Mike Curtis has hooked us up again with breaking info on the RED camera. Photos of the first machined prototype of "Spike" are available on Reduser.net, a just-launched forum that will be the new hub of all-things-RED. This is an actual photo, not a rendering, of a prototype that was machined in the RED garage. The prototype is aluminum and for those that are panicking, the folks at RED assure us that the production models will not be shiny silver. According to a post by Jim Jannard on DVInfo, "We expect to have a working "Spike" prototype in days (not weeks)". While they hope to be shipping by NAB (mid-April), Jannard says the goal is to ship the first production units in "early 2007".Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Now that even morning and daytime television are saturated with HD, you know it's arrived. All the clarity and sharpness, however, strikes fear into the hearts of talent. Thanks in part to film grain, viewers don't notice age lines and puffy eyes as much, but with digital and it's all or nothing glory, every line and skin imperfection is aired out for all viewers to see. Some say it's the end of the extreme closeup, and that stars will start putting anti-HD measures in their contracts, but an article at the Hollywood Reporter provides hope. Makeup artists are stepping up their game, utilizing new techniques to literally airbrush away imperfections. I tend to tell my talent that on my tiny HDR-HC1, I've enabled the beautifying filter, and since it's a documentary, they've got nothing to worry about.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
A new Variety report claims that Microsoft's Xbox has seen the greatest relative success in the digital download realm, despite the smaller user base compared to online services such as Amazon Unbox. ``Though exact sales figures aren't available from any Web site or studio, insiders agree that it's the most, and maybe only, positive story in digital movie downloads this year."
The ease of use factor seems to be the dominant reason for the success, since Xbox owners need not deal with transferring content from their computer, or have to deal with any funky proprietary software from web services. The Xbox is an all-in-one solution for downloading and watching movies right on the television, the preferred means of viewing for most people. On top of that, Microsoft is offering quality HD versions of many of the available movies and television shows. Ease of use + high quality = pretty obvious reason for success. Of course, the current situation brings this question to mind: how will Apple's upcoming iTV shake up the digital download market? Will it offer the same kind of ease of use and attract more folks to the idea of buying digital downloads?Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Small error on my behalf, but it looks like Camcorderinfo has just posted their Sony HDR-FX7 review. Unfortunately I don't have time to read the full thing myself, but reviewer David Kender concludes that the FX7 is in an awkward position, lacking key features that serious videographers and filmmakers will need, but too highly priced to be considered just a "consumer" HDV camera: ``Until Sony lowers the price of the HDR-FX7, we can't give it a strong endorsement. The availability of the XH A1 makes the FX7's $3500 MSRP seem a hefty price to pay for a "consumer" camcorder. Our advice is to hold off on buying an FX7 until Sony drops its price considerably - or to give the XH A1 some serious consideration." Check out their in-depth review for more.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
I discovered a new internet TV show called Viral the other day which focuses on what TV shows are available on the internet and often takes a behind the scenes look at how the show is made and the video producers and actors behind it.
About 7 minutes into the first episode of Viral (see below) you get a quick lesson from Doug Bressler of the animated show DoogToons. Doug shows you how he records in voice and brings it to life in animated characters. He first records spoken audio using GarageBand on a Mac and then exports the audio as an aiff file. He then does a rough drawing of a cartoon bear and loads it up in flash to animate it taking you briefly through the tedious part of syncing up the characters mouth movements with the audio.
Here is the video, you'll need to get to about 7 minutes in to see Doug at work.
Video Tech News 
A new Variety 
Small error on my behalf, but it looks like Camcorderinfo has just posted their 
