new movie

Its been busy for the last two months. I've been helping my friend on his movie its pretty interesting, sad and a little weird. It talks about a character that's going through life, he just moved in to his new apartment when things started to go strange. His neighbor seem to be doing some strange things on the top floor, and his girl friend seem to not show too many emotions and want to hang out with him. Then suddenly one day, everything is exposed and he realizes what has been happening. Its not like any other romance or drama movie, its a unique story with a memorable ending. Although I haven't seen the movie yet, the script says a lot. I can't wait to share it with you guys.

On the other note, my brother and me are making another short film. We got the idea when my cousin decided to come to Toronto to perform her music. It was difficult to create an idea that was purely original in such short notice. When we were filming, we didn't even have the entire story layed out in detail. We filmed the basic concept of the movie with her. Once the movie is coming closer to its release date, I will post more information up. For now keep checking!

Filming All weekend

Hello, we were filming my friends project all weekend.

Saturday was pretty cold, the day had all outdoors scenes and we started off with the ladder shot where the camera was at a high angle. That went off pretty smoothly, when temperature are cold outside there is lack of motivation to be outdoors. The next shot was a track shot during longer takes it was difficult to operate the camera because your hands were frozen. Unfortunitly, someone else opearted the camera after I left. But I heard the rest of the filming went smoothly.

Sunday was much more comfortable because we were indoors. We took quite a while to set up the first shot, we made sure all the technical and acting aspects were good before we began. There was also a hallway shot after that. The setup time for that went relatively quicktly.

We are half way through the movie and I'm about to put together a trailer for it. Stay tuned for more details!

how to capture MiniDV to video onto computer

Finally the Rimage printer has arrived..... in New York City. I've recently purchased it on ebay, and my cousins from New York will be bringing it to my location. This baby can duplicate and print thermal full colour labels on your disc, can't wait to try it out.

Anyway, I stumbled upon some freinds recently that needed help in capturing video. To capture from MiniDV to computer simply place the tape in your camcorder that has 1394 firewire cable on it.

1) Open Sony Vegas select file then select capture video.
2) Choose capture DV video (or HD depending on your format).
3) Another window will appear
4) Select where you would want to save your footage under the tab "Disk Management"
5) Select ok.
6) To capture the footage into 1 single file and not let Vegas choose the scenes for you, go to Options and select preferences. Go to the Capture tab and uncheck "unable scene detection"
7) Select Capture tape the unit will automatically rewind the tape and capture itself.

Generally you'll want to capture at 720X480 frame size at 29.92fps NTSC (North America) and 44Hz uncompressed for audio. a 1 hr MiniDV tape will take up about 13GB of space. Hope this tip helps out for you. Merry Chrismas!

helping out on a friends project

Wow, finally we're working on something here, just been very busy at work these days. Its been a while but we've just started production in a movie directed by my friend. I'm working as DP. I'll also be working on another short exercise with my brother this Christmas Season. Maybe I can get my cousin visiting from New York to visit guest star in it. Stay tuned as I'll be posting more information up, maybe some behind the scenes pictures from the shoot. I don't want to release the name of the title yet. Its going to be surprise.

Anyway, here's a video tip/question I recently received.

Question: My DVD won't play on my DVD player.

1) Try to look at the bottom of the disc to see if there are any scratches or dirt and oil. If there is, clean it off by rubbing the disc center out.
2) Make sure the bottom of the disc is facing the ground when placing the disc into the machine
3) Try to see if the DVD will work on a different DVD player or computer.

Slowly coming along

Finally got some time to find a good script from a movie. Has some good dialogue, but not sure when I'll be actually be filming it. Perhaps during the Christmas holiday when my cousin's arrive from New York? Fresh crew new ideas?

Been quite busy with my video editing services recently, trying to push my duplication services a little more. Just got a industrial machine that can print thermal colour, it will be here in December, can't wait to use it.

Lucas is doing a new movie, we're having auditions at the Ralph Thornton Centre tomorrow (Nov 22) The majority of the filming will happen at my new place. Can't wait to work on that project. For now Stay tuned!

New Script

Two projects are currently in post production, but will take a while to put together since everyone has work and school. Dont' worry guys, trying to output something fresh, and different everytime. Stayed tuned!

Ideas for script?

Me and my brother are planning to do a two minute dialogue scene about anything! Anyone have any ideas? Let us know by sending you ideas or scripts and get your name in the credits.

Greenscreen or CG?

Greenscreen or computer generated?

Today many movies use CG to create a model then animate so that it will fit into the live action. I see that more and more independent filmmakers are also using this technique, but for people that aren't computer savvy there is another solution to create your model.

For me, using 3D Studio Max or Cinema 4D will take me weeks of learning. In one of my movies a helicopter was to be flying top of a car driving down the highway. How did I think of doing this since I did not know how to animate and build models via computer? I purchased a model helicopter, and filmed it in front of a greenscreen taking into consideration of the lighting and position of camera, the blades weren't rotating, but I've angled in a position in which I will be able to rotate them in post afterwards. I then I filmed the background plate with the cars moving also taking note of the camera angle and lighting, then used After Effects to composite the shots together.

I've used a mask to remove the fixed blades, then used a single clear image of a blade and placed it into the shot. Of course the footage on the helicopter is moving, so I had to track the blades onto the helicopter so that it looked as if the blades were on it. Together with the blade stuck on the helicopter, I've took the entire shot of the helicopter and placed it onto the live action plate with the cars. The camera was moving in this shot, so I had to track the helicopter in. Now that the helicopter is in the shot, for every frame, I've turn on and off the opacity of the blades giving the illusion that the blades are rotating.

All that's left is the shadow of the helicopter, and I had to colour correct the helicopter to match the live action plate. Then did another colour pass for it to match the rest of the footage.

This shot was about 2 seconds in length and took me about 3 days to put everything together learning several new techniques on the way, if I used a 3d software application, for me, it will personally take me much longer.

So for those people out there that aren't computer savvy, greenscreen models may be the way to approach the shot. You can also film your talent on a greenscreen background then track them onto the model. You can also research on matte painting, 3d tracking, set extensions to help build that scene that your looking for! Thanks for reading.