Delivering to a Distributor

We just yesterday shipped off deliverables to Image Entertainment, the distribution company that will be handling the recent film I directed, The Solomon Bunch. It occurred to me that some may be interested in what a distribution company requires, since it is always good to know before you start what will be needed in the end. Of course, different companies have different requirements, and the requirements are also different when delivering for theatrical release than for DVD/VOD (as was the case with this one). Still, it may help to know the list we fulfilled for Image...

Video
   • HD master of the feature in the original aspect ratio
   • HD master of the feature in 16:9 anamorphic (1.78 aspect ratio)
   • SD down conversion in original ratio enhanced for 16:9 anamorphic
   • SD pan & scan version in 4:3 ratio (this was not a lot of fun)
   • HD master of the trailer and bonus features
   • Viewable DVD's of each of the above for their reviewers

Sound
   • 4-Channel audio built into each of the above masters (1/2 Stereo, 3/4 Music & Effects Mix)
   • Dialog, Music and Effects stems as stand-alone stereo files
   • 5.1 Multi-channel surround file
   • All original music cues as stand-alone files
   • Playable audio CD containing all music cues for their reviewers

Captions
   • Pop-on closed captions in the formats of .cap, .scc and .txt

Each of the master video files also had to include "textless elements at the tail." This means that any segment of the movie or trailer that included text (credits, location descriptions, etc.) had to be included at the end of the film as "clean" clips. When they do foreign language versions of the film, they will now be able to do new titles in place of the English. Also, with the sound DM&E files, they have the option to drop the dialog altogether in favor of a new language or they can simply duck the dialog track to a much lower level so as not to compete with the translation. This can be done without harming the music and effects levels, which they have as distinct "stems" (def: a sub-mixdown of all tracks in a particular category). What they were not interested in was any of the editing or mixing files from Final Cut/Avid/Nuendo, etc. The locked picture is all they required.

What I have listed here is the mastering deliverables only. There were also Creative and Legal deliverables. Creative included artwork, photos, logos, press reviews and quotes, etc. Legal included proof of ownership of all aspects of the film and story, copyright registrations, production contracts with cast, creatives, crew and locations, tax forms for the corporation and a certificate of E&O insurance (which is quite expensive, by the way).

Click the "Film Directing" link at right for more about what we learned on this film.

Storytelling Through Composition

In considering ways to make my blog as helpful and effective as possible, I think I have found a solution. I should just forward my domain to Shane Hurlbut's blog. I have mentioned his posts often, and I will reiterate that any videographer or DP should visit Shane's blog often. It is amazing how much insight he shares on things that are often closely guarded by the DP's who are the best in the business. This particular set of posts does not necessarily have any new revelations, but it does point out and illustrate some foundational things that we all need to learn and/or be reminded of. It also may introduce you to some new terms you are not familiar with (granted, some are Shane's own creations). The waister, choker, doinker and dirty over are all great tools to use in storytelling. And John Fording is a great way to naturally get to a closeup. Read to learn more.

Storytelling Through Composition Part I
Storytelling Through Compostition Part II

One Trillion Frames Per Second!

For all of you who can't wait to get your hands on the new Sony FS-700 camera, here's a little rain on your parade. While you are shooting all of the amazing things that happen in slow-motion at 960 frames per second, someone else is shooting footage at 1,000,000,000,000 frames per second--and capturing light in motion. This new trillion fps camera is amazing, and captures images in such extreme slow-motion that it would take an entire year to watch a bullet travel the length of this Coke bottle. I doubt we will see this camera in the B&H catalog any time soon, but this video is well worth the few minutes it will take to watch it.

Sunset Jazz at Chastain

Shot video on Saturday night for a concert event at Chastain Park in Atlanta. The 7,000-seat amphitheater was sold out for the concert, which featured a number of the country's top jazz artists, including legendary saxaphone player David Sanborn teamed up with Brian Culbertson for an amazing performance (pictured here).

I can't post any of the video I shot since I do not own it (this pict is from my iPhone), but here is a link to one of Culbertson's videos.

Congrats to the Bates!

I am excited for my friends, the Gil Bates family, who this week had their first show on TLC. Many people know them already from their regular appearances over the years on the Duggar's show, 19 Kids and Counting. They are a great family and I have enjoyed working with one of their talented family members, Erin, as producer in the recording studio (TLC taped one of our sessions, but I am sure I was not pretty enough to make the cut). Check out their show each week at 9pm Eastern on the TLC network. You can purchase Erin's CDs on their personal website.

The Aspire Network

Shot a promo earlier this week for the  brand new Aspire Network. This is an Atlanta-based cable/satellite network that has only been on the air for a month or two. Magic Johnson is the owner of the network and the target audience is African-American families. They are currently airing popular shows of the past such as The Cosby Show, but are beginning production on new shows that are uplifting and inspirational.

GoPro HD HERO2

The GoPro is literally making a splash at this hilarious event in Germany. Check out the video shot entirely on the HD Hero2 camera. I recently finished shooting some new footage for a youth camp promotional video using this camera. I was very pleased with how it turned out. The shots cut together pretty well with the rest of the shots, which were mostly Canon 7D/60D--with a few Sony EX1 shots thrown in. You can watch that one here.

Greg Howlett Concert

I spent the last week working as the recording engineer on a new concert video for pianist Greg Howlett. The production was amazing with fantastic stage and lighting design by Chad Landers and video direction by Kim White. We recorded to Nuendo during an early taping and then the sold-out live concert on Friday night at the Gwinett County Civic Auditorium in Atlanta. With pre-recorded Nashville orchestra and choir combined with the live singers and orchestra, we will be mixing nearly 100 tracks of audio on several songs. Fun! For those who are interested, we used Neumann TLM-103s on the piano (Greg loves the mellow sound of these), Neumann KM 100 series mics on the orchestra, Sennheiser MKH 50s on choir, Tram lavalier on the fiddle and mixed with the sound from the pickup, AKG C414 on the upright bass, various EV mics on kick, snare and toms, Shure SM 81 on hi-hat and AT 4033s overhead. For the audience surround mics we used a pair of Neumann KM-150s and four earthworks TC-30s. The handheld vocal mics were Shure Beta 87s. Outboard gear included preamps from Avalon, API, Trident, and Symmetrix. Look for the one-hour television special sometime in 2013.

Craigslist Postings

I have found a few jobs recently through responding to Craigslist posts. This is often the first place someone will go who has no idea of how to find a video producer, but it is also becoming the number one way producers are finding crew--even for network shows. The hardest part is knowing which projects are legit and which you should avoid. That said, some people are very helpful in that regard--including this one who is looking for a "Director of Photographer." I hope they find one.

WSB TV Special

So, the good news and the bad news is that I have been so busy working lately that I have not had time to do much with this blog. I guess in this economy, that is more good news than it is bad. Last night I shot for WSB TV, the Atlanta ABC affiliate station. They had a special event at the Fox Theater to honor Monica Kaufman-Pearson who is retiring after 37 years of anchoring the news. It was interesting to learn that when she was hired, the other people under consideration for the job were Jane Pauley and Oprah Winfrey. The Emcee of the event last night was Robin Roberts, host of Good Morning America. We shot multi-camera untethered--meaning all editing will be done in post. The greatest difficulty was getting good crowd shots. You always end up at the mercy of the house lighting in these situations, and unfortunately they did not keep the level where we had asked them to. For most of the program it was extremely dark in the audience--and even +9db of gain was not enough. It will take some work in post to get the levels right. Another issue was shooting against an LED wall as a backdrop only a few feet behind the podium. It can be very difficult to find the focus on the subject with the competing lights--and peaking indicators are practically useless. It was quite a challenge. The one-hour prime time special will air in two weeks or so on WSB.

Location Sound Tips

If you think you know everything about wireless microphones, frequencies, cables and metering, then you need to check out the "Tech Tips" at Location Sound Corp. In less than an hour, you can read through most of the easy-to-understand articles that are sure to greatly increase your understanding of these technologies. There are also tips for syncing time code, miking talent on location and a bunch of other things. Location Sound Corp is a sales website offering products specifically for the location audio market. You can often find great deals on used and blowout items at the site.

Steadicam Operator on Hugo

This shot near the end of the recent film Hugo is pretty amazing. It is a very involved continuous take requiring precise actor timing and blocking, but also requiring incredible skill on the part of the steadicam operator and focus puller.

The operator has mounted a GoPro camera atop the steadicam rig to give us a wide angle view during the shot. I was impressed also by the smoothness of the transition from the steadicam push at the end to the digital zoom that takes over to finish out the scene. Watch the BTS and the finished scene here.

Final Touches on The Solomon Bunch

We are just six weeks away from the premiere of our film, The Solomon Bunch. If you have not purchased your tickets, do it now at thesolomonbunch.com. In the next few weeks, we will finish up the sound mix and will go into the studio to record the live instrumentation for the original score. We are also doing the color grading this month. At the left is a still from the opening credit sequence (Mike Lunsford played this part perfectly! I am surprised no one stopped to try to buy peanuts while we were shooting.)

The Weather Channel

I enjoyed working at The Weather Channel for the first time this week. We spent two days shooting all kinds of stuff with a bunch of people including on-camera meteorologists Stephanie Abrams, Mark Elliot, Jeff Morrow, Crystal Egger, Mike Bettes, Dr. Greg Forbes and more. All of them were very down-to-earth and we had a great time. Some others took a bunch of pictures (including Crystal Egger who was more excited we were there than we were.) If I get them, I will post them here as well.

Canon DSLR Shooting in a Nutshell

A friend of mine who is doing translation work in the country of Tibet just asked me to give him the best settings for shooting video with his new Canon 60D camera. I gave him a very basic list of tips that I thought others who are new to DSLR shooting may find useful. This is a good starting point, though there is, of course, much more that could be said on the issue. Hope it helps...

SHUTTER
• Set the shutter speed as close as you can get to double whatever your frame rate is. For example, if you are shooting 24 frames per second (which I recommend), you would set the shutter speed to 48 or as close as possible. You should not change this except maybe in extreme circumstances or to achieve some sort of special visual effect.

IRIS (Aperture)
• Adjusting the iris will affect the depth of field (DoF) quite dramatically. With the iris all the way open, you will have a very shallow DoF and with it stopped down, you will have much more of the scene in focus. For example, if you set the iris to f4, only your subject will be in focus. If you set it to f22, both close and distant objects will be in focus. You use this to your advantage. In larger scenes where there is a lot that is important, you will want to close down the iris a bit. Also, when the subject is moving and it is hard to keep them in focus, you will want to close down. However, the thing that makes these cameras so good to use for video is their ability to get shallow DoF. Any time you are shooting a single person, small scene or a static object, try to open up the iris if possible to get a beautiful shot where only the important stuff is in focus. Outdoors, it can be difficult to accomplish this in bright sunlight since you often have to stop all the way down just to keep from over-exposing. This is where neutral density filters come in handy. They reduce the amount of light coming into the lens. I recommend the FaderFilter, since it gives you varying degrees of neutral density from two stops to eight stops in a single filter.

ISO
• Once you have set shutter and iris, you will adjust the ISO to get the proper exposure. You will want to use only multiples of 160 for best results in video mode (stills can use any setting). The choices you will have on the 60D, for example, will be 160, 320, 640, 1600 and 3200. At 1600, it begins to get grainy, though it is still usable when necessary. Before going to 1600, you should open up the iris as much as possible (without losing the ability to focus on the important elements of the scene). This balance between Iris and ISO is a bit tricky sometimes. With experience, you will begin to make the right decisions. I would avoid anything higher than 1600 unless it is the only way you can get a shot. It will certainly not be a very professional-looking shot.

PICTURE PROFILE
• If you will be adjusting the look of your shots in an editing program, it is best to shoot an image that is a little flatter. Therefore, choose the NEUTRAL picture profile or download the CineStyle profile from Technicolor for much better results. Shooting flat gives you the maximum amount of information and dynamic range to work with in post-production. However, it means that your shot will not really look good until you do color-grading. If you do not plan to make adjustments in post, you can still shoot with NEUTRAL or you can choose one of the other settings, such as the STANDARD setting.

TIPS
• The audio is not really very good in the camera. The best thing to do is record audio separately on a digital audio recorder when doing interviews or anything where the audio will be out front. The Zoom H4N is the most popular model for this, though there are a few cheaper options.
• You have 12 minutes at the most for any single shot. Occasionally it will be less if the camera begins to overheat. Be aware that this camera is not really an option for shooting lengthy events.
• Always use a tripod! Handheld shots rarely look good with this camera. If you do not have a really smooth fluid-head tripod, then you are better off doing only locked-down tripod shots for the most professional results.
• Focus manually. It is not necessarily easy, but will come with practice. You can keep the lens in AF mode and push the shutter button down halfway to find an initial focus if you like. Once you start recording however, you will pull focus manually. I do use the zoom feature quite often to check my focus, but again, this cannot be done once you have started the recording.
• Do not over-expose. It is better to under-expose a little than to blow out the bright parts of the image. The only thing really that should ever blow out is an actual light bulb or the sun/bright parts of the sky (or occasionally a window if you are shooting indoors in a very dark interior). Even that is only if they are background elements and it is absolutely necessary in order to capture a scene effectively. White shirts, white walls, etc really should never be blown out. There is a setting in the camera that will display blown out areas of the image by making them flash black. This only displays AFTER you take the shot, however, so I often take a quick still pict of the scene to see if I am over-exposing before I start rolling. Once you use the camera for a while, you will get to where you know what you are getting just by looking at the LCD screen.
• The lens is the single most important element affecting the quality of your shots. More expensive lenses will yield better results. When you can, you should upgrade from the stock lens to better lenses. I would start with the Canon 50mm f1.4 or f1.2 lens since the 50mm is the most affordable and one of the most useful. You can really shoot an entire production with this one lens if you have to.
• You will eat up battery fairly quickly when shooting video. You will really need at least two batteries--one to use while the other charges. If you only have one, there will be a lot of down-time.
• Find the interesting angles. Low, high, through interesting objects (foreground objects should be used as much as possible) and any other way you can keep it interesting. You also want to get as many diagonal lines happening as possible. For example, shoot a building from an angle rather than straight on. This will create diagonal perspective lines out of the roof-line and foundation that make the shot more interesting.
• People almost always look better when back-lit than facing direct sunlight. Shoot towards the sun when possible, just make sure you have a way to keep the sun from flaring in your lens. The sunshade that comes with the lens is often inadequate and you will need some other way to block the sun. A piece of cardboard shading the lens can work--or even your hand. Of course, the best option is to purchase a mattebox kit, which can be quite expensive. Just be aware that it is difficult to tell on your LCD screen when you are flaring the lens. This can create undesirable bright spots in the image or can make the entire scene appear foggy or washed out.
• Shoot a lot. The more you shoot (and critique your results), the faster you will get to a level of proficiency that will allow you to get great stuff on a consistent basis. If you only pull the camera out when it is time to shoot something important, you will rarely get good results. These cameras have great potential for video, but it really does take an experienced operator to make it happen.

The Solomon Bunch Premiere

Getting ready to start pushing our ticket sales for The Solomon Bunch movie premiere in the next few weeks. This is the first draft of our poster design, which will be put up at churches and other locations around the Atlanta area. It will also be produced at a smaller size for insertion in church bulletins and as handouts.

The premiere, which will be held in south Atlanta on the 14th of April, will include live performances in addition to the first showing of the film.

The Solomon Bunch is a family film that I directed this past summer and have been working on editing for the past several months. We are working on sound design and ADR right now while the composer and colorist do their thing. Hope to see you at the premiere if you can make it. Check out the website for more information on the film or to purchase tickets.

Avid Comes to the iPad

I just read this article about a new app just released by Avid for the iPad 2. It is the first video editing app that I have heard of where people are actually positive about the user experience on the interface, so maybe it will actually be a useful program. For more on features, you can visit their site on the iTunes store.  There are some significant limitations, and it is really a consumer-level editor, but for only $5, every editor with an iPad will want to get this app.

India Shoot

Filming in the country of India this week. This is an ungraded screen grab from the Canon 60D I am shooting with. It is quite an experience trying to offload footage, recharge batteries and do editing when the power is prone to disappear at any second. It has been off for anywhere from a few minutes to over 10 hours at a time in the past three days. The internet is very unreliable in these parts as well--fortunately I have Charter at home and was prepared.

Advanced Fill Lighting Techniques

Art Adams has another great article about all the different ways to utilize a fill light. This will be a worthwhile read for anyone who lights scenes or even interviews on a regular basis. Very in-depth explanations with plenty of illustrations.

Visit his article at ProVideoCoalition.

Pionair Radio Spot

Produced a radio spot today for a company called Pionair and their Air Treatment System. Chris Chase, one of the founders was featured in the spot along with one of their very satisfied clients. Check out the website and see what their MiniMate can do for fruit in the refrigerator. Pretty neat.