Daily Inspiration - Fleet Foxes Montezuma

Great stop motion animation on this Fleet Foxes music video. I especially love how they’ve added depth by using the shadows as well. Simple concept, beautiful execution. Watch below…

Lytro is the new RAW?

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…

Filming Inception’s Corridor & Zero-Gravity Sequences

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…

FreshDV NAB 2011 Video Coverage

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…

The subtle VFX work in Black Swan

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…

Which ProRes quality level is Good Enough when editing DSLR footage?

So I wanted to share some personal findings after working heavily with DSLRs for about a year and a half now. I’ve been converting most of my DSLR footage to ProRes LT for post-production, and have found it to be a good size-to-quality happy medium. In most cases, my projects will end up on DVD, web, or some kind of Standard Definition delivery, so LT allows me to strike a quality compromise that tends to be invisible after output. Even for HD applications, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find visible quality issues when editing with ProRes LT, assuming that you aren’t pushing the image too much in color-correction and grading. And let’s be honest, you probably shouldn’t be heavily grading DSLR footage anyway…for as much as I love DSLRs, the footage doesn’t like to be pushed hard. Read on…

Extra Extra, Free Light Leak Clips!

Jesse Rosten is a studmuffin filmmaker, and he’s giving away some light leaks that he created. These are excellent transitional elements, similar to the clips you’ll find in Artbeats Film Clutter collections. You can also make your own light leaks by removing the lens from your camera and playing light across the sensor with a flashlight.

But if you are lazy like most of us editors, snag these pre-made clips while you can. And if you aren’t sure how you’d use them, watch the “Growing is Forever” video embedded below for a taste of Jesse’s light leak goodness.

The Heartbreaking Beauty of Pixar’s Films

In 1995 Pixar released their first feature film, Toy Story. Since then, this amazing group of creatives has led in visual innovation and unique stories. As we review the year 2010, it seems fitting to share this inspiring mashup of Pixar films from the past 15 years. Enjoy.

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