Christian Worldview Film Festival 2015

The full list of 2015 Official Selections is now online!
Guild & Festival // March 10-14

Here are the films I helped with that will be showing this year.

- Polycarp (Camera, Editor, Colorist)
- Bound (Consultant)
- Roses (On-set Editor)
- Wanted (Editor, Colorist)
- Firefly (Consultant)
- Awakened to Truth (Post Production Director)
- Overcoming Opposition (Post Production Director)
- The Egg Project (Post Production Director)
- Who We Are (Director of Photography)
- Set Free (Consultant)

View the full list here!

Also, if you haven't purchased your tickets to the Guild & Festival, be sure to use discount code JOHNCLAYBURNETT to get $25 OFF!

Purchase tickets here!

TMB - Tips for Interviews

Since launching the Music Bed Community, we have interviewed dozens and dozens of filmmakers and artists from all around the world. We’ve flown to Paris. We’ve Skyped to South Africa. We’ve GChatted to Spain. And during all that time, we’d like to think we’ve not only gotten better at interviewing people, but that we’ve learned a few practical lessons along the way. We’ve written them down here.

Before we get into it, though, just a quick note about why we’re so into interviewing in the first place. It boils down to this: We think what other people have to say is oftentimes a lot more interesting than what we have to say. Given the choice between talking about what we know about filmmaking and hearing what Eliot Rausch knows about filmmaking…well, the better option seems pretty obvious. We interview because we’re curious, because talking to amazing people opens up our minds, surprises us, challenges us — and honestly, it’s usually a lot of fun.

The types of interviews we lean toward (and so, the types of interviews the lessons below are relevant to) are usually a bit more rambly, the kind that take twists and turns, that unfold, that linger a little longer on a subject than people otherwise might. In other words — they’re conversations. And while there is certainly a time and place for a more straightforward Q&A kind of interview, that’s not the type of thing we get very excited about.

Here’s everything we know about interviewing...

Make Your Subject Feel Smart

Great interviews happen when the people you’re interviewing feel confident, when they feel like they’re saying intelligent things and you’re genuinely interested in what they have to say. In some of our best interviews, we hardly ask any questions at all. Maybe four or five questions total over the course of an hour. A good interview/conversation should roll like a boulder, with you just course-correcting here or there to keep the thing on track. A bad conversation is like you trying to push a boulder up a hill. Zero momentum. A lot of times this lack of momentum comes from your subjects not feeling confident about what they have to say. They answer in a word or two. They, “Don’t know.” Suddenly you find yourself doing most of the talking, trying to put words in your subjects’ mouths, and leaving with nothing. 

Go out of your way to make your subjects feel smart. Ask them easy questions at first (we usually spend a good five minutes talking about where the subjects are from) and be very interested in their answers. Affirm them. Just simple enthusiasm for their responses can go a long way to opening them up, making them feel comfortable — “No way! You’re from Long Beach?! I grew up in Long Beach!” or “You know, I never thought of it like that.” or “You know what, that’s a really good point.” The better your subjects feel about themselves, the better your conversations will go.

Let Silences Get Awkward

There is a natural human tendency to fill silences, to keep conversations moving forward, to do anything necessary to keep things from getting awkward. When you’re interviewing someone, silence can feel particularly devastating. It’s tempting to immediately step in, ask another question, make a comment — move things forward. But this is the wrong thing to do. After someone has answered a question, let her answer hang for just a few seconds too long.

Let the silence linger. What usually happens is the subject speaks up again. She fills the awkward silence, and she fills it by reaching a little bit deeper into her answer, saying something she might not have otherwise said. Be patient. Wait for those moments. Often the thing a subject fills the silence with is a unique and much more personal observation than her initial response.

We love how Philip Bloom opened up in our interview with him in 'Making Room'.

...(read the fulll article here)

How to Make Your Editor Happier

11 things video editors wish they could say to camera operators and DOPs

RedShark welcomes editor and blogger Jonny Elwyn to its growing ranks of writers. He responds with this handy list for shooters and camera ops, of ways to keep their editors happy.

As any experienced editor will tell you, after years of sifting through hours and hours of footage (some of it good, some of it bad, some of it very ugly), there are a few key things that anyone working behind the camera can do that make our lives much easier, the project far better, and the final result something we can all be proud of. 

Of course, it's very easy for editors to turn into armchair critics. They didn't get up at 5 am to make the sunrise or drag heavy gear half way up a mountain, battling the elements just to get the perfect shot. But we do have the benefit of the perspective gained by leisurely skimming through the results of your hard graft. So here are 11 suggestions for things every editor wishes every camera operator always did, and hopefully they'll improve what you get in the can, and improve the life of editors everywhere. 

The first and last suggestions are probably the most important!

1. Shoot for the edit  - Think in terms of sequences and storytelling. Make sure you've got an establishing wide, an interesting reveal, close ups, movement etc. If an interviewee mentioned a specific location, item, or view, try to grab that if you can. Also think in terms of triplets. Three shots most often make for a nice sequence of cutaways - two, not so much.
2. Always roll  - It's the 'bad bits' that we often use - re-focuses, lens whacking, snippets of background audio for filling in silences, etc. - so please don't wave your hand in front of the camera to say that it's no good. We might have a use for it anyway.
3. Don't always roll  - Editors don't love it when they have to copy, ingest, transcode and organise lots of footage that then turns out to be someone's feet, the inside of a car door, lens caps or other random things. Obviously, this isn't intentional, but if you know it's happened, please weed out the clip if you can. 
4. Metadata matters  - Make sure that the reel names and timecode on your camera are set correctly and that they increment with each new card, tape or disc. The more information you can supply us the better. If you're keeping logging sheets or camera reports, please know we do actually look at them!
5. Fix it in Camera  - Ensuring your white balance and colour temperature are set correctly is extremely helpful. Not only is this a pretty basic element for a professional cameraman to get right, it can be sometimes very difficult to fix in the grade later on (if the project is lucky enough to have a grade), especially under more exotic lighting conditions, for example inside a factory or under-ground parking garage. And if you want to really go wild, actually shoot a colour chart.

...(Read More)

Who's Who on a Movie Crew

Here is a fun short film that describes the key positions on a movie production.

"Making a video can be a one person production but the more elaborate your ideas get, the more likely you'll need a crew to execute your vision. In this video, we give you a rundown of the basics of how all the work is divided up on a basic crew."

...see the full lesson HERE!

PluralEyes 3

Audio/Video sync in seconds

Videographers and filmmakers win by telling a good story. Now you can win at the workflow behind that story too. By synchronizing audio and multi-camera video automatically, PluralEyes revolutionizes post-production and speeds your sync in seconds rather than days. PluralEyes 3 is a standalone application with a new timeline, visual feedback, and touch-up features for quality control. PluralEyes 3 is up to 20x faster than PluralEyes 2, and can easily prepare an audio/video sync for any NLE. For a faster, less tedious and more accurate workflow, use PluralEyes 3 to put the focus back onto creative storytelling.

Now for Windows too! PluralEyes 3 delivers in one package, at one price, for all operating systems. Version 3 brings the sync to both Mac and Windows, plus you still get the original PluralEyes 2 and DualEyes.

What's New

FREE UPDATE! PluraEyes 3.2 adds full support for Windows systems, and imports/exports its timeline with Sony Vegas Pro

Turn post from tedious to lightning-fast. PluralEyes 3 is up to 20x quicker than PluralEyes 2, and hundreds of times faster than synchronizing the old-fashioned way. Learn to love visual storytelling again.

Enjoy production more as you do less. A brand new timeline with visual feedback gives you confidence as you watch the sync happen. Identify problems before they happen, and get some geek excitement by watching the sync occur in real time.

Get the sync in one place. We integrated DualEyes features to create a standalone PluralEyes 3 application. Now you can sync footage before going into an editing platform.

"Do It For Me" workflow. Let PluralEyes do the heavy lifting, when you add a group of clips as 'Takes,' and let PluralEyes decide their relationship while it's syncing.

Bring quality control to the edit. New ‘test & tweak’ tools such as Two-Up View and Synchronize Pair of Clips save time by adjusting the sync on-the-fly, offering you a full quality control step before the creative editing.

Learn More - RedGiant.com

Apple - Mac Pro

"A sneak peek at the future of the pro desktop."

When we began work on the next Mac Pro, we considered every element that defines a pro computer — graphics, storage, expansion, processing power, and memory. And we challenged ourselves to find the best, most forward-looking way possible to engineer each one of them. When we put it all together, the result was something entirely new. Something radically different from anything before it. Something that provides an extremely powerful argument against the status quo. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s next for the pro computer.

Even if you aren't interested in the Mac Pro, it's worth visiting the website (and scroll down) to experience the creative and amazing sneak peek they've put together!

Click Here to read more!

START your project with Post.

(so we don’t have to “fix it” later)

“Oh we’ll just fix that in Post.”  

“Oh we’ll just fix that in Post” …Those are 7 of the most famous words in all of media production.  Whatever happens in the field, it doesn’t matter, those technical wizards in the darkened rooms with computers galore can make it absolutely perfect.   And that IS true if you have an endless budget, we can pretty much fix and create anything your heart desires.  But as I’m sure many of you don’t have an endless budget, there is often a more cost effective solution.

Get Post Production involved right from the beginning of the project.   Seems when most folks get a project started they call together everyone necessary to make it happen EXCEPT post production.   It’s like the Post isn’t important even though that’s where your project is going to end up and be finished.

First off, in today’s digital world, solid media management is paramount to any project.   When you erase your digital card / hard drive / storage device you’re using in the field, that data is gone forever.   In post production, we’re used to managing a tremendous amount of data for any given project so we can help establish a solid data management workflow from file naming convention down to storage and archiving the data so everything you shoot is protected.    If you simply shoot the project and walk into a Post facility with a bunch of drives, the first thing you’re going to pay for is someone to go through and organize the entire project into something manageable.

Not to mention one of the biggest issues we run into is lack of complete camera data.   This happens constantly when we receive raw camera data from the field and at the very least you can lose timecode and at worst loss of picture or audio or both.   It’s so important to transfer the digital camera data correctly for the type of camera you’re using or information will simply get lost between the field and Post.   There’s nothing more frustrating for a Producer than having hours upon hours of footage that all starts at timecode 00:00:00:00 from Reel 001 and trying to give notes to the editor.   Get Post involved at the get-go and you can be better prepared from the moment you walk in the door.

Getting the editors, graphic designers, animators, sound designers and even colorists involved from the beginning can also add a lot more creative input on your project.    When you share your vision and plan for your project, very often those who will finish the show can share some insights on projects they’ve recently completed, ideas to make your project different, additional camera angles and shots and so on.   Post artists can also help determine what’s better to shoot practical in the field or create digitally later.   In other words, starting with post production can oftentimes lead to a much better end product and certainly help you to get the most bang for your budget.

So while we’ll never be able to completely eliminate the classic “Fix It In Post” problem, if you bring Post Production into your project from the start, we can help create a smoother workflow, less headaches, and more creative end product.

- - - - - -
Article by Biscardi Creative

Screenplays on the iPad mini

Article by: Stu Maschwitz

"John August responds to the question of whether the iPad mini is good for reading screenplays:

It is. It’s really good.

I agree completely. Even without a retina display, the mini is a thoroughly pleasant device for reading. And dictating script notes via Siri feels enough like living in the future that I barely miss my flying car.

John’s feelings about the inexpensive but unpretty GoodReader app match mine, and my recommendation hasn’t changed since I wrote about reading screenplays on the iPad Maxi: Spend a few extra bucks and get PDF Expert. It syncs with Dropbox, exports annotations as text files, and won’t hurt your eyes. My only complaint is an old one: with no ability to offset page numbering (to account for page 1 of the PDF corresponding to the unnumbered title page of a screenplay), your exported annotations will be off by one page.

Small price to pay for a hundred screenplays in your pocket."

Source Article: Here

Beyond the Mask - BTS 1

Join Producer Aaron Burns as he takes you on a behind the scenes tour of the Philadelphia street set.

Movie Website

"The Eleventh Coin" - FA 2012

I was blessed with the opportunity to be one of the leading teachers at the 2012 Filmmakers Academy in Austin, TX. FA is a week long film camp that gives students a hands-on opportunity to walk through the full process of creating a short film. You can view the short film at the end of this post.

This year they opted to produce a silent film due to time constraints and location logistics.

We had two units, Unit A filming the Bible-time side of the storyline, and Unit B (my group) produced the modern-day side of the film.

 Just remember, this is a project made primarily by students in one week.