Well, thank you to NAB 2013 and all the announcements that have happened, because that is now here.

Super excited with the new possibility that are arising and what this means for Adobe and for how it will find its way into regular use in Television and Film.

This year I was not able to make it to NAB 2013 in Las Vegas to check out the new toys but have been keeping myself occupied with all the latest announcements from the vendors from my office in Los Angeles.  Yesterday the show was kind of silenced behind the big Blackmagic Design camera announcement and, while I must say that at first I was very excited, I have my skepticism’s on its viability as an efficient camera for the price range it seems to be targeting.  Then I was reminded of our friends at Digital Bolex and just can’t seem to be able to disregard their attempts at bring their camera to the masses.

There is something to say of the magic of the Blackmagic Production Camera and Pocket Cinema Camera, but when really looking at it the specs don’t seem to be all that impressive considering some technology that is currently out there.  Let’s start by looking at the BMPCC, the price is fantastic at $995 while sporting a 1080p RAW recording format with 13 stops of dynamic range, but some of the questions that arise is why doesn’t black magic attempt to have at least a 60p recording option?  I don’t always think that slow-motion is a must but on the last few projects that I have done, I always seem to be switching my camera to 720/60p do achieve a slow motion shot…maybe it is just my story telling style, so in that case I can guarantee I will have my DSLR on stand by to use as my high speed camera or I will be pulling out my GoPro for the extreme slow motion shots.  The camera is still rather impressive and definitely has me intrigued.  But I’m not going to be dropping down my hard earned dollars just yet for this camera.

Then there is the BMPC that is their 4K solution or as they are coining it Ultra HD which is probably because it is 4K based off of the 1080p HD resolution.  This camera rocked the announcement world on April 8, 2013, but what actually does this mean?  My first thought was the affordability of future proofing your work.  I read an article a few weeks ago on nofilmschool.com that had Netflix stating they were going to try setting up their streaming infrastructure to support 4K streaming and that it could possible be a chance for independent filmmakers to get their foot in the door by providing 4K content before the studios.  According to their research there are more indie films shot at 4K than there are studios.  So as you can tell my creative wheels started turning and the possibilities this camera might provide for distribution of my content.  But then the file storage requirements, the fact I could only switch between 4K and 1080p, no significant slow motion in 4K and then an interlaced HFR signal for 1080 probably more intended for broadcast than performing speed ramping, but the $3995 price tag makes me continue to question my doubts.

But let us not forget the Digital Bolex team.  I have worked with Joe, a founder of the Digital Bolex D16 camera, and can say that he just might be the right guy to be able to pull this camera feat off.  They were interviewed on the live stream on NAB opening day and a lot of their reasoning for their 2.5K and not 4K camera makes a lot of sense.  When it comes down to it, they are marketing a camera to people who probably can’t go out and buy 4+ TB of hard drives to store their media on so have a smaller resolution compared to 4K might have more people actually using the camera as opposed to the BMPC.  That is the whole purpose of creating a camera isn’t it…to have people actually use it.  I could see the Blackmagic team having a little more success with their product if they allow for more scaleability, plus their marketing person that was interviewed on the day of the announcement seemed to be hiding the things they knew were problems with the camera as opposed to the Digital Bolex teams knowing exactly what their reasoning was for every feature they had…You’d think there would have been more confidence from a larger company but instead it was the little guy who was confident that his product was gonna be a game changer…probably because that is the camera that Joe and Elle will end up using for everything, and they are probably designing it that way.

I’m sure I’ll have more to share, but for now, enjoy the Teradek UStream feed to keep you involved from afar.

Live broadcast by Ustream

The title 85-C was because all the footage was shot with my Canon 85mm f1.8 lens and on the Canon 60D which is an APS-C sensor…so in essence the title is 85mm Cropped Sensor…done with the play on words.

This was all shot in available light. Day stuff was shot at ISO 160 and night stuff ranged from ISO 640 – 1250.

I used the Technicolor Cinestyle color profile and have Magic Lantern running on my camera. I used Magic Lantern primarily for framing with a 2.35:1 overlay (though this is not cropped) and for focusing using the focus assist – (this is an AWESOME feature for attempting to focus off of the on board LCD screen).

Some things I noticed was there was a little bit of gradient banding in the sky for some of the shots due to the H.264 compression of the camera. I also noticed in the night scenes that there was some light banding due to the frequency of the street lights. It is not super noticeable when watching in real time but if you pause it and shrink the video down it might be more noticeable…or playback in slow motion or by scrubbing. Not sure what causes this beyond the flicker of the lights or if it is due to the CMOS rolling shutter. I’ve seen it happen on the AF-100 but can’t remember if that is a rolling shutter or a global shutter. It is very evident that the 1250 ISO has some major noise factors. The shots always look great on a small screen but when you blow it up you can see where the image falls apart.

This footage has NOT been graded, but I’ll try some grading tests with it in the future. I did notice a few more stops of latitude with the Technicolor Cinestyle color profile but can’t determine whether it is better to expose for the highlights, shadows or it it in the middle. When just balancing color I noticed a considerable amount of noise in the shadows at times. I’ll do some more test to figure this out, just trying to figure out the best settings for the camera so I can get the best possible image out of it for now.

Watch it Again if you so fancy:

85-C: A CAMERA TEST from Jared Isham on Vimeo.

My kit is focused primarily on a Video DSLR workflow.

• Canon 60D with a variety of lenses
• Fluid Head Tripod
• ZOOM H4n Audio Recorder
• MXL 990 and 991 microphones
• Adobe CS6 Production Premium Workstation
  (Premiere Pro, After Effects/Photoshop, Adobe Audition, SpeedGrade)

I started off finishing up some Assistant Editing work for a Reality show for the United States Army that was created by Ricky Schroder as well as doing some VFX work on his feature film Wild Hearts which should be airing on the Hallmark Channel March 9th, 2013.  Check out an article and trailers to the projects below.

Starting Strong Army Reality Show:
http://www.army.mil/article/64336/Upcoming_Army_reality_show_wraps_video_shoot_at_JBLM/

Wild Hearts Teaser:

I followed work on the Army show Starting Strong by working as a Director of Photography for my friends Josh and Jeremiah Daws (http://www.dawsbrothers.com) for their short film Like a Child which you can watch below.  It was my first collaboration with the Daws brothers and proved to not be the last…more to follow, just keep reading.

Like a Child:

Shortly after I began prep on a web series pilot with my long time friend and collaborator John Schimke (co-creator of the DVD Series 36 Parables).  The project is still working on finding a home but was filled with an excellent cast and a solid story.  We are both hoping to see the life of this project extended in 2013.

Read about our Web Series Pilot here.

As soon as we wrapped on the pilot I was in prep mode for directing my second feature film Turnaround Jake, a holiday romantic comedy about a young business man bent on success who loses everything only to discover a family he never knew he had.  For this project I got to work with long time collaborator Jarret LeMaster (Bounty, Million Dollar Trash) along with some first time collaborations with Michael Madsen (Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy), Jen Lilly (General Hospital), David H. Lawrence XVII (Heroes, Chuck) and Mark Withers (Criminal Minds, King of Queens, Frasier).  Home hopefuls for this project are the Hallmark Channel, Lifetime or GMC.

Check out the trailer below and visit the website here.

Turnaround Jake Trailer:

Right before shooting Turnaround Jake I was the DP on another short entitled The Deepest Dream which you can watch below:

The Deepest Dream:

The Deepest Dream from Bunker Hill Films on Vimeo.

In June there was a limited release on DVD of the western short film I created with my uncle Bruce Isham entitled Trail to Mercy.  You can expect a wider release of the movie shortly and with hopefuls to be used as a pilot for a TV Series following the character Coulter.

Trail to Mercy Trailer:

In July I got engaged to a fabulous girl who also happens to be a composer and will be collaborating with me on my next project which will hopefully begin production in June.  Check out her website at http://www.dreamrproductions.com.

In August it was the start of my second stint working with the Daws brothers.  This time I was shown footage cut together of a rather creepy short film in the “found footage” style.  I was asked to be the visual effects supervisor and with a few sleepless night leading up to a pre-Halloween release we were able to get everything completed and posted to YouTube in time for Halloween.  In less than a week the video had over 200,000 views and was a favorite among Disneyland cast members.  Check it out below along with a behind the scenes look at how it was done.
Missing in the Mansion:

Missing in the Mansion – Behind the Scenes:

It was a great year, busy witch some great projects.  I look forward to the rest of 2013, there is some super exciting stuff planned and I’m anxious to share it with you as it happens.

I am currently doing set extensions for a feature film, and by the way I also directed the movie – you can check out the trailer for it here.  One of the processes that I have used to do some of the effects has been to first stabilize the footage so that I can minimize the amount of tracking that is needed.  I then have been focusing on isolating some of the elements so that I can focus my keys to a smaller area by using a basic mask.  Here is a little something to know in this process.  If you add a mask to a layer that has utilized the Warp Stabilizer you  will immediately notice that the mask is not retaining it’s accuracy and sometimes floats around with a really thick mask edge to work with [think of it as you applied a stroke to your mask and you now have a 20 pixel stroke that is also effecting the layer you are working with - hope that makes sense].  Do not fear, my fellow AE Artists, there is a way to tackle this small issue without pulling your hair out key framing all over again.

Simply Pre-Compose your Warp Stabilized layer [Cntrl-Shift-C (PC) or Cmd-Shift-C (Mac)], Select the option to “Move all attributes to new composition” and then add your mask to the Pre-Composed layer in your main Composition and wha-la, it is working again.

I believe the reason this works the way it does is because the mask is referencing the original clip and ignores the Warp Stabilizer plugin which results in the floating mask effect and why pre-composing the footage to a new comp works is because the the pre-composed comp does not have the effect on it and the mask only sees what the comp produces and not what the original clip was — basically the comp is like the original image so no matter how many effects you apply to the footage in the comp it will not effect the produced results of the pre-comp in your main comp….but there is an exception.  This only applies if you do not enable to the “*” feature also known as “Collapse Transformation”, but for our purposes that has not been anything I have had to worry about for this particular job – we’ll cover that more in a later post.

Workflow Tip:

To stay organized I always label my Pre-Comps as, “ElementDescription.pre”.  By using the suffix “.pre” I immediately know how the comp has been used and it helps me find it more easily amongst my folders.  I also get into the habbit of setting up a folder structure like I have shown below, that way if I am passing the project off to someone else to complete they can easily figure out what I have done and aren’t wasting their time attempting to figure out my workflow.

• 01 – Comps
  • Pre-Comps
  • PSD Comps
• 02 – Assets
  • Video
  • PSD Layers
  • Audio
• Solids (This folder is created whenever you create a Solid, Null or Adjustment Layer)

The main thing is to keep your elements well organized and easy to find.

Some of the cool things that I will be doing over there is:

• Gear Reviews
• Fishing Stories from more than just me
• River information of where to fish and tips on how to preserve the environment you are fishing in

The site has some huge possibilities and hopefully will become a frequent destination to fly fishing anglers all over.  The possibilities are endless, but for now, go see what we have going on there, give your suggestions and help make the site all it can be.  Comments or Suggestions on the site can be made on the latest blog post at http://www.river-flyfishing.com/introducing-river-fly-fishing-website/

Spread the word.

Granted my 9′ 8 wt. Rod was probably a little too much for fishing in California, but it lasted me a good twelve years or so.  I ended up leaving it with my brother in Alaska to be made better use of come salmon season and to make room to cart home the 41 lbs of fish in my check in baggage.  Needless-to-say, I was due for a new rod and didn’t want to just get the cheapest thing on the market so I could fish.  With birthday money, Christmas money and birthday money again, I decided to head on down to the local Bass Pro Shop and see what they had.  The result is I walked away with a pretty stellar 8 1/2 ‘ 5 wt. Fly Rod made by Temple Fork Outfitters Left Kreh Professional Series-II.

Here is what I think.

I initially was comparing this rod with a comparable Reddington rod but there were a few things that caused me to lean in the way of the TFO rod.

Action:  Coming from using an entry level Cabela’s Fly Rod Combo I have gotten used to the slower action fly rods.  They have a small amount of drag when casting that, after a while or from never knowing different, you get used to.  When I was finally decided it was time to upgrade I wanted a rod that had a much faster action to it so that was one of the main things I was looking for in a rod.  The Reddington rod was a vast improvement from my first rod with a nice snap to the action but compared to the TFO rod it was just enough of a difference to confirm my decision.  My new TFO Fly Rod really snaps in the action and feels very responsive, casting seems to be easier even though it is 6 in. shorter than my first rod.  It is light weight and feels great in the hand.

Items Included: This is where the Reddington made me pause to think.  The Reddington rod came with a case as well as the Rod which was an added bonus, but one thing that made me reconsider was that the cork handle had no plastic coating on it.  The TFO rod did not come with a case but did have the plastic wrapped around the cork.  I am going to assume that the plastic wrapped cork is not an issue and most people avoid the cork from flaking off by wearing gloves…but it is just a small added bonus.  Both came with Lifetime Warranties.

Conclusion: It really came down to whether I liked the rod or not and I was going to be the one using it.  If the additional features were what I was buying it for I would have gone with the Reddington Rod but I wanted the highest quality rod I could find for my price range.  The TFO Rod was the one.  Now to catch some fish with this thing.

Since I first started making movies I was instantly drawn to the magic of VFX and with that eventually came the realization that the majority of work that I would be doing in VFX would involve, to a large degree, some element of rotoscoping.  For those of you who are not quite sure what rotoscoping is, you can read all about it at Wikipedia, but if that is too much for you and reading this little post is already stretching your attention span then here is the short of it: Rotoscoping is the process of isolating certain elements in a video/film clip so that they can be layered or treated separate from the rest of the footage.

Granted, I believe the rotobrush tool has been around since at least CS5.5 but remember that I jumped from CS4 to CS5.5 and then to CS6 only a few weeks after my CS5.5 upgrade so my knowledge on that may not be entirely accurate. Look it up, folks, if you care to know. Needless-to-say, this tool is not new to the most recent version of Adobe After Effects but cool nonetheless.

So, why are we covering this old tool you may ask.  Well, frankly, it is pretty darn awesome.

In the past I used to have draw around objects with the mask tool and go frame by frame adjusting anchor points individually in order to properly isolate the object in question.  It’s not that it doesn’t work when approaching it this way, it’s just that it takes for frickin’ ever to get it done.  On past a project I concluded that a 17 sec shot that was on a dolly moving backwards and a whip flying through frame was better time spent left alone then it was attempting to isolate the background from the foreground elements.  Enter the rotobrush.

This isn’t an end all magic tool that rotoscopes a shot for you with the wave of the wand, but it makes it a lot easier.  I am currently doing a bunch of VFX for a feature that require me to isolate actors from the background so that I can paint out elements or change signage.  The rotobrush has been very useful for me in the fact that I can go through the footage and when something is a bit off, I can just make a selection and it usually fixes it.  In combination with the fine tuning controls of smoothing, feathering and choke I can usually achieve a pretty stellar rotoscope.

The Rotobrush is not the only rotoscoping tool offered to you in After Effects CS6, but we will cover the likes of Mocha for AE CS6 in a later post (that program is all kinds of heaps of awesome).

Rotoscoping Tip:

Something that I have learned in order to save me time is knowing when it is necessary to create a clean mask for a rotoscoping job and when I can be a little more sloppy.  For my current VFX work I am often faced with just a head passing over an area of the frame I am working on.  With that in mind I often ignore the accuracy of the mask I am making when it is on the shoulders or hands, unless it crosses over the elements I am working on.  If you are not doing a full background replacement then just focus on the areas of your mask that are actually going to have an effect on the shot you are working on.  This saves time in the long run and you can get on to the next shot faster.

Conclusion:

The rotobrush is awesome, but not a magic wand tool.

Know that there are fine tuning tools attached to the rotobrush and mess with them until you get the look you are going for.  Smooth, Feather and Choke are your friend.