Filming Tips:

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? I blessed God for my weekend and I sympathize with the families of those who lost their lives and properties in this Saturday's tornado storm strike in Texas, it was a really bad situation.

I am still on the topic, post production, and we are at the primary level of it, this video is a continuation of last week's post, basically for beginners. Here is the link:https://youtu.be/mz0aSkgxn28

Feel free to share and ask your question.

If you have missed any of our past posts go to: xtianmovie.blogspot.com and check it out, or you go to christian film institute page and like our page.

Till next week monday when I will be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Adobe for beginners 2

This is just the second part of what I started last week. Adobe for beginners

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Filming Tips:

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend, I did this video for beginners, manage it though it has some errors, it will be better next time. If you are not a total beginner, this is not useful for you.

Feel free to share and if you have missed any of my past post, go to xtianmovie.blogspot.comor christian film institute page on facebook.

Till next week monday when I will be coming your way again hopefully with a better video, keep your God given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Premier intro for just the beginners

You do not need this if you are not a total beginner. This is an introduction to editing, I will call this, premier 101.

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Christian Film Production Tips:

Hello everyone, hope your week is nicely busy? I am so sorry I couldn't post this yesterday because I was really busy and also took a long flight.

Today's posting won't be that long. I just want to talk about how to get the best out of your computer for your post production processes.

If you intend to do post production or you want to get a system for good post production work though not to the height of it. If you can get a system that can run 16 gig ram with 2 gig of graphic card speed core i7, you are good to go.

I know some of us know this. But do you know that the type of drive you use and type of connection it has to your computer go a long way to determine the speed of your system. If you connect a 2.0 usb drive to your system it will give you a lower performance, if you connect 3.0 drive to 2.0 port on your system it will give you lower performance but 3.0 to 3.0 will give you the best it can offer. Now there are different types of drive, there is flash drive, there is solid state drive, there is sata drive or normal drive, there is c-fast drive and there are cards. There are also drives that use thunderbolt, they are super fast, c-fast is really fast and the reader is always connected through thunderbolt, some can read as fast as 515m/s, with this connected to your system, it will be unusually fast though they are all costly.

If you are in the habit of loading jobs into your C drive, you better desist from it for your own good. Force yourself to get external hard drive for your jobs. If your C drive doesn't have enough space it will be running slow. Learn to empty your trash if you are on a mac but you empty your recycle bin on pc. There is a new technology from apple, they invented an hard drive called flash, the speed of drive is amazing, it is available on their latest systems, you need as high as 1 million naira or 4000 dollars.

Till next week Monday, remain blessed.

Filming Tips:

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? So sorry I couldn't post this yesterday, I was really busy moving from one city to the other. I know I promised to organise a school in Nigeria this year but I had to postpone it due to my journey, I hope I am forgiven? I don't know when it will come up, I will like to be sure before I make any promise of training.

If you have a system which is not that strong to handle heavy camera codecs like dnxhd and proress, you may be frustrated trying to edit the movie or any project you are working on. I will come back to this.

What software is best for you as a movie editor? I have no specific answer to this, because great movies has been edited on barely known softwares before. But basically, Avid Media Composer has been used much more than any other softwares on Hollywood blockbusters. Avid works like a serious machine that permit serious networking on big projects. Adobe is popular in TV broadcast while Final cut pro X or 7 are also being used on feature films. I will say you should stick to whatever software you are comfortable with. I have trained my guys and ladies in Horeb Digital Network Ltd how to use all these softwares, so if there is any project and you want a specific software for your post, they are capable. My favourite software for editing at present is Adobe premier because it allows a lot of flexibilities and I can easily go from the timeline to after effect, photoshop, illustrator files can also be brought in natively instead of going in and out. I also love to edit on final cut and davinci resolve, but I hardly edit on avid, because Avid is a really complicated software, if you make a mistake towards the end of your editing, you may regret even editing on it at the first place.

If you have a system not strong enough, you may just edit in a lower quality, like in premier, you can go to the project monitor and change it to 1/4 and you do the same in source monitor. If you do this and you still find your video dragging, then I will suggest you download Davinci Resolve software free version (though only high graphic cards can run it), you open your project in resolve, create your bins base on the number of folders you have in your hard drive, press command A or control A on each open bin, right click and scroll to click - create a timeline with the selected clips, then give it a name. Look down on the screen and click the deliver page, go through the settings on your left to pick a smaller file format like h.264 codec in 720 by 576, look up on your left and ensure that you press individual clip, then the file name should be left in source file name. With this you can choose where to export the proxy, no matter how slow your system is, it should edit the proxy files smoothly, when you finish all your basic editing, you can go to export and export each of the time lines as a final cut xml file, then you take the file and import it in resolve through xml or avid aaf import, make sure it's the same project you used for the proxies, it will bring a box asking you whether to bring in the source videos, reply no, then it will give you your timeline in full resolution as edited. This process is called round tripping. This is the process to use when you are editing raw. I have never edited a job shot on celluloid before, so I can't teach what I don't know. Though I hope to have that opportunity in Hollywood, God knows He can trust me with the knowledge because thousands will learn it from me, the more I know, the more I teach. So if you are in Hollywood and you are reading this, get me on board.

If you meet a cinematographer like Ed Lachman, he will tell you that film that is celluloid is better than digital, whereas Peter Jackson will disagree. Raw film format is the closest to celluloid but to me, raw is cheaper and much more flexible. According to some findings, celluloid highest dynamic range is 12.5 and resolution is not more than 2.5k while lots of high end digital cameras has more than 13 stops of dynamic range and the resolution can be as high as 4k or more. If you then shoot in raw format you will have enough data to work with in post production just like that of celluloid.

Like I told you last week about data storage, I think the best thing is to keep your digitally shot films into tapes like that of celluloid because of the durability. Sorry for the length of this, I hope I will be able to start loading videos soon.

Feel free to share and repost, if you have missed any of my past post please go to Christian film institute page and like our page, you can also visit xtianmovie.blogspot.com

Thanks for your time. Till next week Monday when I will be coming your way again, keep your God given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Filming Tips:

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? I sure did. I am really grateful to God for all He has done and what he will still do. Let's get on with today's discuss.

Post Production: Remember what I posted some weeks ago about post production steps. Remember I mentioned that there is need for you to determine what format the production should be right from the preproduction stage. This will determine a lot of things.

What type of story are you about shooting? Your story can influence the type of camera to use. If the story is seen to be a blockbuster you may invest more into it by going for the best camera you can afford since you do not intend to make it a quicksell film. If you are shooting short film for YouTube viewing you may use your phone, if it is a quick sell film you may use 60d or better still Panasonic gh3, or Canon 5d mk 3, if it is a cinema film then you may use a celluloid or any of the professional digital cinema cameras like Arri Alexa cameras, Red, Sony f55, blackmagic, Canon C500 and so on.

The type of camera you use will determine the post production process. If you use celluloid you know you will spend money on laboratory development. If you use a phone you may finish your post production in 30 minutes. If you use any of the professional cameras for cinema and you shoot in raw, you will need a longer time for your job. You need to also be aware that you will spend lots of money on hard drives because of a whole loads of data to work with. My movie prime suspect occupies about 16 terabytes in hard drives. The money for the hard drives could have been sufficient to produce a quick sell film.

Are you aware that hard drive have a life span, a good hard drive will last for 5 years after which it can start misbehaving and any job you load into it at that time is at your own risk and that is why I always ask my clients to get there own drive newly. This is a major advantage film stock have over hard drives. Film can last over 100 years and your picture will remain intact, what people do nowadays is to load there masters into the cloud where hackers can easily hack it like they did to Sony cloud storage.

To edit some jobs that are shot in proress HQ or DNXHD format on a system that is not running on 32gig ram core i7 processor and 2 gig speed of graphic card may be difficult. The two formats are codecs that are in some cameras and they are best codec and are closest to raw format. If you have a system that is not as high as the one mentioned here then stay tuned till next week when we shall discuss the way forward. Have you ever asked the question: what is the difference between raw format and celluloid, which one is stronger and better?

Let's continue from here next week Monday and thank you for your time.

Feel free to share and ask your questions. If you have missed any of my past posts please go to Christian film Institute page and like our page or you go to my blogspot xtianmovie.blogspot.com

Till next week Monday when I will be coming your way again, keep your God given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Filming Tips:

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? I had a busy one actually, it was full of activities as I travelled to Ibadan in Oyo state, to bury my grandma who nursed me from birth. But today I am at Mount Zion Institute at Ife in osun state Nigeria, to be part of the refreshers course as usual, I told you about it last week. If you haven't been there before and you are in Nigeria, in Africa, you need to make it date next year May, it is an avenue through which you can be blessed by the Lord.

Post production: Last week I mentioned the duty of a sound editor, but this week I will like to talk about the challenges of post production based on the two movies I directed recently and the problem I caused for myself, I want to expose this for others not to make the same mistake.

I directed Missing The Mandate, a mount Zion institute alumni fellowship film though KSO directed the first phase of that same film but I did the second phase where we shot all the challenging scenes of crowd.

We used blackmagic camera but we needed multicam shoot for the crowd scenes. So we gathered different types of camera, we used 60d cameras, and my phone for the shoot. I want to believe that most of you must have seen the film but if you have not then you Need to grab your copy now.

I also directed another movie titled "Aba Idiwon" it is an egba dialect film fully subtitled in English. We have lots of crowd scenes, we also used blackmagic as our main camera. We used one 600d, Canon 60d, Canon 70d, and another Canon 60d.

If you are technically inclined you would have noticed the mistake already. Yes you are right, I used different cameras on a scene. But you are not absolutely right because you can actually shoot with different cameras on a scene but they must have something in common. I had some crowd scenes in prime suspect which was shot on 3 blackmagic cameras in raw format. But we couldn't afford such in the aforementioned movies.

The Avengers age of utron was shot by Seamus McGarvey, he used Alexa as the main camera, then he used 8 blackmagic pocket cameras for action sequences, then he used iPhone in addition, in order to catch all the shots they needed. You can see that they did lots of work on it. It came out great after serious colour grade, another one was that of Mad max fury road, it was shot also partly on blackmagic cinema camera for their action sequences.

Now, what was my mistake, in order to actually enjoy your shoot and post production, it is better to use same types of camera as your B cameras. This will help the colourist to correct the colour but if they are of different types like I did in those movies, it will be hard to score. If you have cameras that can shoot raw like Alexa, red, and blackmagic together and shoot in raw mode, this can be easily married well after a serious job from your colourist.

If you have seen Missing the Mandate, you might have noticed a little difference in some areas. Cameras that shoot raw can be easily married because you can control the exposure and the texture in post production through the camera raw setting in davinci resolve.

So when next you are going on a location to shoot, try to get same cameras but if not, try to limit the types you use to just two unlike what I did in the Egba movie which is titled Aba Idiwon. The movie is not out yet, but it will be premiered in Abeokuta, the date will be announced soon. Thanks for your time.

Remember, you can post and share, also feel free to ask your questions whether through the comment or you inbox me. If you have missed any of my past post you can visit my blog at xtianmovie.blogspot.com or you go to Christian film institute page and like our page.

Till next week Monday when I will be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Filming Tips:

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? Let me take this time to announce to the general public that mount zion institute is on. You can go for your training as a drama soldier, you can still join the rest at mokuro road, agbara nla village, ile ife, osun state Nigeria. I attended the institute 21 years ago and my life has never remained the same.

You may be wondering why did I change this to filming tips, it's because what I am about to be discussing henceforth has to do with filmmaking in general, moreover, my blog isxtianmovie.blogspot.com, so I see the title has tautology. Anyways, let's move on.

Talking about professions that exist in post production which is very wide, the first thing in mind is that of an editor. Whereas, the word editor is a general word. There is script editor which exist in pre production, there is news editor, print editor, sound editor, picture editor, video editor. These are called editors in there own rights. In video editing, we also have avid editor, Adobe editor, and final cut editor. By the grace of God I can operate all these softwares, I used avid media composer to edit some shows for MTN Nigeria, final cut for mount zion faith ministry's Sunset at Midday movie, and Adobe for Glo advert and so on. We have trained people in Horeb Digital Network Ltd, who can now handle projects and operate software to a very good level. They are into cinematography and post production works. You can contact them individually through their numbers:Odugbesan 'Olu' Tayo 08079177099,Adebayo Olushola 08054538787, Lane Stevie 08160019934, and Angel Alake who will be finishing her training by month end. You can also contact Horeb as a company on +2348029400724, that number will be available from next weekend. Sorry for the advert, let's move on.

You can be a sound editor. To be a good sound editor you need to have good knowledge of sound mixing and sound engineering. For a start you need a system that can handle heavy files and a very good sound card. This is my own system recommendations, get a very good sound card if it is desk top, 2 gig graphics card powered by nvidia, 16 gig ram, core i7 processor with a great gigabyte motherboard that has at least four slots space for memories. Get a good flat screen computer monitor and you are good to go. This configuration goes for photo editing and video editing as well. If it is macintosh, you may have to buy the configuration straight from their website. This is just for the computer aspect, you will need a very good microphone which can be connected to the sound card on the system, you need a good keyboard (sound) and a speaker that can project flat sound that is to produce a sound without any artificial additional tweets from the speaker. So that you can be able to ascertain what you hear and the original output. You need softwares like Avid Pro tools, Adobe audition, soundtrack pro, logic X, cubase, fl studio and so on. Do not be scared of the numbers of software to learn, because some of them serve same purpose.

The sound editors are the one responsible for the great sounds you hear in movie at cinemas. I won't be able to go further than this today. Thank you for your time.

Feel free to share and place your questions in the comment or inbox me. If you have missed any of our past posts please go to Christian Film Institute page and like our page. You can also visit xtianmovie.blogspot.com for more.

Till next week Monday when I will be coming your way again, keep your God given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Christian Film Production Tips :

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? I sure did. Let's continue with our discussion: Post production.

I told you last week that the 13 points mentioned is not detailed enough. Part of post production is animation, I mean CGI computer generated images, any job that requires the animator and the likes will require the service of a compositor. A compositor is not the same as a video editor. Composition in music is different from that video, I am sure many know this. But compositing has levels, if you have ever shot a chroma job before, you must have done composition to replace the background. A good editor should be able to handle this simple task but that doesn't make that editor a compositor.

Have you seen the latest advert of Sterling Bank or that of UBA? That must have been carried out by professional compositor. I was thrilled. It must have cost the bank a fortune. This aspect post production and some others were omitted in the 13 points of post production stages. For any serious production, you need to be sure of the post production procedure before you shoot.

There is an erroneous attitude and mindset of some filmmakers in Africa, they rush their editors a lot. They want the whole post production process to take only one week, this happens majorly among Christian filmmakers, thereby releasing lots of inferior films to the market and we take solace in the fact that lots of souls are waiting for the message. But I think we should also know that if Abel has taken an infant sheep to God for offering he wouldn't have been accepted. What I am saying is that you should do a thorough job on your film before sending it out. I am not saying you should waste years in post production but ensure you are giving out your at that time.

Post production has lots of areas of specialisation, I will like us to look into it next week Monday, I will also like these who desire to earn a living through post production to stay tuned, because we need to make the right choices right from the beginning of our carrier. I have made some mistakes in the past which I like to share with you, you can share yours in the comment either this week or next. I mean the wrong post production decisions you have made which you want people to learn from.

Feel free to share. If you have missed any of our past post, please go to the Christian film institute page and like our page, you can also visit my blog xtianmovie.blogspot.com

Till next week Monday when I shall be coming your way again, keep your God given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Christian Film Production Tips :

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? I really bless the Lord for His provisions and loving kindness for the movie titled " The Prime Suspect ", I also want to appreciate all those who took part in the production,  and I want to say that you are blessed indeed and I appreciate you all. For those who have been asking the question as to when the movie will be in the market, I am not sure if it will get to market next year but it should get to cinema next year if God wants it there. 80 percent of the editing has been done, but because we shot raw,  the post production work has just began.

I promised two weeks ago that I will go into post production. Post production simply means what happens after the production? But post production work should start from the planning stage, a great production company must start the post production from the pre production stage. Perfect preparation prevents poor performance, for a good opening graphics you need to have planned it from the time you lay your hands on the script. Post production is very wide and I don't think I know up to 50% of post production works. If you call yourself a specialist in post production you are only insulting yourself because you are simply telling the whole world that you know nothing about film production.

I got this from raindance.com which is a company that host film festivals and run trainings/seminars.

The 13 Steps of Post-Production
1. Pick an editing format

There are two ways of doing post-production. One is the old way -- the film way. Shoot film and edit, or splice film on film editing equipment. There are few filmmakers who edit this way today.

The second is the digital way. Two is the new way -- the electronic way. Get all your rushes digitised (if shot on film you will need them telecined, or scanned to a digital format).  The steps are pretty much the same in either format.

2. Hire a picture editor

Your cinematographer is probably a good person to ask for recommendations for an editor. An editor's job is to create an Edit Decision List (EDL). The editor will read your script and look at the rushes, and from this information, cut the film according to their opinion of what makes the story better. Given this huge creative responsibility, I always like to get an editor well before the project goes into production. A good editor will advise on the types of shots they will need, and advise on tricky post-production issues before the film starts.

The normal schedule for editing a feature is 8 - 10 weeks. During this time, your editor will create different drafts of your film. The first is called the Rough Cut, and last is the Answer Print. There are two conclusions to an edit: the first when you are happy with the visual images (locking picture) and the second when you are happy with the sound (sound lock).

3. Hire a sound editor

Now, about two months later, the picture film is tight but you need to enhance the look with sound. Thus, hire a sound editor and an assistant for five to six weeks to (a) cut dialogue tracks, (b) re-create sound effects, and (c) get cue sheets ready for simplifying Step 7, The Mix.

4. Do ADR

This stands for Automatic Dialogue Replacement. What it actually is, is a large hollow room with a projector that projects your most recent picture draft from Step 2 and has the actors come back and lip sync and loop dialogue that wasn't sharp and clear.

5. Do Foley

Go to a room that looks like (or could very well be) the ADR room and this time, without actors, have sound people called Foley Artists - or sometimes 'walkers' - put the noise of footsteps and certain other sound effects into your film.

6. Secure music

First, for your musical score here's what not to do. Don't use any popular old song that you haven't purchased the rights to. Don't even think about public domain or classical music either, because it'll either get expensive or it'll stink. Don't use any pre-cleared CD-ROM music because it won't be good enough quality. What you should do is simply this: hire a musician with his or her own studio to compose brand new original songs and tunes that you have the rights to.

7. Do re-recording/the mix

Now that you have 20-40 tracks of sound (dialogue, ADR, Foley, music) you must layer them on top of each other to artificially create a feeling of sound with depth. This is called the re-recording session or the Mix.

8. Get an M&E

Somewhere in the not-too-distant future you will be selling the rights to your film to foreign nations. The distributor/buyer in that nation wants a sound track without English dialogue so they can dub the dialogue. Thus the M&E stands for only Music and Effects.

In the movie I just made, we waited until we had a sale where they demanded an M&E track - in our case to Germany. Then we used part of the proceeds to pay for it (about £3,000/$5,000).

9. Get your titles

Your editing is now done. Now what is left is to get the final pieces needed for the answer print. The first three pieces to get are your six-to-eight Opening Title Cards and then the Rear Title Crawl. These title files are then added to the master track.

10. Get a DCP

In order to deliver the film you will need to create a Digital Cinema Package - a hard drive which contains the final copy of your film encoded so it can play in cinemas.

11. Get a dialogue script

In order for foreign territories to dub or subtitle your film you will need to create a dialogue script which has the precise time code for each piece of dialogue so the subtitler or dubbing artist knows exactly where to place their dialogue.

12. Get a campaign image

A picture says a thousand words. Your campaign image is likely the first thing a prospective distributor or festival programmer will see of your film. The image (with titles and credits) should let the viewer know exactly what your film is about.

13. Get a trailer

Create a 90-120 second trailer that conveys the mood and atmosphere of your movie. Often programming and distribution decisions will be based on the strength of your trailer.

I copied the 13 points from that website I mentioned, there are few more stages they didn't mention which I will add to it next Monday. After this, I will start to break down in a much more explanatory way. For those who are following my post in Cameroun,  I am presently at RCCG national headquarters in yaounde, and will be there for one more week.

Thanks for your time. Feel free to share and ask your questions. If you have missed any of my past post please visit Christian Film Institute page and like our page. Or you check my blog xtianmovie.blogspot.com, till next week Monday when I shall be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Christian Film Production Tips :

Hello everyone, hope you had a great day? We eventually finished the last phase of Prime Suspect film location yesterday to the glory of God. There are few short clips to be taken in foreign lands, I will have opportunity to shoot one of them next week. I really appreciate the living God and it has been a long journey so far. We started the shoot last year July, it has not been easy but to God be all the praise. I have mentioned it that I wrote that script nine years ago, we eventually started the shoot last year. I waited for help from fellow Christian but was disappointed, but I appreciate those who have been praying for the success of the shoot, thanks to those who disappointed, thanks to those who fulfilled their promises and sorry to those whom I have disappointed unknowingly one way or the other, please accept my apologies. To those who disappointed me, I forgive you because I know God knew you would disappoint me and He allowed it all to His glory.

Concerning my last week post, I want to appreciate those who have contributed through their comments and this really made me happy. The day a mad man discovers his madness then he is no longer mad. From those comments I got, it shows how passionate some of us are towards the kingdom of God. I read among the comments the offers that came to some drama ministers which they blew with greed and the philanthropist ran away from the sponsorship of gospel film.

Another point someone rightly made was about our stories. No matter the technicalities, the richness of the story matters a lot. The lady mentioned and asked if we actually have people who can write great story that can be professionally shot. In my opinion, people who write those series and foreign serials are doing it full time and they are well paid which give them the courage to be totally devoted to the work. Moreover, their stories are jointly screen played by a group of professionals which help them to come up with great ideas. If you seem not to understand what I am addressing here, then check my last week post.

There are lots of problems in the Christian fold. Most of us need to visit heaven in our revelations to see what God require of us. Maybe if that happens, we will have people who will be devoted to give for the gospel and kingdom expansion. Imagine a pastor who is a millionaire but go to him for a small change, he will always find a story to tell you, at that moment let a senior pastor who could influence something for him in the high places visit him, he will give four times what you asked for as money for fuel but the bible says such has obtained their reward already. Eye service is very common among us, spiritual sensitivity will help us to know when we are actually sowing or showing. Let us unanimously stand for our God at this end time, western world is influencing the church as a whole, we dance any dancing step giving to us on television, many choir leaders or singers will rather listen to worldly music for inspiration to compose worship songs. I pray we have great sponsors for gospel filmmakers in the western world, since the world of media flows from them to the outermost part of the world.

What type of story will sell at this end time? We need to realise that most of our films that people see are been seen by serious and elderly Christians. What about the youth and teenagers? How many of them will sit down to watch our movies, that is why we need some prolific writers who will write with a open heart having it at the back of their minds that this story must catch the youth and seriously worldly unbelievers before releasing your sermon. You should be ready to cleverly entertain them and subtly preach to them.

Lastly, our faithfulness to what God has committed into our hands is very important, knowing fully well that there is no addition in heaven. Any level you are when you get to heaven is permanent, there is no promotion in heaven, if your work on earth earns you a boys quarter that is where you will be living forever and ever, if you don't work in holiness, humility and love, you may be labouring in vain. You will not labour in vain in Jesus name.

Thank you for your time. Feel free to ask your questions and pass your comment. If you have missed any of my past post please visit xtianmovie.blogspot.com, you may also visit Christian Film Institute page and like our page. Till next week Monday when I shall be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Christian Film Production Tips :

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend?

Have you noticed the numbers of satanically inspired TV series all over the world? Most of the contents on TV all over the world are from the western world. Lucifer, supernatural, the vampire diaries, dracula, the originals, grimm, under the dome, and other series I can't remember the name are all satanically inspired in my opinion. Satan sponsor his products, I don't know what happened to series like highway to heaven or angels on assignment that bring to the people the acts of God? Probably the sponsor has backed out while there are lots of satanists willing to sponsor any program that can sing the name of Satan loudest.

I watched these movies for exposure purposes and technical reasons. But if an immatured mind should see it he may nurse fear or desire to have a taste of satanic powers. Availability of the evil and the absence of good TV series is really helping Satan to populate his Kingdom. What's your opinion on this? Nigeria drama ministers are trying to get the best they have to Christian stations. But how many Christian are even watching it let alone unbelievers? Moreover, they can only write from their worldview most of the times. Are we to neglect the unbelievers who don't watch Christian stations?

Can't we have a genuine Christian open a secular TV stations with the aim of winning souls in the secular world? Can't we have great writers who will be able to write powerful series to showcase the beauty of our God? I know I'm not alone with this passion for our God. Those who have money are not willing to let it go for the gospel and little did they know that God counts what may not count, and there is reward for all things done for God.

Satan is more than willing to win more souls by encouraging his children to help his work. Holy Spirit is doing the same to us but how many are willing to obey? May God help us to see the light.

I don't know if we have people in the western world who are making efforts to ensure that we have Christian movies that are strong enough to neutralise the effect of these secular stories. I will go into post production from next week Monday. Please brethren pray along with us as we finish the shooting of our movie The Prime Suspect, it has been God since last year July. That picture is from our just concluded training and film location in Akwa Ibom.

You can visit our blog for more. Xtianmovie.blogspot.com

If you have missed any of my past post please go to Christian Film Institute page and like our page. Till next week Monday when I shall be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Christian Film Production Tips :

Hello everyone, hope you had a great day? You have heard about dynamic range in camera which is simply the ability of the camera to interpret bright and the dark part of the set otherwise called the highlights and shadows. Same thing goes for microphone, the quality of the microphone can be determined by its interpretation of the sound wave in high frequency and low frequency. I am not really using too much technical terminologies because I want a layman to understand this. The microphone converts sound to electric wave which it sends to the amplifier to amplify it. Imagine a scenario where you speak like whispering and you then yell at that same person, that is where the quality of the microphone will be known because it maybe terrible.

I must also point out the fact that it is not the microphone alone that needs to have a good dynamic range for good sound, the sound mixer also have a very big role to play. Sound device, is the best field mixer for film while shoeps microphones are the industry standard in US and it is the best. Both of them are very costly, but there are other good ones. What makes sound device different from other field mixer is analogue/digital effect it possessed which makes it to prevent peaking with a powerful dynamic range.

If you want the best you need to be ready to pay for it. You can watch a film that has a bad picture but you cannot manage to see a movie with a terrible sound. Try as much as possible to spend good money for great sound. There is field mixer which was  released by zoom, it is called zoom F8, it cost a thousand dollars, if you add shipping it maybe 1300 dollars, if you buy it you will really enjoy good sound with great microphone like sennheiser mkh 416, or ME 66 or ME 67, rode NTG 3.

I know you must have seen some movies where you hear sound like kra kra, shu shu, and so on. Usually they must have used lapel microphone on that set. At the same time there are some fish poles that also generate sound through the swinging of the boom swinger. All these should be avoided. Now, I promised last week that I will talk about how to properly make use of lapel microphone for film. Since it must be hidden from the audience, you can get a bandage, those soft ones, carefully rap it a little around the head of the microphone not the tip, and tape it to the underwear of your cast as close as possible to the jaw. You as a sound man can then listen to your cast talk and scream, I mean to basically rehearse all her movements and dialogues. With this you can then regulate it, but if you are going to have any problem along the line, you will inform the director to correct it before shooting. God will help us to do it right, He will provide for us to do good jobs for Him to His glory.

Sorry I need to say this, no matter the equipments and technicalities, the strength of your story matters most. Please take time to write unique stories, it is not compulsory for you to be the writer of your film, you can buy story, and produce it.

Thanks for your time. Remember, you can share and feel free to ask your questions. If you have missed any of my past post please visit Christian Film Institute page and like our page or go to xtianmovie.blogspot.com, till next week Monday when I shall be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Christian Film Production Tips :

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? When last did you go to cinema? They are really common these days, so when last did you visit one? Do you take yourself to be too religious to visit a cinema? Can you please drop all those dogmatism and legalistic (Christianity by laws) Christianity and enjoy yourself a bit. Don't be too hard on yourself, take time to cool off and relax your nerves with a soft drink and popcorn in the cinema hall.

If most of us have been to the cinema to see a standard foreign film we will know that most of our sound can only be appreciated by our local audience home and abroad. The fact that people call to tell you that your movie has been a blessing does not mean that it is good enough because there is room for improvement.

Today I can temporarily conclude the discussion we started weeks ago: Lapel microphone. I said temporary because all the topics I have taken so far will be reviewed over and again because I am still learning and growing, so the more I give, the more I learn from those who are better than me and the more I share it. Remember, we know in part and we prophecy in part.

Lavalier microphone have great advantages and disadvantages.

1. Your talent can freely move with it.

2. A one man band operator can shoot without any problem since he doesn't need a boom swinger.

3. It get the microphone closer to the talent.

4. Clear signal can be achieved from low frequency and high frequency (depends on the quality of your microphone)

5. It can be easily hidden from the camera.

And some other advantages I can't think of right now.

Now the disadvantages

1. It can restrict your talent. Since your actor will be conscious of the mic, it may affect him psychologically.

2. It can limit the creativity. If there is a fight scene, lapel is definitely not an option.

3. It can easily generate noise through the rumblings of the cloth. If you are to use lapel microphone, you can only wear cotton or wool since linen and other fabrics will generate noise.

4. It can give fake sound. Imagine someone inside the room talking to someone in the sitting room, and the shot is on the person in the sitting room, the sound from the lapel mic will be completely fake and Un acceptable by cinematographers.

5. The sound sample from lapel microphone is not as strong as that of a boom microphones and that is why some cinematographers don't use it for film.

And some other disadvantages I can't remember for now.

Please note, I am talking from the view of a filmmaker.

Lapel microphones that are good for good production are few and really costly. The Sony ECM-77, Sennheiser MKE-2, and the Sanken COS 11 are tiny barrel mikes that aren't a whole lot bigger than the diameter of the mike cable. Specialty mikes like the TRAM, Crown GLM series and Millimic have flat capsules which make them much easier to hide without losing high frequencies. They can cost more than $300 apiece, but their usefulness and durability often justify their price. If you want quality sound and you want to use lavelier microphone, try to incorporate boom with it, hardly will you see a cinematographer use lapel microphone alone for a film project but several times they use boom alone.

Sorry it is this long, we go into another aspect of sound production next week monday though I will quickly touch how to properly fix your lapel. Thank you for your time.

Remember, you can share and feel free to ask your questions. If you have missed any of my past post please go to Christian Film Institute page and like our page. Or you check my blogxtianmovie.blogspot.com, till next week Monday when I shall be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Christian Film Production Tips :

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? I sure did. Today I will like to continue from where I stopped last week. Remember we are on sound recording. I mentioned my experience with shot gun microphone and long gun, and explained their differences,  if you have missed that you can go to my blog xtianmovie.blogspot.com and update.
Lavalier microphone, lapel microphone and all other names people call it mean the same thing. It can serve variety of purposes,  and quite useful if you know how to handle it. You can use lapel microphone for interviews, news casting, documentaries, weddings and last of all filming.

There are different types of lapel microphones and you have to know the purpose it will serve for you before you make the purchase otherwise you may regret it. There are wireless lapel microphones and there are wired ones. Most wired lapel microphones are cheaper than their wireless versions. There is G2 lapel microphone and there is G3 type which is better. One of the obvious differences is the frequency. There are some microphones that are good in low frequency but terrible in high frequency. Ensure you check the honest reviews of any gadget you intend to buy before you place your money on it. Those that are bad in high frequency will allow your sound to blast and their reaction to S or C sound is terrible, you need to test it before you know what to expect from them or you research well enough. You hear some kind of stress on the letter S or C which is not good for dialogue, moreover an audio professional suppose to train his or her hear to detect all these. You can test what I am saying by picking up one or 2 movies and listen to the dialogue well.

I made a huge mistake some years back, I found a cheap wireless 4 in 1 lapel microphone on Amazon and I bought it after reading the reviews, then I didn't know the difference between G2 and G3 wireless, I imported it and took it to film location which I later regretted. The microphone reacted to the power line vibration and was giving us distorted sound all through. We packed it aside and made use of the boom microphone. There are some cinematographers who do not believe in lapel microphone at all because it produces interview kind of sound but in my opinion, it has lots of advantages and disadvantages. I decided to make use of it but with a caution. I saw one of my mentors Peter Jackson use it in the Lord of the rings but not in hobbit. He used it because he needed a wide shot and the demented king on the set was supposed to talk to the wizard under his breath so lapel mic came handy.

I will still need to add another post to the issue of lapel microphones otherwise this may get too long. But take note of this, most cheap lapel microphones are too poor for filming. Thank you for your time.

Feel free to ask your questions and share. Remember, if you have missed any of my past post please go to Christian Film Institute page and like our page or go to xtianmovie.blogspot.com. Till next week Monday when I shall be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Christian Film Production Tips :

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? I had a busy weekend actually as we shot another scene in Prime Suspect film, immediately after we finished shooting a TVC for a client. Now let's continue on the audio recording or capturing on location.

Please take a look at this picture, that was a set on Prime Suspect location. The boom microphone we used on this set has no dead cat on it why? The dead cat is a wind shield on that blimp and it is meant for an exterior scene especially where there is tendency of wind distortion. My last week post showed us the blimp with its dead cat on it because it was meant to cut off the wind but if not an exterior scene you don't need a dead cat on your blimp. Moreover, you can just use a normal wind shield on your microphone instead of blimp which is costlier that ordinary windshield.

To use boom microphones on your set does not guarantee a good audio. Handling the boom really matters a lot. The boom pole must be a very good one that won't generate noise through handling. There are great boom poles from Rode and the rest out there and the cable you use on your microphone matters too but you need to ensure that you use xlr port instead of Jack plug. XLR supplies balanced audio and it helps to give richer sound than that of Jack plug.

Another thing is that jack plug is susceptible to interference more than xlr. Moreover, with Xlr you can use phantom power on your mixer to power your boom microphone which is really good because those microphones with phantom power helps signal ratio of the microphone with clarity. Swinging the boom also require techniques, so try to learn it and don't just assume that you can swing a boom if it is just to carry it. If your boom is also giving you bad signal, check if the battery of either the mixer or the boom is low and change it or check if there is any problem with the cable.

There was a time we were shooting a movie and the boom swinger complained of noisy interference anytime he placed the boom up but the sound was good anytime he placed the boom down and that could have happened if the microphone is bad or you connect the mixer to electricity and not battery. Another thing is that this could have happened because the boom swinger is not wearing shoes or slippers. Whichever it is, try as much as possible to get the best sound. We will discuss lavelier microphone next week.

Thank you so much for time and for all the birthday wishes you are all amazing, feel free to share and ask your questions. If you have missed any of my past post please go to Christian Film Institute page and like our page or go to my blog. Xtianmovie.blogspot.com. Till next week Monday when I shall be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.

Sola Adeaga added 3 new photos.

Christian Film Production Tips :

Hello everyone, hope you had a great weekend? Sorry I delayed till today, I needed to load this picture to explain some things.... I directed an advert few days ago for a client, and we recorded sound at a very noisy place which is the situation we find ourselves atimes. I know that some of you who are into production must have had same experience on the field.

An elderly American who has been following this post commented last week that shoeps microphones are the industry standard in US which I agreed with and explained to him that the price of that microphone is too high for some people in Africa. Though even in US, people use sennheiser microphone and high end rode microphones. But the best shot gun microphone is shoeps. Based on research, and experience of those who have used it before, they testified that that microphone is the best compare to the rest. Google it yourself, and you will see that the price for a good shoeps mic is higher than the price of most cameras we use in africa, since our major cameras are now dslr.

We currently have four boom microphones, two long gun sennheiser me 67, one shot gun sennheiser mkh 416, and another shot gun mic. Why do we have this? In Holywood, most movies are shot with more than two microphones. The purpose of those microphones are different. Shot gun microphone especially the good one like sennheiser mkh 416 and shoeps can capture clean audio from 20 people sitting round the table with a good field mixer. It has wider range of coverage compare to the long ones like ME 67. While the Long gun microphones can capture and narrow the range to a particular person or spot even on a long range. But these microphones cannot work alone without the wind shield. So today I will like to talk about how to record a clean sound in a noisy place.

First is to try to do your shoot in a quiet place. Secondly, you can approach whoever is making the noise politely and plead that you are shooting a film. Thirdly, check the place out before you go on set since proper preparation prevent poor performance. Next, go with all that you can to give you great audio. If you check out one of these pictures, you will see where the boom swinger was holding the boom microphone on the fish pole. There was so much noise at that venue, but because the client also want little ambience on the dialogue, we went there with sennheiser ME 67, a blimp and its windshield which some called deadcat. This will keep away the wind and cut off most of the noise. The fact that we used ME 67 which has ability to narrow its coverage to the talent on set made it good for us. We used the mixer to also gain down the noise and we got the microphone close enough without disturbing the shot. With this, we were able to do a good job with our multi cam shoot.

I share the same date with my senior boss Shola Mike Agboola, so give a shout out to us tomorrow 9/9 as we add another year.

Thank you for your time, if you have missed any of my past post please go to Christian Film Institute page and like our page. Or you check my blog xtianmovie.blogspot.com, till next week Monday when I shall be coming your way again, keep your God-given dreams alive and remain blessed.