Posts categorized ‘News’
Oct 13 07
AnimiVirtus Collaborates on short film!
Here’s some good news: my first internet filmmaking collaboration that
is completed is finally released on the internet after months of
production and post, and I’m happy to say I’m in the credits. It’s a
great short film, made by people all over the world, and I had a great
time working on it. Ryan, the film’s director, had this to say about
it:
“It was a great collaborative film, with the script coming from the UK,
music coming from the west coast of America and Canada, color
correction from the east coast of America, and stabilizing coming from
mid-America. Not to mention filming and acting with students from 2
rival schools working together on it.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EbI92fxDvU]
Oct 10 07
Video for a Cause
Here are two contest opportunities I’ve found recently that have both been unused tabs in my Firefox window for a week or two now. One is being put on by Sony, in their effort to combat cyberbullying and another by Cooley’s Anemia Foundation, as a grant competition to make the best film relating to thalassemia, or Cooley’s Anemia, a “fatal genetic blood disorder that disproportionately affects people of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Northern African, Chinese, South Aisian, Southeast Asian and Caribbean descent,” says the article on Studio Daily about the effort. It’s purpose is to raise awareness about the disease by sponsoring a competition of film and videomakers to come up with a very effective and informative idea for a short spot about the disease, or other things listed on the site. Humanitarian effort not enough, well listen to this:
“Five grant winners will be selected to receive — courtesy of program
sponsors Panasonic Broadcast, Abel Cine Tech and CAF— the use of a full
Panasonic P2 HD camera package, including an AG-HPX500 P2 HD camcorder,
Fujinon lens, four 16GB P2 Cards, an AG-HPG10 P2 Gear, and $2,000
towards production costs to create a three- to six-minute, documentary-style video. One grand prize winner will be selected to
receive an equipment/cash award valued at $10,500 (including $5,000 and
a P2 HD equipment package consisting of an AG-HVX200 P2 HD camcorder
and two 16GB P2 cards).”
Now if that isn’t some incentive! The next competition is the one sponsored by Sony, the Ad Council, and the National Crime Prevention Council, and is more similar to your typical make-something-get-rewarded competition. Their goal is to “create a video for a public service announcement on the awareness and prevention of cyberbullying.” This one’s more of the usual all-or-nothing deal, where you make something and then submit it, wait for a response and you either get one or you don’t. However, the prizes for this contest are very impressive, not only is it yet another humanitarian effort, it’s over $18,000 worth of equipment you win if you’re an independent producer, and over $25,000 worth if you’re part of a school group! Now if that’s not some freaking incentive, then I don’t know what is! Best of luck to any and all who decide to pursue this, and post your videos online, send links here, I’d love to see what you came up with!
Sep 21 07
Video Copilot’s New Release!
Well, Tuesday this week marked a very important day for After Effects, Andrew Kramer, and visual effects artists and fans out there. Video Copilot, Andrew Kramer’s After Effects resource site filled with almost 50 AE tutorials, and plenty of other new juicy improvements and additions, relaunched Tuesday and is ready for us all to enjoy. So I figured that on Tuesday, since it was the day of the big announcement, I’d let you all know about the new thing coming back. But then I got distracted watching a new tutorial of his, it got late, I got tired, and I went to bed. The next day, I figured, I’d write about it. Obviously, I didn’t. I spent all day (or what was left of it after waking up at 11:30) lazily browsing the internet – much of it on YouTube – and thinking to myself thoughts of “I have nothing to do…except editing that movie I’ve been meaning to finish for a year now…” over and over and over again. Needless to say, that was not my most productive day. Although I did watch quite a few of his new tutorials and videos up on the new site, so I guess I was researching and formulating a review, you could say. Today, however, I had school, and now I am finally here, writing about what I think is just an awesome resource that is growing and has made a big leap in its amount of content, and its usefulness.
To start off with, there are two new tutorials, however one does use Trapcode’s plug-in Particular, so that was a drawback for me, since I don’t have it. Although there was a quick tip at the end for making an audio waveform in AE out of an audio file. Next, there is an entire new section of tutorials, geared toward After Effects beginners. It goes from a tour of the program through animation, keying, compositing, 3D, titles, text and up to the level where we can start fully understanding his more advanced tutorials, and, as he hopes, take advantage of his Training DVD that is mentioned around the web as a superb resource for avid AE learners. That said, there is yet another awesome resource awaiting us all as we visit the site, and it takes up a whole new button on the main navigation button (yes, that’s right, it was so important it got its own button). It’s called “Presets.” Essentially, this is a whole bunch of tutorials on how to use Presets that he’s made available for us on the brand new site… completely free. Yep, I was blown away too. This was maybe the most exciting part of the site, even though I was pretty enamored by the new set of beginner tutorials. There are all kinds of presets from camera shake to gel looks, day for night tools, aspect ratio guides, transitions, film grain and even a tutorial on installing presets for Windows. (There might be a Mac section of it but I’m not sure, though the Mac document structure is less complicated than the Windows one, so it’s easier to add things to program’s presets, just find the presets folder in the program folder and drop the file in it. It’s actually the same in Windows, but the folder structure in Mac’s seem to be less complicated.) Anyway… back to the site… those of you who are fans will definitely be loyal, dedicated fans as I am with this new release of tons of new content, practically a replica of the original style of the site, and of course, new content (or did I already say that?). The one thing that I didn’t like was the fact that he bunched the old BIOS page (about the company and its members) into the current “contact” page linked to at the top of the site. Oh well, I guess advancements in the content and resources of a site call for cutbacks in the focus on the site’s team. Plus it would make those buttons smaller, and they look cooler the way they are. As far as I’m concerned, this was worthy of the few-week-wait that it caused (I don’t even remember how long it was since I’m so excited about the new content). Now, ’nuff said, if you haven’t seen the new site yet or especially if you haven’t even seen the site at all, get the heck over there and check it out! It’s awe-=inspiring how much more they added to it and it’s definitely worth all the time of watching those videos… now if I could only find the time to watch and learn them all, I’d be in fat city. Thanks a ton, AK, you did a hell of a job!
Sep 18 07
Pangea Day
Well this is quite an interesting effort these guys are making. It’s essentially a synthesis of the world’s films about the world. We make movies, we send them in, then they all get shown on Pangea Day in 2008. I don’t know if there’s some kind of selection process for this, but it is definitely worth a shot. Check out their ad here and the website from the link below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl3xHIsvF9o&NR=1]
Link: http://www.pangeaday.org
Sep 15 07
Celtx V.0995
Alright guys, I went to write a short project the other day and was told to update my version of Celtx – the freeware filmmaking/stagecraft tool that offers everything from writing to prop and location detail sheets to scheduling to incredible organizational tools – that I have installed on my think-machine where I write and net-surf and whatnot. So I did and decided to go to the site to see what the new features were (aside from their professional, sweet-lookin’ new interface). So apparently there’s integrated PDF export now, so you don’t have to log on to your account every time, there’s Dual Dialog and other more advanced formatting options using the LaTex typesetting tool. I don’t know really anything about it other than the fact that you can do whatever you want writing-wise in the Celtx editor panel, switch over to the Typesetting panel and see what it’ll look like in the printed version, and it basically formats everything the way it would look in the final printed copy, whereas when you’re just writing and revising and whatnot it puts indications (like little icons) next to things that will be formatted differently (like Dual Dialog paragraphs). One sweet feature I found was the Index Card feature, which I believe is completely new to this version, which basically gives you the organizational flexibility of using Index Cards for your screenplays without the paper/clutter hassle. It sounded like an awesome addition to an already Godsend of a freeware program. There are also a few new types of things you can create (split-column A/V scripts, Audio Plays, Plays, Screenplays, etc.). This is definitely worth checking out, it’s just an awesome upgrade to an already awesome program, but well worth it. It takes a few minutes – maybe – and what have you got to lose? It’s sweet, take a peek at their forum post about it here, or, if you’ve never heard of Celtx, then get the heck over there and download it!
Sep 13 07
Tarantino on the Radio
Alright, well this is promoting Grindhouse which is old news (and a brilliant set of movies) but I found the interview with Tarantino to be quite interesting in the sense partly that he’s cooler than I had thought he was, he gets excited and into his ideas when he’s talking about them, just like I do, and he just seems like a more interesting guy than I had first thought. He talks about Grindhouse, Pulp Fiction, a sequel/prequel to Pulp Fiction and his new film he’s writing that’s an epic war movie with a spaghetti western feel. Yea. Tarantino doing an epic WWII movie. I was surprised too, but watch the video, he gets way into that too. It’s an interesting interview with someone who’s very well known among film geeks and filmmakers alike, and who should be admired for his works (at least the ones I’ve seen) and watched for new works in the future.
Also, in AV news, I got my first issue of the magazine studio/monthly today, from the folks at studio/daily who put out an awesome newsletter that always has something interesting in it. The address sticker on the bottom said “BLAKE JOHNSON; MR; ANIMIVIRTUS PRODUCTIONS…” marking the first printed piece of material addressed to my dream production company. So in a way, it’s a reality now, even if only barely. That was my little joy of the day in terms of film. And from what I glimpsed at the table of contents on the cover, it’s a sweet issue with some really cool-sounding stuff inside. I can’t wait to get started reading it!
I also finished writing a short film titled “The Kiss” today, as hopefully part of a series about guys and girls at any age and their relationship attempts, triumphs, travails, and successes. Hopw you guys enjoy the video and are making some sweet headway on whatever projects you’re working on now. Good luck, do some awesome work! (And don’t forget to send it over to Microfilmmaker Mag for critique and praise).
Sep 10 07
RED ONE in use!
I don’t know who else has been interested in this but I was hot on the trail a while ago and now that I’ve heard it’s going into use I’m super excited to see what happens next with this camera and its companion technology. It may mean huge upgrades worldwide for producers and their studios, but it might just mean hugely increased content quality at a price that, when you think about it, really isn’t all that huge. Now, this article, found on IndyMogul’s blog, mentions that filmmaker Roger Avery is going to be making an indie project using RED’s ONE camera. For those of you who don’t know, this is an ultra-high-quality camera that is leagues better than the current video we shoot and even better, from my understanding, than HD. Not to mention the frame sizes are enormous. Check out more about RED here, and check out the original article from the link below. This is awesome, I’m looking forward, as the author said, to what happens when this stuff starts hitting theaters and the global market. Maybe us lower-budget filmmakers will even get a lower cost, possibly lower quality (but still higher than what most of us are used to right now) camera at prices we can afford. This could be great.
Link: http://www.indymogul.com/post/2537/roger-avery-to-use-red-camera
Sep 05 07
Hello world!
Hey and welcome to the AnimiVirtus Productions blog. I didn’t feel like I had enough time to set up a whole website and automated blogs do a lot of the work for you, so I figured I’d start it off there. I’ll just do what I can for this, but try to make more of a commitment to it than I have in my past blogs. Heh, right, or lack thereof. But this one’s about promoting myself and my talents and products (not for-sale products, the final products of my efforts in the filmmaking field). I love making movies and hope to do so professionally someday, but for now, welcome and enjoy your stay. Feel free to comments, leave any kind of questions or notes for me on any of the pages or posts, and watch the videos as they come, subscribe by clicking the link where it says “Entries RSS” on the bottom right hand side of the menu, under the title “Meta.” I look forward to hearing from you, check back every now and then to find some new updates, and tell your friends. Thanks for visiting 
.