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Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Quick Links

New Year's Resolutions For Filmmakers | Scott Macaulay | Filmmaker
Scott offers ideas for the coming year:
4. Work for a friend. Take a page from Lucas McNelly and his Kickstarter project — don’t just obsess about your own work, make yourself crew for someone you know. UPM, do locations, cast, take sound for a project of someone other than yourself. Commit to the level of your free time.


New MTF Services Lens Adapters" Electronic EOS To Sony F3/FS100/Panasonic AND B4 To EOS/Sony F2/FS100 | Dan Chung | DSLR News Shooter
We've been looking for a good EOS lens adapter, and maybe MTF has one:
The MTF EOS electronic lens adapter is the first to actually be available to order for the Sony F3 and NEX. It also works with Micro 4/3 cameras like the Panasonic AF100 where it joins the already available Redrockmicro livelens adapter in offering aperture control, but adds the benefit of image stabilisation. American company Birger Engineering have also been working on a similar adapter for some time now and have even shown it working at the NAB show, but it is still not available to buy.


Techniques for Slowmotion Video | Richard Harrington | Blog
A Creative COW video with Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington creating slow motion in different tools:
In this video tutorial with Robbie Carman and Richard Harrington, learn various ways for converting DSLR footage into instantaneous, buttery smooth slow motion using After Effects, Twixtor, or Cinema Tools; you might also use Optical Flow in Apple Motion, Advanced Frame Blending in AE, and FCP.


The Really Good Things In Indie Film Biz 2011 | Ted Hope | IndieWire
A look back at changes in Indie Filmmaking over the past year:
1. 2011 Was The Year That Crowdfunding Took Off
  1. Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act (H.R.2930) was passed by the House of Representatives earlier this November.
  2. Films readily surpassed their goals.
  3. Many exceeded $100K


Do-it-Yourself Acoustical Treatments: How to Build a Diffuser | Sloane | Audio Undone
A section from the book Audio Engineering 101: A Beginner's Guide to Music Production that explains how to build a "quadratic diffuser;" something I didn't even know existed until a read this!
A diffuser is a great way to control reflections in a room and make your room sound flatter. If your room is on the “dead” side, diffusers may be more suitable than adding absorptive sound control. Diffusers are often placed on the back wall behind the engineer’s head. They can also be placed in the studio to help tighten up a room, reduce flutter echo, and control reflections.


You Need a Logline | Xander Bennett | MasteringFilm
Another screen-writing tip:
What’s a logline, you ask? It’s two sentences that sum up the entire essence of your story, from protagonist to setting to plot. Here’s one I prepared earlier:
Dorothy, a naïve farm girl from Kansas, is carried away by a tornado to the mystical land of Oz. With the help of her new friends, she must defeat the Wicked Witch of the West and find her way back home.


Birth of the Flex Lens Shade | Planet5D
A small flexible lens shade:
Four years ago, while shooting boxing ringside at Staples Center in Los Angeles, I was furiously working on my standard gaffers tape and cardboard extension to my lens shade to block light flare from the HBO lights that hang over the ring. The shot I had been waiting for, happened; a perfect knockout right in front of me, I quickly chimped the back of my camera and the framing was perfect except….my homemade gaffers tape hood extension drooped down and block the fighters face. Agh!! As the night wore on I ended up so paranoid of “the droop” that I found myself worrying about “the droop” as opposed to getting the shots I needed. Shooting without a shade extension was not an option as the light flare was brutal.


Fight for 35mm | Julia Marchese | The Petition Site
I don't think there's much hope, but here's an effort to "save" 35mm film as a medium for projection:
The major film studios have decided that they eventually want to stop renting all archival 35mm film prints entirely because there are so few revival houses left, and because digital is cheap and the cost of storing and shipping prints is high.

I firmly believe that when you go out to the cinema, the film should be shown in 35mm. At the New Beverly, we have never been about making money - a double feature ticket costs only $8. We are passionate about cinema and film lovers. We still use a reel to reel projection system, and our projectionists care dearly about film..



1 comment:

Super9Films said...

On the 35mm film debate:

I am a big proponent for keeping film alive but I do believe the best way to view a film is in the format that it was acquired in - or as close as possible. Many films these day are being acquired digitally and should be shown via digital projection. Films that are filmed on 35mm film should be viewed on projected 35mm film prints.

Though, this could also be debated because almost no films that are being shot on film are being editing on film - they all go through a digital editing and finishing process and get printed back out to film for distribution.