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.

Red Digital Cinema has released some footage shot on the new Mysterium-X sensor (housed in a Red One body). It’s a short clip of a lobster from a 4.5K source, downrezzed to a 2K ProRes LT mov, reportedly shot on an (as yet) unknown lens at 800 ISO, T8, 1/48th, with daylight-balanced lighting, and untouched in post. The hive mind is pleased.

As an aside, I wish I could use the phrase “snappy the lobster” in more blog posts. :-)

Frequent Reduser contributor Sanjin Jukic has posted a quick and dirty Red One vs Canon 7D comparison video that shows how each handles a chart that brings out moiré artifacts. If you aren’t sure what moiré is, or are still figuring out how to work around those issues when shooting HD with DSLRs, take a look at this video.

R1vs7D 02 Moire-test from Sanjin Jukic on Vimeo.

Over at Reduser, Jim Jannard has posted a few framegrabs from the in-development Mysterium-X S35 sensor for EPIC, which will essentially replace the Red One Mysterium sensor. It is presumably the same sensor tech that will go into an S35 Scarlet body. He’s posted frame grabs from 500, 1000, and 4000 ISO. From my eye (on a still image, mind you) the 1000 ISO framegrab looks very clean.

Does the following image remind you of an image artifact spotted in your V-DSLR footage? If you’ve seen the effect before and aren’t sure what it is, you’ll want to read this.

And if you already know what that effect is and how minimize it in your shooting, just ignore this post and go back to making money with your shiny new V-DSLR. That is all.

I was recently a guest on MacMediaTech podcast, and one of the other guests was a filmmaker named Paul Zadie. He’s got some great posts on his blog, and I wanted to highlight one that I think new freelancers will find to be helpful. It’s on the subject of what to charge for an edit, and Paul offers some great advice (in particular, the Freelance Switch calculator he links to is most excellent). Check it out.

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.

Over at PVC I posted a short video made with the new Canon 7D DSLR convergence camera, created by a group of collaborators that include Jason Magbanua (a friend and constant inspiration). If you are going to watch any 7D short films, watch this one first.

The Canon EOS 7D is slated to be available in October at both Amazon and B&H. It will set you back around $1700 for the body kit.

I’ve posted over at PVC a short video on a software research project involving Adobe. This application essentially automatically turns shaky handheld footage into smooth, steadicam-like motion. This isn’t your grandpappy’s Smoothcam, it’s a whole new way to approach the technical issues, and the end result is mind-bogglingly good. Check it out, and if you have an Adobe contact, you know what to do.

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.)

The following case study article was written by Pablo Korona, a Rockford, IL based video producer and FreshDV contributor. You can learn more about Pablo’s work at www.pablokorona.com.

Basic Art Direction Primer / Production Design for a Tabletop Product Shoot
Among the many crew departments working a production set, audio and art are often overlooked or ignored. Both are usually an afterthought. But hey, at least all the audio guy has to do is point a microphone and unplug the refrigerator! Easy money. I overgeneralize of course, but I say this to simply illustrate the focus of audio, and how having some one dedicated to it on set produces a better outcome. This also applies to the production design, but is even more reinforced because “art” is not a narrow focus.

Typically, the art department coordinates with all departments, interacting with talent in regards to wardrobe, food stylists to decorate the surroundings, with the grip department on set construction and deciding finer details of the set/scene or special effects, and the camera department in reference to angle of view and visible focus. In an all encompassing sense, the art director is responsible for anything that the camera sees. It is difficult to list what this may entail without going into specifics and that’s what I intend to do, dropping a couple tips and tricks as well.

I was hired by Sargento’s marketing agency to direct a video for one of their newest products, Portionables, which are small portion controlled frozen sauces. These are unique because they are not large packets of frozen sauce, but smaller frozen pieces on average the size of a standard ice cube, or cigarette lighter. Here’s a look into how I prepared for the shoot from an art and set-dressing standpoint. It is important for me to preface that this is from the perspective of Director wearing the Art Director hat. The thought process would be no different for an Art Director, but lets face it, when there’s no budget, we have to do this ourselves. So that’s why this article illustrates the overall process the director as art department goes through.

When I received the script, I requested photos of the location, images of the talent, promotional materials for Sargento’s brand, sample advertisements featuring the product and lastly the requirements from the agency in terms of how to shoot the product. Using these references, I ask myself the same questions before a shoot with any type of product shots.

1. Does the company have a brand image I can look toward for influence?
2. Are there cues from the script that I can take for the surroundings?
3. Does the talent’s look require a specific mood?
4. What does the tabletop subject need around it to convey the desired mood?
5. Does the tabletop subject require any specific shooting conditions?

These questions allowed me to tailor a specific look for this piece.

1. Sargento’s brand is more European. For example, the website has an Italian flavor, featuring a stucco background in a Tuscan yellow.
2. The script was calling for the making of a Putenesca sauce, reinforcing the Italian feel. The first things that came to mind were Italian paintings, old world clay bottles, and classic utensils you would find in any Nonna’s kitchen. I sought out items with rich, warm earth tones.
3. Our talent was a middle-aged blonde with short hair. She has nice smooth skin, and glasses. There were no issues in dealing with extreme wrinkles, so mood lighting on location was not going to be an issue.
4. I’ll reference flavor cues later.
5. I’ll touch on what we did to overcome shooting frozen items.

I wanted the video to have a fresh new look that set it apart from the other videos on the website. I always start by surveying the possibilities of the location. We were required to shoot in a Sargento work kitchen. Although it was featured in the previous videos, there was never a lighting budget so previous videos were shot very flat and didn’t make better use of the surroundings. A quick analysis of the space showed attractive wooden cabinents, a nice-looking granite counter top, the surrounding walls have avocado green tile, and finally the most problematic elements were a large stainless steel stove and matching cooking hood directly behind where our talent would be cooking. Two things bothered me about the current background. First, the stainless steel would certainly reflect any lights around our talent, and secondly these large stainless steel objects are cold, lifeless distractions.

My first instinct to bring in character and life into a space is to hang a framed photo or a painting. An inherent problem I find shooting on locations is that you cannot hammer in a nail to hang a frame to help break up a flat space. However the tile in the background is is perfect for my secret weapon, 3M Command Strip Hooks. 3M’s Command strips have been a staple on my shoots for years. They allow you to hang an object and then remove the hook without damaging the surface below. They are fantastic on wood panelling, tile, and painted walls; typically working the best on anything with a hard glossy surface. As research for the possibility for a framed solution, I went to a local hobby & craft store in hopes of finding warm photos or paintings of Italian hillsides, or some kind of still life. Taking photos with my iPhone, i emailed three choices to the agency’s creative director - we selected one and had a winner. With the painting selected, the space was instantly transformed. Because we were cleared to have moodier lighting, bringing the ambient light level down reduced the visibility of the stainless steel exhaust hood, and allowed us to shine a light on the painting, spotlighting it, making it that much more effective.

In tabletop shooting, the subject tends to absorb the environment and its surroundings. Great care must be taken to what’s around your “hero,” the product. Often your subject needs to be dressed up to help sell the image and feeling you’re trying to convey. For example, the agency I worked with refers to elements surrounding the food ingredient hero, as “flavor cues.” These are essentially visual representations of what taste the specific subjects elicit. For example, a marinara sauce might have tomato, garlic, and onion surrounding it. A creamy pepperjack cheese sauce would have cheese, peppers, butter and milk. Specific sauces were chosen by the agency, and were assigned general flavor cues for art department to choose from.

Now we turn towards the subjects themselves. In this case we’re shooting frozen sauce portions. We researched food styling products, and purchased a faux ice crystal mix to help sell the ice because we were concerned with our ability to keep the product frozen while under the lights. When shooting frozen items, your window of time for shooting them is very limited. Having a dedicated food stylist when you’re shooting frozen items is invaluable because they can set up a scene and be prepared with a new arrangement when the one you’re shooting melts. Aside from the faux ice and frost products, keeping the product in dry ice, lowering the overall temperature to colder than its normal freezing point easily doubles the shooting window.

There’s a quite a bit to write when it comes to how to art direct a scene, however these are just a few takeaways from this experience. I’ve just completed another project with Sargento where the same room was repurposed as a test kitchen, and then repurposed again as a shipping warehouse. The extra effort put through on the Portionables project not only helped produce a high-quality production but allowed for easily understanding the brand for future productions. A well decorated and art directed set is easier to light, and typically saves production time on set. Often on small budget production art direction can be the role played by the agency, however if you approach your project with an agency mindset, you’ll earn the trust of the agency and form a strong relationship with them, making for a much more pleasant set.

We all find ourselves asking how to get bigger budgets, how can we improve our production quality, and how do we grow? These are just some quick tips and thought processes that when researched before you get on location, can help raise the bar on your production quality and raise the inherent value of you being attached to a project. I do hope this helps, thanks for reading!

You can learn more about Pablo Korona at www.pablokorona.com.

 The Foundry NAB 2009 Video [10:36m]: Download

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so, you are probably aware of what CMOS rolling shutter is, and the potential image problems it can create in certain shooting situations. At NAB 2009, The Foundry was showing an early version of a software toolset in Nuke to help resolve certain undesirable image issues created by CMOS rolling shutter. They were kind enough to give us a demonstration of these tools. Watch the attached video below, subscribe to our podcast feed, or watch all of our current NAB 2009 videos in one playlist here.

We mentioned the ASL Rip Kit recently. The Rip Kit is a complete A/V connection replacement for the Red One camera, including a matching breakout box that can be located up to 50′ away from the camera using a single DVI-I cable connection. It appeared to be a robust solution to a common set of issues and concerns with the Red One. Over at Final Cut User, I ran across a video review of the kit that really shows it’s strengths and explains the full featureset. If you are a Red One owner or shooter, I highly recommend you watch the two video segments below.

Outside Hollywood has an awesome post up with links to a 126-page PDF document with transcripts from extensive discussion recordings between Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan while they hashed out the plot and creative details of a film you may have heard of; Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here’s an excerpt from Mystery Man on Film’s analysis of the discussions:

“By the time Lucas and Spielberg setup these meetings with Kasdan, they knew for the most part what they wanted. This was just a matter of “okay, so, how do we tell this story?” Lucas did most of the talking. He seemed to be just talking through all of the ideas. He came across as, on the one hand, a strong driving force behind the film and on the other hand, a bit controlling. Spielberg occasionally threw in some exciting, funny, and even wacky ideas, which at times Lucas tried to dial down. But many, if not most, of Spielberg’s ideas would be used. Kasdan doesn’t say too much. I imagine he’s just soaking in everything he’s hearing, but he was certainly in sync with the filmmakers. He’d occasionally interject suggestions and also good questions about logic, characters, and plot. Man-oh-man, Spielberg and Lucas were idea machines. They could’ve sat there coming up with Indiana Smith ideas forever. There were enough ideas generated in these meetings for two films, which they actually used for two films.”

You can download the PDF transcripts here.

Here’s another great ProVideoCoalition article, this one offers 5 tips for post-production with Red One R3D’s, including some perhaps controversial-sounding advice, namely “Leave R3D and 4K behind as soon as possible (and no sooner).” Great tips, definitely check this one out if you are shooting or editing Red.