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.

In “We Cut Out The Dirty Parts” Norman Hollyn discusses public perception of the craft of editing, and how those impressions miss the mark.

In a shocking exposé amusing post over at Gizmodo the author informs readers that J.J. Abrams new film Cloverfield was NOT in fact shot on a garden-variety consumer camcorder. I for one am completely taken aback! I can’t be the only one that was certain that Paramount Studios backed a film with millions in financing knowing full well it would be shot on a camcorder bought at Best Buy…

Ok, enough messing around…while the Sony F23 WAS in fact used for much of the filming, there may actually be some truth to the camcorder rumors. Officially, Cloverfield was sourced with a mix of the F23, Grass Valley’s Viper and a few “handheld and intermediate cameras.” This article in Variety references a “lightweight Panasonic HD HandyCam” (can you say HVX200?) used for 1/8th of the film, and a “3-lb. Canon” used for about a third of the film. So perhaps Best Buy figured in there somewhere. UPDATE: Videography has a feature article on the production process, apparently the HVX was used quite a bit, and the F23 and Viper mainly for VFX shots (of which there were plenty).

“The HVX 200-shot images could look as genuine as everybody hoped, but if they weren’t robust enough to hold up to the heavy digital effects work required in post, all the realism gained would be lost. Oscar-winning character animation expert Phil Tippett’s company would be creating the CGI monster and Double Negative would create significant set extensions and backgrounds. And Banks wanted to give them the purest, cleanest images possible to start with and let them match the look of their completed shots to the lower-end footage after completing the composites. Footage from the Viper or F23, laid down to HDCam SR tape, would ensure the most flexibility possible in post and yield the most believable composites.”

Here is a Sony press release on the subject of the F23. And you can find out a lot more behind the scenes information in this extensive interview with Director Matt Reeves. Here is an interesting excerpt: Continue reading ‘Cloverfield Shot on a cheap Consumer Camera?’

In more interesting news for independent filmmakers it seems that IMDB has bought Withoutabox, the thriving community of indies and creative filmmakers. Amazon owns IMBD. Mike Curtis has the scoop.