Notes On Video

No USB 3 for Mac soon In response to an email from Tom Kruk at 9 to 5 Mac , Steve Jobs responded We don’t see USB 3 taking off at this time. No support from Intel, for example. 9 to 5 Mac : Steve Jobs: No USB 3 ‘at this time’ HDSLR Video Editing White Papers Canon has white papers for editing EOS HD video on Avid , Final Cut Pro , Premiere and Grass Valley EDIUS . Canon : Canon White Papers: Beyond the Manual Shooting Green Screen NewMediaWebinars is offering a free workshop on green screen shooting: December 29, 2010 @ 10:00 AM PDT to 11:30 AM PDT. In this webinar, cinematographer Marty Mullin will show you how to best set up your green screen, how to light it properly (and what lights to use), what lenses you should use for best results plus many more "insider" tips and tricks so that your post production keying and compositing session does not turn into a nightmare. Picking the right color (green, blue, red or black). Do only the lighting you need and ...

If you were an 80s teen and/or if the words "flux capacitor" mean anything to you, pretty sure you'll love what I shot for SNL yesterday... - Tweet from Alex Buono, Cinematographer, Saturday Night Live

A while back I got very interested in timelapse video after seeing this timelapse by Philip Bloom: Dungeness Timelapse experiment . I did some experiments using a Canon DSLR, and got somewhat promising results (the test video wasn't that spectacular visually, but it proved that the method basically worked.) But after a bit of experimenting, I found out a few things: I mostly couldn't be bothered going through all the hassle of setting up a DSLR for a two or three hour long sequence The process is quite involved; both getting the right camera settings, as well as dealing with all the images afterwards I found that the effect I wanted to achieve - the accelerated movement of clouds in the sky - didn't really require as much work because it could be accomplished with sub-fifteen minute sequences The last detail is important. What I found was that - stars orbiting through space excepted - what I mostly liked in timelapses was the acceleration of clouds moving across th...

Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers [can] do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all. - Stanley Kubrick

Tao of Color I went to a talk by Colorist Patrick Inhofer back in July and it was really interesting/informative. He's the latest guest on the 16 x 9 Cinema Podcast . Anton/Bauer DSLR battery pack Anton/Bauer's new QR-DSLR power pack provides 7.2v power to the camera via the Canon DR-E6 DC coupler** while the PowerTap provides power for 12v accessories such as the on-camera UltralightTM, onboard monitors, and external hard drives. Anton/Bauer : QR-DSLR Another iMovie 11 review Another positive review of i Movie 11 . I don't think the program changed that much this rev, it just seems people have noticed it again: I don’t think iMovie is going to be stealing any of your business anytime soon. We’ll still be making movie magic in FCP… but I know where I’ll be headed the next time my family wants me to just “edit them up a little something something” of prom or Aunt Sophie’s 100th Birthday Bash. I can just plug and play in iMovie and still give them something wel...

New Developments in Large-Single-Sensor Cameras and Workflow The November 17 SMPTE Meeting in New York looks really interesting as it features reps from Panasonic, ARRI and Sony (amongst others.) It's free, but you must register by Nov 15h. David Leitner, Producer, Writer and Cinematographer Jan Crittenden Livingston, Panasonic Broadcast and TV Systems Guenter Noesner, ARRI Inc. Juan Martinez, Sony Broadcast & Production Systems Division Mitch Gross, Abel Cinetech 5:30 PM Refreshments and Social Hour 6:15 PM Technical Presentation Eventbrite : SMPTE-NY November 2010 Meeting “New Developments in Large-Single-Sensor Cameras and Workflow”

Announced back in February for $9,900, the Panasonic BT-3DL2550 25.5-inch 3D IPS monitor just got a price drop to $7,000 ($6,500 at B & H.) Unlike the home units, this professional monitor uses passive glasses (the image is polarized.) That means that the effective resolution is halved vertically, but on the plus side, the glasses are a lot cheaper. B & H: Panasonic BT-3DL2550 25.5" 3D LCD Video Monitor [$6,500] But is the anti-3D tide rising? Chris Nolan in announcing the next Batman film: Nolan was most eager to talk about the fact that Warner Bros. had agreed with his argument that the film should resist the current 3-D craze and instead use high-definition approaches and IMAX cameras to strike out on a different cinematic path than the stereoscopic technology that, for better or worse, has become the dominant conversation in the blockbuster sector. Los Angeles Times : Christopher Nolan reveals title of third Batman film and that ‘it won’t be the Riddler’

The Filmmakers Collaborative have announced that this weekends Making Media Now 2010 conference has been postponed due to low registration. They hope to reschedule for early 2011. I have to admit, I had considered going to this, but the $165 price tag gave me pause, and the web site was a little vague and just didn't make me think " I have to go to this ." Filmmakers Collaborative : Making Media Now 2010

The Future of Final Cute Pro On the latest Terence and Philip Show podcast, much of it's devoted to what Philip Hodgetts thinks Apple should be doing with Final Cut Pro. The Terence and Philip Show : Episode 12: The future of Final Cut Pro Want to build a cheap Macintosh? There's a series of Hackintosh build articles out on the net; this one is oriented towards the video editor. [ I'd do it, but I'm so hopeless with fixing anything electrical... ] NoFilmSchool : How to Build a Video Editing Hackintosh That’s Faster than a Mac Pro for Half the Price Premiere 9 Elements Review I'd had thoughts of taking a look at Premiere 9 now that it was out on the Mac, but Katherine Boehret at the Wall Street Journal took a look at it and saved me the bother: I found myself spending more time trying to figure out how to edit videos rather than simply editing. Editing tools are buried in several layers of menus and are poorly named. and concludes: Adobe Premier...

That's not a a rumor, it's a fact. How do I know? Because iMovie 11 has a Rolling Shutter Removal option, and these kind of things tend to move back and fourth between the two programs. And anyway, I didn't want to headline another post about iMovie ; it's starting to turn into the iMovie blog... I had intended to try some experiments with it, but Jeff Carlson at Macworld beat me to it with a little sample clip in his review. The function is part of the image stabilization function; when you turn on either the Stabilization or Rolling Shutter functions, iMovie puts up an "Analyzing for Stabilization" progress bar and spends a few seconds or minutes processing the clip. This processing pass isn't repeated if you turn Stabilization on after you turn on the Rolling Shutter reduction. Parameters are: Low Medium, High and Extra High, which means you have to pick and test to see which works for your footage. Macworld : iMovie '11

I know that sounds like a back-handed compliment, but I spent some time yesterday editing together a movie using iMovie 11 , and just as when editing the movie trailer, I was pretty impressed. And since it's really only the second time I've spent more than five minutes with iMovie in the past five years, I was also a little surprised. I've used iMovie before; mostly to do little more than a very simple assemble edit when I was in a hurry and didn't have access to Final Cut . And I did make an iMovie Trailer a couple of days ago and found that a lot of fun. But this was the first time I edited anything more complicated than that. Again, I haven't been using iMovie's previous release, so I don't even know what's different about this one, but some things I liked ( Note: I know Audio Editing is new and improved in this release, the other features already existed in some form ): Audio Editing It's very easy to adjust audio levels, adjust fade ins...

In addition to the camera body rebates [listed yesterday], Canon is also offering some lens rebates (that increase if you also buy a body at the same time!) Here's a few lenses that are particularly good! These apply through 1/8/2011. Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Autofocus Lens [$1,520.00 - $100 = $1,420.00 ] This is my favorite lens on my Canon 7D because it's wide, but also a zoom (though because the 7D isn't full frame, the lens really becomes a 24-50mm zoom lens.) It also has IS. A lot of people go for the 24-70mm f/2.8L , which is $1,300 (no rebates) but there's no IS and one thing I don't like about that lens is that the barrel extends as you zoom; the 16-35mm doesn't do that! But I also prefer wide angle lenses! Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens [$2,269.00 - $200 = $2,069.00 ] Canon's 70-200 f/2.8L lens has been very popular with pros, and they just updated it this year (though goosing the price considerably!) This ...

Wow. So the rumors are that Apple might buy Sony ?! At the risk of turning this into an Apple fanboy blog; what the hey? An article on AppleInsider quotes John Sculley as saying Steve Jobs was fascinated by Sony, and wanted Apple to be like Sony, not Microsoft. Makes sense to me; but why buy Sony now? Apple has out-Sonyed Sony when it comes to refinement of product design. I just don't see why Steve - or Apple - would want to buy Sony now. But Adobe ? Now that would make sense! Final Cut in August 2011 Much weeping and gnashing of teeth; the next Final Cut update is now rumored to be in August 2011. That's actually about when I would expect it, given that the last update came out last year; not even Adobe is on a yearly update cycle. Yes, it's unfortunate since Adobe came out with a new version of Premiere this year, but isn't that always going to be the case? AppleInsider : Electronics giant Sony rumored for potential Apple acquisition HDWarrior: Apple to...

Yes, everyone is going to get sick to death of these iMovie trailer templates, but I have to tell you, I just spent an hour or so editing together a little trailer using footage from my sister's recent visit to Boston, and it was a lot of fun. (Don't worry, I'm not going to put it up on YouTube!) It reminded me yet again that a really good piece of music and some appropriate graphics can turn pretty average footage - really average footage - into something spectacular. Actually I had a blast, and kept playing it over and over as I adjusted it. Most of the time was spent in picking clips, adding video filters, and finding appropriate gag names for the credits (the Car Talk site was a great help with this!) But there is a freshness dating on these trailers; I figure we'll only have a month or two before everyone has seen at least one, and you'll probably only get away with making one or two of these before everyone gets sick of them. So the sooner you do it,...

On Wed, November 3 and Thur, Nov 4th at WGBH Boston, the Public Television Quality Group  will be holding a two-day seminar designed to provide training for PBS producers. The event costs just $50 , and is the third in a series of five being given around the country. The goal of the workshop is to help people who produce programs for PBS understand how they can improve the technical quality of what they deliver. There's some interesting workshops; the one I'd really like to go to is " The Great Frame Rate Debate " as it includes Douglas Trumbull , who did the special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey , and other movies. The next event will be in Nashville on January 13th, 2011.   QGPT: Quality Group Public Television

Philip Bloom has updated his 3-day's with the Panasonic AG-AF100 blog post, and for anyone interested in this camera, it's worth checking out. He likes it, but notes that getting a good, wide, fast lens is a bit of a problem. He also thinks it's a bit of an odd shape to work with; but then so are DLSR's! He also weighs in on whether it's a DSLR killer. Whether it is or isn't, it's clearly a camera getting a lot of interest as his blog post already has some 360+ comments in just a few days; more than any other of his blog entries! Philip Bloom: 3 days with the Panasonic AG-AF100

More details on the upcoming Boston DSLR Meetup  on Sat Nov 20 have been posted, including a call for videos to be shown "on the big screen": Screen your DSLR short at our NOV 20th SNOB Boston Meetup on Saturday, November 20th - We'll have a nice theater to screen in + great restaurants & beer nearby! To sign-up to have your DSLR short(s) as part of the screenings, email Dan Bérubé. BOSTON DSLR MEETUP AT SNOB Film Festival WHEN : Saturday, November 20 TIME : 2;30pm-5pm; dinner + drinks; then more screenings WHERE : Red River Theater, 11 South Main St, Concord, NH 03301 We will be meeting at Red River Theaters in Concord, NH (yes, this time in New Hampshire!) on Saturday, November 20th from 2:30pm-5pm - we'll go out to a local restaurant for drinks and dinner - and then we'll come back to the theater for more DSLR screenings! Meetup.com : Nov20 Meetup

Canon has a rebate offer for the Canon T2i and 7D (and other cameras) running through November 24th. Order at B & H and you get the rebate applied: EOS Rebel T2i Digital SLR Kit w/ EF-S/18-55 IS [$899.99 - $50 = $849.99] EOS Rebel T2i Digital SLR Camera Kit w/ EF-S 18-55mm & 75-300mm [$1,099.98 - $150 = $949.98] EOS Rebel T2i Digital SLR Camera Kit w/ EF-S 18-55mm & 55-250mm [$1,199.98 - $200 = $999.98] EOS 7D SLR Digital Camera (Body Only) [$1,699.00 - $100 = $1,599.00] EOS 7D SLR Digital Camera with 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens [$1,899.00 - $100 = $1,799.00] EOS 7D Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens Kit [$1,999.00 - $100 = $1,899.00] EOS 7D SLR Digital Camera with 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens [$2,348.99 - $200 = $2,148.99] EOS 7D SLR Digital Camera Kit with EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens [$2,498.99 - $250 = $2,248.99] Canon : Promotions

Comparing the T2i and RED codec How does the Canon T2i image compare to the RED ?  James Blake at the HD Video Production blog has a short write-up comparing the two on a test shot. HD Video Production : Canon t2i vs. RED: Codec, Color Adobe News It's MAX week - Adobe's big developer event - and they are expected to announce and show some interesting things, including Project Rome , a publishing tool for home users, an update to AIR , and most interestingly, the iPad (and other devices) digital publishing tool for InDesign .Terry White has a demo of the later tool on his blog. The digital publishing tool consists of an authoring extension to InDesign for adding interactive content (like video) and exporting the final project, as well as a Reader application for the iPad . You publish documents and then people will be able to load them onto their iPad and display them using the Reader app (which Adobe will distribute for free.) Terry White's Tech Blog : Adobe Launche...