While researching storyboarding resources for an upcoming commercial shoot, I ran across the dependentfilms.net files section. Wow, what a great collection of templates and tools for content creators! They have document and PDF templates for scripts and screenplays, storyboarding, location and talent releases, call sheets and shot logs, and a number of other very useful files for indies and filmmakers in general. We’ve added it to our Downloads & Useful Things repository.

 NAB Expo '07 Day 3 Misc 1 [6:09m]: Download
 NAB Expo '07 Day 3 Misc 1 [6:09m]: Download

NAB Show 2007 has come and gone, but we are still working through the hours of footage we captured on the Expo floor. We’re getting very close to the end of it, thankfully. Here is a compilation of interesting info that we captured on Day 3 in Las Vegas.

*Jim Bartell of Bartech Engineering demonstrates the Bartech BFD Wireless Focus Device (which uses the powerful M-One Motor from Palomar Engineering). The Bartech + M-One combo is one of the more affordable wireless focus/iris systems on the market, and they are built rock-solid. Stay tuned for FreshDV’s feature review of the BFD.

*One of the issues we ran into at NAB was wireless/internet connectivity. It was always a challenge to wrangle a reliable and fast internet connection. In particular the wifi at the Expo was abysmally slow, we were having a very difficult time getting the videos out to you guys. Fortunately, we ran into the nice guys at Stratos Global out in the parking lot. They had a Hummer setup with a few BGAN Satellite connections, and uploaded a number of completed video podcasts that day for us. Their self-contained satellite uplink/streaming unit is a really unique solution, and surprisingly affordable for what it does. Check it out.

Click a Download link above or watch via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed.

After years of the music industry in general Not Getting It, here is some refreshing news. Moby has created a Gratis website where independent filmmakers can download and freely use a selection of his music in their productions. The catch is that it must be non-commercial use…but Moby addresses the possibility of licensing the work at a later date.

“the music in the film-music part of moby.com is available for free use for student films and independent films and non-profit films and shorts and etc. the music is available so long as these films are not used for commercial(i.e-making money)purposes. if you use the music in your film and your film goes on to make money: great, and congratulations. before your film makes money, though, you’ll have to apply for a commercial license for the music. i PROMISE that the commercial licenses won’t be expensive or difficult to obtain. and any money that this music generates from commercial licenses will be given to a charity.”

(Via Digital Camcorder News)

RED 23 blog has a link to the full Onfilm “PJ and the Mysterium Chip Affair” article (PDF link) that talks about his test shoot with the Red Digital Cinema beta cameras. It’s a nice long writeup including pretty pictures and a lot of shoot-related snippets of info that I hadn’t read yet. Like the following quote:

“The shoot went largely without a hitch, except for the footage shot from the helicopter on the first day, all of which was lost due to the hard drives not being able to withstand the vibrations (and issue the solid state RED RAM will overcome). The problem was solved by running the maximum length of cable possible from the camera to the drive, which was placed in the helicopter’s cabin, and having someone lie on the floor to nurse the drives through the shot.”

The entire article is full of nuggets like that one, and a lot of FCP related info on the post side of the production. A fantastic look at one of the early triumphs of a new era in digital cinema.
(Thanks for the heads up, Ajit!)

Sony has announced a new field recorder and playback device, the GV-HD700E HDV Walkman. It’s a DV and HDV deck equipped with a 7″ 800×480 LCD screen. The “All-Scan” feature ensures that you are seeing 100% of the video frame with no overscan. There are no component inputs, just RCA, S-Video, and Firewire (or as Sony insists on calling it, “i.LINK”). Outputs include HD/SD component, HDMI, and of course iLINK. It is compatible with L-series Infolithium batteries. There is no price info available at this time, expect a September release in Europe with a likely stateside release soon thereafter.

So it’s a field playback and backup recording device, not really aimed at monitoring. It’s a shame there is no component input, as the 800×400 resolution would probably be sufficient for monitoring. Sony states in the press release that signals input from i.LINK are passed through to the HDMI output. So I suppose that you could backup record from a camcorder via FW, and simultaneously pass that signal through to a HDMI equipped display. Thats a lot of cables running around though, and the HDV Walkman is a bit bulky for on-camera mounting. Any other workflow ideas?

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute student Everett Bradford shares the steps he took to modify a one-time-use CVS camcorder for use with an infrared light source (i.e. “night vision”). Paris Hilton would be proud. So break out the el-cheapo cameras, warm up your soldering iron, and dive in! And for those that literally do enjoy a good dive, Everett has another DIY tutorial on modding CVS camcorders for underwater use. Creative hacker…

Shane Ross wants to know what’s up with all the static at Avid lately…Current CEO David Krall is stepping down, and there is a restructuring and subsequent layoff of 129 employees in the works.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING THERE? Are they FINALLY getting that their expensive price model cannot work in the current market? I mean, $5000 for a software version of Media Composer…ONLY the NLE itself. And if you want a Mojo, that is more. This is tough when you have Apple and Adobe offering full suites of software for 1/3 the price, including high end graphics and audio and DVD authoring tools.”

 How To Calibrate a Light Meter For Digital Video [6:28m]: Download
 How To Calibrate a Light Meter For Digital Video [6:28m]: Download

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A light meter can prove to be an invaluable tool on any set, allowing you to quickly and efficiently set lights and know the correct exposure values of those lights. Light meters were initially designed for still photographers and cinematographers can easily calibrate them to a given film stock speed for shooting film. But what about today’s digital cinematographer? I’m glad you asked. With a light meter in hand, today’s digital DP can more efficiently set lights and spot check problem areas on a set without pulling up a camera frame. An experienced Gaffer can use a meter to dial in contrast ratios in advance sans camera/monitor, so when the DP or Director arrives at a location, most of the lighting plan is already in place.

In this tutorial I’ll show you how you can use a light meter to quickly and efficiently light a scene, and gain better control over your camcorder’s exposure.

To use a light meter in concert with today’s digital video camera, you must first obtain the native ISO rating, or “baseline” sensitivity of your camera. Since manufacturers assign a lux rating in place of an ISO rating it is up to you determine the ISO. In the video I will walk you through the steps of setting up a light meter and calibrating it to your camcorder.

Just so people know, this will setup your baseline camera to your light meter, changing settings like shutter speed, frame rates, or adding filters of any type including NDs built into the camera need to be adjusted and compensated for in the light meter. This also goes for changing 35mm lens adapter brands, as each unit has a certain amount of light loss inherent in the system. In the case of lens adapters, it’s suggested that you baseline the camera with the lens adapter attached, consider both together as one complete camera system. And of course once a 35mm lens adapter is attached, the camera’s aperture should remain locked, all aperture adjustments made in concert with the light meter should be made on the 35mm lens, not the camcorder.

You will need the following gear to get started:

* Your video camera, make sure no filters of any type are in front of the lens, and ND’s are turned off.
* A flat, even light source. A softbox works well.
* A chip chart, or at minimum an 18% gray card.
* A light meter with cine functions, frames per second, and shutter angles. If you need to do shutter angle to shutter speed conversions, check out this post on the math to do those conversions.
* A waveform monitor of some sort if your camera does not have a built in spot meter. FYI, you can hook up your camera to a computer via firewire and use the waveform monitors in most NLEs, but be aware that some scopes programs cannot handle an HDV signal (downconvert cam output to DV in that case).

So you have everything together and ready to go? Excellent! Let’s jump on in.

How about you, do you know what your job description as a cinematographer is?
Here is a list of typical duties required of today’s cinematographer. Some of them you may already be familiar with and others you may not, definilty a good read. Here is a sample:

# Visit laboratory to calibrate, customise and evaluate exposure system for any combination of electronic or chemical image capture; and establish developing, printing, set timing and transfer protocols
# Visit rental houses
# Explore new equipment
# Learn how new equipment works
# Invent (or cause to be invented) special equipment or techniques for show
# Standardise and create effects bible for show
# Help create and approve any story boards
# Design (or cause to be designed) and approve any built-in or practical lighting fixture
# Design lighting-plot plan and rigging for stages and locations with gaffer and key grip D. Quality Control

Motionworks a motion design firm has a pretty good selection of After Effects tutorials and project files on their site. A number of the tutorials reference Zaxwerks 3D plugin. Still all you motion design artist may find them of some use. Also be sure to check out Andrew Kramer’s site video co-pilot, as he has updated and posted some new After Effects tutorials as well. If you want to get the nitty gritty on using AE for compositing work Andrew is the man to check out!

Ever since Boris FX acquired Media 100 in 2005, they have been making major strides in development to bring the venerable NLE’s featureset up to a respectable level. In June they announced Intel Mac support with the Version 11.6.2 Universal Binary upgrade. And they have now announced Media 100 version 12, which offers a number of (overdue) features and improvements.

“Media 100 Version 12 will add support for progressive frame formats as well as deeper integration with Boris RED, Boris FX, and Boris Graffiti. With version 12, you will be able to acquire, edit, and master progressive formats such as 480p, 720p 23.98, 720p 50, 720p 59.94, 720p 60, 1080PsF 23.98, 1080PsF 24, 1080p 25, 1080p 29.97, and 1080p 30. The enhanced integration with Boris FX plug-ins will allow you to apply Boris filters and preset effects directly to individual clips - right from the Media 100 timeline!”

The Media100 Version 12 expected release window is September 2007. Here is the official press release.

Camcorderinfo has released their initial analysis of the Red images (the insanely high ISO framegrabs that Red Digital Cinema has been sharing over the past few days at Reduser Forums). They have tested the images using specialized software called Imatest, and reported some issues with color rendition. I would caution you to take the color test charts with a grain of salt however, here are a few items that I feel are worth clearly clarifying.

The images that the Red crew have shared to date are in a colorspace which Imatest unfortunately cannot properly accomodate. This would explain the discrepancies and odd desaturation they noted in the color charts. They also mentioned that the images looked underexposed. Which they were, as clearly noted in the Reduser threads…for instance, the 8000 ISO image was intentionally underexposed by 5 stops! (This is a good time to remind people that in photography each successive f/stop represents a doubling (or halving) of light. So 5 full stops under is quite a bit of underexposure.) One area that CCI did test effectively were noise levels, and they were duly impressed, stating “…at the low resolution they were posted at, we found the red camera’s noise levels were literally off our charts for quality.” Which is a finding that is in line with what many others are reporting. And that smooth image quality is even more surprising when you consider that those Red frames were shot with gain turned up. Revolution indeed.

 Redrock Follow Focus Update [2:13m]: Download
 Redrock Follow Focus Update [2:13m]: Download

FreshDV writer Kendal Miller reviewed the Redrock microFollowFocus last year, and one of the issues he noted was excessive play in the gearbox of the unit. Following his review, Redrock updated the Follow Focus in the fall of last year. We knew they had made some major changes, but we just recently had a opportunity to work with the new unit. We were impressed. Here is a short video segment where I highlight the differences between the two revisions, and the notable improvements that have been made in gearbox performance.

View the video podcast via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed or the Download links above.

The latest gearbox revision can be purchased direct from Redrock as a $65 upgrade for existing follow focus owners. And of course the $645 Follow Focus bundle includes the latest revision.

Editor and all-around post guy Shane Ross recently had a chance to screen one of his HVX200-sourced shows on a Barco 2K projector. He’s very pleased with how it looks on the big screen.

“It looks STUNNING! Nice…really nice. DVCPRO HD blown up big really holds up. A couple grain issues on a few dark scenes shot with the HVX, but just looks like film grain, so I am well used to it. Very sharp. VERY film like.”

Thanks for the report, Shane. This is very good news indeed for HVX200 filmmakers.

Sony Vegas 8.0 was announced recently and is available now. There are a number of improvements noted, and the software now features AVCHD support for Sony camcorders only. Thanks for the vendor lock-in, Sony. Movie Studio Platinum Edition is priced at $129.95 USD. Here’s the press release with all the juicy details.