alexschwindt.blog

greenscreen work with no greenscreen

Sometimes you need to shoot something dynamic and colorful, but you have very little time and zero budget. Often the solution is to try and shoot on greenscreen and pull a great composite later in AfterEffects. But that can take a lot of time and effort in order to create a well-shot and well-composed effect. Pulling a great chromakey takes tons of effort and practice. What if you don't have that kind of time, or expertise, or equipment?

You go old school. When I first saw the end result (after the jump) I was really impressed with how clean his greenscreen keys were. Turns out they weren't keys at all! The shot above was done entirely without a greenscreen or compositing software. How..?

50-dollar follow focus project

Now this is a cool kickstarter story. Follow focus devices are great for helping filmmakers achieve critical focus pulls, but even the DSLR-targeted ones have been a bit out of the range of beginning filmmakers. Enter Wiley Davis.

Wiley, a fellow video artist, was smart enough to see a target market and immediately began a Kickstarter campaign to create a low-cost follow focus device for aspiring filmmakers on a budget. And his plan succeeded wildly.

How wildly, you ask?

a filmmaker's pre-shoot checklist

This morning I'm gearing up for a narrative short film shooting this afternoon. One of the things that separates the pros from the amatures is that pros arrive prepared. While that might sound obvious on the surface, it often takes some rough experiences to grasp how important good prep really is.

Here's the basic checklist I always go through when I'm heading out to a shooting location...

introducing the Lytro camera

Imagine a camera where you never needed to focus. Ever. Where you could achieve the exact focus you wanted days, even months after you originally shot the image. Welcome to the future. Which is now. Introducing the Lytro camera.

I got an email from a friend today asking what I knew about the Lytro, and while I'd read some about it already, this seemed like a good time to actually put some research into this entirely new kind of camera.

So let's get this out of the way right up front - this is revolutionary technology. Disruptive. Game-changing. (pick your cliche). Ren Ng has developed an entirely new way to capture light, and I believe this will forever change how we take pictures.

So what about filmmaking..?

thoughts on the new rode videomic hd

From Day 1 one of the biggest problems with shooting DSLR video has been the fact that the audio recorded by these devices is almost completely unusable. One of the earliest workarounds filmmakers adopted was to use the highly-regarded Rode Videomic mounted onto the hotshoe plate to achieve decent field audio. The Videomic ran audio out to an 1/8" audio jack that would fit right into the mic input on the DSLR body. It was a workable solution in some circumstances, and I picked up one almost immediately after getting my first T2i.

Unfortunately, there were still a number of filmming set-ups where this solution was inadequate for the job. Sometimes I needed to get professional audio from professional mics (like a lav) using professional standard cabling (XLR), captured at professional sampling rates (48k+). In these situations the Rode Videomic simply wasn't capable for helping me get what I needed.

Enter the Rode Videomic HD, an entirely new kind of mic, able to capture AND record digitally to an SD card. Could this be the all-in-one audio solution filmmakers need to handle all there audio needs..?

check out the PressPausePlay documentary - free

After posting last week about the upcoming "Side By Side" documentary I got some traffic about another great documentary on the future of digital media entitled "PressPausePlay." After screening at SXSW and the Seattle International Film Festival the makers of this extraordinary documentary have taken the extraordinary step of posting it up for world to see, all for free.

One of the great things about this documentary is that while it has a lot to say it also asks some really important questions, questions like 'what truely makes someone and artist?' and 'how can true artists break through the digital cacophony?' What's even better is that while wrestling with some big issues PressPausePlay ultimately maintains a hopeful vision of the future.

Check out the entire documentary after the jump...

documentary on the future of digital filmmaking

Yesterday Eastman Kodak announced that they are filing for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection. I can't imagine a more profound illustration of the way digital imagery has reshaped the photography and filmmaking. While for some this may appear to be the end of an era, to many of us it's the beginning of an amazing new chapter.

Enter Side By Side, a new documentary from Company Films exploring the turbulent transition from celuloid-based filmmaking to digital. As if the subject isn't compelling enough, check out who they've interviewed for the project (trailer)...

4K - because we can

Last week, JVC finally revealed specs, pricing and availablity of the industry's first "affordable" 4K camera. From where I'm sitting this is almost a non-event as the size of the camera's sensor renders it unusable for cinematic pursuits. I wouldn't even mention it here if it wasn't for the fact that Sony, LG,Sharp and Toshiba also announced plans to produce 4K televisions at the same Consumer Electronics Show.

Usually seeing this many companies line up behind a technology would be a tip-off that it's time for people who make their living (or hope to make their living) by producing media to their ducks in a row. In this case, however, I think it's a much better idea for everyone to take a collective deep breath...

marvels cine style road test

DSLRs were never designed for film work, but there's no doubt they've completely changed the game in the world of independant filmmaking. And while they're capable of producing some astouding imagery, they need a lot of work to make them useable in the real world.

One of the most important refinements to come along in the past two years has been the advent of engineered Picture Styles. I've written a bit in the past about the granddaddy of them all - Technicolor's CineStyle. Since it's release it's the style I've used almost exclusively in order to achieve the most latitude when grading my footage. But the more I used the Technicolor style the more I started to have a big gripe with one aspect of it...

grabbing videos off YouTube

One of the most common questions I get from video producers is how to grab videos off of YouTube. My first answer is always "Don't steal videos," but there are often times you need to get things that you have permission to grab, that are no longer covered by copyright or that are creative commons license. In that case there are a couple of great ways to get videos from YouTube and into your editor...

new city launch video

Over the weekend I had a chance to shoot a short film for New City Church's official launch. I really believe in the people behind this, and I can't wait to see how this church impacts Shawnee Mission.

Check it out after the jump...

designing sound in film

Hopefully you've had a chance to see Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol sometime in the past three weeks. It's pretty spectacular. Just as importantly, I hope you've had a chance to hear MI4, preferably in IMAX. This movie sounds spectacular.

But it doesn't sound spectacular by accident. Great sound is something you have to plan for from the very beginning. Your sound design directly affects how you shoot your film. To see more of what I'm talking about, check out this behind the scenes video on sound design in MI4...