1. Focus – This will be impossible in a run ‘n gun capacity without viewfinder amplification (I ordered the Z-Finder)
2. Exposure – This will work without a histogram if you a) use the built-in light meter by b) practicing.
3. Support – You will not get a steady shot without some sort of support, I thought my monopod was awesome, not to mention cheap. I would like a single handle though.
4. Focus 2 – Trying to keep steady and focus will not happen if you don’t have some sort of follow focus assembly (still looking- traditional FF’s are just way to big and appendage-y for what I need.
5. Exposure 2 – Forget trying to do anything faster than F/2.8 if you’re a one-man band and moving- you simply WILL not be able to focus well- MAYBE F/2 but that’s pushing it. Static interviews will probably be okay though.

What I have noticed is that anything out of the HDLSR also has a hybrid “look” and by that I mean, it’s not quite your typical DV look but it has a crispness that lends itself to almost looking fake. The following shots are simply colored in First Light by adjusting lift, exposure, saturation, and contrast. I wanted to make the mailbox stuff look a little vintage but wanted to see how colorful I could make this piece in it’s “crispness.”

FYI: My T2i settings are pretty simple- I pulled every setting down to it’s maximum decrease

I am VERY pleased with what I can do with this H.264 stuff after I transcode to Cineform. VERY pleased. The results I get just frankly, blow me away and I’ve worked with about every codec out there now. I’m VERY happy and struggle to really find that I need anything more than this.

I have a whole bunch of real gear coming and a couple real gigs. In a change from what I usually do, I’m going to look at a workflow where I edit in Avid “offline” then do my final online in Premiere and After Effects. Avid just blows Premiere away in terms of easy use, and responsive editing.

1. Organic- there’s just something natural about shooting with this form factor. I was a bit concerned at first, but now have found it’s addicting. I’m drawn to it, it’s fresh, it feels natural, organic, down to earth and it just plain makes me feel good.

2. Easy – It’s light, it’s free, it’s low profile. I stuck in on a $30 monopod and just threw it around as you’ll see in the below clip.

3. Historically Accurate – if you’re into this sort of thing. Motion picture came from moving stills right? So this is the next evolution- not an engineer version of it. Why do new tapeless format cameras still have the same size of their tape counterparts? This probably plays into point number 1. (from a presentation by Shane Hurlbut).

4. ROI – yeah, we’ve all read Barry’s report on aliasing and all heard all about rolling shutter and you know what? It’s a legitimate issue but we don’t care. As Matt Jeppsen quoted on Twitter the other day: We’re willing to overlook it because 90% of the time we want to lick the screen. And it’s $800, double the sensor size and double the bit rate of my $6K Sony. The DOF is better, quality is better, medium is cheaper, lenses are not cheaper but easier to attain and I can swap ‘em out whenever I want.

5. Low Profile- For the indie doc guy? Easier to look like a tourist and with the amount of places I’ve been kicked out of because my camera is too “professional”- my Rebel won’t draw that kind of attention. Besides, who uses a Rebel in a professional capacity? *no comment*

6. Cost Effectiveness – For the non-profit crew? Cheap, high-quality web video.

*EDIT* 7. SDHC – I don’t have to pack around an FW800 cable and my 300x CF card reader. I can slip in a paper thin card into my E34 slot on my MBP.

So there you go. I’m hooked. I love it. Every bit of it. It’s addicting, makes me feel good, looks amazing, and most of all, it’s freakin’ cheap as hell. Get a T2i, record some video and have some fun.

…I don’t even have filters or a follow focus or proper rig yet…sheesh.

You now have yourself an $800 uncompressed 720 video madhouse. You may disagree, but I think that’s pretty sweet.

I got my T2i in the mail about three hours ago so while I was doing some audio capture on one machine, I ran out and bought a mini HDMI to HDMI cable and hooked the T2i up to my MXO2 Mini.

Here’s a screen capture of the the captured source:

I dumped into Cineform’s ReMaster which told me it was a 1326mbits stream *EDIT* I was told this is the same regardless of pre/post stream* I’ve never tested this crap so cut me slack - stream notes are identical to the uncompressed HDMI output on my Z7U. I converted it to Cineform 4:4:4 with pulldown removal and ended up with a cropped 1920×1080p24 clip.

Ideally, I would dump it into First Light and apply an offset 2.35:1 crop on it. However, that stupid little focus box (even with focus off) just sits there a few pixels above the bottom crop. If there was no gray bar on the top, I could be fine with the offset and mark my camera during a shoot.

What does work if you want to do this, is bring your transcoded piece into your project and apply a 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 crop and expand the clip slightly in a 720 timeline- perfect (esp. for web). You might want to keep a stock of wide angles around though. Keep in mind if you want to shoot this way you’ll want to mark your Cinedeck or computer monitor because guess what?

No LCD readout when the HDMI is plugged in- none, nada, zip, zilch, nothing. Hit video record on the T2i and you lose BOTH screens! Definitely intended for playback only. But still the good news is that it does appear to be uncompressed. So you’re limited to a studio or Cinedeck setting and the Nanoflash need not apply.

My greenscreen skills suck but here’s the final output (sorry for the soft focus, I didn’t dial it in completely):

I do have a Cinedeck beta coming so I’ll test it with that straight-away. And I’ll be honest, I’d really like a 720 center crop on capture that would eliminate these display issues though not ideal- I tried with my MXO2 Mini but the thing kept crashing (no surprise there).

So in closing, $800 for a camera giving you uncompressed 720 capture? Sweet. And I find myself cropping everything anyway because as someone on Twitter said the other day: “16×9 is so 4×3″ or something like that- my interpretation: “2.35/2.40:1 looks cool as hell…”

*EDIT 16 (or something like that) @SalaTar gave me some insight into testing it for MPEG4 breakups so I’m going to really push somethings on the camera and see what I can eek out.*

I know let down phone photo huh? Haha!

New School?

I’m really turned off by the traditional film distribution/indie film model. It’s got this vibe and aura surrounding it that I never want to be a part of. It has a post-student/emo/half-music video feel. I’m not talking about just the technical merits of poor audio, bad lighting, horrible if non-existent color correction etc. The philosophy also turns me off. Wearing funny hats, retro clothing, asking friends and family to bone up several thousand dollars so you you friends can make the next dramatic Sundance hit it your buddy’s livingroom. Yeah not so much.

Maybe I came in to the game late- from a broadcast world of technical requirements, specs, standards- editing on tape and shooting with huge cameras in large studios with paid professionals. I entered when (as I’ve been reading/told) money dried up for indies, festivals were dominated by $1M “low-budget” films with real directors, rental houses were being killed off my Netflix etc. I never worked in that old film world so I don’t know. I came from broadcast- but I’m doing filmmaking now.

It started as a fluke. I got a full time job outside of media. They realized I had skills and started having me do media things. I met people, started travelling and filming. I’m blessed. I work hard for the gigs I get, but getting into it was less effort. In fact, i didn’t WANT to do this when got the job outside of media. But when you love something and it’s given back to you, you really can’t keep away. But like any good broadcaster, I film for my AUDIENCE. I don’t film for me.

Yes, I love it, but if I do it for me, I fall into the black-haired, big glasses, wool sweater, artsy, no-money, filmmaker lifestyle. One that’s about my story, my creative control, my film. Not my audience. It’s drilled into when you start: audience, audience, audience. From a broadcasting standpoint; no audience, no advertising, no advertising, no dollars, you go under. (Reason 1 your local radio station changes formats every year).

Find Audience. Make Film.

Filmmaking is the same. But it’s not necessarily dollars- yes, you need those to get it off the ground and out to your audience- But it’s AUDIENCE. If you have no audience to watch it, what’s the point? They’ll never see your new creation and you’ll nevery get paid. They’re not going to flock to your next half-assed mumblecore flick- rarely is a movie ever that good. So it’s fairly basic: Identify your audience, write/film something they’ll love. Market the hell out of it every way you can.

“Niche-ified”

Which brings me to my last point: Distribution. The cheapest way to distribute now is online. If you plan accordingly, you can make money and your audience can see it. There are more qualified people to talk on this so I won’t say much but audiences are yes, gathering at the next big blockbuster, but also so fragmented and niche-ified online, you can go where they are will a film about something they love. So try it next time.

I meant to talk about some other things, like how I’m doing it, but I just sort of started writing. So instead of “Make Film > Find Audience” Try it this way: “Find Audience > Make film”

Now my DroboCare account is expired so you will charge me for service and probably tell me something like, “reformat your Drobo.” That is what I had to do last time and I’m not doing it again. I’m going to buy a proper RAID device from a proper company.

I am not happy and will never recommend your product to anyone. Ever.

Thank you.

I have a beta of something (I think) even cooler coming in a couple more weeks as well. Should be good times here for me with new gear, a couple new projects and super high-quality production for independents and non-profits.

We got back tonight and were having some post-hot tub discussion about our dogs as we were sitting in the family room next to the fire. We have two (but watching three more of the in-law’s canines)- one lab and one Boston Terrier. Somehow the discussion got around to what kind of car they’d drive if they could drive cars. (Admit it, we all would love to see dogs drive- great movie idea).

Anyway Callie, our Boston Terrier is rather um, high-strung, obsessive, and overall rather bitchy. Wife agreed when I figured her to drive the huge diesel truck with diesel stacks out the back. You may have never seen one, it’s the Fast and the Furious in cowboy land I think (FYI, never try to race one, if you have a fast car because they typically have wicked amounts of torque and very large turbos):

(image stolen from a forum via google)

Hanging off the back would be those nasty nut-sacks and a sticker on the back window that says, “I bit these off myself” License Plate: (BITE EM).

For our other dog Migo, our lumbering, laid-back, somewhat dim-witted black lab, my wife thought he would drive an old-style beetle, while I thought he’s more of the old Dodge van type (with bubble window):

We debated and disagreed but both agree that it would be the worlds first butter-powered vehicle (he loves butter- once ate an entire stick off the counter wrapper and all). And when he wanted to stop for a snack, he’d just pull over and lick out the gas tank. License plate: LIKBTTA (like butter or lick butter, either one works).

I think my wife was going to put up her thoughts on her blog over here so check it out in a day or so.

What would YOUR dog drive?