Film Racing 24 Hour Challenge 2010

This year, LoftonFilms participated in the 2010 Washington D.C. 24 Hour Film Racing Challenge.

Here's the official website.

On Friday night, September 24th, 2010 at 10pm, LoftonFilms was given an e-mail with a 'Theme' and a 'Surprise Element'.

The way this specific contest works is that you have 24 hours to write, produce and edit the 3 and 1/2 minute movie.

Needless to say, it was a challenge both physically and mentally!

This year our team consisted of 5 main players; myself (Director / Editor), Erik D. Miller (Co-Writer & Main Actor), Jessica Nero (actress), Rajiv Deonauth (actor) and John Lofton III (Sound / Other).

For this contest I built a custom 'First Person View' rig, which I call the FPV Rig 2.0. It's an indy rig, for sure (AKA low budget).

The name of our short film is, "The OCD Burglar".

I'll have pictures online after the screening, this Thursday.

The Screening for the 24 Hour Contest films is this Thursday night. Here are the details:


7pm - 9pm
E Street Cinema
555 11th Street Northwest
Washington, DC

Come check out the premiere of the films this Thursday at 7:00PM and vote for your favorites! Tickets are $9 in advance and can be purchased online at http://www.filmracing.com/Cities/WashingtonDC.htm or at the door on the night of the screening for $10 if tickets are still available.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147297768613705

Hope you can make it!

2 Camera Live Stream Setup

This weekend, August 6th through 8th, I am helping VGBootcamp with video and live-streaming services at the APEX 2010 tournament.

The tournament will be taking place at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey in the large Student Center auditorium.

VGBootcamp was founded by Matt & Calvin Lofton in 2008. Their goal is to educate competitive gamers with their website. They also offer tournament hosting and live-streaming services, which is where I come in to play.

What I set up for their tournament is a simple interview desk with a backdrop and the ability to fit 3 people on-screen at a time.



It took a couple hours to set up the 2 cameras, light the backdrop and hook up the computers.



You can see behind me the area where all of the gamers will be seated for one half of the tournament (Melee Stream).

The interview booth was set up with 2 cameras so that the live-stream booth on the Melee side as well as the live-stream booth on the Brawl side could be fed video signals.

The live stream booths in both rooms also have webcams attached so that viewers of the live stream could listen to and watch commentators.



Here we see Calvin Lofton (pictured left) and John Lofton III (pictured right) setting up the Brawl Live Stream booth.

Throughout the weekend, VGBootcamp's Matt Lofton will be interviewing top players for the stream.



We have been using U-Stream Producer Pro on both Live Stream computers for the live stream. It has worked pretty well so far with minimal glitching.

However, it is painfully obvious that in order to use helpful and creative overlays, the computer needs to be pretty beefed up. Other than that, it has run very smoothly.

Matrox Make The Cut Contest Winner

I submitted a Demo Reel created for RaffertyWeiss Media for the Matrox , "Make The Cut" contest back in April.

A few weeks later I received an e-mail telling me we had won!

See the article below...

Matrox Make The Cut Winners

Text from the article:

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Matrox NAB 2010 showreel. The winners of our contest are Manuel Hernandez-Stumpfhauser of OXES multimedia film & tv and John D. Lofton IV of RaffertyWeiss Media.

Never Met Her - Official Update 5.11.2010

Greetings All,

On April 9th, 2010, Moses Haughton SR (the artist, Moses Haughton JR's father & investor) signed the Rough Compromise Agreement at his body shop in Clinton, Maryland. This Rough Compromise Agreement laid out a simple, 8-month payment plan in which all remaining, overdue invoices associated with the "Never Met Her" music video were to be settled.

This Rough Compromise Agreement was then fine-tuned for specific monthly payments. These monthly payments would have lasted until December, 2010 for the majority of the overdue invoices.

After nearly a month of attempting to coordinate a meeting with Moses Haughton SR & JR to get them to sign the Final Agreement, I finally had to drive to them at Mo's Auto Body on Friday, May 7th, 2010.

Even though Moses Haughton SR signed the Rough Agreement, and Moses Haughton JR. verbally agreed to the compromise (See YouTube video link below), for some reason they both refused to sign the Final Agreement and told me they had no intentions of finishing the music video. This was completely unexpected and quite upsetting..

Moses Haughton telling his fans about the compromise on April 9th, 2010

I'm sure this news is just as much a surprise to you as it was to me. Rest assured, however, that I am taking every step necessary to pursue legal action at this point.

There will be no more meetings, no more compromises. I am taking Moses Haughton JR & SR to court and suing them for the remaining, overdue invoice balances as well as punitive damages.

I will continue to provide everyone in this e-mail chain with important updates and information regarding this ongoing situation. I may be asking certain members for information that may be pertinent to this case.

For now, all I ask for is your continued patience and understanding in this matter. It's been a long road for what was supposed to be a 2-3 month music video production and I'm sure that, like me, you all want to see this matter resolved as quickly as possible.

'Never Met Her' Small Update 5.6.2010

I will meeting with Moses Haughton SR tomorrow morning so he can sign the Official Payment Schedules and agreements.

I will be e-mailing all payment schedules out today and tomorrow, as well as mailing signed, hard copies.

I appreciate everyone's patience and understanding in this matter. Once everything is resolved I will be able to release a DEMO of the 'Never Met Her' video to the public!

Never Met Her - Official Update 4.10.2010

*The meeting has been temporarily delayed. I will update the blog again as to when the official documents have been signed and the payment schedules have been prepared to be mailed out with corresponding e-mails.* 4.20.2010

Greetings Everybody,

Moses Haughton JR, Moses Haughton SR and John Lofton IV have arrived at a compromise agreement for the Never Met Her music video's outstanding invoices for cast, crew & rental companies.

We will be mailing (and e-mailing) out individual payment schedules next week detailing the exact amount to be paid and the dates you will all receive payment. For each payment you receive, there will be a document enclosed stating the remaining balances for each account.

I will update the blog once the official documents have been signed, which should take place no later than Friday, April 16th 2010.

In the mean time, LoftonFilms and Moses Haughton JR & Co. will be in constant communication regarding the remaining shoot days for the Never Met Her music video.

We will be sending out an official e-mail to all Cast & Crew involved in the project by the end of next week detailing the next steps for the completion of the Never Met Her music video.

It's been a bumpy ride, but it looks like things can only get better from this point!

JDL4

Never Met Her - Official Update 4.9.2010

Good News Everybody!

Moses Haughton JR, SR and John Lofton IV have official come to an agreement!

I will post more details tomorrow. For now, enjoy the following video:

Never Met Her - Official Update 4.6.2010

*EDIT UPDATE 3:30PM Friday, April 9th 2010*

Moses Haughton JR and John Lofton IV will be meeting tonight at 7:30 to thoroughly discuss the next course of action that will be taken for the 'Never Met Her' music video.

I will post an update after the meeting to let everyone know exactly what the next steps will be.

-John

Greetings Everyone,

I wish I could say this is a positive update and that I have a sneak preview, Demo or 'Directors Cut' to share with the world. Unfortunately; that is not the case.

As you may or may not know by now, Moses Haughton JR's long awaited , "Never Met Her" music video has been undergoing some complications since October, 2009.

As the Director for the video, I feel it is my duty to give everyone involved in the production process an official, public update as to the status and potential future of the video, since Moses Haughton JR. has refused to do so.

As of today, Tuesday April 6th 2010, Moses Haughton JR. has accrued a considerable amount of long overdue, unpaid invoices relating to the 'Never Met Her' music video. These unpaid invoices apply to the cast, crew and rental houses associated with the video.

After several months and several attempts to get Moses Haughton JR to incrementally reduce the outstanding balance for his video, so we can resume filming and complete the remaining 10% of production, it has come to the point where I can no longer wait to see the results.

I have e-mailed Moses Haughton JR an official request to take the following action by Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 5pm:

I have requested that Moses Haughton JR. creates and signs an incremental payment plan for all remaining, unpaid invoices associated with the 'Never Met Her' music video, with a maximum payment deadline of December 31st, 2010.

If he fails to show evidence that he has created the payment plan by the deadline mentioned above, I will be forced to take legal action against him in an attempt to recover the losses suffered by those who helped him by working on his music video and have not yet been paid.

Please join me by telling Moses Haughton JR. himself what you think. Below is his list of publicly available contact information:

Myspace Blog

Facebook Page

Facebook Fan Page

Wordpress Blog

Twitter Account

I am truly sorry that the course of events has led us to this particular outcome and hope to be able to release a Demo version of the video sometime in the near future.

However; until Moses Haughton JR has paid off the overdue invoices I can not publicly release a copy of the video, due to legal reasons.

I will be posting another update on Friday, April 9th 2010 after 5pm, detailing the next course of action.

I am truly thankful of everyone who has participated in the production of this music video experience so far, and hope to be a major part in helping resolve all financial issues associated with it.

DV Magazine - Real World Video Storage Solutions

2 Months ago I received an e-mail from James Careless, Editor for DV Magazine, who had some questions about the way RaffertyWeiss stores their media & backups.

After some brief phone calls and lengthy e-mails, here is the result!

http://dv.com/article/91754

It's a great piece that takes 5 different production companies and compares the way they store their video.

From the article...

RaffertyWeiss Media has Video Storage Figured Out
Some production companies are overwhelmed by the task of video storage and asset management. RaffertyWeiss Media of Silver Springs, Maryland, is not one of these. In fact, according to associate producer John Lofton IV, RaffertyWeiss has devised an end-to-end video management system that works.

“First and foremost, every time we have completed mastering a video (right after the final color correction and audio mix) we request an uncompressed QuickTime copy,” says Lofton. “If it's a fully digital project, we just export this QuickTime movie directly from Final Cut Pro to our 'Masters' drive. This is the easiest method.”

“However, if it has been laid to tape — Digibeta or HDCAM SR — we ask the duplicator to capture it to an uncompressed QuickTime on an external hard drive of our choice, which we then courier back to our office to be copied to our masters drive,” he adds. For safety’s sake, the company keeps master Digibeta, HDCAM and HDCAM SR tape copies of its videos stored on the "masters shelves." “We have over 200 masters spanning two bookshelves!” Lofton says.

As for those old videotapes that can sit in closets, out of sight and out of mind? RaffertyWeiss does not have them. Instead, “we have captured all of our 'old' tape-only masters to uncompressed QuickTimes and stored them on the masters drive as well,” says Lofton.

Finally, “every couple of months or so, we use our Wiebetech 4-door SATA drive enclosure to duplicate project drives,” Lofton notes. “We back them up using simple 'copy and paste' in Mac OS X. Since all of the drives are connected using SATA, this process only takes a few hours.”

So much for storage. What about searching and retrieving videos? To do this, RaffertyWeiss employs a two-category approach. “All masters are separated into 'Spots' and 'Long Form' categories,” Lofton says. “Spots are generally :30 to :60 in length and are in a broadcast ready format, whereas Long Form videos can be anywhere from two minutes to an hour!”

“Within both folders is a 'Compressed for DVD' folder,” he continues. “This is where all DVD-ready, compressed elementary streams are contained for whenever we need to create a Demo Reel. I have separated video and audio streams into 'AC3' and 'M2V' folders. This helps keep our videos and demo versions of videos organized and ready to be output to Demo DVD at a moment’s notice.”

At present, “our process is pretty simple,” Lofton concludes. Still, “if the volume of project drives and master videos increases significantly, we may have to consider changing to a NAS network storage system. But, for now, this method works just fine for us!”

By James Careless

In other news; Never Met Her Music Video has been undergoing a long delay due to the artist Moses Haughton & Co. who will be visiting LoftonFilms tonight for a very important meeting. We will keep you posted on the details!

John