Opinions, criticism, anything you'd like to say is welcome. Shot with my GH2.

For me, this provoked a break in suspension of disbelief - until I got used to the look. Berry also cleverly merges in some half-real, half-remembered scenes as the brain-injured character starts to recall past events.

I'm starting to think it would be best to use the most standard means possible for such sequences. (The old rippling water effect with harp music was always a bit naff).

[ edIted for clarIty:] What are the best of the emerging sequence-change styles for an all- digital workflow?

You're not afraid, are you?

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/pumpkin-and-rice-soup-recipe.html

Here's some more: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/02/world/fg-india-lowtech2

refractionsfilm.wordpress.com

Lee Strasberg, director of the Actor's Studio, the most famous acting school in America, whose students included Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, James Dean, Anne Bancroft, Julie Harris, Marilyn Monroe and many others. Strasberg is best known for his own role as Hyman Roth in The Godfather, Part II. He based his work on the ideas of the Russian director Konstantin Stanislavski. Central to Strasberg's teaching was the idea that an actor needed to closely attend his or her own emotional and physical state, and to focus on transitioning from tension to relaxation. His ideas on relaxation apply far beyond acting:

"The first thing Strasberg does, both in his private classes and at the Studio, is to check the actor for tension. Very few of us are fully relaxed in life, but we are not usually aware of tension until it becomes extreme and shows itself through pain. Tension can be so habitual that when relaxation is induced we feel actually as if a great weight had been removed, as if the pull of gravity were somehow lessened. Strasberg's highly developed powers of observation enable him to point out the manifesta­tions of tension in actors' bodies, voices, even in the expression of their faces.

"Long ago Strasberg enunciated his belief that 'when there is tension, one cannot think or feel.' But he also constantly empha­sizes the opposite and positive sense of this idea: the human being is naturally expressive. When he is relaxed and really thinking about or paying attention to something, or even when random thoughts move through his consciousness, impulses pass without interruption into pure expression. The voice changes. Distortions in the way the body or the head or the arms and shoulders are held disappear. The expression of the face changes. The person actually takes on a new appearance.

"Strasberg knows that calling the actor's attention to his ten­sions is merely the first step in dealing with them. In the long run the actor must be reconditioned to function in a state of relaxation. This is accomplished by making him aware of the particular causes of tension in himself. Relaxing the tensions acquired in a lifetime and in years of wrong acting may take further long years of conscious hard work in which deliberate relaxation plays a part in all stages of activity. Relaxation is worked at as a separate activity, but it is also made a conscious part of all acting work. And as he comes to understand what causes his particular tensions and the extent to which he can naturally respond when relaxed and concentrated, the actor's belief grows, and belief in turn encourages further relaxation. But it cannot be emphasized too strongly that tension cannot be eradicated by paying lip service to an idea.

"Tension is the occupational disease of the actor. Relaxation is the foundation on which almost all actors' work is based. Stanislavski posited that relaxation is an actual professional activity for the actor. When you see good performers, one of the things that makes them good is a certain amount of relaxation. We may not always be aware of exactly what they're doing. We may refer to their sense of ease or authority, but in fact it is relaxation that we are noticing.

"The ordinary actor sometimes achieves relaxation by himself as a result of working on the stage, but that takes about twenty years -- literally. If you watch the development of an actor, you see that as he starts off he is young and energetic -- and tense. After about ten years he begins to overcome some of the tension, but nothing really takes its place. After about twenty years a wonderful thing begins to happen. It has almost nothing to do with whether he is good or bad. He simply feels that when he comes on the stage he is there to stay. And he gains the wonder­ful ease that is part of the medal you earn by being in the theatre a certain amount of time."

Author: Tape-recorded sessions edited by Robert H. Hethmon

Title: Strasberg at the Actors Studio Publisher: Theater Communications Group Date: Copyright 1965 by Lee Strasberg and Robert H. Hethmon Pages: 88-89

This is just a basic go - but you can get it to recognise each hand independently, and in the x, y, and z (distance) axis. Here I'm triggering chords in two instruments (I click around them to demonstrate) then stand back and control volume with the height of my hands and which chords are triggered by the side-to-side movement of each. A lot of fun! Maybe I can get it to control faders so I can exercise while mixing down?

EDIT: Looking at this morning, I think I've invented Mime!!

Jesper Just has made some short films in anamorphic that have two cameras (and therefore two screens) following the story and scene in tandem. They are projected on opposite walls of a dark room in uncropped 3.55:1, with two projectors for each screen. I must say, I looked for the dividing point between the two projector images that make up a single large image, and it is difficult to find and therefore not distracting at all.

It is a surprisingly immersive experience, requiring you to look back and forth between the two opposite walls. Some of his other films are listed as shot on 35mm, but the 3.55:1 aspect ratio of these images (along with some other things) leads me to believe these were shot on digital.

As a side note, I'd love to hear from anyone who has successfully "merged" projector images for higher than 1920x1080 resolution. I had always assumed that it was theoretically plausible but realistically too finicky to bother pulling off.

http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/jesper-just/selected-works/

The collection : http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html

Wiki notice : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Prokudin-Gorsky

Chris Cunningham has flirted with the crossover between music video and art instalation over the past few years, as media saturation increases I'm sure we will start to see more sound and visual combinations that start to break away from traditional formats. The collapse of rigid boundaries is bound to bring critisim, as all unfamiliar art has in the past, but I welcome this :)

"Please provide print source information for our technical team’s use and for the print source reference list in the festival program book."

What does "print source information" mean? Does that mean 35mm Film print info?

And...

"Short films are requested as Pro Res 422 files on physical media (no EFTs, please), also with a Blu-ray or DVD back up. Further details about technical specifications will be sent in September."

What does "physical media" and EFT's mean? I know how to export to Pro Res 422 but does that mean we need it on digitape?.

Thank guys in advance for any help! Excuse my noobness :)

Cheers Aaron

Xala (pronounced [ˈxala], Wolof for "curse") is a 1975 Senegalese film directed by Ousmane Sembène. It is an adaptation of Sembène's own 1973 novel of the same name. The film depicts El Hadji, a politician in Senegal, who is cursed with crippling erectile dysfunction upon the day of his marriage to his third wife. The film satirizes the corruption in African post-independence governments couples with extreme penile failure; El Hadji's impotence symbolizes the failure of such governments to be useful at all

El Mariachi was shot for just under $7000 and that was film costs plus a few hundred for miscellaneous expenses. The reasons he did it so cheap was:

1. He had a partner in his star Carlos Gallardo. They were childhood friends and both had a passion for making movies. Carlos had the town they shot in wired. He knew everybody and he was from a well off family. So he could get his folks employees free as extras or henchmen. He got the hotel, the bus, the turtle, the dog, his apartment, etc... At least $20-30k of production value free because he was able to talk people into giving it away for free. You need a partner or partners who can get stuff free.

2. Rodriquez wrote the script with everything free in mind. He knew he had those items and he'd been to the town before many times so he could write the script based on what he had avaliable. If you don't got it, don't put it in the script. They say write what you know. Write what you HAVE also.

3. The most important thing that never gets mention is Rodriquez already had 10 years filmmaking experience prior to shooting El Mariachi. He would make short films on Beta or VHS with his family. He had around 9 brothers and sisters so he got them to be in his short films. He recorded on video and edited on two VCRs hitting pause and play and rec. This taught him how to pre-visualize and edit in his head so he would know which shots to get and what he didn't need. A vital skill when you can only do one take.

Now Primer:

Primer is a better example to first time filmmakers as I believe the writer, director, star Shane Carruth had zero prior movie making experience. BUT, he was an engineer so he knew he needed lots of pre-planning.

1. He went to every location he had and shot 35mm film stills with various stocks until he got a look he liked then went to the local film distributor and asked how he could emulate that look on 16mm. They like what he did and his vision and helped him out and gave him a discount. EDIT: I also believe the preshoots were designed to find film stocks he could use with the natural light available since he had no crew or wouldn't be able to add lights to the locations.

2. Like El Mariachi everything was one take because more takes cost more money. He rehearsed and rehearsed and only shot what he needed. Something unnecessary in the digital age, at least until some of the GOP1 hacks started coming out. ^_^

3. Like Rodriquez he only put in the script stuff, locations and actors he could get for free. His house, his job, wife, friends, family, etc... He did get some actors through regular auditions, like his co-star, and the reason they wanted to be in it was the script was so good they didn't care it was free. Write a good script and people will do it for free.

Now Clerks

Shot for just under $30k, it's still a good example of what to do and what not to do. It shares a lot of the same things as listed above. He had the store. He had his friends and he got actors to work for free because they loved the script. So I'll list the main problem imho. Multiple takes. He wanted the acting a certain way and he wanted long takes so any error and they had to start again. This caused multiple takes of almost every scene. A no-no in the film age, but not as big a deal in Digital.

So in closing the main points are, you either need a great script that attracts people willing to work for nothing or you need a partner/s who can get stuff free. Yes...sadly I have neither at the moment....sob.

http://molemanfilm.com/moleman-2-download/

http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-12/film-tv/35-mm-film-digital-Hollywood/

Keanu Reeves' documentary tackles this issue too.

One of the earliest space travel movie This 1924 Mars planet is amazing

Does anyone have any small clips of cityscapes or busy business streets video clips they can let me use to project onto the faces of a band music video I am doing? I am looking to gather major cities of the world whther they are overview, low wide angle, timelapse or anything that includes skylines, tall buildings and bust CITY work areas - people going to work in rush hour etc...?

Anything considered. Of course theres no money in it but you will recieve a produiction credit if footgae is used. So please scour your back catalogue for ANYTHING remotely good looking.

Anyone with material should contact me on driftwood.brighton@gmail.com with a link to the footage that I can download. It doesnt have to be massively high resolution, compressed is good enough.

Any camera, any setting, its the images we need.

Many thanks if you can help.

Nick

Is there anyone else that reviews unfinished films ? Preferably with a private review so I can get feedback that is not visible to the entire world.

The story is original, written by myself. I shot, directed and edited, so it's kind of a journeyman piece on the way to becoming a filmmaker (rather than just an occasional video journalist.)

This is a rough cut -- I didn't do any significant color correction, the audio is still horrible, and there are some really ugly focus issues in places. It was shot with my Panasonic AF100, and an un-modified GH2, using mostly available light, so some of the footage is muddy.

Anyway, it was the best I could do at the time, and I am learning more every day, especially from the people on this forum -- so this is the very first place I am sharing it, as I know any criticism coming will be tough but fair.

Enjoy! (And please don't post it anywhere else, thanks!) Warning: there is some salty language and nudity.

I think most striking thing to me is how involved Spielberg is in camera operation! I wonder if he still does most of the camera work on his more recent films. I can't see why not. I guess the man just loves film making that much.

Anyone know what other directors are famously hands-on versus video-village dwellers?

If we bring 10% of this guy's passion to our own work, I think we should be satisfied.

Now, I was the director, DP, editor and writer for the trailer, I shot it using two GH2s and I had a sound recordists plus a grip. I know shooting a trailer opposed to shooting a full feature film is massively different. But I believe that the crew we have (possibly with more crew ie 1st AD/ AC) we could make this movie. But I have "industry" people telling me that if I want some funding or a "famous" name attached to the film, I can't do everything; I have to choose. I was told to that the director can't do DP because he/she has to focus on the story. Is this true? I guess if you look at successful directors in Hollywood, they don't DP on thier own movies. I know we're not on that level, but I keep going back to the guy who made monsters and how he made his first feature....

Can I have my cake and eat it too? 

Cheers