Learning Center







 

Thrills! Chills!

from a home movie? How anyone could be the next Steven Spielberg
   
by Mike Witherow, witherow@mail.csuchico.edu

While making a movie is something that many people are interested in, the costs involved have kept it out of the hands of most.

This is changing as new cameras, technology, and the Internet make it easy and affordable for anyone to make a high quality movie and allow the whole world to view it, regardless of how much knowledge or experience the person has. 

Digital video, the main component of this change, looks much better than the standard video a VCR uses. While not reaching the same quality as film, it doesn't cost much more than standard video and much less than film. 

Once footage is shot on digital video, getting it on the computer where it can be edited and have special effects added is almost no challenge.

From there it's just a short distance to letting anyone watch it online. Web sites such as AtomFilms and iFilm.com accept submissions from anybody and anyone in the world can watch them.

With the technology getting cheaper and better every day, anyone can become the next Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino. 

Students are just one group benefiting from this new technology. Despite having no film degree available on campus, several Chico State University students have finished or are working on movies. With the resources available to them through the school they are often able to make these movies for even less than someone making one at home.

Chico State graduate Jason Denzel was able to make a movie for only $200 and receive school credit for it. 
 
 

Interested in making your own movie but unsure how to do it? 
 
 

The amount of information on the Web is frightening at times. Here's a guide to some decent resources.