Author Archives: Michael Korican

About Michael Korican

A long-time media artist, Michael’s filmmaking stretches back to 1978. Michael graduated from York University film school with Special Honours, winning the Famous Players Scholarship in his final year. The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video called Michael's first feature 'Recorded: Live!' "the first film about rock video". Michael served on the board of L.I.F.T. when he lived in Toronto during the eighties and managed the Bloor Cinema for Tom and Jerry. He has been prolific over his past eight years in Victoria, having made over thirty-five shorts, won numerous awards, produced two works for BravoFACT! and received development funding for 'Begbie’s Ghost' through the CIFVF and BC Film.

Cinema-grade add-on lenses for iPhones?

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Jourdan Aldredge on No Film School invites us to Meet the World’s First Cinema-Grade Mobile Lenses for iPhone.

There are at least half a dozen brands of add-on lenses for iPhone cinematography, but these promise to be the first cinema-grade lenses from ShiftCam, working with TUSK.

Beyond the optical quality and build, consider their best use cases:

  1. Discreet Filming in Crowds
  2. Fast-Paced B-Roll Capture
  3. Overhead & Tight Space Shots
  4. Quick Transitions Between Shots
  5. Budget-Friendly Aerial & Water Shots
  6. Scouting Locations
  7. Creative Time-Lapse & Motion Effects
  8. Multi-Cam Filming with Multiple Phones
  9. Professional-Quality Live Streaming
  10. Filming in Extreme Weather Conditions

Here’s the link to the Kickstarter campaign. Not cheap.

My take: I would love to see real-world test footage and charts from these lenses.

Workflow to create aerial clips

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Rory Flynn has shared a workflow that uses a combination of AI tools to create aerial clips.

The tools are: Claude 3.7, Magnific and Runway.

The workflow is:

  1. Build a 3D Render in Claude 3.7
  2. Program in camera movements
  3. Screen record the render
  4. Upload this video to Runway Gen-3
  5. Extract the first frame
  6. Apply a Magnific Structure Reference to the first frame
  7. Upload this new first first frame in Runway
  8. Apply the new first frame to the initially rendered video using Runway Restyle.

The Claude prompt he used in Step 1 is: “can you code a 3d version of [subject + env] in three.js?” E.g. “can you code a 3d version of an epic castle atop a mountain plateau in a valley in three.js?”

The Magnific Structure Reference he used in Step 6 is: “editorial photo, epic castle on a plateau, intricate rocky textures and fine details, immaculate New Zealand landscape, white marble castle, high precision photography” with these settings:

  • Model: Mystic 2.5
  • Structure Reference
  • Structure Strength: 52%
  • Resolution: 2k
  • Creative Detailing: 75%
  • Engine: Magnific Sharpy

See his X post or LinkedIn post.

See an interview with Rory on AI in business.

My take: amazing!

CAPTCHA frustration film wins 2025 Oscar best live action short

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I’m Not a Robot, a 2023 Dutch-language short science fiction drama written and directed by Victoria Warmerdam, has just won the 2025 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

It stars Ellen Parren as a woman who has an identity crisis after failing a series of CAPTCHA tests.

Watch the full short film here.

See trailers for all fifteen Oscar-nominated short films.

Check out more great short films in The New Yorker Screening Room.

My take: Great concept! And great production! Watching it, I wondered how they’d execute the “jumping” scene. (A oner with a quick pan away to substitute the stunt performer.) I accomplished something similar with edits only in dust2dust. Can’t wait to see what additional themes Victoria tackles in the feature-length version!

The problem with independent film exhibition in Canada

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…is Cineplex.

Writing in This Magazine, Jake Pitre lays bare the stark truth facing the movie-going public in Canada:

“Cineplex’s role in Canada is, without a doubt, a monopoly. It runs 158 theatres with over 1,630 screens, and it controls approximately 75 percent of domestic box office. By contrast, no one company in the U.S., the UK, or Australia controls more than 30 percent.”

The Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors (NICE) reports in its The State of Independent Film Exhibition in Canada that 60% of independent film exhibitors
operated at a loss at the end of their most recent fiscal year and highlights two policy suggestions that would improve the exhibition of films in Canada:

  1. Limit studio Clean Run demands: An overwhelming majority at 81%
    of independent film exhibitors are impacted by the “clean
    runs” required by major studios.
  2. Eliminate Zones: 53% of independent film exhibitors must
    wait for the Cineplex in their “zone” to finish playing a new
    release before they are allowed to show it.

Curiously, a new book on corporate monopolies in Canada, The Big Fix, digs into the history of film exhibition in Canada and reveals that Cineplex was the upstart challenger in the 1980s!

My take: this situation can only be addressed with government intervention, as Cineplex has a vested interest in maintaining its monopoly. It’s a pity because competition is actually good.

How to create a TV Pitch Deck

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Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) has a great Scripted Pitch Guide.

SBS Scripted is looking for the same things all broadcasters are:

“We want to hear pitches for TV series that thrill us…. Great stories, brilliantly told. Entertaining, culture defining, fresh and unique. Bring us a show we have not seen before. Bring us a show that is brilliantly crafted; a show that has characters that audiences will fall in love with; a show with a propulsive narrative that starts with a bang and keeps audiences deeply engaged.”

That’s why I believe their pitch deck format will work for almost all broadcasters.

My take: download their PDF, start reading from Page 13 and then go back and study everything! Great for all your media projects too.

Funding + Screening, together now

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Brian Welk reports on IndieWire that From Film Funding to Distribution, This Partnership Gives You Control: ‘Anyone Can Do This’.

The partnership in question is between Seed&Spark and Kinema.

Unlike other crowdfunding platforms Seed&Spark is purpose-built for film & TV projects. They have a phenomenal 82% success rate.

“Kinema is a tech platform that enables non-theatrical exhibition — what you may call grassroots screening tours — of films in person and online. We make it easy and rewarding for anyone, anywhere to organize moving showings and share in the proceeds.”

Brian states:

“Those who fund programs on Seed&Spark get a dedicated Kinema account manager and custom distribution consultations. Fees are waived for filmmakers with over 500 followers or over 1,000 campaign backers.”

But hey, if you want to DIY, at least check out their free online resource The Distribution Playbook.

My take: well worth further investigation!

Riffusion generates full songs effortlessly

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Riffusion has just opened a public beta and it rocks!

Riffusion is the brainchild of Hayk Martiros and Seth Forsgren.

“Our goal is to make everyone into a musician and bring a future where music is interactive and personalized.”

TechCrunch reported their $4M seed funding in October 2023.

My take: damn! Not only will this create full songs, it will also create stems you can download for further modification in your DAW of choice.

Indie TV: self-financing your own series

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Elaine Low writes on The Ankler that Indie TV is a viable model to self-finance shows.

She writes:

“In Park City for the (Sundance) festival is Cooper Raiff, the writer and director of Cha Cha Real Smooth, which just three years ago was a festival competition title that got snapped up by Apple TV+ for $15 million. This year, he’s shopping Hal & Harper — not an indie film, which would be a tough enough sell in 2025, but rather an independently financed TV series, whose path is even less clear.”

Zack Sharf quotes Raiff on making Hal & Harper in Variety as saying:

“(Selling your second movie for $15 million to Apple) makes you too confident. Because of that deal, I thought, ‘Let’s just do it with television.’ That’s what I told everyone. We’re really braving the storm with the series. ‘Cha Cha’ was sold on the backs of so many indie movies. With this, we’re trying to sell this show… so it has to be this undeniable thing to these streamers and these networks. But it made me too confident.”

See the Collider review.

Wikipedia info.

My take: this seems extremely risky, unless your budget is practically zero, you have all the locations, and everyone is volunteering their time. Or, you’ve made so much, you need write-offs? I mean it’s a great way to keep total creative control — until Season Two, that is.

Best Open Source TTS: Kokoro

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There is a new open source Text to Speech generator in town called Kokomo-82M.

As far as I can determine, it’s being developed by one person, Hexgrad, based on earlier models.

Apparently, this is something you can install and run locally on your own computer.

You can try it out online here. You can also compare various open source models at the TTS Arena.

My take: note that this does not clone voices or emote (at all.) Perhaps in the next version?