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.
Just eight days ago we posted an article about the end of Casey Neistat's daily vlog run, where he had amassed billions of views and a huge audience of followers. Now today, news is spreading about his next project: to create a new media brand that creates digital content for millenial audiences for CNN.
The National Park Service in the United States is one of the few organizations to have made clear policies regarding the use of drones, or small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS) on their property. Yet some people continue to ignore these rules, and it’s only going to make things harder for the rest of us if this trend continues.
Everybody's favorite rocket engineer and slow-motion video enthusiast, Destin Sandlin, is back with a pair of videos that you'll find interesting if you've ever noticed the effects of a rolling shutter while filming video. Like many of us, Sandlin noticed the weird effect that happens when trying to film engine propellers with his iPhone. He decided to use a high-speed camera and science to figure out exactly what was happening. Then for fun, he worked with a friend and figured out a way to use After Effects to create a simulation of the rolling shutter effect.
Who's a good boy?! For around 45 years, William Wegman has been working with canine companions and exploring all of the peculiar possibilities that come to his mind. With a studio, lots of props, and a playful disposition, Wegman has crafted a career the revolves around man's best friend.
If you have been to any sort of performance in the last few years, I think you'll recognize some of the people in this commercial. Crowds who take pictures with their smart phones, holding them up to reveal a sea of illuminated rectangles, often distracting an artist or blocking the views of others. This commercial takes this issue to an unreal level, but it's actually not that far off.
Known for their industry leading camera sliders and portable jibs, Kessler continues to innovate by creating useful products for filmmakers. Their latest creation is called the Parallax, and in this video, Eric Kessler demonstrates how it works to create a motor-less, controlled panning action on your existing slider. This can make a move where during your camera's horizontal move, the head pans to stay with its subject.
In a fun and unique approach that combines many different facets of art and multimedia, production group CanCanClub out of Buenos Aires worked with Antonio Balseiro from Gazz and 1st Ave Machine, Art Director Hernán Aragunde, and the crew from Nintendo to create a 30-second commercial for "Paper Mario Sticker Star." In this first of two behind the scenes videos, you catch a peek at the live action video shot,
Created by David Breashears this past spring, this gigapixel image shows some incredible detail of the Everest and Khumbu areas. If you look in the lower center, you can see the sprawl of Everest base camp, with the Khumbu Glacier icefall curving from just above the basecamp up towards the mountains. Apart from being visually stunning, images like these could prove useful for expedition planning, given their immense detail. Via GlacierWorks.
Preston Kanak has released another highly informative video, this one on the subject of capturing successful day to night timelapses. In this long video, he covers different methods for achieving good results, such as bulb ramping, aperture priority, or blending it in post. Each of these methods is a bit different, and Preston shares many tips along way while showing plenty of examples.
A while ago we posted the video Dream Music Part 2, which has since blown up and become a huge hit online. Marc Donahue, one of the co-creators along with Sean Michael Williams, shot me a link to their behind the scenes reel, which shows timelapses of timelapses, using various setups with their Dynamic Perception Dolly kit.
What do you do when the product you are trying to sell is an entire state? When that state is Colorado, it's not hard to find majestic scenery to showcase the state in it's grandeur. Director Tim Kemple, in collaboration with Forge Motion and Karsh/Hagan, crafted a series of spots for the state of Colorado, all being set to music by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. This making-of video takes you through their process of crafting these ads. Click on the full post for a few of the final commercials.
Shane Hurlbut was asked by Canon to produce a short film with the new Canon 1D-C. This past week at NAB he debuted this short, "The Ticket" in full 4K glory. Shane sings the cameras praises, and is equally impressed by the simplicity in it's workflow, which he discusses in his blog post here. Hit the jump for the short film and tell me what you think of the quality. It's hard to tell just how high quality it is on the web, but I think it looks impressive nonetheless!
We’ve featured slow motion videos before, and this one is right up there with the best in terms of it’s motion rendering. Shooting with a $500 Canon 550D/T2i, Sacha Powell put together this powerful video using Twixtor to slow down some of his shots. It really goes to show that you don’t need the most expensive gear to make amazing visuals. You'll want to watch this fullscreen.
Red Giant, the plugin supergroup that is responsible for filter packs like Magic Bullet Looks, Trapcode, and PluralEyes, has recently announced a new plugin model, Universe, where new and updated filters will be provided to members at low to no cost. If you're a motion graphics designer, or love sweetening your video edits with funky filters, check out the video and see if Universe is for you.
Corey Rich's work spans both photography and video, often using Nikon DSLRs to capture both. His projects take him to hard to reach places, and being able to manage his gear in both modes quickly, enables him to come away with great images. In this video, Corey explains his choices for gear and shooting style on a climbing trip in Pakistan.