Those who have frequented DVXuser over the years will no doubt recognize the name Macgregor. He’s been creating and sharing hauntingly beautiful short films for years now, and has quite the following of fans. Back in 2006, he made a short film called SIMILO with the DVX100 and a pre-production Cinemek 35mm lens adapter. The idea was to create a short film concept, to help raise funds to make a longer version of the same story.

As of summer 2009, principal photography on SIMILO has wrapped. Now they just need $25,000 to finish post-production and VFX on this sci-fi story. And Macgregor and producer Mike Hedge chose to use Kickstarter to raise those funds. They’ve already raised over $14,000 from the community, and you’ve got less than 2 1/2 days to pledge cash if you wish to join them. You can check out their Kickstarter project here, contributions can be as little as $1. Those who contribute $40 or more get onscreen credit and access to an HD download version of the film, and there are rewards for higher pledges as well ($4000 gets you an IMDB producer credit).

Why are we sharing this Kickstarter project here when we have no vested interest in it? I’m glad you asked. Because it’s the first Kickstarter short film project that came across my inbox that I personally chose to back, and it’s a good example of how to effectively use the Kickstarter concept as an independent filmmaker. Not to mention that Macgregor’s films are always extremely visually engaging, and this is a project that I’d love to see finished. So if you agree, head on over to their project page and support your local filmmakers.

Not sure who Macgregor is? Check out the teaser of SIMILO, embedded below. Note: some NSFW nudity.

SIMILO teaser from Macgregor on Vimeo.

Shooter Martijn Schroevers has come up with an innovative way to use the Zacuto ZFinder as a viewfinder for the Sony XDCAM EX1 (or EX1R?). Watch below.

How to use the Z-Finder as a viewfinder for the Sony EX-1 from Martijn Schroevers on Vimeo.

Awesome. Phil Bloom is linking to a rental-only package offered by a company in Sydney…they’ve integrated a Canon 5D MKII into a professional Sony betacam shouldmount body, calling it the Hyper 35.

Hyper 35 features in addition to what the 5D offers:
* Electronic B&W or Colour viewfinder
* On board 7″ SD director/client colour monitor
* On board stereo camera audio & pre-amp with Sennheiseer M66 camera microphone
* and/or on board 48k/96k 2 track flash recorder

They’ve got stills and a comparison video showing the video results side by side with pro 2/3 cameras here. It looks like it’s only being offered for rental at present, but there is a contact note on the bottom of one of the pages; “Convert your old Sony Betacam to a Hyper 35 or express an interest in a proposed new body.” Looks pretty cool.

Via Scott Kirsner, here’s a handy webpage that compares all 15 video sharing websites, from Youtube and Vimeo to less obvious ones like vzaar. Looks like a fantastic reference, check it out here.

I’d venture that a good percentage of starving film students with an internet connection are probably aware of Johnny Chung Lee and his $14 “steadycam” design. Nowadays Johnny is working for Microsoft’s Project Natal team, putting his 133t Wii remote hacking skills to good use. But I digress. In the spirit of Johnny’s stabilizer design, I stumbled across another DIY handheld stabilizer tutorial, this one actually includes a 3-axis gimbal design and appears to work surprisingly well. Check it out at this link, or view the example footage below if you aren’t yet convinced.

Filmmaker and instructor Jerome Courshon wrote in to let us know about an upcoming seminar on the topic of distribution. We’ve spoken at length with Jerome in the past, he has contributed both an excellent “Distribution 101″ video to the FreshDV tutorial vault, and he also was a valuable and informative voice in our most recent distribution podcast discussion. So I’m delighted to help highlight his latest distribution seminar, which will be held in LA this August. I’m including all the details below, check it out.

THE SECRETS TO DISTRIBUTION: Get Your Movie Distributed Now!
So you’ve made your movie. Congratulations! Or you’re going to make your movie. Excellent! What do you do to ensure the final step of your filmmaking journey, getting distribution? How do you play “the game”? Is there even a game??

The answer is YES. There is a game. A strategy. Whether you’re about to start shooting, have finished your final cut, are on the film festival circuit — or even if you’ve been turned down by distributors already — you CAN get distribution. It is not impossible, but there is a strategy that MOST producers & directors do not know or understand.

Where can you learn this? At producer Jerome Courshon’s groundbreaking 2-Day seminar,
“THE SECRETS TO DISTRIBUTION: Get Your Movie Distributed Now!”
http://www.Distribution.LA

WHO SHOULD ATTEND THIS SEMINAR:
- Those with a completed movie
- Those in production or post-production
- Those who intend to make a movie — Get a head start on what you need to know
- Learn what they do NOT teach you in film school

Bottom line? This seminar is about getting results and getting the deal, with key resources provided. This is about securing a viable distributor, whether you have a low budget movie OR a movie with names. If you are serious about getting your movie into the marketplace, then you should NOT miss this day.

We will also cover the newer distribution avenues, from digital downloading to marketing your movie online. Whichever route would be best for you, don’t spend years spinning your wheels, only to end with your movie collecting dust on your living room shelf.

“Without Jerome’s information and help, I’d never have gotten a studio distribution deal for my no ‘name’ feature. Not in a million years.”
– Vince Rocca, Producer, “Kisses & Caroms” (Released by Warner Bros.)

“When I went to Jerome’s seminar, I had been on the festival circuit for 6 months and thought I’d done everything possible to sell my film. I was wrong. This seminar was such a great breath of fresh air — and showed me how much I didn’t know about the distribution game! Informative and well worth every penny, I got a distribution deal 2 months later with a cash advance.”
– Lanre Olabisi, Producer/Director, “August the First”

“I’ve been a working actor for over 25 years and have relationships with many mainstream Distributors. When it was time to distribute my first feature film, I thought I knew it all. Jerome not only opened my eyes but opened doors, with my movie getting picked up for a nationwide release on DVD. Is Jerome’s seminar worth it? You can’t even put a price tag on the knowledge and connections that you’ll get from his seminar.”
– Jeff Rector, Writer/Director/Producer, “Revamped”

AT THE SEMINAR YOU WILL LEARN:
- The Theatrical Distribution game: What to do and what not to do with theatrical distributors
(Most filmmakers fail here, even when they have a killer movie)
- The 8 Basic Movie Distribution Models and how to navigate them
- Who all the Home Video Distributors are
(Do you know there are over 100 of them? Contact list provided at seminar)
- Press Kits, PR & Marketing
- Is your artwork & press kit REALLY up to snuff, or are you sending out inferior materials with your movie causing distributors to say ‘No’ before even watching it? (Happens all the time)
- Are Film Festivals worth your time & energy?
(Depends upon your movie)
- How to effectively use Film Festivals and Key Strategies to generate Buzz, Press & Awards
(It’s not just showing up like a rock star and watching your movie)
- Is the VSDA — now known as the EMA — important to attend?
(Do you know what the EMA is? Your success may depend on this)
- E & O Insurance: How to get it for thousands of dollars LESS than the going rate (You will need it for U.S. distributors)
- Digital Distribution
- Internet Distribution
- DIY Distribution (”DIY” means “Do It Yourself”)
- DIY Theatrical Distribution
- Plus Q & A

NEXT SEMINAR: LOS ANGELES
DATE: August 22 - 23, 2009 (Saturday - Sunday)
TIME: 10am - 6pm
LOCATION: Beverly Garland Hotel, 4222 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91602
COST: $299.00
TO REGISTER, GO TO: http://www.Distribution.LA

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Jerome Courshon is an award-winning Producer/Writer, whose first movie was ultimately released by Warner Bros. His challenging journey to achieve meaningful distribution gave birth to the creation of this powerful seminar in 2006. Since then, Jerome has assisted hundreds of filmmakers with securing real distribution through his seminars and speaking engagements, and has written for “MovieMaker Magazine,” “Indie Slate Magazine” and “Film Festival Today Magazine.” (Read/View some of his articles or podcasts, freely available at his website.)

So it’s no secret that we like the Canon 5D MK2 around here. This little $2700 full-frame sensor equipped camera offers a stunning featureset and jawdropping image quality for shooters in all genres of production. On June 2, Canon released a firmware update that enabled full manual controls of video functions. Awesome. We think that’s very cool.

But wait, there’s more! As of a couple of days ago, we’ve got an unofficial firmware build (well, really it’s a ROM inject hack for the time being…but we’ll call it firmware) that also enables onscreen audio meters, 16:9, 2.35:1 and 4:3 crop marks, zebras, and live headphone monitoring (via the A/V port). The firmware also disables the annoyingly hissy auto-gain control of the 5D, provides a manual gain control, and finally provides a framework to write new extensions to the code. An impressive achievement! Watch the video below for all the juicy details, as well as a quick comparison of the difference disabled AGC can offer to your audio capture.

You can get an unfinished copy of this unofficial firmware here. Read the detailed FAQ at Cinema5D also. It appears the developer has taken careful steps to avoid bricking camera bodies, as the software is only loaded into memory upon booting. From the FAQ:

“…a file named ‘magiclantern.fir’ is copied to the CF card and “Update firmware” is selected from the menu. The running firmware shuts down, loads the file into RAM and starts it running.”

“Nothing is written into the ROMs. When the camera reboots, the RAM image is flushed and the bootloader FROMUTIL at 0xFFFF0000 starts the pristine copy in ROM at 0xff810000. After any reboot (or even powersave), you must select the “Update firmware” menu item. Eventually we want to be able to boot directly from the AUTOBOOT.BIN file on the CF card.”

Even with these steps to avoid breaking things permanently, it’s probably worth mentioning that you should only load that firmware if:
A. You can afford to replace the camera, should this break it (this firmware surely violates mfr warranty).
B. You don’t test it on paying shoots with Real Clients (I’ve heard scattered “Err70″ reports).
3. Should this firmware eventually be 100% stable, kick ass, and you decide to replace a studio full of cameras with 5D MK2’s, that you buy them all via FreshDV’s B&H affiliate link (patience, they’ll be back in stock soon enough). And lots of lenses. L glass, preferably…

Until that day, the developer is looking for assistance from any programmers “skilled in ARM assembly, embedded systems, GUI programming and don’t mind risking your expensive camera…” as well as Paypal and equipment donations, specifically “steadicams, rails systems and lenses.” So if you are wetting your pants from this announcement, I’d suggest waiting for a stable release and feeding that dude some cash via Paypal in the meantime. I did, even though I have no intention of loading this on my 5Deuce just yet. Because, as the developer says, “If it breaks your camera, you get to keep both pieces.” However, if you are so inclined to try the firmware out, good luck, and report back your findings for the rest of us poor lemmings. We’re dying to hear how it runs.

(via BoingBoing)

The independent film Colin is a zombie movie that turns the genre on it’s braaaiins, err, head. Told from the perspective of a zombie trying to understand what has happened to him, the film was made by director Marc Price and his friends and family for virtually nothing over the course of 18 months.

“It cost us about £45, which was spent on a crowbar and some tapes,” Price said. “We wanted to focus on story and character, and rely on that to hook the audience.”

The film has attracted the attention of several Japanese distributors, to the pleasant surprise of the filmmakers behind the project.

“It’s a bit weird to be at Cannes,” Price said. “It’s just a movie shot on a camcorder and I have no delusions that’s all it is, but it’s nice people watch it and it’s nice to see it play with an audience.”

An enterprising individual has managed to make the first hack to the 5D MK2 firmware, making a change that affects the audio chip. It’s more of a proof-of-concept announcement at this point, but shows that it’s entirely possible to change functions. He also noted that it’s possible to read audio levels live, so theoretically possible to enable audio meters onscreen. So now we wait to see what this guy (and/or others) come up with, and if they’ll beat Canon to the punch for full manual control of the DSLR with video.

(Via 5tu)

The following Instructables article will show you how to construct a very simple, very cheap beanbag type solution for mounting a compact camcorder to a dash to record someone driving. You’ll need a camera about the size of a Canon HV30, a car wash sponge, non-slip material, and cheap weights. Simple, easy. Gotta love DIY ingenuity…

(Via SRF)

Here’s a link list of ten cheap video rigs you can build yourself, compliments of the DV Show. From a DIY teleprompter, to a homemade mattebox, this list is perfect if you’ve got a shop full of elves to do your bidding. Happy building!

(Via Scott Simmons)

Engadget tipped us off to an Instructables article that shows you how to add a CCD eyepiece to a set of binoculars. The parts list seems relatively inexpensive, the CCD camera module is probably the most costly item on the list.

Need a sunshade or top flag for your camera, but not quite willing to jump into a full-featured mattebox solution? Here’s a Do It Yourself solution that works with camcorders equipped with a hard lens shade. With a little time, epoxy glue, a inexpensive universal shoe mount, and this el-cheapo french flag, you should be able to put something together without much hassle. Here are the full-size images and a few brief assembly notes. It’ll run you around $31 for the parts, before shipping. Not bad for a simple shade solution.

Kenn Bell has a post up that talks about how he used the iPhone to storyboard a recent music video shoot. His technique is quick and looks to be very effective…take digital images while location scouting, throw together a quick iMovie video slideshow, and use the video on-set with the iPhone.

“Basically, we’d arrive at a location, I’d play the movie and let everyone, including Baby Jay, see what shots and looks I was interested in. It only took a minute and everyone was on the same page. I can’t stress enough how much time I saved! The three days went incredibly smooth and I really believe it was because the movie on my iPhone. It actually got everyone excited to see how cool the music video would look and I gained a great deal of trust from it.”

This would also be a good time to check out Kenn’s interview on the Digital Production Buzz podcast.

This DVinfo user has fitted his camera with the HV20’s full zoom-through Canon WD-43 wide angle converter and a Canon XHA1 lens hood gaff taped on. It’s a unique solution that looks surprisingly sleek.