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brought to you by canon live learning. thanks to sennheiser and zoom for providing the wireless lav sets, shotgun mics, and field recorders for the cinema caravan. san fran was voted in as the last stop and registration opened up today. check it out here if your interested.
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as part of the canon cinema caravan we have been creating a series of tutorials to help illustrate the techniques that we use and the equipment that helps us convey the stories we tell.
from chicago, to the grand canyon and hoover dam, we really traveled far and wide to put this one together. tilt/shift lenses can be a rather technical set to wrap your head around so please be sure to leave any questions here and we will be happy to help out.
travel
when we first launched the short film contest internally we did two rounds for just the sm crew. we posted up the first one a while ago but we haven’t had the right time to get up the second, a ‘travel’ themed challenge, until now. i do need to say that amanda will be debuting her first cinema piece here and we are all quite proud of what she put together, especially considering it was her first film and first edit.
so here they are:
jordan
amanda
paul
a couple things we are working on and need feedback on. first and foremost the polling system and whether it should be more internal or a different provider than poll daddy. secondly we have been asked to give our own feedback or critique on the clips. the question then becomes to we post critique for the top entries only and do we post it when we post up everything or after the voting closes (as to not bias the voting process). perhaps though, a biased voting process would help if it is based on an objective and constructive critique. i would love to see people really explore less literal approaches to their films and to try and push their storytelling – which can be quite tough in less than a minute with a given theme – to a new level. thoughts?
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congratulations to stephen from at first sight for his friction entry in the ‘found’ category. another big congratulations to gina of buffalo chip television and productions for her winning entry into the ‘POSH’ category.
we received several comments and emails with criticism on how the voting and polling system works. it seems many are interested in making this as fair as possible and trying to turn it away from being a popularity contest of any sort. so we would like to here from you – would you prefer to see a different poll system use (we are currently implementing poll daddy) or do you think it would be more beneficial if the sm team critiqued and scored the entries?
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the sm short film contest
so here they are, the final submissions for the ‘posh’ category. remember that voting will only be open for three days because the deadline to register for posh is july the 20th.
for those of you who don’t know, posh is a retreat and educational experience for female filmmakers and photographers. the cruise features kristen* of bliss* productions, tasra dawson of dare dreamer media, jessica roman of ray roman films and brea mcdonald and dawn kelly, founders of inspire.collaborate.achieve. you can find more details on the cruise and register here.
so here they are. grand prize is a $500 sm gift certificate towards anything sm (see fine print in the original short film post) OR two with etiquette song licenses IN ADDITION to $350 off registration for the posh retreat.
by luuvu // serene sails
by luiza of white wedding cinema // go posh !!!
by jordan of the sm crew // kipawa
by margarite of nice stems inc // pretty in pink
by gina of buffalo chip television and productions // more than frills and lace
by maribeth and anthony // fuzzy slippers
click here to check it out on vimeo
paul, quenna, and amanda // posh’n wash
their entry will be uploaded shortly. we are having technical difficulties getting it uploaded in a small town somewhere in nebraska.
several weeks ago we got to head down to LA for cinegear and film this talk by greg and gale at the paramount theater. here is a short trailer we put together from their talk.
head over to canon’s site if you would like to see the full talk:
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the sm short film contest
tomorrow is the deadline for all of the posh entries. the deadline is 1PM EST with an email to shorts@stillmotion.ca with your entry. i’m excited to share all of these shorts with you tomorrow. remember that because of the registration deadline for posh, we will only be having voting open until the 20th, so check back tomorrow and cast yours.
here are the upcoming themes and due dates:
august 16th // the theme is ‘isolation’
anticipation will be shortly after that but we also have a big partnership coming up for the next sm short film contest that we will announce next week.
- the sm family
the fine print:
one // while the sm crew will be creating their films individually, you may create your entry with friends or your others from your studio. just let us know who was involved when you post it up.
two // we are only willing to feature content on our blog that features soundtracks which have been legally licensed. you may use soundtracks that you composed, music from any stock music site (such as triple scoop or with etiquette) or no soundtrack at all. if your film features music that is not properly licensed, it is still eligible to win and will be mentioned on the blog, but only a link will be posted (as opposed to embedding the film itself here)
three // we are asking the sm crew to spend three hours or less in producing and shooting their spots. they are free to spend additional time outside of work hours, and you’re free to spend as much or as little time as you would like.
four // entries are to be from thirty to sixty seconds in length, including any logos, watermarks, titles, etc.
five // feel free to incorporate your logo into your film however you would like.
six // while the theme for the period must be incorporated somehow into the film, you may make that interpretation as loose or as literal as you would like.
seven // the gift certificate may be used for anything offered by sm, but it not valid for events in which sm is participating but is not hosting (such as the Canon Cinema Caravan, which is hosted by Canon). gift certificates are not transferrable to a third party. if you choose the two free with etiquette licenses, you will be sent promotional codes that may be entered at time of checkout.
eight // the deadline for each entry is 1PM EST, the day that the period ends. entries must be uploaded by that point and an email sent to shorts@stillmotion.ca with a link, your name, studio name, and any other thoughts you wish to add. the top entries will be posted the following week. we will always showcase the top entries from sm and the top entries submitted by everybody else.
nine // in the beginning, judging will be done by patrick, amina, and justin. yes we are biased, but we want you to win, so the bias is in your favour. :) should there be a tie, the vote will go against sm. in the future we will look to have an online voting system so everybody can vote.
ten // curious what the sm crew gets if one of them wins? should somebody from sm win they get lunch at the always fresh adobo cafe next to our studio.
yesterday we landed in new york for our first stop of the cinema caravan. with that, we are ready to launch our first tutorial – the sm guide to lenses.
thanks to all of our amazing sponsors that have made this trip possible and that have brought this tutorial to you. we have plenty more to come.
first and foremost, thanks to canon live learning for making all of this possible (the bus and all). thanks to manfrotto for being so kind in providing 16 monopods plus tons more gear. thanks to cinevate for the shoulder rigs and atlas camera sliders. thanks to zacuto for the z-finders and DSLR rig. thanks to tiffen/lowel/steadicam for all of their lighting and stabilization support.
we setup for our first workshop tonight and it almost resembled the show floor of BH at times.
let us know what you think. we are happy to answer any questions and we look forward to hitting the road and shooting our next tutorial in chicago.
for those who want to follow along, check out the cinema caravan blog for daily updates. we still have room in a couple workshops for those interested in joining us. you can sign-up here.
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resistance
congratulations to nik in winning 308 of 873 votes with his winning ‘found’ film. keep entering and you can add those gift certificates together :)
with that, it is also time to announce the theme for the next sm short film contest. we have teamed up with girls from POSH and we thought it would be rather fitting to make the theme just that – ‘posh’. with their support, we are able to offer our regular prize of a $500 sm gift certificate or two free with etiquette song licenses AS WELL as $350 discount on registration towards the POSH cruise this november. that means you could get a four night caribbean cruise for only $349 (shared accommodation). This includes the cruise, port charges, taxes, gratuities, meals on the ship and private island, workshop and shoot in the bahamas. POSH is an all female retreat so we are hoping to get more girls submitting their best for this short film contest and if any of the guys happen to take home the prize, they are welcome to transfer the prize to somebody they know. we think it is awesome to team up with POSH and help support an awesome educational opportunity for the women in our industry. if you haven’t heard of POSH yet, check them out here.
we have some special deadlines for the ‘posh’ film entries which coincide with the last days to register for the cruise. the contest starts now and runs until july 16th, which is slightly shorter than our two week time period we normally have. voting will then remain open for four days and the leader at that point will take home the prize from sm as well as the prize from POSH.
with that, here are the entries from ‘resistance’. let us know what you think and cast your vote below. unfortunately nik didn’t have time to enter again and defend his title, but we hear he has something lined up for ‘posh’.
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jordan
challenge us // week 4 // theme: resistance from the sm evo experience on Vimeo.
samson of perfect shutter // lazy sunday
Stillmotion Challenge: Lazy Sunday from Perfect Shutter on Vimeo.
howie c // guerilla days
Guerilla Days from howie_c on Vimeo.
stephen of at first sight // friction
Friction from At First Sight on Vimeo.
steve from DSV // cake
cake from Steve Towle on Vimeo.
paul // bernard picard
challenge us // week 4 // theme: resistance from the sm evo experience on Vimeo.
a while back we were asked to put together some educational pieces for tiffen/steadicam on the different rigs they offer. unfortunately we couldn’t license the NFL footage within for tiffen/steadicam but they were kind enough to allow us to use it here on our blog, so this version is a bit different than the one on their site due to that.
some of you may recognize michael y wong sitting down with me here as this was filmed way back when he was part of the sm team.
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First, thanks for another great video!
I had a couple questions regarding the zoom H4N. What batteries are you using in the zoom? I am using Energizer rechargeable AA’s and I only seem to get about 3 hrs of life from them. Do you record in stamina mode? Also, do you record your audio in MP3 or WAV? And at what bit rate?
Thanks for your always helpful input!
Trevor
Very helpful! Keep it up! I really look up to you guys and i’m starting my own freelance videography soon. peace out!