Also click below to see the ‘making of’ video

Now this is a fan film. Amazingly, hundreds of people have been beavering away to remake Star Wars in their bedrooms. Each taking a 15 second chunk of the film, and remaking it in their own inimitable style. I’m not entirely sure how great or sad this is, but it looks like it has been a real labour of love for those involved. Watch the trailer to see what I mean.

The internet has allowed for some really interesting ideas to come to fruition. We are increasingly seeing collaborative efforts in all manner of moving image projects. Some seem like an excuse to avoid paying real artists for their time, but others like this – for an excuse to have a great laugh and be immortalised.

There are a few other projects that I have come across over the years, and as I remember them I will post links below.

But one that I have to hand is one frame of fame.

This is a viral music video for C-mon & Kypski – More is less.

A great idea, the band have shot a video with themselves performing, and are asking fans to recreate a frame of the action in front of their webcam. The image is taken and then inserted into the video to create a strobe-like series of images which looks really lovely. It is in great contrast to the straight footage which is on the rest of the video.

Obviously this is designed as a viral marketing campaign as well as music video, and I’m sure that many of the people featured are not real fans of the group, but who are now certainly aware of their existence.

See it by clicking on the picture below.

Wow – free workshops from a new provider – Creative Live - http://creativelive.com/ seems like the deal is that you can watch them live, but have to pay if you miss the live session. Some great looking sessions though. This is certainly picking up momentum as a new way to learn, especially for people with full-time jobs who can’t afford the time otherwise. I’ve been a long time fan of fxphd who offer a great service – 10 week courses, forums, trial versions of the software, and a great community. Looks like creative live are offering some of the same.

2 courses I’m keen on are below – to give you a flavour.

A while ago I started using an LCDVF. For those who are wondering, like I was, about the situation with using glasses with a viewfinder eyepiece like this. I can explain my own situation. I use glasses which are -4.75 strength, and are a reasonable size.  I was initially worried as before ordering I tried looking at the LCD panel on my camera from a short distance, approximately the same length as it would be when using the LCDVF, and found that I couldn’t focus clearly enough without taking off my glasses. However, upon using it I find the opposite to be the case – I can use my glasses easily, but not without. I have had absolutely no problems in using the glasses with it. It looks a little weird when first attached to the camera, as it sticks out a lot more than looks right with a small lens attached to the front, but it’s a marvellous device, certainly recommended by me, and used frequently.

It looks like the first step in rig expansion. Just look at what can happen if you have a few quid to play around with. Yum.

Click on the pictures to get to the episodes. Currently at episode 2.

Celtx is a free scriptwriting tool and production organiser, and it’s free. A great start for people looking to get a well formatted script, it will also allow you to break it down into the production logistics required. Now you’ve just got to go and shoot it!

Screenlit is the Premiere UK Screenwriting festival, and is right here in Nottingham. I went last year, and it was absolutely great. On soon – the end of April! Thank crikey I was writing this entry, otherwise I’d have probably missed it. Make the effort to go and see great writers.

BBC Writers room is a great service where you can submit your masterpiece, and they’ll look over it for free. They will read the first 10 pages and if they really like it, read on and give you feedback, and possibly put you in touch with Producers

Rocliffe is working with BAFTA to develop writers and filmmakers, and runs a successful script submission scheme and runs events and forums. Only if you are really serious though.

.

WriteLion is a section of the Left Lion magazine Forums which deals with all types of writing. Hopefully you can find some friends there and chat about interesting things.

.

.

If you’re a writer, and you’re in the East midlands, then I’d guess that this is the place for you. As you might have guessed, I’m getting a little bored and I think I’ll make myself a nice drink and stop all this internet nonsense. Hope it helps someone.

Time really flies. It just feels like yesterday when CS4 sounded fresh and new. Not that I’m obsessed or anything, but I’ve been really using After Effects for a few years now, and it seems to have taken over from Final Cut Pro as my software of choice. I think this is because many of my projects have turned from ‘straight’ videos into detailed post production composites.

I can’t shed any light on what is new in the program, but am as keen to find out as you are. There are lots of fake youtube videos going about, don’t be fooled by them.

I for one hope that they make the audio better. It is a continued bugbear of mine. For those in the same boat as me, here’s a few ‘top tips’ for working with audio in AE.

• If you scrub through your timeline holding the Apple/Command Key (on a Mac) or I’d assume Ctrl on a PC then it allows you to hear the audio as you are scrubbing. I often find this invaluable when matching animation to music, and it completely saved my life when working with audio in After Effects.
• Forget that the space bar exists. You’ll only hear the audio on playback if you press the 0 key on the side keypad instead.

There’s a great combo with the next 2 tips

• Pressing the fullstop/period key on the side keypad will playback the audio from the point that you’re at in the timeline.
• Pressing the * key on (you’ve guessed it) the side keypad will put a marker on the timeline during playback. This is great for beat matching and timing to audio cues. Once you’ve stopped playback they’ll appear on the layer you had selected.

Just making that from the top of my head, so I’ve probably missed lots out. Let me know if you’ve got any more. Thanks and I hope to see you more often.

Also – Nick Campbell (Greyscale Gorilla) talks about stuff on http://vimeo.com/6353614

It initially felt a little sacreligious, as Hockney had intrinsically developed the technique to incorporate time and movement with a series of images taken at different times being seen together.

But I was keen to see what would happen with and developed the concept of a video joiner for a commission at the Cast restaurant and bar at the Nottingham Playhouse. Curated by Casciani Evans Wood, this piece was my first joiner.

Cast Joiner

Now I’m sure somehow it is an improvement, but I can’t see it. Quicktime x has installed as a part of snow leopard on my macpro. Now snow leopard is great – much quicker, and more stable (don’t believe the ‘mac never crashes’ crowd – System 7/8 was amazingly stable, but that was 10 years ago). Only designed as an ‘under the hood’ update, the idea was to keep as much as possible the same as leopard.

But having used Quicktime X for a few days, I was sorely missing quicktime 7. The pro version allowed great flexibility and is in constant use by me. It was an amazing piece of software, and just worked so well. So what do Apple do? They simplify it and take away all the features that made it great. D-oh.

But the reason why I’m writing this post is that

1. If people complain about this rubbish update, then they might address the problem, and

2.  I have discovered that you can get Quicktime Pro 7 back. Hooray.

If you want to get quicktime 7 back, you will find it in Applications>Utilities.

If you want video files to open natively in this then – ‘get info’ on any video file (holding command(Apple)& I). Then you can set ‘open with’ to other, navigate to Quicktime 7 in Applications>Utilities. Then click ‘change all’ to ensure all filetypes like this open in QT7.

Now I like change, but it should be for the better, not dumbing down an already simple application.

Oooh, rant over.