You already know this, but it’s worth repeating. Good gear often makes tasks simpler and easier to accomplish high-quality results. But even the weakest of tools in the hands of an artist can deliver stunning results. Case in point…in the following video clip, an artist hand paints a Bushmaster ACR weapon using Microsoft Paint. Once again, artistry and ingenuity trumps “pro-level” tools.

Coldplay’s video for the track “Strawberry Swing” is one of the most innovative uses of stop motion I’ve ever seen. They collaborated with the creative group Shynola to reinvent the genre, using perspective and live elements in new ways, and the results are simply stunning.

The post title says it all. Canon was handing out 70-200mm lens lookalike coffee mugs at the Vancouver games, and I want one so bad I can taste it.

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!

It’s Friday…not like you were going to get anything done today, right? Great, then watch this little bit of meme-y goodness.

*sigh*
Maybe someday I’ll get that magic enhance button…

This is slightly off-topic from our normal fare, so pardon the interruption if you will. I recently read an interesting article at GizMag about 10/GUI, a fresh approach to the Graphical User Interface. It builds evolutionarily off recent advances in multitouch technology, but what’s revolutionary about the concept is how they approach window management. I’m curious what FreshDV readers think about the following video demonstration, and how a similar multitouch system could affect a video editor.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

As an admitted card-carrying geek, I’m a huge fan of the Discovery TV series Mythbusters. And as a Canon 5DMK2 user, I am of course delighted when I read about Mythbuster Adam Savage using the 5D for his own video projects. He admitted this initially a few months back in a three-part video interview for Reddit (specific video embedded below, 5D remark at 6:50), and since then I’ve been keeping an ear to the ground for developments. Geeks will be interested in a recent tweet in which he shows off a rig pic, complete with Senn lav, Rode shotgun, Beachtek DXA 5D, and 9″ Ikan monitor. Call it celeb-gear-stalking if you must, but I think it’s cool. Watch below.

Looks like Red Giant just tapped Stu Maschwitz as a consultant to help direct the Magic Bullet product line. It’s pretty clear to me that Stu has a good pulse on the needs of indies and the larger production community, so I’m excited to see him getting involved in a product line that is so useful for the independent video producer. Congrats Stu! Now put down that champagne glass and direct us up some more killer software!

At NAB ‘09, Cinevate was showing off user-created commercial spots in their booth. It’s great to see users getting involved with products they love and use. We’ve arranged to get our hands on those videos, here they are in one playlist for your viewing enjoyment. Watch below.

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.”

Those that follow me on Twitter may have noted a link this week to a shaky behind the scenes clip from a concert rehearsal in which a Steadicam operator pulls off a really cool Segway-to-stage transition, frantically dashing camera assistant in tow. Rumor is, the op is Karsten Jacobsen. It looks amazing behind the scenes, and I could only imagine what the finished performance shot would look like. I had to know, so I dug around for a bit and finally found it. So here you go, the behind the scenes footage, followed by the actual performance shot.

IMAX is a film format and projection standard originally created by the IMAX Corporation in Canada. It utilizes a massive 65mm or 70mm film negative and 70mm film print to capture and project significantly higher resolution images than traditional 35mm film systems. It’s there in the name…IMAX stands for Image MAXimum. Standard IMAX screens are 72′ wide and 53′ high, and there are well over 300 theaters worldwide that are so-equipped. This unique aspect ratio has the tendency to change the way a film is composed and shot…tight closeups and macro shots are generally avoided when shooting in the format, as they can be visually overwhelming on the big screen. Instead, the high resolution and projected size enables high-detail wide shots. It truly is a unique experience. Well, it was…until recently.

The IMAX Corporation has always shown an interest in branching out and trying new ideas. Over the years they’ve retrofitted the standard to accommodate domed screens with OmniMAX, IMAX 3D, and at one point even created the so-called IMAX HD 48fps variant that never caught on commercially due to cost. The latest expansion of the IMAX brand is called IMAX Digital. IMAX Digital is a projection standard that encompasses 3D content in DCI or IMAX digital format, all on a 28′ x 58′ screen size that fits into the standard theater multiplex. The cost advantages are obvious…theaters don’t have to retrofit or build taller buildings to accommodate the normal IMAX 53′ screen height, and the digital format dispenses with the expensive reels upon reels of film print. The system uses two 2K Christie projectors in tandem, projecting over each other to produce an image that reportedly offers slightly better than 2K resolution.

However, and this is important…IMAX Digital is not the IMAX experience that has been sold to consumers for years. First, it’s a significantly smaller screen size and much lower resolution. Films made for IMAX digital are not necessarily shot for IMAX. The aspect ratio is 1:1.9, as opposed to IMAX’s typical 1:1.44 projected aspect. Boing Boing has a post about the topic here, specifically about Star Trek’s IMAX Digital release. Roger Ebert also blogged about IMAX Digital recently. The issue that most seem to have with IMAX Digital is that it is being sold as straight-up IMAX. There is no marketing distinction to consumers that IMAX Digital is any different from the original monstrous-screen IMAX version. This is troubling, as the only real technical item shared by the two is the IMAX 6-channel digital sound requirement. Beyond that, IMAX Digital simply offers about 20% larger screen size for the same format film you’d see in a regular theater, and generally at a $5 price increase. Caveat Emptor.

Every three years, the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress holds DMCA 1201 hearings to determine if exemptions should be made to the anti-circumvention provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In 2006, media and film professors successfully won an exemption from the DMCA to legally break DVD copy protection in order to use high-quality clips in the classroom. The 2009 hearings are in progress this week, and up for discussion is whether or not this same exemption should be granted to educators in all subjects, and if students should also be covered by the exemption.

Rrepresentatives of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) argue that there is no need to break DVD copy-protection, and went on to demonstrate at length that that for fair-use scenarios users should consider videotaping a TV screen to extract the video segments for use in the classroom. I’ll say that again, just in case you missed it…the MPAA suggests that videotaping a flatscreen television is an acceptable alternative for educators to capture and use video clips in the classroom.

Besides the sheer irony of this idea coming from an organization that has spent countless dollars and time trying to stop camcorder users in theaters, it shows just how out of touch they really are with reality. Do they really expect educators to go through the process of realtime analog workarounds for FAIR USE in today’s digital world? Unbelievable. An attendee to these hearings filmed and posted the MPAA’s video demonstration of their analog method of bypassing copy-protection. You can watch below. If you’re like me, you’ll be holding your jaw up off the floor.

MPAA shows how to videorecord a TV set from timothy vollmer on Vimeo.

To add to the irony of it all, I noticed that their demonstration appeared to be played from a computer using VLC, a media player software whose original featureset included the ability to DeCSS DVDs for playback over a network. Nice. Wendy Seltzer was also at the hearings and live-tweeted it as well as wrote a nice blog recap. You can read that here.

I read an excellent article today on the state of 3D technology in cinema. This lengthy article goes in-depth on the digital cinema transformation, the state of 3D adoption, and the pros and cons from a business and consumer standpoint. It’s a great summary of where we stand right now, and where we are headed. Here’s an excerpt:

“…it’s still unclear whether 3D technology is just a gimmick or the beginning of a mainstream trend. Whitehouse points out that many innovations in cinema technology are initially exploited as gimmicks. Some, like Smell-O-Vision and AromaRama, which dispersed scents into the theater, quickly fade. But others live on past the gimmick phase to become a standard part of the movie viewing experience. As an example of the latter, Whitehouse cites Sensurround, which used powerful low-frequency speakers to add ground-shaking effects to movies like 1974’s Earthquake. While Sensurround came and went, slightly less intense low-frequency subwoofers became a standard component of multi-channel theatrical sound systems and home theater systems.

Whitehouse stresses that 3D similarly needs to advance beyond the gimmick stage. “We need to move beyond jutting objects off the screen at the audience and use depth as a natural component of the world on screen,” he says. Critics such as Roger Ebert have panned 3D technology because they feel it diminishes the story telling in favor of special effects.

Clemons adds that 3D can detract from the movie-going experience. For 3D movies to be much better than alternatives, it “requires that the 3D experience does not eliminate the joys of sharing. Going to the movies can be a social experience, but not if you are in a 3D headset that eliminates interaction with people around you.”"

I also noticed a few quotes in there from Scott Kirsner of CinemaTech. Speaking personally, I feel that 3D on a “traditional” film is a distraction from the story and is actually more difficult to watch. I saw Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D, and it quite honestly was a pain. I would have been able to enjoy the film much more without the 3D aspect. That being said, films like Monsters vs Aliens are probably going to be best experienced in 3D. I think it’s a question of content really.

Here’s an interesting post over at CinemaTech on a little squabble between Disney/ABC and the Writers Guild of America. Apparently, ABC was sourcing ideas from viewers for a web-series called “In the Motherhood.” The WGA was quick to point out that such goings-on were a violation of it’s contract. Interesting development, and I would say we’ll see more issues like this in the future as traditional media blends more and more with the wild and woolly online world.