Cinematech links to the A Scanner Darkly Trailer Remix contest. The contest offers full-res trailer elements for download, you can edit in your own NLE or edit online using tools from Jumpcut.

The source files are two 720×486 uncompressed MOV clips, a 720×486 version of the official trailer, and several uncompressed AIF audio, SFX, and dialogue files. They also seem to REALLY be pushing people to use Jumpcut’s tools instead.

Entries are due June 7, but they suggest entering earlier for a better chance of winning the Audience Award at Jumpcut. That’s the award that is won by those who coerce enough distant relatives to vote…

The crux of the rules:
Use the elements they provide, or use your own.
Don’t use copyrighted material.

So get editing. And call your aunt, the one you can coerce into voting for your entry at jumpcut…

The Holophone H3-D 5.1 channel surround-sound microphone was shown recently at NAB, and it’s an innovative and unique product that I find very interesting. There is an article on the H3-D and it’s big brother the Super-MINI over at Studio Daily that gives a good overall rundown of what the microphones have to offer.

The Holophone H3-D offers true 5.1 surround capture, with the convenience of no external mixing (or thought, for that matter). It features 6 individual directional microphones for true surround sound capture, all contained in a nice, compact, camera-mountable form factor. Those directional channels are then mixed into a single stereo output. To some extent, that methodology is contrary to why you would want to capture 5.1 sound in the first place, but for those that desire convenience and instant results, this mic delivers in spades. The mic connects to your camera using a single XLR which requires phantom power. $1,695 at your local Holophone retailer.

For those that require output of 6 individual channels for further mixing, the Holophone Super-MINI is another, slightly higher-priced audio capture option. This model can also be mounted on camera or elsewhere. Like the H3-D, it features 6 individual directional microphones for true surround sound capture. But unlike the H3-D model, each channel of directional sound is output individually, via three stereo 3.5mm jacks. The damage to your budget is just a little higher, at $2,495.

Mike Curtis has posted the last of his NAB 2006 showroom floor snapshots, with quick notes on each image. Tons of pictures.

We previously broke news and specs of the Phantom 65 and Phantom HD high-end digital cinema cameras. I noticed that Mike has images of the Phantoms on the showroom floor.

It was only a matter of time. Mike Curtis just snagged an Apple MacBook in black, and he’s got some preliminary notes and commentary. Good reading for those mulling the purchase of a MacBook.

(It pains me to even type 14 hours of student films.)

Paul over at SRF has another insightful post talking about his experiences as a judge for Temple University’s student film festival. A good writeup, but one thing in particular caught my eye…he makes a great point about learning to be a filmmaker:

“If you’re interested in being a filmmaker, volunteer to be a pre-screener for a film festival.”
“…The students making the selections want to be filmmakers themselves, and I think they probably learned as much about filmmaking from those 14 hours as they did from any single course they’ve taken. Why? Because they saw more bad films than good ones and, seeing them in such close succession, they saw that bad films often have the same, simple problems…”

Excellent commentary as always, and well worth the read.

For the DIY fans, Instructables has nice step-by-step instructions on rolling your own shock-absorbed blimp mic with windscreen. The cost? Just $40. Not too shabby.

(Via DVGuru)

The crew that is making the indie film “Spoon” are documenting their efforts online, at a blog called Indie Film Live. They convinced the developers of the Silicon Imaging SI-1920HDVR camera to let them shoot with a beta version of the camera and help work out some of the bugs. They are impressed, to say the least.

“We began playing with the cineform raw footage in premiere. This is the BEST latitute I have ever seen on any video format. The 10Bit file has very wide dynamic range and the files are relatively tiny. Our data rates are around 11MB per second. David newman did you say that was because it’s single sensor using Bayer Raw cineform compression?
I think that’s what he said.”

They mention that 10 days before the shoot, the motherboard went down, requiring a replacement be shipped in.
“We’re getting into the film cam mode. If it breaks you open and fix it. It’s not like regular video cameras. It’s all solid 1+1 stuff. The case is rugged aluminium and the parts inside all familar. The only thing we can’t do anything about is the camera head. That’s new. But the computer stuff is really practical and it’s liberating to know that we can control and service the unit without opeing up complex circuitry. It feels like a computerised Film Cam without moving parts!”

One of the really cool things about this camera is that you can shoot it by wire. That is, the head/lens assembly is really quite small and light, and everything else can be sent back to the recorder via wire. Suddenly tight locations and shots are possible without much effort and setup. All you need tethered is a Gig ethernet cable and power. Very cool.

The crew seems to be very impressed with the image from this camera.

(Thanks for the heads up, Francois)

Despite the best efforts of security at NAB 2006, thieves managed to make off with quite a few high end items. NAB organizers hired over 1000 security personnel, yet missed the theft of three very expensive HD cameras.

“Ikegami had a $55,000 HDN-X10 disk-based HD camera and a $34,000 Canon hi-def lens lifted from its booth. Shotoku had a $50,000 Sony high-def camera swiped. Hardest hit was New York City-based dealer Abel CineTech, which lost a Panasonic hi-def Varicam worth $72,000, along with a $27,000 Panasonic standard-def camera and a $4,000 Panasonic MiniDV camera.”

What did YOU bring home from NAB?

(Via DCN)

Josh Oakhurst and a friend discuss the merits of Indies-On-A-Budget purchasing the Sony Z1U over a DVX-100B for production. They argue cost vs. quality both ways, but I find it strange that the FX1 option isn’t part of the equation instead of the much more expensive Z1U?

It’s a MacFanBoy extravaganza! The new MacBook is out, and Apple fans everywhere are hyperventilating. Here’s your daily dose…

The requisite Black MacBook unpacking pics.

The MacBook hard drive is fairly easily user-replaceable. So the 7200 rpm option is there after all. The sweet new keyboard is part of the case now…break a key, get a new case. Yikes. FrontRow remote is white, as is the power cord…regardless of the color of your shiny new notebook. Uncool for BlackBook owners.

More MacBook pics.

(Via TUAW)

The 48 Hour Film Project is back for 2006, and coming to a city near you. Organize a team of talent to compete head to head in creating a film in just 48 hours time. The winners of each city competition will compete nationally for an as-yet-unannounced prize package (last year they gave away Avid w/ Mojo editing systems and the Panny HVX-200). Winners of the 2005 city competitions will be screened at Cinequest, and past winners of the 48HFP have screened at SXSW.

Cities scheduled so far:
* Philadelphia: begins March 24th
* Boston: begins April 7th
* New York: begins April 21st
* Phoenix: begins April 21st
* Washington, DC: begins May 5th
* Atlanta: begins May 19th
* Fargo: begins May 19th
* Houston: begins May 19th
* Portland, Maine: begins June 2nd
* Cincinnati: begins June 9th
* Little Rock: begins June 9th
* Minneapolis: begins June 9th
* St. Louis: begins June 9th
* Chicago: begins June 16th
* Austin: begins June 23rd
* Los Angeles: begins June 23rd
* San Francisco: begins June 23rd
* Milwaukee: begins July 7th
* Seattle: begins July 7th
* Aberdeen, SD: begins July 14th
* San Diego: begins July 14th
* Asheville: begins July 21st
* Denver: begins July 21st
* Greensboro: begins July 21st
* Louisville: begins July 21st
* Nashville: begins July 21st
* Des Moines: begins July 28th
* Miami: begins July 28th

We mentioned the 48 Hour Film Project last year as well.

The new Apple notebooks are out. They are offered with 13″ displays in both traditional white and the new sleek black cases. The iBooks MacBooks start at $1099.

There is a very useful specifications comparison chart at the Apple Store, it shows features and info for the entire line of MacBook’s at a glance.

MacBook Specifications of note:
*Up to 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
*Up to 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
*1280×800 max screen resolution (will push a 1920×1200 external display with the not-included DVI adapter)
*Display Spanning and Mirroring, and work with the lid closed
*64MB shared video memory
*5400rpm SATA hard drives up to 120GB, no 7200rpm option
*(2) USB, (1) Firewire 400
*Built-in iSight, Mic, Bluetooth, Wifi, and Gig ethernet
*No illuminated keyboard option like the MBP
*Quick-connect MagSafe power connector

Looks like a great little machine. If you are a fan of the iBook line, this would be a worthy upgrade to be sure. Editors might prefer the MacBook Pro though, with bigger screen resolution and faster hard drive options, and illuminated keyboard it just makes more sense. And with the 17″ MBP, you have the option of FW800 and A Real video card.

(Via PrettyMuchEveryBodyOnTheInternet)

Mac News Network is reporting that SOME users are seeing a variety of issues which seem to have cropped up since the installation of the latest Apple updates (security and QT 7.1 updates). Initial reports suggest it is affecting more Intel Mac users than PPC users. YMMV of course.

Standard Operating Procedure: if you need a working production machine you might consider holding off on the updates for a short while, particularly since Quicktime is one of the updates.

As you may have noticed, over the past few weeks we’ve been tweaking the layout and structure of FresHDV. More tweaks and changes will be slowly happening over the coming weeks.

One of our most recent creations is the FreshFeed, that column of ever-changing links on the left side of this website. We watch and read a veritable plethora of forums, sites, and feeds every day. The best, most relevant, or whatever happens to interest is what we may post about, or link to, or shamelessly rip off. But we have found that there is a ton of relevant and useful info each day that we simply don’t have the time to expound on. So with the FreshFeed, we are keeping a constantly updated feed of the 20 top links, articles, and info of the moment.

We thought they might be links you would want to read too.

Here’s an oldie, but a goodie. 100fps has a very detailed rundown on what interlacing means, and how to properly deinterlace footage. This site has been around for a while, but it’s worth mentioning again.

UPDATE: Saw at DVGuru that the excellent Outside Hollywood blog has a more concise article on deinterlacing, and it appears somewhat more geared towards DV.

(Via unmediated)