Archive for the 'film production' Category

Favorite Video of the Week

Credit Unions are a different kind of fighter. Underdogs? Maybe. Champions of a cause? Most definitely. But what is certain, is that the ground has shifted, and your corporate-driven opponents have lost their footing. Now is the time to fight for your share and differentiate yourselves from banks. Now is the time to tell your story. Because you are a different kind of fighter.

Congrats to Third Degree  for great concept and creation!

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VHS Hard Drives?

Hey, those hard drives we have for sale are not moving. Don’t people need storage? Our price looks competitive.

How can we differentiate our product from the competition?

il_430xN.113476717[1] The solution: VHS Hard Drives

For those who like their storage combined with celluloid nostalgia, there’re these external hard drives hidden inside VHS tapes: available in 320, 500, or 640GB, they come sheathed in flicks like the original Star Trek, Top Gun, and Return of the Jedi. 

Niche marketing, don’t you love it? Get yours at Etsy.com

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Keep Your Audio In-Sync!

today_show_beyonce_nyrd108I once had a film cameraman tell me that sync was not important only to get a call later to fix his production.  That was many years ago when audio was recorded on a medium called magnetic tape or film.  Remember?  Now it’s all digital. I really thought that digital audio would resolve issues but now there are a few more details to consider.

Digital audio is recording in slices or audio samples regular time intervals. This is called the sampling rate.  The standard for recording digital audio for picture is 48 thousand times per second or 48K.  The 48K rate is used because it is mathematically compatible to picture formats. If  there is a variance in the audio sampling rate then the sound can drift in relation to the picture and create chaos in the editing room. Even minor drifts can create problems. Basically there will be more or too little audio for a given scene. I am pretty sensitive to this and I see one or two TV commercials weekly with bad lip sync. 

 SteveFoyHere are some common causes of drifting audio:

  1. The recording was made at the wrong sample rate, not at 48K sample rate.
  2. Multiple cameras and audio recorders and no external master sync source.
  3. No time code is used.
  4. Delay induced by a digital console without external sync.
  5. A mistake in the editing room.
  6. An unexpected equipment failure.

We all know things go wrong so some proper planning and redundancy may save the day.  Always test your setup before recording the final product. Digital recording does not mean good recording.  I have had to fix many digital recordings that were noisy or distorted.  After you do a test recording make sure your location sound man listens to what is being recorded in headphones and listens to the recording of each scene after a take.

If problems do arise, the drift may be resolved by adjusting the playback to match the picture in an audio post house or editing room.  Some productions require frame accurate recording and this adjustment is not acceptable if there is budget to re-shoot the scenes. Happy shooting and may the sync be with you.

Chaos in Surround Sound

The following email exchange is real – The names have been changed …
(my responses are in blue italics)

Subject: CHANGE HOUR MEETING

Untitled-1 Hola,
We may change the date scheduled for  3pm Houston time?

I only have 3pm to 4pm available. Another session starts at 4pm. If we can get your session done in 1 Hour, then no problem. But we cannot go past 4pm.

Ok. We take. The talent meet at 3:15pm to 4pm. I hope is possible finish today, if not, we can found another early day.

Do you mean TODAY? I thought you meant changing the time for your session TOMORROW!

Yes, I thought TODAY at 3pm beguins..

I cannot do TODAY! We were booked for Wed, Jan 14th at 11:30CT and I moved to 3pm same day, not today.

You think we can do today? in your afternoon?

We cannot do today – Sorry.

Sorry for the stress. Really is for TOMORROW. And then we confirm the meet for the talent; Tomorrow Wednesday 14th at 3pm to 4 pm. Ok?

No worries – that schedule change has been made – Session is Wed 1/14/09 at 3pm CT.

THANK YOU!

PhoneCallSmall We all know media production is a stressful activity. It’s the perfect storm: the clash of left brain/right brain; the stereotypical art versus commerce conflict; entertaining, creative ideas collide with motivated, monetary goals. Our blessing/curse is that no one day is the same as the previous…

But meanwhile back at the farm… the music’s playing so loud I can’t hear myself think, the phone’s ringing constantly and I can’t remember who I just spoke to 5 minutes ago! Oh, yeah – It was our banker who gave me a different story about how to receive payments from overseas clients than the bank’s customer service rep did yesterday. Now I’ve got to decide who’s right & who’s wrong. And no amount of email can get the client in Barcelona to try the PayPal account again after I made changes to our credit card profile…

Sound familiar? Just another day in paradise for those who coordinate production activities with little or no timeline. But somewhere there’s levity. Can we really be serious all the time without going completely bonkers? Comedy is all around you with the right perspective.

 

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Movie Sound Stereotypes …..

 

ANIMALS 

Animals are never ever silent – dogs whine/bark/yip, cats meow or purr, cows moo, even in cases where most animals wouldn’t be making a sound.

Rats, mice, squirrels and other vermin always make the tiny little squeaky noises constantly while they are on screen.

Dolphins always make that same "dolphin chatter" sound when spinning, jumping, etc.

Whenever a cliff or mountain is shown, especially if it’s high, a hawk will screech.

In a horror film when there is a full moon there is either an owl or a wolf howling in the distance.

Dogs always know who’s bad, and bark at them. 

We hear the same cat scream in every movie. 

 

image BOMBS & EXPLOSIONS 

Bombs must always have big, blinking, beeping timer displays.

If something explodes, it takes about a minute for the explosions to stop 

Explosions always happen in slow motion. When an explosion occurs, make certain you are running away from the point of detonation so the blast can send you flying, in slow motion, toward the camera.

Bombs always "whistle" when falling from a plane 

CARS 

Car brakes must always squeak. 

Car tires squeal when the car turns, pulls away or stops.

While in route we usually hear a large truck and a horn with Doppler effect.

COMPUTERS 

Every button you press on a computer makes some kind of beep.

Text being spelled out on computer screen must make some sort of typing sound.

ENVIRONMENT 

Storms start instantaneously: there’s a crack of thunder and lightning, then heavy rain starts falling. 

Thunder is always in sync with the lightning, and the explosion sounds are always in sync with the stuff blowing up, no matter how far away. The same holds true for fireworks. 

Whistling types of wind must always be used. 

We hear non-stop bubbles in underwater scenes. 

Doors always squeak.

When in San Francisco, no matter where you are, you always hear a cable car and or a fog horn. 

Exterior Ambiences: No matter where you are outside, if it’s not in the city, you hear a lonely cricket chirping.

Trains: we always hear the same classic distant train horn.

When a light bulb gets broken, there’s always an electric spark sound heard.

Whenever there is a fight or commotion going on in the upstairs of a house, the person downstairs won’t hear a thing because the noise of gunshots, chairs falling over and screams will be totally masked by the following sounds; the phone ringing, the washing machine beginning its spin cycle, the dog barking, a drink being whizzed up in the blender or the maid vacuum cleaning.


image HELICOPTERS & AIRPLANES
 

Helicopters always fly from surround to front-speakers or left to right. 

People standing outside a running helicopter can always talk in normal or just slightly louder than normal voices.

Every helicopter shutting down emits a chirp-chirp-chirp sound, even though modern helicopters don’t.

An approaching airplane or helicopter will make no noise until it is directly over the characters, at which point it will suddenly become thundering loud.

Characters never hear an approaching airplane or helicopter, even though in real life you would hear them approaching for at least a minute before they were close enough to see. Unfortunately for the characters this also holds true for approaching armies on horseback and tank battalions.

The tires of any jet must screech upon landing.

Any airplane in a dive will make a whining noise that will get louder and higher-pitched the longer the dive lasts. 


KNIFE 

When a character pulls out a knife, even from his pants, you hear a sound of metal brushing metal.


LANGUAGE & VOICE
 

Even when depicted as foreigners (including aliens from outer space) actors will usually speak and understand a common language (usually English).

The same women’s recorded voice is heard in every spaceship, space-station, government building, etc. announcing a self destruct countdown.

Kids can always whisper even if they’re two inches away from a villain – he won’t hear. If they step on a branch however, the villains will immediately know its not some animal, and catch them.

When villains fall to their deaths, you can hear their screams gradually fade out, even if they only fall a few feet.

When women run from a bad man they must scream, trip and fall.


MICROPHONES 

Anytime a person speaks into a microphone, their first words will cause the mike to feed back.

The first spoken words must be either ‘Testing, Testing’ or ‘One Two, One Two’.


MUSIC

When the star travels to…

London, we see a shot of Big Ben and hear Rule, Britannia.

Hong Kong: a Chinese junk and wooden xylophone music (or a deep gong).

New York: a traffic jam on Broadway and frenetic music.

Paris: the Eiffel Tower and accordion music.


RADIO

When listening to music on the radio in the car, the song on the radio never changes during a single scene. The scene rarely outlasts the song…if it does, one of the characters will turn the radio off before the end of the song.

There are never any commercials on the radio.

It’s always easy to find romantic make out music on the radio right when you need it.


PEOPLE
 

The DJ always turns the music down when actors talk in disco and club-scenes. 

Those tiny people far, far away in that long shot on the beach should always sound like they’re talking directly into your ear – no matter how far away they are, even though they’re whispering . . . 

People in a wide open field or dense forest can make their voice echo if they yell loud enough.

When you get punched in the face, it sounds like you broke a salami over the back of a chair. 

Kisses need to sound sloppy and wet. 

Blood will always squish when oozing from a wound.

Dreams always require a lot of reverb. 

People never answer the door until the doorbell or knocking has sounded at least three times.


SPACE 

Explosions in space make noise. For more movie stereotypes visit:

There’s a deep humming in space, no doubt about it.

Sounds in space must have some element of a swishing sound or flanger involved. 

 

image For more movie cliches visit: http://www.moviecliches.com/

 

 

 

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Media shapes your belief

image

I usually get around to discussing media with people I meet. Some think today’s technology filled media is evil. Media is neither good or bad.  It’s neutral, like plumbing in a house that  doesn’t matter unless it springs a leak.

In 19th century England there was a people group called the Luddites. They destroyed machines used to make wool and cotton fabric. They thought the machines were of the devil. But in truth they were protesting the dehumanizing  advances of technology in the industrial revolution. It wasn’t the machines that created horrible working conditions and poor wages – it was people.

imageToday in America we have the Amish, who maintain a equally radical, but less violent rejection of technology. They prohibit automobiles and electricity based on their theology. I must admit that after watching the 1985 movie “Witness”, there is a part of me that finds their lifestyle appealing.

In the first matrix movie – Neo, the main character, gets and answer to a question that is bothering him: “What is the Matrix?” Morpheus the prophetic guide has Neo in a secret room. Neo anxiously awaits the answer. But something averts his attention – to his right is a cracked mirror which reflects a fractured image of himself. As Neo looks into the mirror the cracks begin to recede and blend together, making the mirror whole. Now Neo’s reflection is no longer fractured and this surprises him. I believe the mirror imagerepresents a foreshadowing of the coming clarity that Neo is about to get about the technology that has imprisoned him.

Neo now studies the mirror rather than his reflection. He reaches out and touches it, but at the point of contact it bends and bows like liquid mercury and then snaps around his finger tips. He recoils but a portion of the medium stays on his fingers and then quickly multiples until it begins to consume him. Immediately the film cuts to Neo trapped in an incubation pod, struggling to escape. From here he is “born” into the real world and the story turns into a new direction.

The mirror is a metaphor for the technological world of the matrix. The mirror at first appears harmless but then suddenly takes on a life of it’s own. When Neo studied the medium of the mirror, instead of being distracted by his reflection he was freed from the prison of his mind; it is only when he observes the medium apart from it’s content that he perceives true power. With that discovery he is freed from his numbness and slumber. So are we!

This post was inspired from the book “ Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith” by Shane Hipps

… to be continued

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No Longer Science Fiction – Expensive Airport Travel Is Out!

Expensive airport travel is out and cost-effective online meetings and digital patch recording sessions are in!
Smart businesses are finding every opportunity to tighten their budgets. Now it’s cost effective to interact and collaborate over the web.

Interact -Web Conferencing solutions build interactions & collaboration with employees, customers and partners!

For conferences many businesses turn to cost-effective web conferencing to reduce travel costs while continuing to maximize employee and customer interactions! Web conferencing still allows for quality interactions and customer collaboration. Its no wonder that web conferencing continues to grow.  I have used IBM web conferencing software, GoToMeeting and ooVoo.  Prices and confrencefeatures for web conferencing vary greatly so look before you leap.

  • Meet as usual with your customers, partners and employees
  • Extend your company’s reach without extending your corporate wallet
  • Increase the efficiency of your internal business communications
  • Encourage brainstorming and speed of information exchange

Collaborate – Digital Patch and Virtual Studio Bring Actor and Producer Together

In a similar move audio post production is using technology to reduce travel costs and travel time.  In 1991 Sound ProductivityWorks, an audio post production studio in Houston, introduced Digital Patch which allows a producer to record a voice actor from another studio anywhere in the world. Capabilities continue to evolve. Using this technology, travel cost and time is saved while still bringing a script to life. Add a video camera to the Digital Patch and the producer can see the actor as well as remotely record. For film and video production the same picture can be viewed at both the local and remote locations, all in sync! Virtual Studio takes this one step further and allows the producer to interact with the recording session without leaving home or office.

  • Work with the actor of your choice – no travel
  • Save time, record from the comfort of your home or office
  • Increased efficiency, slash your travel budget
  • Immediate results

NewTechResults now – this is not science fiction!

This is not technology for technology sake. There is no need to compromise the quality of interactions or collaborations. Best of all web conferencing and Digital Patch technologies save time and money! Both of these technologies leverage computing power and the Internet to get great results.

 

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1000 frames a second and counting

baloonfaceHave you seen the new Discovery show Time Warp?  It’s reminiscent of Myth Busters ~ take everyday and bizarre things and film them with a high speed camera.  When you slow down the video it looks amazing!

Take a look … even a balloon in the face is amazing.

After watching several episodes I am hooked.  Time Warp airs Wednesdays @ 8PM ET/PT on The Discovery Channel.

Today I ran across the reel for the SprintCam v3 show reel. It is impressive and was shown at the NAB exhibition. Very nice, I added this to my shopping list in case some of those Nigerian email money offers finally pay off for me. Most of the SprintCam demo is 1000 frames per second but the bouncy red Jell-O was shot at 2500fps. It’s featured on www.i-movix.com in case you want one too.

Sprint Cam V3 show Reel

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Once a Star Trekkie Always a Trekkie

star_trek_movie_image_ When I heard that Mission: Impossible III director and Alias creator J.J. Abrams was producing Star Trek 2009, I was pumped. I was so impressed – this was the best Star Trek film ever! If you are on the fence contemplating on if you should see it on the big screen, do it.

I think the movie moguls did not realize the loyalty of the older audience would be cross generational. I saw the film in IMAX and other than a slight visual distortion to reformat the picture to the tall but not so wide screen, it was superb.

We remember the the classic science fiction Gene Roddenberry franchise created by the original TV show of the 70’s. This feature film embraces the rich history of the influential television and film series but also explores new territory. Heroes star Zachary Quinto exceeded my expectations playing a young Vulcan named “Spock” made famous by Leonard Nimoy, who also appears in the film.

star_trek_movie_image_zachary_quinto_as_spock_

My favorite roles were played by Chris Pine and Karl Urban assuming the legendary roles of Captain Kirk and Leonard “Bones” McCoy, respectively.

star_trek_movie_image_anton_yelchin_as_chekov_chris_pine_as_james_t._kirk_simon_pegg_as_lt._montgomery_scott_karl_urban_as_dr._mccoy_john_cho_as_sulu_and_zoe_saldana_as_uhura_
From left to right: Anton Yelchin as Chekov, Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, Simon Pegg as Lt. Montgomery Scott, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, John Cho as Sulu and Zoe Saldana as Uhura.

The visual effects are super yet they don’t over power the story.  As an audio engineer I must say I was impressed with the films soundtrack as well.  The sound team did their job right. The sound track recreates the rich heritage of the Star Trek franchise but managed to better the “sound” experience over previous productions!

After reading a good behind-the scenes production story by Barbara Robertson in Film & Video,  I wanted to share it. Read and enjoy:

Reinventing Star Trek’s VFX – How J.J. Abrams Demanded, and ILM Delivered, More Story from Every Shot


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Texas Governor Signed Production Incentive Bill

When so many people are concerned about earmarks – why do we need production incentives?  Did you know that moving picture industry brought 1.2 billion dollars to Texas in the past ten years?  Texas has long recognized that making moving pictures in Texas has boosted state and local economies.

Governor Rick Perry Signs Production Incentive Bill

Governor Rick Perry Signs Production Incentive Bill

Texas is diverse with deserts, mountains, beaches, tropical and rolling hills scenery. If you are looking for a location to shoot a picture you can probably find it in Texas.    This industry shows off Texas and boots the economy.

Why now? I googled and found that many states are now offering production incentives. In the last few years these incentives from other states have drawn the industry away from Texas.

I thank Governor and other Texas lawmakers for passing this bill.  This makes Texas competitive, helps the economy and creates more jobs in Texas. So filmmakers take note, Texas wants your business!

*also see signing HB 873

Dwight Cook
Chairman, OiH

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