Are your students using iPads or iPhones?

If they are, then they won't be able to access a lot of flash movies online. This should be a consideration as you decide which platform/s will host your class's work.

Fortunately, HTML5 is accessible on multiple platforms. And developers are adding functions to it every day. Take Mozilla, for example:

"Video on the web has always been a bit disappointing.

After all, it’s pretty much just like television, only smaller. And unlike the rest of the web, video is just as much a passive experience in your browser as it is anywhere else.

Mozilla would like to change that. Developers at the browser maker’s Drumbeat project — an initiative that advocates new open web technologies — have created Popcorn, a tool intended to make web video every bit as interactive as the rest of the web.

Popcorn is a very new effort and still a bit rough around the edges, but results are already impressive. Popcorn adds metadata to HTML5 native web video, annotating videos with information like location, details about the people and topics in the video, subtitles, and licensing details. The metadata can be used in real time to add to the experience."

More info here at Webmonkey.

What Does "Make Your Own Video" Mean to You?

I'm always on the hunt for lo-cost editing tools. I mean, Final Cut Pro is nice, but most of my students have limited access to computers and don't buy their own software (yet). I was a fan of Jumpcut.com before Yahoo bought and dismantled them.

About a year ago, I became a fan of Animoto.com The site's ability to edit music & stills into films is nothing short of amazing. Here's one I made a while back with location audio:


Actually used animoto with a group of youth this month. Now that they've added video capabilities, it's an even more helpful tool.

So I was happy to notice an ad online today for "Google Search Stories Video Creator". I thought maybe the benevolent giant had come up with their own helpful online video editor. What a disappointment. Basically, you can make a slide show of 6 google searches and they're calling this a "video" on youtube.

Sorry guys, try again. http://www.youtube.com/searchstories = FAIL.

FCP 101

The good people over at Mac|Life have put up "Getting Started with Final Cut Pro". It's still a little detailed for a beginner IMHO, but there are some helpful tips here. (Three long pages of info.)

Might be worth it to do a little selective copy and paste to make your own handout for students. My students prefer to watch the tutorial movies on the Apple FCP site.

Movies for Young Urban Filmmakers

The first step to becoming a filmmaker is to watch great works then analyze and critique them. I have found these films to be especially effective when teaching storytelling, composition, and editing. Some of these films are Oscar winners, some are not. Many of them are urban cult classics. You can even ask your students to let you know which music videos have been influenced by these works.

Blood In, Blood Out - Three brothers, their choices, the consequences. (also called Bound by Blood)
City of God - Gangs in Brazil. The documentary about Favelas that's on the US dvd is also very educational. A nice contrast is to show this film with Black Orpheus.
The Conversation - A sound tech regrets the job he's done. Coppola directs.
Cooley High/Boyz in the Hood - An African-American High School story. Cooley High is set in Chicago in the 1970's and written by the same guy who co-created Good Times. Boyz in the Hood is essentially a remake/modernized version set in LA in the 80's.
Made in America: Crips & Bloods - This documentary by Stacey Peralta presents valuable perspective and also shows some great CG (After Effects, Motion, etc.) technique.
Do the Right Thing - Great example of issue filmmaking and also had a huge influence on music videos. Shows a wide range of camera angles and moves.
Klute - 1972 Oscar winner about prostitution. Deep. Shows how the camera can be used effectively when NOT moving.
Mi Familia - LA's Chicano history told in a classic Hollywood structure.
Requiem for a Dream/Trainspotting/Gridlock'd - Movies about drug addicts. Three very different takes. A good question to ask is which one is the most realiztic and why?
Scarface - If you have to ask, you'll never know.
To Be and To Have - A beautiful documentary about a group of schoolchildren and their teacher in rural France. In filmmaking, many times simple is better.
Visions of Light - Documentary about the job of the Cinematographer/Director of Photography. Dials in detail that students didn't realize was there.
The Warriors - Cult classic. Everything old is new again.

Be sure to screen all of these films in advance, many of them contain adult language or themes that may not be appropriate to your school/program. However, you can also show a less offensive scene or portion of the film for discussion.

Transom Tool: Recording Phone Calls

Transom Tool: Recording Phone Calls: "The first thing to consider about recording phone calls it to make sure that what you’re doing is legal. Laws vary widely from place to place, with dramatic differences even between states in the U.S. The safest policy is to always be upfront about the fact that you’re recording, and to get clear consent from the person being recorded."
Having said all that - this article covers several helpful techniques.

The DV Show: Digital Distribution Made Easy

"Now there are dozens of services and specialized software that allows you to save time by uploading your videos to multiple video sharing websites at one time with just one account. Use a multiple video distribution website to drive traffic to your location the quickest way possible: by getting your video to multiple video sharing communities with a click of a button."
The DV Show: Digital Distribution Made Easy

Finessing Final Cut Pro - Filters

Back in the day when I was a film student, I used to attend luncheons at Tiffen. For those who don't know, they are the premiere filter company for still photography and motion pictures. At these informal gatherings I learned all sorts of tricks about in camera color correction (81 EF anyone?), gradation, image enhancement, polarizing, etc.
Unfortunately for teachers/students these filters are expensive and are sometimes not available in the same sizes as prosumer cameras. They also require some in depth experimentation that pre-professionals are not always willing to do.
I recently found out that Tiffen has developed a digital suite of filters for use in Photoshop, Aperture, and Final Cut Pro. Tiffen DFX can be thought of as a toolkit that will encourage students to experiment. I can also see some nice applications in a Physics class - to teach about how filtration can affect light. And for the camera pro's out there, there's even a split diopter option that will allow you to re-create a shallow depth of field.
These filters are available for $100 for the still programs and $600 for FCP and well worth the investment. It's possible that you could even get an educational discount if you sent them a note from your school.
Oh, and if you're program is strapped for cash, here's a link to an article over at Creative Cow with some free Final Cut Pro plugins. Nothing as extensive as Tiffen's DFX, but some fun stuff.

Learning Film Making Online

Courtesy of Ken Radio
Great site that provide a real-world education of the complex world of motion picture production through a series of easy-to-understand, yet comprehensive videos, workbooks and resources. By partnering with industry leaders in the creative and technological fields, we strive to teach real, cutting edge techniques to filmmakers around the globe. We also seek to build an online community of filmmakers to help forge long-term connection between filmmakers from all disciplines.
http://www.powerfilmmaking.com

It's Not Just About the Software

Adobe has an excellent suite of resources for iTeachers. Not only is there a wonderful gallery of work, but white papers, curriculum, and direct links to an employee volunteer program and software donation and training for educators and non-profits. Phew! Definitely worth checnking out.

Adobe - Adobe Youth Voices Gallery - Resources: "Adobe and its founding Adobe Youth Voices partners — Educational Video Center, Listen Up!, What Kids Can Do, Arts Engine, and iEARN — offer a variety of free and low-cost resources to help you integrate youth media into your classroom or out-of-classroom programs."

A little tutorial on our old friend GIMP

Image Editing: Apply Antique Color Tones to a Photograph: "Antique photographs have a certain warmth to them imparted by the development process that can't be replicated by simply dumping the color data from a photograph. At wiikiHow there is a tutorial on using GIMP, a free Photoshop alternative, to take the rich tones from an old photograph and apply them to a brand new photo. The process works with both black and white and sepia toned photographs, and can easily be adapted from the given steps to work with Photoshop too. The above image is a blend of the before and after sample photo from the tutorial. If you don't have any antique photos handy, the tutorial covers where to find public domain images to lift tone samples from. If you're looking to take the opposite route and inject color into a black and white photography check out how to color black and white photos and isolate colors for emphasis."

Cool Software - Mac Only

Create Polaroid™-like pictures over at the Poladroid Project.
Samples are here

The Third SanFran MusicTech Summit Brings Together Leaders in Music & Technology on Monday, October 20, 2008

San Francisco, California - The Third SanFran MusicTech Summit will bring together the leaders in music & internet technology for panels and discussions on the rapidly evolving digital music industry. The Summit is on Monday, October 20, 2008 from 9 am - 6 pm + cocktails at the Hotel Kabuki (Japantown) 1625 Post Street @ Laguna.

The conference features legendary speakers from all areas of the music-tech ecosystem, including producer Narada Michael Walden, inventor of computer based multimedia Marc Canter, Marin Luther of Rebel Soul Music, representatives from imeem, Lala, MySpace Music, Warner Bros Records, YouTube, Apple iTunes, Google, Parliament / Funkadelic, Pandora, All Music Guide, JamBase, Pivotal Labs, Walden Venture Capital, Bandcamp, The Future of Music Coalition, and many, many more.

Speakers List: http://www.sanfranmusictech/speakers.html

"It is a fabulous event for folks who are (or whom wish to rise) to the level of the digital thought leaders" says Brian Zisk, Executive Producer, "A rare opportunity to meet and mingle with industry leaders in a friendly and conducive to dealmaking environment."

Tickets are currently $150 - $299, with discounts for musicians, developers and students. Raffled items include a Gibson Guitar and more. The Summit is approved for 2 Credit Hours of Continuing Legal Education (including one for ethics) by the State Bar of California.

To register: http://www.sanfranmusictech.com or call 1-866-55-TICKETS

Sponsors include matchmine, Pandora, JamBase, SeeqPod, MusicBrainz, Friendster, Searchme, LyricFind, Purple Haze Ventures, ABB Records, Gibson, Ustream.tv, , Bay Capital Legal, P.C., The Future of Music Coalition, High Flyer Wines, and Sake2Me.

When the Teacher is a Great Student...

This just in from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): "In one of those improbable stories that sounds like a Hollywood script, a Burbank, CA elementary school teacher won an Emmy Award for his first attempt at filmmaking."

When You Have Some Time...

I know it's hard to make time as a teacher to do more than just plan and teach. But if you have a chance, sneak on over to this very helpful site. Here's what Techlearning has to say about it:
Storytelling 2.0 "It turns out a very busy person named Alan Levine created an online resource for a series of workshops that lists (at the time of this writing) 57 different Web 2.0 tools that can be used for digital storytelling. That in itself isn't unusual, of course, but what he did that was different was he took the time to retell the same story with each tool!

The site is at http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools, and is wonderfully comprehensive. In addition to his own oft-retold story, almost all of the titles also include examples of stories told by others. He also has a shorter list at the end of tools that he's tried that weren't successful for one reason or another, so you can see what sites to avoid (at least for now). Be sure to budget a lot of time for exploring!"

Download YouTube Videos

In the ongoing saga that is trying to get Youtube vids onto your desktop/into iMovie/into FCP...here's the newest update courtesy of Lifehacker. And I quote, from Tip #1 "If you want to stash a YouTube clip away for editing or watching without the net, you've definitely got options. Internet Explorer users might appreciate YouTube File Hack, which grabs FLV files for you. The Better YouTube Firefox extension, crafted by our own site editor, adds a simple 'Download this video' link to any YouTube page, and the All-In-One Video Bookmarklet is a nice cross-browser conversion tool. If you're away from your own setup, Vixy.net and Viddownloader are your go-to sites for downloading clips. As for watching FLV files, we like and use the cross-platform VLC player."
Click here for Lifehackers: Top 10 YouTube Hacks

Final Cut Studio: Best practices when naming projects and assets

You ever know you KNOW something, but have no idea HOW you know it? This causes problems for me when I'm talking to other filmmakers or educators because I can't cite a source. Well, thankfully, I found a source for this one!

I've been telling people for years that they shouldn't name files with a period or slash in them. (For example, I've seen people insert dates like this: Project.718.fcp or Draft/718.doc) Here's more info from apple.com/support about characters you can and cannot use.

Final Cut Studio: Best practices when naming projects and assets: "This document discusses general guidelines for naming Final Cut Studio projects and related media assets. It's important to be aware that certain characters can be interpreted as functions, wildcards or path designators, and their use should be avoided when naming drives, folders, assets or projects."

Also, it's mentioned here in reference to iMovie and Quicktime files on Mobileme.

People Ask Me All the Time - How Do I Save My YouTube Favs?

The Best Web Video Download Tools � NewTeeVee: "Streaming web video is great and all, but every once in a while you find something that you just want to save and cherish for always. If your home Internet connection is as unreliable as mine you’ll understand what I mean. There are a bunch of web sites and little apps to help you save hard copies of web videos, but perhaps due to their teetering on the edge of violating video hosts’ TOS, they are less than user-friendly. So yesterday I decided to go through them all and figure out which ones are the best."

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

Thanks to The Workbook Project for pointing out that the Center for Social Media at American University has published an updated Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

"This document is a code of best practices that helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances."

"Making a movie is like asking a question, and when you finish, the movie itself is the answer.”

Really nice article in the profiles section of the Apple Pro site. Describes the process that Francis Ford Coppola and Walter Murch used when making the film Youth Without Youth.

The movie was mhot with a Sony 900s in Romania, then (with Final Cut Pro) captured at DV resolution on set, then uprezzed and finished in 1080 in San Francisco. The workflow also included some effects with Shake.

Making a craZy 3d animated video in less than 2 weeks

M dot Strange takes us through his process in a wonderful little post on The Workbook Project.

"I thought I would out together a little thang documenting my work on the Mindless Self Indulgence music video “Animal” There’s a ton of music video making-of’s out there but since I’m bored waiting for 3d renders to finish I’ll add one more to the mix.

So this is my process…."

How to: Making a craZy 3d animated video in less than 2 weeks