1st ANNUAL SLAMDANCE / ADOBE RE-CUT COMPETITION

Showcase Your Film Editing Talent

Film production students in higher education worldwide are invited to enter the First Annual Slamdance/Adobe Re-cut Competition for emerging editing talent. Entrants will have the opportunity to re-edit a scene from the indie classic MALL COP by Palm d'Or winning filmmaker and GREY's ANATOMY editor David Greenspan. Participants will re-cut a selected scene using Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5 trial software. All submissions will receive education copies of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, so everybody wins! Three talented finalists will be rewarded with their own Adobe CS5 Production Premium education software and the Grand Prize winner will also earn round-trip transportation and four days of accommodations to attend the 2011 Slamdance to experience seeing their winning work screened at the Festival. Registrations to participate now open through Oct. 1, 2010. Final submissions must to be received by Slamdance by Oct. 31, 2010.

REGISTER NOW!

one day on earth 10.10.10

one day on earth

One Day on Earth Participant Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.

Across the planet documentary filmmakers, students, and inspired citizens will record the human experience over a 24-hour period. By participating in this historic event you will help capture the diversity of experiences of life on this planet. Together we will create a document that is a gift to the world.

TCF Videographers? Should we participate?

http://www.onedayonearth.org/

(Oct 10th was my mother's birthday!)

Filters

Just so you know, TCF has the following filters for the SONY HDV cameras:

1. color graduated filter

2. polarizer

3. soft

4. black pro mist

5. warm black diffusion

6. gold diffusion

7. enhancing

8. ultra contrast

Tiffen filters site explains a good deal of info on filters.

Currently, we have polarizer filters for the small JVC cameras. If you are only going to use one filter, make it a polarizer! Use polarizer filters for the following shooting conditions/locations/scenarios:

Skies
By eliminating the reflection of light on the tiny water droplets present in the atmosphere the polarizer brings more saturated and slightly darker skies.

Water and reflective surfaces
By eliminating reflections, the polarizing filter will tend to make water and other reflective surfaces more transparent. The effect will also vary depending on the angle to the reflective surface. If you place your camera very low above a river, the effect will be very limited. If you shoot from a bridge above it, the water will look totally transparent.

Color Enhancement
The polarizing filter also reduces reflection from other surfaces such as foliage and thus makes their colors look more intense. It also tends to make shadow areas darker.

Light absorption
The main side-effect of the polarizing filter is that it absorbs 1.5 stop of light. So, if you shoot at 1/180th of a second and then add the filter, you will find yourself at 1/60th of a second. This happens whatever the orientation for a polarizer. In low light situations, some type of camera support, such as a tripod, will be needed.

These articles explain and give great image examples.

I think we ordered a selection of more filters (soft con, star filters, etc) but I will have to check on that...

To use the filter, rotate the front of the filter. This video demos the effect of this rotation:

Another PORTRAIT EXAMPLE: Spike Jonze & Your Day (Nikon festival)

Spike Jonze gives us a PORTRAIT OF EVENT!

I love Spike Jonze!

ALso Nikon hosted a competition called "Your Day in 140 seconds or less"

Check out these examples:
"New York State of Mind"



My Dreams, My Day; Lucidly Told Through The Photographic Eye And A Nikon D90

I Met A Girl


Hello World

Refresher: Aperture and Depth of Field

Last week I showed folks how to crush the depth of field, filming with the SONY HDV camera.

We focused primarily on a WIDE ANGLE (W) lens giving us great depth of field while a TELEPHOTO lens (T) gives us a more shallow depth of field. The distance between the camera and the subject(s) and the distance between the foreground, subject in critical focus, and the background, also affects the degree of soft focus. The iris/aperture setting (which controls the amount of light that can pass through the iris - explained here), also has an impact on depth of field... read on!

Here are some great online tutorials which uses animals (I love animals!):

Depth of Field









Also see depth of field explained here abd also demonstrated in this article with great photos like these:

Assignment :: Visual Storytelling :: Portrait of a Place, Person or Event

TCF 312 :: Assignment :: Portrait of a Place, Person or Event

Due Thursday, September 16 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st (! yay ! Extended Deadline ! yay !)

You will direct a 2-minute VISUAL portrait of a place, person or event and edit your piece for screening on Thursday, Sept. 17 in class. Rely on aesthetics, craft, vision, and technical skill to tell your story... no dialog, no interviews, absolutely no talking heads!

This piece can be any fiction or non-fiction, any genre, any style.

Rules:

• You will DIRECT one, 2-minute visual portrait
• You will be DP/Camera Operator for one 2-minute piece for someone in your production group
• NO dialog (talking heads) in your piece, but voice-over, production sound, sound effects, and music are permissible
• Your final edit must include titles crediting the Director and the D.P.

Please post your piece as embedded video on your blog before class on Thurs. 9/16 TUESDAY, SEPT 21 (!), TCF has vimeo account you may use to Vimeo... 5GB/week limit. You must also submit QUICKTIME file on DVD to Dr. R!

RESERVE YOUR EQ at least 48 HOURS IN ADVANCE! Email your eq reserves.

Your email should include the following:

TCF 312

Your Name

Pickup Date:

Return Date:

EQ desired (BE SPECIFIC!)

Examples:

Please note: We will watch some of these examples in class, but I encourage you to watch as many as you're able. When you watch consider WHAT is the story or stories being told (what do you think is the filmmaker's message, or what do you take from his/her piece?), and HOW is the story told visually. What are the levels of filmmaking - technical skill, aesthetics/style, color, camera work, etc... being deployed to work in service of the media message?

The Professional (we watched this for visual storytelling example)

Opening sequence of Dexter

Opening sequence of City of God (chasing the chicken opening sequence)

Uptopia #3

D-Nice's "Experiencing the Dream"

Brian B+ Cross "KEEPINTOKYO" and "TEEBS"

Noisemaker Media's "Spanish Harlem Hop Park Jam" and "True School Park Jam Series 2010 Trailer"

pouringdown.tv - "of all the things that can happen" and "the skies uptown"

and here's an example from student work last year:

Jemison Memories from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

Director: Cody Abbott, DP: Marcus Tortoricci