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DaVinci - NEW ! | Cinefilm's Ron Anderson: da Vinci User Since 1986
In this article, Tim Wilson talks with da Vinci user Ron Anderson in his Part Three look at Blackmagic Design's acquisition of da Vinci Systems. Ron Anderson’s relationship with da Vinci has also taken places over several decades, starting as a customer, and evolving into demo artistry even while he continues working with da Vinci systems at Atlanta’s Cinefilm.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview 09/08/2009
Author: Tim Wilson |
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DaVinci - NEW ! | Blackmagic Design Buys DaVinci: Part 1
In this article, Tim Wilson begins his series on the big news already beginning to leak from IBC 2009. Blackmagic Design has acquired da Vinci Systems and yes, you read that right. BMD owns and will be developing and marketing da Vinci's award-winning colorgrading technology. What's in store? Here's Part One of Tim's look at the fast-breaking news...
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview 09/08/2009
Author: Tim Wilson |
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Cinematography | Pushing the Limits on Pushing Daisies
Visual Effects Supervisor William Powloski helped create one of the most eye-popping worlds ever seen on TV, as part of a feature film aesthetic on a TV budget and schedule. Although it was canceled after only two seasons, it remains one of the most beautiful and innovative programs to ever air on US television. In an extended version of the original article in The Visual Effects Issue of Creative COW Magazine, here is an exclusive look at how he and his team helped pull it off.
Feature, People / Interview 7/21/2009
Author: William Powloski |
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Cinematography | The Redrock Micro DSLR Cinema Bundle for the Canon 5D MKII
If you are using the Canon 5D MKII or Nikon D90 for their gorgeous HD video, or even thinking about it, you need to read this. Creative COW Contributing Editor Jim Harvey shows how the Redrock Micro DSLR Bundle makes these cameras even more useful for video shooters, then shows how he and other pros are using it, in the field and in the studio. Jim is enthusiastic about the possiblities it opens up, and thinks you will be too.
Review 06/23/2009
Author: Jim Harvey |
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Stereoscopic 3D - NEW ! | Perception and The Art of 3D Storytelling
By working in the area between what you see, and what you can see, Brian Gardner is helping re-write the rules of 3D filmmaking - right before your very eyes. In this article, he tells how some of these new rules played out in his work on the amazing movie, Coraline.
Tutorial, Feature, People / Interview 06/02/2009
Author: Brian Gardner |
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Stereoscopic 3D - NEW ! | Tiny Stereoscopic Rigs - Big Pictures
In this article from the Stereoscopic 3D issue of The Creative COW Magazine, Bernie Laramie, co-founder of Stereoscope, discusses rigs and stereoscopic hardware used in creating high-end 3D movies.
Tutorial, Feature, People / Interview 06/02/2009
Author: Bernie Laramie |
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Stereoscopic 3D - NEW ! | FotoKem: 3D DI
FotoKem opened as a film lab in 1963, and has continued to evolve and expand. Here are some of the tools they're using as the industry, and their business, now adds another dimension.
Tutorial, Feature, People / Interview 06/02/2009
Author: John Daro |
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Stereoscopic 3D - NEW ! | Under the Hood & Behind the Scenes: Masters of Stereoscopic 3D Storytelling
Writer and contributing editor, David Roth Weiss, takes us takes us Behind The Scenes in Hollywood to the DreamWorks Animation Studios, where the masterminds behind the new hit film, Monsters vs. Aliens, are reinventing the art of storytelling using new state of the art 3D stereoscopic filmmaking techniques and technologies.
Review, People / Interview 04/14/2009
Author: David Roth Weiss |
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Cinematography | Monsters vs. Aliens: And the winner is, STEREOSCOPIC 3D
Tim Wilson looks at the box office success of DreamWorks Animation's 'Monsters vs Aliens' and how Stereoscopic 3D is lighting up ticket sales in a huge way. Tim's article explores links to trailers, the first weekend's numbers -- hint: they were pretty spectacular, especially in the IMAX theaters where the 3D version proved especially popular -- and he even gives readers a sneak leak about the next issue of Creative COW Magazine.
Feature 03/31/2009
Author: Tim Wilson |
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Stereoscopic 3D - NEW ! | Stereoscopic 3D
The tools for creating 3D stereoscopic movies are now amazingly affordable. A few challenges remain, but you can easily see the possibilities. In this Creative COW Magazine article Christopher Werronen takes you through the process of making a movie destined for Stereoscopic 3D.
Feature 02/26/2009
Author: Christopher Werronen |
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Cinematography | Focus on Controlling Depth of Field with Depth of Field Converters
Cinematographer and Creative Cow leader Todd Terry has shot countless television commercials and industrials using both 35mm film and depth-of-field converted video. In this Creative Cow Magazine Extra, from The Visual Effects Issue, learn how depth of field converters allow you to attach 35mm lenses even to video cameras with fixed lenses, how they work, and which one might be right for you.
Feature 02/10/2009
Author: Todd Terry |
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Cinematography | Want to be ready for Reality? Mod your camera!
The reality shooter has to be mobile and invisible. Futzing around with lighting, support and/or audio can simply mean missing the shot, and often does. Videographer/editor and longtime Cow leader Grinner Hester demonstrates how to mod on a budget in this unique little how-to.
Feature 07/22/2008
Author: Grinner Hester |
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Adobe After Effects | Poets of the Fall/Stobe Harju Music Videos
Creative COW Magazines Music Video issue featured a look at the making of Poets of the Falls Carnival of Rust, one of the most imaginative music videos we have seen. Created in Helsinki, Finland by director Stobe Harju and director of photography Eki Halkka, you can read about the making of Carnival of Rust in our free Music Video issue, and here in this magazine extras page you will find links to the videos, interview podcasts, more on the band, their music, as well as the music videos of Stobe and Eki.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview 05/29/2008
Author: Eki Halkka and Stobe Harju |
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Apple Final Cut Pro | The Forbidden Kingdom: Jackie Chan. Jet Li. FCP.
A Creative Cow Exclusive! DigitalFilm Trees Zed Saeed has helped create pioneering digital workflows built around FCP, custom-designed for large-scale productions. Their biggest challenge so far has come on The Forbidden Kingdom, an epic film partnering Jackie Chan and Jet Li for the first time -- with production and post in China, Korea, Australia, and multiple locations in the US. Heres a look at how they put it all together with FCP, Xserve, XML, Color, file-based workflows...and hard, hard work.
Feature 04/14/2008
Author: Zed Saeed |
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RED Camera | Shooting with RED: Testing, testing...
CreativeCOW leader Gary Adcock's experience shooting both film and HD gives him a unique perspective as he takes you along for thorough testing with the new RED camera. In part 1 of this series, he focuses on the camera's benefits and shortcomings of the camera itself, as well as some of the challenges shooting with it.
Feature 03/10/2008
Author: Gary Adcock |
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Cinematography | Looking for film look? Shoot like film!
Film look software will never offer the same impact on your work that film-style shooting will. Software will also always take longer than shooting right the first time. Longtime film shooter Kim Segel shows you the tools and techniques to maximize film looks, even on paupers budgets.
Tutorial, Feature 03/04/2008
Author: Kim Segel |
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Cinematography | Finding the Heart of the ARRI D-20
With HD, Thomas says he ''has the ability to finesse color, exposure and contrast in the color correction suite. I used to look down my nose at video but RAW 4:4:4 is more creative, efficient.'' In this Creative COW Magazine article, Thomas Burstyn takes a look at the Arriflex D-20 as he films Sci-Fi's Tin Man.
02/26/2008
Author: Thomas Burstyn |
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Adobe After Effects | Cineon Files: What They Are, and How To Work With Them
Expert film compositor Pete OConnell takes you through the world of Cineon files, including exactly what they are, how they work, and how to work with them in Adobe After Effects. If you work with film files or want to, you need to read this article.
High Bandwidth/Large File Warning: Due to the fact that this article deals with film images, the image sizes are large and this article contains 32MB of images in the HTML file.
Tutorial, Feature 12/27/2007
Author: Pete O'Connell |
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Cinematography | A Commercial's Voyage from Concept to Completion
A major player in some of the biggest commercial campaigns in the last 25 years shares his experiences on one of the biggest: the Max Headroom campaign for Coca-Cola. They're lessons you can learn too.
Feature, People / Interview 12/26/2007
Author: Arthur Vibert |
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Cinematography | Inside HBOs The Wire
Set in Baltimore, Maryland, The Wire will begin its fifth and final season in January 2008 on HBO. As different from standard TV as it gets, the show has received the highest levels of critical acclaim, being referred to by multiple reviewers as the best show on television. In its last issue of 2006 Time Magazine ranked The Wire first on its list of 10 Best TV Shows. And Finally recognized as the best series on TV. Sorry, Tony (Soprano), was Newsweeks description. Creative COWs Nick Griffin spent time on set earlier this year and interviewed one of the shows Producers. Heres his inside glimpse into The Wire and its production.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview 12/12/2007
Author: Nick Griffin |
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Adobe After Effects | Building Cinematic Composites: A Creative COW Magazine Extra
Building cinematic composites takes more than software. It takes careful planning, understanding the drama in every shot, and a sense of magic. In this Creative COW Magazine extra, we share our conversation with director Mark Allen, discussing his short film, Least Likely, a 60-second science fiction epic. Weve got the film here, along with some HD images from it. Prepare to be amazed.
Feature, People / Interview 10/24/2007
Author: Tim Wilson |
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Cinematography | Don't Miss Your Shot
How making friends with trash cans and other objects can improve your career. In a conversation with highly respected cinematographer Todd McMullen (Casino, The Green Mile), he talks about how to break into Hollywood, and what it takes to be successful once you get there.
Feature, Business 10/18/2007
Author: Todd McMullen |
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Digital Photography | Time Lapse Video Secrets: HD and Beyond with your Digital Camera
You already know that your digital camera has higher-than-HD resolution -- even higher than film res sometimes -- and the pictures can look amazing. It turns out that your still camera actually works better than an HD video camera for creating time-lapse photography. Marco Solorio tells you how to put it all together.
Tutorial, Feature 10/10/2007
Author: Marco Solorio |
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Indie Film & Documentary | Making a Movie - Building a Universe
In this Creative COW Magazine article independent filmmaker Bryan Kinnaird takes you on a journey through the production process of the Villikon Chronicles and shares what it has taken for him to become the filmmaker he is today.
Feature 06/17/2007
Author: Bryan Kinnaird |
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Cinematography | The Easy Slate System
In this article, CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Jim Harvey takes a look at the Easy Slate Professional Slating System. Jim likes the way it looks, and thinks that it makes him more attentive to the small details that he used to let slip past. It's a simple idea with a clever implementation.
Review 06/15/2007
Author: Jim Harvey |
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Cinematography | The Harbortronics DigiSnap 2000 Series Intervalometer
In this article, CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Jim Harvey takes a look at the The Harbortronics DigiSnap 2000 Series Intervalometer to create some time lapse photography, and concludes that adding a DigiSnap 2000 series intervalometer to his equipment kit is just good business sense.
Review 05/07/2007
Author: Jim Harvey |
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Art of the Edit | Exploring the Workflow of Good Eats
No matter what a television series is about, producing a series is all about workflow. The credits at the end of an episode list who did a particular task, but how they all work together is a story in itself. For a small part of that story on one show, meet -Good Eats-, the top-rated Food Network series.
Feature, People / Interview 10/13/2006
Author: Tim Wilson |
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Lighting Design Pros | HandsOnHDV: How to Setup, Light & Shoot Great Looking Interviews
In this article, CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Jim Harvey takes a look at one of the newest titles from HandsOnHDV called How to Setup, Light & Shoot Great Looking Interviews and has determined that this is a 5 cow instructional DVD that you really can't be without.
Review 07/05/2006
Author: Jim Harvey |
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Cinematography | LENSBABY 2.0 Digital Lens
In this article, CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Jim Harvey reviews LENSBABY 2.0 Digital Lens and questions readers, ''Ever want to take those dreamy photos that have a shallow depth of field but didn't want to invest in the Photoshop time or the mess of Vaseline on your filters or worse yet the expense of a View camera? Read on for one of the most fun items I've come across in quite a while. I confess that this review took three times longer than usual because I have been so busy playing with my Lensbaby!.''
Review 01/19/2006
Author: Jim Harvey |
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Cinematography | First Look: AspectCorrect(TM)
We've all done this at least once in our careers. You're shooting with a standard camera but you know you're going to letterbox later so you tape two pieces of paper to 'crop' the field monitor. Or you're trying to make sure an element in the shot is in safe title, so you use a grease pencil and approximate where safe title will be. You do what you have to do when you're out in the field, but of course you're never quite sure if it's accurate until you get back into the edit suite. In this article, Creativecow leader Walter Biscardi takes a first look at a handy 'widget' developed by Cinematographer and fellow COW leader, Clay Walker called AspectCorrect and determines that ''...This is just one of those cool little things that should make camera operators lives easier.''
Review 07/04/2005
Author: Walter Biscardi |
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HDV Format | HDV vs HD: A Primer
Emmy Award winner, Tim Kolb discusses HDV and its place in the greater scope of HD production formats. Since the inception of the HDV format, we have seen many responces regarding the HDV format and how it fits alongside HDCam, DVCProHD, XDCam and other formats in the greater scope of the HD picture. In this article (which is taken from an HDV Format forum responce), Creative Cow's Tim Kolb gives what we feel is an exemplary job of dissecting the subject and clarifying the many components of the HD universe, HDV being one of those parts....
Tutorial, Feature 06/06/2005
Author: Tim Kolb |
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Cinematography | Vortex Media Warm Cards
In this article, CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Jim Harvey reviews Vortex Media Warm Cards and states, ''You know you do it. We all do it. It's not something that we brag about. It's not even something that we think about too much. White Balancing. Sure some guys carry a worn out piece of white paper, or they use the foamcore to set the camera. We've balanced on walls, notepaper, even the fat guy's t-shirt. It gets us by and we get on with the show. But as we are all professionals, shouldn't we have a professional system to white balance out gear and do it consistently? Well, we do and we can.'' Read on to discover an effective answer to your white balancing dilemmas.
Review 05/17/2005
Author: Jim Harvey |
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Cinematography | Jim Harvey reviews Switronix Pro-X Battery System
In this article, CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Jim Harvey reviews the Switronix Pro-X Battery System and with great enthusiasm reveals, "These are awesome batteries! Short of a lens, the battery system on our cameras is probably the single biggest expense that we have. With professional battery systems costing a couple of thousand dollars we need to be able to maximize our run time while minimizing our cash outlay... For the past year or so, I have been using a battery that I am absolutely sold on. Not to be too anthropomorphic, but I'd venture to say that I 'LOVE' these batteries. They are made by a company called SWITRONIX.
Review 12/02/2004
Author: Jim Harvey |
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Cinematography | Sigma SD-9 Foveon Review by Mike Gondek
September of 2000 Foveon announced a 16.8 million pixel image sensor a first of it's kind. Foveon has been pushing the digital industry with their revolutionary image sensor. Sigma, known for making quality professional lenses, announced their first digital camera and being first to host the Foveon chip in November 2002. Foveon has drawn much attention and hopefully their technology will be found in more products soon. Mike Gondek reviews this camera for Creativecow.net.
Review 06/09/2003
Author: Mike Gondek |
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Cinematography | Camera Tricks, Part Two
In the article Camera Tricks, Part One, we looked at warming and cooling your image to gain a desired result. In Part Two, Jim Allen discusses softening or diffusing your image and a few other special effects that you may like to try. For most of these, it will be necessary for you to have a camera that allows you to perform manual white balance, manual irising, and manual shutter speed adjustments. With some of these ideas, the automatic functions will automatically overcome the effect you are trying for.
Tutorial 06/10/2002
Author: Jim Allen |
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Cinematography | Camera Tricks, Part One
If you are an avid moviegoer, you've probably noticed that the psychology of the movie is not only in the script and the music, but the quality of the picture as well. In simplest terms, a picture slightly reddish and/or yellowish tends to give the viewer a warm, friendly, emotional feeling and a picture with a slight bluish cast tends to give the viewer a cold, heartless, emotionless feeling. In many drama type films, the use of warm footage with cold footage helps the viewer distinguish between the hero and the villain. In this article, Jim Allen explains color temperature and how to achieve this quality in your video.
Tutorial 06/07/2002
Author: Jim Allen |
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