Data Protection
By sheer coincidence, and a determination to distract myself from some tedious essential tasks today, I stumbled accross hard evidence of two products that I have had long designed in my daydreaming mind. First up, the pocket video projector.
At art school I mated a portable tv with an overhead projector, before evolving the idea with a magnifying glass and a video iPod a couple if years back. Both ideas were solid, but the brightness of the source let things down. Now Texas instruments have developed the concept more thoroughly, bringing out a pocket sized projector, which can throw a 60 inch screen onto a nearby white surface. Perfect for when you find yourself flying air India, or you need to show Ari Gold your reel while he's stuck in line with the valet. The 480 pixel resolution is nothing to write home about, but it's better than some of the studio previews we're screening at the ranch this Thursday.
Next up, as previously noted, digital photography is finally entering the mainstream of film production in a major way. I've often wondered what was holding video back from the high-end goodness enjoyed by the digital SLR world for quite some time. Red have taken that idea to a certain point, but now Canon have stepped in with a new digital SLR that can shoot full 1080 digital video (barrage of tech data here).
As it's a regular Canon body you have a huge choice if easily available lenses, which keeps the cost low and the f stop even lower. Check out Pulitzer winning photographer Vincent Laforet's dummy shoot for some sample footage. The clip was shot using the cameras low-light capabilities (+ helicopter + Moby soundtrack), and doesn't feature any post-production to enhance the colours and whatnot. Canon has some clips of their own here, some stills here and even a making-of video.
Michael Mann's not going to be able to sleep.
The concept's certainly building steam (witness this bulked-up camera kit) and Red themselves haven't been snoozing in this marketplace however - and a specs announcement Is due tomorrow on their new 'Scarlet' product, which is said to have radically moved on since initial word got out. Low light, plus low price and slow- mo goodness. Yum.
As a cryogenically suspended filmmaker, both of these technolgical advancements light my fire... and I'm happy to withdraw any claims on the technology.
12th Nov 2008 - Tumblr