Vision Unlimited/LA News

As I hang on to the advancing technology that drags us, often kicking and screaming, into the future of video and visualization, I have, once again, been drawn into the process of documenting that technology.

I am writing new “Misinformation” columns in HDVideoPro Magazine, and those can be found online at http://www.hdvideopro.com/columns/misinformation.

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A lot of water has passed through the bayou behind my house since i last posted here. My life changed and i was given a second chance by some proficient practitioners of the art of heart surgery. I am now in better shape than i have been for years, after driving myself down with an addiction to work. I am not totally rehabilated but i have learned to pace myself a little, hence the break in posting to this site.

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If you tried to get the new National Heritage Area video by Bill Rodman to play and had trouble with jerkiness, your computer or software may not be up to the task, so we have two other versions stored here for you to try.

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One question that periodically comes up recently surfaced on the “prosumer” group of the Cinematographers Mailing List (CML). That is “What is the best format to use for green-screen with a Panasonic HVX200 camera?” This is a different question from the general, “Which format is better?” question, because of the nature of this particular camera. (continue reading…)

I ran into some HD presentation issues at Jackson Hole and that prompted me to buy an AJA Io HD box for delivery of live HD playback from a MacBook Pro that travels with it. It is well suited for playing back show elements from a Final Cut Pro timeline. We did just that for Jackson Hole this year, running a two hour awards program from a similar package. (continue reading…)

It’s that time of year again, and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival is only a month away. Vision Unlimited/LA is again involved in the Festival in several ways. I (C. R. Caillouet) am functioning as the Technical Director for the Festival, pulling together the collection of high definition devices needed to present dozens of programs to the attendees.

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Vision Unlimited/LA is a proud supporting sponsor of Experience Atchafalaya Days 2009 (EAD2009), a collection of events around the Atchafalaya Basin, organized by the non-profit Friends of the Atchafalaya and the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area and presented by the Louisiana Office of Tourism. The National Audubon Society/Louisiana Coastal Initiative and Black Bear Conservation Coalition are also supporting sponsors.

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People often ask me what they need to know to shoot “digital” and what is different about shooting electronically from shooting with film. Here are a few thoughts.

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If you are a Mac junkie, like i am, you might have noticed that Apple is once again, playing games with us. When the MacBook series came out a few years ago, the CardBus slots that we had gotten used to on the PowerBooks were gone, replaced by the newer ExpressCard slots. So we started collecting adapters like eSATA, Firewire and USB2 adapters for independent disk interfaces.

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A few days ago, someone wrote about film color correction to one of the lists that i read…

“The Rec 709 issue is a bit confusing because I’ve had D.I. houses tell me that they color-correct LOG footage in Rec 709 color space but aren’t changing the gamma or limiting the dynamic range.  So does that mean they are just using Rec 709’s color gamut but not its gamma structure?”

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