App Store will run on the iPad (and most are universally formatted for it), but there are a handful of iPad-specific apps. These cinematography apps will enable you to watch dailies, make shotlists, diagram lighting schemes, compare depth-of-field, and even control a camera.

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Streaming Wireless Video to an iPad with a Teradek Cube

Streaming Wireless Video to an iPad with a Teradek Cube

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 15

At this time last week, I was standing in front of a RED Epic camera watching myself watch myself on an iPad. That meta-moment was made possible by the Teradek Cube, a device enabling a video stream from the Epic to appear on the iPad in my hands with a latency of mere frames.

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Little Known Way to Make Hidden Marks for Actors Outdoors

Little Known Way to Make Hidden Marks for Actors Outdoors

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 17

Have you ever tried to use a piece of camera tape outdoors to mark an actor? It isn’t easy. Often the ground is uneven or the texture not well-suited for adhesive tape. Luckily, 1st AC Brian Andrews has a brilliantly elegant — and cheap! — solution.

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The iPad Slate iWould Use Ikan T-Slate

The iPad Slate iWould Use

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 6

The iPad, like most Apple products, is commonplace on film sets. Producers use them to watch dailies, directors use them to keep production notes, actors use them to keep themselves busy while they “hurry up and wait” and, increasingly, camera assistants are using them to slate.

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The Ultimate Guide to a Camera Assistant's Toolkit

The Ultimate Guide to a Camera Assistant’s Toolkit

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 60

Every camera assistant will have different tools depending on how they work. That’s why it’s important to peak into what other camera assistants have to offer. So I’m going to show you what I have in my toolkit today and also give you advice on what I think you should have in yours.

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Useful Cinematography iPhone Apps (Part 7)

Useful Cinematography iPhone Apps (Part 7)

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 4

For filmmakers, the right apps morph the iPhone into an indispensable part of their toolkit to help calculate everything from depth of field to overtime rates. So here are five more killer cinematography apps waiting for you to download and utilize on set.

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Be a Faster AC #11: Label Your Cases Inside & Out

Be a Faster AC #11: Label Your Cases Inside & Out

by Evan LuziToolkit

  • 2

There’s nothing worse than heading to your toolbag for something specific, opening it up, and getting lost inside. But there’s a remedy: labels. And not just in your toolbag.

Read More
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Becoming the Reel Deal eBook Cover on iPad

It Only Takes One Gig.

Becoming the Reel Deal is a free downloadable eBook written to help you get your first job on set in the camera department so you can launch your film career.

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