Live Cinema Research fALk http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ live cinema research This blog is about all things that touch the topic "Live Cinema". An emerging evolutionary media artform . en-us falk@mac.com 2008-06-27T13:13:22+01:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 ℗ & © 2005 some rights reserved falk@mac.com fALk Gaertner falk@mac.com http://www.prototypen.com/blog/vjblog/archives/blogstuff/stopperklein2.png Live Cinema Research http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ 140 43 Kalkin:Revelation 0.5b @ Lauter Festival http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/002258.html fALk kalkinLauter08.pngYes the project is still on defrost and with an amazing change of code in my VJ program of choice - VMDX - its now actually much closer to what I envisioned - its kicking fast (finally full 25 fps+) dancing to the beats and propping superior visual quality. Together with a DJ set that has been talked about in very depth with DJ Jóse before the performance and a festival location that is sported in the beginning of the film and fRED kicking it with me this will be for me a very exiting event. The performance will be around 11:00 pm at the prototypen stage.

The entrance fee for the whole festival will be 15 Euros and entrance opens at around 4:00 pm.

More information on the festival on the Lauter website. If you happen to be around I would be happy to hear your comment - oh and pray for good weather ;)

]]> Yes the project is still on defrost and with an amazing change of code in my VJ program of choice - VMDX - its now actually much closer to what I envisioned - its kicking fast (finally full 25 fps+) dancing to the beats and propping superior visual quality. Together with a DJ set that has been talked about in very depth with DJ Jóse before the performance and a festival location that is sported in the beginning of the film and fRED kicking it with me this will be for me a very exiting event. The performance will be around 11:00 pm at the prototypen stage. The entrance fee for the whole festival will be 15 Euros and entrance opens at around 4:00 pm. More information on the festival on the Lauter website. If you happen to be around I would be happy to hear your comment - oh and pray for good weather ;) 2258@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ kalkin | performance 2008-06-27T13:13:22+01:00 Watch film with buddies and love it more http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001953.html fALk This is a study supporting my theory that a cinematic experience with a group of people is bringing more enjoyment then simply watching the film on its own, and if you are able to share your enjoyment while watching the film (something that can only be achieved to a small degree in traditional black - box - all -people - quite cinemas) the films becomes even more enjoyable.
Taking that theory a Live Cinema experience that is tailored to a room full of people talking to each other in the first place (bar, club, lounge) would produce exactly that result - if the people enjoyed and understood the experience in the first place (wallpaper doesn´t count).

By mimicking expressions, people catch each other's moods leading to a shared emotional experience. That feels good to people and they attribute that good feeling to the quality of the movie

Science Daily

]]> This is a study supporting my theory that a cinematic experience with a group of people is bringing more enjoyment then simply watching the film on its own, and if you are able to share your enjoyment while watching the film (something that can only be achieved to a small degree in traditional black - box - all -people - quite cinemas) the films becomes even more enjoyable. Taking that theory a Live Cinema experience that is tailored to a room full of people talking to each other in the first place (bar, club, lounge) would produce exactly that result - if the people enjoyed and understood the experience in the first place (wallpaper doesn´t count). By mimicking expressions, people catch each other's moods leading to a shared emotional experience. That feels good to people and they attribute that good feeling to the quality of the movie Science Daily 1953@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ 2007-12-10T08:50:16+01:00 Feels allready quite warm http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001943.html fALk Just to introduce myself and officially say hello to everybody. I'm quite happy that fAlk asked me to support him with "Kalkin", we talked alot about narratives in the last years and i still believe its the way visual have to go. to be involved now deeper than chatting from time to time and pretending to be sportive (look the picture section) its a great chance for me to develop my point of view on live cinema and a chance to help sombody realising his vision.
its still a lot of work to do but i'm sure the result will be in one way or the other enlighting for lots of people, people watching aswell people doing visual arts themself.

licht an!

fRED

]]> Just to introduce myself and officially say hello to everybody. I'm quite happy that fAlk asked me to support him with "Kalkin", we talked alot about narratives in the last years and i still believe its the way visual have to go. to be involved now deeper than chatting from time to time and pretending to be sportive (look the picture section) its a great chance for me to develop my point of view on live cinema and a chance to help sombody realising his vision. its still a lot of work to do but i'm sure the result will be in one way or the other enlighting for lots of people, people watching aswell people doing visual arts themself. licht an! fRED 1943@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ blog | admin 2007-12-06T17:24:18+01:00 Project on slow defrost http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001941.html fALk As we march toward 2008 enough time has passed for the people behind the project to ripe think and motivate themself. Marking December where its cold outside and the world is generally slower we are back at work. New to the team is fRED who will do the typographic support of the project through some custom coded plugins for VDMX and general live visual beat support.
The revival of the product will be a slow long process. There is sooooo much still to be done. Yet on a positive note it seems that the hardware end is finally coming around to meet my demands for delivering a unique high quality cinematic live experience - so we are still conducting extensive tests in that regard.
The postproduction of the underlying story is about 8% done with lots of obstacles still to tackle, some are purely technical but there are also theoretical things not quite clear.
As said it will be a long long process but we are sure to preview some beta teaser versions way before a 1.0 version appears. If anything ever goes according to plan we might have 1.0 version mid next year.

Stay tuned for some progress report and great "vj" goodies along the way.

]]> As we march toward 2008 enough time has passed for the people behind the project to ripe think and motivate themself. Marking December where its cold outside and the world is generally slower we are back at work. New to the team is fRED who will do the typographic support of the project through some custom coded plugins for VDMX and general live visual beat support. The revival of the product will be a slow long process. There is sooooo much still to be done. Yet on a positive note it seems that the hardware end is finally coming around to meet my demands for delivering a unique high quality cinematic live experience - so we are still conducting extensive tests in that regard. The postproduction of the underlying story is about 8% done with lots of obstacles still to tackle, some are purely technical but there are also theoretical things not quite clear. As said it will be a long long process but we are sure to preview some beta teaser versions way before a 1.0 version appears. If anything ever goes according to plan we might have 1.0 version mid next year. Stay tuned for some progress report and great "vj" goodies along the way. 1941@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ kalkin | production 2007-12-06T10:50:11+01:00 EN: Project on Ice http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001791.html fALk or under Ice and it might get crushed completely.

why? i am sick of running behind the latest greatest most expensive hardware to still have jittery compressed lowres video showing up on screen that I spend zillions of hours preparing in a 8x quality.

why else? I am sick of crashing uncomplete programms that are so overly complicated that someone who is very profficient (read using computer daily since he is 8 (now almost 30) and video and moving image applications since 16 years) has trouble understanding it all and that one has to relearn the "instrument" with every .0x release and that incorparate geeky technology that make it even more complicated and only 1% of the user MIGHT use. Programm that are supporting more and more collage technologies but don´t have a single though on how to make a montage in a vj context.

ConclusionMeans for the foreseable future Kalkin: Revelation is on ice on backup harddrive in my storage room and will not be shown or presented. If and when technological things are stable in this field I might come back to it if normal jobs have not taken my full attention until then.

Sorry to say that but this whole things pisses me off to no end. I am waiting since 6 years for something that can make live visuals in a good enough quality without fuss and jitter and crash. Something reliable stable that is professional and portable. Here we are in the next millenium and there is still no way to sufficently manage trigger and mix 3 video streams in normal SD resolution with at least 4:2:2. I know that most vjs just don´t care or carry around huge amounts of gear to achive this or whatever. I want it portable I want it stable and I want it cheap enough to justify an investment into a sector that pays you shit for tons of work. I don´t spend my live working so I can give all the money to kapitalistic fuckshit companies that pile up billions of dollars - a certain fruit company comes to mind.
I perfectly happy with my current laptop for anything but vjing/livecinema. A new setup (nearly 5000 euros for 2 lappies) would just barely get me to jitterfree 2x3 channel mixing with the guarantee that with the next OS update or the next visual eyecandy plugins that can do even more to destroy your picture this generation is again too slow to make a good jitterfree performance.

So you can also take out this blog from your RSS feeds as there will be no more updates to it until maybe I decide so in another six years or such...

PS: the theory is also NOT going to be published..... No time to correct errors and no motivation to work on it in general.

]]> or under Ice and it might get crushed completely. why? i am sick of running behind the latest greatest most expensive hardware to still have jittery compressed lowres video showing up on screen that I spend zillions of hours preparing in a 8x quality. why else? I am sick of crashing uncomplete programms that are so overly complicated that someone who is very profficient (read using computer daily since he is 8 (now almost 30) and video and moving image applications since 16 years) has trouble understanding it all and that one has to relearn the "instrument" with every .0x release and that incorparate geeky technology that make it even more complicated and only 1% of the user MIGHT use. Programm that are supporting more and more collage technologies but don´t have a single though on how to make a montage in a vj context. ConclusionMeans for the foreseable future Kalkin: Revelation is on ice on backup harddrive in my storage room and will not be shown or presented. If and when technological things are stable in this field I might come back to it if normal jobs have not taken my full attention until then. Sorry to say that but this whole things pisses me off to no end. I am waiting since 6 years for something that can make live visuals in a good enough quality without fuss and jitter and crash. Something reliable stable that is professional and portable. Here we are in the next millenium and there is still no way to sufficently manage trigger and mix 3 video streams in normal SD resolution with at least 4:2:2. I know that most vjs just don´t care or carry around huge amounts of gear to achive this or whatever. I want it portable I want it stable and I want it cheap enough to justify an investment into a sector that pays you shit for tons of work. I don´t spend my live working so I can give all the money to kapitalistic fuckshit companies that pile up billions of dollars - a certain fruit company comes to mind. I perfectly happy with my current laptop for anything but vjing/livecinema. A new setup (nearly 5000 euros for 2 lappies) would just barely get me to jitterfree 2x3 channel mixing with the guarantee that with the next OS update or the next visual eyecandy plugins that can do even more to destroy your picture this generation is again too slow to make a good jitterfree performance. So you can also take out this blog from your RSS feeds as there will be no more updates to it until maybe I decide so in another six years or such... PS: the theory is also NOT going to be published..... No time to correct errors and no motivation to work on it in general. 1791@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ blog | admin 2006-11-27T14:42:31+01:00 Damping down Expectations http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001778.html fALk So I have seen my presentation date leaked into the wild. I just want to damp down on expectations. This whole thing is not ready for prime time at all even so I am forced to end my education now means that I prematurely need to present the first live cinema piece... I am extremely unsatisfied with the current state that project is in and hope that people who choose to come are not setting up expectation too high. The small amount of time does not permit me to go indepth into the theory part, the performance is at the current state absolute rubbish for multiple reasons and I am highly underprepared. So I would love to discourage people from wasting their time tomorrow and rather come to a real presentation later in the year (AVIT Berlin in December perhaps).

]]> So I have seen my presentation date leaked into the wild. I just want to damp down on expectations. This whole thing is not ready for prime time at all even so I am forced to end my education now means that I prematurely need to present the first live cinema piece... I am extremely unsatisfied with the current state that project is in and hope that people who choose to come are not setting up expectation too high. The small amount of time does not permit me to go indepth into the theory part, the performance is at the current state absolute rubbish for multiple reasons and I am highly underprepared. So I would love to discourage people from wasting their time tomorrow and rather come to a real presentation later in the year (AVIT Berlin in December perhaps). 1778@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ 2006-10-23T12:29:41+01:00 First http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001777.html fALk Kalkins First test.
The audio guys just arrived 8:46, after a week of working on sounds for the loops and scenes Falk gave them, there is a sheet erected at the end of the room the oven is on and it seams hotter than ever with all fore of us in this small office, two on each desk flanking opposite walls. I feel like I’m in some kind of electronic mediaeval cave with the red walls and the warmth permeating everything and the black night out the window.

Wires are every where, coiling and crossing over each other, and the room is filled with the light of the five computers reflecting of the red walls, the create a truly odd atmosphere I feel exited as though I know it’s going to work.

The noises are strangely alien, electronic tones, but as yet they are calm and regular, loop based. They are using ‘Ablton Live’.
Falk is tying to match the beat… I think he’s having problems. So fare the program crashed twice, this does not bode well for the big presentation next Tuesday the 24th.

Flaks tutors well tutor (one could not make it), said that flak has to shorten it the presentation making it FARE less detailed. Even I can see (and I have only been studying the subject since AVit last may) can see that all the alleged ‘unnecessary detail’ is absolutely necessary for even a basic understanding of this art form. This is not simple.

Ridiculous is all I can say. If he pares it down it will loos its depth and for me, interest. However he seems forced to pander to the whims of his course.
Which seem so limited that it is barley able to understand the necessary historical elements that feed into such an art form. Let alone nurture or give it space to grow. All of these elements make up what Live Cinema is comprised of, (and is currently one of the only standing definitions to date) and how it came into being.
Falk is left to struggle against the odds.

Oh dear, I seem to have painted rather a dramatic picture. However it is an honest reflection of the situation, at least from mine and Falks perspective.

Well they boy’s are still trying to figure things out… 21:28…21:48…21:54, ok something just happened they have managed to synchronise the beat to the loop. FINALY! Off to a bit of a rocky slow start, the technical details of which I do not care to disclose.

At the moment it looks like terrorist news round. The word ‘Security’ (intended for the Bayonia loop which is later mixed by Ping) is flashing over an image of a map of Europe, zoomed into DE, Berlin. Now the word is ‘Memory’…

There is such a profound differences that one word can make; even music or a simple montage of two images put together can totally alter your perception. If you allow yourself to do what I call free associate, to just let your mined wander, to be neutral, calm then the words and images have a chance to create an understanding in your mined.

Ok it is looking coherent on movement matched to rhythm, side of things.
The boys are picking up the buzz gradually.

Or put technically: the practitioners are beginning to become enthusiastic, and finding a way of working together to please there various aesthetic desires.

Ok it’s a wrap for tonight they’re going to ‘give it a spin’ on Saturday, as the audio guys did not correctly transfer some tracts to there computers, and Falks program is not up to “sniff” or scratch as I would put it, no pun intended...

]]> Kalkins First test. The audio guys just arrived 8:46, after a week of working on sounds for the loops and scenes Falk gave them, there is a sheet erected at the end of the room the oven is on and it seams hotter than ever with all fore of us in this small office, two on each desk flanking opposite walls. I feel like I’m in some kind of electronic mediaeval cave with the red walls and the warmth permeating everything and the black night out the window. Wires are every where, coiling and crossing over each other, and the room is filled with the light of the five computers reflecting of the red walls, the create a truly odd atmosphere I feel exited as though I know it’s going to work. The noises are strangely alien, electronic tones, but as yet they are calm and regular, loop based. They are using ‘Ablton Live’. Falk is tying to match the beat… I think he’s having problems. So fare the program crashed twice, this does not bode well for the big presentation next Tuesday the 24th. Flaks tutors well tutor (one could not make it), said that flak has to shorten it the presentation making it FARE less detailed. Even I can see (and I have only been studying the subject since AVit last may) can see that all the alleged ‘unnecessary detail’ is absolutely necessary for even a basic understanding of this art form. This is not simple. Ridiculous is all I can say. If he pares it down it will loos its depth and for me, interest. However he seems forced to pander to the whims of his course. Which seem so limited that it is barley able to understand the necessary historical elements that feed into such an art form. Let alone nurture or give it space to grow. All of these elements make up what Live Cinema is comprised of, (and is currently one of the only standing definitions to date) and how it came into being. Falk is left to struggle against the odds. Oh dear, I seem to have painted rather a dramatic picture. However it is an honest reflection of the situation, at least from mine and Falks perspective. Well they boy’s are still trying to figure things out… 21:28…21:48…21:54, ok something just happened they have managed to synchronise the beat to the loop. FINALY! Off to a bit of a rocky slow start, the technical details of which I do not care to disclose. At the moment it looks like terrorist news round. The word ‘Security’ (intended for the Bayonia loop which is later mixed by Ping) is flashing over an image of a map of Europe, zoomed into DE, Berlin. Now the word is ‘Memory’… There is such a profound differences that one word can make; even music or a simple montage of two images put together can totally alter your perception. If you allow yourself to do what I call free associate, to just let your mined wander, to be neutral, calm then the words and images have a chance to create an understanding in your mined. Ok it is looking coherent on movement matched to rhythm, side of things. The boys are picking up the buzz gradually. Or put technically: the practitioners are beginning to become enthusiastic, and finding a way of working together to please there various aesthetic desires. Ok it’s a wrap for tonight they’re going to ‘give it a spin’ on Saturday, as the audio guys did not correctly transfer some tracts to there computers, and Falks program is not up to “sniff” or scratch as I would put it, no pun intended... 1777@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ performance | rehearsal 2006-10-19T16:21:32+01:00 EN: Fighting with HDV Compression Artifacts http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001750.html fALk I knew before I started shooting with HDV that I would face problems in postproduction when it comes to bluescreening and color correction. Just the amount of problem I would face was always in question. Well lets put it that way: If you are doing any filming and plan on doing ANY postproduction forget about HDV alltogether. I have never seen a worse quality movie under my fingertips and I deeply regret going HDV now. All resolution advantages go out the window if you do even the slightest bit of contrast or individual color correction and the image looks like it has been blown up from 160x120 badly compressed webmovie. The whole picture - even with a locked off camera that has minimal movement starts to shift and wobble. I do not understand how anyone would buy such a camera or even recommend it - especially for VJing where you almost always add coloring effects onto the picture. Its bad and if there is gain grain in the picture shots are almost absolutely unusable. Bluescreens have huge edges that even badly shoot DV footage can do better (and it bad there already). HDV is a a technology that can easely be skipped if you are in the market for a new camera get the Panasonic which has twice the compression data rate then the "normal" HDV cameras and hope that this gives you a bit more room. I fully understand now why professionals talk about "doing everything in camera" with HDV because the footage that you shoot is the footage that you get. I am introducing heavy graining to divert from the compression artifacts now and it has cost me 4 days to pull a decent bluescreen. If you have the choice between HDV and something uncompressed normal resolution go with the uncompressed normal resolution you will have better quality after all.

]]> I knew before I started shooting with HDV that I would face problems in postproduction when it comes to bluescreening and color correction. Just the amount of problem I would face was always in question. Well lets put it that way: If you are doing any filming and plan on doing ANY postproduction forget about HDV alltogether. I have never seen a worse quality movie under my fingertips and I deeply regret going HDV now. All resolution advantages go out the window if you do even the slightest bit of contrast or individual color correction and the image looks like it has been blown up from 160x120 badly compressed webmovie. The whole picture - even with a locked off camera that has minimal movement starts to shift and wobble. I do not understand how anyone would buy such a camera or even recommend it - especially for VJing where you almost always add coloring effects onto the picture. Its bad and if there is gain grain in the picture shots are almost absolutely unusable. Bluescreens have huge edges that even badly shoot DV footage can do better (and it bad there already). HDV is a a technology that can easely be skipped if you are in the market for a new camera get the Panasonic which has twice the compression data rate then the "normal" HDV cameras and hope that this gives you a bit more room. I fully understand now why professionals talk about "doing everything in camera" with HDV because the footage that you shoot is the footage that you get. I am introducing heavy graining to divert from the compression artifacts now and it has cost me 4 days to pull a decent bluescreen. If you have the choice between HDV and something uncompressed normal resolution go with the uncompressed normal resolution you will have better quality after all. 1750@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ production | technology 2006-08-27T12:35:54+01:00 EN:WallyWoods 22 Frames that always work http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001746.html fALk twentytwopanelsthatarealwaysrightbw.jpgI should have seen this before production. It makes a lot of sense. Wally Woods 22 Frames that always work are showing comic compositions - camera angle, distribution of contrast, depth and character exposition - that strangely are present in most comics and most films at that. Its the "easy" guide to comic strip creation and at that to making impacting emotional storytellling in pictures in general. Looking at the 600 loops I have so far reviewed in Kalkin: Revelation my inner gut must have told me to adhere to these "standard framings" before even looking at them - about 90% would go in one of the categories interestingly enough. Check it out in big poster sizes

]]> I should have seen this before production. It makes a lot of sense. Wally Woods 22 Frames that always work are showing comic compositions - camera angle, distribution of contrast, depth and character exposition - that strangely are present in most comics and most films at that. Its the "easy" guide to comic strip creation and at that to making impacting emotional storytellling in pictures in general. Looking at the 600 loops I have so far reviewed in Kalkin: Revelation my inner gut must have told me to adhere to these "standard framings" before even looking at them - about 90% would go in one of the categories interestingly enough. Check it out in big poster sizes 1746@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ comics 2006-08-19T11:21:55+01:00 EN: Kalkin Revelation > Thanks to the Production Crew http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001743.html fALk Thanks again to everyone who helped during the production - since i am going down into postproduction stress disorder in the coming weeks and might forget the one or other name here is the fresh from the brain list of all the people who helped throughout. The absolute thanks go out to:

First of all Willow de la Roche for beeing a superb main actor, 2nd director, costume designer, make-up artist and a wonderful girlfriend :)

Kevin Lockwood for being a great first time actor/ part time parkour runner and absolutely helpfull throughout the production with making props being a part time camera assistant and running around best boy.

Michael Nangle for jumping in to do the Big Fish character on such short notice and playing it wonderfully.

My Mom and Grandma for making the delicious catering.

My Dad for organizing a magnitude of last minute things and letting me borrow some much needed equipment.

Sebastian Klemke for giving out his precious camera.

Björn Jüttner for being the natural fun Scriptgirl and superb aware helpful cameraassistent.

fRED Bordfeld for offering his flat for crazy shooting throughout the night, giving out his power generator, going location scouting with me and most of all being the injured parkour runner even running under pain.

Toas aka Butterfly Soulfire to lend us some kickass futuristic clothes.

Peter Przybyl for coming to the lab shoot as light and camera advisor.

Steffen Piech for fighting with the Bluescreen and beeing an extra.

Roman Pollack for second Bluescreen Fighter and camera assistent.

David Marschalsky for second camera and superb lighting during the race start/end shoot.

Sebastian Sadler for beeing a parkour runner under final semester test timestress.

Hilmi for also beeing a superb badass parkour runner.

Wonny for giving us lovely support in using the "Archiv" in Potsdam and the whole Archive crew.

Barbara Nowack for putting herself in the frontline to offer us access to a state owned laboratory

The poor guy from the greenhouse who spend a saturday night looking at 4 strangers moving a camera around and shouting "bitte".

Frau Kossack for convincing his boss that its ok for us to shoot at the "Speicherstadt" in Potsdam and her Boss for allowing us to go forward.

Oliver Keresztes for being the Registrar superstar that he is :)

Annett, Brina, Sünje, Shu and the other extras for making the film a little less "lonely".

The grumpy leftist at the house for letting us use their entrance in the Brunnenstraße in Berlin (after shouting at us).

The HFF Potsdam staff for giving out the cool CineFlow Light and the emergency HDV camera upfront.

THE WEATHER GOD. You are our hero clearing up the sky whenever we needed it.

]]> Thanks again to everyone who helped during the production - since i am going down into postproduction stress disorder in the coming weeks and might forget the one or other name here is the fresh from the brain list of all the people who helped throughout. The absolute thanks go out to: First of all Willow de la Roche for beeing a superb main actor, 2nd director, costume designer, make-up artist and a wonderful girlfriend :) Kevin Lockwood for being a great first time actor/ part time parkour runner and absolutely helpfull throughout the production with making props being a part time camera assistant and running around best boy. Michael Nangle for jumping in to do the Big Fish character on such short notice and playing it wonderfully. My Mom and Grandma for making the delicious catering. My Dad for organizing a magnitude of last minute things and letting me borrow some much needed equipment. Sebastian Klemke for giving out his precious camera. Björn Jüttner for being the natural fun Scriptgirl and superb aware helpful cameraassistent. fRED Bordfeld for offering his flat for crazy shooting throughout the night, giving out his power generator, going location scouting with me and most of all being the injured parkour runner even running under pain. Toas aka Butterfly Soulfire to lend us some kickass futuristic clothes. Peter Przybyl for coming to the lab shoot as light and camera advisor. Steffen Piech for fighting with the Bluescreen and beeing an extra. Roman Pollack for second Bluescreen Fighter and camera assistent. David Marschalsky for second camera and superb lighting during the race start/end shoot. Sebastian Sadler for beeing a parkour runner under final semester test timestress. Hilmi for also beeing a superb badass parkour runner. Wonny for giving us lovely support in using the "Archiv" in Potsdam and the whole Archive crew. Barbara Nowack for putting herself in the frontline to offer us access to a state owned laboratory The poor guy from the greenhouse who spend a saturday night looking at 4 strangers moving a camera around and shouting "bitte". Frau Kossack for convincing his boss that its ok for us to shoot at the "Speicherstadt" in Potsdam and her Boss for allowing us to go forward. Oliver Keresztes for being the Registrar superstar that he is :) Annett, Brina, Sünje, Shu and the other extras for making the film a little less "lonely". The grumpy leftist at the house for letting us use their entrance in the Brunnenstraße in Berlin (after shouting at us). The HFF Potsdam staff for giving out the cool CineFlow Light and the emergency HDV camera upfront. THE WEATHER GOD. You are our hero clearing up the sky whenever we needed it. 1743@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ kalkin | production 2006-08-09T22:52:24+01:00 EN: Kalkin Revelation > Shooting til the End http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001742.html fALk It has been quite some experience and I can say I won´t do it again without a budget and under tight schedule and with an camera where its virtually impossible to tell if a picture is in focus. We had our last official day of shooting today -> keeping absolutely in schedule (which is amazing considering the weather was playing games all along, about every important person/location/equipment got rescheduled canceled or shortened just a day before it was needed. But it seems we have about 98% of all 360 shots done -> 10 hours of raw footage that needs sorting and checking and then get into postproduction - for which I only have have roughly one month left! From this point thanks goes out to ALL who helped out with small and big things over long periods and small periods of time - without you I couldn´t have done anything - you know who you all are. (I am a bit in a rush and don´t want to miss out anyone - a list of all names to follow soon ;)

Now some photos collected during the days - I wish I had more time to shoot more photos some cool locations are entirely missing (like the wonderful greenhouse) some photos are blurry as I was more concentrated on the filming side. I hope to post some actual moving footage soon as well. One thing for sure - the camera - a JVC made HDV camcorder (don´t even know the exact model) is absolute rubbish. Colors are missing (all looks a bit greyish except when under full sunlight), stuff is out of focus because a) the viewfinder AND the foldout screen are rubbish in resolution b) the focus assistent is the biggest joke since Jaz drives. The connection to the tripod was always unscrewing itself, especially when under time constrains -> like throughout the whole project. Generally the camera did not feel right -> but the footage seems to be of MUCH better quality in the end then anything I could have achieved with straight DV so I guess the trade offs aren´t too bad in the end. I am very thankful that I got the camera at all - Sebastian K. aka. viso.thek thats you. BTW I choosed to use this camera enthusiastically in the first place because it offers 720p at 25 fps - since this is going out of computers and projectors and will see lots of sfx and compositing and stuff I just don´t want to (ever) deal with fields (again).

If anyone has questions to ask about the production the equipment used, the actors, the makeup or whatever else fire off I try to answer them.

So here are some more photos.

KalkinRev_Tag2bisEnde_1.jpg

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]]> It has been quite some experience and I can say I won´t do it again without a budget and under tight schedule and with an camera where its virtually impossible to tell if a picture is in focus. We had our last official day of shooting today -> keeping absolutely in schedule (which is amazing considering the weather was playing games all along, about every important person/location/equipment got rescheduled canceled or shortened just a day before it was needed. But it seems we have about 98% of all 360 shots done -> 10 hours of raw footage that needs sorting and checking and then get into postproduction - for which I only have have roughly one month left! From this point thanks goes out to ALL who helped out with small and big things over long periods and small periods of time - without you I couldn´t have done anything - you know who you all are. (I am a bit in a rush and don´t want to miss out anyone - a list of all names to follow soon ;) Now some photos collected during the days - I wish I had more time to shoot more photos some cool locations are entirely missing (like the wonderful greenhouse) some photos are blurry as I was more concentrated on the filming side. I hope to post some actual moving footage soon as well. One thing for sure - the camera - a JVC made HDV camcorder (don´t even know the exact model) is absolute rubbish. Colors are missing (all looks a bit greyish except when under full sunlight), stuff is out of focus because a) the viewfinder AND the foldout screen are rubbish in resolution b) the focus assistent is the biggest joke since Jaz drives. The connection to the tripod was always unscrewing itself, especially when under time constrains -> like throughout the whole project. Generally the camera did not feel right -> but the footage seems to be of MUCH better quality in the end then anything I could have achieved with straight DV so I guess the trade offs aren´t too bad in the end. I am very thankful that I got the camera at all - Sebastian K. aka. viso.thek thats you. BTW I choosed to use this camera enthusiastically in the first place because it offers 720p at 25 fps - since this is going out of computers and projectors and will see lots of sfx and compositing and stuff I just don´t want to (ever) deal with fields (again). If anyone has questions to ask about the production the equipment used, the actors, the makeup or whatever else fire off I try to answer them. So here are some more photos. 1742@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ kalkin | production 2006-08-09T21:51:28+01:00 EN: Kalkin Revelation > Shooting Day 1 http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001733.html fALk The first installment of Kalkin a SciFi themed Live Cinema "Film" is now in full production. We had our pretty successful first day of shooting today. More about Kalking:Revelation can be found on the Live Cinema Wiki (Community Portal>Story Development).
Here are some photos from the shooting:

KalkinRev_Tag1.jpg
KalkinRev_Tag1_1.jpg KalkinRev_Tag1_2.jpg
KalkinRev_Tag1_3.jpg
KalkinRev_Tag1_4.jpg
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]]> The first installment of Kalkin a SciFi themed Live Cinema "Film" is now in full production. We had our pretty successful first day of shooting today. More about Kalking:Revelation can be found on the Live Cinema Wiki (Community Portal>Story Development). Here are some photos from the shooting: 1733@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ kalkin | production 2006-07-28T00:08:33+01:00 EN: VJ Solu and Live Cinema http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001731.html fALk solu_pressfoto.jpgI just stumbled across a comment on this very blog from VJane Solu who I met first at AVIT UK 2005. She was playing the set just before me on the main stage and I was amazed and loved her visuals. She was definately one of my favorites (as I have written on my AVIT review) at the event. Her visuals were quite subtle maybe even a tiny bit sad and the general style was somehow close to the one I put up, I would even say she had more fine detail that my rough stuff is missing. Anyway she put a comment on here asking what the heck this blog is all about as she can´t read any german and what it has to do with Live Cinema and that she also developed a live cinema theory. I just had a brief look over at her website to check the introduction, sadly as the production approaches I could not get an indepth look but from what I read its a slightly different take on the Live Cinema - more closely database cinema - then my more montage oriented approach. I asked her for the full paper and after the production hope to put a review on here. For the time go check out her introductional part: http://www.solu.org/writings.html

]]> I just stumbled across a comment on this very blog from VJane Solu who I met first at AVIT UK 2005. She was playing the set just before me on the main stage and I was amazed and loved her visuals. She was definately one of my favorites (as I have written on my AVIT review) at the event. Her visuals were quite subtle maybe even a tiny bit sad and the general style was somehow close to the one I put up, I would even say she had more fine detail that my rough stuff is missing. Anyway she put a comment on here asking what the heck this blog is all about as she can´t read any german and what it has to do with Live Cinema and that she also developed a live cinema theory. I just had a brief look over at her website to check the introduction, sadly as the production approaches I could not get an indepth look but from what I read its a slightly different take on the Live Cinema - more closely database cinema - then my more montage oriented approach. I asked her for the full paper and after the production hope to put a review on here. For the time go check out her introductional part: http://www.solu.org/writings.html 1731@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ theory | live cinema 2006-07-19T16:48:06+01:00 DE/EN: Schauspieler Gesucht / Actors callout http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001730.html fALk UPDATE: The Role for Big Fish has been filled, thanks for the interest. Die Rolle für Big Fish wurde vergeben, danke für Euer Interesse.


---------------------------------
Deutsch (english below):
---------------------------------

Für die Produktion der ersten Live Cinema Geschichte suchen wir noch einen wichtigen Nebendarsteller. Big Fish - ist ein Mentor Character höheren Alters - um die 70 (mehr Information unten im Character Profil). Der Dreh würde im Zeitraum vom 25. Juli bis 6 August stattfinden. Genaue Drehtermine werden in den nächsten Tagen bekanntgegeben, für diesen Character sind jedoch maximal drei Drehtage eingeplant. Der Dreh spielt sich hauptsächlich in Berlin ab. Reisekosten (in Absprache), Verpflegung und Unterkunft werden von der Produktion gestellt / getragen - ein Entgeld gibt es leider nicht. Wer sich angesprochen fühlt oder jemanden kennt der für diese Rolle in Frage kommen würde schreibt bitte eine email an: falk@prototypen.com.

Big Fish (Professor) Character Profil

Äußeres Erscheinungsbild
* Alter: 72
* Geschlecht: männlich
* Merkmale: heruntergekommen, unrasiert, verschlissen
* Haare: Graue Haare (ohne erkennbaren Haarschnitt).
* Kleider Stil: alte getragene Lederjacke - ansonsten praktische Sachen
* Schuhe: alte stark getragene Leder Dinger die entfernt an sandalen erinnern.
* Andere spezielle Merkmale:spirituelle Ketten und Talismen Ringe etc. Nano Finger Scanner
* Sichtbare Gadgets: tragbares electronisches microskop, magnetischer Stift der Nanobots einfangen kann.


Hintergrundgeschichte
Hat den Nobel Preis gewonnen und war vormals ein respektiertes Mitglied der Gesellschaft bis seine Frau durch einen tragischen Unfall im Rollstuhl landete. Wie alle Behinderten in dieser Zeit wurde auch sie von der Gesellschaft ausgestossen. Um dem Gefühl Nutzlos zu sein zu entkommen fing sie an drogen zu nehmen und verwahrloste zusehens bis zu ihrem frühen Tod. Big Fish versuchte mit ihr dabei die ganze Zeit mit seinen Nanotechnologieen zu helfen. Die Methode zur Heilung von Nervenschäden war jedoch nicht rechtzeitig fertig um seiner Frau zu helfen. Der Glauben an die bestehende Gesellschaftsordnung verließ ihn daraufhin und er schloss sich den "Rebellen" an die eine Teilung der Gesellschaft anstrebten. Nach der "Großen Teilung" verblieb er auf der freien Seite der Stadt ohne jede Regeln und mit naturnahem Leben. Mit seiner Technologie hilft er den Menschen zu überleben und sein Gewächshaus ist bekannt für einige seltene Spezialitäten.


Characterzüge

* unnachsichtig mit sich selbst
* zeigt wenig emotionale Zuneigung zu anderen
* sinn für dunklen Humor
* introvertiert
* sehr geeky
* grummlich, schlecht gelaunt
* jähzornig, leicht aufbrausend

Ziele in seinem Leben
* fertig mit seinem Leben
* will Behinderten mit seiner Technologie helfen

Character Entwicklung
* entdeckt seinen rebellischen Geist wieder
* entwickelt dadurch einen Grund weiterzuleben
* öffnet sich emotional zu Ping und Azrael (die anderen beiden Charactere)

===========================================================
===========================================================
---------------
Englisch:
---------------

For the first Live Cinema Story wie are looking for an actor who can fill an important role in the plot. Big Fish is a mentor character around the age of 70 (more information below in the character profile). The shooting would be between 25th of July and 6th of August. Location is in and around Berlin. This character is assigned a minimum of three days of shooting exact dates are known in the coming days. Travel, food and accommodation is paid and arranged for by the production - no additional salary is given. If you feel like this could be you or you know someone who would be suitable for this offer drop us a line at falk@prototypen.com.

Big Fish (Professor) Character Profile

Physical Appearance
* Age: 72
* Sex: Male
* Features: Scruffy, unshaven, worn, dark toned wrinkled skin.
* Hair Style: grey scruffy
* Clothing Style: old worn leather jacket - practical, dark grey/brown/black
* Shoes: old worn self-made leather things
* Special Features: spiritual necklaces, talismans, rings etc. nano finger scanner
* Visible Gear: wearable electron microscope, magnetic pen that collects nanobots and analyzes them and programs them.

Sociology
Won the Nobel prize, and was respected member of the (corporate) society. When his wife got into a wheelchair because of an accident she was considered an outcast as every disabled person started to get brandmarked at these times. She took drugs to overcome the feeling of being worthless, and disintegrated until an early death before the professor could finish developing a cure against the disintegration of the nervous system through nanobot-technology. Losing faith in the current social system he then joined the rebel movement which was the pre-cursor for the second great divide.


Psychology

* harsh with himself
* shows no emotional affection to anyone
* dark sense of humour
* introverted
* very geeky
* grumpy
* fiery tempered

Goal In Life
* done with life
* wants to develop his technology and help disabled people

Character Development
* revives his rebel spirit and develops a reason to be alive
* opens up emotionally to Ping and Azrael as a father figure

]]> UPDATE: The Role for Big Fish has been filled, thanks for the interest. Die Rolle für Big Fish wurde vergeben, danke für Euer Interesse. --------------------------------- Deutsch (english below): --------------------------------- Für die Produktion der ersten Live Cinema Geschichte suchen wir noch einen wichtigen Nebendarsteller. Big Fish - ist ein Mentor Character höheren Alters - um die 70 (mehr Information unten im Character Profil). Der Dreh würde im Zeitraum vom 25. Juli bis 6 August stattfinden. Genaue Drehtermine werden in den nächsten Tagen bekanntgegeben, für diesen Character sind jedoch maximal drei Drehtage eingeplant. Der Dreh spielt sich hauptsächlich in Berlin ab. Reisekosten (in Absprache), Verpflegung und Unterkunft werden von der Produktion gestellt / getragen - ein Entgeld gibt es leider nicht. Wer sich angesprochen fühlt oder jemanden kennt der für diese Rolle in Frage kommen würde schreibt bitte eine email an: falk@prototypen.com. Big Fish (Professor) Character Profil Äußeres Erscheinungsbild * Alter: 72 * Geschlecht: männlich * Merkmale: heruntergekommen, unrasiert, verschlissen * Haare: Graue Haare (ohne erkennbaren Haarschnitt). * Kleider Stil: alte getragene Lederjacke - ansonsten praktische Sachen * Schuhe: alte stark getragene Leder Dinger die entfernt an sandalen erinnern. * Andere spezielle Merkmale:spirituelle Ketten und Talismen Ringe etc. Nano Finger Scanner * Sichtbare Gadgets: tragbares electronisches microskop, magnetischer Stift der Nanobots einfangen kann. Hintergrundgeschichte Hat den Nobel Preis gewonnen und war vormals ein respektiertes Mitglied der Gesellschaft bis seine Frau durch einen tragischen Unfall im Rollstuhl landete. Wie alle Behinderten in dieser Zeit wurde auch sie von der Gesellschaft ausgestossen. Um dem Gefühl Nutzlos zu sein zu entkommen fing sie an drogen zu nehmen und verwahrloste zusehens bis zu ihrem frühen Tod. Big Fish versuchte mit ihr dabei die ganze Zeit mit seinen Nanotechnologieen zu helfen. Die Methode zur Heilung von Nervenschäden war jedoch nicht rechtzeitig fertig um seiner Frau zu helfen. Der Glauben an die bestehende Gesellschaftsordnung verließ ihn daraufhin und er schloss sich den "Rebellen" an die eine Teilung der Gesellschaft anstrebten. Nach der "Großen Teilung" verblieb er auf der freien Seite der Stadt ohne jede Regeln und mit naturnahem Leben. Mit seiner Technologie hilft er den Menschen zu überleben und sein Gewächshaus ist bekannt für einige seltene Spezialitäten. Characterzüge * unnachsichtig mit sich selbst * zeigt wenig emotionale Zuneigung zu anderen * sinn für dunklen Humor * introvertiert * sehr geeky * grummlich, schlecht gelaunt * jähzornig, leicht aufbrausend Ziele in seinem Leben * fertig mit seinem Leben * will Behinderten mit seiner Technologie helfen Character Entwicklung * entdeckt seinen rebellischen Geist wieder * entwickelt dadurch einen Grund weiterzuleben * öffnet sich emotional zu Ping und Azrael (die anderen beiden Charactere) =========================================================== =========================================================== --------------- Englisch: --------------- For the first Live Cinema Story wie are looking for an actor who can fill an important role in the plot. Big Fish is a mentor character around the age of 70 (more information below in the character profile). The shooting would be between 25th of July and 6th of August. Location is in and around Berlin. This character is assigned a minimum of three days of shooting exact dates are known in the coming days. Travel, food and accommodation is paid and arranged for by the production - no additional salary is given. If you feel like this could be you or you know someone who would be suitable for this offer drop us a line at falk@prototypen.com. Big Fish (Professor) Character Profile Physical Appearance * Age: 72 * Sex: Male * Features: Scruffy, unshaven, worn, dark toned wrinkled skin. * Hair Style: grey scruffy * Clothing Style: old worn leather jacket - practical, dark grey/brown/black * Shoes: old worn self-made leather things * Special Features: spiritual necklaces, talismans, rings etc. nano finger scanner * Visible Gear: wearable electron microscope, magnetic pen that collects nanobots and analyzes them and programs them. Sociology Won the Nobel prize, and was respected member of the (corporate) society. When his wife got into a wheelchair because of an accident she was considered an outcast as every disabled person started to get brandmarked at these times. She took drugs to overcome the feeling of being worthless, and disintegrated until an early death before the professor could finish developing a cure against the disintegration of the nervous system through nanobot-technology. Losing faith in the current social system he then joined the rebel movement which was the pre-cursor for the second great divide. Psychology * harsh with himself * shows no emotional affection to anyone * dark sense of humour * introverted * very geeky * grumpy * fiery tempered Goal In Life * done with life * wants to develop his technology and help disabled people Character Development * revives his rebel spirit and develops a reason to be alive * opens up emotionally to Ping and Azrael as a father figure 1730@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ 2006-07-17T13:40:44+01:00 EN: Game Engine with Realtime Global Illumination, SubDs and Displacement http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/archive/001729.html fALk fantasylabgameengine.png It was just a matter of time - but noone really was expecting it so early. Fantasylab - a california based video game developing company has created a new game engine that features global illumination - in realtime. Why is this so significant? Well Global Illumination enables self glowing objects, softshadows and all kinds of other real world lightning effects and in the end would give a movie making application that sits on top of this game engine a very realistic output that - by judging from the pictures - gives you a quality that comes close to the first Pixar Toy Story Movie - in real time without a renderfarm. On top of GI this render engine can also handle subdivision models and displacement mapping to give the characters unpreceded detail in an realtime environment. The days of the overnight 3d renderers are counted I guess.

More Infos on their site:http://www.fantasylab.com/newPages/FantasyEngineFeatures.html

]]> It was just a matter of time - but noone really was expecting it so early. Fantasylab - a california based video game developing company has created a new game engine that features global illumination - in realtime. Why is this so significant? Well Global Illumination enables self glowing objects, softshadows and all kinds of other real world lightning effects and in the end would give a movie making application that sits on top of this game engine a very realistic output that - by judging from the pictures - gives you a quality that comes close to the first Pixar Toy Story Movie - in real time without a renderfarm. On top of GI this render engine can also handle subdivision models and displacement mapping to give the characters unpreceded detail in an realtime environment. The days of the overnight 3d renderers are counted I guess. More Infos on their site:http://www.fantasylab.com/newPages/FantasyEngineFeatures.html 1729@http://www.prototypen.com/lc/blog/ post | technology 2006-07-17T10:07:59+01:00