WHAT YOU WANT
WHERE YOU WANT
THE FILMMAKER’S TOOLKIT
BACKPACK
The Lowepro Orion Trekker II ($61; www.lowepro .com) has a padded compartment for your camcorder and room for other stuff in the top.
LENS FILTERS
A UV filter protects your lens and improves contrast. Keep it on your camcorder at all times, and throw away the lens cap. Opteka makes a three-fi lter kit for $25 (www .opteka.com).
LENS CLEANING CLOTH
Dust is your enemy. The $5 Dust-Off Screen Shammy is your friend.
MICROPHONE BOOM
A boom will help get your microphone closer to the sound. Either tape your mic to a section of PVC pipe, or buy this $55 collapsibleGitzo boom on Amazon.com.
EXTERNAL MICROPHONE
Camcorders often spoil their audio tracks with excessive motor noise. The easy cure? An external microphone.
The Audio-Technica ATR-55 Shotgun Microphone
($56from Amazon.com) is cheap, effective, and can pick up conversations from a hundred feet away.
CAMCORDER
Don’t forget to include its charger, an AV cable, and a FireWire cable.
8.5-INCH CLAMPLAMP WITH FULL-SPECTRUM COMPACTFLUORESCENT BULB
For cheap lighting, buy “natural sunlight” fl uorescent bulbs ($6 apiece) that have a color temperature rating of 5500K, which is close to that of sunlight, and screw theminto clamp-on refl ector lamps ($10 each). Buy several, as they’re not terribly bright, and setyour camcorder’s white balance accordingly.
INDEX CARD STORYBOARDS
3 x 5-inch index cards have almost the same shape as a 16:9 videoscreen. That makes them perfect for pocket storyboarding.A box of 500 costs only $3!
TRIPOD OR MONOPOD
A cheap, lightweight tripod is plenty for a 2-pound camcorder. If a tripod is too bulky, get this onelegged Vanguard monopod ($19 from Amazon.com)
WIDE-ANGLE LENS
Many camcorders’ wide-angle settings are still too narrow. An adapter is a must for wideinterior shots. This lens is included with the Canon Elura 90.
HOMEMADE STEADY-CAM
A homemade steady-cam looks rough, but it costs just $14 andwill give you moving shots that are smooth as silk. See Steadycam.org for construction details.
BLANK MEDIA
Always carry a few spareMiniDV tapes or DVDs.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Technology
IBM aims to cool chips with water
A network of tiny pipes of water could be used to cool next-generation PC chips,IBM
researchers say.
Voluntary code for internet speed
The way broadband speeds are advertised is to be regulated under a voluntary code published by Ofcom.
It wants companies to publish accurate estimates of the maximum connection speeds people can expect before they buy broadband packages.
Some 32 internet providers, covering more than 90% of UK broadband customers, have agreed to the code.
The media regulator also says customer internet satisfaction has fallen in the past year.
Ofcom is also undertaking what it says is the UK's "most authoritative and comprehensive broadband speed survey" to identify broadband performance across the country and its relationship to advertised speeds.
Web users 'fear media intrusion'
Almost 80% of social networking site users would be more careful about the details they put online if they knew the media might use them, a poll says.
The Press Complaints Commission said 89% of the 1,000 people polled wanted guidelines on what the media could use.
And 42% of 16 to 24-year-old who used such websites said they knew someone who had been embarrassed by material which was posted without consent.
The PCC is opening talks on how it should respond to the issue.
'Unprecedented'
The chairman of the PCC, the publishing industry's self-regulating watchdog, Sir Christopher Meyer, said personal information was being put into the public domain on an unprecedented scale and that this had serious ramifications for the regulation of media outlets.
"This clearly has implications for the PCC, which has always had the task of deciding where to draw the boundaries between what newspapers and magazines may legitimately publish and what can rightly be considered private," he said.
"The challenge remains the same for online editorial content, including material taken from social networking sites.
There are wider cultural and other issues going beyond the PCC
Sir Christopher Meyer, PCC
"In the digital age, self-regulation, with its sound principles and speed of operation, has never been more relevant."
The poll, which was conducted for the PCC by Ipsos-Mori, also found that 89% of internet users polled said there should be clear guidelines about what types of information could be used by the media.
They said that this would allow people to complain if the information published about them was wrong or intrusive.
Consent
The poll also found 49% of respondents said it was wrong for the media to use information they had posted on line without asking the consent of the person concerned.
And 58% were fairly or very concerned about the lack of control about how they were depicted on websites.
And of social networking site members, 55% considered whether personal details such as photos might be used by someone else without their consent, before posting them online.
Sir Christopher said the PCC's current code of practice would be able to handle complaints about media outlets using material skimmed from networking sites.
But he added: "There are wider cultural and other issues going beyond the PCC to be debated, which is why we have taken the initiative of conducting the survey."
A network of tiny pipes of water could be used to cool next-generation PC chips,IBM
researchers say.
Voluntary code for internet speed
The way broadband speeds are advertised is to be regulated under a voluntary code published by Ofcom.
It wants companies to publish accurate estimates of the maximum connection speeds people can expect before they buy broadband packages.
Some 32 internet providers, covering more than 90% of UK broadband customers, have agreed to the code.
The media regulator also says customer internet satisfaction has fallen in the past year.
Ofcom is also undertaking what it says is the UK's "most authoritative and comprehensive broadband speed survey" to identify broadband performance across the country and its relationship to advertised speeds.
Web users 'fear media intrusion'
Almost 80% of social networking site users would be more careful about the details they put online if they knew the media might use them, a poll says.
The Press Complaints Commission said 89% of the 1,000 people polled wanted guidelines on what the media could use.
And 42% of 16 to 24-year-old who used such websites said they knew someone who had been embarrassed by material which was posted without consent.
The PCC is opening talks on how it should respond to the issue.
'Unprecedented'
The chairman of the PCC, the publishing industry's self-regulating watchdog, Sir Christopher Meyer, said personal information was being put into the public domain on an unprecedented scale and that this had serious ramifications for the regulation of media outlets.
"This clearly has implications for the PCC, which has always had the task of deciding where to draw the boundaries between what newspapers and magazines may legitimately publish and what can rightly be considered private," he said.
"The challenge remains the same for online editorial content, including material taken from social networking sites.
There are wider cultural and other issues going beyond the PCC
Sir Christopher Meyer, PCC
"In the digital age, self-regulation, with its sound principles and speed of operation, has never been more relevant."
The poll, which was conducted for the PCC by Ipsos-Mori, also found that 89% of internet users polled said there should be clear guidelines about what types of information could be used by the media.
They said that this would allow people to complain if the information published about them was wrong or intrusive.
Consent
The poll also found 49% of respondents said it was wrong for the media to use information they had posted on line without asking the consent of the person concerned.
And 58% were fairly or very concerned about the lack of control about how they were depicted on websites.
And of social networking site members, 55% considered whether personal details such as photos might be used by someone else without their consent, before posting them online.
Sir Christopher said the PCC's current code of practice would be able to handle complaints about media outlets using material skimmed from networking sites.
But he added: "There are wider cultural and other issues going beyond the PCC to be debated, which is why we have taken the initiative of conducting the survey."
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