Alex Lindsay's 'Digital Film Revolution' Workshop

On 24th May 2007, Alex Lindsay held a workshop organized by Maisha Filmlab from 9 AM to 5 PM at the National Theatre. His work involves designing Databases, editing Films, Graphics, Burning Movies, Website Design, Home Videos, Storyboards, Screenplays…
Creative Comments (Some Rights Reserved)…You can copy it and give to your friends but you can’t change it…Adverts in the film remain. (Mindset of the market: How do you grab their attention: Move like you are going to catch a horse, walk slowly and it will not see you…It always looks ahead)
“There is strength in numbers…” Mac vs. PC
Alex started programming at age 10 on a TRS AB computer, got into CAD work and worked in radio as a show host and music director, Prime Fox Network now Sky Sports…Studied Philosophy “Let’s get everybody making films…” 1992 Real Time Games Art Director, was at Lucas Film working for pre visualization of the first ‘Star Wars’ movie, made after 5 years. Industrial Light Magic did some shots for ‘Star Wars’ (It is a Rebel Mac Unit) “It takes a lot of people to get a piece done. In Zimbabwe, we have about 30 people on one piece.”
35,000 US Dollars for 7 seconds, Spent first 15 years of his career working for somebody else (Another person’s fingers) Apple has the most advantage because of the content they add to the media…Sony’s Playstation 3 is capable of High Definition TV. Microsoft has the X-Box [There is Joost, before that was Kazar, created Skype, GooTube, Podtech, Pod-dengo (Platform for posting videos), Dig, video on Demand (Subscribe for an extra charge)]…Airlines such as Virgin Atlantic allow you to select videos you wanna watch, 3 to 8 minute shows…
‘Pixel Corp’ is a guild for content creators. As craftsmen, we call ourselves artists. It is easer to build objects than paint on a canvas. We are on the way to 2,000 members. 150 hours of free video training, fantastic shooting of green screen videos and reduced purchase prices for very powerful software. “I’m kind of a frontpage of a bigger workshop.” Equipment, Resources from all over the world, Members trade work back and forth, Google Earth (Building 3D models of different cities. It doesn’t matter who gets it done. Create a big culture in which everybody gets the idea that it doesn’t matter where stuff gets done…” Quick Time, Flash, H264 has a better image in a smaller file, (HT60) recommended. Didex is popular among the pirates. iTunes is the biggest name when it comes to distributing music….Blue Ray Drive is 40 GB “We are not a news organization…” Online Distribution, Promotion, Put in time and work together, Motion sits on XML, Final Cut Pro Automator, Final Cut Smooth (removes bumpy shots) and Server (meant for news agencies), Invigorator Pro, Animator Pro, Motion 3 (80% of my work is done in motion”)
In games, you can use two cards for example trees instead of having a lot of data by shooting all the sides. You still have to go to AfterEffects for more edits. Conduit Editor takes a green screen, edits and puts it on a card, a frame. “Allow yourself to think about what’s possible…”
The Best Part of the New Final Cut
Weird Frame Blending can be edited with Optical Flow (watches how frames move, adds frames that make sense)… It does instant analysation, Sleek little tool, DI Screen (Digital Inter-Media fine tunes all the colour [Colour grading is done for all films/ Final Touch bought by Apple Full blown system: Basic Colour Correction, you can grab onto specific parts of the image…Every major feature film is colour graded. A DI pass costs around 600,000 US Dollars…Enormous amount of control, Adjust hues.
Manipulate the viewer to watch the story you want to tell/ Speed Grade (or Grad) 5 or 10,000 Dollars is another option/ Soundtrack Pro allows you to do multi-take work much better…
Resolution: Standard Definition, 720p (Most Panasonic Cameras, Minimum size on internet), 1080p (Big Screen)
“If you are shooting for the web, there is no reason to use Interlace, maybe just for TV…” 444 (For every pixel of black and white info, there is a colour pixel, DV Camera takes colour info, shoves it in one side, simply stretches it over the whole image); 411 (Jagged edges usually occur during green screens when you use it against the colour…)
Colour Difference Key takes different colour channels and separates them…
Infamous Green Spill (a little bit of the green screen comes around the image sometimes through parts of the image in context. Use Unspill to adjust it. Videoscopes help you do the colour maths. DG Mac Pro developed by themselves. With the HDV, you get more resolution in your images. Use the grey card to lock the white and blacks of two images…One in the front and the other clip at the back. Why use green? Is it a more easily manipulated photographic colour?
[IMDb: “Where does Superman pee?”
Rachel: “In the air, actually before he changes, sometimes he does before he leaves his office.”]
Alex speaks for Apple at their Worldwide Development Conference MacBreak
LCD Screens allow more creativity than placing viewfinders on the eye…
Watch Maria (A Speech from Zimbabwe) on YouTube. [Alex showed it during the workshop and personally, I felt this was a masterful performance by the guy reciting the poem.] Alex encouraged the audience, “All this stuff is doable, it’s just a matter of starting to play with it…”
Cinema 4D, Number One piece of software for broadcast work…
‘Scratch’ is a free programming tool that allows anyone to create their own animated stories, interactive artworks and video games…