Currently browsing posts by Michael Britt.

Bob Silga Leads Apple Color Workshop at PhotoCine Expo

The Post Production Training Hall at the PhotoCine Expo is excited to announce the addition of Bob Silga. Bob is a professional colorist with 30 years experience who teaches color correction at Columbia College and DePaul University. Bob’s career spans both commecial and film projects, and he was the Director of Training for Silicon Color’s FinalTouch software. After Apple purchased Silicon Color, Bob was hired to be the lead QA for Apple’s Color application where he was instrumental in helping design the application and created all of the Color FX Room signature looks. Bob recently created Scone Looks™ (a collection of presets) for Apple Color.

Sony Alpha – The Rumors of my Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

It looks like the rumor mill among mirror-less camera fans is that Sony will be ditching the Alpha DSLR line in favor of their new NEX system. On first glance, this makes sense to me. I’ve never figured out Sony’s late to the game DSLR plan. They launched a new line of DSLR’s without video capability right as the market for HDSLR’s took off. Maybe the timing was bad luck but to launch a pro-sumer camera against entrenched giants like Canon and Nikon, was ballsey to say the least and probably shows a lack of understanding about the prosumer market. Photographers invest in a system and getting them to break away from that investment in lenses and accessories is a tough sell. I know since I went through this painful process switching from Nikon to Canon during the digital changeover.

Motion Magazine Concepts

At last year’s Collision Conference in Hollywood, I presented a demonstration showing how to make a simple motion magazine cover with Canon 5D files and Adobe Photoshop’s Animation timeline:

Motion Mag Cover Concept from Michael Britt on Vimeo.

At the same conference, Alexx Henry gave a very inspirational look at how futuristic movies portray motion

Pro DSLR Video Tips From David Harry Stewart at PopPhoto

PopPhoto.com has a great interview with photographer filmmaker David Harry Stewart where he shares his pro DSLR video tips.

The article is an interesting read and there are a couple of things that really stand out to me. Chronologically, the first is the mention of an editing book from Walter Murch which I ordered from Amazon before even finished reading the article. I’ve been trying to wade through the list of technical and artistic filmmaking books without a filter and it’s a big help to know that someone from the stills background like myself recommends this book.

Journey’s of a Hybrid – Hard Part about working with DSLRs

Gail Mooney is two months into her self funded documentary project that has taken her and her daughter around the globe. She’s been posting frequent updates and tips for photographer filmmakers about everything from which airports to avoid to what gear to take with you. Her latest update questions the HDSLR only approach to unscripted documentary work:

After two solid months of intensive shooting a documentary – shooting both stills and video with two DSLR cameras, the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D, I can honestly say working with these hybrids is not easy. And it certainly isn’t fast, especially if you are working in a small crew as we are.

Read the rest of her article for the details and be sure to follow her exploits on PCN.

Scottevest Unofficial Contest Challenge

Scottevest makes clothing designed to hold all of your high tech gadgets, including iPads and photo gear. I have a hoodie from them and wear it all winter long for walking the dog and if I am out shooting. I find their clothing is less nerdy than the usual photo vests and dare I say, verges on being geek sheik. Check out the video before we get into the ad spot challenge:

How Not To Make a Short Film

We’re excited that Roberta Munroe is confirmed as a speaker for PhotoCine Expo. The focus of our HDSLR filmmaking expo is as much about creating great content as it is about the mechanics of filmmaking using these cameras and attachments and Roberta is a great addition. Here’s a little background from her website:

Roberta Munroe is the author of How Not To Make A Short Film: Secrets From A Sundance Programmer — described as the “bible” for short filmmakers. Roberta packed this “bible” with insider tips gleaned from 5 years programming short films at Sundance, interviewing successful short filmmakers worldwide and sharing the horrors and the brilliance of her own award winning short filmmaking career.

Shane Hurlbut’s HDSLR Bootcamp

Here’s an opportunity you don’t get very often. A talented and successful filmmaker with summer blockbuster DP experience teaching an intensive hands on workshop for intermediate HDSLR shooters. Shane has really embraced HDSLR filmmaking, driven more by being able to stretch his creative reach than his budget. As he showed at last year’s Collision Conference, his kit consists of 12 HDSLRs rigged up for various scenarios and ready to go.

Shane is a very enthusiastic speaker and you can catch him giving lectures at schools and filmmaking events around the world (he’ll be the Saturday Keynote Speaker at our upcoming HDSLR filmmaking expo). But what you don’t get in seminars is real world, hands on field experience with Shane and his team as instructors and mentors. From the HDSLR Bootcamp website, this two day bootcamp covers:

Announcing PhotoCine Expo an HDSLR Conference in Hollywood

The PhotoCine Expo will take place on September 25th and 26th at the Los Angeles Film School in the heart of Hollywood. This Expo is brought to you from the producers of last year’s groundbreaking HDSLR event The Collision Conference, where Vincent Laforet, Shane Hurlbut ASC, CSC and Rodney Charters came together to kick start the HDSLR filmmaking movement.

The speakers and schedule are shaping up to become another must-attend expo for the HDSLR filmmaking community. Shane Hurlbut is presenting the evening keynote on Saturday September 25th and a lot of the familiar faces from last year will be on hand again for this event. In addition to the industry heavyweights, we are proud to present some fresh new faces from the viral video world along side filmmaking experts like Roberta Munroe who wrote the “bible” for short filmmakers. Roberta packed this “bible” with insider tips gleaned from 5 years programming short films at Sundance.

There will be filmmaking workshops including a two hour version of Sneal Patel’s highly regarded HDSLR Bootcamp. Sneal leads Canon HDSLR workshops for Film/TV DP’s and camera operators through TheAssociation.net.

This expo show floor is twice the size of our previous event and as a result, we are happy to announce the Post Production Training Hall. This expanded show floor area will feature classrooms taught by industry professionals ranging in topics from special effects and editing to sound post techniques. All workshops are designed for the HDSLR filmmaker. The expanded show floor will also allow up to 40 exhibitors to showcase the cool HDSLR products that you see used by Film/TV professionals and read about on blogs like PCN.

For more information, go to the Expo web site and keep an eye on the show’s facebook page for exciting contest coming soon.

Here’s a look at the conference we produced last year including Shane Hurbut’s keynote presentation and show floor interviews from New Media Webinars.

Draganflyer Launches X4 UAV R/C

I’ve previously written about the Draganflyer X8 UAV helicopter before as well as an article about how one team is using a similar R/C copter to bypass BP and gain photo/video access to the Gulf oil disaster. If I extrapolate the pricing structure based on the $18K X6 model, I would bet that the cost of the X8 is going to hover a bit over $21-22K. This isn’t really that expensive for an ariel drone that can payload an HDSLR and allow indie filmmakers access to high quality helicopter shots without the huge expense of renting a manned aircraft and camera crew.

The new Draganflyer X4 seems to fill a niche for a less expensive UAV that can carry a smaller payload configured to shoot 720P video using a Panasonic Lumix compact camera. The base price is listed as $8495 but I would expect it to cost around $10K for one rigged with the Photography/HD video package.