I don’t usually write about MS products, but this one deserves a few lines: Win7. I had been using (if you could call it that) Vista Ultimate in a Fusion virtual box for some time, and just upgraded to Win7 Ultimate by going through the upgrade process and not a fresh install. To my huge surprise, almost everything worked without a hitch. The only major problem was with VMWare, and not Windows, as to upgrade you need to have about 12gig free in the virtual partition, and to expand that partition you can’t have any snapshots stored. So it took...
In this entry I'll take you on my daily walk around the office. Maybe you'll pick up some business advice along the way. 8am - finish breakfast, feed the cats, make some ham sandwiches and make my wife a hot cocoa. Hey, it's getting chilly. Managing the home is just as important as managing my work responsibilities. Looking after my family is the most important task of all. 8:30am - Knowing Waterbury, CT I'm stuck in traffic. In the 1960's a huge interchange between I84 and Rt 8, colloquially known as the Mixmaster, was built. Almost instantly, gridlock was the...
Just had a great demo of CatDV 8 which is a media management tool and much much more. After seeing Final Cut Server in action a few months ago, I can already tell this thing seems much much easier for the end user to use. The fact that it can be used in the field and tie directly back to the main server is incredible in and of itself. Clients can view their proxy files over the internet directly off our server? Cool! No more window burn DVDs!!! Yay! Due to our frantic production schedule I don't really have time...
Since the introduction of Creative COW Magazine back in early 2006, we have been asked repeatedly to make the print edition available to our friends and members around the world. Unfortunately, we were not set-up to accommodate international mailings and we had no way to bill them and maintain the record keeping -- well, unless our small team wanted to work around the clock! ;o) But recently we have added the means to allow our friends worldwide to receive the print edition and we are delighted that the response has been beyond our expectations, with orders arriving quite regularly. It...
All, If you've been following the FCP forum on here you might have seen a fairly heated debate over the Canon5DmkII http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1060351 A guy who has been in television long enough to know better said: Because there are those out there operating under the delusion that it's an actual and proper TV production tool. There are some fools who actually think they can use it and it alone, that's why. It's a TV toy. So I thought I'd post some notable examples of 5D work I've found and let everybody out there make the call. The clips look great in...
There's a somewhat lively debate going on in the COW Final Cut Pro forum about vDSLRs (still cameras like the Canon 7D or Panasonic GH1 that have HD video recording ability) and their viability as HD video cameras vs more "traditional" HD prosumer level video cameras. A few reasons why the vDSLRs (or HD-DSLRs depending on which acronym you prefer) are a hot topic is because of the low price, interchangeable lenses, and shallow (film-like) depth of field that has been sought after by so many people using sub-$10k cameras. Some downsides to vDSLRs are non-standard frame rates (7D withstanding),...
No clever title this time. As we have been editing HD projects over the past year we have been collecting sample clips showing surgical and non-surgical training footage. This is just a sample. The Sony HVR-V1U has proven to be a great camera for use in the sensitive operating room environment. It is lightweight enough to hang over an open incision, the battery life is long and the images are astounding. Given the potential negatives of HDV, we have found it to be a robust format with good color reproduction and ease of editing using Premiere. It is a processor...
Hello all. This post follows a really good article by Mark Boulton about good typography I read, and specifically, how to deal with bullet points. Below are 2 images he gives to demonstrate how bullet points should and should not look. The problem here, as Mark Boulton points out, is that modern graphic software such as InDesign, is not set up to deal with bullets correctly. I have often been guilty of bad typography in this area in the past...when you are doing a project such as a credential brochure which needs to get out the door yesterday, it is...
I know, not as clever as some of my headlines. Today was a day to unwind, and take advantage of perhaps the last perfect Fall day of the season. Mid-60's, sunny, leaves at peak color. Woke up to a typical Sunday. Hearty Breakfast. No shaving on the weekend, thank you. Meet the Press makes breakfast a bit less appetizing. Leaves are changing...and falling. It's a beautiful day. Don't let it get away. Thanks for the advice Mr Hewson. Destination: Meriden, CT - just a few miles away. Hubbard Park, designed by none other than Frederick Law Olmstead, has miles of...
We creative types work hard. We should play hard, but sometimes that takes a back seat. This past Summer, a great way to unwind from 8 hours in the office chair would have been to hop on the mountain bike and ride. Maybe it was the humidity or the seemingly constant rain we had here in New England, but this year my couch potato genes took over. Actually that would be "chair potato" because most of my downtime was spent in front of my home computer, either watching Hulu, or working on my own pet projects. And no, emptying Rusty's...
I have often wondered what motion picture audiences would think of film-acquired images if digital imaging had come first. Would the grain structure, the motion blur, the organic judder, and the characteristic soft shoulder inherent in the celluloid medium be lauded, or would these characteristics be labeled simply as artifacts? Would, for instance, the limited dynamic range and sharpness of the digital format be viewed as necessary characteristics to be duplicated or mimicked in film, or would they have been seen, from the beginning, as an artifact to be eliminated by means of research and development. Would film have even...
After a week of travel, which was more like 3 weeks due to the preparation and focus on nothing but the end goal, it is like returning from a long journey. Amazingly, the voicemail was empty and there were no packages piled on my chair. Why? Because nearly everyone I work with on a regular basis was in the same place as I was, many of them at the same hotel. So it was like I was at a high school reunion, assuming that I was part of a class that took 20 years to graduate. So here I am...
I had the Canon5DmkII for a while and although I had shot a few tests, I hadn't really made anything that I could post properly. As you might know, I edit for BBC & IMG on the coverage of the Snooker & Darts here in the UK and thought this would be an ideal opportunity to give the Canon a good outing. I have to say I was amazed at the results. Colin Nuttall who is one of the best cameramen I work with got some amazing shots. Gorden Lugrin assisted and Jason Woodward held it all together by directing....
I finally decided to take a stab at this blogging thing. I've picked up a lot of good info reading other people's blogs and I'd like to be a contributor of knowledge as well as a receiver. Last night I attended the October meeting of the Los Angeles Post Production Group (LAPPG) and even though I didn't win anything in the raffle I did manage to mingle and learn a few things from the presenters that evening. First up was Jeffrey Way from AJA Video Systems talking about the Ki Pro . For those that don't know the Ki Pro...
It has been previously established that I travel a good deal for work. I find myself in some exotic location like Cleveland, but almost always after dark is the first free time I have. It breaks my heart to see folks taking flash pictures at night of beautiful architecture or scenery, knowing that they will get home and just have pictures of nothing, or blown out faces surrounded by shadow. In the case of architecture, you get highlights and uneven contrast. However, sometimes without a flash and without support, or even with intentional movement, you can get a truly incredible...
In other words, don't try to be something you're not. We all want to grow, and we creative professionals should always be learning new things: skills and practices. It is the practices that I will focus on in this entry. First skills. There is an abundance on the web and in the real world of opportunities to get new skills. Training classes for Final Cut, graphic design, using the RED camera or whatever. I get the Maine Workshops catalog every year listing everything from an intro to lighting week course to a 6 month live in sabbatical where you write...
The past 7 days have been spent preparing for a big convention that we participate in every year. our responsibilities include processing roughly 150 videos, mostly produced by outside entities (doctors) and about a dozen from our shop. We decided this year to finally do away with DVCAM tape and do all of the projection in about 15 half-day sessions via MPG2 files on hard drives. We created a simple html launcher and carefully organized the files by session. The next step was to review the MPG2 files to ensure that they are appropriately representing the original quality. The original...
Sharing the love to all, Work in progress... I render this 3d car in 3ds max, using mental ray engine, used 3 lights one dome and 2 1K spots, Composited 27 layers in adobe After effects + cool sound fx. D...
Today I spent about 8 hours reviewing videos for an upcoming event. I had previously viewed all of the videos off a hard drive to be used for projection, and made a list of originals to check. If the original looks better than the MPEG2, then I copy the original to my hard drive for future re-compression. In many cases, the original is in fact MPEG2, and with adding logos and trimming heads and tails, a recompression pass is sometimes a bad thing - especially if the original was not up to MPEG-2 quality to begin with. Thus, during the...
Tuesday night (29-09-09) saw Black Country Cinema unveil its style of video poetry at the Light House Media Centre in Wolverhampton. It has been a fairly long build up seeing as our first meeting with Peter McLuskie regarding the Screen Forum event was over a month and a half ago. However this didn’t stop their being a race to organise everything for the event, promote it and prepare for our first audience. Even the drive to the venue was frantic through all that Wednesbury traffic, but I digress (slightly). We were stationed in the upstairs cinema, which was perfect for...
Recently, I attended an excellent HD Workshop & Mini-Expo presented by Digital CONNtent Creators http://www.digitalct.org/ at Tripeg Studios in Hamden, CT. This event was very informative and I am still amazed by how rapidly the technology in our industry evolves and grows. There is no question that in order to survive these changes you must understand and embrace them, so thanks to Keith Larsen and the rest of the crew that put this show together. This November marks my 25th anniversary in this industry and throughout my career I’ve witnessed the many changes in the tools we use to do...
'Twas a week before deadline, And all through the office, Desk jockeys are working, To add that last bit of polish. Whiteboards are filled to the edges with tasks, And hard drives are spinning fast. From office to office computers are buzzing, The i7 and quad core renders are mind numbing. With K-cups dripping and snack products stocked, The workflow is humming and may never stop. But as time ticks past like blank discs from a spindle, Day after day the punch list will dwindle. A hundred and fifty mpeg2 files await, On a hard drive destined for arrivals late....
A short while ago, Ron Lindeboom posted some beautiful pictures from National Geographic. http://blogs.creativecow.net/blog/943/interpreting-national-geographics-best-photographs-of-2008 These got me thinking, that there is some inherent beauty in the human body...and I do mean IN the human body. Especially closeup. Danger Will Robinson, Danger...Pictures of the inside of the human body ahead...Danger. An operating room is full of interesting textures, colors, sights, sounds and smells (sorry, but it's true). Seriously, I often find myself noticing either symmetry or other beautiful scenes in the landscape of human anatomy. Sometimes I zoom in with the video camera, thinking I'd like to see these images again...
Many British shorts have been mocked for their obvious punch lines and 'inside the box' shooting methods. Short film festivals in Britain are full of films that lose their value after the first view and often require little or no participation from the audience. I like to think that not everyone has this view (yes I am British) and that not all British filmmakers think within the confined walls of 'blockbusterism' (yes I am a filmmaker). To help battle the tides of ‘anti-British’ short film lovers and prove that we DO have something unique to say with our moving images,...
It has been well-established that multi-tasking is bad news. However, in the regular course of day to day computer activities, it is necessary to have multiple applications running. Shortcuts to apps and documents are a great time saver. Sure, this is a very basic concept, one that has been in Windows since the beginning, and even back to DOS if you think of the BAT file, but still worth mentioning as a workflow improvement. This is where the Windows Quick Launch toolbar comes into play. This is by no means a new feature, but I find that the ability to...
When venturing into the world of short filmmaking it can be difficult to know where to start. Whether you are a recent media graduate or completely new to the idea of making your own films, the sheer volume of other products out there on the festival circuit and on the internet (most notably Youtube) mean you can only add your fish to an already ram packed pond. Considering how much influence mainstream cinema has on many new filmmakers it can be a near impossible task to think of new, engaging and original stories and concepts. The ‘next to nothing’ budget...
In other words, this is a blog where I talk about nothing to do with Media Production or Project Management. But maybe there are still some business and/or creative lessons to be inferred from what I do to unwind... You see, a few weeks ago, my wife reminded me that I had not taken a vacation yet in 2009. So I did what all husbands should do..I listened to my wife and took the week off. Business lesson 1: Listen to those you care about, as they likely care about you too. I set out an ambitious agenda for myself....
Recently I have been the cameraman on two student short films 'The Giving Tree' and 'Security'. With our campus condoning shooting HD on their HDV Cameras and only being told to shoot SD because we have more SD DV decks then HDV decks we had decided to stick it to them and hire out a camera ourselves. Without going into a whinging story about not being 'aloud' to shoot HD which I think is ridiculous considering the campus is open till midnight I thought it would be a good idea to talk about shooting behind the scenes footage. So as...
They actually pay us for this behavior! We want to thank Cox for making it all possible. Enjoy! We miss you already. Title: BEHIND THE SCENES Spot for Cox Networks Length:30 Director: Diego Torroija Client: COX Agency: evok Production Company: Two door Productions, We shot the spots with the Red, use 50mm and 35 mm primes recorded to HD, we use Adobe CS4 pipeline, Color corrected in AE, one day shoot, 3 day post (including sound), 1 grading for station playback and deliverable in SD. For the moving shots we use a really cool mini slider track to get some...
...although really, how could anyone have seen it coming? And yet, how could we not ? What follows is exactly what it appears to be, Cheap Trick performing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" live, in its entirety, even madder and more perfect than I possibly imagined, featuring a blend of hubris and humility that only Cheap Trick could muster. Sgt. Pepper Live - Cheap Trick Worth registering at Lala.com to hear the full length clips, but even the samples give you an idea what you're in for. Pretty much every song has its own highlights, but I was especially...
