The one above I found on Vimeo so I could embed it here. It was made by “California is a place” and they have a lot really cool clips on their Vimeo Site! If you wanna see the other 8 Shorts of this years Sundance Festival have a look at this site. Really nice having the possibility to watch them for free.

via www.nofilmschool.com

Really important for me was the 22x Zoom Lens – the main reason for getting a real camcorder and not a DSLR. Now I got a 28 – 616mm in one Camcorder with a nice zoom rocker – and that´s what I like for action filming. Together with the Panasonic I am using the Canon EOS 550D with the Tokina 11-16 and a 17-55mm Tamron and the Cinestyle Picture Preset for shooting and I was happy to find the preset recommendation by Barry Green on DVXUSER to match these two cameras. It worked fine and I only had to do really small changes to the footage. Edited with Final Cut Studio. All shots were adjusted with the Final Cut 3 Way color correction and then tweaked just a little with Magic Bullet Looks.

In the clip all the wide angle shots and follow runs were made with the 550, the rest with the Panasonic. I will post another Feedback in a few months when I am really used to the cam! Looking forward to the Full HD 50p film mode with the next firmware update! The one and only downer so far: The LCD Display is much darker than the one from the XHA1 and it´s sometimes difficult to see what your filming – especially on the mountain.

The “Do Lectures” website is from wales and that´s their description of the project:

“The idea is a simple one— that people who Do things can inspire the rest of us to go and Do things, too. So each year we invite a set of people down here to come and tell us what they Do. They can be small Do’s or big Do’s or just extraordinary Do’s. But when you listen to their stories, they light a fire in your belly to go and Do your thing, your passion, the thing that sits in the back of your head each day, just waiting, and waiting for you to follow your heart.

To go find your cause to fight, your company to start, your invention to invent, your book to write, your mountain to climb. The one thing the Doers of the world Do, apart from Do amazing things, is to inspire the rest of us to go and Do amazing things too. They are fire-starters.“

You can watch nearly 100 talks so give it a try and get the fire burning!

The “Untouched Project” is “a slovenian film project, connecting skiing and snowboarding in the backcountry areas, combined with the love of nature and exploration of untouched mountainsides in winter season.” Responsible for that is my friend and filmbuddy Mitja Legit from Slovenia. He´s a really motivated filmer that never gets tired of shooting and trying out things. Really looking forward to a good slovenian winter, much snow in the alps and to see the finished movie next year!

Till then have a look at the website where you can find some clips and photos, a blog and the team. One of the Team members is my friend and old dog Matevz Pristavec. I think he´s still a damn good rider although he´s only thinking about how to get even 2 or 3 more weeks of surfing additionally to the 12 he spends every summer…and I like that!

Erik Abel from South California is doing some pretty nice art. Have a look at his website and don´t miss his “Fish outta Water” project that is described on the website with these beautiful words:

“Just as a fish out of the water is out of place, people are often out of place in their lives.  We’ve all been there.  Those times when you do things that are not “you” or working that job that doesn’t offer any stimulation besides the piece of paper you get at the end of the week with that little dollar sign on it next to your name.  Getting stuck in a rut/situation without seeing a way to get out of it.  Fish need water to be alive.  People need passion to be alive. 

That thing that’s gives you life and energy.  Something to lose sleep over, something that puts a smile on your face when you open your eyes in the morning.  The Fish Outta Water Project is ultimately a reminder to never stop searching for that drive and passion in life.  A reminder that we are supposed to enjoy this ride.  If we aren’t continuously working towards the goal of being able to do exactly what we want to do in life, then what’s the point?“

I don´t watch 20min clips that often but this one really got me! If you want to learn more on the Great Bear Rainforest have a look at the site Pacific Wild.

When I thought about doing it I was not sure how to do it without uploading the tracks myself. I did some research and found the site www.dragontape.com. You can search for youtube videos and arrange them as you want. Quite easy to do and as there´s really a lot music to find on Youtube it´s a really huge collection of songs you could work with.

Love the editing, the visual effects, the music, the skating and the atmosphere it delivers! It´s much more than the regular skate movie as “it is hard to make a difference between Pontus private life and his work. Most of the time they are so tightly combined it is impossible to see where one ends and the other one starts”.

After watching it I am definitely keen on a skate session. But not only that. It made me remember to focus on what I wanna do and that´s quite a lot for a skate movie. I just ordered the DVD here together with some pictures and if you like it too maybe think about spending a few bucks to support an independent filmmaker.

One more thing that stayed in my mind from last season was the movie “Signatures” by “Sweetgrass Productions“. So much powder, a different concept, laid back music and no worries about mixing snowboarding, skiing and telemark in one movie. For this season they have a new movie coming. It´s called “Solitaire” but it´s less powder than the first one (below you can see the Trailer) so I just post the link here.

Today I was looking for film effects for next winter season I could use for editing. I was already looking for free filburns and other film effects last year so I was happy to find some new and most important – free – stuff.

I really liked all the “Leaking Lights” Clips by “VFX Footage” on Vimeo. He founded a group on vimeo for free film effects, a great idea and i hope that it grows in the next months as well as i will be able to contribute something myself!