Welcome to SBFilmmakers

New From Digital-Heaven: Loader

Monday, 15 December 2008 23:27 SBFinalCut

Digital-Heaven just released another very interesting product called Loader. It facilitates importing assets into a FCP project and will even do some transcoding as well.

This is in addition to all the other very impressive products from this company like BigTime and Final Print.

Click here for the Digital-Heaven website.

High Quality YouTube Video Hack

Monday, 15 December 2008 23:22 SBFinalCut

You may have noticed that the video of Burn-E I embedded looked a bit better than a normal YouTube video. YouTube has been quietly offering high-quality versions of some of their videos for quite some time via a "watch in high quality" link just underneath the player. It's not HD, but it's definitely an upgrade of YouTube's legendarily crappy video quality. By default all videos on YouTube and embedded on other sites load at normal quality, but there's a way to set your default viewing quality to high, link to high quality video, embed HQ video, and even save HQ videos for later viewing.

Click here for more from Kottke dot org.

CinemaTech on IndieVest

Monday, 15 December 2008 16:09 SBFinalCut

Got a press e-mail today from IndieVest, yet another company trying to reinvent the way the indie films are financed.

They were profiled in Fast Company recently. From that piece:

IndieVest's plan has three tiers, beginning with a $20 "guest membership" that lets potential investors review only the current project. The premier portfolio membership -- $2,950 up front and $1,950 annually -- lets investors consider the company's future films, and includes invites to special film screenings. The all-access studio plan -- $4,950 up front and $2,950 annually -- adds opportunities to attend exclusive film festivals and the Independent Spirit Awards.

For more of this article click here.

For the original Fast Company article click here.

Technolust and Video on DSLRs

Monday, 15 December 2008 16:15 SBFinalCut

"Let's get something straight. The video from the Nikon D90 and the Canon 5D MkII is not of good quality. It's over compressed, over-processed, over-sharpened, and lacks professional control. It skews and shears and shuts off in the middle of a take. It sucks.

So why are we so excited by it?

Because the video from these DSLRs stimulates us emotionally. It's contrasty, with sexy depth of field. It looks like cinema, if you don't look to close. Guess who doesn't look too close. Everyone."

Click here for more from Stu Maschwitz on ProLost.