FantasticFest Panels: on set VFX supervision for 3D

More raw notes from the 3D/Stereoscopic panel at FantasticFest - this one makes a nice bookend with Emmy award winning Sean Fairburn’s comments about working on set - Sean talked about shooting concerns, Jabbar talks about VFX supervising on set - both in general, and things to worry about when shooting 3D (as in stereoscopic). Below are my raw notes, and here’s a link to pictures of Jabbar’s slides on Flickr. Jabbar talks about what information to record on set for visual effects, tools to collect that info on set, and how to communicate effectively both on set and in post. Some really good info in here after the jump!

FantasticFest Panels: Sean Fairburn on shooting 3D

Continuing my notes from the Future of 3D Panels at FantasticFest, Sean Fairburn (familiar if you read the Cinematographer’s Mailing List) gave an excellent talk on the basics of, and advice on, shooting stereoscopic aka 3D moviemaking. My full, raw, unedited, as-I-typed’em notes are below.

EDIT - here’s pics of his slides on a Flickr set

FantasticFest Panel: The Future of 3D

From 9am to 3pm no movies today, just intense geekery - all panels about 3D and stereoscopic imaging for moviemaking - speakers from Intel, RealD (one of the sponsors), NVidia, Troublemaker Studios (Robert Rodriguez’s studio here in Austin), and others spoke today. I’m breaking it up by panel, posting my raw notes from each. Here’s the kickoff panel, on The Future of 3D:

FantasticFest Day 1 - First Squad, Gentlemen Broncos, Rec 2, The Highball

FantasticFest Day 1: First Squad, Gentlemen Broncos, Rec 2, The Highball

The first day of FantasticFest 2009 went exceedingly well - saw 3 movies and went to the opening of a, well, fantastic new venue in Austin, TX. Saw three movies: First Squad, Gentlemen Broncos (latest from director of Napoleon Dynamite), and Rec 2, as well as went to the opening of The Highball, a new bowl/bar/karaoke venue.

If I overheard correctly, they’ve basically rescused and resurrected the entire interior of the Rock ‘n Roll Bowl from New Orleans after it shut down - lifting it and dropping it right next to the Alamo Drafthouse and rechristening it The Highball in all its retro 60s glory.

Read on for the deets! (That image above is in the gorgeous Paramount Theater on Congress Avenue in Austin, TX)

I’m here covering FantasticFest 2009!

I’m here attending FantasticFest 2009 as I have the last few years. It is an incredibly fun film festival dedicated to sci-fi, anime, horror, fantasy, and anything else fun/cool they can think of. This is my FAVORITE film festival in terms of having a good time seeing great wachjob movies. Panels on 3D filmmaking, as well as screenings of upcoming movies such as Zombieland, Gentlemen Broncos, Daybreakers, George Romero’s Survival of the Dead, and tons of others will add the the awesome mayhem.

Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League puts this on with Harry Knowles (lookin’ at him now) of Aint It Cool News organize the event and bring a ton o’ fun to it - for instance, awards are beer steins, the bigger the better, served FULL - and you’re expected to finish it onstage while the audience roars “CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!” Events like the 100 Best Kills, Fantastic Feud (nerd boy movie knowledge), Fantastic Debates (resolved with gloves in the ring), and others give you idea of the tenor of the event.

I’ll be here all week, folks - if you have some spare time and can get to Austin, now is the time.

More tidbits on D300S sustained shooting @ 8fps

So I got my D300S, and I’m having a lot of fun with it. One of the major features that grabbed my attention was the ability to shoot up to 8 frames a second with it. Asterisk - with extra gear. It also has two memory slots - one for SD/HC, one for CF. Other asterisk - it only “sustains” that frame rate until an internal buffer is full. Then the buffer has to clear by downloading to the memory cards, and only THEN is it ready to shoot a full burst again. You can shoot a partial sustained burst before the buffer clears, but as many shots as until the buffer is full again. I figured I’d doodle around and see what differences might exist with all this. Read on after the jump.

Nikon D300S vs Canon 7D Specdown

So I got a Nikon D90 almost exactly a year ago - it was my first DSLR, and I was in love - I’ve totally had a blast with it. But there were a few things it didn’t have that I really wanted - I was getting into HDR (high dynamic range) photography, and I was limited to 3 exposures, a maximum of 2 stops apart. And I wanted to shoot timelapse without having to be tethered to a laptop (which had to be powered too), which the D90 couldn’t do without the umbilical.

I really coveted my friend’s D300 with its higher frame rate and intervalometer as well. If only there were a camera that combined the best of both worlds….then Nikon announced the D300S - adding 720p24 HD video, Live View, intervalometer, up to 9 shots in a bracket….I was sold.

I got it while I was out of town, and then read about the new Canon 7D….

Snow Leopard - Go or No Go?

So I was thinking about dipping a toe into Snow Leopard. As I only have two Intel based machines (an 8 core Mac Pro and a black MacBook), I figured I’d try it out on the MacBook first.

First thing I did was pick up a copy on sale at MacMall for $25 - cheapest OS upgrade ever!

Then I went to Burning Man and didn’t care about computers for a week, a process I highly recommend. After I was back for 5 days, then I started to care about computer stuff again, I sat down and started looking at my Dock to see what was the software I use regularly that I’ll care about compatibility with.

Read on for how I evaluated whether to upgrade, and for which system.

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