Update...kind of.

HELLO.
THINGS HAVE SLOWED WAY DOWN ON THE POST PRODUCTION OF VESTIGE.
Ha ha. just realized I had the caps lock on. Anyways, we are waiting for the composier to finish composing, and the guy doing our ADR to finish...um...ADRing(?) Anyways I have been in the middle of moving and starting a new position at a new church. So things have been busy in our lives, but the movie is moving very slowly. Not much of an update but I don't want my blog deleted because I haven't used it for so long.

Hello. We have been busy recovering fro our hack attack. Ok that's being a bit dramatic, but in the end things are better than before.

We have a new web host and a new domain. www.filmrealstudios.com

The .org address is still pointing here, but will be moved to the new sit soon.

Oh and to be fair our new site is a under construction page, but it is a cool under construction page. It has links to this blog and Michaels, as well as our podcast page.

Speaking of podcasts episode 3 is up and it has an interview with Jeff Devoll, about using media to reach this generation. He also talks about his current project. A stereoscopic three screen wide HD video.

A short film I made for a outreach at my old church. This is what happens when you are a youth Pastor and Media minister. The hole thing, from coming up with the initial idea, to editing, compositing, and adding the music was done in a month and a half. It is a silly video, so don't take it to seriously.

Here is a teaser trailer for our movie Vestige. It is almost complete and will be available shortly. Note the trailer was created before we did our color correction.

We've been hacked...

We'll as you may or may not know our site has been hacked. Someone attacked the server we had our site on and now our site is...well interesting. I am just glad it was not worse. I got an email from Michael and was expecting adult content. This would have been very bad because I hade just show a preview of the movie the night before at my old church.

WE will redirect the site here until things are worked out. So if you are wondering why you are at my blog when you typed in the web url, now you know.

Production Update 6-27-09

Hello all.

Things have been busy as of late. But it is now time for a production update.

Vestige is almost complete. I am finishing up some effects, and Michael is working on audio. I shot the last scene of the movie a few weeks ago. We have been holding off on shooting it until now so I could grow out my hair, and beard. The end is a few months after the rest off the story, and my character hasn't had any chances to shave. 

I was planning on shooting this scene in Columbia, A western town about an hour from where I used to live. I grabbed one of my old media students and we headed up there. On the way we came by an old dilapidated train. After a second of thought it donned on me that anyone can shoot in the hills, but a real train set would add much more production value. 

I will be speaking at Calvary Assembly of God, in Merced Sunday night on 7-12. I will also be screening the movie for the first time. The movie will probably not be 100% finished, but it will be close. If you’re in the area come by.

I have been getting back to my artistic roots lately. Getting back into drawing, though its mostly all digital now. Here’s a piece I made last night for a contest.



Also we have our podcast up and running. http://www.filmrealstudios.org/realcast/ Episode two will be up soon, and for those of you that know who he is I have an interview with Jeff Devoll for episode three. He talks about using media to reach this generation, and why he hates making media projects.

And lastly we have started pre production on our next film. If Vestige is a Sci Fi, then this one is a horror film. Should be fun. A friend of mine from the District Resource Center has come on bored as the Director of photography, and he is bringing a professional HD camera.

Well until next time, thank you for reading.

Dynamic link is broken pt II

OK. After some research I have found out that the problems I am having with DL, are because it only supports data flowing in a single direction. Basically it will let me send video to AE and work on a effect and update my changes in Premier. I guess I just had too many comps with data trying to flow back and forth, so DL didn’t know what to do and went crazy. It got to the point that I hade to open up task manager and force close dynamic link, before opining Premier, or AE. 

Turns out DL is more of a built in automatic duck to send files from one program to the other, rather than a full blown project manager like Gridiron software’s Flow, and Auto Duck combined? It would be cool if this where the case. I would love to send files back and forth between Premier, and AE an indefinite amount of times without causing a feedback like effect resulting in DL breaking. (It tecknicaly isn’t broken, but because it doesn’t work it might as well be.) I know I am not the only one who feels this way. Stu Maschwitz wrote about merging Premier, and AE into a Flame like program. Basically Premier Lack’s serious post and finishing tools and AE doesn’t have real time playback, and DL can’t move files between the two at a level I’m happy with. Maybe one day. Maybe one day.

Adobe Dynamic link is broken

So I am using Adobe’s dynamic link to replace shots in my Premier Pro timeline with After Effects compositions. I do all my effects in AE and when I hit save it updates the changes into Premier. 

The problem I am having is that as I get to the end of my timeline the AE shots in the beginning of my timeline go offline. This would be no more than a miner nuisance if I could right click in the project bin and click link media. But premier won’t let me click this. It’s grayed out. Ok so I will just nuke the timelines and reimport them. Well this is working for two of my four AE projects. One of them will import but the video clip premier copied over to AE is offline. Great, so I open the AE timeline and yes my video clip is offline, and none of my work is there. I had roto, and another comp in there as a matt painting. What the heck After Effects? 

Then things get even weirder. The last file I try to import will only let me select a comp from one of the other projects. Let me back up and make this a little clearer. When you import an AE comp into Premier it brings up an import window and lets you choose which of your compositions inside of AE you want. In this case I have two. The one I want is the final one with all of the elements. The other is just the layers of the matt painting. If I try and select my fifth comp, Premier is opening the sixth. I tried restarting Premier. Nope. Finally I tried changing the name of the comp and it worked. This is frustrating because it makes it hard to keep track of files. Why can’t Adobe make this work? Then again Dynamic link is still young, and already it lets me do amazing things. 

Working out a workflow

Well we have finished shooting our pick ups, so I am now preparing for the visual effects of our movie. While I work on the vfx Michael is starting to work on ADR (automatic dialogue replacement) and Adam is starting work on Foley effects.

I have been thinking about how to construct our workflow. Michael has all the production files on his desktop, but I need to be able to do all my VFX on my laptop, (I know) across town. And being a small start up company, we don’t have any networked storage, so there’s even issues of getting files to Adam in Fresno.

The file transfer was our easiest problem to solve. Adam and I do most of our communicating over Google talk, so he suggested we use its file transfer feature. We just had Michael create a Gmail account and download the Gtalk IM client. Now we can share files online. Very cool, and effective. 

The other problem is the final editing, vfx, and ADR/Foley are all being worked on, so we need a way to stay organized, and move updates back and forth between the three of us.

The easiest way of doing the project would be to completely edit the movie and lock it off, and then send it out for effects, and sound. As I finished vfx shots I could send my After Effects comps to Michael. He would then replace the footage in the master timeline with my comps. As he recorded the new dialogue with the actors he could through it into the master timeline and line it up with the footage. And as Adam sends his foley sound clips in, Michael can drop them on top of the temp audio we have from location.

The problem is of course time. We don’t have time to let Michael finish editing. We need the movie to be completely finished in the next four to six weeks. We have finished about half the editing, so those scenes have been locked off, and I am working on them. Michael can still add in my AE comps, but as he finishes new scenes I will copy the updated premier pro project file to my production Hard Drive, overwriting the old one. We will repeat this until finished. As you can see file management becomes extremely important.

Another workflow I considered using, and even walked through it with one scene, is to export out each clip as a Tiff sequence. This approach had to major problems that caused me to ditch it form the former solution. First it required me to set up separate exports for each clip. This meant I had to create all the folder structures first, then set each export in Adobe’s batch renderer, (Software added in CS4, that I both love, and hate) then let it render out all the frames. Basically too much set up, and time. Plus all the effects and color correction are permanently rendered in on export. To make a change I would have to re-render an entire shot. Multiply that by a few times and you’ll countless wasted hours.

The other problem is when I export each shot out of premier I am compressing them again, which causes me to loose color information I want for color correction, and the final color grade.

So I spent half the day going through my first scene creating slap comps for each shot that needs some effects work done. When I say slap comp I am talking about doing as little work as possible on a shot to get a sense of what the final will look like. Then I can go back and fines it until it looks good.

This way I can see the shots inside of premier pro’s timeline. Using this method I can watch the comps in context of the shot. If I thinks a shot is only 80% of the way done and plan of spending my weekend finishing, then see it cut into the movie and realize it is only up there for a very short time and looks fine, then I just saved myself a weekend. 

I learned this technique from Garth Edwards. He did this on a project for BBC about Attila the Hun. He then taught a class at fxphd.com

So begins the perilous journey of creating the effects of Vestige. (The new name of our movie) Even as I write this Adobe has found a wrench to throw into my planes. More about that Later.

Adobe Update

Here are the patches for Premier, and after effects. If you have these programs, make sure you install these updates.

After Effects 9.0.1 patch for Mac OS X
After Effects 9.0.1 patch for Windows
Read me file (PDF)

Premiere Pro 4.0.1 patch for Mac OS X
Premiere Pro 4.0.1 patch for Windows
Read me file (PDF)

Production Update 3-18-09

We had a great shoot this weekend. My friend Adam came down to help us with the shoot. Adam and I meet back in high school. We where in a film program at C.A.R.T. (Center for Advanced Reaserch and Technology.) We have worked together ever since. We partnered with his production company Minx Media.  



Adam drove from Fresno to Sacramento; witch is a three hour drive at least. He brought army fatigues, and amazing replica guns. He also helped with cinematography, and will be doing all of the sound design for the project.



We shot a lot of scenes over the weekend, and only have a few scenes left to shoot. The editing is coming along nicely, and I will begin the effects as soon as Michael starts finishes some of the scenes.



I can hardly wait to post about the effects process.

Here are some pictures from the shoot.

Turning bad into better.

Hello. We shot some running scenes last week, and I have been to busy to post a production update. It was a short shoot, so I will make this a short post.

We scouted a location for our run scene that was perfect. We'll when we showed up to shoot a month later, the area we planed on using for our main characters to stop and rest in was flooded, by all the rain we have been having. So the rain first prevented us from shooting for about two weeks, putting us behind schedule, then it ruined our location.

Fortunately we are flexible. Instead of using that as the spot to have our characters rest, we used hade them cross some logs that where lying across the water. This worked out better than just more running. It added production value, and suspense. Never let a setback keep you from your goals. Sometimes you need some resistance to unlock your creativity.

Production Update 3-8-09

We shot the opening to our movie yesterday. Wasn't a long day of shooting, but it was fun and we got some great footage.

We shot in a construction zone by my house. This construction zone is what inspired me to make this short film. It was defiantly a DV Rebel shoot. We didn't have permission to shoot there so we had to shoot quickly, and leave before any of the neighbors called the cops.

Our main character, who is also my lovely wife, was not happy about it. In one of the shots she had to be writing in a journal. We told her to write anything so it looked real. This is what she wrote.

"I'm here filming today. They have me trespassing on this construction site.
I'm going to kill them if we get in trouble. They have said that they will defend
me if the police are called, but I don't know if trust them."

By them she meant me, and FRS co-owner Michael. Good news is everything turned out great. Though I did have to take her to McDonald later that day, and buy her a sweet tea.

And lastly we have a name for our movie. "Caught Up"

We are going to shoot again on Monday, so I will be back here Tuesday, filling you in.

Production update 3-6-09

Yesterday was another production day, so that makes today a blogging day. We finished our reshoots yesterday. From now on we will be shooting new footage and not just making up for our first day of shooting.

All was not lost though. The footage from the reshoots, where a lot better. Not just in image quality, but in every other way as well. We where able took shake off the rust, and clean out the cobwebs with our first day of shooting, then throw it away and do it better the second time. The only loss is time.

I have had a theory for a while now, that if you write some extra scenes into your film, that you know you will not need, and shoot them on your first day, it will give your actors, and crew a chance to warm up and get used to working with each other. Again the downside is it will coast you a day of shooting.

And now storytime. One of my favorite parts of filmmaking is the stories you bring home from a shoot. I have a small role in our short, and one of the shots was of me and the main character running up a steep hill as we are being shot at. With all the rain the ground was very wet and muddy. I had a few falls. Once I lost traction and was running in place. Almost like a car spinning its tires. And on another take, I fell face first into a bunch of weeds, with my mouth wide open. I ruined the take as I fell backwards chocking on the weeds. That’s a first for me.

Until next time.

Tripods vrs Handleld

Ok. I just want to clarify something I said in my last post. I made the comment that I don’t like using tripods. I wanted to take some time to explain myself.

I’m not against tripods. Like I mentioned before, I do a lot of interviews. Tripods are essential for this kind of work. Movies also benefit from locking your camera down to a pair of sticks. Plus unless you want to do a lot of complex tracking you need a good tripod for a lot of visual effects work.

My point is I simply prefer to use a looser fluid like, movement in my films, when the story lends itself to the style. Let me say that again “When the story lends itself to it.” Just in case you didn’t catch it, story is king.

The short we are working on more than lends itself to this style. We are making a short about someone living in a post Rapture/ WW III world. Everything is desolate. Our main character is in constant danger of being attacked. This camera work adds to the suspense, and helps long shots of a single actor stay fresh.

In conclusion, it’s important to know the rules of filmmaking, but don’t let the rules get in the way of your creative vision. In the end people will care about your fill being good, and enjoyable. Not how closely you followed the rules of proper filmmaking.

Production Update 3-4-09

Hello again. Here is the update I promised.

We have started shooting, but as I mentioned before we had a few problems. First off we have no tripod. Well that’s not so much a problem because I never use one for my movies. I know that putting your camera on stick is one of the cardinal rules, but I love the handheld look. I’m not talking about shaky, just always moving. Michael, the Director/Editor, cut together a short clip with a scratch Voice Over clip, as a test and it came out with the look and feel I was hoping for. I showed it to my sister who said it looked like something from lost. Great. That means its working.

Our first real problem came with our camera. We are using a Cannon XL1. I have used this camera off and on since it first came out, but mostly for interviews and B roll. I set it to manual, as all the filmmaking books would urge, and made sure to focus for every shot, and white balance for exposure changes. Sounds good right? Well we got home and watched our dallies and it was horrible. The main issue was the shadows had horrible noise. First off I am not a proponent for manual control. I understand the need for access to all your cameras factures, but I don't want to. When I am working on a movie I am usually the screen writer, director, cameraman, and vfx supervisor. I don't feel the need to switch to manual and worry about all the cameras features.


Heres a still from the original footage. Not one of the best examples of the noise but you you get the idea.



Here is the new footage.



And one with some adjustments in Photoshope. Not the final look.


We decided the footage was unusable and re shot it on auto mode, but kept the 16:9 aspect ratio. 16:9 was the main reason we where in manual, so when I realized we could get it in auto, I decided to use it. We re shot some of the footage and it turned out great. So all is good except we are now behind schedule, and the rain has made it hard to shoot.

The whether is looking up, so we should be able to get a day or two in, before we go and see Watchmen.

Thank you for reading. Sign up to follow this blog, and make sure you check out filmrealstudios.org. If you have any questions or comments, that you don't want to put in the public comment area, please email me at filmrealstudios@gmail.com

Here are some behind the scenes pictures from our first day our shooting.

production update 2-27-09

Hello. We are in production of a short film here at filmrealstudios.org
We have had two days of shooting so far, and we've run into a few problems. Pray for us and our production.
I will post soon some pictures, and more details about the production

Welcome to Film Real Studios

Welcome to the official Film Real Studios Blog. Film Real Studios (FRS) is the name of the studio/production company started by Jared Elrod, and Michael Carpenter. This blog will be written and maintained by Jared Elrod.

Our goals in starting the company our two fold. We want to create really cool films and other media that uplift and share the love of Christ.

Secondly to help other Christian filmmakers, and by doing so hopefully help raise the bar on the Christian film industry.

Our site is filmrealstudios.org

We are currently in production of our first short film. Details to fallow.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please email filmrealstudios@gmail.com