Today I ordered the Cyber Film School CD-ROM from the Internet Film Institute. This looks very good - apart from being an encyclopedia of film knowledge, it also has things like unedited pieces of footage that one can use to practise their editing skills on non-linear editing systems. The CD can be purchased from: www.cyberfilmschool.com.

Today I also picked up Robert Rodriguez's book 'Rebel without a crew.' I managed to read the first 60 pages and was thoroughly impressed with rodriguez's journal that charts both his perserverance and good fortune in his making of El Mariachi. I haven't got much further than that in the book, but what I have read so far has been incredible and I sincerely doubt a film school could be this interesting. As Rodriguez says ... At filmschool they teach kids how to make big budget hollywood movies so they can go get a job making coffee on someone else's film.

Just as I figured! ;)

After being blown away by the short film HindSight, I searched over the internet to find the director, Thomas Perret, to ask him what camera he used and get some tips. The only thing I found was a website by a stuntman who worked on the car crash scene in HindSight. I hoped he'd have Thomas' address, so I contacted him. A few hours after sending my mail, I received a response from Curtis. He said he would forward my mail to Thomas, and confirmed that the camera was a 3 chip miniDV, which filled me with enthusiasm for my own production.

Finally received my camera today from Empire Direct. Tested it out and it performs brilliantly. The LCD screen is wonderful, but when you actually see the quality that this thing puts out (and at s-video I must add) you really have to take your hat off to Canon. I performed a number of different tests with progressive scan, white balance and 16:9 widescreen mode and have been thoroughly impressed. I added my review to simplyDV: MV 30 Review

Recently I received a cheque from an ex-employer for just under £400 that I never expected, so I thought it was finally time to go get myself a miniDV camera. The camera I finally decided on was the Canon MV30 (readers from the states will know this model as the Optura Pi). There were a number of factors in my decision, but the biggest was probably the price. This camera has been discontinued and is thus selling at just under £600. Given the fact that you can shoot footage with both the XM-1 (GL-1 in the states) and the MV30 and find it hard to tell the difference between the two, I think that is an excellent buy. Although the camera is a 1-chip camera, let us not forget that it boasts progressive scan at 25fps and optical image stabilisation.

Needless to say, my first choice probably would have been a Sony VX2000 or a Canon XL-1 or XM-1. One thing that rang true in my head, however, was the advice I was given by a veteran director. His warning was to remember that image quality isn't everything, and that the most important thing in a low-budget movie is the acting. If a sequence works then it works. And if it doesn't, then it doesn't. Regardless of whether it was shot on miniDV or 35mm film. I should stress to readers the MV30 does have excellent quality, and it is difficult to find a single bad review of it on the web. Readers might also be intrigued by the fact that the most successful movie ever made and shown on the net was shot with this camera. This film is 405 and one can even purchase it from amazon. I used pricerunner to find myself the camera at a good price.

Meridian TV run a program called "Taped Up" that showcases work by local directors. Today I saw a movie called "Hindsight" which was directed by a guy called Thomas Perrett. The first thing that struck me when I began watching it was the "miniDV look". I have watched movies before where this becomes so distracting that it ruins the story telling. In this movie, however, effective camera work and use of subtle music at appropriate points really made the difference; after a minute or so I forgot I was watching a miniDV movie and thus allowed myself to enjoy the film for its content. This was an excellent morale booster. I tried contacting the director to find out what camera he shot the movie with, but as a guess I'd say it was a Canon XM-1, as the quality was similar to that of the Star Wars movie, Dark Skies, also shot by an amateur filmmaker on an XM-1.

On the train a few days ago I happened to see a story in the Sun about a guy who had made his own Star Wars movie. I downloaded and watched the film and was reasonably impressed with the quality. The newspaper mentioned the film was shot with a handheld miniDV camera, so I decided to contact the director, David Nutley. On mailing David, he confirmed that Star Wars: Dark Skies was shot with a Canon XM-1 using progressive scan. He described the camera as the single best piece of equipment he used. Maybe it was just the inability of his brother to play a convincing Anakin Skywalker, but I felt that the quality of 405 The Movie (another miniDv film on the net) was much more film-like. The interesting thing here, is that 405 was shot with a single chip camera called the Canon MV30/Optura Pi. Generally three chip cameras such as the XM-1 are considered to be better for filmmaking, but I must confess to seeing a few web sites that said single chip cameras give a grainier look that is more likely to emulate film, although I have not found any evidence to back this up, except for the direct comparison between 405 and Dark Skies. Even this isn't credible, as anything could have happened in the compression process to affect the general feel of each film.

One of the biggest challenges facing any moviemaker wishing to use the miniDV format, is getting video to look more like film. Most articles on this subject normally point to three things:

1. Clever lighting and camera techniques: some of these are beyond my understanding at the moment, but it seems they basically point to positioning your subjects (actors) a fair distance from their background, and using different lighting on each of the layers to make the distinction greater. Also recommended is not to wobble the camera (i.e. get yourself a tripod, steadicam, dolly, etc). This makes all the difference; a recent episode of EastEnders deliberately wobbled the camera in an intense scene and suddenly I found myself seeing two actors playing out a scene, rather than feeling immersed in the set.
2. Filters: I found a few manufacturers, but Tiffen seem to be the most popular. Their web site, www.tiffen.com, allows one to observe the use of these on still photographs, but I would still like to try the best ones out myself and then upload some video examples, as it is difficult to tell how much of a film look I will get from just stills.
3. Software solutions: there are a few vendors who produce software to make video look more like film. The only reasonably priced one I have found to date is called FilmFX, which is a plug-in to Adobe Premiere. I will provide a link to this soon.

It won the special jury prize at the Cannes film festival. It was also shot on a single chip miniDV camera, namely the Sony PC-7. I am, of course, talking about the groundbreaking movie, Festen (the celebration). My voyage into miniDV filmmaking is now a journey that I won't turn back on. No, this film doesn't look like 32 or even 16mm, but the key is that it doesn't look like a camcorder either. It is somewhere in between and goes to show that with clever editing, good camerawork and professional acting, excellent results can be achieved with a miniDV camera. What surprised me about this film is that they only used natural lighting, yet it still looked fabulous for what it was shot on. I messed about with the contrast and lighting and got it to look even better. After seeing this I am positive I can pull of a movie of reasonable quality and am now looking forward to selecting a good miniDV camera and getting to work on some experiments.

In early November, I came across the site Simply DV and got into a series of interesting discussions with the webmaster, Colin Barret, that went on for weeks. Colin was good enough to put me in touch with BAFTA Nominee, Faye Gilbert, and veteran director, Charles Minster. Charles advised me on all aspects of filmmaking, and has a review up on SimplyDV at: http://www.simplydv.co.uk/CharlesXM1.html.

Today I am beginning my experimental journey into the world of Digital FilmMaking. Right now all I know is that there exists an alternative to shooting movies with conventional celluloid (8mm, 16mm 35mm etc) that is called miniDV. MiniDV simply stands for Mini Digital Video. There are other forms of digital camera that cost more, but miniDV is priced reasonably enough for the average 'human' to get stuck into filmmaking.

One thing that fascinated me was that David Lynch actually directed a commercial for the Playstation 2 campaign that blitzed the world recently, and the commercial in question was shot on miniDV. See this link to see the commercial. When I first viewed the commercial I had no idea it was shot on a consumer-grade digital camcorder. Admittedly Lynch did use one of the higher end pieces of kit available, but never-the-less, the fact a famous director opted for this approach bodes well for Digital FilmMaking.

My biggest inspiration to do this experiment came from two isolated incidents in my recent past. If you've read the index page, you'll know the first was that god-awful film Jeepers Creepers. The second was an interview I watched with Clive Barker about the student films (Salome and The Forbiden) he made when he was at university. Clive said he sees a lot of work produced by people straight out of film school. He said although they are very 'slick', there is no imagination or 'heat.' Clive stumbled onto the set of Hellraiser having never used a 35mm camera before. He said one of the things that helped him was that his imagination was not bound by the rules of filmmaking; if something wouldn't be in focus or it wouldn't work in certain lights, then that was what the camera operator and the cinematographers were for. Clive just wanted to tell a good story spun by his incredible imagination, and in the end that is all he needed.

I am not so naive to think someone will actually give me a million dollars to go make a movie as with Clive. I take Clive's words as a true inspiration, but I will also adhere to Robert Rodriguez's advice - to be both creative and technical. As time goes by I hope to master the hardware and software I will need to make a good movie; after that it's up to my creativity (what they can't teach you at film school) to do the rest. When Rodriguez got accepted into film school, it was because the movies he was making at home were beating real film students in festivals - not because some bloody grade point average was at a certain threshhold; I think I need not say any more. Some things speak for themselves.