Entertainment

Screen Time

Everything You Need to Shoot a Movie

We’re the Millers. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. The Smurfs 2. These are the cinematic tours de force you have to look forward to this month. Translation: August movies are bad and it’s time to take filmmaking matters into your own hands. Here’s how you take filmmaking matters into your own hands.

THE PROPS

A Warehouse Full of Fake Things

You Require: Enough stunt pads, taxidermied alligators, prop machetes and leather vests to bring Paul Hogan out of retirement.
You’ll Receive: All of that stuff—plus whatever else you care to demand from the same prop house that supplies Mad Men and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

THE CAST

A Stable of Famous Actors. Sort Of.

You Require: Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg and maybe President Obama for a cameo.
You’ll Receive: Their impersonators. Supplied by a company with about 40 years of experience in the celebrity doppelgänger game. Side note: they’ll also rent you the real Pauly Shore. Just something to think about...

THE CAMERA

The Right Way to Film on an iPhone

You Require: A high-quality camcorder equipped for extreme close-ups, wide-angle panoramics and David Lynch–style dream sequences.
You’ll Receive: This iPhone 5 case made of aircraft-grade aluminum that houses four different lenses—zoom, macro, wide-angle, fisheye—and right now, it’s 22% off via UD Perks. And they said you couldn’t keep the film under budget...

THE... CHAIR

A Really, Really Nice Director’s Chair

You Require: A seat worthy of your directorial vision, whereupon you may comfortably shout demands for more energy and passion from Nicolas Cage.
You’ll Receive: This Rolls-Royce of director’s chairs, handmade from vegetable-tanned Italian leather and yacht-worthy teakwood. Spielberg wishes he had one.

THE CLAPBOARD

This Is How You Start a Scene

You Require: A slate, shot log, notepad, timecode sync—and most importantly, one of those clapboards you need whenever you say “action.”
You’ll Receive: An iPhone app that conveniently puts all of those tools in one place. And don’t worry if you don’t know what a timecode sync is. That’s why man invented production assistants.