Amreeka is a 16mm film about a Palestinian woman who wins immigration to the U.S. from Palestine. The film was shot on Super 16mm in Canada and in the West Bank. We spoke at length with Keith Reamer, editor of Amreeka, about his involvement in production and post-production. He talked at length about the unique challenges of editing a film that is 50% arabic dialogue. Keith offers his perspective on the creative process, and talks about how he worked with director Cherien Dabis throughout the post-production of this film.

Listen online via the player above, or subscribe to FreshDV’s podcast feed to listen in iTunes and on your portable music player.

Show Notes

-Matt Jeppsen

-Avid

-FreshDV

-Keith Reamer

-Cherien Dabis

To hear the Podcast push the play button or download here.

Film-goers and filmmakers collide in Austin, Texas every March at the SXSW Film Festival and this year may have provided an unseen, “behind-the-scenes” twist as longtime Festival Producer Matt Dentler resigned his position–2009 will be the debut for producer Janet Pierson. It seems to be a bold debut, praising a wide range of films–some movies will make their premiere this week in Austin, some are Sundance and Toronto favorites like Adventureland and Spike Lee’s Passing Strange, as well as a wide range of music-inspired films, and even a film that looks at Japan’s fascination with bugs and another that looks at the world’s fascination with wasted commercial takes from an ill-tempered ’80s Winnebago salesman which somehow became a YouTube phenomenon (seriously).

millimeter Senior Digital Media Editor Craig Erpelding asks the questions to industry-veteran, yet rookie SXSW Festival Producer Janet Pierson.

Show Notes

-2009 SXSW Film Festival

-Janet Pierson

-Spike Lee

-Digital Filmmaking

-”Adventureland Director Greg Mottola (listen to our Sundance interview with Mottola)

Presented by Reel-Exchange.com. Join the top professional marketing site for the film, video, animation, and sound industry, with more than 3,300 members from 72 countries. Use promo code MIL001. Get Posted. Get Noticed. Get Work.

To hear the Podcast push the play button or download here.

In this issue of HD Focus Craig Erpelding, senior digital media editor for millimeter magazine, talks with Mark Miller of Miller HD–a Vancouver-based production company which produces work for the Discovery Channel–regarding his beta testing of Avid’s latest version of Media Composer, 3.5, announced March 2, 2009. Miller discusses the new editing capabilities available in this version, highlighting the new Avid Media Access (AMA) architecture which provides workflow efficiency on XDCAM- and P2-based workflows. He also touches on the new color correcting tools within Media Composer 3.5.

Show Notes

-Avid Media Composer 3.5

-Sony XDCAM

-Miller HD

-Avid Media Access (AMA)

-Tapeless HD Workflow

-Editing

-Color Correction

Presented by Reel-Exchange.com. Join the top professional marketing site for the film, video, animation, and sound industry, with more than 3,300 members from 72 countries. Use promo code MIL001. Get Posted. Get Noticed. Get Work.

To hear the Podcast push the play button or download here.

Upon taking the podium to accept the Georges Méliès Award for pioneering achievement in the field of visual effects from the Visual Effects Society at that organization’s gala awards dinner Saturday evening, the legendary Phil Tippett confessed, “I was [dragged] kicking and screaming into the digital age—some pioneer I was.�?

The self-deprecating Tippett objected all night long to the notion that he was a pioneer in the field, no matter how many times his contemporaries, like friend and periodic collaborator Dennis Muren, insisted that he was, and no matter that he was only the third-ever recipient of the Méliès Award, following in the footsteps of such legends as Robert Abel and John Lasseter. But when he sat down for an exclusive interview prior to accepting his award with millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman, Tippett happily discussed the career accomplishments that earned him the designation, and gave his frank thoughts on the current state of the visual effects industry from creative, technical, and business points of view. Hear a portion of their conversation.

Check out the complete list of VES 2009 award winners, see millimeter‘s coverage of past and present award nominees and winners, and watch www.digitalcontentproducer.com and millimeter magazine for more coverage—including conversations with VES Lifetime Achievement Award winners Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.

Show Notes

-Visual Effects Society

-Tippett Studio

-VFX/CG Animation

Presented by REEL IMPRESSIONS. Have your demo reel shown in HD on a 35 ft. screen at the 2009 NAB Show. Entry deadline Feb. 27, 2009.

To hear the Podcast push the play button or download here.

Although state-of-the-art high definition production and post-production technology is now readily available, upgrading an existing studio’s infrastructure to HD can still be extremely complicated, particularly in today’s difficult economic environment. But one of Hollywood’s largest independent production facilities, Hollywood Center Studios, recently accomplished the feat. The facility includes 11 sound stages, five all-digital TV control rooms, editing rooms, and all the “bells and whistles” one would expect out of a busy production facility.

Hollywood Center Studios recently completed a $2.25 million expansion of its infrastructure into the HD realm in order to accommodate production on two new series for the Disney Channel (The Suite Life on Deck and The Wizards of Waverly Place), and anticipated future projects. Among the new technology in the facility are several Sony HDC-1500 multi-format HD cameras, Ross Video QMD/X multi-definition switchers, Yamaha PM1D digital audio mixing consoles, and much more, all with a goal toward allowing any show produced at the studio to be shot in any or all HD broadcast formats and aspect ratios.

To learn more about the transition, Millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman recently discussed the process, logistics, costs, and considerations of upgrading the facility with Hollywood Center Studio’s longtime Chief Engineer, David Maxwell.

Show Notes
- Hollywood Center Studio
- Sony HDC-1500 Camera
- Apple Final Cut Pro/Compressor
- Ross Video QMD/X Switchers
- HD Trends
- 2009 Digital Transition
- Tapeless Workflow

Presented by REEL IMPRESSIONS. Have your demo reel shown in HD on a 35 ft. screen at the 2009 NAB Show. Entry deadline Feb. 27, 2009.

To hear the Podcast push the play button or download here.

Caesar Schultz is an up-and-coming professional boxer who decided to take on the prize fighting industry’s ruling class-the promoters-by creating his own web video series to build interest and market himself. As a “Gym Warrior” most of his life, he had no prior expertise in shooting or editing video at all–however researching what makes certain television and webisodes successful pointed Schultz in the right direction on how to create a successful web video series–including how to encode and distribute to various audiences. Schultz discusses his experiences with millimeter Senior Digital Media Editor Craig Erpelding.

Show Notes
- ImmortalCaesar.com
- Canon XL H1
- Apple Final Cut Pro/Compressor
- Apple MacBook Pro
- HD Video
- Video Encoding for the Web
- Web Series Creation

Presented by REEL IMPRESSIONS. Have your demo reel shown in HD on a 35 ft. screen at the 2009 NAB Show. Entry deadline Feb. 27, 2009.

To hear the Podcast push the play button or download here.

In this issue of HD Focus, we get an overview of the postproduction workflow used on The Tracey Ullman Show, which is in its second season on Showtime. The creative team just went to a Red Digital Cinema Red One digital acquisition system and now shoots 4K—the postproduction is handled via four Avid Media Composer systems. For insight on the new workflow, millimeter Senior Digital Media Editor Craig Erpelding speaks with Editor Guillaume Aubuchon, who works on the postproduction team for The Tracey Ullman Show.

Show Notes
- Red Digital Cinema
- Avid DNxHD Codec
- Avid Symphony Nitris
- Da Vinci Color Correction
- Digtial Production
- HD Trends

Presented by REEL IMPRESSIONS. Have your demo reel shown in HD on a 35 ft. screen at the 2009 NAB Show. Entry deadline Feb. 27, 2009.

To hear the Podcast push the play button or download here.

Millimeter and Digital Content Producer continued our annual coverage of the Sundance Film Festival with numerous conversations with filmmakers whose films were chosen as a part of the 2009 Sundance offerings. In depth interviews, news, information, and musings are posted on our Sundance blog which consists of both blog postings and audio conversations, all of which are archived at blog.digitalcontentproducer.com/sundance. Filmmakers covered in the blog include Davis Guggenheim (It Might Get Loud, An Inconvenient Truth), R.J. Cutler (The September Issue), Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland), Robert Siegel (The Wrestler, Big Fan), Ondi Timoner (We Live in Public), Michael Polish (Manure), and more. Excerpts of some of these conversations, and others, are highlighted in this 2009 Sundance Filmmaker podcast.

Show Notes
- 2009 Sundance Film Festival
- 2009 Sundance Blog
- R.J. Cutler
- Greg Mottola
- Robert Siegel
- Ondi Timoner
- John Hindman
- Michael Polish

Presented by REEL IMPRESSIONS. Have your demo reel shown in HD on a 35 ft. screen at the 2009 NAB Show. Entry deadline Feb. 27, 2008.

To hear the Podcast push the play button or download here.

This issue of HD Focus delves into the business prospects for the digital camera sales and rental industry for the coming year as the industry, and everyone else, grapples with the global economic crisis. To discuss the topic, Millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman speaks with Michael Bravin, Chief Technology Officer at Band Pro Film and Digital in Burbank, Calif. Bravin is a longtime veteran of the HD industry, and the two converse about how the greater economic atmosphere may, or may not, impact the HD business in the coming weeks, months, and years.

Show Notes
- Band Pro
- Red Digital Cinema
- Viper Filmstream Camera System
- Sony Professional HD Camera Systems
- Panasonic HD Camera Systems
- Digtial Production
- HD Trends

Presented by REEL IMPRESSIONS. Have your demo reel shown in HD on a 35 ft. screen at the 2009 NAB Show. Entry deadline Feb. 27, 2008.

To hear the Podcast, press the play button or download here.

In last week’s HD Focus, Ed Ulbrich, Digital Domain executive producer for visual effects on David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, discussed that company’s role in helping Fincher build his digital filmmaking pipeline for the movie. This issue, we continue the discussion with a conversation between Millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman and Digital Domain’s visual effects supervisor on Benjamin Button—Eric Barba. Barba explains the project’s use of digital cameras for visual effects plates and gives his views on the issues and trends in the industry regarding the role and future of digital cameras for making high-end visual effects.

Show Notes
- Digital Domain
- Viper Filmstream Camera System
- S.two Recorders
- CG Animation
- Digtial Cinematography

Presented by REEL IMPRESSIONS. Have your demo reel shown in HD on a 35 ft. screen at the 2009 NAB Show. Entry deadline Feb. 27, 2008.