SPECS

• Model: T5500
• 2.8Ghz Dual Quadcore Intel Xeon Processor
• 24GB DDR3 RAM
• NVIDIA Quadro 4000
• Windows 7 Professional, 64 Bit
• 256GB SSD Boot Drive
• 500GB SATA Drive
• 500GB SATA Drive
• 6 in 1 Card Reader on front – CF, SD, etc.
• 12x DVD-RW Drive

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Taking the Dell T5500 out of the box, it became clear that it wasn’t designed with looks in mind. The tower design is not a new idea, but there’s a reason it permeates post production facilities.  Heavy duty work requires heavy duty tools. For many, the Mac Pro has been the tool of choice. However, the longer Apple goes without refreshing the Mac Pro line, the more others will be looking elsewhere for solutions to their workflow. For myself, I am always looking to spend my dollars on something that is going to last. Saving money is a delicate balancing act. You must try to not pay top dollar, but if you get cheap gear that is flimsy, or has cheap parts, you’re going to get what you pay for. I did receive the Dell T5500 free, so there was no reason to not fully explore this option. My iMac was on its last leg, a purchase from late 2009. The social media program Dell has been running targets those switching from a Final Cut Pro 7 workflow to one based around Premiere Pro CS5.5.  I was already exploring this as I’d purchased my CS5.5 upgrade on my iMac. However, many features of the suite like Dynamic Link basically did not work due to my iMac’s processor, and underwhelming graphics card. Firing up the Dell T5500 for the first time was interesting. The last time I had used Windows was 6-7 years ago. I was making terrible gaming videos, editing in Pinnacle Studio 9 on a woefully under-equipped Dell laptop. The irony of that fact does not escape me.

DESIGN

Design is something that has always been important to me. It was one of the first things that attracted me to Apple products in the first place. There’s a philosophy of design that permeates their entire product line. A beautiful minimalism, if you will. The exterior of the Dell T5500 is honestly the biggest disappointment to me. It’s definitely more about function than form. In the end function does trump form – if it doesn’t work all that makes it is a polished turd. Lipstick on a pig, all that good stuff. The card reader on the front is a nice touch – even though it connects via the universal serial bus having an extra CF and SD card reader has helped me out quite a bit. So while the exterior case design for my T5500 was a bit of a disappointment, I was curious to see how the system performed under pressure.

The internal design of the computer is something I can comment very little on. I am not a homebrew PC guy, I have never put together my own system. To me, the guts of the computer did seem a bit messy.

PERFORMANCE

Performance is definitely the key word to remember about this system. The specs on it definitely are geared towards speed. My first “stress test” of sorts was editing my 2012 reel on it prior to participating in SXSW 2012. My iMac’s failings with Dynamic Link led that to be one of the first things I was interested in testing on my Dell workstation. I was curious how it would perform – I used effects like Warp Stabilizer and a few others from Red Giant Software to polish a few shots up and do general color correction. To say I was pleased would be something of an understatement. The speed of my workstation allowed me to export 7 or so versions of my reel. At the time, I was not too familiar with codecs and best practices for web compression on a PC. Hence, why I had 7 different versions. I was able to upload my 2012 reel before I got up on stage for the SXSW 2012 panel “Moving From Final Cut: Progress or Peril?” Performance is something I have yet to find the ceiling on with this system.

I thought I had found the ceiling with my latest project, but it turned out I was mistaken. It was 28 minutes long, 138 clips, all Dynamic Linked AE Compositions. It was 7D, T2i, Sony FX-1 and GoPro footage. The system did chug, but I’ve recently discovered from more knowledgeable folks that are participating in testing these Dell workstations that I hadn’t yet discovered the system’s limitations. There’s a dirty little secret editing H.264 native inside of Premiere – the secret is, you are going to pay the toll at some point. For an FCP 7 based workflow, the toll was transcoding time. Not transcoding has been a huge selling point for Premiere, and for minimal effects it sort of works. However, I was doing noise reduction, cleanup, and a more extensive color grade than usual. The way it was explained to me was a bit complicated and went over my head a bit. Essentially, you are asking the system to do triple duty. If I had used Adobe Media Encoder to transcode to another format in the beginning, say to CineForm, the footage would have been easier to deal with when doing such work. Paying the cost of storage space may prove to be a toll worth taking if I can squeeze more performance out of my Dell system.

CHALLENGES

Moving from FCP 7 to Premiere on this system comes with an added challenge: moving from OS X to Windows 7. For a lot of folks, this alone will deter them from moving to something like a Dell T5500 until Apple completely abandons the pro market and kills off the Mac Pro. Whether they will or not is not a topic I care to speculate on due to lack of knowledge. Moving to Windows hasn’t been super easy, but it’s not as hard as I thought it was going to be. Do I worry about viruses? Absolutely, and its something I will worry about in the future. My main concern with this workstation was more how Premiere and CS5.5 as a whole would perform on it. On FCP 7, using the ProRes family was something of a no brainer. You can easily make the argument, and I would agree, that those are compressed codecs. However, for most out there, ProRes is enough. On a PC like the Dell, I now had to think about it a bit. For the moment, DNxHD has filled that gap. CineForm is something I’d like to use, but for right now DNxHD works just fine, and is free.

Exporting lossless copies is a practice I used daily on FCP 7. In Premiere it isn’t quite as simple – there’s many sorts of uncompressed codecs. Hence why I’d like to eventually use CineForm 444 – it’s the best there is. Not according to firsthand knowledge, but conversations I’ve had at NAB 2012 and with those much smarter than me. Best practices on the post side of things is something I’m constantly investigating and refining. My workflow is not perfect, by a long shot, but growing and learning how to get the best images is something I’m keenly interested in.

MOVING FROM FCP 7 TO PREMIERE CS5.5

No rendering, native H.264 editing, throw any codec you like at it, it must all be rainbow cookies and kool aid right? Wrong – at least in my own experience. While the Mercury Playback engine is everything its cracked up to be, there is no such thing as no rendering in Premiere. I render more than most, just to see the changes I made in After Effects. Typically, I’m switching between AE and Premiere quite a bit. Dynamic Linked compositions do not play back smoothly, in my experience. So don’t expect to do no rendering, though the performance of Premiere CS5.5 and the T5500 is impressive. That performance is even more extreme when you implement NVIDIA’s Maximus technology, which was demoed at NAB 2012 in NVIDIA’s booth. That technology and CS6 is going to be a killer combo.

I was already transitioning to Premiere CS5.5 when I owned my iMac, so I don’t believe the transition was as painful as it could have been. You’ll note I said “owned” my iMac. I say that because I didn’t sell my iMac until just before NAB 2012. I have full confidence in this system and its ability to handle my workflow. I have a lot of different clients, mainly in the lower budget end of the indie world of production. Weddings, events, corporate gigs, commercials, a lot of different hats to wear. I am confident in the ability of my T5500 to handle my needs for at least the next year. Getting my hands on that new Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera is the plan for now, and I am confident this system will more than meet my needs.

The rest of the suite has been a pleasant surprise. I was already using Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects. There are common elements in Adobe’s UI design that permeate themselves throughout their line of software. Firing up Adobe Audition for the first time was an easy experience. I was only doing basic noise cleanup and Audition actually had more complex controls than Soundtrack Pro. Dynamic Link makes this quite easy, and with a little tinkering I had removed most of the noise in the offending audio clips. Granted, I did watch a few tutorials and do research prior to firing up Audition. Doing research and making informed decisions is something you should do before any major software or hardware purchase.

Switching my projects from FCP 7 to Premiere was simple using XML. I have a few ongoing projects, and some that won’t be done for a year or more. I simply exported XML from FCP 7 and Premiere read the files easily. The only errors were in the titles I generated in Final Cut Pro. Generating titles in Premiere for the offending projects literally took only 5 minutes. Other than that Premiere read my timelines perfectly.

CONCLUSION

The Dell T5500 is a thing of beauty. In a private meeting at NAB 2012, every other participant was shooting RED and loved the performance of CS5.5, their Dell, and NVIDIA’s Maximus technology. It should be noted I am not using Maximus – it requires two graphics cards, and I have one Quadro 4000 in my Dell T5500. I also had occasion to use Dell’s ProSupport service, which they have provided me 3 years service. I had to install a Belkin FireWire 800 PCI card, something I’ve never attempted before. I was on the line with them for literally an hour. I was worried about one of the cords that seemed to be blocking the PCI slot I needed, but it all turned out fine in the end. The Dell ProSupport rep I dealt with was patient and very knowledgeable. I talked with a few people from Dell about it at NAB 2012 and I got the distinct impression they would do whatever it took to remedy the situation. That level of customer service is the only way to properly compete with Apple.

I have completely switched over to this system and I think what’s coming down the pipe will surprise a lot of people. I was given a presentation during a private meeting at NAB 2012 and though I am under NDA, I’m here to say if what I saw makes it into full production, this will be what you want to switch to from a Mac Pro. What I saw reflected a company changed from many years ago when I owned that awful laptop and Pinnacle Studio 9. If Dell continues on the path I saw behind the scenes, they can definitely be considered a viable contender against Apple.

UPDATE:

Dell has put out a press release regarding their new line of Precision workstations. These ones are newer than the one I am currently testing. There’s plenty of juicy details in this press release. When I first saw these, the first sentence out of my mouth was “This is how I would design a computer.” I mean that, inside and out. This will be a big contender for those switching away from a Mac Pro.

UPDATE 2:

The cat is fully out of the bag. Dell has put up a great post with pictures and a promotional video. Now you can see what I’ve been under NDA from sharing.

If you remember from previous blogs, Marc Loftus from Post Magazine was the moderator at the SXSW 2012 panel I was on, “Moving From Final Cut: Progress or Peril?” Marc was a terrific moderator and kept things moving well. I mention him in this post because he was kind enough to ask me to write a guest blog for Post Magazine, and I’ll also be on their live webcast from NAB on Wednesday, April 18th, at 11:30AM. I’ll be sharing things I’ve seen on the floor and providing a point of view as someone who is new to the NAB show. I’ll also be there doing a few things with DELL who are in the Intel booth this year. Apologies for the delay, but my first video blog about the Dell Workstation I’ve been testing will be out before I fly out to Vegas this Sunday.

There are many things I can’t wait to get my hands on, or at least see in person. In particular the Sony FS-700 and TS3 Cine are two cameras I am very keen to see more of. Tom Lowe will also be there premiering his film “TimeScapes” for the first time, which I have been excited to see since I first ran across his work. See you at the show, or online!

Cheers.

My 2012 reel was an entirely different beast altogether. This was honestly the first year I have been excited about editing one. A year where I’d gained a lot of clients, and had a diverse body of work from which to curate the best clips for my new reel. My participation in the program with Dell to test out their high end workstation sped up this process more than a bit. Prior to Dell finding me through Twitter, I had already begun the process of collecting clips, and even buying licensed music. Filmmaker and all-around helpful gent Steven Bumgardner linked me to Premium Beat, where I found the track I would use for this year’s reel.

Desiring to get my 2012 reel done in time for SXSW, I also paired this task up with my new Dell workstation to really put it through its paces. Due to pressing client projects and a last-minute shoot before SXSW, I found myself editing for almost 24 hours straight before I flew down to Austin, Texas. I was quite happy with this first “stress test” as 95% of my timeline was Dynamic Linked compositions from After Effects and RAM-intensive plugins, mostly from Red Giant Software. I was only able to crash After Effects and Premiere once. Being paranoid about compression, codecs, and web quality, I brought several compressed and uncompressed versions of my reel with me. Jack Everitt was kind enough to provide me with a fresh set of eyes and advise me on which version was the sharpest and most free of compression artifacts.

Compared to previous reels, this one was a lot more focused in my editing approach and goals with it. My past reels have lacked a context that I believe enhances and enriches this year’s demo reel. I deliberately tried to avoid the “montage effect” that led past reels to feel more like lots of random clips rather than a sampling of my body of work. While by no means have I “arrived” I am happier with this year’s offerings than previous years. While providing fast cuts that keep the viewer interested, I tried to not keep them too short so that the viewer understands what he or she is seeing. I also grouped the clips by project, with the goal of providing context.

The opening shot of my reel is a motion-controlled timelapse from an upcoming short film that will hopefully be finished before NAB. I tried to avoid including timelapse in my reel for the most part because I’m planning on making a reel just for timelapse later this year. The second clip is of Evan Doherty, one of Kansas City’s most talented young skaters who is now sponsored by Christian Hosoi. He is only 8 years old and is the youngest in the world to pull off a 720, or 2 full 360 degree rotations in the air. While primarily on the shoot for my photography, I used the KesslerCrane Pocket Dolly to pull off a few slider shots for Joseph Pollock, a frequent collaborator, to use in the skate films he was shooting for Evan.

The next batch of shots is from a wedding I shot in May 2011. I knew the couple, and it was a joy to shoot. It took place on her parents farm, a pristine and picturesque location. It was also the first wedding I shot in CineStyle, which proved to be quite handy in the color correcting and grading process. The next batch of clips were shot during filming of Major League Gaming’s web series, “Dr. Pepper Ultimate Gaming House.” Gamers would submit videos of their sub-standard gaming setups, and the cast of U.G.H. visits the lucky winner and remodels the room, furnishing it as well as decking out the room with gaming equipment from their sponsors. This was my first season on the show, and Joseph Pollock and I were usually doing Second Unit Photography. It was a pleasure to work with Director of Photography Adam Zebersky, as well as the entire cast and crew.

One of my simultaneously favorite and horrifying jobs from 2011 was filming and editing a project for KesslerCrane. They make a lot of high quality filmmaking gear – sliders, cranes, and more – all topnotch at an affordable price. Eric Kessler was kind enough to take an interest after seeing my original “RAW Timelapse Workflow Tutorial.” Born out of a desire to help others through a workflow I’d come up with, Eric contacted me, and commissioned a second version of the tutorial. The second version focuses on the workflow from beginning to end, not just post-production. It was also the first time I’d ever been the on-camera talent. Scary, but I did get through it. Some even liked the final result! I enjoyed putting it together for KesslerCrane, and it has helped many.

Major League Gaming has been a big part of my growth, creatively and technically. I was first hired on to their live event staff in August of 2006. Having zero experience, they put me on the main Halo broadcast switching on the TriCaster. MLG has been a pioneer in internet broadcasting, both reaching a great demographic for advertisers as well as putting up record-setting numbers for online viewership. These days I’m not on the broadcast anymore, but am brought in as a freelance camera operator. I shoot lots of b-roll of the StarCraft 2 stage, getting shots of the players and much more. It’s been quite enjoyable, the StarCraft 2 community is fun to observe and film. I’ll be in this role again next week at their Winter Arena championships in Columbus, Ohio.

The next clips in the sequence are from “99%,” a collaborative documentary on the Occupy Wall Street movement. I’m contributing clips from Kansas City, and made a trip up to Des Moines for “Occupy The Caucus.” Seeing a diverse amount of opinions about them has made this a very interesting documentary subject. It’s also the first documentary feature film I’ve ever shot for, and I have already learned a great deal from the experience. What I have shot so far is a combination of sit-down interviews and live events. The next set of clips were from a wedding I shot in southeast Wisconsin.

My 2012 reel closes out with a job that completely came out of left field. I’ve been a happy user of Red Giant Software’s many offerings for a number of years. I’d also been following Aharon Rabinowitz on Twitter for some time, and had many good conversations. I first found him through his Creative Cow tutorials. He’s made many more since then, which have been super helpful. He asked me if I wanted in on the product video for Red Giant’s “Magic Bullet Denoiser II.” I enjoyed version 1 of that software and happily jumped on the opportunity. Premiere and the Dell workstation proved especially useful in this regard as I was able to quickly compress dailies and send them privately for Aharon to review and give me feedback.

A contextual approach, both to this year’s reel, as well as accompanying article, are the name of the game for me this year. By no means have I plateaued in any way – I’m still not satisfied with my work. Fearing becoming stagnant, creatively and professionally, is a good motivator. However, I’m reminded of the oft-quoted statement from Ira Glass:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

Cheers!

I determined after extensive testing that Final Cut Pro X was not the future for my workflow. Note that I stated “my workflow.” FCP X has a lot of strengths, as well as many weaknesses. It will not fit most high end post houses’ workflow, but a stills photographer transitioning to video may find FCP X to be exactly what they need. Bottom line – use the tools you need to accomplish your work. We can debate endlessly the merits and detractors of FCP X but if it works for you, that’s great. One aspect of the interface that did not sit well with me was the Color Board. The “color wheel” as it’s referred to is not just a smart user interface decision. It’s a science – for example, let’s say you shoot at an improper white balance. Whatever color cast is affecting your footage and giving it distasteful color to start with, if you go to the opposing color on the color wheel in any color correcting plugin it will neutralize the color cast. It takes some precise doing but I did this from time to time in Final Cut Pro 7.

Since I started freelancing 6 years ago, FCP has been my world. A powerful tool that still serves many well to this day. My philosophy with purchasing gear or software is always to be looking to the future. When you operate on a low budget like I do, you can’t afford to waste money. I’m always looking to buy quality gear and quality software. Whatever I buy, needs to be useful in the future. Once I determined FCP X was not in my best interest, I took an intense look at Premiere CS5.5. I had already been considering it, and there were a great many videos online from people like Chris Fenwick and Walter Biscardi to give a good look into what moving from FCP to Premiere was like. I already use a lot of Adobe’s products in my workflow so making the leap to Premiere was not a huge leap. Aspects of Premiere like Dynamic Link were very attractive.

Fast forward to some months later. Adobe had a great deal on the Production Premium Suite, and being a freelancer I could take it as a tax deduction. So I made the jump, and purchased the Production Premium suite. It was also a much needed upgrade from the CS4 suite I purchased while I was in college. I began testing and using my new set of tools. There’s lots to like, especially since CS4 is only 32-bit and CS5 and up is 64 bit on OS X. I upgraded my late 2009 iMac to 16GB of RAM and finally I had a suite of tools that could take advantage of that. However, due to my computer’s graphics card and it being only an Intel Dual Core processor, I knew that in 2012 I was going to have to buy a new system. Typically I would consider a Mac, such as an i7 iMac or a higher end Mac Pro. I knew I needed a system for the future. Time is money, and having a faster system that allows me to complete work quicker allows for more time, and more creative options. It doesn’t necessarily mean your work is going to be better – no tool does. However, having better tools for the job never hurt.

Enter Dell and NVIDIA into the equation. Truth be told I almost passed it up. The initial email expressing interest in me seemed odd. You want me to test a new high end workstation aimed at pro video editors? Sure, and at which point does my bank account info enter the equation? While I am obviously joking, I nearly didn’t take it seriously until I saw it was a Dell.com email address. The idea of testing a new workstation built with Adobe CS5.5 at the heart of the equation intrigued me, so I expressed interest and continued communicating with Lauren at Dell. One thing I must say is previous to this, the only dealings I’ve ever had with Dell was a notoriously unreliable laptop. Thus far my communications with Dell have been quite pleasant and professional. A few emails down the line, they mentioned that if I was free, that they would like me to participate in a panel sponsored by Dell and NVIDIA at SXSW, located in Austin, Texas. I’ve heard much about SXSW so naturally I expressed interest. A few emails and a phone call later, they eventually let me know that I had been selected as a panelist for SXSW. They’re flying four filmmakers out to SXSW to share their experiences with the Dell Precision workstations and Adobe Premiere CS5.5, moderated by Marc Loftus at Post Magazine. One thing that sat very well with me about all this is that they required full disclosure – I must disclose to my readers that I received the workstation for free.

The ethical nature of all this did not escape me, by any means. Dell isn’t demanding or limiting my free speech in any way, contractually or otherwise. Providing me with a workstation to test does not mean that I will not be sharing the downsides and negative aspects of the system. I haven’t received the Dell Precision workstation just yet, but when I do I’ll be sharing my thoughts on a variety of platforms. For articles that require more extensive thought, I will share those here. Twitter will be one of those mediums for things that do not require great exposition, under the hashtag #DellWorkstation. I’ll also be sharing some on my facebook page. I’ll also be making a couple videos on this subject, so stay tuned to my Vimeo and YouTube channels. I’ve only edited one project on Premiere thus far, but am very excited to dive in and learn how to best utilize it in my workflow. NVIDIA has also been very generous and partnered with Dell to provide a top of the line graphics card that Premiere can take full advantage of.

Does this mean I’m committing the worst act a Mac user can do? Switch to Windows? To test the Dell Precision workstation, absolutely, however – long term is still in question. I’m certainly not one to make hasty decisions. As I grow older and (hopefully) wiser, I am less loyal to platforms and companies. I am loyal to whomever can provide me with the best solutions to a better workflow, and is within my budget. Dell may or may not be that company, I do not know yet. Apple’s reluctance to refresh the Mac Pro line is leaving them vulnerable to competition. Dell seems to be stepping up to take a swing at Apple and give them some serious competition. I can respect that quite a bit, and can’t wait to see what Dell has cooked up.

Come with me on this journey, and please watch this space for more of my findings.

Cheers!

Dell is providing myself and several other filmmakers with new, top of the line workstations built with the Adobe Creative Suite in mind. Full disclosure – Dell is providing this workstation for free. Editors and creatives who are moving from a primarily Final Cut Pro 7 workflow to one based around Adobe Premiere is what they had in mind here. I was already planning on doing this, and was quite touched Dell thought I was important enough to have me on board. I’ll be testing and using the Dell Precision workstation over the next 12 weeks and sharing my thoughts on a variety of platforms. I’ll be going into more detail about this social media initiative Dell has embarked on, and my role in it. Another blog post will be out tomorrow going into more detail on how I got involved, and why.

Here are some more specific details about my SXSW panel:

Moving From Final Cut – Progress or Perils?
Monday, March 12
3:30PM – 4:30 PM CT
Austin Convention Center, Room 2

I hope to see you there! I’ve got a few friends in the Austin area and can’t wait to meet new people there. If you have any questions or comments – be they positive or negative, feel free to comment here or email: tom@theredowl.com.

Cheers!

1. Hell And Back Again

So my previous Oscar-related statement goes out the window a bit here, but not entirely. A documentary by Danfung Dennis, this powerful film would be worth your money, Oscar nomination or not. This film first caught my eye because it was filmed on the Canon 5DMKII, a revolutionary full-frame camera that was initially just meant for web clips shot by photographers. People like Danfung, Shane Hurlbut, and many more have gotten much more out of the camera than Canon ever anticipated. On a whim I ordered the Blu-Ray, confident it would be a great film. This was of course after reading many reviews, so it wasn’t totally random. I watched it today and it was gripping in a way that no other documentary has ever been. I’ve seen plenty of fictional war films, and what you feel when you see real soldiers being injured and killed, that close and that real, is unlike anything that’s ever been shot before. This isn’t a political film – others have come and gone before already. Hell And Back Again, is as it is marketed – the true cost of war.

It focuses on Sergeant Nathan Harris of the U.S. Marine Corps, a young man who was injured in the line of duty. The story focuses on him during his time in Afghanistan, his wounds he sustained, and the process of recovery when he comes home. The 5DMKII was the perfect camera to capture this story but make no mistake – the story is first and foremost what will grip you throughout the 88 minute film. You won’t be wondering what lenses he used or marveling at the filmmaking of it – Hell And Back Again sucks you in quickly and never lets go.

Trailer

Buy: iTunes | Blu-Ray

2. The Art of Flight

Snowboarding films are not particularly the first thing I would put in my Blu-Ray player, but this one transcends many of them to reach audiences like myself who haven’t seen many, or any snowboarding films. Director Curt Morgan makes excellent use of the large budget of the film, which is truly an experience to behold. Travis Rice and many other talented snowboarders go around the world to the back country to bring you some of the most insane snowboarding you have ever seen. The entire team at Brain Farm Digital Cinema should be very proud of their work. The special features on the Blu-Ray warrant buying it in nothing less than that.

Trailer
Buy: iTunes | Blu-Ray

3. All.I.Can

All.I.Can by Sherpas Cinema first showed up on my radar after Tom Guilmette posted about it. The trailer was unique and intrigued me enough to buy it on iTunes. One mistake I made going into it was thinking this was skiing’s version of Art of Flight – it is most certainly NOT that. Everything about this film bears little similarity to The Art of Flight. The budget was most certainly lower, and the cinematography choices were very different. Hats off to the D.P. and everyone involved who poured their time and effort into this film. The visual language alone is worth the price of admission. One disappointment was the quality on iTunes HD – it was not that great. I’ll be getting the Blu-Ray too.

Trailer
Buy: iTunes | Blu-Ray

4. The Underground World of Sequoia National Park

Steven Bumgardner may be better known in Twitter circles as @YosemiteSteve, and he is the filmmaker behind this documentary. Most of what I enjoy watching on Netflix is National Geographic type content, if you are into nature and such then this film is definitely for you. The Los Angeles Times called this film “A 60 Minute Gem.” The underground caves of Sequioa National Park hold many mysteries, and hold your full attention for the hour long film. A gem made back in 2004, this one is definitely worth your time and money.

Buy: Amazon

Bonus: Watch all the “Yosemite Nature Notes.”

I just got this bad boy in time for MLG Raleigh, and decided to share my thoughts on this new addition to my kit. If you’re unfamiliar with Major League Gaming, MLG is the governing body for eSports in North America. Now that isn’t to say there isn’t competition from smaller leagues, but I would consider them to be the NFL of competitive video games. I’ve been doing contract work at their events for about 5 years. The games on the Pro Circuit are Halo: Reach, StarCraft 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops. This event also saw a sneak peek at Gears of War 3, as well as the addition of League of Legends.

I wasn’t planning on buying the DP4 just yet, but I caught a great deal on eBay and I’m very glad I bought it. It’s changed my quality of work in several ways. I’ll be discussing those first, and then getting into the strong points of the DP4 and the ways it falls short. It’s a great piece of gear, but definitely not perfect. I leave it to you to make your own decision.

That being said, it was a dream to work with this past weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina. MLG events take up a huge convention hall, and things move pretty fast. There’s no opportunity to get the important shots more than once – getting critical focus, how you frame your shot are usually split second decisions when they really count. I shoot a variety of footage there, but it all revolves around StarCraft 2, one of the biggest games in the world for eSports. I shot on the Canon 7D, so thankfully there was no down-rezzing when I would hit record. The 5DMKII and T2i both downrez to 480p and it looks horrid. Even with the problem of down-rezzing with my T2i, I found doing some quick testing that right out of the box it was much easier for me to get critical focus. I know some people swear by the LCD and have never touched an external monitor. My vision is not 20/20 so this monitor has been a huge help to me.

I’m constantly analyzing things throughout an MLG event, how I’m doing, what I could be doing better, and what would enable me to get better shots in the future. The DP4 was absolutely invaluable when getting critical focus. We also rented different lenses this event – the Canon 24-70L and 70-200L IS II. MLG events are not brightly lit so having f/2.8 available helped me stay at lower ISO’s when in the past I’ve had to resort to as much as 3200 ISO(yuck). The lenses and the addition of the SmallHD DP4 enabled me to get my shots in a much more effective manner. At the end of the match, I’m tasked with getting reaction shots of the winner, and anything he might do after. For example, Korean pro player Nada won a very tough StarCraft match on the main stage during Raleigh. Nada’s reaction was great, and then he came out of his soundproof booth and celebrated a bit on the main stage. These type of moments are fast moving and I can’t afford to not get those shots – they happen only once. These moments tend to be extremely fast moving and I also make my best effort to stay out of our broadcast cameraman’s way. Without the DP4 I do not think I could have maintained focus as much as I did. It can look quite amateurish to have shots go in and out of focus.

One thing I was surprised at was how little I used the extra features of the DP4. The false colour, peaking, focus assist – I used none of them. The DP4 did what I needed it to do – help me maintain focus, or grab it very quickly. Another surprise for me was how heavy the DP4′s EVF loupe was – the thing was not light. Eventually it proved to be more an annoyance to me than a help. The optics were not bad, it just didn’t fit in with the environment I was tasked to shoot. The quality of the loupe was not an issue, however when I needed to do higher shots the loupe tended to fall down back onto the monitor and block my view of the shot. Honestly I don’t see myself using the EVF loupe much, if at all. Perhaps it’s because I’ve grown accustomed to the back of an LCD, but I just prefer seeing the DP4 without looking through an eyepiece.

The screen protector was great to have, and I did an unintentional drop test. The included hotshoe mount for the DP4 that I had was terrible. It felt like unless I tightened everything with all my might, the hotshoe mount would be loose. At one point, thankfully not at a critical moment, everything I had mounted on the hotshoe fell off and hit the ground. The DP4 was unaffected, as was the Rode Videomic Pro and LitePanels MicroPro I was using. I don’t recommend mounting that much stuff on a DSLR hotshoe. The build quality of the DP4 didn’t have me worried before, and after that little mishap I was even more confident in it. Battery life was good, I had 2 LP-E6 knockoff batteries from Opteka on it at all times. I got hours of use out of it, but never timed it precisely so I’m not sure exactly how much I got out of it.

Maybe if I had a shoulder rig or wanted it in a more ENG style configuration the EVF loupe would come in more handy for me – but it doesn’t. There are many different kinds of shooters, whose lenses all capture different types of stories. The types of stories I capture through my lens will not need the EVF loupe for the most part. As I said before, the build quality of it wasn’t flimsy, or bad – just not right for me. I will say the 2 second delay between shooting and reviewing shots on the DP4 is quite annoying. However, SmallHD has said that a fix is coming via firmware updates. I haven’t used Marshall or any competing monitors, so I can’t really tell you if this one is better. One thing I have heard about the DP4 is that it runs a bit hot, and I can confirm that is true. However, it was never a real issue for me. I would be more annoyed if it impeded the operation of the monitor, but it doesn’t, and therefore isn’t too much of a concern in my book.

What you see on your DP4′s screen matches what you will see on your computer pretty closely. I didn’t modify many settings on the DP4, just some slight tweaks to contrast and brightness. My need with this piece of gear was the ability to grab focus quickly and have a larger viewing screen. The SmallHD DP4 has more than met that need for me, so why not check out the SmallHD DP4 and see if it meets your needs?

Full disclosure: I was able to acquire the KesslerCrane Pocket Dolly from them due to the fact I’m doing a video for their fantastic Kessler University website. I was offered payment in whatever manner I wished, but I thought it better to get gear for my work. So while I definitely am not getting it for free, I thought this something I should disclose right off the bat. I don’t have a “statement of ethics” or anything like that, but I’d like to think I behave in an honorable manner in any of my dealings, on or offline.

I must say, Eric Kessler, Chris Beller, and KesslerCrane’s reputation for good customer service is not undeserved. I knew I could probably use the Pocket Dolly for an upcoming shoot, and let them know. That shoot was a few weeks ago for MLG’s “Dr. Pepper Ultimate Gaming House.” The basic idea of the web series is to pick from user-submitted videos, and remodel the winner’s room into a gaming den of epic proportions. Eric and Chris graciously hooked me up early and sent the Pocket Dolly and needed accessories to the hotel we would be arriving at in Illinois. To say I was ecstatic to finally get my hands on this would be a bit of an understatement. My frequent collaborator Joseph Pollock and I filmed a short test film of sorts called “Firm” later that night.

The temptation to go on a slider fetish run was great, I won’t lie. If that makes you scratch your head and wonder what I mean, I mean abuse of a slider, doing moves with one “just because you can” and for no other reason than that. Thankfully my duties on the shoot prevented me from letting my mind wander to my new piece of gear. We ended up only using it for one part of the shoot, for b-roll in an old arcade. This was one area my DSLR was an absolute nightmare, trying to tweak the shutter speeds to match the refresh rates on the different arcade screens. However I was able to get some great shots regardless.

One thing that surprised me immediately was how much I disliked the hand crank. It felt very unnatural to me to use the crank, so I opted for a more hands on approach. If you choose to go the Pocket Dolly route, know that any errors on slider moves are probably your fault. The Pocket Dolly is seriously as smooth as butter. You may not be perfect at it immediately, but keep using it and practicing with it so you can use it perfectly when it does count. Joe and I’s short film “Firm” was more or less an interesting way to practice using the Pocket Dolly. The only slider I’d used before was a Glidetrack SD. I won’t say much about it other than I was not impressed with it. I’m sure I could have gotten better with it over time, but having it seize up mid-move drove me nuts. The high quality craftsmanship behind the Pocket Dolly shows. Any minute errors with the different moves you can achieve with the Pocket Dolly were definitely my fault. I had to even learn to control my breathing so as to achieve perfectly smooth motion. There are a host of different moves you can achieve with the Pocket Dolly, you are not limited to just horizontal moves.

The next gig I used it at recently was MLG Anaheim, in Anaheim, California. Major League Gaming is the governing body for eSports in North America. Our events attract thousands of spectators, competitors, and millions of viewers online. Our most recent event, in Anaheim, attracted over 20,000 spectators, over 120K in prizes, and 35 million views online. MLG’s broadcasts employ a sports type model for broadcasting on the internet. The production values are quite good – we have 4 channels on our website, one for each game and one “best of” type of channel that broadcasts all 3 games. MLG currently has Halo: Reach, StarCraft 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Pro Circuit.

This was my first experience traveling with the Pocket Dolly. I got no trouble from TSA or airlines carrying on the Pocket Dolly and a Pelican 1510 case. The Pocket Dolly fits quite nicely in an overhead for travel. The Anaheim event was 3 days long – Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday I used the Pocket Dolly for strictly vertical moves. This configuration is easy and requires only one tripod with the quick release plate mounted in the middle. I used a Giotto ball head so that I could point the camera perpendicular from the vertical Pocket Dolly. This enabled me to do vertical moves with the camera pointing at whatever I was shooting. Most of my camera work on Friday was crowd shots, and shots of our players. I refrained from using the Pocket Dolly on Saturday, and used it in a horizontal configuration on Championship Sunday. In order to have it properly balanced, I used 2 tripods on either end. If you get the Philip Bloom Pocket Dolly or Pocket Dolly Traveler, you do not need to do this(or so I’m told). The PD Travel or Philip Bloom Pocket Dolly only require one tripod.

Carrying around the two tripods and Pocket Dolly rig was a bit of a workout but more than worth the trouble. It enabled me to do various moves I hadn’t been able to do before. More dramatic crowd shots, and on one occasion to do a pull-out move on a pro StarCraft player. Moving away from him with my camera accentuated the fact he had just lost and worked quite nicely. On one occasion I used the Pocket Dolly in a slightly unorthodox manner. One player had just beat his mentor on the main stage, and he immediately left his area to talk to his mentor who had just lost. It was a fast moving moment, could have been easily messed up, especially on a DSLR where a stabilized shot is key. In my current configuration I had the Pocket Dolly mounted parallel to the main stage – and I had the camera mounted to the quick release plate attached to my Giotto ball head. I slid very fast with it in a pseudo-handheld type of shot that worked well. It allowed me to follow him across the stage in a much smoother manner than just pure handheld.

If you’re looking for a “score” at the end of this to rate the Pocket Dolly you’re out of luck. I can tell you it’s a solid addition to anyone’s kit. If you’ve gotten to the end of this and are envious, you’ve missed the point. Writing this is not some elaborate ad for KesslerCrane – purely my own thoughts on how it’s already helping my own creativity. The thing about creativity is, it’s all well and good but you can’t do a jib move without a jib, or a slider shot without a slider. There are certain moves you cannot achieve without certain pieces of gear. There are so many sliders out there, I can’t tell you if KesslerCrane’s Pocket Dolly is the best one out there. All I can tell you is it’s a solid product with fantastic customer service to back it up. Would I have bought the Pocket Dolly if I wasn’t doing a video for KesslerU? The answer is most definitely yes – while I am prepared to accept some compromises on quality & price in some areas of gear purchase, this was not one of them. I’ve heard too many horror stories about a slider seizing up mid-move during an event where there are no second takes.

If you’re interested in a product that requires no second take, check out the KesslerCrane Pocket Dolly.

Facebook pages and Tumblr have filled the void I felt was there for my type of blogging style. Facebook has been a great place to share behind the scenes sort of material, among other things. I’m still feeling things out in terms of what belongs on Tumblr and what belongs on Facebook. However any short blogs I do write tend to end up on one or the other. So, I invite you to check out my Facebook Page and my Tumblr! You should find something of value in both places.

This post doesn’t mean I’m not going to write another post here – it just means most of my blogging is very “short-form” and this blog is going to be kept for longer posts that are not suited to Tumblr or Facebook. Cheers!

Thanks for visiting. This is my new and improved website. I’m always looking to improve my online presences and I took a pretty hard look at my site, the purposes it serves, and how to make the user experience better. The conclusion I came to was that it needed a drastic overhaul. My old WordPress template, Manilla, was alright for my first webfolio but it had a lot of weaknesses.

The first and most glaring one was the slow load times. For a theme it was a bit “bulky” to say the least. In order to get it to serve my purposes I had to modify a lot of of php files, and I mean A LOT. I prefer to modify as little code as possible, personally – I can usually figure out what code I need to modify to get it to perform as I desire. Still, I am not a web designer and my knowledge of php is minimal. That and the addition of way too many plugins was slowing my site down. I wonder how many people didn’t view my work simply because they got tired of waiting?

The theme was not as simple and clean as I believe a webfolio should be which made me wonder why I chose it in the first place. Hindsight is always 20/20, I guess. I chose my new theme very carefully. I looked again to the marketplace of ThemeForest. ThemeForest is one of Envato’s great marketplaces for the selling of digital wares. I found a great theme, Anthology, by Pexeto. Something interesting I’ve noticed is how the selection of themes has improved over the past year.

To say that Anthology is flexible is an understatement. The custom interface tabs Pexeto added to Anthology made it very easy for me to tweak it to my liking. One of my favorite things about this theme is the portfolio aspect. It displays 4 portfolio items, but instead of loading a new page for the next “page” of portfolio items it loads it similar to a jQuery slider that you see on a lot of websites these days. Very handy and makes it easier on whomever may be trying to view my work. My philosophy with my web portfolio has always been to make it easy on the visitor. Hence, why my contact info, and social media sharing options are littered throughout the new site. Anthology has also allowed me to cut down from using 20 WP plugins to 5. The site loads a lot faster and is much cleaner. A cleaner site is going to be much easier for visitors to find their way around, I think.

That being said I hope all these changes improve your visits here. The internet has a short attention span as it is and I’d rather not waste people’s time because they can’t figure out how to get around the place. Thanks to all of you who visit my corner of the internet. Cheers!