Here Comes The Snow (and the Awards)!

Snow is predicted, the Teton's are getting covered with clouds and the temperature has dropped.
Down here in the valley, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival is a hot event. We have had a wonderful time talking to the world's premier wildlife filmmakers.
The Panasonic booth has been very busy. As you can see, we have a full line up of cameras, from the very popular (with this crowd) Varicam, to the new HPX250 and the AF-100. We had a program where filmmaker's could sign out and borrow any of the cameras for shooting in the park. Obviously, this made us very popular.

We also have 3D covered with the 3DA1 and the new 3DP1.
In fact, here is the 3DP1 in the lobby of the Jackson Lake Lodge.
There was a day devoted to 3D here at the festival and as you can see, there is lots of interest in this new camera.

Another star was the AF-100, lots of shooters borrowed it and went out and shot in the park (when the weather was good).

For a bit of fun, we borrowed a 18-85 zoom lens from Chuck Lee of Fujinon. Using a PL Adapter it fit nicely on the AF-100. Needless to say, if you do this, use some lens support, as the lens is heavier than the camera.

Many filmmakers have asked for an adapter that will allow them to use their existing zoom lenses with the AF-100. Abel Cine has built just such an adapter. Here we have a Fujinon 17x7.6 lens, the Able Cine Adapter, a PL adapter all mounted on the AF-100. The only thing missing is power for the servo on the zoom.

Tonight is the Gala Award Dinner and Celebration sponsored by Panasonic. I am sure that many of the award winning films that we will honor tonight were shot on Panasonic cameras. As always, I will be sad to see the Festival end. It is one of my favorite events, out here "on the road"

As always, there is more to come.
The 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. However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.

Days Two and Three at Jackson

First, an explanation. The Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival doesn't really start until tomorrow. When I say Days 2 and 3 in the title above, I am talking about the length of time I am up here preparing for the event.
And we are almost there.




We have shot the sunset over the Tetons in time lapse using the Varicam and the new 250 camer. It looked great and will be used as a bumper to introduce various films during the festival. Yesterday, we got up before dawn and shot sunrise. However, there is a fire down the valley (a controlled burn) that sent a lot of smoke our way, so the time lapse of the sun set wasn't as good as we hoped.



Today, there is a separate event here, TEDx Jackson Hole. We have provided 4 cameras to cover the event, including Varicam, AF-100's and the 250.

And, I will be shooting the attendees arriving in 3D using the new 3DP1 camera.

If any of you are attending the Wildlife Film Festival, we have plenty of new cameras that you can sign out and use to shoot the incredible scenery.
Stop by and say Hi

As always, there is more to come.
The 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 products. However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.

Day One Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival 2011

Sunrise from the Jackson Lake Lodge.
It is the start of Day One of the Wildlife Film Festival. Once again Panasonic is a big sponsor of the event.
Check it out: www.jhfestival.org/
Steve Mahrer and I have spent the day sorting 60+ boxes and crates of gear. Panasonic is supplying projectors, plasmas, P2 cameras, 3D cameras, AVCCAM products for this event. So, we have a ton of work in front of us in setting up all the screening and meeting rooms, as well as the exhibition space. In addition, Panasonic sponsors the gala awards event at the end of the festival.
I hope to squeeze a bit of time to shoot some of the terrific scenery and wildlife with a bunch of the new cameras.
It is always a terrific event, with a chance to interact with the premier wildlife filmmakers from all over the world. They are already using a lot of Panasonic products and it is always fun to hear what they think of the new cameras and what additional features they would like to see. If you are attending, stop by and say hi.

As always, there is more to come.
The 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 products. However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.

HOT FUN IN THE SUMMERTIME

Here's lookin' at you kid. The latest in summer eye wear.

I really have to blog more often, I can't believe it has been since June that I last posed.
Hey, time flies when you are busy.
Lots of Big News in the AVCCAM traveling road show world to share with you.
Here is what has been going on......
Besides living on the road, on those rare moments when I am back in the studio, I have been hunkered figuring out the details of editing 3D footage shot with the Panasonic 3DA1, for each of the edit software systems. Boy, talk about fun. I have finished two white papers already and there are more to come. I will let you know when they get posted on the Panasonic site.

Learning a different NLE is always fun, but add the challenge of 3D and your mind starts spinning (not to mention the potential of headaches). I am really loving shooting and editing 3D. Makes me rethink the art of shooting. I honestly believe there is a big 3D business in corporate, industrial, museum, event and lots of other non-theatrical projects. Actually, these present an ideal situation for a 3D producer in that since you can control the viewing experience, you can shoot for that and make the 3D all the more effective.

I was at the Illinois Videographers Association meeting in Chicago to showcase the AF-100, here you can see it is all tricked out.
I have to tell you the Event and Wedding shooters who have been using DSLR's were knocked out. The idea of a large sensor camera that not only gives you shallow depth of field, but long (virtually endless) recording time, on board audio recording and monitoring, anti-aliasing, no moire effects, time code, etc. is guaranteed to make the mother of the bride blush. The benefits just go on and on. My experience is once you get your hands on this terrific camera, you do not want to let it go!

Next stop on the never-ending road tour, Kansas City where I presented 3D to the major sports organizations, mainly we talked how 3D can enhance coaching analysis. They had not previously considered that, and I am sure we made some converts.

As I travel around the country, I always have to take a few minutes to remember which camera I am talking about, because they are very different. The AF-100 is all about shallow depth of field and the 3DA1 is all about infinite depth of field. Keeping that all straight, along with the menu structures, and features of the different cameras, is always a bit stimulating.


Here is a shot I took in So. Cal. of the newest top of car installations for the AF-100 and 3DA1. I don't suggest you try this, unless you have good insurance and don't need either camera for some time!



In the middle of summer, where better to be than in the Arizona Desert? Nice resort, huh? Yeah tough job, and the golf course was great, except it was 110 degrees. Ah, the dedication, but I digress. Hot, yes, but, come on it's dry heat. Yes, it is and once again the hottest camera at the show was the AF-100. I presented the AVCCAM line at the Association of Community Access Conference in Tucson. As I am finding all around the country, if you are trying to get the job done with DSLR's, you will absolutely fall in love with the AF-100.

From Arizona to Boston for the University Film and Video Association Conference. The AVCCAM line has already made big inroads at schools across the country with many of them using the very popular HMC150 or the very light weight HMC40 or shoulder mount HMC80. In addition to showing these cameras, we hosted a number of 3D events and I have to tell you the film schools are beginning to understand that the 3DA1 is a perfect camera to teach 3D with.

As I said, it has been a very busy summer.
There are a bunch of other exciting developments to tell you about, but they will be in another blog, coming very soon (I promise).
In the meantime, keep those questions and comments coming in. As the AVCCAM Evangelist, I love hearing from you.
Stay tuned.

As always, there is more to come.
The 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 products. However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.

Infocomm 2011

Spent last week in Orlando at Infocomm. And, yes, Panasonic makes me dress up for these events.
One thing you can say about Orlando in June, it rains every day! Infocomm is a huge trade show mainly focused on projection, display and digitial signage technology. Panasonic had a huge booth that features not only projection but the 152" World Largest Plasma Display. It is awesome. We also had four camcorders in the booth; the HMC80, the HVX370, the AF-100 (the hit of the show, of course) and the 3DA1 (which I am standing next to). It was a good show, met a lot of old friends and made some new ones. Lots of interest in 3D. I answered many questions about the workflow. Seems people are concerned about how you edit 3D.

So now, I am back home and continuing to try to answer all those questions in a logical manner on my 3D editing white papers. I am working on workflow papers for Final Cut, Adobe CS5.5, Avid and Vegas, and using both Dashwood and Cineform plug-ins. As you can imagine, it is a lot of detailed work. When finished, I will let you know, and they should be available on the Panasonic website.

On the flight home, I had a weird experience. This is a shot of my feet, at the exit row, covered in what looked forever like smoke. The flight attendant told us not to worry it was just condensation from the air conditioning. Ah yes, another Road Story. We landed fine.

Stay tuned.
As always, there is more to come.
The 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 products. However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.

A "Wild" May

Ah, beautiful Lake Tahoe. Yes, I started the month of May driving around the lake and as you can see there is still quite a bit of snow in those there mountains.
Actually, I was in the area to attend a National Guard event. Some of our nation's finest are using Panasonic HMC150 and HMC40 AVCCAM camcorders and HVX200 and HVX170 P2 cameras, on their missions here and overseas. So, a bunch of them had gathered in Reno to learn what is new and to hone their workflow. I spent a good amount of time meeting the troops and was very impressed with their dedication and professionalism. They had some pretty amazing stories to tell. And yes, I did answer a lot of questions about workflow, specifically transcoding, and SD card issues.
After a short one day stop at home, I was off to Missoula, Montana for the 34th International Wildlife Film Festival, the first and oldest Wildlife Film Fest. It is always an amazing event and this year was no exception. It is a week of meeting old friends and making new ones. We always bring a boat load of Panasonic gear to the event so that the filmmakers can play with the new toys. As expected, the AF-100 larger image sensor camera was certainly the talk of the event. Although 3D certainly remains a large interest to this group of creative people.
In the pix on the right, Steve Mahrer of Panasonic is holding the new 9" BT-LH910 monitor while a filmmaker tries out the 370 camera.

One highlight of this year's Festival was an evening concert featuring Grammy Award Winning Native American Flautist, Robert Mirabal. Here is a pix of Robert and me after the show.
We actually shot the concert with 3 cameras. Steve had a Varicam up in the balcony, while James Kleinert (Director of Wild Horses and Renegades) manned an AF-100 in the front row. I had the great pleasure of being on stage with Robert shooting with a second AF-100.

The pix on right was taken by me on stage. In order to sync the 3 cameras, I walked out on stage and took this picture with my iPhone. We just used the flash from the iPhone as our sync point. It also gave me a great look from center stage.

We are beginning to edit the footage now. It was an amazing concert. Thanks to Robert and all my friends in Missoula, it was a terrific evening.

Finally, I ended the month out on the west coast. I presented two seminars on 3D and shooting with the 3DA1 camera, and one presentation on the AF-100, and achieving shallow depth of field. The pix on left was taking during a 3D presentation in the EVS Studios.

And that was May.
So what lies ahead for June? Well, I am still working on those pesky 3D White Papers, I spoke about last month. I just received the new Adobe CS5.5, so I will incorporate that workflow. I have lots of footage to edit, and something tells me I will be on the road quite a bit of the month as well. Hope to see you.

As always, there is more to come.
The 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 products. However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.

Where Did The Time Go?

Mid April Already? REALLY?

Sorry, I have not posted recently, but as you are about to read, I have been really, really busy. This is a bit of a long post, because there are lots of fun times to share with you.
In case you are wondering what I have been up to the past few months, I have been living on an airplane, giving presentations around the country on 3D and also Panasonic's larger image sensor camera the AF-100. Once again, I feel like Johnny Cash "I've been everywhere, man".

January
Besides the Roscor events, from earlier post, I attended the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City.

This is a way cool event. Of course, Park City, Utah in January is always cool. In fact, I usually pack some of my Alaska Iditarod clothing just to stay warm. (Pix of me above and snow shot on left by Erin Mitchell)

Panasonic is a sponsor of this great indie film festival. And each year, I partake in a fireside chat. This is a time to meet and talk with a number of the filmmakers and learn what they are thinking. I quite enjoy these sessions. See pix below on left.

This year, as expected, the cameras of interest were the 3DA1 and the AF-100.

At Slamdance, I met a couple of really great guys, Nick Ames and Brian Bills, with a very interesting company, PIXAIR.
The pix (on right) shows their RC helicopter outfitted with their brand new AF-100. They just dumped their DSLR from the rig to replace it with the AF-100. They commented that they are now getting stunning aerial footage free of the aliasing problems they were having with DSLR cameras. Check out their demo reel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooouvVgYdV0

Most exciting, this year we added a new contest, "The Panasonic Road to Park City" Competition. Filmmakers who had films in the Slamdance competition, were asked to submit a treatment for a one minute film to be shot during the festival. Six were chosen to compete.



The six filmmakers are: Nick Twemlow, Andrew Putschoegl, Matias Lira, CJ Gardella, Simon Arthur and Kevin M. Brennan.
Each filmmaker was given the Panasonic AF-100 for a 9 hour shooting day, and then they edited the finished project into a one minute film. All 6 entries were screened at Slamdance.

The winning entry was: "The Road To Park City is Paved With Artists" by Kevin M. Brennan and Doug Manley.
The pix on left is a still from the award winning film. On the right, I am presenting the award to Doug and Kevin. And naturally, Doug is making a joke at my expense.
Ah, these artists!
Doug and Kevin won an AF-100 to use in their future creations.
The other 5 filmmakers all got a Panasonic Blu-ray player. It was a fun event and an amazing amount of creativity was shown by every team. Congrats to all.
Slamdance photos by Maya Adrabi at: www.mayashoots.com

A big shout-out to Peter Baxter and all my friends at Slamdance. http://www.slamdance.com
Looking forward to next year.

February.
Although a short month, I kept very busy. I gave 3D and AF-100 presentations in San Francisco, Washington DC (at the Smithsonian, no less), Baltimore, Princeton, Portland (at the Cascade Mt Video Show, always a great event) and for my friends at the Chicago Final Cut User Group. Sadly, no pix to post, but I am sure you get the idea.

March

The Beat Goes On!
March found me giving presentations in LA and then off to Cinequest Film Fest in San Jose (where I unfortunately got sick, too much travel, I think).
But, none the less, the next week found me in Tampa (pix on left) and then Orlando for presentations at the Student Television Network. It is great to see so many high school and middle school kids excited about media production. And, boy did they have questions about 3D.
No time to catch my breath, just load up on cold medicine, as it is off to Austin for SXSW, always a fun and crazy event, even if parking in downtown Austin is impossible.

After Texas back to DC again for a 3D class at American University. From DC, across the country to San Diego for a 2.5 hour guest lecture at San Diego State University.
This is the second time I have done this event. Always over a hundred students, faculty and staff attend and ask great questions. Thanks to Prof. Steve Montal for making this happen. Up the coast to LA for end-user presentations on both 3DA1 and AF-100 and then a weekend with my daughter in So. Cal. (Ah, a small break). Monday, found me headed for Phoenix and more AF-100 presentations.

A day and a half in Phoenix, and then back to LA for meetings at USC, a local high school and then another incredible high. I was invited to give a guest lecture at UCLA Film school (my alma mater). This was a trip as it was held on the very sound stage I frequented when I first arrived at UCLA years ago as a film student. (see pix above). I even wore my UCLA Hawaiian shirt in honor of the event. For this event, I presented both the 3DA1 and the AF-100 camera. It was a great evening.

I did manage to get home some during the first part of this year, but as you can see, I did cover a lot of ground.

Now it is April.
I have just returned from another exciting, but exhausting NAB. In the Panasonic booth there was a ton of 3D, including the introduction of a new P2 based 3D camera, the 3DP1, coming this fall. (More on that later). I had the pleasure to speak to many people about 3D during the week and even gave a 3D presentation at BEA (Broadcasters Education Association) held in conjunction with NAB. Both of these events are always a great time to make new friends and hopefully see some familiar faces in the crowd as well.

In addition, there was a section of the Panasonic booth set up with all the lenses, mounts, and nifty accessories for the AF-100 camera. It was probably the most swamped area of the booth.

In this pix are the experts, from left to right: Art Aldrich, Jan Crittenden Livingston and Barry Green. They spent the week answering million questions about the red-hot AF-100 camera and accessories.



So, at the moment, I am home and in the thick of writing white papers on 3D editing which will appear on the Panasonic web site soon.

I will post a notice here when they are finished.

As always, there is much more to come.
The 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 products. However, the opinions on this blog are purely my own.