Jeff Brown

.... and? chances are you'd be in over your head on a feaure production as well. no one is born with the skill to complete large scale projects with ease.. you may have skills as a student, but you dont have all teh skills of a professional. the statement was not targetting you. its just a astatement of reality.

look into Serious Magic DV Rack software. it is made for computer controlled direct recording of dv material. if i remember correctly there is an option for outputting multiple monitors. i only had 1 chance to play with it, so my memory is a bit hazy. also try calling them. talk to an engineer and ask if it can do what you want.

nope, no 'need' about it :) i just thought it would be fun to be able to combine the best of digital 2d/3d and photographic processes, thats all. ive been getting into medium film format lately, and i thought tthat one of these would be fun

i guess i should have checked the obvious places first: put 'film recorder' into ebay, and a ton of these things pop up! and now i have endangered myself to the next round of toys.... someone hide my wallet.

wow, lasergrahipics make some pretty damn cool toys... but thise are far above the range of device that i am looking for. i wouldnt be surprised to find out if it was (at best) a 2k recording device (hey, it was 5 years ago, and he got it used at that). thanks for the input! jeff

digital to film printing device in one of those "memory-dump-of-conversations-from-5-years-ago" moments, i remembered talking to a now-estranged acquaintence about a film printer he had bought at an auction. it was a really cool device that would hook up to his pc via scsi and then would print series of digital images to 35mm stok. it was a desktop unit about the size of the older nikon coolscans and was pretty slow but he would take his lightwave renderings and be able to print them to film as photographs. it was pretty damn cool. the one thing that my memory hasnt regurgitated is who made it... or anything else about it, except that it was white. this is more of a still imaging question, but i have a feeling someone here would have an idea as to what im talking about :)

when it comes to professional film scanning, $5000 is just fine. those kodaks listed about are 4x that. if you want a bargain basement device, then look at consumer flatbed scanners with transparency attachements. it will definately not be a professional solution. note: a flatbed is limited to 600dpi as well. dont believe the 2400dpi ratings, thats for software upsampling which looks horrible. there really isnt much of a market inbetween the two price points, because pro equipment gets a pro pricetag. everything else is just low end. unfortunately its either the coolscan or ebay.

its not quite a keying manuever, more of a tracking shot. you 'anchor' your overlay image onto your footage, in the corners of your frame (or any small area with high contrast really). then you 'solve' the scene, where the tracking application grounds your overlay to those points, and will shear/distort the image in order to maintain perspective. not a dumb question at all. :)

There is no need to take a still image at the end of the first sequence. No matter the medium (dv, 8mm, 16mm, etc), use the last frame as the tracked element for the living room. If you were to use a different picture altogether from a different camera, it would have a distinct look+feel different than your original footage, and would stick out like a sore thumb. Just use the last frame and color correct to taste, that way the element wont change unnecessarily and 'break' the scene. as long as your markers are clean, its no chore to complete. (video tutorial link) http://www.cmivfx.com/m/hp_style_cmivfx.mov This is a link to a Digital Fusion tutorial depicting how the HP commercials were made, and demonstrates just how simple it actually is. DF is not necessary, as this trick can be done in any package (shake, combustion, et al). The projection patterns in the fog dont have to necessarily be 'correct''. as long as there is very little fog in the room a little dry erase marker on the lens will produce a 'noise' to project through. it doesnt have to be believable, just constant. my 2 cents :)

Although that would create the desired look, it seems like to many steps and too much effort (on behalf of crew and talent alike). Changing the time, and hence feel, of the performance dissipates the "suspension of disbelief" (yeah, very relative in a music video ;) ) and detaches the viewer from the content. The focus is the band, and you want the viewer to relate to them. As soon as the motion becomes unnatural via altered time, the effect is lost, and the viewer sees a spectacle, and not a "visual entity". Its a fine distinction, but greenscreening would be the way to go in this instance. With a little thought to the setup, and maybe a little roto-work to help integrate the elements, it would pulloff quite nicely.