Website Launched

The Eye of the Sky website has officially gone live, you can check it out - Eye of the Sky Studios. The site is a starting place to start generating some presence on the internets, similar to the purpose of the old Twilight Shadow site. It is also a way to show a web based portfolio of work.

Later down the track the site will serve a greater purpose, but at least now the foundations have been laid down. I'm glad to have finally finished the preliminary work and have it fully up and running.

Another Website Update

Well the launch of the website is coming up quickly, with only two or three days remaining before its unveiling. I must admit that it is definitely near completion, with just a few final touches needed before I release it to the wild. Its taken a lot longer than I could have imagined, although the site itself isn't very big or grandiose. The main reason its taken so long apart from time constraints is that I had to basically relearn web design to make the site design almost completely CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) based.

I've done a few web sites in my time, and they've all consisted of using the old tried and true method of using tables to lay out the design. Believe it or not this type of design isn't even taught any more, our class at the S.I.T. for web design was the last one that taught web design using this arcane method. Its now all CSS based which makes a lot more sense, unless in the case you haven't learnt it which can make things a little more difficult.

CSS is interesting because you put all your design instructions into the one text file, and you can have every page on your website look to this text file for reference of how to lay everything out and for formatting rules. In the old school of CSS you would just define a few fonts and colors for your text, and that would be about all CSS was used for. Now it is used for the entire layout of website, and you can define layers and place them anywhere you want.

Some of the main advantages of using CSS are as follows :

1. They use take up less space and bandwidth, since you don't have to duplicate formatting code in every page.

2. They are lot more flexible, seeing as you can put elements anywhere on the page, even overlapping other elements if you so desire.

3. They are easier to update, seeing as you only have to change the code in one location instead of every single page if you decide to change the layout or some fonts.

Almost all browsers support the full CSS instruction set now which is nice, seeing as how its been around for many years now. CSS2 is starting to make more prominence, but its probably going to be a little into the future before we start seeing full support for this new development. It may have taken me a lot longer to basically relearn how to code sites, but it was worth it. And as a bonus it definitely shouldn't take as long for future projects.

Good Film Tips - Story First, Conventions Second

This second installment may not apply to all people, only those who have received formal education in terms of screenwriting, namely following Hollywood conventions. Also, anyone who has read through any of Syd Field's or Joseph Campbell writings may find this useful due to the emphasize put on conventions and structure.

First things first - most audiences don't really care about conventions or structure. In fact, following conventions too closely can lead to boring and predictable stories, as audiences are usually bombarded with hundreds of different movies that follow along the same predictable storylines, especially such movie genres as romantic comedies or action films. Conventions are a set of rules conformed to by the screenwriter, who must make their script fit certain moulds and have certain features. The common Hollywood structure states that the script must have three acts, two main plot points, as well as a multitude of other things.

This was one of the things we were forced to adhere to during my time at the S.I.T. Although conventions can add to a film and make it more audience friendly, conventions hold a number of problems which can arise while following them.

1. Story is more important

If you spend all your energy trying to adhere to a set of rules, its going to have consequences, namely being your story is going to suffer. Developing a good story should be the most important thing, and once you have that all worked out then you can apply some conventions to improve the script if need be. One prime example is the first Star Wars film by George Lucas. Mr. Lucas often attributes the success of the film and story to Joseph Campbell, which wrote "The Hero With a Thousand Faces", which is basically a set of conventions based of the mythology of the world, and how almost all mythology contains certain common threads that all humanity recognizes. Of course, Mr. Lucas had already written a couple of drafts of his script before he even read that book, and then decided to add a more mythical structure to the script and incorporated many features he learnt in the book to make it better. The important thing to note is that he already had most the story worked out first, and didn't work straight from the book as most would believe.

2. Convention can lead to boring, predictable scripts

A lot of Hollywood screenwriters out there use conventions as almost a kind of bible, basing every part of their story around it as though the conventions were laid down by Moses in the Old Testament. They equate convention with success, attempting to make their script both as commercial and easily digestible by audiences as possible. The problem with this of course is predictability. How many films out there are entirely, utterly predictable. A fair few by my count. If you follow conventions way too closely and concentrate on them more than the actual story itself, you're going to end up with a fairly boring script. It may be commercially successful, like a lot of bad Hollywood, but that doesn't mean its actually any good.

3. Use conventions to improve your script, not write your script

Similar to my example about Star Wars, you simply cannot use conventions to base your script from or write your script around right from the beginning. More often than not, your story won't even make sense if you write this way. In terms of Hollywood conventions, the main stream of rules goes as follows - Hook, Establish Normal Life, Plot Point One, The Pinch, Plot Point Two, and the Conclusion. Although this might not make a lot of sense, these are the most common elements in Hollywood convention. Conventions can only help structure your story, they can't really be a basis for the story itself.

Conventions are usually sold to budding screenwriters as the be all end all way of becoming a successful screenwriter, especially in Hollywood where it is almost a requirement for being selected by a major studio. However as I have pointed how there are definite dangers in following these too rigidly, as you will most likely end up with predictable, mindless dribble. It can also suck out a lot of creativity in the writing process, as any ruleset can. So my advice would be to concentrate entirely on story first, and conventions second, in order to make a good story. You can use conventions as much or as little as you like after you have the main story worked out, just don't use them to influence your story too greatly to start with.

Good Film Tips - Plot That Makes Sense

Photo courtesy of fotogail

There are many factors that go into making a good film. Filmmaking has got to be one of the hardest occupations out there, at least to do well. This is primarily because there are just so many factors that go into a films creation, and many stages - you have preproduction, production itself and postproduction, and at each stage lies many different components that must fit together in order for the film to work or be good. I firmly believe that a good story or script is a good starting ground in making a good film, because if there are errors or problems in the foundation of the film its going to be difficult to turn it into something good. This is to be the first post in a series of posts talking about my experiences and things I have learnt. Although I've hardly made many good films, or at least films which I would consider good personally, I have learnt a great many things along they way which will help in the future with both writing and filmmaking, which might be useful to those either writing or planning to make a film.

One of the most important features of a story or screenplay is a plot that makes sense, something that often gets lost in the writing process. I've seen this so many times in my fellow students pieces of work, including films and animation, and have certainly see it in a lot of my own work and creations. Basically, what happens in the story and why it happens has to make sense and actually be understandable. Although you may have some cool visuals or interesting sequences or ideas in your film/animation, if it doesn't make sense then your audience won't understand or perhaps appreciate it as much. Its all very well for them to say ooh or aah, but afterwards its never nice to hear the words "So... what actually happened?"

An understandable story needs to have a plot that would make sense to a child. The underlying plot needs to be simple, dead simple. Person A gets from Location A to Location B. It doesn't matter exactly how you present this information, or the layers you build up onto it to make it interesting, the main plot has to be simple and understandable. With this in place it should give audiences a decent enough cue to follow what is happening in the story.

Another important feature is for a story to have many layers. Onions have layers, to use a Shrek analogy, and so should stories. This can be seen most clearly in the way a lot of children's films and animation deal with comedy. They use many layers of comedy, which include jokes that cater to the lowest common denominator for the youngest in the audience, up to jokes that only adults would understand. If they included only jokes for adults, or wrapped up adult jokes in a way that only adults would understand, then these films wouldn't appeal to as big of an audience and certainly wouldn't be considered children's films.

Although your target audience may be teens or adults, it is still important to include a plot that caters to the lowest common denominator. It will always be much more difficult for someone not familiar with your story to follow it, so you must take steps to ensure you're guiding them through by proverbially holding their hand through the plot.

Having a simple, understandable plot that makes sense really is an important factor in the creation of a good story, which in turn is needed to make a good film. Although the story itself may not be simple at all, having the basic underlying plot simple and understandable will help in leaps and bounds for people to make sense of what is happening in your film.

Four ways to gain direction in life

Gaining direction in your life can be a tricky process. Direction gives you something to aim for, and points you off down certain paths that will (hopefully) lead you somewhere you would like to go. It is closely linked with setting goals, however goals usually throw most people off including myself.

The main problem I have had with goals is that as soon as I write them down, they seem to lose their power or I lose interest in them. Goals are usually fairly rigid things that don't leave a lot of room for spontaneity or chance, and that area is their greatest downfall. During my time at the S.I.T. we had to do an assignment where we planned out life goals with great precision, and write a 10 page report all about ourselves and these goals. Believe me it wasn't easy. One of my friends, Aaron, firmly disapproved of doing such a thing, much preferring to taking opportunities as they came as you can never see exactly what will come up around the corner. Both extremes have their merits, and you can apply both of them towards gaining better direction in your life.

1. Know what you want.

Of course this seems the most simple, but its often one people have the most trouble with. I spent most of my life having no clue what I wanted, of course I knew what interested me but without direction you end up with a lot of lost energy. If you work out exactly what you want out of life and what makes you happy it will make things a lot easier. Even if you want more than one thing, make sure you keep in mind exactly what it is you want to be heading towards. “If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him” Seneca.

2. Keep your goals abstract, not set in stone.

If you make your goals too rigid its going to be difficult sticking to them exactly. Life is in a constant state of flux, so no one can really be certain what is around the corner or how things may change. If you make a far off goal, but aren't sure exactly how you're going the achieve it, at least you can head in the right direction regardless of what life throws in your way. Opportunities will always arise when you least expect them, and if you decide to ignore them or stay on your rigid path then you may loose out on something good.

3. Don't be afraid to accept new opportunities.

As I just mentioned, opportunities will always arise when you least expect them. One of the main motif's of conventional Hollywood plot structure, and even mythical structure is the "Call to Adventure". This is the point in the story usually near the start where the main character is given the opportunity or chance to do something that will change their life. Almost always, the main character will refuse this call initially before changing their mind later. This mostly comes out of peoples inherent nature to resist change, because change can be difficult and would make things different. Make sure you're not one to turn down chances or opportunities as you have no idea where they can lead to, or the possibilities they may open up for you later down the track.

4. Reach for the stars, but keep your feet on the ground.

One of my favorite quotes. Basically don't keep so obsessive and air headed about your dreams that you begin to ignore everything around you, including reality. While its really good to aim high, make sure you keep yourself grounded enough to make sure it will be achievable. Direction is not a destination, simply a way to help you get where you want to be in the future. Don't forget or ignore about the people or places around you currently, as they are as much a part of your life and should be appreciated. "We live in the present, we dream of the future, but we learn eternal truths from the past." May-lin Soong Chiang

Getting some direction in life can really change things for the better. You can put your energies towards efforts that will pay off in the future, and have a clearer idea of what to head for down the track. Direction can be a really useful tool in achieving what you really want out of life.

Choosing the right video codec

Video compression. Its a subject that can strike fear into the hearts of many well meaning individuals. Over the last few days I have been lucky enough to have been playing around with such things, as I try to prepare some of my videos for placement in the Eye of the Sky website. There are many problems that arise when compressing videos. What codec or container to use? What compression settings would be most optimal? What formats would be best supported by visitors? All important questions when it comes to compressing your videos for the web.

1. What codec to use?

This is one I got stuck on for quite awhile. There are many derivatives of MPEG4 that looked promising, as well as Flash Video, and also the unappealing option of using Windows Media. The three main codecs I decided to fully look into were DivX, FLV and Quicktime's H.264.

The one tricky thing about testing these out were that the sheer amount of time it takes to compress High Definition content down into smaller web formats can sometimes be ridiculous, especially trying to achieve said work off a laptop. Also another problem that arose is that the implementations of compressing videos through these formats is fairly closed - you have to pay money for a lot of the compressor programs. DivX has a free compressor in the form of Dr. DivX which I tried, while for the Quicktime you must upgrade to Quicktime Pro or use Final Cut to compress the videos down. I finally decided on using Quicktime's H.264 codec, as it offered a good balance between quality and file size. Although the results were comparable to DivX, I felt that Quicktime was slightly more industry standard.

2. What compression settings would be optimal?

Well you can't have your cake and eat it too. Its hard to get a good balance between quality and file size, so I decided for each video to output two different versions for different internet connection speeds. The first is a smaller 400x300 ish file would be suitable for dialup type speeds, and the other being a 720P version for fast internet speeds. Its best to optimize the video for steaming, and also to set a bitrate that will give the required file size. I found that around 2500kb/s was good for the 720P version, and 500kb/s for the 400x300.

3. What formats would be best supported by visitors?

This is a slightly trickier one. With the advent of YouTube, almost everyone has Flash installed in some flavour on their system. Because of this Flash Video probably has the best support out of all the codecs. Another one with a high uptake is Quicktime, which is used for a lot of the film trailers on the web, as well as being the industry standard for Digital Video files. One of the least supported codecs I imagine would be the DivX one, which is one of the main reasons I shied away from using this codec. It probably offers one of the best compression qualities, but with less user base and a spyware supported codec I found it hard to choose this format.

The Winner : Quicktime H.264

With good user support and a good compression scheme, Quicktime came out as the winner. Although I dislike the openness of all three main codec compressors, H.234 is a fairly open standard for both the Digital Video and Broadcasting industries. Now I just have to standardize the compression settings and squash the video files down to a respectable size. Which might take some time.

Set Etiquette and Protocol Seminar

Today was the day I took a seminar at the Grant MacEwan college. It was a five hour seminar by some Costume Designer who has being with the IATSE union for the last twenty years. Although most of the seminar was lengthly and boring, it was very useful in meeting people and finding out exactly what I need to do to get some experience in the industry and do some workshops.

There were about twenty other people there, and when it came time for the introductions there seemed to be people interested in almost all areas of filmmaking - from set design to makeup to special effects, directors to A.D's to writers. Most of the seminar was going over all of the protocols and procedures of actually being on a film shoot which included a lot of rules. One of the said rules was how you are not allowed to talk to actors, unless the actor initiates a conversation first. We also went over a lot of terminology, some of which I knew and some I didn't, for example "Turn off the blond, shut down the red head and kill the baby" (one I knew), and "Get me a pancake and a half apple" (one I didn't know).

Apart from the IATSE Local 210 Union (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, its Territories, and Canada... boy oh boy is that a long name) there are a couple of other Unions/Guild's I'm interested in joining, including the International Photographers Guild which covers everything to do with filmcraft and becoming a Director of Photography, and the Directors Guild of Canada which covers directorial roles as well as editing for some reason.

The most interesting prospect to come out of taking the seminar was finding out that they are filming at least 13 episodes of Fear Itself here in Edmonton, which is pretty much another Masters of Horror type series. Which means as in the Masters of Horror series, each episode will be a different director including John Carpenter. They begin filming this coming Wednesday and are going right through to June, with the possibility of continuing on to October to bring the episode count to 22.

The good news is they are looking for a lot of assistants to help with production and random stuff, so I will be sure to drop my C.V. off to them hopefully by tomorrow and hope to get accepted. The lady taking the seminar said they are fairly desperate for people, and if you start off at the bottom as a production assistant doing random jobs you're almost sure to get in. I also got the numbers of a few people there who were really friendly, a 1st A.D., a Sound guy and a Makeup/Set Design girl. All in all it was worthwhile, and I will receive a certificate in the mail for taking it which is cool.

New Piece of Equipment

I just recently came into possession of a nice piece of equipment, a vintage SLR camera under the brand of Praktica. Its a German made camera, and after doing some research about it on the internet, it looks like it was a very common SLR in the 70's. The good thing about well made German SLR's is that they can last for a very long time, and the camera is in fairly good condition albeit some easy to remove dust and grime.

It came with the following lenses:
*Auto Vivitar 28mm Wide Angle
*Carl Zeiss 50mm
*Mamiya Sekar 135mm Zoom

Lens Filters:
*Skylight Filter
*U.V. Filter

Its strange that the three lenses are all completely different brands, they must have been purchased at different times/locations. Also included were a nice leather carry case and a Braun flash unit, although I don't think I will be using that too often.

Just have to give the camera and lenses a good clean and I'll be able to try out some photos with some 35mm film. It shall be interesting to see how well they turn out on such an old camera.

Countdown to Oblivion

Well not exactly like the title of this post suggests... To speed up the process of getting my website finished, I decided to give myself a public deadline to the completion of the site. Its basically set for the end of the month of February, and in the sidebar of this blog you should be able to see the countdown.

I'll try and keep my progress up to date.

Weekend in Jasper

Just got back from a weekend in Jasper, which is a national park close to four hours away from Sherwood Park. Left on Friday around midday, and it was just getting dark by the time we arrived. Upon arrival to the park the prescence of the wilderness animals immediately became apparent, as a furry coyote ran across the road and a few deer hurridly ran inbetween the sideline trees, most likely trying to get away from the aforementioned coyote. There is a lot of wildlife out there including mountain goats/sheep, black bears, grizzly bears, elk, moose and also grey wolves.

Stayed in a place called The Whistler's Inn which was a really old building. I suspected it might be haunted but apparently not in the room we stayed in. On the Saturday I went up to the Marmot Basin which is basically the big snow hill where I intended to do some snowboarding. Unfortunately while trying to find the right sized snow boots, I accidentally put the ski ones on (who knew you need different boots for each) so ended up skiing instead since I didn't want to try finding another pair.

Once up on the slopes it quickly became apparent how long it had been since I last skiied. My only past experience was on a couple of school trips many years ago, where during one trip I almost broke my leg on the beginner's slope. Basically I was a retarded skiier. I couldn't work out how to turn or more importantly stop, and the slopes weren't very beginner friendly so I ended up going most of the way down on my ass. I finally got the hang of the basics, but that didn't stop me from having a lot of hard crashes.

It was nice to get out of the city for awhile and into the countryside. The mountains out there are really huge and tower over the whole area, and apart from the small town the area is very isolated and uninhabited. It was a really nice place and wasn't that cold out there either which was nice. Now I'm back its time to get back to work I guess. Although I must say it was nice to get a chance to recharge a bit over the weekend.