Notes On Video

At the recent Three Minute Film Challenge DP Brandon Vincent was documenting the event with a DSLR film camera, and I had to ask him why: You’re shooting film today. Why are you doing that? Well, I’ve been meaning too. I found an old, well it’s not super old, but an older film camera that I used back in college. And I figured I'd find some old film, stick it in, and make myself shoot film. I’m really doing it to make myself more selective. I don’t want to be just popping off pictures, and hope that I get a good shot. I want to make sure that what I’m shooting is exactly what I want, everything’s the way that I want it, and I’m not going to bracket 6 pictures just to make sure I get my exposure right. I want to be as selective as I can and not waste the images, because I’ve only got one roll of film today, it’s 24 frames, I’ve got to make them count. Two weeks later I checked in with Brandon to see how the pictures turned out. Unfortunately, the place I used to go is cl...

It was back to the Brattle Theatre Trailer Smackdown last night for a fun evening of bad trailers and a competition of trailers made by 17 different teams just for the event. I wrote about the Smackdown last year, and it wasn't that much different this year; only the trailers had changed! It's fascinating how bad, odd and weird some old trailers are! See also  NotesOnVideo : The Joy of the Bad Trailer Here's some that stood out...

Yesterday I went to a Learning Lab at Rule Boston Camera for the Sony NEX-FS700 . I've written up the experience for Filmmaker Magazine: A look at the Sony NEX-FS700 which should be up today. As much as I'm impressed by the engineering and the image of the Canon C300 - and the fact that it works with Canon lenses natively - if I was buying a camera today I think I'd be drawn to the NEX-FS700 . Of course, this is all a little moot, as I don't have the money to buy either camera! Speaking of Rule Boston Camera , they have two other Learning Labs and a Pub Night coming up. Be sure to RSVP to events@rule.com : Learning Labs: WED: July 18: LED Lights: Ready For Prime Time with Lighting Designer John Gates 10:00am-12noon WED: July 25: Capturing High-Quality Digital Stills & Multi0Media Content With photographer Steve Dunwell 10:00am-12noon Pub Night: THU: July 26: The Long & WInding Road: Thriving in Today's Film, Video & Digital Ci...

Life after Red | Michael N. Sutton | RedUser Not surprisingly, Mike Sutton 's column yesterday that mentions RED prompts some fiery response in the RedUser forum: I think the point of my article is missed here. Its about progress and making better products as well as company policies, practices, etc in the end. If you think its okay to ban someone for speaking honestly or threatening lawsuits over names like Scarlet for TV's is okay then none of what I write will be acknowledged anyway. Attacking my spelling is fine if that's all you got. I am not a writer I am a shooter. WEEK 2: Setting Up Your Color Correction Workspace | Patrick Inhofer | Splicevine Patrick continues his series on Color Correction, this week: Optimizing Your Room For Color Correction The point of an external monitor is simple. It bypasses your computer’s color management system, which is off-loaded to the monitor. The monitor is fed from a specialized board or box that’s hooked up to your compu...

NEX-FS700 Significantly reduced shutter when in Super Slow Mo! | Alister Chapman | XDCAM Rolling shutter is almost gone when shooting at high speed with the NEX-FS700: This is very interesting and requires further investigation as it suggests that the sensor read out process is different in the high speed mode. It is probably just a significantly faster scan rate, but it could also possibly be a global shutter of some kind. It’s just a shame that you can’t access this read out mode for normal shooting. My 5 cinematography tips |  Twitter Evan Luzi  offered these 5 tips is one post: Use Less Lights Point the Camera & Shoot Bounces Work Gaffers = good Perfection is a Commodity Jake Ures ‏added: 6. Light can never be too soft. 7. A steadicam is not a dolly. 8. Don't move the camera if you don't have to. Sony F65 hands on review part 1 | By Martin Chab | Zitrin A review of Sony's big, expensive camera: Let me tell you one thing. The Latitude of this ca...

NeedCreative Podcast Ep. 3 - It Was A Great 3 Minutes | Anticipate Media A week after doing a three-minute film challenge, Paul, Ric, and friends get together to discuss the results of the project, as well as criticism from Steve Weiss of Zacuto - some people dream of being criticized by Steve Weiss : In this third special episode Jason Sidelinger and Paul Antico talk with special guests DP/Director/Writers Rick Macomber, Matt Stapleton, Sean Meehan, and actress Nicole Trauffer about the first Boston Area "Under 3 Minute" Film Challenge organized by Paul and Rick Editing “The Amazing Spider-Man” | Digital Production Buzz An audio interview with editor  Alan Edward Bell : This time he’s back with stories of editing “The Amazing Spider-Man.” What’s it like working on a high-budget production? How does he organize his edit team? How does he determine the path from dailies to finished movie? How does he balance technology with story-telling? Alan is a great guest – be sur...

Sony NEX-FS700 Kit and Gear Walkthrough | Tony Reale | NextWaveDV Tony talks about what he likes about the Sony NEX-FS700 , and also what gear he likes to use with it. He's a fan of the 18-200 kit lens (with reservations) and likes the Metabones adapter for use with Canon lenses: In this video I talk about my new Sony FS700 video camera. People have asked me why I went from HDSLRs to the new FS700 and I explain my reasons while also showing the gear I have in my kit. KineRAW S8 Camera Test Footage | Cinescopophilia A Chinese company is working on some interesting cameras. A few details can be found here: There are three Chinese KineRaw cameras the KineRaw S35, KineRaw S16 and the KineRaw S8 in the making. [...] and now we see more test footage of the KineRaw S8 camera has been put up by Dan Hudgins. The KineRaw S8 is similar to the KineRAW S35 and KineRAW S16 cameras except for the lack of Cineform compressed recording. and here:   KineRAW S35 Camera Vs Sony F3 Camera ...