Notes On Video

Sony PMW-F3 Firmware Update Due Shortly It may be almost impossible to buy a PMW-F3 right now, but the v1.10 free firmware update is expected very shortly according to @CineAltaNews Canon 1Ds Mark IV in August? Canonrumors thinks there will be a major announcement in August, and that it will be the 1Ds Mark III replacement, though the 5D Mark III would follow soon after. While those waiting anxiously for an upgraded 5D Mark II may be disappointed by this news, the arrival of the  1Ds Mark IV should answer one question; what the video capabilities of the 5D Mark III will be. It's unlikely that the two cameras will be very different, so if the 1Ds Mark IV doesn't have RAW video,  Thunderbolt, or full HDMI out, then don't expect the 5D Mark III  to, either. Canonrumors.com : 1Ds Mark IV & 3 Lenses in August? Working With Actors Filmmaker Robin Schmidt interviews actor Henry Maynard about acting and how Directors can help actors. Robin also offers ...

( only because I'm feeling a bit excessive ...) Shipping/Not Shipping? The reports that the NEX-FS100 was shipping seem to have been a bit premature. Paul Antico thought he was going to get his either today or Monday, but now he's been told it will be another week. The NEX-FS100 vs. the Canon 5D Mark II Paul has also written up a pros and cons of the NEX-FS100 vs the Canon 5D Mark II . If you have a DSLR and are thinking of the NEX-FS100 , give it a read. NeedCreative : Good-bye HDSLR for me! Sort of. A look at the Sony NEX-FS100 . Low light performance Andy Shipsides at AbelCine did an ISO test for the PMW-F3 , and now he's repeated it for the FS100 , finding even more amazing results. The F3 he rated as 6400 ISO at +18 db, while the FS100 rates "only" 4000 ISO at +18db. BUT it can go to +30db (16000 ISO) while +21 db = 6400 ISO. "The low light capabilities of the camera are amazing ." Dynamic range: 10 steps Low Light tests Mark Forman ...

If you're in LA and planning to go to the Cine Gear Expo on June 3 or 4, today is the last day to register for free (it's $20 at the door.) Cine Gear Expo offers artists and technicians the opportunity to discover the latest technology and techniques, get hands-on training, gain knowledge and skills from industry leaders, obtain the newest equipment, hear breaking industry news and network with peers and industry leaders all within a professional and comfortable studio environment. Friday, June 3, 2011 - Hours: 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm Saturday, June 4, 2011 - Hours: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Location: The Studios at Paramount Hollywood, CA 90038 Cine Gear Expo: Attendee Registration

Shooting Diary Danny Stack at Scriptwriting in the UK documents a day's shooting: 6.30am-8am Andy and Chris set up and fuss over the shots like the ARTISTES that they are. Dan and Chris get into character. Emma wires them up for sound. I walk around with an important blue folder to make it look like I know what I'm doing. dannystack.blogspot.com : Liquid Lunch: The Shoot! I love the " I walk around with an important blue folder to make it look like I know what I'm doing " line so much, it reminds me of these tips on How to Be a Motion Picture Director , from Marshall Neilan who was an actor and director active between 1912-1937 Q. How should a director direct? A. That depends upon the importance of the visitors on the lot who happen to be watching him. OnAmination.com : How to Be a Motion Picture Director More on the Sony NEX-FS100 Paul Antico , who expects to get his new NEX-FS100 today or Monday, writes about why he decided to get one and compa...

The latest BOSFCPUG & BOSDLSR Mixer took place at Rule Boston Camera yesterday (Wednesday evening) and was a sold out event featuring a talk from Philip Hodgetts on Final Cut Pro X , and Yan Shvalb on Adobe CS5.5 Intense Guessing Right at the beginning, Philip acknowledged that he knows nothing official about what's coming in Final Cut Pro X , other than what we all saw at the SuperMeet at NAB. He's been guessing and reporting on hints and whispers about Final Cut Pro X for more than a year now, and he's just a little bit obsessive about it "I like a mystery" he said. He even got a 720p copy of a video of the SuperMeet presentation, and went through it with a fine-toothed comb, catching bits that just flashed by for the rest of us. It's pretty safe to say that the only people that know more about Final Cut Pro X are the actual beta testers and Apple employees, and few of them are talking. The most important things about Final Cut Pro X acco...

The NEX-FS100 is supposed to be shipping now - or early next week - and it certainly seems to be generating renewed interest and excitement. Philip Johnston at HD Warrior , who has been a fan of the Panasonic AG-AF100 , is getting an FS100 , and may even sell his AF100 . He's also just sold his Canon 5D Mark II . HDWarrior : Now filming 1080 50p as from June 2011  Omar Sattaur took a look at both the FS100 and the AF100 , and he's not too sure which is better; the lack of built-in ND filter, and a single memory card he thinks are the FS100's two biggest problems: oiomar.tumblr.com : Sony FS100 VS Panasonic AF101 Steve Landon-Smyth while acknowledging that the FS100 is not good for ENG work, thinks it is a good choice for those that can't afford the PMW-F3 or a RED . He tweeted: Unlike HDSLR the FS100 outputs full res image out HDMI. Up 2 RGB 444 8bit. Still not HD-SDI 10bit but much less $$$ FS100 will output SMPTE timecode out HDMI. Aja is working on r...

There's nearly always a raffle at the BOSFCPUG meetings , and last night there were two; the usual raffle of interesting things - software and books - and then a second raffle for a copy of Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium (aren't you sorry you weren't there?) For the first raffle, everyone got a numbered ticket, but for the big prize, you had to fill out a card from Adobe, and the winner was to be drawn from that stack of cards. So the first raffle proceeded through the prizes, with Loren Miller pulling tickets from a bag, and Dan Bérubé announcing and giving out the prizes. When they got to the big prize Dan announced they were drawing for it, and Loren immediately pulled out another number and called out "167!" "No! no!" said Dan. "We're picking the winner from the filled out cards!" Oops! No prize for 167. But then they pull the card and read out the name, and SURPRISE! it's the same guy that had the ticket numbered 167! T...

Pushing The CineStyle Picture Style During a recent shoot Tony Reale pushed the new Picture Style from Technicolor to the limits: Instead of white balancing to 5600K or higher, I set my white balance at 3200K which resulted in a very blue image. Usually this would be unusable if not very difficult to color correct in post. But as you can see, I was able to get some really great results using CineStyle. NextWaveDV : Pushing the limits of the CineStyle Canon 5D MkII color preset "I'm Melting!!" Yes, I'm biased against 3D; I think it's an interesting occasional experience - like going on an amusement ride - but not something I want to do every day. BUT, I do try to point to the positive stories as well as the negative ones. This isn't one of them. Several recent movie releases suggest that attendance at 3D screenings of movies are declining (when Avatar was released, the 3D screenings generated much more money than the 2D screenings; of course, the 3D s...

It appears that the Sony NEX-FS100 is now shipping, according to a tweet this morning from Need Creative 's Paul Antico ; Excited to hear Sony #fs100 has shipped and I should have it Fri or Tues from @rulebostoncam. Impeccable service -@IAmNeedCreative B & H: NEX-FS100U Super 35mm Sensor Camcorder (Body Only)

MAY 25 BOSFCPUG + BOSDSLR MIXER : FCP X RECAP + ADOBE CS5.5 Featuring Philip Hodgetts on FCP X and Yan Shvalb for Adobe on "What's New in CS5.5 Production Premium" TIME : 6:30PM - 9:00PM (Doors open at 6PM) VENUE : Rule Broadcast Systems, Inc., 395 Western Ave, Boston, MA COST: $6.00 Admission (Includes Refreshments and ticket to Big Dig Raffle). **$10 Admission at DOOR if not registered prior to Event.

I often tell a story about how years ago at Siggraph I first saw one of John Lasseter 's early Pixar pieces, and what impressed me about it was not the quality and realism of the 3D animation, but the story it told. There were other 3D shorts shown at that event that were more complex - even more realistic - but none were as compelling as Knick Knack . With that in mind, I find it ironic to see some recent threads of discussion about gear vs. story. Much of this discussion seems to be against the gear centric orientation that many sites - including this one - have. As one of those sites, I guess I'm being defensive, but let me say this: Story is the most important thing . BUT 90% of the time, when you're working on other people's stuff, story is not the most important thing; it's keeping the client happy. It's about working efficiently, and getting the job done to their expectations. It's also about making them comfortable; and part of that is jus...

There have been multiple reports that the Sony NEX-FS100 would be available around June, but now Cinema5D is providing an unsourced report that it "might be out in a couple of days ." Even if true, if the availability of this camera follows other models, they will trickle out over the next few months, and are unlikely to remain "in stock" at any dealer for some time. B & H : NEX-FS100U Camcroder only $4,999 B & H : NEX-FS100U (with 18-200mm lens) $5,599 Cinema5D : Sony FS100 available in the next days

Sony PMW-F3 Scene Files Andy Shipsides at AbelCine has put together a collection of custom Scene Files for the PMW-F3 . With the wide range of adjustments available in the F3′s picture profile control, I was able to make several looks that you might find useful. Some are aimed at maximizing the range of the camera, while others are aimed at creating a specific look. CineTechnica : F3 Scene Files from AbelCine CineStyle Picture Style According to Technicolor, their CineStyle Picture Style for Canon DSLRs has already been downloaded over 30,000 times. Technicolor : CineStyle Interview with Benjamin Eckstein Boston based DP, Producer and Editor Benjamin Eckstein is interviewed by Israel Hyman of Izzy Video : I like to think of most of my work though as documentary-focused, with an advertising spin. Which is to say that I like to work on stories of people and companies, etc. but I like to think of interesting visual ways to tell those stories and I find I get a lot of insp...

At last weeks Pub Night at Rule Boston Camera , Sony PMW-F3 specialist, Joe Schimizzi , spoke at some length about lens options for the PMW-F3 , and the PL lenses Sony is selling with the camera. The PL Lenses When Sony announced the PMW-F3 , they also announced a “Kit” version that includes three Sony PL lenses. These fixed focal length 35mm, 50mm & 85mm, T 2 lenses are not sold separately. Joe opened by saying that lots of people ask why Sony won’t sell the lenses separately, when in truth they are; “but you get a free camera with your purchase!” he joked. Another question they often get asked is; “who is making the lenses?” Acknowledging that the lenses aren’t made in a Sony factory, Joe said that the lenses are completely Sony designed “from soup to nuts, from the very front element to the back element.” He went on to add “Do they manufacture them in the Sony plant? No, […] we use somebody else’s shop. But they wouldn’t want to speak to those lenses being their own chi...

I recently bought a couple of Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2 TB drives. These drives come with a USB 2.0 dock - or as they call it, an "Adapter" - which is the base the drive sits on, and provides power and I/O connections. But you can also buy a Firewire 800 Adapter for $24 which lets you connect the drive through Firewire or USB. Since I have a MacBook Pro (with a Firewire 800 port) I thought it might be worth checking out to see if it improved the performance of the drive. Switching a drive from one adapter to another is very easy; it simply unplugs from the bottom of the drive. Just make sure you dismount and power down the drive before you switch adapters. As an experiment, I rendered a Final Cut Pro project on the drive while connected through Firewire 800, and then switched it to USB and repeated the test. I was a little surprised by the results: Firewire 800 : 7:03 USB 2.0: 7:05 With a seven minute render, only 2 seconds were saved; and that 2 seconds ar...

I've had the Steadicam Smoothee for a while now, and while I'd already posted some initially impressions, I've been meaning to finish up a more complete review. I guess I had problems deciding what to say about it; it does what it's supposed to do - it smooths out the video - but I have reservations because; it's large and attracts attention, the iPhone  still has other limitations as a camera, and while it improves the iPhone performance quite a bit, it's not as good as a real Steadicam on a vest and arm [ but then, did you expect it to be - Ed ?!] At $180, and the fact that it only works with the iPhone also factors into it. I think the problem is that it's not good enough for most pros, but it's probably too expensive for the casual user. NotesOnVideo : Shooting with the iPhone 4 NotesOnVideo : Steadicam Smoothee Unboxing & Initial Impressions B & H :  Steadicam Smoothee for iPhone 4  [$179.95] Amazon : Steadicam Smoothee for iP...

Is Film School A Good Investment? Jason Brubaker answers the question; "should you go to film school?" by interviewing filmmaker and film school graduate  Seth Hymes about his experiences: High Definition filmmaking equipment costs less than a semester at most film schools. The craft of filmmaking, from lighting, editing, shot composition, writing – all of it is available to learn on websites like yours, as well as other sites all over the net. And these days, most connections happen through the net. And further, many new filmmakers find their agents because they produce a short and get some heat on youtube, rather than meeting them in school. This echoes what I heard from Philip Bloom at a DSLR workshop last year. Philip essentially said that he probably wouldn't recommend someone going to Film School either; he said they should buy a Canon T2i and start making films. FilmingStuff : Should You Go To Film School? Birger Engineering Canon EF mount for Panasonic ...