The combination of the liveliness and vitality of the death of film and at the same time the melancholy triggered by the music and the irrevocable decay leading into the loss of what has once been captured on those pieces of celluloid is just stunning.

By the way: The most amazing thing ever would probably be to have one of his movies screened at one of the theaters out of the “After the Final Curtain” series.

We filmed in an old abandoned mental health ward/wing at St. Cadoc’s Hospital in Caerleon, Newport. The location was pretty wicked. Already upon entry you could not ignore the security alarm sounding through the long empty hallway giving the place the mood and feeling of a freshly, head over heels abandoned building. The rooms and hallways on the second floor (though being in Britain I should say ‘first floor’) showed more decay and you actually got an idea of the building being out of use for some time now. The paint was peeling off the wooden frames of the lattice windows, the doors and walls. The floor tiles of the PVC flooring were loosening and often shattered, as were many of the little windows in the cell doors. Some of the rooms were filled with cardboard boxes marked with ‘deceased’ and year. Rounding up the proper experience were the stories told about ‘The White Lady’, every abandoned mental asylum needs a proper ghost/spirit running around.

The music video was shot on two Canon 7D and lit mainly with practicals, which made my job as gaffer rather easy and gave me the possibility to take on the responsibilities of camera assistant as well. Overall we had a very small but elite team consisting, next to the director Matt and me, out of the DoP Chris, production designer Felicity, 1st assistant director Michael and Special Effects Make-Up artist Alex plus of course the great cast  Anastasia and Sam.

The project is now in post-production and I well let you guys know here and via Twitter once the video is finished as well as when & where it will officially be released.

A few more images:

When Microsoft introduced Windows Vista, Apple spend a whole lot of effort and marketing resources to put out the message that if you take a Mac it just works out of the box. Unfortunately exactly that is one of the big problems I have with FCPX. It does not work out of the box. It is not compatible with FCP7 so you wont be able to open old projects, it is not compatible to many of the old plugins and peripherals and you will have to relearn quite a bit. I will also not except the excuse that it is a version 1.0 (for my first two points) because this has simply nothing to do with bugs and errors of a version 1.0 but with deliberate decisions from Apple.

One of those Apple decisions has been that they wanted to aim Final Cut not only to the ‘professionals’ anymore. I am not even saying that Final Cut is not a ‘pro’ version anymore or that they don’t want to aim it at the ‘professionals’ at all anymore. Especially since that is a flowing border. However Apple lost their interest in developing programs exclusively aimed at this small limited market. They dropped ‘Shake’ and seemingly now dropped ‘Color’, two programs they actually bought in the first place and the sad thing is that this actually turns them into something that they never wanted to be. A big company prohibiting ideas and progress. Something they always criticized IBM and Microsoft for. Apple has rearranged its priorities and that is not going to be taken back.

That said, not everything is wrong with Apple and Final Cut. They are still a highly innovative company on the consumer market and Final Cut is still a solid product. I like the ideas of the new timeline, the rendering process, the idea of auditioning clips and the possibility to work with the files from the card while they are still being imported in the background. I do like some of the base ideas behind the new file-managment system but I hate how it is done. I like some of the ideas from the new layout but I hate that I can’t freely rearrange the layout anymore.

Overall, just as Apple didn’t know who they really want to aim Final Cut at, I currently really don’t know what to think of it. So please don’t see this as a review but more as a first impression. There are many small things that I don’t like (for example the dumbed down markers) but it might be that I just haven’t found a work around yet or that Apple will improve those with coming updates. Then again, I am just a small filmmaker who is editing his own projects. I am certainly not a professional editor. So if even I feel that the new Final Cut is not really what I hoped for, then I don’t even want to know what a professional editor has to say about it. Especially considering that Apple killed a lot of the things they would need for their daily workflow in a big post-production house.

However, the pictures are extremely beautiful and you get a feeling of the glory in which those theaters once shined. Those magic moments of motion picture history and the great divas and movie stars twinkling from the silver screen (and of course the performing arts). The pictures are a fascinating travel back in time to when going to the movies was still an event, when the star system just began to flourish and when theaters were movie palaces, most of them owned by the just emerged Hollywood studios.

The picture used for this article gives you an impression on what to expect from Matt’s blog. So if I got your interest stirred up, go and visit: After the Final Curtain.

One of the most heard criticisms on the internet is that the administration only cares about making a profit. I must admit that I would have liked some more assistance from the school and its administration and had the feeling that I had been left alone at some points with issues. It might be true that for the administration its mostly about the money and not about the students.

However, even though sometimes there was a lack of help and support from the administration there was never a lack thereof from the teachers and staff. All of them were really dedicated to their work as teachers and filmmakers. Most of my instructors had lots of practical experience on set and could share tips, tricks and experiences that you would not learn from a book or people that don’t have years of experience. None of them were theorists or ‘pure’ educators but all of them came from a practical filmmaking background. For example Dexter Taylor who taught “Sound recording”, probably not the most popular class subject, but with his anticipation, experience and love for sound he got quite a few people really excited about sound recording. But also others like my cinematography instructor John Loughlin or screenwriting instructor Claude Kerven were great teachers and had a lot to say and experiences to share.

The concept of education at NYFA is based on very hands-on practical experience. Right on the first day we were handed an Arri 16mm camera and the first weekend we were supposed to shoot our first little exercise short film. Of course we learned all the necessary theoretical background in class but always got the time to utilize our new knowledge during practical exercises, shoots and workshops in the following days. For example after talking about exposure we were send out to shoot the same scene with various stops over- and underexposed, had the film-stock developed (normal, push and pulled by one or two stops) and screened the results in class to actually get a practical feeling for the theory. That might not sound like that big of a deal but having been to another school where this wasn’t the case I can say it really is. It makes learning and grasping concepts much easier.

Since a lot of time is dedicated to the hands-on part of the program, the pure theory part, like i.e. ‘film history’, is definitely falling short. For me personally that wasn’t really a problem since I love film history but that wasn’t really what I was there for to learn. So if you are interested in those subjects you either need to be poised to learn those on your own or NYFA (at least the one year program) might not be the right school for you. However one also needs to remember, that those actually are things you can learn on your own if you are interested in it.

There is a downside to the schools concept as well (beside the missing theory/history part). That is, you need to be an active student. Again, for some people that might sound very self-evident and for a lot of people that is not really a downside. But you really need to be motivated, active and take what you can get at NYFA. They offer a great deal of chances that you can take and profit of, or not. Being shy and restraining yourself is not a good idea. Looking back, I could have gotten more out of the first few weeks. Being in a new city (I arrived only days before the program started) I first had to let everything sink in and stayed a little in the background.

You need to push your luck a little. Make friends with the TAs and equipment room staff, who are great guys, use your out of class consultation sessions with the teachers, get your hand up during the workshops to make sure you are on a crew position you like (Not everybody is going to be able to direct a workshop. But there is still a difference between not directing one and let’s say being boom operator on all of ‘em. Unless of course you want to be boom operator). Tell your fellow students which crew positions you like to work on. In the end you are required to work on like 4 (I think) different people’s thesis films. I worked on 12. At NYFA it is really a lot up to you, if you are going to have a good or not so good experience.

Last but not least, one of the make or break arguments are of course the fellow students. I was actually really lucky to get into an extremely talented and motivated class and section. Quite a few of my fellow students already had a lot of experience in filmmaking and everybody was very determined to be a filmmaker and artist. Overall our group harmonized very well. However since the non-degree programs are open to pretty much everybody, there will be, and I know of people that were in, classes and sections that are not as motivated and great as ours. So that really is the most unforeseeable variable. Although, if you are not happy with your section you can still take the initiative and switch to another one.

In conclusion, can I suggest the New York Film Academy? Well, if you are dedicated, love filmmaking and are determined to take your luck into your own hands and make the best out of every situation, then NYFA can offer you a lot of chances you can grab. At NYFA you have to bring in a lot of effort and seize the chances that are offered to you, else it might not be worth it. It has the potential to be either a great experience or a waste of money. I can just repeat myself: It depends a lot on what you are making out of it. Personally I had an amazing time at the New York Film Academy and wouldn’t trade in any second of it.

Also, note that I haven’t entirely decided yet  on the language issue. I guess I will keep most of the site in English, having a few bilingual pages and articles and some German only articles (I am pretty sure there will be some articles that are only aimed and also only of interest to the German readers).