Here's what a Nickon Coolpix shoots like at 240 fps. This is straight out of the can untreated. Shows some locals at Kangaroo Island (South Australia) having a splash.

Sunday Session WOMAD 2012

the mirror in the forrest

...here's another little art film collaboration between evocative audio, tall stories micro movies and film maker Warren Vance.

The value of music in film.

Here's a bit of a rant from Micro Film Maker magazine:

“Most filmmakers think that the footage you capture is about 40% of a film, the editing is another 40%, with audio elements "filling" in the other 20%. The reality is that the audio is actually more like 70% of the film and the shooting, editing, and snappy titles are only 30%.

Think I'm wrong? Explain The Blair Witch Project, then.

A very poorly shot film, it was nonetheless watchable because Artisan spent a lot of money sweetening and re-looping the audio after it was purchased.”

I think this is exaggerated but I agree in the broad that sound in film production is very frequently undervalued. Include in that music. How much “value” music does music contribute to a film? According to former AFTRS music legend Martin Armiger, his discusions with directors indicated they thought it contributed around 20% to the audience experience of the film. So why is the budget usually no where near that? Why is music only about 5% of budget if you're lucky?

...Perhaps its because it mostly happens at the end of the production line when the budget has been blown, or perhaps its just supply and demand and there are so many talented composer / musicians out there under cutting each other to get a break?

movie auto focus with DSLR

Here's a hand held movie clip capturing a slice of humanity on the streets of Saigon in the build up to xmas 2010. It demonstrates focussing of the EOS 7D done manually just using the ring on the lens and my bad eyesight looking at the camera's live view screen. I'd need a third hand for zooming at the same time, so there's none.

Now for an interesting comparison with Sony's SLT a33, which is one of the first dslr's to have auto focus in movie mode, here's an example I found online:

http://vimeo.com/15917919

With the Sony, you can zoom and focus at the same time obviously. A downside is the phase change AF system requires the maximum lens aperture to operate, so the depth of field is minimised. Still, that means you'll be achieving that cinematic look most people are after....also, was that noise on the Sony clip (...apart from the wind), the auto-focus engine?

comparing HD shooting between dslr and film cams

Well apart from the obvious, like that you can take great still shots with your (say Cannon 7D) DSLR, what at the pros and cons of buying a DSLR for movie making compared with a purpose built film movie cam? Starting with the poo: -most DSLRs lack good continuous focussing capability (note: Sony have started tackling this), have recording time limits of 5 minute bursts of continuous shooting (which is hopeless for docco / interview situations, but no problem for most scripted situations), have nasty rolling shutter effects on fast pans (though iMovie 11 is tackling this with good results), and small crops of their images dont blow up as well as film. BUT there are plenty of positives. For example, the vastly lower price of purchase and operation (-having said that, watch out on this one as you'll probably want to pimp your DSLR with follow focus, monitor, etc). Then there's the fact that you can use all the lenses you might already have, which gives you amazing shooting potential and reuseability to save costs....and the quality of image can look fantastic! They are low light experts and some way outshine film cams in this area. When things get really dark you'll still have colourful images instead of those monochrome wash outs you see with infra-red techniques on film, and the colour noise can be very acceptable. DSLRs are also compact, which means they can fit into small shooting spaces and can be less intimidating for your subjects. Then there is the fact that the digital DSLR output brings in the advantage of easy digital workflow and immediate online capabilities. Gotta love 'em.

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