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Canon Introduce The New Canon 5D Mark III 2012!

2012-03-03T08:01:00.000-08:00

Canon just announced their new Canon 5D Mark II. Here are a review on the new Canon 5D Mark III.

Here is a video from Digital Rev Tv that reviews the new Canon Mark III

Canon 5D Mark III

The EOS-1Ds Mark III is the seventh Canon professional EOS-1D series digital SLR, although only the third of the 's' suffix sub-category which indicates a full frame sensor. Three years since the last EOS-1Ds, the Mark II, the Mark III pushes digital SLR resolution over the twenty megapixel barrier with specifically twenty-one-point-one million pixels (5616 x 3744) on its 36 x 24 mm (full 35 mm frame) sensor. Canon also claims to have increased the 'light gathering efficiency' of the sensor by reducing the amount of (wasted) space between micro lenses, hence despite the resolution increase the Mark III still provides sensitivity up to ISO 3200 (with boost enabled).
As well as increasing resolution Canon has pushed continuous shooting up a step with five frames per second over the Mark II's four frames per second. This means that at full speed the two DIGIC III image processors are dealing with an impressive 185 MB/sec. Other improvements include the larger screen, Live View, a fourteen-bit A/D converter and fourteen-bit RAW files, UDMA Compact Flash support (up to 45 MB/sec) and a whole range of features (such as dual storage slots and Picture Styles) inherited from the EOS-1D Mark III.
From a build, function and usability point of view the EOS-1Ds Mark III is identical to the EOS-1D Mark III apart from the full frame (36 x 24 mm) sensor, (naturally) larger viewfinder and UDMA support for Compact Flash cards.

Model line history

The EOS-1Ds Mark III represents a 26% increase in resolution over the EOS-1Ds Mark II which in turn represented a 50% increase in resolution over the original EOS-1Ds.

Model	Announced	Effective pixels	Sensor size	Continuous High (JPEG)	LCD monitor
EOS-1D	Sep 2001	4.2 mp	1.3x crop	8.0 fps, 21 frames	2.0"
EOS-1Ds	Sep 2002	11.1 mp	Full frame	3.0 fps, 10 frames	2.0"
EOS-1D Mark II	Jan 2004	8.2 mp	1.3x crop	8.3 fps, 40 frames	2.0"
EOS-1Ds Mark II	Sep 2004	16.7 mp	Full frame	4.0 fps, 32 images	2.0"
EOS-1D Mark II N	Aug 2005	8.2 mp	1.3x crop	8.3 fps, 48 images	2.5"
EOS-1D Mark III	Feb 2007	10.1 mp	1.3x crop	10.0 fps, 110 images	3.0" (Live view)
EOS-1Ds Mark III	Aug 2007	21.1 mp	Full frame	5.0 fps, 56 images	3.0" (Live view)

Props For Your Action Film.

2012-01-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

Want to know how to make war movie props? We’ve put together a list of ideas that will help you get started, no matter what your budget.

In order to know how to make war movie props, you need to make decisions. Which war are you setting your film during? What equipment were the armies involved in the conflict using? Next, plan your budget, and map out your scenes. With a budget set, you’ll know what you can and can’t afford. With the scenes mapped out, you’ll know exactly how many of each item you’ll need. Tip: If your budget is small, don’t plan for epic battles.
Every solider needs a gun. If you have access to air rifles, use them. Water pistols can be painted to resemble real guns, but if you’re a skilled wood worker, you can sculpt realistic looking war movie props at little expense. If your war film is farcical, use materials that suite sight gags, like construction paper. Tip: For the love of god, don’t use real guns, unless they’re unloaded and you’re well versed in firearm safety.
Explosive weapons like grenades and landmines are essential to war films. Luckily, with a little paint and some old-fashioned ingenuity, you can make these war movie props. A halved Styrofoam ball with wooden pegs stuck in it, when painted the right color, looks a lot like a landmine. By shaving Styrofoam to the correct shape, you can also make realistic grenades. Things like RPGs and rocket launchers can be made from PVC pipes, Styrofoam, and paint; or, if your budget is stupid tight, soda bottles and cardboard tubes. Tip: If you’re filming a scene with RPGs, inform your local law enforcement and neighbors.
Most war film tropes can be simulated without expensive war movie props or replicas. Need to shoot up some enemy soldiers? When Steven Spielberg was a teenager, he made a Super 8 war film, simulating machine gun fire by burying small wooden planks in sand. When a soldier stepped on the plank, dirt flew into the air, simulating enemy fire. Similar tricks can be used for explosions. Rather than renting an airplane, add an airplane sound effect, a shot of a soldier looking to the sky, then cut to dirt flying everywhere and bodies littering the ground. Tip: For filmmakers with little to no budget, clever editing is your best friend. Read up on Eisenstein for some pointers.
If you’re an ambitious, or epic, filmmaker, you’re going to want vehicles. How do you make these war movie props? If your film is a satire, you can get away with cutting tank, jeep, and helicopter shapes out of refrigerator boxes or big planks of wood and painting them. You can also do this in more serious films if the vehicles will be far from the camera. If you have friends with army green jeeps, borrow those and trick them out with cardboard props. If you have a huge budget, there’s a guy in Sichuan, China, who makes fully operational, life size replicas for war machines from any era. Otherwise, we recommend filming mainly interior films of vehicles. Don’t have many for a warplane? Make the interior of one in your basement and use stock photography for the exterior shots. Tip: If you’re using stock photography, make sure it matches the look of your film. Unless, to reiterate, you’re making a farce, in which case you can kinda do whatever you want.
The proliferation of relatively cheap film software can help loads. If you’re good with computers and don’t have much of a budget, make use of technology: learn how to digitally create war movie props. Some of the world’s biggest filmmakers, from Peter Jackson to James Cameron, got their start making great movies with little budget because they made great use of the technology available. Tip: Make sure your computer effects are well done before leaning on them too heavily. To quote Tarantino: “If I'd wanted all that computer game bullshit, I'd have stuck my **** in a Nintendo.”

Scouting Location For Your Film

2012-01-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

When you have a script ready, Pre-Production is where everything starts. When you want to shoot your film. scouting location is when your footage becomes magical. When you finding your location for your film, you have to use your imagination and your vision to bring your story to life.

Here are 11 tips for scouting locations.

1. Know your script. Choose a site that matches the setting of your story. This is the first rule of location scouting. As you set out to evaluate locations, you'll likely face countless possibilities: natural areas, historic sites, distinctive buildings, urban landscapes and waterfront settings, to name a few. Remember, above all, that you have a story to tell. Choose a location that lends itself to the story you want to produce. You should never be bound by your locations. Locations are simply raw materials. You need to know what the script demands before you can select a suitable location.
2. Scout at the right time. Be aware that locations can change. It's wise to check your spot on the day of the week and the time of day that you'll be taping: these factors can produce surprisingly large changes on the suitability of a location.
Automobile traffic and noise, visitors to recreation and entertainment spots, and tourists at scenic or historic areas (to name just a few examples) all come in waves that vary dramatically based on the time of day, the day of the week and the season.
3. Look at light. Churches, ballrooms, restaurants, auditoriums and homes generally feature low amounts of available lighting. Check light levels by shooting a few seconds of test footage with your camcorder.
Solutions for poor lighting might be as simple as scouting out window blinds and curtains that can be opened to add daylight. In some cases you may wish to bring in lights or ask permission to replace the bulbs in accessible light fixtures with brighter-burning units.
4. Follow the sun. Outdoor lighting conditions can be as challenging as those indoors; exterior illumination changes all day long. As you're scouting locations, pay attention to whether a given spot is in full sun, partial sun or full shade. Bright sun can be harsh on people's faces, and light-colored surfaces can blow out in full sunlight, causing automatic camcorder lenses to underexpose shots. Partial sun can be tricky, as well; today's camcorders, though sophisticated, can have trouble handling the high contrast in this situation. Ultimately, you may find that fully shaded locations or overcast days produce the most consistent results.
5. Check for power supplies. Many outdoor locations are far from power sources and even some indoor locations can pose AC challenges, so multiple camera batteries are always a good idea. But you'll still need to evaluate your power options at any location.
How will you power your lights? What if you do end up draining all your batteries? Is there anywhere to plug in the charger? Is the spot remote enough to make a car-lighter AC adapter a good idea? In a location that does have power, you may be able to plug in, but you'll still need to think about the system's pre-existing load and whether or not you can get to the fuse (breaker) box in case something blows.
6. Listen. Clean, high-quality sound is critical in making a video that rises above the ordinary, and it's silence that ensures you get the location sound that you came for.
The whooshing of traffic, the white noise of moving water, and the echoes of voices and movements can all get in the way of high-quality audio. As you scout a location, check for any of these conditions by listening to your camcorder's microphone pickup through headphones. Test your wireless mike at the site as well, listening closely for any type of interference.
7. Examine the elements. Sun, rain, wind, snow, heat, cold -- all can help or hurt, depending on what you're hoping to capture on tape. So, it's critical to check the forecast as you're scouting.
Video cameras don't like rain, salty beach air or moisture from waterfalls. Smeared lenses and water or salt inside the tape transport can spell disaster. Bright, hot locations with lots of sunlight can also be a problem: black and gray camcorder bodies absorb the sun's rays and can cause overheating when left exposed. A beach or patio umbrella can help protect your gear from the elements in both sun and rain.
Cold temperatures can drain batteries and make you and your helpers uncomfortable very quickly. Plan to keep equipment warm by storing it inside a coat or car until you're ready to shoot, and by wrapping it in a spare scarf or jacket while taping. And watch out when bringing cameras back into warm interiors from the frigid outdoors: this can cause significant amounts of moisture to condense inside both optics and electronics.
8. Decide where to set up. Make sure that there's adequate space for you to set up all of your gear, so that you're able to get the shots you have in mind. A small shed may seem like the perfect location for a shoot, until you realize that there isn't enough room to position your gear. You may have plenty of room in a large space like a church or an auditorium, but you may not be able to roam freely. As you scout your locations, verify that you can physically get to the spots you intend to shoot from.
9. Get permission. Be aware that you'll need to secure permits and other legal permissions to shoot at certain locations. As you're looking at a location, do a legal reality check.
Have you chosen a street or sidewalk location that will impede traffic? Do you plan to shoot on someone else's property? Cemeteries, malls, grocery stores, corporations and businesses are all private property. Many owners will be happy to accommodate you if you ask, but if not, you'll need to choose another location. It's better to get permission in advance than to have a shoot interrupted by the authorities.
10. Evaluate the area. Check on communications: Is there cell phone reception in the area you've chosen to shoot? How about a nearby pay phone? If you're driving a long way, have you planned for a breakdown?
Search the area for quick food stops to satisfy you and your crew in the midst of a busy schedule and double-check the address of a local electronics store, just in case you need to replace a cable or adapter.
One day, something will go wrong; it's inevitable. But when you've scouted out the backup possibilities at a location, you can take most obstacles in stride.
11. And finally, take notes! When you sit down to evaluate a location after a day of exploring, you'll be glad you have scouting reports to refer to. In your scouting expeditions for a shoot, in your daily travels, on your family vacations, and in your mind's eye, you'll come across countless locations and changing conditions, each of which will be unique and potentially important to you.
Write them down, take still photos or shoot a little video with a running audio commentary. Note the time of day, the quality of the light, the sounds in the air, and the things you felt. One day you might return.

Studio Lighting (DIY)

2012-01-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

When it comes to any productions that involves with photography or film productions. Lighting is the main key to make your photography or film production that brights out your subject or your photo. Now, most of us is thinking. It's really much expensive to rent a professional lighting equipments. Well There is a better way to save you loads of money to get yourself a studio lighting.

There is a YouTube filmmaker that shows you of how to make own studio lighting! Neumann films is a great source to learn filmmaking! and Neumann films also have a film company "The Three Tremors". Trust me. They are legit. However, here is the a video of Nuemann films that shows you of how to make your own studio lighting.

Setting up your own film music score studio.

2012-01-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

There are so many ways of setting up a studio inside your home. But there is other ways you can get amazing quality for a lower cost. Many film score composers are using expensive equipments to produce a higher crispy film score for their projects. Of course they're using expensive audio equipment because they are good at what they do. A lot of film music composers gets an orchestral and they record live. Other film score composer uses keyboards.

MIDI is a great way to produce amazing film score for your project. MIDI is a software that allows you to use high quality sounds and transfer onto a M-Audio keyboard and you can produce the exactly the same quality right inside your own home! You would be amazed how good is the sound is. I will put a link down below just to give you an example just to show how good it is!

MIDI On M-Audio Keyboard Film Score

However, if you want to save money within your budget. I will give all the list that you can spend under $1,900.

You will need a good desktop computer. ( core i5 or any core that can handle M-audio and editing music software) $599.99
Two monitor $60.99
Good quality speakers $100.00
headphones $30.00
Music Editing Software $250.00
M-Audio Keyboard $300.00
Music software $ 99.00 - $400.00 note* It depends where you buy your music software that you want. Here are a couple links you can check out. www.soundsonline.com

You have to look into the internet deep to find some good deals. I'm sure you can find amazing deals that comes with bundles and packages. It's all about searching online. It's a good thing you can produce film score in your own home. There are many tutorials on You tube of how you can set up your home studio.
It feels good to save money and still get same quality film score sound! Until then, please do come back for more updates!

A Star Solution

Choose your first film camera.

2012-01-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

We've probably know those films that you see in the cinema is probably is out of our budget! Those films probably cost millions of dollars to make! and some are middle budget film. Such as. Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project. Those two films is probably used handy cam that we can buy for $254.99 at best buy or future shop. But today's technology is improving everyday. We wouldn't imagine what technology can help us in the future.

Today's camera technology allows to make a good film within our budget! On You tube you can see thousands of films that you can see by using a professional middle class budget camera! "DSLR"!!! You probably wondering how can DSLR make a high quality video? Well, thank you for the today's technology that allow us to make the same quality film that you watch in the cinemas! However, They are so many DSLR cameras to choose from. But you have to make you choose the right DSLR camera that fits you and your budget. Most DLSR cameras can go for $899.99 to $2,000. but i'm sure you can find better deals with bundles or in other stores. My suggestion is to find on Ebay. They have good deals! They have good prices that allows you get a camera and get 4 lens. I'll post some links to some eBay stores down below.

Ebay

B&H Video Photo

Furthermore, you can also search on some good videos on Youtube DSLR short films! I will also post some links down below!

Video Test Footage
Video Test Footage 2

When you're buying your first camera. Be sure that you get a good camera for a good price! If you're serious about filmmaking, come back to this website weekly and im sure you will make an awesome film!
please do come back for updates!

A Star Solution

A Star Solution Tv

2012-01-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our blog page. This blog page will help to all the filmmakers that can get resources and get some ideas to improve their film-making. You probably see many different film-making website that you see on YouTube and other websites. Our idea is to bring something good to the table for filmmakers that can save whole lot of money on film making, props and etc. It's our goal is to save money for the filmmakers in their pockets and still make their footages look like a million dollar film!

However, We will be starting mini episodes and tutorials in coming weeks. Please do come back for more updates for our first episode!

A Star Solution Tv