The future is digital?
Digital
High Priest
Interview
with Floyd Webb
Cinema Inna Yard
Sun,
sea, films, celebs and music hits Montego Bay
Oral Ottey
Profile
of Film Editor Oral Ottey
On the Distribution Tip
Interview
with Joe Brewster
(c)Black
Filmmaker Publications 1999:
All right reserved
bfm
runs the gamut of information about
digital filmmaking and the web from A to,
er, B…
All we’re hearing about now is how the future for filmmaking is using digital video cameras instead of expensive celluloid, and publicising and distributing via the Internet. All for the cost of a family holiday.
We’re all going to be able to have the equivalent of a Hollywood studio in our garages. No doubt to go with the recording studios we can run in our bedrooms. So the big studios and distributors - often the same conglomerates - are supposed to be shitting themselves, right? Erm, yes.
We at bfm always want our filmmaking readers to be informed so they can know how to get more bangs for their bucks. We think filmmaking is way too expensive, and are always hunting down info that can help you cut the costs.
So, when we heard all the revolution-in the-film-world hype, we thought Yeah! But on further investigation, we discovered that the message was: don’t throw away your 16mm Arriflex just yet. Here’s a run down of what you can actually do right now - and points to note.
The
Camera
Yes,
there are video cameras out there that will do the business. They will
enable you to create feature length films for a few grand. You will be
able to use re-useable videotape. You can edit it on your computer (no,
madam, put that Amstrad away!) And there are no processing costs for a
movie shot on videotape cos you don’t process it as such unless you transfer
it onto celluloid. If you keep it on tape, getting copies made is cheaper
than getting prints made if your movie is on celluloid. And a video camera
using the PAL format has apparently 100 more lines of resolution than
one using the NTSC format, and operates at 25 frames per second (closer
to film’s 24fps which could make synching frames easier)
So in theory, it’s the difference between needing a minimum of, ooh , £100,000 to make a feature film on celluloid (y’ know, lo-budget, no one getting paid, getting something to show a distributor with enough money to cover the cost of P&A and who will therefore want 110%) - as opposed to say, £10,000 (or even £5,000) to make a feature film using digital video cameras. And hey! At the end of the process you actually get to keep the camera. So, which camera? Well, you can use the famous Sony CDR VX100 three-chip mini-DV. Indies love this camera. Think Buena Vista Social Club, think Hal Hartley, think Vinterberg’s The Celebration, and those Scandinavian Dogme geezers. This camera has a 10X optical zoom. It’s around £2,000.
Then, there’s the Cannon GL1 three chip mini-DV, which has the L-series fluorite 20X optical zoom lens, and uses a three-chip sensor.
There’s the Sony PC100 that provides a PC link and a picture resolution of 520 for around £1,500.
There is, of course, the pricier end of the market. A high-definition DV camera likes the Panasonic AK-HC830 HDTV, which costs around £78,000 and does, well . . . everything, gives you an end result that is hard to distinguish from film.
So, pick your camera, shoot your acres and acres of videotape, and move along to the next stage.
The
Hardware and the Software
After
the right camera, to be a hip digitalista you need the right computer
and programmes to edit your masterpiece. Do not bother to think you can
edit your film on your old chunky, wheezy 486 or Pentium 1 with a 1Gig
hard disc. For processors, think speed. For hard discs, think size. Digital
video takes about 13.5 Gigs per hour of footage. Currently, you can buy
computers in the High Street with 15 Gig hard discs. If you can stretch
your budget, maybe you should check out the monster sized ones, with 25Gig
IDE or 50Gig SCSI hard discs.
Anyhow, with your 15 Gig disc, if you put 1 ½ hours film footage on it, that wouldn’t leave much room for any programmes. If you’ve indulged yourself and shot hours of footage - the big danger when you’re not constrained by the cost of using oh-so-expensive celluloid - then you can’t move everything onto your computer’s hard drive. Improvise. You could hook up a tower with three 20 Gig hard discs in it, leaving your main internal hard disc to run the editing software and other programmes. Given that digital video uses 13.5 Gig per hour of footage, you could load on a few hours at a time to edit.
Having storyboarded extensively before shooting, (because you’ve read all your back issues of bfm, haven’t you, eh?) you should be able to transpose only the footage involving the scenes most likely to be used. You could transfer and edit in 20-minute segments.
Editing
Sooo.
You’ve got your video camera, got your computer, shot some footage and
now you want to edit it. Apple’s Final Cut Pro (around £600), Digital
Origin’s EditDV and the original big papa, Adobe Premiere (around £400
if you buy it on its own, get it bundled in for free when you buy a capture
card for your PC) are the programmes for editing videos on your computer.
Final Cut requires a Mac. But it doesn’t support the PAL format that is
used in Europe yet.
Editing on your computer is relatively straightforward. Some of the software currently available allows you to add effects, move foreground images around, do titles and credits (vital if you got cast and crew to work for little or nothing). If you really want to have special effects, Adobe’s After Effects (around £600) can give you SFX that a few years back were only possible for a major studio to do.
No more hassle from those studio execs that don’t understand your vision, and wont let you spend ages fooling around in post-production. Like the shampoo ad says, now you can just wash and go!
Publicity
While
you’re going through the post-production process, cheer yourself up and
attract some distributors, or new finance by putting up a website. Remember,
in the UK, the average modem speed (56k) and hard disc size on most computers
(4-10Gg) means that downloading a feature length film is not on. It would
take days. But going to a website, viewing animations on it, and downloading
film trailers that are, say 3-5 minutes in length, or shorts of 5-10 minutes
in length, that’s entirely feasible.
You can put up info about the shoot, cast and crew, backstory, and anything unique about the film or how it got made. Put a counter on the homepage, so you can register how many visits are made to the site (forcing family and friends to visit at least 4 times a day each, heh-heh) and use the figures to impress would be backers, sales agents or distributors.
Make sure your site is registered with all the relevant search engines and that you have key words to describe it that draw a lot of accidental visitors to it. ‘Sex', ‘porn', ‘money’ are the kind of words that always pull in the punters (Stop that! - Editor)
See if any of the radio stations that can be heard via the internet will interview you, and include an exciting audio clip in the interview, so that surfers who like to tune in while on the web can hear about you even if not actually visiting your site. Take advantage of the fact that many people don’t understand the Internet at all and, frightened of missing the boat, are throwing money at net businesses that have yet to make a profit.
Distributing
Looking
for film festivals and markets to sell your film? Check out online magazines,
such as www.shootingpeople.org for information as to what festivals are
upcoming and what kind of material is being sought.
If you can’t strike a deal, try distributing your film yourself. Using your website, make sure to have both an e-mail and land address where interested people can order the film on video. Have your trailer - with music and voice over - on display on the site.
Have links on key pages leading to a page with an order form, which people can just fill up and either e-mail to you or print out and post to you with those lovely cheque thingies.
Exhibition
Approach
Net-companies like Atom (www.atomfilms.com) and other organisations that
look for short films for the Net, such as www.studentfilms.com, www.ifilm.net
www.thebitscreeen.com, and www.alwaysindependent.com, that aim to show
films on the net.
Basically, it’s all out there for daring Diasporans to grab. As the pre-eminent cultural trendsetters on the planet, its up to us to grab what we can of the technology and bend it to our own unique vision.
Marsha Prescod
