I agree with Rob, Shawn. The Relentless trailer grabbed me more than the Journals trailer. Nice work. What did you do exactly on the film?

There are some nice shots...nice lighting, and some good effects.

You know the one thing I don't like about a lot of indie productions is when someones suburbia house is used for the location when it doesn't fit the theme of the movie. This type of story needs a scary old house or building. Somehow, seeing the evil woman framed by a modern bare spackled wall and vertical blinds and shag carpeting kind of takes the oomph out of it.

But that's just me...and believe me...I know how tough it is to get good locations.

I only had the time to watch the Relentless trailer, and I have to say that it looks good; very good job on visual fx and sound design, and pretty good lighting too. I didn't mind the location as John pointed out. Not all scary stories happen in scary old houses.

Good work! I'll check out the other one some other time and let you know what I think.

New DV feature released...
 

Hey Folks,

I just wanted to drop a line and shamelessly promote our new DVD shot entirely on a Canon XL1s and edited at home.

We are very proud of the quality we achieved. It rivals anything else out there shot in this great format. If you are interested, you can buy it at:

http://www.customflix.com/Store/ShowTtl.jsp?id=204754

If you want to check out the Diary I kept as the DP on the production, you can go to my site at:

http://www.digitalvideo.cc

Or you can view the trailer and other goodies at Alex's site:

http://www.galaxaco.com/hellholehigh/index.html

We hope you enjoy.


-Cody

I thought the lighting was great! I think I've seen a movie that was shot in the 80's that was the same story though... I can't remember what it was called.

I'm curious as to the background of the D.O.P.?

I was also impressed by the editting of both trailers.

-Nori

Kudos to the team...

I enjoyed the trailer, particularly the titles/effects editing. Also, the undead makeup/heroin look was nicely executed. (TRAILER was viewed only)

It looks like the work had some great production values.

To Answer John's question, I supplied my camera and microphone and acted as boom operator, grip, lighting assistant, basically anything where a body was needed to do something, I was there. I had just recently gotten my camera at this point, and was getting involved in this project as a way of sort of cutting my teeth.

As for the lighting, the DP was Greg, The Director. I'm not sure what his bg is as far as film school or anything, but he's only like 25 and this is really the first thing he's done. Much of the lighting was done with those lights that look like an aluminum bowl with a lightbulb in the middle (with the help of some gels) and with candles. On of which I had to hold just out of frame for 15 minutes, covering my hand in hot wax. But the end result was worth it.

-Shawn

Using trademarked product names in DV Film....
 

Hi,

Planning to write a screenplay to be shot on my DVX100 later this summer, and wanted to know what the rules are about using trademarked names in dialogue and subject in a narrative. For example the topic I'm writing about is a trademarked prescription drug that is being abused that came to market in 1995. It has a generic name, but it's my understanding that the two are not one and the same, and there is a reason that abusers are looking for the version with the trademarked name. My question is, do I need to change the name if I cannot get permission from the drug company, which I may not be able to, as it portrays the drug in a not so positive light?

Thanks

It sounds like you have answered your own question, but yeah, you have to clear the trademarked name if you are going to use it, their lawyers are probably not that nice, especially if you are going to use it in a negative way.

Todd,

Before you put pen to paper, (or digit to keyboard) consult an attorney. Find out your "exposure' and decide if you can live with it. That way, you won't invest energy into a project that can't be produced.

Don't screw around with your liability.

Richard

Good, now make it better
 

There is a great book "The 5 Cs of Cinematography" Buy it, read it, read it again. It is a great book.

As for the clip, I watched it with the sound off. On the tech side it was great. You could consider tightning up the frame and don't be afraid of a close up. That will help get rid of the "Newscaster" effect.

Comedy or Drama, focus the attention of the auidence.

Looks good and good luck

Thank you, Chris. I couldn't have done it without the Watchdog.

Victor,

I just watched the "Chinese Shoes" trailer and liked it very much. Great job! Did you shoot it on film?

He used the 35mm adapter lens with the XL-1s camera

Title
 

What did you use to make the title fly accross with footage in the letters? I have AE, but couldnt figure out a way to do that in it. Im sure it had to do with matting the letters...

James Miller, CNN producer using DV, killed in Middle East
 

James Miller, who produced CNN's "Behind the Veil," a documentary about the lives of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule which was shot almost entirely on the Canon XL1, was killed in the Middle East last week. He was 34 years old.

Miller was in Gaza, filming a documentary for HBO on the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Palestinian children. Read the CNN report here.

I rather like his reports. Looks like Isreal killed him. Their common practice is to target journalists and camera operators. There's been many shot by Isreal over the years.

That's horible

This week they're requiring all foreigners to sign a release in which they recognize that they are going into a dangerous place. It also requires them to swear that they are not peace activists.

Hey Mike.

The title i made fly across the screen started in photoshop

I made a file that was 480 pixels tall and about 5000 pixels wide (i think, the horizontal size was trial and error)

The background was black and the letters were black and I made a border around the letters. Then I made the area inside the borders transparent using an Alpha channel.

Then I brought that file in AE and made it the top layer on a stack of video files. Then I had to draw a mask around each video file in a shape similar to the letter it's supposed to appear in. Then it was just a matter of controlling the horizontal movement of the title and the video files.

Drop me an email if you have any more questions.

Jim I

New Reality show using Digibeta, PD150 & PDX10 and futre of Beta/DV intercutting
 

I was helping a friend and fellow shooter on a new reality show shooting in Atlanta for the last couple of days for a Discovery Channel program. They are shooting principal and reverses with Digibeta only and any time lapse or generic establishing shots and background interviews with the PD150. Also, they provided the participating home owners with a PD-X10 to shoot the kids and other incidents during the day and over night. The name of this program is "Rally 'Round the House" and the concept is that the family is made to stay in their house for 48 hours while neighbors and friends give a preselected area of the house or property a makeover and it is revealed to them on the second day. All windows are covered and minimal outside contact is allowed to prevent giving away any details. The Digibeta shot 16:9, the PD150 shot 4:3 with an optical anamorphic attachment and the PD-X10 shot with internal 16:9. 16:9 monitors were used with the PD150 to ensure proper framing due the squeezed DV picture. I overheard discussions between producers and apparently Discovery does not like cutting Beta and DV in the same shot only stand alone. So this may indicate where DV is going to stand when 16:9 and HD are the only end product accepted.

All Things Fight Club
 

Our new short film is up at www.american-ocean.com The larger of the two choices you have is about 88 megs, but it can be streamed with a fast enough connection after a little bit of buffering. It's running time is 18m35s and if the MPAA were to rate it, they would give it a rated R for language and mild violence I guess...

Check this one out if you like soap.

I can't seem to get a direct link to the 88MB trailer, I don't want to click on it to buffer in windows media player, because I won't be able to save it, and who knows...

So you have a direct link to the file, where I can right click and do a Save target as?

Ask and you shall receive... if you would navigate to the films section and scroll to the bottom, I have added a direct link there.

nice trailer
 

I watched them both and it kind of freaked me out because my old personal assistant looks just like Julia Simms. Her name was "Julie" to make it even worse.

I thought you guys did a great job, and I wanted to mention the sound. It was top notch for web delivery.

I don't know if it is the links or something in this computer taking over, but when I clicked windows media "medium", it played in quick time. No issues here, but thought you might want to have someone check the links just in case.

IMHO at next NAB all new camera introductions will be HD.

How stupid is this idea.
 

How about a DV film festival? This is my thought. Take a few very expensive ads in magazines and such. Have a very low entry fee. Use the money to cover the costs and a cash prize. I could have the local media people (as well as the auidence) judge the videos and and award winners.

Yeah, I know the money thing could be a problem. Money will always be a problem. If the numbers don't add up, everyone gets their fees back and I look like an idiot, again. I'm comfortable with that.

I need to know, what are DV makers looking for in a film festival. Do they want to get feedback and have a chance for their work to be shown? Or are they looking to get "discovered" and rushed off to Hollywood on a flying carpet. I don't want anyone to think I'm going to give them something I can't.

Anything would be a help.

To me, anywhere, where you can show your work to a bunch of people, would be good enough...I don't think many people are expecting much more...

Nothing stupid about this. This will equalize all the entries, to some degree. No more "wow this looks better than all that other crap, cause it's shot on 16/35mm." I don't know if that happens, but I'm sure it does.

I like the idea. However, where would the films... er... movies, be shown and showcased? Internet or live?

What catagories are you going to have and who will be the judges? Develop it alittle more and I think we will have something.
I'm all for it.
Rob:D

Car Music Video I edited...
 

I participated in a Auto-X event this past weekend and I decided to bring my GL2 along for the ride. Please right-click and save the target as.... Don't stream the clip as it's a big 45 meg file. Comments are welcomed...

Download Right Here
Right-click, save target as.....!

I know it's a huge file for 3 minutes, but it's about the content, not the file size...

Thanks,
Gilbert Xiong

Even on ADSL I'm not gonna download a full 45MB AVI for the sake of it.

Well I did :) and it was entertaining. I bet if you cut out everything except for the faster action bits, and bring it down to about 1 minute, it'd be a lot more fun to watch. Neat footage though.

Made me wanna start hotrodding around in my Jetta...

If you would of encoded with WM9, you could of gotten the same quality, in probably less then half the file size...

Anyway, it was pretty cool. I don't want to start nitpicking, but I will anyway, just for good measure. Some of the shots had the extra-shakey-ness to them, that could be worked on, and I also noticed some handling noise in the audio, other then that it was pretty good.

<<<-- Originally posted by Alex Knappenberger : If you would of encoded with WM9, you could of gotten the same quality, in probably less then half the file size...

Anyway, it was pretty cool. I don't want to start nitpicking, but I will anyway, just for good measure. Some of the shots had the extra-shakey-ness to them, that could be worked on, and I also noticed some handling noise in the audio, other then that it was pretty good. -->>>

We used the Studio1 MiniDV Shoulder Brace... But I found that when I was zoomed in 60% then there is no way to stop the shakyness.

Thanks! I'm still a beginner, your comments are appreciated.

Why can't I find the trailer?

There is a trailer on both sites.

On this iste:

http://www.customflix.com/Store/ShowTtl.jsp?id=204754

click below the images where it says, "Click here to view preview "

On this site:

http://www.galaxaco.com/hellholehigh/index.html

click on "trailer" on menu bar.

I hope this helps.

Haha dude, that looks pretty cool...If I had $20 right now, i'd buy it....

It must have been late at night when I looked at it. Don't know why I didn't see it the first time.

Anyway, I just watched the trailer. It does not make me want to buy the movie. The movie looks right up my alley, and I thought about buying it, but the trailer turned me off.
I'd redo the trailer. Instead of showing just flashy scenes, give a little meat of the movie.

It looks really good, and it looks really bad. Just what the doctor ordered. I'll force my wife to watch it. I want to send you a US M.O. for a VHS copy. Please post your mailing address here, with total amount I should include ($20 + Shipping to Vancouver Canada). Hey, I'm not kidding. I collect these types of movies for my wife to watch. I also take her for those free "B" movies. It makes her crazy. :)

Besides, a few minutes ago I got outbid for a $30 lens on e-bay---like during the last minute before the auction ended. Oh well....