Neat Video Plugin

You may remember our episode in April when our Canon XHA1 had a tragic accident right before shooting our friends wedding in Trinidad. We dashed around the island and found an HD HF100 to use as a backup to the Canon Vixia. In general we were happy with the performance of both cameras considering the unique situation. But there were some definite areas, where we felt the pinch of missing our Canon XHA1. Particularly during the low-lit reception. It was held outside on private property that was beautiful but for shooting purposes, very dark. There was very little artificial light setup throughout the venue. The XHA1 is very good in picking up decent footage in lowlight, but the Vixia and more so the HF100 were not as adept. We had two lights on our cameras but some footage was still very dark and grainy.

When we first looked at the footage I knew something had to be done. There was a lot of grain and noise during the reception, and I could actually see the offending channels distorting the picture. At first I tried to fix it on my own using the RGB color balance in FCP, but that didn't work very good. There are lots of tutorials on youtube to lower grain and noise, and frankly I tried them all with little success.

Then I came across a website promoting a grain and noise reducer plugin called Neat Video for sale for $99. At first, being the cheapo I am, I was skeptical about spending 100 bucks on a plugin I couldn't be sure of. There were video tests on youtube that showed some improvement when the plugin was applied, but not enough to be thoroughly convincing. But after several days of trying to make the footage presentable on my own, I decided to stop wasting time and just buy the neat video plugin.

Boy was I glad I did! This plug-in is AMAZING! I am not exaggerating. It did miracles with footage I thought was hopeless. I've made a little video above where you can see the difference it made. Keep in mind I am still learning how to use this plugin, but off the bat it makes cleaning up dark or grainy footage a lot easier. I would definitely recommend this product. OK, enough plugging of the plug-in (Gong!), and off to bed!

Latest work...

Here is our commercial we produced for the San Diego Music Awards.

Its been a productive summer, check back for more of videos.

Recent Work

We have been pretty busy over the past couple of months...with a designation wedding project in Trinidad and Tobago, covering Comic Con, and producing commercial spots for The North Park Music Thing and The San Diego Music Awards, writing some screenplays, and finally working to complete God with a Gun. We are looking forward to the rest of the year...

Giselle Leotaud and Matthew Fribourg Wedding from el roberto on Vimeo.

And as promised....we will finally post about our Comic Con experience this week..

Its Tuesday and we longing for the weekend....

It usually starts happening Sunday night....I get butterflies in my stomach and slightly depressed as soon the reality of the situation hits me....the weekend is over and we have to make it till Friday. Anyway tomorrow is Wednesday so we are almost there. Here is the latest record club Beck collaboration. Enjoy.

Record Club: Yanni "Within Attraction" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Anything with Danny Boyle's name stamped on it is probably going to be solid....checkout the trailer below.

35mm adaptors and Jag35

New discovery today! There are still some options for non-wealthy filmmakers out there! I've been slobbering lasciviously over the Letus 35mm Pro for a couple of years now, but can't bring myself to fork over the giant piles of money necessary for the most basic of Letus adaptors. Then today, while perusing youtube for videos Canon Xha1 with 35mm lens adaptors, I came across the Jag35 site. This is a company that builds affordable 35mm lens adaptors for consumer to prosumer video cameras. First off, this company is awesome because they make tutorials showing you how to build your own 35mm lens adaptor, and secondly there 35mm adaptors not only tend to cost less than $500, but they are a very decent quality. Check out the video above. The entire setup (camera included) cost $1200. I for one am sold. We'll definitely be looking into purchasing one of these.

Real or Fake

Who knows but according to the media, it makes for interesting theatre. Over the past couple of years the media has followed Joaquin Phoenix as he has spiraled into a bloated drunken mess and we the viewer have watched it all unfold. Is it real? Or was it some sort of method acting hoax pulled on everyone. You be the judge....

And here is an exhaustive mini "documentary" that shows you nearly every video game console ever built. Enjoy!

The Insane Console History Video 2.0 from Elder-Geek on Vimeo.

Coming Soon...

Monsters

The Social Network

A Woman A Gun and a Noodle Shop