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If I don’t like people telling me what to do so bad, how come I’m telling you what to do and what I’m telling you to do is to do what you’re told? Well, because I LOVE telling people what to do. Okay, that’s not the only reason.

This is a Weekend Inspiration post and these posts are all about trying to set you out in the world with a seed. You’ve got to water that seed and stick it in some dirt or it just stays a seed. My favorite kind of seed? A pizza seed. But since those don’t actually exist outside of my dreams and an underground alien tech black-ops lab in Mohave, I’d have to say my next favorite seeds are surprise seeds. That’s a seed you get that you don’t know what it might grow into. Still, you take care of it, make sure it gets everything it needs to succeed (hehe). Sure, it might turn out to have been an amazement seed or just a face tarantula seed. It doesn’t matter. The point is how much you grow not how much the seed grows.

Of course if you’re some sort of horticulturist you can tell what kind of seed it is just by looking at it, so that kind of turns my charming metaphor into the worthless ramblings of a crazy head. However, if you’re a photographer or a film maker (yes, I’m getting to the point), sometimes it’s better to have a mystery seed rather than one that you know how it’s going to turn out.

That point I promised I’d get to: your Weekend Inspiration assignment is to go to your neighbor Danny, or your Mum, or your kid, or a guy in the mall (not that guy, the other guy) and ask them to give you an assignment. Or better. A word or phrase. Then you intemperate that word into a photo or a short film or a clay pot for all I care. Just do it. The more you hate the assignment the better. Just take that word/assignment, water it, make sure it gets plenty of sun, and watch it grow. Just keep your fingers crossed it doesn’t turn out to be a face tarantula.

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I’m not going to review the quality of the story or the acting or say if I thought he overused camera movement or if it could have been cut a lot tighter, or even how I feel about the ending and my beliefs about how a film maker should treat their audience. Some people will like the way he did those things, others will not. I’m posting it because there is some really nice photography in this film and it shows if you’re use your brain thingy you can really create some stunning work without a ton of light. Now get out there and do it!

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I’m not sure I agree with all the broad strokes of the post, but the details sound about right. If you’ve been thinking about making the leap from still photographer to film maker, even if it’s just to dabble, I think it could be worth you taking a look.

For the kind of films I make and will be making, I know what my opinion is. The winner? 5DmII.

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And now an allegory for your edification: Let’s say you were out and ran into a celebrity or public official that you had always wanted to meet. Never wanted to meet any one in particular? Then make it the most beautiful gal or guy you’ve ever seen. Sure you’re shocked to see them there at your local watering hole, or pumping gas into their car. You somehow manage to scoop up enough balls to go over and attempt an interaction. All of a sudden you realize you aren’t the only one in the crowd who noticed them standing there. You know you’ve only got a second to say something to them before they are swarmed with other fans / suiters. This celebrity / politician / sweet cheeks looks up and makes eye contact with you. A hint of friendly smile forms on their face. Here’s your chance. What are you going to say?

“Hey, you’re that super-famous person!” Fail.

“You’re hot!” Nope.

Are you going to flash them your tits? I hope not.

“I’ve kidnapped your goldfish and if you don’t let me buy you an ice cream sandwich and mumble in your direction for hours my kitties and I are going to have fish tacos for dinner while you’re riding the weepy train all the way to Sadness Station.” Well, if you said that at least they’d remember you. Still, you can probably do something that influences them if you think about what you want the outcome to be before you open your mouth.

Your photographs and films are the equivalent to this scenario with the celebrity being your audience – any audience – and your photo / movie / painting / casserole being you. I guess there’s nothing wrong with just snickering and giggling like an idiot and letting them pass by. But it sure seems like a waste of an opportunity to me.

You never know who is going to see your work, or what opportunity might pop up when you least expect it. Why don’t you figure out what you want to say and start saying it with your work. Then when your audience comes along (and they will), you won’t have to threaten to eat their pets.

BTW: Will Smith let me buy him that ice cream sandwich and Goldberg was returned unharmed.

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The added features:

– Onscreen stereo audio meters
- Full-time cropmarks (lines for cinemascope croping!!!)
- Zebra stripes for overexposed regions – very important!
- Fixed audio gain (+10 dB analog, +12 dB digital) with -NO AGC-
- Live headphone monitoring on A/V jack (without disabling LCD)
- printf() to the bitmap display
- GUI event viewer (press Picture Style button)

You can read more details at the Magic Lantern Wiki.

Here’s a video showing it in action (if the video isn’t working check back later – it may be updating).

The world of camera manufacturers deciding what features we want may not be over, but it just got kicked in the balls. Hard.

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Alright. This is short one for me and a long one for you. I know a lot of you out there (not you, but the other guy) aren’t actually taking a lot of deep, meaningful, artsy photographs. You want to but you’re too scared to cross that bridge – well not you but the other guy. Well here’s where I set you free.

This weekend I want you to grab some props from around your house, anything that could imply a deeper meaning, you know, stuff with symbolism like money, or a broken mirror, or underpants, whatever, just grab a bunch of items that have symbolism. Don’t over think it! In fact, don’t think about it at all. A pair of dice? Sure. Grab ‘em. A cherry? Absolutely. A broken egg? Heck yeah! Whatever you want. Hell, you can do it as a portrait, have someone do an unexpected expression that hints at something going on. Slap them altogether into one image and make it really look like it means something.

What are you trying to say with this image? Nothing! Don’t try to say a single thing. But if you do it right your audience will think you are one deep thinker.

Shoot a couple of these and the next thing you know you might actually start saying something with your hidden, or not so hidden meanings.

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“The Obama administration, while insisting it is not meddling in Iran, yesterday confirmed it had asked Twitter to remain open to help anti-government protesters.

The company had planned a temporary shutdown to overhaul its service in the middle of the night on Monday but the US state department put in a request to postpone this.

Many protesters have being using Twitter to spread information about rallies and to share news.”

(via the Guardian UK site – that’s the big newspaper in England).

You can follow me on Twitter, too. Though you’re probably more likely too see odd comments about my life than info on where to go for your next protest. Most of the time, anyway.

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Who do you think inspired the people who made the film? Wha?

Yes, there is someone, a few people actually, in the world of movies whose job it is to inspire the people making the film. For “Up” this job belonged to Lou Romano. Lou and I went to the California Institute of the Art together back in the early 90’s. He’s a great guy. Crazy talented. Really smart. And a bit strange. Just how I like them. When we were in school together Lou stared as the lead character in a series of short films I made called, “Iron Loser.” Since then he has played a mime in a No Doubt video, done voices for a handful of Pixar features and most influentially created artwork thats sole intention is to influence the other artists working on the film by inspiring them.

Lou draws characters interacting with each other, things that aren’t even in the script. He designs possible costumes they might wear. He puts selections of music together that make the listener (or other artists) feel the way he wants the audience to eventually feel. He even does color and lighting “scripts” for each scene in the film, making sure the dominate colors and style of lighting for any particular part of the film are adding to the desired effect. Every single element is thought through. Nothing is an accident. It all comes from a specific place to create the emotion they want you to feel. That’s how you make a film or a photograph or a painting or a song that moves or even inspires your audience.

And where did Lou get his inspiration? Pixar sent Lou and the other team members to Venezuela to check out the locations in person. Lou says: “A challenge in film is conveying how something feels, not how it exists in reality. Imagination and feeling should dictate everything, not reality.”

Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes. But it’s something I think artists sometimes undervalue or even overlook. However uninspired work tends not to inspire others. Seems like a waste of work to me. So the next time you get the itch to make some art with your photography or movies, take the time to get out there and find some inspiration.

You can see more of his work from “Up” on Lou’s blog.

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But no love can be perfect. There is no optical view finder and no built in flash (no biggy), but they also don’t have a low light focus assist. That blows! Unless this thing can focus in near darkness, that is. Also, this chick’s got champagne tastes and wants to be treated right. What I’m trying to say is it’ll cost you $900 to take her home with you. Of course, that’s with the 34mm equivalent 2.8 pancake lens.

I know, I know, that’s not crazy expensive, but I think closer to $600 would make her look all the more attractive. Oh well.

You can see many, many more photos of the camera as well as sample images and HD movies taken with it over at DPP’s incredibly thorough post.

I think we are on the right track. Photographers have been begging for this kind of camera for 10 years. I feel confident that by 2025 Canon will put a similar camera out, too. It’s a joke. I love Canon. Well, love / hate.
Way to go Olympus!
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First, let me say Mark Daniel Cade is a great actor who I met several years ago. He has performed in several of my stage plays and likely will be one of the leads in my feature film. This guy has “it” written all over him and he works frequently as a result. I’m very fortunate that we share a mutual respect for each other. So, when I use an image of him for the first What Went Wrong article, I want to make it clear that as you will see, what went wrong has nothing to do with Mark. Mark rocks! Oh, and he knows how to ride a unicycle.

The Idea: I had a meeting with Mark to see if he was interested in playing a particular part in this feature film I’ll directing soon. Most Hollywood meetings start with some small talk, especially if the people involved already have a relationship. Oh, and in Hollywood, everyone already has some sort of relationship with the other people in the room – even if they have to make it up. But Mark and I have been pals for some time so we were chatting about Christmas and I mentioned that my wife had bought me a unicycle. Mark tells me that he used to ride a unicycle. Well, the sparks start flying in my brain hole and I passed out. When I came to I had the idea for what I thought would be a funny and cool looking image: a guy in the middle of a bike race, only he’s on a unicycle. They call it subversion of expectation. It’s one of my favorite techniques for entertaining my audience.

What Worked: You may disagree, but I think the framing, the pose, the lighting (for the most part), and the acting all work well. I shot other angles, but felt this one was closest to my taste for what I like, while at the same time letting the eye discover the unicycle rather than just throwing it too much in your face.

What Went Wrong: Don’t know if you’ll notice it at the 500px resolution, but if you click on the image it will pop out a 1000px version and I think you’ll notice it. This puppy is softer than an overripe tomato on hot asphalt. Did something go wrong with the focus? Nope. I made a total rookie mistake. I was using a flash off camera. My 5DmII only syncs up to 1/200 so as he rode by the camera the movement created a blur. You may be thinking, “I thought flash stops action.” Sure, if you’re ambient is low enough to not expose your moving subject. This was mid afternoon. It was bright. I’m a dope. I almost never take action shots. And when I do, I don’t combine them with off camera flash so I can roll that shutter up to 1/8000 if that bug that lives in my ear tells me to. Also, I didn’t have my Hoodman Loupe with me and I was being lazy by not zooming in to check the focus. What a dope. Anything else? Well, it would have been nice to have a stylist there. I don’t think the shoes work as well as they could and the outfit could have been more extreme, but for a zero budget shoot with only an hour to get everything, not bad. Well, except for the blur. ARGHH! Oh well.

What I’d Try Different Next Time: I don’t think I’ll be making this mistake again (don’t worry, there are plenty more to make). So if I am going to do this same type of shot again, what would I do differently? I’d just have to gang some 580’s (flashes) together to get enough power and use the high speed sync to pull a higher shutter speed. Pain in the butt, for sure, but at least the images would be usable for something other than a What Went Wrong post. Either that or just pose the action so it’s not actually moving. Kinda tricky with a unicycle, but might work.

Do you have any other ideas of what to do different? Think there is more wrong with the image than I’ve pointed out. Let me know in the comments below. My fragile hart can take it. I hope.

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