PrepShootPost

MISS ME? I'VE MISSED YOU!

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:58:00 +0000

2011 rolled right through and I barely blogged. It has been the most exciting year of my life because in early February I became a dad. All I can say is that when it happened, everything else pretty much faded into the background. Between having the time of my life with my little one, and doing just enough work to keep the lights on, writing this blog really fell off. I am slowly making my way back out into the world of all things moving picture and digital and hope to post more here.

Exciting things have been happening work-wise. I just won a KRF screenwriting grant through the San Francisco Film Society. This is the second grant I've won from them, and I feel like I've been adopted by their Filmmaker Services department. If you're a Bay Area filmmaker, you really have to get to know the amazing folks in the Presidio and start applying for the incredibly generous grants they have available. Do it now!

How have you been?

DAVID SIMON'S AWESOME TALK AT UNC

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:12:00 +0000

Frank Porter Graham Lecture 2011 with David Simon from James M. Johnston Center on Vimeo.

I am a huge fan of "The Wire".

It is the best television series I've ever seen, and can, and have, watched it over and over. "The Wire" is great writing, great direction and great acting all working together to tell big ideas in an engaging and entertaining way. It is both the opposite of "broccoli-cinema" -- those shows and movies with big important ideas crammed down your throat because "it's good for you"; and "popcorn-cinema" -- the inane hero-narratives that satisfy each plot-point and character-archetype requirements so audiences will not be challenged to think in any way whatsoever and just entertain the hell out of you.

Instead, Simon's characters, and world, occupy well-known and well-loved American literary and television/ cinematic genres like noir and cops-and-robbers TV. At times we end up cheering for the "bad guys" (Omar!), unsure of the motivations of the "good guys" and know that power and money corrupt those at the top. What's profound, to me, about The Wire, is that inside this five year journey through familiar cinematic territory, Simon places a radical and incisive thesis about what's gone wrong in American the last three or four decades. It is a crazy broccoli-popcorn mash-up that unexpectedly tastes delicious.

Watch this video, listen to Simon, whether you agree with his perspective and analysis, share his conclusions and pessimism, or not. As you, like me, struggle with making sure your writing satisfies the needs of the form, remains entertaining, will wake up the overworked coverage-writers, etc. Consider that underneath everything you're doing correct in your craft, you still have to know what you believe in.

INDIE FILM II FOR LOOKS 2

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:07:00 +0000

Wow, it's finally out, but here is Indie Film Looks II for Magic Bullet Looks 2. It's the first Guru pack built for Looks 2 utilizing all the new and amazing tools in the new release. Get it!

SEE YOU ON MONDAY?

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:13:00 +0000

Red Giant Software is throwing down next week. If you're in SF, Portland or NYC, and you love RGS products and peeps, then roll through and say hi.

I'll be at the SF party at 111 Minna on Monday, along with the amazing Stu Maschwitz and stupendous Sean Safreed. Come bask in their genius, or just have some free booze. Either way, it's going to be fun and there will be some amazing announcements.

THE HUSH, THIS SATURDAY, SAN LEANDRO, CA

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:34:00 +0000

Vincent Cortez's feature film debut, "The Hush", will be showing at the Historic Bal Theatre in San Leandro CA on Saturday night, June 11th 2011, followed by an exclusive in depth retrospective about indie filmmaking and tackling high concepts on a low budget. The cast and crew will be in attendance.

Time and Location:
7PM @ The Historic Bal Theatre
14808 East 14th Street
San Leandro CA 94578
Box Office: 510.614.1224
info@baltheatre.com

Tickets: $12
NOTE: Check Facebook Deals for discounted tickets.

*The retrospective will include a 10 minute behind the scenes video exclusive, as well as a Q&A and discussion with the cast/crew.

A VERY CANDID ROBBIE PICKERING INTERVIEW

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:06:00 +0000

Robbie Pickering Talks Natural Selection from PrepShootPost on Vimeo.

A video interview* with my friend and fellow FIND Director Lab '07 Alum, Robbie Pickering. Listen as he shares his personal indie filmmaking war story, from financing to casting, while making his feature debut, NATURAL SELECTION.

We did this interview while he was in the middle of editing, before all the accolades, SXSW awards and Golden Thumbs.

After that, take a look at this excerpt** from his NATURAL SELECTION:

Tags: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

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*This was shot on two iPhones, so the cutaways are actual cutaways, not douchily re-enacted fake b-roll a la William Hurt in Broadcast News. I'm just sayin'. And it was all shot and edited by Ayumi Ashley, co-PSP conspirator extraordinaire.

**This is MTVs site, I'm not making money on the ads, FYI.

BRAD WALKER AND MAGIC BULLET LOOKS

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Sat, 07 May 2011 19:14:00 +0000

Road to Vegas from The Lighthouse Film Company on Vimeo.

Brad Walker, awesome purchaser of "Indie Film" for Magic Bullet Looks sent me this project he shot for Corbis Images using a 5D and the looks pack. It was to dope to not post, for two reasons. First, he created stock video of white-dudes-in-a-classic-convertible-driving-to-Vegas, which has to mark some moment in popular culture, when that event becomes stock-imageable. Second, he rocked-the-hell out of Indie Looks, taking it way past where I thought it could go. He is also a bit of a virtuoso when it comes to Magic Bullet. Below is a quick FB interview with the man.

Way to go Brad!

What was this for?
Which presets you used?
What's your strategy for creating your own MB presets?
Something about your film company.

Thanks!
ee
Sent via Facebook Mobile

Brad Walker April 29 at 12:52pm Report

Stock footage for Corbis Motion.

Filters: Started as a base with MB #85, Actors Friend, Subtle Film, and Blockbuster for the day exteriors and then added gradients to make the sky burnt and vignette. I used MOJO and tweaked the bleach bypass and the tint to give it a washed look.

My typical strategy is to make shots pop. I crush where needed open the shadows if it's crushed too much within the film curve. I also will play with the Warm/Cool, saturation and vignette the edges. These different looks are awesome because they giveyou a great starting point to make your image much more "artful" than it already is.

Oh yeah...For night exteriors, I started with focus Left Cool and played with the soft edges in the appropriate place around and tweaked from there.

We are a boutique company that primarily produces high-end promo videos for summer camps and schools.

I have shot 10 movies that went straight to video, commercials, music videos, corporate, etc.

My passion is telling a good story. And I love how cinematography, editing and music enables me to embellish a good story greater than it actually is.

THIS LOOKS BETTER IN STEREO 3D

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:30:00 +0000

Sony - The Fight from Kontent Films on Vimeo.

I directed my first project in Stereo 3D in early December '10. It was a game trailer for a new Sony PS3 Move game that you can play in S3D. The spot was designed to play on 3DTVs for in-store and event exhibition. If any of you loyal PSP'ers see it out in the wild let me know.

The interesting thing about this spot is that it's not only shot in S3D, but it's a great big exercise in comping in stereo 3D. Everyone but the hero is shot on greenscreen. Background plates I did myself with my trusty point-and-shot Fujipix W3 3D camera. I just went out and did a run-and-gun daylong location hunt and then comped all my actors into those locations.

This was the rig - a custom dual Sony F23's (aka "The Kernercam") from Kerner Studios in San Rafael.

And here it is in front of a greenscreen.

MIKE'S NEW SPEC SPOT

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:54:00 +0000

This is a really great spec spot, and a prep-shoot-post break-down of process on Mike Sugrue's blog for a spec spot he did. It's solid, check it out.

And here is the spot:

SOME NEW FREE LOOKS FOR YOU. BANG!

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:23:00 +0000

Hey. I just posted 5 new free Looks on the Red Giant People website. Get 'em now!

"THE LIE" GOES TO SUNDANCE, JOSHUA AND JESS IN A HOT TUB

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:08:00 +0000

What a way better interview on Cinematical than the one we did in Jack London Square last year (and by that I mean 2009). Take a look at Joshua and Jess getting ready for Sundance by talking about "The Lie" from Joshua's hot tub.

And congrats to Joshua and his whole awesome team of awesomeness for making a hilarious indie film. Have fun in Park City.

THE CINEMATIC SOUL OF THE ARRI ALEXA AND HOW IT WILL END CAMERA TEST VIDEOS ON VIMEO

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 08:17:00 +0000

This is a repost from what I just posted on Provideocoalition.com and a bit of a rehash of what I already wrote about my time shooting with the Arri Alexa.

Here is my decidedly non-technical perspective on shooting with the Arri Alexa. I shot in Rec 709, not even Log C and I don’t care, it was so pretty. I didn’t measure latitude, and I didn’t have a chip chart either. I just pointed the Alexa and stuff and fell in love with the amazing image it made. The biggest thing the Alexa has done is freed me from the idea of needing to do endless camera tests to determine under what conditions my cinematic image will break down and show it’s harsh little DV roots. With the Alexa you just shoot, there is nothing to test, and nothing to hide.

Before I launch into this, I want to point you to Art Adams really lovely deconstruction of the Arri Alexa’s performance and aesthetics on a spec spot he shot for Ian McCamey.

I am not going to cover anything that remotely functions as an objective metric of camera performance. Instead, here is my entirely subjective, non-technical assessment of the Arri Alexa versus DSLRs. Anyone that reads my blog knows I was a fan the moment I saw the camera at NAB ‘10. So that’s my disclosure, I have no connection or relationship with Arri. I’m just a fan who thinks that Arri has created a great digital cinema camera.

First off, a caveat. I think 1080P video shooting DSLRs are one of the most innovative technologies to come along for independent filmmaking in a very long time. The Canon 5D Mark II, and then all the others that followed, have allowed low and no-budget artists working in video to lose the final aesthetic difference (Depth of Field) that marginalized them as “videomakers” rather than identified them as practitioners of cinema. Film festivals, film critics and audiences routinely screen, critique and enjoy digital video originated movies that they can’t/ don’t differentiate from celluloid originated movies. It’s a done deal that we have Canon’s afterthought-for-photojournalists addition to the 5DM2 to thank for it.

However, digital video, in all it’s forms, is fickle and tricky, and the genera of the Video Enabled DSLR is plagued with the problems of video cameras: blown highlights, over-sharpening, meager color reproduction, etc.—as well as some of their own unique hair-pulling limitations. The intrepid DSLR cinematist* is forced to reckon with these drawbacks and plan shots accordingly, or, more daringly, just let the limitations of the camera show and not really worry about blown color channels or rolling shutters. More often though, the DSLR cinematist is far more interested in making his or her movie look like a “real movie” and will spend days color correcting and tweaking their picture to near death to make up for all the limitations of their revolutionary cameras. And how does the intrepid DSLR cinematist prepare for these unavoidable limitations? He or she tests and tests and tests. Then those tests are posted all over the web for other DSLR cinematists to evaluate and critique.

A Single “Tiny Furniture” for every 25,000 “7D w/ Merlin Stabilizer Camera Test”

As far as cinema-making capacity, the DSLR innovation has created infinite ability, however that has, so far, only resulted in a flood of camera demo reels set to emo-y guitar music on Vimeo rather than an unstoppable wave of new and interesting cinema. The concept of a “camera test” has ceased to function as a means of evaluating a camera’s performance for a future project, and has instead morphed into it’s own on-line video genre. The camera test has become an ends unto itself, with some shooters known far and wide for their ability to shoot a great camera test.

This isn’t a criticism, I am kind of a fan of this new genre. I really appreciate getting to see how a particular lens performs under certain lighting conditions with a specific set of on-camera presets. I have created a few of these myself. But this genre isn’t the same as storytelling with moving pictures. And while the number of viewers on-line can get up into the tens of thousands, I suspect this will always be a niche audience of camera nerds and probably not break out into the mainstream. Although I could be wrong about that.

And that is where the problem is. When you take the DSLRs out into the world of narrative filmmaking, they function as a compromise camera. When treated under optimal conditions they produce stunning images, but those results require a lot of futzing and coercing, which means a distraction and impediment to the filmmaking process. The holy grail is a digital cinema camera that requires no special knowledge, settings or post conversion workflows to massage out a stunning image. What I want is a camera that shoots the digital aesthetic equivalent of film, and I’m not talking about spatial resolution.

So what does this have to do with the Arri Alexa?

My experience with the Alexa was exactly the experience I had been hoping for when I got my first Sony VX1000 way back at the end of the 20th century—the hope for a digital video machine that made images with a cinematic soul. It was the first time I picked up a camera, understood it’s operation nearly instantly and then started shooting in available light, at night, and recorded beautiful, soul-filled cinematic electronic images with barely perceptible noise, incredible vibrant color depth and stunning latitude. There was no negotiating with the camera’s limitations, no special sauce I had to dial into the buried menus, no kid gloves treatment to the images in post to hide the digital video roots.

The experience was enhanced with a few different Zeiss Ultra Primes on the front of the camera**. Just a note, everything looks better through Zeiss Ultra Primes. After shooting for an hour in the quiet night streets of Hayes Valley in San Francisco, me and my pals popped the SxS cards into a 17” MacBook Pro with a high def screen and looked at the pixel-for-pixel images, instinctively trying to find the tell-tale flaws we are accustomed to seeing in digital video. We were all astonished at the noticeable lack of blemishes. No over-sharpened edges, no grey-on-black blocky artifacts in shadows, no bizzaro color renditions of skin tones. Just a faithful image, reproducing what we saw with our eyes and what the Zeiss Ultra Primes could offer to the imaging gods. It was a digital video camera with a cinematic soul. We went out the next day and tried it under blinding middle day sunlight and got the same results.

The camera itself is a work of art, a singe block of aluminum carved into a camera. Candy-like buttons and a stupid easy to use interface make set up remarkably joyful. It is just a cinema camera, nothing more or less. It feels like a movie camera on your shoulder, ergonomically weighty and balanced for smooth hand-held movie making.

Is it apple and oranges to compare a 100K worth of Arri/ Zeiss camcorder and glass to 5K worth of Canon?

Of course it is, and it would be disingenuous to suggest that there was a technical comparison to make. So I won’t. But I don’t think that’s the choice independent filmmakers should be considering. For the last million years or so, filmmakers determined to tell a rich, cinematic story didn’t actually buy and own their cameras, they rented them, or they hired a Director of Photography who had his or her own camera. Just like lights and props, cameras were a rental house line item on a budget. For filmmakers on a low budget, video cameras offered ability and economy, but not much in the way of cinematic image making. Having the Alexa available for a rental means that I can get a video camera that makes cinematic images simply, with no compromises or secret recipes to learn. I don’t think owning my own camera and lenses will actually make me a better writer, director or filmmaker, it will probably just make me a better photographer.

Take a look at this, it’s my Alexa “camera test”. I think it will be my last one.

*Cinematist is not a real word, but I think it should be.

**The awesome kit was generously loaned to me by Chater Camera in Berkeley. In retrospect I think it was a way of enabling a new addiction. It is hard to think about shooting with anything else now, and I think John Chater knows this.

WHERE I'VE BEEN...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 01:39:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've posted to PSP. It's been a welcomed busy end to 2010 both professionally and personally. In addition to spending a few weeks prepping and another six days shooting stereoscopic HD footage at the Kerner stage in San Rafael, I also won a screenwriting grant.

These days, Twitter updates are often easier and quicker to do than a fully formed blog post idea. And on the blogging front, I have been invited to write for ProVideo Coalition, which is a real honor. I am excited to join that group of writers. I'll be writing original content for PVC (as well as posting the "greatest hits" of PSP up there for good measure), and I'll continue to write here. There are some things you just can't say when you have sponsors.

I can't believe how quickly 2010 came and went, and how much went on in the last 12 months. I am excited about the upcoming year and all the new challenges and opportunities. I hope you've been busy too.

KERNERCAM

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 02:30:00 +0000

It's been a minute since the last update here on PSP, but we've been up to some really cool, new interesting projects. I'll be posting more about my latest day-gig really soon. Here are some tantalizing iPhone snaps of what we're up to -- that's the infamous Kernercam on set at the old ILM stages (Kerner Optical) in San Rafael. I'm directing a commercial VFX project, where we're once again, comping actors into backgrounds, except this time it's all in stereoscopic (S3D).

More to come on this project and others.

AYUMI ASHLEY: COLORING THE LIE PART 2

noreply@blogger.com (ayumi ashley) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:54:00 +0000

(This is a continuation from my previous post.)

Joshua had a very specific image for the way this film should look, so he had a lot to say once we got to Mark's basement (we did get to finish in luxury when Remedy Editorial generously let us use their big room for our last two days). When Joshua drove from LA to San Francisco, I had only balanced and matched shots, and had barely begun toying with a look. I was glad I hadn't done more, because I had definitely underestimated just how specific Joshua's vision was, and I would have had to work again from the ground up. Joshua and I sometimes spent 20 minutes on single shot, and we frequently used up all 8 secondaries that Apple Color offers. I made thousands of vignettes. Our consistent primary objective was to bring the viewer's focus to the actor's face, with no distractions pulling the eye unless so intended. After 5 days of long hours in a nearly pitch-dark room (Remedy actually duvetined their skylights for us), we accomplished composition, people looked beautiful and we had something we felt really proud of.

Making a vignette to highlight Joshua's face in the Secondary Room

Left: without vignette. Right: with vignette.

Sample of my timeline. I frequently used all 8 secondaries.

We were happy with everything... except a few scenes: These were the scenes in which actors were in front of beige walls or wood. Joshua walked away from these shots saying “well, that looks a lot better,” rather than what a colorist wants to hear, which is “holy crap that the most beautiful shot I've ever seen!” ...or something along those lines. And this was where Joshua, happy with what we could do in post, had to come to terms with what we couldn't do. We can't change the color of that wall, because it's the same color as skintone. Wood is notoriously identical to skintone when viewed on the vectorscope. A talented FX artist, or even a colorist with a lot of time may have been able to do more with it, but it was beyond the scope of what was realistically doable. We did our best with vignettes and separated the background and actors using light and dark, but we couldn't achieve separation in their hues.

Jess in front of wood, REDSpace ungraded

Jess in front of wood, Rec. 709 ungraded

This is why I think it's so important for every filmmaker to sit in on a color session. Every director, DP and production designer should be aware of what they can save time and money on and leave for the colorist, and what they have to take care of on set. I want all filmmakers to understand this, because, in the end, I don't want to have to show you a before/after in order for you to be impressed. What I want as a colorist and what you want to give me as a filmmaker is not footage that has problems to be solved, but a good looking, balanced image that I can enhance and make beautiful.

RedSpace ungraded

Rec. 709 graded. (Smog can be pretty sometimes.)

Joshua did an amazing thing, something impossible a small number of years ago. He took the above facts #1-5 (refer to part 1) and made them coexist. He made an improvised film because he wanted the kind of story and performances you can't get when actors are memorizing lines and moving according to the scene's floor plan. Others have accomplished this, and masterfully so, but there was production value that had to be sacrificed. Joshua got the beautiful, cinematic motion picture that he wanted, thanks to a good combination of the right people and the right technology. The image was there, Kasulke is one of the best. It just needed a little coaxing and a bunch of vignettes to get it to a place where it can be called cinema.

My sincerest thanks to Joshua for letting me be a part of this film.

*All screen shots in this post were taken during the color process, and may not reflect the final appearance of the film

AYUMI ASHLEY: COLORING "THE LIE" PART 1

noreply@blogger.com (ayumi ashley) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 23:49:00 +0000

WELCOME NEW PSP BLOGGER: AYUMI ASHLEY

Ayumi's name has popped up here on PSP quite a few times in the last year. She is now the newest blogger to PSP, where she will check in from time to time and share her adventures-in-freelance stories about working and living in the wild world of DIT'ing, color grading and RED workflows in San Francisco.

Welcome Ayumi, glad to have you "on blog".

- Eric

Hello, Ayumi Ashley here. Last month I colored Joshua Leonard's feature film, “The Lie,” and there were some unique things about the process that Eric thought you PSP folk might find interesting.

Some facts about this film that influenced my process:

The film was improv based, not working from a traditional screenplay, but from a detailed treatment
Because of fact #1, improv takes often lasted 40 mins and it was impossible for the DP to know where the actors would end up in the frame from take to take
The director was also the lead actor
The director had a very strong and specific vision for the film's look
The film had to look cinematic, not like "video"

Until a few years ago, all of these facts could have never existed in the same film. However, with 2 RED cameras, a talented DP (Ben Kasulke), and spending a week holed up in a dark room with yours truly, Joshua pulled it off.

Eric and I picked up the footage from Joshua in LA and drove about 15TB of hard drives back to San Francisco. We borrowed Kontent Films color setup and parked it in Mark Decena's basement, where we got the Tangent Wave hooked up to Apple Color. The film was edited in ProRes, so I relinked the sequences to the 4K .r3d QT proxies and brought the film into Color in 20min reels.

The most immediate issue I encountered was highlight clipping. Joshua wanted his movie to look like film, not video, and clipped highlights are a dead giveaway. In some shots, even faces looked clipped. This is where shooting on the RED was its saving grace: using the RED menu in Apple Color, I switched over to the Rec. 709 colorspace, which has the most highlight detail of those available in Color. Unless the DP misses the "goal posts," (noise floor -> highlight clipping), using rec. 709 is a really easy way to get highlight detail back into your picture. Ben only missed goal posts in conditions wildly out of his control, so this took care of most of what was perceived to be "problem shots." (When I got the footage it was all in RedSpace.)

Left: RedSpace. Right: Rec. 709 (both uncorrected)

Mark Webber in RedSpace

Rec. 709

Graded

I actually ended up using rec. 709 for the entire film, rather than just the blown out shots, because it was the colorspace that provided the ungraded image closest to the look that Joshua wanted for his film: Think “faded photograph.” Blacks are never crushed, lots of gamma detail, not too much contrast or saturation and a general yellow feel. Rec.709 gave me rich detail in the gamma and less punchy chroma, and it proved to be the best starting point. (On a side note, I'm expecting myself to fall in love with Redlogfilm color space, one of the newest from RED. Jannard calls it a “grader's dream.”)

Jess Weixler in RedSpace

Rec. 709 ungraded

Graded

In some scenes, the shots just didn't edit. This is because the editor had to grab lines from different takes (which, as I mentioned, are long), and a lot of these scenes were outdoor daylight. Sometimes a flag had to be flown in mid-take. A lot of time was spent matching shots, but they would only match so much. The thing that helped tie the whole film together was it's look. The “flat” look called for lifted shadows, which is a great opportunity to bring color into them. Abstaining from crushing blacks lets them hold color, which is a nice way to establish a consistent look. Tinting gamma throws off skintone, and highlight color is important for distinguishing quality of light (indicator of time of day and location). Lift actually occupies most of your picture, and tinting it gives a feeling of a color, something impossible in nature and therefore inexplicable, and, if done right, a powerful storytelling tool.

Jane Adams, graded

Joshua Leonard, graded

Because not even the actors themselves knew where they would end up in the frame, even a talented DP like Ben couldn't light as cinematically as he would have liked. This film had no storyboards and definitely no lighting diagrams. All Ben could do was to get a good light on the actors and the background as best he could without any lights poking into frame. As for lighting for composition or painting the frame with light, Kasulke had to let that go and leave it to the colorist. Shots in which the framing could be predicted are beautiful. I barely touched those in Color. The other shots, though: relighting, relighting, relighting.

Left: Rec. 709, ungraded. Center: Graded. Right: Vignette applied

Example of vignette layering

Thank you for reading. Part 2 (of 2) is coming very soon.

*All screen shots in this post were taken during the color process, and may not reflect the final appearance of the film

TALK. WRITE. JOIN.

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 08:30:00 +0000

My lastest screenplay project EAST COUNTY is a finalist for a San Francisco Film Society/ Kenneth Rainin Foundation screenwriting grant. Another one of my feature scripts was an "honorable mention" in March of 2009, and I have been hoping to get another shot at it. There are 10 really incredible projects looking for prizes (one of them is from my filmmaking Komrade Mark Decena) and one or more may get some or all of the money they're requesting.

As I said in March of '09, I am pleased and happy just to be in the game. There is remarkable thing happening at the Film Society, and it's been underway for the last few years. If you're a Bay Area filmmaker, get involved and get noticed by the folks in the organization.

Join up, go take a class on DSLR filmmaking, screenwriting, or the hundred other things the Film Society offers. Sign up for free studio/ office space for your next film project in their Film House Residencies. Or go out at catch one of the hundreds of films they show, year round. And if you're looking for some financial support, writing retreat time, fiscal sponsorship or a world class filmmaking and film loving community to plug in to, then get involved. If you're a San Francisco Bay Area filmmaker, then this is YOUR film society. It really is.

ARRI ALEXA EXTERIOR SHOTS/ DAY & NIGHT

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 17:08:00 +0000

Arri Alexa Exterior Test from PrepShootPost on Vimeo.

These are some shots directly from the Arri Alexa, no color grading applied. We shot in ProRes 4x4 at Rec 709 (not Log C), so what you see is exactly what you get out of the camera (minus the banding and artifacting of h264).

The original footage has minimal noise in shadows, zero banding and exquisite color.

All shot with Zeiss Ultra Primes (20mm, 65mm and 100mm). Daytime shots are at 200 ASA with an ND filter at f/4 - 5.6 split, night shots are all 1000 and 1600 ASA at f/1.9.

The night stuff was just me, Nick and John running around Hayes Valley pointing the camera into one dimly lit situation after another. Add one or two more people for sound and an extra hand and you have the ultimate no-budget crew getting superbly cinematic images using the prelit urban environment.

Day time stuff was shot by Mike, we added Deb for all things make-up, wardrobe and design, and Luke to change lenses, and shot in a stunning location -- Bernal Hill. Again, we had a few-in-number crew and moved around with minimal of fanfare.

The one thing to consider, especially if you've become accustomed to the light-weight of DSLR production, the Alexa is a heavy piece of gear. Not impossible, but make sure your camera operator is in decent enough shape to run around with about 25 pounds of camera, lens and battery (because Alexa sucks down batteries like you wouldn't believe).

Special thanks to John Chater and everyone at Chater Camera for the incredible gear. And extra special thanks to Arri for building a digital camera that also has a soul.

Photography: Michael Sugrue and Eric Escobar
Design/ Make Up/ Wardrobe: Deborah Czerwinksi
Actors: Nick Frangione, Liz Brooks
Tech: Luke Shock, John Meyer
Director: Eric Escobar
Producer: Nick Frangione

ARRI ALEXA/ DAY TIME

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:46:00 +0000

So all the hype around the Alexa has been about it's outstanding low-light capabilities, and it's true, it shoots an amazing picture at night under street lamps. But I also wanted to see how it handled shooting in normal, daytime interior and exterior situations. Here are some screen grabs directly from the ProRes 4x4 files right off the camera.

Something to keep in mind, especially since I sure didn't, is that you get even more latitude out of the image if you record in Log C format. I, being my own camera tech, completely overlooked this in my eagerness to start shooting and shot everything in Rec 709. Does it make sense to shoot ProRes 4x4 in Rec 709?

Probably not.

It's good to prep before you shoot.

ARRI ALEXA UNCOLORED UNTOUCHED

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 07:13:00 +0000

I am having so much fun with the Arri Alexa, here are some shots from tonight's shoot shooting at 1000 and 1600 ASA @ f/1.9 with Zeiss Ultra Primes and only available light.

Thank you so much to the gang at Chater Camera, they always have the coolest gear.

COLORISTA II POST LIGHTING - HOW TO

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 06:53:00 +0000

There was a lot of attention from the last blog post on post-lighting with Colorista II. So dear loyal PSP readers, here are some screen captures of how to relight shots in After Effects using nothing but an inexpensive plug-in.

Enjoy!

INTRO VIDEO:

Colorista II Post Lighting Intro from PrepShootPost on Vimeo.

PRIMARY/ SECONDARY PASS:

Colorista II Primary Color Correction from PrepShootPost on Vimeo.

"RELIGHTING" PASS:

Colorista II Secondaries from PrepShootPost on Vimeo.

GOOD LOOKING CINEMA - THE NEW DIY AESTHETIC

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:58:00 +0000

still frame from Robbie Pickering's "Natural Selection"

Making a feature film for under 100K, or even under 10K is not ground breaking anymore. Making a good one is a little more challenging (cough, cough). And making a good one that looks great, looks like a real piece of cinema, is where the challenge really lives these days.

The first part, telling a good story well, is best accomplished by actually understanding what makes a movie work for an audience. So this means lots of writing, rewriting, critical review and obeying the rules of the screenplay (whether you actually shoot with a written screenplay or not). It also means putting skilled actors in front of the camera, and a skilled director behind the camera. This is what was the most interesting thing that happened in the last decade with regards to independent film and low-cost digital filmmaking. The upside to all those HVX200/FCP features was a proliferation of new voices, new faces and interesting new interpretations of the staples of American filmmaking genres.

The downside of that moment in cinema was having to endure just plain awful looking movies and a near universal lack of a cinematic image. It wasn't the fault of the filmmakers, it was the best that could be done under the DIY circumstances of the time. A shoot schedule of 10-15 days and 90 pages limits even the most skilled cinematographer and crew. There just isn't time in the day to light 30 set-ups really well that can be covered by two (roving) cameras. There isn't money in the budget, or goodwill from friends, to repaint the walls in that borrowed living room location. When counting on actors to handle their own make-up and wardrobe, you're stuck with a lot of their individual decisions and you need to be thanking them for it. Sometimes these limitations really work and create a sense of a lived in, organic reality that help the story.

Sometimes. Mostly they don't, and that's when you find yourself cursing and screaming in post.

That era is coming to an end. I have been helping out half a dozen friends over the last couple of years as they have move their independent feature projects from script to prepro, and from production into post. These filmmakers, and their projects are emblematic of this shift in aesthetic from raggedy punk rock to a cleaner, more formal cinematic image. This change has not happened in production, in fact, not much has actually changed there -- budgets are tight, production values slim, shoot schedules compressed and crew roles are still collapsed.

The paradigm shift has been in the communication and relationship between Director, DP, Editor and Colorist. Movies are shot in 4K on the RED with cinema lenses; handheld shots become dolly shots through camera tracking and stabilization; editors sift through 20 - 30 takes of a shot and build entires performances and rewrite scenes; colorists take a flat, evenly lit frame and flag off walls, shine eye lights on actors, and change the color of set design elements.

The philosophy isn't one of "fixing", it's not that editors think they are fixing an actor's bad performance, colorists are not "saving" a badly lit shot. Instead, everyone is aware of how much can actually be done in post when given the right ingredients from production. The goal of production is to shoot as much as possible in the time available. The filmmakers that stumble in this new paradigm are the ones that spend hours lighting a shot perfectly, do one or two takes and move on because of the heat of "making the day".

Here is an example from fellow FIND Director Lab Monkey Robbie Pickering's film "Natural Selection". It was shot on a RED with Zeiss Superspeeds. It's lit well, costume design and location are fine, they make sense for character and story. It looks like an indie film.

But what if the Director wanted to have the character's jacket match the wall, spot light and soften her face and flag off the background?

With a 1990's style Indiewood budget, that order would be made on set, departments would spring into action, walls would be painted, filters dropped into the matte box, lights and flags moved around. With no budget, everyone on set just reassures the director that it looks great as is.

Taking this shot into Colorista II, I can go ahead and isolate and change hues:

So now the jacket and the walls are the same hue. And now I can relight and do a "beauty pass" on the actors face using the Secondary Keyer and a Negative Pop value

It's not the pore erasing plastic you see in Hollywood movies, just a nice, subtle softening of features and brightening of her face:

And then the final step is adding another instance of Colorista II and doing a subtle relight of the background using a skewed elliptical mask as a vignette:

So here is the Before/ After:

A mix of subtle and obvious, all with the goal of crafting a more cinematic image that draws the eye to the face of the actor. Done in a few minutes with a plug-in.

ARRI ALEXA/ 1000ASA/ AVAILABLE LIGHT/ MASTER PRIME

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:01:00 +0000

ARRI ALEXA/ 1000ASA/ AVAILABLE LIGHT/ MASTER PRIME from PrepShootPost on Vimeo.

Arri and Chater Camera put on an amazing Arri Alexa demo a couple of nights ago in Berkeley. It was a Bay Area cameranerd fest. Needless to say, we were all impressed. It was so much fun watching grown men act giddy.

I am an unabashed Alexa fan, I know that it's going to replace the RED for my commercial projects as soon as enough of the cameras become available. And why will I be replacing the 4K image of the RED for, most likely, the 1080P image of the Alexa?

Three reasons, first it's a GREAT looking 1080P, nearly noiseless in every available light situation. Second, I can work with that image immediately, right out of camera as ProRes4x4 with 13-14 stops of latitude and plenty of color depth (no conversions, no rendering, nada). And lastly, the build quality of the camera is superb -- a bullet proof camera that never overheats and feels good on your shoulder. It's an Arri.

If I want RAW video, I have the option of slapping a Codex recorder on top and capturing 2K ArriRaw that will work in a Scratch system, or, more probably, a Mac-based DaVinci Resolve system due out in the next couple of months.

EDIT:

Here is a follow up email exchange between me and @filmbot about why I prefer the Alexa over the RED. I know this is inviting flaming, but I am being honest about the realities of my work as a filmmaker these days.

On Jul 28, 2010, at 7:07 PM, Jim Geduldick wrote:

so give your run down .
I am going to mess with an Alexa soon at Abel .
You really see the advantage ?
Why go straight to ProRes instead of Arri Raw with the codex?
Or just use a Cinedeck .

Cheers,
Jim

On Jul 28, 2010, at 11:02 PM, Eric Escobar wrote:

Run down?

It's a true variable ISO digital cinema camera. Not RED's ASA is just metadata and you can go ahead and crank gain up and down. That's 13-14 stops of latitude at EVERY ASA from 100 to 1000.

Advantage of straight to ProRes444 is for a tight post schedule, or if you don't have to shoot and pray for miracles in post.

If you have a crew, a lighting package and a competent DP and Gaffer, you probably don't need to prepare for digging out detail in shadows, or searching for detail in blown highlights, in all fairness that's true of the RED as well, except you don't have the ProRes option right out of camera.

My last RED shoot involved renting a RED Rocket to convert all my files into ProRes 422 with the same LUT on everything. Those ProRes files become my masters for the whole show, we never went back to the R3Ds for Color, why? It was lit great, exposure values were perfect, it was redundant.

If I can walk away from a shoot with a drive full of ProRes clips with a ton of tonal range in them, I'm happy. Doesn't need to be 4K, or even 2K, I finish on 1080P, so does everyone else I know, commercials to indie features, the story is the same.

ee

GH1 HACK/ 60Mbit/ SKATE PARK

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:53:00 +0000

GH1 HACK 60mbit MJPEG 422 SOURCE from PrepShootPost on Vimeo.

As a courtesy to Stu, I shot some locked off shots of the Alameda Skate Park (and some on a skateboard and some handheld...). After a week or so of tweaking, I think I finally got the secret sauce on the GH1 Hack. If you're shooting MJPEG because you want 4:2:2 color sampling, then you HAVE to shoot 720P. 1080P is not working yet and there is some debate that it's really just scaled up 720 anyway. And honestly, who am I to complain? It's 24fps, 720, 4:2:2 MJPEG at 60Mbits for 700 bucks? How much was that Varicam I used in 2004?

All these shots were done with an Olympus 17mm pancake lens and a Voigtlander 35mm. It would have been nice to have had an ND filter, it was a bright day, as it was I had to shoot at ISO100 (not ideal according to the GH1 community) with a fast shutter (not ideal for filmmaking) stopped down as far as the lenses would go (keeps everyone in focus!)

The big debate (in my head, at least) is how much data is enough, and how much is just plain overkill for most filmmaker uses. I can definitely see the difference between 25Mbits and 50Mbits. But 50Mbits and 70Mbits? I don't know, it doesn't seems to make a huge amount of difference.

Color-wise, I can definitely tell a difference between 4:2:0 and 4:2:2, especially when I started pushing values around in Color. 4:2:2 is fun to work with, there are no strips of missing data in the RGB parade when I aggressively shove sliders around.

And here is what happens when you grade and then drop a Look on to the footage. In this case it's a 50% application of Film(school) Stock from my Indie Looks Pack.

GH1 HACK 60bit MJPEG 422 from PrepShootPost on Vimeo.

CONCLUSION

The question that matter most, to me, is whether or not a camera will allow me to make my shot list under the stressful kinds of conditions one faces when shooting no-budget projects. A camera that is a) unwieldy, b) requires lots of after-market kludgey kit parts, c) shuts down/ over-heats and d) is about as reliable as a mid-70's Fiat, will kill your day, no matter how pretty the picture or how high the bit-rate or how many pixels it captures.

The second criteria is the quality and aesthetics of the image that the camera acquires. I don't agree with the argument that it's "all about what you put in front of the camera". That's true, and stupidly obvious, you should always shoot people and stories that are interesting and engaging, but the kind of image that is captured has an equal weight when it comes to audience impact. What makes the 5D and 7D so compelling is the aesthetic quality produced by the lenses and large sensors, not the technical quality of how that pretty image is compressed for consumption.

Don't look too closely at the 5D and 7D image or you'll really start to see how bad that codec is. A lot of the color jobs that come through Kontent these days are spent fixing the low technical quality image the 5D and 7D produces so that the high aesthetic qualities can shine through. But it is a very specific set of qualities. Are you all starting to notice how much 5D footage looks just like all other 5D footage? It's starting to become a cliché.

The reason why so many people have gotten so excited about a hacked GH1 is that is offers what looks like a really great balance between the aesthetic and technical, especially when considering how easy it is to slap a $US25,000 lens on the front of the unit.

Putting the Zeiss Ultra Primes on the front of this 700 dollar consumer camera may seem like a ridiculous exercise in wasted photons to some. Some will argue that the sensor, due to it's smallish size (slightly smaller than the APS-C sensors in the 7D and 550) combined with rolling shutter issues negates any benefit from expensive glass.

I disagree.

The HotRod PL adapter, along with the Zeiss 16mm and 32mm Ultra Primes was a very compact and holdable unit. While the full image the lenses resolved was not utilized, they were probably closer to a 24mm and 50mm(??). It didn't matter to me. It was an undeniably beautiful image. Those lenses have a close focus range of 1" and when it's stopped down to a f/4, they're so incredibly sharp and clean. Also, using real cinema lenses means focus marks are constant -- no spinning rings or short focus throws. While renting a kit of Zeiss Ultra Primes is 600 bucks a day on a week rate (not cheap), at least now you don't have to rent the camera package with it.

These are all great things, all headed in the right direction. But, sadly, at the start of Summer 2010, the GH1 hacked camera is not ready for prime time. Again, this is a hacker project done by an international community donating their time and labor. Many different, and interesting things are being tried, but there is NO video out yet, which basically makes it little more than a technical curiosity for now. Critical focus can't be judged, or at least I couldn't, on the little LCD screen on the back of the unit.

That's a deal-breaker.

But, according to the latest posting from Vitaliy (aka Tester13), there is progress, slow progress, happening on this front.

GH1 HACK AND PL GLASS

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Escobar) — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 01:10:00 +0000

Sorry for the brief post, I've been hammering away all weekend with the camera, firmware hack and testing. I'll have more footage and more to say later.

I spent Friday morning at Chater Camera, using John's lenses on the GH1 hack rig with the HotRod PL mount.

First up was the Zeiss Ultra Primes, a 16mm and 32mm. Then the Optimo Zoom, and I managed to get a few shots with Sean Safreed's Voigtlander as a comparison of what a non-PL still camera lens looks like shooting the same stuff.

Below are some shots done with the 16mm/32mm and an Optimo Zoom 15-40mm and one shot with Voigtlander 35mm, can you guess which one?

GH1 HACK AND PL GLASS from PrepShootPost on Vimeo.

Here is how big it is with the Optimo.