Ignite Phoenix #15

On October 18th, 2013, UAT Digital Video produced the live stream and other video elements for a very unique event, Ignite Phoenix.

Ignite Phoenix is an information exchange for fostering and inspiring Phoenix's creative community. In one evening, you hear 18 passionate speakers from our creative, technical, and business communities talking about their current projects or favorite ideas for just five minutes. Presentations will educate and inspire you, and maybe make you laugh in the process.

2013 UAT DV Program Highlights

Here's the latest rendition of our program-wide demo reel!

UAT DV Vlog: Miniature Teleporters

The team behind UAT DV's time travel drama "Ouroboros" decided to build a miniature for the film's teleportation pods rather than rely exclusively on CGI. Check out the construction of the 1/6 scale miniature in the latest edition of the DV Vlog!

UAT DV Vlog: Borderlands Prop and Set Construction

Production continues on our Borderlands fan film "Change of Hart." Check out the progress in this latest installment of the DV Vlog!

Complete w00tstock 5.0 Playlist!

Just like last year, UAT Digital Video was on location for w00tstock 5.0 in San Diego. The "geek variety show" created and hosted by Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, and music duo Paul & Storm is an extravaganza of comedy, music and hijinks. This year we were allowed to expand our coverage to include a third camera in the wings - giving us a perspective on the show unmatched by most other YouTubers. Check out our complete coverage in the playlist below, but be warned - much of the content is NSFW!

What's Expected of a Student Editor?

Continuing our "What's Expected" series, let's now take a look at what makes a good Student Editor for narrative film projects.

1. Know Throw Away the Script. Read the script thoroughly, make notes about it, and discuss the intent and mood of the story with the director. But then ultimately don't feel beholden to what's on the page. Be prepared to throw it away and start building the story fresh from what was shot. The script is the blueprint for the director's intent - but that intent may or may not have been captured on camera. Understanding the original story helps you to find it in the footage, but knowing that you have the freedom to deviate from the script allows you to craft the best possible version of the film.

2. Be Organized. Name your takes. Synch your dialogue. Set up multiple bins for sequences, sound effects, dialogue, music, discarded takes, etc. Do all of that up front. DON'T skip those organizational steps "because I just want to start editing." Yes, I get it. You want to be creative right away, and all that organization stuff is BORING. So train an assistant! (See #4, below.) And as you go, you're going to create sequences, titles, etc. - name those too! "Untitled Sequence" is not the movie's name.

4.  Do It All Yourself Train an Assistant. I know your inclination is going to be to do everything yourself. "No one knows how I like things organized." And then you're going to fall into the "I just want to start editing" trap (see #2, above), and you won't be organized anyway. So do yourself and the project a favor and find someone a few semesters behind you to train. Teach them how to organize, how to synch, and how to set up a project the way you like it. Then go re-read the script while they set it up for you.

5. Help Force Everyone Else to be Organized. After you (and/or your assistant) put in the time to organize everything, train your team to follow your organization model. Particularly the VFX folks. They are going to deal with a lot of files and can get confused easily with naming conventions. So get them on your same page early, and remind them often. And then be an absolute stickler for names. Don't let someone hand you a VFX shot called "That Shot with That One Guy" when it's properly called "V7.05." The VFX artist who misnamed it won't be happy about having to rename or re-render his frames... but he won't do it again.

6. Serve the Director the Film. Directors can be bullies. They can stamp their feet and say "But it's MYYYYYY vision!!!" Well, great. But what if the vision doesn't work? What if the movie the director intended isn't really there in the footage? Well then it's up to the editor to speak for the movie as well as for the phantom audience out there that will eventually see the finished film. You, Mr. or Ms. Editor, serve the MOVIE and the AUDIENCE. Not the director or the writer. If the movie isn't working, fix it.

7. Focus on the Characters. In general, plot will take care of itself provided you've been given enough coverage. It's the characters that need your love and attention. What are they thinking and feeling? And how do you get that across to the audience? Look for those moments that give us a peek inside the character's minds, and the film will be better for it. It's up to you to make the actors' performances shine. A slight shift of expression, a glance downward, a deep breath, a moment when the actor didn't know the camera was rolling - these are the editor's bread and butter in terms of crafting great screen performances. Seek those moments out and bring them to the foreground.

8. Make the Tough Choices. Plot points don't make sense? Clarify 'em or cut 'em. Dialogue is too expository, too on-the-nose, or just bad? Trim it. Extraneous characters? Eradicate 'em with extreme prejudice. Do the things the director can't (or won't) to make the movie better. Notice this blog post does not have a #3.

9. Take Care of Dialogue. You're probably going to have a sound editor or sound mixer who will at some point take over the audio tracks. But it's on you to make their jobs easier by finding and plugging in the best available take for every line of dialogue - both in terms of performance and in terms of audio quality. Avoiding ADR (a.k.a. "automatic dialogue replacement" or "looping") is your ultimate goal. You can't always get there, but you should make it so that the sound team has to do minimal ADR and can get on with the business of mixing and designing a compelling audio experience for the film.

10. Hand it Off - But be Ready to Take it Back. Once you've reached "picture lock" - in other words, the point at which there will be no more edits to the video track in terms of timing or shot order - it'll be time for you to hand the movie off to the sound and visual effects teams. They've got lots of work to do that probably won't include you for a while. But as VFX renders and sound mixes start being completed, it should fall back on you to insert them into your timeline. There will be a lot of back and forth during this period of postproduction, and when it's over the movie will be in your care again as you export final renders for distribution. Your work isn't done when you and the director call "picture lock" - it's done when the movie is shown to an audience for the first time!

Redrock Micro rig tutorials

Continuing our video tutorial series, here's Professor Paul DeNigris with three lessons about setting up the Redrock Micro DSLR rig.

UAT DV Vlog: Behind the Scenes at Nerdtacular 2013!

This is the second year in which the UAT Digital Video crew has traveled up to Salt Lake City to film FrogPants Studios' annual Nerdtacular event. This year though, our vlog crew captured the fun! Check it out:

UAT DV Vlog: Borderlands Production Fun!

Once again, go behind the scenes of our latest fan film "Change of Hart," based on the world of the Borderlands videogames. This ep - set construction, lots of dust, and Psychos! New vlog every week!

UAT DV Vlog: Practical Effects!

Check this out - the students had some fun with dry ice and burning steel wool in the Advanced VFX class. Stick around til then end to see a sneak peek at a VFX shot from our upcoming time travel film "Ouroboros!"