HD For Indies

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder

Adam gets a new resolution chart that allows him to test the true optical resolution of a Red One, matching Red's Graeme Nattress' 3.2K number.

He tests several lenses, including a Zeiss 50mm SuperSpeed and a 50mm Ultra Prime, as well as a Red 18-50 lens.

-mike

Sorry I haven't been posting much, been working 60-80 hour weeks then flying home to Austin on weekends to pack up the house (which I'll be renting/pimping on here at some point!)

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder

Adam & Art shoot on location with a Red. Long post w/photos.

The ever knowledgeable Adam Wilt continues to blog from NAB:

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder: "Snapshots - NAB 2008 Day 2
Codex Digital, SpeedGrade, Tangent, SI2K, and Nila"

More NAB coverage from my friends in the Pro Video Coalition:

Scott Gentry checks out Sachtler's Artemis vest

Adam Wilt's show coverage - shots from around the floor

Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder: "Snapshots - NAB 2008 Day 1
Various images from the show floor"

Production Gear by Scott Gentry: "Clever Rain Covers From Petrol"

Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder: "Sony Snapshots - NAB 2008 Day 0
Some highlights of what Sony is showing"

One more - Build 16 news, new lenses, Pro Accessories, etc. - read my article on PVC -

ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis

All the details on my PVC article here:

ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis

Yeah, I'm writing over there now. Same me, just writing under a different banner.

Same sloppy writing style and everything.

: )

one more article to post...

All the deets in my PVC article here:

ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis

ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis - my article on Red's new Red Ray device and format - 4K player for under $1000!

FCPUG SuperMeet

The agenda is nearly set for the 7th Annual NAB FCPUG SuperMeet which will
be held at the MGM Grand Hotel's Grand Ballroom, Wednesday, April 16
beginning at 7PM. (doors open at 5PM)

Tickets are only $15.00 per person and include 3 raffle tickets and are on
sale now. Here are the particulars if you are gong to NAB

Where? MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Grand Ballroom
3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, Nevada 89109

When? Wednesday, April 16, 6:30M till 10:30PM (doors open 5:00PM)

Why? - Because you need to get out and learn something and then PARTY!!
What's on the Agenda?
- Apple - Richard Townhill - "Latest about Final Cut Studio"
- JVC - Craig Yanagi and Tim Dashwood - "What's new from JVC and Filming for
a Music Video"
- Adobe - Steve Martin - "How CS3 Production Premium can compliment your FCP
workflow"
- Blackmagic Design - M. Dot Strange - "We are the Strange"
- Red Digital Cinema - Ted Schilowitz and the Red Team - Footage from Red
shooters from around the world will be shown
- Wounded Marines Careers Foundation - Inaugural Class
- Phantom High Speed Camera - Noah Kadner
- “The scariest “editing” tool you will EVER see”- Philip Hodgetts
And MORE!

How much? Just $15.00 for online purchase (includes 3 raffle tickets).
$20.00 at the door (includes one raffle ticket).

Any Raffle prizes? Over $72,000.00 worth! For current list of raffle prizes,
visit the lafcpug web site.

- This event is open to the public. Seating is first come first serve.
- Free Food and Cash Bar will be available
- 30 Vendors showing off their "toys."
- Everyone gets a copy of the SuperMag, Magazine filled with 100 pages of
feature articles and tutorials.
- 250 SuperBags will be handed to first 250 people through the door

Apple is supporting the User Group Network by co-sponsoring this event.

Tickets are on sale NOW for only $15.00 each (includes 3 raffle tickets) and
this event is expected to sell out. "SuperMeets always sell out.

For complete details on the SuperMeet including directions, current list of
raffle prizes and a link to where to buy tickets, visit the Los Angeles
Final Cut Pro User Group (lafcpug) web site at:

http://www.lafcpug.org/nab_2008.

Hope to see all of you there. The SuperMeet will be the only place you need
to be at NAB.

Michael Horton
lafcpug
http://www.lafcpug.org

Hey all - I'm at NAB, and between work and networking, I'm actually atttending panels - which is the point of the whole thing ostensibly this weekend.

Here's my first piece of coverage from the Digital Cinema Summit:

ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis

...and I have a quickie here's what's up piece too.

I'm not the only one - check out all of Pro Video Coalition's NAB coverage here - I think there will be about six of us at the show.

-mike

Labels: NAB

ProVideo Coalition.com: Stunning Good Looks by Art Adams: "In my quest to figure out just how much overexposure latitude I can get out of a RED under tungsten light, I decided to do a test with a flesh tone reference and a RED with build 15 loaded. It turned out to be almost a completely different camera."

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder

Adam gets into Red workflow stuff for the first time, is a good intro for those who haven't been keeping track - I take a lot of stuff for granted that I've been fooling with for a while, whilst Adam sees it as any DoP/post guy would getting their first project on it. Plus, he knows what he's after and is good as sussing out the nitty gritty details:
"This is bleeding-edge stuff. Unfinished. Untested. Undocumented. Beta code, remember?� Yes, REDs are on sale; yes, rental houses have REDs. No, it’s not a finished product; no, there aren’t the levels of documentation and support we’re used to seeing.
I’m not going to pass judgment on whether this is an Evil Thing or a Brilliant Strategy or even a bit of both; all I’m saying is that this is the way it is. Deal with it. If you’re not willing to play guinea pig and roll with the punches, you shouldn’t be playing with RED in the first place."

--------

Working with RED requires lots of [painful] learning. This is true. It’s not a film camera; it’s not a video camera, it’s a digital mopix camera shooting raw data. The workflows are different from what we’re used to, and some things—like colored overexposed highlights—are things we as end-users haven’t had to deal with before (video cameras process them internally; film’s DlogE curve masks the problem). So there’s definitely New Stuff to be learned.


A good read, check it out if you have an upcoming Red project (or are curious about what post with Red is like).

-mike

As of last Thursday night, all Red Ones can shoot 120fps. Wanna see? Of course you do.

: )

I've got a little sample posted over at ProVideoCoalition, as well as some of the details of the new build's features. Some coooool ones. Go read! Now. Cuz I sedd so.

: )

There is also Art Adams' Red One Lattitude Tests, which clearly illustrates the differences between shooting under tungsten or daylight lighting conditions on the daylight optimized Mysterium sensor. CTB is your FRIEND to get the red, green, and blue histograms to line up nicely, and not have the red channel clip early.

Art also has articles about Red up discussing the mixed blessings of "I never knew how much processing cameras did for me, until I used a camera that didn’t do any." (opinions vary on to how good a thing this is - I relish it as a post weenie who likes to tweak things to the nth degree to get best results)

Art and Adam Wilt in Discussing RED, uncensoRED - they both start wrapping their heads around the nitty gritty of RAW image processing, Redcine, ramifications of daylight vs. tungsten lighting. I didn't chime in as I was in transit during that conversation, but a lot of stuff going on in there for the techies.

...and some others in the Stunning Good Looks by Art Adams category of PVC. Art is digging into some of the differences between Red and traditional cameras - I like a lot of those differences.

UPDATE - Be sure to check this out too - workflow software for Red from a third party. Expect LOTS more in the future.

Labels: Red, Red Alert, Red One, Redcine

ProVideo Coalition.com: Capria TV by Frank Capria | Founder

Frank Capria writes up the latest from Avid, and I agree with both Avid's move to kill Xpress Pro, and to cut the price of Media Composer (software only) to $2500 - halving the price.

Now, if they'd only add Kona or Decklink card support, they could REALLY compete...but don't count on it any time soon...but this is a good move on their part.

-mike

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder: "Three three-letter cameras: EX1, F23, RED
An unfair comparison of three entirely different cameras"

Adam Wilt digs in to check out how a $6500 Sony EX1, a $25,000 Red One, and a $250,000 Sony F23 compare when shooting some (quick, rushed, non-lab-grade-definitive) charts and tests.

An interesting read, well recommended.

Adam observes a bunch of stuff people are coming to understand about Red - shooting 4K for a 2K/1080 deliverable is best instead of just 2K for 2K/1080, Bayer patterns aren't quite as sharp as cosited sampling, and quality glass counts (edit - to further elaborate on the glass issue, Super Speeds, as tested, are great for low light, but not the sharpest glass available).

Speaking of Red, I plan on spending tomorrow catching up on writing about a bunch of stuff I've been doing with my Red since I got it and got to Los Angeles (where I'm living now). Since Adam did his tests with build 14 of Red's firmware, I got build 15 (2nd rev of it too) installed and running on mine. My favorite feature so far? 120 fps at 2K!

Holy g-damn sh*t, that is one HOT feature!

I'm doodling with some high speed footage now, and tomorrow I'll also write up some of the golden goodies I saw at what I think was the first ever Los Angeles Red User Group meeting (LARUG? La Rug?).

Stay tuned.

-mike

EDIT - to clarify, esp. since there have been so many trolls over there (who apparently get bored making up original fake email names pretty quickly) - cosited pixels CAN be more sharp than Bayer pattern - on a PIXEL FOR PIXEL basis. If you throw a bunch more pixels at it, then the overall optical resolution of a high res Bayer pattern based system can be higher than a 3-chip setup. As is the case with the Red One.

-mike

Labels: EX1, F23, Red

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder

Adam finds some finicky behavior and VERY useful information on how to export stills out of FCP and maintain highlight (superwhite) detail.

-mike

Friday Morning Update - made it! Got in last night about 7:30, after about 12 hours of driving for the second day ina row. Blech. As always, took a zillion pictures, cut down to best 20 if anyone wants to see saguaro, lizards, wind farms, pretty skies, etc.

Wednesday morning update:

On the Road Again....

Me, Mac Pro, 30" Apple Display, Red One & all accessories...and oh yeah, clothes and stuff....and ties...heading out this morning in VFA (Volumetrically Full Acura).

==============
Hey all -

in case you're wondering why things have been so slow around here lately, it is because I've been prepping for a major life change - I'm moving to Los Angeles, for purposes of doing work more in line with what I want to do with my days - high(er) end digital moviemaking.

Almost exactly 4 years and 4000 blog posts ago, I put up my first entry on HD for Indies (Really? Yep. Really.). My intent, at the time, was for it to be a way to force myself to stay organized and on task with my goal of learning more about moviemaking with digital technology, and to build an identity, and eventually a client base for consulting services. By putting my thoughts, musings, learnings, and eventually links of interest on here, I wanted to get myself known on the Interweb Tubes. It has gone through several phases - heavy research publishing for a while, then mostly links, a period of tracking Red as it was brand new, etc.

Things have slowed since last fall due to a variety of reasons - heaping helpings of travel, for one - I think three trips to New York, three or four trips to Los Angeles, two trips of 10 days or more to Spain, etc. But also because I had the gut feeling a change was coming. The benefit I could get from spending 2-5 hours a day, trawling the web, linking, writing up the results of testing (which takes longer than testing does)...was about tapered out - HDforIndies.com had done about all it was going to, and doing more if it wasn't a very high ROI anymore. While I grew up in Austin, LOVE it here, have friends, family, a house, a girlfriend, etc., Austin, as great as it is, just isn't the place to do cutting edge digital moviemaking (Yet. Ahem.) whilst making a living at it. So it was time to look elsewhere. I nearly took a position in New York, but it didn't quite work for me, kind as the offer was. I had some project work suggested to me in Los Angeles, and lost it because I wasn't local...and it was a coooooool project. While exploring other project work and establishing a foothold (really toehold) residence in LA, a possible full time position popped up, and, pretty much, It Beckoned. So I'm driving out, hopefully tomorrow, to Los Angeles to follow up on that job opportunity, and to look around at what else is out there.

So if you'd like to engage my services, and/or my heavily accessorized Red #417 in Los Angeles, get in touch. Because I'm making decisions SOON as to whether to take this full time position that sounds like a great match for me, or see if anything else is more promising and interesting. I can be reached at mike (at) hdforindies (dot) com, same as always.

I'm definitely going to keep writing, mostly over at ProVideoCoalition.com, because that is a great new site with some great other authors I've known, read, respected and admired over the years, such as Adam Wilt, Chris and Trish Meyer, and a whole slew of others that I have gotten to know over the last few months. HDforIndies.com will be tapering down as I figure out how to post over there what feels right, but of course I'll be leaving this site up for the indefinite future as well, if only as a resource. I'm working with Scott Gentry, the founder of PVC, to migrate relevant back content from this site over to PVC, where among other things, we should have a better search engine than the one at this site. Oh, and a little thing called "design" that I've heard of but apparently never implemented on this site.

: )

In the meantime, my girlfriend will be staying at my house until it is time for her to move out there (hey, I'm not leaving EVERYTHING important behind!), and I hope to arrive in LA with my VFA (Volumetrically Full Acura - me, Red, Mac Pro, and oh yeah, clothes) Thursday night.

This also, regretfully, means I'll be bowing out of SXSW this year. It was a matter of pursuing full time work, or being on the "No Budget Filmmaking" panel - you can guess which way I needed to go.

If you're going, have fun, and have a beer at the Alamo Drafthouse for me - I'll miss it dearly.

I'm going to be in transit for a few days, thinking more about writing up more Red One stuff based on doodling done to date - codec testing, datarates, more unboxing pics, all that stuff.

And I hope to keep writing about the Very Cool New Things I'll be working on in LA as well.

The western horizon beckons...

-mike

ProVideo Coalition.com: News by PVC Staff

Hey all - too busy to blog this one myself, but checkit - new speedbumped laptops, with multi-touch trackpads, and dual layer burners for MacBooks (Finally! Wish mine did!)

Read on for all the deets, speeds, feeds, and prices.

I am short on time because...well, that's my next post.

: )

ProVideo Coalition.com: Creating Motion Graphics by Chris & Trish Meyer

Chris & Trish posted a reprint of a classic of theirs, talking about what causes, and how to fix, reversed field order in 50i/60i content.

Worth a read if you wonder why stuff has that 1 step forward, two steps back look.

ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis

I've got Part One of my Red One unboxing article up. Tons of pictures of what you get, how it is packed, a description of what stuff is and how it goes together, etc.

-mike

Labels: Red, Red One

DCS RED Digital Cinema Event - Event Registration Powered By Eventbrite

Oops, forgot to blog this one, here's the info:


WHAT: Join us for an exciting and informative afternoon exploring the RED ONE camera and RED Digital Cinema workflow. Get a close look at the cameras and learn first-hand what all the RED hype is about!

This event marks an important milestone for DCS, as it is also our inaugural Northern California/Pacific Northwest Chapter get-together! Doors open at 12.00 Noon so come early and network with your local industry peers.

WHEN: Saturday March 1st from 1.00 PM to 4.00 PM
Doors open at 12.00 Noon

WHERE: NetApp
495 East Java Drive
Building 3
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

NetApp is at the corner of East Java Drive and Crossman Ave. Enter the parking lot at 495 East Java and proceed to building #3. There are big numbers on the glass. Park in the horseshoe section of the parking lot and enter through the patio – look for the black gate and DCS signs.

View Map and Directions Here

COST: FREE.

IMPORTANT: You must be a Digital Cinema Society member to attend this event, however, non-members will be granted a FREE 3-month DCS trial membership with this ticket registration! So what are you waiting for?

AGENDA:
* RED ONE Cameras on display
* RED Digital Cinema overview
* DCS President and Cinematographer James Mathers discusses RED ONE Production Workflow
* Silverado Systems President Torrey Loomis discusses and demonstrates RED Post-Production Workflow
* Screening of RED ONE demo footage and selected clips from two RED Features
* DCS Member Panelists: Filmmaker Adam Wilt, DP Art Adams and VideoFax Managing Partner Leigh Blicher lead topical discussion during our Q & A Sessions.

Light refreshments will be available.

This meeting is being organized and moderated by Chapter President Simon Sommerfeld, and hosted by DCS member and Creative Director, Trudi Melohn at NetApp.



See their page for map and directions. Should be good!

Labels: DCS, Red

ProLost: Digital Cinema Dynamic Range

Chris and Trish Meyer beat me to posting this on PVC, but if you want to shoot Red, READ THIS.

There's a shorter version here, but read the long one linked above.

I love how this guy thinks.

Adam Wilt continues to rock the reports from the HPA (that's Hollywood Post Alliance). I am jealous, I was out in LA last week for work related stuff but didn't have time to sign up and go down for HPA.

Adam gives a report from several days:
HPA Day 0
HPA Day 1
Day 2 - regretably short, the computer ate his homework.
HPA Day 3

He has also updated his Sony PMW-EX1 review as well here I consider Adam to be The Ultimate Word on the sub-$10K camera reviews out there. He is thorough and experienced. 6 pages of awesomeness.

More good stuff he wrote:
EX1 Gammas
EX1 Update
Why the HVX-200 ISN'T obsoleted by the Sony EX1 - good analysis
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt: "2008 FAA rules on battery transport"
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt: "PMW-EX1 Lens Fix"
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt: "Sony’s Mac SxS driver doesn’t play well with the Duel Systems Adapter"
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt: "P2 vs. SxS - an Unfair Comparison" - hey, they're the same price! But wait, you CAN fit tons more content (by recording time) on an SxS...
ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt: "Apple Pro Apps - Save Those Updaters!"

...and of course, everything else everyone else is writing over at PVC, including Chris & Trish Meyer, After Effects legends, on Creating Motion Graphics, and others as well.

I still need to do my PR piece about the site...so many things, so little time!

Labels: Adam Wilt, EX1, PVC

ProVideo Coalition.com: Capria TV by Frank Capria

Frank, another or the Pro Video Coalition Founders, has a nice piece up I totally agree with about Apple needing to let ProRes out of barn - ProRes is ONLY available to Final Cut Studio 2 owners. You can't legally share it with clients (although many do), and no one on Windows can use it.

It is a GREAT codec, better than Panasonic's D5 format when using the higher quality ProResHQ, BUT....it is limited to Mac only, FCS2 only users. Bleh. I can understand Apple not wanting to let quality tech out for free, but Avid freely distributes almost all of their codecs.

It is getting to be time to let this one be more widely usable. The REAL value of FCP 6 is the Open Format Timeline - it isn't as if they'd be shafting FCS2 upgrades by making this available. Hell, even sell it for $20 or $50, it would STILL be worth it. OK Apple - do that - sell it for Mac and Windows (and even charge $20 for Mac and $50 for Windows if it makes you feel better).

Just make it available for less than $1300!

Read what Frank has to say for more on this.

-mike

ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis

I wrote it last week, but it didn't get posted till Monday, and of course, I'm just now remembering to post it here.

Anyhoo...this article talks about what is next now that the format war is over and Blu-ray won, but what about what this means for:
-consumers
-the HDTV industry in general
-Microsoft
-Adobe
-Apple
-Avid

Apple gets a special note here, because the only HD format they've supported at all has been HD DVD...oooooooops. Now it is REALLY time for Apple to step up and honor Steve Jobs' 2005 commitment to Blu-ray (yep, he said it at MacWorld, with the head of Sony, in English, to our faces, for the record). OK Steve, it has been 3 years and counting, and you guys pulled out of NAB, hinting that no big new products/updates were coming....so what are we to make of that? We need some reassurance about being able to author high def discs, otherwise Adobe is lookin' pretty for a lot of corporate video work. And Avid supports Blu-ray, too. One of the Three A's doesn't have a ball to play with....

Anyway, read on for another long Mikey piece.

As I've mentioned before, I'm planning on doing my serious writing over at ProVideoCoalition.com.

And yes, I'm writing up my Red One Out of Box Experience stuff right now.

: )

-mike

-mike

#417 arrived at my friend's house today (I wasn't sure if I'd be in town, had it shipped there). I'll be taking pictures and writing up my thoughts on ProVideoCoalition.com as I can.

-mike

WEDNESDAY UPDATE - I have a ton of pictures and analysis. A family member had surgery yesterday out of town, I've been sitting with. All went well, but I'm playing catchup. It is a' comin'.

Interesting to see what has changed, in terms of hardware, since last I worked with several of the original batch of beta #s 6, 7, 11, & 17. I've decided to point some of that out, too.

MUCH going on here.

-mike

Labels: Red