Notes On Video

Sony High-Definition Cameras Capture The Academy Awards® Ceremony | Sony | Facebook Sone expensive cameras will be used to broadcast tomorrow's show: PARK RIDGE, N.J., Feb. 24, 2012 – The 84th Academy Awards® ceremony will be broadcast worldwide using 50 Sony high-definition cameras. The HD telecast airs live on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012 from the Hollywood & Highland Center®. [...] The Sony camera models include 15 of the HDC-2500s, and another 35 HDC-1500s [$99,750] for the main broadcast and other red carpet shows. How to win an Oscar | Lucy Rodgers | BBC Play a real person with a mental illness in showbiz, suffering from alcoholism, and you're certain to get a nomination! Almost one in five (19%) of the best-actor Oscars have gone to performers playing a character based on a real person. Just last year Colin Firth won for his portrayal of George VI battling a stammer in the King's Speech, two years earlier Sean Penn claimed an award for playing American gay...

Vincent Laforet and Shane Hurlbut on the Canon C300 | Twitter Vincent Laforet spoke at last nights Boston Creative Pro User Group meeting, and during the Q&A, Paul Antico asked Vincent if he thought that footage from the Canon C300 could be intercut with the ARRI Alexa . Vincent said that nearly everyone he'd spoken to thought it could, and cited the colorist for his video Mobius who made that comment after spending some time with footage from the camera. Daniel Bérubé noted that the colorist for the short " The Hustle " also said he thought the footage would go well with the Alexa . Vincent added that he only knew one person who didn't think the C300 could be intercut with the Alexa , and that was Shane Hurlbut . Paul then tweeted: Great prez by @vincentlaforet. Said all DPs but one he's talked to think #c300 can intercut w Alexa footage well. Some can't tell em apart followed by: [...] Incidentally @hurlbutvisuals doesn't agree with ...

Jay Ignaszewski, Northeast Sales Territory Manager for  AJA spoke briefly at the Boston Creative Pro Meeting held last week (not to be confused with the one to be held tonight  - it's been a busy month!) Jay spoke about updates to AJA's products, what they won't be announcing at NAB - since he doesn't know - and 4K. He does think we are going to see a lot of Thunderbolt solutions at NAB this year. Sonnet is already talking about their boxes that take PCI cards, which he suggested means the question is becoming; ‘why do we need a tower?’ AJA themselves are quiet about what they will be showing at NAB, not even telling the sales people "because they talk too much!" He did think we'd see "some stuff" happening in partnership with camera manufacturers. AJA Ki Pro Mini Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini With recent software updates, the Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini will now act like a deck when connected through Firewire to your computer. You can transfe...

This part weekend, Paul Antico invited Rick Macomber over to play with his new Canon C300 , and I thought I'd tag along to maybe learn more about the operation of the camera. When I got there, Paul was saying that he thought that rather than just shoot some test shots, they should shoot a short video, and he had an idea. He then proceeded to outline a story about a man who's lost his job, has unpaid bills, and drives around to all these closed businesses. And as he's talking I'm thinking ' that's all very good, but where are we going to find someone to play this person? ' It didn't take me too long to figure out who was going to be drafted into the role! So here's my "acting debut," and probably my last acting job, all in one piece! So about the shoot. Oddly enough, I don't really have a whole lot to report on the shoot itself. Paul wrote up a short piece on his Vimeo page for the video, which you should read: Canon Cinema EOS...

Over the past month I've been involved with - or more accurately, observed - a couple of test shoots with the Canon C300 . For the first one, I attended a shoot organized by Daniel Bérubé of the Boston Creative Pro Users Group in late January. What began as Dan having a C300 for the evening, and inviting some DPs to come down and play with it, quickly turned into something a little more ambitious. As Dan explains, it "started out with friends as a CAMERA TEST with no script, shot list or idea turned into a quick creative confab and a three minute short set to original music and cut to the groove of a hustle in action." With footage taken that night, and some pick-up shots that Dan, Rick Macomber and Chris Loughran shot a few days later, the piece was graded and finished by Boston production houses, with Rick and Chris even recording a soundtrack. The final video has now been posted and you can read more about the production of the video on Dan's Vimeo page:...

“CPF-LOG” PICTURE PROFILE for the SONY NEX-FS100 with LUT! | Richard Allen Crook | Crooked Path Blog The  Sony NEX-FS100  doesn't have S-Log, but that doesn't stop people from creating picture profiles that attempt to emulate it: The CPF-LOG profile is designed to maintain highlight and shadow detail and also a pleasing color gamut that grades very nicely whether you do alot of grading or a quick fast-color correction. This profile is created as a part of a workflow that is setup for color grading in post. IF YOU DO NOT INTEND ON COLOR GRADING IN POST, THIS PROFILE IS NOT FOR YOU. In the very least, it is recommended that you correct the black and white levels, pull the middle grey down to around 35-40%, and adjust saturation to taste. Looks, LUTs and Live Grading the ALEXA | Andy Shipsides | CineTechnica An improved way of working with LUTs and the Arri Alexa : Until now, the missing piece in the generation of Arri Look files was the ability to preview the look bef...

Sony has a nice little chart that - sort-of - explains the deals they are offering on the S-Log upgrade for the PMW-F3 . Right now they are offering the CBK-RGB01 upgrade [that's the S-Log functionality] for $899 if bought directly from Sony. [Compared to the $3,700 price at vendors like B & H] NOTE: My understanding is that it's not exactly the same as the CBK-RGB01 upgrade; they upgrade the camera; you don't get it on an SxS card, which was the way the upgrade was sold. There's also an $800 discount being offered on the PMW-F3 (or the Kit set) , And if you're one of the unlucky ones that purchased the S-Log option for ~$3,700 prior to this special offer, they are offering a couple of $2,500 offers on either the SR-R1 recorder [$12,500] or the SCL-Z18X140 lens [$9,900]. All these offers run through March 31st , just two weeks prior to NAB . Which raises the question; what happens then ? Does Sony discontinue the $899 S-Log upgrade for the PMW-F3 and e...

Canon C300 User Review SD version | Philip Johnston | HD Warrior Philip does an in-depth review of the Canon C300 . About a quarter of the episode he devotes to lens talk, including his "perfect" lens, the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Zoom Lens, which he says the only reason it isn't an L lens is because it doesn't have the weather sealing. Interestingly, I was on a shoot yesterday with Paul Antico and Rick Macomber and they were using that lens extensively for run and gun work. Philip also covers the "cracking" EF 85mm f/1.2L II : So is there anything I don't like about the camera? [...] What it's got is, in here you can hear, it's got a fan [..] to keep the sensor and everything else cool, as far as it can be cooled down, but it is a minuscule more noisy than I was expecting, especially in a noiseless environment. I don't think it will effect anything I do to be honest [...] I'm talking really minuscule. Canon C300 exposure lat...

Canon C300 Tweets detailed tests find no advantage to external recorders w #C300 - use internal cf cards Vincent Laforet @vincentlaforet #C300 over crank slow motion (720/60) is decent, I'd say a bit more than DSLR's 1080P detail when uprezzed. C300's 1080p much sharper tho Paul Antico @AnticipateMedia Drones Set Sights on U.S. Skies | Nick Wingfield & Somini Sengupta | NY Times It'll now be legal to use remote controlled helicopters for shooting video: A new federal law, signed by the president on Tuesday, compels the Federal Aviation Administration to allow drones to be used for all sorts of commercial endeavors — from selling real estate and dusting crops, to monitoring oil spills and wildlife, even shooting Hollywood films. Local police and emergency services will also be freer to send up their own drones. Testing the 7toX Final Cut Pro 7 to Final Cut Pro X conversion | Scott Simmons | ProVideoColation Scott tries out the 7toX XML tool for Final...