Our Films / Our Scripts

[exte]

Are you using the Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro? Are you bypassing HDV?

[Oedipax]

Are you using the Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro? Are you bypassing HDV?

Nah, although the Blackmagic Intensity thing is pretty cool for certain types of shooting. If I was going to do something with greenscreen I would definitely consider it, but I'm not really into that stuff and I hate the idea of the camera being tethered to a computer during filming.

I shoot HDV to regular ol' DV tape and then capture as HDV in Final Cut. Then I use Compressor (also a part of Final Cut Studio) to remove the pulldown and transcode it into another codec, ProRes 422. It's basically a lossless compression scheme that lets you work much easier with the files than if you were editing HDV (renders are much faster), plus it's true 24p. The only downside is the files are pretty big; a regular one hour 12-13gb tape of HDV expands to be about 40gb after you do the ProRes step. But the nice thing is you still have that tape backup, so for those of us working on small budgets, there's not the tapeless thing of having to keep buying more hard drives to archive old projects.

[exte]

So the intensity is for only live shoots, because once you go to tape then the hdmi out is still based on 4:1:1 and not 4:2:2 anymore?

[Oedipax]

So the intensity is for only live shoots, because once you go to tape then the hdmi out is still based on 4:1:1 and not 4:2:2 anymore?

Yeah, once you go to tape, it's 4:2:0. So you have to be shooting with the camera tethered to a computer with enough processing power and drive space (and drive speed) to ingest the footage in real time.

There's been some discussion of creating a Firestore-like solution that would enable 4:2:2 out of the HV20 on the go. Basically it means a self-contained hardware unit mounted somewhere on the camera that can handle all the ingestion on its own and contains a built-in hard drive. Then you could go handheld with relative ease and still get top quality. But it's kind of a tricky balancing act, money-wise, since all the money you spend tricking out the HV20 is eventually going to equal just getting a more robust camera to begin with.

[exte]

My God, the hv20 forum is insane. I thought it was just a camcorder forum, but it's a DIY house on roids with tons of mania. Dip switches, wired remotes, diy dof adapters with photos, clips and more! What the hell? Are all the forums linked in this thread like this? Or as one poster said, is the hv20 the most modded camera in the world? I'm totally psyched, here!

Btw, what do you use to edit hv20 24p? There's a deal on sony vegas pro but I never used it. I've only used avid at school...

Anyone recommend any good indie production books? I hear From Reel to Deal: Everything You Need to Create a Successful Independent Film is good... Thanks.

[Oedipax]

The DV Rebel's Guide is a good overview of all the different things you need to deal with using today's technologies (24p digital cameras, NLEs, extensive post-production tools available to low budget filmmakers, etc). The author also has a great blog at http://prolost.blogspot.com . A lot of the movies used as examples in the guide are pretty mainstream standard fare, and the focus is on creating low-budget action films, but the ideas on how to get the best quality from available equipment are applicable to every indie filmmaker. And the DVD-ROM that comes with the book is also quite helpful. I don't think you'll find a smarter intro to indie filmmaking as it stands in 2008 than that book.

[Cabiria21]

A lil' flicker film I made with my school's optical printer! check it out, it is pretty swell.

Concealer (2007/B&W/16mm)

[miless]

Anne Talmann: The Last Sync Victim

my latest was merely an editing assignment (for a 16mm film editing class). The class was to culminate in a found footage film, which I found boring. So I shot 75% new material in order to put the found footage into context.
it was also an experiment to see if I could create something reminiscent of early Peter Greenaway.

it's not great... and it's really rough (I really need to re-record the VO)... but I think it turned out OK.

given more time I definitely could have made it more 'presentable'.

[exte]

Any vimeo people on here?

[Magic Hate Ball]

Any vimeo people on here?

I use it. I don't shoot in HD so that part's sort of moot for me, but I do like it just in general.

My account needs love.

[Donald Trampoline]

Here's a film I made that should be right up everyone's alley. It's called "Mike Gilbert on Cinema," and it's one man's humorous take on what qualifies as good cinema. (I know there's a few Michael Mann fans here, so you may find a kindred spirit in some of his impassioned thoughts towards the end.)

I leave myself open to your ridicule and scorn. (I'm not Mike Gilbert. I'm the director.) I think this guy is really funny and I'd love to get him a wider viewership, so if you dig it, please rate it and comment on it to help it get wider YouTube exposure. Also, the hosting site of the film's "Internet World Premiere" welcomes comments and is an excellent film blog .

Or comment here. I feel bad since I don't post too often here, but I do read the forum, so I hope it's all right. I welcome your feedback since I value your opinions.

Thanks in advance for checking it out.

[Robotron]

I know too many people just like that for it to be funny.

[Donald Trampoline]

I know too many people just like that for it to be funny.

Come on, it's just that you're not a true Michael Mann fan, isn't it?! I'm just teasing. I'm actually not a big Michael Mann fan either, but I think his take on him at the end is very funny.

I'd be interested to hear to what degree people think he's serious.
He sometimes seems to straddle the line of whether he really believes this stuff or not.

[exte]

The HV20 is the little monster that could! My God! You can shoot 24p, 1/48 shutter and gain free!!

[Len]

It's been awhile since I've done anything relating to filmmaking, but last week I grabbed my camera (HV20, I love you) and forced a couple of my friends to act in front of it (well, more like bribed them with beer and cheap bourbon). We managed to do a 2 minute short in one evening. It's not anything special, but considering the circumstances, I'm very happy with the results this time.

A year ago or so, the last time I was involved in filmmaking (a film project that was sort of a homage to Mann and Melville) I got really stressed out by the scope of the project (Magic Hate Ball: sry I never replied to your message, but by the time I got around to reading it, I was way too frustrated with the whole project to comment on anything relating to it). It was really the classic microcinema story. A decent script, but one that's WAY too ambitious, especially due to the amount of people working on it (and by that I don't mean that we didn't have enough people, it was exactly the opposite). We managed to film about 1/3 of it before the whole thing collapsed. At some point I want to return to the script, 'cause it's the first proper one I've written and not without it's merits, but for now it's on hold.

Anyways, now I'm wandering off from the original intent of my post. I very much liked shooting the short film I did last week, but it also made me realize that I do need much more practice directing actors. I know how to shoot stuff that cuts well in editing, but I've way too little experience at directing actors. I hadn't really noticed this with the last project, 'cause it had semi-professional actors who needed very little in the way of directing, other than a decent script and enough rehearsing. So now I'm basically going to shoot alot of small scale, simple short films to practice how to get nice, solid performances out of actors who've little experience.

And I intend to accomplish that by basically adapting some short plays, shooting them with a skeleton crew and really focusing on the performances. Now the trouble is that since I'm an uncivilized brute, my knowledge of theatre is minimal. Anyone got any good short plays to suggest? I was thinking something like 10-20 minute plays that have 2-4 roles. Alternatively good short stories that would lend themselves well to adapting would be fine too. So any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm just going to do these projects to get some experience, prolly not going to post them online or anything (unless there's like massive demand to see me abusing plays by translating them to finnish and filming them with amateur actors). Should be fun, if nothing else.

[Magic Hate Ball]

Well, I finally started shooting my script The Death Of Aaron Moore. Our Canon zr830 suffered a pretty ugly injury (tripod got knocked over with the camera still on it, tripod jack is twisted, tape playing mechanism fails repeatedly), and we were assigned a seven year old Canon Optura 100mc, and I'm pretty much just blown away. The lens is relatively huge (at least an inch, maybe an inch and a half, I'm not sure), the colors are sharp and vibrant. It's just fantastic. We've also been issued exterior stereo microphones for recording sound, and it's a huge improvement. Here are some screencaps from Aaron Moore (a library sequence, with the opening shamelessly ripped from Wild At Heart):









I especially like the fifth one, the close-up of Aaron, because you can see several things that the Optura does well: shallow depth of focus when zoomed in (here he has a short monologue about having an orgasm at IHOP), colors (all the tones of his luminous orange sweater are flawlessly picked up), and details (the hair). It's a huge improvement over the zr830 (check a page or two back to the one from An Early Autumn Romance).

I'm just going to do these projects to get some experience, prolly not going to post them online or anything (unless there's like massive demand to see me abusing plays by translating them to finnish and filming them with amateur actors). Should be fun, if nothing else.

I'd love to see them, if they've got subtitles. You can try a scene from something by Ingmar Bergman (one of the shorter scenes from Scenes From A Marriage, for example).

[HerrSchreck]

General call/feeler:

Could those filmmakers-- professional and aspiring-- who live/work within (reasonable commute/access to) NYC please PM me for a possible upcoming project? Directors and/or cinematographers welcome.

Pls pm.

[chaddoli]

Our entry for the Sketchies 2 YouTube Contest: SHE'S MINE

We made it into the top ten with our first video, now here's our second for the final round.

Help me win $40,000. Please.

Click here and search for "She's Mine" in the little toolbar on the right. Watch it, give it a thumbs up and you're done!

[chaddoli]

Check out the trailer for my new short film Dead and Lovely here:

Here are some stills. I shot it with the Panasonic HVX and the Brevis35 with Nikon lenses.

[exte]

Have you ever done color correction so to speak with b&w footage? Has this been graded?

[Oedipax]

Looks good, chaddoli, nice work! If I had to guess, I'd say it looks graded to me, but it could just as easily be a scene file (custom settings) in-camera (although you would still have to desaturate it in post).

Grading B&W is a lot of fun - you can do a lot more when you're not worried about the color information which is typically somewhat limited in lower-end digital formats, although DVCPRO HD is a lot better in that respect than HDV or DV. If you've ever done B&W conversion on your digital photos, you can do the same with video: throw a color correction filter on before you desaturate to B&W, and really push the colors around to get a good looking image (like shooting through different colored filters in B&W photography). Then just adjust contrast (levels and curves) to taste.

[jt]

Those stills are fantastic chaddoli, congratulations.

[exte]

I've done some color grading work and whatnot recently...

[chaddoli]

Have you ever done color correction so to speak with b&w footage? Has this been graded?

We did some basic color correction for the trailer, but when the cut is finalized, I will send it off to my DP for full correction. I also need a sound designer and score composer. I'm hoping to get the rights to "Earth Died Screaming" for the end credits, but I've used a lot of The Black Rider for temp track. I'm not banking on getting the rights to more than one Tom Waits song.

I'm glad you guys liked it. Thanks for the support.

[exte]

Is it true multi track editing is no longer bound to Pro Tools for audio? Soundtrack Pro can do this now, too?