» Archive for the ‘film’ Category
Here’s the lead from a post I wrote immediately after the Apple iPad announcement yesterday; it’s now live over at FreshDV:
The Apple iPad offers a number of exciting new possibilities for filmmakers and story architects thanks to its screen size, connectivity, and interactivity. At first glance it may seem like just a big iPhone, but it’s priced to move and — whether you plan on buying one or not — in 60 days it will be in the hands of millions. For filmmakers and independent creatives, there’s a lot of brain candy contained in that thin body; here are seven ways I think the iPad will change filmmaking and interactive storytelling.
To read the article, head on over to FreshDV.
I unpacked my brand new Canon 5d Mark II a few months ago and excitedly clambered onto my Manhattan rooftop to put it through some tests. Within minutes I discovered the nasty aliasing artifact seen above, wherein the uniformly brown brick building down the block seemed to have a pattern of gray concentric circles overlaid across its surface. I knew about, and expected, the DSLR aliasing problems, and even wrote that I had some ideas about how to defeat them (on the rooftop that day, I tested several contrast and softening filters in an attempt to defeat the oversharpened look, to little avail). But I knew what I was getting into, and for the price, I’ve learned to (more than) love the one I’m with. More »
The second episode of RADAR that I directed and DP’d with Zack is live today. Check out the episode below, and stay tuned to RADAR for future episodes on cutting-edge arts and culture. More »
Lots of news from the RED camp today. If you’re interested in what may be not only the future of digital acquisition, but also display, head on over to their forum. Of note: More »
I’m only posting this because I love The Wire, but really you could pull a thousand individual quotes from the show and it wouldn’t do it justice. The issue with this compendium is it focuses on the gully street slang that is, yes, a large part of The Wire — but a large part that is balanced out by profound cultural critiques and real, humanized characters. More »
When an online video series claims a hundred million views, but absolutely no one you know has ever even heard of it, something might be off. When an online video claims to have a hundred thousand views and it only has two comments, something might be off. In general, online viewership metrics aren’t standardized, and one of the reasons web video advertising hasn’t taken off is because advertisers don’t know how valuable a “view” really is. More »
Zack and I directed, and I DP’d, the first episode of RADAR Season 2, which kicks off today with the episode “Undetermined Measurements.” Check out the episode below, and stay tuned to RADAR for future episodes; Zack and I also directed another forthcoming episode in Season 2, and a number of very talented directors helmed the others. Thanks to Lance Weiler, Alex Johnson, Janine Saunders, and the rest of the RADAR crew! More »
The world of film distribution is changing so rapidly that it’s worrisome for many and exiting for the rest. Among the many advances in DIY distribution in the past few months are the announcement and launch of OpenIndie and Indie Screenings, both sites focused on allowing filmmakers to screen their films more easily. OpenIndie is an Arin Crumley project that aims to help filmmakers geotarget their audiences, whereas Indie Screenings allows anyone to put on an DIY screening of a film and share proceeds with the filmmaker; the latter site has been brought about by the Age of Stupid crew. More »
First, Canon has announced a 24p/25p update to the Canon 5d Mark II; this is crucial and I will now be keeping the camera I purchased mere months ago. But I don’t have much interesting to say about that, other than, “thank the lord.”
There’s some other news out of the Canon camp today, however, and that’s what the title of this post is about. The thing about light is… when it comes to guerilla filmmaking, there’s never enough of it. More »
Despite the fact that Zack and I have been pitching and developing our transmedia project Third Rail for over a year, it was a mad rush to pull together a trailer and rehearse our presentation for yesterday’s first annual Pixel Pitch here in London. During this process, which we had to conduct virtually — with him in New York, and myself temporarily in North Carolina — we considered a few different approaches to our verbal sell, some more theatrical and some more straightforward. Ultimately we went with the straightforward approach, and, in retrospect, that was probably a mistake. More »
Steven Soderbergh called attention to this issue a few months back, but the DGA’s website was in a state of disrepair and his opinion piece couldn’t be properly linked. Also, I don’t have cable, so I didn’t pick up on the issue first hand — that is, until I moved out of my apartment September 1st and, by relying on the kindness of others and couch surfing, began watching movies on cable in wonderful high definition. There’s been just one problem: the movies are crapped. Sorry, I mean cropped. More »
Upon finishing The Wire during its initial run on HBO, that’s the order I thought I’d rate the show’s seasons from best to… well, I can’t say “worst,” as the nadir of The Wire was still a cut above anything else on the tube. More »
The new Canon 7d is coming out with the 5d Mark II‘s most-requested missing feature: 24p. It seems Canon learned from their mistakes and have corrected it with a new video chipset capable of 24p and 30p at 1080, and 50p and 60p at 720. This is great for DSLR filmmakers looking for an APS-C (crop, although it is roughly the size of the sensor on the RED ONE as well as 35mm motion picture film) camera at a cheaper price point than the 5dII. Video quality should be similar to its more expensive brother, although low-light performance will be inferior. Now the question becomes, will Canon ever add 24p to the 5d? Is it even technically possible without new hardware? Why sell a camera for $1700 that is superior in so many ways to its $2700 big brother (and why not follow traditional naming schemes, where larger model numbers are better)? More »
Here, rock video director/photographer Estevan Oriol (videography) makes the mistake of complaining about those of us “on the come up” when he’s already “put on.” More »
Let’s get technical.
The human eye is a far superior instrument to the film or video camera. Over the years film stocks have gotten more sensitive, larger negatives and three-strip processes have been developed, and video cameras have improved immeasurably, but these innovations have not brought the baseline visual fidelity of cameras to the level of our own ojos. It’s been claimed that the resolution of the human eye is equivalent to 576 megapixels; while that claim should be taken with a grain of salt, as should any calculations of dynamic range, sensitivity, and field of view, all such assesments lead to one conclusion: our eyeballs are pretty damn good. For decades, the most common observation for first-time cinematographers has likely been, “wow, this camera needs a lot more light than my eyes.” More »
Zack and I are headed to Philly for DIY Days. Head on down, it’s free (register here).
DIY DAYS is a totally FREE conference/unconference for everyone in film, music, design, gaming and software development who wonder how to sustain themselves in challenging economic times. Centering on how to fund, create, distribute and sustain the creative work of media artists, the conference is a diverse day of speakers, panels, case studies, roundtable discussions and workshops that includes an impressive list of innovative thinkers, makers and doers.
WHERE: UArts – 211 S. Board St, Philadelphia, PA
WHEN: Saturday AUGUST 1st from 8:30am to 6:30pm – followed by a social mixer from 6:30 to 8:30pm
UK-based author Russell Evans has a book on web filmmaking coming out in April of next year from Focal Press. I answered via email as best I could his questions about The West Side, and while doing so realized this neglected blog is long overdue for some updates. Why not kill two birds with one keyboard? These excerpts will have to suffice until I step away from the screenplay I’m toiling on (priorities, priorities) to write a proper, hopefully meaningful, update. More »
I may seldom agree with the Academy on what constitutes a “Best Picture,” but congratulations to the AMPAS for putting on an inspired, nearly flawless and tone-perfect Oscars. Reverence plays well when the global economy is imploding.
On the other hand, I went into the telecast expecting to disagree with the vast majority of their awards, and that certainly held true. I merely want to give credit where credit is due, to the showrunners, who put together an entertaining and efficient presentation. Well done. Producing the Oscars is probably a fairly thankless job, because no matter what you do everyone will say it was too long. Which I suppose is why I felt the need to post here, to explicitly not complain. Move along, there’s nothing to see here.
Nominations for the 81st Academy Awards were announced yesterday, and the longstanding rumors of a possible Best Picture nomination for The Dark Knight proved to be false. Since I’ve made it a habit to write about Christopher Nolan’s films seemingly more than any other, here comes some gratuitous keyboard use: More »
Film critics are all releasing top 10 lists this week; I’d like to post a different kind of year-end list. Here are ten films I saw in 2008 that I would not have seen yet were I still living in North Carolina. Thanks, New York! More »
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