Once an expensive, difficult and inaccessible profession to break into, filmmaking has now opened up to the masses. With the digital revolution, anyone with a digital video camera and access to basic editing software can make a film.

Along with this accessibility has come a new wave of collaborative, open source filmmaking, where writers, videographers, musicians and producers share their work on a film project -- often entirely in the virtual realm. Sometimes these collaborators know each other, and sometimes they don't.

Solomon Rothman, 27, who runs Solomon Rothman Films, is one of those on the cutting edge of this trend. In 2006, he released a film called "The Boy Who Never Slept," and at the same time he released all of the footage as open source material, so people could tweak, remix and reshape it however they liked. It was used by teachers in video editing classes, made into a music video in Romania and put on Finnish television.

"I still receive e-mails every week [about that film]. People are still playing
with it."

Rothman's latest project, "Jathia's Wager," is an even more thoroughly collaborative project than his first. It began with him posting a seven-page script on his Web site in 2007, calling for people to send in different versions. He now has five versions he's received back that are ready to be shot, and he's hoping to have online, open source casting for the different versions of the films, with people voting on who will play what role. Ultimately, he wants to produce all the versions, using the skills and perspectives of the people who are gathering around the project.

"The entire process is being built by the community. With the digital
revolution, it's all accessible. Filmmaking used to be really expensive and
inaccessible. Now anyone can make a film if they want. Technology has broken
down that wall."

Rothman said he sees open source filmmaking as an extension of the open source software model, which gives people a chance to collaborate in order to improve the creative product.

"People are really creative, when they work together, they can do so much more than they can alone. It's done wonderful things with software, making it more efficient, and of better quality. It's time for that now to go into films."

Rothman thinks of what he's doing with "Jathia's Wager" as being more crowdsourcing than open sourcing, since it's not just releasing footage to be remixed, but harnessing the power of people.

Dominick Del Bosque, owner of the Open Source Film Project in San Francisco, has a similar perspective.

"We don't view the source as the tangible parts, we see the 'source' as the people in a project."

Launched in 2005, the Open Source Film Project's vision is to bring together writers, directors, producers, musicians and financiers for the creation of independent films.

Read the full article at Linux Insider

In Final Cut Pro, an alternate way to sync clips of a multi-camera production is to use timecode as a reference. When clips share the same timecode, you don't have to set an In point to sync them together. A timecode number in one clip should identify the same action in an event as that same timecode number in a different clip. The method of switching and cutting angles in the multiclip is the same, no matter how the clips are synchronized.

1. In the Browser, Ctrl-click the Sequences bin and choose New Sequence from the shortcut menu. Name this sequence Timecode, and open it in the Timeline.
Each new sequence you create contains the same PAL settings you chose from the Easy Setup window earlier in this lesson.

2. Hide the contents of the Audio Pops bin, and display the contents of the Timecode bin.

3. Double-click the Gilly_cu clip, and play from the beginning of the clip. When Gilly steps up to the mic to start singing, stop the clip and look at the timecode number in the Current Timecode field in the Viewer.




4. Open a few other clips from the Timecode bin and compare the timecode numbers at the location where Gilly starts to sing.

The same timecode number in all of these clips identifies the same event or clip location. For this group of clips, you can synchronize by timecode, even though they don't all start or stop on the same frame.

5. To make a multiclip of all the clips in the Timecode bin, Ctrl-click the bin and choose Make Multiclip from the shortcut menu.

6. In the Make Multiclip window, click the Synchronize Using pop-up and choose Timecode as the sync option.


The blue bars of each angle reposition to align the clips by timecode. Notice how the blue bars seem to cover the same relative area. They were taken from the same portion of the song but are not exactly the same length.

7. Click OK. In the Timecode bin, rename the new multiclip Timecode, and double-click to open it in the Viewer.

8. In the Viewer button bar, click the Show Multiclip Overlays button to toggle off the overlays in this multiclip.


9. In the Viewer, click the View pop-up and choose Multiclip 9-Up from the pop-up menu to see all the multiclip angles. Play this portion of the music video.


10. To edit this multiclip, use the same process you used with the Audio Pops multiclip. Start by changing the sync to Video+Audio and selecting the CD Track - Timecode clip. Then change the sync to Video and select the first video angle. Set an In point and an Out point where the angles are all in view, and edit the multiclip to the Timeline.

11. To see the clips play in the Viewer as you play the sequence, click the Playhead Sync pop-up, and choose Open from the menu, or press Shift-Ctrl-O. This will allow you to see the angles as you play and cut in real-time.

At this point, you can edit these clips as you did in previous exercises: either by moving the playhead to an exact edit location and cutting to a new angle, or by cutting live.

NOTE
If you are using a laptop or slower computer, this nine-clip multiclip may play slowly.
Digital Filmmaking is the way to go...

Some film-making competitions that are on and looking for participants these days:

• Boom filmmaking competition: Run by MTV, the Boom Filmmaking Contest is open to filmmakers in UK aged between 16-25-years. It involves a nationwide series of free filmmaking workshops in which young people will learn something on how to make films, video diaries, news bulletins, reports and mini-documentaries. Boom! requires filmmakers to use Apple hardware and iLife software, including iMovie and GarageBand. Finished films are to be uploaded to MTV's website, where it will be voted on by website visitors, the most popular clips may be screened on MTV, and there's a series of awards for the very best candidates.
  
  
• Creative World Awards: Creative World Awards is an annual international screenwriting competition. Entries are now open and run through late July 2008. The 2008 Creative World Awards have also announced the launch of a new online interactive video series debuting this week entitled, "The Business of Storytelling." In this special online video showcase, participants can view insider tips from several leading Hollywood executives, writers, directors and producers. These experts offer informative perspectives on the creative process of screenwriting as well as the business side of the filmmaking industry.
  
  
• Film Racing: Film Racing is a USA based nationwide competition that challenges filmmakers to create original short films under extreme time constraints. Film Racing visited 13 cities on the 2007 Tour, and will be visiting 17 cities on the 2008 Tour challenging filmmakers to create short films in 24 hours. The films premiere on the big screen in theaters across the country and the top films advance to compete for thousands in cash and prizes. Visit filmracing.com for more details.
  

Subscribe to the Digital Filmmaking Blog by clicking here for the latest updates on filmmaking and screenwriting contests!

MainConcept AG, a wholly owned subsidiary of DivX Inc. and one of the world’s leading providers of video and audio codecs and software development kits (SDK) to the broadcast, film and consumer markets, have announced the release of the updated MainConcept™ MPEG Pro™ HD 3.2 Plug-In for Adobe Pro CS3, providing enhanced support for the editing of high-definition video.

MainConcept’s renowned MPEG Pro HD 3 Plug-In allows the quick and easy editing of MPEG, H.264/AVC, and even native HDV content in the familiar Adobe Premiere Pro workflow without requiring transcoding. The newest MPEG Pro HD 3.2 Plug-In brings frame-accurate, native MPEG editing with smart rendering to Premiere Pro CS3 versions. It includes full support for Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Dolby Digital, AVC-HD and a wide variety of camcorders, including Sony’s new XDCAM HD 422 series optical disc and XDCAM series solid state camcorder.

“The release of MainConcept MPEG Pro HD 3.2 Plug-In is a significant technology leap for Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 users that adopt Sony’s highly anticipated XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD 422 camcorder,”

said Muzaffer Beygirci, Managing Director and VP sales of MainConcept AG.

“The new plug-in offers high-end features such as MPEG and Dolby Digital support, and will be a must-have for video professionals to import, edit and produce high-quality work using Adobe Premiere Pro.”

The MainConcept MPEG Pro HD 3 plug-in is available for online purchase and instant downloading at the MainConcept website. A free demo version is available for pre-purchase testing.



Source

The 2008 Big Bang Film Festival promises to be a spectacular affair. Submissions are open for the 5-day event starting October 1.


For those who don't know, here's an introduction to the Big Bang Film Festival:

BBFF is a celebration of exciting and inventive films in the Action, Adventure, Suspense and Asian Action Cinema genres. BBFF also welcomes documentary submissions featuring extreme sports and athletic events, activities and competitions which have contributed some of the most entertaining video of death defying speed, skill and daring. Each year Big Bang Film Festival showcases amazing films, some classics, some classics in the making. Every submission is posted on the BBFF Submissions Page so that all of our filmmakers can link to their listing.

Wondering what's the location for this film festival? Philadelphia it is, and suitably so. In the last 10 years, more than 80 films have been made in Philadelphia including Lady in the Water, Charlotte’s Web and The Woodsman. The BBFF is a perfect fit for this action-packed, filmmaking city.

For more information on the festival, process and special events, zoom onto the Big Bang Film Festival's official website.

This is a must read article detailing the work of 6 controversial and provocative filmmakers praticing the craft from various parts of the world. You may find some of their work shocking, vulgar and downright disgusting. Some, would find it daring.

Depends on you!

Animal Planet has announced that it will showcase an eight-part reality series Unearthed: Film School Wild later this year. For this purpose, it has called for entries globally.

Unearthed will follow four contestants on an intensive training course as they learn the essential skills and realities of creating a natural history documentary.

Industry experts and wildlife filmmakers Lyndal Davies and Andrew Barron will guide the contestants though their tasks on the course. The tutors will provide inside knowledge to help the students shoot and edit their own short wildlife film.

The budding filmmakers and animal enthusiasts will carry out their challenges at the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa in July 2008, competing to ultimately have their film chosen the winner. An international panel of experts will judge the final documentaries at a gala dinner in South Africa, and the winner will have his or her film broadcast on Animal Planet in 160 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

Entries will be accepted from 14 April to 19 May. All applicants will be required to shoot a three-minute personal profile. This must be produced, shot and edited by the applicant with no outside assistance. The film should then be delivered in a DVD format with the application form to the application address.

The competition is open to those over the age of 18.

Full details here ~~ Download contest application form here

Send in your entries!

The Raindance Film Festival is perhaps the most well-known and well-received independent film festival in the UK. London’s annual festival sthe best of new independent work. Raindance showcases features and shorts made by independent filmmakers from all around the world to an audience of film fans, journalists, acquisition executives, actors, producers and directors. The 2008 edition promises to be an exciting event.

Though held in London, Raindance welcomes and encourages international submissions. If you're not already aware, the 16th Raindance Film Festival opened for submissions on 1st January. The laste date for sunmitting your shorts if 6th June'08. Do read the submission guidelines beforehand. It also includes information on prizes and categories.

Raindance has hosted such guests and filmmakers as Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins), Shane Meadows (Dead Man’s Shoes, This Is England), Ken Loach (Kes, Ae Fond Kiss), Marky Ramone (The Ramones), Iggy Pop, Andrea Arnold (Red Road), Quentin Tarantino, and Lou Reed.

If you didnt know, the Dungog Film Festival is back again from the 29 May - 1 June, and not only that, their 2007 Trailer directed by award winning filmmaker Stavros Kazantzidis has just won GOLD at the Australian Cinematographer Society Awards and you can view it HERE

What is it?:In addition to discovering filmmaking’s newest talent through the
Festival’s program of documentary, dramatic, and short film, Festival attendees experience live music shows, panel discussions with leading filmmakers and industry figures, parties celebrating the Festival community, and more.

The Dungog Film Festival was founded in 2007 to celebrate Australian cinema in a non-competitive environment, to strengthen the bonds within the film community, to create a context for contemporary Australian films by screening heritage films, and to enhance awareness, accessibility and appreciation of Australian film among a broad and diverse film going audience.

I have written a comprehensive review of the Bollywood movie Jodha Akbar on my website lughole.net. It was one film that I really enjoyed watching, even though it stretched approximately 4 hours, and so I took my time writing it. Read the Jodha Akbar Review

I also post short films from youtube on that website. Notable ones among them are Black Button and The Window - incidentally, both have been produced by a company called Dark Heart Productions.

10 Basic Tips and tricks for Avid


1. If you can't play a sequence in Avid, it's often because of corrupt media, so use the binary chop to find where that niggly piece of media is hiding. Mark an in/out on half of your sequence. Press play in-out (usually 6 on most keyboards). If that half plays, then the corrupt media is on the other half. Keep chopping the other half into halves, and you'll very quickly narrow down where the corrupt media is.

2. If you work on a weekly show, where each show is a project, don't use the same bin names in each project, because you'll often want to open bins from one project in another, and Avid won't allow two bins of the same name in each project.

3. If you want to guarantee that bins will follow a particular order in your project window use a number system before the bin name i.e.

Non-narrative movies demand a very different approach to narrative. They require that you embed continuity as a part of the whole structure of the film, not as an afterthought during filming.

Non-narrative movies such as music videos, abstract movies and multimedia projections used in live concerts are particularly susceptible to looking fragmented. At their most out of control, they look like you are channel surfing, looking at a number of clips of movies by different people. Of the following ideas, the more effective ones are those that are part of the planning and shooting stages rather than those placed over the film in post-production.


Methods of ensuring continuity in non-narrative film
Single filter effect (edit software filters, not camera filters)
If your editing software has special effects that you can use to alter the look of clips – for instance, to make them change colour, stretch or change contrast and tone – you could apply one of these to the whole film, or at regular points. Restrict yourself to one filter only.

Tracking
A tracking shot – where the camera moves while it shoots, tracking the action – can make a good way of connecting shots. Decide on a constant speed of tracking and stick with it throughout the film. To enhance the effect, keep to one direction in the screen – for example, left to right. For example, you could show a slow, left-to-right movement of the camera along a beach, cutting then to a similar constant shot along a busy street.

360-degree movement
This device is particularly effective in linking shots. Decide on the height of the camera and the speed of the camera as it moves, then shoot everything while moving 360 degrees around the subject, at every location, throughout the film.

Common space
This involves including an object or space in the background that is present in each shot, and could be as simple as a fireside with picture frame. This is commonly used in scenes with dialogue where it is useful to be able to locate two actors within the same space by showing some common space or object in each actor’s frame. In a non-narrative film you could choose a single prop that is present throughout.

Transitions
At the editing stage, you will need to decide how you cut between scenes. The most common – the straight cut and the cross dissolve – could be developed by trying something a little more noticeable. An example could be to fade fast to white as the picture cuts, suggesting flash photography.

The length of the shot
A style of editing that uses short cuts, with a high turnover of clips, will encourage the viewer to see these clips as linked in some way, even if the subject matter is not. Therefore, we tend to see a montage sequence consisting of a lot of quick images because the diversity of images needs to be balanced by speed of perception. But what is a ‘long cut’ or a ‘short cut’? In this case you could think of a quick cut as half a second or less and a slow cut as anything from three to five seconds, but your subject matter will dictate how fast your cuts will be.

Motif
In non-narrative films, a motif can be used with some thought to what kinds of objects or colours add to the overall theme of the movie. For example, in an interpretation of the word ‘anger’, we could justifiably use the colour red as a motif in the film. To stand as a motif you would have to see the object or colour recur often enough to be noticed. Alternatively, you could use images of a clenched fist or a brick hurtling towards a window, letting us see more and more of it as the film proceeds.

Linked imagery
For this idea we could take a look at Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). After a lengthy start where we see ancient pre-human apes, Kubrick needed a way of jumping tens of thousands of years into the future without disrupting the flow of the movie. If ever there was a time to use a continuity device, this was it. His response was to have the camera follow a bone thrown high into the air, and immediately cut to a similar-shaped, bone-like spacecraft, occupying the same space in the frame. This is a daring way of connecting two shots that could not be more dissimilar, visually. While shooting, you could look for parts of the scene that visually resemble a part of another, with the aim of linking the two later.

Sound
This is a last resort method of connecting shots and is not the most effective way. A single piece of music is dubbed over the whole film as with a music video. If you want to use sound in this way, try to use a particularly noticeable home-made soundtrack of sounds, rather than music, and one where you have altered the sounds or looped them, producing a repetitive, rhythmic effect.

The Crunch
In narrative, continuity is crucial
In non-narrative, broken continuity can be a useful tool
Get to know the rules of keeping continuity and break them wisely
Continuity is developed both in the script stage and also while shooting
In non-narrative movies, beware that the movie doesn’t look fragmented – use continuity devices in editing or shooting.
Get to know the action line and the 30-degree rule
Use good quality sound and take care of ambient sound.

Recommended Reading - Narrative in Fiction and Film: An Introduction (links below)
US and North America
UK and Europe

Christopher Rouse (The Bourne Ultimatum) may have walked away with the award for Best Editing at this year’s Oscar ceremony, but Avid Technology is the real winner.

The company, already synonymous with Hollywood editing technology, recently announced that all of the nominated films in eight categories at the 80th annual Academy Awards employed at least one Avid system.

All of the nominees for Best Picture, Directing, Documentary Feature, Original Score, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing used either Avid, Digidesign, Sibelius or Softimage, all Avid-owned companies.

Avid has converted the highest number of broadcasters to digital news workflows in the industry with more than 250 end-to-end news work group installations. Various international broadcasters, such as NBC, Reuters, CBS News, Fox Television, the BBC, NDTV, CNBC, Times Now and DirectTV utilize Avid software for their video editing needs.

A video codec is a device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video. Digital video codecs are found in DVD (MPEG-2), VCD (MPEG-1), in emerging satellite and terrestrial broadcast systems, and on the Internet.

Below are 5 Must Know Video Codecs and their features

1. H.263 – use for video conferencing
This codec is a good choice for the business community. It’s ideal for a video conference where you do not need high-quality pictures and where audio is going to take priority. It is best with low movement films, so a more or less stationary talking head is going to be just perfect. The data rate for thiswould be small, but much quality is lost. Perhaps the only use of this codec is if you wanted to send aquick version of a film for viewing by a co-worker; you may not worry too much about the way it looksas you just want quick feedback.

2. Cinepak – use for CD-ROMs
This is a good, well-established system which works best with small image sizes. This codec is outperformed by many others, even though its small picture size, at 120x90 pixels, is now getting bigger as computers improve. It is better used on low-end machines but is not usually the first option for web film, being more suited to CD-ROMs. A big advantage with this codec is that it allows the sender to customize settings throughout a film, so you can apply heavier compression to places where there is notmuch movement but lighter compression to where you need more detail on screen, perhaps during anaction sequence. This process avoids ‘data spikes’, where sudden increases in data cause a movie to stopplaying on the user’s PC because too much data is needed.

3. RealG2 – good for web work, not for other uses
This codec is widely used on the web. It uses ‘temporal scaleability’, which means that the result forthe user is smoother than others even on a wide range of computers or devices. This means movies encoded with it play at a high frame rate for fast processors and low for slow ones. This codec is hard to beat in terms of the number of users who may have access to it on the web and the ease with which the rest can download it (for free).

4. Sorenson – good all-rounder
This is a really good, high-quality codec and looks better than most at a screen size of 320x240. It’sa good solution for movies that are going to be viewed over broadband connections, but some editions (notably the Developer Edition) cater for the other users by enabling scaleable streaming. One aspect which puts many people off using this codec is the length of time it takes to encode a movie in this way,but it remains the method of choice for most short movies, for the web and CD.

5. Intel Indeo 4 and 5 – good, but mainly for high power
With this method of compression you get a good result with high picture quality, but it is only viablefor high-powered PCs or Macs. Version 5 allows for progressive downloads. Intel’s codec is generally better than Cinepak, but cannot match the picture quality of the Sorenson.

If you have a .Mac account you can put a video from Final Cut Pro online with iWeb in a few steps. This is a great way to allow a client to preview a video without much effort. Making the site secure for only the client to be able to view the page is as simple as setting a login and password in iWeb before publishing.

To prepare a video for iWeb with Final Cut Pro, use the Quicktime Conversion Export option in Final Cut Pro. Selecting the iPhone Format option will compress the video to a 480x360 mpeg4 movie. The other preset mpeg4 format option in the Quicktime conversion is the iPod seting, which will output a 640x480 mpeg4 movie. Both of these options will produce an iWeb compatible video.

Starting a New Site with a blank page and dragging the MPEG4 video on the page is essentially all you need to do. It is very typical that you will get a warning saying that the file is too large, but I have yet to not be able to upload a video. There are a few minor options like adding the password protection that you can do, but for the most part all you have to do is publish the site to your .Mac account. If you intend on leaving the page up for a while you can set a domain to point to the .Mac link.

Source: GeniusDV

Austin was named No. 1 on the "Top Ten U.S. Cities to Live and Make Movies" by MovieMaker magazine.

"Austin is the prime example of a Texas city that has caught onto a deceptively simple tactic not always employed in many other cities or states or within the film industry in general: cooperation,"

says MovieMaker.

Austin has ranked among the top three cities on the list for seven consecutive years. One reason the state earned the top slot was because of its statewide incentive program that provides rebates for filming in Texas. Additionally, the magazine praised the Austin Film Commission's new "Now Playing: Cast and Crew Bonus Features" discount program, which gives film crews discounts at local businesses.

The magazine also said that the Lone Star State's geography, broad industry infrastructure and film-friendliness also made it a desirable film locale.

"Austin is back on top of the MovieMaker rankings - an award that is well deserved. We have long been considered a film friendly city, and the industry here has worked hard to get the word out," says Gary Bond of the Austin Film Commission. "

The support of city government and local professionals including the Austin Film Festival, Austin Film Society, Austin Studios and South by Southwest are crucial to our success as a film hub. Our golden reputation is furthered by the city's progressive culture, hip reputation and the fact that [Robert] Rodriguez and [Richard] Linklater, along with a few other notable celebrities, call Austin home."

In the past year, Austin has hosted the production of dozens of films and television shows, including "Grind House," "Teeth" and "Friday Night Lights."

Source: BizJournal

Ellen Kuras is one of the best-known directors of photography in American independent film of the past 20 years. She has won the Sundance Film Festival's cinematography prize three times. To list just a few of her credits, she shot Spike Lee's 4 Little Girls, Bamboozled, He Got Game and Summer of Sam, Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and his new film, Be Kind Rewind, Jonathan Demme's Neil Young: Heart of Gold and Mary Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol.

Before she ever picked up a camera, she started working as a director on her first film about a Laotian family's experiences in the United States. That was 23 years ago and now that film, Nerakhoon (The Betrayal), a gorgeous metaphoric meditation on immigrant displacement and loss, has its premiere at this year's Sundance festival.

Kuras's long-term project represents an extreme but distinct trend in documentary filmmaking toward films that take years. Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore noted at the beginning of the festival that fewer films were coming from the "professional class" of documentary makers and more from people with a personal investigation they were determined to share with the world.

Among the examples are fashion photographer Steve Sebring's Patti Smith: Dream of Life, which took a dozen years, as the director befriended the rock star and poet from the mid-nineties, in the early years of her widowhood to the present. Katrina Browne, a social worker, took nine years to research her family's history as slave traders before completing Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North. One of the three Canadian entries in the official documentary competition, The Women of Brukman, by Montreal director Isaac Isitan, follows the women workers who took over a clothing factory after Argentina's economic collapse in 2001 and documents their legal and political battles for the past half-dozen years.

Read more

This one is for the prospective film student. How to find the right film school? Does location matter...Or should you go for the infrastructure (camera/lighting equipment, editing suites, studios)? Reputation does count a lot. In fact, many of the film schools from the old days are still gold...and the plethora of those that have sprung up now, might just confirm your worst fears.

1. Choose your vocation: You might be interested in just the technical side of filmmaking (see video editing, sound editing), or the creative side (set design, scripting) or both (production, direction!). Deciding your vocation in advance will help you decide the course you want to pursue.

2. Grab your course: Once you've decided what you really want to do (and I hope you decide that on the basis of what really interests you, and not what will earn you more)...its time to grab the course. Most film institutes offer dedicated short term courses in cinematography, video editing, sound engineering and acting respectively. If you like a bit of everything and/or are undecided on what you'd really like, then go for the comprehensive filmmaking course.

3. The Location: Will you be placing yourself thousands of miles from the place where you want to film your work? If you ultimately want to work in Hollywood you might want to aim for a California school so you can go ahead and begin building that network. If you want to work in Bollywood, nothing better than FTII at Pune.

4. Equipment and Facilities: decade ago, the equipment that a school could offer mattered a lot, but it’s not a lot to get worked up about today. After all, you can buy an HVX-200, a laptop and Final Cut Studio for a fraction of a year’s tuition at most film schools. You don’t want to go someplace that has crummy equipment, nor do you want to attend a school that lacks enough equipment to serve its students. You need good (film and video) cameras, sound equipment, lights, and editing stations. (Maybe not even the editing stations, if you already own one.) Beyond that, don’t get worked up about facilities and equipment.

5. Length of Program: Most programs are three years; some are two years. There may be a difference between what a school’s literature states and the reality though. Ask current students for the skinny on how long it takes for students to typically finish a program. It can be a positive thing, of course, to stay in school as long as you can.

Action! Every year, tens of thousands of hopefuls apply to film school to start a career behind the camera. If you're of them, you probably dream of one of top five film schools - UCLA, NYU, the American Film Institute, Columbia and USC. (Aren't film students big dreamers, after all?)

Of the five, USC and NYU are considered the top of the heap. USC is, both literally and figuratively, closer to Hollywood. Applicants may need Jedi mind tricks to gain admittance into this alma mater of George Lucas - the school accepts 150 undergrads out of 14,000 applicants annually. NYU, the home base of Miramax and Tribeca Productions, has an "indie" edge, personified by prominent grads like Spike Lee, Ang Lee, and Oliver Stone.

by Digital Camcorder News

Tapeless camcorders have become a hot ticket item and Sony is never far behind the trends. The HDR-CX7 nearly oozes ease-of-use, with few buttons or input/output jacks in sight. Sony’s first Memory Stick camcorder is definitely a looker, but will it deliver?

Quick Tour
The back of the camcorder is simple, with the power/mode switch and the record button being the only two buttons available. I really liked the recessed battery compartment, which, even with a high-capacity battery, keeps the camcorder looking slim and trim. Pull back the flaps next to the battery and you have your Mini HDMI, A/V output, and charging jack.

It should be noted that, because the battery is not fully enclosed, Sony gives you the option of using a high-capacity battery. Some manufacturers are manufacturing camcorders with enclosed battery compartments, which makes them look cleaner, but also makes it impossible for a larger battery to fit.

The LCD screen dominates the left side of the HDR-CX7, but when open (which it will be all the time since the HDR-CX7 doesn’t have a viewfinder) you have access to the main array of buttons on the camcorder. These include the back light, display button, index button, play button, easy mode, and the Nightshot switch. Also hidden underneath the LCD screen is the Memory Stick PRO Duo slot, just barely accessible when the camcorder is on a tripod.


Video Quality
Video quality on the Sony HDR-CX7 looks really, really good. The 1/2.9″ CMOS sensor, which all of Sony’s top HD camcorders use, really does the trick. Colors are saturated just a little, but not overly so. Sony definitely hit a nice color balance.

The image is sharp, and the average camcorder user will be very happy with its performance. The prosumer may be able to nitpick and find something to complain about if they compare it to, say, the Sony HDR-HC7 HDV camcorder, but, overall, in the tapeless, memory-card camcorder market, this is the best I have seen.

Sony also seems to have solved much of the problem of motion artifacting. This occurs when there is a lot of movement in a scene, and AVCHD camcorders have been notorious to this point for creating a sort of motion trail look, which seriously degrades the image. Though there was just a little bit of artifacting apparent on the HDR-CX7, I had to specifically look for it to find it.

Low-light performance was decent, and should not disappoint the point-and-shoot market for which Sony has manufactured the CX7. In situations withlow light levels, the HDR-CX7 produced a fair amount of grain.


Touch and Feel
Sony’s touch-screen menu system is not loved by all, but over the past few generations of camcorders they have evolved it into a menu system that is much better than it was previously. Point-and-shoot users will appreciate the fact that there are not that many options that you have to stress over. More advanced users will wonder where some of the manual settings have disappeared to.

The target market for the Sony HDR-CX7 is definitely point-and-shoot, but it would have been nice to see a few more manual controls. However, you do get a few things like spot focus, spot meter, white balance, and a very basic exposure setting to play around with and satisfy your controlling side.

If you still feel overwhelmed by the sparse menu options you can also elect to press the "Easy" button. This puts the CX7 into an idiot-proof mode that completely automates everything. Grandma will thank you for this.

Recorded footage can be played back right away on the camcorder by hitting the play button (who would have thought?) on the side of the camcorder or on the lower left of the LCD screen. Up comes a screen with thumbnails of the scenes you have recorded. Tap a thumbnail and your selected scene begins playing immediately.

Sony does not include a Mini HDMI cable with the Sony HDR-CX7, which is a bit of a letdown for those who want to utilize their snazzy new home theater systems. They do include the component cable, but there is no component output on the camcorder itself.


Conclusion
The Sony HDR-CX7 was really fun to use, and produces great quality images. I would highly recommend it for the point-and-shoot user who wants a small, compact camcorder that records to flash memory. If you are a more advanced user, make sure you are OK with only a sparse offering of manual controls.

Whether you are shooting a birthday party, family events, vacations, or just horsing around, the Sony HDR-CX7’s small size and great quality will serve you well if you can front the cash.


Finally
Pros: Small and lightweight. Easy to use. Great image quality.
Cons: No viewfinder. OIS not effective enough. Spartan manual controls.

by Geniusdv.com

You can make your audio more dynamic in Final Cut Pro by panning sound effects from the left speaker to the right from within the Viewer Window.

A sound effect, such as a passing car panning from the left speaker to the right, can add another dimension to your project and lessen the flatness of canned sound effects.

Before you try this, keep in mind that you only need a mono clip to perform this effect, so if you have a stereo pair, unlink the two and delete one of the tracks.

1 Double click on the audio clip to load it into the viewer.
2 Click on the channel tab in the Viewer Window.
3 Option click on the purple audio spread overlay in order to get the pen tool to create keyframes and drag the points of the line so that it looks like the diagram below. When you begin to move the purple overly you will see a pink line underneath it. It helps if you think of it in this way: think of anything above the pink line as being the right channel and anything below as being the left channel.

Now the audio in this clip will pass from the left speak through the right when played.

Tickets are now on sale for the seventh annual FCPUG “SuperMeet” to be held January, 16, 2008 from 5:000PM - 10:00PM at the Mission Bay Conference Center, as part of the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, CA. This event promises to be the single largest gathering of Final Cut Pro users and Gurus in the world.

“The Mission Bay Conference Center is the largest venue we have ever had for one of these Macworld SuperMeets,” said Michael Horton, founder of the Los Angeles Final CutPro User Group. (lafcpug) and co-organizer of the SuperMeet. It is a brand new state of the art facility and the interior space is magnificent and spacious. This will be a sort of a Mini Macworld devoted entirely to Digital Video filmmakers and editors.”

The agenda is “Super Secret” according to Mr. Horton, but will be revealed shortly before the event date. “We can promise you this though,” he added; “There will be demos of new products, Final Cut Studio Tips and Tricks, show and tells, plenty of networking opportunities, and of course, our world famous Raffle with prizes totaling over $35,000.”

Tickets are only $10.00 per person and includes 2 raffle tickets. Tickets are on sale online only and it is expected this event will sell out. Food and cash bar will be available throughout the evening. Doors open at 5:00PM and this event is open to anyone who wishes to learn more about Apple’s Final Cut Studio or meet people who know more than you do.

For more information as well as a link to where to buy tickets, visit the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group website.

Source

Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Enterprises, has donated $2 million US to the University of Southern California to fund an archive to preserve student films and historic documents.

The money will also create an exhibition space in the new headquarters of the university's School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles. The archive, which already bears Hefner's name, holds more than eight decades of student films, including works by famous alumni such as George Lucas.

Hefner, 81, has already been generous toward USC's film school, donating $1.5 million in 1995 to create the Hugh M. Hefner Chair for the Study of American Film. He also gave $100,000 in 1992 to create a course on film censorship and has contributed millions to film preservation.

USC was also the recipient of a $175 million donation from alumni George Lucas last year. The amount included $75 million for the construction of new educational buildings and renovations of existing structures at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and a $100-million endowment for the school.

Sources: USC news and CBC

Hi dear readers,

this is a very personal post to all of you :)

You must be wondering, why is this kid updating his blog so randomly? Has he got bored...or is it writer's bloc?

Well, neither. I sure cant get bored of anything related to filmmaking - an emotion I'm sure is shared by all passionate filmmakers, film students and film buffs! As for writer's bloc, to be honest - that's an impossibility as well because all my posts aren't original (duh!)

Sometimes my stuff is 100% non-duplicate, like today! At most times, its a mash of borrowed knowledge from books and internet that I mould into presentable form and publish it here...making the language as coherent as possible. Sometimes, due to lack of time, I just copy and paste! However, whenever I do that, I make sure I attribute it to the people concerned, or link to the blog or website. Do point out if I missed someone.

This blog started off in November 2006, which obviously means...



So congratulations..to all of you! Yes you, the readers, who commented here, who read this blog, who e-mailed me with words of encouragement, who pointed out mistakes, filmmakers and film students, editors, cinematographers, screenwriters...I've had a varied audience. Every one doesn't comment, every one doesn't contact, and yet I'm aware that you came and read this blog. Here are some visitor stats to this blog in the last 30 days:

Well above you see a pie chart of the various different browsers (mostly FireFox and IE) used by people visiting us. Also, importantly, how actually people are getting to this blog. Well google has been kind, so we get got 71.4% people coming via search engines in the last month! Let's see something else below:

Above, the no. of people who visited us in the last 30 days from various parts of the world (only the top 10 cities during that time period).

I really feel exhilarated and triumphant when I find people from across the world, from various timezones, coming to this blog.

By now. you understand the graphic too well. I'm glad to see a good number of Mac and Linux users hitting up here! In fact, there's more Linux and Mac than Windows Vista!

I started out with this site with a sole dedication to digital filmmaking, but somehow, I could no hold on to it. We delved into various other branches of films and film technology. I hope you're not offended, coz I'm not! And now to the apology...

I do apologise for updating so randomly and making eager readers wait so long between posts. I've got a regular job at a prestigious sports channel now (since Septmeber, 2007 actually) and therefore my free time has become lesser and far between. Forgive me, and be prepared for delayed but definite updates!

And now, to the proposal...I want to make a short documentary film and have an idea in mind. Would it be feasible, if I asked for contributions (in the form of donations or share in profits, i.e. if at all its profitable) to the readers? Of course, the contributors will definitely see their names in the credits of the movie. Its just a proposal..maybe more of an experiment, if it works out, then what the heck! We'll make it more organized, with a good method of statistics and profit distribution...What say?

"Juno," a U.S. film about a teenage girl who gets pregnant and tries to find a couple to adopt her baby, won best film Saturday at the Rome Film Festival.

The film is directed by 30-year-old Canadian-born Jason Reitman, whose 2005 comedy "Thank you for Smoking" scooped a string of awards and was nominated for two Golden Globes. It was first runner-up for the people's choice award at last month's Toronto International Film Festival.

Critics praised the performance by actress Ellen Page as Juno MacGuff, the quick witted young woman who falls pregnant at her first sexual experience. Suddenly plunged into adulthood, she sets out to find a suitable set of parents to adopt her unborn child.

The best actress award went to Chinese actress Jang Wenli for "Li Chun" (And the Spring Comes), about a provincial opera singer who dreams of becoming the star of the Beijing Opera in the years between the end of the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square uprising.

Rade Serbedzija of Croatia won best actor for his role in the Canadian-Greek production "Fugitive Pieces." In the film, he plays Athos, a Greek archaeologist who saves a Jewish child from Poland who is orphaned during World War II.

A 50-member public jury, made up of selected moviegoers from Italy and elsewhere in Europe, judged the in-competition films at the second annual Rome Film Festival. Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, who won the best foreign film Oscar with 2001's "No Man's Land," presided over the jury.

Source: AP, Canada.com and IHT

Notable passage from On Film Editing, by Edward Dmytryk:

Should the cutter make the cuts exactly as the director spelled out, or should he cut the film his way to arrive at the results which he thinks the director wanted, basing his judgment on his interpretation of the director’s expressed instructions?

The wise cutter will, of course, follow the second procedure, making the cuts in question his way to arrive at the desired result. And, if he is a very good cutter, that result will be, in the director’s words, “exactly what I was looking for.”

Here’s a quote I especially like:

In any creative effort, one must do one’s own thing, even if that thing is being done in response to another’s order. To do otherwise is to seriously risk a result which will please neither the requestor nor the executor.