Video

Video of Panasonic DMC-FX150's time-to-first-shot

Alan — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:39:46 +0100

In response to a question on www.dpreview.com's forum, I made a quick video of the speed of the Panasonic DMC-FX150.

You can download the video here.

Sorry about some of the subtitling speeds, this was a rush job to answer the question. You can always pause it to read the words.

Further information:

Initial images from Panasonic DMC FX 150

Images at f/2.8, also from DMC FX-150

Venn - Episode 2

Alan — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:17:11 +0100

Episode 2 of Venn has been released.

I cleaned and mixed the audio and wrote/recorded the intro and outro music. Compared to previous episodes, this was a pleasure to mix. There was a lot less processing to do to get the audio up-to-scratch.

Related links

3 Free Applications for Screenwriting

Alan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:02:38 +0100

Celtx

The New Haven project uses Celtx for screenwriting. I was all set help out in some other areas of production, when I received a warning from the project-lead. Essentially, although Celtx allows for multi-user collaboration, it doesn't facilitate it at all. In fact, it gets in the way.

One person creates a project file, uploads for sharing within the project team. Another team member downloads the project. Both update the project. The last one to sync the project overwrites the work of the other. Bad move.

It's a shame. Celtx has a lot of potential. If it weren't for the multi-user issues, it would be ideal for independent movie-making. It includes tools for capturing scripts, characters, locations, settings as well as props, CGI, vehicles, etc. Most (I'd say all, but I haven't confirmed that) are cross-referenced. I like the ability to be able to add a character in one scene, use the same character in a few other scenes, then run a report showing all the scenes that the character appears in. That's useful.

Zhura

I noticed a reference to Zhura when looking at the Celtx forum about multi-user issues. The interface looks a bit simpler than Celtx's and it doesn't look to have the depth of functionality. On the plus side, it's reputed to have much better multi-user functionality. On the negative side, it's currently a web-only application. So you can't add to your script while you're off-line. The team behind it are testing off-line access.

Any others?

Plotbot is another free application. Not one I've used, but I'll give it a go at some point.

Updates

If I find any more information, I'll update this page. If Celtx adds multi-user access, then please let me know if I haven't already written about it. That'll be the key for me to get involved and use it more.

New Haven

Alan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:26:37 +0100

I've been on the look-out for a Sci-Fi movie series a to get involved with. I wanted a side-project and after coming across a few old books I read and a few movies, I decided on the Space Opera theme. Lots of scope for over-the-top thematic music, a bit of rock and some atmosphere.

New Haven

I picked the New Haven project (previously known as Ticonderoga) as it fitted everything I was looking for out of a side-project. This had to fit alongside the normal jobs and projects.

New Haven's a good project. They had a gap for a composer, partly because the full feature's a long way off. That means there's a lot of other work to be done. The concept is original with a fresh perspective on sci-fi in space. It has potentially similarities with other sci-fi series (it's based around the military in space - hmm sound familiar?). It's difficult not to make comparisons really.

Fortunately, there are easily enough differences to make it stand out.

Firstly it's set in our own system, secondly there's no FTL travel, thirdly no aliens. Those three features alone set it apart from almost every other space opera. Add in a few other differences and it's easily headed to sit apart from the rest of the sci-fi series crowd.

What else?

I'm still looking out for other projects. Currently New Haven isn't taking up that much time. There's a long gap before I need to compose music for the soundtrack.

Venn - Episode 1

Alan — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:14:12 +0100

Episode 1 of Venn has been released. View the episode online for free.

Related links

Top 10 Space Opera Flaws

Alan — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:19:04 +0100

The vast majority of Space Operas have the same flaws. A moment's reflection and they seem obvious.

1. Lightyear is a measurement of distance, not time.

Although it could be considered colloquial hyperbole nowadays, like saying some car is lightyears ahead of another in its technology, would it still be colloquial in the same sense when there is a more basic need to space-faring humans for measuring distance in terms of lightyears?

2. Advanced technology is out of context

You can see some technologies that are lightyears ahead - see 1 above ;-) - of where we are nowadays (FTL drives), but others are barely a decade away (e.g. tv screens as part of a wall, upgraded electrical sockets, fluorescent strip lights). I'm surprised I don't see a normal 13A socket or whatever the US equivalent is for the North American series/Hollywood movies. At least the characters aren't dialling 555 in scifi movies when they need to speak to someone.

3. Historical context suits the plot, not reality

A character will introduce 20th Century music as rock'n'roll in one episode suggesting to the viewers that it's rare and largely unheard of in that century. Other characters in the same society talk about Hitler, Stalin or the politics of American Indians without explaining them to each other, suggesting to the viewer that knowledge of these historical people and their respective histories is common in that century. I find it difficult to understand a world that can remember one part but forget the other. Saying that if I think back through the histories of the 1600s, I can probably remember more about the historical events than I can the music. But the knowledge of the music isn't lost, few of us would be shocked to hear that Bach or Handel existed even if we can't name the music.

So which part of history has been forgotten or which part is taught less in the schools?

What made it even worse was that the series is set only a century away so how could they have forgotten rock'n'roll so quickly?

The saving grace for that series is that it's not alone in this using this warped concept. There are numerous other examples.

4. Time distorts

The time that it takes characters to travel from one place to another changes to suit the episode end or the length of a movie. A whole fight sequence can take 20 minutes of movie time, but only take 2 minutes of character time. It may take another set of characters two hours to get to their objective. But they arrive at the same time. How's that?

Watch the time it takes characters to travel between planets. That really does get distorted even after taking into account the time stated in the plots. This becomes worse in the scenarios where direct planet-to-planet travel isn't possible between solar systems and instead the ships have to pass at FTL speeds through gateways further out in the systems, then travel at slower-than-light speeds in the system.

Some of this could be put down to lack of continuity when reading through scripts, sometimes down to laziness but mainly I think it's so that the story fits better.

5. Non-caucasian Warrior

This is a delicate one to talk about. I guess the issue is down to stereo-typing at the casting stage and I can only applaud series like the reimagined Battlestar Galactica for bucking the trend somewhat, but unfortunately not far enough. That's a guess, it could well be that the author/scriptwriter wrote the character descriptions stating race.

There are two angles on this that bug me:

a) If the Earth is to have united under a single Government, wouldn't the race ratio for the people that were starbound be different to what we see on TV? Perhaps more Chinese, more Indian, to pick two obvious origins, than the typical western caucasian that we do see on our screens. I'd like to watch some non-Western and non-Japanese Space Operas to see if the same or reverse ratios apply.

b) Assuming we have to accommodate the lack of non-caucasian actors for some reason (why? I can guess it's down to the networks and production houses rather than the writers), then why do the non-caucasian male actors have the same roles across the different series? The male non-caucasian actor tends to be a warrior; think Lt Worf or Tyr Anasazi. To some extent even the character Ronon from Stargate: Atlantis. I admit it's not always the case, but the percentages do seem to bear it out.

6. Computer Displays

No imagination. Even the display sequence at the start of the Minority Report gives some insight into how the line between display and interface could be used in the relatively near future compared to the scale used in Space Operas. Even now, we're able to see some of that technology, witness Jeff Han's demonstration and the touch interfaces becoming more prevalent.

I can understand how displays were block graphics back in 60s tv series. The world of computers was new and the rate of advancement in the field wasn't as visible to the average member of the public (or at least to screenwriters and fx designers). However now that we've had 4 or 5 decades of living with computers, we should have a better idea of where the technologies are going. It seems wrong for a Space Opera to have more backward technology than we can find in current research papers.

I've been trying to avoid picking on any one movie or series so far, but in this case I'm going to break that rule. I have no idea why the screens flicker during the identity checks in Gattaca. Either the signal's there or it isn't. Flickering implies that the signal is only partially being received and is an analogue signal in the first place. Is the technology that bad in the future that displays flicker?

7. Childish/Idiotic Characters

Why bother? I think anything by Gene Roddenberry suffered from this, but he's not alone. Trance-Gemini in Andromeda annoyed me a lot and almost made me stop watching it. I'm glad the character was changed after the first series making for a more relaxed viewing experience.

Think of the outcry against Jar-Jar Binks. There are other examples (Dagobot) where the main cast is human and then there are one or two aliens or robots that would be more apt on childrens tv than in a serious Space Opera.

I think the scriptwriters in Farscape managed to avoid this flaw most of the time, ensuring that the alien characters were a full part of the plot with their own character development, despite having a few monomaniacal traits.

8. Infodumps/Expositions

Seems to be a major flaw in sci-fi writing in general of which very few authors, if any at all, have escaped it completely. The better authors manage to weave it into dialogue, the worst authors deftly weave it into dialogue with the agility of a wrecking ball against a concrete dam.

It is a challenge to do do properly and probably a bigger challenge for sci-fi than most. That means the writers have to step up their game. Some present a short intro, show someone reading a story, animate the pages of a book or show some history. All are forms of getting a lot of information about the world in which the series is set. I'd prefer to have a narrator (whether in type or spoken) than have bad infodumps in speech. It's why I'll always give a series a few episodes. In the first couple, the scriptwriters are trying to set the scene and just because they're no good at that, doesn't mean that the rest of the series will be bad although it does make me cringe. That does make it more awkward for feature-length films where you have to figure out how much time to spend informing the audience of the world.

So far there are a few series that I just haven't got past that stage despite there having been several seasons on release. I would've missed out on the better plots of Andromeda if I'd left after the first few episodes (those were very bad, but not because of infodumps).

9. Dirt

Why is Earth called Dirt? One Space Opera (or indeed any sci-fi tale) using the word Dirt is fine, but for other authors to use it is just plain non-originality. I'd say it's plagiarism, theft and/or copying, but it's so prevalent that would be difficult to prove. Sadly, it's become a trope. If future humans were going to forget the word, but still have enough knowledge of what the other senses of the name meant, then why isn't it called Soil, Peat, Ground or, my favourite, Humus. No, not Houmous (ah, the original planet of houmans, consisting of an oily garlic mush), but Humus.

We even have different senses for the word Earth, it can also be in an electrical context. Again, Ground could come in useful.

The use of Dirt is especially abundant in any of the series where the origin of mankind has been lost.

Beyond the multiple senses of the word Earth, isn't it more likely that the planetary government will have changed the name. How many countries now can keep a name for more than a few centuries without changing it? Add in a few annexations, formations of federations and falling empires, then there is a lot of potential for the name to change.

And what happened to Gaia?

10. Not enough thought to the culture and society

The great science fiction writers were (and are) great for a reason. When they created a world, they thought it through, specifically they thought through the implications of the technology on the society. The also thought through how society handled itself. For instance, in a cashless society, how does money-laundering occur? What are the benefits of stealing something if you can't sell it for cash?

Why?

For the side-project I'm setting up, I want to avoid a lot of the cliches and mistakes. Can't avoid them all or it may be a boring waste of time to watch, but I'd at least like to get some concepts straighter than they are in a lot of series. Some of these are tropes, some aren't (yet). I was part way through writing this and a few other articles when I came across tvtropes.org. A lot of work already exists there, all amateur (no offence) but very interesting.

Venn Episode 1 in the works

Alan — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:47:52 +0100

I've recently received the video for the 1st episode of Venn (the previous release was a pilot and called Episode 0)

Again the episode is by Spinneyhead Presents. Episode 1 picks up from that and plays on the theme of the celibacy bet. The content is better than Episode 0, the scripts are better and from my perspective, the audio is so much better. It's definitely better than the first series, Memory.

This is the first episode that I've been happy with sound-wise. The quality of the recording far surpasses anything that the team has done before. I've seen series on BBC3 that had worse audio than this.

So what's this mean for me?

I can write music to fit the scene, instead of covering up audio errors
I can write less music. Yes, that's a benefit to all concerned. Check out Memory where I had to write a lot of music
I don't have to spend days or weeks cleaning up the audio manually (automated tools get you so far, but some things have to be tweaked manually)
The speech is already clearer and more intelligible
It's already more professional
It's easier to watch
More enjoyable from a production perspective

The audio has been improved greatly by recording with an off-camera microphone. Ian used a hand-held boom and microphone to achieve much better audio than possible with the on-camera microphone.

I'll post back when Episode 1 is released.

Progress Update

Alan — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:23:38 +0100

Wow, I knew I've been busy on other tasks for a week or so, but I hadn't realised it had been over 4 weeks since my last post. That's the first time I've had a gap of this size since I started out with this site.

Screening

One of the projects I'm involved in had a screening of its pilot episode in the main cinema complex in Manchester last week. Unlike other projects where I'd had more control of the timing and placement of audio, this was a project where I had only provided musical intro, outro, stings and a few themes, and some of that was in collaboration with another musician. I was interested to see how the director had chosen to place the music in the episode, how it had been mixed (e.g. forward or placed back in the mix) and I was also interested in watching the episode. Up until that point, I hadn't seen the episode.

Business Change, Process Mapping and BPR

I'm working on a long-term transformation project at the moment. As I'm doing so, I'm keeping an eye out for the common pitfalls of process mapping. I don't think there's much I want to change in the process-mapping series, what I've already written is still valid. There are a few points that I think could make it easier to understand. Plus I want to continue the series, it's only a few articles long so far and there's so much more to write. One of the main points I'll discuss is the time it takes to do full As-Is and To-Be models and how other tools and processes such as those found in Lean can be more beneficial, depending on the context.

This is actually the reason why there hasn't been much other activity on this site. The demands of a full-time client plus travel there and back is leaving little time for the updating. It does however leave me with time to write, just not time to research and upload the texts.

So what now?

The good side is that I've been writing some articles off-line for the musical creativity series. I'll publish those soon. Some will take longer than others as it will take time to prepare samples.

Status of the Musical Instrument Retail Industry

I've been watching the failure of Sound Control/Turnkey/Soho Soundhouse with interest. Over the last few years, I'd only buy from one or two named individuals in that chain to the point that I'd drive past 2 of my local shops and purchase from the shop in another city a couple of hours away for better service. Add to that the fact that the sales stock was getting progressively more budget-based for the items I'd want to buy meant that I was looking around for a better store.

New Kit

The failure of Sound Control comes at an odd time. I am looking for a new hardware compressor to complement what I already use. Sound Control didn't really sell much pro outboard beyond the SSL range, so I was already wondering how to broach this with them or to branch off to other companies such as KMR.

Indie Filmmaking

venn is still progressing. Shooting was completed a couple of weeks ago for a few scenes. Means I should have some rough edits to write to soon.

Space Opera

I've also watched a few independent sci-fi projects collapse over the last month or so. One or two appear to have collapsed outright, others have been delayed as the respective teams understand more about what's involved

Stuffed

My own short-movie project, Stuffed, is on hold while I think about what background I want. When I started out with Stuffed, I wasn't thinking about the background. That's not an oversight, just that I hadn't noticed the opportunity. One day I was looking at the footage and the idea hit me. I've had a few short attempts using Public Domain footage from archive.org but that hasn't proved sufficient quality. I'm not on the look-out for a good background which will convert well to PAL-I resolution - this isn't a HD project. I'd like to get it finished soon.

Creating the outline of a Space Opera

Alan — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:21:31 +0100

Science-fiction is heavily laden with context rather than plot. Those series that feature good plot and good, well-thought out character stand out from the crowd, even when the cinematography and set are not up-to professional standards.

I like the idea of something that stands out. Think BSG (either actually, but more the reimagined series), Lexx, Firefly, Red Dwarf.

Rather than coming up with a central concept, I'm thinking of approaching it from the top down instead. So for this series, I'm going to write the rules first and then see what the series or the movie could look like. I don't want to choose opposites for all the stock characters, plot devices, etc. Lexx already mixed a lot of those up, providing the viewers with 4 different major characters:

a cowardly anti-hero
a dead assassin
a sex-slave who's now half-lizard
a robot head infatuated with the sex-slave

The Rules

Here are some of the rules that I've been thinking about setting up for a series:

1) Plot Immunity

Characters will have plot immunity for a maximum of one series. This can be renewed per series, but viewers should not expect a character to last throughout. This fits with actors committing for a series and also allows for actors to break-off after a series for other commitments.

2) No time-travel

I don't want any time-travel plots. They reek of lack of creativity. I'll listen if anybody comes up with a great script involving time-travel but the odds are stacked against me accepting it in the first series. I'd prefer the focus of writers to be on other plots.

3) Multi-planet Galaxy

The series will involve travel between planets under a variety of governments and alliances.

4) FTL

Faster than light travel will exist. Ok, perhaps it isn't hard sci-fi but for a first sci-fi series that doesn't really bother me too much.

5) No Aliens

There will be alien life-forms, but no aliens. Where do I draw the line? Well, I expect plants and small animals to exist on other planets. I just don't want any dodgy alien characters or humans with knobbly heads.

6) No Reset Button

Characters may end up better or worse than they were at the end of an episode. They may affect their environment detrimentally.

7) Sequence

If it's a movie, then I like the idea of the Sequence Writing. It allows for short episodes to have their own internal structure and also fit into a full feature-length movie.

8) Narrator

I like the idea of a narrator, even one that's involved in the on-screen action as well as sitting outside of it. The closest I can think of is Che in Evita. This concept would require some more thought but I am attracted by the idea.

9) Non-US-centric

A lot of the series out there are based too much on the US. That's understandable when you think where the bulk of the series are made. Maybe I've seen too much Space: Above and Beyond recently :-)

10) Plot Generator

I'm undecided on this. It does make for easier script writing in the longer term. It would have to be more original than what's currently around. Space Opera in itself is a plot generator including different planets and technologies.

a) Some ideas for a plot generator that fit the bill:

Bounty hunter - been done as major character in Space Hunter and episode characters in Firefly, BSG, Star Wars. I didn't think it was done well enough in Space Hunter so there's still opportunity there.
Trader - been done as major character in Star Wars, Firefly/Serenity
Smuggler - been done as major character in Star Wars, Firefly/Serenity
Soldier - been done in Space: Above and Beyond, Star Wars, BSG
Detective - Dr Who
Mercenary - in lots of books Janissaries or Hammers Slammers
Thief

Those are all a bit macho and male-oriented. Even if the character is played by a woman, the role would probably appeals to male viewers. They also allows for lots of action in each episode.

b) Service Sector

Maybe we should look more at the service sector for a different role, after all many of those roles should still exist in the future. These would be less likely to act as a plot generator though.

Teacher
Nurse
Therapist
Civil Servant
Facilitator/Mediator - just writing what I know about, no ego.
Trouble Shooter
Priest
Scientist
Professor

c) Other roles

And again there are other jobs and roles in the world

Janitor
Traffic Warden
Dinner lady (is there a PC term for this?)
Security Guard (done in Lexx albeit being a cowardly security guard)

11) No Faith

I'm not interested in getting involved in the concept of faith. That doesn't mean that religion won't exist in the series nor will the series deny existence of any gods. But in as much the same way as Friends or Neighbours aren't spiritual, there's no reason this series will be either.

12) Space Warfare doesn't need to be Naval

I like the carrier concept in BSG and a few other series but space warfare doesn't have to be based on naval warfare. It could be made more interesting if there was a limit to the size of spaceship so that carriers couldn't exist. Alternatively the series could focus on the smaller scale of warfare (think the ground units in Hammers Slammers). Or better still, not focus on war at all.

13) Space Opera Noir

I like the distinction of Space Opera Noir. It's a new one on me. I like the idea that you don't have to have heroes who are god through and through or evil villains who are thoroughly evil. People are human complete with their failings.

Plot Resources

Some other resources for developing plots (I've ignored the multitude of sci-fi plot generators)

Ansible's always a good place to look at for what not to do.

Raygun Revival

Basic plots in literature

Information for formatting screenplays.

Or a comparison for Hard Sci-fi, there's Orion's Arm Universe Project

Lessons Learned - Check it works and again

Alan — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:30:54 +0100

Check with your client before you delete anything

I was the client the other day and this happened to me.

Compositing

I'd passed the compositing tasks out to someone else. I sat in for a few minutes to check that it was going as I wanted it and make some decisions about how it would look. e.g. I'd prefer to have less foreground and no green showing rather than have the green showing in order to get the foreground complete.

I received a message a few days later and went round after a few days to pick up the results. The project had been rendered and had been burnt as a data file onto DVD.

I was able to view the rendered movie the following day. The compositing was great, a brilliant job on the chromakey process, especially when you consider the bad quality of the sources that I'd provided. Unfortunately, the background was only changing scene every second or so, not every frame as it should have been.

The compositor had deleted the source foreground and background files before I'd had chance (less than a day) to check the work.

Results

I've written about testing before. I've just experienced the effect of someone else not testing their work. It's put back the movie a couple of weeks, due to our conflicting diaries.

The format of the rendered file wasn't usable in Logic either. That's a big deal for me. I could have converted it, but I'd prefer to have it rendered into that format in the first place. Fortunately the file was still playable in VLC so I could see the quality and the juddery background.

Lessons that we both learned

Supplier should check that files are in a suitable format to the client before removing
Supplier should check that the client formally accepts the product

A comparison

I work differently, I still have the source files and rendered files for the Memory shorts a year after the event and I've still definitely got the files for the more recent Venn short which is a few months old now. If anything, I've got the opposite problem and I may have too many copies of the same files. I tend to have a decent backup routine in place anyway. It's sometimes the ad-hoc backups that I do in addition to routine backups that can cause confusion.

Tales from the commercial world

I've worked in a few industries. There are a couple of nice concepts that I've worked with:

Customer Acceptance. There should always be a documented process for what the customer has to do to sign-off the product. If there isn't one, it's usually one of the first things I write and get agreed, otherwise it's asking for trouble later on. The work doesn't count as being accepted until the client signs the acceptance.

User Acceptance Testing (can you tell I've some background in ICT?)/ Operational Testing. Leading up to the Customer Acceptance is a phase in which the customer tests the product. The product should be tested against defined criteria (defined and agreed by the supplier and client). In my case I'd have said that the foreground and background would be rendered at the same framerate, I'd have stated the resolution, the delivery format, when I expected it by, etc. It can get very formal, very quickly. Unfortunately, the more formal it gets, the less in touch we all become with whether the client likes the product or not.

Use in a Live Environment. No matter how much a client likes the product, they still may not sign to say that they accept it. Possibly from being too busy, possibly wanting it improved (forever and forever), possibly from trying to avoid paying or a variety of other reasons. A nice clause is to state that use of the product in a live environment constitutes acceptance. For media, there's copyright which supposedly makes it easier, after all clients should obtain an appropriate licence to use your media. So no matter how much they argue or ask for a better version (whether reasonable or not), it becomes more awkward for the client to use your product in their finished product and then say it wasn't good enough.