Möbius is now out in the wild. The short film is the culmination of the last three months from many talented people. I was fortunate enough to work on this project from script to screen. November 3rd marks the release and it is the official date Canon throws it's hat in the ring of digital cinema. I have been starring at the imagery over the last month from iPod screen all the way to theater projection and I just can't say enough good things about the imagery out of this little camera. 

This was one of the most stressful experiences of my production life but I have to say that now we are done, it has been probably one of the most rewarding. I am very proud of this film and feel fortunate to have worked with many talented people on this project. 

Head over to Vincent Laforet's blog to check out he film and the behind the scenes making of.

Looking forward to all the news from this exciting day!

2010 marked a year of adventure as my girlfriend and I traveled around the world for ten months. We spent the past five years living in San Francisco. I was working in sales and she was working in administration at a culinary school. By all accounts, things were going well yet a sense of complacency had set in. We both longed for an adventure and felt world travel would scratch that itch. We came up with a rough outline of destinations and booked a one-way ticket to get things rolling. Within a few months we had turned our lives upside down. We sold many of our possessions, gave up our apartment, and quit our jobs. 

The Principles of Thai Cookery from Jon Carr on Vimeo.

I spent the last month in Thailand. While in the Bangkok area my girlfriend and I stayed with a Thai celebrity chef. He recently came out with a new cookbook and I put together this short video to plug his book. He was incredibly generous and the book is very well done. If you are interested, it is currently available at b&n.com in the US.

On a technical note, I tried something a little different at the end of this video. Because food is such a big aspect of Thai culture, I took a photo of each meal and incorporated that into a time lapse. It was a little challenging but I ran the photos through Lightroom and then exported a numerical JPEG sequence that could then be imported into After Effects. I played around with the timing and rendered it out for what you see in the final video. I like the effect and it was nice to do something a little different from a standard time lapse. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently traveling around the world and shooting the experience with the 5D Mark 2. I have a travel blog located here, which has taken up the majority of my blogging efforts. I have been on the road for nearly five months traveling throughout Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia.

I was compelled to leave a lot of gear at home due to the long term nature of our trip. While not completely comprehensive, I have put together a list of gear that I feel is essential for such a trip.

1. Kessler Crane Pocket Dolly Travler - Great tool to add some simulated dolly movement to your shots. A little bulky to carry around but it is completely worth it when I break it out. Kessler was great about getting this to me when I was in Australia. They just came out with version 2, which looks even better.
2. Rode Video Mic - Great tool for getting high quality camera audio. The internal mic of the 5D Mark 2 isn't the best and this Rode Mic more than makes up for it. I also have the wind screen called the Dead Cat that comes in handy on windy days. I use this when I don't have time to mic someone up or am just looking for some good quality ambient sound. 
3. Zoom H4N - External recorder I use to capture all of my interview audio. I then sync it up to the video in post using Pluraleyes. Easy to use and the audio is of good quality. 
4. ND Filters - Essential for the 5D to achieve the shallow depth of field. I own a ND 400, which I believe is 10 stops and is wonderful for time lapses. I also have an 8x for all of my lenses which is three stops and they work great.

Malaysia Unmapped from Jon Carr on Vimeo.

We spent three weeks traveling in Malaysia and this is the highlight video from our travels in Kaula Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, and Langkawi. The video is a combination of 5D footage and time lapse video. I used an old 24mm Nikon, 24-70mm L 2.8 canon, 50mm 1.4 canon. I also was able to utilize my Kessler Pocket Dolly and I love the product. Wish I would have been able to get the v2 but purchased a little early. I have a few others in the pipeline including Bali, Australia, and New Zealand and hope to roll them out when I have time to catch up.

Australia from Jon Carr on Vimeo.

Australia was the second stop in my extended travel trip. I spent five weeks covering the East Coast of Australia. I am very happy with the Blue Mountain intro to this video. The clouds have an amazingly surreal quality about them. Almost dreamlike. I shot this over a series of three days during sunrise. The first day was a bust because of exposure issues and I was too busy chatting with other photographers to notice. The next two days I was able to get what is in the video and I am happy with the results. I wish I could have gotten additional locations but just ran out of time. The music is from a very talented Aboriginal artist and I think goes well with the imagery. I will document the gear used in an upcoming article. 

Land of the Big White Cloud from Jon Carr on Vimeo.

The first major stop on my extended trip was New Zealand. I spent 5 weeks covering both the North and South Island. I shot many time lapse clips during the visit. This video highlights some of my favorites. In an upcoming article I will break down the gear I have with me on this trip. I will discuss what I feel are the necessities when working with time lapse and HDSLR shooting but also trying to keep things light and manageable. I plan to have this up in the next few weeks so keep an eye out. In the meantime, tell me what you think about the time lapse video from New Zealand. 

I have been away from the blog for quite awhile and most have my efforts have been dedicated to world travel. I have been on the road for the last three months with stops in Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Bali, and currently in Malaysia. The travel has been exciting and it has allowed me some time to really dial in my workflow with the 5D Mark 2. I have done several time lapse videos at places including the Sydney Opera House, the Patronas Towers, and the 12 Apostles. I am on my way to Thailand and hope to travel for a few more months. I am also shooting the trip highlights with my 5D and have some great footage that I am putting together when I have available time. The working conditions haven’t been the best and I have been crammed in all kinds of positions and locations and have become quite proficient at juggling multiple hard drives and such on my lap heading down the road on a bumpy bus. 

Rolling Shutter Comparison (7D & 5D mkII) from Jon Carr on Vimeo.

 I was able to do one more test last night with the help of my friend Michael from Santiago Filmworks. We tried to keep things a little more consistent. I am still not sure if it is accurate because the final video is on a 29.97 timeline but I also have 30p footage from the 5D mkII mixed with 29.97 7D footage. It seems to play fine but I am sure it would cause some drift issues when syncing footage on a multi-cam shoot. I seem to remember hearing that NeoScene converts the 5D mkII footage to 29.97 when converting to the Cineform codec? I need to look into that.

Side by Side (7D and 5D Mark 2) from Jon Carr on Vimeo.

Neither pretty nor technically accurate, I shot a side by side with the 5D Mark 2 and the 7D tonight at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. It was pretty challenging by myself armed only with a tripod and monopod. I tried to compensate for the 1.6 crop sensor in the first few shots by using a 50mm on the 5D Mark 2 and staying on the wide end of my 24-70mm on the 7D. I hope to do something a little more polished down the road. 

I find the 7D image to be pretty pleasing and not nearly as sharp as the 5D. I think this helps with the moire not being as intense. It is still there but toned down a bit. I think the 5D has more dynamic range and the colors pop a little more. For the most part, they are very close.

Sorry about all of the crooked video, it was a rush job.