"Racing Home" to show at the Macon Film and Video Festival

Produced by Nicholas "The Claw" Holtzclaw, Logan Williams, and Kelly Wilson for Jennifer Smith's documentary class, "Racing Home" will be screened at the Macon Film and Video Festival. The piece features a young newly-wed trying to carve out a career in the world of competitive cycling. The festival in Macon, GA runs from February 21 - 24th.

Long Live The Rebellion.

What all the DV Rebels will be wearing this spring.

The Top 5 Questions for The Rebellion...

1.) Who's actually in the rebellion?
If you're in TeleArts...you're in The DV Rebellion.

2.) What if I don't wanna be in this "rebellion"?
That's cool, seek your own rebellion. We support all those in TeleArts whether a formal DV Rebel or not.

3.) Where should I buy tapes?
Well, tapeandmedia.com sells DV tapes in bulk. So, for 10, 63minute Panasonic DV Tapes, it would be about $43 with shipping. The more you buy, the smaller the cost, plus this site carries a wide variety of tapes. If 20 people go in on tapes together, that would save everyone some cash.

4.) What kind of tapes should I buy?
Ok, first of all, NEVER USE LP SPEED WHEN RECORDING!!! It's really NOT good and most professional decks won't run it. TapeandMedia has Panasonic DV Tapes in 33, 63, and 83 minute varieties. TapeandMedia also carries CLEANING TAPES!!! If you don't have your own cleaning tape, that is just not being a DV Rebel. The site also carries tape rewinders and cases. Rewinders help deck/camera life, and cases...well...

5.) What about DVD's?
The IMacs in Lab 136 will burn onto DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. DVD-R and DVD+R at Staples, Best Buy, Office Max, etc. come in spindles of 100 for $22 when on sale (which is often). A small supply of DVD-RW/DVD+RW is good to have for turning in roughcuts/projects that you know will be returned to you, and these erase more easily than DV Tapes (last longer, too).

HEY! WHAT ABOUT THE NYC TRIP MEETING!!!
Next week...look on the blog next week.

BLAMMO! Welcome to 2008...on the road!!!

2008 will be a banner year for The Rebellion...count on it. First up, THE BLAST SHIELD!!!!

Last weekend, Shooter, Speas, The Claw and I shot some B-Roll for a documentary about Gwinnett/Atlanta. Well, as always, The Rebellion decided to give it 100% and mount a camera to the front of my car. Using the Dan Selakovich model carmount, locking luggage straps, and a safety rig so the camera would not fly into traffic if it detached from the mount, we put a Panasonic 80 facing traffic. To keep the lens from damage (ask Karlea Ashmore about her poor handicam from the first experiment) we created a blast shield from cheap plexi, wood, and plastic clips (a Lowes/Home Depot special as always).

Behold the mighty blast shield!!!


Mount approval from "The Claw".


Rollin' through Gwinnett.


"Shooter" checks for scratches and cracks.

The blast shield ended-up with several cracks from road debris...saving the camera and the lens from damage. All-in-all the shots look great, but we did end-up with image reflection in many shots. Still, most of the tape is usable with some very cool shots. The whole rig looked so strange, even the police just drove by wondering what was going on...no tickets...very nice.

This week, we'll be mounting two cameras inside a storage container (with holes cut for the cameras) mounted to the roof of "The Red Menace" (my Jeep).

See ya next week!

Inexpensive and cool: EEFX Green Screens

At the New York Post Production Seminar last October, Douglas Spotted Eagle told us about chromakey screens from a place called EEFX. These screens are made from foam, are matte finish (not shiny), and EEFX sells remnants of the larger screens on Ebay! This 5.5' by 7' remnant cost Biddle $40 plus shipping.

This thing is portable, inexpensive, and versatile. Check out the video! All I did was roll it out on the behemoth table in Lab 136. It's not even properly lit (NOT recommended! Always light properly...unless you're really hungry and posting before lunch) A quick 3D Warp in Avid (it worked with the chromakeyer Final Cut Pro, too) and voila!

Store this thing inside one of those XXL Ziploc bags, and you've got a cool, portable green screen. Paint some clips green (Home Depot or Lowes) and you can hang it anywhere...just remember the basic rules for shooting a screen properly!

Biddle's Seasonal Production Advice: Costanza Theory

No, not George Costanza...FRANK Costanza. Yes, the character that gave us the "manziere" and Fesitvus. Biddle's "Costanza Theory" applies to all areas of production: pre, post, writing, audio, shooting, et. al.

Costanza Theory comes from the episode in which Kramer tries to start his own catering business. The plot reveals that as an Army cook, Frank tried to save a "gone-bad" side of beef by over seasoning, over marinating, and over cooking. The experience put Frank's comrades in the infirmary.

Rebels, if you have your self a bad hunk of beef (no attention to story, poor shooting, no shot plan, no shooting script, no rehearsals, bad lighting, bad audio, etc.) no amount of tricks such as color correction, audio sweetening, or (God, help you!) WIPES can save a bad hunk of beef. The more you mess with it, the worse it's gonna get...and making us sit there and watch it...ew.

Face it: if you have bad stuff, toss it and redo it. Simple planning saves elaborate (also time consuming and expensive) rescues that don't work. Really...they don't work. Post-production should be as creative and well-planned as all production, not a hell-bent-for-leather "Oh, crap now what," experience.

Let the Festivus begin!

Beyond "Beg, Borrow, and Steal": Big Ticket Holiday Spree

So, you can probably get most of what the DV Rebel needs from money tucked into holiday cards from relatives, but what if you really wanna go for big ticket? Suggestions:

Firewire Drive. So, do you want a Lacie for your desktop or laptop? Maybe...but why not try a camera drive! Yes, drives you can shoot on! Plenty of models are available on the B&H site. These drives route directly from a camera via firewire. Sure, they are expensive, but you can kiss Log & Capture goodbye...and (depending on the model of drive and model of the camera) shoot in 1080i!!! Biddle has shot on the Focus Enhancements 100GB...pretty sweet. Models range from 40GB - 100GB ($699 - $1,899.95).

Adobe CS3 Production Pack (PC, not MAC): REJOICE PC OWNER!!! Adobe OnLocation is now part of the newest Adobe Production Pack. If you have a PC Laptop go to the Adobe site to check all specs...http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/onlocation/. The program (included with other items in the pack like After Effects, Photoshop, etc.) was purchased by Adobe from Serious Magic. The old program was known as DV Rack. OnLocation will have the same features. These features allow you to turn your laptop into a hard disk capture device, an outside monitor (same size as your laptop screen), field scopes, a stopwatch, and timecode reader. Imagine, capturing directly from your camera into your PC. Sorry, MAC doesn't support it yet. Perhaps a letter writing campaign?

Camera. Ok, this is a tough one. Do you really want HD? Do really know the difference between HDV and HD? Really? You sure? Yes, you can get an HD (1080i) camera ranging from $699 - $999. But, most don't have a mic connection, a headphone connection, or the ability to function easily for editing. Many folks like the Panasonic 100 or the Canon GL2 (each around $2500), but they are fairly light, and the lens controls are limited. Now, if you really wanna go bz-out, the Canon XL-2 has now gone down in price thanks to the new XL-H1 ($8,999). The XL-2 is now listed at $3,400. The XL-2 shoots 24p, has a great changable lens, and comes with some cool package deals. Maybe Mom & Dad really owe you a favor...or you can go halvesies on the purchase...or get a crap job that pays a whole lot really fast...or if you're moving to NYC, sell your car. Think about it.

More big ticket items to come soon.