Using Adobe Lightroom for Logging Documentary Footage
When I wrapped photography on the documentary I’m working on “Behind Lovelace” – I was sitting on a hard-drive with almost a Terabyte of video including over 20 interviews and footage spanning 25 days of principle production on the film, some of which I shot and some which shot by Rouslan, the EPK operator for Millenium Films. I knew I needed to manage all the clips but I wanted something more robust than a spreadsheet and Adobe Lightroom came to mind immediately.
After logging everything into Lightroom and assigning keywords including the production day, key players in the shot and even keywords on themes – I’m left with a pretty quick and powerful way to pull up clips on demand. Now as I’m deep in editing and Peter Sarsgaard, in his interview, begins talking about playing dark characters, I can jump into Lightroom and filter clips to those with Peter Sarsgaard on the days which I recall were particularly dark or dramatic or even hit the keyword ‘NIGHT’ for night shots. I’ve also chosen not to transcode all my material into ProRes — only the interviews and select clips.
First I went through and set the color label of clips I knew I wanted to yellow and encoded those into my chosen intermediate coded: ProRes Proxy. Once they were transcoded I changed those to green. Any clips tagged in purple are funny out-takes, etc. This makes it very easy to search, sort and filter from the 2,090 total video files. Or I can easily filter that down to the 83 interview clips, or the 129 video clips shot on DAY 25 at the Warner Brothers back lot.
Now if I just had the latest version of Lightroom which plays video natively instead of having to launch QuickTime every time I want to view a clip, I’d be set. Or maybe the next version which will magically integrate with Final Cut Pro to allow me to somehow manage that transcoding, searching and loading clips automatically. Ok, I suppose it’s more likely to integrate with Premiere, or maybe Premiere already does that!?
by admin on Mar.25, 2012, under Digital Filmmaking, Film
Leave a Comment more...Editing Documentary
Perhaps I’m just procrastinating, sitting here noting that this gray, rainy day is perfect for editing – no sunshine to lure me out for a trail ride in the hills behind the house. I started piecing together the intro for my documentary “Behind Lovelace: the Making of a Biography” last night as I was working on the script. I decided I wanted to see how the first few pieces I had selected came together, which led to reviewing BTS b-roll and before I knew it had digressed through the first minute or so, selecting music (at least as a place holder) and cutting together some interview and visual sequences.
Putting together the music, interview dialogue, environmental sound I picked up along the way and some of that great behind-the-scenes footage that I and Rouslan Ovtcharoff picked up; I’m seeing some good moments for nice, dramatic pause – which will take some patience to get just right.
But first – need to review all the footage, now that the transcriptions are finished – and get the actual script put together. Back to it!
by admin on Mar.12, 2012, under Digital Filmmaking, Film
Leave a Comment more...Your Good Friend
Your Good Friend is a feature film shot on location with director and actor Matthew Jacobs and DoveTale Films in the San Francisco area in the Fall of 2010. Currently in post-production the film is garnering good feedback and being finalized for distribution.
The film, about a Rabbi and a pornographer with a shared dream, is a well scripted storyline involving mostly improvisational dialogue.
An incredibly tight timeline combined with a ‘microbe’ budget called for an exceptional cast and crew who put their hearts into what is turning into an excellent motion picture. We shot the film using the Canon 5D Mark II with L-series Canon lenses and a few Nikon Nikkor primes with available light supplemented slightly with standard bulbs, china balls and a mobile Lowel four light kit.
See the website for Your Good Friend or view Your Good Friend on IMDB.com.
by admin on May.27, 2011, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR, Filmography
Leave a Comment more...Rabbit Hole
In the summer of 2009 I had the privilege of working with a fantastic director and crew on filming a wonderfully written Pulitzer Prize winning play titled Rabbit Hole, by David Lindsay Abaire. From the end of May through July we worked 12-18 hour days on location in Manhattan and the greater New York vicinity to complete principal production of the film. I enjoyed virtually unrestricted access to the set, working closely with the camera crew as the camera intern.
- Director John Cameron Mitchell
- First Assistant Camera Michael Burke
- Second Assistant Camera Lauren Haber
- Camera Operator George Bianchini
by admin on May.27, 2011, under Filmography
Leave a Comment more...Overcoming the problems with multicam editing in Final Cut Pro 7
While working on my documentary, which I’m currently titling Behind Lovelace: the making of a biography, I thought I’d try out the multicam editing function that is part of Final Cut Pro. At first it looked like a dream – just choose the angles you needed and, in my case, the separate audio clip, right-click to create the multiclip, then load it into a timeline, set the playhead sync to open, specify that I wanted to keep my audio tied to the audio track and only switch the video and that should be it. At first it seemed to go relatively smooth, as I followed Ken Stone’s instructions on his Final Cut Pro website. While his instructions are fairly concise and clear, after what seemed like a seamless start, my second clip wasn’t working as expected.
When I created my second clip I started running into all sorts of problems. For example, when I changed to open sync the audio would shift back 20 minutes so everything was out of sync. Or the clips seemed like they disappeared or went out of sync in different ways. I read quite a few articles on the subject and at the advice of some various posts, deleted my Final Cut Pro user preferences. Finally, I figured out the following, which resolved my issues and allowed me to properly setup my multicam clips:
- If you’re syncing by in-points, set both in points and out-points on each of your clips that make them relatively close in length. The in-point must be exact for perfect sync but the out point can just be somewhat close. When I had wildly different out-points, I ran into the issue where the clips on the multicam timeline would suddenly go out of sync when messing with the playhead sync.
- Next, load the clip into the timeline by setting the playhead in the right place and clicking F10 or drag and drop it there from the browser.
Set the playhead sync to open (see Ken Stone’s instructions).- If you don’t want the audio switching, first make sure Audio + Video is selected from the Playhead Sync menu, click to the audio pane and then set it to Video, so that the next time you click to switch the active angle, it only changes the video. This is a bit confusing as Ken suggested, but in the Playhead Sync menu, which ever is selected (Audio, Video, specific audio channels, etc), that is what is switched when you click between multicam angles.
- If you’re having issues getting it to play back properly, for example, when you play the clip the multicam angles disappear or things act erratic, try turning off “Multiclip Playback” under the RT button by the timeline and then turning it on again
I hope this helps others as it took me a fair amount of time messing around to get the rythym down and make these multiclips work properly!
by admin on Mar.02, 2012, under Digital Filmmaking, Film
Leave a Comment more...Tascam DR-100 Mark II portable audio recorder
Tascam DR-100 mark 2
As I start getting into interviews on my behind-the-scenes documentary of the film Lovelace, I decided that I should employ an external recorder with my Canon 5d mark ii rather than just an external mic – so I asked my friend Vanessa if I could use her Zoom h4n, which I’ve used many times and she agreed but then realized it was missing. After a bit of research I seemed to get the impression that the Tascam DR-100 was slightly better, except for the built-in mic (which I hardly use anyway) but soon learned the new mark ii has an improved mic that out performs the Zoom making it an overall better choice.
The Tascam DR-100 mark ii has a metal body which is good for longevity especially considering the wear and tear that gear gets with run-and-gun type shooting. It apparently also has analog limiters which provides better attenuation of loud noises. The ergonomics are quite similar to the Zoom, though it is slightly bulkier and heavier, so a little harder to hold on if you’re hand-holding. I picked up a handy nano-clamp that was quite cheap (compared to other options – seems that anything that’s made to attach to a rail runs a premium) and locks onto the 15mm rails on my Cinevaterig.
Karyn Wagner, Costume Designer for Lovelace
I shot an interview with the very talented Karyn Wagner, the Costume Designer on Lovelace, in their costume trailer at the staging area in Long Beach. She contributed some great talking-head sound-bites and followed up by digging through the costumes to pull Chuck Traynor’s (Peter Sarsgaard) clothing and Linda Lovelace’s (Amanda Seyfried) jewelry for the following day at the beach.
The Tascam is also coming in handy for picking up some ambient sound and occasional bites of the sounds of the set: people yelling “quiet” or “rolling” or “cut” or “action”. If I can just get the AD, Rod Smith, to say my favorite on-set phrase: “Moments Away”
by admin on Jan.18, 2012, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR, Film
Leave a Comment more...Behind Lovelace
This week I began shooting footage for a short documentary behind the scenes of the production of Lovelace, currently in principal photography by Telling Pictures with directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is being shot on super 16mm with a two camera package at various locations in the greater Los Angeles area.
My BTS package includes my usual (BYOC): Canon 5D Mark II, hand-held rig and I picked up a Rode VideoMic for only $100 at Samy’s Camera here in Hollywood. I was told the larger version I purchased is nearly identical to the newer, smaller one, which has a gain switch that was added for use with the 7D.
Shooting this BTS will be a challenge, creating a piece for Academy Award winning documentary filmmakers, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and experience on set for the next few weeks.
by admin on Jan.11, 2012, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR, Film, Filmography
Leave a Comment more...Anxious
Shooting real film is challenging when you’ve grown up in the digital age, but I do agree with the traditionalists who suggest that doing so makes you a better filmmaker. Anxious is a short created on the ARRI 35-III camera on Kodak 5207, 35mm film stock. No instant gratification, particularly if you don’t have a video tap on hand. It’s a true exercise in trusting what you’ve learned about exposure and working with the light meter and again, these are excellent practices to follow when returning to digital mediums. It helps curb the tendency to just keep the camera rolling and leave editorial with a nightmare to manage in post.
by admin on May.26, 2011, under Film, Filmography
1 Comment more...Gold
Filmed using the Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D and the first shot using the Arri 35-III with Kodak Vision 2 50D 5201. We used an Indie-Jib, a Karen Abad brand custom dolly, a basic Slider and a variety of Canon zoom and Nikkor prime lenses.
My camera operator and essentially partner DP on this film, Karen Abad was instrumental in making this production come to life. We dragged a truckload of digital and film gear from San Francisco to Gold Hill, Oregon where we spent two days filming this short and a couple thousand feet of 35mm film in the woods near Union Creek. The part of the Gold Miner in this short was played by Art Glockler, a real living gold miner, who incidentally restored the antique pickup seen in the film.
Assisting with lighting, grip and transportation was the amazing Raman Ravindran whom I later helped in lowering the 35-III down a canyon to shoot what turned out to be a lovely high speed sequence along the Rogue River. Karen coerced me into a twenty-five cent mustache from a vending machine and a bow-tie for two shorts filmed on the 35-III, Colours and Nothing to See Here, Move Along, which illustrate the wonderfully whimsical absurdest style that I’ve come to love.
by admin on May.26, 2011, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR, Film, Filmography
Leave a Comment more...Tiffen Filter Tests on the Canon 5d Mark II
My good friend Karen Abad and I were curious to see how a variety of filters would affect outdoor shooting on the Canon 5d Mark II. We checked out a handful of Tiffen 4×4 filters along with Karen’s Redrock MicroMattebox ($995 through amazon) and headed to Yerba Buena park. The results of that test can be seen in these two Vimeo videos:
These tests include the following Tiffen filters:
by admin on Oct.27, 2010, under Digital Filmmaking, DSLR
Leave a Comment more...