2nd-unit.tv looking good!

[Jonathan Ames]

If we can put a man on the moon and kep my wash bowl smelling "fresh as the morning dew" (that's d-e-w), then there has to be a way of smoothing the transsitions we take for granted in TV. :-)

[K. Forman]

I'd stick with straight cuts, j cuts, l cuts. The internet wreaks havoc on transitions, and there ain't much you can do about it.

[John Kang]

Jonathan,

Saw the ad you were talking about in the dot of the I.

First, I wouldn't use Tiffen for the ad, if it's going to be on your site (not till the compression is worked out). The compression would make Tiffen look bad.

Maybe you need to cheat/fool the user a little and use still shots from the camera. Photoshopped enhanced or whatever needs to be done to show the true quality of Tiffen.

I think this would be the best way to show Tiffen's quality. A still shot instead of zooming out from the frame. A still shot should still be as effective to point out the quality of a picture.

[K. Forman]

Or offer actual capture stills on the site, so they can see it for themselves- a sort of before and after type thing.

[Jonathan Ames]

But other than that, what did you think??? ;-) All kidding aside, I posted it anyway to give people something to shoot for...rather an how to do it right. It wasn't planned that way; it just came out that way. The real way would be to do a butt-cutt. The Tiffien star filter w/o pixelixation is incredible I think w/o Adobe Photoshop . I don't want any enhancements. It has to be all Tiffen or no Tiffen. There is a method to my madness and you all caught on. Anyway, one of the categories is going to be best commercial. We'll give you the details to work with and then it's all up to you to deliver the best 1 min. commercial you can muster...and you can't beieve what the prize is going to be!!! Same thing for drama and comedy under 3-min. So put you thinking hats on over the weekend. We announce Monday!
\J

[Jonathan Ames]

I've provided an original, clean, non-Photoshop, original footage piece for you using only a Hollywood star filter. The Tiffen Hollywood filter, used correctly, is truly an incredible filter. You looked at the pixellation which is fine; you needed to to see the problems. But don't forget to look past the problems to the whole of the issue. That filter, under heavy compression, performed flawlessly. That's why I put it up and didn't just e-mail the url to him with all it's warts and imperfections and that's why I posted it here to share with everyone. And, BTW, Tiffen liked it knowing that it was a slam together. I want this part of the forum to be totally open to everyone's opinion so we can all comment and I thank you for your perspectives because I want you all to see things as they unfold but I also think you should see the whole picture. It's like that old saying in martial arts; See everything but see nothing. Click on the "i" again. No Photoshop, just a great filter that performs well in the middle of the day like many others only perform at night with high-contrast situations.

[John Kang]

Jonathan,

Wow! What a difference a day makes. The new transitional shot looks awsome.

So tell us what you did differently.

[K. Forman]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Ames

Anyway, one of the categories is going to be best commercial. We'll give you the details to work with and then it's all up to you to deliver the best 1 min. commercial you can muster...and you can't beieve what the prize is going to be!!! Same thing for drama and comedy under 3-min. So put you thinking hats on over the weekend. We announce Monday!
\J

Geee... thanks for waiting till I go on vacation!

[Cole McDonald]

No link in the dot in the "I". Is that down already?

[Scott Harper]

Nice work on Part Two, Guys! I enjoyed it very much. The cut aways made it totally work- although the internet is a bit of a curse on some transitions. I especially enjoyed the Tiffen comparisons. Too bad you couldn't do a split-screen to see the difference side by side. Anyway, keep up the good work!

[K. Forman]

Scott... when talking about the HD100, I think Split screen is a bad thing to mention ;)

[Jonathan Ames]

Thanks. We're wotrking hard and I mean HARD on this show; much more so that my network stuff because it means so much more. I don't want to get all misty here but I want you guys to know what bringing this information to you means to all of us here. And to Joyce, you made our day! The coompliments all of you made our day and are great.

As to the split screen, if we come to terms with Tiffen, I think you'll like what we have in mind with a modified split screen. It's not imperative but you guys should take a minute and write to Tiffen (rabelein@tiffen.com) Russ is a great guy, and let them know how much you'd appreciate a show on filters. For us in the industry, they're indespensible IF you know what to do with them. The whole idea is giving post as little to do as possible. Post's main objective needs to be to preserve and enhance YOUR vision and giving them properly filtered images to start with is the best way of doing that.

As for the vacation deal, don't wory, you'll have 30-days to do what can be done in a few days. I argued with Paolo over this and he's right, it should be a 2-week limit but its summer and people are away on vacation. The 30-days will give everyone a chance to complete and submitv their best pieces and whe you find out who the judges and sponsors are, you'll know there's a very good chance you'll get discovered and I mean that in all sincerity. This world is rapidly evidencing its slide into the abyss of filmic crap as evidence by what we have on TV today. You guys have a very real oportunity to have your work seen and heard by people that can literally make you. Do your best and the best will see your work, I guarantee it.

Ok yeah, and as to the Internet doing a number on well-shot stuff, that's why I took down the commercial example but after thinking about it, it's going back up as an example of the commercial competition. And also, for the competition, the finalists will be asked to submit their work on tape format for the ASC, DGA, WGA and producers to see so your total work ethic can be judged fairly. The Internet just isn't fair quality but right now there's nothing we can do about it.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Scott Harper

Nice work on Part Two, Guys! I enjoyed it very much. The cut aways made it totally work- although the internet is a bit of a curse on some transitions. I especially enjoyed the Tiffen comparisons. Too bad you couldn't do a split-screen to see the difference side by side. Anyway, keep up the good work!

Hi Scott.
We are working to put online a QT version of the show, with much improved image quality, compared to the current wmv file. We talked about split-screen and side by side comparison but it's hard to make it work on the small format. This is something that we will be able to add when we prepared the DVD version.
Thank you for the suggestion.

[Cole McDonald]

The back cross discussion is very cool, I just started noticing that as I've been digging into lighting that every TV show uses it.I started noticing it on CSI first the key for actor A acts as the hair light for actor B and vice verse! This is neat to see it diagrammed somewhere other than my head :) I thought the lighting in the last segment was very reminiscent of most soap opera lighting. Much less movie-like and more TV-like than I've been doing...it's good to see other options having been 3-point lighting everything for the past 2 years.

Thanks again for this series.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Cole McDonald

This is neat to see it diagrammed somewhere other than my head :) I thought the lighting in the last segment was very reminiscent of most soap opera lighting.

Yes, we made up our little mini-soap scene and let the actors create their own dialog from an outline that Jonathan gave them. It illustrates the point and it works because George has designed the backcrosses initially for TV so it's an appropriate context.
Glad it worked for you.