FXPHD April Term, NAB 2011

FXPHD have announced their April term, which includes a course called Epic On Location, where Mike Seymour and I learn you up some Epic. FXPHD courses are always amazing. I have a friend who mastered an entire RED One feature on a single Mac Pro using the guidance of past RED courses. In this case, Mike literally got on a plane from LA, where he had just picked up his Epic, and flew straight back to the other side of the planet to start using the camera to shoot for the class. I landed in New Zealand a few days later and within an hour of stepping off the plane, I was hanging upside-down from cables with a camera. We had a blast shooting some amazing footage, from cars, ziplines, and helicpoters, on rigs designed for much larger cameras and rigs designed for lightweight DSLRs.

I can’t recommend FXPHD enough, but in this case, this course truly is the only game in town when it comes to learning about this revolutionary new camera.

I will be at NAB for one day only (I’m slowly learning how not to go), Tuesday, April 12th, joining Mike on stage at the Post Pit (Booth SL12205) to talk more about the camera. Come by and say hi and then push right past me when you realize that the Epic is also there. I’ll understand.

I will also mention a few cool new things from Red Giant Software. Stuff you’ll like.

HD Magazine has an article about our New Zealand shoot, featuring some photos of and by me. More photos can be found at my Flickr site.

Rebel's Guide on your iPad or Kindle, DV Rebel Tools For Free

My book, The DV Rebel’s Guide, is finally available as an eBook for Apple iOS devices, Amazon kindle, and anything that reads the epub format (such as the Nook). This has been a long time coming, and I wanted to celebrate by giving away updated versions of the DV Rebel Tools scripts that I included with the original edition of the book.

These scripts create a tool palette that turns Adobe After Effects into a full-featured onlining tool. Add color correction effects to clips easily (including Colorista II if you have it installed), and check your grading continuity with a powerful thumbnail view that updates live as you work. For a full tutorial, watch the video:

To install the scripts, download this .zip file and expand it. You’ll see two folders: “Put contents in Presets” and “Put contents in ScriptUI Panels”.

Make sure After Effects is not running. Copy the contents of “Put contents in Presets” into this directory:

/Applications/Adobe After Effects CS5/Presets/

Copy the contents of “Put contents in ScriptUI Panels” into this directory:

/Applications/Adobe After Effects CS5/Scripts/ScriptUI Panels/

Now you can launch After Effects CS5 and find “rd_DVRebelTools.jsx” at the bottom of the Window menu. You can dock the palette into your workspace wherever you like.

Although I created the nerdy expressions and presets that power the DV Rebel Tools, there is a limit to my nerd powers, and that’s where Jeff Almasol stepped in and created the amazing scripts that automate the tools. A big and continued thanks to him. Check out his other handy scripts at redefinery.com.

Update on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 11:45AM by Stu

After some Twitter responses I figured this is a good place for a quick FAQ:

Q: A lot has changed since the release of The DV Rebel’s Guide. Ever thought of doing a update?

A: No. I’m gonna make movies instead. Besides, the best parts of the book still aplly even with a new generation of camera tech.

But don’t despair, because I can’t seem to shut up either. If I were to do an update, it probably wouldn’t be a dead tree product. It would be somehow electronic, and mobile, and able to hold file and video links, and be a part of a conversation, and constantly updated.

Waitaminute… in the famous words of Madge, you’re soaking in it.

So let me change my answer. Yes.

Update on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 2:27PM by Stu

Derps.

If you’re getting a “Divide by zero” error when trying to run the Thumbnails script, that’s because I screwed up and uploaded the wrong files. Please re-download and re-install the scripts and presets and all will be well.

Color Correcting Food with Colorista II

My friend Pete came by with some Canon 7D (UPDATE: Oops, it’s the 5D Mark II) video and stills. We sat together for about an hour grading the video to match the stills, which had been professionally shot and processed by photographer Eric Wolfinger. We used After Effects CS5, Colorista II, and the DV Rebel Tools scripts from The DV Rebel’s Guide.

What I find interesting about this session is that it provides one answer to a common question: “Why doesn’t the video I shoot with my DSLR look as good as the stills?” Setting aside numerous technical issues, a big part of it is that stills shooters, as a rule, color correct their shots before letting the world see them.

Here’s the session:

And here’s the before/after:

BRICK & STEEL

A fake trailer for a sequel to a movie that was never made, a birthday party gone horribly wrong, a CalArts reunion, and a fun test of achieving a hyper-poppy Stephen Sonenfeld (colorist on Transformers, Mission Impossible III and my Playstation spot) look on 5D and 7D footage (+ Redrock Micro Stubling, Eyespy Deluxe, Zacuto Z Finder Pro, and Zoom H4N) using Magic Bullet Denoiser, Colorista II, and Mojo. Budget = beer. Lots and lots of beer. Also available at 1080p on YouTube. For some reason.