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Review: Blackmagic Cinema Camera | IAIN ANDERSON | MacProVideo

For the solo operator using DSLRs with a small kit, it’s a great A-cam, that lets you produce fantastic images with room to expand. You can rig it up, you can use it alone on a tripod, you can go naked and handheld (with a stabilized lens). It works with you, encouraging you to learn more about filmmaking as you chase that perfect image. For every tiny thing wrong, there’s a huge thing right.

Dissecting a Trailer: The Parts of the Film That Make the Cut
| SHAN CARTER, AMANDA COX, and MIKE BOSTOCK | New York Times
Interesting little interactive doodad that shows the location of the source material used in the trailers for five of the nine best picture nominees.



Check Out The First Affordable Electronic Viewfinder with HDMI Loop
| Cinescopophilia
$375 for an electronic viewfinder?! There's an update with a lower price too...

IndiPRO Tools have released what they call the first affordable 3.5″ electronic viewfinder with HDMI loop through. The EVF Pro offers an 800×480 3.5” screen with a flip-up viewfinder that can also be detached. The EVF includes a diopter.

City In The World (HDR) | Colby Moore | Vimeo
Some interesting stuff, but not sure I'd want to see a whole movie shot this way:

filmed entirely in high-dynamic range and comprised of some HDR Timelapse footage I shot, along with a collection of slow-motion and normal 24fps footage processed from Red Epic-X RAW video that I recently captured and then exported as -2,0+2 TIFF stacks to be tone mapped in Photomatix using a batch processing workflow. Please note that none of this was shot using HDRx -- only normal exposures from the camera post-converted into HDR using the traditional faux-HDR method of pushing and pulling the RAW file to create bracketed images.

Educational Event for Filmmakers in LA | Shane Hurlbot | Hurblog

Saturday, February 23 at 1:00pm in San Fernando. This free workshop will provide education via hands-on demonstrations of new revolutionary 4K acquisition tools for cameras, lenses and on set post workflow systems that will enable story tellers to create without performance limitations. The latest and greatest in tools and support equipment will be made available to you.

IFP's First-Time Director Program Filmmaker Labs Now Accepting Submissions | CAMERON SINZ |  IndieWire

IFP's Filmmaker Labs, a mentorship program for first-time directors, is seeking feature film submissions in post-production (anywhere from rough assembly through fine cut) for this year's program.
This year's deadlines are March 8 for Documentary Labs and April 5 for Narrative Labs

2013 Predictions for Canon EOS Products | CanonRumors
Rumors for EOS 70D, EOS 700D, EOS Me, EOS 7D Mark II and EOS 3D. Also, some specs for the 7D Mark II.



Participation: The Trend That Is Bigger Than The Harlem Shake | MARK SUSTER
| Tech Crunch
Can anyone really predict what the next 'pet rock' will be (you probably have to be over 40 to get that reference.) I'm just not sure that this one phenomenon is a true predictor of changes in media consumption habits:

Global audiences of prosumer video producers will create content that is viewed by global audiences in numbers far in excess of traditional TV. TV will enter the era of “participation” which is a much more important trend than “social video” even if it seems less sexy or less fundable.

Revolution Intro: Behind the Scenes! | Andrew Kramer | VideoCopilot
This is a couple of months old, but an interesting piece about creating effects in Adobe Effects:

Recently I had the opportunity to work on the Intro and Title for a new Bad Robot show called Revolution by NBC. The show takes place 15 years after the power mysteriously goes out. The objective of the intro was to show the transformation of time passing in a stylistic time-lapse ways to help establish the world.  And although we were visualizing 15 years in only a few seconds, the reality is that we only had a few weeks to get it done! I thought I would highlight some challenging aspects of the project and share some insights with you.

THE WORLD PRESS PHOTO MULTIMEDIA CONTEST – REACTIONS FROM DSLRNEWSSHOOTER’S CONTRIBUTORS | Mat Gallagher | DSLR News Shooter

Jonah Kessel: There’s no real difference between the online story and the feature story, apart from duration. Even then, the features are a minute longer, two minutes longer. Dreams of Freewheelers (third prize in the online feature category below); that one is actually a little different. The other five winners are all a formula. You don’t see any live action. It’s literally an interview – half the time a single interview – followed by representative imagery. It’s a very basic formula and, to me, that shows almost no originality or storytelling.

Review: Sony NEX-EA50 Camera | Adam Garstone | Definition Magazine
Generally positive look at this camera:

A weirder feature, whilst we are here at the front of the camera, is the lack of ND filters. The E mount has a very short distance from flange to sensor – great if you want to make compact stills cameras, but not so good if you need to get a filter wheel in there. It’s possible– the FS700E has NDs – but too expensive for the EA50. You’ll need to invest in an ND system in front of the lens – no great sacrifice, but irritating in a camera that is so obviously ‘run and gun’ style.

Sole Survivor: Abbey Road Studios: In Session | Julian Mitchell
| Definition Magazine

Times and budgets have changed as the show now shoots exclusively with Canon 5D MkII DSLRs and has a music show discipline that eschews all the guess work from the edit. Editor of the show now is Jon Walton and he cites Director Matthew Amos as the catalyst for the change, “Matthew comes from the world of live music direction and he identified quite early on that we could streamline the shooting regime by filming a close up version of the performances followed by a mid-shot version. You then make the show in the edit.”