Authors — Michael Murie
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Sidewalk Traffic: Interview with D.P. Dave Kruta
The last time we spoke to David Kruta [DP David Kruta on Shooting the Movie Concussion], he’d just finished DP’ing the independent movie Concussion, which was directed by Stacie Passon. Concussion went on to become an official selection at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and has secured a distribution deal with The Weinstein Company’s TWC_RADiUS division. Kruta recently talked to us about his latest project, Sidewalk Traffic. Principal photography just ended, and the movie will probably be completed by the end of the year. Filmmaker: What is Sidewalk Traffic? Kruta: Sidewalk Traffic is Anthony Fisher’s first feature film; he’s a […]
by Michael Murie on Mar 25, 2013 -
Production Design on a Budget
On small budget productions, coming up with locations can be a challenge – especially if you need something a bit unusual. An upcoming music video for the band Run 8 Rider required that a single location represent three different time periods to tell its story. Using a borrowed house as the location, director Sean Meehan turned to production designer Riley Fearon to supervise the transformation of the location. In this interview Riley talks about the challenges of working on a small budget, how he approaches production design, and how he came to the field. Filmmaker: For this project what have […]
by Michael Murie on Mar 18, 2013 -
Kodak Cinema Tools, a Free App for Filmmakers
Kodak has updated their free iOS app Cinema Tools to add a simple Aspect Ratio feature. Using a default picture, or one loaded from your photo library, you can choose from 2-perf, 3-perf, 4-perf and 16mm motion picture film formats and then choose between 2.35:1, 1.85:1, 1.18:1 (16×9) or 1.33:1 (4×3) aspect ratios. The image is then cropped to display the results. Unfortunately, you can’t choose a focal length for the imaginary lens, so the tool is very limited. (For a better web-based example that covers digital cameras, check out AbelCine’s Field of View Comparator.) While several of the tools […]
by Michael Murie on Mar 11, 2013 -
Sony Responds to RED, Blackmagic Fix and Avid Continues to Decline
Two weeks ago RED announced that they were suing Sony for patent infringement for technology used in Sony’s PMW-F5, PMW-F55, and F65 cameras. Last week Sony posted a response on their Pro video website. First noting that the F65 has been commercially available for over a year, and that the F5/F55 were announced in October, they go on to say: Sony has now had an opportunity to study Red’s complaint and the asserted patents, and categorically denies Red’s allegations. Sony intends to defend itself vigorously in the Red lawsuit. Sony looks forward to prevailing in court, thus vindicating the Sony […]
by Michael Murie on Mar 4, 2013 -
Working with Hair and Makeup – Interview with Maya Landi
Maya Landi is Boston-based hairstylist and makeup artist who works on everything from weddings and music videos to horror films. I talked to her recently about her work, how to age characters and how to create a head-shot effect, during the shooting of a music video for the band Run 8 Rider. Filmmaker: What have you been doing for this project? Landi: One of the characters plays a grandfather and a father in different eras in time. I had to do some aging makeup for him, as well as make everybody look appropriate for the era that they are supposed to […]
by Michael Murie on Mar 1, 2013 -
Animating 1000 Parts: Creating the Short Day Shift
Ian Timothy, 18, is about to graduate high school — applying to art schools hoping to study animation — but he already has several years of animation experience under his belt. He created his first stop motion at 12 using a DV camera, and quickly discovered he liked doing it so much that it became “pretty much a full-time thing.” Timothy won a Silver Telly Award for animation in 2013, has created animation for music videos, and is currently working on an animation for Adult Swim for the Cartoon Network. In the following interview Timothy talks about the short Day […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 27, 2013 -
Oscar-Nominated Cinematographers Discuss Filmmaking
The problem with the Oscars is that you spend three hours watching the show and at the end you haven’t learned anything from the winners about how they did what they did. In celebration of the event, and with congratulations to the winners, here’s some interviews with the nominees for Best Cinematography. One of the interesting themes you’ll note in these articles is that the switch from film to digital remains a hot topic: Anna Karenina | Seamus McGarvey “Anna Karenina was filmed with anamorphic lenses, which require slightly more light, and some of the lighting used is older in style, […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 25, 2013 -
The Oscars Honors Imagineer Systems’ Mocha
This Sunday is the Oscars, and as is tradition, the really interesting awards – for scientific and technical achievements – were made at an event on February 9. This year Imagineer Systems was presented with an award for their product Mocha, and its underlying Planar Tracking technology. The company was recognized for their “proven record of contributing significant value to the post-production process of making motion pictures.” As a planar tracker – rather than a point tracker – Mocha is able to motion track problematic things such as out of focus footage. Motion blur breaks point trackers, but in Mocha you […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 22, 2013 -
RED Sues Sony and Other News
In case you are living in a cave and missed it, the big news of last week was that RED is suing Sony. RED claims that Sony’s F65, F55 and F5 infringe on patents RED holds, specifically relating to REDCODE RAW. It appears that the issue may turn on the compression of a RAW video stream in the camera. Jim Jannard posted on the REDuser Forum: We are heavily invested in concepts, inventions, designs, development and manufacturing of RED cameras, REDRAY and the RED Projector. Each is unique and has motivated the industry to get better, for the benefit of […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 18, 2013 -
Canon C100 Does 4:2:2 with the Ninja Video Recorder
In yesterday’s article “Canon C100 or C300: Which One to Get?” I wrote about the ability to attach an external recorder to the C100 and record 4:2:2 video, but added: Is 4:2:2 out of the C100 exactly the same as 4:2:2 from the C300? That’s a question I haven’t yet seen a definitive answer to, though a lot of people are assuming it is, or it’s very close. Today, I’m at least a step closer to answering that question. Paul Antico of Anticipate Media, and host of the NeedCreative Podcast, sent me some sample frames taken from Atomos Ninja 2 […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 7, 2013
