A little under two years ago I started this blog with a post titled “The Cloud is Falling.” I then went to cover the Olympics for Newsweek which helped to increase readership - and then I posted a little video called “Reverie” on this blog. And everything changed from that point on - for a lot of us.
Since then - nearly 5,000,000 visitors have graced us with their presence. And at times this blog has utterly overwhelmed me. In the months following Reverie or Nocturne - it was not uncommon for me to wake up each morning to more than 500 e-mails in my inbox from fantastic people from around the globe. (This number would not include junk mail.)
The problem was: My staff and I simply could not keep up. We were missing jobs left and right as they were becoming buried amidst the hundreds of e-mails. This blog’s readership is now north of 150,000 people per month.
At one point - I considered ending the blog. And then I realized that I couldn’t. This community is far too special to turn one’s back on. I’ve simply met far too many interesting people in the past few years - and any single one of them alone would justify continuing the blog. This HDDSLR movement is a bona fide thing - not just a flash in the pan.
So now I’ve come to the following conclusion: I need a little help from some friends to keep this blog healthy. I’m not able to focus on my career to the degree that I’d like to AND simultaneously focus on producing regular content for you all on this blog - let alone to be a husband and father to two young wonderful children. In this case, those friends are the “supporters” illustrated above. I’ve formed great relationships and friendships with the people at these companies and use their products on a regular basis.
Therefore, a little over a month ago I went to them and asked if they’d help support this blog in a non-traditional manner (more on that below). In effect these companies are contributing to help me hire someone to manage this blog. Every post you will see on this blog will continue to be written by me - that’s something that is essential to me. That new person (a young buck by the name of Justin Hamilton) will simply be there to help me grab the relevant graphics, links, check my spelling, and to shoot and edit the videos you will see as a new feature of this blog. For those of you who run your own blogs - you know that it’s not uncommon to spend 5+ hours to shoot, edit, grade, EQ and post a video - that runs all of a whopping 2 minutes on the blog…
My goal is to keep this blog as close to what is has been over the past few years - but to add more content to it with Justin’s and the above “supporters’” help.
So that’s the short version - below is the longer version for those who have been regular readers all along. It will cover a lot of the pertinent questions you might have btw.
The funny thing is: I was planning on writing about my video and photography workflow within the next few weeks (ok well months - it’s been BUSY). I can now cross that off my calendar because my buddy Chase Jarvis just did a pretty extensive video that describes his workflow - and he did it WELL.
And you know what? Our workflow is SCARILY SIMILAR - if not close to identical.
The only main difference? I back everything up to LTO Tape at the end of the process and keep two copies of those tapes - one in Los Angeles, and one in New York (kind of like Chase’s theory of making sure floods/meteors etc don’t strike the ONE location where your data is backed up. I call it Armageddon myself and joke that if CA falls into the ocean - I’ll have some data in NY…) I do also send my still masters to PhotoShelter for online storage as well.
One of my favorite sayings of all time is one by Bert Lance: “If it ain’t broke - don’t fix it!”
That comes into play here. Chase - thanks for saving me the time To everyone here - check out Chase’s video and his workflow - and understand that my workflow is nearly identical. I’ll detail some of the minor differences below after the video in case you want to get into the nitty gritty / nuances between our similar workflows.
I’m becoming more and more involved in the screenwriting process as a director myself (mostly revisions - I let the pros write the scripts!) and I own Final Draft. It’s such an industry standard piece of software that it’s fair to say that it’s pretty much a “must own” for anyone involved in the development process of a script.
I also found Stu’s suggestion of Scrivener and it’s use of note cards to be pretty fantastic. Basically it digitally mimics the way most screenwriters / directors / producers I know work. When you walk into their offices it’s not uncommon to find walls full of dozens if not hundreds notecards, photographs, reference material setup in some sort of hierarchy - so that they can visualize and analyze the building blocks of their screenplays and the progression of the characters, etc. I guess this is the digital version of that and I’m going to purchase Scrivener in a few seconds after I hit post… for now - why don’t you all go over to to the Prolost blog to here the skinny from the man himself.
The ARTEMIS app (by Chemical Wedding) is a fancy director’s viewfinder for the iPhone that answers the digital age question any director, DP, or photographer going into film might have: what lens should I use given the size of the sensor (and the resolution it is currently set to) that I am using today?
Most photographers and filmmakers know instinctually what field of view they are looking for in a lens, and can tell you exactly what lens they want on their 35mm camera. However, this process can become complicated as you begin to use a number of different cameras with different sensor sizes and their accompanying crop factors (for example, the Red One shoots a Super 35 format at 4k, but it crops into the sensor when it shoots 2k).
ARTEMIS is an elegant solution that allows you to point your iPhone in the direction you are shooting and, using the iPhone’s camera, see the exact outlines of what each standard lens will bring given the particular format and resolution setting on the camera you are using.
It works with everything from a Canon HDDSLR to a 65mm film camera - and pretty much every camera and lens in between - and at $29.99 it is pretty much a no brainer (especially when traditional viewfinders can cost hundreds). There is also a nifty iPad app that I have yet to try out that apparently allows you to tether the iPhone to the iPad.
If you are interested in this app, go to the following link on iTunes by CLICKING HERE.
In the past weeks I have written about some cool apps for the iPhone and iPad that are incredibly useful for directors, DP’s, and photographers. Of course there are a number of other tasks that must be accomplished on set outside of the technical - and unfortunately a lot of it is release paperwork. Now, thanks to HDDSLR technology, crews are becoming smaller and more efficient, and there may not be someone around to handle getting all of those pesky releases printed, signed, and filed. That’s why at $2.99, mRelease is an incredible resource.
The mRelease app (by beingMEdia) is a helpful tool that drafts releases for talent, location, props, or crew, based on a few basic bits of information about your shoot that you input yourself. You can then use the built in camera to take a picture of your subject, and have them sign the release via the touch screen. From there, the app makes a .pdf and sends it straight to your email inbox.
Having this sort of tool in your pocket as a filmmaker is incredibly helpful and can make your shoot more efficient - but having this tool as a photographer can be a life saver.
If you are interested in this app, go to the following link on iTunes by CLICKING HERE.
I’m excited to finally see iPad apps come out that take full advantage of the device’s size and functionality relative to the smaller iPhone/iTouch.
I can’t wait for the day where we will be able to use an iPad to interact with our HDDSLR cameras - let alone alone use one as a wireless reference monitor. What excites me even more is the potential to do some color correction or pre-visualization on location, fine tuning the look of an image live on set. Countless hours of adjusting light and color balance could be saved if they could be done on the fly with a computer. (What I’m saying here is: a lot of a film’s look today is created in the grading/color timing/color correcton suite… a lot more than most of us know. Back in the day most of the film’s look depended much more on film stock selection, lighting, filters and gels… now it’s often done more easily and cheaply with a mouse in post… Either way a DP/Gaffer STILL need to know what they’re doing and how to light of course - but giving them the ability to see how things will look after a certain post-processing look is applied - while STILL ON SET - is a huge benefit.)
Can you imagine plugging your iPad into your 5D MK II, RED, Genesis, or Alexa and doing this someday? It would be wild! But we will probably have to wait a little while for such things.
For now let’s take the first babystep in that direction.
The DSLR Slate App (by Chris Bayol) is a digital slatespecifically designed for use with HDDSLR productions and works with iPads and the iPhone/iTouch. The app operates as a traditional slate, providing you with all the standard information (see picture above), but it also goes a step further and provides information tailored to HDDSLR production, allowing you to log shutter speed, ISO, aperture, lens, and many other details (which can come in handy while shooting tests). All of this additional information is stored by the app, and then displayed for the camera in quick bursts so that each page of information is captured for only a few frames. This makes slating on set efficient, and ensures that you have all the information you need in post-production.
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.
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 realitymode).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.
Thursday February 11th 2010, 3:37 am
Filed under: Software
For those looking for a more elegant workflow to use your Canon HDDSLR footage with Final Cut Pro - Canon and Apple have announced a new plug-in for Final Cut Pro - named: EOS E1. The plugin is set to appear on Apple’s website - although the link doesn’t yet appear to be live…
The plugin is designed to import video from the following Canon’s DSLRs: The EOS-7D, the 5D MK II, and the 1D MK IV.
The plug-in will support FCP’s Log and Transfer dialogue, which lets people select and mark in and out points on their video before copying it off-camera. At the same time, people can add custom metadata such as Roll, Scene, Take information during the ingest process, and begin editing work before all clips have been transferred. The plug-in will be a free download for owners of Final Cut Pro 6 or later. Users may note that this plugin has many of the same features that I mentioned earlier here in a previous post.
I have not been able to confirm as to whether or not this plugin will be supporting timecode - timecode based on the camera’s internal clock that is to say - not “real” timecode of course. You should note that you can sync multiple cameras to a computer via USB…
To everyone here - check out Chase’s video and his workflow - and understand that my workflow is nearly identical. I’ll detail some of the minor differences below after the video in case you want to get into the nitty gritty / nuances between our similar workflows.
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