You are here

New Photoshop features get demoed, drooled over

Adobe has released a video showing one of its new features, the “Content Aware Fill” tool. Similar to the Healing Brush tool, Content Aware allows users to paint over parts of an image to a point that they appear to have never existed at all. The video above shows this impressive new feature in a variety of common uses, but the most impressive one is hands-down the last one, in which the user fills in the missing parts of a photograph from absolute nothingness. The Content Aware tool is billed…

Read More

Toronto’s own Enviroman wants Laurie David to curb his something-asm.

Could local comedian and writer Josh Rachlis be the next Jon Lajoie? In this video we see Josh’s alter-ego Enviroman put his balls on the interwebs in the hopes of landing an engagement kiss date free dinner with former Larry David spouse and Inconvenient Truth producer Laurie David. Apparently, being an environmentalist pays a lot better than being a regular everyday normal guy, if the production value in the video is any indication. Check out Josh’s other videos on his YouTube page here. .

Read More

Raindance Canada One Night Stands 2009

As the title suggests, Raindance Canada has a new series of course for the film maker in you. Our own Dave Lei has attended many Raindance events in the past, and can’t speak highly enough of them. Short, Sharp Essential Classes for Filmmakers – a great way to start your filmmaking year! Raindance Canada is offering a unique series of Wednesday evening classes beginning January 28th – February 25th as part of the Filmmakers Foundation Certificate Series, an investment of only $39.99 + GST in your film future!

Read More

Ralph Bakshi: Tips on Surviving In Tough Times

Are you a creative struggling to stay afloat in harsh economic times? The guys over at Fanboy have posted a very interesting article that might appeal to you. In it, Ralph Bakshi, director of (what is potentially my favourite animated film of all time) Fritz the Cat and the grossly underrated Cool World, talks Lee Adama-style about seeing this situation as not a tragedy but an opportunity to seek out strange, new worlds. (Yes, I’m mixing my metaphors.) Essentially, his core message is, “If the industry isn’t working for you,…

Read More

Low Tech Rules: Stop-Mo Animation all the rage again

StopMo animation is enjoying a ranaissance of sorts, it would seem. First there’s the absolutely brilliant MUTO by BLU, then the “Box” ad for Audi. And of course, there’s the ever tasty Robot Chicken. Today, I was introduced to a video that pre-dates any of the above; the video for Sia’s “breathe me”, which can’t be called anything but art. I’m not gonna lie here…I think I might have wept a little bit.* Check out how her lips actually sync to the music. If that’s all in-camera…damn. However, the calibre…

Read More

North America’s FIRST VIRGIN RADIO STATION Comes to Toronto.

We’re the home of the first North American Hard Rock Cafe.Now we’re the home of the first Virgin Radio Station.As of August 25, 2008, Toronto’s old stalwart music station “Mix 99.9” has officially been renamed “Virgin Radio 99.9 FM“.There will be no format change, and the station will continue with its current playlist of adult contemporary and easy listening tunes.The announcement was made on Monday August 25 in the morning, and the changeover happened that same day around 4:00 PM.This represents the very first Virgin radio station in North America.

Read More

Warning about RED Beta Build 16 for the RED Digital Cinema Camera

For those of you who use the REDONE Digital Cinema Camera, RED’s recent Beta release of their camera firmware, Beta Build 16, is a major release of the core components.  For those of you currently shooting under Build 15, DO NOT INSTALL BETA BUILD 16 until you have completely finished shooting and ingesting your footage for your project!  As of Build 16, ALL DIGITAL MEDIA CARDS formatted under Build 15 and earlier will NOT BE COMPATIBLE with the REDONE CAMERA and will need to be reformatted under the Build 16…

Read More

Wall-E Production Notes

Pixar’s new movie Wall-E is just the latest in a long line of hits, both financially and critically, for the animation studio.  It also marks the first time Pixar has used live action actors in a film.  Even though the live action element is only a small amount of screen time, including real actors means a certain expectation when it comes to the look of the film. CG Society presents their latest set of “Production Notes”, in which many of the principles in the design of Wall-E discuss the process…

Read More

RED Announces New Cameras & Accessories

RED, the makers of the hard to come by, 4K digital camera RED ONE, have made a number of new product announcements at the latest NAB show. The first big announcement is of their mini version of the ONE, dubbed the Scarlet,  which shoots 3K footage to dual Compact Flash cards, at the cost of about $1000 per K (or $3000).  If you’ve been drooling over the ONE, but found the $17,500 price tag a bit steep, the Scarlet might be the next best thing to sliced bread, until you…

Read More

on the (un)importance of technology

ED NOTE: this article originally appeared on The Laroquod Experiment website. You can find examples of Paul’s work and commentary there. Welcome aboard! As the demo clips previously posted further down this page reveal, I was originally trained to shoot on film. But most anything I do these days is on Digital Video. What technical enhancements do I use to disguise or compensate for this? (There are a lot out there that claim to do just that.) Is unadorned DV really worthy of capturing quality work? I’ve heard independent filmmakers…

Read More