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Vital Butinar

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Everything posted by Vital Butinar

  1. I thought so and it sounds reasonable enough. Like I've always said if you shoot in a back street of LA or in a back street of something near LA it looks the same. I've worked on a quite a few shoots that were shot in Ljubljana because there's a specialized production and crew here that do a lot of them for foreign markets. It also helps there are a few huge equipment rental houses in the area. I've actually even been a dancer in a commercial that was made exclusively for the US market. One of the good things in Slovenia is (at least to my knowledge, I could be wrong) that if you need to shoot somewhere getting a permit is relatively easy and not that expensive. Even getting police assistance is free or very inexpensive. One time when we were thinking of shooting a short film a couple of acquaintances even offered that I could talk to their police lieutenant and that they could provide police cars for a short period of time for a scene as long as the official markings weren't visible and could lend us a couple of uniforms without the official stuff on them. So I think some stuff is quite good as far as production goes. Of course it and that's exactly why I love movie-making and it has captivated me and driven me to want to make movies for the very reason "OK this could look like a hotel lobby or those buildings could look like they were build in the 2050 and it would be simple to make a matte painting for the background. Or this think looks like it could be a "sonic laser data fragmentation device working on a quantum xy frequency" or just this lighter looks cool enough. I agree 100%. If something looks convincing enough you except it no questions asked and whenever I'm watching a movie most of the time if I didn't know that it was Union Station or Thousand Oaks water company or something along these lines and I'm complacently fine with that even though I might know right away where something is. I usually pick up stuff like this pretty quickly and I've even worked a couple of times for a some people who had wanted to find out a location of a property that's listed on a real estate website but the locations wasn't disclosed and they tried for a weeks to figure out where it was and then finally asked me to figure out and it usually took me less than 10 minutes to find the place 15 at the most just by catching a small detail in a photo like the shape of a sign on the other side of the street or a particular handle on a door or window shape on the other side of the street trough a window. But some stuff is just too obvious and I know that most viewers will never pick up on such small details and yes I know quite a few instances that Ljubljana has stood in for Prague or other places. Definitely the I've always loved it when something looks convincing especially when someone thinks of a really cool way of showing something in a different light that it usually is (Bradbury building in Blade Runner or Star fleet Academy in Star Trek, etc). Like I said I've seen this in a couple of movies that had a really big name in the lead or even a couple of big names in the lead rolls and the whole thing was supposed to be happening in a some random town in the US but was actually shot some place else and even though they got US cars form what I bet was every American car enthusiast in a 300 mile area and tried to window dress a couple of buildings the sum was just not convincing because everything was just a little off. The road had a white line in the middle not a yellow one, the buildings were just not American looking and the streets were just not convincing, sometimes on the highway or something all except for the car right out of the windows were cars you'd never see in the US not to mention that the wall sockets and light switches were wrong. Hell I haven't seen switches like that for 30 years even around here. Anyway like I said I don't mind the smoke and mirrors it's actually what makes film-making fun but sometimes it's just too many wrong details and it looks off. But then again I'm certainly not the target audience nor am I anybody even remotely qualified to pass judgment on why someone decided that they would do that but I do however find it interesting. I mean I'm currently writing a screenplay for a feature film that I have high hopes that might one day be made into a movie some day and while it might or might not be the story is based in the US and I literally can't imagine the story making sence somewhere else and as for faking it. I guess it could be done but again it just wouldn't look right and I'd be willing to go as far as to say that if it was filmed somewhere else and masqueraded as the US it might take away from the story telling side of the movie and it might not end up being as good as it could be. Thanks guys for confirming what I was thinking and it was super interesting getting another point of view. :) Best regards Vital
  2. Hi guys! In the last couple of years I've seen a some movies with pretty a list actors in the main role I wouldn't say low budget and the movie si always happening in some sort of US sounding town or place but here's the kicker. Everything looks like it's supposed to be in the US like cars and signs and even people but some stuff is off like the architecture, cars in the background, even side roles or extras, traffic signs or even electrical outlets and switches on the walls. I've even noticed stuff like electronics or furniture, but mainly the architecture and urban areas and cars. There's always a Skoda or a Renault somewhere in the background and the electrical switches and outlets. Anyway the moment I notice something funky I usually check where the movie was shot and if it isn't shot in Europe, it is some other place like a South American country. Places where they have Skodas and Renaults but don't have yellow lines in the middle of the road and street signs that are white and blue. So my question is what is the point of this masquerade show? If it's supposed to be happening in the US why not just shoot it in the US and make it look authentic even though the name of the town is made up. Or on the other hand if it doesn't matter where it's shot and it is shot in some place like Bulgaria or Hungary or even in my home country of Slovenia why go trough the charade of finding all the US looking vehicles, having to change signs in the background or even going as far as putting flags on buildings and making signs to make it look like the US. Is it that cheaper to shoot outside the US or si there some other reason why this happens? Anyway I was just wondering what's the deal and I'm hoping that someone here might be able to enlighten me. Thanks guys for the input and best regards Vital
  3. Yeah I'm sorry. That's exactly what I meant they wouldn't be performing they would be just playing to a recording and the way I have done it until now with music videos is to always have the master recording and even had a beep sound for sync at the beginning and end of the music. Unfortunately the equipment we're using hasn't got a time code generator. So the only thing I can relay on is something like what I mentioned. I just wasn't sure if I was thinking along the right lines. Thank you guys. And yes the moment I saw "slate" I remembered how it's a slate and not a clapperboard sorry about that. :) Best regards.
  4. Hi guys. I'm preparing for a shoot of a music video and I have a problem that I think I have figured out but I'd like some input to see if I'm on the right track. Some of the scenes of the music video are going to be shot with a drone. The problem is that the drone does not have sound nor does it record sound. So my problem is how to sync the footage of the drone to the music and band's action. Obviously there are no time codes that I could sync to because then I wouldn't have this problem. A: I can just record some wide footage of the band playing and then just use it as a B roll or wide shots and it will not be visible what they are doing most of the time anyway B: We can start shooting with the drone on the ground and run a second camera set up to shoot the same was as the drone start recording on both and then show a clapper board to both and let the drone take off and start the music and shoot the scene with both the drone and the camera running. Then in post sync the footage of the camera to the music and sync the drone footage clapper board to the camera footage and everything should sync up. C: blow the budget and invest triple my own money so that we can rent equipment that's time coded and use it to sync the drone footage. Obviously I'm not going for option C. :) But I'm open to any kind of other ideas or suggestions how to do get this done. Thanks for the help and best regards. Vital
  5. True I complacently agree that even the odds of them excepting any submitted script is small but still the odds are not zero and there is a chance witch is considerably higher than none. For somebody like me who came from a complacently different field with no knowledge of how anything in the film industry works and doesn't know anybody in the industry it's a pretty good thing. Besides how do you get in touch with somebody like that. The only things I keep reading is getting an agent I have no idea what an agent even looks like because the only thing around here resembling an agent is the insurance agent that does my car insurance. :) Oh thank you I'll definitely check it out. Unfortunately I am really a long way away from NYC and we do have a film industry here it's just not a place you can start since again if you don't know anybody you are a nobody and I am a nobody. But as I've said I'm not going to let that stop me because I've always done things that way no matter what I had done and I'm going to keep doing what I love and try whatever I can. Anyway thank you. :)
  6. Yeah I noticed. Just my luck whenever I figure out something everything changes haha. :) Thank you. I wonder does anybody else know of anything else like the Amazone Studios had. I mean as far as I had researched this was a pretty rear thing. I mean yes there are the classic ways that let's be hones don't look exactly promising for most people. Yes festival submit a scrip or make a short or find an agent. But for most people that this is a pretty good deterrent and yes I understand it's kind of a filter but on the other hand as far as I can see this means that a lot is lost. Just maybe somebody or nobody from nowhere could write a really great original script for a movie but because they have little to no way of sharing it or a very complicated way that they will never do. So we only have to look forward to new remakes of movies already done, movies about super heroes from comic books and let's be hones CGI filled movies without a good story. That's why I though that the Amazon Studios open submit policy was a good thing and canceling it a really dumb move. That's why I'm wondering if anything else like this exists. Best regards.
  7. Thank you and you are right. I complacently agree that's why first thing I'm going to polish the script a little more and when it's ready I'll pay the $22 on WGA and then submit it to Amazon and then see how it goes. Thanks guys for a big help. Best regards.
  8. Hi guys! First of all thank you for your responses. I am really grateful whenever I get more input to the question I give myself and in turn input from other people helps me be more informed and then I can decide and be confident that I at least understood multiple aspects of whatever I was deciding on. I agree complacently that if I keep my work to myself it's not doing anybody any good. So I had already decided that I want to share my work with people regardless of the threat that somebody might steal it because of two reasons. First I am hoping that somebody that has the ability to assess if my work has any value might also be able to judge whether I or my skills have any value also. The second is even if my work gets stolen that is also an indicator to myself that it was actually good and again that somebody else failed to realize that good work doesn't just happen by itself but in fact good people are the ones making good work and if my skills are good enough to produce something good and since I've done good things before I'll be able to do good things again. As far as about Amazon Studios I was just inquiring about how things go if it actually is what they claim to be. Mainly because it's literally the only thing that I had found that would accept openly material from third parties. I mean I live in Slovenia and as far as making movies here it's pretty much impossible unless you start by yourself or get extremely lucky in getting a break mainly by knowing people something that I have never had in my life. So I can imagine that entering a community like the ones in Hollywood or similar might be even tougher. But regardless of all the obsolesces and all the things that I've done in my life the only thing that has enabled me to put all my knowledge and experience in different areas to use has been filmmaking and regardless of how tough things are I intend to keep doing this until it stops making me happy in life. And I agree I have limited experience but as it has been my whole life even my limited level of experience has been much higher than a lot of other people it might not work out or it might but I would never know unless I tried. I would of course love to be able to make my movie myself but as I have always done I will compromise I only hope that I will compromise to the extent that I'll still be content with it. As far as production goes I've been lucky because I had been able to be in contact with people from real productions and observe the workings of productions to the extent that even though there is now way to compare big productions to our little productions that we had done the workflow has been the same as on bigger projects that I have observed. Yes there are more procedures to follow and more units but anytime I'm working on something I organize everything to maximize time utilization and minimize any kind of mistakes. Recently I had a producer on set that usually works on big productions and he was really amazed and impressed of what he saw and what we were able to do with very little actually no budget. But as I have said I haven't had the chance to prove my abilities at any bigger jobs. But it's always a paradox people can't have a chance to prove themselves unless somebody gives them a chance. The problem is that those who can give someone a chance must have the experience to be able to judge who has potencial and what doesn't and be willing to take a calculated risk. I am one of those people. I never gamble but I do take calculated risks that always have back ups and fallback situations and this has literally never let me down even when situations went bad. So if by some good will and lots of luck I'll be able to participate in my movie if it does get made that's awesome and if not well I guess somebody didn't take a good enough risk to make it even better. :) Anyway jokes aside thank you guys again for making the situation a little bit clearer helping me decide what I'm going to do. Best regards
  9. Thank you guys! I completely agree with you guys. Currently I literally have noting to offer that's why I started on my own filming stuff to learn about anything I could. I am a little worried about the rights. If you are really surrendering a lot of your rights. But in either case if it stays on my drive isn't doing anybody any good. I know this business is tough but then again so is anything these days. Thanks & best regards
  10. Hi guys! Anyway as I have stated I'm a beginner filmmaker. I had always wanted to make movies but never had the chance to so one time two years ago when I was on a set it reminded me how much I had always wanted to make movies. So in staid of going to film school and working on productions I tried to read, watch, observe as much as I could myself as well as working as an extra on filming sets I got to observe ever how things worked. After that I tried putting my new skills to work and together with my girlfriend we decided to shoot our own dance video to lean how to put theory into practice and since we were both dancers we could do everything ourselves. Long story short after doing a couple of projects and along the way I realized that I really enjoyed doing production work, cinematography, directing, everything and even writing. So after a long time of having an idea for a movie I sat down to write the story and then after a couple of months of outlining the story I started writing the screenplay and after just three weeks I had completed my first draft. Yes it was only a first draft and I do know I have a lot of work to do before the screenplay would be worthy of it being called a movie screenplay. But never the less the idea is solid and original enough that people have advised me to keep working on it and try and make it into a movie. Since I'm not from the industry and I have no idea how a movie gets made in the initial stages so I started learning about this part and came across the amazon studio's web page where they let you submit your work. My question is if anybody has had any experience with this and is it in fact a good thing and if not I haven't actually found any other ways of trying to get my screen play "into the right hands". Anyway any information about this subject will be much appreciated. Thanks for the help and best regards.
  11. I don't exactly know if it would bother me because all the projects I've worked on as a director were my own and I also wrote the script. But I did have to deal with clients giving their own ides and then writing them into the script and in some cases ended up shooting something I knew was not going to work but in the end some stuff was actually usable and some wasn't. The worst thing is when you have a client set on an idea that you know probably won't work and then when it doesn't giving the client the bad news. But I've always found arguments to support why not to use something versus using something. I guess writers, producers, directors or basically anybody has to deal with this at some point the key is how you use the information or advice. Sometimes it actually helps sometimes it doesn't.
  12. I really like it. I took another look and a look at the website. Really awesome. I can't wait to see the final movie. :D Well I've been using only DSLRs and on the stuff that I've done and a couple of times I've been really happy about the lighting and in turn the quality. But I'll bet that the BMPCC makes an even better image. I always try to find the best already existing lighting and I've used the sun finder app.
  13. The trailer looks awesome! :) I hope I get to see the movie. :) Unfortunately I have no idea what consists as a micro-budget because all of the stuff I've done has been no budge stuff but we did work fairly similarly trying to use piratical lighting and we are usually one person for many different things. I usually write, direct, film and do the editing. Really nice. I hope I'm able to get footage looking that awesome.
  14. Well when I went to collage I fell in love with photography and then got into filmography but after I could do photography but didn't have access to filming equipment. I used to love taking pictures but it's funny because I used to love taking pictures of objects and landscapes but not people but when I'm filming stuff I usually have people in it. Don't know why.
  15. That would actually be pretty cool to see thank you. :) I understand so in the more pro field people usually use avid to edit and when you're used to editing and know what you're doing you don't need that many versions. Sounds logical. I got used to editing with adobe because on every project that I did I've been by myself for production, shooting, directing, editing, the VFX and even sound so I used the whole package to edit because it made it convenient.
  16. Really. So you do everything on one time line? I mean I don't know why but I prefer nesting stuff. Of course not always but a lot of the time it saves me a lot of work when I'm trying something. Why would you recommend using only one timeline?
  17. I've never edited a full movie before but here's something that I figured out about editing since I was in the same predicament as you. When I began I did everything on one timeline and just once sequence but then the first bigger project I did I used nested sequences and I prefer this way better. On the other hand my girlfriend with whom I work also recently wanted to learn editing prefers the one timeline approach. Now here's something interesting I figured out from both approaches. While I understand her when she says that the one timeline is great because you see everything and how it relates to each other and no need for going back and forth when it comes to fixing a problem with footage on the timeline and with fixing problems with more than one clip the nested approach comes really in handy. On the last music video we did we used the nested approach and it came in handy because we wanted the whole thing to mostly look exactly the same but have several different versions with some variations of the scenes. So with the nested approach just duplicated the master timeline and chanced one scene with a variation. Everything even the final color grading stayed the same. Work out fine. On the other hand we could have done something similar with one time line. But in staid of editing only one scene just changed a bunch of footage and then had to watch out not to break something else in the time line while changing the footage and keeping everything aligned with the music would have been much more of a nightmare. So I prefer the nested approach even though I might have 5 or even 6 nested sequences so that the master sequence that is exported is just as it should be. Of course you can always to a sort of mix of both where you nest some stuff but put some footage on top of nested sequences. Because sometimes it's easier to add something on top of something else. But nesting usually makes everything a little cleaner but you have to figure out a game plan from even before starting editing. Nested timeline cleaner easier to fix. Single timeline. Good luck sorting out what's what after a few weeks of not working on it. :) Hope it helps and best of luck.
  18. Me and my partner always pull focus ourselves and doing it on the small DSLR screens is challenging to say at best. What usually helps us is that I usually use a lens that has a longer throw for focusing and my partner she always uses the normal dslr lenses and pulls focus via the lens itself. I've tried to get her to use a follow focus but she says she's more responsive with the lens itself and I guess I can understand that but have never been able to do it myself. What I do is I rehearse the scenes and get used to the movement of the focus and then try to compensate. The problem si if I'm moving around, framing, trying to keep with the background and foreground, not shake the camera too much and then pull focus the result is usually not good so I try to limit the amount of things I have to keep my eye on and then recheck the shots every time I finish. But still sometimes you just go wrong. I'm hoping that now with a new monitor that has peaking it will be easier and bigger project where we can afford the right gear it will get easier. I'm guessing that peaking should be good enough for you to focus. But as I said my experience is limited. Best of luck. :)
  19. Hi guys again. I can't believe the coincidence that I wrote last on 14th of Jan. and today is the 14th of Feb. :) Anyway the shoot went great! We were on location for 14 hours straight and finished only 5 minutes schedule probably because half of the scenes were shot outside and it was freezing that night. Unfortunately at the end somebody that was in charge of the budget for the band figured that paying an extra couple of hundred bucks for renting a 4K camera was too expensive and as a result I was left with my trusty old DSLR for shooting. But in the end it all worked out because the lighting was done right and as a result the footage coming out of the DSLR looked good too even though there is some compression in the footage that's something I and also they will have to live with since I expressed my concerns ahead of time. But all in all I still think that the HD and compression didn't impact the final result enough to bang my head against the wall. And I also am super proud of my whole team because everybody stayed in good spirit and had fun but also gave their best and helped out beyond what anybody could hope for. Anyway I just wanted to say thank you again and even though I wasn't able to use the information this time I'm sure the knowledge will come in handy on the next project that is just around the corner. Here's the video spot on for Valentin's Day... :)
  20. I did exactly the same thing on a project recently and I did it with normal 24fps footage. In esence it doesn't matter what fps. But I did the clip in Adobe After Effects. I used a combination of a luma track matt and and echo effect and then slowed down everything and layed the clips one on the other. What I got is exactly what you were describing streaks and people duplicates or echos of people walking across a cross walk. Hope it helps. Best regards.
  21. Thank you guys. This calculator comes in handy. Well we're coming closer to the shoot and things are clearing out what we'll be able to do and what not. Ultimately the decisions are going to be made based on what the client will be willing to pay. If nothing else I enhanced my knowledge about how much data there is. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again and best regards.
  22. Landon thank you again for your help. I have the manual and have been looking trough it trying learn all about the camera. I am also familiar with all the settings like ISO, iris, shutter speed, NDs, even filming aids. I will be having a follow focus attached that has the ability to be marked with positions and I will also be receiving the camera one day before the shoot. So had already planed to try some test shots and then review and test edit the footage before getting on set. Like I said I had been shooting with a DSLR in much a similar way except it's not a camera. But I have operated professional cameras before it was just a long time ago in the pre digital era. So thanks again and best regards. Wish me luck. :)
  23. Ok thank you guys for clearing things up for me there. I knew about PAL ad the 25fps and NTSC being 30fps because of the electrical system frequencies and flickering it might cause. Also I think I'm going to be using DNxHR since I'll be doing the editing on a PC. I will be shooting some shots at 60fps I just have some concerns about the FS5 since the specs state that it only goes up to 30fps but then I noticed that there was a slow function but I guess I'll just ask the guy that's renting the equipment about it. I need to make the arrangements this week anyway. So thanks again everybody for enlightening me on this subject. Maybe one more question. Any advice since this will be my first time shooting on a camera and operating it myself either than a DSLR what would I need to watch out for. I've looked up the external recorder so I understand the workings of that and even understand all the filming aids like the histogram, false color, RGB parade and focus peaking. I'm a little bit more concerned with operating the camera. I've looked at the controls witch don't seem to complicated and I consider myself a tech kind of person so I don't anticipate any big issues with using it. But never the less any thing I should really watch out for? Thanks again and best regards
  24. I am in PAL country. But wouldn't that change the look of the footage. I'm trying to achieve a film look because of the story behind the music. Or does it matter. I was under the impression if you shoot 24fps you get a more filmic look and if you shoot 25fps or 30fps you get a more videoish look.
  25. Hey guys! Thanks so much for the information I was reading up on it all day yesterday and this cleared up a bunch of dilemmas for me. The majority of the video will be shot on 24fps just some elements of the story part will be shot at 60fps so that we can get a few slow motion shots in there to make it look better. I think the 250GB will do fine for 2:20h since we have a scheduled break in between the inside shot scenes and the exterior shoots and I can clear the drive and create two backups in the mean time. Even if it's a little less it should be fine since we can do an intermediate break and clear the drive. The Sony will be set in SLog so that should be fine. I just can't seem to decide on weather using DNxHR or ProRes. I'll be the one doing the editing so I should chose whatever is better for me. The only concerns I had was not having enough disk space to edit everything because I got scared by a guy who was telling me stories about how many terabytes I'd need for one video witch I knew was BS but at the same time had no idea how much data it actually way. So I'll have to figure out either DNxHR HQ or ProRes HQ on one hand I'm leaning towards ProRes HQ because researching DNxHR HQ I saw that it was 8bit and HQX was 12bit and since the FS5 outputs a 10bit ProRes HQ sims to be the logical choice regardless of slower performance on PC's since I'll be working with proxy files anyway. As for DSLRs I complacently agree they are not suited for video capture but on the other hand they are really accessible and for starting out I must say it was a fantastic learning experience to be able to try stuff with them since cameras are really inaccessible. I mean I'm currently playing with the idea of buying a camera but at the current prices the logical choices are financially out of reach and the ones that might be are unusable for me and also unless we can get more and more gigs it's a waist of money anyway. So for now playing around with a DSLR and for project like this renting and then when and if things pick up a camera. At the same time I'm finally happy because I'm doing something I've always wanted to be doing and have at least a grasp of what and how I should be doing it. So thank you guys for the information and help it's really appreciated. Plesnet weekend to everybody.
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