(See update note at the bottom of this post for more commentary on the shot)
The Thai film “The Protector” (Tom Yum Goong) features an amazing fight scene that runs 4 full minutes and was created with a single continuous Steadicam shot. In the scene, the camera operator had to follow the lead character through a multi-level martial arts brawl that spans multiple staircases and involved complex timing and choreography for both actors and camera. Watch the scene below. Continue reading ‘A Very Challenging Four-minute Steadicam Shot’

At NAB Expo 2006 Colorspace announced development of a line of 1K and 2K digital cinema cameras, the True16 and True35. They have been very quiet for the past year, until they just recently announced the ICON uncompressed recording system for cameras.

The ICON is a portable digital cinema recorder, capable of ingesting completely uncompressed 720p, 1080p, 2k, and 4k*. The ICON Recorder comes in a small and lightweight form factor allowing for on board recording including steadicam, as well as shoulder and roving shots.

The recorder body is the main element in the ICON’s modular design, and contains all the hardware I/O, with video acquisition based around single link (4:2:2) and dual link (4:4:4) HD-SDI. Audio can be embedded over HD-SDI, as well as acquired through XLR inputs.
Continue reading ‘Colorspace ICON Uncompressed Recorder announced’

Red Digital Cinema released it’s official pricing schedule last week, and there has been a lot of discussion on the topic among the online community. Mike Curtis of HD For Indies has shared his thoughts on the subject, as well as some linkage to various other discussions and minor updates on the topic. Definately read this one if you are a Red fan or thinking of becoming one.

Graeme Nattress has released the latest plugin package for FCP users, this one called the “Big Box of Tricks“. The title says it all. Steve Douglas has a rundown of what plugins and features the Big Box of Tricks package will net you for a paltry $100. And owners of the discontinued Nattress Set 1 and Set 2 are eligible for a special upgrade rate. Rejoice! Why? Because Nattress plugins rock the casbah.

 Podcast Video [9:55m]: Download

In this podcast we delve more into the script management side of things. Now that we have set that slate up correctly we’ll learn how to keep a line script and shot log and work them hand in hand with the information we have put on the slate to achieve a smoother workflow. This will not only make our production more efficient but help make sure we have all the coverage we need.

Click here to view the video and subscribe to future updates!

UPDATE: Part 1 is online here.

Just-announced Sandisk 8GB SD Card = $190.00
Panasonic 8GB P2 card = $1,200.00

If you hadn’t heard, P2 storage uses SD cards internally. Now I don’t EVER expect P2 technology to be equal to consumer storage prices, obviously Panasonic is using the cream of the SD card crop in manufacturing it’s cards (or they should be). After all, who wants their solid-state storage crapping out in the middle of a critical take? Professionals are willing to pay a premium for quality and reliability. How much of a premium is the question I ask. It does seem odd that P2 pricing hasn’t shown much of a downward trend, even as major advances in both capacity and pricing have been made in the consumer arena. I wonder if we will we ever see generic-brand P2 options?

(Via Camcorderinfo Blog)

Patrick Sheffield has shared a variety of free plugins for Final Cut Pro that emulate different film color strip processing techniques. Hotness.

Issac at Outside Hollywood has written an excellent post on the state of “indie” filmmaking and original plagiarism.

…the indie phenomenon, claiming to eschew cliche and bring fresh new content to the screen, has created a string of movies so predictable that that they are a genre in themselves. Bordwell has brilliantly named this genre Indie Guignol…
Continue reading ‘State of the Indie Address - On United Non-Conformity’

Taylor Wigton and Randy Wedick have written an extensive and informative article for showreel.org on the JVC HD100U camcorder coupled with Redrock’s M2 35mm lens adapter. The combo of tools were used on 3 seperate productions over the course of a year, and Randy and Taylor dish on the strengths and weaknesses of the pair. Here’s a quick excerpt:
Continue reading ‘JVC HD100 and the Redrock M2 adapter - 1 Year Later’

NomadsLand is a new grassroots site with a vision to help distribute and expand the audience of Films That Matter.

“…our main mission above all is to provide a platform for video artists to tell compelling stories about their world and the world in which we live. But at the same we want to channel royalty revenue to help professional and amateur filmmakers improve their commitment to their craft by developing social action media with sensibilities from the world of film, art and music. We also provide tools to engage the viewing audience and motivate them to get involved with important issues. The fiction and non-fiction films on this site will explore issues that traditional corporate establishment media has been historically too apathetic to cover or too stingy to devote resources to.”

A worthy cause. They have also committed to splitting 50% of all revenue generated directly with the filmmakers. I have to say, it is encouraging to see alternate distribution options springing up in this brave new world of online media. I wish the site and it’s filmmakers the best of luck. If you are interested in making your film available at NomadsLand, simply read this.

I caught up with Taylor Wigton recently, and found he’s been pretty busy. One of the articles he contributed to showreel.org is on real-world testing of the Canon HX A1 camcorder and it’s 24f mode. He conducted a variety of tests and comparisons on the “fake progressive” mode along with Randy Wedick, the Digital Cinema Tech at Band Pro.

“We captured footage in 24f and compared freezeframes of 24f versus a variety of processed 60i footage and also against true progressive capture…The final image from the tape is 1440×1080. This begins as a single field that is 1440×540. It is then processed and intelligently interpolated using a host of Canon’s processors, and the resulting image is smart up-rezzed to 1440×1080 and laid to tape. This image is much nicer looking than a line duplicated image. When you are watching it, it has a great deal more perceived resolution than a 1440×540 image.”
Continue reading ‘What is 24f? DP Taylor Wigton tests the Canon XH A1 camera’

John Sinno, one of the producers of the critically-acclaimed documentary Iraq in Fragments, has written a very interesting open letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In the letter, Sinno takes issue with the flippant disrepect shown towards docs in general by Oscar’s presenter Jerry Seinfeld. Here’s a few short snippets:

Continue reading ‘An Open Letter to the Academy’

At NAB 2007 Fujinon will debut a astonishing new 8.8mm to 777mm telephoto lens. The XA88×8.8BESM HD lens features 88X magnification along with Precision Focus Assist. Low light performance is equally impressive: f/1.7 from 8.8mm to 348mm, dropping to f/3.8 at 777mm. Broadcast shooters have got to be salivating at this new offering.

Avid2FCP is a new site aimed at Avid editors who are eyeballing or have recently switched to Final Cut Pro. Industry pros Martin Baker (of plugin firm Digital Heaven), Jude Cotter, Victoria Parks-Murphy, Mark Raudonis and Shane Ross (Little Frog in HiDef) have committed to fielding questions in the forums, and have already authored a few articles on FCP capabilities.
Continue reading ‘Avid2FCP: Former Avid Editors talk Final Cut Pro’

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a supposed screenshot from the UK Apple Store that shows both four and eight core options for Mac Pros. The “error” was soon corrected. Whether the information was “accidentally” released or not, it’s just another indicator that Apple will be releasing octo-Macs in the near future. The Intel quad-core processors have been out for a while now, so it’s only a matter of time. As Camcorderinfo speculates, maybe before NAB?