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What is Cinematic Virtual Reality with Jason Diamond Is Virtual Reality the next big step in visual storytelling? Steven Spielberg said: “I think we’re moving into a dangerous medium with virtual reality. The only reason I say it is dangerous is because it gives the viewer a lot of latitude not to take direction from the storytellers but make their own choices of where to look. I just hope it doesn’t forget the story when it starts enveloping us in a world that we can see all around us and make our own choices to look at” I wanted to understand more about Virtual Reality and what impact it could have (or is having) on the world of cinema. This week I have Virtual Reality expert Jason Diamond from SuperSphere VR on the show. The Diamond Brothers, Josh and Jason Diamond, own SUPERSPHERE VR a virtual reality production company based in Los Angeles. They build VR rigs for a number of clients from Fortune 500 companies to major studios and independent films. They follow the projects through from planning to shooting to post and in the past 18 months they have delivered more than 30 full VR projects. Some of their most recent, notable projects have been for New York Fashion Week and the Minnesota Twins (See Below). Enjoy my interview with Jason Diamond.

I had the pleasure of meeting Joshua Caldwell, a brother in "indie filmmaking" arms. He directed a $6000 feature film called LAYOVER, which World Premiered at the 2014 Seattle International Film Festival where it was nominated for the New American Cinema Award. The story of how he made the film was education, rebellious and funny. Many things he said mirrored my experience making This is Meg. Josh really has a great philosophy about making films and content. Check out the trailer below to see what a $6000 feature film in today's world looks like. If you are going to make a feature film in the near future you need to listen to this podcast. It will change how you think about making indie films. Below, I also included a talk the Josh Caldwell did at the Seattle International Film Festival that is AWESOME! After you listen to the podcast watch the video below.

So what is a Scriptment? I found it to be a liberating form of prepping a story to be filmed? When I was in pre-production on my first feature film This is Meg, I wanted to get into production as fast as I could without waiting to develop a full screenplay. I’ve written a few screenplays in the past and as any screenwriter will tell you, it ain’t easy. So I found inspiration from filmmakers like Mark Duplass, Joe Swanberg, Lynn Shelton, and the Godfather of independent film John Cassavetes. According to Justin Ladar (writer of Mark Duplass’ The One I Love), he defines a scriptment as follows: “Basically a full script minus a lot of the dialogue…If you take away exterior or interior sluglines, it reads like a short story.” He explains what it was like working with Mark on The One I Love: “What would happen is that I would script [the dialogue in] a scene the night before or while the crew was prepping. [The cast] would get the pages and they would see just from a pacing standpoint [what needs to happen and when].”

E&O Insurance, Music Rights, and Copyright Oh My! So after last week's huge success of the "Ask Alex" segment, I decided to bring it back this week. The IFH Tribe filled my inbox with tons of amazing questions, which I'll try to cover in future episodes. If you have a question that you would like for me to answer on a future episode of the podcast just email them to ifhsubmissions@gmail.com and I'll do my best to answer them. This week we have a bunch of question from tribe member Jake from Australia. Here are the questions I answered in this week's podcast: What happens if I'm shooting guerrilla style and accidentally catch a sign in the background or someone is wearing a brand logo in a shot? What is E&O Insurance (Errors and Ommissions) exactly? How does E&O Insurance work? Where are the best deals for E&O Insurance? What do you do if you want to use Licensed Music? What things might arise if using a track (or tracks)? What can copyrighting your film cost you?

This week we have Zak Knutson on the show. Zak is a producer/writer/director/editor based out of Los Angeles. In 2005 he co-founded Chop Shop Entertainment, a filmed entertainment company that supplies added value materials to all of the major studios, and a large number of independents. Chop Shop Entertainment has supplied more movie based content for the internet than any other company in the industry. The last Chop Shop project was Milius, a documentary on Hollywood rebel John Milius. The film opened at the SXSW Film Festival in 2013. The film also played at the Telluride Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. In 2014 Knutson directed Marvel 75: From Pulp to Pop for Marvel and ABC Television. Zak Knutson directed "Shock the World" a documentary about Jesse Ventura's path from professional wrestler to governor of Minnesota. Shock the World premiered April 2015 at the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival. His latest film Supercon starring Maggie Grace, Clancy Brown, Ryan Kwanten, Mike Epps and John Malkovich. Here's the logline: A rag-tag group of former TV stars and comic book artists, who make their living working at conventions, decide to steal the loot from a crooked promoter and an overbearing former TV icon. Enjoy my entertaining and funny interview with Zak Knutson.

Please note: Throwback Fridays are archival episodes from the Indie Film Hustle Podcast. After many requests from the IFH Tribe to bring back some of the show's best episodes I decided to create Throwback Fridays. These episodes will not be posted every week but at least twice a month...if not more. There's so much amazing info and knowledge bombs in many of these past episodes and I don't want them to be lost in the sea of IFH Content so I'll be putting a spotlight on them in Throwback Fridays. Enjoy! Wakaliwood - Introducing Uganda's Quentin Tarantino Isaac Nabwana Imagine you were back in the early 1900’s, when the film industry was a newborn. People were learning and experimenting with the new technology of moving pictures. Craftsmen were excited about discovering new ways of creating art with this powerful and amazing new technology. You would think that could never be recreated in todays high tech world but you would be mistaken. May I introduce you to Wakaliwood. A remarkable filmmaker by the name of Isaac Nabwana from Ramon Film Productions has created the Ugandan film industry, almost single handily without having any of the filmmaking knowledge or updated filmmaking technology.

So this episode is going to be fun. I'm starting a new segment I call "Ask Alex." Yes, I know it's very creative = ) I asked the IFH Tribe to submit questions to ifhsubmissions@gmail.com and I'll do my best to answer them. This week we have a bunch of question from tribe member Kenny from Sweden. Here are the question I answer in the podcast. Which is the best type of camera to buy for your first feature that is cheap? (DSLR or anyone else. Also including lenses or where you can use one lens?) Which is the most important person to hire, a DP or a sound guy for a film? I´ve heard both. Some say good footage and others good sound. If you don´t have English as your first language should you make your films in your own language since it is your mother tongue or in English(If you know how to speak of course) to reach a bigger market since more people understands and speak English? Which format is best to use for the finished film? (I know you had a podcast about this but I want to hear your personal opinion) Which part of post cost most money on of following things, sound, colorist or foley. I think it is in that order. Is that correct? How much of the budget should you save for post-production in your opinion? Should you do this and if so the best ways to send an edited film over the internet for sound editing and colorization and maybe name a few companies that do this for small independent films. Would you be interested in doing that? What do you say about moving to LA to be a filmmaker if you come from another country? (You had a podcast about that but I am thinking based on an international perspective from a foreigner)

On this week's episode, I go way to a simpler time, the 90s, and discuss the lessons we can learn from some filmmaking legends. I'll discuss films by Robert Rodriguez, Christopher Nolan, and Richard Linklater to break down and learn the techniques they used to make awesome, No-Budget Feature films with limited resources. "In no-budget filmmaking, your limitations are your guide." If you take note of what filmmakers did before you, you can jump start your filmmaking career. Enjoy!

Now before I get a bunch of hate mail please let me explain. I love cinematographers. You can't make a movie without one and I don't take their craft lightly. This is one of the reasons I wanted to do this podcast. Being a DP is by far one of the toughest positions on set. The pressure is immense. With that said the explosion of low-cost cameras (RED Camera, Blackmagic, Canon 5D, Nikon, iPhones, etc) and lighting gear has thrown a huge amount of "cinematographers" into the marketplace. This podcast is a warning to young and inexperienced filmmakers not to hire, not only a director of photography, but any top level crew member solely because they own some of the latest cool gear.

In this week’s episode, we have Steve Stockman. Steve is an author/writer/director/producer at Custom Productions, Inc. in Los Angeles. He’s created and Executive Produced tv series Brew Dogs for the new Esquire Network, Dogs of War for A&E, Devils Ride for Discovery Channel and $24 in 24 for Food Network; plus worked on over 200 commercials, music videos, and web series. He also wrote and directed a film called Two Weeks starring legendary Oscar® Winning Actress Sally Field. His book, How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck, is now in its 6th printing from Workman Publishing. It’s based on a course he’s been teaching to kids for the last 14 years, but adults understand it as well. “Like two years of film school in 248 pages.” – Steven Pressfield, Author of The War of Art and The Legend of Bagger Vance

Please note: Throwback Fridays are archival episodes from the Indie Film Hustle Podcast. After many requests from the IFH Tribe to bring back some of the show's best episodes I decided to create Throwback Fridays. These episodes will not be posted every week but at least twice a month...if not more. There's so much amazing info and knowledge bombs in many of these past episodes and I don't want them to be lost in the sea of IFH Content so I'll be putting a spotlight on them in Throwback Fridays. Enjoy! Do I Need to Move to Los Angeles to Make it in the Film Business? So you want to move to Los Angeles and make it big in Hollywood. The question is should you? Do you need to? When should you if you do? What kind of plan should I have in place? What should you do if you live in another country? All will be answered in this episode. My journey to Los Angeles is a long and painful one, as I'm sure it is for many. The first time I attempted to leave my small pond of Miami, FL and make a go of it in Los Angeles I had my butt handed to me. Los Angeles ate me alive and I had over $300 in parking tickets. Rough! I went back to Miami with my tail between my legs. It took me six years before I would make another attempt but this time I sold my house in Florida and almost everything I owned and had my girlfriend (my wife now) in tow.

The Six Stages of Character Development with Michael Hauge This week we have a returning guest, screenwriting guru Michael Hauge. On this episode, he discussed The Six Stages Character Development. A very eye opening episode. Check it out.

Post Production Process: Understand It or Suffer the Consequences Filmmaking is a long process and is divided into three stages. The first stage is pre-production stage, the second one is production, and the last one is post-production stage. In this podcast episode, I go into each of the following steps and add a few bonus ones as well.

This is a special edition of the IFH Podcast. We have for you a rare interview by Stanley Kubrick. A 37-year-old Kubrick sits down and speaks with Jeremy Bernstein. It's a remarkable look into the beginnings of the filmmaking master. Enjoy!

I've recently been looking and studying alternative shoot methods to shoot a feature film. One name that keeps coming up is Sean Baker. His ground-breaking film Tangerine made more noise at the Sundance Film Festival than the winner that year. The film was also produced by the indie film legends, Jay and Mark Duplass. Tangerine was shot completely on an iPhone. Yes, an iPhone. The great thing was that after his Sundance screening no one in the audience or at the film festival knew that the film was shot on an iPhone. What I respect about Sean Baker as a filmmaker is that he didn't focus on the technology when promoting his film, he let the story, actors and film speak for itself. If you haven't seen Tangerine you are missing out. Take a look at the RED BAND trailer below. I wanted to put together a post that highlighted what can be done with minimal filmmaking tech and a great story. Sean Baker has definitely what can be done in today's filmmaking world. Below are a ton of videos explaining the process Sean Baker and his director of photography Radium Cheung, HKSC went through making Tangerine, as well as a bunch of video explaining tips and tricks on how to turn your something you shot on an iPhone into cinematic gold. Enjoy my conversation with Sean Baker.