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Lasst week I interviewed Tim Mangini for Filmmaker Magazine. Tim is the Director of Broadcast for WGBH's Frontline, and he is an incredible source of information. I came away with so much that, even with heavy editing, we ended up posting it in two parts, with a side bar that explains Frontline's typical production schedule:

FRONTLINE’S PRODUCTION SCHEDULE | Filmmaker Magazine

Episodes of Frontline have an average eight-to-twelve month gestation period from the time they are awarded to the time they go to air. “We might have some programs that go two or five years, and we have some programs that are done in a matter of weeks, but the average is eight to 12 months” explains Tim Mangini, Frontline’s Director of Broadcast.

DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION AT FRONTLINE: INTERVIEW WITH TIM MANGINI, PART 1 | Filmmaker Magazine

Filmmaker: So you don’t recommend cameras?
Mangini: Along the way we’ve certainly learned a lot about different types of cameras, and what they do and what they don’t do well. It’s hard for us to put together a set of cameras that you can or cannot use, but we do have leanings.

DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION AT FRONTLINE: INTERVIEW WITH TIM MANGINI PART 2 | Filmmaker Magazine

Filmmaker: Do you feel like you’re now moving away from DSLRs at Frontline?
Mangini: When Canon made the 5D they added the video capability almost as an afterthought. It was not, “Hey, let’s revolutionize filmmaking.” Well little did they know, they revolutionized filmmaking.

Ikan D5 Field Monitor Review | Rick Macomber | Vimeo
Rick has produced a very detailed review of this monitor:

Ikan's new D5 field monitor has a 5.6 inch IPS panel with 1280 x 800 HD resolution. It's amazing how fast technology is moving forward. HDMI and HD SDI with loop through capability seems commonplace now compared to just a couple of years ago. The HDMI input on this monitor is also complimented by a 3G-SDI input/output and an audio out jack for headphones. There are four 1/4 20 metal mounting threads on this piece of kit, one on each side for adding accessories or for mounting on an articulating arm.

REACTIONS TO THE CANON C100 | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine
DP's Rick Macomber and Paul Antico give their opinions of the Canon C100:

“I can’t wait to compare images with the C300 recording to both the SD cards using the AVCHD codec AND recording uncompressed HD to an external recorder. That will be a deciding factor for me. The money I’d save on the C300 I would spend on an external recorder and mounting rig if the image quality shows noticeable improvement."

Shooting Narrative Scenes with Two Cameras | RON DAWSON | Dare Dreamer

Shot lists. You should be using a shot list anyway, but it becomes even more important when shooting with two cameras. As much as possible, determine in advance what kind of lenses, framing and movement for each camera on your list.

The Stacking Myth | Ethan Winer | Audio Undone
Interesting article that explains why multiple audio tracks don't add to the noise level of your final track:

So when you combine them cleanly in a mixer, the relative distortion for each track remains the same. Thus, there is no “stacking” accumulation for distortion either. If you record a DI bass track through a preamp having 1 percent distortion on one track and then record a grand piano through the same preamp to another track, the mixed result will have the same 1 percent distortion from each instrument.

Sony Action Cam Tracks Down Go Pro Hero: The First Hands on Review
|  Matt Sweetwood | Unique Photo
A review of the new action cam from Sony, which is $198 'plain', and $268 with Wi-Fi:

Although small, this camera is no light-weight in terms of performance. Video rates include:  HQ 1080/30p, STD 720/30p, a surprisingly high quality VGA 480/30p, SLOW 720/60p and a SLOW 720/120p, the latter allowing for super-slow motion playback.  Throw in a Zeiss lens, image stabilization, 3+ hour battery life, a micro-SD memory card slot and a terrific Sony image processor and you have the world’s new leader in POV action video cameras

KineRAW Super 35mm 2K Camera Pre-Orders Have Begun, Prices Starting Under $7,000 | Joe Marine | No Film School
The Chinese camera that's compared to the Sony PMW-F3:

It’s looking like Kinefinity is going with a tiered structure for camera pricing, and the base package with HDMI only and without a lens mount starts at about $6300. For around $400 more, you can add HD-SDI which will give you monitoring only in 1080p for 3G HD-SDI and 720p in standard HD-SDI. Since this is a mirrorless camera which features a back PL mount just like the Sony F3, almost any lens in existence is adaptable, but the mount will need to be designed and manufactured.

Making Samsara, a Stunning Film That Puts Your Facebook Photos to Shame
| Lewis Wallace | Wired
I think a group of us is going to see this next week....might be interesting:

They visited 25 countries in their continent-hopping quest for astonishing visuals, at one point braving clouds of sulfuric acid vapor alongside workers in a dangerous sulfur mine. Then they spent another year and a half in post-production, editing down the 20 hours of footage they gathered into a 102-minute film that Fricke calls a “guided meditation on the themes of birth, death and rebirth.”

Baselight for Avid | Filmlight
Baselight has been available for Final Cut Pro 7, now there's an Avid version (and a 14-day free trial.) Available for $995:

The Baselight effect plugin can be applied to any or all clips in your timeline allowing you to add multiple grading layers to each shot. Each layer can act either as an overall primary colour correction or as a secondary grade restricting the effect to selected parts of the image. There is no limit to the number of layers you can 'stack' allowing you to build up complex corrections to obtain the exact look you require.