2010 Addy Award

This past weekend, MindWarp LLC won an ADDY award for the website Paloma Films at the 2010 ADDY Awards in El Paso, TX.  You can check out the winning website at www.palomafilms.com. The website displays the cinematography talents of Benny Ontiveros and his work.

Thank you  friends and family for all your support!

Best Little Website on the Border 2009 Award

MindWarp Entertainment wins 1st Place for the ‘Best Little Website on the Border’ Contest at BizTech 2009! Our winning website was for the Texas Gynecology and Laser Surgery Center. You can view the winning website here:  http://www.farnammd.com

The website won first place from among 68 submissions. Winning websites were judged based on usability, aesthetics, and effectiveness.

BizTech 2009 is the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce premier technology expo and is now in its eleventh year. It is the Southwest Region’s largest meeting place for thousands of information technology professionals, community and business leaders, telecommunications providers, fellow entrepreneurs, and others looking for the best in technology solutions from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico Border.

If you have questions regarding information about BizTech, please contact: Rebeca Rodriguez at rrodriguez@ephcc.org or at 566-4066.

If you like the web site’s design, comment below and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Click on the image to view the web site.

Paloma Films

The Brothers Corral

After graduating from Cathedral High School, the Corral brothers had their futures down pat. Carlos was studying computer science, his brother Octavio in biology. However, there was no disputing their true interests. “There were stacks upon stacks of VHS tapes we made when we were little,” said Octavio. After the dreaded call home to inform the lifeline about the permanent change in their future careers into a notoriously unpredictable field, both University of Texas at Austin students changed their majors to Radio-Television-Film.

Just two short years after graduating, the enterprising siblings are deep into their business venture MindWarp Entertainment LLC, a production company specializing in web design and video production. Although they run their own company with two locations in the state (Carlos, 26, is in Austin, while Octavio, 24, is in El Paso), they were still able to nurture their pet project, a feature film about an alcoholic doctor called Hands of God….

Continue reading the article at www.epmediagroup.com

Hands of God Poster

We will be having a special sneak peek screening of our new feature film Hands of God on Thursday Aug. 13th at 9pm and Saturday Aug. 15th at 10pm at the 2009 Plaza Classic Film Festival right here in our hometown of El Paso TX. The first sneak peek screening has already SOLD OUT and tickets are going fast for our 2nd screening on Aug. 15th.

If you would still like to purchase tickets for the second screening, you can drop by the main box office at the Plaza Theatre during regular business hours or purchase them online at Ticketmaster here.

We’ve also received some great press from the El Paso Times and What’s Up El Paso about our sold out screening. Below are some of the highlights from the news articles we have been gathering:

By Doug Pullen / El Paso Times
Posted: 08/01/2009 05:20:46 PM MDT
And they’ve added a second showing of “Hands of God,” a new drama by El Paso filmmaker Carlos Corral. The first one at 9 p.m. Aug. 13 has already sold out the 200-seat Philanthropy Theatre. The encore will be at 10 p.m. Aug. 15.

By Doug Pullen / El Paso Times
Posted: 08/06/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT
One locally made movie, writer-director Carlos Corral’s “Hands of God,” about a resident surgeon coming to terms with his father, has sold out an Aug. 13 show at the Philanthropy Theatre. A second show was added for Aug. 15. Corral, 26, is a graduate of Cathedral High School in El Paso and the University of Texas at Austin’s film school. He said the festival was a great way to showcase a film community that has existed largely under the radar.

By Leonard Martinez / What’s Up El Paso Volume 10, No. 44
Posted: 08/06/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT
A screening of local film “Hands of God” has already sold out and a second screening has been added. Gilbert Chavarria, who runs the local film Web site EPFilm.org, said the selling out of the first “Hands of God” screening is important to the local filmmaking community. “It is incredibly important,” Chavarria said. “It shows that there is a strong local filmmaking community that has been waiting for an opportunity like this. By supporting all the local screenings, the local filmmaking community is investing in themselves by ensuring the success of the Plaza Classic this year as well as in years to come.”

UPDATE:
Hands of God Thursday Aug. 13th at 9pm SOLD OUT!
Hands of God Saturday Aug. 15th at 10pm SOLD OUT!

I’m sure everyone has had this argument with someone they know or work with. I’ve had this discussion/argument with a cinematographer who has both shot on film and on RED and still prefers 35mm over RED despite the long waiting period and higher costs of production. Maybe it’s an age/generation difference. Here are some facts that I have read regarding RED footage and 35mm film and how each is handled. I highly recommend checking out Paul Wheeler’s High Definition Cinematography Book, it’s a great read!

35mm Film Camera

RED Digital Camera

RED & 35mm Cameras

“A counterargument goes that 35mm film must be sharper because the image has a resolution which is referred to as a 4K resolution, meaning 4000 horizontal pixels or samples. However, after the 4K film negative is finished, it has to be photographically copied several times before being projected onto the cinema screen. At every stage, the quality of the film always suffers. It can be said / shown that the image we view on the cinema screen is unlikely to be better than 1.2K.

Let’s look at a 35mm film’s route from camera to cinema screen. In order to duplicate the original negative many, many times so that it may be shown simultaneously in many cinemas, the picture will have to be copied, photographically, several times.”

35mm Film Processing

A. The original camera master is copied to;
B. An inter-positive print film which is then copied to;
C. An inter-negative film which is then printed to;
D. The release print which is then shown through;
E. The projector lens on to;
F. The cinema screen.

This lengthy process is necessary because film is mechanically vulnerable and should only go through the printing machine a limited number of times. This printing and re-printing process is done in order to get over 3,000 copies of a 35mm film into your local theater. By the time that a 35mm master negative image reaches your cinema screen, most experts agree that the image on the screen is no better than 1.2K to 1.4K, and that’s being generous.

RED Frame Size

Compare this a with true 4K REDCode digital image that has stayed completely digital without any kind of quality loss and you will come to realize that the only degradation your REDCode 4K film will have suffered will have come from the digital projector lens. Hence if the production has stayed within the REDCode 4K domain, the resolution that can be projected on-screen can still be between 2K and 4K (depending on how you finished your producion). If you are wondering why I mentioned finishing in 2K, please read the next section.

2. Shoot 4K and finish in 2k?

Although working with the RED camera can be great, please be aware of something that’s very important. At the time of this article, NLEs like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro have released plug-ins that allow you to natively edit REDCODE files. However, this does not mean that they can export back to full 4K R3D files.

When picking a resolution to shoot with, you should keep in mind that although the RED
Camera can shoot media at 4K, 3K, and 2K resolutions, there are positives and negatives to each resolution if you’re planning on doing your post-production using Final Cut Studio:

Digital Formats

• 4K media will always be resized to 2K quality during the Log and Transfer process in Final Cut Pro 6.
• 3K media is not supported by Final Cut Pro’s real time effects architecture at this time.
• 2K media is imported as is, with no resizing and is supported by Final Cut Pro’s real time effects architecture. It is the maximum resolution that can be output by Apple COLOR as well.

Remember, RED media is read-only; you cannot export media using the REDCODE
Codec. Instead, you will have to finish using either Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) or Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2. So while your project was shot with REDCode 4K resolution, you will ultimately be finishing with a 2K quality picture.

This isn’t a bad thing though. As I mentioned, only 2K digital copies can be exported from all existing NLEs. This may change in the future but it will be a couple of years before we can truly edit native 4K images and export at 4K. Even at 2K, your project will still look amazing if not better than 35mm film. If you don’t believe me, try playing a 2K version of your film in an actual theater and you will see what I mean.

UPDATE: FINAL CUT STUDIO 3 HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED!
Final Cut Pro 7 and COLOR 1.5 now FULLY SUPPORT REDCODE 4K Files and can also export in Full 4K ProRes 4444.

Details can be found here:
FINAL CUT STUDIO 3 Information

3. Some Assembly Required

Whether you bought your own RED Camera or will be renting one, you will doing something major assembly before starting a RED Production. Before starting the American Salesman shoot, Andy Bragdon brought in his brand new RED Camera. He had ordered the Base Production Pack with his RED Camera.

Assembling the RED

Iskra & I making adjustments

Mounting the RED-RAM

Iskra Valtcheva and I began to put the RED Configuration together when we we realized that we were missing another set of rails. The Base Production Pack came with only 1 pair of rails and did not come with any extras. The basic configuration can be a bit difficult to work with since the Hard Drive would block the RED Camera controls. We went ahead and rented some spare rails from Michael Morlan here in Austin to finish the configuration we wanted. Always be sure to check if you have all the parts for the RED Configuration you want to use!

4. Check, Check, & Double Check the Back Focus!

If you have worked with film cameras or 35mm adapters before, then this will just be a refresher. For those of you coming into RED with no background on this, back focus refers to the “focal flange length”. This is the distance between the rear lens element and the CMOS Sensor for the RED. If you find that your focus is sharp when you are zoomed in but soft when zoomed out, your back focus needs adjusting.

Nikon SLR Zoom Lens

Adjusting the Lens

Check & Double Check!

This happened to us when we were testing out the Nikon Primes we would be using for the American Salesman shoot. The 35mm Manual SLR Nikon Lens would be soft while the 135mm Nikon Lens would be just right. Its usually better to measure the back focus if you have a Manuel SLR Zoom Lens to make sure all of your focal points are in tact. Be sure to consult a RED DP when checking the back focus on the Camera. The last thing you want is for your image to go soft at 4K resolution.

5. Use a GOOD Tripod

RED with O'Conner Tripod

Make no mistake about it. The RED Camera with Hard Drive and Lens will easily weigh in at about 30lbs. You need a DAMN GOOD Tripod to hold this kind of weight, especially for tilts and pans. May I recommend an O’Connor Tripod? Any Tripod that can hold a 35mm Film Camera will do. Don’t even try to use anything less than this or you’ll run into a lot of problems. Be ready to spend some money here.

6. Use Ice Packs with your noisy RED Camera.

If you have never worked with the RED Camera before, then you are in for a rude surprise. THIS CAMERA GETS REALLY HOT! We did some outdoor shots on the latest production of American Salesman and the camera began to overheat on us. Did I mention it was only 8:30am and we had just started 30min prior? In order to prevent a shutdown, we filled a small plastic zip lock back with ice cubes and laid it on top of the RED Camera. If you are shooting a project outside in the summer heat, be ready to bring plenty of ice packs. If not, you will have to shut the camera down mid production in order for it to cool off.

Ice Pack on RED

Operating in Outdoor Heat

Ice Pack #2 on RED

Not only does this camera get HOT very fast, but the cooling fan inside the camera is noisy as hell. Make sure that your sound guy is ready for this since the RED Camera has a loud fan running a majority of the time while in use.

7. Shoot Sync Sound

Unlike many other digital cameras that indie filmmakers are used to, the RED Camera does not come with an on-board microphone or a mic attachment. The inputs on the RED Camera are mini-XLR. Controlling the actual audio levels is completely different than using HD cameras such as the HPX170 or JVC GY-HM700 where you can adjust your audio via the knob controls.

4 Mini-XLR Inputs

Setting up Sound

Sean the Sound Guy

I recommend hiring a professional like my buddy Sean McCormick to do sound on a RED Production. If you hire the proper sound professional, make sure you shoot sync sound into your RED Camera, as it will make the entire editing process a lot easier for you.

8. REDCODE 28 vs. REDCODE 36

What makes the these codecs different from any other codecs on the market is that these two codecs from RED deal with actual MegaBytes per second and not Megabits. Don’t be confused with what other companies like Panasonic, Sony, or JVC offer. Panasonic uses DVCProHD and AVC-Intra at 100 Megabits a second. REDCODE uses over 25 MegaBytes. Remember, there is a huge difference between MegaBits and MegaBytes because 1 MB = 8 Mbits.

• REDCODE 28 runs at over 200 Mbits per second in 2K, 3K, & 4K.
• Panasonic’s DVCPROHD codec runs at 100 Mbits per second in 1080P Mode.
• Sony’s and JVC’s XDCAM EX runs at only 35 Mbits per second in 1080P mode.

REDCODE 28 allows you to use undercranking and overcranking with the RED Camera. You can overcrank to 120 Frames per Second or undercrank to 1 frame a second. The higher your overcrank speed however, the lower resolution you have to use. At the moment, the RED Camera can only overcrank to 120 FPS at 2K quality. It cannot do 3K and 4K at those speeds. Check out the video below of some skateboarders shot at 120FPS at 2K. It is amazing what you can get at this speed!

skate – shot on red #1347 – 120 fps from Opus Magnum Production on Vimeo.

REDCODE 28 is also the suggested codec you should use with the RED Camera if you are shooting to Compact Flash cards. With a 16GB Compact Flash Card, you can shoot the following:

• 1min of REDCODE 28 @ 2K = 1.1GB
• 1min of REDCODE 28 @ 3K = 2.5GB
• 1min of REDCODE 28 @ 4K = 4.4GB

Compared to HDV, DVCProHD, and AVC-Intra, REDCODE28 give you full 4:4:4 Intraframe detail but comes at a very high price of storage when shooting at 4K. If you have done the math already, you’ve come to realized that at 4K quality, REDCODE 28 will only give you roughly less than 4min on a 16GB Compact Flash card, where as at 2K quality, it can give you much more. If you are going to be shooting your RED project using CF Cards, be ready to have at least 3-4 spare cards and a data wrangler who can offload the CF Cards to a laptop with an external hard drive. Treat this work-flow like you would a film shoot where by each CF Card is like a re-usable film roll but only gives a limited shooting time.

REDCODE 36 is a different story. This codec is only to be used if you have RED-DRIVE or RED-RAM with your camera configuration. This codec should not be used if you are shooting to Compact Flash cards. The data rate is too high and you will run out of space in a minute or less. REDCODE 36 uses a larger data rate for your footage and breaks down as the following:

• 1min of REDCODE 36 @ 2K = 1.4GB
• 1min of REDCODE 36 @ 3K = 3.1GB
• 1min of REDCODE 36 @ 4K = 5.5GB

While on the American Salesman shoot here in Austin Texas, we used the RED-RAM 120GB Hard Drive with our RED Configuration. We chose to shoot at the highest quality and decided to go with REDCODE 36 @ 4K. You might think that a 120GB Hard Drive is plenty for this kind of shoot, but oh how wrong we were! After the first 12 hour day, we had shot over 200GB of RED Footage and had only completed half the scenes for the production. We had to offload the Hard Drive twice in one day and it took some time to do.

Scene 8A Roll 1

RED-RAM w/ 120GB HDD

Setting up the Shot

By the time we finished the entire production, we had shot over 350GB worth of footage. Did I mention that this was all going to be edited down to a 10min short film? Be sure you are always looking at the Hard Drive indicator on your RED Camera and always make sure that you have at least 90min to 120min for offloading time (Yes, it took us almost 2 hours to offload a full hard drive using firewire 800 on our Mac computer).

9. Choose your RED Workflow wisely.

REDCODE to ProRes 422

There are three different work flows that you can use when working with Final Cut Pro. You can either edit from the proxy files that the RED Camera leaves in all of your clip folders, or you can log & transfer your footage and transcode it to Apple ProRes 4:2:2 HQ. These work flows are recommended for anyone editing REDCode footage with a single Quad-Core Processor in their older MacPros. I would highly recommend you don’t even try to edit REDCode with an old G5 machine. If you still own a G5 MacPro, it’s time for an upgrade.

Here is the work flow that I chose and that I recommend for MacPro users that have Dual 8-core Processors and lots of RAM for editing REDCode with Final Cut Pro. By using Log & Capture and setting the RED Plugin to transcode the RED footage natively, FCP will re-wrap the RED footage as QuickTime clips which eliminates the transcoding to ProRes step. In other words, I won’t be converting any of the raw footage into Apple ProRes 422. Allow me to explain the advantages and disadvantages of this work flow.

• Advantage - This is an efficient workflow that skips the need for transcoding, and gives you access to high-quality image data when you grade in Color. Ingesting RED QuickTime media is fast when compared to transcoding. This is a good workflow for projects such as short films and commercial spots.

• Disadvantage - RED QuickTime media is very processor-intensive when editing.

10. Color Correction with Apple COLOR

Since I primarily work with Final Cut Studio 2, I’ll go ahead and discuss the color correction process with Apple COLOR.

RED NATIVE Edit Option

Color Correction Options

After ingesting the RED footage through Log & Transfer and giving it an overall color correction (there are 5 options), I put a short sequence together and sent it off to Color. What makes this work flow amazing is that all of the metadata transfers with the RED footage from FCP to Color. You now have control and can process your very own unique film look!

The RED camera writes raw, linear light image data to the R3D files that are recorded. The controls found in the RED camera’s Audio/Video menus in no way alter the way the image data is written within each R3D file. Instead, whatever settings were chosen at the time are stored within each recorded clip as metadata that determines how these media files are displayed.

This metadata can be overridden during the Log and Transfer process. For clips that were imported with native color metadata, the RED tab provides access to the clip Color, Color Temp, and View metadata originally written by the RED camera. However, this metadata can also be overwritten during ingest using a custom color processing option in the Log and Transfer window (1 of the 5 options I mentioned above).

RED metadata in Color

Changes to RED metadata

My Own Look in Color

These parameters are provided so that you can begin grading each clip in the state at which it was originally monitored during the shoot, or at which it was ingested using the Log and Transfer window.

Below you will find the process I went through for each of these clips. They began as RAW and Unprocessed, then were given an overall color correction when ingested into Final Cut Pro, then Color was used to get the desired look.

Unproccessed Image from RED Camera

Daylight Correction given in Final Cut Pro

Final Color Correction given in Apple Color

Unprocessed Image from RED Camera

Daylight Correction given in Final Cut Pro

Final Color Correction given in Apple Color

If you would like to see the Uncompressed images from above, download them here:

Download RAW RED Images Zip file

I know this article got a bit long, but I hope I was able to fully explain what I think is critical for any filmmaker to know before they step into a RED Production. I’d like to thank my friends Andy Bragdon, Charles Nwachukwu, and John Handem for letting me use their American Salesman production shoot as a reference to many of the points made in this article.

JVC GY-HM100 Handheld

Last week, my friend Phil Goetz from Texas Media Systems invited me to a JVC: Solid Solutions seminar hosted by Scott A. Burch, a JVC district sales manager from the great state of Texas. Scott introduced us to the JVC GY-HM100 and its older brother the JVC GY-HM700 back in May. This time, he hosted a full breakdown of what these cameras can do with SDHC and SxS workflows. Check out my previous blog review of these two cameras here:
The JVC GY-HM100 & JVC GY-HM700

I want to take the time to go over a few more things that I both love and hate about these new cameras. First, I will give some love to the JVC GY-HM100 on its size and flexibility. Mounting this little guy on a Steadicam is easy. And the best part of this is it’s a full 1080p camera that only weighs 3lbs. Can you say smooth and simple?

Big & Little Brother

HM100 Up Close

Almost Ready!

For the JVC GY-HM700, having the SxS recorder and Anton Bauer batteries added on this line of camera is purely professional and a great addition to the SxS workflow. Let’s not forget its beautiful Canon and Fuji lens options.

HM700 & Battery

HM700 with SxS Recorder

Sony SxS Recorder

Now, let me get into why I think this camera really loses its flavor with me. MPEG-2! Why oh why would JVC choose such an old codec to work with? Let me go into further details about MPEG-2 in case you need a little refresher. MPEG-2 is widely used as the format for digital television signals that are broadcast by analog, cable, and direct broadcast satellite TV systems. It also specifies the format of movies and other programs that are distributed on DVD. As such, TV stations, TV receivers, DVD players, and other equipment are often designed to the MPEG-2 standard. However, this is not the case anymore.

More and more television stations are beginning to adopt Panasonic’s DVCPROHD format as a broadcast standard, and DVCPROHD happens to be an Intra-frame codec, which means it doesn’t incorporate Long GOP the way MPEG-2 does. Long-GOP refers to how video is encoded using temporal compression. In MPEG-2 recording, a GOP (group of pictures) contains three types of frames. The method involves reducing the redundancy found in moving images. Each GOP starts with an I-frame. This frame is wholly independent and contains the most information about the image and can be decoded without reference to any other frame. I-frames are followed by B- and P-frames. A P-frame stands for a predicted picture and uses the previous I- or P-frame for motion compensation and reference for prediction. A B-frame contains the least amount of information, and is bi-directionally predictive, referencing previous or next I- or P-frames.

Long GOP Seqeunce

Intraframe vs Interframe

I-Frame + Filler Frames

In simple terms, MPEG-2 is a distribution codec. It should not be used in an HD camera like this. I really wish JVC had decided to go with MPEG-4 AVCHD as the main codec instead of MPEG-2. Even at 35Mbits per second with these JVC cameras, the codec cannot handle anything MAJOR or else the codec will break apart. Check out the photos below.

Water on HDTV

MPEG-2 Breakage

MPEG-2 at 35Mbits

As you can see, the first picture is what was showing on the HDTV. It was real-time footage taken from the camera and brought into Final Cut Pro with no problem. But upon closer inspection of the Water Footage, the codec began to really show its age as the blocky MPEG-2 codec began to fall apart since there was too much information on the screen for it to handle. This won’t happen however, if you decide to record from the HD-SDI out of the camera. The JVC GY-HM700 does offer full 10-bit 4:2:2 uncompressed video via the HD-SDI out but unfortunately, not all of us can drag around expensive capturing hardware to every field production shoot with Hard-drives and Laptops on set.

Yes, I know that my observation on the codec can be a bit biased since I am an Editor first. But in reality, I love JVC and their new products! We’ve used the JVC GY-HD110U/GY-HD200/GY-HD250 for feature films, documentaries, and even some high level corporate videos with tremendous results. MPEG-2 was okay to deal with in 2004 when these cameras first came out. It’s 2009 and MPEG-2 is dying. Let’s give this codec a proper burial.

These white pixels would appear only when we were using the Redrock 35mm Adapter. We have no idea what could be causing it other than the fact the CCD sensor was overheating on us. Thanks to some friendly people at Creative Cow, we managed to fix the problem later during the production by doing the following:

On the GY-HD110U/GY-HD200/GY-HD250 series cameras this process is provided in an advanced Menu accessed while in 24p mode. You must be in 24p mode for this operation: Hold the Focus Assist button (the one on the camera body) simultaneously with the Menu/Status button for at least 5 seconds.

You will see an advanced menu where the second line says CAMERA1. Move the cursor down and push the shutter wheel to enter that menu. Now you see a list with the sixth item being PIXEL COMPEN. Move down to it and select that item. The word CANCEL blinks. Change it to EXECUTE and push again. It takes about 10 seconds or so to perform the operation then it tells you to power off the camera. You are done. Make sure Focus Assist is now OFF and exit 24p mode if desired.

NOTE: This works best on a camera that is warm. We advise turning the camera on and let it sit for ½ hour or so before doing this operation. You can even wrap it in a blanket. It may be necessary to perform the procedure more than once. This works for all the ProHD JVC cameras.

Great, we’ve fixed the problem with the JVC camera and didn’t encounter the HOT/WHITE Pixel anymore during the rest of the production. Only one problem remained. What do we do with the footage that was already shot and had the dead/hot pixels in the shots? Our DP, Benny Ontiveros had the answer!

Click on the Video Link below to follow Benny Ontiveros’ Apple SHAKE tutorial on how to get rid of the hot/white/dead pixels from your footage.

HOT / WHITE Pixel Fix on the JVC GY-HD110U/GY-HD200/GY-HD250 from MindWarp Entertainment on Vimeo.

Neal & the Steadicam

Steadicam? No sweat!

Ready for Adventure!

Neal was up first. We took out the Steadicam and assembled it. Since we had only taken a small crash course on how to use a Steadicam, we were about to find out if we could climb Enchanted Rock and keep the camera steady. Neal decided to do the uphill climb and I would do the down hill climb.

Check out the short video below: