Idiotprogrammer Blog

Category: Documentary

About my Film Project

  • Barton Springs documentary premieres in Houston July 7

    The film Unforeseen will be premiering at the Houston Aurora Picture Show this Saturday . The director will be on hand to discuss the film. I definitely plan to be there.

    The Unforeseen – 93 minutes
    Director : Laura Dunn
    Executive Producers : Terrence Malick and Robert Redford
    Date : Saturday, July 7
    Location : The Aurora Theatre
    Tickets : $10.00 online or $10.00 cash/check at the door
    Laura Dunn Reception : 7:00-8:00pm
    Screening Time: 8:00-9:30pm
    Q&A : 9:30-10:00pm
    Door Prize: Signed copy of the DVD

    Synopsis: An ambitious west Texas farm boy with grandiose plans tires of living at the mercy of nature and sets out to find a life with more control. He heads to Austin where he becomes a real estate developer and skillfully capitalizes on the growth of this 1970’s boomtown. At the peak of his powers, he transforms 4000 acres of pristine Hill Country into one of the state’s fastest selling subdivisions.

    When the development threatens a local treasure, a fragile limestone aquifer and a natural spring-fed swimming hole (Barton Springs) the community fights back. In the conflict that ensues, we see in miniature a struggle that today plays out in communities across America.

  • $1.50 in Late Fees

    Peter John Ross talks about the mythology and Truth about Robert Rodriguez:

    No one seems to remember that Robert had made well over 200 movies on video from the time he was 9 years old. How many other filmmakers, even in our cheap DV 1394, Non Linear World, can claim to have made over 200 movies? I’ve been making movies for 4 years, and I’m barely over 30 movies. Let’s just say that Robert has a distinct advantage when it comes to making movies at the stage he was at when he made El Mariachi. EXPERIENCE. It’s greatly undervalued if you went solely by the descriptions made in the book and in the Ten Minute Film School.

    James Cameron on the value on going to film schools: I got a $150,000 film school education for a $1.50 in late fees at the public library.

    I’ll disagree somewhat here. When doing a technical project, having access to the latest books can make a real difference. In film/video, books that are 3 years or older are out of date and might be totally irrelevant to your current tools. That said, certain basic texts can be informative. I’ve done interlibrary loan on several texts on film(video) editing and managing video projects that I don’t think will be out-of-date. I’ve spent so far about 75$ on film books so far, and I’ve learned a lot.

    Here are the video productions I’ve used or planned to use so far:

    • Digital Video Hacks by Joshua Paul (the most current, the handiest). Particularly good stuff on improvising and lighting.
    • Directing the Documentary by Michael Rabiger (good on aesthetics, camera technique & project management). He also has another book, Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics, Third Edition. Both books are very academic and erudite approaches to the subject.
    • Digital Video Pocket Guide by Derrick Story (reference)
    • Lighting for Digital Video & Television, Second Edition John Jackman. I just received this book in the mail, and it looks terrific!
    • Extreme Dv at Used-Car Prices: How to Write, Direct, Shoot, Edit, and Produce a Digital Video Feature for Less Than $3000, Ray Carney (Foreword), Rick Schmidt (good at running a project, legal, budgets)
    • Transitions: Voices on the Craft of Digital Editing [Paperback] by Erik Andersen. Old Book but probably excellent (I’m adding it on the basis of the chapter titles–haven’t read it yet). Film editing is more of an art than a science, so I expect it to still be relevant and useful.
    • Producing Great Sound for Digital Video [Paperback] by Jay Rose
    • On film editing : an introduction to the art of film construction by Edward Dmytryk (1984 classic text on film editing)
    • Vegas 6 Editing Workshop (Paperback)
      by Douglas Spotted Eagle Probably a book for using Vegas 6 nonlinear video editor which I have yet to buy.
    • Walter Murch, In the Blink of an Eye, succinct thoughts on video editing.

    Also, I have about a dozen books en route to me via the city library and interlibrary loan, so in a few weeks, I should have a few more titles. And so far, no library fines. Truthfully, though, watching a lot of movies has helped immensely. With every scene (even with Star Wars), I keep asking myself (Could I shoot that scene on my budget with my equipment?).

  • Scott Spears on video production

    Blogumentary, Chuck Olsen blogs about his documentary about blogging. How self-referential is that (I wonder if he’ll link to this post about him?). He also seems to do a lot of blogging about the vlogging world. Here’s a Wired feature story on him and the vlogging community. Here’s a scoop by Wired of interesting vloggers out there. Personal Note: I performed a story at SXSW Fray Cafe right before Amanda Congdon (of Rocketboom fame). My one brush with greatness (aside from hearing John Barth and Joseph Heller talk in the bathroom and Jacques Derrida eating cheese at a wine & cheese party.

    Get Creative, a video short by Scott Spears. Intense 5 minute school drama. More videos by Scott Spears here.

    Here’s his advice to new filmmakers, buying a 1st time camera and assembling a lowcost light-kit. More helpful articles here and be sure not to miss the tech tips (in streaming video!) on the same page.

    From an article about location scouting.

    … Akira Kurosawa when … asked how he achieved a “perfect” frame for a period film he directed…, said, if I had panned to the right there was a modern factory and if I panned to the left, there were power lines, so the frame was set.

  • Learninglog

    More video links:

    Fireant is the free windows version of Ant, the video RSS aggregator. Their windows version beta release came out recently. The product is creative commons, the interface is great, and the opportunities posed by this new distribution method are absolutely incredible. The directory of vloggers is quite finite at the moment, so now’s your time to be a star. (I won’t be getting into vlogging per se, but I fully expect to have semi regular feeds in the winter or early 2006).

    From Joshua Provost, I learned about good places to get feedback about your video projects. : dvinfo forums and the more upscale cinematography.com.

    Random topics of interest:
    How to film in a boat    , discussions of Panasonic GS-400 limitations, lighting setups, lowlight enhancement in the Panasonic GS-400. I’m getting to the point where this weblog is less about literature or technology or programming than my ignorance. It’s not a weblog; it’s a learninglog.

  • Calibrating Your Monitor

    I’ve been learning an awful lot about video production this past week. Every day I learn I need some new gadget I never heard about (Today it’s filters and filter rings). Yesterday it was wide angle lenses.


    Calibrating your monitor     . Here’s another article

    WordPress Backup program

  • Low-Budget Light Kits & High Budget Cameras

    Scott Spears on setting up a budget light-kit: Part 1 and Part 2.

    DIY Network has a three part TV show about making home movies.

    Ok, I’m waffling between 2 cameras: the Panasonic PV-GS400, a 3CCD camera with lots of manual features, but poor low-lighting performance (1200$), and the Sony Sony VX2100 ($2400). Both are excellent cameras, and a lot can be said for the idea of a cheaper alternative with limited lifespan (so you can bump up to HD production as soon as possible). I can use the extra money to buy other equipment which will outlast the camera. On the other hand, VX2100 will look prettier and will handle indoor light and event lighting better, so it may end up being more useful and practical. The question is: does $1000 buy me that much more? And will that extra $1000 make me more productive (and possibly earn more money?).

    The other issue is that both cameras lack balanced XLR microphone inputs, which means you basically need to use a converter (costing $100-300) to use a high quality microphone.

    One thing I found helpful was viewing video samples, so I could see the quality level for various kinds of shots. Another thing. Resellerratings is a very nice shopping bot, giving not only reviews and side by side comparisons, but also a recommended vendor at the low price range.

    Here’s another comparison of camcorders by price. Here is my dilemma.

  • Good Audio for Video Production

    Found links on audio/video:

    Multimedia tutorials. Basic stuff on lighting, mounting microphones, making a dolly.

    To be honest, I’ve been bookmarking a lot on google groups about mikes and audio. See this newsgroup. Also, thankfully, most bulletin board applications include ways to bookmark threads (AFT!).

    Jay Rose on getting the best sound (scroll down a bit). Jay Rose writes audio columns for dv.com, and gosh, I just bought his book on audio production. Jay Rose’s insights are compiled on DVPLAY.com. Here are some tutorials (which I have yet to browse through). And here are his versions of all his DV.com columns(Thanks, Jay!).

    Later: Heck, I just realized I could have bought it for new for practically the same as I paid for it used. And if I ordered the book through Rose’s website, that would have assured Mr. Rose of getting a decent commission. Looking at it another way, if we had decent ebook readers for reading technical books, Mr. Rose could sell these books off his website, not have to worry about the aftermarket bite and could probably offer it for significantly less than retailers.

  • 2 Filmmaking Books: Photographing the Trivial

    I just wanted to mention that I’ve found two excellent books on film narrative: Directing the Documentary by Michael Rabiger and Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of screenwriting by Robert McKee. Both books contains lots of insights and both combine the rigors of academic analysis with the practical knowledge of people who have worked in the industry. Also, I’m creating a new category for my documentary vid (Here’s also some practical links on filmmaking which I’ve been gathering). Here’s Rabiger on fiction vs. documentary filmmaking:

    Getting the reader to notice a fragile and transient moment of significance is easily accomplished by a writer but is much harder to accomplish in documentary unless you are willing to use narration. This drives documentarians to play safe by resorting to sensational subjects. War, family violence, urban problems, eccentrics, deviants, demonstrations, revolts, and confrontations all promise something heightened. Less often do documentaries penetrate the heart of their subjects with the ease and precision we find regularly in literature. For the true feel of small-town life or for the authentic claustrophobia of a middle-class family, we look instinctively to fiction, not the documentary. This is not inevitable, but the documentarian wishing to buck the trend faces many difficulties, not least of which is raising money to budget a film about subjects considered minor.

  • Video Equipment, Technology, Linux & Documentary Links

    I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll be working on a film documentary this summer. I’ll be providing details over time. Here are some links I’ve been accumulating. I’ll be periodically updating this. BTW, if any surfers have good video links to suggest, feel free (though nothing about via$$a, te##as h##dem or other silly things!). I’m trying to do video editing on a linux platform only although I’m not married to the idea. (more…)