RMM General Meeting Minutes – August 2014

rmm

August 28, 2014
Start Time: 6:34PM
Total in Attendance: 30
Location: RCTV
Agenda:
 
Introductions:

  • Made individually around the room

 
Upcoming Events:
RMM Executive Board Meeting

  • Second Thursday of each month
  • Next meeting is Thursday, September 11, 2014
    • Put out call for new Secretary
    • Any interested parties should come to the board meeting for more information

RMM Writers Group

  • Looking for a location to hold meetings on Tuesdays or Wednesdays
    • Perhaps a library
    • Will keep everyone posted through e-mail and Facebook

RMM Mind2Movie 2015

  • Announced dates set for event
    • January 22, 2015 through January 26, 2015

RCTV Classes this Fall

  • Starting tonight, class on how to film an entertainment variety show (Phythodd Remix)
  • Videography class – Saturdays in September
  • How to Shoot a Talk-Show Format Show – will also be happening this fall
  • Also, mentioned the Roc Co-Op for shooting TV shows
    • Join a group to help create a weekly TV show
  • For more information, go to www.rctv15.org

RMM “372-Hour Film Competition”

  • New film competition for next summer
  • Teams have two weeks and three weekends to make an entire short film, five to ten minutes in length
  • A prop, situation, and character will be the same for all teams
  • Looking for help on planning
  • Looking for feedback/ideas for improvements

Buffalo Film Expo

 
Upcoming Projects:
Adrian Esposito – Disability Hollywood

  • Documentary about disabilities in Hollywood, and a history of people with disabilities in Hollywood
  • May need cameraman to shoot an Advocacy Group Meeting at Arc of Monroe County (http://www.arcmonroe.org/)
    • Will be screening Freaks and wants to get participants’ reactions on film
  • Doesn’t know date nor time yet, but wants to shoot sometime in September
  • Has camera to use
  • Contact adrianesposito AT rochester.rr DOT com for more information

Randy Huckabone – Eyes of Wild

  • Trailer for film was screened and cast/crew answered questions
  • One-take feature film completed on August 18, 2014
  • The film is about a creature that comes to a secluded campsite
    • Camera is the perspective of the monster
  • Rehearsed all day and shot the last take at night
    • Had to shoot a second time (on a second date) because GoPro cameras had too wide an angle when they shot the first time, and the footage came out too dark
    • Switched to Canon XE10 cameras for second, successful shoot
  • Film had successful Kickstarter campaign
  • Still need to do all ADR for sound
  • Plans on taking it to festivals and will preview it at Rochester Comic-Con on September 21, 2014

 
Speaker:
Derrick Petrush – “Improving Your Digital Filmmaking”
Five tips

  • Always shoot progressive scan
  • Shoot 24-frame
  • Always edit natively
  • Shoot the highest resolution you have available
  • Make a Master File

Always Shoot Progressive Scan

  • Get clean, full images every time
  • Easier tfilter and rescale later
  • Cleaner compression due ta less complex frame
  • The worse alternative is shooting interlaced
    • Conceived in the 1920s as a clever hack tincrease rate of images without increasing bandwidth needed for transmission
    • Image is split inttwfields of alternate lines that are drawn one after another
    • Suitable for broadcast and physical videdelivery media that displayed on CRTs
    • Interlace “combing” is inconvenient and unattractive on every other platform
      • Too jagged-looking
      • But broadcast TV is still working with 30i
  • How tuse progressive scan
    • Progressive Scan cameras will prominently announce this feature
    • “video” cameras are not necessarily progressive, and often are not
    • All “cinema” cameras are progressive scan, and will rarely offer interlace as an option for compatibility
    • Progressive scan modes will always be denoted with a “p” after their resolution indicator (e.g. 720p, 1080p)
  • Sometimes Progressive is isn’t full Progressive
    • Progressive imagery can be “stored” in an interlaced frame
    • Progressive scanning videcameras that must maintain compatibility with traditional videsystems may convert the image tInterlaced prior trecording (e.g. mini-DV, HDV, DVCPRO)
    • Progressive scan display modes are not supported in “video” display and transport, except for 720p, only in North America (for now)
    • Twork and edit in Progressive these conversions must be un-done beforehand

Shoot 24-frame

  • Standard Cinema frame rate
  • Directly compatible tCinema projection, Internet and Streaming, On-Demand services, Blu-ray, and DVD
  • Easily convertible for North American broadcast by Telecine process
    • So, you can shoot in 24p, but then teleconvert t30fps
    • Both technical and artistic reasons tdit this way (as opposed tshooting directly in 30fps)
  • Easily convertible for European broadcast by speeding up 4%
  • Shooting in 24-frame
    • The frame-rate is actually 24.00fps or 23.976fps, depending on platform
      • They are compatible, but not interchangeable
    • 24.00fps is standard for Cinema
      • Film and projection run at this speed
      • Very few videcameras shoot at this frame rate, but all true “Digital Cinema” cameras support it
    • 23.976fps is for NTSC broadcast compatibility, as it can easily fit int29.97fps via the Telecine process
    • The dropped frame came from the 1950s, when a one frame out of 1000 was dropped tmake room for color broadcast signal
      • This “drop frame” followed through intDigital VideBroadcast and transports for compatibility

Shoot the Highest Resolution You Have Available (within reason)

  • There are a number of different resolutions available
    • 480 (NTSC), 576 (PAL), 720p, 1080, 2K, 2.7K (Arri Alexa), 4K (RED One), 5K (RED Epic), 6K (RED Dragon)
  • Shooting at higher resolutions than your finish resolution allows for:
    • Increased image quality and decreased noise (supersampling)
    • Flexibility in reframing
    • Ability tremaster ta higher resolution in the future
  • However,
    • Big frame rates take up big data, and require fast computers and a lot of processing power
    • Shooting 5K for something that will only ever be seen on SDTV is unnecessary
    • Shooting 5K and assuming you will have finished 1080 prints twork with by the end of the day is very difficult tdwithout money
  • That being said, shooting 4K for 2K or 1080 broadcast mastering is fantastic
    • Don’t feel bad about shooting in 2K
  • Use your best judgment, and balance time, quality, and money

Always Edit Natively (or in a Production-friendly codec)

  • Edit in a workspace native tyour camera (e.g. DVCPRO-HD)
  • Use an intermediate/working codec like Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD
  • Some codecs cannot be worked in natively, such as most variants of MPEG
    • For example, H.264 is very tough on your computer just tplay the footage
  • Processor time can be spent on effects and faster response time
  • If you shoot in a non-edit-ready format, you must transcode prior tediting
    • “Pre-flighting”

Make a Master File

  • Your final, fully-rendered, finished movie in a single file
  • Should be created in your working codec for minimal processing and faithful reproduction
  • Easily and efficiently able tbe converted for finishing and distribution
  • You can then make different versions in an encoder from the master file much more easily
    • The movie is already rendered and all processor time can be devoted to conversion

Also, don’t forget sound
 
Networking:
 
End of Meeting: 8:30PM
 
RMM General Meeting Minutes – August 2014 WORD DOC