Movie-making Freeware

This is really great!
Checkout http://www.rewardprograms.org/thefreegeek/features/15_musthave_freeware_programs_for_filmmakers.html
Seems like a few links are broken....
Jahshaka can be found at http://jahshaka.en.softonic.com/images
See https://www.entertainmentpartners.com/Content/Products/Products.aspx
If you are serious about story boarding you might want to checkout Google http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/index.html
Here is the best (I wont say what this is but is really intersting): https://www.entertainmentpartners.com/Content/Support/support_files/EP_IncentivesOverview.pdf

The Look-and-Feel of a Movie

How do you convey feeling using visual elements alone? I have mused about this many times. Once you master this you can convey the required feeling visually. So I started exploring to see what elements can be used to convey feelings:

• Colors (http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/associations.html)
  
• Non-verbal communication (http://helpguide.org/mental/eq6_nonverbal_communication.htm)

Of course sound design also plays a major part but am leaving it out of the mix for now.

You can definitely use color in your set design and lighting design. For example to picture childhood scenes you can use these colors - red, blue, green, violet, orange, and yellow. Again you have to experiment to see if you get the right mood.

Here is another website that talks about something similar - http://www.tc.umn.edu/~jewel001/humanities/book/9elements.htm


Here are some elements of non-verbal communication that you can intertwine in your characters in each of your scenes (taken from the above website):

Eye contact	Is this source of connection missing, too intense, or just right in yourself or in the person you are looking at?
Facial expression	What is your face showing? Is it mask like and inexpressive, or emotionally present and filled with interest? What do you see as you look into the faces of others?
Tone of voice	Does your voice project warmth, confidence, and delight, or is it strained and blocked? What do you hear as you listen to other people?
Posture and gesture	Does your body look still and immobile, or relaxed? Sensing the degree of tension in your shoulders and jaw answers this question. What do you observe about the degree of tension or relaxation in the body of the person you are speaking to?
Touch	Remember, what feels good is relative. How do you like to be touched? Who do you like to have touching you? Is the difference between what you like and what the other person likes obvious to you?
Intensity	Do you or the person you are communicating with seem flat, cool, and disinterested, or over-the-top and melodramatic? Again, this has as much to do with what feels good to the other person as it does with what you personally prefer.
Timing and pace	What happens when you or someone you care about makes an important statement? Does a response—not necessarily verbal—come too quickly or too slowly? Is there an easy flow of information back and forth?
Sounds	Do you use sounds to indicate that you are attending to the other person? Do you pick up on sounds from others that indicate their caring or concern for you?
Source: The Language of Emotional Intelligence, by Jeanne Segal, Ph.D.

(Here is something I want to read more about - http://www.suite101.com/content/how-movies-are-designed-a254964 and http://www.wwnorton.com/college/film/movies2/welcome.aspx)

How can you make each scene interesting?

Here are some tips to keep in mind when crafting your scenes to make thme more interesting. Ofcourse these are totally based on tips from filmscriptwriting.com.

1. Each and every scene should have a motivated conflict.

No matter how big or small it is conflict which makes a story interesting; conflict drives a story forward. Even small, less exciting, scenes should contain some level of conflict. Even the best of friends have small disagreements and you’ll find that even when two people have the same goal in mind they both have different ways to go about achieving it. In contrast the conflict between two enemies will be much greater, with both characters willing to do anything to defeat the other.

2. Every scene should have a purpose and move the story forward. Every scene should move the story forward in terms of both the plot and character's growth.

3. Make your scenes visual; dont make characters talk to reveal.

4. Consider each scene to be a mini story. Each scene should have a beginning, middle and end.

5. Pace your scenes. Fluctuate the pace depending on the reaction you want from the audiance.

6. Keep throwing obstacle after obstacle at your main character.

7. Finish the scene dramatically.

When you reach the end of the scene you should always aim to leave the main character with some sort of decision or imminent decision. Make the viewer lust after the knowledge of what is going to happen next. Throw them a cliff-hanger, a reversal or a revelation to raise their interest level. This is how you add the twists and turns in a story that make it captivating.

Yet another site on scriptwriting

Here is a nice site that discusses some of the main ideas around scriptwriting. Checkout the section on character development and story structure.
http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/theideafactory.html
You can find some sample scrips too.
Check out the resources page too.

My proff always used to say the following:

1. Define an emotion or mood of the film right from the very begining.


2. Starting scens of a movie should capticate the audience and the following scens should keep them engaged. While it’s perfectly acceptable and even advisable to start a story with a big event to grip the reader/viewer you want to save the biggest and best till the end.

Hers are a few things I liked from that site:

[There] are several types of opening that you can use to start your film. None of these are mutually exclusive, you can choose to mix and match certain elements from each type.

The Blatant Opening Within a few moments you know exactly who the hero is and what the movie will be about. The James Bond series are a great example of this type of opening. In this first ten pages of your script you will introduce the hero, the villain and exactly why they oppose each other. The blatant opening works particular well for action films, a fast, intense opening will hook the reader and keep them flicking through the script.

A Regular Day In this opening you will put over the pace of life in a regular day for your main character. Then an event will happen which breaks the normality of your character’s life, one which they will need to rectify for their life to return to the way it was.

True Beginning The script starts right along with the start of the story for the main character. They might have just been given a million dollars, or landed in a new country.

Dramatic Irony This is the only beginning that won’t contain your main character. Instead you give the audience some information that your main character won’t know and will soon affect his/her life greatly. Dramatic irony allows the audience to be in a superior position and sets up both tension and anticipation.

Foreshadowing This opening takes place before your main story begins and anticipates what is going to happen later in the story. Like the dramatic irony opening the audience is placed in a position to predict what is going to happen. This is often used for doomsday and horror movies.

Narrator The narrator can be the hero, a secondary character or just a stand alone narrator. The narrator tells the story of the events which happened to the main character at a important time in their life. [hmmm... I dont think I would like this style]

Flash forward The flash forward has two stories running side by side simultaneously. The B story has a narrator who tells the main story, which has already happened. At certain points in the story there’s a flash forward to the narrator who continues with his tale. The A story is the main story, the B story is of the narrator looking back.

Montage This is a great type of opening if you have a lot of information to get across before the main story begins. Also known as a shotgun, a collection of short clips accelerate through the information until the story proper begins. Then the speed of the story can slow down to a regular pace. In a matter of minutes you can explain years of your main characters life. [hmmm... montages are powerful but I would probably not use it at the very begining of a movie...]

Giddy-up your creative horses

Do you find it hard to start writing your script? Do you badly want some starting point? Check out these:

• http://www.bmyers.com/public/807.cfm


• http://www.maddogproductions.com/plotomatic.htm

and maybe even this http://web.student.tuwien.ac.at/~e9125168/javas/jtaggen.html?tagline=blog
One of these should triggers your creative side - saddle up and go!

Tester13's GH1 hacks

Wow!! checkout these!!
http://www.mishra.tv/wordpress/?s=tester13
http://www.gh1-hack.info/
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/16/official-gh1-lenin-hack-project-discussion

AVCHD from GH1 - Pulldown removal with FCP & Compressor.

Do you own a Panasonic GH1? How do you edit the video recorded in FCP? How can you get the 1080/24p "film look"?
I was looking for pulldown removal steps and found this: http://www.hotrodcameras.com/2009/10/gh1compressor-workflow/

Here is the content from the above link (just in case the link does not work anymore).

To Bring in the footage;
1. Open FCP
2. Log and Transfer footage from card into project
3. Highlight all clips in Bin and EXPORT–>Using Compressor
4. When files open up in Compressor
5. Highlight all the clips that have transfered and add pre-existing setting, Apple Prores 422
– Modify by changing frame rate in the Encoder setting to 23.976
–Turn on Frame control and change the deinterlace field to Reverse Telecine
6. Choose target
7. Submit
8. When done, re-import new clips you have created into FCP.
9.Create sequence for Audio sync
10. Add In point to each clip where slate hits and In point on audio clips. Sync.
11. Link both clips
12. Drag to new bin and rename clip according to scene and take number.