The News

Black Betty Wednesday 9/18 Learning Lab @ Rule Boston Camera

Don't miss this Wed's 9/18 Learning Lab from 10am to 11am with Adam Van Voorhis and Mike Szegedi on the story behind Black Betty and how they built this DIY custom camera housing that combines a Silicon Imaging SI-2K Mini Camera Head and an Apple Mac Mini resulting in a cohesive, portable camera system! See more details on our website and RSVP to events@rule.com. This event is free.

Documenting the Life of George Plimpton: Interview with Luke Poling and Tom Bean Part I | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine

George Plimpton led an eclectic life as a journalist, writer, editor, sportsman and actor, though he was perhaps most widely known for his exploits as a participatory journalist. When filmmakers Luke Poling and Tom Bean set out to make their first documentary, Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself, they were faced with enough material to make several documentaries. 

ONE MICROPHONE EVERY VIDEOGRAPHER SHOULD OWN | Videographer

The Winner: The Lavalier Pros: Lav microphones record good quality sound, are inconspicuous, can be clipped to an actor or hidden on a set, suppress unwanted ambient noise and can be cabled or wireless.

GLOBAL & ROLLING SHUTTERS | RED
Red explains the differences in shutter design

With film, the shutter is simply a spinning disc between the rear of a lens and the film strip. It has an opening that lets in light once per revolution for each exposure. When the light is obstructed, the film advances to the next frame and the process repeats. For these reasons it’s also often referred to as a mechanical or a rotary shutter.

Working with Less Part 2: All about the Camera | David Kong | Philip Bloom

This video goes very in-depth with the DSLR – I cover everything you need to know about formats, codecs, and dynamic range in order to get the most cinematic images. I’ll be explaining how I creatively worked around the limitations of this low-end DSLR with a pretty bad codec and pretty bad dynamic range. Most of my techniques in this video are about preserving as much of the image as possible, to allow for the most flexibility when color grading.

Digital Bolex : Guest Post: Michael Plescia

Images don’t at first appear to come out of the sensor looking as beautiful as DSLR’s. The D16 Bolex is not an easy bake oven. At first glance, this can feel discouraging. But the data needs good grading–both to neutralize the image of any disproportionate color shifts and then to make it sing.

SONY LAUNCH LA-FZB1 AND LA-FZB2 B4 LENS ADAPTERS FOR F5 AND F55 | News Shooter

Sony has announced two new B4 to FZ mount adapters that allow you to mount a broadcast lens on a F3,F5 and F55. The 2/3 image is expanded to cover the S35 sensor size but this does result in a 2.6 stop light loss. Full control of zoom servo is retained. The more expensive LA-FZB2 model also has a ND filter wheel and colour control – designed more with outside broadcast in mind.

The Business

WANT TO GET YOUR FILM INTO SUNDANCE? THE FESTIVAL’S PROGRAMMERS REVEAL SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL SUBMISSIONS | Film Independent

1. Focus on the film.What is the most important part of the submission package? Do press materials make a major difference to programmers? Yutani and Ogdie can’t emphasize enough that a director’s focus should be on the final film and not on supplementary materials. Most of the paperwork gets separated from the actual film or discarded during processing. Don’t waste time with excessive packaging

7 Things NOT To Do on Kickstarter: A Cautionary Tale | IndieWire

5. Don't compare yourself to Steven Soderbergh."Steven Soderbergh's recent hit film MAGIC MIKE was budgeted at $7 million and has made well over $100 million, so the financial and creative rewards can be great," Stuart writes on the project's page. But, of course, Stuart isn't Steven Soderbergh and the comparison doesn't reflect well on her.

Video SEO Part 2 of 3 – Self Hosting and Sitemaps | Ron Dawson | Dare Dreamer Magazine

Below are the search engine results for the JJ Abrams TED video. The video is located on both TED (via the propriety TED video player) and of course on YouTube. When you do a Google search for the video, they both come up. As you’ll see, one result links to the TED site, and one to YouTube.