Authors — Michael Murie
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Somewhat North of Boston, They’re Showing Films: Executive Director Jay Doherty on the SNOB Film Festival
This weekend (November 12 – 14) the SNOB [Somewhat North of Boston] Film Festival takes place in Concord New Hampshire. Earlier this week we talked to Jay Doherty, Executive Director of the festival about its history, what sets it apart from other festivals, and some of the films being shown. Filmmaker: How did the SNOB Film Festival start? Doherty: This is the 14th annual festival. It started with a group of people who were interested in bringing independent film to central New Hampshire. They started the Somewhat North of Boston film festival as kind of a joke that a lot […]
by Michael Murie on Nov 11, 2015 -
The Rasmussen Brothers on Shooting Their Microbudget Horror Film, The Inhabitants, Part Two
In this second part of the interview with brothers Michael and Shawn, they talk about directing their microbudget movie The Inhabitants, the music and sound mixing, and distribution for the movie. Filmmaker: With one of you running the camera and the other doing sound, how did you manage to handle directing at the same time? Michael: I think we’ve learned to multi-task, but it is hard. You are trying to make sure that everything is in focus and you’re pulling focus yourself, you’re doing all that stuff. The good thing is that Shawn is standing there with the boom, he can […]
by Michael Murie on Oct 22, 2015 -
The Rasmussen Brothers on Shooting Their Microbudget Horror Film, The Inhabitants, Part One
Two years ago the Rasmussen brothers, Michael and Shawn, spoke to us about the production of their low-budget horror movie Dark Feed. Now the directors and screenwriters (they scripted John Carpenter’s The Ward) are back to talk about their new New England-set horror film The Inhabitants, and the lessons learned making a movie on an even tighter budget. Filmmaker: How did this project start? Michael: The whole thing came about as we were finishing Dark Feed. One of our filmmaker friends said, “You want to keep the momentum going and get started on the next project.” A producer friend who had […]
by Michael Murie on Oct 21, 2015 -
Sony Shrinks the FS7, Announces PXW-FS5 and the a7S II
Today at IBC Sony announced a smaller version of their popular PXW-FS7 4K camera. The PXW-FS5 takes most of the features of the PXW-FS7 and shrinks them into a box that’s less than half the weight and almost one quarter the volume. While it takes away some features — there are fewer recording options, no extension arm or LCD loupe — it does include an interesting new feature; an electronically variable ND filter that lets you select any position between 1/4ND and 1/128ND with 128 steps. Adjustment from one level to another should be fairly smooth, enabling you to adjust […]
by Michael Murie on Sep 11, 2015 -
As 4K Expands, Now Might Be the Time to Buy an HD Camera
The world of inexpensive 4K cameras is expanding rapidly. For $8,000 there’s the Sony PXW-FS7, and Panasonic will soon start shipping the fixed lens AG-DVX200. At $4,195 the DVX200 takes the sensor from their GH4 and puts it in a more traditional video camera body. If the fixed lens of the DVX200 is too limiting, you could always buy the GH4 itself, which at $1,400 is one of the cheapest ways to record UHD video. And if the sensor size of the Panasonic camera’s is too limiting, the $3,200 full-frame Sony a7RII is the current darling of reviewers. Yes, it’s […]
by Michael Murie on Sep 8, 2015 -
Samyang/Rokinon Announce New Cine Lens Line: XEEN
Samyang [also sold under the Rokinon brand] attracted quite a bit of attention from budget filmmakers when it started selling its budget line of “Cine” lens. These were their traditional still lenses with standard geared focus and aperture rings, de-clicked aperture ring, and remarking for T stops rather than F stops. The lenses received generally positive reviews from users — particularly as they provide a good mix of image quality/construction for the price. They are, however, fully manual lenses, with no auto-focus support or image stabilization built in. But adding teeth to the focusing ring of a lens doesn’t truly, a […]
by Michael Murie on Aug 13, 2015 -
One Brick at a Time: the Post-Production of A LEGO Brickumentary
A LEGO Brickumentary, a documentary that looks at the culture and appeal of the LEGO building block, opens July 31. Like many historical documentaries, this project involved working with a wide range of archival footage, but it also made use of footage shot with a wide range of modern cameras — in one case, all shooting the same event. Co-producer and post-production supervisor Chad Herschberger of Milkhaus talked to us about the work they did on this documentary and the ins and out of post-production work, including animating faces on LEGO bricks, moving media between Avid Media Composer and DaVinci […]
by Michael Murie on Jul 31, 2015 -
DaVinci Resolve 12 Public Beta Now Available
Blackmagic first announced DaVinci Resolve 12 back in April at NAB, but now they have released a public beta and say that the final release will be available in late August. DaVinci Resolve began life — and is widely known — as a color correction tool, but the last two updates have seen significant advances in its editing capabilities, making it a possible competitor to programs like Adobe Premiere and Apple Final Cut. For those on a budget, the free version offers a surprisingly complete feature set. With the release of the public beta comes some new features that weren’t […]
by Michael Murie on Jul 28, 2015 -
AJA Drops Price of 4K CION Camera Significantly
AJA has slashed the price of their 4K CION camera in half to $4995. It’s part of their “Summer of Savings” promotion, which they say will run through the end of the summer. Other price reductions announced: Ki Pro Quad (their 4K recorder) is now $2995, Ki Pro Mini is $1495, Ki Pro is $2495, and Ki Pro ND is $2295. AJA customers who purchased the CION production camera before May 26, 2015 will receive two AJA Pak 512 SSDs for free, directly from AJA (valued at $2495). AJA is well known for their video hardware, and the Ki Pro file-based recorder, […]
by Michael Murie on May 27, 2015 -
Lots of New Software from Blackmagic, Adobe, Avid and More
The advances in camera technology over the past few years have somewhat overshadowed application software developments, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some interesting new updates and new applications. Here are just some of the most interesting application updates announced over the past couple of months. Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 12 At NAB Blackmagic announced Resolve 12. It’s not available yet, but this update continues where 11 started, adding more video editing features and continuing to turn Resolve into a serious editing tool. Blackmagic even claims it’s now the “most powerful editor available.” The new interface is lighter and offers […]
by Michael Murie on May 13, 2015
