indie wednesday: Kaleb Lechowski

Kaleb Lechowski is a 22-year-old German who studies digital film design. Well, he was. Judging by R'ha, the short film he made in his first year, it looks like his studies paid off. One student, all by himself; all of the design. Every. Thing.

There is an extremely comprehensive article on Mashable that talks about Kaleb's process on the project, so I won't reproduce it but you can read it here. Needless to say, R'ha spread quickly across the interwebs and as soon as Hollywood saw it, they went all aflutter. A top dog agent jumped on it and Kaleb headed across the ocean.

tech talk: vector video and the death of pixels

On the left, you can see the supposed vector paths.

Tech Talk Tuesday! I'm not sure if I'm going to turn this into a weekly column or not, but either way, let me share a bit of tech talk for the filmmakers/videoheads amongst you that I stumbled onto this morning because the concept blew my mind.

A team at the University of Bath is claiming that they've invented a vectored video codec and effectively killed pixels and resolution as we know them. In fact, they claim pixels will be gone within five years. (You can find further explanation and a sample video here.)

Vectors are a series of points and paths that turn everything into a mathematical whatnot. Therefore, you can make the same image as tiny or enormous as you'd like and it will always look exactly the same. The end of resolution as we know it. HD, 720, 1080, 2K, 4K... all out the window. And now you can go as big as you want without increasing the file size. Encode a film one time and that's it.

Overall, I'd say this is good news if it truly works. On the other hand, it scares me to death. Does this basically change every single thing we do at the root level? Do we toss every piece of video gear and software we're currently working on and start from scratch? Can this really be legit? Getting a photo-real image out of vectors is a little hard for me to believe, let alone 24-60 images per second. I guess time will tell.

ThinkGeek.com if you have to have it.

And for anyone who is incredibly bored by all this, did you know you can actually buy a tauntaun sleeping bag?! That's the other thing I learned today. If there was any debate over the greatest sleeping bag of all time, now we can put it to rest. Mrrawrharharhar. But, seriously, that's incredible.

MLK Jr's News and Notes 1.21.13

In every era there are people who rise above the rest of us. I don't mean in business or wealth or power. I mean in a special understanding of the human condition. An understanding and vision that is often decades ahead of the general population. Martin Luther King Jr. most certainly fits into that category. He could see past the horizon and made it his life's work to make his dream a reality.

That's why we have a national holiday in the man's honor and that means the kids are out of school. I hope most of you are off work too. Both apply to me, so that means you're getting a quick post from the cellular device today.

Work continues as normal at the compound. On top of editing, there was some scuttlebutt last week about possibly starting a movie-focused podcast. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. And I'll be getting another classic 80s flick in the mail this week for a new VHessay later. What's it going to be??

If you feel short changed on today's update, I can promise you an interesting Indie Wednesday about an indie sci-fi short that is making waves in Hollywood. Plus at least one more fun post.

indie wednesday: Eos Karlsson

Eos Karlsson is an actor, dance-acrobat, filmmaker and graphic designer. And on top of all that, he's a stuntman. Impressive, yes. But I only have one question. Has he ever been with anything less than a nine? (So fine.) If so, he's no Colt Seavers. Colt may have never cared too much for school, but he taught ladies plenty. I can assure you of that, Mr. Karlsson!

Anyway, be sure to watch the video in fullscreen because it really does look good and enjoy the multi-talented Eos Karlsson's stunt reel. Although now he will no longer be an Unknown Stuntman. (And feel free to insert any additional Fallguy jokes here.)

golden globes' news and notes 1.14.13

How about those Golden Globes? Well, I couldn't tell you because I didn't watch them, so get over it. I hear Tina and Amy knocked it out of the park though, as is to be expected. And Kentucky's own Jennifer Lawrence got the win and continued her meteoric and seemingly unstoppable rise to superstardom. That girl's career is unbelievable and she seems to have a really good head on her shoulders. She could always completely flake out and date Wilmer Valderama or something, but I don't see it happening. Sorry if you wanted some coverage of the event out of us, but we might try to do a live blog or something special for the Oscars. Let's move on to the news because I have lots of it!

Let's start with the biggest news of the day. Bizarnival is coming to Lexington. There is going to be a great night of indie short films in Lexington this month (January 30th) and Bizarnival is one of the four films that were chosen to be featured. It's happening at a cool venue called Natasha's and you're all invited! Justin Hannah organized it and looks to be a really fun night. Read all the details right here! By they way, Bizarnival is going to be blocked on Vimeo until the 30th. So, if you need your fix of the Biz's weirdness, we'll see you at Natasha's.

First, I finally finished up that VHessay I'd been talking about forever. Did you read it? Come on! It's Cloak & Dagger! How can you not read it? Seriously, go ahead, we'll wait. It may not be my best work, but I plan on writing more VHessays on a regular basis because I enjoy revisiting those movies and I hope you do too.

As of now, our services are still available as a Creative Agency! We've had a conversation or two but are still looking for that perfect match. If you need some creative ideas, marketing, design, or video; we might be the guys. Just read this and give us a ring. Send it to your friends in the business world.

Last, but not least, the obligatory Space Cops update. I did some effects work this week that turned out pretty darn well. I'm also planning on taking a day off work to do nothing but try to finish off Episode 4. And that brings up a question for you good people. Would you like to have Episode 4 as soon as you can possibly get it? Or would rather wait until we could release 4, 5, and 6 all within the same month? Leave us some feedback in the comments or on Facebook.

See you back here for Indie Wednesday and more. Toying with a few ideas for additional weekly columns, so you never know when those might start popping up.

indie wednesday: The Underwater Realm

Today we take a look at The Underwater Realm from Realm Pictures. UWR, as they call it, is a five part series. (Watch the rest here.) It is important to know going in that these are not short films. Apparently they were always intended to be teasers. A little taste of (presumably) larger stories they had in mind that could also showcase the technical skills of all involved.

If you're interested in the particulars and the intent, I highly recommend reading this interview with several of the filmmakers. There are so many people involved with this including Director David Reynolds, Producer Jonathan Dupont, and DP Eve Hazelton and we are featuring them primarily because the undertaking of this project was incredibly ambitious and while I don't know if all their goals for UWR will be realized, I am certain that they should be very proud.

The Underwater Realm is also another interesting examination of crowdfunding. UWR waged an immensely successful Kickstarter campaign to the tune of $101,000. All the donations made will basically amount to exactly that: donations. Kickstarter is difficult for me to wrap my mind around. (I sometimes wonder exactly what type of project it would take for me to consider waging such a campaign. Asking for that kind of money is scary even though the concept of crowdfunding makes it slightly less so. And the pressure to produce after those dollars roll in has to be immense.) Of course, all budgets are relative. Although 100K is an amount I can't even imagine at the disposal of Walk Softly Films, and I certainly doubt we would use it on teasers rather than a complete short or feature film at the least, the Realm Pictures gang points out that just the coffee budget on a film like The Hobbit was higher.

To be fair, this was their plan from the start. Do something no one had ever seen before. Give people a taste of productions shot completely underwater. Trust me, the logistics are mind boggling and I'm actually impressed that they were able to do all of this for that price. They were creating a promise to sell. They intentionally modeled UWR after other successful shorts on the web that had garnered big deals for the filmmakers responsible.

So, what do you think? Did they succeed? Was it a good plan? Was it the best use of their funds? Some of the feedback on YouTube has been downright ridiculous and cruel (as is to be expected). But I will say I tend to agree with those that think a more complete story could have helped immensely. There are five pieces, but none of them feel like a complete segment or that there is even a significant connecting thread between them to create that story.

Nonetheless... Congratulations to Realm Pictures. UWR is impressive and they should be very proud at what they were able to do.

jackie franklin's news and notes 1.7.13

"In the stars, Jonny..."

Who can forget the emotional performance above that gave Jackie Franklin his first and last Emmy in 1981? Or for that matter, his shameful trainwreck of an acceptance speech? If you don't recall the classic scene as clearly as you'd like, don't worry. I've been painstakingly restoring it frame by frame all weekend. Episode Four of Space Cops can soon be enjoyed and experienced by a whole new generation; publicly available for the first time in over three decades.

The rough cut is now basically complete on Ep. 4 and today I begin work on special effects and applying all the necessary music, sound effects, and color correction. Let the good times roll!

Incredibly, there is even more to look forward to. Beginning with Episode 4, we will be releasing a companion video of outtakes from every production. (You wouldn't believe some of the tomfoolery Gene Paul, Jackie, and Reginald can get into.)

Also, I'm planning to put out some behind-the-scenes footage of our 3 Ladies shoot very soon. Matt Todd was cool enough to shoot it and I'm going to edit it and load it up ASAP. You might be entertained or horrified.

More of the usual on the blog this week including Indie Wednesday and who knows what else might turn up.

indie wednesday: Yacht Rock

JD Ryznar has been featured here before and I can no longer resist the urge to share one of his finest creations: Yacht Rock. If you haven't seen them already, enjoy the beginning of the series. It's an origin story of sorts, featuring Michael McDonald's rise to stardom and the birth of his complex relationship with none other than Kenny Loggins.

indie wednesday: Black Magic Cinema Camera

Today's Indie Wednesday can serve two audiences. First, the indie filmmakers amongst you will enjoy seeing the types of images the new Black Magic Cinema Camera can produce. If anyone cares for my two cents, here it is:  simply based on all the tests and footage I've seen, the resolution and flexibility of this thing (for the $3K price tag) are unmatched. Seriously, the resolution is crazy. However, like most shooters, I'd still like to see a larger sensor on it in future models for all the things that we love about full sensor DSLRs.

For the rest of you, we're running full speed towards January so just enjoy some footage of the warmth and sandy beaches of Mexico!

Beautiful shots by Andrew Julian and he gives some helpful insight in the comments section on his experiences and opinions regarding the BMCC versus DSLRs.