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I find it funny when people defend Claudio Miranda saying that it's hard to light a green screen evenly :D   I haven't seen any DP lighting a green screen actually, it's usually set up by the technicians who put it up or lighting assistants, maybe 2nd or 3rd unit DPs in some cases. And I also have seen very few evenly lit green screens, if lighting a green screen deserves an oscar then maybe they should add an oscar category for roto artists too, who get all the crappy work because they couldn't be bothered to light the green screens properly.   And yes, most DPs are barely involved during post, maybe they're called at the end for the DI process, but that's it. Most of the shot composition, lighting and look of full CG shots/sequences has no involvement from the DP whatsoever.   I don't blame Claudio Miranda though, it wasn't his decision after all, if they had given it to me I probably would have taken it too! :)

  It's called 3-point-stabilization, and it's valid for classic SLRs (with grip on the side) as well as classic Super 8 cameras (with pistol grip).   1. Right hand takes the grip  2. Right eye is pressed to eyepiece (hurts with the small and flat eyepiece of the GH2, I admit) 3. Bottom of camera body (in case of a pistol grip the lens itself) rests on left palm underneath. Left thumb and forefinger operate focus.       In the Star Trek series they often lament about the "structural integrity" of their spaceship. This is the first thing your shoulder rig must be: As tightly screwed together (with camera and everything) as if milled out of one solid block of metal ...   And move your feet? Well, you can practice to walk like for 'the ministry of silly walks'. You can absorb quite a lot of instability by keeping your gluteus maximus under tension. No joke.   But generally neither a pistol grip nor a shoulder rig are meant to walk with them.   Use a glidecam or s.th. like that for stabilized handheld shots. If they are to look like dolly shots, you have to exercise A LOT.

The fact that the award was a piece of shit shouldn't deminish the work of Miranda, but let's face it Doyle is speaking from a position of strength, his work rates far above Miranda's to date. Miranda's cinematography on Tron Legacy and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is able (didn't like the films though) - but Doyle on Hero and 2046 - that's masterful and in a completely different league.   Christopher Doyle and Anthony Dod Mantle are purists, artists more than craftsmen or career DPs, have lensed some of my favourite cinematography and are inspirational to me personally in their whole approach.   Mantle is himself an Oscar winner for Slumdog - amazing - he's also a digital innovator, one of the first to embrace the format the late 90's with DV. Total respect to him. He's worked with two of my favourite directors - Lars Von Trier, Danny Boyle. Dogville took a paired down approach to staging (to say the least) and cinematography, the complete opposite of Life of Pi but still has bags of atmosphere and menace.   When Life of Pi got the award for cinematography - I felt it was for the technical achievement more than anything else, and that the DP was one of a large team who made that happen. Maybe it's possible the academy members overlooked that and just felt the finished film overall looked great and decided to pin that on a figurehead. I can completely understand the VFX award. The cinematography one was a mis-step as I think there were other guys nominated who deserved it more.

It really is very easy. It takes fifteen minutes. The link you provided still has no counter weight, and I think it's too expensive for such a plastic. Besides that, you won't find a shoulder pad for one rod, which is a weak point of your rig anyway. Do what you like. Did you actually watch the Zacuto film? Now remember: This is the GH3. It doesn't have this very good EVF like the GH2. The position of the left hand here would be much more natural and relaxed with the GH2. How can a follow focus help you here? Also, I doubt if your rig is built well enough to provide the said sturdyness. Much more expansive follow focuses add problems, I bet a lot of shakes you wrote about are caused by the bad quality of the construction. Make it simple.

At this time, the plugin does not work in After Effects because it does not follow the "Smart Render" requirements.  This is a feature that is used to speed up rendering, and I could possibly implement it in the future.  As of right now, it's limited to: Premiere only; 8bit colour only; OS X only; However, I plan on addressing each of these issues.  I have also come up with an idea of how to improve its performance.  Right now, my priority is to get it working with 32 bit colour.  That way, if there are any professionals out there who want to give it a try, they can let me know how good/useful it really is.   @charlie_orozco I'll make a public post when I have a Windows version up and running so stay tuned.

If, for example, you have such a cheap rig: that otherwise has some usable features like the very important option to change the height (the viewfinder has to be ab-so-lu-tely exactly in front of your right eye), you can resell follow focus and useless mattebox and add these items:    If you buy everything new, it costs you under 10 bucks, even if you have the aluminum bar in black (tip: before putting it in the vice, cover it with tape, otherwise you will have ugly scratches).

  Yeah but he wasn't composing the frames or lighting the final shots or grading the film was he? If anything he came in to R&H and spent a day or two telling the lighting or environment dept how he would light a scene. None of the actual physical lighting is that remarkable. He was getting a good evenly lit bluescreen and an image that would take well to grading. Luckily no-one really takes the Academy awards seriously these days do they?

One rig for all tasks? It's rather various rigs, and in different variations too: Pistol grip. Monopod (can serve as a prolonged grip) Gorillapod (can serve as a simple shoulder rig) Tripod. In many variations. Lightweight stabilyzer. Stabilyzer with vest. Basic shoulder rig. Terminator style shoulder rig (with follow focus, monitor, mattebox). Picodolly. Slider. Jib(s). To be continued.

I shared 4 sequences of raw stills from the V1 (120 images) for folks to try out their own methods/workflows. I wanted to see how the footage would process through plugins like Twixtor/Motion/etc. I chose to slow things down to 10% with Apple Motion. I used the Optical Flow setting and was really impressed with the results. I scaled things down to 1080p for sake of Vimeo and sharing. After seeing what can be done with these little 1.25 second clips, I would say this is a seriously cool feature and definitely worth the sub-$300 people are spending on these little cams! Feel free to download all 120 frames used to create this so you can experiment as well. http://tinyurl.com/ag89cgx http://tinyurl.com/d3panys http://tinyurl.com/ca6cduk http://tinyurl.com/cz5sh2l https://vimeo.com/61863569

amazon Thanks zach_daniels!!!

Thanks for your order Nick.:)   And welcome to the club...  The exclusive club.....     'Club Dog Schidt'

I've ordered one of these bad boys in matte black. Serial #05. It feels like joining an elite club.   If you've been thinking about getting one, better order it soon before Andrew writes an article!

Nice work above.   Not notice? You'd have to be BLIND not to.

Hey everyone, looking forward to seeing some of the cool stuff that you all come up with using the V1. I got mine yesterday and shot this little piece today. Nothing fancy, but impressed with what it can do. Definitely won't replace my HDSLR's but it is a fun tool to use and play with. Enjoy! http://vimeo.com/61774105

Spotted this on Twitter, first shoot I've seen from the new Alexa at high speed.   Not that I'll own one any time soon, but hey, it's nice to look   And if someone gives you a budget, hire away!   https://vimeo.com/61256446

i've used my glidecam hd2000 and gh2 multiple times and it works fine. you just have to get the weight right, even if you have to make some modifications.