Some filming and budgeting tips.
(I've filmed a bunch of videos for clipteez, so I have some experience)
Filming:
- Film in landscape
- Get your shutter times in order to match the frequency of the lighting. Nothing more annoying than having lights flicker in the video.
- Film with at least 2 cameras, 1 static somewhere, one handheld. The handheld is basically your leading camera, but if you move too quick, or you film something outside the scene, you can switch back to the static camera.
- Use image stabilizers, like a gimbal, or attach something heavy to the camera. This prevents a shaky image where everything gets blurry. Practice to get a stable hand.
- Lighting. You can never have too much light. Too much light = ISO values down = crisper image. If the girl is away from the wall, put a light on the floor, beaming up, to illuminate her from behind. It makes the outlines of her hair shine.
- Audio is important. The buit-in microphone of a camera is usually very poor. Best is to get a handheld voice recorder device, which you can later sync up with the video. The advantage of those things is that you can put it close to the actors, hidden behind a small object.
- Beware of reflective surfaces, like glass or mirrors. You don't want the camera to be shown.
Budgeting
- Don't blow your budget on camera's. They're all good these days, unless you really want to go cinema style, but that blows the budget by quite a bit.
- Filming with more actresses makes the video more popular, but the more people involved, the more people need to be paid. For example. A 10 minute video of a solo girl may result in $1000 of sales. A 10 minute video of 2 girls may result in $1250 of sales, but now you have double the costs for the actresses. In my case, this was never worth it.
- Use real sets. Go outside, you can film stuff outside, commercial/industrial buildings are often abandoned in the weekend. You don't need to go nude there, you can film inside later, but it's an easy way to create a setting for the story. Do some scouting outside.
- Come up for a plan against piracy. Your videos will get stolen if they're popular enough. I know clipteez has a pretty good scare tactic to prevent that, but it's not watertight. I don't know how other sites deal with that.
- Create something that people will want more of, and return to get the latest. For example, if you make a 2 hour movie, and you sell it in one go, you'll get your money once, and that's it. If you split it up in multiple parts, you create a reason for people to come back to your videos. And if you create more stories, those people already know the way to you, and won't easily forget you, so they're more likely to buy the next video as well.
Content
- This is a lot of personal preference, but be aware of what the audience wants to see. For me it's simple: I want to see boobs. But I can't see that if there's a guy on top of her.
- My experience is that you don't want to break the immersion of a film. If someone starts laughing, breaks the 4th wall, or you accidentally hit something when filming, or you film your equipment, that all tells you it's just a recording, fake, or disengenious. It's personal, but this bothers me with a lot of things.
- If you want to make short scenes, like 10 minute clips. Make a list of what you want to shoot, gather your props for it. If you get it all streamlined, you can shoot 2 videos per hour. Do that for 6 hours (you'll be burned up by then), you got 12 pieces of content in a day, IF you plan it out right.
I will think of more ideas and let you know. Any questions, just ask.
