Film Festival, DVD projection

oakstreetphotovideo

oakstreetphotovideo

Ok, don't everyone laugh at me if this is common ... I don't get out much ...

I was at a film festival last night where they used a projector to play standard definition DVDs on the big screen ...
(I'm an avid kayaker and the festival was hosted by the Neuse River Foundation which I try to support)

The quality was rather good, although the projector wasn't as bright as it could have been. One movie, in particular made excellent use of sound. It was a wildlife video, and a lot of it was shot on strategically placed, low quality, operator free cameras. However, with good editing and excellent use of audio, the audience thoroughly enjoyed the short movie. There were environmental videos, and an extreme kayaking video. Only one video "The Killers of Eden" appeared to be a "biggish" budget movie.

In any case, the movies varied in their production quality, but the low resolution source did not seem to be a big detractor. If the projector had been brighter and the screen better quality, they would have appeared even better. Not once in the entire 2 hours did I say to myself, "this story would have been better if they had shot this on film, or in HD, and projected it with better quality". The storytellers did a great job, even with black and white lipstick cameras.

If you can tell your story well enough that a tech-head like myself isn't going to notice the technical limitations of the medium, even when it's 720x480 resolution, it seems to me that most of these format discussions are really just a matter of taste and budget. What really matters, and I know I'm not the first one to say this, is production quality (audio, lighting, camera support, acting, etc.) and of course, having a compelling subject or story to tell.

For those of us who are moving up from mini-DV, obviously shooting HD/HDV and releasing on HD DVDs (Blu Ray or HDDVD) has the potential to project a much improved image on the big screen, once the little theaters catch up. I'm sort of excited, because the opportunities are endless, whether you're shooting in SD or HD/HDV.

(I only go to an occasional film festival ... it had been years since I attended my last film festival ... so be kind if these observations are naive. I admit, I'm a newbie in this area.)
 
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But my problem has always been the lack of a story. I simply have no story. I am storyless. I am without story. Once in a while, I have a great idea, but it's usually as I drift off to sleep and either I forget it before I wake up, or the idea loses it's luster in the daylight. :( So not only do I have no story, I have no ideas. :( I get all excited when I see these stories that others have done; especially when they are done on a limited budget, but then I realize I can't just steal their idea ... I actually need to have an original thought. I have no original thoughts.

That's my story ... or lack of a story. Maybe I'll make a film about a technician who wants to be a filmmaker but has not story to tell, so he interviews homeless people and steals their stories for his film. It's like virtually rolling a homeless person. As insurance against a lawsuit, the first question I'd ask would be "do you ever watch movies?". ;)
 
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I wrote an article about exactly this problem a while back.

http://www.1000dollarfilm.com/2006/11/13/how-to-generate-great-ideas-for-movies/

The only other thing I'd add to that article is write what you know about.

Personally I know nothing about kayaking... but I'm pretty sure there's a great film to be made about it.

Oh, Yeah.. "Deliverance" ... but you get my drift. There's another story out there as well.

And one more thing... you don't have to be able to write to make a movie, because there are thousands of writers out there who don't have technical skills and who would bust a gut to get their screenplay made.

You just have to find them and a script you care about enough to make.
 
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Thanks, Clive. I'm slowly putting together an interesting team of creative people. When I say "slowly", I mean over a period of years. Most of the people I find are like me in that they have professional lives and family lives and it's hard to get everyone on the same schedule to do much of anything. We are making progress, though. A couple of years ago I didn't even have a list of names. Now, I've got the people, we just need to work out the logistics. I only need one more person on my team, and that would be the driver. As a tech, I am interrupt driven. If I have to provide continuity to a project, it's likely to get put on the shelf when I get an interrupt, and the project could progress through many phases with little or no input from me. Unfortunately, nobody is driving, yet. Once I find a driver, we've got some great people who are dying to work on something that will release their creative talents.
 
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I've got an Hitachi Illumina projector and I've got to say my Mini-DV stuff looks pretty good on it, especially if played through my laptop which boosts the resolution.

Sound quality is the killer.

I enjoy story telling that's the main thing for me. Sometimes though it can be very simple, just getting one small thing across, as long as it's interesting, it doesn't have to be multi-layered with twists.
 
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We screened LFD on teh biggest screen in sussex (was shot mini-dv mastered to digi-beta) and it looked amazin. less grainy than the DVD. Very odd.

The cinema (Odeon) installed DVD's for cinema subtitles so it's not even pro kit. DV blown up on teh big screen, if done right CAN WORK AMAZING.
 
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oakstreetphotovideo said:
I only need one more person on my team, and that would be the driver. As a tech, I am interrupt driven. If I have to provide continuity to a project, it's likely to get put on the shelf when I get an interrupt, and the project could progress through many phases with little or no input from me. Unfortunately, nobody is driving, yet. Once I find a driver, we've got some great people who are dying to work on something that will release their creative talents.
Click to expand...

I'm going to assume that you mean someone to push the projects along from point A to point Z? That person is the producer. In our projects, this has been me. I don't write, but have writers. I'll often say "here's an idea...GO!" and the story magically happens. It doesn't even have to be a complete idea, writers are creative folks, they'll make up the inbetweeny bits if the main idea is compelling.

Being a technical person only is an OK thing when you surround yourself with motivated people. Even if you drive the production, but let someone else produce (arrange for places, times, equipment/props)...you can look at a checklist and work from that to keep yourself on task. Once your crew has the groove going, you can setup a weekend to shoot. You should be able to point and say...where's project x at? and have them give you a quick sitrep :) That way, you don't have to think any farther than where's the list (and become very anal retentive about looking at the list).
 
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I think I can bring the group together, because I seem to be the one most motivated to assemble a team and create something. It feels like I will also have to keep everyone on track, unless I can find a natural born leader with similar motivation.
 
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After a couple of projects, hand off a couple of smaller ones to the person who becomes the producer type... they will probably be the one who is johnny on the spot with everything going on on the set. See how well they take the reins. give them a time or two to get into the groove, as the job of producer takes huge commitment without the immediate impetus of a cast/crew egging you on while they wait for a decision.

It's one of those jobs that most folks assume just magically happens, therefor one of the most thankless and least glamorous outside the industry. Just some schmuck who talks on their cell phone way too often. The first job for the new producer will be a challenge... perhaps you can work them in by handing off actually securing locations for a shoot... or getting hold of the "usual suspects" of your crew and arranging their schedules, getting time commitments, etc. Some folks will rise to the challenge and others will fold under the pressure. Give solid deadlines for everything: I need a coffee shop location with signed release forms by x/y/z date so I can tell the cast and crew where they will be and get location stills to figure out lighting and angles.
 
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