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Dele Jalde as Isabel. |
With all the talk about the DV revolution's promise for producing high-quality movies on low budgets‹it's easy to overlook that it's already helping producers finish standard video and film projects that were suspended in limbo for months (even years!) for lack of funds.
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Matte Osian as Richard. |
Until last year, my own project, Shakespeare's Richard the Second, was such an orphan. Then Terran released MediaCleaner Pro 4 which included DVD-quality MPEG-1 as part of its basic package of codecs. Instead of having to beg someone for $75,000 for online editing costs and video-to-film transfer, I spent a few hundred for a RAM upgrade and the dubbing of some extra reels of raw footage to sit down and create a screenable, scalable digital version of my movie. (Details in the February issue of DV.)
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Beth Kovetz and David W. Frank in a battle scene from Richard the Second. |
I'm not alone. I first read about the use of DV tools to finish indie orphans in DV Magazine last year, when a Texas filmmaker described how he used After-Effects to finish his ghost-story western (originally shot in Super 16mm).
My own production was shot on 1" analog with an Ikegami ITC-730. I raised $100,000 to pay for actors, costumes, boom cranes and location fees for the old Civil War fort on Long Island in Boston Harbor. But my movie died in post for lack of finishing funds. Now, a streaming version is viewable on the web for interested distributors who register at my web site. I can also provide a RealPlayer CD-ROM version for those who prefer to screen on their laptops.
It sure beats sending out VHS...
John Farrell — www.farrellmedia.com
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