Autodesk Reel

This is a cool example of what software like Flame is capable of:

http://download.autodesk.com/us/mnevideo/NAB2009/nab_09_showreel_620x398.html

NSFWindows

Word to yo' MacMutha, XPitches!



-dpizzle

Stuart Benjamin a communist in our own country

All I can say is that Stuart Benjamin is a communist!

http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2588&context=faculty_scholarship

Who doesn't love a good chart?

Here's one I found on Twitter. The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods.

Avatar Post

This is a fascinating article on the Fusion camera and post production for Avatar:

http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/91722

Coconut Octopus

This is what fascinates me about underwater video; the ability to capture amazing animal behavior you wouldn't have thought possible. If you think shooting underwater footage is easy check out the end of the clip.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091214-octopus-carries-coconuts-coconut-carrying.html

Anything you can do, I can do better. I can do anything better than you!

I just found an app for my iPhone 3GS that turns it into a time lapse video recorder. Just like our XDCAM's do, minus the HD, of course. I'm excited to see what we can use this for Trail Nation.

iTimeLapse

This was just a quick on-camera's with Stephanie Klett.

Untitled Project from Trevor Wright on Vimeo.

Amazing Scene replacement

This is a clip from Stargate studios. It is amazing what you can do with some green screen and image tracking.

Stargate Studios Reel from RAWworks on Vimeo.

Release the Kraken!

Three things to watch this morning that I am excited about. I am a big fan of the original, but the new trailer out puts the old one to shame:

CLASH OF THE TITANS

And we get a new look at Whiplash and War Machine:

Iron Man 2

Finally, Tim Burton is up to his usual tricks:

Alice in Wonderland

Cool Short Video from a Cannon 7D

the Road from Andro Kajzer on Vimeo.

The Top 100 Videos of 2009 in less then 3 minutes

It's sad how many of these I have seen/emailed/been emailed/rewatched/can't stop laughing/forward/posted/twitter/.... Well, you get the picture.

Video after the jump.

The Top 100 Videos of 2009

Well... That's Hot!

Below is a cool (or should I say hot) piece of physical advertising for McDonald's. Just using a simple steamer/smoke machine.

Too bad their coffee still sucks.

$500 Youtube video nets Director a $20 million film deal

Here's the Youtube video, along with an interesting discussion... things aren't always what the headlines say. Making great content is all about realizing and making use of resources, which include money, but also time, friends and favors, and ingenuity. (Well, it needs a great story first... then all of these come into play)

Anyway, without further ado, the link:

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/freshdv/story/filmmaking_cream_rises/

Avatar Camera

A peek at Cameron's virtual camera that allowed him to see the actor's CG character and environment.

You want creative?

You can't find a better use of the Youtubes than this. (found on Mashables article on ten 10 most innovative Viral ads of 2009. All of them are great.

There's a little bit of violence in here...nothing you haven't seen before, and it's done to stick figures. That makes it ok, right?

Extreme Sports Promo

This ad is for a show on RushHD that showcases extreme sports. It also showcases extreme sports videographers:

http://www.rushhd.com/whats-new/focused

USB amazed.

The bare necessities get a new member:




From Mashable:
"Now you can plug in USB-powered devices — think iPhones, iPods, PDAs and digital cameras — alongside your standard UCS powered devices. As Gizmodo puts it, the USB power outlet is a “no-brainer.”

-dp

Good advice for anyone.

So true...so true.



Love the fact that they upped the creep factor by not having any kind of music track. And James Lipton clean-shaven? That's must-see TV.

-dp

Rolling Shutter Fun

The fun part about anything CMOS (Many of the popular cameras right now, from iphones to DSLRs to quite a few prosumer cameras, to Red One) is the rolling shutter. This is one of the best examples I've ever seen. Very cool.

Bendy Propeller from Steve Talkowski on Vimeo.

Pixar's Creative Space

Can we remodel the production office to look like this? My only question is where to put the pool.




http://www.charter.net/video/?vendid=18&vendkey=cnn_showbiz%2F2009%2F12%2F02%2Fhyde.pixar.studio.tour
.cnn#

Man, those cows look good.

Real California Milk is doing short films about dairy farm families—and they are pretty damn good. Great feel. Great editing. But especially great look. Take a gander:




I'm not sure what it's shot on, but Randy and I are thinking it's something like a Canon 7D set rolling at 24P. The emotional feel, the music, and the warm golden look all create a really compelling video.

- dp

Tilt Shift Mania

Here's the tilt shift technique in action at a Hulk Hogan/Rick Flair wrestling match. Makes 'em look like action figures in stop action. Pretty cool new way of viewing the sport (cough, cough) of wrestling.

Hulkamania from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

-dp

Muppets in HD

Strangely, the Muppets are among the first to push YouTube's 1080p video to the top. Amazing and funny! Be sure to watch in HD.

IKEA idea

This is social network marketing.

Ikea - Facebook Tag - (2009) 1:35 (Sweden)

Bastiges.

-dp

Colorist Article

Stephen Nakamura Adds Soft Touch to Hard-Edged Thriller
Law Abiding Citizen


http://2-pop.com/DigitalCinematography/article/89308

Ken Burns interview.

http://www.icgmagazine.com/wordpress/2009/10/30/exposure-ken-burns/

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

That was Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd Law. And it's an apt description for this Swedish campaign.



Unflippinbelievable. It's in Swedish, but that doesn't matter. Upload a photo of yourself when prompted (you'll know when). It's worth it.

-dp

Worship at the Temple of Walken

I find music videos to be a fantastic source for envy and inspiration.
antville.org did a survey and aggregated the 101 best video of the 'aughts."
My favorite (shown here) came in a #4.



Here's another absolute favorite:



-dp

Milo

Interactive computer character:

NSFW - Kevin Smith advice on Filmmaking

This isn't 100% pertinent, since all of what we do is for specific clients, bought, hopefully planned, and catered to them, with the style that Discover Mediaworks brings to the table. But all done, hopefully, with an eye for more and better. And Kevin Smith is the man at that. Here's a little reality check from him. He's talking about film and indie filmmakers, but the film and corporate worlds collide sometimes, and that's what makes for the best corporate work. Watch it at home, or at least put headphones on. Seriously. Kevin Smith loves his f-bombs.

You can't teach taste. But you can improve it.

That's what I've long believed.
But it took the inimitable Ira Glass of This American Life to express the implications of that truth in words.




-dp

Free PR!

Cheap, proactive, unobtrusive...and great! Not to mention inspiring. Some of my favorite clients have small budgets, and this tripped my "wish I'd thought of that" trigger.

The article is a good, quick read and includes links to a discussion. Old Navy apparently did something similar but gained none of the traction that this campaign did -- my guess is that they didn't partner with Goodwill in the same way, or at all; if true, this campaign provides an instructive lesson on the power of partnerships.


Apparel Tags Now Promote Caring For Clothes AND Planet Earth
by Amy Corr
November 2, 2009

This idea is cheap, proactive and unobtrusive.

Goodwill was looking for a way to increase its yearly donations through an initiative that costs nothing. Sounds impossible, but Goodwill's pro bono agency, BBDO West, came up with a way to use something already found in clothing -- care tags -- as a courier of Goodwill's message.

Levi Strauss, the first company approached for this program, signed on with Goodwill to create "A Care Tag for Our Planet."

The concept is simple: the tag suggests that, rather than trash unwanted jeans, you donate them to Goodwill, so someone else can wear them and less material is dumped in landfills.

According to Goodwill, roughly 23.8 billion pounds of clothing and textiles wind up in U.S. landfills every year. Starting in January 2010, Levi's clothes in the U.S. will feature the care tags; global tags will launch that fall. The project was 18 months in the making, according to Jim Lesser, executive creative director at BBDO West.

Levi Strauss and Goodwill will additionally promote the campaign using viral campaigns and in-store elements.

The care tags not only encourage clothing donation, but also push washing clothes in cold water, an effortless action that can conserve a great deal of household energy. All tags conclude with, "donate to Goodwill when no longer needed and care for our planet."

Additional clothing brands have already signed on to use care tags for Goodwill.

"Ultimately we want every manufacturer in the world to be part of the program," concluded Lesser.

FailCon

This sounds like a cool event and also is a good article. The article that this link goes to is all about how companies learn from there failures and the conference that they had in Silicon Valley to share ideas on failing productively.
Story about FailCon

So how much did this production cost?

Cheap @$$ camera vs. Cool concept.
Which do you think won?






-dp

In honor of the release of Windows 7.

Sorry, I'm an unrepentant Mac guy. Here's why:



-dp

User Generated Brilliance

You'll be hearing more and more about user-generated content around here.

This is what it is at its best.



-dp

"Can you say Venn Diagram??"

Argh! Could this blog get any more techno/gearhead/geeky? If I log on and see that slo-mo bullet one more time...

This term, this Venn diagram thing, keeps coming up in client meetings. When it does I think, oh yah, the overlapping circles thing. I nailed that a long time ago, duh. We all did. We know that anything can be Venn diagrammed, that the world can be reduced, or expanded, to a Venn diagram. My whole life is a Venn diagram, especially my work life. Editors need copy, I produce copy. Demand, supply, meet profit. The client needs product, we have production. A big win-win lives in the merger of the two.

Except that it turns out I had been paying less and less attention to the importance of thoughtful, effective Venn diagramming. And its usefulness in all kinds of creative endeavors. I was happy to come across a reminder like this (very basic) article.

Mary E.

You want slo mo? How about one million FPS?

Amazing.

The best definition of Web 2.0 I've ever seen.

This has been around the InterTubes for quite a while now, but if you haven't seen it and still don't have a real understanding of what people mean when they say "Web 2.0," this video is an amazing primer.



BTW: Love the title.

-dp

How to Handel (sic) Criticism

I found this article on one of the blogs I visit frequently. This article is for designers but I think could be used for everyone.
Here is the first part of the article:

Winston Churchill once said: "Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." Regardless of where you work or who you work for, being able to take criticism is part of the job description. Whether you're getting feedback from your boss or a client, having a proper perspective on criticism and a sound understanding of how to use it effectively is important.

Unfortunately, not many people enjoy criticism. In fact, many have developed a thick skin and take pride in their ability to brush it off and move on. However, despite its negative connotation, criticism often presents an excellent opportunity to grow as a designer. Before you can respond effectively, you need to understand what those opportunities are.

Click Here to see the rest of the article.

Talented Snails

This animation shows that just about any subject can be expressive and interesting. All you need is some creativity, skill and a lot of render time.

Bave Circus from DuDuF on Vimeo.

Say it with style

Our style, that is. As we talk about who we are, I'll throw out a request for help in developing our very own Discover Mediaworks Stylebook. The Associated Press Stylebook is a useful reference -- I have a copy on my desk and you're welcome to borrow it if you can find my desk.

I prefer AP style most of the time because readers are used to it (most print publications follow AP Stylebook rules). But we're free to develop our own style; I'd argue that, in some instances, we should.

Are we going to say "Web site," which is AP style, for example, or are we going to use the increasingly common "website"? And the AP Stylebook calls it "e-mail," but when was that last time you or anyone you know actually hyphenated that particular word?

And so on.

Maybe I'll start a Basecamp project on this. In the meantime, feel free to comment here or email me with your suggestions for how Discover Mediaworks can best say it with style.

Mary E.

Discover Social Mediaworks

The who, what, where and why of social media Are we a part of this growing conversation? We better be.

Neil Perkin's presentation from IPA Social Oct 09View more documents from The_IPA.

hat tip: Luke Sullivan

You like slo mo? I give you slo mo.

You may have seen this before, but dang, it's worth viewing every three days. It's just that cool.



And yes, we need a Sprint Cam HD.

Oh, and for FPS rates?
Try 500 to 1000. Yeeeeoooow!

-dp

Slow Motion Video: Tips And Tricks!

I love slow motion video! Those who I have shot for know that as well and that I am always look for opportunities to shoot 60 fps on our XDCAM HD cameras. I love watching the show Time Warp. It's cool the things that the show likes to slow down, but they also take it to the extreme.

Here's some tip and tricks for shooting slow motion video:

1) Let There Be Light - When you are shooting slow motion, there are a ton of frames of video flying through the image sensor. That being the case, the camera has very little time to let light in. So, pump up the lighting. If you the scenes that Time Warp sets up in their studio, you'll usually see a lot 10K or 30K lights blasting the object that they are warping. Usually because they are shooting them at 1000 fps or higher, which brings us to...

2) FPS, More Doesn't Mean Better - Not all standard video cameras can shoot at higher (F)rames (P)er (S)econd. Only a few out there can do it really good then, say, on an editing system. But, what you are shooting also dictates at what FPS you should be shooting at. Examples:

120 FPS -This is your classic sports replay mode. Any time EPSN, FOX Sports, CBS Sports, etc. throws the replay on your screen, you are usually seeing it at 120 fps or 1/4 real life speed. Unless, the commentary guys/girls stop the video to point something out.

300 FPS - This is the narrative slow motion. The guy passing the girl in the hall, shooting guns at people, or my favorite classic, the opening credits to Reservoir Dogs. Basically, the movie standard for Hollywood. Click above to see what I am taking about.

600 FPS - This is getting into the realm of showing exactly how things move. You'll see this common on showing how an athlete moves. Not showing the touchdown they just made, but more of the how did the muscles move, the foot land, the arm extend, etc.

1000 FPS to 1200 FPS - This is close to the Time Warp stuff. This is your classic fireball exploding or balloon popping.

10,000 FPS and BEYOND! - This is the Time Warp extreme. They use 10,000 FPS a lot in their studio where they can control the settings and the light. This is also the usual way to get lightening! Or bullets!

3) Tripod Is Nice, But Don't Get Locked In - Tripod will give you great stable images for a lot of those higher frame rates. But, it doesn't mean that you should lock yourself into that tripod. I've shot some SWAT team stuff off the shoulder and ran around with them. Did all of it look great? Not really, but there were seconds here and there that made the video better. Like everything, the tripod is a tool in your toolbox and so is slow motion.

4) The Higher We Go, The Lower The Resolution - Most prosumer cameras on the market as you go up in FPS, you lose quality of video. This is true to some degree with professional video cameras. With our XDCAM HD cameras, to change the FPS you need to switch the video from 60i to 30p, which drops the quality down some*. This is why Time Warp has the Photron SA1 camera. It runs about $5,000 to $10,000 for the camera. But, you tack on computer support, lenses, lighting, etc. you could be looking at over $100,000 before you pop your first soap bubble. Here's a list of what's available to the consumer or even prosumer:

Today's Slow-Motion Cameras, Camcorders and Cameraphones
• Casio Exilim EX-F1
• Casio Exilim EX-FH20
• Casio Exilim FC-100 and FS-10
• JVC Everio X
• Samsung HMX20
• Ricoh CX1
• LG Viewty

*I won't get into comment debates on the numbers on this statement. This entry on slow motion was to explain, not fight.

"More Than a Game" Trailer - Great 2.5D work

I've been seeing more and more of this 2.5D work lately, where stills are roto-d out and placed against a background plate, then a camera view is set up and moved to make it look as if it is a 3d shot instead of photos against photos. This is by far the best example that I've seen yet though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KXYDa3gARs&feature=player_embedded

I was hoping to work the Halo ODST trailer into my first post somehow, since it was so well done, but couldn't think of a way. Any ideas? I've seen a list of credits and there had to have been at least, if not more than a hundred people that worked on it. Crazy, but I guess that's what you have to do if you want to have millions of sales of a $60 game.

Wow! That HD stuff is amazing!

An new survey shows that people really still don't understand the difference between SD and HD. This is why Monster Cable is still in business:

Think yourself a sharper TV picture

• 30 September 2009
• Magazine issue 2728. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

WANT to experience the benefits of super-sharp high-definition TV without buying a new set? Simply tell yourself that you are watching HD and put up a few posters. That's the implication of a Dutch study into how expectations affect viewers' perceptions (Computers in Entertainment, vol 7, article 40).

Two groups of 30 people watched the same video clip, individually, on the same television. Half were told to expect a better experience thanks to HD technology, an impression backed up by posters, flyers and an extra-thick cable connected to the screen. The other half were told to expect a normal DVD signal.

In questionnaires afterwards, the group told to expect HD reported that they had witnessed significantly sharper, more detailed images.

GEEK FREAKOUT: How a CCD works

Let's celebrate the new Nobel Prize laureates in Physics by understanding just what the @#$% they won it for (especially since what they did makes possible what we do).

-dp

How To Merge Still Photography With Video Photography

The Power of Red.

A few months ago, Esquire magazine did something interesting for their "Sexist Woman Alive" shoot. Instead of hours of setup and still photography, their DP shot with the RED camera and captured about 12 minutes (2 to 3 scenes) of Megan Fox on 4K (4 times 1080p) video and took stills from that to create a magazine cover and full spread.

It's kinda the reverse of using a Canon 7D or 5D Mark II to shoot video. Using a video camera to shoot still photography. Now, Esquire has done it again with RED's newest beast: the RED Epic, which does 5K (5 times 1080p). They shot Kate Beckinsale in 5K for the cover and spread instead of hours of stills. And both times, for Kate or Megan, the actresses loved the idea of not spending hours on a photo shoot.

RED continues to show that it's the most adaptable, low cost, film replacement camera on the market. Well, soon to be, Epic and Scarlet cameras are going public soon. And while I applaud Canon's and Nikon's efforts to show that's it the body of camera that counts with several models shooting 1080p video, RED still brings it home with their motto:

RED Renders Obsolescence Obsolete.

Here's the video from Kate's shoot:

Small agency. College town. Great look.

Ologie is in Columbus, Ohio, but that doesn't stop them from projecting a fantastically put-together image that can compete with the largest marketing agencies in the U.S.

Poke around their site, get a feel for their vibe, then ask yourself "what's ours?"

That, mes amis, is what we are going to be defining...and I can't wait.

-dp

Tilt-Shift Video

I'm a big fan of time lapses. I love the everlasting sunrise and sunset. But, one thing I have found fascinating is tilt-shift time lapse video. For those who don't know what tilt-shift is:

Tilt-shift requires a special camera setup, a lens that can tilt—or rotate—and shift—move parallel to the image plane. With tilt you control the focus of the image, which works better in vertically oriented framing, blurring the closest and farthest part of the image. With shift you correct the perspective of the image itself, making things look flatter than they actually are.

I've also found some cheap ways to make tilt-shift lenses. I gotta find those sites.

Here is an example:

Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

iPhone camera as art platform

"The best camera is the one that's with you." - Chase Jarvis


Yeah, he's absolutely right.

-dp

Canon's 7D. D for "dfantastic".

This blows me away. Shot with Canon's new 7D, a SLR-style body that can shoot HD.

"Perya" - a Canon 7D Short from Bob Nicolas on Vimeo.

(Click the link above to view in all it's HD deliciousness)

Jason Magbanua writes:

"Canon Philippines lent us a pre-production model of the 7d. We got it Tuesday 6pm and had to return it the following Thursday at noon. We wanted to document something truly Filipino and came up with the idea of shooting a "Perya". There really is no direct equivalent in English. It's not as grand as a carnival, not as permanent and posh as an amusement park, there are no pumpkins nor cows in competition like a country fair. It is what it is - a Perya."

Got that? They had less than 18 hours with the dang thing and were able to shoot this. These @#$%ers make me sick...with envy...

BTW: Street price (body only) $1699.00 (which makes me even sicker).

Welcome to DMW•Discover

This is but the first of many posts in this anything and everything sharing blog for the professionals at Discover Mediaworks. It's a venue for sharing the cool, the emerging, the "what do you think about this" as gathered from all over the Web.

This is not a snark site. If you think something sucks, you have to share why—and in detail. There's enough negativity out there already. That said, we all work in a business that requires superior discrimination. Not of people, but of ideas, designs, concepts and conceits.

So welcome aboard, and let's get this party started!

-dp