Premiering August 17th, Zacuto Films presents a new webisodic series which brings together film/video veterans, Steve Weiss, Director of FilmFellas/critics, and Philip Bloom, a London based Cinematographer and Filmmaker. With the growing popularity of video content sharing forums and video-centric social networking sites such as Vimeo, the program is the first webisodic show which critiques exclusively-web based video content.

With an open review forum and a loosely base video selection process, Bloom and Weiss keep their reflective commentary fresh by randomly selecting the videos during the show’s taping by clicking on featured selections on a touch screen monitor. “We sort of toss all of the selected programs into a Vimeo album,” Steve Weiss says, “and then kind of randomly pick them live. You’ll see…it’s not a real science.”

In [ critics ], Weiss and Bloom candidly explore a wide range of video categories across many genres and artistic levels: short films, artistic videos, documentaries, music videos, animated shorts, and commercial video. “We’ll review anything,” says Bloom “and give the best advice we can.” As the web constantly evolves by offering a plethora of video content, such as; amateur DIY videos, guerilla street films, political or statement pieces, and short films & features, [ critics ] also mirrors the eclectic nature of open web content. Thus, Weiss and Bloom explore amateur videos, such as “GAY=SIN” by Matthew Bennett and then quickly jump over to acclaimed short films like “A Thousand Words” by Director Ted Chung. The beauty of it-everyone gets the same chance at selection and critique.

The international appeal of [ critics ] comes from the dynamic relationship of Weiss vs. Bloom, where these dueling hosts, who while living across the pond from one another, remain industry friends, avidly support the independent film industry, and bring over 40-years combined experience to the biz. “Watching stuff on your computer can be quite a solitary experience,” says Bloom, “with critics, it’s like we are watching it with you and hopefully not coming across like the two old men Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show. You know how much we are enjoying something when both Steve and I shut up!”

[ critics ] offering an eclectic mix of personalities, perspectives and laughter. “The personalities of Weiss and Bloom are electric.” [ critics ] a Zacuto Films production.

Enjoy this websisode and check out the behind the scenes links in critics.

Rodney – DCFCPUG

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Rodney – DCFCPUG

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The app is organized into 5 sections: RedEye, RedAngle, Lens2Lens, 4KStore, and RedSetGo:

“RedEye“ is a calculator that works out Depth of field (DoF)”

This section is a depth of field calculator – you punch in data for the lens (in mm), f stop, distance, feet or meters, and 16/35/Red sensor size, and it’ll tell you the following:
-hyper focal distance
-far focus limit
-far working distance
-focal distance
-near working distance
-near focus distance

A “More Info” option lets you input lens magnification factor or custom circle of confusion, if you want’em.

“RedAngle” is a calculator that works out Dimensional and Angular Field of View (FoV)”

You punch in the lens (in mm) and distance (in feet or meters), and iSee4K will tell you what the scene coverage will be – how tall and how wide, and what angles for the field of view for tall, wide and diagonal. Cool.

The More Info button allows for 2:1 or 16:9 aspect ratio, lens magnification factor, and the ability to crank in a custom sensor size – for those of you with other cameras.

“Lens2Lens“ is a Lens Equivalence Calculator”

You can crank in the lens (in mm) and f stop (what about t stops?) and 35mm/Red2K/3K/4K, then pick 35mm/Red2K/3K/4K for the 2nd camera, and it’ll give you the equivalent lens (in mm) and f stop for the other lens – handy.

Clicking More Settings lets you control aspect ratio (2:1 or 16:9), lens magnification factor, and custom sensor size – you can set all of those for either lens.

“4KStore“ is a storage calculator for REDâ„¢ footage”

This is one of my favorites, since it is such a hassle to figure out otherwise without a custom Excel sheet. Crank in the duration in minutes, punch in 2K, 3K, or 4K; 2:1 or 16:9 aspect ratio; Redcode 28 or Redcode 36; and framerate and it’ll tell you how many GB of storage it’ll take up. I’d love to see them add an option to run it the other way – crank in a capacity, and have it tell you how much time that’ll take up – which is a more practical limit on set I find – how much footage fits on a 8GB card, a 16GB card, or a Red Drive?

Hitting More Info lets you enable Variable Framerate, high detail scene (high datarate implied), and the custom frame rate if enabled.

Finally, you have my favorite -

“RedSetGo“ is a frame rate and timbase settings calculator for the RED ONEâ„¢ digital cinema camera ” – or as I’d frame it, the max frame rate calculator.

Crank in resolution, recording media (8/16GB CF or Red Drive), aspect ratio, Redcode 28 or 36, and it’ll tell you the maximum frame rate – otherwise you need to carry around a chart.

So there you go – this is a great little app that just needs a few little tweaks to be spot on. I’d also love to see the lesser text be not so dark – it is hard to read on screen. That and a bit more labelling to make things absolutely clear and it’d be perfect for my needs (oh, and the reverse storage/time calculator – see VideoSpace for a perfect model).

So if you if you’re going to be using a Red One for a shoot, EVER, and you or somebody on set has an iPhone or iPod Touch, this is a MUST have utility – go to iSee4K.com. There are very detailed explanations of the 5 tools on the site, and clicking the big icon in the middle takes you to the iTunes Store for the FREE download.

Regards,

DCFCPUG staff

<Source: Provideocoalition>

North Carolina Local newspaper short video on the events this week.