Zak Forsman is an American independent filmmaker whose emotionally-charged work is known for highly authentic performances and beautiful compositions. His work has been praised by Ain’t It Cool News as “Brilliant” and “Absolutely Gorgeous.”

His stories depict compelling human threads in a poetic and minimalist style. Zak has directed two shorts films, “I Fucking Hate You” and “Model/Photographer” which have won several international audience, jury and festival awards. He is currently developing two new features for production in 2010 and 2011 and serves as editor of the New Breed blog at The Workbook Project.

His wish is simply to provide a safe environment for the actors to explore the hopes, longing and loneliness of their characters in an effort to capture their humanity truthfully, and without judgement. Considering himself less a director and more of an interpreter, Zak nurtures a family-like atmosphere on set through guided improvisation and radical collaboration to elevate each artist’s creative contribution to the project.

The hope is to realize an understanding of the film that could not have been discovered alone. Further, for the stories to resonate in very real and unexpected ways with an audience starved for meaning in their motion pictures.

FILMOGRAPHY
I Fucking Hate You (2009)
Heart of Now (2010)
Eloquent Graffiti (2011)

Sabi Pictures is his production company which he founded with his friend Kevin. He likes a high level of collaboration in his movies. Zak explains that he like to let the actors improvise  as the make the movie.

We also discuss what got him into movies and how he got to discover film makers such as Tarkovsky after being into war type movies inspired by movies like Platoon.

Zak is always itching to get the camera working on set filming something. Planing to write two screen plays in 2010. He will be working with people involved with Sabi Pictures.

He uses the SAG ultra low budget (Screen Actors Guild) agreement to determine the money spent on his movies.

Zak told me about the way he likes to use the casting process, letting the actor play off each other and see how the work together and how they can take direction .

Video20Q News

In my ramble at the start I talk about going to Girona and shooting video in a squat inhabited by some hippy types. They invited me in to see the graffiti they had in there place.

This morning I got my Shure SM58 microphone which I connected to the Canon Vixia HF100 via a converter cable going from XLR to 3.5mm jack. Works a treat and I am pleased that I will be able to get better audio with my shooting video. It will do until I can get a wireless lavalier mic. Although I do have a clip mic I can use with my Zoom H2 audio recorder.

I comment on a couple of cameras that I would like to try out. A JVC HM100 and the Sony NX5 which is only just becoming available now.

This interview started over at Video20Q blog and podcast and seeing as Phil is a Mac user it is only right that I publish here on Mac20 Q also. I have cut out some of the interview that was more specific to film making and if you would like to get the full skinny on Phil, then you can listen to the interview in full at Video20Q.

Phil is working with an older Mac at the moment and is aware that he will have to trade up to a newer Intel based Mac soon.

Phil made the film short ‘Honest work’ using his editing skills with FinalCut Pro on his Mac and the video is to be found on YouTube. Nice idea for a short movie. I actually like the was he did the titles at the start of the movie too.

His advice to people that are thinking of doing film or video work is to get training first if you can but mainly the advice is to get out there and just DO IT. No point waiting around doing nothing because that will get you no where.

What Phil did was to buy the computer and software he needed to do the work he wanted which was to edit in TV and movies and learn how to do it well and found work from that. Excellent way to go.

Phil Holbrook goes by the name of Philontilt on Twitter and also has a web site called CreativeJinx. He works in the TV business editing footage and during his free time he makes films.

Phil runs a film festival entitled EgoFest Films and will be working hard on that up until February.

One of Phil’s’ films is ‘Honest Work’

Bob has been a supporter of Mac20Q for some time and was telling me that he has listened right from the start of the podcast. Thanks Bob, good to have you along for the ride. He was the winner of one of our software giveaway competitions too!

A good chat was had and covered all the good stuff about being a Mac user. Bob is in the process of making a podcast about Bridge the card game. He started doing it as an audio podcast then decided to start again but with video. Makes more sense if you can see the cards, for this he has been using BoinxTV. I also have BoinxTV but it didn’t work on my iMac and when I looked at it working on the MacBook I decided that it was more for making Live TV programs with multiple cameras. I think I am better off using FinalCut Express or iMovie.

Whilst on the subject of FinalCut Express, I have still been working away to learn how to use the application and I am pleased that I am getting into it due to using Lynda .com with the excellent tutorials they have there. I also found FinalCutKing web site and there is a whole load of video tutorials on the IzzyVideo web site. All good quality stuff. I checked out YouTube also but the quality of the tutorials is much more variable and at the lower end of the scale.

I though it was funny that all the news sites have been talking about Applecare not being available to smokers because the filth that had accumulated in the machine had made it un safe for the technicians, Well smokers are disgusting creatures and deserve it if it is true. Blackened lungs and blackened insides of the computer. So there you go passive smoking is bad for computers too.

Back to Bob – he is certainly a die hard Mac user, having experience with Macs from the very early days, he did veer away during the dark days when Jobs was pushed aside but was happy to come back to the fold when Intel processors appeared in the Mac computers. Thanks to Bob for coming on Mac 20 Questions. I had a great time chatting with him and if you would like to be featured on Mac 20 Questions then why not contact me and we can make a date and time to record an interview.

Leave a comment by hitting the blue button above and then scrolling down to get the the input form, or send me an email using the form below

[contact-form 1 "Contact form 1"]

Great guy from Enniskillin in Northern Ireland. He is Lecturer In Media Applications & Computer Science, Specialising in Video Game Development. I used to go there to Enniskillin, quite often either for shopping or to go to the Theatre. I did even once go kayaking on the river, with a bunch of kids. A good day out.

In the ramble I mention my new Magic Mouse which I am really pleased with, Google Wave and The Film Ink which got featured on Video20Q Podcast, the film got put on torrent this week and was downloaded thousands of times. I would like to see them getting paid for it though. Excellent looking movie. I have a DVD on its way to me now.

Paul McGovern is a new media teacher – lecturer in Northern Ireland and in impressing his students with being a total tech head. He tells me about apps like Blender, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere. He also does things on the audio side with Audacity and other apps you can find out about in the interview. He is fond also of ScreenSteps an Application which Allison of the Nosillacast often bangs on about.

Planbook is designed to replace your traditional paper planbook with a robust digital scheduler. Planbook is designed and written by a full-time teacher and includes all the features you need to save time, stay organized, keep others informed and help you finish your teaching day a little bit earlier.

ProfCast is a versatile, powerful, yet very simple to use tool for recording lectures including PowerPoint and/or Keynote slides for creating enhanced podcasts. ProfCast provides a low cost solution for recording and distributing lectures, special events, and presentations as podcasts. ProfCast offers an integrated workflow that makes creating, recording, and publishing podcasts easy. It’s as simple as Launch, Load, and Lecture!

Paul tells me of a thing called Moodle, which is  a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites. I must check it out my wife is a teacher, maybe she could find it useful.

Film making Mac users were interviewed,  Jamin and Kiowa Winans of Double Edge Films. They were great to talk to and impressed me greatly with their approach to the movie industry. The Movie INK was well received at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and now is being show around the country in the USA.

It’s been six months since premiering Ink at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and though we’ve been having a lot of successes, Ink has taken a path I never could have predicted. A lot of filmmakers have asked us about our strategy with the film and why we’ve made some of the decisions we have with the release of Ink. Here is a description of our experience and an explanation of why we’re doing what we’re doing.

To read more click on the picture to the left.

I am so looking forward to seeing the movie, it looks so exciting in the trailer. Not only are they from Colorado but they filmed INK there and used actors from the area too. Kiowa tells me that Colorado has so many different types of scenery just perfect for filming a movie, no problem in finding locations and even helps to keep the film in budget when you know the area and the people of the area.

Jamin has had a camera in his hands since he was 10 years old, making feature length films as a teenager learning how to cut and splice video tape, he must be so pleased to be using Final Cut Pro now.

So you can see that he has quite a background in making movies. INK most certainly is not his first movie and he has other movies in the pipeline for the future. The exact details as a bit hush hush but I bet it will be scifi in its outlook, he seems likes that genre

Kiowa has a huge involvement in the making of the film INk and has been responsible for the Producers job and worked the sound for the film. They have a small sound studio in the house where they sometimes whip out the senheiser mic and record what they need and also to combine with foley sounds to further enhance the movie.

Here is the trailer for the movie INK for you to enjoy.

The music for the outro of the podcast is by Louis Vig a track called Can You Feel It

What a coup to be able to interview the film makers Jamin and Kiowa Winans of Double Edge Films. They were great to talk to and impressed me greatly with their approach to the movie industry. The Movie INK was well received at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and now is being show around the country in the USA.

It’s been six months since premiering Ink at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and though we’ve been having a lot of successes, Ink has taken a path I never could have predicted. A lot of filmmakers have asked us about our strategy with the film and why we’ve made some of the decisions we have with the release of Ink. Here is a description of our experience and an explanation of why we’re doing what we’re doing.

To read more click on the picture to the left.

I have seen the trailer for the film and I am so looking forward to seeing the movie, it looks so exciting. Not only are they from Colorado but they filmed INK there and used actors from the area too. Kiowa tells me that Colorado has so many different types of scenery just perfect for filming a movie, no problem in finding locations and even helps to keep the film in budget when you know the area and the people of the area.

Jamin has had a camera in his hands since he was 10 years old, making feature length films as a teenager learning how to cut and splice video tape, he must be so pleased to be using Final Cut Pro now.

So you can see that he has quite a background in making movies. INK most certainly is not his first movie and he has other movies in the pipeline for the future. The exact details as a bit hush hush but I bet it will be scifi in its outlook, he seems likes that genre

Kiowa  has a huge involvement in the making of the film INk and has been responsible for the Producers job and worked the sound for the film. They have a small sound studio in the house where they sometimes whip out the senheiser mic and record what they need and also to combine with foley sounds to further enhance the movie.

Here is the trailer for the movie INK for you to enjoy.

The music for  the outro of the podcast is by Louis Vig a track called Can You Feel It

Click the logo to listen to the podcast

Once again making use of one simple question put in turn to each of the guests to stimulate a conversation about Mac and how we use them.
For this round table meeting I went with….
Question – What piece of software would you Like to buy – Why do you want it and what is stopping you buying it so far?

I was expecting cash flow being one reason for having to wait especially with something like Final Cut due to the cost of it. But then other reasons like a couple of other apps doing the job already, you know it would be better with the new app but can’t quite bite the bullet seeing as it is more or less covered already.

What is the trigger to buy the new software
Is it the need for something new and shiny?
A problem that has to be solved
Just waiting on that recommendation from your online friends about it so that you know you just have to stump up

During the chat we talked about Bento and Filemaker applications. Even Appleworks gets a mention. Paul does the real stuff with MySQL databases. You can even keep a bit of database in a spreadsheet like Numbers. Then of course there are specific things like DVD finder or Delicious Library. Of course a To Do list is a database also.

LogMeIn the iPhone application is something that can be useful especially if you are looking after other people’s computers for a living.

FinalCutPro and the Express version are also applications that the panelists are lusting after, and I don’t blame them. I use ScreenFlow and VideoCue to do some video editing, avoiding the latest iMovie if I can. iMovie isn’t so bad though if you spend some time getting used to it.

Click on the picture to listen to the podcast

Michael is from Houston in Texas and has a plethora of Mac computers that he uses for business and pleasure. He makes training films using Final Cut Pro and is a heavy user of Aperture. Michael has a pedigree with Macs going back to the Apple 2. Obviously this amounts to a huge amount of experience with the Mac.

He tells us a little about using classic and changing to OS X. He is not keen on using a Mouse preferring to use a trackball. He uses a Heil PR40
and USB Edirol mixer to connect it up. He reckons his PR40 is the best mic to use when you consider the antique clocks he has chiming in the background from time to time.

I use a Samson C03U mic similar to the Samson Multi-pattern Condenser Mic
both are USB mics.
I recommended AmadeusPro to him and he said he is off to the shop to buy it after we finish recording. I even passed on some tips about selecting part of a sound wave to delete so that you don’t get and extra clicks in the audio.
He reckons that Adobe will probably take some time to get a version out for Snow Leopard because they can drag their feet a bit some times in reaction to new operating systems. Multi Threading is going to be the big thing with Snow leopard and being about to make use of the multi core computers.
He told me there is a huge difference between having 2GB and 4 GB in the MacBook. So I will have to do something about putting in the extra in my MacBook too.
The office he works in is a mixture of Macs and Windows and has to use MS Excel because it is the only spreadsheet that will open the spreadsheets that get sent to him. For his personal office type of thing he will use iWork. He wishes that it wasn’t totally necessary to revolve around microsoft products in business.
Not quite a cool aid drinker but will always recommend a Mac to people when the ask what sort of computer to get.
Michael likes to use Firefox for the add ons you can use and will sometimes go back to Safari and now and then Camino. Depends on which is working the best right now, and for now it is Safari 4. Fluid gets a mention also, this is an app which you use to make a application specific to a web site.
Oovoo is used for some video chatting  with his mates which include Mark Sheppard who was featured in the previous podcast and Rob Saunders who will be in a Podcast here soon and Michael  uses a Logitech web cam to get the video in.

Recommended sites

• The Unofficial Apple Weblog
• Mac Rumours
• Get information direct from Apple have a look in the support area
• International Mac Podcast

Michaels pictures

• http://gallery.me.com/mking8#100058
• http://gallery.me.com/mking8#100074

michaelking@im-podcast.com