The Best of Stunning Good Looks

This entry is a guide to my best articles, sorted by topic. Enjoy!

Shane Hurlbut’s HDSLR Revolution

When I called Shane Hurlbut, he was just returning from a shoot with the US Marine Corps in North Carolina. Shane is one of the most visible and vocal proponents of using the HDSLR for cinematic applications. From the first time Shane held the 5D Mark II, he instinctively knew the technology would not only change the film industry, but the world as well.

Want To Make Better Video With Your HDSLR?

I recently had an opportunity to speak with Rodney Charters, DP for the FOX television series 24 about the HDSLR revolution, and some of his upcoming seminars.  His presentations begin with some compelling behind the scenes footage and some deleted scenes from 24. “I’ll also be talking about my own 35 year exploration of photography and provide some basic information about how to take a camera you buy in the store and make a finished video suitable for presentation.”

What Do You Love More…

It isn’t much of a secret that I work in broadcast television.  I think I’m unique among the writers at PVC in that.  So I pay a lot of attention to the Federal Communications Commission and whatever they are up to at any particular time.

You have probably heard a bit about the FCC’s new idea to expand broadband Internet access across the US - to make it happen,  it wants to

Kill Off Broadcast Television!

Ooops, forgive me - I was reading from the playbook of the National Association of Broadcasters.  Yeah, the same folks that have sat on enormous swaths of bandwidth since the dawn of the Radio Age and never paid a cent for the privilege to the owners - you and I, the American Public.  The NAB sees it a little differently, of course - they will tell you endlessly about how much public service they deliver, through all that local programming they do!  You know, like newscasts!  And all that other…umm…wait, there isn’t anything else but newscasts anymore, is there? (Newscasts that happen to be their biggest profit centers as well.)  And a lot of independent (e.g., non-network affiliated, or many Fox) stations don’t do news of their own at all, often buying newscasts from their in-market “competitors.”  Yeah, that’s the intersection of journalism and capitalism at it’s best, huh?

Sounds like I’m mightily pissed-off at broadcasters, right?  Well, hang on, because I’m just getting started.  Do the Wayne’s-World-finger-wipe in front of your eyes (go ahead, I’ll wait…there, that’ll do) and go back about four years, when the Digital TV Transition (fanfare goes here) was in full swing.  Broadcasters had no better friend than the Consumer Electronics Association, who hyped the new HDTV technology like it was the Second Coming.  Of course, as of last June, the DTV Transition (fanfare goes here) is over, and a fairly large number of Americans have already replaced their old TVs with HDTVs.  So what does the CEA think of this?

Headline from TWICE, the CEA’s own news source:

CEA Backs FCC Broadband Plan

CEA says Time to evict TV stations from the airwaves!  Gotta sell the next gimmick!  (How can they split their attention between this and 3D-TV?)  “Fickle” is a vast understatement for the friendship of the CEA, and if they want to sell a gadget by replacing whatever it is you do, watch your back - AND your wallet.

And the FCC isn’t blameless in this either.  Again, less than a year after finishing the job of ripping up the foundation of television broadcasting, they announce they are going to rip it up AGAIN?  These guys have the attention span of a gnat.  The lawyer/consultants for my station sent out a synopsis of how the FCC Broadband Plan might affect TV stations.  Here are a few excerpts:

”...The FCC may seek early on to “repack” TV station allocations to free up Channels 46 - 51 for wireless broadband services.  Stations on those channels would either go off the air or move down the band…The effect on all stations would likely be increased interference and smaller service areas.”

“Ultimately, the FCC wants 120 MHz (or 20 channels), suggesting an eventual repack down to Channel 30 or so.  That seems impossible to accomplish without significant numbers of stations simply going off the air.”

Well, that certainly puts a different light on the NAB’s paranoia. 

So why does any of this matter?  If this is so important to the future of the US, why didn’t we do this in concert with the DTV transition?  For one, ten years ago few people could actually envision what “broadband” meant.  But here we are in 2010, and one in five of us has in our pocket what would literally be considered a “supercomputer” only a decade ago, and it breathes that bandwidth that the FCC wants to “repack.”  So, I ask you…what do you value more?

Your TV or your smartphone?

Sounds like a stark choice, right?  Well, it is.  What do YOU think?

HPA Tech Retreat 2010 - Day 3

The Tech Retreat’s third day covered regulatory issues, HDR imaging, using a plasma for reference monitoring, SOA, networking, file-based workflows… and Mo Henry.

HPA Tech Retreat 2010 - Day 2

The 16th Annual Tech Retreat was officially opened by HPS President Leon Silverman today. (As with yesterday’s coverage, this’ll be stream-of-consciousness coverage.)

Are You A Wireless Outlaw?

A side-effect of the Digital Television Transition (remember that?) comes home to roost on June 12, 2010.  That’s the day that wireless microphone systems you own might be ILLEGAL to operate, as decreed by the FCC.  They insist it is time to scrap any wireless that operates in the 700 megahertz band.

“But Bruce,” I hear you saying, “I don’t want to be a criminal!! How do I know if my wireless system is legal?” 

Let me help you out, friend.  Click on this link to be taken to the FCC’s official list of the outlaw wirelesses.

You’re welcome.  Glad to be of service!  I looked up my two systems - an old Samson UM1 and a much newer Sennheiser EW100G2 -and luckily, neither made the list.

But below, let’s talk.  Now, no one here - not PVC, and certainly not me - condones lawbreaking of ANY type.  Still, what will YOU do if you find your cherished wireless on the list?

RED Day

RED Leader Jim Jannard at Ren-Mar RED Studios on Saturday.

On Saturday 16 January, RED hosted three open-house sessions in Hollywood, for CML (cinematography mailing list) members, ASC (American Society of Cinematography) members, and for RED ONE owners. I attended the CML session, and here’s a quick writeup on what we learned. [updated 10:15pm PST: M-X performance details]

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