Quintessential Studios' Weblog

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!

This last week was very eye-opening for me in a few ways. It’s not that any of these ideas are new to me; it’s just that I’m looking at them from a different viewpoint. Sometimes, you just take “facts” for granted. Sometimes you have epiphanies but you don’t give them all that much credence. I’m looking at these things anew. I’m “just” realizing the implications of this information and how it will really apply to me in my future and my future career path.

It all started with LAFCPUG on Jan 18th. There Michael Cioni, from Light Iron, talked about the “transformation” of digital cinema. He talked about the current workflows and how people just need to understand that this is how it works these days.

After a couple emails with Michael, I decided to peruse his company’s website and discovered free classes that Michael delivers there. I wasn’t the only one, as many of the attendees at the Jan 25th class had been at LAFCPUG the week before too. This class, first in a series they teach, is called “State of D-Cinema”, D-Cinema of course meaning “digital cinema”. This class pointed out the history and major time points of digital cinema and touched on this thing called “philosophies”. This is where I had one of those “duh” epiphanies. People have different philosophies, this transcends all areas of life beliefs, including technical, and indeed it is hard to reach agreement between people with different basic deep beliefs or “philosophies”.

I’ve talked about this before in a different vein, old computer mainframe operators complaining that there will never be anything better than mainframes and thinking they will have a job forever. But I’ve also talked about this in the very same vein, film projectionists thinking that film will “never go away”. Well, and as was pointed out in the “State of D-Cinema”, as much as you may like film, you won’t be able to manufacture it yourself and soon the manufacturers, if not already, will stop making it. They do not make film projectors any more, period. Think about it. Digital projection is the majority now in theaters. “All will be digital!” (Until something different comes along!)

Where are we now?
With all of this “digitalness”, comes the awareness that the only ones in the process who have been doing things digital for some time now, are the post production people. I mean think about it. Even animation, a very “production” sided activity is lumped in with the techies in post. Why is that?

Now, with the state of digital cinema as it is, we have post personnel needing to be a part of the production phase more than ever. It is so much so, that really, post is production. We have DIT’s, Data Wranglers, etc. on the set. We have to apply coloring samples to the raw picture so directors have an idea of what they will get in post. And we have lots of technology sitting there in “production” that once was just in the editing bay.

This is just a scratch into the surface of what is all there and expected right here and now. There is wireless transmission of “instant” dailies and on and on. What the heck will the future be like? Post is Production, there’s no doubt. It’s even a little pre-production.

More on the technology of post
Post production software has transformed too and is even transforming more than the general public is aware of. Final Cut Pro X floundered on the scene last year to much disgruntlement. It was “mainframe operators” saying you can’t get rid of mainframe computers, really. Since post is really all technology (not talking about the art of cutting, just the tools), then we really have to look to what technology itself is doing.

iPads and tablets are where computing is going. It’s funny how technology goes in circles. We used to have dumb terminals in the workplace, all connected to a, you guessed it, a mainframe computer. Then we got desktops networked into the mainframe. Then the mainframe went away. Or did it?

Let’s face it. Software is going to the cloud. Storage is going to the cloud. The software companies are going to subscription based software for a number of reasons. Yes, they are! There will no longer be a need for desktops. You will be able to do all of your work on “dumb terminals”. Whether those dumb terminals are iPads, iPods, tablets or mac airs, who knows. But seriously you will only need interfaces in the future. It’s all going to the “cloud”.

Current post production consists of big computers and lots of storage hardware and personally owned copies of software. Enjoy it while you can. Before you know it, these will all change.

I’m not saying I’m for this change. I’m just saying it’s an inevitable destination. I think the very aware ones are already preparing for this. I think the next level are just going with the flow of what’s here now and maybe are the bleeding edge guys. Then come the clueless who just wonder “why are they changing things that are working just fine”. And then, even below the clueless, are the “mainframe operators” who will yell to no end that “they can’t get rid of mainframes!”

Next blog post: What is Adobe Prelude?

As one gets older, time goes by faster and faster. It’ll be four years (on Feb 18) since I started on this video editing journey, when I first stepped into TEL-64, Digital Editing Principles, at Riverside Community College, taught by one Nino Giornalista and began to be amazed at this wondrous program called Final Cut Pro 6!

Since then, I’ve amassed over 100 filmmaking books, countless magazines, thirty-five film and TV and computer related college credits, some CEUs, quite a few certificate classes and seminars and a few hundred(?) hours of actual experience (including a couple IMBD credits). Even with all of this education, I would still not say I’m “ready for prime time”.

I have a firm belief in “too long a runway” will give you more opportunity to fail. So, I’m prepping for take-off soon, so that I don’t fall off the cliff. I’d rather get some miles flown away from the island toward filmmaking civilization than be forever stranded and never accomplish anything.

In my quest, I also reach back and try to help others in similar quests too. As you know, I run the Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire. I do this to help create a community in my area. It’s rewarding and I get more back than I put into it, so that’s cool too.

In taking off, it helps to have a flight plan and, per my earlier post, I’m defining more and more who I am, or more accurately where I’m going.

At LAFCPUG this last Wednesday, there was a career coach that talked about “Breakthrough goals”. These I would describe as steps toward a larger objective. This quarter, I am going to edit for someone else’s project. This is something a little bit off of my island that I feel will really start me on my journey.

I’m also going to start to finish reading the books I have. The key word there is finish. I seem to start a lot of them but an easily distracted toward some other thing. I guess this all fits into my overall goal for myself to be more streamlined. I think finishing what I start is a good definition for that goal. Shot.edit.learn has started a filmmaking book club, this should help me get through some books! http://shooteditlearn.com/blog/2012/01/23/book-club-for-filmmakers/

I am working with some others who want to work on their filmmaking goals this year too. Working together helps.

Here’s to you and you reaching your goals! If I can assist in any way, let me know!

This will be my fourth NAB (in a row). Ever since the first one, I have vowed to attend every one! They are too much fun, especially for a filmmaking gear and tech junkie like myself.

This time, Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire (IFIE), the group I founded, will be throwing a party!

Planning any type of get together at NAB can be tricky. Upon asking a potential sponsor if they’d like to help, they informed me that, while it was a secret right now, they were going to be announcing a BIG party that same night and I wouldn’t want to miss it…. I’m going forward with mine, just trying for an after-party, more so now.

So far I am aware of the following parties/events that I consider “must attends”:
• RED User Party (Sunday, 6-10-ish PM)
• *IFIE Monster Mini Golf Presents KISS Indoor Mini Golf Tournament (Sunday?)
• All In Film (on Monday)
• MediaMotion Ball April 16th Monday <- Tickets available in Feb at http://www.mediamotionball.com/signup.html
• Supermeet aka FCPUG Network Supermeet (usually on a Tuesday)
• AJA Party (?)
• ProMax usually throws a party too…

I’ll update the list as I find out more. Comment below if your privy to any more or more details… Thanks!

Okay, so I promised to write here more often and here’s another post to help keep up with my word.

It’s already been two weeks and it barely feels like two days!

I’ve had one photo-travel getaway, had a couple of great meetings, and I almost have all the Christmas decorations put away.

I tweeted this the end of Dec: “If ‘writing is rewriting’ and ‘editing is re-editing’, I’m going to ‘invent’ myself in 2012.” I think for me, at this point, that that means I’m going to try to really define what goals I want for myself and define, more clearly, who I am. Existentially, that, really, always changes but for this phase of “me”, I am deciding to give myself some more clearly defined “boundaries”, let’s say.

Hmm… yeah… so I guess this post is really about how as much as I want to be defined, I am always well aware that life is a “globulous” organism, constantly in flux. I’ve heard it said, “You never know which road you’re on” when it comes to career. You may start out doing one thing and never realize you’re going to be heading down a path to do another thing, that you’re going to completely enjoy but that you’ve never heard of before.

Having said all of that, let me start to define who I am. By “who I am”, I mean in the working sense. This has no bearing on what kind of person I am (necessarily), my family life nor my political views (I hate talking politics, BTW), etc. I am an editor. This itself has many definitions and is my favorite label. I am a producer. I founded and run a filmmaking usergroup. I am a student (on many levels, career and life and I consider this under the term “life-long learner”).

Now that it’s clear who I am… crystal, right…? I will try to keep my future posts related to the above four labels. (Note: “editor” label will include the occasional VFX, colorist, audio, etc. [anything post related really] topics and “producer” label may include various filmmaking topics.) I have many adventures planned this year. I hope you’ll join me.

I guess I’m pretty lucky. 2011 wasn’t that bad for me. Looking over the news and a lot of Facebook posts, people are really looking forward to saying goodbye to 2011 and hoping that 2012 will be much better.

I do hope 2012 is much better for everyone. I also hope it’s better for me too, better is better, right?

I won’t say everything was great in 2011 because not everything was. Life is a pretty rocky road. You get dealt good and bad and hopefully, you have the ability to stand the bad. I seriously don’t know how some people move on from tragedy. I’ve heard it said that some lose something in their face, it becomes a little less bright or they wear their sadness there. As I get older, I feel like that slowly happens to me as well. At times, I can’t imagine living past a certain age. I thank my family for giving me the greatest reason to carry on, to enjoy seeing change and growth in their lives.

I live my life mostly in the pursuit of helping others but I also try to do as much of that through doing what I love to do too. Quintessential Studios was formed with some grand ideas. I envision a huge facility of video and audio recording and editing stages and bays. I think of it as a co-op sort of situation where the community comes and is able to take advantage of space, classes, etc. I make moves to push Quintessential Studios in this direction as much as I can, little by little. Currently we are an “independent production company” and as so, we are doing a little more each year. 2012 should be a really good year for that side of things. I also try to build the local filmmaking community by running Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire. We’re experiencing growth in that area and I’m very excited for 2012.

We have 10 meetings scheduled for 2012 and one super duper party planned for 15 April in Las Vegas during NAB! Hope to see you there!

Thank you to everyone who helped make my 2011 what it was and I hope you all have the best year ever coming up.

I will do my best to make it a great one. I look forward to more interaction with more people and growth along all areas. I’m really seeking some life balance this year and so far things are shaping up to be, mostly, great.

I’ll post more here too, I promise….

Do you have an interest that is shared by many or by a very rare few?  Perhaps you like photography.  That’s a big subject with a large fan base.  Perhaps you like to keep African Killifish.  That’s has a bit of a smaller appeal.  I, myself, have had various interests in my life (the above subjects included!) I’ve had more hobbies than years of my life.  I guess you could say I get bored quickly.  More than that, I get very interested in things, very easily.  Life interests me!

In the “good old days”, if you wanted to find out more about something, you’d go down to the library, check out a couple books on the subject, read up on it and give it a go.  Additionally, you could find a local store that specialized in that sort of thing and chat with the store owner for hours at a time.  The later worked very well if it was a popular activity, like tropical fish or photography.  It also helped in being able to get supplies for said hobby or future business idea.  I always seemed to want to grow whatever my hobby was into some sort of business venture.  I guess that is the entrepreneur in me!

I once saw a program on TV about this twelve-year old millionaire and he started with a pair of hamsters!  (Yes, I even tried to raise hamsters too!) I mean isn’t that what they say, “If you want to be happy, do what you love for a living!”  (I’ve also had more jobs than years of my life!)  But, I AM happy!

There have long been magazines on just about every subject too.  Sometimes, you’d get lucky and there would be a local club related to the subject of your interest, as well.  This adds a whole new level of enjoyment and education to your hobby/business interest.  I have been involved with a few different clubs in my past as well.  Heck when I was ten, I started the Riverside Tropical Fish Club.  There were only three members but I even managed to get a sponsor to donate free samples of fish food and water conditioner to the club.  After that win, I tried, unsuccessfully, to get a donated remote control car to my bright idea of a club, “The Riverside R/C Club!” Oh well! You can’t blame a kid for trying!

So, I guess you can say I’ve had a long history of starting groups.  It’s one of the best solutions for loneliness that I know of!  Join or start a group!  At the very least, you’re going to meet some cool people with the same interest as you.

A “user” group is a group of people that share an interest in “using” some thing, usually a piece of software or suite of software.  There are computer user groups too, like Mac User Groups or PC User Groups.  They are usually put together so that you can learn to use that particular thing better or to get new ideas on how to use it.  There are, for example, graphics user groups who cover creating things with graphics programs like After Effects or Cinema 4D or Maya or something similar.

One of the benefits of a user group is that with the combined membership, you have clout.  You have more clout than with just yourself.  Companies in the field want to communicate to your group and know that a group will benefit their business in many ways.  This is so true that they often give stuff to the group, like prize giveaways and big discounts.

More than the above points, user groups are just a lot of fun!  Meeting people with the same interests, talking about projects, networking, getting new ideas, etc. are some of the great aspects of being a part of a user group.

Currently, I am signed up with lots of filmmaking related user groups and attend three or four on a regular basis: Los Angeles Final Cut Pro Users Group, Los Angeles Post Production Group, Southbay Filmmakers and Digital Media Artists Los Angeles to name a few.  This is in addition to the filmmaking group that I run myself (Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire, “IFIE”).

Each meeting or meetup I attend is great.  Very nice people are there and we all share a passion for what we do.  I can’t say enough about networking.  The bonds from a user group are usually a lot stronger than ones made “on the street”.

I see all kinds of people at user group meetings, from ones who just come to see the presentation and never talk to anyone to those who have their core friends that they meet there to those that are really good at meeting lots of people and engaging many conversations.  So, whoever you are, there’s a place for you there too!

My own group uses a lot of different things.  So, I have set out to make it an official user group for whatever products we use.  We are an official Avid User Group, an official Adobe User Group, an Apple User Group, a Focal Press User Group, a Peachpit User Group, an O’Reilly User Group and a Sony Vegas User Group.  Each of these designations has its own unique benefits.  All of which translate to a better user group experience.

User groups usually have a set meeting date and time, say the first Wednesday of the month, like mine, from 7 to 10 PM. Some are very strict with their schedule and start and end on time and others are a bit more lax and tend to go over, like mine!  I think the only problem I have is that I want them to go on longer.  Some groups have after-meeting get-togethers, like over pizza or beers or a late night Denny’s run, for the hard core members (who don’t have to be home so soon). Some are held AT a pizza place!

They also usually stick to a basic format, say some networking or introduction time, announcements, presentations of various sorts and then a raffle or auction of some sort.  The prizes are sort of an enticement to stay till the end, usually.

Like the good old days, we still have the options of the library and the local store owner.  But unlike the old days, we have all kinds of new ways to get information.  The Internet has helped tremendously, not only to look up information regarding your interest but also to find user groups to join!  Meetup.com is a great place to start looking.  If any of the above sounds appealing to you, I recommend finding a user group near you to join.  Not only join, but attend the meetings and functions.  You’ll have a blast.

My impression of In the Cut: Employing the Art of Editing Seminar by Thomas Ethan Harris at the Egyptian Theatre 2/17/2011

Part I

It’s hard to convey the sheer brilliance of the seminar a lucky few of us had the chance to attend last night.

I’ve seen glimpses of this type of information, namely in two places, Peter D. Marshall’s directing course and in an introductory speech by Professor Daniel Jacobo from Chaffey College on the Tao of Super 8.

Granted I have not attended any film schools nor have I studied too in depth in regards to film theory, but I would agree that this type of expertise could probably be gotten at any film school, through lots of diligent study, but this night we were treated to an intensive course in intelligent filmmaking through exposure to some great scenes and lively discussion about the particular editing techniques used (or not used).

As a fairly new editor and filmmaker, I was completely unaware of the insidious disease that has been being transmitted to the youthful filmmakers of my and the upcoming generation of filmmakers, the infectious disease of (actually less-than) mediocre filmmaking.

It didn’t take long to discover that I and thousands of “filmmakers” the world round were engaging in unsafe activities and further propagating the existence of such deadly things as “mumblecore”!

It was nice to get professional treatment right there on the spot, in this make-shift “clinic”, the Steven Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian. An “inoculation” directly applied to the filmmaking wound of mediocrity that is festering and infecting the future of filmmaking.

“Dr” Thomas Ethan Harris not only provided emergency treatment but also provided education to help us prevent future outbreaks….

To read more go to http://bit.ly/frdpmN