Month: October 2010

Harry Potter and Gandalf meet the Power Rangers Trailer

As Halloween draws near The Rangers learn to summon their Thunderzords by conjuring spells from the power of lighting. None better to guide them than Gandalf himself, with a little help from his latest understudy, Harry Potter. Check out the trailer:

SpeedRacerFiber Lends his voice once again as The Red Ranger with a cameo by Solid Snake and I did the voice for Gandalf this time around. The set is a Disney Castle Bedroom which felt quite strange standing in line with at Walmart especially not having any little kids with me to blame it on. Lighting are a mix of 600w SV Tungsten light and cheap $15 3200k Ikea lamps, perfect for shooting miniatures. Iscorama Anamorphic lens with a 50mm rear. Tracking shots were done with a Kessler Pocket Dolly v1 and Fog Machine is $40 from Spencer Gifts.
Stills:

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iPhone 4 Commercial ft. Morgan Freeman

Following the success of the original iPhone commercial released in August 2009, we created a new spot based on all of the features that are available with jailbreaking the new iPhone 4. This includes using “Display Out” and the variable functionality of BT Stack to use Bluetooth devices like Wiimotes and keyboards to extend features that are not implemented well with just a touch screen. Another objective of the spot was to give light to the iPhodroid project witch allows android to run on the 3G, and can currently be used to hack PS3’s with version 3.41 firmware. Akira created a hilarious “iPhone” song for the commercial and impersonated the voice of Morgan Freeman to lend a familiar tone to the spec commercial.

Shot on the hacked Panasonic GH1
iPhone 4 commercial on youtube

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Canon 7D, 60D and t2i Video Zoom recommendation list


Going back to October 2009, I released a recommended zoom list for the Canon 7D. Here is the 2010 Update for all of the Canon crop cameras

Wide:
Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX
Tokina
Why: Still the best wide-angle constant aperture zoom lens
Why not: Hard to find in EOS Mount


Normal:
Tamron 17-50 VC f/2.8 XR Di-II VC LD Aspherical (IF)
Tamron
Why: Great Price with rebate right now, not limited by EF-S mount for future camera use (reason why Canon 17-55 is not recommended, though it is a better lens)
Why not: Varying build quality from lens to lens
Alternate: Purchase without VC to save a few dollars



Telephoto:
Budget
Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 II EX DC HSM Lens
Sigma 50-150
Why: Lens is just as sharp as 70-200 for video, great price for a 2.8 constant aperture telephoto zoom lens
Why not: No Image stabilization

Better
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Canon
Why: Classic lens that has been superseded by the newest version of the 70-200. IS works very well. EOS mount means that you wont be limited by camera body choice in the future
Why not: Expensive for just video purposes



Maybe we will have a few more choices next year, but for this year, the picks remain the same. When the next next 5D has a crop mode, you will be thanking me that you didn’t purchase any Canon native EF-S lenses, as the lenses above will all work perfectly on a cropped full frame sensor.

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Resolving Power of the Hacked GH1 – Buy one now

With the influx of new cameras coming out, many people are in a rush to sell off their hacked and un-hacked GH1 cameras.

Every time a new gadget, gizmo or toy comes along, it’s natural to assume that the second generation is better than the first. This has left quite a few GH1 cameras on ebay for less than $900. Now is the time to buy. Outside of the ugly FPN, crashing in 24p, and the lack of live preview – the hacked GH1 is still the best resolving video capable still camera to date. Go ahead, click and download the PNG file attached to this post. Any Canon DSLR would be full of Moire, a new Nikon DSLR would be the same story. How about the GH2? Well it would look the same, possibly sharper, until it was put into motion. The only fix is a codec hack.

Where’s the hack? Well if you put faith in this amazing website then you have no reason to fear, the GH2 is already hacked and the GH1 can be left for eBay fodder.


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$6.44 for two mini-HDMI cables – Perfect for 7D, 5D or GH2

Target is clearing out Flip Cam HDMI cables for extreme discounts right now.

For $6.44 you get two perfect DSLR HDMI cables. One is 2ft long, perfect for onboard monitoring, and the second is 6.5 feet long, which is great for a close client monitor or steadicam sled.

Both cables terminate in both Type A and Type C HDMI connectors.…

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