Halloween Hodgepodge

How about some halloween spirit!

Coolest tripod advice ever!

I love this video and can vouche for the trick. It really does work. Check it out!

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.

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.

Is YouTube going to sell out to Hollywood?

We have already experienced Metacafe selling out to Hollywood and I just stumbled upon this video made by "therealweeklynews". If YouTube is succesful in monetization partnerships with companies like Disney, video producers and filmmakers are being pushed aside. Watch this video. It's done very well at explaining things.

Waterdog Filming

We have always known that our current guide dog puppy was special. She has all the inherant qualities that will make her a good candidate for guide work. What we didn't anticipate is what an incredible athlete she has become. Her very first trip to my parents swimming pool revealed that her natural labrador retriever instincts have not fallen far from the tree. She loves the water and is fearless when it comes to diving in with no reservations. She and our career changed lab Eli are inseperable and both love swimming. Please check out Chapman Digitals latest video

Make A Doggy Cam

I really enjoy my dog Eli. So much so that I thought it would be fun to figure out a way to mount a camera on him and call it a doggy cam. My buddy Darren Schmidt (cinematographer for GurillaTV) generously donated his POV.1 made by VIO. It is a nice cigar camera that is supposed to be waterproof, dustproof, and shock resistant. All good things when putting a camera on a 90 pound beast like my four-legged goof ball.

Here is a fun video tutorial that shows the doggy cam below.



Here is my film entitled NAUGHTY PRIEST that contains a shot (it only lasts like 2 seconds) from the doggy cam footage above.

Fix your aspect ratio for videos on YouTube

You're able to alter the appearance and format of your video by adding specific tags to your video. You can add these tags before you upload your video file to the site, or you can also add the tags to edit an existing video that you've uploaded to your account in the past. The video's altered appearance will display when the video plays on YouTube, and in embedded players.

Here's how!

If you'd like to add formatting tags to a video file you're about to upload:

Sign into your YouTube account, and click the yellow upload button.
On the next page, click the "upload video" button. Then, select the file you'd like to upload from your computer.
As the video file's uploading, you'll see categories below the upload progress bar, including the category "Tags".
Depending on how you'd like to format your video, type on of the following tags into the "Tags" section:

Tag: yt:crop=16:9
(zooms in on the 16:9 area, removes windowboxing)

Tag: yt:stretch=16:9
(fixes anamorphic content by scaling to 16:9)

Tag: yt:stretch=4:3
(fixes 720x480 content that is the wrong aspect ratio by scaling to 4:3)

Tag: yt:quality=high
(default to a high quality stream, depending on availability)

Once your video uploads to the site, it should be formatted according to the formatting-tag you added while the video was uploading.

If you'd like to add formatting tags to a video you've already uploaded to your account:
Sign into your YouTube account, and click account (in the upper right hand corner of the page).
Click Uploaded Videos, and select the video that you'd like to edit.
Click the "edit" button below the video.
Depending on how you'd like to format your video, type on of the following tags into the "Tags" section:

Tag: yt:crop=16:9
(zooms in on the 16:9 area, removes windowboxing)

Tag: yt:stretch=16:9
(fixes anamorphic content by scaling to 16:9)

Tag: yt:stretch=4:3
(fixes 720x480 content that is the wrong aspect ratio by scaling to 4:3)

Tag: yt:quality=high
(default to a high quality stream, depending on availability)

Here is a video from dctcool with a great explanation:

Time-lapse filmmaking talk

Godfrey Reggio's first film KOYAANISQATSI changed my perspective on time-lapse photography. This film should be watched by every filmmaker because it gave birth to the explosion of what we know as time-lapse today. Everything from CBS's Survivor to the recent Beijing Olympics uses this style of photography. If you are not familiar with the film you can watch the trailer below.


I have been experimenting with time-lapse videography for a long time. It is a really cool way of viewing the world from a altered perspective. The ability to watch something 1000x faster then it is normally viewed can create a visceral experience and help you see something in a whole new light.

I have found that time-lapse is a great way to show an event to a mass audience. An event that would normally bore people can be very engaging when it only lasts a minute or two. My video ONE MINUTE ENGINE REBUILD -DIRECTORS CUT is my favorite of all of them. I shot the repair over a period of three days. I set up a 1k lowel tungsten balanced light, and put my Panasonic DVX-100A on a tripod with lots of sandbags. I set up the camcorder on a 100 shutter, 3.2 Kelvin white balance, 2.8 exposure, and a fixed focal of 72 for the event. I set the time-lapse to recording 15frames every 1 minute. In post I took the footage and multiplied it by 1000%, cut out the dead spots where the work was not progressing, applied frame blend, and added music from my Smartsound collection. The rest is history.




Here is another fun video of car repair. Since i'm mechanically inclined and don't have the money to pay a mechanic, I might as well combine both of my skills right? This video incorporated all the same camera settings I used before. The difference is I wanted to see what it would be like to view a time-lapse that jumps all over the place. I move the camera at least a dozen times throughout the process to give a different perspective. Check it out!

Simple Camera Trick

I made this video because I wanted to show this simple camera trick I coined the "dutch angle tilt". I don't know if anyone out there has thought up the same thing, but I'm pretty certain no one has ever made a tutorial video showing the technique. It's really easy, and only requires one to rotate the camera 90 degrees. Seriously..check it out!



Here is the film entitled "IN CASE OF EMERGENCY" that I referenced in the simple camera trick video. Check out how I used the camera trick to convey that "Joe" was spiraling out of control.