All of us here at Remote Access Post would like to extend congratulations to Darren Press and C. Fraser Press on the success of their feature film “Theresa is a Mother”  Chad Smith handled the editing and color correction on the project and it is great to see the film doing so well out in the wild!  Some the awards include

• Best Feature Film & Best Director – Orlando Film Festival
• Best Feature Film – Reel Independent Film Extravaganza
• Best Screenplay – NYC Indie Film Festival
• Best U.S. Narrative – IFFM
• Best Actress – Reel Independent Film Extravaganza
• Best Actor – NYC Independent Film Festival
• Official Selection – Vegas Cinefest, International Film Festival Manhattan, Garden State FIlm Fest, Connecticut Film Fest

To keep up with all these accolades the film is receiving I usually check the facebook page or the web site.  This can also tell you if there is a screening coming soon to your area.

This summer Chad Smith of Remote Access teamed with emerging film director Eddie Mullins to cover editorial and color correction duties on his debut feature film “DOOMSDAYS”  A pre-apocalyptic comedy about the end of the world as we know it.  Well not exactly.

Dirty Fred gets caught.

Dirty Fred (Justin Rice) and Bruho (Leo Fitzpatrick) aren’t sanguine about the future. Convinced that dwindling petroleum resources will soon bring the modern world to a halt, they’ve dropped out of productive (and vehicular) society, choosing instead a life of free-wheeling vagabondage. As they trek across the Catskills, they break into a series of vacation homes, holing up until they either run out of food or are chased off. The pattern is interrupted, however, when they run across a teenage boy (Brian Charles Johnson) who insists on joining them. No sooner is he assimilated than an aimless young woman (Laura Campbell) also comes aboard, and the dynamic of the group changes with significant consequences for all.

Dirty Fred (Justin Ricde). Jaidon (Brian Charles Johnson), Reyna (Laura Campbell) & Bruho (Leo Fitzpatrick) discuss their next move.

Check out the trailer!

Melissa Leo stars in “Persephone”

Starring Academy Award Winner Melissa Leo. Remote Access began working with Laurent Rejto on his short film “Persephone”.  A modern retelling of the Greek myth.  The majority of the film was shot with the RED Epic camera while some of the pickup shots were captured with RED ONE and RED Scarlet cameras.  Once all the footage was transcoded to ProRes proxy files and synced, we began editing in Final Cut 7.

Remote Access HQ working on the cut.

Its a story of divorce and how two parents cope to control their most beloved daughter just as she is growing into a woman.

Demeter is portrayed by Academy-Award winning actor Melissa Leo (The Fighter, Frozen River, 21 Grams). She rules over the gardens and all the land at Mount Olympus. The story begins on a perfect day in August. Demeter has gathered her brothers Zeus (the county executive) and Poseidon (who’s usually sailing off to some island in his yacht) with a few friends for her daughter Persephone’s sixteenth birthday.

Melissa Leo as Demeter tries to talk to her daughter Persephone played by Lindsay Andretta.

Persephone, portrayed by Lindsay Andretta (Far From Heaven) is not cooperating with her mother’s plans. As a rebellious teenager, she would rather be anywhere but at home at Mount Olympus and she refuses to dress according to her mother’s wishes. She steals away to the arboretum and looks out over the River Styx yearning to travel and explore life away from the trappings of home.

Hades (Gilles Malkine) Demeter’s ex-husband makes matters worse. He arrives at Mount Olympus in his red convertible after years of estrangement, for his daughter’s birthday celebration. When he learns about her yearning to be elsewhere, he hatches a plan to take her away.

Persephone receives a birthday gift from her estranged father Hades played by Giles Malkine.

Hades surreptitiously steals away with his daughter across the River Styx to his estate in the underworld. There, she discovers a world filled with costumes, masks, color, temptation and spectacle. Hades spoils her with anything she wants. Persephone enjoys the power she has in the underworld but she starts to miss her mother and the beauty of Mount Olympus.

Persephone takes in her new surroundings.

Demeter is tormented by her daughter’s disappearance. She suspects Hades, but is unable to find any recourse. Her distress and anger are evident as summer ends. The trees lose their leaves and the earth is enveloped in snow and ice.

Demeter awaits the return of her daughter Persephone.

Zeus realizes that he needs to help his sister recover her daughter. He sends his brother Poseidon to the underworld to broker a deal with Hades – they will share custody.

When Persephone is reunited with Demeter, summer has returned in all its glory but as the story comes to an end, we see Hades driving towards Mount Olympus. The trees have turned orange and red. He is coming back to take his daughter Persephone, whom he has made Queen of the Underworld – but she has other ideas.”

Color correction was done at Technicolor NYC and audio mix is be done in Toronto.  Once we get the mix back we will marry to picture and output.

Soon the film will be ready to hit the festivals!

Persephone, out from under her mother’s wing, lets loose.

This past fall we color corrected the feature documentary “Roadmap to Apartheid” for Ubuntu FIlms.  Roadmap to Apartheid explores in detail the apartheid comparison as it is used in the enduring Israel-Palestine conflict. As much an historical document of the rise and fall of apartheid, the film shows us why many Palestinians feel they are living in an apartheid system today, and why an increasing number of people around the world agree with them.

For latest news and updates on screenings follow them on twitter

Below are some before and after images from the film.  Place your mouse over the image to see the original footage.

Phyllis Bennis - Institute for Policy Studies

Jonathan Cooke

In November RAP again teamed up with Girl-O-Rama Telepictures for another project. This time out we took care of audio mix for the “The Increasingly Necessary Todd Margaret Recap Special”  airing on IFC in January.  With season two starting at the top of 2012 on IFC what better way to get us all up to speed than a recap special?  Like watching season one in fast forward but way more entertaining.  Hosted by comic creator and star of Todd Margaret, David Cross.  Dropping Todd knowledge like an MF.

We mixed the show in Logic Pro 9.  Utilizing plug ins from Waves, Stillwell Audio and Audio Damage.  Starting with OMF files exported from Final Cut Pro 7,  we imported the files without a hitch.  Getting the mix together is great using the toolset in Logic Pro.  Automation is solid and easy to edit on the fly with fader moves or with the mouse.  We tweaked Eq and compression settings for each interview, then feeding into the stereo buss with Logic multipressor for the final polish.  Using a Mackie control surface helps speed up workflow with the added bonus of giving the wrist a break.  Delivery included bleeped and not bleeped versions of the show.

Be sure to catch the recap special as well as season two of Todd Margaret starting to air on IFC in January.

C. Fraser Press stars as Theresa McDermott

Our most recent project is the feature film “Theresa is a Mother” produced by May Sky Entertainment.  We will be handling the editorial and color correction on the project.  The feature was shot on the RED One digital cinema camera in 4.5K and the footage looks great.

The RED Workflow for the feature:

The four terabytes of RAW camera files from the shoot were first transcoded to apple pro res proxy files for editing in Final Cut Pro. After all the footage was transcoded it was time to bring in the audio for syncing.  Not all audio files had matching time-code with the visuals.  We found that the old school way of using the slate for a sync point worked the best, thanks for clapping the slate guys!  This way we were not modifying the files in any way to make for easier match back later.

Once an in point for a clip was determined, we combine the audio and the visual clip. Also known as making a merged clip. That would go into a separate bin. Once a days worth of dailies had been synced up, usually with 8 total tracks of audio, we would then batch export the whole days worth of clips to generate new clips with matching time code. This would then “bake in” all the audio files together with the proper clips and would be sure of the clips audio sync integrity through out the editing process.
Upon exporting the new synced files, Final Cut would place “merged” in the file name. This merged file would not come into FCP until the word “merged” was removed from the file name. A quick trip into automator to write a script to remove the offending word and place in a new folder, solved this problem nicely. Then import the new files into a new project that would be the working project for the edit.
The film will lastly be color graded in DaVinci Resolve. Doing the final grading in Resolve, it is fantastic to have access to the RAW camera data to really dial in the look of the film & help convey the story. We are now deep in the editing stage and will write another entry on color correction once we begin the finishing process.

For the latest information, including awards and screenings on this unique film, check out the web site  http://www.teresaisamother.com/

Jack Ryon

This spring we were  able to get out of the studio and shoot a little profile on musician Jack Ryon.  This time we were  shooting with the amazing Canon 7D DSLR camera.  This camera is just fantastic for getting a nice cinematic look.  We shot 1080p @ 24fps.  The ability to shoot 24p nativly is a huge step in getting a film look and feel.  This is a much better solution than what was implemented in many DV cameras just a few years ago.  Another reason the Canon 7D looks so filmic is it’s shallow depth of field or DOP.  This is accomplished with its massive imaging chip, much larger than conventional video cameras.   The large sensor also lets you shoot great images in low light.

The gotcha with this camera however is the audio.  Yes it has an onboard mic that works in a pinch, however to achieve professional level sound, you need to shoot two system.  That means recording audio on a separate device.  One solution we used was our Zoom H4 handy recorder.  A great little bit of kit that with it’s built in mics up top, looks like a taser.  The other recording device we used was the super cool Zaxcom ZFR100.  About the size of your beeper from days gone by, this device records audio to flash media @ 24/96.  Simply hook up your lav mic, and hit record on the Zaxcom.  Then once in post we synced up the audio using a little plug-in for FCP called PluralEyes.  With PluralEyes we were able to sync all the footage shot for the entire day in a matter of minutes.  This really streamlined our post workflow, and the sync was rock solid.

After a few days of editing we got our cut put together and looking great.  Then it was off to Apple Color for the final beauty pass!  You can view our profile of Jack Ryon below.  We think you will agree he is one talented Kat! – REMOTE ACCESS POST