Bay Area Film makers Podcast

Episode 9 - 48-Hour Film Challenge

Episode 8 - Incredible NAB roudup

Episode 7 - Pandamonium Production Podcast #1 - Intro

Episode 2V - Video Podcast

Episode 6 - bluecat screenplay competition

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Posted By: ThomasKoch
Posted On: August 12, 2008 | 9:03 pm

Red workflow article in Digital Content Producer

Over at Digital Content Producer there is an article about a music video production shot on the RED Digital Cinema Camera. They highlight a workflow problem they have with the camera. They list things that didn't work, and problems that they had, which really boil down to one thing: They didn't have post worked out before they shot. They didn't know how to make post work on the RED. It's not hard. It's not rocket science. But it does have to be in place before you are ready to edit.

RED has a quick workflow diagram on their site.

While I admit, this is a very simplified version, it's pretty close.

So, when we were getting ready for the 48 hour film project in San Francisco, I tested tested and tested every night for a week. I dealt with the same issues of Quicktime versions not working with the proxies and the slow down in build 16. But a week before our shoot, I solved all the issues allowing the editor to work in real-time with the H resolution (2K) proxy files. We had a lot of shots in our 8 minute film, and we were able to do it all in a 48 hour period.

In all things film, the key is pre-production.

Thomas A. Koch

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Posted By: Sinohui
Posted On: August 9, 2008 | 11:07 am

iTunes, Upload and the Future of Digital Filmmaking

As many of you know, I also work within the distribution business at a new studio, but one question that I get from both new filmmakers and veterans, is how to get their films up on iTunes. I just got an email yesterday with that very question.

So here I am, wading through contracts from a bunch of different companies to do just that (for our studio), but just as I was going to write up a long post about how you too can get your content going through the Apple-verse, I found a great blog that does just that. Scott Kirsner is an accomplished writer and has kept this blog going since 2005.

http://cinematech.blogspot.com/

Check it out, there is some great info there - I check out their blog regularly, maybe you should too.

Cheers,

Sinohui

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Posted By: Sinohui
Posted On: August 6, 2008 | 9:26 am

U.S. Premiere of THE NOTHING MEN - USC

For those of you in the Los Angeles area this evening, the USC School of Cinematic Arts will be host a premiere of The Nothing Men, the first feature film shot exclusively on the RED Digital Cinema Camera in Australia. Heard a couple of rumors that the screening was sold out, but if you have friends or faculty over there - try to check it out.

Oh, one more thing. Turns out the the good folks over at RED, caught a glimpse of our trailer for The Last Job and IF they can transfer the footage to a D-5 Digital Master, it will play prior to the screening tonight at USC.

Pretty cool, huh?

For more details, check out:
http://cinema.usc.edu/about/events/event_20080724.htm

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Posted By: Sinohui
Posted On: August 5, 2008 | 5:30 pm

The Poster for The Last Job

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Posted By: Sinohui
Posted On: August 5, 2008 | 5:09 pm

Website Launched - The Last Job

Sinohui here, interestingly enough - I found this in my email today:

Quote:

The website for one of the next feature films under the Emerging Artist Productions banner has launched today, with a look at the teaser-trailer and some of the preliminary poster artwork. Visit http://www.thelastjob.com for details.

The Last Job tells the tale of an Ex-KGB agent and his desire to leave
the life of espionage behind him. When Yuri Rodchencko is captured and
interrogated at Guantanamo Bay, he accepts a lifetime behind bars
instead of revealing his sources and contacts, until a CIA operative
opens the possibility of freedom. A freedom hard-earned, IF, he is
willing to work with his former Cold War counterparts.

Rebuilding his life on the outside, an old enemy (long thought dead)
returns, and Yuri is forced to protect those around him, including
Stephanie Anders, the grandchild he never knew, from a family he was
forced to leave behind.

Expected to lens Winter 2008, on the new RED One Digital Cinema
Camera in 4K. Produced by Bernard Fok and Sinohui Hinojosa for Emerging Artist Productions.

The Last Job - A Sinohui Hinojosa Film

Ok, I found it in my SENT mail, but that is besides the point.

What I am excited to say is, the incredible work that Thomas, Michael Epple, Sam Hancock, Joel H. Hinojosa and Thaddeus Setla have done in a mere 48 hour period, is actually paying off. Yes, I did (kinda) force/ask Thomas to help me at gunpoint (or I threatened to spread more rumors about his unnatural love of Wendy's - OK, that WE have) and I had to coerce my producing partner Bernard Fok to dig deep and make this work on five shillings and two boxtops a day, plus I am sure that we have all heard about the mythical "help me now, it will pay off later" monster...but this time, things are looking real good.

Fact: our short film was well received, (I think the term was shock and awe j/k), but compared to some of the other films, we more than held our own, plus the imagery that was produced was breath-taking (if you don't believe me, stop reading this for a second and visit http://www.thelastjob.com and watch the trailer)....

...go ahead, I'll wait.

....OK, where was I? Oh yeah,

Fact: I was able to secure distribution for a feature film version of the concept, based on the strength of the footage, the posters we created and the crew we have in place. We will even get to talk to some foreign sales agents at AFM (let's talk pre-sale).

Fact: Thomas was right. By shooting with the RED, it allowed us the freedom to get the kind of footage we want, it much less time that it would have taken with other rigs, so that means we are talking two RED cameras for the feature.

Like I said, things are going pretty well and it looks like we have a few supporters in high places, but I will, over the next few weeks and months, start blogging about the process, the ups and downs and how we are planning on making a film on five shillings and two boxtops a day.

Cheers,

Sinohui Hinojosa
Emerging Artist Productions
& The Bay Area Filmmaker's Podcast

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Posted By: ThomasKoch
Posted On: July 24, 2008 | 9:10 pm

RED 48-hour Workflow - Part 1

It was late. I had just come off a 12-hour shooting day in Munich. I checked my e-mail before bed to see if there was an emergency. There wasn’t, but there was an e-mail from Sinohui.
He wanted to compete in the San Francisco 48-hour film festival and wanted to know if I would be the Director of Photography. Tough call. I hear those things are tough. Long hours, hard work, and no sleep. I wouldn’t answer him for quite some time, hoping he would just forget about it.

When I arrived stateside a week later, he asked me again and I said, “Yes.” (I ended up not being the DP on the film) After discussing the project and all that it entails, I made the call that we had to shoot RED. My HVX-200 with the Redrock Micro M2 cinema adapter would just be too difficult to work with in such fast and furious shooting. People have done it, even me, and I’ve found it takes time to get the unit to work at its best. I wouldn’t do that on such a short notice and such a small time frame.

Luckily, I know a guy.

Mike Epple and I met on a shoot way back in 2005. He was the Director of Photography and I was the Production Sound Mixer. We’ve worked on a few projects since then, some of them paid. I sent him an e-mail and after a few weeks of talking and making sure his schedule was clear, he agreed to work on the film. Mike owns a RED and is an extremely talented cinematographer so we were very lucky to have him on board.

We’ve all heard about the RED and there are a lot of people complaining about the workflow. I often hear about people that don’t know there is a quick way to do it. If anyone has any reservations, they should watch the [url=http://www.red.com/red_mythbusters]RED Myth busters video[/url/. It’s real, and it’s true. It is easy.

Mike (The DP), Sinohui, (The Director) and Joel (The Editor) all met at a coffee shop in Mountain View and shot some test footage on Build 16. I then took that footage back to my edit suite and began to find the best workflow for the 48-hour film festival. Really we were looking at speed and quality, with speed being more important.

I timed a lot of different ways, including rendering clips out of REDCine to Prores, and also the QuickTime proxies directly in Final Cut. I could playback the Medium Res files in real time, but not the High Res proxies. The editing was quick, but the image wasn’t as good as I had hoped in this resolution. I installed 8 Gigs of RAM for the 8-core Mac pro and that made all the difference. High res proxies were playing back in real time. On build 15, I was able to play back the High res proxies in real time with 2 Gigs of RAM, but with build 16, it requires more RAM. I expect the build 16 footage to play back more easily as they get out of BETA on the build.

After, editing the clips and exporting different settings out to a Standard Definition file, I realized that I had to add some softening to the clip in Final Cut to avoid any problems from taking a 4K image down to SD. This was quick and easy, and required a render, but the export looked fantastic. I’ve heard stories about how horrible it is taking 4K down to Standard Definition, but I did not experience that at ALL. In fact, with a little softening, it was awesome! The actual filter in Final Cut was the “Soft Focus” filter with “Amount 1” and “Strength .21”.

With our Workflow in place, it was time to get ready for the shoot.

-Thomas A. Koch
The Last Job – RED Workflow Manager, Assistant Director

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