Simply trying to adding to a SAN or a RAID strategy for accommodating an every growing amount of data is NOT the path to archival bliss. Studies by IT experts show that the costs for doing this are deceptive – individual disk drives are cheap but not the infrastructure to support them.  Adding rack space, power, and cooling requirements is just impractical.  Also according to  the Clipper Group Inc., the costs for a Terabyte stored long term on SATA disk versus LTO data tape is about 23, to as much as 290 times more!   The issue with trying to grow your storage you will always grow faster than you anticipate.

The best path is to only keep as much data on-line as you need for active and repeat projects.  You CANNOT keep it all ONLINE. You see, backing up is what you should be doing for disaster recover. Backup is what covers you if you have a hard drive failure, it what you use if you have a fire, flood, or something else horrible happens to your home or office.  Archiving data on the other hand is very much like archiving any other kind of assets.  Moving data from a hard drive to a long lived storage medium like that of a LTO tape.  Data tape that is stored on the shelf or in an automated storage. The point being that not only do we have records, we want to assure that they are preserved for the future and easily accessible when any time a single file is needed.

You may feel that once your project is finished, you’ll never need to recreate the project is one thing. But to just dump all of the source material (paid or otherwise) is just misguided especially in the era of solid state production.  Because of solid state shooting (CF / P2 / SDHC / SxS ) regardless of the format you have to find a stable solution for long term storage.  To date there is only one solution that I know of that will service the needs of my fellow media professionals.

The Cache-A Archive Appliance

While I don’t want to turn this subject into a sales pitch, or a product review (I’ll publish a full review soon enough).  I do however wish to introduce you to a very solid solution. The main thing that attracts me to the Cache-A, is that it’s a true appliance!  I love features like automating the archival process, the fact that it writes to universal compression standard (TAR) and doesn’t manufacture any propriety information (other than the table of contents that written to each tape).  There are several “roll-your-own” LTO soultions out there for you to consider, this so far has been the only one that comes on it’s own total solution.  (Linux Based Server, Virtual Tape Library, and on board RAID to hold the on-line data).   All for about the same cost as a roll your own solution – with out propriety structure.  More information on the Cache-A.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Every summer my family would pile in a van with the grandparents and drive north for a day and a half from Florida to my great grandmother’s house up in Indiana. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my Grandma Williams and visiting her was always a treat BUT it was the trip in the car that I loved most. Car trips meant C.D. players and coloring books, candy from the corner store when we stopped to get gas, but most of all it meant “Road Games.” We’d play the silliest of games, from tracking the alphabet on the back of license plates, to Roadside Bingo, to counting cows. BUT my absolute favorite of all time had to be the Mad Libs. As a kid addicted to reading and words, Mad Libs was pure genius. I now realize how much my family must have loved my 7 year-old self, who annoyingly sat at the back of the van with my fuchsia marker calling for random words and then laughing hysterically to myself as I popped another jolly rancher in my mouth and turned the page to start the process all over again. Thanks for putting up with me guys.

So, Imagine my delight when Apple announced iLife 11 this past week. Sure learning how to play guitar or piano on GarageBand would make me a much more well rounded person.  And yes I absolutely adore that iPhoto is now full screen but lets be honest with ourselves…it was the changes to iMovie that had the kid in me squealing in joy. No wait. That was my adult self we all just heard. Yep there it is again… You see I’ve been editing on FCP for 8 years now and I am, how should we put this, a bit addicted. Like Warcraft addicted. You know, like sit in your chair for 16 hours a day to get one scene right, eat all meals at your desk and sometimes skip showering cause it might interrupt your flow, kind of addicted.

Putting a story together is an amazing high. Admit it! I don’t think people realize how much fun editors are really having. Even though we complain about the hours, the lack of good office chairs, and how we just can’t find time to cook anymore, we get to make magic every freakin’ day! I don’t know about everyone else but I love having magic in my life.  Cue the music. And Enter iMovie Trailers….Where you can just fill in the blanks and add footage just like you would a Mad Lib.

I got iLife in the mail Friday and had it installed by 1. By 1:15 I had a project and 5 minutes of clips imported. By 2:00 I learned how to make my iMovie Trailer into a standalone project but still retain the template timeline. By 2:30 I learned to adjust the times of my clips within the template and how to change font, color and a ton of other cool “surprises.” (see below)  By 3:00 I had a trailer for a short film I had shot with some friends a few months back while testing out a lens we rented from Samy’s. Now I must admit this is my first time ever opening iMovie. I got my start on Pinnacle Studio during the part in my life I like to call “The Frustration with Computers before Apple came into my Life” years. I went straight into FCP with my first Mac and have never looked back. Now if you know me, you know I have been cheating on FCP with MOTION for some time now. I love the way Motion is set up. I love the interface. It just works for my brain. iPhoto has similiar characteristics as well. So when I saw that iMovie has the same said pop up controls with a ton of really cool features I was thrilled.  Simple and Accessible is good.  Having a fun trailer in under 2 hours, is just crazy.

Let’s be honest here everyone….when was the last time you saw a really REALLY cool movie trailer? (besides the new Mortal Kombat one….i know i know it WAS amazing) It doesn’t happen that often does it? It’s just well….trailers have become very formulaic. Shall we say “campy” even?  But that doesn’t mean we can’t love them! An boy do I love me some camp, just like I now love me some  iMovie Trailers. It’s fun. And I cling to fun when I can get it.  I will say that making it into a full fledged project was really what changed the game for me and opened up several customizable options that I believe could be a turned into a time saving template for some situations. Editing takes a lot of time and time is very important to me as I have so little of it trying to juggle lots of projects at a time. I always tell people who want to get into editing that it’s one part story telling, one part time management and organizational skills.  iMovie Trailers might just fall under the time management tab because when it comes down to it it’s not what program you use or the kind of camera you shot it on but how you use your medium to tell the story that counts. And I believe iMovie Trailer Templates are great story telling tools.

Fun Surprises:

- Pop Up Effects/Video/Audio Tab lets you directly customize each clip on the  timeline
- There’s VIDEO Effects: Changes color of clip by genre-esque options: Heatwave, X-ray Vision, Sepia, Cartoon, Sci fi…20 instant video effects in all
- There’s AUDIO Effects: Adds audio filters to the soundtrack or sound FX clip like Muffled, Robot, Small Room, Pitch Up, Telephone, and various others, also 20 instant audio effects;

You can also change the Length of the clip, the speed of the clip, and get this: Stabilization. That’s right, it stabilizes the clip for you. It has a Zoom option, and last but not least some kind of “Reduce the Rolling Shutter” filter…. Interesting. This one needs further research.

- In the Video Tab, You can also effect Color Saturation, Exposure, Brightness/Contrast, Hue, White Balance, and an Auto option.

- In the Audio Tab, You can reduce background noise, normalize the audio, use the equalizer, adjust the volume on a whole, add fade in and fade outs or directly edit the levels on each individual clip via the clips visible waveform’s.

-You can also change out the Titles and Fonts and font colors. There are several interchangeable transition options, voice over recording feature; interchangeable score music options. Hell, the score options alone are worth the 50$!

I’m sure you can do a ton of other things within this program that I’m missing out on at first glance. The best part is that I can’t wait to figure them out and dabble some more.  Now I won’t be turning away from FCP to edit any professional trailers  anytime soon but for new editors iMovie is definitely a great program to figure out the basic fundamentals of storytelling. It’s even got some nice toys that the Pro’s can crush on. My favorite part is how easy it is. Ever closer are the days of holographic editing akin to Minority Report where I just move images in the air with my hands. Kids are especially going to love this aspect of the program and they can do really great things when given the tools. iMovie is definitely one of those tools and I can’t wait to see what people can come up with. Educators and parents rejoice! Oh, and for the Pro’s, I don’t think iMovie is going to be stealing any of your business anytime soon. We’ll still be making movie magic in FCP… but I know where I’ll be headed the next time my family wants me to just “edit them up a little something something” of prom or Aunt Sophie’s 100th Birthday Bash. I can just plug and play in iMovie and still give them something well produced that we can both be proud of.  (Just kidding Aunt Sophie, I worked for HOURS on that “highlight” video…..love the bracelet!)

Using iMovies Trailers takes me back to being a kid again sitting in the back of the family van with my Mad Libs.  The end result of throwing random footage into a familiar template comes out a lot like a Mad Lib reads: It resembles a story we know, but with a few unintentional laughs thrown in when you least expect it.

-DSLRGIRL

P.S. Here’s my trailer for our short, Trigger. Shot on a t2i with a Canon 24-70mm Lens utilizing the Noir Template and the HARD LIGHT Video Effect.

If you are doing a job, make sure that you are using the right tools for the job.  It brings me great pain to see people not using the proper tools. Whether it be going with cheaper parts or not upgrading your system when your system is a decade old, if you plan to drive income from a task, that task requires tools.

You don’t always need to get the most expensive, latest and greatest  gear.   You have to know what you are going to use it for. For example, someone who is just surfing the web and writing blog posts does not need the same kind of system as someone who is cutting HD video.  In these cases it’s important to enlist the help of a pro and make sure that you are investing in the right equipment to get the job done efficiently.

Here are the top five things that people often forget to factor in when dealing with their computer system:

1.) Your computer is not like a fine wine –
Age is critical

You need to remember to schedule a system upgrade every 3 – 4 years.  This keeps you on track with operating system release and upgrades in software versions.  Let’s face it – new software is written to function on new hardware.  If you can discipline yourself to not upgrade every time offered, you can extend the life of your system – but there are nice things that come with a new version of software, namely new features that will bring time-saving productivity, and security increases that they discover along the way.

2.) If you have one copy – you don’t have a backup

I was very fortunate to have a close family friend who would constantly challenge me when it came to my practices on backups.  Most of us don’t fully value the data that’s stored on our PCs until it’s mangled or just flat out gone.  The fact is if you only have one copy of something, you don’t have a solid backup. Unless you have been living under a rock you have probably heard of cloud based backups like Mozy.  These services allow you to back up securely to the internet. It works – and you don’t have to worry about it.

3.) Choosing the right hardware

The wrong components can sink you! Not understanding how your computer will handle the tasks you plan to throw at it can be even worse!!  When it comes to video editing systems there are key components that you just can’t skimp out on. Video editing systems need fast throughput to the drives, solid GPUs, and buckets of RAM never hurt. The main thing is to know what your jobs will require- if you don’t know, be sure to read number five on my list.

4.) Power is critical

Most, if not all, computers are just not as fun when they don’t have a power source.  Too many times we forget that our tools require good, clean power to make them run.  Not only are our tools not fun when the power cuts off – the process of the power jumping on and off can kill them too.

Here’s a fun tip: the power strip that says it’s a surge protector, isn’t going to protect you!  For those of us who make our living off of our workstations we need to be sure that we can properly shutdown our machine if we have an outage or in the event of a storm rolling through. Uninterpretable power supplies are sold according to VA ratings (Volts * Amps) to see how high of a VA you need, I’d suggest APC’s UPS Selector.  This doesn’t mean that you have to go with an APC model, but they do make great products (with very easy to exchange battery blocks).

5.) Hire a PRO!!!

You do not have to know everything!  I have assembled a team of folks who know their way around a motherboard and have hundreds of thousands of hours of experience doing top level, real world research into what works best in all situations. When it comes to the machine that you are going to be working on every day- the one you rely on to make your paycheck – you don’t just want some toy.  When you hire a pro (like my team) you insure that your machine will be up to the task of doing what you need it to do,  whatever that task might be.

With all of the above being said,  if you need to upgrade your machine or you need pointers on how you can make your backups easier to manage or more secure, contact me!  I have a team of geeks that can walk you through the paces to make sure that you have what you need to get the job done.  This is by no means an exhaustive list of things that we all forget to factor in. What have you forgotten to factor in when maintaining your system?

Photos used in post:
Vintage Wine by Guttorm Flatabø
Power to the people by Boliston

Let me be transparent at this point about my motives. I’ve shot a lot of video for TV, Indie films, YouTube, etc. and I’m buying into the idea that you can make a great looking film with HD DSLR cameras.

I’m coming at this as a film guy who’s shot and worked around a lot of 35mm motion and stills and medium format – hyper SDoF and heavy grip trucks. I know it takes more than a camera and some fairy dust post tools to be a film, not just look like a film.

But, for those of you who came up shooting fast and easy video with fixed lens 1/3 chip cameras, there are probably a number of areas you have not considered. If you want the film look, the Colonel has a few secret herbs and spices you need before it goes from home grown to the big time. Here are the big ones.

1. Lenses

You can see for mile from here – if you forked over the dough for a good prime lens. The $100-200 ‘kit lens’ that came with the camera is entirely useless. As soon as I slapped on my shiny Canon 50mm 1.4 lens, I realized why I had paid nearly $900 for it. And no, the 50mm 1.8 won’t cut it either. Once a crew I know of threw their 1.8 to the ground, smashed it up and used it as a ‘Lens Baby’ alternative. This is appropriate behavior.

Canon make a 50mm 1.2 L lens. If I was dumb enough to put that on my camera, I would have to sell a kidney and buy that and forsake my 1.4. Why? Because you can REALLY see the difference in quality between the different levels of lens. And you can’t go back. And your audience can see it too. Even on the ‘interwebvimeotube’

Vincent Laforet has a large collection of L lenses, and it shows in Reverie. It’s part of the reason that video created such a stir.

You will need 5 prime lenses and 2 zooms. You will probably invest $5k-$10k depending on where in the world you live. I would suggest the 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm, 10-22mm and the EF 70-300mm.

The faster primes will get you a sharper image, better color rendition, SDoF and low light performance the zooms can’t touch.

The zooms will get you out of trouble time and again when the distance between the subject and the camera is fixed. Like the other day when shooting a waterfall. With only a 50mm prime, I was forced to ford the river and setup in the splash zone…

2. Sound

According to George Lucas,  the audio is at least 50% of the motion picture experience . And it is typically the most abused aspect of video production. Pfft, radio lapels are not God’s answer to every situation. Most DSLRs are poor sound recorders. It’s not just the inter-channel crosstalk that you get from a 3.5mm stereo jack (wha? It does what?). It’s also the lack of manual recording levels, the REALLY compressed sound quality, the lack of any other meaningful control, having to menu dive for whatever control there is…

Look, if we keep our 35mm film paradigm in mind, record the sound separately if you can. Buy a reasonable portable digital recorder (most things around $400 US and up) and stick it to your camera. They record and run all day on SDHC and a few AAs. Due in part to better design and a better recording format, it will sound better. Imagine that…

Oh, and trample those blinking iPod ear-buds and get some full cup headphones (closed back) like Sony’s MDR-7502 (sort of a standard, like Avid once was- more because everyone had one, not so much ’cause it’s the best).

Use this software: PluralEyes to re-sync picture and sound in post without the tedium.

If you treat sound separately, chances are you will get a sound recordists, or pay more attention yourself, resulting in better sound and therefore a better film.

Don’t ever use a built in mic (or on camera shotgun) if you can possibly avoid it. Get the right mic on or near what you need to hear. Think, people. Think. For the love of Pete, stop using the 20c mic built into your DSLR unless you need it to sound like it is under water in a submarine.
Oh, and stop editing and mixing on those Logitech computer speakers. Man (or woman), up and get some studio monitors! You don’t edit on a 1960′s portable tele – if sound is 50%, then spend the dosh on some real speakers.

3. External Monitor

I will tell you now (if you have not already discovered), that the screen on the back of your 550D is not as bright as you need in broad daylight. Even in subdued light, ambient light will make it hard to judge anything on what has to be the shiniest (and most nose-fog catching) screen made to date.

Zacuto leads the way with a strap on (ahem) viewfinder gadget…look, I’m a pretty normal human being, my head being attached by a short neck. If you pan the camera more tha 30 degrees in any direction you have to move your whole body to maintain a good seal on the eye cup. Turn 90 degrees, and you will consulting a contortionist for help or a chiropractor for salvation if you did it without thinking first.

Get a monitor on an external arm (I likeManfrotto magic arms, half the price, longer and versatile mouting options).

Get a Hoodman shade or whip something up out of black foam-core and gaffer tape. The DV Rebel should endeavour to home-brew at least 25% of his/her kit.

The 550D has a neat zoom in feature with pan and scan to see a 100% magnification and check focus – but you can only use it OUTSIDE of record mode.

4. MatteBox and Follow Focus

I listed them together because it’s silly not to buy them as a package deal – and if you have a mattebox, there is nowhere for your fingers (unless you look like ET) to fiddle about with the lens. Your arm and wrist will be on an unnatural angle all day if you try and rack focus on the lens body. It will annoy you at first, and hurt if you go all day.

And you need the mattebox for 2 reasons. The first is: it’ll look cool. Yep, I said it. You are going to have a Dickens of a time explaining to your client that you ditched your old AVCHD camcorder (that looks 4 times larger) to shoot on a teeny tiny 550D with a lens that WON’T EVEN ZOOM!

Slap on the mattebox, call it Digital Cinema (and unlike Panasonic, who coined the phrase) as you could really project this stuff at the movies (ask the boys at Zacuto). Rodney Charters,  a fellow Kiwi and DOP of 24, validated what we all suspected when he shot episodess on little video cameras and the only complaint was that without the mattebox the actors felt unsure – nothing about image quality.

The second reason: lens flare. You can have the best (or 2nd best, in my case) lenses on your trusty tiger of a DSLR – but like every camera in the world, stray light off axis kicking back down the lens will wash out color and create uneven brightness or slow pulsing in the case of moving light sources.

Unless you are J.J. Abrams shooting on anamorphic lenses for sci fi, light kicking back down the lens is bad.

35mm guys have used matteboxes for decades because it improves the picture quality (not because it looks cool- that’s for people on the other side of the camera).

If you can handle the bulk, get one with actual matte inserts to match your lens collection. Get the side flags and french flags. Use them when you are on a tripod or shoulder rig. Derig for handhold in tight spaces – a french flag has a built in desire to lobotomise lead actors – this can be bad for the DV Rebel who is probably not paying talent and needs them to stay happy.

5. Filters

I list this separately so you will pay attention. Your video camera came with ND filters built in (if you didn’t buy it at Walmart). I hope you used them. SDoF is totally dependant on wide open lenses (large apertures of f1.2 and friends). If it’s bright outside, you are stuck with an exposure time of 1/50th and the lowest you can con the ISO is 100, you are going to have to stop down to f16 or so. Suddenly the whole world is in focus and you are not getting 2″ of focus you need to see the tears on her cheeks, but not the bus in the background…back to video – blehck. (Blehck – noun – the feeling in the pit of your stomach when things stop looking like film and start looking like it was shot on a 12 year old’s Flip Mino).

You will need Neutral Density filter (ND) and Graduated ND filters. And a few of them. Magic Bullet II does such a good job of color grads in post, I would hesitate to use a colored graduated filter on the camera unless I REALLY new what I was up to (i.e. I was Storarro incarnate).

UV filters are important in my neck of the woods – we have very little ozone layer in New Zealand – so lots of sunburn and UV mucking up the sharpness of colors.

A polarizer is a great investment, and if you have read this so far, you probably know what it does, otherwise wikipedia (it’s never wrong!?).

Filters, like lenses, are not cheap, and you get what you pay for. Get the glass ones for $50. If you get those gelatin / plastic ones, be sure to call me so I can make you an offer on those L lenses you will be wasting.

Remember, you will probably need a mattebox to hold them. Then you will look cool

6. Motion Artifacts

No really, there will be some. Keep the camera still, and let things move about the frame. If you move the camera about excessively (even less some times) you will get judder and false / soft edges that even YouTube won’t hide. Part of this is the (relatively) low speed at which the CMOS is read from top to bottom. This is what leads to Jello-cam – the earthquake effect of moving the camera to fast particularly in a horizontal direction.

Rodney Charters suggests this will lead away from throwing the camera about and getting a decent tripod and composing shots again. Finally, after 20 years of MTV / NYPD Blue (how old am I) camera-as-blind-man-with-flashlight-shooting, we might be allowed to used a tripod again. I blame Garret Brown for getting us used to the camera being far more mobile, but not giving us all a free Steadicam to do it right.

This is one issue that’s going to hamper us until Scarlet and similar cameras with higher data rates and faster chip read rates join the fray.

This is your wake up call to ditch the plastic tripod and get something in a nice carbon fiber with a real fluid head. It’s also a challenge to ‘video’ people to spend a little time thinking about holding the wide-shot longer instead of lunging for the mid-shot.

I am personally looking for a miniature geared head.

7. NLE Fun And Games

Being cheap, and not wanting to randomly fork over anywhere from $400-1000 every time a software company has the itch to make money and release an update, I am one of few, the proud, the Vegas Users who is still on version 8. Version 9 is when they discovered fire…I mean H.264 – that wondrous format that makes cheap video a reality for so many cameras and formats.

Vegas 8 on Windows7 (blast it, paid out again) is not great – h.264 support is kinda iffy in places. Trying to run footage from the 550D at 32bit into Magic Bullet Editors (yeah, another oldie, but I paid for it, you pirate scum!) at 1080P makes even my Quad Core sag and I get about 10fps playback before I add plug-ins. Sad.

This is mostly my fault, and I know I need to consider a MAJOR upgrade. CS5 is…well, it’s fast, but it’s still Premier (and adding the word ‘pro’ is marketing BS).

For those of you jumping to DSLR, upgrade or die. Hey, it’s not mini DV out there any longer, and you will have to update to the latest version of…well, probably everything.

And consider using an intermediate codec like CineformHD or ProRes if you are serious about release formats, color correction, etc. Just ’cause your NLE can play the file natively does NOT mean it’s safe to edit in that muck.

8. Lighting

Really want the “Film-Look”? – it ain’t just the 4 magic ingredients mentioned in part one of this ceaseless rant. And it ain’t celluloid with sprockets running through a heavily modded sewing machine with a bottle of Zeiss’ finest on the front.

Cinematography is about lighting, framing, motion, complimenting the story, motivation for lighting and movement…it’s all the stuff you learn at film school while you are waiting your turn to seize control of the class to produce your opus.

One of these that you can beg, borrow, steal or (gasp) purchase is lights.

Get some good ones you won’t have to make a joke about in your director’s commentary.

At least get a couple of Lowel Totas, some reflectors and a couple of Pro-Lights.

I would personally say get 3 Arri Fresnels of a matching size and couple of big ones – say 3×300 watt, 2x 650 watt and a 1k. Then you can light large areas with one light and get in close with the smaller instruments. Less moving around for your basic lighting, and easy finesse.

Fantasy over for some of us (’cause all my money is going on lenses and a new NLE), use some light / reflector / well placed flashlight with some diffusion. Go and read ‘Painting with Light’ if you really want it to look like a movie.

Video is fraught with washed out, flat, under/over exposed, just plain badly lit junk.

You finally have a camera that can see in the dark- great!  But you can improve on the floodlighting in the subway with just a small battery powered lighting kit.

A long time ago in Sydney, Australia, I was a humble camera operator and film school grad who was heartbroken when I worked out that it cost $250,000.00 to hit the road as an owner/operator shooting BetacamSP and that there were over 1000 crews competing in a town of only a coupla million people.

You might not understand that price – but back in the 90′s it was nearly $90,000 just for a camcorder body (Sony BVW 400a). Add the price of a lens, batteries, tripod and the obligatory SUV to drive the ‘talent’ around in, and I couldn’t bring myself to go the ‘industrial route’ and invest in SuperVHS – little better than U-Matic.

I opted for Hi8 and a shiny Sony VX5000 – I got a lot of little jobs off that camera and rented for anything ‘real’

I’ve owned a succession of cameras from the shallow end of the pool ever since. I think a Sony TRV-8 MiniDV handycam was the best of the bunch. Great pictures, tiny camera, good lowlight, cheap…

And with the advent of editing your own work (Premier 1.5!) and color correction (Magic Bullet Editors) suddenly we could care about image quality again.

But try as we might, the new generation of Coppolla’s “fat 12 year olds” just couldn’t cut it with the big boys.

They had wonderful HD images which just looked (and I’m sure Kodak coined the BS term) “Film-like.”

And in the 2000′s, we all started wandering on the same path, in search of the holy grail – “The Film Look”, which Kodak assured us we could only get on film. I have 2 things to say about that: Epic, and Alexa.

So I went back to film. One time. Super8. Long story- no result. The cost was astronomical,  but I continue to love what Super8 birthed on the unsuspecting music video scene – crapulence. That grainy, interpretive, weaving, flickery, indeterminate, smokey, loveliness that is the ‘grunge look’.

How could I get that look? Ah, now you know why my favorite camera of the past was a standard definition, single chip handycam in low light…Step one of the film look, almost.

The path to righteousness, ahem, the steps to “the Film-look” turned out to be:

1.) Progressive images – not interlaced. Thanks to Adobe Premiere defaulting to this whenever it had to change the playback rate of footage or move it – if you slowed your film by .01% Premiere re-rendered a progressive frame that looked… filmic.

2.) 24 frames per second – NTSC was just too damn clean at 30, even PAL at 25 was not quite there. We needed the herky jerk of 24.

3.) Color Correction – Before Magic Bullet, CC was a mystical art practiced by few  (hey, Stu was doing this stuff before feature films were doing DI regularly). With faster computers, GPU support and a masterful stroke from Apple (giving you $25K worth of Color for free with Final Cut) now anyone with half a clue can do CC. Just use the presets if you really don’t know…

4.) Shallow Depth of Field- The one you couldn’t (really) do with software and electronics.

Three of these things could be achieved in camera, if only such a camera existed – freeing the DV Rebel to make films that “looked like a film”.

No really, I sat through a few SXSW winners that had great stories, great soundtracks, but just didn’t look…well, we used the word “expensive” back then because SDoF implied 35mm film and buckets of cash.

Stu Mashwitz, in his masterful work “The DV Rebel’s Guide” first mooted the Panasonic DVX100 (I had a B version) as the ultimate rebel’s camera – it shoots (sorta) 24p (sorta p, sorta 24) and with a bit of care in post…magic, or poor man’s 16mm – depending on your perspective.

Then along came a couple of guys on DVX User with some spinning CD blanks and old Nikkor lenses…gasp – through the murk and moire you could get SDoF. Stick one of these confabulations on the front of your DVX100 and be instantly translated to Nirvana…the mystical realm, not Seattle.

Now we had a true holy grail to pursue. One of those guys on DVX User realized that and started Red Rock Micro. It turns out the 24p with good color correction is half of the film look (and Magic Bullet could do all that with software!). The other, much sexier, half was Shallow Depth of Field.

Like a tiger in the jungle, she was elusive, captivating, hard to pin down, and many hunted her. Unfortunately, just like the Holy Grail, many perished or suffered in the quest with rigs that ran your exposure down to 50 ISO, cost three times as much as the camera or were ten times longer than your rig was wide (see cumbersome in the dictionary).

Then Vincent Laforet gave us “Reverie” – in all it’s 30 Fps compressed glory. Half of us said “You can’t shoot on a compressed format”, and the other half remembered that if it looks good, people will watch. Vincent won, by the way, with 24, House M.D. and even Lucasfilm using the 5DmkII.

And after a mob with pitchforks and burning torches assembled at the gates of Canon, we even got 24 frames per second. Wasn’t that nice of them?

Yes, after a year of staring at wonderful show reels full of 2″ Shallow Depth of Field images (SDoF), and then laughing at guys with 4′ long camera rigs, I made the plunge to DSLR.

The only problem was that a 5DmkII is a little on the expensive side for a true DV Rebel.  Enter the Canon 550D (part of the Rebel range in Canon’s own parlance).

What makes the 550D so great is that it allows for shallow depth of field, it shoots 24 frames per second progressive, and in a true high definition 1080 format. It also has built-in sound (sorta) and only $1,500  Pacific Pesos ($800 in the ol’ USA).

So, I would humbly suggest that the 550D is the official DV Rebel camera of 2010. Red will sell 10,000 Scarlets, but Canon can sell that many 550Ds in a week. And the first Scarlet (at this time) will ship with a 2/3″ sensor- inferior SDoF performance. And it will cost a whole butt load more than a 550D. Understandably. DV Rebels are a scrappy lot, and if there is a cheaper option that actually looks better in some ways, the choice is obvious.

So, the day finally dawned that I needed a new camera. I spent the day with the Sony NX5 – a “proper” video camera- balanced audio in, full control of exposure, zoom and focus, sorta broadcast video format- .as I said, a “proper” video camera. It made “proper” video looking images of it’s 3x 1/3″ chips too. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I ran to the nearest photography store and got the 550D, vowing never to spend 3 times the money to be “proper” and boring again. I drank the kool-aid – “If it looks good, people will watch.” I plunked down the dough to ride the tiger. And only a couple of weeks in, I’ve felt like that famed Indian peasant who rode the tiger more by accident than design.

In part two, I will share some of the joys and some of the perils of shooting on the 550D. Tigers look great, but they have teeth. If you forget about the teeth, you get eaten. But it’s worth the ride.

Here’s what’s cool

Larger Screen that Flips – For the first time with the Flip, people like me who spend more time with their Flip pointed at themselves will finally be able to see themselves as they are shooting!  We have also been told that we’ll have a larger, but non-touch sensitive.

Wi-Fi network connection - This is what I’ve been waiting for, but there are a lot of questions that are still up in the air and things that we’re just not sure about.  I believe that this will take the same direction that the Eye-fi (shameless affiliate link) products have taken where there are configuration files that allow you to connect to the networks that you’re near – if private, then you can make provisions for that.

What I’m hoping for
(but not holding my breath)

Better exposure control and real white balance - This is has been my main gripe with all pocket video devices (I still won’t call it a camera – even though I own one!) Why do I want this…  If I could just get exposure lock, so I don’t get the slow reaction – but just dropped below the threshold for the auto-exposure.  Having real white balance would allow me to make videos that were warm or cool, or with the combination we’d be able to shoot very flat and then color correct in post production.

Auxiliary Audio Input - The ability to plug in a microphone that would be better suited for the situation that were shooting in would be a massively cool feature.  There’s an odd side (the hacker in me) that really wants to open it up and see how I could add this to my flip, but don’t want to break it! I’m not asking for a XLR interface – but the ability to add a small lapel microphone, or a small boom like what’s used on some of the iPod recording accessories.

1080p – It would be cool, the Kodak Zi8 has delivered this resolution – would be nice if the new Flip Wi-Fi cam could match this.  (Having 1080 24p / 30p and 720 60p would be a bonus)

Live streaming – The ability to connect to Ustream or Livestream to stream live from a Wi-Fi connection would be EPIC!

Threads on the lens – Like I’ve said before – I really don’t want to hack my shinny new flip (until I can replace it when something goes wrong). Having threads so that I can add a wide angle adapter, or even throwing a telephoto to get some reach would be nice!!!

Am I asking or expecting too much
from a tiny handheld video product?

photo credit

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rog2bark/ / CC BY 2.0

The choice of cameras has made me quite gun shy. My plan was to buy low end camera (AVCHD) that and stream via the USB / Firewire. This past weekend I was at the Conroe House of Pray (CHOP) and was streaming a meeting for Marty Gabler (who will be there the fourth Saturday of every month, as will I as schedule will allow!) He is the owner of a JVC Everio HD 30, which I later found out has no web camera function!

WHY!

Pass the USB Please – or even the 1394, you can set the output of the firewire (1394 / iLink) to DV – so that should pass images as a camera, but no!  So now I need to verify that the camera that I end up with will allow this function – or I’ll keep shooting with my trusty DSR PDx10!

Why Small Business / Non-profits Need Pocket Production

Ease Of Use

First and foremost, easy-of-use!  I don’t know that many businesses that have an in-house produciton unit, and even fewer non-profits that have the budget  to have a videographer at every event.  I’d have to say that 9 times out of 10 it becomes the job of a volunteer to capture the event and forever lock its legacy on tape.  Because these devices have few features and no manual control you can turn one one hand it to someone and show them where the record button is – and just reclaim the device at the end of the day!  I’d really love to have someone try that with say a HVX – or any other “real” camera.

Co$t!

This is a huge factor in my book; with the costs of these devices coming in at sub $250 – which is a vast improvement when you look at spending $1000 – $3500 on HD production gear!  This means that you can put more of these devices at your event – yielding double, or triple the coverage.

Personal

How often do you have a camera that you want to take with you every where? (If you are a film student – your answer doesn’t count!)

Looking Beyond the Big Three (Flip / Vado / Kodak)

Every time I mention pocket video and I do a search to see what’s going on in this mini-revolution I find more camera and manufactures who are throwing their hat into the ring – over the next few weeks I’m going to take a look at some of the others who’ve come to compete – if you’ve found a device that I’ve not mentioned PLEASE list it in the comments of this post, if you are a manufacture of a device and you like to see it mentioned use the contact form to get in touch with me as I’d love to feature you!

Next time on Powered Production

On the next post I’m going to step you through all of the reasons that you – STILL need a real camera, so please stay tuned and chime in via the comments or send me a message on twitter (@big_b_rad) to tell me what you think.

Photos used on post

On Set by sheriffmitchell

I call a real camera a device with semi manual controls, I’m not asking for everything manual – but there is a level of control that is necessary for “real” camera operation. In Why The Flip – I really out lined where I’d love to see these camera go, and with the purchase of Pure Digital by networking giant Cisco – I’m sure they will make some adjustments, but most to its connectivity – not it’s control (I’m sure – but hope that I’m wrong). To save time – please take a look at “Why The Flip“. The two things that I’m looking for any camera to have is manual white balance and real audio inputs; this would be a minimum. I’d love to see manual exposure and audio levels and optical lens controls, but is that asking too much?

Even according to my criteria of what makes a real camera – I still see these devices having a place in the production pipeline; but hopefully not as your only camera. Most of us have done single camera production for far too long have neglected the role of the B (or secondary) camera. A locked off shot for cover or a funky cut-away can really save your production.

This Months Inc. Magazine took a look at four more of these pocket camera – and I’m really leaning toward Kodak’s latest release the Kodak Zx1 HD Pocket Video Camera.  Main factors of me choosing that camera – form-factor, real memory card, replaceable (standard) batteries.  I really wished that they kept the mirrored button on the front but w/ the new shooting modes and the size a bit smaller I’m sure that it’s going to be what I go with.

So, why do i want a fake camera?

Size, Cost, Cool Factor

1. Size

It’s necessary to have a camera that won’t take 10 minutes to get out of the bag, get set up properly (balance and check / set up audio) before you have to shoot.  The draw for me to these devices is the simplicity of being able to turn on point and shoot!  The other draw is to have a few of them so that you can have a few extra locked off shots that you can cut to – just because you have them.  The other thing that I’m really dreaming up, and I’d buy this if someone made it – but a mini fig rig that had a double ring system – and the inside ring (where the camera mounted doubled as a ring light!)  DM me on twitter if you want to bounce idea around – as I’m going to make my own, and if costs permit I’ll sell them as well!

2. Cost

Dude, $170 gets you HD in your pocket.  I thought that I was in love when the HV30 came out at a sub $1,000 range.  The ability to capture HD at this price point is unprecedented, therefore an absolute factor

3. Cool Factor

Come on, who doesn’t want to be “That Guy” who sees something going on and has the pocket cam on them or in their bag to be able to catch it and share it with the world!  (Is that just me?) These devices have cool written all over them, and not that I’m ever one of the “cool kids” but these devices make me feel cool using them!

Next on Powered Production

Next I’m going to take a look at how these devices fit into the Production Pipeline, and how small business and non-profits can use these to deliver authentic and organic media within their organizations.  Please stay tuned – and help shape the conversation by taking part with your comments!

Photos Used in Post:

Pocket Protector by brenbot

Fast Company (in their March 2009 issue) lists Pure Digital Technologies (maker of Filp Mino HD) as #7 of their list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” beating out Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.  What make them so cool you ask?!  Well – they have truly put HD video in the hands of the masses.   In just 18 months, Pure Digital sold 1.5 million of its recorders and now commands 25% of the market.  With competition on the rise the review have start to come in that have said that the Flip just ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Chris also did a side-by-side-by-side review of the three heavy hitters (Mino HD, Kodak Zi6, and Creative’s Vado HD) and I have to agree that they all bring a lot to the table.  There are some core features that I’d really love to have seen in the Mino HD, namly – removeable media, and batteries would have been a huge plus.  In the end Pirillo named the Creative Vado HD the best of the bunch, but I really don’t see it, and neither did Robert Scroble in his blog post entitled, “Chris Pirillo is wrong about best pocket video cameras.” Now I’ll also point out that Scroble is on staff at Fast Company – the mag that named the maker of the Flip as cool.

Before I get sucked into the stone throwing of the two tech legends – I’d like to take a few steps back and let’s look at the criteria that really should have been at the core of this – the features, and then talk about some things that I’d really love for someone to address.  With the goal of pocket HD shooting, I think that there are some critical things that the Kodak nailed – namly the lense, audio quality, the removeable / rechargeable batteries; but form factor kills it for me.  Sure the larger screen size is nice – but if 75% of the video that you shoot – is going to be of you in front of it – I’d gladly go for the smaller size (and I’m sure that means a bit longer battery life too.)

What critical features do I still long for in pocket video camera’s?

• White Balance – The ability to tell the camera what true white is so that it can properly balance skin tone and determine the space between true white and black, this is a critical area in all camera’s!  It’d be killer if there were some setups for a few different presets (user defined) so that I could switch from a warmer look – or just tell it day light and start shooting.  (If 1980 era VHS camera’s could figure this out – why can’t we have this in a pocket camera?
• External Audio Jack – The one thing that really separates good video from great video – is always the audio.  George Lucas says that it makes up 50% of the movie – I really think that it’s much more than that! Would move these camera beyond a great thing to have – to an essential thing to have!

It’s because of these two critical features that I still believe that you need a “real” camera – like a HVX, or even one of the new tiny-cam’s (HV30 or HF10) and a real microphone, to be able to deliver ‘real’ results but these new camera’s have made some great in roads in what you can use to bring HD video to your audience!  When I say “real” I really am striving to convey the whole air quote thingy – but if you really want to know what makes shows like the highly produced “WineLibrary.TV” and what you see most marketers deliverying is this thing call “REAL”, in order to deliever the real – or as others like to call it production value you have to have exposure control and a microphone that’s not inside of a plastic box!

Judging these cameras by what has better color or which has a wider lens – is really a mute point to me.  What video are you shooting at any point that you’re not doing some type of post process?? Also for the record – I always shoot as flat as possible when shooting for broadcast and digital film – this is a very standard pratice across the board, so that when you do color correct your shots you have the most latitude to start.

Am I missing anything else here?  Am I being too critical of these two views on these three camera’s?

Photos used in post:
Flip Mino HD: Design Tag by bfishadow // Flip Video MinoHD by woodleywonderworks

Gary Vaynerchuk – @garyvee (of WinLibrary.tv fame) sent up a tweet the other day that really hit me.
“Was thinking about how many new tools there are to communicate but a hand shake or a hug still DOMINATES!” @garyvee

Months ago, my best friend decided to move back to his homeland of New Zealand and before this we lived miles apart in different cities, but at least in the same timezone.  The difference in time zones has placed a strain on us to be able to connect, and I have to admit that we don’t interact nearly as much as we once were, but technology has enabled us to stay in contact. Although there’s nothing that would be able to replace a hug from my friend!

I have to admit that there’s much that we can do with technology – but it doesn’t replace being face to face, or the power of a hug?  Does touch via technology – replace or deepen the bond that we have with those we are close to?

Post photo by: //amy// – titled: “Two of a kind“

The system requirements aren’t exactly designed for the famed “soccer mom’s” of this world; you’ll need to have a 3.0 GHz quad-core system, at least 8 GB of RAM and a 64-bit OS such as OS X or Vista 64 if you want to work comfortably, but using lower resolutions with lesser machines will work as well.

Dave Helmly has also posted about the process of editing RED RAW in CS4…

As I have stepped back to look at what RED set out to accomplish – in their goal to “Change Everything” what I thought what they were creating was making these tools more accessible to the public.  While they’ve announced the possibility of a $3,700.00 Scarlet with fixed lens — but price spec and available are always up in the air with RED, and rightly so!  To cut 3k RED R3D in CS4 a new core i7 system will cost about the same or more!

If that is what’s next – what’s now???  I’ve been reflecting on what I’m passionate about and I’ve had to question what it is I want to do every day for the rest of my life!
I have this phrase that I picked up from somewhere – I’ve been saying it for so long, I don’t remember where I 1st heard it..

“Any kid with a camcorder…”

I believe that we live in a technological  era that “Any kid with a camera” can make a noteworthy film that may not be the next block-buster, but is much better than the typical home movie!  There’s no a wealth of information on how to direct, shoot, edit & finish your film.  Communities like People.IzzyVideo.com and Izzy’s premium content site offers a huge wealth of information at a modest price (and from what I hear he’s even running a buy one membership and give a member ship to a friend!)  Contact him on twitter to ask more about that!

So what do you really need to pull of some serious stuff?

1. Camera – You no longer have to spend $4k for a decent camera – there’s a new generation of small handy camera that will record some breath taking footage!  My favorite is the HV30 from Cannon, and there are now some great alternatives to these camera that shoot on lost cost flash memory (no more tape!) there are some down sides to that, but it has some benefits too.  The limitation of these less expensive cameras is the small sensor (chip) that converts light to digital information.   Because the sensor is small you don’t have the depth control that you do with other larger (more expensive) cameras – so if you want to look cinematic you’ll want a Depth-Of-Field Adapter like a Letus and a great 50mm or 85mm fast lens!

2. Tripod – I heard Stu say that in the adult world paints are what we put on to be civilized, a tripod is the same thing in the video world! If you want your video to really shine – use sticks, if you want to make people motion sick – shake it up, but it won’t be taken seriously!  (And no – I didn’t see clover field!)

3. Lighting – You don’t need to spend a bunch here – but every thing that you put in to this will really make your video look that much better than the rest!  Here’s some down and dirty tips that I’ve learned over the years:

Make it look natural – if you don’t have to add light, then don’t

Shadows are your friend – learn to use them

A bit of extra light behind  (halo or back lighting) your subject really makes a difference.

4. Sound – 60% of video that I see is recorded with the on camera microphone!  This is a tragic mistake…
The audio is more important that the visual communication of what’s on the screen (IMO).   If your camera has the ability to plug in a microphone – use it, and use a wired microphone as much as you can. There are some times that you want to be able to move with a person and a radio (wireless) microphone is best – but get an audio adapter and a pair of Great Headphones and make sure that you’re always listening to what your recording!

5. Software – In the skilled hands Sony Vegas and Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Looks Suite is all you need!
If you’re looking to do motion graphics and visual special fx, then I’d highly recommend you spend some time with my friend After Effects.  But the important thing is the ability to Color Correct your footage and get the edit tight.

So with all of this being said – what am I truly excited about in the field of video and this techno crazed era – two things!

The Flip – MinoHD and the Panasonic HMC-150!  The FlipHD is the perfect Vloging camera – I which that it had the ability to plug in a mic and headphones – then it’d be a killer!  The HMC is everything that the flip is not, but it’s still a small form factor – a bit more expensive than the $800 – $1200 HDV camera out there – but it’s building on Panny’s DV experience to deliver a great image on HC-SD cards! This camera isn’t for everyone – but it’s what I recommend someone who’s very serious about getting quality and being able to take control of the camera to do that!

Min spec has been reported to be:

• 3.0 Ghz Quad Core System with 8 GB RAM
• Hard drive with at least 40MB/sec (Striped RAID recommended) – yeah no joke!
• Vista 64 sp1

What’s my take on all of this?

Really Simple! You can’t run so far ahead that you’re looking toward something to happen that you wait out the technology and not produce content!  I’m guilty!  I was waiting on the Scarlet, I was waiting on R3D support, I was even waiting on CS4 to really get down and fully learn Premiere like I always should have!

If you’re looking for a reason that this is taking so long take a look at this post on the RedUser.net Boards the general line that everyone is getting has been, “Were working on it.”  That’s to be expected – they are now under nearly three months of self inflected pressure of the announcement and baiting people’s attention and now that bait has gone stale in my mouth.

But in looking back – I’m not really sure why I became such a fan-boy for this feature! I don’t shoot RED material, I don’t even do that much HD (yet), as almost all of my work-flow is to the Web and on DVD.  I guess that I’d have to say that the Scarlet and the hope of actually being able to do the post on that quality of footage had something to do with it!  But I have to admit, I drank the RED kool-aid – but, I’ve gain some perspective in all of this and think that it’ll be cool once it’s available – but no longer holding my breath till its release!

While DSLR Camera makers are making waves, and industry icons like Stu throwing around phrases like “Mark my words!” all I can do is wonder what’s next!  Ultimately what does this mean for independent content creators?

Nothing, if you can see through all of the market hype and just go out and create compelling media with what you have at your disposal! Perhaps next time (if you can afford) these TOYS will make it a bit easier for you to do such!  So my resolve is now – no more R3D Posts!  If you want the information, there are plenty of other sources but I’m moving on…

Also, with drive space expanding and prices rapidly decreasing – I went back to John Flowers post on LifeZero.org “Super Fast 4TB RAID for under $2k” and with the new 1.5TB drives available from Seagate I built (on paper for now) a 8x 1.5 TB RAID 5 Array for a cost of $2400 but with a capacity of 10 TB!!!

What does this mean for the average guy – you can now afford more reliable drives in very fast configurations that were unreachable for media pros in the past.  I still have a working JMR Fortra SCSI Raid enclosure that was $10k (7 years ago – but it’s nearly without point as I carry 3 TB in my backpack now!)

I picked up an 8 GB SD HC (High Capacity) Card for less than $40.  IN WALLMART!!! Now, I never intended this site to be a place where I’d ponder the future of technology – but none-the-less I feel it necessary to at least think out load the explosion of readily available inexpensive memory cards.

Gone are the days of pulling a tape out of the archive library – but I still have Betacam SP tapes that look as good as the day that I printed them off of my timeline.  A guy that I follow on Twitter spoke up this week that he captured from a past Digibeta Tape, and how it was a foreign exercise as he’s been working on P2 and on Red Ones for quite some time.  As for me – I shoot mostly set down interview style work and have the luxury of always having my nice big laptop with me, so Adobe’s OnLocation comes to my rescue on a regular basis – but I always role tape at the same time as doing a slave record on the laptop.  

Also note – that I’m not sure why I still run tape (it’s a safety blanket – I know) but it does help me sleep at night knowing that not only is it footage already captured on the drive – but it’s on tape for archive as well.  Yes, I still archive to tape!!!  

But why all of the hype of tapeless formats and shooting – will I ever get rid of my tapeless anxiety, perhaps in time, and as these cards keep coming down in price I think that I’ll grow more fond of using them. 

Now on to what I really wanted to talk about – “How this changes things in the world of Video Production” If you are not aware, there has been a sort of revolution going on in HD (and higher) resolution shooting – behold the day of the DSLR or DSMC (Digital Still & Motion Camera as Red has named them) after announcing that RED was going to make a DSLR killer – they then pulled the plug to re-think their 3k camera Scarlet.  There has been much speculation and very little detail as to what this camera will do, but I asure you that it’s going to be an Earth shattering release for this company!  

Some have suggested that they had a break through with their new sensor that’s going to allow them to bring a whole lot more to the table!  But could all of this came about with out these memory cards.  The RED One uses a proprietary eSATA and Power cable to send to the Red RAID Drive (their equivalent of a capture medium).  Originally on the Renders that were made available for the Scarlet – you could see two CF slots on the back presently there are 80 GB CF (with 100 GB on the horizon.)  

All of this is going to forever change the way that we all shot – and the way that we archive this footage. The thing about tapeless media is that you want to be able to re-use that card as often as possible, forever gone are the days of “pass me a fresh tape.” You’re going to need a place to off-load the footage, some where to store it, and once your done a proper way of archiving / backing this data up!  (Also note – as with tapes too, having once lost a very important tape to failure – if you only have one copy on a shelf, it’s not a safe back up!)  

So I ask the question to you the community – how has this changed, if at all – the way that you work?  How are you archiving footage once your done with the project?  How do you see this changing the face of production?  

Please post a comment here, or message me on twitter – @big_b_rad

BTW – Brian Potter recently brings up some very interesting concepts on a resent post regarding the age of DSLR too, check out his blog as it’s a really great source of information and creative inspiration too!

There are many people that are talking about it – so I’m not going to add to that noise, check out the source for all of your news needs…  But only on thing that I’m rather taken back with all of this news hype, people scrambling to get their hands on tutorials so that they are ready for Mid October (when CS4 is said to be shipping, also note that if you buy CS3 now – you’ll receive CS4 when it ships! But I digress…)

In all of the updates that we all want to discover and learn how to use – there’s talk about the new tape less work flow, and there has been mention of RED’s R3D but nothing that I’ve seen has officially listed R3D on the list.

I know that there was always a lot of talk of CS4 being the answer for all of these – as it would allow 64 bit support for more memory (needed when cutting 4k footage!).  But I recall that there was CS3 support promised for R3D Support.  So what am I missing…  Adobe’s not really talking about RED other than at the first live event for CS4 – no official mentions on their site, as if to say that it’s not a reality – yet.  

Well I guess time will tell, and the new tapeless workflow will lend itself to this addition when it’s ready!!! But I really hope that’s at time of release.

Personally, I find it flat out amazing the performance shown on the 2nd video (just watch the longer one – you’ll get more out of it!).  To think that you’ll have the ability to import and edit Raw R3D on set is really exciting to me! (And I don’t even shoot RED, but this does have my juices going regarding the Scarlet).

I see AE as much more – and this didn’t really come about until I finished reading “The DV Rebel’s Guide” by Stu, that’s when this application became less of a motion graphics world (which I’m still growing as an Mographer) and more of a real ON LINE space, that you can composite in 2.5D.  I feel that if editors could really get beyond their fear of the interface – and dig in to the app as that kind of space, then their productions would really have the shine that they deserve!

So – I’m taking Powered along with me in this journey to help users get to know AE, and get existing users of AE involved in a community so that we can share our knowledge and open doors for more people to become better at using this all important application. Because I live in the Houston area – I have been looking for an AE user group, to find that not only is there no AE group, but there’s no Adobe group for Video / Production users either!  I’m taking small steps to correct this – I’ve started a FreindFeed Room for Adobe After Effects. And I’m planning on attending the Dallas (DFW AEUG) in September to see what happens at an existing group.  I’d also like to make it clear that I don’t really want to be the Head of this group, but I will be until we can assemble some kind of structure and body.

I’m totally open to suggestions regarding locations and times and what kind of topics that you’d like to talk about or see spoken about at a group like this!  Please email me (bradparler @ gmail . com) or follow me on twitter ( @big_b_rad ) and DM me with your suggestion – Please also include your zip code so that I can start mapping intrest in this group and find locations central to people attending…

Thank,
bp

But this bears repeating!  PVC: CMG (creating motion graphics) Blog has just posted a link to RedUser.net where it was released that within a week R3D files will work natively in Adobe Premiere and After Effects!

Here’s a link to the PVC Blog post – and to the RedUser Thread – but in one word FREAKING AWESOME! (sorry that was two, but it’s just that cool!)

I’m going to need more storage!

My first thought is that it’s rather pricey, but for the early adopter, you have to be ready to take the price hit.  I still need to do a cost analysis but it’s a crazy cool concept that deserves some attention.  The ability to couple this with a EX1 to get uncompressed 10 bit (say goodbye to Long-GOP & on easy to find way less expensive media) it has me drooling, and then expanded with their HDMI to HD-SDI box, would allow a small HV20 (or HV30) rig to really get busy!  I’m still in need of doing some research on this, but at first looks – it’s awesome!

What’s your take on this little box?!  What am I missing – if anything?! 

Convergent Design nanoFlash

Convergent Design Unveils nanoFlash HD Recorder/Player Continuing to leverage the size and storage advantages of CompactFlash (CF) memory, Convergent Design has unveiled the nanoFlash portable HD Recorder/Player, which records video, audio and time code from an HD-SDI stream onto memory cards using 4:2:2 (MPEG-2) compression. The unit measures 4.2×3.7×1.4 inches and, powered by the camera battery, consumes less than 10W. The camera-mountable nanoFlash, a miniaturized version of the company’s Flash XDR, has two CF card slots and embedded audio support only (the full-sized Flash XDR offers analog audio I/O and four CF slots). The unit can be powered from a camcorder battery (6.5 to 20V) and records 1080i60/50, 1080p30/25/24 or 720p60/50 at full-raster (1920x1080i/p and 1280x720p) 4:2:2 MPEG-2 at 50/100 Mbps (Long-GOP) or 100/160 Mbps (I-Frame only). As both a recorder and player, nanoFlash provides HD-SDI I/O as well as an LTC input, RS-232/485 (for remote control) and a power/start/tally-light connector. MPEG-2 video and up to eight channels of embedded audio and timecode can be stored in the MXF format using the FAT32 file system. The nanoFlash records and plays back files across the two CF cards. 32 GB cards are $135 each. Two cards combined provide 140 minutes of 50 Mbps record time or 70 minutes at 100Mbps 4:2:2. The company said that, unlike FireWire-based hard-disk recorders, which merely copy the native camera video quality, nanoFlash encodes a live camera’s “never-compressed” HD-SDI output to a much higher quality. This means higher-bit-rate acquisition with less compression, eliminating most of the common noise and blurring artifacts. The unit also offers 24p pulldown removal, image flip, time-lapse recording and RAID 1 redundant recording capability (automatic backup). An ASI I/O (MPEG-2 TS) firmware upgrade is available, which allows the nanoFlash to be used for HD ENG/EFP (live news coverage) and video-over-IP applications. Adjustable bit rates from 17.5 to 100 Mbps support microwave and satellite transmissions. The nanoFlash is priced at $3,495 and ships in September. For more information, visit www.convergent-design.com.