| | | |
Film History & Appreciation
VFX Titans Remember Ray Harryhausen
"When we grieve Ray Harryhausen's passing, we are at least in part grieving perhaps the last living link to the earliest days of movie visual effects," says Creative COW's Debra Kaufman. She spoke to many of today's VFX giants who were inspired by Ray, including Phil Tippett, Richard Edlund, Jeffrey A. Okun and ILM Animation Director Hal Hickel, who says, "Ray Harryhausen's impact on an entire generation (several actually) of filmmakers cannot be overstated, each of them trying again and again to reproduce the wonder they first felt as a child watching Jason fight those skeletons."
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
| | | | |
| | | |
Apple FCPX Techniques
FCPX For Broadcast News
Michael Garber has spent hundreds of hours learning the ins and outs of editing broadcast news features with Final Cut Pro X. He describes a workflow that takes advantage of the best that FCPX's new approaches have to offer, while being honest about its limitations. Every editor already working with FCPX, or still just considering it, will benefit from Michael's experience.
Editorial, Tutorial, Feature
Michael Garber |
| | | | |
| | | |
Film History & Appreciation
Iron Man 3, Marvel & The Future of the Superhero
Victoria Alonso, Marvel Studios Executive Vice President of Visual Effects and Post Production, began her career in the early days of the digital visual effects industry. We had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Victoria about the Iron Man movies, post production's evolution, remote dailies and coloring on set, 4K & HFR, and keeping the modern superhero movie fresh.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
| | | | |
| | | |
MAYA
Iron Man 3: The Trixters Behind Tony Stark's Shiny New Armor
Seventy artists from Trixter worked an entire year to create a formidable 208 VFX shots for Marvel's Iron Man 3. Each new episode in the Iron Man saga details a slick new technology created by the ingenious Tony Stark, and the new installment does not disappoint! Combining the hard surface geometry of the Iron Man suit auto-assembly with the flexibility of the human body was one of the challenges that Trixter brought from previs to believable screen reality.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Alessandro Cioffi |
| | | | |
| | | |
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 |
| | | | |
| | | |
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 |
| | | | |
| | | |
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 |
| | | | |
| | | |
Stereoscopic 3D
Tim Squyres Edits Life of Pi
Tim Squyres, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Life of Pi, got hooked on film when he took an introductory film course at Cornell University in upstate New York. Squyres talks to Creative COW about the challenges of editing Ang Lee's first digitally shot feature film, which was also a stereoscopic 3D release.
Feature, People / Interview
Tim Squyres |
| | | | |
| | | |
Business & Marketing
Suck It Up, Buttercup
The Best Excuses from New or Underemployed Filmmakers and Freelancers: "You've really really got to stop being lazy and making excuses for not getting what you want," says Creative COW Contributing Editor Kylee Wall. "Seriously. It's sad and it makes me sad for you. So sad in fact, that I've created this BEST OF compilation of stupid excuses. It's perhaps a little more brash than my usual fare. Don't mistake this for arrogance. I'm young and stupid too, but I'm still allowed to almost rant. Pseudo-rant. Pretend I made you cookies and you're eating them as you read this."
Editorial, Feature
Kylee Wall |
| | | | |
| | | |
Apple FCPX or Not: The Debate
FCPX On Air. Coming Soon
Former skeptic John Davidson was right there with everyone else when FCPX was released who deemed it a complete disappointment for broadcast pros. Many updates and much experimentation later, he's now a believer: he has FCPX not only running on shared storage for broadcast work, but for John, it does so even better than FCP 7 ever did. Here he introduces a 5-part series, taking you step-by-step from project set-up to delivery, ready to help other broadcast pros get moving with FCPX.
Editorial, Feature
John Davidson |
| | | | |
| | | |
Cinematography
The Aesthetics of High Frame Rate Cinema
Any change in the way we watch movies creates a heated debate, from the introduction of sound and color to digital acquisition and stereoscopic 3D. Now, the subject of debate is High Frame Rate cinema and, naturally, the debate is emotional. From watching hundreds, maybe thousands, of movies, we all have an idea of what a movie ought to look like, and for some people, HFR doesn't fit into the picture. Other moviegoers are excited about HFR's potential -- but to fulfill it, filmmakers and technologists have a lot of work ahead of them.
Editorial
Debra Kaufman |
| | | | |
| | | |
Cinematography
The Hobbit & The Dawn of High Frame Rate Cinema
The technology wizards of the film/TV industry have been talking about High Frame Rate cinema for a long time; indeed, Douglas Trumbull's Showscan at 60 fps presaged the current interest over 30 years ago. But it took director Peter Jackson to take the plunge for mainstream cinema, declaring he would shoot The Hobbit in 48 fps to get momentum going. In about a year's time, manufacturers made the gear, theater exhibitors updated their movie theaters, and the studios prepared for one of the most audacious technology debuts that cinema has seen. Creative COW goes behind the scenes to see what it took for you to see The Hobbit in 48 fps.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
| | | | |
| | | |
Cinematography
Jacob Rosenberg Directs Waiting for Lightning
Waiting for Lightning is the tragic and triumphant story of legendary skateboarder Danny Way, following him from his chaotic childhood to his early talent with a skateboard through to his many professional successes. With a combination of archival footage, interviews and skateboard action, Waiting for Lightning also takes us on Danny's journey to China to jump the Great Wall on a skateboard.
Feature, People / Interview
Jacob Rosenberg |
| | | | |
| | | |
Apple FCPX Techniques
SHOOT>EDIT with RED and FCP X
Embracing FCP X and the RED Camera System from the earliest releases has been proven a successful choice for filmmaker David Battistella, whose enticing respect for the RED/FCPX workflow shines through from detailed explanation to his finished work. Everything we dreamed RED could be in post is beginning to unfold with the new FCP X update.
Editorial, Feature
David Battistella |
| | | | |
| | | |
Art of the Edit
Parenthood in Post Production Part TWO: Modern Director Mom
In Kylee's exploration of having a family in the video industry, she wondered what parenthood looked like to a director. For Kate Chaplin, a writer/director, it turns out that question is just the opposite as it turns from "How do kids fit into my world? to "How have children inspired me to pursue my dreams?". Read Part TWO of this heart-felt series.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Kylee Wall |
| | | | |
|
|
