MCA-I San Diego Chapter - 2005 Meetings

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein
"A mind blown is a mind grown." Jerry Garcia

Just two of the quotes about Creativity heard at the November San Diego MCA-I meeting, held on Wednesday, November 16, 2005. With the San Diego skyline as a spectacular backdrop, about 20 MCA-I members and invited guests had a chance to roll up their sleeves and jump start their creativity as they joined a roomful of CMMA members during the final workshop of the annual CMMA conference held across the bay at the Coronado Marriott Island Resort. Membership in CMMA (Communications Media Management Association) is open to individuals employed by corporations, education or government institutions to manage their media activities. The size of the group is kept small to promote networking and information sharing. Many CMMA members are also MCA-I members and encourage their staff to join MCA-I.

During this fun and interactive workshop titled Creativity and Innovation at Work participants had a chance to learn the latest theories on how we think. It’s a language you know! Habitual, logical, visual and creative. We learned about some of the various blocks to creativity and ideas on how to overcome them. The basic principles and techniques of problem identification, idea generation, problem solving and decision making were introduced. All this and more were showcased by the very able team of Arlan Gutenberg from Mayo Clinic Arizona, and Judy Hubbard from Sandia Laboratories, CMMA members and certified CI trainers.

All in all, a very valuable 2 hours. Our own Mike Brueggemeyer had the first correct answer to one of the most workshops’ complex problems. And MCA-I members Bill Bork, Mike Bugera and Katie Elfsten were able to contribute to the open discussion about their own creativity boosting techniques.

Thanks to Phil Ferrari, Veronica Daley and Mike Bugera who came early to stand by the MCA-I table and mingle with CMMA members. Rumor has it that several members released their creativity afterwards with poolside libations, the sunset, and brainstorming.

MCA-I San Diego Multimedia Showcase Over 60 people gathered to celebrate an evening of the finest visual communications produced by our members - showcased on a big screen at Multi Image

After some great networking and food (sushi, sandwiches, beer, wine), everyone moved into the theatre for presentations by:
Brad Olander
Jan Schwartz (Associate Member)
Mark Schulze Crystal Pyramid Productions
Jeremy Sykes
Luke Jungers New & Unique Videos
Jim Staylor Staylor-Made Communications
Fred Ashman Multi Image
Kent Hughes Cowboy Camera/Filmworks Digital
Katie Elfsten Dreamline Images
Phil Ferrari Ferrari Productions
Beverly Woodworth Artisan Digitalworks
Michael Towe M2 Digital Post
Bill Bork Lens Flair
Craig Bentley Imageworks
Clint Burkett Timeline Productions
Tim Griffen

Contact info for all of these presenters can be found on our Member List.

Door prizes were provided by New & Unique Videos and Multi Image, and new directories from the Film Commission were passed out.

The meeting was crewed by MCA-I San Diego Boardmembers Mike Brueggemeyer, Bill Bork and Craig Bentley, and Tiffany, Tim and Matt at Multi Image.

Thanks to Video Gear Rentals and Broadcast Rentals for their support, and especially to Multi Image for being an incredible host!

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September Meeting Wrap Up

DVD Authoring Update

Our September meeting was hosted by Ken Kebo and JM Digital Works. James Alguire from Crywolf Computers, an Apple Certified Trainer, introduced Apple's Final Cut Studio. The package that contains Final Cut Pro 5, Soundtrack Pro, Motion 2 and DVD Studio Pro 4.

James went through the features of DVD Studio Pro and then proceeded to have a quick demo and tutorial on the makings of a DVD. New features of DVD Studio Pro include the ability to make HD DVDs, includes the new (and improved) Compressor 2, Distributed encoding (the ability to turn your Mac network into a Render Farm), built in Dolby 5.1, full screen HD preview, and more.

David Graaek, a producer at JM Digital Works, discussed the DVD authoring process and creative steps to managing menus and workflow. Bit rate values were discussed and the importance of audio compression.

Luke Jungers of Crystal Pyramid Productions gave out a handy tips and tricks sheet for PC and Mac based systems. Jazzercise, Crystal Pyramid Productions, and Crywolf (Grand Prize -- a 2 day DVD Studio Pro Course!) donated door prizes.

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July 2005 Meeting Wrap Up

Summer Beach Party
Photo Gallery

We had a great turnout for our June meeting on compositing and chromakeying, which was hosted by John Gray III and Jim Larime at the Solar Turbines video studio in Kearny Mesa. John and Jim showed off their stage and edit suite, which are both available for rent.

Our first presenter was Bob Sloan of Bob Sloan Productions, who demonstrated Chromatte, a new method of shooting green screen, comprised of a reflective backdrop and a lens-mounted light ring. The light ring shines green light onto the backdrop, and the surface of the backdrop reflects the light back to the lens with incredible efficiency. The backdrop and light ring come as a package and provide a very versatile solution for most green-screen needs, and feature quick setup, an even background with no light tweaking, and the backdrop can even be draped over furniture and still work! Bob is making the system available to rent to San Diego production folks.

The next presenters were Bill Bork of Lensflair and Mike Brueggemeyer, who discussed tips on lighting and photographing a green screen composite. Their primary advice was to know how you want the composite to look when it's done before you begin. Try to match your foreground lighting to the background that it's going to be keyed over. Minimize the amount of green screen you need to shoot by backing the camera away and zooming in. Ultimatte suggests lighting the green screen the same amount as your foreground subject, but Bill and Mike showed that there is latitude in keying effectively.

Next, Jim Larime and John Gray showed examples of keying using Ultimatte, which they use in hardware form in their studio to generate high-quality keys. Ultimatte can key smoke, glass, water, and make them look real over a substituted background. It is also one of the only keying systems to carry the actual shadows. Ultimatte is also availabe in software form, as a plug-in for many non-linear systems, but an advantage of the hardware system is the option to composite live while you shoot the foreground and/or background to insure the best match possible. For high-end keying, Ultimatte does a great job.

Last, Mike Brueggemeyer presented keying in AfterEffects, using the Color Key effect, which comes standard in AfterEffects. Mike used three different color keys to key out three different shades of green in the background. Mike then added a spill suppression filter to remove the green on the subject which reflected from the background. Last, Mike used the Levels and Hue/Saturation filters to color-correct the foreground to match the background, which resulted in a pretty believable key.

Among audience comments, Richard Crawford mentioned that he has had good success with Serious Magic's Ultra keying software. Martin Banks of Video Gear Rentals, Inc. provided a couple dozen trial discs of that product for attendees to take home.

So the things to remember are:
- Know what you want to end up with before you begin
- Matching lighting and fixing problems while shooting is much better than trying to fix it in post
- After keying the video, adjust the background and foreground to match each other.

Our door prizes were generously donated by Martin Banks of Video Gear Rentals, Inc., Broadcast Rentals, and the grand prize of one free Chromatte rental from Bob Sloan. Special thanks to Jason Taylor for helping to organize the meeting, and to our gracious hosts, John Gray III and Jim Larime!

Many thanks to Lenny Magill for hosting the meeting at his huge facility,Timezone Multimedia (New 15,000 sq. ft. building with a 3500 sq. ft. sound stage) Beer & Sushi...Wow, if you missed this meeting you missed a great one.

Please visit our "vendors corner" speaker "Donna Shirley" from Magic Lantern. Very cool form factor to this new product.

Nev Grove spoke in detail about Google Adwords and Yahoo Marketing or "pay per click" advertising. Nev suggested creating custom landing pages to match the keywords used in your pay per click campigns. Google gets 80% of the search traffic and is immediate in getting up your ads. Nev offered to email his presentation to anyone asking for it, click here.

Lee Silber is author of a specfic book for our industry, "Self-Promotion For The Creative Person" Marketing is about "Them" not "You". Show your client you care about them. We did an excerise in tag lines for our companies, ie. "I help people...". Send hand written thank you notes to your clients.

Paulette Ensign spoke about formulas for writing tips booklets to promote your business and to make money selling the booklets to others. Please see her website for loads of information on how to do this.

Victoria Garcia spoke about "Personal Branding", you are selling yourself not just your company or the services you offer. Make sure you have a good quailty photograph of yourself on your website.

So much information, too little time to discuss all the many ways to market your business, get more info by download here.

About 45 people gathered at Video Gear Rentals and M2 Digital Post in Sorrento Valley for an informative 2005 NAB Wrap Up. Video Gear Rentals provided snacks and a goodie bag that contained a 20%-off-any-rental coupon to everyone in attendance. Door prizes collected at NAB by Jason Taylor of Creative Media Solutions and Mark Schulze of Crystal Pyramid Productions were given away to 4 lucky attendees.

During the social hour, several Sony and Panasonic cameras and monitors were set up for hands-on trials. Martin Banks started the meeting, giving attendees a general overview of Video Gear Rentals and how they provide production rental equipment.

Tom James from Panasonic then stepped up and showed off Panasonic's newest cameras and decks. One of the highlights of Panasonic's line is the new AG-HVX200 DVCPRO HD P2 handheld camera. When it ships in December, this new camera will be available in a DV version for $5995, or a version that utilizes P2 memory cards, which eliminate all moving parts inside the camera. The P2 version ($9995) will record in DVCPRO HD, which is 4 times the bit-rate of HDV. The cards are initially expensive, but Tom expects the price to come down over time. Between optical discs and memory cards, is tape on its way out?

Next was Val Reynolds, Product Sales Representative for Sony Corporation of America, who said NAB this year was the busiest since before 9/11. Val had a powerpoint presentation showing Sony’s newest products. One of the most interesting new products was the Anycast, a multi-camera switching, deck control, audio mixing and character generator, all built into an oversized laptop. Reynolds also showed off Sony's new XDCAM cameras and decks using optical discs. Other new technology allows you to receive a wireless transmission in low resolution to your laptop or computer giving you the freedom to edit your footage as it is being shot. He finished with an update on Sony’s big hit, the HVR-Z1U HDV camera.

As he explained what highlights he saw, Mark Schulze showed a photo slideshow that he took while he scurried around the NAB exhibit hall floor. Other attendees spoke about the highlights of their NAB visits. The consensus was that the new tapeless forms of capturing video are going to change the way we capture and edit media.

Thanks again to Martin Banks of Video Gear Rentals, Val Reynolds from Sony and Tom James from Panasonic. If you missed it, you missed a lot!

March 2005 Meeting Wrap
“The Next Audio Wave”
Surround Sound Plus Production Music from Custom to Royalty-Free

About 50 people packed into Groovy Like A Movie’s to hear about some exciting audio technology. Expounding on everything from the basics of surround sound to mixing and mastering, Michael Krewitsky of Professional Sound & Music started the meeting off.

Explaining that 5.1 is currently the most accepted standard for surround and Dolby’s method for encoding/decoding, Michael explained how Dolby became a very successful company, not only via their foray into movie theaters with this technology, but by also having their “D-Chip” incorporated into most receivers. This D-Chip decodes surround sound for home and business applications, with vast potential for future use.

Michael detailed the basics of surround sound, which are 5 channels plus a subchannel. 5 speakers plus a sub-woofer are required to correctly produce surround. The mixer is in the center and a “circle” is drawn around it. Speakers are placed on the radius of this circle with properly mixed surround following on-screen action by panning.

Once set up, Michael likened mixing for surround to the Wild West, meaning you can do it from any perspective. The two major perspectives currently on mixing are: mix to the best seat in the house or from the artist’s perspective. Although the sky ‘s the limit, Michael pointed out that for a typical production by our group’s members, the mix would duplicate reality and could easily be overdone in an effort to use this new technology to wow clients and audiences.

Michael suggested that for those further interested in surround sound, visit Surround Professional and sign up for a free subscription to their magazine. To find out more about Michael’s local activities you are invited to check out his Pro Tools User Group. [Next meeting is scheduled for April 28th.]

Next up was David Helpling of DHM Music Design, a composer of music for picture for 6 years. David advised that with all audio production, including surround, make sure your equipment is set it up and functioning properly. On numerous occasions, visits to local production houses have revealed improper set up even for basic stereo productions. David cited out of phase speakers, incorrect calibrations, etc., He also recommends to always think of your mix in terms of the system that will be used for playback. So mix for your playback device or primary destination.

Bill Coe of Tin Ear Music/Digitrax Recording Studio, rounded out the evening’s presenters by discussing some basics of hiring a composer. He covered costs explaining that a composer is selling his/her time and expertise.

Bill encouraged producers to establish a working relationship with a composer. Go over the cost of custom music with the composer before submitting a budget to a client to establish if custom music is feasible for a project. Allow for changes and complications as part of the overall budget. And budgeting for the time it will take to create a piece of music is important too.

On the composer’s end, expect “Kill Fees” to cover expenses incurred (like hiring other musicians) should a production fall though. (Approximately 50% of the contract).

To help a composer determine the sound you’re after, Bill suggested playing samples of similar music. Tell your composer what it is that you specifically like about the music, e.g., the horns, piano, etc. Use lots of emotional adjectives.

Finally Bill cautioned about some things NOT to expect from a composer unless spelled out beforehand.
- separate or “split” tracks (you’ll receive the full mix only)
- multiple versions
- sound effects
- having the composer mix the voice over

At the end of the night, MCA-I President, Craig Bentley, had audience members offer up their favorite royalty and royalty-free companies to end the meeting.

Favorite royalty companies were:
Network Music
Firstcom Music
Freeplay Music
Dewolfe Music
Associated Production Music

And royalty-free companies:

Music Bakery
Gary Lamb (Piano Music)
Studio Cutz Music Library
Fresh Music Library
Hollywood Edge

Michael Krewitsky added that there are some algorithmic composition tools available for creating your own production music and priced from $1,400 - $8,000.

A big thanks to Michael Krewitsky and Broadcast Rentals for supplying door prizes and to Groovy for hosting our meeting!

About 80 people braved the pouring rain and horrendous traffic to get to KPBS. One may surmise that there is considerable interest in the new video format, HDV. Many of us had never seen a HDV camera, let alone the image they create. This was the opportunity to change that.

During the social hour in Studio "A," we had a lite set, Sony supplied several HVR-Z1 HDV cameras and a 23 inch Luma LCD HD monitor. Ena Newell and Jeanne Cole (2 of them) sat in as our subjects. It was an impressive picture! Once again, KPBS was a terrific host. We were greeted by Bruce Bauer (Corporate Development Director) with an invite for anyone that wanted a personal tour to call and make a appointment, because of a very full meeting schedule.

The show started off with Val Reynolds of Sony. After some brief history on HDV he showed us an 8 minute tape of HDV footage that had been up converted to HDCAM for us. The tape featured many of the Z1's capabilities including the "cineframe 24" and "cineframe 30" modes.

After a flurry of questions Val turned the meeting over to Jerry Miles and Ethan Ede of ProMax. Jerry showed us examples of HDV footage imported into a Final Cut Pro HD system. We were able to compare video that was imported via component HD with (the same) video that was imported via FireWire and Final Cut Express HD. Very interesting!

He also had a side by side comparison of the Z1 (in DVCAM mode) with a Sony PD-170. I think the biggest WOW came from a split screen with the Z1 (HDV) on one side and a $100K Sony HDW-F900 "CineAlta" camera on the other. I heard several comments like "I like the HDV camera better" and "Are you sure they're labeled correctly?" I don't think anyone is going to junk their CineAlta camera just yet, and it shows that the Z1 HDV camera can work well with the big HD cameras. Another "feeding frenzy" of questions broke out until chapter president Craig Bentley asked the room to focus on one at a time. Yeah right Craig... These people have been eating HDV rumors and are starving for real information!

Some awesome HDV "door prize packages" were awarded to lucky winners. Remember, members get twice the chances to win. The generous prizes were suppled by KPBS, Sony, ProMax and Video Gear Rental

About 50 people gathered at the Jack in the Box Video Studio to elect officers and board members, plan this year's meetings, and hear how to make your video look better. - Curt Betcher, who heads up Jack's video department-, ex-plained how their videos are combined with graphics, flash animations, and touch screen programming, then sent as Windows media files via satellite to training terminals in all the stores. Tours of their production and post-production areas were given before and after the meeting.

The following Officers were elected for 2005:
President: Craig Bentley
President-Elect: Mark Schulze
V.P./Treasurer: Deborah Bravandt
Webmaster: Kerry McCall
Communications: Mike Fendt
Membership: Martin Banks (New)
Logistics: Bill Bork

The following were also elected to the Board:
Ray Asturias
Lynn Manning Ross
Jason Taylor
Mike Brueggemeyer
Steven Viel (New)

Clint Burkett and Jeremy Sykes have resigned their board positions to make room for the two new board members. San Diego MCA-I thanks them for all they've done for our organization!

For anyone who hasn't heard, our chapter President Emeritus, Connie Terwilliger, is President Elect for the whole international organization!

The last part of the planning session was brainstorming on the feedback received from our meeting planning survey, and voting on meeting topics and locations for the rest of this year. Look at the list of upcoming meetings below to see the great things we're working on for the near future. Thanks to all who took part in this important task.

The second part of the meeting was a presentation by board member Mike Brueggemeyer on How to Make Your Video Look Better. Mike is an MCA-I success story - based on commercial spots he presented during our last member showcase, he has now been hired as a writer/direct-or for Multi-Image! Mike has produced, directed and edited over a thousand commercial spots, and brings a solid film background to his work. After the presentation, raves were rampant about all the great knowledge Mike imparted.

Door prizes were provided by Jack in the Box and Video Gear Rentals. Thanks again to Jack, Curt, and his staff for being such excellent hosts!

Tips, tricks and hints for making your video look better

By Mike Brueggemeyer

(Disclaimer: If there is one thing I know, it is that rules are made to be broken. Use this info solely to help you in your judgment of what you want to incorporate into your work. This ain’t the Bible, and I ain’t God.)

1) Know what you want before you start.
a. Visualize in your mind how you would like to see it, or
b. Steal someone else’s look

2) Color bars are our friend…
a. Use bars as a standard for monitors
i. Set up your client’s monitor before you show them camera image, footage
b. Learn what they mean
i. 0, 7.5, 15, 100, and why
c. Digitize with them

3) But not our best friend.
a. Camera bars vs. camera signal
i. Setting your camera

4) Handheld is a style choice – in prep.
a. Handholding can make it look thrown together, amateurish

5) Move the camera.
a. Dolly, escalator, elevator, conveyor belt, pickup truck

6) Move the subject.
a. Change their size in frame
b. Background in motion is more vibrant

7) Filters – only use what you can’t duplicate in post.
a. Grad, star, color correction
b. Diffusion – in post

8) Wide shot – use multiple exposures, then combine in post.
a. Photoshop masks for multiple layers

9) People – good side.
a. Nose points to light

10) Angles on people.
a. Straight-on tends to be boring – liven it up

11) Reflector at eye level or above.
a. Do you really want a double chin to be emphasized?
b. Natural light tends to come from sky, not ground

12) Before sunset- people (Incident)
a. Soft light, low-contrast, warm key light, no fill needed

13) After sunset – cars (Reflected)
a. Car’s surface reflects opposite horizon
i. Sun would be a hotspot in reflection

14) Kevin Reynolds – 1 thing blown out.
a. Make it interesting, break the rules, make it look like life

15) Green Screen
a. Even lighting, a little hotter than your subject
i. Monitor – contrast up, chroma down
ii. Waveform – as small and even a band as possible

16) The Waveform/Vectorscope is your friend.
a. Use it for exposure, lighting contrast, to see what is too hot or not
b. Digitizing – maximize what gets from tape to computer

17) Import /Export is vital
a. OMF
b. Quicktime reference
c. Native Codec

18) 7.5 to 100 is 16 to 235
a. In RGB, you still need to be aware of where black and white are

19) Levels filter
a. Lets you fine-tune white, black, gamma
i. Gamma – where middle-gray lands

20) Grad and vignette.
a. Grad
i. Sunset, background, text
b. Vignette
i. Look, middle highlight

21) Hue/Saturation.
a. Color correction
b. Look
22) Photoshop and masks
a. Selectively color-correct sections of an image over time

23) Green Screen
a. Digitize with chroma up
b. Ultimatte
c. Dial chroma back

24) Film Render
1) Color correct using levels
2) Hue/Saturation for look
3) Any other effects you wish to add
4) Easy on the grain
5) Slow the footage down to 20 fps if you can
6) Check the Frame Blending box
7) Render settings - 3:2 pulldown, wwwss (any setting is fine)
8) 235 degree shutter
9) Render using editor’s codec