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…

[vimeo video_id=”9247578″ width=”700″ height=”398″ title=”Yes” byline=”Yes” portrait=”Yes” autoplay=”No” loop=”No” color=”00adef”]

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!

And a few more pix of the setup: Read the rest of this entry »

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.

I’m very glad to announce the following:

From Canon USA & Vimeo:

“Canon USA and Vimeo are advocates and supporters of artists and artists’ rights. We would like to make it very clear that the creator of any submission in the Story Beyond The Still contest retains ownership of that submission – period. Canon USA does own the copyright in the final, combined video comprised of Vincent’s chapter and all winning chapters, however, each chapter itself is still owned by the user who submitted it (similar to a newspaper – the publisher owns a copyright in each full edition, but the specific articles could be owned by a number of different parties).

There has been some commentary on the contest forums and within message boards that claims that Canon USA and/or Vimeo are engaging in a “rights grab” of sorts with respect to contest submissions, and are taking ownership of users’ submissions. This is simply not true. It is no one’s intention to take ownership over any user’s submission.

Of course, in order to offer its services and operate the contest, both Vimeo and Canon USA need certain rights licensed to them – to accept, store and display video submissions, to use clips/stills to promote the contest, and to let other Vimeo users view and comment on the submissions – and efforts were taken to restrict the scope of the licenses as much as possible, keeping in mind the legal realities of conducting a contest like this one.

We want this to be a contest that celebrates creativity and collaborative film making. It is our goal that this is fun and engaging experience for all that participate.”

As you know – we win some (above) and we lose some (below) – that’s just the way life goes and I think Canon and Vimeo are doing a great thing with this contest  and it’s very important to remain focused on that fact. Read the rest of this entry »