A Single Man

I wrote this and then re-read it and I realize it's somewhat disjointed. I blame that on the fact this movie completely scrambled my brain apart.

I went to see A Single Man on Friday night at our local indie theater, the only place it's playing in the city. This movie really wasn't on my radar at all. I didn't know what it was about and didn't even hear of it until awards season started up. In the last week or so, I took note and watched the trailer and was convinced this was a movie I had to see on the big screen for some reason. I'm so glad I did.

This is without a doubt my favorite movie of 2009.

It's 100% the kind of movie I really enjoy deeply. I am a huge fan of stylized editing and storytelling - not stylized as a gimmick, but just as an artistic choice. Something like that walks a fine line between gimmick and art, and I felt this movie hit it perfectly. It accentuated the story rather than distracting.

I'm not a film scholar by any means. I only had one film class in college, I don't know the appropriate way to review a film, and a lot of what I say could "technically" be wrong. All I know is how a movie makes me feel when I'm walking away from it. And this movie had me in tiny little pieces.

I watch a lot of movies. Ever since I started making my own little movies, I've begun watching films with a different eye, constantly thinking about how scenes were assembled, why the editor made the choices they did at each cut, or the process involved in a sequence. Because of this, I always end up watching a movie a little more consciously. I feel like it can be hard for me to judge editing in a way sometimes because I'm always very aware of a cut, and the audience shouldn't be aware of the cut. That being said, with this film, I felt like the rhythm the editor built took a very abrasive way of editing (jump cuts) and made it almost invisible in a way.

As I said, I love films that are assembled like this. This film could have been constructed in a straightforward, more mainstream way. The director could have not taken any risks, the cinematographer could have done every shot straight on and without movement, the editor could have just slammed together a series of sequences. It would have told the story and ended and then it would have sucked. The story and the way it was presented went so hand-in-hand, it was beyond stunning. The way it was cut gave me a feeling of hopelessness when it needed to be felt, like being in a daze, or being in a very intense moment. It's really rare anymore for me to feel so emotionally connected to a movie through the cuts since as I said, I'm much more aware of them than I should be.

The film is about one day in a man's life several months after the death of his long-time partner. Oh, and he decides that this is the day he commits suicide, and spends his day contemplating and preparing for it. Colin Firth is outstanding and I think he really does deserve the Oscar for his performance. I didn't see him in this role at all. The other supporting actors in the film are also great. I love the 60s era, and the production design was awesomely vintage.

The color work that went into this movie was AWESOME. Sucking the life out of it during most of it, and infusing saturation back in when Firth's character finds some little intimate moment to appreciate about life was an amazing choice and really sold the film visually. My favorite movie is Amelie, for much of the same reason. I love the story and the style choices, but I really love how the filmmakers were able to tear out this tiny little intimate detail in the world and make you feel exactly how they want you to feel about it. The same occurs in A Single Man.

I also loved the musical choices in the movie, and more importantly, the moments when there was no music. Choosing to not have music in an intense emotional moment is risky and it worked great.

Basically, this is one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen, both in terms of storytelling and visually. I could be completely wrong, but I felt like it echoed the era of French New Wave in many ways. Tom Ford's background as a fashion designer has given him a unique perspective on film, and I look forward to what he has to offer in the future.

I really don't feel completely emotionally taken over by movies all that often. I love a lot of movies, and they often inspire me, but not many of them really hit my editor-soul hard. This one really truly hit it hard.

Something that perturbs me..

I've learned a lot about the various formats, compressions, codecs, etc. that exist in the video world since graduation. I dedicate my "billable downtime" rendering or transcoding to learning more and reading up on white papers and forums. I've come to realize that my university education completely glossed over huge pieces of the post production puzzle. Of course the nitty gritty of post is something you learn from experience, from reading, or wherever, and the classroom is largely for theory most of the time, but at IUPUI we did dig into the technical aspects on a somewhat regular basis. Because I felt like my education had a bigger basis in the technical than most other curriculums, I would have expected to learn a lot more about this stuff...it wasn't like they told me that these things were things I needed to know and I should figure it out, they didn't even mention them. I can get over that - I didn't go to school expecting to learn everything. 

However, this really perturbs me.

Since graduating, I've learned a lot about HDV, HD, color spaces, transcoding, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and why all these things matter. I've also learned a lot more about the technical side of chroma keying. I've learned that DV and HDV really suck for shooting chroma key footage. I learned that these formats throw away a huge chunk of the chroma information that is vital to get a really good key. NOBODY told us this. I took a class where we were required to shoot some chroma key footage and place it somewhat convincingly into an existing movie scene. The only camera we had access to to shoot this with? A GL2. So of course all of our keys sucked, especially ours since we had our subject running back and forth. Interlaced DV with high motion. Worst of all was that our prof harshly judged our keys. She explain that it wasn't entirely our fault that they sucked. She made it out to be that we were just bad at keying and needed to try harder in the future.

Now I realize that the project was somewhat doomed from the beginning and this prof missed a great teaching moment, so I don't feel so bad about getting a B- on that assignment. 

I am officially perturbed.

Why yes, I would like an iPad.

I knew today would be filled with a lot of annoying complainers. This is THE mythical tablet. It's been a legend for years and years. Nothing can live up to that kind of hype. But I think the iPad has lived up to my expectations completely. I wasn't shocked by any of the functionality because it's exactly what I would have expected from Apple. It's missing a few things I would like, but it's still a huge deal in my opinion.

The iPad is just another thing on the path we're currently taking to completely integrating technology into our life seamlessly. Back in the day, our computers were tethered to an office or desk in the corner of a room. They've slowly gotten smaller, portable, more accessible in our homes. Then they showed up in our pockets, traveling with us everywhere. The iPad combines our need to connect with our need to travel around with technology. Now, we all sit at home in front of our desktop or laptop. It's just this big ol' computer sitting in front of us. It FEELS computery. An iPad is less of a computer, and more of an extension of regular, open communication. It's just like the way social media is going...we used to keep ourselves hidden behind avatars, and now we communicate openly and constantly on FB and Twitter.

I really like the idea of having one of these things around rather than my laptop. Most of the time, my laptop is more powerful than I need it to be. It's a lot of hardware to be sitting on my lap, and compared to the iPad, it's archaic and clunky. If I need to do high powered activities, I can switch to my future Mac Pro. As the Internet slowly continues its creep into our lives, having an iPad as your main communication tool rather than a desktop or laptop really makes sense, and I think in 10 years, computers like that will outnumber what we have now.

I do wish the iPad had a few things (of course). A camera would be nice, USB to connect to various devices, multitasking. Some people have been complaining about the lack of handwriting recognition or a stylus. These are the same people who complain about a phone not having a flip out keyboard. Why do you want a big clunky thing like that? A stylus? That is so 1998. Use your hands. And handwriting recognition, what for? Can't you type 100x as fast as you can write by now? I've never been a fan of handwriting recognition (because I have awful penmanship) or a stylus (because it gets lost). Of course Apple wouldn't have these ridiculous peripherals. Have you ever MET an iPod?

I'm also excited about the potential to use the iPad with video production. Using it to view dailies or preview edits for producers. Or in the edit suite, using it to control your edit system from the client's couch so you can see your work from away from the editing station and focus on the cuts rather than the timeline..or let the client playback for themselves..maybe even make notes or place markers?

So basically, I think the iPad makes sense right now. I think like most things we have all grown to use on a daily basis in the last ten years, it will take a bit of time, but this mixed with the way our society is becoming so connected and real time is what we have to look forward to in technology.

I'm not sure I would get the 3G option. If it replaces my laptop, I use my laptop when I intend on being around wifi. If I travel here and there occasionally, I can find wifi spots if I want to be online for a while. If I need to search the internet for a quick answer, I have my iPhone for that. If I traveled regularly, I would get the 3G just so I would have the option.

It's at a really awesome price point in my opinion, and the lack of contract is even better with the 3G. I wish it wasn't exclusive to AT&T, but I have no issues with them most of the time. And it's SO SHINY. MUST HAVE.

Cynicism, Success, & Video Production

I'm sure anyone not living under a rock knows all about the NBC drama with Leno and Conan. If not, I'm not getting into the details of it, so you should Google it and come back later. The whole situation was so depressing for me. I hadn't watched much late night television at all in the last year or two because of my school and work schedules making me get up early. So in a way, I kind of contributed to Conan's demise. Although really, I don't believe that. NBC killed him by having Leno in primetime and ruining the momentum of late night, but that's beside the point. I grew up mainly watching Conan. In high school when I had the ability to stay up super late and still get up super early, I watched him every night. A lot of late night editing sessions saw me rendering to the sound of Conan's show.

His final show last Friday was fantastic, but his monologue near the end was heartbreaking and poignant. For someone who had just been screwed royally, it was the classiest thing you could have imagined coming from him. This was especially important in my opinion:

"Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism - for the record it's my least favorite quality, it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen."

I'm not exactly an industry expert, but I've seen a lot of cynicism in the video industry. It seems very easy to fall into that state of mine with the nature of video. A lot of video companies fold, especially in recessions. There aren't a lot of jobs to go around. Hollywood is filled with cynics and cynical thinking. In the entertainment industry as a whole, it's impossible to read a single article, review, or blog without some bit of cynicism about the whole idea. It's really unfortunate to be surrounded by this.

We all love what we're doing, or we wouldn't be doing this. Obviously the majority of us are not in it for the money. But between trying to find (and hold down) a job, fighting for work, dealing with clients or producers, finding our creativity, or just trying to do something amazing, it's so easy to be cynical. And we shouldn't be. We should be HAPPY that we know what will fulfill us in life. We get to create for a living and make art that will change other people, whether it's a feature film or a how to video for the web. We have the privilege of creating something no one has ever seen before. We're going to have ups and downs, and once we accept that, I think taking each day one at a time and not falling into cynicism would be much easier.

The other part of the quote I feel particularly strongly about.

"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen."

We all have expectations for our video careers. We aspire to different levels..joining the ACE, getting a film distributed, shooting a scene with an amazing actor, whatever. Some of these things will happen, some of them won't, and most of them won't happen just how you thought they would. I've always had a strict plan for my life, simply because I found it easiest while I was in college. Now that I'm out in the world, I've found that having big goals in mind and living each day is the best plan of all. Certainly I want to achieve a lot of things, but if I don't hit one specifically exactly right, am I going to wallow in self-pity? I sure hope not.

And this business has a tendency to get a bit ugly. Tempers flare up, stubbornness comes out in full force, feelings get hurt. It's so competitive. It's easy to talk down to people because they don't know something that you learned. The industry as a whole is cut-throat and always will be. But I don't need to be like that. I'm competitive, but not mean-spirited. I'm not going to lie, sabotage, or steal to get my way. I'm following Conan's advice.

But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen.

That's how I've tried to live so far, and it's worked out. I want to keep that state of mind as I get deeper and deeper in the industry. Kindness. It's key to my success, I'm sure.

Apple Pro Certifications

Since I completed some Apple Pro Certifications last spring, I've had several people inquiring about the certifications and my experience with them. When I was trying to decide if it was something I wanted to do, I couldn't find a whole lot of good first hand information on the Internet. In general, I found a lot of forum posts where people were asking how it was, and people would reply and say they didn't know but they didn't do it because it doesn't get you jobs. I think this is terrible misinformation, so I decided to make a post about the whole thing here in hopes that maybe this will get indexed in Google relatively high and help someone out.

I am certified by Apple in Final Cut Pro 6, Soundtrack Pro 2, and Color 1. I did my FCP exam in January 2009, and the other two in April 2009. I also took the exams for Motion 2 and DVD Studio Pro 2, but those didn't go so well...we'll get to that later.

Why did I get certified?

In IUPUI's Media Arts and Science program, you have to complete a capstone your final semester. After much thinking and deliberation, and TONS of amazing help from a professor/my capstone advisor, I decided to do my film reconstruction project and get certified in Final Cut at level 2. There are very few level 2 certified people in the state. We came to the conclusion that this would be a great project for me because one of my main concerns at this point in my career was having expert level knowledge of the interface of an NLE. The project would allow me to dig into the conceptual side of editing with the exploration of every single cut in those two scenes, and the certification side would allow me to dig deep into the software. It went hand in hand VERY well, because I learned a lot of editing techniques from learning the software very well, and I learned how to apply a lot of technical workflow knowledge effectively by discovering the conceptual side - "why did they make that cut".

My certification experience

My original plan was to complete the FCP 1 exam in January, and then in March complete the level 2 class and exam. You can do the level 1 exam without the course, but you must do a 3 day course in order to do the level 2 exam. This kind of sucks because the course is expensive and you probably don't need it, as I was told by the proctor to study before the course or I wouldn't pass the exam. But whatever, that's the way it was.
I was to have the exams and courses administered by Ball State's Digital Corp at the Ball State center in downtown Indy, and the course schedule happened to offer the only level 2 class at the perfect time. There was another in Chicago later on, but it was far more expensive (hotel costs) and much too late. So everything was worked out nicely.
This plan would have been great, except I was apparently the only one signed up for the course and we were in the middle of a recession. So they called me a couple of weeks before the course was scheduled and said they couldn't afford to hold it with just me in it. EFF. They felt bad about this of course, so they offered me a discount if I wanted to attempt Master level certification instead. Master level certification in the FCP suite includes level 1 exams for all the applications. So I decided to give it a try, knowing that with my 18 credit hour schedule with 2 major projects and a billion minor projects would probably not allow me to cram all that knowledge in. I had one month to work through the Apple Pro Training Series books for Color, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, and DVD Studio Pro, and I had barely used any of those programs before. It was crazy.

The certification exams

My exams were administered at the Ball State Center at downtown Indianapolis by a nice proctor. He was an Apple certified trainer and master level certified in FCP. I completed the exams online on his Macbook Pro. They were all multiple choice with plenty of time to take them, though they are timed (there's a timer in the corner). You get some time to practice using the interface in case you have questions. Some questions are just text, others have photos of the interface, some have videos that show something you have to identify.
The exams themselves varied in difficulty. For the most part, if you are familiar with the basics of the interface of each application and you work through every chapter of the Pro Training Series books, you probably will pass. When I say familiar with the basics, I mean you've used the application to do a project recently. Many of the questions are about things you should know about the software from regular use. There were far more interface questions than I thought there might be. Lots of questions with arrows saying "what does this button do", basically. Those were the most difficult, because I sometimes tend to rely on the tooltip popups too much. You have to pass the exam with 80% minimum.
The FCP level 1 exam was more difficult than I thought it might be - the interface questions were rough. Also learning Apple's way of explaining a particular tool was a bit difficult at times from using the software so long on my own. The Color exam I was told by the proctor would be the most difficult. It was extremely difficult, but I really dug into learning Color so my interest helped. Soundtrack Pro was the quickest and easiest exam. Motion wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be. I spent too long trying to learn the advanced features, and the exam tended to remain with the basics. DVD Studio Pro was the most difficult in my opinion. There is a LOT to DVD authoring (apparently). DVD Studio Pro is a thin book, but it's almost less intuitive to me than Color is for some reason. I just couldn't grasp it the way I needed to, and it made it far more difficult than I anticipated.
So after 1 month of crazy studying, I was 2 for 4. Not that bad, really...I tried!

So, why should you bother with certifications?

When you ask seasoned editors about certification, most of them will tell you it's a waste of time and they would never hire anyone on certification alone. I say to that: well, DUH. That isn't the point of certification.

• Being a certified pro gives you another credential that may or may not help you in your job search. It's not a guarantee of any sort, but it's another line on your resume. And for me living in the midwest where many hirings are completed by HR people who look mostly at credentials, that's always a good thing.
• Being certified forces you to dig deeper into the software and learn it more than you ever have before. Many editors will tell you that having a natural ability is far more important than being a button pusher. This is true. However, I believe these two things are inseparable. If you have a natural ability, yet you are slow with the interface, you can't possibly tell your story effectively. If you are a natural AND a total whiz at pushing the buttons, you're limitless!
• Being certified is a good thing for people who are motivated by tangible achievements to enrich themselves. You get a piece of paper from Apple, which looks pretty spiffy.
• If you're ever interested in teaching, certification is a great step in learning the software at the level you need. None of my professors in college knew FCP as well as I did, and I find that kind of crappy, though they weren't teaching just a FCP class so I can forgive them.
• When you are in an edit suite with a producer and you know how to operate these applications so fast, you will look like you know what you're doing.

That's my view on certifications. They aren't a fix for not having a natural storytelling ability. They aren't a fix for someone trying to get a job. They aren't a necessity. But they can absolutely be worthwhile for many people. If you're interested, you should look at your goals as an editor and assess where you are currently before you take the leap. Always put most of your work into continually making your demo reel the best it can be. Certifications were certainly worthwhile for me, and I feel like a much more confident editor now and work much faster than before. I don't start off an interview or conversation with "I'm an apple certified professional" because it doesn't matter. For me, this was a much more personal achievement.

The best part about being certified? You can use the Apple logo on your business cards.

A film-grimage.

Last night Katie and I were talking about some ideas I had, and suddenly we came up with the idea of a film-grimage. We're still kind of debating the name of it but I personally happen to like the term. Anyway, what is a film-grimage? As you may of guessed, it's adapted from the term pilgrimage.

A film-grimage is a long journey or search of great filmic significance. A journey to a shrine of the importance of cinema, in any capacity.

How will we go about our film-grimage? The answer is any way we can. We will attend workshops. Meet indie filmmakers. We’ll go to museums. We’ll see movies. We’ll read articles. We’ll find old cameras and play with them. We’ll do filming and editing exercises. We’ll do big projects. We’ll do small projects. We’ll travel. We’ll stay home. (We hope to travel more.)

This blog is our journey to continue to enrich ourselves as filmmakers by exploring every facet of cinema. It is a living document to record our personal journey to discover things we consider cinematically significant. We’ll post these things that help us on our journey here and reflect upon them.

Since we're all graduated or about to graduate, this is a great way for us to continue to keep our minds open about everything we can, and have somewhere to post about it. Right now it's me, Katie, and Aaron. We're always going to be willing to add new contributors, or take people away.

If you would like to follow our film-grimage, add filmgrimage.wordpress.com to your daily rounds or RSS feed reader.

Professional Resolutions

I follow @editblog on twitter and saw he made a list of professional resolutions for 2010. Although I think New Year's resolutions are dumb, it somewhat inspired me to come up with a list of things to work on professionally in the coming year. Who cares if it happens to be at the same time everyone else is doing the same thing.

1. Dig deeper into After Effects. I've spent the last few months really getting to know AE better than I ever did in college, and I need to immerse myself further. I think knowing motion graphics gives me an edge on jobs whenever I might need it. But most of all, it eases my anxiety to know that when someone comes to me with a request, I won't have to be up all night trying to figure out if it's even possible. I really need to dig more into the Z axis, cameras, and lights.

2. Kind of learn Motion. It's there and waiting, I need to learn it better. Not necessarily like AE, but better.

3. Actually watch all the behind the scenes stuff on my DVDs. I buy DVDs for their behind the scenes making of type content. And then I forget. This stuff seriously inspires me, and I always need inspiration.

4. Take time to refocus on my craft. I realized at Postapalooza that I need to take a step back every once in a while and learn from masters, chill out, and read about why digital non-linear editing is the greatest thing in the whole world. I'm still finishing Behind the Seen, I've got several books and some DVDs lined up next, and I need to take some time every couple of months to remind myself why I should bother.

5. Do a few personal projects. Something new, just for fun.

Postapalooza 2009

I completely forgot I never blogged about Postapalooza. I am lucky to have an awesome employer who decided to send me there. I had never been to a conference of any kind before, so this was an entirely new experience for me.

On a Sunday afternoon in October, I drove from Indy to southern Indiana to check into the Belterra Casino and Hotel. It was an awesome drive. Half of the drive was on I-74, and the other half was on scenic winding country roads in the hills among fall foliage. I wasn't expecting that at all.

Postapalooza was very much an editor's retreat, above all. It was held in a VERY remote area on the Ohio River. There is literally no place to go nearby to get away from the hotel. Being plucked out of busy life and placed into a perfect hilly river-side hotel is reason enough to return to Postapalooza each year.

The conference lasted two days. It was organized into a different tracks - one more focused on video editing, another more in motion. And between those, there were multiple levels - intro level, intermediate, and advanced. It was nice to have a wider selection of sessions to choose from than just introductory level. I picked a mix of editing and After Effects sessions. There were also a few general sessions.

They held a camera general session that I didn't really feel was worth the time so much, mainly because I had worked with all of the cameras before. But it felt like most of the people in the room either had their tools already or weren't interested. Still I learned a couple of things, so I'm glad I went to it.

The other general session was 60 in 60 - 60 FCP, After Effects, and Motion tips in 60 minutes. I wish it was more rushed - actually 60 minutes (it was close though). And the tips were regurgitated from the sessions and were very basic, so I didn't get much out of that.

The sessions I did were very good, and I heard great things from the others. I wish I had the opportunity to have Trish and Chris Meyer at my Postapalooza event (they were only in the Michigan one). It would have been nice to have truly expert level knowledge on After Effects.

There was also a big giveaway, and since the event was small there happened to be enough prizes for everyone. I managed to win the Magic Bullet Suite for AE and FCP (and I use the plugins ALL THE TIME NOW). It was worth $900! Awesome.

Outside of the planned out sessions, I had a great time. The hotel room was super nice, the weather was pleasant for mid-Fall, and I was forced to just take time to myself since I couldn't get on the Internet or drive to McDonalds. I briefly went to the casino as well. I think I went in there for about 20 minutes and smelled like smoke immediately. I spent a lot of my time alone in Starbucks or in my room where I had to order room service since there was literally nothing else to do. I did socialize a little with attendees, but there were so few that it was hardly worth it. It was great - just me, some coffee, and my "Behind the Seen" book about how Walter Murch edited Cold Mountain with Final Cut Pro. Totally immersed in all things post production for two days.

Awesome.

Possibly my favorite part about this whole thing (besides the post talk of course) was the buffet. I'm still in the mindset of a starving college student, so when I get unlimited access to a fabulous buffet, I feel like the kids in Jurassic Park when they are chowing down on the food they find right before a velociraptor comes and tries to eat them. It just makes me happy.

In conclusion, Postapalooza was great. I wished some sessions went a little deeper into the material, but I realize that 90 minute sessions can't possibly teach you THAT much about After Effects. It was worth going to, and maybe someday I'll go again. I hope the event grows more and more, because it's very good for editors. It's something they need to do from time to time.

Hopefully this post will help someone out in the future when they're looking for information. I tried googling this event a while back to find out more, and I didn't see a thing.