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Saturday, December 10, 2011

Quick Links

Canon EOS C300 – Review & short film | Nino Leitner | Blog
Mario Feil and Nino Leitner got to spend a weekend with the Canon C300, and they've posted the video, and Nino has written about the experience very extensively:
...from the first time you hold in your hands you realise here is a camera company who actually talked a lot to filmmakers when designing it and that resulted in a very natural and ergonomic device. (E.g.: take only the fact that there are 4 record buttons on this small camera body, and a lot of assignable buttons for all sorts of functions …)
The video is here: 13:59 | Mario Feil | Vimeo



Why I love the RED Epic and why I don’t have one anymore | Philip Bloom | Blog
A few days ago Philip tweeted that he'd gotten rid of his Red EPIC, but he didn't go into the details. Yet clearly there was some story there, and now he's been prodded into explaining what happened; instability, fan boys and poor customer relations drove him away:
This person [at RED] said me talking about the issues I had with the camera (completely ignoring all the wonderful complements I had given the camera too!) was against our “agreement”. He said when I got the camera early it was on the agreement that I would not talk about it’s issues. This was not the case. First off…I didn’t get the camera early, I got it when the Red.com website said “Buy today, shoot tomorrow”. The Epic M was in stock and it took 3 months for me to get my bits for it.


Filmmaker interview: Gami Orbegoso (creator of Musgo) | Art of the Story
Interview with a filmmaker that made his feature movie in seven days for $4,700 using the Panasonic GH2. Note the use of a string to keep focus distance!
What settings/picture style did you use for most of the production? Did you keep the ISO levels below a certain number?
Record it, in preset smooth (all -2), don`t pass level 800iso accompanied with lens tokina 11-16mmm 2.8, Nikkor 28mm 2.8, Nikkor 50mm 1.4 and the old (hacked) patch 42 mbps. Apart from these tools seek to maximize natural light.


Transcribing a Video | Twitter
Paul Antico offered this tip for transcribing videos:
Need to transcribe a video? Put on headphones, use Dragon Dictate and speak the dialog into a document. Goes much faster


GH3 around corner at CES? | Andrew Reid | EOSHD
It must be coming at some point:
They told me that the don’t have it and they are not going to order it because the GH2 is end of line. The salesman showed me the stocklist and pointed at the little ‘U’ behind the GH2 and that means end of line. Not possible to order again. And this shop has only left over stock.”


The Photography Tips That 96 Photographers Wish They Would've Learned Sooner | Jim Harmer | Improve Photography
Tips that are applicable to video as well:
Lesson #12: A $15 reflector will do more to improve your photography than a $2,000 portrait lens
I read this comment by Krista Barton DeVries on our Facebook fan page and I knew this one had to be included in the article. Lighting… is…. everything! I’m amazed at the number of photographers that invest in a $2,500 70-200mm f/2.8 lens before even buying a simple lighting kit for $120.


Learning to Love Final Cut Pro X | Scott Strimple | OnlineVideo
Admitting that he initially wasn't impressed by Final Cut Pro X, Scott went back and took another look and decided it's not so bad:
It’s unfortunate that Apple didn’t communicate more clearly to its customer base that this was, in fact, a v. 1 product based on completely new technology with the intent of once again revolutionizing the way we tell stories through editing. Thankfully, those of us not quite ready to take the leap into an entirely new editing paradigm — or reluctant to suffer through the growing pains of a new editor — can still take advantage of FCP7, Premiere Pro, and MediaComposer while we sit back and watch how FCPX matures over the next couple of years.


Sneak Peek The New Scarlet At Red Studios Hollywood | Wide Open Camera
| YouTube
A short video showing a Red Scarlet being used on set. That's it; nothing else!




Friday, December 09, 2011

Quick Links

FDTimes December Issue 45 Ready | Film & Digital Times
The December issue of Film & Digital Times is now available and covers:
Cover Story: Canon’s new Cinema EOS System and C300 35mm Camera
ZEISS Compact Primes, Compact Zoom, Anamorphic Lenses
The Math of 4:3 and 16:9 Anamorphic Cinematography
ARRI Alexa Studio
and a whole lot more...



Photoshop Hidden Gem: Editing Video in Photoshop CS5 Extended | YouTube
A short introduction to using Photoshop to manipulate video.
Get creative with your digital video using the Motion workspace in Photoshop CS5 Extended. Make basic adjustments to color balance, tone, curves, and more. Or experiment with one-of-a-kind video-editing features including lens corrections and the ability to apply stunning, hardware-accelerated effects filters with the Pixel Bender plug-in.


Logic Pro and MainStage come to Mac App Store | Christopher Breen | MacWorld
Apple is now selling Logic Pro through the Mac App Store, and it's now priced at $199. BUT, this is not a new release:
This version contains a few bug fixes, but no new features. (All the expected Logic Pro features are there including guitar amps and stompbox effects and Flex Time editing.)


SPMD, Screenplain and Marked | Librador
Converting plain text into script format; for those that don't want to use Adobe Story(!):
It’s about time I tell you about one project that I’ve been working on from time to time for the last months. It’s called Screenplain, and its purpose in life is to take an input file in a simple text format and output a properly formatted screenplay.
See also: Prolost | Screenplay Markdown Lives!



Tools of the Trade, Part 4 | Clinton Harn | Zacuto
Clinton has been producing a series for Zacuto on sound recording. In this video episode he provides techniques for capturing clean audio in car scenes [Cool Starship Enterprise model in the background! -Ed]
Mounting and suspension devices are crucial. If you remember the P.I.C.S.S acronym from the first article, I mentioned the importance of isolation and consistency. These properties can be achieved by ensuring that you research and find mounting systems that support your microphones very well.


Attended a test with @SonyPictures F65 4K camera ... vs other top cameras. The camera is quite impressive. When I can share more I will
- @vincentlaforet


podcast #63 Jonathan Yi – Canon EOS C300 test guy – is online | Planet5D
Jonathan Yi was interviewed on the Planet5D podcast this week. You can watch the recorded version online now.



DSLR Camera Slider - how to add a motor | David Sawyer | Vimeo
David has added a motor to his Igus slider and demos how in this video.



ZEISS Releasing Compact Lightweight Set of Anamorphic Prime Lenses | Cinescopophilia
Zeiss is dropping big hints about anamorphic lenses it plans to release at the next NAB.


Thursday, December 08, 2011

John Carr - Using Adobe Production Premium to edit Vincent Laforet's short film Möbius

Today, John Carr gave a free online webinar "How Adobe Production Premium CS 5.5 handled the cutting edge demands of Vincent Laforet's short film Möbius." For those that don't know, this film was shot using the Canon C300, so I tuned in as much for that, as to find out the details of how he was using Adobe Production Premium.

Fortunately, as someone transitioning back to Premiere after years with Final Cut, I found the presentation on working with the Creative Suite informative, as there wasn't really a whole lot to learn about working with the C300, other than:
  • The C300 uses the same file format as existing Canon cameras, so Premiere Pro had no problems recognizing and working with the files.
  • Though the camera has XLR audio inputs, they recorded (and slated) the audio separately, and then synced the audio manually in Premiere. They decided to go external for a number of reasons, the primary one being logistics; for several scenes the sound guy was located some distance from the camera.
  • They shot in Canon S-Log. "The camera did a fantastic job holding the highlights in the sky and there was a lot of details in the shadows as well."

Adobe Story
They wrote their script in Adobe Story, an online service/AIR app that you can currently use for free (it will be part of the Creative Suite in release 6.) Adobe Story let's you write in the standard script format, though it also supports other formats including a two column format for AV work.
  • John recommends it for any kind of narrative work.
  • It plays well with the "bigger" screen writing apps; you can import and export to Final Draft and other formats.
  • It has commenting, and you can easily share the document and collaborate with others. Since the documents are stored online on the Adobe Story service, you can invite others to edit your file, and you can specify their access rights (whether they can edit the file, or only view it.)
  • The script is automatically divided into scenes, with location, and colored dots in each scene indicating which characters are in the scene. This function alerted them to the fact that one character was in only one scene, and prompted them to save money and remove the character!
  • Each scene is numbered.


Premiere Pro
  • They had 18 hours of footage that was shot over three days, with 40 visual effects shots, and they had a week and a half to turn it around.
  • There were several people working on editing the footage and they split up a lot of the work by scene, with one person editing the footage from one scene, and then merging that scene with the others.
  • They had a minor problem that the prototype cameras, which shot a lot of duplicate file names.
  • To avoid media confusion when moving project files from one machine to another, they cloned a hard drive with a single folder with a common name and all the content in it. Each editor had one of these drives, and they could send project files back and forth without having to worry about relinking media.

Working With After Effects
  • When dynamically linking to After Effects from Premiere Pro, he likes to first duplicate the clip into another track in Premiere Pro before linking the media to After Effects. When the file is linked, the media in the Premiere Pro timeline now points to the After Effects media, and you can't simply revert to the original media in the timeline. By duplicating the media first, he has a quick way to revert if he has to.
  • He quickly demoed the Warp Stabilizer for stabilizing shots in After Effects. He also recommended it for "fixing" timelapses that are ruined when wind shakes the camera.
  • They had a number of people working on effects shots in After Effects. Before sending the plates out, they would first edit the footage in Premiere Pro, then link it to an After Effects project. They then sent the After Effects project to the VFX person.
  • Use the File> Collect Files command to create a new folder containing the project and any source media.

Photoshop Integration
  • Noting that it could also be done in After Effects - but he likes using Photoshop - he demoed removing some graffiti from a wall by first exporting a frame from After Effects, painting it out in Photoshop, then masking in After Effects to reveal only the "fixed" region, and using a motion tracker to move that fixed region around as the object moved in the footage.
  • He also quickly demoed the Roto Brush.

Color Correction
  • John uses the Fast Color Corrector in Premiere, because it's a good way to quickly tweak footage.
  • He also likes to do color correction within After Effects, and he demoed using the Colorista II plug-in. That plug-in works in both Premiere and After Effects, but he prefers the interface in After Effects. For most of his own projects he says that at the end he will export the clips to After Effects and do final color correction there.
  • Because it was being presented at Paramount Studios, Möbius was professionally color corrected by a color house.

Adobe Media Encoder
John gave a brief demo of Adobe Media Encoder; launching the program and saying that when he first opened it he had no clue what to do. He then went on to say that:
  • He prefers to use the export option in Premiere Pro, and then use the Queue option to send it to Adobe Media Encoder.
  • He said that the Adobe Media Encoder is "incredibly fast."

You can follow John on Twitter: @jon_carr or www.joncarrpro.com/

Adobe says that the full webinar will be posted online, and they'll link to it at their weblog: Premiere Pro work area




EPIC Overview - Learning Lab @ Rule Boston Camera Dec 14

The RED EPIC will be the subject of the last Learning Lab of the year at Rule Boston Camera:
EPIC OVERVIEW WITH DAVE(2)
Join us for an EPIC event with award-winning Director of Photography David Kruta and Rule's resident RED expert Dave Kudrowitz who will share their experience with the powerful 5k full-sensor RED EPIC including recently-shot footage, tech aspects & More.

WEDNESDAY DEC 14 10am - 12 noon
RSVP: events@rule.com

Quick Links

The Music Licensing Chickens Have Come Home to Roost in Wedding and Event Videography | Ran Dawson | Dare Dreamer
An interview with Joe Simon who got sued after a wedding video he made using copyrighted music came to the attention of the music label:
But the letter that came through and they wanted a lot of money for damages, to the tune of $150,000 for one song. If that didn’t scare you straight I don’t know what would. I spent the next month or so going back in forth with the label to reach a settlement, it was a huge stress on my business and my life and I would never wish this on anyone else. I can’t say what we settled for but it looked like this $XX,XXX, which is a LOT of money for a small business.


AE I Owe U: 10 Basic Ways ‘After Effects’ Saves Editor’s Lives pt. 1 | Eric Wise | Splice Vine
First explaining that it took a long time to become comfortable with After Effects, Eric gives the reasons why a video editor should be using After Effects:
3. BETTER KEYING – Keying was never great in FCP 7 and only slightly better in Avid Media Composer. You know if you want to pull a decent key, you’re going to have to use a 3rd party keyer like DV Matte Pro or Shake (R.I.P.). Of course, if you’re trying to master the art of keying check out Jeff Foster’s, The Green Screen Handbook. Using Keylight, the native keyer in After Effects, you can get excellent results without leaving the app.


Render Engines and the Joy of LEGAL obligations – Part 2 | Steve Forde | Adobe Blogs
Adobe limited the number of machines the AE Render Engine could be installed on with the 5.5 release. Steve explains a bit more why, and hints that they are working to change this:
First off – this decision was not made while we chomp our cigars with feet on desk counting cash. It was a legal requirement that came in at the 11th hour of CS 5.5 for which we had no capability to rectify in the timeframe (and still have reliable / stable software). It’s that simple. No conspiracy. No cash grab. Simply making sure we are playing by the rules and not breaking the law.


Why DSLR Cameras Are DA BOMB | Anthony | Down And Dirty DV
An excerpt from The Shut Up and Shoot Freelance Video Guide:
1. You Can’t Beat the Image Quality for the Price
As of the moment I’m writing this, you simply cannot beat the superior image quality of DSLR cameras for the entry-level price of less than $3,000. For a fraction of the cost, you can shoot images on a chip that is more than 10 times the size of dedicated video cameras that cost triple the price.


Setting Up Your Channel For The New YouTube Design - Reel Web Creator Tip #16 | Tim Schmoyer | ReelSEO
How to take advantage of the new YouTube design:
YouTube's new design changes gives a lot of new options for content creators who run their own channels. In this week's episode of Creator's Tip, we show you video producers some of the changes behind the scenes of our ReelSEO YouTube channel and some of the implications they hold for how we adjust our strategy for engaging with our audience and how we present our content.


The Brand of YOU | Ron Dawson | Planet5D
On a related note, an article on building your brand:
And here’s the most important thing you should know about a brand. It’s NOT what YOU say it is. A brand is what other people think of you. You can do what you can to influence it. But ultimately, your brand will be what others think.


Kickstarter Rolls Out Very Helpful Analytics for Project Creators | Ryan Koo
| No Film School
Kickstarter now offers better analytics:
One of the main things I found myself wondering during my campaign: which is a more effective platform for spreading the word, Facebook or Twitter? According to the newly available statistics on my project, Twitter narrowly came out on top with $8,412 raised via tweets versus $7,059 via Facebook status updates/likes/shares.


Christmas Gift Ideas for the Editor in Your Life | Scott Simmons
| ProVideoCoalition
Scott shares his Christmas list, with everything from cameras to clocks:
Solid State Hard Drive
A speedy solid state hard drive is high on my list to replace the spinning one in my Mac Pro. Everyone who uses one says the performance gains for things like boot time, application launching and general os operation is amazing. They’re not cheap but saving time is saving money.


Best DSLR Lens Holiday Guide | Photo-John | Photography Review
This is more a list of categories, and lenses that are in that category:
Standard zoom lenses (24-70mm for full-frame cameras and 18-55mm for APS-C sensor cameras) do have a wide end but it’s not *that* wide. True wide-angle fans want much shorter focal lengths. The 16-35mm f/2.8 zoom is the standard super-wide for pros with full-frame cameras and you can now get comparable zooms made for APS-C cameras – 10-20mm, 11-16mm, 12-24mm.


Software Review: Tiffen Dfx 3 | Jason Odell | Luminescence of Nature
A review of Tiffen's software filter suite which runs in video editing apps Adobe Premiere/Final Cut Pro
Tiffen’s Dfx 3 is a full-featured image editing suite designed for intermediate to advanced users. It contains a huge range of traditional glass filter and film/darkroom effects, as well as controls for basic image adjustments. Overall, I found many of the control sliders quite complex, but their complexity was offset by a tremendous number of useful filter presets.


Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Quick Links

Sony XDCAM Software Updates | Sony
Sony has announced a couple of software updates:
  • PDZK-MA2 ver 1.3 (Avid AMA plug-in) for MediaComposer adds support for MAC OSX Lion
  • XDCAM Browser software, v2 is now available


Canon C300 – Hands on | Mario Feil | Blog
As previously noted, Mario Feil got to spend a few days shooting with the C300 and he's now posted a blog entry with some thoughts about it.
Not only I was impressed by the C300, everyone on set (Nino Leiter – DoP, Alexander Boboschewsky – Steadicam Op/camera Operator) didn’t expect that Canon really nailed it this time. We all were shocked by the price and said “1080p at only 30fps, only 8-bit … for 20k? no thanks” but lets just assume they will drop the price…. then this is, hands down, the most logic step up from DSLRs you can think of right now.

#C300 vs #ScarletX vs #epic record times and cost per minute | DaveChap | yfrog
A chart showing the purported cost-per-minute of shooting with the three cameras (unfortunately there's no background information presented for the calculations):
Cost per minute: C300: $1.56 | Scarlet: $40 | EPIC: $136

Canon EOS C300 for £9,995? Another indication the price has dropped | Planet5D
A vendor quoted price for the C300 which works out to be about $16,000, which is what some had been saying it would be... Note too that often the actual price paid in the UK is higher than the price paid in the US...



Review: Blackmagic's HyperDeck Shuttle | Barry Goch | Post
A short review of the HyperDeck Shuttle:
The resultant files were clean and easy to transfer to another system, like Smoke, for compositing. It’s so easy to use. Just hit record at any time to capture the video stream. Hit the record button again to stop recording or use the stop button. Hit play to instantly playback the recorded QuickTime either via HDMI or SDI. The stop button also toggles to input video from playback. I can see the HyperDeck being used inline with any on-set monitoring as an instant playback device.


Color Grading Central launch cineLook for DSLR footage in Final Cut Pro X
| FCP.Co
Color Grading Central has launched a $69 effect plugin for FCPX that adds a film look to DSLR footage:
Add “S” curve similar to Technicolor LUT for CineStyle
Basic noise reduction
Add 2.35:1 Letterboxing
Add film effects like grain and dust
Add customizable vignette


The Easy Guide to Color Grade & Correct Video | Tony Reale | NextWaveDV
A video tutorial showing one way to grade footage:
While down at Cine Gear Expo, I interviewed Technicolor about their CineStyle preset for the Canon 5D MkII. While getting setup for the interview, I asked one of the guys his technique for color grading. He showed me a new way to manipulate video that I think is much better for filmmakers.


Canon lens mount with iris control for F3 and AF100, also excellent cheese plates for F3 and FS100Philip Bloom
Philip looks at using the Redrock MFT live lens and Smartsystem F3 adaptor to attach Canon lenses to the Sony PMW-F3. Also Berkey System chesseplates for the F3 and FS100.
So…do you have a lot Canon lenses like me that you want to use on your large chip camcorders? It’s been a LONG wait. Birger have promised one since 1949 and we are still waiting with no sign of them coming out… MTF services should have one coming out soon, but i can’t find it on their site…and their box on the preproduction model is huge. Canon have a simple solution…it’s called the C300 But that’s a whole different price bracket!


You don’t get much better than this! Canon EOS 60D shines in this minature worldv | planet5D
A very nice little movie shot on a model railroad; it's more than just a model railroad shoot, there's an actual story with animated characters.
The blog post talks about what they did to make the miniature look less miniature like. I'm not sure they were completely successful; it still looked very model like, and I wonder if there were other things they could have done to make it less model like.
We also chose to shoot at a minimum of f/11, and when possible f/16 – I wanted to keep the DOF deeper, so it would seem more like it was photographed in the real world, we still wanted selective focus, but just not as much as you usually see when people show you photos of a miniature layout. This required us to dump a lot of light on the set to be able to shoot that stopped-down and still maintain a low ISO.


3D workflow with AE | Steve Forde | Adobe
A short note on two new 3D plug-ins for After Effects.
In September, Autodesk released a new compositor link plugin for AE that works with 3DS Max...
A few weeks ago, Maxon, the makers of Cinema 4D came out with an update to their plugin for AE which allows you to literally create a .c4d file from within AE


A Hint at the Next After Effects | Scott Simmons | Studio Daily
Some thoughts based on the "Feature Request" blog post that went up at Adobe's site a couple of days ago:
I don’t think anyone can make any future buying decision on a blog post (and an upgrade that addressed all 16 of these requests would be beyond huge) but it seems likely that this is more than a subtle hint at what we might expect out of AE CS6.


Adobe CS5.5 Max Render Quality & NVIDIA GPU acceleration
| Shawn Lam | Vancouver Video Production Blog
A look at using GPU acceleration vs. software render qualities in After Effects: [Correction: Premiere Pro]
GPU acceleration gives the same level of render quality as Maximum Render Quality, even if you don’t check the Maximum Render Quality box.

But instead of a performance hit, you gain a 6-7x performance boost.


Guest blog: A guide to using twixtor | Danny Cooke | Philip Bloom
Twixtor lets you slow footage way down. This tutorial explains how to get the best results:
Before you start, for best results use a shutter speed that will match your final framerate to avoid blurry slow motion. Also, use the highest framerate setting on your camera possible e.g. 60p, 60i or if you are using a 5D Mark II use 30p; The more frames Twixtor gets to play with, the better!


Tip #21: Outline! So That You Have a Plan to Ditch Once You Start Writing
| Xander Bennett | Mastering Film
A plea for outlining your strory:
You need an outline to tell you what happens and when.
This might seem obvious, but believe me, I’ve seen plenty of screenplays in which the authors clearly had no idea where their own stories were going. And if you ask me, it’s all the fault of that pesky Act 2.


move ‘n shoot MOTORIG is a Motion-Controlled Camera Rig for Cars
| Cinescopophilia
Short piece about a motion-controlled car rig:
Lee Howell of Kaptured Photography undertook an ambitious photo shoot in Auckland’s Victoria Park tunnel, armed with a limited edition Audi R8GT and a state-of-the-art move ‘n shoot MOTORIG car photography rig. This behind the scenes video shows in details what it takes to capture the images for high end car photography.


Are We All Too Polite To Be Critical? | El Skid | Wide Open Camera
Personally, I don't think the Internet needs encouragement to be more critical; perhaps it needs lessons on constructive criticism.
This is an open-ended article, because I don’t have the answer. Taste is an incredibly subjective thing, yet, despite that I believe far too much work that falls short of brilliant is labelled as such, and I worry that the truly brilliant work isn’t getting seen, or recognised as such. And it’s because we all want to be positive. Positive is inclusive, it’s comfortable. Criticism is pointed and sticks out. It suggests you have a point of view that’s different from everyone else. But, hey, isn’t that what being a filmmaker is supposed to be all about?




Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Sourlands - A Jared Flesher film

Jared Flesher's first documentary, The Farmer and the Horse, is a great example of storytelling that follows three young farmers who are just starting out and want to use horses rather than tractors. I was really impressed with this movie, not just because it was his first project, but also because it was shot using a consumer camcorder!

Jared's now completing his latest film; Sourlands. This was shot with the Panasonic GH2, and looking at the video he's posted, the camera upgrade has resulted in a big jump in image quality!

Independent of that, the first movie was so well made that I'm really looking forward to seeing what he's come up with this time.

SOURLANDS tells the story of the last large forest between New York City and Philadelphia, and the sustainability minded citizens who live near it. It’s a tale of ecology, organic agriculture, and renewable energy. (And how it’s all connected.)

If you pledge $20 to the Kickstarter campaign you'll help finish the project, and get a copy of the DVD.

Kickstarter: SOURLANDS: Stories from the fight for sustainability
Webite: Sourlands
NotesOnVideo: Documentary Shooting with the Panasonic GH2

Quick Links

How Adobe Production Premium CS 5.5 handled the cutting edge demands of Vincent Laforet's short film Möbius | Adobe
Jon Carr, Producer/Editor for Laforet Visuals is featured in this free online webinar this Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 10:00am Pacific Time
Adobe Production Premium CS 5.5 plays a crucial role at Laforet Visuals. On the short film Möbius, CS 5.5 provided the tools and versatility to easily handle this cutting edge production. In this Webinar Laforet Visuals producer and editor Jon Carr will discuss how they utilized Story, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop to successfully create and deliver Vincent Laforet's latest film, Möbius.


Jonathan Yi Talks About The Canon C300 | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine
Last week I interviewed Jonathan Yi, who shot the video "Canon EOS C300 = Awesome." You can read the interview at Filmmaker Magazine's website:
I came back with this video and I thought it was hilarious. They got all excited because I was excited, and we went to the screening room and we played it back and it was just dead silence in the room. They had the big bosses from Japan there and they were already very nervous about the reception of the C300 as it was, and there was just not a peep in the room.


Will Canon's concept camera be the long-awaited EOS 5D Mark III? | Olivier Laurent | British Journal of Photography
A look at Canon's announcements, and what might be coming:
Will 4K become an integral part of the future of the Cinema EOS system? This remains to be seen, says Canon. "We will listen to the marketplace and that will ultimately drive our product strategy," says Owen. "We have announced that there will be a 4K model coming in the future, because, obviously, there's a lot of clamour for 4K within the industry - whether that filters down to the end user at the moment is obviously another story..."


Hands on with the Canon C300 | The Photographic World of Drew Gardner
Drew offers his thoughts after handling the camera at an event:
One curious quirk of the C300 is the front 'toe' on the base. Initially it did get in the way, as you can see. But after a sustained period of handling, it did not bother me.

The toe can cause problems with some follow focus set ups apparently with certain lenses, but Canon had the foresight to let makers of after market accessories loose on the camera before launch. (Please note other manufacturers they did this and the world did not come to end...)


A Bit About the 5D Mark III? [CR1] | CanonRumors
Meanwhile, separate rumors about the 5D Mark III:
Two different pieces of information put the camera above 30mp. I get the idea there is more than one sensor being put through the paces. It will not have a pro AF system. It was suggested by one person that the AF will actually be a lesser version of the 7D autofocus system.
There's also some rumors about a Ti4: Canon EOS Rebel T4i [CR2]



Clint Eastwood's 'J. Edgar' | Randi Altman | Post
An interview with Joel Cox who edited Clint Eastwood's latest film:
“J. Edgar was shot in town, except the last week was done in Washington. When they were shooting on set he’d be here everyday and look at what we cut the day before. We were really right on top of the camera. When he finished shooting, Clint went home to Carmel, and we packed up the Media Composer and went as well to make his changes. We added some music and then returned to the studio to watch the film in a theatre. Then we started massaging and molding the final feeling of the film, adding more music at the same time. The music is sparse; Clint believes music should be a supporter of the film, not a character in the film.”


The Death of Television May Be Just 5 Years Away | Jim Edwards | Business Insider
Hmmm...I've actually been thinking of getting rid of cable TV...
Traditional TV penetration in the U.S. is still high, at 83.2 percent (down from 84.1 last year). But the fact that Anninger sees a secular decline in TV in the future, unlinked from cyclical recessionary belt-tightening, forces a question for advertisers and other Big Media folk: How long can TV last in the face of iPads, internet TV, web video and other wireless video sources?


What You Need to Know about Copyright | Russell Evans | Mastering Film
I'm not sure this is everything, but it touches a lot of the important ideas:
The web is affecting copyright. Lawyers will still freak out if you use music or clips without asking, but there’s no doubt it is shifting. Due to Bit Torrent, the idea of ownership is evolving into the idea that copyright is about “managing exposure.” Hollywood writers saw this coming when they got rights over downloaded clips of their TV work online.



Monday, December 05, 2011

Quick Links

Canon C300
Mario Feil and Nino Leitner got to spend the weekend shooting with the Canon C300, and posted some comments and images:
NinoLeitner tweeted:
After shooting w/ the Canon C300 for 2 long days I doubt that I ever want to shoot video w/ a current Canon DSLR again. It's that good!
Mario Feil posted these two pictures of the Sony PMW-F3, Canon C300 and Sony NEX-FS100.
Sony PMW-F3, C300 and NEX-FS100 group picture
Sony PMW-F3, C300 and NEX-FS100 on table



Review Of The Glidetrack MobiSlyder For The IPhone And Interchangeable Lens Cameras | Ron Risman | Cameratown
I think this is the first review posted of the MobiSlyder, and it's somewhat mixed:
The MobiSlyder at this point seems to be a good idea with poor execution. The track itself makes for a solid platform for which to build a decent slider, now we just have to convince Glidetrack to beef up carriage and ball head to make this a potentially useful tool for compact camera filmmaking.


Transitions in FCP X | Ken Stone | Blog
Everything you wanted to know about transitions in Final Cut Pro X:
When using 'Available Media', you must have a minimum handle of 2 frames each for the outgoing and incoming clips (talk about a very short transition). If you have no handles or handles shorter than 2 frames, when you apply a transition, you will receive a warning dialog box telling you that there is not enough media to create the transition. You can choose to 'Create Full Overlap', which will then draw the media for the transition from the head of the incoming clip.


Time Lapse Tutorials | Dynamic Perceptions
Dynamic Perceptions has posted a collection of videos on creating motion time lapses:
This hands-on video shows how to create Shoot Move Shoot (also know as Interleave) time-lapses using the Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly and MX2 DollyEngine.


Comparison of video editing software | Wikipedia
Who knew there were so many video editing applications out there? Wikipedia has a series of tables comparing features of the different apps.



Thailand Flood Update: It May Be Longer Than We Thought | OWC Blog
There could be hard drive shortages through the end of 2012:
Even once the waters recede, drive industry experts are saying it could take a year for these component manufacturers to replace their machinery, and many may have to relocate as well. Some companies, like Nidec, aren’t waiting for the waters to recede and have sent divers in to unbolt and retrieve equipment. Others, like suspension arm maker Hutchinson Technology, still has $50 million worth of specialty manufacturing equipment bolted to their now-submerged factory floor.





Sunday, December 04, 2011

Dot - 360 panoramic lens for the iPhone 4

Dot
At today's Boston Media Makers, Steve Garfield demoed the Dot, a 360 panoramic lens attachment for the iPhone 4. This is a mirror lens - much like the lens Sony made available for their Bloggie - that you attach to your phone, and can then shoot the panoramas. Special software is required to playback the video, and they provide a free app for the iPhone and you can also upload the videos to their website to play back on the web, though it's unclear if you can play them back on your computer without uploading them to their website.

You have to hold the phone horizontally while shooting, and at the moment the video is limited to 3 minute lengths (though that will reportedly be fixed in a future update.)

It's $79, and available in four colors!

Kogeto.

TechCrunch: Quick Review: Kogeto Dot Panoramic iPhone 4/4S Add-On
Luckily, the Looker app is due for a pretty significant update, which will include nixing that 3-minute max. I see anyone who travels a lot falling in love with this product, as you really won’t miss a thing shooting with Dot. In fact, anyone who enjoys mobile video or has an ounce of creativity can probably get a lot out of Dot, and it’s one phone accessory I’d actually recommend.


Quick Links

Canon C300 first look review | Paul Joy | Blog
Paul writes up his thoughts on the C300 after seeing it at a recent event in London.
I wanted to find out what the focus and exposure aids were like on the C300, especially the peaking and zebra functions as I use those a lot on the EX1. After delving into the menus a little we found that much like the EX1 you could define the settings for two sets of Zebra’s and have either or both active. Peaking was also present and highly configurable, actually more so than the EX1 as it allows for two peaking settings, each individually configurable.


Turn on the lights! #C300 | Mario Feil | Twitvid
Mario is shooting video with a C300 and has tweeted a bit about it, including this comment:
did a test shoot (high ISO) with 1D and C300 side b side. C300 is clear winner in terms of grain structure. Much more pleasant
And a video (above) which I think he shot with his iPhone, showing how the iPhone sees practically nothing, but the C300 (looking through the viewfinder) is so good that "More lowlight would be night vision..."



Happy birthday, Apple QuickTime | Tony Smith | RegHardware
Is it really 20 years since QuickTime was released? I guess it must be!
Apple released the software on 2 December 1991, and made it possible for computers to show video clips with synchronised sound out of the box. QuickTime 1.0 was first made available on a third-party CD-Rom, From Alice to Ocean a book-on-disk about a journey across Australia.


UWR Week 42 - Build a Kino Flo style light for $100 in 3 hours | Realm Pictures
| Vimeo
This video tutorial shows you how to build a kino-flo style fluorescent soft light for under $100 in three hours! They also offer plans for:
...click through to our kickstarter page where for a $50 donation we will send you the plans to build the all-singing-all-dancing LED kino-killer that is dimmable, battery powered, flicker free and BRIGHTER!


Get Lit: The LED Lights We Travel With | Chris Collins | Wide Open Camera
A look at different portable lighting options:
When we travel we do it light! We carry on everything, and lights go in the camera bag. We started using the Lite Panel Micro Pro a few years ago and have since moved on to the Ikan 312 and Switronix Torch LED lights. I took 2 Ikan 312s to Sengal, Africa while shooting La Promese, and they turned out to be life savers


Ikan at the GV Expo | Ruscher Visuals
New lights from Ikan:
Ikan was the booth I wanted to see first, and I’m glad I did. They got a lot of cool things going on in Houston, including two prototype lights they brought with them to DC for the GV Expo. The first light shown on the video is the ID 1500. This thing kicks some serious (insert your choice of word here). My first thought was an LED version of Kino Flo.


YouTube's Radical Redesign Positions Google To Be Your New TV | Kit Eaton
| Fast Company
YouTube changes it's appearance and organization:
By banishing the chaotic, eclectic colors, segments and detail of the previous design, and making it easier to stay on video topic as well as keeping up with video recommendations from your social network, it's trying to keep viewers on the page for longer. The experience is simply more pleasant and easier to navigate. That's also the job of the new psuedo news-feed segment on the home page--a window that contains content, social activity info, and so on.


Peter Jackson’s New Hobbit Video Blog – 3D, 48fps, Raw Footage And More
| Brendon Connelly | Bleeding Cool
Peter Jackson has been posting the occasional video blog about the upcoming movie. As Brendon notes, the latest covers 48 fps:
The people who have seen scenes of The Hobbit at 48 frames per second say that it’s like the back of the cinema has had a hole cut out of it where the screen is and you’re actually looking into the real world.


Juke-Bot Automatically Generates Music to Match Your Video Creations:
| Cinescopophilia
Who needs editors, or musicians?!
Juke-Bot is a revolutionary software that allows you to automatically generates high quality music synchronized to any kind of creative content. Juke-bot uses state-of-the-art analysis to detect what kind of music fits the most to your project.


Compelling Characters | Jill Remensnyder | Zacuto
Writing a script? Important things to think about:
I highly recommend you take the same detailed approach to your antagonist as well. You might discover that the character you thought was absolutely corrupt or evil has their good points, too. What was it that made them a bad guy? Maybe a childhood event or a loving relationship that turned cold? Keep in mind, for as much opposition your antagonist causes your hero, they’re convinced they’re doing the right thing and your hero is the one complicating matters. These two characters are going to fight vehemently for what they believe is right.





Canon EOS C300 Manual

Canon has now posted the manual for the C300 online. Get reading! Brochures & Manuals