Various TOTEM posts 2007 - 2008

[Niall Chadwick]

Had a week off from my IT support job to direct shooting of some footage for a commercial footware manufacturer.

The brief was to keep it simple and keep it "youtube-ish", and we spent about 2-3 days shooting skaters, bikers, free-runners/parkour, and dancers in an urban setting.

Had two friends acting as DP and Producer as we scouted locations.

Well, all I can say is ive been seriously bitten by the bug. I loved every moment of it, even when we had problems like when the brief was changed 2 days into the shoot :)

Maybe it tapped into a secret desire to point a lot and tell people what to do. who is to say.

I have noticed in the two days that I have been back at my regular job, I have found it to be dull, un-inspiring, pedestrian. People whining about the most insignifant things, and all the time Im thinking, "wow, great shooting weather outside today"

As a result, I cant wait to get to a point where I can do this kind of stuff for a living. The creative flame (oh god, thats so lame!) must go on.

In summary, loved the directing job, as a result hate my full time job.

Annoying as hell!

[Marty Molloy]

Ooops, I found the Audio section for this question....Moderator please delete this post. MM

I need to find a good recorder that will compliment our 2 Canon XL H1's....What do you guys like to use, or are using? Timecode is a must, as is versatility. Can anyone out there give me some pointers? Thanks in advance, Marty

[J. Stephen McDonald]

I just got around to pulling a short clip from a Canon L-1 video I took of a Blue Angels' airshow in 1993. This shows Fat Albert, their C-130 workhorse, making a spectacular JATO-assisted takeoff. It wasn't digitally recorded, but it is a digital-processing camcorder and the long pathway this clip took from the tape, was all digital. So, I thought some of you would like to see this. Here's a vid-cap still picture and the video is on the first page of my Flickr album. Maximize the Flickr page, click on the picture to enlarge it, then wait about 5 seconds for the loading to get ahead of the running video, before clicking on the arrow. It will run through smoothly the second time, if it stalls a bit on the first viewing.

[Jason Livingston]

Has anyone else seen this?
http://michaeljackson.com/mythrillervideo/

The effect is really impressive, as long as you submit good photos following the directions carefully. I'm wondering what technology makes this possible. It seems to be a combination of:

a) Generating a 3d model of your face from a 2d picture, or some very convincing fake perspective mapping (there are some side profile shots in the video but the pictures you submit are only head-on and slightly turned)

b) Face morphing, including facial animations and lip syncing, with automatically set control points

c) Automatic compositing w/masking, rotation, perspective, etc.

I guess they probably had someone go in and set control points for each frame of the background video in order to help with the automatic compositing, but still it is amazing for something generated automatically.

I would love to find a way to do this kind of effect using other, maybe longer videos. Does anyone know more about this effect and maybe what software or techniques were used to make it possible? Any info would be great, thanks!

[Jack Zhang]

Xinhua News Press Release:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_8051866.htm

A experimental channel has existed since 2005, but only now it is a officially designated channel ready to deliver content.

[Mark Doherty]

I am a big fan of the 10 minute film school videos robert rodriguez has on his dvds, i have seen the once apon a time in mexico and el mariachi ones on youtube but was wondering if anyone knows anywhere i can download them or even buy them in a collection.

[Jack Zhang]

Just another Live Earth or Live 8 polished with independent world issue films? or a new stepping stone in global awareness?

http://www.pangeaday.org/

In fact, anyone here have a film being showcased here?

[Boyd Ostroff]

Sad sign of the times I suppose...

http://online.wsj.com/public/article...=2_1567_topbox

In the latest sign that Hollywood studios are gun shy about the art-house movie market they once coveted, Warner Bros. said it is shutting down its two specialty film labels as part of a broader effort to streamline costs.

Warner Bros.' move to close the two boutique labels, Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures, comes just a few weeks after the company absorbed a third specialty label, New Line Cinema, into the main Warner studio operation.

[D. Eric Franks]

U.S. Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos during March, up 13% from February and 64% from a year ago, according to comScore Inc. The numbers they released yesterday showed that Google's video sites together accounted for 38% of all videos viewed. Even more absolutely stunningly and totally surprising: YouTube accounted for 98% of those 4.3 billion videos.

So YouTube accounted for something like 37% of all online videos in March, who accounted for the rest?

Service-----%-------Views
YouTube---37%---4,214 million
Fox--------4.2%----477 million
Yahoo------2.9%----328 million
Viacom-----2.2%----249 million

139 million people watched video online in March, which is about 74% of all Internet users. That means that the average person watched 83 videos in March, or 2-3 videos a day. The average duration of the videos was 2:48, which means each of those 139 million people spent about four hours actually watching online content.

References:
* http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2223
______________
“They say that ninety percent of TV is junk,
but ninety percent of everything is junk."
-- Gene Roddenberry
videopia.org

[Ervin Farkas]

Since cellphones do multimedia nowadays, this might as well be a media related question, right?

After a few Nokia cellphones, two years ago the "slick and trendy" bug bit me and bought two MotoRazors for me and my wife. She works as a RN in labor and delivery, mostly night shifts, while I'm home with the kids, so we need to talk a lot just by whispering... worked wonderfully with the old, bulky Nokias, it was (still is) a nightmare with the Razors - the audio is just unacceptably distorted, forget whispering.

Contract is up, so I'm shopping for new phones. What is your audiophile experience, are the Nokias still the best? How about Sony/Erickssons? I had an Ericsson before the Nokias and as far as I remember it was also very good.

I'm with Bellsouth/Cingular/AT&T if that counts. Thanks,

[Tim Polster]

I watched the series Discovery Atlas last night on my 1080p Plasma.

The episode was on Mexico.

The footage quality was beautiful. Great color and sharp as a tack.

I would like to know what the different parts were shot on.

[John McCully]

Not the gear but rather the poetics.

Now friends, I have no idea if posting this contravenes any USA copyright law, or other USA rule as I don’t live there. If so I apologise. I live in New Zealand where, anyway, the rules are really only suggestions, when you come to get to know everyone. Corruptions is endemic here.

Be that as it may this poem was published in the New Yorker online recently so I’m assuming as it’s out there it’s OK; in other words that’s what Don Paterson, the author, wants. If I’m out of line please delete, Chris, whomever.

I find this text delightful. As I read I hear music, involuntarily reach for a camera, the film look is a given.

The bottom line of this poem is sublime.

How to shoot that!


Rain
by Don Paterson May 26, 2008

I love all films that start with rain:
rain, braiding a windowpane
or darkening a hung-out dress
or streaming down her upturned face;

one long thundering downpour
right through the empty script and score
before the act, before the blame,
before the lens pulls through the frame

to where the woman sits alone
beside a silent telephone
or the dress lies ruined on the grass
or the girl walks off the overpass,

and all things flow out from that source
along their fatal watercourse.
However bad or overlong
such a film can do no wrong,

so when his native twang shows through
or when the boom dips into view
or when her speech starts to betray
its adaptation from the play,

I think to when we opened cold
on a rain-dark gutter, running gold
with the neon of a drugstore sign,
and I’d read into its blazing line:

forget the ink, the milk, the blood—
all was washed clean with the flood
we rose up from the falling waters
the fallen rain’s own sons and daughters

and none of this, none of this matters.

[Norris Combs]

I have some CDs that WMP cannot find data for, so I need to enter the info manually (song name, artist,...). I filled in the fields for Song name, Artist, finished the ripping. Played back all the songs, Artist name remains "Unknown", the other fields are OK withe Artist name, Genre,... What did I do wrong?

Thanks,

[Chris Soucy]

I hope this is Kosher, it's really only a Kiwi thing and I don't think there are any Kiwi sponsors noses to put out of joint.

I'm sure someone will let me know if not.

OK, Kiwi's.

One of the suppliers I've used here in NZ has got a sale on, check it out, just might be something on yer wish list.

http://www.protel.co.nz/

Click on "Specials" on the LHS.

Enjoy.


CS

[Bill Ravens]

Sadly, a rennaissance man has died. The inimitable George Carlin has passed away. The world just won't be the same, anymore.