Waiting 2B Scene

Category: Media

  • Article: “Camera Choices for Avengers: Age of Ultron”

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to link out to a great little article that gives a concise breakdown of the camera choices that were made for the latest Marvel Universe blockbuster – Avengers: Age of Ultron – with insights by the DP himself, Ben Davis. You can read the full piece here.

    The fun fact for me was seeing that the diverse little beastie – the BlackMagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera – gets a shout out as a one of the tools used to make the film. Yeah that’s right – portions of the epic Avengers was shot on a BMDPCC! Very cool. So check out the article, and let me know what you think.

  • Audio Interview: Kay Cannon – Comedy Writer of Pitch Perfect 2

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I wanted share a piece that discusses the recently released movie, Pitch Perfect 2. For those who don’t know (or don’t care, I guess), this comedy sequel is about about a cappella singers (which, for what it’s worth, made more than US$70 million at the box office on its opening weekend . That is more than the first Pitch Perfect took in over its entire theatrical release in 2012 – as well as being the biggest debut ever for a movie musical).

    As the title suggests, today’s link is to an audio interview done with Kay Cannon: writer of Pitch Perfect 2. Well before Pitch Perfect came on the scene though, Cannon sunk her teeth into writing for comedy television – such as NBC’s hit 30 Rock (she won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedic Series for her work on 30 Rock on three separate occasions) as well as Fox’s New Girl.

    From NPR’s Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, this is a fascinating insight into the world of comedic writing for film and television in particular… and it is a great reminder that all of you writers out there are an indispensable part of the production process.

    https://soundcloud.com/bullseye-with-jesse-thorn/kay-cannon

  • How To: Colouring Compliments in Photoshop

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share an excellent tute that goes through some mid-level colour correction using Photoshop.

    Now why on earth would I want to share a Photoshop tutorial on a blog that has to do with videography and the like? The simple reason is that I like the presenter. That and the fact that understanding how to utilise complimentary colours is one of those fundamental techniques we all ought to be aware of, regardless of whether the images we work with are still or moving.

    Those who have learned their colour-jiu-jitsu are generally the ones that have been able to progress from a mobile phone kind of photographer/videographer that needs Instagram filters to help prop up their shots. Take it from me – tutes like this one are a great way of building up your skill set in this area. I hope you enjoy it.

  • How To: A Comprehensive Cheat Sheet for Adobe

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share an excellent infographic. For those of us who are part of the Adobe Universe, you will know that short-cuts have a funny way of increasing productivity, right? If only there was a way to easily find and/or remember what some of the really important ones were! Oh wait – there is!

    Thanks to the team at Set Up A Blog Today, we now have access to a comprehensive cheat sheet that outlines a range of the important short-cuts to a host of our favourite Adobe products: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, FireWorks, Flash, Premiere Pro, and After Effects!

    Need some of that action? Get it right here. And as a bonus tid-bit – scroll down the the bottom of the post to get access to the PDF versions of the individual cheat sheets.

  • Video Montage: A Stock Homage to Directors

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share a video that is something of a lesson in styling. Now, you could ask almost any cinematographer in the world what they think of stock footage, and you most often find yourself on the end of a tirade against some element of the entire stock industry. Truth be told, it is easy to see why they feel that way. Invariably, stock shots look quite same-same, lacking in ingenuity and visual oomph. With that being said – I must protest the blanket hostility towards stock footage. With the development of fresh sites such as Dissolve and DeathToStock – the creative types are claiming back the unique elements that have been lacking in the great pool of stock footage and imagery – and it has been a breath of fresh air!

    So, it was very cool to stumble on this video created by the ShutterStock team that is a stylised homage to some of the great directors… and it has been done using only stock footage.  Now is it brilliant? Nah. Let’s be honest. But it is really good! And it is exciting to think that as an indie film-maker, or documentary producer, or whatever… we might very well be able to squeeze in a reasonable stock shot that isn’t going to raise the collective ire of cinematographers any more. And that is worth celebrating just a little.

    You can also read about this whole process here.

  • Video Article: Understanding Jump Cuts

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share a video I stumbled on a little while ago. Coming from Vimeo’s Riley Hooper, it offers a pretty concise explanation of the technique known as a jump cut. Even if you have never heard the term before, I can guarantee that you all know what a jump cut looks like… though picking up pace in more and more places, it is a ubiquitous transition amongst the most popular of YouTube’s vloggers. As someone cleverly observed, “Anything other than a jump cut would create a slower experience that would leave you less stimulated and thus more likely to click away.”1

    So, jump right in. 🙂

  • Article: Stills Photographer Intro to Video (RED)

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share a great article that was published a while back by those in the RED Universe. Really, there’s no surprises here as the title says it all: it is an introduction to video production for those of you who are photographers. Granted, many of you may know this stuff. Nevertheless, if you are just starting to play around with the video functionality on your DSLR – or you have never really dug into the kind of background information that can make your videos a little better – then this article is a must. I hope you find it useful.

    “This article gives an overview of the key differences in order to make the “cinephotography” transition as straightforward as possible…”

  • New Toy: The Phantom 3 is Coming!

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I wanted to share the latest drool-inducing toy to come out of the DJI camp: the upgrade to their popular Phantom quad-copter, the Phantom 3!

    The Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter boasts a breath-taking array of new in-built features: and a 4K camera on a 3-axis gimbal that also happens to take 12 mega-pixel stills is just the tip of the very tall iceberg. A 2km (2000 metres) tall iceberg that will beam a 720p HD view of anything and everything that your kick-ass camera can see. Seriously, there is so much that can be said about this beast of a release… but I will save that for the professionals. Check out the official video below – and then we can make a collective drool-puddle together.

  • PSA: Say No To VVS

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to share two vital videos for all mobile phone video content creators. IMHO, these public service announcement (PSA) videos ought to do the Internet rounds at least once a week! So please join the cause, and help us say no to VVS.

  • Video Essay: How to Do Action Comedy – Zhou

    Continuing my series of resource links, today I want to swing back around to one of my favourite video essayists at the minute – yep, it is time to come back to some work by cinephile Tony Zhou. He has a great cache of stuff – and this is the second instalment of his work that I will be sharing (the first being How to Do Visual Comedy). In this fun video essay of How to Do Action Comedy – originally released at the end of 2014 – Zhou once again masterfully walks us through the visual story-telling of global action-phenom, Jackie Chan. You will definitely find it to be, “… a refreshing break from the shaky cam gimmicks of popular directors like Brett Ratner, J.J. Abrams or Michael Bay.” I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.