Archive for the ‘Film’ Category

SWE4: Making a Movie for Less Than $2500 – Richard Michaels Stefanik

November 13th, 2005 Clint

Richard Michaels Stefanik is the fellow who wrote the book – The Megahit Movies – which is used in some of the Writers Guild of America courses. I’m thinking that you can’t really get a better endorsement than that. I’m also thinking that $2500 ain’t gonna get you a Megahit… but maybe a microhit?
He starts off by pointing out that approximately 70,000 scripts poured out of printers in the last year and that it is tough to stand out from that deluge of paper. One way to stand out is to actually produce a movie since there are only about 5000 films made a year. You may still be a small fish but you are in a smaller pond.
He gave us the example of Chris Nolan who made Following with $6000 of his own money… which got him $5 million to make Momento… which got him $46 million to make Insomnia… which in turn got him $135 million to make Batman Begins. Nice career path if you can get it.
He talks about putting your finished movie up on a website that costs about $500 a year… but I wonder how much more expensive that will get if the film actually finds some interest? If you take a 90 minute film and encod it to a reasonable high quality, you end up with at least 250 megabytes – and if your hosting service only allows 200 gigabytes per month of bandwidth (not unusual) the movie can only be downloaded 800 times before you either get your site shut down or they send you a big bill.
He doesn’t mention it but you might want to look at putting it up on Google Video if you don’t want to get smacked for exceeding your bandwidth allotment. You can also look to iTunes… when they are ready for someone other than big networks and studios.
He is putting his money and time where his mouth is and has produced Henry Dodd for less than $2500. It has aired at least ten times on east coast television and he is now going to chunk it up and put it up on the Internet.
He looks at the overhead projection he is using for his presentation graphics and rethinks the numbers. He feels that $1900 could get you a 90 minute movie today and he will have to revise the numbers.
“Your first movie will be a throwaway.”
I never meant for the pilot for Ragnarok the Series to be the one that goes to air, it was to be a selling tool for the series and for my writing. It also cost about ten times what he is talking about… but then I went crazy with locations, actors, FX and action… I knew the error of my ways going in so that rule breaking was entirely deliberate. That said, I won’t be throwing out the pilot I shot, I want to put it up on the Internet some time in the next few months… when I get the time to edit it correctly. Everyone who volunteered their time deserves the best show that I can create… but they also shouldn’t have to wait two years to get it either.
Mr. Stafanik isn’t entirely up on the tech side of things and he should pay a visit to HD for Indies for an refresher course. He feels that you would need to spend over $2000 for a dual-core G5 even for editing miniDV… now I’m not a Mac guy but I’m pretty sure that anything they sell right now will handle miniDV… and Apple’s iLife comes with iMovie HD to edit it with. I’d put even money that a Mac mini will allow you to edit an HD feature with that same iMovie HD… just don’t expect to do any realtime work- I suspect that there will be a lot of waiting for it to render.
He didn’t mention AVID FreeDV which would be a good tool to get started with. Actually, you could put together a nice little suit with FreeDV for video editing and their subsidiary Digidesign Pro Tools Free for audio editing… their Softimage used to have a free 3D tool but that seems to have been discontinued in favour of a free game mod tool.  Since they bought Pinnacle, they have a bunch of cheap editing tools to sell for under a hundred bucks and that leaves them with a decision to make – do they drop Pinnacle’s entry level tools or do they drop their free entry level software? My take is that they will orphan their two free tools off alongside the Softimage free edition.
Frankly, I don’t know why they even bought Pinnacle since it would have cost a hell of a lot less to just code a couple new packages if they wanted to extend their line – and there has to be more cost effective ways to buy a potential customer list. I can’t really see where the purchase of Pinnacle will help anyone, customer or company. Kind of like how Adobe bought Macromedia rather than say- Newtek… why buy duplicates of what you already have rather than extend your line of products? I guess if you figure that the competition is too good, you could buy them out rather than try to make better products.
Mr. Stefanik barely touches on the most important part of making a $2500 movie – writing a script that can actually be made for that amount. This might be due to time constraints and the fact that it will be different for everyone depending on your resources.

The following is my thinking so don’t blame it on R.M. Stefanik.

My take on it is that you need to carefully look over what resources you have available and then write a script that makes the most out of that. First off, what can you do? What skills can you bring to the project for zero dollars? If you can act, do makeup, create wardrobe or props… this will all add value without adding to the bottom line. If you are a special fx guru then a monster or horror movie might be doable with what you have sitting around the house… while everyone else couldn’t touch it with five times the budget.
Then, what can your friends do? Can they run a camera? Can they show up with two dozen home baked muffins for craft service? Can they do computer graphics? Now be careful with this and don’t take advantage of people, make sure that they know exactly what you are doing and what they will be getting out of this.
What are their expectations? My late friend Derek Rama made sure that I knew the importance of that question. People sometimes hear what they want to hear… and it may not be what you meant to say. Ask them exactly and explicitly what they are expecting from the project. It may be your undying gratitude or it may be fame and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One you can promise while the other you can’t… make absolutely clear which one it is.
And what about locations? Maybe all you have is a one bedroom apartment. Maybe you have a cabin on a lake with access to an abandoned shoe factory. To maximize production values you will want to write a film that makes as much use of the location(s) as you can. Keep in mind that careful camera blocking and set dressing can make one location into two, three or even four locations. Not only will this make the most use of one location, it means that you don’t have to move and that is something to avoid. On my pilot, we used the office of our lead actor‘s wife to stand in for three separate offices. Shane, our key grip/gaffer, let us use his house and it stood in for three separate houses. You wouldn’t believe how much trouble, time and money that saved.
How much time are you going to have to do all this? If you are trying to get it done in three shooting days over a long weekend you will have to minimize action, set decorating or relocations. If you will be doing it over the next eight months of weekends then you can use a different location every one of those weekends. Also keep in mind how much time you are asking people to dedicate to this project. It is one thing to ask someone for an eight month commitment when you are giving them a big fat paycheck- and an entirely different thing when you are offering cold muffins and your undying gratitude. The shorter the commitment, the easier it is to get people to sign on… and always keep in mind that even with the best of intentions, someone saying that they will be there for you over the next eight months doesn’t mean that they will be. Everything from a family crisis to simple loss of interest can cost you your lead actor or a primary location half way through your shoot leaving you with a movie that can’t be finished.

Okay, that ends my interlude and we go back to Mr. Stefanik.

He has a good idea about using your local high school. Most of them have a drama class that puts on a few plays through the year and he suggests that you go there and talk them into making a movie instead of a play. You offer to produce it and that will give you access to what should be an enthusiastic group of people, a longer term commitment from these people, a possible budget increase and at least a few locations.
I’ve been mulling over a spoof on creature-features and that would probably work perfectly with a high school cast and location. It is too late in the current year but if I were to go that route, I should probably contact the drama department at the Lakes District Secondary School and lay some groundwork for the next school year.
This was a good session, especially for those who haven’t dug into it as deeply as I have. I learned a few things and that is all I ask of a session.
He doesn’t really cover what happens once the shooting and editing is all done so once more I will jump in and add to what he has talked about. (you’ll notice that I do this a lot, everything on this website goes through a clint-filter)
So we end up with a $2500 feature length movie… and then run headlong into the distribution brick wall. Except for a vanishing small number of these micro budget movies, making money from them isn’t really in the cards (yet). This means we should be looking at the spectrum of free on through cheap distribution methods.
The first distribution method is one he did give cursory coverage to and that is to set up a website yourself and upload the finished project to it. This gives you full control of the aesthetics of the site but will work only as long as you don’t get hit with a lot of interest. Unless you are paying for some serious hosting, it is usually good for only a couple hundred downloads a month. You could easily run out of your allotted bandwidth and your hosting service will probably pull your site off the Internet and/or hit you with a big surcharge.
The two biggest name places that host and distribute your movie over the Internet are the aforementioned Google Video or iTunes.
Google Video is free up until you pass a certain bandwidth and then they start charging a fee to download it. It is a way to throttle the bandwidth without cost to you or having it completely offline. The complications will ensue as the lawyers and unions start arguing about commercial use and income. Someone is profiting from the work of the cast and crew so the unions will probably demand a percentage. I used UBCP actors on my shoot, it would have been far poorer if I hadn’t. They have a fair contract for volunteer acting gigs which stipulates that if the project makes any money they get ten percent. This is all fine and good but Google is a new and very gray area. If Google makes money and I don’t make a cent… do I owe the actors money? These questions have yet to be answered and unions don’t have a record for flexibility.
Apple on the other hand seems adamant that nobody from the indie community will make money… so they might be a safer choice in that respect. I don’t know how long Apple will allow you to keep your movie up there or how many times they will allow it to be downloaded. It probably depends on how well they can spin it to the artsy folk who are their key marketing demographic. The self congratulatory 16-34 artists with an inflated sense of their own opinion… they are Apple’s bitch. Oh, of course that doesn’t mean you… you are just a discriminating connoisseur of fine tools who groks that Apple is the greatest company ever and that their hardware and software is faster, easier, and more capable than Windoze… plus everyone knows that Bill Gates uses children in developing countries to make Microsoft products out of ground up puppies. And that Apple logo tattooed on the small of your back is just the normal expression of loyalty to the company that originated everything good in computers.
One thing about all this content becoming available online, I see a need for content programmers who scour the material out there and set up websites, a podcasts or RSS feeds that are analogous to TV Guide… it might even be TV Guide. If they know what is good for them they will be developing iTV Guide before someone else takes their lunch money.

Posted in Casual Creation, Film, Learning, Selling 1 Comment »

SWE4: Victoria Wisdom

November 12th, 2005 Clint

Victoria (formerly with the talent agency Becsey, Wisdom, Kalajian) starts off by dissing another person running a session at the Expo, saying that they’re trying to teach how to write and not what to write… which I take to mean that she wants to tell us what to write?
And that is exactly what she proceeds to do… but in a good way.
She tells a story about a producer friend of hers who decided to dig through all the script coverage that they had been saving. Amongst the other fields they fill out, the readers have two boxes to check; writer recommend and/or script recommend. The executive went through the coverage and contacted every one of the one hundred and fifty people who got a check next to the writer recommend. They did it with the hope of finding a good new script from one of these promising writers.
Not one of those recommended writers was still writing! They knew how to write, just not what to write.
She figures that a writer can’t write in isolation, that writers are part of a huge “thing” and that we have to find where we all fit into this "thing". I gotta agree, you are a cog, deal with it.
If you are writing in isolation like I am, then you face a real challenge in writing something that isn’t already being developed or that isn’t completely un-producible in the current market. Reading magazines like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, following the news at MCN: Movie City News, Script Sales and The Futon Criticl… they help but are no substitute for actually living and writing in Los Angeles. Deep websites like TVTracker and Studio System are good but you have to pay for it.
Would that I could move to Los Angeles.
Because she saw something original in it, she helped shepherd Criminal Minds from a clients idea through development and then helped sell it to CBS after everyone else passed on it. I’m sorry, but I don’t see anything overly original with Criminal Minds… it is a procedural that is elevated above the others by execution and Mandy Patinkin. The Inside from Tim Minear saw that with Peter Coyote and then raised them an Adam Baldwin and Rachel Nichols… and then threw in more original story lines and better writing.  I’m not saying that Criminal Minds is bad – Criminal Minds, Bones and House are the only procedurals that I watch, it is a good show but it ain’t terribly original in concept.
She had a lot of hard numbers and she was adamant that we should keep up on them.
*The average feature film costs $78 million with another $20 million for P&A (prints and advertising).
*The two Toms (Hanks and Cruise) are the box office kings. They are two who can get a film made with a simple “yes” – and if you can write a script they want to make then you are gold.
Action sells best since 16-24 year old males are the most vociferous theatre goers followed by 18-34 year old men and woman. She also feels that at 36 most people just stop going to the movies and watch features at home. So if you want a blockbuster opening then you get the 16-24 males into the seat and that means action.
My take is that action or epic films are the only ones that are worth the trouble of seeing on the big screen by anyone… and in any given year there are only a few films that a person has to see in the theatre. King Kong and Serenity should be seen on as big a screen as you can find… Cinderella Man is fine on the 50” television in the living room. If you are a 17 year old male in school and don’t have a demanding job or a wife and kids you want to spend time with… then you can wander down to the theatre and take a chance on whatever has the most exciting poster. Half way through the movie you’ll be texting everyone you know to stay away from Stealth… but you’ll sit through it and you won’t resent the people who tricked you into the seat.
But back to Victoria… and the second biggest genre in the theatre – comedy. A lot of the 16-24 will go to these and it is the biggest draw for the 18-34 bracket. I’m thinking that the action-comedy is a better bet than the romantic-comedy. She says that cynical comedy is what is getting made and not to bother with warm and fuzzy.
She feels that thrillers are a distant third because it is more complex and takes work. I just feel that there is no burning need to see a thriller on the big screen no matter how interested I am. It doesn’t need the big screen.
Horror-thrillers are hot right now although she sees the trend burning out sooner rather than later – but until then, the non-creature horror film is a good bet. No more vampires and no more creatures. Well, I have a spoof creature-feature in the works… does that count?
Bringing up the tail end is drama at some 7% of the market. She points out that these almost exclusively go to established players with their own prestige projects and trying to come into the game with a drama is almost impossible. If you have to write a drama, write it for an A list actor or director and try to get it to them. If you have access to an A list actor and can give them some Oscar bait then you have a chance since “As long as there is vanity there will be drama”. On the flipside, if you can’t get to them then she tells us to give it up.
She says that pirates are still hot and that we should be working on one for when Pirates of the Caribbean 2 makes a couple hundred million. There is still that Pirates and Cowboys script I have sitting half finished… but there are four projects ahead of it so what do I do?
Victoria’s take on television is that it is tending towards the supernatural… which would be good for my Ragnarok the Series if I were still pushing it.
While most people will tell you to write what you really want to write and don’t chase the market since it changes faster than you can write… Victoria insists that there are some ground rules and you have to write to those rules if you want to have a chance. And while the trends can change week by week, when a trend burst, you have a few months to cash in on it.
I’m lucky in that I like me some action and comedy. You might not be so lucky.
If you get a studio to bite on a pitch, they will usually want a first draft in twelve weeks, they will take about four weeks to review the draft and then give you another four weeks for the rewrite.
What isn’t good news for me is that she is sees a polyglot writer as a bad thing. “Someone who writes across genres isn’t good at any of them.” If you focus on one genre you can learn to do it well but she is scared of someone who writes several genres. I guess that I’ll have to hide the fact that I’m writing at least one thing in every genre that I know of. Bad Clint.
You’ll keep my secret right?
She insists that if you don’t know someone who will refer you to a producer or an agent then you need to find some other way and that pretty much comes down to writing contests. Without that you won’t get anywhere at all. The Nichols Fellowship is the most respected while the Chesterfield Award, Sundance Lab/Workshop and the Disney Fellowship are all highly thought of. If you get into one of those, the agents will call you.
As for places that offer to connect you up if you store your script on their website… she knows nobody who goes there. That doesn’t mean that nobody goes there, just that she doesn’t know anyone who does.
I’ve really studied the business side of things and I am actually enjoying having her confirm a lot of what I’ve learned and deduced. Even where it isn’t the best news for me, at least I know the rules that I am trying to break.
She has a lot of good things to say and is you can find her at Screenplay Wisdom.

Posted in Film, Learning, Television No Comments »

Review – Star Wars Revelations

April 28th, 2005 Clint

First I have to praise George Lucas. Unlike some out there who see the fan as simply a source of dollars, George has given something back. You can play in the Star Wars universe as much as you like. As long as you aren’t making money off of it and are respectful, you can make your own Star Wars film. Play by those simple rules and there is no calling their lawyers and their lawyers won’t call you.
And that is what the folks at Panic Struck Productions have done with the release of Star Wars Revelations

REVELATIONS_OFFICIAL_POSTER

You can download it from their website and using torrent is the kindest option as it will save them on bandwidth costs.
This 40 minute film was made by fans… and it shows. That isn’t meant as a slam, there is a lot of heart and no little technical skill… but the writing, directing and acting aren’t quite ready for prime time. I hope that they are still happy with how it turned out though, it is an accomplishment to be proud of and my criticism could just as easily be aimed at Lucas’ Episodes I and II so they shouldn’t take it too hard.
They used the tools they had and produced a watchable show. The story line is a little muddled and somewhat disjointed… although I’ve seen worse getting airtime (but then I am Canadian so maybe that doesn’t count?). Professional writers are not cheap and it is a hit or miss thing to find someone who hasn’t made it yet but is ready- and then find people to evaluate and give that writer the good feedback that they need. A lot more miss than hit.
While a lot of people want to be actors, not a lot of people are really that good at it. I won’t be too hard on the cast because they are fans first and actors second. And those who are actors look to be stage actors and that is a different medium and style. Expecting them to deliver an Oscar performance is asking a lot too much. That said, much of the dialogue came across as being read and a little woodenly at that. I’m not saying that I could do better mind.
The effects are actually better than a lot of shows put out only a few years back and when they hit a high point they are production ready. They used a lot of volunteers to do the FX and I don’t know how Shane Felux kept it all on track. That might have been a large part of the reason it took three years to produce.
Shane had to have been very busy over the last three years to get this done on the budget he had. They won’t be specific but the website states that they spent less than the fan trailer Grayson which was about $17,000. I would have guessed more.
Like principal photography for my indie pilot episode of Ragnarok: the Series, Panic Struck went all volunteer. But where I took three months off and concentrated the shooting into 17 days (which included a three day break) – they did it piece by piece over a year while keeping their day job. My way cost about twice what Revelations did but it saved a lot of time and continuity headache.
And like my shoot, he owes the whole damn thing to the volunteers and he knows it. The budget that I got back from professionals who looked at the Ragnarok script was that it was a two million dollar show that would take 21 days to shot. Even at the level I had to make it at, if I had worked with union minimums and got the best deals on equipment and sets… it would have cost about half a million to do exactly what I did. The support from the Vancouver film community was incredible.
My guess is that the only way to make an original show exactly to Revelations level without spending ten or a hundred times the budget it to trade profit for work. And this opens up a whole ‘nother can of worms. They would need a lawyer’s touch and there are a lot of people who have been burned by people taking advantage of them with deferred wages. A few people who worked with me would have refused if I had been deferring wages instead of asking them to volunteer.
This is a great way to learn and get experience but I question if it can move to the next level of a true production house. As soon as someone became experienced enough they would graduate to the bigger shows and the wages that come with that. You can’t blame them and it is a good thing. Maybe the best route may be to establish a relationship with a number of film schools so that they can promote themselves as that stepping stone to a career in film and television.
I get the feeling that there are a lot of great stories behind the making of this film and a hell of a lot of fun.

Posted in Casual Creation, Film, Learning No Comments »

Testing Zip.ca

April 11th, 2005 Clint

If you want to write, you read. If you want to make television or film then first you watch.

While there is always Blockbuster, their selection is less than stellar, the renting process through them is time consuming and you quite often end up settling for something just because it is in stock.

The way it should be was pioneered a few years back by Netflix in the US and since emulated by Blockbuster Online (also only US). You set up a list of shows or movies that you want and they send you the first batch for you to watch. When you are finished with one you slip it into the postage paid envelope and drop it in the mail, when they get the DVD back they ship out the next item on your list.

Until Netflix or Blockbuster Online comes to Canada we will have to look at Zip.ca, the one and only such service in Canada. I’ve decided to sign up and take the system for a test run just for you my faithful reader. I’ll let you know how well it works… or doesn’t. I actually have another browser open as I blog this.

Zip.ca has the now standard list; no late fees, no due dates and free shipping. They also brag up the 30,000 titles and discount DVD purchases. They also brag themselves up as having the “best service” and the “best value”… seeing as how they seem to be the only service in Canada that really doesn’t mean a whole lot. They could double bill your VISA and never send you a disc and they would still be the best… also the worst but that doesn’t make good ad copy.

Anyway, on to the service.

An email and a password get you in to where you can check out their selection and the packages that they offer. Looking it over, it seems that the 4 DVD package for $24.95 per month is the package that would work best for me. I can’t get to the post office as often as most folks (seeing as how I am a borderline hermit slash mountain man) and so would be doing more watching between post office visits than most. This also gave me a month free upon signing up if I prepay for three months. Can’t really test a service for less than three months so that works out.

The other monthly packages they offer are: one DVD at a time for $10.95, two for $18.95 and a six at a time option for $34.95. Depending on how fast the turnaround time is for you, the option with one DVD checked out at a time might be worthwhile. If it is only a four or five day turnaround you could watch six or seven DVDs per month for that $10.95. The six at a time option could be used by a mad DVD watching fool to see six DVDs every turn around… say thirty-five to forty DVDs per month.

A simple sign-up and the usual disclosure of address and credit particulars and I am inside.

One nice feature is that they look up theatres near your postal code and let you sign up to get notices of their shows and time. This would have been more helpful if the one and only theatre in Burns Lake hadn’t closed its doors months ago. Another reason to get this service is when you have to drive 270 kilometers to get to the theatre.

Anyway, on to putting my list together. There have been a few films over the last while that I would like to have seen in the theatre… even if they aren’t the greatest films, they are interesting for one reason or another.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: This is how more and more films will be made and it gives a level of freedom that the real world just won’t allow. I want to see just how much more work is needed.

Hero: I wasn’t the biggest fan of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but this looks like a prettier and more poetic film from that genre.

The Bourne Supremacy: What can I say, it looks like a good shoot ‘em up.

I, Robot: I like Asimov but I can set that aside and see this movie as a work in and of itself.

Collateral: This looks like a decent film and I want to see how they use the HD camera.

Alien vs. Predator: This is for the creature effects. The first of these two franchises were great… the sequels… not so great. But I’ll give it a go.

Earthsea: I want to create television and since sword & sorcery genre is right up there with sci-fi I figured that this would be a look at what can be done today.

Arrested Development, Season 1: I started watching it this year when I caught the pilot. As far as I can tell, this is the only sitcom on the air right now that actually lives up to the “com” part. I figure that I should catch up with the first season. Television series are sent by the disc, usually they hold about four hour long or eight half hour episodes.

And joy of joys, everything that is available as wide screen is rented out as wide screen! I’d think that they would allow people to chose between widescreen or the DVD that has been mangled down to the narrow 4:3 format of old television sets.

I want to watch the whole film as it was very meticulously blocked and framed… but some misguided souls prefer the mutilated versions. I thought that I would have a problem finding the widescreen versions but I guess that the stocking and dispatching logistics are a lot easier with one format and I for one wouldn’t be using the system if they had gone with the pillar box.

So the above choices went into the system in the order that they appear – on the evening of April 11. I’ll be evaluating how long they take to dispatch the first discs, how long it takes for them to get here and then how long it takes for them to process the disc once I send it back.

As well as evaluating the service I may as well go all critical on the DVDs too. Content, content and more content.

Posted in Film, Learning, Television No Comments »

The Sennheiser ME 66 Shotgun Microphone

June 20th, 2003 Clint

The Sennheiser ME 66 microphone was chosen with the criteria of a camera mic only. It has acceptable sensitivity in a relatively narrow field – a good shotgun mic. That is all well and fine, it is a very good microphone for that purpose… but if I was going to do much vocal recording, I’d add the MKE 44P. It’s about $1100 versus $700 for the ME 66 but the stereo capabilities would be very nice.
The ME 66 is good sturdy stuff that does a job that is acceptable for feature film work, so I’ll press it into double duty and shouldn’t really be complaining about short comings that are really advantages for its primary function. The short of it, get the ME 66 and you won’t be (overly) disappointed when you ask it to work outside of its field of expertise as I am on the radio project.
Remember folks, this is all about getting acceptable equipment and then asking it to work a little bit harder than it was designed to.
Here is a good review of the Panasonic AG-DVX100P that has a passing endorsement of the ME 66 while extolling the virtues of this sweet camera.

Posted in Casual Creation, Film, Tools No Comments »

On the Panasonic AG-DVX100P

June 18th, 2003 Clint

We are talking about aspirations exceeding grasps here folks. I want to be doing things that the big dogs are doing but I want to do them on little puppy budget. If I had my druthers I would be buying Panasonic’s sweet AJ-HDC27 VariCam. But I don’t have $63,000 US to spare… that would work out to around $100,000 Canadian by the time you’ve added in the taxes!
Nope, my means are much meaner than that. And that is were the AG-DVX100P comes in. It is as close to a film camera as you can get right now with standard DV. There are some film snobs that will want to lynch me for this but I say that it will beat out an 8mm film production. It won’t take out 16mm film but it will be a LOT less expensive to work with and if the end result is going to be television then it will be so close that only the aforementioned film snobs will note it. If the scene is lit well and the results don’t go anywhere but to NTSC television sets then this will look as professional as I need for now (I could wish for more but as a wise man once said – “And if wishes were horses we’d all be eatin’ steak”).
There are a few reasons for this camera specifically, one of them is that it will record in twenty-four frames per second. This is the same rate as 35mm feature films are projected at and what is converted to show on television. Television normally works at quasi thirty frames per second. But it then takes one frame and creates two frames, the first with the even lines and the second with the odd, then flicks through this showing what is in essence thirty frames stretched out to sixty. (this is a simplification so don’t be emailing me with “it’s actually 29.97 and 59.94 you twit”). The short of it is that twenty-four frames per second is visually what we are used to associating with film.
This brings us to another tasty tidbit about the AG-DVX100P – it records the images progressively. Instead of breaking them into even and odd lines, it records all the lines together on the single frame. It is much cleaner.
Leaving aside more specifics on the how, I’ll look at the why. It looks more like film than any other DV camcorder. For $5900 Canadian, I’ve gotten a camera that will produce a great image while teaching me technique and handling that will carry over to when I pick up the High Definition 24P camera and run with the big dogs.
The Sony PD150 and the Canon XL1s are both fine cameras but they weren’t in the running. Over the next year or so there will be the first of the sub $10,000 High Definition cameras released… but for now this is the one and only, accept no substitutes, workin’ man’s movie camera.

Posted in Casual Creation, Cinematography, Film, Tools No Comments »
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