UNARCHIVED

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For years I have been trying to find a simple and secure back-up solution for my film projects and photos. On a friends suggestion I bought a Drobo 5D and it's amazing!  I've spent the last few days unarchiving and backing up over 40 000 photos and terabytes of footage that I had stored across multiple hard drives.

During the process I've rediscovered photos and clips I'd totally forgotten about. Perhaps they were forgotten about for a reason, but I might start posting some here.

Thanks Drobo! Seriously one of the better pieces of technology I've bought. I cant quite explain the feeling of watching all those files land safely on my Drobo drive. Each photo backed up felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. 

DAYDREAMY

Rosebud shot in her natural habitat with a new piece of old Leica glass (M 90mm Summicron) and also my first dip into Lightroom since Apple killed off my favourite piece of software, R.I.P Aperture. It was so good while it lasted.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

I already loved 10CC's I'm Not In Love (who doesn't?), but after seeing this 'making of' I love it even more. Although I doubt it will ever appear in Puberty Blues, the song has been an important  tonal/musical touchstone for composer Stephen Rae and I.

Immersive, melancholic, pre-digital awesomeness!

5DmkIII vs BLACKMAGIC

Just saw this geeky video comparing the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the Canon 5DmkIII.

Comparing the Cinema Camera & 5D Mk III from OneRiver Media on Vimeo.

THE BLACK MAGIC

A couple of posts ago I mentioned the Apocalypse Now mash-up featured one of my all time favorite quotes about filmmaking. Francis Ford Coppola dreaming of the day when the professional (out of reach) world of filmmaking would fall away and technology would allow "a little fat girl from Ohio" to make a beautiful film with her fathers camera. There is no doubt the democratisation of filmmaking which Francis prophesied is well and truly with us. Some truly great cinema has been made with minimal 'off the shelf' equipment. I still get excited by a back-pack full of gear (camera, microphone, laptop) being all you really need to shoot and edit a film. With more recent cameras like the 5D greater aesthetic and quality control has been firmly placed in our hands and I'm in still in awe at whats possible with a DSLR's these days.

But today I was sent a box which I believe contains the next giant leap forward in breaking down the technology wall. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is a very new and very exciting camera. It provides stunning, jaw dropping image quality (Pro-res or 2K uncompressed RAW) that is so far above and beyond what any DSLR can provide. It's built like a brick and everything that plugs in and out of it has professional connectors that are strong and reliable. No more mini-jacks and fiddly HDMI. It records onto removable SSD and this version comes with an EF (Canon) lens mount.

The Blackmagic doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. Infact it's really basic in it's design and feature set. Personally I find this refreshing. Anything it doesn't do, and it does have limitations, in my mind is instantly erased by how much it costs, a mere $3000(!). I've seen this camera up against the Alexa in the grading suite and it's comparative in look and feel. It's different of course, but not $70 000 different. And way, way different to say a 5Dmk3 which cost the same.

I'm planning on testing the camera from a directors perspective as apposed to a cinematographers. I'm not overly technical though. I'm sure there will be a ton of sites out there providing all the specs and pixel peeping tests that will do a way better job of the geek speak than me. I just want to know it's a reliable easy to use camera that provides good colour depth and gives me gradable detail in the highlights and in the shadows. I kind of already know the Blackmagic does this in spades. DOP John Brawley help test and develop the camera with Blackmagic Design and we used it a little on Puberty Blues. (John has a bunch of info and tests on his blog). But the camera we used then was a beta model and the one I'm holding below is the production one. It will soon to be flying off the shelves and into the hands and hearts of filmmakers around the world.

HEART OF AWESOMENESS!

Super nerdy but inspiring mash-up of Apocalypse Now, and the subsequent 'making of...' epic Hearts of Darkness and more. Includes one of my favourite filmmaking quotes ever at 3:50!

via The World's Best Ever

SUPER, SUPER 8!

My heart skipped a beat while shooting on location yesterday. I was standing next to a book shelf in-between takes and my eye was caught by something near by... Stacked amongst boxed software and A4 ring binders was a mint, unopened, still shrink-wrapped copy of the The Muppet Movie on Super 8!

One of my favourite films. Ever!

WHAT A WONDERFUL (google) WORLD

At first glance these images could be mistaken for great fine art or street photography. But they are sourced from an altogether different type of documentation. Similar to this other guy I blogged about a while ago, Jon Rafman who has created 9-Eyes must spend hours (months?) traversing Google Maps discovering the beautiful, bizarre, surreal and spontaneous moments of poetry and drama that daily life brings with it. All these 'scenes' are captured by the nine lenses perched on top of the Google vehicles as they drive around the world collecting data for Googles street view. It's well worth taking the 15 minutes or so it takes to scroll through the collection.

Love In Hi-Def

Shot with the new Arri Alexa for the first time last week... I think I'm in love.

The Red is dead.

MIGHT BE TIME TO GET ADDICTED, AGAIN!

For about 6 months of my life when I was about 24, I was obsessed, no, addicted, to a computer game called Marathon. It might look super clunky by todays standards but believe it or not, it had very immersive gameplay. I played my way through Marathon, Marathon 2 and then one day when I was about two thirds of the way Marathon Infinity, mid game, I just quit. I'd had enough. Like an alcoholic who had lost the thirst. I never felt like going back to it, it was just finsihed and I was done with the screen. I never really played another game like I did Marathon. I mucked around with Doom and Quake a bit, I really got into Tony Hawk on the PS2 with some housemates for a while and I love playing Little Big Planet with my son (when he's not banned from it). But I've mostly avoided video games mostly because I know how they can take hold of my every waking moment. And I've got other things I'd rather be consumed by. But... that might all change with this incredible 'trailer'... which looks SO freaking amazing!

Sometimes, when I'm in the edit suite for a commercial and we are having trouble making the cut work, I always joke about just cutting it so everything is in reverse, and then it will appear that it was meant to be confusing and tricky. But I doubt that was the case with this. It makes me really want to kill a ton of zombies!

CAMERA BAG

I have really enjoyed looking through the short films and images at CameraBag.tv. A site that aims to "Celebrate image makers and highlight the beauty and style of the camera". The profiles find a nice balance between creative process and camera geekery. There are only four photographers profiled there at the moment, but it looks as though it will continue to be updated.

MASTER FILMMAKER / MASTER CHEF

David Lynch is a hero of mine, I love nearly all his films, but sadly I've never been able to get into Inland Empire. As much as I wanted to and I've attemped to watch it a few times there is something about that film which has never clicked. Anyway, the saving grace of Inland Empire is a very special extra feature on the DVD which is a 20 minute film of David Lynch cooking himself a dinner of the ancient grain Quinoa and some broccoli. Doesn't sound that exciting, but believe me it's one of the most strangely satisfying cooking shows you'll be lucky enough to see. It's not so much the Quinoa, but a story he tells while he sits on his dark balcony and has a cigarette while he waits for the the dinner to cook. Maybe it's just me but when I first saw this I was totally mesmerised. It's like Lynch draws you in and hypnotises you as he recounts a train trip he took through Europe many years ago.

I think this is one of the coolest extra features on a DVD I've seen. Bon Appetit!

Part Two is here (there is a point at 5mins 34 that is SO beautifully surreal and so incredibly David Lynch!)

And I recommend the Quinoa too, it's delicious!!

WHATS INSIDE THE BOX?

If your interested in Stanley Kubrick, or interested in film, or just want to watch a great doco. Do yourself a favour and watch 'Stanley Kubrick's Boxes'. An excellent and often amusing doco about the thousands of boxes that Kubrick filled with ideas, research, reference and obsessions. Most of which had never been opened until this film was made. It doesn't get more process driven than this. Full film on YouTube, Part 1 of 5 HERE...

NAYSAYERS

I find it interesting when people concentrate on the negatives rather than the positives. Particularly when it comes to technology.

The hilarious animation above was sent to me five times yesterday. Although all the arguments the little bear 'cinematographer' give seem valid. I think the little bear 'producer' is making the most sense.

If you would like to argue, perhaps you should first watch the clip below. Directed by fellow Exiteer Garth Davis and shot by Greig Fraser, who tells me "there were no lights used at all" during the shoot. It was also made with a small crew, the only way of making (in this circumstance), the seemingly impossible, possible.

Ride was the 'main event' film that my film Playground (see post below) and my friend Jono's film Peepshow was made in support of.

Greig used Panovision 'film' lenses on the 5D (using a PL mount). Which makes the 5D even more viable aesthetically. I have seen Ride at full rez and it's even more beautiful. It would be just as stunning blown up and projected onto a cinema screen as well I'm sure. Screw you little cinematographer bear!

I promise this will be my last gushy 5D post for a while...

THE DESTROYER

Those that know me a little will know I'm totally OCD when it comes to anything related to NIN and Trent Reznor. I recently posted about Trent's new side project How To Destroy Angels and am very happy to say that the new ep is now available for FREE at their website. Yes, for FREE!

Trent has pretty much given away his last few releases. His approach it seems to getting around the whole music piracy thing is to either give the music away, or sell it for very little via his own website. It's very clever. The thinking being, that the music is not a commodity but rather a creative asset, and part of much bigger and deeper, b(r)and / consumer relationship. Of course there will be a hard copy of the album for sale in a few weeks. I'll be waiting and paying happily for the vinyl! And if you followed the link to the free download, you'd see a bunch of other things you can 'buy' that can't be downloaded and digitally copied. See how this free thing works?!

Once again Trent and team have provided beautiful artwork. I'm so fascinated by the illustrations that adorn the album artwork and website. Such a beautiful colour palette, design and tone. Oh and the music is everything you would expect. There is a little bit of the last 6 NIN albums mixed with the smokey whispered vocals of Mariqueen Maandig. Do yourself a favour.