"The Commuter" - A Short Film Shot Entirely With Nokia N8 Smartphone

From Mashable.com:

The Commuter is a nifty little action-packed film, directed by the McHenry brothers, and starring Dev Patel, Pamela Anderson, Charles Dance and Ed Westwick. Its distinguishing feature, however, is the fact that it was shot entirely with Nokia’s new flagship smartphone, the Nokia N8.

What do you think? Does this represent a sea-change in the way digital shorts will be created? Or just another phone company gimmick? Either way, this phone is coming to the U.S. very soon.

Also check out the Nokia N8 page on Vimeo and the Nokia N8 page on YouTube.

48 Hour Inter-School Film Challenge

Professor Gregg Elder at Grand Canyon University's Film School (and also an adjunct professor at UAT) has launched an Inter-School 48 Hour Film Challenge November 13th through 15th. Teams from GCU, Scottsdale Community College, and ASU will be competing, and we need UAT to be represented!

If you're interested in being part of Team UAT in this first-ever Valley-wide film school cage match, email Professor Paul DeNigris at pdenigri@uat.edu ASAP!

Build a Hackintosh

Want to edit in Final Cut Pro but don't want to pay Apple's prices for a new Mac? Well, here's what you've been waiting for -

"How to Build a Hackintosh"

Filmmaker and blogger "Koo" of the NoFilmSchool website has documented step-by-step instructions for anyone who wants to build their own Mac clone with better performance, for half the price!

Seems like a no-brainer for the average UAT student!

"Fallout" Garners Positive Review at International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival

Film reviewer Hal Astell of the "Apocalypse Later" film blog begins his review of UAT Digital Video's short film "Fallout" with these words:

Perhaps the most fascinating short film at this year's IHSFF from the perspective of a budding filmmaker...

A stellar start to a great review! Read it all on Hal's blog.

DP Shane Hurlburt Explains His HDSLR Shooting Protocol

For all of you venturing into making films using the Canon 5D Mark II or 7D or similar HD-enabled DSLR cameras, this invaluable video comes courtesy of Director of Photography Shane Hurlburt (DP of Terminator Salvation among many other films).

Color Correction in Media Composer – The Complete Guide

Christian Forster over at the Avid Screencast has produced a great series of short videos about the entire color correction process in Avid Media Composer. Definitely worth a look for the intermediate to advanced Avid student!

Here's the first video, "Laying the Groundwork."




The rest of the topics can be found here.

Manipulating Contrast
Manipulating Color Balance with Curves
Manipulating Color Balance with Color Wheels
Matching Two Shots Part I
Matching Two Shots Part II
Vignettes and Wrap-Up
Secondary Color Correction with BCC and Spectramatte
Advanced Secondary Color Correction with Garbage Matte

You can also subscribe to the Avid Screencast in iTunes.

Inspiration: Whatever Lola Wants

Here's a great example of visionary low-budget visual effects filmmaking - "Whatever Lola Wants" by Dan Blank.



Dan has also posted an excellent "Making of" video that examines his methodology for every shot.



Photographer / DP / filmmaker / blogger Vincent Laforet also uses Dan's work as an example to discuss the "production triangle" - best summed up with phrase "Fast. Cheap. Good. Pick two."