News From Here & There

Depth of Field
Israel Hyman at IzzyVideo explains why he thinks control of depth-of-field is a major part of "the film look";
It directs the viewer’s attention. When we strategically place things out of focus, the viewer doesn’t pay attention to them. Viewers focus on the part of the image that’s in focus.
And explains how to accomplish it with different cameras.
IzzyVideo: Depth of Field in Your Video: Why and How to Use It via The Tao Colorist



Panasonic GH2 Zoom Mode
Luminous Landscape explains how the Digital Zoom EX Tele Conv mode crops the cameras 4608 x 3456 sensor to 1920X1080, which means:
This has significant implications, almost all of them positive. Firstly, no line skipping, binning, or digital interpolation are needed. It's as if the sensor was only 2MP rather than 18MP. As a consequence the image recorded has a crop factor of 2.6X over the full Micro Four Thirds format. The best way to think of this is being akin to the crop factor of APS-C over full frame 35mm; which in that case is either 1.5X or 1.6X.
They test it out and find it performs very well.
LuminousLandscape: Panasonic GH2 Extra-Tele Video Mode Revealed



Teaching Film
Emmy-winning director and cinematographer Jason Tomaric offers some tips on teaching the art of film:
2. Show your students - don’t tell them -  The “show, don’t tell” philosophy not only applies to filmmaking, but also lecturing.  Don’t just provide examples from movies that illustrate your point, but show scenes that do it incorrectly. Screen examples of good and bad composition; footage both properly and improperly white balanced; a scene that cuts on motion and a scene that does not, a scene well-acted and a scene over-acted.
SchoolVideoNews: Teaching Film: Visually



Packing
Luke Armstrong offers some tips on packing your camera and lenses for travel:
Put all your camera gear in a bag specifically designed to carry expensive electronic gear. They should be packed in such a way that there is little space for your items shift around. T-shirts are perfect space fillers and offer added protection and padding.
Matador: How To Pack Your Camera And Lenses For Travel



DVD Sales Keep On Falling
DVD sales fell 20% in the first quarter of 2011, suggesting that video streaming from Netflix and others may be having an impact on the business.
You Think?!
Mashable: The Netflix Effect? DVD Sales Fall 20%



Who Wrote It?
A quote in a forthcoming biography of Robert Redford that he and Alan J. Pakula rewrote much of All The President's Men prompted Richard Stayton in the latest issue of Written By to do some extensive sleuthing. After all it was always assumed that William Goldsman wrote the screenplay, and won an Oscar for it.

Check this summary and read the online version of the article for an intriguing play-by-play. It's a good read, though knowing the failings of memory (see: The Beatles Anthology) and the chance that the author miss-interpreted what he was told, makes me wonder whether it may be an innocent error than an actual attempt to steal credit.

But independent of that, if you're going to read anything, read Goldman's "Adventures in the Screen Trade." That's a great book about the movie business.
Amazon: Robert Redford: The Biography
Amazon: Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting




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