Quintessential Studios' Weblog

As a part of NAB Show’s Broader-casting sessions was the panel “Big Idea, Small Budget: ‘Zombieland’s’ Production Innovations”, produced in association with Film Independent.

Digital technologies are providing filmmakers many more opportunities to create larger scale blockbusters on a much lower budget. Since we discuss digital filmmaking here on this blog, this panel was right up my alley!

Moderated by Josh Dickey, Deputy Editor of The Wrap, this panel was composed of Panelists:
Maher Ahmad, Production Designer, Zombieland
Michael Bonvillain, Cinematographer, Zombieland (not present)
Paul Linden, FX Supervisor, Zombieland
Ruben Fleischer, Director, Zombieland

To start off, the budget of this film was $21 million dollars. This is actually small for “Hollywood” films so consider that these cost-saving ideas are scalable and can apply equally to micro-budget, no-budget or mega-budget films.

There were basically four points that were covered with regard to “How exactly did you save money in production?”

Ruben Fleischer explained that he came from a low budget background (the first point) and from music video production and that producing Zombieland was a make-break moment for his career. The low budget background enabled him to approach the process with that type of mentality. Being given a hard cost budget to make his film, he had to juggle every cost involved along the way.

To Fleischer’s credit, he assembled a first-rate crew, industry veterans who not only had the experience to get the best quality but who also were smart enough to be able to work within a variety of budgets. This was an area in which he didn’t skimp on the budget. As Maher Ahmad added, “It can cost you a lot more in the end if you ‘try to save a few dollars’ on your management’s salaries”. He mentioned that some advice from his dad that helped him and that was to not be the “smartest” guy on the production and so he hired people “smarter” than him. He also said, “You have one job and that is to choose”. There are many choices brought to you by members of your team and you choose. You are the filter.

During the Q & A portion of the panel, he was asked how did you balance “letting the creative people alone to do their jobs, while still maintaining your own creative vision for the movie?” He said that part of the professionalism of the heads of his crew was the fact that they all worked within his creative vision for the film. Working with good people will help any production save money.

Tax incentives were another point where they saved money. It is not only important to find a suitable location but it could also be to your advantage to research what tax incentives are available in that certain state. This shouldn’t be the only deciding factor but it can be considered. Zombieland was shot in Atlanta, GA. Another sub-point here, a “smaller” community can really be excited for you to film in their area. Fleischer said that they were able to film in the mansion in the movie at a very low price for that very reason.

The two other points were kind of combined together in the presentation and those were “knowing the movie” and “preparation”. Preparation included, storyboards, previz, production design, VFX (which included 747-matte enhancements and digital squibs), greenscreen driving, shooting smart and quick and digital filmmaking.

Michael Bonvillain shot the movie in HD on the Genesis camera. The Genesis camera was good w/low light and there was a huge savings in having footage immediately vs. film development costs. Short comings were that the DIT tech does takes time and pulls away from the focus of the shot, discussing options but overall the shooting is faster. Also, blowups are great vs. film, not as grainy when blowing up a portion of the frame for a shot.

Paul Linden described the various VFX processes and the use of digital squibs vs. practical squibs. The decision was made pretty early on to go with digital blood spatter, not only because of the sometime misfiring of real squibs (blood packs that explode out), causing wasted time in retakes, but also that they could create any effect they wanted. They showed some examples of how they were put in and also how they could shoot, say some zombie getting their head smashed with a shovel or some other large object and that they could just shoot it with a shortened handle and VFX in the end of the implement and the resultant harm.

While some things seem extraordinarily expensive, like the giant indian statue in one scene cost $10,000 to make, they explained that that was cheaper than some other alternatives. (I don’t know about that but okay!)

Also, 150 smashed cars were used in the film. It’s cheaper to buy already smashed and crashed cars and move them around as you want them then it is to smash up good cars!

All in all, Ruben Fleischer was proud to announce that they came in $2,300 under budget!

A mention was made that with the newer, lower cost acquisition tools that are available to anyone these days, that there is no reason that these points can be applied to filmmaking at any budget.

This was the focus of another panel, I also attended, The Twenty-First Century Camera Crew and How it Works. I will discuss that session in my next post.

I’m blogging for http://www.inlandsocal.com/iguide/movies/ now, under their sub-heading “Inland SoCal Filmmakers”.

Here is the blog that was published Feb 22, 2010 from http://www.inlandsocal.com/iguide/movies/content/your_films/stories/movies0222dslr.1428f70a0.html

DSLR Videography Is Taking the Main Stage

by Eric Harnden

In April, I was on the Digital Production Buzz talking about finding deals when building your studio. I wrote up more about that here:http://wordpress.quintessentialstudios.net/?p=86

From that post I said, “A little more on knowledge: Overall knowledge of your subject can always be improved, and for me, I spend a lot of time going to expos (like Createasphere, DV Expo and NAB*); Seminars, Meetups and User group meetings (like LAFCPUG**) and I most always learn something new. In fact, I was surprised that I knew more about the Silicon Images’s SI-2K camera*** than a Moviola camera rental rep…. All because I had just seen it demoed and talked about at another event…. Of course he knew a LOT more about EVERY other camera out there and a TON about compression and data rates of the different cameras and, so, I did learn things from him.”

Last week, I went to an Orange County Meetup given by the MCAI-OC (Media Communications Association International Orange County). It was called “ALL About DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) Videography” and I learned all about the hot new Canon cameras that are now being used to shoot video, not just for home fun but for commercial video and movies. It was a very comprehensive event covering pre-production, production and post. Canon reps were there and Rob Terry showed how he used them to shoot 40 commercial spots in two days for the Kellogg garden company! While I have read and watched a lot of videos on the web of what’s being done with these cameras, I didn’t know the actual workflows of them. This is mainly because I am not shooting with them yet and so haven’t delved into them that much.

The tide is rising, though, on their impact upon the indie film world and I figured it was about time to dive a little deeper into this wave!

The very next day, I attended the Createasphere Entertainment Technology Expo in Universal City and one of the main events was the Canon Intensive Workshop, where, you guessed it, they covered the exploding market and uses of these new cameras. These cameras are being used to shoot movies now. George Lucas is using them right now at Skywalker Ranch for some shots in his upcoming feature, Red Tails.

If that wasn’t enough, I decided to take part in “From the Camera to the Web – Your Files and What to Do With Them” and “Sound – An Audio Primer for DSLR and Small Crew Productions” not really realizing they were both part of the “DSLR Video Track”. And so, I ended up learning more than I ever wanted to know about DSLRs and working with them.

During these two days of intensive DSLR videography training, I meet some great people who said they would be willing to trek on down to the IE and give the Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire presentations. So, stay tuned for an announcement about that.

Meanwhile, I picked up a bunch of free magazines to give out at our next meetup. Another benefit from expos, lots of free swag!

Speaking of which, I am in talks with DV Expo who are going to offer the IFIE’s free and discounted passes to their September 2010 show in Pasadena, CA.

____

*NAB, National Association of Broadcasters. They put on an annual week-long expo  in Las Vegas every April.

**LAFCPUG, Los Angeles Final Cut Users Group. Meets every 4th Wednesday of the month in Hollywood.

***The camera used to film Slumdog Millionaire.

The Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire meets every 3rd Wednesday of the month. Click here for more information.

Jag35.com makes 35mm adapters for digital cameras.

With the advent of digital cameras, one issue has been, “they’re too good!”  In other words, everything in the viewfinder or frame is in focus.

Depth of Field Example - Logan Parks

There is a quality to film and film cameras where things at a certain distance are in focus and other things at other distances are out of focus.  That band of in-focus area is called the “depth of field”.  It can be narrow or wide.

Most digital video cameras have a very wide depth of field. This means that most everything you are seeing in the shot is in focus.

With a narrow depth of field, you can concentrate the viewers attention on what you want in the frame.  Some independent filmmakers cheat by zooming all the way in, which narrows the depth of field, and actually moving the camera back and forth to pull off a movie-like effect.

Other digital filmmakers go a step further and use a DOF adapter or 35mm adapter.  This is a device that allows you to mount lenses from still cameras to your video camera.  This allows you to adjust the focal plane to whatever subject you like within the video picture.  These adapters can be very costly, some cost more than the cameras themselves.  Jag35.com a local manufacturer in Rancho Cucamonga, has created a line of inexpensive 35mm adapters to help the budget-minded filmmaker.

Jag35 will be demonstrating the use of 35mm adapters and other helpful products at the March 17th meeting of the Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire.

Details of the meeting can be found here: http://www.meetup.com/Independent-Filmmakers-of-the-Inland-Empire-Meetup-Group/

The Assassination at India Palace

OR

Well, The Food Was Pretty Good!

You think you're funny, Funny Man!

Pulling from my “education” of the Metro shoot, the plan was to have the writers all work together on a story for this next 2 Hour Film Project.

I even preselected a genre and sort-of story line for the writers to bring to this meeting. (Since they didn’t really get a chance to write the last time, I figured that I’d have them at least show me what they could come up with, given some time on their own.

Our production manager secured an Indian restaurant for this location and, since he’s connected, got the dinner thrown in. (Amazing how many more people showed up for this rehearsal!)

Everyone, and some new people I never met before and who didn’t even end up being on our 48 Hour Film Project, gathered around and I gave these specific instructions: “Okay, so I want everyone that is going to write to sit down together over dinner and come up with a story.”

Everyone got up to get their plates and proceeded to have dinner and to not work on a story at all!

Time was ticking away, as we didn’t have the place for that long and after dinner and after realizing that no one had done any writing at all, I put the writers together to come up with something.

At this point, it was becoming clear that everyone had had their own idea of what we were going to do and that chaos was going to reign supreme again.

The director went off to shoot some establishing shots he said he had in his head and most of us just milled around.

After some time, that same fussy actor from the last shot came to me to declare that the actor and partner “couldn’t stay long”. I said it was alright if they left. The trouble, it seems, stemmed from the fact that the idea they were working on, that actor was helping with the writing tonight as we were short one writer, who happened to take a wrong turn and got frustrated and decided to just go home!

Again, the director had his own idea for the story. And what we ended up shooting was a mix of the two ideas, I think….

Again, the 1st AD had his setup messed with by the production manager. (He didn’t like the lighting set up but didn’t realize that the 1st AD and the director and grip had already figured out that because of the glass entrance, the lights couldn’t be set up that way. Those guys being more passive-types, just opted to let the PM do his thing, as it wasn’t worth the fight.) It was just a practice run after all.

One of the ideas for the story was created by our PM. Everyone kind of went with that idea with a few twists. Our director is very good at taking some idea and putting a funny twist on it that appeals to more people. Our PM told us he used to be a stand-up comedian and so his character would be sort of funny. Uh, well, yeah, right…. Nevertheless, our director made a funny short out of it called Assassins Anonymous.

Laugh Clown Laugh!

We didn’t get close to the amount of footage and there were a lot of mad people at the end of the night!

After we wrapped, the first AD, the director and I met at my house. We talked long into the night about what worked, what didn’t, what we could do to improve things, etc, etc.

We seemed to iron things out fairly well. I had the feeling, that we’d be better off, if I got rid of some people, three in particular, but as fate would have it, I wouldn’t even have to raise a concern.

To be continued…

See the video:

First Signs of Problems

If you’ve ever been on a film shoot, you know one thing for sure. There is a lot of waiting
around!

One of the first “two-hour film projects” we did was called “Berlin Metro“, not at first but it came to be known as that eventually.

This practice shot was mostly arranged by our Production Manager. Our Production Manager was very good at finding locations and support for our crew as he was “connected”, being a lawyer and all. The first shot was at an empty warehouse that one of his friend/clients had just rented and was currently empty.

The goal of this meeting was to go through the whole process, from random genre, character, prop and line of dialogue selection to writing to shooting to editing.

The basic idea we had was that everyone would be included in the brain-storming process and then after a basic story idea was formulated, the writers would spend time by themselves writing the story. This basically is a good idea and as long as you keep your roles heavily defined, this works.

“Defined roles” are the key words in this case. Who does what and who listens to whom? During the first few meetings leading up to this “dress rehearsal”, we talked about who wanted to do what. I felt it was best to try to let people do what they were most interested in doing, first, then add to that as needed.

What hats were given out? Well there was the “Production manager-writer”, the Producer, the “Director-writer”, the “Assistant Director-writer”, a “Grip”, some “Sound Guys”, an “Editor”, a couple of “Actors (who ended up wanting to be writers)” and a couple of just “Actors”. Oh! And, my two “Writers”. It was all a little up in the air at this point, ’cause you never know who’s going to be with you at the end and I was a little unsure how it would all settle down and sort itself out.

The “pre-production” meeting is still a little fuzzy to me, as it was while it was going on (just because it was a bit chaotic) but I do remember some details and the production and the post pretty vividly! There was some talk about a character and a prop and an escaped killer and the writers started to put it all together. During that time, we started setting up lights in the warehouse and stuff and our production manager kept “writing” with “the girls” (the writers). (more on this later)

While setting up, one of the crew says, “this looks like a subway” and thus the subway shot came into being.

While the girls were writing, our director-writer was doing some writing of his own. He kept popping out and telling the writers, “Okay, this is the story!” He would add, “Oh, but don’t let me mess you up.”

I recall one of the writers saying, “Oh but I like that idea” and eventually they just went with his idea.

INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

Camera blocking, lighting and actions were being set. The first signs of problems weren’t even apparent to me but they were occurring. The 1^st AD had set up a way that the lights and fan should be run (for a subway effect) and had someone set up to run them. Then our “creative” production manager, who was running the b-camera decided that he could run the lights instead, to solve a problem of our director wanting more people in the shot. (This would cause effects problems, more about later, but was just another example of his not being able to think outside the box.)

During the setup of the lights, I had my first personal indication of future problems. One of the actors (that really wanted to write too) came up to me and said, “Who’s in charge? I mean who should I be listening to?” She went on to tell me that we were doing a lot of standing around doing nothing and that this was all taking too long. Basically, she was right in her observations but to me it was her attitude and delivery of said communication that rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like, “You know, you just don’t go up to your producer and say those things!” I suppose it was my lack of initiation in “running things” that led to these attitudes but inside, I also felt I should let these things shake themselves out at this stage of the game.

As we shot, and shot and shot, the night became longer and longer and attitudes were starting to show themselves. The production manager kept stewing and saying loudly under his breath that we had to wrap things up. The feisty “actor” kept mentioning how late it was. Our director just had to get another take of that shot. And, I eventually had to say, “Okay, THIS will be the last shot.”

We wrapped and everyone was pretty beat. I thanked everyone for their time and work and the “post-production team”: director, production manager and I went off to “edit”.

Later, I would discover that my 1^st AD was very happy with “his experiment” of seeing how people would react under the continued stress of an unorganized situation. That, I would immediately decide was a good idea and continue on with. The 1^st AD, the director and I would have many meetings as to what worked and what didn’t and, believe it or not, these personnel “problems” would eventually sort themselves out.

What I learned: Defined roles are defined for a reason. Stick to them!

To be continued…

(Next 48 Hour Installment: The Assassination at India Palace)

Conflict!

Boy that seems to be the driving force behind a lot of businesses, telecommunications or otherwise. Heck, in most people’s lives too! Would life be better without it? I think we’ll never know.

There are at least three sets of competing technologies in the telecommunications industry that I am aware of at present time, trying to control their market shares. One is editing programs. Avid, Apple and Adobe are the bouting companies there. Then there’s the famous “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” fight. And then finally there is digital movies versus film movies. There are many more, like digital radio vs. standard radio or Internet TV vs. HD TV but I’m going to talk about the one I’m most connected to recently, film format vs. digital format.

I’m an up and coming indie “digital” filmmaker. I haven’t even cut one frame of film. I started my new journey a year and a half ago.

There are people on both sides of the fence on this controversy. Old-timers and newbies alike sit on either side of this debate. My uncle works for a major studio as a projectionist. He has worked there for quite a long time. He plans to retire in ten years. According to him he’ll still be playing movies on film projectors when he does.

He is among the group of people that embrace both technologies but prefer the older film technology. Another is Director of Photography, James Mathers. James spoke at a recent Orange County new media event on the future of digital cameras, specifically on what’s called 4K, meaning 4,000 lines of resolution (vs. 1080 which is HD). He loves to shoot on the new 4K cameras but states that he prefers to shoot film. I’ve noticed that most people, who have experience shooting film, prefer it. I think it’s more of an art thing. They feel more control and artistic when working with light in an analog manner, rather than dealing with it in an impersonal digital format on an impersonal computer, to boot.

Theatres are slowly changing to digital projection but according to my uncle, “They cost more to fix and are being replaced by film projectors when they do break down.”

I was at a recent HD Expo, March 5th, 2009. There, another old-timer, Rodney Charters, ASC, talked about his experiences shooting on new 4K technology cameras and that the show he works on 24, has made the switch to all digital, “no more film”. It was also during this seminar that I learned a stunning fact. One of the two top producers of digital projection technology was the very company my uncle, the die-hard film man, works for. It’s going to make for an interesting conversation the next time I see him!

To put things in perspective, film is closer to 6K in its resolution but it is expensive and film is delicate. I’m sure you notice the scratches in the film when you’re at the theater. The RED company is working on cameras now that will shoot digitally at 10K. There are lots of people very anxious for them to come out with them. Digital projection is much clearer, no scratches. Not to mention, the world is being trained to like HD and accept no less.

There have been many Kodak plant closures. Film processing is only done in a few places these days, when it used to be all over. Film also uses a lot of chemicals to process and there are arguments as to whether or not film isn’t destructive to our environment. There is even some that argue back that maybe the creation of digital media is destructive too. But I think the trend will always go towards the new. I don’t know anyone working on new film technology.

I work in the computer industry and watched the old dogs fight to keep main-frame computers and THEIR jobs from going away. But schools don’t teach main frame computing anymore and companies are moving away from them too. That’s just the way it goes. Out with the old and in with the new.

There are many similar stories in all types of technologies.

The next point of contention is archiving. Film lasts a lot longer than digital data. But they are coming to terms with that too. Just as punch cards moved to tape and then to digital storage in the computing industry, so will go film. They are already agreeing to terms of such storage.

Very few people learn to shoot and edit on film anymore. (I hope I get to here at RCC before it goes away but merely for historical study, really.)

Universities, like USC, are going all digital. Theaters are moving in that direction. Kids growing up probably won’t even know what “film” is. When they are grown, I suspect, film will be gone.

I don’t think the feud is as rough as the one between David Sarnoff and Edwin Howard Armstrong but I’m sure there are some people with stakes in the film industry that are fighting just as hard to stay around.

For my uncle’s sake, I hope it does take ten years to resolve. But in the end, I know I’ll be there working in digital as will many others, until the next new thing comes around!

What Worked and What Didn’t
There were a lot of things that worked. There were a lot of plans that we were able to make ahead of time to make things easier. There were things we should have done but didn’t. There were a lot of things that could have been improved. And, actually doing the things we planned to do, would have helped out a lot!

I think we learned what to do next time and everyone seemed excited about doing it again.

Pre-event Meetings
As I mentioned before, I started having meetings in June. I think we had 8 – 10 meetings total, including meetups and one field trip. The field trip was a seminar on DIY micro-budget filmmaking by John Putch. That was part of the Pizza & Post series given by Video Symphony, a post production school in Burbank. From those meetings we did three “two-hour film projects”. These weren’t completed in their totality in two hours but some portion of the process was completed in two hours (or so!)

This worked because it gave us a view into what our weak points were. We were able to plan more accurately the schedule that would be the 48 hours. It also worked to flush out “bad” attitudes or people or views that I didn’t want to work with on this project. It was good to see what were at first suspicions, grow into actuality and prove to me that if I ever detect those things in the future, that I am right and to just get them off the team right then and there and don’t waste time dealing with them.

People intimate with the team and its progress will know who I’m referring to but I just want to talk about the particulars so that others reading this can form their own opinions. I’m not saying that those “bad” attitudes are necessarily bad, I’m just saying they didn’t agree with my desires and as such were better off doing their own thing and not butting heads with me.

So this is how that all went down:

First person I met (other than people I already knew, who would work on the project) was a lawyer who had experience creating his own pilot home improvement show. Great guy. Very motivated. But, when first exchanging emails with him, I thought to myself, “I don’t think this is going to work out.” As any successful business person is, he was very passionate and very “right” in his opinion of how things should run. He was also a very creative guy and wanted very much to contribute to the creative side of things, writing and shooting, etc. We met the day before my official first meeting and face to face we had a lot of similar interests and creative contacts even.

Being a bit pushy and slightly over-bearing, I immediately thought of him as a good production manager, someone who could get people motivated or “pushed” to complete their intended project, on time. This I figured I was weak in, so I thought he’d fit the bill for that part.

The next day, I had my first meeting. He attended and brought his secretary, an actress. She couldn’t stay the whole meeting but I figured that since her boss was going to be running the show, I didn’t have to worry about whether or not she’d flake out on me.

Also at this meeting was one person from the 20 projects project (a filmmaking group I co-founded), whom I wanted for my 1st assistant director. He of course stayed until the end of the project.

The couple that would eventually quit to start their own team where there. They were very motivated and seemed willing to take on any role. They were also musicians and it’s always good to have a stall of musicians around. More on why they quit later.

Also, there was one classmate from my Intro to Telecommunication class at RCC and one classmate from an Intro to Pro HD class I took at Citrus College. Two more classmates from my Intro to Pro HD class would eventually be on my team but the first one had to quit because of health reasons.

We had a few general meetings; organizing, talking about genres, trying to figure out who wanted to do what, getting to know each other, going to the 48 Hour Film Project meet-ups, etc. These meetings really just served the purpose of “we’re a group, let’s see if we can stick together.”

Of the 10 actors and 9 crew/actors that ended up staying on the team, they came from these areas:
5, myself included, from my side filmmaking group, the 20 projects project – Roles: Producer/Actor, Director, Assistant Director/Actor, Actor and Actor.
5 from local bands (friends and family of ours) or friend of one of the bands (All actors)
4 from classmates of mine (Two soundmen/actors, one Writer and one Cameraman/Editor)
1 from Twitter friend of mine (Editor)
4 from craigslist ads or as a result of someone they knew reading the craigslist ad (Writer, Actor, Grip/Actor and Actor.)

Not everyone made the meetings on a regular basis, especially the band members and friends thereof but we had a core 6-7 that did. This built a solid foundation of “the group”.

To be continued…

Borrowing from the title of one of the shows I like to watch, I’m going to talk about doing my first 48 Hour Film Project. I’m going to break this down into installments as there is a lot that I have to write on this. So here’s the first.

June 22, held my first 48 HFP meeting. This is where I asked people who responded to my Craigslist ad to attend. From that first meeting, I believe I got three new people who stuck all the way to the end of the project. Two other attendees went on to start their own group for the 48 HFP and one more quit near the end and I opted not to bring them back on. The rest just disappeared.

There were more meetings and practice “two-hour film projects” and in the end there were a little over 20 people involved in the project, in one way or another.

The reason I wanted to do this 48 Hour Film Project in the first place is that I have spent the last year and a half studying about editing, video and film making and while reading and doing little practicals here and there, I knew that nothing would compare to actually getting out there and getting my hands dirty with some project with a hard deadline.

At first the group that I co-founded, The 20 Projects Project, seemed lackadaisical about doing the project but as we spent more time preparing for the show, they got more and more excited and active in relation to it.

Around the same time, we got interested in finishing an old project (with a new re-vamped ending) and starting using the practice sessions as “20 projects” projects.

I have studied a few film contests and the 48 Hour Film Project, overall, seemed not so professional that we couldn’t compete and also professional enough that we didn’t feel silly entering it.

I became interested in the Inland Empire 48 Hour Film Project last year but we heard about it too late to really enter and so I put myself on their mailing list to hear about the next year’s competition. Thus I got early emails about it and also had time to get things together in time to enter.

I really consider this more of an experiment in human nature and accomplishment than a film contest. This is a test to see if people working together in stressful situations can actually get a completed product and if they fail, where are the out-points so that they can be improved upon. It was an exercise in management.

I learned a lot of things about myself and different personality types and a whole lot about what not to do. I learned areas that needed improvement and I think we all learned new skills. After all, practice makes perfect and this was really good practice.

There were a reported 25 teams that competed this last weekend and of those, I watched about half. Everyone did a great job completing the task that they set out to complete. I gather that some had the end product that they wanted to achieve. We didn’t.

Stay tuned for more….