The Kai Harding Blog

August 31st, 2010 | Category: CKOP, Festivals and Events, Film-Fancy, Screenings | Leave a comment

FOSSE:PRELUDE

In 2009, dance legend Ann Reinking partnered with iconic choreographer Melissa Thodos to combine three historic Bob Fosse dances (Mexican Breakfast, Tijuana Shuffle, and Cool Hand Luke) together with original Reinking choreographic transitions as a new unified presentation called THE FOSSE TRILOGY.  Filmmaker Chris Olsen and the Kai Harding team were brought in to document the dance making magic, filming hours of rehearsals and interviews with the Thodos Dance Chicago creative team, and capturing amazing insights from Ann herself.  The result is “FOSSE:PRELUDE” a short documentary designed to accompany THE FOSSE TRILOGY during its performance season, which is now making its standalone film premiere at the Big Bear Lake Film Festival (California), on September 17^th – 19^th, 2010. The film, presented in black and white, was shot with a combination of Red 4K and Panasonic HD cameras, and highlights Ann’s interpretation of the roots and legacy of the source choreography, while providing teasing glimpses of the breathtaking  Thodos Dancers in action.

For more information, check out:

http://www.bigbearlakefilmfestival.com

August 23rd, 2010 | Tags: Ann Reinking, big bear lake, Chris Olsen, Film, film fest, Fosse, Kai Harding, Melissa Thodos, Red 4K, Thodos Dance Chicago | Category: Festivals and Events, Film-Fosse:Prelude, Screenings | Leave a comment

Big camera or small, shooting a film is all about doing awesome things with what you got.  All across the interverse you’ll find heated discussions between opposing camera camps: Digital Cameras vs. Film Cameras, Varicam vs. Cinealta, RED vs. ALEXA, and just about every HDSLR vs. pretty much everything else.  Each camp comes out swinging, but the truth is that every camera in existence has both strengths and weaknesses, and NO SINGLE CAMERA precisely meets every need of every production. 

Now, a big part of these fanatical camera discussions concern the merits of “K”.  But why is “K” important to filmmakers?  The “K” term refers to the number of pixels wide an image is – specifically, “1K” represents an image 1024 pixels wide – so when you hear the term “4K”, this generally refers to an image 4096 pixels wide  x 2048 pixels tall.  Compared to a 1080P HD frame (which captures 1920 x 1080 pixels, or “1.9K”) you’ll see that “4K” gives you more than four times the visual real estate, which not only translates really nicely to big screen projection, but also aids green screen and effects work, image reframing, and more. So, more “K” represents an increase in both the level of detail, and flexibility of post-production… but is it critical to your next masterpiece?  Absolutely Not.

Despite the slew of new 2K, 4K, and 5K+ cameras that are appearing on the horizon, films do not begin with a camera, they begin with A GOOD IDEA.  And GOOD IDEAS become GREAT FILMS through CLEVER EXECUTION, not bigger pictures.  A good idea cleverly executed in 4K will definitely be a joy to watch, but a good idea cleverly executed with an old school 640 x 480 pixel VHS camcorder can still be a great film.  And in a world where big ideas and big budgets don’t always walk hand in hand, it is far more important to finish your film with what you can afford, than to bust your budget trying to incorporate the latest, greatest camera.  Even slightly adapted to the topic at hand, the old adage really is true: “It’s not how many pixels you have, it’s how you use them!”

August 18th, 2010 | Tags: Alexa, camera, Digital, Film, RED, technology | Category: Technology | Comments (1)

RED Digital Cinema

This has been a big week for RED News, and we’re pretty damn excited by the latest revelation, RED’s newly announced “HDRx”.  For those not in the know, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, a term that describes a recording medium’s ability to store the brightest brights, darkest darks, and all the values in between of richly contrasted imagery, in one “container.”   Traditionally, this is a trait that is natural and inherent to silver based film and photography, but not easily replicated with standard digital imaging tools. Commonly, the approach used to replicate the depth and dynamic range of film has been to shoot a series of stills at varying exposure settings, then combining the multiple images into a new “HDR” Image, which contains as broad a range of light and shadow as possible.  The result: you can see details in the deepest  shadows and brightest patches of light of even the most brutally contrast-filled shots, making the darkest night shots and brightest beach shots both far more rich, and far more usable.  So HDR is great, but until now this technique has been, for the most part, relegated to the creation of still images.  With RED’s new HDRx, it looks like this is all going to change.  RED has already based its imaging science upon RAW file formatting (r3D), which give the cinematographer a very film-like approach to shooting, processing, and color correcting.  With the addition of HDRx, the theory is that you can take the power of RAW, and expand it ten-fold.  Early rumors state the HDRx will allow the upcoming RED EPIC to capture a dynamic range of 18-19 stops, whereas most “digital” cameras are hard pressed to reach 12 stops.  Which is why this is truly game changing, and extremely exciting news for all of us Red Users.

For more info, please check out the following threads:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=48494

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=48559

August 14th, 2010 | Tags: camera, Digital, Film, HDR, RED | Category: Technology | Comments (1)

Hey there Film Aficionados!  If you happen to be in Providence on August 11th, 2010, join us at the Borders at 5PM to meet FANCY Director Chris Olsen as he talks about how “virtual filmmaking” changed movies forever!  Whether you are interested in Computer Animation, Motion Capture and Virtual Environments, Digital Cinematography, or Stereoscopic 3D, make sure to be there as Visual Effects expert and Emmy Award Winning Producer/Director Chris Olsen speaks about his experiences on the bleeding edge of filmmaking technology. 

When: Wednesday August 11^th, 2010 @ 5PM

Where: Borders Books – 142 Providence Place   Providence, RI 02903-1740

For More Information, Please Contact: 401.270.4801

August 10th, 2010 | Tags: Chris Olsen, Computer Animation, digital cinematography, film fest, green screen, motion capture, Providence, Rhode Island, stereoscopic 3D, virtual filmmaking | Category: CKOP, Festivals and Events, Film-Fancy, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Wow… We’re realy criss-crossing the United States now!  Fresh from FANCY’s East Coast Premiere, we’ll be off to see the Pacific Northwest… (Seattle in fact…) for the fantastic, way cool, awesomely awesome 1 REEL BUMBERSHOOT FILM FEST!  “FANCY” plays as part of the “Love and Marriage and More…” Program, screening Saturday Septemebr 3rd, 7pm @ the SIFF Cinema Theatre, and we’re just plain thrilled!

Check out the following links for more info, and we hope to see you there!

http://www.siff.net/cinema/detail.aspx?id=44047&FID=205

http://sched.bumbershoot.org/event/7f8b1df6b2ba679503a33780ec4c73ea

July 28th, 2010 | Tags: Chris Olsen, dance, Fancy, Film, film fest, Seattle | Category: CKOP, Entertainment, Film-Fancy, Releases | Leave a comment

Like clockwork, IMDB just gave birth to the “Fosse:Prelude” film page, so you can find out the what’s what about the film, the Thodos dancers, Ann Reinking, and “All That Jazz”…  Just make sure to follow the link below, and “LIKE IT”, BABY!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1667080/

July 24th, 2010 | Tags: Ann Reinking, dance, Fosse, Thodos | Category: Entertainment, Film-Fosse:Prelude | Leave a comment