Notes On Video

It was 43 years ago that man landed on the Moon. And 40 years ago that the last man stepped foot on the Moon. The best book I have read about what it's like to be an astronaut is Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys by Michael Collins, who was the Command Module Pilot on Apollo 11. The one that didn't set foot on the Moon. Collins says in his book that Armstrong actually said: That's one small step for A man; A giant leap for mankind But a drop-out in the radio transmission cut out the 'a'. The quote makes more sense with the 'a,' but try telling that to everyone that constantly quotes it without. WBUR: Neil Armstrong, First Man To Walk On The Moon, Dies

Filmmaker will not believe me on this: NEX-VG900 Full Frame E-mount camera for a tiny bit more than 3.000 Euro! | SonyAlphaRumors Hmmm...if true, wow! Though that equals ~$4,000US, which would place it in the same price as the NEX-EA50 ... Oh, one more, thing, will the E-mount support a full-frame sensor? Sony will announce the new NEX-VG900 at around mid September. It is a Full Frame E-mount camcorder (Full Frame in photographic terms!). And it costs just a bit over 3.000 Euro! It records 1080p60 in AVCHD format (24Mbps/s). A FF camcorder for 3.xxx Euro is something almost unbelievable. Short overview of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera menus | Sebastian Wiegärtner | Facebook Short overview of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera menus. Excuse bad audio quality, recorded with my iPhone 4! Unboxing BMCC | Frank Glencairn | YouTube FOR THE RECORD:This is my first and last unboxing video ever .... I mean it, really.I did it just because I had a ton of requests bombing my ma...

Canon  C500 Price finally out... 20 000£ | Jim Martin | DVXUser I've been told that Canon will have a press release out either at the end of this week or next week regarding delivery and price on the C500, pricing on the smaller cinema zooms shown at NAB....and maybe something else! As soon as its out, we'll have it up on our site. Rumored high megapixels Canon EOS-3D X and EOS-7D Mark II cameras | Photo Rumors Rumors of new cameras from Canon are heating up: Canon EOS-3D X specifications: 46 MP 3.7 frame per second Dual DIGIC 5+ ISO: (25) 50-6400 (12800) VIDEO INTERVIEW: SONY’S NEX EA50 DEMONSTRATED | Dan Chung | DSLR News Shooter Dan gets to play with the new Sony at the BIRTV show in Beijing. Dan thinks the image out of the NEX-EA50 is better than the NEX-5N , but Sony isn't yet saying whether the chip is the same. It appears that - at least in some markets - Sony will be selling it with and without the lens: The camera feels very light in the hand a...

The Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera   [B&H: $2,995] hasn't arrived yet - though some people are being promised it soon - but they have created a new forum for the camera, and have posted some files captured with the camera: Blackmagic Forum | Cinematography | John Brawley | Forum To launch this new forum, BMD are making Cinema DNG files available to download. These DNG's from my recent shoot with director Ben Phelps, Afterglow. Afterglow was done with a shipping version of the camera though it's likely that the software will have been updated by the time many of you get your cameras. AFTERGLOW – DNG’s are out in the wild | John Brawley | Blog John writes about the content himself: A RAW workflow means the sensor data is recorded in camera but not processed until the images are loaded in post where the user can either choose to keep the settings that were selected by the cinematographer at the time of shooting or choose and optimize for a different set of setti...

About a week ago my MacBook Pro's trackpad started acting up. I did a Google search and the first thing that came up was that excessive heat could cause the trackpad to misbehave. And the MacBook Pro had been feeling a bit toasty lately. I installed the Fan Control control panel, and was running the Activity Monitor app as well to see what was going on. Things seemed okay, though I couldn't figure out what the graphic in Fan Control meant. But the temp it reported was mostly okay, and it seemed the fans were working. But the trackpad seemed to be getting worse, no matter how frequently I'd put the computer to sleep "to cool down." I definitely thought it was temperature related; it seemed to get worse the longer I used it. I did notice a couple of things along the way that were unexpected; Word 2001  (with it's PowerPC emulation) can suck up more processing cycles than Word 2010 . Sometimes. Oh, and the Google Talk plugin was running and sucking up...

THE WEEK IN CAMERAS: SONY NEX-EA50 AND ZACUTO SHOOTOUT | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine I look at the Sony NEX-EA50 , and the controversy over the Zacuto shootout: What is the Internet without a bit of controversy? Last week Zacuto released the third and final part of their “Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout.” The second episode had already created controversy when Gizmodo reported that no less than Francis Ford Coppola preferred the Panasonic GH2 over the Sony FS65. Tutorial - After Effects Part 5 - Windows and Tabs | Chris Fenwick | One On One Many people get confused when they accidentally close too many windows in After Effects and can’t get stuff back to where it was, let alone where they want it. This video will show you around how to customize your windows and tabs. Mac Pro RAID setup | Paul Joy | Blog Paul documents setting up a new RAID: It took 15 hours for the RAID 5 set to build. Once complete the common ‘This Disk needs to be initialised” appeared on my ...

Ep. 9 - Notes On Video | Need Creative Podcast | Anticipate Media I'm on the latest episode of the Need Creative podcast. I have to say, Paul does an amazingly great job on this show; how does he manage to talk so long without going 'umm' or 'ahhh' and soud so coherent? I don't know how he does it. Anyway, it was fun to chat with him and Jason, and talk about the new Sony NEX-EA50 , the Zacuto shootout, this blog, and my acting tips: In this ninth episode of the NeedCreative Podcast, your co-hosts Paul Antico and Jason Sidelinger were joined by Special Guest via Skype (a very clean connection this time), Michael Murie of the Notes on Video Blog, to discuss the past week's events in indie filmmaking and technology, and to discuss universal themes in storytelling. CAMERAS: The Zacuto Fallout Continues | Art Adams | ProVideoCoalition Art continues documenting the reporting from Zacuto's camera shootout: The other problem is that every article firs...

I'm very interested in the just announced Sony NEX-EA50 ; partly because of the form factor (an ENG layout is more useful for the kinds of things I shoot) and partly because of the price. That said, I do have some questions about it that I hope will get answered soon. Some are important, and some are just out of curiosity: What sensor/processor is in there? Is it the same as the NEX-5N , or is it upgraded? It's obviously not the same sensor as the NEX-FS100 , which is a 3.43MP sensor, vs the NEX-EA50 's 16.1 MP. It seems likely that the low-light performance won't be quite as good and there will be more moire effects. What is the sensor size? Sony uses Super35 designation for the NEX-FS100 and APS-C for the NEX-EA50 , though the two are very close. I've seen the EA50 quoted as being 23.6 x 15.8, yet other numbers are often quoted for APS-C. The NEX-FS100 is quoted as being 23.6 x 13.3 mm. Is it just that APS-C adds more pixels for the still picture aspec...

John Brawley long interview on the BMDCC | EOSHD Some info on the upcoming BlackMagic Design Cinema Camera : It's finally confirmed, rolling shutter is a feature, which is weird if they're using the rumoured Beyer Dynamics sensor, as that one has a global shutter mode. If that's indeed the sensor, it would make a lot of sense to use that mode, or even better, have the option to go between the global shutter mode at 24/25/30fps and the 60fps rolling shutter mode it's capable of, but it probably isn't even using that sensor. New Sony NEX-EA50EH shoulder mount 35mm camcorder. Power Zoom lens for FS100 and FS700 | Alister Chapman | XDCAM User Getting back to the camera, because the sensor is a 16.1MP APS-C sensor designed originally for still photos, there will be more moire and aliasing than you would see from a dedicated video camera sensor because the optical low pass filter is designed for still photo resolutions as opposed to HD video. Although based on the...

Completely out of left field, Sony announced a new large-sensor camera; the NEX-EA50 . It's a little hard to completely figure this one out and how it will compare to their existing cameras (the NEX-VG20 , NEX-FS100 and NEX-FS700 .) While it looks like a big upgrade from the NEX-VG20 in that it has XLR inputs and a shoulder-mount design, it doesn't have the ND filters of the FS700 , and there's speculation that the image quality will be closer to the VG20 than the FS100/700 . Sony has also come up with a power zoom version of their 18-200 lens. Not the fastest lens around, but for shoulder shooting (and with no ND) maybe you won't be shooting wide-open anyway! Until the reviews hit, we have to guess; this probably won't effect sales of the FS700 much at all, but even if the image quality isn't quite as good as the FS100 , this camera may spell the end of that one. UPDATE : B & H has it listed at $4,000 with expected delivery of October 15th. That...

ALEX BUONO: SHOOTING FOR “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE” | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine This article is based on the talk Alex gave recently in Boston: Alex Buono is perhaps best known for his work with the Saturday Night Live Film Unit. He shot the current opening for SNL, as well as many of the fake commercials seen on the show, but his passion is documentary and making independent films. “I’m always trying to get the next one off the ground,” says Buono, “and SNL, as much as I like it, it’s a lot of fun and I really like who I’m working with, [but] it’s this great day job I do while I’m trying to get a movie [going].” Ellen Kuras: The Biggest Crisis in the Digital Realm is Storage and Preservation | TribecaFilm With the ever-changing formats of digital production, acclaimed cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Summer of Sam; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is worried: how will filmmakers preserve their work? ’4K’ Video: A Hope for Japan’s Electronics Makers? | Daisuke Wakabaya...

I saw Woody Allen's latest, To Rome With Love the night before last. It had some funny moments - some of the scenes of the opera staged with the singer in a shower were hilarious - but it was too fragmented and uneven. Also, it was hard to tell what it was really about; was it a rumination on fame? Or the shallowness of relationships? It certainly wasn't really about Rome, or what the people of Rome were really like. it could have been set in London or Paris just as easily. Adobe is doing a free webinar on Speedgrade today. You could probably still sign up for it:  Upcoming: SpeedGrade webinar for editors It would seem that teenage daughters have no interest in seeing the latest Bourne movie. With summer temperatures in my house remaining high, my MacBook Pro is still getting hot, but I havent really had problems with the trackpad since it was misbehaving the other day. BUT I've been rather nervous about it. That's a problem with gear; when you start dist...

How to shoot interviews on the 5D mark III | Momentum Blog Tips on gear for doing interviews I also had with me 3 more lenses: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4, Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II and Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L. For a second / backup camera i had my trusty Canon 7D with the Canon EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS that only mount on Canon EF-S bodies and it's my favorite 1.6x lens. With the latest Canon 7D Firmware Update (2.0) we also now have Manual Audio Control. Working with multicam in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6  | Scott Simmons | ProVideoCoalition You can think of a PPro multicam sequence kind of like a sync map because that’s really what it is only you’ll see it and use it after a multicam clip is created (though you still might want to create a sync map before creating a mulicam sequence just to get that top down overview of all your angles and how they relate to reach other). If Premiere Pro’s multicam sequence sounds a lot like FCPX’s Angle Editor when we’re done with this discussion then ...

Product Review: Magic Bullet Denoiser II | Jeff Foste | Pro Video Coalition Denoiser II just plain works and is quite robust. Even though it can be a bit time-consuming to render 1080p footage on a moderately-equipped machine, the final results will not only salvage otherwise unusable footage, but you will get the value of the $99 stand-alone price back in the first project you use it on! It also comes included with Magic Bullet Suite 11.4.1 Prores Faceoff | Color Studies How lossy is Prores LT compared to Prores HQ? I was surprised that, under the hood, the images from both codecs would be so different since they looked identical when converted from the original. Is Prores LT a total dealbreaker? Not necessarily. I could probably refine the skintone key in LT and get it looking pretty good, especially when blurring to include more values that the key didn’t get, but why not work with the best quality possible? Hard drives are cheap. lynda.com to host a free webinar on onl...

Black Magic Camera – Podcast EP #3 – John Brawley Interview | Podcast | FStopAcademy John's been playing with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and is interviewed on this podcast: In this exclusive interview I asked John about his career, how he got to where he is now shooting prime time Australian TV drama and feature films around the world and he also reveals how the Black Magic Design Cinema Camera originated as a passing comment. John has also been working closely with the design team at Black Magic and how responsive they have been to his suggestions to make sure the image from the Black Magic Camera is just right before release later this month. Making Team GB “Don’t Stop Me Now” for Adidas UK | Philip Bloom | Blog Philip had to shoot this ad very quickly: We had massive cue cards to help, a few painful attempts at me singing it to them to get the pace and timings, and of course nice loud playback. Essentially a lip sync music video with lots of people, quite the oppos...

Alistar Chapman 's XDCAM-user site is a great resource and something everyone should keep an eye on. Three of his latest blog posts are of particular interest: ' What to do if your highlights look clipped. FS700 in particular, but applies to many cameras | Alister Chapman | XDCAM User The first is that in the majority of setting the FS700 like most pro video cameras (EX, F3 etc included) records up to 109% (data bits 16 to 255). In the video world white is bit 235 (940 in 10 bit) or 100% and this is supposed to be your maximum with 104% typically allowed for broadcast. Anything above white is known as a superwhite. Why isn’t the PMW-200 as sensitive as an F3 or FS100? Pixel size is the primary thing that determines the signal to noise ratio of the camera. Cameras like the FS100,F3, C300 and GH2 etc have big sensors with big pixels, that’s why they have low noise. That’s why 1/3″ cameras don’t do as well as half inch and half inch doesn’t do as well as 2/3″ and so on. Mo...

How Not To Market Your Movie | Jason Brubaker | Filmmaking Stuff Nobody cares about your movie unless they care about your movie. Stop sending long emails talking all about YOU. What’s in it for me? Really? You want to make another no-budget drama with no star talent? Usain Bolt Took a Bunch of Photos with a Swedish Guy's Camera. Who Owns the Rights to the Sprinter's Snapshots? | Krystal Bonner | Slate Under most countries' intellectual property laws, including the United Kingdom’s, the person who actually pushed the button owns the photograph, unless the work was made for hire. That means Wixtröm technically does not own the copyright to Bolt’s photos, unless he and the sprinter negotiated a rights transfer in writing. F3 Act II | The Sony Tech Guy | Pro Video Coalition A wrap-up on the updates to the Sony PMW-F3 which were announced a couple of months ago. Also the  CBK-MH01 which appears to "just" be a monitor hood; rather expensive at $619.95. ...

Anatomy of a Grade - Ep 09 - The "Bleachy Western Look" | Chris Hall | Vimeo A tutorial for DaVinci Resolve ; though I think you'll need to know Resolve to follow along: Colorist Chris Hall demonstrates a "Bleach Bypass" effect on a period Western film. Special thanks to DP Andrew Russo (awrusso.com/) for the great photography! Fixing A little “Got-cha!” in the LightWorks to Premiere Finishing Workflow | Peter J. Haas | aBlogAbout.Haas Peter is using an interesting workflow from Lightworks to Premiere : I’m currently cutting a feature documentary in EditShare’s latest Pro version of LightWorks, and we’re very interested in revisiting this workflow for finishing. We were running some tests yesterday and noticed a interesting little bug in the workflow we hadn’t noticed before. After a successful import of the AAF sequence into Premiere, the media relinking kept returning an error for files we knew matched. It didn’t seem to be an issue with the AAF, ...