Monsters is Almost Complete

Monsters Under the Bed, a film many of you helped me with too long ago, is finally wrapping post. We are wrapping up sound design and score with the help of two guys across the pond in England. Tom Jenkins has been working with me on the sound design and is a blast to work with. He's been pushing hard to really tune the monster's voice which is a mix of many levels and parts he's pushing through vocoders with gurgles and goat bleating as the container to push the voice into. Less is more in this movie but it seems like when we take the time to push too far out there and then reel it back in, we have something very strong.

Nick Watson is doing much the same with the scrore. Building up and then taking away. I'm very thankful for these guys and everyone else who dedicated their time to this little film. I'm most excited for everyone to see it.

Color is done, effects are done. It's close. We're targeting a completed film June 8th... oh, that's 2012 by the way.

Opening Title

Jonah's "friend"

Bully scene

Bully scene

Maya Sayre as Jonah's teacher

End Credits

Off the Map

It's been quite a while since I've updated my blog and a lot of that has to do with a crazy travel schedule for the last year. I had the opportunity to work with my good friend John in helping him build a strategy and organization at the ground level for a new music division at Maker Studios, a tech darling in Culver City that is catching both the film and online world's attention as it's quickly heading towards 1 billion views a month in Youtube traffic.

The opportunity appealed to me as there has been a clear trend developing with a shift of major dollars along with audiences to online entertainment. Convergence is finally becoming a reality. What does that mean exactly? It means that for maybe the first time in modern history, storytelling is changing. It now can be told and consumed in so many different ways that it makes the mind spin. Think about it. You now have a chance to create a singular story, cut it up into something that looks more like a puzzle and spread that across the web. Audiences are finding new content in the manner that they want to engage in. It's the storytellers job now to find them where they are with a piece of that overarching story and loop them into the overall grand adventure they are creating.

When creating, think about the overall palette you have available to you now. Not only is there mobile, TV, film, there are platforms everywhere, each with their own flavor. Youtube is king of content but it conjures certain viewing habits and tastes more than others. Vimeo is a completely different audience with different expectations of how long they'll watch a single video. Now you can include platform tastes including gaming device platforms, Blip, Sony, HULU, and Netflix and on and on. Put on top of that applications like Frequency, Roku, and a growing number of others that are curating content into a single place and you've got a lot of options.

If you're diving into your next story or script, think about the mass effect audiences are having on how content is made. Think like them. Who are you trying to catch? What do they like? Where do they live in media terms? Now start sketching how you want to go get them and where you need to start with that story. you have a chance to reach and engage in an entirely new way. Create the puzzle and go put it out there.

Jenis Ice Cream

Here's a fun video we had to chance to work on with George Lange.

What's All the Hub-bub, Bub?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!







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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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!