A new web series is out today. The Guru. And in this, episode 1, we see why the bankers are being paid such large bonuses. Enjoy!
Watch The Guru here!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Irfan Distribution 2 - Subtitles
I have connections...and subtitles in Romanian, German and Spanish. That's Polish in the picture, in case you were wondering...and thank you to those who are helping me with the different languages!
Subtitles are a really important part of the distribution process. While film festivals (thankfully) accept films in English without a translation, having subtitles in another language really does help yourself in the eyes of the festivals. To put it simply, it makes it easier for the selectors to understand the language. It also is good for the audience. While the viewers are probably going to speak English, it is also a great courtesy to them that they can read and really understand what is going on.
Once again, thank you for helping me with those translations!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Irfan Distribution 1 - The Trailer
Good distribution starts with a good trailer.
Official Trailer for Irfan - Click to watch!
Official Trailer for Irfan (HD) from Charles Michel Duke on Vimeo.
Official Trailer for Irfan - Click to watch!
Irfan Post 20 - Burn, baby, burn!
(Last in the series taken from the original off the blog of El Director)
I am going to be blunt. My cast and crew probably did not give two hoots about the previous posts, but were politely reading them. But this post, they do care about:
For the past two days, I have been burning these babies. The film, is finished!
I am going to be blunt. My cast and crew probably did not give two hoots about the previous posts, but were politely reading them. But this post, they do care about:
For the past two days, I have been burning these babies. The film, is finished!
Irfan Post 19...
Render, render, render...
While today I am in awe of the 4TB of hard drive that I am working with, in a few years time, this will seem all so quaint!
While today I am in awe of the 4TB of hard drive that I am working with, in a few years time, this will seem all so quaint!
Irfan Post 18c - The last one on Colour Correction...
...And not before time. The stuff bores me silly, but it is, well, essential to making the pic as beautiful as possible.
Here is a shot from the last scene to be shot. And that scene is normally the director's nightmare. The last scene that is shot is normally the most rushed, the one when the cast and crew is at its most rushed and fatigued. And if it is outdoors, the one where the sunlight level is constantly changing as the sun sets in the sky.
Yeah, note to self, the next time I shoot a final scene, make sure it is indoors...
So this was the scene where I am having the most difficulty in correcting the colours. I knew it when editing, this would be the scene that would stump me. Take a look at the original shot:
Time. When the sun goes down, you are racing against time, and it is humanly impossible to work against the sunlight levels, no matter how much goodwill is on set.
Right, so as you can see, the scene looks really bleached out, and a little red. So first things first, I got rid of the red and slightly darkened the clips in this scene:
Next, I moved onto the secondary corrections and managed to enhance Irfan's face as well as bump up the colour of the car. I also removed some of the light from the fence in the background, so as not to distract from the character's emotion onscreen.
It is Christmas, so I am on the computer? Hell yeah! One of the best day's to start the rendering, but that is another blog post - number 19 - the one that the cast and crew will be almost looking forward to (well, they are waiting for post number 20).
Merry Christmas everyone!
Here is a shot from the last scene to be shot. And that scene is normally the director's nightmare. The last scene that is shot is normally the most rushed, the one when the cast and crew is at its most rushed and fatigued. And if it is outdoors, the one where the sunlight level is constantly changing as the sun sets in the sky.
Yeah, note to self, the next time I shoot a final scene, make sure it is indoors...
So this was the scene where I am having the most difficulty in correcting the colours. I knew it when editing, this would be the scene that would stump me. Take a look at the original shot:
Time. When the sun goes down, you are racing against time, and it is humanly impossible to work against the sunlight levels, no matter how much goodwill is on set.
Right, so as you can see, the scene looks really bleached out, and a little red. So first things first, I got rid of the red and slightly darkened the clips in this scene:
Next, I moved onto the secondary corrections and managed to enhance Irfan's face as well as bump up the colour of the car. I also removed some of the light from the fence in the background, so as not to distract from the character's emotion onscreen.
It is Christmas, so I am on the computer? Hell yeah! One of the best day's to start the rendering, but that is another blog post - number 19 - the one that the cast and crew will be almost looking forward to (well, they are waiting for post number 20).
Merry Christmas everyone!
Irfan Post 18c - The last one on Colour Correction...
...And not before time. The stuff bores me silly, but it is, well, essential to making the pic as beautiful as possible.
Here is a shot from the last scene to be shot. And that scene is normally the director's nightmare. The last scene that is shot is normally the most rushed, the one when the cast and crew is at its most rushed and fatigued. And if it is outdoors, the one where the sunlight level is constantly changing as the sun sets in the sky.
Yeah, note to self, the next time I shoot a final scene, make sure it is indoors...
So this was the scene where I am having the most difficulty in correcting the colours. I knew it when editing, this would be the scene that would stump me. Take a look at the original shot:
Time. When the sun goes down, you are racing against time, and it is humanly impossible to work against the sunlight levels, no matter how much goodwill is on set.
Right, so as you can see, the scene looks really bleached out, and a little red. So first things first, I got rid of the red and slightly darkened the clips in this scene:
Next, I moved onto the secondary corrections and managed to enhance Irfan's face as well as bump up the colour of the car. I also removed some of the light from the fence in the background, so as not to distract from the character's emotion onscreen.
It is Christmas, so I am on the computer? Hell yeah! One of the best day's to start the rendering, but that is another blog post - number 19 - the one that the cast and crew will be almost looking forward to (well, they are waiting for post number 20).
Merry Christmas everyone!
Here is a shot from the last scene to be shot. And that scene is normally the director's nightmare. The last scene that is shot is normally the most rushed, the one when the cast and crew is at its most rushed and fatigued. And if it is outdoors, the one where the sunlight level is constantly changing as the sun sets in the sky.
Yeah, note to self, the next time I shoot a final scene, make sure it is indoors...
So this was the scene where I am having the most difficulty in correcting the colours. I knew it when editing, this would be the scene that would stump me. Take a look at the original shot:
Time. When the sun goes down, you are racing against time, and it is humanly impossible to work against the sunlight levels, no matter how much goodwill is on set.
Right, so as you can see, the scene looks really bleached out, and a little red. So first things first, I got rid of the red and slightly darkened the clips in this scene:
Next, I moved onto the secondary corrections and managed to enhance Irfan's face as well as bump up the colour of the car. I also removed some of the light from the fence in the background, so as not to distract from the character's emotion onscreen.
It is Christmas, so I am on the computer? Hell yeah! One of the best day's to start the rendering, but that is another blog post - number 19 - the one that the cast and crew will be almost looking forward to (well, they are waiting for post number 20).
Merry Christmas everyone!
Irfan Post 18b - Correcting the Colours in the night...
(Note - I know a lot of these photos look pretty much the same, and for all you know I could be bulls**tting all of the corrections - but blame jpegs - a nasty codec that strips all humanity and soul from my blog posts...but take a look at the first and the last photos in the post and you will see the greatest difference of before and after)
This blog will look at the colour correcting of Irfan during night scenes, something very different from the last blog post which looked at an outdoor daylight scene.
Here, the grading is a lot more subtle. The whole point of a night scene is that it is dark. There are going to be few problems with digital fade which is often seen during daylight hours where the picture looks washed out. At night, it is the lighting on the set that matter - and thankfully the lighting was good during the shooting of Irfan.
This is the original footage from the prayer scene.
It is actually a beautiful shot, and something I will probably use in the publicity stills (later on). But there were a few additions I added to this shot. Firstly, I tinted the whole picture blue, in fact the whole scene is tinted blue. I wante to give that cold feeling to the audience, a chill, a sense of death. This may sound waffly, but I am a director, waffle is my bread and butter...or my syrup coated waffles...anyways, as part of the mechanics of the plot, this scene is meant to resemble death, and the blue tint across the whole of this segment of the movie for me gives a sense of cold.
Lastly, I put some subtle colours in at the Secondary correction stage. While not clear in this pic, earlier in the clip, when Irfan's face and mosque cap is in shot, I tinted both those features to give a crisper looking Mosque cap and a more vibrant face so we can see the charater's emotions.
You know what, let me back up a few frames in the clip, so you can see the effect the secondary corrections have on the picture quality. This is a shot from the same clip, with the blue tint (primary corrections) only.
And here is that same shot with the secondary corrections now in place. Note the Mosque cap is a lot cleaner while you can see a little more of Irfan's features.
Colour correcting with regards to dark conditions is more subtle. In fact, it is easier. In the daylight, I have to account for the changes in weather, the angle of the sun etc. Night time correction is easiest of all. As it is dark, I am not trying to brighten up (or dull down) the whole picture - hey, it is dark. So the corrections I am making are more focused on subtle points to enhance the story telling aspect. It is more creative, yeah, fun, and less technical as the tech stuff has been done by the lighting crew during the filming.
More fun from the crayon room coming soon...
This blog will look at the colour correcting of Irfan during night scenes, something very different from the last blog post which looked at an outdoor daylight scene.
Here, the grading is a lot more subtle. The whole point of a night scene is that it is dark. There are going to be few problems with digital fade which is often seen during daylight hours where the picture looks washed out. At night, it is the lighting on the set that matter - and thankfully the lighting was good during the shooting of Irfan.
This is the original footage from the prayer scene.
It is actually a beautiful shot, and something I will probably use in the publicity stills (later on). But there were a few additions I added to this shot. Firstly, I tinted the whole picture blue, in fact the whole scene is tinted blue. I wante to give that cold feeling to the audience, a chill, a sense of death. This may sound waffly, but I am a director, waffle is my bread and butter...or my syrup coated waffles...anyways, as part of the mechanics of the plot, this scene is meant to resemble death, and the blue tint across the whole of this segment of the movie for me gives a sense of cold.
Lastly, I put some subtle colours in at the Secondary correction stage. While not clear in this pic, earlier in the clip, when Irfan's face and mosque cap is in shot, I tinted both those features to give a crisper looking Mosque cap and a more vibrant face so we can see the charater's emotions.
You know what, let me back up a few frames in the clip, so you can see the effect the secondary corrections have on the picture quality. This is a shot from the same clip, with the blue tint (primary corrections) only.
And here is that same shot with the secondary corrections now in place. Note the Mosque cap is a lot cleaner while you can see a little more of Irfan's features.
Colour correcting with regards to dark conditions is more subtle. In fact, it is easier. In the daylight, I have to account for the changes in weather, the angle of the sun etc. Night time correction is easiest of all. As it is dark, I am not trying to brighten up (or dull down) the whole picture - hey, it is dark. So the corrections I am making are more focused on subtle points to enhance the story telling aspect. It is more creative, yeah, fun, and less technical as the tech stuff has been done by the lighting crew during the filming.
More fun from the crayon room coming soon...
Irfan Post 18a - Correcting the colours in the day...
Right, this is three days in a row of colour correction news, as to fit all of this onto one blog post would boggle the reader (as well as screw my head off). I will be blunt before I head into this. Colour Correction is dull. While editing and even sound editing has a creative edge to it that constructs the story, colour correction is actually quite dull, when doing the task in the strictest possible way. In other words, when you are just correcting colours. I had more fun doing colour correction for Caution Wet Paint, as I was actually manipulating the colours to make a story. But then CWP was a very different beast from Irfan - it was designed to look like a comic book, while Irfan is a serious piece, and so the colour correction process for this film is purely functional.
What I will show today is the colour correction of a normal scene shot in the daytime with great lighting. In other words, a scene that does not need a lot of work done to it. And I have chosen Irfan's longest scene, the initial conflict between the two main characters, Irfan and Vasile.
This is how the original sots of Irfan look like when the character of Irfan is at the front door of Vasile's house. It is beautiful, but the colours are a bit dull and flat. This was shot on digital film, and unfortunately no matter how good the camera is, you always have to do a little bit of correction to bounce up the picture. Of course the alternative is to shoot in black and white. A note to self when I do my next film, grade it so everything is B&W and you save yourself a lot of heartache during post!
But here is the picture of Sippy who plays the title role - Irfan with the colours now corrected:
As you can see, the picture looks instantly a hell of a lot better. More vibrant, especially when it comes to people. While last week I was talking about the colour of the car, the really tricky bit comes to people. Objects have uniform colours, smooth contours, and are often static. Even when objects are moving, the light usually acts in a predictable way on them.
Not for people. But my films are about people and so while for objects, you can usually copy and paste the settings from one shot to the next, for people, it is very different. Each shot requires the patience of a saint.
And for completion, let us take a look at the character of Vasile, played by Cristian. Different skin tones and an almost 180 spin in the angle means that the light is going to play completely new tricks on him, even though we are shooting in the same location. Here is Cristian before:
and after:
As you can see, the principles between the shots of Irfan and Vasile are the same. Bounce up the sin colour, improve the general light ambiance of the scene. But her, I also fiddled a bit with the background. While Sippy is in the shot, we get a blurry view of some bushes and the sky in the background, and so it was just a case of taking little bit of the brightness out of the sky so the image does not completely white-out. However, when Cristian is in frame, the background is a door, and is fairly detailed. I like the look of it, and so enhanced the image just a tad, making the door's colour a little richer, and refining a few of the details on the door. Well, trust me, I did. Subtle changes, but I liked them...
Next Irfan post, what happens when you colour correct in the dark...
What I will show today is the colour correction of a normal scene shot in the daytime with great lighting. In other words, a scene that does not need a lot of work done to it. And I have chosen Irfan's longest scene, the initial conflict between the two main characters, Irfan and Vasile.
This is how the original sots of Irfan look like when the character of Irfan is at the front door of Vasile's house. It is beautiful, but the colours are a bit dull and flat. This was shot on digital film, and unfortunately no matter how good the camera is, you always have to do a little bit of correction to bounce up the picture. Of course the alternative is to shoot in black and white. A note to self when I do my next film, grade it so everything is B&W and you save yourself a lot of heartache during post!
But here is the picture of Sippy who plays the title role - Irfan with the colours now corrected:
As you can see, the picture looks instantly a hell of a lot better. More vibrant, especially when it comes to people. While last week I was talking about the colour of the car, the really tricky bit comes to people. Objects have uniform colours, smooth contours, and are often static. Even when objects are moving, the light usually acts in a predictable way on them.
Not for people. But my films are about people and so while for objects, you can usually copy and paste the settings from one shot to the next, for people, it is very different. Each shot requires the patience of a saint.
And for completion, let us take a look at the character of Vasile, played by Cristian. Different skin tones and an almost 180 spin in the angle means that the light is going to play completely new tricks on him, even though we are shooting in the same location. Here is Cristian before:
and after:
As you can see, the principles between the shots of Irfan and Vasile are the same. Bounce up the sin colour, improve the general light ambiance of the scene. But her, I also fiddled a bit with the background. While Sippy is in the shot, we get a blurry view of some bushes and the sky in the background, and so it was just a case of taking little bit of the brightness out of the sky so the image does not completely white-out. However, when Cristian is in frame, the background is a door, and is fairly detailed. I like the look of it, and so enhanced the image just a tad, making the door's colour a little richer, and refining a few of the details on the door. Well, trust me, I did. Subtle changes, but I liked them...
Next Irfan post, what happens when you colour correct in the dark...
Irfan Post 17 - Colouring the Picture!
The good news is that if I am colour correcting, it means that the editing of Irfan is done. Really, it is complete. At 17mins and 54secs (not including credits) it is the longest film I have done in a fair old while. But thankfully, it is not technically the most complex. That honour goes to my last short film, Caution Wet Paint. The difference this time with Irfan has been the length, which has meant it has taken a lot longer to finish. Plus the fact that I basically had the whole of August written off, as I was at the film festivals on the continent.
One thing I have to add is that during the Sound Editing, I was always tweaking Irfan. Taking bits and pieces off the edges. When I sent the first draft to Nick for musical inspiration, the film was 22 minutes long. So you can see that in the meantime, it has been whittled down a considerable amount. While my main concentration has been the sound, you cannot help but fiddle with the lengths. However, a seventh of the film is much more than a fiddle. Yes, unfortunately I have dropped the feather scene (the cast and crew will know exactly what I am talking about) and a hell of a lot of lines are gone. There are really only two bits in the film where I have any real dialogue between the characters. The rest is purely visual.
And before I delve into the sticky and sweet world of colour correction, let me say that there were also a couple of moment shots that I also removed from the film. What felt moving in my mind was tedious on the screen. Interestingly, a couple of the ad-libs off the set have made it into the movie. The thinking on your feet, on-the-day stuff turned out to be damn useful!
---
All right, as colour correction is actually a really dull exercise, I will show you some fun things that I do while sitting at my computer.
(My life at this moment in time is utterly sad. You will see below.)
This is an original sot from the movie, uncorrected.
And this is the shot when I have finished with it!
Look, the car is now green! isn't that amazing! Wow, I like, sooo love computers and all! Mummy, can you make your car turn green?!?!?!
All right, I am only mucking about, this is the shot, wuth the blue colour of the car bumped up, so looking a lot more vibrant than in the original (first pic):
(You can see why I have no life. I am excited at turning something blue into something green. Ugh...I despise colour correction!)
More next week on the process! I will be doing a lot of this, not just on the inanimate objects, but also bumping up people's skin tones, clothing and even eye colour. Do not underestimate the detail ;)
One thing I have to add is that during the Sound Editing, I was always tweaking Irfan. Taking bits and pieces off the edges. When I sent the first draft to Nick for musical inspiration, the film was 22 minutes long. So you can see that in the meantime, it has been whittled down a considerable amount. While my main concentration has been the sound, you cannot help but fiddle with the lengths. However, a seventh of the film is much more than a fiddle. Yes, unfortunately I have dropped the feather scene (the cast and crew will know exactly what I am talking about) and a hell of a lot of lines are gone. There are really only two bits in the film where I have any real dialogue between the characters. The rest is purely visual.
And before I delve into the sticky and sweet world of colour correction, let me say that there were also a couple of moment shots that I also removed from the film. What felt moving in my mind was tedious on the screen. Interestingly, a couple of the ad-libs off the set have made it into the movie. The thinking on your feet, on-the-day stuff turned out to be damn useful!
---
All right, as colour correction is actually a really dull exercise, I will show you some fun things that I do while sitting at my computer.
(My life at this moment in time is utterly sad. You will see below.)
This is an original sot from the movie, uncorrected.
And this is the shot when I have finished with it!
Look, the car is now green! isn't that amazing! Wow, I like, sooo love computers and all! Mummy, can you make your car turn green?!?!?!
All right, I am only mucking about, this is the shot, wuth the blue colour of the car bumped up, so looking a lot more vibrant than in the original (first pic):
(You can see why I have no life. I am excited at turning something blue into something green. Ugh...I despise colour correction!)
More next week on the process! I will be doing a lot of this, not just on the inanimate objects, but also bumping up people's skin tones, clothing and even eye colour. Do not underestimate the detail ;)
Irfan Post 16 - I despise editing Sound
Let is get this straight. Despite my normally cheery and bright attitude, editing sound is a painstaking process. A crappy picture is forgivable to the eyes, but bad sound is not forgiven by the ears. What makes the baby cry, Barney, or Barney's singing?
I do not want Irfan to sound like Barney. And my head hurts from the sound editing. I want to kill. Now.
Let me explain through pics again. A fairly monotonous process to clean up the vocals to make them sound a little crisper.
Take the original sound clip that I wish to edit and send it through to the sound cleaner:
Next, find a part of the clip that only has background sound. Isolate the background sound and set the filter to detect this noise.
Thirdly, reduce the noise. As your background sound has been set as the noise, you can decide by how much you want to reduce it. If the scene is dubbed, by a hell of a lot, as you are artificially adding in background sound. If it is part of the natural speech (non-dubbed) then only a little, as you need some background sound to add a little harmony to the dialogue.
This is then saved and automatically sent back to the timeline (first pic or see last week's post) and then onto the next clip.
The whole thing is sooooooooooooooo repetitive, which is why my brain is about to fry itself.
But it is almost done, just one scene left to go over with a fine tooth comb and then I am off to Colour Correct. Time passes to my December deadline, ever so quickly!
Toodles!
I do not want Irfan to sound like Barney. And my head hurts from the sound editing. I want to kill. Now.
Let me explain through pics again. A fairly monotonous process to clean up the vocals to make them sound a little crisper.
Take the original sound clip that I wish to edit and send it through to the sound cleaner:
Next, find a part of the clip that only has background sound. Isolate the background sound and set the filter to detect this noise.
Thirdly, reduce the noise. As your background sound has been set as the noise, you can decide by how much you want to reduce it. If the scene is dubbed, by a hell of a lot, as you are artificially adding in background sound. If it is part of the natural speech (non-dubbed) then only a little, as you need some background sound to add a little harmony to the dialogue.
This is then saved and automatically sent back to the timeline (first pic or see last week's post) and then onto the next clip.
The whole thing is sooooooooooooooo repetitive, which is why my brain is about to fry itself.
But it is almost done, just one scene left to go over with a fine tooth comb and then I am off to Colour Correct. Time passes to my December deadline, ever so quickly!
Toodles!
Irfan Post 15 - Sound Editing Details
This is going to be quite an deep, geeky and long blog post about the post-production work currently raging round Irfan. While I have been back for three weeks, I have been busy working on finishing the sound for Irfan. Unlike previous films, I have decided to take a very different approach to utilising the soundtrack.
On my previous shorts I have been obsessed with trying to get the sound to match the picture as accurately as possible. On Irfan, this is very different. Why? Well, there are three very good reasons for this.
Firstly, the soundtrack is near perfect. Good sound quality in the first place makes you less self-conscious about what you have available to you, and what was captured during the filming process is of a high standard.
Secondly, all the actors were happy and willing to dub. A cast that is co-operative makes post-production easy, and you are not so obsessed with capturing the sound during production perfectly.
Thirdly, I have the sound track, at a very early stage of the editing timeline. See here for Nick's brilliant post about composing the music for Irfan. All these factors have meant that I could change my attitude to sound and the soundtrack of Irfan as a whole. How? Well, instead of trying to accurately match video to sound, I want to use the sound as a part of the story telling process, using it to convey the emotions I wish to tell in this movie itself.
This is quite a hard concept to explain in words, and it will become clearer when Irfan is complete. But I will take three instances from Irfan to show how I am using the soundtrack not as a device for aiding the picture, but as a means to convey emotions and the plot line separately from the picture.
This is the editing suite at the beginning of the film. Look at the long horizontal window at the bottom. That is my timeline. The blue bars are piece of video footage, and the green bars are pieces of sound footage. While you will see only one picture at a time - represented in the top right window where you see Sippy and Safirah (the characters of Irfan and Saira) - as you can see, there are many soundtracks that can potentially be heard at the same time.
Now this first scene has been dominated by Nick's music, with only one piece of 'live soundtrack' take form the actual footage. Why? Well, the beginning of this movie is peaceful, a moment of reflection, as the character of Irfan is contemplating...well, that is for the audience to decide (must not give too much away at this stage) and so I wanted to keep the soundtrack as silent as possible. The only bit of real sound is that of the car door opening and shutting. A significant moment, as the character of Irfan is creating a world when he sees Saira appear. The opening and closing of that car door, to me as the director, represents Irfan entering that world and shutting the door behind him.
(I did warn this post was going to get deep).
All right, this scene is halfway through Irfan, and is basically a straight dub. The sound capture was of a good quality, but you know what, I had the actor's voices on dub, and it would be easier to use that rather than mess about with sound correction itself. Although Nick's soundtrack is in tracks A7 and A8 (left hand coloumn of the timeline to see the number for the different Audio tracks), for the moment, there is no instrumentation coming through.
Tracks A1 and A2 represent Cristian's voice (playing the character of Vasile). Tracks A3 and A4 represent Marie Claire's voice (Playing Brenda). Tracks A5 and A6 represent the background or ambient sound of Vasile's attic space. Now, silence in a film is not truly silent. That is actually very uncomfortable to watch, but I do not pack out my films with dialogue itself. So naturally you need filler in between the dubbed bits and the ambient sound of the attic (taken from the original days' shots) provides that silence.
(I told you this gets geeky).
This final scene occurs towards the end of Irfan. At this moment Vasile's phone rings - in fact it vibrates. No, I did not want a phone ringing on set, as it is a pain in the neck to organise. I added the ring tone later on. But instead of picking out a ringtone from library of sound, I just set up my camera and recorded the ringing on my phone. Why? Well, firstly, it is at the same sound quality as the rest of the soundtrack, and secondly, it sound less generic.
It was not a perfect capture, but being such a short snippet, I removed the interference from the SFX by passing a filter through it.
What I did was bung the clip of the ringing mobile phone into my soundtrack software, and put a reduce noise filter through it. Got rid of the background static leaving a nice, crisp, vibrating sound.
(I said this was a long blog post)
---
Right that is enough geekery. Apologies to the cast and crew for the long gap in between postings, but I hope you can see why I have not bothered to post a blog up on the editing of Irfan for a while, as I actually wanted to show you all something far more worthwhile than just, here I am so far, so good.
Next time I report, it will be from the world of Colour Correction.
Great.
In other words that means sitting in front of the computer screen while it endlessly renders the bastard.
Ugh..
On my previous shorts I have been obsessed with trying to get the sound to match the picture as accurately as possible. On Irfan, this is very different. Why? Well, there are three very good reasons for this.
Firstly, the soundtrack is near perfect. Good sound quality in the first place makes you less self-conscious about what you have available to you, and what was captured during the filming process is of a high standard.
Secondly, all the actors were happy and willing to dub. A cast that is co-operative makes post-production easy, and you are not so obsessed with capturing the sound during production perfectly.
Thirdly, I have the sound track, at a very early stage of the editing timeline. See here for Nick's brilliant post about composing the music for Irfan. All these factors have meant that I could change my attitude to sound and the soundtrack of Irfan as a whole. How? Well, instead of trying to accurately match video to sound, I want to use the sound as a part of the story telling process, using it to convey the emotions I wish to tell in this movie itself.
This is quite a hard concept to explain in words, and it will become clearer when Irfan is complete. But I will take three instances from Irfan to show how I am using the soundtrack not as a device for aiding the picture, but as a means to convey emotions and the plot line separately from the picture.
This is the editing suite at the beginning of the film. Look at the long horizontal window at the bottom. That is my timeline. The blue bars are piece of video footage, and the green bars are pieces of sound footage. While you will see only one picture at a time - represented in the top right window where you see Sippy and Safirah (the characters of Irfan and Saira) - as you can see, there are many soundtracks that can potentially be heard at the same time.
Now this first scene has been dominated by Nick's music, with only one piece of 'live soundtrack' take form the actual footage. Why? Well, the beginning of this movie is peaceful, a moment of reflection, as the character of Irfan is contemplating...well, that is for the audience to decide (must not give too much away at this stage) and so I wanted to keep the soundtrack as silent as possible. The only bit of real sound is that of the car door opening and shutting. A significant moment, as the character of Irfan is creating a world when he sees Saira appear. The opening and closing of that car door, to me as the director, represents Irfan entering that world and shutting the door behind him.
(I did warn this post was going to get deep).
All right, this scene is halfway through Irfan, and is basically a straight dub. The sound capture was of a good quality, but you know what, I had the actor's voices on dub, and it would be easier to use that rather than mess about with sound correction itself. Although Nick's soundtrack is in tracks A7 and A8 (left hand coloumn of the timeline to see the number for the different Audio tracks), for the moment, there is no instrumentation coming through.
Tracks A1 and A2 represent Cristian's voice (playing the character of Vasile). Tracks A3 and A4 represent Marie Claire's voice (Playing Brenda). Tracks A5 and A6 represent the background or ambient sound of Vasile's attic space. Now, silence in a film is not truly silent. That is actually very uncomfortable to watch, but I do not pack out my films with dialogue itself. So naturally you need filler in between the dubbed bits and the ambient sound of the attic (taken from the original days' shots) provides that silence.
(I told you this gets geeky).
This final scene occurs towards the end of Irfan. At this moment Vasile's phone rings - in fact it vibrates. No, I did not want a phone ringing on set, as it is a pain in the neck to organise. I added the ring tone later on. But instead of picking out a ringtone from library of sound, I just set up my camera and recorded the ringing on my phone. Why? Well, firstly, it is at the same sound quality as the rest of the soundtrack, and secondly, it sound less generic.
It was not a perfect capture, but being such a short snippet, I removed the interference from the SFX by passing a filter through it.
What I did was bung the clip of the ringing mobile phone into my soundtrack software, and put a reduce noise filter through it. Got rid of the background static leaving a nice, crisp, vibrating sound.
(I said this was a long blog post)
---
Right that is enough geekery. Apologies to the cast and crew for the long gap in between postings, but I hope you can see why I have not bothered to post a blog up on the editing of Irfan for a while, as I actually wanted to show you all something far more worthwhile than just, here I am so far, so good.
Next time I report, it will be from the world of Colour Correction.
Great.
In other words that means sitting in front of the computer screen while it endlessly renders the bastard.
Ugh..
Irfan Post 13 - A Teaser
At the moment my Hard Drives are full.
Normally, this would be catastrophic.
And it is.
So instead of editing, I am now waiting for the nice guys at **insert name of big online retailer HERE** to deliver me my new 2TB hard drive.
I am waiting...to colour correct...hurry up!
So while I am waiting, I did a little bit of tinkering to the website - and oh yes, here is a little web page dedicated to 'Irfan' itself. While I wait for the hard drive to arrive, I will probably get down to the dullest job a director can do and that is write an enthusiastic sounding press pack for the film.
(It is needed for the festivals - and they really do need it)
It is not so much the writing, but the graphic design you have to do for it. For Caution Wet Paint, it was really easy, as I could do it in the style of a comic strip. But for 'Irfan', I got to do something a wee bit more serious...
I also cut a Teaser, nothing much, but a small titbit highlighting some of the moments from the film. I must admit, a trailer is going to be hard to cut for 'Irfan' - how can I cut that without giving too much away?
Questions, questions, and more...
Oh well - click here for 'Irfan's' webpage on Babarouge.com.
And click here for the Teaser (note this is not the trailer).
Normally, this would be catastrophic.
And it is.
So instead of editing, I am now waiting for the nice guys at **insert name of big online retailer HERE** to deliver me my new 2TB hard drive.
I am waiting...to colour correct...hurry up!
So while I am waiting, I did a little bit of tinkering to the website - and oh yes, here is a little web page dedicated to 'Irfan' itself. While I wait for the hard drive to arrive, I will probably get down to the dullest job a director can do and that is write an enthusiastic sounding press pack for the film.
(It is needed for the festivals - and they really do need it)
It is not so much the writing, but the graphic design you have to do for it. For Caution Wet Paint, it was really easy, as I could do it in the style of a comic strip. But for 'Irfan', I got to do something a wee bit more serious...
I also cut a Teaser, nothing much, but a small titbit highlighting some of the moments from the film. I must admit, a trailer is going to be hard to cut for 'Irfan' - how can I cut that without giving too much away?
Questions, questions, and more...
Oh well - click here for 'Irfan's' webpage on Babarouge.com.
And click here for the Teaser (note this is not the trailer).
Irfan Post 12
A quickie. Editing Sound, and the music is here, so inserting bits into bobs.
Will blog in more detail next week about Irfan's Post.
Will blog in more detail next week about Irfan's Post.
Irfan Post 11 - Time to slot in the sound
Before I left for BUSHO and Strasbourg, I managed to get the dubs completed for Sippy who plays Irfan/ That has meant that every character is now sound checked and ready for the clean up. Added to that the receipt of the first draft of the soundtrack from Nick and it looks like I am rocking and rolling.
Apologies to my cast and crew. I promised a press pack by the end of August. That kind of got delayed due to the Film Festivals. So I now promise that by the end of September ;), unless there is another film festival - a wish, but I doubt that will happen in such short notice.
Unfortunately, film festivals are not just swanning around in soirees but there is a lot of prep beforehand, including the delivery of final tapes to the festival, publicity as well as the invariable need to book and plan accommodation and time off from the 'day job'. But it is worthwhile, and I hope for 'Irfan' to have greater success when it is completed later this year.
Toodles, I'm back off to the editing!
Irfan Post (10) - Editing Complete, now the 'hard' part...
I have reached a very important milestone in the post production process of 'Irfan'. And yes, the 'edit' has finished.
Finally.
At 22 minutes, it is a HUGE short film. I will probably cut some bits out as I go along, but with the credits yet to be added, the 22 minute mark looks like the general length of the film.
And this has been my bane for the past few weeks:
Now for the fun part. Sound rebuilding, oh and then colour correction...
Finally.
At 22 minutes, it is a HUGE short film. I will probably cut some bits out as I go along, but with the credits yet to be added, the 22 minute mark looks like the general length of the film.
And this has been my bane for the past few weeks:
Now for the fun part. Sound rebuilding, oh and then colour correction...
Irfan Post 9 - Almost done ;) (how many times will I saw that in the next few weeks)
As the events of the last week have been very hectic, editing of Irfan has taken a back seat (as has writing for this blog). Nonetheless, with the mixture of film festivals plus family, I have almost finished the editing work for the short film. This is excellent news for myself, but the real fun is only just beginning...
At the moment, the film is 16 minutes long. The script, was only fifteen pages long. Yup, that means, what I am cutting down is likely to get slimmed as the 'fine cutting' continues, but for now, it looks as if this short film could hit the twenty minute mark - and that is a lot for me!
While my aim was to finish the editing last week, it looks likely that I will complete the cutting on Monday. So by next week, I can then come back to you with the final running time. I will also have a fuller knowledge of what needs fixing with regards to the film's sound and more importantly, colour correction. That is the stuff that takes up the most time, simply because it van get very anal. I have already talked about my adventures in post production here and here, so take a look at what I am going to go through again.
But, if I get 'Irfan' into a few film festivals in the coming year, then it will be worth it!
At the moment, the film is 16 minutes long. The script, was only fifteen pages long. Yup, that means, what I am cutting down is likely to get slimmed as the 'fine cutting' continues, but for now, it looks as if this short film could hit the twenty minute mark - and that is a lot for me!
While my aim was to finish the editing last week, it looks likely that I will complete the cutting on Monday. So by next week, I can then come back to you with the final running time. I will also have a fuller knowledge of what needs fixing with regards to the film's sound and more importantly, colour correction. That is the stuff that takes up the most time, simply because it van get very anal. I have already talked about my adventures in post production here and here, so take a look at what I am going to go through again.
But, if I get 'Irfan' into a few film festivals in the coming year, then it will be worth it!
What the film am I doing - Irfan Post 8 - and one more look back at the river...
If someone ever tells me that filming is glamorous, they need to be told, in a stern voice that it is not.
A director does not just shout action and cut on a megaphone. I really wish it was that simple. But wen you are not paying anyone, it is nothing like that..instead I am burning DVD's, ordering postcards to be shipped to the USA and figuring out the cheapest ticket to Strasbourg. Welcome to the world of Distribution and film festivals. The swanning around at the screening is the result of military-esque logistics, frantic bargaining and much hair pulling!
---
Secondly, I dubbed the lovely Safirah (who plays the character of Saira) last week and so Project Irfan is coming along nicely.
Seriously, I am dead proud of this set-up. In the corridor of a nice muffled building, perfect for simulating a car, which is where I shot the dialogue scenes between the characters of Irfan and Saira for the short. Thanks for that S!
---
Thirdly, I have just taken a vanity look at my River Crossings. Seriously, I am dead proud that I have completed this. To think how innocent I was when I first started this series, something that is actually reflected in the quality of the writing style of this series. As I progressed through London, my blogging actually became a hell of a lot better. Whether it is the case of actually reading through my posts before hitting the 'publish' button, I will never know. Still, I would say that from Barnes Bridge, the content is actually pretty good.
I should actually go back and re-edit the posts, but for now, they will stay as they are, 'raw'.
And, as this is the final time that I will crow about the River Thames, here is potted list of 'faves' about my series on the Thames. Completely subjective, but if you want to know what crossings to head to (or avoid) then have a look at these:
Best Looking Crossing Point - Albert Bridge.
Best Surroundings (away but accessible from the crossing) - Hampton Court Bridge.
Worst Looking Crossing Point - Wandsworth Bridge.
Worst Surroundings (away but accessible from the crossing) - Wandsworth Bridge.
Best view from a bridge/ferry - Waterloo Bridge.
Worst view from a bridge/ferry - Wandsworth Bridge.
The most fun I had using - Woolwich Ferry.
The most fun I had researching - London Bridge.
Coolest Crossing - Greenwich Foot Tunnel.
The most surprising Crossing Point I encountered - The Ham Ferry.
The one most likely to kill you - The Rotherhithe Tunnel.
The one tourists must see - Tower Bridge.
The one Londoners must see - The Woolwich Ferry.
The one that I want to re-explore - Southwark Bridge.
The one that I want to re-explore after that one - Barnes Bridge.
And, this was one of the main reasons why I went to all 33 Crossing Points. I wanted to find out which were the best locations to utilise. Locations by the Thames that would best fit the kind of films I would want to make to show how I see London. And so, the most important awards come from the following categories:
The crossing I would like to film - Woolwich Ferry.
The surroundings that I would like to film - Barnes Bridge.
The view that I would like to film - Woolwich Ferry.
And so, for the last time, my vanity will direct you only once more to the link of links, here, for my series of Crossings of the River Thames...
Charlie's Crossings of the River Thames - All 33 of them!
A director does not just shout action and cut on a megaphone. I really wish it was that simple. But wen you are not paying anyone, it is nothing like that..instead I am burning DVD's, ordering postcards to be shipped to the USA and figuring out the cheapest ticket to Strasbourg. Welcome to the world of Distribution and film festivals. The swanning around at the screening is the result of military-esque logistics, frantic bargaining and much hair pulling!
---
Secondly, I dubbed the lovely Safirah (who plays the character of Saira) last week and so Project Irfan is coming along nicely.
Seriously, I am dead proud of this set-up. In the corridor of a nice muffled building, perfect for simulating a car, which is where I shot the dialogue scenes between the characters of Irfan and Saira for the short. Thanks for that S!
---
Thirdly, I have just taken a vanity look at my River Crossings. Seriously, I am dead proud that I have completed this. To think how innocent I was when I first started this series, something that is actually reflected in the quality of the writing style of this series. As I progressed through London, my blogging actually became a hell of a lot better. Whether it is the case of actually reading through my posts before hitting the 'publish' button, I will never know. Still, I would say that from Barnes Bridge, the content is actually pretty good.
I should actually go back and re-edit the posts, but for now, they will stay as they are, 'raw'.
And, as this is the final time that I will crow about the River Thames, here is potted list of 'faves' about my series on the Thames. Completely subjective, but if you want to know what crossings to head to (or avoid) then have a look at these:
Best Looking Crossing Point - Albert Bridge.
Best Surroundings (away but accessible from the crossing) - Hampton Court Bridge.
Worst Looking Crossing Point - Wandsworth Bridge.
Worst Surroundings (away but accessible from the crossing) - Wandsworth Bridge.
Best view from a bridge/ferry - Waterloo Bridge.
Worst view from a bridge/ferry - Wandsworth Bridge.
The most fun I had using - Woolwich Ferry.
The most fun I had researching - London Bridge.
Coolest Crossing - Greenwich Foot Tunnel.
The most surprising Crossing Point I encountered - The Ham Ferry.
The one most likely to kill you - The Rotherhithe Tunnel.
The one tourists must see - Tower Bridge.
The one Londoners must see - The Woolwich Ferry.
The one that I want to re-explore - Southwark Bridge.
The one that I want to re-explore after that one - Barnes Bridge.
And, this was one of the main reasons why I went to all 33 Crossing Points. I wanted to find out which were the best locations to utilise. Locations by the Thames that would best fit the kind of films I would want to make to show how I see London. And so, the most important awards come from the following categories:
The crossing I would like to film - Woolwich Ferry.
The surroundings that I would like to film - Barnes Bridge.
The view that I would like to film - Woolwich Ferry.
And so, for the last time, my vanity will direct you only once more to the link of links, here, for my series of Crossings of the River Thames...
Charlie's Crossings of the River Thames - All 33 of them!
Irfan 'Post' 7
Pictures speak louder than words:
Plus tomorrow I am going to dub Safirah (who plays Saira) and I am behind on the edit, so this is very much a short post! Essentially, the last seven minutes of the film is finished cut wise, and onto the rest!
Plus tomorrow I am going to dub Safirah (who plays Saira) and I am behind on the edit, so this is very much a short post! Essentially, the last seven minutes of the film is finished cut wise, and onto the rest!
Irfan 'Post' 6
A quickie this week. Got the voice of Brenda dubbed (playd by Marie Claire) and so half-way through the voice over process.
Next week, will report more on the editing itself. Toodles!
Irfan 'Post' 5
And the next dub, on Monday will be of Brenda, played by Marie Claire.
Shockingly, this is not a bad edit so far. If I am good (and I rarely am), I may well finish the edit before I head off to Budapest in September. But I got to be good ;)
After that will come the fun of clean up. My crucifix burns...
Irfan 'Post' 4
Has been a very busy week. As always, but managed to get Cristian's dulcet tones recorded ready for dubbing as his character - Vasile. Next will be Marie Claire (who plays Brenda), and hopefully Safirah (who plays Saira) after that. It gives me a weird way of editing. Instead of starting at my favourite scene and working around that, I am editing according to sound needs, and unusually, the dialogue bits. But the dubs should all be finished by July and so onto the edit proper to finish (what I hope) to be before scheduled. And now that I am off to East Europe for the film festival, I really want to finish the initial editing as quickly as possible!
Irfan 'Post' 3
And in this latest screen shot, I have skipped right to the end of the film with the climatic ending between the two characters of Irfan (played by Sippy) and Vasile (played by Cristian). This was not only one hell of a scene to shoot but is proving to be a very tricky scene to edit.
But basically I am on schedule to have all of the necessary bits and pieces ready for the dubbing of Cristian tomorrow and the first bits of dialogue from the film can be secured.
Yeah, a busy week. And on another note, being the last day in June, we are now halfway through 2010!
Irfan 'Post' (2)
At the moment, everything else sane has been suspended. I am editing all of 'Vasile's' scenes (a character from the film) first as the actor who plays his part of off to his home country for the summer. As by then I will probably be finished editing the rest of the film, I do not want to be left without him. Why? Dubbing...ah yes, the bane of every director's life.
A lot of the sound, particularly for my internal scenes is actually pretty good. Most of the externals (like any film set) is a write-off.
See this link for the film Lord of War. Head to the 2 minute mark, when the two characters are on the beach. Yep, that was all dubbed. According to the director, the original sound was unusable because they were filming, well, next to a beach.
So the rest of this week will be a race to make sure I have Christian's voice on my computer, so I can add him into the post-mix...after all, why I may have not shot next to a beach, I was shooting next to the South Circular...
Irfan 'Post' (1)
(Copied from the original off El Director's blog).
So filming is over and post production begins. To be honest, I could easily take a week off from filming and relax. But there is a lot of 'crap' to get done before the real editing begins. Some of it very simple like clearing up and some of it more tedious, but nonetheless simple.
Anyway, for the rest of today, this will be the image burning into the back of my retina.
This is the dull bit of editing. Sorting out files and folders. Be under no illusion, no matter how glorious film making may seem on the big screen, it is simply an illusion. It is supported by an undercroft of sticky tape and plaster board.
I also have to get a life back. And quick! I am going to finish my grand tour of London by August, come hell or high water, and that means cunningly trying to find some time to reach the Far East of the city! Talking about the Far East, my spirit is taking me overseas again...I think I might be heading off to the motherland for another peek at the so-called good life. Two weddings but fewer old folks to see means that this will be a trip (if I make it) tinged with sadness as well as joy.
So once this is done, I will sort out the files into scenes, bits and bobs, duplicate them onto an external hard drive as backup and clear Jay and Kay off my compie. Not that they are being obliterated just yet...
---
And looking back at the film set. It was an educational experience, and not in the way that most people would think. Yes, I learnt a lot on the technical side, and saw how both cast and crew work hard to make a film come together. But I also learnt a lot more. About people themselves. It was interesting to see how everyone interacted to make the film come together. And it was a pleasure to behold. But, now comes the real work. Post.
Oh, and every Wednesday, on this blog, you may actually see why this is the blog of El Director...
So filming is over and post production begins. To be honest, I could easily take a week off from filming and relax. But there is a lot of 'crap' to get done before the real editing begins. Some of it very simple like clearing up and some of it more tedious, but nonetheless simple.
Anyway, for the rest of today, this will be the image burning into the back of my retina.
This is the dull bit of editing. Sorting out files and folders. Be under no illusion, no matter how glorious film making may seem on the big screen, it is simply an illusion. It is supported by an undercroft of sticky tape and plaster board.
I also have to get a life back. And quick! I am going to finish my grand tour of London by August, come hell or high water, and that means cunningly trying to find some time to reach the Far East of the city! Talking about the Far East, my spirit is taking me overseas again...I think I might be heading off to the motherland for another peek at the so-called good life. Two weddings but fewer old folks to see means that this will be a trip (if I make it) tinged with sadness as well as joy.
So once this is done, I will sort out the files into scenes, bits and bobs, duplicate them onto an external hard drive as backup and clear Jay and Kay off my compie. Not that they are being obliterated just yet...
---
And looking back at the film set. It was an educational experience, and not in the way that most people would think. Yes, I learnt a lot on the technical side, and saw how both cast and crew work hard to make a film come together. But I also learnt a lot more. About people themselves. It was interesting to see how everyone interacted to make the film come together. And it was a pleasure to behold. But, now comes the real work. Post.
Oh, and every Wednesday, on this blog, you may actually see why this is the blog of El Director...
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