tips.and.tricks | Groovy Like a Movie

What is Timesculpture? November 14th, 2008

What do you get when you use 200 consumer camcorders placed in a 360 degree custom rig to capture 20 TB of data?

You get world’s first “timesculpture” advertisement. Think of it as the next generation of the “bullet time” technique made famous by The Matrix.

Thanks to Red6Hosting via Cinematical!

Written by Brent Altomare

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I don’t even know what that means… October 14th, 2008

We work in a tech-heavy field and often find ourselves talking to clients about complicated concepts, including what format their deliverables will take, whether their acquisition format should be 1080 or 720 or possibly 2k or even 4k

The gang over at Freelance Switch has an excellent article on how to talk to non-tech savvy clients. This is something we have to deal with on a daily basis. We already employ quite a few of the techniques suggested in the article like fishing for expertise, keeping it simple and slow, and using familiar references, but they have quite a few additional techniques that will come in handy!

Written by Brent Altomare

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an interesting storytelling convention October 9th, 2008

One of the challenges we face in this industry is finding new and interesting ways to tell stories. Narrative, documentary, ‘reality,’ spokesperson… There is a wide range of choices. Creative Director, Brian Kim recently introduced me to a style called intonation. With intonation, you take a piece of dialog, music, whatever and represent that audio with text.

There is a really great intonation piece by Jarratt Moody using audio from Pulp Fiction (warning NSFW!).

Jarratt’s piece is really stylish and captures the very essence of that scene using only text. But what if you wanted to use intonation to create an original message? What if you wanted to actually move an audience to action?

Take a look at this piece produced by The Girl Effect. Using intonation, they have created a powerful message that drives their audience to act, all without a single word of dialogue.

Written by Brent Altomare

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Inspiration from music and art: September 30th, 2008

I am not an avid reader/writer of blogs. I can’t help but to feel like Doogie Howser or the Sex and the City woman when I start writing. I just don’t feel comfortable writing down my thoughts for others to read. I keep thinking—does anyone care what I think? I guess blogs are good venue to share ideas or to find out what not to do. I need to make that jump into the cyber world because I now realize that it is becoming an expectation or necessary part of society, especially in the communication/media community. I had the same trepidation/disinterest regarding cell phones a few years back but now I carry one around everywhere I go and can’t imagine my life without it. So then…this blog is about sharing what works for me when I need to come up with something creative for a short video or film project.

Inspiration from music and art:
I find I can be the most creative while exploring ideas through music. One quick thought in my head needs to be worked out; I try to explore the idea/image thorough music. The images come to mind before anything else. I then try to string them together with music. Explore the possible tones and styles though the music…what would fit with the concept or scene? It’s like meditation in a sense and I don’t know where it will take me. Usually it works out. It takes about 30 minutes for me to “get in the mood” after that the ideas come more easily. I jot them down in words or sketches and rework them later. While I rework the ideas/words/sketches it helps to reference paintings, photographs, and various other arts to try and pin point the tone and style (still listening to the music of course). I then have story boards and paintings to reference the look and music to reference the tone and feeling. I can then hopefully take that to the crew or client and put it all together to make something cool or at least something I feel proud of.

Written by Brent Altomare

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Start off in the right direction August 8th, 2008

This entry is geared a bit more towards those just starting in the film and video world.

While I’ve only been in this industry about a year and a half, I have noticed one thing about the production industry: NETWORKING IS A MUST.

Now, while networking will help you find jobs and people with equipment and all that… there are certain aspects of networking that I feel are more beneficial:

1. You can take the experiences of others and learn from them. Let’s say you are about to work with HD footage for the first time. Talk to someone who has already worked with HD footage and you can avoid costly mistakes.

2. Networking can provide numerous opportunities to collaborate with others who have similar artistic styles and creative goals. Find good people who are able and willing to work on a project with you and you can produce something you are truly proud of.

3. You can draw inspiration from talking to others and reading forums, etc. Listening to what others have to say about the film and video world will help you realize what you like and don’t like and help you develop your aesthetic.

These benefits apply to ALL parts of production. Now, what kind of blog would this be if I didn’t provide some networking links, hmm? Enjoy.

Forums and more:

Student Filmmakers
Creative Cow

Join Groups:

San Diego Filmmakers
Myspace groups
or better yet… Facebook groups

Craigslist can help you meet people and find jobs!

Spread the word! Inform others about the talented people you know!
For example, here is a talented friend of mine:
Jay Drose

Written by Brent Altomare

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Facebook and Final Cut Pro June 19th, 2008

So one may think that the on-line networking site Facebook is just for fun, but don’t be fooled! It actually has a usefulness beyond connecting with high school classmates from yesteryear. Simply use the “Groups” tab under the main Facebook column on the left. It is here that you can search a plethora of potentially engaging/helpful/and downright needed associations. For example, I am the staff senior editor, and I occasionally need to troubleshoot issues that invariably come up. I use a variety of sources for inspiration and help, but I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of Facebook as one. But it dawned on me that maybe there are other editors who use Facebook who might be able to help me with what I was trying to figure out. Low and behold, there was!! Long story short, I joined 3 Final Cut Pro user groups, ranging from one that offers posts and tutorials to one that is a space for editors to chat. So maybe if there’s a program or technique that you utilize for your job, see if there’s a Facebook Group that supports it. Join it and see what you can learn!

Written by Brent Altomare

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a fish tank saves the day June 16th, 2008

Recently I had a client come to me requesting to do a series of PSAÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s spots relating to child safety in and around the water. We put our creative minds together and came up with three scenarios that people take for granted, children in kiddy pools, bathtubs, and buckets. I wanted to create suspense by showing a child reaching into a bucket for an object. I wanted to use the bottom of the bucket perspective for the spot. The problem was how would we see her reach into the bucket from this unique perspective?

The first idea was to cut a bucket in half and shoot thorough glass fitted around the base. However that could pose a problem with water leakage no matter how much we may prepare. And the last thing we would want is water damaging a 50 thousand dollar HD Zoom Lens rental! After bringing up the notion of water distortion on objects in fish tanks to my D.P. Dave Stewart he hit on the idea of shooting though a fish tank. Brilliant! The crazy idea worked out great and the shot was outstanding. Hope you like it.

Written by Brent Altomare

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real world examples for photoshop June 11th, 2008

Click to Play

I was invited to speak at Palomar College for their Digital Imaging with Photoshop – Real World Examples video series. I'm certainly not a Photoshop expert, but hopefully I offered some value for their students.

Special thanks to Bill Wisneski and his entire crew at PCTV; A great bunch of professionals dedicated to providing a quality product for their student body and the community at large. Palomar has an excellent program and I had a lot of fun!

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4)

Written by Brent Altomare

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Podcasting and Minjas? June 9th, 2008

Becoming an expert on the latest trends in technology is important if you want to create top notch media for customers. I get a little confused sometimes.. so when I have a complex question as important as “what is podcasting” or .. are there such things as Minjas? I turn to a Ninja to answer my questions.

Written by Michael Callahan

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explaining a cause with no words June 3rd, 2008

Through a post on twitter (hello @BJ!), I came across this interesting “social media” concept called SocialVibe. I had a little bit of trouble understanding what it was all about until I watched the video they produced. Without using any narration, and a half-dozen lines of text, they were able to clearly communicate the entire concept and get me excited to try the service.

I’ll be browsing the SocialVibe site to learn more about it. Maybe look for SocialVibe to show up on Groovy Like a Movie’s Facebook page!

Written by Brent Altomare

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