Training
Review: Visual Effects for Directors, Pg. 3
Additionally, HCW has included a number free downloads from their website to further increase the reusability. Amongst the things you can download are: distortion grids (used to measure the distortion of wide angle lenses), full background plates for greenscreen compositing (which normally are either very expensive or are unavailable), and a few other useful elements.
Besides traditional uses of greenscreen, Per and his team show you how to replicate extras cleverly. Their demo with a single extra gives you a hint of what you could do with just ten or fifteen people..
Value vs. Cost
Considering most training manufacturers charge more than
$330 for training packages that are far less robust , I
think the price point for this series is extremely reasonable.
However, for a limited time, Per and the folks at HCW are
giving readers of MFM a 30%
discount on the training! At that price, if you even
think you might want to incorporate visual effects into
one of your films, then you owe it to yourself to pick up
this set. (In fact, you might actually be able to get professional
visual effects artists to work on your no-budget film at
cut rates if they understand that you've gone through this
training. I know of a lot of Hollywood directors who don't
understand these principles, so those VFX artists might
very well be willing to do work on your film because they
know it'll be properly set up and require much less labor
on their part.)
Overall Comment If you have ever wanted to make a film that has special and visual effects in it, then you owe it to yourself to get Hollywood Camerawork's new series, Visual Effects for Directors. Normally, I might suggest putting it on your wish list for Christmas. However, with the limited time 40% discount that HCW is running right now, if you have the spare cash, then the smart money is to go ahead and order it now! (That, or you can tell your loved ones that now would be the perfect time to pre-order your Christmas gift and refer them to this review!)
Comprehension
10.0
Depth
of Information
10.0
Interest
Level
10.0
Reusability
10.0
Value
vs. Cost
10.0
Overall Score
10.0
The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films,
Jeremy Hanke
founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted.
