Archive for the ‘ HVX ’ Category

REX On The Move

RexNet.tv is on the move!

Generation Rexers Norvell Rose, Ethan Marten (hey, that’s me!), Sarah Pope, Emile Husson and the whole A-Team of tech and production crew are now reassembled in their larger space, and beginning the third phase of hiring. Rex is in the process of augmenting with additional shooters and editors (hey, that’s you!).

REX has already created these unique situations:

Graduating more than forty Vpros ™ or Video Professionals ™ thus making them VideoActive ™; and setting up a Chesapeake brokerage with scores of quality video content, and its own internet television channel for real estate. Having launched in March of 2009, we believe it is the first in the United States. Armada Hoffler, Drucker & Falk and NFL Star Bruce Smith used Rex to move into the video age. Even the third largest builder in the United States — Centex — came to Rex.

From a global economic standpoint, we are reversing a trend. Rather than outsourcing, we are creating jobs and the template for Internet Television right here in Hampton Roads, Virginia. This is not a call center or a service outlet. These are real, creative, professional jobs.

e-mail if you are interested in becoming part of the Rex Motion Media team.

Marketing Your Indie Movie

This was a letter to FilmDailies.com a filmmaker’s Blog. There had been a flap concerning the length of Samaritan, and that we were taking advantage of the technical first we had achieved to market our baby. I thought some indie folks were missing the point. If your Indie project screens in the forest, and you’re the only one clapping with one hand…does it make a sound? Anyway, I hope this helps some of you get the word out.

ethan-camera-atlantis-down

Hello Kraz. I am enjoying your site. I have seen a great deal of debate over the length of “Samaritan.” We are just movie makers wanting to create and needing to get the word out like everyone else. I’m puzzled by the controversy regarding the movie’s length. The first reference to Samaritan in the digitalfilmmaker.com story that started it all clearly refers to it as a “micro-feature.”

(From digitalfilmmaker.com)
Samaritan

Digital Filmmaker: “Star Circle Pictures based in Virginia Beach, Virginia has just wrapped production on a micro feature called Samaritan, the third venture for Star Circle, which represents the next chapter in the firm’s evolution. The project was shot for the express purpose of demonstrating the company’s belief in cost efficiency, faster production flow and good quality.
(End quote)

Has Star Circle Pictures pioneered a new phrase as well? I don’t think so,[actually, it appears we did!] but it is clear, Star Circle never referred to Samaritan as a full length feature. Hopefully, that will help mitigate if not stop the misapprehension.

You made an astute observation:

“Heres an indie producer whos learned his lesson well. This techie interview will probably get him more exposure (at least in indie circles) than all the PR about the movie itself.”

Though Digital Filmmaker is doing a follow up story on the movie — the hard news for their audience was the completion of the first movie to use the Panasonic AG-HVX200.

We believe movies need an audience. Something movie makers need to understand is that in order to obtain that audience, they need to be aware your movie exists. On many levels it is very difficult for an artist to “market” his/her work. Some find the marketing aspect distasteful. You believe everyone should understand that you’re a serious artist who has put blood, sweat and tears into making it, and that should be enough. To a certain degree, this is understandable, but its not a healthy attitude for the life of your motion picture. Some just know how to make the movie, and hope sheer love and passion for the project might rub off on others. I am so proud of my team and its efforts, and am willing to find the angles that will bring my movies to light and thereby light up screens. It is more important to us the independent movie making community when we have launched and even completed a picture. Not as much so for your own local media, much less a national media. To them, we’re one of maybe 1,500 indies a year. [I believe Sundance had 1,700 submissions this past year.] To top it off, unless you come from a major market or at least out of state the fact that you’re a local is usually a hindrance to getting serious coverage. Don’t fight this. Understand it, and work with it. If you’re talking to the Digital Filmmaker and other national media forums understand what that editor knows his core audience is first and foremost interested in. If you’re talking to your local media understand what makes your story news to them, too. Knowing the seven criteria for news will help each movie maker get the word out on his or her film as much as the movie itself. I’m not a proponent of this reality — just a realist.

Here they are, courtesy of Jack Driscoll: Timeliness, Importance, High General Interest to Public, Relevance, Involves Public’s Right to Know, Involves Public’s Need to Know, Whether Story Informs, Educates, Guides or Entertains Reader.

Best of Luck [broken legs] to all our Movie Making Family. May your efforts be rewarding and rewarded.

Ethan

Flashback: The Morning After with Digital Filmmaker Magazine

Found this letter written to Roger Richards of Digital Filmmaker Magazine the morning we wrapped (January 18, 2006) Samaritan. His was the first published article about our production – the first movie, according to Panasonic, completed with the HVX and P2 card technology.

Okay, here I am — fresh (or not so fresh) from the trenches of Glorious
Sleep Depravity and the Bleeding Edge of motion picture technology! Star
Circle Pictures has just wrapped our well-crafted Samaritan. Before the
revelry, allow me to thank you for yesterday’s uplifting conversation. I
was operating on my thirty-third hour when I finally dozed off in a chair.
My phone was charging on my lap and I finally remembered to bring the AC
charger out to keep the laptop from beating me to sleep. I felt like a techno-cowboy — my cell phone charging in my right holster and my laptop in my left.

Anyway, a series of frustrating calls with local media representatives who
didn’t ‘know what the big deal was about a camera,’ and hey, ‘didn’t we do a
story on your last movie?!’ had finally done what thirty-three hours straight on and
off set couldn’t – sent me into a catatonic state of unconsciousness. If I
was dreaming – I was too tired to remember anything except the buzzing,
vibrating sensations that follow knowing, “I’m not going to be able to hold my
eyes open or my head up much longer, and no I’m not in the car, so it’s all
right to give in.” Ahhh sleep.

When my eyes drew open I saw that I had missed your call…. Well, you know the rest. You lifted my spirits, and it was great news to deliver to my Star Circle Pictures partners (my brother Richard Marten and Kimball Carr), cast and crew – every one of whom had been busting their backs to make Samaritan. (And, when I say busting their backs – I mean it. We had “The Rock Doc” — Dr. Daniel Cohen on set giving chiropractic treatments to the cast and crew.) Anyway, we shot more than 80 set ups in two days, and wrapped this morning in Virginia Beach’s 2nd Precinct at 6:45am.

The Panasonic AG HVX 200 was lovingly packed and immediately shipped back home to Chicago’s Zacuto Rentals.

Now that I have enjoyed some extended sleep – let me once again say, thanks to you and Digital Filmmaker Magazine! Oh, and please send our appreciation to Norm at the Virginian-Pilot for hooking us up. He was very gracious.

I look forward to speaking with you soon. Remain Happy, and Healthy.

Ethan

Love to have your feedback. We shot all eighty-one Samaritan set ups in two nights. Great crew. Great performances. Great Chiropractor (the one — the only Dr. Dan Cohen of Olde Towne Family Chiropractic, 757-399-4700)! I think we had the only cast and crew that finished such an intense shoot in better shape than when they began.

View SAMARITAN TRAILER

Samaritan, shot in January, is the first HD movie completed with Panasonic’s AG HVX200 High Definition camera. Maverick-made, two nights, 81 setups (we’re crazy). We used Previz storyboards to help achieve this insane schedule. Star Circle Pictures is obviously excited (and biased). So who doesn’t think their baby is supremely beautiful?! We actually shot this without any film or tape. That’s right bubbalas — no film. No tape. Everything went straight onto P2 cards, hot swapped, and downloaded onto our hard drive. Star Circle was editing on set…. We’re definitely grassroots, guerrilla, and very independent spirits.

Anyway, read more in Fast Company magazine’s September issue (on stands August 18). Adam Penenberg, (Broken Glass) wrote the story on our micro motion picture and is breaking the story on our upcoming full-length feature (a psychological thriller) within the Fast Company pages.

Samaritan has been selected by the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, and will be exhibited sometime between November 9 – 16. We’re submitted all over the world, and are awaiting answers like everyone else out there! (Break Legs Everyone Else out there.)

By the way, if you’re a festival maven or a news mensch interested in a DVD screener — you obviously know how to get in touch!

All the Best, (and we invite your feedback — no, I mean it — really!) Ethan

View SAMARITAN TRAILER

Hey All:

There’s lots happening on the Indie Front! Finished the third movie in January, and the edits are coming along swiftly. You can view a clip of “Samaritan” at the Star Circle Pictures site (No, really, go ahead — you’re an invited guest). I’m interested in your movie making experiences, and hearing from old and new friends.

All the Best,
Ethan Marten

Check out Star Circle Pictures

Read the Digital Filmmaker story on Samaritan