The Viking

One of the most shocking moments of my life occurred back in 2004 when an unexpected package arrived at my place of employment. I remember being in a meeting with our corporate archivist when I heard that knock on the conference room door. I looked up from my notes and in walked a viking. Yes, a viking. A rubenesque Nordic viking warrior complete with the horned helmet, chained hauberk, and armaments. I was baffled at first, but when this viking let out a shriek that seemed to crescendo louder and louder, I realized what day it was: June 30th. Anything goes on this day, and sure enough, my sister sent me this special delivery.



It's June 30th today, and as I dive into my mid thirties, I'm realizing that I am really happy with my life. When I look back at the time when this singing telegram was delivered, I remember being very unsatisfied with my life. I won't get too deep into it, because it's not really something I want to relive. What I will say is that as I get older, I am liking myself a lot more. The quality of my life has greatly improve this past year, thanks to some decisions to take risks, try new things, and finally letting go of all negative energy. Life is sweet, and I will make sure this upcoming year and every year thereafter will rock.

Presenting Susannah

MacDiva & The Donnettes are very pleased to present Susannah! The past month of our lives have been spent at This Side Of The Pond Studios, editing this very complicated piece for the OpenCut open source film editing competition. Susannah definitely was a challenge, but Sig, Dinah and I stuck with it to the very end. I am very proud of our final product, but to be completely honest, even if we delivered a piece of pond scum of a project, I still would be proud. At the end of the day, it really is about the journey, and what a crazy fun ride this was. I know this schpeel is probably sounding cliche, but it's true. At this time, it is with great pleasure that I invite you to view MacDiva & The Donnettes' production of Susannah. (The clip below is a sneak preview. Please go to vuze.com for full version).


To download the full version visit vuze.com

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

It's a good thing Sig is checking her email in Mexico. All Vuze correspondences went directly to her email account, as she was the Donnette who signed us up. When I returned to Sig's side of the pond this afternoon to check on the status of the upload, I saw the successful upload message on the screen and let out a sigh of relief. However, I got a little concerned when I searched for our film but came up empty. Fortunately, Sig forwarded me the congratulations-you've-been-uploaded email, and I felt better knowing that Vuze has received MacDiva & The Donnettes' OpenCut submission. Signed, sealed, delivered! Time to do the funky chicken...



-----Original Message-----
From: Vuze [mailto:publish@vuze.com]
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 5:47 PM
To: Sig Thorsen
Subject: Vuze First-time Publisher Alert

Congratulations on publishing your first piece of content on Vuze!

Now that you've published, let people know about your content so they can watch and comment on it! Here are some tips to polish your presentation and maximize your viewers and reviews.

First, make sure to fill in your user profile. Let folks know who you are, what you do, and anything else you want them to know. Once you are logged into the client, click on My Account, then My Profile. It's that simple!

Second, review your content description. Just go to Published Content, select your content, and click on the pencil icon at the right.

• Provide a clear and concise title for your content. Don't just use the file name.
• Be explicit in your content description. This is your chance to provide details about the story that took you 2 months to write, or talk about the technique you used to film the ending--let viewers know what they should be looking for. But don't give away any secrets or surprise endings!
• Pick an appropriate thumbnail. Thumbnails often provide the first impression of your work, along with your title. Pick a thumbnail that best conveys the overall mood of your content, or a key character that will draw viewers in. If publishing a series of content or multiple episodes, be sure each thumbnail is unique.
• Assign categories wisely. Don't purposefully "mis-categorize" your content with the idea that everyone wants to just see "sexy" and that will bring people to your content. With millions of viewers on Vuze, content searches span the spectrum.
  

And third, keep your eye on the Vuze News tab for updates--we continue to build additional features and functionality into the Vuze platform, and that's where we will tell you about them. Stay tuned!

Thanks again for publishing, and for contributing to the Vuze community!
-The Vuze Team

A Day At The Pond

Security cameras at This Side Of The Pond Studios caught the company's proprietor choking the MacDiva out of this unsuspecting Donnette. She had to take her frustration out somehow, and unfortunately, this faux hawked victim just happened to be the easiest target.


That was three days ago when a tsunami hit that pond. Everything is under control now. I went to the side of the pond that had no damage and edited in the new credits. After the timeline rendered, I watched the movie all the way through and saw a few problem areas that needed to be fixed, so I did so. When all was said and done, I recompressed again and then uploaded onto Vuze. The message, once again, said that the process would take 19 hours, so I left it there to run over night. I told Sig's husband that I would return Saturday afternoon to finalize the project.

48HFP Meet & Greet

I've finally caught up with my sleep. I was a walking zombie yesterday, after having been up to the wee hours of the night before working on Susannah. As if that wasn't enough, I met up with some members of the IDOM team to meet some potential talent for the upcoming 48 Hour Film Project challenge. After that, we headed out to the Mission for the 48HFP Mixer and Happy Hour at Bollyhood Cafe. It was a very busy and tiring day for me, but a good one. The talent we met can definitely carry a film, so I hope we end up using them. We didn't stay too long at the mixer. Evan, Joanne, Dinah, and I, instead, went to tacqueria in the mission for dinner. It really felt like Toronto all over again!


I'm feeling good about this upcoming competition. I am confident that IDOM is pretty much set for July 18th. There's only so much we can do in terms of preparation, so lining up our talent definitely helps. This will be our sixth film together as a team, so we know what we need to do. Experience really does go a long way. What a difference a year makes.

Oh Susannah!

Are We Done Yet?

I am happy to say that after an hour of waiting, Sig and I finally saw the word SUCCESSFUL pop up on the Compressor screen. Woo Hoo! However, it wasn't time to celebrate yet, so I limited the funky chicken dance of joy to just two flaps of the arms. It was a little after 1am, and we still needed to upload Susannah onto Vuze. At this point, I told Sig to finish up her packing and that I would take care of the upload.

I logged onto Vuze.com and typed in the pertinent information. I then apple shifted 4 to make a print screen of our title for our thumb nail. After that, I browsed through Sig's hard drive to locate the H.264 version of Susannah, and I clicked submit. I started to flap my funky chicken arms, but I stopped after half a flap when I saw that it would take 19 hours to upload! I called Sig into the office to break the news to her, and we sat down to work out plan B. Sig noted that the best thing to do was to let it run over night and that she would give me a key to her studio so that I could check in on the upload the next day. I agreed. So I packed up my things and prepared to leave.

Before exiting, I logged onto my Yahoo account to send myself that print screen of the Susannah title thumb nail. It was then that I discovered the unthinkable: at 12:58am, a little bit before we completed the compression, the OpenCut folks sent us an email stating that the credits have been uploaded onto the OpenCut site. My jaw dropped and my blood pressure rose. Sig, Dinah, and I had used the credits that were given to us in the script because we could not locate them on the website. Well, we know now that the reason why we couldn't find them was because they weren't there!

What this meant was that we had to go back into the timeline and re-edit the closing credits. Then we had to recompress the project, and re-upload it onto Vuze. Looks like I'll be spending the next couple days at this side of Sig's pond while she's pounding down body shots in Mexico! I took Sig's key, strapped on my back pack, and bid my fellow Donnette a bon voyage. I looked at her suitcase and saw that she was nowhere near close to finished with her packing. I made no comment. I just turned around and headed towards the door.


----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Torrey Loomis
To: MacDiva & The Donnettes
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 12:58:31 AM
Subject: OpenCut Update - June 25th

Dear OpenCutter,

Here are some final notes while you wrap up your cut.

INTERNATIONAL ENTRANTS

I did a bonehead move and listed the wrong address for the International payment of shipping costs. If your payment has not been claimed yet, make sure its addressed to opencut@silverado.cc

I sent an address that ended in paypal.com and that was incorrect. If your payment for shipping is unclaimed, please cancel and redirect to opencut@silverado.cc

Regardless of payment receipt, all hard drives have been shipped back both domestically and internationally. If you are still missing a hard drive...let us know ASAP.

BONUS AUDIO

Director Evan Nicholas was recently able to record some extra audio. If you are looking for some car sounds like doors and engines you can download the audio here:

http://homepage.mac.com/torster/filechute/Car_SFX.zip

UPLOAD INSTRUCTIONS TO VUZE:

Per Mike Burton at Vuze, please follow these instructions when

To keep everyone's entries organized on Vuze please name your uploaded entry for OpenCut Competition #1 (Susannah) the following;

OpenCut - Susannah - your first initial and last name (like mburton, or tloomis)

This will allow us to search and bucket your entry into the "OpenCut" Branded Channel on Vuze. If you have uploaded your entry to Vuze and do not see it in the OpenCut Branded Channel on Vuze by July 2 2008 please send a reminder email to mburton@vuze.com.

Go to www.vuze.com/app to download the free Mac/PC Vuze Client application in order to upload your content. You must register if you do not already have a Vuze Login and Password to Upload your submission.

NOTE: If you do not follow the above instructions your submission runs the risk of not being judged. Thank you!

UPLOAD DEADLINE:

You have until midnight July 15th to submit your cut.

CREDITS:

You can find the credits on the CREDITS section of the OpenCut.org website.

CREATIVE NOTES:

We've received a lot of good questions about creative license. Please remember--this is your edit and you can be as creative as you want with it.

Q. Can I color correct the project?

A. Absolutely.

Q. Can I treat the project with a different aspect ratio?

A. Sure.

Q. Can I add titles, graphics, visual effects?

A. No problem.

UPCOMING OPENCUT 2.0

We'll start the official registration for OpenCut 2.0 in mid-July. There will be a few program changes based on what we did in the first project and we'll announce them soon.

We are still negotiating on the set for the upcoming video shoot in Las Vegas. However, we just got official clearance and permission to use the Alpine Meadows footage. Target for OpenCut 2.0 is a 30 or 60 second spot for Alpine's 2008-2009 season. There is some very cool off-speed shots along with some nice time lapse. I anticipate we'll alternate longer projects with shorter projects.

Torrey

-----------------------------------------------

Torrey Loomis

Project Director - OpenCut

2600 East Bidwell Street, Suite 280

Folsom, CA 95630

(916) 760-0032 • FAX (916) 404-5258

opencut@silverado.cc

http://www.OpenCut.org

Sponsored by Silverado

Check out the Silverado 4k Market at http://www.silverado.cc

Compressing...

Uploading To Vuze - HELP!

Susannah Compression, take 6...or is it 66? Actually, it feels more like take 666, considering what a devil of a time we're having with this H.264. Last night, Sig and I attempted to compress this film for Vuze, but we hit a few snags that nearly brought us to the brink of panic. This project needed to be completed last night, yet we were still fumbling around with Compressor. So, at 11:30pm, we emailed Evan with our technical difficulties. Sure enough, the next morning he responded with a step by step guide to compression, complete with print screens.

I headed on over to This Side Of The Pond Studios at about 9:30pm so that we could attempt to compress for the final time. It's sudden death now. Sig flies out for Mexico early tomorrow morning, so Susannah needs to be uploaded tonight, no ifs, ands, or buts. Boy oh boy, I could use a shot of tequila right about now...and I don't drink!!

On Jun 23, 2008, at 11:35 PM, Signe Ann wrote:

HI Evan,

We just finished our OpenCut project (yay!), but we are having technical difficulties trying to upload it (Boo!) We're hoping you can help us. The final codec and resolution to be delivered to VUZE must be in h.264 720p or 1080p. The problem is that we don't see this setting in Compressor. We tried to customize it, but had no luck. Could you advise on how we should approach this. Also, does Red film in 24 fps or 29.97? Any help you can give will be much appreciated, as we are on a time crunch. Sig is leaving for Mexico early Wednesday morning.

Thanks,
Sig, Dinah, & Tony

From: Evan Donn

Date: June 24, 2008 8:23:31 AM PDT

To: Signe Ann

Subject: Re: Uploading To Vuze - HELP!

Red shoots 24fps.

Does Vuze give you any guidelines on what file size or data rate they prefer?

In compressor you can use the preset in Apple>Formats>Quicktime>H.264 - this by default keeps the same size and frame rate of your source video so if you edited at 1080 24p that's what you end up with.

This setting does not specify a data rate though, so it may result in a very large movie. Once you've applied it to your clip, you can change this in the inspector. Click the second tab to show the encoder settings:



Click the settings button next to Video to get the quicktime settings window:


And change the Data Rate setting from Automatic to 'Restrict to'. For 720p you'll want something in the 5-7000 kbit/s range and 1080p should be 10-12,000 kbit/s. Click ok to apply those settings and return to the inspector. From the inspector encoder settings screen click the settings button next to audio to get the quicktime audio settings:


Change the format to AAC. The default settings are fine, although you can bump the target bit rate up to 192kbps for a little better audio quality. Once you've applied these click on the first tab in the inspector to get to the summary panel:


You'll notice that once you've specified a data rate it gives you an estimated file size for the final movie. If there is a maximum upload limit you may need to go back to the video compression settings and lower your data rate to reduce the final size so it meets their requirements.

It might also be a good idea to send only a short segment of your video, something with some motion in it but not much more than 10-15 seconds, to compressor first so you can test these settings and make sure they look ok. High def H.264 can take a while to encode so you don't want to wait for the whole thing to find out if you got the settings right.

Good luck!

Evan

Back To Sig's Side Of The Pond

I'm getting myself mentally prepared for tonight's swim in Sig's side of the pond. I hope I don't drown. Even though Susannah is not due until July 1st, Sig will be flying out to Oaxaca on Wednesday morning, so this project really needs to be compressed and uploaded before she goes. How hard can it be?

Final Sunday

MacDiva & The Donnettes met today to finalize Susannah. This was our final Sunday before this project is due. Our goal was to fine tune the film and upload the final product onto Vuze. Well, that almost happened. When we viewed our timeline on Sig's big monitor, we noticed little things here and there that needed tweaking. I remembered saying to myself, "no big whoop, this shouldn't take too long." Uh, not exactly. The three of us ended up nit picking at every detail and didn't complete these edits until about 9pm. No problem, right? All we have to do now is compress this project to H.264 and upload it. How hard could that be?

I Don't Think You're Ready For This Jelly

My sister Suzie and her family drove down from Washington State for a few days to visit the family. We seldom get to see her and the kids, (Michael and Teresa who are now 19 and 17), so this was definitely a treat. My sister Nathalie and her kids drove up from Fresno so that all the cousins could hang out. It was a mini family reunion. I took Suzie, Michael, and Teresa to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium to check out the marine life. I initially wanted to take them to Santa Cruz, but with all the wild fires spreading in California, I decided against it. My sister Diane tagged along for the ride as well. Unfortunately, Nathalie and her kids didn't make it up to the bay area until late Friday night so they missed out on the aquatic fun.

Since Blogged Arteries: The Unrendered Files is all about the crazy stuff that lurks in my rather large cranium, I am going to post a little video clip that I took at the aquarium. I was very fascinated by the jellyfish exhibit, so I went crazy with the video feature on my Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS. Check it out.

Faux Hawk

It's the Chief Instigator 'do, and it's almost there. I guess you just have to see it from the profile. My hair is going to have to grow out a little more in order for it to truly be a faux hawk. I'll give it a couple of days. Ken, my stylist, says that I should take it to the next extreme and dye it blue.

Strippin' Granny

Lynn Ruth Miller had a pretty productive spring. Back in May, she flew to Burbank and Las Vegas to audition for America's Got Talent. This funny old lady made it past a few rounds before getting eliminated. Hey, that's pretty good in my book. Now she's trying out for The Gong Show as the strippin' granny. Lynn Ruth asked me to piece together a clip of her act from the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and I did. Check her out. I recommend that you view this on an empty stomach!

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Enter The 48 Hour Film Project

1. This is the Big One … Filmmakers in more than 70 cities around the world will participate.
2. Every year we take a select number of films to important film-industry festivals.
3. Films stream online in high resolution at www.48.tv.
4. Work with SAG actors … 48HFP has a special agreement with the Screen Actors Guild.
5. Our website provides all of the releases you'll need for your film in perpetuity.
6. Our network provides chances to meet other filmmakers from around the world.
7. If your film wins the Best Film of your city's 48HFP, you get passes to Filmapalooza … our international festival of screenings, parties, and awards all rolled into one great weekend!
8. Because of our global presence, your film could play in other film festivals, in other countries, or be sold.
9. Your film team could compete in second round events where you can win cash or a Panasonic camera.
10. If you win, you can say you won the world's LARGEST INTERNATIONAL FILM COMPETITION!
    

So, come on out and make a film! Register your team today!

http://www.48hourfilm.com/sanfrancisco/

-The 48 Hour Film Project Team

48HFP Mixer and Happy Hour

We give you a genre, a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and 48 hours. The rest is up to you.


Come learn more about the 48HFP and mingle with fellow filmmakers at Bollyhood Cafe - a new hip space in the Mission fusing film, food and fun drinks. Also if you're still looking for actors, editors, shooters or writers, this will be the perfect opportunity to "pick someone up."

Host:
Elena Cruz

Location:
Bollyhood Cafe
3372 19th Street, San Francisco, CA

When:
Wednesday, June 25, 7:00PM

SCREENING LAST YEAR'S WINNERS...
To provide you with some inspiration, we'll be showing last year's winners from each select cities on Bollyhood's large projector. Light refreshments will be served.

Team leaders - please forward to your entire team.

Everyone else - please pass this along to anyone interested in learning more about the 48HFP or looking to join a team. Everyone is welcome! No cover charge.

If you haven't yet, sign up now before the registration fee goes up on 6/25:
www.48hourfilm.com/sanfrancisco

Looking forward to meeting all of you.

Elena
City Producer
sanfrancisco@48hourfilm.com

RE: Thank You Tostanoskis!

I received a very nice email from Irene Tostonaski. I'm bummed that I didn't get a chance to see her during my visit to Colorado, but I have this feeling that we'll be meeting again soon. Messages like this inspire me to keep going with my project. Once my book is published, I'm going to fly every IDOM member to Vietnam to film the movie!

---

From: Tostanoski, Irene
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 5:43 AM
To: Nguyen, Tony
Subject: RE: Thank You Tostanoskis!

Dear Tony,

What a history, eh? Thank you so much for sending me the link so I could feel a part of your visit in a more personal way. I'm sorry we weren't able to sync our schedules so that we could meet up again after all these years. I remember you as a little boy quite well. You were adorable and all mine it seemed. AND DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF WHAT MY BROTHER TELLS YOU ABOUT ME! If he wants to start trading stories he's got some doozies about himself as well. Suffice to say I was a fun-loving risk taker back in those days and pray to God my kids don't follow in my foot steps. I'll be throwing more than glasses and pots of spaghetti.

Stay in touch,
Irene

Rough Cut #2

Popcorn! That's what I pop in mouth when I'm at the movies. Well, I'm not exactly in the theater right now, but I have a bag of popcorn in my hand and I'm popping those popped kernals into my mouth. Why? Because I am watching an action flick called "Susannah."

I am very excited to announce that MacDiva & The Donnettes have completed the rough cut for this OpenCut competition. I'd like to add that it's looking pretty darn good! The three of us worked hard on this challenge, so it's good to see the fruits of our labor (which, today, is strawberries...last Sunday was cherries). At this point, all we need to do is add the title sequence, the credits, and do a little color correction, and then Susannah will be complete. I can't wait to show the final product.

IDOM On Crack!

RED ALERT!

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Signe Ann
To: Dinah deSpenza; Tony Nguyen
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 9:45:01 AM
Subject: RED Alert Instruction

Hi,

Found the instructions for using RED Alert. No time to read them now,
but I printed them out and put them in our Susannah binder.

We now have access to all the missing clips, and I think they will
help our movie a lot.

Sig

This Side Of The Pond

I'm sitting in the hospital waiting room right now. My mom is getting a medical procedure done, one that's not too fun for her. My poor mother hasn't eaten in two days and is drugged up. Sig Thorsen just sent me some pictures of her pond hoping that it would inspire me to come up with some names for her post production studio. I looked up from my MacBook Pro and I see an old woman sitting across from me who looks a lot like Katherine Hepburn. I looked at her and then at Sig's pond picture and thought "On Siggy Pond." I think being in this waiting room is making me a little delerious. In any case, I did a little more brainstorming and managed to come up with something more Sig-friendly:

Coy Koi Studios

Sig mentioned that she wanted to come up with a name for her post production facility. She's thinking of having a fish, pond, or lily in the name. She wanted something that will look interesting in the list of credits. I came up with this:


I have a hunch that this will be a little too dramatic for Sig. I'll have to keep brainstorming.

Susannah Story Board

Hmm, I don't remember seeing a close up of a lizard...

How's This For A Logo?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dinah Despenza
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:36 AM
To: Signe Ann; Tony Nguyen
Subject: Re: Susannah

Sunday was sooooooo cool. I so like working w/the 2 of you. Next time I will not burn the popcorn (swear that never happened to me before.

Hat's off to Gary again for that wonderful dinner. I can still taste that pasta in the mouth of my mind. And those wonderful bread crumbs. I can just eat a bowl of those alone.
I know Spielberg's crew don't eat that well.

Sig, thanks for the note about the DVD. I was hoping it didn't fall out of my bag on Bart. If you have time watch "James Journey". This is interesting. It's about Africans in Israel. They use 3-4 different languages in this film.

I just saw Morgan this morning...as a matter of fact she's sitting a few tables over from me. She's going to spend the next couple of nights composing for us. She's been listening to the Funky Meters, so she has an idea about the sound we're looking for.

Anyway, I'm sooooo pumped up about our guuurrrl Susannah.

D2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Signe Ann wrote:

Hi guys,

Thanks for a fun Sunday. I am looking forward to our next editing
session. Tony, do you know where we get the missing (green) footage?

Sig

p.s. Dinah, I have your DVD that we watched this morning...

Rough Cut

This project is really coming along. Susannah is beginning to look like a real film. MacDiva & The Donnettes met up in the afternoon and worked in shifts. Dinah started with putting all the video clips on the time line so that we would have a rough cut. Sig then added the audio, and I transitioned all the clips together. We put in six hours, and at the end of the day, the three of us were very happy with the rough cut. We still have a lot of work to do, but Susannah is really coming along.

The 60 Year Old Maid

I read the FAQ email that the OpenCut folks sent out yesterday, and there is still something that still baffles me. In the script, there is a character who is a maid who is supposedly in her sixties. I don't know about you, but the lady below doesn't look like she'll be collecting social security anytime in the near future!


I wonder if this is a typo on OpenCut's part, or if it's meant to be intentional and that our job is to age the maid using color correction tools. I wouldn't be so fixated with this had it come up as one of the FAQs, but since it didn't, I have to admit that I am a bit obsessed. Should we give this maid gray hair? Better yet, should we just rotoscope her out and put Lynn Ruth Miller in? Am I seriously going crazy? Please excuse me a moment while I do the funky chicken...

OpenCut Update for June 3rd

The good news is that Sig, Dinah, and I aren't crazy! The three of us noticed a few things about the Susannah assets that were a bit askew. We scratched our heads and ultimately just worked around the problem areas. Apparently, others were scratching their heads to, so OpenCut sent out a list of FAQs. Phew! I really thought that MacDiva & The Donnettes had hit a sour note!

---

From: Torrey Loomis
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 3:25 AM
To: vitamint73@yahoo.com
Subject: OpenCut Update for June 3rd

Dear OpenCutter,

Just a quick update on some questions we have received so far...

As we mentioned before, there would be an additional fee for international participants due to shipping. If you are an international registrant, PLEASE send your additional $29 for International Priority shipping to opencut@paypal.com. Some of the costs for overseas shipping have been extraordinary and we'll need to account for all Int'l fees to make sure we break even on the shipping outside the United States.

1. After accounting for duplicate entries, we have 296 editors registered for the first round of OpenCut.

2. We still have about 15 hard drives left we are working on filling and returning.

3. We've been swamped for the first round. Due to this, we'll be extending the submission period to mid-June. Some folks don't have their drive yet and its not their fault--we are almost done getting everyone's out.

4. There are over 263 people already pre-registered for OpenCut 2.0.

5. We are almost OUT of hard drives. I know the link did not work for many of you--that is because we were overrun with orders and simply ran out of drives and had to order a bunch more. If you still need a drive, please contact us directly at (916) 760-0032 as we may have 3 or 4 left.

Here are some FAQ's we are posting specifically about the footage.

#1--MOST IMPORTANT--the audio is not embedded with the video!

If you try to use the Log and Transfer function to get your footage into Final Cut, there will be no audio. We shot "Susannah" with build 13 of the RED camera firmware--which did not allow us to record the audio and video together. All audio must be manually synced.

#2--Corrupt media?

PROBLEM: Footage from cards are corrupt. They load as green footage in FCP or Quicktime.

ANSWER: Occasionally the quicktime proxy movies become corrupt. Keep in mind, the R3D file is not bad, just the proxy. I'm not exactly sure why this happens, but it does. The solution is simple. Trash the corrupt quicktime proxies (and ONLY the proxies, leave the R3D file in the directory), open the R3D file in RED Alert! and regenerate the quicktime proxies by using the file menu command "Make Quicktimes" or pressing Apple key + "M" for mac or ctrl + "M" for PC.

#3--Missing media?

PROBLEM: Card 11 is missing.

ANSWER: If card 11 is missing on your drive, be sure to check the video directory for card 8. The file for card 11 may have be inadvertently moved to that location. Create a new card 11 folder on the same level as the other card folders and place the A011_C001_071215.RDC directory there.

#4--Missing Audio?

PROBLEM: Audio files are missing

ANSWER: Audio files were not provided for those takes and may be intercut with audio from other takes.

6. Support beyond missing media (audio/video) or incomplete transfers is best found in REDUser.net and RED.com/support.

I HIGHLY suggest watching the RED workflow walkthrough here. OpenCut and Silverado cannot answer questions like "How do I setup my sequence?" or "How can I change all the media to ProRes?" or "How can I cut this on my Avid?" All of these have been answered numerous times on the forums. The information is out there--you can find it!

One thing to keep in mind--we shot "Paranoid" two days after receiving two of the first RED cameras released. It was shot in 2 days, edited in two more, and delivered on the fifth. We didn't have REDCINE, the FCP plug-in for Log and Transfer, and we had to do a TON of hand work in Apple Color. We were still able to do it given the rudimentary set of tools we had.
You now have WAY more resources--including one of the BEST programs out there: Crimson Workflow.

If you have ANY intention of round-tripping your media between REDCINE and FCP, I highly suggest you invest in Ian Bloom's amazing program. You can watch the video here. This is an essential tool for any RED editor.

7. Unless we are absolutely missing audio somewhere, we will not be posting any of the media online in Torrent mode. At 170 Gb, there is simply too much data to distribute online. After all the drives are distributed, I anticipate we'll have given out 50.0 Tb of data.

8. If there is a question you have about anything not covered here, contact our Director of Production & Post Erik Espera herea: erik@silverado.cc. He is THE man to talk to regarding the media. Again, he will not be able to address specific workflow issues for you, but will be available to consult about corrupted or missing media.

If you are still missing your drive, please contact Director of Operations Renee Day here: renee@silverado.cc. She has printed the labels for about 99% of all drives being returned.

OpenCut 2.0 is shaping up to be an absolutely amazing project. We'll be shooting a music video in a Las Vegas casino and releasing it under the OpenCut umbrella for competition. As always, your cut is available for personal use on your reel--regardless of where you place in the competition.

We started this project not knowing what would happen--and we've been very humbled at the tremendous response we have received. I appreciate you being involved in this ground breaking event. I don't think there has never been a commercial project with this level of intense professional focus on a single story.

Good luck!

Torrey

Sig's Post-Production Facility Schedule

You know how they say when two people spend so much time together, they start looking alike? Well, this is what happened when MacDiva & The Donnettes hung out the whole weekend together...

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Signe Ann
To: Dinah deSpenza; Tony Nguyen
Sent: Monday, June 2, 2008 9:11 AM
Subject: RED Alert Instruction

Hi Team,

Just a reminder, please mark your calendars for our scheduled work days. We might need to schedule additional days, but we will know that later.

Sundays, June 8th, 15th, and 22nd, all day
Wednesday June 11th, and Friday June 13th possible.

Had fun this weekend, and I see Susannah as being another great movie in our folio.

Sig

Are You Reading This Rufus?

Y'all come on in now
Come right on down front
I got something I want to show you
Now y'all heard of the Popcorn
Y'all heard of the Dog
You heard about all your other dances
But now there's a brand new dance
That's going around
I want to show you exactly what I'm talking about
I'm talking about the funky chicken, y'all ready?

You raise the left arm up
and your right arm too
Let me tell you just what to do
Start both of 'em to flapping
You start your feet to kicking
That's when you know
You doin' the funky chicken

You put both arms up across your face
You knees start wiggling all over the place
You flap your arms
and your feet start kicking
Then you know you doin' the funky chicken

Oh, I'm feeling it now
I feel so unnecessary
This is the kind
This is the kind of stuff
To make you feel like you
Want to do something nasty
Like waste some chicken gravy
On your white shirt
Right down front here we go y'all

You work both arms and you work both feet
Use a dab of gravy, you right on the beat
You flap your arms
And your feet start kicking
The you know you doin' the funky chicken

I haven't flown off the deep end, so there's no need to get me committed. "The Funky Chicken" is actually relevant to this project. Really. Our interpretation of Susannah requires a little funk, so the MacDiva herself channeled Rufus Thomas and gave her Donnettes a crash course in the fowl frenzy of yesteryear, and I ain't talking no Colonel Sanders finger lickin' good kinda stuff. Unfortunately, because of copyright issues, we won't be able to use "The Funky Chicken" in our piece, but we're certainly going to find something similar. I can't give away too much of Susannah, but let's just say that the score will make y'all get up flappin' your wings and kickin' your feet.