Making Movies & TV Documentaries

Remarks: Microsoft Movie Maker is free with Windows XP. I have been using it recently with the free downloads WavePad Audio and Audacity to work up .wmv-format movies playable in Windows Media Player with spoken soundtracks incorporating a music background mixed in at a variable level. Great for speeches, lectures, documentaries, and lessons. Such .wmv movies for Media Player can be sent as an attachment in Yahoo Email up to 10 Mbytes, and up to 20 Mbytes with Yahoo Plus, or snail-mailed on CD-roms or DVDs. If you wish to stage a video promotion, you might upload videos to Google Video. Microsoft Movie Maker features a fine selection of transitions, special effects, and titling. I find I can use Macromedia Flash (see also Flashkit and Wikipedia on Flash) to work up special animations as AVI sequences that are easily incorporated as scenes into Microsoft Movie Maker .wmv movies. For instance, one can do maps superimposed over video that incorporate moving lines using Flash, ala Raiders of the Lost Arc. Or one can prepare quite modern and avant-garde titling and credits. I have also been using Flash to convert Kodak Easy Share camera QuickTime movies [Wiki] into AVI format for incorporation into Microsoft Movie Maker pieces. However, there are some size limitations probably imposed by available RAM. It is clear that the level of professionalism obtainable with the above software packages varies quite a bit. Perhaps you would get better results for some purposes with packages from Sony, Pinnacle, or Premier 6.5 than with Microsoft Movie Maker, for instance. Many of the above programs are available on a 30-day demo basis without any handicap, including MACROMEDIA software like FLASH MX and DIRECTOR MX. I believe 3D Studio Max is also in this category, along with trueSpace 5 and many other advanced programs available as demo samples. Other programs, such as ADOBE software including Premiere 6.5 and After Effects 5.5, may not be available except as learning programs with disabled outputs, or in some cases with watermarks in the output to indicate production by a learning program. Quite a bit of the advanced material may not be available at all except for money. You can get a free demo CD Rom of 3D Studio Max by filling out a form at http://www.discreet.com/products/3dsmax/, above. Some material is suitable for composing SWF or PDF output files that may be used on the web, or to do storyboarding for a movie. The magazine 3D Graphics World has a great introductory issue out with a demo diskette including 3ds Max, Plasma, Combustion, Mental Ray, Maya, and other great software with a fine set of tutorials and material by Jason Busby at 3Dbuzz.com, Bill Fleming at Komodo Studio, Alex Lindsay at DVgarage, and Chris Ollis at Intertwined. Of course, most of us will be making advertisements and short pieces to educate our customers with this material rather than making full-blown movies or working out pieces for new sci-fi films, but with this gear one can do a professional job of promoting products, services, and entertainment.
Typically, we write movie screenplay with video and audio descriptions in separate columns, then prepare a form for shooting out of sequence, so that movie clips to be shot on a specific set are filmed at the same time. The timing for each clip is estimated ahead of time by reading the narration for the clip with a stopwatch in hand. This setup material also helps us prepare a preliminary budget and shooting schedule.

Note that Ulead VideoStudio and Ulead MediaStudio Pro packages work well with Video PCI hardware interfaces to your PC. Recently I have been doing more experiments with an old camcorder with a zoom lens and tape cartridges, and finally have some color digital video camcorder capability with lip-sync to audio at hand together with video editing and VCD and DVD recording capability. I note that Adobe After Effects now supports distributed rendering [Books] between a network of computers to alleviate long render times, and that Pinnacle Systems and Video Edit Magic have software to support green-screen or blue-screen composition [Books] for superimposing actors over model sets.
- Updated March 3, 2007

Notes on the ABCs of Digital Movie Making by John Gaspard & Dale Newton
From MOVIEMAKER magazine, No.48, Vol.9.

In order by importance,
1) The screenplay must be ready before production and of high quality.
2) The cast should include the best actors you can get. They make the screenplay better. Videotape auditions and select actors based on your reactions to recordings.
3) The crew should be fellows looking to move up a level: they try harder. Get other producers to recommend suitable crew kind to actors, who have the most hazardous job.
4) Business issues of note include liability and ownership. A corporate organization limits your personal liability. You must establish your ownership, or the corporate ownership, of the product, or else everyone else gets in to gum up the sale of the product. You need signed releases from the cast, the crew, and property owners to show locations not on public land.
5) Publicity and Distribution are best served by publicity stills taken on the most photogenic shoot days. Remember that the distributor selling points are: a) unique location, b) a celebrity in the movie, c) a first of its kind in some way.
6) DV, DV Cam, and DVCPro formats can all be used. If you must go to film, try PAL format, 25 or 24 frames per second. The best inexpensive editors are:
Adobe Premiere ($600), Apple Final Cut Pro ($1000), and Avid XPress DV ($1700)
The last two are for the MAC. Cheaper solutions using cuts-and-dissolves for transitions such as were used in Lawrence of Arabia include Apple iMovie ($50), AIST MOVIE DV Suite ($70), and MGI Video Wave ($100) (see also the tutorial at brynmawr.com: Video Wave). These may suffer from lack of advanced sound controls, but free ProTools audio editing software at http://www.digidesign.com/ptfree can fill the gap.
7) Locations should be combined for 1 day of shooting into a single tight area. The less time you pack and move, the more time is available for shooting scenes. Locate all power outlets and circuit breakers or fuse box.
8) Sound should be clean and usable, and you must have good control of it. A small mixer with a boom and a pole will give superior results. Be sure to give the sound person some practice before the shoot. Loud sounds peaking the camcorder meter turn into useless crackling, so make sure that sound levels never reach the top of the meter. For a 1 Khz tone at 0 db the camcorder audio should be set at -12 or -20 db.
9) Coverage options should be shot, including reaction shots, close-ups, and over-the-shoulder shots, so that the editor has some choices when putting the final product together.
10) Catering matters: there must be food on the set. Well fed crews function better, and an army marches on its stomach. Local restaurants may be approached for discount food in return for screen credits.
11) Asking for advice and favors from expert heads is a good idea, and it is no time to be shy. For instance, ask a composer if he has a good student capable of scoring your movie.

Other Notes: The Power of Plug-Ins by Scott Phillips
Pertains to the making of the movie Mid-Century.
1) Shoot blondes against blue screens, others against green screens.
2) Take advantage of After Effects 5.5 plug-ins for compositing, rotoscoping, and retouching.
3) For design of CG-simulated hardware, see www.electricimage.com for their Universe 3D Master.
4) The AJ-HDC27 Varicam High Definition Camera is suitable for major motion pictures.
The Pinnacle CineWave HD graphics card with Edging in Final Cut Pro from www.apple.com/finalcutpro with www.automaticduck.com software can be used to prepare HD input for After Effects 5.5.
5) For a great corrosion shader, see www.tripletools.com.
6) See www.toolfarm.com for a suite of great solutions.

Directors do not get hired...projects get bought! You must acquire or write a script that tells a story with marquee value that people are interested in and that you can get passionate about. Writing is crucial for a director. See www.talentmanagers.org.