InfoGuides: FAVS 475: Advanced Fiction Directing: Create Media

Refining and Recording Media

Library resources for students creating media (for faculty services, please visit the Faculty Services Page):

One Button Studios, Fenwick Library 3111, 3102: Practice rooms for individuals or groups interested in preparing and refining oral presentations.

Other On-Campus Resources

FAVS Equipment Cage, For Film And Video Studies (FAVS), Art & Design Building, Room AB 1008: The Equipment Cage is the primary resource for film and video studies majors looking for production equipment and supplies.
For all equipment reservations, and to confirm availability, please contact gmufavs@gmail.com
Student Technology Assistance and Resource Lab (STAR), Johnson Center, Room 229: has a video production studio and media equipment rentals
Collaborative Learning Hub (CLUB), Johnson Center, Room 311
Student Video Center (SVC), For Film And Video Studies (FAVS) and Communication majors, David King Hall, Room 1011

Images & Audio for Creative Re-Use

If you're working on an artistic or creative project (whether for personal or professional/commercial uses), you may want to find images or audio on the web to remix, collage, or re-purpose in other ways.

These sites and databases provide sounds and images with public domain, creative commons, or royalty-free licenses, but be sure to verify the object's copyright status or license terms before using in your non-classroom or academic project.

Library Databases

Pro Sound Effects Library This link opens in a new window
Contains over 60,000 professional sound effects for high definition media production. Includes Sonopedia, Hybrid, and Liminal Void collections. Liminal Void collection purchased with funds from the John F. and Kathleen M. Kehoe Film and Video Studies Endowment.

Web Resources

Archives.org (Prelinger Archives)
Prelinger Archives holds approximately 11,000 digitized and videotape titles (all originally derived from film) and a large collection of home movies, amateur and industrial films acquired since 2002. About 65% of the Archive's holdings are in the public domain. Check the licensing on each film to see if it is under public domain or has a Creative Commons License.
Creative Commons
Search for Creative Commons-licensed images, including images available for commercial uses or for remix/creative reuse.
Flickr: the Commons
Images from public photography archives from both US and International institutions. Good for historic photographs of people and places.
Free Music Archive
Database of music under creative commons license
NASA Images and Video Library
NASA's image library. Please read their image use policies before use in commercial projects: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html
Netlabels
This collection hosts complete, freely downloadable/streamable, often Creative Commons-licensed catalogs of 'virtual record labels'.
Smithsonian Open Access
At Smithsonian Open Access, you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking!
Wikimedia Commons
A collection of 35,137,374 freely usable media files

Local Film Offices

State film offices can help you discover locations and provide information and resources for filming in that state.

Guides, Handbooks, and Tutorials

The library has hundreds of guides on different aspects of the film industry, both physically and online. Here are some databases and e-books to get you started!

Databases:

LinkedIn Learning This link opens in a new window
Formerly Lynda Online Training. Provides Mason faculty, students and staff with free, unlimited online access to tutorials and courses in hundreds of subject areas, including office productivity; audio, video, and web software; as well as business and job skills. New courses are added every week. Log in with your Mason NetID username and password. LinkedIn Learning is available 24/7 from your computer, tablet or mobile device, and is supported jointly by Mason's ITS Learning Support Services and the University Libraries.

E-Books:

Casting Revealed by Hester Schell
ISBN: 113894534X
Publication Date: 2016-09-07
Casting is an essential component of any film or video project, but the core skill-set needed to cast effectively is little understood. Casting Revealed: A Guide for Film Directors is a straightforward manual on the art and craft of casting.
Directors Tell the Story by Bethany Rooney; Mary Lou Belli
ISBN: 9781138952102
Publication Date: 2016-04-12
Move over, movies: the freshest storytelling today is on television, where the multi-episodic format is used for rich character development and innovative story arcs. Directors Tell the Story offers rare insight and advice straight from two A-list television directors whose credits include NCIS, Nashville, Criminal Minds and many more.
Film Directing Fundamentals by Nicholas T. Proferes
ISBN: 9781138052918
Publication Date: 2017-07-14
Film Directing Fundamentals gives the novice director an organic methodology for realizing on-screen the full dramatic possibility of a screenplay. Using the script as a blueprint, the reader is led through specific techniques to analyze and translate its components into a visual story. A sample screenplay is included that explicates the techniques discussed.
Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video by Peter W. Rea; David K. Irving
ISBN: 0415732557
Publication Date: 2015-03-23
Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video, Fifth Edition is the definitive book on the subject for the serious film student or beginning filmmaker. Its unique two-fold approach looks at filmmaking from the perspectives of both the producer and director, and clearly explains how their separate roles must work together to create a successful short film or video.
Writing, Directing, and Producing Documentary Films and Digital Videos, Fifth Edition by Alan Rosenthal; Ned Eckhardt
ISBN: 0809334585
Publication Date: 2015-12-23
In a new edition of this popular guidebook, filmmakers Alan Rosenthal and Ned Eckhardt show readers how to utilize the latest innovations in equipment, technologies, and production techniques for success in the digital, web-based world of documentary film.