Fellini Directs Again!

filmman

filmman

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http://www.felliniesque.com

Title: Fellini Directs Again!

Story: A medium brings back Federico Fellini back from the dead, and he takes over the set!

This is going to be a digital feature. I'm aiming for 83 minutes like the last felliniesque movie I made.

The project is non-union. I posted the breakdown for casting the actors a few minutes ago.

The movie is going to utilize a lot of improvisation. I'm shooting it with my Sony Z1U right out of the box. (I like the digital look :-)

I'm considering shooting the movie in 25 fps (50i) -- PAL mode, because most likely the biggest market for this movie will be the European market. I'd appreciate some expert opinions on shooting 25 fps. I'm going to be editing in FCP 5.04 Studio.

I'll update this thread as the casting and auditions commence.

The shoot is going to begin on June 5th, 2009. Production days are short -- only 4 hours per day. I will shoot sporadically over a one month period.

The movie is essentially a tribute to Fellini and his style of shooting, namely felliniesque.

If you're interested in contributing to this project in some way, please don't hesitate to contact me: vic@felliniesque.com

 
Sounds like fun. I wished I lived out there, I would love to help you out. Looking forward to detail reports of how it goes. Good luck.
 
Thanks, Jim. It would've been nice to have worked with you.

Last night I found out there was a glitch in the casting notice I filled out online.

The casting notice has to be tweaked before breakdown lists it. There has to be specific info about character age and gender....

This being a felliniesque movie I wanted to be a little less structured in how I cast, but there are some things that are just set in a certain way in the movie business. Oh, well, I will have to get on the phone and straighten the casting notice later this morning.

I hate to start out a little flustered :-)
 
While waiting for breakdown to get back to me regarding the casting process, I'm researching whether or not to shoot in PAL.

I'm shooting with the Sony Z1U. Is it possible to shoot HDV 50i in PAL mode?
 
filmman said:
While waiting for breakdown to get back to me regarding the casting process, I'm researching whether or not to shoot in PAL.

I'm shooting with the Sony Z1U. Is it possible to shoot HDV 50i in PAL mode?
Click to expand...

You would have to do tests, but as far as the HVR-Z1U manual I downloaded from Sony, it would appear that all you have to do is select 1080/50i mode for PAL compatibility.

The only other issue is what software are you using. I use Final Cut Express predominantly, and it does have PAL, and 1080/50i support (no 24p...). I also have CS4 Premiere so if I really had to, I could support most of the known formats... sort of...

As an added benefit... a frame rate of 25 fps is about an 16% savings in space just by the fact of fewer frames than 30...

P.S. While you're channeling Fellini, could you get him to redo 'Satyricon' and put more real X rated material in... it would help so much to make his effort really stand out... as it is, it's pretty bland... I would even volunteer to assist in the casting couch... it's a dirty job... but someone has to do it... or even the cutting...
 
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LOL. Satyricon was pretty frisky, if I remember correctly.
Thanks for the advice on 1080i 50i. So it appears that it's going to be possible for me to shoot in PAL and perhaps I can even be able to export an NTSC 23.98 version of the movie.

I'm using FCP 5.04 studio.

Will I be doing the conversion in Cinema Tools? Perhaps, conform to 24p? From then on I will have to normalize the sound track because if I remember correctly the sound gets messed up.

Thanks for the offer to help with the cutting. I will keep you updated.
 
I need a little bit more info to feel completely secure in using 25 fps. Are there any editors out there who have worked with 1080i 50i and then converted to NTSC 24p as well?
 
The cast notice head breakdown and I already have over 200 submissions in three hours. I went through them and picked the first group I'll be interviewing over the next few days. Production is set for June 5.
 
another 200 hundred submissions since last night
I went through them and picked a few more actors to audition
 
I'm looking for outrageous costumes and props, so if you want to help out, let me know :-) This is what felliniesque means: outrageous stuff.
 
filmman said:
LOL. Satyricon was pretty frisky, if I remember correctly.
Thanks for the advice on 1080i 50i. So it appears that it's going to be possible for me to shoot in PAL and perhaps I can even be able to export an NTSC 23.98 version of the movie.

I'm using FCP 5.04 studio.

Will I be doing the conversion in Cinema Tools? Perhaps, conform to 24p? From then on I will have to normalize the sound track because if I remember correctly the sound gets messed up.

Thanks for the offer to help with the cutting. I will keep you updated.
Click to expand...

In my 'vast', like one short film... experience... I shot my short film of last fall using a Panasonic HMC-150, 1080 24p. Then because I spared no expense, that is I used my Final Cut Express because I can't afford FCP... dropped it into a 1080i50 time line (FCE only supports the 'video' standards of Standard Def NTSC, PAL, and the HD standards of 50i and 60i respectively...) I didn't get CS4 Premiere in time to use that at 24 p... and as it is the HMC-150 generates AVCHD, and every machine I've played around with or worked with sucks big time on managing AVCHD natively in CS4 Premiere...

What FCE and I believe FCP do, is convert AVCHD into Apple Intermediate Codec, and then work from that.

What is interesting is even though I had my FCE project setup for 1080/50i, the AIC files that FCE transcoded, were 24 p... so the actual AIC media is at 24 fps.

There are a couple of artifacts that I have seen, that I've attributed to running the 24 p media at 25 fps. However, I have also read that some of the transcoders are really crappy for AVCHD, and so the artifacts I'm seeing could just be because of crappy transcoding.

Since you are using HDV from the Sony, which has been out longer, you may not have these sorts of problems.

Now the big question is would a real live (tm) broadcast engineer have a hissy fit on my 'work flow', no doubt about it... that sort of thing is a big bozo no no... but I'm not going for 'broadcast' I'm going for computer display or if I do create a DVD it will be a Bluray and again, sort of ignore any real broadcast issues.
 
I was advised by Josh to stick with NTSC. He's an expert on Planet FCP and is really very knowledgeable, but he didn't explain why I should stick with NTSC.

Anyway, I guess I'll have to deal with the 25 fps PAL master later. Thanks for providing me some more food for though...
 
The talent submissions have topped 1000. It's just a little over 24 hours! I've gone through them all and picked about 100 people for initial evaluation. I'll probably audition about 30 per day.
 
Regarding the format: Josh added another post to my thread regarding whether or not to shoot HDV 1080i 50i.

He said that it's easier to go from 1080i 60i to 25p and 24p. That's really interesting, isn't it?

So my next question is: at what stage does one do it? After editing in FCP 5.04 Studio in the HDV native timeline, or later at export?
 
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