John Woo tribute film - Price of vengeance
 

I threw a short film together for a film contest on MySpace. John Woo is promoting his new computer game Stranglehold. Filmmakers get to make a two and a half minute short film to pay homage to John Woo's work.

Check out our film. It was a lot of fun to make. I found out about the contest late so we only had 5 days to shoot, do post and get it entered into the contest.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...oid=2038907870

Y.A.F.I.:Underground's 2007 - 48 Hour Film - "9th Life"
 

We shot fabulously (really cool looking footage), then fell asleep (literally) on the edit...next year, we'll have more than one editor working together on it to keep each other going. I would've woken him, but I was downstairs shooting.

We need to add a second camera just for tape import.

We need to push the schedule...moving forward always, no time to rest. Our shoot was pretty relaxed except for the main 5 folks on our shoot (DP, Director, Script Sup, Producer, 1st AC)...but that was a good stress.

We had one new actress who just couldn't get the lines down, so we had to rewrite at about the 3/4 mark for footage on the first day!

With 15 minutes to go, I was given the score to drop onto the timeline (not the composers' fault...it was due to the editor falling asleep, which is a risk you run in a comp like this)...the mix was too high on the music, luckily, the theaters' sound system pushed the mids for the voice and the music toned down miraculously! There was no time to work the audio to get rid of stage directions either...oops.

The audience laughed in all the right places. We're currently re-editing for other festival releases to try to get some awards! The re-edit is much better so far.

Here's the piece that was shown (we're not as proud of it as we will be of the re-edit):
http://www.yafiunderground.com/Video/9thlife-MPEG-1.mpg

Here's a rough of the re-edit:
http://www.yafiunderground.com/Video...e-LB-final.mov

From Russia with ACTION!
 

Today we released the first Webisode of our fourth Colonel Crush movie: From Russia with ACTION! http://colonelcrush.com/movie/index/00220001 Expect a new Webisode each Monday at noon PST.

Nathan, the director who also plays Professor Pow!, has done his best work yet. The film opens with a horror spoof and closes in a dream sequence. I get credit (or otherwise) for the music and audio mixing.

Enjoy!

Underwater Adventure in the Philippines
 

Just got back from a couple weeks of incredible diving in the Philippines with my Sony HDR-HC1. http://californiabeachfeet.com/image...veTrip2007.wmv

Wow this does look incredible.....great stuff! The vis looks fantastic and what an array of fish life....no sharks ??? That camera is very capable huh....what housing are you using with it by the way?

WOW. i loved it! that was pretty amazing. what an experience. tho i did think it was a bit slow at the beginning, but then again, it was record of traveling. :)

The HC-1 is a pretty good camera for how relatively inexpensive and portable it is. I was using an Equinox underwater housing with a wide angle conversion lens, and UK Light Canon with one diffuser. Probably get a 2nd Light Canon. Didn't see any sharks this time.

I'm trying to render a 720P wmvHD version, but am having serious difficulties with Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 6.0 crashing: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=88512

So were you auto exp/focusing on this piece? Also does this camera shoot 25p?

Some of your turtle shots, expecially the first were fabulous the lighting is just perfect.

I'm considering an underwater rig. I have an XL2 but the housings are just to big and expenisive....you've certainly opened my eyes to this cameras potential.

:)

Yeah, everything on the camera was set to full auto. Autofocus performed just fine as long as there was enough light. I used a red filter for the shallow scenes shot in clear water where there was enough available sunlight. The visibility was 150'+ that particular day when I filmed the first turtle, so that helps. Then took the filter off and turned on the Light Canon for all the point blank close-ups.

Equinox controls are not really set exactly on the camera buttons, rather you have to kind of fish for them a little, so it's kind of tricky to do much more than on/off, record, and maybe zoom a little, though the capability to adjust everything underwater is there. There are much nicer, more expensive housings available, but I didn't want to spend more than the camera. It's a solid housing that has never leaked, bottom line. I've also got a much nicer Canon XH-A1, but by the time you put it in an underwater housing, you're looking at quite a big heavy expensive unit to be traveling with. The HC-1 is a great toy that's easy to lug around. It only records in one frame rate, but lately I've been into rendering at 60 frames a second. Makes clips appear smoother and more lifelike to me.

The HC-3, 5, and 7 are all good too, but the biggest difference is shooting in HDV, even if you render to standard definition later.

For those that are interested my documentary is finally ready!

http://www.mesomorphosis.com/store/v...the-bar-2.html

Religious/Atheist Documentary. (On Z1U) “Why We Believe”
 

I have been working on this documentary since last fall. I wish to eventually make a feature out of it. It’s currently 10 Min. I hope you enjoy. I love to hear any advice on how to improve the video.


http://www.vilekyle.com/Documentary/...ieve/index.htm

All My Latest and Greatest!!! Check it out-
 

Alright guys I've made a new video since I last posted and I also uploaded some of my old Halo videos that are VERY enjoyable to watch from an editing standpoint. Well here they are, enjoy! AND TELL ME WHAT YOU ALL THINK!!

:D

Confusion Trip::
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NhwgSF42_dE

ChrisTheHippie Vol. 3::
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1-VV-EB3Zwo

ChrisTheHippie Vol. 4::
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VooF_TYsIOg

ENJOY!
FEEDBACK!!!11

Good job. I thought it looked good and, more importantly, it delivered a message in a thoughtful way. It did not seem too condescending to anyone, but rather used some people's odd viewpoints about damnation to illustrate your point. I thought the point was fair to both sides and that is what is important when you are trying to open up people's internal dialog. I don't like the "beat them over the head till they listen" approach used by Michael Moore in "Fahrenheit 911".

The only technical problem I found was with the microphone. It got in the shot (I think it was the mic) several times as you were walking and talking. Maybe you had image stabilization on and it moved the lense POV a bit? Also, there was a lot of room reflections in the office interview. Getting the mic out of the shot in the future should be an easy fix, but it takes a really good mic and maybe preparation of the room to get rid of reverb. Don't worry, it's not a problem on this shoot. The important thing is that everyone can be understood.

Again, good job.

Live Band Footage
 

The first one I edited clips from the entire set to match up with a song from their album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78sCpHb2LwM


The second one is live audio from the front mic, actually turned out sounding pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-h5tWJvyEE

Dr. S battles the sex crazed reefer zombies
 

forgive the really terrible myspace compression. this was directed by a different Ortiz, and all the cinematography (camera work, lighting) was done by me. nothing has been color corrected or adjusted yet.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...deoID=11837701

DVX100B
M2 adapter
Nikon Primes

looking for feedback.

Shark Encounter Off North Carolina Coast
 

Here's something I shot last week while diving off the coast of North Carolina. Just one of many encounters during the week.

http://www.enosoft.net/video/Shark%2...202007%202.wmv (9.26MB)

The Atlantic Sand Tiger shark in this clip is about 7 to 8 feet long. It is cloaked in a school of bait fish. If you watch very closely at the start, you will see that the school already surrounding the shark is joined very rapidly and seamlessly by a second school.

The wreck of the US Coast Guard Cutter Spar lies in about 100 feet of water, which is why there is little color. The Spar was sunk in 2004 as an artificial reef.

I use an old Sony DCR-SC100 miniDV camcorder (circa. 1998) and a Light And Motion Industries housing. The camcorder can record in true 16:9 - something of a rarity in the mid 1990s for a consumer level unit.

The online clip is in WMV format at 2.1Mbps - I had to use Windows Movie Maker to encode it since Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 wouldn't let me select that high a quality!

That was a really cool clip. I really don't know much about shark behavior but why does the school of fish follow the shark around?

Regards,

A short police scene, please let me know what you think.
 

Ive done the second part of a number of different scenes. This one is a police script.
Here is the direct link,
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...oid=2040720655

You can also get to it via my myspace page which is www.myspace.com/rjgfilm
Its the police script.

Can you please let me know about the following parts.

Acting
Sound
Picture
Script
Editing

Overall quality of the piece.

I value all the input I can get,

Thanks in advance.

I dont think my breathing would have been as smooth as yours ;)

The bait fish are preyed on by other fish such as amber jack tuna. The bait fish are all over the wreck and, usually, move fairly slowly. Suddenly, they will speed up and not far behind will be up to a dozen tuna, swimming very fast - wanting to feed on the bait fish.

It's purely my speculation, but I assume that the bait fish choose to surround the sharks because they are safer - the tuna won't go near the sharks. The bait fish are safe as long as the sharks aren't in feeding mode - they drop their pectoral fins to an almost vertical position and arch their backs when they are getting ready to feed. This usually happens at dusk. (The clip was shot at midday.) On another dive that had somewhat poor visibility, there was a group of about 8 sharks that were behaving erratically - I guess feeding time was going to be earlier that day!

Born to race
 

I had all these ideas in the beginning of 06, to document our race year and all, but once each weekend got rolling there was never any focus left to shoot. Somehow life at the racetrack, for a racer anyway, is almost completely about going faster, harder, and deeper. So ultimately, I never even got to try to shoot our year's documentary video.

It's pretty comical, therefore, to see who ends up aiming the rig at you while you ride out onto the grid sometimes. In the end I can't complain. I was glad there was anything caught on tape at all, never mind how good it was. When the 06 season ended last fall I was left with about six tapes shot - each with an average of nineteen seconds of "usable footage." The rest was either completely black, clear blue sky, or wind blown grass. The following video was what emerged from that pile of scrap. I doubt it'll be inspiring to any of you, but it was enough of an inspiration to me to end me up here on Dvinfo.net - reading and searching and hopefully learning how to one day actually produce something real.

I completely understand that this is not that. But still, there IS something about it... At least enough to not let it die in the back of the hard drive.

http://gotagteam.com/WEB_PAGES/VIDEO...Video73mb.html

Wow, that looks great. In fact my wife passed by and asked what that was. It caught her attention in 30 seconds. One major problem. SOUND. I wish you had used a proper microphone on a boom. In my opinion the sound quality ruins the whole piece, but my profession IS sound. Nice work overall.

Just watched your video I think you did a hell of a job!!!!! You said you just had a couple of decent clips you sure did a great job at putting them together! Did you just have one camera filming from the sidelines?? Great job also on blending the stills with the live footage! I was impressed! I posted a video that was shot entirely by myself also without any extra help. My buudy couldn't get the time off work and I had to go solo. I posted it on this forum, Take a look and see what you think. It's called A day at the races! Great job on your video again!!

Chris Sackett (Raven Racing Video)

86 views and not one comment? I was hoping for a little input from the forum. Any takersout there?

All I can say Chris, is you guys must wreck HARD! Oh yeah, and how in the world do you keep your gear dry?

Stay safe out there brother. Yer nuts!

Thanks, ive just picked up a rode NTG-2 mic so that will make a huge difference.
I did mess up on sound because I forgot to switch to the off camera mic.

Any Suggestions for a cheap boom pole?

Thanks for your thoughtfull comments. il be working on thoes mic shoots.

did you use a 35mm adapter on some of those shots? if so which adapter did you use?

the redrock 35mm adpater

I really liked it alot... I thought it was interesting hearing alot of ideas that I dont personally believe (For example the hell description). I personally am atheist, and I am facinated by the concept of religion, so I found this video particularly interesting. However, I couldnt really tell what you (assuming the person doing the opening and closing narration was you) believed in (due to the final line about consequences and such). Sorry if that doesnt make sense lol, I have a hard time putting my rambled ideas into writing lol... All in all, I really enjoyed it.

I almost forgot, I really liked your closing song.

Very interesting, Thanks for showing both sides of the issue, too many documentaries don't do that.

Now some technical advice. Your audio levels are all over the place, you need to get them all on the same level, we go from one that's pretty low to another interview where the audio is a lot higher.

Also pick 1 title background for lower 3rd supers and use it throughout. Also keep it in the same place. They jump around too much, pick 1 and use it throughout. It's very distracting the way it is now.

Your pacing is good, good use of nat sound to keep the story moving.

You also got some great interviews on this subject, very good. It's what will make or break your story.

Overall, nice job, I think you could easily turn this into a half hour or 1 hour documentary.

Open Screening at 911 Media Arts
 

If you're in the Seattle area and have work in progress that you'd like feedback on, or finished work you feel like showing, or whatever, 911 has a monthly open screening. This is a cool and, I think, underutilized event. It has the potential to be a great learning and networking thing if it's taken advantage of. If you're interested you can get all the info you need here http://www.911media.org/

No I don't work for 911.

Hope to see some of you there!

Day: Monday July 9th (happens once a month)
Time: 8 pm
Place: 911 Media Arts Center- Seattle

Portsmouth Screen '07 - Short Film screenings: Call for entries
 

As part of the Portsmouth Screen '07: Film and New Media festival, SHORTS::CUT is looking for short films For the past two years we have showcased the work of local production talent as part of the Portsmouth Screen: Film and New Media Festival. For 2007, We are looking for entertaining, engaging and thought provoking films in any genre, from drama to comedy, documentary to animation.

The deadline for submissions is 1 October 2007. Films should not be longer than 15 minutes, including credits.

We are now opening two sections: The first is for the filmmakers in the local area. At least one of the principle cast, or the writer, director or producer should reside or study in Hampshire, West Sussex or the Isle of Wight, or the film should have been produced in this area. click here for more infomation.

New for this year, a second section is open to projects from anywhere in the UK or around the World, though we do request that all films be in English or feature English subtitles. Click here for more information.

Alternatively contact port_shorts@yahoo.com.

--------------------------------------

Portsmouth Screen 07: Film and New Media Festival

Shorts::Cut

Hi Dylan, I was reading through the webpages and noticed one of the press releases mentioned the possibility of a monthly networking event at John Pounds Centre. Did this get underway? I'd certainly be interested in attending.

I my made my feature length effort back in 2004 when shorts didn't seem so en vogue and longer form work seemed to get more screen time. Damn my sense of timing!

http://www.ratemymovie.co.uk/ hopefully it'll raise a chuckle at least.

Hi Mike,

The networking event didn't get established, but we're still working on it as a future project. At the moment all attention is focused on the Festival in November.

That's really cool! I grew up in Pompey (Farlington) and, whilst growing up, thought the city was a dump. Whenever I get a chance to visit, I'm always impressed with how much has been done in the last decade or so. The effects have even been seen here. Just this morning I was waiting to pick up a prescription and in one of the gutterpress tabloids (called The Sun of all things) there was a photo and and article about a fella who had built a miniature matchstick model of the Spinnaker Tower! The real thing is taller than Portsdown Hill, so the view must be quite something....next time I'm there, I'll go up it.

Anyway, good luck with the festival!

Downpour - CineVera Picture's latest
 

Check out our new scene, Downpour. It still needs ADR and is not a short film, but more of a lighting exercise and excuse to get some cool shots. Let us know what you think.

http://www.cineverapictures.com/clips/downpour.html

James Bond Parody
 

Check out this Bond Parody. I composed and created the music. My son filmed and directed. Jeremy Robeson sang the vocals.

Let me know what you think!

http://colonelcrush.com/movie/index/00220201 It starts just after the 30 second mark.

Cicada documentary
 

Well not really... it's a spoof. I wasn't actually involved in the shoot, but I edited it. The guy that wrote it and stars in it is "sort of" a real actor... he's had small parts in a few Troma features. He's now trying to break into screenwriting.

Also, this was thrown together last minute. I would estimate it took 8 hours from the first shot to the final edit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lHyJInDuUE

New documentary Raising the Bar 2 is available!
 

A few days ago I added a post to my original teaser thread about RTB2s availability, but now think I should announce it more clearly in its own thread for those who have expressed interest in it.

Please click this link for more information...

http://www.mesomorphosis.com/store/v...the-bar-2.html