Hello Again, So California

Well, after 20+ years, Silver Platter Productions, Inc and the Mitchell family have moved back home to So Cal.
 I am still the Panasonic Evangelist so expect to see me around the country and our continuing training videos on the net.
Same "Sterling Quality" Service.  New location.  Ah Hawaiian shirts and flip flops!
More to come
The Road Warrior

Ah, The Pressure

NAB is coming, and coming fast.

Once again I will be in the Panasonic booth, with some cool new toys.  Stop in, say hello and see.

But before I fly to Vegas, I have tons of work to do.

First, there will be a Presentation Stage in the booth, where we will be doing 3 presentations on various workflows.  I am working on putting those together right now. 

The Presentations are:

AVC-Ultra - the benefits to your workflow, presented by Barry Braverman

Wireless, Cellular and Cloud Enabled Workflows, presented by yours truely

And IP Remote Production - from preview to monitoring, presented by Greg Boren.

Of course, titles could change, you never know.

These presentations should be both informative and hopefully entertaining and we will be using a new Panasonic Interactive Plasma Display to make our points.

 

While you are in the Panasonic booth, check out the stunning images displayed on monitors and projectors.  I am in the process of editing them now using Aframe, a Panasonic partner that lets all the members of the team work on the videos collaboratively.  Pretty cool.

Anyway, lots of late nights until April 8th, but it will be worth it.

See you in Las Vegas.

More to come....
FTC Disclosure
In compliance with the FTC rulings, I state that I am the Panasonic AVCHD, P2, 3D Professional and Interactive Plasma Display Evangelist. As such, I am a paid consultant to Panasonic, and I get free use of selected Panasonic products.  However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.

3D. Not Going Away!

There continues to be considerable debate about whether 3D has died.  I say no and here is why.
Hollywood is finally learning that talented directors can make 3D part of the story telling experience and not just a gimmick.  Go see "Life of Pi" in 3D and "Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away" in 3D.  If you haven't already, see "Hugo" in 3D.  These 3 films are stunning and more so in 3D.  And then there is "The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey".  See it in 3D at High Frame Rate.  I know lots of people hate the look.  I really liked it and yes I saw it again in 2D at 24fps, and I still like the 3D and 48fps much better.  The conversion of "Titanic" from 2D to 3D really worked.  3D in the hands of talented people is not going away, it just gets better.

Things are also picking up on the educational front.  Just a couple of weeks ago, I taught a "Shooting 3D Master Class" at Chapman University in Orange, CA.  The class went on for over 4 hours, and the students asked very insightful questions.  They are shooting their 3D films for the class with the Panasonic Z10000 camera. 
Since word of this class got out, I have had other film schools express interest.  This is great. We need young cinematographers to learn to shoot 3D.  Because as I always say, "learning how to shoot 3D will make you a better 2D shooter".  Let me know what you think.


See you on the road
More to come....
FTC Disclosure
In compliance with the FTC rulings, I state that I am the Panasonic AVCHD, P2 and 3D Professional Evangelist. As such, I am a paid consultant to Panasonic, and I get free use of the AVCCAM and P2 products.  However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.

WFX In Atlanta

If you are going to be at WFX in Atlanta, please stop by the Panasonic booth and say hello.
Not only will I be in the booth, but I will be holding a Camera Techniques class each day in one of the training rooms.  Basically, I will be discussing how to shoot more like a Cinematographer, and various camera techniques for shooting.  And yes, I will be talking and demoing the AF-100 (seen here) along with a bunch of other great gear!
For more info on WFX please visit www.wfxweb.com.  Hope to see you there.
Lots happening with some cool developments including wireless metadata.  But, more on that later.
See you on the road.
More to come....
FTC Disclosure
In compliance with the FTC rulings, I state that I am the Panasonic AVCHD, P2 and 3D Professional Evangelist. As such, I am a paid consultant to Panasonic, and I get free use of the AVCCAM and P2 products.  However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.

Wow, Really? Sorry guys and gals.  I can't believe it has been this long since last post.  All I can say is I have been slammed busy.  Yeah and big news.  Like this big SD card I am holding.  Any guess on how many minutes it records?

BTW, I guess I need a blogger to help me keep this blog current.  Any offers?

So, yeah busy doing what?  Well NAB was in April and that was a very busy time.  I was once again "stuck" in the Panasonic booth, but as usual it was a great time, as I got to meet in person many of you who follow this blog, my youtube and vimeo tutorials and my white papers on workflow.  It is really gratifying to know that you like what I do.  "You like me, you really like me" quote Sally Field.

I was really proud of the fact that the 3D video that I produced with Art Aldrich of Otek TV was featured in the NAB booth.   It was Christmas in NYC in 3D.  We shot Macy's Parade, Rockefeller Center, window displays, neighborhood displays and ice skating, all inter cut with a terrific high school choir singing Christmas Carols.  Here I am shooting model trains with the 3DP1.  It was a lot of fun and we got the privilege to shoot it with all three of Panasonic's 3D camcorders, the 3DA1, Z10000 and 3DP1.  The end product was magic (hey it's Christmas) and reaction at the show was fantastic.

After NAB, it was time to hit the road.  Panasonic mounted a "Taking It To The Streets" Tour (can't you just hear the Doobie Brothers.)  I have been on the road, talking cameras, wireless metadata (you gotta love this), and how we will all have our archive in the cloud.  Oh yeah, that last one about gets me tarred and feathered, but mark my words.....
Anyway, here I am on the road with 23 cases of gear at Universal City Hilton in the first pix and in So Florida in the second pix.  It takes a lot of equipment and people to mount a road show like this and Panasonic does it very well.  I have presented all over the country ranging from the Northeast to the Southwest.  And we ain't done yet.

In July, I will be in Minneapolis, Miami, So Calif, Chicago and I am sure I have forgot some places, but the Panasonic Pro Video Facebook Page will have the details.  So, if you see me and my van full of equipment on the road, please stop and say hello.  Heck land a hand with moving the equipment and even in tipping the bell men.  Just kidding.
See you on the road.
More to come....
FTC Disclosure
In compliance with the FTC rulings, I state that I am the Panasonic AVCHD, P2 and 3D Professional Evangelist. As such, I am a paid consultant to Panasonic, and I get free use of the AVCCAM and P2 products. (Like all the gear I am moving around in these pix).
 However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own. (So, don't blame anyone, but me)

Ah, the horror!

After years of preaching backup,backup,backup I got slammed.

The hard drive on my poor million miller Mac Book Pro decided to go meet its maker.

Problem was it didn't let me know it was having palpitations until it gave up the ghost.

Best case I have only lost 100GB or so.

Worse case, I don't want to think about it

It's the back up, stupid

More to come

The road warrior who has just been run over by the bus.

Slamdance - Day 6

Wednesday Day 6
The middle of the week is pretty slow in Park City. The weekend crowds from both Slamdance and Sundance have left. Main Street seems deserted. You can actually stand in the center of it and take pictures. Yes, the glitz might be gone, but now we are stuck with the hard core indie film makers.
The Five Flavors of Filmmaking Panasonic Competition is nearing the end.
Today our fifth and final filmmaker, Griffin Davis of Green Stoplight Productions has been assigned the flavor "Wild Cheery". I can't tell you what he is filming, but he mentioned something about a hot tub filled with Cherries. Since they are the last group, and the screenings are tomorrow, they will have a long hard night of editing in front of them. Griffin's co-hort, Andrew Edison is the director of film in competition at the festival entitled "Bindlestiffs".

Something I find really interesting is that last year, I had to train almost all the filmmaker's on the AF-100, afterall it was new. This year, every group in the competition had either shot with the camera, or someone on the crew had. Ah, success.
Anyway, the competition was a blast. It is always fun to meet filmmakers who are up to the challenge of taking a camera for 8-9 hours and then edit a 1 minute film, in an extremely short period of time. They are passionate, and of course, each wants to win the camera. Good luck to them all. We will announce the lucky winner tomorrow nite at the awards ceremony.

I am usually so busy that I don't get a chance to see many of the films in the festival but I saw one yesterday that was really good. "Wild in the Streets" was directed by Peter Baxter, the President/co-founder of Slamdance and still a working filmmaker (see here talking to other filmmakers in the hallway). It tells the story of "the Garden of Eden of Football" as Peter said in his opening comments. It is all about Ashbourne, England and the game of Shovetide Football. It is over 1000 years old and about the only rule is under no circumstance will manslaughter be tolerated. It is historical, humorous and it keeps you on the edge of your seat during the final matches. Watch out for it and make sure to see it.
Well done, Peter.
It has been another great Slamdance. I am proud of the role that Panasonic plays in being a sponsor of the festival and the Competition, and once again, I am happy to be part of it.
More to come. As Always,
The Slamdanced Road Warrior
FTC Disclosure
In compliance with the FTC rulings, I state that I am the Panasonic AVCHD and 3D Professional Evangelist. As such, I am a paid consultant to Panasonic, and I get free use of the AVCCAM and P2 products. (Like the featured AF-100, here at Slamdance) However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own. (So, don't blame anyone, but me)