Botanical Gardens
Needed a break with work so we headed to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens down the road. Very cool place and I took a lot of great pictures. Relaxing and inspiring.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Needed a break with work so we headed to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens down the road. Very cool place and I took a lot of great pictures. Relaxing and inspiring.
Monday, August 22, 2005
web, video, oh my!
well lots on my plate recently. This past week i have been working full force on labri.org's website. Swiss L'Abri wanted to implement a new "resource" page that would have a huge list of labri authors and other authors. took a bit of back-end work and some usability work- but its done and up and running now. so check it out at
http://www.labri.org/swiss/resources.html
my personal site needs a bit of work- planned on doing that a while back, but time can be your biggest foe. Working on two wedding videos and they are coming out very nicely. i will post some of the finished product soon. also about to start a small documentary on a legendary doctor here in town and that should be a lot of fun and educational.
expect to see some new updates on the my site and some other fun stuff in the works down the road.
http://www.labri.org/swiss/resources.html
my personal site needs a bit of work- planned on doing that a while back, but time can be your biggest foe. Working on two wedding videos and they are coming out very nicely. i will post some of the finished product soon. also about to start a small documentary on a legendary doctor here in town and that should be a lot of fun and educational.
expect to see some new updates on the my site and some other fun stuff in the works down the road.
Friday, August 19, 2005
working on labri.org
feels like every deadline is this week. hummm. lots of coding and getting ready to implement some new additions to labri.org website. also been working on another website all week, and i've got several videos to edit. one is completed (actually my wedding video) and creating the DVD menus now. my brother-in-law filmed the wedding, so now i am putting all the footage together.
so updates soon across the board- hopefully some more video pieces on my site and have labri rolling out asap.
so updates soon across the board- hopefully some more video pieces on my site and have labri rolling out asap.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Grizzly Man
Today we watch a independent filmed called "Grizzly Man" which is directed by Werner Herzog.
-----The movie relies on choice scenes from more than 100 hours of raw footage shot by Treadwell while he lived among the bears at Katmai National Park and Preserve on the Alaska Peninsula.
Treadwell, 46, and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, Calif., were mauled and eaten in October 2003 by a bear at their campsite, which lay at the confluence of several heavily used bear trails.----
My take on the movie- was that it was put together very well. Tim was a strange character and it shows on the first scene of the movie. i'm surprised at the honesty that is given by him and the director of the movie. Its sad to think that Tim puts all of his life and self worth into these bears- and grows cold of society around him. You wonder why he was putting all of this effort into filming these movies.
I have a lot more thoughts on it- but its getting late.
I am really courious about how he filmed all of the footage. How did he keep his batteries charged? Living out in the wild- ya gotta get power some how. Also he started filming 6 years ago- and i think he was shooting on a serveral different camreas, but the main one was a Sony Vx2000. All of the footage was in 16:9 and it looked really great. Especially on such a big screen. The audio was awsome to and i wonder how they sweetened it up. he had a lapel mic on. i hope someone writes about all of the techincal sides of it too.
anyway- getting late. ta ta
-----The movie relies on choice scenes from more than 100 hours of raw footage shot by Treadwell while he lived among the bears at Katmai National Park and Preserve on the Alaska Peninsula.
Treadwell, 46, and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, Calif., were mauled and eaten in October 2003 by a bear at their campsite, which lay at the confluence of several heavily used bear trails.----
My take on the movie- was that it was put together very well. Tim was a strange character and it shows on the first scene of the movie. i'm surprised at the honesty that is given by him and the director of the movie. Its sad to think that Tim puts all of his life and self worth into these bears- and grows cold of society around him. You wonder why he was putting all of this effort into filming these movies.
I have a lot more thoughts on it- but its getting late.
I am really courious about how he filmed all of the footage. How did he keep his batteries charged? Living out in the wild- ya gotta get power some how. Also he started filming 6 years ago- and i think he was shooting on a serveral different camreas, but the main one was a Sony Vx2000. All of the footage was in 16:9 and it looked really great. Especially on such a big screen. The audio was awsome to and i wonder how they sweetened it up. he had a lapel mic on. i hope someone writes about all of the techincal sides of it too.
anyway- getting late. ta ta
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Buying a mid-range DV camera
I wrote this to a friend the other day- thought it might be helpful for others:::::
Here is a quick suggestions. Depending
on your price range and quality you want there are
three levels.
1. Prosummer- $2000.00 and up
2.mid line $800-$1,500
3. cheaper but works. $400
You should stick with the "Mini DV" format for tape.
This is the digital standard and is much better than
Hi 8 or Digtial hi8. You transfer the info to the mac
via firewire on mini dv cameras. The software on the
computer will control the camera to tell it to play,
pause, etc.
I would recommend Canon on the top of the list. I have
been extremly pleased with them and the amount of
craftmenship that goes into their camera's.
Sony, Panisonic and JVC are also great brands.
Each camera will have its own "look". They use Charged
Couple Devies (CDD's) to convert light into Red,
Green, Blue. The better the chip and more chips you
have the more expensive the camera is.
Most mid and lower cameras have 1 CCD. That means one
chip converting Red, Green, Blue. Prosummer's have 3
chips dedicated to each color. Hence the color and
contrast will be much richer on 3ccd's cameras.
As for Canon, I prefer their camera, it has an
overall "warmer" tone to the images. Its hard to
discribe- but the images are soft, rich but also very
detailed.
1. Hi end for you- would be the Canon GL2. I bought
this camera in 2002 and its is very trusty. Also
images, prosumer- great quality, took it all around
europe- i film weddings with it etc. 785mm (20x
optical) zoom, 3ccd, light and small. It has gone
down some - probably find it for around $2,000- 2,200.
with maybe some rebates.
ps. any digtal zoom sucks. don't use it. look only for
optical.
2. There are several choices with them. The Optura XI
or the new Optura 600 look really great. Both have
great zoom's (10x optical) and are small and compact.
the Optura 600 is brand spanken new and it has a lot
of cool features. it is a hybrid, so it can also take
4.0 megapixel still images. (thats cool). It also has
true "widescreen" mode. so that it shoots in 16:9 (the
shape of the screen like movies theater and HD) and
that footage will play letterboxed on a regular TV
(4:3). So that is kinda the new cool feature to shoot
like that. Also most upper end canon's come with Image
Stabilzer- which takes the shakyness. It really works
too! Crap just read this camera is available in
september. so i don't what you think about waiting. If
not,the Optura Xi looks like a great one too. So
really look into that one too.
What you want to look at is this.
1. How many CCd's?
2. What is the effective pixel's on the one or 3
ccd's? like 350,000 blah blah. the higher the better.
3. What is the Optical Zoom.
4. the size- what to you want to carry around?
5. What is the cost? What are you going to use the
camera for? You always pay for what you get.
Canon's DV site
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=166&modelid=9371
be sure to copy/paste entire link
Other costs involved with buying a camera.
1. You want to get a UV filter for the lense. This
helps protect glare, uv rays, but most importantly
protects the camera lense from scratches etc. Its the
biggest life saver. around $15-$20 bucks.
2. Tripod- pick a good one up that is light and
compact for about $40.
3. Extra batteries. (they can die so quick and you
will probably want a back up) $50-$100 depending on
the size.
4. Camera Case-gotta have it to hold all your goodies.
around $20-80.
5. Mini DV tapes. buying online you can get it for
about $3bucks a pop (i think.)
6. Once you get rolling, probably want to look into an
external harddrive for all your video clips. Video can
get pretty big. "Lacie" is a good brand. Either USB2
or firewire. ($100-$250) depending on size.
7. Possibly upgrading your software to Final Cut
Express. check out apple's website on that. I movie is
great - this just gets more advanced.
Where to buy?
Go to your local stores to check it out see if you
like it. But don't buy it there. Go to B&H Photo
Video's website. Company based out of New York- Best
deals in states. I buy all of my equipment from them
and its great. No hassle- either order online or by
phone. I spent a lot here an never had a problem. No
tax and that will save you a lot- and usually lower
than other places.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
If you want local place to get all gear go to Showcase
Video and Photo
on the corner of Cheisbrige and La Vista (right down
the street from my place.)
http://www.showcaseinc.com/site/
Here is a quick suggestions. Depending
on your price range and quality you want there are
three levels.
1. Prosummer- $2000.00 and up
2.mid line $800-$1,500
3. cheaper but works. $400
You should stick with the "Mini DV" format for tape.
This is the digital standard and is much better than
Hi 8 or Digtial hi8. You transfer the info to the mac
via firewire on mini dv cameras. The software on the
computer will control the camera to tell it to play,
pause, etc.
I would recommend Canon on the top of the list. I have
been extremly pleased with them and the amount of
craftmenship that goes into their camera's.
Sony, Panisonic and JVC are also great brands.
Each camera will have its own "look". They use Charged
Couple Devies (CDD's) to convert light into Red,
Green, Blue. The better the chip and more chips you
have the more expensive the camera is.
Most mid and lower cameras have 1 CCD. That means one
chip converting Red, Green, Blue. Prosummer's have 3
chips dedicated to each color. Hence the color and
contrast will be much richer on 3ccd's cameras.
As for Canon, I prefer their camera, it has an
overall "warmer" tone to the images. Its hard to
discribe- but the images are soft, rich but also very
detailed.
1. Hi end for you- would be the Canon GL2. I bought
this camera in 2002 and its is very trusty. Also
images, prosumer- great quality, took it all around
europe- i film weddings with it etc. 785mm (20x
optical) zoom, 3ccd, light and small. It has gone
down some - probably find it for around $2,000- 2,200.
with maybe some rebates.
ps. any digtal zoom sucks. don't use it. look only for
optical.
2. There are several choices with them. The Optura XI
or the new Optura 600 look really great. Both have
great zoom's (10x optical) and are small and compact.
the Optura 600 is brand spanken new and it has a lot
of cool features. it is a hybrid, so it can also take
4.0 megapixel still images. (thats cool). It also has
true "widescreen" mode. so that it shoots in 16:9 (the
shape of the screen like movies theater and HD) and
that footage will play letterboxed on a regular TV
(4:3). So that is kinda the new cool feature to shoot
like that. Also most upper end canon's come with Image
Stabilzer- which takes the shakyness. It really works
too! Crap just read this camera is available in
september. so i don't what you think about waiting. If
not,the Optura Xi looks like a great one too. So
really look into that one too.
What you want to look at is this.
1. How many CCd's?
2. What is the effective pixel's on the one or 3
ccd's? like 350,000 blah blah. the higher the better.
3. What is the Optical Zoom.
4. the size- what to you want to carry around?
5. What is the cost? What are you going to use the
camera for? You always pay for what you get.
Canon's DV site
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=166&modelid=9371
be sure to copy/paste entire link
Other costs involved with buying a camera.
1. You want to get a UV filter for the lense. This
helps protect glare, uv rays, but most importantly
protects the camera lense from scratches etc. Its the
biggest life saver. around $15-$20 bucks.
2. Tripod- pick a good one up that is light and
compact for about $40.
3. Extra batteries. (they can die so quick and you
will probably want a back up) $50-$100 depending on
the size.
4. Camera Case-gotta have it to hold all your goodies.
around $20-80.
5. Mini DV tapes. buying online you can get it for
about $3bucks a pop (i think.)
6. Once you get rolling, probably want to look into an
external harddrive for all your video clips. Video can
get pretty big. "Lacie" is a good brand. Either USB2
or firewire. ($100-$250) depending on size.
7. Possibly upgrading your software to Final Cut
Express. check out apple's website on that. I movie is
great - this just gets more advanced.
Where to buy?
Go to your local stores to check it out see if you
like it. But don't buy it there. Go to B&H Photo
Video's website. Company based out of New York- Best
deals in states. I buy all of my equipment from them
and its great. No hassle- either order online or by
phone. I spent a lot here an never had a problem. No
tax and that will save you a lot- and usually lower
than other places.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
If you want local place to get all gear go to Showcase
Video and Photo
on the corner of Cheisbrige and La Vista (right down
the street from my place.)
http://www.showcaseinc.com/site/
Monday, August 01, 2005
Monday, Monday
Things are going god- just keeping busy. Seeing old friends and new family the past few weekends. Have been doing a lot of reading on capturing 480p footage with a 16x9 aspect ratio in a 24p timeline. FCP pro does a great job doing it and the footage looks great! i will post some of my test footage.
anyway- keeping it real around here. lots of cool projects that i am working on.
anyway- keeping it real around here. lots of cool projects that i am working on.