Using a wrench to tighten those nuts would be advisable…

Here’s a link to the Monofroto Head” they used

See more instructions Here

Every time I go to my nephews’ soccer games and see all the parents with their cameras on “green mode”, or attend a sporting event and see spectators using their flash from a quarter mile away, it makes me grit my teeth. It’s all I can do to stop from walking up to them and fixing their camera for them.

This morning, I got to thinking. If it is painful for ME to see these cameras being mistreated, imagine how the camera feels! Canons have feelings too, ya know? (Nikons happen to have more, but let’s not get into that).

The readers of this site tend to be a bit more knowledgeable about photography than your average shutter snapper, so I wrote this one with the more advanced photographer in mind.

Improve Photography | Read the Entire Article

REPUTATION IS ALL YOU HAVE. In a business where much of the deal-making and negotiations are verbal, your word and your reputation is EVERYTHING. The film industry is small. Everyone who is established can easily make contact with anyone else or can get the straight scoop by making a few calls. How much you are paid, your title on a project, how hard you work, how honest you are, how you treat people— there are no secrets. The business is populated by talkers. Even “enemies” communicate all the time. There is no place to hide. If you are seen as creative, reliable, capable, and easy to work with, you will find luck. If you are seen as difficult, a primadonna, high-strung, or irrational you will be known that way even by people who haven’t met you. No one cares that you’re tired or have had a rough day. With no track record, it won’t matter how talented you are. When it comes to a decision as to whether or not to work with you, the decision will be negative. They will say, “Life is too short.” If you promise things and don’t come through, that will follow you and you will have damaged your credibility. Delivering what you say you can deliver is key. Extenuating circumstances don’t count. You’re trying to break into an industry of impatient people. Rationalizations won’t work. These people have seen it all and maybe done it successfully themselves.

Indiewire.com | Read the Full Article

An actor expects two takes, minimum. There are some exceptions. I believe Sidney Lumet advised directors to do only one take of some unimportant shot, early on in a shoot, to show the crew they should always remain vigilant. Steven Spielberg has said he doesn’t like to rehearse actors in front the camera, since the first time is always the most spontaneous. But of course that’s just a preference, and he still does as many takes as he needs to get the right performance.

You would expect indie films to have fewer takes. I have heard of footage ratios as low as 4:1 — for every one minute you see on screen, four minutes were shot. You only get that by being very very careful what you shoot. The inexpensiveness of digital recording compared to film has flipped the equation. Now there are probably more indie films which depend only on 1/100 minutes being worth watching (and plenty of bad minutes get in).

Making the Movie | Read the Full Article

Episode 50

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Shownotes

Vidblaster: Multicamera editing on your desktop.

My Copter Crashing videos:

Real Life Rocket Engine:

See the rest of my photos on my album on Facebook

Top 7 Articles of the week

7. Trippy Demo of Focal Length and Spatial Distortion

This quick little gif demonstrates the difference between focal lengths and how they stretch or compress the sense of depth.

6. Star Wars – if it were made by the Internet

Star Wars Uncut is a website that asked people around the globe to recreate a scene from the 1977 film. The Director’s cut, the full feature length recreation below, is the final result.

5. Exploding Photographers, Disappearing Clothes and the Development of Film

Roger Cicala journeys into the 19th century and weaves a tale of explosive cotten, synthetic fabrics and how it all culminates in the true purpose of photography – capturing images of scantily clad women.

4. Making the Most of Long Exposure Handhelds

Shoot steadier handheld DSLR shots using techniques used by marksmen to steady their rifles.

3. The Three Basics of Photography

Matthew Gore of LightandMatter.org explains the three parts of getting a proper exposure: Aperture (or Iris – for us video folk), Shutter Speed, and ISO.

2. 2 Techniques for Writing the Masterpiece Genre

John Truby discusses the Masterpiece Genre. Learn two key techniques to master this Genre as well several questions and point to keep in mind while writing.

1. Damnit Jim – I’m a Filmmaker not a RED Camera Propagandist

No camera on the market today sparks as much fan boy bullshit spirited debate as the RED line of digital cinema cameras. Now I present you latest dust-up between RED camera pioneer Jim Jannard and Zacuto’s Steve Weiss.

Spoiler alert, these are the kinds of comments you will hear in my film: I asked 9 ASC cinematographers, if they had to pick between shitty picture or shitty sound what would they recommend to the director if in the situation you could only have one? Every single cinematographer said shitty picture. There reason: You can tolerate shitty picture but shitty sound is intolerable.

I asked a cinematographer if he would be willing to live with a take where the actor didn’t hit his mark and isn’t in their eye light but the performance was better then when they hit their mark and his answer was an astounding yes.

This is what DP’s in a collaborative effort do and I felt it was important for people to hear this as well as well as see what camera are capable of…. If all you want to see is a raw test, they are out there, although, I’m not sure how fair and accurate they are. My film is the hows and whys of how to make your camera look great, plus a lot more. Actually, to be honest, I’m not totally sure what my film is yet because I haven’t even really started it prior to getting the comments from the screenings.

WTF Post of the Week

Actual Cannibal (Shia LaBeouf)