I’m Going To Miss My Life
by BlakTornado, August 1, 2010
No, this isn’t some public suicide note or cry for attention. It’s a reminder; a reminder of the good times before life completely changes. As of writing, life is pretty good. I’ve just finished work on a large film project of mine that’s received positive feedback, I’ve done pretty well in college and I’m enjoying my part-fulltime job. But alas, there’s something big and scary coming up soon, and that thing is University.
In itself, University isn’t that scary. While I’m not going to count my eggs before they’re hatched, I image that University will be pretty enjoyable and despite being hard work, it shouldn’t be too hard to complete it at a level I’m happy with, as I know I will put the effort in just like I did with college beforehand. That’s not the scary part. The scary part is that I’m digging up my tent-pegs and moving to the other end of the country, which is scary. Not only will I be leaving behind my friends, family and job, but I’ll be on my own in a place I’ve only ever visited twice. There are so many things that aren’t clear yet -and won’t be clear until I start my course in September- that are eating into my nerves a little.
But maybe this anxiety is just fuss about nothing. Things should be fine. After all, I’ve got money sorted on an accommodation level, I’ve got my place on the course and thousands of people my age find themselves in this exact same position and get through it perfectly well. On the other hand, it’s quite scary knowing that you’re completely on your own in the world, especially with student debts and loans and warnings being stapled to my conscience like they’re going out of fashion. And things are going to be very different, especially since I’ll be living in the halls of residence with people that are complete strangers; it’s bad enough living with my family who I’ve lived with all my life, at times. Whereas a conflict regarding who wants to watch what on TV at home results in a bit of a heated scuffle, I can imagine the same scenario in Halls ending in a stabbing or the stealing of my rare treat of a can of Pepsi Max — one that I’d been saving my buttons up for weeks for, I imagine quietly to myself. That sort of thing is scary (although obviously I’m exaggerating a little bit out of uncertain anxiousness).
However, I’m posting this to remind myself that things are going to alright, since life is good and things can always get better, no matter who you are and what you’ve done. And hopefully, maybe, I’ll read this back in September and laugh as things are going swimmingly. So there we have it.
My quest for the perfect Indie Film Production Kit (Pt. 1 – The Camera)
by BlakTornado, July 18, 2010
Having left college, leaving behind all their lovely lovely toys… I mean, equipment, I’m on a quest to build my own Indie Film Production Kit that rivals what I was using before in order to make my own independent films in the future. Although I’m going to University in September, and will no doubt be able to borrow equipment there, there’s something liberating about having your own gear; something I discovered when filming my short film ‘Robot’. Instead of having to worry that you’re hogging equipment or -even worse- not going to be able to get access to the equipment you need when you need it, you know full well that you can do whatever filming you want whenever you need to do it.
Towards the middle of making ‘Robot’, I managed to bargain my way into purchasing a Sony HVR-A1E, which is effectively a miniature version of the Sony HVR-Z1E – a common camera in the industry, used by many lower budget HD productions out there, and many Standard Def. productions as well. Sony Z1s are popular among independent film makers, documentary makers, wedding videographers, and even massive studios like the BBC due to their low price, decent quality and their portable size (this is compared to massive HD studio cameras, rather than consumer camcorders, naturally).Yes, yes, enough about the Z1. What about the A1? Well the A1E is a much smaller camera. Think of the old sort of Handycam size – not the new ones that are the size of a matchbox and fit snuggly your palm, but the ones that were all the rage before the consumer video market kicked into HD mode. What makes it so special, then? Well, from what I gather, t it was designed to mimic the image quality of the Z1E, while pushing the form factor much smaller than it’s bigger brother – and that it does. This makes it ideal for productions like car review programmes, or candid camera shows that need to get a good quality image from a space that wouldn’t be able to house a bigger camera such as the Z1. The small size also makes it useful for filming in areas of high risk, such as the News, that film in places where media presence may not really be appreciated. But I’m not going to be doing that, I shouldn’t think.
No, the reason I’ve bought this camera is because it’s cheaper much than a Z1 while retaining most of it’s attributes. And now that I’ve been able to use both cameras equally, I can firmly state that there was really very little difference in quality, despite the A1E only having a single chip CMOS sensor, and the Z1E being a 3-chip CCD monster in comparison. When spliced together, it can easily become difficult to remember which camera shot which parts of a scene, especially when viewing footage in a lower resolution (this is a good thing for people who will ultimately down-rez their footage for DVD distribution or non-HD broadcasting). Even at full resolution, though, footage from an A1E doesn’t look out of place or even noticeable in a video shot with Z1s. This is really impressive, considering the massive difference in size and sensor.
Unlike most of the affordable camcorders that are aimed at the consumer market, however, the A1E includes the biggest dealmaker for me. A lot of the other HD camcorders I looked at included a host of auto-features such as autofocus, autoexposure, auto-white balance, auto-tune, autotrader, autobahn, automatic doors, auto… You get my drift. This is great for, well, consumers, but, as such, they were all missing one thing that I had grown to love so much after using Z1s and Z5s at college; the Manual Focus Ring! Now, a lot of people who don’t know what they’re doing despise the focus ring. They avoid it like the plague and stick to having their focus tweaked by the camera, which, coincidentally, probably thinks the pot plant in the background looks much more important than the person you’re interviewing and decides to focus on that instead. But I digress a little. The point is, I love being able to manually focus on things, allowing the transition from a shallow to long focus in a pseudo-artistic manner. It’s fantastic; it allows for much more control over what the camera is doing and lets your films look so much more professional. So overall it was a win win situation.
And thus it was set; I bought myself an A1. In fact, a couple of my newest short films were filmed on it and it’s come out looking pretty sweet, especially in well lit areas. I am very impressed and cannot wait to get more use out of it, and having finally found a copy of the manual online I can finally work out how to get the best out of this little beast. With that, my first hurdle (and probably the most expensive, at £1100) was jumped in my quest for the perfect Indie Film Production Kit. Next up; the challenge of tacking sound, tripods and dollies, and lighting. Here we go…!
Robot DVD
by BlakTornado, July 11, 2010
Thought I’d better post a couple of pics of the Robot DVD box to whet the appetite of those of you hoping for a copy. Apologies for the rather low quality pictures (not sure what’s going on there). Bear in mind that the DVDs are in PAL format, so you’ll probably need to play them on your computer if you live somewhere such as the US or Canada, where PAL isn’t used commonly. If you have a PAL or Region 2 capable DVD player, it’ll work fine in it.
As you can see from the photos, there’s a lot of black on the cover. Unfortunately this is causing manufacturing issues at the moment, mainly because I don’t have much ink left after printing covers for ‘Unlucky For Some’ a few months ago. Manufacturing should resume shortly and people who’ve already registered interest will start receiving details about how to get their hands on a copy. The waiting list is is really long with my standards, so I’d appreciate your patience for now. In the mean time, feel free to check out my latest album ‘Unlucky For Some’, where stock is in solid supply.
Robot is finished
by BlakTornado, July 11, 2010
Yay! Robot is finally finished! That means that George, Kyle, everyone else involved and myself can finally return to our normal lives. At last! So how can you see it? Well, I’m currently in the process of sending the film to festivals (I’ve sent it to two so far and plan on sending it to more as I find them) and I’m running a short promotion on the Facebook fan page that will allow for those of you who’ve been following the film to get a copy of the DVD. Why not just put it online? Well a number of festivals aren’t too happy with the films submitted to them being available on the net, and I feel that for now the amount of exposure available through festivals is much more valuable than that of, say, YouTube.
I’ve also set up a page on my site here with information about screenings, as well as other bits and pieces related to the film. Hopefully a couple more dates and venues will arrive on the page shortly, but for now. If you’d like a copy, be sure to take part in the promotion on the film’s Facebook fan page where you can find out about getting a DVD copy.
Other than that, I hope you enjoy the film as much as everyone I’ve been hearing about has, and I’d like to just thank everyone who helped make the film, as well as all of the other people who’ve been really supportive and given feedback – you gave me a reason to keep going with this project when most of my tiring body was yelling at me to stop (I’ll admit that it got a little bit tedious towards the end!)
So that’s Robot! I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated with any news on screenings and the likes. Thank you, and take care.
