Ant on Movie Geeks United Podcast

In case you missed it, last weekend I was interviewed by Jamie and Jerry at Movie Geeks United, a huge filmmakers podcast.

We touched on some of the principles of making guerrilla documentaries and I publicly confessed my preface for more tittilating movie fare over the artsier stuff. (Which I'm sure surprises everyone with a name like Down and Dirty DV!)

It was a good interview and I got to elaborate on some of the material in my new book. The link is below for your listening pleasure.

Anthony's Movie Geeks United Interview 12/3

PREMIUM Trailer (Director's Cut)

"Premium" Trailer

"Premium" Now on Cable

Don't miss the cable premiere of "Premium" a film by my fellow Down and Dirty filmmaker, Pete Chatmon. Many of you may recognize Pete's name from an interview that I did with him for StudentFilmmaker magazine last year on "Fundraising for Your First Feature". Pete offered some candid advice and shared his gameplan to raise the full budget for his first feature film, "Premium" as he was just midway in the process.

Not only did this first-time feature director overcome the obstacles to actually raise the cash to get his film shot and edited, he ultimately made a great debut feature with strong performances by an ensemble cast (Dorian Missick, Zoe Saldana, Hill Harper...) that's been critically acclaimed by Variety (read review) and others. If you can't catch the Showtime channel premiere in the coming week, I recommend you cop a copy or put it on your Netflix cue.

Look for a video podcast in the next week or two featuring highlights of my interview with Pete and his candid advice on how you too can raise the money to make it happen.



"Premium" on Showtime Channel
- Monday, December 3rd, 11:25am
- Sunday, December 9th, 1:15pm
- Saturday, December 15th, 6:15pm
- Monday, December 24th, 1:45am (while you wrap those Christmas presents...)
- Friday, December 28th, 4:30pm


(*check your locxal listings for additional screenings.)

Free Seminar at the Apple Store Soho!

If you aren't fortunate enough to attend NYU film school or get cornered by me at a networking function, you've probably missed out on my many diatribes on shooting guerrilla video. Well, now's your chance to check me out in person and hear my all new presentation "Down and Dirty Filmmaking: Guerrilla Tactics for Professional Results".

This Thursday, November 15 from 6:30-8:30pm at the Apple Store - Soho (2nd FL.) I will be giving a slide show presentation to The Motion Picture Collective (aka MoPictive and formerly known as The NYC Final Cut Pro Users Group) on developing a guerrilla mindset and some of the tactics that I and others use to maximize our limited resources to tell compelling stories with professional production values.

Apart from myself, there will be several other presenters including Sony and AbelCineTech showing off the much-anticipated Hi-Def Sony XDCam EX which I wrote a post about last spring.
So here's the full line up for the MoPictive Meeting:

1. Docmaker Cynthia Wade will show excerpts of two films: Freeheld and Shelter Dogs.
   
   
2. Bogen/Manfrotto will be show off their latest fluid tripod heads.
   
   
3. Sony and Abel Cine Tech will be demo-ing the brand new just hit the streets XDCam-EX Video Camera.
   
   
4. I, Anthony Q. Artis, will present for the first time in public ever - "Down and Dirty Filmmaking: Guerrilla Tactics for Professional Results"

Directions:
The Apple Store - SOHO is located at 103 Prince Street, on the corner of Greene Street. Best train stations are R/W at Prince St, The 6 & F/V at Broadway/Lafayette or the C/E at Spring Street.

Come out and introduce yourself to me, learn some things, drool on the new Sony HD camera and network with fellow indies in the NYC area. See y'all there!

-Ant.

PLANET B-BOY - Teaser Trailer

This trailer for the doc, Planet B-Boy, has been burning up YouTube for a minute now. It appears that they are now platforming the picture around the world wherever they can gather an audience. I just wanted to share it here because it's a simple concept for a visually stunning doc that is both uplifting and entertaining.

Makes me want to dust off my old Kangol hat, hit the floor and do the caterpillar again!

Enjoy!

-Ant.

Roger Corman Indie Film History Crash Course

One of the people I really admire in this industry is the B-Film Godfather, Roger Corman. Here's an old school video of a panel Roger appeared on where he breaks down a brief history of his role in the indie film movement in America. The audio isn't the greatest, but this is vintage gold from the original Down and Dirty filmmaker- Roger Corman.

Down and Dirty DV Now on MySpace

So, after much resistance, we finally have a MySpace page online for the Down and Dirty DV Nation to congregate and socialize. We are slowly, but surely drifting into Web 2.0 .

It just seemed a little silly to me to duplicate and monitor content that I already have on a blog, podcast, and website on yet another online space, but if that's what the people want these days, then so be it...I gots to give the peeeeeople, give the peeeple what they want!

Here then is what you want:

http://www.myspace.com/downanddirtydvnation

Stop by and make friends and help spread the gospel of digital guerrilla filmmaking.

-Ant.

Check Ant Out TONIGHT on the Bennie Randall Show

I will be appearing TONIGHT (Thurs. Oct. 25th) on the Bennie Randall Show on BlogTalkLive at 9:00pm (EST).

You can listen to the streaming interview live online here and even call in live fom 9-10pm (EST) 646-478-5790 to ask me your burning guerrilla filmmaking questions, get my candid advice on how to make a dollar out of 15 cents when it comes to digital filmmaking or just words of wisdom for rising in the film game.

After today you can stream or download the archived interview on the same site.

We'll rap soon.

-Ant.

COMMON LOCATION AUDIO PROBLEMS AND FIXES

Know this: If you have bad audio, you have a bad project.

Why? Simple- most audiences will forgive a few bad shots, but they won’t tolerate bad sound. It’s just too annoying and difficult to sit through and still follow the story onscreen.

Fixing audio problems after the fact is often a painful, tedious, and time-consuming process . Not only that, but some audio problems are simply unfixable in post-production. You just don’t have the same flexibility that you have with picture.

So that’s why I say, if you have bad audio, you have a bad project. But don’t despair. I’m gonna break down some of the most common audio problems in filmmaking and go over methods to avoid them altogether and give you some simple suggestions for how to fix them in post-production.

WIND NOISE

Symptom:
Frequent rumbly loud noise caused by excessive wind hitting microphone.

Preventing It:

• Block the wind by using a zeppelin, windjammer, windfoam, or moving behind any large structure.

• Activate “low-cut filters” commonly found on microphones and mixers to diminish the low frequency end of the signal which is typically the sweet spot for wind noise.

Fixing It:

• Using an equalizer you can also decrease the low frequency end of the signal to diminish rumble caused by wind noise. Graphic equalizers are typically found on mixing boards, as stand alone rack units, or more recently, as part of audio and editing software programs.

BACKGROUND NOISE

Symptom:
• Consistent and distracting hisses, hums, noisy crowds or other undesirable noise on location that make it harder to hear the main dialogue. Most commonly occurs in large events and other locations where you have little control over the environment.

Preventing It:

• Use a shotgun mic that focuses on sound only in the direction it is pointed at and diminishes the level of sounds coming from the sides or back of the mic.


Fixing It:

• Using an equalizer to adjust the high end of the audio signal may decrease some sounds, such as high frequency hisses caused by air conditioners and other machinery or traffic.

• Similarly, using an equalizer you can also boost the prominence of dialogue by increasing the middle frequencies, which cover most people’s voices.

ECHO

Symptom:

• Sound reverberates and bounces off of hard surfaces causing sounds to repeat. This is most common in rooms with little or no furniture.

Preventing It:

• Shoot only in rooms that have carpet, drapes, or soft furniture to greatly decrease the effects of echo.

• Hang some sound blankets or lay down a large area rug to absorb some of the sound bouncing off the walls and floor.

Fixing It:

Record it right the first time, because echo cannot be fixed in post-production.

INCONSISTENT LEVELS

Symptom:

• Sound levels at times are a little too soft or too loud and don’t match earlier dialogue recorded in the same scene. Typically, caused by subjects moving closer or farther from mic, poor booming, or using different types of microphones within the same scene.

Preventing It:

• Pay more careful attention to mic placement when booming.

• Use a mixer to more accurately set levels for each subject and mic.

• Mic subjects with a lavaliere mic so subject-mic distance stays consistent.

Fixing It:

• Use audio software such as The Levelator or Sound Soap to make all levels more consistent across the board.

• You can also (more painstakingly) monitor and adjust the levels of your entire audio track manually during editing.

OVER-MODULATION

Symptom:

• Loud, rumbly, unintelligible audio caused by sound levels that were too high during recording.

Preventing It:

• Wear headphones and carefully monitor audio levels

• Move the mic a little farther away from your subject to avoid over-modulation.

• Many cameras and mixers also have a limiter function that you can activate to keep sounds that are too loud from over-modulating into complete distortion. However, beware, all limiters are not created equal. Test beforehand to ensure that your device’s limiter function doesn’t completely clip or cut-off loud sounds.

Fixing It:

There’s really not much of anything you can do to actually fix audio that was originally recorded over-modulated. There are however, some common work-arounds- almost all of which are time-consuming creative compromises…

• Salvage the segment by recording a voiceover in place of the original dialogue or by replacing the audio track with music to make it musical montage.

• Have your performers do an ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) session to redo the dialogue. This is undesirable for most documentaries and still a major hassle with actors because they must match the exact movement of their lips and the tone of conversation, not to mention that you still have to recreate the ambiance of the original location for it to work.
(*photo courtesy of Columbia-Academy.com)

FINAL CONCLUSION

Like so many other things in filmmaking (and life), an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You are always better off doing everything you can to avoid these nagging problems than spending your precious time and energy in the edit room trying to fix them.

Remember, you can’t have a good project without good sound. And good sound always separates the amateurs from the pros and the festival winners from the festival selections. Happy guerrilla filmmaking!

Til next time, I wish you all peace, love and video.

-Ant.


(*This article was originally published in the September 2007 issue of Student Filmmakers magazine)

A good time was had by all at the "Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide" Launch Party.

As a result of the money raised at the door and raffle we will be providing a total of 75 "Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide" books to 3 diffrent NYC filmmaking programs for inner-city teens.

Here are the pix in case you missed the festivities:



Photos by Sonya Artis

Check out our Flickr Party Slideshow if you would like to see photo descriptions. (Just click "options-descriptions" on the bottom right if they aren't already turned on.)

Thanx to all our sponsors, Sutra Lounge, everyone who leant a hand and those organizations that helped to get the word out. Without your many contributions of time, talent, and resources this event would never have been possible. I am most grateful.

This Party/Benefit Was Sponsored by: