Is 3D On Its Last Legs?

Not quite, but the writing is on the wall

By Neil Matsumoto

In 2008, I attended the first 3D Entertainment Summit. Delivering the keynote was DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who proclaimed that in film’s 100-plus-year history, there have been three major milestones that have advanced the art of filmmaking: sound, color and, now, 3D (obvious hyperbole to promote upcoming DreamWorks Animation 3D releases). ... Read more

Lockit Buddy II And Triton FetHead Phantom

Recording external time code, and affordable phantom power

By Dan Brockett

EXTERNAL TIME CODE Q We’re producing a project using five Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLRs. We’ve already produced several projects utilizing two Canon EOS 5D Mark IIs with a Zoom H4n audio recorder. For this upcoming project, we’ll be recording audio using a Sound Devices 664 audio recorder. The Sound Devices recorder has a built-in time-code... Read more

Film Is Dead!

By Ian Blair

Film is dead! Long live digital! That’s the mantra everyone seems to be spouting these days. Even the most die-hard celluloid lovers admit that even if film isn’t quite dead yet, it’s definitely on life support with digital looking to pull the plug. There’s just one little problem with all of this: The attending physicians (and... Read more

Say, What?

LTO, Part II, and dealing with sync issues

By Michael Guncheon

In my last column, I responded to a question about how to archive all of this data we’re capturing and brought up LTO. As promised, here’s a little more about the flavors of LTO. Prior to LTO, archiving technology was spread across a number of competing and proprietary systems. Many of you have heard of DLT. This is a tape-based system,... Read more

Lavs That Cost Less

Setting a new bar in the price-to-performance ratio

By Dan Brockett

Q I’m a sound mixer for an internal media production group at a nonprofit. I have my own gear for when I freelance, but prefer not to use it at work, as my job doesn’t have the budget to pay me to rent my sound gear. My boss has charged me with locating and purchasing four wired lavalier microphone systems, and I’m stumped, as my own... Read more

Getting It White (The First Time)

The importance of proper white balance

By Andy Shipsides

At AbelCine, we’re known for our custom scene files and looks. These can be powerful tools for manipulating your image, but oftentimes, getting the best result is all about getting the right white balance in your camera. White balance is one of those adjustments that seems simple but can really make all the difference to your image. I get a variety... Read more

4K In The Mainstream

Is it time?

By Neil Matsumoto

If you attended NAB this year, you probably thought the 4K conversion already happened. Everywhere you looked was a new 4K camera system, 4K recorder or 4K compatible NLE or workflow solution. In the early ’00s, you probably remember a similar scenario when HD (1920 x 1080 resolution) was being heavily pushed, even though few filmmakers had access... Read more

Exposing Frames

Shutter angles, plus as the big elephant in the room: archival

By Michael Guncheon

SHUTTER ANGLES Q I’ve moved to using cameras that have a more cinema background, but I feel a little insecure about setting up for recording. I have a pretty good handle on how I want to set my exposure, but setting the shutter has been a bit confusing. At first, I thought I understood about changing the shutter setting and getting my brain around... Read more

Feeling Blue

Both ends of the USB Blue Microphones spectrum

By Dan Brockett

Q I work at a small production company. We used to rent time at a local sound studio, but my boss has decided he wants to record our voice-over sessions here, so he has charged me with building a super-low budget, but decent-quality VO studio capability. I have a room that’s pretty quiet with decent sound, but I’d like the capability to... Read more

Making The Match

Creating scene files to match camera looks

By Andy Shipsides

At AbelCine, we produce many scene files for a variety of cameras, each designed to improve both look and performance. We post these files on our website for anyone to try out, which has resulted in a lot of great feedback and many different questions. The most common question we receive is about matching the look of two different camera models. We... Read more

Micro-Filmmaking

How an iPhone app could launch millions of filmmakers

By Neil Matsumoto

It’s often said that the best camera is the camera you have with you, and for most of us, it would be our phone. In the still photography world, camera phones have completely destroyed the point-and-shoot camera market, and for good reason. Many of the new smartphones on the market, such as the iPhone 5 or the Galaxy Nexus 4, contain an 8-megapixel... Read more

Motion Fixes

Fine-tune your image with tracking

By Michael Guncheon

We’re in the business of moving pictures. That seems like an obvious statement, but as I was working with the tracking software mocha for this month’s issue, I was reminded of when I first tried rotoscoping a scene. It was 147 frames long (yes, I remember the number), and I painstakingly worked on each frame to remove an unwanted object. ... Read more