Posts
All you need is two things.
1) Two camcorder batteries
2) Gaff tape
I can't think of a better tip for every person who shoots video or does photography. Simple and incredibly effective. This tip could really save the day in an event where your battery dies and you need to continue the shot as quickly as possible. Even fumbling around in your pockets to get a new battery could waste valuable time.
Here is the video I made as a demonstration.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Film Distribution: Guerilla Filmmaking Case Study
1. Start simple. Arin Crumley and Susan Buice shot their film from a one-page outline, a crude storyboard, and with small cameras and a small crew.
2. Tell the story behind your story. When they couldn't find a distributor for their film, they decided to do daily video blogs to reinforce their creative talents and build an audience. A result was that people started to feel like they knew the filmmakers firsthand; that, in turn, fueled curiosity about them and their work, and eventually put people in theaters.
3. Involve your audience, part A. The filmmakers actively sought out feedback from their fans via platforms like YouTube and MySpace, and took the advice seriously. It impacted new episodes of the podcasts and the film itself, which they were still editing. In other words, the audience actually shaped the final product.
4. Involve your audience, part B. When determining where to distribute their film, the couple went to regions where they knew they already had fans, thanks to emails and zip codes they had collected from their podcast and other marketing activities. They also created a "heart map" so that people could see the requests for the film to play in their town grow and who was going -- a social network of sorts.
5. Network in the real world, too. Film festivals used to be about getting a film acquired by a distributor or a short into the hands of a talent agent. But Crumley and Buice went to hundreds of festivals around the world and thought strategically about whom they encountered. When they met the guys at Spout, they realized that Spout needed publicity and users. 4EM had those two things, but needed money. It turned out to be a fruitful (and fateful) match.
In this video, the filmmakers behind "Four Eyed Monsters" reveal how they used YouTube, community and the web to erase their credit card debt and get their labor of love into theaters. If you don't have time to watch the whole video (it's 29 minutes long), here are some of the key takeaways:
2. Tell the story behind your story. When they couldn't find a distributor for their film, they decided to do daily video blogs to reinforce their creative talents and build an audience. A result was that people started to feel like they knew the filmmakers firsthand; that, in turn, fueled curiosity about them and their work, and eventually put people in theaters.
3. Involve your audience, part A. The filmmakers actively sought out feedback from their fans via platforms like YouTube and MySpace, and took the advice seriously. It impacted new episodes of the podcasts and the film itself, which they were still editing. In other words, the audience actually shaped the final product.
4. Involve your audience, part B. When determining where to distribute their film, the couple went to regions where they knew they already had fans, thanks to emails and zip codes they had collected from their podcast and other marketing activities. They also created a "heart map" so that people could see the requests for the film to play in their town grow and who was going -- a social network of sorts.
5. Network in the real world, too. Film festivals used to be about getting a film acquired by a distributor or a short into the hands of a talent agent. But Crumley and Buice went to hundreds of festivals around the world and thought strategically about whom they encountered. When they met the guys at Spout, they realized that Spout needed publicity and users. 4EM had those two things, but needed money. It turned out to be a fruitful (and fateful) match.
In this video, the filmmakers behind "Four Eyed Monsters" reveal how they used YouTube, community and the web to erase their credit card debt and get their labor of love into theaters. If you don't have time to watch the whole video (it's 29 minutes long), here are some of the key takeaways:
Monday, October 5, 2009
Raising Guide Dogs For the Blind
Amie and I have been raising Guide Dogs For the Blind for seven years now. We are on our 9th dog. Three have graduated to become guides (Macklin, Rennie, and Prudy), five have not (Clarice, Eli, Piedmont, Dakota, and Lewis), and one is currently in the process of growing up with us (Marianna).
Eli is our third dog, and we were more than happy to keep him when we found out that fateful day that he was not cut out to be a Guide Dog. We think he was too smart, and if he could talk would say that he would have a lot more fun as a pet. Not too mention he has become a pretty good movie dog. His childlike personality also seems to continue to get him into trouble even to this day despite being five years old. John Grogan has so eloquently displayed that all dogs have their pros and cons including our own "Marley".
People ask "how can you give them up? It must be very difficult." I will admit that giving our first dog Macklin back rendered tears out of these dry eyes. That is a small miracle, but it all seems worth it when you see how much your dog can help someone in need. I had the opportunity to film for Guide Dogs For the Blind a few weeks ago. We were able to get Macklin and his partner Jeannie to meet up with us at the campus so I could film them. What a surreal shoot that was. I was so proud of our oldest fur ball as I sat behind the lens of the camera and watched Macklin guide Jeannie around the streets of San Rafeal. It almost seemed like he was showing off; as I could read a big happy smile on his face that was saying "look dad, I'm a guide dog now, and very good at it too!" It was at this moment that any doubts for our charity were kicked to the curb. I will always think back to that moment when I have feelings of doubt for this cause.
Amie and I threw a new video together this week where I let her have some fun in front of the camera. We went out with our Guide Dog group and filmed away.
Eli is our third dog, and we were more than happy to keep him when we found out that fateful day that he was not cut out to be a Guide Dog. We think he was too smart, and if he could talk would say that he would have a lot more fun as a pet. Not too mention he has become a pretty good movie dog. His childlike personality also seems to continue to get him into trouble even to this day despite being five years old. John Grogan has so eloquently displayed that all dogs have their pros and cons including our own "Marley".
People ask "how can you give them up? It must be very difficult." I will admit that giving our first dog Macklin back rendered tears out of these dry eyes. That is a small miracle, but it all seems worth it when you see how much your dog can help someone in need. I had the opportunity to film for Guide Dogs For the Blind a few weeks ago. We were able to get Macklin and his partner Jeannie to meet up with us at the campus so I could film them. What a surreal shoot that was. I was so proud of our oldest fur ball as I sat behind the lens of the camera and watched Macklin guide Jeannie around the streets of San Rafeal. It almost seemed like he was showing off; as I could read a big happy smile on his face that was saying "look dad, I'm a guide dog now, and very good at it too!" It was at this moment that any doubts for our charity were kicked to the curb. I will always think back to that moment when I have feelings of doubt for this cause.
Amie and I threw a new video together this week where I let her have some fun in front of the camera. We went out with our Guide Dog group and filmed away.
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."
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!
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Coolest tripod advice ever!
I love this video and can vouche for the trick. It really does work. Check it out!
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.
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