Notes On Video

This month's Pub Night at Rule Boston Camera features Dr. Bob Arnot : As a medical doctor, author, humanitarian, former NBC correspondent and host of the TV series, DR. DANGER ., Dr. Bob Arnot is and has been one of the first reporters on the ground in some of the most dangerous locations around the world. Armed with a variety of digital cinema cameras such as the Canon 5D and 7D, Arnot shoots the footage (recording himself via wireless remote), then edits the story across 3 computers to decrease compression time before uplinking the finished documentary via satellite phone for broadcast. Wednesday, February 22 6:00 to 8:00pm • Pizza and Beer RSVIP: events@rule.com

AbelCine Rental Kits: RED EPIC/Scarlet | AbelCine | Vimeo Mitch Gross shows how they recommend kitting out the RED Scarlet and Epic : Watch the video for a detailed explanation of the components that go into the AbelCine RED EPIC/Scarlet Accessory Kit. For your convenience, we have created an accessory package (available in Anton/Bauer and V-Mount options) that includes all the items in a typical rental setup. For more information on our RED EPIC/Scarlet Accessory Kit, visit our website Tracking Shots Ep.14 – Casey at the Bat | Cinevate Casey and Danielle of Midcastle share behind-the-scenes images from their MLB World Series shoot: On location all the footage is offloaded to hard-drives and then it gets overnighted via a courier to MLB headquarters where a team of editors and loggers ingest the footage and begin to start crafting rough cuts of each game. To create the final World Series film, they use a combination of footage from the broadcasted games, the footage we shoot,...

Sony has released the F65Remote iOS ap. F65Remote is an application for remote control of SONY’s digital motion picture camera F65 via a Wi-Fi network. Supported Cameras F65 Series Main Features Control: This screen emulates the inside panel of camera*1. Menu: All camera settings except for network can be performed. Help function allows you to read a help text of each menu items while setting. Output Signal Map: Specialized menu screen for setting VF and SDI-OUT enables you to operate intuitively. Manual: You can read a F65 operation manual*2. *1: Following features are not supported yet by Version V1.0. Assignable switch On/Off Rec button On/Off Display some status items *2: iBooks application is needed to be installed beforehand. Other Features Offline Mode: The menu settings can be performed without establishing a network connection and you can select to set them all at once when connecting to the camera. Panel Active: This function always enables one iPad ...

Using GoPro Cameras On Live Multi-Camera Remore Broadcasts | Tom Guilmette | Blog Tom's been using the GoPro Hero on sporting events for broadcast television, and offers a lot of information in this blog post; from basic principles of setting the camera up, to techie details about using it in a production environment: Talking to CBS Sports tech managers from cities all over the US, the biggest problem with these GoPros working is getting pictures back to the truck. You can only send HDSDI signals over approved coaxial cable. The cable must be rated 3.5-4.5 GHZ for serial high definition. Do not use old coax cable. Just because it passes SD analog video, does not mean it will work with HD. The cable run must be under 300 feet or you will need re-clocking repeaters to push the signal along. 10 Awesome Production Stills That Will Remind You Why You Love Filmmaking | Evan Luzi | the Black and Blue Just a nice collection of behind-the-scenes stills: Over at The Black and Blue ...

HD HERO2 Firmware Update with GoPro CineForm Studio | GoPro The GoPro Hero2 firmware has been updated to v.70 and reportedly adds support for the 3D Hero system and other minor enhancements. Current Firmware: v.70 The HD HERO2 firmware update process varies based on computer operating system. Before downloading, please verify the operating system version of your computer. Then, select the corresponding platform below. Once downloaded, save the software bundle to your desktop, unzip the contents, & install CineForm Studio. Sennheiser SKP 300 G3 Plug-On Transmitter With Phantom Power | Cinescopophilia Yesterday I happened to attend an interesting audio workshop at Rule Boston Camera given by a rep from Sennheiser; and he didn't even mention this was new! Sennheiser is extending its evolution wireless ew 300 G3 series with the addition of the SKP 300 G3 plug-on transmitter. Whether it is for a speaker’s podium or for fast mobile use in video productions, the SKP 300 G...

A reader suggested a Facebook page to help keep those on Facebook up to date on the posts on the blog, so I've created one as an experiment, and will be posting links to the daily posts there. Let me know if this is useful to you.

NEX FS100 LENS TEST | John McGrath | Vimeo Test shots made with the Sony NEX-FS100 and the following lenses: Sony 18-300, Magic SLR 35mm f/1.4 and Zeiss 50mm f/2.2. Showing my lenses thus far, I'm not really a "test film" type guy so no fantastic sets, models or spectacular After Effects sequences involved just my Big Fat head :) Thanks to Frank Glencairn for his G-LOG PP's Feeling Nervous on Day One? 5 Steps to Curb Your Anxiety | Evan Luzi | The Black and Blue Some tips for overcoming anxiety during a shoot: 5. Stay Busy Until You Start Rolling A lot of times, especially on day one, you’ll have a few hours of setup time before the first shot starts rolling while the grips unpack the trucks and start rigging, the juicers test lights and pull lamps the gaffer prefers, and, in general, everyone develops their sea legs. This is the time in which you are most vulnerable to your anxieties because your mind can start wandering. Five Tips for Making an Interv...

Well, cool. Today Apple released an update to Final Cut Pro X that adds multi-cam support, improved XML support and "beta" support for Broadcast Monitoring, amongst other things. Perhaps just as important, with the new XML support comes a third party tool, 7toX for Final Cut Pro  which promises a smoother transition of projects from Final Cut Pro 7 to Final Cut Pro X . I'm just downloading the update as I write this; the first part - about 300 MB - took only nine minutes, and I was excitedly thinking that I'd have this thing running quickly; but now it's downloading another 1.47GB and it thinks it will take 1 hour and 6 minutes to finish, so I might not get to spend any real time with it until tomorrow! Of course, this latest release and new features shouldn't really be a big surprise; Apple promised multi-cam support in early 2012, and they actually delivered it! Will this be enough to sway the people who jumped ship to Adobe and Avid after the initia...

Life In Singapore – Captured With A 60D And A Kessler Pocketdolly | Rick Macomber | DSLR News Shooter Rick put together a really nice video on his recent trip to Singapore, and he's written a blog about how he did it here: As a TV photojournalist I’m big on the handheld run and gun style of shooting. Especially with these small cameras. Much easier than the huge monster Sony XDCam 700 I shoulder at CBS Boston. For the Singapore film I used creative handheld methods like slow rocking on my feet to get a fluid look as well as finding level surfaces to place either a camera or the Pocketdolly. The subtle side to side or pushing in and out rocking shots look much better than trying to handhold a camera perfectly still. You will always see those tiny vibrations that way. Controlling Depth of Field with the Canon C300 | Mitch Gross | CineTechnica AbelCine brings us this video intro looking at the Canon C300 and explaining the large sensor and how shallow depth-of-field works: Wh...

Canon EOS Cinema C300 Anatomy | CVP Blog The CVP Blog takes stills of the Canon C300 and calls out the various features. 4K – The big picture… | CVP Blog A look at what 4K is, and cameras that can do it: What about 4K television? If we bear in mind that it’s getting on for 40 years since the pioneering days of HDTV in the mid 1970′s, it is perhaps surprising that even today not all content is produced in HD and even if it were, not everyone can view HD in their home because the roll-out of HD television remains far from complete – I’d therefore expect that whilst there will be an inexorable move towards the adoption of 4K it’s going to be quite a while before we’re sitting down to eat our TV dinners watching Coronation Street or Eastenders in glorious 4K! Nikon D4 Hands-On | Eric Reagan | Photography Bay Eric spent a "few minutes" with the Nikon D4 at CES 2012 and offers these thoughts: Of course, low light ISO performance has taken the limelight in recent ye...

Advanced Tips for FCP X | T. Payton | Creative COW A very interesting short video tutorial demonstrating how you can edit in Final Cut Pro X while the program is playing back the production. Final Cut Pro Tutorial pt. 22 - Sound Corrections / Enhancement | Dan Allen | YouTube Another in Dan's series of Final Cut Pro X tutorials: In this HD Voice Tutorial for Apple Final Cut Pro 10 we learn how to use the built in sound manipulation tools to perform basic correction as well as enhancing the sound and performing the simple tasks such as removing hum or background noise as well as levelling and equalising sound to get a great vocal / voiceover dynamic, using the built in tools of Final Cut 10. We are using these tools to clean up and correct or improve your raw audio recordings. DaVinci Resolve | Oliver Peters | digitalfilms Oliver reviews the latest release of Resolve , while also providing information about hardware requirements and GPU cards it works with: New fea...

C300 Sunset Session - Austin, TX | Joe Simon | Vimeo Joe got one of the first production Canon C300 's, and has already posted a couple of test videos. I did quite a bit of shooting into the sun and as you can see it holds up pretty good, both in the highlights and shadows. I did a bit of color grading to pull the log image back to life, but not too much. I used basic FCP CC filters for this. I used Canon L lenses - 35mm, 50mm, 70-200. Also the Tokina 11-16 Saturday with the C300 | Joe Simon | Vimeo So today I wanted to go out and shoot with the C300 and to play in the menus so I could familiarize myself with the different options. I also wanted to push the dynamic range again as well as do some handheld shooting. [...]I started at this cool little over look to the city, I love this shot as you can see how much "pop" this camera creates. I'm shooting with the sun to the left of the camera at 100 degrees and the lighting still looks pretty dam good. Saturda...

I love this. Thanks to Rick Macomber for pointing it out.

*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...