Mike at it again…

*NAB 2006 Software and Plugins notes.

*NAB 2006 “Other Stuff” notes.

*Uncompressed 35mm telecine consulting notes (10 bit RGB 4:4:4 log).

Read. Be Smarter.

Mike Curtis on the scene with…

*four possible explanations as to why Final Cut Studio isn’t officially supported on MacBooks.

*Final Cut Studio projects can be opened in Final Cut Express.

*Notes on All Things Storage at NAB 2006:

Read. Learn. (And then go BBQ with your family…it’s Memorial Day for goodness sake)

The TeraScoop from DigitalVirgin, Inc is a creative Macintosh G5 case accessory that provides a ton of storage expansion possibilities. It actually replaces the G5 side panel with a smoothly curved aluminum bulge, which matches the G5 case quite nicely.

The scoop comes in a variety of configurations, in capacities up to 4TB and transfer rates up to 540MB/s. It (obviously) has it’s own power supply, a 300w system. Connectivity options include FireWire 800, PCI-X, PCI Express, and Infiniband. The company claims that it delivers “silent operation”.

There are a ton of options and price levels, you can pre-order yours now and expect shipment within a month. For the sake of an example, a TeraScoop configured with 1TB drive space and delivering 230MB/s via FW800 would set you back $3000.

Camcorderinfo has a new weekly column written by Steve Mullen. The column is entitled “Edit to the Maxx - The Art of the Digital Cut“, and will focus on helping you edit and get your projects out.

“Every other week, I will provide you with real, straightforward information that will enable you to edit video and audio. As the weeks progress, I will go deeper into the art and technology of video editing.”

He promises to cover both SD and HDV video, and any NLE-specific information will be centered around Avid’s FreeDV software. This is mainly because FreeDV is available free of charge on both Windows and Mac systems.

“Over the coming weeks we will cover the following topics: Planning Your Shoot, Logging Your Tapes, Planning Your Edit, Capturing DV/HDV, Create a Sequence, Clip Trimming, Add Clips to a Sequence, Basic Timeline Editing, Precision Timeline Trimming, Add Video Effects (Filters) to a Clip, Work with Audio, Add Transitions, Use Video and Audio Inserts, Create Titles, Export to DV/HDV, Color Correction, and many more.”

It looks like a great article series, Steve really knows his stuff.

Motionographer points to the Timeline of CGI in Film and Television. The Wikipedia entry highlights important developments in CGI and it’s use since 1973.

This is pretty Off Topic, so apologies in advance.

The WTC movie trailer is out…
From an artistic and technical standpoint, I think it looks really well done. Oliver Stone returns to form, so to speak. From what limited peek the trailer gives us, it looks like the film doesn’t delve much into the social and political issues so much as just the lives of those on the ground during the rescue. But in my opinion, Nic Cage has a tendency to over-act in films like this one, to be slightly heavy-handed with his acting…he seems much too aware of moments when he needs to look especially studly. From the trailer, it looks like this one is no exception (except it will be especially hard to take him seriously with that caterpillar on his lip). On the other hand, the film sports a downright excellent supporting cast. What do you think? Cash grab or tribute?

And while you are watching 9/11 movies, take a gander at Loose Change over at Google Video. Loose Change is a well made documentary that raises a lot of questions about the events of 9/11. And in related news, the Pentagon recently released footage from two cameras listed in a 84-video FOIA request by Judicial Watch. And if you watch Loose Change, you should also be aware of it’s critics.

The saving grace of this Off Topic post is this…
Loose Change was created by a small group of filmmakers, and has gained much of it’s exposure via Google Video. It is one of the first (if not the first) full-length feature movies available on Google Video. My point is that this is just one small example of how the traditional film distribution model is changing. There are so many more options available for filmmakers in this day and age, and the options are growing and expanding all the time.

UPDATE: Richard has posted a frame-grab comparison showing the reduced quality of the burst mode.

Richard Baguley has posted examples of the Sony HC3’s slow motion burst feature. This is a feature that I’ve been able to find very little information on, thanks to Richard for posting the footage.

The HC3 allows you to capture up to 3-seconds of footage in a high-frame-rate burst (and yes, it does it in HDV mode too). The burst is captured, then writes to tape in realtime. So I assume that the camera is unavailable for recording anything post-burst in the 12 seconds that it is writing to tape?

The final result when played back at 29.97fps is 12-seconds of super slow motion footage. Take a gander for yourself, it really looks like a handy feature in a very inexpensive camcorder.

I wonder how long it will take for a feature like this to make it into the FX1 and Z1U lines?

Mike Curtis on the scene yet again with a very informative and detailed article covering all the important developments in editing hardware. He reports on the AJA, Blackmagic and Matrox boards, as well as storage and display solutions. Read it.

Outside Hollywood has a good article on the subject of production pipelines using Adobe Production Studio.
Issac offers practical examples of how Adobe software would best facilitate Video Production, Low-Budget Film, and Medium-Budget Film scenarios.

You should already know how to properly calibrate an NTSC monitor…but in case you’ve forgotten, here’s a refresher.

Instructables has, umm, instructions on how to fashion a DIY bicycle “steadicam” mount for a small camera. The creator spent about $45 on parts and hardware. And of course there is the requisite before and after video.
While the results aren’t dazzling, it’s a neat project if that’s the sort of thing that rings your bell.

(Via Unmediated and Makezine)

Digital Heaven has announced the release of two new plugins for FCP editors.

BigTime is a floating timecode display that can be positioned and resized at will. This would be perfect for client review sessions, or reviewing dailies.

There is also a new version of MovieLogger. With version 1.1, the footage logging application is now cross-platform and runs on Windows systems.

DH also announced that they are now giving away two other FCP plugins. From the Press Release:
“DH_Grid
A generator which displays a grid with up to ten divisions. The
horizontal and vertical divisions can be independently set and the
grid drawn over either the entire frame or a custom defined area.

DH_Guides
Displays left, right, top and bottom guides in three different
styles. It also offers the useful ability to scale the distance
between the guides.

DH_Grid and DH_Guides are available for free download today from the
Digital Heaven website at www.digital-heaven.co.uk

The remaining 10 plug-ins including innovative solutions for fixing
dead pixels, creating split-screens and subtitles are available for
individual purchase for $20 to $40 each from the Digital Heaven
online store.”

Mike Curtis has outdone himself yet again. “NAB 2006 HD4NDs Cameras & Shooting Gear Wrap Up Notes” is his latest post at HD For Indies, and the 25,000-word post is packed with information on the latest camera and gear. If you read no other camera/gear news this year, read this. There is too much to even attempt to summarize here, you need to go read the whole enchilada.

PlagiarismToday offers a thought-provoking article that frankly discusses concerns with plagiarism and rote content theft among bloggers and blogs. In the section entitled “Block quotes by the Dozen”, the author mentions the so-called “gray area”, PT’s classification of the blogger practice of re-using large blocks of text/content from the original article or source, even when the source is properly attributed.

I feel like the article offers a good balanced perspective on the issue, as they take time to explain how to analyze if an offense is occurring, and to what degree. The metric they offer seems well thought out. For instance, one of the 7 suggested bullet points to consider suggests comparing the amount of regurgitated/copied material vs the amount of unique, original content on the site. Other factors include what exactly the quoting blogger stands to gain, and whether permission to re-use the content has been licensed or granted by the original author.

To be 100% honest, many of the sites and blogs that I read on a daily basis blockquote extensively. Some attribute better than others…there are those that attribute nothing but a tiny link, some who build the attribution into the story, and others don’t even bother to reference the original post.

But that is a side issue…as the PT article suggests, “proper” attribution isn’t necessarily enough. The offense is determined somewhat by what the blogger stands to gain, by the intent of the content copy/paste. To be completely frank, FresHDV is guilty at times of too much blockquoting. Speaking from my own experience, I would say that extensive content requoting is simply a side effect of lazy blogging.

But I also see the benefit of reposting at least SOME of the original story. For instance, go read Fark for a few days. They will offer a link to something of interest, and generally a quick 1-2 sentence summary. The 2nd sentence is often some smart-alek comment about the link (and whoever writes them has a great sense of humor). But Fark is maddening for the gathering of any useful information…there is simply not enough summary in that tiny little summary, and many times you have no real idea what lies behind that link. So one of two things happens (or at least in my experience anyway).

1. You end up reading nearly every single link that fark offers, and weed out the crap on your own.
2. You just skim the “summaries” fark offers, hoping not to miss something of value/interest.

To me, neither of those options is a good one. As such, the fark method of providing information is not desirable. Now I just used fark as an example…I think it’s pretty obvious that they have positioned themselves as nothing more than a link dump, and they do it well. They aren’t trying to provide any real content…again, only an example.

So on one hand you have the very real need to provide a good summary of what you are linking to, of the information that your blog readers value and need. And on the other hand, you have to balance plagiarism and theft of copyrighted material.

For the sake of discussion, this has been the way we do things around here:
Here at FresHDV, the general rule of thumb has been to link directly to the source of the information, that being the author or originating site. We try to do this in our post, try to build the link into our comments or summary.

Another rule of thumb here is attribution of where the link was found. We generally do this at the end of the article or post, using a “Via” link that goes directly to the original article (not just a link to the blog/site in general). The spirit of that practice is so the source where we found the info (whether it is the original author or not) gets some credit (i.e. traffic).

Again, for the sake of our readers sanity, and to provide better and more useful information, we try to link directly to the original source in our posts and articles, and shy away from linking to sites which are in turn linking to the actual article. Hence the use of the “Via” link at the end of each post.

What do you think? What are ways that we could improve our presentation of information? What helps YOU, the reader get your information more quickly and with less effort? In what ways do you feel that we err in our content?

(Ironically, via Unmediated)

This post at DCN links to a variety of sites offering free SFX and audio clips for use in production. Good info.