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Hello there, new decade!

Happy new years blog readers!

Well, it's officially 2010 now and here's to a new year, and a new decade. We were up in Gisborne again this year at the Rhythm and Vines three day music festival.

It was the third time for us up Gizzy way for the new years celebrations, and the town always delivers on the weather side of things, while the people and partygoers of Rhythm and Vines do the delivery business with the music and vibes. (check out our first R and V post back in 2005/06)

So i will leave you a small selection of pictures i took to mark the occasion. Here's to another magic new years. And all the best to you on your 2010, may you have an excellent and fruitful one.

-Bros mogg.

Finishing Beanz: diary 08

Rowan shoots a bit of footage to digital-8 tape on his single CCD Sony Handycam circa 2001. About 40% of Beanz was shot on this camera.

Hey guys,

Well its another christmas. We have finished up with work for the year which gives us a bit of time to get down and get some stuff done on the film.

In the last post i was writing about the very first viewing of the whole movie from beginning to end. Since then, Phil and I had another viewing session. Overall we felt pretty happy at least with the cut as it exists... and yes, that it is worth finishing! There were some minor changes that we made to a couple of scenes though. Mostly just shortening a bunch of shots by a few frames, even removing one or two shots themselves. So now we are working on adding in some missing sound and dialogue bits so the movie is fit for our peeps we have chosen to be test viewers. This is when we will cop the real critical heat!

The other thing we are working on is the batch conversion of all the video footage that makes up the movie, from standard definition interlaced video to high definition progressive scan video. There is over an hour and a half of footage to upscale and convert. To do this, we are using Apple's "Compressor" batch processing software which is shipped as part of Final Cut Studio. So in between christmas shopping, sitting in the sun, bbq'ing, drinking and decorating the christmas tree, we plan to get all this video converted and verified over the course of the next two weeks.... or so. And then, it's onto finishing and grading, as well as a bit of 2D paint work here and there, removing the occasional boom mic that popped into shot.

So thats where we are at Beanz-wise.

I thought i would also take a moment to talk about the cameras we have used to shoot Beanz with.

Back in 1999, a good friend of ours by the name of Rowan, (or Rowox as he is otherwise known) purchased a flashy digital Handycam video camera. It was pretty much the first digital video camera i had used. It basically recorded digital video onto the "video-8" sized tapes that Handycam's had used up to that point. It was a pretty damn simple camera, just the standard built in lens, as well as a little wide angle conversion lens that could be screwed on for wide shots. From that i remember it was actually a nice little camera to use, very small and balanced as it sat in the palm of your hand. Its small size was also advantageous as it allowed for the occasional dramatic or awkward angle that a larger regular "professional" camera at that time would have been unable to achieve, very important for the style of this project.
However as you would expect, it didn't have the resolution or image quality that you would get from a more professional camera at that time, but that didn't really bother us too much. After all, it was our first attempt at a feature film and its how you use the tools.. right? Its all about ideas, story and character... right? And besides, we didn't have much money to spend, so its either make this movie with this camera, orrrrr.... make no movie at all. So we decided to make the movie.

The Sony PD-150 (with added velcro, and a bent mic from a shoot involving people in gorilla suits - long story)

The second camera is the Sony 3CCD PD-150, which Phil and myself purchased sometime in 2002. This was a sweet camera, and we still use it today. And hey! David Lynch used it for his awesome interview project. But anyway, as a prosumer 3CCD camera shooting standard definition onto mini-dv tapes, it is about as good as cameras get. We have shot most of Beanz on the pd-150, around 60%.

One of the issues on the surface we had in shooting with effectively 2 different classes of cameras was how to get the scenes shot on one camera to fit in with the scenes shot on another? The answer here lies in how we approached the movie in terms of it's shooting style, which i guess you could say mixes planned/composed shots with shoot-from-the-hip-documentary action. Beanz is a film set in the late 90's in a largely modern urban environment. So while to the conscious eye the difference between scenes will be noticeable, the effect should not be too distracting because of the overal DIY low budget documentary feel of the film itself.

I hope to talk a little bit more about my approach to the shooting in a later post, when i have a couple of shots to show on the blog. So i will leave it at that for now. Merry christmas y'all!

Finishing Beanz: diary 07

Ok so for the first time i sat down and watched through the entire movie tonight, and i thought i'd blog a couple of quick thoughts about it.

This initial viewing wasn't really a review per say,  it was more like a test that all the temp movies (one for each scene) rendered out from Final Cut were working and playing together correctly. Yes they all rendered out ok, But however there are still a couple of minor glitches in the files that we still need to iron out, but the movie is fit for watching... albeit in a very rough and raw state. Mind you, only for Phil and myself at this point, as there are a few points in the film where sound effects need to be added that better describe what is actually happening in the scene. We can sit there and assume that these sounds exist as we watch. Would be a tad distracting for anyone else though.

Anyways, the shots are pretty much as they are straight from the camera tapes - raw as. The sound is rough and sometimes choppy, temp music tracks and some other sounds are slapped in just to get a sense of flow for editing purposes. Its rough and gnarly at times, but it plays and it now has a beginning, a middle and an end.

I have to admit i was always a little bit anxious about getting to this point, its the anticipation of sitting down on a couch in front of a big 46 inch screen, playing a nearly-finished edit of a movie that we shot the majority of around 5+ years ago, on standard definition camcorders. There is nowhere to hide now. Yes this has always been a side project. Yes you can leave this moment for a later time, and goodness knows we have. But this moment will come, and it has to be dealt with. Watch the damn movie. Deal with the inevitable!

And so, the inevitable thoughts and questions arise... Is this going to work? Will it flow? The quirky and experimental style, will this style/feel that we were toying with and trying to achieve come through? Will we stay in the scenes? Does the filmed and edited product sitting in front of us live up to what we were imagining when writing of the script? Will we be interested in what happens ...or is it going to suck?? And if it does not suck, will it feel like its worth the effort to carry it through in cleaning up the technical rough edges to make a presentable finished piece?

After the last scene concluded and i sat there, i thought.... well... that wasn't so bad.

The movie as it exists right now certainly needs a fair bit more work. There is still one more song that needs to be either written or acquired to serve it's role as a story piece as an example. There are a handful of shots that need paint work to remove things like the tips of boom mic's that momentarily dropped into the top of frame, amongst other things.

But as the whole, yes, i can see a movie in there.  Sitting there by myself watching it i am reminded that Beanz certainly has its oddities, but we always knew that. But it plays. There are one or two scenes in particular that still need some serious edit TLC to get to work and flow better. But we will find out in more detail when Phil and I sit down together to watch and critique it properly over the next couple of days.

Next post: Finishing Beanz: diary 08 >>

Finishing Beanz: diary 06

A shot of Phil editing on the laptop for prosperity - finishing up the last edits for sc25, the last scene in the movie to be edited!

So whats the status?

Well, it's been quite a few weeks since the last update - so here's just a quick update on the status of things. 

We have been mostly working on finishing the edit for a scene we shot earlier this year, which as it turns out is also the last scene to be cut. And now its done! yay! No rest for the wicked though, there is still heaps of tasks left to do.

The first of which involves working towards getting a final lockdown of all the edits for all the scenes, as well as how all the scenes work together as a whole. It is basically this point where we go over the film one more time, as an assembled whole, to try and work out what is working and what might not be, and to make the changes where appropriate. Once we have this, then we can get started on the proper sound mix. This will make up the meat of the post production and finishing work on this project. Beanz is a movie that has quite a reliance on its sound and music in order to convey its story and style properly, so its important that we take the time to get this as good as we can from within our resources.

The cut we have for the movie so far (pre-lockdown) is approx 1 hour, 20mins. So its not the length of most feature films, its more like a short feature. :)

Need a shave?: Here's me taking a tourist shot of myself for prosperity with Phil working on the edit in the background. In terms of the editing duties on Beanz, Phil and I usually sit down together to work on the cut. Phil tends to take the controls for scenes where dialogue is king, whereas i tend to be on button pressing duties for scenes where action takes prominence. But we always feed off each other for critiques and balance of opinion - from the outset we were always on the same page as to what the movie is and what its vibe should be.

Next post: Finishing Beanz: diary 07 >>

Aquatic Lab Sessions Vol.1

Aquatic Lab's debut compilation is in stores now! Featuring tracks by Zed Bias, Caspa, Cotti, P-Vans, Rusko, Spherix, and more!

The dubstep virus has spread and mutated over oceans and across continents in the past 5 years. At its furthest point, the virus has reached Austrialia and it's premier dubstep outlet, Aquatic Lab. Label owners Farj and Paul Fraser have assembled a stable of top UK producers mixed with the best Australia and New Zealand have to offer. 'Sessions Vol.1' showcases the talents of new producers Flash, Vista, P-Vans, Twitch and KIla Mega Giga Tera next to established UK steppers Zed Bias, Cotti, Seven, Caspa & Rusko. The set is well balanced between rampant club joints and home listening use, moving from Moving Ninja's ominous beatless opener 'Ankoku Butoh' to the mellow vibes of Flash's 'Right Here' onto runnin' techno-step from Vista and Zed Bias' with forward leaning killer 'Colditz', while outright anthems come on Cotti's dancehall message 'Nah Go Dung Deh' and Caspa & Rusko's 'King George'. Based on their quality values and tune selection, we'd have to rank these guys up next the likes of Tectonic or Tempa for all the Dubstep heads. Recommended!

Available on CD, Vinyl and mp3
Listen and purchase online here

The State of Georgia HD

Hey guys, I just uploaded a HD copy of "The State of Georgia" for you guys to check out.

Click here to download the original high definition copy or to view at a smaller size if you have a slow connection.

This is a film we made as part of the 48hr filmmaking competition here in New Zealand. As the name suggests... Film makers are challenged to make a short film over the course of 48hrs, within particular constraints such as genre, prop usage, and the inclusion of a particular line of dialogue.

In this short coming of age story, a young woman named Georgia goes out for her first taste of the nightlife with her hypochondriac friend Jerry, where she meets a mysterious woman who invites her into the VIP area of a nightclub.

Details:

• Year: 2007
• Duration: Approx 6 and a half minutes.
• Genre/Style: Experimental/Abstract.