First up…WE MOVED!!!

Two blocks.  Down the street.

Teressa found this adorable rental house that just so happened to open up when we needed it. Fate really. That was back in February, and we moved in late April.  We’ve been spending most all of our free time painting, gardening, settling in and building furniture (more on that in a later post).  Oh, and obsessively catching up on This Old House. Tom Silva is turning into my personal hero.

It’s a great house, and we’ve just about got all of our stuff where it needs to go. Best part of the house?  Teressa and I both have our own workspaces, so now we can both burn the midnight oil on projects and not annoy each other.  Although, I do kind of miss being able to spin around in my chair and annoy her with some thing on the internet…but now I can just yell it out around the corner.

A Trip

In early July we both made a trek up north to Chicago for a joint, but separate, bachelor/bachelorette party for our good friends Zach & Cortney. Since we were already booking flights we decided to stick around for a few days and check out the Chicago scenery and finally drop in on Ben & Martha.  As per usual I forgot to take pictures of the people we went to visit and got hung up taking pictures of the environment.  Here are a few photos from the fabulous architecture boat tour, couldn’t recommend it enough.  I ended up spending most of my time focusing on the gorgeous bridges and towers that line the Chicago river, and pushing them a little further than normal, but Teressa is already planning on framing a few…so mission accomplished.  What can I say, I’m really just trying to impress her.

A Camera

Which brings me to my new favorite gadget.  While Teressa probably wouldn’t admit it my gadget lust has subsided over the years. I’ve been more interested in what I can do with the things I have (ala Merlin and John), and not so much on the latest and greatest.  However, Canon has been introducing stills cameras that have a built in HD video mode…and I finally had to break down and buy one.  The t2i to be exact. It’s fantastic.  I’ve been shooting video personally/professionally since I was about 10 years old but I’ve never owned my own video camera.  One word; revelation. I can get up a 6am and run around town shooting magic hour sunrises and I have zero permissions to obtain to do it.  Well, except for Teressa’s…but I tend to make up for that by bringing back bagels.

If you can’t tell I’m super excited to be able to scratch this itch again, and I can’t wait to show you some of the actual results.  But patients…video/mograph is a dish best served slowly in this regard.  To tide you over dear reader, here is a daily from my matchmove test on some footage I shot from the river.  Now I just need to roto, animate, composite and color correct it.  Who said technology was making things easier again?  Freelancing/Day job tend to get in the way of me making pretty short films for fun..but trust me they are coming.

There’s an update on what’s going on around here.  I’m going to quite promising to post more work/freelance related stuff on here until I’m ready to post it.  Creating impressive demo reels is hard, and I keep getting distracted by actual work (thanks boundaryvfx guys), but I promise it’s coming soon…if for no other reason than my mother might finally be able to understand what it is I do for a living.  It’s something with computers and cameras I think….

In August I applied and was accepted into the PixelCorps.com compositing team . The team is basically an opportunity to work on projects for a variety of PixelCorps clients as well as to enhance your skills through additional training.

Recently we were given the opportunity to work on a real feature film for Patrick Read Johnson and one of my visual fx heroes John Knoll. The film, entitled ’77, is a pseudo-autobiography of Johnson’s first encounter with the VFX industry and more importantly Star Wars. Here is a link to the trailer:

Yes, I know, there couldn’t be a better project for me to receive my first feature film credit. The film turned out to not only be a chance to push my own limits, but to work with a great team and have the work showcased in such a public way. Here are a few more links such as the full film credits, which include my peoples from the Pixel Corps TCC team. Oh and look whose name is right next to mine…yeah, that’s right John Knoll. For once being named Kappenman has paid off. Also, here’s the link to my rather small but exciting credit’s page: Matthew Kappenman

Hopefully I’m not divulging anything that is still covered under the film’s NDA. Since the credits have gone live on IMDB, I’m assuming we’re in the clear. Now, I know you’re asking when can I see the film? Well, after a successful screening at the Hamptons International Film Festival the director is now putting the finishing touches on the film. Basically, when I know a release date you’ll know a release date.

Hope everyone is planning a great holiday. Unfortunately we’ll only be in Hutch for a few days this year, so if you’re going to be in town hit me up for some coffee or a drink at one of Hutchinson’s fine establishments.

Enter iMovie ’08. This new release looks to be an entirely different way of working with home movies and it should make life easier for the causal/home video editor. There are some tools, namely Final Cut Server, on the pro side of things that are similar to the new iMovie workflow, but nothing in the true consumer market. Gone is the standard timeline with tracks of video and audio, and now there is a project workspace where you just piece your movie together.

The new release is really exciting but I noticed a menu item in the new iMovie that could really change the game in rough cuts. Check out the photo above. There is now an option to export your project to FCP with the “Export Final Cut XML” command. What this does is allow you to export your project into a format that Final Cut can understand and have your movie instantly setup and ready for further refinement in FCP.

I’m dying to give this to some of the producers at my office as Final Cut tends to be way to bloated for the simple rough cuts they are preparing. Also, with iMovie ’08 there is nothing to stop schools from teaching simple editing with iMovie and then taking that project into FCP to teach the kids the essential finishing and audio editing techniques.

I usually yawn at every new version of iMovie as it means more work for me when I sit down to help users at the LAUG meetings, but with this version I’m actually excited to show people a new way of thinking about their home movies. Again, where’s that (office) credit card!?

I generally try not to post a bunch of technical-industry-mumbo-jumbo on here as most of you could care less, but I saw this picture today and I just about did a cartwheel. The picture, courtesy of Stu Maschwitz of Prolost, the DV Rebel’s Guide and one of the founders of The Orphanage, is what amounts to my cheapo-movie-making dream setup.

What you have there is a consumer grade, $1,000 HDV camera that anyone can go into best buy and pick up and start shooting with. Generally the downside to these cameras is that the sensor which records the image is fantastic, but the lenses attached to the camera are fairly mundane. Enter Stu and the guys at Redrock Micro. They are working on prototyping the rig you see above which sets the little consumer camera on rails to give you more support, and then hooks it up to a lense converter which allows you to connect high quality lenses. This gives you a pristine image with a lot more control over focus and the all important Depth of Field.

With this camera and rig from Redrock you can create HD (compressed but who is counting for 1000 bucks) movie quality images for cheapo. The best part is that with Redrocks adapters you can hook up almost any digital/film SLR lenses and be up and running. This allows you to use high quality glass but at a relatively affordable price of SLR lenses. In the shot above Stu just has a 50mm Nikon lenses that would normally work with a digital SLR hooked up. STU, I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IMAGES!

For me this setup revolutionizes low-budget production as it can produce images for under 3K (once you buy lenses and an LCD) that rival that of cameras that cost over 10K. Now it’s no RED, but we’re talking about an order of magnitude difference in price and I can’t help but be excited about the future. Now where’s that Best Buy credit card….

This is one of those rare documentaries that has a both a compelling and true narrative. It of course has the standard interviews holding it all together, but the film and the story of the people really take on a life of their own. Combined it makes for a very interesting exposé on whether or not our brand, the American brand of democracy, can and should, be applied to foreign nations and their electorates.

I don’t want to spoil the events that occur in the documentary, but I just wanted to give the film a glowing endorsement. It is definitely worth netflixing or renting. Plus it has James Carville in it, and who doesn’t love to hear him espouse his ideas on democracy.

Until next time….courage.

Also, Sunflower Bike Shop came through and I got my brand new bike on Friday…just in time for Teressa’s mom to come to town. We only got one ride in on Saturday…but it was great! I’ll post some pictures later this week but until then check out my gorgeous new Trek 7100.

Until next time…courage.

Update: And the good new is….we just ordered the coolest video camera I’ve ever seen. We’re going HD! Check it out here.

Unfortunately it is only playing a Liberty Hall for another couple of days, because they are only playing it for a week…which is more than a little crazy. So, if you were planning on checking it out in Lawrence I suggest you go either tonight or tomorrow.

Oh, and at Liberty Hall they had a preview for a new film coming out entitled, Who Killed the Electric Car? This documentary looks amazing. If you are like me, and spent most of your childhood glued to the Discovery Channel with your Dad and brother, you will no doubt recall the electric car program in California. This film brings up the point regarding what happened to this program and where are the cars now? A coworker of mine has seen a preview cut of the film and he said it is absolutely amazing…oh, and it doesn’t hurt that a certain fictional president is the narrator.

Update: I had an amazing conversation with some of my coworkers yesterday about how great Gore’s presentation slides look in the film. The owners of the company spend a lot of time giving presentations and have been frustrated with the way powerpoint looks. I’ve suggested Keynote, which is the software Al uses, but there was never a realization by the powers-that-be of the stunning look the software could create. Dave Morin just linked to an article at Apple.com about Gore and the filmmakers using Keynote to create both the slideshow and some of the images used in the film. I used the software all the time as a Campus Rep for Apple and it is a very powerful, yet simple piece of communication software. Just one more reason to Get a Mac.

I understand that they are “his” films and his is the auteur and can do whatever he wants with them blah, blah blah. But we (the fans) are the ones who gave up our hard earned (or more importantly our parent’s) money in order to buy a piece of the science-fiction-fantasy-land he served up.

I wasn’t there in 77, or 80, and I was barely a month old in 83, but I have always been a star wars nerd. I watched the movies on USA over holiday weekends and VCRed copies for my brother and myself. I bought old star wars toys at garage sales before they released the new toys in the ramp up to the special edition release. I saw every star wars film since 97 on opening night at the first screening. I bought and read the star wars novels for years (which by the way are what got me into reading books in the first place) and played the role playing games to no end. I lived on Father Roderick’s theforce.net and read every bit of info I could about the upcoming films. I bought the video and computer games and sat up late at night on my dial-up connection to download the Episode I trailer and can still explain the opening shot of the trailer in full detail. I went over to Gordo’s house on a Sunday night just so my friends and I could sit around the TV and watch some stupid show in order to catch a glimpse of the new trailer for star wars, our generation’s star wars, during the commercial break.

And now Lucas basically says that he taped (pa comic) over the original prints of the original trilogy and the only way to release a non-special-edition cut is to copy the Laser Disc (Ain’t it cool) version of the films…not the original prints! Who in their right mind messes with the original prints!?!?! He spent all that time and money restoring that original footage frame by frame, only to sully them with the special edition effects forever? You’ve got to be kidding me. No one is that stupid or delusional. I also don’t believe that everyone at Lucasfilm who would have had to do the work on the restoration would let that happen. It is just not possible.

Even if I did want to buy the “good-cut-lousy-quality” version of the films you can’t just buy those separately, you have to purchase the special editions and the originals together at a cost of 90 bucks. I already spent 45 bucks on your special editions, why should I have to buy them again! It is insane!

As you can see below I’ve been following this stuff for the past couple of months and have gone back in forth in my opinion on Lucas. All I can say now is that I’m done being a star wars fan boy. I don’t know if there is really a way to flip that switch and shut it down, but I’m going to try. Conversely, I’m not going to turn into a Lucas hater and bash all things relating to his universe set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…I guess what I’m saying is that I just don’t care anymore. Which is really really sad.

My related rants: I take back and Revisionist Star Wars

p.s. The only way I think I could ever make Mr. Lucas understand what star wars means to this generation is to alter something that he loves. Mr. Lucas, this is like someone going back and re-dubbing the organ and guitar lines in Green Onions with some futurist synthesizer and losing the timbre that is the Hammond B3. Then on top of that, the record label tells you you can no longer purchase a version of the original song because they taped over it. Bummer.

p.p.s. Can you tell Teressa is out of town for the next week and I’m bored out of my mind…I don’t think I’ve geeked out this much in a long, long time. ;)