- Keya’s story: climate change in Bangladesh on Vimeo – This is a brilliant example of why the DSLRs that shoot HD video are an incredibly powerful tool. This little film for Oxfam has the same sort of visual appeal that you would expect from a photojournalist; it's just that it also happens to be moving. And have sound. Plus combined with a fast Canon L series lens, the 5DMkII can capture natural light environments that would look horrific on a RED, even assuming you could deal with the size of a RED package.
- http://www.cs.princeton.edu/gfx/pubs/Barnes_2009_PAR/patchmatch.mp4 – Seriously impressive image editing algorithm demo from Princeton University. Seamlessly… well, sort of move stuff instantly that would take hours of Photoshopping at the moment. Will be brilliant for b3ta.com…
- Hitting the Mark…or not – "Some actor walks into frame, you push back in with him, not necessarily matching distances, as he goes to another mark and stops. If he stops 4 inches shy- hit your mark. If he overshoots by 4 inches-hit your mark. The reason? Your position on that mark is the one anchor the AC has in the room that's constant. If he sees you are on your mark, he automatically knows how much the actor is off by and can adjust."
Another great post from Dollygrippery
Latest Updates: canon5dmkii RSS
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Ed's web picks for May 30th through May 31st
Ed Moore
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Ed's web picks for May 29th through May 30th
Ed Moore
- ross:ching » Death Cab for Cutie’s Little Bribes – The concept's a little bit croaky, but the variety of timelapse tricks in this video makes it well worth a watch.
- First sight: Duncan Jones – "So, Ziggy Stardust, Space Oddity – does he share his father's view of all things cosmic?
No: Moon is a million miles from spangled Ziggy spacesuits. It wears its sci-fi geekness loud and proud (Jones wrote his PhD thesis on artificial intelligence)."
Interview with the director of upcoming "indie scifi" Moon with Sam Rockwell which looks fantastic in the trailer. Even more excited about it now I know the director is not only David Bowie's son but has a PhD in AI…
- YouTube – ‘The Man Who Walked Around The World ‘ with Robert Carlisle – Astoundingly well-operating six minute steadicam shot for Johnnie Walker whisky. DoP and operator (a man after my own heart, if insanely better!) is George Richmond, steadicam op on Quantum of Solace, Burn After Reading, Wanted and more.
This is almost certainly a shot where the steadicam operator sits on the back of some sort of vehicle to operate as it's so long and so fast that you'd never be able to keep up if you were walking with the rig.
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Ed's web picks for May 21st through May 22nd
Ed Moore
- Rule By Secrecy – "But I don't like the secrecy that develops in TeeVee. The more people who understand this business, the better. Some people like to obfuscate what they do, so that people can't pull back the curtain and go, "Hey, wait a minute… running a show is NOT as hard as performing brain surgery!" Deep down, showrunners know this. They know how capricious this business is. Even the mega-successful ones have the insecurity that one day, their own curtain will be yanked aside and they'll hear someone say, "You're not as talented as we thought you were. Go away."
Another required entry onto your RSS newsreaders; the delightfully written (with loooong posts) blog of Kay Reindl, TV writer and producer from Hollywood.
- By Ken Levine: Ready for some Friday questions? – "And you’ll notice a “day” on 24 usually begins around 8 a.m. That allows them to shoot the daytime scenes in the summer when it stays light until 8 and the nighttime scenes in the winter when shooting can begin as early as 5. Lots of little tricks go into getting the most bang for your production buck."
Ken is a "Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer", and his RSS feed is going straight into my news reader.
- BeachTek XLR audio adaptor for Canon 5D MkII [ProPhoto Coalition.com] – This is really good news – one of the big limiting factors of using the 5D for video work to date has been the 3.5mm minijack which is the only audio input you get. This little box screws onto the bottom of the camera and provides proper balanced audio inputs and a headphone output. There's even 48V phantom power for using a professional shotgun microphone.
I remember having BeachTek boxes on our tiny little cameras like the Canon XM2 when I was at university running the student TV station… takes me right back!
- C-MOCOS – Empowering your Camera Motion Control – Got to be one of the coolest looking motion control rigs going; this was shown at NAB this year. 7 axes and under 14KG without track. Amongst other tricks, you can perform a shot handheld and it will record the exact movement, allowing you to press a button and replicate the exact shot with perfect accuracy. For those unschooled in motion control, that means you can shoot multiple 'passes' of a shot with maybe a slight change like a model wearing a different outfit, and in post production transition between each pass gives the impression that in a single seamless camera movement, the outfits are morphing from one to another.
- Visual Effects For Directors DVD boxset – This looks to be a fantastic resource for directors and DoPs who want to know more about how visual effects works in post production so they can work on set more confidently. It can be terrifying shooting green screen or effects shots without having a clear understanding of what's fine and what's going to screw up the visual effects artists' work.
I already own the camera movement and blocking DVD set that the same guys did and it is absolutely superb. I'll definitely be dropping $329 on this when I'm feeling a bit flush!
- Tracking and Compositing with mocha for Final Cut | Studio Daily – Nice quick demonstration of a $199 planar tracking tool. Planar tracking lets you track 2D planes in 3D space – if you need to replace something in post, like a sign, a numberplate or maybe superimpose graphics onto a computer screen that's in shot (the actual graphics on a screen rarely photograph well), planar tracking works brilliantly. It tracks texture rather than the old 'corner pin' technique, so it doesn't matter if some of the object you're tracking is obscured or goes off screen.
- Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) on Vimeo – Surprising how accurate she is, considering. I find Star Wars pretty tedious going. Requires fanboy chip to be cranked up to 11.
- Rule By Secrecy – "But I don't like the secrecy that develops in TeeVee. The more people who understand this business, the better. Some people like to obfuscate what they do, so that people can't pull back the curtain and go, "Hey, wait a minute… running a show is NOT as hard as performing brain surgery!" Deep down, showrunners know this. They know how capricious this business is. Even the mega-successful ones have the insecurity that one day, their own curtain will be yanked aside and they'll hear someone say, "You're not as talented as we thought you were. Go away."
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Last Day Dream
Ed Moore
Beautiful 42 second long film shot with the Canon 5D MkII with Lensbabys. ¬†There’s an article on how this camera is a genuine alternative to more conventional video cameras here.
A Lensbaby, in this case the PL mount version, was put to amazing use by cinematographer and regular Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kaminski in the extraordinary Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The whole opening section (and indeed most of the film) is from the POV of someone waking up to find themselves almost entirely paralyzed and unable to talk, and the Lensbaby gives the whole thing a tilt/shift look that feels very organic and alive.