Demo reel 2015

demo reel 2015 from Vincent-louis Apruzzese on Vimeo.

Change of format comparison

I have been working on updating my demo reel and, as always, look back to work in the past to see if any of it should be included. I have little choice since new work is pretty scarce. I came across a project I did for a friend in 2008, a 3D animation set of a camera panning across a field of widescreen Tv sets (which were rare enough in 2008). We liked the final product and it was interesting enough so I decided to re-render it in HD. Not as easy as it seemed at first. For some reason the old Cinema 4D files wouldn't render more than a single frame except in preview mode. So used the original model and did the rest from a new project file.

The image is the origin standard definition frame sitting in the new HD one and it's amazing how much higher the quality is now. I have had a few people complain that Blu-ray os no better the a standard DVD but I think this image shows there is a huge difference

Million Year Picnic doc started!

As I start my latest and long suffering in the shadows documentary about the Million Year Picnic comic book store, I am rudely reminded of how difficult it is to do one of these things all by yourself. Every film has challenges, but this time I am starting with all new equipment and new formats I’ve not used in a personal project before. 

For starters I am using a Canon xa10 to film things, using the 30p setting and a Zoom sound recorder which I have to admit is not so easy for me to figure out. Even with that I have got some good sound from it using my shot gun mic, keeping it close to the subject. 

The biggest problems so far is  getting it all together for editing in Premiere Pro CS6. I’ve been using Pluraleyes from Red Giant software to sync the video and Zoom sound, which works pretty good and very quickly. The problem after that is that .mov files are not easily processed by Premiere even though they are prepared especially for it by transcoding the MTS file to .mov using MTS converter. I experimented importing in Final Cut Pro 7 and the same issue. Oddly they play fine in quicktime and in Pluraleyes. I finally discovered I can use the XML import from Pluraleyes to get the interviews into the editing software, but it’s a time consuming and far from elegant process. I had to go back a version for that work properly, however. These thing never come easy! 

The interviews went fairly well despite not really having a space to do them in. I even had to do one in a stairway! Visually they look pretty good and the sound could have much, much worse so I can’t complain too loudly. I really need an assistant or two to work devices while I interview… it really is just too hard to do them all at once. Beggars can’t be choosers so I’m doing the best I can on my own. 

Next stage is to get supplementary materials, like photos, scans of ads, whatever I can get my hands on to enhance and inform the film more. I’ll also have to make several more interviews at least before summer is over. On my post production side, I’ve already made a 3D version of the store’s logo that can be animated, lower 3rds with animations and experimented with some other graphic elements. So… allons-y! 

Big MA 2011

When my mother asked for DVD version of the documentary "Big Ma" about her mother, I thought it might be a good idea to redo many of the graphics and tighten it up a little. A big plus was You tube had a message telling me I can now upload films longer than 15 minutes so I didn't have to split it into parts!

Final Cut X

Having had a chance to play with this software and read up on it’s features and what other professionals say about it I have to report FCX is not aimed at the professional film maker or editor but rather the one man show at the office who must put together the corporate videos and the small film makers working on you tube and on the internet. While being a bold step forward in many ways, it’s also a huge step backwards, away from the professional work of collaborative and high end video production.

the good:
There is plenty of interesting and worthwhile ideas in this software. The magnetic timeline, the 64 bit and Motion 5 integration, the addition of larger formats, the on screen image is much improved on my monitors, the implementation of the the sound editing and color correction as well as the ability to burn DVD (including Blu-ray) directly from Final Cut are all inspired changes. The metadata ideas are very welcome and will greatly cut down the endless searching for clips. I have no doubt that many of these features are in the future of digital editing and many other non linear editors will be embracing them as well.

the bad:
Apple’s rush to “the future” is really just a rush to get rid of features it didn’t like supporting in place of creating something much too stripped down for professional use. No multi-clip? The iphoto/imovie approach to file management is great for some one person operations and a nightmare for most anyone else. In the film/broadcast world, there might be several if not 100’s of people working on a film and this current system is not good for that. Not being able to import older projects is annoying but not a fatal flaw in my view. Apple seems to think the world has moved on from DVD but as many FCP users are editing for weddings and events or independent filmmakers who need to send their work to investors and festivals by delivering these projects on DVD, the included solution is not a solution at all. I have been already using Adobe’s Encore to make DVDs as Apple had done nothing to improve DVD Pro (now defunct) since almost a day after version 1 came out. The killing of Soundtrack Pro is also a huge loss for those of us who are not and can’t afford musicians for every small project but I supposed Garageband is more or less up to that task at this point. Sort of.

Conclusion:
If you are a video professional who found FCP too daunting to use and wanted a more full featured version of imovie, FCX is really a huge step up for you and together with Motion 5 it will up your game to new heights. If you work alone and don’t mind having all your media organized for you instead of by you (which does have it’s advantages) this will also be step forward. If, however, you are working on anything more collaborative, or complex you will find FCX lacking in basic features too important to make it’s pluses outweigh the minuses. Apple’s back peddling recently and re-writing history with statements that FCP was “never intended for real professional work flow” not to mention the recent statements the this next version would have lots of things for the professional community is just a way to avoid admitting they have decided not to support a well and hard earned user base. Though updates may come fast and furious and this may become an incredible way to make broadcast in a year or two, that may be too late to attract the professional market who can more easily move back to Avid or the ever improving Adobe suite of video products.

I personally won't be using FCX anytime soon as imovie currently fills the niche I would use this sort of software for well enough and Final Cut 7, though still slightly buggy is much more appropriate for larger projects.

The Twelve - remastered 1270 doc

I've been working hard on re-mastering and updating my 2006 documentary "1270". It will now be called "The Twelve", be in 16:9 format for today's screens and have about 40 redone or completely new graphic animations throughout. I might try and get a new interview in there, but that seems unlikely given the time constraints and difficulty getting someone here to be interviewed, but well see how it goes. As this nears completion, I'll be taking the old version off you-tube and the new version will be the only one available and it will also be for sale on amazon. Many people asked about buying copies over the years, now they will be able to. The film is basically the same style and feeling, but just updated graphics and nicer looking video quality. Some info will be updated as well.

If you want to be ind=formed on when you can get the new version, send me an email and I'll put you on a list to be the first to know!