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Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Quick Links

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 shadows with puddles of super bright sunlight.
Point is, the material It looks not really spectacular, but just natural - more what your eyes see (not exactly but you get the idea). So yeah, mission accomplished BMC.


SONY NEX-VG900 β TEST | SAIKA | Vimeo
Some shots taken with Sony's upcoming full-frame camcorder, the $3,298 NEX-VG900:
VG900 that was used to shoot machine is β.With the WEB-up, I is not the same as the original image quality because it is re-compressed.


GoPro App (Free) | GoPro
The WiFi app for the GoPro Hero2 is now available:
Use your smartphone or tablet as a live video remote–includes video and photo preview. Requires HD HERO2 camera and Wi-Fi BacPac™ (not included).


NXCAM® HXR-NX30U Compact Camcorder Overview | Sony Professional | YouTube
The cheapest NXCAM, the $1,9999 HXR-NX30:
The HXR-NX30U is the smallest, lightest, most accessible camcorder ever offered in Sony's NXCAM® line -- this video highlights the major features and benefits of the HXR-NX30U camcorder, as presented by Chuck Fishbein, Director/DP, Crazy Duck Productions, Inc.


PMW-200 and PMW-EX1 comparison of noise levels and sensitivity | Doug Jensen
| Vimeo
Comparison of the PMW-200 with it's predecessor:
I shot this test video under very controlled circumstances to compare the noise levels and low-light sensitivity of my PMW-EX1 and my new PMW-200. Because there is no motion in the frame, the videos might look like freeze frames, but they are actual rolling 24P video.Because the PMW-200 offers the same 35Mbps 420 codecs as the PMW-EX1 (FAT mode), plus several higher-quality 50Mpbs 422 (UDF) codecs, I chose to test both modes to see if it made any difference.


Media Management with Adobe Prelude | Richard Harrington
Media Management with Adobe PreludeTuesday, October 02 ,2012 Filed in: Adobe | VideoAdobe Prelude CS6 offers a variety of new media management features. Rich Harrington will show you the best ways to import footage, set it to automatically copy to a new dimension, and powerful new transcoding options.


BECOMING A COLORIST (PREVIEW 1 OF COLOR & FINISH) | Color & Finish
I first learned about James Wicks while researching colorists for this documentary, "Color & Finish". I started reading and learning from his blog, and I decided to contact him.Wicks was kind enough to let me interview him in his color suite at Olympusat. I drove down to West Palm Beach, and we discussed all sorts of topics, from classic films to the switch to digital, but mainly our focus was on what it means to be a colorist and the art of color correction. 
"Becoming a Colorist" is the first in a series of previews for the documentary film "Color & Finish", scheduled for a full release on Christmas Day 2012.


The Next Big Thing In Video Compression | Leslie Ellis | Multichannel
With each new compression chapter, efficiency roughly doubled: HEVC is 2x better than H.264/MPEG-4; H.264 is 2x better than MPEG-2. It follows that HEVC is 4x better than what’s inside millions of already-fielded digital set-tops.


BUTCHER / TOY SOLDIERS | Dragonframe
A fun stop-motion short:
I think the challenge I had the most fun with was the tracking shot at the beginning. The Colonel has assembled his troops and walks back and forth in front of them. I’d thought it would be really interesting to walk the camera with him so I built a rig from a plank of wood that I glued some toy train track to then took a couple carriages and glued them to a smaller bit of board which i attached to the camera. Its the first real tracking shot I’ve made and I’m incredibly happy with the result.


Oscar “Disaster”: Controversy Erupts Over New Documentary Feature Rules As Michael Moore Calls For Changes | PETE HAMMOND | Deadline
The new system hasn’t worked out the way its main architect, Oscar-winning documentarian and Academy Doc branch Governor Michael Moore, envisioned, and he is the first to agree at least part of it has been a disaster. “I told them (the Academy) to use that word”, he said. “It’s a miserable failure.”


Is Apple Abandoning the Pro Video Market? | Chris Potter | Screenlight
I know that it's stating the obvious, but Apple has shifted tremendously since the first iPhone was launched just over six years ago. In fact, much has changed since the 2011 Supermeet when Final Cut Pro X was introduced. iPhone / iPad sales have grown from 53% of revenue at the end of 2010 to a projected 74% in 2012. With numbers like these, it's no surprise that when iCloud was announced in mid 2011, Steve Jobs started talking about the post PC world and stated "we are going to demote the PC to just be a device" rather than the hub of people's digital life.

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