Backflip Films

We Create Display Area and Product Loop Videos

Erin Phipps — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:19:48 +0000

Did you know we create display area and product loop videos?

Last week, we were pleased to make this display area video for the St. Paul’s Wine Fest, which greeted guests as they entered. The video was used to describe the different kinds of wine and beer that were available for guests to sample during the festival.

In order to make this video come to life, we used Element 3D from Video Copilot. We were able to create the 3D images of fruit, candy, glasses, and bottles to best describe each wine and beer.

Next up, fighter jet flybys in all upcoming videos!

NAB 2013 Predictions

Ryan Freng — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:56:52 +0000

It’s that time of year again. No not an Apple announcement (where the heck is the new iPhone by the way), the 2013 NAB Show. This is where the National Association of Broadcasters tell us that the future of broadcasting is technology and methodology that has been around for a year. But seriously the exciting news that will be coming out is going to be all about hardware and software. New cameras and production devices as well as cloud software that finally realizes the state of modern digital filmmaking, this is the hope anyway.

I’ve thought about this long and hard and here are my ~~hopes~~ predictions:

Low-cost RAW camera at 10-bit
- Canon came out with the c300 and c500 as an answer to professional filmmaking at the DSLR scale. The c300 just isn’t feature rich enough while the c500 is silly expensive.
- I’ll look to RED or ARRI for something that I can take home for less than $8k that does this.
- Just like the 5dmii revolutionized digital filmmaking so can an affordable 10-bit RAW camera.
Useful DSLR software
- DSLR clips to color correction to edit to sfx to grading is the most convoluted and annoying transition/process. We need something that streamlines this.
- I want a tool that takes DSLR clips, allows me to color correct them individually, and then add continuous timecode before editing.
- The software should also have an opinion about sound and fx workflow. (Adobe has dynamic linking but it’s a pain in the ass when you need to go back and forth, which is common).
Online review & collaboration software
- Seriously? Every industry has great web/mobile apps to make their work more efficient. Why is the production industry lagging so far behind?
- Shotgun is too complicated, looks more useful for big productions with lots of people.
- Scenios is nice for its simplicity but it’s unpolished and it doesn’t have great inline document creation (scripts/callsheets). You can create a blank doc and format yourself or upload an already created file.
- GoSimian has nice client pages but is just a gussied up web page.
- I want a web software that:
  - Allows for creation of all production documents from scratch with multiple templates
  - Integrates all these assets together so I can convert a script to a call sheet to a shot list, etc.
  - Has client pages/review where they can view/edit assets as needed and watch embedded youtube reviews.
  - Has a mobile client (for fricks sake this is 2013) so I can pull up a call sheet and call the nearest hospital in two clicks.
Cake, that I can eat too
- We are superbly fortunate to live when we do. If we didn’t have all the affordable technology that we have then Backflip Films wouldn’t be able to offer video production in the Madison area. It just would not have been feasible. For this I am thoroughly thankful.
- Because we live when we do we have great expectations though. I want all this and a bag of chips and I want it in my pocket.
- Seriously though, I’m really hoping for some craft services breakthroughs.

Stars love Karben4 Brewing

Ryan Freng — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:40:02 +0000

We had the Canon c300 for a week and wanted to test it out. This is the fruit of those labors. Thanks to Karben4 Brewing and Ryan Koga for being such great sports. It was a blast to spend a day at the Brewery and goof off. We had some vague concepts like: bad commercial, caricatures/impressions. In the end we took everything we had and rolled it together in this beautiful mashup of all these ideas. If it’s unclear the order of characters is:

Check out the previous video we did, Brewing A-Z with Robert Goulet, during this epic day.

Brewing A-Z with Robert Goulet (Karben4)

Ryan Freng — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:19:33 +0000

We received the Canon c300 a few weeks ago in order to put it through its paces. We wanted to see if the camera was all that it was cracked up to be or if we should keep forging ahead with our still prominently used Canon 5D MII. That answer is still pending but what you see before you is the fruit of those labors.

I was on a brew tour at the newly opened Karben4 right by my house. I thought Ryan Koga (Goulet above, himself during the tour) was hilarious so I bugged him until he would let us come film him and his brewery. This is the first of three projects from that shoot day. Enjoy.

Backflip Office Sign

Ryan Freng — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:59:34 +0000

We got a new sign! This is it. Isn’t it wonderful!

Getting Back to our Roots ie: Harlem Shake vTruck

Ryan Freng — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:40:06 +0000

We started doing video because it was fun and entertaining. Over the years that has changed to working with clients to tell engaging and beautiful stories. The only thing this lacks is our goofiness and our own acting =) We’ve started to get back into that and couldn’t be more excited. We’ve created a new youtube channel for this outlet called The Bit Life Show. The name came while we were working on a tech show pilot. I wanted something that would be a bit techie but also classy. The name helps communicate that what we will do is a bit of many things. The channel and videos will have comedy, technology, special effects, and (hopefully) good storytelling.

The video above is actually our second video. Check out our first video Apple S-Beam.

New Video: Cathedral Parish Welcome

Ryan Freng — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:05:39 +0000

This is a nice green-screen video we did with a Parish about six blocks away from our studio. We wanted a light and bright feel for the interviews so we decided to go with a green-screen and then to replace the background in post. We started with just white but with one of our angles being wide, and showing the subject’s whole body, it didn’t look right. I ended up creating a digital cyc wall in After Effects and using digital lighting to give some depth to the background. Then I manually added shadows. The end result was a nice and bright background that blended well with our subjects.

Here’s a link to the video in our portfolio.

Get ProRes & Other Apple Codecs Without a Pro App

Ryan Freng — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:29:06 +0000

We recently picked up a new Macbook Retina for editing on the go. Since we are all Adobe all the time I only installed CS6 on this machine. There is no Final Cut, Motion, or Compressor on this machine. This left me without ProRes! With a bit of googling I was able to figure it out. Check out after the break how I got the Apple codecs including ProRes on my new Mac:

Download the codec pkg: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1396 (http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1396/en_US/ProAppsQTCodecs.dmg)
Download an unpkg tool: http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/ (http://github.com/downloads/timdoug/unpkg/unpkg-4.5.zip)
Run the unpkg tool
Drag the codec pkg downloaded in #1 onto the unpkg tool
Move the files created from step #4 into ‘/Library/QuickTime’

Voila. The next time you export you will have the ProRes and other Apple Codecs!

Outstanding!

Ryan Freng — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:52:33 +0000

Personable and Attentive to Details

Ryan Freng — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:48:06 +0000