From concept to shoot to editing to distribution, there are a lot of things to think about when it comes to project workflow. Without proper management it won’t take long for your files to become misplaced, footage to go missing and you will end up spending more time on a project simply due to a lack of organization. This workshop will give you a quick look into how to manage your data and organize your footage to be as efficient as possibe.

Our speaker for the evening will be the Digital Media Producer for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival – Jason Clarke. With a large number of projects spanning many different departments it is vitally important for things to be kept organized. Jason will take you through his workflow process and how he helped to standardized practices throughout the department to make things easier.

This is a FREE workshop and a great opportunity to network with fellow filmmakers in London. The workshop will start at 7:00pm and run until around 9:00pm on March 8th, 2012. It will be held at the Convergence Centre located at 999 Collip Circle, London Ontario.

]]> http://www.londonshortfilmshowcase.com/events/work-that-workflow/feed 0 http://www.londonshortfilmshowcase.com/adding-bars-and-tones-to-your-submission http://www.londonshortfilmshowcase.com/adding-bars-and-tones-to-your-submission#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:41:58 +0000 jclarkey http://www.londonshortfilmshowcase.com/?p=2120 Year after year we learn something new and try improve on it for the next year. At the 2011 London Short Film Showcase it was our Audio/Visuals. For the fist time since our inception, we put a lot of effort into our AV equipment. With a full sound system and high end projector brought in, we were excited to show off the films in style. While almost all the films looked and sounded amazing, there was a couple of exceptions. This was no fault of the filmmaker but more our limitations with the projector. With some films being over or under exposed, we had to find the middle ground for all 14 films which left some still looking over and some looking under exposed. We ran into the same problem with audio levels. To help rectify this and be able to showcase all films in the best quality, we are asking that all films be proceeded with Bars and Tone this year.

BARS:

Please use the bar generator that comes with your editing software or the one provided below. Bars should be set to standard SMPTE color bar settings.

TONE:

When you mix your final audio, you choose a consistent reference for the average level. When you choose the average reference level, you are actually choosing how much additional headroom you have before your signal distorts. The higher you set the average level, the less safety margin you have for peaks in the signal. This means that the loudest sounds in your mix cannot be much louder than the average levels, so the mix is less dynamic.

If you set the reference level of the Final Cut Pro floating audio meters to -20 dBFS, you have nearly 20 dB of headroom because 0 dBFS is the digital limit for the loudest sound. If you set the reference level in your sequence to -12 dBFS instead, you have less headroom. Even though the average level of your audio is higher, there won’t be as much dynamic range. The London Short Film Showcase asks that you set your final audio and tone to -12dBFS.

MORE INFO ON AUDIO NORMALIZING

Download this video here.

It’s official … The PA Shop is now Sony’s newest Canadian Authorized Dealer! We are excited to be able to provide London with this solid brand name that our customers can depend on. We are now stocking Sony products and will continue to keep the latest and greatest Sony Professional Video/Audio gear for you to try in our showroom. On Thursday, December 8, 2011, representatives from Sony of Canada, including Marketing Manager, Francois Gauthier will be visiting The PA Shop for an informative seminar on all the newest gear from Sony. Come on out to see the XDCAM solid state cameras from Sony, as well as the revolutionaryNEX-FS100U NXCAM Super35 digital cinema/documentary camera, and for those shooting in extreme conditions, the NXCAM HXR-NX70 camera with a dust and rainproof rating that will keep you shooting under almost any circumstances! Don’t miss this event! This is your chance to see the newest Sony gear first hand and have expert knowledge just a question away! For more information Click Here. To RSVP for this seminar please e-mail seminars [at] pashop [dot] com ">seminars [at] pashop [dot] com to reserve a seat.

On behalf of myself and the London Short Film Showcase (the Showcase) Board of Directors I’d like to thanks each and every person that supported the 2011 edition of the Showcase. Without a doubt this event would not be possible without all of the energy, time, effort, resources and support that so many people and organizations put forth.

We’d like to thank Museum London for providing us a beautiful and appropriate venue for the Showcase once again this year, Downtown London and the London Arts Council for their continual support of local film, the P.A. Shop for providing us the best equipment around to showcase all of the films on, rtraction for making sure that this website was up and running so that we could connect with all of you, OUAT Media for helping filmakers to take things to the next level, London Fuse for helping to promote local film makers and the local film scene and Henry’s and Katy Standen Visuals for being great friends.

We want to thank everyone who’s been able to come out to any of the Showcases over the past 5 years, it is great to know there are so many people in London (and surrounding area) that love to watch great films and know that there is great film right in our backyards.

Last and certainly not least we need to thank all of the film makers in London for keeping the local film scene/industry alive and growing and giving us great films to watch. Keep doing what you’re doing so that we have films to showcase year after year.

The London Short Film Showcase is a volunteer run organization and we are always looking for new people to join our team. If you would like to get involved as a volunteer, committee member of board member please contact our board president Jason Clarke for more information. 

If you would also like to keep up to date on other LSFS events throughout the year, please join our mailing list. 

Cheers,

Kevin Van Lierop
Director

On Friday, the Short Film Showcase posted an opportunity to win tickets on its Twitter account, @LSFSinc: “make a long film shorter & tag #shorterfilms to enter.”

Entries began with a few Londoners flexing their creative muscles to win tickets, with entries like “boat misses iceberg” (@twitch) and “archaeologist finds golden idol, gets crushed by giant boulder” (@chrismcinnis). As local tweeters participated, their friends hopped on board, and soon film enthusiasts all over the country were creating their own #shorterfilms. Many of them were unaware that the meme had begun as a contest.

At its peak, #shorterfilms was the second most talked about topic in Canada, according to Twitter’s list of trending topics. With 2299 tweets & 790 users participating it was not long before The Globe and Mail jumped on the viral trend as well, with an article that called the meme “hard to resist.”

“I didn’t expect a local contest to get so much attention,” says Mike Battista, a London Short Film Showcase board member who headed up the contest. “But it’s been really cool to see how a trending topic starts and how it evolves over time.”

Some more great #shorterfilms entries:

• · Off duty renegade cop in airport on Christmas eve picks up wife without incident. (@late2game)
• · Girl goes to new school. Turns out everyone is nice and gets along. (@chadder87)
• · “I won’t be back.” (@RebeccaCrook1)
• “Hello.” “You have me.” (@HellaciousDee)
• Full list

To all of our sponsors, partners, granters and friends, we say Thank You for all that you’ve done.

Showcase Sponsor

Downtown London – www.downtownlondon.ca

Simply put Downtown London is two organizations operating with the same broad mandate: the continued improvement of Downtown London. Where the London Downtown Business Association (LDBA) seeks to improve the experience of existing merchants, MainStreet’s goal is to attract new and exciting businesses and investors to Downtown London.

Showcase Grant Provider

London Arts Council – www.londonarts.ca

The London Arts Council is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life and the creative vitality of London by nurturing awareness of, involvement in, and commitment to, excellence of all levels of arts and culture in London. The focus is programs and services that provide information, education and training, consultation and collaboration, representation and networking opportunities to Londoners, visitors, and the arts community.

Showcase In-Kind Sponsors

The P.A. Shop – www.pashop.com

The PA Shop is South Western Ontario’s leading Professional Audio, Lighting and Recording specialist.

rtraction – www.rtraction.com

rtraction is southwestern Ontario’s leading information technology company. We build intelligent, integrated solutions that combine best-of-breed technologies with engaging design to increase our clients’ revenues, their operating efficiency and their profitability.

OUAT Media – www.ouatmedia.com

Created in 2006, Ouat Media [pronounced “what”] is a global media distribution specialist.  Our mandate is to be the premier multiplatform  content aggregator and provider of short film content for broadcast, Internet, mobile devices, and all other newly-developed media.

London Fuse – www.londonfuse.ca

LondonFuse is a non-profit organization promoting London’s creative class. Through Londonfuse.ca we provide a promotional platform and operational support to London’s creative and collaborative people, events, projects, and groups. Contact us about anything at info [at] londonfuse [dot] ca.

Showcase Partner

Museum London – www.museumlondon.ca

Museum London is Southwestern Ontario’s leading establishment for the collection and presentation of visual art and material culture. Through public and educational programming, special events and exhibitions, Museum London strives to promote the knowledge and enjoyment of regional art, culture and history.

Showcase Friends

A special thanks goes out to Henry’s – Photo-Video-Digital (www.henrys.com) and Katy Standen Visuals (katystanden.bodybyvi.com/challenge) for being Friend of the London Short Film Showcase.

SWAG BAGS
The first 50 people through the door will receive some awesome swag bags filled with loot from Alliance Films, Warner Brothers, Ontario Media Development Corp, BOB FM and more. These bags were a huge hit last year, but you better come early to get one.

DOOR PRIZES
Ok, so you were running late and couldn’t get to Museum London in time to get yourself a sweet swag bag. That’s cool because we have an awesome selection of Door Prizes ready for the taking, like Henry’s gift cards, two tickets to a select 2012 production at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, wine, movies and more.

THE AV CLUB
This year we will not only be bringing you a selection of top notch films, but you will enjoy them in style with a 6500 Lumens, 1080i HD Projector and a pounding sound system to back it up. Don’t worry we have already warned Museum London that we might blow the roof off the lecture theatre.

DOPE BEATS
It is not just about the swag bags, door prizes, awesome films or amazing technical specs. We are also having a party. After the films have screened, it’s time to get down and celebrate all the successes over the past year for the London Film Community. Our DJ will be keeping us rocking all night long, or at least until the commissionaires shut us down.

NOMS
A movie just isn’t a movie with out popcorn. That is why we brought in Sweet Beach Café to supply us with gourmet popcorn and snacks during the screening. We will also bring out a full spread of amazing appetizers by Sticky Pudding for the reception and awards. Wash that all down with a couple of drinks from the bar while you socialize with some of London’s brightest filmmakers.

Sure Hugh Jackman is a dreamboat, but think of all of the above perks for only $30 and you will be supporting local artists who really need your support more than Hollywood does. So grab a date and put on your fancy shoes for a night of fun on the red carpet.

The Official 2011 Selections:

Carpenter
Dana
Death by Hot Wings
Elevator
Entrada
Epitaph
Faint Hearts
Frantic
Imprint
Lost Boyscout
Mechanically Separated
Spaced Out
Sea Shells
the.ACCOUNT(AN.T)

Head over to the individual film pages to read a plot synopsis, check out the trailers and comment on your favorites. Tickets for the 2011 London Short Film Showcase are available now but are limited so get your before it is too late.

Selections Committee:

Open your ears and listen to the sound…of evil.