The CRI Issue

Will LEDs ever dominate the feature film and television lighting landscape?

By Dan Brockett

Just a few short years ago, LED (light-emitting diode) lighting technology seemed poised to take over lighting for film and television. The technology promised significantly greater energy and heat efficiency than existing technologies. LEDs required much less power, were cool to the touch, didn’t heat up sets and, in general, seemed to be the... Read more

Depth Perception

Walt Disney Animation Studios creates a virtual space in the 2D-to-3D conversion process

By Mel Lamberts

With George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace 3D currently playing at a number of AMC multiplexes and Titanic 3D poised to repeat the success enjoyed by its director James Cameron with Avatar 3D, the audience for stereoscopic productions is expanding dramatically. With an eye on consumer dollars, a growing number of movie studios... Read more

The Laws Of Motion

For indie filmmakers, camera movement is now a viable option

By Clint Milby

A still image is the capture of a single moment in time, frozen and devoid of any movement except for what may be implied by its content. When the subject is compelling and when the photographer executes the capture just right, what’s rendered can be just as powerful as any narrative film, thus the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand... Read more

HD DSLR Q&A

HDVP takes an in-depth look at the popular format and the many misconceptions that come with it

By Michael Guncheon

The HD DSLR revolution started relatively quietly in Cologne, Germany, when people saw the first SLRs that could record HD video. In 2008, at Photokina, both Nikon and Canon showed still cameras that used their Live View function to record video. In the past year, I’ve been invited to speak at a number of conferences, both technical and production-oriented,... Read more

The Soft Touch

Cinematographers and gaffers discuss the gear and technique in creating soft light

By Ian blair

For cinematographers, the choice between soft lighting and hard lighting is almost akin to Hamlet’s famous line, "To be, or not to be," in terms of its philosophical and aesthetic ramifications. "It’s a crucial choice, as the way you light a scene or an actor can totally change everything about them," notes acclaimed... Read more

Posting 3D

With the box office success of 3D and the rollout of 3D TV to follow, what are your options in post?

By George Avgerakis

At a recent Golden Globe® party, Star Wars creator George Lucas referred to the stereoscopic 3D world of Avatar in an interview with television show Access Hollywood. “It’s so successful, and worked very well in 3D,” said Lucas. “I haven’t been a big fan of 3D, but that movie definitely improves it. We’ve been... Read more

Master Tools

DP Shane Hurlbut, ASC’s new rental company provides DSLR gear to the professional filmmaking community

By Clint Milby

Two years ago, if you were to have asked cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, ASC, if he planned to open a camera rental house in Los Angeles, he probably would have laughed out loud. Nonetheless, it’s exactly what he has done. So why would a celebrated cinematographer with more than 20 films under his belt, including Terminator Salvation, We Are Marshall... Read more

Small Camera, Big Picture

With the season finale of FOX TV’s House shot entirely with Canon EOS 5D Mark IIs, will more professional productions follow suit?

By Skip Ferderber

What more is there to say about the season finale of FOX TV’s House M.D., which is the episode shot entirely on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II HD DSLR? A lot, actually. Oh, not so much on the facts of the production itself. Unless you’ve been shooting in Mammoth Cave for the last four months, you probably know a fair amount about how the episode... Read more

In Full Effect

VFX wizards create eye-popping 3-D effects for Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D and Missy Elliott’s Ching-A-Ling video

By Debra Kaufman

As stereoscopic 3-D films grow in popularity, visual-effects supervisors and digital artists face the challenges of creating digital imagery in three dimensions. Unlike the xyz space of the 3-D CGI image, stereoscopic film is made up of two images—representing the right and left eyes—that “converge” to form a single image with depth... Read more

Boot Camp

Shane Hurlbut, ASC, and his Elite Team lead the HD-DSLR revolution into battle

By Neil Matsumoto

The call time was 6:30 a.m. Come again? Although quite the norm for film crews, this was strictly foreign territory for a journalist, especially for a camera workshop. But this was no ordinary workshop. This was bootcamp. Starting out as a grip truck driver, director of photography Shane Hurlbut, ASC, worked his way through the camera ranks to eventually... Read more

Everything Is Illuminated

Three cinematographers working in high def reveal lighting techniques for multi-camera sitcoms, documentaries and feature films

By Pauline B. Rogers

While television, documentaries and feature cinematographers might use a lot of the same lights, how they approach lighting each project takes a lot of creativity and planning. HDVideoPro talked to three different DPs about how they plan and plot their work. Cinematographer George Mooradian explains how he brings his feature sensibility to the often-hamstrung... Read more

This Ain’t Your Daddy’s 3D

Randall Dark jumps into the 3D deep end with Panasonic’s new AG-3DA1

By Dan Brockett

We all saw it. Lurking under glass in a darkened corner of Panasonic’s NAB 2009 booth was a bug-eyed prototype of what would soon evolve into the first professional one-piece 3D digital production camera. HD technologist Randall Dark saw the Panasonic’s 3D camera prototype, too. Although Panasonic pledged “end-to-end 3D technology”... Read more