Parody: Corona Mullet Spoof
Production: Better Duck Studios
8/29/10
New Youtube Channel Notes
I started a new Youtube channel to place videos about fishing and live bait fishing in particular. Its The Mullet Run on Youtube, and I wont bore you with the fishing stuff, just gonna focus on the new Channel and what approaches me and my crew are taking to get the channel out there and to get as many quality subscriptions we can. Something worked, cause this week Youtube notified me that The Mullet Run Channel was the #29th Most Subscribed Reporter channel for the week.
8/5/10
Panasonic HPX 170 | Field Test - In Production
Just spent a week in the field with a pair of Panasonic HPX-170 AVC CAM video camcorders. This camera costs about $5,000 dollars on the street and it records to a single SD card. Yes this camera is in the Panasonic P2 family, but this is the ghetto cousin from the other side of town because it records to a single SD card. I was hired to DP a web series for a Production Company out of Los Angeles, and since they owned the cameras, they demanded that I use them. Trust me I tried to fight for another camera.
Overall the camera is very nice, although the infinity ring used for focus is always a major pain in the ass, as is the very limited color viewfinder. Black and White viewfinders are still far superior to color for determining contrast. The camera is heavy and awkward to handhold for extended scenes and its even worse on the wrist and forearm with the .85 Schneider wide angle convertor.
The Workflow with the SD cards is a nightmare in the field. We have several 32 and 16 gig cards to work with. You fill a card, the card is then transfered to a hard drive and the card is formatted to be shot again. But on 3 different occasions with 3 different cards we experienced Error Codes when attempting to download the cards to the drive. I'm a cameraman, I'm not a digital data engineer. I was glad to find out that the company in LA was able to recover the data from the SD cards. Post production tells me it was a faulty USB cable, which is not a big deal at all, but the entire situation introduced a level of uncertainty regarding the gear. THIS NEVER HAPPENS WITH TAPE.
My biggest gripe with the limited Panasonic HPX 170 is the single SD Card. With a 32 Gig card, you can record around 4 hours of footage. Horrible odds. One card fails, you lose 4 hours of footage. I spoke with the company and explained what I have explained here and how it is much safer to use smaller cards like 4 or 8 gig cards.
Overall the camera is very nice, although the infinity ring used for focus is always a major pain in the ass, as is the very limited color viewfinder. Black and White viewfinders are still far superior to color for determining contrast. The camera is heavy and awkward to handhold for extended scenes and its even worse on the wrist and forearm with the .85 Schneider wide angle convertor.
The Workflow with the SD cards is a nightmare in the field. We have several 32 and 16 gig cards to work with. You fill a card, the card is then transfered to a hard drive and the card is formatted to be shot again. But on 3 different occasions with 3 different cards we experienced Error Codes when attempting to download the cards to the drive. I'm a cameraman, I'm not a digital data engineer. I was glad to find out that the company in LA was able to recover the data from the SD cards. Post production tells me it was a faulty USB cable, which is not a big deal at all, but the entire situation introduced a level of uncertainty regarding the gear. THIS NEVER HAPPENS WITH TAPE.
My biggest gripe with the limited Panasonic HPX 170 is the single SD Card. With a 32 Gig card, you can record around 4 hours of footage. Horrible odds. One card fails, you lose 4 hours of footage. I spoke with the company and explained what I have explained here and how it is much safer to use smaller cards like 4 or 8 gig cards.
6/9/10
Youtube's Featured Videos Add Hits
I was going over my Youtube Insight numbers and noticed a few big spikes in views, and it turns out it was because the Youtube engine decided to "Feature" a couple of the videos. I'm not talking about getting on the front page like Hank Green and other mega popular Tubers. I mean the Featured feature that sits atop of the related videos on the right hand side of the player page.I really have no idea how why those two videos were suddenly promoted to featured status but I will take. This is why its a good idea to keep up old videos. About a month ago I thought about pruning some of the weaker performing videos from my channel. Turns out thats not always a good idea. For example: Fishing Report Captain Jeff is a video I uploaded in January of 2009 and it wasn't really getting to many hits, maybe 10 a day. Now that it is a featured video of mine, and it shows up at the top of related videos, the video jumped to get up to 50 views a day. I was able to see this because I check the box that says I want to see Youtube Insight results on my homepage.
5/30/10
Level Grip iPhone Camera Support
You guys want cheap, we got cheap. If you shoot video with an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, or a Video Nano, point your internets over to the Level Grip site and drop 10 bucks for the basic Level Grip. The Level Grip is a plexiglass pistol grip that slides over your iPhone providing it with a rock solid support for hand holding the camera phone when shooting video. Its much more natural and ergo form factor for shooting level and steady video footage. I got a Level Grip a few weeks ago and now it goes everywhere with me. The iPhone 3G isn't my ideal camera for acquiring video, but its always with me, and with the Level Grip its alot better to shoot with. And its cheap. 10 dollars.
The Level Grip website also has other supports for flash based video devices like the Kodak Zi8.
Level Grip Website
Follow me on Youtube and Twitter.
The Level Grip website also has other supports for flash based video devices like the Kodak Zi8.
Level Grip Website
Follow me on Youtube and Twitter.
5/28/10
Youtube Moderator - What is it?
Youtube rolled out a new feature called Youtube Moderator and says it enables real time feedback from your audience. And its about starting a conversation. I cant really figure out its purpose. The best i can guess it that it allows you to crowd source suggestions, ideas, and responses from the audience, and it also incorporates a Digg like thumbs up or thumbs down voting system. Based on the popularity and scope up the thumbs up votes, Youtube can make certain discussions popular or featured.
Ok here is the deal. Its a locked system that requires you to link your Youtube account with a Google account. That kinda sucks because its just an extra hoop to jump through and as we know nobody wants to stop and re-register or whatever. Even still I'm happy to test dummy this MF'er to figure out if it is really gonna have any value for a normal Youtuber. Of course it will work for Shane Dawson or Onision who are gonna get 45,000 remarks a day no matter what system Youtube throws into their sandbox, but is there any real value for a normal Youtuber that doesn't have a million subscribers?
You can check out my Youtube Channel and play with my Moderator thing.
Follow me on Youtube and Twitter.
Ok here is the deal. Its a locked system that requires you to link your Youtube account with a Google account. That kinda sucks because its just an extra hoop to jump through and as we know nobody wants to stop and re-register or whatever. Even still I'm happy to test dummy this MF'er to figure out if it is really gonna have any value for a normal Youtuber. Of course it will work for Shane Dawson or Onision who are gonna get 45,000 remarks a day no matter what system Youtube throws into their sandbox, but is there any real value for a normal Youtuber that doesn't have a million subscribers?
You can check out my Youtube Channel and play with my Moderator thing.
Follow me on Youtube and Twitter.
5/27/10
Red One Camera - In the Field.
Got to work with the ever popular RED ONE camera or whatever its called, and we really put it to the test. The shoot was a commercial client that needed some Steadicam work, and in particular extreme low angle Steadicam cam stuff. Stuff we probably should have used a skateboard and a GoPro for, but I digress. Ok, lets get to the rig. We had the Red One camera, and since it was mounted on a Steadicam we didn't have a viewfinder, so we used a Decimator down conversion box to allow the HD signal for the SD onboard monitor. Lets just say that the device wasn't perfect, and production had to stop down several times to trouble shoot why the video signal was no reaching the monitor.
NOTE: Let me say this, I am in South Florida and the heat could be a factor in why some of the equipment was failing in the field. The Red camera we used is not the newest model out, and the heat buildup was substantial. The camera got really hot.
Ok, the lens we used was a gorgeous copy of the Cooke 18mm T2 prime. Great lens; however, the client may have wanted to go even wider, but thats what we had. The lens focuses down to 9". About half of the shots were extreme low angle which means the Steadicam sled had to be flipped 180 degrees vertical to shoot upside down to get the lens as close to the ground as possible. This means the image was also recorded to hard drive upside down, but thats not a problem for any modern post house to flip over with a single keystroke in edit.
The Steadicam / Red One rig was also fitted with a wireless focus system as well as a wireless video transmitter so the producer and the client were able to watch a reference monitor of the shoot in real time. The Red One has two record buttons. One on the back under the menu display and another secondary record button on the side of the camera. With the camera slung upside down it really took 3 people to operate the camera. A Steadicam operator, a Focus puller, and a 2nd AC to press record. Well the record button on the back of the camera failed or got stuck or something about 3/4 of the way through the shoot day. The camera will probably have to be serviced, but it did "fix itself" sometime when we were loading out at the end of the day. Not cool in my opinion.
Here's the bottom line, great camera, fun to work with, but its obvious the Red company is young aand there are alot of bugs to still be worked out in these low ser. number early models. The Decimator Box failed several times. The main record button didn't work for a large portion of the day, and alot of the time was spent trouble shooting the camera. I would try to keep clients away from shooting on the Red Camera for now until I became more familiar with trouble shooting the camera, and or the Red Camera irons out alot of the bugs. I'm certainly not hating on the camera, but when you have high paying clients sitting under a tent in the South Florida heat wondering why we aren't shooting, its not a good thing.
Follow me on Youtube and Twitter
NOTE: Let me say this, I am in South Florida and the heat could be a factor in why some of the equipment was failing in the field. The Red camera we used is not the newest model out, and the heat buildup was substantial. The camera got really hot.
Ok, the lens we used was a gorgeous copy of the Cooke 18mm T2 prime. Great lens; however, the client may have wanted to go even wider, but thats what we had. The lens focuses down to 9". About half of the shots were extreme low angle which means the Steadicam sled had to be flipped 180 degrees vertical to shoot upside down to get the lens as close to the ground as possible. This means the image was also recorded to hard drive upside down, but thats not a problem for any modern post house to flip over with a single keystroke in edit.
The Steadicam / Red One rig was also fitted with a wireless focus system as well as a wireless video transmitter so the producer and the client were able to watch a reference monitor of the shoot in real time. The Red One has two record buttons. One on the back under the menu display and another secondary record button on the side of the camera. With the camera slung upside down it really took 3 people to operate the camera. A Steadicam operator, a Focus puller, and a 2nd AC to press record. Well the record button on the back of the camera failed or got stuck or something about 3/4 of the way through the shoot day. The camera will probably have to be serviced, but it did "fix itself" sometime when we were loading out at the end of the day. Not cool in my opinion.
Here's the bottom line, great camera, fun to work with, but its obvious the Red company is young aand there are alot of bugs to still be worked out in these low ser. number early models. The Decimator Box failed several times. The main record button didn't work for a large portion of the day, and alot of the time was spent trouble shooting the camera. I would try to keep clients away from shooting on the Red Camera for now until I became more familiar with trouble shooting the camera, and or the Red Camera irons out alot of the bugs. I'm certainly not hating on the camera, but when you have high paying clients sitting under a tent in the South Florida heat wondering why we aren't shooting, its not a good thing.
Follow me on Youtube and Twitter
5/25/10
GoPro HD Smart Car Rig
Another quick GoPro video with Director of Photography Osvaldo Silvera. In the first video he introduced you to the camera and a few of the accessories. In the second video Ozzie shows in detail in person kit that he has used on several well known reality shows and docu-series. In this video Ozzie puts the gear to work attaching the GoPro to the front windshield of a Smart Car using the suction cup mounts. He also puts the camera on the outside of the car with the same results.
Bottom line, this sub $300 specialty camera is a must have for any type of do it yourself Cinematographer or Videographer. The creative possibilities are endless. Just keep in mind that it is a specialty camera with the 170 degree fisheye field of view and is not something that you would want to film an nentire movie with, but for the special shots, or situations that prohibit a standard camera from being used the GoPro is the go to camera. We own a half dozen of them, and are gonna buy more. Now get out there and make videos!
GoPro Website.
Join us on Youtube and Twitter.
Bottom line, this sub $300 specialty camera is a must have for any type of do it yourself Cinematographer or Videographer. The creative possibilities are endless. Just keep in mind that it is a specialty camera with the 170 degree fisheye field of view and is not something that you would want to film an nentire movie with, but for the special shots, or situations that prohibit a standard camera from being used the GoPro is the go to camera. We own a half dozen of them, and are gonna buy more. Now get out there and make videos!
GoPro Website.
Join us on Youtube and Twitter.
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