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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The News

A Primer on Photo and Video Copyright Usage | Dare Dreamer
I’ve been contacted a few times for clips from videos I’ve produced to be used in other educational DVDs and documentaries. For a few seconds of video I’ve charged $450 for a worldwide, non-transferrable license (these were relatively small runs).


Editor Jay Cassidy on American Hustle | Studio Daily
On American Hustle, each editor took responsibility for a big chunk. When you’re on such a short schedule, it’s inefficient to pass scenes around willy-nilly. The person receiving it doesn’t have the depth of knowledge about the material or know the evolution of the scene, how it came from the first assembly to what the fine cut is.


Fundamental Lessons for Oscar Winning Cinematography | Raindance
2. Watch technology doesn’t interfereSure, we’re thinking of new and inventive ways of producing films but essentially you need to tell a story. Next time you’re on set or in a production meeting really ask yourself, do we need that pocket dolly/green screen/zero gravity lighting rig? Or is that getting in the way of the story?


I am Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker. Ask me anything.@reddit_AMA
I'm really excited to have launched yesterday the new Ken Burns app for the iPad, which is the first time I’ve entered the digital realm this way. We've taken short clips from 35 years of my films covering over 200 years of American history and assembled them both thematically and chronologically.


Why Hollywood Resists Disruption | Slate
Hollywood is the closest thing the business world has to a Roman Empire: a largely self-sustaining, self-contained industry, reigning supreme over most premium content in most media channels. And like Rome, the entertainment business has plenty of enemies who’d love to watch it burn. They probably won’t get their wish.


Reports keep popping up about a Canon 7D Mark II, though if it doesn't do 4K or some really high frame rate, I'm not sure many will care...
Rumoured Canon 7D Mark II specs | EOSHD
Oddly the camera is mentioned as needing an optional transmitter for WiFi. That’s something I’m expecting Canon to build into the 7D Mark II itself like on the 6D. To have the document mention specifics like weight and dimensions is quite interesting. Where did they get the info from?


Set of Cook 28 Picture Styles For Canon Cameras | Cinescopophilia
The Cook is a set of 28 Picture Styles for Canon cameras and to be used in camera plus with Digital Photo software.The highlight preservation increases the range for capturing bright backgrounds without clipping, and when something clips the highlight roll off is ok.


SLR Magic Anamorphot-50 officially announced | EOSHD
As a commitment to the film industry, SLR Magic developed this 1,33x anamorphic adapter to help filmmakers maximize their image quality by preventing this loss of vertical resolution. The unique 1,33x squeeze factor uses the entire 16:9 sensor/negative area to achieve the desired 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The Anamorphot 1.33x – 50 does this by compressing a 33% wider field of view to fit the width of the 16:9 sensor/negative without compressing image height.


GAZER BRUSHLESS GIMBALS HIT KICKSTARTER SHOWING HANDHELDS AND INTERESTING STEADICAM MOUNT | News Shooter
One thing that did catch my eye in GAZER’s rather un-cinematic Kickstarter video, was how they show the top-of-the-range DS3 gimbal easily attaching to a Steadicam arm. This is something that has been done by other gimbal brands but never in such an elegant way. How well the system works with an arm at smoothing vertical movement remains to be seen.


FCPX IN ACTION – EDITING UNDER THE GUN AT THE DOCROADS DOCUMENTARY WORKSHOP IN CHINA | News Shooter
I had planned all along for my group to use FCP X as that is the program I use professionally and the thought of having to use FCP 7 again fills me with dread! Going back to 7 for me is a bit like watching a VCR compared to Blue-ray disc. The laptops the students had were newish MacBook Pro’s but they only had copies of FCP 7 installed. Luckily for me, one of the students was resourceful enough to quickly install FCP X on all the laptops and we were in business!


Love those long traveling shots...
Watch: The Amazing Full 6-Minute Tracking Shot From 'True Detective' | IndieWire
The crew ran through the sequence a full seven times, and once it was in the can, Fukunaga completed a few different versions of the scene, with edit points in case he wanted to cut away to something else. But wisely, he kept the entire shot intact, but only because it worked so well. "The best ones, you don't even realize that they're oners," Fukunaga explained. "They're the most first-person experience you can get in a film."


Nice little short showing how to do spacecraft effects very simply.
To create a spaceship flying through the space, the effects wizards of yesteryear used simple techniques of keeping the model spaceship still, and having the camera move in towards the objects. This would give the illusion that the ship was moving.

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