Ok, so I supose I should start one of these with an introduction to my self, and though I will be talking about me whenever i'm talking here and my experiences, we all had to start some where, and the start is where we are at. So lets begin shall we?
First off, if you have issues with bad grammar and possibly bad spelling, than I recommend you leave asap, as I am good at neither.
Secondly, I want to thank you for reading the following, and any subsequent entries. If it wasn't for the COW, and the readers at the COW, I wouldn't be the person I am now. So thanks! Ok lets begin shall we?
I am currently enrolled at Brooks Institute a film school (as well as several other visual mediums) in Ventura California. I have 6 months till I graduate, and am anything but the typical student there. Before I went to college I was an AP photography student with work published in a few coffee table books as well as several magazines, so when I talk about cameras it's not completely out of my ass.
Brooks is an amazing though there are many opinions about the school, and all are valid, to me it's been some of the best experiences in my short 21 years. The school really is what you make of it. and that goes for most schools yes, but here in particular. The way the school teaches you is to task you with projects, and if you are a DP you try your hand at being a DP. Though every one learns the same fundamentals, it is really up to the individual students to learn all they need to do to become what they dream of.
And there are electives that teach about specifics, such as cinematography or Directing the actor, it's every ones own cross to bear. There are many people who get out of Brooks and fail, for various reasons, but the #1 thing I see is people who don't try as hard as they possibly can do to do all they can in the time they have at the school. Then they get out in the world, and they are screwed because they have done so little in comparison to other out there.
My friend and I gave a free workshop about workflow, from start to finish, the stuff you need to think about before you begin doing anything. and 1 person showed up. She said she learned more about the film making process in those 3 hours than she had in the 10 months prior.
Like every enterprise the school is growing and changing, and understanding workflow as well as more post production fundamentals are coming in the near future. I am very proud of this as I was asked for input on the future curriculum. To me the school is not just a place for me to learn, but if no one else is learning with me than how am I to gauge my learning experience. So i try my best to help those around me. That being said, I am the lead student Technical Assistant in our digital labs. We have
about 140 running machines right now, including 30 mac Pro's 30 g5's and some old g4's, a lab of Intel Imacs (actually 2) and several post production suites including a dvcpro hd capture based suite, and a protools HD surround mixing suite. I don't need the work from the school they pay me very little, for the job I do, and sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall, but when you know you really helped some one achieve a goal, and they feel grateful, you get this amazing rush, a feeling of pure pride in knowing you could pass on your knowledge.
This is one of the reasons I love places like the cow, the knowledge sharing goes back and forth so fast and so freely, it's stunning. There's a lot more about me to be said but that will be for another entry I suppose.
I want to talk now about something that has been on my mind a lot the past year. We were one of the first school to get the HVX, we have 20+ now and they are very popular to say the least. And this is great in many ways, and yet disheartening in even more ways. We all know the pluses and the benefits of the camera, and how amazing it is, but one of the things many of us also see is the footage in context. We can see the downsides, and we know they are there.
The problem is, so many new people into this field, including most of the students at Brooks, don't know the difference between a 1/3 ccd and the Red Mysterium chip. Many of them couldn't tell the difference between 4k and hdv either but that's not the point. All they see are the pluses and none of the downsides.
Many of them try and shoot with a ground glass, which leads them to shoot with a cheap ground glass, and from there they end up shooting WFO and getting dark muddy and grainy images. They see this and they think "Oh all HD is like this" they assume the dvcpro Hd 720p is the same as 4:4:4 uncompressed 720. HD is HD is HD right?
every student that passes though the brooks shoots on film twice, at least. Once on a 16mm hand crank bolex, which is an amazing little camera, and a few months later we shoot on an Arri S. Both these cameras are old and out dated, but they are really there to show you what film is, to learn the material and learn the process behind it. It really was an amazing experience, I operated a bit with both cameras, and did some loading. But being student projects done around a year into the 3 year program, they are full of mistakes and done rather sloppy. so they turn out rather bad, and to me this really gets people thinking All film will turn out this way if they don't have millions of dollars worth of budget.
So they go to HD. Since we got the HVX's not a single portfolio has been shot on film (portfolio projects are the final course in on of the three tracks at the school, a total of 8 months goes into the production of the short if not more) and to me it's kind of the trade make of student filmmakers today. They all have the opportunity to run out and shoot on tape or p2 cards, or basically free media. So mistakes are made, but with little consequence, and risks are taken and corners are cut.
To me it seems like the following analogy: It's like two young drivers, one has a nice new scion, with those dent proof plastic bumpers, the other has a 1997 honda accord that dents like I bruise, for no reason at all. They both back out of the same parking spots ever day, and behind them are metal guard rails. One day they both back into the guard rail, The scion owner gets out looks at his car, not a dent, looks as good as new. the Honda owner gets out, and what do you know, he's got a dent the size of Al Gore's head.
So 800 dollars in repairs, and 2 days later the two drivers are backing out again, This time the Honda owner takes it slow and steady always keeping a vigilant eye, and makes it away smooth. The scion owner, having payed no penalty for their mistake bumps into the poll again.
With out cost and sacrifice we cannot learn the lessons we need to to be successful in the future. Many young filmmakers today will never have to deal with a hair in the gate, or having a perfect take flashed by a bad zipper on a changing tent. They won't learn well from their mistakes, and they won't take all they can get from them either.
That's enough for today. I'll be coming back to this topic in the future as well as any other ones. If you have any questions or comments, let me know. I'm happy to answer them or give my perspective. -Zander
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