Notes On Video

Audio Recorder Roundup: Zoom H4n vs. Tascam DR-100mkII vs Tascam DR-40 | E.M. Taboada | No Film School A look at these three audio recorders, with the DR-100mkII coming out slightly on top: Over the course of many tests I thought the DR-40 and H4n were very similar in the kind of sounds they picked up, with perhaps the DR-40 having slightly (as in ever so slightly) more white noise. The DR-100mkII seemed to have a slightly cleaner sound than the other two, but tended to not pick up lower frequency sounds quite as strongly. [...]I would pick the DR-100mkII. I liked the sound coming out of it, and really dug the input level knob. How to Guide Your Documentary Interviewee | Todd Grossman | MasteringFilm Great article on things to think about when interviewing a subject: Another interesting technique is to consider what tense they will be answering in. Most sit-down interviews happen after the fact, and are more or less recaps of an event from the past. This can give the viewer a ...

Yesterday Adobe hosted a webinar with Adobe Product Manager, Al Mooney . Mooney began the demonstration with an analogy: “If Premiere Pro was the car, and the Mercury Playback Engine was the engine, then we had a beautifully engineered engine, but the car wasn’t quite as good.” So this release, to further the analogy, is all about tidying up the car. To that end, they focused on two things: Improving the user interface. Improving the editing operation as a whole, focusing on the rhythm of editing, removing frustrations and adding new features that editors need. It all sounded good, though maybe a bit like the Final Cut Pro X demo. The Adobe CS6 Production Premium software According to Mooney, “the minute you launch it, you’ll immediately notice the redesign.” They removed unnecessary noise, clutter, and "chrome" (the gray space around the interface elements.) There’s “a lot less gray and a lot more video.” If you don’t like the new default layout, you can go back t...

Thursday’s SMPTE-NE meeting at WBZ Boston was a panel discussion of the new, the exciting and the scary at NAB this year. The Panel was moderated by co-founder of Avid, Peter Fasciano . and featured Bob Lamm of Broadcast Pix , Willis Peligian of the Willis Group, lighting expert John Gates of Gates Service Group, and Boston Creative Pro User Group’s own Dan Bérubé . (l to r) Dan, John, Willis, Bob & Peter Bob noted that the business is becoming more "computerized." IT based companies are talking to broadcast people in terms that are familiar to computer people rather than to video people. He said that “File-based Work Flows” was a popular phrase at the show. He also noted that there were a lot of people from overseas. He pointed out how inexpensive configuring SD installations has become, and that SD remains a viable - and in some cases the only - solution for a lot of small installations. This is particularly true outside the US. “Most of the people I’ve me...

Adobe is offering a series of webinars on CS6 , starting today with: Editing Faster Your Way with Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 10:00am Pacific Time Join Adobe Product Manager, Al Mooney, as he demos the exciting new features in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6—the powerful non-linear editing system that sits at the heart of Adobe CS6 Production Premium, connecting all of your media as it flows in and out of post-production. See how Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS6 combines incredible performance with a sleek revamped UI, and a host of powerful new creative features, including Warp Stabilizer for stabilizing footage, dynamic timeline trimming, expanded multicam editing, adjustment layers, and more for a fluid editing workflow. Sign up for this live Ask a Video Pro Session. Fine out more at: "Ask A Video Pro" Webinar Series | Adobe

NAB 2012: Lightworks | Scott Simmons | ProVideoCoalition Scott offers a few thoughts on Lightworks , the free NLE that's a little different: I mentioned repeatedly to the Editshare guys that once a Mac version is ready we will see a lot more interest but they said they’ve seen over 250,000 downloads of the current Windows version. I think they are quite proud of that download number and Lightworks looks to be a pretty big part of the overall Editshare strategy going into the future. I’m not exactly sure what that strategy is but apparently someone at Editshare does since Lightworks lives on. Sony FS700 Hands-On . . . & Where are the Power-Zoom Lenses? | Eric Reagan | Photography Bay A few thoughts on the NEX-FS700 , though it's more of a first-look than a hands-on review: The hand-grip is definitely beefed up from the FS100 for a much more solid feel – again, a needed improvement. Notably, there’s now a zoom rocker on the hand-grip, which led to a brief argument b...

I May Never Buy a Camera Again | RON DAWSON | Dare Dreamer Interesting thoughts on renting vs. owning: I guess what I’m saying is this: think with your head, and not with your heart when it comes to making an investment in something as expensive as a camera, especially when they change as often as they do. I’d be more inclined to invest my money in great glass that you can use on multiple cameras. A Zeiss CP.2 cinema lens can be used on everything from a T2i to a RED. No matter what kind of shoot you’re doing, a good lens will come in handy. NAB 2012: Quantel new Pablo and Neo Nano | Scott Simmons | ProVideoColaition Quantel's "cheaper" (~$50,000) color grading solutions: The Pablo control surface really is a thing of beauty and if you ever get the chance to lay your hands on one by all means do and you’ll see what I mean. It is very well engineered and feels amazing under your hands. The new Neo Nano is stripped down in size removing the keyboard, tablet, transpo...

Looking Inside the Canon1DC DSLR 4K Capture Project “The Ticket” | Shane Hurlbut | Hurlbut Visuals Blog post on shooting Po Chan’s film “ The Ticket ” using the 1DC: We purposely cast the Prius Taxi Cab to not only be eco-friendly, but to showcase the power of the camera’s size and its sensor. We loaded our three actors; Po, our director; Mike Svitak, our 1st AC; and me into the cab and drove around the streets of Los Angeles. I was in the hatchback of the Prius on a Kessler Cine Slider, using a Small HD DP-4 to gauge my exposure and frame my shot. The lens was the new 24mm Cinema Prime at a t1.3. My personal favorite new products from NAB - Part 1 | Daniel Freytag | Blog Daniel highlights some things you might have missed in the NAB coverage over the last week; the SmallHD HDMI clamp , Bebob Rigs, Livestream broadcaster , and SmallHD DP7 : Yes, there was another product from SmallHD, which I really liked today. It is a new 7" OLED monitor with an unbelievable pictu...

Sony's fall and Japan's hang-ups | Brooke Crothers | C|Net Brooke lived in Japan from 83 to 93, and offers a list of reasons why he thinks Japan is having difficulty competing in technology; and why Sony is having financial problems: Software: Japanese companies have never had a firm grasp of the importance of software. Or the art of fusing hardware and user-friendly software into an appealing coherent whole, a la Apple or even a company like IBM and its mainframe culture. And this is a corollary to the obsession with monozukuri. When I lived in Japan, the message was clear: software really isn't that important. It's only hardware that matters. It seems odd that Sony is having difficulties. But when you think of the number of products they make compared to, say, Apple...perhaps one of their problems is too much diversification? I don't agree with his final sentence: Well, I really can't think of any Sony product that I would want to buy today. How times ha...