Community Project

NickClapper

NickClapper

My greatest regret, during my time on IndieTalk, has been my failure to get a community project off the ground. We came pretty close with the organ lottery project, but it never quite worked out. The past few days has seen a new member trying to get another community project off the ground, but is, I suspect, going to fall into a number of inevitable traps.

I am currently studying for the final exams of my academic career (*sob*) so am just sitting in libraries all day, every day. I'd like something to break it up a little bit (in addition to the couple of projects I am, slowly, working on). So I've come up with a new way to do a community project.

If you would like to participate in this project as a director (or in a shooting capacity), I need the following information out of you:

What actors are at your disposal? [i.e. two men and a woman]
What locations are at your disposal? [i.e. a house, a bar, an abandoned quarry]
Can you record decent quality sound? [i.e. yes]
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Please be conservative with your responses. In order for this project to be realistic and work, I need to be sure that people can (and will) shoot their scenes in the allocated manner.

Once I have a bunch of participants, I will go away and write a short script that incorporates these various shooting units into a single coherent story. I will ensure that no member has more than a maximum of two days shooting (though generally will try and keep it to what can be done in a single day). If you cannot record decent quality sound, I will give you no dialogue to shoot. Everything will be kept as simple as possible (within the constraints of a very tricky project!) so that we have the maximum chance of success.

Additionally, if you are not willing to direct (or arrange the production of) a shooting unit, there are loads of other roles that are required:

Composer
Editor - individual units should edit their scenes but a central editor will put it all together and try and ensure that the editing matches throughout.
Post-sound
VFX - will not be VFX heavy, but we can incorporate some if there's someone who can supply the talent.
Marketing - with so many cooks, would be great to have someone responsible for pushing the film.
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In order to make this attempt as successful as possible, I will only accept forum regulars into the scheme. New members (and I'm talking people who've only been around a few weeks) are welcome to input and help out, but it is of paramount importance that I know people will stick around and see their unit through to completion.

The deadline for signing up is 18th April 2014, giving people two weeks, after which we will allocate two months (and a bit) to complete production of your scenes, meaning a shooting deadline of 30th June 2014. As I have said, should be no more than a day of filming over the course of two months, so if you can't commit to that then please don't!

I really hope this works, and I think it can. Let me know if you have any thoughts and get signing up!

Current units:
David.rhsc (San Francisco, USA)
cheeseandachallenge (Wellington, New Zealand)
Cracker Funk (Richmond, USA)
wheatgrinder
Flicker Pictures (Boston, USA)
mad_hatter (Birmingham, England)
Dreadylocks (Omaha, USA)
Lucky Hardwood (New Orleans, USA)
ChimpPhobiaFilms (Ohio, USA)

Fence-sitting-maybe-merchants:
WalterB
Dreadylocks
sfoster
mad_hatter
ChimpPhobiaFilms
ItDonnedOnMe
jax_rox
Flicker Pictures

Music team
JoshL
mike mcguill

Sound team
mike mcguill

Sound maybes
AudioPostExpert
Alcove Audio

Marketing maybes
RayW

And remember to fill in this form if you want to have a shooting unit in the film!

(Of course, if you're local to an existing unit, why not team up?)
 
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NickClapper said:
I'll wait on the others to have a quick look through their list, but I suspect that outside of Sundance, Cannes...etc most film festivals will be willing to accept a stereo mix. After all, Encounters and Raindance are Oscar qualifying festivals and both accept stereo (Encounters even exhibits from DVD if necessary).
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Be very careful here Nick!! Most festivals will accept or require a stereo mix for submission (even Cannes and Sundance) but actual screening/exhibition is an entirely different matter! Raindance for example states "Raindance will only screen Digital Cinema Package (DCP), DVD and Blu-Ray will be used as back-up.". And as you know, DCP is a theatrical format and therefore does NOT support stereo!! Some DCP software will allow you to create a DCP with just stereo sound but how or if it will play is a matter of luck. To create a DCI or SMPTE compliant DCP requires a minimum of 3 channels of audio (Left, Right, Centre) and preferably 5.1.

Furthermore, this is all corroborated by the terms of eligibility for Oscar qualification (inc. Short films):

"The audio in a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is typically 5.1 or 7.1 channels of discrete audio, and these are the preferred audio configurations. The minimum for a non mono configuration of the audio shall be three channels as Left, Center, Right (a Left/Right [stereo] configuration is not acceptable in a theatrical environment). The audio data shall be formatted in conformance with ST 428 - 2:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master. Audio Characteristics and ST 428 3:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master Audio Channel Mapping and Channel Labeling."

I can't tell you how many times I've had amateur filmmakers come to me in desperation, when they suddenly realise they're going to need a 5.1 mix for exhibition. Mostly I have to turn them away because they never even considered, let alone budgeted for a 5.1 sound mix!

In short, if you are thinking of entering Raindance then you absolutely should have a 5.1 mix! I haven't looked up the Encounters Festival, so maybe just a stereo mix would be enough for that particular festival. As I said, it varies from festival to festival but if they request DCP for screening, the default audio format for DCP and therefore the one you need to plan for is a 5.1 mix.

G
 
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Hmm... I assumed that they'd be ok with the 'back up' option. Raindance definitely exhibits on Blu-Ray, because I've been part of a team showing a feature at the festival and it was exhibited on Blu-Ray. Perhaps they've changed their rules this year, but I reckon if asked nicely they'd screen on Blu-Ray. Their theatres are tiny and usually have a crowd of about 10...

And, obviously, the DCP request doesn't apply for shorts because it'd be crazy to demand an individual DCP for shorts. Plus, festivals like the LSFF have a category for shorts under £500.

I should clarify: I'm not against a 5.1 mix! But I don't want to make extra work for you guys, and I worry that it'll end up taking much longer than it would otherwise.

But, ultimately, that's a decision that only you can make. If you're confident that you'll be able to do it without disrupting your professional work schedule, and roughly working to the timescale that we outlined, then I'm happy to go for it.
 
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We can make a DCP ourselves nowadays :)
It's no rocketscience.
We only need to consider it has to be 24fps: that might call for some adjustments of the audiomix when it's done?
(Since we shoot 23,97 fps)
 
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NickClapper said:
Perhaps they've changed their rules this year, but I reckon if asked nicely they'd screen on Blu-Ray. Their theatres are tiny and usually have a crowd of about 10...
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The issue with stereo not working properly is less pronounced in tiny cinemas. I just copied and pasted what I could quickly find on their website.

NickClapper said:
And, obviously, the DCP request doesn't apply for shorts because it'd be crazy to demand an individual DCP for shorts. Plus, festivals like the LSFF have a category for shorts under £500.
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The specs I posted from the Academy (Oscars) are unchanged as regards the audio for at least 4 years and apply to short films. If these festivals are Oscar qualifying festivals then presumably they need to screen at least some films which are actually eligible! I personally would never want to screen in a cinema in stereo under any circumstances, even more so if some or all of the competition is screening in 5.1.

NickClapper said:
If you're confident that you'll be able to do it without disrupting your professional work schedule, and roughly working to the timescale that we outlined, then I'm happy to go for it.
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Not something I can be sure of at this point in time. I don't know when a final edit will be available for us to start work, how long the short will be, how much work will be required or how much time Alcove and Mike will need/have available. 5.1 won't affect the workflow/roles I outlined previously (for which I'm still awaiting comments from Alcove and Mike) but it will take me a little longer than only a stereo mix.

It's not a decision which has to be made this instant. Let's see a rough cut and get feedback about the other festivals participants are thinking of submitting to and then we'll have an idea of how essential a 5.1 mix will be (or not be).

WalterB said:
We can make a DCP ourselves nowadays :)
We only need to consider it has to be 24fps: that might call for some adjustments of the audiomix when it's done?
(Since we shoot 23,97 fps)
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That also depends! If the festival is only capable of screening DCI spec DCPs then yes, it would need to be converted because the DCI spec only allows for 24fps but if the festival cinema supports the SMPTE DCP spec then we should be able to leave it at 23.976fps as the SMPTE spec allows for a range of different frame rates including this one. The DCI spec is old and I would expect most film festivals which accept DCPs for screening would be SMPTE compliant by now, but again we should check each festival we intend to enter to be sure. If at all possible, for audio post at least, we should avoid any conversions to other frame rates!

G
 
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I can start uploading my footage for CF tonight? Dready are you able to PM me instructions for uploading to your server space?

Dreadylocks said:
I think it may be time to give it a bit of a makeover, too. I know for me, at least, the graphics/sizing is really messed up in my browser. Plus I think we can give it a more sleek professional look. Thoughts?
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Yeah we should address this I think.

Has Ray been around recently?
 
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I suggesting you begin audio post - just if you wanted the files early, whilst Dready has given access to her server. I also understand if you don't want them taking up space on your own systems/want to make specific requests as to what files you need once the edit's done.
 
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Can everyone give me a status update? Have we started to transferring footage and sound?

FILMED: cheeseandchallenge, WalterB, david.rhsc.
TO FILM: Cracker Funk, wheatgrinder.

CF – Are you all set to film in the next couple of weeks? Anything I can do to help facilitate that?

Wheat – Everything ok at your end? Are you set to shoot the Vern scenes as well?

And can you all remember to submit your cast and crew to the IMDB page?
 
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My footage is uploading to Dready's server (I went away for a couple of days so turned off my computer). Should hopefully be done in the next day or so. New Zealand upload speeds are pretty slow, so it's taking a pretty long time. Haven't started uploading sound yet.. But I can upload that to google drive/dropbox when the audio team wants it.
 
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Hi gang, apologies for the delay - road show has me crazy busy. I'll try to touch base with my team back in Cali tomorrow (day off).

We may have had a sound issue from our second day of filming, but I am hoping it was resolved in my absence. More detail soon.
 
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Hey y'all! My artist has the video footage. She tells me it'll take a week or two for the painting. In the meantime, I suppose I should download everybody else's footage and start piecing it together.

As for the opening -- what do we want to do? Video montage of people watching the UFO video? And if so, do we use cell-phone footage and make it look like this is a montage being viewed on youtube? Or do we use real cameras to get the montage footage? The quality of the footage we're going for has a tremendous impact on how much footage I can get. If it's iphone footage, we can practically shoot with natural light, cuz it's supposed to look crappy.

And of course, there's still the original opening, written to be an audio montage of radio broadcasts. Which one do we want to do? Need an official decision on that.

So yeah, let's get the footage over in this direction. It's been a while since I've used FTP, gonna need a refresher.
 
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If we're going to do the montage style opening, then I reckon we should try and get every 'character' in that section to be an Indietalk member. It's a community project, after all.

So I'd be down with iPhone footage.
 
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I need to get the details to upload the footage.
Or an address to send a SD.
Both may take the same amount of time ;)
It's less than 16GB

About the intro:

As all of you may have noticed: I'm not a fan of the iPhone-footage-idea.
I think the UFO should the only cell-footage video, because that serves the story.
People being filmed while watching the video doesn't, IMHO.

That being said:
I think seeing people watching the footage could be combined with the audio plus worldwide skylines idea pretty well.

As a matter of fact, since time is running, I already recorded the French lines.
The Japanese lines plus Tokyo skylines are expected within 10 days.
Monday I hope to hear when I can record the Portoguese lines.
The Russian lines I expect to record within the next 10 days as well.

Besides that I can shoot an actor eating on the cough while watching TV at night.
If I ask around maybe some girl at a busstop watching the video on her phone with headphones.
And I can shoot a skyline of Rotterdam (nowadays listed as a top 10 travel destination where you have to have been :P )

For the Dutch lines I'll try something crazy: involving one of the biggest talkshows in The Netherlands.
But that means the blog needs updates to help convince them. (Even a short trailer would be cool, but can be too much now.)
Otherwise I'll ask a few voice-actors.

The IT community can step in with good HD 1:2,35 of people watching the videos and react.
I think we need to coordinate it content wise: the reactions need to vary.
And it would be nice to have at least 1 shot of a person showing it to another person.
(Crazy thought: It would be cool if we could have a shot of a group of people in an electronics store watching the footage on multiple TV's at once :P )

Plus: we still need Australian/New Zealand, Brittish, US Eastcoast and US Westcoast voices.
I would like to have shots of:
- Golden Gate with morning traffic jam (a nice bridge (pun intended) to the first scene on the SF beach. (David?)
- Early dawn New York skyline (Anyone?)
- Evening/dusk London skyline. (Nick: do you know anyone who can do that?)
- Paris skyline (been shooting there on sunday, but the schedule was too tight for detours) (Anyone?)
- Moscow around noon. (Any Russian members on IT?)

If New York is 'out of reach' and RedStudios_TSBnick is willing to step in, we could use an early dawn skyline of Toronto and a Westcoast Canadian voice.

@CF I'd be very happy with a complete edit (with or without finished sound) as DVD-MPEG2 on september 27th, so I can send it to IFFR. :)

Besides that: I can help with the edit of the opening: we both run the same system and NLE :)
 
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Cracker Funk said:
As for the opening -- what do we want to do? Video montage of people watching the UFO video? ... And of course, there's still the original opening, written to be an audio montage of radio broadcasts. Which one do we want to do?
Click to expand...

This doesn't necessarily have to been a "one or the other" type decision, it could be a both! For example, start from blackscreen/credits with the radio broadcasts, then bring in the montage of cell footage while continuing the radio broadcasts.

G
 
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