Film Northants is an award-winning not-for-profit short film festival based in Northamptonshire. The festival aims to nurture, showcase and promote the talent of local people and to raise the county’s profile.

Amateur and professional film-makers of all ages are invited to take part by entering a film of no more than five minutes, which must be filmed in Northamptonshire.

Film Northants 2012 is now open to entries. Films may be entered into the adult category or the Under 16s category. Films must be no more than five minutes in length and must be shot in Northamptonshire.

Films may be any genre – however since the festival is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year it is giving film-makers the option of using the theme of five in their short film if they wish.

The shortlisted films from all the Film Northants entries will be screened at a red carpet awards ceremony at Cineworld, Northampton on September 17th 2012. Prizes include free studio hire, vouchers, movie merchandise and a place on a film course.

for more info go to http://filmnorthants.co.uk/2011.aspx

2012 awards include:

Rotary Club Under 16s award

Public Vote award (adult category only)

Judges’ Choice award (under 16s or adult category

Anniversary award (under 16s or adult category using the theme of five)

Deadline: Noon, August 5th 2012.

Rules

1. Maximum length of film is five minutes

2. The film must be shot in Northamptonshire

3. A film may be submitted by a group or individual

4. Only one entry per group or individual is allowed

5. The film must be an original piece of work and copyright must be obtained for images or music by other artists

6. The film must be made between August 15th 2011 and August 5th 2012

7. The film must be submitted by uploading it to You Tube or Vimeo and emailing the URL to entries@filmnorthants.co.uk

8. The film may be any genre, fiction or non-fiction and may be an animation or computer generated film

9. Each film will be judged on its own merit and age and experience will be taken into consideration

10. Film Northants must receive your film no later than noon on August 5th 2012

11. Films that opt to include the theme of five will be considered for the Anniversary Award as well as the other awards

How to Enter

Upload your film to You Tube or Vimeo and email the URL to entries@filmnorthants.co.uk with your name and a brief outline of the film

If the film meets the required rules it will be posted on the Film Northants website

A panel of judges will draw up a shortlist of films and those in the adult category will be put to a public vote

The shortlisted films in the under 16s and adult category will be screened at Cineworld, Northampton on September 17th at a red carpet awards ceremony.

Here we will be adding all different types of news both exclusive to NFMG and linked from other sites where we see fit.

there has been a lot of news recently with other bloggers updating there sites with new designs, blogs, information etc. if there is something you would like to see on NFMG please do get in touch as we can look into this for you as we dont want to let our subscribers down.

if you wish to write, submit, upload anything please do get in touch as we are always looking for new contributors, this is no pay for this as we do not get anything from the website at present but you will be aiding others in learning

Have you been wishing that you could automatically sync projects like these in FCP X? With PluralEyes, now you can. (Click the image to see a larger version.)

You can pledge here > Kickstarter Pledge Link

Want to add a little drama the next time your baby does something YouTube-worthy? Coupled with any video-capable DSLR, this cheap follow focus can help you create Spielberg-like camera moves without a Dreamworks-sized budget.

What’s a follow focus? It’s basically a tool that makes focus adjustments smoother and more precise while recording video. When shooting stills, jerking around a lens’ focus ring to quickly get the shot is just fine. But when you’re capturing video, you want the transition between focal points to be as smooth as the glass in the lens. And that’s exactly the results you’ll get from the lever and pulley system used here.

Full size
Now I usually avoid Kickstarter projects that aren’t already well on their way to their funding goal, but what’s unique about this device is that its creator, Wiley Davis, is already producing them in his garage. He just needs a little extra cash to ramp up production and bring the price down to $50, which is an absolute steal.

Pledges start at $60, which gets you a follow focus assembly with a belt and pulley designed for standard SLR lenses. But if you need something a little more pro, $75 gets you the hardware to accommodate larger lenses too.

This film was shot in 1 day over a weekend, edited down within the week and submitted to the Film Northants 2011 festival which it won 2nd place.

How to Use a Light Meter – an Excellent Cinematography Tutorial from Ryan E. Walters

This site has covered light meters in the past but this video by Ryan E. Walters is too good not to share. In the video, Ryan elucidates very well how and why to use a light meter (his pick: the Sekonic L-758C). People pay good money for tutorials of this caliber, so thanks to Ryan for sharing this video for free. Very helpful stuff for DPs:

More info on Ryan’s site below. But first, a bonus! Here’s his tutorial for lighting a scene at ISO 800 (which is the native ISO of RED cameras, the ARRI ALEXA, and the Sony F3 if I’m not mistaken):