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Several items from yesterday reappear in today's report. First up, Amira (or is it AMIRA?) prices were sort of leaked yesterday, and today ARRI in Europe confirmed the prices. I was going to link to ARRI's site, but it must be really popular or something, because it wasn't loading while I was writing this, so I have to link to a second source.
Now ARRI Officially Announce Amira Camera Prices | Cinescopophilia
Hot on the heels of CVP dropping their ARRI Amira camera and package prices comes the official ARRI announcement that pricing has been set for its new documentary-style camera, AMIRA, and orders have begun to be taken.
And Andrew Reid writes a love letter to the Amira.
Arri AMIRA priced to compete with Canon C500 – plus, the secret of Arri’s success | EOSHD
What’s the secret to Arri’s success?
I’m putting my cards on the table straight away… I love the AMIRA.
It’s as close to being the perfectly designed single-operator camera as I’ve ever seen.
And now the US price seem to have been revealed, and it's actually higher than the European prices; starting at $39,999 according to AbelCine.



The second item from yesterday? The report from Stu Maschwitz at prolost about the 5D Mark III mentioned the excellent RAW performance. The link below is evidently a discussion of the performance and extended Dynamic Range of the camera. Only thing is, I don't really understand it.
Topic: CMOS/ADTG/Digic register investigation on ISO  (Read 14216 times) | MagicLantern



Finally, yesterday the new update of Lightworks was released, and now there's a "review". Actually, I'm not sure if it is a review...it has a summary at the top, and Pros and Cons, which is great, but you get to the end and it seems like there must be a page missing or something. It just ends with details about downloading. Odd.
And points off for mentioning the upcoming OS X release. Until it actually ships, it doesn't actually count as a feature any more.
Lightworks and Lightworks Pro 11.5 review: video NLE for Windows and Linux | ZDNet
Summary: With this full release of 11.5 for Linux and Windows, and with an alpha version of 11.1 demonstrated running on OS X in April 2013, EditShare is finally starting to make good on its promise to deliver Lightworks as a cross-platform, professional-level, video editor.


Andrew Reid at EOSHD also likes Cooke lenses. Cooke makes some very nice, and very expensive cinema lenses. And they have a marketing campaign tied to “The Cooke Look”.
Cooke Panchro/i PL Cinema Lenses – first look | EOSHD
Few can seem to quantify it or convey it in words but I am going to have a guess. For me, the lenses appear to do something different at the micro-contrast level, to give extremely high resolution but without the clinical hyper-sharpness you get with other sharp lenses. A lower micro-contrast is less harsh on an actor’s face and skin.




I've never attached lavaliers under clothing...though I've had them get tangled in clothing, and banged about by necklaces. RODE ( I can never work out how to do the backslash through the 'O') has been coming up with some inventive products, and here's a new one, a plastic holder for securing lavaliere mics under clothing.
Not sure if it will work for other companies mics...
You can get a three-pack for $18.00 or a 10 pack for $40.
INVISIBLE LAVALIER MICROPHONES | VideoMaker
It's a soft silicon sleeve that holds the mic and helps absorb handling noise caused by movement, something that's common with the use of a lav mic.
from the RO / DE site:
The RØDE invisiLav is designed to aid the concealing of the Lavalier and smartLav microphones.
Its soft construction absorbs noise and vibration, while the wide, flat profile provides coverage from the elements and allows for versatile mounting. There's two mounting points in case a redundant mic is required, and cable management on the side.
Available in either a pack of three or a bulk pack of ten, the invisiLav comes with pre-cut, skinsafe adhesive that can be used to stick the invisiLav to either the body or to fabric. The invisiLav itself is also made from a medical grade skin safe material so it can be mounted on the body without fear of irritation.


Some of this next article is really interesting; stories of movies that were almost completed:
Lost & Abandoned: 10 Movies That Were Shot, But Eventually Scrapped | IndieWire
What Happened? Bad stinking luck. As you'll know from the excellent 2002 documentary detailing the lost project, "Lost In La Mancha," the film came together (relatively) smoothly, but as soon as production began, it became a catalog of disasters.


The robot overlords are coming for all our jobs:
Yes, This is A Computer Generated Character | Cartoon Brew
Stockholm, Sweden-based vfx shop Important Looking Pirates (ILP) created the impressive animation for this Aco skin care product commercial. Yes, the woman is live-action in some parts of the spot too, but I was unable to identify when she was live-action and when she was computer animated until reading the description and watching the making of clip.


Digital Production Buzz — January 30, 2014
GUESTS: Peter Hamilton, Christopher Zitterbart, Beki Probst, and Nick Dager
  • Why Are Feature Documentaries So Hard To Find on TV?
  • Tips To Entering Your Film Into Competition
  • Beki Probst: Managing the European Film Market
  • The Past, Present and Future of Art-House Cinema


MōVI Stabilizer Commonly Asked Questions
My friend James Drake invited to a shoot, he was using his Red Epic and they were also using a MōVI stabilizer, I thought it would fun to see it in action and ask a few of the most commonly asked questions along the way.




A look at the little Sony consumer camcorder, the HDR-MV1 intended for recording music. I've said it before, you really don't want the mic on the camera when recording music - in most cases - but at least it's only $298.

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