Facebook fan page

We are very happy that our facebook fan page has already more than 450 fans. If by any chance you aren't already a fan click here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Bedtime-Stories-X-The-Film/

Είμαστε πολύ χαρούμενοι που ξεπεράσαμε ήδη τα 450 μέλη. Σας ευχαριστούμε για τη θερμή υποδοχή σας και ελπίζουμε να πιάσουμε τους 500 πολύ σύντομα. Θα σας κρατάμε ενήμερους για την πρόοδο της ταινίας μιας και τώρα προγραμματίζουμε τα επόμενα γυρίσματα

UPDATE: 530 fans (likes)

Nikon D90 Breakthrough! Part I - The problem

While shooting with a DSLR camera has its advantages, shooting with Nikon D90 has some major disadvantages due to the fact that Nikon doesn't seem to want people using it for professional acquisition of video.
One of the major problems we have to solve is called 'stair stepping removal' (or how Nikon can make an easy task difficult). Specifically, D90's sensor captures the image and then resizes it to an anamorphic resolution of about 1280x800. Then every 10 lines just skips one or two pixels to arrive to the desired 1280x720. This in introduces the stair step effect mainly visible on diagonal lines.
Lots of solutions have been offered, none of them satisfactory. So we had to come up with our own solution.
Next: The proposed solutions and its problems and our own definitive and FAST solution!

First shoot segment finished..

Two and a half days of shooting later, the story “At someone else's' expense” (se varos kapoiou allou) was completed. First actual experience with shooting with the Nikon D90 and a minimal crew. Most aspects went well, and those that didn’t are fixable.

Photos coming soon.

Μετά από δυόμιση μέρες γυρίσματος, η πρώτη ιστορίσ (Σε βάρος κάποιου άλλου) τελείωσε! Πρώτη εμπειρία με τη Nikon D90 και μικρό συνεργείο. Σχεδόν όλα πήγαν καλά, και όσα δεν πήγαν φτιάχνονται. Καλά που δεν πάθαμε και τίποτα..

Φωτογραφίες σύντομα

Follow progress on Twitter!

twitter.com/bedtimestoriesx

Follow us and find out how the first Greek feature filmed with a DSLR is progressing!

Shoot starts on October 23d

Fuck committees – An essay by Tibor Kalman

I had read this a long time and it stayed with me. It directly involves film as it involves all art. It is unfortunately all true, but leaves a small window of hope. Strong stuff.

via ChangetheThought

FUCK COMMITTEES
(I believe in lunatics)

It’s about the struggle between individuals with jagged passion in their work and today’s faceless corporate committees, which claim to understand the needs of the mass audience, and are removing the idiosyncrasies, polishing the jags, creating a thought-free, passion-free, cultural mush that will not be hated nor loved by anyone. By now, virtually all media, architecture, product and graphic design have been freed from ideas, individual passion, and have been relegated to a role of corporate servitude, carrying out corporate strategies and increasing stock prices. Creative people are now working for the bottom line.

Magazine editors have lost their editorial independence, and work for committees of publishers (who work for committees of advertisers). TV scripts are vetted by producers, advertisers, lawyers, research specialists, layers and layers of paid executives who determine whether the scripts are dumb enough to amuse what they call the ‘lowest common denominator’. Film studios out films in front of focus groups to determine whether an ending will please target audiences. All cars look the same. Architectural decisions are made by accountants. Ads are stupid. Theater is dead.

Corporations have become the sole arbiters of cultural ideas and taste in America. Our culture is corporate culture.

Culture used to be the opposite of commerce, not a fast track to ‘content’- derived riches. Not so long ago captains of industry (no angels in the way they acquired wealth) thought that part of their responsibility was to use their millions to support culture. Carnegie built libraries, Rockefeller built art museums, Ford created his global foundation. What do we now get from our billionaires? Gates? Or Eisner? Or Redstone? Sales pitches. Junk mail. Meanwhile, creative people have their work reduced to ‘content’ or ‘intellectual property’. Magazines and films become ‘delivery systems’ for product messages.

But to be fair, the above is only 99 percent true.

I offer a modest solution: Find the cracks in the wall. There are a very few lunatic entrepreneurs who will understand that culture and design are not about fatter wallets, but about creating a future. They will understand that wealth is means, not an end. Under other circumstances they may have turned out to be like you, creative lunatics. Believe me, they’re there and when you find them, treat them well and use their money to change the world.

Tibor Kalman
New York
June 1998

Early render of the City

 

Title says it all.. It’s going to get a lot more complicated. Also, gearing up for production of the first sequence!

How to be an auteur..

Very funny article Suzanne Ballantyne (Raindance). If only it did not ring so true these days..

http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/index.php?aid=182

(Pic of Jean Luc Godard)