heathens and thieves screening q&a

setting up the switcher for the awards show tonight.

midterm!

Midterms for the multicamera class. Each student has to set up the cameras and audio and remote switcher and broadcast to the internet in 20 minutes. Pressure!

Here's the front view. Notice that Bruce Wayne has priority parking ...

If the Batmobile is too upscale for shopping at the swapmeet - time to use the Batvan!

If the Batmobile is too upscale for shopping at the swapmeet - time to use the Batvan!

Denio's is ...

just like the sword of doom!

Denio's is...

just like this sword of doom!

Well, this worked better than expected...

 The final project for my cine class is to emulate the aesthetic of a randomly assigned painting.  One of my students was assigned "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" by Caspar Friedrich:

We were brainstorming ideas on how to emulate the dynamic background in camera without actually standing above a sea of fog (which BTW is possible on a predictable basis about an hours drive west of here...).  I remembered this:

 

http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_create_your_own_bokeh

I thought if you could make the bokeh look like stupid hearts, why not something more useful to the story?  So instead of a heart shape, I made a slit (135mm Kmart lens f2.8 on a 7D):

Here are the results, before and after:

Here it is in motion.  Forgive the shaky footage, I was handheld on a 135mm...

Blogger embedded video is pooptastic. Here it is in better quality on Vimeo:

slit bokeh test from cinejay on Vimeo.

Not bad for a quick test (the blogger playback doesn't do it justice...)  I told the student about the successful test.  If he decides to incorporate the technique I'll post a follow up...  It gives me lots of ideas on how to take it to the next level.  If this technique inspires you on a shoot then let me know, I'd love to see the footage.

Solar Eclipse with welding glass

Here are some pics from the eclipse today:

A direct shot of the sun with a 200mm brAun lens (yes, the same guys who made my shaver).  Uncorrected, just white balanced for the greenish tint of the glass.

A rack focus from the tree to the sun.  It's hard to get the dynamic range of both in the same shot.  Normally the sun would just blow out and it'd read as a big ball o' white, but if it's got a different shape and you want to retain that...

 Shot with a 7D with a #10 welding glass taped to the front.

Here is a nice shot of shadows at the height of the eclipse (At the height of the coverage from where I live).

a gaggle of kleigls

ktxl fox 40 was getting rid of some old tungsten lights. I was more than happy to swing by and pick up a few for the school.

To find the perfect Christmas tree...

This weekend we went up to Pollock Pines to secure a Christmas tree.

After about an hour wandering through the forest, it occurred to me to turn on my GPS tracking program on my G-phone. I captured the second hour of wandering. After two hours and about 2 1/2 miles of uphill, downhill and through the sticks all the way we found it...

But it's not about the prize, it's about the journey:

3d camera pan kludge

I wouldn't even go so far as to call it a hack. my 3d web camera's lens is too narrow so I strapped it to a fan to make pan back and forth.

Snake!

I'll give this one right of way...

48 hr 3D project

A little while ago I had a chance to work on a 48 hr project. I swore I'd never do one of those again but an old friend Erik Espera called and invited me to crew. He's a hard one to say no to but he not only assembled an all-star crew, but also wanted to try and shoot it in 3D, possibly the first 48hr film to be shot in 3D. I couldn't resist the offer, so I said yes.

I originally signed on as a camera operator when the original DP Eric Maddox, decided it would be too big an undertaking to be both DP and the stereographer for the shoot. He decided to focus solely on the 3D technical and he asked if I could take his place. Of course I said yes but it was quite a courageous decision for him to turn over that creative controls in order preserve the integrity of the film. I applaud that, I don't think I could have been able to do that. And as it was turned out it was the right decision.

Working with the 3D rig was incredibly complex and required constant fine tuning - a full time job in itself. Every time the camera was moved, even if just lifting it off the dolly and setting it on the ground required about 20 minutes of adjustments. Yes, this slowed things down a bit but on the upside 3D actually benefits from less coverage. You actually should linger longer on shots and cut less frequently in order to give the eye more time to adjust, so it evened out. We had to cut out quite a few beauty shots I wanted to get in order to keep all the scenes with minimum coverage. But then, what 48hr film doesn't have that happen...

Here is a link to the film and a BTS featurette:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/stereoscopic-3d/last-man-standing-3d-anaglyph/
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/stereoscopic-3d/behind-the-scenes-of-last-man-standing/

Thanks to Erik Espera, Adobe, and every person who worked on the crew to produce such professional results in such a short time.

My New Favorite Thing... Posterini

I found this website that will let you take a picture and build a movie poster out of it. It's not that bad, I crapped this one out in less than two minutes. Imagine if I spent three! The picture size is limited to about 1k resolution, but I'm talking with the developers about increasing it to a larger size. Right now it's free, but I could see charging for a larger sized option. Here is the site:
http://www.posterini.com

Philo T. Farnsworth

What I did for my summer vacation:
I went to visit the Philo T. Farnsworth museum in Rigby Idaho.
If you don't know who Philo is, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKM4MNrB25o
Unfortunately we got there at 11am and missed the Philo boat...

Yellowstone

We went to Yellowstone park for a vacation. I took advantage of the dark skies to shoot some long exposure timelapse. Below is a test shot. In the crossed lines you can see the blinking lights from a jet flying East to West. The other solid line is the International Space Station. The white cloud in the background is the milky way.
Click to see a larger image.
Canon 7D 30 second exposure at ASA 5000, 8mm lens at f3.5

County Fair Judging

judging short films for the county fair.

In the background you can see the other judging stations: Arts, Crafts, Photography, ect.

In the foreground is my judging station: a DVD/VHS/TV combo along with entries and forms. I have to say the high school student project compare very well to our 1st year college projects. Perks of the gig: pair of passes to next week's fair. I'm hoping for a demo derby experience...

NAB 2011

blinky lights - always good.

I bought a boat...

Well, a kayak actually. $40 on Craigslist. It's looks a lot better from 15' back than it does once you get up close. It's old. Lots of bumps and bruises but it seems to stay afloat (so far). If it doesn't go underwater, I'll do some live streaming when I take it out on the lake.