Notes On Video

CinemaDNG Technology Center  | Adobe From Todd Kopriva at Adobe: "The CinemaDNG Technology Center page has been updated with the CinemaDNG specification, example files, and other materials for those interested in working with this format. More than a decade ago, photography experienced a technological shift with the proliferation of digital cameras. As photographers embraced digital cameras, their desire to access low-level image data increased, resulting in the increase of RAW file formats and workflows. Unfortunately, the digital still image raw workflow brought with it a slew of file formats (over 200 for still cameras!) that are proprietary, closed, and sometimes even encrypted. Documentary Summit: Boston When : October 13-14, 2012. 9am-5pm both days Where : Boston University, Center for Digital Imaging Arts, 274 Moody Street, Waltham, MA 02453 The Documentary Summit is a two day professional filmmaker conference. With seminars from expert speakers and structured net...

MAN OF TAI CHI | ARRI News Keanu Reeves talks about shooting with the ARRI Alexa Studio Camera : "The camera was just out of beta and I wanted to test its limits," says Reeves, qualifying his comment about "breaking" the Studio. "We've been shooting in water, high temperatures, dust, using strobe effects, really pushing the camera - it's been getting a good workout! ALEXA is easy to work with and very well-made." Interview with Cira Felina Bolla | BandPro Shooting with the Sony F65 : I’m most impressed with the F65's color-space, sensor and latitude. I'll explain: its ability to hold information in the highlights up to 2 ½ stops over and up to 3 stops under in the shadows without degradation; no noise in the Blue channel; or any of the other layers. No other HD camera has been capable of this until now. This is how today's properly exposed film behaves. Sony F65 Gives a New Life to ‘Evil Dead’ | Digital Media World DP Aa...

(SR3) NEX-FS700: 4K upgrade coming next Thursday? | SonyAlphaRumors We know that the 4K announcement for the Sony NEW-FS700 is supposed to happen sometime in the next month - could it be this Thursday?: The first news is related to the Sony NEX-FS700 camera. An anonymous source just told me that there will be a new 4K upgrade coming on Thursday! Leòt’s hope this is true! Premiere Pro CS6 “Media Pending” | Philip Johnston | HD Warrior I had some problems with Premiere and .MT2 files a while back. I wonder if this "fix" might have solved that: If you are editing in Premiere Pro CS6 and get a “Media Pending” after importing a file, look at the file structure to see if there is more than one MXF file in the folder. I waited over 10 minutes for the “pending” to disappear on a file that was less than 60s long. TILTA CAMERA RIG REVIEW | Rick Macomber | Vimeo Rick showed me this rig the other day, and it certainly looked impressive: A Chinese company named Team Ti...

Win a $10,000 Film Grant in 'The Cabin in the Woods' Spoof Horror Film Competition | Justin Minich| No Film School It’s that time of year when people are thinking up costume ideas, picking out pumpkins for carving, making party plans, and if you’re a filmmaker with a penchant for horror, you’re probably also thinking about making a film. And really there’s no better time to do it. Vimeo and Lionsgate are putting on The Cabin in the Woods Spoof Horror Film Competition which is offering a $10,000 Grand Prize to the best satirical or comedic horror short. Blackmagic Camera Dynamic Range Stress Tests | Frank Glencairn | YouTube Shot some DR tests today. Nothing fancy or artsy, emphasis was on contrast handling (not on smooth camera moves - had that lightweight travel tripod with the crappy head again - but walking several miles with a 40lbs Vinten?) So I went out to the Park at mean noon sun. That, combined with a lot of trees is usual a receipt for DR disaster. Deep shadow...

Post workflow for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera | Frank Glencairn I was always a sucker and evangelist for an uncompressed workflow till delivery. I did that (whenever possible) since over 12 years now, starting back in the SD days, on the advent of the first Decklink cards. Having said that, uncompressed recording was prohibitive cumbersome for most projects (though I did it on some higher end stuff) and usually I had to start with some compressed camera format, that I converted to uncompressed before I worked with it. Southwold shot on the Black Magic Cinema Camera | Den Lennie | Vimeo I shot this in a couple of hours on a day out to Southwold in Suffolk. This was the first shoot I ever did with the #BMCC. I used a Sigma 8-16mm lens a Canon 16-35mm f2.8 and a Canon L 70-200mm zoom. I shot RAW and converted the files to ProRes Proxy using DaVinci Resolve. I then edited it in Final Cut ProX and round tripped the XML back to Resolve 9 for the grade. I relinked the xml to the ori...

Sony ICD-SX712 Digital Flash Voice Recorder I just found my digital audio recorder again, which is great news because its really useful. While I don't use it for video production recording, I often use it to record interviews for articles I write because the microphones in it are much better than the one in the iPad (the other device I use for such interviews.) But the problem is that the recorder is so small that I seem to loose it a lot. For long periods of time. This is the second time it has disappeared for more than a month, only to turn up in the pocket of a bag I forgot I put it in. Unfortunately its both a case of not putting it in the same place every time, and being so small it will fit in anywhere. I have multiple bags and - depending upon the situation - I will take a different combination of bags out to an event, and the recorder just gets thrown in to one of the pockets. When I come home, I don't usually unpack the bags straight away, and if I didn't...

Working With Canon Log | Andy Shipsides | AbelCine Recently I have been getting a number of questions about Log mode in the Canon C300, which is great because that means that many of us are using this mode. However, there are some really important things to know before jumping in. Canon has recently published a white paper on Canon Log that is full of great info. It’s not exactly light reading, however, so I’ll try to outline some of the important information about Canon’s Log curve in this blog. Nikon Says BBC Approves D4 & D800 DSLR Cameras, But Is That Right | Cinescopophilia Maybe the Nikon DSLR's aren't BBC approved: Nikon have boldly announced that their flagship DSLR cameras the D4 and D800 have been tested by Alan Roberts the former BBC tech big wig and they have been deemed broadcast approved, but are they? While Alan Roberts did appear to rate the Nikon D4 saying “The results were encouraging” and “Exposure range is, potentially, as high as 13 stops.” Al...

NEX-EA50 Review. Great Value For The Money | Alister Chapman | XDCAM User A generally favorable review of the new Sony NEX-EA50 , and some comments about the new zoom lens that it comes with: The pre-production unit I played with had a tendency to shift the image left and right as you alternated between zooming in and zooming out and if you used manual focus there would be some small shifts in the focus through the zoom range. I’ve had quite a few discussions with Sony about this lens and I think you do need to be realistic. This lens has been built to meet the demand from end users for a cheap servo zoom for large sensor cameras.  Advanced Green Screen | Matt Schwarz | Vimeo Video School Last time we took a look at the fundamentals of using a green screen. Now we've taken those skills to the next level and used them in an all new Vimeo original, where Casey Donahue gets thrown off our building without actually putting him in harm's way. Our all around favorite editor...

CANON 1DC REVIEW: OUR FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE | Patrick | Stillmotion Shooting with a prototype of the 4K Canon DSLR: While we didn’t do scientific tests with the camera it feels like what the 1DC offers is definitely a step up from the DSLRs that we came from (the MK3) in terms of latitude and dynamic range. Again, we didn’t do scientific tests with it, but in using it for several shoots, we feel it performs noticeably better than the 5D3 and 1DX.  The LCD on this thing feels very much in line with that of the 1DX. BlackMagic Cinema Camera Image stabilization test | michael beck | Vimeo I just got the 1.1 beta firmware for my BMCC and I thought I would shoot a quick test. This is shot at 300mm with IS off, the on. The audio is in camera and you can hear the IS motor running :) not surprising, don't be alarmed!This was my 70-300mm f/4.5-5 lens @300mm Hand held. Sony NEX-VG30 Test Shots | NTcreativestudio | Vimeo This Video was shot using Sony latest NEX-VG30 with ...

New series of free Adobe TV training videos: Discovering Adobe Story | Ellen Wixted | Adobe Using script templates for different types of scripts —Adobe Story can create film scripts, TV scripts, A/V and multicolumn scripts and more, all with industry-standard formatting. The basics of working with projects —With Adobe Story you can create projects that group related scripts and supporting documents. For example, you might be working on a multi-episode mini-series that in addition to a number of scripts also includes character bios, research documents and more. Is Final Cut Pro X Becoming a True Player | Ron Dawson | Dare Dreamer One of the reasons I personally have been hesitant about making a switch to FCPX was because I wanted to be able to hire editors who used the same program I do. Certainly all the pros I may want to hire won’t use FCPX. But ironically, the editors I have on my extended team all use FCPX. At first I chalked it up to the fact that they’re just young. (We...

Gear Comparo: GoPro Hero2 vs Sony Action Cam - Video Recording Modes | Kevin Huggins | Vimeo The Sony Action Cam definitely seems bluer which looks better in the sky, but not so good in other situations: 3. I have had my GoPro Hero2 for about a year and I've used it about a half dozen times. I was attracted to it for its 120fps, but at SD resolution it isn't great. I was hoping for much better things with the Sony Action Cam especially since it has 120fps at 720p HD. The 120fps looks better in the Action Cam than the Hero2, but that's to be expected since it does have better resolution at that frame rate. However, from the comparisons of the other video settings, I am not too sure the Action Cam is any better than the Hero 2. 7 Reasons Why Black Magic Rules – and DSLR is Done | Facundo Campos | Raindance Canada 2) Dynamic Range is in the Details: 13 Stop Dynamic Range [...] Black Magic has such wide dynamic range that it can see the details in the shadows and th...

Review: GoPro HD HERO2 | Steve Douglas | LAFCPUG Positive review of the new GoPro Hero 2 : This new camera version is no slight improvement. It is a major upgrade in all ways and areas highlighted by its new, faster and larger sensor and its wonderful new menu which makes utilizing the GoPro HERO2 an extremely useful filming tool. As I alluded to earlier, the GoPro HERO2 beats all competitors in this niche of camcorder/cameras hands down. No Concessions: Digital Disaster at the New York Film Festival | Bob Cashill | PopDose Digital projection problems at the  New York Film Festival: It had been a trying day: apparently a DCP of a Mexican film shown in the afternoon, Here and There, was plagued by intermittent subtitles that were here and there for half an hour until the problem was fixed. That was nothing compared to this utter fiasco, however. Has a festival presentation ever been cancelled due to a mechanical glitch? Not in the film cans days that I can recall. ...

The prices for two recently announced cameras seem to have been ironed out, as the Canon C100 and Sony NEX-VG900 now have prices at B & H. Meanwhile, the 5D Mark II has an increased rebate. When it was announced, the price of the C100 was listed at "around $8,000" though there was talk of it being closer to $6,000. I have to admit I was doubtful, but lo and behold the Canon C100 is currently priced by B&H at $6,499.00 . That's still a lot of money, considering it doesn't do higher than 30p, is 8bit and HD and records in AVCHD. It competes with the NEX-FS700 , which gives much higher frame rates and will have 4K support in a couple of months. And costs $7,999. Which is best? Ehhhh..... Meanwhile, the Sony NEX-VG900 , the full-frame E-mount offering is now priced at B & H at $3,298.00 . I still don't know what to make of that camera. Maybe the reviewers will love it, but personally it doesn't appeal to me. It seems a bit expensive for...

FILM TAX INCENTIVES | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine A recent panel on State Tax Incentives sponsored by the Massachusetts Production Coalition was centered on tax credits for Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but much of the advice is applicable to other state programs. It’s important to note that while many states offer some form of tax incentive for filmmakers, there are several important differences between the various programs: whether it’s a rebate or a credit, transferable, has a cap [the state has a total limit per years for all credits], the minimum production budget requirements, and several other details. Packing | Benjamin Eckstein | Blog Benjamin thinks he has the packing of his gear all sorted out, so he wrote a blog about it: A backpack is important to have.  When walking at length (like through an airport) it is great to have your most valuable items well supported on your back.  Make sure to get a backpack that can fit in most overhead compartments...

Something I didn’t mention in my report on Tuesday’s BOSCPUG meeting is that Rob Bessette of Finish Boston also demoed Blackmagic’s Resolve 9 . Resolve is a sophisticated color grading application, and this new release features a significant UI improvement. The previous version had the distinct impression of being designed for Linux, but this release actually is starting to look like a regular Mac/Windows app. On the downside, you still need to know how to do color correction, but the program seems simpler now; and don’t forget there’s a free version you can download and use. Wednesday night was SMPTE New England ’s meeting at Rule Boston, and Juan Martinez , Senior Product Manager, Broadcast & Professional Solutions of Sony was there to talk about 4K. They’d brought a Sony F65 and a 4K projector along, though the demo fairies struck and they had a lot of problems getting the 4K version of the Taylor Swift movie shot on the F65 to play, and had to use a 2K version inst...

Canon C100 at IBC2012 | Hireacamera | Vimeo Den Lennie chats with C300  owner and filmmaker Nino Leitner about the C100 : I'm positively surprised that the build quality seems to be exactly the same, I mean they have the magnesium parts and, you know, it's really the same material...I think there are a few things that are a little difficult, for example you don't have 50p or 60p so there's no way of shooting slow motion. SHOOTING DIARY: SEAN MEEHAN ON SHOOTING IN SMALL SPACES | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Meehan : I would say the biggest challenge was just trying to come up with creative shots. The option was to shoot out of the cell where some light was coming in from the window that gave us this blue background. Otherwise, the walls were pretty white and they were drab, but not necessarily in the best way. I found that it didn’t look interesting drab; it just looked like I was shooting her up against a wall. Redrock ultraCage expansions | Vincent Laforet ...

Marco Solorio of One River Media spoke at last night's Boston Creative Pro User Group about the Blackmagic Design  Cinema Camera . Also present were a couple of reps from Blackmagic. I'm not going to go into great length about what he said, partly because it's late, and partly because it's all there in the two videos he has already posted online: Comparing the Cinema Camera & 5D Mk III Texting is Gefährlich – A Cinema Camera Short, Part 1 (and Part 2 ) The first compares the Canon 5D Mark III and the Blackmagic Cinema Camera at some length, while the second is a "short" that was shot using the BDCC. Marco has written a couple of extensive blog posts that covers the production of this short, and most of what he talked about at the meeting is covered there. The Bad News The bad news from the meeting is that production of the BDCC has been seriously constrained by a parts supplier. It appears that they aren't shipping any cameras at the...

Ever go for months with nothing to do on the weekend, and then get invited to three parties on the same day? That's what this week is shaping up to be. If you're in Boston this Wednesday, September 26, 2012, you can pick from several interesting events. I'd already posted about : Learning Lab at Rule Boston Camera: The Impact of Cinema Cameras on a TV News Shooter at 10am University of Massachusetts Boston Film Series showing of CRAZY HORSE at 7pm . Now there's two more events worth checking out: SMPTE New England :  4K Digital Cinematography—The Real WorldWith Juan Martinez , Sony Electronics at 6:30pm at Rule Boston Camera Juan Martinez, Sony Senior Product Manager for Acquisition, will discuss 4K digital cinematography and how it relates to the real world. Mr. Martinez will talk about the imaging technology related to 4K, especially as it relates to the Sony equipment that he is responsible for, such as the NEX-FS700 camcorder. Boston University Center...

Recently I was chatting with a music guy that had been working on the soundtrack for a movie project. He'd been passed the project in a rather disorganized state. It had been cut in Final Cut Pro 7 , but it wasn't clear that the editor had cut many large projects in Final Cut before, and there were some problems with the project that was causing him serious grief. When he got the project it required a lot of re-rendering just to get it to play. It turned out that the media had been imported in multiple formats rather than transcoding to ProRes. Some of the audio was in MP3 format. These are all things Final Cut Pro 7 doesn't like. He'd also tried converting it from 29.97 to 24, but had given that up when he'd discovered that all the audio got moved around after changing the frame rate. In short, he'd spent a lot of time wrangling the data in Final Cut , and I don't think he was impressed. As I talked him through it - and it turned out he'd alread...