Halloween Special Announcement and Apologies

Hey Kids!

So, we managed to post our Halloween Special this week and although we LOVE the show, the quality is a bit less than we usually accept.

Why is this?

This is based on a couple of reasons and I'll try to spell them out for you. The first is THE CAMERA.

Lately we've been shooting 720dpi "Hi-Rez" 25 fps video using the Kodak Zi6. Now, as some of you may already know, I DO love that camera. But, I bet the folks at Kodak would agree that it has limitations due to a fixed, small lens and storage compression.

I was looking at old footage that we had shot using our Mini DV camera and there was richer quality to the video. True, it isn't HD quality, but the lens is better and the format seemed sound. I made the decision to shoot the live action DV, and the visual effects HD.

Now this isn't uncommon even in the analog world. For years, Douglas Trumbull, VFX Artist of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, would shoot his VFX elements on 70mm vs. the traditional 35mm of most traditional motion pictures. When you "shrink" the 70mm image down to 35 you get a better product just by the nature of the reduction.

The second reason is my image conversion philosophy.

So here's where I messed up. Instead of shrinking the HD to DV, I tried to blow up the DV elements to fit the final HD upload and it had the same effect of blowing up Super 8mm or 16mm film to 35. The colors are washed out and the image is soft.

Even though I think the show still works, I can't let it sit. I'm going to go back...reduce the HD elements import them in the DV timeline and then RE-POST the show on Halloween so it can be seen in its FULL GLORY!

Thanks for being such patient fans of the show. We keep trying to introduce new stuff and make it fun!

Until next time, I'll see you at the Harbor!

Shannon Shea