NAB 2012


Closer than ever, this year’s National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada looks to be the place to be to check out emerging film technologies.. Some say its the year of 4K, some are still wondering what happened to all that 3D hullabaloo. Regardless of trends and new technologies, I am excited to attend as it will be my first NAB, and more importantly an opportunity to meet lots of great folks and Twitter friends in real life! I would love to meet any and all of you, provided you’re friendly and love to talk film. You can best contact me @TheRedOwl, or email me.

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.

No Second Take Required


If you’ve had the chance to get your hands on a KesslerCrane Pocket Dolly, you probably already know how this review is going to turn out. I thought I would share my thoughts on this new and profoundly smooth tool. If the Pocket Dolly were transformed into a human, it would probably turn into Frank Sinatra. Not exactly a scientific fact, but you may be called upon to excuse my hyperbole throughout this post.

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.

Shifting Focus


Well to anyone who reads this even on a weekly basis I must apologize. I’ve been neglecting this blog for a long time, but it’s simply because I’ve been “shifting my focus” as the title of this post would imply. To be honest, I don’t dig the idea of baring your soul on the internet in extremely heartfelt blog posts, not that I’ve ever written one. Most of my blogs have centered on my work. However, I’ve felt the format of this blog to be a bit lacking.

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!

Welcome!


Greetings. Welcome. Bienvenidos.

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!

New Video: The Black Hills


The Black Hills from Tom Baurain on Vimeo.

So, I finally got around to editing the footage I shot while on vacation in South Dakota. The Black Hills are an incredible region of the United States, you owe it to yourself to make it out there sometime in your life.

I haven’t posted this before now due to my contributions to “Love The Earth,” the film by Imogen Heap and Thomas Ermacora I blogged about right below this post. I wasn’t sure what they were going to use and didn’t have time to edit this until now. Sadly, they didn’t use any footage from South Dakota. I hope you enjoyed it! I particularly loved the shots of the buffalo itching himself against that wooden post. One of the weirder shots I’ve ever lensed.

Cheers!

Painting with Light: The Basics


Lately, if you haven’t noticed, I’ve developed a new obsession: long-exposure photography. I love it for a lot of reasons, mostly due to how many forms it can take. It’s a really fun thing to get into, and if you’re like me and own a DSLR, there’s really no reason not to. This post is mainly targeted at beginners, and helping people not make the same initial mistakes I made.

The Essentials

The basics of long-exposure photography you hopefully already have, but here they are:

  • DSLR
  • Tripod
  • Remote Timer
  • Flashlight or any light source

I’ve been using my Canon EOS Rebel T2i for my adventures in long exposures. This will definitely work for you as long as you have a DSLR, though it doesn’t have to be Canon. I love my T2i because even though it produces great images and video, it cost only $900.

The night I got pictures of this train, I almost learned a hard lesson about getting a quality tripod. Right now my tripod is pretty cheap and chinsy. I make do with it but its a miracle I get good shots with it at all. The first exposure of the train I did that night was set a bit too close to the tracks. The wind from the train knocked my T2i over and I almost died inside as I thought the sum of my tax return was about to be sucked under the tracks because of the tripod legs. Bottom line, I’m saving up for a quality tripod and you should too. Quality brands I personally trust are Manfrotto, Vinten, and Miller. The Manfrotto 501 HDV head in particular has been good to me in the past, and happens to be the one I’m saving for.

As far as remote timers go, I personally use the Opteka MC-36b. Funny story- Opteka technical support says this remote timer does not work with the T2i. They are of course wrong, and I bought it anyways as it was one of the few things Philip Bloom recommends that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. If you have something else, I’ve heard good things about the Canon TC-80N3.

Let’s Get Started

So you own all that stuff, eh? Good for you- we can begin. Let me first say that I’ll be addressing common mistakes towards the end so that you don’t repeat my stupidities.

What I love the most about this is how you get started largely depends on you. Your imagination is your limit. What you create with this can take on any form and personally I can’t wait to try stopmotion with this.

The very basics of getting started is setting your DSLR to an extremely low shutter speed. I usually set mine to BULB. If I have it set on anything higher on my T2i it tends to get a little wonky when I set it to exposures longer than 30 seconds.

Take a test photo with a short 15 second exposure. If you’ve got your f-stop set to something low, in the single digits, and an ISO over 200 the first thing you’ll notice is how blown out everything is. This is due to the shutter speed being extremely low.

Personally I think the most interesting photos utilizing long exposures are taken at night. Most often with the low shutter speed involved the camera will let in more light than your visible eye can see. Experiment with your ISO and f-stop, see what works for you! I love it when the camera lets in so much light that night almost turns to day, but your tastes may be different.

Lighting Conditions

As with any photo, lighting is the key. How much or how little you let in can give it a whole new look. Even though I am writing this, I still consider myself a beginner. Generally you can’t mess up too bad with how much light you let in, and as with all photos I highly advise shooting in RAW. Practice makes perfect, if you learn from your mistakes and keep it up there’s no way you can’t get better.

One thing to keep in mind with light and long exposures is that it isn’t necessary for it to be completely dark when doing this. Sunset and near dark are definitely ok for doing this. If you’re doing light graffiti the main thing to keep in mind is the light source you are using to make whatever you’re setting out to make MUST be bright enough to stand out in the photo. If it’s high noon and the sun is blazingly bright then obviously your flashlight isn’t going to stand out much. Make sure your light source stands out.

While we’re talking about light sources, let’s discuss what to use to “paint with light.” A lot of the time, I just use a standard flashlight. My friends and I have also had some great results with sparklers. Sparklers are great, but just as a safety warning take great care with them so you don’t burn your subject, if you are outlining their body. Have fun with this- experiment! Use different colored lights, and different types of lights. I plan on experimenting with LED’s, rope lights, and other light sources soon. As I’ve said before, your limit with this is your imagination.

What traffic lights and lights from all modes of transportation can do for your photos is amazing. Headlights and taillights in particular from cars can change night to day, as seen here. Trains are even more interesting to me when it comes to light.

Here is an example of a 45 second exposure where the exposure stops so that the lights coming off the train stop.

This one is the longest exposure I’ve ever done, coming in at 3 and a half minutes. It’s literally an entire train passing by.

Lens Choices

Nothing that holds true for choosing a lens is any different with light painting. Wide angle lenses will get you the most room to play with, and telephoto will get you the least. Higher quality lenses as usual will get you better quality pictures. My personal preference is wide angle, so I have the most room to play with. See what works best for you!

Essential Tips

  • GET A GOOD TRIPOD. Bottom line, use what you have, but make getting a good tripod a priority. The last 2 photos I posted? Can you see the difference in camera shake? The vibration from the train shook my tripod quite a bit more because of a few things. The first is how long the exposure was- a lot more of a chance to have vibration from the train distort the photo. The second is how cheap my tripod is-the low weight of it meant less stability.
  • Don’t rely on what others have done. I’m not against looking on the web at cool photos others have done for inspiration, but the best weapon you have in any form of long-exposure photography is your imagination, not imitating cool things that others have done.
  • Experiment, experiment, experiment. Use different light sources, and get your friends involved! You can create more complex shapes and images with different colors and more than one light painter.
  • Use a remote timer. You can do long exposures without it, but if you want blur-free images a remote timer is absolutely necessary.
  • You have more room than you think.When trying to draw anything in light graffiti, whether it’s your name or some kind of creature, you usually have more room in the frame than you think. One of my early mistakes was not utilizing all the space I really had.
  • Do it with a group of friends! In the past, I’ve done light graffiti with 2-5 friends. Having friends help you definitely ups the possibilities on what you can accomplish. You can help each other have a better idea of how much space you really have in the frame. It’s also good depending on who you invite because 5 people with ideas are usually better than 1.

I initially got my DSLR to do video, but this convergence has had other effects. I hadn’t really considered doing light graffiti or any of that when I first bought my T2i but it’s great fun! I hope you try it out for yourself. The possibilities are endless.

12 Reasons Why I Won’t Follow You Back(On Twitter)


I felt like writing this so people have a good idea why I don’t “follow” you back on Twitter. I think these simple reasons, some more applied to the general Twitter populace, will help newbies to Twitter. Some reasons are purely self-centered, more about myself. Read the full list after the jump.

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