Notes On Video

Producing a Low-Budget Short Film and Pitching a Movie: Run Like Hell | Filmmaker Magazine Red Giant has unveiled their latest low-budget, effects-rich short; Run Like Hell. It’s billed as a short film, but it’s really intended to be a teaser for a full-length movie director Stu Maschwitz hopes to make. Maschwitz is a visual effects wizard who worked at Industrial Light & Magic before co-founding effects house The Orphanage.  Run Like Hell (the script) | Slugline You can get a copy of the script for the Run Like Hell trailer here. Run Like Hell is a hilarious feature film in development, inspired by the cult classic video game. As the director attached to the project, I teamed up with producer Adrian Askarieh and Red Giant Films to create this teaser. Step one was writing the script. New Sony A7, A7R and RX10 – exclusive hands-on look at video quality | EOSHD Andrew looks at the video quality of the three new Sonys, and decides the A7r is the best of the thre...

Gareth Jones creates piece using 3D plug-in FreeForm | Mettle FreeForm makes 3D movement in character animation much easier, especially head rotation. For example, the head can be placed on it's own layer, FreeForm applied, and the head can then be shaped in 3D using FreeForm's control points and tangents. A displacement map can also be applied in FreeForm to add more volume and detail. VIrgin Media from Gareth Jones on Vimeo . Product Review: Sorenson Media Squeeze 9 Pro | Larry Jordan The application can take you as far as you want to go in improving the quality of your compressed videos. Keep in mind, however, that like any powerful tool, you will need to invest time to learn how to use it well. One of the things that impresses me about the Sorenson website is that they have already taken the time to provide the tools you need to learn the application. A warning about OS X Mavericks from Adobe: Adobe Premiere Pro @AdobePremiere Though #PremierePro CC sup...

Last night I went to a talk by Vincent Laforet. The event was sponsored by Rule Boston Camera, Canon and the PBS show Frontline . I’ve heard Vincent speak before, and some of this talk was a rehash of past material; his years at The New York Times , the amazing pictures taken at the top of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, the helicopter shots of New York, and Reverie ; the first movie shot with the Canon 5D Mark II, it was all there. But Vincent added in a new element from past talks. In this one he looked at what’s going on with the internet, social media, and the advancement of technology, and tried to make sense of it all and offer suggestions for how to have a creative career in this new world. Learn all the Rules, and then break them He had some fascinating stats on the volume of media being produced and uploaded to social networks every hour of every day. Hundreds of thousands of pictures are uploaded to Facebook, and hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every...

‘12 Years a Slave,’ ‘Mother of George,’ and the aesthetic politics of filming black skin | The Washington Post Increased sensitivity of digital cameras makes it easier to record darker skin tones: For the first hundred years of cinema, when images were captured on celluloid and processed photochemically, disregard for black skin and its subtle shadings was inscribed in the technology itself, from how film-stock emulsions and light meters were calibrated, to the models used as standards for adjusting color and tone. #166. Are the new Zeiss / Sony lenses for the A7 camera too expensive? | Dear Susan Sony announced some new E-Mount lenses that are a bit more expensive than their previous models, and some people are complaining. This article explains why they are worth the money, though I like the first sentence best: Short answer: NO. They’re a bargain. The end. And then the article goes into a lot of depth about MTF curves. You were warned: In brief : Zeiss have re...

NEW SONY A7 AND A7R CAMERAS ARE FIRST TO ALLOW FOCUS MAGNIFICATION DURING VIDEO RECORDING | News Shooter More on the positives of Sony's new cameras, though we're still waiting to see how the actual video looks: It has always been small details such as these that have put professional filmmakers off using DSLR-style cameras. However, the video features in the A7/A7R pair (Zebra, clean HDMI, audio and focus control), and the new RX10 (3-stop ND, Zebra, clean HDMI, audio control) suddenly make them very appealing prospects. Lets hope the video quality is better than Sony’s current NEX cameras. The Realities of Video on Demand | Moviecope A film that’s in post now, for example, a filmmaker should be thinking ‘From around January or February 2014, I want to be on exclusively the transactional sites when I’ll do marketing push one.’ And they need to make sure that their pricing is consistent; it just sends confusing signals to the market if it’s £2.99 on one site for a 48 ...

5 Things They Don’t Tell You About Being a First-Time Director | Vulture You're standing in the way of your own movie. Something I didn’t know going in is that first-time directors are considered by financiers to be "deadly attachments," meaning that even if financiers are interested in your script and your vision, you are still considered to be a strike against their desire to invest in the film.  SONY RX10: A VIDEO JOURNALISTS DELIGHT? | News Shooter Dan Chung likes the look of the Sony RX10's video capabilities too: ...the RX10 has a number of features not seen together before now in a small camera. It has a built-in 3 f-stop ND filter, clean HDMI feed for outputting to a monitor or external recorder (via micro-HDMI socket), zebras (settable from 70% to 100%) and peaking for focus and exposure assist, a mic input and optional XLR audio jackpack, a headphone jack and an OLED electronic viewfinder. Review of the iPhone 5S 120fps super slow motion | Phi...

Sony RX10 Review -- First Impressions | Imaging Resource I'll admit that I didn't really look that closely at the new Sony still camera announcements yesterday, but now reading more of the press these cameras look to have some interesting video functionality. Reading this write-up on the RX10 it appears that it reads out the whole chip and has improved video processing, and it has built-in neutral density filters (at least that's what the articles say.) Is this going to be a killer video camera in disguise? At over $1,200   with a fixed lens you might be better to save your money for a real video camera, but it's intriguing. Will have to wait for more reviews: It didn't completely eliminate moiré patterns, but they were greatly reduced relative to just about every other camera we've seen, and there were no false-color artifacts to be seen anywhere. Not only that, but the video itself was very clean and crisp-looking, so the reduction in false color and ...

Way too busy yesterday... Cinematographer Zach Zamboni on Creativity and Shooting with Just Two Primes My interview with Zach Zamboni, a cinematographer on Anthony Bourdain’s series Parts Unknown has been  published over at Filmmaker Magazine . Zach spoke at Rule Boston last month and it was a very interesting talk about creativity and filming (there's a link to a video of the talk there too.) Phantom Anti-Jello Device This arrived in the mail. I haven't been able to do anything other than take it out of the package. There's no instructions; but I think i can put it together! Cooke Lenses Went to an interesting presentation by  Les Zellan , chairman of Cooke Optics and Jon Fauer, ASC (Publisher and Editor of Film and Digital Times) at Talamas last night. Les gave a fascinating talk about how Cooke lenses are made, what the Cooke "look" is, and also some details on new technology they recently announced. I was fascinated by his descriptions of t...

Reader Paul Antico reports: It looks like we will get Mavericks on the 22nd. (The Apple event has yet to be announced by Apple, but it has been confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, the loop.com, And the usual reliable sources.) I think we will see MacPros available for preorder, with sale anywhere from the 22nd to November (more likely). I think we will definitely see the long overdue Retina Macbook Pros with Haswell. (Mavericks definitely increases battery life on the current model however). And of course the new iPads. All of that said, Adobe is on track for a big CC update today; as early as a week and a half ago in their forums they still maintain that is the date by telling people there are various bug fixes in it to be addressed "in our next release on Oct 15th". UPDATE 12:00pm: Adobe Customer Care has tweeted: Adobe Customer Care  ‏ @ AdobeCare 3h   astralape Hi,we originally intended to release CC updates today Oct 15th however we need more time for ad...

A price has been finalized for the Panasonic AG-AC8, a budget shoulder-mount camcorder. It looks like it will retail for $1,200 in the US . It replaces the AG-AC7 , and Panasonic's latest press release says it will ship in October. Make no mistake, it's a stripped down camera, but it does include dual recording slots with either simultaneous or relay recording. I have the much earlier AG-HMC70P. For some situations, it's great to have a shoulderable camera, and for the price, the AG-HMC70P was great. Especially because it had two XLR audio inputs (which I wish the AG-AC7/8 had.) The thing I'd complain about with the AG-HMC70P is that you really had very little image control; it is really a full auto camera. I haven't used the AG-AC7, so I don't know what these models are like. Other News The ultimate Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera lens – Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 with Speed Booster | EOSHD I would really love to see how this lens does against a $...

Gravity: vfx that’s anything but down to earth | Mike Seymour | FXGuide The Gravity team tested a number of systems (see below), with the final solution to have a small number of sets and then a LED ‘light box’ set used for the complex zero gravity work. Here, the actors, primarily Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, were filmed acting inside the box that had projected from it the correct environment the actor was meant to be in. Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón reveals studio pressure to change story | The Guardian But the director said: "With making a film it's like trying to create a tune in the shower while you have a hundred people singing around you. You have to focus yourself in on the tune that you're trying to create. Because you have hundreds of people singing different songs at the same time around you." Sony F5 / F55 Optical Low-Pass Filters | Adam Wilt | DVInfo What if you could swap out the camera’s OLPF as needed for different situations? W...

IBC: 4K and better pixels | Benjamin B | American Society of Cinematographers The catch phrase of the IBC conferences was that the manufacturers should not simply offer more pixels, but “better pixels”. This is an acknowledgement that resolution is just one of the elements that contribute to image quality. The key elements for 4K cameras, workflows and television distribution that came up were: Shoot Like An Editor: 7 Tips That Will Make You A More Valuable Shooter | DSLR Video Shooter 3. Overlap your shots If you are filming something with a lot of action and several takes and angles, make sure you get the full action recorded from every angle. This will make edited and cutting much easier and give you the largest set of options in post. ARRI AMIRA: THE NEW DOCUMENTARY-STYLE CAMERA | Movie Machine Interview with Arri product manager Marcus Duerr about the Amira Exclusive: SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT 1,33X 50 pricing announced | EOSHD SLR Magic are now running a volun...

I continue to be amazed, and charmed by the Phantom Quadcopter . I still can’t get over how easy it is to fly, and I say that despite having already had one close encounter of the tree variety(!) It’s amazingly easy to control. Even with only 20 minutes of flight time under my belt, I can get it to go where I want it too…mostly, and as long as I allow myself some space to make up for those times I go left instead of right, I’m pretty confident about flying it. That’s the good news. The bad news; you can get a fair amount of jello in your video due to vibration from the aircraft transferring to the camera. I’m flying a Sony HDR-AS15 , but people flying the GoPro have reported the same results. So how do you remove it; or negate it? There seems to be two major solutions offered by the gurus of the web, though I’ve recently come across a third possible “jello-fixer,” so I’ll cover that last. Anti-vibration mount There’s at least two carbon fiber mounts being sold for reducing...

Directing Movies: Few Know More Than the Cinematographer | Variety “It’s kind of shocking that you don’t see more (d.p.’s make the transition) because a lot of times these guys are the most experienced on the set,” says Phil d’Amecourt, the William Morris Endeavor agent who reps Pfister as a director. DIY Monday:The Screenwriter’s Toolkit | MovieMaker This week’s DIY Monday is Basil Shadid’s The Screenwriter’s Toolkit -  18 exercises to combat writer’s block, two-dimensional characters, inert scenes, and everything else plaguing your script –  taken from MovieMaker‘s 2014 Complete Guide to Making Movies, on stands now. Does Technology Make Us Better Filmmakers? | Brian Troy | Zacuto Film or no film, I’m no Orson Welles and I’m obviously not James Cameron. Am I against technology?  No.  Do I want a Zacuto EVF and a 7” field monitor that has 1200 x 800 resolution with false color, peaking and a button that can call my car around?  You better believe...

Some Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera  news....(including the fact that, according to B & H: it usually ships in 2-4 months - say what??!!!!) Black Magic Pocket Camera Review Compared To DSLR and Red Epic | Learning DSLR The issue that bothers me the most might be surprising, it is not the battery life, it is the lack of white balance control, this is because I am not a colorist and I want to get it right in camera. You can not make real time white balance changes you have to enter the menu and then come back, I want to see the difference in color temp when I change it so I can dial it in. BLACKMAGIC POCKET CINEMA CAMERA: FIRST IMPRESSIONS | Videomaker We finally got our hands on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and took it for a spin. Check out the pros and cons of this little camera that wants to play with the big boys. This at least is available now ... DV Expo 2013: Redrock Micro LiveLens MFT for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera | HDSLR Shooter ...