As a consultant far too often I get called in to “fix” problems that could have been avoided with a little planning and understanding. The really big budget productions rarely have these issues because they can afford to deal with things on set and/or in post. But for low- and mid-budget productions, most of the catastrophic problems I see in production and post could be overcome by following these five important guidelines.... »
We caught up with Boris Yamnitsky, founder and CEO of Boris FX, to find out more about the latest version of the company's flagship plug-in suite, Boris Continuum Complete, its most comprehensive and popular collection to date.... »
Jason Kramer is serious about music. Influential, too. He's the music supervisor at Elias Arts, where he helps make musical matches in commercials from the likes of Pepsi, Audi, BMW, Lexus, Infiniti and Kia. He's also a DJ at iconic L.A. public-radio station KCRW.... »
The creator and executive producer of the new Comcast On-Demand series VidBlogger Nation talks about how he and his team at Simplynew Studios manage the creative, editorial and deliverables on a show that gets its rough cuts from featured video bloggers.... »
Alfred Hitchcock once said, "For me, cinema is not a slice of life but a piece of cake." This animated short takes that idea one step further, slicing up Hitchcock's oeuvre into motifs fit for a fictional cookbook.... »
Throughout his long and varied career, Tim McGovern has been a radio engineer, a pioneering sound engineer at Skywalker Sound during its digital transition, and a designer of network facilities for the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He has also learned more than a few valuable lessons in flexibility working as chief engineer, alternately, for George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. When we talked to McGovern he was just two weeks into his new job as director of professional services at Advanced Systems Group, an installer and integrator of production, post and shared storage software and hardware in the Bay Area and Southern California.... »
Mobile production trucks for sports and other live events are common enough. But as tapeless workflows bring more VFX and post services on set or nearby, a newer breed of semi-permanent mobile lab is emerging. Typically these on- or near-set outposts are built-to-order satellites of a post facility or editorial house hired for the project. The latest version, pumped up on unheard-of mobile compute power, 18 wheels and five axles, is ready for hire and a drive to a film or television location near you. The... »
Man Made Music's The Ledge is a boutique, custom-mixed catalog of the best rock, hip hop and electronica tracks from its archive. Like everything else Man Made Music does, it's definitely not stock music or even your typical production music catalog either; this VIP source also includes music supervision.... »
We caught up with Cohen, nominated for an Academy, BAFTA and ASC award for his principal photography on the celebrated film, to find out how under Hooper's direction during a winter shoot in London last year he captured the project's nuanced and equally celebrated performances and how 35 mm, the right lenses and a few well-chosen rigs and locations helped him do it.... »
Dynasty FX co-founders Mark Hundahl, Leo Chen and Bruce Silverman spent two years researching Chinese visual effects and animation companies and say they "cherry-picked the best of the best" to form the Dynasty collective. Now, says Silverman, "We believe we've put together a best of all possible worlds solution. Our clients here in Hollywood are still dealing with a local visual effects company. It just has an incredibly long corridor."... »
Robert Sharp, who started out making plug-ins for Macromedia Director and was an early developer of Media Cleaner Pro, is now CEO of Digieffects, which he acquired in 2007. Brother of Colin and Jason Sharp, who run ToolFarm (founded by Sharp in 1999), he knows a thing or two about digital video plug-ins. We asked him to tell us more about Digieffects' recent releases and where his company's tools are headed.... »
Based in Manhattan and Huntington, Long Island, Jalbert Productions International (JPI) has a pedigree in sports filmmaking that dates back more than 35 years, to the filming of Downhill Racer in 1969. Film & Video asked director Jay Jalbert about craft, technology, and what's next.... »
StudioDaily shot a few quick questions via email to Ellen Wixted, Adobe's principal product marketing manager for professional video solutions, to get a little more info on what Audition can do for you.... »
The technology has been available for a while, but 10 Gb/second networking over Ethernet is enjoying increased popularity this year, as price drops make the new, faster networks more cost-effective. Small Tree’s Steve Modica answers a few burning questions that might be on your mind if you’re considering a (faster) switch.... »
A full-service visual effects and animation shop based in the bucolic resort town of Niagra-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Keyframe Digital sits comfortably outside the fray. Which suites them just fine. Toronto's thriving production community is just across Lake Ontario and under a two-hour drive away, letting the folks at Keyframe carve out a comfortable niche doing television visual effects and animation work for a number of popular cable series produced there.... »
