We are the Champions

Zero sum game implies winners and losers. If somebody wins, somebody gotta lose ... I don’t agree with that. Because all boats can rise on a rising sea. Good films help other good films. Different psychology. If you’re overly competitive, you say it is exclusionary, a zero sum game: I must win so he must lose. That’s not true. We can all win without forcing the other guy to lose.

— Oliver Stone

Butterflying

DSLR camera's,
Think probably the most popular reason why people buy these cameras is for video. In video production, one thing that has been absent, until recently, is a shallow depth of field. Now that we can finally play with this filmmaking tool, it seems everybody is clamoring for it. Tons of people are jumping on the DSLR bandwagon, and a bunch of other people are building and/or purchasing 35mm adapters for their HDV cameras.

Almhouses in Haarlem

In cinema, a making-of - also known as behind-the-scenes - is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program.
Feature length documentaries on the making of other films has become a film genre in its own right.
The making-of film may ultimately be more important than the film itself. Shorter making of documentaries are often used as a bonus on DVDs, as it offers more insight into the film, how it was made, and to credit the film crew. 

 

 

 

Oberammergau

Every once in a while, there are so many changes in current video technology that ; it is worth the time to imagine what the future with this technology will be.
We truly live in an advanced age in which camera companies are putting video functions in their DSLRs. With this revolution, camcorders suddenly went from sensor sizes of 5 mm or less, to sensor sizes of 24-35 mm or more not to mention the addition of interchangeable lenses. While this has been a real boon to image quality and shallow depth of field capabilities

Panorama Mesdag

Panorama Mesdag gives you a 360 degree vista of the sea, the dunes and the fishing village of Scheveningen as it was in 1881. Step back in time and experience a unique view of our cultural heritage – the oldest 19th century panorama in the world on its original site. This cylindrical painting, more than 14 meters high and 120 meters in circumference, was painted by one of the most important painters of the The Hague School, Hendrik Willem Mesdag, with help from his friends.

Welcome to Panorama Mesdag.

Vondelpark in Amsterdam

While you constantly hear about how downloading movies is illegal, there are numerous free legal movies you can download. ; Sure we arent talking about the latest summer blockbusters here, but there are some great films out there on the Internet that can be had for free.

The Internet Archive works to bring together anything and everything that resides in the public domain, and that includes movies.

Flowermarket in Nice

Videos in the public domain are no longer subject to copyright laws, and you may use them freely without permission and without fear of legal repercussions. You may remix public domain videos into new works. When a video creators copyright expires, that video automatically becomes part of the public domain. Also, anything produced by the U.S. government is automatically in the public domain. Sometimes videos become public when the original copyright holder fails to complete the necessary paperwork to renew the copyright.

The Moselle

The origin of the term "footage" is that early 35 mm Silent film has traditionally been measured in feet and frames; the fact that film was measured by length in cutting rooms, and that there are 16 frames (4-perf film format) in a foot of 35 mm film which roughly represented 1 second of silent film, made footage a natural unit of measure for film. The term then became used figuratively to describe moving image material of any kind.

Loekie Leeuw making of

Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object so that it appears to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Dolls with movable joints or clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using plasticine is called clay animation or "clay-mation". Not all stop motion requires figures or models; many stop motion films can involve using humans, household appliances and other things for comedic effect. Stop motion using objects is sometimes referred to as object animation.

 

Carcasonne

The 20th century is not the first to create images of life during medieval times. The Middle Ages ended over five centuries ago and each century has imagined, portrayed and depicted the Middle Ages through painting, architecture, poetry, music and novel. In the 20th century, film has defined Medieval history perhaps more so than any other medium. While the conclusions of academic research and findings of archeology have advanced knowledge of the Middle Ages, nothing has had more widespread influence on more people than the images created by film. Just as most people's perceptions of the American Wild West were drawn from cinema, versus source material or academic research, so too most peoples perceptions of the Middle Ages were influenced by the powerful narratives and images of film.

Frans Hals in Haarlem

Filmtips:

Film colorization is any process that adds color to black and white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black and white films, or to restore color films. Examples date from the early 20th century, but colorization has become common with the advent of digital image processing.

The first film colorization methods were employed before effective color film processes was developed: each projected copy was individually colorized. The process was done by hand, sometimes using a stencil cut from a second print of the film.

With computer technology, studios were able to add color to black and white films by digitally tinting single objects in each frame of the film until it was fully colorized

Famous shower scene

When originally made, the film was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box office returns prompted reconsideration which led to overwhelming critical acclaim and four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics and film scholars. Ranked among the greatest films of all time, it set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American films, and is widely considered to be the earliest example of the slasher film genre.

greetings from Bavaria

In film and video, footage is the raw, unedited material as it had been originally filmed by movie camera or recorded by a video camera which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work. More loosely, footage can also refer to all sequences used in film and video editing, such as special effects and archive material (for special cases of this, see stock footage and B roll). Since the term originates in film, footage is only used for recorded images, such as film stock, videotapes or digitized clips on live television, the signals from the cameras are called sources instead.

Holy place of North Spain

Covadonga is a name which designates a reality. This reality contains several meanings. Covadonga is in Asturias. Its physical dimensions are contained within the natural evolution of this land. Its historical and cultural dimension is integrated in the millenarian progress of this society. More than that, Covadonga is at the very origins of what has been and still is Asturias. From this seed Christian Spain grew and developed into a wall which stopped and defeated the Islamic invasion. Thus it was here that Europe was saved as a universe of rational enlightenment, liberty, humanism and transcendence. It is therefore well worth coming with open eyes to this place where nature and history, height and depth, strength and beauty, intimacy and universal projection all merge.

 

Corniche and coast tour

filmtips:

basic framing options

Its all a question of balance, really. If a person is looking directly at the camera, then its normal for him or her to be in the centre of the frame. If, however, the shot requires the subject to be looking out of frame right or left, then its necessary to modify their position in the frame. A centuries-old framing convention known as the thirds principle then comes into play.

The trick is to divide up the image with two horizontal lines and two vertical lines; unless your subject is to look straight into the lens and placed centre of frame youll find it more aesthetically pleasing to position your subject on one of the vertical lines.

This is particularly important where the subject lets say an interviewee or an actor is in conversation with somebody out of shot. Its important to position them in such a way as to have space between their eyes and the right (or left) of frame.

Alpes Maritimes

Filmtips:

In film editing, a dissolve is a gradual transition from one image to another. In film, this effect is created by controlled double exposure from frame to frame; transitioning from the end of one clip to the beginning of another.

The cut and the dissolve are used differently. A camera cut changes the perspective from which a scene is portrayed. It's as if the viewer suddenly and instantly moved to a different place, and could see the scene from another angle. Obvious hard cuts may startle the viewer. For that reason, a dissolve is often used in continuity editing to "soften up" jump cuts or similar problematic cuts.

Jour de fête de Jacques Tati

Jacques Tati (French: [tati]; born Jacques Tatischeff, October 1907 – 5 November 1982)[1] was a French filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. Throughout his long career, he worked as a comic actor, writer, and director. In a poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly of the Greatest Movie Directors, Tati was voted the 46th greatest of all time. With only six feature-length films to his credit as director, he directed fewer films than any other director on this list of 50.

Northern Light (Estonia)

 

A cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the chief over the camera and light crews working on a film, television production or other live action piece and is responsible for making artistic and technical decisions related to the image. The study and practice of this field is referred to as cinematography.

Aquarium

Filmtips:

Color correction by using color gels, or filters, is a process used in stage lighting, photography, television, cinematography ; and other disciplines, the intention of which is to alter the overall color of the light; typically the light color is measured on a scale known as color temperature, as well as along a greenmagenta axis orthogonal to the color temperature axis.

Without color correction gels, a scene may have a mix of various colors. Applying color correction gels in front of light sources can alter the color of the various light sources to match. Mixed lighting can produce an undesirable aesthetic when displayed on a television or in a theatre.

Conversely, gels may also be used to make a scene appear more natural by simulating the mix of color temperatures that occur naturally. This application is useful especially where motivated lighting (lending the impression that it is diegetic) is the goal. Color gels may also be used to tint lights for artistic effect.

 

 

Rembrandt the movie

 

A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swashbucklers. A period piece may be set in a vague or general era such as the Middle Ages or a specific period such as the Roaring Twenties. 

 

Tableau en France

Various screenwriting software packages are available to help screenwriters adhere to the strict formatting conventions. Detailed computer programs are designed specifically to format screenplays, teleplays, and stage plays. Such packages include BPC-Screenplay, Celtx, Fade In, Final Draft, FiveSprockets, Montage, Movie Magic Screenwriter, Movie Outline 3.0, and Scrivener, Movie Draft SE and Zhura. Software is also available as web applications, accessible from any computer, and on mobile devices, such as Fade In Mobile and Scripts Pro.

The first screenwriting software was SmartKey, a macro program that sent strings of commands to existing word processing programs, such as WordStar, WordPerfect and Microsoft Word. SmartKey was popular with screenwriters from 1982–1987, after which word processing programs had their own macro features.

Saint Raphael (riviera)

Filmtips:

Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theater, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects

Special effects are traditionally divided into the categories of optical effects and mechanical effects. With the emergence of digital film-making tools a greater distinction between special effects and visual effects has been recognized, with "visual effects" referring to digital post-production and "special effects" referring to on-set mechanical effects and in-camera optical effects.

Whale safari

Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and other cetaceans in their natural habitat. Whales are watched most commonly for recreation (cf. bird watching) but the activity can also serve scientific or educational purposes. While individuals do organize private trips, whale watching is primarily a commercial activity, estimated to be worth up to $2.1 billion per annum worldwide to whale watching operations, employing around 13,000 workers.

The size and rapid growth of the industry has led to complex and continuing debates with the whaling industry about the best use of whales as a natural resource.

Source: Erik and Karolien.

The road to Galicia

Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes (black bars) above and below it; these mattes are part of the image (i.e., of each frame of the video signal). LTBX is the identifying abbreviation for films and images so formatted. The term refers to the shape of a letter box, a slot in a wall or door through which mail is delivered, being rectangular and wider than it is high.

Venice of the north (amsterdam)

Public domain

The public domain is a range of creative works whose copyright has expired, or was never established; as well as ideas and facts ; which are ineligible for copyright. A public domain work is a work whose author has either relinquished to the public, or no longer can claim control over, the distribution and usage of the work. As such any person may manipulate, distribute, or otherwise utilize the work, without legal ramifications. A work released into the public domain, or under a very liberal license, by its author may be referred to as "copycenter"

Amsterdam sea-level

Documentary school

Dutch cinema did provide a sound of its own in the form of what is now considered to be the "Dutch documentary tradition" or "Dutch documentary school". Headed by Haanstra, who won an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject with 1959's Glass and also won prizes in Berlin and Cannes, the movement also included Herman van der Horst, who won a Golden Bear for Best Documentary and John Fernhout, who's Sky Over Holland won a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1968.

Documentaries still play an important part in Dutch film industry. The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, held annually in November, is considered one of the largest documentary film festivals in the world..

Massive Esterel

Flashback ; is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached.
In movies and television, several camera techniques and special effects have evolved to alert the viewer that the action shown is from the past; for example, the edges of the picture may be deliberately blurred, photography may be jarring or choppy, or unusual coloration or sepia tone, or monochrome when most of the story is in full color, may be used.

the Thing (in the canal)

Video shorts are hot!

Video shorts are the hottest new format to promote a business on TV, online or DVD. It is one of the most cost effective video productions and usually produced in a very short time. Video production editing or also called post production for shorts is not anymore as time consuming as it used to be and the hard-software for editing is getting less and less expensive.

Germany : into the south

Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute or project motion pictures as opposed to the historical use of reels of motion picture film, such as 35 mm film. Whereas film reels have to be shipped to movie theaters, a digital movie can be distributed to cinemas in a number of ways: over the Internet or dedicated satellite links, or by sending hard drives or optical discs such as Blu-ray discs. Digital movies are projected using a digital video projector instead of a film projector. Digital cinema is distinct from high-definition television and does not necessarily use traditional television or other traditional high-definition video standards, aspect ratios, or frame rates. In digital cinema, resolutions are represented by the horizontal pixel count, usually 2K (2048×1080 or 2.2 megapixels) or 4K (4096×2160 or 8.8 megapixels). As digital-cinema technology improved in the early 2010s, most of the theaters across the world converted to digital video projection.

 

the Castle of La Napoule

Filminfo:

Sites offering free video
* Internet Archive
* US CITIES video gallery – Check caption on videos for usage rights
* NASA * Flickr – Use advanced search to choose only Video content licensed with Creative Commons
* Wikimedia Commons Video Category
* Open Source Cinema – All video here is licensed under CC Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license
* Vimeo – Search videos with creativecommons tag

Amsterdam, Oud-Zuid

Difference between genre and film style

Film style is distinct from film genre, which categorizes films based on similar narrative structures. For instance, Western films are about the American West, love stories are about love, and so on. Film style categorizes films based on the techniques used in the making of the film, such as cinematography or lighting. Two films may be from the same genre, but they will probably look different based on the film style. ; Films in the same genre do not necessarily have the same film style. Therefore, film genre and film style are distinct film terms.

Tourrettes (Cote d'Azur)

Tourrettes is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.

Tourrettes is one of a series of "perched villages" overlooking the plain between the southern Alps and the Esterel massif, which borders the sea between Cannes and Saint-Raphaël. Tourrettes is a charming old Provençal village popular with tourists. The village is located on the road to Mons, which later on joins the Route Napoléon (linking Nice to Grenoble through the Alps).

 

Trailer

A biographical film, or biopic (biographical motion picture), is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films âbased on a true storyâ or âhistorical filmsâ in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a personâs life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives.

Drenthe

The world of cinema is changing. Digital technology, online distribution, and the power of social media are fueling a revolution in the way we tell stories. You are a part of this revolution and an active player in deciding what movies, music, and art mean to you, how they're made and who profits.

 

x-mas market

For the common shaky video clip using video stabilization will impressively make the annoying camera movement disappear. iMovie does this stabilization in two steps. First it will analyze the video clip frame by frame and pixel by pixel, comparing one side of the frame to the other. Once it has analyzed the clip it applies a function that scales, rotates and moves the video based on the comparison. It zooms and trims the clip as much as it needs to apply the reverse movement of the camera shake and still not go outside the video frame. What's more interesting is this video stabilization is the same effect Apple uses in their professional visual effects program Shake.

Norske Bilder

A slide show is a presentation of a series of still images on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. Each image is usually displayed for at least a few seconds, and sometimes for several minutes, before it is replaced by the next image. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals or they may be manually controlled by a presenter or the viewer. Slide shows originally consisted of a series of individual photographic slides projected onto a screen with a slide projector. When referring to the video or computer-based visual equivalent, in which the slides are not individual physical objects, the term is often written as one word, slideshow.

National Park Picos

FILMINFO:

Mainstream films can best be defined as commercial films that have a wide release and play in first run theatres.

Hollywood movies are usually considered mainstream and blockbusters are also mainstream films. The boundary is vague. Mainstream suggests middle-of-the-road and implies commercial viability, sometimes implying that the commercial viability is tantamount to a loss of artistic creativity. The opposite of mainstream film may be experimental film, art film or cult film.

Mountains of Leon

A cold open (also called a teaser) in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. On television this is often done on the theory that involving the audience in the plot as soon as possible will reduce the likelihood of their switching away from a show.

Charming Auribeau

Shooting with a second camera is a must if you want to save time on the set.

1) Action Scenes you should always use several cameras during Action and stunt scenes.

2) Dialogue Scenes you will need to work closely with the DOP, and the soundman, about when to use the second camera, what it is covering and what lens to use.

3) Filming kids and animals this will help you get the shot on the first or second take as both children and animals will never do the same thing twice.

Picos de Europa

Virtually all of us are familiar with some of the magnificent nature and wildlife programmes on TV, the likes of which are often synonymous with the programmes made by David Attenborough for the BBC. The documentaries he is involved with can be astounding to watch and seem almost effortless. However, as youll probably be aware, filming wildlife in particular is never going to be as straightforward as it appears in a final cut as filming wildlife and nature can be very unpredictable and you can spend painstakingly long hours waiting to capture the ideal scene. Nevertheless, despite of the unpredictability, youll still need to create some kind of structure for the film if its to be of interest to the viewer.

Printemps

Amongst the most difficult challenges facing videographers, regardless of their experience or talent, is that of simply keeping the camera steady. This is clearly not a problem if you are shooting static subjects from a static position; in these cases you can pick up a tripod for £20 and your problems are solved.

However, most of the footage you actually want to shoot involves lots of movement; kids running around, panning shots across a group of people these all require movement on the part of both the subjects and the camera operator.

Pastoral

Users nowadays create their own content. There is no longer one truth provided by one source, but instead theres an system of truths provided by many. This system is constantly changing and evolving.

Content becomes similar to connection and metadata becomes data.
Users are no longer passive visitors of websites but active creators. They give new meaning to existing information by linking different sources and using personal preferences to arrange information.

Animal Party

Using The Zoom
Many home videos look tacky and amateurish because of poor use of the zoom lens. The zoom should always be used smoothly and slowly with a gradual, steady progression. Lets say for example youre in a beautiful harbour and have seen a magnificent yacht you want to capture on video. You should start the scene with just a view of the yacht then gradually pan out to show the magnificent setting in which its situated. Conversely, say your subject is standing in front of a magnificent palace. Shoot the palace first then gradually zoom in on your subject. Tripods are very useful when shooting zoom shots.

filming Van Gogh

Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh ( July 23, 1957 – November 2, 2004) was a Dutch film director, film producer, columnist, author and actor. He was the great-grandson of Theo van Gogh, who was the brother of artist-painter Vincent van Gogh.

Van Gogh worked with Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film Submission, which was critical of the treatment of women in Islam. On 2 November 2004 he was murdered by a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim. The last film he completed before his death, 06/05, is a fictional version of the assassination of politician Pim Fortuyn.

 

Riverscape Amstel

 Some tips for better filmmaking

 Tell a story. 

There’s a time to move the camera and a time to keep it still.  
 Know who the audience is for your film , then do everything you can to please that audience.  Exaggerate. 

Give your audience something to oooo and ahhhh about.
Take your audience on  emotional roller coaster ride they will love you for it.

Don’t bore the audience.

Of Course Cote d'Azur

Filmtips:

This is a most exciting time for independent film makers. Now that the internet and digital technology have paired up, we are seeing the old way of Hollywood shifting to the new independent film makers.  Studios have ignored the internet, treating it as a  tool for film promotion.

The Blair Witch Project film makers brought fame to the film with very clever web marketing. Hollywood production, marketing, and distribution has become the old way of film making, and this is causing a good bit of anxiety with the major studios.

Independent film makers who have traditionally been left out and ignored by the film making industry, are now building websites.Film makers are able to directly contact potential investors with scripts and potential story ideas. They are able to pitch their ideas to the investor themselves.

Bavaria: in the south

Originality is the aspect of created or invented works as being new or novel, and thus distinguishable from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or derivative works. An original work is one not received from others nor one copied from or based upon the work of others. It is a work created with a unique style and substance. The term "originality" is often applied as a compliment to the creativity of artists, writers, and thinkers. The idea of originality as we know it was invented by Romanticism, with a notion that is often called romantic originality

Cannes & Media

MIPTV Media Market is an event which takes place annually in Cannes, using the facilities and infrastructure which the town has developed over the years to host other important events such as the Cannes Film Festival amongst other events.

It is essentially a content market for co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing entertainment content. It provides the people involved in the TV, film, digital and audiovisual content, production and distribution industry .

The congress includes "Content 360" media festival which aims to showcase the best in creative & innovative productions for cross platform (TV, Film, Mobile, Internet) distribution.

The church of StJacques

Filmtips: Music

Nothing sets the mood for your video like a good musical soundtrack. Watch any movie or television show (even news “magazines”) and you will hear music creating a mood that compliments the images on the screen.

Turn the sound off and most of that feel goes away.  it just wouldn’t work. Conversely, the wrong music can do just as much damage. For instance, a beach vacation video would be difficult to watch with polka music in the background. Used properly, music can relax, inspire or excite your viewers – even evoke a response that visuals alone cannot.

Potes and Picos

Videotape is a means of recording images and sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film or random access digital media. In most cases, a helical scan video head rotates against the moving tape to record the data in two dimensions, because video signals have a very high bandwidth, and static heads would require extremely high tape speeds. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) or, more commonly, video cassette recorders (VCRs) and video cameras. Tape is a linear method of storing information and, since nearly all video recordings made nowadays are digital, it is expected to gradually lose importance as non-linear/random-access methods of storing digital video data become more common.