DVC3--I'm finished and Posting Today!

[Jonathan Jones]

Well, I am finished and posted....and again, just under the wire. I haven't had any time this week to follow the posts or check in to the how things were going, but I will include production notes on my site in the next couple of days that detail my real challenge in meeting this deadline - suffice to say it involved three paying gigs and a fried logic board on my mac (yes the one I edit on)

But I still made the deadline and I'm still standing!

Good night everyone - Good job to all. I won't be throwing any eggs at the WOS, but I am sure glad that I'm not on it.
-Jon

[Sean McHenry]

Andrew, this might help but I used to be a Premiere guy, since the 4.2 days. I am now almost exclusivly Avid but I have found that a lot of those sort of issues go away if once you finish your project, and before the final render, reboot the machine.

For me at least, and it would seem lots of other folks, there is a seems to be a buffer someplace that gets flogged during editing and holds some errors. Those show up as ticks at transitions in my Avid where I have an audio track with a chunk of sound and then nothing. Sound to other sound doesn't happen as often but sound to empty track space, even if I put a short fade up or out has the same issue. Usually a reboot will clear it out for a while.

Give it a shot. All hypothetical but it seems to help me out. You might also try dumping your renders, reboot and imediatly re-render. Then play it out.

Good luck.

Sean McHenry

[Sean McHenry]

See this thread for how I get my music. Pay attetion and be nice to the folks where I am about to send you. Make it easy for us to all use this resource.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=51244

Sean McHenry
Survivor DVC2 and DVC3

Good night all.

[Andrew Paul]

Thanks for the advice Sean. I gave the new render a go but it still came out the same with a loud, fast, repetitive clicking/hissing sound. Maybe something is wrong with my codec ?.

Thanks for the advice, might help with other problems I sometimes have.

[Jonathan Jones]

Well I am back an not sleeping. While struggling this week to find a replacement for my Mac and create my short for the DVC, I fell WAY behind on my emails - so I am up and figured I would throw out a few notes about my experiences with this challenge. (The real producton notes will be posted on the site this weekend - this is just some late night rambling.)

I managed to get my movie posted in time, but it ended up being the low-res version. It was a quick file transfer -but most of my scenes were set late at night and I had a hard time pulling resolution out of the low compression on my dial-up version - plus my lighting technique needs some significant improvement.

There are other versions to view, but the next step up with relative clarity is 21 MB and may take a while on slower connections - I think it looks pretty good.

I had two weddings and a corporate video project this week, so I was bustin' at the seams to keep my sanity - but I really wanted the opportunity to test my limits with what I have been learning in this forum - and see if I could produce a piece that I could be proud of even after the first couple of days. For some reason, it turned out to be another gruesome one (even worse than the last one) - I don't know why - because I really am a good natured person - I am a stay-at-home father with a 2 year old daughter - but my wife really insists that our next movie be a lighthearted comedy or folks might think I have real issues. What can I say...once Dylan posts a theme, I run with what comes to mind.

I have been trying to find time to finish installing my Apple Production Suite and start learning Final Cut Pro - but I have not had the time and decided not to try a new application on a deadline, so I produced my movie in iMovie. I think it came out quite good considering, but I would have like a few more controls to tweak the image. I am sure I could have done more with FCP and more quickly as well, but not if I was trying to learn it at the same time - so with the limitations of 1 video track, I am surprised by the results and my wife loves the movie (even though she hates horror flicks - and she plays the victim in this one too- go figure)

For DVC4 I will either finally be using FCP or I will go the other way and produce a short using just QT Pro and the video clips I capture on my cell phone. I like being able to push the limits of a piece of technology so long as the end result isn't total crap.

I have to give two shout outs to the Douglas Spotted Eagle, and Apple - both of whom made it possible for me to produce my short on time and with a result that I am proud of. My logic board fried on Wednesday morning. We were halfway done shooting by then and would resume on Wednesday night - but there was no sense in it if I could not edit the footage - but we had already put 2 hours into scripting - 3 + hours into storyboarding and 5 hours of shooting by that time and I didn't want to give up - so I went to the local Apple Store and laid it all out. My Mac is still has Apple Care, and I have a Pro-Care card, so they ended up giving me a loaner. Granted, I had to put in a credit card, but after I get my repair done, I can bring the loaner back , have it wiped from my credit card, and I won't have to pay a re-stocking fee. Plus, they cloned my drive to the loaner so once I hooked it up, I was back in business with very little downtime. ( I took my daughter to the park rather than stress about it)

DSE has written about SmartSound's Sonicfire Pro. On his recommendation, I recently purchased it. I haven't yet watched the tutorial, but I was able to fire it up and get the music I needed for my short with very little effort. ( I still layered tons of sound effects as I intended but the music is a huge element for me and I was not only pleased with the results - it provided exactly what I was looking for - so far I have to say that as far as 'bang for the buck' it has thus far been the wisest investment I have yet made in production software.

Finally, I have to offer a quick note of thanks to the people of this board - many of whom I have learned from. With the insights, suggestions and critiques of fellow members, I have improved my output by miles. I know that for this challenge I am up against some very seasoned and professional experts who will leave my short in the dust...and that's cool, because I take notes and learn from these competitions.

If I hadn't gotten the advice and insights I gained from DVC2, I wouldn't have tackled what I did for DVC3, which included 85 shots in 5 locations - it may have been a bit much for a 4 minute short - but it is what I had in my head, and I wanted to see if I could do it. With some tips I learned from suggestions from the last go'round, I figured out ways to shave off 2 minutes from my short (it was running over 6 minutes when I thought I couldn't find any more to cut and still keep my story along with the type of imagery I was going for. (Keep in mind - much of my footage is 'pretty out there' as it is supposed to be kind of a horrorific mind trip.

I can't wait to see what the results are from this round's submissions. I am always inspired by the ideas that come from this forum. What I am hoping to learn this time around are some tips on better scripting (the dialogue) as well as some proven techniques for chroma-keying. There isn't any in this short but I have tried it a little in other projects and have much to learn.

Well, it looks like my h.264 version finished rendering, so I am going to check it out and hit the hay.
-Jon

[Dick Mays]

GREAT!! no sleep what with the bad eye and all, thing swells shut and then you can't tell if the jagged edges is bad interlacing from the rendered or some kind of eyeball jelly three a.m. phenomenon happening. Just wanted to say thanks, thank to all, Dylan of course, the other people too, cause it's a learning experience, a learnign experience soem thing to remember forever wehn you're old and greying like in a couple of years from now and you say hey, like I did it! the movie when I didn't sleep and didn't , and didn't.. HEY! what going on over there? Gotta check go on the kids...

[Sean McHenry]

Oh my. I could have done without the eye jelly thing...

Mom, my eye hurts too....

Sean

[Lorinda Norton]

...I'll be right there, Honey. Put a warm compress on it while you wait. ;)

[Stephen van Vuuren]

Originally Posted by Sean McHenry

What do you guys think? Dylan?

Sean

Technically, everything is a "copyright violation" according to lawyers unless you just film with lens cap on and I'm sure someone has a copyright on that (like the band that copyrighted silence as music a few years ago).

But most things fall into the public domain as they are items that no one has a financial, historical or other incentive to maintain identity. However, anytime you feature a current or recent (i.e. within the last 75 years or so) recognizable thing or any thing not considered public property, copyright, use, permission, clearance and/or releases becomes an issue.

Short of consulting an attorney, the short answer is yes, the Paramount clip is copyright and just like music, you need clearance to use any length clip. However, if you can use it someway that it's not recognizable as such, they you are "probably" safe, considering this is the DV Challenge and not a major Hollywood release.

[Dylan Couper]

Sean's clip was not recognizable by me at the resolution I watched it at.

[Stephen van Vuuren]

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

Sean's clip was not recognizable by me at the resolution I watched it at.

I just watched his film (surprised to find it there) as well and I agree completely that his use if just fine. I would not worry about it.

[Sean McHenry]

I was hoping you guys would say that. I thought some of you would know where to find it. It's not a secret, I just haven't told anyone where it is publicly.

So, I know I can't ask Dylan but what did you think Stephen?

Sean

PS, as an inside to my dark side, I watched Cronenbergs "Spider" last night for the first time and another film, not a Cronenberg, "Saw" just now. Great stuff. Especially the endings. I wasn't a Cronenberg fan really except for "Videodrome". I own a copy. "Spider" was very good and to listen to the special features on the making of it, excellent.

SM

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Sean McHenry

I was hoping you guys would say that. I thought some of you would know where to find it. It's not a secret, I just haven't told anyone where it is publicly.

So, I know I can't ask Dylan but what did you think Stephen?

That would be a good thing to take to email until the film goes public. :)

[Hugo Pinto]

Well, I spent most of yesterday sleeping, after doing an all nighter marathon to finish my flick.

Although we had a full week, I was betting heavily on a concept that involved a kidnapped hostage, whose captivity footage was being broadcast, day after day, over worldwide TV's. I shot the finale first, and did a rough cut on saturday night. The thing as huge, about two minutes, after trimming down a LOT of dialogue. I scapped it - "besides, this is probably too morbid for DVC", I thought. (How's that for dark, sean?)

Afterwards I went into depression mode - during the week I seriously thought in starting a Wall of Shame thread myself, pretty much what Daniel did. On Thursday, another idea came that wasn't so bad to scrap it immediatly. But it was going to close. Well,

We wrote, shot, edited and scored the film in under 24 almost continuous (had to go to work), LONG hours. By the end of it, I was just too tired, screaming with FCP's rendering options, BUT had a film in my hands (or disk...). A friend provided the hosting, and that was it.

This was my second short, and definitely a worthwhile experience.

The film was shot with a JVC GR-PD1 (which as I found out now has a dead pixel - fortunately it's still in warranty), a Manfrotto tripod, home-grade halogen lights, and some basic props (tiny webcam on exteriors). It was cut with Final Cut, and the soundtrack composed with GarageBand.

It was a dead-tiring experience, but I loved every minute of it.

All the best,

Hugo

[Hugo Pinto]

Oh, yes, and the finished clip is 3 minutes, 59 seconds, and 24 frames long... :) without the credits...

All the best

Hugo