For Memories' Sake

The last couple of months have been pretty darn busy, so blogging has taken a backseat. I've been working on a few different projects -- some writing, a DVD of two short films, and some tests with a new camera. And I got married -- eloped to Walden Pond, to be precise. It's been good to have some downtime from the blog, but now I'm back.

I'll have some more information about some of these projects of mine later this summer, and I'll be making some changes (hopefully good ones!) to Self-Reliant Film as well. But for now, I want to announce the launch of the For Memories' Sake website.

For Memories' Sake is a new half-hour documentary directed by my wife, Ashley Maynor. I'm the film's producer and, though we're still in the latter stages of post-production on it, I have to say I'm about as proud of this movie as anything I've been involved with.

In the coming days, as we complete the movie and prepare it for distribution, Ashley will be blogging on SRF about some of the things that were involved in making the film. Until then, I encourage you to become a "fan" of the movie on Facebook and check out the aforementioned website.

How to make a screenings map with Google

After my recent post, which mapped out the past and upcoming Quick Feet, Soft Hands television screenings, some folks at ITVS asked if I wouldn't mind sharing how I made the map so that they could encourage other filmmakers they work with to do the same. Though I'm far from the first person to do this sort of thing, I was, of course, happy to oblige. It's a great way to visually communicate with your audience about when and where they can see your work.

How to create a screenings map using Google Maps:

1) You'll need a Google account, like a Gmail account. If you don't have one, sign up for one.

2) Once you have logged into your Google account, go to Google Maps.

3) In the upper left hand corner, click on "My Maps", then click on "Create new map."

4) A new window area appears on the screen.

Title the map, and describe it. Obviously, you can make this map for TV screenings, festival screenings, a theatrical release, whatever. For my television screenings, here's what I wrote:

"Quick Feet Soft Hands" TV Screenings Upcoming and past screenings for "Quick Feet, Soft Hands."

In some cases, the film will be showing on multiple streams (i.e., regular and Hi-Def), so double-check with your local listings to confirm the details listed here.

If the film is not available in your area, contact your local station to request it.

To find your local station, visit: http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder

For more information on "Quick Feet, Soft Hands" visit: http://www.lovellfilms.com or search "Quick Feet Soft Hands" on Facebook.

5) Immediately under the text box where you'll type your description, select whether you want the map to be PUBLIC or UNLISTED. You may want it unlisted while you develop the map. Then, when you're done, make it public.

6) Now, start adding your screenings:

Begin by searching for a venue (say, a film festival or television station) in the Google search bar at the top of the screen.

a) If it shows up on the map, click on the link and a small "dialogue bubble" will appear. In that bubble click on "Save to My Maps."

Follow the prompt and select the name of the map you're creating.

Clicking "save" will make a new "dialogue bubble" appear. Here you can add information of your choosing. For my "Quick Feet, Soft Hands" map I added the screening date(s) and time(s) for each station.

This is also where you can choose the icon you prefer. I went with some blue thumbtack looking icons. There are several to choose from -- you can even make your own.

b) If searching for the venue does not produce the results you want, you'll need to add the venue yourself. Start by finding the approximate location on your map for the venue, then click on map "pin" in the upper left hand corner of the map. This will change your cursor into a "pin" which you can then place where you like.

Once it's placed, click on it again to add information. (See 6a above for instructions.)

7) As you add your venues, be sure to intermittently save your map. Saving is accomplished by clicking on the "Save" button to the left of the map.

8 ) If you haven't already done so, make your map public by selecting the "Public" radio button after it's done.

9) Finally, you need to share it! To get the URL of your map, click on the "Link" button in the upper right hand corner of the map.

This will show not only the URL for your map (which you can email to all of your fans and supporters), but also the HTML code so that you can embed the map in other web pages (like a blog).

Enjoy!

NOTES:

- If you wish to allow others to edit your map, you can click on the "Collaborate" link near your map's title.

- If you wish to add other venues after later, just log into your Google account, select "My Maps", choose the map that you want to edit, and click on the "Edit" button. Remember to save your work.


View "Quick Feet Soft Hands" TV Screenings in a larger map

DIY project: Car Dash Camera Mount

I've not posted a DIY film tool link in a long time, but the Car Dash Camera Mount listed in this morning's "Weekend Builder" email from Instructables grabbed my attention. If you need a way to film yourself (or someone) straight-on while driving, this could be pretty useful. Unless, of course, you're using a big-ish or heavy camera... in which case you probably can afford to rent the "proper" tools.

Scott Kirsner's ITVS Case Studies

A few weeks ago Scott Kirsner blogged about a series of case studies he recently authored regarding independent filmmakers connecting with their audiences. Commissioned by ITVS, the case studies focus on, as Scott puts it,

indie filmmakers who are pioneering new ways to: - Open up the production process to more audience participation

- Find and connect with new audiences for their work

- Distribute their finished film in new ways.

While all of the case studies focus on documentaries, there are a lot of insights here that are not limited to any one genre. In fact, I've made these case studies required reading in the Movie Business class that I teach at Virginia Tech. If you read this blog, chances are they should be required reading for you, too.

Read Scott's introductory blog post. Or go straight to the case studies.

Back to School Textbooks

Whether you're a student gearing up for the start of the semester, or someone who's just looking to develop your talents, a good textbook can come in handy. Amazon.com is running a promotion via their Textbook Store, so I thought I'd link to some of my favorite books. All of the books below are books I've either personally assigned as a textbook in my classes, or a book that I've recommended multiple times.


Please note: I do get a few pennies for the click-through if you end up purchasing something. Amazon links are my way of keeping this site advertising-free. And remember: If you're broke you can always try to find these at your nearest public or university library.

Production Boards and EP Scheduling with Chris Cobb

Assistant Director Chris Cobb has two sets of tutorials up on Expert Village that are worth a look. The first is a tutorial on setting up a script production board. If you've never done a script breakdown, you'll want to check it out.

The other tutorial demonstrates how to use EP Scheduling, the industry standard software for film shoot scheduling. Granted, EP Scheduling is not cheap ($499 msrp), but film school students may have access to it or may be able to afford the academic version (around $145 online), hence the linkage.

IFP Independent Filmmaker Conference

I'll be in New York for the IFP's Independent Filmmaker Conference this week. Among other things, I'll be moderating a panel, "The Digital Download." Stop by and say hello!

ALTERNATIVE DISTRIBUTION Case Study: The Digital Download

Find out how filmmakers and new media innovators are navigating digital distribution- through service deals, booking cinemas directly or distributing content online - in order to get the most out of their projects creatively and financially.

Wednesday, September 17th, 2:30-3:30 PM

Panelists Adam Browne, The Cult of Sincerity Brendan Choisnet, The Cult of Sincerity Gary Hustwit, Director, Helvetica Erick Opeka, Senior Manager, New Video

UPDATE: During my panel yesterday I mentioned Scott Kirsner's Cinematech blog and book on web video. For those who had questions, here are those links:

blog: CinemaTech book: The Future of Web Video

Making a Fullscreen Video Loop for an Installation (or Kiosk) Using Automator

UPDATE: Spring 2013.  SRF reader Jessica Barr corresponded with me in 2012 about how users of more recent versions of the Mac OS (10.6 and higher) might have issues with the Automator script below because QuickTime 7 is no longer the default movie Mac OS movie player. Jessica kindly revised the automator script and offered it to me so I could share it with you. Download it here: Revised Automator QT Movie Loop script

(By the way, from my limited testing, it appears you still need QT Pro 7 -- which is still sold as of May 2013 -- to run this script. Quicktime X, or whatever it's called, can loop, but you can't save a movie as one that loops. And Automator's loop instruction in its "play movie" actions don't work reliably. )

Read on for the full instructions.....

Original Post from 2008:

Apologies for the long post title. This is to help anyone searching for such a thing on the internet.

This post will explain how to create a video that plays full-screen and loops repeatedly on a Mac. Looping full screen video is useful for, among other things, kiosks and video installations. If you want to cut to the chase and learn how to do this, skip down. Otherwise, I'll offer a few words explaining the reasoning behind what I did.

Ashley Maynor and I recently put up a small video installation near the offices of the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge. The installation was done as a gratis piece of temporary public art, so we needed to keep the budget as small as possible.

In our case, this was a three channel installation -- that is, we had three different videos playing simultaneously on three different screens. The screens were going to sit next to each other, so we wanted some uniformity in presentation. Video projection wasn't an option -- the space was too tiny for projection. (It's basically an empty downtown shopwindow.) So we needed televisions or computer screens.

We didn't have three identical televisions, but I did have three identical old semi-working iMacs sitting in a "junk" closet at Virginia Tech. So I borrowed those.

Regardless of whether you use a television with a DVD player, or a computer and its video monitor, for this sort of thing you might burn a DVD that loops. That's a perfectly fine solution, but the DVD player on one of the iMacs was broken. Also, there might be solutions out there for having a DVD player and television power up and down automatically, but I know it can be done (and know how to do it) with a computer.

So how to do it?

I decided to create a simple Automator application that could be used to automatically screen a QuickTime movie in full screen mode when the computer was booted. I also automated the startup and shutdown of the computers so that the installation runs during prime hours downtown, saving power in the wee small hours of the morning. Details on how to do this after the jump.

A note for anyone creating a kiosk: If you're creating a kiosk (i.e., something where people will be able to touch the computer), you'll either need to take the keyboard and mouse away from the computer or you'll need a kiosk application if you don't want people exiting out out of the fullscreen player. WebXkiosk is one such application, and it's free. I have never used it, and I didn't try on this occasion because our computers were going to be behind a glass case in a shop window.

***
To make the loop using Automator you'll need QuickTime Pro. If you have Final Cut Studio, you already have this. If not, you can buy QT Pro for $30.

1. If you haven't already made one, create a QuickTime movie of the movie(s) that needs to be screened. Do this in Final Cut Pro or whatever you want. Once you've created that, open it in QuickTime (if it's not already open).

2. In QuickTime select VIEW --> LOOP. This will play your movie on a continuous loop. If "Loop" is greyed out you probably don't have QuickTime Pro.

3. Now select FILE --> SAVE AS... to save the new "looping" movie. When saving -- this is important -- save the file in your Movies folder. If you're like me, you don't usually save movies there, but you must do it this way or it won't work. Then QUIT QuickTime.

4. Download the Automator QT Movie Loop script that I have already created. Actually, download the revised one found at the updated beginning of this post, unless you're running an old (10.5 or lower) version of Mac OS on your computer. In that case, download the link that has been struck through here.)

5. After the file downloads, double click on the script, which will open Automator. On the right, under "Get Specified Movies", click on the "+" button. A window of all the movies in your Movies folder appears. Select the looping QuickTime movie you just created. (Note: Alias files will not work. You need the actual movie flie in the Movies folder.)

6. Now, in window #2 ("Play Movies") , select, "Movie Playback Size: Fullscreen". Leave the other options the way they are, unless you want to show the movie on a different display, in which case you choose the option you want. You'll see that there's also an option for "Loop movie sequence X times." I found that this wasn't nearly as reliable as simply saving your QT movie with the Loop setting as we did in step 2. So you can leave the "Loop movie sequence" checkbox unchecked here.  (This information is no longer relevant with the latest Mac OS and the updated Automator script referenced at the top of this post.)

7. Click the "Run" button in the upper right hand of the Automator window. Your movie should now open, play, and loop. If it doesn't automatically play, you may want to check your QuickTime preferences to make sure "Automatically play movies when opened" is checked. When done confirming that it works, hit the "Esc" key to exit out of fullscreen.

Assuming everything works ok, you're ready to make this an application.

8. In Automator, select FILE--"SAVE AS... When the save dialog box appears, select FILE FORMAT: APPLICATION. (The default is usually "workflow.") This saves your Automator workflow as an application that, when you double click it, executes the script. Then name the file something like "[mymoviename] Automated Loop" and save it.

9. Quit Automator, locate the "[mymoviename] Automated Loop" application you created, and double click. The QT movie should open into full screen and loop over and over.

Bonus points: Having your computer startup and play the movie immediately.

10. If you want a computer to play your movie in full screen the minute it starts up, go to your computer's System Preferences, select ACCOUNTS and then select LOGIN ITEMS. Add your new Automator application (the file you created in Step #8). If you have other applications set to launch on startup you may need to remove those. Also, make sure your computer is set to log into that user account automatically, bypassing the need for a password.

11. To be on the safe side, I disabled screensaver and sleep modes on the computer. Do this in System Preferences -> ENERGY SAVER. Drag both of the sliders to "Never."

12. Finally, if you want to schedule your computer to startup and shutdown at specific times, while in ENERGY SAVER, click on the "Schedule..." button. This will allow you to set the startup and shutdown times for the computer. If you want your computer to run non-stop, skip this step. You can also set your computer to automatically start up after a power failure in Energy Saver prefs.

That should be it. Happy looping.

 

 

The Conversation... with Scott Kirsner

Though this website is a direct result of my belief that new technologies are reshaping filmmaking, as well as the relationships that filmmakers have with their audience, I rarely write about the intersections between cinema, the web, gaming, and business. One the reason I don't is because there's already someone that does that much better than I could. His name is Scott Kirsner. A journalist by trade, Kirsner is the author of "The Future of Web Video: Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers", the editor of CinemaTech (his must-read blog) and a contributor to publications as diverse as has also contributed to Variety, Wired, Salon.com, and BusinessWeek, among others.

Recently, Kirsner announced a new event to be held this fall in Berkeley, called The Conversation.

The Conversation

 

Billed as "a gathering... intended to explore the new business and creative opportunities emerging in 2008," The Conversation is "targeted to media-makers and technologists who want to understand and help shape the future of the entertainment industry."

If the list of organizers and "conversation leaders" is any indication, The Conversation will be well worth sitting in on.

In anticipation of the event, Kirsner and I exchanged a couple of Q+A emails. I thought I'd share this (lowercase "c") conversation with you:

**

Your journalism has covered motion pictures, new technologies, the internet, and the intersections of all of these overlapping worlds. But I've, at least, always thought of you as a journalist -- someone that reports, someone that analyzes. With The Conversation you're an instigator, a participant.

I'm really interested in innovation, and how new ideas get introduced to the world. It's fun to write about that, but it's also fun to bring together people whom I've met in my journalistic travels, and get them talking to each other -- in person. All kinds of cool sparks fly. That's what we aim to do with The Conversation. I'll be there to ask questions and instigate, sure, but I also expect that our participants will do a lot of that, too.

How did The Conversation got started (no pun intended)?

There were two dynamics, really, that led to its creation. One is that a lot of times at film festivals, the discussions about new technologies, new tools, and new business models wind up as a side-show to the main event, which is watching movies. We wanted to do something where mapping out the future and getting up to speed with what other creators are doing would be the central purpose. The second dynamic was that there used to be this great event that happened twice in Montreal, called Digimart. Lance Weiler, Peter Broderick, Tiffany Shlain and I all spoke at the second Digimart a few years ago. It was a great gathering... but it didn't continue after 2006, and we wanted to keep its spirit alive and take it to a new geography.

One of the things the website says is that The Conversation is "definitely not a conference." Why make the distinction?

Conferences, to me, are about listening passively. They're often sold out to sponsors, which means they don't serve the participants very well. They tend to feature the same old speakers delivering the same old PowerPoint presentations. We're trying to avoid all that, and simply host a high-energy conversation among people creating change in the entertainment industry.

If you could only ask one question to all the people that will be attending -- the presenters and the registered attendees -- what would it be?

How is your relationship with your audience changing? That's a topic I'm obsessed with right now -- I think that some of the biggest changes over the next 10 years in TV, film, video, and games are going to revolve around that relationship between creator and audience.

 

**

The Conversation unfolds October 17-18 in Berkeley, California. Visit the website for more information and to register.

SXSW: Wrap-up

Last year I think I spent as much time posting thoughts on films I was seeing at South by Southwest as I did actually attending films and panels. This year I chose to err in the other direction. There were simply too many movies to see, panels to attend, people to meet, and parties to drop by. Highlights (in the order I saw them):

Nights and Weekends by Joe Swanberg & Greta Gerwig Wellness by Jake Mahaffy Paper Covers Rock by Joe Maggio The New Year Parade by Tom Quinn Present Company by Frank V. Ross

All make use of handheld digital video, feature naturalistic performances, and were made with small (or no) crews and budgets. Despite the superficial sharing of neo-neo-realistic qualities, it would be tough to compare them. Suffice to say that all are worth seeing.

As good as those films were, perhaps my two favorites of SXSW were two very polished documentaries, Second Skin and At the Death House Door.

Second Skin digs into the world of MMORPGs, and how these online games create new lives and identities -- on both sides of the computer screen -- for the people playing them. Not being a gamer, I wondered how much I would care about the film's subject, especially in light of the fact that 90% of the audience I viewed it with seemed to be there to see a film about their lives. Happily, the film finds some dynamic people to follow and it does superb job of chronicling their lives, both on- and off-line. I suspect this will have a healthy life on DVD, and perhaps theatrically.

At the Death House Door was the most emotionally gripping film I saw at SXSW. A somewhat conventionally shot documentary featuring lots of interviews, it reminded me that no single documentary style has a monopoly on greatness. The film follows Carroll Pickett who, during his 15 years as the house chaplain to a Texas prison, presided over 95 executions, including the very first lethal injection done anywhere in the world. The film also tells the story of Carlos De Luna, one of those 95 prisoners executed, and one that Pickett believed to be innocent. This is a movie that had me in tears -- both at horrific things, and also in admiration at the remarkable heroism of ordinary individuals. Emotions aside, it did bring some nuance to arguments for and (especially) against the death penalty. The fact that it was premiering in Austin -- that is, in the capital of the state where these executions took place -- made the screening experience all the more poignant. At the Death House Door was co-produced by IFC, so look for it there (and, perhaps, theatrically).

As for panels, not all of the ones I attended have been posted (nor do I know if they will) but here are the festival's recordings of some for those of you that couldn't be there.

Review: Stop Staring and Start Grading with Apple Color

Stop Staring and Start Grading with Apple ColorWalter Biscardi, Jr. - Creative Cow MasterSeries DVD-Rom - $49.95

Walter Biscardi, who is a leader at the Creative Cow website, has produced this fine Color training video. It's consists of just over 2 hours of tutorials in the form of 9 lessons. All the lessons are QuickTime movies.

A small FCP project file with three clips, which you take into Color, is included on the disc. The project file that he supplies you with is very basic. I was a little skeptical at first that having only three clips wouldn't be enough to learn the program, but it's actually enough to get you started with all of the basics. In fact, I think the simplicity of Biscardi's approach is an asset.

As a teacher, Biscardi is nothing if not an enthusiastic guy. (At times he's downright manic.) He assumes you're an editor well versed in other Final Cut Studio applications and now you're being asked (or wanting to learn) to be a colorist.

All the movies are screencasts. When Walter wants you to see something up close, he zooms in on the element of the screen he wants you to see. If he wants you to look at something in the user manual, he'll superimpose those pages on screen. It's all very helpful.

The disc's emphasis is really on speeding through as much as possible to get you to dive in. In most cases, I felt like Biscardi did a fine job of covering things with enough detail that the application felt approachable, but not overwhelming. Walt spends the most time on Setup, Primary, and Secondaries. One minor criticism: The Primary Out room is barely discussed at all and I felt like he sped through this room too quickly. (I later found myself not using this room much at all, but was that because Biscardi hadn't taught me about it? Or was that because Biscardi understood it's only occasionally used? I don't know.)

Another minor quibble I have is that the DVD's interface is clunky. It uses a web browser to load the QuickTime movies you're supposed to watch. It's slow to load at times, and this could be done more elegantly. As a solution, I found it was easier to simply find the QuickTimes on the disc and simply play them one by one without the interface.

Of all the discs I surveyed and studied, Biscardi gets you in the fastest. There's truth in advertising: By watching "Stop Staring and Start Grading" while following along on my own computer I was quickly able to navigate through Color with some confidence. Highly recommended.

[Creative Cow info page] [Amazon link for purchase]

Review: Digital Color Correction - The Final Cut Studio Workflow with Apple's ColorTraining DVD

Digital Color Correction:The Final Cut Studio Workflow with Apple's ColorCall Box $75

Digital Color Correction:The Final Cut Studio Workflow with Apple's Color stars Stuart Ferreyra and Noah Kadner (host of other Call Box videos) discussing Apple Color. The tutorial is really aimed at absolute beginners to Color and color grading. Being a beginner myself, that was exciting.

Ferreyra is an expert. Kadner, admittedly new to Color, represents a pro and indie (even low budget) philosophy. Kadner asks questions to Ferreya as Ferreya moves throgh the app. Kadner's backwards ballcap sensibility brings a welcome looseness to the proceedings.

This isn't is a step-by-step tutorial. As is repeated a few times, the DVD is not meant to take the place of the manual. And, significantly, there are no project files. This is a DVD (not a DVD-rom) that you simply watch.

As I watched it, I had Color open, but I didn't really find myself following along in the application. Instead, billed as an "insider's look", it's like sitting down with a friend and watching over his shoulder as he works. Sometimes that's a great way to learn; other times you feel like you want the friend to move over and let you push the buttons. If the disc had gone a little further in having Ferreya discuss the artistry of being a colorist -- what he looks for in an image and how he has learned to adjust it -- this DVD could have been a home run. But I did benefit from hearing Ferreya discuss his craft and it does better than the other DVDs I'll be reviewing in terms of discussing the actual art of grading.

In sum I enjoyed the disc, but I didn't think it carried as much value as the other two Call Box discs I've seen, 24P Digital Post Production with Final Cut Pro and the DVX100 and Digital Color Correction:Panasonic P2 Workflow with Final Cut Pro and the HVX200. The latter, in fact, is a truly superb introduction for to the HVX and I recommend it to anyone new that camera and its unique workflow.

Working with Apple Color

As I began the process (still ongoing) of delivering my new film, Quick Feet, Soft Hands I started weighing whether or not to try to do the final color grading in Apple's Color. Certainly, in the spirit of self-reliance, it made sense to go this route. On the other hand, I have a lot of respect for the artistry that a colorist can bring to a project. When the quotes I was getting from some of the post-houses I was considering turned out to be far higher than what little I had remaining in my budget, I decided to spend some time learning Color. If I couldn't get the job done myself, I figured I could always raise some money and plunk down the money for a grading session with a pro. Color, though, is not nearly as intuitive app like Apple's other studio applications. (Color began as Silicon Color's FinalTouch application, and this is probably the reason it lacks the signature intuitiveness of Apple software.) On top of that, most people haven't had color theory in the way that they've had experience editing picture. At least, I certainly hadn't. So, for me, this was -- at least initially -- as complicated and intimidating as jumping into nonlinear editing after using a Steenbeck.

So, where to start?

What Equipment You Need to Start Working in Color: Aside from working on computers that meet Apple specs, I found that you want to do work in Color on the largest monitor(s) that you have available. You may find that you even want to purchase a new monitor.

I began by working on a Dual 1.8 G5 with two 15" 4:3 monitors set up at 1024x768 and I soon discovered that it was literally impossible to use only one of these monitors in Color's single monitor mode. Even when using two monitors, reading the text in the menus was not easy. So, you need a big monitor -- I'd even take one large monitor over two small ones (and I rarely say that). In the end, I did most of my work on a MacPro with two Apple 23" monitors with an external Broadcast HD monitor, which I have access to at Virginia Tech. If I hadn't had access to this computer my G5 at home would have worked, but it would have been slow on renders and playback. And upgrading my monitors would have been a must.

Can you work in Color without a broadcast monitor? Sorta. The color of computer monitors will not match that of output for television, so it's obviously far better to know what you're really looking at as you work. (Consider: Would you edit the sound to your project listening to it through your computer's built-in speaker?) I think that for matching the color temperature of one shot to another you're fine looking at a computer monitor. The problem is knowing whether or not the colors you're seeing overall on that monitor are accurate. So, at the very least, if mainly working with computer monitors, I would want to make sure that I had access to a computer with a properly calibrated broadcast monitor for a few hours to tweak settings before final rendering.

Aside from computer and monitor issues, you need a three-button mouse. I don't especially care for Apple's so-called "mighty mouse", but it can work. (I prefer Kensington's Optical Elite.) If you're going to go pro with this stuff, you'll want to purchase a colorist's control surface. But such things are expensive -- $5000 and upwards. (If you've got that kind of money what are you doing working with Color?) Seriously, if you're not doing this all day, a mouse should be fine.

Finally, you're also going to need some hard drive space. A full output of Quick Feet, Soft Hands meant re-rendering a little less than 20GB of new footage. (We brought it into Color in its native DVCProHD, but took it out using Apple's ProRes 422 HQ codec.) Loading up your computer with RAM is a good idea too, but then you probably already knew that.

Digging In

I learned fairly quickly that Color is not the sort of application that the novice can just jump into. The interface doesn't feel like an Apple application -- even navigating through "Open..." and "Save..." menus looks different. So I looked for help in the way of instructional DVDs. My next few posts on SRF will evaluate the pros and cons of each disc I watched.

After those posts I'll share the overall workflow we used to get Quick Feet, Soft Hands color graded and onto HDCAM for delivery to ITVS. Who knows? By the time I finish these posts the movie might even be delivered.

Film Preservation Manual

Chris Cagle over at Category D recently posted information about a film -- as in 16mm, 35mm, etc. -- preservation manual he found online. For me, this is perfect timing. Just this week some librarians at Virginia Tech asked Stephen Prince and me to look at our 16mm collection to assess what should be kept and what should be thrown out. The guide, authored by the University of Washington, is clearly geared to librarians (one chapter title: "I Found Motion Picture Film in My Collection -- Now What?"), but it's a useful (and free!) resource for anyone that has (or has access to) film prints.

You can download it here.

This Conference is Being Recorded: 2007 Wrap-up

Over the holidays, Lance Weiler, Mark Stolaroff and I spoke about the year in review for This Conference is Being Recorded, the Workbook Project's podcast series. You can listen to the show here. I was fighting off a migraine that day, so apologies if my thoughts aren't that coherent. I do recall that Lance and Mark had some typically insightful things to say.

The recording is the second in a two part series. Part one, which features Lance, Scott Kirsner, and Woody Benson, is worth a listen, too.