Shoot Edit Learn » Jon Connor

Failure By Erosion (And How to Avoid It)

Jon Connor — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:08:33 +0000

“If you do only what you know and do it very, very well, chances are that you won’t fail. You’ll just stagnate, and your work will get less and less interesting, and that’s failure by erosion.” -Twyla Tharp

Failure by erosion is a very real threat to all creative types. I have been guilty of succumbing to this. You fall into a “comfort zone”. You develop a “style”. Call it whatever you want but, without evolving as an artist, we all can easily fall victim to failure by erosion.

So we know the threat is real. Now what? How do we avoid it?

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

1) Get outside of your “comfort zone”.

What is your favorite lens?
Next time you go out to shoot don’t use it. It’ll force you to look at things differently.
What’s your signature shot or move?
Next time you go out to shoot don’t do it.
Borrow a new piece of equipment or lens.
Frame your shots in a different way.
Experiment.
Even if it doesn’t work out, you will have succeeded at doing something new.

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

2) Look for inspiration from somewhere outside of your genre or field.

When you look to your own medium for inspiration there is a fine line between being inspired and copying.
So here’s some different areas to look at:
Architecture
Graphic Design
Photography
Comedy (but actually get off your ass and attend a live show)
Books
Music
Travel
Dreams
Theater
Nature
Art
Newspapers
Fashion
Life
Here’s a few Websites to get your creative juices flowing:
Behance
Zenhabits
Smashing Magazine
Popurls
The Sartorialist
Eye Candy
Cool Hunting
Deviant Art
Spotify

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive.” – Howard Thurman

3) Collaborate.
By surrounding yourself with other creative people you have to see things from someone else’s point of view. It puts a fresh set of eyes on a project.
At the same time the way you approach things may inspire them. It’s a beautiful cycle.

“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

4) Personal Projects.
These are hard to find time for and the pay is non-existent, usually. However, if you don’t make time for it, you are doing yourself a great disservice. The freedom of not having a boss
or client to answer to will unleash your creativity. Sometimes posting these online will have the unintended effect of getting you work. The fact that you aren’t restricted allows you
to do something different. Which, in turn, helps to separate you from an over-saturated market.

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” ~ Pablo Picasso

5) Ask yourself questions.
Why do I need to create?
What stifles my creativity?
What sparks it?
What is my personal philosophy on life in one sentence?
If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
How come I’ve never seen a baby pigeon?
If someone wrote a book about you what would the title be?
If you had to have another profession what would it be?
If money wasn’t an issue,ever again, what would you do today?

Refuse to succumb to failure by erosion.
Reinvent.
Evolve.
Move and Shake.
Think Big.
Take Chances.

“20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” ~ Mark Twain

Don’t just be a passive consumer of information. Join the conversation. Let us know what you can add to this list in the comment section. Share it with others so we can get some different perspectives. It’s the only way we can grow.
Thanks for reading

Reel World: 64 Bit Films shoots “Monitor” on the Canon 60D

Jon Connor — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:43:00 +0000

64 Bit Films is a small production company founded by student filmmakers Jared Rosenthal, Luca Repola, Cosmo Scharf and Kai Demler. Cristina and I had a chance to meet Jared and Cosmo, at a Philip Bloom DSLR meet-up in Brooklyn, a year or two ago. We were instantly impressed by how passionate they were about filmmaking. I could tell after talking to Jared, for awhile, that 64 Bit Films was going places. Here is the trailer to their latest work a short film titled “Monitor”.

Monitor | Official Trailer from 64BitFilms on Vimeo.

I was so impressed with the quality of this trailer, I needed to know more. I caught up with the Director, Jared Rosenthal, via email and asked him some questions.

How long have you been interested in filmmaking?

When I was a little kid I had a fascination with animated movies. I started working with stop motion animation, and then jumped into live-action filmmaking with a DV camera when I was 12. I’m 17 now, and in my senior year of high school, but I’ve never really had a doubt in my mind about what I want to do as a career. For me, it’s always been film. I spent six weeks in 2009 and again in 2010 with a summer film conservatory, where I had a few incredible instructors who really taught me the ins and outs of filmmaking. Between those two years I also met two of my three partners in our production company, 64 Bit Films.

What was your role in this film?

I directed, co-wrote and edited Monitor, but the entire thing was really a collaborative effort. When it’s four teenagers all pouring their time and money into a project like this, everyone’s opinion needs to be heard. When we were on set we were careful not to step on each others’ toes, but in pre and post production we would debate plot points and review the rough cut as a group. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Luca Repola, our cinematographer, knew the script just as well as anyone else on set, and that was invaluable. I could leave the room for 10 minutes and have a long discussion with an actor, and trust him to move onto the next setup and create something not only aesthetically appealing — but something that served the story as well. The same held true for our co-writer and assistant director, Cosmo Scharf, and our producer, Kai Demler. It was incredibly comforting to know I could focus my attention on blocking the next scene while they grabbed great coverage from the next room.

Where did you come up with the idea for this?

My aunt had thrown around the idea for a book or something similar that involved a woman hearing a murder over a baby monitor. And the main character would hear some sort of motif that would eventually lead her back to the real murderer. That was about all there was to the story. We were bouncing ideas around for the “next big project” and I called up my aunt. I asked her if she would mind if we ran with the story, and she seemed to have no problem with it.

Who wrote the script?

I had pitched the idea to the original team in 2009. They liked the idea, so I wrote up a two-page treatment. Between the summer of 2009 all the way up to early 2011 I did a bunch of different versions of the script. Each one was a different length. At that point, we had no idea what we could afford or handle shooting, so we were toying with length and plot structure to try and gauge what worked. We knew we wanted to shoot in the summer of 2011, so we were moving full-steam ahead on the production and the elements that we knew we would need.

The characters remained pretty much the same throughout the entire process, so we cast our lead (Anne DeAcetis) really early on in the process and started locking down locations and the like. But then our 2011 shooting deadline kept coming at us faster and faster, and we still didn’t have a script that really worked. I contacted Cosmo, one of our friends from the film conservatory, and sent him the script. He’s got a fantastic creative mind, but what he does better than anything else is he can look at a piece of work for the first time and immediately identify where the problems are. With about two months remaining until the shoot, I went to his house every day for about a week and we tossed around a whiffle ball and talked through the major plot points in the script and re-wrote the entire thing from scratch. So the final thing that’s on the screen was really a collaborative effort.

What challenges did you face when making this film?

The biggest challenges we faced were probably due to our age. It’s really hard to gain peoples’ confidence when you have a fairly limited body of work and you’re 17 years old. Our biggest concern was funding the project. We wanted to pay for it as much as possible out of pocket, but the limited freelance work we were able to pick up could only earn us so much. Ultimately, we had to find donors to help back the film, and we had to figure out ways to trim the budget. We knew we absolutely needed to have professional actors in the film, and we were blessed with the cast we got. They were incredibly talented and generous. Most of them worked for free. We paid the leads, but not nearly enough for the time they put in and the risk they took by signing onto a short film made by teenagers. We had a lot of concerns about the casting process. We weren’t sure what adult actors were going to do when they walked into an audition held by kids, but to our surprise no one really had anything to say about it. We were incredibly grateful for that. The other big challenge had to do with securing gear. We spent the better part of two years hunting down film equipment companies (like Kessler Crane and Red Giant, and a handful of others) to sponsor the film, and their generosity was overwhelming. We ended up shooting a film for under $4,000 with equipment we never could have afforded otherwise. We save additional money by shooting on DSLRs (we used two Canon 60Ds), which really allowed us to maintain our shoestring budget. We toyed with the idea of renting lenses, but didn’t really have the time or budget to do screen tests with them or keep them for a week, so we used a Sigma that we already owned and really loved and the Canon “nifty/thrifty” 50mm f1.8. For a dirt cheap lens, the 50mm performed admirably, especially when working on night scenes.

I’m a gear nerd. Did you have anything else in the arsenal ?

We used Kessler Crane’s KC-Lite as the “big gun” in our arsenal. It performed beautifully. It was incredibly lightweight, and by the end of the six-day shoot we could set it up and properly counterweight it in less than 90 seconds. The biggest urge with using the jib was to always do some kind of crazy, dynamic move with it — which it always did beautifully — but having the camera swoop around a room isn’t always what’s right for a scene. So I guess we figured we’d use the jib a few times for those epic trailer-type shots (there are a few of those in the actual trailer), but we ended up using it way more than we expected. We were able to get a whole ton of coverage out of the Lite. We’d put a wide-angle lens on it and position the jib where you could never really get a camera, and let it roll. So it ended up serving a much larger purpose than we initially expected.

What makes you want to make films?

I think there’s something magical about sitting down in a movie theater and watching the lights dim and escaping to a completely different universe for about two hours. If a story’s engaging enough, you can completely lose yourself — and that’s what I strive for. If I can glance over at someone viewing a film (whether it’s mine or someone else’s) and they’re completely slack-jawed and staring at the screen, I think that’s great. My mom consistently screams at certain points in Monitor even though she’s already seen it about 20 times. If I can get my mom to audibly react, then I know what I’ve made is good.

When can we expect the final film to be done?

We just completed the film this week and sent it off to the Tribeca Film Festival to be considered for the student film division. If it’s accepted, then we’ll have the honor of premiering it at Tribeca. If not, we’ll shop it around to other festivals as much as possible and maybe put it online. And we’ll probably do DVD sales at a later date.

For more info on Jared and the team check out 64 Bit Films.

HDR Video for Canon 60D

Jon Connor — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:13:41 +0000

Why Canon has not hired these guys yet is beyond me. Looks very,very interesting.The basic idea here is that it allows the user to record at two different iso’s and then in post the images are interpolated. While it is not perfect, as evidenced by some of the ghosting, it is nonetheless very impressive and in my opinion definitely usable for certain situations. What do you think?

Magic Lantern HDR Video X-MAS teaser from RedKiteMedia on Vimeo.

Life is Too Short: Spend Your Time Wisely

Jon Connor — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:55:31 +0000

As some of you may know, my Dad was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, which is a form of cancer. The doctors found 4 tumors in various parts of his body. The tumors are too far spread apart for radiation treatment so, next week he is going to start chemotherapy. They hope to knock it into remission and if it is successful they think he will have 10-15 years left. I’m not sure what to make of all of this but, I think that we need to be thankful and consider that good news. It’s also sad and scary to have a timeframe put on how much longer you have to spend with someone you love that much.

I am trying to look at the positive side to all of this and value every day I have with my Dad now. It just made me realize how much time I’ve wasted up to this point. I am seriously reevaluating where my energy and efforts go. I don’t have time to be negative. That accomplishes nothing in the long run. From now on, I will be making a very concerted effort to make sure that anything I invest myself in has some sort of positive outcome. When you realize that all of us are on borrowed time, it’s not morbid to me, it is a much needed kick in the seat of the pants.

What can I do to make today valuable?
How can I enrich someone else’s time here?
What do I want to accomplish in my lifetime?
What steps do I need to take to do that?

Without some sense of direction, we are just spinning our tires in the mud. I hope that all of you take a moment and seriously think about some of these things. A life without purpose is a waste of one of the greatest gifts we have all been given. I plan on making 2012 the best year I’ve had to date. Then when that’s over, I will reevaluate and see how I can make 2013 even better. I know 30 isn’t an age that many would consider “old”, but I can tell I’m getting “older”. That sense I had of being invincible has faded and been replaced with a sense of responsibility. All the things my Dad told me when I was younger, that I used to scoff at, now are ringing a lot more true.

I’m constantly thinking about two things he said in particular.
“Sometimes you can’t try to play the flute. You just have to blow into it.” <— Which, I explained in this blog post last February.
“Be easy on everyone. You have no idea what they are going thru.”
This is one I need to work on still but I always try to do the best I can. That’s why I try to treat everyone with respect. I don’t care if someone is a janitor or a well known director. In all honesty, most of the time the janitor probably has more interesting stories anyway I don’t know if any of this makes sense or even has any place on a blog about filmmaking but it’s how I feel right now. Anyone who has met me, knows I pride myself on speaking my mind and being honest. I try to live free of pretension and bullshit. I hope everyone tries to be more thoughtful and purpose driven. Take it easy on each other out there, it’s hard enough as it is. Try to help someone else when you can. Anyway, that’s my thoughts for the day.

Name My New Cooking Show For Editors

Jon Connor — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 01:37:53 +0000

I had an idea to do a cooking show for editors. We all have been there. You start off editing in the morning and by the time you come out of the editing cave, it’s late and you haven’t eaten all day. When you finally do eat, it’s usually crappy delivery food or something that no one else would refer to as a “meal”.

I’m on a mission: to help poor malnourished fellow editors the world over. First, I need your help though. I want a name that is funny, catchy, or clever and preferably involves editing and cooking, somehow. Oh, and please don’t include any trademarked names or brands. I’ve already been down that road. I want this name to actually stick for more then a year or two All you need to do is submit your idea below in the comment section. You can submit as many as you want. Once I decide on a name, the winner will be notified, and you will get a $50 gift certificate of your choosing. I don’t care what it is, as long as it can be purchased online. Have at it. May the best name win!

It IS About the Camera, But I’m Going Back to The Kid’s Table All The Same.

Jon Connor — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:36:49 +0000

“It’s not about the camera.”
It’s the new cool thing to say, in wake of camera nerds everywhere obsessing over gear. The truth is close to that. It is not ALL about the camera, BUT we should use the best available camera, within our budget, for each job, so, it IS about the camera to a certain extent. However, we shouldn’t get so wrapped up in gear and cameras that we just end up arguing about it online and don’t actually shoot anything. I’m going to use a comic from The Oatmeal to illustrate my point.

Now, just imagine that the “Adult Table” is Twitter, or any number of forums online. Instead of arguing about Republicans and Democrats, it’s Red vs. Canon, Sony vs. Panasonic, or Adobe vs. FCP. Conversations that are extremely tech-based and devoid of the human element. Don’t get me wrong these conversations need to happen.

I’m just saying:
This year, I’m going back to the kid’s table.
Sure, I may have to use “the plastic silverware,” but I can also have fun there. I invite you to all join me.

It’s about being excited with what we do. Getting back to a child-like wonder. Telling stories. Believing that things an “adult” would deem a fantasy are possible. It’s all too easy to become cynical and jaded. I’m as guilty, if not worse, then anyone else out there. We have bills to pay, mouths to feed, and we have responsibilities, but we also have a responsibility as filmmakers: To master our craft, to tell interesting stories, and to see things with the same amazement we did when we were ten. Not to approach every project as a “job.”

Why did we start doing this?
We were passionate and we loved it but now we bitch about cameras and gear, and argue online. This is counter productive. We, as an industry, will get nowhere like this. So, with tomorrow being Thanksgiving, here’s a thought:
How about if we are all thankful to be alive, period. Then let’s be thankful to be alive during one of the most exciting times in the history of filmmaking. We can do things now that would not have been possible 5 years ago.
So, let’s collectively shut up, pick up our cameras, whatever that may be, I don’t care if it’s an iPhone, and go shoot something. Shoot something like you’re ten years old and it’s the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen.

Because, damn it all ,dinosaurs are the BEST, even though they’re all dead.

P.S. Ewwww, I can see your boogies!

Masters in Motion: The Definitive Recap

Jon Connor — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:24:26 +0000

First off: a huge thanks to Preston Kanak of 3 Minute Shorts, whose same day edits and incredible work ethic amazed everyone involved. Also thanks to Joel Graves, Jared Levy, Chad Nickle, Tanner Jobe, and Lindsay Grace who helped out tremendously. Also, without Cristina’s hard work, behind the scenes, coordinating a lot of the details that people don’t think about, this would have been impossible, along with the outstanding support of Eric Kessler and Kessler Crane.

Masters in Motion: Day One

After months of hard work and preparation, with a keen attention to detail, we descended on Austin, two days before the event. Our hotel room looked like an industrial era factory, as we employed family and friends to put the finishing touches together. We stuffed attendee swag bags, in assembly line formation, into the wee hours of the morning. This was going to be something else. You could already feel it.

Sunday night, attendees showed up to pick up swag bags, name badges, and to enjoy the open bar in the Atrium of the Omni Hotel. This was a chance for everyone to mingle and get to know each other a little better before the event really kicked into high gear. With some people traveling as far as Denmark for this, we knew we had a huge responsibility on our shoulders. That’s when you have your best opportunities in life though. All eyes are on you and the pressure is on. What are you going to do? Fold under pressure or step up to the plate? It’s a situation we face daily as filmmakers and this would be no different.

Monday arrived and we woke up early. We were nervous but not in a bad way. We knew we had put in the time and were prepared. Now it was just a matter of execution and all the technical stuff working. In essence, it was, in a way, out of our hands now. Kessler Crane, Marshall Monitors, Manfrotto, and Kata Bags transformed the lobby of the Alamo Drafthouse into a mini-trade show. Over the next few days, people took advantage of drastic discounts for workshop attendees to buy up most of the gear being shown. We took the stage to kick things off. We explained how the first time we were in the theater was three years ago at Re:Frame and what a pivotal point that was for us professionally. We told the attendees to take advantage of the best resource here, each other. It ended with a Breaking Bad reference in which we said there are no more excuses and “no more half measures” ala character Mike in a monologue he delivers to Walter White. I didn’t realize it at the time but that was an excellent mantra for the rest of the week.

Tom Guilmette took the stage as the first presenter ever for Masters in Motion. No more then a minute into his presentation his computer appeared to have gone into the dreaded “blue screen of death” mode. Gasps were heard, followed by groans. You could have cut through the tension in the room with a knife. Things were looking bad. Really,really,bad.I charged the stage in a desperate attempt to fix it. That’s when we realized Tom had just put a jpeg of the “blue screen of death” into his Keynote. Crisis averted and he now had everyone’s full attention. He proceeded to walk us through life as sports shooter. Explaining his aggressive technique and how he was able to follow fast action like a hockey puck being blasted into the net. He was informative and inspiring. He showed his viral internet hit, “Locked in a Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex,” and broke down all the elements that went into the sound design including some Angry Birds sound effects. He set the tone for the event. Educational, inspirational, yet entertaining.

After lunch Austin’s own, Joe Simon, took the stage. His talk was on Applying Movement to Enhance Your Story. He dissected movies from the 30′s to present day to illustrate his points. He showed his own work as well. He drove home the point that you don’t move the camera just to move it. He explained the subtleties of some of these moves and the deeper meaning behind them. He walked us through techniques he utilizes and was also able to be chock full of knowledge while still engaging the audience. The day was off to a wonderful start.

Joe Simon “mastering motion” with a Phantom Flex on the Glidecam.

After a short break, so everyone could stretch their legs and absorb everything up until that point, we had the extremely talented Philip Bloom take the stage. Although no one likes people to see their work until it has been fine tuned, Philip pulled back the curtain, and treated everyone to a first look at a rough cut, of a short documentary style piece, he had shot the day before in Austin, “The Redneck Hippie.” This piece would be revisited later, and the behind the scenes look at how he works was priceless. Philip went over multiple facets of how he goes about shooting documentary work, down to such subtle nuances as how to get the person you are interviewing to be more comfortable on camera. With real world examples illustrating his points, we all left with a bevy of information that we could apply immediately.

More then just knowledge raining down in Austin.

The fun didn’t stop there though. Later that evening we all met up at Beerland for karaoke. Everyone was treated, and by treated I mean brutally subjected , to a duet of the Backstreet Boys “I Want it That Way” by Vincent Laforet and Eric Kessler. Adam Forgione, John Hyland and myself attempted to launch our Masters in Motion Christmas album, but after some confusion with the DJ’s, and the wrong song being played, things devolved quickly. Adam sang his heart out, and during dead spaces John Hyland used observational humor to soften the awkward silences that ensued. I mainly stood there looking like a buffoon, until I was able to jump in on parts where “ooohs” and “ahhhs” were necessary.
Adam Grumbo and many others belted out songs in hilarious fashion until the night wound down. Everyone was finally getting to know one another better and you could feel something building in the air. Or maybe I just had that Phil Simon song stuck in my head, anyway, I digress.

Masters in Motion: Day Two

Day two had arrived. Vincent Laforet gave attendees the choice of him diving right into his presentation or playing Mobius, while he let them all wake up fully. The crowd enthusiastically voted for Mobius. Seeing it play out on the big screen in a proper movie theater was really something else. He walked people through various parts of his career and gave out great advice. Just like all the presenters he took a no nonsense approach and really told it how it is. The B.S. factor over the course of the event was non-existent. After a short break, in which time we covered the first few rows of the Alamo Drafthouse in plastic,obtained a fire extinguisher and collectively crossed our fingers and held our breath, we were set-up with the Phantom Flex for a live demo. Huge thanks to Mike Sutton, from Rule Boston Camera, who was our resident encyclopedia of all things related to the Phantom, and the reason we all got to play with it in the first place. There were bullets dropped,faces slapped, pumpkins smashed, ballons stabbed, hairspray lit on fire, you name it, all played back immediately in glorious slow motion on the big screen. Also, a huge thank you to Abram Letkeman who was absolutely walloped by our own Cristina Valdivieso. All in good fun of course. I’ve never quite seen anything like this at a workshop. There was definitely “no half measures.” Masters in Motion was going hard or going home.

Vincent Laforet and Mike Sutton “Flex-ing”

Which made perfect sense, as our next presenters were certified NGAFer’s, Tyler Ginter, Khalid Mohtaseb, and Jonathan Bregel from Variable. They went over production workflow, divulging a lot of the programs and techniques they used, to manage expenses, clients, invoices, etc. while keeping it all in the “cloud” so they could access it from anywhere. Tyler was an essential part of this basically taking over the a role of producer for Variable. A lot of their work has them jet-setting across the globe so, this is vitally important. In the second half of their talk, they used examples of their work to illustrate an often overlooked but essential part to filmmaking, Lighting. Khalid and Jonathan were clearing in their wheelhouse now, as you could feel their enthusiasm and love of lighting. Again we had a no B.S. approach from these guys. They weren’t saying what you wanted to hear, they were saying what you needed to hear, like it or not. You had to love that.

Certified NGAFer’s in action

Again, the day was not even close to over yet. Joe Simon arranged with the Trophy Room, a small bar two doors down from the theater, to allow us to set up lights and basically take over for the night. Operation Bull Ride: as it was dubbed, was now in full swing. Armed with the Phantom Flex, and again Mike Sutton on hand to help with all aspects, super slow-mo bull riding shenanigans were going down hard in Austin, with Joe Simon manning the camera. People were backflipping, launching off of the bull, general craziness. Day 2 was in the bag.

Vincent Laforet taking the bull by the horns.

Day Three started with people rounding the corner onto Sixth Street, with a lot of eyes squinting, as the Texas sun radiated into weary retinas. There’s no rest for the wicked and this day was no exception. Things kicked into high gear as Philip Bloom again took the stage. This time we got to see the finalcut of “The Redneck Hippie.” It was amazing to not only see the progression of the piece from it’s inception earlier but also to see the timeline and how Philip went about coloring the piece. Oh, sorry, Philip actually went about “colouring” the piece. Again, learning from someone on top of the game is always inspiring. He offered advice, techniques, and as always was more then willing to field everyone’s questions.

The final presenter for Masters in Motion was Adam Forgione. His topic was one, that everyone I know, myself included, seems to know the least about, Audio. Which, is surprising because, it plays such a vital role in distinguishing great work from the mediocre. Adam started off his presentation in unique fashion, he rented a small piano and treated the crowd to a truly inspiring moment. While three minutes of Cinema Paradiso played on the big screen, Adam accompanied it with a live rendition of the score. Everyone was blown away. He then proceeded to take us on a journey. He walked us through step by step on everything we needed to know to get amazing audio. His style of taking complex terms and techniques and breaking them down to simple to understand analogies was extremely helpful. Everyone wanted more. So much so that he had to stay on stage an extra half hour after his scheduled presentation was over.

Adam Forgione giving a clinic on Audio.

Again, the day was far from over. We gathered all the attendees at the Omni Hotel, on two huge buses we rented, and transported everyone over to a skate park. Attendees broke up into three groups. One group went with Mike Sutton, Joe Simon, Jonathan Bregel, and Khalid Mohtaseb, where they were able to get some hands on time with the Phantom Flex. Vincent Laforet and Philip Bloom broke another group up, into two smaller groups, where people learned and shot with the Red Epic. The last group went with Tyler Ginter and Eric Kessler, who went over advanced timelapse techniques, as well as motion controlled timelapses. The groups then continued to rotate until everyone got a chance to partcipate with every station. As the sun set over the park and capped off an incredible day, we all felt like we had been part of something bigger then a workshop. This was not an event. It was an experience.

photo courtesy of @JohnHyland

As if we hadn’t all had our fill already, we headed to the beautiful rooftop deck at Speakeasy for the closing party. 86 the DJ spun tunes all night and the incredibly talented Annie Ray set up an awesome photo booth to get some off-the-wall pictures of everyone. In the midst of all this, some amazing prizes were given out: a Kessler Crane Pocket Dolly, a Zacuto EVF, copies of Plural Eyes, Red Giant Software, and then we asked the question. Did you guys enjoy this enough that we should do it again? After a thunderous response, we made the decision to do it again, in the form of the last prize, a seat to our next event. So, if you missed out on this one and are mad you didn’t come the good news is that there will 100 percent be another one.
Masters in Motion: Day Three

Thank you to everyone who made this possible. Thank you to everyone who attended. You all got “it”. We came to Austin, we took over, we learned together, we networked, we did something really incredible and we feel blessed to have shared such an outrageous and life changing experience with each and everyone of you. Stay tuned as we have some exciting news coming very soon.

A huge thanks to our sponsors:
Kessler Crane
Rule: Boston Camera
Zeiss
Manfrotto
Kata Bags
Marshall
Rode
Zacuto
Red Giant
Planet 5D
Event-DV

Reel World: Table 7 – Short Film

Jon Connor — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:57:39 +0000

Table 7 – short film from Marko Slavnic on Vimeo.

Thanks to @mariofeil for directing my attention to this short film shot on the Red One. I enjoyed the lighting, composition, camera movement and sound design on this. The story was simple but effective with a nice funny twist. I think the attention to the small details here added up to a very excellent finished product.

This was Written and Directed by Marko Slavnic.

Photo Credit: Screen Grab from Table 7- Short Film

5 Easy Steps to Become a Successful Filmmaker

Jon Connor — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:45:58 +0000

1) Buy Camera with shallow DOF.
2) Buy Batteries.
3) Buy Media
4) Shoot Something.
5) Upload to the Interwebs.

I kid, I kid. If only it were that easy.

In all seriousness though. This is what we all strive for right? We want to be successful filmmakers. The good news is that while not a comprehensive or exhaustive list these 5 easy steps can be applied to almost any area of your life.

1) Determine what being a “successful filmmaker” means to YOU.
This may be the most important, yet most often overlooked, step of all. If you spend your time chasing someone else’s idea of what a “successful filmmaker” is supposed to be you will find your resources drained, your creativity zapped, and a general unhappiness that will just be a roadblock to your further development. Does your personal measure of success come in the form of financial security? Do you need accolades and awards? Are you just as content to know that you produced a quality film that tells a great story? You need to set a goal first, only then can you take the necessary steps towards achieving it.

2) Find YOUR Voice.
The key is to find your voice and your own style. Figure out what kind of a filmmaker you want to be. If you are not passionate about your subject matter your work will in turn suffer. There is nothing wrong with studying other peoples work and adapting techniques to fit your own style. The key here is to not just copy what someone else is doing. Try to push yourself. The most unique thing about you is that you see things in a way that no one else on the face of the planet does. We all have an inner monologue going on that no one else does. Everything that has happened to you in your life, the good, the bad and the ugly, has shaped you into a unique individual with a distinctive view of the world-at-large. It would be foolish not to tap into your greatest resource. Yourself.

3) Show Up.
The biggest difference between people who are successful and those that fail is simply showing up and trying.
It seems stupid to say but unless you have the best luck in the world no one is going to come knocking down your door throwing piles of money at you. You have to get out there and do it.

4) Accept Criticism.
You don’t have to agree with it. Take it all with a grain of salt but be receptive. Don’t get defensive, just think about it and see if there is any validity to it. If you don’t agree by all means stick to your guns but don’t do it in a stubborn and blind manner.

5) Never Stop Learning.
If you think you know it all you are probably wrong. Devote yourself to being a life-long student. Only a foolish person thinks there is nothing they can improve. If you are constantly learning and trying new things you will be on the right path. In order to evolve we need new information. We need to shake up the status quo. Education is our greatest weapon and information is our best ammunition.

Have your own tips on how to be successful? Leave us some nuggets below.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Jon Connor — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:45:29 +0000

We have had a great time trying to help educate and strengthen the industry with our efforts here. Unfortunately, not everyone shares our vision. It is pretty sad because this site was never about making money. We did this out of love and to try to “pay it forward.” We have followed the lead of many others in the industry in trying to give back without expecting anything in return. We won’t go into to many details because we aren’t lawyers and we don’t know what we can and cannot say. Anyway, we have been contacted and told we are no longer legally allowed to operate this site. We appreciate all of your support over the last 2 years. This started as a simple idea and developed into a great resource and community. I’m sure we could try to fight this but, we just simply don’t have the time, money or resources. So, it looks like this is the last stop. It is a pretty sad state of affairs though, when you try to do something out of the genuine goodness of your heart. You spend countless, thankless hours researching, writing, traveling and really trying to build something great, only to have it all taken away from you in the blink of an eye. It’s not fair. But life isn’t. If we had it all to do over again we would. We met amazing people. Helped a ton of people with questions and had some of our own answered along the way. You have all been instrumental in our success here and for that we are forever thankful. We are going to use this time off to work on our businesses that were actually created to make a profit. In the meantime, the site should be up for a few days longer so, definitely take advantage of the content while you still can. Again, our sincerest thanks to all of you and our apologies that it had to come to such an abrupt end. We wish we had something whimsical to say. Some dramatic farewell speech. Perhaps, softly in the background you hear “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” playing
Instead we leave you with this:
“Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.” – Garrison Keillor
Not happy about the end of this site? Let them know what you think below.

Also here is our latest tutorial on how to get the absolute best out of your camera. Some text has been sanitized for legal purposes. Hopefully this helps everyone immensely.

All the best,
Jon + Cristina