Big Foot Carts

For those of you that are capture techs for still or motion, you will at some point need a place for your computer (laptop or tower), monitors, hard drives, battery backup, power strip, and so on. On location you can use a table (thats lame), but if you are professional and table will not cut it, and you'll need a cart to both be organized and mobile. I've tried many carts over the years, and it is a personal decision, as a cart for my needs may not be a cart to fit your needs. There are the carts by Magliner, Remin's HD 500 and the more custom carts by Backstage, Filmtools and Bigfoot Mobile Carts.

I recently tested a custom built Bigfoot cart, and I'm addicted to it, this cart is the Cadillac of carts. It is a beautiful piece of equipment, and is very functional. Doug Solis at BigFoot can custom make a cart to your personal specifications. The unit I tested was built to house a Mac Pro on it's lower slide out tray, and can handle rack 2U drives and RAIDs as well as a rack mount UPS. It's outfitted with a side arm that holds perfectly a 15" or 17" MacBook Pro in the right position, and solid top platform for monitor and a flip up side door (on the other side) that holds most everything else. If it gets a bit hot inside with all your gear humming away, just pop off the sides for complete cool ventilation.

One of the BIG deals about this cart are the BIG WHEELS. They glide over rough surfaces without jarring your precious computers and hard drives. Bigfoot also sits tall, so you will need a tall directors chair to comfortably work your keyboard. So whether you're on a still photo shoot or a feature film, you will be looking good and organized with this awesome custom cart.

The Future of Print Advertising..."The Sky is Falling"

This week while I listened to NPR radio, I heard the news that Conde Nast was closing Gourmet, Cooki, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride magazines. Other magazines closed this year were Nickelodeon, Travel and Leisure Golf, Blender, Teen, PC Magazine, Men's Vogue, Home, Cosmo Girl, Playgirl and at least 7 others. This is a trend that is only getting worse. Along with the magazines, many newspapers are on the chopping block. So what does this mean, as photographers we need to start making changes in how we do business, and now.

Not many are looking at this seriously, but this I feel is a end game scenario in the making. I've already prepared myself for the future, rebranding myself in a new technology, digital motion. This is no different than the change that began over 12 years ago when digital began to over take film for the still photographers, and we know how that turned out.

The future has so many technological advances and I am totally excited what with the smart paper, digital out of home advertising (DOOH), and motion advertising. Stop, hear the silence, now start to begin your journey toward motion advertising.

Here are some solutions for the future. The following courtesy of Alexx Henry,

I demo'ed the RED in vertical orientation at the Image Mechanics, Collision Conference in August. Here is a practical application, and a glimpse into the future of how you as a still photographer will work with this new technology. The sky has just opened up.

A lot of traditional digital still capture firms are investing in RED and Canon 5D Mark 2 because they see it coming. Just this past week, I was contacted by a very well know car shooter to bring RED in on his first commercial shoot. Not only will this technology open the door for new types of still work, it will move you up the ladder into the directors chair for commercials, even features.

Von

RED Epic is almost here, and fall is heating up

It's seems I've been asleep at the wheel, and while I dozed, the RED Epic (5K digital cinema camera) was unleashed at IBC in Amsterdam last month. Below are some tasty photos of the Epic, and along with that some even tastier images of Kate Beckinsale made with the Epic 5K sensor in a RED One body for Esquire Magazine, by Greg Williams. If you remember Greg Williams was the first shooter to have RED still images (of beautiful Megan Fox) published in a print magazine, and Esquire no less (June 2009 issue). These current images of Ms. Beckinsale, will be in the November issue of Esquire, fall is heating up. Here is the link to "The Sexiest Woman Alive Video"

So nice, I had to do it twice.

Oh, that leaves me with the Epic itself, here are some photos taken at IBC, last month.

New 5D Mark 2 accessories from Element Technica

I've been a bit busy lately, which is a good thing, but I managed to get a sneak peek of the new gear from Element Technica for the Canon 5D Mark 2. The items picture below are the new bridge plate and dovetail. I was at the DV Expo yesterday and I must say the other companies have nothing this solid.

The Eizo 232W, GREAT MONITOR!!!!

If you've worked with me over the years you know I only use Eizo's CG 211. The Eizo's have been very reliable for color accuracy for print campaigns and catalog work. Just recently did I have the chance to work with their new broadcast model, the 232W.

In working with the Eizo CG 232W monitor for the Image Mechanic Collision Conference. My demo featured shooting the RED, in vertical orientation. That said, you want to view your project the same way. The 232 unfortunately does not rotate to full portrait position, so I had to remove the stand and replace with a LCD VESA monitor bracket in order to achieve a vertical view.

The first thing I do is to calibrate and profile the monitor. Because the 232W uses hardware calibration, colors are adjusted within the monitor itself, and there is no loss of displayable colors (as opposed to software only calibration which only manipulates the computers video cards color output). The 232W comes with ColorNavigator software, and along with a device like Eye One Photo, you can accurately calibrate one or more monitors. The RED with an Element Technica Breakout box, has SDI outputs. The 232W, along with DVI, also has SDI inputs. Once I dialed in my color temp for the RED, I was able to see the results on the Eizo. This is the kind of thing not normally viewed (with other monitor brands). Looking at the model, we viewed the same color correct image on the Eizo. It was amazing to said the least. If you had this on set, and in the edit bay, your projects would be color beautiful from front to back.

Eizo's are not inexpensive, but I feel they are worth the money, and it is both easy to work with and accurate, what more can you ask for.

Von

RED In The Vertical Position

This past weekend I took part in a conference at LA Film School. The event was called Collision Conference, where still and motion converge. The event hosted by Images Mechanics featured a host of renowned speakers and lecturers from the still and motion world. Ted from RED, Shane Hurlbut, Vincent Laforet, Rodney Charters, Liam Finn, Alexx Henry, Frank Rohmer, Michael Britt and Illya Friedman.

The conference featured two cameras, the RED One and the Canon 5D Mark2. There were vendors from Red Rock Micro, Zeiss, Canon, Bogen, Ikan, Samy's Camera and more.

Demo's were held twice daily featuring the Canon 5D and the RED shot in vertical orientation (sideways). The reason behind this way of shooting is so a photographer can shoot for vertical ads and signage. Many of the new ads for automotive, cosmetics, movies, and just about everything else are using this format, and now with motion. I gave the RED in vertical demo, using the RED modified to sit vertically. Fairly straight forward, but I went off the path when I showed how I finished the edit in Photoshop.

Here a shoot that took 5 minute shot and finish magazine ad.

View large version HERE,

Von

WOW!! Entertainment Weekly to have 1st video in a magazine

Photographers and filmmakers will have new territory to shoot for, the new video ads appearing in magazines and books. This new technology is about to explode, and it all starts appearing on September 18, 2009 in Entertainment Weekly. So get out your REDs and your Canon 5D Marks 2's, Final Cut, Photoshop, and lets get busy. Oh you don't do motion? Better learn FAST!!!

Read on below:

From Digital Journal.Com:

Entertainment Weekly magazine is going high tech with a video-chip ad in the September 18 issue. The video will feature CBS's new fall TV season and Pepsi Max.

The revolutionary issue will only be sent to a few thousand who subscribe in New York City and Los Angeles. If you live elsewhere or want to buy a special copy at the newsstand you're out of luck.

The magazine is using Americhip for their technology. Each battery powered microchip can carry up to 40 minutes of video.

The video screen can be recharged with a tiny USB cord after the battery runs out. The average battery life is 65 to 70 minute

More info from the Wall Street Journal.