Super Moon 2012 Facebook Album

Why is the Moon reversed in some of these photos?

Here is an image from Caról Mckenzy Mcloud of Santiago, Chile:

Here is one I took Saturday night in Temecula, CA. Notice the difference

The reason is the Northern & Southern Hemispheres see the moon reversed.

So where did the Moon come from?

Giant impact hypothesis

The giant impact hypothesis states that the Moon was formed out of the debris left over from a collision between the Earth and a Mars-sized body, sometime around 4.5 Ga (four and a half billion years ago). The colliding body is sometimes called Theia, for the mythical Greek Titan who was the mother of Selene, the goddess of the moon.

How far away is the moon?

Average Earth moon distance (384,403 km) + moon diameter at equator (10,920 km) = a 395,323 km rope for the lasso (245,642.3 miles).

Speed of light from Earth to Moon

Scale model of the Earth and the Moon, with a beam of light traveling between them at the speed of light. It takes approximately 1.26 seconds.

So how can I take great pictures of the Moon?

Rule #1 make sure you have a Tripod.
For more tips check out the videos below.

DSLR Tips: Night Photography

Landscape Astrophotography Tutorial – First Night Out

Photographing the Moon with a DSLR and a Telescope

Thats No Moon!

You’re right it’s Pink Floyd.

The Dark Side of Oz

Dark Side of the Rainbow – also known as Dark Side of Oz or The Wizard of Floyd – refers to the pairing of the 1973 Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon with the visual portion of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. This produces moments where the film and the album appear to correspond with each other. The title of the music video-like experience comes from a combination of the album title and the film’s song “Over the Rainbow”. Band members and others involved in the making of the album state that any relationship between the two works of art is merely a coincidence.

NAB has become the world’s largest convention of media geeks and nerds around. Mid-April thousands make the pilgrimage to the land of Lost Wages to get a chance to look at new equipment and ask simple questions that could have been answered by a quick Google search.

NERDS!!! Revenge of the AV Club

Cynicism aside, the sheer size of the convention does generate a certain electricity in the air and there’s nothing quite as exciting as seeing that new production camera on an ultra shiny monitor (especially when the monitor costs more than the camera). Plus where else can you see a free magic show that incorporates the benefits of using EMC Isilon storage solutions?

Oh yeah… and lots of Greenscreen studio setups.

Most of us can't talk to a hot woman unless there's a Camera between us... but sometimes that doesn't even help...

There are plenty of sites that are offering complete in-depth coverage of the NAB exhibits and in the weeks and months to follow we’ll be taking a look at a lot of these new toys. In this article, we’ll just cover a few highlights – consider this a preview of things to come.

Black Magic Design Gets Into the Camera Game

Flying under the cover the big announcements from Canon and Sony regarding 4K, Black Magic Design dropped a big old, “Holy crap, that’s cool” PR bomb with their new Cinema Camera. Don’t let the simple Fisher-Price casing or lack of an alphanumeric callsign fool you, this camera is capable of some serious imaging.

Shooting on a roughly a 4/3″ chip, the Black Magic is capable of recording uncompressed 2.5K photo stream onto commonly available SSD drives. This feature is very similar to the “Digital Bolex“. But unlike the Digital Bolex, this camera can also record to a ProRes Compressed HD or DPX sequence in case you don’t want to burn hard drive space at 5 megs a frame. And doesn’t come with the retro hipster vibe.

But the best part… its selling for under $3,000.

That is the one thing I really like about Black Magic even though I don’t own anything they make. I was at another booth (who’s products I actually own) and they said a 4 way camera preview splitter was really affordable at $1,000. If Black Magic made it, it would be about $300. They really make affordable gear.

Read more about the Cinema Camera here

But I just upgraded… Adobe CS6 may be too tempting to resist

Adobe was out touting CS6… or was it. It’s sometimes hard to understand corporate double speak. Officially, CS6 is not out… so there’s no word quite yet on pricing… but all the computers a demoing CS6. So all they really can say is they’re working on it… and here it is… but it doesn’t exist yet…

The new improvements are too numerous to list here. But they are pretty substantial. Click here to see the new improvements.

The most important update is the Adobe Mercury Transmit which makes allows 3rd party hardware to access the powerful Adobe Mercury Playback engine. Previous versions had to wait for 3rd party suppliers to update their software to be compatible… hopefully this will be a thing of the past.

Autodesk’s new Smoke

I don’t know a thing about Autodesk’s Smoke. But there’s a new version and people are excited about it. I’ve never used it so I have no opinion one way or the other.

Canon’s Big 4K Cameras

I wrote a considerable article on the Canon’s 4K offerings yesterday. Neither of these cameras are really ready for market and when I tried to slip an SD card to get some sample footage, the Canon employee shooed me away.

My concerns about the 1D-C lacking an Electronic Peaking were verified. At this point, I feel like the 1D-C is what happens when you try to take the HDSLR concept too far to the point where it just doesn’t make sense.

I did get to play with the C300 and I snuck my Camera’s CF card in there to take some video. Unfortunately it formatted my card and I lost all the photos I had taken earlier in the day (which included some incriminating shots of Vincent Laforet at the Adobe Booth)… but at least the footage is really amazing.

This is compressed further as I don’t think I can upload the MXF… Horribly shot in very low light… and absolutely NO Frickin’ Noise. Amazing.

The Cine Prime lens on there was nice too…

Sony’s NEX-FS700 really is that Awesome

Unlike the overprotective parents at Canon, Sony was like that cool dad that gave you firecrackers and a BB gun and let you torment your little sister while he and aunt Julie had grown-up time in the cottage in the backyard. According the Sony representative, these 3 FS700s were the only one of their kind in the United States and they generously let me grab some footage.

These are Intra-AVC files straight off the camera – no post.

Here I am pushing the ISOs to try to see the noise. The highest I got here was about ISO5000 I think.

Here I’m looking at dynamic range between the lights and the darks. The FS700 handles the image beautifully.

As you can see the FS700 packs quite a punch for a sub-$10k camera. But
most talked about feature is the capability of shooting high frame rates (up to 240 fps for Full HD) for really cool slo mo.

What I forgot when testing out the slow motion was that high frame rate require considerably more light. And since the camera was set to auto exposure, the slow mo capture turned the ISO up to 10,000 (normally you’d never shoot that high). The amount of noise on the image didn’t become apparent until I viewed the footage on my laptop which goes to show you that having a really expensive preview monitor like the one Sony used to demo the camera does make your footage look better :)

Also there may be an extra post step that I’m missing that is exacerbating the noise issues (perhaps involving a missing gamma curve – I noticed if I pushed the dark areas down, it alleviated some of the noise).

Read more about the Sony NEX FS700 here

GoPro Goes Matrix

Not necessarily a new product but an interesting concept: Go Pro showed off its set up that can produce “bullet time” effects as seen on films like “The Matrix” using a modified gen-lock cable they use for the stereoscopic 3D.

No reason was given as to why it was mounted on a race car. GoPro users are just extreme that way. I’m surprised they haven’t picked up Mountain Dew as a sponsor.

The Most Awesome Van Ever

If I know my readers, the reason you clicked on the title was because you wanted to see some serious van action. Second to painting “Free WiFi” on the side of your van, nothing will gauruntee you more media nerd action than rolling into town with this sweet setup that Data Video had on display.

Play this as you scroll through the following pictures:

Come into my van baby and we'll sync some footage...

Is that a parfocal lens in your pocket or are you happy to see me?

If this van is a rockin' that means we're calibrating our speakers

Oh yeah…

And this dude was wearing a video hat near the RED booth.

Must... Not... Break the Suspension of Disbelief

But now, Television Programs have grown to become major cultural events in our society. And with the availability of technological magic, visual effects for the original “boob-tube” can now match almost anything being seen on the silver screen.

Here are 33 visual effects breakdowns made under tight budgets and deadlines of Television.

24

Boardwalk Empire

Bones

The Cape

Crossing Jordan

CSI: NY

Defying Gravity

Dr. Who

Episodes

ER

Game of Thornes

Heroes

House

John Adams

Knight Rider

Lost

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Pan Am

Sky Channel ID

Spartacus

Swords and Sandals

Teen Wolf

Terra Nova

Ugly Betty

The Walking Dead

Wishbone

Maybe not as flashy as the others, but this show played from 1995-98… which is like ancient times right?

If you’re reading this on Wednesday January 18, 2012 and you decide to head over to Wikipedia for a quick read up on the history of Gilligan’s Island you’ll be greeted with a black screen of protest. Or maybe you want to spend some quality time on Reddit or BoingBoing… nope, they’re black. Oh well, at least there’s always LOLcats at ICanHasCheezburgers…. wait… NO! In this world gone mad not even the Thai Food Blog is safe!!!!!

All these sites and others have pledged to conduct a one day internet shutdown as a symbolic protest over two bills that are making their way through the United States Congress. Apparently with complete disregard for the fact once you go black, you don’t go back.

As a way of joining in, all of our links within this article will go to the “dark sites” participating in the protest. After all, who needs to check facts during an internet protest. Just take our word that everything you read here is the gospel truth…

So what the hell is SOPA?

It is a winner take all fight to the death between Media Giants (MPAA, RIAA) vs Tech Giants (Google, Facebook). These bills, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) were designed to put a check to online piracy – a move that is very popular with organizations like the MPAA and RIAA who see people enjoying and sharing entertainment freely as the first sign of the apocalypse. But the bill, in its current state, grants to the government the power to block websites that not only host, but link to sites that illegally use copyright infringed work.

How the hell does it work?

Because it’s difficult for U.S. companies to take legal action against “rogue” foreign sites (like The Pirate Bay) SOPA’s aim is to cut off pirates ability to do business by requiring U.S. search engines, video hosts, advertising networks and other providers to not allow them to use their services. That would mean sites like Google couldn’t show flagged sites in their search results, and sites like PayPal couldn’t process payments for them. It would also mean sites like YouTube would go dark because user uploaded material that may violate copyright law.

These tactics where used to some degree to try and kill Wikileaks when Paypal, Visa, MasterCard, Amazon and others blocked them from using their services. That in turn lead to the group Anonymous to launch Operation Payback that snowballed into a wave of hacking attacks. The big deference being those where voluntary actions by service providers and they where not under any legal obligation to do so.

Why the hell should I care?

The bills are controversial because they would change the digital landscape if they became law and murder millions of kittens. It could mean the shut down of many user generated content sites and force them to enact dictatorial policing actions.

Google and Facebook, are known for never selling their user information to third parties (ahem!), are weighing in on this obtrusive action of the government calling it censorship. Yes, there is no shortage of irony:

But I digress….

You may be asking yourself, isn’t copyright infringement already illegal? Why yes it is. The way copyright enforcement currently works now is if a copyright holder sees an act of infringement, let’s say on Youtube, they can issue a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) Warning. The other side can protest this warning and use many of the legal copyright defenses (like fair use or parody). If they can’t come to terms, the matter can be taken to the courts. But this is only effective in sites based in the United States.

SOPA steps up the action by giving the government the power to shut down access to sites that infringe on copyright material. And the shut down is being done at the point of accusation, which means just the whiff of infringement could lead to a shut down.

SOPA’s critics say the bill’s backers just don’t understand the interwebs’ series of tubes, and therefore don’t appreciate the implications of the legislation.

When the hell does this go into effect?

In its current form most likely never. It was expected to fly through committee then on to approval in the House. But now after the interwebs went batshit, it’s being extensively “reworked.”

The White House said the original legislation’s technical provisions “suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity,” and that it wouldn’t support legislation that mandates manipulating the Internet’s technical architecture.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has said SOPA won’t come up for a committee vote as-is.

They plan to resume revision of the bill in February and it likely is to last for months. That means the bill could change a lot from day to day. One thing is for sure, these giants will continue to fight it out for years to come, crushing us all in their wake.

Perhaps this time the Tech Firms have a valid points, but make no mistake neither side really cares about your freedoms. Especially when they conflict with profits.

LOGLINE: Some one is converting Hollywood Classics into 3D, Only Private Eye Ronald M. Vorhees can solve the MYSTERY!!

Behind the Scenes

“Treachery in Three Dimensions” was shot on the Canon 5d with most of the set located in John’s garage. Here is the timelapse of the on-set activity

Development of Script and Post in our IQ Discussion Group

(The Shorts Workshop)

Script Project: Treachery in Three Dimensions

On the Set of ”Treachery in Three Dimensions”

Wakey Wakey Time Mr. Vorhees

Editing Treacherously: T3D – Edit in Progress

Be sure to check out our discussion area for more great content and post your projects for feedback and advice.

When I woke up today it was morning in America, but it wasn’t until the afternoon before I realized I helped create the dawn. That’s when I saw Newt Gingrich’s “Rebuilding the America We Love” ad and noticed those images that all political pundits where dissecting where in part created by me.

Turns out Newt used part of his Tiffany-esque $250,000 ad budget to pay me $64 in royalties for the right to use one of my Stock Videos as a main component in his spot that some are calling “Morning in America 2.0.”

Now my work is being compared to everyone one from David Lynch to Michael Bay. I hope that isn’t what they consider “fair and balanced.”

You may remember this image I posted in a review of the Sony AX2000 back in April of 2010.

Ignoring the bizarre lighting on Newt’s talking-head shot (looks like he’s trying out for “Best Tan” on Jersey Shore) and the fact that its reminiscent of Ronald Regan’s “Its Morning Again in America”, see if you Eagle-Eyed Filmmaker IQ followers can spot it in Newt’s ad:

That’s right, there it is at 0:04.

I also featured the exact same clip in the video review:

Here is the classic Ronald Reagan TV Ad: “Its Morning in America” from 1984.

Now unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your political stance), my small contribution to Newt’s Campaign has not had a positive effect. Since posting the ad on December 5th, Newt’s numbers have been steadily declining…

Perhaps it was because like Newt’s smile that white picket fence is made out of plastic.

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond dared ask in this article: “Can you identify all the Iowa landmarks?”

Well Mr. Hammond, the location is Harveston, a man-made lake just under 5 years old in the City of Temecula, CA. The flag from the stock shot is down and winter has stripped the trees of their former lusciousness.

Here is a quick image of myself in the historic spot captured from an iPad. I rushed out to grab this before the sun went down and I left the CF card for my DSLR at home.

How did a clip from a camera review end up in a highly contested Republican Primary?

Well being a starving filmmaker with a healthy appetite, I recycled that footage to microstock website iStockphoto.com – selling it for anyone to purchase and download. (Hint, you should purchase and download as well)

In the year and a half it’s been there the file has done very well. It was nominated and placed in their premiere Vetta Category (translation: Most Expensive) and has brought in about $700 in Royalties.

iStockphoto doesn’t show you who purchased the file, only when, so I’m forced to guess the agency that created the ad purchased it on October 14th, 2011 for which I received a handsome royalty of $64.40.

From a quick shot grabbed with an unfamiliar camera to a brief 2 second highlight in a national political campaign, this little clip has sparked considerable internet commentary.

It was first brought to my attention while browsing Cracked.com in an attempt to avoid doing anything productive when I saw this:

Some more on what the media is saying about the ad.

The ad begins, almost David Lynch-like, with scenes of small-town America, panning in slow motion at times, most effectively, when a large hand is shown in close-up gently sweeping over a wheat field, suggesting a wise farmer — or perhaps the hand of the Almighty himself? — tending to his precious crop. You may not realize it when you watch this unusually evocative image — one of several in the ad — but that’s very likely Newt’s own hand on camera, and the wind-blown golden harvest beneath it is the proverbial “amber wave of grain” meant to symbolize the resurgence of the American heartland, overseen, of course, by the very white-haired shepherd who once angrily shut the entire federal government down.

Huffington Post

It’s an upbeat spot themed on a slice of Americana — some of the shots are reminiscent of the movie “Armageddon”

Politico

Some people say the America we know and love is a thing of the past. I don’t believe that because working together I know we can rebuild America,” Gingrich says in the ad, over video of a landscape and the American flag hanging from a front porch, blowing in the wind.

ABC News

The campaign confirms to CNN that it will spend $250,000 to run the spot state-wide in Iowa, which holds the first contest in the presidential caucus and primary calendar.

CNN

His one-minute commercial will be seen on cable and broadcast networks in Iowa, said a campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond. The upbeat and positive ad features strong patriotic themes, with Mr. Gingrich speaking directly into the camera.

New York Times

Newt Gingrich began this week by releasing a minute-long campaign ad titled “Rebuilding the America We Love,” in which the veteran Republican insists that the wholesome, idyllic, small-town America that we all recognize from movies and advertising still exists. The ad is not terribly convincing, partly because it’s a rather uninspired retread of Ronald Reagan’s famous “Morning in America” spot from 1984, and partly because, while Reagan was talking up the good times, Gingrich is talking down the bad.

Slate

Newt Gingrich has a new ad up, and it’s clear what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to get elected as Richard Milhous Reagan.

Esquire

Gingrich’s ad feels eerily similar to “Morning in America,” the iconic ad President Ronald Reagan aired in his 1984 reelection campaign. Set to an almost identical soft soundtrack, it blends footage of a suburban porch and humming factory, a mountain sunrise and main-street flower shop, as well as a couple of quintessential Iowa scenes: the State House in Des Moines and fields of grain.

Washington Post

He delivers his rosy message over images literally lifted from “America the Beautiful” — predawn scenes of “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountains majesties.

The Atlantic

The spot is being supported by a near Tiffany-esque $250,000 ad buy in Iowa.
Mediaite

The ad itself is well-produced, and captures some of that elusive Reaganian “Morning in America” quality, very obviously the intent of his campaign team.

Hot Air

It sounds like Newt is promising “Morning in America” again

National Review

Where this starts to get weird.

They say imitation is the greatest flattery, but I don’t think that is what these parody and remix creators where thinking. I guess they each owe me $64 now. Oh well, it’s the Holidays I guess I won’t sue. Plus that last guy scares the shit out of me.

Parodies aside, it’s a good thing Newt paid me that $64 and didn’t steal that stock video. Not only because now I can afford healthcare. But because… Don’t Cross Us. Ever. Seriously. Just Don’t.

Day of the Fight (1951)

Day of the Fight is a 1951 short documentary shot in black-and-white and also the first picture directed by Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick financed the film himself, and it is based on an earlier photo feature he had done as a photographer for Look magazine in 1949.

Flying Padre (1951)

Flying Padre is a short black-and-white documentary, which is notable as the second picture directed by Stanley Kubrick, after Day of the Fight. About a Catholic priest in rural New Mexico, Father Fred Stadtmuller. Because his 400-square mile parish is so large, he uses a Piper Cub airplane (named the “Spirit of St. Joseph”) to travel from one isolated settlement to another. The film shows him providing spiritual guidance, giving sermons at funerals, and serving as an impromptu air ambulance by flying a sick child and his mother to hospital.

The Seafarers (1953)

Stanley Kubrick’s first film made in color. Lost for over 40 years! It was supervised by the staff of The Seafarers Log, the union magazine. For the cafeteria scene in the film, Kubrick chose a long, sideways-shooting dolly shot to establish the life of the seafarer’s community; this shot is an early demonstration of a signature technique that Kubrick would use in his feature films.

Featured Image by Aurelio Asiain.

The Kenner toy company produced a line of Star Wars action figures based on characters in the original Star Wars movie trilogy. Over 90 unique action figures were produced and sold from 1978 to 1985, during which time over 300 million Star Wars action figures were sold. Although the original Star Wars film had been released in May 1977, Kenner were unprepared for the unprecedented response to the film and the high demand for toys. Therefore, they missed the lucrative Christmas market, but instead sold an “Early Bird Certificate Package” (informally known as the Empty Box promotion) which included a certificate which could be mailed to Kenner and redeemed for four Star Wars action figures as soon as they were released in early 1978.[1] The box also contained a diorama display stand, some stickers, and a Star Wars fan club membership card. Kenner’s success with the Star Wars line motivated creators of other action-adventure movies to market their own action figure line.

Wikipedia | Kenner Star Wars action figures

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