The pCAM (by David Eubanks) for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch is likely one of the most comprehensive and useful tools for anyone working with film and video cameras - whether you are the DP, VFX Supervisor, or anyone in between, pCAM is a must.

Basically this app does all the math that we all would love to be able to do on the fly - but who amongst us carries a scientific calculator - or wants to?  This tool eliminates your need to know and understand complex mathematical formulas and/or your need to carry around a cinematographer’s manuals, focus charts, etc.

What do I mean?  Have you ever wondered what aperture you should set your lens to in order to get the correct depth of field so that everyone is in focus in your shot  (or just two rows out of four?)  Have you wondered how much more depth of field you could get by choosing one lens down (i.e. choosing a 24mm instead of a 28mm)?  Do you know and fully understand the term “hyperfocal” and how to apply it?  Basically you don’t need to, just use pCAM - It will do everything for you.

So if you don’t have a 1st A.C. on speed dial, or at your hip at all times, this app will not only provide solutions to the standard photographic calculations (such as depth of field, field of view, and exposure), but also to more advanced ones (such as timelapse, mired shifts, and underwater distance).

A good example of how to use this - using the “Depth of Field” panel - I was able to answer a friend’s question just now.  The question was:  is it true that if you shoot at f 5.6 on a 5D MKII  - that you would need to shoot at f 2.8 to get a similar shallow depth of field with the same lens equivalent on a 7D?

I went ahead and calculated that a 5D MKII w/ a 32mm lens at f 5.6 yields a similar depth of field to a 7D with a 20mm at f 2.8 +1/3  (with the 1.6x crop factor of the 7D the 20mm effectively gives you the field of view of a 32mm lens (1.6 X 20mm = 32mm))   Therefore it’s almost true - a Canon 5D MKII at f 5.6 on a 32mm yields a comparable depth of field to a 7D at f 2.8 + 1/3  (or f 3.5)

pCAM is incredibly useful (and a huge stress relief) for any DP, photographer, or crew member that has to work on small to large productions and can’t afford to guess - and for only $29.99, it’s a bargain.

If you are interested in this app, go to the following link on iTunes by CLICKING HERE.

I mentioned the term “augmented reality” in my Sun Seeker post last week - and today I saw a pretty incredible (or “Brilliant” as the Brits are accustomed to saying) use of it by the Museum of London. When I see technology do things like this - I get incredibly excited about the possibilities (as opposed to the more creepy Minority Report Advertisements that know who you are and send specific advertising your way).  Check out the Gizmodo article here.

This is the first of many upcoming posts on some of my favorite iPhone apps (hopefully every Friday) - something I’ve wanted to do for awhile. I have found that there are some terrific tools out there on the iPhone and iPad for both filmmakers and photographers, and I want to share some of the ones that I use frequently.

SUN SEEKER (by ozPDA) is likely one of those “go to” apps that just about every photographer, DP, director, and/or location scout should have. Like many other apps it can tell you where the sun will rise and set today, tomorrow, or at anytime in the future - and it can do so in a number of ways.

Perhaps the coolest implementation of this app is what they call the 3D View (which is in effect an augmented reality mode). This function uses your iPhone 3GS, its built in GPS system, and camera to allow you to physically point the phone in any direction and see the sun’s path drawn and overlaid on top of your camera image (see picture). In other words, you can be inside a building, pick up your phone, launch it into 3D View, and instantly be able to tell at what time the sun will cross the path of the window in front of you - even though you have no physical view of the sky. It will also tell you of course exactly where the sun will be, by drawing the sun’s path hour by hour and laying it over your iPhone camera’s live video image.   Not only is this useful indoors of course, or when you need to figure out where the sun will be in 5 hours and how to prepare for it - it can also be a life saver if you’re scouting at night, or on an overcast day… I find this incredibly useful, and quite accurate - not to mention amazing.

You can pretty much forget the special software, compasses, and other tools – this $2.99 app replaces them all in a millisecond and one-ups them. And if that’s not enough, it offers two other views: an overhead map view connected to Google Maps that will show you the angle of the sun from overhead - anywhere in the world, at any time of the year - and of course a details page, which shows you sunrise and sunset times, elevation angles, etc.

If you are interested in this app, go to the following link on iTunes by CLICKING HERE.

I have to admit that on a technical level (and overall) the Season Finale of House was STUNNING.    I had to pinch myself a few times and I have to admit that the question: “Was this REALLY shot w/ the Canon 5D MKII” did run through my mind more than once.  The full episode will be available on Fox’s site in 7 days for those who missed it, or of course on iTunes.

Three things stood out:

1. The lens sharpness was phenomenal.  Why?   The lighting.   Sure we all caught some glimpses of people/faces falling out of focus at times - something all 5D MKII and HDDSLR operators are well acquainted with…  I’m sure this could be remedied with many of the newer 3rd party lens options out there today.  I am told this episode was shot with Canon EF Lenses - including the 24~70mm 2.8 and 70~200mm 2.8 - lenses that are particularly difficult to set focus marks with, as they were never really intended to be used as cinema lenses.

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Tonight marks a big night in HDDSLR and Canon 5D MKII history.  The Fox Networks “House” series is one of the most successful on TV today - and they are airing their SEASON FINALE tonight - shot exclusively with the Canon 5D MKII!

I think this is perhaps one of the most important moments in the HDDSLR’s history to date - because it is in effect becoming a bonafide tool used in prime time television - for a major series.

DP Gale Tatersall and director Greg Yaitanes are in effect giving this camera a huge nod or approval.   While many of us have been well aware of the Canon 5D MKII for close to 2 years now - understand that this is going to make a pretty big impact on a lot of people in Hollywood/film/television - who still have yet to “really” hear about this camera or still doubt that it is ready for major productions.

Yes - many of the DPs, Director and many producers out there have of course heard of this camera… but now you should expect a lot of Executive Producers, studios, actors and others to pay attention - when they realize it was used for a season finale on FOX.

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From Gawker - some pretty good points in this article today.    Brings up a lot of interesting questions and makes some solid points too.   Read on and view the video as well:

How Not to Fall for a Viral Marketing Scheme
“You see a cool YouTube video of people running on water. It’s called “liquid mountaineering,” and you share it on Facebook and Twitter. Then you find out it was a viral marketing campaign. And you feel like a tool.”

Given that everyone’s talking about it and many shared the video - was this a SUCCESSFUL marketing campaign?

Did the line between this video being a bit “too authentic” vs being “over the top / comical” get blurred - and was that the goal?

If you leave your customers feel cheated/duped - will that backfire?

All VERY relevant questions for anyone in advertising/marketing…   what do you think???

On a technical note: you should notice that the guys fall into the water at EXACTLY the same spot each time…hmmm… and did you notice the RedRock Micro follow focus gearing on the 70~200mm… was this shot (at least in part if not entirely) with an HDDSLR perhaps?  hmmm… likely!

People often ask me about the films I like - or the films I’d like to make some day…

If I ever get to make a film half this good in my career - I’ll be a fulfilled filmmaker.

This will not be for everyone - it couldn’t be more opposite than Iron Man 2 on so many levels - and it has subtitles!  (gasp!)   but there’s a reason this won an Academy Award.   The story, the directing, the acting, the subtlety make this movie an absolute gem in my book.

Why?

It always comes down to a strong story/screenplay in my book… add a terrific cast and crew around it - and you get this:

Big name U.S./Hollywood stars,  wonderful lighting, CGI, fancy camerawork, amazing special effects abound in films these days   - if you need an antidote to that I think you’ll find it within this film.    I’m only sorry it took this long for me to see it.  It’s obviously gotten quite a lot of praise (Academy Award for best foreign film 2010) but if you’ve yet to see it - GO.

This past weekend something very special happened.  As you may know, the crew at Creative Live, Chase Jarvis, and I engaged in a very interesting educational and social networking experiment.

Our goal was to stream a three day live workshop over the internet and gauge the response- and frankly to see if we could pull it off technically.   By most measures, if not all, it was an incredible success as close to 100,000 (of which 48,000 were confirmed to be unique visitors) joined us from all over the globe.

I, for one, was amazed with the fact that people tuned in from the Himalayas, Australia, Asia, Europe and in between - often in the middle of the night due to the time zone difference.  What struck me even more, was that many of the same people stayed tuned in for all three days!

I’d like to that all the viewers and the crew that worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this experiment a success.

I wanted to announce that the resulting three days of raw footage has just been made available on the creativeLIVE site!

Here are some quotes from people who tuned in, as well as a few links below to reviews on the web:

Review 1, Review 2 & Review 3

playdorsey “Absolutely AWESOME 3 days, full of information, humor, surprises and high high energy. Bravo to Vince, creativeLIVE, and everyone who helped to make this happen. Groundbreaking model that breaks down barriers, borders and opens the doors to learning for all. Thank you to ALL!!!”

mib_uw776x “I have spent a lot more for so much less. Great Job. Look forward to future classes.”

michael_levin “i’m a video pro and this little discussion is giving me hope about the future”

ib_gqxv7q “Thanks all for a great weekend experience - high quality knowledge delivered for a large body of viewers. Impressive!”

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I’ve gotten several e-mails and twitter posts over the past week relating to this H.264 End User Agreement “controversy.”

Basically, the issue is with the end user license agreement for H.264 which states that the format cannot be used for “professional” distribution.

This is something we should all worry about as the Canon HDDSLRs all shoot their footage in the H.264 footage.   If you’re confused - click here to go to the Gizmodo article that does a good job of spelling this out in detail.

My opinion?   All too often, lawyers write contracts that are meant to protect their clients to the “Nth” degree.  I deal with a LOT of contracts - and most of them make your blood boil if read at face value.

What I’ll often do is to call the client and/or lawyer and bring up my concerns - and that usually clarifies things and often we can modify the language.   This of course often involves me getting my lawyer involved myself of course - and continues to feed the beast.

The cynic has to wonder out loud if these contracts are nothing more than a big industry conspiracy that they teach all law students in some secret ceremony at law schools around the world:  ”Make contract overreaching - this will GUARANTEE a counter from the second party - which in turn guarantees more billable hours for both legal teams during the ensuing back and forth…”  But I digress.

To be frank - it’s not uncommon for me to find out that the client that is sending out this contracts to me - can’t quite make sense of what said contract says themselves…  Or if they can- they don’t often stop to think what the implications of some of the terms are - or how they could potentially be misinterpreted / abused by others.

That being said - one always should consider the fact that if there is something in a contract that you don’t like/agree to - NEVER SIGN IT!    In the end - just because you know what the client “meant” or “intended” - all that matters is what is said in that contract.

In this case - you have to use common sense.   H.264 is one of the most prevalent codecs out there in the world today - and amateurs and professionals are using it EVERY day and posting content up continually.   If this were an issue - one would expect that some action would already have been taken…

So while I’m not wasting much time worrying about how these H.264 terms of services might affect us at this point - I would feel much more comfortable is they were more clearly outlined…