HD For Indies

4K camera screened by Sony

Hollywood reporter article on Sony's announced 4K camera. It is estimated it'll take 2 to 3 years to bring to market (camera and recording system). It'll be a good match for their 4K projector, so they can have a camera/recording/projection system akin to a digital 65mm system in terms of resolution.

That's about all we've got on this - just an announced plan to have a camera in 2 to 3 years, with no price point on any of it.

-mike

Conveniently, on the same day as the Red 4K screening in LA, ASC and the Hollywood local SMPTE will be showing some tests of their own in LA as well:

How Many Ways Can You Count Your K's?

7:30 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater, 1313 N. Vine, on November 14th.

"This joint meeting of the ASC and Hollywood section of the SMPTE will project tests on film and 2K comparing images captured on film, Arri D20, Viper, Sony F950, and Dalsa. Speakers include Daryn Okada, ASC President; Howard Lukk, Walt Disney Studios; Richard P. May, Film Technology; and Siegfried Heep, Modern VideoFilm. Film from "The Other Project" will be shown at DCI spec. Cameras will be on display in the lobby during the social hour (6:30-7:30 p.m.) with refreshments sponsored by Kodak. All industry members are invited to attend at no cost. SMPTE membership is encouraged but not required."

...so I'll be there (yeah, I'm flying out now that I have 2 things to check out).

Speaking of which, if you'd like to get together for some one on one consulting, I still have some time free on November 15th while I'm still in LA (I fly out late afternoon).

(found from the Digital Cinema Society newsletter)

Got an email from Jim Jannard last night, they'll be including some new footage shot since IBC at the November 14th event (details here).

Below is a sample frame grab, shot 24fps, 1/48th second shutter. Click on the image for a larger view. Note this was shot outdoors, also. I like the depth of field, the skin tones, but especially the highlight detail on the milk bottle - LOTS of highlight detail (pop it into Photoshop and see for yourself).
















-mike

Time for an update on Silicon Imaging, with two big things going on:

1.) A new partnership with Iridas to use .look files all the way from acquisition through post

2.) There will be a seminar on the camera and its workflow at Abel Cine Tech LA this Friday, Nov. 3rd

(article updated Tuesday mid-day, scroll to bottom if you've already read this when first posted)

OK, so first up, the Iridas partnership. Iridas makes a variety of software tools that deal with non-destructive manipulation of an image's color, for either previewing purposes (LUTs) or color correction purposes (color correction, color grading, call it what you will). Here's the press release, but the gist of it is this:

-when you working on set with the Silicon Imaging camera, you can load a .look file (created in SpeedGrade, for instance) to preview the look of a filmout, or preview a look treatment/color correction that you like. Perhaps even both at the same time if you have it all in a single .look file.

-this means you can previsualize your shots better

-BUT since this is a non-destructive LUT, unlike other workflows where you have to "bake in" the color correciton, here it is just metadata that gets recorded with the shot - essentially you'll be storing your uncorrected shot with the instructions to color correct it side by side in the file.

-even better, since this camera is recording in Bayer pattern RAW, you'll have the maximum amount of information to play with.

-this is a SIGNIFICANT advantage over typical workflows, where in setting white point and other factors you're ditching data that you might want later, THEN applying a destructive LUT, THEN recording to a lossy compression format that may subsample the image and ditch a lot of color resolution (HDCAM, you hearing me on this one?). While the SI camera does record to a lossy format (wavelet based RAW, using Cineform's RAW codec), it is pretty efficient, and does NOT subsample (shrink the image horizontally) and it does record 4:2:2 or even 4:4:4, instead of 3:1:1.

So there is a double advantage here from an image quality standpoint - Cineform RAW recording, and recording color correction metadata with the shot that will ride with it all the way through post to final color grading.

While you can do preview LUTs using the Viper, for instance (I saw a demo of this at the DGA Digital Day), with some setups you need a LUTher box, Cinetal, or other expensive piece of hardware to do this. Not so here.

One challenge of the Silicon Imaging camera is that it is essentially a stripped down WinXP box with a sensor and lens on it. So far this has meant a fairly large package size. BUT...as long as you have a computer right there, why not use it? That kind of flexibility is what allows for this kind of LUT utilization - for them, it isn't a matter of custom silicon, just modifying some code to run on the computer system they already have there. And since the viewfinder is just a computer monitor as far as the computer is concerned, running a LUT is no big deal.

I got an email from Jason Rodriguez of Silicon Imaging telling me about this, and as he describes it "our camera is now a complete "blank slate" for you to make whatever color adjustments you want, load that into the camera, and have complete color management from the camera head through post."

More from Jason:

As of right now I'm not sure if there's any other available camera with technology like this. But basically speaking, our camera systems can now take IRIDAS .look files and use them as the native colorimetry of the camera. Shoot with the IRIDAS .look file, and manage it as non-destructive meta-data all the way through post. As I'm sure you're all aware, with other cameras you're typically either constrained to the confines of the on-board matrix can do and colorimetry of the camera camera, or you can use the color technology using the IRIDAS toolset, but you have to preview the look on a monitor that can use .look files, like a Cinetal, LUTher, or something else of that nature. Now it's like having something like a Cinetal or LUTher in the camera, and the metadata travels using codec-level color management through post using our CineForm RAW technology. And because we're using IRIDAS tools, and 3D LUT technology, we can take that color information, and import it into some very high-end systems during DI and color post.

....

Ever wondered about making the output of the camera look like the ending film-print (or at least approximating it)? Well, you can now . . . separate ViewLUT's allow you to see something different on the monitor (such as what the end print might look like-no CRT/LCD is going to be a film print, but we can get close), while you record something else to disk. So you can have a calibration LUT for the monitor, and a record LUT for the main data going to disk.

Speedgrade On-set has some amazing tools to create stuff like virtual film-stocks, etc. If you don't like the way the camera looks, make it look like *anything* else you want . . . the 3D LUT technology in the camera can model any non-linear color-correction that IRIDAS and Speegrade can deliver.

We're going to be packaging a bunch of generic looks with the camera to-do stuff like bleach bypasses, wide-dyanmic range stuff, low-con looks, etc.


This is an unprecedented level of flexibility at this price point, and with this little amount of gear. You could literally be messing with looks and LUTs on a laptop on set, saving the look, loading it into the camera, and previewing the final look right there - quite the confidence booster. Then that look is recorded as metadata along with the shot (if I'm understanding this correctly), and can be accessed later. I've asked some questions about workflow and I'll update this article as I get them.

But I really like this idea - a lot of time when you're shooting planning on pushing it hard in post (like a bleach bypass or other aggressive color correction), you're kind of winging it - you don't know exactly how it will turn out. The ability to preview and tweak it with the effect applied live is a HUGE advantage. The only possible negative connotation will be the risk of spending too much time tweaking on set with everyone standing around, rather than "OK, that's close enough for us to mess with it in post, let's keep moving." But that's a set management decision, not a problem with the technology.

Early on, they took some guff about being based on a standard (albeit small form factor) WinXP based computer. BUT...because the camera IS based on a computer, it is MUCH easier for them to implement these kinds of advances and changes, as compared to typical cameras that have fixed silicon and it is a major challenge to retrofit these kinds of solutions. There have been grumbles about running WindowsXP in a camera, fear of crashes of blue screens of death; or concerns about the size/weight/form factor/power draw of the camera, but the flip side is this kind of super easy upgradeability.

Questions unanswered in my mind at this time:

-can you run a LUT'd view to a DVI/HDMI flat panel?
-what's the full workflow? Shoot, copy files, Premiere Pro, then how to get it to Speedgrade for final color?
-can you edit the embedded .look files in Speedgrade to tweak it further, or do you have to correct "on top of" that embedded look (I should hope not, that you can tweak the embedded)
-what else can read those looks besides Speedgrade if anything?
-what if you want to edit with Final Cut Pro or Avid?
-what if you want to grade with another tool?
-in either of the two above situations, can that metadata be preserved/translated/used in a meaningful, non-painful way?
-phrased another way - to use this really cool feature/benefit, are you locked into a Premiere Pro and Speedgrade workflow? Does seem that way

Cineform (the partner with the codec technology) has been talking about having a Mac codec due this....fall...hey, that'd be now....I've emailed, will update as I get new info.

OH - and they will also be releasing a camera block only product at a lower price point, around $12,000 or so if I recall correctly. This would enable you to use the tiny, palm sized camera block, with a lens attached, with a gigabit ethernet cable running back to a desktop (or maybe even a laptop with external storage?) for uncompressed or compressed recording. A TINY form factor, with remote control no less!

OK, next up - Abel Cine Silicon Imaging Demo THIS FRIDAY in LA - MUST RSVP

Again, this from Jason, bold my emphasis:

SEMINAR:     The Silicon Imaging - Cineform Workflow.

DATE: Friday November 3, 2006

LOCATION:
ABEL CINE TECH / LA
801 South Main St.
Burbank, CA 91506
(888) 700-4416
(818) 972-9078
(818) 972-2673 fax
Parking on Premises

Refreshments and snacks will be served throughout the afternoon. Admission is free but space is limited.

RSVP: Steve Nordhauser
steve@siliconimaging.com
(518) 279-9098
or Alison Russel
alison@siliconimaging.com
(518)374-3367

David Faires, DP and David Taylor of Cineform will cover the following topics:
Footage
Introduction to Cineform and Cineform RAW
Introduction to SI-2K Cameras
Production and Post Workflow
HANDS ON and Q&A

This material will be covered in two sessions, and you may attend whichever you prefer. First session from 10am - 12pm, second session 1:30pm - 3:30pm. Please indicate your preference when RSVPing. There will be hands-on time between sessions and after 3:30pm.

Please RSVP early, as space will be limited to ensure that everyone has the best experience possible.

The Silicon Imaging camera takes an entirely new approach to camera design.  The workflow from beginning to end has been the foremost design consideration in this new line of cameras.  Cineform RAW® native to the camera and 3D LUTs will change the way you work.   Come see how this makes your artistic creation much easier and more intuitive.

For more information, visit:
http://www.siliconimaging.com/DigitalCinema/
http://cineform.com
and of course our hosts at:
http://abelcine.com

-----

I won't be able to attend, if anybody can attend and take good notes (and pictures!), I'll be happy to post on here.

-mike

UPDATED 11:15am CST Tuesday, Oct 31st


OK, getting some A's back from my Q's from Jason Rodriguez:

Q: Can you edit the embedded .look files in Speedgrade to tweak it further, or do you have to correct "on top of" that embedded look (I should hope not, that you can tweak the embedded)?

A: Yes, you can edit the .look files at any time to change the "look" of the file.  You can also swap-out looks in post using the CineForm tools, so if you don't like the LUT, change it.  Finally, double-correction is a major "no-no", I would never want to-do that, so we are building in ways to avoid that, the easiest being to simply turn-off the LUT and re-appy the LUT in-context of whatever you're using for post-correction/DI (like Speedgrade DI, Discreet, Nucoda, etc., whatever can take a 3D LUT file)

CORRECTION David Newman, CTO of Cineform, wrote in to correct that statement:

A correction, the traditional no-no of double LUTting doesn't apply so much to this workflow. Cascaded integer LUTs, or a LUT then integer color correction would introduce banding. Note so here. The output of the 3D LUT is 32-bit float, that then can be color corrected, or LUT'd again with other floating point operation with no banding issues. This is the flexibility we are after. If you shoot with LUT there are likely to values greater 1.0 (highlight that can be restored through CC) it is great to keep the original LUT and just perform the corrections you need.


Q: The article mentions previewing on the viewfinder - can that LUT'd preview run on the DVI display as well? I recall there is a DVI (or is it HDMI?) output on the camera - can you view LUT'd stuff on that as well?

A: Yes, our interface actually support separate view LUT's in additition to dual independent display interfaces. What this means is that you can have one LUT be used for the record file, and another LUT used for monitoring, say to calibrate the monitor to a 2383 or 2393 Vision Premiere Print stock . . . you wouldn't necessarily want the footage itself to look like the print film, but with this method you can have a separate LUT that allows for different visualizations of what the footage could look like in certain mediums, and compensate for the monitoring system used, but apply a more universal LUT to the recorded footage. The opposite is true as well. You could make a nice, contrasty "finished" LUT for the recording, but monitor with a LUT that allows you to see the entire dynamic range of the footage in a very flat log-curve style.

Q: So this metadata that gets recorded with the shot - you'd then edit in Premiere Pro...what's the workflow to get that into
Speedgrade for color correction then? Would Speedgrade be reading the Cineform RAW shots, with that metadata included? That you could then tweak those .look looks further in Speedgrade?

A: You can, but you're not locked to using Speedgrade for color-correction and conform. We think Speedgrade DI is a great solution for file-based conforming. For instance, David Fincher has chosen it for grading the first all-digital feature film (no tape), Zodiac. But because we do the color-management at the codec level, you have the option of using high-end tools, or using After Effects or Premiere Pro with Color Finesse-it's a pretty open platform. You just turn off the LUT and re-apply the 3D LUT in the program (that's so you don't end up applying the same LUT twice to the footage).

In it's simplest form, the modified "look" of the file is what you see when you open the file and play it back in Windows Media Player, or Final Cut, or Premiere Pro, and it's WYSIWYG with Speedgrade On-Set interface. But because the .look file is metadata in a floating point format, there is information in the over-white values and clipped blacks ( but only if your "look" is higher in contrast and you haven't clipped in the camera). You can reverse a "look" losslessly, or what we term "non-destructive metadata". The RAW information is there all the time and is managed by the codec. The only time the information is "baked" into the file (clipping anything that is over-white and under-black) is when you transcode to another codec.

Q: If not, what is the workflow? And what other systems can read .look files?

A: .look files are just XML files with some settings for the IRIDAS platform and a large 64-point 3D LUT inside. The 3D LUT can be read in a number of different platforms. Currently I know that the CineTal monitors have direct support for IRIDAS .look files. Also Speedgrade On-Set can export a .look file in a variety of formats such as 1D LUT's for Blackmagic, and 3D LUT's for Thomson's LUTher and Truelight (so that means 3D LUT information is transferable to Shake, etc.). So at the same time you create a .look file for the camera, you can then export a couple other 3D LUT formats for your Discreet box, your DI suite, etc. Since the LUTher format is completely open (easy to read), it's got quite a large penetration in the market. Point is, the 3D LUT makes the "look" very mobile between platforms.

Our large 64-point 3D LUT support ensures that you get the maximum color accuracy in the gamut-mapping that the 3D LUT will be doing to the footage. Basically it's like having a live LUTher or other dedicated gamut-mapping device (i.e., high-end expensive) right inside the camera.


UNANSWERED (AS YET) FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS:

-for AE it is just a file import I presume - but how do turn off the LUT though? How do you get access to it?

-you mention FCP - how do you transcode the footage? How do you have the choice to burn in or not that LUT? What tools do you use to access the controls and transcode? Similarly, what's the Avid route?

...but in any case, these are really good answers, this all sounds very good. My biggest question is the transcode stuff - how to move the files to Avid or Final Cut Pro, yet still maintain that metadata. The transferability of the .look files is very promising.

-you mention double LUTing being a no-no, but I could see uses for it, or at least a compound LUT: if I wanted a preview LUT for what the filmout could look like, but then on top of (or underneath) that, I might also want the color grade LUT - so I might want a 3D LUT for filmout previewing, but also the bleach bypass LUT. Just previewing one or the other without both doesn't give a full sense of what you'd be getting. This is getting niggly, but it is important I think.

I'll continue updating this as more info comes in, so keep checking back and scrolling to the bottom.

UPDATE 12:30pm CST same day:

David Newman from Cineform got back to me, said that due to some high profile client requests on the WinXP side, the Mac version of Cineform (specificall Cineform RAW for the SI camera) has been pushed back a month or two but is still coming. No new problems, just other priorities to be addressed first. On top of that, Apple is thin on engineering resources to help 3rd parties, so it is coming, but not here yet. David said they realize Mac support depends on Cineform, so they are workin' it hard.

-mike

Apple - Education - Students - Insomnia Film Festival

On Friday, Nov. 10th at 5pm EST, they'll post a list of 3 elements to include in your story, and you'll have 24 hours to post your entry.

Winning entries get Final Cut Studio, Shake, and an 80 GB video iPod for each team member.

Top 25 rated get judged by panel of experts then winners picked.

-mike

Cinematical Seven: Tips for the Indie Filmmaker - Cinematical

Found via DVGuru.com, Cinematical's seven tips for the DIY crowd:

1.) Keep it simple (I SO agree with this - a simple thing well done far outweighs an overly ambitious thing poorly done)

2.) Write a script - don't just wing it - I like the quote about "plan your work, and work your plan"

3.) Don't be afraid to ask (for stuff)

4.) Get it in writing (Amen to that!)

5.) Consider going SAG

6.) Spend what money you have intelligently (OH, I so could write a book on this one)

7.) Don't forget about post (the 2nd book?)

Anyway, they have lots to say in each category, click 'n read.

There's also the 18 minute film school page, but it is clearly dated ("the brand new dvx100") and has some reality issues but it does have some nice guidelines about budget and format and timing ($X overall budget=Y shooting days) kind of stuff. Roughest guidelines to go by, so don't get too wired into it.


Then there's these storyboard PDF templates in 1.78 (HD) and 1.33 (regular TV) aspect ratios. (found via FresHDV.com.

-mike

DVD Studio Pro updated to 4.1.1 - DV Guru The update isn't terribly unique news, but somebody actually figured out what it MEANT. Read on. And update, esp. if on Intel based Mac.

ProLost: HVX200 M2 Magic Bullet = Good

Stu points out a dvinfo.net posting (with 2 sample QuickTimes) showing what indies can do with an HVX200, Redrock M2 lens adaptor (for shallow depth of field), and Magic Bullet's Look Suite.

...although you'd be surprised what you can do with the built in color correction tools once you start to dig...but Look Suite gives you precanned presets to just pop on and check out.

Stu (writer of ProLost) has long been an advocate of using less expensive tools but be smarter about how you use them when on tight budget projects.

As always, tools are nothing without a bit o' talent behind them.

-mike

Red stops taking reservations on the 31st.

So if you've been thinking of getting in line for one, you only have a few days left. I saw on a bulletin board somebody claiming to have Red reservation #707 or somesuch, I didn't know the numbers were that high.

So that means if you get in line now, there will be 700 cameras shipped and in the field, with likely usability reports, before they get to yours. If you don't like it, get your money back at any point.

Otherwise, hold your peace until they go on sale to the public sometime next year.

Unanswered questions:

So with reservations closing, the logical assumption is that they'll start taking orders again once they start shipping. But how exactly will that work?

1.) Will they start taking new orders once the backorders START shipping?

2.) Or will they fulfill all pre-existing orders and THEN start taking new orders?

It would seem to make sense that at some point shortly after they start shipping cameras they'll start taking new orders and let'em stack up. The question then - will the price still be $17,500 for the body? Jim Jannard, founder of Red, made it clear that the price wouldn't shift before it ships...but I've heard no guarantees that it won't change (nor, I should say, have I heard any hints about the price being raised, either).

In any case, if you think you want one and can afford to let them hold onto $1000 for 6 months or so, get on it.

-mike

UPDATE A couple of folks emailed me to say Jim said on the boards they be opening up reservations again in the Feb/March timeframe. Again, dunno what all that implies.

Sonnet | Downloads

Sonnet now has a Mac Pro driver for their E4P card, their eSATA card with PCIe interface.

It supports:
-Mac Pro ONLY for this driver (other driver for G5s)
-port multiplication on all 4 ports concurrently
-systems with more than 2GB RAM
-enhanced reliability

BUT it is still beta - so use with caution. Progress, but not a final destination.

Also, I just received a G-Speed fiber channel RAID in the mail from the kind folks at G-Tech, time to open it up and play.

-mike

General Specialist - Tips, Tricks and Tinkerings: Greenscreen and Bluescreen Checklist

An extensive list of tips and guidelines for a successful greenscreen shoot - everything from camera settings (turn down/off that sharpening!), the benefits of 4:4:4 over 4:2:2 over 4:1:1, lighting, blue vs. green, standoff distances, masking, tracker markers, etc.

If you have a greenscreen shoot and aren't an expert, a really nice read.

Thanks to Jonas (the writer) for sending in the link.

If you find something on the web that you think I might not know of or find that will be of interest to the readership here, always feel free to drop me an email at mike at hdforindies d0t com.

-mike

UPDATE: MoreDSC "Greenscreen shooting/lighting tips"

Macworld: News: StorNext FX lets IRIX, Red Hat users share Xsan
With StorNext FX client software installed, users of applications running on Linux, UNIX and Windows hosts can access Apple Xserve RAID systems managed using Apple%u2019s Xsan Storage Area Network (SAN) software. StorNext FX provides shared storage space down to the file level


I wonder what kind of sustained streaming perforance is possible? This is definitely a signifcant step - Apple's Xsan has been lauded as a price/performance leader (although I've heard complaints about robustness and administration isssues).

-mike

Sony's BDP-S1 Blu-ray player delayed again...again - Engadget HD

Sony has pushed back the launch date of their $1000 dedicate Blu-ray player to Dec. 4th, which is AFTER the expected launch date of the $600 PS3...which includes a Blu-ray drive and playback capability. Other than the wired vs. non-wired remote factor, and the "professionality" of having a gaming system for playback, WHY would significant portions of the market prefer a device that does less and costs more? Unless Sony is going to hamstring PS3's playback capabilities in some way - no 1080p support perhaps? Dunno.

-mike

AppleInsider | OpenGL 2.1 may double performance under Leopard

Apple will use OpenGL version 2.1, which will be up to TWICE as fast on the same hardware using a variety of time saving tricks.

QuickTime's plumbing will get significant upgrades in Leopard, for capturing video in any app as well as faster H.264 encoding. QT under Leopard will be 64 bit.

Apple - MacBook Pro

Apple as expected has integrated the Core 2 Duo chip into the MacBook Pro laptops (but NOT, at this time, the MacBooks - this to maintain their consumer/pro split?) These are the same industrial design, just speed bump models. I'm guessing/hoping MWSF they'll announce a new case design for the laptops, shipping in Feb/March timeframe. I have no hard data on that, just a guess. Or perhaps that is too optimistic - MacWorld is only 2 1/2 months away, that's a pretty tight upgrade table. So maybe later in the spring then? All pure conjecture.

With the exception of adding FW800 to the 15", this was an easy upgrade for Apple - faster chips, different burners, maybe upgraded graphics.

New stuff:
-2.16 or 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors "up to 39% faster than its predecessor"
-FW800 on BOTH the 15 and 17 inch models
-6x double layer DVD burner - can burn DVD-9s now onboard
-up to 200GB hard drives
-Mobility X1600 Radeon graphics (is this new or not?) with up to 256 MB VRAM

-2.16 or 2.33 GHz for the 15", 17's are all 256 MB VRAM
-2.33 15" comes with 256 MB VRAM
-all come with dual link DVI - can drive an Apple 30" with this laptop

Standard configs:

Base 15" MacBook Pro- $1999
2.16 GHz, 1GB RAM, 120 GB HD, 128 MB VRAM ATI Mobility Radeon X1600

Higher End 15" MacBook Pro- $2499
2.33 GHz, 2GB RAM, 120 GB HD, 128 MB VRAM ATI Mobility Radeon X1600

All 15" have:
-1440x900 pixel screens
-120 GB hard drive
-6x dual layer DVD burner
-FW400 & FW800
-USB 2.0 connectors
-Bluetooth & Wifi standard
-backlit keyboard standard

17" MacBook Pro - $2799
2.33 GHz, 1680x1050 res screen, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD, 8x dual layer burner, X1600 w/256 MB VRAM

Mike's Comments
Apple's gotten nicer about a few things - the 1GB config on the MacBook Pro is now a single 1GB stick, so you still have a free slot - cheaper to upgrade. The 2GB configs are 2x1GB - so you'd have to pull one and replace it with a 2GB for the max 3GB RAM. For some reason, 4GB is not an offered config, I have some vague ghostly recollection of there being problems trying to install 4GB in the MacBook Pros.

There is also a new airline power adaptor, but:

Using the MagSafe Airline Power Adapter provides power for your computer but does not charge the battery.
The MagSafe Airline Power Adapter is not compatible with automobile power ports.


So it doesn't charge the battery AND it doesn't work in cars. Bummer. I have a Kensington car charger that does both of those tasks for my 12" Powerbook G4, wish I had the equivalient for my MacBook.

As for buying advice -

If you are on a budget, the 15" base model is a helluva machine for the money. Get some more RAM, be it third party or Apple branded. Apple charges $175 for the bump from 1GB to 2GB, which is more than third party but not wretchedly so considering you don't have to install it yourself, and Apple can never play the "it's the RAM's fault, don't bug us" card if you are having problems with it. 2GB is really enough for a lot of tasks, the financial burden or jumping to 3GB (a $575 bump if you buy Apple's RAM) is of questionable value, depending on what you're doing with it.

If you think you ever might plug into a 30" monitor and want to drive it, either model will do. If you want to do some Motion, Aperture, or other heavy 3D/Open GL kind of stuff, the better model with 256 MB VRAM is worth considering...but I don't have hard stats on whether or how much of a difference that will make.

The 17" is a viable desktop replacement. If you have a dual 2.0 GHz G5, this laptop might well be faster. BUT...the 17" has always been dubbed the cafeteria tray - it is a beast to lug around on a daily basis. As much of a fan as I am for big screens (I've been 1600x1200 or greater resolution for perhaps 15 years on my workstations), I LOVE my little laptops for their lugability - I like the speed of my MacBook, but I like the size and tote-ability of my 12" Powerbook.

If you have a choice, the new 15" models are DEFINITELY preferable to the older 15's, if only because of the addition of FireWire 800 - a HUGE increase in throughput for certain applications.

The new 17" is definitely faster than the older one, but if you can get a stupendous deal on the last gen 17" that would be worth considering.

In general, I've come to the opinion that you either buy the next to fastest (best high bang/buck) or the top end (put off obsolesence as far as possible) depending on your comfort with the price, which is always a personal decision (and also how long this machine will have to last you, whether you can afford the rest of the ecology that goes with it - plenty of RAM, accessories, bags, FW drives, etc.).

It is a far far better thing to have a lesser box better equipped than top-of-the-line box with nothing else...same thing with camera equipment. Accessories and extras COUNT.

Note ALL of these will be JUST FINE for cutting native DV, DVCPRO HD, HDV, etc. Even my MacBook can do those tasks.

What each increase gets you:

$500 bumps you from 2.16 to 2.33 GHz (whoopee), gets you another GB of RAM (Apple charges $175 for this), an extra 128 MB of VRAM, and.....that's it.

$800 gets you the same speed, RAM, and VRAM bump, a slightly faster burner (8x not 6x), a bigger screen, and a bigger hard drive (160 not 120GB)

Starting from the better 15", $300 gets you the bigger screen, bigger hard drive, and the slightly faster burner

-mike

Update: MacinTouch's Amazon page lists out the current cost savings on older models - up to $400 off.

AOL partners with Paramount Pictures - DV Guru
AOL has announced a partnership with Paramount Pictures that will offer consumers downloadable movies and television shows through the AOL Video portal.

GigaOM � DVD Jon Fairplays Apple

The guy that famously broke DVD encryption is attempting to start a company that will let non-Apple companies produce content encryted with FairPlay technology - so others can sell audio/video content that'll play on iPods/iTunes/iTV.

Will Apple sue them? Probably. Will they win? If Apple doesn't, it'll be a MAJOR deal - like when non-Atari companies could start making Atari compatible games.

-mike

Studio Daily | Mixed Bag for NYC Production Industry

...while the number of films shot in New York City is on the rise, the growth rate comes nowhere near keeping pace with the dramatic increase in the total number of films made in the U.S. More television production is taking place, but at least some of that growth is attributable to low-budget cable TV programming. And the gradual exodus of the advertising industry continues "20 years ago, half of all the ad agency headquarters in the world were in New York, compared to just one third of them today."


At least the number of films being shot in NYC is on the rise accoding to the report, and NYC is getting hit less hard than others areas of the country when it comes to production flight.

This reminds of something Frank Reynolds, my NYC editing buddy said several years ago when I asked how the NYC film scene was. "The NYC indie film scene is about what you'd guess Austin would be like...and that is bad news for both cities."

-mike

Apple - Trailers - The Prestige - HD

..and it is way, Way, WAY better than the trailer makes it look.

LOTS of good surprises, just go see it.

Frank and I spent 10 minutes discussing nuances on the drive back home. While I annoyed him by figuring out a twist and whispering it to him before he figured it out, he blew my mind afterwards when he pointed out I'd misconstrued something that made the whole film deeply, deeply creepier.

In any case, go see it, you'll enjoy it.

I found it as rich as Memento.

-mike

Saturday - my two panels went fine, interesting to be on the panel with Harry Lynch, who directed Ride Around the World, an IMAX film (15 perf 65mm, film travels sideways, so HUGE resolution). While I talk a lot on here about inexpensive cameras and what can be done, he's a big advocate of get a real camera and rent it - it'll force you to a schedule that you'll be more disciplined for your entire project. Good idea, solid advice. He said you can rent a camera for what you'd buy the cheapie for, I'd say that depends on your shoot length but in general shoot on the best camera you can get your hands on, properly support (have budget for lights/lenses/audio/etc.), and operate properly. I gabbed on about the SI and Red cameras coming to market, the age of tapeless acquisition, and the new challenges and benefits those bring.

Sunday was a funky day for me - I skipped the late parties (including the closing party) Saturday night, because I had to get up early for a 7:30 am 10 mile footrace (10 miler, 8:30 pace, I'm psyched considering the cold and 20+ mph winds).

I then went home, desalinated in the shower, and went to the Hair of the Dog brunch held at Ranch 616. It was a cool, bright mid-morning when I got here, and what a delightful experience - tables inside and out, people sitting on the steps outside eating breakfast tacos, drinking bloody marys, and just enjoying the day, the setting and the company. We all moseyed back and walked into our panels.

Post race, post breakfast taco, I got very sleepy so didn't hear everything said between Peter Hyams (moderator) and Shane Black (interviewee), but it felt a little to "Inside the Actor's Studio" for my tastes. There was a lot of talk about humility and being true to your craft and story...but it didn't stick in my head. Nappy time.

After that I went to lunch with Frank Reynolds and a couple of screenwriters (Russell & Robert Summers, won a screenplay award at AFF) and we geeked out on movie stuff for a while. We were talking about girlfriends who didn't get it when Frank topped us all - he got a call from woman he was "sort of seeing" while he was at Sundance the year he edited the Oscar nominated In the Bedroom played there, and she said "Are you having fun at Film Camp?"

Afterwards I came back and slid into one of the smaller rooms - just a bunch of couches and comfy chairs set up, and Christopher McQuarrie in comfy chair at one end of the room. He was originally supposed to talk for about an hour fifteen, but since it was the last panel of the day in the room we all just kept going...for over two hours.

This was BY FAR the best panel experience I think I've ever had at AFF - a small group (twenty, maybe thirty people in the room), and a speaker who was relaxed and into what he was talking about. We all got a chance to ask questions (I got a 10+ minute answer to my question about Way of the Gun, which you should go watch right now if you haven't seen it).

I think about the last few weeks in Austin - for all my internal grumbling at "this isn't a film town, I need more work from elesewhere" - in the last few weeks, I sat at one movie behind Tarantino, Rodriguez, Linklater and Kurt Russell (and got to chat with Rodriguez about the Red camera a bit). Then I got to hang with Shane Black, Christopher McQuarrie, John August, and a bunch of others in a totally relaxed, low pressure, pleasant environment of approachability. Austin rocks that way.

OK, anyway, McQuarrie talked for over two hours with us, and it was entirely engrossing. I coulda, I maybe shoulda, live blogged it and taken notes, but I was tired and wanted that one Just For Myself, ya know? So off the top of my head, the next day, some of what he discussed is below, but I mangle the eloquence, verve, energy and panache he presented it with:

How "The Usual Suspects" came to be:

-started with the title - he read it in the news somewhere, thought it'd be a good title
-from there he thought that could be a cool movie, and started thinking about the poster for it
-have about 5 guys (7 would be too many), and each one had their own attitude - this guy is like "fuck off", this guys is like "Hey - whaddaya want from me?", this other guy is like "You can all go to hell"
-he thought that last would be a good tagline - "You can all go to hell."
-from there, how could he make THEM all go to hell, to play on that? the guy says the line, but in truth he and his co-conspirators are all the ones destined for hell
-Brian Singer, in the meantime, had made a movie with some Japanese investors, and now had a chance to get funded for a second film - the first round was 6 $250K movies, this was 6 $500K movies - Singer, ballsy guy that he is, said "Why don't you just give me all the money for this round?"
-in the meantime, he tells McQuarrie he has a very short time to crank it out
-McQuarrie was sitting in the break room of the law firm where he worked, which looked sorta like an interrogation room
-as an exercise, he's looking around the room trying to come up with stuff.
-there is a blank whiteboard, with a "made in Skokie Illinois" label at the bottom
-....and you see where this is going - after 10 minutes, he felt dumb, but then realized the guy getting interviewed had to be making all this up onthe fly, and the interrogator was so busy he didn't notice all this stuff
-somewhere in there he figured out the guy being interviewed had to seem small and innocuous, and the interrogator was trying to find this Lengendary Criminal, not realizing he had him right there
-a problem in doing that - if your audience is smart, they'll figure it out quickly - how to avoid that problem? The guy playing that role has to NOT be a star, you need a McGuffin - the interrogator is looking for Gabriel Byrne's character, and only later in the movie thinks he MIGHT be Kayser Soze
-when trying to get funded, studios wanted to put a star in the Verbal Kent role - but that would blow it - if it were Dustin Hoffman in that chair, you'd KNOW he'd have to turn out to be The Bad Guy....and every actor who read the script ONLY wanted to be Verbal Kent, not anyone else
-they wanted Kevin Spacey BECAUSE he hadn't done anything big

On Kaiser Soze's name

-while working at a lawfirm, he met Kaiser Sume, and told him - you have a cool name - it'll be in a movie someday
-Kaiser said "Yeah right, sure."
-they use that name for the bad guy in Usual Suspects
-during the clearances phase, the studio contacts McQuarrie and says "There is only one Kaiser Sume in the US, and he's in LA, and he's a practicing lawyer. One, we don't think it's chance, and two, we think it likely that he might sue if he doesn't like it."
-so Brian Singer is telling him he'll have to get it changed, and pronto, since the clock is ticking
-McQuarrie is thinking "I can get him to sign off on this, he's a nice guy." so he calls him, and reminds him who he is (they worked in the same lawf irm, but McQuarrie at a low level job at the time). Sume is polite and says sure, he remembers who he is, he's open to the idea, but he needs to read the script to make sure it isn't anything that would prevent him from getting future clients. McQuarrie sits down, and the first place he flips open to in the script is the scene where Kaiser kills his entire family. So he closed the script and changed the name.

Incidentally, when looking to change the name, they knew the character was turking, so started looking into the Turkish versions of devil, or evil, or liar, etc., but they were all 16 syllables long with 12 umlauts, so no way. Then he asked his friend with the Turkish to English dictionary (don't you have one?) to look up "verbal" as in Verbal Kent. Soze. Done.

-Brian is ambivalent about the name Soze until Christopher tells him it is Turkish for verbal then he likes it.

-incidentally, the movie didn't do so well in Turkey (a bit like "Darth Vader" is "dark father" in some northern European dialect)

On Benicio del Toro

-Benicio del Toro's accent and character is entirely Benicio's own creation - he wanted to ditch the script and do his own thing - on set the other actors were like "WTF?" the first time he did that accent...that no one could understand
-McQuarrie wasn't allowed to talk to the actors after they were cast - Singer thought he'd talk to much and confuse them
-del Toro calls McQuarie one night and they meet - del Toro has a tiny apartment - one huge wall of laserdiscs, and a giant TV on the opposite wall...and those are only about 8 feet apart
-del Toro had a photo on the wall - it is a Mexican guy in a hat, standing on a rock, his head cocked back, a cigarette on his lips, and a cocky smile. McQuarrie says "that's a cool picture" and del Toro says "That's only half the picture." - "What's the other half" sas McQuarrie. del Toro smiles and says "He's in front of a firing squad."

-THAT'S del Toro for you.

-so anyway, they make the movie, yadda yadda yadda. At the premiere, McQuarrie is outside talking to the 6 guys who want to talk to the writer, and del Toro is swarmed, surrounded. McQuarrie realizes that right there, at that instant, del Toro has just become a star.
-he continues talking to his little group, and suddenly he hears in his ear "All glory is fleeting" and it is del Toro, booking out there, a little freaked out by all the attention. On the way out, a papparazzi is trying to take his picture, and del Toro shields his eyes, looks the other way, and sticks his little camera out to snap a picture of the guy taking his picture, and he got it, he nailed the photographer, and he still has that picture framed on his wall. So he has a picture of the first instant where he started to get famous

On deleted stuff from The Usual Suspects

-Much like the "hit the girls first" story which you can hear on the commentary track during the opening scene of Way of the Gun, about being in a bar in the Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Context - McQuarrie and a friend in a bar where they didn't belong, and the friend saying "if you thought we were about to get our asses kicked, what would you do?" And McQuarrie says "I'd shit in my hand and rub it all over myself. Nobody would touch me after that." And the friend says "I don't think I could do that." And McQuarrie responds "That's why I'd get out of here and you wouldn't." (At that point, I leaned over and whispered to a friend "That's his version of the "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun YOU." story)

- So at another point in script development, the script was enormous, like 140 or 160 pages. There was a 20 page section on how they team came to LA after the jewelry heist - the supposition was that crime was like Hollywood - you had to "be somebody" to get connected to a big project. And since the usual suspects had no LA cred, they had to work their way up the food chain. So they find a street dealer and beat the crap out of him to find out his source, and beat the crap out of that guy, etc. etc. etc. At one point they get in over their heads - they are in a bar, and Gabriel Byrne's character is playing pool with a guy who says "You're not getting out of here alive." Byrne's character says "You wanna go...let's go. I'LL go" and starts unbuckling his belt, pushes his pants down, puts his hand down behind his ass, grunts, shits in his hand, and starts to put it on his face like war paint.

-McQuarrie shows this scene to Brian Singer and says "This will be the funniest scene, it'll be great." Brian says yes it is funny, but there is no way in hell he's going to shoot that as a scene in his own movie. Instead, for the whole 20 page bit about how they got their rep in LA and how they connected up with the criminal element to get that high paying job - "OK. Well how about McManus just knows Redfoot?"

-speaking of Redfoot, that actor came to the set and everyone was scared of him - he'd done a movie where his character had peeled fingernails off people or something like that. And when they were doing takes of the scene where Redfoot meets up with the crew after that first diamond job goes bad, he flicked that cigarette a zillion times and it was fine. But on that one take, it hit Stephen Baldwin (McManus) RIGHT IN HIS OPEN EYE. For real, no CG, just by accident. And Mr. Tough Guy Redfoot actor on the dailies is hilarious because he switches midstream - "Why don't you go fuck yourse -- OH MY GOD ARE YOU OK?" and just LEAPS out of character to the nice guy he actually is since he just nailed a co-worker right in the eyeball with a lit cigarette. And Baldwin, to his credit, gets nailed with the cigarette and his first response is along the lines of "Don't stop - did you get that? We are so using that! If I take a lit cigarette in the eye, WE ARE USING THAT IN THE FILM!"

-Baldwin was originally not not on McQuarrie's want list for actors, (McQuarrie got to help on the casting), but when he met the guy, Baldwin had gone through and added notes to the entire script for his stuff. At first the writer thought "Groan..what's this guy done?" but it turned out he hadn't changed the essence of what was just being said, just how it was being said to better fit the character the way he saw it....and it was good, and it worked. McManus was originally written to be this very caustic, sarcastic guy, and Baldwin tweaked that a bit to be the performance he gave. Also was a completely professional, prepared trooper. If Singer wanted the line as written, Baldwin always had it - he memorized not only his spin on the script, but also the original as a perennial fallback. He also fell about 15 times faceplanting for that death scene with the knife onto a roughly 1/4" pad. Dedicated professional.

McQuarrie on future projects

McQuarrie then talked about if you have an impossible movie, he's the guy for that. He spent no less than half an hour if not an hour talking about the John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln's assasin) movie he's been working on. He had Leonardo di Caprio and Martin Scorsese lined up to make it, but they were about to do The Departed, and there were two other Lincoln assasination movies in pre-pro. Since The Departed was next, McQuarrie pulled the plug.

McQuarrie on screenwriting

he talked at length about the Alexander movie he wanted to make and the challenges with the studio over that, including notes like "People like elephants and don't want to see them get hurt" and "Can we have a scene where the horse saves his life?"


he gave some GREAT advice about writing screenplays -

Scripts are read, but not read into. People doing coverage has so many screenplays to read that they don't take the time to ponder what it MEANS

For example -

-there's a scene in the Booth movie where Booth spends three years during the war doing Shakespeare performances, and is, unknown to himself, developing a political sensibility. By cutting together Booth performing different bits of different plays at different times, and cutting in great Shaekespeare lines about the nature of man, power, and the struggles and challenges of power, and that would be played against scenes from the civil war. In the script, it was 10 pages describing what you would see. But it was so complicated to set up and explain, that everyone felt that this was some disproportionately big part of the story. On film, it'd take a minute or two. But it took so long to describe it, in a verbatim fashion, that it was out of balance. He replaced those 10 pages of LITERAL description with a summary - something like what a just wrote above. And then no one complained about too much Shaekespeare, and people started saying how much they loved that montage in the middle.

Similarly, he had a scene in another project (Valkyrie, about Nazis plotting to kill Hitler), where the husband has been away for months, and the wife is pregnant. He had a long description of each thing that happened (the husband and wife dance on being reunited for the benefit of the kids, and he gives her a look about her body and she nods to let him know that yes she is pregnant, and she smiles...then she gives him a look and he nods gravely, just enough for her to catch, so she knows he's going to try to kill Hitler. And her smile fades). In his step-by-step, the essence gets lost in the description. So he cut out all the literal and summarized, and those reading the script got the idea sufficiently. Keep notes on all the details of how you want it to happen, or put the summary in with the script details, but the readers need that help to understand what is going on.

Similarly, he talked about how as a writer/director, there is a point in the process where you switch gears - the writer gets switched off, or seems to die, and the director takes over. There is no time to be a writer when you are actively directing. And even though he was as intimately familiar with the material since HE HIMSELF WROTE IT, there were moments where he as a director would make choices. And later in post, when the writer hat was back on, the writer wanted to wring the director's neck and say "HEY! I wrote those things for a reason, see why it is hurting you now?" He wishes he had notes from the writer "from Dead Me" as he put it - while directing. Keep that in mind.


Notes are given motivated by an emotion. The horse example above - wasn't as dumb as it sounds - the horse was actually Beucephalus (sp?), a horse Alexander had from the time he was 12. The note was about building an emotional note around the horse. So try to respond to the emotion behind the note, not just the literal note. At first, they made up stories amongst themself parodying the Lassie comes up and barks and "What? Jimmy fell down a well? Where is he?" scene. But then they actually came up with some good stuff when they took it seriously.

it is interesting that he wrote Way of the Gun when frustrated and bitter at Hollywood while doing an uncredited pass on the script of X Men. All his vitriol and anger at Hollywood went into the script. He made a comment that I can't recall about trying to do something with the audience, not manipulating their emotions, and feeling he didn't succeed.

I LOVE that movie, violent and angry as it is, because the pacing of the reveals is great, the gunplay is the most realistic I've ever seen in a film, and it is very pure in its effort to portray these guys as criminals, and nothing else.

On directing

On directing - at one point, when filming the scene in Way of the Gun that has James Caan and Benicio del Toro in a parking lot in Mexico, del Toro kept holding up the gun throughout the scene saying "my character doesn't know this guy, he wouldn't lower his gun." ...but that doesn't work to film it all that way. Benicio wouldn't budge on this point. They were running late, it was Friday, and if they didn't wrap this set and make their move over the weekend, that'd put them 3 days behind.

James Caan comes up, squeezes his arm firmly (which he does a lot, almost as a "see how strong I am? Aren't a virile for an old guy?" thing), and says to McQuarrie "ALL actors are like children, even me, and need to be told what to do." Caan can get it in one, but likes to do several takes to feel good about it and sure that it is right.

So McQuarrie gets the AD and tells him to set up, and gets the actors and says "OK. We're going to do this again. And Benicio, you're going to put that fucking gun away and I'm never going to see it again, ALRIGHT? And since we're already running late, we're going to get it in one." (meaning one take) Benicio starts to get upset, bunches up his jaw, but says nothing. Caan starts to open his mouth and McQuarrie says firmly "Is there a problem?" and Caan shuts up.

And it worked, and it happened, but McQuarrie internally was thinking "these guys must think I'm an asshole and hate me now"

In summary

OK, that's enough for now - it was 2 hours it was great, come back next year to Austin Film Festival and you too can sit down with these guys. OK, over 3000 words so far - imagine if I'd live blogged it?

: )

In short, this guy is a MAJOR talent. If you heard a former beer drinkin' security guy was writing a story about a tough cop interviewing a guy looking for the world's most legendary criminal, you can just imagine what kind of horribe, overacted, doomed for Cinemax at best movie that might have been...and it was The Usual Suspects. Knowing that he started with a beginning and an ending (he had a 10 page thing set on a boat with a guy with not working legs, the gas, the lighter, someone pisses on it to put it out - he just lifted that so he wouldn't have to write 5 or 10 pages) - look where he went with that, what he added to it.

If I could hire anyone to pitch my project, I'd get this guy. He was quietly riveting for over two hours.

I heard the panel with Shane Black, McQuarrie, Sydney Pollack was purportedly AMAZING, Maya Perez (who runs/books the panel stuff) said it was their best panel ever, and I heard other gushing commentary about it elsewhere. Maya mentioned they video'd many things and want to put out a DVD, but getting the editing done is a problem. Email the festival and let them know if you want a DVD of this stuff - I'll bet you do if you're a screenwriter! Anybody wants to volunteer/work cheap to edit this stuff, get in touch with Maya (or email me and I'll get you in touch).

-mike

Austin Film Festival: The Business of Film Panel

As usual, walked in late, this time because they'd moved the panel and not documented it in the guide book (always verify online in the morning where all your stuff is for the day - I ended up attending a "wrong" panel earlier today and missed Christopher McQuarrie, dammit!).

Anyway, here's my raw notes typed realtime as best I could:

Red Garrett, write & teaches @ Baylor is Moderator

Non-traditional ways of doing the film business

Richard Beamer (Beaver?) - president of Roughouse Productions, did Squid & the Whale

Chris Hyams - CEO of Bride Entertainment - working on new market research and distribution

Sean Cobell - worked on Napoleon Dynamte, and two others

Peter Hyams has had 35 year career in Hollywood, always dealt with studio system

Over last 10 years, can make films w/out big name stars or studios involved, or new ways of distributing films

Q: In what ways have indie films opened things up for other indies? How will it be differrent going forward?

A: Richard - it has opened up, costs have come down to digital age, general audience more open to indie fare (for the most part), downloadable content is a big new deal, but also creates competition and increases costs, downloadable content is a big new thing, how to compete with those doing it; most are trying to second guess what size of content and how to access it; for indie productions, don't want to take a whole lot of risks; what's the ideal size? Smaller/shorter programming for online viewing, tech is changing and decreasing the time to download, focusing on smaller content may not be good if 5 years from now might be obsolete; larger companies can more safely invest in new tech. As far as distribution is concerned, print costs will go down as digital projection comes along, less need for certain types of advertising as things slide to viral marketing; people will still need to produce the content that they can tell best - know who your market is, when you know who your market is, opportunities are more apparent to hone in on who wants to see your film and market it to them. Who wants to see your film? Make sure you are creating something for them.

Chris Hyams - tech has affected production hugely in last 10 years. His brother's first feature ws $60K for 16mm stock, $350K for Avid . Last film was cut w/$7K FCP that does more than the Avid did back then. 1500% increase in # of films made, 1000% more film festivals in the last 10 years

box office has been dropping over the last 3 years, a 40% growth in film festivals and attendance over the last 5 years - people are hungry for new stuff. DVD economics have changed the industry - distribs and studios get profits from a place that didn't really exist 10 years ago. Internet will change way films are distributed, but not now. Myspace wasn't around before, THIS GUY DOES B-SIDE. As a distrib, what films you pick up is vital to success. he wants to pick up the films that audiences like rather than the ones with the big stars. Technology is the answer for them - they'll have been in 20 film festivals over the last year. Every time somebody clicks 2 stars or 5 stars it is good info for them. Their approach to exhibition is non-traditional - they show in music clubs or universities or outdoors etc. Digital projection is a great thing. They use a $600 projector to watch Finding Nemo 20 feet across on side of the house. When his brother started making films. It used to be $100K to make anything. Not so now. Then you couldn't show anything. Car based drive - ins - projector in a car w/an FM transmitter, email out on Thursday to say showing Friday night in a parking lot type of stuff (cool!).

Sean Cobell - as filmmakers, there are zillions of films out there, not all will be good. Maybe 10% will be good; when you look for content, super low budget stuff you see problems exist in structure, acting, etc. While there is a market for that; your job is to find something so specific that it'll resonate in your market, so you can overcome the sucky editing/acting/lighting/whatever.

THERE WILL BE lots of competition. There will be more acquisitions now as well. Significant capital is being spent to acquire small featurs. Small distribs are getting into it, online plays will take time - broadband is the limit.

Q: Is selling on the internet a good idea?

A: Just because you can do it doesn't mean you can do it well, or that you ought to. As filmmakers, make something good rather than just make something because you CAN.

Q: self-distributing - Sean on new exhibition and distribution

A: Sean - what property do you have to begin with - film Think Tank was prepped before Napoleon. Made mistakes in that one. Made something more broadly marketable as compared to Napoleon...was too generic. Can't break through the clutter with generic distribution. Family Friendly distribs are coming out - Mormons are prolific (mormon entertainment through Hailstorm or other distribs). Family freindly is a market and is growing - but gotta be careful to keep it appealing to that demographic.

Richard - tell the best story you can - as filmmakers - the importance is to get the films made and seen by as many as possible and make enough to keep making fiilms. Don't look too far into the future. What's available? Trying to call it in the future is too big of a crap shoot. Look at what is out there right now - you'll have to make those decisions in a short period, in a few months. As fillmakers make mistakes going through festivals, overfocusing on theatrical, but that creates some problems. There isn't much money to be made for them through that effort. For your first film, what you want is a reputation so you can continue as a filmmaker. Put your movie out there best foot forward - putting indies onto a lot of screens with very little advertising. 20-200 screens releases. They played on Monday morning...you never heard of it...it only did $84/screen. Don't get yoour film out there JUST to get it out there. You want people to see it and come away with a positive experience.

People do dumb stuff - skip print for a CSI commerical...which does you no good, since you need 3 viewings for it to stick. Or to say we're hitting top ten markets...but $300K barely gets you into NYC & LA advertising markets.

18 year old boys HATED it...45 yr old women and men loved it...but since a rapper starred, they missed their marketing

be very aware of who does your film ACTUALLY appeal to based on test screenings, and THEN market to that demographic

-there is no trick coming along that'll affect everything

-Chris - knowing your audience and how to reach them is a huge thing. On a film they're doing, spending no $$$ on traditional P&A - Before the Music Dies was the doc they did that screened at SXSW. It resonates with indie musicians and creative folks - they drag their cousins and kids etc. to this movie. They are screening in music venues instead. XM Radio came to them and wanted to push it since the topic CREATED sattelite radio. The premiered the film on the XM Radio, XM wanted to get behind them so they invited them to use it. Emails to 3M people, running a channel for a day as the audio for the show. CSI ad would only appeal to 2% of the viewership of CSI...but XM radio listeners already think regular radio sucks, and are an able audience for this show.

Understanding who cares about it and how many of them there are is CRUCIAL research to do to know

As you're planning distribution, there's a lot of money you can spend on postcards, posters etc. - how good are those are getting YOU to see a film?

Some folks are adamant about things that may not be useful or necessary. They wanted bus advertising and billboards....for NYC fine, but for Norfolk Virginia that doesn't necessarily make sense.

Money spent on a PR firm that knows how to get to you demographic will do more than spending your money for posters/postcards etc - it is smarter money spent. Focus on those things instead of traditional advertising.

You typially only see a movie poster when you're already there - so why spend money on posters etc.?

Spend money that gets asses in chairs. If you are going for theatrical, per screen average is a metric that is paid attention to. So getting on a lot of screens may not be to your advantage. If you're big in LA, for instance, get on a few screens in hometown not in a lot of screens in NYC where you're not known.

In NYC, they got about $17K/screen...in LA they did about $2K/screen. The $17K got trade press..the $2K did not.

Film critics MATTER. Napoleon dynamite was on 6 screens to start with. Bad reviews in Boston meant like 3 people saw it. Good reviews in NY meant good box office.

When you have critical support, and leverage that via marketing, you're in a much better position.

boxofficemojo.com - look at napoleon dynamite per screen averages

Big studios can be described in 6 words or less. Indie films can't be done that way. Small films that have to be explained and word of mouthed, so opening on a lot of screens is a BAD idea.

In Salt Lake City - Mormon $200K stuff - grossing $1.1-$1.2M. Distro channels for that? Mobilizing a marketplace is a very geographic effort. The lay out a map of the US and say here's how box office will play across the country by state by night. Utah is off the map - WTF is up with Utah - Monday night is the big night out. Mormonsploitation films is what he's called - if they pull a story out of the bible, then the congregation goes to see it. Excel is a distro company with a funding arm. Hailstorm is another. $200-$300K done usually not on film, goes out roadshow 3 prints, stays on market for a long time with no P&A behind it. DVD backup? YES. Theatrical drives the DVD sales which is where the money really comes from.

Q: Guerilla marketing - since festival competition is so strong?

A: be careful - if you premiere at a non-buyer's festival, diminishes your odds of getting into a buyer's thing like Sundance etc.

short films are to get awards or get future work - no reason to back those whatsoever - you're on your own

shorts are honestly done, but features are shadier and more political etc.

Synetic Media - gets 10% of your movie, they can push to get into a better category, they have advice and rolodex

At Sundance they'd made it locally, the recommended top half didn't include Napoleon. Until yo go to market, don't show it ot anyone - gotta keep it locked up - do NOT show to buyers yet! You want to create a feeding frenzy amongst buyers. They wanted to hype it up at Sundance, John Schloss said to sit back and be what you are - a grass roots thing

Director's careers can launch faster than producer's careers

Festival circuit - there's about 1000 festivals around the world. Everybody likes the feeling of being accepted into a lot of festivals....bear your audience in mind and that you're giving it to festivals and then your audience has seen it. If you hit every market that you're into...your market has seen it! You've lost your word of mouth from the Leading Opinion Folks.

Getting people to see your film at a smaller festival...isn't always your best play. Don't overdo the festival circuit - it costs the same to go to a festival big or small.

John Sloss is a HUGE assett - you're in a different situation at that point. John helps pick the right festivals to go to. Austin had 1500 submissions, Philadelphica had 250 screened, they had 3000-4000 submissions and had to STOP using Without A Box. The title of your film and the one image you choose are the most important thing you have - it is all you have to go by. If there's a 160 other things you've never heard of, you need something to pull people in. It is CRUCIAL.

Rank was the title for a bullriding film...if you know what it is it is great, but if you don't know what it is about it is a scary title. The 4 minute short won over the 30 minute short. It was smart, incisive one note thing. If you're watching 500 shorts....a 30 minute short better be pretty amazing to get'em to watch it all.

Knowing your audience and the right festival is key. Before the Music Dies were focused on Sundance. It was the wrong place to even think about. They got into SXSW instead which is more music oriented, and applying to the right festivals, knowing who in the business attends, and what the audience is like, is KEY.

Part of your distro is publicity stills - do it right! And make sure it doesn't lead you down the right path

Q: new distro company - what to do, where to start?

A: Get a PR firm first thing! Esp. if working with limited funds, that is used to distributing films and distributing YOUR kind of film - and it might not be a movie publicist - it might be a PR film that does other kinds of marketing - if yo have a specific audience - find a publicist that works in that space

Q: What about Day & Date releases? (DVD and theatrical)

A: there is no definitive ansewr yet - Bubble was not the answer for that one. Chris' philosophy is that at the end of the day, the money comes from DVD sales. You try to NOT lose money on exhibition. At some point somebody may make money digitally distribution. TV or foreign distro is free money at that point. For certain smaller films is to get them to buy the DVD. Exhibitors are paranoid that having DVD suck away theatrical ticket sales.

People that haven't seen your film yet - if it is on DVD, they are NOT going to go see it in the theaters.

In 5 years we'll find out the truth.

For big Hollywood stuff - piracy is a problem for big films, isn't for smaller films. "People like stealing stuff." - if there's some way to let'em pirate it and make money another way somewhere else, that'd be good by me

-the music that is on P2P is the stuff people really like, there are companies that advise labels and radio stations by sniffing all the P2p traffic

-Behind the Music is doing house screenings -

- AMC and a "real" DVD distributor - DON'T sell your DVD or they won't pick you up

Q: HD or 35?

A: depends on your project...16 vs HD? depends on the projects, and the budget difference is pretty minimal - it is an artistic choice.

But for DOCS it is a different choice.

Red Update: 4K screenings of footage in NYC & LA

Got an update from the Red team - there will be 4K screenings of Mysterium sensor footage in NYC & LA over the next few weeks.

NYC Screening

Wednesday, October 25th @ 2pm & 3pm
In NAB NY shot in Javitz Convention Center
Room #1E14

This sounds like it'll be exactly what was shown at IBC. But it WILL be on a 4K projector, so you'll get to see firsthand what the Red One will be capable of.

But the better deal will be on the West Coast:

LA VIP & Press Screening

Tuesday, November 14th, 1:30pm
Nuart Theatre
11272 Santa Monica Blvd
West Los Angeles, CA 90025

VIPs (which includes reservation holders) & Press only for this 4K event. The good news is that they've been shooting some more footage and HOPE (typical "no promises" Red approach) to incorporate that into the LA screening.

Map link on this page, and parking is tough, bring quarters for street meters and be prepared to hike.

-mike

John August panel at Austin Film Festival

Sat in on John August's panel, we actually had a chance to sit and talk a bit beforehand (we've emailed a few times back and forth between our blogs) and chat about his progress on what he's calling The Movie.

Here's my raw notes taken as I could type'em, typos, mental flow mistranscriptions and all:


How became a screenwriter: grew up in Boulder, liked movies but didn't think about it too much, watched War of the Roses as a kid, brother and he watched it and wrote down the dialog, realized as a kid that "Oh, somebody had to write this down!"

"Naive but hey, that's how it's done."

There's media about screenwriting now, but

Got into a producer's program in LA, 25 people in his class group, learned it all there

read first copy of Variety - couldn't understand it, read every issue twice, figure out where the studios are

-had a great script library

-started reading bad scripts - worked as a reader for a tiny company, doing coverage

-at that point started figuring out he could do it

-Hollywood was this thing in the distance, as he got closer, he realized there isn't a line or barrier, it is just a lot of little steps

-once you're writing you're in the industry, it doesn't feel like that

-met Spielberg, like a mythical firgure, talking to him realized he's not magical, just working really hard. Kind of dissapointing, but realized that while tallented, he just works really hard

-been a lot of work to get to where he is

-perception that it is a lottery attitude - only time you read about it is because somebody gets $2M for a screenplay...only read about it because so rare

-usually doing 8th draft of a revision for something you don't really care aboutanymore - that is the reality

-either writing by yourslef, or in a mtg w/a jnr exec who might not know who you are

-"if I can deflate your dreams at all I'll be happy to do that"

opens it up for Q&A
===================

Q: Willy Wonka - once in factory, focus shifts from Charlie's movie to Willy's movie, assumed Burton's move, but actually John likes the shift

A: done 3 movies with him, he's maybe spent 24 hours aggregately with him, usually 20 minutes at a time, been to his house one or two times.

He loved the book, had never seen the original movie. The story is about Charlie gets the ticket to go to factory and win it, but it isn't rewarding as a movie experience. A lot of stuff just happens, nothing changes over the course. Charlie the kid is perfect, never does anything wrong. Classically the protagonist who changes and antagonist motivates change.

Wonka closes down factory - what's his damaage? Why is he this way?

Let's build in a greater backstory for Wonka's damage and how Charlie helps him overcome that.

If he gave Charlie the factory at the end, nothing would change.

Charlie gets the factory, Willy gets a family.

Q: Samples - how much?

A: full scripts, but classically over-written - all over the gamut, everything shoved in there that didn't have to be there. Comedy samples was from Natural Born Killers the book.

Q: when did he decide to have a blog?

A: about 5 years ago, imdb.com asked about a weekly advice column, said great, answered one a week, enjoyed it, but it was one way, and couldn't go back through old stuff, odd that a popular site still feels like 1994 design. Took all the imdb type stuff and made his own blog.

(John mentions me about blogging)

Figuring out the limit between public and private, mentioning his partner and daughter but not by name, where to find the line. Josh Friedman talks about everythign in his life, but John wanted to draw a line there.

He spends more time on it that he planned (yeah, I think it is fun too)

After a certain amount of established work behind you, the freedom of what you say becomes different. Some tiptoe around some issues (don't badmouth a producer or whatever).

At this point, on the site he's pretty upfront about not publicly dissing, since it is PERMANENT. He has his own list of people he'll never work with, but he won't say it "because it ends up being this whole tangle of everything."

There are projects he wants to have happen, but the wrong guy is attached, or he won't work on it until he gets it in writing that so and so won't be involved. Limits to what you get control over in a film.

Q: how'd he get from short film to feature (Go)

A: friend asked him to write something smallish, but containable and shootable.

Wanted to do a story about cahsier girls in a grocery store and something goes awry. The Ronna storyline from Go is this part.

Wrote it and friends dug it.

Later, he went back and knew what their other stories were for the other storylines. Reservoir Dogs came out and he saw that structure and saw it could be done. Wrote full feature version of it, had a new agency, took it out as a spec sale situation.

The friend Jim read it, everybody liked it, but was told "we can't make this" they wanted a feel good movie where the girl takes her glasses off (She's All That). It's not that movie.

The agent got it to Banner entertainment, paid the least they possibly could, and he got co-producer status, they figured he'd go away, but he STAYED. For all casting session, everything, it was his film school. The first day "Crap there's a ton of trucks here...oh wait, they're here for the movie!" 5 days in they were 3 days behind, started directing 2nd unit.

The plan was to sell off foreign rights, 3 weeks before production, got a call from producer saying foreign money fell out. "We need a white male star in this age range to star in this movie" Michael Douglas was not going to be in this movie.

By that time, they had a good cast together for an American studio picked them up as a marketable cast. This was his film school.

What would he do different - he wrote features to start, should've written spec episodes of TV show he loved, should've written for videogames, would now do a movie for Youtube, there's a more open world now - those walls are different.

Q: How to you take a concept and make it go

A: He's not an index card guy - he wrote a pilot with another guy, there he did cards out of necessity. He'll outline certain products. A loose outline in his head is how he does it, once has that, has to start writing.

He writes out of sequence, he writes whatever he feels like writing that day. You're going to go back to it anyway, write the other bit and come back to that piece he's avoiding. Sometimes do both ends of script and then come back for the middle. Write the ending where you still love it and don't hate it. Some movies seem to get sloppier towards the end - perhaps because they were unhappy with it and wanted to get done.

Friends that he shows stuff too - that was important early on, but now he trusts himself. Now he knows about the craft of it, and gets paid on a weekly basis, and can tell people "that'll take me 3 days". Some things are inspiration and some things are muscle, and he's better at the muscle stuff now.

Pilots for TV - it moves so quickly, you can't be precious about it, GIT'R DONE.

Q: how many did he write before he thought he knew what he was doing. How many drafts do you go through?

A: After Go, wasn't sure that he knew what he was doing it right, first time it felt naturally. Blue Streak was written for Nicholas Cage, rewrite for Martin Lawrence, rewarding to see that he could actually do that. Be able to do it on demand. That was about 4 feature scripts before he felt he knew what he was doing. He'll hand in a first draft sometimes now, but only with craft and experience can he do that now - the same way a DoP can know how to light a scene.

When he was first handing in, he'd do 3 or 4 drafts before calling something a first draft.

Tough to write at all, but if he's early for a Dr. appt., he'll scribble something down, and isn't precious about This Paper or That Pen. He'll hand write 50 pages, does by hand so he CAN'T edit and shoot out a draft fax it out so it is GONE. In 2 weeks he's going to Chicago to start on something and looking forward to just barricading himself in to work on it.

Q: Research and time to do drafts?

A: depends on project, sometimes gotta research, the PROCESS of researching is more useful than the research - finding the interesing questions to ask. Sometimes helpful, sometimes not, just go in and do it. 6 weeks is typical to do a draft, had to in 3 weeks and that kills you. 9am to 6pm is his workday. Not writing that whole time. Blog is something else to do to stay productive. 3 or 4 hours actual writing in a day is a good day's work, 5 pages is a good day. Some days require 17 pages in a day. TV is a monster that needs scripts, is good practice.

Q: If left feeatures to do TV, would you?

A: life of television is worse than features as a writer - "here's what's wrong with TV" -

-one hour drama is better than it has ever been, amazing things
-but people have foresaken their lives to do it
-he wrote a script for a film, cast it, figured out how to produce it, found locations, found sets, shot, edited, in sound now, sell it and market and promote it later is going on, took a year
-in TV you're writing next week's, casting something, rewriting this weeks, dealing with the network, etc....and it is all going through the showrunner person who has to do it all

-in The Movie, he found he was floating outside his body - he found it not healthy or good or anything, for all the good shows out there, wouldn't trade places with anybody in that role - it is busy and their lives aren't as happy, due to schedule

Q; as the Go To Guy, what about own stuff?

A: The Movie is his own thing, studios have no idea what it is, he's been Go To Guy for rewrites, is rewarding and frustrating, people are happy to pay him to rewrite, but won't pay more than X to do his own thing. If he originates something, it isn't as worth as much to studios is a frustration. A conservatism from a big corporation, sense of must make $200M every movie, a creative conservative contraction. At his age in his career, having lunch w/a producer, tells about the product, producer says "looking for a younger writer" he's 30 at the time, but they really wanted a cheaper, younger, less experienced writer.

He wants to be the creator and oversee the life of something

Q: Art direction type stuff: very visually vivid and pop - how to imply that on the page w/out providing stuff

A: Rarely meets the art director, the Art Director on Wonka was kind enough to include him but that's RARE

Screenwriting is about the art of economy - with one sentence create a world

spends time on scene description because it is crucial - many people read it before it becomes a movie, if can give a sense of the texture/feel/etc. of it, is his job. Gave the Art Director the sense of how the scenes will be, and art director can execute from that feel

Q: What's up with Prince of Persia? Were approached or what?

A: is a video game, created in 88 or so, but different iterations have come out over the years. Doesn't say much on blog because too many dorks want to be Prince of Persia, or people want more info. Current status - he likes the underlying story of Jordan (creator's) ideas, he's supervised and worked with Jordan to help shape it to hire him to write the screenplay. Hit all studios in one day, hired a Town Car (that was a mistake).

It is essentially a Pirates/Raiders in 9th centry Persia, he's 3rd or 4th in line, king's favorite, can stop time with a magic dagger, in this world, the cool thing is the universe they're making - on edge of East/West/China cultures, ended up Bruckheimer for a bit, their process is maddening, Jordan had a good script, a zillion drafts, their process is "let's bring in this writer to do that" - the idea was John was to be the Fixer writer, but hasn't shaped up that way. The talk is that they may shoot next summer after Pirates 3, and it'll be absurdly expensive no matter what they do.

Q: the game has a turban on the lead - the ethnicity is an issue - is a flash point for Persian identity - what to do? LIke Hannibal movie - black or white person. Hopes Bruckheimer will find a great Persian actor, but whatever happens is beyond his control if they cast Orlando Bloom or somebody.

Ethnicity and cultural identity is one of those frustrating things. A Fox pilot for Ops that didn't happen - one character a former SEAL, lots of blog comments about "SEALs suck SEALS rule" - doesn't want to get tangled into that world. He doesn't want identity to get to be the big thing about it

Q: to break into industry today -

A: be flexible - realize that what you think is gonna be it isn't it, just follow whatever work pops up. If want to write the quirky indie, find the people that will make that movie, don't go knocking on Columbia's door is they aren't going to make that movie.

If you like TV, write TV -there's more opportunities there

-write whenever there is an opportunity to write, even if isn't somebody that you think won't be big isn't the case. Don't assume you know how things are going to turn out (good advice for ME to take - roll the dice more to increase your odds)

Q: move to LA?

A: if the movie syou like to write are valid for New York, be there. If you want to write Lord of the Rings, it is an LA kind of thing, or if a sitcom, gotta do LA

Q: Big Fish - how does he feel about it?

A: he loves it, was a book that he worked w/writer for a long time on, most autobiographical of the things he'd done, his father had died not too long before, knew how to write that experience without being cloying, that walking on eggshells quality about being around someone who dies; in the book he kept reading it and adding other things in that he connected to it. People who like it REALLY like it. If Burton hadn't signed on, wouldn't have been made. Was an expensive small movie. The bigness of the circus, location, cast and crew made it big. Shot in Alabama, for the Aisan sequence, finding 500 Asian people in Alabama to shoot was a challenge - found 50 and cloned them digitally in post.

He optined Big Fish from the author, Sony did it for him but he initiated it

Q: Charlie and Chocolate Factory - how to be original but be faithful to book AND the movie, but cover new ground w/out a scene by scene remake.

A: Having not seen the orginial, he didn't see the film until after submitted script, Tim and John didn't like the original, but had to be respectful during press tour. So they went back to the book source for the movie. He doesn't know Tim all that well, but knows what Tim likes, so did the orthodontic headgear, and knew he'd like the squirrels. Knows Tim has things about how he deals with parent stuff, so he tried to write (like volleyball) to set for Tim to spike it in.

One of his non-credits was a re-write on The Rundown to write for Christopher Walken...but there's no top with Christopher Walken. Got to use "cooch" for the first time.

Talking about parents and Big Fish - parents are like a lottery - you get stuck with them, but everywhere else in life you get to pick who you hang out with. "We were like strangers who knew each other very well" He could predict their behaviors very well, but you don't understand them. Can predict what happens next, but can't explain it.

Q: Challenges of directing?

A: producers on The Movie did American Beuaty and Big Fish, were friends of his independently. They did Big Fish with him before, and set producer on Veronica Mars was the third producer.

In terms of money and stuff, they were tiny, and enough folks who "hey if you ever do a movie" - they'll try to get into Sundance, try to get into other festivals, not gonna make a ton of money, but it is the movie he wants to make. His job is often to keep the studios happy, but for this one he didn't want to have to do that - he wanted to make the movie he wanted to make, and not have to bend to another's requests.

Q: do drills to keep up?

A: does writing off the page often - spend an hour writing about how this character feels about something, that won't go in script but helps him understand the character; or in a place and write about an interesting place describing it;

Q: For the stuff he wasn't excited about (Martin Lawrence movie) - does it help you on other stuff?

A: he does some of those bandaids as favors - hopefully will be able to call in those favors later for his own stuff (Jurassic Park 3, Minority Report he did emergency work on). While shooting JP3, he got on a plane to Hawaii in a HOliday Inn, didn't meet w/director, slide pages under director's door, only met director on last day (a dick). Kept relationship going since Spielberg was supposed to do Big Fish at that time.

He couldn't make any reshoots get done, but work from what was already shot. Like parkingin a really small place? How are you going to fit this in here?

Q: At this stage, does he still get notes? Is it a pain?

A: You get spoken notes, and can have a conversation about, teh written notes make you want to kill yourself. He did for Warners, Tarzan. Doesn't usually do the big hero stuff, but this was the time to do it, he said he wanted to do it in modern civil unrest Africa, they were good with it. Spent a year on various drafts, gets a set of notes, says to put it back in 18th century, and nothing could be used from what he'd done, so he walked after that.

He had to learn how to write those notes, if done write can steer in a good way.

Q: Aside from biz and writing, what inspires/feeds you?

A: gets internal validation when he knows he's written somehing good, test screenings with an audience that goes well and they laugh if your joke is good. He reads the geeky/gadgetry stuff, he likes the computer of it all, his peers are the new tech guys blogwise, he loves TV and his TiVO is full.

Q: Was the airduct in Blue Streak his idea?

A: he revised the air duct (he hates jewel thief movies) premise...there's a reason why he's in the air duct. Air ducts are a horible cliche, hates it.

Q: The Movie: while writing, when did he decide to keep it for himself and decide to direct

A: called that for title clearance right now, wrote it from conception for himself. One part of the movie (3 different parts to this movie, one section is directly autobiographical). Isn't Charlie Kaufmann like in terms of tumbling in on itself...he shot in his house, wouldn't let anybody shoot there. He mentions talking to me (MIke Curtis) about figuring out what to shoot each portion on.

Q: screenwriters typically don't get much attention

A: there's more popular media press about screenwriters - greatest frustration is that the director gets credit if good, screenwriter