Fresh DV
Matthew Jeppsen is the founder of FreshDV and a digital video shooter and editor. By most reports he is powered entirely by coffee. Kendal Miller has over 10 years experience in the production industry. Currently he is working as Director of Photography in Chicago, IL where he resides with his wife Kendra. He works on a wide variety of projects ranging from commercial to independent film projects, working on one of the first commercial Red projects in the midwest area. When he's not shooting film or video he enjoys still photography as a hobby....
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Light Field Camera for Stills, Video and 3D Applications
By Matthew Jeppsen | January 12, 2012
If you aren't familiar with Lytro, they are an innovative company that is very close to releasing a Light-Field Camera. This affordable consumer stills camera has the unique ability to calculate the angle of light hitting the sensor, and store that data along with the image data. Later, in post, you can refocus the image however you wish. It's amazing technology, and there's literally nothing like it in the consumer market. After watching an interview with Lytro's CEO, it really got me thinking about the future possibilities of this technology as a creative tool for professionals...
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An animated short with a creative twist
By Matthew Jeppsen | January 08, 2012
Here's a short, inspirational piece I spotted on Vimeo, entitled "Operation White Widow." Hopefully this will stimulate your creativity. Watch below...
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Do you really need that new camera? An intervention.
By Matthew Jeppsen | January 01, 2012
I got a question on Twitter recently regarding the pros and cons of purchasing a Red Scarlet camera. After responding, I decided to expand my replies into this blog post in hopes that someone else may find it useful. Some of this stuff seems elementary, and I apologize if that's the case for you. But I do think that there are many out there who will benefit from this discussion about new camera purchasing in general.
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Imagineer mocha tracking for Editors webinar, today at 10am PDT
By Matthew Jeppsen | November 10, 2011
This is last-minute notice, but there is a free mocha webinar today at 10am PDT. It's a 90-minute webinar that will cover mocha tracking for editors. You can register free here.
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An inspirational pick-me-up for when you're stuck in a creative rut
By Matthew Jeppsen | October 31, 2011
Stuck in a funk, creatively speaking? Here's some ideas to break out of the old. Watch below...
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A fantastic hard case for the DP6 and accessories
By Matthew Jeppsen | August 08, 2011
Here's another video in our FreshDV Gear In 60 Seconds series that quickly shows how I store and travel with the SmallHD DP6 field monitor and it's associated accessories. Watch below.
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A lightweight LED lighting & grip kit you can fly with
By Matthew Jeppsen | July 31, 2011
I travel a lot for simple sit-down interview shoots, and commonly need to fly with a lightweight lighting and support kit for DSLR or small HD cameras. Here are two videos from our new FreshDV Gear In 60 Seconds series that talk about the two Pelican gear cases I often fly with, and the affordable tools inside. Watch below.
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Behind the Scenes featurette shows how they did it "in real life"
By Matthew Jeppsen | July 29, 2011
If you enjoyed Christopher Nolan's film "Inception," you're going to love this behind-the-scenes documentary short on how the corridor and zero-gravity room sequences were shot. It's an amazing peek behind the curtain at how they pulled off the shots live, with a minimum of stunt doubles and CG. Fascinating engineering and planning. Watch below...
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How do to those cool flying words
By Matthew Jeppsen | July 07, 2011
Here's a nice long tutorial on how to do that cool animated word thing that is so popular (and useful) these days. It's all compliments of creative superstar Jesse Rosten. Watch below...
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My thoughts on the FCPX brouhaha
By Matthew Jeppsen | July 06, 2011
Since Final Cut X was released a few weeks ago, there have been a large number of Final Cut Pro post-production professionals looking into other NLE options. Final Cut Pro X is a very different animal, and lacks specific FCP7 features that certain users require or demand. It also changes up existing post-production workflows and is in general a disruptive release. I've observed that whether this disruption is a good or a bad thing for you really depends on how you use the software. Anecdotally speaking, I know professionals that are perfectly happy with FCPX. And I know an even larger number of professionals who are not at all happy with the new release...
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FreshDV's video coverage from Cine Gear 2011
By Matthew Jeppsen | June 13, 2011
Cine Gear LA was held last week at the Paramount backlot in Hollywood, and the FreshDV crew was onsite to capture interviews and video coverage. Watch our coverage in the following video playlist...
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35mm, 16mm, Alexa, Red MX, PMW-F3 and DSLR compared
By Matthew Jeppsen | June 02, 2011
We geeks are pixel pushers, and we love charts and scientific testing of camera systems. It's an essential part of understanding where the system breaks, and it informs your creative freedom on-set. That said, it is sometimes refreshing to see a comparative test from a common real-world shooting situation - working with available light. This is one such test, compliments of John Brawley. Watch below...
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Our complete video content and coverage of the NAB 2011 expo
By Kendal Miller | April 14, 2011
Welcome to FreshDV's coverage of NAB 2011! The FreshDV crew is in Vegas for NAB week, bringing you video coverage from the show floor. If you can't be on-site at NAB, we are the resource to watch. Watch our coverage of the show in the playlist below. If you've enjoyed it, drop us a line on Twitter @FreshDV. Watch below...
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Abel Cine tests Sony F3 Dynamic Range on the charts
By Matthew Jeppsen | April 01, 2011
Abel Cine has been doing a short series of tests on the new PMW-F3 camera from Sony, and the latest episode is a very thorough dynamic range test. In it, they chart the F3 at a solid 12-stops of dynamic range, and then go on to show how the various Cine Gamma modes affect the way information the camera is capturing. It's a very well done test video, watch below...
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Stillmotion collaborates with NFL on a POV series shot on DSLR
By Matthew Jeppsen | March 31, 2011
Stillmotion has posted a very cool behind-the-scenes video that shows their helmet-cam in use for NFL Films, used to tell the story of new players going through training. It's a great application of compact DSLRs as POV tech, and they did a nice job creating a custom helmet-cam unit that appears to work beautifully. If you want to see more pictures of the helmetcam, head on over to Stillmotion's website. And check out the behind the scenes video below.
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How editing changed the face of Johnny Cash's "Hurt" music video
By Matthew Jeppsen | March 26, 2011
Here's a short excerpt from the 2005 DVD 'The Work of Director Mark Romanek' that talks about the making of the Johnny Cash music video for "Hurt." Romanek discusses how he initially conceived and shot a very straightforward performance music video in the home of Cash. It wasn't until the edit that they decided to add some archival footage, to add more emotional depth to the video...
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Complete camera walkthrough and accompanying music video
By Matthew Jeppsen | March 23, 2011
Den from F-Stop Academy was lucky enough to be one of the first shooters to get his hands on the new NEX FS-100 camera from Sony, the little brother to the PMW-F3 camera (they reportedly share the same sensor). He's posted an incredible 18-minute camera system walkthrough, behind the scenes footage, and a completed music video shot with the camera. Watch below.
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Stunning dynamic text tribute to Conan O'Brien's farewell speech
By Matthew Jeppsen | March 22, 2011
We've all seen these fantastic "dynamic text" videos, that use animated text, generally cleanly laid out on a simple background, to convey information-dense concepts. For corporate video producers, it's a good way to deal with the common situation when a client essentially requests what I call Video Powerpoint...that is, when the client demands a lot of text on screen, and isn't creative enough to explore telling the story in other ways.
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Comparison of Gain & Sensitivity and now updated with a Latitude comparison
By Matthew Jeppsen | March 21, 2011
Here's a quick side-by-side candle-lit comparison of the Sony PMW-F3, Panasonic AG-AF100, and the venerable Canon 5D MKII DSLR. The test footage was shot by Dennis Ersöz. This video clip very neatly shows how the native sensitivity of each camera compares, and also how clean the gain/ISO is at high levels. Watch below.
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Good VFX execution that doesn't draw undue attention
By Matthew Jeppsen | March 17, 2011
The filmmakers of Black Swan have been discussed for the choice to shoot much of the film on 16mm stock, as well as some coverage being shot on the Canon 5D and 7D DSLRs (see IMDB tech specs). But I've seen very little coverage of the visual effects in the film, which you may be surprised to learn are rather extensive, including full-head replacements for a number of Natalie Portman dancing shots. They are also very subtly and tactfully executed. Here's a behind the scenes video that shows clean plates, followed by composite and VFX plates...
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DBA Createasphere