2001 2012 version

This re-cut trailer for 2001 is just awesome.

My Dad found it http://www.howtogeek.com/120084/2001-a-space-odyssey-as-a-2012-movie-trailer-video.

And the Winner Is

We used 99 Designs to make a new logo for Pandora Machine. We got a whole pile of entries.

3. We liked this design. But we didn't like it enough. However the designer offered to sell the design to us for a significant discount after the contest so we went and bought it. It might be too much like a cruise line.

2. This design by W cent has many things going for it. We awarded it a "2nd place" win just because there are elements in it which are very nice. I was afraid that I was prejudiced toward the image because it's clearly a Waterhouse Pandora, which amuses me. 

1. And the winner was from dieslgl. We like how active this design is and how well it will reduce into a little "bug" on the back of a DVD.

Remote Embroidery

I see this wireless remote for the Canon C300 and I think "built-in wireless tap". Unfortunately you can only connect one device at a time, and the video is not quite "real time".
So yeah, no, it's not built-in wireless tap. Not today. But one day, man, one day.

I'm thinking about getting custom embroidered jackets for Pandora Machine. Options include the Endeavor jacket by Port Authority (a windbreaker), or possibly a Carhartt duck coat, or maybe a Cabela's barn coat which we get someone to embroider.

Black

So. Here's a thing that sucks. The very last version of one of the movies we delivered? Has a whole bunch of black frames in it. Here's the note:
  intermittently black out for 90sec from 01:09:08:23 to 01:10:46:20.
And I looked at the Final Cut Pro project and yup, the prerender decided it wasn't going to render a bunch of frames with a particular effect on them. So it rendered out black instead. This is after we'd done a half-dozen renders which went perfectly fine. Thanks, Apple.
Let me tell ya, this is demoralizing. Oof.
One big problem we have here is that we're always right up against the wall as far as deliveries go. In other words we're always rendering overnight in order to get a drive in FedEx the next day. And, you know, we really have to stop doing that.
If a mistake is found in a render and we have to re-render the movie then we're adding at the very least 12 hours to the whole process.

This, of course, makes bunny cry.
It would be really freakin nice if Final Cut would render frames consistently.
But since we are quite clearly not in charge of FCP development at Apple, we'll have to find a new way to do quality control on our movies.
And also I suspect we're going to have to do prerendering. We'll prerender acts as ProRes 422 Quicktimes and any changes we need to make will be simple re-renders and alterations of either those individual acts, or of a section of the act which we'll simply splice into the timeline.
So that's what I'm thinking now.

Dynamo #3

Ian Hubert has a new episode of Dynamo out. This is episode 3:


Things I love: the HUD's. The door lock. The telephone (the TELEPHONE!!). The shuttle is very sexy (we used it in Earthkiller too). The visual effects in general.

I still have no idea what's going on but I don't care!

Logo Res Mix Way

Is it even theoretically possible for me to have enough hard drives? I feel like I'm buying them all the time. It also seems that we've all but abandoned making videotapes. There are some markets which still insist on DigiBeta but ProRes422 is becoming the new standard.
This honestly saves us a lot of time and money.
I'm doing a brand new mix on Clonehunter. We're re-delivering the picture because we have a new distributor. So we're working on a new mix and taking care of a couple blips and plops on the video. This process seems to be going smoothly.
I think we're going to be able to shoot big chunks of Dragon Girl on the Greenway in Metuchen and out at my parent's place in Princeton.
I got a Mac keyboard for my PC. As far as I know there are no non-Apple versions of the sexy little Apple keyboard. The only real trouble I have is remembering "cmnd+shift" vs "cntrl+shift" or whatever. Other than that, it is really nice.
I'm still stresserizing over the new logo design.

Other Ideas

My awesome sister came up with this notion for the new Pandora Machine logo.

VLBS

Vote vote vote. Like a baby stoat. Check out other Logo designs from 99designs There's only 17 hours left to vote on this logo design. Vote. Comment. Believe. Obey. Consume...

Prometheus Trap Trailer

Here's the teaser trailer for The Prometheus Trap created by our distributor, Halcyon International Pictures.

Oh Poo

Only yesterday I was thinking "surely we've passed QC for Android Insurrection."
O! What heady days those were. When I was thinking that.

It's actually a short list. I don't know how to clamp the blacks though. Or wait, do you "clamp" blacks? I have no idea. I have to do it in Final Cut and I have to do it by tonight. Does the process amp do that?
Sigh.

Earthkiller on Fleshbot!

Our movie Earthkiller was blurbed on Fleshbot.

I think that's just so cool.
And for those of you playing at home, yes, you did wake up naked with amnesia. Take this crowbar, you're going to have to break out of this space station...

Total Recall

I favor the Total Recall remake. Why? Because I thought the original was fatally flawed. I think the screenplay was amazing but the execution had a couple problems. The biggest problem was putting Arnold in the role of the protagonist. Mr. Schwarzenegger makes a terrible good guy because just look at him. He's Mr. Universe. He could beat up all of those other guys easy. That substantially reduces the dramatic tension.
Arnold as the Terminator is perfect. Because he's definitely a formidable opponent. Sarah Connors versus that big buff dude totally works. And the sequel works too because they actually make a Terminator who's tougher than the Arnold.
That's why I want to see a Total Recall without him in the lead.
My only question is: do they not end up going to Mars?