Film, Video Stuff

What's All the Hub-bub, Bub?

2011-03-25T16:32:00.003-04:00

A bitter man's opinion on the bitter DSLR shooters who are watching their world collapse:

It's amazing to me on how many recent test shots and camera reviews for the new Sony F3, Sony FS-100 and the Panasonic AF-100 where commenters are screaming that it's no better or worse than DSLR footage. They complain the codecs are lower quality, the chips are too small, that it doesn't look enough like... DSLR footage.

Seriously? Let's back up and take a look at what we get out of our DSLR cameras right now. I have to work around a serious number of issues that limit my options on pro shoots. I'll just breeze through them. Moire from line skipping which can not just look like a buzzing pattern but look like you spilled water color all over your shot. Pink and powder blue like a baby's room. You've got insane amounts of rolling shutter that show up bigtime. Now yes, they cost under $3k a camera, wonderful. But shooting in a professional situation with those cameras is hell. You need more support gear, everything needs dealt with differently in post which slows you down. Particularly the audio. Now I love Pluraleyes for syncing but I hate waiting 5 hours for it to batch match a ton of footage and hope that it gets them all right. I can have a rough cut in that time on many projects.

And I'll argue the point now about the codecs. You have a 50mbps codec in the 5D and a 35mbps codec in XDCAM. I'll take the XDCAM hands down every stinkin' time to work with in post. It grades better, keys better and doesn't need to be softened in the camera to avoid above said issues. Sony and Panny know how to make a camera, and they delivered what is great for their price points. They work like pro cameras and are priced great for what they provide. I will gladly pay the money in purchase and rental to not have to deal with DSLRs and wondering how they might burn you next. Red's going to get it's Scarlet lineup out soon enough as well. Right now the bottom is completely over saturated with shallow DOF milky shots that all have a very similar look and feel. There's not an enormous difference between the good and the bad because you can't push the cameras as many directions as you might want. Of course framing and the eye of the artist are key but when someone has to throw the background out in a wide because it might get messy, that's frustrating. That footage has a certain flavor to it that is unchangeable to an extent as well. I've graded tons and tons of it and while you can do some great things with the Canon footage, you just cannot quite escape its signature. That may be fine too. But its a choice.

You can argue many points against things you can't do with the Sony or Panny but it sure can't be they don't work in a production workflow well. To sum up my my little rant here, if you want to be a pro shooter (I'm not saying director, editor, etc) and you can work up into a a higher line of cameras that have less issues and even better, give you the chance to separate yourself with more of a true look and identity that is your own, why not? In this market, it only makes sense. Here's the point, there are literally dozens of options to choose from now and each has something unique to it. What's the project, goal, situation, budget? Okay. Now that you stopped and thought about that, what's the gear that should be used?

...end rant...

Hawk Nelson - Crazy Love

2011-02-17T19:03:00.005-05:00

Lots of good stuff going on right now. Here was one we had a lot of fun making. John and I put this one together on a pretty tight budget. It was fun to get behind the camera again though and direct/DP this one. Thanks to everyone who was in it and all those who were in the first try! I learned a few things about just how ugly the 7D line skipping can be and some tricks to help tame it in post if it happens. Shot on 7D, posted in CS5.

Eyeon Fusion QuickTip - Shake Modifier

2011-02-07T14:18:00.002-05:00

I'm sure this is general knowledge in many VFX houses but for me, finding the tools and tricks that make Fusion shine can really be tough. There isn't a ton of info out there like their is for After Effects. I'm currently working on a project that I really want to keep inside of Fusion. I needed to build a target system similar to that someone would make inside of AE using the wiggle expression. It took me a while but I discovered the Shake Modifier is the same thing only a little better and in many ways, easier!

(This is based off how Andrew Kramer built a HUD in a tutorial on Video Copilot in AE. Be sure to check that out!)

ProjectMessiah goes Groupon - sorta

2011-02-07T10:13:00.005-05:00

Project Messiah is a great animation tool that is great for a number of challenges but really excels at character-based projects. It also links up very, very nicely with other apps like Lightwave, Maya, C4D, etc. I used it on the Red Ordinary World video for instance.

Here's an example of it's animation power. It's able to give guys, on their own, the ability to create animation that rivals what comes out of larger houses with some pretty incredible speed. Thuristar is one of the best, check out their Plankton Invasion while you're at it.

I've used it since version 3 but never got around to updating it. Well, now's the time. They have a groupon sort of deal right now where you can get it for $10 for the basic and $40 for the pro versions. It regularly costs between $700 and $1200. It's worth picking up. The deal? Nobody gets the download until the goal is met. It's worth getting! http://projectmessiah.com/x6/shop.html

Monsters Workflow

2010-10-27T01:52:00.007-04:00

Over half of the movie has been shot now and I have a load of great footage from a lot of different cameras. The a-cam was a Red MX but we also carefully shot on 5Ds, 7Ds and an EX1. And to add to that list, all the sound is dual system meaning it was recorded onto a separate recorder.

To deal with sound, Tim Dutton synced timecode as time of day with the Red and if another camera was running, shot a plate of the slate running for several seconds as well. At first I was looking at editing completely inside Premiere Pro CS5 to take advantage of the Mercury engine and its ability to work with almost anything in realtime inside a single timeline. The tests were great but the thing that still is a big bother with Premiere is its a pain to deal with dual system sound. Also, I might get to work with an editor and he's mainly a FCP guy. I batted around a number of ideas on getting a workflow that really protected the footage and transcoding was not really an option for me.

I've had Cineform for a long time and have had a love-hate relationship with it for years. I've used it on a number of other jobs but never really found a great way to take advantage of it. They've added major updates over the last year including a program called Firstlight. What Firstlight will give you is the ability to grade nondestructively a first look onto your footage. You can also load in .look files from Iradas Speedgrade. I'm trying out the trial for that right now. It's an amazing little program.

After testing tonight and seeing how Cineform is able to virtually rebuild the crappy h264 movs from the 5D and 7D and also closely protect the RAW data in RED files, I think I'm settled on a workflow. So here it is:

CONVERT
All footage will be converted into Cineform 444 and 422 DI files. From there I can build a Firstlight database and apply a LUT and basic grade to all the footage to give it an initial look. The active metadata inside each file applies the look in realtime. From there, I can ship the footage over onto the Mac and convert it into Prores files for editing. The look will bake into the files. Pretty cool to be able to edit with something like the final grade applied.

EDIT
In FCP, I can sync sound with Pluraleyes and replace the audio tracks quickly. Then the fun can start with actually making the movie. Once its done, I can ship out an XML file and copy the Prores files over to my PC to online in Premiere. From here I can reconform the footage back to the Cineform files. I can also link back up to the native Red files too if need be - and most likely will. Audio can ship out of FCP to go for finishing, scoring and sound effects.

CONFORM
In Premiere, I can now relink everything and also go into Firstlight to disable the LUT applied but I can also do a first pass on color to get everything looking even and flatten out any contrasting footage. Sequences can also have any overlays and transitions added here. I can then disable those transitions and leave just the straight cuts for color grading. I'll then render out separate sequences for each scene into DPX sequences.

GRADING
I'm a huge fan of Color. I think its a great app that has a lot of power in it that people miss. Testing some DPX sequences in there last night, I really found some new tricks I didn't realize existed when working with 5D/7D footage in particular. You actually gain a lot more finite control over the files and don't introduce loads of noise when pushing them around. Final grades will be rendered out in Prores 444 and final assembly can then trip back to FCP and/or Premiere for final finishing.

These stills here are directly out of Iradas Speedgrade. The looks can be exported and brought into Firstlight and applied in realtime. There's a little craziness happening in the jeans of the 2nd shot but in final color, something like that would be controlled.

Monsters: Day 1

2010-10-22T01:09:00.002-04:00

First day of shooting is done. It went fast. It's a low budget short so everyone is working for basically nothing. It was a scary day. There were shots we weren't able to get with how fast the sun disappeared. There were lots of planes, dogs and even an upset neighbor to stop shots. It's so nice working with a good crew who are there to support the story any way they can - down to just stopping traffic way away from the actual set. When I got home and was able to look at the footage, it blew me away. The kids were amazing and the performances were there. Nothing like starting with the toughest scene. Thank you everyone!

Monsters Under the Bed Preproduction

2010-09-26T20:06:00.003-04:00

It's been a long while since I've gotten to do a short of my own. I've had a script for a number of years that I just wasn't all to thrilled about but always loved the idea. Originally I planned to create CG creatures for in it and go nuts working with a little VFX piece of my own. Thankfully, time passed and it sat until a couple months ago the story came back to me and a new twist on it. I opened up the old script and then tossed it other than the name of the boy, the teacher and the basic ending. I'm very excited about it and so far, so is anyone else who is reading the latest draft. We're planning to shoot in late October. I'm looking forward to keeping you posted on the progress from here on out.

Gear used on General Specific

2010-08-28T10:47:00.005-04:00

I've been getting asked what gear we used to shoot the General Specific movie, our low-budget indie. The answer is, not a lot. Here's a quick rundown.

Cameras:

Sony EX1 was my main camera. Its little, has a great codec and is a workhorse. Seriously, its a tough camera that I can't say enough good things about. This thing took a bath in the Pacific one day and kept on going. I could rate it's ISO around 500 to 600 typically without worrying about noise. I'll still use this camera over the 5D on many occasions due to its easy codec and pro audio. Don't underestimate time savings in post.

Towards the end of production, the 7D came out and I added it to several scenes. Most notably the Russian scene. The 5D and 7D defintely have their own look, much like a film stock or the difference between a panny and sony. I also used it to shoot a VERY late-in-the-game scene with Wally and Clem in the car with a greenscreen backdrop. Considering we shot through the front and rear windshields outside in winter, I pulled keys that works well enough for the movie. You can pull a decent key off this camera but it definitely has its challenges.

Adapter:

On the front of the EX1, I used a Letus Extreme combined with a set of old Nikon primes I've collected over the years. I've been using the adapters since I built one of my own 5 years back and was the proud owner of the first Letus Flip (it kinda looked like a bomb).

Supporting this I had rails and support gear, shoulder mount and more from Zacuto and a baseplate and follow focus from Redrock Micro

The Zacuto rails and support I think you could hang a truck off the front of and not get vibration. Expensive but it'll last a very long time and its versatile enough that you can piece parts together in different ways to build around any kind of setup you might have.

The Redrock FF is the best quality vs. cost FF I've used out there. Very smooth and durable plus you get Redrock customer support which is some of the best in our industry.

Lights:

I used 2 Kino Flo Diva-Lite 400s heavily. Fast, bright, soft light and flexible. I have a set of both daylight and tungsten bulbs for both. A nice little touch sometimes is keeping one tungsten bulb in to just warm your key up a touch.

My other set of main lights was an ARRI kit with 2x650 1x300 and a 1K open face with softbox. I used that 1K a LOT as well. Great for popping up into a ceiling with a quarter CBT gel over it to lift your overall base light level.

Audio:
For audio, we used a pair of Audio Technica shotgun mics, a 4-channel mixer - which is essential. Get GOOD audio. A mixer will go miles in helping. You can cut off high end and low end noise at the source. You can get by with a mid-range mic but Jason managed to not need ADR on several scenes because of the quality of audio he got from being able to capture more accurately at the source.

We also used a H4N recorder for scenes with the 7D and synced with PluralEyes.

Other Items:
A basic set of sticks with a Manfrotto 503 head. It'll get you by for the price.

A skater dolly for a couple shots with wheels from Willy's Wheels.

A jib I wont name because it just didn't hold up well - expensive too - but had a LOT of camera shake

A light meter. This is invaluable on a small shoot for you. Finding contrast ratios between key and fill and backgrounds on your subjects is maybe more important when you have a limited number of lights.

A handful of used C-Stands from Matthews. Check your used photo shops. A lot of time, they get these in and Matthews gear holds up for YEARS.

A 5-1 reflector that I could quickly put up for bounce, shoot the 1K through for a big soft light or bounce as a hard fill with the sun. Also get yourself some black and white foamcore. It'll come in handy!

---
That's about it, in general, not a lot of gear. And overall, very pleased with the look of the production. Shoot smart and you can get a long way.

How to add chapters to itunes videos

2010-08-20T14:07:00.004-04:00

I found it VERY difficult to a) ever find info on and b) how to actually add chapters to itunes movies. I haven't had to do this with anything in a while. But when it was time to get the General Specific ready this week for digital download, I had to head back into the nightmare of a process. It ended up not being so bad though, thanks to a brilliant and FREE little program I came across called Subler. So here you go. Simple steps on how to get it done.

1. Download Subler here. It was created by a brilliant guy I only know as Damiog.

2. Create a txt file with chapter listings like this:

00:00:00.000 Prologue
00:00:19.987 Opening
00:01:50.160 Episode Blablabla
00:21:54.530 Ending
00:23:24.453 Preview

3. Open subler and load up your m4v file you have output from Compressor or similar.

4. In subler, go to file > import > file and choose the text file. Boom! A new track just showed up with chapter listings. Checkmark it to activate it and save out your m4v again.

You can also edit ALL of the metadata for your file as well, drag and drop cover art, etc. Its a fantastic app that will give your files that same great look the big boys have in iTunes and on iPods.

Have fun!

Format Considerations for Acquisition

2010-08-19T14:14:00.005-04:00

Now that's a boring topic, huh? I thought it would be a good one to lead off with. What I want to take a minute and discuss is how I approach what camera and format to shoot on going into production and how that effects the end deliverable. There's a ton of this info out there already but I figure it's worth my chiming in. I'll keep it short and make it a little more like a checklist.

WHO'S THE CLIENT?
This is the first question that comes to mind to me. You need to understand what kind of expectations already exist for who you're working for. They may have an end deliverable. For instance, Sony Music requires a 1080p high quality (422 color or higher) deliverable. Other clients might not have a master deliverable requirement but they may have been working with productions for years. If this is that case, seeing productions suddenly scale back to tiny cameras and crews might be scary. A new client, in need of eduction can at times be one of the easiest to work with if you start out the conversation correctly and coach them through how you're giving them a high quality for very little footprint.

SHOT REQUIREMENTS
Are you shooting slow-mo? Is your deliverable that high quality 1080p master? Then don't shoot that slow-mo off a 7D, EX3 or something that shoots 720p. You need to to acquire higher res, most likely RED or now Alexa or if you can afford it, Phantom. do you need to hang off a crane? What weight requirements do you have? Do you have shots that require unique views (i.e. worms eye view from inside a hole) - might go 5D on a remote.

STYLE REQUIREMENTS
Style is similar to shots but for me includes the overall look of the production. Are you going for more of a reality feel? You can shoot with something like a HVX or EX1 with its native zoom and feel good about it. Shooting for a more filmic look? Shoot as high quality as you can and in that case, take into consideration what kind of glass you can work with. One example might be RED with a good set of Cookes is a whole different look than shooting 5D with a set of L-series glass on the front.

VFX
Are you doing a lot of VFX work in post? How about a couple DO NOTS... DO NOT shoot with a camera with bad rolling shutter and cause it to show up (5D and 7D users). Do not shoot with high contrast shots that blow out or underexpose. Shoot with a camera with more latitude (RED, Alexa). Shooting for motion tracking? Use a camera with a clean codec that doesn't block easily.

LIGHTING and LOCATION
Where do you have to shoot? What time of the day? If you're shooting at night and have a somewhat limited budget, pick a more sensitive camera like a 5D or 1D. Pick a RED MX over the original RED for night, you'll drop your lighting package considerably.

TALENT
Who are you shooting? If it's a celebrity, put together a good package. You''ll be spending on everything else around them anyway. Acquire in as high a quality as you can.

TIME
One of the most important. How much time do you have on the shoot? RED is not fast, XDCAM is very fast. Do you have a limited window? Maybe you need to shoot multiple cameras with a limited budget, picking something like XDCAMs will drop your need for needing ACs for each camera.

What kind of time do you have in post? It's amazing what you can really do with the 5D's codec and especially the XDCAM codex as limited of a color space they have. But with enough time and layering, you can get a really filmic look out of them with color correction. RED will get you there faster and better in post. Time and deliverable are important here. If you have a really tight deadline, shooting 5D rather than EX1 would be an issue as you have a ton of sync sound to process. What are your storage requirements? Think post through before you shoot. Its very important.

Those are a few of the questions I go through on each production and finding the proper balance. No single camera is going to be ideal in every circumstance. Think it through, weigh your budget requirements, get creative.

The General Specific Movie is about to go full-go!

2010-08-12T13:31:00.004-04:00

I'm excited! Finally, with a lot of work, we're about to launch the General Specific out to sail next week and see how she handles. It's going to be fun to see how well the media strategy I put together takes hold. We're doing a self-distribution strategy that is first going to start online and move into a guerrilla-style theatre release as well. I'll make sure I post a lot about it as I think it's going to be a good thing to document. Above that even, I'm going to make sure everyone gets to follow along with Jason (director) and Brian (lead) as well in webisodes and blog posts so you can get a real picture of what works and what doesn't.

The identity for the movie was worked out with me by my close friend Garrett Morlan. He did an amazing job! We landed on exactly what we were hoping for. A feel-good 80's touch. Very fun! Find him at www.garrettmorlan.com and hit him up for Art Direction and illustration.

Elevate featured by Newtek at Siggraph

2010-07-25T10:29:00.004-04:00

I'm excited to have the opportunity to have the Red video featured at Siggraph at the Lightwave3D booth. They also just posted it in their newsletter here.

I'm a big advocate of Lightwave as its been a very powerful program when needing to work small and fast. I do the vast majority of my own 3D work much of the time and Lightwave has always been able to let me do what I want. I think in part because it's so flexible and there is a lot of hidden power that most have no idea is there. Find out more about Lightwave at www.lightwave3d.com

Continued Thoughts on 3D Filmmaking

2010-07-19T12:09:00.004-04:00

This weekend I saw Despicable Me with the kids and the theatre we went to was only showing it in 3D. I have to admit, I wasn't really all that interested in seeing this one in that format. It was an enjoyable movie but the extra ticket price it was not worth. Right now, I think we're starting to see a pushback on those prices everywhere. Many releases are subpar movies that are getting a pseudo-3D bath at the last moment before being released. It's like customizing a Yugo... in the end, its still a Yugo.

So with this 3D experience, I argued earlier that the rules of creating it need to change. It's NOT filmmaking as usual and I think many of the compositional rules need to change. I have a few more thoughts now as well. I argued that I think depth of field should be opened up and allow the viewer to select what they want to look at. Something I never expected myself to say is that I also now think that the framerates need to go much higher than 24FPS. Camera movement also needs to slow down. The handheld and shaky cinema verte effect is awful in these movies. Let's look at Despicable Me.

FRAME RATE
Large, sweeping, horizontal movements call out for a higher frame rate. The motion blur and sweepings pans causes a severe flicker that the eye doesn't seem to get used to. Movement towards and away from camera on the z-axis is where 3D excels right now but its gimmicky in most cases.

I'm wanting to test frame rates in the 60+fps range. I know people are screaming reading this that it's going to have a dreaded video look. No it won't I'll argue. 3D has the chance to be NEW! It's being pushed like crazy right now and it's about to blow up in the studios faces. It needs to go beyond just a stereo effect and quickly be looked at as a whole new format. 60fps will fill in those gaps that the human eye is missing and bring out more life in the shot I believe.

CAMERA MOVEMENT
I think composition and movement need to become more of what movies were in the 30's and 40's. Very controlled. Very basic. And also very dependent on the set design. Skaky camera movement goes against what we want to do with 3D, which is take in everything. Feel the depth and space of the shot. Become a part of it as an audience. Shaky and tight shots that don't allow us to "control" the space, feel forced and with the point made above about frame rate, are nothing but ugly annoyances telling us what to do. A sequence that worked fantastic in Despicable Me was towards the end where he has to walk a cable like a tightrope a mile up in the air. The camera played with the depth but also kept steady. It worked great. You could hear everyone in the place holding in their breath.

I know Stu just put out a great article on ProLost about techniques we appreciate overall as filmmakers. They are all correct too. These points I'm making fly in the face of many of those however. But again, this is an entirely different experience for the viewers. Now is the chance to make it real and truly different for audiences or see them push back and reject it. Better hurry and start experimenting quick.

cmiVFX.com training and Elevate

2010-07-12T21:04:00.003-04:00

I never would have gotten the Red music video completed without the training picked up from cmiVFX. Their Fusion training was straight forward and I picked up what I needed to on a first viewing usually. I'm kinda slow too, so that's an accomplishment. Chris and Brian liked the video there enough they asked for a video interview. I was stoked to do that for them. You can find it on FXMogul and on their Vimeo page.

If you're doing any vfx, 3d or motion graphics work, this is seriously a good resource. Fusion, Cinema 4D, Houdini, Nuke, Blender, Flame... the list goes on and its all on the good stuff.

Red - Ordinary World is released

2010-07-06T14:21:00.008-04:00

The Ordinary World released this week on iTunes and climbed into the top25 on the music video charts! It released on their site today with a Behind the Scenes video as well. Exciting to see what this video is doing. I'll continue to add links here as they come. Links below.

Redmusiconline.com
iTunes
Youtube VEVO

CREDITS:
Project: Ordinary World
Band: Red
Label: Sony PMG

Producer and Co-creator: John Zappin (AKA - John Reuben)
Director and Co-creator: Jeremy Hughes
DP: Al Laus
Gaffer: Howard Newstate
AC and Red Package: TJ Helmuth
Studio: NuMynd Studios - Nashville
VFX: Kelly "Kat" Meyers, Shawn Dorsey, Jeremy Hughes

The Mark Bradford Experience Shortlisted at Cannes Lions

2010-06-23T17:26:00.002-04:00

Its exciting to see a project we had the pleasure of working on getting shortlisted for a Lion at Cannes. Best of luck Resource!

Here's the shortlist page

Fast Fusion

2010-05-19T01:22:00.003-04:00

Why do I like Eyeon Fusion? Because its powerful and you can do all kinds of crazy things with it, yes. But its also wicked fast for pulling off shots that can be really challenging. The one here is one of 85 separate shots that needed keyed and comped for our film, The General Specific. When you have to shoot the scene in the winter with a bad greenscreen, having Fusion can be a lifesaver. After Effects and Keylight just could not give me a solid key no matter what I was trying. I was trying to keep it in there just for the ease of keeping the timeline together. Within 2 evenings however inside Fusion, I now have 85 shots keyed and comped with some pretty good results!

Red is coming

2010-05-18T02:37:00.006-04:00

It's almost out and I can't wait! 3 months of grueling work on this project.

Project: Ordinary World
Band: Red
Label: Sony PMG

Producer and Co-creator: John Zappin (AKA - John Reuben)
Director and Co-creator: Jeremy Hughes
DP: Al Laus
Gaffer: Howard Newstate
AC and Red Package: TJ Helmuth
Studio: NuMynd Studios - Nashville
VFX: Kelly "Kat" Meyers, Shawn Dorsey, Jeremy Hughes

The Hurdles for 3D Filmmaking and the Possibilities of Overcoming Them

2010-05-10T02:02:00.004-04:00

Let me start with I love 3D movies. I think its a great new (updated) medium and has a lot of potential. With that said, I think there is a serious flaw currently with the films that are being released. In order to make 3D work properly in movies, the number 1 piece of equipment that needs to change is the lenses movies are shot with. Let me explain my thinking.

When you look around the room, your eye is naturally able to focus on whatever it wants. If you pay attention to your peripheral vision, you will notice that everything you do not focus on goes blurry, out of focus. The farther off in the distance you look, the more out of focus the foreground goes.

Lenses work in the same manner. They have multiple layers of glass in them that are able to pull light through and project the image onto the imager. The simplest for being a pinhole camera. I don't want to turn this post into one long lesson on how lenses work but the focus and work very similar to the human eye. The "tighter" the lens, meaning the closer it focuses on a subject, the "shallower" the depth of field. This means that everything around the lens falls out of focus.

For decades, depth of field (DOF) has been used as a movie making tool to control where the director wanted the audience to focus their attention. For 3D, this needs to change. By using DOF as a tool in 3D movies, this is hurting the overall experience. The entire picture needs to be in focus.

Creating lenses that are able to focus infinitely while not needing loads and loads of additional lighting may be a big deal to overcome. Several alternatives may show themselves besides just lenses becoming faster such as imaging chip sensitivity but it needs to happen fast in order for 3D movies to be a lasting experience at the box office and not just a fad.

A lot of filmmakers may gasp at this idea as it means they may not be able to control where a viewer is looking all the time but it means solid composition, sets and use of color become more important - as it was hundreds of years ago with the master painters. They also need to depend on the audience to focus where they should and create that depth of field with their own eyes naturally. I think it opens up a whole new level of storytelling options. Think about the possibility of not just seeing a blurry vision of a killer sneaking up on the victim on the phone but actually allowing the audience the privilege of being able to focus back and forth between the two.

By opening up the frame, I think it can also open up the moviegoing experience. New theater experiences could be created by allowing viewers to move around more and by moving, seeing a change in parallax. This can only go as far as the cameras that film the scene but by throwing out DOF, that allows the cameras to shift apart wider and opening that new possibility up. Overcome the current challenges and you open up a real, new world of entertainment.

The General Specific Poster - for now

2010-04-30T12:54:00.002-04:00

Here's the poster for the time being - feel free to spread it around!

Pinocchio is on Fire

2010-04-29T01:35:00.003-04:00

The Mark Bradford Experience site we were able to work on is live finally. Many thanks to Jill Brandt and Al Laus for their help in shooting this. Thanks to Resource for allowing us to be a part of it. Check it out! Duality (linked directly to) is my favorite part, I'm being partial here as we got to offer some input on how to push video in some different ways here for a unique experience.

http://www.pinocchioisonfire.org/#/experience/duality

The General Specific Trailer

2010-04-18T01:54:00.002-04:00

The General Specific Trailer from Jeremy Hughes on Vimeo.

The movie we've been working on since Fall is wrapping up and we should be ready to debut it locally on Memorial Day weekend. In terms of crew, this was an extremely light movie production and its exciting to see how well it's turning out.

Proper Audio Syncing in FCP

2010-04-18T01:42:00.003-04:00

A couple months back I posted a little note about how to get nested audio into Soundtrack Pro from FCP and I have a better method that is surefire and doesn't take much longer. You can bring this into play at any point along the workflow but at the start is the best so you dont have to even think about how it might effect edits.

This all works whether you are syncing with Pluraleyes or doing it manually with a slate and is pretty easy.

1. I've found depending on your time and computer speed you can either a) batch convert into Prores ahead of time/on import or you can wait until you sync.

2. Sync your timelines up with Pluraleyes or by hand. One thing, if its interview footage, that can save you time and give you a little boost in logging better is to group takes into single timelines. Make sure your timelines all match with the correct codec you are using for your workflow, i.e. Prores HQ 1920x1080

3. Here's really the last step already, select all the timelines you have created and set them up with Media Manager to render out. I use referenced Quicktime clips so I dont need to rerender everything.

4. Reimport all the new clips you just created and you're ready for editing. If you decide to do this as a later step, for instance, if you are nesting sequences, you can drill down to the timeline you need to condense and media manage it into a referenced clip.

7D and Greenscreen

2010-03-29T01:44:00.004-04:00

I've been finding some positive results with the 7D and keying. It seems the way it's codec will smooth together common areas of color or chroma can make for a pretty easy key to pull. Here's a quick shot though where the 7D can really burn you. Its not so much in the greenscreen where I'm having an issue, its in the blocking in the pants. That's an ugly mess. This would have been a problem whether on greenscreen or not and points to the DSLR's codec needing more detail rather than less. It looks like I ran the cartoon filter over it in After Effects. Something to consider when you're shooting.

Red update

2010-03-25T23:07:00.004-04:00

We're heading into the last leg for finishing up the Red video. There is still a lot to do but it's exciting to see the buzz the video is getting. It's been a blast turning this thing around in post, grueling but a blast. I've been tackling this project as a challenge with the tight deadline with the level of effects we're delivering. Two other guys have stepped on to help me out and have been huge in pushing this project along. Those would be Shawn Dorsey and Kelly (Kat) Myers. We've had a great, tight little crew that has helped out in so many ways along the way and when this is all over, I'll be sure to give props to each one.

But since I'm in post world right now, I just wanted to give a quick rundown of the tools that have been being put to work on this thing. Its a bit of throwing the kitchen sink at it since people aren't an option. I will say these tools work together so well though, I've had very few hangups so far and none of which has been major.

Editing - Premiere Pro with Cineform
Online/offline and assembly - After Effects
Lightwave 3D & messiahStudio
Eyeon Fusion
PFHoe for 3d tracking
ZBrush
3D Coat
E-On Vue
Skype has been great for collaboration as we're all over the place

Look forward to hopefully a lot of breakdowns and info on how this whole project flowed start to finish with a small budget and 7 weeks start to finish after we wrap up and deliver.

Shooting Red on Red

2010-02-22T16:00:00.003-05:00

I'm pretty excited about this one. We're gearing up to shoot a new music vid for Red and their remake of Duran Duran's Ordinary World. This is a band I've followed for a long time and it's going to be a pretty aggressive shoot. It'll be about 100% greenscreen and I'm looking to turn out some pretty heavy effects. Stay tuned!

The Mark Bradford Experience

2010-02-12T13:29:00.002-05:00

We recently had the pleasure of shooting the contemporary artist out of South Central LA, Mark Bradford with Resource. We shot footage that will be going onto a web site based around his upcoming exhibition that will be traveling but gets first showing at The Wexner Center at Ohio State University.

He's considered one of the top contemporary American artists today and did not disappoint. I typically meet most artists with a bit of skepticism with how much of today's art is more based around what kind of critical interest can be gained by using shock or mystery - sort of like film festivals - but that's another topic.

Mark Bradford is an absolutely stunning man, intelligent and someone whose work you need to gain his insight and eye first before being able to fully grasp. It was an energizing experience. I'm very glad to have been a part of it. Thanks to Jill Brandt and Al Laus for joining me in helping out!

A Couple VFX Plates in Progress

2010-01-17T16:25:00.002-05:00

A couple in progress shots from a new music video we're wrapping up currently.

How to get audio from nested FCP sequences to Soundtrack Pro

2010-01-05T16:21:00.003-05:00

I was having a serious issue today trying to send sequences over to Soundtrack Pro for finishing. I would send them along and then sit there and stare blankly at Soundtrack wondering why the first track of audio didn't import. It turns out because Final Cut nested sequences don't like to include themselves inside the XML that is sent to Soundtrack Pro. Go figure. I searched everywhere and the only answer I could find was I would have to do a bunch of copy and pasting or cmd+dragging around of sequences to get them ready to ship. Then I had the good fortune of noticing a sequence I had already color corrected in Color didn't have this issue. Hmmm... a little testing and I found it seems to work every time (in this case 9 sequences).

This is good for any of you out there editing with a 7D or 5D and syncing audio to them with Pluraleyes.

1. Select your timeline in the browser
2. File > Send to > Color
3. Allow it to open up in Color
4. In Color: File > Send to > Final Cut Pro
5. Open the sequence that Color sent back over - will have (from Color) added to end of the seq name
6. Select that new sequence in the Browser
7. File > Send to > Soundtrack Pro Multiclip Sequence

Let me know how it works for you. It seems to work for me every time so far. It seems as if once the roundtrip is done from Color back to FCP that it either mixes down that audio or surfaces it somehow.

No Be Nah - the last of the JR videos

2009-10-14T22:46:00.008-04:00

Its been placed online... the last of the 4 videos for John Reuben.

Starring: John Reuben and Alen Auguste
Forest Scene Illustration: Garrett Morlan

The General Specific

2009-09-30T23:35:00.004-04:00

Something I haven't mentioned to this point is a feature we're working on right now as well (a small group of us). We're really shooting for no money at all. A lot of people are really chipping in as they can to lend a hand and it's been a great experience. It's definitely a project that people are being a part of because the love it. Written by Jason Heinrich and Brian Stevens. Jason is directing and Brian is the lead. We'll be releasing in February.

Confident video released

2009-09-15T11:34:00.002-04:00

Happy to see this one out - here's the finished product of definitely what was some guerilla filmmaking

John Reuben "Confident" from Gotee Records on Vimeo.

Nobenah progress

2009-09-10T20:18:00.004-04:00

Getting very close to finished on the last of 4 videos for John Reuben - its been a long haul. Check out some of the beautiful illustration work my good friend Garrett Morlan is doing for a background plate for part of the video at garrettmorlan.com/blog/.

Oh, and one more image for ya'll on top of that too...

Yes, No, Yes, No, Yah, Nah...

2009-08-28T17:41:00.003-04:00

I know I said I would add some details on my post workflow, etc around Confident but I've been busy and just haven't gotten around to it. We immediately jumped into John's 4th video, Nobenah which I have to say is seeming like it's going to be my favorite of the group - which is funny because we shot it in an afternoon in my garage... What do you think?

Jamboree released early

2009-08-11T17:12:00.004-04:00

I'm excited to say that Jamboree was released today a week ahead of schedule. The music video that is.

John Reuben "Jamboree (Extended Cut)" from Gotee Records on Vimeo.

Shot/Chopped: Jeremy Hughes
Producer/Cammate Op: Jared Greene
Make-up/Wardrobe: Erica Stewart
PA: Rebecca Hall
Models: April Camp, Tondi Collins, Laura Itzkowitz, Rachel Kaplan
DJ: Alen Auguste
Body Bag: RC Nelson

Deadline tomorrow

2009-08-04T17:32:00.003-04:00

Just a quick update at this point. I'll actually detail some of my post work here soon. The video is all but wrapped up and will be heading to the label tomorrow. Here's a quick still from one of the upcoming shots in the video.

We have a locked but but with one shot missing

2009-07-31T09:24:00.005-04:00

John Reuben - Confident BTS from Jeremy Hughes on Vimeo.

We shot early this week the final scenes we needed to complete production, except for one and it's proving to be eluding. First though, let me talk quickly about the last day and how John and I changed up a bit last minute which helped out a lot in the editing process. It helped there was a working rough cut already together as well.

We shot the needed flower shop scene and a couple pickups of John running and I have to say it was by far the stuff I was most proud of shooting during this production. Tons of value on the screen, solid shots and the ability to push the acting without feeling stressed for time. We started with the flower shop scenes. Erica prepped John at my place and we headed over where Rebecca was working with the owners of Flowers on High to get everything ready. We also met a friend of mine and his wonderful daughter Colleen there. We placed her as a girl selling flowers outside of the shop. She was GREAT!

A little quickly about Colleen. Colleen is a typical 13 year old girl except that she has been fighting cancer for the last year. For the last 6 months she's been in an intensive treatment program down in Orlando, FL getting proton treatments in what looks like a system right out of a sci-fi movie. She has a huge heart and has kept just what sounds like very outward and upbeat through it all. She took the whole family this month to Hawaii when the Dreams Come True Foundation granted her a wish. When her dad told me she was a John Reuben fan, I originally was going to have her in the Town Folk video but it worked out that she has a very prominent role in this one and, again, she was terrific. She's winning that fight by the way.

We locked the edit a couple days after. It was huge that we shot the extra park scenes in how we were able to shuffle up the story slightly and cut some of the fat of the video off. It flows very nicely! Other than the elusive flashback shot I need that keeps moving back because of rain... did I mention this video is due now mid-next week? We're going to get there though!

Rough cut started - production needs finished

2009-07-24T18:39:00.004-04:00

We were rained out our final day of production so the last day is going to hopefully be this Tuesday. It needs to be, I just found out that the currently set delivery date is 8/3. That extremely tight. Especially for how much footage there is on this shoot.

The rough cut was started this weekend and is moving along. At first I was worried about some of my shots not being what I had hoped but I think we'll be okay. The cut is really starting to feel much more solid. That would be something I would say be ready for when you are shooting run-and-gun by yourself more-or-less, shots may not completely match the way you had envisioned them. Performances may be a little different, etc. There are a ton of things that change up. Know that going in and try to control it all the best you can.

Here's a little detail on my editing workflow. I'm shooting with a Sony EX camera so the media comes off SxS cards. Once home, I drop the raw media, that being an exact copy of the card, onto my main drive and a backup drive (I backup to multiple smaller drives in the field when offloading as well). I have a folder I labeled XDCAM where this all goes.

I open up Final Cut, my primary editor, and setup a new project. I set the sequence settings right off the bat to either 1080 or 720 Prores 422 HQ and under the video processing tab, make sure "Render all material High Quality YUV" is selected. Save out and I can close up FCP for now.

From there I open XDCAM Transfer and add the folders I've shot. I used to log everything and short what was good and bad inside of FCP but have found this to be a bad idea for 3 main reasons. 1), you make your project files much bigger, 2) importing only what you need simplifies your bins and 3) you are forced to look for the best takes always. So I run through my footage and label most of it and mark clips as being "GOOD" if I am going to import them. I do this for all folders before I import. It's hard to do too, I always want to try that first cut immediately. Under preferences I setup my media folder inside of Capture Scratch under the project

Once I've imported everything, I can now check the media folders under Capture Scratch and should see tape names for each media folder I imported (i.e. JRC717T1 as a folder - I label by job name initials/date/tape #). Its easy from this point to import footage into FCP and quickly organize it. Once that is complete, there is one last step before I start editing that I always move towards. I convert everything to Prores 422 HQ by selecting my footage bin, going to Media Manager and running a recompress on everything. I want the highest quality footage the whole way through the project. There are other codecs I'll use as well for moving between compositing and editing but I'll get into those later.

I'm ready to get cutting!

Almost there...

2009-07-21T16:35:00.008-04:00

We picked up shooting again last night for the final scenes of the video. Very fun stuff but we ran over by a good 2 hours. We really went for some solid performances and tweaked the lighting out to get what we needed. The last scene has to rock as its the payoff of course!

(Thanks to Robin Oatts for the behind-the-scenes photos)

Today we cranked out a number of scenes which leaves us with one final scene tomorrow. Overall it was a great day, but everyone is definitely ready to wrap. We again flipped up locations last minute again which was a very good thing as we were able to use two friendly studios, Spindle and Element, which helped out a lot in having a location to prep in each place. It helped enough that we finished the day almost 2 hours ahead of schedule.

The last scene was a lot of fun to shoot and one everybody was really looking forward to working on. In the scene, John stumbles back out into the main streets and is extremely dehidrated. As he stumbles along, a jogger is passing by and offers him a bottle of water from his fanny pack. RC Nelson played the part with all he had and nailed it. It should get quite a few laughs.

I do want to take a minute and talk about the importance of having a great make-up and wardrobe stylist. Even if you are no-budget - which this is - find someone who has at least a little experience here. It will take your production value up immensely. I'll admit that a year ago it's something I would not have bothered with when doing something on no-budget. But when you have someone like Erica Stewart who is willing to lend a hand as a friend and turn out quality, its amazing how much that shows up on screen.

She has stuck by John and I on all these videos and they wouldn't be half of what they are without her hard work. Town Folk is the best example. We pulled it off on about $3500 which is hardly anything and out of that only a 3rd of it was her budget. She used every bit of ingenuity and planning to pull off those costumes. She did the same for Jamboree and now as you can see for less than $100, she's done some super work - that's she's been able to repeat it day after day.

First Two Days Done

2009-07-18T17:35:00.008-04:00

So we finished the first two days of production and it has been both fun and tough. We're trying to keep things to half days but its a lot to manage when its basically myself, Erica doing make-up and Rebecca PAing.

Thursday we started off right away finding out our location for the gas station fell through because of corporate clearances not coming in. We were already using a bathroom to double as a gas station restroom at a local coffee shop so we changed up last minute and used the shop as well as where John walks in. It worked well. Plenty of natural light, very happy to help and the owner even played the part needed. She did great! It was definitely a fairly large change but we rolled with it.

Yesterday we shot the major fight scene at the end. In it we had John getting hit by a car and our bad guy getting out and continuing to beat the living crap out of him. First thing when we met up, John had the idea of adding a sidekick for the bad guy. Our guy was available and willing to do it last minute and it was well worth it! He's going to be a fantastic addition to the story. We choreographed the fight sequence for about an hour and John and Patrick had it down. Quite a relief. We blocked out the shots outside and got going.

I guess we were doing a pretty decent job because about midway through the shoot, two cop cars showed up on a call a guy had just punched out a big man and took off running. These two were awesome. As soon as they learned our first of the 4 videos was on iTunes they had their iPhones out and were buying the single and video - pretty cool!

We wrapped up with the effects shot for the scene where John gets hit from behind. I shot 3 plates. First was a clean plate with no car and no Johnny. The 2nd with the car driving through and slamming on its breaks. The 3rd plate, I setup the greenscreen in the same spot and had John walk past and jump. I'll be able to composite those 3 together and give it a seriously nasty look!

Take a look at the following video, I think the day was a hit

Quick Test Hit from Jeremy Hughes on Vimeo.

Here's a quick test of the results.

I'm "Confident" Production Starts Tomorrow

2009-07-16T00:55:00.003-04:00

We kick off tomorrow with production on Confident finally. As I said in a previous post, things have definitely switched up a bit. The budget is gone and we're shooting a pretty aggressive video with less people and no money. I'm stoked! Here's why:

Its getting back to the roots of what makes this all fun. I have always liked to operate small and have the ability to change up slightly. There isn't as much stress in terms of making sure cast and crew are all onboard and in the same direction. There's a little bit of "just wing it" mentality there that is nice every now and then.

Like I said before though, we're definitely prepared where we need to be. Number one, again, is a clean, buttoned up script and detailed boards. Solve your problems before you ever pick up the camera, heck, before you ever drop cash on a single prop - KNOW THE STORY. Figure out the shots that best tell it and move it along. Get away from the idea of in a scene you need a "Wide, medium, close-up" - that's lazy. You can make your life a whole lot easier in post by shooting what you KNOW you need and want. The stray shot will come along and when it does it stands out but dont be searching for them on production days, you'll just piss everyone else off.

With the approach this time though, we do have some issues still up in the air which will be fun to solve. Dates have not completely settled down - no money, work around other's schedules. Locations are still a little in flux as well. We have the majority locked down but several of the big moment's scenes are still not locked. Part of the fun, right? My point here is, as long as you can move the story along just as well, be willing to flip up on a location. We need a flower shop that will put a small stand of flowers outside. Nothing yet. I'm looking at alternatives here though such as using a cart of our own and filling it - not too bad but we may have to buy flowers then. Just be flexible on many issues but keep true to the story and you'll be fine.

Production photos hopefully coming within a couple days.

Town Folk

2009-07-15T21:24:00.002-04:00

John Reuben "Town Folk" from Gotee Records on Vimeo.

Producer: Jared Greene
Director/DP: Jeremy Hughes
Wardrobe/Make-up: Erica Stewart
Compositing: Jeremy Hughes/Tobias Roediger of Ravevfx.com
Illustration: Christen Nelson

(I'll look to add a post here soon with a little more behind-the-scenes stuff)

Boards, Locations and News

2009-07-14T13:44:00.003-04:00

First off, its exciting to see that the first video for John is officially being released today http://tinyurl.com/jrtownfolk - it's a trippy and funny video I'm proud to have made.

Second, we're going to start shooting this week for Confident. Things have been very hectic the last week or two on all other levels so Confident has gone in a bit of a different direction in terms of how we're approaching it. It's going to be a very scaled down production but still aggressive in scope. I think it will be fun and remind me of why I love filmmaking. It will have a run-and-gun feel with just a couple of us at any given point. We're going to shoot more from a pick-up shot tempo meaning several half-days and not cramming a couple full days together. The goal is to keep energy high and the mood light.

Boards finished up and have been passed around.
Tomorrow we sort out make-up and final prepro planning. I'll look to get some more details up around all of this hopefully soon, particularly locations and how to get them to work for you for... uh, free.

A Conscious Effort to Post Regularly - At least for the next month

2009-06-29T10:28:00.001-04:00

Blog are hard for me to update. Especially when I know everyone has a million other things to do than read another freakin entry someplace else. What I'm looking to do this time however is regularly post small updates on the progress of the next music video I will be shooting for John Reuben. We've shot two already and they have both been projects I've been very proud of working on.

We locked script on the next one last week. The song is called Confident and I had a interesting concept for John about having him waking up in an alley, beat to a pulp and not knowing who he was. We're running with it. Next step is storyboards and concept art. I'll be looking to post some of that. Also, items I'll try to keep this blog updated with will be the location hunt, a little bit of casting, fight choreography, figuring out which camera we'll run with, the production itself and post production coverage. It should be fun!

What might someone pick up from reading the upcoming postings? We work very light and stripped down. We're come the opposite direction from a lot of other video professionals so we've learned to do more with less. A lot more in many cases!

Here are a few images from the last shoot. Total costs were around $4k including a little equipment rental on top of what we owned, all costumes and locations, paying the talent and craft service. Not bad!

I Love Prince and the WGA

2007-11-08T11:11:00.002-05:00

Thank you Prince, Artist formerly known as, whatever you are referred to now these days, for pissing on your fanbase and having an ego big enough to not realize you're squandering what could end up being millions of fans. Article here

Thank you WGA and Hollywood for coming to what seems to be a standstill for quite a while. Article here

Thank you Warner Music for boycotting Nokia and refusing to offer your music through their service for the time being. Article here

I believe you all are bringing us to what will be a head in the entertainment industry. A revolution. Maybe that word "convergence" will finally happen. You know, the one everyone spoke of several years back where you could watch video and communicate across anything from your TV to your Toaster while telling mom on her 2 inch phone via video that you need her to watch the kids.

The last time the WGA striked, cable got the go ahead from consumers across America. What's going to happen this time? Ratings are flat, they are falling in most cases. Many in the WGA seem to be there by default. The lost art of storytelling may be the boon for the Internet.

100 years ago, entertainers weren't exactly rich. Not the multimillionaires and celebs that we have today that blow half that cash up their nose. No, they were hard working, traveling showmen that did it because they loved it. We may be close to seeing that happen again. Especially when you have ego touting icons like Prince that wont even honor his fanbase by letting them honor him. Go Prince, help me see the media revolution through.

Then of course you have the big labels like Warner who squabble with maybe one of the MOST viable outlets for making cash right now in Nokia. Wake up Warner, your music is being downloaded worldwide everywhere. You have a legitimate partner where ringtones are ridiculously overpriced and you are peeing on it.

I love it, in the face of the giants fighting, innovation takes root. It grows and becomes something new. Bring on the renaissance. (note that at the time of this writing I work for AOL Video/Time Warner)

Net Neutrality, Consumerism and the Corporate Beast Fable

2007-10-11T17:01:00.000-04:00

Net nuetrality, what is that? It's the idea that we dont run into areas on the Inter-web where "corporations" block access to other areas of the net. I'm for it. There's a big issue I see looming where if corporations are able to block, slow and grant special access to content from other places we're running into what is going to become another TV. Believe me, it only makes sense why they would. You control what you are pushing in to you "portal", you control the results you can expect from it. I.E. You can expect to make advertising, sponsorship deals, etc where you have an idea of how many eyeballs you will have, how much you can charge such-and-such partner, etc. The small guy gets stiffed, the end-viewer gets stiffed. And we have plain vanilla content, as seen on TV - oh, and the movies too.

This is a huge deal with the broadband companies - the guys we pay to get online. The AT&Ts and COMCASTs and Time Warners. Since they are our gateway online, if they get to control this stuff, we are seriously screwed. Their arguement? That content owners get free rides without having to pay broadband providers money for all the bandwidth they suck up. That is a load of crap. There are so many interchanges, unlit fiber runs (though shrinking SUPERFAST), and fat pipes that are shared, there isnt a noticable cost, in my opinion, to the providers. Rather, they have large margins in broadband that they DO NOT have in cable ect. $50/month for a cable router for a 8Mbps connection is largely profit. Their biggest cost is supporting the vast majority of customers that screw up their PC and need help rebooting their boxes. Guys like Google - and anyone else - they complain about, pay on the other side for the huge amounts of data they have to pass around. They pay huge amounts for the servers and DCs they have to maintain. So net nuetrality needs to be in place for reasons like this. I dont want to lose out on being able to self promote a film I spilled hundreds of hours into and thousands of dollars to get shut out because Im too small to have an agreement with the broadband providers. That's whats really at risk too by the way, the mom and pops here!

Now, there is also the arguement that content sites are starting to do the same things - only more so. Such as MySpace blocking Revver as one example. Let me tell you why this is one of the dumbest ideas I've heard and I dont think really needs regulated. There once was a company called Sears. Back in the 1980's, Sears was the end-all-be-all in consumerism. It got cocky, complacent. What happened? People left it in droves. Especially once a new player named Walmart started to show up. The same cycle is becoming apparent with the big WM right now if you look closely.

The perfect online example of a company thinking it has it all but really has nothing. AOL. AOL grew quickly, had a closed network and a large captive audience. It was able to get away with a lot of things that wouldnt happen in the physical service world because nobody at that point knew where else they could go, let alone how to move the bookmarks they've stacked up over the years to that thing called Firefox. AOL knew this, they also knew they had this captive audience and were able to push around ad agencies and media buyers with stiff demands, "if you want to work with our network, you have to work by our rules, no negotiating on CPMs" They got away with a lot of that with the smaller guys. They were notorious for being very slow, not being on the ball and not giving you reliable tracking data of your campaign. Hmm, then recently they had the brilliant idea that they would phase out the dialup service, go free, ad based. What has happened? Nobody outside of AOL and the agencies it is now clamouring over ever hear anything about it. Hardly anyone knows you can even go there for free. Nobody wants to, they think theyll have to install a bunch of stuff. Now a supposed 2nd year in a row huge round of layoffs is immenent. Why? Because of poor advertising sales and dropping page views. Hows that happen?

Look, you treat your customers - whatever side they are on - poorly and in the neutral net, they are going to leave. And it's not a slow burn like Sears or Walmart. It's instantaneous. Look at the climb Facebook is currently experiencing as MySpace is starting to become the grandmother everyone would rather have in the "home".

What does this have to do with film and video? I think plenty. Madonna, Radiohead, among a growing number of others are leaving their labels along with falling CD sales. At the same time, record labels are STILL moving slowly to find new ways (or cutting edge artists) to entice fans. The fans are leaving, seeing themselves get sued and becoming extremely wary. Not in todays world. I think we are trending towards small, where the 15 minutes of fame is really there online. This is the place where self promotion is king and not being aligned with any one giant is a safe bet. Especially if they continue on their quests for growing ever larger through what amount to greedy moves. Youll see them buried before they even get started.

2007-10-09T01:06:00.001-04:00

It has been an extremely long time since my last post. So, to keep this thing live for the moment, I'll post again. How about that!

Something I'm finding I want to really keep my eye on are several new Internet shows that have been popping up and been funded on the low side but have a really nice production value to them. Oh, and they seemingly have some story minus the over-the-top studio bland cookie cutter involvement. Sanctuary and The Interior, article here both are gathering a strong enough following that they are moving into new years of the show. Thats good. I know the Interior directors fronted 75k of their own money. Thats a fantastic value though for a multi-episode shot on location in Central America. I really hope they make their money. It would be fantastic to see new avenues start to really emerge and trends set where people actually want to look online for shortform content. See current.tv for another great crossbreed example!

Wake Up!

2006-06-28T13:17:00.000-04:00

Great and funny article by Lore SjÃ¶berg in Wired on how in 100 years people will have the ability to recreate the movie theatre environment everyone loved in the early 21st century.

But seriously...How does big entertainment think that they have such a captive audience that they can continue to raise prices AND add other forms of revenue to their pockets and STILL think the customer is going to be happy. They whine about online piracy and talk about how it hurts the little man in the food chain of movie making.That's a farce. The gaffer makes less or the same or more bacause of union/non-union issues moreso that a downloaded movie. Quit raising prices, allow the theatre to be a clean, welcoming place where its fun again to go see a movie and not worry about getting stabbed because you told the moron in front of you to quit talking on his phone. The falloff in revenueisn'tt because some kid is downloading a crappy version thatdoesn'tt have finished sound and the picture sucks onto his PC. It's because half the time the stroryline sucks, the environment to watch the flick is lousy and it costs $40 to go as a family to something where you don't have a very good guarantee if it will be any good.

Imagine the automaker saying thanks for buying our car, now please allow us to stick bumper stickers for candy, cola, and tampons all over your car. Also, before you can drive, you have to listen to at least 5 minutes of commercials. Oh, and that could be longer. And by the way, we are going to have to raise the price of that car on you because the guy in Mexico who builds it is getting screwed because so many people are making their own soapbox racers in their garage and painting them the same silver coating... I'm rambling but you get the point.

Emerging Distributors

2006-06-19T13:44:00.000-04:00

Problem: Currently to have a movie make it to an audience, a film needs to a) get acquired by a large distributor or b) make the endless film festival route where if distribution does occur, said film then is pushed with a front loaded marketing/advertising campaign to promote it meaning it better catch on immediately or its lost in the distributor's closet.

If you ask me, that's a pretty big problem. As a filmmaker, you face huge bottlenecks including creative control, who's overseeing the marketing, is there a decent budget behind the advertising, is the festival worth paying for, how exactly is the distributor's lawyer looking to stick it to you...

Let's move past the given (it needs to be more of a given - but more on that later), the story needs to be good! It needs to hook. OK, so your story has a great setup and payoff. People who see it, love it! They tell their friends about it. But what does that do for you if you can't get the friggin thing into another theatre?

Welcome to 2006, the start of something big! Broadband is keeping the promises that the Internet is the great deliverer for the little guy. Throw out what you know and start thinking differently. You now have a CHEAP distribution route. Reverse what you know about movie marketing. You now are looking at a promotional ramp up. Let me explain. It is now becoming possible to push your media anywhere in a protected format. That means mobile, computer desktops, even the television settop box, and if you can hit that, you can begin thinking how small theatres will be able to also pickup and stream a film. 2929 Studios and Mark Cuban has the right idea, release in a manner that anyone can get however they feel like getting it. When they signed the deal with Steven Soderbergh to produce a series of low budget films that would be immediately released on dvd, HDTV and in the theatres, they set what I believe will be a common method for moviemaking in the near future. Does this mean every film will be and should be? No. There will probably always be the big budget blockbusters and superstar love stories. What is different however is there is now a way for a filmmaker in the middle of Ohio or Croatia to make a movie and look to distribute it for longterm gain... and make a living!

Keep an eye on trends like the following:

More studios like 2929 releasing pictures across multiple venues simulateously
The bigger Internet players like AOL, Yahoo, and Apple among a plethora others looking to acquire more independent content and moving away from simply being a web portal but more of a content company providing it across many devices and venues... (Want an example? Look at the agreement with Brightcove and TIVO and check out this vid with Jeremy Allaire talking more about what they're up to.)
Its getting cheaper - you know longer are required to produce packaging and author and print a large load of DVDs the Blockbuster will send back if the rentals suck.
Word of mouth, the gem of and envious drive of every advertiser, is becoming easier - though it may take longer than you hope. Look at the YouTube and MySpace successes within the past month that you can remember getting a link for.
File level DRM isn't too bad if you arent a fanatic like the big distributors. Learn how to make it work for you. DRM can and will provide you opportunities to make your money as well as giving you the level of control that doesnt piss off your buyers while making sure friends pay their dues as well.
Portable and mobile devices with big storage and Internet connections. Think small again because that DVX100 you are shooting with is all you need to push some great quality to these little media hungry devices! Short form works best here too...
Convergence between devices, formats and delivery channels. Watch for big and small companies to pop up and give consumers the option of picking up their entertainment across any device. Imagine watching half a show on your TV and the rest while you are waiting for your flight at the airport.
Advertising is moving online, particularly preroll and postroll video ads.

Here's the opportunities its creating for filmmakers:

The ability to distribute at a low cost as well as produce at a low cost - just PLEASE be sure the story is good!
Long-term word-of-mouth and guerilla campaigns that allow film payoffs to be more profitable in the long term rather than a quick shot in the dark upfront.
Many more routes to distribute like on the desktop, the TV, portable devices, mobile TV and a ton of emerging channels or content aggregators.
Since big boys in other mediums are now able to compete, look for more opportunities to sell your content.
Shorts are going to be in more and more. The lunchtime fixation, the stuck in traffic boredom killer, the "I-hate-this-get-together" movie all need something to watch.

The rules are changing. There will always be the case for the big business model but keep an eye open on the changing landscape at the bottom and how it could have the ability to make you the next media darling.