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Workflow. Such a lovely word... Almost like magic. Long flowing robes and flowing tresses, resting beside the gently flowing stream. Ah, sweet repose...
Except that in the steaming trenches of hardcore post-production, the emphasis isn't on "flow." No, the real word is work. "Workflow" isn't a product feature. Workflow is a combination of planning, discipline and creativity, achieved by perseverance, mastery of technology, and, if necessary, brute force, to get from one end of your job to the other. It’s anything but ethereal.
Creative Cow Contributing Editor Zed Saeed and the team at Hollywood's DigitalFilm Tree have been learning this the hard way, over a decade of pioneering Final Cut Pro workflows on major feature films and episodic TV. Here's the story of how a team of 9 went from posting one major network show each week to posting THREE shows every week, for three different networks -- keeping all three clients happy, and without going insane, thanks to the wonders of workflow management. Read more...
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You already know Dave Stump's work. He's worked as a cinematographer, Visual Effects Director of Photography and VFX supervisor on features as varied as "Quantum of Solace," "X-Men" and "X-men 2," "The Bourne Identity," "Blade," "Batman Forever," "Rambo III," "Star Trek: First Contact," "Army of Darkness," and dozens more. (You can see the rest of Dave's profile here.)
Dave is also the chair of the American Society of Cinematographer's subcommittee on Cameras, and co-chair of the subcommittee on Metadata. In this expanded version of an interview first published in Creative Cow Magazine, Dave describes a possible future for filmmaking -- faster, less expensive, and more creative -- as cameras and metadata come together. Along the way, he tells a few stories from the films he's worked on in this don't-miss interview. Read more...
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Have you ever posted in the COW forums and wished you could make yourself more clear in what you are asking or read someone else's post and wished that they could explain themselves more clearly. Well, images help and videos often help even more. So, to assist our users in making it easier to get the support they need, we have added support for hosting both your images and videos here at the COW.
In the image below you can see where the links are located in our posting mechanism to allow you to add embeds to your posts.
We hope you find this new service useful.
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EXPANDED ONLINE EDITION:
In this extended version of his article from Creative Cow Magazine's "Visual Effects Issue," lighting expert and instructor Rick Wise draws on his decades of experience to illustrate how shadows can be the most important part of how a scene is lit. Learn how to control the direction and quality of your lighting design to add texture, dimension, and force to your images. Read more...
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Are you working on an HD project and found you need to incorporate standard definition footage? In this article, CreativeCow leader Shane Ross walks you through a step by step process of up-converting standard definition video to match a high definition project utilizing the AJA Kona 3 capture card. Read more...
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Looking for smooth shoots even on extreme locations? Want a painless post? 24P, film look, Depth of Field converter, advanced compositing and sound design. Carl Larsen shows you how to avoid problems through planning, along with invaluable tips for cinematic storytelling on a tight schedule. In this Creative Cow Magazine extra from the "Workflow 3.0" issue, Carl Larsen shows you how to avoid problems through planning, along with invaluable tips for cinematic storytelling on a tight schedule. Along with his remarkable story, you'll find the original short film, its animatic and storyboards, and a close look at project construction. Take a look...
Carl has also taken his production and compositing expertise to create 2 of the Cow's most popular tutorials, Building a Cube World, and Building a Cube World 2, showing easy ways to create 360 degree scenes.
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CREATIVE COW MAGAZINE: WORKFLOW 3.0
The word "workflow" has been abused for so long that it's easy to forget how important it really is... It's not a product feature.It's a combination of planning, discipline and creativity, achieved by perseverance, mastery of technology, and, if necessary, brute force, to get from one end of your job to the other. To redeem its abuse elsewhere, we have some especially gleaming examples of the proper use of the word "workflow" here.
South Park: TV's Longest Week Each episode of the Emmy Award-winning animated show is created, start to finish in 6 days, delivered with as little as 90 minutes before air. Here's a look at the people and technology that make it possible.
Metadata Through the Eye of the Lens A VFX cinematographer for films including "Quantum of Solace," Dave Stump also chairs the American Society of Cinematographers subcommittees for Cameras and Metadata -- and has unique insights on how the two are merging.
One team. Three Shows. Every week. FCP workflow pioneers Digital Film Tree (Cold Mountain, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The Forbidden Kingdom) found themselves posting 3 network shows every week: Weeds, Everybody Hates Chris, and Scrubs. And they're doing it with the same team of 9 that used to post ONE show.
Fix it in "Pre." You might hope to fix problems in post...but the only way to make sure that you have everything you need is to start with careful pre-production. Read how one team balanced project design and storytelling while staring down the barrel of nearly impossible deadlines.
And... a round-up of Cows at work around the world and industry news. Download the latest issue here...
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Creators create. Everything we do is udderly unique, never before seen on earth. Right? Well, except when we need our own variation on somebody else's udderly unique work... and, hey, faster and better while we're at it. The overwhelming popularity of the recent Creating the Juno Opening Credits Look tutorial reminds us that we've got several more to help you create looks found in popular films. Take a look...
The Bourne Flashback: Creating a Flashback Look
The Cow's Aharon Rabinowitz shows you how to create the flashback look as seen in the film The Bourne Ultimatum, with some extra touches and hints.
Creating a Hologram
Looking to create your own holographic effect? Let CreativeCOW.net Contributing Editor Stephen Smith show you how. This Apple Motion video tutorial will teach you what you need to know to create a hologram effect.
Invisible Cape
With the help of his brother Yuval, Creative Cow contributing editor Eran Stern shows you a simple method to create the famous invisible cape effect inspired by the movie The Predator.
Creating the Sin City Effect
Creative Cow contributing editor Grant Swanson takes you step-by-step through the easiest and fastest (and extremely effective) way of creating the popular Sin City effect - colorized objects in a black and white world. You will learn basic techniques when working with color, and some useful masking/rotoscoping techniques. And don't miss part 2, here.
Looking for film look? Shoot like film.
Film look software will never offer the same impact on your work that film-style shooting will. Software will also always take longer than shooting right the first time. Longtime film shooter Kim Segel shows you the tools and techniques to maximize film looks, even on pauper's budgets.
Creating the Juno Opening Credits Look The independent film
Juno featured one of the most distincitive opening credit sequences in recent memory. It has a wonderful handmade look - which it turned out was created by hand. Whether you have seen Juno or not, Cow leader Simon Bonner shows a much easier way to create unique, handcrafted looks, without the pain.
These are just a few of the thousands of tutorials, articles and industry insights you'll find in the COW Library.
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Michael Essany is the author of "Reality Check - The Business and Art of Producing Reality TV", and in our newest episode of the Creative COW Podcast with host Franklin McMahon, Michael joins Franklin to discuss how he went from a local show to a multi-million dollar program on E Entertainment Television. Along the way, Michael offers tips on getting into the reality TV business, just how scripted "reality" shows really are, and the best path to take when planning out production of a reality-based television show.
If you use iTunes, you can join the Creative COW Podcast here.
Or visit the show online at cowcast.creativecow.net/news/index.html
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