If you’ve also seen similar issues or don’t suffer from it then please leave a comment, it might help to nail down the cause of the problems.

UPDATE – 26/08/2010

Canon has just announced an update to the EOS E1 plugin which is due for release in September. According to Canon the update adds support for their new 60D body. Of much more interest to me though is the announcement that it will also provide support for multi-core processing. Just in time for my shiny new 12 core!

Lets hope they fix the above bugs too!

Adrift has finally been finished and I’m happy to now be able to share it. I co-wrote the short with my friend Pete Naylor and we’ve both had a lot of fun bringing the idea to life. We really just wanted to play with a basic dream twist idea and Pete had always wanted to take an antique bed to the beach for some reason (strange lad) so we based the idea on that basic principle.

The whole thing was shot on my 5D and 7D using a combination of lenses including 24mm, 50mm and 70-200 2.8 L series lenses. We used a glidetrack shooter and glidetrack HD for the sliding shots along with my Steadicam Pilot for some of the dune shots and a hague boom. The boom proved to be a little tricky as the 5D wouldn’t quite fit on the carrier so we mounted the camera upside down and then rotated it in post.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Justin Smith, Ryan Sutton, Liam Hind & Jamie Crown who came along to help out on the shoot. I’d also like to thank our Actors, Sally Connelly and Mya Turner who were fantastic, my friend Tim from Coast to Country Beds for the cool bed and my girlfriend Sylvia for preparing a huge supply of food and drink for us all.

Last but by no means least I need to say a very big thanks you to Joe Yates who did a fantastic job with music and sound effects.

I’ve really enjoyed the last few years where I’ve been able to develop my skills shooting some of the more abstract videos that are posted on the blog. Filming kids, dogs, clothes pegs, cutlery, and even the odd bit of lego has given me an understanding of technique that I’m now able to put to use on projects like this. Now that I’ve broken into doing something with a bit more meaning I plan to do a lot more in the future.

Don’t let anyone put you down for shooting stuff that may seem meaningless though, it’s all about developing your passion and skill. Contrary to what some people will tell you, it’s not all about the story, but when you get to the point where you can use your skills to start playing with story ideas it’s a nice progression to make.

I’d love to hear you’re thoughts about Adrift so please feel free to leave comments.

Here’s the video I’ve produced for Harley-Davidson’s Swiss Harley Days event. The video was shot over four days in and around the city of Lugano in Switzerland in July 2010.

Click here to find out more about shooting this video and the kit I used.

Canon EF 24-105mm F4 IS USM Lens for video

Do I really need another lens?

The latest in my line-up of event shoots for Harley-Davidson took place last weekend in Barcelona. Thankfully the weather was beautiful for this one with the sun being blocked by clouds for only an hour or so during the whole three day event.

Click here to read more & comment

I’ve created two video tutorials showing two different approaches to conforming video clips with Cinema Tools, one describing batch conforming and the other showing how to conform individual clips from within Final Cut Pro.

Click here to read more and comment.

Here’s some info from the creator…

“This pre production demo show what the new INTUIT FOCUS v.01 (beta) is capable of. It is wired follow focus unit for those who tend to use new DSLRs on their rigs, Steadicams or any kind of dollies. This product will be coming in 2 versions, with 1 controller and 1 motor or 1 controller – 2 motors for easier and faster switches between setups.
Currently INTUIT FOCUS is in it’s final test faze and it will be ready for sale via IF web site.
If you need some additional specs and info – contact me via email: marko@butrakovic.com
THX.”

If you would like to follow the development progress of this device the creator is using the comment system on Vimeo to answer questions.  http://vimeo.com/9827192

Click here to read the full story & comment.

The Manfrotto 394 quick release plate system uses Low Profile 410PL plates which I’ve found to be more reliable and easier to use than the smaller 323/200PL RC2 system that comes as standard with smaller Manfrotto tripods and heads.

For use on my Glidetrack Shooter I modified the ball head seen in the video by removing a 323 plate that came fitted to it and attaching one of the 394 plates in it’s place.

The price for the 394 adapter and the 410 plate in the US is $46.95 at B&H. I was slightly out with the price in the video. Click here to buy them at B&H

In the UK you can buy them from Amazon.co.uk for around £35.

Apart from the usual pampering that the bike normally gets before it’s first outing of the year I also set up my new GoPro cameras for they’re first test run. One was mounted permanently on top of my helmet and the other was moved around the bike a bit to see how it coped with vibration and shock.

Both cameras were recording at 720/60p which although is not the best quality option does allow you to create nice slow-mo footage by confirming it to 25 fps in cinema tools.

The only problem I had with the cameras themselves were minor, firstly the lenses kept fogging up, I’m not sure if this was due to it being pretty cold but I had to keep stopping and opening the waterproof housings to let the lenses de-mist. I also didn’t have the angle of the helmet camera right, I’ll correct that next time!

Generally the biggest weakness is rolling shutter which results in a lot of wobble where there’s vibration. It’s not impossible though, I’d be happy using at lease some of the shots.

Below is a quick video showing a sample of the results, nothing has been colour corrected, it’s just straight out of the cameras and converted to ProRes so that I could edit it in final cut. Note the flying cat basket towards that tries to take me out towards the end! Don’t worry, I think it was empty!

The music is by one of my all time favourite bands ‘Killing Joke’ Click here to buy it on iTunes