The new Kino app recording ProRes Log with a custom preview LUT. Yes we’re still talking about shooting video on iPhones. But I also want to talk about digital cinema shooting in general, in a world where top camera makers are battling to give filmmakers everything we want in a small, affordable package. How does the DV Rebel spirit — born of camcorders and skateboard dollies — live on in a time of purpose-built digital cinema cameras that fit in your hand? For me, it’s meant keeping my rigs small and manageable. I love gimbals and drones and lidar focus rigs, but I’m happiest when my whole r ..read more

Still from Apple’s “Let Loose” video. Apple unveiled their new line of iPads yesterday in a pre-recorded video titled “Let Loose.” As with the previous “Scary Fast” MacBook Pro launch video, “Let Loose” ends with a tag proclaiming “Shot on iPhone” — this time adding “Edited on Mac and iPad,” and the fine print: “All presenters, locations, and aerial footage shot on iPhone.” During the live stream I actively wondered if the iPhone acquisition of “Scary Fast” had been a one-time thing. “Let Loose” looks great, as all Apple videos do, but some shots featured a shallower depth-of-field than is po ..read more

This is a blog post about a video, which is about new color-conversion LUTs for Apple Log footage from the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max (updated from my first set). The video is also a mini-travelogue of my recent trips to Taiwan and Peru. This post dives a bit deeper into both the LUT workflows, and my state of mind about shooting digital-cinema-grade footage with a device I always have with me. There’s a lot going on here. Or Just Skip to the LUTs Conflicted in Peru Me relaxing on vacation. Photo by Forest Key. I always have a moment when packing for a trip: Which camera to bring? Which lense ..read more

Still frame from Hello! by Goro Fujita, created in VR using Quill Today’s the day to pre-order Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s first “spatial computing” device. It’s an expensive VR headset that either represents an opportunity to beta-test the future, or double down on past failings of VR promises. I’m a VR skeptic in many ways. I don’t want anything to do with “the metaverse,” and I’m beyond annoyed by fake demos of people pretending to do creative work by waving their hands around like a wannabe Tony Stark. But I’ve owned several Oculus/Meta headsets, and I’ve had some experiences in VR that kee ..read more

A still from Apple’s “Behind the scenes: An Apple Event shot on iPhone” video Apple Shot Their “Scary Fast” October Event Video on iPhones And We Had Feelings You’re somewhere on the spectrum of occasionally shooting video on your iPhone to a professional-ish video maker with some gear, and you see at the end of Apple’s October “Scary Fast” event announcing new Macs with M3 silicon that the entire event was “Shot on iPhone.” This makes you feel a certain way. Actual footage of me watching the event. Then Apple posts a behind-the-scenes video showing how this was done, revealing a rare and im ..read more

And I've got some free LUTs for you. The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max feature log video recording. This is a big deal, but there’s already some confusion about it. Where consumer devices and pro video overlap, that’s where the Prolost Signal gleams brightest in the night sky. So let’s get to work. First, what exactly is log? It’s short for logarithmic encoding, which is a math thing, but what does it mean to videographers? It really boils down to two things: Log is flat, and log is known. Flat is Good, and Log is the Best Flat Standard iPhone video is designed to look good. A very specific kind ..read more

If you’re reading this blog, you probably know the story — at least, you think you do. As Steven Spielberg began production on 1993’s Jurassic Park, he and Industrial Light and Magic’s Dennis Muren planned to execute the all-important visual effects component of the film’s prehistoric predators using tried-and-true stop- and go-motion animation1. But a bleeding-edge computer animation test convinced Spielberg and producer Kathleen Kennedy to risk it all on computer-generated dinosaurs, forever altering the course of visual effects in film. It’s a story that had direct and momentous impact on ..read more

From the Lightroom Blog: The same edit controls that you already use to make your photography shine can now be used with your videos as well! Not only can you use Lightroom’s editing capabilities to make your video clips look their best, you can also copy and paste edit settings between photos and videos, allowing you to achieve a consistent aesthetic across both your photos and videos. Presets, including Premium Presets and Lightroom’s AI-powered Recommended Presets, can also be used with videos. Lightroom also allows you to trim off the beginning or end of a video clip to highlight the par ..read more

Mac Studio with M1 Ultra and Apple Studio Display, running Cinema 4D and Redshift. In October of 2021 I got to test a 14″ MacBook Pro with M1 Max processor. It performed so well, that I, along with many Mac power-users, questioned whether it could replace my desktop Mac. Last week, I reported that the answer turned out to be no: What makes a computer powerful, for my workflow, is not just processing power. It's connectedness, and presence. It’s speakers and microphones and ingesting CFAST while rapidly recalling raw files from fifteen years ago. It’s the power of side-by side displays that r ..read more

The 2021 MacBook Pro alongside the cable-management fail of my iMac Pro Back in October when I got a chance to use a pre-release 14″ MacBook Pro with M1 Max processor, I openly questioned whether this laptop could replace my venerable iMac Pro. Four months later, I’m back with an update. A good amount has happened since then, for example: After Effects: Explores the Cores Yes, I figured out how to make this render very, very slowly. After Effects multiprocessing is now a thing, released for Intel and in public beta for Apple silocon. And it’s largely good! It doesn’t speed up the processing ..read more