Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Day one - Half dead to Olympian
Okay not exactly half-dead, but fantastically out of shape, yes. And not really on my way to Olympian, but hopefully for a 5k finish line on December 12th, 2010. So I have a few weeks to train and today was day ONE! Run/walk for 15 minutes. Sounds like a joke to many of my marathon running friends I have no doubt, but I pretty much hate running, wasn't apparently built for running and isn't someone who looks as though they've ever run anywhere. So to run my first 5k is a BIG DEAL. Will I do it? Well, I'm supposed to BELIEVE and say YES! but honesetly I have no idea. I'm going to try, and we'll see how it goes. Tomorrow I have to run/walk for 2 miles. 2 miles!? Can I drive instead?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Will The Real Editor Please Stand Up?
So I've already mentioned in a previous post that I'm a big fan of Free Open Source software, and Linux. While I find working with Sony Vegas Pro very easy and intuitive, it is the antithesis of FOSS, so I am now looking at a free editor called Cinelerra. The user interface is ugly and intimidating as hell, but it's very stable and just as powerful as Sony Vegas. Also, it allows me to work in my chosen OS, Linux. Ubuntu 10.04 64bit to be exact.
I was also attracted to a new editor called OpenShot which is also FOSS, and has a beautiful and simple user interface, but I would really prefer more advanced editing resources such as masking and chromakey. Still, one can make a great looking film with OpenShot and I strongly suggest you try it if you're looking for a good editing program.
Now the three films we've released have been comedy shorts, but I'm really chomping at the bit to do something more serious. We were going to shoot a feature film called The Veils of October to be released 10/20/2010, but I'm afraid we've run out of time with all our crashing editor woes. (see previous post). I still would like to attempt it, possibly as a short. The bottom line is, I'm going to try editing the next one in Cinelerra. Fingers crossed.
I was also attracted to a new editor called OpenShot which is also FOSS, and has a beautiful and simple user interface, but I would really prefer more advanced editing resources such as masking and chromakey. Still, one can make a great looking film with OpenShot and I strongly suggest you try it if you're looking for a good editing program.
Now the three films we've released have been comedy shorts, but I'm really chomping at the bit to do something more serious. We were going to shoot a feature film called The Veils of October to be released 10/20/2010, but I'm afraid we've run out of time with all our crashing editor woes. (see previous post). I still would like to attempt it, possibly as a short. The bottom line is, I'm going to try editing the next one in Cinelerra. Fingers crossed.
Making the film company
It started with hundreds of interesting ideas over a period of years. Unfortunately, most of those ideas have been forgotten. Always write your ideas down! But new ideas are born every day so no excuses!
How to start a film company: (at least, how we did it)
So my nephew Dale bought a cheap HD camera for under $200 and a $15 plastic Tripod. My wife DeeDee came up with the "Your baby can *insert funny idea here* as sort of a loose parody of the popular "Your Baby Can Read" videos. Since we do have a very cute, and smart 15 month old baby, the way forward was clear.
First, however, we wanted to test the camera and find out if we were even capable of making a decent film. I came up with the 'Alien Abduction' comedy short and we started preparing to shoot. I was too lazy to write a script (as with all our film shorts so far) so we just went with it. One long take of Dale sitting at the laptop and one long take of me mocking Dale while standing nearby. I bought a 99 cent white poster board, attached it to a speaker stand (from my band's PA system), and attached to work lights to it and pointed them at the white board. This helped to warm up the lighting in the room. I then built a sort of instant boom mic with a microphone stand and a condenser mic.
I recorded the sound signal into a mixer which would eventually be loaded into the computer as a wav file.
After shooting, the EDITOR fiasco began. How would I cut and edit the movie? As a giant fan of Linux and Open Source software, I chose Kdenlive for it's advanced features. I was able to edit both the Aliens film and Baby Can Burglarize with Kdenlive, but not without massive difficulty. Our films survived literally hundreds of crashes. Yes, Kdenlive was very unstable for me. During the editing of our most recent film, Your Baby Can Hack Computers, we went through weeks of difficulty. I sold my best guitar amp and bought a computer. A zoombox or something. Not powerful enough - back to Fry's. Then bought a quad-core Gateway. Had that for a few days until DeeDee tripped over a keyboard cable, sending the computer flying. Back to Fry's. Replaced the computer and started again. I re-edited the film from scratch in the following editors:
Kdenlive
Openshot
Sony Vegas Pro (cracked)
I'm not even sure which one won out, but I was VERY glad to get the most recent film uploaded to YouTube, to join our other shorts.
I will continue the story in the next blog entitled: Will the real editor please stand up?
How to start a film company: (at least, how we did it)
- Buy a camera
- Shoot Something
- Edit it
- Upload it somewhere
So my nephew Dale bought a cheap HD camera for under $200 and a $15 plastic Tripod. My wife DeeDee came up with the "Your baby can *insert funny idea here* as sort of a loose parody of the popular "Your Baby Can Read" videos. Since we do have a very cute, and smart 15 month old baby, the way forward was clear.
First, however, we wanted to test the camera and find out if we were even capable of making a decent film. I came up with the 'Alien Abduction' comedy short and we started preparing to shoot. I was too lazy to write a script (as with all our film shorts so far) so we just went with it. One long take of Dale sitting at the laptop and one long take of me mocking Dale while standing nearby. I bought a 99 cent white poster board, attached it to a speaker stand (from my band's PA system), and attached to work lights to it and pointed them at the white board. This helped to warm up the lighting in the room. I then built a sort of instant boom mic with a microphone stand and a condenser mic.
I recorded the sound signal into a mixer which would eventually be loaded into the computer as a wav file.
After shooting, the EDITOR fiasco began. How would I cut and edit the movie? As a giant fan of Linux and Open Source software, I chose Kdenlive for it's advanced features. I was able to edit both the Aliens film and Baby Can Burglarize with Kdenlive, but not without massive difficulty. Our films survived literally hundreds of crashes. Yes, Kdenlive was very unstable for me. During the editing of our most recent film, Your Baby Can Hack Computers, we went through weeks of difficulty. I sold my best guitar amp and bought a computer. A zoombox or something. Not powerful enough - back to Fry's. Then bought a quad-core Gateway. Had that for a few days until DeeDee tripped over a keyboard cable, sending the computer flying. Back to Fry's. Replaced the computer and started again. I re-edited the film from scratch in the following editors:
Kdenlive
Openshot
Sony Vegas Pro (cracked)
I'm not even sure which one won out, but I was VERY glad to get the most recent film uploaded to YouTube, to join our other shorts.
I will continue the story in the next blog entitled: Will the real editor please stand up?
Thursday, October 07, 2010
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