Category: News

We’ve previously written about the successfully crowdfunded GoPro-sized Z Camera E1, and now it’s actually shipping.

If you were in on the Kickstarter, you got a pretty good deal at $500, as the camera is now listed for $700. The E1 is marketed as an action camera replacement, but certainly there are other purposes for it, especially as something that you might be able to put in harm’s way but still get good quality. Here’s more on the 4K camera:

And the specs:

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Some films don’t need music, and that’s part of their aesthetic. But just imagine the “Blue Danube Waltz” docking sequence from 2001 without sound and you’ll see what I mean. Music can take a film and make it more than the sum of its parts.

And even in the days of so-called “silent” films, the silence was just a lack of dialogue and sound effects, not a lack of music: piano and other musical accompaniment was a staple of the theatrical viewing experience, with live music helping bring the movies to life.

But acquiring the rights to songs can be expensive, as well as confusing: There are publishing companies who administer the rights for various songs (basically, making sure the artist and songwriters and record companies and etcetera all get their filthy lucre), and if you go this route, it can mean acquiring at least two different licenses for your movie. According to ASCAP (one of the big two publishers, with the other being B.M.I.), one of those licenses, the “synchronization license,” grants you, as filmmaker,

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When Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange was released in December, 1971, it generated controversy, as well as acclaim.

Though the film received a rating of “X” in the US, meaning no one under the age of 17 could be admitted, the film still garnered a “Best Picture” nomination at the Academy Awards and had extremely positive notices, like this one from the New York Times. In the review, Vincent Canby noted that while he thought 2001 was, in spirit, an American film, ACO was much more “an essentially British nightmare…in its attentions to caste, manners, accents and the state of mind created by a kind of weary socialism.” During the height of this controversy, Burgess, author of the novel, and Malcolm McDowell, the film’s star, appeared on a British television program to discuss the film along with film historian William Everson:

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Carmel Gatchalian is a design student from Louisiana currently studying at The School of Visual Arts, and created the short as a self-portrait of her struggles with procrastination. For many of us in the arts, procrastinating is basically a pastime, and watching the short above reminds us that there’s always something better we should be working on.

Carmel also recently produced this title sequence for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar:

For more of her work, check out her website.

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Video Devices — the division of Sound Devices that makes external video recorders — has just announced that the PIX-E7 is now shipping worldwide.

First announced around NAB, the $1,600 7″ 1920 x 1200 touchscreen external monitor/recorder is the flagship device in the new E series of PIX recorders, with the two other models featuring 5″ screens, and all capable of Apple ProRes. The E7 is capable of recording 4K/UHD up to 30fps, and with a firmware update released in early December, is capable of 1080p up to 120fps, as well as 6G-SDI compatibility with cameras like those from Blackmagic. Here’s more from them on the E7:

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If you’ve been an Avid user in the past, and want to upgrade to their new subscription service, time is running out to get in on a special offer.

For a limited time, they are letting users of NewsCutter, Symphony, and Media Composer upgrade to the new subscription Media Composer for $500, which will then be upgradeable for $300 a year thereafter to stay with the most current version (for Educational licenses it’s only $200 for the upgrade). Here are the details (you can check eligibility by clicking here):

Qualifying licenses include Media Composer 3.5 through 7.0, Symphony 3.5 or later, or NewsCutter 7.5 or later.
You can purchase an upgrade for qualifying Commercial licenses for $499 (qualifying Educational licenses $199).

Subsequent annual renewals will be at regular rates. Offer expires December 31, 2015.

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Actors used to have very different, yet standardized, American accents in the earlier part of 20th century cinema.

If you’ve ever seen an American movie from around the 1940s and earlier (and if you’re reading this in the US you probably have), you might have wondered why the performers sound so different from actors today. This video from HowStuffWorks explains the accent, referred to as the Mid-Atlantic or Transatlantic accent:

It’s not just actors from the time period, but also anyone from higher class society at the time:

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What’s a short film without a mysterious parchment, or an ancient map? It’s almost compulsory to have one in one of your first short films. In this video, you can learn the quick, cheap & easy method to creating aged paper that looks great on camera.

Devin Reeve shares the list of things needed to prep before a production.

Sydney Pollack discusses some of the experience working on his Japanese collaboration in “The Yakuza”