“Sam here. I’ve been waiting to write this article for a very long time, and it signals the beginning of something… and that is the beginning of complexity finally getting out of the way of high end filmmaking and truly making it accessible to everyone. We’re talking turning high end filmmaking into a teachable, repeatable process….
… There is a new world of content that is emerging and the paradigm shift from an ivory tower post production mentality where everything is complicated and no one knows how to communicate with each other is shifting to a model where anyone can make something that looks amazing if they take the time to become good at their craft. All you need is the right workflow, some affordable tools, a basic understand of storytelling and filmmaking fundamentals, and a willingness to learn….”
Commentary
I laboured under the ivory tower postproduction mentality mentioned in the quote above as well as the cap-in-hand production finance paradigm that has ruled documentary moviemaking for what seems like an eternity and I can think of no systems in the creative sphere that can be as punitive and as brutal to storytellers.
I have experienced the worst of the system with the lowest of low points being the time when then Australian Prime Minister John Howard personally demanded my human rights documentary movie project that was about to be commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Commission under its New Directors scheme be cancelled resulting in being blacklisted as a moviemaker.
I sincerely hope Australian expatriate Sam Mestman is correct about a coming major paradigm shift in the nature of independent documentary moviemaking, and I look forward to the rest of his four-part series of articles about the methods used by LA high school students and their advisers and assistants in the Apple Short Film Project.
Although the Apple Short Film Project was based around using RED Raven raw cinema cameras equipped with EF-mount Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art lenses, I hope that the workflow used in these short documentary projects will be adaptable to using more affordable cameras such as Panasonic’s Lumix DC-GH5 and GH5S hybrid Micro Four Thirds and media storage systems other than LumaForge’s reportedly excellent Jellyfish Tower.
I will post links to each article in the series as they appear.
Links
- Apple – Emerging LA filmmakers create short films with small budgets and big ideas
- Apple – Final Cut Pro X
- Apple – Logic Pro X
- Apple – RED RAVEN Camera Kit + Final Cut Pro X
- fcp.co – If High School Kids Can Do It, So Can You… The Apple Short Film Project Workflow Pt. 1
- Intelligent Assistance
- Kopto Studios
- Lesspain Software GmbH & Co. KG – Kyno
- LumaForge
- Lumberjack System
- Mobile Film Classroom
- Neat Video – noise reduction plug-in
- RED – RED Announces the RED Raven is Available Exclusively Through Apple
- RED – RED Raven
- Sigma – 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM | A
- StarkInsider – Apple Store now selling RED Raven camera kit bundled with Final Cut Pro X
- We Make Movies
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