You want slow motion for your movies? Try Twixtor.

One of the reason why I bought the Canon T2i was its ability to capture frame by frame images while in video mode. When shooting in 60fps it is possible to give that cinematic slow motion movement that major motion picture do when you brought the footage to the in the editing process . Its a cool efx and makes movie moments more dramatic. Back when I was in film school, in my Full Sail days, it was a young filmmakers wet dream to do a scene in slow motion and make it look cool. Back when I was shooting with min DV tapes, this effect was hard in post and would look choppy. Tapes just didn't work for slow motion. It seemed the only way get slow motion was to shoot on film but thanks to DSLR Revolution that no longer the case...Or so I thought.
I have recently shot a wedding in which I decided to shoot moments in slow motion. I hadn't tried it before but had read about the how to shoot it and how edit it in post. Seemed simple I thought. Just shoot the footage in 60fps and bring it into 1080p sequence then change the the speed of the footage. Simple.
When I brought the wedding footing into Final Cut Pro 7 and brought the speed down, I notice the footage was still choppy.
"Damn it" I thought. "What the hell did I do wrong?" Turns out that nothing was wrong, I just needed Twixtor. I guess Final Cut just dosent cut it when it come to slow motion.
Twixtor was made by Revisionfx and is one of many plug-ins that they offer for Final Cut, Adobe,After Effects and Avid.
Twixtor is much more accurate for slow motion to see everything in detail and not choppy or rough blend of images.
I tried the demo that Revisionfx offered and it worked great. The real plug-in is quite pricey tho, for the "regular" vision its $329.95 and for the "Pro" for $595.00. I havent had the chance to fool around with the "Pro" demo vision but the "regular" is great. Still it will cost you an arm and a leg but its worth it.

Re-Vamp my Webstie: iWeb/ Adobe Photoshop

Great news, finally got my new look for my website. I made the site with IWeb and Adobe Photoshop and thanks to godaddy.com,I've got a domain name. Vid Production Group's website has only been around for about a year since I officially made it, the company, into an LLC. I think the look is better then my pervious "Dark purple" site but it still has a long way to go before its how Id really would like it to be. Cooler, slicker and with animation. Unfortunately I dont have Adobe Flash to create these buttons to be more interactive or some graphic effects that could capture more attention. But whatever..the point is that Im looking a lot more professional and Im slowly growing better in creating these site for my business. Check out the page here.

Photos made it to NBC news

Hey great news!!! My pictures got publish with an article of Flying Colors Apparel on NBC.com. So happy the clothing line is get so much popularity. If you want to see the article just click on this link.There has been talk about doing a commercial in the near future where I will be the cinematographer and my friend, Alex Alvarez, will be the director. Ideas are still being thrown around so I'll let you know when thats happen.

Dots on my DSLR sensor...WTF

I just got a an adaptor for my FD 50mm lens to be mounted on Canon T2i. After taking accouple of photos I noticed dot on my images. Check the lens an found everything to be clean. I check the sensor with in the camera and saw two specks of dust on it. Before I did anything drastic, I googled up some suggestions on how to clean the sensor. So far, I've tried blowing of the dust with a rubber air hand pump. That didn't work. I took some time to do some more research and came across a blog that suggested a Len Pen to clean out the sensor, so I went and bought one at a camera store. It cost me $20 bucks but it didn't work.
The dots were still there and I was getting desperate. I called a fix shop in Hollywood FL to help me out. I've been to the Camera Clinic before and they were extremely helpful. I call them and told them what was up with my DSLR sensor. They said they can fix it but it would cost me about $60 bucks. Damn it, I thought, how am I going to deal with this every time I open my camera to change the lens if this is gonna happen every time. There has got to be a least expensive way to fix my sensor and so I went back to the web to read for solution. What I found was these Sensor Swabs . Now this thing is inexpensive and works 99% of the time. I checked reviews on the Sensor Swab before I purchase and everyone said that this is the number one thing to use when nothing eles works to fix the sensor. Here is a youtube video about it how it works. Its comes with plastic swabs, lens cleaners and a bottle of liquid cleaner. One thing to know about this pack I got, If you are a 550/T2i owner like me, you will find that the plastic swab does not fit inside the camera sensor, or at least the pack I bought. I had to remove the sheet cleaner wrapped around the swab and cut the sides of the swab to make it fit inside. I recommend to do this in a dust free environment. Also there might be an issue traveling with this Sensor Swab's cleaning liquid. The bottle is filled methanol, which is an explosive liquid. There is however a better liquid cleaner that is natural and drys really fast. Here is a video on the comparison of different brands on this link. I hope this info help you out if you have this problem.

New Flyer for Photos and Demo Reels

Hey everyone, got a new ad out today. Since Im doing more photography now with my DSLR , I wanted to expand and offer actors and models, video and photography work to promote their skills and talent. I offer an affordable price for both media since Im still just getting in the the field of photography. I hope this will give me a chance to get to know more talent in my area and maybe use their talent for upcoming projects I plan on doing. Here are my prices: $75 an hour for a 3 outfit photo shoot with CD. $150 for a 5-10min monolog and DVD. If interested and live in South Florida area contact me today.

Its been a minute...NEW T2i camera and photo shoot with FLYING COLORS

So yeah, Ive been kinda slacking on the whole blog thing do to just plan work....Alot has happen since then. I got a chance to be briefly on a set of this independent comedy shot on the Canon 7D. The picture, entitled "Well done" was being filmed with a DSLR photography camera. This was my first time seeing one of these revolutionary cameras in action and I was there to witness its processess. I was working with sound man and friend Alex Alvarez and was working as a boom operator. I notice the speed of light set ups and shoot was quite fast and did not take forever to do. The DSLR were great for low leve light and so the amount of lights were very small. Alot of LED lights were used in the production as well as a small ARRIs light kit. I was only there for the first day and last day of shooting and saw that toward the end of the production the director end up substituting for the cinematographer and used the Canon T2i.
Personally, I saw the future of what an independent set might look like. Small. Fast. The DSLR revolution is there.
SOOO I HAD TO GET ONE!!! LOL Bought me the Canon T2i. I love the camera, its so different from my old Rebel XT. The screen was huge and was great to see what I was shooting on video mode and adjusting the exposure. Very good camera. I tested on a photo shoot with Flying Colors Apparel http://www.facebook.com/flyingcolorsapparel?ref=ts and had great results. Here is some photos.

SOME PHOTOS FROM THE SHOOT