SmartShoot Producer's Blogg

New Data Rate Validation on Upload Page

Our new upload page is now validating data rate on video files. This means you will probably have to increase your data rate encoding settings.

You may have noticed that even with the data rate set to 3000 kbps, it is often variable, and dips belows 3000 kbps, prompting the Upload page to send an error message.

To resolve this, simply change your encoding settings to a higher data rate. We've found that 3500 kbps is pretty reliable, and only increases file size a bit.

 

Outstanding Indian food video

Charles F. shows his talents in this video about a restaurant featuring biryani and other Indian specialties.

DIY Wedding Ring video

Great video by Matt N. about a workshop where you get to craft your own wedding ring.

Badminton anyone?

Here's a nicely produced video by Vanessa M. about some hardcore badminton players.

Site maintenance this Saturday, June 25, 5pm-10pm Pacific Time

We wanted to let you know that our site filmmaker.turnhere.com will be down for some routine maintenance for a few hours this Saturday night. We chose that time because it is one of the lowest periods of usage during the week. 

What this means is that on June 25 from 5pm-10pm Pacific Time you won't have access to log in to your profile, view your dashboard, claim jobs, or upload videos. For those of you with active projects, we'll add more time to your deadlines to make up for this downtime. 

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

 

Final Cut Pro X on Sale Now!

 

FCP X is officially available for download in the Apple App Store; alonside with Compressor 4 and Motion 5. As previously announced Apple has dramatically changed their pricing for these softwares:

FCP X - $299

Compressor 4 - $50

Motion 5 - $50

 

We've read a lot of initial reactions to the changes in Apple's NLE package; if you've got some thoughts shoot us a comment below

Zacuto Shootout 2011 - Ep. 1 Released!

The Great Camera Shootout 2011 ~ Trailer from steve weiss on Vimeo.

 

Big news for all the gearheads out there; Zacuto (fine purveyor of awesome high-quality camera accessories) has just released the 1st episode of their Emmy award-winning Great Camera Shootout series.

For those unfamiliar with the Shootout here's the skinny: Zacuto has gathered pro's from nearly every area of film and video to run the top cameras on the market through some very rigorous tests to give us all a great side-by-side comparison of what the big brands are offering.

The 2010 Shootout focused on the new wave of video-DSLR's but for 2011 Zacuto is comparing the latest single-chip video cameras against traditional film. Here's a rundown of the models you'll see:

• 35mm Kodak 5213 & 5219 Film
• Arri Alexa
• RED ONE M-X
• Weisscam HS-2
• Phantom Flex
• Sony F-35
• Sony F3
• Panasonic AG-AF100
• Canon 5D Mark II
• Canon 7D
• Canon 1D Mark IV
• Nikon D7000

This is one of the best web series' in production and offers up droves of information and insights on these cameras so definitely check it out.

Episode 1 deals exclusively with Dynamic Range and Latitude. Episode 2 and Episode 3 drop in July and August respectively so it will definitely be an exciting summer

 

 

 

New how-to and city guide opportunities

We're continuing to expand the numbers and types of jobs we are able to put into our job marketplace. You may start seeing 2 new types of project -- the how-to video and the city guide video. We're able to offer the how-to video jobs without any geographic restriction. The city guide videos are of course targeted to filmmakers in a given area. These videos are being put into the marketplace in bundles, so you'll be able to produce 5 or more at once. So don't be surprised if you start seeing these projects showing up! To learn more, please click on the guidelines link and watch the examples when you get the job alert.

Also: soon you will be seeing how-to video opportunities from our partner Vook. These projects are known as Video Guides and are usually offered in bundles of 8 videos. Stay tuned for more info on those.

 

thanks!

 

TurnHere Partners with American Express OPEN

 

We're happy to announce TurnHere's new partnership with American Express OPEN. For those not familar OPEN is specifically gear towards Small-Medium Business (SMB) Owners across the U.S.

Through this new partnership TurnHere will be offering video production to thousands of businesses across the country. These videos will be ordered in either Plus and Premium flavors; for more details on these jobs you'll want to check out the specific job details in the TurnHere Marketplace.

These jobs are already showing up so keep your eyes peeled. They'll appear as TurnHere Direct projects under the Account name.

We hope you're as excited as we are about this new opportunity!

Editorial video about a fashion blogger/photographer

Here's a video produced by one of our Brooklyn filmmakers Adam Q. for a Yahoo pilot. The subject takes a photo of herself everyday and posts it online.