Welcome to the ChappyShowcase BlogSpot

Please enjoy an eclectic diversity of content and subjects created by Matt Chapman. This blog page gives more in depth detail and cool anecdotes pertaining to each video, film, or perhaps something else completely. On top of that, you will find info about the online video making paradigm, production, post-production and more. ChappyShowcase has content channels all over the web. All links for each channel are located for your convenience at a click of the button. Be sure to check the blog regularly to be updated on what is happening with Growing Up Guide Pup, ChappyShowcase, and GurillaTV. Or, better yet, subscribe to one of the RSS feeds so every new post is automatically emailed to you. Enjoy...and remember, keep that camera rollin!

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Laser Triggered High-Speed Still Imagery

My buddy SaskView from Canada made a really cool video involving laser triggered high speed photography. You can check out this url for more detail.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-Triggered-High-Speed-Photography/

He put together a little synopsis of what he did below.
"I've been playing with something called Canon Hack development Kit (CHDK) that replaces the firmware on numerous Canon cameras. It allows you to override the normal functions and to even run programs on the camera. Stuff that you normally can't do on an inexpensive, point-and-shoot camera. Using CHDK and a simple circuit that senses when a laser beam has been interrupted, I can take high-speed photo's like those milk drops made famous by Harold Edgerton."

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Happy Old Bitch

Amie dog walks a myriad of canine characters. Missy is one of my favorites. She is a 13 year old lab that can hang with the best of them. She acts like she is four even though is hella old.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Footage Shot In Outer space for a whopping $150

Meet the $150 (almost to) Space Camera.

Bespoke is old hat. Off-the-shelf is in. Even Google runs the world’s biggest and scariest server farms on computers home-made from commodity parts. DIY is cheaper and often better, as Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh found out when they decided to send a camera into space.

The two students (from MIT, of course) put together a low-budget rig to fly a camera high enough to photograph the curvature of the Earth. Instead of rockets, boosters and expensive control systems, they filled a weather balloon with helium and hung a styrofoam beer cooler underneath to carry a cheap Canon A470 compact camera. Instant hand warmers kept things from freezing up and made sure the batteries stayed warm enough to work.

Of course, all this would be pointless if the guys couldn’t find the rig when it landed, so they dropped a prepaid GPS-equipped cellphone inside the box for tracking. Total cost, including duct tape? $148.

Launch

Two weeks ago, on Sept. 2, at the leisurely post-breakfast hour of 11:45 a.m., the balloon was launched from Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Lee and Yeh took a road trip in order to compensate for the prevailing winds, which could have otherwise taken the balloon out onto the Atlantic, and checked in on the University of Wyoming’s balloon trajectory website to estimate the landing site.

Because of spotty cellphone coverage in central Massachusetts, it was important to keep the rig in the center of the state so it could be found upon landing. Light winds meant the guys got lucky and, although the cellphone’s external antenna was buried upon landing, the fix they got as the balloon was coming down was close enough.

The Photographs

The balloon and camera made it up high enough to see the black sky curling around our blue planet. The Canon was hacked with the CHDK (Canon Hacker’s Development Kit) open-source firmware, which adds many features to Canon’s cameras. The intervalometer (interval timer) was set to shoot a picture every five seconds, and the 8-GB memory card was enough to hold pictures for the five-hour duration of the flight.

The video captures the unit going around 93,000 feet, just shy of 18 miles high. It’s short of the widely-accepted Kármán line, which is at 100km (62 miles) up, but it’s in the stratosphere, and it’s still impressive. To give you an idea of how high that is, when the balloon burst, the beer-cooler took 40 minutes to come back to Earth.

What is most astonishing about this launch, named Project Icarus, is that anyone could do it. The budget is so small as to be almost nonexistent (the guys slept in their car the night before the launch to save money), so that even if everything went wrong, a second, third or fourth attempt would be easy. All it took was a grand idea and an afternoon poking around the hardware store.

Check out this amazing still imagery. Wow!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Are video sharing sights responsible for their members copyrighted materials?

Are video sharing sites responsible if their members post copyrighted materials? This has been a burning question with much debate over the last few years. Not if they're taken reasonable precautions to stop the infringement, a California court found yesterday.

The Second Federal Court awarded video site Veoh a major victory in a lawsuit filed by Universal Music Group (UMG). The music label alleged in a 2007 suit that Veoh was supporting and inducing copyright infringement.

"The underlying issue was that they were alleging that there were infringing Universal videos on the site posted by our users," says Joshua Metzger, Veoh's senior vice president, corporate development and general counsel.

At issue was the intent of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and how much responsibility video sharing sites need to bear for the infringing posts of its members. UMG supported the interpretation that video sharing sites should proactively police themselves and remove potentially infringing material. Veoh's stance is that copyright holders need to request the removal of infringing content, and that the site will them remove the videos promptly.

Veoh didn't know which videos UMG was alleging were infringing until the discovery phase of the trial, says Metzger. When presented with the list, the site removed all the infringing material, he says.

YouTube's Day in Court
While many in the industry have had their eyes on a $1 billion copyright suit brought by Viacom against YouTube and parent company Google in New York court, the Veoh/UMG judgment is likely to carry more weight since other courts will look to it when deciding similar claims.

"Veoh's policies are very similar to YouTube's," said Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, in an interview with CNET News. "The judge gave Veoh a clean bill of health. I think the court in New York is going to take this ruling very seriously. The facts are very, very close."

In his decision, U.S. District Judge A. Howard Martz dismissed UMG's suit, finding that Veoh was covered by the DMCA's Safe Harbor provision.

"The issue is whether Veoh takes appropriate steps to deal with copyright infringement that takes place," wrote Martz in his decision. "The record presented demonstrates that, far from encouraging copyright infringement, Veoh has a strong DMCA policy, takes active steps to limit incidents of infringement on its Web site, and works diligently to keep unauthorized works off its Web site. In sum, Veoh has met its burden in establishing its entitlement to safe harbor for the alleged infringements here."

While the ruling was strongly in favor of Veoh, the judge noted that once video sharing sites are made aware of copyright-violating material, they need to act on it and remove the infringement.

This may not be the end of the matter, as UMG has stated that it will file an appeal.

"The ruling today is wrong because it runs counter to established precedent and legislative intent, and to the express language of the DMCA," said a written statement from UMG. "Because of this and our commitment to protecting the rights of our artists and songwriters who deserve to be compensated for the use of their music, we will appeal this ruling immediately. The balance between copyright holders and technology that Congress sought in enacting the DMCA has been upended by this decision."

Setting a Precedent
The Veoh/UMG decision should have far-reaching effects in the still new area of online video, and help establish a precedent for how to deal with copyrighted material.

"I think what it does is it gives signposts to companies that are looking to either develop or already have an online video presence," says Metzger. "You can say, 'If I operate my company like Veoh I can operate as a solid corporate citizen and operate without being sued."

The decision will go along way in allowing Web 2.0 video companies to flourish, by avoiding an overly restrictive and cost-prohibitive interpretation of the DMCA's intent.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Use Your Tripod To Make Cool Jib Shots

My producer buddy Brusspup made this video and it really blew me away. Ever consider using your tripod in other ways that were not intended? This is a great trick that is absolutely free and can add to your filmmaking arsenal.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

HVX200 vs Canon 5D Mark II

Two drastically different devices are compared by kossomedia. The Panasonic HVX200A and the Canon 5D Mark II. I found it interesting because this really is a reflection of our time. One where we can compare high end prosumer camcorders to professional still cameras. Moreover, a time where uncertainty exists in the minds of still photographers and videographers can be understood when you watch this video because the quality is pretty close in many ways. Ahhh...the convergence between all mediums continues to pick up steam.