the fxphd deans blog

Next stop on the flame+smoke masterclass tour: Beijing.

Great turnout on this stop — really amazing.The audience was filled with note-taking artists. We provided course notes to all the participants — but also gave them a download link to get setup files and more enhanced notes. This was the first consecutive translation (speak in English…pause… translate to Chinese) session that CE has done so it was good I went first to give him an idea of pacing. I try to be as relaxed and comfortable and have as much fun as possible during the events, but the timing does make this a bit more difficult. Especially jokes — though my humor is based upon poking fun at myself and admittedly not that refined.:)

Interesting to both CE and myself was that a great number of artists in the room were women. Now its not uncommon to see female artists at the NAB events. It’s simply that in Beijing they made up such a larger percentage of attendees than at other events I’ve done — especially the ones here in Asia. I’m excited about that, because it’s great to see this in such a male-dominated industry. Rick Ledyard, owner of Avenue Edit in Chicago where I used to work full time, was one of the first owners in Chicago to actively promote women editors in town when it was quite unusual. Now, high billing female artists and editors are common…but at the time it was truly a new thing. Good to see the percentages evening out.

And now the obligatory tour photo — CE and I at the Great Wall of China. I’m not normally into posing for photos, but hey — one of the wonders of the world and it really was truly amazing. Took about an hour to hike up this section outside Beijing…I was dripping wet from the humid air here in the city. It’s incredibly steep as well…couldn’t believe it actually. Thinking about when it was built and how they could do it without technology is crazy. Our tour guide mentioned that they say the wall is the largest cemetary in China, due to the number of people killed when building it and buried underneath the wall.

We also visited the Forbidden City, which was amazing. The city of Beijing is going under incredibly rapid change with cranes building new towers all over the place. Preparation for the Olympics next year is in full gear and everyone we spoke to was incredibly proud and excited about the upcoming event. But they’ll really have to do something about the pollution in the city since the games will be held about this time next year. Currently, the skies are yellow from the smog and won’t be condusive to competition. They plan on stopping/banning all construction at the end of the year to help with this…but they have a ways to go. I was amazed how polluted the air was….

So just a follow up from the Ted iphone photo - a few people emailed and commented that they had not seen an Apple 1 and how did Ted’s photo come out.. you asked and here it is - From Ted’s personal Iphone … the Apple 1 photo.

I’m alive and still in Asia. At this point, I’m fully recovered from my ilness while in Sydney, but it took a while. It was quite remarkable how long it took me to feel better though understandable because I was down for the count for three days and it took a lot out of my body.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m currently in Asia, touring teaching flame masterclass sessions for Autodesk. My first stop outside of Sydney was in Bangkok, where we had a great turnout of flame and smoke artists. I’m doing the tour with smoke specialist CE Raum who has done a couple of NAB sessions in the past. CE is currently doing a freelance gig in Mumbai at Famous Pictures, so for our last stop of the tour he’ll actually be going home. I’ll be heading off to the states via Germany on a 22 hour travel day…so I can make it to Siggraph.

It’s been a great tour and and outstanding experience to meet other artists in countries around the world. We’ll actually be highlighting these artists on fxguidetv — the best part has been to learn that we all share fairly common goals, aspirations, as well as roadblocks in our craft. In Bangkok, I met with artists Telly Fung and Derick Wong…they couldn’t make it to the masterclass the day before so I went by for a tour and then we jammed on the flame for about an hour until I got yanked out to make it to a dinner appointment. It was just so enjoyable to run things by each other — and show them some cool expression tricks from the fxphd course.

One of the fun parts has been spending an hour or two at night wandering the streets whenever possible. CE and I dove fully into the Bangkok experience and had dinner on a major avenue near the hotel — under a blue tent in a driving rainstorm. The tent made up about a city block and was filled with small stalls each serving different food. As the only westerners there we basically flew blindly and ordered some stuff on the menu — we knew enough to point at the roasted whole fish as well as order some Tom Yum seafood soup and some cold beer for the hot and humid night. And was it ever humid. But the best meal so far we’ve had…really enjoyed it tremendously. It even came to having a brush with a baby elephant, as some teenagers brought one through attempting to get people to feed it.

Anyway…more soon….as I get things prepped for siggraph….

Last week I was at an ACS function in Sydney with Ted from Red when we cam across an Apple 1 computer. I could not help photographing Ted taking a photo of the original Apple 1 on his new Apple iPhone.

More on RedCine and the ACS night:

So the Friday night event was huge - a packed crowd and many reservation holders. We all enjoyed a longer talk by Ted on the Camera and then a screening of Crossing the Line, followed by Lucas Wilson from Assimilate walking us through an overview of REDCINE and the Scratch with Red footage.

The whole talk lasted around 2 hours and was really informative. We filmed some stuff for fxguidetv and the entire lecture (with minor editing) will be the backbone of a class this term for fxphd : Background Fundamentals, just give us a chance to edit it all up !

I am sure you guys are going to enjoy it - it really was very informative

Mike

We are in Sydney this week at the SMPTE conference, much of the week is doing prep work with the RED camera. There are heaps of things on here, and many friends in town from overseas. Today we helped Ted from Red with his presentation for SMPTE. Ted spoke at the Apple stand - and nearly shut down the trade show ! Then again in the primary papers conference. Ted was showing Crossing the Line, the Peter Jackson Red film. This is the first of two presentations we are helping Ted with, the second is Friday night, where we are aiming to tape his presentation and it will be the basis of our RED class in this term’s fxphd Background Fundamentals. I have personally been learning so much from spending the week with Ted. And also from Lucas @ Assimilate. Scratch is made by Assimilate, and the two companies, Assimilate and RED have partnered to make RedCine the free software that ships with the RED camera. I spent a fair while on the RedCine today and it is really really interesting. We are working out the Red camera workflow, which means FCP 6 and Scratch since these are the two products that have the RED CODE RAW built in. Both Apple and Assimilate are great people to work with. I must say the Red Code Raw files look great up close and personal, and the Wavelet compression has some amazing aspects, but more of that in the class this term!

And at the SMPTE C+T Awards tonight fxphd won for Best Innovation in Production (Rich Media) !! Whoa !

Fxguidetv is out and the new term has started. In this week’s fxguidetv we talk to Ken and Dennis (the full interview), and in this week’s fxphd Background Fundamentals we look at Pirates. One thing I wanted to point out for those of you following here in the production blog…
the tip in fxguidetv ep 03 is about keying with the new F23 Sony camera. It might be of interest to a bunch of you.

We have been crazy busy posting stuff and filming - including the Challenge 10 review now John is back on deck. You’ll see it soon..
Oh and we have added classes - we are now doing flame 202 this term a new flame production course, with me as the Prof.! I cant wait - I am so looking forward to it. Check it out over at fxphd.com

Mike

Today we were filming for the July 07 term, and it is off to a great start!

We were filming a range of green screens and blue screens with a whole host of cameras:
- HDV
- HVX200
- F950
- 16mm
- Digital Betacam
- and the new Sony F23

To carry out the tests we were lucky enough to have Ross Emery. We lit and shot Chroma Key sequences that were both simple and complex challenges for a camera man. Ross Emery is an extremely experienced Director or Photography having worked lighting everyone from Superman to Trinity, Morpheus and Neo.

Check out more about what we have been up to in this week’s upcoming O-week Background Fundamentals.

Mike and John

As you know we like to blog the production aspects of fxphd and fxguide here and this last week we have been busy, getting ready for our amazing new term at fxphd + doing fxguidetv

fxguide started podcasting in the the same week Apple first added podcasts to Apple’s itunes store over a year ago, and similarly we started netcasting in HD to co-incide with the release of AppleTV, although we think that most people watch their 720P HD netcasts on their computer and not yet on their televisions.

The production pipeline is interesting. These programs are primarily recorded in Chicago and Sydney. We use HVX200 Panasonic P2 cameras. The cameras use the FireStore attached hard drive. This allows us to skip digitizing, furthermore the latest version of the Firestore software allows the production to record directly in Final Cut Pro compatible quicktime files, without any quality loss. The studios use kinoflo diva light kits, allowing the crew to work without worrying about heat from the lights. The lighting designs were done by DOP Peter Coleman who also sources the various dolly tracks and studio set ups. Audio is recorded directly to the Camera.

Our host of the show, Angie Richards has previously worked in late night television on the traditional Networks and is now producing as well as acting. She records in the Sydney studio, while John records in Chicago and also on the road. Recently for example John recorded interviews at the VES (Visual Effects Society) conference in LA. fxguide and VES are actively working together and fxphd filmed the entire VES conference in addition to doing interview for stories on fxguidetv.

Once the programs are recorded, the files are directly copied and edited in the new Final Cut Studio. The program is shot and edited at 720 P 24fps. We like the 24P format, since it is a lower frame rate hence less data for downloading, but also as a future proofing strategy. 24P can easily be converted to PAL with a 4% speed change and made into NTSC with 3:2 pull down should it ever be needed in the future. The styling and wardrobe is handled by the brilliant Genevieve Everingham, She makes us look good - and makeup and hair is handled by the nicest makeup artist working in the industry Chris Chrisato Arai. We have the luxury of only working with crew we know and like. It is a really fun set, Angie cracks everyone up. It is so great to only work with senior professionals who are just really relaxed nice people. DOP is either Peter Coleman, Pete Holland or our own Jimmy Shen - who works hard ! Directing is handled jointly by John and myself. The shows are scripted as we try and keep the production tight and lean - small crew - all exceptionally good people. We will do a full class on Behind the screens in an coming classs for fxphd where we will discuss gamma curves, special white balance and shooting tricks.

fxguidetv works with a variety of editors mainly Jimmy Shen and the talented Angelica von Helle (ESP Sydney -and another Angie). The lowerthirds and graphics have all been designed by our creative director Mr John Montgomery who used After Effects primarily but rendered in both Sydney and Chicago. fxphd runs a virtual network over the web, this allows both primary offices to work as one but also it allows students in fxphd to access a whole host of production software for learning. fxphd will be offering VPN copies of NUKE, PFTRACK, MAYA, TOXIK, and the full set of Imagineering Systems software Motor, Mokey, Monet and Mocha this coming term.

Interestingly fxguidetv has dispensed with the notion of offline. All material is edited full resolution and output full resolution before being archived. The data is stored on Apple XRAIDs and Bright Systems Servers. Once the edit is completed and reviewed, the program is compressed via H.264 to something suitable for downloading on the net.

In fact all of fxguidetv is made using Apple Computers, from script to compression.

Well that is it for this week, today is pre-production for our next fxphd shoot on Monday - a joint venture with the Australian Cinematographers Society, and more planning for our RED event in 2 weeks time with Ted Schilowitz from RED.

Mike