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/showthrea...&threadid=5731

Sundance Film Festival (Jan 2003)
 

An interesting article in the Chicago Tribune summarizing last week's Sundance Festival.

My favorite quote:

My first miniDV short film --- "Unemployed, in Greenland!"
 

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]

heh
 

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.

RESHOOTS RESHOOTS RESHOOTS...

PICKUPS PICKUPS

Hitting walls, not enough coverage...

Working on solutions...

Cheers!

Learning very fast...

Follow the production process
 

In the event anyone might be interested in following the production process of "Lost Horizon," you can visit the site at http://www.gooddogproductions.com/WebSB/LH_home.htm.

Actually, the idea to attempt this exercise grew out of a conversation with John Locke. I realize this is not the first site of its kind, but it will be a first for us here at Good Dog Productions.

I used Cinestream 3.1 for the live action and the vertical and horizontal movements. This was then exported into Adobe After Effects for compositing with the graphic & 3D elements.

I know what you mean about keeping your board for sentimental reasons. I have one that's almost two decades old. I still ride it! It's a board that isn't my best board, but it works in any surf conditions.

By the way, I was in Vancouver a couple of years ago to pitch a children's educational TV series at the World Education Market. You live in a paradise... if only the water weren't so cold. I've never had better seafood than in Vancouver. Everything closes a bit earlier, but I had a great time.

By the way, I was in Vancouver a couple of years ago to pitch a children's educational TV series at the World Education Market. You live in a paradise... if only the water weren't so cold. I've never had better seafood than in Vancouver. Everything closes a bit earlier, but I had a great time. -->>>



Shhh.... Keep it a secret!
The water is cold, but it might be one of the only places on earth you can go windsurfing in the morning, have an afternoon golf game, then go snowboarding in the evening. When it's not raining that is... ;)

bold way to raise $ ?
 

here's a bold concept. need $$ for your project - just ask persons to send you a gift thru paypal !!!

www.loveproducer.com

this was a project i was working on till it changed directions. it started as a real Doc .. but changed to a docuDrama.

the interviews were shot on GL1 ( frame mode) .... the dramatic on betaSP ..

YES they did have legal advice on the concept of asking for $$ over the web.

Don,
Indeed, there's absolutely nothing illegal for asking people for voluntary contributions as long as you make it abundantly clear that (1) the contributor will receive absolutely nothing in return, and (2) you are not any type of a charity.

Still, you should note that compliance with these basic rules will not stop some eager beaver from potentially filing some spurious, expensive civil suit against you.

Hmmm... Don, any idea of how much money (if any) people donated?

don't know if they recieved any "gifts" ... you have to figure that friends, relatives will do it 1st THEN ???

the site just started running on sunday ( hi band is up ... low band is still coming on line ) ... last friday they fedX press kits ( print material , photos , beta Sp tape ) to all media ( cnn, cbs, nbc, fox, upn, entertainment tonight etc ) so those arrived this AM .. now it's ??? if any will do a story ... in SF bay area all newspapers, all TV stations, some radio stations all received press kits.

yep, i recall a woman here in the US. she had like $30,000+ in credit, loans, etc. she made a website asking each visitor to donate $1.00. I do believe in the end she made enough to pay off all her debt and had a nice chunk left over.

Indeed, this has become popular...
 

since that "Save Karyn" girl tried the stunt (successfully, as Matt noted).

Here's a Feb. 11, 2003 Chicago Tribune article on the general subject: "'Cyber-begging' sites popping up on Web"

mini35 stills from my new film
 

Dear one and all,

I just thought I'd share some stills of my new film, Last Day of Work with you. Presently, it in the rough cut stage so I'm not posting the film. It tells the story of man who is having problems dealing with the loss of his wife. It currently runs at 8mins but I'm hoping to trim it down a little bit.

http://homepage.mac.com/ilovedumplings/PhotoAlbum1.html

Production notes:

1 month of pre-production- finding actors, locations, refining script, hunting for props, begging for equipment etc.

shot in 1 day

Canon XL1S
mini35
Canon EF lenses, 17-35 f2.8L, 50 f1.4, 70-200 f2.8L

Cheers!

Adrian

Looks great. Totally has that film DOF going for it. Is it a thriller of some sort? Shot #6 scared the **** outta me. Guess I'm just afraid of basements, heh.

Looks very intriguing, Adrian! Has a very dark, sullen feeling. Within the context of the deep personal loss subject this should be good. I'm anxious to see your final cut.

I gather you had fun with the Mini 35! That stair shot was really rubbing it in. <g>

heheh... yah I guess, because I had the mini 35 for one full day only, picked it up the evening before and returned it the morning after, so I guess I went a bit crazy with the DOF thing... and shot everything wide open. But as it turned out, I didn't have enough lights, 2 cheapo 300W halogens (that started smoking after 5 mins) so I had to shoot everything wide open anyway.

Now my XL1S looks so lonely with just the stock 16X lens...

anyways.... I'll endeavour to finish the film as soon as possible and will post a link up as soon as its done!

Cheers everyone!

Adrian

looks great Adrian, I really love the tone you've got going on in this one. Can't wait to see it!

The more I see from the mini35 the more amazed I am. I'm gonna
try renting one near the summer overhere. Those are beautiful
shots, keep up the great work!

Baby steps
 

After having snooped about at the professional and near-professional work of the people in this forum, I feel a bit over my head, but what the hell.

My fellow compatriot and film geek extrodinaire, Curt, wrote a little short because he thought he could make something better than your average atomfilm... we just so happen to be putting the finishing touches on a feature length dv film, but that's for another day.

Two things, 1) nothing revolutionary here, just having fun 2) we can't afford a damn G4, so we edit on my ol' trusty PC, the file is in Windows Media format - sorry MacHeads...

www.american-ocean.com has it right there at the top, just look for Stuffing.

Shane

Nice work, Shane! It looks like you had alot of fun on this project. Give us some production and post-production notes.

Heh, I liked it!
Good script. The actors were interesting. It held my interest to the end, and that's all I ask for.

My only major complaint is that the sound level was so low I had my speakers set on max and was still straining to hear some of the dialogue.

Do you want a detailed technical review/breakdown or just general comments? There were some things I would edit differently for smoothness.

I guess it's too late to point out that you should have put something over that window/light source to bring the intensity down a bunch. :)

That sound problem has been noted by a few people... for some reason it sounds great on my machine. My sister couldn't hear it at all... Anyone have any thoughts on that?

As for the overflowing light, we tend to overlight our stuff to play with it in Premiere later... but for some reason Curt wanted to keep it like this... I didn't agree with him, but hey - far be it of me to put down someone's opinion ;)

As for production notes, Curt and I are roomates and just wanted to do something to tide us over. We shot this in about 4 hours on last Saturday. We had a bunch of outtakes and just had a great time. The last effort we went through was our feature length - 20 plus speaking roles, none of which being paid, over 6 locations not including our house... so this was a nice change of pace. Just Curt, Me and the camera... oh, and the remote ;)

This was my first time just acting, was a great change of pace... this was also Curt's first time directing and editing. I was teaching him how to use Premiere as he went along, I think it was a worthy effort for an amatuer, amatuer.

He was having fun yesterday putting together the outtakes, but that was longer than the short... so who knows what's going to happen with that... Keep the feedback coming, I keep passing it along to Curt.

OK. Well aside from Dylan's observation about the window's brightness here are my thoughts.

You shot selections were pretty good! Your technique of shooting the car trunk sequence from the dead frog's pov was excellent and really draws the viewer's imagination into the shot. I think that the stretch of voice-over blackness (from within the closed trunk) went just a bit long. I began to wonder if I'd lost video. I'd cut it in half.

I like to walk away from a "final cut" for a few weeks and then view it with new eyes. I always see something I didn't originally see when my nose was pressed against it.

Hey, you guys need to stay at it. A great way to spend a Saturday!

What can I do with these videos?
 

I've been doing travel videography as a hobby for a number of years. I've finally gotten to the point where my technique and my equipment are good enough to produce some fairly decent stuff. My videos could almost pass for the kind of travelogues I see on Globe Trekker and similar programs, except for the inclusion of some "personal" things (these are really "home movies" after all) and lack of a narration.

I've seen a number of websites that feature clips of travel videos, and they seem to be well-received. My projects range in length from 90 to 150 minutes or so, making web-based distribution impractical.

Does anyone have any ideas about what I can do with these things? My audience is currently limited to my wife, my mother, my in-laws and a few select friends. Given the amount of work that I put into these (post takes me one to two months of working nights and weekends), I'd like more people to see them.

travel videos
 

Contact all the travel agents in your area and see if they are interested.

Can somebody tell me the name of a movie......
 

Does anybody know of a movie, new, old, or upcoming, that has been shot on DV? Completely? I don't mean the Blair Witch Project. I want to see something that has used DV to it's advantage, so that obviously excludes Full Frontal.

Corey

When you say "DV" what exactly do you mean? On prosumer cameras like the XL1s? On higher-resolution SD or HD digital video formats?

Although these were shot on DV (mostly prosumer camcorders), you're probably unlikely to find them showing at the BraunTex (cool old movie theater in Corey's town)....

24 Hour Party People (2002 Michael Winterbottom) (35mm & DV mixed) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0274309 see also http://www.au-cinema.com/24-Hour-Party-People.htm -- in theaters, coming to DVD

Anniversary Party (2001 Jennifer Jason Leigh) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0254099 -- on DVD at Amazon

Bamboozled (2000 Spike Lee) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0215545 -- on DVD at Amazon

Cicadas (2000 Kat Candler) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0212873 -- at Dallas Fim Festival, see Film Threat: http://www.filmthreat.com/News.asp?Id=979

Chuck & Buck (2002 Miguel Arteta) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0200530 -- on DVD at Amazon

The Cruise (1998 Bennet Miller) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0150230 -- on VHS at Amazon

Gaza Strip http://www.littleredbutton.com/gaza/ -- now in festival circuit

An Intimate Friendship (2000 Angela Evers Hughey) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0212667 -- on DVD at Amazon

Julien Donkey-Boy (1999 Harmony Korine) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0192194 -- on DVD at Amazon

Split Decision (2001 Marcy Garriott) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0254789 -- direct from http://www.frif.com/new2000/split2.html

Tadpole (2002 Gary Winick) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0271219 -- on DVD at Amazon

Tape (2001 Richard Linklater) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0275719 -- on DVD at Amazon

Timecode (2000 Mike Figgis) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0220100 -- on DVD at Amazon

Waiting (2000 Patrick Hasson) http://us.imdb.com/Title?0270059 -- on DVD at Amazon




__________________

Also adding:

ATANARJUAT: THE FAST RUNNER

and

CELEBRATION (FESTEN)

Here is a site with a long list of "films" shot with various video sources that have had theatrical release: ://www.nextwavefilms.com/ulbp/bullfront.html

They indicate what format was used for shooting the film. For example, they note correctly that "ATANARJUAT:The Fast Runner" was shot on DigiBeta, not DV. Of note, is that it was NTSC DigiBeta, rather than the highly touted PAL.

But watch out if you are looking for rentals. For instance, if you rent the VHS of "The Anniversary Party," you will be looking at the original video version before it was transfered to film. You will be very disappointed. But you were never meant to see this version, instead, rent the dvd to see what the filmmakers had in mind for release. I'm betting that other "films" suffered the same fate in the home market.

(BTW, I would have sworn "Timecode" was shot on DigiBeta. But the list indicates DV.)

Are you saying that there is no naration? If so, do you use background music? For your productions to be commercially viable you will need to write a script and have narration to go with your visuals.

get feedback from travel agents or a distributor that handles this type project ...

you might have to "commercialize " your project slightly...
as in if you traveled in ITALY. and i'm about to go there HOW will it help me if i buy your DVD ? ( oh yes did i mention make some DVD's to send/sell to persons) ... now all the music will need to be cleared ... then there are all those faces ??? or persons you talked with - do you have clearances ?? it is one thing to show it to your family as a travel vacation VS. selling it as a travel guide/holiday ..