Yosemite National Park. . .in High Definition 3D By John Virata While 3D films have been around since at least the 1950s, the technique of creating 3D movies gets revisited quite often. Back in the mid 1990s at SIGGRAPH in New Orleans, Sony showed a 3D film at one of its after hours parties at the Aquarium, to the delight of all who were invited to screen it. At this year's NAB trade show in Las Vegas, all the major camera manufacturers were showcasing 3D displays and some had 3D camera demonstrations in their booths. ...Read More »

Gonwest Productions shoots Breaking Point, Discovery Channel documentary with Panasonic AJ-HDX900 DVCPro HD Camcorders Gonwest Video Productions (San Francisco, CA), a leading supplier of turnkey crews to all the major broadcast networks, has equipped itself with Panasonic?s AJ-HDX900 multi-format DVCPRO HD camcorder for all its HD production work. Since taking delivery of the HDX900 last fall, Gonwest has used it to shoot an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary on overcrowding in the California prison system anchored by Ted Koppel. ...Read More »

Panasonic AJ-HDC27 VariCam Captures the Dirt on new FX Drama THE SERIES: The new FX hour-long drama series Dirt, starring Courteney Cox, which premiered earlier this month and is broadcast Tuesdays at 10pm ET/PT, is being shot with a pair of AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema cameras. The Director of Photography is Geary McLeod, and the Digital Imaging Technician is Ethan Phillips. Dirt was created by Matthew Carnahan. ...Read More »

Surf Filmmaker Arsen Brzostek By John Virata Surf movies have been around since the late 50s, starting with the overblown Gidget flicks that detailed little about what was really happening in surf culture. It was an interesting series of movies with fake surf shots and pretty boy actors trying to emulate the surfer look. It wasn't until Bruce Brown's Endless Summer in 1966 that mainstream America got a real taste of the surfing lifestyle. ...Read More »

Do We Accept The Truth? By John Virata Alexis Dias is one of thousands of Indians who have benefited from India's high tech industry. Earning a comfortable living, Dias noticed that not all have benefited from the high tech boom. During his daily commutes to his job, the 33 year old software developer noticed a disproportionate amount of children doing menial jobs to survive. So Dias and several colleagues, armed with a Panasonic GS200 3CCD miniDV camcorder and Sony's Vegas video editing software decided to make a film to show the plight of the working street kids of Bangalore. ...Read More »

Canon?s XL H1 HD Camcorder Is a Natural for Indiana Public Broadcaster When Clayton Taylor was looking for a new camera to take advantage of the new widescreen HD formats, he turned to the Canon XL H1 HD Camcorder as his main tool for shooting programs for Indianapolis Public Television station WFYI. Taylor, who had a positive experience with the Canon XL2, has been very busy at the station, producing quite a few programs covering a variety of topics, and feels the XL H1 HD Camcorder will take their productions further into the HD realm. ...Read More »

DP Samson Chan Racks up miles worldwide with his AG-HVX200 If video cameras could accumulate frequent-flyer miles, Director of Photography Samson Chanā??s HVX200 would be due a nice vacation trip about now. The LA-based DP had no sooner unpacked his new five-pound DVCPRO HD P2 camcorder than it was off to China with him to shoot features on China's powerhouse figure skaters for ESPN's telecast of the World Figure Skating Championships held in Calgary, Canada last March. ...Read More »

The Making of Technostorks By John Virata In vitro fertilization is often the last resort for couples who wish to have a baby of their own. While there are countless books on the subject, there wasn't a film that discusses virtually all aspects of the procedure, as well as the mental and physical, and not to mention monetary toll it can take on those who choose to embark on the journey in an effort to have children. ...Read More »

The Making of Family: Part 2 By Frank Moldstad When last we left our hero, independent director JM Logan had sailed through on-location shooting for his feature film Family. The workflow was going according to plan, thanks to a music video project he had undertaken to test the feasibility of shooting the film at 24pa (16x9 anamorphic squeeze) on a Panasonic DVX 100a and up-rezzing from 720 to 1440 for output to HD. So now in Part 2, it's onto editing and post production. But this is where things get a little more complicated. ...Read More »

The Making of Family: Part One By Frank Moldstad This is the first of a three-part series where we talk with independent filmmaker JM Logan about the process of making Family, a full-length feature film he finished in January that is now being picked up for distribution. The conversation covers a 14-month period from script through post production, and includes details on shooting with a DV cam, uprezzing to HD, post production and securing distribution. In short, it?s a primer for indie filmmakers about workflow issues and pitfalls they are likely to face --and Logan knows just about all of them, as well as some innovative solutions. ...Read More »

Seven Questions Part 2: Is HDV Good Enough? By Charlie White (6/30/05) In this second part of Digital Media Net's seven-question interviews about HDV, DMN's Charlie White turns to Bob Ott, Sony's Vice President of Marketing, Professional Audio/Video Products. Riding the tide of impressive sales for the company's Z1 HDV camcorder, Ott spoke about where Sony's 3-CCD 1080i HDV camcorder is being used. Is it good enough for air? Many broadcasters are beginning to answer in the affirmative. ...Read More »

Seven Questions: Is HDV Good Enough? By Charlie White Miranda's vice president of product development, Michel Proulx made a bet on the success of the new HDV format over a year ago, developing products whose success hinged on whether HDV would be good enough for broadcasters to use on the air. Miranda introduced a HDV-to-SDI converter that lets broadcasters easily use the HDV footage along with their other broadcast equipment. DMN?s Charlie White talked with Proulx about the new HDV format and its role in the broadcast workflow in this exclusive interview. ...Read More »

Sony at NAB 2005: Debriefing with Alec Shapiro, Part 2 By Charlie White (5/17/05) In this second part of an exclusive two-part interview, Senior Vice President of Sony Electronics Broadcast and Production Systems Division Alec Shapiro talks with Digital Media Net?s Charlie White about the possibly intertwined future of Sony ?s editing system XPRI and its software cousin, Vegas. He also talks about how the HD transition has reached a tipping point but notes that Sony is still introducing SD products as well. ...Read More »

Sony at NAB 2005: Debriefing with Alec Shapiro, Part 1 By Charlie White (5/12/05) In this exclusive two-part interview, Senior Vice President of Sony Electronics Broadcast and Production Systems Division Alec Shapiro talks with Digital Media Net?s Charlie White about Sony?s new products announced at NAB 2005. Shapiro and Sony are currently on a roll, with the company enjoying an unusually profitable time in its history. In this part 1, Shapiro talks about the HDV camcorders and other products that contributed to that success, and next week in part 2, he makes news with tantalizing comments about the possibly intertwined future of Sony?s editing system XPRI and its software cousin, Vegas. ...Read More »

Interview and Pictures: JVC's ProHD Camcorders By Charlie White JVC plans to introduce ProHD, a new line of HDV-based products at NAB 2005. The new line of products includes two pro-level camcorders, an HDV videotape machine and more. In this exclusive DMN interview, Dave Walton, National Marketing Communications Manager of JVC Professional Products Company talked with Digital Media Net?s Charlie White about JVC?s HDV initiative and its implications for content creators. As an added bonus, inside you?ll see the first group of high resolution photos of JVC?s GV-HD100 HDV camcorder to be published anywhere in the world. ...Read More »

Director of Photography Phil Parmet By John Virata Phil Parmet, Director of Photography of Steve Buscemi's Lonesome Jim, has shot most of the films he's worked on the traditional way. With film. In a career that spans more than 30 years, the Director of Photography/still photographer has worked with a variety of film and video formats but has recently found himself working in the DV format for Buscemi's 2005 Sundance entry, Lonesome Jim. ...Read More »

Vintage Adventure Shoots Series with Panasonic Cameras Vintage Adventure, LLC (Denver, CO) is shooting episodes of an exhilarating new historical adventure series, Vintage Adventure, with Panasonic AG-DVX100A Mini-DV 3-CCD and AJ-SDX900 DVCPRO Cinema 24p camcorders. ...Read More »

Can You Make the Cut? By John Virata A reality TV show focused on the fine craft of digital video editing? Yes. There will be. The Fuel Network, a 24 hour cable channel focused on action sports, will air Cut Masters, a TV show that pits video editors against each other to come up with the most insane, yet crafty video segments, on January 28, 2005. ...Read More »

Discovering the Panasonic DVX 100A By Shari Belafonte While folks generally know me as a personality who has spent a great deal of time in front of the camera, it is behind the camera that I find myself most comfortable. I received my first still camera when I was but a youth, not quite four years of age. It was a Brownie. ...Read More »

A52's High-Tech Artifacts Effect New R.E.M. Aftermath Video Los Angeles visual effects and design company A52 today announced details of their visual effects work for Bob Industries and director Peter Care for R.E.M.'s new music video for "Aftermath." The second release from their new album "Around the Sun" released in early Oct., the new music video debuted in the U.K. on Nov. 4. ...Read More »