Frequently Asked Questions

Why Rockford?

Low overhead! Great people and locations. Great place to live and do business. Close to Chicago, Milwaukee & Madison & the great outdoors. Did you know there are hills in Illinois?

Have you worked with anyone famous?

Tom Cruise	Steven Spielberg	Stephen Soderbergh
Will Smith	Vince Vaughn	Robert Smigel
Oprah Winfrey	Richard Gere	George Wendt
Julia Roberts	Cuba Gooding Jr.	Mike Ditka
George Clooney	Lauren Holly	Ed "Too Tall" Jones
Brad Pitt	Thomas Lennon	Mean Joe Green
Jeremy Piven	Carl Reiner	Larry Bird
Aidan Quinn	Emelio Estevez	Lou Rawls
Michael Jordan	Paul Walker	Jessica Alba
Tony Goldwyn	Tina Turner	Sam Raimi
Mel Gibson	Doobie Bros.	R. Kelly
Bob Vila	Scott Caan	Andy Garcia

Do you have their autographs?

No, it's not professional to ask for an autograph or photo. Besides, we're pretty busy working for the man. But I've shared long work hours, weird conversations, meals, basketball games, pranks and even a cocktail or two with a few.

Can you get someone famous to star in my commercial?

Yeah, I can at least call them and ask, if you want me to? I could be expensive?

Do you have to pay actors?

Umm, mostly. At least offer them a diet soda. If you can, try to hire trained professionals. Trained professionals stay in focus better for some reason. Always remember actors and models have exciting lives to lead and their time is valuable.

Why do you need a sound guy?

No matter how good it looks, if it sounds like junk then the whole thing is junk. Audio is an extremely important aspect of the audience's experience, and recording good audio in the field is always a challenge. An experienced audio mixer and boom operator are worth their weight in gold when faced with difficult audio issues that constantly arise in the field. They also help prevent costly problems that can drag a day to a screeching halt. When crewing a job, we take the sound department seriously and try to hire the best crews available to assure a quality product.

Were you trained at Second City?

Yes, in comedy writing at Chicago's Second City Training Center.

What should I wear? Who will do my hair?

We work with very talented professional stylists. From wardrobe, hair, make up, or props, their attention to detail and artistic strokes turn ordinary to extraordinary. Otherwise, just wear green and I'll fix it in post.

35mm Lens Adapters

We use 'em all the time. They make video look real nice.

24p Video

What is it? Why do I want it?

24p video is a revolutionary breakthrough in digital image capture that achieves a film-like quality to images captured with more affordable video cameras. High-end big budget advertisers spend millions of dollars a year shooting their products with film cameras at the magical 24 frames per second. Video cameras traditionally record at 30 fps, 6 frames per second faster. That sounds good, right? More is better, right? Wrong! Not in this case. Those six frames have a tremendous effect on the way it effects, or "tricks" the eye and brain of the viewer. At 24 frames per second each "picture" or frame is exposed (captured) a little longer, and is projected "seen" by the viewer a little longer creating a slight blur in every frame that helps add a more natural motion to the images and helps "fool" the eye and brain.

When you shoot at 30fps, those extra 6 frames do more harm than good. First of all, each frame has less time to expose. This creates a 25% more "crisp" frame giving each frame 25% less of the natural blur the brain uses to create the illusion of motion. At 30fps the viewer's brain sees more of a "strobing" effect occurs that affects the audience emotionally.

Research has proven time and again that the viewer is more relaxed and engaged when watching images recorded at 24fps and more tense and easily distracted when viewing the same content at 30fps.

HD / SD / or Mini DV?

the simple answer: who's your audience?

Do you need a pen, a sharpie, or a big fat marker?

Audience	Format	Cost
web	mini DV	$
DVD	SD	$$
HDVD / Blue Ray	HD/film	$$$
TV	Mini DV/SD	$$
TV-HD	SD/HD/Film	$$$
Theatre	HD/Film	$$$$

If you have a question, e-mail it to filmrockford@gmail.com

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