Final Cut User

 In my quest to find a portable, solid and inexpensive dolly set up for work and skate/snow personal projects veteran skateboard cinematographer Jason Hernandez(if you have not seen his work pick up some of the Transworld Skateboard vids for proof of awesomeness oops can’t forget John Holland so double the awesomeness) and his dad Carlos have a great set up called EazyDolly. For the spec breakdown on the page it looks like it will be in 2 models one coming in on 23 in wide 12′ track and the other on 28 1/2 . The prices are great as well $460.00 will get you EazyDolly with 12′ track , $545.00 will get you the same but with the camera base and add $80.00 for each additional 4′ of track.I am pretty certain Jason made the little demo video on the TWS site as well for EazyDolly check it HERE.   

DVXusser.com a  great resource on line now has a new publication coming .

DVXUser is proud to announce intent to publish DVXUser Monthly. A monthly publication in magazine format with a primary focus on promoting DVXUser members and their personal accomplishments, and a secondary focus on providing you with valuable technical information, reviews, product information, etc, etc, etc.

Like everything else on DVXUser, DVXUser Monthly will be entirely free to you. Circulation of the magazine will be monthly.

For more information about DVXUser Monthly, you can view this thread in the DVXUser News section:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=133135

If you would like to subscribe to receive this magazine, inquire about becoming a contributor of material, or wish to inquire about becoming a sponsor of the magazine, please visit this location:

www.dvxusermonthly.com

Look for the first edition in a month or two, with regular monthly mailings after that.

Thanks for your time. Hope you enjoy it!

Quick link to the press release of the new VariCams ,HVX200a and AG-HPX170(HD SDI).More blog notes coming as NAB news rolls out. Panasonic Press Release Link  AG-HPX170 Links

Panasonic announced the arrival of it’s long coveted 64GB P2 Cards this morning. The release of the 64GB card effectively doubles current recording capacities on the market, with the previous maximum being the 32GB cards that Panasonic released only months ago.

Based on a current record time of 42 minutes in 720 24pn mode on my 16GB, I’d say you can get 168 minutes of the same on a 64GB. That’s nearing 3 hours of HD footage!

Here’s a few more from the press release as posted on studiodaily.com

A 64GB P2 card is capable of storing over four hours of DVCPRO footage (64 GB X 4 minutes per GB), or more than two hour of DVCPRO50, AVC-Intra 50 (64 GB X 2 minutes per GB) or 64 minutes of AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD. With five 64GB P2 cards installed, an AJ-HPX3000 P2 HD camcorder can record for 320 minutes in AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD (400 minutes in 1080/24pN) and 640 minutes (800 minutes in 24pN) in AVC-Intra 50 or DVCPRO 50.

Here’s a few more stills from the short I recently shot, called “Arrows”.We got to test Redrock’s Micro X among other things for the film. Nice. A lot of people are going to be really happy when it hits the streets.

I recently shot a short film for director Michael Fisher, entitled SHELL. The film was shot approximately 2 weeks ago with an HVX using a Redrock M2 adapter and some sweet Zeiss lenses that I had previously blogged about. The film is up online now so please take a look and feel free to leave comments! I’ll be writing more in the coming weeks regarding the techinical aspects of it.

A couple of days ago Panasonic released watch basically is the equivalent of the P2 Viewer (PC) software for Mac!  This is good news and indication that free metadata support it’s way (crossing fingers).  The P2 Contents Management Software can be found here.

Specs are here.

The software is not compatible with the Quicktime 7.2 update, in fact it is only compatible with 7.1.6. Already having upgraded to 7.2 I installed the software and took my chances. The first noticeable thing, which is also mentioned in the specs on Panasonic’s site, is that the audio levels aren’t available with QT 7.2 installed.

One cool thing about this is that you can create metadata files within it to upload to your camera. No more constructing them by hand or making them on a PC!

A little bit about what the P2 Content Management System does:

Features
This is an application program that ingests P2 contents by using PC and manages them in PC.
P2 viewer is built in and able to view P2 contents easily like the P2 Viewer.
Contents can be speedily retrieved by automatically constructing the data base by using the metadata of P2 contents at the time of ingestion.
Able to add, change and delete metadata registered in P2 contents and the data base by the simple method.
Able to handout and keep them as back ups by copying P2 contents onto HDD and Optical media.

Main Functions

Display P2 contents data
Ingest P2 contents in PC.
Retrieve metadata of P2 contents
Classification
Display and Editing of property
Viewing (playback of contents)
Display and editing of text memos
Recording and delete of voice memos
Export P2 contents data
Production of Backup data for P2 CMS format
Archive P2 contents data (moving to optical media disk)
Restore

A couple of screen grabs I made, below.

I’m doing a ton of testing tomorrow with my HVX200, for an upcoming film I am DPing. Besides general camera tests I’m also testing out those sweet Zeiss primes I’ve got on loan and a number of things with Redrock’s M2 adapter.  I have a huge list of things we’re going to try out, most important to us being HMI flicker issues with the adapter and variable frame rates. If anyone has anything they would like seen added to the list let me know!

I’ve been a bit lax lately between work and moving, not because I intend on slacking off - but due to limitations in internet availability a lot lately. I’m sitting in a pub in the airport in Cedar Rapids, Illinois drinking a beer and burning time until my flight leaves for home. It’s been a brief but exhausting trip.

I came out here with Peter Kent another Vermont based filmmaker. Peter is shooting coverage of presidential candidates for a web based series entitled Walk a Day in My Shoes. The series is sponsored by SEIU, the Service Employees International Union. Each episode features a different politician working a day in the job of a union member.

We were in Cedar Rapids filming Senator Chris Dodd, (D) Connecticut, working at a Head Start center for the day. I was working with Peter, as a P2 technician and editor. We may be going to San Franciso to film Barack Obama and Las Vegas to film Hillary Clinton for the series as well. Pretty cool stuff!

I’m also finally finished unpacking so I’ll be hitting the blogging hard these coming weeks. Have a lot of testing camera and edit testing planned. I’m also pleading with Red for some Redcode Raw footage to test.

I just received my shipping notification from Zeiss lenses! They are sending me a set of prime lens to shoot some test footage with my Redrock M2 adapter! I’ll be doing a ton of testing next week before shooting an upcoming short, with the Zeiss primes, Redrock M2 adapter and an HVX200. I’m hoping to eventually do a huge breakdown similar to Adam Wilt’s breakdown of the DVX100. If anyone has any requests please let me know soon!