Appear in "Return of the Ghostbusters"

Be in the film!

Can't make it to Denver? Still want to be in the most anticipated fan film of the year?

Here's how to be in the film, without leaving the comfort of your own home. First, you need to have access to a digital camera--a high end camera. Meaning this camera needs to have three chips (3CCD), as well as 24P (24 frames per second, progressive scan). The top cameras I recommend are the Canon XL2 or the Panasonic DVX100. There are other options, but I leave that up to you. Don't worry about sound, we don't need it. Make sure you use a tripod or we can't use your stuff.

Now, you want to film yourself and whoever else is appearing in the film with you in front of a television. Position the frame so that the TV set is in the foreground, with you and your buddy, dog, guitar, or just yourself sit in the background looking towards the television. Check this storyboard for what I'm talking about:

The frame can vary a bit, but this gives you an idea of what I'm looking for. Now what the people in the scene need to do is act like they're watching television. Only something really amazing happens--like the Saints just won the Superbowl. Or lightning just struck a truck full of propane that was parked next to an elementary school. You know, shocking stuff.

Once you have your footage shot, you need to capture it to a computer (or a Mac if you're one of those "types") and burn a high res file straight to DVD. I mean a data file here--don't render it out as a mpeg or other compression. AVI uncompressed is the best. Or better yet, just mail me the tape!

Your footage will appear in the film if you meet the following criteria:

1) You used a 3CCD camera in 24p mode (16x9 preferred).

2) You lit your scene well. Search google for three point lighting for film and video if you don't know how.

3) Your framing is good.

4) Your footage gets to me uncompressed. You can mail me a DVD or FTP the data straight to my server. The best way would be for you to just mail me your MiniDV tape.

5) Your footage gets to me before September 2006.

Now some of you might not be able to meet some of this criteria, but if your footage doesn't look good enough to fit in the film, I'm not going to use it. Plus you have about six months to figure it out, borrow or steal a camera, learn how to light and frame (this can be learned for free on the net) and get your footage in!