Director, Stu Maschwitz, founder of legendary VFX shop, The Orphanage, creator of the Magic Bullet software suite and author of the DV Rebel’s Guide, spoke on a panel this morning at NAB entitled, Independent Filmmaking — A Million Dollar Look on a Thousand Dollar Budget: 2009 Edition. He was joined by Rodney Charters, director of photographty on Fox’s, 24 and Charles Papert of Instant Films.

Recently, Stu directed a short film, more of a camera test as he describes it, with a Canon 5D Mark II HD camera. I thought it would be fun to show you what someone with some talent can do with this amazing new camera. Take a look and be sure to check out Stu’s new blog, ProLost.

Canon’s original 5D Mark II Microsite

More excellent resources from Canon

In Part II of my interview with Scott Kirsner, I ask for his take on the current state of the Hollywood studio system. How is it adjusting and transforming as a result of new technologies and the explosive growth of online media content? What are the opportunities emerging as a result of these changes? How does he see craftspeople and labor unions adjusting to the new realities of the current economic slump and business environment? Finally, I ask him to cite some examples of people who have been successful at monetizing independent new media projects for film and the web.

More from this series
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432	Part I	Part II	Part III
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III
	Windows Media Format 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III

Today I present Part I of a III-Part interview with Scott Kirsner. Scott is a noted author, journalist, blogger and digital technology expert who has written about innovation for publications such as the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Wired, Variety, Fast Company, the Hollywood Reporter, Salon.com, BusinessWeek, and Newsweek and his own website Cinematech.com, for nearly the last ten years. Much of his insightful work chronicles emerging trends in media and entertainment and the new artists and business models the Internet is giving birth to. He is the author if several books including; The Future of Web Video, Inventing the Movies and his most recent work, Friends Fans and Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age.

In this first segment, I ask Scott what interested him in the sometimes arcane world of cinema technology, talk about his first book, Inventing the Movies, in which he tells some of the never-before-told stories of the innovators who shaped Hollywood. For anyone interested in the future of media, movies and entertainment, I think you will find this an informative and enjoyable series.

More from this series
	QuickTime Movie HD 768×432	Part I	Part II	Part III
	iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III
	Windows Media Format 640×360	Part I	Part II	Part III

Here is the second part of my interview with Joe Fordham, director of the new short “The Glitch” and his cinematographer Tom Gleason. Here Joe tells us how he met his composer Laurent Watteau, who lives and works in Paris, online through the message boards at Film Score Monthly.com. I also ask Joe how he plans to get his film in front of an audience and any advice he might have for those thinking of making their own indie film.

Today we present Part I of our first Independent Profile of “The Glitch”, a short film directed by Joe Fordham. This is Joe’s first venture into HD, but he didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. Joe started making Super 8 films in his native Britain at a very young age. He ultimately became part of an award winning amateur filmmaking group known as Dangerous Visions. A short while later, he found himself working in London’s Soho filmmaking district, where he produced an eight-minute short entitled Board Game, which went on to win a BBC TV Showreel86 award. From there he was hired to write and direct Dogplant for Channel Four TV London.

After moving to Los Angeles Joe spent the next few years “breaking-in” to film production, again, this time the Hollywood film industry. He eventually landed work creating visual effects, creature effects and in post production on films such as Terminator 2, Men in Black, Virus and the Species series. Several years of all nighters were enough to convince Joe to pursue a writing career, and for the last six years he has been covering the international visual effects scene as a journalist and associate editor at Cinefex magazine.

Joining us is Joe’s cinematographer on The Glitch, Tom Gleason. Tom has been accumulating dramatic narrative DP credits for the last several years but he also has an extensive resume that demonstrates the breadth of his experience. This includes work as a visual effects model maker, where he built the 60’ version of the Titanic, (the one that breaks in half), one of the most impressive and widely published shots of the film. He’s also been a VFX DP, operator and 1st AC on films such as Beetlejuice. The Passion of the Christ and Mr & Mrs. Smith.

The Glitch – Official Site
Method
Laurent Watteau, Composer
CineWidgets
WithoutaBox.com
FilmScoreMonthly.com