We all have to eat. Here's a few tips on saving money and the environment, all while keeping your crew happy and healthy.
We all need it, but here's how to get it without the waste and toxins. http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com/blog
It's like a bad horror movie. These are simple things you can do around the office and home to save energy and money.
GOT POWER? Here's the next installment in our Green Production tips. Saving energy will save you money and with a small production, every penny counts. Tomorrow we will have a guest Blogger. One of our producers, Amy DeCorte, will be talking about her experiences with the 100 mile diet. Should prove to be very entertaining as well as informative.
Cutting back on paper is easier than you think. Check it out. Don't forget to sign in with your facebook account on the right to leave comments and share with friends. And if you're not a producer yet, become one by clicking here.
Check us out every Monday for a new tip. Today's is on the Post Production picture process and how you can save some money and keep the planet beautiful. Thanks to the good folks at REDLAB Toronto for their support. Click on the "HQ" button in the player for a higher quality image. Don't forget to sign in with your facebook account on the right to leave comments and share with friends. And if you're not a producer yet, become one by clicking here.
In honor of this day reserved for keeping the planet beautiful, and our commitment to making our productions green, I present to you the first video in a series on greening your production. Get out today and do one thing that will help make the world a little cleaner and in doing so, you'll be helping future generations enjoy the same beautiful planet we do today. Cheers Casey Or download the podcast by clicking here
Well I’m trying to sort out the issues with my iPhone and the word press plug in so that I can post anywhere, on the go. Until then, I’ll keep adding funny little things to keep you entertained.
This first one from the cool site xtraordinary.com is far to funny (and true).
Cheers
Casey
Become a producer while there are still some frames left! Click here.
Kevin, Hejoo, Johnny and I checked out Vistek’s Profusion expo last weekend and got to play with some cool stuff.
If you’re following the DSLR revolution that’s going on, you might already know about a lot of the new gear out there designed for this type of shooting. But it was awesome to actually put hands on some of it and see it up close. Much better than sifting through blogs and product sites for information.
Highlights for me included seeing the iKan HD Monitors, GoPro Hero Cameras, the new motion control rigs from Varizoom, and a very affordable support rig called the SUMO II from the folks at Shape WLB.
I also stopped by the Canon Booth which had all their Kick Ass cameras and lenses there to play with.
I’m looking forward to using some of this gear on future projects!
Cheers
Casey
If you’re into action film making and want some tips and tricks on how to improve your DIY special effects, check out Freddie Wong’s youtube page.
Not only do he and his crew do some cool little flicks, but he’ll show you the quick and easy way to get the same results.
Check this one out, after you can see how some of the effects were done.
http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com
So if you’re a bit a tech nerd like me, you’re aware of the recent developments in DSLR cameras.
If not, well let me fill you in.
Companies like Canon and Nikon (and some would argue Sony) make high end digital stills cameras for photojournalists and wedding/event photographers. These things are awesome. 15-22 mega pixels and you can mount a ton of lenses to them.
Well a year or so back, the good folks at Canon thought it would be neat to add an HD video feature to their 5D Mark II . Not to replace their line of video camera, but just as an extra feature for their customers.
It turns out the video quality is AWESOME!!! Here is a test shot at Skywalker Ranch by filmmaker/director and DSLR master, Philip Bloom . He got to blow it up on George’s 40ft screen and all were impressed!
Skywalker Ranch from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
Now at the end of the day this remains a stills camera that shoots video. Of course their are limitations and you have to adapt your technique to suit the camera’s abilities, and not expect it to simply conform to what you expect of traditional film/digital movie cameras.
But with such a compact package, the ability to shoot in low light, a whole whack of lenses, and a price tag that allows you to buy a package as opposed to renting, this camera (along with the 7D and 1D) is proving to be an great tool for independent film makers.
If we choose to shoot the film with one of these cameras, we’ll be sure to bring you all the details on our experience.
If you haven’t become a producer yet, there is still time. Come join us here. http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com/buy.php
I just wanted to take a moment and ask you all to join me in congratulating our Director Of Photography, Kevin C.W. Wong on his acceptance into the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (C.S.C.) !!!!!!!
I’ve been working with Kevin steadily since I moved to Toronto and I feel privileged to call him a friend.
You can check out his awesome eye here. KevinCWWong.com
Seriously, this software is awesome!
Don’t forget to become a producer by clicking here: www.mymilliondollarmovie.com/buy.php
Well, most of you know my affections towards the Star Wars universe, and last night I got the chance to see a midnight screening of the new Documentary, The People vs. George Lucas.
Corey Vidal hooked me up with a ticket to the show and I got to tell you, it is amazing. It took the Filmmakers 3 years to make and the captured over 600 hours of footage in the process.
I’m not one for spoilers so I’ll just tell you to go out and see it, any way you can. Even if you’re not a fan of the films (looser) you will still find this immensely enjoyable.
Check out the trailer here:
And don’t forget to become a producer on our film
http://www.mymilliondollarmovie.com/buy.php
Believe me, there is no ONE or BEST way to fund a feature film. There are new and creative solutions to this problem coming out every day. You just have to find out what works best for you.
These steps may help guide you as they have me. Please share your ideas in the comment’s section!
1. GOT TALENT? USE IT. This is a creative business and if you have a hope in hell of being moderately successful, you better be creative. Apply this to your funding methods and you’ll be surprised at how well people respond.
2. DELEGATE. You can’t do everything yourself. Even if you try, it will hurt your efforts.
3. HAVE A SOLID BUSINESS PLAN. No one is simply going to give you the type of money a film requires unless they know you’ve got a plan to make the movie AND distribute it.
4. BE PREPARED TO PITCH . You never know who you’ll wind up talking to so know your sales pitch because you’d be surprised who you’ll be sitting beside in a restaurant, at they gym or on a plane. And pitch someone as aggressively for $100 as you would $100,000. Every penny counts.
5. PERSEVERANCE. This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and you are going to have to find something that keeps you going. Hopefully it’s your desire to tell the story of your film.
Figure out what works for you, fine tune it and get out there. There is always money for a good project. I hope you find your’s.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers
Casey
We all have to eat. Here’s a few tips on saving money and the environment, all while keeping your crew happy and healthy.
Today’s guest blogger is a 20+ year vetran of the sound deparment. i’ve had the pleasure of working him numerous times over the last 3 years.
His post not only gives you an interesting history of this department, but will give you some tips on greening your set, as well as saving money!!!
With the discussion on greening productions it is important to chime in on the importance of recording from an environmentally sound (so to speak) perspective. Kermit sang, “It’s not easy being green.” I say, “Yes it is and I’m going to show you how.” I’ve been a sound recordist for over 20 years and in that time I have seen this industry grow progressively greener while actually increasing quality, standards and bottom lines.
Making the sound department’s workflow greener has not necessarily been a priority but it is much easier that you might think and the sound department is now among the greenest although we started out as wasteful as any department on the set.
In the bad old days we recorded sound on reels of tape in Nagra machines and the opportunities for green production were very limited. Tapes were made of celluloid backed with metal oxides. Production sound was recorded on these reels and handed off to post where they were transferred to mag stock using more celluloid and oxides. Depending on the scope of the production there could be hundreds and hundreds of reels and as many as 20 audio tracks or more; dialog, atmosphere, sound effects, music, foley, the list goes on. All these tracks consumed resources to be used solely for that project then stored, forever. Since the early-nineties though, the sound department has experienced a sea change that (although this was not the original intent) had the effect of lessening the impact on the environment.
After a brief flirtation with DAT tape recording the industry moved whole-heartedly to recording on hard drives and/or removable flash media. This greatly reduced the consumption of resources in the form of tape. Now, what used to fit onto hundreds of reel-to-reel tapes can be recorded onto and stored on one hard drive. (The first pillar of being environmentally conscious is to REDUCE) This hard drive is submitted to post where it is copied onto a hard drive there for editing (and usually another for backup). The first hard drive is then returned to the recordist the next day to be reused. (The second pillar is RE-USE. We’ll talk about RECYCLE in a bit) The overall cost to the production after the initial investment in hard drives is miniscule compared to working with tape and mag stock (the resolver machine used to transfer the reels to mag stock alone took up half a room and must have cost tens of thousands of dollars) not to mention the cost to store libraries of these tapes forever. Even with the usual industry standard of creating an archive backup copy on DVD the costs of the disks and storage are far less than that incurred in the days of reel and mag stock. A film’s entire sound requirements and output could easily fit onto 50-100 DVDs. It’s usually 1-2 disks total per day of shooting. Look at that stack of DVDs next time you’re in the store. Now imagine that the same output on tape and mag stock could easily take up an entire bookcase in the edit suite and then a warehouse somewhere. You get the picture.
Batteries were the other issue.
Nagra recorders consumed batteries (D cells, remember those?) at an enormous rate. 8 batteries on a short day, usually 16 on a full day and if the day went long (that never happens does it?) you could end up using 24 cells! Way back, this was, as bad as it was, the only power requirement. It was a Nagra and a boom mic. Everything was recorded like that.
Eventually, with the advent of hard drive recorders, the power requirements dropped to the point where manufacturers were able to develop internal, rechargeable batteries or, when possible, the sound recordist ran his gear on a cart with external power. With the advent of multi-track field recorders and reliable wireless mics though, directors and sound recordists were able to wire all their talent up to get cleaner dialog tracks from everybody. This led to a new problem. Wireless mics consume batteries. Lots of them, and battery technology hadn’t progressed with microphone technology. The carbon-zinc or alkaline batteries of the day only lasted a couple of hours. Now the sound recordist was faced with changing batteries on 3-4-5 talent up to 3-4 times a day. You do the math. 15-20 batteries per day or more not counting the slate, comteks, IFB feeds and the various people who always seem to come by the sound cart when the batteries die in their CD players because they know the sound recordist is the biggest battery pimp on set… (but I digress) and you arrive at a lot of batteries in a hurry!
All these batteries just ended up in a landfill leaching their components into the ecosystem forever. For an interesting and slightly scary look at what’s actually inside those little power cells we so casually throw away just Google “battery chemistry”. Batteries used back in the day contained Zinc, Carbon, Manganese dioxide and either Ammonium chloride, Zinc chloride or Potassium hydroxide. Yummy.
So what to do? Those of us who were concerned about this issue, even back then when it wasn’t cool, attempted to use rechargeable batteries. The problem was that the NiCd batteries of the day just didn’t have enough juice to power the high-drain microphones efficiently. You’d get an hour or two, tops. And they’d fail without warning. And they developed a memory so you’d have to be careful how long you ran them. And then you’d have to do a deep discharge and recharge maintenance cycle every once in a while. Who’s got the time to think about all that when you’re trying to record clean sound? The hassles weren’t worth it and most of us switched back to alkalines which (although they were killing the planet) were more reliable and wouldn’t make you eat your day rate when a battery failed during a crucial once-in-a-lifetime-can’t-be-interrupted-for-any-reason scene or make you have to hassle talent every hour or two to swap batteries (can you hear Christian Bale now?).
In the past 5 years or so though, battery technology has progressed to the point where many sound departments (myself included) have made the switch to Lithium ion rechargeable batteries for wireless microphones.
The only knock against rechargeable is that they still have a marginally poorer performance than alkalines but the cost savings and environmental benefits so far outweigh this issue that it is negligible. Just buy another battery so you’ll have a spare and change them slightly more frequently. This is a non-issue IMHO.
OK, that’s all well and good, tree-hugger, but show business is a business first. How does this affect my bottom line? You can’t create a change in attitudes by just saying “We should be greener… we are the world…” you have to put it in terms that decision makers will understand and buy into.
Point taken, let’s analyze going green in simple economic terms:
It’s not even worth the time to seriously try to work out the cost savings of a digital hard-drive-based workflow over an old school tape-based workflow because I don’t know anybody who still does it that way anymore and there are way too many variables for a mere sound monkey like me to wrap his fuzzy head around but considering that an average production would likely use 200 reels at $10 per ($2000 if you could find them) which would easily fit onto a 1 Tb drive for editing and 100 DVDs for archiving ($189 and $22 respectively) not to mention the cost of mag stock, cost of resolver equipment and the storage hassles and I think that issue was settled, financially, a long time ago.
Productions ask the sound department to submit a consumables budget at the beginning of production. I always tell them how much they will spend on batteries (based on purchasing alkalines), then present them the alternative to buy rechargeable with the caveat that at the end of the production I get the batteries. They ALWAYS take the deal (who wouldn’t?). They save money, we don’t have to deal with recycling dead batteries and I get a new set of batteries at the end of the day. Then I give the older ones to the kids for their toys. Everybody wins! I might even let them think it was their idea!
Here’s the math:
Rechargeable Lithium ion batteries vs. One-Use Alkaline:
A rechargeable 9V gets 1000 charge cycles for $25 ($100/4-pack)
You can buy 9V alkalines for $1.50 each in bulk.
$1.50 x 1000 = $1500 vs. $25 for rechargeable
Assume you have 16 rechargeables ($400)
Lifetime savings $1500 x 16 = $24,000 – $400 = $23,600
A rechargeable AA gets 500 charge cycles for $7 ($28/4-pack)
You can buy AA alkalines for $0.75 each in bulk
$0.75 x 500 = $375 vs. $7 for rechargeable
Assume you have 16 rechargeables ($112)
Lifetime savings $375 x 16 = $6000 – $112 = $5888
Total savings on batteries: $23,600 + $5888 = $29,488
At the end of the day you only have 16 9V and 16 AA batteries to dispose of by recycling vs. 16,000 9V and 8000 AA alkalines. (you DO recycle the dead batteries, don’t you…?) When I switched over to rechargeables I had 120 POUNDS of dead batteries in my garage to recycle. Fortunately there are companies out there who specialize in recycling batteries and will shred them, recycle the scrap metals, neutralize the chemicals and dispose of any waste safely.
Save almost $30K and don’t have to kill the planet? That’s a no-brainer.
Remember: nobody thinks about sound until it’s not there and nobody really thinks about going green until you can show them a tangible benefit.
Happy (green) shooting!
Todio
For more tips on green production, check out other clips on our site at: MyMillionDollarMovie.com/blog
