© Gizmodo I have two predictions on what 2010 will bring that I wanted to share with you as we are about to close the book on 2009: 1. 2010 will be coined the “Year of the Tablet” as different hardware and software companies offer a new platform and delivery system for the media.   This will happen only if print publishers get their act together (this would be a minor miracle given their total ineptitude to date) but I’m cautiously optimistic that we may just witness a noticeable revival of the print industry as it finds a way of delivery that is not dependent on decimating forests. There have been many rumors, slipups of some of the major print powerhouses getting ready to provide content for an unnamed “Apple Tablet” or “iSlate” - I’ve heard rumblings from The New York Times, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Wired, GQ and others that their teams were approached by Apple more than 6 months ago… Apple is not alone in getting tablets ready… Yet they are in a perfect position to capitalize on the print industry’s weakness right now - and become the GO TO provider for print content as they have done with the music industry (remember how they revitalized the ailing music industry?  When was the last time you purchased a CD?   I predict that they will do the same with print media and that we’ll be saying the same thing about purchasing a newspaper or magazine 3-5 years from now…) Just this past week - I was making a paper mache volcano with my 5-year-old son that called for us to use newspaper and aluminum foil to make a foundation for the paper mache mix we had… I realized that I could not find a single piece of newspaper in our house.  Not a single sheet of newsprint!   Sure we have hundreds of magazine pages - but a quick unofficial poll around the house filled with six 16-34 year olds made it clear that NO ONE under 50 in our family reads the physical newspaper anymore.  Most read it and increasingly magazines as well - online.   I myself made the difficult move of canceling my New York Times subscription 8 months ago as I never read the print edition anymore - by the time it arrived on my doorstep I had already read the news more than 12-18 hours before on NYTimes.com…. so I canceled my subscription.  (This was tough to do  - I worked at The NYT as a staff photographer for 7 years…) I still had money to give to support the NYT - but no one to give it to!  This is a fundamental failure of the print industry that a decade ago decided to sell print ads to their clients and THROW IN ONLINE ADVERTISING FOR FREE. A Herculean oversight!  Now they can no longer charge enough for online advertising and cannot sell subscriptions to their online readers -  and as a result the print industry has been DECIMATED in 2009. I’ll roll the dice here and say that 2010 will not see the death of the print industry altogether as some are calling for.  In fact,  I’ll predict that if they find a way to monetize their content online (see: on tablets) we might actually see the first positive growth in those markets in years (hey it won’t take much!  Print is on life-support as is!) If Magazines and Newspaper can find a way to either charge for online subscriptions or to profit from micro payments - there may be hope.   These tablets may JUST be hip enough for the new generation of readers (accustomed to NOT paying for content) that they may just not notice that they are now being asked to pay for something that has been free for too long.  Tablets may be JUST cool enough and the new content exciting enough to justify this pretty radical move - while you might not want to pay $20-$150 a year for you local newspaper online - how about $0.05 an article?  Or $0.01 per photo or video?  Maybe even a Nickel?  Think about it… The 2010’s (whatever will be we call the next decade?) may become known as the decade of the Tablet if things progress the way I hope they do, and all of our colleagues in the print industry may just be part of an incredible revival and REINVENTION of their industry.   You should look to see a new breed of content aggregation and offering as well - forget simple still image slide shows and articles.  Forget banner ads.  Print will quickly become a misnomer as the line between it an television and online content become more and more blurred and in effect irrelevant. Advertising will also see an INCREDIBLE shakeup in the 2010’s - and that’s something I’m quite excited about.  Forget polished, predictable, packaged ads that have been cleared by 14 layers of creatives, executives, accountants, and lawyers -  EXPECT ads that are VIRAL, and EVOLVE on the internet/blogs/twitter etc.  that will come to redefine advertising as we know it.   I hope.

On a much smaller note in relative terms - but relevant to me and many of this blog’s readers I’m sure: 2. HD DSLR Cameras and cinematography will come of age in 2010.    Surprisingly - don’t look to Canon Inc. to be spearheading this movement just yet.  You should look to many mid-size and smaller companies such as RedRock Micro, Viewfactor, Marshall Electronics, Litepanels and many others that will take the charge in 2010 by releasing incredibly innovative products that could potentially alter the way many of us make films / commercials / shorts. Some of the innovations will be relatively minor, while others will astound you.  Obviously each company will be making their annoucements at their own pace and at the time of the their choosing.  But if even 1/4 of the things that have been whispered into my ear prove to make it past the prototype stage - I can guarantee you (and I) will all greatly benefit as filmmakers and customers.   If you simply take a step back and look at the timeline of HD DSLR cinematography - you will see that NAB 2010 lands just a little bit past the 18 month mark since the first Canon 5D MKII was announced… which just happens to be a very sweet spot for most companies to go from prototype to the announcement of important products. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| So in the end - to all of the readers of this blog - THANK YOU! To all of the nearly 4,000,000 of you that have visited this blog since it’s inception just a little over a year ago - thank you for the kind words, the few nasty comments (always from anon@anon.com - why is that?)  and in general the overwhelming support and encouragement.   2009 was a year of highs and lows for all of us - that has ended on an exclamation point for me with several fantastic work related projects as well as the announcement of the Canon / Vimeo film contest that I hope you all will be a part of! If 2010 is just half as exciting as 2009 - I’m game!  My guess is that it will somehow be even MORE exciting! Wishing you a wonderful 2010! Happy New Year!

For some of you that may be following me on Twitter - you may have seen some video from a little over a week ago of our takeoff that I sent from my iPhone during the flight. Here is a video that my pal Robert Caplin shot and that Laia Pratts edited.  I’ve got to admit that I fell to the ground laughing when I heard their choice of music… that combined with some great onboard audio reminded me so much of the epic helicopter scene from “Apocalypse Now.” If you want to see a slightly more “serious” version here’s New York Magazine’s video on this same shoot - if anything fast forward to second 0:46 for a shot of us flying less than 20 feet off the deck - now that shot is SICK.

Behind the Photo: ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ Couple Posted to New York Magazine by jgreen on December 11, 2009

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Major props goes to pilot Mike Kwas of Liberty Helicopters for a simply outstanding job navigating us so artfully between 2 boats, air traffic, and buoys!  This was definitely neither the first nor the last time he and I have flown together. If you want to see the true look of a professional who’s focused like no other - check out Caplin’s video at 2:03.  Now that’s a PRO in the ZONE!!!  Not to mention that Mike Kwas had 4 Profoto 7Bs w/ Bitubes BLASTING in his face!  We used those to have a bit of sidelight at sunset and triggered them from the helicopter with Pocket Wizards.  As Mike Isler (my main guy / technical advisor) says in Borat voice - it was a “great success!!!!” As you can see - we all had a blast - I had a great great time going back to NY after 6 months in LA w/o a flight over my #1 favorite place to fly over in the world!  Thanks to Jody Quon and Alex Pollack of New York Magazine (see link to the article for this piece here) for making this happen! You can also read Robert Caplin’s account of the flight here.

It took me long enough… but I’m Tweeting now… My username is @vincentlaforet (yes…spent a lot of time thinking of that one…) Some of you may know that I SWORE that I would never tweet… then I realized it could actually be pretty cool. This blog is great - but I don’t post as often as I’d like to.   Facebook - is a disaster.  I never have time to check it (truth be told, I have over 900 friend requests - problem is:  every time I accept one friend - I get 12 suggestions - and it takes forever to go down the list… does anyone know how to “accept all?” As silly as that excuse is - that’s pretty much why I ran away from Facebook close to 9 months ago…) OK - so here goes something else.   For the record:  I resisted blogging at first as well.  As much of an “early adopter” that I am in terms of cameras and new technology (I should have named my kids Beta and NDA given how often I hear those words!)   I’ve always resisted ’social’ internet trends for some reason… That being said - I’ve been enjoying reading many of the tweets of those I follow (see my twitter page for a list of people that I’m following) and a few friends finally got me to take the plunge. If anything - tweeting may allow me to be a bit more liberal about what I share… NDA’s don’t really exist in the twitter sphere do they?  ;) Pls post your twitter addresses in the comments below - always looking for cool people/things to follow!

Jim Denevan's 2009 Land Drawing in Nevada is pretty gorgeous - shot by Peter Hinson. I wanted to point out some pretty powerful artwork by Jim Denevan. Truth be told - Jim contacted me a few months ago and asked if I might be interested in coming out to document some of his works from the air and I had a work conflict and could not make it.  I have to say that I regret not being able to make it now even more as I see how beautifully it turned out  - shot here by Peter Hinson. Check out their work here - and enjoy what is a very very cool way to express oneself - and something that even “the Gods” would enjoy from above I’m sure. As someone who does a fair bit of aerial work - this is a feast for my eyes. p.s. anyone who rides around in Elvis’ old bus - doubly cool by my standards.

MPEG Streamclip for Mac or Windows is a CHAMP at converting the H.264 footage! And it's FREE. One of the most common questions that I get from people regarding the new breed of HD-DSLR cameras is “What’s your post-workflow?” Truth be told - most of it is actually extremely straightforward.  It does get fancy when you try to do some high end stuff- but that workflow applies to maybe one percent of people - so here is the simple workflow: Simply put - all you need to do is to convert the native footage from the Canon 5D / 7D / 1D MKIV from the AVC H.264 format to a format that your computer and software will support. For me it’s simple given that I work with Final Cut Studio - I work with Apple’s ProRes codec.  What this means is that I simply convert the H.264 footage to the higher quality (and less compressed) ProRes format. (Avid supposedly supports the H.264 format natively according to some post houses that I’ve worked with - but I admit to not being an Avid or Adobe Premier expert by any means.)

Why do you need to do this?  Well simply put - most software does not support the editing of H.264 footage natively - some do.  Final Cut Pro doesn’t - you’ll find that it can crash every few minutes - or worst - every few seconds.   You’ll find that the video is extremely choppy - and that it can be close to impossible to do frame-accurate edits.   The reason is simple:  the computer has to decompress this (compressed) footage on the fly.  And that takes a lot of GPU (Graphic card) power.    Older MacBook Pros and even the top end Mac Pro tower with the most expensive graphics card can choke on this task… ironically you’ll find that the new MacBook Pros do much better than the top-end Mac Pros… and that’s just plain silly.  Why?  Well the MacBook Pros have a H.264 chip built onto their graphics card!   This helps play all of the iTunes m4v files (movie files) more smoothly. So how do YOU do it? Well, there are MANY ways to do this.   You can use Final Cut Studio’s Compressor software - I create droplets and drop my files onto them.  Very very easy. Compressor "Droplets" allow you to simply drag and drop your Canon files onto the icons... the software does all of the rest. I’ve also converted the file within Final Cut Pro using either the Batch Export feature - or even the media manager menu. Compressor is good - and easy.  But some of you may not own Final Cut Studio… so what do you do? Well I recommend you look into the utility that has quickly become my absolute favorite way of converting my footage:  Squared 5’s MPEG Streamclip. Not only is it extremely easy to use (see Chris Fenwick’s most excellent video tutorial here) but it’s also often faster than Compressor and is much cheaper… Much cheaper! It’s FREE.  And frankly I don’t know why.  Because I would gladly shell out $100 bucks or more for this app. It’s that good. I’ve found that the app is extremely fast (faster than compressor!) - it allows me to point it to folders and it will ignore all of the THM files and CR2s in the folder - and off it goes.   You can pause it in the middle of a re-compression batch should you need to shut down your laptop or unplug your external hard drive.  Basically it’s a dream. Lately I find myself using two codecs most often - Apple ProRes 422 has always been my gold standard, and recently w/ the new FCP Studio I find myself using Apple ProRes Proxy - to do quick edits on my laptop. Obviously - the size of the de-compressed files will depend on what codec (fancy word for video format) that you chose.  ProRes 444 will be much bigger than ProRes 422 or ProRes Proxy obviously.  Apple details the sizes somewhere on the web if you’re real curious. (OK HERE it is…) and in even more detail HERE. Basically - to keep it simple - if you’re just getting started - just follow Chris Fenwick’s tutorial above - or decompress you H.264 footage into ProRes 422.  And you’ll be all set to get going in all of this.  Remember to always keep the ORIGINAL footage somewhere safe in case some incredible new technology comes out years from now - but work off of the ProRes files from that point on. Good luck!

Shane Hurlbut coupled a Canon 5D MKII to a Panavision Primo Prime. It’s been a very interesting year for both Photography and Cinematrography with the release of HD-DSLR cameras. Those who have read this blog understand that I’ve become somewhat of a lightning rod/evangelist for this new technology and how I believe that it has the potential to change both professions. At times I see the skeptical comments on this blog or a puzzled look from an audience members when I give a speech.  So it’s nice to know that I’m not alone in this. Shane Hurlbut, a very successful Director of Photography and ASC member has also jumped into this world with both feet.  Shane has a new blog that I want to introduce you to as well as a new contest that you might be interested in participating in… There’s so much that I could say about Shane - he’s perhaps the only person that is MORE enthusiastic about this technology than I am - and that’s saying a lot.   We had a chance to meet at the Collision Conference in Los Angeles a few months ago and regularly talk about the latest gadgets and developing technologies.   It’s been fun to see how we’ve each learned a bit from one another:  Shane is now more comfortable shooting at 1600 ASA since meeting me (he stuck to around 500 ASA before we spoke) - and I’m less obsessed with stabilizing the 5D MKII with endless grip and gadgets. And when people see my “franken-cameras” - then they obviously haven’t seen Shane’s use of Panavision Primo Prime lenses to the 5D MKII.   Now that’s a site that will wake just about anyone up to how the landscape is changing.   I suggest you go through Shane’s sites and you’ll find many excellent videos and still galleries. The best part of all of this - is that I’ve known about all of the work that Shane’s been doing for months - but haven’t been at liberty to share it with everyone because a lot of it was under NDA / confidential. Shane is currently working on what I believe may be the first full feature film shot almost entirely with the Canon 5D MKII.  You will find clips on this site here.  Clearly you will see that Shane is no slouch - he’s been DP on many big time feature films - including most recently Terminator Salvation.  Clearly Shane has access to whatever toy / camera he needs in the world - the fact that he’s focusing so much time and energy on the 5D MKII should be a wake up call for everyone out there.  Skeptics - take note.  Shane works mostly on major Hollywood blockbusters and the fact that he’s dedicating so much of this time to this new technology is telling. For now Shane is challenging viewers to pick out shots from his current Navy SEAL film project - and decided which ones are shot with the Canon 5D MKII, The Sony 950, and the ARRI 235.  Check it out here. I’ve seen the results on a 50 foot screen and it’s hard to tell.

David Nelson and I - late late Saturday - or I guess that makes it Sunday - Morning. As a technical reference - this is a frame grab from a 5D MKII. The light was SO yellow we se the 1D MKIV to 2500K... and it was still yellow. First of all - thank you for all of the positive comments (and a few of the nasty ones too!) I wanted to clarify a few things - because I won’t have time to answer all of the e-mails / blog posts - many of which are asking the same questions. First - I really want to give due credit to Stu Maschwitz & David Nelson - my co-filmmakers.  We agreed to work together (having more than one director is never a good idea - we all knew it - but we were too swamped with our day jobs to pull this off alone under such short notice) but things worked out for the best in the end. Collaboration is a wonderful thing.  This film would not have been what it is without them.   I also want to thank Michele the producer - as well as everyone on the cast and crew.   Some of you may be rolling your eyes - but until you’re on this side of things, you may not appreciate just how much of a team effort filmmaking is.    The film is only as good as its weakest link - and we didn’t have a single weak link on this cast or crew - no matter how late in the morning it was. Almost everyone had a day job to go back to after each night - often on other productions that lasted more than 10-12 hours…  Ben Nussbaum and his post house Pictures in a Row were exceptional.  Ben worked 5-6 days straight on this - day and night working in between his own projects.   He owns a huge part of the creative puzzle that made up this film. So far - the film has been viewed at least 747,710 times (by unique visitors btw)  - that’s 17.22 TB of data in just 12 hours served up by SmugMug’s servers alone.  This blog crashed twice last night even though all of the pipes had been opened up… It never crashed on Reverie.  I am in their and Vimeo’s debt for donating their time and bandwidth to this effort.  It’s very generous of them. A few answers to some common questions: 1. I do not have any plans of putting up RAW footage.  It’s simply too expensive to do so.  Perhaps Canon will decide to do so on their own.  I did put the RAW footage up for Reverie - but at this point I think that we can all appreciate that the camera can produce excellent results when run through simple grading and a slight noise correction. 2. I did shoot at the higher ASAs on my own - and the footage is usable - it does have more noise in it (obviously.)  That being said - I had a hard time finding any nighttime scene that required anything higher than 6400 ASA.  Anything beyond that and there really isn’t much light to see anyway.  Although I did of course make a point of not using any artificial light sources that I could have added in - that doesn’t mean that I want to shoot in poor light.  In many ways this was a proof of concept shoot.  Yes: shooting at night w/ existing light is possible.  That being said - I still like the approach of the lighting in Reverie best - adding a small amount of intelligently placed light is key to achieving the best results.  What this cameras does is offer you to not have to flood the area with light - but to balance the added light with the available light - balancing the two is always key in my opinion.  To date few cameras have allowed us to try to balance low light w/ artificial light of course - as most were simply not sensitive enough. Veteran Steadicam Operator and fellow DP Charles Papert filming Luke Vexler in "low mode." 3.  Yes - I agree - Reverie was indeed “Cheesy.”  I’ve called it a bad cologne commercial for a year now every time I discuss it.   That being said - it was the best I was able to pull off with less than 24 hours notice and I will always be proud of it for what it was.   People who criticize it’s lack of plot really don’t get it.  Trying to make a Kubrick film with 12 hours notice isn’t going to pan out - it’s important to always set realistic goals given the time and resources one has at one’s disposal. I purposely chose to stay away from a lot of motion in Reverie because: a. I had no cinema gear to help stabilize the camera b. I was afraid of the “jello” effect that I knew was inherent in CMOS cameras.   Basically:  I knew better. I think it’s always important to understand the limitations of one’s gear - to avoid those pitfalls, and to maximize the inherent qualities of each piece of kit.  Pushing the limit is always a goal of mine - but knowing how far I can push and where things can potentially “break” is just as important if not more. Nocturne is a fun little movie - it too is not meant to be a narrative masterpiece.   Good dialogue takes time - finding good actors is key.  Once again - we only had a few days notice.  So we decided to have a little bit of fun.  One of the most important lessons that I learned as a news photographer is that: CONTENT IS KEY.  Therefore I believe that no matter how beautiful a film is shot - it is worth little to nothing without a good plot.  That is why I believe in working only great concepts, with great screenwriters, and with the best actors - whenever time allows.    A lot of that cannot and should not be rushed. 4.  I have not had a chance to try the AF of the camera.  I have heard that it works great - better than any Canon camera out there.  For this project - I spend my time solely focused on the filmmaking aspects of the camera. 5. The “rolling shutter” or “jello” effect - is significantly improved over previous models.  So much so that we did not hesitate to handhold the camera and do “Bourne-like” moves.  It’s close to being a non-factor - but the effect is still there when you shoot extreme whip-pans (that would be unusable on a 50 foot screen regardless of the camera it was shot with.) Here we are on the GripTrix car - really cool toy. And YES - that is indeed Johnny Drama's Car from Entourage and the opening credits. Kudos to Michele for finding that one! 6. We will be releasing a behind the scenes short today or tomorrow.   You will notice that this was not a 3 person crew.   We didn’t have permits or much in terms of funds - but I did pull some favors to get some neat toys out there.  It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting with a digital Elph, 5DMKII, ARRI, or Genesis:  you need to spend money on stabilizing the camera to get a professional look.  Period.  The advantage of the HD-DSLR series is that they are much lighter than other cameras - and can do amazing things with significantly cheaper rigs.   I will be discussing this in much greater detail in an upcoming series of videos on HD-DSLR cameras - if you would like to be notified of it’s release (before the end of the year) pls e-mail me at production@vincentlaforet.com - with the word “NOTIFY” in the subject and I’ll ping you when it’s available.  We are currently in pre-production on the series. 7. Some of you may notice the word “Nacht” which is German for “Night” on one of the street signs… this is one of Stu’s influences.  He couldn’t resist it - and I love little touches like that… Stu is an extremely talented filmmaker and visual FX artist.  He is also the author of a fantastic book that I own and have read numerous times that is applicable to any filmmaker who wants to break the mold:  The Digital Rebel’s Guide. You can follow his version of events on his blog here as well - a blog Prolost - that I have been reading daily for over a year. 8. Two common details that people are bringing up:  yes we did notice the shadow in the form of the cross - being cast by the light pole and modeled a shot around this rather fortuitous event.   We were also well aware of the car shots being “flipped” - word to the wise: never go into production with a storyboard that is 95% done… or you’ll be forced to make decisions like this.   Given the time we had to prepare - I’m amazed that Ben didn’t have to make more of these types of compromises. 9. I haven’t done scientific testing.  But basically I’d wager that you can expect a 2 stop improvement in terms of low light performance/image quality with the 1D MKIV relative to the 5D MKII. 10. Much to my chagrin - the camera does not output full HD out of the min-HDMI output.  I am not at all a big fan of the HDMI output that manufacturers seem to be adopting.  The cables break far too easily, and do not stay seated in the their ports - in fact unless supported they will pull themselves out of their own ports with their own weight alone.   HDSDI is the only output Canon should consider for future cameras- having to work with (and convert) HDMI is a production nightmare and expense.  It’s doable  - but a pain.  That being said - the output no longer drops when you go from LiveView to Recording mode.  That’s significant improvement - the image looks noticeably sharper.  It’s now possible to focus with a long lens - almost critically on an external monitor.  Wideangle lenses are still tough though.  We need HD output and RAW output BADLY.  Once this happens - all bets are off. 11.  In case you haven’t heard - Canon just announced a firmware update that will allow for 24p/25p/60i - which is fantastic.  So no need to get rid of your 5D MKIIs just yet - both they and the 1D MKIV had specific advantages to one another.  I can see myself using both. That’s it for now.  More TK.
p.s.: I’ve gotten 2,732 e-mails today and my inbox already had broken the 2,000 mark prior to this… so pls be patient.  If you are trying to reach me for any work related request - pls contact my agent Stockland Martel directly.  I apologize to my friends especially - for not being able to get back right away.  I will also be busy at the Photo Plus Expo this week in New York City and I am Directing/DPing a network television job next week.  So it’s pretty insanely busy regardless of Nocturne.

See it bigger (up to 1080p) on SmugMug!

Here is a first look at the Jamie O’Brien project.   This is a reel of some of the best shots from the 3 week project.  I would like to point out that this first look does not reflect our ultimate goal of producing a more in depth documentary that includes interviews with Jamie and other influential members of the surfing community.   One of the reasons that it’s taken me this long to get this short cut up on the blog is that we’ve been working on the two cuts simultaneously.  My goal all along has been to NOT make yet “another surf film” as those have already been made and made very well by some incredibly talented filmmakers - and shot over a much longer period of time where budgets and time allow the filmmakers to wait for the perfect conditions / swell.   During the 3 weeks in Hawaii - we probably saw 5 days of sun, and 2-3 days of decent (but relatively small) waves.  I was well aware of some of these challenges (weather is always a huge factor when shooting in the winter months in Hawaii) and made a point from the beginning to draw upon my experience as a  photojournalist to work towards producing a different type of film.  I hope to be able to share that with you at some point in the upcoming months. For now I hope you’ll enjoy this first look.  I look forward to getting back to writing more regularly on this blog now that this cut is done.   A huge thanks goes out to all of the crew members, the sponsors who provided financial and gear support (many of them prototypes) and of course to Jamie.

See it bigger on SmugMug! (If you are having difficulties viewing the video - please try a different browser.   There have been specific reports of Apple’s SAFARI not working following the latest OSX Update.) Here is some really nice footage shot with the both the RED One and Panasonic HVX200 by Larry Haynes in association with Prickett Films.   Larry and Mike Prickett are two of the top underwater photographers/filmmakers in the world - and they’ve joined us in capturing some amazing footage of Jamie in the water.   Here’s a BIG thanks to Larry for his incredible effort and stamina - and for Mike in providing us with his underwater housing and his RED One and custom parts to make it all work.   If you think surfing Pipe is dangerous - try swimming with a 28+ pound housing - and doing so for hours on end.   I have the deepest admiration for these guys and what they do and more than enough to realize that trying to do what they do myself would be absolutely foolish - even though I’m a certified Rescue SCUBA Diver… Here’s a quick shot from today as well - pulled out the old Profoto 7B’s with an Elinchrom Octabank and a beauty dish.   More behind the scenes of that and other things coming soon. Sadly, we’re starting to pack tomorrow….   © Vincent Laforet - LAFORET | VISUALS

See it bigger on SmugMug! (Due to the length and size of this piece I am putting it up at 720p.) Please note that Tiffen and Formatt BOTH make screw on filters and 4 X 5.65 filters for the matteboxes.   I use a variety of filters from both companies - I use 1-6 stop Neutral Density filters as well as a few 10 stop screw on filters.   The companies also make graduated NDs and Hot Mirror filters that cut out infra red light when using the RED One camera.   The 4 stop and 6 stop are the NDs we’re using most often.   I personally like the 10 stop to use my 1.2 lenses wide open in sunlight.   Also - if you want to stay very light and mobile - I recommend you use the screw on filters - I travel with a set of 72mm and 77mm filters for my Canon lenses - but you could also buy a step-down adapter to screw on your 77mm filters onto your 72mm if you’re looking to economize. We’ve also been using a variety of Manfrotto Tripods and video heads that we mention in this Behind The Scenes on this project that have allowed us to pull of some very nice pans of Jamie surfing.   I can’t overstate how important it is for you to get a good tripod set to shoot nice pans - and you’ll need the heavy duty stuff to shoot with the heavier RED and long Canon glass.   If you want a simple setup to start off with a 5D MKII and shorter lenses - we’ve found the Gitzo carbon fiber tripods and the Gitzo G2180 Fluid head to perform quite remarkably (but don’t overload it or any fluid head with weight - unlike still photography you can’t really get away with overloading a head with video as your pans and tilts will suffer.)  Another really nice option are these self-standing monopods by Manfrotto that I recommend you use with a quick release plate. Check out the RedRock Micro DSLR Rig and long lens support that I’ve mentioned in the past as well as the Wicked Circuits EF Lens adapter for the RED One Camera. I will be posting a DETAILED list of all of the gear described within this and the first behind the scenes clip in a few days after we put up the 3rd installment of the Behind the Scenes up (it’s a long list and I want to add links so it’ll take me a better part of a day to do and we’ve only got a few days of shooting left on this project.)

Click image for larger view, courtesy of Adrants There’s been quite the discussion around Pepsi’s latest rebrand. Patrick, of CR Blog, finds it laughable, Freddy, of adgoodness, thinks it’ll work, and 450+ comments on Brand New highlight interesting views. I’ve been prompted to give my own take following the recent thoughts of Chris Glass. The more I thought about how I felt about the new identity, the more ridiculous I felt about having any regard or feelings at all. It’s soda. Headlines declare a financial meltdown threatens the entire planet and here I am considering the choice of thin san-serif. I can certainly empathise with this, but as Chris goes on to say, the feelings are still there, regardless of value within the grander scheme.

Image from FormFiftyFive

Image from Greg Verdino on Flickr What strikes me most about the latest Pepsi logo isn’t the typeface. It’s not the somewhat cheesy ‘grin’ either. My thoughts revolve around just how often the directors choose to rebrand / redesign / refresh.

Image courtesy of Chris Glass It’s a seemingly never-ending battle of one-upmanship with Coca Cola, that continuous to cost huge fortunes (the latest rebrand a mere $1.2 billion over three years — from AdAge.com). Will the new shelf-image bring higher sales? I like to think my choice is based upon taste. Whether that’s the full reason, I don’t know. Martin Lindstrom sent me a copy of his book Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy. It’s proving an interesting read, and focuses on the largest ever neuro-marketing study. I’m hoping it leaves me with a little more insight. Look at these classic Pepsi cans.

Familiar, distinctive, I’d even say iconic. I wonder how many billions have been spent on branding between then and now.

  See it bigger on SmugMug! (We’re having internet issue on our end in Hawaii - for now only the 720p version is available…) Creativity in surfing is the opportunity to express oneself on a wave.  Surfing is nothing but the physical extension of one’s ability to explore that realm between land and sea.  Being free to do it without the constraints of commercial endeavor or competitive goals creates true freedom of expression.  Somewhere between the land and the sea Jamie tries the other side, switching his feet around on take off, choosing the opposite stance, then midway, switches back… as if to say I can do “whatever I like.”  Jamie embodies the term “free surfer.” We had a long behind the scenes clip queued up for you today (including the ND filter piece that I promised) but the newsman in me forces me to put this clip out now - for the non-surfing crowd out there:  this footswitch by Jamie is something unique to his skill set, and something seldom captured. The best thing about watching, let alone filming, Jamie - is the privilege of seeing someone do something so beautiful, so difficult, so effortlessly.   The last time I saw something like this on such a regular basis was when I photographed Michael Jordan at the United Center in Chicago for his last 3 years on the court. The best part is that I’ve actually had a chance to eat some poke with Jamie - a local delicacy.   Whereas social time with Michael was nothing but a distant dream.    After a very trying week - I can’t wait to sit back and spend the next week watching Jamie surf.   Hope you all feel the same - this is but a small sampling. This shot was made with a Canon 500mm f4 - on a RED One at 100 frames per second at 2K using the Wicked Circuits EF Lens Adapter.  That’s the equivalent of a 1600mm on a 35mm camera.   Big thanks to Mike Isler for the focus pull and spotting.

To see this video at 1080p go to SmugMug by CLICKING HERE. “Hurry Up and Wait” - these are words that I and every photographer / filmmaker / surfer - you name it - live by.   It was a mad dash to get everything ready for this trip - people flew through winter storms, prototypes were assembled last minute and gear was shipped from all over the country.   And then you get here.   And no waves.   I knew that this might happen - and that’s why I gave myself close to 3 weeks to pull this off.  Nonetheless - it hasn’t made the wait any easier.   I can tell you that waiting for weather as a photographer is one of the few truly stressful parts of the job - but when you have a film crew with you - it just gets amplified exponentially as you’re no longer the only person waiting.   This isn’t my first rodeo - and I’ve had to wait a long time before (in fact I had to wait over a week to make a single frame the last time I was here on the North Shore to cover the Pipeline Masters two years ago.)   My 18 years of experience has taught me to simply let things unfold naturally.  Certain things just can’t be helped along… Truth be told: I still can’t “relax” even in Hawaii when I’m “waiting” for an assignment to come together. The fact that we’ve also faced some tough weather and a power outage hasn’t helped, but stress aside - we’ve been having a good time.   We don’t have a single clip of Jamie surfing yet - but it looks like we might just get lucky as a swell is headed our way.   For now I hope you enjoy a very quick cut of what we do have - mostly of us waiting.  For the waves.  And Jamie to explode off of them. Next I’ll put up a behind the scenes piece/tutorial on how important Neutral Density Filters are with these digital cinema cameras and how they’re absolutely essential if you want to differentiate what you are shooting with your Canon lenses from what you see coming out of standard HD video cameras when shooting in daylight.

To view a larger video of this click here. Here is the first installment of our behind the scenes footage.   I will be detailing every piece of gear used as we go through this production - and tomorrow I will post the model numbers etc. of what we are using as I’m sure a few of you might be interested in those specifics.   I was planning on doing that in this post - but it’s late and we’re a little behind given the 18-hour island-wide power failure, so stay tuned.

Canon's 800mm 5.6 coupled to a RED One Camera with a RedRock Micro lens support system. Allow me to introduce the Big Kahuna. I mentioned that I was working on a few prototypes/gadgets for this production with Jamie O’Brien - here is one of the first things that I can share. The Red EOS Mount by Wicked Circuits was created by Andy Lesniak and Richard Wardlow.  It allows you to control both Iris (Aperture) and focus control of any Canon EF Lens mounted to a RED One  (Link to Wicked Circuits to come.)   This will allow us to shoot 4K, 3K and 2K footage at up to 120 fps.  The lens (w/ the crop factor) will be the equivalent of a 1280mm 5.6 and up (depending on the resolution we set.)   Needless to say - I can’t wait to see what this looks like on the beach!

This “little guy” is supported by a RedRock Micro lens support system - also customed configured for this project (microLensSupport and the just released microOmniMount).   The setup is remarkably stable and works perfectly so far.

The Red EOS Mount allows you to control the Aperture in 1/3 stop increments and also allows you to focus the lens with the rotating dial at 3 speeds (slow, normal and fast - through the switch to the right of the unit.)  Push to go between the two modes - and a third time to lock down the settings.  Very very slick. A big thanks to RED, Canon, Wicked Circuits, and RedRock for their support in making this come together.

Pipeline Masters 2006 ©Vincent Laforet I’ve been unusually quiet on the blog because I’ve been in pre-production for the past few weeks gearing up for a pretty fantastic project.    I will be filming a short narrative film on one of the world’s top surfers Jamie O’Brien over the next 3 weeks on the North Shore of Hawai’i.   Jamie is an incredible talent who grew up on the Pipeline - one of, if not the surfing mecca, and the final spot for the sport’s Triple Crown competition - the Pipeline Masters.  I had the pleasure of photographing this amazing sporting event  for The New York Times Magazine’s PLAY two years ago - and have been trying to find a way to return to ever since.  When Jamie’s manager contacted me the day after “Reverie” was released on the web asking if I’d be interested in collaborating on a project together - the project was very quickly afoot.  Jamie is a free surfer who is forward looking and very focused on the future of his sport and helping steer it back to its roots.   He is also a very successful competitive surfer (although that is not his main focus,) and gets to  travel the world as he chases the world’s best waves and is keenely focused on producing awesome imagery of his own - both video and stills.   Jamie is one of the first surfers to have his own production company.  He lives the dream of every surfer, few contests, just surfing and traveling where the waves are best at any given time. We’re going to work together on narrative film - based on his life on the Pipeline - and possibly throughout the next year or two around the globe.   Jamie lives at Pipeline - literally - he grew up looking directly at Pipeline and his bedroom window literally looks straight at the peak.  His is the closest house to the wave, many people shoot straight from his front yard and balcony as they command a near perfect view of both waves, Pipeline and Backdoor.  So this is in many ways a dream project for everyone involved.  Doesn’t hurt to be away from the East Coast in wintertime of course…         Pipeline Masters 2006 ©Vincent Laforet

As some of you may remember, SmugMug offered to fund my next film just a few hours after “Reverie” hit the world wide web just about 3 months ago - and they’ve more than followed through.   I’ve had a few offers for funding - but what struck me about Don, Chris & Andy at SmugMug and led me to work with them on this project - was that they offered to fund my next film right away w/ no strings attached.  Their passion for photography - and now video/film - is palpable.  I can tell you that getting funding from Fortune 100 companies these days in this market, let alone at the end of a fiscal year, is close to impossible.  The fact that SmugMug has honored their commitment during this economic downturn speaks volumes about how well they’re doing and how their company is run.   In exchange for the funding, I will be writing regular posts detailing our progress on this blog every day or two starting next week.    We’ll be showing some of the best shots of the day (but may keep the VERY best hidden)  and quite a bit of “behind the scenes” footage - showing how we’re pulling this off - which should make the gear-heads out there really happy. I’ve been stalling a lot of my “tech tip” posts and Canon 5D MKII tips - as I just haven’t had much free time at all to be honest - and I can best explain / demonstrate things through the behind the scenes videos that we’ll be filming throughout - they’ll be an integral component of this production.  So it’s a safe bet that you’ll want to check in daily.  I’ve been playing with quite a few prototype toys lately from a number of sources- and I think that many of you are going to love some of the stuff I look forward to sharing with you.   SmugMug is the only sponsor of this project - but we also have a lot of support from quite a few great companies.  A lot of these companies are providing me either with technical help and/or loaner gear  - in exchange for my feedback on how it works with the 5D MKII - a camera that has the potential to have a very interesting influence on certain segments of the video/film industry.   I will also be giving quick demos of the gear that I find works best for this camera and the emerging DSLR video market for all to see on this blog - so if you’re wondering what else you might want to buy or rent now that you just received your 5D MKII - stay tuned.   I’ve been researching and testing gear in preparation for this production for more than 11 weeks now. Pipeline Masters 2006 ©Vincent Laforet   The companies that we’re getting support from include:  Apple, Avenger, Bogen, Canon, Eizo, Formatt, Gitzo, Gossen, HD Cinema, Kata, Lastolite, LitePanel, Manfrotto, Marshall Electronics, Profoto, RedRock Micro, Steadicam, Tangent Devices, Tiffen, and RED. I know a few of your may pause at this - but the point that I think needs to be understood that the Canon 5D MKII does quite a few things you can’t do with a RED and vice versa.  One thing a lot of people seem to be missing on many of the message boards/threads that I’ve been reading  - is that while the 5D MKII is truly a game changer on many levels - it like any tool - has its pros and cons, advantages and limitations - as does the RED or any other camera for that matter.   This production is not about playing favorites or alliances - but about finding the best tool for specific tasks - which is something that I’ve always lived by.    The Red One will serve a number of special purposes - specifically to shoot at 120 frames per second.  I’ll also be mounting Canon glass on the RED with a special adapter (more on that soon)  - including a Canon 800mm 5.6 that will be the equivalent of an 1280mm on the RED once you factor in the 1.6X conversion factor - I can’t wait to see what it looks like to see Jamie surfing on a 1280mm lens at 120 fps at 2K!   For the die-hard Canon users, or people who think I’m leaving the non-hollywood-budget filmmakers/videographers/photographers behind - don’t fret - we’re going out with FOUR 5D MKII cameras…  and I’d be a fool not to leverage the small size, price and weight of the 5D MKII - not to mention it’s incredible performance in low light - on this production.    We’re having a custom underwater housing built for it by Ikelite - as well as bringing in a radio-controlled helicopter that can carry the camera and control it as it flies hundreds of feet above - or just feet above the ground… this is going to be exciting.   I’ll be detailing every step of the way as we go - as well as all of the gear / software / workflow as best I can.   For now let your imaginations run - I know I am. Aloha! p.s.: for those of you who are waiting for more information on the internship -  I will be announcing more details about a paid 3 month spring or summer internship following the conclusion of this production - likely in mid-late January.  As I’m sure you understand - I will be focusing on this upcoming project exclusively over the next few weeks.

This will be the first of many tech tip posts on the 5D MKII and video in general - specifically aimed at still photographers making the jump to video. First - I got my 5D MKII production camera yesterday(yep I had to wait ’til yesterday to get mine…:) and I also received a battery pack.  One small details that I didn’t know about (because I only use 1D EOS series cameras for the most part) is that you can use AA batteries in this pack - should you run out of the rechargeable ones… again - this is common with most of the Canon cameras outside of the 1D series - but many pros might not know this.   And given that the Canon 5D MKII batteries are hard to come by - I thought I’d share this simple tip. The second tip that I picked up is that the WIFI base to this camera will allow you to trigger the camera’s video on and off remotely (when you’re connecting (pairing) your computer to the camera via WIFI.)   Most of your won’t care about this - but to others (ME) that’s a big deal.   Currently - if you have LiveView enabled and the camera in video mode - if you plug a pocket wizard or other device into the camera and trigger it - it will trigger a still frame - NOT the video.   And that’s a problem for some of the stuff I’m working on.  I also hear that the Canon IR trigger will also do this (start and stop the video function)- the more expensive and newer one that is - the LC-5. That’s it for now. Time for some zzzzs.

The big thing in the photography blogosphere this morning seems to be David Hobby’s front page post - “Four Reasons to Consider Working for Free.”   Chase Jarvis brought it up on his blog.   And even Moose Petterson rushed in to post as I am here - I’ve got to run out the door.   But here’s what I will say (quickly) - talking about, or getting involved in any online discussion about “working for free” is like tying Kryptonite to oneself.  It is a LOADED question and discussion. I’m very very much against working for free.   In fact I don’t like people working or interning for me for free.  It’s just not good business.  Period. That being said - there is value is what David Hobby is saying.  But it needs to be CRYSTAL CLEAR:  if there is an INCREDIBLE assignment - where there TRULY is no funding behind it (either due to the people putting it on - or these days the economic reality) AND it is a portfolio/career builder - THEN and only THEN should you consider it. Big name actors do occasionally work for free, so do big name talent in all areas - IF THE PROJECT is AMAZING - and not backed by a HUGE company sitting on cash.   This is a VERY IMPORTANT DISTINCTION.   IF YOU ARE WORKING FOR FREE - simply to get “a” job - you risk destroying the entire business for everyone.   In fact - your dream job - that you do for free - will be a job that some qualified person will no longer be getting paid for.  And you’ll hurt that person’s chance of feeding their family in accepting to do that job for free.  It’s quite that simple.   That being said:  you do AT TIMES (and that’s the key - this is 1 project a year at most maybe - as Chase is suggesting - and I agree to that) need to develop your book - expand your horizon and your book - and roll the dice.  I.E. - I’m a qualified to do “x” but have never done and proven that I can do “y” - so I’ll do it for little or nothing - BUT - one time only - AND I RETAIN THE RIGHTS!   i.e. - you and I can use it for self-promotion and so can I.  BUT you can never generate any profit for it - if you do - we split it.   If anyone makes ANY money - we all benefit - that’s KEY. You can see why this can very easily get very complicated - and dangerous.  Some people - such as Chase Jarvis - know how to navigate these things.  And make sure that if that “free” awesome assignment somehow become a hit - he’ll be able to profit in it - and not get caught feeling left out.    What worries me - is that most of David Hobby’s readers - are not pros.  And when they offer to do things for free - they don’t have Chase’s business acumen.  And they may do more harm than good to our industry - that is already struggling.  If everyone starts working for free - it’s OVER for everyone.  So I think we need to make this more clear out there - and help define this more carefully for everyone - both for the pros and the advanced amateurs. So if you want to - do it max once a year.  That’s my suggestion.  DON’T LET IT BECOME A HABIT. And by the way:  this is coming from the guy who shot a little film called “Reverie” and did it “for free.”  Canon did not pay me - or fund anything.  It was something that I did on my own.  I spent my own money to fund the production - and reeped great professional benefit from it.  It was a big win for me and my career - no question about it.  I own the work and copyright OUTRIGHT and made that clear. BUT - when Canon asked to use the video after I produced it.  I made sure they paid.  And they paid well.  A  lot more than I would have made had I been commissioned to do the project in the first place.  That’s the important part here. This was supposed to be short … now I’m late and have to run out the door.

CLICK on the embedded link above - OR CLICK HERE - to see the video in a higher AppleTV Resolution (still lower than the full resolution footage… no one wants to host footage that large - too much bandwidth…)  Special thanks to SmugMug for hosting this clip!   I’ve had a chance to get a hold of the 5D MKII on several occasions - seven to be specific (2 of those nights were spent shooting the first film, Reverie.)   I’ve felt compelled to try to create something with it each time I’ve had the camera in my hands.    And I will admit this camera has brought me back the closest to the feeling I had at the age of 15 when I had my first camera and a few rolls of Tri-X to burn through.   Simply put - it’s so much fun and pure. You’ll see some footage shot with Tilt-shift lenses from the air - my first time with video - as well as one of the last shots of the series that was shot with a full motion picture Steadicam rig.   All of the footage was shot with several different prototypes of the Canon EOS 5D MKII that I was allowed to borrow at different intervals - cut in Final Cut Studio, and graded in Color.  I’m still in the middle of post-productions with almost every one of these shoots - busier shooting than editing to be honest.  But I thought I’d share some of this footage as most of your are likely to receive your production 5DMKIIs sometime this week (those that put their names down first of course.) Each one of the projects was a collaboration with quite a few talented people - included the group from Acroback, and Rodney Decker, a student of mine from the Eddie Adams Workshop (boxer series.)  Special thanks to Roland Wood, Steve, and Daniel DeLaRossa, Billy Grafton, John, and Terry Watson.  And special thanks to the awesome pilots Aaron Fitzgerald, Michael, and Adam Cerny.  Haven’t had a chance to do credits - but I need to credit the following music: “Roads” by Portishead, from the album “Dummy”&  ”Chemtrails” by Beck from the album “Modern Guilt.”  The initial edit was done by Andre Costantini, and I then ruined his edit by adding recent work from the past 2 shoots.  Thanks also to Alex Bickel who graded “Reverie” - you can see a few of those clips in the above sequence -  I will put the graded (color corrected) version of the short up soon. I’m going to try to find the time to write down some thoughts as well as some tips and tricks about this camera - so that you can all hit the ground running.   First tip: if you’re editing in Final Cut Studio - you can do it ok in the native H.264 - but it’s worth converting the footage to Apple’s ProRes (HQ) format for much smoother results (as a first step - i.e. BEFORE you start editing - but you can of course do it at any time)

Here is am in the grasp of Darth Vader (not the economy!) at ILM - Photo by Stacey Leong/ILM I just wanted to post a quick update here to clarify a few things - and to tell you what I’m working on for this blog. First - these past few weeks have been pretty mind blowing.   I’ve finally had a chance to relax with family for 48 hours in the sun, after an uninterrupted 8-week-whirlwind tour. The first thing that I wanted to clear up is:  things are going well for me and my business -in fact they’ve probably never been better.  That being said, it’s important to be aware that we are indeed going through an unusually tough spot in our global economy.  This is not just one of those “normal” cycles - as some who are posting in the comments pages, seem to believe.  That’s my opinion anyway - and that was the reason behind my post “The Perfect Storm Has Arrived.” I wrote that article in response to a lot of the things that I’ve been reading in the press, as well as witnessing first hand - a lot of my talented colleagues are facing difficult times - and it’s tough to witness.  I’ve also had a chance to speak to some influential (and well informed) people in both Hollywood and Silicon Valley - and everyone is “feeling it.”  So I’m quite positive - but cautious as well. On another front - I’ve had a chance to meet a lot of interesting people over the past few weeks - many of them visionaries in their respective industries.  I’ve been invited to speak and visit the campus at Industrial Light & Magic, as well meet some trend-setting people at Dreamworks Animation, Apple, SmugMug, and Disney.   Heck I’ve even met the guy who invented Dolby 5.1, as well as  filmmaker Stu Maschwitz who is also the author of the indy filmmaker’s “bible” “The DV Rebel’s Guide.”  Stu incidentally has a blog for filmmakers that all photographers should take a gander at: ProLost.

One of the highlights of this past month, was meeting Dennis Murren - the godfather of special effects.   He was one of the people in the audience of the ILM theater - and I somehow kept noticing him as I was showing “Reverie” on a 50 foot screen (that was a trip!)  He was either “glowing” or just sitting beneath one of the lights…   I don’t stay up at night reading IMDB - but I do always watch the behind the scenes videos on my DVDs - and the entire time I was speaking, my eye kept being drawn to him, and I kept asking myself:  ”Where do I recognize this guy from?”   Well - it might have been from the behind the scenes footage of either: Star Wars, E.T, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Empire of the Sun, The Abyss, Terminator 2,  Jurassic Park, Twister, AI, Hulk, War of the Worlds, just to name a few.  Or maybe I recognized him from one of his 6 trips on stage to pick up an Oscar.  Having him attend my presentation, let alone having him spend his time with me over lunch - was something I won’t soon forget.  The great folks at ILM also gave me what ended up being a 2-3 hour tour of the campus - and that was pretty exceptional treat as well  (Thanks Kate, Greg, & Stacey!)  I’ve also had a chance to meet some very cool people in Hollywood - people are very interested in the 5D MKII on a number of levels.  As I said: these past few weeks have been pretty mind blowing. The plane on the top right is the model from As far as this blog is concerned - I’m planning on releasing some new material that I’ve shot with the 5D MKII this week.   I’m also going to announce a bunch of news about new projects, the film contest, and the internship.  It’s going to be a busy week.  So stay tuned - and enjoy the holidays! (if you’re observing them.)