New! DIY Mini Track and Jib posted in our DIY corner.
Bells Ring, Mr. King is an official entry to the 29th Los Angeles Asia Pacific Film Festival
The short film I directed is about a multitasking undocumented home-health caregiver working in the U.S. suffering from an acute case of homesickness.
Written by Lorely Trinidad and starring Mitzi Ibaya it will be screened this coming May 4 at 4:45 P.M at the Directors Guild of America Theater 2.
BRMK was the 2012 Gawad Urian nominee for best short film in the Philippines.
Behind the scenes photos and production notes on our Facebook page.
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The way of the foot and fist, a martial arts school documentary
I recently did a documentary presentation for a martial arts school based in Irving, Texas. When I had a preproduction meeting with Master John Monroe, the founder, Korean Taekwondo Institute was preparing to celebrate its 20th year of operations, this event provided us with a sense of urgency to fast track production in time for the video to premiere on its anniversary celebration.
Having set up my production company in the U.S. just recently, this production allowed me an opportunity to assess my equipment and current capabilities but at the same time presented challenges like the fact that I still have no assistants and will have to do the production solo.
The subject matter also presented challenges, to make martial arts and interviews dynamic required at least a 2 camera shoot, adequate lighting and good sound.
Currently I am using DSLRs, that would also present challenges, however, due to developments made to the DSLR workflow by such companies like mosaic engineering and software developers like those with Magic Lantern have made DSLRs a viable option for projects like this.
Mosaic engineering made the OLPF that I currently use thus eliminating moiré and aliasing found in most DSLR footage due to line skipping and with Magic Lantern software, the 5D mkII can now have capabilities far beyond what it was originally made to do, among those are the ability to use headphone monitoring, multi track audio, variable frame rates and HDR video.
Here is a link to my tests with the Mosaic filter:
I wouldn't be using most of those features for this project but a few are important, the ability to monitor sound, control audio gain for 2 separate audio channels and, very important in doing interviews, the ability to automatically continue recording after the 4 gig limit has been reached. Working alone, the auto restart recording feature allowed me to do long sit down interviews and with multi cameras without the need for another operator.
With a very tight deadline and a post production time of only 4 days I needed to find a workflow that is faster. One way to achieve this is to ditch dual system sound and record audio straight to camera. Those working with Canon DSLRs and a separate sound recorder know how challenging this is. I have a ZOOM H4n sound recorder and with certain shotguns, the built in pre amps is just not good enough, giving me a wave form of around -24db only. This is not good enough since this takes a lot of fixing post.
I found a cheap portable pre-amp made by Applied Research and Technology (ART) called the USB Dual Pre which is just a little more than $30 and provides 48v Phantom and up to +48db of gain. It's light enough to be modified for rail mounting thus making it part of a portable filming rig.
Lighting is a combination of tungsten redheads and fluorescent soft boxes.
This filming system together with several DIY rigs I made, like the Plywood Skater and mini track allowed me to produce the documentary by myself and on schedule.
Click on image links below to play video.
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3D logo animations for Dallas Marathon live broadcast
Ramasola productions was commissioned to do the motion graphics and 3D animated logo for the recent Dallas Marathon live broadcast. A production of Silver Horn Entertainment, they required a fast turn around and that the final product contained alpha channels for composition over scenes from the event.
More in tech talk.
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In Tech talk; DIY Variable ND, does it work?
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The 3 part documentary series aired on November 8, 15 &17 2012 on ABC WFAA8.
It is the story of three real-life heroes as they face the uncertainty of cancer in Dallas.
This was a production of Silverhorn Entertainment for Baylor health care system.
Click image to view the entire episode.
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The 2nd Annual Pilipino American Film Festival at UCLA will screen the short film I directed, Bells Ring, Mr. King in L.A. on Oct. 30.
How to make a Mattebox with adjustable filter trays.
Step by step guide posted in the DIY corner.
Click to enlarge.
Click image to play video
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Pools of Life - A short tribute to those who lost their lives on 9/11
It was a moving experience for me and my wife when we visited the 9/11 memorial last August. My wife who came to the U.S way back in 1991 had poignant memories of the twin towers,
I took some footage and thought it fitting to put together a short tribute for those who lost their lives.
I included in the finished piece a photo my wife took of the iconic twin towers and a ticket she had for the observation deck. My son made the original composition for the sound track.
Click on image to play the video.
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DIY DSLR Rig with various configurations for different shooting conditions.
Head over to our DIY Corner.
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De clicking an old 50mm Nikkor lens for use in video.
Go to DIY section.
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Creating a 3D Chocolate Hills animation in Tech Talk page.
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Grass Valley features in their new Facebook Page the Alona Kew Resort Commercial we produced. Grass Valley is the company behind EDIUS, the non linear editing software we used to edit our videos.
Click image to go to video. Or view in Exposureroom.
_____________________________________________________________________________The DIY Corner features stuff for those who like building things.
Making your own LCD finder or loupe for your DSLR.
The Plywood Skater, for curved and straight camera moves.
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