So I wanted to bring to light some favourite directors of mine whom I like to call Lo-Fi directors. These are namely

• Spike Jonze (Where the wild things are, Adaptation),

• Michel Gondry (Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, Be kind rewind)

• Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The life Aquatic with Steve Zissou)

Despite any of the shortcomings any of these directors and their films show, there is definitely that element of charm behind the fact that they persue lo-fi techniques to tell their story. Reversing footage, compositing things optically, trick photography, using real sets instead of green screen. I think it’s really important that as directors and filmmakers that we don’t overshadow our films with just a ridiculous amount of high end technology and really find creative ways to express our stories. A common misconception is that ppl think that the audience wants us to make the images on screen we see look “real”. But the reality is ppl just want you to make it look cool. I do miss the days when I watched a movie and had no idea how it was done. Nowadays there is no mystery. It’s all done on computers! ha! well sorta…

Anyways I was going to do a tutorial on how to make that damned transformer but the reality is, it’s gonna take a while. (I mean frig, the rigging alone will just be one lesson). So I am going to have split it into parts. But in the meantime, here’s one I prepared earlier…

PS. Star Trek just came out on DVD and Bluray and man is it ever sweet! I wanna be Spock!!

My friend Vickie Reddy over at Karbon has kindly informed me of this very confronting movie about the ugly world of human trafficking. If you’re not sure about what that is head over to the site here. I implore you, if you are unaware of one of the fastest growing crimes in recent history, you need to see this film and understand what is going on, cause as a generation we no excuse to be ignorant! It’s being released worldwide so if it’s a cinema near you I encourage you to check it out (see session times here).

So if you head over to prolost.com, Stu has very exciting news about the Canon 1D Mk IV that can shoot (wait for it!!) FULL HD VIDEO!

Check out the full article here

Elsewhere on the site he also mentions that there is a future firmware update that Canon are releasing in 2010 that allows the Canon 5D to shoot in (pause for dramatic effect) 25p and 24p in 1080!!!!!

OMG! Read that full article here

I don’t know if you can gauge my tone, but I for one and very, very excited!

This a film that a small group of people from my church have put together and is being released world wide this November. If you want to get your tickets for your are just go to http://www.theiheartfilm.com/ and grab your tickets online today! Yours truly did a little bit of work on the film (approx 10-20s) but hey I did something . Go see it guys, it’s gonna be amazing!

The pervasiveness of the internet has meant that now information is completely and utterly available to anyone and everyone. which is not to say is a bad thing. When I started doing videos when I was sixteen, the internet was ridiculously expensive to have at home and editing on computers was something that cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.

But nowadays it seems everyone has the freedom to express their ideas in a digital format in one way or the other and this has leveled the playing field for a lot of people. No longer are creative people limited by their cash flows, they can use powerful tools that even the big guns in Hollywood and major design studios use. Powerful tools at the grasp of mere mortals.

But like all powerful tools, there are many who use it for evil…

Now I must preface this next section saying I am not in any way having a dig at Andrew Kramer or Videocopilot (which is an awesome place for video tutorials and general video workflow stuff), but I must say that in a lot of ways Andrew Kramer (and lots of other tutorial sites) is giving rise to a lot of video hacks which annoys me no end. I define a hack as someone who comes along and takes someone’s existing project, changes some colours and titles and then shows it to a client and says “that’ll be $500 please”. Now granted that client probably had no idea where the project came from, or would be able to create it, but the reality is, they stole someone else’s hardwork, and sold it!

Not cool…

I implore you, as a designer, motion graphics specialist or video editor, if you’re gonna take someone else’s work, please, PLEASE, make it your own and don’t try and pass it off as you’re own work. You’re better than that. And if you think it’s fine that you are selling someone else’s hardwork, let me warn you now, hacks will be found out.

Sounds harsh. It should be. PEACE!

I once saw a documentary on Pixar where John Lasseter was talking about contributing factors to the success of all the movies he had helped to create over the years. Apart from just the sheer brilliance of the creative and technical aspects of the team, he basically alluded to the fact that his whole team follows a singular motto:

STORY IS KING

And this got me to thinking. Originally I thought a good script was the backbone of any good film, which in a lot of ways is very, very, very true. But the truth is, you can have a poorly written script, but if you have a killa story, it should be a killa movie (but of course conditions apply ).

Everyone loves a good yarn, and I think that in whatever we decide to do in this medium, it should be really important to take people on a journey. As my friend Sydney once told me “Come as you are, but don’t stay that way”. I think if you treat you’re audience that way, and take them somewhere, I think you’ll be in a good place.

So what constitutes a good story? To be honest I am still learning about it all. I am currently reading Robert McKee’s “STORY” which outlines some amazing story telling techniques (mainly directed at film). You can find this book on Amazon!

That being said, I wanna leave you with this really great song to help you understand how great story telling is. For me, this sort of stuff is the reason I got into film making in the first place.

Its called “the Mariner’s Revenge” by “The Decemberists”.

Enjoy!