Notes On Video

Do Filmmakers Really Need A Digital Camera As Beautiful As This One? | John Pavlus | CoDesign John Pavlus considers the design of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera ; as in how it looks, not what it does: The Blackmagic Cinema Camera looks more like an iMac crossed with a Polaroid than a piece of production equipment: all smooth aluminum curves and lush matte plastic, with a sheer touchscreen interface gracing the back panel. The aluminum body allegedly gives the camera a rugged solidity without excessive weight. Behind the Scenes with the Phantom Miro's | filmbot | Vimeo Shooting with the new "lower cost" Phantom high-speed camera: Shot on Phantom Miro M series Edited with Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 & After Effects CS6 Graded in Davinci Resolve Plugins- Red Giant Denoiser II Apple Mac Pro & Macbook Pro How one young filmmaker has embraced Final Cut Pro X | FCP.Co Comments from young filmmaker Chris Gatewood who is using FCPX: Since the introduction of FCP...

If you're in the Boston area you'll want to check out Rule Boston Camera's TEXPO event next month. Last year's event featured a wide number of exhibitors and was well worth attending: Where: Rule Boston Camera 395 Western Avenue Brighton When: Tuesday, June 5 5:00 to 9:00pm RSVP: TEXPOevent@rule.com UPDATES: www.rule.com

RED's 4K shootout canceled two days after its announcement | Jeff Blagdon | The Verge That was quick. The 4K shootout RED proposed died two days later: Just two days to the hour after RED challenged the world with a 4K camera showdown on June 4th, the company is pulling the plug on the competition. RED’s founder and CEO Jim Jannard announced the cancellation on his company’s site, saying "several companies have refused to participate" and "the grief and complication don’t warrant the effort." Color Correction - My thoughts | Chris Fenwick | One on One Rather than using a color correction tool, Chris explains why it makes sense to use your NLE or a plug-in to do color correction: So what is the alternative? Working in my editor, ON my timeline, using plugins. I find that this method of work saves me a LOT of time. Can I get the exact same results… probably not. Can I AFFORD the exact same results? NOPE. I can’t. I work in the real world where money is ...

The 5D Mark III Fix | CanonRumors It appears that the Canon 5D Mark III "light leak" has been fixed - with tape: LensRentals.com has received their first shipment of fixed 5D Mark III bodies. They did what any of us would have done, they disassembled one to see what the fix was. It turns out the fix is two pieces of black tape. Canon EFS 17-55 causing vignetting on the C300 | Paul Joy | Blog Paul originally posted that he saw some vignetting with this lens but thought it was caused by the lens hood, but now it appears it's not just the hood. He also tried a couple of Canon L lenses, the 16-35mm and the 17-40mm , and while they don't have the vignetting, they don't have Image Stabilization either: I’m still seeing some vignetting from this lens so I decided to try out Canon’s other wide zooms, specifically the 16-35 f/ 2.8 L and 17-40 f / 4 L. I really like the image from the 16-35, I’m not sure why it’s less exposed than the others, the metadata confirm...

Sony NEX-FS700 Pricing You still can't order it, but B & H is listing the prices for the Sony NEX-FS700   body only at $7,999 , and for the camera with 18-200mm ket lens at $8,599 . Delivery expected June 30. When Sony was saying that the price would be "under $10,000" I was assuming it would be $9,999, so I'm almost shocked to see it $2,000 under $10,000. Of course, I'm shocked again because I can't afford that either. Still, that seems like a good price and makes you wonder how much longer Canon can sell the C300 for twice the price (of course, we haven't yet got the full details on the NEX-FS700 and how it's image compares to the C300 .) FS700 Price Confirmed - It's Under $10k, but by Just How Much? | E.M. Taboada | No Film School More comments on the pricing, and some links to videos: Once the 4k upgrade details come out we’ll know more about just how it stacks up with other cameras in that market space. What do you think? I...

Four new Picture Profiles for The FS100 2.0 | Frank Glencairn | Blog Frank Glancairn has come up with more picture profiles for the Sony NEX-FS100: The FS100 finally received the 2.0 firmware update, so it´s time for some new profiles. My main goal was to get good looking skin tones at daylight. For other situations, play with the white balance till the skin tones are right and everything else should fall into place For best results: Adjust your black levels to Zero (you can even go a hair below, as I have learned) for every single scene. Becoming A Specialist VS. Jack (hack) Of All Trades! | Mike Sutton | Wide Open Camera Mike Sutton explains why it makes sense to specialize: You need to find your calling in a time where everyone claims to be an expert at every aspect of filming. In the world I live in only a focused professional gets the gig and when they do its at a prime rate. There is no bartering rates as a specialized pro. Your rate is your rate and because there is...

Blackmagic Design is hosting two events; Los Angeles Wed 16th May and New York Thu 24th May Come and see the complete range of Blackmagic Design solutions for broadcast, post production and live events! This is a fantastic opportunity to see our newly announced NAB 2012 products for the first time after the event in a series of demonstrations and theater presentations. Register here: Spend a day with Blackmagic Design

NAB 2012: Is BMD the new RED, Part 2? | Adam Wilt | ProVideoCoalition Adam puts together nearly all the outstanding questions about the Blackmagic Digital Cinema Camera : A “normal” lens for the BMDCC will be something like a 20mm, so ultrawide EF-mount lenses like the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Canon EF-S 10-22mm, or the Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L are your best wide-angle bets. The widest Zeiss ZE lens, the Distagon 18mm F/3.5, isn’t very wide on a 15.6mm-wide sensor. I also think he has a point when he writes:  it’s funny how folks gave Sony endless grief about the lack of NDs in the large-sensor NEX-FS100, but I haven’t heard any complaints about the similar omission on the BMDCC. Mike Valentine – Depth Of Field | Anwar Brett | movieScope Mike worked on The Bourne Ultimatum and multiple Bond movies, and is one of the world’s leading experts on shooting underwater. Here he talks about how he got into the business, and some of the factors involved in shooting underwater: When we g...

It's not quite NAB, but if you're in the Boston area, it can be worth checking out The Camera Company's Annual Pro Show : Fri. May 11th, at The Dedham Holiday Inn, 55 Ariadne Rd. Dedham, MA., 02026. Our lowest prices of the year. See the latest Broadcast and Pro Video equipment from Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Canon and many more. And this year, join us as we introduce our new concept in pro video and filmmaking learning, The Camera College. Instructed by this regions most influential experts, The Camera College promises informative and innovative classes, sure to keep you at the top of you game. Free admission to show.

6 Filmmaking Tips From Stanley Kubrick | Cole Abaius | Film School Rejects Some advice from Kubrick, based on quotes from the man: Try to See Everything "I try to see every movie, I have projectors at home, so it's a little easier for me now; those pictures that I can borrow prints of I run at home, and those that I cannot, I go and see, but I try to see everything." Using the New Warp Stabilizer in Adobe After Effects CS6 |  Adobe Press An excerpt from the forthcoming Adobe After Effects CS6 Classroom in a Book In previous lessons, you’ve used many of the essential 2D and 3D tools you need for motion graphics design. But Adobe After Effects CS6 also offers motion stabilization, motion tracking, advanced keying tools, distortion effects, the capability to retime footage using the Timewarp effect, support for high dynamic range (HDR) color images, network rendering, and much more. In this lesson, you will learn how to use the Warp Stabilizer to stabilize a handhel...

Audio Recorder Roundup: Zoom H4n vs. Tascam DR-100mkII vs Tascam DR-40 | E.M. Taboada | No Film School A look at these three audio recorders, with the DR-100mkII coming out slightly on top: Over the course of many tests I thought the DR-40 and H4n were very similar in the kind of sounds they picked up, with perhaps the DR-40 having slightly (as in ever so slightly) more white noise. The DR-100mkII seemed to have a slightly cleaner sound than the other two, but tended to not pick up lower frequency sounds quite as strongly. [...]I would pick the DR-100mkII. I liked the sound coming out of it, and really dug the input level knob. How to Guide Your Documentary Interviewee | Todd Grossman | MasteringFilm Great article on things to think about when interviewing a subject: Another interesting technique is to consider what tense they will be answering in. Most sit-down interviews happen after the fact, and are more or less recaps of an event from the past. This can give the viewer a ...

Yesterday Adobe hosted a webinar with Adobe Product Manager, Al Mooney . Mooney began the demonstration with an analogy: “If Premiere Pro was the car, and the Mercury Playback Engine was the engine, then we had a beautifully engineered engine, but the car wasn’t quite as good.” So this release, to further the analogy, is all about tidying up the car. To that end, they focused on two things: Improving the user interface. Improving the editing operation as a whole, focusing on the rhythm of editing, removing frustrations and adding new features that editors need. It all sounded good, though maybe a bit like the Final Cut Pro X demo. The Adobe CS6 Production Premium software According to Mooney, “the minute you launch it, you’ll immediately notice the redesign.” They removed unnecessary noise, clutter, and "chrome" (the gray space around the interface elements.) There’s “a lot less gray and a lot more video.” If you don’t like the new default layout, you can go back t...

Thursday’s SMPTE-NE meeting at WBZ Boston was a panel discussion of the new, the exciting and the scary at NAB this year. The Panel was moderated by co-founder of Avid, Peter Fasciano . and featured Bob Lamm of Broadcast Pix , Willis Peligian of the Willis Group, lighting expert John Gates of Gates Service Group, and Boston Creative Pro User Group’s own Dan Bérubé . (l to r) Dan, John, Willis, Bob & Peter Bob noted that the business is becoming more "computerized." IT based companies are talking to broadcast people in terms that are familiar to computer people rather than to video people. He said that “File-based Work Flows” was a popular phrase at the show. He also noted that there were a lot of people from overseas. He pointed out how inexpensive configuring SD installations has become, and that SD remains a viable - and in some cases the only - solution for a lot of small installations. This is particularly true outside the US. “Most of the people I’ve me...

Adobe is offering a series of webinars on CS6 , starting today with: Editing Faster Your Way with Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 10:00am Pacific Time Join Adobe Product Manager, Al Mooney, as he demos the exciting new features in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6—the powerful non-linear editing system that sits at the heart of Adobe CS6 Production Premium, connecting all of your media as it flows in and out of post-production. See how Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS6 combines incredible performance with a sleek revamped UI, and a host of powerful new creative features, including Warp Stabilizer for stabilizing footage, dynamic timeline trimming, expanded multicam editing, adjustment layers, and more for a fluid editing workflow. Sign up for this live Ask a Video Pro Session. Fine out more at: "Ask A Video Pro" Webinar Series | Adobe

NAB 2012: Lightworks | Scott Simmons | ProVideoCoalition Scott offers a few thoughts on Lightworks , the free NLE that's a little different: I mentioned repeatedly to the Editshare guys that once a Mac version is ready we will see a lot more interest but they said they’ve seen over 250,000 downloads of the current Windows version. I think they are quite proud of that download number and Lightworks looks to be a pretty big part of the overall Editshare strategy going into the future. I’m not exactly sure what that strategy is but apparently someone at Editshare does since Lightworks lives on. Sony FS700 Hands-On . . . & Where are the Power-Zoom Lenses? | Eric Reagan | Photography Bay A few thoughts on the NEX-FS700 , though it's more of a first-look than a hands-on review: The hand-grip is definitely beefed up from the FS100 for a much more solid feel – again, a needed improvement. Notably, there’s now a zoom rocker on the hand-grip, which led to a brief argument b...