Just thought I'd throw this question out there considering there are quite a few adult filmmaker's who frequent this site. Also, feel free to mention what platform and software you edit on as well. I would love to hear what Jules, Brandon, Jewel, Mason, Jake Malone, and others are working with, but if you feel these are your own "trade secrets" I understand
Only because my father lives in London Ontario will I give you my "trade secrets" :)
Most in the gonzo genre shoot with a Sony VX2000 or Sony VX2100 with a wide angle attachment.
Some others use the Sony PD150, Canon GL2 and the Panasonic 24p camera has also been discovered by some recently.
Personally, I love the Canon XL1S despite the fact that it is almost impossible to focus. To me it feels like a "real" camera and I love the "not quite film-not quite video" look when shot in progressive scan mode.
Many "feature" movies are also shot with the Canon XL1S as well as the assorted Sony DVCams. Some are still shot on Beta SP as well but many of the higher end companies are now begining to shoot in in HD.
As far as post-production, just like in Hollywood, Final Cut Pro is taking over. Media 100 and Avids are certainly still in use but FCP's price advantage and ease of use has made it the ideal choice for this business of limited time and budgets.
Any minute now this thread is going to be moved to the Tech forum :)
Born and raised in Toronto and I come to London every Christmas to see Pops. I particulary enjoy the "fog and death" section of the 401 on the way there.
Well next time you try to cheat death on the 401 stop in and say hello. Is it possible to get your email to shoot the breeze, or should I email Zero Tolerance to get it?
Only time I would buy a girl flowers is if she was in the hospital 455 Posts 1/04
Posted - Apr 17 2004 : 11:26PM
"As far as post-production, just like in Hollywood, Final Cut Pro is taking over. Media 100 and Avids are certainly still in use but FCP's price advantage and ease of use has made it the ideal choice for this business of limited time and budgets." Thanks Quazarman for that insiders tip cuz I was wondering if I should start using Final Cut Pro since I'm finding myself using my Mac powerbook more and more. Most editing I've done so far has been mainly with premiere and after effects on windows. I've also started messing around with Shake on the Mac for compositing but I doubt porn movies really need that much power but it's cool what you can do with it anyways.
I think I may be the only person left in porn that shoots on a Sony 900. It's nice and grainy, looks real raw. No traces of anything glossy whatsoever. I love it!
Most everyone else at PXP uses the Sony PDX10 (updated version of the PD100).
I cut on Final Cut 4, which seems to be the same as everyone else I know. I learned on Media 100 though. They are both great programs, but, Final Cut is much easier (and cheaper).
I heard that Premiere and After Effects were better then Final Cut Pro. What's the difference? I hope this doesn't turn into PC vrs Mac because to me there the same, just another name in the wall. Can you now edit a full movie on a powerbook or laptop? Thanks
For a while I used an external Sennheiser mic, but, because it is forward directional it never picked up my "heavy breathing" and "dirty talking" that I guess people tend to enjoy. If picking up audio behind the camera is not of importance to your production, I would strongly advise using an external mic. Though, in all honesty, you can get away with using the internal mic.
The biggest advise I can give though, is to invest in a pair of headphones. They don't have to be expensive (I think mine came from an old walkman that broke). This can really save your ass. The headphones will allow you to hear any outside interference (my gosh what a mobile phone can do to audio, it's unreal--ask Alex Ladd!) or if you aren't picking up necessary dialogue.
Oh, and yes, you can cut an entire movie on a Powerbook. Jake Malone and my pal Toby D do it all the time.
Valerie: Most shooters use wide-angle lenses. Some use external mics. When I shot on VX-2000's, I used a Sennheiser microphone. On the PDX-10, there is a built-in mic.
I would imagine working on the most recent G4 Powerbooks wouldn't take any longer to render than desktops. Most of the specs are similar to G4 desktops anyway. To be safe we should ask Jake. Though he has never mentioned anything about that.
No, I don't edit for Alex. I just remember when he was the production manager for Elegant Angel one of the first pieces of advice he gave me when I started there as a director was "USE HEADPHONES!" One of his gangbang movies had cell phone interference and they had to do a bunch of voiceovers with Kitty Marie. I can't begin to tell you how helpful and supportive Alex was for me. He is a great guy, one of only a few in the business I actually call my friend.
AVID and Media100 both use propietary codecs. Once upon a time, M100 had a substaintial advantage in the data-rate/image quality equation, but those days are long past. (AVID and M100 both offer DV solutions and may have added some degree of codec independence since I was up to speed.)
FCP is codec independent. That means that you can use FCP on top of the DV codec, 8 bit uncompress, 10 bit uncompressed, or even HD. FCP is strictly an interface.
Bottom line: in post production image quality is determined by the codec/degree of compression. Easy of use/productivity is determined by the interface. Avid is still the industry standard, but under increasing threat from FCP. Lots of ballyhoo about "Cold Mountain" being edited on FCP. But that doesn't mean that "Cold Mountain" was edited by one hard-working guy on an iBook.
In video acquistion, quality is determined first and foremost by lens/chipset, and secondarily by format. A $3,500 DVX100 doesn't look nearly as good as it's $24K big brother, even though both are DV cameras. The most important difference is the more expensive camera has professional grade 2/3 inch chips behind a real lens.
That doesn't mean that "prosumer" cameras can't produce a nice image. I regulary use prosumer cameras and they have their place. The primary problem with prosumer camera is that they do fewer things well than real professional cameras. In avoiding what a prosumer camera does poorly, you find your shooting frustratingly cramped. (No wide shots, no shooting under contrasty conditions, yadda, yadda, yadda.)
Whatever camera/format is used for acquisition, from Super16 (my current fave) to Digital8, there's really not that much you can do after the fact to "save" poorly shot footage -- "ounce of prevention/pound of cure" type thing. "Fix it in post" is a poor mantra.
Valerie brings up a good point; lighting is overlooked by most people, when infact, it's where most of the magic happens.'There's no real consumer market for lighting gear, so there's very little hype. I have twice as much money invested in lighting/grip gear as I do in cameras. Fortunatly these things hold there value much longer than anything with a computer chip in it. I still have gear that I bought 15 years ago that works just as well as the day I bought it.
My favorite soft source is a Lowel Refa light with a grid and barndoors. My favorite hard lights is the Dedolight kit I've good -- very precise/controllable and doesn't make a lot of heat. I've got a few DPs and Totas for when I need to throw light around more carelessly. I rarely have a call for any big fixtures. When I do, I rent.
There's lots of hype/misinformation in the market right now. Video cameras and desktop post are the the "Hifi" or SLR camera of our age -- the covetted consumer item that people buy to define themselves to their friends. Unfortunately, a lot of this hype has leaked over to the proffessional market and I have spent a far amount of time explaining to executive producers what a DVX100 or PD150 can and can't do, and why using it might or might not be money well-saved on a $150K budget.
In the end, it's the person not the tools. But good tools can make doing a job easier, or give you options for how you do the job that more limitted (usually less expensive tools) can't give you. A good producer gives their crew the tools most appropreate to the project/budget, and a good crew employs those tools in the way they are most effective.
Oh, what do I use? I have a few Sony PD100as that I when appropiate. Most other video work is done by full-size, full-feature BetaSP or Digibeta. We're starting to work Super16 into our production technique, and I'm extremely happy with it so far. I'd love to see what Quasar or Capo could do on Super16, but given the economics of porn, that seems unlikely.
DVD9's are a pain not because they are hard to make, but because they are hard to proof.
If you make a DVD with less than 4.3 gigs of data, you can burn the whole thing on a DVD-R and take that to a set-top DVD player for proofing.
If you exceed 4.3 gigs, there's no way to proof except on the authoring station, and somehow there are always things you miss when you proof on a computer that jump right out when proofing on a set-top box.
When you're authoring for DVD9, you have to lay your files off to tape or other removable media with sufficient capacity and send that to the duplicator. Your first chance to proof from an actual DVD is when you get a stamped disc from the duplicator. At this point it's rather expensive to make corrections ($500 - $1000 for another glass master and stamped proof)
A lap top might make a more difficult authoring station becuase:
1) Less screen space to organize materials and elements.
2) (Maybe) less system performance that can make for sluggish response, or taking longer to multiplex.
Unless your style involves massive amounts of compositing and rendering, a modern Powerbook has more than enough horsepower to do most editing and authoring tasks. When the weather's good, I take my daughter to the playground and do my work on a park bench.
Tonyc what's a authoring station? Can you proof it on a regular computer instead of a laptop?
When you're authoring for DVD9, you have to lay your files off to tape or other removable media with sufficient capacity and send that to the duplicato
lay your files off to tape??? lost me on that one!
DVD video production costs are not much higher than for VHS and similar video formats unless extra features of DVD such as multiple sound tracks, camera angles, seamless branching, etc. are employed.
Authoring and pre-mastering costs are proportionately the most expensive part of DVD. Video and audio must be encoded, menus and control information have to be authored and encoded, it all has to be multiplexed into a single data stream, and finally encoded in low level format. Typical charges for compression are $50/min for video, $20/min for audio, $6/min for subtitles, plus formatting and testing at about $30/min. A ballpark cost for producing a Hollywood-quality two-hour DVD movie with motion menus, multiple audio tracks, subtitles, trailers, and a few info screens is about $20,000. Alternatively, many facilities charge for time, at rates of around $300/hour. A simple two-hour DVD-Video title with menus and various video clips can cost as low as $2,000. If you want to do it yourself, authoring and encoding systems can be purchased at prices from $50 to over $2 million. See 5.8 for more on low-cost DVD creation.
Videotapes don't really have a mastering cost, and they run about $2.40 for replication. CDs cost about $1,000 to master and $0.50 to replicate. Laserdiscs cost about $3,000 to master and about $8 to replicate. As of 2003, DVDs cost about $1000 to master and about $0.70 to replicate. Double-sided or dual-layer discs cost about $0.30 more to replicate, since all that's required is stamping data on the second substrate (and using transparent glue for dual layers). Double-sided, dual-layer discs (DVD-18s) are more difficult and more expensive (see 3.3.1).
