Everything is Amazing (and Nobody is Happy)

Over at CanonFilmmakers, I ran across a good post that tries to inject a little perspective in all the technical discussions on VDSLRs, Red, and really filmmaking tools in general. The author links a (hilarious) Louis CK video clip in which Louis does a little bit about everything in life being amazing, yet nobody is happy. There’s a clear correlation to filmmakers and gear discussion. We have amazing tools at a fraction of the cost of of previous generations, yet we still want more. We tend to get bogged down in the technical minutiae of each system, and sometimes can’t see the storytelling forest for the trees. Paul Zadie wrote a good post on this a couple of months ago…

Canon 7D DSLR Operation 101

Everyone’s favorite video DSLR advocate, Tyler Ginter, has produced another video tutorial similar to his last (that one concentrated on the 5D MKII). This new tutorial focuses on the basics of how to set up and how to shoot video on the Canon 7D. In this tutorial, Tyler takes all the pain and suffering out of the menu and settings configuration process. If you want to get the fast track on how to shoot with the 7D, watch the video below…

Filmmaker posts $500 short on Youtube, nets film deal worth millions

Move over, Robert Rodriguez. It’s the stuff of independent filmmaker legend…a virtually unknown director posts a short film clip on Youtube, shot in his own spare time on a shoestring budget…and is discovered by a major studio, who offers said filmmaker a massive movie deal. In this case, the filmmaker is Federico Alvarez, and the movie deal is reportedly worth $20 million. Read on…

SALE Power of Lighting DVDs

Just got an email from Bill Holshevnikoff producer of the “Power of Lighting” DVD series as well as author of the Arri Lighting Handbook. He is running a Holiday sale until Dec 24th. After all who couldn’t use a little savings during the Christmas season.

Details From Bill Below:

Camera Blocking - A Case Study

Last year I had the opportunity to worked as Director of Photography with Tim Zwica on his new project “The Nest,” a 35-min horror short shot on a minimal budget. Shooting a lot VFX shots and action sequences on a budget naturally made for a very compressed schedule. One of the things that I wanted to do right away was find a way to shoot longer master shots on a dolly to facilitate our schedule. This allowed us to combine a large amount of coverage into one long shot, and yet still be creative with the camera blocking. The following narrated behind-the-scenes video is a case study exploring the way we handled one such dolly shot. The goal here is to show just one of many possible approaches to the creative challenges we encountered on this shoot.

Click the link to watch the video tutorial below…

How many Verizon FIOS users are in violation of new AUP?

This is a bit off the normal video topics, but deserves some attention as we have the whole comment thing here for each article. Being a bit off-topic, it’s actually rather ironic, considering what follows…I’ll explain. It seems that Verizon has changed the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for FiOS users. And oddly, a good percentage of FiOS users are probably already in violation of the new AUP. Read on…

Strange mix of high & low tech in The Mill’s “Apples”

Since the iPhone 3GS came out with video recording features, a small subset of people have been pushing the limits of what is the accepted norm and using the device in actual production work. When the 3GS came out, Alex Lindsay put out a humorous video in which he attached the phone to a full Redrock Micro shouldermount stabilization rig. We all had a good laugh, and then suddenly Zacuto and others started making professional grade accessories for the device. There are handheld rigs with wide lenses, and even an iPhone stabilizer in the works. For the most part, iPhone video seems to be limited to quick and dirty video blogging, and the occasional music video. But by far the most professional use to date has to be the following spot courtesy of the geniuses at The Mill…

DSLR Video and Aliasing Artifacts

If you are shooting video with one of the hot new DSLRs, you are probably aware of the aliasing issues found in some of your footage. If not yet, you will at some point. Just keep shooting, it will show up. Fine detail aliasing has always been an issue for any camera system, but it’s particularly prevalent in DSLRs as they lack an Optical Low Pass Filter (OLPF) that is specifically tuned for video. In the case of the 5D & 7D, engineers at Canon have also chosen to sample a limited number of lines from the image sensor to downsample to 1080p. This is quick solution, but not the highest quality way of doing things; it creates aliasing image artifacts, and reportedly limits the resolution of the cameras at around 720p. It’s almost as if these tools were primarily designed as still cameras! How strange. At any rate, I’ve learned to warn my clients before interview shoots not to wear shirts with fine detail patterns, as they will moiré faster than you can say “how the hell do you pronounce that word?”

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