New Doc by heidi and jessica

Here's an excerpt from the video we shot Saturday...

First of all, congratulations to both of you (and Stacie) on getting this project off the ground. Looking forward to seeing it completed.

Here are some initial impressions. Take them as you like:

1) The concept intrigues, so that's a great start. What drew me in in particular was a behind the scenes look at "cult" horror moviemaking and all its inherent weirdness and how that can make a serious relationship between a husband and wife interesting and challenging. I know Dousman is moving into mainstream horror as is Adam Green, but they're still going to be existing on the lunatic fringe of Hollywood filmmaking. What I immediately want to see is warts and all of that fringe. The basic collaborative dynamics that exist and which can be applied to any genre of filmmaking is also interesting, but I'm expecting eccentricity and cool weirdness first and foremost.

2) The "look" and style of the interview footage is top notch. Intercut with clips, artwork, et al will be interesting to see.

3) The website is flush left, Heidi, and I see you have a media section which is where I'm instinctively going to be looking for clips and such. Keeping it separate works, I think. I see you can "share" the site, but are you planning on a Facebook page, as well? Tweet if you like, too. I'm not a big Twitterer, but updates on production would be interesting. Cost and time permitting, some behind the scenes with the filmmakers is very much called for because in a very real sense, the makers here are notable. Almost more-so than some of the subjects!

Other than those general comments, the links seem to be working well. As for the background, I like the B&W photos that will make up the taller header as it, again, brings the "cult" feel. Black always works for me, and the red bullets, etc. are set off nicely. Leave room for those festival accolades, too!

4) You may consider this outside the jurisdiction of BoH, and it may just be flat-out impossible to get, but I think the first person everyone thinks about when they hear this idea is Sherrie Moon. Now, think what you like about her, a doc with this subject would almost be remiss not to include her in some way. She's kind of royalty in this area. Banner tie-ins with her clothing site may not be a bad initial gift offering?

5) I'm not sure what other subjects you have prepped, but I'm sure there are lots of conventioning cult celebs who wouldn't shunnnn the opportunity to be a part of this. Tura Satana, Rollin "mistresses" Brigitte Lahaie, Aïda Ruilova, Lina Romay (?), and a number of online journos might add some breadth to the proceedings. Hey, why not tag Carla Gugino at her Elektra Luxx blog, or the very cool Kimberly Lindbergs from Cineabeats.

Okay, okay...I'll stop there. Suffice it to say I find the premise inspiring, and best of luck to everyone involved.

Thank you very much! I didn't do much to the clip except blur the background a little and adjust the black levels slightly - other than that it's pretty much straight out of the camera.

(Actually, straight out of the camera, imported into FCP, edited, rendered, exported as an MPEG file, then uploaded to YouTube.)

Jessica

Looks awesome!

It's the lighting, innit? Particularly the balance of outdoor and indoor ambient. I'm assuming some kind of softbox as a key, although that would be tricky to get the same color so it could be a natural light source. In the past I've white balanced for indoor and let the outdoor come in all blue and stuff. Warm with cool just floats my boat, sometimes, although it can look like a cheesy gel if you're not careful.

And I can't tell what camera you're using from the photo on the site, but it looks like you've got the HVR-A1U which means Hi-Def! Sweeet.

Lighting makes a big difference, but in this case there wasn't any other than picking the right spot in the living room where the windows with the neutral exposure directly behind camera act as a large, soft light source and light creeping in through the front door act as a bit of a rim light on Melissa. Oh, and an on camera Litepanels Mini Plus for a little bit of frontal fill (thought not really needed in this set up).

And yes, it was shot on the Sony HVR-A1U.

My favorite people making a movie about one of my favorite subjects (I'm the guy who did "Fake Blood", so I'm into stories about the wives of horror filmmakers).

Good luck, everyone. I expect to see this film before everyone else.

we just got news that Mick garris and cynthia garris will be taking part. Mick is so nice!!!!!!!

I was thinking of picking one of these up with the help of a 12 month, 0% APR Capital One credit card deal. I've got a cooking show in the works and it could be something special. I've got a celeb chef, an extremely popular restaurant in the Philadelphia area and an awesome hook so I'm going to go for it.

I do have a question though, Jessica, if you don't mind sharing: how's the audio from the camera? And do you need anything special to edit hi-def? We work on Final Cut Pro with some old ass monitors, but I wasn't sure if it would output in a SD format.

i will let jessica answer this, but the sound seems awesome so far, and we will be editing in Final Cut pro.

I'm really pleased with the camera and think (for once) that I made a great choice in terms of price/image quality/professional features/ease of use. One of the really nice features about the camera is that it uses a true 1440X1080 chip - most cameras in the under $6,000 price range use pixel shifted, lower resolution chips, which are essentially upconverted in camera to 1280X720 or 1440X1080. This camera produces a true 1440X1080 image and looks clean and detailed.

I use a Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic (you can pick one up for $1200 if you look around) on the camera. The Sennheiser on camera isn't bad - you just have to be sure to keep the camera as close to talent as you can. Of course, if you have a sound mixer with lavs or a boom operator you can put the camera where you want and not have to worry about sound. I suppose the $150 Rode Videomic would also work as a substantially cheaper alternative, but I've never tried it.

I edit on FCP and after a lot of experimenting, I've found that it's best to import footage w/out using the in-camera downconversion into a native HDV timeline (1440X1080 at 60i) then after editing select the single field deinterlace filter option which effectively converts the footage to 1440X540 at 30p.

After that's done, it can be exported as extremely high quality standard definition (720X480 at 30p) video for a DVD, or as a 1280X720 at 30p MPEG4/H264 file for uploading to YouTube (which is what I did for the Melissa Bacelar footage).

I also use a Litepanels MiniPlus on camera LED light as a fill light. When shooting outside in daylight, the camera's image can surprisingly close to rivaling the $100K Sony F900. In low light, however, the automatic gain kicks in and the image gets noisy and falls apart pretty fast. Be prepared to invest in a couple of chinese lanterns/china balls.

Jessica

Wow, thanks for the info, Jessica. Yeah, I've got a few lanterns, and a whole ARRI kit. Chimera's got a mini on-camera softbox that looks interesting, too. Seeing as I'll be running around a lot, I need something extremely portable. Other areas of the restaurant can be pre-lit with something mounted, but I also want something to fill if I need it.

I've also got an old Sennheiser that I need to test and a lavalier mic if I need it. I think I'm going to get around the bulk of the sound issues by setting up an interview room in the restaurant basement to get info dumps, and just let ambient sound run the rest. Restaurants are by nature loud as hell, anyway. If I need to, I can overdub. It's kind of a reality/food show thing, so I've got some leeway there.

Thanks again, and looking forward to seeing more of the doc.

You're very welcome!

Jessica

By the way, I'll have my very own A1 by Monday or Tuesday thanks to a little thing called a Capital One, 12-month 0% APR cash advance. STOKED!

nice!!!!!

I know, I'm pretty excited. Until I miss a bill. :$

Oh, Jessica, don't mean to use you as tech-support or anything but have you ever used Hi-Def with a green/blue screen?

No problem, I don't mind.

Yes, I've done greenscreen work and the important thing to remember is that you really have to use green specifically designed from greenscreen work. It's not so much the shade of green that's important, it's the purity of the green (i.e. how free it is from any red and blue pigment in it).

Also light the subject about a stop brighter than the screen and make sure the light on the screen is very, very even. You may also want to rig a soft backlight for your subject( too.

Jessica

Thanks, Jessica. I've been shooting interviews over the past year or so, and I've recently purchased one of those pop-up screens (much easier than steaming the wrinkles out). I just heard that hi-def could be a problem, and I wasn't sure why. Maybe too much texture in the resolution. I'd love four LCD banks, but for now, it's ARRI 650's with diffusion. Recently I had problem lighting the subject (I also do a soft backlight for separation, cheers) but I think it was the old studio 8mm camera I was using (hooked up to a digital deck).

And never again will I use blue. Everyone--I mean EVERYONE--wears blue, even if you beg them not to.

I don't understand why people would be having a problem shooting greenscreens HD, unless maybe they've got the edge enhancement/sharpness/detail cranked up to 11 or something. Your pop up screen (which I was going to suggest you get, but I'm glad I didn't since you already have one) should work very well.

Jessica

Wow! We just got word that Joe Dante and Elizabeth Stanley are going to participate!

also Wes Craven and his wife Iya.

woot woot!

Friggin' awesome!

S W E E T .

Zomg! This looks so cool!

Congrats. Interesting topic, could even expand beyond horror films... Everything looks good. I agree, get some more clips and/or pics up on the site. Aren't us horror fans visual people who like to be teased?