Notes On Video

FILM TAX INCENTIVES | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine A recent panel on State Tax Incentives sponsored by the Massachusetts Production Coalition was centered on tax credits for Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but much of the advice is applicable to other state programs. It’s important to note that while many states offer some form of tax incentive for filmmakers, there are several important differences between the various programs: whether it’s a rebate or a credit, transferable, has a cap [the state has a total limit per years for all credits], the minimum production budget requirements, and several other details. Packing | Benjamin Eckstein | Blog Benjamin thinks he has the packing of his gear all sorted out, so he wrote a blog about it: A backpack is important to have.  When walking at length (like through an airport) it is great to have your most valuable items well supported on your back.  Make sure to get a backpack that can fit in most overhead compartments...

Something I didn’t mention in my report on Tuesday’s BOSCPUG meeting is that Rob Bessette of Finish Boston also demoed Blackmagic’s Resolve 9 . Resolve is a sophisticated color grading application, and this new release features a significant UI improvement. The previous version had the distinct impression of being designed for Linux, but this release actually is starting to look like a regular Mac/Windows app. On the downside, you still need to know how to do color correction, but the program seems simpler now; and don’t forget there’s a free version you can download and use. Wednesday night was SMPTE New England ’s meeting at Rule Boston, and Juan Martinez , Senior Product Manager, Broadcast & Professional Solutions of Sony was there to talk about 4K. They’d brought a Sony F65 and a 4K projector along, though the demo fairies struck and they had a lot of problems getting the 4K version of the Taylor Swift movie shot on the F65 to play, and had to use a 2K version inst...

Canon C100 at IBC2012 | Hireacamera | Vimeo Den Lennie chats with C300  owner and filmmaker Nino Leitner about the C100 : I'm positively surprised that the build quality seems to be exactly the same, I mean they have the magnesium parts and, you know, it's really the same material...I think there are a few things that are a little difficult, for example you don't have 50p or 60p so there's no way of shooting slow motion. SHOOTING DIARY: SEAN MEEHAN ON SHOOTING IN SMALL SPACES | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Meehan : I would say the biggest challenge was just trying to come up with creative shots. The option was to shoot out of the cell where some light was coming in from the window that gave us this blue background. Otherwise, the walls were pretty white and they were drab, but not necessarily in the best way. I found that it didn’t look interesting drab; it just looked like I was shooting her up against a wall. Redrock ultraCage expansions | Vincent Laforet ...

Marco Solorio of One River Media spoke at last night's Boston Creative Pro User Group about the Blackmagic Design  Cinema Camera . Also present were a couple of reps from Blackmagic. I'm not going to go into great length about what he said, partly because it's late, and partly because it's all there in the two videos he has already posted online: Comparing the Cinema Camera & 5D Mk III Texting is Gefährlich – A Cinema Camera Short, Part 1 (and Part 2 ) The first compares the Canon 5D Mark III and the Blackmagic Cinema Camera at some length, while the second is a "short" that was shot using the BDCC. Marco has written a couple of extensive blog posts that covers the production of this short, and most of what he talked about at the meeting is covered there. The Bad News The bad news from the meeting is that production of the BDCC has been seriously constrained by a parts supplier. It appears that they aren't shipping any cameras at the...

Ever go for months with nothing to do on the weekend, and then get invited to three parties on the same day? That's what this week is shaping up to be. If you're in Boston this Wednesday, September 26, 2012, you can pick from several interesting events. I'd already posted about : Learning Lab at Rule Boston Camera: The Impact of Cinema Cameras on a TV News Shooter at 10am University of Massachusetts Boston Film Series showing of CRAZY HORSE at 7pm . Now there's two more events worth checking out: SMPTE New England :  4K Digital Cinematography—The Real WorldWith Juan Martinez , Sony Electronics at 6:30pm at Rule Boston Camera Juan Martinez, Sony Senior Product Manager for Acquisition, will discuss 4K digital cinematography and how it relates to the real world. Mr. Martinez will talk about the imaging technology related to 4K, especially as it relates to the Sony equipment that he is responsible for, such as the NEX-FS700 camcorder. Boston University Center...

Recently I was chatting with a music guy that had been working on the soundtrack for a movie project. He'd been passed the project in a rather disorganized state. It had been cut in Final Cut Pro 7 , but it wasn't clear that the editor had cut many large projects in Final Cut before, and there were some problems with the project that was causing him serious grief. When he got the project it required a lot of re-rendering just to get it to play. It turned out that the media had been imported in multiple formats rather than transcoding to ProRes. Some of the audio was in MP3 format. These are all things Final Cut Pro 7 doesn't like. He'd also tried converting it from 29.97 to 24, but had given that up when he'd discovered that all the audio got moved around after changing the frame rate. In short, he'd spent a lot of time wrangling the data in Final Cut , and I don't think he was impressed. As I talked him through it - and it turned out he'd alread...

Ridley Scott Talks RED EPIC and Explains How We Can Save the Theatrical Experience | Joe Marine | No Film School Just recently we had one of the more respected cinematographers working today, Roger Deakins, talking about his experience using the Arri Alexa. Now, Ridley Scott gives us a little bit about his experience working with the RED EPIC in 3D and also explains how we can get people back into movie theaters Adobe Audition: Audio Repair | Larry Jordan | Blog How to remove power-line hum and (some) audio glitches in Adobe Audition : Audition felt that Photoshop should not be the only software with a Spot Healing Brush, so it added one, too. I’m not going to say this brush does miracles, but, boy, its really close. This repair tool works best when you need to remove a range of frequencies, such as a beeping cell phone, without removing dialog at other frequencies. Logic Pro for Film & TV Mixing | Ben Allan | The Film Bakery A step-by-step guide to working in au...