I got the chance to interview Mike Peter Reed so that he could tell me about the 2 week film challenge that he took part in. The idea was to make a film in the space of two weeks. In the next round there will probably more films made because they rules give more time to get things ready for the filming.

The three feature films were made during the first round of the Two Week Film Collective in May (and you can watch The Dabbler and The Original Soundtrack online for free by clicking their links):

• @thraveboy – “The Dabbler, The Dreamer, and the Man Who Broke The World”
• @britmic – “The Original Soundtrack”
• @lmcnelly – “blanc de blancs”

Some Mac web sites that Mike recommends

• MacSurfer
• MacOSXHints
• Editors Keys

I was also interested in what Mike had to say about the recording of sound and the field recorder he has. He uses a Sound Devices 702T and I would be keen to get something like that for myself for doing more outside broadcast type of sound recording. Would be great to get my hands on a shotgun mic and the dead cat wind filter, all to fit on the end of a boom pole. I did get looking at a few different field mixers and it would be really difficult to decide which would be best to buy. There are field mixers and then there are field recorders. The recorder seems to do the mixing too. I think I need to learn more about how all these things work. Could spend quite a lot of money on this sort of equipment with lavalier mics, shotgun, mics, carbon fibre boom poles, various cables. the best I can manage now is a Zoom H2 or to record direct into my Macbook. I did make sure that I bought a camera that has a mic input.

Raindance Film Festival director Elliot Grove interview coming next.

Writer Director Quentin Tarantino

I saw the interview with Quentin Tarantino last night on the Jonathan Ross show, OK it wasn’t in depth and more to do with Wossy making funnies but Tarantino was impressive in manner and the way he spoke about film making. The man obviously has a vision and wants to tell the story in his own was. I though the comment about why he uses music from old movies and previously recorded songs, was telling in the fact that he doesn’t want to give the control of any part of the movie, including the sound track to one other person. This means apart from being a control freak, that he really rates the sound in a movie to be very important. The clip of the new movie from him starring Brad Pitt was big in the sound department as well as having some wicked looking stunts.

I have an interview to edit of a guy in the UK that has the sound recording equipment and has worked on some movies as well as making his own in 2 weeks as part of a challenge to make a movie in that time frame. You will find it interesting when I get it published soon.

WNYC radio podcasts - Jad Abumrad

I have been listening to WNYC radio podcasts with Jad Abumrad and his friend for some time. Today I saw in my iTunes subscription this gem of a video which is really very creative and I enjoyed it immensely. So here it is for you to enjoy too.

I love the Magritte references in the video

Video20Q Podcast 1 David Baker

I found David on twitter where he is known as IndieMovieMaker. Seemed like a good plan to ask if he would like to be featured on the new Video 20 Questions Podcast. Really pleased he said yes and was quite enthusiastic. Goes without saying that if you are an independent indie movie maker you have to get the word out there in any way that you can.

David was a super first guest on the show and we had a great chat about movie making. he has been in the business fore many years having worked as an actor.Mission X is his second movie and is about a student of film getting caught up in some mercenary activity when he goes to video some guys just coming back from Iraq. David was looking for a gritty style for the film and from what he was telling me about how it was filmed, I don’t doubt that is the way it turned out.

David was the writer, producer, visionary, director, head tea boy and will be promoting too. he has plans to ge the film shown all across the UK and expects to be getting in contact with film students along the way too. So there will be a mixture of online and offline promotion of the movie. He got non actors in the movie as well as using actors.

Mission X behind the scenes with David

I enjoyed my chat with David and I learned a lot from it too. We mentioned Robert Rodriguez who had success with a small or no budget and was discovered in as much as he got Hollywood money after that to make more movies, and the director Roger Common that influenced Tarrantino amongst others. David is a believer in getting out movies with no budget so that it makes people be creative and innovative. In any case we all have to start somewhere.

David has been using TubeMogul to be able to get the movie clips out to as many online video sharing sites as possible. Saves a lot of time to get the movies distributed all with one upload. I have used it myself and I am impressed.

He is expecting to get the film out through Cineworld and get it shown in more places across the whole of the UK.

Welcome to Video 20 Questions

Welcome to Video 20 Questions. This is a follow on site from Mac 20 Questions. On this site I will be talking to people with camcorders, video cameras like the Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder with 15x Optical Zoom
and even the digital SLR cameras that can take video. If it is about video it is here.

Some of the interviewees will have professional broadcast quality cameras and will be using the top Pro applications to edit the resulting video. On the other end I will be talking to the person that wants to make some funny videos of their friend getting kicked in the nuts for YouTube.

The idea is to have the full range possible and you never know we could all improve our video knowledge and skills. We can talk about codecs to use to get the best quality, or to get the best compression, and which is the best way to get a good compromise between size of file and quality.

I have 20 questions that I will ask and over time they will evolve to get the best information from the featured guests. I may have to use different sets of questions depending on the level of skill and knowledge of the guest.

If you want to be featured on the podcast contact me using the form below. Of course question 20 is “Tell me about your web site ” and that is your chance to tell the world about your website or product, with links to it in the show notes for the episode.