Many of us filmmaking types see ourselves as artists. We don't want to spend time doing all the boring parts of pre-production - the re-writes, the budget, the legal stuff...Yawn! We just want to grab our camera and shoot the movie! Why worry about all that, we reason, I'm a talented artist - I can work it all out in the editing room!
Through the years, here at MFM, we've dealt with a number of lighting manufacturers from venerable giants like ARRI to major companies transitioning into lighting like Rosco to lesser known companies like Smith-Victor. Flashpoint (a house brand for photographic giant, Adorama) has been making lighting systems and DSLR accessories that've been impressing us of late.
Over the past decade there has been an incredible increase in camera, software and gear options for filmmakers working with limited funds. Every so often a company comes out of the woodwork spouting that they have the “latest and greatest” for an insanely low price point. In my experience, most of these claims turn out to be nothing more than promotional hype, obviously hoping to lure in unsuspecting filmmakers who have just the right amount of cash available. Over the past few years, I have been building up my own little arsenal of gear and I was always on the lookout for a small crane or jib that could get the job done without breaking the bank. In my search I eventually found a company called ProAm USA, my first experience with them was a positive one and I have been using their products ever since. When the opportunity to check out the brand new ProAm Taurus Jr presented itself, I couldn’t say no.
“Between the Scenes” takes you through the art and practice of scene transitions. The running theme is how scenes connect and how your film and content flows. The book does not target a specific group as the goal is to bring consideration of transitions to all stages of film production. There are sections for writers, directors and editors.
Zaxwerks has long been a denizen of the Adobe After Effects environs. They’ve chosen a very specific niche that has brought them success in the world of television bumpers and titling. The release of ProAnimator 7 offers some capabilities worth looking at that may be attractive to the microfilmmaker. The new features bring a significant level of simplicity to doing complex, 3D/CG lighting that resembles stages or ‘Events’ where bright lights, high activity and visual excitement is the rule. Tucked along with this significant new ability is a revisited level of texture/material controls that make creating CG environments...
When I first used the iPad to film clips of my most recent child’s post-birth cooing, I realized that there was an interesting advantage to shooting with the somewhat unwieldy device: it forced you to hold your arms apart, more like you were holding a Fig Rig, which in turn meant your footage was much more stable than it would’ve been shooting with a smaller device (like your iPhone). Plus, the super huge viewing screen made focus issues virtually a thing of...