I recently created a video for the University of Washington Bothell that tells the story of two outstanding Computer and Software Systems students and a professor. They are developing a computer program that allows high school teachers to use the motion and voice capabilities of the Microsoft Kinect video game system in order to enrich the high school mathematics learning experience. Have a look at the short film below:
The Kodak Zi8 is a great little tool. Here is a quick Kodak Zi8 review to help you decide if you should buy it or not.
Pros:
The Kodak Zi8 shoots 1080p HD video.
Input for external microphone.
Uses SD memory cards, not built-in memory.
Great size. Small but not too small. Kodak Zi8 is about the size of an iPhone.
Cons:
Not all HD is the same. The Kodak Zi8 footage quality leaves something to be desired.
Battery life is short.
Still photographs are poor quality
The Kodak Zi8 makes for a decent secondary camera for b-roll, detail/secondary angles for interviews, and for time lapses. It’s also great for attaching to something like bicycle handlebars without having to worry about breaking an expensive camera. I wouldn’t write a Kodak Zi8 review without saying that the battery is crap and the still images it takes are pretty useless. But that’s fine – it’s still worth buying and it’s better than a Flip camera.
Why is it better than a Flip camera? What is better – Kodak Zi8 vs Flip? Well, the Flip doesn’t use SD cards so you are limited to what the Flip’s built-in memory can hold. Also, the Flip doesn’t work with external audio. And if you know anything about good multimedia and good film making, it’s that audio is everything. That said, the Flip shots slightly better footage than does the Kodak Zi8, but everything else about the Flip camera is worse. The Flip isn’t bad, it’s just worse in comparison to the Kodak Zi8. Review it differently if you disagree, and send me your review so I can read it!
So what about the Kodak Zi8 vs Flip vs GoPro? If you’re in the market for a pocket HD digital video camera, then you are probably looking at the Kodak Zi8, the Flip camera, and the GoPro. The benefit of the GoPro is that it’s rugged and the newest version of the GoPro shoots better quality footage than both the Flip camera and the Kodak Zi8. The GoPro is, however, more expensive. So it’s really in another category, but it is similar to the Flip camera and the Kodak Zi8. So in the context of a Kodak Zi8 review, I’ll have to say that the Zi8 is the best choice, and if you have extra money or want to send a list to Santa this year, then consider the GoPro as an upgrade. But keep in mind that the GoPro has the same audio drawbacks as the Flip camera, and in the audio arena the Kodak Zi8 is the winner.
I’ll finish this Kodak Zi8 review with a little endorsement for the iPhone 4S. If you don’t care about audio, then ditch the Kodak Zi8 and pickup an iPhone 4S. It will shoot as good as all three of the pocket digital video cameras mentioned above, but it’s the only one that makes calls and tells how to get home when you’re lost … ! Good luck shopping.
I recently directed a short film in partnership with producer Jim Perich-Anderson about the wetlands restoration project on the UW Bothell/Cascadia College co-located campus. The film highlights the remarkable transformation of a once heavily degraded wetland – which was essentially just a cow pasture – into an outstanding educational and environmental resource. Have a look at the film below and check out the UWB/CCC building dashboard website, where the film is featured.
For an upcoming project, I filmed the gardening crew at UW Bothell doing their seasonal decoration of the big W on campus. Have a look, and stay tuned for the final project … more info coming soon. I created this with a Canon 5D mark II, 70-200 f/4 lens, tripod, and Final Cut Pro X.
I wrote a recent review that was a pretty harsh critique of Final Cut Pro X and I do have to say that Apple took care of a lot of issues with its recent Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 software update. FCP version 10.0.1 (some people think it is FCP 10.1 but it’s not … not quite yet) is a nice revision of FCP X, which smooths a few of the rough edges of the first release of FCP X.
What we get with Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 is XML capability finally, as well as improved cross dissolve (and other) transitions without having to create a second storyline. This was an overlook in the first version and seemed weird, so I’m glad they fixed that. We also get solutions to other annoying bugs like the lower thirds malfunction that I described in an earlier post. It also feels a bit quicker. I do have to say that I upgraded to a new iMac this week, and FCP X really works slick and quick on this new machine. That hardware upgrade made me a lot happier with FCP X, but I do think that in general Apple is going in the right direction with the software and we’ll see more professionals using it soon.
I’m still on the fence as to whether or not it is the best tool out there, but I am continuing to use it more and more because I don’t have to transcode my Canon 5D mark II footage and I don’t have to wait for Final Cut Pro to render all the time, as I did with FCP 7. It is also a dream to be able to sync my separate audio and video files with one click (without buying an expensive plugin). And all of this costs $300. As the software updates from Apple continue to come, I am going to use FCP X more and more as my primary editing package.
The Lomokino camera will be a pretty cool addition to my Christmas list this year …
I’m very excited about making some short films lo-fi style, with good old fashioned real film. It’s funny because so many HDSLR filmmakers using cameras like the Canon 5D mark II, they will say “shoot in 24p because it is so film-like.” But really no one is ever going to shoot with film, unlike with still photography where so many people do still shoot film. Well, I can really sense that a camera like the Lomokino might actually catch on. And even though using actual film to make moving pictures is time-intensive (and $$-intensive), it really does look rewarding and I am going to give it a go. Stay tuned for the results.
The Lomokino uses any kind of 35mm film that you select, and works by the use of a hand crank that you crank to move the film through the open shutter. Pretty awesome, huh? Does anybody remember the opening credits to The Wonder Years? With the Beatles song. That was the Beatles right? A Beatles cover, anyway.
Here are some short videos from the Lomokino site:
Sample videos:
Teaser Trailer from Lomography on Vimeo.
A Sunny Day On The Southbank – LomoKino from Lomography on Vimeo.
How to use the Lomokino:
LomoKino – Shooting, Loading and Focusing from Lomography on Vimeo.
I’m working with the Diversity Recruitment & Outreach team at UW Bothell again, this time to document a special project at McKnight Middle School in Renton, Washington. UW Bothell student volunteers are spending time with the middle school students each week to build leadership and communication skills as well as self and cultural awareness. The volunteers are also facilitating conversations about how McKnight Middle School can better serve these students and set them up for success in college and beyond. The middle school student group consists of mostly African American and Latino young men, which are largely underrepresented groups on college campuses. Programs like this one can hopefully change that. It really is a remarkable program.
At the end of the year we will be producing a short documentary film that explains what we were able to accomplish. In the meantime, you can watch the first video installment of a series of updates about this outreach work. I am doing some of the filming, taking photographs, and most importantly mentoring a UW Bothell senior, Amen Mengesha, who is the director of the project. He is a media production star of the future, so be sure to watch that first video installment here, or below, to see what he created. I’ve included some of my photographs from week two below.
Update 11/14/2011: Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 brought good updates and changed my outlook somewhat.
—
After using the software for a few months now, I finally feel that I can write a well-informed Final Cut Pro X review. Let’s get right to it: don’t buy Final Cut Pro X. Not just yet.
This was a massive overhaul of the software and anyone should know that it’s risky to jump on the bandwagon with a 1.0 release. Don’t get me wrong – I like Final Cut Pro X and I think it has a lot of potential, but there are too many bugs right now. Extremely frustrating bugs. Bugs that make this software a huge waste of time and inappropriate for professional use.
The trailer you see below is one I made for With Nature in Mind using Final Cut Pro X, along with a full 7-minute video that is almost finished. It was fun to learn the new software while creating these videos, and there are a lot of great features in the software, but this is an honest Final Cut Pro X review so I have to tell both sides of the story.
The bugs are frustrating. The worst one happens when using the lower third templates (the little name and title animations for interviews). What happens is that I insert a lower third over someone talking, type in their name and information, and then move along with my editing. But after a while, the changes to the lower third get lost over and over again at different times in the editing process. Sometimes, I’ll have the video project completely finished in Final Cut Pro X and I’ll export it. Everything looks fine. Then I go back in to change something small – and completely unrelated to the lower thirds in the project – but what will happen is the lower thirds reset themselves and just say “Name” in place of the interviewees’ actual names! This has happened too many times. Often times the formatting that I have applied to the lower third is also lost. See pics below.
Another weird bug that happens that I haven’t read in other Final Cut Pro X reviews is that the audio becomes distorted upon export and upload to YouTube. When I export a video and watch it on my computer, it sounds fine, but when I upload to YouTube, often the audio gets very scratchy. I know this is a transcoding problem because I found a way to work around it. The problem disappears if, after export from Final Cut Pro X, I open the video in Quicktime and use that program’s “Save As” function and select “1080p.” This essentially re-transcodes the video file and somehow fixes whatever Final Cut Pro X is doing wrong. Very weird. And another time waster.
The funny thing is, I started using the software in order to save time, but this Final Cut Pro X review is sadly going to tell you that Final Cut Pro X wastes more of your time than it saves. Yes, it’s true that you can sync an audio track with a video track in one click (something huge for DSLR interview shooters like myself). Yes, you can edit h.264 footage without having to first transcode to something like Prores 422 via MPEG Streamclip. And yes, it’s true that you don’t have to wait for Final Cut Pro X to render (at all). But what they don’t tell you is that the program becomes quite slow during the “background rendering” that Final Cut Pro X uses, but this is probably not a big deal on newer machines. My Macbook Pro is from mid-2008, but still is generally quite fast and does great with the previous versions of Final Cut Pro. Also, in general, Final Cut Pro X is just slow overall compared to previous versions. Again, yes, my machine is older, but comparing Final Cut Pro 7 to Final Cut Pro X head to head … the older version is way faster.
So here is my advice – since you have invested your time in reading this Final Cut Pro X review, do you yourself another favor and save your time by avoiding Final Cut Pro X until 10.1 comes out. If you don’t like that, then switch to Adobe Premiere. Call me too patient, but I’ll wait to see if 10.1 works or not before I switch. Unlike many, many other photographers and video producers out there.
UW Bothell hired me to produce a short film at their commencement ceremonies again this year. For you techie types out there, I used a Canon 5D mark II on a monopod to shoot most of the footage, and my lens throughout the day was generally a Canon 24-70 f/2.8. I cut the project on Final Cut Pro 7, probably my last project on their version 7 before I switch over to using strictly Final Cut Pro X … but we’ll see.
It was a long day of filming, during which I also broadcasted the ceremony live online with the assistance of Seattle photographer Karlie Roland. I was exhausted after the long day but very happy with the results. A funny side note: I too was graduating this year with a Master of Arts in Cultural Studies, so I got to film my own ceremony. Keep an eye out for the folks who are in my graduating cohort (bonus points if you can spot them. I managed to avoid being in the film myself!).
Well, have a look at the project below!
I’m building a lot of new projects these days and I am very excited to announce Chapel Rock Wedding Studios, which I have created in partnership with Seattle photographer Theo Stroomer. Chapel Rock is the name of a landmark on a beach on Orcas Island in Puget Sound’s enchanting San Juan Islands. We have created our business to attract couples who are choosing to get married in the San Juans, Western Washington, and the greater Pacific Northwest region. So if you are looking for San Juan Islands wedding photographers or Seattle wedding photographers, give our website a visit or give us a call! You’ll see samples of our work on the Chapel Rock Wedding Studios website. If you are familiar with our work, you’ll also know I’m skilled in video production and Theo even has a degree in film, so of course we also specialize in creating beautiful HD short films at your wedding. Make sure to include us in your search for San Juan Islands wedding videographers or Seattle wedding videographers! We look forward to hearing from you!
This is a short one-minute trailer for an upcoming project on the wetlands restoration project at the co-located campus of the University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia Community College. This was my first project using Apple’s newly released Final Cut Pro X, which I actually enjoyed using. Many people had other things to say about the new software. Anyway, have a look at the trailer!
I had the privilege of meeting Jason Eskenazi last summer and he continues to be one of the best photographers that you probably haven’t heard of. (Check out his website). This is his new project, The Black Garden, on Kickstarter, which is an awesome new website designed to help find funding for creative projects. If you haven’t been to Kickstarter yet, I strongly encourage you to visit the site and have a look around. And support Jason’s latest project if you can. Stay tuned and look for one of my projects on Kickstarter soon.