JOKER cinematographer Lawrence Sher, ASC and Camera Operator Geoff Haley, SOC join Post|Production World Online as Keynotes!

 

Post|Production World (P|PW) Online gathers international renown designers and editors around the world to share their expertise and real-world experiences through LIVE, interactive video sessions. We are pleased to announce our Keynotes, Lawrence Sher, ASC, and Geoff Haley, SOC, who’ve worked on the Academy Awards winning film, JOKER. They will host an intimate interview to hear how their roles worked together to further the storytelling and the Director’s vision while producing JOKER.

Lawrence Sher is known for his work on Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), The Hangover (2009) and Garden State (2004). Most recently, he worked on the Academy Awards winning film, JOKER, directed by Todd Philips. Geoffrey Haley is known for his work on Furious 7 (2015), American Hustle (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016). He also worked as a camera operator for the films, Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), Avengers Infinity War (2018), and the Academy Awards winning film, JOKER, directed by Todd Philips.

To bring the community together, P|PW Online will also host raffle prizes, interactive happy hour sessions, and small group video rooms for birds-of-a-feather! The ticket is only $299 and registration includes access to stream the session recordings for 120 days post-event!

Register for your pass today!

ZEISS Presents a Live Q&A with DP Matthew Libatique, ASC

Join our partner ZEISS on Friday, May 1, 12:00pm PT

 from the comfort of your own home as they host a Zoom conversation with esteemed Director of Photography Matthew Libatique, ASC.

 They’ll look back at Matthew’s illustrious career spanning over two decades, beginning with his early work with constant collaborator and fellow AFI Alum Darren Aronofsky. 

They’ll talk all things Cinematography, from crafting a visual language to understanding the connective tissue between filmmaking and music. 

Don’t miss the chance to learn from the pro, and ask questions about honing your artistry!

How Do You Sign Up?

This event is being streaming this event on Zoom.  Please download the app then follow these instructions carefully:
• Register below through Eventbrite 
• First 150 people to sign up will be accepted.  Recorded session will be distributed at a later date. 
• A Zoom link will be emailed to ticket holders on the day of the event.

Now, head to their Eventbrite page and secure your spot today!

Get Your Pass for Post|Production World (P|PW) Online

Attend P|PW Online, the live, interactive virtual conference for post-professionals on May 17-19, 2020!

Post|Production World (P|PW) Online is the world’s leading training conference for production & post-production professionals, content creators, designers, TV, film & video editors, producers, directors, motion graphics & online video specialists. This year, NAB Show and FMC are offering P|PW as an online, live & interactive training event to take place May 17 – 19, 2020.

Your space, your pace! P|PW Online will deliver over 100 training sessions on production, post-production, new media, business strategies for creatives during COVID-19 times and vendor-branded topics straight to your home via the Zoom platform. The speaker line-up features FMC’s world-renowned team of post-production experts, certified instructors, and gurus. To bring the community together, P|PW Online will also host raffle prizes, interactive happy hour sessions, and small group video rooms for birds-of-a-feather! The ticket is only $299 and registration includes access to stream the session recordings for 120 days post-event!

Register for your pass today!

Blackmagic Design Announces New Low Price for Pocket Cinema Camera 6K

More affordable price and recent studio camera software makes it even easier to set up high quality home broadcast studios!

Blackmagic Design announced a new lower price for the popular Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K of US$1,995. This is a reduction of $500 which will help make this camera more affordable for users working on digital film as well as live production with the new ATEM Mini switchers. With the current demand for multi camera live streaming from home broadcast studios, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K makes a perfect studio camera when combined with the recent studio camera software update!

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K is available immediately from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide for US$1,995.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera now works as a studio camera for live production when used with ATEM Mini. Video and control is via the HDMI connection, which is available as soon as customers plug the cameras in. The record light becomes a tally light so customers can see which camera is on air. The ATEM Software Control camera page has a camera control unit (CCU) style interface for adjusting and matching their cameras. Move the CCU control vertically for iris and left to right to adjust black level. It’s the same as a broadcast CCU. There are also controls for color tint to balance camera as well as focus, gain and shutter speed. Customers can even ISO record Blackmagic RAW in the camera for editing later.

The elegant design of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera packs an incredible number of high end digital film features into a miniaturized, handheld design. Made from lightweight carbon fiber polycarbonate composite, the camera features a multifunction handgrip with all controls for recording, ISO, WB and shutter angle right at their fingertips.

Featuring a larger 6144 x 3456 Super 35 sensor and EF lens mount, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K model lets customers use larger EF photographic lenses to create cinematic images with shallower depth of field, allowing creative defocussed backgrounds and gorgeous bokeh effects.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras have an incredible 13 stops of dynamic range which means they preserve more detail in the lightest and darkest areas of an image than simple video cameras can. This allows customers to set exposure for an indoor scene and still retain the details of bright outdoor light coming through a window.

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera features built in CFast and SD UHS-II card recorders, and a USB-C expansion port for recording direct to an external media disk. Customers can use regular SD cards for HD or higher performance UHS-II and CFast cards for native 4K or 6K when using Blackmagic RAW. Imagine capturing over an hour of full resolution 6K images on a single 256GB SD UHS-II card. The ProRes and Blackmagic RAW files work with all video software.

Blackmagic RAW is a revolutionary new format designed to capture and preserve the quality of the sensor data from their camera. Video formats such as H.264 are highly compressed, plus add noise and artifacts, causing original sensor detail to be lost forever. Blackmagic RAW eliminates this problem and gives customers stunning images with incredible detail and color throughout the production pipeline from camera to edit, color and mastering. It also saves camera settings as metadata so customers can set ISO, white balance and exposure in camera or override them later while editing, all without any loss of quality. Blackmagic RAW files are also small and fast to use making them easy to work with.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera features a large, bright 5 inch touchscreen that makes it easy for customers to frame shots and accurately focus. The touchscreen displays critical information while users are shooting, menus for setting up the camera and intuitive touch to focus controls. On screen overlays show status, a histogram, focus and peaking indicators, levels, frame guides, playback controls and more.

With the advanced Blackmagic OS, customers get an intuitive and user friendly camera operating system based on the latest technology. The interface uses simple tap and swipe gestures to adjust settings, add metadata and view recording status. Customers also get full control over advanced camera features such as on screen focus and exposure tools, 3D LUTs, HDR, metadata entry, timecode, Blackmagic RAW settings and more.

Both Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera models feature a mini XLR input with 48 volts of phantom power for connecting professional microphones such as lapel mics and booms. The four built in microphones have an extremely low noise floor and are shock and wind resistant, allowing customers to capture great sound in any location. There’s also a 3.5mm audio input for connecting video camera style microphones, along with a built in speaker for playback and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

“We have worked very hard to build this camera at lower cost, and we think even more people will be able to take advantage of this price reduction to move into a more advanced and much higher quality digital film workflow,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “This has become more important with COVID-19. Many broadcasters have been setting up home studios for presenters, which have used ATEM Mini switchers and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras. We think with the recent software updates for switcher control of the Pocket Cinema Cameras from the ATEM Mini switchers, combined with this more affordable price it will greatly help this workflow.”

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Features
• Works as a studio camera when connected to ATEM Mini.
• Designed from carbon fiber polycarbonate composite.
• Wide 13 stops of dynamic range for film looks.
• Built in SD, UHS-II and CFast card recorders.
• Features incredible quality Blackmagic RAW recording.
• Built in 5″ touchscreen allows accurate focus when shooting 6K.
• Blackmagic OS as used in URSA Mini and URSA Broadcast cameras.
• Professional mini XLR input with 48 volt phantom power.

Availability and Price
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K is available now for US$1,995, excluding local duties and taxes, from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.

 

OWC Celebrates Earth Day at 50 With Continued Green Leadership

Tech leader’s newest locations will follow long company tradition of solar panel array installations

OWC®; a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company founded in 1988, and one of the world’s most respected providers of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions and performance upgrade kits, has opened two new facilities and announced that one facility has recently been equipped with the maximum in solar capability and the other will soon be equipped. OWC has always taken an approach of ‘waste not, want not’ in avoiding planned obsolescence, extending the life and performance of existing hardware, and maximizing the benefits of finite resources required to do so. OWC applies the same consideration to resources it utilizes and sees environmental stewardship as the only the right thing to do for future generations. And with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd, OWC is primed to widely expand their green practices with these additional solar power installations coming online that add to already significant solar and wind generation and many other operational aspects that recognize the pricelessness of our environment.

OWC’s Austin, TX team moved into a larger facility late in 2019 and recently had a solar installation consisting of 696 American-made SunPower solar panels installed across their new corporate park. The panels will provide up to 355,000kWh/yr. of power, or 48% of the power used by the buildings in that location. The array was installed in early March, and based upon work from home coronavirus restrictions, will hopefully be inspected and generating power by May.

The OWC service and upgrade team moved from the existing Woodstock, IL headquarters into a newly-renovated 14,000 sq./ft. space this month. The move was necessitated by the requirement for additional room and team members, allowing OWC to expand upon its sales of used Macs and build-outs and servicing of both used Macs and customers’ machines that are sent directly to OWC for repairs and upgrades. The plan for the additional Woodstock facility will include the installation of 154 solar panels. Continuing in OWC’s long tradition of recycling, the current plan is the installation of the panels originally utilized on the roof of OWC’s first Austin location that first went online in 2015.

“Everyone on the team at OWC is proud to take part in making the environment a priority,” said Larry O’Connor, OWC Founder and CEO. “This green mandate OWC has always lived is top-to-bottom, from this business starting as the reuse/re-inking of printer ink ribbons, expanding to giving customers the power to perform their own upgrades and keep their machines running better and longer, to now the recycling, shipping, cleaning, power, and more that every team member participates in at every OWC location. It is exciting to be celebrating Earth Day at 50, and to know that we are all making a difference in the world around us, for the better.”

OWC has a proud history of green power support and generation. A Vestas V39/500 wind turbine went operational at OWC headquarters in Woodstock in October of 2009. OWC quickly became the first manufacturer/distributor in the U.S. to become 100% on-site wind powered. The wind turbine alone in Woodstock generates more power than is consumed at this location, where most of OWC’s team members work, estimated at 265,650kWh/yr. Additional clean power produced by wind and sun is pushed back out onto the local grid. Beyond solar and wind power, OWC currently recycles 97 percent of its solid waste materials and received LEED® Platinum Certification from the Green Building Certification Institute for the headquarters in 2010.

OWC is regularly engaged with environmentally-conscious organizations and artists. Current projects include Kiss the Ground and “Eating Our Way to Extinction”. Kiss the Ground inspires participation around climate, soil, food and the future of Earth itself. The film shows how regenerative agriculture can sequester the carbon from the atmosphere and balance the Earth’s climate in a matter of decades. The “Kiss the Ground Movie” is narrated by Woody Harrelson, features Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Ian Sommerhalder, and Patricia Arquette, all strong advocates for environmental advancements. It has been accepted to the Tribeca Film Festival and will be distributed in the coming months. “Eating Our Way to Extinction” is a cinematic documentary film set to premiere later this year. It focuses on issues around environment, health, compassion, and economics and is one piece of an entire educational plan designed to reduce consumption of food types that lead to increases in greenhouse gases and/or the destruction of natural resources.

OWC is also continuing to work with Jam in the Van, the world’s first and only solar-powered mobile recording studio. Jam in the Van is a robust content workspace, video production house and live event production team. They offer an authentic and engaging space where artists and fans can interact, typically crossing the country visiting top music festivals. During this time, the studio is offering stay-at-home performances from artists that can be seen through their YouTube and other social channels.

OWC has always believed the economic reality is that, with careful planning and a little team effort, sustainability is synonymous with success. The tech leader has always sought to provide customers with products that allow them to maximize the longevity of their technology products and to improve the performance of those products, keeping more electronics out of landfills for a longer period of time. 2020 sees the 50th anniversary of Earth Day; OWC will continue to live every day as Earth Day and encourages others to do so as well.

Color Correction with DaVinci Resolve 16 Class – April 21

Dive into color correction with this hands-on training using the BMD official curriculum which takes you through a series of practical exercises. Below are the dates, registration link, class agenda, and important information for how you should prepare for the upcoming class.

Days/Times:
Apr 21, 2020 10:00 AM
Apr 22, 2020 10:00 AM
Apr 23, 2020 10:00 AM
Apr 24, 2020 10:00 AM

 

Link to register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GkaGXFQmTp2CLGUJPHAzqw

Online class agenda:

Day One
Interface Review
     Color page layout
     Primaries wheels
     Viewer
     Palette panel
Part 1 – Color Correcting a DaVinci Resolve Timeline
Balancing Footage
     Opening a Resolve archive
     Setting up project backups
     Understanding the grading workflow
     Setting tonal range and contrast
     Balancing colors
     Understanding Log controls and Primary Wheels
Creating Color Continuity
     Building a shot-matching strategy
     Organizing shots using flags and filters
     Applying shot match
     Matching shots using stills
     Comparing and matching shots manually

Day Two
Correcting and Enhancing Isolated Areas
     Controlling the viewer’s eye
     Sharpening key elements
     Tracking obscured objects
     Fixing overcast skies
     Warping colors to a target
     Enhancing skin tones with Face Refinement
     Adjusting skin tones manually
Part 2 – Managing Nodes and Grades
Conforming from an XML Timeline
     Importing an XML timeline
     Syncing an offline reference
     Confirming a timeline
     Associating HQ footage with a timeline for online workflows
     Maximizing the Dynamic Range

Day Three
Mastering the Node Pipeline
Understanding node-based compositing
     Understanding the importance of node order
     Creating separate processing pipelines with a Parallel Mixer node
     Visualizing mixer nodes
     Compositing effects with the Layer Mixer node
Managing Grades Across Clips and Timelines
     Copying grades from clips and stills
     Working with local versions
     Appending grades and nodes
     Using shared nodes across multiple clips
     Saving grades for other projects
     Copying timeline grades using ColorTrace
     Copying grades using the Timelines album

Day Four
Part 3 – Optimizing the Grading Workflow
Using Groups
     Preparing media using scene cut detection
     Creating a group
     Applying base grades at pre-clip group level
     Making clip-specific adjustments at the clip group
     Creating a unifying look using the post-clip group Level
     Applying timeline level grades and effects
Adjusting Image Properties
     Understanding timeline resolutions and sizing palette modes
     Using keyframing
     Applying noise reduction
     Optimizing performance with render cache
Setting up RAW Projects
     Adjusting RAW settings at the project level
     Adjusting RAW settings at the clip level
     Using sidecar data
     Setting up a render cache for RAW media projects
Delivering Projects
     Using Lightbox to check timeline prior to delivery
     Understanding the render workflow and presets
     Creating custom renders and saving presets
     Configuring a timeline for digital cinema
     Rendering a DCP
     Using commercial workflow to export versions
     Exploring advanced render settings

To prepare for your upcoming class you will need to:

1. Download training media from the Color Correction with DaVinci Resolve 16 book which is on the Blackmagic Design website: (you will need to scroll down the page a bit) The media is in three parts and will take awhile to download so please download prior to the class.
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/training

2. While on the training page, we recommend you download the book PDF too!
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/training

3. Download DaVinci Resolve 16.2:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/3. Download and install the zoom classroom application for macOS and Windows:
https://zoom.us/download#client_4meeting
(For iPad download the Zoom Cloud meetings app.)

4. For the most optimal experience there are a few things you can do to prepare for the class:
– Set aside a space that has very few distractions where you can focus for a few hours.
– We strongly suggest you have a dual monitor setup or use a laptop or iPad for Zoom and open Resolve on your desktop.
– You’ll want to have headphones to hear the Zoom laptop or tablet.
– If you have questions during the course we please use Zoom’s built-in Q&A to send a message to our co-host.
– Please be sure you have downloaded Resolve 16.2 and the media as mentioned BEFORE the class. This is critical in allowing you to following along with the instructor.

Shutterstock Announces New Footage Subscription for Increased Accessibility to Fresh Content

Faced with challenges to produce high-quality video content at scale, new footage subscription provides content creators with efficient solutions to meet market demands

Shutterstock, Inc. announces the launch of an annual subscription for Shutterstock Footage. Shutterstock’s collection of 18+ million HD and 4K video clips are now available for license through a range of cost-effective monthly plan options or for less than $9 per clip through an annual plan. 

eMarketer recently forecasted that US adults will spend 108 minutes per day with digital video in 2020 and this number will increase to just under 2 hours by 2021, further highlighting the need for fresh video content. The new footage subscription is geared toward digital content creators, including video editors, freelancers, and social media managers, who need more flexibility while still accessing a breadth of high-quality, diverse and authentic content. 

“Producing a video shoot can be costly and challenging, particularly in situations where production and location-based shoots are restricted, as they are now. Film producers, video editors and marketers have always leveraged our footage to deliver both continuity in a scene, as well as entire video narratives, but with the additional recent challenges of social distancing guidelines and restrictions on gatherings, today’s producers are looking for flexible resources to help them deliver on projects,” said Jamie Elden, CRO at Shutterstock. “With video consumption trends increasing now more than ever, the market needs to quickly and easily access fresh, relevant and affordable content.”

Shutterstock adds more than 75,000 HD and 4K clips every day, providing customers with an ever-current collection. Additionally, the advanced search capabilities including search by Frames Per Second (FPS), duration, resolution, or category, enable video creators, editors and marketers to quickly find what they’re looking for. 

New footage pricing options include the ability to choose from 10 or 20 clips a month, with annual upfront, annual monthly, and month-to-month billing options available. Learn more about the new pricing options here. 

Enter the Safer At Home Film Festival!

Our friends at @blackmagiccollective are holding a film contest that we through you might want to join! You can win $500 or a seat of Davinci Resolve! See the link below for more, or just go to BlackmagicCollective.com and select Safer At Home under the Festivals menu!

https://www.blackmagiccollective.com/safer-at-home/

 

 

 

 

Get to Great Faster with Premiere Pro and the Adobe Apps – April 14-17th, 2020

Adobe Video Livestream Series with Jason Levine and special guests, April 14 – 17, 2020

It’s a little different this year, without the NAB buzz we’re all used to, on the show floor and in the news. While we can’t travel to tradeshows these days, we can still connect with each other. Starting at 9:30am PT on April 14th, Adobe is presenting a special video livestream series on Premiere Pro and the Adobe video/audio apps.

They’ll be looking at tools, case studies, and workflows (local and remote) that help you get to great faster. Join Adobe evangelist Jason Levine, product team members, and inspiring content creators for engaging demos, discussion, and live Q&A.

See the full schedule at: https://theblog.adobe.com/get-to-great-faster