Holy Boners

I am somewhat recovered. Patrick and I did yoga at 8:30 am Friday morning and then I spent the day getting ready. By 8:00 pm Dede’s and Dan’s Not So Good Friday Party was starting to swing, by 10:00 throttling up. The main contingent breezed past 4:00 am and the last soldier fell at 6:00 or so. There were many bodies scattered around the house as the sun climbed. Around 9:00 they started to stir, assimilate pancakes and stagger off. Ronnie and James were ferried to TC by Patrick around 11:00 and then Dee Dee, Darlene, Trevor and Dan lolled around until Patrick returned. We all proceeded to surf another wave of conversation and live music until 5:00 pm. After the after-after-party, Patrick and I tucked into macrobiotic miso and rice. The evening ended with a hot bath, triage on my foot and a handful of melatonin, with lights out at 11:00 pm.

Now it’s 11:00 am on Easter Sunday and the left over miso provides a steady trickle of vitality – sip, sip.

My main objectives for the party were accomplished -  plenty of tasty artist fuel, hours and hours of dancing, lots of bonding with even a clandestine tryst or two, beautiful bodies plunging into icy water, no serious injuries or brawls, minimal griping and/or maintenance of maudlin drunks, and no complications to my foot from dancing or swimming. Bonus was the quality time I got with Dede, Trevor, Darlene and Patrick Saturday.

Not so Good Friday featured the most robust contingent of dancers yet including Erin, Ronnie, Kelsey, Jim, Jen, Mykl, Dwayne, James, Patrick and Steve. There was a possy of the up and coming shamans who shall remain nameless, a cameo by Steve Fernand, Jessie, Jen and Emily from Elberta way, Kari from up M22 and Earthworkers like Dee Dee, Darlene and Trevor the writer. M’lynn showed up with a dashing Portuguese gentleman. Melonie, Shamus and Shawn manifested. The Frankfort power pals Joe and Liz made a robust showing. Eli the cellist came with his aunt to meet Dede and kick off a power jam. Add a smattering of other folks from hither and yon. We’re looking for pictures…

All in all, a good ‘un. Additional data for the Party Theory.

Pix from the after-after party courtesy of Darlene,  moteldarlene.com

pancake recovery

fierce bandu duel in lofts

meanwhile…

look ma!

look ma ma ma maaa!

This is mostly directed to Jonathan with a heads up for Patrick, the other 2 directors on the motion graphics reel. This is all issues we’ve discussed before, eg documenting lessons and process.

The car renderings must be 3968×2288, not 3840×2160. The extra space is so that there isn’t a border when the cars track the camera shake. We gave them a lot of leeway, at least +/- 50 frames.

The new white light and blue light renderings are more reflective, but the color washout doesn’t improve photo-realism, we’re just trading matte and saturated color for glossy and washed out color. Is there another approach?

Even if the new renderings worked you’d still have to re-render at the higher dimensions. This demonstrate the need to document. Legacy projects should include details about their approach and solutions. Documentation saves us from repeating trial and error when revisiting projects and provides a solid foundation for new projects.

I am leaning towards a single resource that has specific entries for each project and application.  We might associate notes with each AE or mocha file during development but at the finish everything gets compiled.

I think the compilation is going to be our individual blogs, with regular backups. The advantages of using blogs as opposed to local files are 1) you always know where it is, 2) other members of the team can refer to it as needed when they are coming up to speed on software or projects, 3) you can link to references that explain and support the content, including collaborators blogs, 4) you create a resource for the wider community as well as the team, and 5) if we know other folks are going to read it we will need to be clear and obvious in our descriptions – more likely that (years later) it’ll be comprehensible to us.

There is a method for running a blog on a local drive so we’re not dependent on the web connection for referencing our content.

I’d be willing to entertain a solution for documentation that doesn’t involve blogs if it meets the above criteria. Otherwise, you’ll have to bite the bullet and get used to the idea of updating your own blog regularly with clearly written posts about lessons learned. Ghak!

I probably should revisit the organization and objectives of MY various sites. I want to have high level blog(s) to foster affinities – audience, investors, collaborators, movie geeks and content allies. Typically, high level posts are broad strokes, epiphanies and metamemes with deep technical detail provided indirectly – as links. This is standard interaction, from general to specific. Deep technical detail attracts a different crowd. Production artists  require a consolidated technical resource that they can reference and revise. The resource is easier to maintain if it’s all in one place, rather than scattered over several blogs.

Currently I’ve got one high level blog for each project – dogthemovie.com, almondsmovie.com, ondesire.com. I can designate holyboners.com as the low level technical (and philosophical) mothership.

When you’ve written complex software with thousands of lines of code you appreciate how essential comments are. Since I’ve been responsible for polishing the motion graphics reel, I took on most of the pain of not having proper documentation for the legacy scenes.  As we move forward, each director will take responsibility for polishing his/her own projects. Adopting a blog/documentation protocol now may seem like drudgery, but it will save your bacon on the next iteration of the reel.

Might be worthwhile to revisit CK roto and recall your process. Same with smoke, iCar illustration, car renderings… remember the funky exported tiff sequence that shrunk the CK video?

Documenting lessons and implementations will slow the process down in the short term, but accelerate our competency and make us very efficient. It’s a waste of time if we just create willy nilly and then have to decipher a project 3 months later or even 2 weeks later, relearn all the lessons and make all the same mistakes.

Below are various permutations of the cars and masks that are begging for explanations. Here’s my inadequate (high level) documentation on the highway scene.

I also need to share all the AE files in their final cleaned up form.

Since we all are involved in developing technical and creative expertise, we all have to document for effective collaboration. So it’s not like I want you to suffer alone… >:)

Gosh, it’s nearly midnight, but I’ve gotta write a report on the recently initiated R and D for the Trickster Pictures project, Science Fiction Musical. James Weston and I are making narrative dance projects by recruiting talent from Mykl Werth’s posse – including James and (eventually) I. Our first public video has been posted on http://youtube.com/tricksterpictures with James and Tiffany Ingalls performing and Patrick and I on cameras.

Another project?!

What was my resolution about finishing old projects before starting new ones? I am committed to wrapping up outstanding projects, honest! When? Pretty soon. The Science Fiction Musical has been percolating for at least a year and so some slight development is unavoidable. I stumbled on a fragment of the soundtrack a few months back while playing guitar in the outhouse and last week was our last ice window, so shoot me!  Now Trickster has 3 projects in the works – DOG is pretty much posting, ALM is in production and SFM is under development.

4 Cameras

I started exploring multi-camera productions in 2006 with two matched Panasonic HVX-200s. With the advent of compact HD cameras, multi-camera work is now way more affordable. My brother and his lads have a slew of these cameras in their kit. For this project, I borrowed 3 Panasonic TM-700s running 60p and brought out my Canon Vixia HFS-10 running 30p. Patrick and I operated 2 of these and the others were fixed, one for center stage close-ups on feet, another for a wide safety shot. To get consistent images that are easily intercut all the camera settings must be manual, otherwise the focus, exposure and white balance will wander – even on the latest gear. Compositions should be both diverse and complementary so that there are interesting choices during the edit. Orchestrating all this can be a little complicated, but we’re making progress. Last year’s American Document shoot was a horror show. Even with 3 cameras and 2 operators the coverage was problematic, I was forced to use the least sucky shot. For this project I felt I could choose between at least 2 workable shots.

What went wrong – fix the future

Not that there weren’t mistakes. First, I forgot to set manual focus on the safety camera so there was focus drift about 10% of the performance. Patrick and I didn’t confer about settings and so he left his TM-700 set to auto exposure which controls both shutter and iris. The default shutter speed is way up there which of course eats light. This gave his footage a sort of silent film feel, darker and kind of stuttery in comparison to the other 3 cameras running 1/60 shutter. This turned out to be a holyboner because the look fit James Weston’s natural classic silent star ambiance.

… and who needs expensive film damage filters when you can have actual hair blowing in front of the lens, like Patrick’s did in about 15% of the shots. “Uh, what?”

White balance needs to be set with a white card for all cameras, or better a camera calibration card. The internal settings for full sun and cloudy day seem to vary between units.

It’s tough to dance the Werth Way and not get a big grin on your face, it just feels good. For La Valse, I asked James and Tiffany to keep the smiles minimal, but that direction didn’t hold – Tiffany kept cracking up. Dancing with James, who can blame her? They were also talking a bit. Deeper experience of character and situation is important for the future.

My suit looked a little baggy on James. Tiffany’s shoes weren’t ideal. Costumes should be prepped and ready far in advance of production. Movement tests should also be comprehensive.

It’s important that I train production help that can take initiative. As primary operator, I need to put my focus on my own performance and not be distracted by handling 7 or 8 different jobs.

What went right

Gretchen Eichberger was my first ice dancer and she came loaded with an arsenal of costumes and her typical professional style. Fortunately she left her ensemble here in anticipation of future shoots. This was helpful in fitting out Tiffany.

Erin Hoagg came down the week after Gretchen to explore partner improvisation with James. She was loaded with great costumes and enthusiasm. I learned plenty from that day and started building a list.

√ flag the outer edges of stage, not scrapes on ice
√ pre-check all exposures and focus
all manual focus!
√ shades for viewing
√ closer for operator camera
√ costumes
tent if raining

I still missed the safety’s focus, but notice all the other stuff that was properly handled. Lists are an inventory and reminder of experience, and the next iteration will be more comprehensive.

James obviously listened and thought about La Valse. He is strongly present in the piece with an incessant and slightly capricious lead. At the same time, he and Tiffany were able to touch the stillness and silence between the notes. Tiffany is very complementary with her riveting focus and is amazingly able to keep a straight face during most of the antic movement.

James also gathered lots of work by regional musicians, but I was most interested in seeing what would happen with Ravel’s La Valse. My original idea for La Valse was to start with Brooke Bueby and Josh Kiel, and then work Brooke a series of different partners and venues as the music progressed. Scheduling conflicts caused that plan to crash – and it’s all for the best. I know that James is totally committed to making work and can be depended upon to follow through. With all the vagaries and hassle inherent in ANY production, reliable collaborators are a must. Tiffany showed up on time and was instantly ready to go. She balked a bit when I fell through the ice near the shore, but trusted my lead for the rest of day. We’ve got to start with a core of dedicated dancers and as projects progress will be able to cultivate and share this professional approach.

With several songs in our playlist, we had plenty of time to warm up before going to the edge with La Valse. That means the camera operators and the dancers were as good as they were gonna get that day.

The Valse is a dark waltz that changes. It pushed the Werth connection to a new place that I hadn’t seen before. This experiment gave me some inkling of how the dance component of SFM could work, a foundation which choreography could support and enhance. That’s the shift for me, thinking how  testing and pushing Werthian connection could point to a viable methodology for movie dance.

Generally

Costumes and makeup, self starting assistants, rehearsals and specific direction which of course pre-supposes a clear vision.