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High Definition Video for Independent Filmmakers
A How To Guide for Digital Filmmakers
Welcome all! This is my blog to share my latest research,
thoughts, etc. on utilizing HD for independent filmmaking.
YES, I am available for consulting
Contact me at mike@hdforindies.com
All content copyright 2004-2007 Mike Curtis.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Compressor 3.0.4 & Qmaster update fix busted Clusters
Compressor Clusters Fixed: "Compressor 3.0.4 and Apple Qmaster 3.0.4, together with the Mac OS X v10.5.5 update, resolve an issue in which clusters were not visible in Compressor and Batch Monitor, and Compressor services did not appear in the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences."
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Nikon D90 vs Red’s Scarlet - Specdown!
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Mike Curtis | Founder | HD for Indies: "Nikon D90 vs Red’s Scarlet - Specdown!
Does the Nikon D90 pose a threat to (the specs only of) Red’s Scarlet?"
No, not really, but interesting to see what it implies for the market at large in the future.
Does the Nikon D90 pose a threat to (the specs only of) Red’s Scarlet?"
No, not really, but interesting to see what it implies for the market at large in the future.
Nikon's D90 DSLR shoots 720p movies too
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Mike Curtis | Founder | HD for Indies: "Nikon D90 - nice DSLR that also shoots HD video
Nikon’s new stills camera shoots nice 720p movies"
been meaning to write about this for a week or two, finally did it - Nikon's D90 shoots 720p movies! Sorta...read on.
Nikon’s new stills camera shoots nice 720p movies"
been meaning to write about this for a week or two, finally did it - Nikon's D90 shoots 720p movies! Sorta...read on.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Art Adams on crash camera trainee What To Do
In Art's words:
A film student, who I’ve been mentoring, landed a job on a low-budget RED project as camera PA. He sent me an email saying he’s starting the job tomorrow, and what should he know? Here’s the email I sent him to prep him for his first real camera department job:
...good advice for the on set newbie. Rest is here:
ProVideo Coalition.com: Stunning Good Looks by Art Adams | Cinematography
A film student, who I’ve been mentoring, landed a job on a low-budget RED project as camera PA. He sent me an email saying he’s starting the job tomorrow, and what should he know? Here’s the email I sent him to prep him for his first real camera department job:
...good advice for the on set newbie. Rest is here:
ProVideo Coalition.com: Stunning Good Looks by Art Adams | Cinematography
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Adam Wilt talks camera accessories
I ran into Adam Wilt at a Digital Cinema Society event at Plaster City Digital Post over the weekend, and we talked Red and Red accessories, field techniques, etc. He's written up a bit on accessorizing the Red.
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder | Pro Cameras, HDV Camera, HD Camera, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, RED, Video Camera Reviews
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder | Pro Cameras, HDV Camera, HD Camera, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, RED, Video Camera Reviews
Monday, August 11, 2008
Nice little bit on negotiating rates
Art Adams has a nice short piece on a recent experience budgeting a project. My favorite line:
ProVideo Coalition.com: Stunning Good Looks by Art Adams | Cinematography: "If you compete on the top, you’re competing on ability and predictability: if the company wants a specific and very important look, you’ll provide it. If you compete on the bottom you can only compete on price--and there’s always someone cheaper. Always."
Producing content? New to it? A good little read.
ProVideo Coalition.com: Stunning Good Looks by Art Adams | Cinematography: "If you compete on the top, you’re competing on ability and predictability: if the company wants a specific and very important look, you’ll provide it. If you compete on the bottom you can only compete on price--and there’s always someone cheaper. Always."
Producing content? New to it? A good little read.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Wevi's awesome little CW-5HD wireless uncompressed wireless HD system
ProVideo Coalition.com: Stunning Good Looks by Art Adams | Cinematography
Drat, Art beat me to it! We used one of these on our music video shoot recently, and I was VERY impressed by the system. Tiny and effective, we used it in a chase car and it worked just fine - VERY slick!
Read on for analysis and pics...
-mike
Drat, Art beat me to it! We used one of these on our music video shoot recently, and I was VERY impressed by the system. Tiny and effective, we used it in a chase car and it worked just fine - VERY slick!
Read on for analysis and pics...
-mike
Some Red tidbits on ProVideoCoalition.com
ProVideo Coalition.com: Adobe Beyond Adobe by Adobe | Vendor Blog - on Adobe's blog on PVC, they mention native R3D support coming to Adobe's CS3 suite - including Premiere.
Adam Wilt runs down some of the improvements from build 15 to build 16: ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder | Pro Cameras, HDV Camera, HD Camera, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, RED, Video Camera Reviews
Also, Red released another round of Red Alert just the other day, I need to go mess with that.
-mike
Adam Wilt runs down some of the improvements from build 15 to build 16: ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder | Pro Cameras, HDV Camera, HD Camera, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, RED, Video Camera Reviews
Also, Red released another round of Red Alert just the other day, I need to go mess with that.
-mike
Typically thorough Adam Wilt review of new Panasonic 17" HD-SDI display BT-LH1760
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder | Pro Cameras, HDV Camera, HD Camera, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, RED, Video Camera Reviews
Adam does his usual thorough rundown on the NEW AND REVISED version of the Panasonic 17" LCD display. Many improved features, but still 1280x768 - so no pixel for pixel full size 1080p view. There is a pixel for pixel unscaled viewing mode, which is interesting though.
Model # is BT-LH1760
Adam does his usual thorough rundown on the NEW AND REVISED version of the Panasonic 17" LCD display. Many improved features, but still 1280x768 - so no pixel for pixel full size 1080p view. There is a pixel for pixel unscaled viewing mode, which is interesting though.
Model # is BT-LH1760
Labels: hardware, Production
Sunday, July 27, 2008
My review of Final Cut Server is up on MacWorld
Macworld | Review: Final Cut Server 1.1
I reviewed Final Cut Server for MacWorld - I'll have more to say about it in the future, but this is a good place to start. It is powerful, it is complicated, it is a big fat wet kiss to consultants to do custom integration.
-mike
I reviewed Final Cut Server for MacWorld - I'll have more to say about it in the future, but this is a good place to start. It is powerful, it is complicated, it is a big fat wet kiss to consultants to do custom integration.
-mike
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Red testing - everything you wanted to know about Redcode but were afraid to ask...
ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis | Articles
OK, maybe not EVERYTHING, but certainly everything pertaining to Redcode and how variable is their variable bitrate codec, how much space does X resolution at Y aspect ratio with Z codec take up, how many minutes/hours fit on a CF or Red Drive, what is the max frame rate, what does it depend on, etc.
If you are planning on shooting with Red One, and ESPECIALLY if you want to shoot some offspeed, this is probably darn hand stuff to know/have.
-mike
OK, maybe not EVERYTHING, but certainly everything pertaining to Redcode and how variable is their variable bitrate codec, how much space does X resolution at Y aspect ratio with Z codec take up, how many minutes/hours fit on a CF or Red Drive, what is the max frame rate, what does it depend on, etc.
If you are planning on shooting with Red One, and ESPECIALLY if you want to shoot some offspeed, this is probably darn hand stuff to know/have.
-mike
Friday, July 18, 2008
ProLost: Go Naked pt. 2
ProLost: Go Naked pt. 2
Stu points out the truth - good story, good post, don't need to drop a wad of cash....
SKILL COUNTS MORE THAN TOYS.
Tough, but true.
Stu points out the truth - good story, good post, don't need to drop a wad of cash....
SKILL COUNTS MORE THAN TOYS.
Tough, but true.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Three false copyright accusations and we'll cut off your Internet access - Boing Boing
good one -
Three false copyright accusations and we'll cut off your Internet access - Boing Boing:
"The internet is only that wire that delivers freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press in a single connection. It's only vital to the livelihood, social lives, health, civic engagement, education and leisure of hundreds of millions of people (and growing every day).
This trivial bit of kit is so unimportant that it's only natural that we equip the companies that brought us Police Academy 11, Windows Vista, Milli Vanilli and Celebrity Dancing With the Stars with wire-cutters that allow them to disconnect anyone in the country on their own say-so, without proving a solitary act of wrongdoing.
But if that magic wire is indeed so trivial, they won't mind if we hold them to the same standard, right?"
Well put, sirrah.
Three false copyright accusations and we'll cut off your Internet access - Boing Boing:
"The internet is only that wire that delivers freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press in a single connection. It's only vital to the livelihood, social lives, health, civic engagement, education and leisure of hundreds of millions of people (and growing every day).
This trivial bit of kit is so unimportant that it's only natural that we equip the companies that brought us Police Academy 11, Windows Vista, Milli Vanilli and Celebrity Dancing With the Stars with wire-cutters that allow them to disconnect anyone in the country on their own say-so, without proving a solitary act of wrongdoing.
But if that magic wire is indeed so trivial, they won't mind if we hold them to the same standard, right?"
Well put, sirrah.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Another little tirade on moviemaking
Just dashed this off over at PVC:
Making Movies Now - bigger, sometimes better, definitely riskier
Touching on the heart of moviemaking efforts from a business perspective.
Making Movies Now - bigger, sometimes better, definitely riskier
Touching on the heart of moviemaking efforts from a business perspective.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
ProVideo Coalition.com: Couple bits of awesomeness
ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis | Founder
posted over at PVC - link to the killer new Ben Buttons trailer that was shot on Viper, and some details on the new Red Build 16 which fixes a looooooooooong list of outstanding issues with the Red camera, and fills in a lot of new features to boot.
I'm doing what writing I can over at ProVideoCoalition.com these days, so just linking to it from here.
-mike
posted over at PVC - link to the killer new Ben Buttons trailer that was shot on Viper, and some details on the new Red Build 16 which fixes a looooooooooong list of outstanding issues with the Red camera, and fills in a lot of new features to boot.
I'm doing what writing I can over at ProVideoCoalition.com these days, so just linking to it from here.
-mike
Friday, June 13, 2008
ProVideo Coalition.com: Richard Harrington
ProVideo Coalition.com: Richard Harrington
Nice little tip on color correction - shoot a $7 card in the field.
Yep, I've been reallllllllllllly busy lately, not much time to write.
But some cool stuff to tell you about as soon as I have some time...
-mike
Nice little tip on color correction - shoot a $7 card in the field.
Yep, I've been reallllllllllllly busy lately, not much time to write.
But some cool stuff to tell you about as soon as I have some time...
-mike
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Slashdot | Microsoft Acknowledges NBC's Wish is Its Command
GRRRRRRRR.
Grr.
Slashdot | Microsoft Acknowledges NBC's Wish is Its Command: "' Microsoft has acknowledged that Windows Media Centers will block users from recording TV shows at the request of a broadcaster. 'Microsoft included technologies in Windows based on rules set forth by the (Federal Communications Commission),' wrote a Microsoft spokeswoman, apparently referring to an FCC proposal that the courts struck down in 2005. 'Microsoft has put the requirements of broadcasters above what consumers want,'"
Grr.
Slashdot | Microsoft Acknowledges NBC's Wish is Its Command: "' Microsoft has acknowledged that Windows Media Centers will block users from recording TV shows at the request of a broadcaster. 'Microsoft included technologies in Windows based on rules set forth by the (Federal Communications Commission),' wrote a Microsoft spokeswoman, apparently referring to an FCC proposal that the courts struck down in 2005. 'Microsoft has put the requirements of broadcasters above what consumers want,'"
