For the video, click on the image above or here: REVERIE.

The video is now back online on this blog. Many thanks for your patience and support.

UPDATE: See The Behind the Scenes video here on SmugMug

The short film “Reverie” has now been seen more than 1,500,000 times in the past ten days and as a result Canon has been forced to look into alternatives to hosting the movie.    The movie is now temporarily unavailable but we are working on finding another solution.  Thanks for your patience - and more importantly - THANKS for all of the great feedback!  -  Vincent Laforet

P.S.  133,500,000 Megabytes have been downloaded in the past 10 days - the huge volume is the sole reason behind this temporary removal of the movie from their site.   

P.P.S.:  Given that the short film containts Moby’s music - YOU CANNOT torrent the “Reverie” movie as per our agreement with him and his record labels - period.  So please be patient and let me find an equitable solution that works to make everyone happy.

You may now find 10 images shot during the filming of “REVERIE” from the prototype Canon 5D MKII Camera at the following link (here.)

All of these images were shot between 1600 ASA and 3200 ASA.   These are in-camera JPEGs with no post production (except for the inclusion of my watermark.)   Therefore it is quite foreseeable that you will get even better quality images once a final production camera becomes available - and once you are able to decode RAW images in DPP, Aperture or your favorite software - designed to better handle and minimize noise.    Although I have to honestly ask:  What Noise????

I think that the excitement over the video - has overshadowed the pretty incredible still image quality at high ASAs - I’ve never seen an image look this clean at 3200 ASA.

These images were shot with the exact same lens, position and timing as the video.  

I remember shooting Kodak’s TMAX 3200 in college - and thinking that was a Godsend for photojournalists…. my how things have changed:  some of these look better than the Kodak Ektapress 100 ASA Color Neg film I used back then as well…

(SPECIAL NOTE:  I have released these images for you to download to your hard drives for evaluation only.  You may share these freely with others with the following terms:  AT NO TIME can these images be used in any media whatsoever without attribution. If you are a web publication - you may not run these images on your website without the following specification - the images must run with the following credit “© Laforet Visuals Inc  - blog.vincentlaforet.com “.  If you are a print publication - please contact me directly to obtain a release to run these images without a watermark at studio (a) vincentlaforet.com

A quick note that I forgot to share:

In very low light - shooting at the aperture of f2 was the key with this prototype 5D MKII camera in my opinion.    Of the three clips that were released - only one of them was shot at f2 - the one with Jimmy (the model) splashing water on his face.   You’ll have a hard time seeing any issues of “noise” or other technical negatives from most of the footage shot at f2 (which is what the majority of the film was shot at.)    Understand that almost all of the light we shot in was the still camera equivalent of 1600ASA, f2, 1/15th.  That’s very low light - no matter how you cut it. (more…)

Three of the raw files from the prototype Canon EOS 5D MKII - files straight out of the camera - that were used in “Reverie” short film - are now available for download to your hard drives. (*Please Read Important Note Below for SPECIFIC LIMITATIONS OF USE.)

To access these go to this following link here.

You will need the latest Quicktime player to view these - and many of you may have a hard time playing these at full resolution without top of the line systems - given the heavy amount of 30 fps 1920 x 1080 pixel data that is contained within each file.

UPDATE: We’ve broken 500 comments asking for 24p/25p  - awesome. You’ve all made the point loud and clear. I wanted to share a few thoughts with you…

First of all - I’ve had a chance to work with a lot of cool companies these past few years - in the development of both software and hardware - and if there’s one thing I’ve learned (actually two):

1. You need to find out right away if something is technically (im)possible - is what you’re asking for something that the hardware / software can do… obvious - but easy to overlook - don’t waste your energy pushing for something that simply can’t be done…

2. You need to request only ONE thing… THE most important thing to you. And STAY FOCUSED ON THAT - so that they understand you are willing to give up on the 5-30 other features you are dying for… if you don’t do that - you’ll overwhelm them… and they’ll ignore you.  Well they might not exactly ignore you - but remember that other people are asking for different things as well.. if you’re enough of a “pro” to ask just for one thing and let the other things go - they know that “the” one feature truly is KEY to you.

So for now… 24/25p should be the ONE request in my opinion. (more…)

Due to pretty incredible demand and a fair amount of (healthy) skepticism as to whether or not the footage in the “Reverie” piece is “truly” raw out of the camera, we will be releasing a series of raw clips - the exact same clips that were used in the “Reverie” short film -  this coming Friday.   (more…)

Keep in mind - this is raw footage (not RAW) from both Canon XH A1 camcorder - and a few clips for the Canon EOS 5D MKII - you’ll see that the two are toe to toe (not really) on bright scenes… but in low light - NO COMPARISON… so I’m not sure of how Canon feels about my trashing their top of the line XH A1 camcorder… but common sense leads me to state the following:  if the Canon still camera team and the video team have come together to produce the Canon EOS 5D MKII - the next HD camcorder they come out with - may just floor us all…  these are very exciting times - to be someone who focuses on “creating” as opposed to the “process” and “technique” of making your vision match the “reality” of the tools you have at your disposal. To view the main movie (not the behind-the-scenes), click here: REVERIE

See it in higher resolution on SmugMug!

SmugMug has offered to sponsor the making of the next movie and an international search (and/or contest) for the most talented filmmakers, screenwriters, lighting technicians, gaffers, actors - you name it.  

SmugMug has agreed to commit an initial $25,000 right now, plus HD hosting of samples, teasers, submissions from everyone particpating, and the final production.

SmugMug will put up another $25,000 once we’ve proven that we can make this happen - and some other sponsors hopefully jump on board to guarantee that we will have the necessary funding and/or access to resources to make this come together!

(more…)

I just received confirmation from Canon: “barring any last minute technical difficulties” the video will be live within the next 12 hours…  (I will link to it from this Blog) 

SmugMug has stepped up to the plate as well - and they’ve agreed to host the “Behind The Scenes” video on their servers at no cost… so this site will remain advertising-free as a result (I don’t need to raise cash to pay for bandwidth as a result of their generous offer).

There is also a pretty incredible announcement coming up from them on this blog… within the next hour or so…   One that almost trumps the release of this video in my opinion- an announcement that you all have a chance to benefit from…

If you choose to subscribe via RSS to this blog - you’ll be the first to hear of it and the release…  my life has been on hold for almost a week - so I’m eager to get this out!    We’ve gotten over 250,000 hits on this blog since Saturday - and the numbers just keep rolling in. 

For now - enjoy this 12 second clip “teaser” of the behind the scenes video  - to be launched simultaneously with the “Reverie” film…  

WITHIN THE NEXT TWELVE HOURS…

See it in gallery on SmugMug

COPYRIGHT LAFORET VISUALS INC.  DO NOT COPY *(See Note at the end of this article) 

I had it in my hands for less than 72 hours before I had to send it back - but the time I did have with a prototype of the Canon EOS 5D MKII  will possibly change the path of my career as well as the photography industry to some degree.

(The video that will be released very shortly (to be notified when it does go live - go ahead and subscribe to this blog via RSS or e-mail…)   I’ll announce it here soon - the main hold up is the large file size of the video - and finding a host for it… if only 100 people hit the video - we’ll hit 9 Gigabytes of streamed video…   and that’s with the video that is downsized to 960 x 540 (which is 1/4 of 1080p!) in the Apple H.264 format from the full resolution 1080p RAW footage… the RAW footage that comes out of this camera is STUNNING - so much so that the entire video was cut with the RAW footage - untouched… in any way - no color, noise or exposure adjustment whatsoever… the images you are seeing on this blog - are frame grabs off of the video - those frame grabs were downsized from 1920 pixels wide to 700 pixels wide to fit the page width of this blog - and absolutely NOTHING was done to them either in Aperture/Photoshop or any other software.  Also - the image above was shot with a 45mm tilt-shift lens)

Here is the story behind the short video that I produced with what I believe to be a “game changer”of a camera for the following reasons:   (more…)