The power of Twitter

Its very cool to read tweets like this:

GET FAT TheOKLAHOMA WARD INDIE MAG' is SWEET http://ow.ly/2CdQr WITH @larryjordanfcp @jokeandbiagio @rshorts @CKOlsenPresents @ManMadeMoon

Thats me listed with Larry Jordan the Final Cut Pro guru in Los Angeles, Joke & Biagio the Hllywood based husband & wife producing team behind the TV show Scream Queens, Christopher Olson an Emmy award winning animator & filmmaker and Duncan Jones the writer, director of the amazing science fiction film Moon with Sam Rockwell (&he's also David Bowie's kid).

Imagine my surprise seeing my name listed among them!

I know its not that big of a deal, but its kinda made my day.

Thanks Oklahoma, colour me flattered.

New production underway

A week or so ago I shot a bunch of footage for the band Groom's new music video.

The above image is from the last shot of the day. Since I was the only crew member on the shoot, mounting the camera was the only opportunity to take some stills.

Its coming together pretty well despite the fact that its missing from one band member couldn't make the video shoot. It remains to be seen if we will shoot inserts of that member, but at this stage its doubtful.

I'm regrading the footage to a grainy 16mm style high contrast black & white as I'm very fond of the old Andy Warhol Factory look. Its looking OK. I've a hell of a lot more work to do on the grade, but I'll do that once I get picture lock.

I decided on this shoot to shoot with my HV30/Letus35 rig and also use the Canon T1i HDSLR and combine the footage. I often use music videos as an opportunity to experiment & this one is no exception.
I gotta admit, I MUCH prefer the HDV footage to the HDSLR's despite it being the posterboy for digital filmmaking right now. So much so DOF adapters are being considered obsolete in certain circles, which is bollix if you ask me.
The Pro Res 422 workflow from tape is so much better than that of Canon's H.264 files (which I did upres to 422 using MPEG Streamclip). They sit on the timeline better and render filters faster.

Also, the big thing is that they LOOK better too. The HDSLR footage looks far to crisp and clean to which I've added a layer of gaussian blur to soften it up a tad.
It worked on the last video for Remedy For My Soul but does not have the warmth that I'm looking for for this particular project.

There, I've said it. I prefer DOF adapters to HDSLR.*

Not much else to say other than you can check out the bands music on their Bandcamp page.
Look out for the song, This Golden Age, as thats the song I'm doing the video for.





*I may of course change my mind after I use a camera with more manual controls than the T1i

New/old video for Large Mound

Poster for the forthcoming The Other Marty

Apology

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. House renovation & move has taken over my life.

I seriously cannot wait to set up my new office and get back to doing what I do best.

Couple of more music video's booked and on the horizon.

Phew...

Full Stream Ahead - Is this what we've been waiting for?

So from yesterday till the 13th, thats this sunday www.fullstreamahead.co.uk is promoting sites that offer full feature film streaming (in reasonably watchable quality) legally.

In their words: To educate and encourage people, including those tempted to try illegal file-sharing, to adopt legal methods for quickly and easily accessing movie content online.


We're all guilty of the odd download, hell I've been watching bootleg VHS's tapes and swapping with mates since I was a nipper, its great to see something like this be promoted.

Visit the site and it will direct you to Blinkbox.com where it will register you with 20 pounds sterling in credit to rent or buy full length feature films, documentaries & TV.

The selection aint great at the minute, but its early days yet. Even their free section is quite cool. I'll be watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 right after I finish Woody Allen's Curse of the Jade Scorpion, both for free.

It even has every episode of Bottom & The Young Ones streaming for free.

With rentals from 99p up to a tenner you're off to a great start with your 20 quid.

AND it works in Ireland! About bloody time!

At this time I see no way to top to the credit although... but you don't have to enter any sensitive credit card info to register - it all may go tits up registering with a credit card with an Irish address, but hay, the free films are pretty good.

Support this site/ campaign.

News update from the rather exciting Biracy Project

Biracy: Update on The Biracy Project and the SoKap Platform

Hello Everyone,

It may appear to some of you that we have dropped off the face of the earth with The Biracy Project but we're here to say that this is not the case. In fact we're busy with a number of items that I will outline here.

For Creative People Wanting To Use The System
We have had over 100 requests by producers to use the system for their own projects. Our overall goal is to provide a platform that multiple producers could use and manage with ease, without complex backend programming and content management. The Biracy Project was and still is just the prototype, and will continue to be so as we focus on building SoKap - the platform.

We ask that you be patient with us and allow us to continue our development work on the platform. We have an expected launch date for SoKap around the end of July. At that time we are going to be taking submissions to use the platform and we will be looking for creative projects that are varied in their genres, mediums and budget sizes.

You Can Now Join For FREE!
Another request that we heard was that people wanted access to the site so that they could check it out for free first. We heard you and made this possible. You still need to ask for a code as this is part of how our little experiment works. If you need a code go to twitter and ask for "an invite code for @biracy". Someone will respond to you shortly. When you get to the site simply select the "VOYEUR" membership from the membership selection.

Screenplay Contest Winner
We are about to announce the winner of the screenplay contest but there seems to be a bit of a debate going on as to what finalist should be chosen. If your a member you will be notified of an up coming vote to assist us in selecting the winner. You will add to your ownership totals for contributing to this vote.

Once the winner is chosen...the filmmaking process will begin and updates on the site will become more regular than of late. We appreciate your patience for allowing us to take the time to find the right story and build the right platform.

Tell Some People
As we are about to announce the winner and begin making the film we are going to need the financial assistance from the members to make this a reality. Please join this project and begin making referrals to your friends and family. Let's prove that this system can work for films, music and other media related projects that live in the online space.

Thanks to all the members who joined early and have given us the necessary feedback to make this engine work.

Regards
David Geertz
Founder
The Biracy Project


Source Facebook


For those of you who want to try it out for FREE, leave a comment me or tweet me @rshorts and I'll be happy to provide a reference

Till The Night Closes In... - Teaser Poster

The teaser poster for the feature film project I have in development. Its not great & its temporary. About a half hours work in Photoshop where I completely & blatantly ripped off the poster design from the remake of The Last House on the Left.

Ah, it'll do for now.

The feature film is based on the short film I made last year - Shut The Fuck Up Which has earned itself an IMDb rating of 8.2/10 which is pretty amazing - considering the finished film is nowhere to be seen online. Its just had a handful of obscure screening internationally. So it must be based on the performance of the trailer. Also it seems my demographic is primarily males aged between 30-44.
Tell you what guys, if you liked the short, your gonna love the feature!

Watch this space for more info as news of the feature film develops.

Thats a wrap on Remedy

So thats my first project shot on HDDSLR in the bag and I must say the whole workflow was pretty seamless. Still, it was for a music video so no great demands on sound sync or anything like that.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a 7D, a 5D mkII or a Rebel t2i (550D) and really getting stuck in. The limitations of the Rebel t1i (500D)are far too great to do a project any larger than the one I just produced. Having no control over anything was my biggest frustration working with this camera. Sure it produces a very very nice image but certain things like the inability to chance the shutter speed to compensate for the wattage frequency of the lighting thus eliminating the shimmer on the image render the t1i unusable for much more. (Again NO disrespect at all to the generosity of the owner of the camera who graciously lent it to me so I could experiment.)


I will say this about HDDSLR though, everything they say about the low light capabilities are all true and outstandingly so. I shot the entire video with available light.
The below shot was lit by a bicycle light shone on the performers face from off screen. Can you believe that? At night, with no lights, no generators & no crew the performer was lit by a fucking bicycle light!


EDIT: I hasten to add that the addition of a Nikon to EOS adapter allowing me to use really fat Nikkor glass was instrumental to achieving this also.


In fact, this particular shot ended up in the finished video untouched, straight out of the camera, no grading or effects of any kind. Its incredible what you can do with todays technology & the possibilities are mind blowing. 

I also want to big up Apple for inventing Pro Res 422. It was my first time using that codec for this project and it is as smooth a workflow as I have ever used. Big up also goes to Squared 5 for putting out their FREE application MPEG Streamclip that seamlessly converts the cameras unusable H.264 into something editable.

A good start into the world of HDDSLR for me.

The video will be uploaded to the record labels site for promotional purposes, I will put up a link when I have one. Meanwhile, if there is anyone who would like it for geek reasons drop me a line & I'll hook you up with a password to view it on my Vimeo page (see sidebar).

24 starring Danny Lacey

Staying up for 24 hours straight is unfortunately something we are regrettably want to do in the film industry. Oftentimes tight deadlines dictate a busy sleepless night.

No one would want to do this voluntarily right?

WRONG!

Enter Danny Lacey, an independent filmmaker from Leeds, England, and also a man on a mission. And that mission is your money! He needs it to make his short film Love Like Hers for ten grand. No, he's not looking for ten grand from you, he's looking for ten grand from all of us at 20 quid apiece. 

So whats all this got to do with staying up for 24 hours straight?

Well, remember that guy Danny Lacey from Leeds I was just talking about? Yeah him, tomorrow night he's staying up for 24 hours straight hosting a live internet broadcast fundraising for his film! This guy has got big ambition and my hat is off to his determination.

I'm sponsoring and hour of his 24 hour show (10pm to 11pm I believe), tune in live and watch me become a Film Buddy live on air!

A film buddy is what Danny calls people who donate to his project, I'll show you how easy it is to become a quasi film producer!

I've embedded the livestream below, but I suggest you watch it on his stream, that way you can get involved & interact and keep the poor dude awake! There is talk of a live music performance from the Isle of Man & a hook up with Vegas baby among I'm sure many other things.

I'm off now to figure out a way to email coffee!

Read Dannys Blog, to give you the full lowdown. HERE

Watch live streaming video from dannylaceyfilm at livestream.com

Having a Blast

We all know that file management, particularly when it comes to post-production is essential to a seamless workflow. Like me your probably dealing with multiple files in multiple folders while importing files from key drives, emails, remote servers & dropbox's - you can oftentimes loose track of certain files. Sure spotlight can help out and lead you directly to the file, but only if you know the name of the file, so you can start typing and hope for the best.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could click just one simple little unobtrusive icon in the menubar and see the last file you imported or were working on just sitting there nicely waiting for you? Well with Blast by Apparent Software you can.

It does exactly that. Every file that you have just worked on, imported, moved or manipulated in any way is sitting there in a nice tidy dropdown menu.

I've been using Fresh by Ironic Software from some time now & every time I hit the shortcut I almost feel like ducking as the two giant green bars fill the screen with the last files worked on appear MASSIVE across the screen. It also is very resource heavy being a constantly open app in the dock just sitting there purring away.

Blast on the other hand, sits neatly in the menubar. I'm a big fan of neat little menubar apps. When working on a large application such as Final Cut Pro, thats pretty much all you want open. Thats how I like to work anyway.

Fresh for some reason fails to identify certain files too I've noticed which can be rather frustrating. Anyone working in video will know that files are massive and sometimes its necessary to split files into separate RAR files in order for them to be safely uploaded & downloaded over a network or the internet. Fresh fails to recognize recently "unrared" files, which is my biggest problem with Fresh, Blast on the other hand passes with flying colours which makes it a winner for me.

The only gripe I have with Blast is that the only option with files is to "Open in Finder" whereas Fresh offers "Open in Finder" "Open with…" "Rename" "Move to Trash" among others, offering the user a lot more options than Blast.

But, having said that, its the unobtrusiveness that wins out with Blast & considering its currently a very young v1.3 one can hope that more options will be offered in future updates.

Both Fresh & Blast are under $10. with Blast being a mere 95c more expensive but well worth the extra few pennies.

Now where did I put that text file so I can post it on my blog, oh wait a second there it is!

Buy Blast HERE or download the trial HERE

Interesting & exciting news

A couple of hours ago (before I started drinking) I partook in a conference call over Skype with two excellent gentlemen from the other side of the world inviting me to take part in something quite revolutionary.
I had assumed incorrectly that I would have to sell myself to these guys in order to be a part of what they were proposing, but thankfully due to whatever reason I was already chosen from my application alone!

I am privileged to be part of 25 people worldwide and the only person in Ireland to be involved in this project!
I am completely honored & overwhelmed by its prospect and potential.

I am awaiting an email to confirm details but until then I can say nothing other than its filmmaking related & I am rather excited.

Watch Mr Bojagi online

Irish director Marco van Belle launches his short film Mr Bojagi starring Brian Blessed online for a limited two week showing.

Tune into Dailymotion for this exclusive screening. It launches next friday 14 May.
Be sure to tweet about it on Twitter, "like" it on facebook & share this film while you can.

Here's the trailer:




Looks pretty good. Nice looking sets and costumes, looking forward to seeing it fully - nice feel of Terry Gilliamness about it.
Word from Marco is a feature length version is in the works which is a fantastic achievement.


Be sure to spread the word!

New Video Shoot Imminent

Ok so, I'm jumping on the bandwagon and shooting my next project on a HDSLR. I've managed to get my hands on a Canon 500D aka Rebel T1i. This is NOT the new fancy shmancy 7D in a plastic body aka Rebel T2i aka 550D, this is its 30fps 720p little sister. (No disrespect to Wil for lending it to me) but on closer examination, I'm learning the hard way of all the limitations this camera has in terms of video use or what canon like to call-Movie Mode. I'm shooting for a music video with a web release only so 30fps will be fine in this instance & I really want to try out a HDSLR on the field before I take the plunge myself. At this stage I'm tempted to go for the 7D as the build quality of the T1i is more plasticy than I expected. My cheap as chips Nikon D50 is more sturdy than this fella.

Anyway, I'm beginning to realize why the T1i 500D did not make the impact it could have when first released. I can't seem to find a way to manually control ANYTHING with this camera. The flicker from a tungsten source is maddening as you can't do anything to compensate it, but hay, its for a music video, so I'll live with it for now. No control over ISO and its a night shoot, I'll just have to push the exposure compensation up 2 stops and cross my fingers. The only saving grace is that I'll have total control over aperture. I have ordered a EOS to Nikkor lens adapter off Ebay allowing me to use my Nikon glass with this camera and thus giving me aperture control. (you can set the aperture with the stock lens, by setting the camera to aperture priority mode, choosing the aperture and the unlocking the barrel and twisting the lens slightly till you get an error reading, then flicking back to movie mode, essentially disconnecting the lens from the camera).

So until that part arrives from the UK (hurry up! it was ordered on saturday! It's only ash!) I've been experimenting with the camera and popped it on my Fig Rig. With the strap round my neck pulled taught, I can get surprisingly very smooth movements & its much lighter that having the HV30/Letus35 rig attached. Only problem is focus, but again its a music video, so I'm allowing for these inadequacies now and calling it "style" later on. I'm not prepared to fork out for a remote control follow focus just yet.

Funny thing is, I was contacted by a record label in London to make this video and it turns out to be for me old mucker Corrugated Tunnel! (see below).

I'll be posting more progress as this experiment continues.

New Video Online

First attempt using my HV30/Letus35 rig and failing miserably.

This shoot was the maiden voyage of that rig and boy did I find out about its limitations the hard way.

The single (Holiday Blues) that this was shot for was never released and the footage has resided on my hard drive for a little over a year now.

I hate leaving things unfinished & dusted this project off and finshed it.

I decided to ignore the mistakes apparent in the footage and make it work to my advantage instead.

The end result is... not... too... bad...

Thank goodness for post processing software, its not what I set out to make, but it is what it is now. I kinda like it if I don't remind myself of what I intended to make...

This was shot in Bray, Co Wicklow & th Dublin seafront in december 2008 mere days before my son was born (another contributing factor to the delay in completing this project).

Music is by Corrugated Tunnel from the album I Am Corrugated. corrugatedtunnel.com

Lone Gun Manifesto

I'm a little belated with this post, but I forgot to mention that my viral IN TOWN SLOW DOWN has been included with Clive Davies-Frayne's Lone Gun Manifesto films.


Heres a LINK to view all the films.


You can download his manifesto from HERE


In his words: "We realised the digital revolution and web 2.0 would change every aspect of our industry… and, that many people were struggling to adapt to the new business environment. We are not a film production company… we are a completely different beast. What we are trying to do, is to write the rule book for the future, by creating unique production, marketing, finance and distribution strategies for each story, across a wide range of traditional and new media. Sometimes that will involve collaboration with the fragmented remnants of the existing industry and traditional distribution… sometimes it won’t. 

This why we created the Lone Gun Manifesto"

You can visit his sister site Film Utopia HERE

Nice to be included & have my piece acknowledged in some way.

If you have a film that you think should qualify, drop him a line, he's good people.

New Website Launched

A Beta version of my new website went live last night.

Its a little rough an ready at the minute and still under construction, a lot more to get done.

Please take a moment to have a look & I'm more than open to suggestions/comments.

Thanks

Philip Bloom interviews Greg Yaitanes about Canon 5DmkII

The whole world at this stage knows that the season finale of the TV show HOUSE has been shot on the Canon 5D mkII and DSLR whore Philip Bloom has been sniffing around and has uploaded quite and insightful & inspiring interview with the shows executive producer & director Greg Yaitanes to Soundcloud.

Thankfully Greg does about 90% of the talking and waxes lyrical about the pro's and cons of using a DSLR stills camera to shoot a TV show.

A really good listen.

New viral video now online

My new viral video is now online. To view it in HD please visit Vimeo or Youtube also in HD. I recommend Vimeo as you can download the full 720HD file if you wish.


Please feel free to share the video, its a viral, so please spread it around, cough in peoples faces if you have to, but get it seen.


I'll be using Tubemogul to spread it even further, but email your friends etc... Thats what a viral is right?


Below is the blurb from Vimeo:


I came up with the concept for this many months ago, originally it was going to be a still photograph project to perhaps print out and vandalize the streets of Dublin with my message.

There's a lot of dickheads on the road in Dublin, particularly in the city and I wanted a strong image to get the point across that there are repercussions to driving recklessly in the city. Since becoming a father it has become more apparent & more scary.

I took that idea and thought, I make films, I'm no photographer, it would make a (hopefully) stronger impact on film (no pun intended).

So I took out my HV30 attached the Letus35 and attached a Nikon 50mm prime and shot on the pavement behind my house.

Recently a new law has been passed in Dublin restricting speeds to 30km per hour, which I don't agree with as the supposed city limits run for miles. I seriously cycle faster that 30km per hour on some roads, so this film does not endorse that law, in fact that law being passed almost prevented me from making this. But what I want to promote is the use of common sense. 

I don't want to rant too much so I'll end that there and just mention that I shot this mute and all audio was added in post production.

I do apologize to anyone I have upset with this image, I find it troubling as I used my own son's soother (pacifier) for this shot, but I do hope I have made a very real and valid point about using common sense driving in a built up area. If your in town, slow down.

If you feel the same way, feel free to link this, embed or email & please leave a comment if you do so.

Thanks

Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook guys start TV show

I have high hopes for this new TV venture by the guys (n' gals) who brought us the indispensable Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook.

Word on the "street" is a pocket version of the handbook is soon to be available and ready for pre-order on Amazon. No word yet as to what is in the book and whether or not it is a necessary purchase for those of us who already own the mammoth handbook already.

That said, I'm looking forward to tuning in later at 7:30GMT

Google Analytics

Just a quick shout out to all my readers around the world.
I haven't checked my Google Analytics account in a very long time, I never really gave much thought to the traffic that comes through this site but i must say I was pleasantly surprised at the amount coming through.
It seems to mostly returning visits, which I appreciate very much, but the amount of unique visits is on the rise also.
Thanks to all of you for visiting my humble blog but especially to those of you who return regularly.
Next time, leave a comment, either just to say hi or to perhaps request subjects for the blog, I'm open to suggestions.

Cheers
RS

Screenwriter Scratcher PDF Download

Screenwriters. Ever wished your first handwritten notes resembled somewhat a formatted screenplay layout? I know I've tried to decipher scribbled notes in the past where dialogue, headings and action ended up in the same muddled bunch.

There is an answer, in the shape of a pad by the folks over at www.everybodyswrite.com that allows you to align your handwritten notes into standard screenplay format. The alignment margins are even printed in a nice tone of unphotocopiable blue, which is both easy on the eye and, well unphotocopiable. BUT bizarrely, what is essentially a €2 80 page foolscap pad, costs a whopping $20 & substantially more if your outside the US!

Eh... no thanks...

Then along comes the Unknown Screenwriter. On their site they provide a PDF with their answer to the Everybodys Write pad in the shape of the Screenwriter Scratcher. Free to download and print out and make your very own pad for free. You can also print out on both sides to save the planet (slightly).

I'm printing out a bunch as I type (on both sides), thanks Unknown Screenwriter, who is that masked man?

FREE online HDDSLR course with Vincent Laforet

This cool new website CreativeLIVE offers FREE online courses in creative arts & technologies. The courses are unbelievably FREE, but the only catch is, is you need to attend as they are streamed live, if you don't make it you can always purchase what you missed. I've no idea how much the courses are to buy as none of them are available for purchase as of yet, as its early days I guess.

Anyway, following on from my previous blog post about House being shot on HDDSLR, well there is a course coming up by none other than the man who shot the first ever HDDSLR short Reverie, Mr Vincent Laforet.

OK, say what you like about the overly crisp visuals, clichéd plot and awful Mobyesque soundtrack, but lets face it, when this video hit the web before Canon launched the 5D mkII, the world gasped that such a thing was shot on a digital stills camera.  Things have improved a lot since then thankfully, check out this collaboration with the Digital Rebel himself, Stu Maschwitz, and for Canon updating the firmware to shoot 24p.

Pretty good huh? Personally, I think the image is still too clean. I think I'd dirty it up a bit more in post, add more grain perhaps. But still for something that was shot, at night, with just available light, its just wow, there are no words. 


So back to my point, the week after next Laforet will be hosting a weekend of classes introducing HDDSLR filmmaking. No doubt the 5D mkII will be getting a good dissection as will the 7D, my fingers are crossed that the Rebel Ti2 will also be shown some love. Sign up on CreativeLive's website HERE


I've also signed up for Scott Bourne's course on Apple's Aperture. This is a 3 week course & I'm sure of interest to some of my readers.




PS Anyone have any tips for keeping the fonts consistent in Blogger?