Contents:

**"We're Back!" from Access DV

**ANNOUNCING: New video, "GUERILLA TO GUERILLA: GETTING A 'FILM' LOOK ON VIDEO."

**SPOTLIGHT: Elysium Films, shooting a DV WESTERN!

**HOT TIPS: Talking about Cinelook and Cinemotion

**INDY RESOURCE of the month: Video Helper Music Library

**BOOK REVIEW #1: PRODUCING GREAT SOUND FOR DIGITAL VIDEO by JAY ROSE

**BOOK REVIEW #2: REBEL WITHOUT A CREW by ROBERT RODRIGUEZ

**WRAP UP

WE'RE BACK! For those of you who have been waiting for this new installment of our newsletter, we're excited to say, "here it is!" As you've noticed from above, we've got some great stories this month, and many more to come in the future.

ANNOUNCING: GUERILLA TO GUERILLA: GETTING A "FILM" LOOK ON VIDEO.

YOU ASKED FOR IT (time and time again, we might add!) and we listened! We are currently in post-production on what is, as far as we know, the only video of it's kind--a true, instructional video on getting a "film" look. Finally, you get to SEE what Frame Movie Mode looks like, and check out what straight up video mode does when run through cinemotion and cinelook. But this is NOT just slip-shod footage thrown together--these are REAL PROJECTS by REAL FILMMAKERS that are currently appearing in the REAL WORLD! (No, not the show on MTV.) We talk to the filmmakers and and get their inside tips on what works and what doesn't.

Just SOME of the people you'll meet: FOSTER CORDER (Producer of the MTV music video "Too Legit to Quit" by MC Hammer, plus dozens others for folks like Poison, Motley Crue, etc.) He recently did an EXTREMELY low budget video for an up and comer, shot half in Frame Mode on the XL1, and half in regular video mode. He used cinelook to balance out the differences. You'll see before and after footage of the music video, and pick up some tips from Foster.

JONATHAN LAWRENCE (director of multitudes of indy projects) talks very specifically about aspects of film look people often over-look. He shows footage shot on the Canon XL1 as well as Hi 8 footage (!!!) on which he managed to get a really decent film-look.

JAMES C. WESTWOOD (see this month's spotlight) who is working on a DV Western shot in 16:9 mode. See how he's dealing with the loss of resolution that comes along with 16:9 and still getting a great film look.

US. Access DV talks about our very first television commercial, currently airing in Long Beach and Los Angeles, for Deli Lite. We shot on an EXTREMELY low budget, entirely in FREAME MOVIE MODE, and easily pass the commercial off as 35mm film

Plus, we'll talk about things like the Tiffen Black Pro Mist Filter (and why or why not to use it), Polarizers, cheap lighting tricks, and more.

YOU ASKED. WE LISTENED. IT'S ON THE WAY.

SPOTLIGHT: ELYSIUM FILMS, SHOOTING IT OUT WITH THE BIG BOYS

This month's spotlight blew us away. James C. Westwood just wrapped shooting a DV Western. Do you know how HARD it is to shoot a western? Put it this way, these guys went out to a farm on top of Palomar Mountain and BUILT A RANCH FROM THE GROUND UP!!! Yeah, it was out of control

"Everybody told me I was crazy and said I shouldn't do it. So that pretty much convinced that I had to," says James. "I knew what it was I wanted to do, and I just had to listen to my gut. It's sort of like what Spielberg said about Jaws, 'If I knew it was impossible I wouldn't have tried.'"

Well, it may have seemed impossible to everyone else, but 17 hours of raw footage later, Mr. James C. Westwood has got most of the craziness out of the way.

"There was some disorganization early on in the shoot, and some unfamiliarity with the equipment" (They had, among other things, a CRANE which no one on the shoot had ever used before--though they still managed to get good stuff.) "Then, we had another unexpected problem. Our original set was built from foam, which looked really good on camera. However, one day the wind kicked up, and all of a sudden our full-size, built-to-scale ranch just sort of blew away, and then disintegrated in mid-air."

Ouch.

That pretty much put the kaibosh on the first half of the shoot. But, refusing to give up, James and his fearless group of new filmmakers built a new set--this time out of wood--from scratch. No small task.

Due to bad advice, Wayne shot in 16:9 mode on the canon XL1 (NEVER) shoot in 16:9 mode on this camera--we'll have an article coming out on our website soon!) This is causing him to lose 1/3 or his resolution in the final cut.

"Yeah, we just didn't know," Wayne says. And that brings us to what Wayne considers his biggest lesson learned on the shoot.

"You can never be over-prepared. Pre-production is VITALLY important and no matter how prepared you think you are, you are never prepared enough. When you're working forty hours a week at your day job, things get very difficult--location scouting, equipment research [like learning about 16:9 mode], building sets, etc. I don't think for the rest of my life I'll ever feel 'really' prepared when I step on the set, no matter how much pre-production work I do."

Even so, we salute James for his undertaking of what people told him was an impossible task. It is risk-takers like this that push the envelope of indy filmmaking to the limit and beyond, and this kind of spirit that will take anyone through even the roughest of shoots. We wish James the best of luck with post. Check out his site at http://www.elysiumfilms.com

HOT TIPS: TALKING ABOUT CINELOOK AND CINEMOTION

Okay, you're wondering whether or not to blow the money on an expensive program to do your film-look. You've heard about the expensive, real time bureaus ($100+ per minute!) and the long render times that can come with software (three months to render a feature?) and are weighing the pros and cons. Well, this month, we've got some really hot tips for you:

First, swing by digieffects site at www.digieffects.com and download the trial software. Yes, it will render your footage with a strange X through the middle, but at least you'll get to play around and get a feel for the render times necessary to get the look you desire.

(Note, this requires Adobe After Effects--you can try to get a demo-version from http://www.adobe.com )

Now, here are the things no one else is going to tell you about these programs.

Cinelook has all these amazing (so they say) PRE SETS--tons of film stocks ready to go, just pick one. Well, the fact of the matter is that most of these pre sets are over-kill. They are not going to help you get a super film look, but they will help you point out the fact that you're trying really hard to affect your video. Fear not, however, there's an easy fix: if you look in the fx window, you'll see that you can adjust how much grain appears in these presets--and it's here that you can start to get that look you want.

Try dropping the grain down to 4 or 5 in each channel, and leaving the rest of the settings alone. For instance, say you choose EK (eastman kodack) 7245, and you love the color shift, but the picture just degrades too much--just lower the grain, and leave all the other gamma settings the same. Play around like this with the different stocks, and you can get really great results.

If you shot Frame Mode, you are already so close to home. As we mentioned earlier, in the commercial we just produced, we shot Frame Mode and did NOTHING ELSE to most of the footage--and it looks great. Of course, it's a 30 second spot with lots of fast cuts. In a longer piece, the organic grain, dust, and dirt that cinelook can apply will really help with that subconscious, gut level instinct that what one is seeing is film.

Now, lets say that you have a VX1000 or even hi 8 and no frame mode. No problem, if you're on a Mac. You need Cinemotion. On a PC, look for Cinemotion to come out soon.

Also, at http://www.nurkware.com we heard about a new program for the PC, but haven't tried it out yet. It's a stand-alone film-effect software program, and may be worth checking out. There is a free demo-version available for download. (We believe it's PC only, but check it out.)

THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: if you use cinelook and cinemotion together, you MUST APPLY CINEMOTION BEFORE YOU APPLY CINELOOK.

What we suggest for beginners who just want a great film look and have shot in a regular video mode is to use the SHUTTER BLUR mode on cinemotion, and then follow the steps above to use cinelook without over-killing the grain.

And as we mentioned earlier, WE ANSWERED YOUR WISHES and have finished:

GUERILLA TO GUERILLA: GETTING A "FILM" LOOK ON VIDEO.

Click HERE for more info on the highly-praised tape.

INDIE RESOURCE--VIDEO HELPER

Hey, we always need music for our productions, and we just stumbled across and unbeatable deal. At http://www.videohelper.com we found not only the worlds coolest indy film music site, but truly fantastic music--with samples of EVERYTHING ON-LINE!

Now check this out, if you sign an agreement with them, they will send you--FOR FREE--18 CD's of their music. If you purchase just one cut off of any of them any time in 6 months, they're yours to keep. Otherwise you have to send them back. For commercials, industrials, web, and radio the rates are like $70-$120 per song! When you hear the quality, you'll be amazed. We were.

Plus, the site has the best sense of humor in the world. We laughed our a@#!$ off.

Their prices aren't listed for a feature film, but we believe they'll work with you based on your budget, if you ask nicely. Definitely worth the visit. Not to mention the fact that you can SEARCH for music by genre, description, title, composer, and like three or four other ways. We typed in "mystery" and got a whole list of, well, you guessed it, mysterious sounding music, which we were able to audition with Real Player.

What's exciting is that when looking for a type of song, you can go and do a search for the feel you're looking for on their web-site, and then go directly to your free cd's. Saves the trouble of auditioning everything under the sun.

Book Review #1: PRODUCING GREAT SOUND FOR DIGITAL VIDEO by JAY ROSE

Let's face it, as indy filmmakers we wear many hats. It's not always possible (in fact, it's almost never possible) to pay top dollar for top quality professionals. And one of the professionals that indys skimp on the most is--you got it--the sound guy.

This can be a very bad thing. You know how it goes, you end up with your next door neighbor swinging the boom pole like he's waving Mel Gibson's flag in THE PATRIOT, and at the end of the shoot you say with a shrug, "Well, I guess we'll have to fix it in post." NOT! You probably know by now, that doesn't work. So what's the solution?

PRODUCING GREAT SOUND FOR DIGITAL AUDIO, a truly great book. Packed with "Pro secrets to make your video projects sound as good as they look" (in some cases, hopefully better!)

From the cover and back of the book: "How to create crisp and engaging audio for video using any desktop coumputer: Mac, Windows, or SGI.

Covers the entire soundtrack process: planning recording, editing, and mixing."

It even includes a CD of tutorials and high quality samples so you can HEAR what Jay Rose is talking about!

I really enjoyed the read. This book is an ABSOLUTE MUST if you will be shooting on a budget and doing sound yourself. You'll learn what mics to use in the field, how to fix an echo, how to deal with line noise, cheap fixes for potentially expensive problems--and that's just the beginning. If you'll be doing your own sound mix on your G3 or Pentium based computer with some program like Peak, Sound Forge, or God bless you, Pro Tools, this book will teach you tips and tricks that will make your head spin.

At $39.95, this book can literally save you THOUSANDS in post production. So before your neighbor, best friend, or frat buddy starts twirling that boom like a baton, make him read this book.

And, if you want to get great sound, SAVE $8, AND help support Access DV, (talk about win/win!) click this link and get it from us-- it helps support the newsletter and our operating costs!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0879305975/accessdv

Book Review #2: REBEL WITHOUT A CREW by ROBERT RODRIGUEZ

Ah, yes, and oldie but a goodie. If you are new to the land of Indy filmmaking, you simply have to follow Rodriguez's account of how he made El Mariachi for under $5000 ON FILM!!! This is an incredibly inspiring story of how a guy with no money, who had EVERYTHING working against him (his teachers, his friends, UPS) shot his feature with NO CREW, NO LIGHTS, AND NO SYNC SOUND! And, he funded his movie by subjecting himself to MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS!

(For those of you that will understand how crazy this is: he would film his actors with an old Arriflex that sounded like a sewing machine. Then, he would have his actors REPEAT their performances into a TAPE RECORDER (!!!!!!) and hope it synced up! When it didn't, he cut away!)

I mean, this guy put himself on the line and succeeded. And isn't this what we all want as indy filmmakers?

Of interesting note is his last chapter entitled "10 minute film school" in which he teaches you, in a few minutes, everything you need to know about making a film. A great, inspirational read, even if THE FACULTY kind of sucked.

Save some bucks and support us by getting it at the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452271878/accessdv

WRAP UP

Hope you found this installment enjoyable and informative. Tell us what you think at feedback@accessdv.com Most of all, we hope you get out there and KICK HOLLYWOOD'S ASS! Best of luck with all your endeavors, and we'll catch you next time.

Enthusiastically, Biagio Messina