Reflections on Romania

A while ago I made a list of things I have done in the service of filmmaking. Add being stranded in Romania by a Icelandic volcano to that list. Last week I traveled to Bucharest to attend the NexT International Film Festival to represent AUS.LAUF.

I have been to Romania before, and it became one of my favorite places to which I have traveled. This trip only further cemented my opinion. Rather than wax poetic about why like like Romania so much, here are a random list of words that I associate with the country and more specifically, Bucharest:

Soup, books, cubical, chaotic, humor, antique, dogs, deserted, vibrant, cheap booze, 35mm, cables, serpentine, hopeful, history, meat, enigmatic, individual, philosophy, inviting, good coffee...
The NexT festival was great. Everyone involved was very kind and everything was well organized. It was very interesting to see AUS.LAUF with a big audience for the first time. The response was quite good. I really enjoyed meeting the all of the people involved. Romania has an excellent growing film community.

After a few days in Romania I heard that I would be prevented from flying home by a volcano. Also, on the same day, someone dyed all of the fountains blood-red. If a plague of frogs had come by, I would have thought it was the apocalypse. I traveled home by train instead.

Pocket Cam: Scenes from Berlin


I am stretching the definition of "pocket" a bit with this video since it was shot with my 550d. However, the camera is still relatively small and portable. Also, if I have my 550d with me I won't be carrying my Mino or make the choice to film with the iPhone. Pocket Cam is more about capturing the unique scenes as they happen and not the size of the camera.

Related Posts:
Pocket Cam: Scenes from Paris
Pocket Cam: The Music Box
Pocket Cam: The Cowboy and the Bull 

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Very Unscientific Canon 550d Tests

I haven't bought a video camera in a very long time. The main reason for this is that I believe that every camera on the market is either too expensive or has too many drawbacks. However, two weeks ago I bought a Canon 550d which is the first camera that meets my price-perfomance requirements. I was close to buying a Canon 7D a few months ago but decided not to. The camera's shortcomings (line-skipping sensor, h.264 codec) didn't justify the price to me. Shortly after I decided not to get the 7D, Canon announced the 550d (known as the Rebel T2i in the US) which made me incredibly glad I didn't make that purchase.  The video functionality on the 550d is virtually identical to that of the 7D. The only notable differences are the lack of 1/3rd stop ISO settings, white balance fine-tuning in Kelvin, and HD external video output while recoding. The other differences between the cameras are purely build quality and photo shooting speed -- neither which I care about too much. The other big difference: the 550d costs half as much as the 7D.

I haven't had the chance to use the camera on any legitimate projects yet, however I have made some very unscientific tests:
 
Download High-Bitrate 1080p h.264(307MB)

The main purpose of these tests was to investigate overall image quality and to see how the camera looked with varying depth of field. The lighting is clearly not constant at all (I had no real cinema lights handy in my apartment at 1am), but Spock's face should be consistently exposed throughout. All of the tests were shot using a Canon 50mm f1.8, some of the other random footage was shot using a Manual Nikon 24mm f2 or the Canon 17-55 f2.8 IS. I recorded at 1080p 25.

I think the camera performs quite well. The noise (even at ISO 1600). though noticeable, isn't really distracting. One problem I noticed and was expecting is in the last test clip where I rack focus. There is some shimmery aliasing on the card in the background. This must be an artifact of the line-skipping sensor.

Any questions?

Ad Hoc = Andre Hochuli + Linda Suter


iPhone-Friendly Youtube Version

Ad Hoc is a duo from Winterthur comprised of Andre Hochuli (Guitar, Vocals) and Linda Suter (Violin, Vocals). On Tuesday February 23 they performed the song Futile Crush which has become the third in the Niederdorf Music Video series I am creating for Cafe Henrici. The location was on Spiegelgasse right up the alley from the famous Cabaret Voltaire.

Download:
For iPod/iPhone or Mp3

Related Posts:
Lia Sells Fish
Amir-John Haddad @ Cafe Henrici
The Cabaret Voltaire 

From the Archive: Libra Armor by Jane Lui


iPhone-Friendly Youtube Version

Jane Lui is a musician and good friend of mine. We met many years ago in the San Diego cafe music scene. Back in 2007 we happend to be in London at the same time. Unfortunately our schedules only intersected for two hours. What would be a better use of those two hours other than making a music video? Nothing.

Currently Jane is working on her third studio album and is raising money for it through Pledge Music. Check out some of her music on Youtube. If you are in to it, think about dropping her a donation.

My favorite Youtube videos from Jane:
Duck Tales
Edelweiss
Long Ago

Related Posts from thautomaticfilmmaker:
From the Archive: Freddie Goodtime
Pocket Cam: Tom Brosseau w/ Angela Correa live in Zürich
From the Archive: Tuesday's at Paddy's 

Lia Sells Fish


iPhone-Friendly Youtube Link

Lia Sells Fish is the stage name of singer/songwriter Christine Hasler. She played a show at Cafe Henrici on February 2 with her guitarist Steve Schnider. Before the show, we found a nice secluded spot in the Niederdorf and filmed the video above. The song is called Eve.

Download: for iPod/iPhone Download: Mp3

Related Posts:
Need a Place to Play?
From the Archive: Tuesdays at Paddys
Tom Brosseau is so Punk Rock

Amir-John Haddad @ Cafe Henrici

Amir-John Haddad is a world famous flamenco guitar player who recently played a Moods here in Zürich. I met him through a mutual friend and filmed that show. On his way back to Madrid from Germany he stopped again in Zürich and played an impromptu show at Cafe Henrici which I filmed as well. Here is one piece from that show:

iPhone Friendly Youtube Link

Other Posts of Interest:
TNT @ Cafe Henrici
Need a Place to Play
From the Archive: Freddie Goodtime

TNT @ Cafe Henrici

On Tuesday, January 12 Cafe Henrici hosted the 2nd Tuesday Night Throwdown -- also know as TNT. TNT is a cappuccino art competition where the barista's only tool is a pitcher of milk. All of the designs are made solely while pouring the milk. It's cool stuff. Here is a video I made for them:
 
iPhone-friendly Youtube link 

Related Entries:
Need a Place to Play?
Photo Blog #48
The Cabaret Voltaire