COVID Dystopia: Insignificant protest.

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I am waiting to two audio adjustments from COVID Dystopia before I submit a fender of my film for the online version of the next film festival I was accepted to.On problem is that Mike Pence is clapping far too loud in one scene whee he is watching a choral superspreader event.

The other problem was an explosion that was mistimed. A Japanese Zero is dropping a COVID shaped bomb and I had the audio with a whistling sound as the bomb dropped. The sound technician held off on using the sound until the next shot. I felt uncomfortable each time the explosion happened and I finally played it in slow motion to figure out what was wrong. When Andy Matchett heard the explosion sound in surround sound, he said “that’s interesting” or something along those lines. He must have also suspected that something was off.

Those two refinements are coming in next week and then I will send the film off to the festival. Unfortunately the two problems remain in the surround sound mix, since there was no time to check things and make changes. The next Digital Cinema Package will be better. I suspect between now and then I will be adding more animation as well.

Today I will be scrolling through each sound effect to make sure nothing else is off.

COVID Dystopia: Meat Packing Health

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Listening to the Surround Sound version of the audio for COVID Dystopia was a thrill. There are things I would like to change but there is no time. I had to render the film and send it off to CineSent to get the Digital Cinema Package made so I can get it to the film festival.

Uploading the film onto the CineSent site took forever. The window said it was encoding and check back in a minute. That minute took hours and I finally decided to go to bed and hope the file had uploaded by then.

This morning the file was ready and I sent it off to be made into a DCP. There are tech issues with my film that I hope they can resolve. I animated the entire film at 29.97 frames per second. Cinema projectors only work at 24fps. 25fps or 30 fps. I suspect they will make my film run at 30fps which will speed it up slightly. I don’t know if that will effect the sound track.

I converted one shot to 24fps in the Premiere Pro timeline and the shot played in slow motion. I am wondering if I will need to eventually go through every shot and change the fps to 24 and also change the speed of the clips to get it back to the speed I animated them at. If there are problems at the  lab making the DCP I assume I will hear from them. Choices made on the first day of production are coming back to haunt me now. Should I decide to make another animated film I would do so many things differently. I will only find out how the DCP plays on the first week of April when COVID Dystopia plays on the big screen.

COVID Dystopia: Surround Sound

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There was a steep learning curve in getting surround sound for this film. I hired Alan Kirkland, a sound engineer in Georgia, to do the mix. He managed to complete it in two days. The trouble is that I am unable to hear the surround sound mix on my end. When I play the six audio tracks on my computer they only go through the two stereo speakers.

I only gave Alan one note from that listen through, which was to cut the volume of Mike Pence‘s clapping by half. No one ever noticed Pence, so I didn’t need him clapping loudly for attention. I still need to edit that change into the final Premiere Pro project.

At noon today I am going over The Rev‘s to listen to the surround sound mix on his 6 speaker system. Andy Matchett said he is going as well. I think I just need to hook my computer up to the home system to get it to play. I just have to hope it will work. Honestly there is no time to make changes since I need to send out the files today to have a Digital Cinema Package made TODAY. It takes three days for the DCP to be made and the technicians test the file in a cinema to make sure it works.

Now that the surround sound mix is done I talked to Alan about possible sweetening it further after the next Film Festival. He said there are at least 30 instances of things he would like to try. I am thinking various ambient sounds could be mixed throughout. The sound of flames would probably help along with other folly work. Though the DCP creation may signal a completion to the film, it continues to evolve.

Rhino Head Turns

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Since I have several days while the surround sound audio is being remixed, I decided to add another bit of animation at the start of the film. This scene, set in a dark theater already has a man in an n95 mask turning to look at the camera. I decided the rhinos on either side of him might turn their heads to look at him.

The real trick of this scene will be to get the heads painted so that they blend well with the existing rhino art work. If the paint flickers and crawls too much it will be distracting. I am going to spent the entire day working on these 15 or so cells to try and get them to blend in. The bodies will remain as held cells.

I will need to re-render the film when the surround sound audio mix comes in. There are literally thousands of choices that need to be made to get a render to work. It is not as simple as pressing a button. I wrote down all the settings that worked to get the last several renders of the mp4 movie file. Yesterday I added the credit for the sound designer who is doing the surround sound work. I tried to render the film but the render failed. Vertical lines appeared on the scenes and randomly some scenes would crop incorrectly.

I am not going to worry about it right now. I will tackle that technical issue tonight. I am hoping that my shutting down the computer last night might have corrected the issue. If not, I have lots of research to do and lots of experimenting with new settings.

The only thing different about the movie right now is that cations were added. Perhaps I will need to render the movie without captions. When sending the movie off to the lab to make the Digital Cinema Projection file, it is possible to send the captions as a separate file. That might be what I need to do. The captions can be distracting when each shot is less than a second in duration anyway. People can either read the captions, or watch the film. They can’t do both. Captions only make sense after repeated viewings.

Today is going to be nerve wracking. I hope the audio works and everything falls in place in time.

COVID Dystopia: Burials in Brazil

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I decided to vastly reduce the size of the Closed Captions. The next festival which COVID Dystopia will be screened at wants closed captions to make the films more accessible. Films will be screened in a very large theater and also online. I decided that in a large theater the text size could be much smaller. Some scenes are not dark enough for the white text to read, so I put a dark field behind the text. The lyrics for this song come fast and furious so the captions will help some catch some lyrics that might otherwise slip by. The problem is that the scenes change so fast that if you start reading captions, you will not have time to catch the action and details in each scene. There are many pages of submission guidelines so I am going to go over them again. There is an option to export captions separate in the Digital Cinema Projection file that I need to send to the festival. I think captions were requested to be burnt right onto the images but that might just be an aesthetic choice.

At midnight last night I was sending off the sound files to Alan Kirkman, a sound designer in Georgia who is getting a surround sound mix done for this large film festival. Alan has 14 years of sound design experience so my fingers are crossed. I will be on edge for the next couple of days as he works. When he is done I will then have to send off the movie to be made into the DCP for the theater. That process takes three days. Each frame of the film is made into a PNG and those PNGs are then converted into JPG2000s. Other files are also created which tell the theater projector how to play them all back in order. It is important ti actually play the film on a theater projector to be sure it works before sending it off. If it sounds complicated, it it. I have one day to figure it all out.

On March 8, 2024 I can announce the name of this Film Festival. Though accepted, I am betting that some film makers are not able to get the DCP file created in time. I do not want to be one of those few. It is one of the large film festivals  that can qualify a film for the Academy Awards. I am most happy about finally showing COVID Dystopia in a huge theater with over 10,000 seats which can pack in a whole lot more eye balls.

Berlin Cathedral

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It was another rainy day in Berlin. I decided I should sketch the Berlin Cathedral. Since it was raining, I needed some cover, so I sat on the upper steps of the Altes Museum, leaning back against a large Corinthian column. The Altes Museum is dedicated to displays of Greek and Roman artifacts. Pam and I had been through the museum the previous day. The museum was closed on Monday when I was sketching.

The sketching location wasn’t perfect. Large drops of water occasionally dripped off the top of the column and splashed on the iPad screen. There was also a fine mist which moistened everything. I discovered that the Apple Pencil didn’t always work on the wet screen. I had to keep wiping the screen on my belly to dry it off.

The sculpture in the foreground was of a woman about to spear a lion that was attacking her horse. You can’t really see the ion in my sketch and I left off the lions tail since it looked like another horse leg from this angle. The title of the sculpture is Löwenkämpfer or lion fighter by Albert Wolff.

I worked rather fast since it was rather cold for my hands and I didn’t want the iPad to short out from getting rained on. I have the pad in a protector with a fold over screen. I realized that if I reversed the position of the iPad in the folder, I could use the screen to block much of the rain.

The cathedral and the museum I was seated at are on what is referred to as Museum island. Also on the island are the Bode Museum, Pergamon Museum, Neue Museum, Alte National Museum, and the Humbolt Forum. Pam and I visited many of them.

There was a large cylinder shaped building just on the opposite bank of the river across from the Pergamon. Inside was a 5 story high mural that was just stunning. The mural is a 360 degree panorama created by Yadegar Asisi. It doesn’t look painted but rather must be assembled from large digital photos. Regardless of how it was created it is an impressive sight. The light changes showing the time of day and fires burn at a sacrificial alter. Goats are slaughtered in the street. I think this impressed me the most of everything we saw in the museums.

Pam and I also arrived first thing in the morning the next day to climb to the top of the cathedral. You can walk all around the rim of the dome and see full panoramic views of the city. Pam chugged up the steps effortlessly but I had to take my time since I have been studio bound for some time. I did get to the top with lots of huffing and puffing.

Berlin: Taqueria El Oso

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Pam worked hard to find the best dining options in Berlin. Located in the Markthalle Pfefferberg on Schönhauser Allee 176C, Berlin, Germany, Taqueria El Oso was Pam’s choice for dinner one night. The Markhalle Pferrerberg is a collection of pop up restaurants in a communal hall. The place was packed.

I opted for a simple hot dog with lots of toppings. There was no line for that, so I had my hot dog in hand before Pam decided what she wanted. She stood in this long line to order some tacos. I decided this might offer enough time to get a sketch done, so I let my hot dog sit and I started sketching. An English speaking couple crowded in next to me at the counter top I was sketching from, but they were desperate to get a better table. The couple had found a table before Pam got back.

Pam tried my hot dog and I tried her taco. The taco was a bit greasy for my taste but reviews said it is the best taco joint in Berlin. Some English speaking lady tapped me on my shoulder and said to me “That is amazing.” I thanked her but in my mind there are plenty of faults in the sketch. Did no one in this market speak German?

After we ate, we waited outside for a train back to the hostel. Across the street was a bus stop. A burly looking man stood there. Another smaller man entered the bus stop holding a bag of flowers. He must have gotten too close to the burly guy who started shouting in German, “I am standing here!”  The burly guy kept shouting. The smaller guy backed away. I thought a fist fight might break out, but the German expletives just kept flying. Lesson learned, never get too close to a German in a bus stop.

Berlin Short Film Festival: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

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The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was a stop I felt Pam had to see. This maze of grey granite blocks are hip height at the outer edges but get taller as the ground sinks down in the center of this multiple city block memorial.

Pam wandered off to explore the information center while I sketched. The information center was one of the most impressive exhibition we had seen in Berlin.

It was a grey day and it had been raining all morning. Groups of tourists would gather at the outer periphery of the memorial before walking into the stone maze. Green moss has already started to grow on the shady side of the blocks. I limited my view to maybe one eighth of the memorial. When My sketch was done, I texted Pam multiple times but she wasn’t getting reception since she was under ground.

I decided to wander inside the memorial. It was fairly bright as I walked down a single row. I limited myself to the single row so I could walk back and sit under the pine tree which is where Pam would know I was sketching.

Deeper down the row it grew darker. The morning rain left long streaks of moisture dripping down each column. The drops slid downward like tears. Some tourists had run their fingers through the moisture creating horizontal meandering trails. You couldn’t see it others were walking perpendicular to your path so I would pause at each corner and glance down the rows that ran east and west. When I returned to my sketching spot, a family sat beside me. The children ran up and down the aisles playing hide and seek.

Pam found a spot with reception and she suggested I meet her at the information center. The exhibits were brutal and overwhelming. One room was full of the storied of families. A large photo should show the whole family and then there was a panel that showed what happened to each person in the photo. More often than not, the epitaph would read murdered in Treblinka or Dachau or any number of other death camps. A few did survive in hiding or by escaping the country. Their stories were also corroborated with primary sources. The Nazi’s kept precise documentation.

One small boy lost both his parents to disease in a ghetto and then his three brothers and sister were deported and murdered at death camps. The boy had to endure medical experiments but he ultimately survived the torture.

Berlin Short Film Festival: Babylon Theater

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Pam and I walked up to the Babylon Theater lobby on the evening COVID Dystopia was to be screened at about 6Pm in the Berlin Short Film Festival. There were lines of people crushing into the theater. The Babylon is a gorgeous movie theater build back in 1929. It can seat close to 500 people. The organizers had informed us by e-mail that they would supply 2 complimentary tickets to the screening. We were told to meet them in the lobby to pick them up. Rowan and Claudine were at the reception desk. We had purchased tickets for the previous evening’s film block, so they welcomed us with a shout of “Hello Florida.”

Films in the Berlin Film Festival are not screened in the large historic theater but in a much smaller theater in the back called Kino 2 that seats just about 80 people. For some reason, Pam decided to walk around to the back theater entrance and I was to pick up the tickets. Claudine gave me a single ticket and said, “We sold out the seats, unfortunately we can only give your one ticket.” I took the single ticket and went out back to look for Pam. My thought was I would give her the ticket and I would wander off to sketch somewhere. I couldn’t find Pam. She wasn’t at the small Kino 2 entrance.

Another film maker and Pam eventually came to the back entrance with Claudine. They had been arguing in the lobby. Michele Meek, the director of a cure LGBT Short Film titled Bay Creek Tennis Camp, had also flown all the was from America to see her film on the back room screen. She was furious, but in some was pleased that the theater was a full house. The film festival organizers had made a horrendous mistake in offering tickets to film makers and then reneging on that promise. Several Berlin film makers were also being denied entrance to it became an international incident.

Claudine said she would get the 5 or so filmmakers who had been denied tickets in. When we got in the entire front row was empty, so I got to see my film distorted from below and VERY large. I noticed a few things from that close that I hope to correct in the weeks ahead. I don’t judge people based on the mistakes they make, but by how they correct their mistakes. Claudine pulled through. Surprisingly there were still empty seats in the theater.

Berlin Short Film Festival: Belushi’s

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Pam and I traveled to Berlin for the Berlin Short Film Festival. Our first stop after a grueling 12 hour flight was the Saint Christopher Hostel which is just a block from the historic Babylon Theater. On the ground floor of the hostel is Belushi’s bar. Several hostel residents were finishing breakfast as we arrived. We wanted to check our bags in early and start exploring the city. There are lockers for bags but the lockers were coin operated and we didn’t have any European currency yet. Pam found a Deutche bank on Google maps and left me in Belushi’s to watch the bags. She was doing me a favor because it was rainy and miserable 0utside.

This became my first opportunity to sketch in Germany. I managed to finish this sketch before Pam got back. International flags lined the walls and a Kansas City neon sign was hidden behind several flags. The Super Bowl would be happening in a couple of days and the bartender was lining the bar with American flags for the occasion. Every night Beluchi’s was packed with drinkers watching large screen TVs that mostly featured soccer matches.

Pam and I went to the DDR Museum on day one. This museum shows what life was like in Eastern Berlin when the Berlin wall was in place. My biggest take away was that they had some very loud wallpaper back in those days. On attraction was a huge elevator that lurched and flickered dark when the button was pushed. Maybe it was just a faulty elevator but it was terrifying. Far worse than the tower of terror. There as also a jail cell, office and basic apartment settings. In the kitchen Pam found that she could print out several recipes, so she might be experimenting with some eastern block food in the coming weeks.

It was raining and cold for every day of our stay. Naked tree limbs were cut, off and the rain made the cold seep deep under every layer of our winter clothes.