It’s been a while since the last Coffee Break, so I’ve got a nice little stash built up for some New Years reading.

200 Documentaries You Must See Before You Die eBook

True Films sister site, Cool Tools, has released a free eBook with the the top 200 films True Films has reviewed. This is a great list of films that will definitely build up my Netflix queue. Not just restricted to features, it has TV series including Mythbusters, Project Runway, and Project Greenlight Season 1, though I’m a fan of Season 3, after Bravo took over.

This is definitely worth a browse, I guarantee you’ll discover something new.

The PDF can be found here. And True Films, and Cool Tools, are good sites worth adding to your reader.

Become an Expert Interviewer - Fast - Great list of tips to come up with killer questions and keep the dialog engaging during an interview.

As part of your preparation, search out previous interviews the guest has done. Look for topics “the guest really likes to talk about,” advises Miller, and the topics that “fall flat.” The goal: To find a balance between what your audience wants to hear and also what the guest wants to talk about.

The list was derived from a PDF with even more tips, which can be found here.

A Little Light Painting

Here’s a video about the making of the photo above. Yeah, it’s still photography, but the ideas behind compositing can be taken over to the film world. And it’s a really awesome photo.

Digital Media Locator - Lots of libraries now offer eBooks and movies/docs online, for free, as part of your library service. Check this site to see what’s available at your library.

The Afterlife is Expensive for Digital Movies - Celluloid is still king…for archiving at least. This is a really fascinating article from the NY Times about the high costs of storing movies in the digital age, an age that does not do so well against time.

The problem became public, but just barely, last month, when the science and technology council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the results of a yearlong study of digital archiving in the movie business…Industry types largely missed the report’s startling bottom line: To store a digital master record of a movie costs about $12,514 a year, versus the $1,059 it costs to keep a conventional film master.

Much worse, to keep the enormous swarm of data produced when a picture is “born digital” — that is, produced using all-electronic processes, rather than relying wholly or partially on film — pushes the cost of preservation to $208,569 a year, vastly higher than the $486 it costs to toss the equivalent camera negatives, audio recordings, on-set photographs and annotated scripts of an all-film production into the cold-storage vault.

To begin with, the hardware and storage media — magnetic tapes, disks, whatever — on which a film is encoded are much less enduring than good old film. If not operated occasionally, a hard drive will freeze up in as little as two years. Similarly, DVDs tend to degrade…only half of a collection of disks can be expected to last for 15 years…Digital audiotape…tends to hit a “brick wall” when it degrades. While conventional tape becomes scratchy, the digital variety becomes unreadable.

Now I have to check all those old hard drives for those classic middle school films, not that much of the world would care if they never reach a screen again.

Full Frame: Garrett Scott Grant - I’ve said it many times before, Full Frame is a great festival. And now for first time filmmakers, there’s a chance to experience it for free.

What: This grant funds first time documentary makers for travel and accommodations at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, April 3-6, 2008. For four days, grant recipients will be given access to films, participate in master classes and be mentored by experienced filmmakers. TWO filmmakers will be chosen for the grant in its second year.

Deadline is January 28th.

The Most Expensive Drink at Starbucks - This will keep you going through the night. A 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel, all for only $13.76.

With one producing job down, I’ve already picked up a few tricks to make things go easier for time two. Below are a few free web apps that help keep things organized (a lot were also used during documentary making). Most have a mobile option, which makes them very powerful for some on-set action.

Google Calendar

I set up a separate calendar for the production and invited all ATL members to it, though it’s most useful for the Director and Producer. Important dates go here, such as meetings, director’s prep, production dates, etc. But I would also coordinate auditions and add them to the calendar, to keep the director and I in sync.

GOOG-411

I gave this a try when I wanted to do a search for Olive Garden on my phone and the Google search page suggested their free 411 service. Since my phone was being slow, I gave it a shot, and it is amazing.

Simply call 1-800-GOOG-411. They’ll ask for the city and state, and then the business name. It will make a few HAL clicks and beeps and return a list of results. You can then have them connect you to the business, get more details, or get the details sent to your phone. Way faster and more fun than mobile internet.

National Weather Service

If you’re shooting outside, and the weather looks kind of nasty, you need to know if a storm is coming and how long it should last. Just search on the National Weather Service’s site for your area and get all the forecasts you need. But it gets better.

Add the local phone number to your phone. Then when you’re on set, just give them a call and they’ll gladly give you their best guess on what type of weather you can expect and for how long with their real-time screens. The site also has a mobile link, but I haven’t given that a try yet.

Jott

Jott turns your phone into a hands-free command center. Once it’s set up, just dial the number and speak. You can send yourself notes, send out a text message, create a Google Calendar event, create a task with RTM, and much more with many other services. I have a habit of mumbling, but Jott does a pretty good job at transcribing what I say.

Google Docs

Another useful tool. This is a good place for the ATL to keep notes on different parts of the film - casting, production design, locations, etc.

Remember the Milk

Still my favorite task manager. I know you can share tasks, but I didn’t try to get the crew using GTD.

January is going to be a busy month for me. As I said before, three films are down, four to go. These four are all ATL jobs, and are every Friday-Saturday for the next four weeks when school starts up again on the 7th.

Week 1 - Director of Photography

This is a sci-fi period film, taking place in the 50s about a spaceship that crashes into a barn and a young boy is the only one that believes they’re good. The script has gone through a variety of location changes.

First it was interior, barn, night. Mysterious and dramatic. We have to shoot during the day, so we would have blacked out the outside of the barn to fake night inside.

Production team had some trouble finding a barn, so it switched to night, exterior, in a field - meaning it would be shot day for night, something I hate. And the director knows that.

I was able to convince the director to keep searching for a barn, and they finally found one. The only problem is the sides are open, so now it’s day, interior, which I kind of like.

When the director gives his story pitch to people that ask about it, they generally say, “Oh, like ET.” I think that by doing the movie in the day time, it will at least visually make the film different and break from the typical “aliens only crash at night” business.

Week 2 - Producing - The Return

This film is about a hostage situation in a dystopian future. One location, which makes life easy.

My main job with this is to get futuristic looking army vehicles. And the director doesn’t want to pay a lot for food, something I might have to talk to him about in the near future.

Week 3 - Production Design

Plain and simple, this film is about a guy that swallows a seed before his wedding and turns into a tree.

I just had a 20 minute conversation with the director about the science of metamorphosing from a human to a tree. Does he just become a straight-up tree with a suit? Or is he more of a hybrid tree-human, like an Ent?

I’m really looking forward to designing this film, it should be a lot of fun.

Week 4 - Direct

My movie. It’s about a guy that sells his soul for the corner office. I’ll probably, or at least try, to keep detailed updates, since I know the most about what goes into making this movie.

Since I’m last, and have been working on other people’s projects, not a lot is done with mine. I still need actors and locations, and just about everything else.

In looking at past posts, I realized I never laid out what exactly an F3 is, the project that has and will be taking my attention and life for the next few months.

The F stands for Filmmaking. The F1 was our little digital short, the F2 the half day film exercise, and now the F3. Here’s a basic rundown:

• 6 Page Script
• 6:30 Minute Runtime plus 1 for Credits
• 2 Production Days of 12 hours plus 1 for lunch
• 2 Hours Overtime
• 1600 ft of film (about 44 minutes)

We have a full crew composing of first and second years. (1 is a first year position, 2 second year. Bold is what the Film School considers ATL)

• Director (2)
• Producer (2)
  
• Director of Photography (2)
  
• Production Designer (2)
  
• First Assistant Director (2)
  
• Second Assistant Director (1)
• Script Supervisor (1)
• First Assistant Camera (2)
• Second Assistant Camera (1)
• Key Grip (1)
• Gaffer (2)
• Best Boy Grip/Electric (1)
• Sound Mixer (2)
• Boom Operator (1)

For me, it’s three sets down, four to go.

New show. I’m now First Assistant Camera (1AC). Above in the photo is Matt, my second. The first day is done and we have one roll to download, Matt’s first full on downloading experience.

Of course I’ve told him all about my previous experience, and tried to give every pointer to avoid spooling, but I must bring bad spooling karma.

“Joey, I think I might need your help.” I hear the crinkle of a pile of film in the tent. I tried to talk him through it but he couldn’t get the center back in. He wanted me to go in.

So I threw a sound blanket over our hands and made the swap. It was the same exact problem, though maybe slightly better. A pile of film had spooled out the center. I tried to wind it back in the center, but this time I discovered a trick. Slowly, but surely, I was able to wind all the film back in.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I seem to be getting better at this.

Charles’ F3, the one that I redeemed myself on, went pretty well last Sunday and Monday. The house we shot at was amazing, all ten cast members arrived on time and were great, and even Goodwood went off without a hitch. Of course a show can’t be perfect, which is why we had a little snag at the end of the day.

Just to give a little background on film, we shoot Super 16. It comes in rolls of 400 feet which must be loaded into a magazine in a light tight tent that your hands fit into. If you took a photography class in the pre-digital days it’s quite similar. The roll is threaded through the mag, loaded on the take up side and snapped onto the camera. Once shot the mag is taken back into the bag with a film can and downloaded, or moved from the mag into the light tight can. While we have, or should have, a workshop covering this with dummy rolls (small short ends or rolls that were flashed), nothing compares to loading a fresh, full roll. Or downloading it.

Downloading is obviously much more important and nerve wracking, as you are handling everyone’s time and hard work. It’s also slightly trickier. While a new roll has a core that snaps on, an exposed role must be removed without a core. If you’re not careful, the film can spool out, meaning the inside begins to unwind, which is exactly what happened.

Camera was wrapped, I was cleaning up, getting ready to move out when Justin, the First Assistant Camera, comes to me. “I think we might have a problem downloading.” I go inside to find the Second AC with hands in the tent, fortunately only downloading a 100ft roll. Charles and I try to diagnose the problem. He says the inside has come undone, which means it spooled. Typically the fix for this is to slowly wind the inside back in the center. It doesn’t have to be tight, just flat for transport.

The AC couldn’t do it. So I offered to go in the bag. We went into a bathroom, where it was fairly darker, and switched places. I felt around and got my bearings. I tried to wind the center up, but so much had spooled out I couldn’t wind it tight enough and get everything in.

My only solution was to take the other end and load the film backwards, winding it back on the mag and using that to keep it tight. I started doing this and it worked for a while, until the film started to wrap around itself and become one giant, tangled mess. Of course I couldn’t see it, but I’m pretty sure it creased a few times, which could put some light spectacles on the film. And just handling the film so much is not good.

Eventually the film tangled so much it could not go into the mag. It was late, we were still at the location, keeping the owner up, and the darkroom at school was locked. So I had to tear the film, untangle the mess, and start a second roll.

At 1 AM, two and a half hours after going into the tent, the tangle was undone and the entire roll was safely in two cans. I wrote a nice, long essay to the lab and I’m hoping they can splice the two halves together after they’ve been processed. The bigger issue might be creases and over handling. We’ll find out Wednesday.

During this ordeal, Charles and I were talking about how this wouldn’t happen with digital and it’s insane that our original footage is subjected to this with no backup. I love film, but it’s experiences like these that make me want this.

So tone of voice doesn’t come out in written communication. I’m sure you already knew that, but just in case you didn’t, it doesn’t, especially on Facebook wall posts.

It was the director, Charles’, birthday. His film has two locations - a plantation house interior and exterior. The interior is secured - it’s an amazing 170 year old inn downtown. For the exterior, he wanted to use Goodwood, a private mansion turned museum. This would be one or two shots to serve as establishing shots. We drove over there one day and spoke to the director. Our conversation went something like this:

C47: Hi, we’re from the Film School and were wondering if a small crew could come by in a few weeks to get a shot of the exterior of the house.

Director: Well, we usually don’t like people filming here.

C47: It would just be a small crew, not the normal large size, and we’d just need to get one shot of the outside. Should take about 30 minutes and we’d never have to go inside.

Director: Oh, well what day would it be?

C47: Either December 2 or 3, whichever works best for you.

Director: Oh, well that weekend we have holiday events and the place is very busy.

C47: The third is a Monday, would that be better?

Director: Well, Monday, yeah, that might work. Let me get your information, I’ll talk to the other directors about it and get back to you.

So we gave him our information, but never heard back from him. This was where we stood on Charles’ birthday. So I wrote him a message, saying to celebrate his birthday Goodwood called and wants us to film there, which they hadn’t and I was just being sarcastic.

Since tone doesn’t come out online, he thought this was true, which made me feel terrible for getting his hopes up. So now I was determined to get this location. I went to their website and looked up the Director’s e-mail. I started an e-mail correspondence with him, and things began to look promising. “The directors weren’t too excited about you filming here, but if you can do it Monday I think we can work something out.”

I arranged to meet him after the Thanksgiving break to sign the location agreement, and with that both locations are secured and I redeem myself as Producer.

• Realized director’s prep presentation is in two days, have to get busy #

Day two of production. It’s an outdoor shoot, so when the sun’s gone, the day’s over. It’s the last shot and covers an entire scene.

The camera is inside an ambulance looking out through open doors at a guy whose daughter was just loaded. The doors close, letting the camera peak through the window. The ambulance starts to pull away as a police car pulls up and arrests the guy. The ambulance drives around a bed in the road and the film ends.

All the elements were in place - camera was ready, actors knew what to do, crew was positioned at opposite ends of the road to hold traffic. We’re about to go for picture when the Second Assistant Director comes on the walkie.

“There’s a ranger woman here and she’s really pissed. She’s heading down your way.” The director and I leave the ambulance to see what’s up. An SUV pulls around the bend and stops in the path of the shot. Before our director can win her over, I hear the words “I need to see a permit.” This wasn’t a deal breaker - we had a permit and were allowed to film, but the sun was setting and a delay was something I didn’t order. Out comes the walkie. “Can you please send the producer down here with the permit.”

“Do you guys know you are blocking the entrance to a public park?” No. “I’m driving by and I see the gate to the park closed.” The producer pulls up with permit in hand and producer hat on. “Hi, how are you today?” She takes the permit and looks over it. “No one told me someone would be filming out here today.”

She scans over the permit. I can see the director frustrated and worried. “Right here, number five - you agree to not prohibit the use of facilities.” Apparently, when I told number two to hold traffic when we go for a shot, he pushed one of the gate arms out to do what I intended a hand to do. This drew a little attention, specifically that of this ranger, and rubbed her the wrong way.

Despite our apologies and confession that this was a misunderstanding and we never intended to prohibit anyone from entering, she pulled out her pad. “I’m going to let you off with a warning.”

Our gaffer was letting us know we had to go or we’d lose all light. At this point I reasoned if this ticket writing business eats our time, we lose the light and shot, so if I said something that got us kicked out, nothing would really be lost. As First AD I had to try to get things moving.

“Excuse me, I hate to do this, but would you mind writing the warning around the corner?” “No, I’m gonna write it right here,” she said as she flipped her lights on. This was official business.

With the sun almost gone we didn’t’ have time to wait around. I told the director we had to get something, so we decided to go with the shot and just cut when the SUV comes in frame. We still had enough room for the police to come, we just wouldn’t be able to hold it until we went around the bend. This was settled, so we ran back to the ambulance and got ready to go.

We got a few takes in before the ranger finally left. With everyone back at their post, I made sure to mention not to block any cars.

According to the light meter we had enough light (and thankfully, footage) to get a few full takes in.

We got it in the can and production of the first F3 was wrapped, though it took quiet some time for my nerves to finally unwind.

For the past three days at The Film School we’ve been having Crew Drills. Crew Drills are basically a two hour run through of an F3 set. That’s enough time to set up, get a shot or two, and then take everything down for the next show.

It accomplishes a few things. The entire crew gets to meet and work together. But more importantly, first years get to learn how a set runs and get mentored by second years on how do to things, such as set up a dolly track, file paper work, load a magazine, etc.

It was a lot of fun and was nice to be back on set. It also makes you realize that things are happening. Someone put it quite well - this is the beginning of the rest of our college experience. Good-bye sleep.