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Neil Smith, at hdiRAWworks, arranged for Philip Bloom to conduct a Canon HD-DSLR masterclass yesterday here in LA. This was the first time I've ever attended such a thing, and I rather enjoyed it and learned a lot too. The little tidbits you pick up are also interesting: like why the Canon 5Dmkii will only shoot video for 12 minutes. I always thought it was just a storage capacity issue. No. (We live in such a weird world.)

Philip showed several of his shorts, which, of course, are amazing. I've embedded a few of them here at tt.us from time to time. While they look great on the computer screen, they were stunning on the big screen with the HD projector.

He spoke of many things related to his craft, but I suppose I learned the most from his talk about setup, actually using the DSLR for video. I've never bothered with custom camera settings before but have already imported the superflat settings he recommended and am eager to try the workflow: shooting with the increased dynamic range, though visually initially less "interesting," and then grading the footage in post. It makes sense as I do the equivalent process with still photography all the time. We just can't get raw data out of the 5D. Philip says: "Yet..." (See Luka Crnkovic-Dodig's post: How to increase the Canon 7D/5D dynamic range, which includes this link to the superflat settings file, among others.)

In my own casual exploration through this space, I've ended up with a lot of the same software and equipment, and now have a better understanding of implementation and process for video and timelapse using my 5Dmkii. It's now time to play, play, play!  I'm also eager to explore timelapse.

Aside from being brilliant at what he does, Philip is very personable and has a great sense of humor. He also comes across as completely genuine and open about what he recommends and why. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of his masterclasses, jump at it! I'm glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

Related articles:



• Canon Rebel T2i DSLR: 18MP and Legit 1080p Video for $899 [Digital Cameras] (gizmodo.com)
• Canon EOS 7D digital SLR (go.theregister.com)
• Canon's EOS 1D Mark V DSLR defying death, launching tomorrow? (engadget.com)
• The First Clips Shot on the Canon T2i Look As Good as the 7D [Photography] (gizmodo.com)
• Gorgeous (timtyson.us)

Yes, The Oscars are upon us!

Back when I first visited my new dentist (who, incidentally, I really like!), I drove by a building I thought to be a church.  I was surprised to see that it is The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—the people responsible for The Oscars!  I made a mental note.

Today, with the festivities fast upon us, I drove back out there and took some pictures of the building as well as the Hollywood sign, which is only about 5 miles further.  Three pictures of the Academy lurk behind the one shown below.  Click it to see them all.

The image is cropped; the roof, telephone pole and wires (enlarge to see) are removed; the sky especially (and the image as a whole) has a bit of my 11 different herbs and spices; and the electronics, fence, and road at the top of the hill are all removed.

Related articles

• Download the official Oscars App for iPhone and iPod Touch (teabreak.pk)


• Barbara Walters: Final Oscars Special Is Best (huffingtonpost.com)


• Oscar nods aren't translating into ticket boom (msnbc.msn.com)

I just stumbled onto this new program, TuneUp, from TuneUpMedia.com. It's an iTunes plugin that has a number of really cool features:

• The program will analyze your iTunes library and report back all of the tracks that have incomplete information and create a "dirty" playlist.  Incomplete information might mean the track is missing any of the data listed in the graphic to the right.


• Drag any of the "dirty" tracks into TuneUp.  TuneUp then analyzes the sound footprint of the track to determine what the track actually is and offers to retrieve all of the missing meta data for the track.  In other words, you could have a track in your iTunes library called "Track 09."  TuneUp would figure out what the track name, artist, album, genre, year, cover art, and actual track number on the album are and populate all of that data, replacing the "Track 09" with the real info!  That's rather remarkable!  But there's more...


• TuneUp will follow what you're listening to, offer videos of the track in a sidebar (just click to play the videos right there in the sidebar), a bio of the artists, tell you about the upcoming concerts for that artist in your area, even let you purchase the tickets, share related items about the artist from ebay, let you tweet what you're listening to.


• Other features too...

Today Apple sold its 10,000,000,000th (that's billionth) song at the iTunes Store—all in less than 7 years. The music industry can gripe all it wants, but Apple has made them a lot of money they would otherwise have lost to file sharing!

Today's Business Insider has this headline: Blockbuster Collapses: Shutting Down 500 Stores In Desperate Bid To Save $200 Million. I'm actually shocked they survived as long as they did. They ended last year almost $1,000,000,000 in debt.

By closing 500 of their weakest stores, they hope to reduce operating expenses by $200 million. They are also exploring other ways to increase liquidity and find new emerging distribution channels.

Let me offer them a touch of advice. Liquidate now and save everyone the misery to come.

Zelda Rubinstein, the diminutive character actress with the childlike voice who was best known as the psychic called in to rid a suburban home of demonic forces in the 1982 horror movie "Poltergeist," died Wednesday. She was 76.

Yesterday afternoon I abandoned routine and went to see Avatar. This was the first time I have ever seen a 3D IMAX movie.

I had heard good things about Avatar in 3D IMAX but really really wasn't expecting much. After all, I've seen a 3D movie before, years ago. I just wasn't all that impressed with it. In fact, it was so lackluster, I don't even recall what the movie was. I'd also been to (seen?) Terminator, a 3D experience at Disney's EPCOT, which, while great fun, was obviously less than a deep 3D immersive experience.

Avatar is in a whole new class of immersive 3D experiences. I had adjusted to the 3D glasses within 15 - 20 seconds of watching the first 3D preview and quickly got past the fact that I was wearing them.

Within a few minutes, I was "into" the movie. I mean, I literally lost the fact I was watching this movie on a 2D flat screen. The sense of real physical depth is convincing.

I actually caught myself, at one point fairly early in the movie, physically moving my body/head to see around an object in the movie so I could better see what was behind it! Such a thing is, of course, impossible. I was still watching a 3D image projected on a flat 2D screen. But my mind, my sense of perception, was so realistically convinced by the 3D technology that I perceived an actual 3D space. Intuitively I "knew" that I should be able to see behind an object if I just moved.

Amazing!

I fear that I am now "of an age" that doesn't thrill so easily from a movie-going experience. This was different. The artistic direction, the imaginative, creative visual design, the seamless and invisible integration of CGI were all compellingly presented in a truly artistic and visually stunning encounter.

Seeing Avatar in 3D IMAX is a must. This movie, in 3D IMAX, has forever changed what the movies are destined to become as an art form.

Another 3D movie was advertised in the previews that I will have to go see: NASA's 3D IMAX about repairing the Hubble Telescope. The trailer said NASA filmed the actual repair with a 3D IMAX camera. The clarity, detail, and 3D reality of the trailer placed me right there loosely tethered in outer space. I really felt as though I could reach out in front of me and touch the image. It seemed that real.

What will be next? When will our capacity to capture and display massive amounts of visual information become so great that we will be able to literally walk around in a movie projection, seeing it from all sides? (I would hate to be the camera director for that kind of project!) While interacting physically with the image, like on the Holodeck in StarTrek, currently seems impossible, or maybe not, perhaps a more complete sense of 3D projection is not.

I greatly enjoyed all of Dan Brown's books. I suspect one of the reasons I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons so, aside from the fact Dan is an excellent writer, is that I had been to so many of the places about which he writes. (I'm including a couple of pictures I shot of two of the locations featured in Angels and Demons: The Pantheon (above), and a view from atop St. Peter's Basilica (bottom). Just below is a picture, shot just outside The Louvre, of the very spot the challis was hidden in The Da Vinci Code.)

Well, last weekend I went to see Angels and Demons. Faithful to the book, it too is well done, filled with the action, excitement, and great cinematography that make for great entertainment. Highly recommended!

Numbers like 1.33:1 or 2.35:1 are ever so confusing, but this post at 37 Signals helps show the different types of aspect ratios by referring to screenshots from TCM.

Pinnochio (1940)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Star Wars (1977)

... Tim-style!

Manhattan Beach must have more children per capita than any other city in the USA! I'm completely serious! I've never seen a place with more children--really young children. Thursday and Friday nights I ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and Chili's respectively. Both evenings the number of loud and generally badly behaved children was unbelievably high.

As incredulous as it may sound, on the half of the restaurant I was in, on Thursday I counted 37 children under the age of about 5! What if they all spontaneously decided to take over the restaurant? I swear there were not enough adults to have prevented it! Screaming, crying, doing what less-than-1-year-olds do, the place was out of control. The dining experience was completely unpleasant. I couldn't wait to get out of there. Chili's the next night was little better.

By California standards, these are inexpensive places to eat. So I guess the moms and dads take the family out to eat here. I actually asked the waiter at California Pizza Kitchen if Thursday nights was kids night. (I was going to avoid it in the future.) He rolled his eyes and said with a bit of disgust in his voice, as some toddler let out a particularly shrill screech: No, believe it or not, it's like this every night.

So when the girl that cuts my hair told me about the ArcLight Theater at the Cinema Dome in Hollywood, describing it as kids-free and very well done, I immediately wanted to go there. The tickets are pricy: $15--hence no children: indeed, a small price to pay. A large, very nice theater (with reserved seating) on Sunset Blvd., I had a fantastic time enjoying a dinner and movie: Mamma Mia!

The movie's setting in the Greek Isles was spectacular. The music is, well... you know. I bought the soundtrack. Meryl Streep was a sensation. She can sing, too!! Is there anything she can't do on stage?! Pierce Brosnan?? Was the casting director snorting cocaine, or what?! The man can not sing. At least the audio mixer amped up everything else to drown him out.

This was a great feel good movie, and the only thing loud and out of control was the awesome music. I highly recommend it.

Here is a good article at the iPod Lounge for Mac users who are interested in ripping your legally owned DVDs so you can watch them on your iPod. (They also give info for Windows users.) The article includes settings and information related to format. Handbrake, a great little application which I've used many times, is not completely intuitive. The step by step directions, presented by the iPod Lounge, along with some explanation of what the settings all mean and do is very helpful.

I'm in the process (this very moment, actually) of setting up a media server for the house that will provide access to all of the digital media content to any television or computer in the house. Regrettably, I can't find a single comprehensive solution to address all of the digital assets: TiVo, AppleTV, iTunes, Podcasts, Photos, the Verizon DVR, etc. I suspect that Apple has been developing this for the last few years, but that will probably be a completely proprietary solution.

And the thought of ripping all of the DVD content I own is just too overwhelming, especially when the new BluRay format is getting ready to pounce and make all of the lower resolution DVDs look less than desirable on the large HD flat screen TVs. And then there is the hard disk space requirement. For standard definition alone the space required is insane!

And then you have the issue of developing an affordable digital media backup strategy. I'm already dealing with a LaCie HD failure at the moment–a 1TB drive. When drives contain that much data, losing one is no small concern. And yes, they do die! This is the third hard drive failure I've experienced in 2008! That's a huge issue.

I have two 4 TB Drobo's with a network interface on the way to address the backup and redundancy issues. But what of catastrophic loss like fire or theft? I'm curious about off site backup. But .Mac, now MobileMe, limits backup capacity to 60 GB, which doesn't even cover my documents folder, let alone my digital media assetts: 20,000+ photos, then thousands and thousands of videos, podcasts, and music files...

I'm curious about Amazon's S3, with JungleDisk, which, as inexpensive as it first seems at .10 per GB per month plus bandwidth usage, adds up quickly when you're talking about terabytes of data. Redundancy is good but is also both very time consuming and expensive.

Then how do you fully and completely automate the backup/redundancy process? I certainly don't want to spend any of my time checking to see what new files have been added to iTunes to back up just those, etc. This must be completely and reliably automated.

Who has explored solutions? Has anyone found anything you really like that works well?

I've been really busy! But this makes up for it. These guys are crazy!

From my unknown friends at the BBC came this tip. Worth it indeed!

I often find that I live my life much too fast. I don't get to see it, feel it, hear it, feel it in any dimension with significant depth. A recent research study suggests that when people are rushed, we even fail to actualize our core values. But that's not what this post covers.

This little video is something of the beauty of life we can not see with our eyes because this event happens, naturally, faster than we can see.

Enjoy.

...while watching it with your daughter! I saw this video several months ago. It speaks volumes. The power of media to remove us from who we are is so hazardous, and we don't even notice it happening.

I have been so busy over the past several months I haven't gone to any movies. This is sad. I love a good movie. Too few are made.

I went to see Atonement, a wonderful period piece that captures well the essence of the book, by Ian McEwan. I highly recommend the movie or the book. The movie was directed by Joe Wright, who also did Pride and Prejudice, another delightfully well done book-brought-to-screen.

"Atonement" (Ian Mcewan)

I'm not a fan of "cute." But this was just too cute! This seagull in Scotland is in the habit of stealing chips from a neighborhood shop. The seagull nonchalantly strolls into the store (as if seagulls do this regularly), waits until the shopkeeper isn't looking, grabs a snack-size bag of cheese Doritos, and then rushes out of the store. Once outside, the bag gets ripped open and shared with the other birds. Interestingly, the bird always takes the same type of chips.

Customers have begun paying for the seagull's stolen bags of chips because they think it's so funny.

Click above to play

I really liked the Matrix, well, I still do! It was one of those mind-blowing movie-going experiences. The directors, truly brilliant brothers, went to the cutting edge of their craft and even changed the art of videography with time-remapping special effects which are now common place. At any rate, I am including these photos taken by Jeremy Keith, the author of adactio.

Jeremy went down under for a web development conference and visited each of these locations shot in the films. He then does this really cool geotagging thing with a map of google. (So this guy knows way more about web development than I ever will!) So as you click on the thumbnails he has in his post, it locates them on a map of Sydney and opens the photo in a larger version he has posted on his Flickr page. What I especially like: he placed himself or someone else in the exact location of the picture as one of the characters in the movie for his pictures. He then splits the picture: the top is a scene from the movie; the bottom is his recreated scene. I love it! Brilliantly cool.

I am including links to his larger Flickr pictures here and the little thumbnails down below to get you interested enough to visit. OK, so most of my readers are not as interested in The Matrix as am I. But, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, I too will find myself down under shooting lots of pictures. I suspect they would include these as well.

• Campbell Street and Elizabeth Street
• The Crosswalk at Martin Place and Pitt Street
• The Fountain at Martin Place and Pitt Street (lady in red)
• The Metacortex Building at Margaret Street and Carrington Street
• The Military Controlled Building at Philip Street and Martin Place
• The Phonebooth at Hunter Street and Pitt Street

I must admit to wondering if people think I'm a crazy man talking to myself (like the guy I blogged about nearly two years ago in this post ) when I'm talking on my bluetooth headset. This little movie file of a commercial is a good laugh about this very issue.

Click to watch.

The more I travel, the more I feel language challenged. I wish so badly that I had mastered several languages at a very young age. I fear I am too old and haven't the time to invest in learning languages now. Such a pity!

At any rate, this little video is a hoot!

Two years ago I was confident that the man the Supreme Court appointed as the previous president would once again not be elected by the American people. I'm not totally convinced he really was. (Too many precincts had 100% turn out and 100% of them voted for Bush?) But one thing is for certain: he is simply stupid.

I was distraught over his returning to office as I believe that stupid people in positions of extreme power become arrogant and indeed dangerous. And now many Americans agree. The Republicans as a party have done more in 6 years to damage my country than any party has done in my lifetime. Will they steal this election?

This little clip would be funny if it were your average Joe on America's Funniest Home Videos. But dear God in heaven, he's the leader of the free world! This isn't funny! It's frightening! Happy Halloween!

This is so odd, it's fun. Who thinks up this stuff and then spends the time to execute it! Don't get me wrong: I guess I'm glad they did!

About a month ago I heard a report on NPR about putting Mentos mints into a 2 liter Diet Coke. The result: an immediate 20 foot exploding fountain of Diet Coke from the 2 liter container. It sounded curious to me, and I was hoping no students at my school were listening to NPR!

I just found a rather entertaining movie: "a hysterical and spectacular mint-powered version of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, brought to you by the mad scientists at EepyBird.com." I had never heard of these guys before, but the movie clearly demonstrates that the world is full of very funny people. I mean, it's one thing to think this stuff up, but it's a whole new world to actually make a 3 minute movie of it.

Clicking on the picture below (from their movie) will take you to EepyBird.com where you can watch their movie!

I just returned from a movie and then dinner. The movie's story line was very unusual but a delight. The music was glorious! The cinematography was also wonderful. I love period pieces.

Two sisters engage in a subtle war for the affections of a man half their age in this British comedy drama. It's 1936, and Janet Widdington (Maggie Smith) and her sister, Ursula (Judi Dench), are a pair of elderly spinsters who share a home in Cornwall on the coast of England. After a storm, the sisters discover that someone has been washed up on the beach in front of their house. Bringing the body inside, they discover the victim is a handsome German man named Andrea (Daniel Brühl) who has suffered a broken ankle and speaks no English.

As the sisters patch up Andrea's ankle, Janet dusts off her old German textbook from school, and begins getting to know more about their guest. It isn't long before Janet develops an infatuation for the good-looking stranger, which is more than a bit maddening to Ursula, who has fallen head over heels for him, especially after the sisters discover he's a gifted violinist and hear him display his craft on a borrowed instrument. As the sisters find themselves vying for Andrea's attention, they wonder if they should report his presence to the authorities, especially after Olga (Natascha McElhone), an attractive woman in her early thirties who lives nearby, becomes aware of Andrea's presence in the home and wants to make contact with him. Based on a short story by William J. Locke, Ladies in Lavender marked the directorial debut of actor Charles Dance.

~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Seldom have a sat for almost 2.5 hours feeling my life force wither away while suffering through a wretched movie with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  Tonight, I did just that.

Avoid Nobody Knows.  This movie is in the top 3 worst movies I've ever seen!

Just saw the movie--my first digitally projected movie.  Andrew Lloyd Webber's music, which goes without saying, is fabulous.  The costumes and sets were also excellent.  A bit long but wonderful. Check out the music at iTunes.

I went to see the movie Kinsey last night, unsure what I would think.  I liked it.  I really don't know if the movie was factual about Dr. Kinsey's life and work or not.  I know of his work in broad strokes and nothing of his life.  A few interesting things from the movie:

1. Nature consistently presents one immutable fact: diversity and variance.
2. A vast difference exists between what people say they do and what they actually do.  (Have you heard me harp on that one?!)
3. His mind seemed so utterly focused on empirical evidence about sexual conduct to the exclusion of the psychological, emotional, or moral significance ascribed to those behaviors.

The movie was really pretty interesting and made me wish I knew more factual details about his life and research.

Click on the text below the picture if you wish to watch a video of our nation's president, the leader of the free world, flip a bird at the camera. In the video he prefers to call it “a one finger victory salute.” Now isn't he just the clever christian.

Click here to watch the video.

This little movie is an interesting take on the history of blogging and looks all the way back to the Revolutionary War.  In fact, he highlights the fact that the media made Americans passive instead of the active participants many were in pre-media “blogging.”

Check it out here.