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Creative COW Recent Articles
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Cinematography
PREVISUALIZATION Part FOUR: When to Use Previs
In this fourth chapter of Gare Cline's tutorial series on Previsualization, we focus on when is the best time to hire a previsualization artist. We begin by looking at the various stages of filmmaking and then concluding with making the decision as when is the best time to hire a previs artist.
Editorial, Feature
Gare Cline |
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Sony Vegas
NAB 2013: Sony Creative Software
Sony Creative Software offered some important updates with its Vegas Pro 12 software. Chief among the upgrades was native support for 4K and support for Panasonic's P2 cameras. Sony Creative Software also highlighted SpectraLayers Pro and Sound Forge Pro Mac, which were shown as a technology demonstration at last year's NAB but are now shipping. With a range of in-depth presentations by Sony Creative Software users, a visit to this company's booth was an education in the various creative ways that the software can be used successfully.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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AJA Ki Pro
NAB 2013: AJA Video Systems
AJA Video Systems debuted its Ki Pro Quad solid-state portable video recorder for 4K camera-to-editorial workflows with Apple ProRes and RAW data. The new Ki Pro Quad supports 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 recording at HD and 2K resolution and real-time scaling from 4K/Quad HD to 2K/HD among its many other features. AJA also introduced its Hi5-4K Mini-Converter, which offers a monitoring connection from professional 4K devices to consumer 4K displays, and its Region of Interest Mini-Converter, which enables conversion and real-time scaling of computer DVI-D and HDMI outputs to baseband video over SDI. AJA also came to the show with lots of partnership news from Adobe, Avid and FilmLight as well as Quantel is now using AJA's Corvid Ultra OEM cards to power its Pablo RIO.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: JB&A, SNS, Square Box, Telestream
At JB&A's annual Pre-NAB Special Event, the media management company brought together a range of companies representing the entire production/post pipeline, to show off a range of workflow solutions. Some of those companies included Christie, which showcased its new Phoenix content management system; Square Box, which unveiled Version 10.0 of its CatDV Digital Asset Management software; Studio Network Solutions (SNS), which debuted EVO v5, major hardware and OS upgrade to its EVO shared storage server; and Telestream, which introduced new products and capabilities for its Vantge video transcoding and workflow orchestration products.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: JMR Electronics
Chatsworth, California-based JMR Electronics came to NAB with an expanded suite of SilverStor Desktop products, a cloud-ready SAS/SATA/SSD RAID solution, server and workstation. Starting at $5,000, the SilverStor family now includes SilverStor's 4-Bay and 8-Bay SAS/SATA JBOD/RAID systems, 3-slot and 5-slot PCIe systems, and latest ATX and Desktop/Rackmount Workstations. Also showcased in the JMR booth was The Creative-Cartel's Joust, which collects metadata and offers tools to streamline reviews, bid packages, watermarking, vendor submissions, plate pulls and transcoding.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Matrox Video Systems
NAB 2013: Matrox Video Systems
At NAB 2013, Matrox Graphics' new Mojito 4K is a quad 3G-SDI 4K video monitoring card aimed at Adobe professional editing on the Windows platform. Also new is Matrox Monarch HD, an under-$1,000 compact video streaming/ recording appliance designed for users who need to simultaneously stream a live event and record a Blu-ray quality version for post-event editing. The company also debuted Matrox Avio F125, fiber-optic KVM extenders that separate dual HD video, keyboard, mouse, stereo analog audio and USB 2.0 devices from a workstation and plays back HD, 2K and 4K video without dropped frames at maximum distances of 4 km. KVM extenders are also now compatible with APCON IntellaPatch Series 3000 XE network switches.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 74: Import, QC and Export
Play Video
In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe answers another viewer e-mail from someone who's having quality issues when importing into Media Composer. Kevin goes over some importing tips, and shows you how to make sure you're monitoring the highest possible quality in the NLE application, and then he discusses a common exporting problem, and takes about how, with a little bit of forethought, you can get those excellent looking exports that your clients are asking for.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P McAuliffe |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 72: The Schindler's List Effect
Play Video
In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe shows you how simple it is to create the effect made famous by film's like Schindler's List and Pleasantville, but he doesn't do the effect as a color correction effect. Instead, he gives you a great introduction to an included Rotoscoping effect called Animatte. Once you see how versatile this effect is, you find yourself going less and less to third party compositing applications to do your Roto work.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P McAuliffe |
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Cut the Cord with Wireless HD
Recent wireless HD systems have gotten way better and much cheaper. DP/cameraman Helmut Kobler takes a look at two systems from Teradek and Paralinx that show just how impressive these units have become.
Review, Editorial, Feature
Helmut Kobler |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: ATTO Technology
ATTO Technology celebrates its 25-year anniversary at NAB 2013, and showcased its portfolio of products, including its latest 16Gb/s Fibre Channel products such as the Celerity Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs). Also on show were the FastFrame line of Network Interface Cards (NICs) and Converged Network Adapters (CNAs); and Thunderbolt Desklink devices, ThunderLink and ThunderStream among others. With regard to its 64 partners, ATTO also had news: JMR Electronics selected ATTO Technology for storage for its latest SilverStor desktop SAS/SATA RAID storage solution and SGO added ATTO Technology products for its Mistika creative toolset.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Cinematography
PREVISUALIZATION Part ONE: What is Previs?
Previs. You may or may not have heard of it. If you have, you may have heard conflicting or more often muddled definitions. Many assumptions have developed around this often misunderstood word. Join Gare Cline, Previsualization Storyboard Artist, in this series of articles as he defines what previs is and isn't, what it can do for you, why you should use it, and how it works.
Editorial, Feature
Gare Cline |
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Archiving and Back-Up
NAB 2013: Bob Zelin: The Evolution & Revolution
Calling Bob Zelin one of the industry's most respected voices of engineering and systems experience is an understatement. (We might also have to add "most feared.") For over 20 years, he has been at the leading edge of building next-generation post houses and broadcast facilities using the latest, greatest, and most affordable new technology. He's also been around long enough to have seen through an awful lot of hype, so when Bob drops the "R" word, it's because he really believes it's revolutionary himself. His coverage of the 2013 NAB Show is once again don't-miss reading.
Editorial, Feature
Bob Zelin |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Panasonic
Panasonic used NAB 2013 to unveil a number of new products and technologies. Chief among them was the third generation VariCam, the first to incorporate Panasonic's new AVC-ULTRA video codec for native 1080/60p operation. The company also unveiled the AJ-PD500, its first P2 HD recorder with native AVC-ULTRA recording and built-in microP2 card slots - and the first to record in full-resolution, 10-bit 1080/60p (in AVC-Intra Class100). Also new from Panasonic was the the BT-4LH310, a 31-inch 4096 x 2160 resolution LCD monitor, an important piece in the move to UltraHD/4K production and post.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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NewTek TriCaster
NAB 2013: NewTek
At NAB 2013, NewTek unveiled 3Play 4800, a multi-camera server for live sports production that features real-time uses, redundant capture, high-end visual effects and slo-mo, as well as live replay switching and social media publishing. 3Play 4800 is the latest in the 3Play series of replay server technology and intended to provide affordable access to more sports broadcasters. NewTek also showcased the latest products benefitting the TriCaster 8000 from companies in the NewTek Developer Network, in categories ranging from content to controllers.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Canon Cameras
NAB 2013: Canon Demonstrates 4K Workflow, Intros New Cameras
Canon highlighted an end-to-end 4K workflow at NAB 2013, showing a digital intermediate suite and a live 4K broadcast with "Ultra-Zoom" applications. The company also debuted two new, entry-level professionals video cameras, the XA25 and XA20. The cameras feature Canon's first-ever Organic LED (OLED) touch panels, weigh 2.6 pounds and are priced at under $3,000. Canon also announced that it's begun development on a new 35mm prime lens for large-format single-sensor cameras employing Super 35mm, full-frame 35mm, and APS-C size imagers.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Cinematography
NAB 2013: Anton/Bauer
Anton/Bauer came to NAB 2013 to celebrate its Scientific and Engineering Award from AMPAS earlier in the year...and to introduce three new products: the Anton/Bauer Gold Spectrum Wireless Series, the result of a collaboration with sister Vitec company Integrated Microwave Technologies; the DIONIC HD battery, aimed at use with some of today's high-end digital cameras; and the PowerCharger 3000 Series of three new chargers.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Indie Film & Documentary
Cinematographer's Journey: Rightfooted in Ethiopia April 4th
April 4th: Bill Megalos, cinematographer and documentarian, is in Ethiopia with first-time documentary feature director Nick Spark on a mission to "make a film that makes a difference." Raising money on Indiegogo, they're following Jessica Cox, a 29-year old woman without arms who is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is licensed to fly planes solo (among her many accomplishments). She is an advocate for the disabled and often spends time in countries where the handicapped are stigmatized. Megalos is keeping a shooting diary for Creative COW readers of their experiences in Ethiopia.
Feature, People / Interview
Bill Megalos |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Blackmagic Design Debuts an UltraHD Workflow
At the Blackmagic Design, UltraHD/4K reigned supreme. The company not only introduced a 4K camera, the Blackmagic Production Camera, but a range of products that create an entire UltraHD workflow. Blackmagic Design has been focusing on 6G-SDI technology for multiple products including the ATEM Production Studio 4K live production studio, Blackmagic Audio Monitor and ATEM Studio Converter 2, all of which support UltraHD resolution. In addition, Blackmagic introduced its Pocket Cinema Camera, a compact Super 16 digital cinema camera with 13 stops of dynamic range, and DaVinci Resolve 10, both priced under $1,000.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Quantel Focuses on UltraHD Workflow
Quantel introduced a range of products that empower UltraHD/4K and even 8K production. Partnerships with AJA (for its Corvid Ultra video card) and NVIDIA (for its Tesla accelerator) have made Pablo Rio capable of high resolution work, including 4K at 60 fps. The company also enabled broadcast and post production workflows with enhancements with QTube, Enterprise sQ and Quantel revolutionQ. Quantel is also now involved in furthering FIMS (Framework for Interoperable Media Services), an initiative jointly managed by the EBU and AMWA to define standards for Service Oriented Architecture systems. With regard to Stereo 3D, Quantel also introduced SynthIA which enables interaxial adjustments in post as well as other manipulations.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Indie Film & Documentary
Cinematographer's Journey: Rightfooted in Ethiopia April 5th
April 5th: Bill Megalos, cinematographer and documentarian, is in Ethiopia with first-time documentary feature director Nick Spark on a mission to "make a film that makes a difference." Raising money on Indiegogo, they're following Jessica Cox, a 29-year old woman without arms who is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is licensed to fly planes solo (among her many accomplishments). She is an advocate for the disabled and often spends time in countries where the handicapped are stigmatized. Megalos is keeping a shooting diary for Creative COW readers of their experiences in Ethiopia.
Feature, People / Interview
Bill Megalos |
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Indie Film & Documentary
Cinematographer's Journey: Rightfooted in Ethiopia April 6th
April 6th: Bill Megalos, cinematographer and documentarian, is in Ethiopia with first-time documentary feature director Nick Spark on a mission to "make a film that makes a difference." Raising money on Indiegogo, they're following Jessica Cox, a 29-year old woman without arms who is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is licensed to fly planes solo (among her many accomplishments). She is an advocate for the disabled and often spends time in countries where the handicapped are stigmatized. Megalos is keeping a shooting diary for Creative COW readers of their experiences in Ethiopia.
Feature, People / Interview
Bill Megalos |
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Indie Film & Documentary
Cinematographer's Journey: Rightfooted in Ethiopia - Goodbye
Saying Goodbye, April 7th & 9th: Bill Megalos, cinematographer and documentarian, is in Ethiopia with first-time documentary feature director Nick Spark on a mission to "make a film that makes a difference." Raising money on Indiegogo, they're following Jessica Cox, a 29-year old woman without arms who is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is licensed to fly planes solo (among her many accomplishments). She is an advocate for the disabled and often spends time in countries where the handicapped are stigmatized. Megalos is keeping a shooting diary for Creative COW readers of their experiences in Ethiopia.
Feature, People / Interview
Bill Megalos |
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ARRI
NAB 2013: ARRI Upgrades Alexa & Shows Off Anamorphic Lenses
ARRI made good on its promise to plan a long-life path for Alexa; at NAB 2013, the company offered the XR Module and several components of the Alexa XT configuration as upgrades. The first three focal lengths of the ARRI/ZEISS Master Anamorphic lens series are slated to ship next month, and ARRI showed a 10-minute film shot with the 50 mm MA50 lens. Also on tap were Pro Camera Accessories for the Sony F5/F55, new Alura LDS Extenders, lightweight matte box LMB-6, and the new Cage System II.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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AVID
NAB 2013: Avid Everywhere
At NAB 2013, Avid introduced its new President/CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr., who has been associated with Avid as a board member and lead director. He discussed Avid Everywhere, an end-to-end workflow that enables creative to work anywhere, as "a concept that has been shaping our product strategy." New product introductions included Interplay Production 3.0, Media Composer 7.0 and Pro Tools 11, the latter rewritten from the ground up.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Autodesk Expands Its Reach
This year, Autodesk comes to NAB 2013 not simply as a successful company in the professional content creation space, but a player in the consumer market as well. SketchBook alone has 15+ million users and the use of Smoke has also now reached thousands of new customers. On the professional side, the newly debuted Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2014 includes updated versions of Maya, 3ds Max, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, Softimage and Sketchbook Designer. Autodesk has also announced partnerships with Blackmagic Design and Technicolor.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Adobe Premiere Pro
RE:Match Non-matching Cameras in Premiere Pro
Play Video
In this tutorial Andrew Devis demonstrates a relatively new plug-in by RE:Vision Effects called RE:Match and how it can very quickly and accurately deal with the very common problem of non-matching cameras in Premiere Pro.
A typical approach to dealing with say a white balance issue would be to apply the fast color corrector and use the white balance picker, but this can be very hit and miss, while RE:Match deals with the whole image using another image or clip as the reference to match too.
This very powerful effect can save a great deal of time for an everyday problem and so earn its cost back very quickly as well as giving excellent and fast results.
There is another tutorial showing how this effect works in After Effects as there is a slightly different way the two applications deal with reference images.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Adobe After Effects
AE - RE:MATCH Non-matching Cameras in After Effects
Play Video
In this tutorial, Andrew Devis demonstrates a relatively new plug-in by RE:Vision Effects called RE:Match and how it can very quickly and accurately deal with the very common problem of non-matching cameras in After Effects.
A typical approach to dealing with say a white balance issue would be to apply Color Finesse 3 and work with that which can be a slightly convoluted process, while RE:Match deals with the whole thing in a couple of clicks!
This very powerful effect can save a great deal of time for an everyday problem and so earn its cost back very quickly as well as giving excellent and fast results.
There is another tutorial showing how this effect works in Premiere Pro as there is a slightly different way the two applications deal with reference images.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Adobe Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro CC: 108 Multi-Cam Synched by Audio
Play Video
In this tutorial, Andrew Devis looks at the next version of Premiere Pro and shows how it can now automatically synchronise footage in a bin by various options including timecode and AUDIO!
Andrew uses multiple clips and allows Premiere Pro to synchronise these clips using audio and shows us in real time how long this process takes based on a 48 min talk and 11 clips!
Andrew also goes on to show some of the changes that have taken place in the headers for video and audio tracks as well as a change in how to make multi-cam edits in the up-coming next version of Premiere Pro - valuable information for anyone working with multiple cameras.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Day Four With Ryan Salazar
Only Ryan's own words suffice, "WOW! Has this been a SPECTACULAR Show or what?!?! It was intense... I interviewed Vince Pace of the Cameron | Pace Group and Marc Hamaker of Autodesk, among many others during the Show! I feasted my eyes upon so many wonderful innovations that I can't wait for them to be released throughout the coming year! I had my own TV Crew, courtesy of NAB LIVE! 2013, and I came face-to-face with a shark! It was all I had hoped for and definitely MORE!"
Editorial, Feature
Ryan Salazar |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Day Two With Ryan Salazar
Ryan Salazar fills Day Two of NAB Show with interviews. Ryan spoke with Marc Hamaker, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Creative Finishing at Autodesk, with Vince Pace, co-founder of the Cameron | Pace Group, and stopped by the Panasonic, Canon, GoPro and Camera Corps booths.
Editorial, Feature
Ryan Salazar |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Sorenson Media Releases Squeeze 9
In a pre-NAB briefing, Sorenson Media CEO Peter Csathy and Vice President of Engineering Mitch Holyoak spoke to Creative COW about Squeeze 9, which was unveiled today at the show. In addition to HTML5 publishing, the new version offers a more intuitive user interface, enhancements to video quality and speed and improvements to its review and approval functionality. Additionally, Sorenson Media announced a partnership with Sony Creative Software, launching Squeeze Desktop Software in Sony Online Store.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation
Jurassic Park 3D: A New Dimension For A Modern Classic
If you liked Jurassic Park the first time around, you're going to love it in 3D. If there was ever a movie that cried out for a third dimension, it was this one: T-Rex towering over the teetering SUV? Raptors skittering in the kitchen? Jurassic Park's already edge-of-your-seat scenes get even scarier in stereoscopic 3D. Conversions from 2D to 3D have gotten a bad rap due to a small handful of movies that were not done skillfully. Stereo D- which also did the conversion work for Titanic -- handled Jurassic Park. President William Sherak and Vice President, Chief Creative Officer Aaron Parry talked to Creative COW about their work on Spielberg's dinosaur blockbuster, and why 2D-to-3D conversions are booming.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Indie Film & Documentary
Save This Script Episode 4
In each installment of this series, a writer/producer team is confronted with a creative challenge. The scenario, written in screenplay format, revolves around a typical client management situation that can lead to a problem script.
The problem script itself can then be read, followed by some back-and-forth as the creative team rises to the challenge.
EPISODE 4 ENDS WITH A TWIST, AND YOU can get involved!
Editorial, Feature
John Morley and Mark Suszko |
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Art of the Edit
Sony Launches Media Cloud Service Company
Sony Corporation unveiled a new subsidiary - Sony Media Cloud Services - which brings Ci, a new platform and tools to collect, produce, share, manipulate and archive content. This brings Sony not just into the cloud but also into the Software as a Service business model. NBCUniversal is an alpha customer for the Ci MasterSuite tools, which enters beta today.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Adobe Introduces Adobe Anywhere
At NAB 2013, Adobe is introducing Adobe Anywhere, a collaborative workflow platform that centralizes projects and allows users to share and change project files. Also new are some powerful new features for Adobe Premiere Pro, including color grading and the ability to "link & locate" clips. A newly designed SpeedGrade also makes color grading tools more familiar to Adobe toolset users, and After Effects celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Cinematography
Cinematographer's Journey: Rightfooted in Ethiopia April 3rd
April 3rd: Bill Megalos, cinematographer and documentarian, is in Ethiopia with first-time documentary feature director Nick Spark on a mission to "make a film that makes a difference." Raising money on Indiegogo, they're following Jessica Cox, a 29-year old woman without arms who is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is licensed to fly planes solo (among her many accomplishments). She is an advocate for the disabled and often spends time in countries where the handicapped are stigmatized. Megalos is keeping a shooting diary for Creative COW readers of their experiences in Ethiopia.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Bill Megalos |
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Cinematography
Cinematographer's Journey: Rightfooted in Ethiopia April 2nd
April 2nd: Bill Megalos, cinematographer and documentarian, is in Ethiopia with first-time documentary feature director Nick Spark on a mission to "make a film that makes a difference." Raising money on Indiegogo, they're following Jessica Cox, a 29-year old woman without arms who is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is licensed to fly planes solo (among her many accomplishments). She is an advocate for the disabled and often spends time in countries where the handicapped are stigmatized. Megalos is keeping a shooting diary for Creative COW readers of their experiences in Ethiopia.
Feature, People / Interview
Bill Megalos |
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Cinematography
Behind the Lens: Game of Thrones with Anette Haellmigk
Cinematographer Anette Haellmigk shot two episodes of Season 3's Game of Thrones, the HBO blockbuster that returns on March 31. A native of Germany, Haellmigk was the 2012 winner of Kodak's Vision Award from Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards. A pioneering woman cinematographer, Annette's resume includes Das Boot, Robocop, Starship Troopers, Total Recall, The West Wing and many more.
Haellmigk speaks to Creative COW about her path as a pioneering female cinematographer and her work on Game of Thrones.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Anette Haellmigk |
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Film History & Appreciation
Sony Imageworks Takes Us On The Yellow Brick Road to OZ
Sony Imageworks provided over 1,100 digital visual effects shots to Oz the Great and Powerful, a movie which explains how a small time magician became the great Wizard of Oz. Featured are two all-digital characters, the 18-inch China Girl and Finley, the wise-cracking monkey with wings, as well as a host of other digital creatures from river fairies to flying baboons. In addition, Imageworks provided environments from the Kansas Circus to Emerald City and effects work that include the magic of evil and good witches and Oz himself.
Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Cinematography
Cinematographer's Journey: Rightfooted - Travels to Ethiopia
Bill Megalos, cinematographer and documentarian, is in Ethiopia with first-time documentary feature director Nick Spark on a mission to "make a film that makes a difference." Raising money on Indiegogo, they're following Jessica Cox, a 29-year old woman without arms who is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is licensed to fly planes solo (among her many accomplishments). She is an advocate for the disabled and often spends time in countries where the handicapped are stigmatized. Megalos is keeping a shooting diary for Creative COW readers of their experiences in Ethiopia. Today's entry covers events from March 28th to April 1st.
Feature, People / Interview
Bill Megalos |
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Film History & Appreciation
VFX Crossroads Pt. 2: Can The VFX Business Be Saved?
In VFX Crossroads, Part 1, we took a close look at how the seeds of the VFX industry’s dysfunctional business model were planted in its earliest days. Although outsourcing and tax incentives/subsidies are the culprits most often cited in today’s news, we saw that the financial picture for VFX houses is far more complex than that. Here in Part 2, we look at some of the solutions proposed by leading voices in the VFX industry, including a VFX facility trade associations, a union or guild, and ending subsidies. The question is, is it all too little too late?
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Stereoscopic 3D
NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference M & E Roundup
There was truly something for everyone at NVIDIA GTC, and a surprisingly rich amount of thoughtful presentations for the Media & Entertainment crowd. GTC provided many opportunities to learn the basics and, for the truly nerdy, many opportunities to dig deep. As a mere semi-geek, Debra Kaufman learned a lot and met a lot of interesting people. Read her roundup of new M&E technology thanks to super-fast GPU computing.
Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Adobe After Effects basics
AE Basics Extras: Butterfly Wing Text Animation
Play Video
In the first part of this two part AE Basics Extra tutorial, Andrew Devis starts to show how to create a butterfly wing with text.
The purpose of these tutorials is to give additional hints and tips for text animation in After Effects. Items covered in this tutorial include, using the pen tool, paths, copying mask paths to shape layers, text along a path and path option, 3D layers, animation of a wing, loopOut expression and viewing your composition in a different viewer.
In the second part of this tutorial Andrew will go on to complete the animated butterfly in 3D and show how to have it fly around your screen.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Adobe After Effects basics
AE Basics Extras: Butterfly Wing Text Animation Part TWO
Play Video
In the second part of this two part AE Basics Extra tutorial, Andrew Devis continues to build the butterfly in After Effects and then shows how to keep it 3D as it is formed.
Items covered in this tutorial include custom views, 3D and collapse transforms to keep items working in 3D once pre-composed, duplication and flipping layers, vertical type, text formatting, and complex animations with motion sketch. These tutorials will be valuable for anyone learning and developing text animation skills in After Effects.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Cinematography
The Nouveau French Wave of Cinematography for Television
Claudia Kienzle writes on the use of Fujinon Cabrio lenses by DP Bill Sheehy ("Curb Your Enthusiasm"). The article discusses in depth about the new handheld digital cinema shooting style that pairs the lightweight Sony PMW-F3 Super35 HD camera with the new Fujinon PL 19-90 Cabrio (ZK4.7x19) PL mount zoom lens. Sheehy is currently shooting the BET show "Real Husbands of Hollywood" using that Sony camera and Fujinon lens.
Feature
Claudia Kienzle |
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Film History & Appreciation
VFX Crossroads: Causes & Effects Of An Industry Crisis
The VFX industry is in a crisis. As Life of Pi won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, the venerable facility that created those effects - Rhythm & Hues - declared bankruptcy, and they're hardly the first to close their doors due to financial problems. Debra Kaufman pulls from her 25 years of experience covering the industry to take a close look at how the creators of some of cinema's indelible images are falling prey to dysfunctional business models. Their deep historical roots have also led to visual effects becoming one of the least-profitable areas of film and TV production. How did we get here?
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Apple Motion
Learn Apple's Motion: Lesson 3 - The Layers Tab
Play Video
In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe talks about the layers tab, but more specifically he talks about groups, which is how you will organize and animated your elements inside of Motion 5. Thinking through how you do things before you get started is exceptionally important, and Kevin walks you though creating a simple animation, and how thinking it through with groups will save you a ton of time.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P McAuliffe |
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NAB Expo
Tips for Attending NAB 2013 From A Convention Veteran
Walter Biscardi tells us, "Once again, springtime is upon us, so of course, it's time for the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention. Last year y'all seemed to like the before you go tips, so may I present the 2013 edition of 'Tips from an NAB Veteran to make the best use of your time'."
Editorial, Feature
Walter Biscardi |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 71: Creating a Sports Scorecard
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In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe answers a viewer's question about creating a tennis scoreboard, like you would see in a professional tennis broadcast. Most people immediately think they need Photoshop or a compositing application to create this element, but the easiest way to build is with the tools you have right at your fingertips.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P McAuliffe |
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Adobe After Effects basics
AE Basics Extras: Caterpillar Text Animation
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In this AE Basics Extra tutorial, Andrew Devis shows some more text animation techniques by animating 'Caterpillar' text in After Effects. Andrew shows how to shape your text so that it curves from large to small to create a 'tail' for the text and then he shows how to set up and animate the path that the text will use. Andrew then goes on to lock the text to the animated path and continues by adding additional animators to give body movement to the animated text.
This is a helpful tutorial for anyone wanting to learn to use a wider range of options for text animation in After Effects.
Andrew will be following up with a similar but different tutorial looking at creating a flying butterfly text!
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Adobe After Effects
IK Character Animation: Walk to the Beat 1: Finding the Beat
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This tutorial is both a follow-on tutorial to Andrew's previous tutorials on IK controllers in After Effects and a helpful stand-alone tutorial showing how to define a beat range to use as a guide to animation in After Effects.
To start with Andrew shows how to use a simple expression to deal with a potential problem of controllers scaling your objects. Then Andrew shows how to find and download sample music which can be used to base your animation on. He goes on to discuss the difficulty of matching frame rates with audio sample rate and then shows how to get a reasonably close 'loop' in both After Effects and especially in Audition.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Broadcasting
NAB Show 2013 Coverage
NOBODY is more excited about NAB Show 2013 than broadcast guru Ryan Salazar. His contagious enthusiasm about new products and technologies for the studio industry will be certain to captivate and inform. Take a look at his pre-Show teaser of 2013 coverage.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Ryan Salazar |
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Autodesk 3ds Max
Daniel Simon: Designing Fantasy Vehicles for the Movies
Daniel Simon, a native of Germany, had an intense education in automobile design at one of a handful of universities worldwide that have that specialty. Watching Star Wars Episode 1 opened Simon's eyes up to the possibility of designing fantasy vehicles. After seven years of drawing them for his book Cosmic Motors, he was picked by director Joe Kosinski to work on the vehicles in TRON: Legacy. That single job has evolved to a career designing vehicles for several Hollywood movies.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation
What Star Wars Means To Me
Part of the criteria your future spouse must meet is a deep knowledge of the Star Wars Universe and you can quote most of the lines from at least one of the original Episodes, but how did the magic, the action, the VFX (before you even knew what VFX were and it was all oh so real!), and The Force, change you? Mike Cohen answers with what Star Wars means to him.
Editorial, Feature
Mike Cohen |
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Cinematography
The Making of 1000 to 1: Lenses & Lighting For The RED Epic
Working with Angenieux on new lens solutions for the RED Epic, wrestling freakish gym fluorescent lighting, wrangling national park filming permits: these were just a few of the challenges facing cinematographer and co-producer (and Digital Cinema Society founder) James Mathers in the making of "1000 to 1," an inspirational indie drama to be released later this year. James tells a remarkable tale of the lengths one production went to make their film look much bigger than its budget, with practical advice for filmmakers on every scale.
Editorial, People / Interview
James Mathers |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 68: Advanced Compositing 2
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Advanced Compositing TWO: Network Promo Effect. In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe shows you another great promo technique that you would see during primetime on one of the major networks. These Advanced Compositing tutorials are hugely important to take your work to the next level! Not only are they simple to do, but they also create an awesome end product!
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P. McAuliffe |
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Cinematography
America Is The Movie: WWII Exclusion Zone & Internment Camps
A unilateral action by the US government during World War II resulted in the forcible internment of more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry. Two-thirds of those interned were citizens of the United States, and none had ever shown any signs of disloyalty.
In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones," from which "any or all persons may be excluded." This power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and much of Oregon, Washington and Arizona, except for those in internment camps. Nearly 40 years later, President Carter investigated the "justice" of the internment, and the US slowly began to set reparations and formal apologies into action. We go behind the lens with Stephen for his inspiration in telling this story.
Feature, People / Interview
Stephen Menick |
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Art of the Edit
TouchEdit App Brings Pro Editing to the iPad
Do you miss the tactile aspect of editing film? Or are you a big fan of the iPad? Or would you just love a way to have a super-portable professional editing system? If you've answered "yes" to any of these three questions, you're a potential customer of editor Dan Lebental ACE's new app TouchEdit. TouchEdit is available in the iTunes store for $50.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 66: Advanced Compositing ONE
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In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe shows you how to take an fire element with no matte, and not only create a matte from nothing, but also how to take that matte, and use it to reveal text for a lower third animation. When your client sees that this is something you can do right inside your timeline, they will be truly blown away!
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P. McAuliffe |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 64: Motion Effects PART TWO
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In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe expands on lesson one by showing you how to create variable speed motion effects inside your MC/Symphony timeline. Most people think that a technique like this requires either a third-party plug-in, or a compositing application, Kevin shows you how simple it is to create some very cool slo-mo's.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P. McAuliffe |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 65: Motion Effects PART THREE
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In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe shows you a technique that he uses in corporate video work, and that is how to not only slow your footage down, but create highlights that you can use to focus on certain areas of a shot. With a little forward thought, and the Marquee Title Tool, this technique is something you can pull off in minutes, without the aid of a compositing application.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P. McAuliffe |
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Indie Film & Documentary
Mondays at Racine Documents Beauty Salon for Cancer Fighters
Filmmaker Cynthia Wade - who previously won an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject for Freeheld - has recently finished Mondays at Racine, a moving piece about two sisters who open up their beauty salon every Monday to cater to breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Focusing on two characters, the film delves deeply into the emotional lives of the women and how the salon, Racine, serves as a place of nurturing and companionship.
Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Tiffen DFX Filters
Tiffen DFX 3.0: Color Grading, Lab Processes, & More
Whatever your level of expertise with color grading, you are going to want to try Tiffen DFX after reading this review. In a sentence, it is one of the most useful, if not the most useful plugin you will find to extend the color correction capabilities of your editing software, solve picture problems and add creative looks to your production without a steep learning curve.
Review
Dennis Kutchera |
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Cinematography
NO Relies On 1980s Cameras To Tell A Historic Tale
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film after having played Cannes, the Toronto International Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival, NO is a gripping film about the peaceful overthrow of Chilean strong man General Augusto Pinochet. To make it more intriguing, the filmmakers opted to shoot with Ikegami cameras from 1983, to match existing footage from the era. It's not a decision they took lightly, and their calculations paid off.
Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Cinematography
Claudio Miranda, ASC Makes New Rules for Shooting Life of Pi
When director Ang Lee brought on cinematographer Claudio Miranda, ASC to shoot Life of Pi, the two were faced with a multi-pronged challenge. For Lee, the movie was to be his first shot digitally as well as his first 3D stereoscopic film, and he relied on Miranda, who had experience in both. But Miranda had other challenges, including shooting the movie's extensive water scenes as well as a key character -- the tiger -- who wasn't there. In this article, Miranda explains how he made it all work, to create what is arguably the year's most gorgeous movie.
Feature, People / Interview
Claudio Miranda, ASC |
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Adobe After Effects
AE: Inverse Kinematic Character Animation
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Standard character animation in After Effects uses a process called 'Forward Kinematics' in that we animate down a linked chain - for example, upper arm linked to forearm linked to hand. To get animation we need to move the items down the chain one at a time. Inverse Kinematics creates a link back up the chain such that moving the hand would also move the forearm and the upper arm without breaking that link. This is a simpler and easier to control form of animation often used in 3D programs such as C4D and 3ds max etc. and allows us to control the animation for the complete chain through a single controller.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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Adobe After Effects
AE: Inverse Kinematic Character Animation PT 2
Play Video
Standard character animation in After Effects uses a process called 'Forward Kinematics' in that we animate down a linked chain - for example, upper arm linked to forearm linked to hand. To get animation we need to move the items down the chain one at a time. Inverse Kinematics creates a link back up the chain such that moving the hand would also move the forearm and the upper arm without breaking that link. This is a simpler and easier way to control animation and is often used in 3D programs such as C4D and 3ds max etc. and allows us to control the animation for the complete chain through a single controller.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Andrew Devis |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 61: Basic Color Correction ONE
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In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe shows you the basics of color correction by simply adjusting the Setup, Gamma and Gain values to take a shot that was totally washed out, and give it the punch to really make it stand out above all others. The best part about it, is the technique is so simple, it can (and should) be used on every clip in your timeline.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P. McAuliffe |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 62: Basic Color Correction TWO
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In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe continues his look at basic color correction by talking about what to do in situations where the color of an image has been altered (incorrect White Balance, for example) from what would be considered "normal". He gives you a basic overview of the color wheels and how simple they are to use, to achieve the "proper" look across all the clips in your timeline.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P. McAuliffe |
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Film History & Appreciation
The Art of Foley: John Roesch Honored by MPSE
John Roesch is one of the most accomplished Foley artists in the motion picture industry, with contributions to more than 400 films in a three decade-spanning career. He is the recipient of two MPSE Golden Reel Awards (The Dark Knight, The Matrix) alongside more than a dozen nominations. He has worked on 16 films that have won Academy Awards for Best Sound or Best Sound Editing. John Roesch spoke to Creative COW about the art of Foley and his extensive experience in creating sound effects.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
John Roesch |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 59: Composite 23.98 from 1080i
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In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe shows you a fantastic technique on how to revert your 1080i footage back to 23.98 fps for compositing in After Effects (assuming it was originally shot 23.98), and then how to render it out of AE to back to 1080i. No transcoding of footage is necessary, just a little bit of thought, and a few clicks of the mouse!
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P. McAuliffe |
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AVID
Learn Media Composer Lesson 60: A Proper Fadeout
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In this lesson, Kevin P McAuliffe addresses a common mistake that editors make when doing a simple fade out, shows you how simple it is to fix, and then goes over other "simple fade in/out editorial mistakes" that are easily correctable. This lesson is crucial, as these simple techniques will show your clients your attention to detail, which is key in having them become repeat customers!
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Kevin P. McAuliffe |
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Art of the Edit
Zombies Brought to Life For Warm Bodies
VFX company LOOK Effects ramped up a studio in Vancouver and created a new pipeline for character animation, to produce 85 shots of the Boneys - the most decayed, menacing zombies - in Warm Bodies, the new zom-rom-com based on the book of the same name. In addition to character animation, the company created a CG fly-through of a wasted city, blending with live action plates at each end of the sequence.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Cinematography
KICKSTART THEFT: Filmed on Sony F65
Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC and director Frederic Goodich, ASC got together to push the new Sony F65 to its limits. The result is Kickstart Theft, a short film based on De Sica's classic The Bicycle Thieves, which was shot in downtown Los Angeles in a range of challenging lighting and shooting conditions.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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