Indie4K has a great post up on the benefits of the Birger electronic lens mount for Canon EOS SLR lenses in concert with Red’s Digital Cinema camera.

“…for the price of just a Red 18-50mm zoom, we can get the Birger mount, plus several primes and zooms. For the price of the 18-50mm zoom + the price of the 50-150 zoom, we can buy practically every current-model EOS lens we can ever imagine wanting to shoot with.”

“…the Birger mount can control focus as well as aperture, using the built-in focusing motors of EOS lenses.”

“Birger’s system will be controllable via Bluetooth. Imagine figuring out your focus marks using Red’s “magic focus assistâ€?, and then programing them into a laptop and cueing them at the appropriate times with a couple of key presses. Or imagine a “smartâ€? autofocus system based around range-finding equipment, which could rack focus to track an object through space far better than any human focus puller…”

I believe the Birger mount project started out aimed at 35mm adapter users who wished to use EOS lenses. Now it seems it’s been repurposed to interface with one of the hottest digital cinema cameras on the market. Options are a good thing for filmmakers, and it will be interested to see how this product develops. You can reserve a Birger mount here.

Shane Ross and his cronies discovered that they can import P2 MXF files natively into Final Cut Pro without using the Log and Transfer function. This is possible with the help of a little importer component that comes along with P2CMS.

NYT has a interesting video segment up, a short scene from “Revolver,” Guy Ritchie’s new film from across the pond. He talks about how they lit the scene with four 20K lights (!!!) and used a “special lens” that allowed them to keep both near and far subjects in focus. Sounds to me like a lens with an absurdly high f-stop rating. Ritchie also outlines the point he was trying to convey in the scene. It’s interesting to note that the Times gives the viewer the option of mixing the director’s voiceover with the film audio as they please.

(Via Flippant News)

So you know how in Corporate America it is somehow considered acceptable to use the painfully horrific (and equally unprofessional) Comic Sans font for memos, notices, and newsletters? Trajan is like that, only for movies. Goodiebag TV takes the font’s overuse to task in this humorous episode. “Russell Crowe has co-starred with Trajan three times now.” Video below. And while we’re dishing on design, Make My Logo Bigger Cream is not to be missed.
Continue reading ‘Trajan - The Comic Sans of Movies’

Microfilmmaker has a thorough and extensive review of the insanely affordable Aiptek GO-HD, a tiny palmcorder that records to SD card media at 1280×720. It is available at B&H for just $219. We previously mentioned it’s younger sibling, the $200 A-HD.

During production of The Shining, Stanley Kubrick’s daughter Vivian made a behind the scenes documentary on the process. Even at 17 years of age she was an adept filmmaker and apparently a quite good at the art of interviewing as well, considering some of the very candid comments made by the film’s stars. The resulting 35-minute film is included in The Shining two-disc DVD release (also on HD-DVD and Blu-ray), and also happens to be up at Google Video. There is a version with Vivian Kubrick’s commentary as well. That one is really interesting, her commentary is very revealing about the process. She talks about the early model video tap that was used for playback on set, Garrett Brown’s mods to her Aaton camera rig, Jack Nicholson’s door-smashing technique, and much more. Finally, more food for thought on metaphors and “mistakes” in The Shining can be found here.

(Via Ticklebooth)

In what is yet another example of big-box stores (*cough*BestBuy*cough*) preying on uneducated consumers, a shopper recently snapped a few photos from behind the display allegedly showing the difference between high-priced Monster brand HDMI cables and cheaper generic HDMI cables. There was a difference all right! The “cheap HDMI cable” HDTV was in fact fed by plain old vanilla composite cables. As you can imagine, ANY real HDMI cable would perform better than RCA cables, Monster or not! Whoops. As the late Chris Farley would have said, “Big Mistake. BIG Mistake.”

If this is also happening in YOUR local big box store, please throw a fit. A loud, messy fit. The kind embarrassing scene that requires a manager to deal with. Because this sort of blatant corporate dishonesty is simple unacceptable. And then go buy your HDMI cables at Amazon instead.

A few 133t H4X0rs have found a way to enable video recording on the iPhone. Right now the app only records five seconds of 15fps video to the iPhone’s RAM, but the developer says a future version will be able to record “somewhere from 15-30+ fps” with length only limited by the device’s storage. Video below.
Continue reading ‘Hackers FTW - IPhone Gets Video Recording’

DivX is offering a limited-time “holiday download” of their DivX Pro package. The software for both Mac and Windows is normally priced at $20. We’re not sure when the offer is going to end, so snag a copy before it’s too late.

The Red Digital Cinema camera uses a CMOS sensor with a rolling shutter. One of the criticisms of the camera is the fact it is subject to rolling shutter artifacts in some situations. Now, I should note that I am not bashing Red…to be clear, every camera has limitations. Even film cameras can exhibit shutter-related artifacts. The important thing is to arm yourself with knowledge, so you know how to avoid situations which will stress the equipment you are using.

To that end, here is a little background info on Red’s rolling shutter: Understanding Rolling Shutter Artifacts.
That link talks about the design of the shutter and how it operates. It also offers a few suggestions for minimizing the effect. And if you’ve never seen the effect, here’s a video that shows the split-screen-strobe issue pretty clearly. More discussion at Reduser.

Daniel Boswell of DVArtistry got his oversized mitts on a brand spankin’ new XDCAM EX today, and has kindly sent in a few lowlight comparison framegrabs vs the venerable FX1 (and you can expect the Z1U to perform identically). A cursory examination of the images shows the EX1 with a substantial edge on low-light performance. Daniel tells us that his trusty HVR-FX1 was set at 1080/60i f1.6 1/60 and 9dB of gain. The PMW-EX1 was set at 1080/60i f1.9 1/60 and 9dB of gain.

You can download the images in TIFF format below (We recommend that you Right-Click, Save As).

 Sony FX1 @ 1080/60i 1/60 f/1.6 9dB: Download
 Sony EX1 @ 1080/60i 1/60 f/1.9 9dB: Download

In my experience, Daniel’s setup in this comparison seem like typical conservative settings for low-light performance in wedding and event work. You can expect to shoot good quality images at those settings on the FX1 and still handle reasonably low light. Dropping the shutter down to 30 would gain you quite a bit more breathing room. Of course on the EX1, you also have the option of 1/24th shutter if you happen to be shooting in that mode.

B&H currently lists the XDCAM PMW-EX1 at $6,449.00. You may order it by clicking here (all purchases made via that link directly benefit FreshDV and won’t cost you a dime extra).

ProRemote is a application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows you to wirelessly remotely control your ProTools LE workstation with realtime feedback.

“ProRemote will be going into beta next week…currently the server is Mac only but will be an easy port to Windows later on (one thing at a time!) It is nearly feature complete now and runs on jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches.”

While the Beta will be available soon, they won’t ship the final application until Apple certifies the software when the iPhone SDK is released. In a later revision the developer plans to use the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer for panning. Video of this unique one-two combo below…
Continue reading ‘Pro Tools + iPhone = Remote Control Sweetness’

In your off-topic news of the weird, it seems that Fox execs allowed Mike Judge’s latest film Idiocracy languish without an audience or proper promotion (just like his cult-fave Office Space), yet are running with the film’s idea of an energy drink that ultimately destroys the human race. Drink Brawndo, the Thirst Mutilator!

“Fox wouldn’t support a film about Brawndo, the energy drink that destroys plants, debases the human race, and makes those who drink it ‘win at yelling’, but they are now putting wholehearted support behind the actual drink.”

“There’s no beating that kind of corporate rationale. More rich absurdity, meanwhile, surely lies in Fox’s choice of business partner: Redux Beverages having until now been best known for the last vastly caffeinated energy drink they launched - the interestingly named Cocaine.”

And people wonder why the entertainment business seems to be faltering… Watch Brawndo’s viral ad below (which happens to be a complete Powerthirst ripoff clone):
Continue reading ‘Win At Exercise With The Thirst Mutilator’

What to do when you are called upon to integrate Standard Definition 4:3 video in with HD or HDV widescreen sources? Jan Ozer is here to help. In the first installment of a two-part series, he discusses the resolution and pixel aspect ratio basics behind the problem. In part two he’ll get into which tools to use for the task, specifically dealing with Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, Algolith AlgoSuite, Digital Anarchy ReSizer, and Red Giant Software Instant HD.

Mike Curtis has written a nice long piece on where he sees the high-end post-production industry heading. I agree with many of his points, and also think the same lens can be expanded to apply to much of filmmaking and certainly high-end production work. The tools to smoothly create high-quality work continue to become more and more accessible, and access to training and education is ever on the rise. It is interesting to note that these same advancements that benefit independent filmmakers will at the same time probably cause some pain in the high-end post-houses who resist change and have high-end equipment investments.