It took me long enough… but I’m Tweeting now…

My username is @vincentlaforet (yes…spent a lot of time thinking of that one…)

Some of you may know that I SWORE that I would never tweet… then I realized it could actually be pretty cool.

This blog is great - but I don’t post as often as I’d like to.   Facebook - is a disaster.  I never have time to check it (truth be told, I have over 900 friend requests - problem is:  every time I accept one friend - I get 12 suggestions - and it takes forever to go down the list… does anyone know how to “accept all?” As silly as that excuse is - that’s pretty much why I ran away from Facebook close to 9 months ago…)

OK - so here goes something else.   For the record:  I resisted blogging at first as well.  As much of an “early adopter” that I am in terms of cameras and new technology (I should have named my kids Beta and NDA given how often I hear those words!)   I’ve always resisted ’social’ internet trends for some reason…

That being said - I’ve been enjoying reading many of the tweets of those I follow (see my twitter page for a list of people that I’m following) and a few friends finally got me to take the plunge.

If anything - tweeting may allow me to be a bit more liberal about what I share… NDA’s don’t really exist in the twitter sphere do they?  ;)

Pls post your twitter addresses in the comments below - always looking for cool people/things to follow!

Click on this link to see the trailer to Jamie's new film "WHO IS J.O.B?" That I collaborated on with him (in part) earlier this year.

So here’s an update on the Jamie O’Brien collaboration.   I’m real excited to have been a part of this project with Jamie - a lot of others contributed to this film of course to be clear - I’ve known Jamie for almost a year now and he’s been hard at work on this video for close to three years.

We spent a month together earlier this year and shot a bunch of aerial, surf, underwater and interview footage over that period.

I hope you enjoy this trailer.  Looking forward to pushing the envelope as much as possible with this project… more to come…

This is a pretty huge development for me in terms of my post workflow with the new breed of HDDSLR cameras - so I hope that many of you too willx be excited with the upcoming piece of software from Glue Tools.

I know that the developer has been working on this for quite awhile - and I’ve been waiting to share the news for a release candidate to be on the horizon.   (Check the Glue Tools website for updates on pricing and availability - don’t ping me - I’m just reviewing the beta at this time and announcing it)

Of course - this workflow only applies to Mac people and Final Cut Pro users at this point.   But for those who do use FCP - this is a very very nice solution that will solve many problems for a lot of folks.

So what does this plugin software do?  Well on a basic level - it’s “simply” a Final Cut Pro “Log and Transfer” plugin.   Stick a disk in - launch FCP - and open the Log and Transfer menu up and you’ll be greeted with the familiar FCP menu here. (more…)

Jim Denevan's 2009 Land Drawing in Nevada is pretty gorgeous - shot by Peter Hinson.

I wanted to point out some pretty powerful artwork by Jim Denevan.

Truth be told - Jim contacted me a few months ago and asked if I might be interested in coming out to document some of his works from the air and I had a work conflict and could not make it.  I have to say that I regret not being able to make it now even more as I see how beautifully it turned out  - shot here by Peter Hinson.

Check out their work here - and enjoy what is a very very cool way to express oneself - and something that even “the Gods” would enjoy from above I’m sure.

As someone who does a fair bit of aerial work - this is a feast for my eyes.

p.s. anyone who rides around in Elvis’ old bus - doubly cool by my standards.

MPEG Streamclip for Mac or Windows is a CHAMP at converting the H.264 footage! And it's FREE.

One of the most common questions that I get from people regarding the new breed of HD-DSLR cameras is “What’s your post-workflow?”

Truth be told - most of it is actually extremely straightforward.  It does get fancy when you try to do some high end stuff- but that workflow applies to maybe one percent of people - so here is the simple workflow:

Simply put - all you need to do is to convert the native footage from the Canon 5D / 7D / 1D MKIV from the AVC H.264 format to a format that your computer and software will support.

For me it’s simple given that I work with Final Cut Studio - I work with Apple’s ProRes codec.  What this means is that I simply convert the H.264 footage to the higher quality (and less compressed) ProRes format. (Avid supposedly supports the H.264 format natively according to some post houses that I’ve worked with - but I admit to not being an Avid or Adobe Premier expert by any means.) (more…)