More photography

I never posted any photos I took at my sister's graduation. I've been trying to do more with still photography and I think these turned out nicely as keepsakes for my parents. Here are two outside after the ceremony.

First installment of my awesome blog series coming soon.

Things I Didn't Learn in School Blog Series

This series is something I've been thinking about for a while now. Since graduating from college, I've realized there is an awful lot of information I never learned that really would have been useful. And while I don't expect college to teach me everything I ever needed to know, I wish I had learned more technical details about how certain aspects of the video industry work. A lot of what you learn in school is based in theory. That's fine, but when you get into a real job, the technical becomes a much bigger part of what makes or breaks your work. With budgets and deadlines, there's no time to cuddle up with a tutorial and attempt to learn new things every single time. At some point, you have to know what's going on.

I've spent a lot of time in the last year and a half reading a lot of articles, tutorials, blogs, and books, mainly focusing on post-production. My desire to attaint fluency in post-production workflows has allowed me to get through projects quicker. While I'm not going to pretend I know everything - because I really really don't - I know what myself and my peers missed, and it's probably similar across various programs.

This past weekend, being within the school again, reminded me about how much is left out of the classroom and left up to individuals to fill in the blanks. So I decided to do a blog series - Things you didn't learn in school. There are tons of resources out there for a lot of these subjects already, but my intention is to write for entry-level/intermediate recent graduates and build from what they already know, or want to know. Too many articles are way too technical, and too many are too flimsy. So, here's my attempt. We'll start with these subjects:

- Aspect Ratio - why is my stuff all squished man?

- Exporting - The easiest and best way to export a FCP timeline and use Compressor to make it awesome!

- Rendering - What all those options under the Render menu mean, and how you can render your timeline in full to reduce exporting time. AKA What the hell is that orange line?

- H264 - The mystery of H264, why it takes no time sometimes and forever other times.

- Simple audio - How to roundtrip to Soundtrack Pro for basic audio fixes and use Scripts to make your quality of life better.

- Codecs - What the hell is ProRes and why are there different levels of it, what the hell is an editing codec, what the hell is going on?

- Setting up your FCP project correctly - Organizing and getting the settings correct on a project before it's too late.

- Basic color - Basic color balancing in FCP and how to set up a project for roundtripping to Color so you can be a bad ass.

- Basic DVD authoring - How to export your timeline to prepare for DVD and set up a basic DVD menu in DVD Studio Pro, when you might need more advanced options like overlays or scripting. Also, why DVD specs SUCK.

- FCP hints to make your life easier - Features of FCP that newer users don't get into, the 4 editing tools, useful shortcuts, three point editing, and other basic useful crap that nobody ever shows you.

-Why does my greenscreen look like #*^$? - How different formats capture color and how it ruins your life.

I'll start with these topics and see how it goes. Hopefully it's entertaining or useful to SOMEone.

48 Hour Film Project Recap

Well, we did it.

We completed the 48 Hour Film Project - on time.

Now I've been obsessing over little details I wish we had caught. It's so easy to let yourself get caught up in your mistakes. Overall, we put together a pretty solid little film for what we had at our disposal within the constraints of the competition. I kept it together pretty well this weekend and now that I'm sitting still, I can feel that my brain is a little tired. Here's a recap of the weekend as best I can remember it.

On Friday night, we met up at Starbucks and headed to the Kickoff. We were told to get there BY 6 PM which was lame since we didn't need to actually be there until 6:45 PM. So we waited and waited until the genre draw at 6:45. When our time came, Aaron stepped up and drew "fantasy" for us. We were so happy that we didn't grab film de femme because none of us can write strong female characters and we were seriously considering going for a wild card.

We rushed back to Starbucks where we camped out outside for the rest of the evening. As soon as we sat down I presented an idea I had and we went with it, scripting and creating a shot list until about midnight.

We met back at IUPUI at 8 am, followed shortly after by our crew. Except for our main character actor. We went to work setting up, getting everyone ready, trying to reach him, but every call went to voicemail and Facebook was quiet. We were more than a little worried at this point, because 10 AM was our targeted time to start shooting. Luckily, Josh managed to dig up a friend of his that was willing to come help us and he ended up being perfect - even more perfect than our original actor that flaked.

Our filming started off slow and sped up throughout the day. Most productions end up like that, which drives me insane. My favorite shot was a long tracking shot with the main character walking through a crowd of people. I got to direct this part and coordinate 10 different actors/extras at the same time, which was fun :D I was so thrilled by all the people that turned out to help us. Josh managed to convince 3 hair/makeup people to come and they were fantastic. A couple of my friends from high school showed up, one to be an extra, and one to be our fabulous still photographer for the morning part of the shoot. She did such an great job. The black and white stills in this blog entry were shot by her. You can see her work at mecampbellphotography.blogspot.com.

My mom and her friend brought us lunch around noon - fruit, chips, and subway platters, which was exactly what we needed. Nobody ever got moody from lack of food while we were shooting, which is a big achievement. We continued to shoot until about 8PM.

Katie and I set up to edit at around 2 and realized that we didn't have the appropriate capture cable. The new MacBook Pros don't have firewire 400 anymore. T____T A few phone calls later, we were on the road allll the way up to Fry's Electronics to purchase a firewire 800 to iLink cable. Luckily it didn't really hurt us at all in post production. It just added a few grey hairs to our heads.

There was a brief period where we thought we didn't have enough footage, which I now have an ulcer from, but we then realized were fine and moved forward, completing the rough cut just before midnight. My husband brought us pizza and wings to keep us going, which was also effing amazing. We basically finished the fine cut by 2 AM before getting kicked off campus by security.

We met again the next morning at noon and got to work on the music since that's the earliest we could meet up with the sound mixer/recordist who was absolutely amazing. He was with us for the entirety of our shoot, and I think he just might win VIP for our group. While the sound was mixed, Katie and I color balanced and graded the edit with Magic Bullet Looks, and rendered the timeline in full.

Once the sound and music was complete, we took the exported sound file and slapped it on my rendered timeline. We had some aspect ratio troubles on Saturday I soon found out, so we ended up with a 720x480 letterboxed file. Whatever, it was done at 6:45 PM. We left and drove to the drop off, and breathed a sigh of relief in completion of our work. There are minor fixes I'm going to make to the master copy of our work (like putting it back into 720p), but really the story is pretty strong and succinct, the color looks good, and it was turned in at 7:14 PM which means it was on time.



In the future, I will strongly advocate having multiple eyes looking at every step of the way. While you all trust each other, at the same time you have to consider the extreme circumstances. It's so much easier if multiple people are putting their collective observation skills in play when no one is operating on all cylinders.

Overall, it was a really good experience for us. I am really happy to have a core group of talented peers that are passionate about the same things I am. We had a lot of fun together, and if we don't win any awards, it's ok with me. Of course it'd be really nice to win something, but the experience, the memories, the photos, and then the screening will have been worth all the stress of putting the film together.

That being said, I'm really glad the next 48 Hour Film Project isn't for a year. HA.

If you're interested in coming to the screening on August 7th, our film will be in Group B at 7PM at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Toby Theatre. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online. We would really appreciate all the support of people coming to our screening (and voting for us for the audience award!), and seeing Pants Cannon Media's big-screen debut.

I'll be updating again after the screening with a copy of the finished film embedded and some more production stills. I re-exported in the correct aspect ratio with higher quality and asked if we could swap it out, but alas we cannot. At least we have a high resolution 720p file for ourselves, and to submit in other festivals.

One last breath before the 48 Hour Film Project

Well, we've done everything we can possibly think to do in order to prepare ourselves for this competition. We're going into this as rookies to the project so we can expect some bumps and unpredictable things to occur. I really don't want to be rushing to the finish, swerving in and out of traffic, running in the doors and throwing the DVD to the judges in slowmo, overdramatic fashion.

In spite of the preparation, I can't help but be really anxious about this project. I'm a planner, and the fact we're going into a production weekend without even a script is KILLING me. I just want to get started right now and get it over with. I know we'll have a lot of fun and learn a lot about ourselves this weekend, and in between all that excitement is a tiny sense of impending doom.

Here's a little more philosophical buddha existentialism than I'm used to posting on this blog. I go to yoga regularly, and I have 5 classes I have to use by next Wednesday or they expire, so I've been to 2 classes this week already. I didn't plan my class usage very well. I'm sitting waiting for class to start right now, slightly dreading ANOTHER class this week. I love yoga, and it feels great especially after class, but sometimes during the class, usually in Warrior II pose, my feet cramp and I'm thinking "AUGH why didn't I go home and nap??" I would love to skip class and eat my raspberry ice cream sitting at home.

However, I'm glad I forced the yoga this week because of the anxiety this competition is causing me. In a yoga practice, you usually set an intention, whether it's mental or physical or whatever. Tonight's intention: let go of the anxiety from all the unknown factors and rely on myself and my teammates because we have the talent to pull out something totally wicked. And if we don't, at least we tried.

But please, don't let us draw "musical" as our genre. 

If you want to track our progress during the event, follow me on Twitter. Like I said, I'll also be posting here immediately after the event with our finished film and a recount of the weekend. 

(I also have class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next week if anyone wants to join me. Monday is a basics class, one is open level, one is open level heated.)

48 hour film project update! Can you help us?

Our team, Pants Cannon Media, is getting really excited for the 48HFP. It's next weekend, and things are really coming together for us. I feel like our team is going into this 48 hours with a good solid plan (as best we can), a ton of talent, and a lot of luck. As of today, we have:

• Update: lunch will be catered by my mom and her friend, Debbie Riffe
• Generated some buzz on the IUPUI Informatics website
• Secured the location of our shoot and the release form is on the way to me
• Confirmed one actor and actress for sure, 2 more guys are likely maybes
• Confirmed the assistance of a very talented past professor in the music composition and sound mixing department
• Lots of equipment, more than I ever thought I could pull together between a few poor students (3 cameras, lights, recorder, mic, tripods, dollies...all kinds of stuff!) 
• Donation of labor of hair stylists, make-up artists, and a local costume shop if necessary

Things are falling into place, and we've nearly done everything possible to make this the least scary 48 hour film project we can. We're all good at this stuff, and we have a realistic idea of what to expect out of ourselves in 2 days, so I think if nothing else, we're going to forge some new relationships, get some great experienced, and create something for which we can be really proud.

That being said, we're getting to the stage of planning and purchasing necessities for our cast and crew to get through the shoot. This includes bottled water, ice, and snacks like granola bars and fruit. We're looking to you, great friends, family, and anonymous strangers on the internet who admire us from afar, for any donations you are willing to give us. This would also be used for any other production costs, such as props, last minute fixes, and caffeinated beverages.

If you might be willing to donate to us, you can either give items directly to us this week if you're around, or use the Paypal button below (the one that Aaron is about to eat because he is so hungry) and give a cash donation. Rest assured, it WILL be used for production. Also, in exchange for donations, we will give you an Associate Producer credit for supporting us financially in various ways. AND we'll give you a copy of the finished film on DVD so you can behold it as your first produced film. And of course, everyone is invited to purchase tickets to the screening of all 48HFP films on August 7th at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We'll make sure to let you know at which of the 3 screenings our film will be shown. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased on the IMA website.

To make a monetary donation, just click on the comically oversized button below. Thanks in advance for your support.