YES, we are meeting tomorrow, Dec. 17, in Garage 1/2

YES, we are meeting tomorrow, Dec. 17, in Garage 1/2. This month we are combining forces with the Digital Cinema Society to bring you what will likely be the biggest meeting we've had in years. Here is the lineup for the evening:

6.30 Doors open
7.00 Meeting starts (late arrivals will find a phone number on the lobby doors)
7.15 Sony present EX3 - Q & A follows
8.00 Pizza break
8.15 Draw raffle
8.20 Sony present HD Displays
8.30 F35 segment, Art and Adam demo the F35, show their F35 spot and talk about
production. Discussion of S-log, Hyper gammas - Q&A follows.
9.40 Wrap.

The Garage 1&2 rooms are located directly upstairs from Town Hall in Apple's Building 4 at 1 Infinite Loop. To find it, just pretend you are headed to the Town Hall facility, enter the main lobby doors, but instead go up the stairs to your far left to find The Garages rooms.

To locate the meeting room on a map, go to maps.google.com and search for "1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino CA". Building 4 will be on the backside of the loop towards the top right corner (northeast) of the map.

Good News, Bad News...

First, the Bad News:

Mid-November came up so fast from our previous meeting there just wasn't enough time to put together a credible/complete agenda for a November meeting. Sorry, so no meeting this month...but I think the good news will more than make up for it.

Now, the Good News:

Our next meeting will be in December, specifically, December 17th. And it is going to be KILLER! I am thrilled to announce that we will be co-hosting the December meeting with the Bay Area's new Digital Cinema Society, a worldwide filmmaking organization now with a local chapter under the leadership of Simon Sommerfeld. Our special guests for the evening will be SONY showing off their HD FILMMAKING SOLUTIONS. Not only that but it's also a PARTY!

More details will be posted as December approaches, but DO mark your calendar for 12/17/08 as MacFilmmakers and the Digital Cinema Society will be partying like it's...well, 2008.

Tonight's Meeting BONUS: COOKIES!

As the subject line says, as an added bonus for tonight's meeting, our Fabulous Pizza Break will once again feature those amazingly good cookies from San Francisco's Hot Cookie. Yay!

Of course, this means there will have to be a 50% increase in the entry fee at the door. Let me do the math here. Let's see, zero admission charge, times a factor of 1.5, equals...umm...oh yeah, that's still FREE!

See y'all tonight.

Next Meeting is Wed., Oct. 29th, BEATLES meeting room

The next meeting of MacFilmmakers is this coming Wednesday evening, October 29, at 7:00 pm in Apple's Beatles meeting room in the De Anza 3 building. Note that the Beatles meeting room is a new space. Full details below.

Wednesday, October 29

Apple's campus, Cupertino, CA

Beatles meeting room, located in the De Anza 3 building (Use the building entrance that faces onto Mariani Ave. Yes, this is a different entrance on the opposite side from what we are used to using previously.)

Doors Open 6:30 pm

Admission is Free!
Parking is Free!
The Pizza Break is Free!

_______________________________

7:00 – 8:00 PM
NATE GENTNER
Product Manager for Adobe's Encore

“Adobe's Blu-ray Authoring Workflow"
While Blu-ray may be a "bag of hurt", what really hurts is that Apple does not (yet?) offer video professinals a Blu-ray authoring solution. Aargh! No problem, Adobe has a workflow solution.

With Adobe's Encore, you can author fully professional Blu-ray discs and, using third party hardware, burn your own Blu-ray movies. While Encore is, of course, part of Adobe's Premiere Pro editing suite of software, it also works well in an Apple Final Cut workflow.

Come, release your authoring pain! Blu-ray no longer needs to be a "bag of hurt".

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/encore/
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/

_______________________________

8:00 PM
Pizza Break
Once again, filling that gnawing void in filmmakers' lives (i.e., hungry tummies) since 2002, we present our always fabulous Pizza Break. Pizza and soft drinks are provided for everybody and at no cost (although kindly donations are never turned down), just show up and enjoy.

_______________________________

8:30 – 8:45 PM
LISHKA DEVOSS
Kranky Kids

“Size Matters, Especially if Your Video Is Being Shown as Part of a Presentation"
Lishka DeVoss of Kranky Kids walks us through what happens when you:

1. Set-up a basic Keynote presentation and then -
2. Grab some sound effects from Soundtrack Pro and do a simple edit of them in GarageBand (because you think Soundtrack Pro is too difficult to learn and all you wanted were those sound effects) and then -
3. Add your FCP edited videos to Keynote and see what the same QuickTime compression of your videos from three different cameras looks like when they are blown-up and projected to a size they were not intended to be viewed at because you just wanted to put them on the web, right? (Except someone asked for you to show them as a preso . . . for work, or at school, or you really think people will invest money in your BIG film idea and you thought it might be nice if everyone didn't all have to gather around a computer monitor . . .)

The camera output into a Keynote Presentation will be from:

• a Sony TRV9 (Yes! The Original!)
• a Canon XL1-S (Another dinosaur!)
• and The Flip ULtra (The hottest little consumer Flash-based camera on the market for people who just want to shoot video for YouTube or the family computer using no tape and which only needs to have regular AA batteries on hand to make the little monster work!)

http://www.krankykids.com/

_______________________________

8:45 – 9:30 PM
ADAM WILT
filmmaker, writer

"Making 'One Man, One Vote'"
Adam Wilt talks about the production and postproduction of a seven-minute short film.

- Mistakes made in production, and how they had to be fixed and fudged in post.
- How to use three cameras, including a cellphone cam, for a single image.
- Simple compositing and VFX using FCP, Motion, and Photoshop.
- Color correction and creating a look (even if it wasn't the look we planned on).
- Reworking an interlaced program for progressive displays.

http://provideocoalition.com
http://www.adamwilt.com/

Next Meeting is Wed., Oct. 29th

Our next meeting is Wednesday, October 29. One of our confirmed guest speakers will be Adobe presenting solutions for creating/burning Blu-ray DVDs on the Mac. More details to be posted later.

Noren Acoustilock 24 unit cabinet "Virtual Giveaway!"

***NOTICE: LISTSERV IS DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE, should be back up within 24 hours***

Hey, My Fellow MacFilmmakers--

Kevin Johnson here. The following is a ONCE IN A LIFETIME DEAL on a Noren Acoustilock 24 unit cabinet. These are those giant sound-reducing racks for post-production and A/V studios that will house all your noisy computer equipment. This particular one was previously the top of the line model, a 24 unit cabinet. (It is not the current 24TD; it is, I believe, the previous configuration, whatever those were designated.) It could hold, for example:
(2) Mac Pros
(1-2) XServes
(2-3) XServe RAIDs
(Many) smaller FW drives
possibly even a UPS unit
a picture of your Mom smiling at you, proud of your good fortune

So, here's the aforementioned once in a lifetime deal. These things go for, literally, way over $3,000 plus shipping. I just bought a used one in great condition off eBay for...drumroll, please...

FIFTY TWO BUCKS!

And...

Since I already own my own Acoustilock, I'm selling this one to the first friend/person who confirms with 100% absolute certainty that they want it for...

FIFTY TWO BUCKS!

To check out the concluded eBay auction, go to this link:
eBay link

Know that it is a local pickup only in Menlo Park and it is up a flight of stairs (no elevator, apparently) so you'll need a truck, a refrigerator dolly and some strong-armed friends (and while I may be your friend, I probably can't be there to help you move it) to get it. Here's the deal:

Give me FIFTY TWO BUCKS and a firm, absolute commitment that YOU will PICK IT UP and USE IT YOURSELF (NO, do NOT use this as an opportunity to resell it and make money off someone else, that would only ROYALLY piss me off, and you do NOT want to do that!), it goes to the first person to contact me and say they will personally use it.

How do you contact me? If you already have my email address use that, I check it frequently (and will see timestamps for the first-come, first-serve thingy). Or, if you already have my cell phone, call me (and be sure to leave a message). If you have neither of those, then try leaving a comment here and I'll check in here from time to time until it is confirmed as sold.

--Kevin

MFM meets next week, Wed., Sept. 24

The next meeting of MacFilmmakers is next week, Wednesday evening, September 24, at 7:00 pm in Apple's Garage II meeting room. Full details below.

Wednesday, September 24
Apple's campus, Cupertino, CA
Garage II (inside Bldg 4, upstairs from Town Hall)
Doors Open 6:30 pm
Admission is Free!
Parking is Free!

The Pizza Break is Free!
Tonight's Raffle (a full copy of CS4 Production Suite!) is Free!
Unsolicited Opinions Regarding Your Haircut are Free!

7:00 – 8:00 PM
MARK SPENCER
“Apple Motion workflow tips and tricks”
Mark Spencer is a bay area-based producer, editor, teacher and writer. He owns Day Street Productions, Inc. (www.daystreet.com), a production and post studio focused on corporate video. Mark is also an Apple-certified instructor and the author of Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Studio from Peachpit Press and the author of our Motion 3 Fast Forward and Deep Dive tutorials.
See Mark’s video tutorials and more at:
www.applemotion.net/

8:00 PM
Pizza Break
Once again, filling that gnawing void in filmmakers' lives (i.e., hungry tummies) since 2002, we present our always fabulous Pizza Break. Pizza and soft drinks are provided for everybody and at no cost (although kindly donations are never turned down), just show up and enjoy.

8:30 – 9:30 PM
KEVAN O'BRIEN
“Adobe CS4 Production Suite, workflow with Final Cut Studio”
Kevan O’Brien was post production consultant for Peter and the Wolf,
2008 Academy Award Winner for best Short Film (Animated). Adobe officially launches CS4 on Tuesday 9/23. There will be a special web broadcast on September 23 (the day before our meeting). To register to view the broadcast go to:
www.adobe.com/go/somethingbrilliant

9:30 PM
Raffle
At the conclusion of tonight’s meeting we will raffle off a full version of the Adobe CS4 Production Suite! As stated above, this raffle will cost you...well, nothing at all, it is absolutely free! Naturally, you must be present to win. And, you know, own a computer to put it on.

Oh, and by the way, while we are truly sorry that our previous month's (August) meeting was cancelled, we'd have to kind of say that tonight's line up, well, pretty much MORE than makes up for that! Indeed, you might want to arrive a wee bit early just to make sure you get a seat for what will likely be a standing room only event.

And, finally, very special recognition goes out to our own Chip Curry for acting as the Grand Poobah to coordinate tonight's lineup. THANK YOU, CHIP!

August 27 meeting cancelled;September 24 meeting with MARK SPENCER

This is a Good News, Bad News announcement.

BAD NEWS: Tomorrow night's scheduled AUGUST 27 meeting of MacFilmmakers unfortunately needs to be CANCELLED. I have come down with either the flu or a really, really severe cold (can't tell yet, but I am totally bummed out 'cuz I had essentially what started out as these same symptoms only a few months ago, ick) and Mark Calice is out of town. Since our current arrangement requires ONE of us co-hosts to be present to facilitate we will have to postpone our August meeting. That's the bad news.

GOOD NEWS: For the SEPTEMBER 24 meeting, we have MARK SPENCER coming in to present Apple's Motion, part of Final Cut Studio. Mark is THE GUY when it comes to understanding and training Motion as he is the author of several books including three on Motion itself! Additional info will be added to the blog much later, but know for now that September 24 is a GO with Mark Spencer in Apple's "Garage I" room at 7:00 pm.

To whet your appetite for the September meeting (and to be a tiny ersatz substitute for tomorrow night's lack of a meeting), here is a link to a short podcast (with a curiously long musical intro) from last Fall that features Mark discussing Motion with DMN's David Basulto:

http://podcasts.digitalmediaonlineinc.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=188795

MacFilmmakers meeting for Wed. July 30th, 7:00PM, NEW LOCATION in Apple's "GARAGE II"

This coming Wednesday night, July 30th, promises to be an amazing evening for MacFilmmakers. For this meeting, we have not one but TWO BRAND-NEW SHORT FILMS to present in their entirety along with THE FILMMAKERS for Q&A DISCUSSIONS. Also, we will feature your DEMO REELS and or SHORTS and, in celebration of tonight's program, we will again enjoy our FABULOUS PIZZA BREAK! Here's all the details:

We are meeting in a new space tonight. The room is called "Garage II" (as in roman numeral 2), but it is in a familiar Apple campus location in Cupertino. Located directly upstairs from Town Hall in Apple's Building 4 at 1 Infinite Loop, Garage II is our temporary home while renovations continue on other venues. To find Garage II, just pretend you are headed to our regular Town Hall facility, enter the main lobby doors, but instead go up the stairs to your far left to find Garage II.

Doors open at 6:30 pm. Meetings are free and open to the public. Parking is plentiful and free. To locate the meeting room on a map, go to maps.google.com and search for "1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino CA". Building 4 will be on the backside of the loop towards the top right corner (northeast) of the map.

"Timba Mania" with Chip Curry and Stephen Vahle

Film Director and Editor CHIP CURRY recently finished work on "TIMBA MANIA", a Latin Music Video. Featuring the music of percussionist/drummer STEPHEN VAHLE (who also served as the film's Producer), the soundtrack is deep rooted in the music of the great triangle of rhythm: Africa, Cuba and Brazil.

Chip, a San Jose filmmaker with 25 years experience, will be on hand to show this video and discuss production, band organization, special microphone techniques, dual system audio, studio construction, lighting, camera control, editing effects, etc. Also, as an incredibly special treat, Stephen Vahle himself will be in attendance exclusively for our MacFilmmakers audience! And, as if all that weren't enough, Chip will have the SonyEXDCAM EX-1 available for anyone wanting a close-up look. Yowza!

Footage was acquired with a Sony XDCAM EX-1 and Sony VX 2000. English. 5 minutes.

Chip Curry's website is at:
www.ChrysalisFilms.com

"Julie, Julie" with Mark Calice

MARK CALICE just finished sound design and audio post on a short HD film, "JULIE, JULIE", directed by local filmmaker LIAM CREIGHTON. Fresh from its world premiere at this month's Sacramento French Film Festival, Mark will be showing this new short in it's entirety exclusively for our MacFilmmakers audience. Following the film, Mark, a Grammy-nominated audio engineer and owner of Ardenwood Sound & DVD, will participate in a Q&A discussing his work with the 2-track and 5.1 surround audio mixes.

He will also attempt to answer some questions on the technical aspects and logistics involved in the making of the film such as costs and working with SAG, from notes provided by the filmmaker.

Shot on a Panasonic HVX200 adapted for professional Zeiss prime lenses and edited in Final Cut Pro. English soundtrack and French with English subtitles. 21 minutes.

Here is the link to the film's trailer:
Julie, Julie trailer

Here is the link to a blog interview with Liam Creighton:
Liam Creighton interview

Mark Calice's Ardenwood Sound & DVD website is at:
www.ardenwoodsnd-dvd.com

Demo Reels and Shorts

Tonight is all about short film presentations. Do you have a short film you'd like to show off? If your film or demo reel is 12 minutes or less (yes, that is an extension to our usual 5 minute limit, just for this meeting), tonight is the night to present it! Slots for demo reels and shorts are filled on a a first-come, first-serve basis, so be sure to alert us when you arrive that you have a demo/short to show.

Pizza Break

And what would a night at MacFilmmakers be without our Fabulous Pizza Break? Yup, pizza and soft drinks--included with your FREE ADMISSION!--will be served up at the mid-point of the evening. Take the opportunity to not only fill your tummy but to also network with your fellow filmmakers.

NOTE: As we will not be within view or earshot of the main lobby doors, please do your best to arrive by 7:00 pm. For those arriving past 7:00, a notice will be posted on the lobby doors with a cell phone number you can call to get in.

Next Meeting is Wed., July 30th

Just a quick announcement to say YES, we are meeting this Wednesday night, July 30th, 7:00 pm. We are in a new meeting space called "Garage II", just upstairs from Town Hall (so, enter the lobby of Apple's building 4 as if you were going to go to Town Hall, but then ascend the staircase to the "Garage II" room.)

We have a FULL AGENDA, details coming up in the next several minutes (as fast as my fingers can type it all up).

June Meeting Cancelled

Hi, All. Disappointingly, our June guest speaker (rescheduled from last month to this month) has recently and unexpectedly become unavailable again. As I had anticipated that the planned presentation--music/sound for film--would essentially take up the entire evening, I had not arranged for any secondary or backup presentations. Therefore, with great regret, I am must call for a cancellation of any official gathering of MacFilmmakers for June. (Of course, if people still wish to gather unofficially at a restaurant/pub/whatever, please feel free to do so.)

We will regroup for a full meeting on July 30th (and have redundancy built into the evening should whoever our speaker/s is/are become unavailable we will still have presentations ready to go).

Next Meeting is Wed. May 28, De Anza 3, 7PM

Our next meeting is Wednesday, May 28, 7:00 pm, in Apple's De Anza 3 Auditorium. Apologies for this extreme last minute update but we quite unexpectedly lost our long-planned speaker and were scrambling to recover. Fortunately, Sabrina Nelson, who you will remember from our previous April meeting, has graciously agreed to speak again, following up on her very well-received presentation from last month. Thank you, Sabrina!

Indeed, we will continue on right from where we left off with "Editing 101, Part Two: Critiquing". Sabrina will bring in several samples of her students' work which we will view and then discuss from the perspective of successful editing. Following the student work, we will then view your Demo Reels (up to 5 minutes in length) and again participate in a group critique. For this special demo reels/critiquing session, please show work that is narrative or documentary in content, i.e., storytelling, not experimental/slideshow type of work. In particular, if we did not have time to view/discuss your project last meeting, or if you've since updated a piece we did critique last session and you would like to show your new edits, please DO bring in those demos!

We will follow this instructional/group particpation session with our as-always Fabulous Pizza Break. For those who are new to MacFilmmakers, we provide free pizza and soft drinks for everybody (completely optional donations cheerfully accepted!) and tonight, as a thank you for your loyal patience in getting this late notice, cookies from San Francisco's world-famous Hot Cookies will also be provided! The pizza/soda/cookies Pizza Break will cap off our meeting.

As always, our meeting is free and open to the public. Parking is plentiful and free as well. Note that the De Anza Three auditorium is at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino and is the room we have been using for our last few meetings. If you are uncertain about the location, simply go to maps.google.com and search for:

10500 N de Anza Blvd, Cupertino, CA 95014

The green arrow indicates the building where we will be; DA3 auditorium (and parking) is on the backside of that building.

Next Meeting is Wed. May 28, De Anza 3, 7PM

Like the title says...

More info soon.

January '08 Meeting Info & Photos

Hello all,

Mark, your itinerate MacFilmmakers sound guru here. I've been taking some pictures at our meetings recently with a new Nikon D40x SLR I received this last holiday season. Thought I would start posting some of these for all to see.

Our January session was very informative with Kevin Johnson and myself presenting. I presented a talk on "Duplication vs. Replication... What you don't know". Though the meeting was lightly attended, a lively discussion ensued, running well overtime as I detailed the substantial list of pitfalls and caveats that you never think about relating to the subject. I even touched on the Blu-ray format.

There have been requests to repeat the presentation again as many did not get sufficient warning of the meeting day so let me or Kevin know if you would like a reprise.

Kevin's presentation was very interesting, covering his January Sundance Film Festival trip. The photos he returned with included a myriad of industry shakers and Hollywood actors and were very entertaining. He also covered a subject, I never even thought about before... the only still cameras allowed on the sets of major film productions because of their stealthy, sound-related characteristics. Unfortunely, we learned that they are all discontinued models now so you can only get them as used items from Amazon.com, eBay and the like.

I have some pictures from the April meeting that I will upload soon. Later...

Mark Calice

Ardenwood Sound & DVD

http://www.ardenwoodsnd-dvd.com

Instant Gratification

Here is the email address (spelled out to avoid spambots from grabbing it) we just discussed at our meeting:

sabrina007 at mac dot com

Note: those are two zeroes in the address, as in James Bond.

Next Meeting is Wed. April 30, De Anza 3, 7PM

Our next meeting is Wednesday, April 30, 7:00 pm, in Apple's De Anza 3 Auditorium. Our topic for the evening is the aesthetics of film editing. Here is an overview of the meeting:

Agenda:
Editing 101, Part One: The Basics
The Fabulous Pizza Break
Editing 101, Part Two: Demo Reels Critique

Editing 101, Part One:
The Basics

Presented by MacFilmmaker's member Sabrina Nelson, this instructional presentation will cover:

• The How, When and What to Cut

• Practical Applications of Eisenstein's Theory of Montage

• Cut, Color, Size, Shape, Direction: What Do They Mean in Editing

Following the Part One presentation we will have--are you quaking with anticipation?--YES, our Fabulous Pizza Break! Stretch your legs in the De Anza 3 lobby while you munch on pizza and network with your fellow filmmakers.

After pizza we reconvene for:

Editing 101, Part Two:
Demo Reels Critique

As part of Sabrina's presentation, we will also discuss demo reels/samples of our members' work. All members are therefore encouraged tonight to bring short sequences (maximum of 5 minutes) of either your narrative or documentary work for viewing and discussion. We will take 3 samples from the pool of submissions, view them and then use them as a point of discussion as we talk about editing. Samples can be complete shorts or excerpts from larger pieces and can be either finished work or works-in-progress. Please note the focus of this presentation is storytelling, so we are looking for traditional sequential scenes or pieces, not experimental or slideshow type of samples.

Sabrina Nelson, a Final Cut Pro expert and 17-year veteran in all manner of video, TV and film production, is currently teaching at the Academy of Art.

As always, our meeting is free and open to the public. Parking is plentiful and free as well. Note that the De Anza Three auditorium is at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. For those in attendace last month at our March meeting, DA3 is the room we used--and where, by the way, we had near-record breaking attendance at an estimated 210 attendees (see photo below). If you are uncertain about the location, simply go to maps.google.com and search for:

10500 N de Anza Blvd, Cupertino, CA 95014

The green arrow indicates the building where we will be; DA3 auditorium (and parking) is on the backside of that building.

---

MARCH MEETING: Lance Trumbull, Filmmaker/Producer of "Everest: A Climb for Peace", addresses the MacFilmmakers audience.

Meeting is April 30th

Our next meeting is Wednesday, April 30th (keeping in mind that our new schedule is now the LAST Wednesday of the month).

3/26 LAST-SECOND ROOM CHANGE: MEETING MOVED TO DE ANZA 3

As can happen with our booking arrangement with Apple (and can, as with tonight's meeting, happen with virtually zero notice), for tonight's 3/26 MacFilmmakers meeting we just were bumped from Town Hall and are now meeting in De Anza 3!

Please help spread the word that the meeting is now in DE ANZA 3 AUDITORIUM.

Here is the official street address:

10500 N de Anza Blvd, Cupertino, CA 95014

If you do a Google Maps search (http://maps.google.com/), note that the green arrow indicates the building where we will be; DA3 auditorium (and parking) is on the backside of that building.

MacFilmmakers this Wednesday, 3/26, UPDATE

Hi, Folks--

This is an update about this Wednesday's special showing of "Everest: A Climb for Peace".

ANTICIPATED SCHEDULE for MARCH 26:

6:30 - 7:00 pm
Doors open to Town Hall (Apple's Building 4 at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA)
Informal reception in lobby and adjacent Piano Lounge (snacks and drinks)

7:00 - 7:15 pm
Welcome
Introduction of filmmaker Lance Trumbull
Introduction of one of the film's sponsors (and the co-sponsor of tonight's showing), REI

7:15 - 8:20 pm
Showing of "Everest: A Climb for Peace" (runtime: 63 minutes)

8:20 - 9:00 pm
Hosted discussion with filmmaker
Audience Q&A
A raffle giveaway of $100 in gift certificates courtesy of REI will end the evening

**NOTE: There will NOT be a Pizza Break/intermission tonight.**

Naturally, all times are approximate, especially the ending time.

RAFFLE

Did you all notice that there will be a raffle tonight? See above for details.

SEATING

This event is getting a lot of publicity outside of the usual MacFilmmakers channels. As such, we may get a much larger than normal attendance. So, just in case, let me say that seating is on a first-come first-serve basis. (Lord, let a 300-seat auditorium be a problem!)

IF YOU MISS THIS WEDNESDAY'S SHOWING

You can catch the film at one of its next screenings, including a charity event for people in need in Nepal showing in Edmonton, Canada in April, or at the Eilat Internaional Film Festival in Israel in May. Yeah, probably a wee bit easier just to catch it while it is here in Cupertino... ;^)

You can stay up to date on Lance's film via the film's website:
http://www.everestpeaceproject.org

Next Meeting is Wed. March 26, 7PM, Town Hall

Our next meeting is Wednesday, March 26, 7:00 pm, in Apple's Town Hall auditorium. Our presentation for February is "Everest: A Climb for Peace". Produced by Lance Trumbull (whom many of you will remember meeting at MacFilmmakers many moons ago) and narrated by Orlando Bloom (who, sadly, has not yet appeared at one of our meetings, but there's always hope), this brand-new one-hour documentary is being featured at film festivals around the globe. We are fortunate to be able to show it at MacFilmmakers in its entirety, followed by a very special "Actor's Studio" style interview and discussion with Lance.

This meeting is free and open to the public. Parking is plentiful and free as well. Town Hall is located at Apple's main campus inside Building 4. For a map, go to maps.google.com and search for:

1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014

The green arrow indicates the main six-building complex; Town Hall (and parking) is on the backside of that complex up towards the freeway. Note that to allow time for tonight's special presentation, Demo Reels will be held off until our April meeting.

Feb. Meeting: Visualizing Your Film

Our next meeting is Wednesday, February 27, 7:00 pm, in Apple's De Anza 3 auditorium. In addition to our usual Demo Reels and the ever-popular Fabulous Pizza Break, our major topic for February is:

Visualizing Your Film

Presented by MacFilmmakers' own Kevin Johnson, this full-length presentation will cover:

• The "Grammar" of Shot Composition

  basic blocking

  types of shots

  framing and composition

  what an actor MUST know

• The Line of Action

   finding the line of action

   the eyeline

   the 180 degree rule/crossing the line (and why you shouldn't)

• Camera Movement

   types of movement

   zoom vs. dolly, etc.

   using the eyeline to motivate camera placement

   POV and camera

   establishing a new action line in moving shots

• Previz: Barebones Storyboarding Technique

   yes, even you can draw simple stick figures

   software packages

• Resources

   including a nifty handout for all attendees

As always, our meeting is free and open to the public. Parking is plentiful and free as well. Note that the De Anza Three auditorium is at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino but is located across Mariani Ave. from our usual Town Hall location. If you are uncertain, simply go to maps.google.com and search for:

10500 N de Anza Blvd, Cupertino, CA 95014

The green arrow indicates the building where we will be; DA3 auditorium (and parking) is on the backside of that building.

Remember, for Demo Reels, we ask that you please limit your reel to a maximum of 5 minutes. Thanks, and we hope to see you at our February meeting!

Looking Ahead to March...

Believe it or not, we already have our March program booked and ready to go!!! For Wednesday, March 26, we will be presenting "Everest: A Climb for Peace". Produced by Lance Trumbull (whom many of you will remember meeting at MacFilmmakers many moons ago) and narrated by Orlando Bloom (who, sadly, has not yet appeared at one of our meetings, but there's always hope), this brand-new one-hour documentary is being featured at film festivals around the globe. We are fortunate to be able to show it at MacFilmmakers in its entirety, followed by a very special "Actor's Studio" style interview and discussion with Lance. As always, more details will be posted later.

Next Meeting is Wed. Feb. 27, 7PM, De Anza 3 Auditorium

Just an ultra quick post to say that our next meeting is Wednesday, February 27, 7:00 pm, in De Anza Three auditorium. Note that we were originally scheduled for Town Hall, but Apple needed to move us over to DA3.

Speaker/topic TBA.

Next Meeting is Wed. Jan. 30, 7PM, Town Hall

The next meeting of MacFilmmakers is Wednesday, January 30, 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm) in Apple's Town Hall. As always, the meeting is free and open to the public with plenty of free parking in the Apple lot.

Speakers will include our own Mark Calice presenting "CD/DVD Duplication vs. Replication  - What you don't know...", a followup to the engaging DVD discussion we had at a previous meeting. More info on topics/speakers will come later this week, as soon as I return from the Sundance Film Festival (and you can expect a micro report on the Festival as well).

--Kevin