Last week Canon announced a new generation of their venerated 24-70 f/2.8L lens, which is expected to be available in mid-April. As I've mentioned here before, the first generation 24-70L is hands-down my favorite lens I've ever owned. So as you can imagine the announcement of a second generation immediately grabbed my attention.
This week Nikon announced their new D800 DSLR, and while my investment in Canon glass precludes me from this particular dance, there's still a lot to get excited about. At the risk of offending long-time Nikon fans, Canon was really the first one to the DSLR-video dance. After the 5D Mark II, everyone else has pretty much been playing catch up. With the release of the D800 it's possible that Nikon's finally pulled ahead.
Some of the most common questions aspiring filmmakers ask involves gear. What camera body? Which lens? Which features? Audio gear? Stabilization? Accesories?
And these are important questions, especially when you're starting out. We all have limited budgets; it's just smart to get all the advice you can before investing your hard-earned money into the gear you're going to use.
In order to offer a (hopefully) useful perspective I do my best to keep my Gear Page up to date. Today I updated the it to reflect the newer lens, camera bodies, and rigs I've been using, along with some basic impressions and advice. I've also removed some gear that I can't find much good to say about....
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.
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)...
Over the past month or so my friends Rob Webster, Kathleen Sylvestri and I have been working hard on a new promo short about love, sex and marriage. What's made it great has been finally having an excuse to make a short film entirely within the world of Legos. (you can check it out after the jump)
One of my responsibilities on the project was color grading the final results. This presented a unique challenge as there wasn't anywhere stylistically to take it. For the sake of the story and the the tone of the composition those yellow Lego faces needed to stay in their correct color space. This wasn't a project to go all 'hipster' on.
What this piece needed a good Technical Correction grade without adding any Style Grading. If that last sentence seems at all confusing then this is the tutorial for you...
When it comes to filmmaking and media production one of the most common questions I get is what software I create with. That used to be a more complicated question, but thanks to some industry craziness I can now give a very simple answer: Adobe Production Premium CS5.5.
Sometime soon I'm going to write a more comprehensive review of the Production Suite, but for now I'll just say that Adobe has proven the old adage that chance favors the prepared mind. For the first time ever Adobe finally has all of their assets running at full steam, and their timing couldn't be better.
Speaking of timing, you have approximately three weeks to take advantage of the best software deal I've ever seen from Adobe...
Last week a had a great time leading the filmmaking workshops a Leadership Institute. I've been teaching these workshops for three years now, and I'm just blown away by how much filmmakers and video producers have changes in that time. When I started out everything I taught in the classes was "brilliant"; now I have to be on my toes to make sure I'm one step ahead of many of these artists who are attending these workshops!
One of the things I always try to make sure I'm offering is a great set of resources for the people who come out. In my opinion, one of the best resources I can hook producers up with (and the one I would want from other filmmakers) is a list of website where we can continue to learn and grow as artists.
So here's the places I go to hone my craftiness...
Just a quick heads-up: after getting a number of requests I've added a Gear page to this blog. Hopefully this will allow you to get a good idea of what I'm using on my various film projects. You can find it under "Links" in the right hand column, or you can access it here.
In order to make this page a little more useful to most of you who frequent this site I've decided to take a slightly different approach to building the Gear page. Instead of just making a generic list of the various pieces of equipment and their feature sets I've listed them in the order I aquired them, along with commentary on my personal experiences using them over time. Hope this helps.
If you need some inspiration today make sure to check out this incredible video. Love stories are hard to tell well, especially in a short form. This video utilizes mixed media and post techniques in a way that's both seemless and affecting. (make sure to appreciate the killer soundtrack as well) It's just beautiful.
