Thursday, February 23, 2012
Mashable: '7 Free Tools for Creating Your Own Fonts"
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Inter-College 48 Hour Film Challenge - March 2nd thru 4th
The Valleywide Inter-College 48 Hour Film Challenge!
March 2nd through 4th, 2012
Kickoff – Friday, March 2nd, 6:00 pm
University of Advancing Technology - Theatre
(2625 W. Baseline Road Tempe, AZ 85283)
Turn in your finished film by 7pm on Sunday, March 4th at the Screening and Awards Ceremony in the UAT Theatre.
To participate – email UAT Professor Paul DeNigris (pdenigri@uat.edu) by March 1st.
The Rules:
- Each school may be represented by as many teams as they choose.
- A line of dialogue, prop, and genre will be assigned at the kickoff. The line of dialogue must be spoken onscreen and the prop must be handled by a character in the film!
- ALL preproduction, production, and post MUST be done during the 48 hours immediately following the kickoff.
- Professors may provide creative and technical advice to their students – but CANNOT do any of the work for them!
- Films must be NO LESS than 2 minutes and NO MORE than 4 minutes long, including credits!
- Films must be turned in as an H.264 file. No exceptions! Make sure you leave yourself enough time at the end for compression.
Greenscreen Lighting Techniques Tutorial from Eve Hazelton
You can check out Eve's previous lighting tutorials here and here.
'Flight of the Melvin' Screens at Sedona Film Festival This Saturday!
"Melvin" is paired with the family adventure feature The Lost Medallion and will be screening at the Sedona Rouge Theatre, in the Sedona Rouge Hotel and Spa, 2250 W. State Route 89A in West Sedona, Arizona.
Click here to see the schedule and purchase tickets!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
NewEnglandFilm.com: 'How to be a Master Editor'
She says, not enough filmmakers these days take the time to study the technique editors used before the days of digital editing. "One of the things I find disturbing is when a film professor announces they're going to show a black and white, there's a groan in the room," she says.Read the rest of Schoonmaker's insights here: http://newenglandfilm.com/news/archives/2007/05/thelma.htm
Monday, February 20, 2012
TEDx Talk Produced by UAT DV Makes Front Page of TED.com
"Lucianne Walkowicz: Look up for a change."
TED Fellow Lucianne Walkowicz asks: How often do you see the true beauty of the night sky? At TEDxPhoenix, she shows how light pollution is ruining the extraordinary -- and often ignored -- experience of seeing directly into space.The video was produced during the Fall 2011 Semester by the DVA241 (DV Production) class and edited by the DVA274 (DV Editing) class, under the supervision of Professor Paul DeNigris and Associate Professor Todd Schoenberger. Students involved were: Ty Bitterolf, Kennedy Gray, Ariel Navarrete, Neil Sparks, Nic Vereen, Dylan White, and Annie Winn.
Watch "Lucianne Walkowicz: Look up for a change" here!
fxguide: The Art of Destruction
Destruction pipelines today are key aspects of any major visual effects pipeline. Many current pipelines are based on Rigid Body Simulations (RBS) or otherwise referred to as Rigid Body Dynamics (RBD), but a new solution – Finite Element Analysis (FEA) – is beginning to emerge. In this ‘Art Of’ article, we talk to some of the major visual effects studios – ILM, Imageworks, MPC, Double Negative and Framestore – about how they approach their destruction toolsets.Read the whole article - featuring looks at Harry Potter, X-Men: First Class, 2012, and more - here!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Alumni Perspective: Always Be Prepared!
Preparation D – The Importance of Keeping Your Demo Reel Current (and With You)
by Evan Sprague
I’ve recently taken it upon myself to pursue Hollywood as a contractual endeavor. There’s several reasons why I made the decision to stay at Intel for probably the next 5-7 years (not the least of which is the amazing healthcare). While I get to work on some pretty cool projects here (the latest project I can’t talk about much, but let’s just say it involves vfx for a large studio whose name rhymes with “CreamLurks”), most of it doesn’t fall directly into the creative avenue that I seek to travel down. I’m at a point where I still yearn for that highly creative collaboration, even if it doesn’t pay much on the side.
So anyways, enough of my life story. In light of all these recent self-revelations, I hopped into the Craiglist LA gig postings under the film and video section and typed in “compositor”. Naturally, a ton of results popped up, most of which were for lower-budget productions, but were legit nonetheless.
I replied to a couple saying that I’m a passionate fx artist based out of Phoenix, I have an FTP server so remote working isn’t an issue, and even sent my professional resume for review. It was late at night so I figured if I was to hear anything back at all, it wouldn’t be until later the next day and I was seated with my laptop on my in-laws’ couch watching a movie. Much to my surprise, I immediately got a response from the contact for a project involving Tom Sizemore. He reviewed my resume and liked the idea of using me. He had only one question: “Do you have any work online that I could see?”
Oh crap.
I had wrought my own destruction on this day. My website is void because it’s full of old, hack work (some of which is clearly ripped off of video copilot) that doesn’t portray my focus properly. I have some portfolio work on my home computer, but it A.) Wasn’t assembled into any kind of reel, and B.) I had no breakdowns, only the final products (most pros require breakdowns as part of the reel).
Needless to say, I lost that gig. The lesson I took away from it all was ALWAYS have your work ready to show. Always. Don’t even ask about a job unless you’re ready to hand them a polished, refined demo reel as soon as they request it. But more importantly, don’t even make them request it. Put your work on Vimeo or Youtube and link them to it directly when you send your job inquiry. Never assume that they won’t contact back, or that you can get to your reel before they do. Treat every job inquiry like you’re going to be yanked into their office for an interview immediately afterwards, and I’m not just talking about having a completed reel in general. I’m saying even if you do, have it on you at all times. Got an iPhone? Great! Put your reel on it. So when you’re walking around the floor at Siggraph and you get talking to John Lasseter and he asks you what you do, you can put the visual communication medium we know as “Film” to use and show him then and there, with the tap of your finger. Make it your moving business card. Keep it with you like it’s your wallet (which it just might end up filling).
Bottom line, that gig I lost was one little fish in a sea of thousands. Another will come along, and this time I’ll be ready (I immediately made a shiny new reel over the next week). I’m relieved that I didn’t get this abrupt reminder on a much larger opportunity. All I’m saying is, don’t ever let that happen to you.
by Evan Sprague
I’ve recently taken it upon myself to pursue Hollywood as a contractual endeavor. There’s several reasons why I made the decision to stay at Intel for probably the next 5-7 years (not the least of which is the amazing healthcare). While I get to work on some pretty cool projects here (the latest project I can’t talk about much, but let’s just say it involves vfx for a large studio whose name rhymes with “CreamLurks”), most of it doesn’t fall directly into the creative avenue that I seek to travel down. I’m at a point where I still yearn for that highly creative collaboration, even if it doesn’t pay much on the side.
So anyways, enough of my life story. In light of all these recent self-revelations, I hopped into the Craiglist LA gig postings under the film and video section and typed in “compositor”. Naturally, a ton of results popped up, most of which were for lower-budget productions, but were legit nonetheless.
I replied to a couple saying that I’m a passionate fx artist based out of Phoenix, I have an FTP server so remote working isn’t an issue, and even sent my professional resume for review. It was late at night so I figured if I was to hear anything back at all, it wouldn’t be until later the next day and I was seated with my laptop on my in-laws’ couch watching a movie. Much to my surprise, I immediately got a response from the contact for a project involving Tom Sizemore. He reviewed my resume and liked the idea of using me. He had only one question: “Do you have any work online that I could see?”
Oh crap.
I had wrought my own destruction on this day. My website is void because it’s full of old, hack work (some of which is clearly ripped off of video copilot) that doesn’t portray my focus properly. I have some portfolio work on my home computer, but it A.) Wasn’t assembled into any kind of reel, and B.) I had no breakdowns, only the final products (most pros require breakdowns as part of the reel).
Needless to say, I lost that gig. The lesson I took away from it all was ALWAYS have your work ready to show. Always. Don’t even ask about a job unless you’re ready to hand them a polished, refined demo reel as soon as they request it. But more importantly, don’t even make them request it. Put your work on Vimeo or Youtube and link them to it directly when you send your job inquiry. Never assume that they won’t contact back, or that you can get to your reel before they do. Treat every job inquiry like you’re going to be yanked into their office for an interview immediately afterwards, and I’m not just talking about having a completed reel in general. I’m saying even if you do, have it on you at all times. Got an iPhone? Great! Put your reel on it. So when you’re walking around the floor at Siggraph and you get talking to John Lasseter and he asks you what you do, you can put the visual communication medium we know as “Film” to use and show him then and there, with the tap of your finger. Make it your moving business card. Keep it with you like it’s your wallet (which it just might end up filling).
Bottom line, that gig I lost was one little fish in a sea of thousands. Another will come along, and this time I’ll be ready (I immediately made a shiny new reel over the next week). I’m relieved that I didn’t get this abrupt reminder on a much larger opportunity. All I’m saying is, don’t ever let that happen to you.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
UAT Digital Video produces TEDxPhoenix 2011 Videos
The theme for TEDxPhoenix 11.11.11 was "_______ for a Change" and featured speakers from around the US who are exploring unique ideas that have brought about unexpected, interesting, and positive changes. Five hundred people from all over Arizona and the western US gathered at the Mesa Arts Center for an evening of thought provoking and entertaining talks, and the faculty and students of the UAT Digital Video program were there to capture it all in high definition. Here's the playlist - over 3 hours of compelling TED talks!
Friday, February 10, 2012
'Fallout' to Screen at Arizona Centennial Event February 11th
This Saturday night, February 11th, 13 of these 100 films are playing at a special AZ100 event at The Screening Room (127 East Congress, Tucson, AZ 85701), and "Fallout" is one of them! The event starts at 6 pm, with "Fallout" screening as part of the 8 pm group of shorts.
For more info, check out The Screening Room's Facebook page.
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