PODCAST EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Michael Hall: From ShoHawk Media, this is Film Making Footnote, with your host, Michael Hall. You're listening to episode 14. This is the show where we give you the best filmmaking and production information so you can make the best project possible without having to spend a bunch time or money at film school. Let's do it. What's up guys? Welcome to episode 14 of Filmmaking Footnote. I am your host, Michael Hall. How are you doing today? How is everyone doing? It's a little sunny here in Portland, Oregon. It's a little cold. My gosh, darn cats will not stop wrestling in my office while I'm trying to record, so please excuse any weird noises that you might hear in the background. I apologize for that. Well at any rate today, we are talking about aperture. If you've ever taken a basic photography or filmmaking class, or even picked up a camera, a professional camera like a DSLR, you've most likely heard the term aperture. But today … [Read more...]
Ep12: FINALE – Made This Movie
We’ve reached the finale of Make This Movie, Season 1. Thank you so much for coming along on the ride to making Counterintelligence. Many lessons were learned throughout the process, most of which were covered throughout the season’s 12 episodes. To highlight the ones that were and insert a few that weren’t, in this episode Chris will go down the list of 12 lessons learned while making this movie—one lesson for each episode. You’ll hear a few statements to back up these lessons from a couple familiar voices, David Pennington, Andréa Tolbert, Michael Hall, Mike Elliott, and Tim Kahn. And you’ll be brought back to Chris’ audio diary. You’ll even hear Chris’ personal theory on the two types of people in the world: Spielberg people, and Scorsese people. Counterintelligence is nearly complete now, and due out in the fall of 2018. Not all lessons have been learned or even digested yet, but we hope the ones that have been mean something to you and your filmmaking. We’ll … [Read more...]
Ep11: Release This Movie
Season 1 of Make This Movie is nearing its end, but the season wouldn’t be complete without distribution. Distribution is the place where your film meets its audience; it’s where your baby ventures out on its own and overnight belongs to the world at large. And as with sending a child off on its own, the distribution process is replete with hard lessons and separation anxiety. In this episode, Chris covers the basics: from the heartbreak of the modern festival circuit, through different forms of distribution, finding an audience, and hatching a marketing strategy. He does this with the help of Jason Brubaker, founder of Filmmaking Stuff. Through excerpts from the Filmmaking Stuff Podcast, Jason shares insights into the new media landscape and how to harness niche markets to help your film find its fans, among other varied topics. They key to ethical and productive distribution and indie film marketing is honing in on an audience that is tailored to your film without … [Read more...]
Between The Frames: Post-Production
In this Between The Frames segment, Chris discusses some specific post-production topics including: The facets of post, from start to finish Doing post from the start Managing the post-production flow Collaboration in post And, the creative post process He covers some best practices to get the most out of each. He also recommends a list of tools and apps that serve the post-production process, from organization to time management and communication. Here they are: Final Cut X - This is my chosen non-linear editing system. It doesn’t have to be yours. In short, I feel it’s a system designed more for the creative and less for the technical mind. But to each their own. If you haven’t tried it and want to form your own opinion, I recommend giving it a shot. Color Finale - This outstanding tool delivers professional grade color tools as a simple Final Cut effects plugin, allowing a colorist to do dynamic and high-quality work without ever leaving the … [Read more...]
Ep10: Finish This Movie
Having locked the cut of Counterintelligence, there’s still a whole world of post that needs completion, even at the time of this episode. On the docket: scoring, color correcting, some minor visual effects, sound design, and sound mixing. Our score was composed by the great Noah Simons. Sound was mixed by Mike Elliott, who you’ll recall was also our Director of Photography. Everything else was done by me, and that’s where it got murky. As you’ll hear in the episode, the extended post tasks like coloring and VFX require a great deal of attention, organization, planning, and most of all accountability. Without these factors at play, post can drag on forever. On Counterintelligence, it certainly feels like it has. The finishing touches of post can get completely underrated in pre-production. They are where the film truly becomes a film, and as important to the filmmaking process as anything else. They deserve a filmmaker’s full attention. In this episode you’ll briefly … [Read more...]
Ep9: Cut This Movie
We’ve arrived at post production. More specifically, editing Counterintelligence. The editing process was multi-layered, from cutting scenes throughout production as they were shot, all the way up to merging those scenes into a rough cut, and refining into locked picture. Editing is where the film gets made: the final vision takes shape at this almost final step in the process. It’s said that three different films are made throughout the filmmaking process: one on the page, another in production, and a third and final film in post. This episode explores that process of sculpting the final vision through refining fragments, trimming fat, shaping pace and tone, and reviewing in stages with the braintrust through screenings for notes and input. Editing can be all-consuming, demanding a fine balance between finely tuned focus and the freedom to experiment. In this episode you’ll hear from Noam Kroll, host of the fantastic Show Don’t Tell podcast on editing efficiency. I … [Read more...]
Answer Print Defined – Episode 13
PODCAST EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Michael Hall: From ShoHawk Media this is Filmmaking Footnote with your host Michael Hall. You're listening to episode 13. This is the show where we give you the best filmmaking and production information so you can make the best project possible without having to spend a bunch of time or money at film school. Let's do it. What's up guys? Welcome to episode 13 of Filmmaking Footnote. I am your host, Michael Hall, and today is going to be a pretty short episode. We are talking about answer print, so really quick I'm going to read the definition of answer print, and then I'll give a little context around what that means, and how I have ... my experience with it and how you can use it, or that knowledge, into your project. So here's the definition. Answer print refers to the first version of a motion picture that is printed to film after color correction. It's also the first version of a movie printed to film with the sound properly … [Read more...]
The History of Animation – Episode 12
PODCAST EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Michael Hall: From ShoHawk Media, this is Filmmaking Footnote with your host Michael Hall. You're listening to episode 12. This is the show where we give you the best filmmaking and production information so you can make the best project possible without having to spend a bunch of time or money at film school. Let's do it. What's going on everyone? I hope you are having a wonderful day. This is Michael Hall here hosting Filmmaking Footnote and we are, we're rolling. We are on episode 12. I cannot believe that we have pumped these out. I really hope you're enjoying these and learning as much as I am actually putting these shows together. We're on this journey together. I'm learning just as much as you. I'm really having a good time. I hope that you are too. Today, we are talking about the history of animation. Animation is personally an art form that I really love. Unfortunately I've only worked, I've only had the pleasure of working at an … [Read more...]
What are Anamorphic Lenses? – Episode 11
PODCAST EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Michael Hall: From ShowHawk Media, this is Filmmaking Footnote with your host Michael Hall. You're listening to Episode 11. This is the show where we give you the best filmmaking and production information so you can make the best project possible without having to spend a bunch of time or money at film school. Let's do it. Hey, what's up guys? I hope you're doing well today. I hope you are having a lovely day. You have Michael Hall here, and today we are talking anamorphic lenses. Anamorphic, a/k/a, CinemaScope. In a later episode, we are going to talk a little more in depth about aspect ratio, but in order to talk about anamorphic lenses and CinemaScope, I want to give you a brief background on aspect ratio. Aspect ratio is the length and width of a frame when you are looking a film or a photo. Most commonly, you will see a 4:3 aspect ratio or a 16:9 aspect ratio. What that means is that you are measuring the length of the frame by the width of the … [Read more...]
American Society of Cinematographers – Episode 10
PODCAST EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Michael Hall: From ShoHawk Media. This is Filmmaking Footnote with your host, Michael Hall. You're listening to episode 10. This is the show where we give you the best filmmaking and production information so you can make the best project possible without having to spend a bunch of time or money at film school. Let's do it. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Filmmaking Footnote. I am your host, Michael Hall. Today, we are gonna be covering the American Society of Cinematographers also known as ASC for short. If you've ever been watching a film and you see the end titles, the end scroll at the end of the film, and you've noticed the letter ASC next to a cinematographer's name, that means that they are part of the American Society of Cinematographers. Now unlike what we talked about yesterday with AFTRA ... Unlike AFTRA, which was a union, the American Society of Cinematographers is not a guild or a union. All it is is an organization that is … [Read more...]