Notes On Video

Mark Robinson points out that YouTube has changed their default Embed code from an object tag to an iFrame tag. You can still get the old tag by clicking the " Use old embed code " check-flag, but you have to remember to do that. Curiously, this new tag doesn't seem to place nicely with Blogger (previews don't work) so I am still using the old Object tags for the moment. ReelSEO : YouTube Quietly Changes Default Embed Code to HTML5-Friendly iFrames

The 10th Annual San Francisco SuperMeet is happening this Friday, January 28th at the Robertson Auditorium Mission Bay Conference Center (William J. Rutter Center)- UCSF. In addition to a Digital Showcase with 35 vendors and an Open Screen Theater, there will be presentations from: CANON Presents: Michael Blieden , Expolorer of Light "Yes You Can Use Autofocus And Still Call Yourself A D.P. " Kevin Jardin and J ohn Stark present their video " I The Pro Res Maker. " Best of the Best – Tips, Tricks, and Secret Techniques in FCP 7 - Returning to the Stage: Abba Shapiro and Steve Martin ! What's Happening in 3D Production ? - Alex Lindsay " POST IN A FLASH " - Tony Cacciarelli , AJA Video Systems Smoke on Mac OSX -J osh Courtney and Marc Hamaker The New Up: "Bitch" - Peggy Peralta and Albert Lopez Hard to believe they're going to get through all that in one evening! SuperMeet : San Francisco

Martini QuickShot Creator ( Martini ) is a plug-in for post-production visualization. Designed to work within Apple's Final Cut Pro , Martini makes it easy for editors to create additional shots and sequences. With Martini 's dynamic power, editors no longer need to use black slugs with text explaining what "shot goes here". From single shots to multi-shot sequences, Martini helps directors and editors create a better final film.

At the recent event on the Sony PMW-F3 , there was a little updated information on the NXCAM 35mm  camera that Sony previously talked about at the InterBEE show in November: It's being developed by the same team that developed the HXR-NX5 It's designed for handheld use (i.e. compete with DSLRs) Uses a Super 35mm CMOS imager E-mount lens platform AVCHD Full HD Recording 1080/30P, 24P (using MPEG4/AVC H.264) Compatable with existing NXCAM workflow There is a 1080/60P capability Tentative List Price: $6,000 Availability First Half 2011 It was noted that it doesn't look anything like the above image; even though they still showed that image with their slides. Also, they are still being coy about whether the CMOS sensor is the same one as the one used in the PMW-F3 . At the moment, the official line is that they can't confirm that it's the same sensor . It's unclear what the 1080/60P capability support means; since it was listed on a separate slide ...

Sony showed the PMW-F3 at a LearningLab at Rule Boston Camera this past Wednesday, and they've now posted a video of the event. This talk goes through a lot of features, including S-Log and external recording options. It's 2 hours long, but does include some sample videos at the beginning and end. Rule Boston Camera : Rule Website Rule : LearningLabSeries Learning Lab: Sony’s PMW-F3 Super 35 Digital Camera on 1.19.11 from Rule Boston Camera on Vimeo .

Film & Digital Times have put together a special report on the Sony PMW-F3 . You can download the PDF file from Sony's CineAlta Site. Sony : CineAlta Sony : PMWF3 Special Report, Film & Digital Times [PDF]

The Panasonic AG-AF100 is the "Official Camera of Slamdance 2011 Film Festival " and to celebrate they are running a competition “The Road to Park City,” where six selected Slamdance filmmakers will have one day to shoot a one minute film using the AF-100. These films will be screened on Thursday, January 27th, and a winner chosen who will receive an AF100. Slamdance : The Road to Park City Competition Screening

ProTrack Recorder Review The ProTrack Recorder from Alesis is a plug-in dock for iPhone or iPod that adds a Stereo-Mic and two phantom powered XLR inputs. The FinalCutUsers Blog takes an in-depth look at it, finding the unit generally okay "for the money," as well as going though getting your sound files into Final Cut Pro : The unit has a headphone output that can be useful. It’s not the best in the world though… not as clean if you power it all the way up, so some of the noise you will be hearing in your headphones will not be on the recording itself. Speaking of noisy … the built-in limiter is not really usable as this thing adds a lot of noise / static to the signal. Use the limiter only if you really have to. You will not be happy if you record (in) quite surroundings / environments with a turned on limiter. FinalCutUsersBlog : ProTrack Recorder for iPod & iPhone …a test Amazon : Alesis ProTrack Handheld Stereo Recorder for iPod [$177.25] Final Cut Pro...

Here I was thinking that the Sony Cinema Projector was a little over-the-top, but maybe in a few years, everyone will have one....because here's some interesting stats about television sizes from a recent article in the Boston Globe : In 2004, the average television measured 27 inches and the vast majority were standard definition. Today’s average TV is 36 inches, according to Paul Gagnon, director of North American TV research at DisplaySearch, a California-based market-research firm. “Even people who bought a flat-panel set in 2006 or 2007 are starting to look at replacing it with a 40-inch or larger set.’’ the penetration of high-definition TVs in US households is at 56 percent, according to Nielsen BostonGlobe : Inviting your buddies over for the big game without high-def? Don’t expect a high turnout

Cannon just sent out a press release about their involvement at this years Sundance Film Festival . The release includes the following statistic: Nearly twenty percent of the overall 2011 Sundance Film Festival films were shot on HD DSLR cameras, In addition to showing The Story Beyond The Still at this years Sundance festival, Canon will also be offering two educational workshops led by filmmaker Eric Schmidt , creator of the film, “ I Melt with You ,” which was shot using Canon DSLRs and will premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. These workshops, targeting film enthusiasts and professionals, will highlight the impact and need for DSLR cameras in the filmmaking industry. Attendees will gain both technical and creative expertise to advance their careers and involve them with the new realm of DSLR video. The workshops will take place on the following dates and location: Friday, January 21, 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Saturday, January 22, 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. New Frontie...

Yesterday Sony put on event at Rule Boston Camera about their CineAlta cameras - especially the Sony PMW-F3 - and for the event they dragged along a digital projector. I believe it was the 4K DCinema Projector . This is a huge beast - about the size of an oven - and was probably much more than was needed for the comparatively small conference room we were in! The images were impressive. This thing is clearly supposed to be installed in a separate room; the fans gave off a lot of noise, and it had a cute little tin hat on the top of it's ventilation spout at the back (normally it would be vented.) Even though it was reportedly operating at it's dimmest (lowest?) setting, it was almost too bright; the image was so bright that in light images you could see the ripples and bends in the screen! I don't think they sell these at Best Buy . Sony : SRXR320P 4K DCinema Projector

Is the Camera Important? Kevin Shahinian at Converge takes a shot at people who fixate on particular cameras over the art itself: Cameras; lenses; NLEs; these are but tools to help us breath life into our stories in ever more cinematic ways. They are merely conduits, inane in a vacuum. The breadth and depth of their function is only as relevant as how well each serves the story we aim to tell and the way we aim to tell it. It’s no more detrimental to your audience to tell a compelling story through uncompelling means than it is to tell an uncompelling story with high budget Hollywood polish. Converge : My Camera I Better Than Yours 3D TV is Ten Years Away Digital Cinema Report explains why 3D is still ten years away, including: 10. Some People Simply Hate 3D There are a sizable number of people who don’t care for 3D and there is a small percentage of people – estimates vary somewhere between two-five percent – who either can’t see it or get physically ill when they watc...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that The King's Speech is the best movie I've seen all year. The fact that it's the only movie I've seen this year is not significant; I think it's possibly the best movie of last year too. It's the only movie - other than True Grit - that I've seen in a while that I actually thought I'd like to see again. While it's sort of a buddy movie, it's also a character study, and it's about someone that I knew very little about; I think I actually knew more about the King George's brother (who abdicated) than I did about him. This was a man who ruled Britain during World War II; but who was over-shadowed by the many stronger characters of the time; like Churchill and Hitler. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are great as the King and his speech therapist, but I especially enjoyed Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the King's wife. She gives the character tremendous energy and humor, without oversh...

Amazon Studios , a contest-come movie-making development process is moving towards it's first giveaway of $20,000 each to two winning scripts. They've picked six finalists, and the winners will be announced on January 27th (you have to join Amazon Studios to be able to view the scripts): The Alchemist Agenda  ›by Marty Weiss ( Action and Adventure ) Diver Jonathan Rocklin discovers a sunken U-Boat full of gold bullion and teams up with former Mossad agent Orly Ellis in a race around the world to uncover its origin before the German government buries the secret forever, and them with it. America's Ben Franklin in: The Electrocution String  › Jason Ungate ( Comedy, Action and Adventure ) Follow Ben through the dark winter of 1777 as he uses his cunning and wit to foil the British forces and clear his name as a proud American patriot. You'll never think of George Washington, Benedict Arnold, or sexy flag-maker Betsy Ross the same way again. Cody & the Cubnapper...

You can get a free copy of the Boris Continuum Glitters Unit (normally $99) by Tweeting. You have to go to a web page and enter your Twitter username and password, and it will then send out a Tweet and ask for an email address to send the registration information for the software. Promotion ends on Wednesday, January 26, 2011. About Glitters: This package includes OpenGL hardware-accelerated effects filters that will generate glittering sparkles and specular highlight effects, ray bursts, and sharp catchlight reflections. Parameter controls include brightness, scale, color, and the number of rays that each filter emits. Go to this page to Tweet: Tweet for a Free Boris Continuum Glitters Unit Boris F X: Glitters

KickStarter Movie Headed to Sundance The Woods , a movie partially funded through Kickstarter (the "crowd-funding website) is the first such movie to make it to Sundance. Mashable : FirstKickstarter-Funded Film Headed to Sundance Birger Canon-to-Micro4/3 Adaptor Should Work with GH1 and GH2 EOSHD reports that the upcoming adaptor from B irger Engineering that will allow Canon lenses to be mated with the Panasonic  AG-AF100 and let the camera control the lenses, should work with the GH1 and GH2, through external power might be required. EOSHD : Birger Canon to AF100 adapter to also support GH1 and GH2 Extended Power for the Canon T2i Switronix PowerBase 70 for the T2i is a 70wh 14.8v lithium ion battery pack that provide 6 times the runtime of the Canon T2 i's standard battery. It can be mounted under the camera and provide power to two additional 12vdc devices. Owners of existing PowerBase 70 units can purchase a T2i converter block separately. Switronix ...

Sony is closing down a CD plant in New Jersey citing the U.S. economy and sagging interest in physical media. CNET : What happens when the CD factory closes?

Way back in January of 2010, Canon - with the help of Vincent Laforet - started the " Story Beyond The Still " competition. The Story Beyond the Still is a series of six competitions creating a user-generated movie " The Cabbie ": for the first round, take the last moment (or still) of the first segment - the Prologue - created by Vincent Laforet, and make the next Chapter in the film. The entrants in that round will be judged, the first Chapter chosen, and then the second challenge starts based on the last frame of that one, and so on. At the end, the six Chapter winners get to join Vincent Laforet on location to collaboratively shoot the final chapter of “ The Cabbie .” And now it's finally completed and about to be premiered at Sundance: The world premiere of the entire saga of the Story Beyond The Still , including the final chapter " Corridors ", will simultaneously premiere on Vimeo and at a screening at the Sundance Film Festival on Januar...

It's that time between the announcement of new cameras at CES, and the arrival of the units in the stores, and you know what that means: SALES on the old models! Canon has some rebates on their consumer video cameras that run through the 22nd or the 29th January. Models include: Canon FS300 Flash Memory Camcorder (Silver) : Standard Def, SD Memory camera with 37x optical zoom, Dynamic Image Stabilization, DIGIC DV II Image Processor, 786k Still Image Capture [ $100 Rebate ] $169 @ B & H or @ Amazon Canon VIXIA HF R10 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder (Red)  8GB Internal Flash Memory, SD Memory Card Slot, 2.39MP HD CMOS Image Sensor, 20x HD Video Lens, Dynamic Image Stabilization, 24p and 30p Frame Modes [ $100 Rebate ] $299 @ B & H or @ Amazon Canon VIXIA HF M300 Flash Memory Camcorder : SD/SDHC Memory Card Slot3.89MP CMOS Sensor [ $200 Rebate ] $349 @ B & H or @ Amazon Canon VIXIA HF21 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder 64GB Dual Flash Memory, 3.89MP Full HD CMOS Sens...

A very short warning. Recently, a friend was helping a middle school with their video needs. The school was looking to replace an old video camera that was being used to shoot events around the school. The footage would be edited using Premiere , and then "broadcast" on the schools internal TV network. That network is SD only. The school went out and bought a couple of mid-range consumer video cameras. But something that was completely overlooked when ordering the cameras was whether they shot in SD. It was just assumed that they did . Turned out, they didn't! One solution would have been to just shoot in HD and then edit in SD. Except that we determined that this would probably require updating the editing equipment they were using, and also would add another complication for users given everything was in SD format. In the end, the cameras were returned and replaced with two lower-priced SD only cameras ( they do still make them! ) While just a year or so ago...

Sony has announced some new information about the PMW-F3 , though so far, it's not earth shattering: S-log, 3G, Dual Link HD-SDI will be one firmware package that's available in April with initial feature set. The second release of firmware is scheduled for September with remaining functionality. 3DLink firmware requires two keys to work, one for each PMW-F3. A 3DLink cable will also be required. Combine with Genlock, 700 Protocol. The power zoom design specs have changed. It was originally 15x, but the new design will be 14x Source : @CineAltaNews on Twitter

The DSLRRigComparison website posts a PDF file that compares 24 different DSLR rigs and rates them based on a number of criteria, including Aesthetics, Build Quality and "Worth The Money?" If you're thinking about buying a rig, it's probably worth checking out (though you probably want to try a rig in person first before buying it.) DSLRRigComparison.com

If you're in the UK and interested in the Panasonic AG-AF101 (AF100) PlanetVideoSystems, based at Pinewood Studios is holding a launch event on Wednesday, 26th January from 10.00am to 4.00pm. Be amongst the first to see and handle the AG-AF101, talk to experts, including Lighting Cameraman and DVUser magazine editor Nigel Cooper (www.dvuser.co.uk), about using the camera and gain valuable insight into its imaging and workflow benefits. The event is free, but space is limited. PlanetVideoSystems : AF101 Launch And if you're in Minnesota , Z Systems Inc is holding an event for the Sony PMW-F3 on January 27th . We'll have presentations running at 10am, 1:30pm, and 6:30pm with plenty of time in between so you can get up close and personal with this camera. Snacks and refreshments will be provided throughout the day. ZSystems : Sony F3 And don't forget that if you're in Boston on January19th , Rule Camera is holding a couple of PMW-F3 themed events... ...

How Monsters was created using Adobe CS Production Premium In a short video on AdobeTV, Writer/director Gareth Edwards of Monsters talks about how he believed he could create a movie "using stuff from home." AdobeTV : Episode: Monsters Production Office Episode to feature Philip Bloom The Production Office LIVE is a free and interactive TV show for film makers and creatives. The first show of their second season will have DSLR guru Philip Bloom for a full hour of chatting about Canon, Panasonic, lenses, dollies and all manner of other goodies. Thursday January 20th, 7.30pm UK time  ProductionOffice Nikon to release mirrorless pro camera system in April MirrorlessRumors.com reports: According to our veeeeeery good sources Nikon will unveil their new mirrorless system in April! Nikon developed a very advanced (and expensive) pro system not meant for the amateur market While this will primarily be a still camera - I'm guessing - it will probably include...

Is DSLR Video A Revolution? Back in December, Robin Schmidt posted an article: DSLR Video Is Not A Revolution , arguing: There’s no revolution going on in Hollywood. People are incorporating stills cameras into production because they’re cheap and they can get away with it... Actually, that's about as strong as it gets, because later in the piece he argues that Renaissance is a better word to describe what's going on. But Nino Leitner is having none of it, and has posted a response: I tend to disagree with his principal notion of denying the revolutionary impact of DSLRs in the filmmaking world. Ironically, I get the feeling he found himself confirming the very fact that these little cameras are nothing short of a revolution while he wrote his own article [...]DSLR video is a revolution for many. It opens doors. It gives you results that you thought would cost a fortune to create only 5 years ag I'm sure they are both right. TheConvergence : DSLR Video Is Not...

Camcorderinfo has published two fairly extensive "first-impression" reviews of the two most interesting consumer 3D video cameras announced at CES: The Sony HDR-TD10 [$1,499.99] and the JVC GS-TD1 [$,999.95]. They found both cameras to be rather large and bulky, and wonder if users will be willing - in this age of ever shrinking cameras - to put up with it. Even though it was $500 cheaper than the JVC, the Sony HDR-TD10 impressed Camcorderinfo less than the JVC: ...we were not impressed with the [ HDR-TD10 's] glasses-free LCD capability. The images often had plenty of ghosting and blur when we watched them on the tiny screen and, at times, the LCD’s 3D function didn’t appear to work at all. [...]we expect the HDR-TD10 to do quite well in our 3D testing. The Panasonic HDC-SDT750 did a decent job producing a 3D effect in our labs, but we’re hoping of even better performance from the Sony due to its dual lens and sensor setup. If the Sony HDR-TD10 does bl...

Sony says they have a free PMW-F3 Blu-ray promotional disc that is almost ready for release. For a copy (USA Only) e-mail production@am.sony.com [ NOTE : This is not the promised "new important information" Sony said they were going to announce today ]

First Canon HF G10 Video Nicolas Charbonnier managed to capture some video using the display HF G10 at CES in the trade show hall. It's probably not the best way to evaluate the camera - particularly as it's compressed on YouTube. He also has a video showing the XA 10 and HF G10 cameras themselves. ARMdevices : Canon Vixia HF G10 Sample recordings Apple iPad 2 Rumors The good old rumor mill is picking up, and in addition to the possibility of two cameras, it seems that the iPad2 screen resolution may by doubled (or quadrupled if you're talking about total number of pixels) to 2048 x 1536. Any actual announcement is still probably at least two months away. AppleInsider : Apple iBooks app indicates iPad 2 will quadruple pixels to 2048x1536 Google Defends Itself, WebM coming to Safari and IE9 Taking a bit of flake about it's announcement of dropping H.264 from Chrome, Google fires back. Says you'll still be able to use Flash . They also say that WebM...

After yesterdays post, a few more items turned up: Zacuto Announces Rigs for the AF100 Rig maker Zacuto has announced some baseplate kits especially for the AG-AF100 : Docu Baseplate Kit [$1,012.00], Cine Baseplate Kit [$1,479.00], and the Indie Baseplate Kit [$2671.00]. Zacuto : Panasonic AG-AF100 Rigs Is The AF100 Sensor Too Small? Seems that some people have been complaining about the small size of the 4/3 sensor camera; and how that effects the field of view when you use different lenses. With the smaller size sensor, your lenses become much longer. Matt Jeppsen at the ProVideo Colaition jumps to the AG-AF100 's defense, writing that many of these people are unfairly comparing it to the Canon 5D , which is full-frame, and which is "not normal." He thinks video and movie makers should be comparing it to Super35mm, which is what is really the current standard for filmmaking and "Which the AF100’s sensor size compares relatively favorably to....