100 Second Festival

http://100second.ltc.org/

"CALL FOR ENTRIES!!!

The 100 Second Festival is an open ended motion media extravanganza. We are seeking media makers from all skill levels and backgrounds to test the creative constraint of 100 seconds. There's no entrance fee, come on in, the front door is wide open! The submissions will be reviewed, posted and hosted in an online archive. The best of these submissions will be packaged, promoted and projected as the 100 Second Festival.

Summer Screening 2006
DEADLINE MAY 1st"

I thought this might be a good incentive for some us to make a short short film as fast as we can a submit them to this. A lot can be cone in 1 minute and 40 seconds.

What I Did (Sometimes Still Do) when posting a Video

Okay, this is pretty geeky and technical, but once I did several this way it was just time consuming, not difficult. I've since settled on MPEG1 as something everyone can play and the Internet Archive automatically makes a large and small MP4 file size from it.

Since I got Quicktime 7 Pro I may change a few things, like saving to the H.264 format.

Mainly this is here for anyone who thinks they could use this information. Freevlog has a lot this, but I just wanted to share how I did (and sometimes still do) this:

BEGIN:

These are notes for me for the steps I can't ever remember correctly for posting to my vlog.
Opening, Title, Video, Music or video or other sources used credits, Creative commons (Attribution to: my psuedonym or legal name) or Public Domain information, vlog title, title of vlog location, link to vlogmap of my location.
Save basic file in this format: jr_Title_2005Mon00
Make these versions:
Mpeg or Mp2 at DVD settings 768x576 or 640x480 for archival purposes and later usage in editing..
Mpg version 1 with VCD settings. (best tradeoff for size and quality as I'm using VHS-C as my source material, not digital.)
Wmv version (crappy quality, but very low file size)
Avi version using Divx 5.11 (excellent quality, but still pretty darn big.)
MOV version (need to use Quicktime Pro) by opening Mpg version 1 with VCD settings.
Save the MOV with Sorenson 3 codec. (very good quality for the size, especially if using Quicktime Pro to see in fullscreen)
Set poster frame and save this frame to a BMP.
Open Irfanview(awesome freeware graphics editor!) and save BMP as JPG.
Upload JPG file to www.Flickr.com account (the www.Ourmedia.org image section seems to be pretty unstable at the moment.)
3gp saved from MOV (need to use Quicktime Pro) (fair to good quality for tiny file size-check to make sure the sound was exported [it gets dropped sometimes])
Upload the Mpg 1 version, the wmv version, and the MOV version to the Internet Archive via Ourmedia Publisher or the www.Ourmedia.org publish page.
The Internet archive automatically creates two Mp4 versions, the 64k mp4 and the 256k Mp4.
Check to see if loaded into the Internet Archive by typing into its search field “collection:ourmedia AND “insert e-mail address here”
Post the following template into my blog's PN-Vlog entry and change as necessary.

<a href=”title at internet archive page”>title at internet archive page</a>
<a href=”3gp”>3gp</a>
<a href=”avi”>avi</a>
<a href=”Mov”>MOV</a>
<a href=”Mp4”>Mp4</a>
<a href=”Mpg”>Mpg</a>
<a href=”wmv”>wmv</a>
Create a bittorrent file if you can ever learn how to as well. The version of the Opera browser after 8.01 (9 when released stable) should have built in torrent support.
Make tags: cainvlog, pn, pn-vlog
Go to Flickr, post picture of JPG from video to blog.
Copy the information that Flickr posted and delete that post. Go to the previous post and
change <a href=”Mov”> the <IMG="image.jpg">image.jpg <Palign="center"><IMG SRC=”Image.jpg" border=5>MOV</a> and as necessary for the Mp4 version.
Make a "port" page like www.Rocketboom.com (which has an awesome layout for ease of use for newbies) has for each entry.

END

DIY bottlecap tripod

This is pretty nifty if you can find the right thread of screw.


DIY bottlecap tripod

http://www.jakeludington.com/archives/000227.html

Microcinema Map

Alabama Film Coop added to the Microcinema Map on Wayfaring.

How To Make An Underwater Video Camera Housing

just came across this neat informatio:


How To Make An Underwater
Video Camera Housing For $19 and capture some amazing underwater footage!

January's Meeting Notes

Alabama Filmmaker's Co-op Workshop
Sunday, Jan 08, 2006, 2:00, Flying Monkey Arts Center

Topics
Num.
Topic
Responsible
1.
The group behind the 24-hour Music video contest (details available at deadworkers.com ) showed up and passed out their flyers. They have the Flying monkey space reserved for for Sunday and Saturday on Mar 18 and 19, 2006.

The following from their website gives a little more background and the submission date.

“ through February 15, 2006 what’s going to happen is that a bunch of talented local filmmakers will submit their best short films. The DWP judges are going to review the submitted films and narrow the competition down to four filmmakers. The best local musicians are going to submit their original songs (also by 2/15/06) and DWP judges are going to shoot down each other’s favorite until only one song is left standing. On March 1st the judges will notify the filmmakers that they have been chosen to compete and the musician(s) will be notified that their song is to be the one.”

William
J. D.
Eric
Claire

*UPDATE*
1B. Missed this when transcribing the notes.

showed us a video he did of the 2001 Leonid Meteor showers. The last shot one was great!. He used music from OpSound for the video.
Sam

2.
showed us a music video he did. He used Vegas Video, and an effect called “velocity”-speeds up and slows down. (velocity envelope in Vega Video tutorial)
Flashing imagery of himself. He filmed the background first,
then inserted himself in 1 to 2 frames at a time.
He added the sound effects to the music video .
Eric
1.
The other music video he showed was an older one using VHS to VHS with a time base corrector and a Videotoaster.

The strobe effects in the tunnel visuals were accomplished with strobe fireworks. They put off a lot of smoke, which was an effect he was looking for.
Eric
2.
I'm posting these links again because they really are so dang useful:

http://www.creativecommons.org

Http://www.archive.org

Http://www.opsound.org

Http://www.projectgutenberg.org

Http://www.loc.gov

Edison Wax Cylinders
also, checkout

freevlog

and

http://www.ourmedia.org

Jim
3.
green screen
and the different uses. Needs to be lit separately from the subject. Useful for virtual sets, as well as action sequences. Imagery can be keyed out to different colors in editing from original footage. Many, many uses.
Everyone
4.
Talked about different interests, like 3D that Richard does for MACRO Industries, 2D animation, music videos, films, music, etc.
Everyone
5.
Showed his homemade stabilizer and how he built it and its various uses.
Sri

Additional information:

The next scheduled meeting of the Alabama Filmmaker's Co-op Workshop :
Sunday, Feb 5, 2006, 2:00, at the Flying Monkey Arts Center

Music video contest

Just saw this ad the other day and I encourage all of you to enter this contest if you can:

"Can you stay up past your bedtime and make a music video in 24 hours?

Prove it and win 500 bucks!! Submit any short film that you've created on or before February, 15th 2006."

More information at:

http://www.deadworkers.com/film.php

Last Months meeting notes

Alabama Filmmaker's Co-op Workshop
Sunday, December 04, 2005, 2:00, Flying Monkey Arts Center

Topics
Num.
Topic
Responsible
1.
Set up a blogger blog for the filmmaker's co-op workshop group to use at:
Http://filmcoop.blogspot.org
Jim
2.
Archive.org is a great site for finding public domain and Creative Commons (http://www.creativecommons.org) works that you can use for re-mixing your own works and a place you can post your own non-restrictive copyright works for free distribution through the internet. The Moving Images subsection has over 500 feature films in the public domain, over 2000 “ephemeral” educational and other types of films like “Duck and Cover”.

Http://www.archive.org

Http://www.opsound.org

Http://www.projectgutenberg.org

Http://www.loc.gov

Jim
1.
Troubles at first with the Crash Bang Boom set taking up most all of the first floor and their borrowing and the disconnection of the film co-op projector from the film co-op cart to use for their shows on Saturday and Sunday. One of the Crash Bang Booms helped me change the set so we could use the DVD player and projector at least (VHS player that's usually connected was disconnected and not enough time to set up properly, so we couldn't show some of the VHS stuff we had).
Jim
2.
Set up the green screen in front of the stage so we could use it for shooting tests.
Jim, Sam, Stanley
3.
Talked about the script for a short movie she's working on.
Tina
4.
Said he saw a camera that had no moving parts for less than $600. He remembered that it was Samsung, but not the model number.
Stanley
5.
Talked about using Day-for-night techniques.
tried to make sure there were no hard shadows in his projects.
noted that there were plenty of hard shadows in movies that had used the technique.
Said most of the Hammer horror movies used that technique and there were plenty of hard shadows in them.
Chris, Don
Chris
Don
Jim
6.
Played around with green screen, using lights, a portable light, an old car steering wheel, and a set of venetian blinds
Everyone
7.
Used old steering wheel and pretended to be driving so other car information can be composited in.
Jim
8.
Sam asked Tina to look through the blinds and say the 4 seasons in order.
Sam
Tina
9.
Talked about a found footage project he'd heard of where people had gone around to flea markets and garage sales and used movies found there (like old home movies) for their own re-mixes.
Sam

Additional information:

The next scheduled meeting of the Alabama Filmmaker's Co-op Workshop :
Sunday, January 8, 2006, 2:00, at the Flying Monkey Arts Center

Film Co-op Workshop Meeting for 2006Jan08

January Film Co-op Workshop meeting is Sunday, January 08, 2006.
2:00pm at the Flying Monkey Arts Center

Bring your cameras, lights, equipment, tripods, gels, filters, and lets have some fun!