Comments on: HurlBlog Technology Guru: Mike McCarthy Part II

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:49:57 +0000

Fletcher Murray, in one word AMEN!!!! Thank you for your comments and support. You nailed it on the head. Story, story, story.

By: Fletcher Murray

Fletcher Murray — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:34:51 +0000

Shane,
Great blog. Thanks for taking the time to share your battle-hardened methods. (You’re not an engineer who shoots video on the weekends). My comment is about the importance of story versus technical issues that may not be visible in the final show, especially if the work isn’t headed for the big theatrical screen. I appreciate Mike’s guidance and attention to detail. He probably has made many D.P.’s look great. I follow the techno discussions, but, as you’ve said, the story is what rivets the audience. I’ve approached most of my work from more of a documentary camera style, i.e. a style that captures (or attempts to capture) action that is unstaged or feels uncontrived (not “Hollywood-ized”), and thus has raw power because it feels REAL. So, I’m speaking up for the grainy, battlefield camera shots of an Arri 16mmSR with a 5.9mm lens on the end of boom pole screwed into the top of the camera versus the gorgeous Super Panavision70mm color camera sliding along a perfectly smooth dolly track that the great director David Lean and his D.P., Freddie Young, might set up. (Although, if they had done a battle scene they would probably have shot with something that resembled the 16mm battlefield Arri. That’s the sign of greatness, matching the look to the story.) In conclusion, I’m just voting for the following priorities: first, have a great story, second, have a great storyboard that will engage the audience, and third, shoot with the most professional camera setup and crew the budget permits. Of course, we should know our equipment options but foremost get the shot that’ll make the audience say “wow”. That’s why I like the Hurlblog…you tell us how to get the shot with battle-hardened methods and tips that matter not minutiae. You’re about getting the shot. You’re not on the bandwagon that tries to convince young D.P.’s that technological accessories and software will compensate for a bad story, and a bad storyboard.

By: Louisa Nesslein

Louisa Nesslein — Fri, 06 May 2011 07:36:48 +0000

I have a completely new company that is retailing homemade baby toys on the internet and I am attempting to find an effective resourse to locate reasonable credit card processing rates that may work with me eventhough my company simply started out some time ago.

By: Shane

Shane — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:58:23 +0000

Mike McCarthy, thanks so much Mike.

By: Mike McCarthy

Mike McCarthy — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 01:50:18 +0000

The Cineform codec can be acquired directly from Cineform at cineform.com, in the form of the product NeoHD for about $500. You can contact me directly at mikemccarthy@hd4pc.com if you want further details.

By: Shelika Emmanuel jnr

Shelika Emmanuel jnr — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:39:46 +0000

hi mr Mike McCarthy, im a young filmaker from Nigeria. Ive been following mr Shanes work for a while now, and it has really inspired and improved my cinematography skills. Mr.Mike McCarthy,ill like for you to do a comprehensive talk on cineform raw, how to get the codec, use it and how to use it expand color space. thans- Shelikia

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 02:24:44 +0000

Conrad Chu, Hi Conrad, I wanted to get the best information for you. I emailed Mike Kanfer at Adobe who is an Academy Award winning VFX’s supervisor and Digital Production specialist. This is what he had to say:
Yes, the color and gamma inconsistency issues with QuickTime are definitely frustrating, both on MAC and PC. To their credit, Rarevision has made great strides to help users who are pulling their hair out trying to unravel the mystery of it all. However, please know that the way Adobe reads the H.264′s from Canon completely bypasses QuickTime, so it’s a non-issue in our CS5 workflow whether you do it on a Mac or PC with Windows. My post from the 28th of Sept. documents the imaging quality advantages in detail.

By: Conrad Chu

Conrad Chu — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:18:44 +0000

Hi Shane,

I understand you’re on a PC workflow, and though you mentioned how the Mac/FCP/ProRes combo is nice too since it’s 10-bit, I found that the Mac workflow is pretty painful in terms of color accuracy. Going from H264 to ProRes into FCP to output is a very hairy process, and there doesn’t seem to be any good solutions to keeping colors accurate.

This post is good illustration of the Quicktime gamma nightmare:
http://motionlifemediablog.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/5dtorgb-color-tests

Have you had any experiences with this gamma/color issues even on the PC workflow? If you have any tips on how Mac-based post production handles conversion while keeping colors accurate, I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks for all your hard work!
Conrad

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:55:54 +0000

Rich Savage, thank you so much for those kind words, I would have to direct you to jacob@banditobrothers.com for any adobe software information. He is the Adobe guru. Give him a shout and I know he can help you.

By: Rich Savage

Rich Savage — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:45:34 +0000

Oh i think I mioght know the answer actually. Im using the Media Encoder that was bundled with Adobe Flash, so it seems the formats are specific to Flash only.