- 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.
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Ed's web picks for May 21st through May 22nd
Ed Moore
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Why chickens make good Steadicam operators
Ed Moore
Fundamental to good Steadicam operating technique is to separate the movement of your body as you move around the rig from the rig itself.¬† Assuming you don’t jerk it around with your hips, taking your hands off the rig and moving around the rig in a circle should be possible, as the extremely low-friction bearings in the arm and gimbal stop most of your motion being transferred into the rig.¬† Not jerking the sled around when changing your own position relative to the rig is essential for changing direction from the camera facing in the same direction as you are, to ‘Don Juan’, where the camera looks over your shoulder.
This impressive video shows how extrordinarily good chickens are at cancelling out the movement of their bodies and keeping their heads in the same place.¬† If they could do the same thing with their arms – well, okay, they’d probably need a few upgrades on the arm front as well – they’d make excellent operators!