Coates Promotes “Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time”

Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time directed by my client Jeff Von Ward has a local premiere this week.

A certain college professor of my acquaintance used to drag me along to watch him empty quarters in the arcade machines of video game prehistory at the SONY Metreon pleasure zone.

This new documentary film takes a retro look at video arcade games now mostly in the loving hands, basements and garages of dedicated collectors. Von Ward’s clever visual treatments make this a lively and likeable pacman bite of Proustian Madeleine memory of fun with primitive machines of mechanical logic.

Coates Promotes “Seeking Asian Female” on PBS Independent Lens

May 6, PBS Independent Lens has its premiere broadcast of

“Seeking Asian Female” , directed by my client Debbie Lum.

Debbie set out to make a documentary about the phenomenon of “Yellow Fever”, the condition of non-Asian heterosexual males who fantasize about Asian women. The film begins to explore one subject, Stephen, who almost miraculously convinces a Chinese woman to leave China and marry him.
Debbie as objective documentarian becomes a subject in the documentary herself, the triage translator and involuntary marriage counselor as we watch the train wreck of Stephen and Sandy approach.

Can this marriage be saved? Can Stephen recover from Yellow Fever? Can Sandy make a life for herself in Golden California?

Well worth watching.

Color finishing by self in DaVinci Resolve at Colorflow Post, Berkeley, CA.

Miss Finknagle Succumbs to Chaos

The Second Annual Playground Film Festival premieres new short films including the very funny “Miss Finknagle Succumbs To Chaos” directed by my client Amy Harrison.

This is 4K RED Camera graded in DaVinci Resolve.

Bay Area screenings begin May 1.

Coates Promotes The Americana Music Cinema of Lia Rose

My latest effort on a music video for the sweet-voiced songwriter Lia Rose, her performance cinema-photographed on a 4K RED EPIC by Clay by the Bay, under the direction and FCP X edition of Oscar Bucher, all of us produced by Tommy Maples of Evolve Media.

I conquered my Ophidiophobia to track the snake eyes with DaVinci Resolve. FCP X and Resolve played nice in 4K with XML roundtrip.

SNAKE IN THE WATER

Debut of the Black Magic Cinema Camera

I participated in an exploration of the new Black Magic Design Cinema Camera at Colorflow in Berkeley February 28 when the new facility hosted the Northern California Digital Cinema Society.

I was invited to grade provided clips using Colorflow’s DaVinci Resolve, Black Magic Design’s color enhancement software, a companion product. I was impressed with the camera. I especially intended to strain the footage through “over grading”. Stretching black and hard bends to gamma curves did not exhibit noise. Secondary color corrections did not fall apart when pushed.

One clip which looked to be multiple stops overexposed yielded a deep blue sky when I opened up the RAW data parameters in Resolve.

This camera marketed at a very accessible price point can easily begin to replace the DSLR camera currently used as a B camera in higher end budgets or even serve the role as A camera for the lean budgets of the independent filmmaker.

Black Magic Design Cinema Camera Link

SKYHOUSE

Here is a recent effort of mine graded in DaVinci Resolve, shot on RED EPIC, and directed and edited by Jonathan Robinson.

The subject is a fascinating architectural project in Manhattan at 150 Nassau Street.

SKYHOUSE

Deborah Koons Garcia awarded at The Wild and Scenic Film Festival

My client Deborah Koons Garcia won The Environmental Filmmaker Award for “Symphony of The Soil” at this weekend’s Wild and Scenic Film Festival. I tip my hat to her editor Vivien Hilgrove and her cinematographer John Chater. Actually the whole team at Lily Films are quite remarkable.