Fireworks photography

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The 14th of July is the French National Day which means fireworks time. I am always looking to experiment and learn new techniques and as I never shot fireworks before, I thought I could give it a try that night. I decided to place my camera on the Bestouan Beach (Cassis) which is literally in front (a couple of hundred meters away) of the lighthouse where the fireworks were fired. As it worked quite well I thought I could share some tips and tricks I learned. So here's what you'll need to photograph fireworks: A tripod Camera in manual mode Remote control Firework photography is similar to the light painting technique. You have to let them paint themselves in your frame. The best way to achieve this is to use a slow shutter speed (around 4 to 10 sec). Even though you are in the dark, fireworks are really bright and...

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Swish Pong

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Swish pong is a 30 sec video I did for a Vimeo Weekend Project. The challenge  - if I can call it that way - was to use the swishblog technique. This technique consists of quickly tilting the camera up or down to serve as a transition between clips. I saw the challenge a bit late and only started the production Tuesday afternoon which was barely a few hours before the deadline, so go easy on me! I actually read about the challenge Sunday evening but the time to find my idea, an actor (because yes, there's only one actor! Warning: high end special effects here!) and the ping pong accessories, I was only ready to shoot Tuesday afternoon. I decided to go for the retro game style during the post production stage to add more identity to the final result. I probably could have done better with more time but...

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Lunar Eclipse

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Wednesday 15th June 2011, a total lunar eclipse was visible over Europe and south America after sunset, over Africa and most of Asia and Australia before sunrise.  The longest we could witness in 11 years. This phenomenon occurs when the sun, Earth and moon are aligned. The moon is then in the shadow of Earth which, instead of disappearing in the blackness of space, takes a blood red colour due to Earth's atmospheric refraction. I unfortunately could not see the entire eclipse. Actually I thought I would not see it at all until the moon suddenly appeared in the sky horizon. The eclipse was not finished yet so I jumped on my Canon 550d, used the longest lens I could find and shot the last few minutes of this magical moment. For the techies, I used the Canon 550D video crop mode to enhance by 7 times the focal length going from 300mm...

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Reverse Engineering

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In March 2011 Gizmodo organised a challenge where we were asked to produce a 45 seconds video on the theme REWIND. For my video I decided to reverse the action without reversing the time continuity. To do so, I shot all my scenes in reverse and re - reverse them in post. Obviously the spinning top conception was only reversed once: in post. Some great entries this month—kudos to those of you who really developed a simple idea into multiple cuts, angles and timing with music to create a greater effect. Gizmodo.com During the editing process, I had to cut many scenes to fit into the 45sec limit. I thought about doing a slightly longer version for the website with a few more frames to help the story telling but the time is passing by and I have more projects coming in. In the meantime here is the original 45sec video...

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MediaCityUK and Fiction Film Production

MediaCityUK March 2011

MediaCity UK If you're living around Manchester or work in the Media industry, you probably already heard of the MediaCityUK. For those who haven't, it is the biggest HD studio developments in Europe. Situated on Salford Quays and inspired by media clusters in cities like Dubai and Singapour, MediaCityUK was designed to become a digital hub and provide an infrastructure for a creative community where collaborative relationships would be encouraged. My studies I moved to UK 3 years ago to start a Digital Media & Communications degree in Manchester where I studied a wide variety of subjects related to the Media industry. However, I soon realised my passion resided in filmmaking and that I needed to focus on developing my skills in this domain... and start networking! In January 2011 I started my researches and I discover not only that Salford University was offering a Fiction Film Production program but also that this postgraduate...

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Final Cut Pro X

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The New Final Cut Pro X Apple presented the new Final Cut Pro X during the FCP User Group SuperMeet at the NAB 2011 in Las Vegas. An update pro were desperately waiting for. I have to say, I was a bit afraid when I first saw the iMovie look and feel and crossed fingers hoping Apple didn't forget the pro market. Regarding what's under-the-hood, the editing tool had finally been rewritten from scratch to support: Cocoa 64-bit architecture Multi-core processors optimized (Grand Central Dispatch) Open CL Resolution-independent playback system up to 4K formats background rendering (no more rendering progress bar!!) Core animation, Core audio, Core video... This is great and very welcomed. Apple didn't stop there and tries to rethink the editing process. A lot of work has been done to change the way we import, manage and edit our project. During the importation a series of pre-processes are done to...

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Photography Basics

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if you want to take good pictures, it is not all about gear. It is all about a good understanding of how photography works. In photography, they are 3 main notions you need to understand: aperture, shutter speed and sensivity...

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Na Wewe Short Film

NA WEWE

UPDATE: It is now official; NA WEWE is nominated for an Oscar 2011 in the Award Category Short Film (Live Action).

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