Keying virtual backgrounds for "Hellevator" By Heath McKnight In the past two to three years, I've been relying more and more on using green screen and chroma keying for my film and video work. After working with visual effects (FX) artists, I began to realize there is nothing complicated when using software to key virtual backgrounds and sets in. ...Read More »

Shooting under the (Communist) radar in Shanghai By John Virata While China has become an economic powerhouse, imposing its will in virtually all aspects of the global economic and political spectrum, it remains a communist country. And as such, making movies, and more to the point, gathering footage in China can be a challenge. ...Read More »

Panasonic bolsters AVCCAM line with new camcorder, recorder, and camera head By John Virata At Panasonic's Sunday NAB 2009 press conference, the company announced a new AVCCAM camcorder that weighs less that 2.2 lbs and features full HD 3MOS imagers to capture MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video in full 1080 and 720 resolution video. According to the company, the AG-HMC40 is capable of recording to all four professional AVCCAM recording modes (PH mode 21 Mbps/Max 24Mbps; HA mode 17 Mbps; HG mode 13 Mbps; and the extended recording HE mode 6 Mbps. ...Read More »

NAB 2008: Panasonic's new AVCCAM camera to capture to SDHC cards By David Basulto Panasonic, always on the cutting edge, unveiled its new AG HMC 70 camera at this year's show. The HD camera shoots 1080 to an SD card. Panasonic's Robert Harris took me through the process and discusses its AVCCAM format. ...Read More »

Panasonic intros VariCam 2700 and 3700 at NAB By John Virata Panasonic's Sunday press conference at NAB 2008 in Las Vegas featured the introduction of three new HD cameras. To be showcased all week at the annual broadcast event, Panasonic introduced at its press conference two P2HD VariCam cameras, the variCam 3700 and VariCam 2700, and successors to the DVX100 DV camcorder. ...Read More »

Planning and Creating a Visual Effects Sequence By Jon Carroll Recently I've been working on a short film with many visual effects shots. This project required a large amount of planning and postproduction work because of the science fiction theme. For this three-part series I will be taking a specific sequence of shots and going through what was done to put them together, and hopefully pass along some of my experiences and ideas to other artists. ...Read More »

Going HD or How I spent my winter. By David Basulto As I prepared to make my second feature film, Fiesta Grand, I knew I wanted to step up the look and feel of the film. This film (or movie I should say as I no longer use film!) was a follow up to my horror feature, Death Clique, which I made for next to nothing on my Panasonic DVX100a and received a distribution deal to Blockbuster. My insiders suggested I make the next film in High Definition even though the distributors hadn?t asked for it. "Why", I asked... ...Read More »

Acclaimed Pilipino filmmaker Auraeus Solito By John Virata At one point in Philippine cinema history, the country was the fourth largest consumer of film stocks. During the heyday of the 1980s and early 1990s, the Philippine film industry enjoyed respectable growth with new films coming out on an almost weekly basis. The films were mostly formulaic action movies, romance, or adapted from serialized ?komiks.? ...Read More »

DP James West uses Panasonic AG-HVX200 DVCPRO HD P2 camcorder to Crash the Super Bowl By John Virata For the first time in history, viewers had the chance to vote on what Doritos commercial will appear during the 2007 Super Bowl. Sponsored by Frito Lay, the Crash the Super Bowl challenge invited fans of the chips to create their own 30-second commercial showcasing the popular snack food. Of more than 1000 entries to the contest, five were chosen. Check out Girl, one of the five finalists of the challenge, was shot with Panasonic's AG-HVX200 DVCPRO HD P2 camcorder by Director of Photography James West, a 2005 graduate of the American Film Institute. ...Read More »

Star Circle Pictures Principals Carr, Marten Talk Samaritan and P2 By John Virata Star Circle Pictures' Samaritan, the company's entry into the 2006 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival won an award for Best Suspense Short Film Genre. What is notable, in addition to a good story, is the film's use of the Panasonic, P2-based AG-HVX200 camera. ...Read More »