I went with my friend Brandon, who helped me work on "Bloom" way back in high school. We discussed "Our Story" over mackerel sashimi and it eventually turned into technical talk, discussing his new Blu-ray player, surround system, and other miscellaneous nerdspeak.
However, it got me thinking. Therefore, tonight I will discuss some of the more technical aspects of "Our Story" as a film as well as discuss the possibility of shooting in 5.1 surround sound.
Meet our camera: the Sony HDR-SR11.
Melissa, one of the producers for "Our Story," acquired it through a scholarship this past fall. It is worth around $1,200. We've used it to film several of our major projects, including "Stalin and Hitler: The Motion Picture," "Clocks," and "Pay Your Dues." The camera is perfect for filmmakers of our budget and skill level. It is extremely lightweight and easy to use thanks to its hard drive-based recording, yet has features powerful enough to create better-than-amateur shots such as simulated depth of field, highly adjustable white balance, and - most importantly of all - the ability to record true high-definition video.
For those of you unfamiliar with the technical stuff behind HD, it is essentially the ability to record a bigger and clearer picture. Standard widescreen cameras, such as the tape recorders you find at Wal-Mart, record at 720x480. This one, however, records at a MUCH higher resolution of 1920x1080. Perhaps the sole weakness of the HDR-SR11 is that it records in what is called interlaced mode.
Think of how film works. It displays a lot of pictures really, really fast. This camera, however, displays a bunch of lines really fast. The result of this is a picture that sometimes shows what looks like "tearing" when there is fast moving action. It's not all bad news though: the editing software I use has a feature called "deinterlacing." This process removes these lines by blending them together. The result is not perfect, but it generally makes the picture look far better. Another trick we use to get this camera to look more like one of those Hollywood film cameras is by slowing the framerate down from 30 frames per second to 23.976 frames per second. For a great example of this process, check out the fight scene at the end of "Stalin and Hitler: The Motion Picture." Considering it was shot on this camera, it looks remarkably like film. This process is going to be used for "Our Story" as well.
The camera has a distinctive feature that we rarely use: a 5.1 microphone. Typically, we use the included shotgun microphone because its range is stronger towards the front of the camera where, naturally, the action usually occurs. The shotgun mic records in stereo.
However, for "Our Story," that range is not necessarily as useful. The film is shot in a more experimental manner than our previous stuff, with a lot of ambient sounds and voiceovers. That being said, I have decided to attempt shooting the film in 5.1 surround sound. This is the same technique used to make theatrical films, where there are 5 speakers and 1 subwoofer, each delivering a different sound to make it feel like the film is going on around you.
"Our Story" has the potential to use this to great effect. For example, the film's main soundtrack may play in the foreground while the voiceover plays in the back. Some of the more fast-moving shots (of which, it may surprise you, there are several) will have prominent sound effects that you will be able to hear fly by the camera. This will be particularly cool in our film because some of the shots are shot in first-person, directly from the eyes of the main character.
I am also considering investing in a Blu-ray burner for this project. Blu-ray is basically the next version of DVD in that it displays HD video, whereas DVD simply displays very high quality standard definition video. Deinterlaced, "Our Story" will be viewable on the proper television or monitor in TRUE high-definition, and you'll be able to hear it in surround sound with the proper setup.
"Our Story" will be compiled in several formats:
1. A 1080p copy with surround sound, available on Blu-ray disc.
2. A 720p copy with stereo sound for internet distribution on YouTube and Vimeo.
3. A standard definition, 480p copy with surround sound for DVD.
What will the film not have? 3D. Leave it to James Cameron.
Titanic sucked,
-JD
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