Education & Inspiration

CAMERAS: Sony FS700 Dynamic Range Presentation

The DSC Labs Xyla chart is the fastest and clearest way to see EXACTLY what your camera's gamma curves are doing...

By Art Adams | June 30, 2012

Sony recently asked Adam Wilt and I to speak about the new FS700 camera at CineGear. My portion of the presentation examined how to profile dynamic range and determine how the various gamma curves changed the camera's response. Read on to see what I discovered... Read More

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John Cleese on Creativity

Tips on how to "be creative" from a very creative Python

By Matthew Jeppsen | June 25, 2012

And now for something completely different. I grew up loving Monty Python, so I was delighted to find this presentation by Python John Cleese on the subject of creativity. In the video embedded below, he breaks down what he has found necessary for the creative process into five specific things: 1. Space, 2. Time, 3. Time, 4. Confidence, 5. Humor. Cleese expands on each of these five points at length in the 36-minute video, with his trademark wit and sense of humor. What follows are my notes on each point, along with the video... Read More

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105 Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 Questions Answered

A long list of questions from the recent Premiere Pro CS6 for Final Cut Pro editors webinar

By Scott Simmons | June 25, 2012

Just a couple of weeks ago I was the host of another webinar presented by Moviola Filmmaking Webinars. This one was an info packed presentation called Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 for Final Cut Pro Editors. It was one of the most featured packed webinars that I've done as there was so much material to cover. As usual we received tons of questions before, during and after the webinar. I've tried to take most all of them and answer the questions in the blog post that follows. If there's any corrections or updates to any of the questions please let me know. If you missed the PPro for FCP Editors webinar then the on-demand version is now available for purchase. So here we go.{C} Read More

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LIGHTING: Reinventing the Cooking Show for Driscoll’s Berries

I'm not a huge fan of how most cooking shows are lit. This was my chance to try it my way...

By Art Adams | June 20, 2012

I don't watch a lot of cooking shows, but the ones I see are not lit the way I would light them. An idea for a lighting setup has been kicking around in my head for a while and I finally had a chance to try it out on a shoot for Driscoll's Berries. It worked! Here's why… Read More

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Why Color Meters Don’t Work with LEDs

There's a very simple reason that color meters lie about any source that has a discontinuous spectrum: It makes assumptions. This is something that you should not do. Here's why...

By Art Adams | June 15, 2012

Color meters view the world through three narrow colored filters: one red, one green, and one blue. Those tiny little windows work fine for sunlight, tungsten light and HMI light... but all bets are off when it comes to LEDs. Read More

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CAMERAS: Avoiding the Big Gotcha When Shooting High Speed at Night

I never thought I'd have to worry about the technicalities of shooting high speed at night, but the FS700 has changed all that. There's one very, very important trick to know before you take your new camera into the streets...

By Art Adams | June 08, 2012

Adam Wilt and I presented a talk about the new Sony FS700 camera to an audience at CineGear 2012. As part of our preparation we ran around and shot a bunch of slow motion night footage… which is certainly something I've never been able to do before.That was a VERY informative experience because we found a very interesting "gotcha" when shooting 240fps on city streets… Read More

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CAMERAS: 240fps Promo Goes Live Thanks to Sony FS700

Get a sneak peak before the big screen premiere at CineGear 2012!

By Art Adams | May 29, 2012

Adam Wilt and I will host a presentation on the new Sony FS700 at CineGear 2012. This video, a promo for clothing brand Betabrand, is the centerpiece. Get a sneak peek now, and get all the juicy camera details on Saturday, June 2nd, on the Paramount lot in Hollywood. Read More

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30 Final Cut Pro X Multicam Webinar Questions Answered

A bunch of questions we didn't have time to answer after the recent FCPX Multicam webinar

By Scott Simmons | May 28, 2012

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a webinar with Moviola Filmmaking Webinars centered on multicam editing in Final Cut Pro X. These webinars are free to attend and available after for purchase on-demand. There’s always a ton of questions we don’t have time to answer so I thought I’d try and answer 30 of them here in a blog post.

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LIGHTING: Advanced Cucoloris Use Illustrated by a Solar Eclipse

Q: What happens when you stack several pattern-making devices in front of a light? A: Extreme lighting goodness. Learn why here...

By Art Adams | May 24, 2012

I love stacking cucolorii (plural of "cucoloris") and I thought it was time to write an article about how this technique works and why I like it so much. I was a bit stretched for ideas that would illustrate this concept... and then an eclipse happened. Why that made a difference is a very interesting story... Read More

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After Effects Apprentice Free Video: Rendering a 4:3 Center Cut Movie from a 16:9 Composition

...plus an update on what's next for the Apprentice series.

By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 21, 2012

As we mentioned what now seems like ages ago, we spent a year and a half creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice. The introduction plus one or more additional videos from each course are available for free preview; we re-posted here on PVC the videos that contain tips and instruction you might find useful. Well, the series is done, and we're off writing the next edition of the book. But before we go, we had one last video to share with you, which may be of interest to any After Effects user who still has to create both 16:9 and 4:3 versions of their compositions.

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Final Cut Pro X Multicam Editing webinar now available on-demand

Plus a little screencast in this blog post on a topic we didn't get to cover.

By Scott Simmons | May 15, 2012

I had great fun last week presenting the Final Cut Pro X multicam editing webinar for Moviola Filmmaking Webinars. It was a lightning fast 90 minutes and we covered a lot of ground but we didn’t get through everything I wanted to cover. The On-Demand version can be purchased and I recorded an extra screencast about one topic that I didn’t get to cover in the webinar. Check it out after the jump.

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CAMERAS: Food Fights with the FS700

You want 240fps 1920x1080? I've got your high-speed HD right here... for less than $10K.

By Art Adams | May 15, 2012

When Adam Wilt and I shot "Fire and Ice" together on a prototype FS700 we had no idea that it would be shown at NAB... and that it would be hit. We wanted to do more, so we pitched Sony a commercial concept for a local company that involved high speed "veggie baseball." Guess what: they sent us an FS700 again. Edible baseball never looked so good. Read More

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How to get good production dialogue

Use a boom mic and some common sense!

By Matthew Jeppsen | May 15, 2012

Here's a short and sweet video with a tip on the best way to get good production dialogue audio from your talent. Watch below. Read More

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After Effects Apprentice Free Video: Using Parenting to Animate Layers as a Unit

Taking advantage of parenting, multiple 3D views, and AE's built-in calculator to coordinate a multi-layer animation.

By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 15, 2012

As we mentioned awhile back, we've been busy the past year and a half creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice. Buried in the shuffle of the release of After Effects CS6 is that we concluded this series with a 3+ hour course dedicated to that book's Final Project. Several movies from this course are available for free preview from lynda.com; we'd like to share those with you here - including this movie that demonstrates using parenting to group together a set of 3D layers.

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10 Final Cut Pro things FCP editors might be missing in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

These are a few of the things that I found myself searching for as I've been moving over to Premiere Pro CS6 as a FCP 7 replacement

By Scott Simmons | May 11, 2012

Adobe is making a big play for Final Cut Pro users with their CS6 release of Premiere Pro. It’s vastly improved over the Premiere Pro of old and is a lot like Final Cut Pro. There’s even a keyboard shortcut layout for Final Cut Pro users. But it is a totally different application than our old Final Cut friend and some things you’re used to in Final Cut Pro either aren’t there or just work differently. Figure out the differences and work with the changes as Premiere Pro CS6 is a great application … and as we all know Final Cut Pro 7 isn’t going to get any better.

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How the Blackmagic Cinema Camera will indirectly take sales from AJA, Matrox, and MOTU

By Allan Tépper | May 10, 2012

What are you talking about Allan? AJA, Matrox, and MOTU don’t manufacturer or sell cameras! How will the Blackmagic Cinema Camera take sales from AJA, Matrox, and MOTU? The reason is related to the DaVinci Resolve grading software that Blackmagic is including with the camera at no extra cost. Even though Apple bundled Color (which was an updated version of Final Touch) with Final Cut Pro 7, very few people I know actually used it, and it is effectively dead since Final Cut Pro 7 is no longer available for sale, and Apple doesn’t supply Color with Final Cut Pro X. Things will be different with Blackmagic’s inclusion of DaVinci Resolve with the camera, because almost all users (i.e. anybody who shoots in RAW mode) will need to grade their footage. Given DaVinci Resolve’s excellent historical reputation and the fact that purchasers of the camera will get a free license, many of them will likely want to invest in learning to grade with it, rather than spending cash on some other grading application. In this article, I’ll explore why this situation will mean less sales for AJA, Matrox, and MOTU. Read More

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The HPA Tech Retreat, Technology’s Leading Edge

Want to know where things are going in our industry, here's some of what I learned.

By Terence Curren | May 10, 2012

I attended this year's Hollywood Post Alliance retreat that touted the theme "Snowflake Workflows". In this episode of "The Terence & Philip Show" we cover some of the more interesting things I learned there.Besides covering some cool new technology previews, we had a side discussion on how disruptive technologies often come out of the consumer divisions of the large conglomerates rather than their professional product division.So click below and join the conversation. Read More

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After Effects Apprentice Free Video: Working with Nested 3D Compositions

How you can be two places at once inside After Effects

By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 07, 2012

As we mentioned awhile back, we've been busy the past year and a half creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice. Buried in the shuffle of the release of After Effects CS6 is that we concluded this series with a 3+ hour course dedicated to that book's Final Project. Several movies from this course are available for free preview from lynda.com; we'd like to share those with you here - including this movie that includes a selection of small but useful tricks.

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CAMERA MATH: The Importance of Ratios

I'm better with words than equations, but once in a while a math technique is so useful that I can't help but use it. Here's one that I find invaluable.

By Art Adams | May 03, 2012

I remember very little math from my high school days, but what I do remember are the tricks that I was able to apply to my daily life. One formula, determining ratios, has served me better than any other. Here's how I'm using this formula to create custom frame lines for an upcoming web banner shoot. Read More

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After Effects Apprentice Free Video: Copying Paths from Illustrator to After Effects

Revealing Illustrator paths requires a few intermediate steps, involving After Effects masks and effects.

By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 01, 2012

Buried in the shuffle over the announcement of After Effects CS6 is that we concluded the video training series for our book After Effects Apprentice 2nd Edition with a nearly 3.5 hour course dedicated to that book's Final Project. Several movies from this course are available for free preview from lynda.com; we'd like to share those with you here - including this movie on how to reveal Illustrator artwork by copying its paths into After Effects masks.

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