20 replies to this topic

[Steve Douglas]

Well folks, its that time of year again. B)

San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition

If you make underwater films and no one ever sees them,
how do you share your visions of this our Ocean Planet.


Submit you’re films to the San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition, and make a difference.

This is a call for entries for the 7th Annual San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition, scheduled for Friday and Saturday evenings, October 20 & 21, 2006 at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.

Here is your chance to see your work in a large-format, state-of-the art, digital theater, and to share your adventures with others.

Each evening will feature a different program consisting of 14 to 16 short underwater films from locations all over the world.

Entry Guidelines:
* Submission deadline is August 15, 2006.
* We are accepting only mini-DV NTSC tapes.
* No film should be longer than five minutes max and at least 50% of the footage must be underwater.
* Please ensure that you have all rights, to any media that is used in your film(s) (music, visual footage,
personal, copyright, or any other legal right.
* Please leave a 10-15 sec. blank leader at the beginning of your submissions. More than one film
may be entered on a tape.
* To have your tapes returned after the Film Exhibition, please include a proper sized, self-addressed,
stamped envelope with proper postage.

* Please include your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, film’s name and length,
and a brief bio with your film submission(s).

* Send your submissions to: The San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition
c/o Bob Gladden
10339 Thanksgiving Ln.
San Diego, CA 92126.

Filmmakers whose films are selected are encouraged to come to the show and introduce their film(s) in person on the night of the show.

The San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition reserves the right to use the films for the promotion of this event. All rights will remain with the owners of the films.

If you have any questions please contact either Bob Gladden at (858) 695-0264, ovisions@san.rr.com; or Steve Douglas at: (619) 464-4505, steve-sharksdelight@cox.net.

[larsdennert]

You may want to specify whether you handle HDV and which formats. Not that I have anything worthy... Then again I am off to Kona in March.

[ronrosa]

You may want to specify whether you handle HDV and which formats. Not that I have anything worthy... Then again I am off to Kona in March.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Kona in March ? Manta Ray night dive recorded in HD, should be incredible.

[Steve Douglas]

While we do not accept Pal tapes, we will be happy to accept any submissions whether shot on Mini DV or HDV....no Hi 8 however. We hope you will find the time to put something together that would make you proud.-Steve

[wagsy]

Hello Steve
Not sure if you know this but I have put FX1 PAL HDV tapes in a NTSC FX1 camera and vise versa and both camera's play each others tape format no problems.

If your projecter or viewing monitor can handle both PAL or NTSC signals then allot of people can send in just PAL HDV tapes.

Wags

[larsdennert]

Kona in March ?  Manta Ray night dive recorded in HD, should be incredible.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have a lot to live up to but I'll try. I'm looking forward to that Manta dive too. A friend of mine, also in our dive club http://www.SoleSearchersDiveClub.com won the Kona Classic photo competion last year. Maybe I'll need another HID light to win huh?

My dad was a member of the SD Underwater Photographic Society in the 70's and 80's. Are you the same group? We all used to go on trips to Baja together. You guys were pretty serious bringing a flatbed truck full of dive gear and a compressor. He's still diving and taking pics too. We moved to LA in the mid eighties.

[Steve Douglas]

No we are not the same group though the SDUPS is still operating. They just focus on photagraphic still images and were not interested or inclined to take video into the fold. Thus we formed our own group, some of whom are members in the SDUPS as well. Chuck Nicklin is a member of the video group and he would probably know your dad. The UnderSea Film festival is shown on a beautiful state of the art screen at the Museum of Man Museum in Balboa Park, San Diego. This will be our 6th or 7th year of sold out shows.
Hope you will submit something.
Steve

[Steve Douglas]

Hi Wags,
If you have the Z1U and wish to convert it over to NTSC that would be fine with us. This festival has been growing in a major way since its inception and we welcome submissions from all over the world. In the past such luminaries as Marty Snyderman, Howard and Michelle Hall, Bob Cranston and other top notch professionals have all served as judges. Even the organizing committee members like myself must submit to the judgeing and have no say as to what is accepted or not. After we get the judges results we then meet to decide which film is shown in what order for the Friday evening and Sat. evening shows.
The more submissions the merrier, in fact, you are allowed up to 3 entries.
Good luck,
Steve

[wagsy]

Steve
You cannot convert a PAL HDV Tape to a NTSC HDV one in a Z1 camera by firewireing two cameras together. The Z1 onlys records in PAL or NTSC while filming.

The recording camera will just record in the same format as the tape that is being played by the playing camera.

For example...I once conected two identical MINI DV camera's together by firewire.
One was PAL and the other a NTSC camera. Played the PAL tape in the PAL camera and recorded with the NTSC camera. The recorded tape winds up PAL. Same if I put the PAL tape in the NTSC camera and firwire to the PAL camera. The tape came out PAL. This also applys to a NTSC tape, it always ends up NTSC no matter what.

So that leaves alot of people unable to send in because they cannot send a NTSC tape whithout going to great lengths in time and cost and quality loss.

Paul


(Not sure if you know this but I have put FX1 PAL HDV tapes in a NTSC FX1 camera and vise versa and both camera's play each others tape format no problems.

If your projecter or viewing monitor can handle PAL or NTSC signals then allot of people can send in just PAL HDV tapes.)

[SimonSpear]

While we do not accept Pal tapes, we will be happy to accept any submissions whether shot on Mini DV or HDV....no Hi 8 however.  We hope you will find the time to put something together that would make you proud.-Steve

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Out of interest, is there any particular reason why you wouldn't accept NTSC DVDs? I've recorded DVDs as NTSC after editing footage from a PAL Camcorder and was told that it looked fine (although I didn't see it myself as I'm in a PAL country).

I'm new to this so there may be an obvious explanation that I've overlooked.

Cheers, Simon

[wagsy]

Hey Simon
A NTSC DVD would be easy to make but they beem it up onto a large screen so might not look to good. I once sold some very clear underwater 3CCD mini DV footage for a LOTTO commercial which was going to also be beemed up in the cinema. They ended up not being abe to use it for the big screen due to it not looking good.

However some of my HDV material has been converted to 35 mm film and beemed up onto a 25 foot screen and no one believed it was shot on a video camera.

NTSC DVD is 720/480 at around 8mbps data rate.
NTSC Normal Mini DV is 720/480 25mbps.
NTSC HDV is 1440/1080 at around 25 mbps.

A DVD is alot lower (3 times) quality than mini DV and Mini DV is like 3-4 times lower than HDV.

Anyhow see what they come back with..

Wags

[DeanB]

Yeah, bring on the PAL tapes. Get more entries from the Europe posse.

I have a 5min film I could send over. But alas PAL. Although I can do a NTSC DVD but as wags said if its on a big screen and the pic's wasted then it's a faller. (what the fook's he on about) You catch my drift.

Dive safe

DeanB

[SimonSpear]

I knew that there had to be an obvious answers - I wasn't thinking about the projection issues onto a big screen. Doh!

Cheers, Simon

[Steve Douglas]

To all the PAL shooters out there; we would love to have you submit your films, please just convert them to NTSC first. If you are shooting with a Z1U or X1 than your cam can do the converting. If not, I would hope you might know or be able to convert it some other way. And yes, this will be on a massive screen, considerably larger than 25 feet, think a major sized screen that you would find in a regular movie theater.
Steve

[wagsy]

Hello Steve

I may be missing something here but the Z1 only can record in PAL 50i or NTSC 60i while in filming mode. If you plug in a feed from a PAL camera, can it record it as NTSC?

Wags

[MikeVeitch]

Steve, what are you using to show the tapes? Are you using a DV camera or mini DV deck hooked into a projector?

If so i don't see the problem with sending in PAL tapes, NTSC cameras can play PAL tapes....

[wagsy]

Hi Mike hows it going over there?

You are right, if their projector can handel a Pal feed we are laughing because any Sony HDV camera can play Pal or NTSC tapes.

I messed around today and encoded out a 1440/1080 m2t file in NTSC from a PAL timline and sent it to my PAL camera. My FX1 Pal 50i camera recorded it in NTSC 60i.......I thought great...but it plays back abit jumpy B)

On anther note. Since I posted my video podcasts, I have had 1,084 hits to my podcast feed XML file and over 68 GIGS of traffic this month to my server.....one way of getting your stuff know.

Paul

[Steve Douglas]

At this time, I am not 100% sure what they will be using so I can't really answer this. In previous years we have simply hooked a Sony GVD-900 or 1000 into the theaters projector. For HDV submissions this year we will probably use either a Sony X1 or HC1 to go into the projector. A main reason for needing films on NTSC is that once the submissions are all in we make at least 6 seperate compilation DVDs to give to the judges. As you can imagine, this takes a huge amount of time to do. I see no reason why a film maker cannot simply make the PAL to NTSC conversion themselves, do you?
On another note, I really do appreciate all the interest that you have shown. This show has grown by leaps and bounds, I think, because it not only showcases your films in such a magnificant surrounding but also because it is not sullied by rankings, prizes, politics or sponsorships. The real prize is just to get a film chosen by the judges. There is a trememdous amount of satisfaction in that.
Steve

[MikeVeitch]

A main reason for needing films on NTSC is that once the submissions are all in we make at least 6 seperate compilation DVDs to give to the judges.  As you can imagine, this takes a huge amount of time to do.  I see no reason why a film maker cannot simply make the PAL to NTSC conversion themselves, do you?

    Steve

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ahh, ok, the compilation DVD makes sense to have them all in NTSC.

Steve, the reason people would prefer to use their native format is because converting to NTSC creates a loss of quality. After coming up with a great show reel i am sure a lot of people would be a little ticked if they were judged to have a great presentation only not to be rewarded a prize due to the quality of the footage.

Anyways, enough about these questions. Best of luck on your festival!

[Steve Douglas]

Much thanks and I hope to see your work up on the big screen!
Steve