48 Hour Film Project, here we go!

I registered a team for the 48 hour film project in Indianapolis. If you don't know what that is, go to their website and check it out. It's a film racing competition. I've always wanted to participate, but the timing was never right until. I've formed a team with 4 ex-classmates that all graduated with me or shortly after. We have more equipment than I thought we could ever come up with, we work well together, and we're good at what we do, so I think we have a good chance at winning some awards. Regardless, it'll be a lot of fun to rekindle that feeling of "OMG HURRY" we all felt when we were in college together, and great to see our film screened on the big screen in a movie theater in front of a sold out audience! Our team name is Pants Cannon Media. The YouTube has a lot of old stuff

We're trying to get permission to shoot on campus since there is a good variety to the different areas and we can make it look like totally different locations without the travel. Otherwise, we're just wrangling some talent and waiting for July 30th to roll around so we can get going.

I really hope we don't draw musical as our genre.

I'll do a post-mortem after that weekend is over. I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about. In the meantime, here are the bios I sent along with our entry:


Director of Photography - "Jeremiah Nickerson is a recent graduate of Indiana University School of Informatics.  Working as a freelance videographer and sound designer in Indianapolis, his background in traditional arts has helped lay the foundation as an artist in the digital realm.  His work is often emotionally driven, casting light on personal and social issues that affect us all."

Assistant Director/Grip - "Joshua Kent Fike earned a degree from Indiana University in Media Arts & Science while focusing on audio and video production. Establishing himself in the industry keeps him busy with freelance work, interning at Boost Media Entertainment, and initiating his own video production business. He has always been attracted to the power of music and images and is continuously inspired by artists around the world and strives to inspire others by adding his own flavor into the life and energy of storytelling."

Editor/Production Manager - "Kylee Wall graduated from Indiana University in 2009 with a degree in Media Arts and Science with a focus on video production. After having spent time interning for local companies such as Pathway Productions and NUVO Newsweekly, she now works as a Multimedia Producer for Tangent Point Media. She has been passionate about video post-production since she was young, and continues to take on freelance work and volunteer in the local independent film scene as much as possible."

Director - Aaron Whiteford recently completed his degree at Indiana University in Media Arts and Science (video production). Passionate about great storytelling and great pictures, he works as an independent videographer. His diverse background lends itself to bringing each vision to life in a new way, and continues to explore new opportunities in narrative filmmaking."


Editor/Post-production Supervisor - "Katie Toomey recently earned a degree in Media Arts and Science from Indiana University, focusing on video production. Working as an independent videographer and editor, she has interned at NUVO Newsweekly and worked to build a reputation as a local freelancer. She is passionate about narrative filmmaking, volunteering with local independent filmmakers on recent projects. Her passions lie in post-production, where she strives to bring energy into each story she cuts."

Leah not Leia Post-mortem

Edit 6/30: Added photos!

The shoot for the project I blogged (and have been tweeting) about wrapped last night, so I thought I'd do a short post-mortem about the experience while it was still fresh on my mind.

Background on the film: It was written by Kate Chaplin, directed by Tom Johnson and Nate Savidge, produced by Karmic Courage and Inverted Staircase Productions. The crew and cast were entirely local, volunteer basis only. The superquick synopsis - A short film about how Star Wars can ruin your life.

 A teaser "poster" someone made.

The shoot took place over 6 days, and I was present for 4 of those days, plus the day before shooting started for a crew meeting. Between that and my regular job, it's been a long week. I served the crew as a Production Assistant, which meant a lot of scurrying around for short periods of time, a lot of waiting, and a lot of lugging stuff around and wrangling people.

I am an editor, and that's always where I gravitate, feel most comfortable, and ultimately want to end up. At my current day job, I do a lot of all the other stuff, as most people around here do, including lots of shooting. There is, however, a huge difference between a small interview shoot, and a narrative fiction piece with a crew and cast of 20. Production has never been my favorite step of filmmaking. It was always just a hoop to jump through in order to have material to edit. But I really do enjoy being a part of it sometimes, getting out of my comfort zone, and learning new things on the set. It's an entirely different energy, and you get to know people a lot more.

The shoots that were outside were ungodly hot. The inside shoots were cramped and also ungodly hot as the AC had to be killed for sound. Our final day of shooting was inside a movie theater, so that stayed cool since the theater had to remain operating, luckily. I ended up having to be an extra in the very last setup. It was amusing to be on the other side of the camera for that last stretch, but hopefully we're out of focus because my hair was not cool.

 Katie & I loving on the jib.

I learned quite a lot about production, and about myself during the last week. I had a chance to set back and consider the hard work people put in to filming movies. I considered my own career choices, solidified once again by my experiences. I thought about if I would ever want to serve in a larger capacity in a production like this, and how my set would operate differently. I think I would be a good director, by the way. Maybe somewhere far down the line after I accomplish some other priorities.

Nearly midnight on the final shoot day, we're in front of the camera as extras, plus we got light sabers.

All in all, I'm really glad I had the opportunity to finally help out with a Karmic Courage film. Even though as a production assistant, I had no creative input in the film itself, I still was part of the production, and every piece is important to making these things run. I'm happy to be a part of filmmaking in Indiana and to get to know other people on the crew better.

Katie showing off the giant crane set up in a movie theater lobby.

Next time you go to a movie, think about the people that have to set up those scenes, or cater to the stars' needs, or clean up the trash left behind. That's a lot of crazy hard work that you'll never really appreciate!

 The giant contraption we made out of light stands and trash bags to block ambient light.

PA Survival Kit

Tomorrow, I start a 5 day shoot as a production assistant for a local short film called "Leah Not Leia". While my main interests and career lie in post-production, I do enjoy the camaraderie of a set, and I've been wanting to get involved in the indie film in the Indianapolis area for a while. I'll blog more about the experience after principal photography is finished on Monday.

I've put together a survival kit for myself and another production assistant, Katie. We decided since we're going to be going straight from working all day to 7+ hour shoots in the evening, or 13 hours a day this weekend, we may as well be prepared. Here's what we have:

• 5 t-shirts (non-logo, just in case we have to fill in some empty spots in the scene)
• Clean socks
• Backup bottled water
• Vitamins
• Small snacks
• Medications (tylenol, stomach stuff, throat stuff)
• Cough drops
• Baby powder
• Small sewing kit
• Band aids and liquid bandage
• Lotion
• Wet wipes
• Smelly spray
• Deoderant 
• Umbrella
• Sunscreen
• Playing cards
• Pens

I think that's all I have. I'll let you know how it goes.

The edit suite is everywhere.

The new iPhone 4 was just announced and demoed at WWDC, and I feel the need to briefly blog about the video features because they are exciting to me: 720p video and video editing, and video conference (called "FaceTime").

This stuff astounds me. Is this what it's like to get old? Constantly amazed at technology, and how it keeps shrinking? I'm OK with that. 

 

First, the 720p video and editing with iMovie. When I started editing less than 10 years ago, I had a Hi8 camera with an analog signal and Premiere 1.0, and I could barely get anything of quality of out it. Hardly a editing veteran compared to the people who edited actual film that are still around, or even reel to reel, but still, very different than now. I liked instant gratification with video, and "instant" to me and my friends then was "online in a terribly low bitrate within 2 days". And that was enough for us, we loved it! Then eventually came a small consumer level camera + laptop combo. When I went with my mom to Michigan Stadium for her first time there in late 2008, I took my camera and recorded the experience, edited it into a 7 minute video later that night in the hotel room using iMovie, and pushed it to YouTube immediately. It was done within hours, perfect. 

Now? I can record video on my phone as it happens, throw together some edits, and text it or YouTube it over 3G or WiFi? That is amazing to me. Going from a couple of days of editing in order to stream a teeny tiny 30 bits (yes BITS) per second video to capturing HD in the palm of my hand and emailing it to everyone I know so they can watch it on their phone, in just a few years. I don't mean to be one of those crazy weirdos that gets completely excited about tech stuff, but I am completely excited. I could go on a trip to New York City, shoot random bits of my touristy day in Manhattan on my phone, edit it all together while I wait for my dinner to arrive in a restaurant, and upload it before the appetizer arrives. As someone who has always been a big fan of capturing and sharing experiences, this is a whole 'nother level of sweet. 

And the other video aspect, the video conferencing. That is AWESOME. I've always thought video chatting was a very interesting communication medium, though we have always typically ended up in front of laptops chatting into a computer screen. Something about replacing that computer screen with a little iPhone that fits right in your hand seems right, so much more intimate. I've played around with the various video streaming apps available on the iPhone in the last 6 months, and I've been pretty happy with the Ustream app, but to have a front facing and rear facing camera that you can quickly switch between is amazing. I know people thought having the idea of 2 cameras was stupid, or having a front only and having to turn the phone was stupid...but seeing how Apple handled it, seamlessly switching from front to rear view with a little button tap..that is magic. It'll be neat to see how video conferencing is worked into the next iPad.

Being able to be away without my laptop and still see someone face to face, or go on a trip and share an experience with someone half a world away, that is the kind of stuff 13 year old me always thought "Man, that'll be cool if we can ever do that." 

And it IS cool. 

I REALLY hope the frame rate for the video is truly 29.97 fps and not 30 fps. I hope Apple has been paying attention to the nightmare that was 30 fps with still cameras. Many of the editors I follow on Twitter are pretty cynical about the whole thing, mostly because they know they're going to be brought client footage on a phone and be expected to ingest it and use it quickly. Others have said "You can't make a movie on a PHONE" or "A PHONE will never replace what I do!" You're missing the point if that's all you have to say. No, you can't make a Hollywood feature on a phone (yet), and you can't replace an experienced editor with a soccer mom and her cell phone. Instead, the iPhone will continue to help you connect with those you love, whether it's sharing an experience or recording it for your own memories. People will make films with this phone, and some of them will be outstanding, but nobody is going to send their corporate video work to their brother and his phone instead of a production house. I think for a little while, it might be tricky to deal with this footage, but eventually we'll all work it out, and in the mean time, it's job security.

Sidenote: Larry Jordan has great commentary about iMovie for iPhone on his blog, along with this great story that was sent to him:

I have been using LogMeIn.com for at least six months. It works great. With that as background, here’s my story.

I was flying from New York to San Francisco recently, and said, “why not try using LogMeIn  from an airplane at 35,000 feet and see how it behaves?”  I had purchased an internet connection on my flight — the cost was discounted since I was a first-time user.
I checked my email and read that my client had a revision to be made on a current Final Cut Pro project. So, I said, what the heck? Let’s see.

I logged into my edit system and discovered I had great response/control from the flight. As good as I had when I am connected on land. I was amazed!

I made the changes to the project and exported the file.  It went from Final Cut Pro to Squeeze, all controlled from my flight. Then, I opened up Transmit to send the newly compressed file to their FTP site for approval.

Now, here is where the story gets even funnier.  I sent an email to the client telling her I was making the changes right now — but NOT that I was on a plane.  She reviewed and approved the changes — all before I landed.

It was a VERY cool moment.

I took a picture.

I took some pictures, rather. I don't have a nice professional camera, so when I want to take some nice, professionalish pictures, I borrow a friend's Canon 10D. I baked him a pie in exchange for use of his camera this time so I could shoot my best friend's engagement portraits. I thought I'd post a few of the pictures I took in a blog here, along with some others I've taken over the last few months.

I wish I had my own camera so I could get more hands on practice on a daily basis. The operation of the camera is all the holds me back. I can't think fast enough to compensate for certain situations, like the constant changing light during the engagement session. I don't know basic camera operations off the top of my head like I do a video camera. I need my Canon T2i so I can do some HDSLR video AND some stills, and get more fluent in the various knobs and buttons.

Here are the pictures. I put the majority of them behind a cut as to not weight down this page.

 It started to rain, so a few pictures were taken under a porch in some bizarre lighting conditions.

Tutorials Suck.

Does anyone else think online tutorials are the death of creative ingenuity?

This is the thought process of a 20 year old media major:

Wow that effect is so cool.
I wonder how I do that?
I know! I'll just Google it.
Oh man, After Effects? Well, I'll just figure it out as I go along.
SCREW THIS, AFTER EFFECTS SUCKS. -or- Awesome, it kind of looks the same but I have no idea why it looks bad.

This post goes along with what I was saying (complaining about) on a previous post with Video Copilot tutorials. Tutorials are a fantastic learning tool when they are used correctly. Unfortunately, almost everyone seems to use them as a way to quickly reproduce an effect. Instead of building from them, learning WHY they work, and applying them toward new projects, they're dropped for the next cool shiny thing.

If you just want to stick a canned effect in your reel, just buy someone's project file and move along.

The thing that made me think about this again is that I was thinking about school, and how my classes worked. I realized over the last few months that the way I was taught most applications was not from the ground up, or even by concept. It was just a string of tutorials that the teacher would learn well enough before passing along to us.

As time goes on, I continue to wonder what the point of going to class was at all if all that knowledge can be found in a half second on Google.

Would I have skipped college? No way. Would I have gone to a different program? Who knows. Would I have figured out how to get more student loans, work less, and put more time into intensive internships and self-learning? Absolutely.