Quintessential Studios' Weblog

Please excuse this short foray away from digital filmmaking.

The Thinker is one of the world’s most renowned objects to convey thought.

Driven from my slumber this early Sunday morning by a bed full of coughing, whining children who only want “Mommy” to console them, I started to my office to finish some unfinished work, namely the sending out of the remainder of sponsorship package notices that I need to for #INKMINIGT.

Making some tea and settling in to do so, I realized I had some more pressing issues to handle. So, thinking my iPod touch nor iPad would really be productive at this time, I grabbed a small book to accompany me. My mind a whirl of thoughts, I never opened the book but contemplated the amazing amount of thoughts I had running across my mind… and why.

Throughout time, your cells, in whatever form they had, even before they begat the thousands of generations to come, have been at their most vulnerable when one had to scurry off from the tribe to “drop one off”. There they were, all alone, making an easily trackable scent. One, let’s say, any predator could pick up on. Just for sheer survival of of the species, one had to be on high alert at this awkward time. All fight or flight options had to be fully at hand, as who knew when some Lion or Cougar would come sneaking up on you!

As one’s form developed safer methods of protection during one’s most “aware” time, one had the luxury of being able to pursue more future thinking options. I dare say, in the “cycle” of life, its greatest advancements have been born during these times.

It’s amazing how fast one can compute any scenario. One could “write” a whole movie in an instant. One could think of multiple endings, in conceptual form, all at once. I would go as far to say that one’s whole future could be laid out in the short time it takes to…. After all, don’t they say your whole life flashes before you just before you die? The mind is (or you are) an amazing computing machine, beyond what we are probably even capable of understanding. I say, take advantage of this most conscious of times and postulate a divine future for whatever time frame you wish but exercise your mind and explore what Earth shattering developments you could push forward out into the world. Heave with all your might and release wondrous creations into the stream of the world’s consciousness. Squeeeeeeeeze one out… for the benefit of mankind.

I know you can. I thank you. The world thanks you. (And make sure to handle all the necessary paperwork and especially remember, “Employees must wash their hands before returning to work”!)

Tweet #INKMINIGT

This April will be NAB. This will mark my 4th year of attending. Since my first trip in 2009, I’ve vowed to always return.

The first year I went, I met so many people, especially ones that I had been communicating with on Twitter, that it was like a reunion of sorts. I went to so many parties and won so many cool prizes. It was really surreal.

Through the years, I’ve met more people in “the industry” (by that I mean film and TV and post production in general, web included). So, each year the reunion gets bigger. Also, I’ve become more active with each group that I belong to and, as many of you know, I started my own filmmaking group — Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire.

I have devoted countless hours to this passion of mine, like many of you have.

Last year, while bored, I stumbled upon a movie on Hulu.com, National Lampoon’s Bagboy (2007). In the movie, there are some scenes in an indoor “glow-in-the-dark” golf course. I thought to myself, “Oooh how cool! I want to go to one of those. I wonder where they filmed that?” This lead me to discover that one was being built in Las Vegas and that it would be completed in early 2012. Not only that but also it was going to be KISS themed! I started to put the pieces together immediately, “indoor glow-in-the-dark mini golf”, “KISS-themed”, “early 2012″…. “WHY THAT WILL PROBABLY BE DONE BY NAB!!!”

My normal NAB schedule includes starting the week off with a Sunday night hang at The Yardhouse with some IMUG** regulars. While this is okay, I thought KISS indoor mini golf would trump the Yardhouse on any night! So, I started hounding the owners of Monster Mini Golf to find out when exactly KISS by Monster Mini Golf would open and what it would take to have a party there.

The next thing I did was to survey when would be the best night to throw such a party. Claudia Trask was the first to chime in that it had to be either Sunday or Wednesday, so as not to conflict with SuperMeet or MotionMedia Ball. Those happen on Tuesday and Monday respectively.

One thing to point out is that there are a LOT of events happening each night of NAB and it’s very hard not to step on some other happening. In fact, after I had already started to plan #INKMINIGT and approaching Michael Cioni about a possible sponsorship, he mentioned I should change the day, as there would be an announcement in a couple days and that I would not want to miss it. That happened to be the REDUser party, which, as it turns out, Michael and Light Iron are hosting!

Well, there really isn’t another night for mine, so I bumped it to later in the night to be accomodating. I, after all, don’t want to miss his either. Now to be honest, Michael’s affair starts at 6 and goes to 11 and that’s a little long for me for a RED User party. I don’t discount that it’ll be great but I think I’ll be RED Usered out by 10 for sure. At which point, I’m hoping that “KISS MINI GOLF!” will wake me up!

Now, don’t underestimate my “little” get together. We have some BIG things in store. Since it is a “golf” establishment, I’ve decided on a “golf tournament” theme, as it were. There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and door prizes and such.

Having run a very successful film group and with all the friends (as mentioned above), I would say “I have some connections!” So, I am trying very hard to make this a great event.

It’s not easy. There are a lot of frustrations along the way but for every frustration, there are some great concessions that result. So it should be very “rockin’”!

I have to give great thanks to the people at KISS by Monster Mini Golf, especially Christina and Nansee! They are the greatest and are helping us make this a fantastic event.

I want to thank the sponsors who have already committed to helping out as well. These include Blackmagic Design, JAG35, Divergent Media, Focal Press, DV Expo, DigiEffects, ArtBeats and Assisted Editing!

Special thanks to Liam Johnson and IFIE’s new Adobe Co-manager, Andrew Cohen for helping me travel to Las Vegas this month to check out the grand opening of KISS by Monster Mini Golf and to capture some great footage of the joint.

While this event is a pilot event and we are already “in development” on next season’s!

Stay tuned for event registration information. OFFICIAL SIGN-UP HERE.

*#INKMINIGT = [I]FIE (Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire) [N]AB (National Association of Broadcasters’ NAB Show) [K]ISS (by Monster [Mini] [G]olf) [T]ournament. #INKMINIGT is the official hashtag for the event. Get involved! Tweet it up!

**IMUG International Media Users Group, the ones who bring you MediaMotion Ball

***Just for the record, I’m going to RedUser Party, INKMINIGT, MediaMotion Ball and SuperMeet. I hope to be able to get into the AJA Party (maybe) and want to visit ALLINFILM.

I’ll add that we are covering NAB Show 2012 and will have some video content this year. Special things I want to see are: the above parties, Monday’s Color Correction sessions at Post Production World, the editing panel with Norman Hollyn, some Post Pit Presos, and more….

Tweet #INKMINIGT

Specific Prizes up for grabs:

A copy of Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve Software ($995)

A Three-day VIP pass to DV Expo West ($975 value)

3 Copies of DigiEffects DigiSuite ($499 value, each)

A JAG35 Straight Rig ($400 value)

A Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Shuttle ($345 value)

A prize of $500 worth of stock footage of the winners choice from ArtBeats

A JAG35 Street Runner Rig ($250 value)

RevoStock credit!

a $100 voucher to spend on any Assisted Editing products – from Assisted Editing

A copy of ScopeBox 3.0 ($100 value)

FilmTees.com T-shirts!

A copy of ClipWrap ($50 value)

9 Focal Press Books:

3-DIY

Stereoscopic Moviemaking on an Indie Budget

By Ray Zone

Plug-in to After Effects

Third Party Plug-in Mastery

By Michele Yamazaki

The Insider’s Guide to Independent Film Distribution, Second Edition

By Stacey Parks

First-Time Filmmaker F*#^-ups

Navigating the Pitfalls to Making a Great Movie

By Daryl Goldberg

Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users

Making the Creative Leap

By Tom Wolsky

FilmCraft: Editing

By Justin Chang

Make Your Movie

What You Need to Know About the Business and Politics of Filmmaking

By Barbara Freedman Doyle

Filming the Fantastic: A Guide to Visual Effects Cinematography, Second Edition

A Guide to Visual Effects Cinematography

By Mark Sawicki

Indie Film Producing

The Craft of Low Budget Filmmaking

By Suzanne Lyons

GOOD LUCK!!! SEE YOU THERE!!!

by Thomas Mathai
@rebeldigitalgod

We all want to make great visuals. Slick camera moves is the hallmark of the Hollywood blockbuster. Watching a ton of action movies is one way to figure out how great camera moves are done.

Hollywood Camera Work (www.hollywoodcamerawork.us) seemed to have dissected all that work for us with their DVD, “Hot Moves: The Science of Awesome”. Hollywood Camera Work has two DVD training sets, one is a master course on blocking and staging, the other on visual effects. “Hot Moves” is an addition to the master course, building on concepts introduced in that set. In fact, the narrator refers to the full master course set for in-depth information on designing shots that cut well, while Hot Moves is just the dessert.

Many of the camera techniques discussed are designed to be big and expensive, using long dollies, sweeping crane shots, or fly overs. Alternative less complicated or expensive options are given when possible. Animators may find Hot Moves more useful, since they aren’t facing the same real world limitations.

It’s important to realize that the narrative instruction on this DVD is purposely monotone with long pauses. While you may want to watch the whole DVD in one sitting for an overview, it’s seem to really be designed for repeated viewing to better understand the concepts being presented.

The DVD starts with a recap of some concepts from the master course. Then goes into the use of parallax, pivots, rolls and angles. There’s even some extensive information on shooting from extreme heights and aerial shots. These moves are definitely recognizable, and it’s interesting to see what works and what doesn’t.

Computer animation is used to great effect to demonstrate the techniques. The animation is visually clean and direct, and making it easier to understand the concepts.

It would have been nice to have a PDF showing diagrams of the moves presented on the DVD. While it’s nice to see the results of the move, it’s also important to know how complex it is.

Hot Moves is definitely for the advanced filmmaker, the one who’s ready to try something a bit more complicated, even attempt to cheat the more expensive shots using their available tools.

Contributing Writer Thomas Mathai works doing DI work in Hollywood for the movies.
You can follow him on Twitter: @rebeldigitalgod

Posted March 3, 2012

Wow! I nearly went a month without a blog post. (Oops! I waited too long to finish this entry and now I’m over a month!)

Just for the record, this has been a wonderful week for me (Knock on wood!) I guess I’m “manic depressive” because the following week wasn’t so grand…

I have recently been selected to train and demo Autodesk Smoke. I’m pretty excited about that! Due to time constraints, I’ve been informed that I may not be able to do this… <- The main reason for my duldrums.... BUT... I am still going ahead with my self-study of this program. It's very complicated (and I'm a bright guy and a good study!) So, the challenge is appealling to me!

[The good week:] SaturdayA couple of Saturdays ago, I had a great call with a very helpful Hollywood editor who I will be working with to help people reach their Hollywood goals. I really love talking to guys like that who are into helping others. They’re really a great inspiration. I was also hinted to by a company head that a post job that I really would like to do was available again. I was able to get some good Smoke training in [that] Sunday and then Monday and Tuesday I was able to spend a whole lot of time with my kids, which is the best part of anything I do! Tuesday, we also went to see our accountant for taxes and that went well. Great dinner with the Mrs. after that (lots of future planning, etc.) and followed up with yesterday (Wednesday) going to LAFCPUG and hanging with a ton of editor friends and meeting some new ones! Today, [couple Thursdays ago] I got to spend some time with my kids again and shuffled off to work to no real traffic, good weather and a stop at the mailbox to see lots of editing books awaiting me! (I love getting editing books and mags, etc. It’s like Christmas to me!) I learned tomorrow is bonus day and I got a gift certificate from a co-worker to one of my favortite lunch places. So, yeah, things are good.

Following all of that, Saturday, February 25th, I am officially calling “International (well So Cal, anyway) Editor Networking Day”! Was just amazing. I started off the day carpooling to the ACE IAVA event and hung out with a lot of editor friends listening to the Oscar nominated editors talk about the films that they worked on and career, etc. Then we went to an after-event ACE Intern get-together and met a lot of great people. Then a couple of us went to the Act of Valor Q&A screening. Got to see some more twitter friends there and, even after that, met some more photo/editor people (who happened to be at the screening too) in line to the restaurant we went to. So that was definitely a WHOLE day of editor networking! And, that was a great week, Sat. – Sat., in whole.

So, what’s on my plate for this “semester” then? Apple’s Final Cut Pro 7, additional training; Avid’s Pro Tools 10, totally new to it; Autodesk’s Smoke on a Mac, as above; perhaps some Apple (again) FCP X, as it actually is gaining appeal with me and I think Adobe will have to wait until they really come through with their Adobe Prelude or another CS release (which is rumored to be soon). Which reminds me. This next post was supposed to about said Adobe Prelude but alas, there isn’t much more to add than what Philip Hodgetts and Scott Simmons have blogged about.

Above, I mentioned for “A” companies: Apple, Adobe and Avid, the “major” players in the pro editing game but there are a few other companies that are out there. Autodesk’s Smoke, I also mentioned, is a complete post workflow solution from aquisition to finish. I’ve marveled at their promo reels for years. Just stunning work comes from the talented finishers using this program. It’s almost like they were first and then Adobe and Apple came along trying to emulate what they do and they get a little closer each time.

The “big” downer is the “big” price. Smoke on a Mac costs $14,000.00. In todays environment, it seems like that’s a steep price to pay for an “editing” program. Over pizza, after LAFCPUG, one editor said “I wish Grant (Grant Petty CEO of Blackmagic design) would buy it and make it $999 and call it a day!” That would be awesome. Blackmagic design has worked hard, helping to democratize the post production line. They bought DaVinci Resolve and made it $999, after all! But don’t let the price of a program deter you from learning it. Autodesk has a 30-day free trial and TONS of on-line tutorials. They also have a free student license. So, enroll in school (Hey! like I do!) and avail yourself of it, if you’re so inclined, and we can be study buddies!

I have a feeling we’re going to hear some great things from Autodesk Smoke at NAB. I just hope they don’t make my training obsolete like Apple did with FCP X, last year!

Just for the record — Other video editing options (that I know of):
iMovie
Sony Vegas
FCP Express
Windows MovieMaker
Photoshop (yes, photoshop)
Avid Studio
Media 100
Edius
Lightworks <-Free!

Alright. That's enough for this rant. I've got a NAB party to plan! Talk to you soon.

Oh! BTW, we are touring Light Iron (the Hollywood digital post facility) March 12th. Feel free to join us!