Using the ND .90 Filter as a Preproduction Tool

During my last round of far red filter testing with the Sony F35/EX1/EX3, director of photography and testing cohort Lenny Levy discovered that far red contamination could be seen by eye under tungsten light simply by viewing fabrics through an ND .90 filter.

The Last Far Red Filter You’ll Ever Need?

The Sony EX1/EX3/F35 cameras have a little issue where they are over-sensitive to far red. This new prototype filter from Tiffen cleans up far red, and then some.

Final Draft upgraded to version 8

It doesn’t seem to happen very often so maybe it’s worth mentioning when it does .... the seminal screenwriting application Final Draft has moved to version 8!

I remember getting Final Draft back in the mid-90s and pounding out a couple of feature length screenplays before I ever went to film school. I had tried writing them in a word processor but reasoned that if something would take care of the formatting for me then I would write more, jack around with margins less. It worked. Two screenplays later I went to film school, took screenwriting classes and read some screenwriting books. My writing career went downhill from there. I think it was one of those cases where the less I knew about the “proper” way to write a screenplay the more I would write! That said, lots of shorts, and half-started / half-finished / half-assed screenplays later I still use Final Draft.

NAB 2009 Video - Adobe Flash and Story

Adobe’s big announcement at NAB seemed to be centered around the integration of Flash into settop boxes, bringing it into the livingroom. They also were showing a concept software product called Adobe Story, which helps round out their complete integration from initial creative concepts all the way through post-production. We stopped by for a demo of both announcements.

CELTX 2.0 Announced!

Celtx 2.0 was announced recently and is currently available for download. For those of you who don’t know, Celtx is a popular open source screenwriting, and pre-production application. The new version of Celtx is exciting on several fronts on of which is the new “Studio” system for more integrated collaboration on projects. Secondly the new toolbox feature enabling user built plugins to be built and installed enabling even more features for an already great software package. The software remains free although Celtx developers have added a $50/ annual fee to make use of the online services. All in all it looks like a well rounded upgrade that will allow for future expansion. I’m particularly interested in some users adding toolboxes for automatic page counts, and further expanding the pre-production toolset. Listed below is the full set of new features and changes:

Choose Apple’s Spanish keyboard, even if you only type in English

Apple’s wonderful Spanish ISO keyboard is the absolute best tool, even if you write mainly or exclusively in English. It is truly a case where you get all of the advantages, with none of the often “perceived disadvantages”, as you are about to learn. Many people didn’t know that Apple offers the Spanish ISO keyboard at no extra cost even in the USA, whenever you order a built-to-order computer on the Apple Web Store. Yes, the Apple Spanish ISO keyboards are available with the iMac, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and even the Mac Pro tower… and they won’t cost a penny extra! Beyond that, but I have seen several cases where resale value of used Apple laptops earn up to US$300 more when they have the Spanish ISO installed. It is really a win-win situation. Oh, but I haven’t even told you the advantages of the Apple Spanish ISO keyboard itself yet.

The RED Outdoors

This spot was part of a web campaign for California’s No on Prop 8 campaign. In my previous article I wrote about another No on Prop 8 that we shot in four hours on a Sunday afternoon. This is what we shot in the morning. It’s all one take, which is pretty rare for a spot.

Photoshop CS4 Sneak Peek Video – Adobe Output Module

Watch video #2 in our series on Creative Suite 4.  Richard Harrington shows you how to use the Adobe Output Module in Bridge CS4 to make websites, contact sheets, and PDF slideshows of your images.

Want the videos in HD?  Then check out our iTunes version.

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