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We just hot-swapped in a new design.  We are still working out some of the quirks.

I’m sure this one is going to get around the blogosphere pretty quickly. Some of the most influential DIY filmmakers on the net have gotten together to make what might be called the film festival 2.0. It’s called From Here to Awesome and features many of the online social networking principles that have been employed to do successful DIY film distribution: youtube, myspace, blogs, and audience control.

The masterminds behind this project are:

• Lance Weiler - Lance is the founder of The Workbook Project, a fantastic resource for filmmakers. He wrote and directed Head Trauma and The Last Broadcast
• Arin Crumley - Arin’s feature film Four-Eyed Monsters was distributed with an extensive no-budget marketing campaign that used just about every online social networking tool out there.
• M dot Strange - (real name: Michael Belmont) M made the internet sensation We Are the Strange, an animated film that premiered last year at Sundance.

Some relevant Videos:

• Lance Weiler talking about “truly independent” production in general and his film Head Trauma in particular:
• Trailer for We Are The Strange:
• Arin Crumley’s preview for Four Eyed Monsters. That’s Arin playing the lead:

The films of David Lynch are not for everybody (Lynch on IMDb). I am often hesitant to share his films with friends unless I know that they appreciate what might be called “the aesthetics of the weird.” That said, I think he’s really brilliant, especially when it comes to creative an immersing experience. Here are a few videos of Lynch giving his opinion of some trends in movie viewing and movie making. Both are really funny.

Also, going along with our previous post on ideas, here is David Lynch’s take on ideas.

Music is a perpetual problem for indie filmmakers.  Over at Rhythm Creation, they’ve got a great list of 10 great sites for getting free music and sound samples.  Most of the sites offer the music royalty free.  Some are only royalty free for non-commercial projects.  I checked out several of the sites and they look pretty good.  I especially recommend Sample Swap.

People always ask Neil Gaiman where he gets his ideas. The popular author of several books and screenwriter of the recent films Stardust and Beowulf has a lot to say about answering this question. His short answer:

‘I make them up,’ I tell them. ‘Out of my head.’

But before, you go and read his essay on the topic which I highly recommend, stick around here for what I think is the most effective tip for coming up with (and keeping) new ideas.

Here’s the short answer: write them down.

Sounds too simple to be the killer solution doesn’t it?

Maybe, but here’s the truth, writing down ideas eliminates a block to having them. If an idea has to hang around in your short term memory for a long time in order for it to get written down, that’s a serious stress on your brain. Your brain is not going to generate ideas if it’s just going to mean more stress, more work, more things to remember. When you write them down, you get them out of your head and then your brain is free to come up with more ideas, new ideas, better ideas.

Get the right tools

Personal productivity mavens will be familiar with the term “ubiquitous capture tool.” That’s a fancy term for a notebook and pen that you always have at hand. Ideas come all the time. Be ready.

I recommend choosing a notebook format that you like and stick with it. You will be surprised how fast you fill them and need to line them up on a bookshelf somewhere. Personally, I am a fan of the Circa notebooks from Levenger because I can rearrange the pages like its a binder but it doesn’t have the clunky metal rings. I know a lot of people swear by the Moleskine, also a good option. For the budget savvy, there is also the Hipster PDA (which I also use when even a notebook is too cumbersome). A Hipster PDA is just a stack of 3×5 index cards held together by a binder clip. You’ll find this has all kinds of other useful side effects. Any way you go, having a system makes a huge difference.

Okay, now go read Neil Gaiman’s essay on getting ideas and after every bit of advice he gives, add the words “and then write that idea down.”

As part of our New Year’s cleaning effort, my wife and I finally got around to organizing our bookshelves.  In the process, I found several great books that I had forgotten about.  Here’s my list of the top five film books that I forgot I owned.

1. Film as Art by Rudolph Arnheim - This book goes way back.  The author goes so far as to argue against new-fangled ideas like sound and color.  Regardless of whether you think all films should be B&W and silent, Arnheim does a stellar job of identifying the way a filmmaker puts his artistic mark on a film.
2. Film Form by Sergei Eisenstein - The classic collection of essays by the Russian montage master.  He really makes you think about what meaning is added to a pair of shots when they are edited together.  I also think his writings on rhythm are essential for any filmmaker.
3. What is Cinema? by André Bazin - These essays by the French film critic, André Bazin, do what only the best criticism can - explain why films are good rather than why they are bad.  Great lessons for filmmakers.
4. In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch - A quick and insightful read on what make a good cut, written by a master editor.
5. Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez - This book chronicles Robert Rodriguez’s rise to fame with his first indy feature, El Mariachi.  This book probably inspires more young filmmakers to go for it than any other out there.

Although most of these are pretty old, they contain a lot of great insights that could be helpful to any filmmaker.

The time-lapse sequence has become quite popular in how-to videos to replace the old cooking show stand-by, “Here’s one I prepared earlier.” The explosion of DIY videos on the internet is really great but often the time-lapse sequence of the thing being built is not all that interesting. The key to making a worthwhile time-lapse segment is the same as the key to a good camera move:

Make the middle interesting, otherwise use a cut.

If all that matters is the before and the after, use a cut or transition. You wouldn’t want to use a long, slow pan from one item of interest to another if the area between them is visually uninteresting. The same holds for the time lapse; if it’s just people moving around really quickly and you can’t tell what’s going on, you probably can just cut to the chase.

The best time-lapse footage comes from something where you can see a long arduous process come to life, like a building being erected in a couple minutes or a pumpkin rotting. Here’s a great example from my friend Clay.

The term “pulldown” has been around, and implemented since films were being edited on videotape. It is only now, with almost every prosumer camcorder on the market having the ability to record in 24p format, that pulldown has entered into conversations among amateur filmmakers. Before discussing pulldown, a few basics about the NTSC video signal.

In the United States, the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) has defined a standard for all analog (non HD) television systems to operate which is based on a 60Hz frequency of alternating current. A video image is made up of 525 horizontal lines of information. An electron gun inside your television scans a single frame of video twice in 1/30th of a second. Each scan is called a field, and this process is referred to as “interlacing”. It starts from the top line, called the “upper field” or “odd field” and alternates fields (1, 3, 5 etc.) until it finishes at the bottom. (This process occurs in 1/60th of a second). The electron gun then returns to the top of the screen and scans the “lower fields” or “even fields” and completes the image. This process produces exactly 30 frames every second. This was true for black and white television. As many of you know, however, todays television signal is now slightly slower running at 29.97 frames. This was a side effect of the invention of color television, and a phasing issue between the color carrier, and the sound carrier. Thus the color carrier was slowed .03 frames per second creating a very complicated scenario for todays filmmakers. Okay, now for another equally confusing topic… pulldown.

Film cameras, and many video cameras, as mentioned before, are capable of recording at 24fps. Pulldown is a process of eliminating frames created during the telecine process (film transferred to video) for computer editing. This allows an editor to edit a 24fps project without having to worry about making a cut on a “fake frame”, a frame created in telecine which does not exist in the originally shot film material. When a film project is completed, an edit decision list (EDL) is created from the computer, which is then sent to a negative cutter who uses the list of cuts generated from the computer to make an actual film spliced version of your movie (yes the process still occurs). If you did not pulldown your video when capturing your material into the computer, every edit has a 1 in 5 chance of being a “fake frame” thus making your EDL incorrect for the negative cutter. (The telecine process adds 6 frames of video to your film material creating your 30fps).

2:3 pulldown is the most common form of pulldown, which means that the first frame of your film is represented by the first 2 fields of video, the second frame of film by 3 fields of video, third frame, 2 fields, fourth frame, 3 fields and so on. Take a look at the chart.

Telecine machines are also capable of transferring material for a 3:2 pulldown. All this means is that digitized material must be set to first capture at a B frame, rather than A.

All this being said, what does pulldown do for amatuer filmmakers utilizing 24p technology. Nothing — unless of course, your material is being transferred to film or another playback method capable of running at 24 frames per second. The final playback method of your finished project should be considered at the time of acquisition. Although it may be tempting to shoot in 24p, the filmmaker should remember that if the final playback ultimately will be for DVD/TV that run at 29.97 fps, so will your movie.

There are always rumors circulating about the release of real time TC generator effect for avid, to which all are inevitably untrue. As a professional avid editor, you maintain a certain close relationship with the tech guys out there in Tewksbury, and amidst our regular conversations, I kept asking the same question. “When are you making a RT timecode gen?” — Always to which they responded “Soon”. Frankly, I got sick of asking, and decided to make my own. It was mind numbingly easy to achieve and have never had to render another TC window burn again. Here it is –

Step 1: This will be the last TC effect you will ever have to render. Make it a long one. Create a sequence of however long you will need your TC to run. Mine is 1 hour. Apply the effect with no video in the background, and render.

Step 2: Create a quicktime of your sequence.

Step 3: Import this quicktime into Avid. This will be your TC Burn In .

Step 4: Mark an “In” point at the first frame of your TC Burn. Mark an “In” point to the corresponding Timecode in your sequence. Edit your TC clip as the upper most track in your sequence.

Step 5: Apply a Picture in Picture Effect to your TC Burn. (Note: This is a real time effect and does not need to be rendered!) Crop the Window Burn to reveal the Timecode. Use the postion to place the TC wherever you like on the screen.

That’s It! A perfect Real time TC Burn that MacGyver would be proud of. A few pitfalls to be aware of however. Make sure that your Burn In Timecode and your sequence Timecode match — meaning both are Drop Frame, or both Non Drop, however you are working. Also, if you let it, Avid will try and render your effect… No! It will play perfectly fine unrendered. Deselect this track, while rendering your sequence.