alexschwindt.blog

test your color skillz

So just how good is your ability to recognize colors? What about matching color sets? For anyone involved in the visual arts the ability to see and handle colors is a crucial skill set. Remember, professional don't really get paid for their abilities, they get paid for their taste, for knowing the difference between "perfect" and "almost".

Enter the "Color - Method of Action" game that's making the rounds on the internets right now. While it's a lot of fun to play, it can also help you understand your strengths and weakness as a colorist. In addition, it can help you begin to grasp some advanced color theory concepts. Check it out after the jump...

a perspective on gear you do not have

As you can imagine I've gotten a lot of texts, email and Facebook IMs about the fact that Canon dropped the new 5D Mark III last night. (just to get this out of the way, on paper I'm not see that much to make the upgrade compelling) But all the hype brings up a point I think is worth making every so often: the story you're telling is a lot more important than the gear you have, or do not have.

I know that sounds a bit strange coming from someone who's trumpted video-DSLRs as being "revolutionary", but here's the deal: the Canon 5D Mark III is actually the price we consumers are now paying for the 'accident' that was the Mark II...

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?

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..?

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...

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...

a final cut editor goes adobe

Those of you who are regular reader of this blog will know that while I started out on Sony's Vegas, I really became a filmmaker using Apple's Final Cut Pro suite. Sure, by 2009 it was starting to get a little long in the tooth, but that was ok because what it lacked in horsepower it made up in stability and usability.

Even better, FCP was THE industry standard. Its enormous market share meant that third-part hardware and software makers could invest huge amounts of time an effort into FCP-compatable add-ons, knowing that if they created something good and useful a sizable market would be open to it. There was a lot of security there for aspiring filmmakers.

Then Apple had to go and laid the epic goose egg that was FCP X...

early reaction to Avid Media Composer 6

I had a chance to watch the live stream of today's announcement from Avid of their new version of Media Composer 6. Avid previewed this software late last spring in order to try and capitalize on Apple's misfortune, but today's preview answered a lot of lingering questions surrounding the software. So what are some of the things we learned today, and what does that mean to filmmakers like you and me? Is Avid serious about gaining back all the editors and business they lost to Final Cut over the past decade or so?

creating websites with Adobe Muse

As a rule, people who like design do not like writing code. In my experience, people who like writing code do not like project management. But we all want websites that are powerful, functional and beautiful. Enter Adobe Muse.

Designed for with graphic artists in mind, Muse allows the user to design a website with simple interfaces and established design tools. Of course, Muse isn't the first software to attempt this trick. Many of use have invested copious amounts of time learning WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) web software over the years, only to be disappointed with weak, compormised, non-functioning end results.

Would Muse lead to the same let down..?