Notes On Video

*UPDATE* 5D Mark III – February 7, 2012 [CR2] | CanonRumors The rumors of a Canon 5D Mark III announcement are getting more frantic! A few more people have mentioned February 7, 2012 as the announcement date for the 5D Mark III. The sources are good, though I am waiting for the definitive word on the matter. It’s mentioned that Canon will also announce new PowerShot cameras, a new Legria camcorder and Selphy printer(s). Nikon D4 or Canon 1DX? Comparison | Fenchel Janisch | YouTube A side-by-side video comparison of the two cameras: Second test with the Canon EOS-1D X and the Nikon D4: In this video comparison we tested the low light capabilities of the upcoming pro cameras! Lenses on both cameras: Sigma 50mm F/1.4 + Sigma 85mm F/1.4 Settings on both cameras: ISO 1600 Aperture F/2 + F/2.8 Shutter speed 1/50s Adobe Prelude Previewed and Promises Color Grading | Twitter Adobe was at last nights  SuperMeet  in San Francisco, and mentioned plans for Color Gradi...

Thoughts on the Canon EOS 1DX | KarelDonk |  Blog A look at the expected EOS 1DX , from a photographers point of view: For the last 4 years I’ve been bashing Canon here on my blog for their poor quality control, poor product releases (50D, 5D Mark II, 7D, 60D) and questionable business practices (5D Mark II, 50mm f/1.2L). I’ve also often mentioned how it seemed like Canon was out of touch with the market Meanwhile, rumors are flying thick and fast about an impending 5D Mark III . Who will cancel their order for the C300 if Canon announces a 5D Mark III ?! CanonRumors | 5D Mark III Brief Specs? [CR1] Panasonic's HDC-Z10000 Is A Pro Camcorder Contender | Ned Soltz | DV.com The HDC-Z10000 [$3,325] is a surprisingly inexpensive, semi-pro, 3D camcorder and Ned seems to like it: Before discussing the other features of the camera, I will note that it helped me out of a potentially disastrous situation. I was shooting a pro bono event for a non-profit and intended to use two ...

Rule Boston Camera held it's second Pub Night of the month last night with an event dedicated to the Sony F65 . Dhanendra Patel , Senior Product Manager, Beyond HD Production Solutions, Sony Electronics Inc., spoke about the technical features of the camera and showed a short video shot with the camera. They'd brought in the Sony 4K projector again (a big black box the size of a fridge that makes about three times as much noise) and I wish they had shown more than the one video; though they did show it twice, once with a director commentary. The crowd wasn't as large as had turned up for the Canon C300 event, but then at about $100,000 once you add in the rotary shutter and the digital recorder, we are talking about a different class of customer. I was just there for the beer and pizza. For those of us used to DSLRs and NEX-FS100' s, the  F65 is huge, and quite heavy, though Rick Macomber, who slings around a huge ENG news camera all day, didn't think it wa...

Los Angeles, CA – January 25, 2012 – Digital Film Tools, developer of visual effects software, today announced the release of Film Stocks with plug-in support for Adobe® Photoshop ®, Adobe Photoshop Elements , Adobe Photoshop Lightroom ®, Adobe After Effects ® CS5 and up, Adobe Premiere ® Pro CS5 and up, Apple® Aperture ®, Apple Final Cut Pro ® 6 and 7, and Avid® editing systems. Film Stocks offers artists simulations of 288 different color and black and white photographic film stocks, motion picture film stocks, and historical photographic processes. "The new Film Stocks plug-in draws on our experience creating visual effects for hundreds of feature films and our expertise with film scanning and recording techniques. We have laboriously researched and analyzed different film stocks to come up with a set of interesting analog photographic, motion picture and vintage looks that will serve any project requiring that special analog film stock simulation," comment...

Boston, MA – January 25, 2012 – Noise Industries' latest partnership with Nattress Productions brings a finer degree of image control to the editor through Levels and Curves , a filter pack that allows users to color grade in film-log space. The new curve-based color adjustment plug-in, available now on FxFactory 3 , is compatible with Final Cut Pro® 6, 7 and X; Motion 3, 4 and 5; and Adobe® After Effects® CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5. Offered at 29 USD, users can download a free trial version of Nattress Levels and Curves from http://www.nattress.com/?q= LevelsCurves . Nattress Levels and Curves feature highlights include: Film-Log Space – Editors have all the benefits of fine control over the tones in an image and film-like contrast handling. On-Screen Curve Display – The on-screen curve display helps editors fine-tune curve and/or level adjustments. The curve display can easily be turned off when footage adjustment is completed. Library of Presets – Users can quickly...

Vancouver, British Columbia, January 25, 2012 — Singular Software™ , a developer of workflow automation applications for video production, is pleased to announce the availability of PluralEyes ® for Apple® Final Cut Pro® X (FCP X). The multi-award winning PluralEyes technology works alongside FCP X to quickly and accurately sync video and audio clips for dual-system audio and multi-camera productions, saving hours of tedious manual syncing during post-production. "The auto sync function that is built into Final Cut Pro X is a start, but most professional editors will want more. They want to be able to sync many clips at once, see the results right away, and be confident that the sync will work across a broad range of real-world video projects," says Bruce Sharpe, CEO, Singular Software. "PluralEyes for FCP X is built on the same technology that is used countless times every day to sync weddings, corporate videos, documentaries and a host of other video production type...

Here's a quick report on last night's Boston Creative Pro User Group meeting held at Emerson College 's Bright Family Screening Room. Dan Bérubé began the evening by recounting the history of the Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group , which began about 11 years ago. But he said that since 2008, the focus has moved increasingly away from Final Cut Pro . "I don't care what you use" he said. For that reason, and with the "death" of Final Cut Pro 7 , Dan decided to change the name of the group to the Boston Creative Pro User Group , though the focus and direction of the group won't really change at all. Final Cut Pro 7 may be dead, but it still made an appearance! He did say that he hopes to provide more ways to encourage filmmakers to collaborate on different projects in the upcoming months. The event was billed as Visual Storytellers , with two featured speakers/presenters: Rick Macomber and Paul Antico , though several other local filmmakers...

Buying Mics & Hacking Audio for Your DSLR Video Setup | chase jarvis Should you buy a Rode Stereo Videomic or the Zoom H4n ? 2. The Rode. I recently did a blog post about the Rode Mic a few months ago. You should read it, but to summarize; I love the thing for its straight forward simplicity. It allows me to just shoot and not worry about sound, but… 3. The Zoom. …When I DO need to worry about the sound (such as an interview or a scene in a narrative film) I bust out the Zoom H4n. It captures better files that the straight camera – remember it’s sole function is audio. Get Lit: Using Sidelight for a Dramatic Effect | Chris Collins | Wide Open Camera Getting lighting right can be difficult. It takes practice, and in my experience, the fewer lights the better (because every light you add, adds shadows!) Here's a guide for getting dramatic lighting: I am a sucker for dramatic lighting. That’s why I was so excited when Jared Abrams decided that we should go with a moody l...

Last night I was invited to sit in on some DP's shooting with the Canon C300 . Daniel Bérubé of the Boston Creative Pro Users Group (formerly the Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group ) arranged for the location, and the use of an  EF mount Canon C300 . Also present were Don Bérubé (who helped configure the camera and shot a lot of stills of the event), Baylee Ricci who graciously acted as a model, while DP's and shooters who got to play with the camera included  Rick Macomber , Chris Loughran , Benjamin Eckstein and Norman Lang , with several others dropping in. Officially, we only had three hours to set-up and do some test shots, and it's always surprising how much time can be spent setting up and lighting even a simple test scene. A variety of Canon lenses were used, including the  50mm f/1.2L , 85mm f/1.2L , a 14mm and the 16-35mm f/2.8L lens. The camera was used on a variety of support devices including a tripod, a Kessler CineSlider , a Kessler Crane and a Glide...

I just bought a 21.5" iMac - the 2.7GHz model. I did it for a few reasons; though it was immediately prompted by the Lion requirement for iBooks Author . But my three year-old MacBook Pro was starting to feel a little confined; it really needed more memory, and the SuperDrive had stopped working, which amongst other things, was going to make it difficult to upgrade with the Lion install disk I had! And secretly I'd been wanting to get a slightly larger screened, faster machine with more memory. It just seemed right to get an iMac , though I'll still be using the MacBook Pro . Here's some notes from the experience so far: Why not the 27-inch model? I bought the smaller model iMac not so much because it was cheaper, but because I just came to the conclusion that the 27 inch iMac was too huge for my liking. I mean, it's HUGE!! The 21.5 inch screen is plenty large enough for me; at least at the moment, though this is coming from someone who has mostly b...

CrumplePop's latest filter for Final Cut Pro X is Platinotype , which recreates the platinum photographic process. Platinotype makes it easy to apply a platinum photographic process to your footage. By simply dragging and dropping Platinotype onto your clip, you can create rich, textured portraits and landscapes very quickly. Platinotype works with Final Cut Pro X only. For the next week, Platinotype will be $39. After that, the price will move to $75. Here is the coupon code for the $39 price: PLTY-0036-INTR-0120 CrumplePop Platinotype from CrumplePop on Vimeo .

60 Minutes with the C300 | Cristina Valdivieso | shoot.edit.learn Notes from Joe Simon spending an hour with the Canon C300 , includes an interview and video: Having shot on the 5D/7D for the past few years it was a bit different finding what button did what on the C300. Once I did find my way around it was great. I do love the way the C300 feels in my hands, the grip is nice. It’s a bit heavier then the 5D but feels super solid. It’s amazing to have all those “Video” features back like peaking , XLR, headphone jack etc. Technically the image looks beautiful, the highlight rolloff is great and coming from the 5D where the highlights blowout, this is awesome. I know everyone keeps say the grain looks nice, but it really does. It looks more organic then the digital noise you get from the 5Ds. Dolly | Sam Morgan Moore | DSLR4Real Sam decided most sliders are too small for his needs, and constructs a pretty large home-built dolly: Now a lot of the slider shots we see in Vimeo Hel...

In response to my earlier post about iBooks Author requiring Lion , reader Martin Koch posted a link to a couple of sites that explain how to install it on Snow Leopard (by sneaking into the System and changing the version number temporarily!) He says he did it successfully! Here's a couple of articles: The Verge: How to run iBooks Author app in Snow Leopard (Very short description) OS X Daily : Install iBooks Author on Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard (more detailed, step-by-step) Meanwhile, I decided to take another route and just bought a new iMac...

RED Scarlet versus Panasonic GH2 | Andrew Reid | EOSHD A look at some samples from David Cole of 3D rig builders Beampath, shot with the Panasonic GH2 and RED Scarlet : The GH2 is certainly a match for the Scarlet in terms of resolution at 2K, even at a push upscaled to 2.5K. The biggest difference is in latitude and compression in the shadows. The Scarlet has more latitude and a flatter picture profile because of its RAW recording format. Dynamic range is less on the GH2 and the lows look more highly compressed. Here I have boosted the lows in post on both shots to show what is going on… THIS Sunday – Podcast With Philip Bloom | shoot.edit.learn A live podcast with Philip Bloom on Sunday, January 22nd at 5PM Eastern: So it’s that time again! We had so much fun during our last live video podcast and got so much great feedback that we decided to do it again. Karen Abad and I have invited Philip Bloom to join us this Sunday for a live interview and, of course, some q+a from ...

This is fun; but I don't think I can watch more than a few minutes of it; a crowd-sourced Star Wars : Finally, the crowd-sourced project has been stitched together and put online for your streaming pleasure. The "Director's Cut" is a feature-length film that contains hand-picked scenes from the entire StarWarsUncut.com collection.

Filmmaker Ed Burns was on the appallingly bad* " Piers Morgan Tonight " last week talking up his $9,000 film project; Newlyweds . Any indie filmmaker should pay close attention to how Burns has been using social media and other unique ways to finance and promote his movies the last couple of years. I found it particularly interesting that the budget for the $9,000 movie - after post work and other undefined things - was more like $125,000. Not a lot by big movie standards, but much more than $9,000! Burns: I go to film schools all the time and talk to the kids and what's exciting is the playing field has been leveled. Now these kids can get in and they can make a great looking film, and that point of entry is so low. There isn't the economic hurdle anymore. Burns: The thing that's amazing is, using social media now to publicize the film and we've done this thing where theatrical doesn't make financial sense for indie films, for the most part, so we...

Thoughts On DVD Covers | Jared Flesher | Sourlands Jared is working towards completing his documentary Sourlands , and in the latest post on his blog, talks about designing a DVD cover. The feedback I’ve received from designer friends is that it’s a little dark overall, and rather serious. And it is, there’s no two ways around that. But I can live with a little dark and rather serious. If people don’t buy the documentary because they’re not in the mood to watch something serious, I can live with that. Sourlands is entertaining and occasionally funny, but at its heart it’s a serious film. Mixing Voice and Music Fast in Final Cut Pro | Chadwick Paul | Blog A tip for working with audio in Final Cut Pro : Have you ever had a producer tell you to cut a few shots out of your video after you already made the “perfect” mix using clip overlays, keyframes, and rubberbands? Here is an old school technique I use that prevents this frustration. It keeps audio very flexible with the use ...

For some time now I've been hoping that Apple would do some kind of interactive book publishing tool for the iPad . And today my wish was granted; they announced iBooks Author . It looks pretty good too: a sort of Pages / iWeb type application that publishes to the iBook store. Apple has done a couple of nice things too; you can test it on your own iPad locally, and they will let us common folk publish to the iTunes store (previously, if you weren't a big publisher, you had to go through some publishing service.) That's the good news; the bad news? Well apart from the fact that it only supports the iPad (no iPhone ) and if you already have an iTunes publisher account, you'll have to create another account to publish books, there is one little fly in the ointment....it will only run under Lion , and I'm still running Snow Leopard ! (I have a policy on only upgrading OS's when I get a new machine, or when a software application requires it!) So great.....

Last night was the January meeting of the New England chapter of SMPTE . SMPTE meetings are a bit of a hit-or-miss affair for me. Often they are very interesting, but sometimes things go over my head and I start to fall asleep. That was sort of how things were this night, though I did learn a little... Up first was a talk about Holographic television by Michael Bove , Jr. of MIT’s Media Lab. No actual demonstration gear, just a PowerPoint presentation - points off from MIT's "cool" rating for that - though the first part was an interesting discussion of what holographic television is not (we're looking at you, Wolf Blitzer!), and what it is. Michael said that in 2010 IBM claimed that Holographic television was going to be one of the top five technologies to impact our lives over the next five years; though he added that they didn't say what they meant by holographic television. And now that I sort of know what it is, I'm not convinced it will make a dr...

B & H Pre-orders for Canon C300 | NotesOnVideo I already posted the details on the pricing for the C300 and lenses; you can order it from B & H, or your local dealer. I must admit, though I did think the price was going to be $16,000 - didn't everyone - I was hoping it might be a little lower. Not that I could have bought one either way! New Canon EOS C300 Digital Cinema Camera Hands-On Review | Trevor Boyer | B & H A 20 minute video about the Canon C300 with Rob Rives from B & H: To devise the EOS C300, Canon leveraged and developed cutting-edge technology from several of its areas of expertise: sensors, image processors, professional video cameras—and of course, optics. The experts at B&H hereby present a hands-on review of the EOS C300, including field and studio tests that put the camera through its paces. Dispelling the myths, is the Canon C300 worth $15,999? | Andrew Reid | EOSHD Andrew isn't that impressed by the C300 ; he thinks you...