Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

By Angelo Sacerdote, BAVC Senior Preservation Specialist & Technology Innovation and Media Arts Department Manager

A big thank you to Frank O’Connor, Director of Engineering at MediaOne
Services here in San Francisco for having the foresight and consideration to call me and offer up one BVH-2180 1″ open reel VTR. They had to get rid of this large machine and we actually have a use for it. This VTR doubles the 1″ Type C capacity of our preservation programand gives us the added ability to play THREE HOUR LONG TAPES. WOW! The BVH-2180 turns out to be somewhat rare, a top of the line, very expensive machine in it’s day (early 1980’s), with advanced edit controls. And it is in perfect working condition. In my opinion, 1″ Type C was the best composite format ever.

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By Debra Schaffner, BAVC Senior Postproduction Technician

Directed by BAVC Mediamaker Lise Swenson, Mr. Gary on the Feedback Show is an absurdist comedy about an elderly shut in and her favorite media personality. The film was shot at an eye-popping location created by internationally known artist Megan Wilson.

In the film, a dreamland granny has a very odd relationship with her favorite radio show. In recent weeks, I’ve been working with Lise and cast in the audio suite, recording all the elements of the show. Highlights have included a crack mother whining about losing her baby and catchy jingles about diarrhea medication and god of course. Not to mention, the star of the show…. Mr. Gary. Who, incidentally is played quite creepily by co-writer Richard Schimpf. Think John Waters crossed with Dr. Phil. I personally contributed to the festivities by encouraging the frequent use of the word “daddy”.

Some of the talented folks we worked with are:
Laurie Amat
Jen Tait
Pamela Z
Tim Costigan
Lee Smithson
Daniel Berkman
Marcia Kimmell
Stephanie George
Beli Sullivan
Richard Schimpf
Karen Fox

We also learned that you can really hear when someone is smiling. So, the singers and other voice talent were forced to smile ’til it hurt (them, not me).

More about the foley session in my next post.

By Nooshin Navidi, BAVC Development Associate

BAVC members are a unique mix of media artists, locals, producers, students, staff, musicians, friends, educators, industry folks, the list goes on. One of the first and most obvious questions people ask me regarding BAVC membership is, “What do I get if I become a BAVC member?” Some people want to hear me detail aloud the list of membership benefits and discounts (i.e., 5% off BAVC classes, exceptional educational discount on all Apple products), while others seek more than these great promotions. What else are people seeking from their BAVC membership? Community. A live community in addition to a web community, while continuing to support an organization approaching 30 years whose mission is to “connect diverse communities to media creation and innovation.” As BAVC takes next steps in bridging media artists and community members to the nanosecond pace of advancing technology, we will always provide a space for people to develop ideas and imaginative solutions to their media endeavors.

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By Angie Reza, BAVC Fiscal Sponsorship & Reception

Being the receptionist at BAVC for a year and a half now has afforded me the opportunity to meet and talk with new, interesting filmmakers everyday. When I was asked to be BAVC’s new Fiscal Sponsorship Coordinator, I knew that this would be an opportunity to not only continue meeting more filmmakers but also become more involved in the media-making community on a much grander scale.

I knew that this opportunity would give me the chance to learn about the best in the Bay, many of whom have gone on to become nominated and selected for awards such as Sundance and the Oscars.
What is it about these films that is so important? What do they want to say? How I can I support those voices? As I have begun learning about this program, I have already had the chance to assist and support these films by providing assistance in creating stronger proposals and budgetary information, recommending funding resources, and, most importantly, providing a means for BAVC to recommend these films to large funding organizations for potential grants. Some of our best current sponsorees’ projects include:

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By Dannie Delvos, BAVC Outreach Coordinator

Last Tuesday, 7/31/07, SF Cutters celebrated their 7 year anniversary with a hot and heavy topic: Everything You Want to Know about Final Cut Studio 2. Unfortunately guru Kevin Monahan, one of the co-founders of the group and former BAVC instructor, couldn’t attend, but he was with us in spirit.

From OUT OF THE POISON TREE

Mitchell Rose started the evening with a presentation of his short film “Modern Daydreams 1: Deere John” – a 3 minute excursion into the relationship of man and machine; a 22 ton John Deere excavator to be exact. Charles Meyer, Senior System Engineer Pro Film/Video Sales at Apple, followed this act and dove right into the workings of ProRes 422, which is part of the Final Cut Studio 2 (FCS 2) suite. Paul Saccone, Apple’s Senior Product Manager for FCS, couldn’t make it, but Charles handled the presentation well by himself. Naturally he covered the advantages of ProRes 422 over uncompressed HD – an obvious one being the file size, and we also explored the details of YUV; however, the content was too chunky to digest, and wikipedia’s explanation of YUV was recommended as a great resource (we were warned that we might have to read it five times though). Anyway, ProRes 422 works with 10 bit as well as 8, has a much more precise color space, more bandwidth efficiency, next gen device support, it looks uncompressed and is visually lossless, and it can be used with both HD and SD footage. Sounds perfect so far – just make sure you have the right hardware depending on the project you’re working on (you might have to invest in the latest power mac), and if you want to share your work in progress, make sure they have FCS2, otherwise they won’t be able to see it. (more…)