OMCOPTER

Over the past six months or so, I have been in pre-production for the short film Operation: Just Cause. We have finished the script, shot the trailer and are now working on the list of gear that we will need to shoot this film. One of the scenes of this film takes place at an airfield in Panama. During this scene, a team of Navy SEALs infiltrates the airfield in order to render it inoperable. During this mission, the SEAL team gets caught in a bloody firefight with the Panamanian Defense Force. I have been working on how to shoot this engagement and what type of gear we will need to accomplish it. I would like to be able to get some coverage from the air during this scene. I have looked into some options for renting a helicopter for the day and the other equipment that would be needed to secure the camera for these shots. It is very expensive to rent a helicopter and pay for the insurance as well.

Lately I have been considering other options and have found a few of them. I was recently introduced to the Omcopter. This product is remote-controlled helicopter, which is capable of carrying a Red Epic camera on a stedicam platform. The Omcopter is small, agile and is capable of outdoor and indoor flight. It can maneuver through tight places that other aircraft cannot. There are other remote-controlled helicopters that are capable of similar maneuverability, but I have not seen one that is capable of carrying a camera that is as heavy as the Red Epic. The Omcopter has been used in big films such as, “Prometheus”, “The Hobbit” and “Avatar 2”. If I can raise enough money to fit this product into the budget I would like to rent it for a day and use it in Operation: Just Cause. 

http://www.omstudios.de/OMCOPTER-Flying-Epic

 http://vimeo.com/51753189

Gunshots with Adobe After Effects

During the past couple of months I have been working on pre-production for a short film that will be shot in April of 2013. The film is about a team of Navy SEALs who were deployed in Panama in 1989 during Operation: Just Cause. With the help of a small crew and cast, we have filmed a short trailer for the film. The short production went well and we have enough footage to make a decent trailer. We were able to get a couple guys with recording arts backgrounds to make a song for the trailer. The biggest problem that we are facing right now is the lack of an editor. I have some experience editing with Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer and Adobe After Effects. This trailer has a lot of action shots where the SEALs are firing their weapons. These shots require a good deal of visual effects editing such as, muzzle flashes, shell ejections, dust, and color correction.

I have been using Video Copilot as a resource to learn how to make these gunshots look real. Video Copilot is a website that has tutorials on how to use After Effect to build a variety of different visual effects. I had to learn how to create muzzle flashes from scratch with Adobe After Effects.  In one of their tutorials, they take you step by step and show you how to make it look like a real weapon is being fired. I found pictures of different muzzle flashes with black backgrounds online. I learned how to key out, (meaning remove) the background and manipulate the remaining images in order to create a believable muzzle flash. I have also been looking at tutorials on how to create shell ejections. I used one of Freddiew2’s Channel videos called Gun Sound FX and Bullet Shells, to learn how to animate the shell ejections. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCfzZizt8M0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsViAvVYoMQ 

http://www.videocopilot.net/

 

 

Negotiation Interview

Negotiation is a very important part of being successful in business and in the entertainment industry. Foster Lovelace is an independent video editor who lives in Sacramento, California. He primarily edits music videos for local bands and independent artists. Foster is not limited to editing music videos, but has also worked on wedding videos, commercials and documentary films. Each of Foster’s projects are unique and require different amounts of time and effort to complete. Each time Foster meets with a new client, he must negotiate with them and settle on a price for the completion of that particular project.

I asked Foster about the preparations that he takes before negotiating with a client. The first thing that he does is to do some research on the client’s company or band, in order to have a better understanding of their video needs. Foster usually deals with smaller businesses and bands, which normally have a small budget that they can spend on his services. Understanding your client’s financial situation is very important when negotiating over the price of any given service. Foster also said that he does research on other editors in his area and tries to stay within their price range.

During the interview, I asked Foster if he had ever experienced any problems when negotiating with clients. He said that there have been a couple occasions where clients have tried to use tricky tactics in order to get a better deal on his services. On one of these occasions, the client stated that they could only pay a set amount and they couldn’t go any higher. The price that they offered was a good deal lower than the price that Foster would normally ask for on a project like that one. He told the prospective client how long it would take for him to take complete their project and that their offer was too low and not worth his time. The prospective client would not change their offer and threatened to back out of the deal and find another editor. Foster knew that the offer was below his bottom line and had to decline the client’s offer and pass on that project.

Video Copilot: 3-D Elements

Video Copilot is a website that showcases after effects plug-ins. After effects is great editing software program that has a wide variety of capabilities for creating visual effects. Video Copilot has a variety of products, tutorials and information about visual effects editing. New plug-ins are being created and added to this site all of the time and can be purchased at their website, videocopilot.net With each new plug-in that they add, there is at least one tutorial that takes you step by step through the process of using the new tools that are made available with the new plug-in. Most of the newer plug-ins have multiple purposes and therefore have more than one tutorial.

I find these tutorials very helpful and informational. The only downside to some of these tutorials is that sometimes they will lead you through the first half of the project and then let you know that you will need a second plug-in to complete the particular visual effect. That’s where they get you hooked. You get to see what they can create but you have to purchase more plug-ins in order to do the same. I came across this dilemma not too long ago. I was following along with a tutorial on creating the Biohazard Logo using the Element 3D plug-in, and a little over halfway through the tutorial, they require a separate plug-in to create what they have made in the demo. Now I want to get this new plug-in but getting more and more of these plug-ins add up pretty quick. 

This short video is an example of Video Copilot's new plug-in, 3-D Elements package and it shows some of the new thing that you can do to manipulate an image. This plug-in is great because you can take your basic 2-D elements and convert them into 3-D images.

The Hobbit: An Unexpectd Journey

The first installment of the Hobbit trilogy will be in theaters on December 14^th, 2012. Peter Jackson, Writer, Director and Producer of the Hobbit films, has already become a huge success with the well-known Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit Trilogy is the prequel to the Lord of the Rings and follows the tale of Bilbo Baggins and his journey through Middle Earth.

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who is caught up in a quest to help thirteen dwarfs reclaim their lost kingdom. The big problem with this is this kingdom is guarded by a notorious dragon named Smaug. Gandalf the wizard helps this small team of adventurers on their journey. They come across Orcs, Goblins, Trolls and many other creatures that try to stop them along the way. Bilbo discovers the ring of power in Gollum’s cave and steals it from him and barely escapes with his life.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy grossed over 3 billion dollars and was wildly successful. New Line Cinema had no problem investing in Peter Jackson again and expect to make an even greater profit. New Line, along with MGM and WingNut Films, have given the Hobbit Films a 270,000,000 dollar budget. At first, the Hobbit was going to be made into two films, but not too long ago it was decided that the story was too long and it would be better to make it into a trilogy. I think that this is a smart business decision for a couple of reasons. First of all, by making the Hobbit into three films, the studios will be releasing one more film that will most likely be a huge blockbuster and be more than worth while. The second reason why I think that the Hobbit should be released in three parts is the story itself if very long and has lots of details. If the studios had decided to make two films instead of three, they would have had to choose what parts of the story to leave out of the two films. I look forward to seeing the three Hobbit films over the next few years starting with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Sources:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903624/

http://the-hobbit-movie.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/

Here is a quick look at my latest project.

Helicopter ride at D-Day

This was my first time in a helicopter and it was awesome! I can't wait to get in another one. This was shot on a GoPro HD Hero at Oklahoma D-Day 2012.