silly me.. here is the link to the movie site where you can download a trailer

http://www.joshuacalling.com

tickets are $4.00

Stupid freakin post ofice. I go in there to mail out this tape, and I was standing in the line, and they are like "CRAP SHE LOCKED UP!"...their stupid computers locked up. Jesus, they are the freaking part of the government, whats it take for them to get their **** straight? Then I was like "well, will it be back up tomorrow"? The dude just shurggs his shoulders at me...

Alex, relax man, patience is a virtue. The post office is quite inefficient, and from memory the machines in my local post office look like they were some of the earliest incarnations of the modern marvel we call the computer. They're so old I'm not sure that they actually contain enough modern technology to be called computers. Actually, I'm pretty sure its just a large cardboard box, primed with metalic paint to look electronic that contains a moderate number of well trained monkeys with calculators. But I digress.

As for your video, I thought it was really quite funny. But content aside, I thought for the limited shots you were able to do (i.e. being restricted to a tripod) you compensated well with properly paced editing, and smooth transitions as well. However, I was talking to a buddy of mine who knows someone involved in the show, and they were actually talking about the video submissions (the guy actually viewed a number of the viewer submissions). Apparently, the show has been recieving a HUGE number of mock music videos, and they said that is exactly what they don't want. I was told that some of them were really funny just because the people that made them were complete freaks, which I persoanlly would like to see. I'm not trying to be critical the quality of your video at all, but I just wanted to give you a heads up as to what I have heard about it. But hey, maybe if they are impressed enough you'll hear back from them anyway. But good luck, and have fun!

Robbie

Thanks Robbie, that sucks. I didn't think that many people would submit crap like this. :D

Oh well, i'll still send it, nothing I can do now.

Hey Alex, I still would like to hear how you did the golden effect at the start of your video...

The hand turned into the finger....heh

I was in to it, and it did end up looking really good.

Great work

Alex, I did not mean to deter you from sending it in. It is pretty funny and clever especially considering the time restraints you did it under, so you never know, maybe you'll get a call back! But like Imran, I'd also like to know about the golden effect at the start of the video.

Robbie

where is this article located? Is it online yet?

It is in the September issue of THE SOURCE magazine. page 68. I don't think its online but it might be.

I don't think it's online. What is your project about?

It's a soap opera

review of Joshua Calling
 

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?

Doc Pics Posted
 

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.

Buy the BMW Films on DVD for only shipping
 

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

http://intl.bmwfilms.com/clap.asp?te...y=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.

My first DVX video
 

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

Wish.....
 

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

shadowgirlproject
 

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!!

My new short
 

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

Here is my feature using Frame and Widescreen modes
 

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.