Panavision has launched PANASCOUT, a new location scouting application for the iPhone. PANASCOUT simulates the cinematographer’s viewpoint from a professional cinema camera with a ton of options scouting locations gets easier. Frame your shots in true widescreen 2.40 (Anamorphic), 1.85 (Super 35mm), 1.78 (16×9 HD) and 1.33 (4×3) aspect ratios with PANAFRAME. The PANASCOUT comes loaded with features, capture metadata in every shot including; GPS Data, compass heading, date and time. Toggle on/off frame lines, centering crosshairs and GPS with a tap inside the “settings/gear” menu. PANASCOUT also allows you to upload directly to Final Cut with Final Cut Server, MobileME as well as SmugMug or email to your colleagues. Even add voice notes, written notes or reference video (3GS only).
The PANASCOUT is available on the iTunes store for only $9.99.
Moby has a portion of his site dedicated to independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video or short. The music is free as long as it’s being used in a non-commercial or non-profit film. If you would like to use it for profit you can apply for a commercial license, all profits from the license will be given to the humane society. The tracks are composed for film with no lyrics and sound great! In order to get access to the tracks, log onto mobygratis.com and register for a free account. Moby adds tracks every so often with over 80 tracks so far that range from 50 seconds to over 10 minutes in length, it’s a great resource for any filmmaker!
If the price tag on a new 3D television set wasn’t holding us back from replacing our HDTVs, it was the lack of 3D programming needed to justify such a purchase. However, now that DIRECTV has recently announced they will begin broadcasting four 3D channels starting in June 2010, the decision to upgrade has become a little more tempting.
DIRECTV won’t be the first television provider to broadcast in 3D. Just last week Cablevision broadcast the NHL’s Rangers vs. Islanders game in 3D, making it the first 3D sports broadcast here in the U.S. One viewer remarked, “I felt as though I was in the front row…Players faced off across a measurable distance, bodies slammed up against the glass and right into my face.”
Unlike Cablevision’s single event broadcast, DIRECTV is jumping head-first into 3D television programming with their four channels: a 3D-only channel called N3D, a 3D DIRECTV on Demand channel, a 3D pay-per-view channel and ESPN 3D, which will broadcast a minimum of 85 live sporting events in 3D, including 25 World Cup matches and the Summer X Games.
With 3D television sets now on the market and 3D programming on its way, it seems as if 3D entertainment finally has a firm grasp on the future…or does it? There continues to be the all too common and on-going complaints about 3D induced headaches and motion-sickness. Will people continue to put up with the side-effects in order to experience 3D entertainment in their homes, or will they reject the industry’s not-so-gentle nudge toward 3D, preferring the comfortable, less-expensive, flat images of years past?
The iPad is on its way and the HP Slate is not far behind. I am equal parts excited and terrified to see how these devices will change the way we consume media (hint: revolution). Already we’re seeing publishers and advertisers flock to the iPad. Many magazines that have been print-only since their existence now have the opportunity to immerse their readers in interactive video, sound, and motion. So, if you shoot video, how can you prepare for this brave new world? Get yourself an L-bracket.
I’ll explain. Traditionally, books and magazines are in a portrait orientation and film and TV are landscape. You don’t read books on your TV and you don’t watch movies in a magazine, until now. With the advent of the iPad (and other handheld computing devices), the lines between print and motion media are being blurred. Books AND movies can now be consumed on the same device. A device you hold in your hand and flip any way you wish.
With the iPad, there’s really no longer a landscape limitation for video. Maybe you want your video to appear full screen in portrait mode? Maybe you need a long, tall video banner-ad on the side of a digital magazine page? I think we’re going to start seeing a lot more vertically shot video soon. The simplest way to get a portrait orientation out of your video camera is to flip it. Flip it good. So get yourself an L-bracket and get shooting (if you shoot with a fixed monitor you might want to also get yourself a neck brace and a chiropractor).
Last weekend I shot some vertical beach scenes. These were shot on Red with a Canon 10-22mm.
All this vertical footy got me wondering what some of this might look like as an iPad magazine cover. So I did a little Sunset Magazine mock up. Sunset Mag, if you’re reading this, call me. We’ll talk.
When making a documentary there are a number of ways you can approach any single subject, and each approach will give your documentary a different feel. Taking a look at documentary genres and sub-genres, such as observational and participatory, can help you in determining the best way to approach your topic.
Observational documentaries follow a “fly-on-the-wall” approach. This technique focuses on observing the subjects in typical, everyday situations. As an observational documentarian, you’re strictly there to capture what happens, without influencing the outcome in any way. Frederick Wiseman’sHigh School (1968) is a great example of this approach.
A participatory approach is the exact opposite of an observational one. If you choose a participatory approach you are choosing to step out from behind the camera and actively participate in the documentary you’re making. This approach can be found in documentaries like Bowling for Columbine and Super Size Me. The topic is explored through the director’s experience and point-of-view, and focuses on persuading the viewer.
As a documentarian, you determine the viewer’s experience. Whether you choose observational, participatory, or one of the many other techniques, your approach will significantly affect how your viewer perceives your documentary and the information presented to them. Finding an approach that best suits your storytelling goal and style can increase the overall impact of your documentary.
Thankfully, the majority of my projects require no DVD authoring. Recently though, I needed to make a simple DVD menu and sub-menu with scene selection buttons. I ran into a peculiar DVD Studio Pro quirk that irked my skirt. In brief, this problem had to do with restarting a DVD after hitting stop twice. After hours of combing the web, and heading down dead-end rabbit trails, I finally came up with a solution. Figured I’d pay-it-forward to any bleary-eyed editors out there who’ve been pulling their hair out over this.
First the problem: When you hit ’stop’ on a DVD and then ‘play,’ normal behavior for a DVD is to ‘resume’ playback from the stopped point. If you hit stop, and then stop again, this should reset the disc as if you’d just inserted it into the DVD player. The problem with my disc is that, after hitting stop twice and then play, the disc would start on track 1 and not the first play menu. (My log read, “User action: System initialization. Jumping to Track: Track 1) How annoying is that? I still don’t know why this was happening. But it’s likely an issue with the way DVD Studio Pro writes it’s GRPM and SPRM values. Now you could buy expensive software and learn how to program DVD discs from the ground up, or you could try this…
My Solution: No matter what I tried, I could not get DVDSP to return to the menu after a double-stop. I tried scripting it, I tried rebuilding the project, I even tried some demo versions of that expensive software I mentioned but it quickly got over my head. Since DVDSP was being stubborn, and completely set on restarting at track 1, I finally gave up and said, “fine you can have track 1, stupid software, but I get to tell you what’s going to be on track 1.” And that’s the solution: put 2 seconds of black on track 1 and then tell the DVD to end-jump to the main menu. Hey, it’s not perfect, but it works.
If anyone has another way to solve this problem, please let me know.
________
Jesse Rostenis a filmmaker and photographer currently based out of Northern California. He’s a fan of creativity in all its forms.
Over the centuries some of our best inventions have been inspired by the nature that surrounds us. From our feathered friends who inspired us to take to the skies to the sea creatures that inspired us to make better suits for our Olympic swim teams, nature influences our advancements in all branches of technology, possibly even the way we’re able to shoot video.
NocturnalVision, a Swedish company, patented a new technology inspired by the eyes of a small tropical bee (Megalopta genalis), as well as other nocturnal insects. Combining their study of these insects with mathematics, NocturnalVision’s algorithm opens up the possibility of a camcorder with full-color night vision.
According to CNET, NocturnalVision uses an approach called “spatiotemporal summation.” The technology works by analyzing the image in each frame of video, as well as the action from one frame to the next in order to recognize pixels changing from light to dark, or from dark to light. From there it determines how to reduce the visual noise by calculating which pixels should be preserved, and which ones should be suppressed. Essentially, the technology makes it possible to shoot video in dimly lit conditions without the issue of grainy images.
As of right now, the new technology works, but at processing speeds too slow (five frames per second) to keep up with a camera’s frame rate. NocturnalVision is, indeed, interested in applying this technology to camcorders and camera phones, but is currently seeking venture capital.
Canon’s new plug-in will allow for simple and easy transfer of video content from Canon’s EOS DSLR cameras directly into Final Cut Pro. The EOS MOVIE Plugin-E1 will take advantage of Final Cut Pro’s powerful Log and Transfer feature, which allows users to select and mark the video directly while it is still on the camera, add custom metadata and ingest the clips in the background so the editing can begin immediately. The plug-in will be compatible with Final Cut Pro 6 or higher and currently supports Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 7D and EOS 1D Mark IV cameras.
Zacuto Films presents, “The Great Camera Shootout 2010: a three part web series where gunslinging HD DSLRs face-off against legendary 35mm Film.” The webisodic series showcases the top performing hybrid HD-DSLR cameras: Canon: 5D MKII, 7D, 1D, 550D/T2i Rebel, Nikon D3s, Panasonic GH1 and compares the image quality of these cameras against the gold standard of 35mm film. In addition, the Canon 5D MKII test includes the new 24p firmware. “This was an enormous undertaking,” says Steve Weiss, Web Series Director, “and great care was to make this an apples-to-apples test with scientific accuracy behind it.”
I just checked out the first episode, very informative and definitely worth watching. The cast is stacked with industry professionals with lots of experience all giving their thoughts and feedback on DSLRs, tons of side by side tests in real world situations. What are you waiting for? Part one is up, go check it out!
There are few things more annoying than a video that just doesn’t play. It can take years off of your life when you realize that a video you made in the past or received from a friend can’t be opened in any media playing software. However, thanks to one life-saving group of developers, it has been possible to open even the most stubborn of media files and now to even edit them.
All the way back in 1998, a few determined developers in Paris knew that there had to be an easier way to open and view video. Like many of us, they were sick of the huge variations in file formats between different media players and had a need to easily view files over a local area network. As a result, the VLC, or VideoLAN Client was born. Judging by the name, it may sound as if this program is nothing more than just an internet video player, however it is useful for opening incomplete, unfinished, or damaged video downloads, for recording screen captures, and for opening a huge list of file formats. Because of features like these, VLC has seen over 400 million downloads of their media player.
This is why what VLC is planning on doing next is so exciting. Back in December, they silently announced they were working on a new project called the VideoLAN Movie Creator. In their announcement, they outlined a cross platform, non-linear video editing system which will be based on their VLC media player framework. VLMC will be able to cut, resize, trim, and import, and export videos as well as play everything back in real time like many other editors that are currently on the market. The biggest difference is, their software is totally free. Read the rest of this entry »
Panavision has launched PANASCOUT, a new location scouting application for the iPhone. PANASCOUT simulates the cinematographer’s viewpoint from a professional cinema camera with a ton of options scouting locations gets easier. Frame your shots in true widescreen 2.40 (Anamorphic), 1.85 (Super 35mm), 1.78 (16×9 HD) and 1.33 (4×3) aspect ratios with PANAFRAME. The PANASCOUT comes loaded with features, capture metadata in every shot including; GPS Data, compass heading, date and time. Toggle on/off frame lines, centering crosshairs and GPS with a tap inside the “settings/gear” menu. PANASCOUT also allows you to upload directly to Final Cut with Final Cut Server, MobileME as well as SmugMug or email to your colleagues. Even add voice notes, written notes or reference video (3GS only).
The 
When making a 
Thankfully, the majority of my projects require no DVD authoring. Recently though, I needed to make a simple DVD menu and sub-menu with scene selection buttons. I ran into a peculiar DVD Studio Pro quirk that irked my skirt. In brief, this problem had to do with restarting a DVD after hitting stop twice. After hours of combing the web, and heading down dead-end rabbit trails, I finally came up with a solution. Figured I’d pay-it-forward to any bleary-eyed editors out there who’ve been pulling their hair out over this.
Over the centuries some of our best inventions have been inspired by the nature that surrounds us. From our feathered friends who inspired us to take to the skies to the sea creatures that inspired us to make better suits for our Olympic swim teams, nature influences our advancements in all branches of technology, possibly even the way we’re able to shoot video.
Canon’s new 
Zacuto Films
There are few things more annoying than a video that just doesn’t play. It can take years off of your life when you realize that a video you made in the past or received from a friend can’t be opened in any media playing software. However, thanks to one life-saving group of developers, it has been possible to open even the most stubborn of media files and now to even edit them. 
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