I love the KBCovers line and now they have a custom keyboard that looks great and allows you to work faster and more efficiently with a KB Keyboard for Final Cut Pro.

Designed in conjunction with Certified Final Cut Trainers and Experts, KB Keyboards include over 90 of the most important and commonly used keyboard shortcuts for Final Cut Pro. KB Keyboards are a must for experts and beginners alike, this compact-size, Apple® ultra-thin usb aluminum compact keyboard is a great way improve your knowledge and productivity with Final Cut Pro.

KB Keyboards utilize both icons and colors to make using keyboard shortcuts easier to find and use. Master Final Cut Pro by using a keyboard from KB Keyboards. Your shortcut to genius. So head on over to this page and check it out:

http://www.callboxlive.com/products/compact-kb-keyboard-for-final-cut-pro

Also new-

Panasonic HMC150 Book and CD from Barry Green!

This book and CD package presents a comprehensive examination of the camera and all its features, settings, and modes, the tapeless workflow, working with avchd footage, and tutorials on some of the most common situations users find themselves facing. The book de-mystifies what all the features of the camera actually do, as well as explaining when and why you’d want to use each setting for the best results. An extensive section of tutorials and essays teach a range of subjects from the simple to the advanced, including explanations on how to get the shallow depth-of-field look, how to control strobing and shoot 24P (or 25P) for the best results, and how to use the waveform monitor and vectorscope. The book is jam-packed with photos and screenshots throughout its 216 full-color, high-quality glossy pages.

http://www.callboxlive.com/products/panasonic-hmc150-book-and-cd

IMDB [Free] A highly useful mobile version of the defacto directory of movie making. You can also check out upcoming showtimes and trailers. And did I mention it’s free?

iSlate [$2.99] is not a total substitute for a timecode synced smart slate, but it’s better than nothing. And it’s incredibly cute with actual useful features like built-in shot logging. Perfect for a run and gun DSLR shoot that wants a little more organization while keeping everything simple and pocketable.

Reel Director [$7.99] is a full blown video editor for your iPhone 3GS. Now obviously this requires you to shoot videos with your 3GS and limits your quality but for just goofing around or a quick sketch out of an idea with coverage, this is groundbreaking stuff.

Storyboard Composer [$19.99] Formerly known as Hitchcock, this is a quick storyboard sketch tool for visualizing shots using your iPhone.

This is an interesting use of the iPhone to act as a sort of remote trigger and monitor for your DSLR. It’s not quite as useful for video as it is for still but as more folks are mixing it up between stills and video at once in the studio, it could come in handy. Besides, let’s face it, who doesn’t like using their iPhone in new and cool ways. Check out DSLR Camera Remote for more info. $19.99 is a bit steep for an iPhone app, so there’s also a LITE version. 

Jay A. Kelley produced (and stars in :-) *the RED 101 DVD – it’s quite comprehensive and a good starting point if you like an audio / visual way of learning. *Jay is a super early RED ONE adopter that works with his camera professionally on a regular basis, He really knows the gear and how to use it.

It’s not meant to be a learning tool for those already well versed in the camera (although it’s a good refresher for those like me that work with the camera in some fashion almost every day) It’s well designed and executed to give you the run down of the camera, its functionality, the menu structure etc. * It covers how to set up projects and use the internal tools of the RED ONE to expose the camera, set up the camera for various styles of shooting for different types of projects and deliverables and a number of other needed areas of learning to be ready to get great results from your RED ONE shooting.

The DVD covers quite a lot of info, and Jay is on camera talking to you for a lot of the video – His homespun style is fun and enjoyable, it’s not a a flat, boring instructional DVD – he’s got lots of his personality weaved in there. *I would recommend taking watching it in small to medium sized chunks, and not watching it all in one sitting, while having the RED ONE operations manual as a reference point to review each section that’s covered (a free download here: *http://www.red.com/support)

Jay covers the RED pretty much from all angles to get you primed and ready to shoot, and a bunch of 3rd party gear as well. *Note that RED did not have a hand in producing this, so there are some things in his video we may not totally agree with (different opinions on certain things is what makes life interesting), but overall I wouldn’t recommend it if if didn’t do a good job handling the material and covering what is needed to make the right choices when jumping into RED, which it does very well.

For more info, please visit:

http://www.red101dvd.com/order/

As a follow up to Philip Bloom’s excellent Canon EOS 5D Mark II training video, we now have his take on the 7D. This is a great camera that gives you access to all of Canon’s sweet 35mm DSLR lenses along with all of the frame rates you could want for shooting movies like 1080/24p, 720/60p and 50p and so on. Check it out for immediate download here:

http://www.callboxlive.com/products/canon-7d

Philip Bloom really knows his stuff with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. And he’s gone the extra mile to create his own training course on DVD folding in all of his experience and know-how. I think this is such an important and useful course I cut a deal with Philip to offer it on my site as well. I’m even offering any one of our own Call Box courses free with Philip’s DVD to sweeten the deal. Check it out here:

http://www.callboxlive.com/products/canon-5d-dvd

-Noah

One of the hottest trends in production today is DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras that shoot high-definition video. These cameras use large image sensors and proven still camera lenses to achieve shallow depth of field. If you can’t afford a RED camera or even one of the higher end prosumer high-definition cameras, these are an amazing value. Here’s a quick survey of some of the contenders.

Canon

EOS 5D Mark II
Canon’s first big broadside into the DSLR cinemtography market. 21 megapixels and all those Canon lenses make for amazing stills. One sore spot, no 24p.

EOS 7D
Canon ups the ante by finally delivering a true 24p mode, though the sensor shrinks a little to a still very respectable 18 megapixels.

Nikon

D90
Nikon’s first DSLR with a decent video mode. Has 24p but unfortunately tops out at 720p, with some fairly pronounced CMOS skew as well.

D300S
Nikon takes one of their most popular DSLR’s and adds video. At 12.3 megapixels, Canon holds the resolution advantage.

Panasonic

GH1
12.1 megapixels and 1080/24p using AVCHD compression and the 4/3 lens system. This camera merits a serious look for DSLR cinematography.

DMC-GF1
As with their point and shoot digital cameras with video modes, the GF1 tops out at 720p. It makes up for this by being much more compact than the Nikon or Canon cams through the use of the micro 4/3 interchangeable lens system.

That’s some of the playing field as of today. Let the discussion begin.

My book on the RED camera is now available for pre-order. We just finished it up! 

Posted via email from callboxlive's posterous