HDSLR Training at Samy’s Camera

For those of you that haven’t heard it through the grapevine, I recently took the position of Education Director for Samy’s Camera here in Southern California. I’ll be bringing a lot of the energy and excitement from the PhotoCine Expo to the classes and workshops at Samy’s.

One of the first workshops I added was Audio for DSLR Video with Jeremy Ian Thomas. If you missed the last time Jeremy taught an audio workshop, this is your second chance. The class takes place March 5th at the Samy’s Fairfax Education building (down the street from the store). Cost is $50 register here.

Next up is an overview of DSLR video with Loren Simons on March 22cd for only $25. This 3 hour class is a great overview for anyone who wants to take their DSLR cameras to the next level. Instructor Loren Simons will walk students through everything about setting up the camera for video including shutter speed (180° shutter rule), frames per second, optimal ISO’s, depth of field/focusing techniques, audio recording, monitoring, and stabilization accessories. This class will also discuss tripods (fluid head VS. friction head), continuous lighting gear, and camera movement using sliders and steadicam. Loren is a great guy with a ton of knowledge (even though he looks 12). He’s often a hollywood go to guy for HDSLR rigging and he works the tradeshows for Redrock Micro.

Keep an eye on the Samy’s EDU blog for more DSLR video classes as well as Photoshop/Lightroom classes and interesting photo trips.

DSLR Audio Workshop in LA With Zoom H4N

I’ll be hosting a Audio for DSLR workshop at Samy’s Camera in LA on March 5th with Jeremy Ian Thomas. If you’re a long time reader you will recognize Jeremy’s name because I hire him to teach when ever I have an opportunity. He is a very engaging teacher and experienced Indie filmmaker who also works as a colorist/editor on big Hollywood projects. The last time he taught this audio workshop we had about 70 people and it was very well reviewed.

What was pretty cool is that Jeremy Thomas, the tutor, brought in one of his actors and shot a monologue right in front of the whole class and then showed step by step how the whole process goes, from ingestion, transcoding, importing to FCP and synching with Plural Eyes. Definitely an exciting, explicit and very effective way to teach, that the crowd reacted really well to!

All attendees present will be entered into a raffle to win a Zoom Q3HD video recorder. The workshop is $50 and takes place at the Samy’s Fairfax EDU building (next to the store) from 10AM-1PM.

Click here for more information and to register.

Panasonic AG-AF100 Workshop with Snehal Patel

Snehal Patel is a filmmaker and instructor here in Hollywood who taught at the PhotoCine Expo and is on our DVD set. He’s a great teacher whose students have nothing but praise for him. Snehal will be leading a hands on workshop with the AG-AF100 on February 26th at Stray Angel Films here in Los Angeles. The cost is $400 and here is the graphic from the Eventbrite sign up page. … Continue Reading

Rode Releases New VideoMic Pro for DSLR’s

The Rode VideoMic is the workhorse of the video DSLR world. I have used the VideoMic on several shoots and feel that it’s a really good product for the price but I have found myself wishing it wasn’t quite so large. I’ve also seen the rubber bands shock mounts fail and fall apart. The Rode VideoMic Pro solves the size issue as well as adding some improvements along the way:

The RØDE VideoMic Pro raises the bar set by the original RØDE VideoMic, by combining broadcast quality audio with an ultra compact and lightweight ergonomic design. … Continue Reading

Two People, Two Cameras, Two Sliders

This lovely little short shows what you can do with a couple of people, a couple of cameras (in this case a Canon 5D and a Canon 550D) and a couple of sliders.

… Continue Reading

$7K RED Scarlet Dead

It looks like the long delayed RED Scarlet is never going to be, at least in the prosumer chassis at the $7K price point. RED’s Jim Jannard made the announcement New Years day on the REDUSER.net forums.

1. We have moved from the less robust Scarlet S35 chassis to the EPIC S35 chassis (like going from the economy car frame to the truck frame). Pro, not prosumer.

2. We are trying to maximize the performance specs given the cost cutting from the hardware, … Continue Reading