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?

The revolution WILL be televised!!!

The HOUSE season finale shot entirely with a DSLR!

As if we indie filmmakers didn't need any more convincing, this news is the last nail in the coffin of HDV if you ask me.

I'm not a big watcher of the show, in fact I've only ever viewed a couple of episodes for work back in my promo making days, but what struck me about the show was that it looked amazing. Really well lit and gorgeously shot on 35mm film.

To think that a production shot primarily on 35mm FILM would shoot a popular episode with a DIGITAL STILLS CAMERA is mind blowing.

Its definitely time to put my rig up for sale.

Here's the full story from www.petapixel.com




The season finale of the popular TV show House, which will air on May 17th, was filmed entirely with the Canon 5D Mark II. cinema5D overheard the plan last month and Greg Yaitanes, the director of the show, has confirmed it through a tweet in which we made himself open to questions.
We’ll republish some of the interesting questions and answers here, interview style:

@MVRamunno: What is the difference in how it looks on a TV screen compared to a regular camera?
Greg Yaitanes: richer. shallow focus pulls the actors faces to forground [sic]
@oamad0101: How many frames per second and why a Canon 5D Mark II?
GY: 24p and wanted it for ease of use in tight spaces.
@unikissa: Ok, seriously. Can you tell us something about the lenses you used?
GY: all the canon primes and the 24-70 and the 70-200 zoom
@sarabury: Did you have to change any of your working practices to fit in with differences between the 5D and a typical setup?
GY: some. focus was hard with these lenses but more “cine-style” lenses are being made as we speak.
@marykir: were you using CF cards for storage or some sort of mass storage mod? seems like you would need a lot of cards :)
GY: some 18gb or something like that card. gave us 22 min of footage.
@Drdiagnostic: How was the quality as compared 2 the traditional camera used in shooting?
GY: i loved it and feel it’s the future. cameras that can give you these looks
@klizma: How did you manage to stabilize the camera in tight spaces? Any special kind of brackets?
GY: no. mostly gave it a hand held feel. or on a small tripod

This is quite an endorsement for Canon, with a network giant entrusting the finale of one of its most popular shows to the 5D Mark II (which happens to be the first digital camera to take thePresidential portrait as well).
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the popularity of the show:

In 2008, House was distributed in a total of 66 countries. With an audience of over 81.8 million worldwide, it was the most watched television show on the globe and far surpassed the viewership figures of the leading TV dramas the previous two years

If you haven’t yet, check out the short film, The Last 3 Minutes, which we posted earlier today. It was filmed with the same camera.

Where would you be without SoundSnap?

I'm almost finished the audio edit of my latest little short and in this particular piece, all audio was made entirely from library sounds. I decided to record nothing and give myself a pretty big exercise in creating an authentic sound scape with nothing but artificial sound.

Now the edit is done and it sounds amazing, but before I bring it into Pro Tools for a final mixing session, I just wanted to take a break and give a big shout out to all the contributors over at SoundSnap.

I just found while working on this particular piece, I found I was exhausting my usual options from my modest SFX library rather quickly. Everything was sounding either too processed, too artificial or just too GOOD.

I'm one of the lucky few members on SoundSnap to have been awarded the Old Skool status, which means I'm entitled to 5 free sounds a month, but boy do I use em up fast. The best thing about this particular library, is that its more of a database than a library with multiple contributors from small indie types to full on pro Hollywood sound designers all with their wares on sale for the same price. Kinda like an iStockphoto for sounds if you like.

Its the sheer variety that blows me away.

If you have in your head a PARTICULAR sound that you want to find, I GUARANTEE you will find it on SoundSnap.

It has brought my little project to the next level in terms of sound design and I am most grateful to the people who contribute to SoundSnap who somehow manage to create the sounds I can hear in my head. Amazing.

Thanks SoundSnap

Contour for iPhone released: Do I NOW have a reason to buy an iPhone?

Well I'm not an iPhone user, so this aint a review, but does this release finally mark a reason for those few who don't own an iPhone to go and buy one?

I've been using Contour by Mariner Software for a couple of years now and its EXCELLENT for putting together treatments for feature film projects. Like any "formula" based software/technique it can be taken with a grain of salt at how much you want to invest in the technique, but as a guide for helping to get things structured prior to the big write, I find Contour indispensable in my workflow.

Mainly because its made from the ground up for Mac. A lot of these other programs are windows based and the mac versions always seem like an afterthought. They're clunky, ugly and just too windowsy for my taste. Contour is very mac like and as a result as you'd expect a joy to use. (we won't mention the "jumping text box's" earlier versions here, its fixed, all is forgiven).

So, now comes Contour for iPhone .Now like I said, I aint an iPhone user so I can't review this particular release, but the ability to be able to carry Contour around in my pocket just has me chomping at the bit! I'm not sure how stripped down this version is, or if it has an ability to sync with the desktop version or what, but €5 seems like a steal since I think I paid €50 for the desktop application. It must be stripped down at that price, I'm not sure as to how iPhone apps run usually.

As a afternote, I endorse Mariner and all who sail on her, I use a few Mariner products and they are all excellent, I'm even a beta tester on their screenwriting software Montage. (But it will never drag me away from Final Draft (sorry)). Anyway, buy Mariner, they is good people.

Fuckin' A