Time Code

If you don't understand at least the basics of timecode, you really can't fully understand and appreciate video, at least as we know it today. While reading B&H Photo/Video/Audio's latest email newsletter (i.e., advertising) there was a nice little introduction to timecode. Sure, the article is littered with links to products -- B&H is in business, after all -- but this is a good introduction for beginners.

And, while I'm on the subject, here are a few freeware timecode calcluators for Mac and Windows.

ADDITION:

From The Edit Blog: The iPod as a Time Code Slate

First Red Cameras Slated to Be Delivered Today

More news on the Red Camera's release as updates and footage become available. Until then, assuming you haven't been following this camera's (fairly open) development, you can get caught up by reading the official propaganda from Red and Apple. Then check out the various forums:

RedUser

Red forum on DVInfo.net

UPDATES (last update 9/6/07):

FX Guide - "Red One Starts Shipping" Words and photos about the release.

FX Guide - Shooting With Red

FX Guide - RED Podcast Discussion

"First Pictures" thread posted at RedUser.net Links to first known still grabs and short clips from Red users. Registration is required to view the photos.

OffHollywood Studios' Red Diary: Day.... 1, 2, 3

New! Slightly Improved! Subscribe to SRF by Email!

A reader of Self-Reliant Film emailed me today asking if she could somehow subscribe to posts on the blog by email instead of having to use a news reader. A quick search of the internets told me how to do this via Feedburner. Happily, setting it up took all of two seconds. If you want your SRF delivered to you in via email, look over to the sidebar on the right... then click on the link that says "Subscribe to SRF by email." Follow the painless instructions from there and you're all set.

Updating Mac Software: Use Extreme Caution

To cut to the chase about what the headline of this post means, just click on the "Read the rest of this entry" link below. If you want backstory, continue on, dear reader. In my last post, I mentioned that I had a few problems setting up my new editing system. For the most part, it was fairly straightforward. Still, there was at least one big headache. Right about the time that I had everything set up (MacPro, LCD and CRT monitors, RAID, and HD capture card) I started having problems.

What kind of problems? For one, Final Cut Pro kept freezing on startup, and -- if I was lucky enough to get it loaded -- FCP would freeze upon my first attempt to monitor footage off of my Multibridge. Oh, and I had a dreaded kernel panic or two. If you've never seen a kernel panic, consider yourself among the lucky. (For the uninitiated, here's a photo of Mac's equivalent of the "blue screen of death.") To say that my excitement about this uncompressed workstation was dampened would be an understatement.

I suspected that the root of these problems was either a conflict between hardware components or just a plain ol' dead piece of equipment. After all, this new editing system has many more elements to it, and the longer the chain, the more likely it is that one of the links is weak.

I wasn't the only one to believe this. After spending an hour on the phone with a knowledgeable representative at Blackmagic Design (the folks that make the Multibridge) the rep said, "Yep, it's dead. Send it back."

That was last 5pm on a Friday, of course, which meant I could do nothing about it over the weekend. I couldn't even ship the Multibridge out. All I could do was reflect on what else could be causing the problems. And, being the obsessive-compulsive person that I am, that's what I did. Surprisingly, this was time well spent.

I decided to spend the weekend troubleshooting every thing possible. I tested cables, I tested drives, I tested RAM, I trashed preferences, I repaired permissions, I ran UNIX maintenance, and I swapped cards into different PCI slots... you name it.

Finally, after several hours of troubleshooting, including a complete rebuilding of my editing system (including uninstalling and reinstalling of LOTS of software) I discovered that the problem was not the hardware, but a software problem.

I have no way of knowing for certain, but it appeared to be a software conflict between Multibridge and Apple's QuickTime and 10.4.10 OS updates.

As best I can tell, the problem might have stemmed from the way that I had used Apple's "Software Update" to update my OS (i.e., using Software Update) and because I had applications running (like Final Cut Pro) while doping so.

After several fixes and reinstalls, everything seems okay now (knock on wood), but here are, for me at least, the morals of the story:

1) Use Extreme Caution when using Apple's Software Update tool. The appropriately titled Shock and Awe: How Installing Apple's Updates can Render Your Mac Unbootable and How You Can Prevent it article explains the hows and whys of this. The problem?

When you see the "Optimizing System Performance" phase of a software update, Mac OS X is really updating prebinding. Updating prebinding has a very, very nasty bug in it....If multiple processes are updating prebinding at the same time, then it is possible for a system file to be completely zero'd out. Basically, all data in the file is deleted and it is replaced with nothing.

The solution?

When 'Optimize System Performance' appears during the update process do not touch your computer and definitely do not launch any applications. Just back away from your computer box as if it were a swarm of bees.

But don't take my word for it. Read the article.

2) Avoid using Software Update. Instead, download the updaters from Apple's Support Downloads site and install manually. You can disable Software Update in Apple's System Preferences.

3) Resist the urge to update your software. There are, of course, reasons to update software -- new features, security fixes, etc. But before you begin that next download ask yourself, Do I really need (or can I even use) these new features? This is especially important to ask when in the middle of editing a project.

In sum, If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

How to Set Up an Uncompressed HD Workstation

Last February, Mike Curtis of HDforIndies, authored an article in DV Magazine about how to Build Your Own Uncompressed HD Workstation. Most people that visit this site probably also visit Mike's site and/or DV Magazine, so I didn't bother noting it at the time. I figured it'd just be redundant. But now Mike's written a follow up article that concerns the audio side of the equation, and it's equally essential reading for any filmmakers looking to upgrade their editing system. So now it seems appropriate to mention them together. There are two versions of the audio article available online -- the Mac version and the Windows version.

Last Fall, when I started putting the wheels in motion to upgrade my editing system I consulted Mike about what would be best for my needs. A lot of the suggestions generated by our conversation (and, no doubt, several others by filmmakers like me) are now in these articles. I was particularly intrigued to see that the specific system I "built" has elements from all three of Mike's quality tiers, from desperate cheap-o indie stuff to true pro stuff. That's the beauty of DIY -- you tailor it to your needs.

Mike's recently teamed up with Silverado Systems, who will now sell you one of Mike's pre-configured systems. For a lot of people that might be just the kind of convenience they need. For myself, I can say that, though I've had a few headaches in the process, it's been great fun -- and a great learning experience -- to do it myself.

Again, here are the articles:

Build Your Own Uncompressed HD Workstation

Upgrade Your Images with Audio - Mac edition

Upgrade Your Images with Audio - Windows edition

Freeware for Filmmakers

FreeGeekery sent me word that they had recently drafted a post entitled "15 Must-Have Freeware Programs for Filmmakers." A quick glance at the list tells me that only 10 of these will work on a Mac, but all the better for me to link to this. So much of what I write about is Mac-centric; it's nice to write about something for folks using Windows. (Plus, Mac users already have iMovie, iDVD, and Garageband. There's really not much of a reason for us to be crabby.)

I cleaned out my Applications folder a few days ago, which had me thinking I should write a post about the Mac shareware I enjoy. FreeGeekery's post has me thinking that might be useful. Stay tuned...

Apple Mail: 8 Tips

Like a lot of folks, I receive and send a lot of email. Lately, I've been digging myself out from the avalanche of email that fell upon my Inbox while I was in Knoxville for a month of prep and production. Surprisingly, the "dig-out" hasn't been that bad, and I think I can attribute it to some email productivity tips and plug-ins I've picked up over the last year. These tips mainly work with Apple Mail. For years I used Eudora, and then Thunderbird. But after Apple's 2.0 version of Mail was released (2005?) I switched to it and haven't regretted it. If you use something other than Mail, some of these may work and some are Mail-specific. Sorry.

Secondly, as a word of background, aside from spam, I keep virtually every email I receive. Email takes up very little memory and it serves as an effective history of work done, contacts, and so on. And everytime I think I don't need to save it all, I end up going back and searching for an email from 1999. Seriously.

Tip 1: Eliminate Spam Well, sure. No one actually wants spam. The trick is figuring out how to eliminate it.

One reason I switched to Apple Mail a few years ago was because its junk mail filter seemed to work pretty well. I don't know if just I started getting more spam, the Junk filter reached it's limitation for how much it could "learn", or if the spam started getting smarter (and by smarter I mean "dumber")... but regardless, my Inbox over the last year started seeing more and more of the stuff.

The solution is SpamSieve. For $30 (and a few minutes of set-up time) you get a clean Inbox. I get maybe one or two spam messages in my Inbox a week these days. I didn't believe the testimonials, but I downloaded the trial and used it for a few days. Now I'm a convert.

Tip 2: Process faster. Now that I'm not having to spend my time sorting out the spam, I can spend my energy processing the real emails sent to me. Though in some ways I'm a skeptic of David Allen's Getting Things Done, I appreciate his theory about tasks like email: If you can reply in 2 minutes or less, do it. If not, figure out what needs to happen next so you can act on it. Approaching my Inbox this way really does increase my efficiency.

Tip 3: Stop manually sorting emails. After replying to an email, I used to file it away. To do this I maintained between a dozen and twenty folders based on various contexts or friends -- my latest project, for example, or "Virginia Tech", or "parents", etc.

No longer. Yes, I still keep almost all my emails, but here's how I do it, inspired by Merlin Mann's sage email advice:

Beyond my "Inbox" (email to which I need to reply) and "Sent", I only maintain three or four folders now:

- The current mission critical project gets its own folder.

- If something catches my attention but there's NO urgency to it (say, an email with a link to an article that I might write about for SRF), I put it in a folder called "Someday?"

- I also maintain a "Waiting On" folder, primarily for email receipts of items I've purchased online. It's my reminder box to make sure something I've purchased actually gets sent to me. I don't check the Waiting folder often enough to put anything of great (ie., work-related) importance in it.

- Everything else goes in a folder I've created called "Archive".

Other folders: If I still want to maintain folders related to people (say, my accountant), all I have to do is set up a smart folder in Mail using my accountant's email address as the filter. All mail stil gets filed to my "Archive", but relevant emails will show up in the smart folder. Voila -- no more time spent manually sorting!

Tip 4: Use MailActOn Probably the thing that I miss the most about Eurdora and Thunderbird is the ease with which you can color-code emails. It's a great way to visually sort the emails in your Inbox -- either by priority or context or whatever.

Mail, unfortunately, still lags in this area: To color-code emails one has to open the color palette (Shift-Apple-C) then use the mouse to click on a color, all the while keeping Apple's rather large color-wheel window open. Clumsy, to say the least.

MailActOn, a donation-ware plug-in for Apple Mail, solves this problem -- and more. Aside from allowing you to assign keystrokes for color-coding, MailActOn also lets you to use keystrokes to sort your mail. Now, when I want to send an email to a specific folder (say, "Archive") all hit is is the keystroke I've defined (in my case, Ctrl-A).

And, of course, Merlin at 43Folders has figured out the way to squeeze every bit of functionality out of the thing by remapping the Caps Lock key. Brilliant!

Tip 5: Speed up Mail Saving a lot of email (as I do) can impact Apple Mail's performance. Mail gets bloated, as it were, and slows down. If you're not careful, the database that stores information about your emails can even get corrupted.

Luckily, there's a simple solution. The Hawk Wings website has links to two different scripts (one, AppleScript, and the other an Automator script) that will "vacuum" the bloat out of Mail.app.

The Applescript version worked like a charm for me without incident, but you should ALWAYS backup your Mail.app files before trying something like this. (See below.)

Tip 6: Back-up Mail Files This is the most basic tip of all, and I know I say it again and again on this site, but ask yourself these two questions:

How much of my life is somehow stored in the emails I have sent and received?

When was the last time I backed up my email files?

So, though you should probably be using something like ChronoSync or whatever to backup ALL your files, if you need to backup just your Mail files they can be found in your system here:

users/[home directory]/Library/Mail users/[home directory]/Library/Mail Downloads

Tip 7: If you use multiple computers, consider using Portable Mail

I have two computers -- a tower and a laptop. All other things being equal, I prefer working on the tower, but the laptop obviously has its advantages. Mail is one application I want to access no matter which computer I'm on, and I've found syncing the application to be a bit of a pain at times. As a solution, I sometimes use a portable version of Mail, which I can run off of a flash drive.

The premise of Portable Mail is this: Instead of trying to sync your Mail from one computer to the next, you instead keep Mail -- your preferences, mailboxes, and downloads -- on a flash drive. Launching Portable Mail launches the Mail.app application of the host computer, but uses all of your preferences, which are on the flash drive.

If your email accounts have better than adequate webmail interfaces that you can access you might not need this, but I have a few accounts that have lousy webmail, so I've found it to be quite handy during days when I know I'm going back and forth between computers a lot.

You'll probably want a 1GB flash drive or larger if you have a lot of email.

Tip 8: Use Plug-ins (if you need 'em)

I'm obviously a fan of MailActOn and SpamSieve. They're two plug-ins that help me customize Apple's Mail to be the application I need. But I draw the line there -- adding on too many plug-ins increases clutter, decreases productivity, and invites conflicts that cause applications to crash.

But maybe you need something more, or something different. If so, the Hawk Wings website has made an excellent catalog of Plug-ins for Apple Mail.

Use 'em if you need 'em. And if you don't, don't.

Dialect Resources for Actors and Directors

The lead actress of the new film I'm working on is doing some dialect research. She shared this link with me, and I just have to share it here. It's the International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA). From their website, an explanation of the purpose:

The International Dialects of English Archive, IDEA, was created in 1997 as a repository of primary source recordings for actors and other artists in the performing arts. Its home is the Department of Theatre and Film at the University Of Kansas, in Lawrence, KS, USA; while associate editors form a global network. All recordings are in English, are of native speakers, and you will find both English language dialects and English spoken in the accents of other languages. The recordings are downloadable and playable for both PC and Macintosh computers.

It's an amazing audio archive of dialects from around the United States. Maybe this is old news to actors, but it's new to me, and quite exciting.

And, just in case you were wondering, we've been listening to Tennessee Eight.

Ten Commandments from HDforIndies

Mike Curtis posted an amusing and, more importantly, instructive rant over at HDforIndies. The post, entitled "OK Indies, listen up - 10 THINGS NOT TO DO", is a litany of Bad Things that Mike probably encounters once a day in his work as a post-production guru. Eight of the DON'Ts are technology related. Five, in fact, deal in some way with the Panasonic DVX-100. That camera has earned its spot in the Pantheon of Great Indy Film Tools, no doubt, but its framerate settings (60i, 30p, 24p, 24pAdvanced) can cause a lot of problems if you don't fully understand them. The fact that most of these problems happen in post-production only adds to the misery -- if you've shot in multiple formats without understanding their differences and potential incompatibilities, you may have really hurt your project.

If you don't understand this stuff, check out the CallBox DVD or read carefully in the DVXUser forums.

The two non-technology issues have Mike addressing the fact that so many poor independent filmmakers want him to do their tech consulting for free. Though his blog (like many others, including this one) provides information freely, Mike's really in business to sell his expertise and information. Since the "product" Mike sells has no physical properties (i.e., it's not a car or a widget) people seem to think that it should be given freely since it can be asked for freely.

I can relate. Since I teach, it's my obligation -- and it's my pleasure -- to give my information freely to my students. I also try to serve the community (both the film community and my local community) in different ways. But you have to draw the line somewhere in order to do your own work and to pay the bills.

Mike's answer to people needing answers to specific post-production questions is that you can "pray to Google" or hire him. I'm someone who's done both. Here's a post from the past of my own experience in hiring Mike as a consultant.

Head Trauma Re-Mix in Philly

Yo, Philly readers: Here's a screening that would make William Castle's head spin: Lance Weiler's Head Trauma will screen with a live soundtrack, featuring performances by Bardo Pond, members of Espers, Fern Knight and DJ Chief Wreck'em. Some theatrics are being thrown in for good measure and there will also be some interactivity. Bring your cell phone.

Details can be found at I-House (the venue) and on the Head Trauma website. Or check out the flyer here.

I'm not a connoisseur of horror and suspense films, but I enjoyed the film when I caught it on DVD last fall. I certainly I wish I could be there for the extravaganza on Saturday. Hopefully Lance will discuss the process of setting the show up, as well as the results, on his great Workbook Project site.

Review: 24P Digital Post Production with Final Cut Pro and the DVX100

Call Box's 24P Digital Post Production with Final Cut Pro and the DVX100 is a new instructional DVD that features Noah Kadner, one of the early adopters of the DVX100, talking about different workflows and best practices when using those two eponymous (and ubiquitous) tools of independent filmmaking. The DVD runs 90 minutes, and it's divided into several small episodes in which Kadner discusses lots of basics (e.g., what's a slate and how to use it, recommended tape stock) and some intermediate techniques (e.g., why and how to use CinemaTools, exporting projects for Color Correction at a post house, etc.). While some of the topics that Kadner covers seem pretty basic for anyone familiar with the DVXUser.com discussion boards, my suspicion is that this DVD grew out issues that Kadner has seen over and over in his consulting gigs. Sometimes the biggest problems that consultants solve stem from very simple things that were overlooked at the beginning of a project.

The video is well-shot on a bare-bones set, which puts the focus on Kadner, who is an engaging teacher. The DVD presentation is professional; it can be watched in one sitting, or chapter-by-chapter, which is useful if there's one topic you particularly want to revisit. I do wish that it was a DVD-Rom, perhaps to include some quicktime files to practice with, but I suppose Kadner assumes we wouldn't be watching if we didn't already have these tools ourselves.

Do note that this DVD focuses almost entirely on circumventing workflow problems using the DVX100 and FCP. This is NOT a "how-to-edit" in Final Cut Pro DVD, nor is it a manual on how to get the most of the DVX100's sophisticated imaging settings. (For an instructional guide on how to use FCP, I recommend Larry Jordan's Final Cur Pro 5 Essential Editing, Beyond the Basics, and Essential Effects DVDs. For a guide on making the most of the DVX100's image options, check out Barry Green's The DVX Book, which sometimes ships with new DVX100s.)

If you've shot and completed a few projects without any hitches using 24pAdvanced footage, 24P Digital Post Production with Final Cut Pro and the DVX100 probably isn't for you. But beginning to intermediate users venturing into 24p production would do well to spend 90 minutes with this disc before racing into production. Some might hesitate at the $75 pricetag but, as Kadner points out on the DVD, he gets paid $75 an hour to solve other filmmakers' problems. I guess you could think of this as preventive medicine (at 2/3 of the cost).

More information can be found at Call Box.

A Long Weekend of Short Filmmaking at William & Mary: Pt. 2

Saturday morning at William & Mary began with Troy Davis giving Ashley and me a tour around the William & Mary's Swem Library Media Center. The Director of the Media Center, Troy was my host for the weekend and one of the primary organizers of the Media Center's Long Weekend of Short Filmmaking. The Media Center is several things in one -- an equipment training center, an equipment check-out center, a recording studio for music and podcasts. It's anything and everything that students want and Troy makes himself, and his assistants, available to students to teach them anything from iMovie to Logic Pro.

Troy has been the Director of the Media Center for a year and a half, and it's impressive what he's accomplished. On a technical level, he's helped secure some superb editing facilities (several Mac tower stations with Final Cut, Logic Pro, and the rest of the works, each in its own sound controlled environment). For a guy who describes himself as a "dabbler" when it comes to film, I was impressed with all the smart technology purchases he has been making, not to mention his ability to talk in depth about the subtle differences between various pieces of equipment they own.

Since there are, no doubt, places like this at universities across the country, the biggest accomplishment isn't the equipment and stations he's amassed -- it's the sense of community generates out from this media hub. A lot of that, no doubt, is due to Troy's vision for the Media Center as a place that is accessible and inviting (as opposed to exclusive and intimidating). The Media Center, in fact, is littered with Troy's self-desribed "propaganda" -- humorous, well-designed posters -- that invite students into the space and use the equipment.

After the tour, Troy and I recorded a podcast that covered making and teaching film. He had thought a lot about my work and had some great questions, which is really flattering. (The podcast will be posted at some point on Media Center site. I'll link to it when it's available.)

The podcast led into a "self-reliant filmmaking" workshop that I conducted with some of William & Mary's film students and faculty.

I began by discussing the work I do on this blog, including my reasons for starting it, and how it's transformed my own film practice. I then opened things up for discussion, which led to a wide-ranging conversation that covered everything from what video camera to purchase to some simple strategies for first-time documentarians. Ashley threw in some good advice during the conversation, to boot; I was happy she had joined me.

Our workshop group talked for nearly two hours, so Ashley and I had a quick break for lunch before I ran off to a screening of some of my own short films at the historic Kimball Theatre. The films looked good in this classy venue, I was happy with the turnout, and the questions the audience asked were, again, really good. (I even received some email from audience members after the screening thanking me for sharing my work.) There was a little reception in the theater lobby afterwards, and I enjoyed talking with some of the William & Mary faculty members that had come to the screening. That conversation led to a coffeehouse where Sharon Zuber, who teaches W&M's production courses, and I compared notes about how to teach film production.

We closed out the day by stopping by the premiere of the Cans Film Festival (pun intended), a student-organized screening of films produced at a variety of Virginia universities. (There weren't any entries from Virginia Tech -- maybe next year?) Ashley and I weren't able to stay for long -- I was beat and we had a long drive back in the morning. We did manage to catch one zombie flick before we left.

Before we left on Sunday morning, Troy treated us to breakfast at one of Williamsburg's many pancake houses. Ashley and I had seen a number of pancake houses on our drive in, and I suppose they reflect the fact that Williamsburg is a haven for retirees and a magnet for tourists (motto: "Where History Lives"). The three of us had one last movie-saturated conversation, and Troy told us about his next dream for the Media Center -- restoring an unused auditorium in the William & Mary library and making into a screening facility/microcinema.

As we drove out of town, past a few more pancake houses, I thought about a place like Wiliamsburg. Even with the occasional major production (like Malick's The New World) coming to town, it would still be surprising to see Williamsburg develop into the next Austin. Williamsburg's a town of 12,000 people, and a lot of the people are transient (whether they're tourists, college students, or retirees). That's a tough place to build a film culture. Of course these things don't only apply to Williamsburg. If this sounds like your town, too, well, so be it. It sounds like mine.

The thing is, something is happening in Williamsburg. Things like the Kimball Theatre, and the William & Mary Media Center are part of the puzzle. The "corner pieces" of that puzzle, though, are a dedicated group of people with vision, passion, and resourcefulness. That's the real lifeblood of regional filmmaking and film culture. Some places don't have this, or have enough of it. Luckily, for Williamsburg, it has Troy Davis, Sharon Zuber, Arthur Knight (coordinator of Film Studies at W&M), and a host of student filmmakers. Something tells me that their numbers will only continue to grow.

Cinema vs. Home Theater

There's an interesting discussion going on at the Onion's AV Club these days about the relative merits of watching movies in the theater or at home. Noel Murray and Scott Tobias began the discussion in a "Crosstalk" article, and that ingnited a nice little debate in the discussion area. Josh Oakhurst has weighed in on the issue, too (via FresHDV). My partner, Ashley, manages a one-screen historic art house cinema. With the exception of 19th century costume dramas, I'll see pretty much anything they screen. On the other hand, we also have very modest home theater setup. Just so you have the context, here's the setup:

    - a low-end video projector - a movie screen bought for $10 from junk merchants that had set up shop on the side of the road near Joelton, Tennessee - a dvd player - an old home theater audio system handed down from my dad - home-made window blinds that completely blackout our living room when we want to screen in the daytime (unnecessary at night)

It's not fancy, but we love it.

As for which is better, I think there are certainly pros and cons to either experience. I'm certainly not going to argue that people should give up going to the theater, nor that they should stop renting movies. De gustibus non est disputandum, as the saying goes.

These articles did get me (re)thinking the cinema vs. home theater debate. Here are a few personal observations inspired by Murray, Tobias, Oakhurst, et al.

***

Screen size matters. Attention matters more. The biggest advantage that cinemas have over the home viewing experience is not the size of the screen. What matters is that I enter into a kind of social contract wherein I am committing my time and attention to a story. Many people can't, don't, or won't do that at home. They turn on a movie as one of many competing distractions.

If I am serious about watching a movie at home I will turn off the phone, use the restroom, get any food/beverage I might want, and then I'll turn out all the lights and screen the movie using a video projector.

Sure, a big screen helps, but it needn't be as enormous as what I see in a theater. It simply needs to be large enough so that the image and sound command my undivided attention. Arguably any type of projection (film or video) is better than television. Why? Because projection requires darkness for a visible image; television does not. And that darkness directs my attention to the light, the story.

Seeing a film in a movie theater is not a communal experience. I heard someone talking on NPR a few days ago about how we need the theatrical experience because it is "our campfire." I yield to no one in my belief that storytelling plays a civic and communal function, but going to see movies is NOT the same as telling stories around a campfire. For those that can't tell the difference, telling stories around a campfire is an interactive experience wherein the teller's tale is actually shaped by her responding to her audience's reaction as the tale unfolds. Movies are the same every time. Aside from The Purple Rose of Cairo, I've never seen one that talked back to its audience.

Even beyond these obvious facts I simply don't think the theatrical experience of moviegoing is as communal as people make it out to be. When I go to the movies, I go alone or with friends. We watch the movie and we do not talk during it. Then, after it's over, as we exit the theater, we might begin to discuss it. That last part is the communal part, but this discussion could just as easily happen at home, after we've watched the thing on video.

With regards to the "communal experience" I would need to interact with strangers for the theatrical experience to really distinguish itself from what I get from home video. By and large, this simply doesn't happen. In fact, I can't remember the last time I spoke with a stranger at the movies.

The most communal thing that happens during a movie is that strangers laugh at the same joke or scream at the same shock effect. This isn't a terribly deep experience, as experiences go. It doesn't remotely compare with the experience of, say, singing along with strangers at a rock concert or giving some dude a high-five or even a man-hug -- yes, hugging a stranger -- at a football game when the home team scores. Furthermore, if you don't share the rest of the crowd's taste (say, you don't find Little Miss Sunshine as funny as everyone else) then watching a comedy with an audience can be a depressing, even anti-social, experience.

Seeing movies can lead to communal experiences. Movies can serve as today's "campfire story", but since they're the same wherever they're screened (excepting scratches, splices, etc) the communal experience can take place well after the fact of the event. I can talk about Children of Men with my sister on the phone, or with a co-worker in the office lounge, or right here on the Internet. This is the campfire, right here. (Just ask all those people on the Onion AV discussion board.) With regards to my ability to take part in the communal discussion, it doesn't matter how I've seen the movie, just that I have.

There is something special about seeing a motion picture on film, but seeing a work on film does not guarantee or preclude its making an impact on you.

Here's a random list of some of the best movie-watching experiences I've ever had. Some of these are my favorite films; some aren't. There's a huge gap from '99 to '06, which I could fill out if I sat down and thought about this for more than a minute.

    - Star Wars - movie theater - Knoxville, TN (1977) - Hannah and Her Sisters - movie theater - Knoxville, TN (1987) - Sex Lies and Videotape - movie theater - Knoxville, TN (1989) - Through a Glass Darkly - vhs - 12" television (1991) - Jules et Jim - restored 35mm print at AFI cinema in early 90s in Washington DC (1991?) - Jackal of Nahueltoro - 16mm classroom projection (1993) - The Awful Truth - vhs - 12" television - VHS (1993) - Jacquot - movie theater - Durham, NC (1994) - Time Indefinite - movie theater - Chapel Hill, NC (1994) - My Night at Maud's - 16mm print - Philadelphia Senior Citizen's Center - Philadelphia (1995?) - Through the Olive Trees - 35mm print International House - Philadelphia (1995?) - The Garden - 35mm print film festival screening- Philadelphia, PA (1996) - Diary of a Country Priest - crappy VHS edition on 15" television (1996) - L'Argent - 35mm print - Florence Gould Hall - NYC (1997) - Apu Trilogy - 35mm re-release @ Ritz Theaters - Philadelphia, PA (1997?) - Contempt - 35mm re-release @ Ritz Theaters - Philadelphia, PA (1997) - Red - 16mm print - Philadelphia Senior Citizen's Center - Philadelphia (1998) - Window Water Baby Moving - 16mm projected onto a white wall in a 10x10 room at University of Tennessee - projected and watched by myself (1999) - What Farocki Taught - vhs pre-screener - 15" television (1999) - Mulholland Drive - movie theater - Knoxville (2001) - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - movie theater - Knoxville (2004) - Yi Yi - dvd - living room video projection (2006)

Most of these were screened on film. Still, some were screened on video, and under lousy conditions at that. What's more interesting to me is that many of these films were rare or difficult to see. The fact remains, though: Film is not a necessary condition for a powerful movie-watching experience. Attentiveness is. (See above.)

The arguments for watching films at home are rarely arguments for the home viewing experience. They're arguments against the theatrical experience. Here are some of those arguments:

    - Some chains think of the movie as that thing that runs after their 2wenty minute in-house commercial. - The cost of seeing a movie in a cinema is at least double what it would cost to rent a video. - Some theaters have lousy projection, sticky floors, etc. - People don't know how to behave in public, and especially not at the movies. (Any serious moviegoer has his/her audience war stories. Here's one: Once, during some lousy Sean Connery movie, a lady seated in the row behind me changed her baby's diaper on the spot. I've seen some movies that stunk, but none more literally than this one. But I digress.)

The point is, those that argue for the glories of home cinema are not saying that it's better, but that it's less bad. On one level, obviously, this reflects what a sorry state we're in as moviegoers. But it also means that if movie theaters, especially the cinema chains, would reevaluate the way they do business they might win back some audiences.

***

I'm lucky. Most of the movies I see in the cinema these days are screened at nicely maintained, independently-owned movie theaters in Blacksburg and Roanoke. Their projection is good and the sound is always adequate, at the very least. My main gripe with these theaters -- and cinemas in general -- is that their programming is not as adventurous as I'd like it to be. And while that might be an argument for watching videos at home, that's a separate issue.

Loss of deck connectivity in Final Cut? Try reinstalling QuickTime

Normally I try to write less prosaic (or at least shorter) post titles, but hopefully this will help some Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express users that are googling for a solution to deck connectivity problems. A few weeks ago a student came to my office nearly in tears because Final Cut Express, which she had on her iBook, wouldn't recognize her camcorder when she was trying to capture footage. In fact, most times, FCE would crash when she tried to capture footage.

We tried to isolate the problem:

Was it a connection problem? No, we tried firewire cables (including some known to work). The problem continued.

Was it a camera problem? No. We captured footage on my laptop without any issues.

Was it a computer problem? Probably not. She was able to capture footage on her computer using iMovie.

At this point we began the googling. After a while, we happened on the problem (QuickTime) and its solution (reinstalling QuickTime).

Here's Apple's article on the subject: Restoring a DV device connection in QuickTime 7.

It's worth noting that this tip also works for Final Cut Pro. And its a good reminder that a smart first place to search when encountering problems with Apple-manufactured software is Apple's own support site.

Software Update: Final Cut 5.1.3

Apple has just released an update to Final Cut Pro (5.1.3). Apple describes it as a maintenance release that "resolves performance and other issues." Specifically: Render File Capability - apparently, render files created on a PowerPCs and Intel-based Macs weren't playing nice

Keyboard Layout Issues - "adds several commands to the default keyboard that were missing"

Issues with Cross Dissolves in Nested Sequences - "resolves cases in which cross dissolves did not work as expected in nested sequences containing still images with adjusted motion parameters"

You can read more here.

Of course, as with any upgrade, you might wait and see how others are faring with the update before you upgrade yourself. The VersionTracker message board is one good place to look for this kind of feedback.

Also, if you move between different computers using the same project files make sure all the machines will be upgraded at the same time so that your files aren't rendered incompatible, as sometimes happens.

Finally, use extreme caution when upgrading software while in the midst of working on a project. I have seen nasty stuff happen to FCP projects when someone upgraded their system from, say, 4.5 to 5.0. I've even seen it happen with a "dot something" upgrade. Such a small incremental update like this (5.1.3) is probably okay. But I'm not going to guarantee it. Safety first: If things are working just dandy for you with 5.1.2, don't chance it. Finish that project, output it, archive it, and then do the upgrade.

DVGuru's Demise: On AOL and the owning of blogs

DVGuru, the valuable group blog about most things video and film, is no more as of Wednesday. I read it daily, which I can't say of many websites. I'm disappointed, as are a lot of other readers. What made it an especially useful site was the fact that it served as a kind of aggregator for more specialized and esoteric film/video content-related websites around the web. But beyond aggregation, the writers had a talent for quickly summing up an issue and then leading you to the original source. As a reader -- and as someone whose own writing was at times cited by DVGuru's editors -- I really appreciated that. Alas, I'll now have to find some of my news from other sources.

The announcement caught a few people off guard. What's the story?

I've heard and read that DVGuru, along with some other blogs, were given the axe by AOL, the company that owns Weblogs, Inc. There was nothing controversial about these sites that led to their shutdown -- in these cases it's always about money. Ads weren't selling or getting clicked through or, in all likelihood, it was just too much trouble for AOL to do the research to figure out who should be advertising.

I understand why AOL wanted to acquire Weblogs, Inc. It's a way to own content, and doing so would be a throwback to AOL's dial-up heyday, those halcyon days when it housed a good percentage of the polished content on the internet. The difference is that, in the mid-late 90s, AOL's content was general information, the "frontpage" kind of face that Yahoo and others provide these days. Blogs are different though; almost all of them focus on niche markets. Some companies get this; others mail out millions of CD-roms pleading with you to use dial-up.

(As a point of comparison, consider Google's approach to weblogs. Google didn't try to acquire various popular blogs. It acquired Blogger. The same thinking, no doubt, went into their acquisition of YouTube. Google doesn't want the content. It wants the delivery system for the content.)

Anyway, I'm not going to wring my hands about this -- there are, after all, another billion or so websites out there to read, and there is no such thing as death on the internet. Still, it only re-confirms my skepticism about the long-term viability of corporate-owned weblogs.

So long, DVGuru. It was good to know ya.

Sonnet Tempo E4P Firmware Update

I realize this will have limited use for most readers, but I recently acquired a Sonnet Tempo E4P SATA card for a Mac Pro, and was having problems with it. Big problems. The computer wouldn't recognize the card, much less run the two Sonnet Fusion 500p drive enclosures I had connected). Searched around online, both on the Sonnet site and elsewhere (newsgroups, etc) for a solution. Couldn't find one. Finally, I called tech support. After 20 minutes on hold I spoke with someone. It went something like this:

TECH SUPPORT: You need to update the firmware of the card.

ME: Oh...ok. That's funny, the documentation doesn't say anything about that.

TECH SUPPORT: It should.

ME: Um.. nope.

TECH SUPPORT: Hang on.

(puts me on hold ... two minutes of elevator music later...)

TECH SUPPORT: Wow. You're right, it's not in the documentation. Uh oh.

By the embarrassment (and dread, knowing he'd be encountering a lot of calls like this) I sensed on the phone yesterday, I suspect that future versions of the documentation will have this detail added soon. Hopefully this post will help a few users until the nice folks at Sonnet can get that documentation fixed.

Users can find the Tempo E4P firmware update here.

A Swarm of Angels

Matt over at FresHDV had an interesting post the other day about A Swarm of Angels, which is a self-described attempt to create "cult cinema for the Internet era." On one level, this isn't that different than what I wrote about in my last post: Filmmakers using the internet to raise funds for a project that harnesses the collaborative nature and spirit of the internet. Still, some key differences make me skeptical about its potential for success, at least compared with a project like Lost in Light on Have Money Will Vlog:

First, instead of trying to raise $1500, they're trying to raise a little over half a million dollars. I have no doubt that it is possible to raise that kind of money over the internet, but this project is essentially asking people to pay about $18 to participate. Maybe that's reasonable? Personally, I would rather give money to a more personal project like Lost in Light

Secondly, the project is trying to enlist 1000 people to help create it. Again, I think you can find this many people to collaborate on a project. Firefox, Wikipedia... these are great examples of internet, open-source collaboration. But are 1000 heads better than one (or even 20) when it comes to feature filmmaking? Snakes on a Plane, as one previous example, isn't exactly Exhibit A for the so-called "wisdom of crowds."

Reservations aside, I'll be interested to see the project evolve and I wish the best of luck to the participants. All one thousand of you.