My Breathing on Everest journey kicked off less than a year out of University when my friend and frequent collaborator Meredith Gaito came to me with an idea she knew most other people would call too ambitious or downright crazy. A year and a half later I have been to Nepal twice filming at the base camp of Mount Everest for what has become a deeply personal documentary.
Written during the McCarthy era and published in 1953, Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, is set in a society where books are outlawed and firemen are charged with burning them. The novel has had many adaptations, most famously in François Truffaut’s 1966 film, which starred Oskar Werner and Julie Christie.
Ha Phuong, a petite dynamo with a huge heart and a big name in her native Vietnam is now a deeply entrenched New Yorker. Living there, she is more determined than ever to help make the world a better place, inspired by her upbringing in Vietnam as well as her love for her two precious daughters, Diana Phuong Chu, 8, and Angelina Tieu Phuong Chu, 6. She answered a few questions about her film Finding Julia.
When her father goes missing during a mountaineering expedition, Lindsey Lou (Jillian Clare) sets out to find him – only, she’s the least qualified candidate to do so. “Pretty Broken” follows Lindsey’s journey as she struggles with the loss of her father, and deals with how life and family can be challenging (and funny). Directed by Brett Eichenberger, the film recently premiered at Newport Beach Film Festival.
With its 13 high-speed, full-frame, prime lenses for high-quality film productions, ZEISS is focusing on maximum quality, low weight, and significant versatility when it comes to creating superb visual imagery.
Created by writer/director/producer Duane Adler, the Step Up film franchise, which consists of five films, has made over $650 million at the worldwide box office. The latest project, Step Up: High Water, is a dance drama series that is currently streaming on YouTube Red. Produced by Lionsgate Television, the show follows the students and faculty of High Water, Atlanta’s most competitive performing arts school. The ten-episode series was shot by cinematographer Joaquin Sedillo, ASC (Scream Queens, Glee, Veronica Mars) with Panasonic VariCam 35 cinema cameras.
In late 2015, Smock Media, a Venice Beach-based film and VR production company, and the Victims of Communism (VOC), a Washington, D.C.-based human rights organization, came together and started The Witness Project. DP Benjamin Gaskell was brought on to tackle the first episode of the second installment, which would set the tone for the rest of the documentary series. The episode focused on Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada 2015 and 2016, and her story.
Q What challenges were associated with shooting? Did you have a hard time landing any shots?
A My favorite filming location was on a remote hill that had these beautiful rolling hills of golden wheat. It was quite a logistical challenge to work effectively in the space, and I had a lot of concerns while we were location scouting about making it work. However our skillful producer J.P. Mandarino was instrumental in putting together a plan that made the whole experience a very efficient operation. It was one of those shooting days where the crew had such a good time working in a beautiful location capturing a meaningful story that you could almost feel the disappointment when we called wrap. If only every shooting day was like that! haha! Another moment that stands out to me was towards the end of our first half-day filming together. We ended up shooting past golden hour and deep enough into civil twilight that our overall ambient light levels required me to push the camera to 1600 ISO to get proper exposure. I’ll be honest about the fact that I was nervous about how the grain structure wouldn’t match, however I was pleasantly surprised at how the Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K performed. The color rendition and noise pattern of our twilight footage matched up really well with the rest of the project’s look and tone. It’s a nice feeling knowing that you don’t always have compromise the quality of an established look or aesthetic in order to get enough footage in the can at the end of the day. When you work with good crew and the right equipment you can do almost anything.
StarTech takes a look at upcoming 4K video trends including how it's being adopted, what barriers exist, true 4K ecosystem and more.
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Q How is 4K Being Adopted and Proliferated?
A 4K technology opens a world of possibilities for content creation and consumption. 4K UHD augments the viewing experience in applications like entertainment, digital signage, education, sports, surveillance, games and medical applications. Native 4K resolution is significantly better in resolving detail, allowing closer, more immersive viewing and scales down to 2K output with a higher quality picture than if created in 2K. An entire industry has emerged to enable a truly end-to-end 4K ecosystem - from capture, production, initial distribution, and secondary distribution to consumers. Consumer electronics equipment manufacturers, in particular, are embracing this revolutionary display technology and are the driving force behind making 4K mainstream.
Fremont, CA - August 20, 2018 - Blackmagic Design today announced that the Golden Horse Award-winning film “Alifu, the Prince/ss” was shot with its URSA Mini 4.6K digital film camera and graded by colorist Zoe Chang with DaVinci Resolve Studio and the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel.
In Small Town Crime, a thriller with dark humour, ex-cop Mike Kendall (John Hawkes) discovers the body of a young woman and, in an act of self-redemption, becomes hell-bent on finding her killer. While his uncouth and quirky detective style helps break open the case, his dogged determination unwittingly puts his family in danger.
Sigma Corporation of America, a leading still photo and cinema lens, camera, flash and accessories manufacturer, announced today that it has been honored with the esteemed 2018-19 EISA DSLR Zoom Lens Award for its large-aperture, ultra-wide-angle, full-frame 14-24mm F2.8 DG HSM Art lens. It is the fourth award this year for the lens that boasts imperceptible distortion, great sharpness and virtually no chromatic aberration, making it the ideal solution for landscape and architecture photography. With robust build quality and protective sealing against dust and splashes, this lens can be used with confidence in most weather conditions. Available in Canon, Nikon and Sigma mounts for just $1299 USD, the Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 Art radically outperforms its competitors and furthers Sigma’s mission to facilitate artistic expression with the best quality optics available on the market.
Fremont, CA - August 14, 2018 - Blackmagic Design announced today that post production facility DigitalFilm Tree (DFT) has moved its full pipeline, including editorial, color, visual effects (VFX) and delivery, into the newest release of DaVinci Resolve Studio, version 15, which was released this month.
