The News

Continuous Three Light Setup with Special Effects Lighting | The Slanted Lens
A really interesting tutorial, both on lighting, creative visual effects, and types of fog:

Today on The Slanted Lens we will use a continuous three ight Setup with Special Effects Lighting to create lighting for a superhero shot using a simple set, smoke and cookaloris or cookie. We will demonstrate the different hang times of the three Rosco smokes. We will show how to make a clookie or cookaloris and how to use it. We will show our lighting breakdown for the shot. Last of all we will show a very simple way to fly a cape. This has been a great shoot. I have a better understanding of the different Rosco smokes and how to use them. I hope you will find this helpful.

Turbo.264 HD – a quick and dirty guide for Mac based editors | Matt Davis

Turbo.264 HD by Elgato is a Mac application sold as a consumer solution to help transform tricky formats like AVCHD into something more manageable. Rather than deal with professional formats like Apple ProRes, it uses H.264, a widely accepted format that efficiently stores high quality video in a small space. For given values of ‘quality’ and ‘small’, that is.

Cinema Zoom Lenses | B & H
A look at Zeiss, Fujinon and Canon Cine zoom lens:

In general, zoom lenses made for still photos are a poor fit for cinema production. You can use them, as many low-budget indie productions do, but they lack many of the necessary features that are required for capturing high-quality cinema images.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Editor Alan Bell on Editing for Performance | Filmmaker Magazine

“At the beginning I was concerned about matching, but it’s all about the performance. I’m looking for the best possible performance. I don’t care if it doesn’t match, I’ll find a way to make it match later.” By doing comparatively simple things – taking a face from one take to another, or cutting out a hand that’s in the wrong place – he found he was able to save a good performance that otherwise would have been lost. 

New Cameras and Upgrades: Fall, 2013 Edition | Filmmaker Magazine

Who says you have to wait until NAB for new cameras? In the past month alone there have been several new cameras, upgrades and other devices announced. Here’s a quick look at some of the most interesting ones.

HOLI SHIT: FRANK SAUER COMBINES FREERUNNING AND 240FPS. SHOT ON SONY FS700 AND CANON 5D MKIII RAW | News Shooter
A couple of interesting pieces about the Sony NEX-FS700:

What gear did you use? For this project we used mostly the Sony FS700 for slow motion and the Canon 5D mkIII to get the proper close-ups and medium shots. When shooting sport it is definitely a good idea to have a couple of cameras on set to not torture your athletes, because otherwise you have to reshoot the scenes too often. Due to the nature of this impressive sport they get tired quite fast and you want to help them stay hungry throughout the day. Otherwise the performance and inspiration of the freerunners will suffer or you are risking them getting injured.

Quick review of the Sony FS700 V3 Firmware: 4K raw and 2K High frame rate | Philip Bloom

I reviewed the camera over year ago (you can watch the review near the bottom of this post) and bought it not long after that. For me it really was the super slow motion that sold me on it. As an owner of a Canon C300, I wouldn’t use it for normal speed recording, as it doesn’t come close image-wise for me and, especially in usability, it really is a bit of a pig to use! 

F0.74 – new Metabones Speed Boosters break boundaries | EOSHD
Metabones has brought out two Nikon G to Blackmagic Speed Boosters, one for the BMCC and the other for the BMPCC:

It’s with the new Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 that I feel this adapter is a massive breakthrough. The two perform superbly together. On the Blackmagic Cinema Camera the Sigma actually breaks a record – the world’s fastest Super 35mm zoom. A stunning 11.5-22.5mm F1.1 with the new BMCC Speed Booster. It goes to F1.05 on the Pocket Cinema Camera and the wide end benefits from actually being wide! Nearly 28mm in full frame terms.

The Sony A7 and A7r Camera Review | Steve Huff

Well, to all of you who are confused, let me ease your mind…the A7 is just as good of a camera for 99.2% of users as the A7R is. You will lose nothing and may even gain some by shooting with the A7 over the A7r. But I will get more into  this later on..for now, let me get back to my talk about Sony being revolutionary in the camera world..because they are really the only ones who are at the moment with Olympus right behind them.

Samyang 85mm T1.5 AS IF UMC Lens Review | ePhotoZine
A pretty positive look at the $349 Samyang 85mm Cine lens, though it's primarily looking at it from the perspective of still photography(!):

If you've ever fancied experimenting with a fast aperture prime telephoto lens before, but have been put off by the cost, this lens could be the answer. With a price that's around the same as hiring the Canon, Nikon or Sony equivalent for a couple of weeks, this lens represents outstanding value for money.

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