Notes On Video

At the recent Three Minute Film Challenge DP Brandon Vincent was documenting the event with a DSLR film camera, and I had to ask him why: You’re shooting film today. Why are you doing that? Well, I’ve been meaning too. I found an old, well it’s not super old, but an older film camera that I used back in college. And I figured I'd find some old film, stick it in, and make myself shoot film. I’m really doing it to make myself more selective. I don’t want to be just popping off pictures, and hope that I get a good shot. I want to make sure that what I’m shooting is exactly what I want, everything’s the way that I want it, and I’m not going to bracket 6 pictures just to make sure I get my exposure right. I want to be as selective as I can and not waste the images, because I’ve only got one roll of film today, it’s 24 frames, I’ve got to make them count. Two weeks later I checked in with Brandon to see how the pictures turned out. Unfortunately, the place I used to go is cl...

It was back to the Brattle Theatre Trailer Smackdown last night for a fun evening of bad trailers and a competition of trailers made by 17 different teams just for the event. I wrote about the Smackdown last year, and it wasn't that much different this year; only the trailers had changed! It's fascinating how bad, odd and weird some old trailers are! See also  NotesOnVideo : The Joy of the Bad Trailer Here's some that stood out...

Yesterday I went to a Learning Lab at Rule Boston Camera for the Sony NEX-FS700 . I've written up the experience for Filmmaker Magazine: A look at the Sony NEX-FS700 which should be up today. As much as I'm impressed by the engineering and the image of the Canon C300 - and the fact that it works with Canon lenses natively - if I was buying a camera today I think I'd be drawn to the NEX-FS700 . Of course, this is all a little moot, as I don't have the money to buy either camera! Speaking of Rule Boston Camera , they have two other Learning Labs and a Pub Night coming up. Be sure to RSVP to events@rule.com : Learning Labs: WED: July 18: LED Lights: Ready For Prime Time with Lighting Designer John Gates 10:00am-12noon WED: July 25: Capturing High-Quality Digital Stills & Multi0Media Content With photographer Steve Dunwell 10:00am-12noon Pub Night: THU: July 26: The Long & WInding Road: Thriving in Today's Film, Video & Digital Ci...

Life after Red | Michael N. Sutton | RedUser Not surprisingly, Mike Sutton 's column yesterday that mentions RED prompts some fiery response in the RedUser forum: I think the point of my article is missed here. Its about progress and making better products as well as company policies, practices, etc in the end. If you think its okay to ban someone for speaking honestly or threatening lawsuits over names like Scarlet for TV's is okay then none of what I write will be acknowledged anyway. Attacking my spelling is fine if that's all you got. I am not a writer I am a shooter. WEEK 2: Setting Up Your Color Correction Workspace | Patrick Inhofer | Splicevine Patrick continues his series on Color Correction, this week: Optimizing Your Room For Color Correction The point of an external monitor is simple. It bypasses your computer’s color management system, which is off-loaded to the monitor. The monitor is fed from a specialized board or box that’s hooked up to your compu...

NEX-FS700 Significantly reduced shutter when in Super Slow Mo! | Alister Chapman | XDCAM Rolling shutter is almost gone when shooting at high speed with the NEX-FS700: This is very interesting and requires further investigation as it suggests that the sensor read out process is different in the high speed mode. It is probably just a significantly faster scan rate, but it could also possibly be a global shutter of some kind. It’s just a shame that you can’t access this read out mode for normal shooting. My 5 cinematography tips |  Twitter Evan Luzi  offered these 5 tips is one post: Use Less Lights Point the Camera & Shoot Bounces Work Gaffers = good Perfection is a Commodity Jake Ures ‏added: 6. Light can never be too soft. 7. A steadicam is not a dolly. 8. Don't move the camera if you don't have to. Sony F65 hands on review part 1 | By Martin Chab | Zitrin A review of Sony's big, expensive camera: Let me tell you one thing. The Latitude of this ca...

NeedCreative Podcast Ep. 3 - It Was A Great 3 Minutes | Anticipate Media A week after doing a three-minute film challenge, Paul, Ric, and friends get together to discuss the results of the project, as well as criticism from Steve Weiss of Zacuto - some people dream of being criticized by Steve Weiss : In this third special episode Jason Sidelinger and Paul Antico talk with special guests DP/Director/Writers Rick Macomber, Matt Stapleton, Sean Meehan, and actress Nicole Trauffer about the first Boston Area "Under 3 Minute" Film Challenge organized by Paul and Rick Editing “The Amazing Spider-Man” | Digital Production Buzz An audio interview with editor  Alan Edward Bell : This time he’s back with stories of editing “The Amazing Spider-Man.” What’s it like working on a high-budget production? How does he organize his edit team? How does he determine the path from dailies to finished movie? How does he balance technology with story-telling? Alan is a great guest – be sur...

Sony NEX-FS700 Kit and Gear Walkthrough | Tony Reale | NextWaveDV Tony talks about what he likes about the Sony NEX-FS700 , and also what gear he likes to use with it. He's a fan of the 18-200 kit lens (with reservations) and likes the Metabones adapter for use with Canon lenses: In this video I talk about my new Sony FS700 video camera. People have asked me why I went from HDSLRs to the new FS700 and I explain my reasons while also showing the gear I have in my kit. KineRAW S8 Camera Test Footage | Cinescopophilia A Chinese company is working on some interesting cameras. A few details can be found here: There are three Chinese KineRaw cameras the KineRaw S35, KineRaw S16 and the KineRaw S8 in the making. [...] and now we see more test footage of the KineRaw S8 camera has been put up by Dan Hudgins. The KineRaw S8 is similar to the KineRAW S35 and KineRAW S16 cameras except for the lack of Cineform compressed recording. and here:   KineRAW S35 Camera Vs Sony F3 Camera ...

Canon Cinema EOS 1D C – Vimeo footage and 4K source file direct from card | Andrew Reid | EOSHD A sample from the Canon 1D C that was posted recently: I’ve had a look at the 4096 x 2048 MOV file in Adobe Premiere Pro at 1:1 (100% view). What do I think of it? Well viewed at 100% it is certainly on the soft side. It does not contain the kind of resolution a standard 1D X still JPEG has but for video it is very good. It is not near what true 4K should look like, but then the only 4K cinema camera on the market than can really be considered ‘true 4K’ is the $70,000 Sony F65 with an oversampling 8K sensor and RGB 4-4-4 colour sampling. Work In Progress: The Digital Bolex Camera Is A Crowdfunded Filmmaking Revolution | Jonathan Poritsky | The Creators Project An interview with the creators of the Digital Bolex .  They say it's on tack for August release, but while there's a lot of history of the project, there's not a lot about the status of the camera itself: ...I want...

Canon C300 large sensor camera: the budget Alexa? | David Fox | TVB Europe A round-up of views on the Canon C300 from European DPs: "Buying the first of anything is always a bit of a gamble,” but it has paid off, because the C300 is now flavour of the moment and is “perfect for TV”. He [DoP Tim Sutton] didn’t consider buying any other large-format camera at the time as nothing else ticked all the boxes for picture quality, usability, cost and specification -- mainly the TV friendly codec. “It delivers good looking pictures, is easy to use and producers are not bewildered with yet another format or codec given the C300’s workflow is identical to that of the XF305.” Hands on report on the BlackMagic Cinema Camera | Matt Battershell | Planet5D Matt got to see the BlackMagic Cinema Camera prototype, and is very excited about the camera: I was never too worried about my pre-order on faith, never having touched the camera nor seen really many samples, but now, I am not worrie...

My First Weekend With Sony's New FS700 | Ro Tierney | Blog A fairly detailed report on the first few days with the Sony NEX-FS700 . Seems they are turning up in New Zealand already: The handle and grip are obviously a massive improvement over the FS100. The built-in ND’s, XLR inputs and HD SDI & HDMI outputs reminded me of what video cameras are supposed to have. As for ease of use, well it will take some getting used to with regards to button placement, etc, but everything seems well thought out and I found myself getting used to it very quickly. It is a breath of fresh air. FS700 vs F3 talking head | Mskogstrom Photography Comparing the footage from the NEX-FS700 with the Sony PMW-F3: First inital reaction is Yes. Footage looks very good and looks easy enough to match to the F3. All footage shot to a PIX240 in Prores 422HQ. Both cameras are white balanced in the Key light. Both read 3000K, but there is a distinct difference in the red wall. Both cameras are shot...

Focus On Sony NEX FS700 | BorrowLenses.com | Vimeo An intro to the Sony NEX-FS700 - which is just starting to ship - with some nice pictures of the camera, a demo of camera operation, and video demoing the ND filter, low light, and slow motion: We were very excited to get our hands on the Sony NEX FS700U. We put it through it's paces and showcase some of the cool new features of this awesome camera including the built-in ND filters, and the super-slow motion at several frame rates. And if you're in Boston, check out the Rule Boston Camera Learning Lab on July 11th which will be on the Sony NEX-FS700. Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson's miniatures | Jim Emerson | Sun Times This article looks at how scenes are set up and how the camera movies through the movie: I would estimate that 98 percent of the time (I wish I had a graph), Anderson's camera is situated on a tripod or a dolly, moves only at right angles, and always with clockwork smoothness. (There's ...

Yesterday I went out to Salem MA where a group of enthusiastic DPs and actors had gathered together for a Three-Minute Film Challenge . Organized by Paul Antico and Rick Macomber , everyone was invited to bring a scipt with the object of shooting a three-minute movie. The other wrinkle was that the plan was to shoot it all using a Canon C300 . I'll be writing more about it later - once the video's are complete - but here's some pictures from the event: Paul Antico attaches a rig to the Canon C300 . (clockwise from left: Paul, Matt Stapleton, Todd Mahoney, Adam Kerchman, Rick Macomber) Using a slider in the grass. Paul Antico and Sean Meehan discuss a setup Todd Mahoney brought along this little gem. A Shur-Line 06572L painters-pole with an adapter that lets him mount a GoPro Hero . I always find it interesting to watch other's when they are shooting; how they set things up, placement of the actors and camera, and how they handle lighting. And when it's a...

That was the question a friend asked me the other day. It was a loaded question because he’s a rabid Windows/Android user, and I’m a rabid Mac/iPhone user, which means that we usually don’t talk about computers or phone’s at all…it’s just easier that way. The original Apple TV But the Apple TV …was he thinking of getting one? And what did I think of the Apple TV anyway? I’ve had the original Apple TV since it first came out, and to be honest, it’s been nothing like the iPhone and the iPad . The latter I don’t think I could ever give up, and the former has proved to be a very useful tool for meetings and for trips when I don’t want to take the MacBook along. I could live without the iPad , but that’s primarily because I also have an iPhone . But the Apple TV ? To be honest, I hardly use it. I do use it to rent movies, on those few occasions that I do rent movies. That’s probably once every two months. It works really well for that. It’s simple and easy to rent movies, and ...

Help documents for Creative Suite CS5, CS5.1, CS5.5, and CS6 applications (PDF and HTML) |Todd Kopriva | Adobe The documentation for Creative Suite 6 apps (and CS5) is available online in PDF and HTML format: This page includes links to the Help documents (user guides, manuals) for CS5, CS5.1, CS5.5, and CS6 applications. These are just the English-language documents. I gave links to some documents in other languages here. GPU acceleration in After Effects CS6: Which Mac does it better? | rob-ART morgan | Bare Feats Several Macs are compared, results depend on the brand of GPU you have: Every Mac with an NVIDIA GPU blew away the Macs with AMD GPUs. That's because the Ray-Traced 3D Render option requires CUDA support. Of our test units, the 6-core Mac Pro with Quadro 4000 was fastest at 41 minutes. The fastest laptop was the 2012 MacBook Pro "Retina" at 58 minutes. In both cases, the CPU was loafing along while the NVIDIA CUDA "aware" GPU was doing all...

Rule Boston Camera has announced their Learning Labs and Pub Night for July: Learning Labs: WED July 11: Intro To The Sony NEX-FS700 with Sony's Tom Cubby 10:00am-12noon WED: July 18: LED Lights: Ready For Prime Time with Lighting Designer John Gates 10:00am-12noon WED: July 25: Capturing High-Quality Digital Stills & Multi0Media Content With photographer Steve Dunwell 10:00am-12noon Pub Night: THU: July 26: The Long & WInding Road: Thriving in Today's Film, Video & Digital Cinema World With Cinematographer and Director Austin de Besche 6:00-8:00pm

New F3 Firmware Adds S-Log to Every Camera | Andy Shipsides | AbelCine New firmware for the Sony PMW-F3 : Version 1.40, which can be download here, adds S-Log into the Picture Profile menu of the camera. This allows anyone to turn on S-Log without the RGB key, although you still need the key for 4:4:4 output. Having S-Log in the profiles menu allows adjustment to the other camera settings such as black level, color, and white balance. Canon EOS 7D Firmware 2.0.0 coming August 7, 2012 | HDCam Team The new firmware for the 7D isn't due until August it seems... Unfortunately the announced improvements don’t include much for video mode, besides what is really welcome but supposed to be already in the EOS 7D since very long ago: Manual Audio Gain. At least all EOS 7D users will be able to manually set the audio gain before start recording video. This was a worldwide requested feature that Canon finally decided to include! Sony's Action Cam prototype is incredibly small, w...