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Found a great article by BSC and ASC member Roger Deakins, one of my favourite Directors of Photography.

With all our modern inventions and innovations, there are few films that manage to achieve the “quality” of Citizen Kane, though there are many that have far less grain and considerably higher resolution.

Every shot I have ever made has been a compromise in some way. That’s a sweeping statement, but true nonetheless. No image has ever been as good as the one I envisioned in my mind’s eye. Maybe that’s what keeps me going: just once, I want to see that image onscreen!

There has always been a disregard for preservation, whether it’s preservation of a historic site, the Dodo, the polar bear, or a film like Sid and Nancy.

The animators who “photographed” [Wall-E] worked in a three-dimensional world and covered the action in much the same way as a live-action film, but the directors of photography, Danielle Feinberg (lighting) and Jeremy Lasky (camera) – separate positions you might note – used no emulsion, no Fresnel lamps or diffusion, no Steadicam, no geared head, nor any other live-action tool. Nevertheless, theirs was a stunning cinematographic achievement. It’s true they had an advantage – they never had to battle fading daylight, conceal a light’s source or hide dolly tracks – but I would not hesitate to recommend them for ASC membership.

Read the full article here.

While working on some render jobs, I used the downtimes to do a little redesign of this blog. Hope you like it.

Let´s see who is first to guess all 4 cameras used in the header graphic?

There is a new(ish) blog for assistant editors, aptly named Post Production Standards.

Take a look here.

So long I resisted “monetizing” my blog. But today I received an offer that proved hard to resist. (And no horses were involved.) The makers of text-link-ads now also offer Auction Ads, which places eBay auctions on your blog. If your blog’s visitor wins an auction, you get a share. You have control over the layout, but most importantly over the key-words. Which means that you can chose ads that fit your blog. And the best part: if you sign up in September, you get an instant $25 credit to your account.

In the last couple of months I had the honour of filming a number of old (as in 75 to 3-digit years) people. I always enter the room with great respect for what they have been through. They have suffered at least one world war, built up the countries and are now at despair to the route politicians are taking Europe. Money – not people’s best interests – seem to rule the world.

We should listen more to old people and less to Excel sheets.

Gems from the Web:

• Verbarius – A clock that spells out the time.
• Optimus Maximus – A new approach to typing: a keyboard with a tiny LCD screen in each key. Could be great for translators, but also video editors and anyone who needs to remember shortcuts. Pricetag: 1500 USD, delivery expected for November 07.
• Cult of Mac – Wired News – It’s become apparent that Apple has released a device capable of much more than playing digital media in the living room — they’ve put out a full-fledged computer for dirt cheap. David Scharf took it upon himself to re-christen the delightful box.
• Top 10 Apple products which flopped – Some of these I have never heard of. For obvious reasons, I guess…
• Danger Room – Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert…
• Dvorak Isn’t Drinking the iPhone Kool-Aid, Thinks Apple Should Can the Device – Apple should pull the plug on the gadget before it is too late.
• Top Secret: First shoot! – We just finished a shoot with noted cinematographer and camera operator, Charles Papert, for an as-yet-secret project, with the Canon XL H1.
• Creating Passionate Users: Creativity on speed – One of the best ways to be truly creative–breakthrough creative–is to be forced to go fast. Really, really, really fast.
• TI’s Mini Movie Projector – Texas Instruments is showing off its Pico, a DLP projector that is chiquitito enough to be incorporated into the bottom of a cellphone.
• Creating Passionate Users: How to host a product/feature design party – Forget focus groups. Forget endless meetings and brainstorming sessions. Throw an ultra-rapid-design party, and do it in a single day.
• The MDI Air Car – the world’s cleanest car. – With the incorporation of bi-energy (compressed air + fuel) the CAT Vehicles have increased their driving range to close to 2000 km with zero pollution in cities and considerably reduced pollution outside urban areas.
• Chiquita Brands Funds Right-wing Death Squads in Colombia – If you have bought a Chiquita banana over the last 10 years, it is very likely that part of the money you spent went to right-wing paramilitary death squads in Colombia.
• TypePad: Censorship against blogs – If just sending an email to Six Apart is enough to remove a post that your company don’t like, what is freedom of speech for Type Pad customers?
• Windows Vista – Beneath the gloss they have hidden traps that take away important consumer rights, force expensive and environmentally damaging hardware upgrades.
• dotherightthing.com – Popular Stories – Do the right thing and change the world…
• 5 Reasons to NOT upload your Music or Videos to a Third Party – If you’re going to go through the trouble of cutting a video, mp3, Podcast, etc., spend the money and host it yourself. That way you don’t have to agree to some of these bizarre Terms of Use.
• BBC NEWS | Business | Google’s copyright nightmare – Until now most copyright holders had little incentive to sue YouTube. Now that YouTube is part of the Google empire, with a market capitalisation of $129bn (£70bn), there is a serious incentive to let the lawyers off the leash.
• Highway shut for butterfly travel – Taiwan is to close one lane of a major highway to protect more than a million butterflies, which cross the road on their seasonal migration.
• TV networks plan rival to YouTube – “NBC Universal and Fox will put top shows such as 24, House and Heroes as well as hit movies on the site”
• Federal agency bans Microsoft Vista – “At least two federal government agencies are refusing to upgrade their computers with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Vista operating system, citing concern over costs and compatibility issues.”

Last summer I had a whopping 4 days of holidays. To make up for this, we are now going on a 2 week holiday.

Doors are locked, alarm installed, neighbours informed. So, no need to break in

I probably won’t get a chance to blog in that time, but I hope that you’ll keep returning once I am back.

In the meantime, please do leave a comment:

• what would you like me to write about in the future
• what should I stop doing
• where did I go on holiday
• any thoughts, wishes, and/or desires

I’ll try not to do a Yvonne, and should be back after the 9th of february.