the fxphd deans blog

So this weekend we did an incredible stunt shoot for fxphd.

We were incredibly lucky to get Tony Lynch and a great team of professional stunt guys to work with us. These guy’s film credits are an amazing body of international work in films such as Star Wars and The Matrix - but a nicer, more professional, relaxed bunch of guys you could not find !

We also were joined by a bunch of fxphd PostGrad who not only came and helped out- but shot sequences of their own and helped by doubling as oil rigging extras against green screen.

The day was very relaxed and friendly but we got a heap done at the Carnival Studios sound stages. I will write some more on stunts and how to pull them off but today i just wanted to explain what we were filming.

We had 3 objectives:

1. Firstly it was to film some great stunts - including high free falls and fights. Plus we got a bunch of green screen shots done for the oil rig sequence. So we filmed both professional stunt guys and our Post-grads in front of green screen.

2. We also wanted to film something for our Background fundamentals so we could explain how to incorporate stunts into your film - how to work with stunts and dispell some of the myths involved. We also will use footage in the matte painting and roto classes this term.

3. To film material for one of next term’s courses. This is a new course and the Post-Grads spent a few hours filming material for that. It included a shoot out between say mini-dv, Hdv, and DVC-Pro - and some really fun ‘tricks’ of the trade.

It is tricky when your not just filming to get get a shot but get a shot about getting the shot - if that makes sense (!) and as always Pete our DOP did us proud, aided this time with Second unit cameraman Jimmy Shen.

More on stunts tomorrow, but again a great big thanks to those who attended and those who literally risked their necks for us to have some great footage to work with.

Mike

Wow I just got home and more DVDs from the Academy - you know it is Emmy season when your mail box fills - not that I am complaining - it is great way to see shows you may have missed. I was really impressed with the work in the series the Tutors on Showtime, very well made show. Showtime have really been getting great scripts lately, and their work -plus people like HBO etc make me feel like episodic TV is in a golden age of quality writing. I know - I know it may not seem that way - but come on Tutors, Sopranos, Entourage, Sleeper Cel, Heroes, Rome, Studio 60, The Extras - all outstanding productions.

These are just some of this year’s better box sets.

I actually take voting really seriously - I think the crews of these shows deserve that.

In a semi-unrelated topic - I am interviewing the vfx team from Heroes today. Those guys have done a great job - the show is really engaging and the visual effects are both key and well done. This will be next week’s fxguide podcast hopefully - also check out another great interview by John this week with the Shrek - Dreamworks Animation team. www.fxguide.com

I went to a SMPTE post NAB thing the other night… it was a break down of technical innovation from the conference last month… and I ran into Phiroze Dalal from Vision Research. I had seen these guys when I was talking at the Codex booth to the development team and Vision Research was the next booth over. What caught my eye was their 1000fps footage HD.

We are going to film some pieces for fxphd on their Phantom HD 1000fps - 1920 x1080 14bit. The thing that makes this so amamingly useful is tat even at those frame rates the images are clean and very low noise. Vision Research also make a 4K 125fps frame camera - the Phantom 65, so named since the sensor is the same size as 65mm. These guys have been doing high speed military and commerical stuff for ages - and now they are moving into our industry. Nice guys and I look forward to getting our Post-grads some really cool footage.

Of course there were a lot of interesting cameras at NAB… the RED, Viper, Aaton Penelope, Dalsa, Silicon Imaging, Sony F23, new XDCAM 4:2:2, it remains to be seen how many survive the next few years. Vision Research has a long track record outside our industry and Phiroze was saying 1000fps is at the SLOW end of their cameras,… they film flashes cameras going off to clock the flash curves, or guns firing - he himself used to be in the car division and smash cars with 17 high speed cameras attached - now thats a cool job !

Anyway the high speed shoot will be done soon - we’ll keep you informed.

BTW this weekend we shoot stunts - in Sydney on Sunday - should be fun. But man if organising a shoot is not a way to go quickly insane. Still having fought to get our sound stage clear of problems that would have delayed us,.. we seem all set… I will blog it on Monday.

In the office I like the 901 from db technologies.

db Technologies PU 901M, UHF wireless system has 16 alternative frequencies, digital pilot transmission with digital squelch control and battery status control (which is SO helpful) , with XLR out.

The 901 set consists of the receiver and a pocket UH900P transmitter.

5V phantom power is supplied to accommodate condenser microphones.

We like it but it is not portable - we have two units like this and each feeds into a mixer which in turn feeds into a mac. We sync audio and vision with a clapper board. Of course yesterdays system is sync as it is recorded on the camera.

Just one thing..leads - all XLR leads are not the same - Radio Shack leads and or low cost leads are utter utter crap (IMHO) so get good quality leads - pay the money and get good leads. If you have ever had a drop out or random problem you’ll know what I mean.

Mike

Following on from yesterday:

For field recording we have two mic options - lapel mic and a base of hand held mic option.
Both send back to a Azden battery operated - camera mounted Receiver.

200UPR Receiver
Frequency Range UHF 63-Channel Selectable (793.750 – 805.875MHz)
Type of Reception 2 Channel Receiver

As this takes in two separate feeds from two mics - the outputs from this are plugged straight into the XLR inputs of the HVX200.

I love this unit .. we have another I will talk about tomorrow but this thing seems to be very robust.

The hand mic unit just clicks on the base of an XLR mic - In yesterdays photo I think John is using the XM1800s Behinger… I tell you this mic is super cheap and completely professional… it is solid - metal and yet very inexpensive. We have a bunch of them as our “workhorse” mics which dont matter if they are lost or nicked… vs our studio mics - which are 10X the price. Honestly for dialogue - they are cheap and brilliant.

So this is a lesson I learnt the hard way. Audio matters.

I now notice that when audio is bad, I tune out… let me give you two examples first from Leo and Amber’s Net@nite. Part way through Leo screws around with some twiter or something - the first one I just winced but when he did a feedback loop - I just stopped and deleted the whole file… and I like that show normally.
Secondly, There is a great podcast with Jennifer Jones called Marketing Voices, - but last week she did a video podcast with Guy Kawasaki and the audio is so bad… first the music is insanely bad - but the audio is I am guessing - just from the camera … you just can’t do that, you need to mic people. As a result there is so much background noise - it is just so distracting - if your going to sit down with Guy - who is great… and your an intelligent interviewer as Jenny is - why screw it up . On two talking heads it is the talking that matters.

Now I can say this as I have had to learn the hard way… but learn we did.

It started with the podcasts and mics… we just (ok I) just had no idea how much effort I needed to go to - to make audio sound ok. John lead the way with various solutions - but as I type this I am sitting in front of a huge collection of failed mic solutions.
I did some early interviews for fxguide and for fxphd that I hate now - hate - due to the audio. One is so annoying due to wind that I am going to re-record it - just in case we ever use it again !

In the end we found that not only do you normally need a good mic, often times a good mixer - but you need sound flags, sound proofing, close up mic work - and for field work - a lot of attention to wind/ambient sound.
There is also a lot you can do in post - but seriously crap in crap out. This is not an area to fix only in post - forget the impressive audio clean up demos… like lighting - spend time on set to get it looking good… and then polish in post.

Tomorrow I will blog the actualy brands we use, but one of big factors in the appeal of the P2 HVX200 was the to XLR mic inputs with separate level controls right on the camera.

It really now is my opinion that you need your audio quality up BEFORE even your vision quality. If you can hear someone well -then you can put up with poor vision - of course you want both. But Audio is actually more of a turn off than vision for the work we do - go figure.

In coming days I’ll start tech blogging the actual gear we use and how the field kit goes together.

thanks

Mike

So in a week filled with trying to catch up after being sick… (working on matte painting, flame and bkd classes)

But most imterestingly we started production on our new magazine HD web TV show… fxguidetv

The show was primarily in pre-production before NAB with wardrobe and makeup tests - plus lighting designs… production of the pilot was delayed only by yours truly being sick in bed with flu.

The production is being handled as follows:
- Hosted by Angie Richards. The show will be distributed on the net and Apple Tv compatible
- multiple HVX200 P2 cameras recording directly to Firestore drives. Intrerestingly the native mode for an American P2 is 24fps and in PAL countries its 25P. So we need to buy all the cameras in the same country and ship them around the world. This is because in each EP we will cut between studios in Chicago, LA and Sydney and so we needed to all be working on the same base frame rate.
- the audio is recorded via wireless battery mounted transmitters and a battery - camera mounted receiver.
- the post is done tapelessly via FCP (by our other Angie - our editor!)
- John Montgomery is the creative director and his design work has already started to appear in After Effects classes at fxphd.
- The final production is 24fps 720P, but we will offer various download and streaming options.
- the pilot will be seen by fxphd Post Grads and other select individuals - and after that we’ll launch internationally. We are doing this both because we want the feedback of our “focus group” fxphd audience - and also so students can benefit from learning about the production process.
- The show is being produced as professionally as possible and should make a great addition to the vfx and movie going community.

No sooner had we finished on the bid Zombie shoot - and taken a day to return gear etc… then we were in preproduction for our next fxphd shoot. Now I can’t give away the details until next week.. but was thankfully a smaller half day “magazine” style shoot.
Shot on P2 the new shoot was much more like a Tv show, or magazine style program. Interestingly for me - the Host is a great talent, - called Angie, the Editor is named Angie and our Producer on the project … you guessed it … is called Angie.
As i have a daughter called Angie - it was pretty easy for me to remember everyone’s name !

It is interesting how similar the P2 workflow with the Firestore harddrive option is to the Viper and Venom solution we used on the Zombie shoot. In coming weeks we will be doing classes on this workflow and showing some behind the scenes production workflow for shooting such a show and doing the graphics and lower thirds - you can check these out in our AE , FCP and BKD courses.

Mike

So we have now finished the shoot.

The shoot has really served two purposes.
1) the film itself of course, which is really interesting and a great story.
2) The making of… for use this term and next.

For the film we shot Viper - as a tapeless workflow.
For the making of we shot on P2 - again with a tapeless workflow. Above is the Making of DOP Peter Holland. Apart from being a great guy, he is a brilliant cinematographer -( I worked on a feature he shot last year). Peter has offered to help us out at fxphd (really it is over kill to have him do our making of !!!)- and we will be doing more with him in the future with the RED camera.

The idea of the footage is we will use shots for Challenges, Background Fundamentals, the Roto course, and others.

A big thanks to all the crew and especially the MEG special effects makeup guys for some outstanding Zombie makeup

So we are on Day 3 - and back at the same location as yesterday.
This is a fun day we shoot arrows through our Zombie and then blow him up!

This will of course involve a few visual effects shots, but as you can see from today’s image - the sun has come out… so we may have a bunch of extra shots to remove bright sunny blue skies to match the light rain of day 1… but literally there is nothing we can do about this on set… except try and minimise the harsh shadows we did not have on day 1.

The shoot went well, but we had so much to shoot we were shooting into dusk - so it remains to be seen how the camera matches as the light lowers - of course we compensated with exposure - but it will be interesting to see the responsiveness of the camera to low light and how well it matches.

Mike