Aug 26 08

Showcase: Threesome :P

I know, I know, naughty me. Oh well . Today (and this time I have no excuse for the lateness of this post) I have a trio of showcase postings. So get ready, it’s going to be a wild ride.

First up, a short film I found while searching for another one I’d heard of a while back but couldn’t find. This is called The Date, and stars Rose Byrne, of 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine and Damages fame, among many others. It’s an Australian short flick, and further confirms my opinion that Aussies just know how to make good, entertaining movies.

WARNING: There’s a tiny bit of profanity in this one. If you’re a little kid you’d better have some huge-a$$ earmuffs ready.

The Date (short film) starring Rose Byrne

Second on the list was a reenactment of The Dark Knight
trailer…by some little kids. It was funny and entertaining (and
actually surprisingly accurate) enough that I decided I had to post
it. It also embodies the attitude of no-budget filmmaking quite well.

No earmuffs needed.

The Dark Knight (kids version)

And lastly, but certainly not least(ly), is a short film entitled Ending The Eternal that I found perusing my brother’s Rue Morgue magazine while vacationing at his house. It’s a short vampire flick (good points from me), done well (more points), with a very clear low-budget style and attitude about it (more points). Written, directed and edited by Justin McConnell, it has potential, and I’d be curious after this to see what happens with his career in the field.

Aug 23 08

Link Dump

Alright, I know it’s late, but it’s the first week back at school, getting back into the swing of things, and, quite frankly, feeling more like spending as much time away from the computer as possible, given the amount of time spent on it while at school. Nonetheless, here’s my promised post-after-vacation (which was a great one, by the way).

To start it off with, this article, which I might have posted before, is all about The Dark Knight‘s effects, and offers some pretty crazy insight into the making of the thing. I’m heading off to see the IMAX version tomorrow. Should be fun. Next up in industry-related articles, I found but haven’t read this interview with Simon Reay, DP on the show Man vs. Wild (which I love), which should be interesting.

Among more indie resources, I came across this site, a sort of database of free sound effects. I know nothing of its value or quality or library, but it’s always nice to have one more place to look for that hard-to-find sound when you’re in a crunch. As always, IndyMogul came out with a few new episodes, and apparently are doing a steampunk combo episode with Threadbanger soon, which I’m pretty psyched about. One last thing I actually found quite a while ago but researched again for possible involvement is MobMov, a mobile movie theater group that basically promotes and premieres films in public places via projectors on cars and creating a mini drive-in theater. Sounds great, though their groups in my areas have always been small or nonexistent (though this is the only actual city I’ve been in while trying to get involved). Definitely worth checking out.

Aug 07 08

Link Dump

Alrighty, here’s another installment of the Link Dump, which I’m thinking about making a weekly piece, along with the Showcase segment I’ve been doing. So, first up, I’ve mentioned my fondness of Robert Rodriguez, his life and work on this blog a few times, so naturally an article about him caught my eye last week, just after posting the last link dump. It’s an interesting interview: pretty brief, not too expressive, but interesting nonetheless. I actually spent about three hours this morning looking through VFX job listings in the US and Canada, just to scope out the field a bit, and had trouble finding any kind of listing or contact info for Troublemaker Studios. Their site was incomplete, but new, so maybe there will be something up soon. I’m not getting my hopes up about working there as a junior though, but eventually, it’d be a pretty sweet job.

Anyway… on to more new stuff… I discovered Action-Cut-Print!, home to The Director’s Chair Ezine, an online magazine for filmmakers and directors. I haven’t personally read any of the articles yet, but it looks like a good resource, maybe something to accompany Judith Weston’s Film Director’s Intuition I picked up a couple years back and haven’t gotten around to reading yet.

I found this article (and this one which I just found, while searching for the links) on the gorgeous Burma short that Shilo made, causing my whole VFX class to drool every time we watch it. It’s also got a nice specific case study/general principle feel to it, so you can read it from either perspective (or both) and appreciate what it has to say however you please.

In brief news, VideoCopilot wasn’t saying goodbye to the world, just to the old website, and ushering in a new age of tutorials, as many of us suspected, accompanied by a new short cuts episode that helps get After Effects even closer to a 3D simulation package, without any expressions. It’s a pretty obvious tip, but I hadn’t actually thought about how to do this until I saw the tutorial. Also, a post of the a possible next tutorial topic?

I also found a few more technical things to throw at you. In case you’re wanting to monitor your system while working, maybe to check a program’s workload or a rendering’s impact on system performance (or whatever other reason), this might come in handy. Also, Adobe’s open (as far as I know) platform AIR has a ton of applications coming out recently that seem like a mix between web-apps and desktop-apps… that all run on a desktop (meaning non-web-based) system. A lot of them are ways to integrate your web life with your desktop life, combining the two into one cohesive digital component of your life. So, this one seemed like a good idea, as a way to store and share files online and access them in a nice, simple-looking interface. It struck me as a great way to showcase daillies to distant clients, share project files with distant collaborators, etc. Another one that looked like it had potential was Klok, a time-management app that might help keep track of projects and manage your workloads with multiple projects going at once. Celtx is still my favorite for schedule film shoots, (though I haven’t tried out Klok yet), btu this seems like it has quite a bit of freelancing potential.

Alright. Well, that’s it. For this week. As I mentioned in last week’s post I’m going to be on hiatus for a week, I’ve got a week break from school and am only bringing my laptop along to check on some personal things every few days. However, I’m going to try to stay away from the computer as much as possible during my time off, so I can really have time off and take advantage of that fact. However, have no fear, I’m sure these links and whatever else they lead to will tide you over for two weeks, and I promise when I get back I’ll have more fun stuff to post about and continue the stream of resources. Enjoy, have a great two weeks, and I’ll see you all when I get back.

Aug 05 08

Showcase: Chainsaw Maid

I know I’ve got a taste for fun-gore flicks, but this has got to be admired for its painstaking claymation alone. As you know, claymation is stop-motion with clay, and is brilliantly hard to do well, given the subtleties of motion and the detail of the clay objects themselves. Imagine trying to keep a story, performances and production value while concentrating on all of that! However, since I naturally love movies like Planet Terror and The Machine Girl (a better article’s here, with a trailer here), I was recommended this video by a friend. I was shocked and amazed to see all the gorey hilarity in stop-motion clay, with all the cheese of a great Grindhouse-esque zombie flick.

Aug 01 08

Link Dump

Heylo everybody. It’s been just over a week and I’ve amassed a pretty impressive collection of links since the last post. From always good ones to some new random finds I can’t quite vouch for yet, I’ve got a bunch of stuff. So let’s get started…

Firstly, Adam Wilt is full of good info. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much chance to read much of it yet, but every time it’s recommended it comes from someone with experience and knowledge in the industry. Next, via VideoCopilot (which recently posted this, raising questions and suspicions) I found this article (on the admittedly questionable resource Wikipedia) on match moving and motion tracking in filmmaking. I haven’t read it, but I’ll be covering that in school next semester, and with our final projects piling up right now and only a week left before their due dates (and our first break of the year!), I’ve got very little time. Since we’re talking about compositing, I found the VTC site, which has tons of tutorials and training DVDs (the link’s for Apple’s Shake, which we use here at school for compositing) and whatnot for sale, but they’ve also got some free chapters of their DVDs online, which may prove useful for anyone with holes in their knowledge, or wanting to brush up on some skills. It’s worth taking a look, anyway, as they’ve got wide ranging catalog.

Next up, while doing some research on drop-frame time code and NTSC (maybe at some point I’ll post about how little sense I can make out of using that standard), I found this site which had a pretty long looking video glossary, which is always useful. Speaking of reference, I’m sure I’ve posted this at some point in the distant past, but filmmaking.net is always a good site for pretty random filmmaking related facts. Similarly, DV.com seems like a good resource the few times I’ve glanced at it, but it was down at the time of this posting. Check it anyway though and comments if you find it’s back up.

Later on, while having a discussion at the StickToWhatYouKnow forum about camera stabilizers, I was pointed over to Videopia, and discovered that Eric from the beloved-but-now-defunct DJTV maybe have found a new gig, unless it’s a temporary or occasional type deal. Either way, it was cool to see him doing something again.

Ahh… alright, a few more. Back while searching through After Effects sites, I rediscovered ae freemart and redefinery via maltaannon’s blog, which looked like a great place for more technical AE tips and info. You know, the good stuff.

Of course, IndyMogul has come out with new stuff, I already mentioned VideoCopilot’s mysterious new post, and we’ll find out what happens with that. So, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ve got a few things thing hovering in my tab list but I want to check them out before I post about it, and you can check out my Amazon wishlist to see a bunch of new film- and video-related books I added the other night, if you’re interested.

Also, there will be a showcase post coming up soon, but that just might be the last post for a bit. I’ve got a break from school starting next Friday, so I’m taking that week off. From everything. However, there’s at least one good post left in me before that, and even then it’s only a week and I’m back on (a rudimentary) schedule. Enjoy the links, leave feedback, additions to the list, etc.

Jul 23 08

Showcase: Dr. Horrible

I know this isn’t exactly low-budget or indie in the super-low-budget sense that I typically cater to, but it’s by Joss Whedon, got some great actors and is just a fun short with a musical twist. Starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, this is essentially a cross between a musical and the Spiderman-esque romance story. It’s a fun, funny watch worth checking out if you’ve got the time. I don’t know anything about the inspiration or what it was made for, but they had some big VFX houses work on it, not to mention the known talent involved, but I got to see it free online, so I’m happy . For some reason the pages with the full episodes don’t seem to be available anymore, but if you can find them then please do let me know and I’ll post the links up here.

Links: IMDB, Site

EDIT: You can now watch the entire show at Lifehacker, plus read their interview with star Felicia Day (she sounds awesome!)

Jul 21 08

New Resources!

Alright, it’s been a while and the site’s design is still in the works, but I’ve got some good news to share.

Firstly, in recent events, today I went to a screening of Apocalypto followed by a discussion and Q&A session with Dean Semler, the DP on Apocalypto and many other great films (Road Warrior, Beyond Thunderdome, Waterworld, Dances With Wolves to name a few). It was interesting to hear stories from the set and listen to someone talk about their business from a still-active, first-person point of view.

On to things I can share with you… Andrew Kramer’s done it again with TWO great new tutorials from Video Copilot, the 3D Offset possibly now my favorite of all his installments. So definitely check those out, even if you’re not an avid or current After Effects user. A basic interest will surely be inspired by this guy and his knowledge. Among other online tutorials, I checked out CreativeCow.net today and found this one by Grant Swanson, which is absolutely brimming with tips and tricks and knowledge surrounding the main theme of the tutorial: making DV footage look more cinematic. It’s basic, quick, and works beautifully. Best of all, most of it could even be done in other programs like Premiere or Final Cut, if After Effects isn’t available where you are.

I’ve got a few more resources lined up to check out, but not having done so yet, I’ll hold off on posting about them until I’ve reviewed their quality. However, one’s a video on DVD vs. Digital distribution, a hot topic these days, and the other’s a video of John Knoll, VFX Supervisor on Pirates of the Caribbean talking about the role of VFX Supervisors in modern cinema. IndyMogul‘s posted some good stuff in the last few weeks and are always worth checking out, and though I haven’t read it yet, this article on Color Correcting might be good for anyone interested in the idea. I’ll be sure to post at some point about other findings I come across as I come across them, but for now, enjoy the wealth of stuff I’ve posted this time and best of luck in your films. Happy filmmaking!

Jul 03 08

Featured on Microfilmmaker!

You may have heard me mention my friends over at Microfilmmaker Magazine before in some previous post, say announcing their review of my last film, or something like that. Well, they’ve come through for me and the low-budget filmmaking community again and published an article I wrote about self-promotion and distribution in the DIY, low-/no-budget filmmaking arena in their most recent July issue.

The magazine is a great resource for all kinds of things from simple DIY instructions to cheap or free music for your film projects, reviews of films to reviews of software tools and packages, as well as articles by people working (and playing) in the industry. Check it out, it’s a great resource, and they happen to like my stuff so far, so obviously, they’re good in my book .

Jul 02 08

Healthy Computing

I found this and thought it was pretty cool of Microsoft to put out. I’ve been warned about the dangers of non-ergonomic computing numerous times by my teacher (and health teacher of a mother), and try to be healthy about my computing habits, but it’s easy to fall into that nice comfy little slumped position in a puffy chair, and it’s fine every once in a while, but it’s good to keep your posture, as well as exercise, keep those muscles strong enough to support a straighter posture. Here I am sounding like my mom, trying to get me to exercise back in high school. Now I bike everywhere and eat healthier than I used to. Anyway, I know VFX artists and many other people in computer-bound jobs would benefit from this, so I figured I’d share. Enjoy, and stay healthy .

Microsoft.com via Coding Horror.

Jun 22 08

From The Heart

Since AnimiVirtus literally means courage of the heart in latin, and since it’s stuck with me so deeply for a few years now, things that follow along that line of demonstrating real human emotion and courage of the heart always stand out to me. So, naturally, when I first found this video of Craig Ferguson on YouTube almost a year ago now, I began to think of adding one more person so my little list of heroes. Starting just this February, I’ve begun to watch almost every single one of this Late Late Show episodes, every weeknight, fom 12:30 to 1:30 AM, no matter the next day’s occurence. (I was sick for a weekend recently, so sadly I missed out on a few episodes, but I think that’s justified).

Today I was thinking about keeping up the blog here and happened to be glancing at my YouTube login page when I noticed they’d updated the whole front page after you log in. It’s absolutely full of recommendations and what is essentially Google’s trademark of “smart suggestions,” or stuff they think you’ll like based on your previous use of the site you’re currently viewing. Among them were a bunch of Craig Ferguson videos, since I like to show friends his antics while at school or wherever.

I came across this video duo of him eulogizing his father, and it struck home not only as a really deeply brave thing to do – on TV or elsewhere publicly give a lost loved one a wake – but that it’s what I think is the most important thing about a lot of the movies I love. I’m not going to list off a bunch of movies to see, though I might make a list of the Top AnimiVirtus-Themed films of the year” or something at some later date, but I just wanted to take a moment to mention how important the backbone of your film is. Pure and simply, if there’s no key element driving the thing, it’s probably not worth making.

I know a lot of the time fun is the key element, whether it’s making a movie to goof off or making a serious film to showcase your efforts and talents, but I think what is the most important is what you’re saying in the film you’re making. My friends know I loved Grindhouse and can’t get enough vampire or zombie or postapocalyptic movies with less plot than spiky mohawks and souped up cars, but really, when it comes down to it, if you’re not saying anything – if you’re not pushing through to the audience to say something important to you – then it’s just another flick.

Ferguson always speaks from the heart. He always says what he means, what he believes, and leaves it at that. But occasioanly, he goes out on a pretty serious limb – be it about some other celebrity’s issues or his own – and says something that’s really important to him, that really means something to him, and that he can stand behind and defend with strength. That’s what AnimiVirtus means to me, that’s what filmmaking means to me, and that’s what I think film and all forms of expression of ourselves are supposed to accomplish. Say something that’s important, say something you believe. Always be open to suggestion and discussion, but be who you are, and think what you believe. That’s what I think makes good films, and in the end, a good life.

Jun 20 08

Update & Showcase

Holy wow. First off, it’s been a heck of a long time, and there are some big changes afoot that I’m going to get into in the near future. I promise. No really. I swear.

Secondly, I found this video today and thought “what better way to ‘re-begin’ the AV blog than by showcasing someone else’s work?” So here goes…

Having become a subscribed Geekologie reader recently, I was looking through my GReader feed and discovered this little goodie of a filmmaking post, and had to share it. The amount of work and effort and even time that went into that little piece is evident in just watching it, but what I thought about the most while watching (and laughing) is the fact that nothing they did made any kind of permanent mess. Typically, when you approach a filmmaking venture with the sort of storyline, you want fake blood, guts, drama, all kinds of serious acting and whatnot. But taking it the other way can often not only offer way more flexibility, simply because it’s an abstract from the real thing you’re portraying, and more freedom to interpret the typical war scene in your own way, using what you have available to you under the constraints you’re working with.

So, thoughts aside, it’s a great short film, and a funny five-or-so-minute watch. Take a break, watch a video. Laugh and daydream about it in your own cubicle. But please, oh please, don’t go nuts fo’ real (not really) as this guy.

Feb 24 08

From Here To Awesome

I stumbled upon this video today while surfing the Google blog, and decided it was worth showing to you guys.  It’s a great testament to the fact that indie filmmakers indeed have power, and possibility in the socially-confined world we’re living in today.  It also links to a few good videos with filmmaking tips, a video from Head Trauma and director Lance Weiler, both useful and interesting shot videos to really get your head around the fact that you have power, you can go out and make a short film and get the audience and make a splash.

The key here in my mind now, though, is that it’s a short film.  Of course the length doesn’t actually matter, if the trailer looks good enough, someone will buy it, but if it’s a short film that looks thoroughly professional, well done and generally entertaining, it’s a good step in the right direction.  The most important thing, though, is that it’s important to the filmmaker, and that they care about it and love it enough to carry it on despite the difficulties.  Personally, LATENT(CY) wasn’t that project for me.  But I’m hoping that after school ends (or even before) I’ll have scraped together some film-loving friends with enough interest and passion and drive to make another short film, and hopefully this time, we’ll be proud enough to make a campaign out of the thing.

It also occurred to me that if you’ve already got a short film made that can be shown on YouTube and other video sharing sites, then show it.  And not only that, post bulletins about it, send messages about it to all of your friends, make a website, sell DVDs, get the name out in the public’s eye because it’s your project, and it’s your responsibility to showcase your own work.  After all, if you’re not proud enough to show it off, what kind of impression does that give?  Best of luck and happy filmmaking!

Feb 21 08

A Note on Shaky Camera Work

Earlier today I got an email from StudioDaily, a pretty fascinating online industry magazine and resource website about filmmaking, visual effects and editing.  In the letter,one of the headlines was this:

Over at Film & Video, Bryant Frazer talks with director George A. Romero about his return to low-budget filmmaking with Diary of the Dead using Panasonic HDX900 and HVX200 camcorders.

So naturally I emailed that quote off to the first friend I thought of when I think of zombie movies, and he responded pretty quickly saying that he didn’t like the new “Blair Witch sort of style that’s coming back.”  That I can completely understand, so I responded with the following passage, which is the basis for this post:

I kind of like the shaky cam style that’s on the rise, it’s more viral and amateurish, and it blurs the lines between amateur films and professional ones, making it so that it doesn’t matter as much anymore to the audience if it’s a “real movie” because they can’t always tell, so it’s not worth bothering about.  If it’s good, it’s good, and it deserves praise, if it’s bad, well, they leave it alone (or flame it, the bastards).  Sometimes it’s hard to see or hard to handle (I got mildly nauseous watching Cloverfield), but I think it’s a cool way to kind of get the super-hype of paying high attention to lighting, costumes, and even set design a little bit out of the way, and letting amateurs get more into the field, simply because the cheapest way to film (handheld and shaky) is often the most real feeling, because it’s not completely stable like a statue, nor is it to the extent that Cloverfield was (though that was pretty wonderfully done).  Basically, it give me even more of a chance to go out and shoot random stuff, put it all together in some sort of cohesive, understandable and entertaining story, and then market it and get attention because it looks real, it could be real, and if it’s good, people will appreciate either the documentary-ness of it or the realistic acting and detail of the thing.  So basically I don’t put anywhere near as much effort into the preparation of the film that Hollywood does, and I can still come out with a viable film to show at festivals and gain a reputation among the biggies of the business.  So that’s why I like it.  As a style, though, you’re right, it’s hard to take sometimes.

Now, that being said, I haven’t seen the trailer for this, but I’m going to look it up and see what I can find, heh.

NOTE: You can see the trailer here.  And I actually was a little disappointed with it when I watched it.

Feb 21 08

Stop The Violence film Complete!

As some of you may know, I was involved with the cross-country-collaborative effort for the Stop The Violence documentary film. The film was contributed to not only by AnimiVirtus Productions (me), but also Neighborhood Studios, a group based in Ohio. The film was basically a series of interviews with students, teachers, parents and other high school staff about the issue of school and teen violence and aggression, and essentially coalesced into a 20-minute film from two different parts of the country with one core message: Stop The Violence. Take a look at the film below, and please add it to your DIGG, StumbleUpon, and del.icio.us collections to help us raise awareness about our cause and the effort we’re fighting for. Thanks for your support!

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2773469669682076759&hl=en]

DIGG Link | StumbleUpon Link

Feb 01 08

LATENT(CY) Reviewed!

My good friend Jeremy over at Microfilmmaker Magazine, an e-zine for – you guessed it
- low-budget filmmaking, recieved a copy of LATENT(CY) a while back and has reviewed it for the new issue of the zine.  It was great to hear that this project hasn’t lost steam (something I’ve warned against in my report on DIY distribution that has yet to be online).  The review was more than kind, and though the score wasn’t high, it was a justified and even helpful review.  Go ahead and read it over here and feel free to download or watch it from the links over on the Films page.  Thank, Jeremy, and the rest of the Microfilmmaker Magazine crew for watching, critiquing and showing my film’s review to the internet community.

One little tip for all you self-distributors out there: keep the submission fees for your films in the same package as the film when you send them to festivals, it makes it harder for the money to be lost.  And you’d probably rather not learn that the hard way like I did just recently.  Also, checks are much better for paying through the mail, since if they don’t make it to the right person, they usually can’t be signed and cashed or deposited, since the account and “Pay to…” names won’t match, and you probably won’t be cheated out of your money… whereas if you send cash… that’s a whole different story.  Best of luck, and I’ll put an announcement up once I get the e-book version of my report on self-distribution and -promotion online.  Happy filmmaking!