May 6, 2018

The best VR apps for gaming and more

Virtual reality isn’t all about gaming. Swim with turtles, paint in 3D, and immerse yourself in some of the most unique experiences the platform has to offer, with our curated list of the best VR apps.

The post The best VR apps for gaming and more appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source: Digital Trends VR

May 6, 2018

7 ways we’ll interact with computers in the future

Put down your mouse! Here are seven of the ways we’ll interact with computers in the decades to come. From voice control to brain interfaces, get ready to meet the future of interfaces.

The post 7 ways we’ll interact with computers in the future appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source: Digital Trends VR

May 6, 2018

This Is What Happens When You Put a 140-Year-Old Lens on a 5K RED Scarlet-W

The stunning beauty of combining high-tech imaging with vintage optics…

Every time the Weird Lens Maestro, Mathieu Stern, tinkers around with weird lenses, we’re always impressed by the beautiful images he manages to capture. This time, though, he has taken his experimentation and our eyebrows to another level with his latest test. In this video, Stern takes a 140-year-old lens, which is 10 years older than the Eiffel Tower, and mounts it onto a RED Scarlet-W with a DRAGON 5K brain. What resulted were some test shots that totally knocked our socks off, and we’re fairly certain that, after watching it, you’re going to be sockless, too. Check out the video below:

Beautiful! Stern tested a few different aspects of the lens/camera combo, including the lens’ macro ability, it’s stunning, soft bokeh, and its low-light capabilities, as well. Here’s what Stern had to say about the test:

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Source: NoFilmSchool

May 6, 2018

Lav Like a Pro: Here Are a Few Basic Tips for Using a Lavalier Mic

Lav mics are a great tool for recording decent dialogue. Here’s how to use them.

Lavalier microphones, or “lavs” as the cool kids call them, are an essential piece of sound equipment in filmmaking. When booms would be distracting or visible in the shot, lavs not only let you get a mic nice and close to your subject’s mouth but they also allow your subject to go pretty much anywhere they want without requiring a boom operator to follow closely behind.

So, how do you use these things? This video from Creative North shares a handful of helpful tips on how to mount and hide lavs, as well as how to cut down on noise when your subject moves around. Check it out below.

There are several obstacles that can make mic-ing your subject with a lav a little tricky, but here are some tips that might help you out:

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Source: NoFilmSchool

May 5, 2018

3 Ways to Capture Audio in a Long Shot Without Your Boom Making a Cameo

I don’t care whose kid that boom mic is! They’re not getting in the picture.

Despite having a cool name like Fonzie, boom mics are not as cool and confident as the ol’ greaser. They’re shy and timid and don’t like to be on camera (at least not in a way that is detectable before you’re in post). Luckily, booms are pretty easy to hide just beyond the frame most of the time, but what if you want to record dialogue during a wide shot? What the hell do you do then? Unless you’re prepared to dress your boom operator up as a human-shaped bush, you’ll want to learn some clever tricks for getting that boom mic out of the shot, and the team over at The Film Look has a few really good ones on deck in the video below:

When it comes to mic-ing your subject for dialogue, the name of the game is “get as close as possible without being in the frame.” That’s pretty easy most of the time if you’re shooting tight shots, but if you’re shooting a wide, that’s when it gets a little hairy.

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Source: NoFilmSchool

May 5, 2018

Watch: How to Gussy Up Grainy Footage in Adobe After Effects

Is your footage grainy and not in a cool 1960s vintage hipster kind of way? There’s a way to reduce it in post.

So, you’ve got some grainy footage on your hands, huh? We’ve all been there. Whether we didn’t (or couldn’t) use enough lighting during our shoot or cranked our ISO a little too high, the fact of the matter is once it’s shot, it’s shot. Unless you’re lucky enough to score a reshoot, you’re going to have to figure out a way to reduce the noise in your footage, otherwise, you’ve got a big, muddy bowl of slop on your hands.

In this tutorial, Shutterstock’s Robbie Janney shows you how to significantly improve your grainy footage in seconds using Adobe’s video tools in After Effects. Check it out below:

If you’re familiar with working with grainy footage in After Effects, chances are you’ve used the Remove Grain tool before. It’s super fast and relatively easy. It works by sampling and then analyzing the grain to effectively remove it from the rest of the footage.

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Source: NoFilmSchool

May 4, 2018

Watch: BTS with the Skeleton Crew of David Lowery’s ‘A Ghost Story’

A new video shows intimate moments from the set of David Lowery’s ‘A Ghost Story.’

When we spoke to David Lowery about his transcendent A Ghost Story last summer, the director told us that he almost quit halfway through. “There was a point in production where I lost all my confidence,” he said, “and I thought it was too high-concept to succeed.”

Lowery’s primary concern was the viability of the ghost costume on camera. “To make [the ghost] costume work in three dimensions was a feat of mechanical engineering,” he said. “I was consistently sick to my stomach thinking that it would not work. In my mind, it worked beautifully, but on set and in all practical senses, it was very much a work in progress for the first week or two of shooting. We were constantly refining the costume and the way in which we had to photograph the costume, and the way in which Casey [Affleck] had to act while wearing it.”

But the crew convinced Lowery to stick with it. They were a particularly supportive bunch—after all, the skeleton crew was comprised of Lowery’s friends.

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Source: NoFilmSchool

May 4, 2018

SXSWfm 2018 Showcasing Artist Interview: Vista Kicks

During the week of SXSW, SXSWfm was given the opportunity to interview the California rock band, Vista Kicks. Sitting outside of Waller Ballroom, Nolan, Trevor, Derek, and Sam talked about the unique name of their recent album, Booty Shakers Ball, musical influences from the past, and their favorite aspects of touring. Read an excerpt of the interview below, and listen to it in full on our Mixcloud..

Listen to SXSWfm Interview with Vista Kicks

Vista Kicks Interview Highlights

How many times in total have you played at SXSW?

Sam: Zero. Well, actually one now!

Derek: To answer your question, we have played zero times.

Sam: No, we’ve played one now since this will be post SX.

Why was it important to come to SX?

Sam: This is like the coolest thing in America right now, that’s why. It’s amazing.

Trevor: Because, you get to see really cool bands – great new bands – that are full of energy and ready to play music for the people.

Derek: And you meet so many people. And you get reunited with so many people. We are from LA and SO many people that we’ve run into during the course of our existence in LA all show up here in this magical week. It’s great.

Let’s start at the beginning, so our listeners can know. How did you guys meet? How did you guys come together?

Sam: We grew up together – we went to grade school together. Nolan and Derek’s family are friends. Derek and I played T-ball. Trevor, Nolan, and I all met in band. We grew up in a once small town, now actually getting pretty big – Roseville, California. We are just really lucky that we all got into music around the same time, and all stayed friends.

You translate [the 60’s, 70’s vibe] well into your music – that classic rock & roll that was so prevalent back then. How did you guys decide on that because I read you guys used to make jazz music?

Derek: Well, we decided we needed to update a little bit because we started in the 50’s just doing Sinatra covers, and Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, and all that stuff in high school. And we were like, that’s so old – let’s scoot it up a little bit!

Trevor: That’s another thing too, we aren’t trying to be the 60’s or 70’s, or trying to just make that music that was made then. We are just inspired by it. We kind of just take influence from it and then try and make whatever comes to us naturally.

Derek: It’s sort of subconscious because a lot of the songs are very different on our records, and we just made another record, and you’ll hear Hank Williams inspiration, you’ll hear Dr. Dre a little bit. You’ll hear everything across the board because we just love music. We love good songs and that’s our goal.

The latest record you dropped, I just need to know, what’s the meaning behind the name [Booty Shakers Ball]?

Trevor: I had a guy tell me once, “You know, Booty Shakers Ball reminds me of a goodie bag – you just reach in and you never know what you’re going to get and what you’re going to pull out.” And I was like, that is so real. So that is kind of like why we named it Booty Shakers Ball. We had just this jambalaya – it was just a bunch of different spices and it was made of a bunch different things. Sam was like, “Booty Shakers Ball is cool. We are booty shaking rock & roll.”

Sam: Derek’s brother had always told us that we should make – when we were playing jazz music, he was like “you guys should make booty shaking rock & roll.”…And then after our first couple singles once we started really sharpening our sound and what we wanted to do, we kind of realized, damn, we’re booty shaking rock & roll now. And like a lot of artists, they try to put themselves in a box. They try to create a single flavor. They try to be a single shaded color for their first works. But for us, we just wanted to embrace the influences and the differences because in this band, we don’t have just one guy and the rest. It’s really everybody, so we embrace all of the corners of what Vista Kicks is – and that is Booty Shakers Ball. Its not one thing, it’s many things, and the name reflects that – its just a big party of sounds.

What’s next for y’all? We can talk about the album that you are recording.

Sam: It’s done. It’s done being recorded. It’s in the mixing and mastering stages right now by our same good friend Jo Napolatino…It’s a little bit more serious of a record than booty shakers ball. it deals with a lot of, like Derek said, a lot of the strife that comes along with being a young adult trying to make it in the big cold world, and it deals with a lot of problems that you have to over come and face. so it’s definitely a more serious record… This one has a lot of blues, country, and hip hop roots. It still sounds like the same band though. Still the same four dudes.

Tune in to hear the full interview with Vista Kicks below.

Listen to SXSWfm Interview with Vista Kicks

2018 Showcasing Artist, Vista Kicks – Photo by Carina Torres

The post SXSWfm 2018 Showcasing Artist Interview: Vista Kicks appeared first on SXSW.

Source: SxSW Music