the fxphd deans blog

One of the great things about all the traveling I did last year was having the ability to sit down with fxphd members all around the world and get their thoughts on the site and the industry in general. Because of the broad range of curriculum we have at the site, we have an even wider variety of members. When Mike, Jeff, and I were at Sundance last month we had the opportunity to meet up with member Anthony Young who owns Digital Bytes in nearby Salt Lake City. His company supplies production and post-production services to the region.

Young, who came from a background in broadcast television, has a wealth of experience in the industry. Keeping current on the full range of rapidly changing technology is difficult, which is what led him to fxphd. His company supplied the gear and crew for the AMC network’s tapings of Shootout at Sundance. They were set up in a restaurant-turned-studio right on Main Street in Park City where we had the opportunity to attend a taping with Jack Black and director Michel Gondry who were in town for the screeing of “Be Kind Rewind”…..
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I walked into the area we were scheduled to shoot in and my first reaction was - no way. NO way did we have enough light to see yet alone shoot!

The plan had been to do a low light test with the RED as part of the RED 202 course.We set up our RED and we literally could see nothing on the LCD - I mean we could not even focus. Luckily Jimmy had a pen torch on his key ring, with ONE LCD, run off a single AAA battery. We pointed it in the near dark at the animal we assumed was in front of us, turned the camera to 2000 ASA, took off any shutter, swapped to the fastest lens we had, and by some miracle we could film.

I mean I thought there was no chance at all of getting anything meaningful. Sure the image is noisy and grainy, but still - being able to film in near dark with a pencil torch - amazingly cool.

Today as part of our continuing set of Red shoots for the fxphd - we took to the air. We rigged the Red so we could fly and film freestyle out the side of chopper - as you can see in the photo, I just had the Red One on my shoulder. We figured this would be a good test for the new RED drive. The vibration, wind and dust of the Alice as seen from the air should put any portable hard drive to the test and that was very true today. Thankfully my shoulder had improved enough from the end of last year that I could operate. This area around Alice Springs is so amazing - dramatic and timeless and it was pure joy to photography it from the air today.

We have more shoots planned - wildlife, highspeed and also some plate photography work to allow some insanely cool classes next term. Footage from today will be available as both image sequences and .r3d files to fxphd members.

Mike - Hot and happy in the Northern Territory !

Today we are in Central Australia this week filming for future fxphd classes. We did time-lapse, and mini-gib arm nature shots. The center is so hot this time of year, but even more beautiful. The red earth against the blue sky is just amazing.

We found this beautiful watering hole in the desert. It was the closest thing I’ll ever see to a real work oasis. And after the shoot - I went swimming - and it was really cold about 4 feet below the surface, even with it being about 35C on waters edge.

With this week’s RED202 course containing a discussion on stereoscopic as part of the class, I figured I’d post about a little film I saw last night. While Mike was in Sydney jetlagged and enjoying the Police live in concert, I also felt musically inclined and checked out the Chicago premiere of U23D in all its IMAX glory.

I wasn’t the only fxphd-er at the show…ran into member WillRyan outside who was nice enough to come up introduce himself. We both left the show pondering the possibilities of what this might mean to the mainstream industry.The film was both incredibly immersive…this coming from being a U2 fan who saw the live show twice….and yes, a bit gimmicky due to the 3D effect. But it was a blast to enjoy and the technology certainly has the desired effect of helping place you in the center of the action. It’s no surprise this was a fave at Sundance….
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Last night we saw our second film at Sundance ‘Spider’ directed by Nash Edgerton. The film seemed to have a great reception.

Sundance is an amazing experience, the density of activity is amazing. Yesterday after taping a background fundamentals class and an interview for fxguidetv we attended someone else’s taping of an extremely entertaining interview with Jack Black and Michel Gondry. Their new film Be Kind Rewind is one of the hottest films at Sundance (opening nationwide Feb. 22). The film has Black and co-stars re filming a series of major Hollywood films at a local video store when Black erases all the shops video tapes.
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Its 10.30 at night and the lights go down, but we are not in a cinema but rather at an underground restaurant, as all of Sundance went black. All the street power died in Park City for 45 minutes. Hardly anyone seems that surprised given the amount of lights, parties and music that was happening at the time.

With the light of a couple of iphones screens, we managed to get out on the street and managed to catch a bus to the cinema that was about to show premiere “I Love Sarah Jane”. After going to completely the wrong cinema - and two buses later - we got to the Holiday Village Cinema II for the Shorts program. Sarah Jane got a good reaction it seemed from the indie crowd, in a sell out screening of “Shorts V”. Interestingly apart from Sarah Jane and some other great short films, the program was peppered with three “Green Porno” short films by Isabella Rossellini. These were both insanely funny and completely twisted.

As for the rest of Sundance, it is exactly what you would expect - a film crew on very corner - millions of people, traffic, movie stars and at least two RED cameras (one in the 130+ serial numbers - which had only just been picked up and the proud new owners were still filming there first 8 gig card as we walked by).

As for festival - here are the stats:

207 films will be screened here over the next 2 weeks, from a total of 8,731, and that includes 87 premiers, all from over 35 countries.

The night started well at restaurant Kate Mantilini just a couple of doors down from the Oscar Bake Off screening. The traditional pre and post show party at the famous restaurant was completely packed (see right).

There was an honor roll of visual effects artists and senior vfx supervisors on hand including (but not limited to) Ken Ralston, Michael Fink, John Knoll, Price Pethel, Chris Watts, Rick Baker, John Landis, Michael Bay, John Dykstra, Leigh Pesqueira and the evening was hosted by Bill Taylor - of Illusion Arts fame.

The seven films invited to the bakeoff were selected by the 48 people steering committee members from around 360 eligible films.

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We have expanded again at the fxphd studios and built a new set. This new permanent set is for this terms Photography for VFX and the new IT courses. Both courses require some space and we decided to design and build a new set, taking to 4 the number of permanent fixed sets we use to make the courses for fxphd. This term we have 30 courses on offer, only some of which are out of each location. Hopefully by the April term we will have an entire new studio set up in the USA… but for now we are just happy to have a new see.

Why not do virtual sets? Well to be honest - we just don’t like the look of them - and we like the reality of real sets - maybe someday but for now we are sticking to real sets we can light and walk around…as you will see in Steve Anderson’s first class when he tackles Normal Lighting Stills photography.

From all of us here, thanks for the year, we hope to see you again in 2008. Travel Safe.