From CNN — A budding British director is enjoying success on a shoestring at Cannes with “Colin,” a new zombie feature that cost a scarcely believable $70 to make.

Japanese distributors are currently in negotiations for the rights to the film and buzz around the no-budget zombie chiller has attracted interest from some major American distributors — all of which is a very nice surprise for the team behind “Colin.”

Read the full story here.

The final installment of my interview with journalist, author and new media aficionado Scott Kirsner. In it, I ask him about his site, Cinematech.com and what motivated him to start blogging about cinema technology. Then, we talk about his new book,  Fans Friends and Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age. Some of the things he writes about in it are; ways to connect with your audience, the Internet as a distribution channel, coming up with new business models and monetizing your work. We go on to speak about Boxee and some of the stumbling blocks that are delaying the ability to play media from the Internet on your TV. And finally, I mistakenly let Scott do the wrap-up, in which he bestows all too much praise upon the work we do at HDFilmtools.com in a sinister effort to get your humble interviewer to blush.

Andrew Burke – Documentary Reel

I can’t remember how I came upon producer, cinematographer and editor Andrew Burke’s documentary demo reel, I just remember thinking it was extraordinary. No, it’s not an example of complex studio lighting techniques, just the opposite. But his visual style demonstrates a discerning and painterly eye for composition and a confident use of natural light. His editing style and choice of music show a natural instinct and sensitivity for rhythm, motion and flow.

Andrew started out with a strong interest in animation. After bouncing around a few schools including San Jose State and North Carolina he ended up at Chico State University in northern California, where he studied Communication Design. He won a top award at the student film show, and went on to organize the event for the next few years. He attended Film classes through the Communications Department and Fine Art Photography classes through the Art Department. I found it interesting that during his last semester he was actually able to earn his tuition fees “in-trade” for the production of web videos. “The school paid for the content, I paid them for tuition. It worked out nicely”.

He cut his teeth editing digitally in a rural high school class on Adobe Premiere 4.0, where he says his claim to fame was ‘figuring out’ they could Print to Tape without rendering. “It saved the class a LOT of time!”  He’s been working in Final Cut Pro since 2004. As aspiring freelancers we take work when we can get it and Andrew recently picked up some work on a commercial set as a workflow tech. (aka DIT or Digital Imaging Technician) He said the work of managing the P2 and CF card media was rock-solid using FCP.

In terms of his Gallery reel, Andrew explained to me that the majority of shots came from commission work for various television and web outlets. The subjects range from the cousin of revolutionary Che Guevara, to the fastest mountain biker in the world. “To be sure, I am still very “on the fringe” in regard to the TV and film industries. I mainly shoot and produce short-form content”. Call it ‘backpack journalism’ (though he believes that’s become a derogatory term) his demo reel includes projects that are made distinctly with a hybrid approach: not as in-depth as PBS is, but also more engaging than the evening news.

Andrew shot most of the images with Panasonic’s HVX200 P2 based HD camera. He told me “I like to get the color dialed in the camera, so only a few of the shots have any color grading or correction”. The opening shot, with streaky lights, was shot in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is an in-camera technique that he’s been working on for a few years, which will be displayed in an upcoming project.

The animation handiwork is care of the comic artist. Burke shot the material in 24p mode on the HVX200 and gave the artist 12p QuickTime files to draw on top of. He then composited the the images in Final Cut Pro.  He cut the reel together using FCP 6 and Photoshop.

The bike sequence where the rider ends up as a bunch of images in the frame was shot on a 35mm Canon RT SLR, which he describes as “a pretty neat toy!” and has the ability to shoot 7 fps without blacking out the viewfinder. He accidentally brought those still photos into a DVCPRO-HD sequence at their full resolution. “To Final Cut Pro’s credit, I basically had 4k photos, 1080, 720, and DV all living in the same sequence. Normally I’d have to optimize the photos first.”

I asked him about the amazing shot of the bike jumper, which starts with a bee in the foreground. He told me, “I would say the bee was one-in-a-million, but it’s closer to 36-in-a-million  I’ve had many insects “ruin” shots but in this instance the bee seemed to make that shot. Nevertheless, he told me he always carries some Cutter brand insect repellant in his gear bag.

Andrew has several projects currently in progress. One is a 25 minute documentary on the making of the largest mural in North America at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, commissioned by Urban Greenspaces Institute, and a promotional piece for photographer Bryant Austin who uses a 50 Megapixel Hasselblad camera to photograph marine mammals underwater. Andrew is excited to be based in Portland, Oregon where he is now a member of Oregon Media Production Assn (OMPA).

Finally, the mesmerizing, soothing music is by Lali Puna, a band from Germany and it was used with permission. He recommends you check them out at: http://www.last.fm/music/Lali+Puna

Andrew can be reached at his website http://www.bikefilms.tv

In Part II of my interview with Scott Kirsner, I ask for his take on the current state of the Hollywood studio system. How is it adjusting and transforming as a result of new technologies and the explosive growth of online media content? What are the opportunities emerging as a result of these changes? How does he see craftspeople and labor unions adjusting to the new realities of the current economic slump and business environment? Finally, I ask him to cite some examples of people who have been successful at monetizing independent new media projects for film and the web.

More from this series
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432	Part I	Part II	Part III
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III
	Windows Media Format 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III

Today I present Part I of a III-Part interview with Scott Kirsner. Scott is a noted author, journalist, blogger and digital technology expert who has written about innovation for publications such as the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Wired, Variety, Fast Company, the Hollywood Reporter, Salon.com, BusinessWeek, and Newsweek and his own website Cinematech.com, for nearly the last ten years. Much of his insightful work chronicles emerging trends in media and entertainment and the new artists and business models the Internet is giving birth to. He is the author if several books including; The Future of Web Video, Inventing the Movies and his most recent work, Friends Fans and Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age.

In this first segment, I ask Scott what interested him in the sometimes arcane world of cinema technology, talk about his first book, Inventing the Movies, in which he tells some of the never-before-told stories of the innovators who shaped Hollywood. For anyone interested in the future of media, movies and entertainment, I think you will find this an informative and enjoyable series.

More from this series
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432	Part I	Part II	Part III
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III
	Windows Media Format 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III

The state of the business of Hollywood, and more precisely the Southern California film industry, is finally getting  some long overdue national press coverage.

Digital technology and the Internet have shaken the foundations of every American business. This, of course, has been exacerbated by the current economic crisis. By looking at attendance numbers and box office returns, Hollywood seems to be doing pretty well and entertainment has often been cited as being “recession proof”.

Armed with this assumption the national media, those in other parts of the country hard hit by the economy and even our supposed liberally biased lawmakers, never seem to have much sympathy for the troubles of “Tinsel Town”. But here’s the dirty little secret; A-list actors, high-paid producers and Bentley driving agents only make up a fraction of people who make their living here. Yes, entertainment industry labor makes a higher wage than the national average, but the costs of living in Los Angeles more than make up for it and for most, the work is freelance and filled with short and long periods of unemployment.

Those actually trying to earn a living in our little industry town who don’t reside under a rock, have first hand knowledge of the bigger reality which is, because of a confluence of factors, several mentioned above, the rank and file workers of the motion picture, television and gaming industries are hurting, major studio production slates for films and television are down, and most everyone can see the fissures in a business model, which has historically been painfully inflexible.

Alas, business reporters are starting to take notice. Friday, Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post wrote about the problems of an industry, which is still working off this business model created almost 100 years ago.

There is a sense that it may all be coming to an end, that the threat this time is real and that the old business models can’t survive. With the rise of legal and illegal downloading, the Internet has already decimated the music business, and it is just beginning to overturn the economic foundations of the movies, television and electronic gaming as well.

And last week, Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes of the New York Times had an insightful article about the challenges facing a new generation of studio executives. The people at the center of power in an industry which creates jobs not only locally, but worldwide.

After riding two decades of almost nonstop growth from the cable and video revolutions, a new generation of Hollywood power players is finally being forced to test its mettle.

These executives — consummate insiders who enlisted when young and worked their way up — now find themselves pushing 50 just as some brutal problems are pushing back: a collapse in DVD sales, a credit crisis that has curtailed financing for new movies, a group of corporate owners determined to pull more profits from studios to compensate for hard-hit publishing and broadcast television divisions.

For those of us tenacious, brave or crazy enough to be in this business, the title of a 1940’s era musical-comedy seems appropriate advice, “Hold on to Your Hats”.