John Q. Phats Entertainment

Ever since I figured out that you can make two shots look like one, I’ve had sort of a hard on about the idea.  This short actually consists of 4 shots total.  This is just something we thought up on the spot.  I like stories that don’t really have an explanation because they don’t need one.  This is the shoot where God damn Chris moved the beer and made us shoot the entire thing all over again.  Bastard.  It actually wasn’t that bad.  Everyone knew what to do at this point, so all the shots went extremely fast.  We shot a little extra where Caine is screaming at Chris about moving the beer while doing an impression of Christian Bale yelling at that DP on the set of the new Terminator flick.  I might post that a little bit later.

So, there are several web sites that I feel I should mention that are valuable resources to any film maker.  We use all of these quite a bit and I honestly don’t know what I would do without them. 
http://www.bhphotovideo.com
If you do a google search you’ll find cameras and equipment way cheaper then here, but those are all scams.  Before you commit to buying something from a web site that seems too good to be true, go back to google and type in “(Name of web site) Scam”.  You would be surprised at how common these types of scams are.  B & H is well known and I have yet to have a problem with them.  Plus, often times their prices are cheaper then some of the other big names out there.
http://www.lacasting.com/la_home.asp
Easy to use, free registration, plus tons of actors to choose from.  A great place to get actors in the LA area.
http://www.freesound.org  
The Free Sound Project is a community that all just records or creates audio and uploads it to the site for other people to rate and download.  Create a free account and you can search the data base and download all of the royalty free audio that you want.  Only problem is, is that the community is almost too big.  Often times you have to wade through a lot of crap to find what you’re looking for.  Most of the time it’s worth it though.  If you’re looking for a specific sound effect that won’t cost, The Freesound Project is probably your best bet.
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/
For special effects we use Adobe After Effects.  It’s absolutely amazing how many quality tutorials there are on Video Copilot.  All are videos that you view, so just do what you see.  The site is so popular that a lot of the effects are a little overdone.  If you want to learn Adobe After Effects though, Video Copilot is the place.  Literally, he goes over it from beginning to end.  How you should film it and how to apply the effects once you have the footage.  Video Copilot is seriously the best tutorial site I’ve ever visited.  Every tutorial is easy to follow and quality effects.