Registration was closed yesterday (13th November 2008) at 100 participants. In a sense I feel very lucky to be a part of that group. Now I wait in anticipation for the Blu-Ray discs that will contain the RED One Footage – only thing is I still need to figure out how to use my PS3 to extract that data, hmmmm. I will also have to also make a plan to shed a bit of my volunteer work load to make time for this and hopefully complete it before I fly to Durban for Christmas. It’s gonna be kwel.
Archive - Filmmaking RSS Feed
RED: More Awesome than EVER
Check out the ProLost Post about the RED One Announcements. It’s just too huge.
Imagine a 28K image at 25fps, no way. Ok $55000 for the brain part is a lot for most but for those few who can and do go this route please swing by my place and record my son at 28K, hehehehe
Man alive. Suddenly my wish list is not that extreme any more.
Countdown to RED Scarlet and Epic Announcement
From the time of publishing this post there was 6 hours and 16 minutes the RED’s announcement of what is happening to RED’s 5K Epic and 3K Scarlet. I am waiting with baited breath on this one – it is going to be cool.
RED.COM
Plugins & Plugins & more Plugins
I am pretty sure that there are enough listings of plugins out there, but I thought that I would like to also investigate and put together a bundle of sites that contain free, not so free, commercial and other collections of plugins. I have to make special reference to FxFactory over at Noise Industries because they are a special case. FxFactory may be a commercial product costing – if I may say – a very reasonable penny, yet they keep bundling free plugins with every release which is free and there are many other free plugins that are available for FxFactory. Besides that there are 3rd party (and 4th party?) plugins available from $49 that extend FCP and Motion beyond what you can dream. So here is that list:
Free
[added 2nd Feb:
haiku : Vignette and FaceLift, download here. Thanks to celluloidhope
]
Editing Organized Closing Credits plugin
Editing Organized fix to small ‘Scrolling Text’ fault
Patrick Sheffield’s Plugins for Final Cut Pro
Stib’s free Final Cut Pro plugins
The Too Much Too Soon Free Plugins
Not Free
Other Collections
Very funny Riot Mother Promotion of Star Wars on Spike TV
Yes the Ewok have come to earth to play. Reports have indicated that Darth Vader will be visiting for Sun bathing and Margaritas in the Bahamas. Please do not panic.
ha ha ha.
Check it out here.
You might be a Compositor when …
This is actually quite funny: You might be a Compositor when …
- you think of a node tree when you see a visual effect in a movie
- you compare the shadows of two trees as you walk past them
- if you blink at the right frequency it looks like a flipbook render
- you know what a flipbook is and where the name was derived from
he he he he
OpenCut3 Update
Just got an email – the content is bigger than expected!!! But it looks like shipping DVDs or Blu-Rays is still an option – one that I would prefer as shipping a Hard Drive is a bit of a gamble and downloading of anything more than a GB a bit no no in South Africa (too many stories of such efforts being fruitless). The Blu-Ray option is really cool, since it will mean less discs and that they will be shipped first (before the standard DVDs), However my only means of reading a Blu-Ray disc is my Play Station 3 (yeah I knew it would useful other than wasting time – hehehehe) – yet how does one copy the content off the Blu-Ray onto the Computer (a MacBook Pro in my case) from the Play Station, hmmmm.
Also a extra prize —ooooo—- Shake 4.1. Well I have that already, so I’ll hand it off to one of the guys in my team to learn (Dylan most likely – since VFX will be part of his studies next year). Yeeeet the latest Nuke would have been a killer.
Really looking forward to this….
Panasonic’s HPX170 Article by Dan Brockett
Here’s a cool article on a cool new camera by Panasonic. I am a bit lost as to what the difference is between the HPX170 and the HVX200A so I am looking out for a nice comparison between the two. However looking at the screen shots in the article gives me a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach - a knowing – a certainty that I could hit the ground running with this camera. In many ways the ergonomics are so similar to the DVX100BE that I have yet better. Simple things like the use of a more robust 6 pin FW400 situated at the back of the camera, I never had a problem with the cable unplugging but with the 4 pin on the right side of the DVX100 I was always having to wrap the FW around when recording on the fly.
This camera is currently bracketed with the HVX200A as part of the Video budget, just got to figure out how to get the money which is always such a problem with so much cool stuff out there like the RED One, the JLCooper ExclipseCX, the Mac Pro etc etc etc. Still wondering about that donate button heheheh or maybe I should start charging 
EclipseCX Fan on Facebook
I just had to do it; create a group on Facebook for JLCooper’s EclipseCX. Why? because I am a fan, simple. I don’t one, could never justify buying one but I certainly would love one 
It will be a useful place to pool people together that are either just interested as I am or actually have and use the EclipseCX. I have already placed two very good articles about it and of course my blog
Check it out, join and start a discussion. Maybe put a photo up of an ExclipseCX that you own – that would be awesome.
Registered for OpenCut3
It is the third time that OpenCut has opened for entries. I remember the first time and I am sad to say I forgot about it and never even saw the second competition. But now I make amends for that and have paid the $35 (R342) and entered. The next step is to wait and see how I am to obtain the footage: either to ship a 250GB hard drive or get sent a collection of DVDs with the content on it.
This time the competition is for vfx treatment of two scenes in the movie Sensored – directed by Ryan Todd. Check out the Project Details Here.
This will be the first time that I will be working with 4k 2:1 footage from the RED One (apart from looking at a number of tiff frames). I talk about the RED so much and champion it in every sentence about a camera so I think it is time to actually get some experience in working with footage from it. This may not be as ultimate as working with the RED One but at the moment it it the closest I can get. Maybe I can win and therefore obtain the rental unit which is part of the prize – Niiiice.
Prizes as shown on the site (quoted):
- Named as one of the members of the “Sensored” visual effects team
- A copy of the new Adobe Creative Suite 4: Master Collection ($2499 value)
- One week free rental of RED ONE #21 on a production of your choice ($8000 value)
Although the film is a bit disturbing - at least the trailer makes it look like that, hmmm, but the story seems to justify that by saying that the film is about Wade Mixon’s battle of good and evil in his mind.
Quoted from the site:
“Sensored” tells the story of children’s book author Wade Mixon, trying to keep his frayed mind from unraveling. Wade’s stability and lucidity are in question, and his thoughts are increasingly being invaded by the terror of his murderous past and present. Wade’s battle with his own demons causes him to believe there is a conspiracy against him. The line between reality and delusion steadily grows more and more uncertain and the fight between good and evil in his mind is beginning to dilute any chance he has at living in the here and now. In the balance hangs Wade’s only shred of existence–his legacy–and he’ll stop at nothing to prove its reality.
