A company called Blackmagic Design is one of the only companies I know of who manufactures PCI and PCI-E cards which allow you to capture uncompressed 1920 x 1080 footage directly to your Mac (or pc). Blackmagic’s Intensity cards provide an HDMI input for your camcorder to be plugged into. The Intensity Pro ($349), also gives the ability to capture analogue or component video. For our purposes we will be using the standard Intensity ($249).

With the use of these cards, almost any consumer camera can output 80 megabytes per second of realtime HD video. Some articles around the web claim that any internal hard drive works just fine, others say that the use of a raid array is needed. I highly recommend the G-Technology G-Raid or G-Raid Mini. If you have any questions about capturing footage via HDMI please email us, MacFilmmaking@gmail.com.

FxFactory 2.0 from Noise Industries has just been released. If you are not familiar with FxFactory yet, it’s pretty much an app which stores plug-ins/effects that can be used in Final Cut Pro, Motion, and even Avid. This new version of FxFactory now interfaces nicely with Mac OS X Leopard and works with Final Cut Express 4. It also sports some amazing new effects and many more features.
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Tracking markers allow you to move the camera while shooting on a green screen. Most people would ask, I can move the camera without tracking markers, can’t I? Yes, you can… (Here comes the “But”) but it will not look very nice when you key out the green and add in a background. You will see that the foreground subject is moving, but the background is stationary. It looks like the subject is just floating around the frame.
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We are currently seeking a Mac teen who is interested in marketing our site to advertisers, search engines, and social networks. We can’t compensate services at this time, but if you can make us some cash, we would love to pay you. Oh, and also we would put you on the crew page. If you’re interested in this position, please email us at macfilmmaking@gmail.com. Thanks.

Elliott Cost
Mac Filmmaking Team

More in depth reviews and screencasts coming soon.

Elliott shows off an easy way of organizing video projects.

Ryan took a look at Motion 3. If you have any questions about this screencast, please leave comments below.

The New UI:
If you haven’t already noticed the new Quicktime player, it pretty much looks a lot like the new Safari. I mean to say, that the player has the same dark beveled look. The play buttons are also a little different in their styling. By far the newest style change is that the player doesn’t have a border on the right and left edges. This makes whatever you’re playing look really smooth and integrated into the rest of the OS. (more…)

FotoFlexer is a great tool, if you need to edit images on the go, on a friends machine if they don’t have any image editing software, or if your copy of Photoshop is not working (like mine). It can definitely be handy. Learn more at Fotoflexer.com.

Elliott takes a look at the LaCie D2 Hard Drive. Check out the D2 at LaCie.com.Correction: I believe that the LaCie Extreme is the most prone to crashes, not the D2.

If you take a look at their products page, you will see they have quite a selection of sizes. In my opinion, their materials are priced very reasonably for what you’re getting. eefx.com also sells many other supplies for hanging, mounting, and securing chroma key fabrics. If you have any questions about choosing chroma key materials, please leave a comment below or email us.
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Personal Server
With new hosting providers launching each month, many filmmakers have resorted to purchasing their own server for uploading videos to the web. Having your own sever means you will have total control over how your video will play and what it will look like. A server also comes with domain name control for starting your own site for your work.
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The long awaited Pixelmator has now left beta and is available in all its 1.0 glory. Not only is it compatible with layered .PSD images and over 100 more file types, it also has built-in integration with iSight and iLife. Pixelmator utilizes many core technologies; Core Image, Open GL, Automator, Color sync, and more.

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If you are on this website, odds are you have a Macintosh computer. As most of us Mac users know, the rest of the world is using Windows. This leads to the point of my article, Flip4Mac WMV Studio. Flip4Mac WMV Studio is a $49 plug-in that allows you to take QuickTime movies and convert them to WMV files, or Windows Media Files.

This is extremely helpful when a client, friend, or family member has a Windows computer, and you want to send them a video. Once you’ve installed Flip4Mac Studio, you will see a WMV export option in every application that uses Quicktime architecture. This includes Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express HD, QuickTime Pro, iMovie, Sorenson Media Squeeze, Discreet Cleaner 6, Compressor and more. Simply take your desired video, click export, and choose Windows Media format in your application of choice. Once it encodes you have a fully Windows compatible movie, that will play in any version of Windows Media Player.

There is also a free version of Flip4Mac which gives you the ability to playback Windows Media files within QuickTime Player. (Note: The free version does not allow you to convert files.)

The first of these principles is that film doesn’t match the same frame rate as digital video. This is to say that you will never be able to take your DV footage and magically covert it to look exactly like film. The second principle you must understand, is that your digital video camera doesn’t pick up the range of color a film camera will. The final principle to grasp its that film has a distinct grain to it, which can’t be duplicated with a digital format.

Despite these differences there is some hope for digital filmmakers looking to make their footage look like film. Below I have explained 4 easy and cheap ways of doing this…
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Ryan gives a tip on why you should use an external mic and what kind of external mics you should invest in.

Ever sense The Great Train Robbery in 1903, film has been used and adapted to meet the demand of movie fans. Film has taken up such a tight hold in the world of filmmaking that many believe it will never die. I agree to an extent when this is said, but I also believe that both film and video will not last much longer. In the future I see filmmakers capturing onto data cards and easily transferring footage to their personal computers.
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Elliott: How is FxFactory different from other FX plug-in apps?
Niclas: First off I think it is important to understand that FxPlug has only been around for FCP since October 2006 with the release of FCP 5.1.2. Noise Industries was the first company to release a product for FCP based on FxPlug. Most of the other plug-in products for FCP are still based on the old AE interface (not supported by Intel Macs) or FxScript. Only slowly are we seeing more and more products that use Apples modern FxPlug architecture.
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Many social video sites have tried to accomplish the same task, by either running an ad before content or overlaying ads over the content that is being played. YouTube has recently implemented a beta program where lower third ads are displayed on certain videos. These overlays can get confusing to viewers plus YouTube videos are already displayed very small anyway. LiveRail poses a different concept to this problem altogether. What LiveRail believes in is ads that go with content and ads that don’t disrupt the original content being played.

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This episode is pretty short, but we did get to talk about some important products. Ryan talks about Mogulus, (a live web broadcasting outlet), and Elliott talks about FxFactory, which we have been covering this week. Don’t forget to head over to MacFilmmaking.com to find more news, reviews, and interviews.

Elliott takes a look at FxFactory from Noise Industries, in Motion 2. Also, don’t forget to read the FxFactory Review.

Step 1: First of all you will want to make sure that you’re selected on the timeline.

Step 2: Then go to View, Video Playback, and click on your designated display, (either a camera, internal or external display).

Step 3: Next, go back up to View, External Video, and click on All Frames (⌘F12). That’s it. You should now automatically be launched into fullscreen mode. To get out of fullscreen, just press the escape key.

If you have a question about this tip or others, please leave a comment below.

Ryan takes a look at Mogulus.com, a live broadcasting studio on the internet. Plus, its free! Enjoy.

FxFactory seamlessly integrates production quality effects right into your FCP or Motions workflow. The first part and most important part of FxFactory is the app launch window. From here you can choose from three options, Create FxPack, Open a FxPack, or Get more FxPacks.

Creating an FxPack is pretty straight forward. FxFactory uses Quartz and Core Image to create plug-ins. In this review, I’m not going to go over Quartz much, but you can simple select “New Plug-In” and begin to create your generator, transition, or effect. Once your done building your effect it’s easy to add it as a pack and start using it in FCP or Motion.
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The New Look
Each version of iMovie has always looked a little different, (and usually better) than the last version, but iMovie ‘08 has taken on a whole new layout and design scheme. iMovie now sports a shiny new black finish. Personally the black is nice on the eyes and helps in simplifying the entire app. System panels are also different in iMovie ‘08, they are now styled similar to what Motion system panels look like. Fonts and icons are larger than usual, which is surprising and there are some awesome window effects similar to what Aperture has.
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Ryan reviews Techspansion’s VisualHub application.

Correction: The program encodes all videos much faster than real time, but it encodes H.264 in real time. H.264 usually has very long encode times in other programs. Sorry about that

(via Engadget)

The new iMac sports a classy aluminum alloy case and comes with a new, and quite MacBookish style keyboard. The iMac comes in a 20″ and 24″ model. Pricing starts at $1,199. As a pro user, other than the stylish case and glossy display, I’m most attracted towards the amount of ports available. In back, the iMac has a new FireWire 800 port, (leading towards pro user needs).
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Elliott: How was the idea of a simple stop motion application for the Mac created?
Oliver: In 2002, my brother Achim and I were looking for product ideas. A friend of ours, who is a video pro, suggested a stop motion tool as there were none available natively for Mac OS X in 2002. The reasoning was that it could revolutionize the way stop motion is shot because of the live onion skinning which provides immediate control of the shots. This idea appealed to us because we were doing stop motion movies in the backyard with our father’s Super 8 camera when we were kids, so this tool met a couple of important criteria: We would love to use it ourselves (and indeed, Achim has made some very cool stop motion movies (Bio War, Little Lamp, Little Lamp Gets a Friend), it had the potential of changing a genre and we had a competitive angle which was making a best of class application.
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Elliott reviews the Steadicam Merlin. Find out more about the Steadicam Merlin here.

1. The best resource on HDV + comparisons with other formats. More…

2. An interesting article on the Mac visual effects used in the movie 300. More…

3. DV Guru is great blog resource for filmmakers, even though it has has been discontinued. More…

4. Amazing Macintosh made visual effects. The Embassy VFX is an inspiration to me. More…

5. Good resource to know about as a Mac filmmaker. Featuring editors such as Walter Murch. More…
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Ryan looks at using DV Matte Blast for chroma keying. Find out more about DV Matte Blast here.

Step One

If you have the newest version of iWork you should be able to use the scripting template in Pages. First of all, you will want to launch Pages, and wait for the template window to popup. Then you will want to click on “Creative”, in the template windows side bar and select the template named “Screenplay”.

The Template

Using the Pages screenplay template is pretty simple. Just edit the document as needed and start writing. Other than that, the template includes a fully featured style list, which you can access by selecting “Styles”, on the Pages menu bar.

Simplicity is Key

Understandably, Pages is not a devoted scripting application. If you are looking for a dedicated scripting application, I would recommend Final Draft or Microsoft Word scripting plugins. The Pages scripting template is simply an easy way of getting your feet wet in official formatting rules and story writing.

“If we can make it easy for people to share movies they love with others, the big movie/little movie playing field will be level and really meaningful stories will find their audience.”

To begin, the movie review aspect of the site is user driven; Spout has built a community of film fans that share what they love and what they hate. They can write reviews and give their opinions so you can make an informed decision on what you rent or end up purchasing. Along with reading reviews and rating, Spout provides you with recommendations based on your own reviews. This provides a dynamic experience for one to discover new films and discuss these films with the film-lover knowledge base.

The rental/purchasing aspect of the site provides a simple, yet powerful service to the user by giving them the ability to link their NetFlix or Blockbuster queues to Spout. Once you find a movie that intrigues you, it is as easy as drag-and-drop. Spout also provides you with the link to purchase the movie from Amazon as well as links to Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango, and others.

Spout also provides the movie-buff and the movie-discoverer with the tools to delve deeper into the world of film. Check it out at www.spout.com.