Location. Location. Location.

Location of a film or television series is vital to production. Producers want content creators not to be shackled by restrictions, but when producers and production studios can save millions of dollars location plays an important role.

In the early to mid 1990's, production for movies and television series began producing media in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom. Production was cheaper to produce outside of the United States because of tax incentives. Canada exploded in media production and is now a major player in the industry with cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City all being credible in the production of film, television, and even video games.

Hollywood Is Still A Film Hotspot

After a few years, states fought back to have film production back in the United States. California is still seen has the capitol of entertainment and film production, and that will likely be the case for many years to come because of the already established infrastructure. The Los Angeles area still houses the post-production studios, and many animated films are produced in Los Angeles or up north in San Francisco. California's film industry looks bleak compared to twenty years ago. Only ten percent of the top 25 movies were produced in California in the last few years, and jobs in the field have decreased by 12% in the past decade. To combat the recent trend of film production being exported to other locations, California has adopted a new tax incentive that will triple the amount to $330 million annually.

Louisiana Was One of Many Locations For Jurassic World

Louisiana has taken production away from California, and has more feature films and television shows filmed than California. The nickname "Hollywood Down South" came about because of the lucrative production in the southern state. Louisiana has added nearly 3,000 jobs in film production in the past decade; production studios for movies and television have exploded, and there are no signs of slowing down. The tax incentives in the state have no cap, and keep attracting producers. Louisiana is such a big player in the industry that in 2015 Lousiana had 18 studio films; while California and Canada were tied with 15 films each.

Georgia has recently gained more recognition in the entertainment industry. The explosion of The Walking Dead placed Georgia as the focal point for Hollywood productions. Pinewood Studios is currently building a 288 acre studio with six soundstages. Georgia has skilled employees because of the Turner Broadcasting System in the Atlanta region; which has allowed for production studios to sprout up and attract more talented workers to the area. Also, because of Turner Broadcasting's dominance in the area, camera, sound, and lighting equipment are easily made available to production sites. The accessibility of Atlanta also makes the area a favorite. Atlanta is a major transportation destination, and allows actors, directors, and employees to easily travel back-and-forth from Los Angeles to Atlanta.

Georgia Has Benefited Greatly From The Walking Dead

A few notable mentions are New York, Illinois, and New Mexico.

A detailed informative explanation of tax incentives of each state are available at Film Production Capitol.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Tax Incentives

Tax incentives are a great way to attract any business to a location. By offering incentives, costs of production decrease for production. Supporters cite that employment increases as well. These employment opportunities are to aid with production, and assembling sets. At times, the employment may aid post production studios, but more than likely post production will be done in southern California, or New York City. The local economy is projected to increase revenue because of the added jobs and tourism. Film production is a harbinger for attention that reels in thousands of visitors from within the drive-able area.

There are many negatives to the idea of subsidizing film and television production. Many states can not realistically afford to pay millions in incentives. In Massachusetts, the Governor called to use the $80 million film tax credit to pay for more practical uses. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue reported that $50 million of the $304 million in production costs went to Massachusetts vendors. It was also reported that the state lost $128,575 for every film job created for a Massachusetts resident.

In Louisiana, taxpayers paid $170 million in 2012 for film production and cost taxpayers more than $12,000 for every job created by the tax incentive, but some studies say taxpayers paid $60,000 for every job. Lawmakers are debating capping the rewards given in tax incentives. Each state is engaged in a "bidding war" to attract film studios to their respective states. For example, Netflix has recently influenced Maryland to extend its tax incentive, or House of Cards would be filmed elsewhere. States are bound to their incentives. The entertainment industry is an expensive and time consuming process that requires an extensive amount of capital. For the audience to continue receiving highly produced motion pictures, studios need to take advantage of "free" money. 

Tax incentives are not going away anytime soon. States that can not afford to subsidize film and television production will lose out. New states that can afford to give tax incentives will do so and attract employment for production and post-production. Illinois is an example of a state that is growing in attractability because of incentives. Studios are being founded and more films and television shows are regularly being shot in Chicago. Will California's new tax incentive program give the state the jump-start it needs to be the apex in film production of the world? Only time will tell.

Resources

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/18/states-film-tax-credits_n_7306342.html

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-fi-film-tax-credits-20140831-story.html

http://siteselection.com/ssinsider/snapshot/Film-Incentives.cfm

http://www.thewrap.com/louisiana-california-movie-making-capital-world-2013/

http://www.filmproductioncapital.com/index.html

Importance of Sound Design in Visual Media

The design process requires a composition to follow the principles and elements of design. For artists and designers that do not engineer audio, audio is treated as an afterthought. For example, many animators, video editors, and motion designers create exceptional visually stimulating elements but fail to tie-in the composition with great audio development. Because of the second-hand treatment of audio with video, the designer has failed, and the potential great piece of work is average at best.

In a traditional sense, a visual audio presentation pleases the eyes, ears, and heart. Using audio to the designer's advantage does not require a vast library of skill. Understanding how to edit, mixing, and implementing edits to correct blemishes are the basics needed to achieve a desirable audio sequence. Combining effects can improve vocals and transform sound effects into unrecognizable audio to add variety to the audio assortment.

Sony Sound Forge Pro 11 DAW

During the design conceptual stage, analyze the theme, vibe, and atmosphere to narrow down what is needed to have the scene come to life. If vocals are required, capture the audio in an appropriate sound environment. Nothing is more distracting than an echo from a poor audio recording, and there is only so much audio editing that can be done to correct such an occurrence. Relying on software to fix majors issues is not advised. Just like with video, audio needs to be captured with as little editing needed in post-production.

Workflow Within Adobe Audition

Speaking of software for audio editing, there are a number of available mainstream programs. These programs have received general praise. Preference plays a role in which program are regularly used by individuals and production houses. Myself, with my experience with audio consisting of mixing, clean-up, and looping, Adobe Audition is my audio editing program because of the familiarity with the Adobe Suite. If Sony's software (Sound Forge Pro 11) and Avid's (Pro Tools 12) collection is a familiarity, use what is comfortable. Audacity is a popular open-source option for those who can not afford the premium options.

GUI Within Avid's Pro Tools 12

Below are a list of resources that help designers with little or no access to a sound studio to capture high-quality recording. Audio packages are a great deal because of the bulk of audio for a relatively low price.

Premium Audio Providers

Sonniss

PremiumBeat

VideoCopilot

Free Audio Providers

Adobe Sound Effects

Adobe Music Loops & Beds

Freesound

SoundBible

EnvatoMarket

70mm Ultra Panavision and The Hateful Eight

Cinema has been a vital piece of American culture. Movies are a way to escape and live an experience of a different individual for 120 minutes. This past December (2015), Quentin Tarantino released 'The Hateful Eight' to audiences around the world. With films such as 'Reservoir Dogs', 'Django Unchained', and 'Pulp Fiction', Tarantino has captured the respect and imaginations of eager movie-goers. Quentin Tarantino does it again filming 'The Hateful Eight' in 70mm Ultra Panavision.

The Hateful Eight in 70mm Ultra Panavision

70mm Ultra Panavision was born out of the era when film studios were experimenting with different formats. Cinerama and Cinescope were commercial failures because of their costs and inconsistent film quality. What launched the practical use of 65 & 70mm film was the 'Ten Commandments'. 'The Ten Commandments' was filmed on 65mm film VistaVision widescreen. VistaVision was successful, but due to anamorphic lens distortions, was overtaken by Panavision; which reworked how light entered into an anamorphic lens.

Super Panavision vs Ultra Panavision

Both formats expand on the common film widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85-1.89:1. Super Panavision uses a spherical lens. Spherical lenses are common among 35mm films, and are much cheaper than anamorphic lenses. There are anamorphic attachments that can be used with spherical lenses. These attachments can cause issues with focal distances and require too much scene light. Anamorphic lenses distort the picture horizontally by utilizing the full frame on a 35mm or 70mm film. To counteract this distortion, the projector has an anamorphic lens that distorts the image back to the correct proportion. The anamorphic lens allow for a wider aspect ratio of 2.76:1 for the Ultra Panvision; while the Super Panavision's use of a spherical lens has an aspect ratio of 2.20;1; which is narrower than widescreen formats of 2.35:1 and 2.39:1.

Anamorphic lenses create a wide view and lens flares

It should be brought to attention that both Super and Ultra Panavision  formats use a MGM 65mm camera, and is later transferred over to a 70mm film. The extra 5mm on the film was saved for audio. Although nowadays, the audio would most likely be manipulated by digital means.

Considerable Mentions

Ultra Panavision format offers more than just a wider picture for the audience. Because of the increased frame of the film, there is more data and information available for the camera to capture. This equates to richer color depths and less visual noise compared to a 35mm film, but the same can be said for anamorphic lenses. The anamorphic lens allows for a higher quality depth of field, and ability to capture depth. 

70mm film can be downsized to 35mm and still retain an aspect ratio of 2.55:1. Because the Ultra Panavision uses the anamorphic lens, the aspect ratio is greater than that of the Super Panavision because of its use spherical lens.

This method of filming can only be done on analog. Digital has not been able to keep up with being shot at a 2.76:1 ratio. This is a reason as to why many movies shot today are done digitally. The 16:9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio is becoming the norm. With the explosion of indie films released on the internet and the downfall of the American theater industry, there is not much diversity among filmmakers who venture beyond different formats. 

Last Words

Tarantino knew when he made his latest film that he was holding onto a dying way of creating magic. His admiration to pay homage to a bygone era makes Take a moment to watch this brief video expanding on 70mm and the film-making process.

Fine Arts and Computer Graphics

A Strong Foundation

Establishing a strong foundation is empirical for any structure to succeed. Art and design is no different. The concepts, history, and experience in the fine arts enables the possibility to excel. Fine art is the strong foundation that should be part of any computer graphics artist's utility belt. Without it, the ability to construct, design, and animate is made harder because of the lack of understanding between the elements and principles of design.

Old Assignment Back in High School

Elements and Principles of Design

The elements and principles of design are used adjacent with each other to bring about a high-quality piece of art that captures the attention of the viewer. Without going into too much detail, the elements of design are line, color, attributes, shape, categories, texture, space, and form. The principles of design are unity/harmony, methods, balance, types, hierarchy, repetition, scale/proportion, dominance/emphasis, and similarity/contrast. Depending on where the information is derived, the elements and principles of design can differ. 

The elements are physically applied to the composition; with the principles of design applied to the elements, the two work together to create a balanced and unified composition. Not every design needs to contain all of the elements and principles to become a successful piece of artwork, but knowing how to use the elements and principles together is vital.

Fine Art Hands On Experience

Not all, but some artists who strictly use computer graphics, assume fine art experience is not necessary for a successful career in the computer graphics industry. That is far from the truth. Having a history with fine arts creates a better understanding of how the elements and principles of design work with each other. Having first hand experience altering lines and creating depth by hand trains the mind to better analyze space and perspective. As wonderful as computers have become, most computer graphics programs analyze and produce depth and perspective for the user. Understanding color has to be the biggest factor in fine arts experience. Physically mixing color via watercolor, gouache, acrylic, and ink allows for greater understanding of color theory.

Portrait Of A Friend Back In School

Begin by sketching everyday objects. By doing so in different lighting environments, helps the artist understand how shadows interact with real-world objects. Exploring different mediums opens up the mind to different textures, shapes, and alternate ways to achieve harmony.

Recommended Equipment

For those inexperienced with the tools needed to create fine art pieces, this is a recommended list of what is best suited. Two necessary items are a drawing set and a notepad of drawing paper. The drawing set usually come with a series of different sketching pencils and charcoal pencils/sticks. Personally, a small set of high quality colored pencils should be acquired. These pencils can set guidelines for how a design's color will appear. Painting is not for everyone but for those interested, having a few trays of watercolor paint is helpful. Understanding mixing colors is accessible with paint, and color palettes can be saved on a physical medium.

AP Art Concentration Piece Back in School

Combination of Traditional and Computer Graphics

What Now???

With the proper fine art utensils and understanding of art and design, designers and artists with the proper skills can combine the techniques of multiple backgrounds to arrange a composition that fuses the two realms together. Ever since the explosion of popularity regarding computer graphics, artists have created works with traditional and new age elements. This relatively new avenue has contributed to unique motion pictures, advertisements, animations, and graphic designs. Explore different techniques and workflows to find new and exciting ways to leave an impact in the art and the design world. Experimentation is a pathway to achieve success.

A strong foundation is the building block to innovation. Traditional art and design is the foundation and new age computer graphics is the window to innovation.

Render Passes and Compositing

Compositors of all levels know how tedious and technical editing and manipulating a scene can become. Each shot is broken down and edited to an acute detail to where the audience can not determine what is computer generated, and what is not. The compositor may need to adjust the hue of an object, edit the brightness of a reflection, or add a blur toward z-space. Instead of having to re-render the 3D scene relentlessly to achieve the desired result, render passeses help ease those blemishes without the hassle of spending time and resources on re-renders. Render passes is the process of individually rendering out the elements of a full beauty pass; such as the ambient occlusion, specular, reflections, refractions, and so on.

Autodesk Maya 2016 and Mental Ray will be the examples provided for render pass examples. There are numerous amounts of 3D programs and render plug-ins available. Use whatever you are comfortable with using.

The procedure involves opening up the render settings and clicking on the "Passes" tab. If the passes tab does not appear, venture into preferences and open up the "rendering" tab and check "Show Maya Legacy Tab". There is a render pass tab under "Scene" and hidden under "Cameras", but that's for the new MILA materials. If you use MILA materials then go on ahead and use those settings.

Typically, what is needed from the render pass is diffuse, reflection, specular, ambient occlusion, matte, and a depth pass. Depending on the scene, these passes will change. For example, scatter passes for subsurface light scattering and a fur pass. If the scene being worked on has more than one object it is recommened to put each object on a separate layer. By doing so, each object can have a render pass.

Autodesk has great resources for better understanding render passes and rendering with Mental Ray. There's more detail about what each pass is, and how they all interact with each other.

Multi-Render Passes

Mental Ray Tabs in Maya 2016

Set Up Mental Ray Scene Pass

About The Render Settings Mental Ray Tabs in Maya 2016

Render Pass Attribute Editor

Introduction to Multi-Render Pass: A Simple Workflow Example

Compositing Workflow Within Blackmagic Fusion

Now that the passes have rendered, it is time to composite the pieces together. Compositing software such as The Foundry's Nuke, Blackmagic's Fusion, and even Adobe After Effects are used to assemble the passes. Following the previous render pass example, there is a diffuse, reflection, specular, ambient occlusion, matte, and depth pass. The set-up is roughly the same for all three programs. After Effects is layer-based and the transfer mode can be easily changed via a dropdown tab by the layer in the timeline. Nuke and Fusion are node-based and require a "merge" node to change the transfer (apply in Fusion) mode. The diffuse pass is the base to our final product, the diffuse apply mode stays as is. Reflections are next and are set to "screen"; followed by specular set to "screen"; then ambient occlusion set to "multiply". If darker shadows are preferred, duplicate another AO layer (After Effects), or create another node and set it to "multiply".

Render Passes Can Become A Handful

The matte and depth passes are used to enhance the detail and blend the 3D assets with the scene. The matte pass is used to blend/feather the composited piece with the background. Without the matte pass, the scene would look flat and pieced together. The depth pass builds upon what the matte pass provides by creating depth to the 3D asset. Maya or any 3D software can apply depth of field to the renderable camera, but it is time consuming and resource heavy. By rendering out a depth pass, time is saved and the quality is rarely affected. Each software is different, but the general idea is to set the depth path to an alpha and then applying a camera/depth blur. Once completed, color adjustments and other edits should be made to build upon the composition.

Render passes are a strong and necessary tool in a compositor's toolbox. Experiment with different passes and shader materials. Look into different rendering software. There may be more efficient ways to render pass a scene. Autodesk offers Composite  and MatchMover a free compositing and match moving bundle. This set of free software is an opportunity to learn more about the computer graphics and how to apply those skills in a practical manner.

Tis' The Season

Check Out Who Made This Awesome Graphic 

https://blog.colettehq.com/news/happy-holidays-3

The beginning of 2016 is a little more than a week away. Those fortunate enough to visit family are enjoying their time off and recharging their batteries. This is the time of the year where most of the stresses of everyday life vanish and replaced with stresses of family, gifts, and travel. Late December and early January is magical in that way. There is beauty in getting lost and being succumbed to the loved-one lifestyle.

Creative people can take advantage of this time of year as well. Creative people who tend to work at a high-intensity rate find it hard to put down their work and experience life. Their creative juices constantly become drained, but manage to somehow creative impeccable projects routinely. Overtime, hammering down on the creative nail becomes hard, and eventually, struggling to launch the same quality of work is an everyday occurrence.

Kanye is Feeling the Holiday Spirit

The holiday season is the perfect time to take advantage of the down-time. Spend time hanging out with those near by. Experience new and exhilarating places and try to get away from wherever "work" is. A person's experience drives their creativity, and will enhance all aspects of  their work. It may be difficult at first to become accustomed to "relaxing", but any great swordsman needs to sharpen their sword after many battles.

The new year will bring upon great fortune to all creators and hungry hard-working people will share new and exciting content that will affect the lives of millions of people. Stay diligent and the rewards will appear. Let us all have a healthy, happy, and monumental holiday season!

Social Media and 21st Century Artists

Only a few more weeks left until 2016 is upon us. This is the time of year individuals embark on their mission to make more money, change a nasty habit, or even start a family. I for one plan on making my presence known as a multi-media artist who specializes in video and motion graphics, but very capable with any 2D project. I plan on voicing my abilities via social media. I have been using the power of social media for the past six months, but I have not had a concrete tactic. I am using this opportunity to share my experience and advice for utilizing social media.

As an introduction, I was a Social Media Intern for Purdue University's School of Mechanical Engineering for almost two years. I read articles about social media strategies, attended marketing and media meetings regarding attracting and retaining audiences, and I researched trends in social media.

The message is the focal point of a social media campaign. My message is "I create art and I want people to experience what I have created; while getting to know me not only as an artist, but as a person who has personality. There are a vast amount of social media options. To decide which social media you want to use, simply ask yourself if it will serve a purpose. And, what can that social media offer? I believe each individual social media option should have a piece of exclusivity to it. Make your audience want to find out more about what makes you who you are.

Twitter

Twitter has and always will be the social media application that I display the different sides of who I am. I plan to continue to keep it that way. I share my work and I enjoy sharing artistic pieces that I find compelling. I also support any world-wide social issue that strikes my attention, and I enjoy interacting with influential people any chance I get. No other social media allows for such open window communication like Twitter.

Instagram

This is uncharted territory for myself. I have never touched Instagram, but I've begun to recognize the possibly of posting updates of projects I have been working on, and asking for critiques and suggestions from people around the world. Instagram has a huge audience and I can share doodles that I have created on my phone. I find it more appropriate than Twitter for that kind of content, but I do plan on linking my Instagram posts to Twitter. Instagram can display a different side of me as a person that other social media can not capture.

YouTube

I have and will continue to use YouTube as my primary video social media site. I like the accessibility and the amount of viewers that are drawn to the website. After much contemplation, I have recognized that I do not get involved enough with my YouTube account. I am going to begin commenting on other videos I find interesting and appropriate, and subscribing and supporting channels that are more directed in the same field as myself. I want to separate my personal YouTube account so I will continue to do that.

Vimeo

I understand that Vimeo does not have the audience that YouTube has, but Vimeo has a more artistic friendly environment. It is a place to learn and experience great content. For me personally, I am going to be using it more as an educational platform. There are so many talented videographers and graphic artists that post amazing content, and I want to learn from them. My plan of action is to finish uploading the rest of my videos on Vimeo, and to get more involved in the community via sharing and commenting on videos.

Google+

I know Google+ has been pronounced dead. I do not encourage everyone to use Google+. If you are an artist of some kind, I encourage you to ponder using Google+. There is an artistic community on Google+ that is thriving and very friendly and helpful. I use Google+ as another portal to share my videos, 2D designs, and blog posts. I enjoy commenting on people's posts and offering my advice on how to make their compositions better. 

Blogger

I have been using Blogger for the past six or so months now. I changed up my structure a few months earlier. I realized I should use Blogger as a tool to expand upon my knowledge in video and motion graphics, and to share my knowledge with those who catch wind of my content. That is my course of action still. I need to build a more consistent pattern of when I post a new blog entry.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has always been a difficult social media to put my finger on, even when I worked at Purdue as the Social Media Intern. Slowly but surely I have begun to realize how I can use LinkedIn appropriately. LinkedIn is a professional platform, and therefore, should be treated as one. As someone looking for full-time employment, LinkedIn is a window into who I am professionally. I will continue to post recent completed projects and new blog entries, but determined to start posting industry relevant stories. By doing this, I learn more about my industry and I display that I care about what I do. Like everything I have mentioned before, I need to become more present and take part in conversation. I want to begin having meaningful educational heartfelt dialogues.

Social Media does not have to drain the energy and time away from those who use it. The way I have formulated my plan is to have it compliment what I am doing. If you are creating new content everyday it does not take long to post and share it. The same goes for communicating with other individuals. Taking a minute to express curiosity and to ask for advice can go a long way. Let us collaborate. We can help each other, and that starts by having a conversation.