woot
Screen test tomorrow for new talent.
A new presenter.
I have secured a Panasonic HVX200, pity it is not the A version with the crisper lens, hmmmm – wish we did not have to hire the camera.
In short time we will have a Greenscreen – I just need to make sure that we choose the correct option
Ok, it is not practical to purchase 4 or 5 Kinoflos (4ft 4 tube /Diva400s) for a handful of shoots (maybe 2 would be good for other shoots) but to have a very good HD (at least 2K with 4:2:2 color sampling) camera would open the door to on the fly unrestricted filming.
But I volunteer for a Church – a cool and progressive Church – and my budgets seem to be restricted to people’s generosity. Frustration is.
Patience and Trust in God is the order of the day.

That time is coming again, too bad it is not more often, when we can hire some lights and a good camera. Hopefully with the time we have to prepare I can book the Panasonic HVX200 with which I’ll film 720p 4:2:2. The big downer for me is that there is no one renting out an HVX200A, hmmmmmmmm. Once again we will hire the trusty KinoFlo lights, propably 4 lights with a configuration of 4 x4ft. This and the camera is why was can’t do this too often – just too expensive. But we get to creating some really professional stuff here.  Maybe one day we won’t have to hire maybe one day we will film with a RED One or an RED EPIC FF35, oh yes the stuff used to film dreams.

(more…)

[Photo credit: oberazzi]

Scott Simmons posted this on ProVideo Coalition: Chat with the editor of Slumdog Millionaire
I know this is a re-blog (sorry Scott), but heck, this is pretty cool. A great opportunity. ok I work in FCP and have not been able to try AVID, but editing is a craft that should not depend on the which tool you use when the tool are as good as FCP and AVID

On Monday, February 23 at 1:00 PM PST, Chris Dickens, editor of Slumdog Millionaire, will conduct an online chat and take your questions.

You have to sign up, but that’s a small inconvenience to be able to participate in this.

[Credit to nicubunu for this cool photo a Creative Commons license. ]

Judging by how things are going in the global economic markets this is probably a very wise call from Jim, yet very frustrating for everyone. Why is there no quick solution? I mean it seemed to happen so quickly; the stupid economic crash, can’t it be solved quickly as well?  Now it affects so many people, from the shop attendant to the business owner, the film maker, the manager, the hobbyist as well -  and just seems to get worse – even with all the money thrown at it.

Anyway, RED Leader Jim says “Put your helmets on.  Expect difficult times for a couple of years ” oh man; a couple of years??

But Jim did say “We are continuing to progress, but now at a normal rate. My decision. I expect this to impact delivery schedules somewhat.”

Which is good, and brave. It is an opportunity, I think, particularly in the Market that RED operates  becauase for what they offer they are incredibly well priced and most likely a solution to many budget stressed film makers – as in bigger budget film makers (not me, clear throat and look nervious)

I wish RED all the best, I watch them the the developements with lots of anticipation and wonder really I do.

Wow, I thought it was only for Motion Graphics and special effects on unique clips in a Final Cut Pro edit. Well, are you not editing when you put together a motion graphic? hmmmm

Mark Spencer, from ProVideo Coalition, introduces us to this concept in Editing in Motion Part 1

One advantage is that this process or approach would man for easier intergration of effect, particles and generators that might be a part of the edit.

The only problem I can forsee is that Motion is bit more intensive on the CPU, RAM and Graphics Card. Add that to a massive load on your RAID – particularly if you are using higher resolution than Standard Definition – then you may be pulling your hair out. But that’s if you have an underspec’d machine. A fully spec’d and maxed out Mac Pro may just glide throught this approach. ha ha ha, keep on wishing and praying and hoping.

I am going to give this one a try besides the hair pulling, and I have just the project (my previous post,Letters to the Next South African President) …

South Africa is gearing up for the elections in April this year; 22nd April I believe. For some it will be just another public holiday, for others it may feel like a waste of time, but for most I hope it will be an opportunity to be heard.

What is interesting this time around is that there is a break away party COPE (Congress of the People), interesting in that they will draw vote away from the other parties – particularly the ANC. At least there will be a greater chance for involvement from other parties after the election (no two thirds majority to the ANC), hmmm which does have the negative of more bureaucratic red tape.
SA Elections Site

Anyway, Politics is not the aim of this post.
What is of interest is that we are going to be putting together a video enhancement to a series that our church is doing called ‘Letters to the next President’ – based on the same series that NPCC did (that we are a strategic partner of). Obviously more relevant to the elections in South Africa.

We will be filming a press conference with our Pastor that this weekend to be used as a promotional video for the series. Which means a really interesting set to look like a South African style press conference in a formal setting. With shots of journalists asking questions.
We are still in the stage of setting up the questions/script.
Feel free to add what you would like to ask the Pastor concerning the series. Questions like:

• What is the coffee like?
• Will the sermons be shorter than normal? (got that one off the NPCC version, ha ha ha)
• Is it true that we can wear jeans or shorts to Church?
• Can I break dance during Worship? I hear the music rocks!

And if you really want – write your letter to next South African President and I’ll put it up on the site when we run with the series

• Composite Modes in Final Cut Pro Chris Meyer over at Pro Video Coalition takes some time to shed some light and show the difference between some of the composite modes. A great overlay of the modes that I am sure will add to the knowledge of many editors.

• Scott Simmons; also from Pro Video Coalition , shows us 3 Ways to Get RED Footage into Final Cut Pro:
  • Using Apple Compressor
  • RED’s own REDrushes
  • The Final Cut Pro Log and Transfer tool

• FxFacory Competition Winners

• Episode 7 – Final Cut Server – Part 1, Metadata

Isn’t there a better name than ‘trailer’?

We don’t watch them at the end of a movie anymore so why do we still call them trailers?

• Preview
• Summation
• Promotion
• Teaser
• Random Clips to Entice you to Watch it

What do you think they should be called?

I have been using Shake for over two years now, it does not make me an expert but I am comfortable with it. However I don’t like the fact that Apple does not support it or appears to have any intension of replacing it with the much rumoured Phenomenon. This, however is ironic because I could only afford budgeting for Shake because of the fact that Apple dropped support and hence the price.

Yet, Apple actually did some work recently on Shake – interesting. But that, actually, does not change anything. Which leaves me in a quandary; should I persist with Shake or jump ship to another node based compositing tool?

Should I stay?

1. Shake is a very powerful collection of wonderful tools
2. Shake is well documented
3. Shake has been thru the paces at many feature films
4. I enjoy working in Shake and know my way around
5. There are many who use Shake and some production companies are so tied up with Shake in their workflow.
6. Switching will be expensive in time and money

Should I go?(no Nuke)

1. Nuke is becoming very popular
2. Nuke was put together while in production
3. One should be well versed in more than one app
4. Nuke has cool 3D capabilities
5. Nuke is moving forward with releases, and plan version 6 for next year

I have already been messing around with the Personal Learning Edition of Nuke, but I can’t say at this stage if I could hit the ground running and smiling with a proper version.

Here are some of the functional comparisons between Shake  and Nuke.

• FxGuide’s Nuke vs. Shake & Fusion
• vfxtalk.com/forum/nuke-vs-shake
• Highend3d Comparison

If you have any other comparisons add them here

You can file off the number off the camera but you can’t remove it from the Meta data in the footage. It will come out somehow, it will be found.

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=25742

RED #1605 was stolen from Columbia Square Stages (former CBS building) in Hollywood. It was taken at 10:30 pm Wednesday night, Jan. 28th from a locked control room. The lock was bashed off the heavy door to gain entry. 

The last file transcoded that night establishes the time, we thankfully did not lose the drive, we also had a backup drive off premises. 

The camera was fully built with an Angenieux 15-40, Arri MB-14, Arri FF2, 15mm ET plate, Oconnor 2060HD head with Cardelini/Mitchell Head-lock, Ronford/Mitchell heavy duty standard sticks. Also missing 3 power pack sets w/batts. 

The setup is highly recognizable with the uGrip Firestore drive bay with battery plate mounted on top, there are two large thumbscrews on each side of the drive bay. Battery and drive were mounted.

Also missing is an 8 core Mac Pro Tower fully tricked out and 30″ monitor, which is owned by Luis Flores, Big Lu on this site. 
A 24″ iMac, A full backup sound package and several personally owned digital cameras and lenses. 

If anyone hears of any equipment being offered for sale please call:
Simon 310.877.3091. 
Or Kelly at RED.