Over at The C47, Jem Schofield has put together a great video tutorial on how to setup and light a green screen for chromakeying. It’s (thus far) a four-part series, but I personally found Part 3 to be particularly helpful in terms of lighting and exposure tips. I’ve embedded Parts 3 & 4 below, you can watch Part 1 and Part 2 at Jem’s blog.

Jem’s has just posted his test of Canon 5D and 7D greenscreen footage, view here.

In something of a surprise to me, it appears that many of the most vocal dissidents downplaying the new iPad are seasoned technogeeks. Ironically, many are among the so-called Apple faithful. It’s a very interesting, very polarizing product launch, to say the least. Over at PVC I’ve put together a compendium of the most insightful and thoughtful articles and blog posts on this new device from Apple, and I encourage you to check it out for a little perspective.

Monty Python would also like to offer a little perspective. Watch below.

Here’s an interesting Canon 5D MKII and Canon 7D ISO video noise comparison test. It’s split-screen sequential ride on both cameras through ISO settings from 100-12,800, looking at the same high-contrast, high detail scene (wide exposure range, moving leaves, fine details). For this test, the user has stated that Auto Lighting Optimizer and Highlight Tone Priority modes were turned off.

“Every 5 seconds in this video the ISO will shift from 100, 200, 400, 640, 1000, 1600, 3200, 4000, 5000, 6400, 12800. The camera’s were both set on Manual and after increasing the ISO I then adjusted the aperture to bring the exposure meter back to the middle. I kept the shutter speed at 1/60th since I was recording at 30fps. On the very last ISO setting (12,800) I had to bump the 5D’s shutter speed up to 1/125th to get the exposure centered since I couldn’t bring the aperture beyond f/22. With regard to noise, they both seem to be equally matched until about ISO 4000, where it looks like the 5DMKII pulls further ahead as the ISO increases beyond that point.”

I downloaded the original AVC Quicktime from Vimeo, and to my eye, the 5D appears visibly sharper and exhibits a touch less noise at every setting above ISO 200. Which is not at all surprising, given the difference in sensor size between the two cameras.

Split-Screen ISO Comparison: EOS 5DMK II vs. EOS 7D from Ron Risman on Vimeo.

For a sightly less-compressed comparison, log in to Vimeo and download the 266MB quicktime source file for this video.

This guest post was contributed by Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo; he is the winner of the 2008 Webby Award for Best Drama Series and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Film. He is currently working on a number of transmedia projects that he hopes will make it out of development hell, and he blogs to maintain his sanity at nofilmschool.com, where he recently authored The DSLR Cinematography Guide.

The Apple iPad offers a number of exciting new possibilities for filmmakers and story architects thanks to its screen size, connectivity, and interactivity. At first glance it may seem like just a big iPhone, but it’s priced to move and — whether you plan on buying one or not — in 60 days it will be in the hands of millions. For filmmakers and independent creatives, there’s a lot of brain candy contained in that thin body; here are seven ways I think the iPad will change filmmaking and interactive storytelling.

1. Interactive interfaces

The above image (apologies for the blurriness; taken from the iPad’s live announcement, courtesy Gizmodo) demonstrates a couple of simple possibilities for interface overlays on top of video. For live sports broadcasts, these interfaces may be merely informational, but for narrative content, touch-based widgets offer a whole new world of interactivity. From “choose your own adventure”-style video content to multi-angle controls, by giving audiences real-time interfaces on screen, filmmakers can turn viewers into a participants. TV and set-top manufacturers are increasingly integrating internet connectivity and on-screen widgets as well, but none of them have the immediate tactile control of a iPad. While widgets are an easy-to-visualize example, the touch screen itself offers all sorts of interactive affordances; you don’t need something displayed on top of the video to allow viewers to interact with your content.

2. It’s a book, it’s a movie, it’s… an app

Anthony Zuiker (CSI) released a “digi-novel” last year, wherein a printed book contained a URL every 20 pages; readers could enter the URL into a browser and watch a related online video. In a lot of ways transmedia storytelling to date has been mostly about promotion (The Dark Knight, for example, used an Alternate Reality Game to promote its theatrical release), but the iPad offers a different set of possibilities: instead of these experiences existing as separate, promotional entrypoints, they can all be brought together on one platform. This is not to say that a project can’t have a live component that exists separately, but the iPad will play a pivotal role in bringing together different forms of storytelling: words, still images, moving images, audio, and interactive experiences can all live together on one handheld, connected device. The iPad will profoundly blur the line between book, movie, and game, and it will do so by offering these new-media experiences for sale through iTunes as… an application. When you’re developing a cross-platform story, what happens if you can’t define your project along clear lines? Should I say it? “There’s an app for that.”

3. Serialization (of payment)

In the old world, you’d develop a feature — a two-hour piece of content — and spend years making and distributing it. Then, on your next project you’d start the whole process all over again — possibly with a different studio — who then spends a lot of money on P&A to (re)mobilize an audience for another round of one-time payments. In the new world, as a filmmaker it is your responsibility to own your audience and mobilize them, not only from project to project but also from episode to episode. There’s a reason almost every movie in the local multiplex is a sequel, and it’s not just because Hollywood is risk-adverse; it’s also because audiences come back to stories and characters they like. So where does the iPad fit in with all this? Well, not only can you sell a hybrid book/movie/game as an app, but you can also charge the viewer a la carte for entries within the series. Apple calls this in-app subscriptions, which means the iTunes season pass — where a customer must decide on the spot to buy an entire TV season — isn’t the only option. Instead, your interactive application allows you to bundle installments however you like. For example, you can bundle “acts” of a show, where each act consists of several episodes, or if your storyline branches, charge separately for different paths. While it may be hard to convince someone to part with $20 all at once (the iTunes price for a high-def new release), if you’ve got a good story you may be able to convince them to part with that same $20 through a series of micropayments.

4. Charging money for digital content

Every newspaper and magazine in the country was hoping for something more than the iBook functionality that Steve Jobs demonstrated on stage, and while subscription print models are probably in the works — it’s not clear yet — one thing’s for sure: people are used to buying content through iTunes. There are currently 75 million iPhone users who have collectively downloaded 12 billion apps, songs, and movies; those numbers will only grow once the iPad is released. In an era where everyone’s struggling to monetize content with free, ad-based models, the iPad (by virtue of its large, high-quality screen) offers an even better platform for filmmakers than the iPhone. The iPad’s tech specs show that it plays back h.264 video at 720p (identical specs to the Apple TV), and its IPS screen will be bright, accurate, and viewable from a wide angle (meaning more than one person will be able to watch). The challenge for independent creatives comes in figuring out how to get indie content into iTunes (previously it was nigh impossible, and these days there are conflicting reports; chime in with a comment if you know better). The revenue split between creators and Apple is generally 70-30 in your favor, and iTunes does a good job of convincing customers to pay for 1s and 0s (this is the whole reason the iBook application gives you a nice-looking bookshelf: you feel like you’re buying something tangible). The iPad means more potential customers for filmmakers because:

5. Everyone’s connected to the internet

FreshDV’s Matt Jeppsen tweeted the following during the iPad’s announcement: “Know who desperately needs the iPad? Grandma. That +3G access is all she needs. No interface in the way, no routers to worry about.” He’s absolutely right: don’t underestimate the value of the built-in 3G. If you’re reading this, obviously you have decent internet access. But there are a lot of people who don’t have broadband — 40% of the US last I checked — and for content creators, they’re all potential customers. Previously, these people were unreachable through the series of tubes, and while I doubt an old-fashioned household without broadband access was going to buy an iPhone or $1,000 Macbook, they just might spring for an iPad. This is why Apple wanted to get the entry price point so low: to bring iTunes to a huge, previously untapped market, who will now use the iPad as their portal to a world of paid content (which Apple takes a cut of). With the addition of the iPad, iTunes TV and movie sales should jump significantly; now more than ever, your digital distribution strategy is key (see: Peter Broderick, Jon Reiss).

6. Flash is suddenly valuable again

If you’ve released a video online, you’ve likely been reliant on Adobe’s rich-media platform Flash (it powers the players at YouTube, Vimeo, and basically every other online video portal; we distributed The West Side using a custom Flash player). But Apple has famously kept Flash off the iPhone, and it looks like the iPad will be no different. With the iPhone bypassing Flash and serving up separate h.264 videos and with HTML5 looking to push Flash further towards irrelevancy, how is the iPad a good thing for Flash? Because of Adobe’s announcement that Flash CS5 will support iPhone app development — and now iPad development as well. Suddenly there are millions of Flash developers who can develop rich-media applications for Apple’s mobile platforms. While Flash won’t be an ideal development platform for applications that rely on hardware interactions (camera apps, for example), for filmmakers interested in extending their experience beyond “traditional” movies, this is a big deal. Why? Because with Flash, you can develop your rich-media experience once, and then output to web, iPhone, iPad, set-top boxes, and Blu-Ray platforms all at once. It remains to be seen how effective Flash will be implemented on some of these devices, but for productions with smaller budgets, being able to output to several different platforms without incurring huge costs will be… well, huge. And the iPad, I suspect, will be the crown jewel in Flash’s cross-platform strategy.

7. Communal watching

A world where everyone walks around staring at little screens doesn’t sound like very much fun. Many of us (still) enjoy watching movies at the theater, where every laugh, groan, and gasp in the audience becomes part of the experience. However, movies are increasingly viewed less and less in the theater and more and more at home (or on the go). Here’s where the iPad offers filmmakers an opportunity: a connected viewing device like the iPad can afford the viewer a new community-based watching experience. With an always-on internet connection, it’s possible to implement real-time comments, twitters, audio chats, and on-screen pointers… the possibilities are endless. No one’s saying it’s a good idea to overlay your cinematic masterpiece with a chat window, but watching a live TV broadcast while Skype-ing someone almost feels like you’re there in person; with the iPad, this type of “virtually there” experience could be even more integrated. It’s not a replacement for the “real” thing, but we have to embrace the fact that our content is going to be viewed in all sorts of conditions, and giving viewers the ability to watch something together is only a good thing. It’s our duty as filmmakers to offer our audience the best viewing experience we can, and the iPad places more of that power in our hands than ever before.

The iPad was just announced yesterday, and these were the first 1,000 words that came to mind. I’m sure there are plenty of other ways the iPad will change filmmaking — which you may feel is for better or worse — but one thing’s for sure: it’s an exciting time to be creating content. Let me know what you think in the comments, and stay tuned at FreshDV and nofilmschool for more.

Oliver Peters has written an incredibly detailed tutorial on how to accomplish post-production when tasked with editing and grading Canon 5D MKII footage. It’s an extensive article that demystifies some of the post questions, and I highly recommend taking the time to read it through. Fantastic work as always, Oliver.

Spring, sprang, sprung. Flat, flatter, flattest.

Out of the box, HDSLRs like the Canon 5D MKII and Canon 7D engage a crunched, contrasty image style. This looks nice right out of the camera, but it’s a color-grading nightmare for those who like to push their image around. This issue has been addressed before with Luka’s entertaining video tutorial, and Stu’s “Flatten Your 5D” and “Color Correcting Canon 7D Footage” posts. And on various user forums, users have posted their unique recipes for a custom image preset. A popular choice is the SuperFlat style, available in this zip’d package. Not to leave out the Nikon D90, there are forum threads on optimizing it’s image as well, and even an attempt to port Stu’s settings directly to the D90.

Over at Eugenia’s Rants and Thoughts, she’s posted an article she’s calling Flatting the flat look. In it she offers her own hand-rolled custom image preset for Canon DSLRs, an even flatter, zero-contrast variation on the SuperFlat style that she suggests offers maximum range when color grading footage. It’s worth noting at this point that there are some circles that debate over whether this increase in image information adversely affects the performance of the codec…in a highly compressed-format like what the Canon DSLRs record in, throwing more information at the codec may not always be a good thing.

Anyway, do like you should always do in debates like this…download a copy, and you be the judge. And if it works well for you, leave a thank you comment for Stu or Eugenia. But don’t go overboard….that would be flattery.

Here’s a really unique follow focus option for HDSLR users. It’s called the iDC Follow Focus, and it’s basically a modified rubber skateboard wheel that seats up against your rubber lens focus ring.

It’s one of the most simple, interesting designs I’ve ever seen, and with the small baseplate mounting system from iDC it allows you to shoot run-n-gun without a 15mm rod system. And with two of the wheels mounted, you can run zoom and focus on long lenses like the Canon 70-200mm (shown below).

Check out more details and images over at Bruce Dorn’s blog. We’ll try to get a unit in hand for testing and addition to our follow focus review series.

The upcoming Criterion release of Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” has an interesting featurette on the disc that talks about the Red One camera, and how it was used in production of this film.

You can watch the featurette “Che and the Digital Cinema Revolution” in the video playlist below. I’ve also posted a few thoughts on some of the interview quotes over at PVC.

Che and the Digital Cinema Revolution

 Genus Matte Box Review [9:52m]: Download

About two years ago, FreshDV started an in-depth matte box video review series as an extension of a review we wrote for DV Magazine. We’re updating that series today with a review of the Genus Mattebox, an affordable, lightweight design that’s at home with compact HD camcorders and DSLR rigs.

The Genus review has been posted at PVC here, and also added to our full mattebox review series here.

Kendal got a look at Fuze Movie recently, which is the successor to the software formerly known as SyncVue Pro. Check out his writeup here.

 Cinevate Durus Follow Focus Review: Download

Way back in the fall of 2007, FreshDV kicked off a follow focus review series. Our aim was to take a look at the popular units for 35mm adapter and film camera rigs, and to establish a baseline standard for performance testing.

Since then, we’ve added to the series with several new and updated units. To date, we’ve tested and reviewed ten follow focus systems and also created a short instructional video series on the role of a First Assistant Cameraman & Focus Puller.

Today’s new addition to that review list is the Cinevate Durus follow focus, an interesting single-arm design that features one of the most solid gearboxes we’ve tested to date. You can see how the Durus performs in our monster video review playlist here.

If you didn’t make it to Red Day 2010, but want to catch up on the news, check out the following video from a few guys that attended. It’s a nice, concise synopsis of a few major announcements and updates. Note there is some salty language, may not be SFW. Watch below.

There’s also a great writeup by Adam Wilt over at PVC that delves a little deeper into some of the details, Redheads will want to check it out for sure. Adam’s included some beautiful photography to boot. Nice work.

I’ve been holding off on Blu-ray for a while, basically waiting for the market to sort itself out and wondering if I should just get an internet-enabled box like a Roku or the Boxee front-end to something like an AppleTV instead.

Well, wait no more; Sony has announced a new line of Blu-ray players, including the BDP-S770 which supports 3D, has built-in WiFi, streams from Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, NPR, etc, and even includes an iPhone/iPod Touch app for a remote (yes it also has a standard remote). No word on pricing yet, but I want one. Badly.

Over at PVC’s TechnoTur channel, Allan links to an interesting new bit of software from Syndicate. Syndicate 7D Tool uses the HDMI video output of the Canon 7D to reconstruct 4:4:4 chroma in your video captures (vs 4:2:0 chroma info that gets captured to your CF card).

Currently you’ll need a Windows machine to run the conversion software, after first capturing via FCP using a Matrox MXO2 Mini. Oh, and big, fast drives…while you can capture with FCP in ProRes 422 HQ or something similar, the conversion software (which runs on Windows) outputs uncompressed. Oh, and don’t forget that you now also need a cross-OS hard drive file format solution; Mac can’t write to NTFS without $pecial tools, Windows can’t read HFS formatted drives, and Fat32, while cross-platform, tops out at 4GB filesizes.

In addition to the above-noted requirements, there are some other limitations, namely:

“Due to the nature of the 7D HDMI output the actual usable resulting frame will be uncompressed 1620×910, but will be the same crop as the 1080p compressed material on the camera’s memory card. In the top right corner there will also be a red dot that has to be removed in post by grabbing those pixels from the corresponding file on the camera’s memory card. We’re working on automating this process in future versions.”

Syndicate 7D Tool is currently €199 and they offer a demo version for lookie-loos. Check it out.

Friend of FreshDV Thomas Roberts put together a short presentation on his favorite web videos of 2009, and FreshDV made the list. Watch below.

TR Best of 2009 from T R on Vimeo.

And here is FreshDV’s “Steadicams on Parade” NAB wrapup. Thanks, Thomas!