Thursday, November 16, 2006
The Demented Rats
Today I was audio engineer for "The Demented Rats" which are a band that we got in to record in our audio seminar. They sounded pretty good. The floor crew miked them up and wrote down what input was what, and then on the desk we arranged the tracks and set up headphone sends. We then set the levels while they practised in the room. Once we had recorded the drums, bass and guitar we set up a vocal overdub. The session was a success and we will mix next week.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
PDP with Rob Glass
A few weeks ago I attended lectures and seminars lead by Rob Glass from the BBC. He spoke about the use of PDP as a way of working with factual news/documentaries. Basically, instead of showing a story as you would see on the news, you go deeper and spend more time with the subjects to actually capture what they are doing rather than have them just talking about it afterwards. This way you can capture the moment and create a more interesting piece of work that is more accurate. Working this way also gives the subjects more of a chance to be themselves and show the viewers their personality more. The video below is a fake news clip that we made quickly, Oli acting, me on voice over and Rob Glass editing.
Monday, November 06, 2006
DRM Nuisance!
Just thought I would post a rant on here about the current situation regarding digital rights management in distrubution of digital video over the internet. I recently saw an ad on channel 5 promoting a new service to download CSI shows from their website. You can choose whatever episode you want and download it and watch it for 14 days. It cost's about £2, which is quite good because once you know what happens in an episode of CSI, you probably won't watch it again so it doesn't really matter about the time restriction on the files. GREAT, I thought. I was wrong.
Turns out this service is not available if you use a macintosh. Fantastic. 'Why?' I thought, so I dropped them an email. Here is the response...
----------
Greetings,
Thank you for contacting the Five Download Support Team.
Hello, sir. At this time, the Mac OS does not support the Digital Rights Management we use to secure our content. We are always looking to expand our service and if in the future DRM is supported for the Windows Media Player on the Mac OS, then we can begin to plan coverage for the Mac OS.
For more information on running Windows on your Mac, please visit:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
For more information on Microsoft's compatibility with Macintosh platforms and Windows Media Player, please visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/mac/mp9/readme.aspx#playingprotected
----------
As a budding film maker, this really really annoyed me. Especially with the market for online video sales rocketing. It's not Five's fault. Neither is it MTV's fault that I can't watch their online shows. It's the operating system companies' fault, well in my opinion anyway. Microsoft know that most people who will be watching these videos will be using the windows platform. This is why they have no plans to develop windows media DRM for the Mac OS. Personally, I am not going to go out and buy windows and install it on my mac just to watch videos. This is what they want. If DRM really has a future, it needs to be cross-platform.
More and more people are switching to the Macintosh everyday. They are tired with the security holes in windows and should have a free choice to switch if they so choose. In my opinion, Mircrosoft and Apple need to get together to work on a cross platform DRM system so that users have a free choice of what platform they use. Instead, you have Apple with iTunes for Mac and Windows, leaving competitors such as MTV and Five only being able to show their content to Windows users, cutting down their target audience considerably. With this in mind, it seems only logical to have a cross-platform industry standard DRM system that anyone can use to either protect their own material or view other people's work legally. However, with two companies busy trying to operate two differnet monopolys (Apple with it's market share in legal downloads through iTunes and Microsft with it's Windows platform) they are neglecting that video download is part of the future of entertainment. In my opinion, both companies have a responsibility to create the pathway for the future of DRM and video downloads. I don't know how each party feels, but they do have a common goal. If they worked together, they could achieve fantastic results for both Mac and PC users. Contraray to popular belief, Microsoft and Apple are no longer enemies. So why can't they work through this?
Turns out this service is not available if you use a macintosh. Fantastic. 'Why?' I thought, so I dropped them an email. Here is the response...
----------
Greetings,
Thank you for contacting the Five Download Support Team.
Hello, sir. At this time, the Mac OS does not support the Digital Rights Management we use to secure our content. We are always looking to expand our service and if in the future DRM is supported for the Windows Media Player on the Mac OS, then we can begin to plan coverage for the Mac OS.
For more information on running Windows on your Mac, please visit:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
For more information on Microsoft's compatibility with Macintosh platforms and Windows Media Player, please visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/mac/mp9/readme.aspx#playingprotected
----------
As a budding film maker, this really really annoyed me. Especially with the market for online video sales rocketing. It's not Five's fault. Neither is it MTV's fault that I can't watch their online shows. It's the operating system companies' fault, well in my opinion anyway. Microsoft know that most people who will be watching these videos will be using the windows platform. This is why they have no plans to develop windows media DRM for the Mac OS. Personally, I am not going to go out and buy windows and install it on my mac just to watch videos. This is what they want. If DRM really has a future, it needs to be cross-platform.
More and more people are switching to the Macintosh everyday. They are tired with the security holes in windows and should have a free choice to switch if they so choose. In my opinion, Mircrosoft and Apple need to get together to work on a cross platform DRM system so that users have a free choice of what platform they use. Instead, you have Apple with iTunes for Mac and Windows, leaving competitors such as MTV and Five only being able to show their content to Windows users, cutting down their target audience considerably. With this in mind, it seems only logical to have a cross-platform industry standard DRM system that anyone can use to either protect their own material or view other people's work legally. However, with two companies busy trying to operate two differnet monopolys (Apple with it's market share in legal downloads through iTunes and Microsft with it's Windows platform) they are neglecting that video download is part of the future of entertainment. In my opinion, both companies have a responsibility to create the pathway for the future of DRM and video downloads. I don't know how each party feels, but they do have a common goal. If they worked together, they could achieve fantastic results for both Mac and PC users. Contraray to popular belief, Microsoft and Apple are no longer enemies. So why can't they work through this?
Sunday, November 05, 2006
The Producers: Seeing The Script
Outline
‘The Producers’ is a film about an out of luck theatre producer in New York’s Broadway, Max Bialystock. He raises money for his plays by entertaining old ladies who adore him, and will pay for his ‘company’ before they die. One day while he is ‘entertaining’ an old lady, an accountant, Leo Bloom visits him. Bloom is an awkward and nervous man who when he first meets Bialystock, is very intimidated. While going through Bialystock’s accounts, Bloom discovers that if they create a play for $60,000 but raise $1,000,000, they could keep the remainder, only if the play is a flop. On discovering this, Bialystock convinces Bloom that they should do it. Find the worst play in the world, the worst director in the world and put on a play that the public would hate. Whilst looking through a mountain of scripts. Bialystock finds a play called ‘Springtime for Hitler’, a gay romp with Adolph and Eva in Berchtesgarten. They immediately find the author, Franz Leibkind, a crazy Hitler-loving, extremely patriotic German. Before he signs the contract to allow Bloom and Bialystock produce the play, he makes them swear a Nazi oath that if they ruin Hitler’s reputation he would kill them. When the deal is done, Bialystock returns to his moneymaking scheme of entertaining old ladies, and raises a million dollars. They then hire Roger De Bris, ‘the worst director that ever lived’, to direct the play. De Bris arranges a casting call, and at the audition hundreds of people show up dressed as Hitler. None of them were bad enough for the part. At the end of the audition, LSD, a longhaired man in leathers wonders on stage with a guitar asking if he was in the right place to audition for ‘Boomerang’. Bialystock tells him that he is in the right place and to sing for them. He sings a song called ‘I’m the victim of a multi-mystic freak-out’, and Bialystock and Bloom are stunned. They have their Hitler.
The opening night arrives, and there are thousands of people on Broadway for the premier of ‘Springtime for Hitler’. All goes well at the beginning, the audience are offended and some begin to walk out. That is until Hitler is on stage with Eva. The audience are intrigued and start to watch the show again and return to their seats. The audience think that the performance is a comedy, and begin to laugh. By this time, Bloom and Bialystock are sitting in a bar across from the theatre, toasting their failure with a drunk. A crowd of people enter the bar talking about how funny the play is and how they love it. Bloom and Bialystock are shocked that their flop is doing so well, and they realise that they are in big trouble, as the backers of the play will want their cut because the play is a success. Back at the theatre, Liebkind tries to stop the play, as LSD is nothing like the real Hitler. However, the audience just think that this is part of the proceedings and applause him.
When Bialystock and Bloom arrive back at the office, they have a pile of telegrams congratulating them on such a great play. Bloom then tries to escape the office with the accounting books to turn his self in, and Bialystock fights with him until they are both on the floor scrambling over the books. At this point, they hear two gunshots. Liebkind is at the door, saying that they have broken the Siegfied Oath and he has to kill them. Bialystock tries to shift the blame onto the actors, and tells Liebkind that he should kill them instead. Bloom talks him out of it, and they then have an idea to blow up the theatre. They go into the cellar of the theatre and Leibkind sets up a bomb underneath, with the detonator outsite. Unfortunately, the drunk notices the detonator and sets it off while Bloom, Bialystock and Leibkind are in the theatre. The next thing we see is the three in slings and bandages being sentenced and sent to prison for at least two years. In prison, they try the same scam again getting prisoners to invest in a play called ‘Prisoners of love’ in the prison auditorium. Bloom is collecting the money; Bialystock is directing a line of convict ‘chorus girls’ showing off their hairy legs, whilst Leibkind is wearing his German helmet playing a lively rhythm on piano.
Premise/POV
The main character is Max Bialystock and he is important because he is the catalyst for the plan to con the backers for his play. Without him (although Bloom came up with the idea) the con would not have taken place. It was his persuasion to get Bloom onside that started off the scheme to make $1,000,000. He, and Bloom have the common belief that they should get something back out of life by taking a risk and living in the moment. They were never out to intentionally hurt anyone, they were thinking about the end result, $1,000,000, throughout. The Producers is based on the idea of making money in a shameless way. The main characters are willing to ruin their reputations and (Bialystock in particular) go to any lengths so that their plan works. It is a story of determination and struggle, especially towards the end, and never giving up. As the plot develops, you are drawn more towards Bialystock, you like him more and more as the film continues. At the start he seems to bully Bloom, but as the plot continues you see that it is just his determination to make money. Another important underpinning concept of The Producers is friendship. By the end of the film, Bialystock and Bloom have become good friends, and their determination to make money continues even when they are in prison.
‘The Producers’ is a film about an out of luck theatre producer in New York’s Broadway, Max Bialystock. He raises money for his plays by entertaining old ladies who adore him, and will pay for his ‘company’ before they die. One day while he is ‘entertaining’ an old lady, an accountant, Leo Bloom visits him. Bloom is an awkward and nervous man who when he first meets Bialystock, is very intimidated. While going through Bialystock’s accounts, Bloom discovers that if they create a play for $60,000 but raise $1,000,000, they could keep the remainder, only if the play is a flop. On discovering this, Bialystock convinces Bloom that they should do it. Find the worst play in the world, the worst director in the world and put on a play that the public would hate. Whilst looking through a mountain of scripts. Bialystock finds a play called ‘Springtime for Hitler’, a gay romp with Adolph and Eva in Berchtesgarten. They immediately find the author, Franz Leibkind, a crazy Hitler-loving, extremely patriotic German. Before he signs the contract to allow Bloom and Bialystock produce the play, he makes them swear a Nazi oath that if they ruin Hitler’s reputation he would kill them. When the deal is done, Bialystock returns to his moneymaking scheme of entertaining old ladies, and raises a million dollars. They then hire Roger De Bris, ‘the worst director that ever lived’, to direct the play. De Bris arranges a casting call, and at the audition hundreds of people show up dressed as Hitler. None of them were bad enough for the part. At the end of the audition, LSD, a longhaired man in leathers wonders on stage with a guitar asking if he was in the right place to audition for ‘Boomerang’. Bialystock tells him that he is in the right place and to sing for them. He sings a song called ‘I’m the victim of a multi-mystic freak-out’, and Bialystock and Bloom are stunned. They have their Hitler.
The opening night arrives, and there are thousands of people on Broadway for the premier of ‘Springtime for Hitler’. All goes well at the beginning, the audience are offended and some begin to walk out. That is until Hitler is on stage with Eva. The audience are intrigued and start to watch the show again and return to their seats. The audience think that the performance is a comedy, and begin to laugh. By this time, Bloom and Bialystock are sitting in a bar across from the theatre, toasting their failure with a drunk. A crowd of people enter the bar talking about how funny the play is and how they love it. Bloom and Bialystock are shocked that their flop is doing so well, and they realise that they are in big trouble, as the backers of the play will want their cut because the play is a success. Back at the theatre, Liebkind tries to stop the play, as LSD is nothing like the real Hitler. However, the audience just think that this is part of the proceedings and applause him.
When Bialystock and Bloom arrive back at the office, they have a pile of telegrams congratulating them on such a great play. Bloom then tries to escape the office with the accounting books to turn his self in, and Bialystock fights with him until they are both on the floor scrambling over the books. At this point, they hear two gunshots. Liebkind is at the door, saying that they have broken the Siegfied Oath and he has to kill them. Bialystock tries to shift the blame onto the actors, and tells Liebkind that he should kill them instead. Bloom talks him out of it, and they then have an idea to blow up the theatre. They go into the cellar of the theatre and Leibkind sets up a bomb underneath, with the detonator outsite. Unfortunately, the drunk notices the detonator and sets it off while Bloom, Bialystock and Leibkind are in the theatre. The next thing we see is the three in slings and bandages being sentenced and sent to prison for at least two years. In prison, they try the same scam again getting prisoners to invest in a play called ‘Prisoners of love’ in the prison auditorium. Bloom is collecting the money; Bialystock is directing a line of convict ‘chorus girls’ showing off their hairy legs, whilst Leibkind is wearing his German helmet playing a lively rhythm on piano.
Premise/POV
The main character is Max Bialystock and he is important because he is the catalyst for the plan to con the backers for his play. Without him (although Bloom came up with the idea) the con would not have taken place. It was his persuasion to get Bloom onside that started off the scheme to make $1,000,000. He, and Bloom have the common belief that they should get something back out of life by taking a risk and living in the moment. They were never out to intentionally hurt anyone, they were thinking about the end result, $1,000,000, throughout. The Producers is based on the idea of making money in a shameless way. The main characters are willing to ruin their reputations and (Bialystock in particular) go to any lengths so that their plan works. It is a story of determination and struggle, especially towards the end, and never giving up. As the plot develops, you are drawn more towards Bialystock, you like him more and more as the film continues. At the start he seems to bully Bloom, but as the plot continues you see that it is just his determination to make money. Another important underpinning concept of The Producers is friendship. By the end of the film, Bialystock and Bloom have become good friends, and their determination to make money continues even when they are in prison.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Dynamics Processors
Learned some more about dynamics processors. I did some research into dynamics processors last year for use in Sound Forge. Compressor reduces the sound level at a set threshold by a certain ratio that can be changed. This is useful to get the highest level of volume without clipping the sample. The limiter works the same, but completely switches off the sound passed through the set threshold level. The expander is the opposite to the compressor, and increases the dynamic range. It reduces the output level under the threshold increasing the range between the loudest and quietest parts. The gate is an extreme version of the expander. It lets nothing out until it exceeds the threshold level.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Interpreting Scripts
I have chosen to shoot the script 'Eating Competition' for my direction for camera module. I will take a Brechtian approach to the film, distancing the viewer from the underlying issues of the film by using black comedy, but also make the film look as realistic and as natualistic as possible. I will not be focusing on the eating competition itself, rather the programme makers behind it. The script given will be a film within my film.
I was inspired by the work of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in the BBC 2 comedy 'Extras'. This succesfully manages to break down the wall between the audience and TV creation behind the scenes. In the embedded clip, Andy Millman (played by Ricky Gervais) is acting in his TV show that he has written but hates because he feels like he has sold out to the BBC. Note the camera switches from what the viewer of that TV show would see to 'real life' shots such as behind the scenes, audience shots and equipment shots. This is the type of intertextuality that I hope to be able to impement into my film.
I was inspired by the work of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in the BBC 2 comedy 'Extras'. This succesfully manages to break down the wall between the audience and TV creation behind the scenes. In the embedded clip, Andy Millman (played by Ricky Gervais) is acting in his TV show that he has written but hates because he feels like he has sold out to the BBC. Note the camera switches from what the viewer of that TV show would see to 'real life' shots such as behind the scenes, audience shots and equipment shots. This is the type of intertextuality that I hope to be able to impement into my film.
Reading scripts
I have a task to read a script to a movie that I have never seen before. I am reading 'The Producers' which is great fun. It's actually making me want to watch the movie, but I can't because that would ruin the exercise! I will post my thoughts on the script and my vision on Sunday.
The documentary
Got an email back from the paranormal group. We are now arranging an initial meeting at some point within the next week. Hopefully this meeting will enable us to understand the group better and enable them to trust us when interviewing them so that they can give more relaxed and natural answers. We will also be taking some release forms and a small camera to do a bit of filming for screen testing. We came up with a basic treatment that will be improved upon over the next week when we have met the group.
---------------------------------
Treatment
Something Productions
Working title:
Ghosts of Nottingham
Duration:
4 minutes
Audience:
Anyone with a general interest in the world of paranormal activity
Synopsis:
The subject in which our documentary will be based around is paranormal activity and the mediums who believe that they can contact the dead. After researching the subject we came across a group who call themselves “Ghosts of Nottingham”. The documentary will contain interviews and fly on the wall footage with voiceover/narration.
Purpose/ Aim:
Our aim is to show the true characters of the chosen members of the “G.O.N”, both in everyday life and when practicing their beliefs. We also aim to discover a strong contrast of opinions between the “believer” and “non believers” by interviewing people on both sides of the argument.
Suggested elements:
Traditional Documentary style
Multiple camera shots to capture most footage possible during fly on the wall shoot
Structure:
A brief structure for our documentary:
1. Titles
2. Establishing shots with V/O
3. Close ups and mid shots of subjects
4. Interview 1
5. Establishing shot of next location
6. Close ups and mid shots of subjects
7. Interview 2
8. Fly on the wall – night time footage (infra red)
9. Interview 3
10. Closing shot with concluding V/O
11. Credits
---------------------------------
Treatment
Something Productions
Working title:
Ghosts of Nottingham
Duration:
4 minutes
Audience:
Anyone with a general interest in the world of paranormal activity
Synopsis:
The subject in which our documentary will be based around is paranormal activity and the mediums who believe that they can contact the dead. After researching the subject we came across a group who call themselves “Ghosts of Nottingham”. The documentary will contain interviews and fly on the wall footage with voiceover/narration.
Purpose/ Aim:
Our aim is to show the true characters of the chosen members of the “G.O.N”, both in everyday life and when practicing their beliefs. We also aim to discover a strong contrast of opinions between the “believer” and “non believers” by interviewing people on both sides of the argument.
Suggested elements:
Traditional Documentary style
Multiple camera shots to capture most footage possible during fly on the wall shoot
Structure:
A brief structure for our documentary:
1. Titles
2. Establishing shots with V/O
3. Close ups and mid shots of subjects
4. Interview 1
5. Establishing shot of next location
6. Close ups and mid shots of subjects
7. Interview 2
8. Fly on the wall – night time footage (infra red)
9. Interview 3
10. Closing shot with concluding V/O
11. Credits
The Model Student
Here is my first film from last year. It is called the model student and is a 60 second narrative. This is the first time that I had worked together with a team taking into consideration lighting, sound and difficult filming environments (the bus). Hopefully the films that I make this year will be an improvment.
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