Notes On Video

Vincent Laforet has been playing with the RED Epic , and has been posting about the experience. It seems pretty clear that, at least in this case, he thinks this gear does make a decisive change in the way you capture stories both because of the ability to capture high quality stills from a sequence: ...this camera has made me think A LOT. And ask a lot of "big" questions… such as: "Does the challenge of capturing "THE DECISIVE MOMENT" still exist when you can capture a 14 megapixel image at 120 frames per second? " For someone who idolized Henri Cartier Bresson and worked on mastering the capture of that "decisive moment" for most of my career – it is not a question I ask lightly. "Are the days of the "still camera" numbered?" as well as the HDR capabilities, and looking towards future needs: So why 5K some of you may ask? Well for one, it’s "future proof" – or we can expect it to be high enough resolution to ...

Sony PMW-F3 Supplemental Manual . Sony has released an update which reflects the new features enabled by the firmware update and the S-Log (purchase) option. Sony.com : PMW-F3_Supp_Manual.pdf [PDF] Contour+ Review . CamcorderInfo.com reviews the Contour 1500 Contour Plus Camera camera. It's generally positive, though as they note:  The Contour+ is such a unique camcorder that you probably already know—without our help—whether its the right model for you . Camcroderinfo:  Contour Contour+ New Sony Cameras : Sony announced the NEX-C3 and the SLT-A35 . The NEX-C3 is slimmer and lighter than the existing NEX-C3 , though it still only support 720p video: Sony:  Just announced: Two new cameras with head turning design and technology Media Shortages Caused by Japanese Tsunami : a review of the situation for HDCAM-SR and XDCAM discs. Note: Sony expects HDCAM-SR production to resume in late July. TV Technology :  Industry Copes With Media Shortages Editin...

Thursday I stopped by Rule Boston Camera to see the Sony NEX-FS100 in the flesh. When I got there, they happened to have it set up with a Sony 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 Alpha zoom lens, attached using the Sony Alpha to E-Mount Adapter . Interestingly, they were trying to diagnose a problem with the adapter; the mount "clicked" quite loudly when adjusting the aperture of the lens. It didn't happen at the step-to-step change (though there's some noise then) but very loudly when it reached the limit of the lenses aperture. In theory, the Sony Alpha adapter should allow the camera to control the lens aperture and focus, but while the camera could adjust the aperture, the focus command wasn't working. When you pushed any of the focus controls the camera said the lens was not communicating. Tom Talbot at Rule said they had just started working with it, so they weren't too sure what the problem was. Tom also demonstrated a Zeiss 18mm lens attached using an MTF Se...

Final Cut Pro X Practically no news today, so it doesn't even warrant it's own post. Best Buy has been offering 15% off iTunes gift cards this week, but now it appears that Target will be offering 20% off iTunes gift cards this weekend. Stock up and save for when Final Cut Pro X when it's finally released! Pitching Your Movie An interesting article from Alexis van Hurkman about planning, preparation, putting your best foot forward, and always being ready to adapt. It also gives you an idea of how exhausting trying to get a movie made can be. So, there I am in London, at an afterparty for the event that brought me out there, having gotten an actual appointment for my pitch meeting. I’m at a pub with another producer as well as my initial contacts at the production company, drinking and chatting about pitches, and they start talking about how great it is to pitch with an animatic. And there I sit, feeling like an idiot, since I had a whole year to put something tog...

9 to 5 Mac has just posted a rumor about a new Mac Pro design that is smaller, rackable, carries "stacked" drives in a higher density than currently available, along with Thunderbolt support. But then it goes into the realm of fantasy with the following prediction: Beyond what we’ve heard, it would seem appropriate that these new Mac Pros would also have a Thunderbolt port and perhaps even BluRay options for the Final Cut Professionals. With the new version of Final Cut Pro coming in June, we can’t think of a better time for Apple to update the 8-year old design of the Mac Pro Blu-ray? Seriously? On a Mac? Prepare to be disappointed! 9to5Mac : Prototype next-gen Mac Pro detailed: redesigned, rackable, stackable

Can we please have Final Cut Pro X tomorrow, Friday?  'Cause then I could spend the weekend playing with it. Thank you. sincerely,

There had been a number of people saying that Final Cut Pro X would ship today (though I was never able to find out where that date came from.) Unfortunately, so far there's no sign of it. Projecting a release date is a tricky business; do you go based on dates/days that Apple has previously announced/shipped things? Will Apple slip it out quietly in the night, or will they roll it out at some kind of event? I can't help thinking that with something as momentous as they seem to think Final Cut Pro X is, that Apple wouldn't miss a chance to do some kind of public event. The upcoming SuperMeet in London would have been a good place; except it's in London. Perhaps they will just slip it out, and then make the rounds of different shows and user groups? Fevered Dreams Scott Blaszak had a dream that he got to see Final Cut Pro X with a bunch of famous directors: It was an intense session. James Cameron demanded to know how FCP would handle a 3D workflow. Quentin...

Using a DSLR to shoot video? That's so 2010! DSLR's are dead; they were pronounced dead at NAB 2011! Its ironic really; 2010 had been "the year of DSLRs" at NAB, but this year everyone agreed that their moment had passed. Attention moved to the large sensor video cameras; from the expensive RED's and Alexa's, to the more price conscious Sony PMW-F3 , Sony NEX-FS100 , and Panasonic AG-AF100 . Not everyone was happy about this change, but before we get to that, let's review how we got here. A little history It's hard to believe that it was less than three short years ago, in August 2008, that Nikon announced the D90 , a DSLR with a 720p HD video mode. Just a month later, Canon announced the 5D Mark II , which captured 1920 x 1080 HD video. Canon had added the video capability because of requests from the Associated Press and other news organizations, who wanted their news photographers to be able to shoot short video clips for use on the web. C...

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Les Paul , a pioneer in the development of solid-body electric guitars, and Google celebrates with a little guitar widget you can play on their home page. It may not be GarageBand , but it's pretty neat!

Update on First Impressions When Paul Antico tweeted that he'd posted his "first thoughts" about the NEX-FS100 , I teased him about when he'd be posting his second thoughts. Well, it didn't take long, as he's gone back and updated his opinion about the construction: I started to try to rig it. And after some time I have to admit it still feels like a lightweight plastic shell as compared to most devices of this price range and even the Canon HDSLRs. While test rigging it tonight I thought I was going to literally crack it in half as the lens got caught on my follow focus as the rig collapsed a bit while adjusting. If you knock on the side panels with your knuckle it sounds hollow. and added that the buttons don't give much feedback: ...I do think they are a tad too recessed into the body, and don't have as satisfying of a tactile "click" as I am used to, especially on pro cameras. He still likes the images it produces. Read the whole ...

When Apple said that Final Cut Pro X would be released in June, many people seemed to read "1st June," and there's been a constant hum of "where is it?" comments on Twitter over the past week. As I expected (and I'm mostly half right) there was no mention of it at the World Wide Developers Conference key note. Complaints - as well as guesses - have been proliferating. There have been different date predictions: as previously reported, Philip Hodgetts thinks it will be June 21st. I've also seen talk about June 14th, and several people have been saying it will be tomorrow, June 9th. Not until Lion ? Aaron Robinson thinks it won't be released until Lion is released in July, but I think that's a miss-reading of what Apple has previously said. At the Vegas SuperMeet, Apple said that it would be in June, and they knew that Lion was not scheduled for release then (they also said that Final Cut Pro X would run on Snow Leopard .) Of course, ...

Freelance filmmaker and documentary director Ben Pender-Cudlip of Unrendered Films talks about two documentary projects he's currently working on. He's been shooting these primarily with a Canon 60D . Q: Can you tell us about the projects you are working on right now? One of the projects I’ve been working on as the Director of Photography is a documentary on youth violence in inner-city Boston. [...] We want to tell the stories of the perpetrators and the survivors of youth violence Q: Who’s making it? The director’s name is Adam Mazo of Mazo Productions, and he’s a terrific director. I worked on one of his previous projects as a colorist and he said he was doing something else and I said I didn’t care what it was. I’d shoot it. Q: And you’re shooting it with what? I’m shooting it with the Canon 60D and a custom shoulder rig. I’m shooting observational long-form documentary on a DSLR. Q: How far along is it? It’s an observational documentary, and we’re squarely...

I case you missed it - I did - Apple released a minor update to iOS iMovie last week: What's New in Version 1.2.1 Audio plays from your HDTV when using the Apple Digital AV Adapter. Video plays full screen from Marquee to your HDTV when using the Apple Digital AV Adapter. Resolves some cases of missing media in projects. Provides more accurate clip grouping by date in Video browser. Fixes an issue where a project's background music would not fade in or out. Additional performance and reliability improvements. iTunes : iMovie

Yesterday, Cave of Forgotten Dreams Director Werner Herzog appeared on The Colbert Report , and things got more than a little other-wordly as Werner explained to Stephen why he added radioactive albino crocodiles to his documentary about cave paintings... The Colbert Report Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes , Political Humor & Satire Blog , Video Archive

The Sony NEX-FS100 Super 35mm User Group has posted a copy of the NEX-FS100 Operating Guide in PDF format. It's just under 4MB Vimeo : NEX-FS100 Operating Guide (Manual) available now!

Comparing Six Cameras While we are waiting for the Great Camera Shootout 2011 , John Brawley and Kate Dennis in Australia went and put together their own little test with 35mm film, Super 16mm film, RED MX , Arri Alexa , Sony PMW-F3 and the Canon EOS 1dMKiv . John says this was really intended to be viewed projected, rather than on the net, noting that on the Viemo version the blacks look a little crushed: We also made a definite choice to NOT edit them exactly the same way, but to favour each edit to be the best it could be with the available material.  This extended to the grade.  Instead of trying to match everything to one camera, we simply tried to make each camera look the best it could. JohnBrawley : Posted – Available light tests are finally online Sony FS100 First Look Paul Antico at Need Creative got his NEX-FS100 yesterday and after only an hour or so of playing with it, has posted his impressions. He notes that the LCD is awesome, it feels a bit plas...

Keith Wasserman  was a member of team from  Movie Magic Media  that participated in the recent Boston 48 Hour Film Project.  Teams had just 48 hours to produce a movie in a genre they were given, and they had to include three specific elements. For this years movie, their team had to produce a War / Anti-war genre movie, and it had to have a chess piece as a prop, a character that was an Aunt, and the line of dialogue, “I didn’t see that coming.” This Thursday, June 9th, at 7pm there will be a screening of all the films at the Kendall Square Cinema , One Kendall Square, Cambridge. At last Sunday's Boston Media Makers I spoke with Keith about what it's like participating in a 48 hour film project (you can view their completed film on Vimeo, listed below.) Q: This is your fifth 48 hour film project? I think it’s the fifth or sixth year. I’ve taken a year or two off. Q: Have you been working with the same group of people each time? I have been doi...

There was no announcement about Final Cut Pro X at today's World Wide Developers Conference . That's great news for me, as I had predicted that there wouldn't be. It's bad news for me, because I was sort of hoping that they would say something...anything. Of course, this doesn't mean that it might not still be pushed out next Tuesday, or the Tuesday after that, or the Tuesday after that....or some other time this month. In the mean time, you might think of hopping over to Best Buy and buying some $100 gift cards. They are on sale for $85, and I'm told you can use them for purchases at the App Store .

John Godwin posted a test shot with the NEX-FS100 using the Canon 7D kit lens ( 18-135 3.5 EOS ) and Tokina EOS lens ( 11-16 f/2.8 ) set to wide open, and a Genus variable ND for exposure control: Vimeo : FS-100 tests And Jeff Scholl has posted a video shot with the NEX-FS100 with a 16mm prime on a Hexakopter. Geesh! I don't know I'd risk my camera on that! Vimeo : Sony NEX FS100 flight on a Hexakopter Jose Luis Hugo posts a video with a Custom Profile he made in an attempt to emulate the flat image profiles people like to use: I basically changed the PP6 since I thought it was the darkest out of the cine gamma profiles. I then compared it to PP5. I did color correction on both profiles and compared them side to side. FCP was used to edit and Color for color correcting. Profile Settings (PP6) Black Level: +15 Gamma: ITU709 Black Gamma: Middle/ +7 Color Mode: Cinematone 1/ 8 Color Level: -2 I did notice some noise on the dark parts of the image but I gues...

Just as everyone is expected to have at least one book in them, I think it's assumed that every filmmaker must have a script in them. And even though I don't really have the urge to spend my days writing scripts, I will confess to having started, on different occasions, at least three separate scripts... ...none of which were ever close to being completed. Then last year I saw the Amazon Studio 's project, and while I have many reservations about how you sign away your rights for 18 months and so on, it did seem like an interesting experiment. And they were offering attractive prizes. And surely I could bang out a script - something - in a month or so? It would be kind of fun, wouldn't it? How hard could it be? Pick Your Tool - Scrivener So I had an idea, and I started writing the script using a Mac word processor called Scrivener . I've been playing with this word processor off and on for the past year, and it has has some interesting tricks; you can easi...

Worst...title....ever? Seriously. This is supposed to be the authorized biography of Steve Jobs , and though Amazon is taking pre-orders, it won't be available until March 2012 . BUT, how could it possibly be authorized by Steve Jobs? Look at that cover! And the title?! Seems hard to believe Steve would approve either of those...

At today's Boston Media Maker 's, Adam Weiss talked about the iPhone app FiLMiC Pro (currently $1.99) which provides several advanced video capture features including 3 separate shooting modes, 4 selectable resolutions, variable frame rates, the ability to set separate focus and exposure points, and more. Adam also talked about capturing audio, using cables from kV connection  to connect microphones to the iPhone .

AJA Ki Pro Mini : Digital Content Producer posts an in-depth review of the Ki Pro Mini , which also notes the appearance of other competitiors: What it really boils down to is “codec wars.” Which codec is best is a question that leads to a bottomless pit of discussion. In essence, the answer is what look do you like and what works best in your scenario. ProRes is a 10-bit I frame codec which most importantly holds up to considerable grading and VFX work. That alone places it at the top in the minds of many users. In Review: AJA Ki Pro Mini The Tao Colorist : latest news for the colorist: [TaoColorist] Sunday Morning Reading (Subscription Season!) Sunday, June 5, 2011 TED Talks on filmmaking . No Film School has put together seven talks from TED about film making: Seven Inspiring TED Talks About Filmmaking Becoming a Director . Elliot Grove at Raindance offers: 9 routes to breaking in as a film director Novelist, screenwriter, and game designer Chuck Wendig offers 25 Things You...

The Sony NEX-FS100 has been landing in several lucky people's hands this week. More than a few New England people are expecting to take delivery of theirs on Monday. More videos are turning up on the web too. Here's a recap of the latest news and videos: Camera Review CVP Television has posted their video "review" of the camera, which shows layout and operation and how the viewfinder works. It's really more a demonstration of how the camera is operated than a review. Note that more than a few people think that you will want to get something like the Zacuto EVF to work with the camera.  Yes, the camera does seem to be covered in buttons! They think that even though the lens is slow, it's still possible to get good shallow depth-of-field shots with the lens, and the sensitivity of the camera is such that the comparatively slow lens isn't a problem... YouTube : Sony NEX-FS100 Review The NEX-FS100 does 4:4: 4 Thaddeus Setla went to the Cine Ge...