One of the production disciplines we talk about here at FreshDV is the all-important planning process. Hours put into a project on the front-end can literally save days when you are in the field. Unfortunately, pre-planning is all too often overlooked and marginalized…talk to anyone that has worked in production and they’ll tell you the horror stories. This article by Simon Wyndham talks about working with your client to clearly define their needs and expectations, as well as taking care to plan effectively for the location and shoot. It’s a good basic primer on how to approach a challenging shoot and (hopefully) turn it into a quality production that fully meets the needs of the client and properly impacts the intended audience.

“…while clients are often willing to spend less and less on video production, they still expect the same high quality. At the same time we, as the video producers, still have to pay bills. In other words, our overheads do not decrease just because clients have decided to pay less for the same work! The way around this conundrum is embedded within the entire video production process. At the end of the day it all comes down to project organisation, and importantly, project clarity.”

On April 1st, gaming megasite IGN released a “World Exclusive Trailer” for The Legend of Zelda movie. It was of course an elaborate prank, but the trailer was very convincing and effective. The project was produced by Rainfall Films, Pre-Production began last summer and post took 3 months.

Filming took place in September. The trailer was shot 720p HD on two Panasonic’s HVX-200 cameras, one with the Redrock Micro 35mm adapter to achieve a film-like look. Footage was transferred via P2 media cards to a MacBook Pro laptop and 1TB LaCie firewire drive. A wealth of footage was shot, well beyond what was needed for the trailer (the entire three minutes could have been made from Link and Ganon’s swordfight). In the end, no one wanted to leave Hyrule - but after three days of filming, production wrapped.

You can watch the trailer and behind the scenes video below. Continue reading ‘Behind the Scenes on the IGN Legend of Zelda Trailer’

Mastering Multimedia has shared a basic list of things to check before locking your final cut and sending it out to the interwebs. A lot the suggestions deal with audio…ensuring that levels are correct, cross fades and L-cuts are used where appropriate, etc. As Norman Hollyn notes, the audio split edit one of the simplest methods of smoothing a cut point. So if you are looking for some guidance on how to wrap up your latest production, vacation video, or the next viral hit, here’s a good start. As the infamous Sen. Ted Stevens so wisely noted, the internet is “…not something that you just dump something on.” The tubes deserve our very best.

Via CDM, here’s a CG-free short “Tron” remake. Very cool. Watch the video below.
Continue reading ‘Tron Fan-flick Made with Cardboard and Creativity’

This short post at PrepShootPost talks about similarities in the flesh tones of people of all races. It’s a valuable lesson for color correction. And here’s a short Ripple Training tutorial excerpt (scroll down) that delves into topic of using the Flesh Tone Line in FCP’s scopes to assist in color-correcting skintones of all races and ethnicities. Their DVD on color correction techniques is an excellent primer and I highly recommend it. For a discussion on how colorists are retaining skintones in harsh lighting and color casts, read this post over at ProLost.

(Thanks for the link Pablo)

Here at FreshDV we talk a lot about using 35mm lens adapters and the “film style” workflow in your digital productions. Daniel Boswell of DVArtistry is a wedding videographer that has adopted using the Letus adapters in his wedding films for quite some time now. When the Extreme hit the market, he snapped one right up. He’s now shooting with the LEX + Sony EX1 combo and discusses it in the current issue of EventDV. You can read it online here.

There’s just a few days left in Avid’s “The Perfect Pitch” contest, entries must be uploaded no later than April 1, 2008 and community voting also closes on that date. The top 20 entries will be judged by a panel of industry experts and the winner stands to earn a trip to Sundance and the opportunity to pitch the film idea in earnest. So if you want to help separate the wheat from the chaff, time’s a-wasting.

Looks like some enterprising folks over at OnSuper8 are hacking together a Workprinter XP and Red Digital Cinema Camera to use for Super8 film telecine. Nice…

I recently listened to this audio podcast with the Coen Brothers (and Barry Sonnenfeld) on the editing process for “No Country for Old Men.” They apparently used Final Cut Pro on G5 systems, and have a unique way of divvying up the editing tasks. They also discuss the creative filmmaking process in general, it’s an excellent listen. Here’s a few quotes:

Ethan: We cut now much the way we cut on film, which was actually a little odd. I would have the Moviola, and Joel would have a flatbed, and I would mark incoming shots to Joel who would basically do an assembly on the flatbed. And we do a weird digital equivalent now on Final Cut…it doesn’t feel like the actual process of cutting is that much different.

Joel: When we first started cutting electronically, Apple set up the system so that we could work together in the cutting room the same way we were working on the other machines. Ethan marks up the takes electronically in one computer and sends them to me, and I assemble them in the timeline. The only non-electronic part of the whole process is that he has a hotel bellman’s bell button on his desk and as soon as he marks up a take he hits it so I know when he’s sending the marked-up takes over. So that’s the secret of the way we edit…I have access to the takes as well, so if I need an alternate I can bring them up on my computer…it’s hugely faster…and you don’t lose the little two-frame trims in the bottom of the bin.

You can get the podcast here (iTunes link).

In a recent DV column, Stefan Sargent rips into the notion that a “film look” is desirable. It’s an interesting take on the old discussion of 24p vs 30p vs 60i, “film” plugins, and production choices in general. Here he quotes Larry Jordan:

“I’m completely ambivalent about the benefits of shooting 24 fps material. Just because Hollywood has been shooting film at 24 fps for years doesn’t mean this is the best format for your video … I’d suggest you consider spending your money on a 1/4 warm black ProMist camera lens filter and improving your lighting, both of which will do far more to improve your look than shooting 24 fps.”

He also points out the extra FCP editing steps required to get decent 24p footage out of the V1U and HV20, and outlines his workflow when shooting with that camera.

SRF notes that while Avid leads the fanboy bragging rights game with most of the major category Oscar winners using an Avid tool at some point of production, the Coen Brothers “No Country for Old Men” marked the first film with an all-digital Mac workflow to garner a statuette.

Triggerstreet has a great post up that talks about four well-known films and how the scripts were written in such a way as to tell the story on a deeper level with the camera, that is, “writing the shots.” These examples are a must-read for writers and directors.

The crew over at christianfilmmakers.org have posted rules for their day-long filmmaking competition. The 2008 Christian Filmmakers Contest goes live on March 1st at 6AM CST and ends 24 hours later. Completed entries are to be submitted via Youtube and must clock in under three minutes. The top entry chosen will win a $500 prize.

“Our goals for this contest are to (1) have fun, (2) get to know who is good at making Web videos and (3) showcase what Christian filmmakers are doing today. Even if your film doesn’t win, it’ll get seen. And if you win, that’s a bonus!

1. At 6:00 AM CST on March 1, 2008, on this web page, a list of “security elements” – props, dialogue, settings, etc – will be revealed. Your job is to include any three of these in your film.

2. You need to do a good job weaving these security elements into your film in a way that clearly demonstrates that your film was produced (filmed) in these 24 hours.”

Alex at Editing Organazized has a great post up that talks about studying Cosmo-style “art of flirting” articles for a better understanding of human behavior. A firm grasp of the nuances of a natural and comfortable conversation can be a valuable aid in the editing suite. Here is an excerpt from the linked article.

“The essence of a good conversation, and a successful flirtation, is recipro-city: give-and-take, sharing, exchange, with both parties contributing equally as talkers and as listeners. Achieving this reciprocity requires an understanding of the etiquette of turn-taking, knowing when to take your turn, as well as when and how to ‘yield the floor’ to your partner. So, how do you know when it is your turn to speak? Pauses are not necessarily an infallible guide – one study found that the length of the average pause during speech was 0.807 seconds, while the average pause between speakers was shorter, only 0.764 seconds. In other words, people clearly used signals other than pauses to indicate that they had finished speaking.”

Note that some of the images in the presentation linked by Alex are mildly NSFW.

Via Motionographer comes this unique approach to incorporating a shot list and project details in a work reel. Sweet.