Thoughts on Roberto's Left Behind post

From: Chuck Green
Date: December 20, 2010 6:08:26 PM EST
To: Roberto Mighty
Subject: Re: Left Behind

Roberto,

That was quite a fine post. Thanks. I don't remember being so stirred up by any email before. Yours got to me, and the wheels are spinning fast inside. I fully agree with a main issue: no equipment will make us better filmmakers. The messy area for me is what will we need to do/rent/buy to avoid being left behind.

I'm troubled by lots of the HDSLR problems that we and others have discussed, but I now get that this large sensor look is hot, and in big demand as the current wave - probably. For how long, and how deep is it? Perhaps the essential issues are whether the current set of offerings are good enough to put how much money into, where, and when?

The Internet is where most things are rapidly heading for us and our paying clients, and it is heading, as with broadcast TV, into higher image and sound quality: In 4 years broadcast TV will have a new standard called Quad HD (also Quad HDTV and 2160P), with video resolution of 3840 x 2160. I think better-than-CD quality sound will be expected too. A little over a year ago YouTube was unable to handle most HD video. I expect that YT will be handling 2160P video before broadcasters do. At the same time as iPhone-sized screens are another massive trend in the opposite direction... I think we are going to need to produce high enough quality original image and audio to handle the demands of the very high-end media, not just enough quality for the mini screens, mp3 players and the Internet's current state. Future-proofing to some degree.

In the 70's I did not grow sideburns, buy a Nehru jacket, or bellbottom pants, unlike various friends and their fathers. Perhaps that would have helped in getting dates, but it seemed like a fad and I wasn't buying in. This is of course different, with real work that may or may not demand new gear. The point of all this is that I've long tried to determine what has a feel of endurance, what feels truly right at the moment, and to see what is maybe merely hot at the moment, then to make choices from there. That said, I am expecting to get an new digital camera soon, so I will aim for one that can shoot good useable video too. I've been a photographer since elementary school - I got my first home darkroom in 6th grade - yet I happily put aside my 35mm Nikon SLR and a large-format panoramic Horseman camera around 10 years ago, taking them out now only when the subject material is too rich to be done justice with a digital camera. Digital photography was a movement that made a lot of sense and had profound promise, with some major advantages over film. I'm really not sure about HDSLRs, but do want to record with larger sensors.

As far as seriously investing in my next primary working video recorder, I still expect that I'll hold out for the Red Epic S35 or Scarlet. The Epic's first version began shipping this week - www.studiodaily.com/blog/?p=5043 - and the Scarlet was brought out publicly too (almost 2 years late): http://vimeo.com/17819409. They seem to be upgradeable, shoot 3K and up, are likely to be hot items but not flashes in the pan. It's mostly a question for me of budget, and whether they - and I - are likely to go the way of the dinosaurs because of waiting too long to move ahead (or evolve).

I'd really like to hear from people on this, before my head explodes from all the spinning in there.

Chuck G.

Left Behind

I was in NY this weekend. I got a chance to watch TV while visiting with relatives. I was struck by the sheer number of TV commercials being shot these days with DSLR's. There is a certain "look" to 5D and 7D footage, and holy mackerel, it was in evidence on every channel.

Furthermore, we saw an outstanding independent film at the Kendall cinema in Cambrdge last week - "Tiny Furniture." The film is about a sort of female Holden Caulfield character.  Writing, directing, acting and cinematography were all fabulous. It's an oscar-worthy feature, shot entirely on a Canon 7D.

So, I concluded that those of us who are not yet shooting with these tools (or at least a T2i/60d) are being left behind in today's commercial market. Indeed, lots of brand-paid, purpose-made web content is being shot on Canons. It's a *look*. And, all things considered, it's not expensive. An entry-level T2i/60d kit is just about 1K. And I don't buy for one second that the kit lenses are "unusable," that we MUST have Red Rock rigs, follow-focus, LCD monitors, etc., that bring the price up to and beyond the cost of an EX-3.

The fact is, we already *have* EX-3's, EX1's, or 170's, or NX-5U's or V1U's. Buying an entry-level DSLR, working with it, practicing with it and getting what is currently a hot look is a very good idea as we further our careers. We can buy more lenses later. - Roberto

Unstoppable

I recommend Tony Scott's new movie Unstoppable to the group. Maybe it's because of the place I'm in now that I learned so much from this movie on first viewing, and have much still to learn from it. I intend to see it several more times before the new year. This is a movie that in film school we'd have viewed over and over, in many places frame by frame on an analytic projector. Tony and Ridley Scott have visual sensibilities equal to any working filmmakers, the sound work was fantastic, and the acting top notch. A lot of learning points came up for me, and I want to open a discussion with others in our group about these things:
• The sound mix somehow was able to handle dialog in the locomotive of a racing train with a helicopter hovering above. I hate it when a loud bus drives simply drives by during my shoots…
• There were places near the beginning where slow motion was clearly made by repeating each frame 3 or 4 times. This kind of production could easily afford a truckload of Phantom rigs, and there were places where high speed cameras were used. Why did they include the low budget slow-motion parts?
• The color was so finely done, keeping near-saturated colors but still setting a controlled and gritty look, including film grain that may have been exaggerated. I'd welcome some insights into the color grading that was done, and why.
* The editing was incredible, but then the editors probably had an overflow of fine material to work with.
* There were helicopter shots that were shaky and others as smooth as could be, while at least twice the path of the camera was in a direction counter to that most films would have travelled.
* I did not consider the acting to be over the top, or overly restrained given the intense nature of the action, but it could have easily been that way. Acting and directing actors are still areas I have a couple of lifetimes of learning to go ahead on.

I haven't read anything that others have written about the film yet. I'm looking to start off with the NEMC insights first.

Happy trails,
Chuck

Next Meeting: Monday, 01/03/11

New Media Coalition next meeting: Monday, 01/03/11

Last night's meeting was great...

Hearty hello to Rich from JP. Thanks for coming to your first meeting, thanks for the delicious cheese balls and kudos for showing us your editing prowess on the biopic of conceptual artist Lynda Benglis. (Brian, pls forward this email to Rich)

Brian Galford brought and carved the roast beast and taught us all iPhone CPR (!) with his cool new video (snazzy editing, cinematic directing, sweet mustang, sharp EX-1 photography) on his client's new iPhone CPR instruction app.

Chuck Green brought truffled mashed potatoes and organic candy canes (!), hauled his full EX-3 rig in and demonstrated his new Manhattan portable HD video monitor. Impressive.

Brian Henderson brought chocolate stars and  showed clips from the newest episode of the Doritos Super Bowl spec he shot recently with the Phantom high-speed HD camera and the TV series he's shooting (EX-3, A-camera; V1u, B-Camera) for Discovery Channel.

Mike Yip brought pasta/broccoli/grilled chicken and screened a staggeringly beautiful timelapse film (Canon + Red MX) from Tom Lowe on Vimeo.

Chuck Green couldn't attend, but he did post some cool audio processing info on Sunday night to our BLOG.

Roberto Mighty prepared rice and beans and shared a tragicomic story about getting a Master rejected by a TV station because of audio dropouts. Lessons learned: 1. Think twice before accepting work for broadcast involving legacy formats, even DigiBeta. 2. Bad audio will mess up great video every time. He then showed the first short film to be completed on the new Sony PMW F-3, Convergence, by Martin Scanlan. Shot in Paris, at night. Two Talent. We oohed and aahed at the seemingly effortless control of depth of field, regardless of focal length. Envy meters were pinning throughout the room.

Finally, at the end, we solved the economic problems of the world and the federal government's challenges, too. That was really fun.

Overall, it looks like coalition members are stepping up their game in conceptualization, composition, shooting, editing and overall technical/aesthetic knowledge. This is evidenced by the increased quality of work on offer last night. That's what we're here for, isn't it? Kudos to all.

Happy New Year! Here's to an even better 2011.

Jill Stein audio processing from Freedom Rally

Hi group,
Here is something I wanted to share last meeting but didn't get the chance to.
It is audio only...basically....but I had to add some irrelevant photos and convert audio with photos to quicktime just to get it up on this site. Wonder if something can be done about that....
Anyway the background. Way back in Sept, I covered the Freedom Rally on the Boston Common for radio. I had 2 flash recorders with me, one for board feed, the other for ambient sound and one on one interviews.
Board Feed was fine, except for Jill Stein, who spoke a foot off mic and very softly. She was Green Party Candidate for Gov. at the time, and the "star" of my piece. Being that she was so soft, I had to boost her levels. There was an ever so slight buzz that wasn't noticed in normal level feed, but quite apparent in her. (clip 1, Solo left).
I used a Noise Reduction program that comes with Amadeus, an audio program for Mac. Buzz gone - but unnatural drop outs of silence between words. (clip 2, Solo Right). I then mixed that unnatural sound with some basic ambiance, masking the gaps. (clip 3 - Marathon runner in pain).
More about putting audio on this site tomorrow (There MUST be an easier way). I've had the flu all weekend and was even thinking of skipping the meeting, but now I've been drafted,
so I'll be there....though I'll want to leave early to save my strength to teach 6 hours of classes on Tuesday.
See yas then.
- Audio Chuck