SynapticLight

1Goal : Education Beats Poverty

Phillip Gibb — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:29:42 +0000

As you may have noticed; I am supporting 1Goal – here in SynapticLight and on FaceBook. I believe that 1Goal is a brilliant concept. Rather than just buying food and serving an immediate need that will just keep re-occurring, 1Goal seeks to provide a way to educate as many people as possible. Really a sophisticated approach to “Buy a man a fish and feed him for one day, teach him to fish and feed him everyday“

A child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five.

1GOAL

I encourage you to join1goal and to spread the word.

Here is what 1Goal is about:

Today, 72 million children in the world are denied the chance to go to school. These children could be our next generation’s leaders, sports stars, doctors and teachers. But they face a lifelong struggle against poverty.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Since 2000, 40 million more children are in school. Education beats poverty – and gives people the tools to help themselves.

1GOAL is a campaign seizing the power of football to ensure that education for all is a lasting impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Raising our voices all over the world we believe that, together, we can make education a reality for the millions of boys and girls who remain out of school.

“This is our chance to show not just out-of-school children, but our own children, that when we make a promise, we keep it. With your help, we could have billions of fans cheering not just for their teams, but for one team: 1GOAL. This is our moment to shine; we can bring millions of children in from the shadows of ignorance, and light up their lives with the legacy of education.” ~ Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah Co-Founder and Global Co-Chair, 1GOAL

You can help make education for all a reality.

1GOAL is bringing together footballers, fans, charities, corporations and individuals to lobby and achieve our ambitious aim of education for everyone. By joining the 1GOAL team, you can strengthen the campaign’s voice and give us the best possible chance of success.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

DSLR 3D

Phillip Gibb — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:54:02 +0000

There has been much discussion on 3D/stereoscopic solutions for DSLR. One such discussion is on 3D Stereoscopy – Canon 5D MkII and some DIY tips and tricks. The thing that seems strange to me is that Digital Video solutions that make use of some form of HD acquisition, seem to do so with a load of shortcuts and high prices. However with DSLR, we have all the wonderful control of manual functions and interchangeable lenses. Ok, I am not a fan of the type of compression used to acquire video on DSLR, but I have heard good reports.

Now Panasonic comes out with a 3D consumer camera by using a previous model and adding a kind of 3D lens adapter. Yet, here, there is a Lumix (Panasonic) DSLR that is well priced and has put together a history of community involvement to improve it (lets just call it good manipulation of firmware updates), and at a better price. This together with a new 3D lens adapter is just amazing.
Now I am left wondering, why would anyone buy the 3D consumer camera when they can get this Lumix DSLR and be able to interchange the lens at will.
Interesting.
However I must say that holding a DSLR with a decent lens is not very comfortable. Rigs required.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

12 Cores of RAW Power

Phillip Gibb — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:19:22 +0000

This is what I have been waiting for. Hoping and dreaming for. Ok, it is way out of the league of my finances, but the fact that Apple has released this new range of Mac Pros has restored my confidence in them.

Here are the things that stand out for me:

High End Commitment

Why? Because I have doubted Apple’s commitment to the more professional user, a commitment that has been dogged my rumors and suspicions about Final Cut Studio’s life. The idea that Final Cut Studio was under threat has been substantiated by the notion that Apple was not committed to the high end market. Which they have debunked now through the release of these beasts.

Power

The new Mac Pros, are truly awesome. Two ”Westmere” 6-core CPUs is all that I can see. 12 Cores of Power or if you want 24 virtual cores with Intel’s Hyper-Threading. Imagine that. The breathing room will be nothing short of phenomenal. It will be interesting to see how 4K Editing, Color Grading and Motion Graphics hold up.

The Graphic Options are:

ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5
ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of GDDR5

Memory for the dual architecture is up to 32GB:

2.4GHz system: 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM
2.66GHz and 2.93GHz systems: 1333MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM

Memory for the single architecture is up to 32GB:

2.8GHz and 3.2GHz systems: 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM
3.33GHz system: 1333MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM

Blue-Ray still Missing

The DVD Drive is still a DVD drive and the option for the second slot is specified as “One open optical drive bay for optional second SuperDrive” not even a mention for an Optional Blu-Ray Drive. Pity. That is the only failure.

[Update]

No USB 3.0 or FW 1600/3200

It was noted on StudioDaily that there is no USB 3.0 or FW 1600/3200 this is unfortunate because all of the very useful USB 3.0 post production product out there. Inserting a USB 3.0 card will probably use up the last PCI slot. One is already taken up by the Graphic Card (would you have two?) and possibly an eSata card.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Consumer 3D Camcorder

Phillip Gibb — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:46:30 +0000

I am very excited about the prospect of getting into the Stereoscopic World with Panasonic’s 3D Consumer Camcorder. They are claiming this to be the “World’s first 3D Shooting Camcorder” – as far as I know that’s correct.

Headaches

However this might be a bundle of headaches for people everywhere. First for the 3D content creator and second for the 3D consumer. It might now be cheap to capture 3D, but my goodness – it is not a trivial task to edit.

Play

While I am excited and love technology moving on, I will rather save for a good editing system and play around with Stereoscopic footage from other people.

Stock Footage

One thing that opens up with this (hopefully affordable) 3D consumer camcorder is the opportunity for videographers to submit 3D stock footage to video site for resale. Hmmm that might be a good way to make some money to fund my Mac Pro

Make up

Well it seems that the 3D Camera will just be modification on an existing camera. Engadget believes that it will be a modified HDC-HS700. Hmm, then the question begs; when other manufactures (Canon and now Sony) providing consumer cameras with replaceable lenses – would an separate adapter be better. We would not want the cheapest possible lens pair would we?

[Source and Images : Engadget]

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Movie Maker going Digital

Phillip Gibb — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:51:35 +0000

All things becoming digital, as they will be - probably forever. From the time that Google started digitizing libraries till who knows when. Magazine publications are realizing that this reality is what appeals to most readers, especially those tech savy – those who know how to fin information semi-immediately on the interwebs.

So it is great to see a good film making magazine going digital as well. I love this, not only because it is a tech process, but also because I don’t get to see these magazines on the bookshelves of South Africa. The digitized version of Movie Maker opens up the opportunity to subscribe to a very relevant publication. Relevant to my interests and passions. And hopefully yours

So check it out at Movie Maker.

And an article from the latest copy: 25 Must-Have Apps for Moviemakers

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

5 Weekly Filmmaking Links

Phillip Gibb — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:03:53 +0000

There are always interesting filmmaking articles out there; anything from a useful post production tutorial to an interview with a Director. It is the goal of this series to share 5 articles related to the film making process. This series will replace the “Friday Filmmaking Links” series. So let us begin.

8K Super High-Definition Camera System: We all know of the RED One camera system as well as RED’s Scarlet and Epic. This should not come at much of a surprise; technology marches on (whether you think 4K is cool or not) and Japan intends to broadcast 8K, gosh. But how cool would it be to actually film and work with 8K; if just for the experience.
One bite at a time: Dealing with complex projects during post production requires one to keep their wits about them. Oliver Peters discuses what you can do in such situations with the editing tools that you have at your disposal.
Review: Magic Bullet Colorista II: A review of the resented released Colorista2. It works within Final Cut Pro and can, conceivably, replace the need to go out to Color. Hmmm interesting. But if you have Final Cut Studio then you have Color – so why spend money on a tool that does the same job as Color, it would have to be very good.
Default Preferences, Unlimited HD Come to Vimeo: On the back of YouTube’s 4K announcement, it is not surprising that Vimeo has come to the party with something better. My only problem with this is bandwidth and cap – will ISPs handle such demand?
MakingOf “Inception” Featurette: Some On-Set Footage from Inception. There are parts 1 and 2, as well as production photos.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

New Windows Movie Maker

Phillip Gibb — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:52:53 +0000

Better than iMovie? Or just better features and more usable than the previous version. One thing is that is for sure is that it will be filling a gap.

Ok I am a fully fledged Apple Mac and Final Cut Studio fanatic and have been for a few years, so I will always recommend iMovie to people who can’t afford FCS. However, a lot of people opt for computers put together in the cheapest manner – typically windows PCs because you can’t do that with a mac – so they are restricted to only windows video editing solutions. And I certainly can’t recommend Avid’s Media Composer – my friends will thing me crazy.

Anyway, there seems to be a solution with this new Windows 7 Live Movie Maker …

Free Video Editing for Windows

Too many times I have been asked for a free video editing option for Windows and I stand there with a mouth full of straw. Windows Movie Maker as is stands is terrible, I have tried it and I have walked away with fear and loathing. However, if this new Windows 7 version is better then I may be able to offer a better solution than before.

Windows Live Movie Maker

They call it Windows Live Movie Maker, is that because it will integrate with Windows Live accounts. Are they looking to provide online collaboration like is offering in Final Cut Pro 7. Quite ambitious if you ask me.

What is New

Make a movie quickly and easily: Auto movie will be great for those that do not have or want to spend time with the nuances of cutting.
Improved Editing: Thank goodness for this
Make your photos come to life: Something for the happy snappers in us.
Web publishing: This is something that will be very appealing since most people want to upload to some form of online distribution channel like YouTube.

Windows DVD Maker

“DVD burning in Movie Maker is dependent on Windows DVD Maker” This is very very good. Only available on:

Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Enterprise
Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Ultimate editions

A Studio Solution

Microsoft is silently slipping into the hobbyist market with what looks to be a studio like solution. All they need now is a simple music and motion graphics editor.

Now I can say to all my Windows friends (albeit Windows 7) that I can suggest a free non-mac Video Editing Solution. Or would you suggest something else?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Filmmaking Squared by Google

Phillip Gibb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:00:48 +0000

I found this really interesting Google Labs thing called Squared. What is the first thing I did? Enter the term Filmmaking, “Yeah man” (as Baloo would say it). What was returned was a neat table of popular film makers and some interesting information. The generated table has columns that are cleverly relevant to the context of film makers – although I must say that I was expecting something more related to filmmaking as a process than filmmaking people.
Besides the information immediately obvious, google also supplies other options to choose from – probably the next most relevant sources – in the form of a drop list. Also you can add your own columns that I think google uses as a search term related to the squared term (in this case: filmmaking).
Of course I tried synapticlight, which did not return anything until I added my own keywords, click here for the result. And Visual Effects, which resulted in a list of filters. Alas nothing for “post production”.

Here is a screenshot of the Google Squared Filmaking result:

8b6cafebb6c74d3bb37a8a69a3bbd983
e07e309f10a843c4859827815a5bf963

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Social Network – Theatrical Trailers

Phillip Gibb — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:57:46 +0000

I think that this is very cool. In a way it is a perfect movie to feature here on this blog because I am into filmmaking and social networking – this is a Film about Social Networking. Will it be a good film? I leave that judgment to when I watch it. But for now here are the details, followed by the theatrical trailers after the jump.

The Social Network is a story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook.

Director: David Fincher
Writers: Ben Mezrich (novel), Aaron Sorkin (screenplay)

You can see the full cast on IMDB, but there does not seem to anyone notable other that Justin Timberlake – he acts in film? (well, didn’t he start off on a TV show? The Mickey Mouse Club House?)

I see that the screenplay was adapted from a novel by Ben Mezrich, hmm – maybe I’ll read that.

[Movie Poster by: trailershut]

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

5 Communities at SynapticLight

Phillip Gibb — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:47:35 +0000

SynapticLight and me as the primary author (you can be a contributing one if you like – hint hint) have other channels where connections are made. They may be social networks outside of this blog, but they are places where discussions and sharing on filmmaking related topics can happen as well.
The goal is not to put together numbers and counts to inflate my reputation, the goal is to connect, engage and make friends. In connecting and ultimately making friends, we can learn from each other and others can learn from us as they read.

So I encourage you to check them out, to help share and discuss, and to join/friend.

Facebook

There are actually 3 difference and sometimes overlapping parts:
Be a Facebook Fan : There is a SynapticLight Fan Page to which blog posts are streamed via RSS. On the odd occasion I post updated and calls to actions. Here you can start off discussions or just post on the wall.
Like the blog: You can just Like the blog (as you can at the moment in the header of the blog)

My Facebook Profile : And of course, my facebook profile. You are more than welcome to befriend me if you don’t mind all strange updates I post, lol.

Twitter

Besides all the stuff I tweet about myself and SynapticLight blog entries, I also have a lot of filmmaker friends whom I RT and engage with.

Google

Buzz and Google Profile: You can follow me here. I try to share interesting stuff I find in my collection of RSS feeds, this can be anything odd, funny, social media or filmmaking related. Or you can just subscribe to the blog here.

Digg

There does not seem to be dedicated channels to filmmaking, although there is Technology and Entertainment – Movies. Here I obviously spare my own posts and try to promote others to also digg them. I am still in the process of connecting with people with the same interests as me. Here is SynapticLight’s Digg Account.

StumbleUpon

This is the Social Bookmarking that provides me with the most hits. It is also more flexible in topics, so I am able to stumble links that are more closely related to filmmaking than Digg. Here is SynapticLight’s StumbleUpon Account.

Of course there are a few other, as you can see in the header, feel free to check those out. And of course on my Google Profile.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

YouTube 4K

Phillip Gibb — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:47:52 +0000

After last year’s announcement from YouTube that they will support 1080p (what they referred to as FullHD), now they have come out with an incredible post about 4K:

What’s bigger than 1080p? 4K video comes to YouTube

Wow.
High Definition is not so much a standard as it is a journey; next there will be 9K.
One thing is for sure, if you know about RED and their cameras then you’ld be super excited.
The obvious issue here is a combination of storage and bandwidth issues. I know in my country; South Africa, things are only now becoming affordable to access the internet with uncapped accounts and faster line speeds. However, watching (even uploading) 4K video will certainly strain even the fastest line speeds (currently 4096K kbps).
For now 4K broadcasting over YouTube will be limited to the few that are able to create the content and the few that can watch it with out having to wait.
Yet one huge off shoot from this is – when 4K viewing becomes as feasible as 1080p – then online films distribution quality concerns may be mute.
So who will have a screen big enough to watch online 4K?
Will online projectors be the future for display?
4K? 9K? …

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Quest: adidas Football (2010 World Cup)

Phillip Gibb — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:11:55 +0000

This is it.
The FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa is climaxing tonight with the Spain vs Netherlands final. I have chosen Spain as my team in this match although it seems that there is a lot of local support for Holland. But there is something about Spain. I think that The two teams play a similar style football but Spain is more of a team, more clinical and more aware of the game as a whole.
Here is the adidas Football quest, here is the final destination. I like table mountain in the shot
Some if the football moves in the movie looks a bit like Shaolin Soccer, ever seen that?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Friday Filmmaking Links (3D)

Phillip Gibb — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:02:51 +0000

So many things heading towards 3D, as if High Definition acquisition and broadcasting was not enough. I wonder what will come after 3D.

Lights, camera, action… – FIFA’s Soccer World Cup 3D cameras. I am here in Cape Town, South Africa, and watching the world cup. I have to hang my head in shame as I say that I have not seen a game in 3D – let alone seen the cameras used to capture the action in 3D.
Stereoscopic Storm – NAB 3D Cameras : Some of the cameras and units used to give cameras 3D capability. Those rigs look seriously big.
Professional 46-Inch 3D Display Monitor : A great screen to preview your 3D editing content.
Sony’s 3D World: Well since Sony is supplying the cameras for 3D acquisition at the World Cup, here is their website.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Star Wars and the 2010 Soccer World Cup

Phillip Gibb — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 07:04:29 +0000

Staying on the theme of the 2010 Soccer World Cup being held here in South Africa (the final in 2 days; go Spain) and some good compositing to put actors into popular films – after the fact.
Here we have Star Wars and adidas Originals teaming up to great some interesting videos, including peeps like Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, Calle 13, DJ Neil Armstrong and Daft Punk.
Awesome.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Fellowship of the Vuvuzela

Phillip Gibb — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:31:06 +0000

This is classic, funny and so well done.

Caption Please

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.