Groovy Like a Movie » tips.and.tricks

FCP is Dead, Long Live FCP (again)!

Brent — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:50:52 +0000

When Apple released FCPx in June last year, the response from FCP users was universally (very) bad - well, almost universally bad. While I wasn’t thrilled with the new release, I thought the biggest problem was not with the software, but with how Apple presented it. This was, after all, something completely new and people have trouble with change even when the change is for the good – and whichever side of the fence you fell on FCPx, almost everyone knew that FCP7 was getting long in the tooth and needed a change.

What I said then was that if Apple had released FCPx as a free “time limited beta” – where they would gather user feedback and address problems in the final release, the response from the community would have been significantly different. Today, Apple released FCPx 10.0.3, and from what I’ve seen, this is the release that should have followed the free beta period. Many of the features that people have rightfully bemoaned losing in the 7 to X transition are back – most notably multi-cam editing – with mixed formats and mixed frame rates, media relink (thank whichever deity you wish to thank), broadcast monitoring (huzzah!), and perhaps most importantly (but far less sexy) XML support – which has allowed the big brains at Assisted Editing to release their FCP 7 to X conversion tool, allowing you to bring your FCP7 projects in to FCPX – I honestly think I heard a choir of angels sing when I read that.

Time will tell if Apple has also squashed the most persistant bugs, but 10.0.3 is, so far, is the first version that I think FCP users should have had to pay for. Better late than never, and I think FCPX now is a true contender for professionals.

If you haven’t tried FCPX yet because of all the negative press, I highly recommend it. Once you wrap your head around this new way of working (and you do have to forget almost everything you think you know), FCPX really is a powerful, professional editing tool – at least, NOW it is.

Written by Brent Altomare

Video Pros – How do you market your services?

Brent — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:28:26 +0000

So one of the things I struggle with is the business side of the business. Like many people in the industry, I got into film and video production because I enjoyed telling stories – not because I had any particular affinity for running a business. I have to make so many decisions that seem to have nothing to do with the art that I love:

Do I hire staff or hire a freelancer? (usually a freelancer)
Do I spend time on the phone selling to new customers, or on social media marketing to existing ones? (both)
Do I cut a budget in order to land the business – even though the project won’t be as profitable? (usually no)
How much money should I spend on marketing? (as little as possible while still reaching my goals)

That last one is particularly tricky – since we offer strictly B2B communication services, it’s hard to find a marketing outlet that gets us the right kinds of leads. If we do marketing that has even a whiff of a consumer target, we get inundated with “I have a great idea for a tv show” and “I need a camera guy to shoot my kid’s baseball team” types of leads. So we’re very (VERY) careful about where our marketing messages go. One service we like because it’s very targeted is Thumbtack – it allows us to create a really nice video production for business ad at no cost. In addition, they give us lots of neat little tools like a spotlight profile on the business, and the ability to create nice Craigslist ads with friendly reminders to renew. All for free!

Of course, no price is a good price if you don’t get the results you want. Thumbtack is a new(ish) service and we’ve just gotten started with it. We’ll see if ultimately it provides good value for Groovy!

If you’re a video or film professional, how do you market your services? Do you do any advertising? How about social media? Face-to-face conversations with established relationships are obviously our most effective sales tool, but how do you pave the way for those selling opportunities?

Written by Brent Altomare

Be a Lifelong Learner – Especially as Professionals

Brent — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:49:19 +0000

I consider myself a lifelong learner. I love learning new things, and I do my best to keep up on technology and filmmaking techniques. Our clients rely on us to be “the experts,” and the only way to do that is to continually seek out educational opportunities.

Over the last year, I’ve been tentatively dipping my toes into 3D production. However, I’ve found the learning curve to be daunting – and I’ve found it difficult to locate a good, fundamental 3D resource. That is, until I discovered NewMediaWebinars.com. For $25, I was able to download an on-demand seminar given by James Neihouse, a cinematographer on (among many other things), the 3D Hubble IMAX film.

Think this guy knows his stuff? Um – yeah. I think he does.

The specific seminar I watched was Stereo 3D Filmmaking Bootcamp. While I found the seminar to be a little dry at times (there’s a TON of technical information that he throws at you), this was one of the best primers on stereo cinematography I’ve ever seen. At the end, I not only understood the basic techniques, but also quite a bit of the “why” of stereo cinematography. James does a fantastic job of giving you visuals that illustrate not only how the 3D works, but also why!

I have to say the seminar wasn’t perfect. I tend to struggle a bit with the powerpoint/audio nature of most online seminars and this one is no different – there’s just something more engaging about seeing a person’s face while they’re presenting that I always miss with webinars. That, combined with the dry nature of some of the technical details, meant I wasn’t able to sit through the entire 90 minutes without getting up from my computer and grabbing some caffeine.

However, at the end of the seminar, I was fired up to go out and shoot some 3D and try his techniques. I’m probably not ready to have a paying client, but I’m confident I have enough of a foundation that I can learn what I need. Now we just need to get a 3D monitor… oh, and a stereo rig (or camera)… and a script that calls for 3D…

Finally, as part of the download, I got the entire slide deck, a bonus podcast with James Neihouse, a file with reference links, and some stereo footage to play around with in FCP.

Overall? Well worth the $25 – and absolutely satisfied my lifelong learner craving.

Full disclosure – after viewing the seminar, NewMediaWebinars.com and I began a dialogue about having me teach a future class. It now looks like I’ll be talking about asset management in Final Cut Pro in March. Hopefully I can avoid some of the presentation pitfalls I identified in the Stereo 3D Filmmaking Bootcamp. If not, feel free to call me out on it!

Written by Brent Altomare

What is Timesculpture?

Brent — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:24:21 +0000

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

I don’t even know what that means…

Brent — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:00:09 +0000

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

an interesting storytelling convention

Brent — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:12:02 +0000

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

Inspiration from music and art:

Brent Altomare — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:18:52 +0000

I am not an avid reader/writer of blogs. I canâ€™t help but to feel like Doogie Howser or the Sex and the City woman when I start writing. I just donâ€™t feel comfortable writing down my thoughts for others to read. I keep thinkingâ€”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 canâ€™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? Itâ€™s like meditation in a sense and I donâ€™t know where it will take me. Usually it works out. It takes about 30 minutes for me to â€œget in the moodâ€ 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

Start off in the right direction

Brent Altomare — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:01:19 +0000

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

Facebook and Final Cut Pro

Brent Altomare — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:38:59 +0000

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

a fish tank saves the day

Brent Altomare — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:04:39 +0000

Recently I had a client come to me requesting to do a series of PSAÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢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