TODAY from m ss ng p eces on Vimeo.

I ran across this video produced by mssngpeces.com while cruising through Vimeo on my Apple TV last night. The content is an interesting project. Jonathan Harris started taking a picture a day when he turned 30 and posted it to his website before going to bed each day. He did this for 440 days.

The imagery is great. Jonathan is obviously a skilled photographer. What resonated with me are not only the images, but some of the things Jonathan said in the video.

“I wanted to find a way to be more in the moment, to be more in everyday, to understand time more, to understand my own life more, to have more memories…to live more richly.”

“I’m really obsessed with memory. I’m obsessed with not forgetting. Not being forgotten, and I do all sorts of things to fix that. This project was one, and I think all my projects are about leaving a mark, being remembered some how, or remembering the marks other people have left. But you can never really win at it. No matter what you do in your life, no matter what you create, what career you have, whether you have a family or kids, or make a lot of money, or whatever, your greatest creation is going to be your life story because it’s like this container that holds all of those other things. That was something I was really interested in this project. Like thinking of life itself as a creation, as a story you are writing.

“The process of growing up has made me, well, almost like less sure of myself some how. Because I see there’s so much more that I don’t know, which I didn’t see before…”

Watching this video makes me miss my days as a photojournalist in some ways. Shooting daily really sharpens your skills, and it does help with memories in some strange way. I appreciate Jonathan’s commentary and his openness in creating this project. I hope you find inspiration in it as well.

I don’t have the iPhone 5 yet, and in fact I’m not able to upgrade until May of next year (thank you AT&T). So it’s easy for me to be cynical toward all the folks posting pics and videos of their new electronic toy. In some ways I’m jealous, but there is a bit of perspective in this funny video. It is just a phone, and Apple really hasn’t changed that much in the way it functions or the design. Yeah, it’s taller and thinner (two things I’d change about myself), but the 4s is hangs very well.

So if you are posting pics of your latest and greatest Apple toy just remember most of us are not impressed…mostly out of jealousy;-)

This past Saturday I met up with Damon Hancock (a.k.a. – Fat Head Media), and Thomas Bernardin to test the Sony FS700′s super slo-mo abilities. We shoot just about everything at 240 fps. I hope to have a full review of the camera up later this week, but in the mean time enjoy the eye candy we produced of Thomas’ inline skating skilz.

Thomas is an incredibly talented DP, but since he was the on camera talent he didn’t get a chance to shoot much with the camera. However, he did edit this video showing once again his mad cutting skilz.

Special thanks to Damon for letting us use the camera and shooting additional footage.

Gear used:
Sony FS700
Vinten Vision Blue Tripod
Kessler Crane Philip Bloom Slider
Zeiss 50mm/1.4 ZF
Zeiss 85mm/1.4 ZF
Tokina 11-16mm/2.8
Canon 100-400mm/4

Kessler Crane Philip Bloom Pocket Dolly Review from Chris Weatherly on Vimeo.

When I first saw the Kessler Crane Philip Bloom Signature Slider I asked Eric Kessler if he would offer it in black. The day has finally come, and I must say it looks better than its red predecessor. You can see how much influence I have with Kessler…none. It took over a year before they implemented my suggestion. Okay, I’m only partially joking. In a video review of the slider I did over a year ago I mentioned wanting a black version. I do think it looks very sleek, but no matter what color you get it’s a product well worth having.

I will say I still use the PB Slider. It’s very well built and can help produce some epic shots. If you are looking for a good travel sized slider then the PB is the way to go. It’s amazing what smooth tracking and dolling shots can do for any film.

Philip Bloom Signature Series Pocket Dolly Overview from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

This past week Canon released their latest Cinema Camera at IBC. The Canon C100 (Vincent Laforte’s review here) looks to be promising, but Canon seems to be ignoring filmmaker’s desire for over cranked footage. I’m not sure why the king of DSLR video doesn’t include 60p as an option. They do this on almost all of there DSLR’s. It’s a mystery to me.

The rumored price on the new camera is $8,000. This seems to be a direct competitor with Sony’s FS700 (Philip Bloom’s review here), which offers 240 fps in HD. Talk about some serious slo-mo options. Sony is making an agressive move in their offerings to indie filmmakers while Canon seems to be depending heavily on their cinematic look. Both cameras have a S35 sized sensor. But Sony is also including a SDI out while Canon is limited to HDMI only. When it comes to specs it seems Sony is taking the lead, but only time will tell if Canon can compete in the mid range cinematic video market. I’m not sure image alone will work.

I’ve been playing with the FS700 over the past few weeks and hope to do a review soon. The next challenge is to get a C100 for side by side comparison.

If you haven’t watched it yet you can now watch all there parts of Zacuto’s Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012 on Vimeo. They’ve packaged it very nicely in an album so you can conviently what back to back parts.

I plan to watch all three through my Apple TV later this week. I’m embaressed to admit I haven’t watched all of them yet. I even went up to Chicago to view the original test results, but I haven’t seen the documentaries. I’ve just been too busy.

The major take away (spoiler alter) is there are no excuses when it comes to cameras anymore. The focus has to be story telling. No matter how great the gear the content has to compel folks to watch. Eye candy isn’t enough!

I won’t say much about this film because I’d rather you spend your time watching. I’ve said it a number of times, but Eliot Rausch is an inspritation to me as a film maker. His documentary short Last Minutes with Oden, won the 2011 Vimeo Festival award for best documentary short. Vimeo awarded Rasuch a $25,000 grant to produce a documentary of his choice. “Limbo” is the result of the grant.

If you take time to watch the film you can see more information on Vimeo’s blog, which has a interview with him.

You can see more of Eliot’s work on his site: eliotrausch.com

I love making documentary films. I’d say it’s my favorite thing to do. Combine that with one of my favorite film series, Star Wars (Episodes 4,5, and 6) and you have a match made in heaven. Carrie Fisher tweeted this You Tube video out and I thought is was worthy of a post because, well it’s Star Wars.

As we all know anything with Star Wars name on it is quality;) Anyway, I don’t think Jeff Broz won any awards for this film. Nor do I think it was approved by George Lucas. However, it brings back some good memeories.

Special thanks to Brian Notess for bringing this to my attention! And thank you Carrie Fisher for sharing.

So where are you on purchasing a camera? Honestly, my head is still spinning from NAB. Should I stay within the DSLR niche? The 7D has done me well, but again one has to deal with all the limits of shooting video with a stills camera. Then Canon busts out some really cool cinema cameras that most of us can’t afford. At least I can’t. I work for a non-profit and my freelance side work, which funds my gear, has not been lucrative as of late.

If you like slo-mo then the Sony FS-700 is the way to go. It’s about $8K. At least that’s half the cost of the Canon C300, but who’s keeping score. I’m still waiting to see testing of the new camera Blackmagic Design is preparing to release (video above). It seems to be reasonably priced, and may fill the hole that Canon created for itself by not offering a prosumer video camera with interchangeable lenses. I promise I’m not bitter Canon. Really, I’m not.

Of course there’s always support gear to be purchased. After using a loaner Zacuto EVF I’d love to own one. The quality is there of course because it’s Zacuto. I also love that I can configure my rig so I don’t have to keep my head crammed behind the camera. With the EVF off to the side it’s the way things are supposed to be!

I won’t even get into what glass I want.

I know it’s all about story, that’s what I focus on throughout my blog, but it’s also about having gear too. I can still tell great stories with my 7D, and will continue to do so. But a man can dream.

Special thanks to Matt Breivogel for shooting all the b-roll for this review.

I spent a few days shooting with Zacuto’s Scorpion rig designed for HDSLR’s. It was a dream to shoot with. I have the most experience with the Striker, and do most of my handheld work with it, but I needed something I could shoot with all day and not get fatigued. If you shoot for long periods of time I would highly recommend this rig.

At this point I’m not sure what my next camera purchase will be. If it’s the C300 I’d seriously consider one of Zacuto’s latest offerings such as the Recoil. I got to play with one at NAB, and it felt fantastic. With the Recoil design you can actually get the camera on your shoulder! I tried to demo one for this last project, but Zacuto was still working on finalizing its design.