PRODUCTION LOG - Removing Grain in After Effects

I found out that a lot of my clips unfortunately feature copious amounts of grain. Of course this is unacceptable and therefore I had to open Adobe After Effects CS6 in order to remove the grain in the footage. Now, this is exceedingly challenging as I have spent a very small amount of time working in After Effects over my time in school, I used it a bit on personal products but other than that I have very little experience in using it. I had to consult a forum website in order to help me find out how to remove the grain. Once I had found out how to use the effect correctly I then imported several of my clips in order to make them the best quality that they could be.

This is a screenshot of my using the reduce grain filter in After Effects to reduce the grain from my clip. It works automatically but it has features that allow you to tweak it to your preferences. For example; on this clip I had to raise the noise reduction in order to make sure my clip looked smooth and perfect.

This is a screenshot of me using the forum in order to get tips on how to reduce the noise in my clips. It was a very helpful tool that made it quick and simple for me to learn what I was doing.

PRODUCTION LOG - Looking at film festivals

Today I researched into different short film festivals that let independent low budget directors display their work to wide audiences. Here is a picture of me looking up the Raindance festival on wikipedia in order to gather information for my blog post.

This is helpful as it shows me what films are successful.

Research into Film Festivals

Film festivals are a great way for young directors who don't have the pull to get their films into cinemas to show their work and recieve feedback. Festivals like sundance and others have given directors the chance to get their films noticed by major producers and turned into feature length films. An example of this is Alive in Joeburg becoming District 9 after Peter Jackson saw it at sundance.

Sundance film festival is an annualy film festival held by the Sundance Institue yearly in Utah. Aside from the Utah festival, there is also a Sundance festival in London. Sundance is the biggest independent film festival in America and host to almost 200 films annually. In 1984–85, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over management of the US Film Festival and changed the name to Sundance. Gary Beer and Van Wagenen spearheaded production of the inaugural Sundance Film Festival, which included Program Director Tony Safford and Administrative Director Jenny Walz Selby. The branding and marketing transition from the US Film Festival to the Sundance Film Festival was managed under the direction of Colleen Allen, Allen Advertising Inc., by appointment of Robert Redford.

Raindance is a film festival that takes place throughout major cities including: London, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Budapest, Berlin and Brussels. The Raindance Film School alumni list includes some of the most notable names in Hollywood, such as: Sacha Baron Cohen and Guy Ritchie. Raindance is not as popular as sundance but it still manages to innovate and expand, for example, they launched the worlds first 15 second short film competition alongside Nokia.