News From Here & There

Reviews
Musician and Filmmaker Sami Sänpäkkilä reviews the D|Focus, an affordable follow-focus unit.
I feel that for me the D|Focus does the job amazingly well, it should work with most cameras and lenses out there. Also you get fast responses and good info from David who makes them, which to me is the most important thing when buying equipment.
samisanpakkila: D|Focus V2 – A superb affordable follow focus


Daniel Freytag posts a review, with video, of the budget LCDVF viewfinder. It likes the magnification, magnetic frame and the budget price, and the only problem he has with it is that the viefinder sometimes gets fogged.
Freytag-film: LCDVF – a cheap and solid Viewfinder


For a bit more money, you could look at the Letus Hawk viewfinder, reviewed on planet5D:
But after getting the updated Hawk with their new quick release, I can say that this is now my preferred quick release over the sticky frames. The design of the Hawk quick release is simple and very effective. This is a great system!
planet5d: Letus Direct’s Hawk – a review of this HDSLR viewfinder



Behind "Beyond The Still"
Neil Matsumoto at HD Video Pro takes a behind-the-scenes look at the Story Beyond The Still competition, focusing mainly on the gear used by it's winners. Some interesting details emerge:
Canon was also surprised by the level of quality. “We started to see more working professionals start to enter, which was great,” says Canon’s Rob Altman. “It took the contest in a bit of a different direction but at the end of the day, it really showed us how pros are using the gear. ..."

Perhaps the most common tool for all of the filmmakers was the Zacuto Z-Finder. “I could have definitely not shot my project without the Z-Finder,” explains Leech.

The fact that an online video contest has a presence at the biggest independent film festival in the world is sort of ironic since this might be the model that can potentially do away with film festivals altogether.

HDVIdeoPro: The Story Beyond the Still Makes Its Debut At Sundance 2011



DualEyes for Mac
The Macintosh version of DualEyes (the standalone version of the audio/video sync plugin PluralEyes) has now officially been released. DualEyes for Mac is available for US$119 until February 22, 2011, when the price will go up to US$149. A 30-day trial version is available
Singular Software: DualEyes for Mac



Editing in Not Invisible
In a short video clip, Dr Karen Pearlman, Head of Screen Studies at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School talks about editing, and takes issue with the statement that "Good editing is invisible," arguing that if we keep advocating this, we're diminishing the role of the editor.
Screenculture.net: Editing is Not invisible (but it is magic)

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