Chasing Dreams

One of the things that really struck me after watching so many different movies leading up to the Oscars was how many different types of filmmakers there are.  It's a broad field I know, but stick with me.  Especially with the speeches you could sense how everyone had been pursuing that moment, to win an Oscar as a form of validation. Somehow things had come together and they'd fulfilled a childhood ambition.

I'm always giving myself a hard time about enjoying where I'm at, while forcing myself to keep an eye on what I want to achieve ahead.  It's more frustrating now than it was just a few years ago, because for maybe the second or third time in my entire life I can honestly say that I don't know what I want.  I don't know if I want to move, I don't know if I want different jobs, I don't know if I want a serious relationship.  All I can say is that I want improvement or growth of some kind. I also really want to feel that sense of achievement again.  The kind where you really surprise yourself.

The funny thing is that where I'm at now would've been a dream come true four years ago when I was still in film school.  The differences are huge, and I'm proud of that.  But I also felt the pressure back then to make something happen.  Now it's more a debate over becoming too comfortable.

Reading all of these articles about filmmakers, actors, and editors over the last few weeks, it's not the work I'm envious of - it's the stories.  I feel like I need to find myself in the middle of a good one right about now. I need a refresh but I'm not quite sure where to begin.

Movie Nights

Last week Andrea and I went to see Chronicle at the Cineplex.  We've actually been to the theatre more regularly over the last few weeks than we've been in a long time because we've been checking out Oscar flicks.  Chronicle wasn't one them.  However, it was actually a lot better than some of the nominees I've seen this year.

What I've actually come to appreciate more over these last few weeks has been the joy of going to the movies during the week again.  It's pretty relaxed, not very busy, and it's nice to feel up to date on a few new releases for a change.  What's been disappointing is the lack of nominees actually in the theatre though.  It seems like a lot of them came and went in a week, and if you weren't glued to the listings you missed them.

You'd think that a lot this could be made up for online, but given the release dates of a lot of these pictures, it seems like they're in limbo between the theatre and DVD.  On top of this, there are no video stores around anymore to rent from, which just last year provided an easy way to grab a few movies for the weekend.  It's kind of annoying to try and work through a checklist of nominated films that no one can actually see until after the telecast, but I suppose this is nothing new. 

Movie nights are still a lot of fun of course, but the Oscars are this weekend and I still have more flicks that I haven't watched on my nominees list than I've ever had in years past. Go figure that it would actually become more challenging to try and see all of these movies with all of the options available.  

Have you seen any of the nominees this year? Any favorites? I haven't been that excited about many of them if I'm completely honest.     

16mm Revere Film Projector

This week it finally arrived.  After a month of casually browsing online I finally found a vintage 16mm projector that was both stunning to look at and in perfect working condition.  I purchased this 1952 Revere Model 48 silent film projector for $150.  Almost half of that was shipping costs, but even still, given its condition I have to say it was a steal at that price. 

You might be thinking that that's a lot to pay for a decoration, but that actually wasn't the motivation behind the purchase.  I have a box of 16mm projects that I shot in film school that I haven't seen since they were made.  Among these are a couple of animation shorts and a silent film that I shot with my friend Dave - the first thing either of us ever shot on film.  For the sake of preservation and my own nostalgia, I wanted to buy a projector so that I could record the footage and make digital copies of some of my early work.  I figured if I was going to the trouble anyway, I might as well buy one that would be pretty to look at afterwards.

The Revere projector also shipped with a spare lamp and an original 16mm WWII reel of an American army base and Japanese cities.  The film wasn't in great shape, but I was able to watch it along with a few of my own projects and it was a kick to say the least. The sound of the projector, the process of how to load it properly, and the flicker of my film school history projected across the room was a pretty amazing memory to rediscover. 

I can't wait to share some of these shorts in the near future, but in the meantime have a look at this cool piece of history that I've added to my collection.  

Snapshot Singapore: Part 3

Fleeting memories captured in split second snaps. We left Singapore with stories, incredible memories, and experiences that neither of us will soon forget.

Custom Filters and Video Filter Software

About a week ago I received this message:

Hi Luke,

I have been reading your blog daily as a result of my hobby of photography and video.  I am just a little older than you at 50 years old.  I have been off and on doing photography for a few years... My real question is how do you get that "old time" look to your videos.  When I watch them, I always seem to drift away and think I am watching films or home movies from the 50's or 60's.  I don't know how to explain the look I am seeing.  It is almost like a sepia or 8 mm look without the film scratches, etc.  Do you do post production filtering of some sorts?  I guess a better description would be, the videos remind me of early 50's documentary films with the dude with the tenor voice narrating...."Here we are at the Grand Canyon, Timmy can't seem to get enough of climbing rocks.  Even the donkeys join in"  I am sure you know what I am trying to say.  I use a Canon HF G10 HD camera for videos and love it.  My first video camera was a DVD mini disk, by Sony.  I still use it sometimes.  Anyways, enough of my ramblings.  Thanks for the videos and interesting read from your Blog.  Keep them coming. 

Sincerely,

Don N.

St. Charles, Missouri

First things first, thanks for writing me the message, Don!  I always appreciate the feedback, and like I said when I first responded to you, your question seemed like a great topic for me to blog about and answer.

I've always been big on post-production filters and customizing them to create different looks.  As you noticed, vintage looks from the 50's on through the 80's have been a point of interest for me.  I actually wrote a post around a year ago (almost to the day as a matter of fact) about creating vintage filters that highlights some of my past experiments.  It's a good place to start if you want to get an idea of what some of these looks I'm talking about are.

I do all of my filters through either a combination of overlays created in Adobe Photoshop, or more recently, through the Magic Bullet Looks Builder as part of the Pinnacle and Avid Software that I edit with.  There are a wide array of presets to play with, and I've often used them as a jumping off point to create custom filters that best suit the look I'm after.

Another tool I use to build and customize filters is the proDAD VitaScene software (also available through upgraded packages with Pinnacle and Avid Studio).  What I love about this program is that it comes in handy for tinting your footage and it also gives you a lot of useful tools for text - like flares or glowing overlays for instance.

Creating filters that look fresh and professional is tough to achieve with presets though, so I almost never use them as is. Instead, I use the presets as templates to build upon. These programs make it easy to layer various filters, to adjust the aspects of each individual filter, and to manipulate your base footage all within small steps of one another.  It's really not a complicated process to play around with, but achieving the right balance for certain looks does take some fine tuning.

If you look at the edit I did for Backyard Bubbles, where I took some of my home video footage and gave it a vintage upgrade, you can see some of what I'm talking about. With this clip I applied very soft crushed edges to create more darkness in the corners, I upped the saturation, played down the contrast, and added a soft blur to take away some of the digital sharpness.  I remember there was a lot of tweaking to get the lighting correct, because it was easy to wash out or black out large portions of the footage.  And, just in case you're thinking I was using some fancy camera, this was shot on a $100 Flip Cam.

In short, pretty much every tool I use to edit video (both personally and professionally) is very affordable and easy to find.  The difference comes from experimenting and playing with what the options really are, and not just what they're presented as.  Digital video has made having a professional edit suite much simpler, and often professional looking results are possible with a less than professional budget.

I hope this helps - and presents some new challenges too!

ABCinema by Evan Seitz

This cool animation from Evan Seitz highlights the alphabet in cinema.  Twenty six iconic films have been singled out for you to test your own film knowledge.  I've randomly posted a few of my favorite stills from ABCinema below, and can happily say that I've seen every film Seitz used here.  Now how many of these movies do you recognize?