Mike Wilkinson is an award-winning video director with his company Wilkinson Visual, currently based out of Lexington, Kentucky. Mike has been working in production for over 10 years as a shooter, editor, and producer. His passion lies in outdoor adventures, documentary filmmaking, photography, and locally-sourced food and beer.
As a freelancer, I find myself taking on different roles in both production and post. I can do some modest animations, but any major work, I outsource to an animator. With plugins like the Trapcode Suite though, even a simpleton like me can make some eye-catching graphics.
Where we’re going, we don’t have roads. The North Face sent photographer Celin Serbo on assignment to an area near Canyonlands National Park to capture stills of Alex Honnold, Daniel Woods, and Matt Segal establishing new climbs in a place called Labyrinth Canyon. In this post, Celin reveals the challenges of shooting a 10 day expedition, and shares his amazing images.
Excuse me while I pick up the brain fragments scattered across my office. In the last few months, there have posts and chatter about raw video recording being enabled in Canon's popular DSLR through new developments in Magic Lantern's firmware. It appeared to be only useful in bursts of less than a second, but now news is coming out now that they have unlocked the ability to record, without issue, continuous raw video at 24fps.
This isn't the first time Air New Zealand has made waves across the internet. While their previous safety video featured hobbits, elves, and wizards in a Lord of the Rings inspired piece, this new video features wilderness survival talent Bear Grylls. In this behind the scenes video, you can get a closer look at the conditions and locations the crew had to work around, while having a fun time even while trying to keep warm on the mountaintop. Check the BTS, then click on for the final video!
Australian Fashion and Commercial Photographer Peter Coulson with Arterium Creations put together this video from one of his fashion shoots in Melbourne. Not your typical studio setup, Peter is out with his crew shooting in the open streets, complete with the public watching and potentially ruining some of his shots. See as he works with his model and they have a great time creating some stunning street-fashion images.
Vimeo recently rolled out a Tip Jar feature for it’s content creators, where you can tip a donation to the artist. Coming up next for Vimeo is a Pay-To-View service, where audiences will actually have to pay to watch the video. It’s controlled solely by the creators, but will Vimeo take a cut of the money, like they do with the tip jar?
UPDATE: 24fps firmware update has been released too! Ever since the Wifi BacPac was released, I've been waiting for this iPhone App to drop. This FREE App allows users of the HERO2 (the original HERO is not compatible, sadface) to preview their shot and control the camera's settings, all over WiFi. Eventually it will be able to upload and even stream clips to YouTube. This video was posted before, but it demos the features of this previously unreleased app. Read on for the list of compatible devices!
A few weeks ago we posted an article about the robotic cameras that were being placed at various venues for the 2012 London Olympics. With this video by Lefteris Pitarakis, you can take a closer look at these rigs and how they're operated, and hear from the Associated Press Photographers who are installing and operating these Canon 1DX rigs.
While some apps might say that they can record slow motion, chances are they are using software to blend frames together and interpolated pixels are created to simulate slow motion. This technique often appears stuttery and quite as smooth as a real high-speed frame rate. A new iPhone app called SloPro claims to actually record 60 frames per second on the iPhone 4. The results looks solid, but check it out for yourself. The app is free but will cost you $2 to ditch the watermark.
You may recall that Rob Ashe and his fellow post gurus who work on the Conan O'Brien Show publicly bashed Final Cut X a while back. They've returned with a new video, proclaiming their love for Adobe Premiere, or as Rob refers to it, Final Cut Pro 8. Final Cut X has had several updates since it's initial release, but is it still lacking? Have you made the switch? Are you cutting home movies in 4K?
French outdoorsman Sebastien Montaz-Rosset likes to play in the mountains. He discovered a second passion while there, which was shooting photos and videos. Sebastien has made some amazing pieces, especially for not having any formal training. Check out the videos in the full post to see his unique approach to getting some creative shots for his adventure films.
I recently wrapped up a kickstarter project that was trying to raise $10,000 for the production of a documentary film. During its 30-day run, and weeks of planning that went into it beforehand, I got my own crash course in fundraising and marketing. I’ll share what I learned in this article.
The RagLite LED systems are a product seeking backing on Kickstarter to do a production run of what appear to be LED strips on fabric that can be rolled up, powered by battery, are waterproof, and claim a CRI of 95. With several rewards being offered, including various sizes of their light, they seek to raise about $25,000. Read on for their video and more information on these unique lights.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve got hard drives full of footage from personal or other non-commercial projects, that don’t serve much use once the project they were shot for is completed. I’ve considered trying to license it as stock footage, but never really taken the time to do it. After checking out the site Nimia and interviewing one of their staff however, I decided to give it a try.
With hopes of saving at-risk environments and capturing them before they are gone forever, a team of 15 timelapse artists have decided to join forces and create a feature film. Eric Hines, Michael Shainblum, Drew Geraci, and Joe Capra are just a few of the names on the "CodeX" roster. They are crowdfunding to try and make this project a reality, and I spoke with team member Ben Canales on why this project matters.