Updates from March, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Alex Ricciardi 1:12 pm on March 14, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , gaspar noe, music video   

    SebastiAn’s Love in Motion, directed by Gaspar Noé 

    Endless Picnic recently collaborated with director Gaspar Noé on his latest music video, for SebastiAn’s Love in Motion. Greyshack Films produced the video, and I edited and color corrected it. The excellent After Effects artist Nick Vranizan was also a part of the team.

    And if you know the legendary Argentinian-born French filmmaker Noe’s work, you won’t be surprised to learn that the video has already garnered some controversy. It’s been taken down from YouTube four or five times and prompted some truly heated comments. So see for yourself what the fuss is about, and tell us what you think…if the video hasn’t been taken down again, that is!


    SebastiAn – Love in Motion (Directed by Gaspar… by Flixgr

     

    • Ron Egozi 7:28 pm on March 15, 2012 Permalink

      The video’s an excellent reflection of teen dreams and pop culture that inspires those dreams.

  • Alex Ricciardi 1:52 pm on December 9, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , ,   

    ‘East of Broadway’ 5D to 35mm Film-out Test: Part Two – Post 

    As Dave’s earlier blog post will tell you, shooting camera tests for a feature film is no easy job. While I was kicking back in the editing suite with a latte and a stack of comic books, Dave & his crew were out beating the streets, putting the 5D through its paces to see if it could survive the demands of shooting a gritty feature film on location in NYC.

    I was very excited to see the results, and I’m sure you are too–so without further ado, take a look at the test shoots. I’ll be going into all of the tests in more detail right below.

    Now, I know there’s a lot to unpack there, so let’s start at the beginning:

    LENS COMPARISON TESTS (More …)

     

    • eco_bach 4:49 pm on December 12, 2011 Permalink

      interesting and thanks for posting. Have you considered also considering Jorgen Escher’s latest Marvel’s CInestyle in your tests? http://colorbyjorg.wordpress.com/

    • Samuel Hurtado 7:10 am on December 13, 2011 Permalink

      “I found that the CineStyle, while protecting the shadows and highlights admirably, desaturated the image to such a point that trying to return the saturation to skin tones resulted in a kind of unpleasant look–as if the footage had been pushed too far”

      Same findings here. And still, I found a way to use CineStyle without suffering all these issues: these are the 3 custom picture styles I carry in my camera:
      * CineStyle, with contrast = 0 and saturation = +3 (sometimes only +1)
      * CineStyle, with contrast = -2 and saturation = +3 (sometimes only +1)
      * CineStyle, with contrast = -4 and saturation = +4 (sometimes only +2)

      Extended dynamic range, but just as much as I need for each shot, and pretty nice colors right out of the camera. Have you tried something similar to this? Did you like it, or you still find issues? (I’m not a pro, my eyes are still not well trained to find every IQ issue)

      much more here:
      http://www.similaar.com/foto/picturestyles/picturestyles.html

    • Alex Ricciardi 1:23 pm on December 13, 2011 Permalink

      @eco_bach – Thanks for the tip! I hadn’t heard of Jorgen’s Marvels Cinestyle, but I’m a big fan of his DSLR Moire removal plugin. I’ll certainly check it out!

    • Alex Ricciardi 1:25 pm on December 13, 2011 Permalink

      @Samuel – To be honest, I hadn’t done really extensive testing with modifying the CineStyle preset. Your post about it is extremely informative, thorough, and clear. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting. We’ll be sure to play around with some of those settings you suggested.

    • Samuel H 6:21 pm on February 15, 2012 Permalink

      wandering around the web, I found this again today, so I thought I could post an update to my thoughts on picture styles: unsatisfied by the noise with CineStyle, and with the difficulty grading Marvels Cine, I ended up creating my own suite of picture styles: Flaat 1 through 4:
      http://www.similaar.com/foto/flaat-picture-styles/index.html

  • Tyler Cartner 6:35 pm on November 8, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: 744T, 7D, audio, , Canon 7D, , FCP AuxTC Reader, horita, lockit, Pro-Sound, Sound Devices, , time code, Videotoolshed   

    Time Code & The 5D MKII 


    In this blog post you’ll learn how to use time code with the 5D or 7D using a Lockit box, FCP AuxTC Reader software and a custom made cable by Pro-Sound of New York City. This will save you precious time on set, as well as allow you to quickly and efficiently sync your footage. But first, any questions?

    Why not record audio straight into the 5D?
    The 5D has a 1/8″ stereo, consumer, mic level input–not ideal for a professional shoot. A consumer, mic-level cable is unshielded and therefore more susceptible to RF noise and it cannot lock into place like an XLR. Also, internally, the 5D has a mediocre analog to digital chip. If you listen to audio recorded straight to the 5D you will hear hiss added to your lovely source audio and find that voices sound a bit thin. I strongly recommend you use a separate recorder when shooting video with this camera.

    Alright, but why not just use a slate?
    The slate is a tried and true method of marrying sync sound and film. However, the slate requires an editor to manually, visually, sync each video clip with its corresponding audio clip. If you’ve done it, you know it’s pretty straight forward, but also time consuming, especially if there are multiple cameras? (More …)

     

    • John Schroter 2:25 pm on January 18, 2012 Permalink

      thanks for this excellent post. We just successfully completed a batch of 60 clips using this method. Perfect. I am interested in how to import using the Canon FCP plugin for transcoding. It would help our field media managers if this part of the workflow could remain unchanged. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

    • Mark 8:57 am on January 28, 2012 Permalink

      Hi Tyler, cool video and blog. Just wondering what your on location workflow is? Does the 744T need the Horita timecode synced to it and then the Horita unit plugged into the camera? Do you really need the slate or is that just for backup? Can you run the whole system in “free run” mode so you can stop and start throughout a day? And if so for how long? Thanks, Mark

    • Tyler Cartner 7:34 pm on January 28, 2012 Permalink

      Hi Mark,
      Thanks for the accolades. When I use this method, the DP typically hands me a hard drive with a copy of the .mov files and I then work my magic using FCP AuxTC. You must have a recorder with time code to act as the master clock. Yes, you must sync the Horita directly to the recorder (744T or other) before connecting to the camera. You caught me! You don’t need a slate at all. I just used it because that’s how I typically work in the field and it looks pretty cool. Yes, the timecode in the demo was set to free run. You could shoot all day with this method, starting and stopping at will. With the Horita lockit boxes I would re-jam them to the recorder at least once an hour because they can drift a frame in an hour. I hope this answers all of your questions.

    • Zach 8:44 pm on February 1, 2012 Permalink

      Im confused when you get to the cabling part. I have the Horita PTG and a Canon 7D. I need a cable that will go from the RCA to my canon’s mini mic jack.

      I’m trying to get the exact setup you have here in your video, but frowned when I read you had Pro Sound make a custom cable :(

      Any tips?

    • JP Everaerts 8:49 am on February 2, 2012 Permalink

      Hi Tyler,
      you answer the question everybody was asking thx . But If I use a 744t i can just send the TC from the recorder to the 5D/7D via a cable or via the ambient TC-TRX (money-money) and don’t need another tc generator (no jam sync anymore) ? am I wrong ? Thx
      JP

    • Tyler Cartner 9:34 am on February 2, 2012 Permalink

      Yes, you can connect any timecode recorder directly to your 5D/7D as long as you pad down the signal from line to mic level. Correct, you would not need to jam sync if connecting directly to the camera.

    • Tyler Cartner 9:49 am on February 2, 2012 Permalink

      Yes, tips-a-plenty. You need to pad down the signal coming out of your timecode source from line to mic level. You can use an XLR barrel type pad like the PSC ALMP http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/275822-REG/PSC_FPSC0010D_ALMP_Line_to_Mic.html, but you’ll need to adapt on either end to mate with your devices. In the beginning I used one of these massive XLR barrel adapters and it worked fine, it’s just clunky. On the camera end of the barrel I adapted from XLR to RCA female. Then you can connect to the camera using a pretty standard cable, 1/8″ male stereo to two male RCA. On the timecode end you’ll need to adapt from BNC to XLR, this is most easily accomplished by adapting to RCA, then to XLR. It will look like quite the monster when you’re done. This is why I highly recommend you hit up Pro-Sound to make you a cable; you’ll spend just as much on the barrel pad and all the adapters. Good luck.

    • Alex Ricciardi 3:25 pm on February 7, 2012 Permalink

      I have not used this, but I also came across a product online that’s designed to take the signal from a timecode source down to mic level:

      http://www.lockitbuddy.com/website/index.html

    • Tyler Cartner 10:54 am on February 10, 2012 Permalink

      Thanks Alex. I just want our readers to know that the Lockit Buddy goes for $158 plus shipping from the UK. If you order a cable from Pro-Sound in NY it would probably cost less than $80 and you could customize it to have whatever connectors you want. Plus, the Lockit Buddy is a clunky box, while a cable only solution is much more elegant.

    • Stephen 1:48 pm on February 15, 2012 Permalink

      Thanks for a clear explanation of an admirable solution. In my case, I have a 5D Mk II and a Zoom H4n. Would it be possible to split the output of a PTG such as the (Horita or Ambient), feeding one output to the camera, as you have shown, and the other to one of the H4n’s audio tracks? This would give you two files with embedded audio TC, which, I believe, Avid is able to synchronise. I’m not sure about such an idea, as I’m a beginner. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

    • Diego Martinez 6:10 pm on February 15, 2012 Permalink

      Thanks Tyler, good post, fresh data, clear words.
      My contribution: apparently 5D (and 60D and 7D) firmware can be updated to a new version that allows line level input, so no pad or special cable would be needed. Heard of that? Know the firmware version?
      By the way I heard AGC (automatic gain correction) could now also be disabled manually in the menu with the new OS.
      And if you have a SMPTE TC equipped recorder you can always use it as TC master and send the TC signal to the 5D wirelessly using a cheap radio mic kit or even a wireless comm system.
      I guess that only a small chunk of well recorded SMPTE TC per clip will suffice for the FCP AuxTC reader to synchronize the entire file, it should need just a glimpse to the clock.
      So radio drops should not be an issue in this case.

    • Tyler Cartner 2:21 pm on February 26, 2012 Permalink

      I haven’t heard of that, but I’m skeptical. Please do post a follow up if you find out anything tangible on this subject. I find it unlikely that a software pad could be implemented to drop input signal level from line to mic from an engineering stand point.

    • Tyler Cartner 2:23 pm on February 26, 2012 Permalink

      Sure, the output of any time code device is hot! You could split it with room to spare. However, I’m not sure what the workflow would be in Avid. If you find out, report back!

    • Peter-John 5:44 pm on April 12, 2012 Permalink

      Tyler, this is very cool and if I can get this to work for me will save me hours of stress. You mentioned that you ordered a custom cable from Pro-sound. Who did you talk to about that there? I would love to get one of those.

    • Tyler Cartner 10:26 pm on April 12, 2012 Permalink

      Hi Peter, or is it John? Anyway, you can talk to anyone there. They sell a little box by Lockit Buddy, which Alex brings up below. The Lockit Buddy does the same thing my cable does. I prefer the cable. You can talk to anyone at Pro-Sound and they’ll be able to help you out. Good luck.

  • David Cavallo 2:51 pm on October 26, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , ,   

    Endless Picnic’s next 5D Seminar: Saturday, November 12th 

    Endless Picnic’s 5D Seminar from Endless Picnic on Vimeo.

    What’s it all about?

    It’s a comprehensive half day seminar–we like to call it a master class, really–on shooting HD video with the Canon 5DMKII. It’s geared towards intermediate and advanced shooters, as well as producers and directors, who want to learn how to get the most out of the camera in a professional production and post-production environment, and avoid common mistakes and pitfalls.

    When and where is it?

    Saturday, November 12th, from 1PM-6PM, at Endless Picnic’s great new space in midtown Manhattan. There will be a one hour break for lunch.

    How much does it cost?

    The price is $250. Participants will also receive a lifetime 15% discount on rentals and post production services at Endless Picnic.

    Who is conducting the seminar? (More …)

     

    • David Cavallo 11:22 pm on November 23, 2011 Permalink

      We’ll be holding our next seminar some time in early 2012. Check back on the blog soon!

  • Alex Ricciardi 12:14 am on October 18, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , compressor, , , eos movie plugin-e1, , , , mpeg streamclip, , , ,   

    Transcoding Showdown: The Best 5D Encoder 


    As all of us who’ve been working with 5D footage for a while know, transcoding your H.264 camera clips to ProRes is one of the necessary evils of the workflow (while you can now edit the native clips in software like Adobe Premiere CS5 or FCPX, I would argue that transcoding is still a requirement before color correction). What you may not know is that not all transcoders are created equally. I decided to test the transcode time, file sizes and quality of a few different programs, and the results may surprise you. (More …)

     

  • David Cavallo 12:12 pm on August 29, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , ,   

    Your Complete Guide to Endless Picnic’s upcoming 5D Seminar 

    Endless Picnic’s 5D Seminar from Endless Picnic on Vimeo.

    What’s it all about?

    It’s a comprehensive half day seminar–we like to call it a master class, really–on shooting HD video with the Canon 5DMKII. It’s geared towards intermediate and advanced shooters, as well as producers and directors, who want to learn how to get the most out of the camera in a professional production and post-production environment, and avoid common mistakes and pitfalls.

    When and where is it?

    Saturday, October 8th, from 1PM-6PM, at Endless Picnic’s great new space in midtown Manhattan. There will be a one hour break for lunch.

    How much does it cost?

    The price is $250. Participants will also receive a lifetime 15% discount on rentals and post production services at Endless Picnic.

    Who is conducting the seminar? (More …)

     

  • Alex Ricciardi 11:19 am on August 5, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Endless Picnic’s New Color Correction Reel! 

    Hello, everyone!

    I’m happy to announce that we’ve launched our new color correction reel today, and we’d love for you to take a look!

    Download Video: MP4 Ogg

    It’s also up on Vimeo & Youtube — basically everywhere that videos can be seen on the internet.

    So what are you waiting for? Watch it, tell us what you think, and come to Endless Picnic for your next feature, short, or commercial!

     

  • David Cavallo 5:27 pm on July 7, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , ,   

    A 5D Seminar? At Endless Picnic? You betcha! 

    Mark your calendars, folks–we’re planning a really cool 5D video seminar at Endless Picnic. It’ll cover everything from prep to post (and sound too!) It’s an even more complete version of the HDSLR master class we did at Brooklyn College earlier this year. The date? Saturday, October 8th.

    This comprehensive, hands-on half-day course is $250, and will take place at our great new space in midtown Manhattan.

    Give us a call, or shoot us an e-mail to reserve your spot now or get more info. Space will be limited–which means you’ll get plenty of attention–so get goin’!

    info@endlesspicnic.com
    (212)706-4037

    Hope to see you there!

     

  • Alex Ricciardi 10:48 am on April 14, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , ,   

    Managing 5D Media in Final Cut Pro 7 

    When you’re running a 5D rental house, you get asked a lot of questions. Most of these have to do with the gear itself, but the most important question may be “What do I do with the footage after I’ve shot it?” After all, if you can’t import and edit your footage properly, then that sweet 5D is just an expensive, awesome paperweight. (Seriously, it’s really good at keeping your papers from flying away.)

    I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received a Final Cut Pro timeline from someone who shot their project on the 5D and seen this:

    RENDER BARS! Sure, it’s tempting to stick your Compact Flash card in a reader and just start dragging clips to your hard drive, but as many of you know, currently Final Cut cannot natively edit the files 5D generates. What’s more, a haphazard approach to copying files is a good recipe for lost media and, worse yet, general chaos once you’ve reached the edit stage.

    So what’s the solution? (More …)

     

    • Wendy 10:53 am on April 15, 2011 Permalink

      This is the best tutorial I have seen on importing 5D material into FCP. Well done.

    • Jalanda James 1:24 pm on February 2, 2012 Permalink

      Wow! Intense.  Good stuff but a little too complex for me. But you are the real deal;)

      Here’s what I found helpful in my many hours of research.

      Editing Drive
      Raid 0 

      Backup Drive
      Raid 1

      Implementation:
      1. Convert media. I use Mpeg Streamclip. Save these converted files to your Raid 0 drive. 

      2. Save the originals to your Raid 1 drive.

      3. Edit using your Raid 0 drive and editing program of choice. When finished editing send a copy of the project folder to your Raid 1 drive for storing.

      Raid Basics
      Raid can either be configured to share processing power or provide double backup. 

      Raid 0 
      Good for editing because the processing is split between 2 drives. 
      Example
      Working Data ABCDEF
      Drive One Processes  = A,C,E
      Drive Two Processes = B,D,F

      Raid 1
      Mirrors the data from one drive to the next. So you save it once and it’s copied to both drives. 

      Example
      Working Data ABCDEF
      Drive One = ABCDEF
      Drive Two = ABCDEF

      I like Raids as opposed to multiple drives around. I like Glyph Technologies so far because they are made for MAC and are supposedly made for editing. They have great reviews. 

      Good luck. Hope this helps made the editing workflow easier to understand.

  • Alex Ricciardi 5:45 pm on September 14, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Superdrunk   

    Superdrunk Trailer 

    Hey everyone, this is Alex Ricciardi, the editor & colorist here at Endless Picnic, and I wanted to share with you a trailer I cut & graded (along with the eyes of our Cinematographer, David Cavallo, who also shot the piece).

    It’s for an independent TV pilot called Superdrunk. It’s from 2009, but once we got our swanky HP Dreamcolor monitor, we decided to redo the grade to really make the footage pop.

    Download Video: MP4 Ogg

    It was shot on a Panasonic DVX100B–yes, that’s miniDV, folks!–with a Letus Extreme adapter and some old-school Nikon lenses. We kept the colors punchy & warm, and since it’s a “comedy” about four miserable young men who get high and fight crime, we (with the guidance of the director, Adam Goodman) gave it a grungy “feel-bad” look that we’re real proud of.

     

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