25 Hour Day

Enjoy Your 25-Hour Day (2014 Edition)

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Bruce Sharpe) — Sat, 1 Nov 2014 10:51:00 -0700

For many of us who endure Daylight Saving Time, this is the day when we change our clocks and "fall back" an hour. This gives us a chance to briefly enjoy the benefits of a 25 hour day. Assuming we survive the change.

It is sobering to realize that it has been 10 years since I first put forward my modest proposal, and still the world has not seen the wisdom of it.

Ray Roman crashes Dedham, MA July 16

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:47:00 -0700

Ray Roman makes his training workshops look like ultimate-fighting championship events with tough posters. Just one of the reasons we think he's awesome.

Get in the ring with him at the Crash Course hands-on wedding cinema workshop in Dedham, Massachusetts on July 16th, and learn from a trainer who runs one of the Top 25 Studios in the World, according to EventDV Magazine. Be sure to book your spot early, he's a hot ticket: <ray@rayroman.com>

Editing How2torial from 90to5

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:06:00 -0700

Here's a fun video from the folks at the 90to5 Editing Challenge. Have you signed up yet?

Video Producers get EXPOSED in Australia

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 12:42:00 -0700

We’re told there is only one conference for video producers in Australia, and it’s EXPOSED | DOWN UNDER. If their mission is to serve a whole country of creative media makers, they’re pulling out all the stops. You can find podcasts from this year’s presenters, and greetings with trade tricks from last year’s event on their website, blog, facebook group, and Vimeo group. If that's not enough, check out the prizes!

The 4-day event runs July 9-13 in Sydney, and there is a 2-day pass available if you can only catch an abbreviated version. We’d be there for the whole thing if we were you.

How well do you really understand HD?

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:49:00 -0700

AbelCine in New York has put together a series of classes to focus on the many different aspects of working with HD video formats. They’re talking to shooters and post production professionals, helping us through the maze of HD production.

Andy Shipsides (@AndyShipsides) Camera Technology Specialist, is leading the session tomorrow called Understanding HD: Frame Rates, Color and Compression. We all know we’re bluffing just a little when this stuff comes up for discussion... Being in that room would send us ahead of the pack.

Are you Editor enough to take the 90to5 Challenge?

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:54:00 -0700

The Editor's ultimate mission is keeping a story intact, no matter how much time you have to tell it in.

The 90to5 Editing Challenge is an international, online event that tests the technical and creative skills of editors as they cut a 90-minute feature film down to a 5-minute version. (Get in on this!)

The website is a rich tool kit of everything you need to get started, including links to public domain films, editing tutorials, and even some history lessons. Prizes include cash and editing software.

If you’re not an editor but love the idea, stay tuned for the audience choice vote beginning after August 15th. We’ll be casting our votes along with you -

Scott Simmons brings Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 magic to Final Cut Pro Editors

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:46:00 -0700

Get in on a great opportunity to learn directly from Scott Simmons, author of Editblog, who has over a decade of experience working in the field of film and video post-production. He'll be leading the "Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 For Final Cut Pro Editors" webinar through Moviola June 12, 2012 @ 10:00 AM PST to 11:30 AM PST. Tune in to access Scott's training as an experienced Avid editor with credits ranging from music videos and concerts to commercials and corporate videos to documentaries and television programs.

Hosted by Marcelo Lewin, the founder of Filmmaking Webinars and the Director of Interactive Media at Moviola, the webinar also features fantastic giveaways including a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium, and a license for PluralEyes. Join in!

PostNAB success in Montreal

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Wed, 6 Jun 2012 13:58:00 -0700

PostNAB 2012 has been stamped a success, thanks to great energy from Final Cut Montréal. Thanks for including us, looking forward to next year!

Skyrocket your videography chops with Ray Roman’s bootcamp

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Mon, 4 Jun 2012 09:16:00 -0700

If you’re ready to learn from the best, take note: Internationally acclaimed award-winning wedding videographer, Ray Roman brings his 2-day hands-on training workshop to New Jersey, June 11-13. His info-packed course promises participants a solid understanding of many basic and advanced shooting, lighting and audio techniques. Segments will cover everything from event coverage to post production, workflow solutions (including how to use automatic sync software!), and marketing.

Ray has been voted by industry peers as one of the top 25 hottest and most influential studios in the world. Singular Software is happy to be a sponsor of the training and proud that Ray is a fan of our products. Check out his beautiful work at www.rayromanblog.com

EditFest NY gathers the best known and highly regarded east coast film editors

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:01:00 -0700

If you’re anywhere near New York on June 8-9, get yourself to EditFest NY to meet some of the best known and highly regarded east coast film editors who’ll be gathered to mingle, mentor, and present.

The event promises two tightly-programmed days where attendees - including professional editors, production executives, network and studio staff, fledgling assistants and content creators - will participate in sharply planned, targeted panels and extensive Q&A sessions. Listen to, learn from and engage with, the most respected, award winning editors of feature films and television. Attendees, VIPs, sponsors and panelists will also have the chance to mingle at the highly anticipated opening night reception.

Singular Software is happy to be a sponsor of the event and two license certificates for full-production software products will be among the raffle prizes. Tell them we sent you!

How to mic and record the most difficult instrument

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:42:00 -0700

Nigel Cooper used two weeks, five cameras and just one digital audio recorder to put listeners in the unique perspective of internationally acclaimed concert pianist Grace Francis’ seat while she played one of the most difficult instruments to record from an audio perspective – the grand piano.

In an article for DVuser Nigel outlines his strategic camera and mic positions, and how the Roland R-44 Digital Field Recorder was his magic weapon for creating a DVD video production of classical music at West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, UK. He used PluralEyes to sync the audio tracks from all five cameras – including one in the balcony, 60 feet away - with the high-quality audio track captured on the Earthworks PM40 microphone.

In this 22 minute tutorial Nigel demonstrates how to mic and record the concert grand piano, and he includes beautiful footage from the final DVD of Grace performing the Liszt Mephisto Waltz number 1.

Singular Software sponsors Montreal PostNAB

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:36:00 -0700

If you’re in Montreal on May 31st, here’s a chance to see the best of NABSHOW 2012. Final Cut MTL is hosting the 8th edition of Montreal PostNAB, an event showcasing the exciting findings made at the National Association of Broadcasters' mega-event in Las Vegas.

Montreal PostNAB provides opportunities for exhibitors to meet with manufacturers and local dealers. Admission is free.

Singular Software is happy to be a sponsor of the event. Full details about the presenters and exhibitors can be found at http://www.postnab.com

Graveyard Carz Brings Reality TV Back to Life

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:48:00 -0700

Ever seen an old, beat up car sitting on the side of the road, clearly out of commission, possibly even past the point of no return just waiting for someone to take it to the dump? Well, Mark Worman, owner of Welby’s Car Care in Springfield, Oregon, wouldn’t see a piece of trash – he’d see the opportunity to bring a car back to life and back to its glory days. And, not just any type of car. Mopars. Which means Mark only deals with Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth Original Equipment (or O.E. for the car buffs) restoration.

The car that started it all

One day, a client came in with a very rare ’71 ‘Cuda 440-6, one out of about 104 ever made. The car was in bad shape – almost beyond reparation – from a high-speed wreck in 1980, and had been rotting away for well over 20 years when it arrived at Mark’s shop. Online forums began buzzing angrily over the idea Mark might re-body the car, a cardinal sin in the world of O.E. restoration, which means taking all of the identifiers, like the VIN and parts numbers, off the original parts and inserting them onto newer, but less desirable, ones – essentially, fraud.

To prove his honesty and O.E. restoration skills, Mark decided to document their progress as he and his crew brought the ‘Cuda back to life. With that, ideas for a reality TV show spread like wildfire. Add in Mark’s kooky – yet lovable – team of hot rod fixer-uppers, and you’ve got Graveyard Carz, a reality television show produced by The Division, set to hit televisions across America this June on Velocity by Discovery.

We talked to The Division’s Casey Faris, executive producer and visual designer for Graveyard Carz, who filled us in on the process of getting picked up by a network, the quirky cast, editing for a reality television show, and more. The road to getting a deal for Graveyard Carz was about as bumpy and wrecked as the cars they restore, but if anyone can bring something to life, it’s Mark and his team.

You began production on Graveyard Carz before even having a deal in place – what was that process like and how did the cast and crew deal with it?

Mark and his team brought this Road Runner back to life

At The Division, we truly try to make a little go a long way. The original pilot was finished in spring of 2008. Our sizzle reel was uploaded to Vimeo that summer, which is when we began talking to several production companies. After being passed around, hyped up, let down, lied to, brushed off, and ultimately back-burnered, we finally started independent production on Season One in fall of 2010, and wrapped around April 2011. We didn't have any deals in place until about two-thirds of the way through production.

How did we do it? Dedicated people. Just about everyone worked for free or nearly free. Without everyone's heart being in place to see the project succeed, we would have gone nowhere. Waiting for so long for the project to take off was hard, but we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Television is full of reality TV shows. What is it about Graveyard Carz that makes it special?

The humor is very smart. Mark has a sense of humor that really shines through on screen, as well as in his producing role in the company. All of our editors are constantly being trained to recognize good comedic timing. Even though there is the occasional toilet humor here and there, the actual comedy is very quick and sharp, more like the humor of The Office than American Chopper. The characters aren't over the top; they're regular, likable guys who are simply hilarious to watch, and even funnier with the right editing.

There's lots of car shows out there, but our show is the ONLY show that focuses on Mopar Original Equipment restoration. That type of exclusivity is unheard of in the television world. Combine those factors with our characters and you have a pretty unique show.

What kind of reaction has there been to the show so far?

Our show has played in dozens of countries around the world. Everywhere it plays we, of course, hear from car people – especially the Mopar freaks. But because our show’s characters are so genuinely likable and relatable, it hits an even wider array of demographics. We have people young and old, male and female, obsessed with our show all around the world.

I think when Graveyard Carz hits Velocity in the spring it will receive a very good response. I think car people will LOVE the show, but even people who don't really like cars that much are going to catch on and really enjoy our program.

What does each character bring to Graveyard Carz? How do you think the American audience will perceive them?

The GYC Cast; from left to right: Mark, Royal, Daren and Josh

We got really lucky with our characters because they complement each other so well. Mark's the boss, the expert, and also can be a pretty big jerk (I say this with love). I think people are going to pick up that, yes, he has an abrasive personality, but he also has a heart of gold, and is really more of a little kid in that way. He also really knows his stuff, which I think people will respect. A bit like Gordon Ramsay in Hell's Kitchen.

Daren is the anti-Mark. He is a good guy, but his favorite thing to do around the shop is to wind people up – usually Mark. He doesn't seem to be happy unless someone's mad at someone else. But if you ask him about it directly, he would tell you he's all about peace and harmony. The audience is really going to like Daren, but they'll catch on to his schemes and begin to appreciate his mind games as well.

Royal is the adorable, goofy one. Often times in the edit suite, we'll stand back and look at a Royal edit, and everyone will just shake their heads and say something like, "Poor Royal, he's so sweet..." He likes to get work done, probably more so than the other characters, so he's always more happy when progress is made on a car. We keep telling Royal that ladies are going to be after him because of his cute, dopey personality.

Josh is the son-in-law, the young mechanic in training. Josh is very relatable to younger viewers, because of his age. Josh's perspective is always from a young, learning point of view, so that gives us great opportunities to have our audience learn along with Josh. People will always be rooting for Josh because he's the good guy that always just wants to be doing something cool. I think American viewers are really going to love that.

Royal on the GYC set

How does shooting and editing a reality show differ from editing a scripted film?

With a reality series, the first thing is we have tons of footage, which is why PluralEyes is especially useful. We’ll have several hours of footage for each scene, which ends up being about three or four minutes of the show. Normally, if we had three hours of footage, at least an hour would be spent just on syncing. With PluralEyes, it’s synced in about 10 or 15 minutes, and we don’t have to babysit, we can work on something else and still be productive. It really is a time saver.

A reality show's story is probably 80% in the editing, which is why it’s so important that we get to that phase quickly. Although we were all on the shoot and have a pretty good idea of what went down, we don't really have much of an idea of the real story until the edit is done. Things you think will come across really easily are sometimes surprisingly hard to convey to an audience, and other things that we didn't even notice during a shoot will become the main feature of that segment. It's pretty weird sometimes!

Season One is still yet to premiere in the states, but what does the audience have to look forward to for Season Two of Graveyard Carz?

Without trying to hype it up too much, Season Two is going to be a killer. Starting with our first episode, there are all new cars, equipment, and more high-speed adventures. We are all very excited to see Season Two.

We have tons of amazingly cool vehicles, the production value is higher, we have sponsors which allow us to do more field trips and activities with the crew, we'll be traveling more, and just pretty much tearing out all the stops to make it a really fun ride. Plus, Season Two is 13 one-hour episodes, whereas Season One is only six.

What other projects are in the pipeline?

Our other production right now is Lynch 4 Hire, which is a half-hour show that was just commissioned by MavTV. It's a really fun show about a couple of brothers doing odd jobs to make a living.

We have quite a few irons in the fire, most which I have to keep somewhat under wraps, but I'll tell you we have some really exciting projects coming up later this year. We're all very excited.

Don’t miss Graveyard Carz, premiering June 14^th on Velocity by Discovery!

The Future of Automatic Sync

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Bruce Sharpe) — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:43:00 -0700

Just in case you didn't make it to NAB 2012, here is the presentation I gave in the Manhattan Editing Workshop's training center. I talk about (and demo)

Filmmaking Crash Course: Los Angeles, CA and West Orange, NJ

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Wed, 9 May 2012 19:03:00 -0700

Renowned instructor Ray Roman has created a two-day workshop for event filmmakers who want to challenge themselves. Covering everything from the nuts and bolts of shooting with DSLRs to techniques that best evoke emotion, the workshop will feature PluralEyes and its role in multi-camera and dual-system audio workflows. For more information or to register, go to www.rayromanworkshop.com

Young Filmmaker's Talents Are Anything But Shipwrecked

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:31:00 -0800

When you think of 'award-winning director,' you might think of Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino - but they all had to start somewhere, right? Meet Ben Kadie, a 16-year-old award-winning director (not to mention screen writer, producer, editor and the list goes on...), and you can say you 'knew' him before he was famous.

Ben has been making movies since he was in the third grade at Seattle Country Day School, when most of us were still learning how to tie our shoelaces. Now, seven years later, Ben’s got nine films under his belt – from Shakespearean interpretations to period pieces to dark comedies – and he’s not stopping there. One look at any of Ben’s films and it’s clear he has the kind of story writing skills one can only be born with, knowing how to expertly weave humor in with darkness or make the old fresh and new again – and he’s only getting better with each movie he makes.

Ben’s latest film, Alone Together, takes a somewhat different direction than his mysteries, abandoning the green screens of the past for real scenery and placing a deeper emphasis on the emotions and developments of the characters, Brendan and Eloise. What emerges is the tale of shipwrecks and unrequited love, when Brendan finds himself washed up on a deserted island with Eloise, the girl of his dreams, the two of them hundreds of miles from their families and real life. When Brendan discovers the radio transmitter that could lead to their rescue, he must decide whether or not to tell Eloise, and choose between selfish and selfless love.

Starring Seattle-based actors Asher Jordan and Bria Lynn Massie and shot in breathtaking Pacific Northwest locations including Whidbey Island and Cougar Mountain, and on the 100-year-old tugboat Arthur Foss, Alone Together is set to release this spring and with luck will be featured in multiple film festivals. As for Ben, his next big project is applying to university film programs, which involves creating a five-minute audition film. We have no doubt he’ll be receiving quite a few acceptance letters. We recently spoke with Ben to get the lowdown on his life as a young moviemaker.

You started making movies at a very young age – what inspired you to get into filmmaking?

Growing up, my dad and I would make little novelty and special effects videos together. They have titles such as “Whoopee Cushion Concert” and “Speed of Light Boy.” As I got a little older, I wanted to make videos that told a story. In sixth grade, my friend Noah and I made Perilous Skies, a WWI comedy. The film got into the Seattle International Film Festival via a newspaper contest. A month later it screened at NFFTY, which has since grown to be the largest youth festival in the world. Seeing the audiences enjoying the film was wonderful and encouraged me to keep making movies.

How did you handle the challenges there are to making movies at such a young age?

Two film books greatly influence me: Rebel Without a Crew and DV Rebel. Both say that you don’t need a lot of people and resources to make a film; you just need to use what you have. For example, between seventh and eighth grade I wanted to tell a story set in the Egypt of 1897. I filmed Murder at the Pharaoh’s Grave in my backyard, with a green screen, a tent made from cheap fabric, and 100 pounds of sand. By replacing the green with my digital matte paintings, I was able to tell a big story with little resources.

As a director with a specific vision in mind, do you find it difficult to manage actors in order to make sure your movies turn out as planned?

I love working with actors. In most of my films, the actors are friends who I know from school plays. I think it helped that my early films were small, with just two or four actors, and very collaborative. The film Molly and the Masked Storm was a bit of turning point. With five actors playing 12 roles in a 24-minute film, I had to get more organized. The actors seemed to appreciate me really leading the production while still letting them interpret their roles.

Finding the right actors to translate your story properly can be tricky. What was the casting process like for Alone Together?

This was my first film with auditions. I posted to several Seattle-area actors’ callboards on the Internet. The response was wonderful, but the two weeks of auditions were new and stressful. It felt strange to judge adults, in my basement, on how well they could pretend they were on a sinking ship. For the two lead roles, 30 young actors auditioned. I found two great 18 year olds. Asher Jordon, who is now studying acting at New York University, played Brendan. Bria Lynn Massie plays Eloise; she’s now pursuing acting professionally in Portland.

Alone Together is 24-minutes long. What was your production timeline?

After drafting the script, preproduction took about four months off-and-on (because of school). It included many camera and effects tests, script revisions, and then making storyboards. Production was seven shooting days in the middle-to-late summer. Post-production, including editing, special effects and music, took about six months. I finished Alone Together on New Year’s Day.

At every step, I tried to put on a new hat (screenwriter, then director, then editor) and be tough. Sometimes as editor, I had to kill a scene that I loved as screenwriter.

Alone Together was set in Chile – how did you find Seattle locations to portray a deserted Chilean island?

The Seattle area has many beaches, but most have views of houses and other land. To find close beaches with open water, I used Bing maps and “discovered” the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I scouted twice by car, even getting some of my Driver’s Ed miles in. At Deception Pass State Park, on the Straight, I fell in love with a certain cliff and its rocky beach.

For the boat, I expected to use green screen. But then I visited the Northwest Seaport and saw their wonderful ships. They generously gave me permission to shoot for a day on their 100-year-old tugboat Arthur Foss.

With both the cliff and the tugboat, I updated the script to highlight the locations.

Did you write the script for this movie and other movies you’ve made?

Yes, I’m very interested in writing and have attended programs such as TheFilmSchool’s Prodigy Camp that emphasize storytelling. Knowing that I am going to produce what I write helps me write. For example, Mack is a Macbeth-like story of a painter whose ambition is tragically larger than his talent. I knew I could buy inexpensive landscape paintings at Goodwill and that I could paint my own abstracts, so I wrote the script around those two art styles.

Filmmaking sounds like a huge part of your life – do you have time for anything else?!

I’m in the International Baccalaureate program at my high school, so academics keep me pretty busy. My high school doesn’t actually have a film program, but I take fine art classes and theater classes. After school, I’ve also been in all the school plays and I’m co-president of Improv Club.

What role does DualEyes play in the production of your movies?

I filmed Alone Together a total of six days, spanning from August 7th to August 18th. Using a dual audio set up and DualEyes, I was able to cut together a teaser trailer immediately and post it to YouTube on the last day of shooting. This was only possible because DualEyes allowed me to sync the sound with the video immediately without any hassles.

Before DualEyes, I was not able to use a dual audio set up. It would take too long to manually sync the material. Instead, my microphone was tethered to my camera. This was a bit of a challenge as we would get tangled up, and the recording quality was often not what I wanted.

With DualEyes, I can have the microphone go with the actors. This gives better sound and simplifies shooting. For example, in Alone Together, it allowed me to film the actors from the other side of a cliff while the microphone was next to them, hidden behind a rock. DualEyes synced the video and audio correctly. It works so smoothly, giving me one less thing to worry about.

What did you use to shoot the footage, record the audio, and edit?

My last three films have been shot on a Canon T2i DSLR. For audio there is a VideoMic Pro microphone on a homemade boompole recorded to a Zoom H2 recorder. For editing and effects, I use Sony Vegas, Magic Bullet Looks, DualEyes, Cinema 4D, and After Effects.

To learn more about Ben and his projects, visit him at slugco.com or on Facebook.

Watch the Alone Together trailer

Late nights reconciling random shots and sound clips: stop that!

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 8 Dec 2011 12:23:00 -0800

When Matt Davis came across the PluralEyes plug-in, he recognized it would enable his guerilla style of shooting by allowing “some really smart software to sort it all out.” Matt explains, “All the key opinion leaders were onto PluralEyes from the start as the one way that made DSLR shooting with audio ‘a workable solution’. Clapperboards? Log sheets? The discipline in shooting to make that work? That was never going to happen for the DV shooters – far too arcane. I joined the industry synchronizing rushes, and I’ve done my fair few late nights trying to reconcile seemingly random shots and sound clips into some sort of order. PluralEyes just stopped all of that.”

As a photography student Matt watched the 1966 feature film Blowup directed by Michelangelo Antonioni about a British photographer's accidental involvement with a murder, and the seeds of a filmmaking passion were planted. The next revelation came with Ingmar Bergman’s 1992 feature, Fanny & Alexander. He recalls, “I couldn’t stop thinking ‘this is what photos should be: presented in a designed sequence, containing the time element and encapsulating motion…’ I dropped Photography and switched to Film.”

Matt’s life is now completely focused on moving images as he heads the full-service production company MDMA Ltd from his hometown of London, UK. He creates short- and long-form international corporate videography, but also offers training in editing and camera operation to others who share his enthusiasm for digital images.

Matt writes treatments, directs and shoots footage – sometimes with additional camera operators, edits and polishes the final story, and delivers videos in a variety of formats for individual entrepreneurial clients and sizeable corporations including Cisco, IBM and Sony.

Depending on the assignment, he switches between his Sony PMW-EX1 camcorder, a Canon Rebel T2i DSLR, and a Sony NEX-FS100 camcorder to produce event summaries, educational and marketing videos, and digital presentation material of all kinds. He trusts a Zoom H4n audio recorder to capture sound, and completes post-production using Final Cut Pro, Apple’s Motion, and Adobe After Effects.

As a video enthusiast serving the technology arena, Matt is immersed in leading edge conversations about his field. And yet he recognizes that technology is only part of the process. “I love telling stories. I love delivering a sequence of experiences that add up in the audience’s mind to something bigger than a few spoonfuls of entertainment. I think it’s like how a chef will create a banquet, not just a recipe or a course. What I really love is that moment when the audience goes ‘aha!’ – all the connections, all the little surprises and twists align for them and they ‘get’ it.”

Matt’s biggest challenge as a one-person enterprise is in juggling the quantity and variety of jobs that come along. His is continually on the lookout for workflow improvements that speed up his process so he can deliver increasing value to his clients. MDMA is becoming known for on-site editing and same-day delivery, which requires the utmost efficiency. “There’s so much cool technology we’re using now, it’s hard to stop and say ‘I don’t think that’s possible’.”

As a corporate filmmaker, Matt compares his role to that of a graphic designer. He takes others' ideas, and shapes them into visual presentations for a broad audience. A particular skill is in bringing visual interest to stories told primarily through talking heads. His eye for movement and his sense of fun ensure stories are told with vibrancy and hold a viewer’s interest.

Matt balances his corporate work with inventive projects that satisfy his filmmaker’s creativity – where he steps out of the designer's role and becomes the artist. He considers all technological mediums fair game for sharing ideas. “… The artist in me is getting impatient to tell some stories that I have. Will it be documentary? Will it be narrative? Will I even use film? I love well-presented audiobooks and may just make the biggest movie imaginable that’s presented as a stereo audio file.” We’ll be watching for that one!

Find more of Matt’s work on his Vimeo channel and keep an eye out for upcoming projects from MDMA.

Writer Sara McIntyre is a Communications Specialist and Filmmaker who calls Vancouver, BC home.

Startup Weekend Vancouver: myBestHelper.com

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Jeremy Wilson) — Thu, 8 Dec 2011 12:15:00 -0800

"What did you do over the weekend?" Well, how about start a company! That was the objective of 14 teams that recently participated in Startup Weekend Vancouver.

Startup Weekend is a global network of leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower people with entrepreneurial ambitions. They give the participating teams just 54 hours to put together their concept for a startup, in a supportive mentoring environment. At the conclusion of the weekend, they compete for prizes in a final presentation show down, with just four minutes to pitch their ideas, and another four minutes to respond to questions from the panel of judges.

The first place winner of this year's Startup Weekend Vancouver was myBestHelper.com, with their concept of a networking site that connects people in need of home help with locally available helpers looking for work, using an eHarmony style approach to finding a good fit. myBestHelper went on to compete in the global startup "battle" with winners from 34 other Startup Weekend events, placing 10th. Not bad for a weekend!

With several groups recording video at this packed event, this was also an opportunity for us to exercise Presto's ability to work with multiple presenter angles, and to leverage Presto for OS X new found integration with Adobe Premiere Pro to put the whole thing together.

Real-Time Editing and Immediate Video Release

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:00:00 -0800

Adam Wygle and Bryan Zug make up Bootstrapper Studios, a video production company forming part of the new wave of real-time editing and immediate video release. Located in the vibrant tech community of Founders Co-op in Seattle, WA, they work fast and inexpensively to capture the momentum of an event as it’s occurring, and to give participants instant tools for sharing their experience.

Seattle is host to numerous start-up forums and at Startup Weekend Seattle EDU in September, Bootstrapper documented the progress of contestants who built web or mobile applications over the course of a weekend. Throughout the 54 hours Adam would regularly pull someone from each of the 15 teams and ask the questions: What have you done since we last talked? What are you working on now? What’s blocking you?

Adam describes his workflow: “I’d have an H4n Zoom audio recorder, hit Record on that, let it sit there and just run. Then I didn’t have to think about it. Then whenever someone walked up to the camera, I’d hit Record on the camera. When they walked away I’d stop the recording. We’d shoot fifteen different people over the course of 20-30 minutes. We did it really fast because each person only had 30 seconds. At the end of one of those sessions I’d go back to the computer, dump my camera and audio footage, throw it in Premiere, export it so PluralEyes could look at it, render it and I was done.” The cycle was repeated every two to three hours. By Sunday night all footage was synced, assembled, and ready for release as soon as the final pitches occurred and winners were announced.

Adam adds, “Without PluralEyes I would have had to cut audio between each interview. I wouldn’t have been able to just turn the mic on and let it go. We would have had a clapper or have the interviewer do a clap in front of the camera, then I’d have to go back and sync it all up. That would have made the process between sessions a lot more time consuming with fifteen different clips, especially considering that fourteen of them weren’t going to be featured right away. The idea was that we could get the video out right away.”

Adam and Bryan work predominantly as a two-person team and stay effective because all their technology is digital. They reach for a Canon T3i DSLR camera, or a Canon Vixia HF20 camcorder, and use a wireless handheld mic, or a boom or lavaliers to record to the Zoom H4n. Their favorite new acquisition though, is an ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher from Blackmagic Design. It allows for four SDI inputs, four HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) inputs for cameras or computers, and is used for event streaming and live switching.

“We have the problem first and then we go looking for the solution,” comments Adam. “We used to run a Mac pro tower that had multiple HDMI cards in it and the process was so complicated, there were so many moving parts, there were so many things that could go wrong. When we started using this, the speed at which we could get up and running increased by 50 percent. We went from three to four hours set up time to two hours.”

In the early- to mid-90s Adam remembers how his dad was baffled by all the advertisements that had web addresses in them. Adam predicted a time when URLs would become standard business practice, and his eyes are again on the future where he sees that anyone without video on their websites will soon be left in the dust.

It was an easy decision for him to accept Bryan’s invitation to turn his passion for video production into a business as more and more people began asking for his services. “We’ve got a small studio in the heart of the startup world in Seattle. We’re using gear that would have cost thousands and thousands of dollars a few years back. What would have been an HD television station truck - you know those big semi-trucks - we’ve got that in a box that’s sitting on my desk.”

Adam also experiments with video innovation in his rare free time by creating music videos of local Seattle bands using his All Cameras On approach. With the band’s permission, he asks everyone at the concert to record a few songs using their handheld devices. If the venue has a professional recording facility, he’ll ask if they can turn it on to capture a good quality audio track. Then he collects all the various footage and edits it together for unique, collaboratively generated music videos that reflect the audience’s authentic experience.

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s time consuming so I don’t get to do it as often as I’d like to. Each one takes a little bit more time than the last one because I add more complicated things, but I also shave time on some other things, like creating templates. I use this as a way to teach myself the tool of Adobe Premiere … I’m definitely going to be using PluralEyes on these from now on!”

Adam’s enthusiasm for his work and the success of Bootstrapper Studios are a direct reflection of their personal love for the tech and creative community in Seattle. “There are lots of fun, different things we can do with social media. With our clients we’re more partners than we are the help. When we go to some of these events, they’re events that we want to be at. It’s really exiting for us.”

Check out HiveSeattle and IgniteSeattle for more insight into Seattle’s tech community and Bootstrapper’s work.

Writer Sara McIntyre is a Communications Specialist and Filmmaker who calls Vancouver, BC home.

MoMoVan: Ryan Storgaard on Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango)

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Jeremy Wilson) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:13:00 -0800

In our latest instalment from MoMoVan (Mobile Monday Vancouver), Canada's lead technical evangelist, Ryan Storgaard, talks about Microsoft’s strategy for Windows Phone and the opportunity it offers to mobile app and game developers.

Microsoft’s latest release is Windows Phone 7.5 (coded named "Mango"), which continues to garner rave reviews from customers and critics as it edges its way into a crowded and complicated mobile marketplace. With 40,000 apps now in the marketplace, a significant global partnership with Nokia, and integration with Xbox Live and Microsoft Office, there is no doubt Microsoft is making a deep commitment to Windows Phone. With its innovative approach to weaving apps, tasks and experiences together into Live Tiles and Hubs, Windows Phone is aiming to differentiate itself as a fresh and exciting platform for consumers and developers.

We also hear from Miles Donald of Nokia's Partnering Team, who is also based in Vancouver. Miles brings us up to date on Nokia's upcoming Windows Phone devices including the Lumia 800, and explores the opportunities for Nokia developers afforded by the partnership with Microsoft.

(We had some problems with the lapel mic for this recording, so our apologies for the intermittent bursts of static).

Automatic Sync Gives Editor a Week of His Life Back

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Fri, 4 Nov 2011 09:30:00 -0700

What do you do if you're starting post-production and realize you have to organize hundreds of audio files with no timecode, useful metadata or even names? Todd Batstone is the lead editor of an independent feature film called Dreadful Sorry, which he’s making with friends from his days as an actor and theatre producer in New York. As part of a grant from the South Carolina Film Commission, the production became a teaching project for students at the University of South Carolina College of Arts and Sciences.

Dreadful Sorry - Behind the Scenes - Video 4 - "The Future"

The footage was beautifully shot by veteran cinematographer Dan Kneece who used the new ARRI ALEXA camera, but when Todd opened the files to begin preparing them for editing, he found the students on set had named none of them. He was looking at three gigabytes of wave files with no indication of their corresponding scene or take.

Todd edits in Avid in his professional life, but was cutting Dreadful Sorry in Final Cut Pro because of the file format. Without an assistant, he faced weeks of manually searching for and synchronizing hundreds of files. It wasn’t until two days into the workload that he remembered the PluralEyes plugin for synchronization, and verified that it also works with FCP.

Todd recalls, “That was the lifesaver. I'd still be sitting here probably automatically lining these clips up and syncing them, and more than that, playing each one of them down to discover which tape it corresponded to, and there's several hundred files. I really put it to the test.

“I literally pulled almost every single clip, put them in a sequence, then dragged every single audio file into that sequence. Then let PluralEyes run. And it's magic ... you're looking at maybe 180 or 190 sound files and it matches them up with the wave form from the reference audio, and suddenly, magically you have this sequence with synced audio.”

Todd was so relieved with the solution that he wrote to Singular Software. “I just had to tell these people what this is doing in the real world, what the field experience is from somebody who really appreciates it and is having a very real world experience of the power of the application. I'd say it gave me a week, probably seven to eight actual working days of my life, of my editing life back.”

Dreadful Sorry is a suspense thriller seen through the eyes of a ten year-old girl who returns to her father at the family's plantation house after being sent away for seven years during the Civil War. Far beyond just synching clips, Todd is intrinsically valuable as a creative editor who collaborates with his director to write the final version of the story.

He explains, “There's just something about having been a performer and knowing what it's like to be in a scene with somebody, and having to listen to them, that lends itself to understanding the importance of creating a good rhythm in the editing room and creating a good rhythm with their performance.”

Todd first learned about PluralEyes as a member of the editing team on the new scripted MTV series called Death Valley, produced by Liquid Theory. Death Valley was shot in Los Angeles on the RED digital camera and edited in Avid. For the first week of shooting there was a problem with the jam synch so the time code on the audio and video files didn’t match up. Finally someone researched synchronization solutions and discovered the PluralEyes plugin.

Death Valley trailer for MTV

Todd recounts, “It saved our ass for a week until our production got back on track. That was my introduction to it, and the timesaving nature of it. If we hadn't had it we’d wind up syncing these things by hand, like the old days on a Moviola where you’re moving your film along on these plates, and moving the sound along until you get to the marker. We did that for a day or so because we didn't want to fall behind. It's an unreasonable, and tedious, and horrible process.”

Todd balances freelance work with his projects at Liquid Theory in L.A. Dreadful Sorry is sparking ideas for more independent collaborations with like-minded creative friends. “We have this pool of talent to pull from to begin to develop and create our own stuff … Conversations have been about what's the next project going to be for all of us, the people in our network who have known each other for all of these years, who've spent that time training, working for other people, and working in film and TV and theater. Now, we’re ready to pull all of those resources together and present something to the world.”

Follow Dreadful Sorry's progress through their production blog and FaceBook page, and catch Death Valley Monday nights on MTV - and keep an ear to the ground for Todd Batstone’s next creative revelation.

Comic Con Sizzle Reel edited by Todd Batstone

Writer Sara McIntyre is a Communications Consultant and Filmmaker who calls Vancouver, BC home.

Rob Hunt’s fantasy-comedy webseries for geeks of all kinds

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:11:00 -0700

How do military training, a Dungeons & Dragons hobby, and an acting/writing girlfriend come together when you’ve graduated with a computer science degree? If you’re Rob Hunt of Vancouver BC, you form Phasefire Films and engage all your creatively-minded friends to help make a fantasy-comedy webseries called Standard Action.

In his last semester at University of Victoria, Rob chose a filmmaking class as his final elective. Encouraged by the instructor’s ‘go nuts with it’ attitude, Rob embraced the camera and taught himself to edit in the school computer lab. He recalls, “That was a real opening up for me, I realized I can make stuff on my computer and I don’t even have a two thousand dollar computer. That was where a lot of it came from, just this realization that I could do this without having fifty grand.”

Rob used his graduation gift money to buy a video camera and gained inspiration from reading Rebel Without A Crew by Robert Rodriguez and The DV Rebel's Guide by Stu Maschwitz. After a year in England while his girlfriend Joanna Gaskell completed her master’s degree in theatre, the pair returned to Vancouver, gathered up their friends, and got busy.

Rob’s first feature-length project, A Mythology Of Revenge, was made for less than $5,000 and shot with a Cannon HV30 camcorder. Joanna acted the leading role, and Rob served as Writer, Director, Producer and Cinematographer. He then took on The Director’s Project, filmed in the summer of 2010 using a Canon EOS Rebel T2i DSLR, and a growing circle of film-loving friends. Joanna acted, and Rob was Director and Producer.

It was on the last day of filming The Director’s Project (TDP) when Rob and Joanna admitted their love of Dungeons & Dragons to actor Edwin Perez that the seeds of Standard Action were born. Joanna had been writing short practice scripts based on D&D characters that could be filmed in the forests of BC. Edwin, also a D&D enthusiast, revealed his talent for thrifty costume design, and the TDP makeup artists were invited to indulge their love for making monsters.

Initially the ten-minute episodes were posted online for fun, and intended to provide demo reel material for all involved. But as happens with the World Wide Web, fantasy fans discovered the show, and the story continued to evolve.

Standard Action is a webseries that celebrates nerd culture and independent filmmaking. It follows the exploits of four hilariously inept Adventurers and makes reference to the worlds of other fantasy and sci-fi series. Fans love the private jokes and the acknowledgement that life isn’t always easy for characters with social hang-ups.

Joanna has taken over producing duties allowing Rob to focus on production. They write collaboratively and edit together, and every actor on screen also doubles as a crewmember. Rob credits his university job in the militia with how smoothly the team works together. “A lot of the leadership skills I use, I learned in the army. I know people perceive the army as yelling a lot, but a lot of it is working really well as a team and treating your team members properly. I think applying that and giving people authority over their own areas, and allowing them to take ownership … we just offer a creative outlet for people and we treat them really well.”

Half way through making the series, Rob attended a BC Professional Videographers Association panel with his employer, Shawn Lam Video, and he heard Bruce Sharpe talking about PluralEyes. Rob was familiar with the plug-in at work where he uses Adobe Premiere to edit multi-camera event productions, but he didn’t know about DualEyes, the stand-alone software that provides features attractive for a low budget filmmaker.

Rob says, “It’s just been amazing since then. There’s maybe sixty clips an episode and I would have to spend ten minutes on each finding the audio clip, matching it, and synching it. Now it’s like ten seconds. I can play a lot more video games now. Quality of life!” Joanna realized the time-saver meant she could write more complicated structure into each episode, and they now average eighty clips per fourteen-minute episode.

Rob uses a Zoom H4n audio recorder and boom microphones, and his Canon T2i outfitted with Magic Lantern firmware for additional features like zebra striping and focus assist. His post-production toolkit includes Adobe Premiere, After Effects, DualEyes, and Audacity for audio cleanup.

The biggest challenge with the web series is the minimal budget, which is predominantly used to pay honorariums to his cast/crew for their time and dedication. For season two, Rob would love to upgrade his camera, invest in a few more lenses, and build some new costumes and weaponry for the characters.

Joanna and Vanessa Driveness – who has added Associate Producer/Marketing and PR Manager to her original credit of Costume Design/Wardrobe – have gotten busy on the crowd-funding platform IndieGoGo, with a fundraising goal of $10,000. The women are also responsible for Twitter and FaceBook activity, which has brought speaking opportunities at recent and upcoming fan conventions.

At VCon 2011 Rob shared the stage with a co-panelist and then discovered she was heading off to edit The Avengers movie. “I’m like, Oh My God, she touched me! It means a lot when people who are working on these incredibly amazing projects turn around and say, ‘Hey your stuff’s not bad’”. One of Rob’s greatest joys is seeing his friends and crewmates enjoy the appreciation of fans.

The first season of Standard Action is online at watchstandardaction.com. With the money raised on IndieGoGo, Rob and Joanna will make the second season longer, bigger and better. Their goal is another full-length season of twelve episodes, each ten to fifteen minutes in length, all continuing to be free and available online.

As soon as the resources are gathered, Rob and Joanna will lead their team back to the woods. He comments, “While I was in the reserves I used to go away for one crazy weekend a month where we wouldn’t sleep and we’d do these eighteen hour days, and there would be this real camaraderie and teamwork. And now doing this with Standard Action, once or twice a month we’ll go away into the woods and film for fifteen hours and there’ll be more camaraderie. I’m also really good at standing around in the rain, thanks to the military.”

Writer Sara McIntyre is a Communications Consultant and Filmmaker who calls Vancouver, BC 'home'.

Not Your Average ‘Daily’ Grind

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:09:00 -0700

The Daily is the first tablet-native national news brand that is publishing exclusively for the iPad. Launched from scratch on February 2, 2011 by Rupert Murdoch and News Corp., The Daily has received kudos from a variety of big names.

It’s no secret that The Daily’s content recipe is quite unique. What makes it different are the various components – part magazine (for depth and quality), part newspaper (delivered daily) and part online property (updated in real-time). Peppered among these elements are dashes of interactivity – unique videos, photos, and built-in apps (yes, apps within the app).

And what keeps readers coming back for more? It’s The Daily’s A+ journalists and interesting feature articles and series. Take “Rocket Across America,” for example, where The Daily reporter Justin ‘Rocket’ Silverman travels across the U.S. covering all aspects of American culture. Traveling west from his NYC home base, Silverman has done everything from walk on fire in Ithaca, New York to Outhouse Racing in Des Moines, Iowa.

As a video editor at The Daily, Jonathan Tortora’s job is to make sure all of this content – filmed in office or captured remotely by Silverman and countless other reporters – is edited, polished, and turned around as quickly as possible. We caught up with Jonathan recently to ask him how it all works.

So Jonathan, what is it like being a part of the e-newspaper revolution?
It has been an amazing experience. The Daily is a wonderful outlet to be a part of the new media and technology frontier. I originally came from the television broadcast industry, so this was just something I stumbled into – and I’m so happy I did. It is refreshing to create the unique, engaging material for The Daily, everyday.

Recent statistics show that although the traditional newspaper industry is faltering, their online counterparts are posting double-digit growth. Do you believe the next frontier for newspaper publishers is to shift emphasis from online formats to iPads?
I think that eventually traditional newspapers will catch on to this new media trend. Apple revolutionized the way people consume media. We have the capacity to tell stories in a way no one else can and the consumer is responding to that. The work of our design team is groundbreaking and takes interactivity to the next level. Readers now want to be immersed in the content – whether it is touching hotspots with their fingertips or scrolling through interactive picture galleries the design helps to bring the viewer inside of the content. You can check out some of our coolest design features on The Design Blog.

If the top ten newspapers were to shift to the iPad, what do you think would differentiate The Daily from its competition?
The Daily started on the iPad platform, we were born for this! We got here first…and we’ll continue to create top notch content so the app is the best it can possibly be.

What are some examples of stories and series you work on for The Daily?
Our team is out in the field everyday trying to grab new content. For example, in the past few months, we have covered everything from an Angola Prison to a window washer who works suspended 90 stories above New York City.

One of the series that caught our eye was “Rocket Across America.” Can you tell me a bit more about this?
Sure – it is actually one of my favorite series I’ve worked on thus far at The Daily. Justin ‘Rocket’ Silverman went around the county doing pieces from the road about the people he comes across. We call the series “Rocket Across America” because Silverman who started in New York City and has been heading west and everywhere in between looking for ‘content gold.’

What is your role in making sure that all the footage captured from “Rocket Across America” is ready for publication for The Daily?
My job is making sure that all of the footage we capture can be formatted and polished for publication. To capture each angle of the story we utilize a lot of multi-camera shoots with DSLR cameras.

Since you are working out of New York and Silverman is on the road, how do you work with the footage for a quick turnaround?
For the “Rocket Across America” series specifically, our team’s been doing everything on the road. Our shooter/producer has been shooting with two Canon 5Ds, a Sony EX3, and some GoPros. Armed with a laptop and PluralEyes, he’s been syncing, screening, and editing in the field.

PluralEyes has actually become a necessity in producing material for The Daily. Since we are churning out content so quickly everyday, its ability to save time is priceless.

What happens once the edit is finished on the road?
It gets sent back via ftp and we can make any final changes the same day. On some occasions, rough edits have been sent back via ftp and we’ve completed the edits here at the office. At that point though, all the footage has been synced in the field first.

With so many interesting series and articles – many of which have a unique spin like “Rocket Across America” – how do you view the future of The Daily?
Promising! If we continue to focus on the content and create memorable material day in and day out like we’ve been doing, we will continue to be successful.

For more information about The Daily, please visit http://www.thedaily.com, or download the App from the App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-daily/id411516732

Tim Pierce’s "Winter of Wells" flies from web series to international feature film

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:27:00 -0700

Tim Pierce is shooting some of the most beautiful footage of mountaintops and free skiing that a human has captured with a camera. He follows world-class skiers around the globe to the most breathtaking snow-covered peaks and straps himself into helicopters, or perches under crests to catch flyers, or outfits the athletes with helmet cams for stomach-churning POV footage. He edits the videos with a rhythm that intuits and respects the performances of his subjects and brings an audience right into the exhilarating world of extreme winter sports.

photo credit: Miles Holden

Prior to 2011 Tim’s solo work has been short-form web episodes and promotional videos. But this year he has been commissioned to make a feature length documentary film about one of his favourite subjects – the championship free skiing Wells brothers from New Zealand.

Tim began documenting the lives of professional free skiers Jossi and Byron Wells in 2009. He created a series called Winter of Wells (WOW) that began online, was quickly picked up by international sports websites, and then bought by Air New Zealand, and ABC and FuelTV for television broadcast.

Where the online series focuses on the brothers’ travel and competitions, the feature will delve into the history of the family including all four skiing brothers and their parents. Tim says, “You get to live 2011 with the Wells family. That's kind of the key difference to it. And it breaks down everything that goes into competing, traveling, the family dynamics. There are sections on their religion, health, their injuries, psychological problems, brotherly rivalry. It's the story of this family that is incredibly unique. If you've grown up in a family you'll be able to relate to it. And it just so happens that we've got the world's best skiing in there as well.”

Winter of Wells doc teaser

To capture the story as it’s unfolding, and remain adaptable as unexpected events come up, Tim works as a one-man crew. He travels with about five bags of light panels, reflectors, travel dollies, tripods, cameras, lenses and microphones. He shoots with the Canon 5D and 7D DSLRs, GoPro helmet cams, and uses a Panasonic HVX both as a backup camera and as his audio recorder. Tim reveals, “It's got XLR input, so I bring it along and it’s set up as a C camera to use on interviews, but it also runs the mics, and when I import it I just get rid of the video track and just use the audio.”

Tim edits with Final Cut Pro on a 17” MacBook Pro that’s hooked up to numerous hard drives and a large plasma screen so he can check his work clearly. With the series of short episodes Tim was used to shooting and editing in quick succession. For the feature he spends weeks on the road filming, and then returns home to synchronize and edit in longer stretches. He recalls, “I'm sitting here going, I'm gonna have to sync all this up and it's going to be a bit of a nightmare. So I started talking to some people that told me about PluralEyes. Did a few Google searches and looked at some tutorials on it, and saw that it looked like it would save me a bunch of time and hassle. And spending $180 for it (in New Zealand), I figured it was well worth the investment, and really haven't looked back since then. For syncing all my interviews up I just run it through PluralEyes then drop it into my timelines in the doc, and it all seems to be running pretty smooth.”

Winter of Wells Episode 22 - Behind the Scenes of the Documentary

Tim has also been spending time with the Queenstown Camera Company testing development of the new Shotover Camera System, which is being designed specifically for the cinema industry for shooting stabilized aerial footage from moving platforms - primarily helicopters - with no limitations to aircraft maneuver or camera angles.

photo credit: Miles Holden

Tim remarks, “The gimbals are incredible. You can be flying around in a chopper 3 kilometers away with your camera zoomed in on a 290 mm lens and it's rock solid, you can never question the rig. And they're also developing a 3D rig, which hasn't been done for heli before, so that’ll open up this whole new world for 3D heli-filming and stuff, which’ll be crazy.” Some of the helicopter footage will appear in the “Winter of Wells” film.

Tim admits his biggest challenge is staying organized and getting enough sleep amid all the exciting and consuming projects on his plate. This year he also delivered a series of promotional videos for the New Zealand Winter Games, which occurred in August; and has produced an online series featuring the people of his hometown, called “Revealing Lake Wanaka”.

Revealing Lake Wanaka - Martine Harding

The feature version of “Winter of Wells” is scheduled to premiere at the world sales meeting for Amer Sports in Austria at the end of October. Amer is a sporting goods company with internationally recognized brands including Wilson, Arc’teryx, and Atomic – one of Tim’s video and photography clients. From there the film will roll out to international festivals and sports-related events.

This feature doc marks an impressive milestone that has come relatively early in Tim’s career. His first offering was a mountain bike film called “How About It?”, made in 2007 at the age of 19 with friend Chris Arnison and a camcorder. Even in this early video you can see the seeds of Tim’s unique creativity and his eye for framing athletes in their surroundings.

“I do what I love, there's nothing that can beat that. I'm just really, really into sharing stories about subjects, people and places that I'm passionate about. Nothing gives me more enjoyment than seeing that affect other people. And it’s just snowballing at the moment, so I'm running with it, you know, taking it by the horns really.”

Stay tuned to Tim’s blog and the Winter of Wells website for release dates and upcoming projects.

Tim Pierce 2010 Showreel, Zeros & Ones

Writer Sara McIntyre is a Communications Consultant and Filmmaker who calls Vancouver, BC 'home'.

Master of ‘Indie TV’: Joe Wilson and his VMob funders

bruce.sharpe@gmail.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:14:00 -0700

Joe Wilson is mastering the online realm of Indie TV where serialized stories don’t have to end, audience members become producers by donating funds, and the creator of a star-studded series shares dog photos and talks directly to viewers all over the globe through social media.

When he was in his early 20s, after attending art school to study photojournalism, Joe took jobs as a server and bartender in hotel restaurants. Some of his customers happened to be Mafia members and, although Joe didn’t know it at the time, they would later serve as character references for the web series he is working on now.

Joe experimented with various careers including video installations, acting, screenwriting, stand up comedy, and eventually moved from Boston to Los Angeles. He learned to make short films for the web, and won the Best Short Under Five Minutes award at the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival in 2008 for writing and directing ‘The Swear Police’. In the meantime, he earned his living as a private investigator. It was while undercover on the job one day that he had the idea of combining the resilient genre of mob movies with the flourishing prevalence of vampires. ‘Vampire Mob’ was conceived.

Joe originally planned to make ‘Vampire Mob’ a short film, but upon mining his profuse creativity (and personal knowledge of the mob) he realized there was enough material for an online series. ‘Vampire Mob’ is now the story of a hit man who conveniently combines his night work with his new life as a vampire. His wife, in-laws, colleagues and neighbors make up the cast of characters.

Joe takes responsibility for all aspects of production, but says the biggest challenge is finding an audience in the crowded online marketplace. “Technically it's just a tremendous amount of work and I knew going in that shooting two to three cameras to speed up coverage, to make things look more expensive, was going to be more work in post. But as the storyteller, once you tell the story you've got to find somebody to actually listen to the thing.”

His solution is to dedicate substantial time to conversing with viewers and other filmmakers through Twitter, and sharing clips, blooper reels, photos and thoughts on his blog. “I think the advantage of being one guy is when people talk to me on Twitter they know they're talking to the person who made the show. In most cases that isn't available … And it's worldwide. I talk to people all over the world every single day who've sort of become friends because you know, they see the show.”

The appeal of making a web series is in having complete creative freedom, and not having a defined end to the story - like he would with a feature film. He is also uninhibited by executives or broadcasters dictating the style or content of the episodes. He says, “I do rewrites. I do table reads. So it's not like I think I'm some crazy genius who bangs out one draft and shoots it. But when you're working for a company that needs to make a profit, they need people who think it’s their job to make things that are going to make a profit.” The feedback he seeks from colleagues is solely aimed at telling the best story possible.

Joe filmed the first six-episodes in 2010, acting as producer, writer, director, camera operator, and full post-production department. He used a pair of old standard definition Sony camcorders, and gathered locations and crew from his network of neighbors, fellow comedians and artists.

The accomplished group of ‘Vampire Mob’ performers has collective credits including ‘The Simpsons’, ‘The Bob Newhart Show’, ‘The Sopranos’, and ‘Twin Peaks’. Most recently, Tony-award winning actress Rae Allen joined the cast. “It's just ridiculous the amount of talent that I get to work with on this project,” Joe says. “And everybody is in it just because they like the project; they're all having fun. And that's why I do this. There's no drama on my sets, we're all there to have a good time. Why wouldn't we be? Nobody is making any money. Just go have fun and tell a good story.“

With passionate audience response from wide-ranging viewers, and more story ideas brewing, Joe knew he would need a bigger budget and better equipment for the second season. He got active on Twitter, added PayPal buttons to the show’s website, established a dedicated fan-site, and managed to raise over $10,000 in donations from fans, whom he affectionately calls The VMob. Contributions to the show earn ‘Supporting Producer’ status in the credits.

Joe studied filmmaking blogs and talked with friends to discover the Canon 5D and 7D DSLR cameras. He recognized they would be affordable, nimble, and would probably work with his collection of Canon lenses. He also invested in a Zoom H4n audio recorder for good quality sound, which led him to the PluralEyes plug-in, which proved to be essential for audio synchronization.

Now completing season two using the new DSLRs, Joe directs and shoots along with other camera operators, and still uses gear that any resourceful person could rummage up. “The monitors we have are on-camera monitors. Everything is hand held; there's no tripod in the room. It's all lit with China balls or Home Depot lights, there’s no lighting kit. I either use two 5Ds and a 7D, or two 7Ds and a 5D, all three with a 24-70mm Canon L series [lens] on it because it's sort of the proximity we need.”

After backing up all footage fourfold, Joe employs PluralEyes to sync each camera’s footage separately to the master audio track before beginning his edit in Final Cut Pro.

Season one of ‘Vampire Mob’ is complete and online. Season two is being released serially as episodes are completed. Joe will continue making the show as long as he’s got the resources to do so, and the creative juices keep flowing.

The investment of his highly lauded cast members, and the growing VMob is a reflection of how generously Joe shares his enthusiasm for this project. His blog is full of behind-the-scene anecdotes and personal greetings from Joe and the crew.

“I'm hoping the audience will come and support the show, will share the show, and we'll be able to make something that can continue. Right now we're like a really tiny band that people think makes good songs, but not a lot of people have heard those songs. So it's really just trying to get the word out and let people know, ‘Hey, there's a show for adults out there that's funny, that's got really good acting.’”

Vampire Mob, now in Season 2. If you like your comedy with murder, we highly recommend it.

Writer Sara McIntyre is a Communications Consultant and Filmmaker who calls Vancouver, BC 'home'.