Anamorphic Lens

We've recently got our hands on an anamorphic lens to try and capture some more cinematic images in a small form factor.  The lens is from Moondog Labs, a firm based in New York that has been producing lenses for over a century. Here is a very short clip. Straight out of the camera (iphoneX) using FilmicPro. No colour correction, no filters, luts etc.

The lens is a 1.33 anamorphic. With the FilmicPro app, you can de-squeeze in camera, so the image you see is in the correct aspect ratio. With this lens, you can buy a camera case which the lens will screw directly into. The lens itself comes with a lens protector and also a back cover, that goes into a soft bag. However, the first thing I got was a small hard case to store and protect it.

So you can go hand held, but my current setup is the Zhiyun SmoothQ gimbal to give steady footage. Due to the weight of the lens, you will need some counterweights that magnetically link together and go on the other end of the gimbal.

Case, lens, filter adaptor

If you want to keep the shutter speed down, to say 1/48 if shooting at 24fps, you will need an nd filter. To attach this you will need an adapter to go from the lens to a standard 52mm connector. You can then screw in any nd or variable nd filter. With FilmicPro you can then adjust the shutter speed, otherwise when shooting outside, everything will be overexposed at 24fps. FilmicPro can also shoot log profile.

Rhinoshield case that lens directly screws into

Counterweights on the SmoothQ gimbal

FilmicPro App

Music from Manus film - 5 days not 5 years

The film ‘Music From Manus’ has been released to raise awareness of the situation on Manus Island, which appears to be getting worse rather than better.

Dawn Barrington (musician) and Tim Maisey (filmmaker) went to Manus Island to play music and listen to stories from their friends on Manus Island. Their friends are refugees.

Poster for film

Dawn and Tim didn't know whether they would get a visa, get onto Manus Island, be arrested, have their equipment taken or stolen, or whether any refugees would even come and see them. They stayed mainly in their hotel room as they were not allowed into the camps and it was generally not safe to be outside especially at weekends. The film was captured as it happened depending on who visited on the day. They ventured outside only occasionally - they visited one of the camps to try and get in, talked to the guards, but were turned away. Some of their friends saw them and then they played music nearby in the shade of a local's stall.

Three weeks after returning from Manus Island, the project was featured on the front page of the local newspaper, together with the first public screening of the film which included live music from Dawn and a question and answer session.

Many thanks to our friends on Manus Island and Port Moresby who came to see use, welcomed us, shared with us and fed us. Many thanks for their personal stories and personal film. It takes courage.

Any money generated from this film will go towards supporting refugees on Manus Island and Port Moresby.

The original trailer was re-edited in collaboration with a Sydney-based producer who had seen the film when it was on tour. The film was pitched to Netflix, SBS and ABC.

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The full 40 minute short film is below and has been shown across Australia in cinemas, and community venues sometimes with music from Dawn followed by Question and Answer sessions:

The film has been entered into Sundance, New Orleans, LA Shorts International, Chicago International, British Film Institute, Edmondton, New Renaissance, British Documentary and Barcelona Human Rights film festivals.

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The following re-edited version was entered into the New York mobile phone film competition using only the iPhone film segments.

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The film has been shown at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain as part of a session dedicated to the refugee theme relating to artwork from Javier Téllez on view at gallery 103 in the Guggenheim.

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Dawn and Farhad

Community-docu-film

TMCG Productions were proud to be working alongside Peter Keelan during the production of the Local 'n' Vocal film.  This was part documentary, part film.

The documentary involved community members, some you had never sung before, rehearsing and performing a song whose words had been developed by the community and arranged by Rachel Hore a well known singer and choir leader. The film part was working with a local young actor to weave a story thread.

Special thanks to all those involved in the choir, those who willingly walked and sang on beaches, by the river and in the forest.

Techno-babble: It was definitely a run and gun situation with limited time for any set shots and no time when filming the rehearsals. The live performance was in front of a crowd outside the local supermarket during the Denmark Festival of Voice 2015.  The superslowmo 120 frames per second raw images looked beautiful, but took a lot of editing grunt. It was all filmed in 4k, edited in 4k and uploaded in 4k. The sound was recorded live and re-recorded at various locations and re-mixed in Perth. 

For me, the soul of the film came once I had the final sound mix and focused back on the choirs, reactions and emotions. Before that I was fighting with the sync, the sheer quantity of data, and not knowing how it would all come together.

Credits: Music - Rachel Hore Words - Denmark Community Denmark Arts Director - Vivienne Robertson Local 'n' Vocal Coordinator - Jennie Newman Producer / Camera - Peter Keelan Director / Camera / Editor - Tim Maisey Sound Remix - Peter Gandison Youth - Kael Tane The choir - themselves Background: The 2015 Denmark Festival of Voice featured Local 'n' Vocal, drawing people together from the region in communal song.

Walter Murch on shooting 4k

Walter Murch of the filmmaking book In The Blink of An Eye, editor of The Godfather Part II and Apocalypse Now Redux talks about 4k and reconfirms the benefits and changes to filming in 4k

In this, the second part of the 2015 interview with Walter Murch, Walter talks about the technological changes we have seen over many decades, and how these have affected the filmmaking process. Walter comments on 4K, now widely available to both professionals and consumers, and how the increased resolution impacts on the filmmaking process. Listen out at the end of the interview for the fantastic recollection where Walter describes having worked with both Marlon Brando and Francis Ford Coppola! Watch part 1: WALTER MURCH 2015: FCPX, AVID, PREMIERE PRO http://www.moviemachine.tv/video/walter-murch-2015-fcpx,-avid,-premiere-pro/142198470/ **Walter Murch Bio.** Walter Murch has been editing picture and mixing sound in Hollywood since starting on Francis Ford Coppolas film The Rain People (1969). He co-wrote, sound-edited and mixed George Lucass THX-1138 (1971), and then supervised the sound editing on The Godfather (1972), sound-edited and mixed American Graffiti (1973) and The Godfather: Part II (1974), got his first Academy Award nomination and won a double BAFTA for picture editing and mixing The Conversation (1974), won his first Oscar for Apocalypse Now (1979), and an unprecedented double Oscar for sound and film editing for his work on The English Patient (1996). **Editing Credits** * Tomorrowland 2015 * Cutaways (Documentary short) 2014 * Particle Fever (Documentary) 2013 * Hemingway & Gellhorn (TV Movie) 2012 * The Wolfman 2010 * Tetro 2009 * Youth Without Youth 2007 * Jarhead 2005 * Cold Mountain 2003 * K-19: The Widowmaker 2002 * The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999 * The English Patient 1996 * First Knight 1995 * I Love Trouble 1994 * Romeo Is Bleeding 1993 * House of Cards 1993 * The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 (Video) 1992 * The Godfather: Part III 1990 * Ghost 1990 * Call from Space (Short 1989 * The Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988 * Captain EO (Short) 1986 * Apocalypse Now 1979 * Julia 1977 * The Conversation 1974 * Touch of Evil (1998 re-edit) 1958 * Dickson Experimental Sound Film (Short) (2003 release) 1894 **Sound Department Credits** * Cutaways (Documentary short) (sound designer) 2014 * Particle Fever (Documentary) (sound re-recording mixer) 2013 * Tetro (sound re-recordist) 2009 * Youth Without Youth (sound re-recording mixer) 2007 * Seeing in the Dark (TV Movie documentary) (sound mixer) 2007 * Jarhead (re-recording mixer) 2005 * Cold Mountain (sound re-recording mixer) 2003 * K-19: The Widowmaker (sound re-recording mixer) 2002 * The Talented Mr. Ripley (sound re-recording mixer) 1999 * The English Patient (sound re-recording mixer) 1996 * First Knight (sound re-recording mixer) 1994 * Crumb (Documentary) (sound re-recording mixer) 1995 * Romeo Is Bleeding (sound re-recordist) 1993 * The Godfather: Part III (sound re-recording mixer) 1990 * Ghost (sound re-recording mixer) 1990 * Dragonslayer (sound re-recordist) 1981 * Apocalypse Now (sound designer) / (sound montage) / (sound re-recording mixer) 1979 * The Godfather: Part II (sound montage) / (sound re-recordist) 1974 * The Conversation (re-recording) / (sound editor - uncredited) / (sound montage) 1974 * American Graffiti (sound montage) / (sound re-recordist) 1973 * THX 1138 (sound montage) 1971 * Gimme Shelter (Documentary) (sound) 1970 * The Great Walled City of Xan (Short) (sound) 1970 * The Rain People (sound montage) 1969 * The New Cinema (TV Movie documentary) (sound) 1968 * Dickson Experimental Sound Film (Short) (sound designer - 2003 release) 1894