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The Best of The Black and Blue 2011 | Evan Luzi | The Black and Blue
The Black and Blue blog is a great resource for the camera operator. Evan has put together a look back at the best articles of the year.
Whether you’re stepping on set for the first time or the fiftieth time, reviewing the essential skills of camera assisting is never a bad idea. Even a small reminder of how or why can have a huge payoff. Below are some articles which didn’t introduce any ideas particularly revelatory or new, but reinforced old ones that have stood the test of time.


Top 5 Video Production Industry Trends 2011 – Part 1 | Shawn Lam | Blog
Shawn is putting together a series of the top industry trends of 2011. The first part looks at Final Cut Pro X:
You can’t tell the story of the rise of Adobe Premiere Pro without first mentioning the failure of Apple Final Cut Pro X. The two stories are linked and it wasn’t so much that Adobe did anything special with their CS5.5 release that lead to their unprecedented increase in paid users (22% overall and 45% on the MAC year-over-year, as of IBC in September) as it was that Apple failed to deliver a suitable follow-up for the aging Final Cut Pro 7.
The failure of Apple Final Cut X and the rise of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 is my top video news story of 2011.
Top 5 Video Production Industry Trends 2011 – Part 2
In part two, the death of the video magazine, which are being killed by blogs and the web:
Freshness of content is one factor but ultimately the print medium is not where videographers go for their information and writing letters to the editor and waiting for a response a month or two later is not conducive to a great dialogue for both the readers and writers. A blog or online magazine that allows comments, on the other hand, is much better suited for the degree of interaction that readers crave. As a writer I value the opportunity to respond to comments and questions – I’m not perfect and if I get something wrong I want the opportunity to make changes and show the changes that I have made.
Video Magazines R.I.P. (Rest In Print) is my number two video production industry news story of 2011.


Want Better Photos or Video? Avoid Lens Flares | Richard Harrington | 3 Exposure
Tips on avoiding lens flare (even though I like the judicious use of lens flare...)
Keep the Lens Clean and Clear
Most lenses have an anti-reflective coating to cut down on lens flare. Of course greasy fingerprints and other smudges can also cause their own problems. When you clean the lens, be sure to use a proper lens cleaning cloth to remove smudges without damaging this coating.


Embracing the bold look of PARIAH | Arri News
This film was shot on Arri film cameras and there's an interesting discussion of color:
Young and Rees discussed how the look and feel of PARIAH could be used to communicate character. For Alike, the young woman is on a journey to discover her true self. He notes, “We came up with the whole notion of chameleons. They change colors based on where they are, what they step on, or which space they cross through. That developed into the overall mantra for us, mainly in the lighting.”




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