Notes On Video

I've been following Rick Macomber on Twitter ( boston_camera ) for a month or so; though we'd never met and I can't even remember how I came to follow him. But last week he tweeted that he would be shooting a music video of a local band,  Air Traffic Controller,  and was looking for people willing to volunteer to crew the shoot. On a whim I dropped him a note and said I was interested in covering it for the blog, and he said 'come on down!' or words to that effect. Rick is a broadcast news photojournaliat with WBZ TV Boston, but for side projects he's been exploring HDSLR filmmaking. A musician himself, Rick first met Dave Munro of Air Traffic Controller through an open mic that Dave's brother Jeff runs in Malden. Rick has produced, directed and edited four videos for ATC. The other videos were shot using a Canon HV40, but this video, " Brightest Moon, " was shot using a Canon T2i with 17-50mm f2.8 lens. The video was shot at 60 fps with Dav...

Tuesday, December 7th - 11:00 AM PDT A discussion on making your digital archive profitable and accessible today and in the future. From production to consumption it is essential to identify and capitalize on what is in YOUR digital archive. Exploring assets interactively & visually Search-ability Metadata Storage and preservation Understanding usage trends over time Where to extend & expend resources in your organization Join Alex Grossman , CEO from Active Storage; Chief Technology Officer, Mark Lemmons from Though Equity Motion and Project Director, Philip Spiegel from Video Resources Group, ABC News in this lively discussion. Createasphere : Mining & Monetizing your Digital Archives

A couple of weeks ago, Amazon rolled out Amazon Studios , which they describe as " 21st-century technology creating ways to make and share movies and scripts more easily than ever. " Amazon Studios is notable because Amazon said that they would be giving away money to prize winning scripts and movie ideas. It must have hit something of a nerve as they say that "more than a thousand scripts" have already been uploaded. But not everyone thinks it's such a good idea. Jesse Harris , Filmmaker and Executive Director of NFFTY, National Film Festival for Talented Youth, describes it as a PR stunt and an insult to writers and directors: Here’s the fine print, and what makes this so shady. First, Amazon Studios isn’t funding great ideas, they are asking for them for free. If you submit a script or “test movie” as they are calling it, you give Amazon an exclusive 18-month option for your project without any pay. Meaning you can’t pitch or sell your idea to anyone els...

Everyone's been wondering what the XF100 & XF105 , the little brothers to the XF300/XF305 would get priced at, and now we know; the XF100 is listing at $3,299.95 and the XF105 at $4,299.95 at B & H with an expected arrival of January. At the moment you can't pre-order. This is slightly under the $4,000 and $5,000 price mentioned back at the Canon New York show. Small and light, these cameras are particularly interesting because they record with 4:2:2 color sampling, though they only have 1/3" sensors. They would make a good B camera to the XF300/XF305, and might be useful for 3D work. B & H: Canon XF100 [$3,299.95] B & H: Canon XF105 [$4,299.95]

Is this the end of DSLR filmmaking?! I just placed my order for a Panny AF 101. Hurrah! -Philip Bloom @ twitter [ UPDATE ] Clearly my use of italics and exclamation mark weren't enough to indicate the tongue placed firmly in my cheek, as Philip has gone and posted: Don't be silly! it's comments like that don't do anyone any good. If you read my blog you will know my feelings and that I am sticking with DSLRs! -Philip Bloom

Sony announces 35mm 4K RGB sensor Hugo Gaggion, Sony Broadcast & Professional Solutions CTO, presented 2K/4K roadmap at NYC 2010 HD World show in mid-October. Sony published a video of this presentation discussing color filter pattern innovations, among many other things. Image Sensors World: Sony CineAlta Moves Beyond Bayer Tokina Vs. Canon Jared Abram takes a look at the Tokina 28-80mm f2.8 Vs. the Canon 24-70 f2.8 as well as the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L IS vs the Tokina 80-200mm f2.8. The Canons seemed to be a bit sharper than the Tokinas. The Tokina had a cooler/blue looking lens flare to my eye where the Canon was much warmer/yellow. I'm guessing the Tokina's are new, as I can't find them listed at Amazon or B & H . Vimeo : Quick Take: Tokina Vs. Canon Zooms Zacuto Z-FinderEVF Zacuto has been leaking out information about their upcoming EVF viewfinder in drips and drabs - actually, it's almost like we're sitting in on the design process. The...

Effective December 6, 2010, Canon will start to provide as a chargeable service, a locking mode dial modification for the “ EOS 5D MarkII ” and “ EOS 7D ” digital single-lens reflex cameras. For USA residents, the pricing of the locking mode dial modification service for EOS 5D Mark II and 7D cameras has been set at $100 per camera as of December, 2010. (Pricing and availability subject to change without notice.) Once modified, users must first press and hold down the central lock-release button in order to turn the Mode Dial. The modification is intended to prevent the Mode Dial from accidentally moving, once set to a particular exposure mode by the user. Canon USA : Product Advisories

Lightworks Public Beta Back in May EditShare announced that their editing program Lightworks was going Open Source. They then had a private beta program, but now the public beta has opened. Lightworks is an Academy and Emmy award winning professional-grade editor with over 20 years of history in the film and broadcast industry. Having cut hundreds of films such as Pulp Fiction , The Departed , Centurion and Shutter Island , it includes a full feature set of editorial tools, from advanced trimming and media management, through to stereoscopic support and realtime effects including multiple secondary colour correctors. Lightworks has an advanced effects pipeline, utilizing the power of your GPU. And with support for up to 2K workflows with realtime effects, it is the most advanced editing application available. Lightworks beta program Post Production on "The Social Network" Adobe has posted two short videos that cover how After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro were...

The Sound and Music of "The Social Network" In this 45-minute panel discussion, moderated by Bruce Carse, music composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are joined by sound re-recording mixer, supervising sound editor Ren Klyce to discuss their work on David Fincher’s The Social Network. http://soundworkscollection.com/socialnetworkpanel SoundWorksCollection : THE SOUND AND MUSIC OF “THE SOCIAL NETWORK” 1920x1080 60p Think you can only get 60p from a DSLR? The Panasonic HDC-TM700K will shoot 60p....at 1920 x 1080. This nice little video shows what you can do by shooting at 60p and slowing it down to 24p. If you're looking to slow down video, this might be a nice choice; video looks good BUT you don't get the shallow depth of field you can get with the right DSLR lens/settings. Camcorderinfo seems to really like Panasonic's offerings - and this camera - though some users have complained about the audio being marred by the noisy camera, and average low-lig...

Last week  Jan Crittenden-Livingston & Bernie Mitchell from Panasonic made an appearance at  Rule Camera Boston , talking about the forthcoming AG-AF100 . Rule has posted a video of the two-hour event ( see below ), and for those considering buying (or renting) this camera, the video is particularly instructive. Crittenden-Livingston has been with Panasonic for 24 years, the last 9 as a product manager, and she described the AG-AF100 as something that had been "designed from the ground up." But while it sounded as though the US division had some involvement in the initial design, they didn't really know what the camera was going to do until they got the manual for it (which had only arrived the week before.) Prior to that, they had to figure out what the camera did by playing with it and clicking the buttons! Some interesting information: The different model numbers are used to indicate where support belongs. The 100 is a US warranty number. There’s a ...

It's often forgotten that George Lucas didn't direct The Empire Strikes Back , arguably the best of the Star Wars  series. I think it went beyond 'Star Wars'. You had some humor, you got to know the characters a little better. I saw it as the second movement in an opera. That's why I wanted some of the things slower. And it ends in a way that you can't wait to see or to hear the vivace, the allegretto. I didn't have a climax at the end. I had an emotional climax. - Irvin Kershner IMDB: Irvin Kershner

Canon XF305 The XF305 has been out for a while (the big brother to the forthcoming XF100/105's) but Bruce Johnson at Provideo Coalition posted a review of it a couple of weeks back. All new products should work this well right out of the gate. The XF305 is available now for a street price of $7499 (if you don’t need HDSDI, time code or genlock, the XF300 runs $6499.) Are there things I’d change? Sure, main among them the 1/3” chipset - you really miss the depth of field control you get with 2/3” or even 1/2” chips - but on the whole, the XF305 is one hot piece of gear. Great controls and LCD panel, excellent battery life, reasonably priced media (especially compared to P2 or SxS cards,) stable workflow and beautiful high-bitrate pictures add up to a package that makes a very worthy successor to the Canon cameras that came before it. ProVideoCoalition : REVIEW: Canon XF305Camera Video On Demand Distribution Filmmaking Stuff posts an interview with David Allen from Rap...

There are some low-cost consumer HD camcorder deals today, a Sony video frame (1:20 EDT), Poser Pro and Poser 8 , (10:20 EDT) and Sony Vega Movie Studio HD (2:20 EDT)

Leslie Nielsen, 1926-2010 LINKS: NPR : Remembering Leslie Nielsen, A Master Of The Art Of Not Being Funny Wikipeida : Leslie Nielsen Amazon : Airplane! (Don't Call Me Shirley! Edition) Amazon : Police Squad! The Complete Series Amazon : Forbidden Planet [Blu-ray]