The Curse
Arguably the most significant film event of the calendar, Cannes is the festival that bought us films such as Pulp Fiction and Brief Encounter. This year, Cannes boasts films in Competition from directors including Wes Anderson, Ken Loach and David Cronenberg. 'The Curse', shot in the desolate Moroccan countryside, the film centres on the struggles of a young woman, Fatine, who is hounded by villagers after she is discovered to have had an affair with an older man. Colorist Jason R Moffat explains how he achieved the films distinct look.
...Read More »
Northview Church Looks to the Future in HD
Indiana's Northview Church recently set out to launch four new satellite campuses within five years. Construction wise, this is an ambitious goal. Add a massive AV installation to the equation, with the ultimate goal of having an entirely HD operation, and it is an undertaking of biblical proportions. Between two sites, Northview now has a Blackmagic Design Broadcast Videohub, Smart Control, ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher and ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel, seven SmartView Duo monitors, 11 HyperDeck Studio SSD recorders, four DeckLink HD Extreme 3D capture and playback cards and a whole slew of Mini Converters. And because of the flexibility, affordability and quality of the Blackmagic Design products, Shaun plans to acquire many more as the church continues to grow.
...Read More »
BENQ GW2450 By David Hague
In the video world monitors are probably more critical than any everyday old computer monitor is. Serious photographers who play with Photoshop will know what I mean. Calibration is everything. Which leads me neatly to the BENQ GW2450 which landed on my desk today.
...Read More »
Q&A with Visual Effects Supervisor Brian Van't Hul
In Part 2 of our PARANORMAN interview series we talk with Brian Van't Hul who works at animation studio LAIKA, and was also the visual effects supervisor on the company's Oscar-nominated 2009 feature "Coraline." His previous stop-motion credits include Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James & the Giant Peach."
...Read More »
Dubai Color Artist Gives International Film Festival Favorite, The Intruder!, a Winning Look
Diane Kuo, senior colorist at Dubai's Optix Digital Pictures, is fast becoming one of the top grading artists in the Middle East. Her portfolio boasts a number of 'big brand' commercials, Bollywood feature films and most recently an independent sci-fi film hitting the international film festival circuit called The Intruder!.
...Read More »
Anyone who has wet a line in Australia has heard of Rex Hunt By David Hague
Anyone who has wet a line in Australia has heard of Rex Hunt. When Rex hung up his rod and reel seven years ago, he introduced us to Paul Worsteling who received an enthusiastic audience response. Worsteling was a natural, had on-camera flair and seemingly boundless energy along with an infectious laugh, and so IFISH with Tackleworld was born. Running on Channels Ten and ONE, with repeats on Foxtel, production company Dreampool shoots 30 half hour shows a year plus ten one hour shows, on location in Australia and around the world, including Denmark, Holland, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, Vanuatu, Fiji and the UK.
...Read More »
AKITIO ENCLOSURE By Ko Maruyama
The Akitio Neutrino U3+ enclosure is for everyone, and more specifically for some than others. Like many other enclosures of its kind, it supports a nice array of connection standards. The function is what you'd expect from an external hard drive enclosure. The Neutrino U3+ has the added benefit of being designed beautifully, and fits as a companion to your other Mac hardware.
...Read More »
"Sling Baby" Is A Winner at Super Bowl XLVI
Burbank's Blacklist Productions was a part of the process from beginning to end, providing the rented Red camera "Sling Baby" was shot on, and handling color grading and finishing in house with DaVinci Resolve. The one stop shop, which has essentially grown their entire business around the color correction system they purchased last year, considered Resolve to be the instrumental tool in making "Sling Baby" look like a million bucks.
...Read More »
Inferno Records Creates Music Videos Just "Like That"
Modern technology has given artists the opportunity to share their talents with the whole world. Pop music singer, songwriter and producer, Killian Wells, made the most of that opportunity when he founded Inferno Records, putting a new spin on the outdated record label business model. Having been heavily involved in all aspects of his career and enjoying the many successes that came as a result, Killian wasn't about to change his winning formula when it came time to produce the music video for his new single, "It's Like That (feat. Nixon)".
...Read More »
The Film Bakery Gets Cooking with Blackmagic Design and Qantas
The Film Bakery recently teamed up with Qantas to release an hour long independent documentary, now airing on The History Channel, about Australia's national airline. The purpose of creating "Qantas: From the Outback to the World" was to bring archived material together to tell a cohesive story about the major airline's humble beginnings, while still maintaining the aspect of age.
...Read More »
The Film Bakery Gets Cooking with Blackmagic Design and Qantas
The Film Bakery recently teamed up with Qantas to release an hour long independent documentary, now airing on The History Channel, about Australia's national airline. The purpose of creating "Qantas: From the Outback to the World" was to bring archived material together to tell a cohesive story about the major airline's humble beginnings, while still maintaining the aspect of age.
...Read More »
Building Broadcast Communities: From Public Access to Educational Institutions in New York State with Blackmagic Design
One project was the creation of an HD studio for Albany Public Access, which was recently completed by CineDV Productions. Albany Community Television "brings transparency to the Capital District" by streaming programming, which includes weekly live broadcasts of City Hall meetings, on cable and online, with the help of a Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher. The ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher was a high quality solution that provided Albany Public Access with a wide range of inputs, outputs and effects. It gave them a switching network that rivaled larger broadcasters, for less than $3,000.
...Read More »
Building Broadcast Communities: From Public Access to Educational Institutions in New York State with Blackmagic Design
One project was the creation of an HD studio for Albany Public Access, which was recently completed by CineDV Productions. Albany Community Television "brings transparency to the Capital District" by streaming programming, which includes weekly live broadcasts of City Hall meetings, on cable and online, with the help of a Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher. The ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher was a high quality solution that provided Albany Public Access with a wide range of inputs, outputs and effects. It gave them a switching network that rivaled larger broadcasters, for less than $3,000.
...Read More »
The Panasonic AC160 By Heath McKnight
The Panasonic AC160 really surprised me, and not because I wasn't expecting such high quality -- I was -- but because for the price point (between $4100 and $4799), I was sort of expecting a small camera, like the Sony NX5U or some of the smaller Canons. This is a larger, but not heavy, handheld camera that's about the same size as the Panasonic HPX250. Images are crisp in full HD 1080p, the controls are simple to use and it does well in low light with its 1/3-inch 3-MOS sensors, and you easily can customize looks. The multiple frame rate and recording options are also superb, helping make this a quality camera for shooters involved with film, run-and-gun video, documentaries and more.
...Read More »
Filling a Full Broadcast Schedule Before Homeroom at Texarkana's Texas High School
Texarkana's Texas High School (THS) has always prided itself on being able to offer real world learning experience at state of the art facilities. It is home to a vibrant and united student body. The public school is well known for competitive sports and even some famous alumni that have gone on to become politicians and professional athletes. Even the facility itself is widely acknowledged as an architectural beauty.
...Read More »
ASSIMILATE Congratulates SCRATCH Artists On Festival de Cannes 2012 Entries
At the 65th Festival de Cannes, May 16 - 27, several films on the competition roster have been created by filmmakers whose post-production companies used ASSIMILATE's SCRATCH DI software in their digital workflows for conform, color grading, and finishing. The Cannes Film Festival is the world's premier showcase for independent and international filmmakers.
...Read More »
Color Grading 'The Courier' with Louisiana's Films In Motion and Colorist Omar Godinez
Shot and finished in Louisiana, 'The Courier' joined massive features such as 'Battle LA' and the 'Twilight' movies, as well as the host of independent films and television series that have transformed the state into the fastest growing region in the US for feature and television work. So while faced with the need to create a blockbuster look on a tight budget, the producers of the film needed to join forces with local post professionals that had experience handling all levels of production. To finish the film, the filmmakers chose Baton Rouge's Films In Motion.
...Read More »
Twixtor: 30p to 24p in After Effects By Jeremiah Hall
Twixtor, from Re:Vision Effects, Inc., has been around for a while. It works with Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro (X and 7), Autodesk combustion, flame, Maya Composite, Avid, Foundry Nuke, Sony Vegas Pro, and several others. It changes speed, timing, and frame rates of footage (frame rate conversion is currently only available with After Effects or Combustion). Twixtor does this by warping and interpolating new frames from the original footage using RE:Vision's proprietary tracking technology to calculate every individual pixel's motion in a sequence.
...Read More »
NAB 2012: Sony Creative Showcases New Technology
The latest additions to the Sony Creative Software product line include: Spectral Layers, an audio editing platform featuring precise sound shaping capabilities and a unique visual workflow; and ThemeBuilder for Vegas(tm) Pro, a plug-in that enables intelligent template building for professional video projects. Both products are scheduled for technology demonstrations in the Sony booth.
...Read More »
Adobe CS6 Release Delivers Major Innovations for Design, Web and Video Pros
Powerful new releases of 14 CS6 applications and four Creative Suites - Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium, Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard, Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium, and Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection - drive home Adobe's continued innovation across creative markets. A new subscription-based offering, Adobe Creative Cloud, will provide users with the ability to download and install every Adobe CS6 application* announced.
...Read More »
The Curse
Arguably the most significant film event of the calendar, Cannes is the festival that bought us films such as Pulp Fiction and Brief Encounter. This year, Cannes boasts films in Competition from directors including Wes Anderson, Ken Loach and David Cronenberg. 'The Curse', shot in the desolate Moroccan countryside, the film centres on the struggles of a young woman, Fatine, who is hounded by villagers after she is discovered to have had an affair with an older man. Colorist Jason R Moffat explains how he achieved the films distinct look.
...Read More »
Northview Church Looks to the Future in HD
Indiana's Northview Church recently set out to launch four new satellite campuses within five years. Construction wise, this is an ambitious goal. Add a massive AV installation to the equation, with the ultimate goal of having an entirely HD operation, and it is an undertaking of biblical proportions. Between two sites, Northview now has a Blackmagic Design Broadcast Videohub, Smart Control, ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher and ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel, seven SmartView Duo monitors, 11 HyperDeck Studio SSD recorders, four DeckLink HD Extreme 3D capture and playback cards and a whole slew of Mini Converters. And because of the flexibility, affordability and quality of the Blackmagic Design products, Shaun plans to acquire many more as the church continues to grow.
...Read More »
BENQ GW2450
In the video world monitors are probably more critical than any everyday old computer monitor is. Serious photographers who play with Photoshop will know what I mean. Calibration is everything. Which leads me neatly to the BENQ GW2450 which landed on my desk today.
...Read More »
Q&A with Visual Effects Supervisor Brian Van't Hul
In Part 2 of our PARANORMAN interview series we talk with Brian Van't Hul who works at animation studio LAIKA, and was also the visual effects supervisor on the company's Oscar-nominated 2009 feature "Coraline." His previous stop-motion credits include Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James & the Giant Peach."
...Read More »
Dubai Color Artist Gives International Film Festival Favorite, The Intruder!, a Winning Look
Diane Kuo, senior colorist at Dubai's Optix Digital Pictures, is fast becoming one of the top grading artists in the Middle East. Her portfolio boasts a number of 'big brand' commercials, Bollywood feature films and most recently an independent sci-fi film hitting the international film festival circuit called The Intruder!.
...Read More »
Anyone who has wet a line in Australia has heard of Rex Hunt
Anyone who has wet a line in Australia has heard of Rex Hunt. When Rex hung up his rod and reel seven years ago, he introduced us to Paul Worsteling who received an enthusiastic audience response. Worsteling was a natural, had on-camera flair and seemingly boundless energy along with an infectious laugh, and so IFISH with Tackleworld was born. Running on Channels Ten and ONE, with repeats on Foxtel, production company Dreampool shoots 30 half hour shows a year plus ten one hour shows, on location in Australia and around the world, including Denmark, Holland, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, Vanuatu, Fiji and the UK.
...Read More »
AKITIO ENCLOSURE
The Akitio Neutrino U3+ enclosure is for everyone, and more specifically for some than others. Like many other enclosures of its kind, it supports a nice array of connection standards. The function is what you'd expect from an external hard drive enclosure. The Neutrino U3+ has the added benefit of being designed beautifully, and fits as a companion to your other Mac hardware.
...Read More »
"Sling Baby" Is A Winner at Super Bowl XLVI
Burbank's Blacklist Productions was a part of the process from beginning to end, providing the rented Red camera "Sling Baby" was shot on, and handling color grading and finishing in house with DaVinci Resolve. The one stop shop, which has essentially grown their entire business around the color correction system they purchased last year, considered Resolve to be the instrumental tool in making "Sling Baby" look like a million bucks.
...Read More »
Inferno Records Creates Music Videos Just "Like That"
Modern technology has given artists the opportunity to share their talents with the whole world. Pop music singer, songwriter and producer, Killian Wells, made the most of that opportunity when he founded Inferno Records, putting a new spin on the outdated record label business model. Having been heavily involved in all aspects of his career and enjoying the many successes that came as a result, Killian wasn't about to change his winning formula when it came time to produce the music video for his new single, "It's Like That (feat. Nixon)".
...Read More »
The Film Bakery Gets Cooking with Blackmagic Design and Qantas
The Film Bakery recently teamed up with Qantas to release an hour long independent documentary, now airing on The History Channel, about Australia's national airline. The purpose of creating "Qantas: From the Outback to the World" was to bring archived material together to tell a cohesive story about the major airline's humble beginnings, while still maintaining the aspect of age.
...Read More »
Building Broadcast Communities: From Public Access to Educational Institutions in New York State with Blackmagic Design
One project was the creation of an HD studio for Albany Public Access, which was recently completed by CineDV Productions. Albany Community Television "brings transparency to the Capital District" by streaming programming, which includes weekly live broadcasts of City Hall meetings, on cable and online, with the help of a Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher. The ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher was a high quality solution that provided Albany Public Access with a wide range of inputs, outputs and effects. It gave them a switching network that rivaled larger broadcasters, for less than $3,000.
...Read More »
The Panasonic AC160
The Panasonic AC160 really surprised me, and not because I wasn't expecting such high quality -- I was -- but because for the price point (between $4100 and $4799), I was sort of expecting a small camera, like the Sony NX5U or some of the smaller Canons. This is a larger, but not heavy, handheld camera that's about the same size as the Panasonic HPX250. Images are crisp in full HD 1080p, the controls are simple to use and it does well in low light with its 1/3-inch 3-MOS sensors, and you easily can customize looks. The multiple frame rate and recording options are also superb, helping make this a quality camera for shooters involved with film, run-and-gun video, documentaries and more.
...Read More »
Filling a Full Broadcast Schedule Before Homeroom at Texarkana's Texas High School
Texarkana's Texas High School (THS) has always prided itself on being able to offer real world learning experience at state of the art facilities. It is home to a vibrant and united student body. The public school is well known for competitive sports and even some famous alumni that have gone on to become politicians and professional athletes. Even the facility itself is widely acknowledged as an architectural beauty.
...Read More »
ASSIMILATE Congratulates SCRATCH Artists On Festival de Cannes 2012 Entries
At the 65th Festival de Cannes, May 16 - 27, several films on the competition roster have been created by filmmakers whose post-production companies used ASSIMILATE's SCRATCH DI software in their digital workflows for conform, color grading, and finishing. The Cannes Film Festival is the world's premier showcase for independent and international filmmakers.
...Read More »
Color Grading 'The Courier' with Louisiana's Films In Motion and Colorist Omar Godinez
Shot and finished in Louisiana, 'The Courier' joined massive features such as 'Battle LA' and the 'Twilight' movies, as well as the host of independent films and television series that have transformed the state into the fastest growing region in the US for feature and television work. So while faced with the need to create a blockbuster look on a tight budget, the producers of the film needed to join forces with local post professionals that had experience handling all levels of production. To finish the film, the filmmakers chose Baton Rouge's Films In Motion.
...Read More »
Twixtor: 30p to 24p in After Effects
Twixtor, from Re:Vision Effects, Inc., has been around for a while. It works with Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro (X and 7), Autodesk combustion, flame, Maya Composite, Avid, Foundry Nuke, Sony Vegas Pro, and several others. It changes speed, timing, and frame rates of footage (frame rate conversion is currently only available with After Effects or Combustion). Twixtor does this by warping and interpolating new frames from the original footage using RE:Vision's proprietary tracking technology to calculate every individual pixel's motion in a sequence.
...Read More »
NAB 2012: Sony Creative Showcases New Technology
The latest additions to the Sony Creative Software product line include: Spectral Layers, an audio editing platform featuring precise sound shaping capabilities and a unique visual workflow; and ThemeBuilder for Vegas(tm) Pro, a plug-in that enables intelligent template building for professional video projects. Both products are scheduled for technology demonstrations in the Sony booth.
...Read More »
Adobe CS6 Release Delivers Major Innovations for Design, Web and Video Pros
Powerful new releases of 14 CS6 applications and four Creative Suites - Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium, Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard, Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium, and Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection - drive home Adobe's continued innovation across creative markets. A new subscription-based offering, Adobe Creative Cloud, will provide users with the ability to download and install every Adobe CS6 application* announced.
...Read More »
Vegas Pro 10 Available Now
