Markee 2.0 Magazine September/October 2012 by Markee 2.0 Magazine

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September/October 2012 • V.27|No.5

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

up W fo W rF W .M AR a RE KE t E EM eN ew AG s .C O M

2.0

Specialty Shooters Florida Film & Tape takes to the water

LED Lighting Original Music Spotlight: West Coast

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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

September/October 2012 Volume 27, Number 5

contents w w w. m a r k e e m a g . c o m

22 16

features 8

Original Music Music has the power to propel plots and evoke emotion. By Christine Bunish

Specialty Shooters

16 All Aboard! Florida Film & Tape survives and thrives in the air and on the water. By Cory Sekine-Pettite

Lighting

22 LED Lighting LEDs are on their way to becoming the industry standard. By Christine Bunish

Spotlight

30 West Coast By Cory Sekine-Pettite

Markee 2.0 |

September/October 2012

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

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Markee2.0

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

30 6

Markee 2.0 is a results-driven magazine that has been published since December 1985. A nationwide survey of film and video industry professionals revealed that Markee 2.0 is at the top of their must-read list. Editorially, Markee 2.0 offers a wide range of content tailored for its diverse readership. Features span film and video production and postproduction topics to include must-read interviews with leaders in the creative community, the latest equipment and technology news, perspectives on innovative independent filmmaking, and in-the-trenches reports on shooters, editors, animators and audio pros – plus regularly-scheduled specialty supplements. Markee 2.0’s seasoned writers know the industry inside-out. That’s what makes Markee 2.0 compelling, informative and timely reading.

www.markeemag.com

columns & departments

4 Editor’s Note 6 Making TV – Crazy Fast Shooting Necessary Roughness shoots travel from a football stadium to a bull-riding ring and other locations and sets. By Michael Fickes

7 Making Commercials – Making Digital Connections Animating how build-it-yourself apps can connect businesses to customers and customers to businesses. By Michael Fickes

36 Inside View – Cartoon Lagoon Studios

[On The Cover] Orlando-based Florida Film & Tape at work filming a video for Suzuki Marine. Photo: Florida Film & Tape

Pat Giles and Manny Galan By Christine Bunish www.markeemag.com

September/October 2012

| Markee 2.0

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from the editor

Markee2.0

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

| By Cory Sekine-Pettite

www.markeemag.com LIONHEART PUBLISHING, INC. 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060 Tel: 770.431.0867 Fax: 770.432.6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com www.markeemag.com

Men in Hats

Publisher

If you watch a great deal of television, you’ve probably noticed a trend of late: There are a lot of men in hats. And I don’t mean some character trying to look hip by wearing an ill-fitting straw fedora. I am talking about characters who wouldn’t be the same without their hats; the hats are an extension – or perhaps a reflection – of who they are. Such accouterment helps viewers get into the story – and certainly helps the actors get into character. I’m rarely seen without some sort of chapeau, so this is a trend I can get behind. Allow me to run down a list of some of the shows to which I am referring: Longmire (A&E), Dallas (TNT), Vegas (CBS), Justified (FX), Hell on Wheels (AMC), and Copper (BBC America). Granted, most of these programs are period dramas, reflecting times in which few men left their homes without a hat. Still, I think there is a deeper issue here than simply the idea of producing a TV show set in the Old West (Hell on Wheels) or Civil War-era New York (Copper). These shows are reminders that America used to have ideals about working hard, living off the land, and actually producing tangible goods. The work was tough, but the men were tougher. Men wore hats more so out of need rather than want of being fashionable. They were outdoors all day – rain or shine – getting things done. Hats provided protection from the elements. Most of us today work in office buildings, sitting in front of computer screens. No hat is required for that! Sure, we’re looking at our history through a romanticized lens. Everything wasn’t rosy, and these shows reflect that in many ways. But even today, you can look at a character on TV, or a man on the street for that matter, and know his character based solely on his choice of hat. One glance at Robert Taylor as Sheriff Walt Longmire, and you know he’s a gritty, no-nonsense lawman. (Remember our Jul/Aug 2012 cover?) There’s a heavy burden on this man’s soul, and that brown wool hat is the only thing keeping him from falling apart. I don’t lament progress, and I don’t hate my desk job. I don’t wish to live in another era. But like the producers and viewers of these TV shows (I particularly enjoy Longmire and Hell on Wheels), I enjoy escaping into a world where the good guys wear hats – cowboy hats.

Highlights Coming In November/December 2012 Follow us on:

• Animation Studios • Mobile Production • Cutting Commercials

IN EVERY ISSUE: Making TV • Making Commercials • Inside View

Markee 2.0 |

September/October 2012

John Llewellyn llewellyn@lionhrtpub.com

Executive Editor

Cory Sekine-Pettite cory@lionhrtpub.com

Editor Emeritus

Christine Bunish cbpen@aol.com

Senior Writers

Michael Fickes Mark R. Smith

Director of Sales and Marketing

Art Director

John Davis jdavis@lionhrtpub.com 770.431.0867, ext. 226 Alan Brubaker albrubaker@lionhrtpub.com

Assistant Art Director

Lindsay Sport lindsay@lionhrtpub.com

Advertising Sales

Gayle Rosier gayle@markeemag.com 386.873.9286

Advertising Sales – Western Region

Online Projects Manager

Jim Heath heathassocpubrep@gmail.com 310.701.8401 Patton McGinley patton@lionhrtpub.com

Marketing/Reprints

Kelly Millwood kelly@lionhrtpub.com

Subscriptions

Amy Halvorsen amyh@lionhrtpub.com

Markee 2.0 (ISSN 1073-8924) is published bi-monthly by Lionheart Publishing, Inc.

Subscription Rates – Annual subscription rate for U.S. orders - 1 year $34 / 2 year $56; Canada & Mexico – 1 year $58 / 2 year $89; All other countries – 1 year $85 / 2 year $120. Single issue $8. All orders outside the United States must be prepaid in U.S. Dollars only. Remit all requests and payment to Lionheart Publishing, Inc., 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060.

Copyright © 2012 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. The copyright owner, however, does consent to a single copy of an article being made for personal use. Otherwise, except under circumstances within “fair use” as defined by copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, displayed or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, Lionheart Publishing, Inc. Send e-mail permission requests to cory@lionhrtpub.com.

Disclaimer – The statements and opinions in the articles of this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lionheart Publishing, Inc. or the editorial staff of Markee 2.0 or any sponsoring organization. The appearance of advertisements in this magazine is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised.

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

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making TV

Necessary Roughness | By Michael Fickes

Crazy Fast Shooting Necessary Roughness shoots travel from a football stadium to a bull-riding ring and other locations and sets. Necessary Roughness, USA Network’s take on sports psychology, rolls out the couch for the New York Hawks, a team full of headcase football players. “The show is shot in Atlanta,” says William Wages, ASC, the program’s cinematographer. “We use the Georgia Dome, where the [Atlanta] Falcons play. “There are two types of coverage for football,” he continues. “First, looking down from above the action on the field, when you don’t show the stands. For sideline shots, we have 125 people that pile up into the seats. We shoot them with a long lens, and it fills up the background. When we change angles, we move the people.” Atlanta doubles as New York City and Long Island. It isn’t a big stretch, says Wages, who recently received the 2012 ASC Career Achievement in Television Award. Well, sometimes it is. Football season – autumn – of course is different in the South and North. Episodes shot in the fall use trees with fall-colored leaves mounted on platforms with wheels. “We move them around for exterior shots,” Wages says. “We also turn green leaves on real trees brown in post.” Permanent sets include Dr. Dani Santino’s (Callie Thorne) house, home office and a sports facility with a locker room and team offices.

Camera and Lighting Wages shoots with the ARRI ALEXA. “It is fluid and fast,” he says, “and it has thirteen stops of dynamic range.” He softens the HD look by fitting a piece of black mesh Tulle over the rear of the lenses (Panavision Primos). He special-ordered all of the lenses with rear mounts. “Putting the Tulle on the back of the lens diffuses images in a subtle way,” he says. 6

Markee 2.0 |

A fan of film, Wages loves the ALEXA. “It can do things a film camera cannot do,” he says. “We once shot a scene in a penthouse at night, and we wanted the lights and buildings from the surrounding city to be visible through the windows. But when they scouted, no one noticed that the Penthouse windows were heavily tinted. The glass was so dark that I had to light at an extremely low level – lower than I’ve ever lighted anything – to make the city visible through the windows. The ALEXA handled it, but a film camera couldn’t have done it.” For scenes needing normal light levels, Wages bounces light off walls, ceilings and bed sheets. “I seldom shine lights at people,” he says. The show’s lighting package includes Lekolights, ellipsoidal tungsten spotlights developed for the theater, and HMI Lekos, called Jo-Lekos. Both have blades in the back that can project a square of light on the wall. Finally, there are 1,800watt HMI ARRI PARs and 12K PARs.

Subplots and VFX Not all of Dr. Santino’s patients are Hawks. The Long Island single mother and psychotherapist, a character based on a real person, also treats a bull-rider, golfer, baseball slugger and other athletes, as well as a magician, news anchor, poker player and spelling bee champion. The main story about the Hawks moves forward in every episode, sometimes in parallel with a subplot with a patient from a different sport or other field. In one episode, for instance, Santino

September/October 2012

[Above] Marc Blucas plays Matthew Donnally, the New York Hawks trainer, who moves up to assistant general manager. Callie Thorne plays Dr. Dani Santino, the team psychologist. Top Photo: Wilford Harewood/USA Network Bottom Photo: Richard DuCree/USA Network

treats a bull-rider who can’t let go of the rope – a real problem for a bull-rider. “We built the whole set for that show,” says Wages. “The character rides a mechanical bull. We used green screen and matched our shots with real footage of a real event so we could intercut green screen close ups and real long shots.” A main story plus subplots makes for lots of locations, lots of sets and 40 to 50 set-ups for each of the seven shooting days per show – and for the eighth day, which is usually reserved for second unit work. “We shoot eight or nine pages a day,” says Wages. “We have a full-time rigging crew that stays a step ahead of us laying cable and getting ready. We come in; we shoot; we move on.” That’s not run and gun shooting. That’s crazy fast shooting!

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

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making Commercials

Mobile Roadie | By Michael Fickes

Making Digital Connections Animating how build-it-yourself apps can connect businesses to customers and customers to businesses. Aiming to expand its customer base to individuals and small businesses, app-maker Mobile Roadie has developed a suite of tools that enables anyone to build an app – without knowing anything about computer code. To advertise the new business model, the Los Angeles-based company asked mixed-media production studio Roger, also of LA, to create and produce an online video showcasing how the build-ityourself app tools work. Roger responded with “Anthem,” a 60-second spot that earned a 2012 Silver Telly, which honors the best in TV and film production. “The idea is to give Joe’s Coffee Shop and other small businesses a way to connect with customers,” says Terrence Lee, Roger’s owner and creative director. “We wanted the spot to illustrate how that works.” The piece combines vignettes of real people with 3D animated objects and 2D scenes. Vignettes play out on the street, in stores, on a beach, at a home and at an entertainment event. As the characters use their apps to buy and sell, animated rectangular 3D panels emanate from the phones and tablets symbolizing the cyberspace transactions and connections. In addition, the commercial uses scenes with 2D animated green and white maps showing outlines of continents to illustrate the routes taken by data flowing around the world. Each scene ends with a distinctive camera move that creates a transition to the next scene. In the first scene, for instance, a woman walks out of a New York City apartment building using her mobile phone. Panels of transaction symbols grow out of her phone. As the camera looks over her shoulder, she taps an icon to purchase a T-shirt. The icon takes off, moving deeper into the screen, and the 3D camera pushes into the screen www.markeemag.com

and into the 2D animation, following the icon along a map from the starting place in New York all the way to San Francisco. When the icon arrives at its destination, the camera pulls back and out of a screen, this time a tablet screen being used by the owner of a T-shirt shop. The animated transactional panels floating in the air beside the tablet suggest that he is selling lots of T-shirts. Jon Hyde of Boxer Films shot the live footage using a Canon 7D with Digital SLR. Lee from Roger worked with Hyde to lay the groundwork for the animation. After the shoot, Lee’s production team used PF Track from The Pixel Farm in the U.K. to figure out where to position the 3D panels in each scene. PF Track analyzes scenes and finds patterns, says Lee. It calculates distances between objects and tracks how objects move in relation to each other. It ultimately enabled the animation team to composite the 3D images into the scenes, orient them properly and tie them to the various phone and tablet screens. Next, the production team generated a 3D camera with Cinema 4D, a modeling, animation and rendering application from Germany-based MAXON Computer GmbH.

[Above] Producer Drew Neujahr from Roger (on the left) Roger Owner and Creative Director, Terrence Lee, at the computer.

“We animated the glass panels in Cinema 4D and exported them to After Effects where we stylized the raw renderings and added reflections of the users’ faces to the 3D panels,” says Lee. “Sometimes we had to paint out reflections of the production crew in the tablet and phone screens. The biggest challenge involved making the animated panels appear to be attached to the devices. When a device turned in a user’s hands, the animations, which exist on the same plane as the flat tablet or phone, had to turn just that much.” After Effects also handled the compositing and color correction for the project. A voiceover on top of an original music track explains the goings on in the commercial: “We live in a mobile world with unlimited reach and potential, where everyone is connected and every interaction counts.” Mobile Roadie has a vision of this emerging mobile world, and “Anthem” brings that vision to life.

September/October 2012

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ORIGINAL MUSIC Music has the power to propel and

plots

evoke emotion

BY CHRISTINE BUNISH

Markee 2.0 |

September/October 2012

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

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lthough the Academy Awardwinning The Artist demonstrated that you still could tell stories on the big screen with-

out dialogue, how would the film have been received without music? The power of music to support and propel plots and to evoke emotion helps short films, features, trailers, and web and broadcast spots deliver the impact their creators intended.

The Music Factory Crafts Uniquely Designed Soundtracks Brian Preston of Atlanta’s The Music Factory (www.themusicfactory.com) calls his artful approach to sound for picture “soundtrack design.” “A soundtrack can contain music, sound effects and sound design all supporting the image in the same way,” he says. “Many jobs today require it all.” Preston harnesses his expertise and a studio boasting more than 100 instruments, dozens of computers and 60 synths, and samplers to “paint with sound and music to achieve the emotion the client desires.” With more than 1,000 projects under his belt, Preston laughingly recalls that he’s been known in the business as “the new guy, the hot guy and the old guy. Now I’m just me creating commissioned artwork. That may sound arrogant and cocky, but it’s why people come to a custom house – for something unique and malleable that we can modify, change and explore as we go along.” Sadly, as turnaround times get shorter and shorter, he finds that “there isn’t as much time to experiment – and that’s when the really good stuff comes out.” Still, Preston keeps busy working on an array of short-form and long-form projects. His recent :60 motorcycle safety awareness spot for the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau from Integer Group/Des Moines contained “extremely gripping footage” that required an “almost cinematic approach.” It starts with the feel of an automotive spot, “high energy, crunchy guitars, metal dings and clangs with beauty shots of the bike and high-key colors,” Preston explains. “Then, bam! The bike and rider are on the side of the pavement.” To convey the impact of the sudden crash and the life held in the balance, he didn’t want to “do the trite and expected” so “there are no heartbeat or EKG sounds. I wanted to tell the story as dramatically as possible without relying on the obvious. There’s no voiceover, so the soundtrack and edit had to drive the whole message.” [Left] A fisheye view of a portion of The Music Factory’s studio where Brian Preston performs soundtrack design.

[Above] Brian Preston of Atlanta’s The Music Factory scored an emotional :60 motorcycle safety message for the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau.

www.markeemag.com

September/October 2012

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Original Music

Instead of invoking the usual emergency medical soundscape, Preston crafted an almost dream-like world where “all the sounds are highly affected, swirling and abstract – almost as if [the accident] is an out-of-body experience,” he says. He was aided in his goal to create something different by an ad agency that “let the leash off with the first phone call,” he reports. “They just wanted me to take the storyboards and make it awesome.” Preston also has done his share of :30 spots, an art form he admires, although he laments the ubiquitous use of temp tracks. “My nemesis is the temp track. My goal is for my track to be the temp track,” he says. “Otherwise, you’re just figuring out what makes the temp track tick and using the same parts to make it new: You’re stuck with the tempo, key, instrumentation. All you can do is change the notes. And no matter how hard you work, it probably still won’t work as well as what they had in the first place.” The composer has his own collection of pre-existing tracks, which were written for imaginary projects while hoping that real shows and films would find uses for them. Some 72 series have discovered these tracks, which he likens to “targeted production music,” including USA Network’s popular Suits, which used a “quirky and odd track for a-man-walk-into-a-bar cue.” The feature film One Day, starring Anne Hathaway, used another track in a game-show context. “Library music always used to have a ‘canned’ quality about it, but it turns out that by creating imaginary projects – then scoring those – really great work can go out into the world and find unexpected homes. Sometimes a track created a decade ago lands on a popular show, film or commercial, and it’s an awesome feeling to see those oldies – but goodies – find a new life!”

Breed Scores Oscar Winner

[Above Top] Studio A at Breed Music in Dallas.

[Above] Breed scored the Academy Award-winning animated short, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Markee 2.0 |

Only two years after partnering with Brian Flores and Jon Slott to open Breed Music in Dallas (www.breed-music.com), creative director John Hunter can namedrop Academy Awards. Hunter scored the whimsical 2012 Oscar-winning animated short, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, produced by Moonbot Studios in Shreveport, La. But Hunter, Slott and Flores are no newcomers to the music scene. Hunter and Slott previously teamed on Juniper Music, and Flores ran The Listening Chair. In 2010, they found themselves “ready to merge and grow together,” and Breed is thriving on a varied diet of original music for national general market spots (Yoplait, McDonald’s/Coke, Boost Mobile, Nissan), Hispanic market spots, long-form projects, and custom and production music in collaboration with FirstCom Music in Dallas. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore gave Hunter a particular opportunity to shine, however. Hunter “goes back a long way” with Moonbot artist Brandon Oldenburg who got Hunter involved in the animatics stage when he and his writing partner William Joyce began to develop their own short. “My first question was ‘how much dialogue is there?’” Hunter recalls. “They told me ‘none.’ I was a bit taken aback. That can be a double-edged sword: If a film doesn’t pull off the emotional content will the composer be blamed for it? But on the other hand, you’re not fighting with anybody at the mix to raise the music.” When Moonbot was about three-quarters finished with the wireframe animation, Hunter moved to Shreveport for about two months to work on the score on site. “I took my rig, and they cleared out a theater space for me. Going back and forth with them as they worked was what made it special, like a tailor-made suit,” he explains.

September/October 2012

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

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The score helps tell the story of a storm that decimates a town and the man who becomes caretaker to a houseful of books. Using various animation techniques and miniatures, Moonbot shows how Morris Lessmore provides for the books and how they provide for him during the course of his long lifespan, until he cedes caretaking to the next generation of booklovers. Hunter recorded both sampled and live instruments, including a 50-piece orchestra, for the 14-minute score. Sound effects also played a role. Hunterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s score was recognized in October by the Shreveport Symphony, which played his composition live while projecting the award-winning short for concertgoers. The composer has high hopes for another film project heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finishing now. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scoring the contemporary, coming-of-age story, Jesus in Cowboy Boots, starring Alicia Silverstone, young AJ Michalka and Billy Burke (now starring in NBCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Revolution). Producer Scott Dolezal tracked down Hunter; they knew each other from their time in LA, although neither realized they had both moved back to Texas (Dolezal resides in Austin). â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think Jesus in Cowboy Boots is going to be a great indie feature,â&#x20AC;? says Hunter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It has given me an opportunity to blend western and orchestral music, sampled and live instruments. I gave them a preliminary score quickly so they could enter film festivals. Now theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re polishing the film in post-production, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m finishing the score.â&#x20AC;? Hunter works exclusively with Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Logic software. Two PCs are slaved for offloading and processing sound; a Mac Mini plays back video. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the end, I stem everything out, and it all goes to the mixing session, usually on a Pro Tools system,â&#x20AC;? he said. Whether it is composing music for commercials or long-form projects, Hunter believes â&#x20AC;&#x153;the way to survive is to bring ideas to the table. You want to give the client what they ask for, but you always want to push the envelope, too. You want to provide what they need, not just what they say they want.â&#x20AC;?

[Above] Breedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s John Hunter (left) scoring on location in Shreveport with Moonbot Studiosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; William Joyce (center) and Brandon Oldenburg (right).

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Robert Etoll Seduces With Trailers Most of us are introduced to the films on our must-see list when we watch their trailers. Designed to lure us to the box office, trailers use music to quickly capture viewersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; attention and convey the relevant emotions in just a few seconds. [Left] Robert Etollâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Q-Factory Music layers a hybrid of trailer melodies on top of electronic dance music in the new Electro Dubstep CD.

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September/October 2012

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Original Music

[Above Top] Robert Etoll’s Q-Factory Music released the new Epic Action 2 CD with gritty, modern industrial sounds for trailer design.

[Above] Trailer composer Robert Etoll in his LA studio.

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LA-based composer Robert Etoll (www.robertetoll.com) specializes in music for trailers; he created his Q-Factory Music and sound design catalog to meet the needs of this niche market, which doesn’t usually opt for music-fromscratch these days. “In the past few years, I rarely get a call for an outright original composition; in the trailer world, while the editor and producer are cutting, they’re dropping in music from various music catalogs and other music sources for their temp tracks,” he explains. Fortunately, Etoll’s Q-Factory Music draws them in with strong and varied cues ready for licensing – trailers for Prometheus, Brave, The Amazing Spider-Man, Men In Black III, The Avengers and the upcoming Django Unchained have recently tapped Q-Factory’s bounty. In addition to licensing music and sound design temped by editors and producers, Etoll and his Q-Factory staff also service music supervisors who call looking for a specific piece of music; they ably guide them through a select number of cues to help in their search. A native New Yorker and alumnus of Boston’s Berklee College of Music, Etoll has been lauded as the man who helped shape the modern trailer. He has scored more than 300 trailers when the demand for custom scores was at its height. Fifteen years ago, a Trimark Pictures executive suggested he start licensing his music, and Q-Factory Music was launched. It’s now known as the go-to resource for editors and producers looking for original, high-quality music cues and compelling sound design. Etoll notes that the trend in trailer music is starting to move away from the “big epic” scores of yesteryear. “They are still being licensed but the new, young crowd of editors and music supervisors prefers sound design-driven compositions that create an edgy sense of action and suspense,” he says. “They’re not as melodic or easy to get a handle on as the classic monumental scores. There’s always a need for percussion-driven tracks with a lot of energy that don’t get in the way of dialogue or sound effects,” he adds. Q-Factory Music’s Outrageous Elements 3 was released in September following its two popular predecessors with more unconventional, brazen compositions. Also new is Epic Action 2, combining modern industrial, metallic, distorted, gritty and percussive sound-design beds with the power of live strings, horns and brass; and Electro Dubstep, which layers a hybrid of trailer melodies on top of electronic dance music. Etoll and a roster of independent composers create all the tracks for the Q-Factory Music catalog in their own home recording studios. Etoll’s studio features Apple Logic Pro and Avid Pro Tools for MIDI and live recording using Apogee Symphony I/O for AD/DA conversion. His monitoring systems consist of a pair of Adams S3X-H and an Adams 10-inch sub, and a vast collection of current third-party software instruments, as well as software processing, including Waves, Lexicon and Abbey Road. Etoll also uses some old-school outboard gear. Etoll enjoys a crossover business from TV promos – Sons of Anarchy, Boardwalk Empire and the NBA Playoffs have licensed Q-Factory tracks – and commercials seeking the gravitas of a movie trailer. He recently custom scored a high-octane, percussive national Mini Cooper commercial, too. “A lot of composers are moving into trailers,” he reports. “It’s a great niche. I was lucky to get into it when I did and establish my name. Q-Factory Music is well-known in the industry as a quality product, and we’re very proud of it.”

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Endless Noise Strikes the Right Notes Award-winning music and sound design company Endless Noise (www.endlessnoise.com) in Santa Monica, Calif., works in all musical genres, but it has special expertise in its Rendered Noise brand, which uses sound effects and other unconventional sounds and instruments to create inspired musical compositions. “We’re known for Rendered Noise now; people come to us for our specific expertise in that area,” says Endless Noise founder Jeff Elmassian. “Most of the time people approach Rendered Noise with an idea that doesn’t fall under any traditional parameters. We have to figure out how to score it by creating orchestras and bands out of non-traditional sounds.” Take “The Bark Side,” a :60 Volkswagen spot from Deutsch/LA featuring a dozen dogs of all breeds barking a canine rendition of Star Wars’ “The Imperial March,” aka “Darth Vader’s Theme.” Many of the dogs selected to perform in the chorus were chosen for their resemblance to Star Wars characters. Elmassian created a soundtrack from dog barks and yelps recorded on the set mixed with newly recorded woofs and howls. He pitched many of the sounds to match the actual theme, starting with barks that sounded rather cryptic and random until they built into the familiar tune. The spot netted gold and bronze Clios in the adapted music and sound design categories, respectively. For the Samsung Galaxy Note web spot, “Olympic Drums,” agency Cheil USA/NY wanted soccer legend David Beckham to kick a series of soccer balls, in rapid succession, against a wall made of drums. Each kick and drum strike would create a musical note forming an iconic melody.

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[Above] Endless Noise scored a Volkswagen spot in which a canine chorus barks Darth Vader’s Theme from Star Wars, using the company’s Rendered Noise technique.

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Original Music

[Above Top] Jeff Elmassian at Santa Monica’s Endless Noise has composed music for all musical genres.

[Above] Soccer great David Beckham prepares to make music by kicking soccer balls at a wall of drums in a Samsung Galaxy Note spot scored by Endless Noise.

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Initially, the idea was to use the celebrated Olympic theme song, but the agency ran into licensing restrictions surrounding the tune. So what other piece of music would be immediately recognizable to sports fans and in the public domain? Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from his ninth symphony filled the bill: It’s been a favorite musical element in Olympic ceremonies of the past. “We had the piece of music. Now to make it look like David was playing drums with a soccer ball,” says Elmassian. After discussing the sizes and types of drums he should play they opted for a bank of similar drums of various sizes so there would be a correlation to the different tones in the soundtrack. Endless Noise had to pre-score a track for Beckham “so he could be filmed kicking in time to the music,” Elmassian explains. “Twenty to thirty percent of the drums were sampled from the drums you see in the spot; the rest were from our library or sampled ahead of time. Obviously, there’s editorial involved [in the drum strikes in the final spot] but David’s quite a formidable talent – there were periods of five to ten seconds during the shoot where he was very close to [kicking] the actual drum sounds.” The lion’s share of the drums in the final track were the ones Beckham kicked to; perhaps 20 percent were post-scored to fit his performance. Endless Noise also added sound effects, such as Beckham’s feet kicking the ball, his clothing sounds, his movements on the studio floor, a bit of grunting. These “work as musical phrases to give the illusion that what you’re seeing is completely real,” says Elmassian. “In the Foley studio we almost played the congas with jeans and a T-shirt; we performed little notes with his shoes on a similar [studio floor] surface.” The spot concludes with Beckham striking the final note by kicking the ball at a Chinese gong, whose ringing tone Endless Noise pulled from its library. Endless Noise composers use Apple’s Logic for writing and recording; editing and mixing is done in a 5.1 Pro Tools environment. The live room accommodates 10-12 players for recording overdubs and small musical ensembles. Despite being armed with the latest digital gear, Endless Noise sometimes harkens back to old-school methods as when the company scored two Super Bowl spots for Hyundai from Innocean/Huntington Beach, Calif., giving a spaghetti-western feel to “Cheetah” and a Mills Brothers-style vocal treatment to “Think Fast.” Elmassian enjoyed giving those commercials a true period feel by recording all the musicians live “as if this were an album track of 30 years ago, in an old studio, with vintage mics, recording to 24-track. I felt completely liberated making decisions in the room without the option of having 150 tracks available later in editorial. The idea of nailing a part because we couldn’t go back to another track later created a healthy tension and pressure that made for the perfect environment.”

September/October 2012

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[Above Top] Brad Fuller for Seaplane Pilots Association, Seattle.

[Above] Photoboat with low wings

[Right] FF&T’s George Burkitt shooting Cobalt Boats, Destin, Fla.

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[Left Middle] FF&T’s Cleve Cooney shooting pilot's perspective, Seaplane Pilots Association Safety Video, Seattle.

[Left] George Burkitt uses porthole for dramatic, high-speed shot for Yamaha Outboards, Lake Kissimmee, Fla.

Specialty Shooters

ALL ABOARD! Florida Film & Tape survives and thrives in the air and on the water.

all know the dangers inherent in stunt work for movies, television and even commercials. And it’s certainly great when you see all the money on the screen, as the saying goes. But how often do we think about the cameramen tasked with filming these great action sequences, or the guys getting those specialty shots that writers and directors dream up? Well, the average moviegoer may not know who these people are, but industry insiders certainly are aware – especially if your specialty shooting company has been in business for more than 30 years, providing Hollywood and America’s leading corporations with marine and aerial cinematography. B Y C O RY S E K I N E- P E T T I T E

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Specialty Shooters

The risks of physical harm from shooting on boats or in the air are just part of the job. Specialty shooters are [Right] well aware of the dangers, but no one is more qualified Brad Fuller filming for Suzuki. to get the shots. Just ask [Bottom Right] Brad Fuller, co-owner of Florida Film & Tape (FF&T) Brad Fuller shooting for in Orlando, Fla., which speSuzuki in Miami. cializes in marine and aerial cinematography, and still photography. “Shooting on the water is tough enough if you know what you’re doing,” he said. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s dangerous. And getting great shots is not automatic, so basically if you put us out on the water with AVID OWELL PENDS A LOT OF IME IN THE IR the right tools we’re going to get a lot of really good stuff done in a short period of time.” On the water, collisions are a major risk, Brad says. “We always worry about colliding, because we’re working fast and close, and we do some stunt shots sometimes, converging boats at 50 mph. There often literally is only inches separating the photo boat from the subject boat being filmed.” It’s Brad and his team who do the driving. Florida Film & Tape employees three outside drivers when needed. For obvious reasons, they’re only going to work with people they can trust. He and his brother drive for each other a lot. Brad and his brother, Mike, founded Florida Film & Tape (www.ffandt.com) in 1980. It is one of Orlando’s oldest and most respected production companies. Through FF&T and its post-production services offshoot, Blue Island Design, the company says it can take any projDavid Nowell ect smoothly, from pre-production planning to the final Aerial cinematographer David B. Nowell, ASC, has been spending a lot of time in the air recently, edit. Its client base includes Ford, Dodge, NASCAR, shooting for major motion pictures. And, whether it’s been over New Orleans or New Zealand, California or National Geographic, Outdoor Life Network, PBS, The Canada, New Mexico or New York, Ohio or Iceland, he counts on Pictorvision’s Eclipse to capture outstanding Disney Channel, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!, Kawasaki, Honda, Suzuki, Universal Studios, Goodyear, and Budgyro-stabilized images. “One of my most recent assignments was over the sand, lava fields, mountains and glaciers of Iceland,” weiser, to name just a few. The company also has a still

he said. “We needed to get plate shots for a special helicopter/jet aircraft that is flying through the country’s very narrow canyons. The director liked the look of cutting the frame rate to twelve fps, so the look of the aircraft would be twice as fast as normal. “With the canyon as narrow and tight as it was, it became impossible to increase the speed of the camera ship,” he continued. “Now that we were dropping the frame rate, the stability of the Eclipse became vital. Any instability in the camera platform would show up two-fold. We had to shoot two different types of plates. One would be the horizon level during the entire flight through the canyon and the other banking the platform’s horizon as we flew around corners, simulating the look of a banking aircraft. The Eclipse worked perfectly.” Nowell’s task included capturing plates similar to the canyon shots but up above the clouds, simulating the look of a jet aircraft at 600 mph flying through and around them. “This meant dropping the frame rate even less, to four frames per second or eight times normal flight speed,” he explained. “The other advantage of the Eclipse is its ability to use a rain deflector,” Nowell added. “Because the weather was so unpredictable in Iceland, we ended up using the spinner half the time, which allowed us to continue shooting. Other systems would have had to stop when raindrops hit the lens.” Learn more at www.pictorvision.com. 18

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photography division, which is managed by Mike. “Mike is one of the best known and most prolific marine photographers in the country, if not the world,” Brad said. The brothers worked together for a number of years in studios and production companies in Florida, cutting their teeth in photography and cinematography before starting FF&T. They even worked together at the Cypress Gardens theme park in the photo department. “Because of our background at Cypress Gardens, doing a lot of boat and water ski stuff, it was just kind of a natural extension,” Brad said about starting his company. And since that is all action shooting, the other aspects of his company’s work just grew from there. “We became known for our action work, particularly our marine work and our aviation work,” Brad continued. “My brother, Mike, is a pilot, so we tried to figure out how to pay for our airplanes by shooting pictures with them.” Once the business took off, Brad began filming and photographing projects for auto racing clients, including NASCAR, Ford and Goodyear. Every one of these projects has opened other doors, he said. Today, FF&T shoots a great deal of water and aerial footage for motion pictures, commercials and other video projects. The difficulties in shooting water work is part of what draws clients to FF&T. Brad says FF&T’s equipment is a significant asset. “We have a collection of support equipment, boats particularly, that are specially rigged.” Most projects are shot with two cameras. One man is in the photo tower, getting the wide angle, and the other person is shooting the close-ups. It’s hard to choose a favorite project when your career has spanned more than 30 years, but Brad did talk about a few standout projects, including work for a GE project and a Ford Trucks commercial. Working with a production company out of New York, FF&T shot aerial footage for GE for a new aircraft engine campaign. “My brother and I went up as a team. He flew one of our chase aircraft, which is a Piper Lance, with the door off. I shot from the back of that with gyro stabilization. We did air-to-air and mounted camera, things like

[Above] Brad Fuller setting up a shot in a Kenmore Air Turbine Otter, Seattle.

[Left] George Burkitt shooting Yamaha Outboards, Lake Kissimmee, Fla.

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September/October 2012

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Specialty Shooters

[Right] Pilot's perspective, Lake Union, Seattle.

[Below] Cleve Cooney shooting Cobalt Boats, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Markee 2.0 |

that, chasing the [subject] airplane. We got some pretty exciting footage.” The Ford commercial was shot a few years ago with country music star Alan Jackson. “It was a little bit of a stretch for us because we’re used to working with smaller, tighter crews. This was a big crew; 54 people or something like that. There were many more elements to that particular commercial than we normally deal with. We were glad to have them because it made our job that much easier, but that certainly was a memorable shoot.” The commercial was shot in Tennessee at Center Hill Lake. In the spot, “Crazy ‘bout a Ford truck,” Jackson is seen driving a truck off road to a lake where he goes water skiing before camping out lakeside and singing by a fire. Brad also says his company’s NASCAR work has been outstanding. FF&T worked with them for about three years before NASCAR – as it does regularly – changed advertising agencies. A new agency usually means new crews. It’s just the nature of the business, he said.

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While filming aerials for the racing world might not be steady work, FF&T has found steady employment in television. Brad and Mike have put his aerial cinematography skills to work for the last two seasons of Axe Men on the History Channel. The show follows a crew that works the rivers of North Florida, he said. “They’re basically pulling up sunken logs; there’s a lot of money in that [for the loggers].” Also, while working recently on a video project for the Seaplane Pilots Association in the Pacific Northwest, FF&T took the opportunity to shoot footage for a TV pilot centered on seaplane flying in North America, called Flying America’s Waterways. They don’t yet have a [Above] network partner, but Brad is hopeful. “We’re in conversations with several net- From subject plane during air-to-air sequence for works. And we’ve been turned down by a couple, but in that turn down, there’s Seaplane Pilots Association, Seattle. always an open door for changing the format a little and coming back to them.” What it could mean for his business should the show make it on the air is huge, [Bottom Left] he said. “The hang-up with running a business like Florida Film & Tape is that we Brad Fuller shooting for Seaplane Pilots don’t know what the hell we’re going to be doing next. We don’t have any [long- Association, Seattle. term] contracts with anybody. We’re doing a little bit OM AY HOOTS HE USH more than sitting around waiting for the phone to ring, but basically if the phone doesn’t ring we don’t work. So what [Flying America’s Waterways] would do for us is give us a known production schedule and a known cash flow, and we can build on that.” Whether or not this program makes it on the air, FF&T assuredly will survive and thrive. Florida Film & Tape’s reputation is likely a major reason it has been in business for more than 30 years. “I think that goes a long way,” Brad said, adding: “If you can just hang on long enough, your original client base spreads out. People that we worked with in Orlando 25 years ago might be in LA today or Vancouver … and because we’ve done good, solid work over the years a lot of work just finds us.”

Photo Courtesy of Keoki Flagg

TomDay

After traveling the world for years, starring in some of the ski genre’s most acclaimed films, Tom Day made the successful switch to the other side of the lens, as a cinematographer. Since then he’s shot action sports, commercials and documentaries for top names including Warren Miller Entertainment. His most recent project, The Push, follows adaptive athletes across the frozen Antarctic landscape and shows the capacity of the human spirit to overcome life-altering injuries and live up to their potential. When finished, the project team will submit it to various film festivals and hopes it also will air on television. Day, who served as the films director of photography and on-location director explains, “It follows two adaptive athletes pushing the limits and themselves in the most inhospitable place on the planet – the South Pole.” “We learned quickly that we were up against tremendous odds,” Day says. “At temperatures from zero to minus fifteen degrees, our equipment would seize up in the cold so I couldn’t do a simple pan. When I came back, I knew I needed new support. So, it was back to my trust in Sachtler. The specs on the FSB 8 went to minus forty degrees – exactly what I needed for this journey.” Learn more at www.sachtler.com/us. www.markeemag.com

September/October 2012

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LED LIGHTING LEDS ARE ON THEIR WAY TO BECOMING THE INDUSTRY STANDARD.

[Above] AAdyn Technology’s single-source ECO Punch Plus is brighter than a 2.5K HMI..

[Inset Right]

BY CHRISTINE BUNISH

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September/October 2012

Mac Tech LED Products-Group Shot

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With their high output, low power consumption and cool operation, user-friendly LED lighting has quickly become popular in many markets. Advances in LED technology are happening rapidly, and LED fixtures are making inroads across all applications, from specific, low-level lighting to illuminating soundstages. And improvements are likely to keep coming. “The industry has used the same lighting tools for 70-80 years,” Rick Maas, executive in charge at Mac Tech LED, Inc., reminds us. “We’ll continue to see a lot more changes in the years to come. We’re still in the early stages; there will be a decade or more of gradual transformation as LEDs continue to displace less efficient tungsten lighting.” www.markeemag.com

September/October 2012

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Lighting

AAdyn Technology Highlights Powerful Product Line

[Above] AAdyn Technology’s ECO Punch Plus is deployed on location.

[Below] AAdyn Technology’s ECO Punch Plus is powerful but easy to use on location.

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Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based AAdyn Technology (www.aadyntech.com) debuted about three-and-a-half years ago and has quickly gained prominence with its roster of LED fixtures. All of AAdyn Tech’s products are designed, developed, engineered and assembled in the United States. The engineering team hails from Sturdy Corp. in North Carolina and the LEDs are exclusively from CREE, also in the Tar Heel state. “People who have never used LEDs are testing our fixtures. A lot of LEDs on the market don’t live up to their claims, but AAdyn Tech’s do,” says COO Marc Kaye. “Our single-source ECO Punch Plus and JAB Daylight products are the most powerful LEDs in the world. ECO Punch Plus throws an output of 4,100 foot candles at 10 feet and JAB Daylight an output of 1,854 foot candles at 10 feet.” The JAB series is available in Daylight, Tungsten and Variable models to suit lighting needs without sacrificing output and color temperature. The compact JAB Daylight runs on AC or DC power and draws very little amperage. “You can run about a dozen JABs on a 20amp circuit,” Kaye reports. The single-source fixture eliminates multiple shadows and performs almost like a regular HMI, he says. ECO Punch Plus is actually brighter than a 2.5K HMI, but uses less than 5 amps of power and runs so cool that it can be touched with bare hands. It offers variable lightning and strobe effects, and quick-change lenses vary between spot and flood while keeping an even field with high output. These two fixtures have proved very popular with broadcasters and filmmakers. Director Jim Jarmusch used ECO Punch Plus on location for his latest film, and The

September/October 2012

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Secret Life of Walter Mitty remake tapped ECO Punch Plus and JAB Daylight on set at Kaufman Astoria Studios and on location in Iceland. The MLB Network deployed both fixtures for the All Star Game announce team, and JAB Daylights were part of NBC’s Olympic Broadcast Studios in London. Lighting designer Frank Gatto of Boca Raton’s Frank Gatto Lighting is using both fixtures on all three sets of ESPN’s College GameDay and reports a savings in power consumption of about 90 percent. AAdyn Tech’s new JAB Hurricane will be available in December. Introduced this year at IBC, it is weatherproof, IP65 rated and totally protected against dust and low-pressure water jets from all directions. It can run on a battery pack, and Kaye says news groups and major broadcasters are clamoring for them. Also new is the Space Light, which ships this fall. It features 20 LEDs and throws approximately 51 foot candles at 25 feet while drawing 7 amps of power. It has better spread than competing products, zero green spike, a CRI of close to 95 and offers much better blending and surface, says Kaye. “People want to test and buy them,” he reports. “You can use them in places without big generators and save on electric and air conditioning.” AAdyn Tech also has a line of LED fixtures that sync to high-speed cameras. The ECO Punch Bullet and JAB Bullet are flicker-free up to 100,000 fps, while the ECO Mega Bullet is flicker-free up to an astonishing one million fps.

[Left] ECO Punch Plus from AAdyn Technology targets a set.

[Bottom Left] DEDOTEC’s DLED 4.0, the first in a series of small LED light heads, debuted at NAB.

With Barbizon behind you,

Famed Dedolight Optics in DEDOTEC LEDs The LEDs from DEDOTEC USA, Inc. in Ashley Falls, Mass., (www.dedolight.com) distinguish themselves, in the Dedolight tradition, by their optics, says President Paul Tepper. “Before LEDs, all our fixtures have utilized optics rather than Fresnel lenses,” he explains. “With multiple lenses you can get a more controllable beam, an even spread across the entire beam, and better color rendering. And you get a much higher output: Our 150-watt fixture tungsten halogen fixture puts out closer to 500 watts of light.” www.markeemag.com

YOU SHINE.

866.502.2724 ࠮ www.barbizon.com Equipment, Expendables, Systems, and Rigging for Entertainment and Architectural Lighting Since 1947 Atlanta ࠮ Boston ࠮ Charlotte ࠮ Chicago ࠮ Dallas ࠮ Denver ࠮ Miami ࠮ New York Orlando ࠮ Phoenix ࠮ Washington D.C. ࠮ Australia ࠮ India ࠮ United Kingdom September/October 2012

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Lighting

[Above] DEDOTEC offers the TECPRO Felloni line of 1x1 LED panels in 27 versions.

HAVE YOU SEEN:

FOR REPRINTS CONT CONTACT: ACT: Kelly Millwood 770-431-0867, ext. 215 Toll Free: 888-303-5639, ext. 215

Now the same principle applies to the company’s LEDs. DEDOTEC introduced its LEDZILLA camera-mounted mini LED light head about two years ago. “We started with the 8-watt LEDZILLA, which outputs in the neighborhood of 20-25 watts halogen,” says Tepper. “Of course, you’re limited by what LEDs can do, but LEDZILLA gives an even shaft of light that’s focusable and controllable.” The dimmable fixture mounts on the camera with a shoe and operates with several different types of DV batteries, an AC adapter, XLR and D-Tap power cables. The successful LEDZILLA – “we’ve sold thousands in all markets” – was followed by the TECPRO Felloni line of 1x1 LED panels. “We went a little crazy there – we have 27 versions,” Tepper laughs. “They’re available in 15-, 30- and 50-degree [beam angle] outputs; as straight daylight, tungsten or bicolor; with standard and high light outputs or in a low-profile version designed for spaces with low ceilings. “The panels put out more light than the competition: 30 percent more in the standard version and more in the high-output version compared to a comparable 1x1 panel,” Tepper continues. “And they use 50 percent less power, have better color rendition than the competition and are about 30 percent lower in price.” All of the TECPRO panels run via battery or AC power, are dimmable and come with a distance diffuser. Currently, many film and television production companies, and government agencies use the panels. WLS-TV/Chicago employs 25 Felloni panels in its newsgathering operation; the National Transportation Safety Board has a number of panels in its car crash-testing program.

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At NAB 2012, DEDOTEC debuted the DLED 4.0, the first in a series of small LED light heads. Shipping this fall, the new fixture is a 45-watt LED head available in daylight, tungsten and bicolor versions. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fully focusable from flood to spot with the same beam look as our tungsten,â&#x20AC;? says Tepper. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also fully dimmable and has real barn doors. Barn doors usually donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work very well with LEDs, but this is a single-source LED so the barn doors give you a nice cut.â&#x20AC;? Three more fixtures in the DLED series are in the works: a 20-watt model that will be small enough to be camera mounted, plus 90- and 200-watt versions. Tepper predicts that, across the market, a greater variety of LED fixtures are in store for users, as well as improved CRI as LED technology advances.

Mac Tech is Game Changer for Studio and Location Production

[Above]

Only 14 months in the marketplace, Mac Tech LED Lighting (www.machtech DEDOTECâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s successful led.com) offers a line of distinctive LED Sleds, LED Slim Line fixtures and LED Soft LEDZILLA is a camera-mounted mini LED light head. Boxes manufactured in the United States by B & M Lighting. Mac Tech LED is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. Executive in charge, Rick Maas, who also serves as vice president of set lighting operations at Universal Studios, has been watching advances in LED lighting for the last halfdozen years. He could see opportunities for LEDs on the set although no LED fixtures were as yet making an impact on studio production. Mac Tech fixtures are now changing all that. Three years in development, these LEDs â&#x20AC;&#x153;can actually light a stage,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the big game changer. Most LEDs are smaller and spot specific. Ours can light a 20,000-square-foot soundstage. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re high output and can compete with the less efficient fixtures of the past while using a fraction of the power and producing a fraction of the heat.â&#x20AC;? The LED Sled line comes in 72-, 180-, 360-, 720- and 960-watt daylight and tungsten models. At 48 inches square, the 960 LS is the biggest and brightest of the family, says Maas. The high-output area light compares with 12,000 watts of illumination and produces â&#x20AC;&#x153;more light than two 6K Space Lights,â&#x20AC;? while drawing just 9 amps of power. The other models in the LED Sled line sport a bounce mode feature, which eliminates the need to use bounce board. Bounce can now be â&#x20AC;&#x153;accomplished in six to eight inches instead of six to eight feet,â&#x20AC;? Maas notes, a the feature thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;really popular with cameramen, gaffers and other crew members who compete for real estate on set.â&#x20AC;? Mac Techâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Slim Line family comes in two- and four-foot daylight and tungsten configurations with 4x8, 4x4, 2x8, 2x4 and 2x2 models. They range from 320 watts for the 4x8 to 40 watts for the 2x2, and draw from 3 to 1.5 amps. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Slim Line is used more for lighting backdrops or greenscreen,â&#x20AC;? Maas explains. Two new broadcast-related products, targeted to news sets and talk shows, were recently added to the Slim Line family: 2x8 and 1x8 models with â&#x20AC;&#x153;broadcast-friendlyâ&#x20AC;? DMX control. The fixtures are shipping now. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s LED Soft Boxes come in 4x4, 4x2, 2x4 and 2x2 models, ranging from 160 to 40 watts. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re deployed for â&#x20AC;&#x153;more specific, w www.nightlightsbybebee.com ww.nightlight w tsbybebee.com lower-level lighting,â&#x20AC;? according to Maas. Mac Tech customers run the gamut from â&#x20AC;&#x153;small commercials to $200 t 'BY t 'BY B million features,â&#x20AC;? he reports. The LEDS are on â&#x20AC;&#x153;any kind of production you www.markeemag.com

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Lighting

can think of and are used on location, too. Because they’re so low power you can put them on camera cars; they ran off batteries in a Costa Rican jungle. They have that kind of flexibility.” Mac Tech LEDs were recently used on the Disney feature Lone Ranger and are currently on NBC’s Go On and Parenthood shows. Cameramen and lighting designers are pleased to “get the kind of light they want” from these LEDs while production management recognizes their budgetary benefits, says Maas. “You can eliminate 25 to 50 percent of the power distribution equipment. That has huge budget implications and has helped us accelerate product in the marketplace at a pretty rapid pace.” LED fixtures are still “slightly more expensive” than conventional lights, he concedes, “but when you factor in all the on-set savings, the end cost can be reduced by 30 percent or more in power distribution and air conditioning.” Not to mention keeping cast and crew ”cool and in a better frame of mind.”

FlexAray Creates Custom Configurations

[Below] Mac Tech LED Lighting on The Mindy Project.

Markee 2.0 |

FlexAray (www.flexaray.com) calls itself “the next revolution in stage and studio LED fixtures,” and one look at the luminaires’ unique hexagonal shape makes a convincing case for the claim. The patent-pending form of the LEDs enable a single fixture to be connected with other FlexAray LEDs, honeycomb style, to create configurations suiting customers’ lighting demands. “You can build up units to increase power or change a look,” explains Lee Vestrich, senior vice president of Bulbtronics in Farmingdale, N.Y., the parent company of 0energy Lighting Inc., in Orlando, Fla., the manufacturer of FlexAray.

September/October 2012

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

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Previewed at LDI 2011 and shown at NAB 2012, FlexAray has begun shipping units. It’s the flexibility of the fixture that appeals to customers, Vestrich says. “You can configure them in so many ways so they lend themselves to both high-power and low-power situations. Rental houses or others who buy an inventory of FlexArays can basically build the lights they need on demand.” FlexAray comes with 8- or 16-bit input and is available in RGBAW (Amber White), Variable White and Static White versions. “Amber White achieves beautiful saturated colors as well as warming tones and great pastels,” says Vestrich. “Its proprietary reflector allows warm tones to be part of the mix; we’re getting great reviews on the color mixing capabilities of the light.” Variable White has a color temperature range of 2700K-5400K enabling users to adjust to different skin tones or change a mood from bright to dim. Static White is available in 3200K, 4400K and 5600K so it can replace conventional tungsten and HMI lighting in film and television. “4400K allows you to get shadow definition in HDTV,” Vestrich points out. “Or you can blend 3200K or 5600K for good shadow lines and a clean look for the studio environment.” The innovative FlexRate feature permits user-controlled frequency ratings to create a flicker-free light. “We offer up to eight different choices of frame-rate adjustment,” says Vestrich. FlexPalette provides up to 100 user-programmable color memory locations and 80 user-selectable combinations of fade and/or bump timing. FlexAray already has demo units in TV studios, at cable shopping networks, on location for film shoots and in rental house inventories. At press time, an indie feature in the LA area was deploying 10 3200K Static Whites in a run ’n gun production application. Although the higher price point of LED lighting has been “an obstacle” to adoption, Vestrich sees customer opinions on that changing. “Where power is a big concern, like the Northeast with its high utility rates, the cost of running LED fixtures will be a driver in people’s thinking,” he says. “There may also be utility rebates involved in using energyefficient LEDs in commercial spaces.” Vestrich notes that LEDs are getting to the point where they’re considered “really good lighting” – something that wasn’t the case even two years ago. The technology is moving very fast. I never expected it to move as quickly as it has.” www.markeemag.com

[Left] FlexAray’s unique hexagonal shape makes custom configurations easy.

[Bottom Left] A single FlexAray fixture sports barn doors.

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Spotlight

West Coast

West Coast From the quiet deserts of Southern California to the lush forests and deep canyons of Oregon, and beyond our continental border to the wilderness of Alaska, the West Coast of the

[Clockwise from Above] Desert Road leading to Death Valley in California.

Summer Dog Sledding on Alaska’s Glaciers. Alaska Film Office / Alaska Travel Industry Assn.

United States offers perhaps the most diverse landscapes available to filmmakers anywhere in the world. You don’t have to look very hard to find the locations you need. And to make this task even easier, Markee 2.0 asked the state film offices in Alaska, California and Oregon to express the advantages of shooting in their states, as well as to explain their incentive packages.

The city of Portland, Ore. Travel Portland.

B Y C O RY S E K I N E - P E T T I T E 30

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Alaska Film Office What comprises your current incentive package? What are the qualifications? With a base rate of 30 percent on above- and below-the-line spending in Alaska, and additional percentages for local hire (+10 percent), off-season, October to March (+2 percent) and shooting in a rural areas (+2 percent), our incentive program offers up to 44 percent in a transferable tax credit to encourage projects to greenlight Alaska. Eligible projects are broadly defined as film, documentary, commercial, and video productions. A minimum of $100,000 of qualified expenditures in Alaska is required. Unlike some incentives, Alaska does not have a salary or project cap. Production companies are not required to be domiciled in Alaska, nor are there a minimum requirement for principle photography days or for local hire. [Above]

If such a package currently is unavailable, is your state working toward providing incentive programs? During the last session, the Alaska legislature passed a bill extending the program thru 2023 and adding up to $200 million in additional credits.

Float Planes in Kodiak Harbor – Kodiak, Alaska. Alaska Film Office / Alaska Travel Industry Assn.

[Below] Sailing Alaska’s Inside Passage.

What notable movie and TV productions are underway (or pending) in your state? Alaska has seen a variety of feature films, including Big Miracle and Frozen Ground. Other features are in various stages of production and development. Alaska is also a popular location for non-fiction television production: Ice Road Truckers, Alaska Gold Rush, Yukon Men, Bering Sea Gold, Flying Wild and several others are active in the state.

Alaska Film Office / Alaska Travel Industry Assn.

What local production companies are on your radar? Alaska has a wide variety of local production and production service companies that are working in independent projects and assisting in-bound productions. Describe the versatility of geography and locations available in your state. While Alaska is often considered a land of ice and snow (which we have in abundance), the state has far more to offer. Across Alaska are a nearly unlimited number of potential filming locations – so unless you’re looking for sun-baked cactus in the desert, Alaska can help realize your vision. From alpine peaks to misty shorelines, quaint coastal towns to suburban neighborhoods, wide-open tundra to deep dark forests, farms to fishing boats, glaciers to beaches, railroads to goldmines, year-round snow to barren sand dunes, Alaska has great locations for almost any project. And don’t forget unbelievable natural light that ranges from a “magic hour” that lasts for several hours to summer sunshine that lasts 20 hours and more! Within the context of movie and TV production, what makes your state unique? Is Alaska right for every project? No, but productions are often surprised by the versatility of our locawww.markeemag.com

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Spotlight

West Coast

[Right] ‘Spirit Houses’ Alaska Native Cemetery Eklutna, Alaska.

tions, the strength of our crew base, and are excited by our aggressive incentive program. Alaska has an authenticity that can’t be found everywhere – and we’re ready, willing and able to help bring it to the screen.

Alaska Film Office / Alaska Travel Industry Assn.

[Below] Skyotee Ranch, Lancaster, Calif.

Markee 2.0 |

California Film Commission What comprises your current incentive package? What are the qualifications? California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program provides credits against income and/or sales, and use taxes on qualified expenditures. The original fiveyear, $500-million program was enacted in 2009, and recently extended for an additional year through fiscal 2014-15. Pending legislation will extend the program another two years. Tax credits range from 20 to 25 percent, depending on the type of production. Those eligible for a 20 percent tax credit include feature films with budgets from $1 million to $75 million, movies of the week (MOWs) or miniseries with a $500,000 minimum budget, and new television series with a $1 million minimum budget licensed for original distribution on basic cable.

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Projects eligible for a 25 percent credit include TV series planning to move production to California after shooting all prior seasons outside the state, and independent films with “qualified spend” budgets up to $10 million. Qualified films must shoot 75 percent of their production days (or 75 percent of their total production budget) in California, and begin principal photography within 180 days of tax credit approval. The current (2012-13) fiscal year of the program is fully subscribed, and there is a waiting list for any projects that apply. Applications for the next fiscal year’s $100-million allocation will be accepted starting June 1, 2013. More information about the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program is available at http://film.ca.gov/incentives.htm. What notable movie and TV productions are underway (or pending) in your state? California hosts productions of all sizes and budgets. Each year, more than 200 feature films and countless TV series, commercials and documentaries are produced in the Golden State. A small sampling of recent and current projects includes: • Feature films: Gangster Squad, Argo, Knife Fight, End of Watch, The Hive, Seven Psychopaths, Hemingway & Gellhorn (HBO) • Television: Dexter, Franklin & Bash, Rizzoli & Isles, Switched At Birth, Sons of Anarchy, Body of Proof, Justified, Glee, American Horror Story, Bunheads, Private Practice and NCIS.

[Above] Big Sur

[Below] Downtown Los Angeles

What local production companies are on your radar? California is home to many production companies, film studios and post-production facilities. All of the major U.S.-based studios are headquartered in the Los Angeles region. Describe the versatility of geography and locations available in your state. California has moderate weather with an average of 315 sunny days each year. Its diverse landscape ranges from more than 800 miles of coastline to mountains, deserts and everything in between. A few examples include: • The Sacramento Delta, which doubles for Asia or the American South • South Mammoth Mountain, which doubles for the Himalayas • Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, which doubles for West Texas • Mendocino County, which doubles for the East Coast, and • Ridgecrest, which doubles for the terrain of other planets. Within the context of movie and TV production, what makes your state unique? California is acknowledged as the leading center for entertainment production. While many regions boast about production infrastructure, California has the ability to sustain more than 100 large-scale productions simultaneously. The state is home to a critical mass of production infrastructure (crews, equipment, locations, sound stages, etc.) that is unmatched anywhere in the world. www.markeemag.com

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Spotlight

West Coast Oregon Film What comprises your current incentive package? What are the qualifications? Any production that intends to spend at lease $750,000 in Oregon may apply and qualify for the Oregon Production Investment Fund, which offers a 20 percent cash rebate on Oregon goods and services and a 10 percent rebate on labor. In addition, any production that spends more than $1million in Oregon can receive an additional 6.2 percent on labor expenses through the Greenlight Labor Rebate. If such a package currently is unavailable, is your state working toward providing incentive programs? Currently, the Oregon Production Investment Fund is fully allocated through 2013, but we are working to up the overall cap through legislative action in 2013. Should this be successful, funds will become available immediately.

[Above] The Hawthorne Bridge in Portland is the oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the United States.

What notable movie and TV productions are underway (or pending) in your state? The most notable productions include TNT’s Leverage, which recently wrapped season 5; IFC’s Portlandia, which is in production for season 3; and NBC’s Grimm which is filming season 2. In addition, LAIKA animation studios produced the feature ParaNorman, which was in theaters this summer and are already working on their third feature film. It’s also worth noting that two independent feature films are due to begin production in Southern Oregon this fall thanks to a strong creative community in the Ashland/Medford region. What local production companies are on your radar? There are a host of local companies throughout the state. In Portland, there are too many to mention as commercial production continues to thrive in the area. Several companies that produce animation commercials have been growing for some time now. Outside of Portland there also are strong pockets of activity in Bend (Rage Productions) Eugene (video game companies such as Pipeworks) and Ashland. Describe the versatility of geography and locations available in your state. Oregon has an incredible diversity of locations thanks to the variety of the region. It’s easy to shoot a desert, snowy mountain, dense urban, and coastal location within a 24-hour stretch. It’s why car commercials are frequently filmed in our state and why we created a special “Roads of Oregon” site to show off this diversity – http://oregonfilm.org/roads/. Within the context of movie and TV production, what makes your state unique? Our uniqueness comes from a combination of several factors – fast and easy cash incentive program, close proximity to Los Angeles, virtually any location you can imagine, and a talented cast and crew base. With all of these factors in place, Oregon is in high demand because producers and directors know that they will get a quality product for a reasonable price in Oregon. Markee 2.0 would like to thank the following people for helping to complete this article: Dave Worrell, Alaska Film Office; Nancy Rae Stone, California Film Commission; and Vince Porter, Oregon Film.

Markee 2.0 |

September/October 2012

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

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Inside View

Cartoon Lagoon Studios | by Christine Bunish

Pat Giles and Manny Galan Executive producers, Cartoon Lagoon Studios • New York City (www.cartoonlagoonstudios.com) Markee: You’ve had an exciting autumn with the debut of Captain Cornelius Cartoon’s Cartoon Lagoon on DVD. Mr. Giles: “DVD pre-sales launched October 10 at New York Comic Con with worldwide sales beginning on Amazon October 23. And we had our world premiere screening in primetime at the New York Television Festival on the 22nd. The run up to this has been like nothing else in our lives: We’re used to shooting commercials and working on TV shows. But with this project every detail was ours to deal with – there was no passing things off to someone else.” (Note: Manny Galan (right) was setting up at Comic Con when Pat Giles (left) spoke to Markee 2.0.) Markee: In Cartoon Lagoon the Captain and his shipmates aboard the submarine Manta Ray are on a mission to find and watch every cartoon ever made – good and bad. Mr. Giles: “Public domain cartoons are an unleveraged asset in pop culture, so Manny and I thought it would be cool to curate them in some way or even make fun of them. Manny said what if they were abandoned in the ocean to be plucked out and viewed? I thought he was insane, then I thought it was a really good idea. You know, there’s a legend about a landfill with millions of copies of Atari’s E.T. video game that no one bought back in the early ’80s.” Markee: Did you consciously riff on Mystery Science Theater 3000? Mr. Giles: “Very consciously! We reached out to them to see if they could participate, and they were super-gracious. Our schedules didn’t permit us to interview [the MST3K creators] for the DVD, but they agreed to voice characters in our future volume. This whole project has 36

Markee 2.0 |

been a love letter to pop culture from MST3K to Captain Kangaroo – but the most expensive love letter you can make!” Markee: What techniques did you employ? Mr. Giles: “It was amazingly difficult to sort out. We had puppets less than a foot high, sculpted by Julia Rosner, with tracking marks on their faces. Manny built our submarine stage set in his basement out of toys and parts, and we had to squeeze three puppeteers from Puppet Kitchen (Michael Schupbach, Noel MacNeal, Frankie Cordero) underneath it. We shot in a classroom at a Catholic girls’ school on the Lower East Side. Then our animators hand-animated the faces in Flash and composited and tracked them with After Effects for a very unique effect.” Markee: What’s the content of the DVD? Mr. Giles: “There’s a 31-minute first episode which introduces our characters and includes cartoons from Captain Nemo, Casper and Popeye. Plus another 90-minute Cartoon Revue with old Superman, Popeye, Woody Woodpecker and Gumby cartoons mixed in with musical guests the Gregory Brothers; an interview with Butch Hartman, creator of The Fairly OddParents; skits; commercials; new animated shorts; outtakes; bloopers and a Making Of segment. We’re targeting a Mad Magazine demographic.” Markee: You and Manny have devoted so much to Cartoon Lagoon that it’s hard to realize that you both have different day jobs. Mr. Giles: “We have a great relationship with Saatchi & Saatchi/NY, one of our biggest clients. Pat-Man Studios, our advertising and animation studio, services the agency’s General Mills clients. Manny and I are character specialists. At some

September/October 2012

level, we’ve worked on all of General Mills’ equity characters – an amazing stable of American icons – Lucky the Leprechaun, The Trix Rabbit, Green Giant and Sprout, Sonny the Cuckoo Bird. We’ve just finished writing the character bible for the Pillsbury Doughboy. “Another Pat-Man client is Classic Media. We’ve redesigned Underdog for them, and they’re pitching a new series now at MIPCOM. We’re in the early stages of redeveloping Tennessee Tuxedo and just refurbished the character Super Chicken. Cartoon Lagoon Studios is PatMan’s entertainment division; we set it up to produce the Cartoon Lagoon pilot.” Markee: Where do you see Cartoon Lagoon headed? Mr. Giles: “We’d love to get picked up by a network, but we have fought hard to be independent and don’t want to lose that. Our options are wider than they used to be. We’re talking to Netflix On Demand and DVDs are on sale through Amazon. We’ve struggled with the idea of giving the show away for free when we spent a lot of money and time producing it. But we certainly hope to create virality out of pieces of the show. “We didn’t need a giant infrastructure to develop Cartoon Lagoon, but we needed our friends to help make it. The infrastructure of movie studios and agencies sometimes is too big to come up with something funny – or at least this ridiculous.”

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

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