Today Vimeo released the first entries for the Beyond The Still film competition on their site.

Seeing these first videos coming in is a real pleasure - they are fantastically done!

I know quite a few of you are still busy at work on your entries.

For those of you that haven’t taken the plunge yet:

YOU HAVE FIVE DAYS LEFT TO ENTER

Relatively speaking - that’s an ETERNITY - so if you’re debating whether or not you should enter - go for it!

Relative to what?

Well I found out that the Canon 5D MKII existed on a Friday afternoon a little over a year ago…

By 4 p.m. I was walking out of the Canon HQ with a prototype that I had begged, borrowed and practically stolen from them.

The very next day - at almost precisely 4 p.m. - I called “Action” on the first shot of “Reverie.”

That’s 24 hours notice.

We shot the short over two nights and delivered it the next day fully edited.

72 hours start to finish…

With “Nocturne” - I had 72 hours notice from the time I received the camera - and the time I landed back in Los Angeles from Atlanta - and called “Action” with my two other co-directors Stu Maschwitz and David Nelson.

So as far as I’m concerned :  you guys have a LOT of time to still get into this.

Please go here to find out more.

If for some reason you can’t make it… you have 6 more chapters (and chances) to enter over the next 6 months.

But I don’t know about you - but sitting on my behind has never really ever gotten me anywhere…

Speaking of getting going - here is a quick video clip from this past week - using an awesome toy from the guys at Filmotechnic USA here in California. Shot with the Canon 1D MKIV - this is but one of a few dozen (hundreds!) of shots that day with the crane all over downtown Los Angeles -  more details to come on this shoot in the upcoming weeks!

Filmotechnic Collaboration from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

And a few more pix of the setup: (more…)

I wanted to make sure you knew of an upcoming workshop that I am preparing for in Dubai in a little over two weeks from now - The Gulf Photo Plus workshops.

I will be working with a group of students in and around Dubai to produce a series of short films/spec ads with the latest HDDSLR Cameras and accesories from March 1-6.  I’ll be bringing my entire bag of tricks (as much as I can get on a plane without getting killed with excess baggage charges!) in terms of gear - from RedRock Micro, Marshall Electronics, Viewfactor, Bogen, IDX, Microdolly, PortaJib, Zeiss and on and on…

I will be joining 11 international world class photographers who will be teaching photography and video workshops and delivering seminars during the 6 day event. Joe McNally,  David Hobby (The Strobist), Joey L, Melissa Rodwell, Zack Arias, Bobbi Lane and more more will be sharing their expertise in what promises to be a pretty awesome week.

For more information, visit http://www.gulfphotoplus.com

You can also read David Hobby’s post about the workshops here and learn a bit more about the workshops and what you can expect to experience there.