February 28th, 2009 Rich
The Sports Video Group published an article, “NAB Camera Preview: Cost-Effective Systems Shine in Tough Times.” They said exhibitors will be featuring their “cost effective” products at the show instead of the high-end products.
I don’t know about you but from my independent producer’s point of view, a $10,000 camera isn’t cost effective, especially when they use P2 cards. I got the feeling they were mentioning products the exhibitors wanted to push.
It will be interesting to see what really happens at NAB. This will be my first time attending the convention. I just hope I will have as much fun as my wife who will be lounging by the pool.
– Rich Pulham
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February 26th, 2009 Rich
The Academy Awards this year portends great opportunities for the indenpendent producer. Here is an independent, low budget production that wins 8 of the 10 Oscars it is nonimated for.
Slumdog Millionaire has its roots in Indian cinema. The term Bollywood is derived from Bombay, the original name of Mumbai, and Hollywood. It refers to the Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry in India. They actually produce more movies than does the real Hollywood. The first third of the film is in the Hindi language. Bollywood films were used for research in developing locations and mileau. And local actors were used.
Warner Independent Pictures paid $5 million to acquire the distribution rights to the film. However, in May 2008, Warner Independent Pictures was shut down with all of its projects being transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures, its parent studio. Warner Bros. doubted the commercial prospects of Slumdog Millionaire and suggested that it would go straight to DVD without a U.S. theatrical release.
Then, Fox Searchlight Pictures bought a 50% of Warner Bros.’s interest in the movie. A limited North American release on November 12, 2008 qualified the film for this year’s Oscars. As of February 25, 2009, the film had grossed $175,115,223 worldwide.
Slumdog Millionaire has been referred to as an Indian Cindarella story. In my mind, it is an independent film Cindarella story as well. Warner Bros. didn’t think it was worthy of theatrical release. What does that tell you about the major studios? That they are afraid to take creative risks?
Creative risks are exactly what is needed in the film industry. Look at Star Wars, an example of creative risks where Paramount thought it was just a kid’s movie. Perhaps you can’t take risks with $100 million films. But indepents can with their small budgets.
Go make a movie that will be refreshing and creative. Those kind of films are in short supply these days. And if it is really good, maybe we’ll see you at the Academy Awards.
– Rich Pulham
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February 25th, 2009 Rich
JVC’s new camera, the JVC GY-HM100U ProHD, looks like a real honey. It records to SDHC cards instead of the extremely expensive P2 card. It runs at high bit rates to give great HD quality. It has 2 XLR inputs and manual audio control. And many more great features. It sells for about $3,500 at B&H Photo.
When I looked at the specs, I was bummed out. Turns out this camera is a dud for the independent producer. It uses small 1/4 inch sized chips. JVC thinks of them as super chips that will perform as well as the 1/3 inch chips. But therein lies the weakness of the camera.
Smaller chips mean less wide angle and more depth of field. The 35mm equivalent of the zoom is 39-390mm. I don’t think I would call 39mm “wide angle.” As an independent filmmaker, wide angle is much more important to me than shooting nearly 400mm.
Depth of field is another important spec to achieve the “film” look. With this camera, I’d have to spend another $1500 for a 35mm lens adapter plus lenses.
Sure, having XLR connectors and higher quality sound for this camera would be cool. But I could also shoot double-system sound and have 8 inputs instead of 2.
Maybe my money would be better spend on a Canon 5D Mark II. Then I would have money left over for pizza. Cast and crew can get hungry.
– Rich Pulham
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February 24th, 2009 Rich
It may have seemed like I have been on a long vacation considering the frequency of my posts. However, that has not been the case. I have been putting in 60+ hour work weeks trying to get the studio/sound stage ready for use. I’ll be documenting my work shortly.
Last weekend, I ready put the studio to a real test. I built a living room set and invited my children and their families (and dogs) over for a photo shoot. If there were any problems, this was sure to root them out.
Amazingly, everything went very well. The place didn’t fall down. And I even received several comments as to how warm it was in there. Hallelujah! The insulation and heaters were doing their job.
I still have a long ways to go. I’m planning a studio open house on the first day of spring, Saturday, March 21. I will have a noontime barbecue with hamburgers and hot dogs. I even have some entertainment coming for a house concert. If you are in the neighborhood and would like to come, let me know and I’ll send directions.
– Rich Pulham
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February 2nd, 2009 Rich
I have nearly 1,000 square feet of attic space so this is a major source of heat loss. I’m also near the landing pattern of the jets landing at Salt Lake International airport whenever we have a north wind. This is the prevailing wind pattern and happens more often in the summer.
AttiCat insulation blower loaded by the Owens Corning Panther.
To insulate against heat loss and noise, I chose Owens Corning AttiCat blown-in insulation from Home Depot. When you buy at least 10 bags of insulation, you get the blower free for 24 hours. The blower is out for rental quite a bit in the winter so I devised a plan. I went in Friday at about 5:00. You are supposed to be able to do 1,000 square feet in an hour and a half (maybe if you are experienced at this). I figured if I got the blower at 5:00 on Friday, I should easily have it back by 5:00 the next day. And perhaps no one else would get it before me. People with day jobs don’t usually get off much earlier that that.
The guy at Home Depot thought I was crazy when he found out I didn’t have a truck. I have a car with a hitch and haul a 4 x 8 trailer. I use ratcheting straps to hold everything down and they work great. The top half of the machine fit in the rear seat and my job was much easier.
The guy that helped me load it was still nervous. He kept warning me that they wouldn’t be responsible if anything happened to the blower. He even told me that the replacement cost of the machine was a thousand dollars. I got it strapped down tight along with the two barrels full of a 100 feet of hose. I made it safely home.
The next morning, I had my son-in-law, John, help me. The temperature was in the twenties with a breeze blowing so I put the blower just inside the studio door. That kept me out of the wind. John was in the attic so he was fine.
Actually, John had insulated coveralls and a disposable white jump suit. With the goggles, air mask, big rubber boots with steel shanks, and the blue nitrile gloves, he looked like he was prepared to detox a radioactive waste site. Oh, but that’s what he does for a living.
I was concered about my back loading 15 bags of insulation into the blower. It wasn’t as hard as I figured. The bags are covered with plastic. The insulation tries to expand and stretches the plastic tight. There is a dotted line around the middle of each bag which is cut with a knife. I also used a butcher knife to stab around that cut line. The bales were easier to break in half that way. And they weren’t that heavy so feeding the machine was easy.
When you push the half bales into the machine, a knife catches the plastic and cuts it freeing the insulation. You just push it into the machine and pull out the plastic wrapping. Paddles rotating in opposite directions slowly break apart the bales and fluff them up. Then the insulation is blow though the 100 feet of hose hooked up to the machine. There is a detailed instructional video here at the bottom of the page.
We both had radios for communications. Occasionally, I let him know how many bags were left so he could pace himself. It took about four hours including a lunch break. I had the machine back at Home Depot by 3:00 so there was time to spare.
For R-30 insulation, I needed 15 inches of blow-in (which settles to 12). It looked closer to 24 inches when I checked the job. An attic door was added to complete the project. In the spring, we will be putting in ducting for a swamp cooler to keep the studio from getting too warm. This will give me easy access without having a hole in my ceiling that lets in sound.
– Rich Pulham
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