I had a great day today! It started at Continental, the film to video transfer house. We transferred all of the film we shot this month, including the sunrise/sunset shoot, the interior and exterior tests, and the two film projects. They had some really nice color correction gear and it was amazing to see the different looks which could be achieved. Between transfers we were lucky enough to get a tour of the facility, which included the enormous developing tanks and chemical mixing rooms.
Back at Full Sail I helped set up the DLP projector (a very nice, VERY high end projection system) with the HD deck. The students showed up around 6:00 and we viewed the footage. For the most part it looked very nice. The best shots came from the HD sunset scene; the HD footage looked amazing! Easily rivaling the film. The reason it looked the best, was that the digital projection system favored digital footage. If we had been projecting a film print as well, it might be a different story.
2/22/2006
2/21/2006
Has anyone noticed the alarming new trend of customized stickers with children's names and extracurricular activities? If you haven't, just check the back of the largest, most obnoxious SUV or mini-van you can find. I don't understand this crap. It's like when pilots mark their kills on the side of the plane. Except, instead of dead people, it's children. Do they think we should reward them for having kids? Be proud of their children's extracurricular activities? Drive more carefully around them? I don't know about you, but whenever I see one of these mobile fertility billboards I run them right off the road!
2/18/2006
2/14/2006
Happy Valentines day everyone. I hope y'all had a good time.
Emily and I certainly did... The Healthy Chef (a local chef who specializes in health cuisine, duh) occasionally holds cooking classes, and tonight was one of those nights. It was a special Valentines day version, of course, and we were in attendance. We made wild salmon with cabbage, a tomato based sauce and mushroom duxelle. Dinner was accompanied by wine, stuffed mushrooms, sesame bread, and caesar salad. Dessert was bananas foster. Needless to say, it was great!
We got two new lab assistants at Full Sale, bringing the total number (including myself) to four. Right now two lab assistants are adequate, however in the coming months class sizes are going to double, triple or even quadruple. We have mainly been shooting tests in class to determine the differences between film and HD. For example, yesterday we shot an outdoor scene which included a color chart, sky, trees, and a person. We will be checking the response of the two different systems across the full spectrum of f-stops. Tomorrow we will be shooting a similar test indoors, using different film stocks. The HD cameras stack up surprisingly well against film. Especially when you thing about the flexibility of changing the look of the scene within the camera, rather than using different stocks. Additionally we can play back the HD footage immediately, without having to wait for the film to be processed and transfered.
Technobabble aside, I'm having a great time at work and things are starting to take a turn for the better!
Emily and I certainly did... The Healthy Chef (a local chef who specializes in health cuisine, duh) occasionally holds cooking classes, and tonight was one of those nights. It was a special Valentines day version, of course, and we were in attendance. We made wild salmon with cabbage, a tomato based sauce and mushroom duxelle. Dinner was accompanied by wine, stuffed mushrooms, sesame bread, and caesar salad. Dessert was bananas foster. Needless to say, it was great!
We got two new lab assistants at Full Sale, bringing the total number (including myself) to four. Right now two lab assistants are adequate, however in the coming months class sizes are going to double, triple or even quadruple. We have mainly been shooting tests in class to determine the differences between film and HD. For example, yesterday we shot an outdoor scene which included a color chart, sky, trees, and a person. We will be checking the response of the two different systems across the full spectrum of f-stops. Tomorrow we will be shooting a similar test indoors, using different film stocks. The HD cameras stack up surprisingly well against film. Especially when you thing about the flexibility of changing the look of the scene within the camera, rather than using different stocks. Additionally we can play back the HD footage immediately, without having to wait for the film to be processed and transfered.
Technobabble aside, I'm having a great time at work and things are starting to take a turn for the better!
2/09/2006
I walked in to the closet last night to find Turtle curled up in Emily's sock drawer. It was so damn cute I had to take a picture.
I know all of my pictures are of my pets, but get over it they're cute.
Did I tell you we got a new friend for Morty?!?! Her name is Prissy and she is very sweet. Morty has been like a whole different sugarglider since we got her. He is so happy, and so are we!
2/03/2006
So, I have survived my first week as an instructor. It's actually a really cool job. The hours are crazy - some days I end work at 1:00 am, other days I start at 4:00 am - but most of the time the hours are pretty normal. And I don't even have to work full days. I pretty much just come and go as I please.
My main responsibility is to learn and teach the Sony Cinealta HD camera. That's right, the same High Definition camera used to shoot many new feature films, including the latest episodes of Star Wars. The camera is not as difficult as I thought, a bit quirky though. I was expecting the kids to be a bunch of brats (based on what I had heard about Full Sail students), but they are actually not bad. Yeah, some of them pay 30K per year to sit in the back of the room playing on their laptops, but most of them appear at least somewhat interested in the class. That reminds me, I never actually told you what the class was about. The truth is that I didn't even know what the class was about until Tuesday or Wednesday. It's a cinematography class. We are going to be going through all aspects of cinematography including lighting, using the 35mm and HD cameras, creating a mood, using light to tell the story, etc.
Damn it, for some reason my stupid computer keeps shocking me if my wrists touch the side of the computer or if my hands touch the track pad. This sucks. I have to type with my arms all up in the air and only my fingers touching the computer.
Oh, and I was wrong about the new gear. They HAVE two HD cameras and two 35mm film cameras, but they aren't buying new ones for the class. Furthermore, they spent the money for these cameras, but they forgot to buy all the necessary accessories (power cords, batteries, tripods, filter holders, etc). Now they are scrambling to find a rental house where we can get the stuff we need.
My main responsibility is to learn and teach the Sony Cinealta HD camera. That's right, the same High Definition camera used to shoot many new feature films, including the latest episodes of Star Wars. The camera is not as difficult as I thought, a bit quirky though. I was expecting the kids to be a bunch of brats (based on what I had heard about Full Sail students), but they are actually not bad. Yeah, some of them pay 30K per year to sit in the back of the room playing on their laptops, but most of them appear at least somewhat interested in the class. That reminds me, I never actually told you what the class was about. The truth is that I didn't even know what the class was about until Tuesday or Wednesday. It's a cinematography class. We are going to be going through all aspects of cinematography including lighting, using the 35mm and HD cameras, creating a mood, using light to tell the story, etc.
Damn it, for some reason my stupid computer keeps shocking me if my wrists touch the side of the computer or if my hands touch the track pad. This sucks. I have to type with my arms all up in the air and only my fingers touching the computer.
Oh, and I was wrong about the new gear. They HAVE two HD cameras and two 35mm film cameras, but they aren't buying new ones for the class. Furthermore, they spent the money for these cameras, but they forgot to buy all the necessary accessories (power cords, batteries, tripods, filter holders, etc). Now they are scrambling to find a rental house where we can get the stuff we need.
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