Tamil film 500 & 5 - World Premiere at the IFFK 2012

Soooo...we got this bit of an exciting news to share! 500 & 5 has been Officially Selected to screen at the 17th International Film Festival of Kerala 2012, IFFK under the Focus Section's Top Angle-Indian Cinema category between 7th and 14th December in Trivandrum. This will be the World Premiere of our film, that is, the first-ever Public Premiere of 500 & 5, open to international audiences. Apparently, it's the only Tamil film among this year's selection. We are double excited because this is Accessible Horizon Films production's 2nd film to be screened there(earlier it was Metroxical New York at the IDSFFK). So folks, we guess the release of 500 & 5 is going to be after the festival screening. Delegate registration for IFFK-2012 begins soon at their website. So you can book your tickets through www.iffk.in.
The full list under the Focus Section's Top Angle-Indian Cinema category are Drapchi by Arvind Iyer, Koormavatara by Girish Kasaravalli, 500 & 5 by Raghu Jeganathan, Deol by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, Miss Lovely by Ashim Ahluwalia, The Ballad of Rustom by Ajita Suchitra Veera, Touring Talkies by Gajendra Ahire. Looking forward to Miss Lovely, which if you already didn't know is an Official selection at Cannes 2012.
For more info on the film, check out the film's website www.500n5themovie.com or the FB page 500 & 5 or www.AccessibleHorizonFilms.com

Getting your movie ready for DCP

Getting your movie ready for DCP

Congrats you have come this far in making your movie and you are only few more steps away from watching them on big screens. 

A. Video

B. Audio

A. Video

For DCP, the movie needs to be of resolution 2048 x 858 for scope and 1998 x 1080 for flat. Assuming you have your video's resolution as 1920 x 1080, you need to modify its size to one of the above formats. Real Image in Chennai accepts only DPX Log files. I used After Effects to do this conversion and it was real simple.

If you have not conformed your video to 24 fps then read this article to convert your movie from 23.976 fps to 24 fps. 

Software Required

Adobe After Effects 

Steps

1. Create a Composition with the following settings. Hopefully you have already converted your movie from 23.976 to 24p.
   
   
   

   
   

2. 2. Import the movie clip to the timeline and obviously the width of the movie and the comp is different so you need to modify the clip's width as show in the image below.Transform → Fit to Comp Width

3. When you add this to Render Queue modify the Output Settings

And under the Color Management → Cineon Settings enable the “Logarithmic Conversion” and remember to choose an output directory with enough space on your disk and then render.

Note: Now after the DPX log files are created you can try and import the DPX log sequence into your After Effects timeline. Don't get panic when you see the images are washed out. The Log files are washed out and if you want to see the true color apply the "Cineon Effects" and you will see the true color.

B. Audio

Now that the video conversion is over, audio is lot simpler but it requires couple of softwares to get the work done. Refer to this article for other ways to convert.

Using Logic Pro

1. Create a logic project and set the Frame Rate under Synchronization tab to 24 fps. Import the movie that you converted from 23.976 fps to 24p whose audio will be in 48048 Hz. 

2. Open the movie

      File - Open Movie

3. Export Audio from Video

      File - Import Audio from Movie

4. Bounce

       File - Bounce 

      

Now you are all set and your movie (both audio and video) is ready for DCP. 

Are all your eggs in the Facebook basket?

So it turns out that there's a storm brewing around Facebook's new policy decisions. This would primarily concern those who've used FB on a very regular basis and are trying to use it for professional or business or direct/indirect personal/business reasons or whatever. Before you read on, check out this article 'Facebook, I want my friends back' linked to the Dangerous Minds website. To be honest, we aren't really invested that much in Facebook even though we(AccessibleHorizon FilmCollective) started our FB account primarily for our artistic projects(I don't have a personal account for myself). We try and post regularly about our projects and 'hope' to get some traffic out of it. Our 'fan-base' isn't that much in the sense that we'd lose out on too many promotional opportunities, because we haven't gone full-out on Facebook.
But obviously, there are millions of people, who are FB users, that have been relying on it so much that virtually their 'online' existence depends on it. So, the 'bait-and-switch' model that it has implemented now, is inevitably creating a bit of a furor among users. I personally am trying to figure out whether this is a good thing or a bad thing; that is whether FB was right in their part to charge their users for their posts, or if they are wrong, like many users feel. As the post and the subsequent comments point out, it affects a lot of the smaller companies and people who are grappling with this change and trying to figure out how to go forward.
I ain't going into too much detail, coz we already know the pros and cons. And I don't want to take a cynic's stance and say 'it is what it is, so deal with it'. Of course, I imagine that's what it eventually would boil down to. But I figure just one underlying thing in all this free-market, business model approach or whatever - that as users, we have to ask ourselves the question of 'Are all our eggs in the Facebook basket?'. Meaning, whatever happens, are we going to or rather, should we keep and/or safeguard our eggs(our promotional, marketing or business out-reach) strictly and only within our FB basket? Time and again, the 'free-market' economy has taught us to be wary of things like this. So why fall for the same again? If we were to operate our ventures online, it would be smart to spread out on several platforms and keep Facebook as 'one' of the baskets. Kinda like spreading your 'investment' across several platforms. Just something to ponder about.

Save Indian Independent Cinema!

Folks, as many of you may already know of this or have heard about this, we still wanted to share this across to you in the hope of supporting Alternative, Independent Cinema in India. Recently we have seen a spate of parallel and alternative and experimental cinematic content oozing into the mainstream Indian film consciousness and we only hope it gets bigger and better. This has to be brought into the mainstream school of thought and we have to encourage people to support content that is typically created with minimal resources and under extreme circumstances. The article and the petition in itself has valid points towards helping Independent artists, performers, filmmakers, technicians et al, and what you can do to propagate it. So if you can take the time off to sign this petition, you may become a part of the change that you've always wanted to be.
Here's the link: https://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/save-indie-cinema
Pic courtesy: Change.org

Converting audio from 23.976 fps to True 24 fps

We've often had problems getting the Audio ready for the final DCP output. This one took us a while to figure out, because we had to redo this after our submission for DCP syncing which didn't work out the first time. This is sort of a late post that we had compiled a while back.

Converting audio from 23.976 to True 24 fps (48000 Hz to 48048 Hz) 

Method 1: Using Wave Agent
Method 2: Using Logic Pro

Method 1: Using Wave Agent

Note: Do not try to verify audio sync in FCP or any other video editing software, always CHECK using Pro-Tools or Logic for True 24fps audio sync

Import the audio file (preferably make a copy of the original audio) you want to convert into the WaveAgent. After importing convert the audio, modify the Sample Rate to 48048 and Frame Rate to 24 ND. 

Fixing the sample rate from 48048 to 48000 using Barba Batch

1. Add the audio file that needs to be fixed from 48048 to 48000 Hz.

2. Click on the Conversion tab and select "Wave (.wav), 48000.00 Hz, interleaved

3. Click on Output tab and choose an output directory and click START.

Method 2:  Using Logic Pro

1. Create a logic project and set the Frame Rate under Synchronization tab to 24 fps. Import the movie that you converted from 23.976 fps to 24p whose audio will be in 48048 Hz. 

2. Open the movie

      File - Open Movie

3. Export Audio from Video

      File - Import Audio from Movie

4. Bounce

       File - Bounce

      
If you think there's a better workflow, please share it with us. We are pretty positive there must be, but...

Hey '500 & 5'...whaz cookin'?

Guess this is one of the longest gaps in our blog this year, though a pretty intended one. Earlier, I had never believed in 'tunnel-visions' like when being engrossed in something that consumes you in your entirety. You know, the point when you start believing that you've figured everything about it until a huge wall stands in front of you, blocking you and daring you to go through it. Though you've encountered many like these and have virtually bulldozed your way around through sheer grit and work alone, there are a few stages where no amount of bulldozing or grit or bloody, sweaty work can get you through...except...yes, except a little detachment from it. 
A little time away from the madness of it all (the tunnel-vision), can help in getting some clarity as to where we are headed. Because that little time-out can show you perspectives you've never ever have imagined - the view from outside the tunnel, from the mountain above it and from way above the clouds that hover above the mountains - which I guess can show you possibilities and do the trick of razing down that wall and getting through it unscathed.
So I guess that's what happened after all with 500 & 5. Right after the special private preview show in Chennai a while ago, it felt like being inside a tunnel with little perspective. So we decided on this random detachment from all things 'work' and decided to hover above the mountains, almost too literally. And just got back from a wild and totally unpredictable ride around some of the most elusive and distant lands of India. 
This above pic was taken during a trek(with the Canon 7D) - by far the most difficult and can I say dangerous - in our lexicon of treks. But one thing is certain, if you ever think someone needs a lesson in humility, you should take them on an unplanned and reckless travel around the vastness and humongous-ness of the mountains that touch the clouds. Now that we are back, I ain't saying we now got all the answers as to what the next step would be, but the head feels clear and thinking afresh, my friend, opens up possibilities.