Saturday, March 24, 2012
Hunger Games with Social Comment
I saw "The Hunger Games" almost by chance today. I have not read the books. Brilliant! Works for me as social comment and political satire and I found myself intensely drawn in on the thriller action level. I also love the Roman Empire and Shakespeare references. Great to see the young of today taking in powerful messages about the gap between rich and poor, corrupt authoritarian rule and media manipulation of a population. This movie is a successful "occupy" protest!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Tutorial - video double-system with cellphone audio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tst7YnQWLqQ
Long have I needed a portable voice recording gadget with good quality for indie film-making. People I know now own cellphones which do this well. I borrow and film this test. Works well - methinks they have a future of frequently lending their cellphones to the film-making cause. More notes on the Youtube page.
Long have I needed a portable voice recording gadget with good quality for indie film-making. People I know now own cellphones which do this well. I borrow and film this test. Works well - methinks they have a future of frequently lending their cellphones to the film-making cause. More notes on the Youtube page.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Test Scene on Amazon Studios
Some action from us on Amazon Studios.
We have posted our test scene for "The Hour of Temptation" by Ben Ramsey.
http://studios.amazon.com/movies/8758
Test Scene (3 minutes) of Jordan kidnaps Abbey. This is also a test of "compositing" human actors + green screen with computer artwork.
At first I thought some of this script veered into comedy, especially the Dwight Dyer character. I started writing a comedy revision a little like "Naked Gun" or "Flying High" (aka "Airplane"). On filming this I see it differently. I am now thinking that what Abbey or anyone would be experiencing in a threatening situation like this is better played straight.
We have posted our test scene for "The Hour of Temptation" by Ben Ramsey.
http://studios.amazon.com/movies/8758
Test Scene (3 minutes) of Jordan kidnaps Abbey. This is also a test of "compositing" human actors + green screen with computer artwork.
At first I thought some of this script veered into comedy, especially the Dwight Dyer character. I started writing a comedy revision a little like "Naked Gun" or "Flying High" (aka "Airplane"). On filming this I see it differently. I am now thinking that what Abbey or anyone would be experiencing in a threatening situation like this is better played straight.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
V48 Hours 2011
We participated in the V48 Hours Furious Film-making competition in Auckland NZ as "Team MITCIT" for our 7th year. We drew "Quest" - see our movie "Laputa here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2KYRA38iho
We were 1 minute late so we were out of the main competition but still eligible for some category and special awards - and we won a special award. See us in the awards list at:
http://www.v48hours.co.nz/forum/topic/460/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2KYRA38iho
We were 1 minute late so we were out of the main competition but still eligible for some category and special awards - and we won a special award. See us in the awards list at:
http://www.v48hours.co.nz/forum/topic/460/
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Amazon Studios - some needles appear in the haystack
Amazon Studios has announced their Feb script competition semi-finalists.
http://studios.amazon.com/contests/5
Semi-finalist lists are down the right-hand side.
IMHO good news to see more scripts engaging with social issues. Up until now Amazon Studios seems to have been dominated by entertaining escapism avoiding all challenging thoughts about the issues of our time. Now based mainly on loglines but with some script reading I count 11 out of 50 with some social issues merit:
The Argentine Job, E-Town, Exiled, Gimme Shelter, Heartland, Malabo, The Narcissist, The Nevsky Prospect, Survival, Tijuana, Zombie Robots.
If you register there as a site member then you can read the scripts.
http://studios.amazon.com/contests/5
Semi-finalist lists are down the right-hand side.
IMHO good news to see more scripts engaging with social issues. Up until now Amazon Studios seems to have been dominated by entertaining escapism avoiding all challenging thoughts about the issues of our time. Now based mainly on loglines but with some script reading I count 11 out of 50 with some social issues merit:
The Argentine Job, E-Town, Exiled, Gimme Shelter, Heartland, Malabo, The Narcissist, The Nevsky Prospect, Survival, Tijuana, Zombie Robots.
If you register there as a site member then you can read the scripts.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
HOWTO take a million digital still photos
IN BRIEF
I have 3 reasons for creating videos as big sequences of still photos. My current camera does a good job but it is slow and I want to replace it. DSLRs and EVILs appeal but there are shutter life issues that are very difficult to get information on - after a lot of digging I have decided they cannot deliver. Webcams have been improving so I plan to go for modifying webcams to meet my main need of film digitisation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
IN DETAIL
3 reasons why I want to take a million photos per year.
1. (Main) is digitising film to video by individually photographing every frame.
Ref: "What's up with Film Digitisation?"
My test result then was - to copy Super-8 film frames at near full quality needs a sensor of at least 1280x960 pixels.
2. Physical object animation aka "claymation"
Ref: "Dancing with the Pollies"
3. Time Lapse
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Current solution - Panasonic MX500 Video Camera used as a stills camera.
This has a non-interchangable zoom lens which takes well to adding other camera lenses as close-up lenses because of the very small sensor size. The sensor is a 3CCD unit which gives a better resolution than the size would suggest. Panasonic claim a relatively high 2.3 Megapixel stills performance compared to the 0.3 Megapixels for video by half-pixel-offsetting of the 3 CCDs. I was sceptical of this but my tests with line resolution charts indicate that the offset does work.
This Panny delivers excellent results but it needs 10sec between still shots which means 10 hours to digitise 1 x small roll of Super-8 film.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Investigating possible improvements:
DSLRs and EVILs? No because they have a mechanical shutter.
My investigation began with the Canon EOS DSLRs including hiring one for a few days to try it out. Excellent cameras in many ways but not for this particular job. Even in electronic "live view" mode a mechanical shutter gets in on the act to take a still photo. Further investigation reveals that other cameras including mirrorless ones also have a mechanical shutter - eg Panasonic Micro Four-Thirds.
Aiptek GVS? No because sensor/lens geometry is too big
My favourite budget cam, the Aiptek GVS, comes close. GVS comes with a charger that doubles as a long-run power supply. It has remote control. But the physics of a zoom lens limited to 5x with a relatively large sensor makes it more difficult to get the ultra close up shots of Super-8 frames. Maybe a goer if I could obtain a stills camera lens of 28mm focal length and aperture f/1.8 or better to use as a close-up lens but that includes the negative factor of adding extra glass to the mix.
High Definition Webcam? Looking promising!
My next experiment is to buy a high definition webcam and modify it. If I can remove the lens then I could substitute a single prime lens from a 16mm camera. I have bought this:
http://www.chinavasion.com/webcams/pc-webcam-1/
It has recently arrived and on early testing is looking promising. Its own lens simply removes by unscrewing giving good flexible scope to use it with other lenses. The sensor on my testing gives results true to its claims of 1600 x 1200 pixels which is a good size for what I want to do.
I have 3 reasons for creating videos as big sequences of still photos. My current camera does a good job but it is slow and I want to replace it. DSLRs and EVILs appeal but there are shutter life issues that are very difficult to get information on - after a lot of digging I have decided they cannot deliver. Webcams have been improving so I plan to go for modifying webcams to meet my main need of film digitisation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
IN DETAIL
3 reasons why I want to take a million photos per year.
1. (Main) is digitising film to video by individually photographing every frame.
Ref: "What's up with Film Digitisation?"
My test result then was - to copy Super-8 film frames at near full quality needs a sensor of at least 1280x960 pixels.
2. Physical object animation aka "claymation"
Ref: "Dancing with the Pollies"
3. Time Lapse
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Current solution - Panasonic MX500 Video Camera used as a stills camera.
This has a non-interchangable zoom lens which takes well to adding other camera lenses as close-up lenses because of the very small sensor size. The sensor is a 3CCD unit which gives a better resolution than the size would suggest. Panasonic claim a relatively high 2.3 Megapixel stills performance compared to the 0.3 Megapixels for video by half-pixel-offsetting of the 3 CCDs. I was sceptical of this but my tests with line resolution charts indicate that the offset does work.
This Panny delivers excellent results but it needs 10sec between still shots which means 10 hours to digitise 1 x small roll of Super-8 film.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Investigating possible improvements:
DSLRs and EVILs? No because they have a mechanical shutter.
My investigation began with the Canon EOS DSLRs including hiring one for a few days to try it out. Excellent cameras in many ways but not for this particular job. Even in electronic "live view" mode a mechanical shutter gets in on the act to take a still photo. Further investigation reveals that other cameras including mirrorless ones also have a mechanical shutter - eg Panasonic Micro Four-Thirds.
Aiptek GVS? No because sensor/lens geometry is too big
My favourite budget cam, the Aiptek GVS, comes close. GVS comes with a charger that doubles as a long-run power supply. It has remote control. But the physics of a zoom lens limited to 5x with a relatively large sensor makes it more difficult to get the ultra close up shots of Super-8 frames. Maybe a goer if I could obtain a stills camera lens of 28mm focal length and aperture f/1.8 or better to use as a close-up lens but that includes the negative factor of adding extra glass to the mix.
High Definition Webcam? Looking promising!
My next experiment is to buy a high definition webcam and modify it. If I can remove the lens then I could substitute a single prime lens from a 16mm camera. I have bought this:
http://www.chinavasion.com/webcams/pc-webcam-1/
It has recently arrived and on early testing is looking promising. Its own lens simply removes by unscrewing giving good flexible scope to use it with other lenses. The sensor on my testing gives results true to its claims of 1600 x 1200 pixels which is a good size for what I want to do.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Amazon Studios - shaking up the indie universe?
http://studios.amazon.com
Script-writing and film-making competitions giving indies a chance to get to a big audience.
Prizes of $20000 to $1million. Entry fee of zero. Plans to produce the best of the entries as commercial productions in association with Warner Brothers. So far so good.
Then comes the unusual rules especially with regard to copyright and ownership. Amazon Studios is an experiment in online collaborative creation for its community. When you enter a script anyone can download it and read it. There's more! Anyone can revise it and post their revision into the competition, although it does present as a child of your project webpage, and if they win anything then the judges share it with you depending on how much revision happened. Scripts become openly available for anyone to film them as a test movie and enter that in the test movie part of the competition. This is making Amazon Studios controversial on writers blogs and forums - eg this article and its reader comments:
IMHO Amazon Studios is an exciting initiative well worth our time and attention, but I agree with the "ScriptMag" columnist (link above) that any writer should approach this with all-new projects created especially for the Amazon Studios purpose. If you take your pet idea and throw it into Amazon Studios, and it does not rate, then the Amazon usage rights you have agreed to may be a barrier to some future opportunities for it.
At present, Amazon Studios seems to be flooded with about 1300 scripts and almost no "test movies". It looks to me as if most of the projects are from writers having another go with scripts that have been getting nowhere for years in other competitions. An indie group big enough to get a public voting momentum started could do well - yes - (sigh) - there is also a public voting element to this.
Here is a good Amazon Studios discussion on test movies. I esp. like the contributions of "Mark Vetanen".
http://studios.amazon.com/discussions/Tx39IRB22LO6M36
Another distinctive element is that Amazon Studios is about feature-length movies. Filming test-scenes of only part of a script is allowed and they will be published but they cannot win prizes. I have been in there making comments about this on the forums and as feedback to the organisers - well I'm just that kinda guy really .... eg:
Amazon Studios needs to welcome, encourage and give prizes for test scenes ie test movies of part of a script! OK smaller prizes for test scenes but prizes and as fully recognised contributions. A long form "test" movie is still a big project for your target emerging film-making membership - too big. So far in the flood of entries I can not find any example of a new test movie as a contribution in the true spirit of the experiment happening here which is evidence that you need to make the test movie side smaller and simpler to "get the ball rolling" on that side of collaborative development.
HOWTO compete? I suggest 2 approaches:
Approach #1. Search for an existing script there that motivates you. Make the test film of that. My problem is that so far I have not found a great script to motivate me. My closest candidate so far is "The Lightshockers" (use the search) - but for me it is too much like "Inception" and needs to either separate itself more or come closer while ramping up its political-satirical themes. I like the central idea/character: a brain surgeon goes spy action hero against the government intelligence agency which is abusing its powers by running bad bad bad experiments on her patients ...
Approach #2. Impro! ie the "Theatresports" and "Whose Line is it Anyway" improvisational acting approach. Start a project with an improvised test movie - then write it up as a draft script and develop it through follow-up sessions of scripted filming and more impro sessions. Your "Project" can then have both script and test movie competition entries developing together.
Script-writing and film-making competitions giving indies a chance to get to a big audience.
Prizes of $20000 to $1million. Entry fee of zero. Plans to produce the best of the entries as commercial productions in association with Warner Brothers. So far so good.
Then comes the unusual rules especially with regard to copyright and ownership. Amazon Studios is an experiment in online collaborative creation for its community. When you enter a script anyone can download it and read it. There's more! Anyone can revise it and post their revision into the competition, although it does present as a child of your project webpage, and if they win anything then the judges share it with you depending on how much revision happened. Scripts become openly available for anyone to film them as a test movie and enter that in the test movie part of the competition. This is making Amazon Studios controversial on writers blogs and forums - eg this article and its reader comments:
IMHO Amazon Studios is an exciting initiative well worth our time and attention, but I agree with the "ScriptMag" columnist (link above) that any writer should approach this with all-new projects created especially for the Amazon Studios purpose. If you take your pet idea and throw it into Amazon Studios, and it does not rate, then the Amazon usage rights you have agreed to may be a barrier to some future opportunities for it.
At present, Amazon Studios seems to be flooded with about 1300 scripts and almost no "test movies". It looks to me as if most of the projects are from writers having another go with scripts that have been getting nowhere for years in other competitions. An indie group big enough to get a public voting momentum started could do well - yes - (sigh) - there is also a public voting element to this.
Here is a good Amazon Studios discussion on test movies. I esp. like the contributions of "Mark Vetanen".
http://studios.amazon.com/discussions/Tx39IRB22LO6M36
Another distinctive element is that Amazon Studios is about feature-length movies. Filming test-scenes of only part of a script is allowed and they will be published but they cannot win prizes. I have been in there making comments about this on the forums and as feedback to the organisers - well I'm just that kinda guy really .... eg:
Amazon Studios needs to welcome, encourage and give prizes for test scenes ie test movies of part of a script! OK smaller prizes for test scenes but prizes and as fully recognised contributions. A long form "test" movie is still a big project for your target emerging film-making membership - too big. So far in the flood of entries I can not find any example of a new test movie as a contribution in the true spirit of the experiment happening here which is evidence that you need to make the test movie side smaller and simpler to "get the ball rolling" on that side of collaborative development.
HOWTO compete? I suggest 2 approaches:
Approach #1. Search for an existing script there that motivates you. Make the test film of that. My problem is that so far I have not found a great script to motivate me. My closest candidate so far is "The Lightshockers" (use the search) - but for me it is too much like "Inception" and needs to either separate itself more or come closer while ramping up its political-satirical themes. I like the central idea/character: a brain surgeon goes spy action hero against the government intelligence agency which is abusing its powers by running bad bad bad experiments on her patients ...
Approach #2. Impro! ie the "Theatresports" and "Whose Line is it Anyway" improvisational acting approach. Start a project with an improvised test movie - then write it up as a draft script and develop it through follow-up sessions of scripted filming and more impro sessions. Your "Project" can then have both script and test movie competition entries developing together.
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