Sunday, October 28, 2012

Dystopian Trailer Progress... And Sandy

Overview
Our Dystopian Trailer Projects are due this thursday. Our group has been working on it, but we still aren't completely finished

What's Up
I took the final cut project home on Friday, because it was still just a rough cut. I was nervous because at school we have FCP 6, but at home I have FCE 4. Luckily, they were compatible; so I have been editing since Friday. As of now, I have everything done except for adding our production company name to the end of the trailer. The production name that we are going to use is Flying Carrot Productions, which my fellow CAP member and I started while we attended SSI. I havent been able to figure out how to extract the footage for the production company name off of vimeo, but hopefully Mr. Mayo will be able to help us with that.

I'm happy that I got in all of the editing before our power goes out (It always does). But, I am annoyed that MCPS is making a decision as to whether to cancel school or not at 5:00 AM tomorrow. I will most likely not have power, and I will have to wake up earlier in order to check. Not fun.

Here's the video that has our production company name in it. (It's at the very end).



Can't Let You Go from mrmayo on Vimeo.


P.S.
I'll upload the Trailer on Thursday.

"I see storms on the horizon.
 Zepher will not blow them away.
 Prepare for their wrath."

Friday, October 19, 2012

For Giggles

This shall be the post where I will post funny images and videos as I see fit.






Thoughts on Copywright

In CAP 10's upcoming dystopian movie trailers, a project that involves making a movie trailer for a hypothetical dystopian movie, most, if not all of the trailers will include music or sound effects in some way.

Some music that can be found online is in the public domain, meaning that the creator no longer owns it, but more often than not, is not in the public domain. Even if it is, permissions from the liscenser, recording company, etc. are needed to use the music without infinging on copywright laws.

Sites such as ccmixter.org and freesound.org are good scources for music that is (mostly) copywright free. These sites use a special type of copywright called Creative Commons or CC. Depending on the specific type of CC, the arist may require that their name be in your credits, that you ask permission before using, or meet some requirement. These artists are typically very small, and may do thier own recording and editing.

The difference between this kind of "attribution music" and songs from popular artists such as The Strokes, Ellie Goulding, or any other artist; is that it is much more difficult to obtain permissions to use these works. In order to use these works, one typically needs to obtain permission from both the artist or band, as well as the publisher, record company, or liscencer. This is somewhat more difficult, and these institutions may ask for both credit and for a sum of money to be paid.

Interestingly though, record companies think it a waste of time to give permission or issue a liscense unless money is being made of of the showing of a video with the music in it. Based on my expirience, record companies rarely, if ever, reply about using a piece of music in a school or personal film. If they do reply, it is only to say that they don't want to spend the time issuing a legal liscense, and just to use it anyway if it is a project that does not generate revenue.

The laws on copywright, as well as the obscure interpretation of these laws, are both extensive and difficut to understand. One typical law, for example, is that if the song is "significantly altered" (remixed) then it is concidered a new work. Well, what constitutes "significantly altered"?

Even though using Creative Commons Liscensed songs is clearly easier to deal with and offers more defined rules than copyrighted music, if the song is only for school or personal projects, the use copywrighted material is usually accepted, and should be allowed for use in school projects.

P.S. I saw the movie "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" tonight, there may be a movie review in the near future. IT WAS AWESOME! Here's the trailer.

"Is west a copy of east?
or east a copy of west?
are both just altered north?"

-Zepher

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Tutorial - Compositing - Final Cut Express 4

Here is a video explaining how to composite in final cut 4 express.

It is kind of long so I might make a revised version making it shorter.



"Edit in the west. Hollywood Style"
-Zepher

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Getting Back Into the Flow

Well, I haven't made any posts in a while, but here is my plan for my blog in the future.

This weekend I will hopefully start doing some Final Cut for Mac tutorials on various things such as compositing using screenr. I would also like to post about backpacking and climbing, but im not really sure how to make that interesting.

Back on the topic of film making, I may also start playing around with Final Cut at my house and uploading videos of whatever; music videos, VFX tutorials, maybe short scenes. Heck, I may even make a short film if I am feeling adventurous and dont have three unit tests on one day like I did today.

Sorry if this post is a little bid disjointed, I still need to wrap up AP NSL homework and work on a service project.

I will leave you with two cool songs. Enjoy!

What Makes A Good Man - The Heavy

You Wish - Nightmares on Wax 

"May the west wind be full in your sails"
-Zepher