Big Orange Box

Check out this video by our friends at DotLot™ and The Buddy Group. They did an amazing job combining the Red camera, stuntment, green screens, etc. for some pretty incredible interactive ads that really compell you to “click”.

Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, recently met with the guy who makes the decisions on which music gets “featured” on Apple’s iTunes service. He had a telling experience that the “all digital all the time” world isn’t quite a reality yet. In fact, sometimes physical media is the best way to get noticed as Derek wrote:

When visiting Apple iTunes, I had lunch with the guy who’s in charge of independent music editorial - the one who chooses who gets featured placement.

I asked him, “What’s the best way for me to turn you on to something I think you’ll love?”

His answer? “Send me the CD.”

I said, “Uh.. really? What if it’s already on iTunes? Shouldn’t I just send you the link?”

He said, “Yeah. I commute an hour each way to Apple’s office. I do all my real listening in the car, so I need the CD.”

This likely applies in a similar fashion to video as well. While instant digital distribution is available to all of us through outlets like YouTube, Vimeo, Revver, etc., sometimes the best way to sit down and really pay attention to video is to pop in a DVD and watch it on the big screen. And, if a big-time producer gets handed your DVD from someone who they respect, they’re a lot more likely to pay it some attention (now and later) than a link passed to them in an email.

The TNT network just tried a new experiment with broadcast television. They shot a full series in 2-minute segments (20 total episodes) that air during the commercial breaks of other shows.

I recorded the show Bones because I know someone involved in the Lucky Chance project. This was the first time I’ve ever fast forwarded through a TV show to get to the commercials.

Also of interest to me was the fact that Lucky Chance was released on the web simultaneously (unconfirmed) with its airing on television. The only downside is that the TNT site required that you install a WMV plugin for the FireFox browser to view the series. Interesting, the embedded video they offer, while dimensionally smaller, does not require the plugin.

Here’s some further info from TNT:

“LUCKY CHANCE will debut on the network on July 22 and continue as 20 two-minute episodes running within the prime time programming series Bones and Law & Order across a two-week window. Premiere night of LUCKY CHANCE, TNT will feature Episodes 1-6 within a special limited-commercial presentation of the prime time series Bones, a custom format featuring no national advertisements. The following evening, July 23, TNT will feature episodes 7-10 within back-to-back primetime episodes of the popular crime drama Law & Order, at 8 and 9 p.m. LUCKY CHANCE will conclude on July 29, with the final remaining episodes 11-20 airing across Law & Order at 8 p.m.; Bones at 9 p.m.; and a special limited-commercial presentation of Bones at 10 p.m., similar to the exclusive format presented in week one. In addition to significant integration throughout the LUCKY CHANCE storyline, Dodge will also be incorporated into marketing promotions featured on TNT, driving tune-in awareness for the microseries premiere and promoting the sponsoring brands.

LUCKY CHANCE was created and written by Pete Pepe (Espionage) and jointly developed and produced by Full Circle Entertainment with Espionage.”

My father, Don Scribner, is among the cast of the show. He plays Blue Eye — the first episode (#6) of his appearance can be seen below.

Official Lucky Chance Web Site

Just posted a new microsode of the “Leonard Who?” show. This one is called Under Construction and it was another great improvisational piece by Don Scribner and Bert Hinchman. This one was really fun to shoot. We set up a few concepts for each of the three areas within a small construction site and let the action happen as it did naturally. Went did one pickup shot — the alternate angle of Leonard shooting the slingshot, but other than that it was one continuous take I just edited in a moderately logical order.

Mark Englert (our composer and lead guitarist for the band Dramarama) really came through with a great musical piece for this microsode. I got an email from him saying “I just got an idea from watching a cat litterbox commercial.” Now if that doesn’t sum up the random wackiness of the “Leonard Who?” show I don’t know what does!

Gear list:

• Two Canon HV20 cameras
• Sennheiser ME-66 shotgun microphone with zeppelin (handheld by camera operator)
• Beachtek DXA-2S XLR to 1/8?adapter
• A bunch of hardware store clip lights (those silver aluminum shop lights) with 200 watt clear bulbs to light the rooms

We love music
This post written while listening to the Taken By Trees album Open Field. Thanks to MattO of Ink tattoo & piercing shop in Superior, WI for the music recommendation.

This weekend we shot another microsode of the “Leonard Who?” show. What made this production unique was the introduction of a second Canon HV20 camera and a pair of wireless microphones to our shooting arsenal. Since the inception of the show, we have always had a single director/camera operator/sound guy (me).

I’ve shot a ton of corporate/industrial video as a one-man crew with multiple cameras, so I was determined to keep things lean on this production and do everything myself. To add an additional challenge I set out to shoot, edit and post online within 48 hours. How did things work out? Well, some good things and some lessons learned…

Lesson 1 - Auto White Balance = Bad Choice

Chalk this one up to the “doh!” category. I arrived at the location on a wonderfully sunny day with a limited time frame in which to shoot. I know better, but because of the time limitation and great natural light pouring in from huge windows, I opted to set both cameras on auto white balance to save time between shots. My normal workflow is to shoot a slate, chip chart, and set white balance for each camera at least every scene/camera position change. Those few minutes between each shot might add a half hour to production time but can save many hours on color correction in post.

Lesson 2 - If using two mics, check the adapter setting for stereo

No excuse for this one. I use a Beachtek adapter to step XLR cables down to 1/8″ for the HV20 camera and generally shoot with a single shotgun mic. When shooting with a single mic I set the adapter to mono. Makes sense that since I was shooting with two wireless mics I should set the adapter to stereo so I could have two isolated audio tracks (one per actor) to work with when editing. Yeah, about that…woops.

Lesson 3 - Check focus on B camera between each take

I locked off the B camera for some over the shoulder (OTS) shots while I roamed with camera A to follow any actor movement. The OTS shots looked really beautiful compositionally, but as the actors shifted within the frame they threw off the focus which I not set to manual. In the future I’ll be sure to make composition decisions not just on framing but also on focus and depth of field, even on a quick run & gun shoot.

Lesson 4 - Work on blocking with your actors

This one is related to Lesson 3 when it comes to locked camera composition, but needs to be taken a step further. We usually shoot the “Leonard Who?” show with a great deal of freedom in movement & dialog with the actors. As we try to improve the production qualtiy we’re working hard to find a balance between those freedoms, quick shooting, and a high quality production. One of the first places we are focusing is on actor blocking — setting marks for movement and running quick rehersals with cameras rolling so we can all watch a quick playback so the actors know their marks and how they relate to dialog.

Lesson 5 - Work from a checklist

I’m developing a checklist for two-camera, one-operator video production that should help maintain the quality of production. All the areas above, plus a couple more will be covered on a single, laminated notecard. More to come on this one.

Lesson 6 - Sometimes it’s best to lock off the cameras and just direct

One of our actors, Ridge Tolbert, reminded me that sometimes a scene can just play itself out without camera movement. Ridge made me realize that I sometimes I overthink the technical aspects of the production instead of setting the cameras, calling “action”, and paying attention to the actors.

Bonus Lesson - Gaffer tape is your friend

This photo is of camera B. I love the fact that the HV20 camera is almost the same size as the two wireless mic packs. Good thing for gaffer tape!

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Overall, it was a fun weekend and we’re all generally pleased with the resulting video. We shot the first frame on Saturday morning around 9:00 a.m. and uploaded the final footage to the web distribution sites by 9:00 p.m. on Sunday. 36 hours. Not much sleep but a great exercise in indie filmmaking.

See the final product at: http://leonardwho.com/season-2-microsode-7-ghosts-and-waffles/

The complete production gear list for this production:

• Two Canon HV20 cameras
• Two Sennheiser EW100 wireless microphones
• One Beachtek DXA-2S XLR to 1/8″ adapter
• Two tripods

We love music!
This post written while listening to Great Northern on the Morning Becomes Eclectic show from KCRW radio

Anaglyph, Stereoscoptic, and Chromadepth - oh my!

Our Buddies at DotLot™ Digital Studios have written an excellent post on stereoscoptic (3D) imagery as they explore the possibilities of bringing 3D to the web. The crew at DotLot™ is actively testing 3D shooting to determine whether the technology has legs for the online space (using our cameras in fact).

Keep your eyes on the DotLot™ blog for more info on 3D and online video in general. They’re quickly becoming subject matter experts in many areas of the video world.

The technology isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, but with the wide audience YouTube has their new “Annotations” feature has some potential.

In a nutshell, YouTube Annotations are overlays that appear over your videos that can include text and links. At this time you can only link to other YouTube content. They currently come in three varieties: Speech Bubble, Note, and Spotlight. Aside from their shape, all three are relatively the same. See the example below.

Can’t play the video above? Access it directly at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=tbEei0I3kMQ

The annotations feature has potential for expanding the helpfulness of how-to videos and certainly for creating “choose your own adventure” style shows. Not truly interactive at this time since the links within annotations force you to reload a new YouTube page every time a link is clicked. Time to write some scripts to take advantage of this new feature set on the Leonard Who? show. Mental note: keep those secondary movies small so they load quick and don’t slow down the story…