Feature: By Iyke Iheukwumere

Assimilate Scratch - A Workhorse in television and feature Post

Assimilate Scratch over the years has become a trusted tool, used for everything from on-set DIT to digital intermediate and finishing. One of the industries where scratch is being heavily used is VFX, and this is in part due to scratch's open support for xml scripting, which allows most VFX post houses to build their entire pipeline around scratch. One of such VFX houses is FuseFX, where I worked as a VFX editor for almost three years, working on various television shows such as The Blacklist, American Horror Story, Agents Of Shield, Luke Cage and feature films such as American Made, The Purge (Election Year). Read More

Both Virtual Reality (VR) 360 and 3D have the power to engage audiences in the action and emotion of a film narrative or performance, but combine the two together and you can create a compelling and highly immersive experience that brings the audience directly into the "reality" of the scenes. This is exactly what film producers and directors Fred Beahm, www.fredbeahm.com, and Bogdan Darev, www.bogdandarev.com, have done in "The Cabiri: Anubis", a 3D/360VR film, now showing at the Seattle International Film Festival's (SIFF) VR Zone, www.siff.net, on May 18 through June 10. Read More

Interview:

Shooting the "Devil's Tree" with DP Anthony Dones and URSA Mini 4.6K

When you have to put an actual warning message on your film's site telling people not to actually go to the places in the film, you know you are dealing with a truly scary horror film. Today we are speaking with Anthony Dones, a Miami based DP who has produced content for national television, corporate/commercial work, music videos and a now growing list of feature films. We reached out to him to discuss his recent work as cinematographer on "Devil's Tree, Rooted Evil" a horror film shot exclusively on the URSA Mini 4.6k. Read More

Project Profile:

Stop, Collaborate and Listen: A Stop Motion Team Effort Brings "Two Balloons" to Life

Led by Director and Writer Mark C. Smith, a dedicated group of filmmakers from Portland, OR created a visually stunning stop-motion short that follows two intrepid lemurs and their adventures in the sky. "Two Balloons," which originally wasn't conceived as stop motion, took four years to complete and had many twists and turns along the way. The team spent 16 months storyboarding, building sets and securing space in a warehouse, and then started shooting. Read More

Business Issues: By Miles Weston

Content Insider #570 - Awards, Profits

Hollywood lived for their award galas. You know the red carpet, beautiful people, breathtaking dresses, dashing dudes. The awards almost guaranteed good ticket sales. But with more companies focusing on the bottomline and the thousands of new streaming opportunities out there, there's more interest in getting recognition where it counts...in the bank. Sure indie filmmakers still attend the myriad of film festivals hoping for a prize but a check from someone who wants the content for their library is a little more important. Subscribers have an unquenchable thirst for new, original content. Even in the visual content industry it's all about supply and demand. And demand is great! Read More

Feature: By Kevin Gardner

4 Ways to Make Your Website Relevant

Perhaps you've used a website to drive your business results. The rapid advances of website functionality and designs have brought new expectations to web visitors. These features and expectations have fueled the growth of digital enterprises. However, it has become essential for online retailers to respond to customer expectations effectively. You don't have to rebuild your website every 12 months, but regular updates, layout improvements, and minor tweaks can go a long way to increase your website traffic. Your website's needs and functionality will keep changing to respond to your visitors' expectations. Here are a few tips to make your website relevant throughout its lifetime. Read More

Project Profile: By Miles Weston

Hard Edge Drama

Lots of filmmakers grew up in innocent times in innocent areas of the world but sometimes going back is a lot different from what existed in your memories. Read More

Case Study: By Miles Weston

Island Time

FoR stays focused on having the right tools, the right storage to deliver new ad spot for Jamaica in a Bottle... Read More

Product Preview: By Miles Weston

Content Insider #568 - Pure Mission

Everyone who attended NAB this year was on a mission. A mission to create the best content, a mission to deliver content to the right audience, a mission to produce great films for device and theatre viewing. We'll start by discussing some of the best solutions for some of the creative people we know - shooters, production/post folks. And there was plenty of new products, new services, new features announced at the show to get a filmmakers motor running this year. And again SuperMeet was fun, insane and informative. Shoot it, produce it, store it. Then? Sell it. It's all good and getting better! Read More

Events: By Ko Maruyama

NAB's future imagination

Andy Marken summarizes some of the ideas from this year's NAB, including what some are predicting for film and television into 2021. While there are certainly hurdles for how producers will get there, visual consumption is definitely rising Read More

Feature: By Ko Maruyama

REVision FX's new tools

360 video production is quickly becoming part of your post production workflow, but there may be tools that you rely on in your 2D pipeline which weren't available until now. REVision FX has made both Twixtor and RSMB support 360 footage. RealSmart Motion Blur is a favorite in many pipelines, and now can be part of your 360 compositing as well. Read More

Technology: By Miles Weston

Logging Data

Shooting great content is the rule by which you're measured but being able to find just the right images and segment is even more important and it needs to be fast, accurate and automated Read More

Feature:

Traveling Back to the 1950s with "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"

The new hit show from Amy Sherman-Palladino ("Gilmore Girls") and Daniel Palladino ("Family Guy") takes viewers back to 1958 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when life abruptly changes for Miriam "Midge" Maisel after her husband leaves her. Breaking the mold and trying stand-up comedy quickly lands Midge in jail, while also landing her a lot of laughs. Visual effects (VFX) veteran Lesley Robson-Foster ("Logan Lucky," "The Great Gatsby") joined the streaming series as VFX Supervisor. Robson-Foster and her team used a Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro digital film camera to shoot B roll, establishing shots and VFX plates for the series. Read More