Darren Aronofsky, who made his directorial debut in 1998 with the $60k black-and-white Pi (which went on to gross over $3 million at the box office), will be premiering his latest film Black Swan at the Venice Film Festival September 1st. The trailer for the Natalie Portman and Milas Kunis-starrer has hit the internets, and it’s a mysterious one: More »
When it comes to shooting a DIY feature, one of the foremost questions for DSLR owners will be, “rent a camera or shoot with what I own… and know?” I own a 5D Mark II and I’m honestly not sure if I’d rent a RED, even if the latter came in at the same cost. I happen to think that the importance of resolution is overstated; that is, similar to the megapixel war with still cameras, people tend to focus on resolution because it’s a simple metric. One number is larger than the other, so it must be better, right? But there are many characteristics more important in a moving image than just resolution, and while RED is offering greater resolution than the forthcoming ARRI ALEXA, does the latter camera offer advantages that aren’t measured in resolution? Here’s a quick side-by-side video: More »
Because of their low prices and dual-functionality, DSLRs are going to be around for a while — regardless of whatever new cameras come out in the next 12 months. To that end, I’d like The DSLR Cinematography Guide to be the #1 resource for anyone interested in making movies with DSLRs. If you’re reading this site you’ve already discovered the guide, but there are millions out there who haven’t. So in an effort to improve the guide, I’ve been working for quite some time now on a new eBook version (PDF or ePUB), that will be updated, expanded, full-color, high-resolution, 100+ pages, and will be perfectly portable and perfectly printable. How much will I charge for this longer, offline version? You might be surprised: More »
If the web series is the DIY version of a TV show, then it follows that we should expect DIY versions of all different genres of TV programming. Missing Reel is essentially a web version of At the Movies focused exclusively on grindhouse films from the ’70s. Hosts David Walker and Kurt Loyd do a great job of profiling gems that might otherwise fall by the wayside, reviewing films like Ms. 45
Stu Maschwitz’s tutorial on color correction is one of the most-clicked links on this site, month after month. His very helpful tutorial was recorded for the cross-platform plugin Magic Bullet Colorista I, but the techniques he demonstrated applied to color correction in general. Now, however, Colorista II is available, and the amount of control the $299 plugin gives you is staggering. When it comes to software, however, a lot of people will sell you a product and then try to sell you training for that product — but here’s over an hour of free color correction tutorials from Stu. This is great stuff for an unbeatable price. More »
Independent Film Week (IFW) takes place every September in New York, and it’s a whirlwind event chock full of panels, screenings, networking events, and meetings. One part of IFW is the Project Forum, wherein filmmakers meet with financiers, producers, distributors, and other enablers. Films participating in the Project Forum range from those in the development stage to those in need of finishing funds. I’m happy to announce that 3rd Rail, the transmedia project I’ve been working on with Zack Lieberman (my co-writer/director on The West Side), has been selected to participate in the No Borders International Co-Production Market. More »
Camera accessory manufacturer ikan has announced their 2010 HDSLR Revolution short film contest, which asks DSLR shooters to make a short incorporating the ikan brand name. To submit to the contest (and be eligible for the prizes, which are ikan gear and not cash), ikan asks that you “Simply create a film using your HDSLR camera that utilizes the ikan name, logo or an ikan product in a creative, positive manner. Your film must adhere to the simple, one-word theme of ‘revolution’.” If you’re interested, here’s how you enter the competition: More »
It’s official: there are no nVidia options in the new Mac Pros. At the time of their announcement, some had speculated that Apple might slip in nVidia cards as a build-to-order option at launch, but nope: you can get one 1GB ATI card, or two 1GB ATI cards. That’s it. If you edit using Premiere Pro CS5, this is a problem, but if you’re a Final Cut editor, these new machines should be fine. Plus, if you run an editing house or work in front of clients, you can’t exactly run a hackintosh, in which case the Mac Pro is still your best option. So — where are the best deals on these new beasts? More »
MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program is part of MIT’s OpenCourseWare initiative, wherein the top-tier school posts extensive course materials online. One of the reasons I named this site NoFilmSchool is because I didn’t think it made sense for me (and I’m not saying this is true for everyone) to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to film school. But what if one of the most respected universities in the country posted their film and media courses online, for free? More »
I’ve covered a forthcoming DSLR post-production plugin known as 5DtoRGB before here (be sure to read the comments on that post for more info), but I would still call the plugin “little-known.” This is because the software — which transcodes DSLR footage to high-quality ProRes and DPX files — is still in beta. The previous version was restricted to processing a small number of clips, and only the first few seconds of each clip would be transcoded. However, Rarevision stopped by to let us know that the new version has no such restrictions. If they can deliver on the following featureset, I have a feeling the plugin will no longer be “little-known”: More »
We’ve seen DSLR vs 35mm film comparisons, wherein DSLRs like the Canon 5D, 7D, T2i, and Panasonic GH1 prove to be untouchable from a price-performance perspective. But we all know that some day, a better camera will come out in the same price range. Everyone’s wondering which manufacturer will be the one to premiere such a camera — Sony, Panasonic, Canon, RED? As it turns out, the upstart manufacturer is none of the above. And the camera that bests the Canon 7D from a price-performance perspective? It’s available today. Here’s a shootout video featuring this new camera, filmed by Brandon Bloch: More »
Tze Chun’s Children of Invention premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year, journeying on to play 45 more festivals and picking up dozens of awards along the way. Variety called the film “austerely poetic,” Filmcritic.com said Chun elicited “touching performances from two pint-size leads,” and the New York Times called it “a modestly scaled, quietly effective independent movie…a fine feature debut.” Chun and producer Mynette Louie decided to self-distribute the film, releasing Children of Invention theatrically in eight cities in 2010. In this interview, I talk with Chun about the autobiographical nature of COI, as well as TV writing and self-distribution. If you haven’t had a chance to see the film, the deluxe edition of Children of Invention is now available on DVD; here’s the trailer. More »
I have tried Cavision, Lee, and Tiffen soft filters in an attempt to eliminate aliasing and moire but have yet to find a solution. Now Philip Bloom is reporting (from a user’s comments) that Zeiss Softar filters offer a potential remedy for these problems. I’m skeptical, given I’ve tried a number of similar filters (and the Softars claim to “retain sharpness,” which would mean… retaining aliasing), but here’s the word from Zeiss: More »
Indie auteur Jim Jarmusch
Unbeknownst to many, Canon has been quietly shipping a new version of the Canon 7D. Does this mean your current 7D is obsolete? Not at all. The new package, referred as the Studio Version of the camera, consists of an internally-modified 7D body packaged with the WFT-E5A wireless file transmitter. For DSLR filmmakers, what does this mean? More »
When I priced out the components of the new Mac Pro, I realized Apple’s pro line is not a good value proposition. When the same new Mac Pros left off an nVidia graphics card as an option, I took it as a slight to Adobe. When I asked you guys if you’d like me to build a hackintosh in an attempt to have the best of both worlds, you said yes. So I’ve done the research, priced out the components, and drawn my conclusions. Here’s what I think is possible for a video editing-optimized hackintosh: compared to the $2,500 Mac Pro base model that will ship this month, I believe the Hac Pro can have a faster processor, four times as much RAM, a Blu-Ray burner, USB 3.0 connectivity1, more storage space, and an nVidia graphics card that accelerates Adobe CS5. The kicker? This Hac Pro will cost $1,000 less. More »
- Mac OS X does not presently support USB 3.0, but presumably a motherboard with USB 3.0 will be ready once the OS is. [↩]
Mac vs. PC is a never-ending debate, but when it comes to video editing, what we need are hard and fast numbers. It would be impossible to generate a comparison of apples to apples (zing?) by using Final Cut Pro, since that NLE is only available on one platform. Instead, Adobe’s CS5 suite is the ideal candidate — and considering CS5 is 64-bit native on both OSes, it should be a fair fight. The best way to settle this would be to open the exact same CS5 project file on a Mac and a PC, play it back, render it out, and measure it in other ways — on various machines, at different price points — and compare the results. If only someone would create such a benchmarking tool and upload the results to a database… As it turns out, someone has done just this. More »
Are DSLRs really more sensitive than cameras that cost several times as much? Video guru Adam Wilt compares the Canon 5D and 7D with the Panasonic HPX370, Sony EX1, and RED ONE (including the new Mysterium-X sensor) at ProVideo Coalition. What did Adam find? More »
Ty: Like you stated though, all you need is a PC that runs iTunes (for now) With the new Apple TV, Apple Decides the Living Room Can Wait
Ty: Ah. Good point. Ever since switching over to Apple I've kind of taken fo… With the new Apple TV, Apple Decides the Living Room Can Wait
William: What I want to see is a device that will bury the cable companies. Time Wa… With the new Apple TV, Apple Decides the Living Room Can Wait
Koo: That's a good point -- all you need is another piece of Apple hardware tha… With the new Apple TV, Apple Decides the Living Room Can Wait