T.E.D. BLOG

We’re still here!

Wed, 5 Jan 2011 07:44:35 -0500

Like the great L.L.Cool J once said, "Don't call it a comeback I been here for years." It may have been a while but here we are finally with another blog post. This absence hasn't been for lack of trying. A few months back after listening to Gary Vanerchuk's book "Crush It" (excellent read by the way) I decided to change our blog to video. I went ahead with a newly acquired Flipcam and shot a bunch of segments around and about the city. Brought the footage into the computer and realized I can't stand watching myself babble on about things. At least with a written entry it's much easier to edit.

Speaking of which let us dispense with the chit chat and get to the core of the post. What the hell have we been up to?

In 2010 we entered two video contests (see links here) and shot a few miscellaneous videos that may or may not be released for your consumption. I know... why even bring them up if we're not going to let you see them? I assure you we're not trying to be like Prince. There is simply a time and place for everything and the right situation hasn't arisen for these particular vids. When it does you'll be the first to know. The good news is we've learned quite a bit from the production of these and the published entries. 2010 saw our first chroma work (this seemed much more complicated than it actually was) and our first environmental film (did that really happen). As with all productions whatever can go wrong will go wrong, but as such you can and must exercise your improvisational muscles. Several scripts didn't get produced due to scheduling, our chroma had to be shot outdoors via sunlight and falling backdrops thanks to windy conditions. From these missteps we managed to salvage presentable material and have compiled some handy tips.

Good things to know:

- Have sandbags for all stands
- Feed your actors before they consume raw eggs
- Always bring extra charged batteries, memory cards (and camcorders) to your shoot
- However long you expect it to take... triple that
- Make prop/equipment lists and pack EVERYTHING the DAY before
- Don't lose sight of the story in light of the technicalities of production
- Be careful when loading unloading equipment
- Breathe and have Fun

These seem like simple logical things but it's incredible easy to lose sight of them when trying to meet deadlines. We're not a full time house here. Everyone involved has a full time life outside of the film biz and this adds another layer of complexity to every production.

So what does 2011 hold for us? We're going to continue to build upon what we've learned and our goal is to publish at least twice as much content while upping the production/entertainment value. Santa has been gracious enough to bless us with a CobraCrane II which I for one am salivating to put to use.

So Happy New Year everyone and if you're interested in exclusive looks at unpublished work send us an e-mail or fire off a request via Twitter or Facebook. We look forward to entertaining you soon.

Special thanks to Gary LaBarr from www.realityradio101.com for his audio engineering talents in our Cheetah commercial

And

For your James Green weekly fix please check him out with Andrew Young on Geek Hard.

Christopher O'Hare
twitter.com/chrisohare

Twenty-Eight Dollar Films
info@tedfilms.com
twitter.com/tedfilms

Finally a Title!

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:51:14 -0400

So here we are back again with another TED Blog entry. I opened the last entry by saying it had been a while since our last update… Well it has now been 4 months, how quickly time flies. My goal is to post once a month but at the same time I don’t like to talk just to hear my own voice. I believe in saying something when there is something worth saying.

Let’s get into what has been happening in those months of silence. Firstly as you can see (unless you’re reading this on Wordpress) we’ve got a bit of a new look here on the site. We had found that there was considerable lag when trying to load the site and we’ve taken steps to remedy this. It’s far from perfect but it has been a step in the right direction. In addition to the look we’ve added some new content. We know have a TWITTER page containing you guessed it… our Twitter feeds. We’ve started up (in addition to FILMolocaust) two new feeds, TVolocaust and COMIColocaust. Two guesses what these feeds contain.

Speaking of the “Olocausts”, the originating title (FILMolocaust) was picked for its ridiculousness. The idea of a movie review shows Title sounding so brutal yet being so tame was hysterical to us. However, not everyone has the same sense of humour and perhaps the title deters people from checking out the content. What do you think? Drop us an e-mail Filmolocaust@tedfilms.com.

Aside from the title issue we’ve been working hard at providing a show worth watching. We’ve come a long way from “Episode#1 – 4 guys at a table”. There’s a set, a whack load of lighting gear (most of it hand built), microphone upgrades, camera upgrades and a ton of post production filtering/titling and editing. We continue to work hard at bringing you the latest (relevant) News and Rumours floating about Hollywood while providing a straight forward commentary on the industry from an end user point of view. Each week we attempt to review the film that will be of most interest to the everyday person and help you decide with a real world rating system (that equates to dollars without worrying about currency) of BUY IT, RENT IT, STEAL IT, SKIP IT. You’ll know what dollar value is equated to each of those categories in your particular location. As always we’re open to your comments and suggestions as well as reviewing your content. We’ve had one viewer send us his demo reel and we’ve inserted it at the end of one of our episodes as well as posting it on our site under Friends & Sponsors. So please keep us informed as to what you like and/or what your up to. We’ll give you a plug on the show and the site.

Continuing on with company news, our fictional web series that has been in development looks to have finally acquired a name. Tentatively the series will be titled “Singularity”. Let the speculation begin as to what the show will be about.

In related news there has been a delay in the shows development as one of the writers had to be let go for unacceptable public comments. Despite this unfortunate incident the rest of the team has refined the shows concept and are working at building a well laid out timeline. Singularity is shaping up well and I believe we’ll all be better off for the changes.

With the story shaping up it’s time to expand the pre-production. We’ve learned a lot from Filmolocaust but we need now to move outside of the controlled environment of the TEDfilms studio. We’ve done some night time tests outdoors and will be modifying our technique accordingly. More tests coming this month.

‘till next time…

Christopher O’Hare
Twenty-Eight Dollar Films

P.S. Don’t forget to vote for us as the Webs Sexiest Hosts and support This Week In Media.

E-Mail DaisyWhitney@Gmail.com

Happy Holidays

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:49:37 -0500

So it’s been a while since our last update. This is due simply to the holiday season. Everybody’s got family and business functions to attend to an what not. This however does not mean that TED Films is sitting idly by. Filmolocaust keeps us relatively busy on a weekly basis and we’re still refining that process. We’d like to shrink the overall length and get to the point quicker. We’ve been toying with the idea of splitting the show up to five 10 min chunks so that you can watch (and download) specifically what interests you. I believe that’s the whole point of new media. This isn’t Broadcast where we tell you what you’re going to watch in addition to how and when. You define the terms here folks. This is interactivity at its finest. Try e-mailing NBC and see what kind of response you’ll get. The future is now, tell us what it is you want to see and we’ll deliver it as ordered.

Does anyone have an “AppleTV”? We’ve got the option to deliver an HD version for that platform so if there’s a demand let us know.

In addition to the show’s format we’re going to be tweaking the set as we’ve got building and striking down to a science. So with that running smoothly we can start to experiment.

Speaking of experimentation… On the other front, I’ve written a few new episodes for our yet untitled fictional web series and have started to do some camera tests. Very happy with low light tests and have found some interesting looks through software filters in post. Looking forward to getting dirty with some actors, figuratively speaking of course.

We’ll be assembling our writing team early in the new year to really start solidifying this story so we can stop all of this talk. We’ve got a solid foundation and some characters that are developing well. Lots of fun to come in 2009.

I’d like to keep this one short, so in closing I’d just like to mention the Filmolocaust promotion. Follow TEDFilms on the Twitter and vote for the show in MDialog for chance to win iTunes/Blockbuster Gift cards. No purchase necessary see site for details.

… And lastly any Indie Filmmakers send us your stuff if you’d like some free publicity. We’ll take a look and review it on the show. Send us e-mail to: Filmolocaust@TedFilms.com

That’s it for now, more to come next year.

‘till next time…

Christopher O’Hare
Twenty-Eight Dollar Films

Open MDialog…

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 19:47:49 -0500

We’ve decided to provide more content than just these Blogs. If you’ve been visiting the site in last 30 days you might have noticed we’ve added a podcast to the mix. This show however, isn’t the project I’ve been writing about up until now (more on that later)… It’s something entirely different. We thought that my written ramblings weren’t enough to keep your interest in our goings on, so in early October we got together with a video camera to discuss what else… movies. The first show was literally a camera on a tripod with not much planning... Quick and Dirty. Since that test we’ve upgraded our video, lighting, set and sound. It’s been an interesting test into the web video world and for me an opportunity to see how our fictional show will work, technically speaking.

After shooting the first episode the challenge was getting it on the web. No big deal right… well our first video file was almost 1GB. With a file that size I’m sure it wouldn’t be long before our server bandwidth would be sucked into oblivion. Needless to say we’ve reduced our file sizes and found free video hosting via a wonderful Toronto based company, MDialog.

MDialog gives you unlimited user downloads of your content for free, creates and hosts multiple versions of your video for different formats (web, iPhone/iPodTouch and/or AppleTV) and serves them to the requesting device automatically. From there you can have it so that only you, people you invite or everyone can view your content. You can also choose how people view your video, whether on the MDialog website, your website (through embedding the HTML player) or through their free iPhone/iTouch App. In addition the RSS feed that you’re provided is compatible with all RSS readers and can be submitted to iTunes. They provide detailed viewing stats as to how many people are watching and in what format. Your video is immediately available upon upload.

I do have some minor quibbles about the service but support has informed me these issues will be rectified in future software releases.

In any event I’ve been very pleased with the service and their above average video quality. This will work very nicely when we move on to distributing future projects. Speaking of which we will continue preproduction on our fictional series over the coming months and look to provide more details early in the new year. Our movie podcast “Filmolocaust” has been more of a challenge than anticipated but none the less a tonne of fun. Finicky tape mechanisms, hard drives, poor lighting and a strange buzzing in the mic that turned out to be light switch next to the camera kept our technical minds spinning but we think we’ve worked out most of the kinks and are moving on to polishing the performances/timing.

“Filmolocaust” is a weeklyseries (normally released Tuesdays) we discuss the news and rumours around Hollywood, review movies and relentlessly critique all things film. So if you’re into movies and want an honest opinion or simply a one stop shop for Hollywood rumours and news… check us out.

Search Filmolocaust in:

iTunes or MDialog or Right Here under Podcasts

Getting this show up and running took a little more than expected but we’ve learned valuable lessons and are looking at resume pre-production on our yet unnamed fictional web-series. The Writing team will be getting together this coming weekend to hammer out some major plot points.

I plan on Blogging once a month or if something important comes up but please keep coming back and don’t forget to subscribe to “Filmolocaust” and rate the show by clicking on those little stars.

‘till next time…

Christopher O’Hare
Twenty-Eight Dollar Films

Tough Decisions Ahead

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:27:41 -0400

As the days turn into weeks and weeks turn… ah you get the picture, I find myself vexed with recurring themes from project to project. All of which have resulted in unfinished works gathering dust in their limbo. Issues of budget, scale and production value haunt me. Our latest kick at the can was conceived to forgo these issues, in fact, was at the very heart of the concept, but alas as we move forward I can’t help but feel us falling into the same pitfalls. As a producer I have a vision for this project and it is quite vivid. Converting this esoteric notion into something visually close to that is the real challenge. I’m not saying that these issues are unique to us; I’m simply stating what our current position is.

Having enjoyed the most recent TWIM (This Week In Media) I had to laugh out loud after checking out the project of one of the participants. Watching the first episode of the “Pigeon Impossible” podcast and seeing its creator repeat “It’s been Four Years!” multiple times within the first 30 seconds when talking about how long the project has been in the works, caused me to reflect upon our little company. Listening to this man expound upon his challenges while trying to produce a Pixar quality short helped me feel a little less frustrated with our current state of progress. Lucas Martell the shows creator talks about the right balance when it comes to marketing the project. Talking about the right time to begin releasing details about your work is a tricky matter. If he had started his podcast right at the beginning he feels he surely would have lost the majority of his audience a short while in.

At this point, “P.I.” has been 4 yrs in the making and there’s no way in hell I’ll allow our 5 min webisodes to take that long to produce. Having said that, I’ve already found that writing a BLOG at regular intervals with something meaningful to say is more challenging than I had expected. When I started this it was more of an exercise than anything, but I’ve quickly found a legitimate purpose for continuing. The “P.I.” podcast following the step by step process of creating an animated short (an extremely detailed account I might add) has yielded the benefit of an audience primed for it’s release as well as a group of enthusiasts and animators looking for tips, tricks, a chance to pick up new skills and solutions to their own problems. This process has garnered the attention of industry professionals before there is a movie to review.

Our project doesn’t lend itself to this kind of detailed account, as there are secrets that will have to be discovered by watching the episodes and not from reading them before hand. Doing so would ruin the experience from the start… but talking about the process and being honest about what it takes to make a movie, short, podcast etc is what makes this era of “New Media” exciting. Let’s open the doors and share our knowledge so that the Studios don’t have the power to decide for us what it is we watch.

So here’s the short list of questions T.E.D. Films faces moving forward.

1. How often should we post a new Blog and are we already too early by talking about this project?

We’ve put it out to the world that we need writers. We had a welcomed although unexpected response. Putting a small challenge to those who inquired about our “Craig’s List” ad helped to shrink the list of potentials to something a little more manageable. We’ve gone through some interviews and have a bit of a dilemma. Being a tech guy myself I should probably be wide open to the possibilities that such innovations can bring, however I’m a little leery about long distance teamwork. Conceptually we thought a team of 4-5 writers would be ideal for brainstorming and banging out episodes at a regular pace. The idea was we would get together monthly or bi-monthly to brainstorm and course correct the writing direction. So at the current stage of selection we’ve got two local writers on board and one possibly two that would require some technological intervention for the team get together. With e-mail and voice/video conference calls technically there should be no reason for everyone to have to be in the same place in order to communicate freely. That’s technically true but there is still something to be said about being there. Certain things are lost through writing or voice only communication. Body language can say a lot about how you really feel about something. It can also help convey your thoughts and help sell an idea. So, question two:

2. Do we stick with local writers possibly sacrificing on quality for the benefit of better communication?

Something that has been brought to my attention in regards to our BLOG is its lack of commenting system. This was a conscious decision I made, as I don’t really want to take responsibility for moderating such a system. There are theoretical implications of editorial responsibility once you change or remove one comment. However, if the public wants to comment and e-mail is too inconvenient, so be it. I put it to you the reader.

3. Would you like to see a commenting system for our Blog?

If you’d like to see a commenting system, one time only, go through the arduous task of sending an e-mail to info@tedfilms.com Subject: Comments. You can expound upon your thoughts or leave it at that. A blank e-mail with that subject will be considered a yea vote.

Our current plan is to have a large stockpile of episodes written before we shoot one second of footage. This is to make sure that the story arcs are fully flushed out well ahead of time and also to make sure we can release episodes in a timely manner without being stuck waiting for stuff to be written. The question now becomes all about the magic number.

4. How many episodes to we amass before shooting starts?

Speaking of shooting, there are newer and better cameras being announced every day. The rule of thumb is, the better your source footage is the better your final output will look. This webisodic series will of course not be 4k film resolution as the initial target will be web streaming, but if successful (okay when successful) we will release a higher res compilation for a price. Here’s the big question:

5. HighDef or StandardDef for shooting?

There are several more questions bouncing around in my head right now:

6. Do we settle for what we’ve got as far as equipment goes?
7. If not, Do we Rent or Buy?
8. What’s more important a crane/jib or DOF (depth of field) adapter?
9. Do we shoot in the Winter or wait for Summer?

Finally it all comes down to one thing… Trust.

10. Who do we trust with what we know and what we want?

Many of these questions are rhetorical and will be decided with or without outside influence but if you have any questions or comments about anything T.E.D. Films, as always drop us an e-mail (or leave a V/M on our Skype account, more on that soon).

Having gone on here much longer than anticipated a friend of mine might say: “Doooo Shut Up Leopold!”

‘till next time…

Christopher O’Hare
Twenty-Eight Dollar Films