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Digital Straight Talk
DVFilm's Marcus van Bavel tells it like it is
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| DVFilm's Marcus van Bavel with his daughter, Morgan. |
Whether you’re looking for a place to transfer your latest project, test-drive the latest film editing software or just get some good, solid advice on the ever-changing world of digital technology as it relates to film, DVFilm’s owner and chief engineer Marcus van Bavel will give it to you straight. In a recent conversation with MM he discusses everything from the future of his company to why you are not going to get into Sundance.
Jennifer Wood (MM): First, give me just a brief description of what it is that DVFilm does.
Marcus van Bavel (MBV): We take the movie from the desktop to the screen. Typically, people call us when their feature or short film has been invited to a film festival, or when they’re ready to try a theatrical release or premiere. Most of our business is creating a 35mm print in a professional-looking way, taken from the filmmaker’s hard drive or master tape which may or may not be 100 percent polished. We also sell a guide book called Shooting Digital, which every digital filmmaker needs to read before they embark on a project or even buy a camera.
The other part of our business is the software you need to get something on tape that looks like a movie as opposed to looking like a video. We sell two film-motion products that work with virtually any editing system or computer, and they remove all the video-look out of your project before you submit the tape to a film festival or distributor.
MM: What is your background in moviemaking?
MCB: I went to film school and also got a degree in electrical engineering. I worked as a DP on several movies and directed two movies. The last one, Redboy 13, (www.redboy13.com) had a brief theatrical run in 1998 and you can get it on DVD just about anywhere. For that movie, I created my own 3D software and built my own film recorder, which led me directly into what DVFilm is doing now.
MM: For many moviemakers, the realm of digital moviemaking is a relatively new phenomenon, but it’s something you’ve been involved in for many years. Did you always know that other moviemakers would eventually “catch on”? How have you seen the utilization or focus on digital technology change most over the years?
MVB: I always knew that as computers got cheaper and faster that eventually it would be cheaper and faster to create reality inside a computer as opposed to building a set and hiring actors. That revolution, which will really change the entertainment world, has not really even gotten started.
The other aspect, of using digital sensors as opposed to a strip of film, but still recording the “real” world, was surprising to me. It did not occur to me until maybe 1998 that there were millions of would-be filmmakers for whom the price difference of $50,000 meant making or not making the movie. Now they can make the movie.
MM: Do you believe that all moviemaking will eventually become digital moviemaking in the near future? Who do you see as the pioneers of this movement?
MVB: Absolutely, but rather than repeating the names that everyone has already heard, I want to mention the pioneers who are using the new, cheap medium to create a regional cinema that did not exist before. For example, Margarita Morales of Peru. Her company, Iguana Productions, recently broke all box office records in Peru with a digital movie called Bano de Damas that we transferred to film. This was their second movie with us. Also Stephen Wolfe of Sneak Preview Entertainment. His gay-rave party feature, Circuit, has played in every city in the U.S. and was also shot digital. There are all kinds of unsung heroes making regional or specialized cinema that will never be seen at the multiplex, Blockbuster or even at the film festivals and you won’t read about them in Variety or Indiewire. But they still make money and fill a niche that has been empty up until now—particularly in foreign countries, where filmmaking was so expensive they either watched American movies or nothing at all. There’s a thirst for movies shot in their own language, about their own culture— and DVFilm is making that happen.
MM: The DVFilm resumé includes a large number of independent films. What is it that attracts indie moviemakers to your facility? What do you see as the specific needs of independent moviemakers, and how do you work to address them?
MVB: We offer lower cost and better technology than the East coast/West coast companies. Plus, when you call us you get either the chief engineer or the production manager—and both of us are moviemakers. I think what we offer is the moviemaker’s perspective, as opposed to the perspective of a post house or lab. A post house or a lab has the worst kind of cynicism. Also, every time they make a mistake, they make more money. We shield you from that; we don’t do that.
DVFilm handles everything, not just the recording of the negative. We take care of all the lab hassles and we guarantee the results. I think it’s very comfortable for a filmmaker to use DVFilm as opposed to the larger and more intimidating companies, which need to operate like a production line to stay alive.
MM: What are some of the most frequent questions you get from first-time moviemakers looking to begin work with your facility? How do you answer these questions?
MVB: The most common question, which comes way before they need a transfer to film, is which camera to buy. There are so many choices and bad folklore that people become lost. The book that we sell really answers most of those questions, and it gets updated every month or two. The latest edition includes a step-by-step guide to using the Panasonic DVX100, for example, which I think is the best choice right now for almost every filmmaker.
Then we get many calls and e-mails from those with finished movies, and they typically need to know price and turnaround time. Fortunately we are one of the few companies with our prices online (at dvfilm.com), and you can even plug the length of your movie into an interactive rate calculator and get a firm quote on the spot.
MM: What are some of the most common mistakes or pitfalls you think these same moviemakers fall into their first time out? How do you work to help fix these problems now—and avoid them in the future?
MVB: The most common mistake is to shoot “frame mode” with an NTSC Canon XL-1. That really destroys your chances at getting a good transfer to film. The other common mistake is to shoot at a very high shutter speed in outdoor or high-brightness conditions. You will get something that looks fine on tape, but looks horrible on film. In both these cases there is magic we can apply to make it better, but it involves drastic changes to the film and gets into a lot of extra cost.
MM: In addition to all your regular services, DVFilm is also the developer of two software programs: DVFilm Maker and DVFilm Atlantis. Can you talk a little bit about the history of these products and what they can do for moviemakers?
MVB: They were introduced in 2001 for both Windows and Mac. They are based upon the software that we developed for converting NTSC and PAL video to film. There are still very few programs around to remove video-look and they are too expensive, too slow and require you to use After Effects or some other horribly complicated program.
DVFilm Maker is a very simple program with a very simple task: to make video look more like film, but without reducing quality. It works by converting interlaced fields to progressive-scan film frames in an intelligent way that does not destroy resolution. Then it adds a bit of grain and color. Also it has features that can be used to convert DVX100 footage to 24P Quicktime, so you can use an older editing program like Adobe Premiere to edit at 24P.
DVFilm Atlantis is a software PAL to NTSC converter. But it’s unique in that it converts PAL in a very film-like manner, similar to the way film is converted to video. It allows people to shoot on PAL, with higher resolution than NTSC for transfer to film. Then they can easily convert to NTSC for broadcast or presentation on video, with a very nice film-like feeling to it.
MM: Who are the typical clients you find using these programs?
MVB: Our customers for this software range from big-time entertainment companies like Lucasfilm and Laser Pacific, to college and high school students who want their videos to look like movies. We sell them directly from our Website to places literally all over the Earth.
MM: As technology advances and more moviemakers are able to do at home what they previously needed a company like DVFilm for, how do you see your company—or role in the moviemaking process—changing?
MVGB: As technology advances they will need us even more. Obviously the market will move slowly from film transfer to preparation for digital projection, but that is what our software products are all about. Also our Rembrandt service is the equivalent of a transfer to film, with scene-to-scene color correction and conversion to 24P, but it stays in the electronic domain. Also, we will expand our software creations eventually to include everything you need to create a movie on the desktop. Much of the stuff available now like Final Cut Pro and Premiere are oriented toward videomaking, not filmmaking, and we hope to provide for that. I used to cut on film and I miss that. I want something that frees me from the timeline.
But as far as the need for 35mm goes, it will be with us for another decade. Not many people talk about the cost of replacing every film projector with a digital projector and a reliable disk-drive array. It’s a project on the order of the Apollo moon program. It’s not going to happen overnight.
MM: Complete the following sentence: Ten years from now, digital moviemaking will…
MVB: …Be so pervasive and commonplace that the word “digital” will disappear, it will just be moviemaking again. No one says horseless carriage anymore—they’re just cars.
For more information on DVFilm, visit http://www.dvfilm.com
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