2011

Kieran Scannell · December 30, 2011

I had very poor expectations for this year after a couple of dismal previous years, but it was a brilliant year for me!

I worked solidly the whole year! Shot 8 commercials, a documentary that I will never forget and loads of other stuff

that keep the chimney smoking. I got to go to Ethiopia for 3 wonderful weeks, Los Angeles, Mexico, It just wouldn't

stop all year!

In January I'm working in Brazil and New Zealand!

No complaints!

Wishing you all the jobs you want and a positive attitude in 2012!

BTW. Got to shoot with Alexa! Oh deary me! What a camera!

Rich Davis · December 30, 2011

Sounds a great year Keiran.

I managed to finish my degree in Film Production Tech, then got my first two jobs on TV dramas here. 8 weeks as a grip assitant, then 5 weeks as a camera trainee. 13 weeks work in the summer for a fresh graduate is pretty good I feel. I also managed to meet some great camera teams and actors, working on some very fun sets.

All in all not a bad start to my career in my opinion and a nice 2011.

Let's just hope 2012 gets off to a good start.

All the best everyone,

Rich.

David Mullen ASC · December 31, 2011

It turned out to be a good year -- in February I shot a TV pilot in Vancouver on the Alexa (that wasn't picked up), then in April-May I shot "Big Sur" on the Epic for Michael Polish, then starting prep in mid-August, I've been in NYC shooting a TV series for NBC / DreamWorks called "Smash" on the Alexa. I won't be finished until mid-March.

In the spring, both the last season of "United States of Tara" aired and the pilot for "The Chicago Code", then in September, the indie feature "Seven Days in Utopia" was in theaters briefly.

December 31, 2011

2011 I will leave in the "no comments" section.

2012 looking very positive as of today. Though in producing, things can and will change in an instant.

Glad to see you using the Alexa a lot David, when you shoot in Toronto you can borrow mine. I even have an Alexa hat for you, if you don't already have one. :)

R,

Simon Wyss · December 31, 2011

__His New Job__

The company I am working with is specialised in deep boring, you must know, as one of two such enterprises in this country. Two inches diameter for example six feet deep at more or less no deviation and a surface average roughness of a tenth of a mil. I am the turner at two CNC lathes, two conventional lathes, a milling machine, a honing machine, two drills, and some grinding apparel. Iron and nickel steels

At the moment I am dissecting a Beaulieu Reflex 16, drawing for the Cargo prototypes which will be made in January, and looking forward to a class reunion 30 years after.

When our government changed direction in the energy I was surprised and not at the same time. After long years totally in favor of nuclear power itʼs the new age now. With capitals, New Age. Aquarius. Sun in connection with Uranus. Finally! George Eastman couldnʼt take it in the early 1930s. But Eastman-Kodak of today is well under way. It is the best colour film manufacturer. A thousand-foot roll of ECN is sold for around thousand Dollar. Costs are about hundred Dollar in production.

I still love coffee. Not that tea-like pint-wise swill some Swedish brought to Northern America but an italian creamy vapor-pressed-through lusciousness!

Keith Walters · December 31, 2011

Since our government virtually destroyed the Australian film industry about 10 years ago it's been very hard for many people here. When Cameraquip closed their Sydney branch in 2004 I had to find alternative employment in other industries. For a while I still did a reasonable amount of film-related work on the side, but my phone hadn't rung for nearly 3 years now.

Then after 5 years the company I currently work for recently underwent some serious restructuring and I thought: "Oh no; here we go again!" But no; I've actually now got a better job, a lot closer to home, and in the restructuring process I was given a whole pile of what was once extremely expensive test equipment (for $50!).

And my phone has started to ring again...

Apart from that, something else (not film-related) totally out of left field, has re-surfaced from nearly 30 years ago, which has considerable potential as well.

If it wasn't for forums like this one, I would have been left way behind with current production technologies, but as it is, most of the people I've been talking to lately seem far more confused than I am :D

As for the immediate future, I'm pretty sure 2012 will be the year of serious consumer 1080p and higher. At our usual Xmas gathering last week, I was turning out amazingly good photos just from frame grabs from 720p video from my mobile phone, on a $65 inkjet printer! The thing is, if you shoot 30 frames per second, your chances of getting a good shot are vastly improved. And 1280 x 720 was more than good enough, particularly for 6 x 4 prints. (People were perfectly happy with them even as 8" x 10"!)

Move that up a notch to 1080p, and you're getting some serious quality. Take it up to 12 megapixel (4K) MPEG4, and you're talking about quality good enough for the vast majority of applications. You do NOT need any sort of "RAW" to make this work, for most applications MPEG4 is more than good enough.

As for ubiquitious 4K and 3-D in the home, that won't be happening anytime soon. None of the big Chinese TV manufacturers seem to know anything about it anyway :rolleyes: