@Digital Revolution Podcast Episode 10: Social Networking

I can’t believe that we were able to do a podcast every week since the start of this quarter despite all the projects we’ve been working on. This week we did something different in celebration of our Fundamentals of Web Design Class, where we included tons of our fellow students to join in including, Dustin Trayer, Josh Watts, Brett Chatelain, Thomas McGovern, Robert Yelsky and J.R Biche. It was great fun, and a bit of a longer podcast packed with lots of information about what we learned from this class. For any filmmakers out there this is great podcast to really help  you figure out how to tackle this world of social networking in a really professional way. Looking forward to the next 10 podcasts!

Major Freshman Effort

Well, just last weekend I had the great experience of directing my first major narrative project. I have been in school for about 9 quarters helping multiple projects in different ways from grip, to producing so I am not unfamiliar to how a set works. However my only experience directing a major project was for a documentary I did near the start of my education. It felt like a long time coming for me to really practice directing and hone the craft I eventually would love to follow (editing being a close second).

The experience was lovely, and I really learned a lot. I wanted to talk about a couple things  that I think are vital when on set as a young director and what will help you to keep the path clear.

Delegate!

Now I know this seems pretentious, or even rude but it’s not. As the director everyone is waiting on you to guide what’s going to happen next, what shot are you seeing, and creatively keeping the flow. What you shouldn’t be doing is worrying about everything there is to worry on a set. Even helping with some aspects of the set can actually slow things down in the long run. Don’t start helping to set-up lights, or mess with audio. It’s not about not caring, or even not wanting to help, it’s that the best thing you can do is make sure you are focused. The more focused you are on getting the good shots, helping the actor’s get into character, and making sure you know what’s up ahead is most important. The most important person on the set (for at least me) was my Assistant Director Dana Shaw. He kept my aware of the time, and was always there to help make every other aspect of the shoot was going smoothly. During the shoot I had a hard time not helping, which at least for this scale was not a bad thing. However I can for sure see that this wasn’t best practice. Remember, you aren’t being a jerk you are just trying to make sure you are keeping yourself focused to help the crew.

Pre-Production

This may seem obvious to most, but I can’t stress enough how vital it is to plan. Even on a tight schedule, give yourself plenty of time to get pre-production ready for your project. This includes location scouting, casting, scriptrevisions, and one of the most important is the shot-list. Go through with your Director of Photography step-by-step through the script and create a shot list. The more that you and your DP are on the same wavelength, the smoother the production process will go. If find that a shot doesn’t work on set, and you are supposed to get a shot off in 10 minutes, with careful pre-production it won’t take long for you and your DP to create a shot that fits the visual style of your film. Never push off Pre-Production, it’s the most vital aspect of getting the film actually made and you will find the quality of your projects improve with the more Pre-Production you can have.

There is a lot that I learned over the shoot, but these elements are really what stood out to me the most. While I think we did a good job in Pre-Production, on set I was much more hands-on with the set itself which caused some snags and some hiccups. Overall I had a great experience, and look for the short film this week on the web!

Featured Artist Q/A (Special Entry)

This is a re-post from the Artist Workflow of our first Q&A with Amy Harrison. She writes some really great real experience of how she works. Enjoy this short Q&A, and I hope you find some great knowledge from it!

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This is our first installment of our featured artist Q&A. We were lucky enough to get one of our fellow instructors at the Art Institute of California San Francisco, and has a lot of film experience. You find more info about Amy Harriosn are her website. I think she has a lot of great tips here, and enjoy this first installment!

What Drew You Into Being an Artist

If only my father could hear me say it was he who drew me into being an artist! In fact, he tried his hardest to make me a scientist.An engineer to be exact. Summer school classes in Electronic Circuitry, Ham Radio, Morse Code. But his actions spoke louder than words: he painted as a hobby, and so I grew up around oil paints. After my degree in Biology, I promptly moved to New York to become a painter. Luck would have it, I missed my application deadline for art school, and instead made a film about art. That was a happy accident.

(Many years I did go to art school but not for painting).

What inspires you? Do you have any process’s or rituals you perform?

Listening to music. Cleaning my office while listening to music. I like music that’s sad and exhilarating (strong beat and minor key). Arcade Fire. Violent Femmes. Kate Bush. Elliot Smith. Joe Henry. Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins (Bach). I like to listen to the same song over and over. It puts me in a mood.

How do you overcome obstacles you encounter as an artist?

I spend so much time in the “research phase:” letting the world wash over me, taking it in, swimming in it, be it music, the news of the day, an endless web search. But when it comes time to output, I need a chunk of uninterrupted time. And silence. In fact, I do my best writing in a closet. Seriously, I was never so happy as when a colleague lent me the keys to his production company’s storage room, where I set up my laptop and plowed through a draft of a script. Maybe that’s what I need right now – a new closet.

Another necessity: deadlines. Much as I hate being on deadline, that’s the only way anyone can get me to write. Writing is slow going for me, however exhilarating it can be. But you gotta give me a closet and a deadline. In fact if you do, I’ll be forever grateful. I’ll always be grateful to Chris Bongirne, a producer and a fine fellow, for the use of his closet. And to Dakota for giving me a deadline for this copy. In fact, writing this led me to discover a closet here at Ai. Up until now I’ve always left the place in a hurry after my class let out, as there’s no real place for me to settle here. But I may have just found one.

What was your most memorable moment of inspiration?

Watching a film in High School Biology class: the clatter of the projector; the beam of light and the dust particles suspended in space before the screen; and the silver particles suspended on celluloid. The image surface moved and beneath that shifting surface, life took form. In time-lapse magnification gametes somehow found each other. Cells divided. A zygote became an embryo. Sheer magic.

If you could give any advice to how to find your way what would it be?

Find a mentor and treat that person like a peer, only with more respect. Mentors are everywhere, and it doesn’t have to be Yoda or some guru on a mountain. It’s just someone smart who’s a little further along on the journey. And the thing about art – artists are always beginners; every time they start a new project it’s all new. So there’s really a fine line between a mentor and a mentee.

Listen. Listen to feedback. Listen way, way more than you talk.

Say five “yes’s” to every “no” that you utter.

@Digital Revolution Podcast Episode 8 and 9 – Double Feature

I like to think of myself as a good person, though sometimes I make some mistakes. I realize on this Tuesday that I didn’t post up last weeks wonderful episode of the Digital Revolution. However, for those of you that missed out we got a double feature for you this week!

With episode 8, Nico and I delve deeper into what the Dynamic Range of a 7d means, and how it can help you create better video’s! While we discussed picture styles, we never really explained why and what the results can look like. This podcast should help give you an understanding at what your camera should be set at, and what results to expect.

In Episode 9 we talk more about ourselves and who we are. While I’m more of a long walk on the beach kind of guy, Nico tends to work on a ton of film projects to hone his craft. When I’m not walking down beaches I am also creating films of my own and helping spread the word about HDSLR’s around our school. It’s been spreading faster than wildfire with no less then eight students in our program having just bought them as well as our school buying four 7d’s for our cage. It’s an exciting time and we share our perspectives on how it’s changed how we make films as students.

Because Dynamic range is so important, here is a video giving you the lowdown on the process and what you should strive for if you hope to do color correction after your done making your films. Enjoy the podcasts, and see you next week!

iPhone Photo’s – Plastic Bullet

Originally uploaded by dwolffnicolucci

Being a little bit behind the curve has always been my nature when it comes to catching up with trends. I just bought an iPhone 3G about a month ago and have just started diving into the photo apps. As a budding filmmaker and photographer, I find the iPhone to be a really fun medium to shoot photo’s with because of all the different apps. I’d heard great things about the Hipstamatic app, but as luck would have it Red Giant Software had just released it’s photo app Plastic Bullet. Having bought MB Mojo and really enjoying that program I was interested to see how they applied their color correction program to the iPhone. I’ve really enjoyed the app and it’s widely varying visual styles. Everytime you take a photo it shows you four randomly generated shots with it’s unique color correction. You can either favorite it and save it to your phone, or generate four more which will give you a brand new grouping of images. You can even color correct photo’s you’ve already taken. The only thing I wish it would let you do is fine tune each photo a little bit to make the photo that much more personalized. Sometimes I love the color of the shot, but the edges are too feathered or vice versa. Even better it will save a normal copy of your photo as well as your color color corrected copy so that you don’t have to use the stock camera app again.

Overall I really enjoy this app, and I think it’s a blast to use and something I will be playing with for a while. I’m going to probably invest in some more just so that I have options on the go and really figure out which app I want to use for what situation. I think what I love most about iPhone photo’s is that it may not have lenses, but these apps let you really customize these photo’s and really create unique images. If you want to check out my Plastic Bullet uploads as well as my other photo’s check out my flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwolffnicolucci/

@Digital Revolution Podcast Episode 7: Creative Mobility

It was a pleasure this week having guest host Carl Sturgess return, as we discussed the mobility of using the DSLR camera’s for video. We had a lot of fun this week because you can’t help but get excited about the possibilities in relation to mobility. We cover how DSLR’s can be used to save time (and money) and let you experiment during a shoot more then you could with other cameras. With the DSLR’s depth of field, it allows you to create professional looking video much easier and quicker. We aren’t trying to say that you shouldn’t develop your pre-production, that is still a vital element, but what is nice is that when it comes to production you suddenly can find yourself with more time. As always catch us next week with another Digital Revolution Podcast.

Creative Beat – Music that Grows with You (Special Entry)

Music that Grows with You

by dwolffnicolucci

Like many of us, I’ve grown up listening to music from a young age. I remember listening to alternative rock on the radio all day when I lived in Phoenix around 96-99. When I was in kindergarten my teacher commented that I was singing the chorus to Beck’s – Loser, she smiled and then realized I was 6 years old. Now from that age the kind of music I listened to hasn’t changed, as much as it’s grown exponentially. As a kid I listened exclusively to alternative rock, which at that time included Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, Beck, and many other one hit singles that came out during that time. At that time, I knew the names of very few of the bands since they never said their names on the radio. The first album I actually ever owned was KC and the Sunshine Band, looking back it wasn’t the best choice.

What really got me into more music was when I went through the IM phase, using yahoo messenger. They had this audio player that would let you put in all the music you like and then suggest ones you like, a crappier version of Pandora essentially. This program blew my mind and really got me into Radiohead, Deerhoof, Modest Mouse, Gorillaz Interpol, Kings of Leon (when their popular single was “Molly’s Chambers”) and numerous others. Since then, with the influence of my parents and friends, I found music that really pushed what people that knew me expected me to like. It opened up my mind to new kinds of visuals and ideas, and even changed the kind of things I would read and do. Music for me has such a deep seeded effect that I don’t know what I would do without it.

So my suggestion to anyone listening to one style of music, go out on a limb and use something like Pandora and try to find new types of music. If you don’t like a style of music, force yourself to listen to it because you never know what you might find. There is always an exception to the rule, because opening your mind to music will open your mind to new images, and thoughts that you might never have experience if you didn’t try.

For my video of the week, it’s a behind the scenes look at one of my new favorite artists, Florence + The Machine. Some of the songs on her debut album can get a little repetitive, but each song explodes out of your speakers with such a vivid style and color that I can’t help but love it. I’m also a sucker for interesting and different female vocalists combined with multiple instruments. This is a great interview with her and how she developed and found the sound for her album and what inspired her.

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This was an article I wrote for The Artist Workflow that I’m really pleased with. Make sure to check out mine, as well as my fellow colleagues at The Artist Workflow everyweek!

@Digital Revolution Podcast Episode 6: Rolling with the Shutter

This weeks podcast was good fun as usual, this time talking about one of the perceived pitfalls of the DSLR’s, rolling shutter. This is an aspect of these camera’s, that while a problem, can be easily avoided by careful planning and preparation. In the episode host Nico van den Berg and myself discuss some ways to avoid these issues, how to properly use the shutter speed, and what the heck rolling shutter is and how it affects you. I really enjoyed this weeks episode and I hope you do to. Check back next Tuesday for another episode of the Digital Revolution.

Here is a video as well that really helps to demonstrate what rolling shutter is, done by Jon Carr

7d Test Shoot #2 – 70′s lenses

One of the most expensive aspects of owning the 7d is the prospect of more lenses. Most cost upwards of $400, averaging probably closer to $700-$1000. I have the stock lens  that comes with the camera which does a great job for what it is, but I know I needed more. The other night after work my friend Adam mentioned off the cuff that he had access to some old lenses from an old Ricoh Singlex II camera he used to use for photography. He brought out his old dusty bag with three leather lens cases. He had a 28mm, 50mm, 135mm, and a 85-205 Macro+Zoom lens. They were a little dusty, but overall in great condition. So after buying an adapter I tried them out and did a test shoot.

I was quite happy with how this test shoot turned out. The images were a little overexposed, and the Telephoto’s aperture is broken making it always wide, but other then that I’ve now inherited a great group of lenses that should at least stave off my craving for lenses so that I can buy bigger and better things. I’m doing a short film this quarter and I’m going to try and use them for which I’m really excited about. I’m looking forward to putting up more test video’s with these lenses so that I can show off what they can do, and learn from them. Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? So for anyone out there that might know someone with some old lenses, I can guarantee there is an adapter for it and before you know it you could have prime set ready to go.

@Digital Revolution Podcast Episode 5: Lenses

It’s hard to believe it’s our fifth week of doing this podcast, but it has! As always its hosted by  Nico van den Berg and co-hosted by myself, where we discussed  lenses in relation to the canon 7d. We explored how different lenses affect these cropped sensors and how a 50mm actually ends up being closer to a 85mm. From there we delved deeper into how you can use any lens no matter how old or new with the canon 7d’s which save you some major bank.

While you won’t see it, we tried to do our first test video this week to get ready for video casting. While it wasn’t a success we did learn a lot, and are slowly learning the best way to shoot a visually interesting and engaging video cast like the Zacuto shootout. We are excited though to bring that content to you. Look forward to seeing you next week, enjoy the cast!