Episode 009 - Get Your Heart Torn Out, Depth of Field, and the Mafia!

Ryan gets a threatening e-mail, explains the heart-rip effect and depth of field, and the mafia comes after Josh.

Episode Run-time: 09:41

Ripping Out Heart Effect

 * Difficulty: Easy
 * Needs:
 * Bowl
 * Fake blood
 * Chunk of meat
 * Shirt
 * Cost: $20
 * 1) Take a bowl and fill it with the meat and the fake blood.
 * 2) Now take the shirt and stretch it across something, e.g. a ladder. Cut a hole in the shirt just big enough for your actor to get their hand and the meat to go through.
 * 3) With the bowl on the inside of the shirt, have your actor punch through the hole and pull out the meat and rip it through.
 * 4) Get a side angle of your two actors and have one actor punch pass the actor wearing a matching shirt on the side away from the camera.
 * 5) Get another shot from the same position where the "organ pilfering actor" already has the heart in hand covered in blood. On action, have them whip their hand back as though they have just ripped out the heart.
 * 6) By cutting these shots together, you have a convincing "heart-ripping" effect.

Quick Tip: Shallow Depth of Field
If you are shooting with a digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR), you do not need a special adapter.

If you are shooting with a dedicated camcorder, however, you can get shallow depth of field using a 35mm adapter such as the Letus35 Mini. But DOF adapters can be really expensive. While you can build a 35mm adapter, it still cost quite a bit, and you will need to buy a lens to go with it.

There are ways of getting shallow depth of field without a 35mm DOF adapter or having to shell out for a DSLR.
 * 1) Set your iris (aperture) to the lowest number possible. For example, if the front of the camcorder says 1:1.8, your lowest iris number is F1.8. Remember, the lower the iris/aperture number, the more light your camera will pick up, and the more shallow your depth of field will be.
 * 2) Move your camera as far away from your actor as possible, then zoom in. While this does cause the background behind your actor to blur, it will appear as though the background is closer than it should be. Plus, you will definitely need to consider getting external audio for your actor.

Trivia
Ryan's mafia comrade is none other than Todd Bruno, the star of Ryan's short film "Tell."

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