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Friday, December 14, 2012

Quick Links

Street Price Drop for the Sony PMW-F5 and PMW-F55 Cameras | Cinescopophilia
As expected, the street price of the PMW-F5 and the PMW-F55 is a few thousand less than the list price. Good news, if you have the budget:
Abelcine have listed the street price for the Sony PMW-F5 and PMW-F55 CineAlta cameras and it is pretty darn good. Forget the official suggested list price from Sony which saw the PMW-F5 CineAlta 4K Camera at $19,400, and the PMW-F55 CineAlta 4K Camera at $34,900.


Sony shows off new Sony 4K cameras & more 4K content is on the way
| Tom Di Nome | Sony
Mainly a marketing piece, but there is some interesting comments about Sony's new cameras in this post:
Doug Wellman, assistant dean at the USC School, said it best: “these pieces that we shot really highlight the full gamut of the cameras’ capabilities, and the flexibility and performance they can offer on location.”


BLOGGING FROM THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT WASHINGTON AND DOCUMENTING EXTREME WEATHER WITH HEATED CAMERA ENCLOSURES | Tom Guilmette | Blog
I am typing this inside a steel and concrete re-enforced building. All I can hear is the howling of the wind outside and the pop of rebar contracting from inside the bowels of the bunker-like structure. The temperature outside is 6 degrees F and the windchill is -25 at 60 miles per hour sustained.


“Be open minded” says Schilowitz from RED about HFR 3D | 3D Focus
Schilowitz agrees: “A lot of the industry is depending on what happens to The Hobbit and asking whether people will embrace it or love it; will they get what Peter Jackson gets? I think the biggest thing that people have to understand is you are going to have to watch this more than a few minutes to start to really understand why this is so amazing and so powerful.”


Television Production Moves Forward In 4K | Carolyn Giardina | TVNewsCheck
Made in Jersey had just two airings on CBS this fall before it was yanked by the network for failing to draw an audience. But the legal drama may be long remembered in Hollywood production circles as one of the first big-budget TV show to be shot in 4K.


Watch the GH3 skateboarding documentary I helped shoot for Panasonic (plus a useful GH3 vs 5D Mark III video) | Andrew Reid | EOSHD
Last month I was invited by Panasonic to shoot a documentary for a skatepark in Hamburg, as an opportunity to test out the GH3 and offer some feedback on the camera. [...] How does the GH3 compare to it’s main rival in the Canon camp for video, the 5D Mark III? Have a look at the next video for some clues.


Exclusive First Look at Samyang Uncoated Lens Set | Cinescopophilia
“The main reason behind having the anti-reflective lens coatings removed from the Samyang DSLR lens was to produce a more unique visual look when using modern & affordable DSLR lenses. It’s something of an experiment – this has not been done before with these type of lenses, and the initial lens test results look extremely good.

Testing Your Camera’s Emulsion | Shane Hurlbut | Hurlblog
I treat each new digital camera that comes out as a new film emulsion, one that needs to be tested before I can use it to help tell my stories. Finding out its strengths and its weaknesses is all part of the process. There are three parts to the process. The first is to find the sensitivity of the sensor. Part two is the latitude of the sensor. Part three is taking your camera on location to put it through the paces in different lighting scenarios, both day and night.


4k presets for Adobe Media Encoder | Karl Soulé | Adobe
I was asked the other day when Adobe will offer a 4k output from the H.264 encoder. The answer is simple – it’s there today!Currently, the Media Encoder (and, by association, Premiere Pro) doesn’t ship with presets for 4k H.264 output, simply because it’s not a common enough format. But it’s reasonably simple to make your own.


The Power of Teamwork. Another Lego Lesson | RON DAWSON | Dare Dreamer
Listen to your team mates, even if they aren’t as experienced as you. Sometimes they may actually have a good idea. Don’t let pride keep you from growing.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Quick Links

Can Independent Film Be an Addiction? | Scott Macaulay | Filmmaker Magazine
When confronted with this thought, my immediate answer to myself is, independent film is an addiction! The problem is, we’re addicted to making it, not that other people are addicted to watching it.
But what if we stole a page from video game designers or the cliffhangers of cable drama? What would we have to do to make independent film an ingrained activity? An addiction?


What is the Big Deal About H.265 or HEVC Anyway? | Cinescopophilia
Poor old Fugly H.264, that brown paper bag wearing misfit is getting pushed out the door as the ugly lights are turned on. You’re going home with a new partner that H.265 in the corner you have had your eye on all night. High Efficiency Video Coding HEVC or MPEG-H Part 2 is the follow up to H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC Advanced Video Coding standard for video compression.


FCP X 10.0.6: Sharing Made Simpler | IAIN ANDERSON | MacProVideo
Prior to Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6, the Share menu existed on its own and let you convert your project into one or many kinds of outputs, one at a time. You had to send an entire project (a huge issue for many editors) and you had to wait for the export to complete before you could continue. All that just changed with 10.0.6.


How to send clips from FCPX to Adobe After Effects / Motion 5 | Final Cut Pro
| Dan Allen | YouTube
A tutorial looking at how to send clips from FCPX to Adobe After Effects and Apple Motion.



Canon EOS-6D Digital SLR: First Look: Adorama Photography TV
| Richard Harrington | YouTube
Richard unpacks the Canon 6D, and then takes some test pictures and shoots a little video with it. A gentle introduction to the camera.

Canon EOS 6D Rating by DXOMark | CanonRumors
From DXOMark DXO has released their impressions of the Canon EOS 6D pretty quickly. The camera receives a sensor score 82, which is on part with most of the Canon lineup.


Mac Users Rejoice: An Actual Shipping Thunderbolt Docking Station Goes On Sale Tomorrow | DARRELL ETHERINGTON | Tech Crunch
After a lengthy delay, there will finally be a Thunderbolt expansion dock ready for actual purchase tomorrow, according to MacRumors. The Matrox DS1, first unveiled back in June and then updated in September, will be a real shipping device beginning tomorrow, with a $249 price tag.


Why I love Lightworks | Fran De Souza | Red Shark News
It’s when you come to trimming on the timeline that you fully realize the difference between Lightworks and other NLEs.
Editing in Lightworks is like putting your hands on a real roll of film or a videotape, even if you don't have a Lightworks Console (like me). Using the keyboard and the mouse, you also can feel the "organic" thing; the  real thing, like using a VCR's shuttle control, the play/pause buttons, and so on.


MoChat 23 Transcript & Summary | Paul Conigliaro | Motion League
Last night on #MoChat we were fortunate enough to have Mary Poplin, Ross Shain, and Martin Brennand from Imagineer Systems with us to talk about motion tracking, and mocha in particular. If you’re not familiar with it, mocha is a planar tracking system which tracks 2D planes instead of small points. At the end of the chat, Andres Arosemena won a seat of Mocha Pro for correctly answering the trivia question “What was the first Imagineer product to introduce Planar Tracking?” (mokey)


Holiday 2012: Digitizing Your Analog Media | Brian Klem | B & H Photo
This holiday article includes a variety of tools and technologies that allow you to convert your analog media into a digital formats. The first two sections deal with the transfer of film negatives, slides and traditional paper photos to digital files. The next section provides options for converting your audio cassettes into digital formats. The fourth section deals with the transfer of VHS video to DVD. 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Quick Links

Join One Day On Earth & Film Life Around The Globe Tomorrow, 12/12/12
| Megan O'Neill | Social Times
I'm not really a fan of these kinds of things, but I think you should take at least one photo or video today:
One Day On Earth, the collaborative film project that documented life on earth on 10/10/10 and 11/11/11, is revving up to film life around the globe tomorrow, 12/12/12, and it’s not too late to be a part of it!


25 Pieces of Juicy Filmmaking Knowledge from Cinematographer Roger Deakins
| The Black And Blue
3. Compromise is Sometimes Needed for a Better Film “Sometimes, as with the death row scenes on ‘Dead Man Walking’, it is better to compromise composition, lighting and perhaps even sound a little and shoot with two cameras in order to help an actor get their performance. Sometimes it is better to go wider to include a prop in frame than break an actor’s concentration.


Christmas Gift Ideas for the Editor - 2012 Edition | Scott Simmons
| Pro Video Coalition
GoPro HERO3 Black Edition
What is life without a GoPro? Even though we are editors we like to have fun with a camera every now and then and the recently updated GoPro HERO3 is an amazing camera for its price. Opt for the $400 Black Edition as it’s got everything you need right in the package.


4K, 48p HFR and the challenge for set designers and makeup artists | Andrew Reid | EOSHD
They said the same thing about the switch to HD:
The make-up effects industry is already on the down slope.  They’re even less prepared to deal with 4K than the set craftspeople or model makers.  Contemporary make-up effects cannot even stand up to conventional HD photography very well because digital renders rubber as rubber, paint as paint.  It doesn’t look like alien skin.  It doesn’t look like human flesh.  It doesn’t look like anything but what it actually is.


Edit This!: 'The Hobbit' | Daniel Restuccio | Post
Interview with editor Jabez Olssen:
Most of the new technology, 3D and 48fps, was transparent creatively to the editing process. “We would see the 3D when we conformed the scenes,” says Olssen. “Occasionally we would make allowances and alterations because of the stereoscopic depth.” So for example, they might hold shots a bit longer.  Generally he says, “If you are cutting on the small size screen and then see it on a cinema big screen you often extend the wide shots a few more frames.” 


Review: The Hobbit Is Insanely Gorgeous at 48 Frames per Second | HUGH HART
| Wired
Some people like 48fps:
In the 48-frames-per-second version of Hobbit, Middle-earth in 3D looks so crisp it’s like stepping into the foreground of an insanely gorgeous diorama. [...] At 48 fps, images appear more precise and 3D action becomes smoother, without the blur that can occur when the camera pans too quickly or objects move rapidly across the frame.


Tech Support: Greig Fraser on shooting the dead of night in 'Zero Dark Thirty | Kristopher Tapley | HitFix
"I think the cinematography in 'All The President’s Men' is riveting, actually," he says, calling from Pittsburgh where he's currently shooting Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher." "It’s like lots of offices and lots of fluorescents and all those things, but Gordon Willis is a master framer. He’s a master lighter. He wasn’t afraid to be so flat with the lighting in those offices.


Reinventing Video Creation with Adobe Creative Cloud | Kathy Charneco
| ProVideoColatition
On December 11th, Adobe announced new Photoshop features exclusive to Creative Cloud members, the availability of Creative Cloud for teams, and other news.  In this article, you’ll learn more about Creative Cloud and why it might be a great choice for you, and get the scoop on the recent announcements.


Tip: Be Careful When Mounting Cameras to the Backs of Sharks | Michael Zhang
| PetaPixel
From the files of the Department of the Obvious:
Mounting cameras on sharks is risky business, though, and the video above shows just how dangerous it can be. In it, marine biologist Greg Marshall tells of his first attempt at deploying his camera onto the back of a large shark back in 1992. It didn’t go according to plan.


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Quick Links

Behind the Scenes C100 Test | Magnanimous Media | Vimeo
Jonah Rubash, Scott Reagan, Teddy Hoffman, and Kevin Larson take out the Canon C100 for test shoot. They gab about their thoughts on the new Canon Cinema EOS camera.Shot by Kevin Larson on the C100 with a Canon 16mm-35mm and Canon 24mm-70mm.


A Guide to Building a RED Camera Package: An Accessory List for Every Budget Level | Ryan Koo | No Film School
Despite the recently reduced price of RED cameras, each model still requires a lot of (pricey) accessories. We’ve pointed this out from the very beginning, but now we’ve gone further and compiled some realistic shooting packages at three different levels: a “cheapest possible ONE MX” list by Aaron Rich, an “owner/operator SCARLET” package by myself, and a “full professional EPIC” package by Timur Civan.


Blackmagic Cinema Camera behind the scenes with CocoRosie | John Brawley
| Blog
Shot CinemaDNG and processed through Resolve V8 with mild correction, making the blacks sit on black and whites just on clipping and I added a little saturation.  No shot-to-shot grading though as I rendered to ProRes 422 (HQ) and then cut the shots in FCPx. So remember this is the V1 camera, the same camera that shot the other public BMD footage. In other words, the very first camera.


Adobe Story Plus—now available for $9.99USD/month | Adobe
We’ve got great news! As of December 3rd 2012, we have dropped the price of Story Plus from $24.99 USD/month to $9.99USD/month (with comparable price reductions in all other regions). You can purchase a Story Plus subscription here.



Product Review: Drobo 5D | Larry Jordan | Blog
If you are looking for the fastest-possible RAID, the Drobo 5D is not it. However, you only need that speed if you are editing large multicam events with video stored in ProRes format.If you need to save money, buy three drives. If you want the fastest performance, buy five drives. I was very disappointed with the performance of the unit when only four drives were installed, so avoid this configuration. I also recommend against the 2 drive configuration, which will not have performance sufficient for video editing.


UWR BLOG WEEK 76 - POST PRODUCTION | Realm Pictures | Vimeo
Part of a series on the making of the Underwater Realm:
With one week to go until we hit render, Dave takes you through what each member of the team is up to at Realm HQ. From digital set extensions to organising the premiere, the team is working every waking minute to get the films finished in time for the upcoming world premiere.


Bond Gets a CG Komodo Dragon for Skyfall | Bill Desowitz
| Animation World Network
"They make a big thing about the franchise not being about CG, but I liked the way [Oscar-winning] director Sam Mendes worked," explains Jon Neill, Cinesite's visual effects supervisor. "You can tell he's from the theater the way he would get everyone together, including the technical people, and walk through the whole sequence."


Shooting an Interview: Ep 119: DSLR | Video Skills with Rich Harrington
| Adorama TV | YouTube
A continuing series by Richard Harrington sponsored by Adorama. In this episode, Richard discusses interview shooting, and how to get the best performance from your subject, offering tips for interviewing.



Make The Move from Amateur to Professsional Filmmaker | Elliot Grove | Raindance Film Festival
On New Years Eve 2009, I looked at all the work I had done outside my day job and was pretty pleased with myself. I asked myself how many hours a week I had managed to devote exclusively to my private ambitions of drawing, painting and creative writing. The answer was a paltry 2 hours per week.


Did Movie Studios Really Demand Google Remove Legitimate Links to Amazon, Facebook, and Wikipedia? | Fruzsina Eördögh | Slate
I recently had a post that is - essentially - a link to a press release taken down due to a DCMA complaint, which has proved puzzling as the company denies they filed a complaint, and Google/Blogger hasn't responded to my queries about what the complaint is, or who files it. In the mean time, I'm amused that studio's are having legitimate things of their own taken down:
Earlier this week, TorrentFreak noticed that in early November, a bunch of studios apparently requested the removal of links to their own Facebook pages, Wikipedia pages, and websites—even movie reviews.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Quick Links

Canon Says 6D Buggy with YouTube, and Some 1D Xs Still Have f/8 AF Issue
| Michael Zhang | PetaPixel
Canon has issued a couple of service advisories to notify customers of known issues with the 6D and 1D X DSLRs. The former camera has a YouTube problem, while the latter has some autofocus issues for certain customers.


Sub $6K 65" Changhong Ultra High Definition TV Set Coming | David Richards
| Smart House
Chinese TV and appliance company Changhong, who is looking to grow market share in Australia, is set to launch a low cost 65” Ultra High Definition Smart LED TV next year. The new TV will be shown at the 2013 CES Show in Las Vegas.ChannelNews understands the TV will retail for sub $6,000 and be launched in the second half of 2013.


Shooting an Indie film with the SONY FS-700 in Bangkok | Artikel von Steffen
| HackerMovies
Interesting piece about shooting with the Sony NEX-FS700:
The gear I brought was the FS-700, several A-mount lenses with a fast aperture (for night shots) (16-35mm zoom f2.8, 35mm f1.4, 85mm f1.4), the Metabones adapter (first generation) and the Canon EF-mounted Sigma 14mm f2.8, Sigma 50mm f1.8 and the Canon 100mm f2.8 .


The Perfect Camera is Finally Coming! Things will NEVER be the same
| Jason Lange | Blog
Not really, but the writer speculates on what will happen as cameras get better, and cheaper:
Like it or not, it’s coming.  Crews will get smaller and the technical barriers to capturing stunning imagery will disappear.  And even well before that we’ll be at the point of good enough: the mp3 of filming will emerge and serve 99% of our needs (hell, you could even argue we’re already there in some respects).


10 Tips to Getting Investors | Suzanne Lyons | MasteringFilm
3. Find other great people who can help you. Have friends and colleagues introduce you to potential investors, get to know them and see if they are interested in reading your business plan package.


XDCAM Essentials Episode 3 - The Benefits of XDCAM Workflow Part 1
| Sony Professional | YouTube
Looks at the PMW-100, PMW-160, PMW-200:
XDCAM Essentials Episode 3 looks at two of the many time-saving advantages of the XDCAM workflow. In Part 1 Doug Jensen demonstrates how to program and use the Customer Clip Naming and Last Clip Delete functions and how proper use of these features will help you to work faster and more efficiently. Doug will present additional benefits of XDCAM workflow in upcoming episdoes of XDCAM Essentials.


Panasonic Officially Starts Shipping the GH3 (Plus New Test Videos)
| Justin Minich | NoFilmSchool
It may be shipping, but the GH3 is still only listed as Available for pre-order...
Some of us have been waiting for this since the camera stat rumors in September, and others since the GH2 was hacked. Despite earlier news of a slightly delayed release date, it looks like Panasonic has officially begun shipping the GH3. If you’re just now learning about the GH3, be sure to check out the camera’s stats and past videos.


The Neverending Story of Self-Distributing The Upsetter | Brandon Harris | Filmmaker Magazine
Indefatigable in their desire to find larger and larger audiences for their film, Adam Bhala Lough (Bomb the System, Weapons) and and his co-director Ethan Higbee have been self-distributing The Upsetter: The Life & Music of Lee “Scratch” Perry for what feels like an eternity. The film had its world premiere at SXSW in 2008...


Testing the “Pro” in Apple ProRes | stopp*lab
Our test was done in the following way: a TIFF Color bar was used as source. This file was encoded to Apple ProRes in two sizes HD (1920×1080) and HalfHD (960×540). Two flavors of ProRes were used, 422HQ and 4444, so 4 files in total for each application. All ProRes files were then imported and compared to the original TIFF source. If there were a color shift this was marked in red in the test chart (the shift could differ in appearance but that is not explored further in this test). If the file matched it was marked green.


Sam Mendes: 'I did Skyfall to wake myself up. It has certainly done that'
| Kate Kellaway | The Guardian
Above all, Mendes needs a good story: "Directing depends upon a story's rhythm – a good story should breathe in and out." Or, in Bond's case, hold its breath? He explains that Skyfall's opening 10 minutes, involving three Turkish locations, took more than two months to film. He talks about shooting in "the disused tube platforms under Charing Cross in stygian darkness".


Teradek Bolt – SOLID Wireless HD-SDI Monitoring | Vincent Laforet | Blog
Vincent has been using the HDMI based Teradek Cube for the past year and likes it:
Now Teradek has upped its game and introduced the Bolt, a wireless HD-SDI monitoring system.  I can say that I am amazed at the quality of the image, total lack of latency, and rock solid signal. This unit has so far performed as well as high-tend units priced a 5x to 10x the price.