Ah yes, another installment of Your Weekly Red News, this one courtesy of HD For Indies. In classic Mike Curtis style, he’s posted a few thoughts-in-progress on what Red Digital Cinema is up to these days, and how the Red One might affect the camera rental market.

After briefly re-opening reservations for a few days in January, there are now about 1500 reserved Red One cameras. Comparing that to about “about 100 Vipers, 70 Genesis, and maybe a couple of dozen Dalsa Origin and Arri D20s currently out there” (according to the Digital Cinema Society Newsletter), that makes for a very interesting market out there once all those Red Ones ship.

Mike also notes that support issues for the Red team might be a big issue, quoting a conversation; “If they are going to sell 1000 cameras in their first few months, they are probably going to have to field 50,000 questions.” Obviously the Reduser.net forums will help with some of the FAQs, but it’s a valid question to ask what kind of support can be expected for a Red One camera owner. Anyway, all that and tons more in Mike’s post. Check it out.

Two quick Cinematech updates…
1. Scott has updated his extensive list of sites that compensate you for your videos, adding new players like Si-Mi and IndiePix.

2. The cost of his excellent book “The Future of Web Video” has been reduced. It’s a good read, and I highly recommend it.

The American Society of Cinematographers has named Brian Melton and Lyle Vincent as this years recipients of the John Alonzo Heritage Award.

“This award is designed to encourage the next generation of talented filmmakers to pursue their dreams by recognizing outstanding artistic achievements by students,� says Laszlo Kovacs, ASC, chairman of the organization’s Education Committee.

Applicants for the Heritage Award must be either in their final year of film school or a recent graduate. Their student film submissions must be accompanied by a written recommendation from a film school chair, dean or teacher. Entries were judged by a jury of ASC members.

“We weren’t looking for beautiful images,� Kovacs says. “We were judging how effectively the films submitted by student cinematographers helped their collaborators present their stories. It wasn’t an easy decision. There were many impressive entries.�

The award will be presented during the 21st Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards on February 18 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

UPDATE: The HV20 is available for $999 from B&H and $1099 from Amazon.com

DCN located a review of the new Canon HV20, which is coming stateside sometime before summer. One thing that has suprised me is that it’s supposedly a 3 lux camera.

Along the same lines, DV.com has a review comparing the Sony HC3 to the Canon HV10 for use as a backup camera solution (also via DCN)

Accomplished shooter Phillip Bloom has shared a lengthy shootout review comparing three popular 35mm adapters; the Cinevate Brevis, SG PRO, and Redrock M2.

Note that shootout isn’t entirely definitive, as time constraints limited tweaking each adapter’s configuration. Phillip is careful to note this, and he appears to have approached the whole test as objectively as possible. Consider the shootout a comparative analysis to be taken with a grain of salt and some common sense. So which adapter won? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Here are a few highlights…
Continue reading ‘35mm Adapter Shootout - Redrock Micro M2, Cinevate Brevis 35 and SGPRO’

X-bit labs has a extremely detailed review of several LCD Monitors that are intended for pros who demand color accuracy. They took a hard look at the NEC MultiSync LCD2190UXi, NEC MultiSync LCD2190UXp, and Samsung SyncMaster XL20. Features like LED light sources, hardware calibration, and ambient lighting sensing…these aren’t your average display panels. And like most pro-level equipment they come at a price premium as well.

Adobe has a very interesting case study on the post-production of the recently released and mostly-digitally acquired Superman Returns movie.

The seven Panavison Genesis cameras recorded video as raw images to HDCAM SR tape at 10-bit 4:4:4 RGB Panalog4 color. The tapes were then digitized using a Blackmagic Design Multibridge Extreme system in a PC running Adobe Premiere Pro. Once shots were digitized using Adobe Premiere Pro, they were converted to .dpx files using Blackmagic’s FrameLink utility that converts Adobe Premiere Pro .avi files to .dpx. The images were then inspected via a rigorous quality control process and distributed to editorial and visual effects groups.

“Every single frame of this film was touched by us and in turn by Adobe Premiere Pro.”

The article goes on to discuss a number of other Adobe tools used on the project.
(Via MCT Images)

http://www.bpcvalue.com appears to be a Sony branded site, with a nice catalog of mid to high end equipment at refurb prices. Currently they seem to have some pretty decent deals…HVR-M15U HDV deck priced at $1,776 ($2,820 MSRP), J-H1 HDCAM deck for around $5500 off the original list price, and one XDCAM HD deck for just under $1000 off list. A lot of other production items in the catalog as well. F900 Cinealta for $54K anyone?. Or a HVR-A1U for $1953? Has anyone used this source before? Are they legit?

Researchers Adam Ecker and Laurie Heller, building on the work of Daniel Kersten have been studying the effects of sound on how objects and movements are perceived. In tests, volunteers watched animations that were accompanied by specific sound effects, and recorded what they “saw”. The results are quite revealing, and filmmakers should take note.
Continue reading ‘How sound can so critically affect what we perceive’

To date, when shooting with the Firestore FS100 all HVX200 footage was captured on disk as 720/60p (even when shooting native 720 24p). Record time was 100 minutes. This latest 3.0 update from Focus Enhancements doubles record time to 200 minutes of footage at native frame rates.

Version 3.0 adds native DVCPRO HD 720/24p, 25p and 30p recording capabilities, which more than doubles the record time on the FS-100. In addition, version 3.0 adds native QuickTime® DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD recording capabilities, which allows for direct import of clips into Apple’s Final Cut Pro nonlinear editing application.

Current Firestore users can get the version 3 update at www.focusinfo.com for $39. Units manufactured after today will ship with the new revision.
(Via HD For Indies)

Courtesy of GeniusDV, here’s a quick and dirty tutorial on how to create a station or brand identification “glass bug” to be superimposed over footage. Quick. Simple. Effective.

Off topic, but fun nevertheless. Just saw a really cute short film entitled Children Are A Gift. Parents with young children will appreciate this one.

While you are wasting time online, why not take a look at the original Napoleon Dynamite short?

(Via Ticklebooth)

The MIT Technology Review is featuring a very interesting article on advances in fluid dynamics by a professor at Caltech. Mathieu Desbrun has developed new equations that describe more accurately (than current visual effects tools) how a liquid should move within a given space.

The advances don’t work faster than today’s tech, but more accurately and realistically, and have the potential to save time and expense in animation and VFX post production. There are a few very interesting video examples attached to the article.