Notes On Video

If you're in New York, B&H has some interesting events coming up at their Event Space  next month. D.I.Y. Distribution for Filmmakers Thursday June 3, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM Speaker: Andrew Byrd Join Andrew for his step-by-step presentation that will provide useful information and advice for aspiring and experienced filmmakers whose goal is to get their movies seen and distributed. Next there will be a round table discussion on packaging materials for film markets such as Cannes and AFM. This will include showing examples of budgets, schedules, posters, and treatments, as well as what a filmmaker needs for perspective investors in order to secure financing. Also discussed will be how to work film festivals if you’re an Official Selection. This will include helpful tips on how to get your film the most favorable treatment within the festival and most importantly its organizers. EditFest Short Cuts - The Producer/Editor Experience Monday, June 7, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Speak...

It seems that  DSLR workshops on the web are becoming the next BIG thing. Now The DV Show is offering: The Art and Business of HD DSLR Filmmaking This 2 hour event will occur over two Sundays, and will be hosted by Ron Dawson, a screenwriter, director, award-winning video producer, speaker and author of the book Refocus: Cutting-Edge Strategies to Evolve Your Video Business . The program will be recorded live  on Sunday June 6, 2010 from 8 - 9 p.m . EST and Sunday June 13, 2010 from 8-9 p.m. EST with live interactive chat to follow. Live presentations are free for everyone to view. Recordings are then made available in the Premium area after the course has been presented. The DV Show : The Art and Business of HD DSLR Filmmaking

Part 3 of  The Great Camera Shootout is up at Zacuto's website, and like the other episode's it's well worth your time (it's 34 minutes long). Clearly a tremendous amount of work went into it; just check the credits list! For me, the interesting things were (in order of appearance): While talking about the resolution test comparing enlargements of the HDSLR output and film scanned at 2K and 4K, the participants said a couple of times that on the web we wouldn't be able to see the differences, but at least on my MacBook I could see a very noticeable difference. This web video isn't so sucky! 4K was clearly better than 2K, and 2K was clearly better than digital. That said, no one seemed overly concerned The Color tests were interesting - and positive - though the comments from the colorists who worked on the tests suggested that the film was easier to work with, and there was more you could do with the film than you could with the digital Similarly,...

Camcorderinfo.com and DigitialCameraInfo.com take a look at the Canon T2i video performance, and find it to be pretty darn good - for an HDSLR - though maybe not quite as good as the Canon 7D [ What a relief for those of us that spent almost twice the price for the 7D! ] Scores were close (higher is better), with the two returning similar numbers for Color Performance, Motion Performance, Low Light Noise and Sharpness (where the T2i was actually slightly better than the 7D.) But in Low light Sensitivity, the 7D performed quite a bit better, as well as in Low Light Performance and Video Noise. Of course, I'm basing this on the difference between the reported numbers; the numbers themselves mean little to me! 7D T2i % diff Video Color Performance 8.31 7.45 10 Video Noise 12.65 10.68 15 Motion Performance 10.05 9.5 5 Sharpness 9.98 10.19 2 Low Light S...

Engadget reports that Apple is working on a replacement for the Apple TV that will be based on the iPhone OS, store files on the cloud, support 1080p and cost about $99. I'll believe it when I see it. Yet it's not exactly surprising. Moving the AppleTV to the iPhone OS would almost seem to be a no-brainer, though I'm not too sure just how effective the iPhone OS is with a remote control as your input device. They don't seem to think it will be announced at the World Developer Conference on June 7th, so there's really nothing to see here... yet . Engadget : The next Apple TV revealed: cloud storage and iPhone OS on tap... and a $99 price tag

If the Zacuto main page is to be believed, Part 3 of the Zacuto Great Camera Shootout 2010 is just 23 hours away... If the Shootout page is to be believed, it's just 8 hours away... If past experience is any indication, it will be up sometime this weekend... Keep An Eye Out: The Great Camera Shootout 2010 [ UPDATE ] The power of Twitter : the countdown timer is gone from the main page, so it must be 8 hours...

Grinder is a batch processor for footage from Canon DSLRs. It can convert to ProRes, add timecode, and create low-res with window burn proxies for offline editing. You can also use it to conform (not convert, i.e. no frame blending or motion interpolation) clips to one frame rate, so your 30p and 60p shots can become slow-mo clips at 23.976fps. It's $49. The Scott Simmons at the EditBlog has a blow-by-blow article, and explains why you'd want to spend $49 on this tool: Magic Bullet Grinder grinds your DSLR footage into a more editable format

User Firmware Update Ver. 2.0 is now available on the NXCAM micro-site. This user installable software updates the HXR-NX5U firmware version from 1.0 to 2.0. It is available here: Sony | Micro Site - NXCAM A minor software issue has been discovered affecting the HXR-NX5U when used in conjunction with the optional HXR-FMU128. A "Buffer Overflow" message will be displayed in the viewfinder and the unit will fail to record content as required. Although this issue has been identified in only a very small number of units, Sony takes all technical issues seriously and, as a precaution, is offering a software update for all existing camcorders within a specific serial number range. Units with serial numbers higher than 111585 are not affected. Note: this "Buffer Overflow" message may also occur when defective or incorrect type SD or Memory Stick cards are used. This software update will not address the use of defective or incorrect type SD or Memory Stick cards. App...

Zacuto has a new cage called the Z-Cage , and they pimped it out in the extreme to show the flexibility: The Z-Cage pimped out with the Canon 5D MKII, a Z-finder, iPhone Cradle, iKan Monitor, 3 wireless plates with 2 wireless receivers, Switronix LED light, Zoom H4N, Z-focus, Double Mount, Red Plate, Battery Plate, Switronix Battery. Check the video @Zacuto.com: DSLR Z-Cage

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium Roadshow June 3: Vancouver, B.C. June 8: San Francisco, CA June 10: Los Angeles, CA Register here: http://www.adobecs5roadshow.com/ Adobe Night at Editor's Lounge June 25, 2010 Los Angeles, CA Learn how Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium extends the Final Cut Pro editing workflow with native 64-bit processing, the lightning-fast Mercury playback engine, and seamless integration between applications. Learn more @ http://www.editorslounge.com/ Can't make it to any of those events? Adobe has thoughtfully put together some training videos that you can watch Adobe TV : Post-Production on Avatar with Adobe Video Tools This is sort of interesting, but it's very general about techniques and tools, and much more about what was done, rather than how. 3:28min Learn Premiere Pro CS5 18 movies of between 2 and 8 minutes long. Notable movies include: Optimize a Computer for Mercury Playback Engine Using Final Cut Pro...

HB Communications is hosting a series of demos on Autodesk Smoke for Mac OS X on June 3 in Boston. Autodesk Smoke software is a creative editorial finishing application for high-quality commercial and broadcast projects. With an intuitive, timeline-based workflow, Smoke offers an all-in-one editorial finishing toolset for standard and stereoscopic 3D work. Smoke is available as a software-only application for the Apple Mac OS X operating system or as Autodesk Smoke Advanced, a turnkey solution on the Linux operating system. Location : 225 Franklin Street, 33rd Floor, Boston, MA 02110 Times : 9 AM, 11 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM, and 5 PM You must register by sending an email to events@bhcommunications.com AutoDesk : Smoke HB Communications : Autodesk demo in Boston

Philip Bloom is having a competition - with prizes - to celebrate the 10 millionth visitor to his site. Prizes include: Kessler Crane Cineslider Zacuto Target Shooter GoPro Camera Letus Direct DSLR view finder Letus Direct DSLR Cage Red Giant Software's Magic Bullet Looks BUT , you have to answer 19 questions (taken from his blog) correctly to be in the drawing! Happy reading! PhilipBloom.net : 10 million visitors big prizes competition!

The Boston Globe 's movie critic, Ty Burr, has written an interesting column about that necessary evil of the movie reviewer; the star rating system. It's an interesting perspective on the limitations and miss-uses of the system. He also mentions a movie review site that's takes a different tack;  Movie Review Intelligence  attempts to break down reviews from different people: The brainchild of media researcher David Gross, the site collects all the major reviews and ratings for a movie and slices them into infinite pieces of pie. MRI’s page for “Robin Hood,’’ for instance, assigns an aggregate rating (55.1 percent out of 100 possible points overall), then breaks that number down among Broad National Press (56.2 percent), Local Newspapers (60.7 percent), Alternative/Indie (63.9 percent), Highbrow Press (35.0 percent), Movie Industry (43.5 percent), and major, semi-major, and mini-major urban markets. Even that method of rating doesn't fully meet Burr's requiremen...

CreativeLive has been doing a series of interesting webinars on different subjects; three weeks ago they hosted a three-day event with Vincent Laforet . Interestingly, you can watch these live for free; but they sell a download of the edited program if you want to be able to watch it again; or at a later date. Now they are planning a three-day Studio Lighting event with Zack Arias on June 11-13 . If you can't watch it on the weekend, it's $79 to pre-order the download, or $99 afterward. While this is probably oriented towards photography, much of the information will translate to video. If all the worlds a stage - I want better lighting BE THERE FOR FREE : they are also having a competition to find six people to attend for free (no word on whether you have to cover your own expenses to get there, but I'm guessing you do so you should probably live near Seattle...) "I’m going to be teaching a studio lighting class. White seamless and beyond. Models, bands, etc. In ...

Marshall Levy at dvinfo.net posts an update on the firmware to fix the buffer problems with this camera. He says it should be available officially in 7-10 days. The firmware evidently fixes a problem in the camera - not the FMU - and takes about 3 minutes to install. dvinfo.net: NX5U Firmware Update Particulars & Process [ UPDATE 5/27 7:15AM ] Philip Johnston at HD Warrior says it's available now and provides a link to the Sony Europe support site BUT you need to register to access it, and you need a PC to carry out the Firmware update. HD Warrior : Buffer Overflow problem in Sony NX5 Solved… Firmware V 2.00

@ 2:15PM EST AAPL $227.10 billion, MSFT $226.72 billion via : 16x9cinema@twitter Interesting - doesn't help me decide if I should switch from Final Cut Pro to Adobe Premiere though...

There's a couple of new filters out for Final Cut Pro/Express (and in Freebie Pack 1 's case, After Effects ) Freebie Pack1 Five FxPlug filter/generators for Final Cut Pro , Final Cut Express , Motion and After Effects . - World : A sun lit Earth generator in 3D space with clouds and city lights. - MultiSpace : Puts two inputs into 3d space with global & independent XYZ & rotation. Planes can intersect too. The only way to animate two images or movies to move together in 3D space in FCP/FCE. - iSight Live ! 
Get a live input on your timeline in FCP/FCE/Motion/AE. Very handy for picking a colour off a client’s brochure. - Rack Focus : Racks the blur from one input to the other with one parameter. Both blur values for each input can be independently set. Great for highlighting text over a picture. - Opposites : Two input basic parameter linking - move one left, the other goes right. Rotate one clockwise, the other one goes anticlockwise. You can assign a behav...

Boris FX Introduces Final Effects Complete 6 AE Boris FX has announced Final Effects Complete 6 AE (FEC 6 AE). FEC 6 AE brings 120 designer effects and transitions to Macintosh and Windows versions of Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro CS5, CS4 , and CS3 . The new release features 12 new filters and transitions, faster rendering, audio-driven keyframe generation, customizable animated presets, and a new Compare Mode feature that enables users to compare the filtered result with the unfiltered source via either a side-by-side view or a live split-screen view. Each Final Effects Complete filter has been re-engineered for 64-bit operating systems. Boris FX: Press release Kessler Crane Motorized timelapse Philip Bloom has been playing with Kessler Crane's Motorized dolly to take timelapses, and has put up a new example: Philip Bloom: Kessler Crane’s Motorized dolly and tripod systems now shipping! Zacuto Z-Finder Jr. First Impressions Ross Chapman needed a viewfinder f...

The new iPhone should be announced in a couple of weeks - wow! - and everyone seems to be wondering if it really will have a forward facing camera so you can video-chat with your dog [ Video Phones!  Wow!  Welcome to " 2001 "- Ed ] Me, I want to know what the resolution of the camera is; I'd really like to have a 5 Megapixel camera in the iPhone ....and if it would capture 720p video, that would be very nice, Mr Steve Jobs, Sir! And if it would capture 720p video, then Vericorder has the app for you! They were showing their iPhone editing app at NAB, and now it's on the iTunes App store in a "Network" and "Consumer" version. Just to be clear, the "Network" version is free, but is for large media organizations (who pay a subscription) only. You'll probably want the Consumer version, which is $9.99. I've seen a demo of it, and it looks pretty amazing, and if someone had offered this to me 20 years ago for $10 I would have jum...

It's the 25th Anniversary of the Sony Handycam , and Sony has a webpage up to celebrate . But you have to jump around to see things, so the Sony Insider  webpage has a single page with most of the information which is much easier to digest. Interestingly, I've owned at least three of the camcorders they highlight - yeah, I'm a Sony fanboy . Sony Insider : Sony’s Handycam Camcorder Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary

As previously reported , EditShare is planning to take the next release of the Lightworks editing environment Open Source. This new release of Lightworks will also include features such as: project sharing, advanced 3D stereoscopic editing, Universal Media File support, native RED support, native 2K support, and integration with Avid and FCP They have just announced that they are accepting applicants to the beta program, which will be limited to 80 participants. Qualified editors can apply to participate in the beta program before June 21, 2010 by visiting: http://www.editshare.com/betaprogram . Lightworks video editor

There are technologies that arrive and turn things on their head, quickly becoming dominant. In that category I'd put VHS, CDs, and even DV video. And then there’s the also-rans, the things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but were never quite as popular as you thought they would be; things like Hi8, mini-discs, Eight-Track, and now, Blu-ray . I bought a Sony BDP-S560   Blu-ray player several months ago, and though I tried to like it, I find that I remain unimpressed. And it's not just because on my relatively small, 36-inch TV, the resolution difference isn't really noticeable; there are things that I simply despise about the thing: Load times My DVD player works like an appliance; the Blu-ray player works like a computer. Turn the DVD player on and hit Eject, and it immediately slides out the disc tray. Do the same thing with the Blu-ray player and it sits there flashing “Wait” at you for about fifteen seconds. Do you know how annoying it is to sit there ...

The Key Pro plug-in package is a new color keyer for Final Cut Pro , Final Cut Express and Motion that is based on a new 3D color space technology designed to create the most precise results. The Key Pro package includes 5 plugins: Key Key is able to key all sorts of green and blue screens, as well as other colored screens and includes a sophisticated spill processor to make it possible to key and despill in just one step and can also produce black and white alpha masks. Shadow Key Shadow Key can create a perfect key by leaving the shadow of the actors intact. This enables you to key the foreground without losing the shadow. The shadow will appear superimposed on the new background. Spill Suppressor Effectively removes all unwanted light spill from the keyed object without creating colored fringes on the edges. Clean Plate Correct green/blue screen problems and create a perfect flat background. All shadows and imperfections of the screen will be removed Ambient Sp...

Viacom is suing YouTube/Google for "encouraging users to upload copyrighted material." It might seem a somewhat trivial and uninteresting case, except that the numbers aren't; Viacom evidently wanted $700 million to give GooTube the right to host the content. According to depositions, GooTube offered somewhere in the neighborhood of $592 million. Seems like they were close... CNET has a wrap-up of the trial so far, and notes that in his deposition, Google co-founder Larry Page says he can't recall if he ever discussed YouTube's potential copyright problems prior to the acquisition. Google's spokesman claimed that the lawyers were unfairly asking Page about operational matters he wasn't involved with; yet he's supposedly one of the top three at Google, who was about to spend $1.65 billion on YouTube, and he was never involved in any discussion about copyright issues? He's on the Board of Directors of Google! Was the Board never briefed on the pu...

The 5D Mark II Team reports that there's a new firmware release for the Canon 5D Mark II which fixes the  "iris jitter" effect: Fixes a phenomenon in which the aperture exhibits abnormal movement when shooting movies in manual exposure mode and Aperture Priority AE (Av mode) using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses). (*) Fixes a phenomenon in which the exposure level shown in the LCD panel differs from what is shown in the viewfinder when shooting still images in manual exposure mode. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Wireless File Transmitter (WFT-E4 or WFT-E4 II) may not automatically power off when used for FTP transfers. Canon's website : EOS 5D Mark II Firmware Update Version 2.0.7 via 5DMark2 Team : Firmware 2.0.7 Released

This Friday, Michaelle Stikich, a professional editor and Apple Certified Trainer for Final Cut Pro , walks through how she used the effects library Sapphire and Final Cut Pro on various music videos, films, and documentaries in a free webinar. She'll be demonstrating color correction, glows, transitions, and other effects. You can view her most recent work here - http://vimeo.com/michaellestikich Friday, May 28 1:00pm EST 1 hour The event is hosted by Genarts, the developer of Sapphire . GenArts/acrobat.com : Register here .

A reader has passed along a link to a file from Sony that contains the firmware patch for the HXR-NX5U. Unfortunately, it's on YouSendit , so there's no detail on parentage (i.e. is it the official/final release, an interim one, etc?) You might want to wait until it's more formally available on Sony's site. YouSendit: NX5V2_Update1005a.zip

I'll admit I'm not a sound guy - the closest I get to being a sound guy is claiming that I've heard of Pro Tools - but even so I was more than a little surprised when I came across the announcement of Nuendo 5 from Steinberg - a German software company I have heard of.  The name Nuendo doesn't ring any bells, and this is the fifth release! [ and with a name like Nuendo you'd think it would - Ed ] Perhaps it's the $1,800 price ... Still, Nuendo ... I'm assuming that in German Nuendo doesn't sound quite as wrong as it does in English. But I digress. Nuendo 5 offers a number of new features , and the write-up says it has "a wealth of features made for film and TV editors, mixers and video game sound designers," and includes: Spot and organize Nuendo 5 allows the engineer to comprehensively spot and organize recording takes, such as for multiple roles by using a flexible marker track system. All marker tracks can be sorted and filt...

The XF300 / XF305 Instruction Manual is available in PDF format on Canon's site. There's also a Technical Information About the XF305/XF300 document, which lists computer requirements, and compatibility with Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer . Canon : XF300 Drivers & Downloads

I was really taken by the Dynamic Perception Timelapse Dolly used by Sean Stiegemeier to shoot that volcano in Iceland nobody can pronounce the name of . See : Timelapse Dolly There's not a whole lot of information on Dynamic Perception's  website yet, but the More Information link worked[!] and they sent me the following details: Their first product, the  Timelapse Dolly Stage Zero,  will be priced in the $800 range with accurate speed adjustment (top speed around 25 minutes per 5 feet) and direction motor controller. This dolly will be 6’ ready to run, support cameras between 5 and 25 pounds, and have everything you need to start making time-lapse dolly moves. The controller that comes with the dolly kit will have the ability to connect to the upcoming open source OpenMoco-based Engine [ Open-Source Photographic Motion-Control ]. This engine will support up to four axes of integral control, allowing mixing of DC motors, Steppers, and Servos. Once integra...

5D Mark II firmware coming Canonrumors.com says that a firmware upgrade to fix the "iris jitter: problem, [ I'm assuming they mean this problem ] is coming, but don't expect any other functionality. HDSLR footage in Post Roman France has posted a blog entry documenting the workflow for working with footage from HDSLRs: Dealing with that DSLR in POST!  It primarily focuses on Final Cut Pro . The Boston Globe wins awards for their videos! The Boston Globe and Boston.com took two regional Emmys for "The Survivor," a feature on a World War II veteran who recites the names of fallen comrades on each anniversary of a tragic attack, and for "Ted Kennedy," an hour-long documentary on the late Massachusetts senator that took nearly a year to research and complete. The Boston Globe : Two Globe videos win Emmys RED Epic News If you're following RED's upcoming Epic , then you will want to check the update on the stages of development and ...

The Wall Street Journal reports that major Hollywood studios are talking to Time Warner Cable about proposals for sending movies out to home viewers within weeks of release: ...the main one, which has received early support from some studio executives, would allow consumers to watch a movie at home just 30 days after its theatrical release—far earlier than the usual four months—for roughly $20 to $30 a pop. The big concern is what this will do to theater owners. The Wall Street Journal : Hollywood Eyes Shortcut to TV

Letus is well known for the Letus Extreme ; a lens adapter that lets you attach a 35mm lens to "traditional" video cameras like the Sony EX1 and produce much shallower Depth of Field. Now they are coming out with products for DSLR users, including a viewfinder and rod supports, and they now have a specific website for their DSLR products: http://letusdslr.com/ Letus Hawk DSLR Viewfinder Constructed of carbon fibre with a 2.75x view factor and +1.5 to -2.5 Adjustable Lens. The viewfinder has 3 lenses in 2 groups, a removable eye cup and a camera plate for mounting. It's $385 @ Amazon though it's not expected to ship until early June. LetusDirect : Letus Hawk DSLR Viewfinder product page Letus Talon K1 A quick release baseplate, stainless steel L-bracket, and 90mm stainless steel rod extensions which are female threaded on each end. Intended for use with a viewfinder, it can also be purchased with the viewfinder as the Letus Talon K2 . Links: YouTube: Ph...