Here’s a look at our tentative logo for the DVD series. I put them on a white background:

!/images/31.jpg (draft logo)! !/images/32.jpg (black and white version)!

It may not be the final version, but this is the latest design Donna and Melanie are playing with. Logos should be simple yet instantly recognizable. They should also easily reproduce in black and white and be clear at most any size. Whenever you ask someone to explain a logo, you often get a lot of philosophical stuff that the designers were thinking about, but isn’t necessarily apparent to you. So here goes the…

??*Philosophical Stuff*??
??The spiral, reaching up, signifies the whole learning process of the artist. In Donna’s philosophy, learning is like a spiral. We struggle with a concept, or think we’ve mastered it, but eventually we find ourselves coming back to it on a higher plane — thinking about it or approaching it a different way. Or struggling with deeper issues of the concept. The spiral reaches upward, toward a higher consciouness, like the artist’s climb to master his or her art. The *Artists’* text is playful, while *Essentials* is in bold uppercase, representing a firm, solid foundation on which the artist rests. We hope our DVDs will provide this solid foundation of essentials for artists to stand on as they ever strive in their learning and self-discovery to develop their own unique style of painting/drawing/sculpting/etc.??

The logo is also modular, so we can easily add to the bottom words like “DVD SERIES” or other areas we might expand into, such as “PAINTING SUPPLIES” or “FRIED CHICKEN.”

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Yesterday I spent 5 hours in Overland Park with “Donna”:http://www.aldridgestudios.com and “John”:http://www.mutrux.com doing a test shoot for the upcoming DVD project. The main goal of the day was to see which environment would be best for staging and shooting the workshops. John’s forte is commercial photography, so we knew he would be invaluable in helping to set up a lighting scheming.

Donna has two classrooms/studios downstairs where she teaches her classes. The main problem with shooting there is sound. The ceiling is low, and the echo is pretty fierce. Any sound engineer would tell you that it’s nearly impossible to remove echo from a track in post-production, so that was right out.

She also has a very large studio upstairs, with lots of natural sunlight and high ceilings. Aside from the very occasional car driving by, there was no road noise or ambient sound in the room. The problem there is with the light. We will be shooting from morning till evening, and as the day changes, so will the color temperatures streaming in from the many, many windows. Coupled with the occasional cloud cover, we were talking about blocking out all the windows, moving all of Donna’s art supplies, tables and easels (a mammoth task in itself) and bringing in John’s light kit & backdrop to light it artificially.

As got to talking about it, John said, “Well, if we’re going to do all this work, why don’t we just shoot it in my studio?” He invited us to come take a look. So we drove 6 miles down the road and ran some sound tests in his studio. We spent 3.5 hours setting up a backdrop and lighting the scene to get it looking right from all angles. John’s many years of experience as a commercial and portrait photographer (and piles of personal equipment) are going to really kick up the production several notches.

When I got home, I tested the footage out on a couple TVs at the house. When you’re evaluating footage for technical problems, it’s best to remember the source of the project. Who’s going to be seeing this, and where? Most of our DVD purchasers are going to watch it on a standard home television set. There was a slight echo to the footage, but nothing unmanageable. Basically, it’s unnoticeable unless you’re hooked up to a decent stereo system and someone points it out. I’m going to experiement with minimizing it through some audio filters, and we’re going to do what we can with the studio to minimize the echo — hanging blankets, etc.

I’m really excited, as all the pieces to this project are just falling into place at all the right time. Donna and her daughter “Melanie”:http://www.luciddesignstudios.com are working hard on a logo and some unifying artwork. I’ll be setting to work on a temporary website soon. I’m writing some pre-order forms and other promotional materials for Donna to take to a workshop in February, and we’ll be putting a website up at “www.artistsessentials.com”:http://www.artistsessentials.com soon.

Here’s a look at our final setup:
!/images/30t.jpg (lighting setup)! !/images/28t.jpg (donna headshot)!

“Click here for a larger verision of these photos”:http://www.red40entertainment.com/testshoot.html

You see here we have a very large whiteboard, bouncing two bright lights (one unfiltered lowell totalight and one lowell softlight 1500 with a brownish-amber filter). This is the key light, which is angled to light Donna’s face from the front at an approximately 45 degree angle. Then we have two totalights — one filtered — aimed to the back of the room, bouncing light off the back wall and ceiling. This provides the fill light, which fills in the shadows so we can see detail. We use indirect light because it casts a more diffuse, pleasant light to soften Donna’s face and features.

If you look just to the left of the backdrop, you can see the “kicker,” or highlight lamp. It’s aimed from behind to Donna’s back, from off to the side. There’s a lightish blue filter on this, which softens the harshness a bit. This light casts a highlighting glow around the right edge of her face and shoulder, to help her stand out from the backdrop. You can see it also highlights her hair.

This is the standard 3-light setup that you will regularly see in movies if you’re looking for it.

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Tonight, I am spending most of my evening editing the wedding video. I’m working from three tapes. Once is my handheld, has the entire ceremony, and was shot on the Canon XL1s in LP (long play) mode so that I wouldn’t have to change tapes. Another has the rehearsal dinner, girls getting their hair done, and cake reception. It was shot SP, because it’s the most reliable mode. The third was from a stationary camera behind the pastor, getting the bride’s good side, and it was shot in ELP (extra-long play), which is a special mode on the Canon Elura 20MC, which Canon doesn’t make any more.

Here’s a “link”:http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=102 to Canon’s current line of cameras. The XL2 is the newest incarnation of the XL1. I looove my XL1s — it gives crystal clear color, and consistently beautiful pictures no matter the lighting situation. Not to mention the “cool” factor. Nothing says, “I’m a professional — gaze in awe and get out of my way” like an XL1 on your shoulder with a bunch of random cables jutting out of it. Check out that pic of me at the top of the page. The one on the right. You know what I’m talking about.

In fact, it performs unbelievably well in extreme low-light situations, which is what I was dealing with at the reception. It was a videographer’s nightmare — completely candle-lit. I could only get good shots of faces when somebody was near a candle. And then it does quite well. It is also unbelievably good at pulling detail out of the shadows. If I had had a standard, mid- to low-end consumer camera that night, I might as well have packed up and gone home.

p=. !/images/26.gif (Camera Love)!
*I love you, baby!*

If you’re looking for a good prosumer camera that performs about as well but without some of the extra features, look seriously at the “GL2″:http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=114&modelid=7512 or get a refurbished/used/new GL1. It gives just as good a picture as the “XL”:http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=114&modelid=10350 series — it just lacks a lot of the bells and whistles. Most notably, the ability to switch lenses. But honestly, I still can’t afford a new lens for it, so I still work from the one it came with, which is a good all-purpose zoom lens. I just hate the mechanical servo focus.

*Other news:*
We’re doing a test shoot for the Artists’ Essentials DVD series this weekend. Shooting dates are locked in at late February. I ordered a new lapel mic for the occasion. After much research, I settled on the “AT899″:http://www.audiotechnica.com/prodpro/profiles/AT899.html from Audio Technica. This brand is known for its quality, yet value-priced equipment. We recorded Rock Paper Scissors with a cheap “ATR55″:http://www.audiotechnica.com/guide/line/atr/ATR55.html shotgun mic, and I’m happy with the results. With a $200 street price ($300 retail), the AT899 is actually pretty cheap for a lav mic. And it was the lav mic of choice for the “Athens Olympics”:http://broadcastengineering.com/news/broadcasting_audiotechnica_continues_support/ and last year’s “presidential debates,”:http://www.neilsonclyne.com/audiotechnica/AES_10_04/Presidential_Debates/PostDebatesAES04.html so it’s no slacker either.

I’ll be paying for all this crap well into the next five years. But the great thing about investing in fancy recording equipment is that you can use it to pay itself off. Or so I hear. If anyone has figured out how to do that, “please let me know.”:mailto:todd@toddkuhns.com.

And I guarantee that’s more than you ever wanted to know about THAT.

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