Production Notes 1

My Ponte Vista blog contains weekly posts that are called "Odds and Ends".

This post is the first in what I hope to become a weekly update dealing with the videos and productions I am involved with.
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The final DVD of "Upton Sinclair's Singing Jailbirds, The Musical" ("Singing Jailbirds") is still in the computer and is taking much longer than I thought it would take to get a final product out.

Since all of the cast and crew have the opportunity to view the rough cut DVD of the show I handed out, I feel I need to work on other videos before getting that monster finished.

And what a monster it is turning out to be. 28 tapes were used in recording 7 performances of the production.

I am now down to using just 16 tapes because I have found that the other 8 tapes do not have what I want for the DVD on them.

The final DVD will come sometime in the fall I now believe. There are more important videos to work on for my Youtube site and for The Relevant Stage and Youthorizons.
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The second performance of High School Musical 2 should be completely into the computer this weekend.

I will be using the tapes from the two cameras and I hope to get some great tape at Taste in San Pedro, of the cast.

I have one rehearsal video and four video of bits up on Youtube and one of the short videos that I put up just today has over 66 views already.

The editing of this production should be fairly straight forward. There is one song that I had to change tapes during on the closeup camera. I may need to go with the full-stage camera video of that one song.

I hope to have a completed DVD to give to Ray Buffer by the end of August, for this production.

Ray, as the producer, has the responsibility to do with as he pleases with the completed DVD. I don't know how the DVD would get distributed to cast members, but I hope it does. If he asks me, I will make copies from the original saved files of the completed DVD.
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For those more impatiently waiting for me to get the DVD done, here is the processes it takes to get a video from camera to DVD, using my iMac.
1. A production is taped using my up to two-hour recording time, digital camcorder and my one-hour recording time digital camera.

2. The recordings are then uploaded into my iMac iMovie software. This takes quite a bit of time because I am using image stabilization for creating the final DVD.

3. Once I have the complete recordings from both cameras stored in the iMac, I then can cut the production into a movie.

3A. This is where I take the video bits of the cast members and create stills for the credits of the show and this is also where I add text, more sound, transitions, and equalize the sound throughout the Project. I also produce opening and closing credits for the Project, in this step.

4. When I am satisfied with the Project, I 'Share' it by having the computer put it into a different form. This also is a time consuming process for larger videos.

5. For the videos I put up on Youtube, it can take some time for the Youtube servers to upload the videos onto them and place them on my page.

6. For this production, I will forgo using Final Cut Pro and move the Project into iDVD.

7. Using iDVD I can create chapters and create the introduction. and main title sequence of the DVE.

7A. Creating the initial DVD for the Project takes a long time, too. The longer the video, the more time is necessary for the computer to process it and get it ready to be 'burned'.

8. Once the first DVD has been burned, the time it takes to burn more DVDs becomes shorter.

9. Along with production of a DVD and copies of the DVD, there is also the steps in producing the DVD label and the cover for the Jewel Case.

High School Musical 2 runs about one hour and fifteen minutes without opening and closing credits.

I can figure for each one of the 75 minutes of the production, it can take 20 minutes or slightly more to get the end product produced. I figure it takes about 25 hours of regular post taping time to get a 1 hour, 15 minute video to where it can be viewed.

As I am writing this post, it is going to take about three hours to upload the first 43 minutes of HSM2 from the one-hour camera, into the Project file.
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"The Last 5 Years" is the next Event I will be taping. With the way the stage production is being produced, it could take until next year to get the final DVD out for that production.

The stage production that will be taped includes over stage image presentations that need to be viewed while cast members are onstage.

For all but a very short period of time, the two members of the cast will not physically be very close to each other and they may be so far apart that they won't appear within the frame that includes the overhead presentation.

Thankfully, I had "Rose Ritz" as a training ground for this type of production. It's going to be tough to tape, but I am looking forward to the challenge.
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Fiasco Films, Escolar Films, Cellmaster Productions, Portowop Productions, Scene-phobic Productions, and a couple of other entities have produced films and videos going back to the 1960's.

Since about 1989, a small but growing group of friends have produced videos yearly or just about yearly. Many of these films and videotapes are now just memories.

But some of them are or may become available to be digitally saved.

This means that they can be stored and re-edited, as a few have already been.

"More On T.V." or "Moron T.V." will be the first joint production that will have bits of it up on my Youtube page.

There are many flat out hilarious bits in that production and I thing all who view the shorts will be entertained.

I intend to try and get bits of that production up on Youtube this coming week.
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I am also going to put up some video of "Energizer", the Street Dancer Daniel help campaign to become the world champion of Street Dancers in 2000.

I will also put up more video of C-Wrecks on my Youtube page. This was the Radical Dancer Daniel designed the engineering of the chassis for and he was the primary builder of the chassis.

C-Wrecks became the Pennzoil-sponsored demonstration dancer that toured the country at many Lowrider shows.
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I expect future "Production Notes" posts will be much shorter than this initial one and I very much hope that is the case.