9 Articles Every Filmmaker Should Read (August 2015)
Miss any big headlines in August? Here are nine things you may have missed last month.
Image via Blackmagic Design
With projects taking up all of your time, we know how easy it is to miss some breaking news or cool features. These are some of the biggest stories from August 2015.
1. Fusion 8 Beta Released
Hot off the release of DaVinci Resolve 12 Beta, Blackmagic Design has already made Fusion 8 available for download. Fusion 8 is a compositing software for VFX artists to create motion design and 3D animation.
Prior versions of Fusion have been used on features like Thor, The Amazing Spiderman 2, and The Hunger Games. It was also used on television series like Breaking Bad, Adventure Time, Downton Abbey, and Battlestar Galactica.
The public beta is available for FREE! More on Fusion 8 over at No Film School.
2. The Future for Adobe
Adobe’s Sr. Director of Product Management for Video, Bill Roberts, gave an interview to Video & Filmmaker about the future of Adobe. You’ll see how Adobe discovered that filmmakers use Creative Cloud more than any other industry users.
We found that video professionals are the most voracious users of Creative Cloud, using more tools and services across a range of disciplines to complete their work. For example, it’s not uncommon to have a logo from Illustrator CC and image from Photoshop CC combined in an After Effects CC comp and dynamically linked to a Premiere Pro timeline.
You can read the entire interview over at Video & Filmmaker.
3. Why CG Sucks (Except It Doesn’t)
One of the most popular videos shared this past month came from RocketJump Film School. Freddy Wong and crew tackled the always controversial use of CG in films.
4. Columbia Pictures Takes Down Unrelated Videos, and Their Own Trailer, With a Bogus DMCA Claim
Vimeo received DMCA notices on behalf of Columbia by Entura International for the film Pixels. The filing was incredibly broad, including any use of the term “Pixels” in the title. Unrelated films like Pantone Pixels were taken down, as well as the original short film, Pixels, the movie is based on. The claims have since been rescinded, but it did open a huge debate on DMCA practices. The DMCA notice also had the films own trailer removed. You can read more about this mess at Geek.
5. SmallHD 500 Series Causes Problems With Digital Bolex D16
Digital Bolex has announced multiple reports of D16 users experiencing problems with SmallHD 501 and 502 monitors. The monitors were causing the internal SSD to dismount or freeze, which caused problems with recording and playback.
The issue was tied to a new data standard in the HDMI signal. The D16 did not recognize the signal, and a firmware patch will be released on 8/31/15. Read more about the issue at No Film School.
6. 10 Astounding VFX Innovations from ILM
A look at the incredible VFX work of Industrial Light and Magic. This breakdown includes effects like building virtual cities and creating movie monsters. Be sure to watch the behind the scenes look at the ILM Virtual Reality Lab, where they are pushing the boundaries of VR filmmaking. They’ve even used the technology to create pre-production sets for Star Wars: Rogue One. Read about the 10 innovations at RocketStock. Speaking of Star Wars…
7. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Will Take Over Every Imax for a Month
Image via We Got This Covered
For four weeks, all IMAX theaters will only play Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. The exclusive deal will keep cinema goers from seeing The Revenant and In the Heart of the Sea on IMAX until January 2016. You can read more from The Hollywood Reporter.
8. Netflix Users Avoid 130 Hours of Commercials a Year
By calculating the streaming time on Netflix and average time ads are aired, it was determined that Netflix saves subscribers from 130 hours of advertisements a year. This was determined by factoring the average streaming time of 1.5 hours on Netflix and the average hour of television, which includes 15 minutes and 30 seconds of ads. Read more about this at Exstreamist.
9. You Can Buy Shotgun Shells Marketed for Shooting Down Drones
The company Snake River Shooting Products has announced a line of shotgun shells that are advertised specifically for shooting drones out of the sky. The rounds are 12 gauge 3″ shotgun shells, which are obviously just standard shells packaged for drone warfare in the impeding “drone apocalypse.” More information is available from Pop Photo.
Any other major stories we failed to mention? Let us know in the comments below.
