Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo has written a compelling list of his top ten reasons why you shouldn’t use film school to launch your career in production. Obviously there is no one-size-fits-all answer, but the list presents a good argument worth consideration. My personal favorites culled from his list:

6. Netflix + books = critical studies.
7. Learn by doing.
9. Don’t study film, study life.

#7 has to be the biggest one, in my opinion. Too many “indies” spend too much time talking specs and dreams (and waiting for the next big thing in Indie equipment), and not enough time creating. Experience is the most powerful teacher, and if you aren’t making films you aren’t learning from experience. Go make something.

The PA’s pocket Handbook is a PDF that can be printed and carried with you for reference. It offers a good basic overview of what to expect as a PA on a production set, and how to be a better one. Here’s an excerpt:

THE BASIC IDEA IN FOUR WORDS (S.T.A.R.)
SWIFT: Traversing space or performing movements in a brief period of time. Acting with readiness; Prompt. In other words, boogie. Run to your car. If someone asks for a 3/8 inch bolt, say “No problem” and leave at a brisk gallop. Don’t ask what it’s for, or what it is, or where to get it. Just leave and find a Grip to help you.

TACTFUL: A quick or intuitive appreciation of what is fit, proper, or right. Skill in avoiding what would offend or disturb. Considerate. Basically knowing when to keep your mouth shut and smile, and when to add a bit of valuable input. When to be where you’re needed, and when to leave when you’re in the way.

AWARE: Conscious; cognizant. Alert and informed. Always pay close attention to how you are affecting others. Read the call sheets so you know what is supposed to be happening. When things get crazy, take a deep breath and think clearly.

RESOURCEFUL: Capacity for finding or adapting. Skill or ingenuity in meeting any situation. Versatile, and devious. Try to think of solutions to problems, even if they are not yours. Carry things people will need, like aspirin. Get a Swiss Army knife.

An excellent reference, in my opinion. A PA isn’t a particularly glorious position on a film set, but it is a good way to learn how a production operates. Consider too that the barriers of entry are lower than many other production positions. Be prepared to work for peanuts, if that. For example, one local production I saw advertised was paying PA’s between $75-$100 for a day. Bear in mind that a shooting day is oftentimes a lot longer than a normal 8hr shift.

(Via HD4NDS)

We mentioned the Weight of the World christian cartoon recently. There is a lot of interest in the production, and having spoken to the series creator, it seems that W8 will soon have an TV audience. Stay tuned. Here is a local news story on the topic.

Coming soon to a HD Television near you…LaserTV!

“…Australian company Arasor International and its US partner Novalux unveiled what they claimed to be the world’s first laser television in Sydney today, with a pitch that it would be half the price, twice as good, and use a quarter of the electricity of conventional plasma and LCD TVs.”

“With a worldwide launch date scheduled for Christmas 2007, under recognisable brands like Mitsubishi and Samsung, Novalux chief executive Jean-Michel Pelaprat is so bold as to predict the death of plasma.”

“If you look at any screen today, the colour content is roughly about 30-35 per cent of what the eye can see…..But for the very first time with a laser TV we’ll be able to see 90 per cent of what the eye can see.”

The tech is basically a projection TV that uses a tunable optoelectronic chip-laser for projection, instead of a standard projection light source. Another recent article on the topic discusses the chip design and specs:

“Novalux’s prototype Necsel devices emit 3 W at 465 nm and 532 nm and 750mW at 620 nm - all from a new package smaller than a matchbox. Necsel lasers’ output is bright, speckle-free, and color-saturated, giving in clear, vibrant images that reach a larger color space than competing lighting technologies.”

One viewer that saw the demo was impressed.

“The laser TV made the plasma look like an old console colour TV. It was so good, the only way i could describe it was that it looked like a wet photo in a developer tray - if you haven’t done photography, that may not mean alot. But the colour depth and
contrast, especially the space shuttle shots where space was REALLY black, and you could see the gold foil crinkles in the cargo bay, was amazing.”

(Via Slashdot)

Red Digital Cinema has posted more media to play with, one greenscreen TIFF and one of a girl popping a bubblegum bubble. Both available via bitorrent, 1K rez on these clips this clip as well. The TIFF is uncompressed, at 4.5K (thanks, Mike). Discussion at DVXuser.

Jim Jannard also mentioned that they have recovered some of the equipment from the recent break-in.

(Via HD4NDS)

UPDATE: I’ve been reminded that Red is HOPING to ship, ESTIMATED to ship in March/April timeframe. Nothing definite. Though they have been meeting projected deadlines to date, so keep those fingers crossed.

Red Digital Cinema has posted a video clip, presumably from the Mysterium 4K sensor. The video is 105MB and available via a torrent. It’s a 24fps 1024×512 Motion JPEG A formatted Quicktime MOV that shows a rotating pair of Oakley glasses. The level of detail in the shot is pretty amazing, check out the dust on the lens.

In other Red-related news (for those that have been living under a rock), the offices of Red were broken into a few weeks ago with $332,200 worth of equipment swiped, Jannard has announced that Red One will be shipping in April 2007, and the Red 18-85mm zoom lens has been priced at $9500 (reservations close on Oct 31).

Buzz Image has a short featurette on some of the FX work they did for the film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. It’s very enlightening (and entertaining) to see the shots deconstructed, you’ll gain a new appreciation for what VFX artists do every day.

(Via Motionographer)

Perian is plugin component for Quicktime which allows QT to play video files encoded with a non-standard codec like XviD or 3ivX. It is similiar to the myriad “codec pack” installers for the PC platform, though Perian’s install is a bit cleaner…it installs as a single component for Quicktime, which would greatly simplify it’s removal should it hose your system.

“With Perian installed, any OS X application that uses QuickTime can now use these additional media types:
*Divx, XviD, FLV, AVI
*MS-MPEG4 v1, MS-MPEG4 v2, MS-MPEG4 v3, DivX 3.11 alpha, 3ivX, Sorenson H.263, Flash Screen Video, Truemotion VP6
*These formats when they are inside an AVI: h.264, mpeg4, AAC, AC3 Audio, and VBR MP3.”

Note that Flip4Mac is still required to play WMV files, and AC3 Audio playback is dependent on A52Codec.

(Via TUAW)

Videomaker has an understandable, though perhaps overly-simplistic, summary of what DOF is to filmmakers, and includes suggestions on “cheating” a shallow depth of field look with small-sensor camcorders.

“If a shallow depth of field is something that you want to achieve, try these techniques:
*Calculate the depth of field on the shot. Either do the math, or use some of the depth of field calculators available online (see sidebar). Once this is known, adjust the setup as needed.
*Open up the aperture as wide as possible. This will shallow the depth of field, but it can also brighten the image too much. Keep some neutral density (ND) filters handy just in case.
*Mount a longer focal length lens on the camera. Screw-on lens adapters are available for many prosumer cameras. Use a telephoto lens to shallow the depth of field further.”

They also touch briefly on the principle of a Circle of Confusion, again offering a short and simple explanation. For those interested in learning more, Wikipedia has a good writeup on CoC.

(Via Videoguys)

Sony is recalling even more battery packs that might potentially overheat and explode in some situations. Marketwatch has a few comments on the subject:

“Thursday’s recall comes atop last month’s recall of six million Sony batteries used by Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) and Dell Inc. (DELL). Sony said last month that it expected to incur costs of about $170 million to $255 million related to the Apple and Dell recalls.”

“Sony’s brand is severely damaged,” said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a market-research firm. “I think it’s going to be a question whether they can be in the battery business at all.”

“…in the real world the way that it plays out is that the [computer manufacturers] decrease what they buy from Sony,” said Kay. “They’ll say, ‘We used to take two million from you and three million from Sanyo. Now we’re going to take four million from Sanyo and one million from you. And that’s punishment’.”

Media Convert is a very unique service available free of charge. Basically, you upload files up to 50MB in size, and they convert/transcode them into different formats. The conversion options are extensive, and there are a few editing options. ID3 tags are also preserved for audio conversions.

The beautiful thing…no special software or plugins to install. It’s a simple HTTP upload with no hoops to jump through. The service seems to be aimed at video-enabled PDA’s and cellphones, I’m sure vloggers are salivating at the possibilities. Here’s a very small sampling of the formats supported, check the website for the entire list:

3GP (in/out) AMV (out) ASF (in) AVI (in/out) DV (in) FLI (in) FLV (in) MKV (in) MOV (in/out) MP4 (in/out) MPG (in/out) OGM (in) SWF (out) VOB (in) WMV (in)

Movie conversion to AVI (DivX MPEG4), 3GP, SWF (Flash), AMV (for Chinese MP4/S1 MP3 players), MP3 (sound track extraction) and JPEG (frame extraction).
Options : resize, fps, codec, bitrate, fourcc, etc. (depends on the format)

*WAV to MP3, OGG, AAC, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
*MP3 to WAV, OGG, AAC, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
*WMA to WAV, OGG, AAC, AMR, FLAC, MP3, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
*OGG to WAV, MP3, AAC, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
*AAC to WAV, MP3, OGG, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
*MP4 (AAC) to WAV, MP3, OGG, AMR, FLAC, MPC, MMF, AU, AIFF, QCP.
Options : split, encoding method, quality

The standard-definition DVD format is somewhat limiting in what kind of interaction can be programmed. Fortunately, this is changing…proponents of the HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats have oft-touted the advanced interactivity that can be built into a disc. Nevertheless, we haven’t seen many studios take advantage of that capability yet.

“Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift” was recently released by Universal on HD-DVD. This disc is one of the first to feature an advanced capability dubbed “U-Control”.

“Universal’s “U-Control” is a product of the HD DVD format’s iHD authoring environment, which allows for a variety of pre-encoded materials (video, audio, text overlays, etc.) to be stored on disc, and then accessed on-the-fly by users during playback. Multiple audio streams can be encoded on a disc and “mixed live” by the player for integrated supplemental audio content, picture-in-picture video streams can be displayed simultaneously, and even graphic overlays can be “mapped” to specific objects on the screen.”

I’m looking forward to seeing what other advanced interactivity is cooked up by content creators. I believe that for consumers at large to accept and upgrade to the new formats, studios are going to have to seriously leverage these capabilities. For many consumers, the picture quality differences are a moot point. Offering advanced content may well drive more to consider migrating to the high-definition formats.