Converting Watts to Lumens: Watt Is Your Lumen Count?

How to choose the right lights for your next project

By Andy Shipsides

Over the last few years, we’ve seen some major improvements in LED lighting technology in both color quality and output. With more and more companies producing lights, it can be challenging to decide which might fit your needs. At AbelCine, we sell and rent several different lighting technologies and do our best to help clients select the right lights... Read more

Shutter At The Thought

A little more on time-lapse, plus pushing in with 4K capture

By Michael Guncheon

TIME-LAPSE AND SHUTTER COUNTS Q I’ve really gotten into shooting time-lapse for some of my projects. While I’ve done so with regular video cameras, I’ve also been shooting more and more of it on SLRs. I like how small they are, and I don’t have to work as hard on rigging them and supplying them with power. I’ll admit it, I can be a bit... Read more

The New Production

Post should no longer be the last thing on your list

By Ian Blair

For more than 100 years, filmmakers have followed the same three signs on the road to a completed project: You start at preproduction, move on to production and finally end up at postproduction. It’s a simple set of instructions and a timeline that made perfect sense, whether you were making a big-budget studio movie or a small documentary. But... Read more

4K? Maybe So, Maybe Not.

A variety of considerations factor into whether to shoot your next project in UltraHD or 4K

By C.R. Caillouet

These frames illustrate different ways of using UHD/4K originals in production: the “scaled” one retains the framing of the original for converting an entire show to alternate products (above); the “cropped ” one retains the resolution of the original static UHD shot for use in a lower-resolution product (top). Unless you’ve been in a... Read more

The Art & Science Of Mounting Mics

Lavs vs. shotguns, plus hidden lavaliers

By Dan Brockett

LAVS VS. SHOTGUNS Q I’m looking for advice on the best long shotgun microphone that I can mount on a Sony PXW-FS7 camera. I’ll be shooting interviews with athletes from five to 10 feet away, but don’t have the resources to have a sound mixer with me. I’m not very knowledgeable about sound. Help! Sherrie V. Via email A When you don’t have... Read more

My Friend Flicker

Correcting flicker in time-lapse, plus more on working with a colorist

By Michael Guncheon

Q I’ve been experimenting with shooting time-lapse. My success rate has been pretty good, but there has been a lot of trial and error (emphasis on the errors). There have been some obvious issues that I’ve fixed, like not having my camera as secure as I’d like and making sure something isn’t going to come in and block the shot (two hours of... Read more

Choosing A Wired Lavalier

Plus, locating custom audio cable harnesses

By Dan Brockett

WHICH WIRED LAV IS RIGHT FOR YOU Q We recently upgraded from the Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR to a Canon EOS C100 Mark II. It will be so incredibly convenient not to have to utilize a separate recorder for decent sound. We shoot a lot of in-studio interviews with two talent, so I want to buy two new lavalier microphones. We have a low-end lavalier that... Read more

Share The Speed

Plus, working with a colorist

By Michael Guncheon

SHARING YOUR DRIVES Q I’m really enjoying the speed I’m getting with the Thunderbolt on my new Mac. What’s also refreshing is that it seems a lot more reliable than what I was using before. I was using SATA connections and it worked pretty good—when it worked. Now I have a project where I’d like to share my drive between... Read more

Darth Zada

The filmmaker takes us to the dark side again with his follow-up to Take This Lollipop—and tells us why we like it there

By Simon Wakelin

Jason Zada is an expert at entertaining audiences in our digitally networked society, delivering us to the dark side with his customized interactive horror short Take This Lollipop, an experience using Facebook data to bring viewers directly into the creepy film. Written and directed by Zada, the film embedded user data such as text, images and video... Read more

True Indie Film

Kodak’s Andy Evenski talks Super 8 and film for indies

By The Editors

Let’s talk about Super 8. What’s happening with it? It’s the 50th anniversary, and we’re really proud of that. For us, Super 8 is sort of the foothold that brought motion pictures into the home. When you look at the Super 8 format, it started in the home, and a lot of people would shoot baby pictures and family vacations. But,... Read more

Better Video Through Compression

Most video cameras and DSLRs have an internal recording format designed to get you the most footage possible on a media card.

By Andy Shipsides

AbelCine recently hosted the VII Evolution Tour, an event series for photojournalists making the transition to video production. The tour helps attendees identify and overcome the challenges of going from stills to motion production. A topic that was covered during this event was the use of external recorders. In one of her workshops, photojournalist... Read more

Sound & Vision

Zoom Q8 Handy Video Recorder, and Tascam DR-70D Audio Recorder

By Dan Brockett

A rep from Zoom recently approached me to check out their new Q8 Handy Video Recorder. A few weeks after NAB, a box from Zoom showed up. The question is, what’s a "Handy Video Recorder," and why would a sound-oriented person be interested in it? Zoom, as you probably know, makes a line of digital audio recorders that have gained considerable... Read more