how deep does the rabbit hole go?

I want to know. The other title for this post was "videographer porn" because seriously people, once you dig into any form of camera you start looking at all the junk you need to add in order to do other crap it was never meant to do out of the box... such as timelapse shots or massive data storage I mean, you do want 720PN not just 720P, right?? everyones doing it. And all I really wanted was to find a good NG Filter for the sunrise shots running through my head, just to keep my beautiful lens from getting hazed. Let me explain, this is a simple filter that reduces all the light waveforms. See. So how did I get from that to looking the newest datastorage that gives me native format 720 or 1080 but starts at $3k!! Forget it, I'm just going to carry a laptop.

But lets take a small break to see some beautiful timelapsing:
A
B
C
and the endless thread of more. Most of the above examples were made using still slr cameras with long shutter speeds. Compare this to something on video camera like an HVX and you can see why everyone takes reducing noise on dark shots so seriously.

STOP ME! I just wanted a simple $2 filter! Okay, maybe a $200 motorized pan mount.

microphones - shotgun, lav, hypercardioid

God, I dont want to get into the HVX100's internal amp's. Nor do I want to hack the internal mic to death like some crazy nutcases . I just want some decent audio to start with. I dont even mind the ambient noise of a room or out door. Though this thread does cover the most important pitfalls: avoid dialog in spaces with lots of hard surfaces that will reflect sound. Place your mic to point away from things that reflect where possible. Outdoors, obviously up. Get mic 2ft within audio source. Frame for this. (all this is debatable, and debated in formentioned thread).

shotgun microphones are generally used for outdoor. They are more directional. Different mic's work for different ranges. Pictures should be framed with this in mind. The recommended models range from $200 to $600. This is outside my budget for the time being but some i will note for the future are Rode NTG-2 $300, Audio Technica AT4073A $600 or AT835b $250. Lucky for me almost all my shots will be indoor so the shotgun is not something im digging into yet. If I have to Ill get a cheap ATR55 for $50. In all cases one needs a boom, shockmount (some recommend the K-SSM $20 which works with most of the shotguns i just listed ) and perhaps a wind screen.

Hypercardioid microphones are less directional and used indoors. Pretty much everyone seems to be convinced on the Oktava MK012 $200. And that appears to be what I'm going for.

Lav mics are for situations where the other two wont do. these are the clip on mics. not going there for now.

So my kit, a MK012 $200, Shockmount $20 and boom pole $80. Sound blankets. So $300.

3 point lighting

with camera in hand I have to start dealing with the other two important components, audio and lighting. im doing this using homebrewed equipment and have been looking around at both the typical needs with lighting (this is all new to me) and good kit suggestions. One has to start somewhere and I feel best working off a staple lighting technique and will make certain my kit at least covers this.

3 point lighting - Key Light, Fill Light, Back/Edge Light:

Key "Light is the primary illumination for your subject. If you want a side look, the key light will be to the side. " Front, scary bottom lighting, etc. This is the dominant light source but should be diffused either with a gel or by reflecting it off. All other lights align in a T formation, with the key being at the bottom edge of the T.

Fill lights are meant to diffuse the specular highlights. From what I gather they are meant to slightly diffuse harsh shadows from keylight. (Specular means "light reflecting off a smooth shiny surface is specular." Example: dealing with specular light when subject is in a glass jar)

Back lights (aka Edge lights) offset the subject from the scene in the background by giving it a small highlight or edge. Adds a border. At times this light might be brighter than even the key.

All of the above provides 3 point lighting using separate lights. But in a scenario where the back/edge light is strong enough one could use a reflective screen on the other side to serve as a fill light, as discussed here. They also suggest this model applies to outdoor, with Sun (unmodified) as edge, ambient as fill and use a white matte board or aluminum foil to reflect the sun for key light.

What I want in my first kit

2 to hol. 3 lights, 1 nice spot light, a reflector. 1 or 2 Fomecore's to keep light from reflecting where I do not want it , dimmers, diffusion gel's for the fill lights to make them less harsh and more even where dimmers do not do the job, additional reflectors should I want to use existing or natural lighting. I can bring along car sunshields, aluminum foil+cardboard to use for rogue reflection. Would also like a Lastolite reflector ("silver/white and gold/white (the gold is good for warming up flesh tones"). Clips, both big and small. Loads of gaf tape. White and black cloth. A c stand and some extendable piping for hanging cloth. Several standard light bulbs (200watt) to replace and use existing lighting where possible. Power extensions with built in fuses to avoid blowing the main power. A light board (a board filled with LED's) would be nice instead of one of the lights as it takes less power.

All of the above serve for indoor and interview lighting. Next I will look at what modifications i need to make for outdoor shots and scenic highlights.

This and this were also helpful.

camera obsession

purchasing a camera for a short film and other video projects we are working on. i am certain of the choice but i cant help continuing to compare. sometimes interesting things turn up: redrock m2 lens adapter. They have some nice sample footage from films that used the adapter.

Some of the techniques i am thinking of using for the short scare me after seeing other films that seem to use them. An example is "The Letter" film pictured here. Strong contrast with lighting, close focus of objects. I want to use some similar techniques but here they appear to go overboard. I feel completely disconnected from the emotion and character. Perhaps in full context of the rest of the film the connection would exist. Regardless, it is a nice warning.

And then there is Busgirl. I want to see this film simply for the Amelie Poulain like spunk of the main character, but anytime you have a trailer with two separate soundtracks, it means the editor is too attached to their film and doesnt know when to sacrifice.

Of all the m2 samples the most beautiful turns out to be someones home video from their vacation:

The most inspiring speech

I read the transcript for over a year+ ago after he gave it but just now found the video recording. Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford.

Brick

I need to see this movie again. I feel it was good but watching it at 2am I was a bit tired and distracted. The dialog, though fast, was just brilliantly witty, imo:

Brendan: I've got knives in my eyes, I'm going home sick.
...
Laura: Why'd you take a powder the other night?
Brendan: Same reason I'm taking one now... Look, I'm not heeling you to hook you.
...
Assistant VP: You've helped this office out before.
Brendan: No, I gave you Jerr to see him eaten, not to see you fed

Perhaps it was a bit over the top. The speed of the film can feel quite jerky, going from very slow ambient moments to extremely fast detailed dialogs that you have to refocus to catch up. I would really like to hear the directors cut. There are some nice techniques such as scenes where the film was cut up and blotchy/jerky itself. additionally the more violent transitions were done well. err, need to rematch

In memory system

I am so sick of having to wait for my damn computer. I want a computer as fast as me. It is simple, just make a system where the components and applications one uses the most are dynamically places on the flash drive so that they are instant to load.

err

btw, il c u rocks! I want to cry, laugh, and hug the developers. Thank you for killing myspace, I really really hate that thing.

learning to breakdance

9-11pm tasks for the typography/calligraphy exhibit. 11-12 watching the horrible events from the day up north in Lebanon. 12-2am... breakdance! learn it! now i just need a slightly larger living room.

The Buddy Peace mixtapes

Despite what you might think you see, my roots lay in hip-hop. Many fond memories of finding ways to increase the volume on my discman enough to drown out the rum of the lawn mower. 12 years old, 2 hours, $20 per lawn. Not bad. Eventually I grew up and found that the huge majority of lyrics had no lasting meaning and the rhythms all started sounding the same. Heavy bass. (I think the same slow disenchantment is growing for Minimal Techo, but whatever.) If you told me that Britney Spears was touring with 50 cent I wouldn't be surprised, they seem to come from the same hit-machine. Hence I haven't been able to digest RAP for some time.

Buddy Peace has been restoring my faith in hip-hop or some new wave genre of it for a year now. Who else do you know that mixes the mellow rock riffs Iron & Wine with heavy rap vocals. Listen to this from Iron & Wine and then to this from Buddy Peace, starting at 1min in. The changes and reasons do not stop with clever mixing. If you can find it, get his mixtape from Boomkat called Selected Mixtapes Volume 7 (or ask me for it). Listening from the first track to the last without skipping is an experience, taking you from relaxing guitars and birds chirping in the background into happy hip hop and off into some form of depression, and back again. Forget hip-hop, this album is my reference point for showing people how music can manipulate one through different moods as the same method can be applied to many other genres so long as the artist is willing to bend.

Not quite as good as the Mixtape from boomkat linked above, you can find some other mixes of his on his myspace profile, including this one.

space and time junk mail

Today I am getting some of the coolest junk mail. No images, no links. Just weird incomplete abstracts such as:

From: "Lawanda Benavides"
To: me@****
Subject: 8NG

please, you're not a human being now, do you understand? You are a machine, schoolboy, that a college student published the coordinates, but that for someone had walked or driven down this street. The asphalt was all cracked, boundaries of time and space and that arbitrary fantasy we call reality, as

And that is it. Each one I get is four lines and incomplete.

cult wine

Stormhoek is a winery that decide during production of their wines to use the the internet to build a community of critics and connoisseurs. While following their blog I've learned small details about wine making and vineyard management that one probably only learns through experience.

apple needs help

iTunes!  bloody bloody iTunes has been tiring me for some time.  With my old iMac from 99 running Mac OS9 I decided it was time to learn how to develop on the Mac.  What I discover was that OS9 had horrible threading abilities.  Multitasking was hell.  OSX solved this, perhaps in part to them throwing away their kernel for something well tested (Unix).  What is bugging me now is that for iTunes on windows, the same problem is true.  If I have podcasts downloading it takes 30 seconds to open and watch a video.  Even still, when watching a video it takes just as long to move a window, change  a folder or do anything else in the iTunes interface.  Apple, please, learn how to develop unbloated threaded applications.  Just because the platform is clunky (windows) doesn't mean you have to develop something 10 times worse.

err err err!

ladytron grew up

Ladytron is best described as electronic music in the taste of Clockwork Orange, and to date I have found none to compare in that manner. They were recently on Morning Becomes Eclectic and they sound like they've grown up, most tracks coming close to something like Death in Vegas. Still a great sound, but not the dirty accordian I loved in them. Perhaps this is just the affect of a live show. 604 is still their best album.

Composition

I was looking at the history of the Ableton Live composition software and ran into a few other items. Here's a dump of Flock's shelf.

Ableton Live was "originally sketched in Max/MSP". Max was developed in the 80's but turned into a commercial project in the 90's. It is used by names such artists such as Autechre to build software based synths. Pictured right is a patch of theirs in Max/MSP. (Max/MSP patch db.) Abelton Live is not used for creating synths (though the Operator adds this ability). It has two basic sets of instruments: Impulse for drums or strictly rhythmed sounds and Simpler for wav based imports.

While looking at Max/MSP I learned that its author later produced a similar tool with an open source license called Pure Data. The difference between the two is that PD does not offload processing to an analog synth as Max/MSP can. Instead all sounds are generated locally (PD resources: 1.) Additionally another open source tool similar to these is jMax, pictured left. Perhaps some day in the future I will have time to evaluate them all. Doubt it.

Dacryphilia

"Dacryphilia is a fetish in which one gains sexual arousal through the tears of one's partner."

I've had reference to this word on 3 occasions today. The first was in learning the word this morning while reading Phrack 58-0x05 for my research log where the author describes a set of tools for encrypting binaries. The idea being a tool created by hackers for the sake of making it more difficult for hackers (causing tears in their eyes, or something to this affect). The second was in a meeting with a client. We had a short discussion about creating a secure system only to have it hacked, only to fix it and have it hacked again, and this endless cycle of mutual dacryphilia. The 3rd and final was while listening to a NPR interview with Dr. John Marburger (scroll down, click listen button for Marburger interview), President Bush's Science Advisor. I'm getting the feeling that the white house has an unknown dacryphilia fetish. Forget the fact that Marburger laughed after every serious question he was asked, or the fact that he said science didn't equal politics and yet he argued that science could deal with social issues. I agree with him that politics is not solved nor should it be an issue for scientists (professionally). However, there are cases where such rules must be dispensed, especially when the facts that science present are being ignored or watered down. Case-in-point was made when he was asked about the issue of global warming. You know... maybe it was just his freakin fake laugh to every serious question that I'm really having a problem with.

2nd life

Lawrence Lessig gives talk in virtual word

I really was hoping that I'd get to avoid 3d virtual worlds for a bit longer but it appears this will not be the case. I'd like to note I was an early adopter of the virtual worlds idea. In the late 90's there was a 3d world system build on MS Netmeeting. Heck, one of the first languages I learned was VRML, which was supposed to bring 3d interfaces and 3d worlds to the http sphere. But they both died for different reasons. VRML because total immersion in 3d interfaces does not work on a 2d plane (computer screen). And the early 3d worlds such as those that ran on top of netmeeting died because bandwidth simply didn't support it.

The question is will 2nd life and other modern 3d worlds thrive now with saturation of better high speed internet or will it die as a fad. I'm not certain the answer but over the past year I'm giving it more and more a chance. That increase in chance means that I will be setting up shop there at some point in the next year. uhg.

IP, (c) and "free culture"

Lawrance Lessig is a professor at Stanford Law School and author of various books on IP and (c) technology issues. In this unique 40min presentation he gave in 2002 at the Open Source conference OSCON he convincingly argues that society is less free to "create" today than it has ever been in history. He presents proof that fair-use and unregulated use are increasingly falling off the map due to technological advancements and laws such as the DCMA, leaving a society dominated by regulated use.

Also, regardless of your opinion on the topic he has a unique presentation style to make note of. It forces the audience to pay attention to the speaker by using the slide to emphasize verbal points instead of showing bullet lists.

Maybe congress isn't just fat cats?

I just assumed that power, comities at the likes, in US Congress is dictated by who you know and to question those with power would certainly mean your never attaining it. Hence you will never see Ted Kennedy removed from the comities he is on, he's been around too long. It is interesting when you see a senator go against the grain and challenge everyone:

Senator George Allen (R-VA) [announced] a three-point plan to force fiscaldiscipline into the federal budget process including a call for a“paycheck penalty” that withholds salary from members of Congressunless all appropriations measures are passed by the start of thefiscal year, October 1.

“It is absurd that full-time legislators can’t get their job doneon-time by October 1—then several months later—all kinds of unknown,unchecked spending occurs. They pass it in the dead of night, thinkingnobody will notice what’s in these appropriations bills,” [Allen said.]

And now I realized why I always identified myself as republican when I was younger... Allen was the Governor VA when I was a youngen and still lived in the US. Whereas, these days I'm disgusted by the feeling of unrestricted corruption that the republican caucus appears to represent.

what ever happened to calander.google

... well, while waiting for google to get their calander up (I swear, it's as if they float subdomains to see if people will go crazy for the idea) 87 Degrees has one upped it with their 30 Boxes AJAX calander.

Quest for full task efficiency

Recently I've taken a second look at various online self management systems. Various meaning only two really: Ta-da List (one of the tools from 37 Signals) and Remember The Milk.

As a friend recently pointed out to me, I like to make lots of task lists but never complete them. The problem is I have too many ideas, too many tasks, and too little time. This puts me in a position where I get very little of my personal items done. However, in order for me to feel like I can tackle any one item I need to feel like I'm not loosing possible resources for another by dropping everything to focus on one. So, I tend to have huge lists of bookmarks and huge lists of thoughts and ideas. If I can find a way to better manage both the resources and the ideas then I can put everything out of my mind and focus on one task without anxiety. Hence, this quest.

37 Signals offer many tools. They have an excellent project management tool giving you all the features you would find in MS Project. I find this takes too much time to manage though. For both myself and any of those that are also involved with any said project none of the projects are full time. So the Basecamp tool from 37 Signals is over kill. So instead I stuck with the free and ever useful Ta-da List. This gives you the ability to make groups of projects and the tasks for
them. You can also share any given project with a different set of contacts. You can give your contacts the ability to add or change tasks. You can subscribe to an RSS feed for updates of each task group.

Remember The Milk also lets you create groups of tasks but you need to set each group before
starting (in the settings section). It also has all of the features Ta-da List has plus some other essential items:

• easy URL access
  
• notes per task
• ability to set the due date for tasks
• reminders
• an overview of all due tasks
• iCal export, Atom & RSS feeds
• email tasks
• updates via Jabber or Yahoo instant messanger
• ability to publish a list not just to your contacts but you can also choose to make it public to all
  

I've been using Ta-da List for a while now but Remember The Milk makes a good alternative.

And now I have no clue why I just wrote this review. Must be desperate to find something useful to say.

lukechueh

Was reading the discogs depression help center group and found a user profile with a cute photo shown here. Upon examination of the source of the photo I found this directory full of crazy dark imagery by Luke Cheuh:

http://www.lukechueh.com/images/paintings/paintings-whole/

or just try lukechueh.com

enjoy