Digital masters 12/2/07

For this class we looked at the different film such as 16mm, 35mm and super 16mm. Release print- final edited version of the project shown audience; come from film creating or striking a 35mm or 16mm print was final step in the post production process. Earlier prints would have been created and modified as per director's wishes e.g. colours graded etc. This is reffered to as creating a broadcast master.
We also leared that our choosen post production house should have these specifications on file for editing (A) EDL outputted contains, exact source timecode of each audio/video clip in cut, name and source tape where each clip can be found, location of each clip in timeline. From EDL, an online version of cut is created.
The PP house preforms colour corrections , titles, effects etc. then masters to tape. We learned that uncompressed video takesapprox. 1.4GB per min of footage. 30 min project would be 43.2GB approx.
Mastering the film depends on whether the original footage was shot on digital or film. We also where told about frame rate and aspect ratio of video conformed to that of video conformed to that of film (24fps and 1.85:1 for 35mm or 1.67:! for S16mm)
Very complicated and hopefully would be become clearer with tutorial lessons.

The beginnings of the documentry film

Today in our lecture we watched some old documentry films in relation to our up coming documentry assignment. We looked at some of the earliest pioneers of the documentry style filming. Thomas Edison creator of the kinetoscope spoke of the archivaland instructional value of the motion picture. One particular early documentry film maker was Louis Lumiere, he offered audiences glimpses of everyday life e.g. a train arriving at a station and workers leaving a factory. Robert J Flaherty is one particular film maker we looked at. He was a documentry maker by chance. We looked at on production he made called 'The Man of Aran'which looked at the way of life on the Aran Islands.
We disscussed the film amongst the class, which showed that a lot of people felt it was not a documentry as most of the shots where staged and people from outside areas where cast for partsin the film. Flaherty was often critised for being a romantic documentry filmmaker. I thought that it could be seen as a documentry up to a certain degree as it portrayed the way of life of the people even though they where not in the film and was set in the area which the production is mostly based on e.g. sea land island. I personally found it boring to watch but it did generate good disscusion. Some people felt very strongly about what Flaherty had done and seen it as some sort of outrage, no harm was done by doing what he did. There was no political propaganda agenda and reality was not greatly distorted, so I don't see what the big deal is all about.