Amazing Digital Cinema Camera – The RED Scarlet X – I Was There Baby!
The Scarlet X - Just unveiled at Red Studios Hollywood. This camera is the best value in the industry for a true digital cinema camera. RED have just lowered the cost barriers to quality cinematic imagery by about half. Looking forward to shooting RED!
Twin Peaks
I've been watching David Lynch's Twin Peaks for a while now. Almost finished the second season. In a world of "reality" tv and whatever else is out there, this show is so much fun. Sad, strange, shocking, hilarious - it's all here and there's nothing else like it.
Express35 – Affordable High Quality Camera Rigs
I've been doing some research lately for putting together a camera support rig for my 60D and future cameras. One of the companies I'm most impressed with for apparent quality, affordability, and being made right here in the USA is Express35.
New Short Film in 168 Hours!
So I've decided to take the plunge and I’m directing and producing a short film for the 168 Hour Film Project. I'll be shooting Feb 18-19. post production Feb 19-24. Screening in LA April 1-2. The 168 Hour Film Project is supported by industry veterans such as Howard Kazanjian, Producer, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark and Ralph Winter, Producer X-Men and Star Trek VI. More details at 168project.com.
All films will be based on this year’s 168 Project theme “Second Chances”. Each team will be given a verse from the bible which they must interpret in their film. I look forward to this challenge and hope my team will craft a film that stands as a genuine artistic statement with spiritual depth. I plan to make my film available for download after the festival as a resource for churches and missions. The 168 project has been a way to help aspiring cast and crew get started and build their careers. It's a good thing all around!
Update: Thanks to all that supported my film - we finished on time and I'll be posting our screening date at the 168 Festival as soon as I know it.
I'm also crewing for the film so if you're interested, here is a list of crew positions.
February is going to be crazy!
When to use Soundtrack Pro
How does Soundtrack Pro best fit into the Final Cut Studio workflow? I forced myself to use Soundtrack Pro to finish a short documentary and a short film in order to discover its place and its benefits. For me, it boils down to this. Do as much sound work as possible in Final Cut. Find the best possible take for each shot. Don't think you'll choose a better take later in Soundtrack because the tools in Soundtrack are suited to fixing audio, mixing, and applying filters, not choosing takes. Fill in any gaps while still in Final Cut. Again you don't want to go hunting through your footage when you're working in Soundtrack for wild sound to fill in gaps - the tools in Final Cut are much better for auditioning and placing clips. If you have already recorded them, add sound effects in Final Cut - you can get your track order and mix laid out right before leaving Final Cut. Set your levels in Final Cut, then tweak them in Soundtrack Pro.
So what is Soundtrack Pro good for? Well, other than giving you fits, Soundtrack is good for adding sound effects that are not part of your recorded sound, either from it's huge library of effects or from some other source - even recording them right into the timeline, foley style. Soundtrack is good for fixing audio problems that require a waveform editor, such as noises that need to be removed. Soundtrack is good for adding EQ, reverb and other filters. It has good tools for previewing filters and it's real-time filters are good. Tweak your levels in Soundtrack. It has good tools for getting the levels right, such as a continually updated numerical db meter that lets you know exactly where you are peaking. You can also use submixes and other audio specific stuff but I haven't tried that yet. So in summary, get everything setup in Final Cut - then use Soundtrack for the final effects, fixing, tweaking and sweetening of the sound. Don't try to build your soundtrack completely in SoundTrack, that's an exercise in frustration.
User Style Sheets for Better Web Browsing
It should be a simple thing. Make any website you're reading more comfortable to read. Unfortunately this isn't easy - it's a mess. I was reading A Logic Named Joe and wished I could have some more leading (more space between the lines of text). I thought "great, I'll just download a style sheet that will give me some more leading". After searching for more than half an hour, the best I could find was User Agent Style Sheets: Basics and Samples with links to default style sheets from the W3C. I'll have to download one of them and tweak the leading to my satisfaction, then tell Safari to use it. Thanks Jens Meiert for the article. I think a better way to do this sort of thing would be for Safari and other browsers to have a more robust set of appearance controls rather than just text size.
