There are of course pages touting processor updates, new benchmarks, and a whole bunch of tech specs. But take a look at the graphics card options for the new machines:

• (1) ATI Radeon HD 5770 card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
• (2) ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
• (1) ATI Radeon HD 5870 card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

Notice anything missing? For the first time in Mac Pro history, there are no nVidia graphics cards offered. Here’s the reason this is of interest to professional editors and filmmakers: Adobe’s impressive Mercury Playback Engine, recently premiered with its CS5 suite, relies exclusively on nVidia graphics cards. Apple has always shipped Mac Pros with nVidia GPUs — either standard, or at the very least, as a build-to-order option. In fact, even going through the history of Power Mac G5 shows that nVidia has always been an option, ever since the G5 was introduced in 2003. However, this new Mac Pro will break that streak (despite earlier rumors that nVidia’s new Fermi line of GPUs would be supported). So, to recap: Adobe releases CS5 with nVidia GPU acceleration, blowing the performance of Apple’s Final Cut Pro out of the water. Apple releases new Mac Pros and leaves out nVidia GPUs. Coincidence? I’ll leave it up to you to decide…

While some of nVidia’s new cards are thought to run hot, nVidia has always been a workstation standard. At the very least I would expect Apple to offer nVidia cards as a build-to-order option, because, you know, this is a “Pro” machine and many professionals choose to use Adobe products. But no. Instead, if you want to get the best performance out of your Adobe-based editing suite (and, if you’re paying $3k or more for your machine, I assume performance is important), you’ll have to pay for the ATI card and then buy a nVidia card from a third-party reseller. This is assuming Apple releases drivers for the latest nVidia cards on any sort of reasonable timeline. Suddenly, Apple’s claims of being open are even more laughable. You want $5,000 for a pro workstation and won’t even offer a nVidia card as an option, despite the fact that most popular creative software suite in the world uses nVidia cards? I said I would leave it up to you to decide, but this really doesn’t seem like a coincidence.

I can hear Steve Jobs touting Apple’s openness by saying Adobe’s decision to go with a proprietary nVidia technology is “closed,” whereas ATI graphics cards run on “open” standards like OpenCL. Yes, implementing nVidia’s CUDA architecture was a proprietary decision on Adobe’s part, but let’s put Apple’s own reasoning to work here. Similar to Apple’s argument for keeping Flash off of iOS, Adobe made a decision based on performance: nVidia’s CUDA is more mature than OpenCL at this point in time. Regarding Adobe Flash, Steve Jobs himself stated, “we have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.” So in an effort to improve the performance of their device, Apple went with a Flash-free approach because there wasn’t an extant example of Flash performing well. Similarly, in an effort to improve the performance of their editing suite, Adobe went with CUDA because there wasn’t an extant example of OpenCL performing well. It’s the same argument, but apparently it doesn’t go both ways. Once again, by not giving its users options, Apple is acting like a TV manufacturer who bans certain stations.

So, what to do? Spend $3,000 on a machine that isn’t offering you the basic options you want? Maybe you can build a hackintosh. Or, you know, thanks to some other Mac issues with editing, perhaps it’s time to switch to a PC.

I’m just thinking out loud here, and while I’d rather not spend so much time talking about Apple, I do use their hardware to create absolutely everything I do. If add-on nVidia cards are shown to work flawlessly in CS5 come August, I’ll probably buy one of these Mac Pros anyway, simply because of all the Mac applications I’m reliant on. But take a look at the Apple homepage — on the day they announced new Mac Pros, new iMacs, a new 27″ Cinema Display, and a new Magic Trackpad, the iPhone still receives top billing (to the point where the Mac Pro announcement doesn’t even make the home page). As of late, Apple’s top priority is clearly selling gadgets to consumers; meanwhile, their high-end hardware is becoming less and less friendly to Pros.

What are your thoughts on this “omission” by Apple? If you’re in the market for a new editing machine, will you buy a new Mac Pro?

Yes, you can save $700 on a DSLR. Here’s how.

First off, I don’t have a $700-off coupon code to share with you. However, by combining several offers, we can save that much. As it is, it’s kind of absurd that filmmakers and photographers can get moving images this good out of cameras this cheap. But why spend $2,500 on a camera when you can get the same camera for $1,800? We’re going to buy a DSLR from an authorized dealer on eBay and combine a number of incentives to achieve this, but one of the incentives (Bing cashback) is expiring this Friday, July 30th. Again, after Friday, you will pay as much as $200 more for the same camera simply because that discount program is no more. I’m not getting paid by Bing or anything, but it’s going to be a while before someone comes along with pockets as deep as Microsoft’s.

Before we get going — is it legal to combine several offers? I think so. Maybe. (If one of more of these offers includes fine print that disallows combinations, I’m not aware of it. It’s not like we’re stealing cameras off the back of a truck, but read the fine print for yourself if you’re concerned.) Does this method work? Absolutely — I bought my own Canon 5D using this exact approach. So, if you were eyeing a DSLR but were on the fence, think about it this way: you’re going to get such a deal on the camera that you should be able to sell it used for what you’re paying new.

The steps outlined here and the links below are for those of you residing in the United States — this may be possible in other countries, but I don’t have any experience buying a DSLR from Liechtenstein, so I can’t say whether or not this is valid in other countries. However, the following method is not DSLR-specific in any way — you can save hundreds on basically anything.

Let’s take a Canon 5D Mark II as our example camera. If you walked into a store and bought it at retail price, it would be $2,500 plus tax (when I bought it a year ago, it was $2,700). Now technically if you buy something on the internet from another state, you’re still supposed to pay sales (or “use”) tax. How exactly you go about doing this depends on your state, but since we’re being cheap here we’re going to say you “forgot.” Buying an item from an out-of-state online retailer offers a significant discount over a local brick-and-mortar thanks to this loophole; while the exact amount of the “discount” varies by state, for the sake of this calculation we’re going to go with an 8% sales tax. So, buying a 5D at your local camera shop would cost you $2500 + 8% sales tax = $2700.

The Savings Breakdown

From $2700, we’ll save:

• $200 by forgetting to pay 8% use tax
• $200 by using Microsoft’s Bing cashback (8% off)

Right off the bat, we’ve already saved $400 just by buying a DSLR using eBay and Bing. Furthermore, there may be authorized dealers selling DSLRs for less than retail price, which means you can save even more — for example, I’ve seen 5D Mark IIs recently go for as low as $2,360 (including shipping) from authorized dealers, so if you get lucky and spot one of these (which is $140 less than retail), you’ll have saved $540.

But we’re not done — if you want to keep pushing it, here are a few more savings you might be eligible for:

• $30-80 by using Ebates (optional; see below)
• $50 via eBay Bucks (optional; eBay Bucks is currently in Beta and you have to be invited to be eligible)
• $25 by using your credit card in Paypal instead of a bank transfer (depends on your credit card; see below)

So, let’s see, $540 + $80 + $50 + $25… By combining all of these offers, you could have saved $695. That’s 26% less than what you’d pay for the camera if you walk into your local Best Buy. Even in a worst-case scenario, if you “only” save $400 with this method, you’ll still have saved 15% — which can go towards lenses, a shoulder support, etc. Note that the actual amount you save will depend on which DSLR you buy — these figures are percentage-based, so you’re not going to save $700 on a $800 T2i (if you can find a way to do that, by all means let everyone know in the comments).

This method trades the convenience of a brick-and-mortar for a few extra mouse clicks and some slightly questionable practices (like buying from an out-of-state dealer to avoid sales tax). If you’ve got money coming out of your ears (or sitting in your burger), it’s probably not worth your time to jump through these hoops. But since I’ve been living frugally for a bit, it was worth it for me to follow this method. In fact, if that $700 figure seems hypothetical and unrealistic to you, here’s my Bing cashback account:

Note this is not all from one purchase; that total is from using Bing to buy a 5D, a number of used lenses on eBay, some audio equipment and several other components of my DSLR camera package. But, of course, this is just the Bing savings alone. It’s too bad the program will be discontinued in a few days.

Before we go step-by-step, some notes on the “optional” programs named above:

Ebates gives you $5 just for signing up, but it’s not the easiest program to use when it comes to eBay. Here’s why: their cashback amount is variable (between 1% and 3%), so you don’t actually know how much you’re going to save; furthermore, there’s no definitive way of knowing whether you successfully got an eBate until a few days later (we’re going to be working with multiple browser windows, so the cookie-based Ebates step can be a bit uncertain). However, Ebates does have a lot of other savings offers that are less confusing than eBay’s variable rate (e.g. 10% off Old Navy, 7% off Finish Line, 4% off HP, etc etc).

As for the credit card savings, this depends entirely on whether you have a rewards program for your credit card; I used $25 for this hypothetical savings because that would be a 1% reward — perhaps your card offers more (or gives you airline miles, or some other perk). Either way, I recommend using your credit card for a purchase of this size, instead of doing a bank transfer (which is what Paypal defaults to). While Paypal has their own purchase protection policy, if you use your credit card, you’ll be doubly protected.

Okay, ready? Let’s go step-by-step through the Bing process, since it’s the most important one.

Bing Bing

1. Open a new window or tab in your web browser (keep this page open, so you can follow along).
2. You’ll need a Bing cashback account, which requires a Windows Live login (Hotmail, Xbox LIVE, etc). If you don’t have one you can sign up free.
3. Once you’ve got a cashback account, point your browser to Bing.com.
4. Search for “Canon 5D”. It doesn’t matter what brand or model you put into Bing, because you’re going to use my customized searches in a second to focus on authorized dealers. This step is just to get you from Bing to eBay.
5. You’ll see the following screen:
   
   
6. Click on “Bing cashback” to the right of the green eBay URL. When you are redirected to eBay, you should see this graphic on top:
   
   

Now that we’ve been referred to eBay by Bing, we’re eligible for 8% off.

If you want to try to save an additional 1-3%, now is the time to head to Ebates. Register and click on their eBay link. You’ll get an eBay screen that, for some reason, shows a bunch of “freeshipping” items. The Bing cashback icon should still appear at the top of the screen.

Now that our Bing and eBates cookies are active, we want to make sure we’re getting a 100% genuine camera from an authorized dealer.

Finding Authorized Dealers on eBay

Many people shy away from buying electronics on eBay because there are a lot of shady stores selling gray market products or worse. However, one just has to know where to look. Reputable camera and electronics stores often sell products on eBay in addition to their physical location and/or online store. This is your chance to save, since 8% off coupons are nigh impossible to come by for most camera stores.

To ensure we find these reputable sellers, I’ve set up advanced eBay searches using Boolean logic in an attempt to eliminate gray market sellers. These links should only display USA-based authorized dealers (see below for a way to double-check). I’ve also eliminated used cameras and bid-only auctions (to get the Bing cashback discount, you must “Buy it Now” instead of bidding on an auction). Again, you may want to open these links in a new tab or window in order to keep these instructions handy. If you’re not sure which camera is best for you, this might help you decide. Here are the DSLRs for which I’ve set up customized searches, use whichever link corresponds to the camera you’re interested in:

• Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Canon Rebel T2i
• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon EOS 1D Mark IV
• Nikon D3s
• Panasonic GH1

When you arrive at eBay from the links above, make sure the green “Microsoft cashback” banner still appears on top. Actually, the banner doesn’t matter so much as the little golden dollar sign next to the item title — as long as that’s there, you’re good. A few listings might not be eligible for Bing cashback, so make sure the one you buy has the golden coin with a dollar sign next to it. You’ll also see the Bing cashback badge when you click Buy it Now and go through to Paypal. If you’re enrolled in eBay Bucks, that badge will display right below the Buy it Now button.

I’ve arranged the search results by price (lowest to highest), but you’ll want to scan the different listings to find the best deal (some will come with lenses, some will be body-only, and others will come in larger packages with multiple bundled items). Also make sure to note the shipping fee — some are non-existent and some are exorbitant. And, of course, if you’re looking to dodge sales tax (for now, I mean; of course you’re going to pay it when you do your taxes at the end of the year, right?), look for an out-of-state dealer.

Once you’ve found your item, be sure to search the item’s listing page for “USA Warranty,” “Authorized Dealer,” or something similar that affirms the seller is authorized to sell the particular brand of DSLR you’re buying. I tried to customize the search as much as possible, but it’s by no means infallible, so make sure they state somewhere in their listing that they’re authorized. If it’s not clear, note the name of their store and check to see if they appear on the camera manufacturer’s list of authorized dealers: Canon, Nikon, Panasonic. You can also send the seller a message through eBay asking them to clarify.

Once you’re satisfied, click “Buy it Now,” and the camera — and the cashback checks — should be in the mail.

Claiming your cashback can take a bit. In the case of Bing and eBates, the credit should show up in your online account within 48 hours, but you won’t be cut a check (or sent money through Paypal, depending on how you signed up) for up to 60 days. When all is said and done, however, you will have bought a 100% genuine product from an authorized dealer, saved 15-26% in the process, and avoided dealing with real-world hassles like traffic (not to mention salesmen trying to sell you extended warranties).

Did you save money using the above methods? Do you know of any other discounts people should know about? Let us know in the comments…

• Level 1 – Start here with a stipend of $50 for every accepted video you create.
• Level 2 – Get the hang of Howcast spots. Shoot SD (DV/NTSC) or HD. Commit to five videos a month and earn $75 for every accepted video.
• Level 3 – Impress us with your creative and technical chops. Shoot HD. Commit to 10 videos a month and earn $100 for every accepted video.
• Level 4 – Knock our socks off. Shoot HD and be able to meet deadlines. Earn special assignments with rates from $150 to $300 for every accepted video.

No one’s going to make a full-time living doing this, but if you’re looking to build a reel and get paid a little bit along the way, Howcast could be one such opportunity. However, the “commit to X videos a month” seems a bit stringent to me, given this kind of video creation is best done opportunistically — between jobs, during a lull, or when you’ve got a new technique you want to share. Getting paid a flat fee for a video is nice in that you know you’ll be getting some form of payment for your work, but if your video explodes and receives hundreds of thousands (or millions) of views, it’d be nice to see a scalable form of revenue-sharing beyond the initial payment.

For reference, here is an example Howcast video about creating a DIY camcorder stabilizer along the same lines as a Manfrotto Fig Rig:

By crowdscourcing its library of how-to videos, Howcast is able to crank out 1,000 videos a month (which, as of January, were collectively garnering 25 million views/month). The NYC-based company is expected to achieve profitability by the end of the year. There are a couple of different ways of looking at such a feat: one, they’re making a lot of money off the hard work of others, or two, at least they’re paying content-creators from the get-go. What do you think — is this a good opportunity for aspiring filmmakers who have a how-to itch to scratch, or is it a drastic underpayment for quality content?

Link: Make Video, Launch Your Career with the Howcast Emerging Filmmakers Program

First, the advantages to shooting on the 5D Mark II:

[Using the 5D] doesn’t mean you don’t have to light. Of course you do. It just means you can bring in a china ball instead of a 1k, you can use source lighting like lamps and candles and so on, instead of a ring of lights around the set, it means you can shoot on a rooftop in downtown LA, at night, and use a single Kino tube. Lighting is just as much of a tool as set design, camera framing and focus, and the best thing you can do, is use light to sculpt your image. You just don’t need a generator to do it.

And then the drawbacks:

It was an incredibly awkward rig to operate. Very, very front heavy. Because we preferred to not attach the monitor via the camera shoe, we had to use arms to mount it. Only problem was that they were only so long, so the monitor ended up being a little too close to our faces, which strained our necks a bit and could get rather uncomfortable on long takes. We also suffered the same problems [Philip] Bloom did with regard to the down-rezzing when rolling. When going out to a monitor of any kind, the image is automatically downsized to 480p.

Joshua mentions a couple of handy tools, namely the $50 Jag35 HDMI Splitter and the $470 Blackmagic HDMI to SDI Mini Converter. These tools can help alleviate some of the headaches of shooting with a DSLR, but unless Canon fixes the HDMI output on the 5D (which might be possible with a firmware update), there’s not much we can do about it.

Link: Shooting Dark Prophecy on the Canon 5D

[Thanks, Rebecca]

Here’s their hype video, where you can see the very intuitive mouse-based three-way color corrector and new secondary CC at work:

In addition to the bona fide secondary color corrector, new features include Keyer, Power Mask shapes, Pop, Master Stage, and “improved” Auto Balance. Auto Balance was one of my favorite features of the first Colorista — and was the reason I generally used Colorista’s controls instead of the three-way CC included in the more expensive Magic Bullet Looks plugin — because Auto Balance offers an easy way to find a starting point for color grading. Here’s Red Giant’s Stu Maschwitz with a tutorial of Colorista II — check out the Keyer feature halfway through the video with the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper box:

Since the majority of NoFilmSchool readers are Mac-based Final Cut editors (according to your survey answers), one question about Colorista I anticipate is, “how does Colorista II compare to Apple Color?” Color, after all, is a very high-end tool that is bundled free with FCP. So why use Colorista II instead? Scott Simmons at ProVideo Coalition has posted a review, wherein he states:

Can Colorista II replace Apple Color for full color correction work? I think the short answer is yes, in many places it can and it’s especially easy to use Colorista II instead of Color if Final Cut Pro is your host application. It’s much easier to toss Colorista II on a few shots and get a good secondary key correction without the hassle of moving back and forth to Color… The normal process would have been to drop the shot into its own FCP sequence, send the single shot to Color, grade, render a new ProRes file and roundtrip back to FCP. Colorista II and the amazing new secondary keyer handled the correction like a champ… When I’m working unsupervised on a deadline I want to hit the sweet spot between the quality tool and the efficient workflow. Colorista II appears to hit that sweet spot nicely.

I’m with him — I find Color’s workflow to be slow and confusing, and have been using Colorista as a way to get good results in a fraction of the time. Furthermore, if you’re an Adobe CS5 user, this will be of interest:

Colorista II also has the option to render using your GPU which will come in handy if you have a beefy video card. Under Adobe’s Mercury Playback engine I was able to get full frame, realtime playback of corrections applied to native Canon H.264 files even without GPU acceleration. That Mercury Playback Engine is nothing short of amazing.

Colorista II looks to be a very powerful tool, leapfrogging the first version of the plugin and maturing into a legitimate all-in-one color corrector. The plugin is $299 new and is a $99 upgrade if you have Colorista I; either purchase nets you Mac/PC/After Effects/Final Cut Pro/Premiere Pro versions all at once. The upgrade path is a bit confusing if, like me, you already own the complete Magic Bullet Suite, but I suspect from their naming scheme (“Suite 2009.2″) that they’re not going to release new versions of the Suite plugins all at once, but rather upgrade the individual plugins on an ongoing basis.

I ask in the post title if Colorista II is “the best cross-platform color-correction tool for indies” because it is somewhat unique in its pricing, which is lower than high-end plugins like the software-only version of the DaVinci Resolve, which will be $995 when it is released in September (plus, Resolve is Mac-only). In fact, there aren’t a lot of cross-platform color grading plugins available — Synthetic Aperture’s Color Finesse is the first that comes to mind, and while it ranges in price from $575 to $1995 depending on version, it is included free with After Effects. In fact, Final Cut, Premiere Pro, and After Effects all include built-in three-way color correctors, but if you find yourself looking for something a bit more advanced, in my opinion Colorista II is the best bet. If you’re interested in Colorista II, you can download the free trial and give it a shot. Finally, remember there’s a good color correction tutorial (also from Stu) embedded in the DSLR Guide’s Color Grading page.

What are your thoughts on Colorista II? Are you content with the built-in color correction tools of your current NLE?

Art is bullish on the updates, declaring “from a color and noise perspective the RED ONE is finally a mature camera.”

The RED ONE MX is finally here, and it looks great—better than it should, considering that RED says that it hasn’t changed the colorimetry of its sensors, only its sensitivity and noise levels. How could software alone make such a huge difference? I found out… the hard way. A while back I wrote about an apparent flaw in the original RED ONE’s colorimetry that added blue to any color containing green under tungsten light, making the RED ONE truly a daylight-balanced camera if one desired bright accurate colors. As of Build 30, though, the RED ONE’s color quality improved dramatically, and the blue/green contamination problem seemingly disappeared.

Art’s article goes in-depth with the new color science, examining DSC charts and comparing new versus old waveforms. It’s not for the technically faint of heart, but if this is up your alley, be sure to also check out Adam Wilt’s two pieces on the Mysterium-X sensor as well.

Link: Step into the Matrix: What I Learned from Examining RED’s Build 30 Color Science

Probably, but it’s what most people call me anyway. Ever since I was a little kid, going from school to school, my classmates would always call me “Koo.” I never asked anyone to do it — you know, “my name’s Ryan, but my friends call me Koo” — none of that. Instead, it’s followed me quite naturally wherever I’ve gone, and so today I’m embracing the single name — ala Madonna, Beck, McG, and many others (mostly musicians). I’m aware this move has a high potentiality to backfire, with people thinking “who does that guy think he is?” — but the more I thought about it, the more it felt right. Ever since I axed the Bilsborrow from my name, it hasn’t felt quite right, so I’m killing off Ryan Koo after only four months, and shortening my handle to Koo — and I won’t be shortening it any more!

This isn’t an opportunistic, self-promotional decision — this will actually hurt my searchability online, as a search for Ryan Koo effectively leads people to me, whereas a search for Koo will not. However, I’m a relative nobody right now, so it will be fun to watch over the years — as I actually get some movies made — to see how my Google rank is affected. If I can manage to “own” Koo, then it will be a good personal branding decision — if not, well, we’ll see.

I’m not going to go on and on about this, because, if you don’t want to be seen as an egomaniac, don’t make a big to-do about your personal decisions. So let’s talk about the Filmmaker issue — my article’s on Google TV and the opportunity it represents for independent filmmakers (which I’ve written about briefly before here on NoFilmSchool). The issue is chock full of brain candy, including Lance Weiler’s article on storyworld bibles and Anthony Kaufman’s take on the Do It With Others movement. Roberto Quezada-Dardon — who is sticking with the hyphen — has an article about HDSLRs in 2010, and the issue’s cover story is on this year’s crop of 25 New Faces (which makes my own selection as one of the Faces dated by two years). So head on over to the Filmmaker web site and check out the issue, or head to your local newsstand and get yourself a copy. Look for the article with the shortest byline!

• Action Log Pro – Action Log is a film and television logging tool, designed for use on location or in a studio with up to 25 recording devices. At the touch of a button the logging system keeps track of all reel names and timecodes for each recorded piece of action.
• Evernote – I love Evernote for keeping Web research organized — and for their elephant logo. — Esther Robinson, director
• GoodReader GoodReader is terrific for script reading. You can widen the type to fit the page and then lock the scroll vertically. It’s by far the best way I’ve found to read screenplays. — Jason Kliot, producer
• pCAM Film+Digital Calculator – A Cinematography and Still Photography calculator for Photographers, Directors of Photography, Camera Operators, Camera Assistants, VFX Supervisors, Script Supervisors, Gaffers, Grips, Motion Picture Editors, Production Designers, Art Directors, Film and Photography Students.
• Qik I have found myself using Qik on set to share live videos from our shoots with Twitter followers, Facebook friends and Kickstarter backers. Here are some of those videos. — Arin Crumley, director
• Screenplay – Black Mana Studios’ Screenplay is the world’s first fully-functional mobile screenwriting application. It allows professionals and hobbyists alike to write complete movie and television screenplays directly on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
• Storyboard Composer – Cinemek Storyboard Composer for iPhone and iPod Touch is a mobile storyboard and pre-visualization composer designed for Directors, Directors of Photography, Producers, Writers, Animators, Art Directors, film students and anyone who wants to be able to visualize their story.

Head on over to the respective sites and check out their full lists for a cornucopia of applications that just might help you on your next project:

22 Filmmaking Apps for the iPad & iPhone – Filmmaker IQ
SOFT SELL – Filmmaker Magazine

Allan Tépper of ProVideo Coalition notes that there will be two versions of the camera: one for 60Hz countries (North Americans) and one for 50Hz countries (much of the rest of the world). Despite the camera’s interlaced recording specification, it turns out the sensor itself is actually progressive. In Allan’s words:

Sony have affirmed that the NEX-VG10’s 60Hz version will actually record progressive 29.97p (“30p”), although embedded in an interlaced transport over 59.94i, similarly as the HVR-V1U and HVR-V1N 60Hz models do in one particular mode… and that the NEX-VG10’s 50Hz version will actually record progressive 25p, although embedded in an interlaced transport at 50i, as the HVR-V1E 50Hz model does in one particular mode.

What this means is, the 60Hz version is actually shooting 30p, and the 50Hz version is actually shooting 25p — both cameras wrap the resulting files in an interlaced container, from which the original progressive frames should be extractable with little to no loss of quality. 25p and 24p are indistinguishable when it comes to motion rendering; 25p gives every bit of the same “film look” that 24p does (assuming you use an appropriate shutter speed). As a result, you should be able to buy a PAL version of the NEX-VG10, shoot in 50i, extract the 25p footage, force the NLE to play it back at 24 fps, slow the audio down by 4% to match, and voila: 24p footage from the NEX-VG10. Yes, there are a few hoops to jump through, but no more than what we have to deal with when it comes to shooting with DSLRs today.

The real question at hand is what Sony will add to the pro version — I’d expect true 24p, 60p, a more robust codec, better gamma matrices, and XLR audio inputs — and what sort of premium they’ll charge. Sony has a much higher-end camera market to protect — like the six-figure SRW-9000 I shot with recently — which, it’s worth noting, Canon does not. That’s why, when it comes down to which camera manufacturer will be mostly likely to get the post-DSLR cheese, I have to think it would be a manufacturer like Canon, who can throw every feature they can develop into a $6k camera, without holding back resolutions, frame rates, and codecs in order to justify the massive price difference between a $6k prosumer camera and a $200k pro camera. In the post-DSLR video camera market, Sony has its CineAlta line and Panasonic has its Varicam line to protect — as does RED with its EPIC line. Of course, it’s not a zero-sum game: however it shakes out, there are going to be a lot of great options out there soon.

Here’s some footage from Bali taken with the NEX-VG10 (note that you can click through to Vimeo and download a 1080p quicktime):

Is it just me or is that bokeh ugly? And isn’t that guy totally stalking the girl?

[via ProVideo Coalition]

As transmedia pioneer Lance Weiler recently wrote in the pages of Filmmaker, mobile devices “offer opportunities for filmmakers to reach audiences directly, with little to no intervention from middlemen. While the selling of a film on iTunes requires a filmmaker to go through one or maybe two aggregators, it is possible to go direct to the App Store as long as the mobile app receives approval from Apple.” But while Apple’s iOS requires approval, Google’s Android does not. Not only is Google’s app marketplace more open than Apple’s ecosystem, but Android has rapidly rising market share, and now Google is releasing App Inventor for Android, a new tool for creating applications with drag-and-drop simplicity — no coding (or approval) required.

If you’re not a programmer, have no fear: the New York Times notes that “[App Inventor] user testing has been done mainly in schools with groups that included sixth graders, high school girls, nursing students and university undergraduates who are not computer science majors.” In fact, Google’s launch video makes it clear just how user-friendly they’re intending App Inventor to be:

Of course, there’s a problem with allowing just anyone to create apps — the Android marketplace, already disorganized and difficult to navigate, could see a deluge of low-quality applications. It’s interesting to keep tabs on Google and Apple’s dichotomous approaches to their app stores — Google seems to want Android to be a free-for-all, whereas Apple dickishly insists on controlling and approving (or rejecting, as it were) everything. While I can definitely see potential drawbacks to Google’s approach, as long as there are effective filtering tools implemented in the marketplace — sort by popularity, for example, not to mention an actual marketplace on the web, instead of only on devices — App Inventor should help rather than hinder Google’s mobile platform.

Google “will be granting access to App Inventor for Android over the coming weeks” — right now, a simple email sign-up form is all that is offered. In the meantime, any ideas for apps for your next project? The possibilities are endless — use GPS sensors to discover where your audience is located, use polls to receive feedback on episodes or trailers, send text messages to users in a low-end alternate reality game. I say “low-end” because only time will tell how advanced App Inventor can get. But it should certainly be a good tool for getting one’s feet wet with mobile applications, which will undoubtedly play a larger and larger role going forward for any kind of independent creative.

Link: App Inventor for Android

Series creators need to be proactive when it comes to generating buzz and building an audience. OzGirl creator Nick Carlton targeted the lonelygirl15 fanbase months before his series’ release. He went to sites like MySpace and Bebo, found out who the fans of the show were, and appealed directly to them to try his new show. Social networking sites and message boards are a great way to not only find a potential audience but also a great way to interact directly with them. In fact, targeting message boards has become a standard practice. At the recent Digital Hollywood conference, during one panel, various creators were asked how they got the word out about their show. They each mentioned that one of the things they did was target message boards centered on themes compatible with their respective series. If one is making a niche show, find out where the niche lives and go to them; sitting back and waiting for them to come is not an option.

Of course, the idea of promoting your content on message boards isn’t limited to web series; no matter what your project is — even if it’s a short film! — there are probably message boards or web sites that are a good fit. I recently bookmarked this Google Directory page which lists hundreds of movie web sites by genre. Or course, “independent” is missing from the genre list, but with The West Side we certainly could have dropped a note to all of the sites listed on the Western genre page. For example, if your film is a thriller, check out the Horror list. If it’s science fiction, there’s a nice Sci-Fi list too. And so on and so forth…

Link: How to Build Buzz For a Web Series

The Digital Cinema Society is a “nonprofit educational cooperative dedicated to the industry’s informed integration of new technology.” Most of their video workshops require a membership, including presentations on lighting, RAW workflows, underwater cinematography, and more; there are also a number of member discounts worth checking out. Membership dues are $30/year, but “if you are a student, or otherwise challenged to afford it, just send a note, and your membership will be complimentary.”

Link: Digital Cinema Society – New Streaming