| CiAOiFilm.net • CiAO Alert #59 • Tuesday, February 10, 2015 |
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Chico Local indie Filmmaking Addendum Timely news that could not wait
...film, like all art forms, holds up a mirror, to us, and shows us who we are. Sometimes
the mirror is crazily and wittily distorted. Sometimes it is disturbingly, even frighteningly, clear.
No matter what the changes in technology, or the means of distribution and exhibition, the moving
image will never be anything without story. And for that, all you need is belief, persistence, and a
story to tell.
• Oscar Nominated Shorts at The Pageant Theatre February 14th Every year the Pageant brings in the best of the best in Oscar-nominated Live Action and Animated Short Films. Each category is a separate admission. Do yourself a favor and experience these amazing films before the Academy Awards show on February 22nd. 90 minutes runtime. LINK: The Pageant Theatre
• Local Indie Filmmaker Premiere: Josh Funk's Spaceman Spaceman is a live-action & stop-motion Sci-Fi short film about a man who creates a cardboard spaceship and goes to another planet. Directed by Josh Funk, this indie film includes stop-motion puppets, miniature sets, props, and animatronics. (some of which will be on display) The CN&R printed a 3/4 page article about the project in the Arts section. (online link below)
The two-day premiere will be Saturday, February 21st at 1:00 pm and Sunday, February 22nd at 6:00 pm,
at The Pageant Theatre located at 351 East 6th Street corner of Flume St.
They will be showing their previous stop-motion short film "Wormholes", followed by "The Spaceman," a short behind the scenes video, and there will be a Q&A with Jordan Funk (The Spaceman), Joe Batt (Producer, DP), Jay Darden (Composer), and Josh Funk (Director).
LINKS:
• On The Importance of White Balance If you want to shoot video/film like a professional, you white balance. Every single time you move the camera, or point the camera in a new direction. Do not be a lazy filmmaker. Your footage will suffer, as will your final resulting video/film. This is particularly true if you are attempting a "film-like" look for your film. Non-white balanced video will not color correct correctly. It may look fine, 'good', or even "great", in your LCD viewfinder, or in your editing software. However, when you try to color correct your shots, one shot will skew one way, and another will skew another, and so on, so it will basically be impossible to color correct your video/film to any real acceptable high level of correction. You will not be able to make it look as nice as it could have been had you simply done what every professional videographer and filmmaker who knows what they are doing does: white balance. And by "white balance", we mean true custom white balance, not even Kelvin or other presets. The color temperature of almost all light sources changes over time. Including the sun. Sunlight has a different color value in the early morning versus noon versus evening ("The Golden Hour"), as well as throughout the day. Additionally, things like clouds, cloud cover, fog, SMOG, fire smoke, and other particulates can change the color, as well. And although most lights will more or less achieve a final light color value after they have been on for differing amounts of time, once they are heated up, they also change in color value over time. Especially if you are turning them off and on or using a dimmer. It is particularly important to custom white balance when there are multiple sources of light, like sunlight, "practical lights", colored lights, and filmmaking lights, etc., and when using color gels. Some people think DSLR's and similar cameras do not need to be properly white balanced. This is an untrue myth. ALL digital cameras need to be custom white balanced. Although some DSLR's don't offer a "quick and easy way to custom white balance", it's not all that hard, especially when you get used to doing it. There are many tutorials, textual and video, on the Web that show how to do it for your camera. Ideally, you use an 18% gray card rather than a "pure" white card. Or, there is a simple tool that will give filmmakers an easy white balance source, a White Balance Filter. There is a nice, cheap version available on Amazon.com called the "JJC White Balance Filter (WB-F1)", available for about $16, or about $20 including S&H. (see link below) So do yourself a favor and properly white balance all of your shots. It's the image equivalent of using a good boom mic or equivalent with a digital recorder for proper sound. Note that, if you are able to shoot in RAW mode, as some higher-level cameras are able to do, you can choose WB later with the proper post-production software, although this newer mode can get tricky, and complex, so you have to know what you are doing — although there seems to be some discussion among people about how true this is, and whether you should WB RAW, as well. LINK: JJC White Balance Filter (WB-F1) at Amazon.com
• Affordable Boom Pole Indie filmmakers who would like to up their game and own a VERY affordable, professional-level boom pole need look no further than the Markertek 4-Section Fishpole 31-103 inch MFP-4. At about $50 with a SRP of $100, this pole is very nice and works very well. Look anywhere else for a similar pole and you will be paying in excess of $100. The connector is standard 5/8". You can also get a decent microphone shockmount to go with the boompole (a near-requirement for good quality sound) at Amazon.com for about $15 or so. Check the reviews; some are better than others, especially at the lower price ranges. And make sure that your boom mic will fit, and that the connectors mate correctly. (or that there are converters included, or needed to purchase separately)
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| CiAOiFilm.net — The Consortium of indies, Artistes & Others |
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The Consortium is a varied group of people interested in independent film and other related areas. Including all areas of indie film production, film in general, other productions of various kinds, multimedia, watching and appreciation. There tends to be an emphasis on indie films and filmmaking, particularly nano-budget, micro-budget, and small-budget filmmaking. All are welcome to join us, whether you are a writer, director, producer, actor, crew person, cinephile, or any other interested party. (suggested age range: mature teen through adult) Learn more about us. Contact us if you have questions or comments.
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