It's a soap opera

Great first effort (as far as features go). The story was original and the lead did a great job without going over the top.

Without giving away the ending... the movie takes a sympathetic and sometimes humorous look at someone with Multiple Personality Disorder. Unlike what typically happens with a hollywood disease/victim of the week shlock (good guy/bad guy), the '2' main characters are both sympathetic and likable.

The long repressed and suddenly emergent 'Joshua' decides to catch up with all that he has missed, and fearing imminent extinction, lives life to the fullest and sometimes lowest.

The acting ranges from great (David Hippchen whos plays the lead character has great screen presence and was able to do the subtle nuances between the two with great affect) to completely unconvincing (the Psychiatrist, sorry, not gonna post the name).

Kudos also go to Craig Frank in a supporiting role as an African American with a somewhat bemused but concerned outlook at all that is going on around him.

More importantly, while the script has a few holes, ...it never decends into phony sentimentality. As I wrote in the above, the psychiatrist was almost unbearabley unconvincing, and considering what he did, one would have expected a lot more guilt and chagrin. Instead he comes off like someone who finally owned up to a college prank pulled a long time ago.

But aside from that, you get the impression, these are people acting very much like all of us would in real life. No over the top melodrama, no artifical rage. No telling the audience when to laugh and when to cry. No phony intense rants at 'the system'. Just people trying to cope with a difficult situation and not doing very well.

Even with it techinical/artistic faults, Brian has shown himself to be a filmmaker who treats his audience with respect and gives them a chance to figure things out for themselves.
Allowing, even expecting, them to make their own judgements.

This is increasingly rare and welcome in this age of template based movie and television programming.

Visually, the movie for the most part projected quite well in the smallish Paradiso theater. Only a few areas where the limitations of DV25 footage showed up. (I think the screen was about 50 feet wide, and they were projecting directly from a DV cam deck)
As usual the colors were a little washed out.

There were also a couple of scene changes that were jarring simply becuase they lacked a proper segway from one to another. The low lit party scenes were a little muddy, but still watchable.
Believe me though, these are minor quibbles.

Some people remarked they thought the movie too long. I disagree, the filmmakers explored the characters right to the artistic and logical end.

All this done by a couple of 20 year old kids from Plantation Florida.
No excuse folks. None for the rest of us.

Just think, the Mayor of Canton will be pulling his/her hair out if this gets on TV. hehehe. rightous dude!!!

O.K., so I have twenty years on the kid, but I'm working on it! But seriously, I am always happy to hear someone has brought life to their project, no matter what it is. Just as long as they put the best of themselves into it.

What kind of production info can you get for us?

I've finally been given permission to post some frame grabs on my site from the documentary we've been shooting (my brother and myself) since May. Between us, we have about 30 hours logged! The Doc is on the making of a statue for the Flight Centennial and the Wright Brother's Memorial Park.

A North Carolina Sculptor (Stephen Smith) is making a life-size bronze sculpture of the Wright Brothers and John Daniels (the man who took the famous picture of the plane taking off) - and a forty-foot replica of the 1903 flyer in stainless steel. The statue will make its way to Kitty Hawk in November to be installed for the December 12-17 Flight Centennial. We'll be shooting through the Centennial - an almost seven month project (not counting editing!).

We're going to try to get three different docs from the footage - (1) a musuem piece of about 15 minutes or so on the making of the statue; (2) a technical "how-to" of bronze casting for art schools; and (3) a short piece to submit to film festivals (which could be the same as the museum piece!).

The artist is an amazing talent, as you can see in some of the pics. Let me know what you think. No video yet, but I'm working on two clips to post on the site. The state of NC will not let me post anything that resembles the finished piece - so that it can be saved for the unveiling!

PS: No need to critique the simplistic NetObjects site. It is what it is and I'm not a pro web-master!

Go to: www.mdmoore.org - then to the MEDIA link, then to STILLS. You'll see a link for the Wright Brothers. The direct link is: http://www.mdmoore.org/html/wright_bros_.html

Keith, you can go to www.joshuacalling.com and click the contact to get more info. Let them know you talked to me at dvinfo.

I know this..
They used a JVC DV500 for shooting and what appears to be a pro light kit.
The movie was edited on a PC based system using Premier and a Matrox RT100 (so much for needing FCP/Vegas or Avid to do a feature).

They went around to local high schools, colleges and dinner theaters (I think) leaving flyers about his film and asking for auditions. From what I've heard they really hustled to get this movie made (I got a chance to talk to friends and relatives at the premier)

The film was written and produced and directed by JONATHAN ZIETZ and BRIAN ROSENTHAL .

While this movie is far from perfect, it obvious they put the best of themselves in it. It's also obvious they are new at doing a feature vs a short.

Have to understand, I am a big fan of films by Goddard and Cassavetes and others like them, so I like well done character oriented films. This movie may not be everyones cupatea.

I also like scfi, fantasy and action movies, but don't take them serioiusly at all.

Keith if you are looking for talent, the best three of this movie are...
David Hippchen who plays the lead
Craig Frank who plays his best freind (very handsome African American)
Mark Vaskez who plays the drug dealer.
Vaskez was only on the sceen a short time, but when he was
on, he owned it. Intense.

Joe- I am looking for talent, but due to the fact I have no budget, I'm looking closer to home.

However, threat of no pay doesn't seem to be a deterrent. I have a fellow in Louisiana that was interested in my production. Even after being completely up front, he continued to respond. What can you say to that kind of determination? You have a part!
I have also recieved replies from California and Las Vegas. Some of these people have some impressive credits on their resume. You can't believe how stoked I am about this!

I need another 40 or so bodies to fill various roles I think my biggest problem will be to find some females to fill roles with brief nudity. If all else fails, I'll end up in the strip clubs looking for talent.

I even had someone in New York see my post here, and offer to come help with production.

Your comments are very much appreciated, unfortunately I just found out I didn't win the contest. Oh well. I'd like to believe it's because of the graphic nature of the piece but we'll never know will we. And about the relevance to the song- it actually does if you break down the lyrics a bit (at least in my twisted head). Thanks again.

They charge only shipping (multiplied for each additional one, though).

http://intl.bmwfilms.com/clap.asp?template=dvdlanding&country=canada&film=

It is rumoured to also include the Wong Kar Wai film that was originally not included in the free DVDs they sent out because of rights issues.

I recently purchased the Standing in the Shadows of Motown DVD and it came with 3 BMW films. They also included a Windows Media Player Hi Def version of the entire feature as well, which looks just gorgeous on my laptop. It does make the fan kick on pretty quickly though - some serious brain work going on for the CPU.

I guess they did all that since when Standing in the Shadows came out in limited theaters, Microsoft and BMW had outfitted about 24 indie theaters around the nation with digital projectors to show what Media Player 9 can do.

Pretty neat stuff.

just a FYI ... if you own a BMW you don't even have to pay for the shipping... or atleast you didn't use to have to. Just had to give them some info about your car

This is pretty popular, I know a bunch of people who have competed in it and used DV.

http://www.48hourfilm.com/

They would send you a season 1 dvd for free even if you didn't own a BMW if you just called and asked (it's sitting in my library). Because of rights issues however, they couldn't put "The Follow" on the disc, one of my favorites. From the description "eight films" that would seem to imply it includes *all* 5 films of season 1, plus the 3 films from season 2.

Order in progress...

As a total aside, anybody else think Clive Owen really needs to be the next James Bond, to bring the series back to respectability?

Bond will never be the same now that Cubby and Ian are out of the picture,... as evidenced by Bond 20.

but seeing as how Pierce Brosnan is getting old and has said only one more movie at the most. I don't think Clive would be a bad choice for Bond. There are a few other people also that i've heard mentioned that might fit it pretty well also.

one thing to keep in mind is that no one will ever be Bond except Connery, IMO. :D

Clive is not classically handsome. But then I'd like to see Bond return to the drunkard vicious fighting bastard that he was to begin with.

I've just completed my first video using the DVX100 (and boy are my arms tired!) :-). The camera performed flawlessly and I think the results look sensational.

It's an interesting example of DVX capabilities because the video is comprised almost entirely of chroma key shots, none of which were done in a studio. I think they turned out pretty well (the video is a product demo for a chroma keying system).

You can view it on this page. The video is the first link.
http://www.seriousmagic.com/ukvidsamples.cfm

--- Mark

Wow, that's pretty amazing. I've always wanted to do work with a green screen, but then I heard about all the work it requires (setting the lights perfectly, etc.). Looks like a great product. The video does an excellent job of demonstrating the power of the software. Congrats!

Really nice

this were on the Mac.

Sorry Dean, no direct Mac support because it relies on Microsoft's DirectX architecture to generate high-speed output from PC graphics cards.

It will however work seamlessly with Quicktime files over a network.

--- Mark

This project has been mentioned under three different threads for it's "how to make a dolly" page, but has everyone downloaded the trailer for this movie? This is some of the most spectacular DV footage I've seen. It's all done on a VX2000 (from the production stills) and looks like film. Apparently, it's going to Cannes.

Take a look if you haven't already, it's inspiring.

http://www.shadowgirlproject.com

wow, that is some amazing footage! Really does look like film. I wonder what methods they used in post.

If you go to that site and open the production page (it's in French) it has a production and post-production page, but both are "En Contrucion". I hope they eventually post the process they used. The producer is a member of this forum, maybe he'll shed some light on it for us.

Mark

was that taped in progressive scan mode ?

No, it was shot and edited in interlace since it will eventually also be distributed on DVD. Windows Media Encoder did a de-interlace process on it during the encoding for web streaming (this introduced a few artifacts but nothing too significant).

--- Mark

PS
The DVX100 camera settings were stock, (ie no tweaking of the profiles to goose certain parameters).

That looks pretty nifty!!

Check out my new short..."Dinner For Two"

Just posted on IFILM.

http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2474315


let me know what you think....THANKS!

WELL DONE!! My gosh, I was really impressed with your lighting. I was wondering what kind of equipment you were using (lights, and audio). Please elaborate because I think you did a very nice job creating atmosphere and mood. The story and the characters were great too. I really liked how that one guy's lips were TOO pink - that was a nice comedic touch! Please fill us in on your experience :] Thanks!!!

took me sometime to find the one that would play on my computer here at work.

Good job. I thought that the lighting was very well done as well as the audio. I also enjoyed the story but at first I didn't know what to think. Seeing that I didn't read anything about it before viewing the short.

As Randy requested it would be nice if you could describe more about what you did and used.

Rob

I wanted to try the two infamous modes that everybody is talking about (Frame and Widescreen mode). I used the XM2 miniDV camcorder for this exercise.

1) PAL
Living in a NTSC land but coming from a PAL country I’ve decided to go with PAL so I can keep my tool when coming back to Europe.
The secondary reason is a better resolution and an easier path to NTSC conversion (associated to a closer “film look”).

2) Frame mode
I’m aware that using the Frame mode is cutting down the resolution but in another hand it makes my life easier when converting to NTSC without spending hours and hours on quality de-interlacing.
The final DVD is available in 2 versions :
a) PAL Widescreen, 50i
b) NTSC 24p Widescreen,
To do the NTSC 24p, I just had to slow down the PAL version by about 4% and I got an excellent result without any motion artifact. In fact I noticed that it’s more difficult to correctly slow down the audio track without adding unacceptable noise artifacts.

3) Widescreen
I’ve read that the GL2/XM2 is probably better at Widescreen than tools stretching the picture in post. Yes you don’t have the safety margin that the 4:3 provides when cropping original 4:3 footage so I had tried to make sure to frame correctly.

You can watch the full feature online as well as production stills and DVD cover at http://natzo.com/article.php3?id_article=15

The WD-58H wide angle adapter was on all the time.
A JTL Everlight kit (3 softlights) has been used for the recording session and interviews. Shots inside the Frederick Coffee Company were only lit by the ambient light (mixture of sunlight and tungsten).
Interviews were recorded using a Sony ECM-55B lavalier and a SoundDevices MM-1 pre-amp BUT a big mistake in my design of the attenuator cable between the MM-1 and camcorder is responsible for the additional distortion (I used a 20dB outside instead of 40dB to go from +4dBu to -35dBu). Yes I did monitor (on the pre-amp) and no I didn’t playback (the band only had few minutes for the interview). The compression added by the Quicktime codec makes the streaming version even worse.

Anybody know of a good place to rent a video projector in the bay area? I'd also like to know about how much to expect to pay when renting one. I'm a little tight on money since I am still just a high school student. My final question is, is there a certain type of projector which is best for projecting video (DLP?) and how many Lumens should it be (crowd of 100- 150 people)? Thanks in advance!

Thanks for checkin it out...

We shot on BetaSP (because my XL-1 was having issues with the mixer we had) yes I know, it's not digital, but we really intended on using the XL-1. For audio we used a couple of Azden wireless lav's (they are great). The BetaSP camera we had actually crapped-out on us after 13 hours of shooting. We had to shoot some of the cut-a-ways at a different location after we got the camera fixed.

For lights we had a couple of arri kits...nothing too crazy. Some snoots and gels. We had a talented DP. (not me, I produced and edited)

I edited with Avid XDV and gave it a film look with Digi-FX cine-look...took alot of tweaking, & cranked up the black levels until we were happy with the look.

Thanks again...pass around the link, we are currently #3 on IFILMS daily top 20...hope to get to #1.


Also check out the music video I recently produced / edited
http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2474316

I just downloaded the remastering.mov file. I get some kind of corruption at around 12:23, perhaps something happened during the download but maybe you should check at your end just in case.

From what I saw though it looked pretty good, I especially liked the lighting in some of the b/w footage. The interview setting was a bit dull visually and the first interviewee was a bit too pretentious ;).

Thank you for your feedback.

One of my favorite shot is a B&W closeup of the hand playing piano.

I've color corrected both interviews and live with MB.

For the color one it's Warm and Fuzzy and for the live stuff B&W crunch.
You can see how the original footage looked like on the bonus footage gallery.mov. I promise I'll make sure they don't wear any RED shirt anymore ... that's just too bad for the picture.

The regular B&W was giving a too video look so I've took this "crunch" one which gives less details.

For the interview, I've used the auto focus mode and that was a mistake as my subject was not centered. On some shots the talking head is blurry with perfect focus on the guitars in the back !


Thanks again.
Dany

Don't reply all at once now...

Matt,

Lumens question is tough without knowing the room environment you'll have. If you can get it completely dark, AND you're not projecting on a HUGE screen, 800 would probably be fine. If on the other hand, ambient light will be a problem, you'll need to go quite a bit higher to acheive good results. I use a 800 lumen DLP projector but only for computer driven Power Point type stuff in rooms with a fair amount of light, works ok, but I can ensure that I have very high contrast between background and text, not an option in video.

DLP projectors would probably be better at video, but will add cost. I would use the local yellow pages, find a local rental source, then test a couple of their projectors using what ever device you'll be playing from. Most don't have a problem with that and can provide some additional details while you're there.

I've used a Canon projector that had an output of about 1500 lumens. Worked very well, even in rooms that couldn't be completely darkened. The screens were generally about 10 feet wide.

Don't know exactly which model it was, but it was a fairly compact LCD video projector about the size of a phone book. Probably similar to the LV-7350 Bright as heck, too!

Sharp also markets similar projectors. In fact, the onscreen menus between the Canon and Sharp were very similar, which leads me to believe that the core of the projectors come from the same manufacturer.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

Hi, I'm interested in your takes on the JTL everlight kit. hows that working out for ya??

We're working with some gear that will probably be beyond your budget, but this may be of general interest anyway. We just bought two NEC LCDGT1150 projectors which are rated at 3000 ANSI Lumens. We're using these to project english translations ("supertitles") on a screen above the stage during our operas. I am really impressed with the brightness and contrast on these units. A key factor for us was the noise level since they are mounted in the auditorium right about the audience in the balcony. With the lens these babies set us back nearly $10,000 each!

But the "big guns" just arrived at the theatre today, two Barco SLM R-10 Executive DLP projectors. Today was a panic getting everything hooked up, with my laptop (that was driving the projectors via firewire) dying just before we were supposed to give a demo. However by the end of the day we had everything setup and the quality of the image completely blew me away. We are projecting DV in 16:9 on a screen about 42' wide by 24' high. I think it held up amazingly well at this size with the Barco's. The footage is a combination of 3d computer animation and live footage shot in 16:9 with a PDX-10.

The R-10's are rated at 10,000 lumens with a 1600:1 contrast ratio and resolution of 1280x1024. We need two of them so we have a backup, and were considering running both together for a brighter image. However the image from one projector is really more than bright enough for our needs (to overcome stage lighting in the foreground). For today's test we fed D25 video over firewire directly from the timeline in Final Cut Pro, running on a Powerbook G4, to a Promax converter box. The box converted D25 to component video which fed the projectors. For the show we will record all the individual cues to a pair of Doremi VC1 hard disk recorders.

So this is some high end equipment which is probably beyond the means of many people, but it certainly gives a glimpse of what to expect in the near future. And I was reassured to finally see the video I've been working on for many months on the big screen. In spite of its limitations, DV is going to work just fine for this project. But I would love to see HD projected with this setup sometime also!

Try VMI. I can't find it for you in the on-line pages, but I've been there. It's on the bay side off 101 just before Mathilda Avenue.
You can see it as you drive 101 North from Great America toward
Mathilda. There is a little road that snakes runs parallel to 101.
I know my company rents a lot of video stuff from them for corporate presentations. I'm pretty sure we rent the projector as well.

I think that this is the company (http://www.vmivideo.com/) to which Gints referred.

<<<-- Originally posted by Gints Klimanis : Try VMI. I can't find it for you in the on-line pages, but I've been there. It's on the bay side off 101 just before Mathilda Avenue.
You can see it as you drive 101 North from Great America toward
Mathilda. There is a little road that snakes runs parallel to 101.
I know my company rents a lot of video stuff from them for corporate presentations. I'm pretty sure we rent the projector as well. -->>>
Thanks... I'm around that area all the time so I'll be sure to check it out.

My short film, No Solicitors (http://www.alextaylor.org/movies/nosolicitors/), has been accepted at Montreal's "Film Festival With a Twist." Seriously the best e-mail I've gotten in a long time :D

Anyways, I specified that the projection medium be DVD, as that would be the easiest to make. I've never actually authored a DVD before but I think I can figure it out.. what I want to know is, are there any certain things to follow when submitting a screening copy for festivals? I'm assuming the only menus should just be the title.. or should it start playing automatically? Any tips you guys could give me would be great.

I'm going to hunt around in the forums for DVD authoring tips as well..

Yes, a simple menu with just a "play movie" option is probably your best bet.

The thing to look after is that your DVD is as compatible as possible. Use a software that complies very strictly to the DVD specifications. Use brand name blanks (I've had good luck with Verbatim DVD-R) and test your DVD in a few players. One way to do this is to go to a hifi/electronics store and ask the clerk if you can try your DVD-R in different players...

Congrats on your selection ! :-)

Some of the DVD compatilibity issues are also with the audio.
Use stereo PCM (compressed) or AC3. Many DVD authoring
package offer MPEG1 Layer II audio compression, which is
unofficially supported by most DVD players. DVD-R
compatibility is less of an issue these days, but I am totally
shocked by the DVD response times for new models. Some
models on display in July 2003 (my last trip) at Circuit City and
Good Guys take 30 seconds to spin up and recognize a DVD-R.
You can check for DVD player compatibility in user-submitted polls
at http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ .

And on that topic, what should the aspect be for what you stick on the DVD? Just 4x3 matted? Or should it be output as 16x9? What are the standards for digitally projected stuff at festivals?

I think all videoprojectors are capable of handling 16:9, even they have a 4:3 matrix, so I would go for 16:9 if you have a 16:9 master.
At least that's what I do.

Alex congrats. I loved your short.
I would send a reply email and ask them directly. Otherwise if it gets in their hands and they cannot deal with it then you might have a problem.
Wish you the best of luck and hope it does well. Will you be entering the film in any other festivals?

Rob

Thanks for your suggestions guys! I picked up some DVD-Rs today.

Robert: I'm glad you liked it! I submitted this film as well as a few others to film festivals a few months ago.. got a rejection from one of them, this is the second I've heard from. So there's still 3 film festivals who I haven't heard back from yet - my fingers are still crossed! One of them is in February so it'll be a while.

Hi guys,

some of you guys know I'm an airbrush artist / custom cycle painter and enjoy DV purely for fun. I posted a video awhile back showcasing some of the awards and trophies along with the cycles I've painted......I appreciated all the comments you guys threw my way...

...well my shop has sold our "shop" bike which happens to be the fastest production bike in the world, the Suzuki GSX-R1300 Hayabusa...and because it's leaving us forever I made a quick video (with my lowly Panasonic $399 Palmcorder-that's what I had on hand today)...it's a rush job but shows how cool our "Busanator" is- hope you guys like this thing-------it took me about 10 days to create it and paint it.......

http://bronxpowersports.com/cycles/busanator/busanator.html

Let me know what you guys think.