Does watching paint dry sound like your idea of a good time? If so, you'll love this latest behind-the-scenes look at the editing process of NOT A FAN. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is the vibe of the day as we assemble this six-episode jigsaw puzzle - but it sure is exciting to see it come together!
Each day they have been producing a Director’s Diary Video with Tracy Trost the Director of “A Christmas Snow”. Very educational and fun videos!
Lots of interviews with Cast and Crew!
...and great Behind the Scenes info too!
You can watch all the videos on the movie's Facebook page here!
www.achristmassnow.com
www.facebook.com/AChristmasSnow
"Dramatic TV series, documentaries, reality television, shorts, music videos and commercials. All of these are regulars for Jon Erwin of the Erwin brothers, a writer/director duo from Birmingham, Alabama.
These young and unorthodox artists are anything but traditional. They focus on new and innovative ways to produce a diverse portfolio of work – from their multi-award winning documentary The Cross and the Towers to the dramatic TV series Life After, to the international short film series God Provides.
Jon Erwin was writer, director, executive producer and director of photography for The Mysterious Islands, a documentary filmed in the Galapagos Islands, in partnership with Vision Forum.
Christian-Movie.com: Did the idea of taking a RED One and a lot of other film equipment to the "world’s end" make you nervous?
Jon Erwin: Very nervous. We’ve named our RED "Elley May" and there were a few times I thought she wasn’t gonna make it back home. But hey, that’s what insurance policies are for! I believe we were the first people to take the RED camera to the Galapagos. It’s very heavy – about 50 pounds. My poor 1st AC had to lug it everywhere. But the final images were stunning and made it completely worth it.
Christian-Movie.com: Your underwater shots required scuba diving to significant depths with your equipment. What challenges were involved in this process? Are you an experienced scuba diver?
Jon Erwin: Yes, I do scuba dive. My father-in-law owns a dive quarry and we dive there now and then. I also love to free dive. Having said that, diving in the Galapagos was extremely difficult. The currents are harsh and the water was pretty cold. But we used the Canon 5D Mark II, which is very small, and that made things a lot easier.
Life underwater in Galapagos is unbelievable. We dove with hundreds of black tip sharks and even a few hammerheads. It’s also incredible that we could swim with marine iguanas and penguins at the same time!"
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To read the full interview - click here
For those that aren’t on Twitter I wanted to post this amazing video that shows how the BBC series Life was able to achieve an amazing plant growing shots for the episode “Plants.” It involves multiple time-lapse tracking shots in the wild as well as the same shots recreated on blue-screen in the studio. All shot with a DSLR and brought together in the all-powerful After Effects.
It is popular these days for the DVD of a movie to include at least one BTS (Behind the Scenes) documentary. However, it is very rare, especially in Christian filmmaking, to release a BTS book to go along with a film. Well, Burns Family Studios has done just that, and the book is incredible!
"Pendragon: Journey Behind the Scenes" is a 100-page book that takes you on an adventure to explore the making of this epic Christian film. Exclusive stories from the cast, inspiring interviews with the crew, and hundreds of newly released pictures have been carefully woven together to present an experience that will leave you feeling like you have been on the set and a part of the team! One of my favorite parts is the “Pendragon Fun Fact” sections sprinkled throughout the book.
How did you get so many people to help with the movie? Were you ever worried that you wouldn’t be able to finish? Where did you find the locations? Which sets did you build? How were the costumes made? Who made the swords and weapons? What was it like to be an extra on set? Why does Nick play the bad guy? How did you make that much fire? Are you going to make any more movies?
The answers to these questions are full of humor, scary accidents, friendship, innovation, and, of course, God’s provision. It is a lot of fun to read stories of the creativity and resourcefulness that were required to shoot an epic film on a shoe-string budget.
Topics Covered:
-Interviews with actors: Aaron, Marilyn, and Nick.
-Building the fort, creating the market, filming the opening night attack, details on the Sword Dance scene, and fun during the funeral scene.
-In-depth interviews with the costume, makeup, and weapon departments. (These are really neat.)
-Interviews with extras and also with the director.
-Building the team, writing the music, working with horses, running a camera (Yours Truly was interviewed for this section), creating visual effects, and supervising the sound design.
This is an inspiring story of what God did through two ordinary families who were willing to take a step of faith and follow His guidance. You will be encouraged and in awe of our amazing God!
Click Here to visit the Pendragon Store.
City on a Hill Productions is working on new series entitled, "not a fan."
You can watch an intro video to the series here."How would things change if you lived as Jesus lived and loved the way He loved? Maybe you're ready to join the hundreds of people who have stepped across a line and said, “I am not a fan.”"
Richard Ramsey has been posting updates and BTS pictures on his blog, you can also see some BTS videos on the City on a Hill vimeo page. They have some neat pictures and videos, and you might recognize a couple of people from "The Oath of Desormeau!"
The Pendragon Fan Club is now up and active!! The best part is a 6.5min BTS mini documentary hosted by Chad! It has lot of fun stories and behind the scenes footage!!
click here and join now!
Here are some BTS pics from the latest video shoots :) I might can squeeze out a new trailer sometime soon....we shall see ;)
Also, the funny stick-thingy I have my camera on is a Glidecam 2000, the newest toy*ahem tool in my arsenal. Got it off of eBay for around $100 less than the normal price and I love it. Note: running alongside someone riding a bike will wear you out in a big hurry.
CLEANING UP THE EDIT FLOOR
Here are a couple of things that I do when I am finished with a project. First off, is to go catch up on sleep! Ok, seriously…
I put the finished video on a MiniDV tape and label it MASTER for use later if I ever loose my finished video. Cleaning up the scattered files is another way to make sure the project stays altogether (and of course that starts during production) some people even burn these project files to a CD for use later. Also, I go to the Final Cut Pro program files and delete the Video and Audio Render files for the project along with the Capture Scratch video files – AFTER I make a master first. ☺
I then get ready for the next project…..
Random Notes:
-Be careful when handling a camera around sprinklers
-Throwing leaves on the fire are a great way to make the fire brighter
-It is difficult to resist the urge of blowing out an ignited marshmallow
-Grandma is hilarious
-Camp food is really good (most of the time) and it is a good thing too, cause we like to eat ;)
-siblings don’t like paddling with their hands
That’s it for this project! I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to let me know if you have other questions or if you have other areas that you would like me to cover in future BTS sessions.
GRAPHICS AND TITLES
MOTION
I do most of my titles in Motion, because it has a better text resolution output. All the titles for the Camping video were designed in Motion and animated in Motion using a couple of presets. I didn’t do anything really complicated.
BLUE SWIRLY
The blue and yellow swirly thing that “revealed” the number for each point, was a free download from Digital Juice and is part of their Motion Design Elements Library - "Logo Revealer's."
SPECIAL EFFECTS
COLOR CORRECTION
I briefly touched on this in my last BTS, and I don’t have a lot more to add. One benefit I have found is to use a proper “production monitor” when doing color correction. These monitors can be rather expensive and range from around 7” to 13” in screen size. I bought an 8” JVC model off of ebay for under $200. My computer screen is VERY noticeably darker and different in color than my external monitor. A monitor isn’t a must, but if you plan on doing any serious CC work, especially if your finished movie will be viewed on DVD (thereby often using a TV screen) and/or your movie will be projected on a screen using a projector, I highly recommend some extra thought and care when doing the color correction. Most of the CC for this project isn’t very noticeable, and I hard a time finding a cilp that would show the differences very well. Because I shot at sunset and I shot on a couple of different days, some shots were warmer than others and I decided to CC to make all the narration clips a warm orange color……
Before
After
SPECIAL FX
Since my camera doesn’t do well when shooting at night, meaning the video doesn’t show up very well….the “night shot” is really the only shot with special FX applied, but I liked it so much I just had to tell you about it. Here are the stages I went through….
Original shot
Color Corrected using Magic Bullet Editor's "Night" preset, with a few custom tweaks :)
I then added several layers of stars that I created in Blender, and used the compositing option in FC to help them blend into the shot better. It isn’t perfect, but I was pretty pleased with the result.
[CLEANING UP THE EDIT FLOOR] coming next….
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