*I guess I'll have to buy the White Album again... Part One

  In the good old days, if you remember that far back, there was the sudden decline of VHS with the introduction of a new format... DVD. Films were suddenly broadened and expanded with the additional data footprint afforded by the new medium. No longer was it just a film, it was a film, Behind the Scenes, Deleted Scenes, Interviews, Gag Reels, Featurettes, Music Videos and OH SO MUCH MORE!  And thanks to DVD there were suddenly new definitions such as -

Vanilla [vuh-nil-uh or, often, -nel-uh]
Adjective: Informal. plain-vanilla.
DVD definition: Feature film and possibly a motion menu, but no other features of any kind.

Double Dipping [duhb-uh l-dip-ing]
Noun: the act or practice of receiving more than one income or collecting double benefits from the same employer or organization.
DVD definition: Any Special, Collector's, Definitive etc... Edition of a film released as the ultimate version, only to be re-released with even MORE content as another edition. Or the initial release of a film as a Vanilla disc, only to be re-released/replaced shortly after as one of the aforementioned editions.

  With the arrival of Blu-Ray these terms should have been rendered as obsolete as VHS, but sadly studios still do it. In fact more and more often studios will release three different versions on the initial release day (EG: 3D, Blu-Ray, Collectors/Limited/etc...). Some studios go as far as to give you a triple pack of Blu-Ray, DVD, and Ultraviolet or Digital copy, although some of these are sorely lacking in additional content. But this is all par for the course. What I'm actually trying to get to, yeah there is a point, is the poor quality and sub-par releases to Blu Ray which are steadily being released on a more regular basis.

 I'm going to use the initial 2009 Blu-Ray release of Ghostbusters as my case in point.

  Prior to release the transfer was said to be completely re-digitised from the original negative (or at least that is what I read).
 The case lists the feature picture quality as:
High Definition 1080p Widescreen (2.40:1)
 But sadly I believe this to be a HUGE lie and if anything it's an up-scale from a VHS print.
 The quality is so poor or noisy (EG: "Snow" or Static like graininess) in some scenes it is hugely distracting to the point of annoying.
 Take the following screen shot I took from the Blu Ray myself:

Ghostbusters - 2009 Blu-Ray 

I want to stress of the image above:

• It has not been altered or edited.
• It is a screenshot taken with my Smartphone using my Smart Television's remote app Screenshot function.
• The Blu Ray player in this case is a Playstation 3 with Sony branded Gold plug HDMI connection...

  The number of substandard releases to Blu-Ray is surprisingly quite high. BUT where are companies (and or were) that lovingly restore films from original prints and re-release them. A perfect example of this would be the people at Hong Kong Legends, who, where once a film had received it's box office limit, and (the films) were forgotten, especially after a home video release (as the Hong Kong film industry was mostly a money laundering scheme for the Triads - There are some wonderful articles about this online), so many of these classics by directors such as John Woo, Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark were forgotten, until Hong Kong Legends restored the negatives frame by frame, created new content and features, refined and repaired audio, re-recorded English dubs and re-wrote subtitles (to less unintended comedic effect).

The Big Boss (Hong Kong Legends) - Left Original Footage and Right Re-mastered Footage

But sadly, in 2007, Hong Kong Legends was discontinued and the Cine Asia label was formed, and restoration is seemingly been halted.

  Often friends assume I'm trying to replace my DVD collection with Blu-Rays, and in some cases it might be true, but realistically I'm not. I'll purchase older films when re-released on Blu-ray (that I already have on DVD) if they have new content, or just one of those films you can watch over and over again. Ghostbusters was the latter. But to replace the older films I have on DVD, many of which have not been released on Blu-Ray yet, would be a fools errand and a costly exercise. I do buy a lot of films, and sometimes I buy newer films I've never seen because it's now cheaper to purchase them on Blu-Ray as an ex-rental, than to hire or purchase new on DVD/Blu-ray. I am a collector, so streaming doesn't do it for me. I own a lot of "crap" films, but each film I consider an element of education and reference for what to, and not to do when making a film.

*I Guess I'll have to buy the White Album again -

  In music, people would joke with the release of each new format (Vinyl, Cassette Tape, Mini-Disc, Audio DVD, MP3 etc...) that people would have to purchase The Beatles White Album again. Now the internet says that this joke originated with a throw away line by Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black, but my Father said this with the introduction of CD, which was well before the release of this film. I'm not saying my father made up this joke, I'm saying it's an audiophile reference.

 The concept was that with each different format you may hear something different from the music, find more depth, find a missed note, or something like that.

Reference One - Audiophile

Reference Two - Men In Black /Audiophile

* VHS Picture Credit:
Hollis Brown Thornton

"Filmmaking is like sex" - Is film school necessary?

 Yesterday on Indie Wire an interesting article was posted which saw multiple independent film makers give honest and assertive opinions on the viability of attending a film school.

 With the excessive costs, is it wiser to pay for tuition or just use that money to make your first independent film? Is there a creative repression to which is potentially a controlled learning environment? 

  Personally, I did attend film school, or at least a film school of sorts. For my time there I did learn how to use some elements of many types of software and built a familiarization with Mac's, but for the most part, I learned that my fellow students were unreliable and prone to plagiarism and the tutors unable to truly function in the real world; the old idiom "Those who can't teach" rang ever true. I found it a port of call to gain access to gear and, at the time, expensive software, but the majority of my education was hands on and a lot of Google searching, this led to me helping several of my peers to complete projects, while also completing my own. Although the course was only a year, in that year I completed well over 20 assignments and for the most part I was, almost always, top 2 in marks. I graduated with honours and was granted an additional award on top of my Diploma. I made some good friends, some who are now no longer with us. I had a nemesis in whom I encountered a startling amount of plagiarism, drive and equal dedication, which pushed me harder and further than I thought possible.

  But, having attended film school, and looking back on that time, would I do it again? I think the answer would be yes, although at a more reputable institution, or at least an institution dedicated to film. I went back and taught for a year, and thankfully my contract expired and was not renewed, I enjoyed teaching, as well as a ready access to gear and equipment, but there is the constant feeling, not unlike that of feeling like a fraud.

  I think for each and every person it's probably a very different situation, some people find creativity in a classroom environment, others are likely to have their creativity stifled. But all in all, one of the best ways to gain access to gear at an affordable and alarmingly easy frequency is to attend a film school, granted, go with the one with the best, most well stocked and accessible gear locker!

 The article on Indie Wire can be found here: 

Is Film School Necessary? Top Indie Filmmakers Respond

"filmmaking is like sex, there's no one way to do it, and the only way to learn it is by doing it." - Ana Lily Amirpour

R.I.P. - Jackson Horn
12 January 1972 - 03 December 2008

Living with an SJ4000 - The Good, The Bad and the Indifferent.

 I've now been the owner of the SJ4000 for several months, in fact, I have two and am considering getting a third... And probably a fourth.

 As an unmanned camera they can competently record in 1080p for an hour before battery power becomes critically low and that old game of who'll blink first becomes a cold sweat panic.

 My initial fear when I purchased my first one was that it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as the hype suggested, but on arrival I found no major problems. BUT, I did find a few minor ones, which were all easily resolved.

 The first problem I encountered was with the attachments and mounts. Since they are mostly Go Pro compatible (and I've also found this when purchasing after market brackets and mounting solutions too) the joins are too smooth. This results in slipping when the camera is mounted. It was an easy one to resolve and the following video (not mine) shows exactly what to do (although it's pretty obvious):

 The second problem I encountered was with the second camera, the underwater case appeared fine, and I honestly didn't think to look too closely to notice initially. There are four rubber nugs on the back door which hold the camera in position when housed. It wasn't until I was about to start filming that I found the two lower nugs were damaged. This is a quality control issue and was easily fixed as the camera comes with a second door, but without those in place, none of the case buttons connect with the camera buttons as the camera moves and contact is not fully made.

Images are for demonstration purposes and are not faulty.

 The last problem, which was anticipated, is the battery life, and if you purchase from a site which offers additional batteries DO IT! Buy them, especially if you intend to film for longer than an hour in full HD (as previously mentioned).

 In the weekend I set up 4 cameras around a stage mounted in various positions with a 5th camera hand held. 

What was I using:

1x GoPro Hero 2

This was mounted on the PA stand, facing into the stage, using a M-B1 Fast Clip:

2x SJ4000's

I had one SJ4000 mounted using another M-B1 Fast clip on the PA facing across the stage, and the second was mounted on the drummers ride stand using a Standard (quick release) GoPro Bike Mount:

2x Kodak Zx5

One Zx5 was mounted on the PA stand on the opposite side of the stage again using a standard GoPro Bike Mount (the quick release version which allows for larger diameters). The other, as stated, was my handheld camera.

 Thinking I would probably have issues, I only encountered one camera failure, which was the GoPro. It appears it had discharged instead of charging earlier that day, so battery life was nominal at best and I only captured a little under 8 minutes. 

 After gathering all my gear I proceeded to drink too much which resulting in a lack of personal functionality for most of Sunday, but the footage I saw turned out better than I expected (all things considered).

Go shoot something!

Vimeo Find of the Month - December (Refocused Media - The Art of Steadicam)

 ... This month, in keeping with the October find, is a look at various Steadicam shots throughout the years in Refocused Media's homage to Steadicam in The Art of Steadicam.

 Again this was uploaded over a year ago, but sometimes we need to look back before we can advance forward... Also with the broad number of shots over the 10 minute 20 second duration, it's a nice reminder of films we've likely seen and are overdue to be re-watched