Quick Links

Make These Quick Adjustments Everytime You Move the Camera | Evan Luzi
| The Black and Blue
Important tips on what to do whenever you move your camera - especially if you're in a hurry:

It’s easy to think once you’ve lugged the camera to its new spot, raised it to the right height, and spun it around to point the right direction that you’re done — that is until you see an unintentional dutch angle in the works.

Zacuto EVF Saves the Day | Zacuto
Interesting story about how DP Rodney Charters used a Canon 60D (with EVF) to quickly capture a crane shot:

The director is screaming, “I must have my crane shot,” knowing there is not enough time to get the shots that are left and then mount one of the Alexas on the jib. The Director of Photography, Rodney Charters, promptly turns to a camera assistant and calmly says, “Mount the 60D on the Jib.”

Recommended affordable Sony A77 lenses | Andrew Reid | EOSHD
Thinking of switching to Sony? Andrew Reid offers some suggestions for lenses to get (with an eye to shooting video, rather than still photography.)



Some Avid Tools You Might Not Already Be Using | Scott Simmons
| ProVideoCoalition
Some tips about Avid Media Composer you might not be aware of, including:

• Top and Tail editing
• Stereo audio tracks
• Head and Tail Fade Buttons
• Sync Point Editing

Adobe’s Al Mooney Hurlblog Interview Part I | Hurlbut Visuals
Adobe Premiere Pro's Product Manager, Al Mooney, talks about Adobe's entire product line and philosophy. I was going to put this in to the Switching section of the Final Cut Pro X resources post, but really this is an Adobe product pitch. Nicely lit and shot though.



How Does Everyone Expect Filmmakers To Promote Movies? | Ted Hope
| Indiewire
Interesting thoughts on the economics of indie filmmaking:

...we spend about two years minimu developing, packaging, financing a film. Add a year to make it, and for the director 18 months to two years promoting it. That is five years of work. On a $3M movie (if one can be as fortunate enough to raise that kind of money) that breaks down to a whopping $30K/year salary.

The Art of Digital Color | Mike Seymour | FXGuide
Make sure you scroll down to read this lengthy article on the history of digital color:

Color management and color workflows have evolved over many years. in this article we will trace from Cineon to Scene Referred Linear OpenEXR format. Cineon is such a backbone of the industry but it is now over 18 years old and perhaps it is time we moved to a more robust, flexible and accurate system.

DV|TV: SmallHD DP4 EVF Review, How to Light Outdoors | NextWaveDV
A video review of the SmallHD DP4 EVF hybrid field monitor and electronic viewfinder and a tutorial on how to re-light an outdoor scene on a limited budget.



The Economics of Attention – Social Media and the Box-Office | Dr Bernardo Huberman | movieScope
Can social media predict box office?

Huberman’s co-authored article ‘Predicting the Future With Social Media’, published in March 2010, demonstrates a direct, measurable correlation between the number of ‘tweets’ referencing a given film title in any week, and the film’s box-office takings the following weekend.

The 5 Best Ways to Use Social Media to Build an Audience For Your Movie
| Sheri Candler | indieWire
And here's some tips on promoting using social media:

1) Don’t spend all of your time talking about your film.
Constant selling is boring and that’s counterproductive: You’re trying to build interest. This is why you should be careful about entrusting outside agencies with building and maintaining your social media presence: They can’t effectively be the voice of your work.

Six Tools for Online Film Distribution: Distrify, Dynamo Player, and other DIY Tools | Nic Baisley | MasteringFilm
A look at different services for distributing your movie online:

The truth is that no matter how passionate the business entity behind your distribution platform of choice is about independent film, they are not going to give your film more than several passing glances unless it is going to put coin in their pockets.

podcast #48 Vincent Laforet | Planet5D
Monday's webchat with Vincent Laforet is now archived online at Planet5D.



PHYX Keyer | Cfen | Cfen's Behind the Scenes
A review of the PHYX Keyer, which the writer prefers over the keyer in Final Cut Pro. Note that while he's using it in Final Cut Pro 7, it also works in Final Cut Pro X.



Syd Field Script Launcher | Syd Field | iTunes
Screenwriting teacher Syd Field has an app to help you write you script, and it runs on the iPhone. It's $7.99