Songwriting & Solitude with Christina Maria

In this mini-documentary, Christina Maria talks about songwriting and the importance of being alone from time to time.

Check out Christina's newest album Straight Line, on iTunes. Also, don't miss Christina Maria performing Moving You, which was filmed at the same time and location as the video above. 

This video is the first of several mini-documentary portraits that I have in the works. Stay tuned.

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10 Years with Final Cut Pro

It was a bit surprising to me, but I recently realized that I have been using Final Cut Pro for 10 years as of Fall 2010. I can see no better time to take a personal look back a this software that has been so influential on my life as well as an entire industry.

Final Cut Pro 1.0
My first exposure to Final Cut Pro was during my senior year in high school, back in 2000. The previous semester, the school had begun a Digital Media class and Final Cut Pro was the key component.  I signed up for the class as one of my many "slack-off" electives. We were shooting with Canon GL-2's and Sony VX-1000s and learning the basics of logging and capturing. I actually didn't spend too much time with FCP1.0 because the school uprgraded to 2.0 mid semester. One funny memory about 1.0 is that the Dither Dissolve transition would cause the program to crash instantly. It was fun to tell unexpecting classmates "Dude, check out the Dither Dissolve, its awesome!"

Final Cut Pro 2.0
This was the version where I really began to understand editing. I made a whole lot of bad films my senior year in highschool but with each one, I understood what I was doing a little bit more. I remember one project where we had to use at least 3 layers and some effects. My piece had 5 layers and at least two effects on each. One minute of DV footage took over 5 hours to render on our dual processor G4's (still on OS9). Now we can edit full HD on a laptop. It was also around this time, when our teacher had the OSX beta on one of the computers and when I decided that Macs weren't all that bad after all.

Final Cut Pro 3.0
Version 3.0 was the first Final Cut Pro that I owned. In community college I decided that I really did enjoy filmmaking and decided to buy the student version so I could experiment with my own projects. I also enrolled in an adult-education class in video production to continue my learning. It was around this time that I decided I wanted to go to film school. My knowledge of Final Cut Pro gave me a good head start at Brooks Institute of Photography. Final Cut 3.0 was the first version to include Cinema Tools which allowed for film workflows. I used this tool with the telecine material after some 16mm projects. I also saw Walter Murch speak about editing Cold Mountain using Final Cut Pro 3.0 at the LAFCPUG.

Final Cut Pro 4.0 and Final Cut Pro HD (4.5)
This was a marginal update for me and I didn't use it very much. I do remember that that changed the user interface in a little bit strange way. The free update to 4.5 added DVCPROHD editing capabilities, which by todays standards, is hardly HD. It was a good step forward in HD editing though. I wasn't editing any HD projects at this point in time however.

 

 

Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Pro 5.0
I was going to graduate from Brooks Institute very soon, so when Final Cut Studio came out, I took advantage of my student discount and bought it. Final Cut Studio was the first time they marketed a suite of software, the most notable addition being Motion 1.0. I saw a early preview of Motion at a LAFCPUG meeting and was impressed. I still think it is a great program, if not as fully capable as After Effects. I used this version of Final Cut Pro longer than any other version. My documentary H.R. Giger's Sanctuary was cut with it. The biggest feature in verson 5, in my opinion, was the ability to edit HDV footage natively. Which made working with cameras like the Sony Z1. Anyone who used this version dreaded the final render of a HDV project and the "Conforming Video" progress bar -- it was damn slow.

Final Cut Studio 2 and Final Cut Pro 6
Color was the big product addition to the Final Cut Pro suite, however the biggest upgrade, and probably the most important in FCP history was the introduction of ProRes 422. This "visually lossless", variable bit-rate codec allowed for editing full HD, raster video with the file size of uncompressed SD. The codec has had such an impact that AVID now supports it and the ARRI Alexa has the ability to shoot directly to this format. I use ProRes422 video every day.

 

Final Cut Pro 7
In this version, for some reason, Apple reset the name back to Final Cut Studio (it should be Final Cut Studio 3). Anyway, after suffering with FCP 5 at home for too long, I decided to buy FCP 7 for myself. Using ProRes at jobs made me really want that capability at home. I am glad I waited for version 7 though because Apple dropped the price significantly on this verson. None of the new features excited me too much, though the inclusion of new flavors of ProRes were quite nice. I use ProRes422(LT) all the time for VDSLR footage since their bitrate is lower than that anyway.

I am looking forward to whatever Jaw-dropping news Apple has coming this year. I am hoping for something big. We'll see.

This article was originally written for and posted to www.swissfilmmakers.com

A Perfect Moment with Lindsay Ferguson

Lindsay Ferguson came through Zürich and after her show at the best cafe in Zürich we filmed two videos for the Presented by Cafe Henrici video series. The way the people in the street reacted to her and what happens at the beginning of part II made for a perfect, real life moment for me. Enjoy!

"Right About You" by Lindsay Ferguson

"Boxing Gloves by Lindsay Ferguson
 

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Will Ferrell / Colonel Qaddafi Mashup

The other day was watching Al Jazeera's coverage of the turmoil in the middle east just when Muamar al-Qaddafi started his defiant and apparently incoherent speech. As I was watching, I couldn't help think that something about him seemed familiar. Then I realized that his look and mannerisms were very reminscent of a classic SNL character played by Will Ferrell. See for yourself:
 
Uncanny isn't it? I hereby challenge Will Ferrell to make a video dressed as Qaddafi while doing his Harry Caray impression. It would be as hilarious as it would be spot-on. Also, I welcome others to make similar mash-ups to this one.

Watch the original SNL clip. (Very Hilarious)

Watch the Original Al Jazeera Clip. (Not as Hilarious)

On a more serious note, my heart goes out to the people in Libya and other Middle East nations in turmoil. I wish them freedom and safety.

Goodnight Company by Jane Lui

This is the official music video for Goodnight Company, the title track from Jane Lui's newest album (Buy CD/DVD or free download). It was filmed back in May in various locations around Zürich. I really enjoyed making this video and I think the final result is so much fun! I would like to thank everyone who was involved -- particularly the anonymous German and Dutch tourists who were so kind to join in for the last scene.

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Kodachrome is Dead (a Post-Mortem)

Kodachrome box, taken on Kodchrome (Dec 12. 2010 - 11:35, f1.7 1/4th sec)For the past 75 years, photons bouncing off various people and objects have sometimes been captured, at the click of a button, on the surface of a film called Kodachrome. Kodachrome is not only one of the most recognizable brands of photographic film, but its history ecompasses the entirety of accessible color photgraphy. In 2009, Kodak stopped production of Kodachrome and on December 30, 2010, the only lab left in the world with the ability to process it discontinued that service. I decided to shoot one roll of Kodachrome before it was too late and I just received the results via airmail from Kansas.
Grossmünster's last interaction with Kodachrome (Dec 5. 2010 - 16:02, f2.8 1/60th sec)The whole time I was shooting this roll of film, I kept thinking about photons (yup, I'm a nerd). Many of my subjects, such as Zürich's Grossmunster, have been shot on Kodachrome countless times. As I clicked the shutter, I thought that this would probably be the last time the photons boucing off these objects would come in contact with Kodachrome. Having never shot Kodachrome before, I felt a bit like an archeaologist, wandering the city of Zürich, exploring the properties of something that is now relegated to history. I was very careful in making each shot, and had a list of people and places I wanted to photograph. I also marked down the time and exposure settings for each shot for posterity. I snapped the last photo (a blurry self-portrait) and sent off the film on the 17th of December, just 13 days before the deadline.
Some kind of police protest at the Rathaus (Dec 8. 2010 - 13:49, f2.8 1/60th sec)I waited patiently to hear news from Dwayne's or see that my credit card had been charged so I could confirm that my film made it on time. After two weeks and no sign, I got nervous and gave Dwayne's a call. I was told by a very friendly staff member that my film made it with three days to spare. However, they were running behind by about three weeks due to the volume of film that they had recieved in the days approaching the deadline. That was understandable, considering one man turned in 1500 rolls by himself. The box finally arrived and I got the first look at my film.
View from the Lindenhof (Dec 9. 2010 - 15:02, f4 1/125th sec)

The film looks just as good as I thought it would. Very clean and sharp, nice color renditions. However, it was (as I expected) a pain to scan. Kodachrome is very unique in the way its color layers are arranged. This makes it tricky for scanners to deal with (and one of the reasons why they discontinued it). I had to tweak the settings individually for each scan because I didn't want to invest in an it8 calibration slide. I think my scans are pretty good, but still not 100% of the originals. The one thing that really stood out to me about Kodachrome is its excellent rendering of skin tone.
Pascal Grob of www.fashionbitsandbobs.com (Dec 9. 2010 - 15:48. f1.7 1/60th sec)Overall, though happy with the film, I understand Kodak's decision. Kodachrome has a unique look, but not so unique that more modern slide films can't do the same work. Kodachrome has to be processed in its own special way, where other slide films share the same process. Also, in the end, most film is digitized anyway, and the process to digitize Kodachrome is cumbersome. I am glad I had the experience of shooting this historic film, but all good things must come to an end.
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Les Shelleys, Part 2 - "The Biggest Lie"

Another charming cover from Les Shelleys, this time being "The Biggest Lie" by Elliott Smith.

Don't miss Part 1, wherein this delightful duo performs "I'm On Fire" by the Boss.