Good Morning!

I am posting this as an update to my SAG Experimental Short, "Autobiography of a Suicide"

ODO Productions is entering into the major part of principle photography the next 8 days in New York, New York. It should be edited and all tied up by the end of the year, probably, sooner. I will be submitting it to festivals when it is completed. Barring any unforeseen obstacles.

This site and the people have been extremely helpful regarding this production.

The momentum has stirred and locking into place two other shorts. Both shorts are worked from larger feature projects that are being written and constructed.

There has been interest in what I am doing by a few people in the New York area. I will be in touch soon...

A HOOT - - > See our production in, "The Hollywood Reporter" film listings section next week.

Its a 'GO' and the intention is to keep the fire on high...

Cheers!

Derrick
ODO Productions
"Autobiography of a Suicide"
SAG Experimental Digital Short

Nixed on the "Hollywood Reporter." They only list feature length productions. The information will appear in "Backstage West."

A wee bit of shameless promotion.

Cheers!

Shot footage this weekend for two scenes:

1 - - Intended length 5 minutes (35 MINUTES SHOT)

2 - - Intended length 7 minutes (1 HR 20 MINUTES SHOT)

Four major scenes to go...

Derrick, what sort of cameras are you using for your movies?

Aaron,

We are using the Canon XL1S exclusively.

Because of the structure and improvisation within that structure, I wish I had another camera active. Live and learn.

However, the actors that I am using are excellent and trained in the same background as myself in the theatre. Where repeating it, is necessary, over and over and deepen.

Cheers!

Derrick

Rockefeller Plaza Office was shot yesterday.

Not a lot of blathering in this film. The hard drive space is being eaten up by the footage. Looks like a thought-of, but didn't get is coming up. A Maxtor firewire drive...

Mantra of the day: Coffee is my friend. Coffee is my friend!

Cheers!

Well good luck on the movie! Am I right in assuming it's improvised (Within some basic structure)?

< - - Aaron

Yes, the structure is very rigid, but the actors are free to improvise on the givens. About 40% of the film.

The other 60% is very structured existance of individual(s).

It looks very alive... The actors then deepen the material they have created by repeating.

AOAS is moving foward with titles being shot this weekend and some more editing using AVID XPRESS DV 3.5.

Getting faster using AVID. However, ran out of space on the computer.

Horror - - > Filming a scene brought the NYPD on board for an inspection of a domestic dispute. Neglected to tell the neighbors about the event.

Horror - - > Coming soon...

Cheers!

Hey Kiddeys,

Heres a video I shot back in the summer.

http://www.stutterfly.com/audiovideo.htm

Enjoy.

-Nori

Hey now, that was *very* cool, nice job with what looked like a difficult stage lighting situ. I really liked the second half of that. Very nice website, by the way!

Almost...

I hope to move my next production a wee bit faster.

Scenes and a few "coverage" issues rearing their faces. Working them out shooting somemore.

Horror - - > Shot the second to the final scene on Sunday in the woods of Maine. Heard some rifle shots... Hunting season ended the day before. Called and made sure...

Cheers!

Great work, and those guys remind me of the Deftones (which I happen to like a lot).

Nori,

Very nice work. I always enjoy seeing cool, live music videos.

Nori,

I agree...nice work and nice web site. Can you give us some details? Was that a one-camera multi-take shoot? Or a multi-camera one-take shoot? Were you using a high shutter speed?

Any details you want to pass on would be great.

The band played about 10 songs, including "gun in hand". I was on the stage for the first 7 songs with my XL1. After that I was just running around wherever I could.

There was a balcony across from the stage that all the shots that appear black and white were shot from. I went black and white for these because the band used a lot of red gels on their lights, which on stage looked okay, but from a wide angle looked like crap. I got the fastest shutter speed I could for everyshot depending on the bands light changes.

1 - camera
10 - songs played only once, live.

If any one ever gets a chance to shoot something like this, take it!
Having the abillity to break away from all of the traditional angles and rules of filming was extremely refreshing.

-Nori

But you knew I'd like it didn't you!! Whew, what a visual experience. I loved the shots into the light with the blazing lens flare, the bizzare camera angles, B&W shots, and camera movements. I really got the feeling of the intensity of the show! After cutting my punk video together (from only 18 minutes of clips) I can appreciate the huge amount of work that must have gone into this video. It's pretty active for a one camera shoot.

The only thing I think I'm going to try to do differently on my next one is to try to get some "room noise" to add a more live feel to it. I know it's hard to get that stuff without ruining the song you are cutting to, so it's my quest / mission for the next band video; I'll let you know how I make out.

Nori..we simply MUST do lunch sometime :)

Cheers!
Mark

p.s. these are the kind of projects that get me out of bed every morning.

I have searched the forum regarding 'digital projection.' I can find discussions, but no equipment listed.

Here is the scoop:

I need to see my work projected since that is what I am intending it for. I am looking for a decent resolution projector to fill a small theatre (So that if I can't afford to rent at one of the film centers, I can do my own at a different venue)

Does anyone have experience in this?

What are the projectors you used?

I see alot of projectors advertised ala BH Photo, etc, for a price range of 1500-5000. What about these? Do they do the job?

These are generic questions. I know there are questions of, how far away the projector is from the screen, etc.

I am looking for a start...

Thanks for the input!

Cheers!

Derrick

go over to
http://www.projectorcentral.com/

read the reviews on INFOCUS X1 ($1500) and the Sanyo PLV Z1 ($2000)

Thanks Donatello!

Cheers!

I have used my LCD projector to project video. Everthing depends on the size of the screen and the brightness of the projector. If the theater is small enough and the projector is bright enough you will be fine.

Measure the space, the screen and the distance you will need to project and then look into renting a projector. I'd loan you mine but I doubt it would be powerful enough.

Rick

Rick!

Thanks for the offer and... Aye, there's the trouble at the moment. I am having a hard time locating a fair priced space which I can show the production. I'll then have to consider the projector in that particular space...

I think I'll rent one...

Thanks for the input!

Cheers!

Derrick

Hello Derrick:

I have worked with and shown some of my projects on digital projectors (and I used to work for a company that sold digital projectors as well), so I might be able to help you here.

Things to consider (some of these may have been mentioned):

+ Brightness: look for something with 1200 ANSI lumens or more. I don't know what your source footage looks like, but generally the brighter the bulb in the better. However! If your project is "film noir" always consider black levels on the projector. Depending on the technology, the brighter projector may wash-out some of the deeper black levels, making your presentation not as - for the lack of a better term - cinematic looking. This problem is generally seen with LCD projector models 2-3 years old. Light passes from the bulb in the projector is so powerful it unevenly hits the LCD panels so that even places where there is supposed to be no light hitting (i.e. where its supposed to be black) and the black from your film will look a little grey. You definitely don't want that.

I have used JVC's technology the D-ILA. Here, the light from the bulb inside the projector is reflected off of tiny mirrors before it hits the color RGB panels, mixing your image color better. And, if the mirrors do not turn, no light hits the panels; therefore, you have better blacks. I don't know how much these projectors cost nowadays, but the one I used - the JVC G15U cost around $12000. There are other models out there.

+ Aspect ratio and resolution: Think of the kind of footage you will be projecting: will it be 16x9 or 4x3?; what will you be playing your footage on? I have always played my footage from my computer on site, meaning I've always lugged around a pc to where i was going to show the movie with the projector which is a major headache and won't do much longer. Anyways, I always hook my computer up to the digital projector, and I like to use XGA (now theres QXGA I think). So make sure your projector you're getting has the resolution that you can utilize with your computer or dvd player. If you're going to be showing the footage from a dvd and your source footage is 16x9 in aspect ration, getting a projector with that native aspect ratio would be your best bet as the projector can utilize all of its panels strength into showing your footage. In other words, if you have native 4x3 chips in your projector but always show footage that is 16x9, you're not using all of the resolution capabilities on your projector. Some 4x3 projectors that I remember that are good and in your price range are the JVC 21N, and Sony X1000U. The 21N is definitely the better of these two, as I have seen the X1000U in action. 16x9 projectors that are in your budget are the Sanyo PLV-60 (I think the "70" is out now with even higher resolution with native 16x9 chips and better brightness - the 60 was 1200 ANSI lumens I believe), there is also the Sony VPLVW10HT - known as the 10HT - and the later models are the 11HT and 12HT recently came out I believe. I have used the 10HT a year and a half ago and I think the footage looked ok for what I was showing. It has good black levels, and with the arrival of the 11HT and 12HT, is definitely low in price if you can find it.

+ Throw distance: This is extremely important especially if you have a large room. Most of these low/medium priced digital projectors are designed for business presentaiton or home theater use where the distance between the projector and the screen are around 10-13 ft. or so. You probably can imagine what the image would look like if you have the projector too far back, so you know what you're up against. My recommendation is, if you rent the projector, to ask what the relationship between the focal length of the lens of the particular projector is and the distance away from the surface you'll be projecting on. The salesperson should be able to take the measurements and tell you the max. and min. distances you can set the projector up on. If you need the projector farther back, rent a long-throw lens. Shouldn't be too much of a problem as companies must deal with this often and there is demand for long-throw lenses.

+ One other thing to consider is the features of the projector you're renting. Sometimes you can't control much the location of where you set the projector for the showing (one time, I used a digital projector on a grass hill outside projecting across to the screen at the base of the hill - another headache). So, some features you might want would be digital keystoning. Here, you can move the projected image to angle on the screen correctly. Also, check if there is a screen shift feature. Here, you can move the entire image up or down, leaving the image the same size, just a different location on the screen, leaving your projector in its same location. Its a great feature if you can't move the projector and the surface is not directly in front of the projector but to the left or right, or up or down. This comes with the PLV-60 and 70 I know for sure.

These are just some quick things to think about. I generally worry about brightness and resolution. I'm also sure that the technologies have changed substantially as I have been out of the projecting business for a little while.

Regards,

Kyle "Doc" Mitchell

Kyle,

Thanks for the plethora of information. You gave me an edge which I can use.

As far as my current/future project(s) I am shooting and editing in 16:9, so I'll definately be looking for that native.

Thank you so much for the information. I didn't know there was a long throw lense out there to cover more distance.

A print-out that I'll definately keep.

Do you know how much the bulbs generally run when they burn out? (This question just krept up on me)

Cheers!

Derrick

Derrick:

Sorry about the delay in a response - Christmas/New Year Holidays, ya know?

Anyways, I've seen bulbs for around $350 for the Sony VPL-VW series, to $1000 for JVC models. Prices vary. If you buy a bulb from a reseller, make sure that they have a return policy thats at least 2 weeks. The worst thing to have happen is to get your bulb in the mail only to find out its damaged!

Regards,

Kyle "Doc" Mitchell

Nori. Would you mind if i emailed you to pick your brain for a little while? I have someone who wants to pay me to shoot concert video locally and would like to ask some things. Thank you!

E-mail away!

I've been watching this site for quite a while because
of we both like acrobatic martial arts training. He also
make short movies.. This one is funny and among his
better works.

His name is Ilram Choi..
Check it out here..

http://www.ilram.com/M_Dtown_temp.html

HAhahahaa! That had one of the funniest shots I've seen on a web video.
"Go you crazy Jew!"
Looked like an XL1 lens hood he dropped.

The rest of it was well edited, shot OK. I didn't get the concept at first, and then because of camera angles, didn't get an idea of the stunts they were doing. Probably because I'm not familliar with the "sport". Cool though.

I laughed.

Just thought I'd let everyone know that I just finished cutting a 90-minute DV extreme sports movie that will be shown in theaters across Germany and Austria (and hopefully France and Italy) using CineStream3.1.

I worked on a Mac G4 running OS9.2 and had to re-build the entire project in Austria after starting it in France. I had no major problems to speak of with the CS3.1.

All interested parties can catch the trailer at: http://advaloreminternational.com (Clicking on the trailer will take you to the movie's official website.)

Just thought I'd let everyone know that I just finished cutting a 90-minute DV extreme sports movie that will be shown in theaters across Germany and Austria (and hopefully France and Italy) using CineStream3.1.

All interested parties can catch the trailer at: http://advaloreminternational.com (Clicking on the trailer will take you to the movie's official website.)

My first DV short film is currently in post. It was shot with an XL1 using Cooke optics and the Mini35. A frame grab can be seen at: http://thechineseshoes.com (Sorry, the website's still slowly taking shape.)

I would love to network with people in Paris. I'm looking for a producer, above all. I've learned that I really prefer writing and directing.

Where was Warren Miller's locations in your film?

Do you mean where WM filmed?

In my movie, WM contributed with Alaska, Colorado, Tirol, and assorted other locations that can be seen in from the contributing filmmakers.

Well, I don't think there are too much to understand..

The sport they are making fun of are "roof jumping" I think..
One uses roofs and other things to jump from.

It would be a great "quit smoking" ad too..

/Andreas

Take a look give me some pointers. Ihave been shooting and editing about 3 years. ( hobby) Movie is in Quick time set up for cable not 56K. That's me on the green board.
http://members.cox.net/jaywooten

Hey!
I like the music. Sublime is a great surf/skate band.

I'd get rid of the wipes you use. They are outdated.
I'd also get a screw on telephoto extender to get closer to the surfing action.
Also what kind of tripod are you using? Some of the shots were a little shaky.

Keep on shooting!

Congratulations on your web-video debut. Was good to see some footage of that California surf. Makes me want to get back out there.

Good for you, Jay! Nice debut.

Transitions between shots/scenes for event work like this can be awkward. As Dylan noted, and despite the remarkable fact that video editing software developers seem hell-bent to offer dozens of transitional effects, you'd do well to eliminate the transition effects you're using. The exception would be if you were trying to build a tongue-in-cheek parody of some old 60's/70's surfing features...for which these transitions would be spot-on!

So should you just use quick-cuts between shots? Well, maybe for some shots that are distinct enough to avoid an unintentional "jump-cut" effect. But a good alternative is to use very short (1-3 sec) "cut-aways" to people watching the surfers. (Or people who appear to be watching them.) Next to music, nothing conveys an emotional impression better than a human face. People laughing a a wipe-out. ('Scuse my lingo if it, too, is a bit dated. I'm a snow-bird <g>.) People with a look of admiration/amazement at a good run. Etc. These make great tweener transitions. You just have to make a point to shoot them during the event -or- during another event that might invoke similar reactions.

Good luck to ya and keep at it! Most importantly, have fun! It's great for the heart and soul.

I was wondering if he shot footage for your film in Alaska......
I'm assuming Valdez, Alaska?

BTW, if the "Tirol" you speak of is in the north part of Austria.... it is by far in the top 5 of my favorite places in the world. Such a beautiful place......

ahhh the memories of Austria.......
Years ago (many) we used to take US dollars, change them into german marks, then drive into Austria and exchange German marks for Austrian shilling......through the whole exchange process we used to buy gas for the return trip for ~0.10/gallon (of course you buy in liters in EU nations).......ahhh the memories

I don't think WM actually shoots the footage himself anymore. He hires crews to do it. Actually it was Cordova, Alaska. and there were only girls skiing.

His sequence in Tirol was shot in St. Anton. (Tirol is more western Austria than north;-)) Tirol is a beautiful place.

I have fond memories of Francs, Marks and Shilling. It was kind of romantic. Now everyone uses Euros. Not as romantic, but very practical.

I'm coming into this thread very late, but want to point out this recent news item thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5731

An interesting article in the Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0301200116jan20,1,5641770.story?coll=chi%2Dleisuretempo%2Dhed) summarizing last week's Sundance Festival.

My favorite quote: From the 10-day festival's opening days, you can't escape the feeling that:
1. There sure are a lot of miserable teenagers out there.
2. There sure are a lot of miserable parents of miserable teenagers out there.

Hey everyone. I have just completed my first cheezy miniDV short film. My friends and I decided to make a movie after seeing "American Movie" and reading Bruce Campbell's auto-biography. We decided to make a series of crazy short films, in order to learn more about making movies (learn from our mistakes, etc.), so that when we film a more serious movie, it won't be entirely unwatchable.

It is called "Unemployed, in Greenland!" Here's the plot: Matt is a slacker who loses his job. While home alone looking for a new job, he learns his roommates are up to something. He calls his friend to help him figure it out, and they uncover a bizarre secret.

This movie is 20 minutes long. I would guestimate it is around PG-13 (some drunken-ness and mild language depicted).

It was shot using a Sony TRV-900 and was mostly edited using Sonic Foundry Video Factory; and then later using SF Vegas Video (after I upgraded). I'm making DVDs with the myDVD software that is bundled with the Sony DRU-500A DVD burner. It would be nice to find some authoring software around a few hundred bucks that enabled multiple audio tracks, better button creation, etc., but haven't found it yet.

Some of what I learned: 1) How easy it is to make continuity errors. Not just with props, but with the positions/movements of the actors. 2) How some takes you think are the good takes actually are not the best take in the context of the enclosing scenes. 3) We expected lighting would be difficult. Lighting is more difficult than we even expected. 4) When you are the 'director', people expect you to make decisions ;) 5) The story is more important than getting a good shot of that cool looking red velvet couch. 6) DVD authoring and MPEG-2 encoding is more art than science ;) 7) Capturing good audio is also more difficult than we expected, even when we expected it to be difficult. I was not impressed with the shotgun mic I used (not very good HF response), and often did not have someone to aim it properly for every take. The built in mic on the TRV900 is great for close-ups, but on occasion I used it in manual gain mode, which resulted in some distorted audio in some scenes.

If anyone here has Windows Media Player, they can check out a 74 MB version of the full movie at my website. I guess I need the full version of Quicktime for Windows to encode a Quicktime movie? I might check into that, it seems Quicktime is a good format for online use. I also rendered an MPEG-1, but it is 200 MB (~10 MB a minute), no matter what parameter settings I use to encode. In any case, any and all feedback is appreciated!

www.brucix.com/dvd02.html

Cheers
[bac]

Hey, I watched the trailer for your extreme sports movie. Looks great! I'd go see it.
As a snowboarder, windsurfer, ex-surfer, and sometime mountain-biker, I have to give you crap on one thing... In most of those shots of people going big, you don't show any of them sticking the landings!!! That's the best part!!
Anyway, looks great!

"Yeah, it's kind of hard getting a job when your only skill is memorizing facts from Animal Planet."

Bruce, I thought it was great. A perfect example of my favorite kind of storytelling with video, the do-it-yourself variety. You had me, I wanted to know what was up with these people, what was in the box, etc. Shows that all you need for a good short film is a story. Nice example, inspirational, anybody can do this if they have a campfire story to tell. It's what I love about DV. Well done,

Thanks for the feedback, it really means a lot.

One of the things about showing it to folks who know the actors personally is, you don't know if they are laughing because they think things are funny, or if they are just laughing at their friend(s) acting crazy. That's why I like these boards...

There are a lot of inside jokes in there, about Animal Planet (Dude where's my car), Twin Peaks (the DVD he impossibly puts in his pocket), Kirstin Dunst, New in Box Teddy Ruxpins, etc., so I didn't know how accessible it would be.

The writing was actually something we didn't spend too much time planning. We just went with the moment, kind of improv, for a lot of it. Seems like the stuff we spent a lot of time on didn't matter, and the stuff we didn't spend a lot of time on would have benefitted from more effort. Live and learn!

Cheers
[bac]

Pretty cool, and good work.......

You could hang out with my oldest son and his friends for sure.
Lately they have been using his friends (their parents) Radio Shack, conveyance mart, and Thai food restaurant for locations that are right up your alley!

Again, good work and it's also good to see how well you documented it on your webpage.

Heh, heh, heh... gotta watch the movie if you want to know how it all ends;-)

When I edit actions sports trailers, I consider each landing a period and the action a sentence. If I don't include the landings, the trailer feels like it keeps it's forward momentum.

The audience keeps waiting for the landing, but it never comes, leaving them unbalanced and careening forward. The end graphics catches their fall and props them back up before dusting them off and letting them go on their merry way.

Looks like we have a lot in common. I still surf when I can get to Hossegor. I've got my trusty mountain bike gathering dust here in mountainous Paris. I haven't snowboarded for years, and finally just threw away my practically new snowboard because the edges turned to rust!

Yeah, I thought the graphics were really well done! Which NLE did you use to cut it?

I don't throw my old snowboards out, I save them for dirtboarding in the summer! It's been 10 years since I surfed last, but I kept my board for sentimental reasons.