HDV indies: - In search of a Midnight Kiss

Having sullied this blog in a recent post with a mention of a Jason [spit] Statham movie, I'll attempt to claw back some indie cred by flagging up a proper low budget HDV independent movie currently doing the rounds - In Search of a Midnight Kiss is currently released in cinemas and is still doing the rounds in the regions. According the the IMDB it was shot on the Sony HVR Z1.

If you can't handle the full ninety minutes of romantic slacker quirkiness (yup it's THAT kind of indie movie) than you can at least have a look at the trailer (up to 1080p!) on the Apple Movie trailers site.

File under "useful and free": Jay Rose and Sonic Birth

DV audio legend Jay Rose has started 'blogging over at Provideo Coalition (for those that don't know him, he wrote two almost essential books on Audio for low budge/independent/self reliant filmmakers: Producing Great audio for Film and Video (formally Producing Great Sound for Digital Video) and Audio Post Production for DV (UK editions from Amazon can be found here, though the third edition of Producing Great Sound... doesn't seem to be available in the UK yet.)

Anyway, you'll find very useful/interesting stuff over at the 'blog, including this great piece of software SonicBirth (Mac OSX only currently). It allows you to design your own VST an AudioUnit sound processing plug-ins. It's rather technical in its approach, but is based around a graphical interface rather that command line programming. If you have the time it could very useful. VST plug-ins can be used with free audio editors Audacity and Ardour, and AudioUnits can be used with GarageBand, Final Cut Pro.

Other blogs of note on provideo coalition are DV guru Adam Curtis, HD cinematographer Art Adams, =colourist and post expert Stephen Hullfish. HD for indies Legend Mike Curtis is also over there, though it has to be said the quality AND quantity of his PVC posts don't come anywhere near his old HD for Indies blog.

Big Budget HDV filmmaking.

Another feature film is being shot with standard prosumer HDV cameras: The sequel to the 2006 action thriller Crank is being shot right now Canon XH A1 camcorders. The first Crank was shot on HDCAM Sony F950s, and the co-directors have recently completed a movie using the Red One camera system. Unlike previous HDV movies, like Searchers 2.0 or Once, which were low budget, independent productions that used HDV cameras for budgetary reasons, Crank: High Voltage is choosing the system for aesthetic reasons.

The point was not trying to emulate film: says co-director Brian Taylor, "[...] This is an A.D.D. movie, so we should have A.D.D. cameras. So, you know the idea of moving the camera in outrageous ways and being able to destroy cameras without blinking an eye is more important to us than, you know, sort of having this filmic image."

More info here: www.collider.com

Found via freshDV.com