I wasn't sure where to put still photography stuff, i have put it here before so i figured it would be ok here.

I have the final designs down to my ghetto 35 adapter, and i planned on putting a canon FD mount on it, why you ask?

Because FD lenes are cheap!, and i have seen fast lenses extremely cheap, like $60 AUD for a 135mm f 2.* (i forget).

My question is, are these lenses crap? is that why they are cheap? or just old?

Thanx for the help.
Zac

I have a whole bag full of old FD lenses that i use with my old F-1.
These lenses were as fine as they get, comparable to the Nikkor lenses from Nikon, in their day. They're still damn good! They just don't have the electronic link to the camera for exposure setting.

This is a great article about the translator for all the Hollywood bootlegs that would end up in Iraq, who had the unenviable task of packaging the stuff up for Saddam and his cronies.

Saddam and Uday go to the movies


By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff, 5/15/2003

AGHDAD -- For Uday Hussein, the cutthroat son of Saddam, high culture came to Iraq when Russell Crowe entered the arena, sword in hand, ready to kill.

More in the Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/135/living/Saddam_and_Uday_go_to_the_movies+.shtml

Three days after ''Gladiator'' was released in the United States, Uday was ''going mad'' to find a bootleg copy of the swords-and-sandals epic, his chief movie translator recalled in an interview. Uday had followed the buzz about ''Gladiator'' on the Internet, which he checked weekly for US box office tallies, and it sounded like his kind of picture: severed limbs, bloody revenge, and a take-no-prisoners antihero.

His translator, Saad Al-Izzi, scoured Baghdad for a tape for five days. His boss wasn't the most patient of men (just ask the marathon runners Uday had beaten for lagging on the track). Uday's men finally found a copy, and Izzi's boss gave him an afternoon to translate, dub, and print ''Gladiator'' in Arabic.

Errors of haste were unavoidable: Ten seconds of a speech by Oliver Reed's gladiator-herdsman, rallying his posse before battle, were cut incorrectly, so the character's lips moved without making a noise.

Izzi thought he'd be thanked for his quick work. Instead, two of Uday's men came to his office the next day to beat him for the error.

Izzi's boss lied that he was out, promising to punish him later.

''OK,'' one of the men said, according to Izzi. ''Take off your shoes. We'll beat you just to be sure that you beat him.'' And they whacked the boss's feet with a sharp wooden reed until they were bloodied.

Perhaps Uday Hussein and his father were simply Patrick Bateman-like characters out of ''American Psycho,'' slaughtering for the swagger and sake of it. But if there's something to the theory that violent movies spawn violent behavior in their viewers, then Hollywood shoulders some blame for the legacy of bloodshed left by the Hussein men.

According to Izzi, they were fixated on American-made movies, directing their representative at the United Nations, Tariq Aziz, to bring back dozens of videos each time he left New York. And ''Pollyanna'' these were not: ''Silence of the Lambs,'' ''Casino,'' and ''Rob Roy'' for Saddam and ''From Dusk Till Dawn,'' ''The Mummy,'' and ''Bride of Chucky'' for Uday.

What a mind picture; Saddam and Uday, sitting in the dark of their private screening room in the heart of Baghdad, viewing, "The Mummy." You couldn't write stuff this good. Who did they cheer for?

Does viewing affect behavior? You bet your sweet Madison Avenue it does.

Zac,

Back there in Australia I have a couple of FD L series lenses sitting at my mum's place with my old AE1 Program. They are awesome lenses, and yes you can pick them up quite cheap. For a budget setup they are a good deal.

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/vegas90/

Since I am crappy with ideas, I am wondering if anyone would like to share any creative ideas they would have come to mind for a video for that. Even though I have no chance of winning something like that, it would still be fun to try, but I need a good idea first, and i'm terrible with ideas...

Any whacky ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

E-mail me, and I'll tell you a good one (idea).

Supervideo.com is down and someone gave me this link:

http://firefly.sparse.org/~mrt/cgi-bin/t.cgi?field=www.supervideo.com

I guess they fixed it. It was down a whole day.

I know that many people here also frequent the discussion groups at dv.com. Today I can't even to open the boards at all. They have been unbearably slow for quite some time. During the past week there's been an odd intermittent glitch such that when I click on a topic instead of having it displayed in my browser, instead I get an error message that I'm attempting to download an unknown type of file.

Now I realize that this is a free service that DV provides and therefore it's hard to expect any level of service, but for such a prestigious magazine I find all this rather disgraceful. Especially when you compare it to the exceptional response time I've gotten spoiled with here at DV Info Net Community (thanks Chris! :-)

So I'm just wondering if anyone around here know's what's up at dv.com, or if they even care about the situation? It's really a shame to have such a fantastic magazine, and so many helpful people who would like to use their site but just can't tolerate the problems.

Actually, DV is one of those really unique publications that really get people excited. More than once I've been reading the latest edition at a restaurant or on the train and a total stranger will come up and say "Wow, you're reading DV, what a great magazine", then start a conversation. I can't ever remember experiencing this phenomenon with any other publication. I hope somebody will address their web problems.

But in the meantime, I'm certainly content to just enjoy hanging out with all the great people around here! :-)

Yeah, it's been like that for me, for a while also. I think the whole forum system they use is crap. They need to switch back to something like this, vBulliten, or whatever...and fix the website up and get it on a faster server.

I think that a good measure of nation's culture wuold be a ratio of commercial film to art film box office revenues. I wonder if anyone knows of someone tracking such trends for various world markets and how does US compare to other countries?

Total projections (eventually reached figures) in millions of dollars for top movies playing this weekend:

Matrix Reloaded (Warner)
$340 m - $345 m

Baby Day Care (Sony)
$118 m - $123 m

X2 (Fox)
$215 m - $220 m

Down with Love (Fox)
$25 m - $30 m

Lizzie McGuire (Disney)
$40 m - $45 m

Anger Management (Sony)
$135 m - $140 m

Identity (Sony)
$50 m - $55 m

Holes (Disney)
$60 m - $65 m

In comparison Spider Man (Sony) made a total of 405 million in the US. Matrix 2 (Warner) will come close to this figure.

I wouldn't pay a dime to see em all.

Matrix Reloaded was worth at least a dime, if only for the visual effects.

romance, suspense, or fun -- or a combination

artistic cinematography and sound effects and music for accent and emotion. Well balanced combination can evoke semi-hypnotic state in the audience. When that happens, you can be sure that you made a good film. These are the movies that people get hooked on and want to see again.

good story with only as much dialogue as necessary

dynamics, not just same pace throughout the picture

good acting

large screen, proper watching distance for that particular type of picture, quality sound and proper sound level

Some examples of good commercial pictures that had the proper ingredients: Enemy at The Gates, Born Identity, Shining; to a great extent also Streets of Fire, XXX, etc., etc.

Camera work on a good film must resemble camera work on a good music video. The camera that moves, the lights that flash, and good music, can create this semi-hypnotic effect.

When making any kind of video, you should use as much of these ingredients as you can. When ti comes to sound, you don't need surround sound; good stereo sound will do fine.

I've been watching the History Channel special on the Tsars tonight, and noticed something which I've seen in other places recently. It appears to have been shot in 16:9 widescreen, however when they letterbox it for regular 4:3 broadcast they don't show the full frame. There's just a slight black band at the top and bottom of the screen. I think I've seen this called 14:9. Just curious as to the rationale for this? Seems like they want to go widescreen but wimp out, thinking that Joe Sixpack doesn't like letterboxed video.

I realize that letterboxing is one of those topics that elicits strong negative reactions from some people. Personally I much prefer seeing the original composition that the cinematographer (or videographer) chose, and don't mind the black bands. The only channels which seem at all commited to presenting movies in their original format seem to be Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and sometimes the Sci-Fi channel. It's big disappointment that American Movie Classics (AMC) runs all their stuff as pan and scan 4:3, and also Bravo, which shows many of the "arty" classics does the same.

Maybe we'll just have to wait a few more years for HDTV to get affordable. However that won't even solve the problem of 2.35:1 which would still need to be letterboxed.

14:9 is very popular in England. It was introduced as a middle
road for everyone. This way your 16:9 widescreen TV can display
it as 16:9 chopping of a small bit and on a standard 4:3 TV you
don't get as much black bars.... There was a document somewhere
about this

Hey, the "Errors and Ommisions" office really dropped the ball on "Bruce Almighty". Apparently God's phone number in the film has a common exchange prefix instead of the usual 555 that they give fictitious movie phone numbers.

Several people are getting constant calls!

Can't figure out how that one got by the director, let alone E&O.

Funny indeed.... Perhaps there is a story on the internet somewhere
about this?

I did a Google news search for "bruce almighty" "gods phone number" and got 135 articles! Apparently folks in phone exchanges from all over the country have been discovered that they have "god's number" and have been receiving lots of phone calls. Here is one of the articles:

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/58235.htm

At 2:30 CST my wife , son & I will be at the Ford Center for performing arts in Oxford,Ms to see the great Merle Haggard. My son is 8 yrs old and loves Merle. I have introduced him to all genre's of music from the time he was born. At 8 yrs old I'm glad to see that some of his favorite are the likes of Merle, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and assorted bluegrass artist. Oh he just discovered ZZ TOP. Anyway this should be a great concert. The Ford Center is a new facility and seats about 2K.

Merle Haggard! Boy...just hearing that name floods me with memories...and makes me want to grab a beer.

Enjoy your concert. Come back and tell us how it was. And tell your son he's got fine taste in music.

Hello,
A question for everyone with a website, who did you go with to host? Right now I was looking at Dotster.com, Powweb.com and Emegaweb.net. I'm just looking for a reliable place. Thanks.

matt

<<<-- Originally posted by Matt Betea : Hello,
A question for everyone with a website, who did you go with to host? Right now I was looking at Dotster.com, Powweb.com and Emegaweb.net. I'm just looking for a reliable place. Thanks.

matt -->>>

It really comes down to what you are going to do with it. If you plan on streaming video, you should look at a provider who supports this - i.e. high bandwidth allocation.

What will you be using the site for? Based on that I can make some recommendations.

Sorry, I should've mentioned it in the first post. Nothing streaming for now. It'll be a flash site to host photos. I registered a domain with dotster for 2 years, so now I just need the space. Thank you.

matt

This is a not so recent article, but I just stumbled across it in the last day or 2......

http://amo.net/NT/02-21-01FPS.html

Very interesting article, Dan. Thanks for passing that along to us.

Cinegear Expo: Sony CineAlta was everywhere. Whoever was demonstarting their products, it was in conjunction with Sony CineAlta. Some were naturally privately labeled, like Panavision, etc. I would say that there were about 60 of them there. I saw something like 4 Thomson Vipers and about 3 Panasonic Varicams. Panasonic had a booth there. Sony did not. Sony did not have a booth at the High Def Expo either but everyone demonstrated their products with CineAlta. Varicam was in the Panasonic booth only.

There was also display at the Cinegear Expo of an English made prototpe of 16 mm camera, where instead of the film magazine you could install an HD back with nice flip out screen. It was made in cooperation with Ikagami and is made to feed HD arrays. The CCD is 2/3". Production should start this year.

Does anyone know (for a fact) or during the show have heard someone say if royalties are paid for the songs the contestants are singing.

Count on it. It's not just a good idea... it's the law.

Recently I was able to watch Jean Luc Godards 'Contempt'. I was impressed with his use of Camera movement and the long continuous takes. Things you don't normally see anymore. This is a movie about making movies. Based on the comentaries about the film, he felt he had sold out somewhat when he made it.

So he paid his producers back without them realizing it. Even his use of color spoke about the multinational team financing the movie, and how he was forced to cast Briget Bardot to get financing. Mix in some direct attacks on facism and hollywood style movie making, and you have an excellent satirical film.

Any comments about the visual aspects of the film from some of the cinemetagraphers that hang around here would be appreciated.

TiVo, the manufacturer of personal recording devices for television, has revealed it will soon report the viewing habits of its subscribers to advertisers and network programmers.

Under the new plan, TiVo will tell advertisers which commercials its subscribers watched in their entirety during an episode of a comedy, such as "Friends".

The new audience measurement system ? capable of creating a second-by-second viewing record ? represents a potential new revenue stream for TiVo, a company that?s trying to remake itself into a media services company. The new data service would represent income beyond TiVo?s standard monthly subscriber fees.


TiVo currently allows its subscribers to opt-out of the monitoring of their viewing habits. However, a TiVo spokesman told Reuters that most do not do so. Under the new plan, TiVo will tell advertisers which commercials its subscribers watched in their entirety during an episode of a comedy, such as "Friends." It can, for example, also inform "Friends" producers of how many viewers changed the channel when a particular character entered an episode.


TiVo has targeted a viewing sample of one million subscribers by early 2004.

Maybe Orwell was right?

Looking for an online forum for placing casting notices in Vancouver. Do any Vancouverites know of the biggest/best ones?

... and I was wondering if there's any possibility I could visit a real production set and observe (I do have broadcasting experience but I don't think anyone would trust me). I've never been on a real motion picture set before (or a network TV show). I think it'd be a tremendous learning experience.

Are there any connections out there?...

I could go to a beach somewhere and soak up the rays and fine ladies.... but it really ain't all that productive. :)

ooo I just noticed I'm a 'trustee' now, wohoo!

Hi!

For a friend (young talented lad) I am looking for a good (stills) photography academy in the English language, in the US or UK.
Any tips? Know about prices?

Thanks,

Dan.

Dan

I wrote you a rather detailed response and then my computer crashed...before I had posted, so.....check these three out

http://www.brooks.edu/

http://www.artcenter.edu/

http://www.rit.edu/

They are all highly recognized for their photo programs...If I had to do it all over again, I would probably choose Art Center because of the level of students and the variety of creative disciplines that are offered (and cross pollenated).

Barry

Hey Everyone.

Just wanted to say Happy Fathers Day to those dad's of ours out there.

THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE FOR US!
(my dad too...)

- Aaron

<<This is a continued thread from "Lady X" that got a bit off track...onto the subject of using frames in web sites.>>

Basically, it surprises me how people are so anti-frames. They're really useful for doing one thing...controlling flow. Imagine telling all your friends to stop by your house any time...but only one or two uses the front door. All the rest climb through windows, back doors, through the chimney...just wherever they can get in. And when they get in they don't see everything--just what they want to see. The guy who climbed in the back bedroom window doesn't even know about your prize Lion fish collection in the den, because he never took the full tour of the house (the Lion fish are visible when entering the front door).

Non-frame sites are great for "hit and run" visitors...where "info" is the main content and by having non-frames you can catalog and archive that info, search for it, and have people access it directly...rather than going through a series of clicks to get to that info. "News" sites...and sites like "DVInfo.net" that are crammed full of info are great for non-frames design.

But in a site where you want people to at least see the full menu of what's inside, especially in a "gallery" type of site (not an archive site), then having everyone come in through the front door increases those odds.

As for the Lady X site, I didn't want a situation where the family and friends of a certain filmmaker go to the direct link for his/her episode page, then ignore the other filmmaker's pages. By coming to the front page, they at least see the long list and are perhaps motivated to watch other episodes.

So if you need controlled flow, using frames (or Flash...which is also based on a frames priniciple) is a good way to do it.

Just recommending to web developers out there not to rule out the use of frames.

I feel there are several reasons for frames, some you have touched on.
1, Branding- Your logo, name, whatever, is always poised right where they will see it.

2, Easy menu- It's also always right there.

3, Design possibilities- I have done some really cool, yet highly fuctional sites in frames, none of them were "Run of the mill".

4, You decide what gets seen on the front page, whether they want to see some other page or not. Instead of missing relevent info by jumping into the middle of the mix, they get to see the whole bill of fare.

5, Individual pages load faster when they don't have to keep loading the same stuff over and over.

i agree frames are great for info sites, but a pain to deal with when working with datadriven sites, so biggies like cnn, nytimes don't use them...

Thanks Barry!

They look real good on the web. I have passed the info on!

Dan.

There is an email circulating from a fictitious Best Buy Fraud Department. It tells you your credit card information has been stolen, and you need to go to their secure website to verify your card information. You can read the handwriting on the wall for that one. Best Buy confirms that this is a scam. Don't go there.

Thank you for the warning, Harry!

Hey All,

I have a few questions about doing 3d work.

1. Is it possible to take an object from either lightwave or 3dstudiomax into after effects and do all your animating in after effects using 3d layer tools?

2. I need to create 2 things for a uni project, the first one is like a view of brain nuetrons firing off and those tree light structures when you delve deep into a cell, king like this

http://www.jackals-forge.com/bodystory/b_first_render_of_in_situ_brian.jpg

The second bit is more of the simple circular look of a cell when not as closely magnified... like this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1930000/images/_1931397_cell300.jpg

And i need them to be spliting them swarming around, like a comets tail.

Now, for this project it really only requires that these look monocromatic, kinda like when you look through the magnifier... but probably with a blueish tinge to it instead of straight grey scale, but with a very high level of detail, photo realistic.

How ambitious is it to create something like this, are these super super difficult things to model then animate?

There is only around 10 seconds of the video where these will be upclose and very visable, as they start to multiply they will move further back from the active camera.

Anyways thanks for your help.

I have access to either 3dsmax or lightwave... but i am only really confident with animating cameras and views with after effects, so it would be 1000x easier if i could pop these models into after effects and do them in there. Alsa compositing these are say alpha or chroma mattes or similar could actually create more work for me than just doing all the movement, keyframes and camera moves in after effects.

Anyways..

Zac

I don't think the first one is possible, but more progress has been
made in exchange. I have read some things on this somewhere
once, but have forgotten where.

Usually what you do is one of the following things:

1. export a frame sequence for the 3D effect and have this sequence
on a polygon or background in a 3D package (very easy to do
in LightWave!). Then in the package you create and integrate
the 3D effect in/over the footage and render it back out as a
movie/image sequence.

2. render your effect with an alpha channel so that it can be
composited back into your footage in something like AE

We'll gang, I'm off. In a few hours I leave for a 30 day trip across American and eastern Canada. I am hoping to shoot about the small off beat attractions on the side of the road, grave yards, and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

You guys have been a grat help helping me choose my gear. When I come hope I'll let you know how things went.

If I can get to a computer on the road, I'll let you know how it is coming.

Thanks to all and talk to you soon.

B&H switched to UPS for shipping. The scourge of international shipping with their rediculously high brokerage (and other fees).

It's so very hard to find a good Vinten dealer, now my #1 choice won't save me much money afterall....

but you cant argue with thier products

Sorry for having to resort to this, but all of a sudden that some more people seen a video of mine, they want to do a video with me. They want to do it this weekend, and I am all cool with that, but I told them to get a good idea first, and write it out, but it seems everyone is broke on ideas.

Anyone care to help out? (Mark Moore, didn't you mention you had some good ideas that you would share over email or something?)

Whatever it is, it needs to be stupid, but funny. It also has to be something that we can easally do with no budget or anything, so we can't like blow up a building or anything like that. The reason I put that last stupid video I did online (instead of keeping it to put it on a future hour long video I hope to put together) was because it wasn't really funny.


Thanks.