How do you get your work into the Gallery?

Pretty simple, we encourage you submit your work for review. We prefer it be in HD, but all submissions will be considered.

Send us a link and a short synopsis of the project. Tell us about yourself, your background and the process of your work. Include any specific challenges, creative and/or technical, you had to overcome. The more information you can share with the community, the better chance we will be inclined to select your work for display.

Can I submit my demo reel?

Sure. All reels from individual artists will be considered free of charge. During our initial launch we will be hosting a limited number of reels for free, after which we will be unveiling a tiered services hosting plan. We are also happy to embed from established sites such as Vimeo and Blip.tv

What about my company’s demo reel?

Yes. Commercial work is accepted on a sponsorship basis. Please contact us for further details.

Why should I submit to the HDFilmtools Gallery when I can post to YouTube for free?

YouTube is a phenomenal resource, and it’s our personal philosophy that if you want to build a career as a filmmaker or other digital media artist you need to post and promote your work via as many outlets as possible. What makes our Gallery different from the vast amount of material at YouTube is that we’ll provide a filter. A way to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak and highlight the work of what we believe are the most exciting and talented writers, directors, cinematographers, editors, visual effects and motion graphics artists, sound designers, composers and animators.

There are no other restrictions for submission and we encourage filmmakers from throughout the spectrum to submit their work. In addition to the more traditional genres this includes, documentaries, social issue projects, PSA’s non-traditional/non-linear storytelling, trailers and even advertising.

Do I give up any rights as the content creator to display in the Gallery?

Absolutely not. The Gallery is just the beginning of a host of new features, resources and services HDFilmtools plans to launch over the coming year.

We look forward to your participation and to getting the word out about your work.

Fincher, an artist who has pioneered the use of emerging HD and digital tapeless workflows, shot nearly the entire film with the Thomson Viper FilmStream Camera, with additional help from Sony’s F23 Cine Alta. The media was captured using digital film recorders and iDocks from S.two corporation and Kona capture cards from AJA video.

Post production supervisor Peter Mavromates used an S.two iDock on set and was able to capture full resolution DPX files while simultaneously generating DVCPRO HD “dailies” clones. These were immediately shipped back to Fincher’s offices in Los Angeles for editor Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter to assemble. As soon as the editors had something to show, the cut scenes were compressed and uploaded via FTP for the directors review.

Once again, David Fincher is dragging Hollywood kicking and screaming into the digital age. With the completion of his latest project, he demonstrates the physical, creative and financial efficiencies afforded by a file based workflow. All the more impressive on a project with a budget of approximately $150 million dollars, in production for 2 years.

Although this article specifically focuses on the use of Final Cut Pro in the process, with some minor adjustments it could equally be applied to workflows for editors cutting with other software such as Avid’s Media Composer, Adobe’s Premiere and others.

Steven De Souza, writer of Hollywood blockbusters such as “48 Hours”, “Die Hard” and “Lara Croft Tomb Raider”, is trying his hand at directing for the Web. De Souza is in post on “Unknown Sender” which will be distributed via Strike TV, an internet start-up born out of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike earlier this year. The film is one of the networks first projects and stars Timothy Dalton of James Bond, 007 fame.

Strike TV is a content distribution site to keep an eye on. What differentiates it from all the other video spigots out there, is that many of Hollywood’s top creatives (i.e. De Sousa) fully support and are participating in the development of the company. What’s in it for them? Well, first and foremost is the artistic freedom the medium allows. Creative’s relish the fact they will be able to produce their work without the multitude of interferences which usually accompany studio and large network projects. It also can serve as a springboard to bring successful Web projects to other venues.

Strike TV’s Peter Hyoguchi was kind enough to give us a heads up on the “behind the scenes” for the project which was recently posted on vimeo.

According to Luhrmann’s introductory vidcast, the series will be updated approximately every three weeks, with each episode taking viewers through a different part of the production process. The series will also present a “creative challenge” each episode, with prizes ranging from iPods to MacBook Pro’s. The grand prize being a trip to Australia, planned by the director himself, and inclusion of the winner’s final work on the film’s DVD release. To get started go to iTunes and subscribe to the Set to Screen podcast today.

From the late 1960’s through the mid 1980’s Mr. Pollack directed a string of films that were not only box office hits, but among the most highly regarded stories of their time. Some of my personal favorites include:

Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, The Electric Horseman, Absence of Malice, Tootsie, Out of Africa

He was nominated for the Academy Award 6 times and recieved 2 for directing and producing “Out of Africa”. His comedy “Tootsie”, starring Dustin Hoffman was named the “2nd Funniest Film of All Time” by the American Film Institute.