Posts Tagged “film training manitoba”

Putting together the MCTV promo video. Here are some kind words from Film Training Manitoba’s Adam Smoluk about a production that we worked on with them.

The Manitoba Film Training Expo 2009 DVDs are all finished up and delivered to Film Training Manitoba. There were only a few changes from early versions which made the post-production go by pretty quickly.

I ended up creating 3 separate videos, a 6:45 length feature about the Training Expo which had sections for the Stereoscopic 3d presentation, the Ben Davis Action workshop and the Music for Productions and Composers sessions; a 30 second version was also made. In addition, a separate video was made about the Poor Man’s Process workshop that took a week after the training expo.

FTM asked to have a version delivered that could be given to broadcasters and other media outlets when doing some promotional work. So in addition to a standard definition DVD, they were given MPEG4 files with the H.264 codec, both a SD version and a 720p version, which is the resolution of the original video. In addition, unmixed versions were supplied that had no graphics like name keys and lower thirds and also no music, just actualities and natural sound on separated channels.

Usually when completing projects I would lay them tape in this manner, with both a mixed and unmixed version, but with the advent of more tapeless acquisition formats I find myself less inclined to master to tape as well, instead I will keep hi-rez and medium-rez data versions, it really does depend on the project though, some long form projects I will still put to tape, and I imagine I will work it like that for a while still.

The full videos will be up on the Film Training Manitoba website soon.

Last weekend Film Training Manitoba brought in William B. Davis, aka The Cigarette Smoking Man from the X-Files, to conduct a 5 day workshop with Winnipeg actors. There were 2 classes, an AM and a PM, that had a total of 13 participants.

MediaCircus.TV was hired to provide HD video recording and playback for the sessions, and create DVD’s for the actors of all of their takes. I was using the Sony XDCAM EX1 camera, which shoots on SxS memory cards, which is a perfect way of working for a project like this.

After a take was completed, I would switch the camera over to “media mode” where the material on the SxS cards would be accessed and  Mr. Davis would review the take with the class on a HD LCD TV, having instant HD playback of the scene that was just completed. It was a very efficient way to work.

Each participant did 3 scenes over the length of the course, with the rest of the time spent observing the others and taking part in the discussion. Myself as a non-actor, watching the process they went through in order to make their performances as real as possible was quite an education. I’ve worked with actors before on commercial and promotion shoots, but rarely in any sort of scripted dramatic venue, which is what most of the performances in this course were focused on.

The classes participants ranged from people new to the industry to folks that have been in it for quite some time. Some people were getting back into acting after taking a hiatus to raise their family, and some of the participants I recognized from from other Film Training Manitoba workshops that I have either attended or been hired to provide video services for.

I’ll admit that I was somewhat intimidated at first working with William B. Davis (or ”Bill” as he suggested I call him)  having been quite an X-Files fan during it’s original run. I rarely get star-struck when working with well known people, and I wasn’t here either, though Bill carried a certain demeanor with him that left me in awe for the fist few days.   

As we would get ready for a scene I would do some basic lighting to flood the area with a lot of light, there wasn’t enough time to do proper dramatic lighting custom for each scene, and that wasn’t the point of the workshop.  Lighting is one of those things that makes a huge difference in the quality of a shot, so even just having flood lighting made a difference.

Between the lighting, the HD playback and the speed with which we were switching scenes (the workshop participants often would help move things in changing scenes) we moved along at an efficient pace and Bill remarked that this was a “high-end” workshop. That felt good to hear. He has been on numerous film and TV sets (including 9 years on the X-Files) , and has been in theatre for many years, and he called our little workshop production high-end. He wasn’t comparing to those big productions of course, but to most workshops that might have a small handycam with a TV set to playback material on, while we had proper lighting, mics, instant HD playback and DVD production and duplication on site. Film Training Manitoba is raising the bar when it comes to bringing in people to train Winnipeg Actors and putting on workshops that will help the participants improve in their skills, and I’m glad to be a part of it. 

 The Winnipeg Actors involved were;

Shannon Jacques, Dana Horrox, Dean Harder, Ashley Hirt, Cindy Marie Small, Sherry Coffey, Krysia Andrzejczak, Dan Augusta, Janet Shum, Jason Malloy, Tyhr Trubiak, Yvette Jones and Ali Tataryn.

Last weekend was the Manitoba Film Training Expo, put on by Film Training Manitoba. I was pleased to be hired back for a third year in a row to provide video production services for the weekend. I took footage of the various workshops and conducted interviews with several conference instructors and antendees.

In addition, this year as part of the package I am training people on Camera Assist, Editing and Motion Graphics with After Effects, they are Film Training Manitoba after all.

Over the course of the next month the footage that wa shot at the Expo will be edited by 2 students along with the creation of motion graphics to spruce up the final product. Once the training is done then I will take what the student did and make a final video that Film Training Manitoba will use for their archives.

The video I made from last years Expo is now up on Film Training Manitoba’s newly revamped website.

Here are some stills from the video that we shot this past weekend.

 Course Participants Craig Matthews and Nicolette Rieger

On April 26 I helped out with an ACTRA Auditioning workshop put on by Film Training Manitoba.  The workshop was run by veteran actor and casting director Rebecca Gibson.

I brought out my light kit, green screen for a backdrop and my know how to put together DVD’s of the auditions for folks. I used the Sony XDCAM EX camera, which is just great for a project like this. Since it is a data-based camera, rather than tape based, moving the files around and putting together a DVD is pretty quick, even with the extra work of transferring and transcoding files.

I make DVD’s for all of the workshop participants at FTM’s request, which I think is a great idea since it adds to the value that the participants get out of the workshops.