by on

The Metropolis never sleeps and Detective Major never tires. From the famous detective series comes the latest installment… “MAJOR METROPOLIS”

Has crime finally found it’s match or is it game over for our gumshoe? Starring Major Schwartz

by on

My son, German, wanted to try his hand at the new iMovie Trailers Package, so here is our 54 second spoof of an Indiana Jones trailer right down to the title… “Illinois Smith”, get it?? Anyway, we fired up the cams and had some fun. Shot it in about 20 minutes, and while iMovie is of course not in the same class as Final Cut, it did a really nice job of making the process easy for those who might be just getting started. The main thing is we had some fun jumping off rocks and running through the woods for no real good reason 🙂

by on

The last video in our shared Adventure West trip. The last 2 minute summary montage turned out especially nice! There are still more episodes to come that follow our second week after everyone went there own way, but this is the Finale for the Foust part of the trip.

by on

Here are the highlights of our cruise to paradise. We visited Key West, Cozumel, Playa Del Carmen, and BEST OF ALL… Xcaret. From Parasailing to under water river swimming it is all here. If you are every planning a trip to Mexico, you MUST consider visiting Xcaret… BEAUTIFUL, check out the video for yourself.

Shot with the GH1 and the GoPro Hd cam

by on

We decided to take our Spring Break at home this year. What fun!! It was a long, fun, and full week… from the Zoo with Liz and Elise, easter egg hunting, fishing, and of course one of the big highlights… MICHELLE came to visit. As always we picked up with Jen’s old roommate right where we left off. Sushi, lounging around the place via golf cart, and then lunch at the Arrington Vineyard. Good times all around!!

by on

There are times we look, but do not see… passing up beauty in a rush to destinations… so, I took the challenge by fellow vimeo member Andrew Garcia and decidied to litererally “stop and smell the roses”. It turns out that mid-winter is not the best time for roses… so, like Andrew, I opted for mile markers instead. I traveled seven miles from my door, stopping at each mile marker to film what I found there. It was a great exercise.

Shooting stats…
– Panasonic Lumix GH1
– Shot in Full Manual mode
– 720 60p HD mode
– Shutter at 125
– ISO 100
– Lenses – Lumix 20mm F1.4 and Canon FD 135mm F2.8
– Filter – Singh Ray Vari-N-Duo Filter… with this filter I was able to dial in my exposure and shoot with a wide open aperture in full sunlight for great shallow depth of field
– Cam support – Manfrotto 536 Tripod w/Manfrotto 501HDV Video Head
– Hoya 77mm rubber collapsable Hood
– Neocine transcode from MTS to MOV (leaving it at 60p)
– Cinema Tools to conform 60p to 23.98
– Cut in FCP on a 23.98 fps sequence
– Music was “Ever After” purchased from royaltyfreemusic.com

by on

I always find myself filming “events” so I figured I would turn my focus on the mundane for a change… just an average Saturday afternoon, but I love the expression and relational moments the lens captured… who knew there was so much emotion in rock collecting 🙂

For the techs…
– Panasonic Lumix GH1
– Shot in Full Manual mode
– 720 60p HD mode
– Shutter at 125
– ISO 100
– Lens – Lumix 20mm 1.4 with Singh Ray Vari-N-Duo Filter… with this filter I was able to dial in my exposure and shoot with a wide open aperture in full sunlight for nice shallow depth of field
– Last shot was the 14-140mm Lumix Kit lens
– Cam Support – Manfrotto 560B Fluid Video Monopod with 234RC Head
– Hoya 77mm rubber collapsable Hood… this caused some of the vignetting, I should have caught that and pulled back the hood a bit more, but kinda like it in some of the shots
– Neocine transcode from MTS to MOV (leaving it at 60p)
– Cinema Tools to conform 60p to 23.98 (preserves beautiful slow motion by basically only changing the meta data to read 23.98)
– Cut in FCP on a 23.98 fps sequence (to get the slowmo clips to regular speed simply changed clip setting to 200%) I left most in slowmo
– Music was “Innocence” purchased from royaltyfreemusic.com

by on

My first outing with the new cameras! Almost 98% motion shots but a handful of still shots thrown in to demonstrate the still image capabilities of the camera too. Here are the stats for those interested in the technical side of things…

– 2 cams both were identical bodies… the Panasonic Lumix GH1
– Shot in Full Manual mode
– 720 60p HD mode
– Shutter at 125
– ISO 100
– Action shot primarily with the 14-140mm Lumix Kit lens
– Macro shots used the Lumix 20mm
– Some Head and Macro shots with the Canon 50mm FD
– Landscape pans on the Manfrotto 536 Tripod w/Manfrotto 501HDV Video Head
– Action shots stabilized on the Manfrotto 560B Fluid Video Monopod with 234RC Head
– The “gun rig” featured around 3:40 is a custom setup using a BARSKA Accu Grip, and a custom cut metal piece to mount the Hoodman H-LPP3 HoodLoupe (with the HEYE30 Hoodeye addon) makes for a great run and gun and better that the Zacuto z-finder (I returned the Z-Finder)
– Neocine transcode from MTS to MOV
– Cut in FCP on a 23.98 fps
– Cropped in Compressor to simulate Cine style 2.55 aspect ratio
– Music was “Transformation” purchased from royaltyfreemusic.com

There are some obvious errors, here and there… and I could have used a small tripod/stabilizer for some of the low macro shots but all in all not bad for a first shoot under EXTREMELY bright and contrast conditions. My VariND filter did not come in until after shooting the footage… that would have made things MUCH better. These cameras are amazing!

Cheers!!
Thaddeus