Happy Memorial Day Weekend Slackers!

(left to right)Alan and Michele from Square TV with Paul, Frank, Leslie and Jeff from Team Atrox.

Pretty damn crazy long weekend ladies and germs! I'm trying hard to get these video interviews up and running. We had the Elephant Eater piece on the web last week and we just wrapped the shooting for the Team Atrox exclusive. The trip up to Hollywood to interview the very talented folks of Team Atrox was very enjoyable and hopefully I can get a 3 part video on the site ASAP. They had a lot to talk about and it was a very entertaining bit... including cameos from some curious cats.

If you are anxious and want to see some serious comedy feel free to check out Team Atrox @ www.theatrox.com and click on the video section. Please make sure you are wearing Depends undergarments because you may shit a chicken or piss blood from laughter. Watch and enjoy and stay tuned to Square TV!

The Def Leading the Blind

  To be 1080P or not to be 1080P... that is the question.  High definition media has hit us hard like a fast-ball in the face and it certainly isn't slowing down any time soon.  A strong percentage of Americans are switching to digital cable and high definition programming.  I personally have made that switch to the "high-def" world last year and I am not looking back.  More detail in image quality and color is the start of a digital art revolution and young filmmakers should be thankful for this medium transition.   

As a filmmaker, I've always tried my best to achieve that film quality look.  It's that 24 frames a second look produced by "Hollywood" cameras and I could only mimic it through cheap gimmicks and terrible low lighting used to create video noise to pass as film grain.  In recent years, companies like Panasonic and Canon have bridged that gap between part-time videographers and dedicated independent filmmakers with consumer standard video camcorders that have the bells and whistles that of industry standard equipment.

 In recent months, Canon has had the release of consumer grade camcorders like the HG10, HV20   (above) and the HR10.  These cameras boast high-definition capabilities for the price of under $1200 at most stores.  All of these cameras have an effect that produces recordings in 24 progressive frames a second and look impressively close to the industry standard videos produced at 24P.  If you don't know the difference go ahead and watch C-SPAN for a few minutes and study their digital camera footage.  After you are done watching, go ahead and watch the Food Network or a World Series of Poker Tour game and see how the video has a film-like look and almost looks like standard film used in feature films.  You might also need a little imagination to actually see it that way but it's strikingly similar.

It is truly a great time for young, up an coming filmmakers right now and the advent of high definition cameras with film-like image producing effects help out their cause.  These artists can now produce videos that have high production quality that won't break the bank.  With $1000, a good story and some imagination... almost anybody can start making their own feature film come alive.