Extras Casting Call For Industrial Video in Temple, Texas – Paid

Extras Casting Call For Industrial Video in Temple, Texas – Paid Studio/Independent/Student: Independent Project Type: Industrial Video Production Company: Elephant Productions Location: Temple, TX Schedule: Dec. 4, 2009 Character Breakdowns: Extras – Males and Females. Ages 25 – 50. ? All races / ethnicities. Paid/Non-Paid: Paid – $150 Meals/Transportation Provided: CONTACT: Please email headshot and contact [...]

Casting 40-60 Year Old Actress For Role in Austin, Texas Short Film “Artaud et son petit Voyage”

Casting 40-60 Year Old Actress For Role in Austin, Texas Short Film “Artaud et son petit Voyage.” Production Title: Artaud et son petit Voyage Studio/Independent/Student: Independent Film Project Type: Short Film Location: Austin, Texas Schedule: Between December 5 and December 15, 2009. Producer: Philip Kreyche Synopsis: The film is about French poet and writer Antonin Artaud, [...]

Vote For The 2010 Best Movie Cities Presented by MovieMaker Magazine

2010 Best Movie Cities Survey presented by MovieMaker Magazine It’s that time of year again! The time of year where movie magazines allow people to submit their opinions on the top 5 movie making cities in a completely “non-bias” manner. And in that same spirit, we submit to you FILMMAKERS OF TEXAS to vote your [...]

Actors Will Do Anything To Land A Role...

TJ Miller, an LA-based comedian (Cloverfield, Carpoolers) shot this video after two unsuccessful auditions for the Warner Bros' Yogi Bear movie. Studio boss Alan Horn and producer Donald De Line saw this footage and offered him the part of Ranger Smith in the film. He's already in New Zealand shooting:

Oscar Screeners Sent Out So Far...

Among Academy Awards screeners which Oscar voters should have by now: 9 (500) DAYS OF SUMMER ANVIL AN EDUCATION A SERIOUS MAN AWAY WE GO BRIGHT STAR CAPITALISM: A Love Story COCO BEFORE CHANEL CORALINE DISTRICT 9 JULIE & JULIA PIRATE RADIO TAKING WOODSTOCK THE BLIND SIDE THE DAMNED UNITED The INFORMANT THE MESSENGER THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE THE PROPOSAL THE STONING OF SORAYA M THE YOUNG VICTORIA TRUCKER WHATEVER WORKS WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Photos: Hollywood At Obama State Dinner

   

UTA's David Guillod Leaving Agency Biz

UTA talent partner David Guillod is leaving UTA and the agency business to supposedly join a content company. According to an email that UTA Chairman Jim Berkus sent out to the agency, “We have enjoyed many successes together with David and very much look forward to working with him in the future.” He reps Liv Tyler, Don Cheadle, Justin Long.

Official List Of Hollywood Attendees At Obama's 1st White House State Dinner

5:45PM: Hollywood VIP David Geffen was seated at President Obama's table. 3PM: Below is a list of expected entertainment industry attendees at tonight’s first White House State Dinner hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for guest of honor Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, & Ms. Gursharan Kaur: Ari Emanuel, David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jeff Immelt, Michael Lynton and wife Jamie, Gayle King, M. Night Shyamalan, Steven Spielberg, Alfre Woodard, Blair E Underwood. For background on why these Hollywood insiders invited, read my previous: Obama Thanks Hollywood With Invites To First White House State Dinner.

Episode 115: Make Your Own Way with April Yvette Thompson

Actress, Activist, Writer, and Teacher April Yvette Thompson shares with us her journey to taking responsibility for her fate as an artist. Find out how she pioneered her hit solo show, "Liberty City".

Also, featuring Joshua Warr whose work with April evolved into "Sing No Evil", a caberet that is currently at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.

Be inspired!

Dirty Bomb Diaries -Interview with the Creators

Web Files' host, Kristyn Burtt, interviews Sean Hinchey and Eric Tozzi, whose web series, Dirty Bomb Diaries, has gone where few series have gone before

Matrox Announces Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 4.2 Support on the Mac for the Matrox MXO2 Family of I/O Devices

Matrox Video Products Group today announced Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 4.2 support on the Mac for Matrox MXO2 Mini, MXO2 LE, MXO2 and MXO2 Rack. These devices provide all the features of an I/O card and a sturdy breakout box with the added advantage of portability....

Atlona Technologies officially releases new Passive VGA Wall Plate Extender Kit over CAT5/6 with Stereo Audio

Driving Auto-Realism over Rough Terrain for 2012

Digital Rapids Receives Dual Honors for 2009 Broadband Video Transcoding Leadership and Strategy from Frost & Sullivan

Element Technica Quasar 3D Rigs Now in Use

Comcast-NBC deal on the brink

Cable provider Comcast is eyeing NBC-Universal for a price of about $30 billion, according to Bloomberg. In a previous post, I predicted this would happen, since it makes since for cable companies to find ways to add value to customer, beyond just being a series of tubes.

THE NEW POST HOUSE

The latest gig is coming to an end and I learned some valuable and cool lessons in virtual post-house workflows. It was a three-day shoot on a stage in SF for Sony Playstation, we wrapped a few weeks ago. The whole show was shot on a RED at 4.5K.

All footage was converted to ProRes 4:2:2 @ 2K, synced with the audio files using Plural Eyes. We triple backed-up the data across multiple firewire drives, but really didn't give it much of a second thought after that. Redundancy is quickly becoming redundant.

Editing was done in FCP7 by Anthony, comps were done in After Effects, tracking was done in Mocha 2 and comped into plates using RedGiant Warp. I did some roto work and titles in After Effects, Ayumi handled the tracking and comping.

What was the most interesting thing, to me, is that the entire show was worked on in 2K across three MacBook Pro's in Anthony's apartment in Oakland. We did a couple of days meeting with client and reviewing material in a studio at Kontent, but by and large, the work was done by three people, each on their own laptop.



Files were exchanged using Dropbox and we seamlessly moved footage, renders and project files around.

Some days we all sat and worked together in the same physical location, and plenty of days we each worked on our own. A lot of the client contact and producer's wrangling happened with iPhone "merged" calls. Nothing fancy, nothing expensive. We would post cuts and renders to a client viewing site on-line.



This was an experiment in untethering ourselves from the Kontent mothership on Post street in SF. Anthony and I live a few miles apart in Oakland, and any day we can avoid the "S-Curve" on the Bay Bridge is a good day. The experiment proved to be a success. You can professionally edit, comp VFX, create basic sound design and stay in constant feedback with a producer and clients all from a one bedroom apartment on three laptops. You need fast internet, a comfy couch, a chair, some coffee and decent music. Lunch can be handled by Grubhub.com.

The experience of three artists working together in the same room on a relatively flexible schedule was way more interesting and satisfying than being alone in an edit suite.

This has got me thinking about the future of post houses as the industry continues to experience a deindustrialization of what was once heavily capitalized facilities that functioned kind of like mini-factories. Where have all the Aeron chairs gone?

A nice space to work in is important, but shiny post houses are really all about clients -- making sure that their project is being handled by people responsible enough to have an office in a building. That part probably won't change. What I think is changing, is the very ergonomics and small scale geography of how and where we work.

While issues of repetitive strain and carpal tunnel syndrome keep us sitting upright in chairs at desks, what happens when editing shifts away from keyboards and mice to more intuitive, gestural ways of interacting with software?

What happens when rendering goes away because of new GPU optimization like the Adobe Mercury Engine and every tool becomes more real-time?

What happens when a generation of new media workers raised on gestural UIs like the iPhone and instant electronic messaging enter the workforce and began to handle the workload and transform workflows?

There was a time when you could get a job at a post-house and be a tape-op, or an assistant editor, and your job was 9-6 with clearly delineated lines of communication, hierarchies or skill and specialization. Post houses reflected that environment. Those days are long gone.

Now, if you're starting out, you better be able to edit, comp, convert formats and frame rates, compress and post video on-line and be in constant communication. There is no "entry level" anymore. It looks harder for people just starting out. The upside is that if you are multi-skilled, someone will want you.

You just have to be prepared to spend three weeks with them in an apartment in Oakland.

The lesson here?

Be a really nice person. You'll go farther.

Best CF Cards for 5D, 7D Movies

I’ve been vocally recommending that people interested in shooting video with the Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D, and upcoming Canon 1D Mark IV, use UDMA, or “Extreme IV” Compact Flash (CF) cards. This was based on some hard-won personal experience — I had two nasty drop-outs (in the form of held frames) when I shot Chapter 12: After the Subway to Extreme III CF cards.

Since then I’ve gotten many replies and comments from people shooting with the far less-expensive Extreme III and 133x cards without incident.

Here’s one such response, from Will Backer, reprinted here with his permission:

Hey Stu,

First off, thanks so much for your continued support of the indie rebel community — I’m a big fan.

I wanted to just drop you a quick recommendation regarding the flash cards you use and recommend for shooting video on the 5Dmkii and the 7D.

I haven’t shot on the 7D, which I realize has a slightly higher data rate, but I have shot 8 commercials (about 20 hours of raw footage) on the 5D with the Kingston Elite Pro 32 GB 133x cards (about $75 each), and I have not had any issues whatsoever with speed or data security.

I see that you’re still recommending the 8GB Extreme IV’s, which are 1/4 the size and more expensive than the Kingston 133x 32GBs.  I know you moved to these faster cards after losing data on the Extreme IIIs — which makes sense, but it seems the word around the net is the the Extreme III just didn’t play well with the 5Dmkii, and it isn’t necessarily a speed issue.

I bought 2 of the Kingston’s because I found people on cinema 5d successfully using them and I needed to shoot a lot in the field.  I’ve since noticed that Phillip Bloom and others use and recommend these cards as well.

Obviously it’s better safe than sorry when it comes to quality media, but the price difference is so huge that you may wanna give slower cards a try.  At least these Kingstons seem to work perfectly and offer a four-fold gain in storage capacity for your dollar.

Cheers,

-Will

Thanks Will. I’m cautiously changing my recommended cards on the 7D Cine store page and I’ll let you know if I have any issues with the Kingston card I just ordered!