I went to Vung Tau over the three-day weekend and had a chance to try out my new cine hand jib, an adjustable hand crane from the folks at Cinecity. It'll take a lot of practice to steady the gizmo, but I'll be able to get some shots I wouldn't have been able to do... Continue Reading →
30/4 Park Revisited
I recently added a new tool to my arsenal - a handheld stabilizer that goes simply by the name of Hand Held. I have no idea where it's manufactured. The Freefly MōVI it is not, but then again, it doesn't carry a $15,000 price tag either. It's elegantly crafted from brushed aluminum (no plastic!), with leather for... Continue Reading →
30/4 Park
What an ordeal it was trying to upload this video to YouTube! First of all, Apple's QuickTime only allows videos of up to 15 minutes to be uploaded to YouTube, and the clip is almost 24 minutes long. Then, when I tried using YouTube's own uploader instead, I had to verify my account, but when... Continue Reading →
Test: RØDE Stereo VideoMic Pro
Most experienced filmmakers will tell you that sound is 50 percent of filmmaking. If the sound is poor, the wisdom goes, your video isn't going to be watched. I don't know whether this is borne out in actuality however, because to the best of my knowledge, most videos posted to YouTube by non-professionals are shot... Continue Reading →
Vietnam Lunar New Year 2013
http://youtu.be/7xFLQiI_2xQ Free background music from JewelBeat.com
The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens
The Saigon Zoo, located just twenty minutes or so from my apartment, is one of the oldest zoos in the world. In addition to the exhibits, there are acres and acres of parkland, where you can get away from the traffic and noise of the city, have a picnic, or eat lunch at one of... Continue Reading →
18A Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Extended Cut (with Audio Commentary Track)
Here’s a look at my new neighborhood and surroundings. The voiceover commentary track was recorded with my brand new Yeti USB microphone purchased from Other World Computing. I’ve added a bouncier soundtrack than the earlier versions, made some additional color corrections and added several new shots. Hope you enjoy. Be sure to watch in HD.... Continue Reading →
Suoi Tien Theme Park, Vietnam
Here's a video of Suoi Tien amusement park in Ho Chi Minh City. http://youtu.be/mKN-dlBlFso Free background music from JewelBeat.com
More x264 Comparisons
Here are some screen grabs of clips exported to QuickTime with the x264 Encoder, with and without 2.2 gamma added, then uploaded to YouTube. They were first converted to QuickTime files using ClipWrap, then transcoded to Apple Intermediate Codec before importing to iMovie.