http://www.outside-hollywood.com Isaac Botkin's film and video website Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:36:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I own two Canon video cameras, an XL H1, and an HV20. The first retails for about $7,000 these days, and the second can be picked up from just about anywhere for around $700 (or you can get a slightly newer version, the HV30 for just a little bit ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2008/07/the-canon-hackers-development-kit/ Ok, so I recorded a video tutorial of a few Photoshop tools as an experiment, and I think it turned out well enough to post here. It's just the basics of color correction using levels and hue/saturation, with some background on how those two tools work. Perhaps in future I'll ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2008/06/photoshop-color-tutorial/ I love documentaries. They lack the emotional power and financial clout of a feature film, but they can communicate ideas with a clarity that dramatic representations cannot. Documentaries can allow experts and witnesses to speak to the audience in their own words, and while all films will be shaped by ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2008/04/film-review-expelled/ Times have changed when it comes to camera technology, and there have been changes in camera support gear as well. When I started out in video production, cameras weighed about as much as I did, and tripods were made of solid steel or cast iron. Later, when we got lighter ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2008/02/tripod-review-manfrotto-519-515mb/ Those of you who know me know that I don’t recommend film school. It had its uses back when cameras were rare and film was expensive and sound was young, but these days the best artists and technicians are largely self-taught. Most film schools, like most colleges and universities, are ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2008/01/dont-go-to-animation-school/ I received a few questions regarding my comments on exposure in the HV20 review. I mentioned four different ways of controlling how much light enters the camera, but didn’t describe why total, individual control over each is important. In addition to admitting or limiting light, the iris, shutter speed, filters, ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2008/01/controlling-exposure/ A few weeks ago we purchased a Canon HV20 camcorder. As a camera, it lacks certain basic features, but its power and price tag make it a very tempting purchase for the independent filmmaker and video producer alike. For our projects, the HV20 will primarily be used as a DV ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2007/12/camera-review-canon-hv20/ Well, now that the film festival is over and Return of the Daughters is shipping, things are getting back to normal. However, over the last few months we've been working on a few things that can be announced now. The first is an online store for a number of Botkin ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2007/11/november-announcements/ So what kind of person uses an ultra-portable notebook as a dedicated render machine? One with a tight deadline, of course! One of the reasons I haven't been posting so often is that we're wrapping post production on my sisters' documentary Return of the Daughters, and it's taken a lot ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2007/10/my-current-desktop/ I've sat on this review for almost two months now, and even though I'm not completely satisfied with it, it's time to post it. A friend of mine believes that "Ratatouille" is an allegory of Pixar's own rise to fame within the Hollywood animation industry, which has degraded since the ... http://www.outside-hollywood.com/2007/09/ratatouille/