Reza Productions just posted on Vimeo the full short movie they shot last March with a bare-naked Canon HV30. In my opinion, it’s on the best top-5 of all the HV short films shot so far: it’s color graded well, light and photography is great, it’s cut pretty well, and the director was smart to setup his shots in a way that by zooming-in he would introduce some slight shallow depth of field. Shallow enough to make this short movie to look very “filmic”, as in “movie-like“. I am very impressed by the look he got out of his naked HV30. Download the 1080p HD version here.

This short movie proves that HV’s 1/2.7″ sensor & semi-fast lens are enough in most cases, if you know how to light & shoot properly. From all the gadgets I’ve bought over the last 2.5 years to feed my filmmaking hobby, the 35mm adapter was the most useless one. Except the initial test with it, after it arrived on my doorstep, I never used it to shoot anything. I wasn’t happy with the vignetting, the loss of resolution and stabilization, the bulkiness, the difficulty of actually shooting with it. Instead, I learned how to maximize my camera’s ability to achieve a shallow-enough-for-my-purposes DoF. Even a tiny bit of shallow DoF is enough to get rid of the “video look”. You don’t need massive amounts of it! The latest music video I shot has some pretty shallow DoF at times, and it’s shot with a bare HV20 too. Here are two snapshots from it:

I believe that most of the videographers who bought a 35mm adapter are misguided. Except maybe a handful of HV videos shot with a 35mm adapter on Vimeo (out of about 500 such videos watched so far), the majority are just shaky “tests”. Sure, there are situations that very shallow DoF looks better, but I am personally just not sold on it. There are more important things on a video than blurriness. And I am not willing to lose so much just to get blurriness. In fact, now that I have a 5D MarkII, I will do my best to keep shallow DoF under control.

Last night, the new sci-fi show “V”, had a major dip in the ratings (from 13+ mil in the pilot, to 10.6 mil for the second episode). The only way from here is the bottom, just like any other genre show lately on TV: Dollhouse got canceled today too. FlashForward’s and Heroes’ ratings are a disaster too. Except Lost and BSG, no other genre shows have seen an actual return in their investment in the last few years, and a date for a natural, non-abrupt ending.

So what’s wrong with sci-fi shows? Why are bullshit like NCIS get over 16 million viewers, and genre shows hit rock bottom within few weeks of airing? Here are the reasons why, in my opinion:

1. The writers are buffoons

Except the two main LOST writers, I have been personally disappointed with all other writing teams on TV. None of these people have the vision, drive, and money to create an epic franchise of a show, rather than going to work 9-5, sitting behind a desk, and simply rehash whatever we’ve already seen on TV the last 60 years.

Add to that their scientifically weak plots, which drives the younger generations (who actually gone to college and they know that there’s no sound in space) away. Sci-Fi has to be “hard sci-fi” in this day and age. Having Flash Gordon-type bullshit doesn’t work anymore.

I think that the networks need to employ young writers. Just like Damon Lindelof was inspired by Twin Peaks and brought LOST a step further at 31 years old, the networks should find new writers, who have been inspired from *recent* shows, like LOST, and then try to innovate and bring their own shows one step further.

In other words, sci-fi writing must have innovation in the story telling method and plot, backed with hard sci-fi. And it has to be epic. Complex stories with many characters involved. Small stories about a small group of characters that no one cares about when there are bigger fish to fry (just like in V), just won’t work anymore.

2. Young people don’t watch much TV anymore

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Americans watch more TV than EVER before. Almost 5 hours a day (God help us, although I recently read that Greece is SECOND in that list!!!). But it’s the youngsters, the important 18-49 year old demographic that advertisers are after, that actually watch less. With the booming of the Internet, people spend a lot of their free time browsing (and not necessarily YouTube), rather than watching TV. And it’s that demographic that usually watches sci-fi shows.

3. Money

There’s a reason why LOST was so successful originally. Its 2-episode pilot cost in the excess of $14 mil, more than any other TV show before, or after. But the reality is, to create an epic show, with lots of characters and elaborate sets, you need money. Normal TV shows usually get between $1 and $3 million per episode to shoot, and unless you move to the cheaper Vancouver studios to shoot, or you only get uknown actors, your budget won’t be enough to create a truly great pilot to hook your viewers up. LOST hooked people mostly with its first 4 episodes for example.

4. No space ships

The last “space”-based sci-fi show on network TV was Firefly (BSG was on cable). That was 2003. Since then, we are fed with daytime-like soaps that happen to have sci-fi elements in them (e.g. the terribly dull Dollhouse). That’s just not enough to inspire the sci-fi crowd.

See, science fiction is mostly liked by people who try to look at the big picture, the future. They are idealists, visionaries. Therefore, offering them a soap with some sci-fi elements in it, just won’t work anymore.

5. People aren’t into sci-fi anymore

The truth is that NASA hasn’t exactly inspired people in the last 20 years. Their new spaceships look like ass, and are crammy as hell. All this make people not want to have lots to do with the whole space thing. Laugh it all you want, but it’s a factor. Why do you think Apple is selling like crazy?

Here are some indie bands that I believe deserve more popularity. They make beautiful music, and at least 2-3 of them break new ground. Except for one of the following bands, I found out about them through their promotional free mp3s (Malbec, I found them through the Canon HV20 community). So I decided to return the favor and spread the love. If you like their music as I do, please buy their albums to support their work too.

Disclaimer: No songs are stored on this server, and no copyright infringement is intended. The sole purpose of this article is informational. I did my best possible to make sure that the songs linked are legal, stored on official artist/label/PR sites or on music/promotional sites that have the required distribution rights. If you represent one of the labels or artists found below and would like me to stop linking to your songs for some reason, please contact me.

* Cloud Cult
Description: One of the best bands of all time, in my opinion. On their latest record they play some very accessible… experimental music. It’s a fusion of classic, rock, folk, all in one. No one else makes music like this.
Mp3s:
- The Tornado Lessons
- Everybody here is a Cloud
- When Water Comes to Life
- Journey of the Featherless
- Lucky Today
- Take your medicine
- Chemicals Collide

* Longwave
Description: A great shoegazing band. They had a contract with a major, they lost it for not selling well, and then they release independently their best album ever. Each and every song on their latest album could be a huge hit if it had the right backing.
Mp3s:
- Secrets are Sinister
- No Direction
- Theres a Fire
- Everywhere You Turn

* Portugal. The Man
Description: An Alaskan band that moved to Portland to hunt their musical dreams. Through the years they went through various experimentation stages and they often introduced brand new takes on existing genres. This is a band that can hop between genres without effort. I highly recommend you buy “The Devil”, and “How the Leopard Got Its Spots” tracks btw.
Mp3s:
- Shade
- People Say
- AKA M80 the Wolf
- And I
- Out and In and In and Out
- The Sun
- The Woods
- Ruby Magic
- Sapphire Magic

* Living Things
Description: Now, this is real rock! Hard, provocative, entertaining. You will love all three of the tracks! Their singer is my kind of guy: he says it like it is.
Mp3s:
- Oxygen
- Mercedes Marxist
- Let It Rain

* Malbec
Description: An LA band with a beautiful and very accessible electro-pop/rock sound. Their music videos (that they shoot by themselves) are wicked too!
Mp3s: (16 songs)
- The Answering Machine, EP1
- The Answering Machine, EP2
- The Answering Machine, EP3
- The Answering Machine, EP4
- The Answering Machine, EP5

* Loquat
Description: Beautiful indie pop/rock from the Bay Area. “Swingset chain” is one of my all-time favorite songs. The version linked below is not the one that ended up on their album though (the album version is a bit nicer).
Mp3s:
- Swingset Chain
- Harder Hit

* The Rosebuds
Description: Another indie pop/rock band (a husband and wife). Very atmospheric, amazing melodies.
Mp3s:
- Leaves Do Fall
- Life Like
- Get Up Get Out
- Blue Bird
- Kicks In The Schoolyard

* Wiretree
Description: Indie pop/rock with a very distinctive guitar sound. Their “Big Coat” song linked below is one of my favorite songs ever.
Mp3s:
- Big Coat
- Back in Town
- Satellite Song

* Glint
Description: A relatively young NY band with easy-listening pop/rock. Good ratio of good songs on each of their albums/EPs.
Mp3s:
- Freak

* The Rural Alberta Advantage
Description: A very nice indie folk/rock Canadian band.
Mp3s:
- Frank Ab
- Don’t Haunt This Place

* Sin Fang Bous
Description: A very interesting experimental folk singer from Iceland. I suggest you buy the “Melt Down the Knives” track from his first album, excellent track.
Mp3s:
- Catch The Light

* Black Gold
Description: A new indie pop/rock band from Brooklyn. Their latest album, “Rush”, is well worth listening to.
Mp3s:
- Detroit

We watched the remake of “V” tonight on ABC. I’ve only watched bits and pieces from the original TV series, but this is besides the point, since this is supposed to be a full reboot of the show.

So basically, “V” is mediocre at best.

The problem is that the episode felt rushed and disconnected. It felt like a 2 hour pilot, cut into 1 hour. Things just go too fast and we don’t have the time to really see the reactions of the world on this new major situation.

Adding to that is the unbelievable behavior of people towards the aliens. When the original message off of the spaceship is done, everyone claps their hands and welcomes the new world order. If that was a real life scenario, people would just panic and loot everything in front of them. No one in their right mind would believe that message of peace. Or when that anti-V terrorist finds out that his old friend is actually alien he seems to accept it and go on by his business instead of showing even a small shred of disapproval.

And, oh, did I say “aliens”? Sorry about that. It’s “Vs” (pronounced vees), or “Visitors”. No one is calling them what they really are, aliens that is. Apparently ABC had a problem making it an alien show, of fear of alienating housewives (get it?).

Finally, there was very little mystery left in the series after the first 45 minutes. Two guys already getting revealed as aliens instead of one of them, or none. The show feels like it’s a cold-told tale of things happening to a few people we care nothing about rather than adding mystery, and making it a high-impact plot to the whole of the planet (we need to SEE it rather than just brush it off like nothing happened and accept the new world order out of thin air). Where is the UN and US government and military of the world in all this? UN got referenced but we see nothing that went on in that building.

Overall, just like “Flash Forward”, and “Heroes” before that, “V” is a good idea with a bad implementation. I don’t understand how some people can screw up a production so much. I wonder if the only talented TV writers left in the world are Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. At least these two guys can only screw up romantic plots, but when it comes to action/mystery/thrill, they know their shit.

Update: New York Times’ review got it right too.

Back in April I wrote a blog post about what solution would be ideal to feed our 65 GB of music library to our main speaker-set and amplifier. There was nothing that was doing exactly what we needed to do, so we were thinking of buying a second 400 CD-changer appliance, to fill it with our existing CDs and burned iTunes purchases.

The Sonos system was also discussed as a possible solution, but we were not happy with the fact it could not hold our library in the device itself, and needed constant streaming. We were not looking for a streaming system, but on a device that could hold all of our music in its internal drive, and get easily updated when we need it to.

Eventually, we added an intermediate step. We held back from the 400 CD-changer purchase, and bought a 120 GB iPod Classic with an Apple dock that featured a line-out. The problem with that solution is that we could not see what the heck was playing in the iPod’s 2.5″ screen while we were sitting on the couch, 2.5 meters away. Not to mention that for some reason the “back” key on the remote for the dock did not work with the Classic. Add to that the fact that the iPod line-out audio quality was below par (low volume compared to other input sources in our amplifier), and so sooner than later we were again in the market for a solution. Our Zune 120 GB and its dock had the similar usability/volume problems btw.

What made us root for the AppleTV was its “Remote” application for the iPhone/iPodTouch. There we are now, sitting on our couch, using the exact same UI as in the iPod Touch’s amazing music UI to control our AppleTV. We don’t even have to turn ON the HDTV to control it, it’s headless (that was one of our requirements)! We simply turning it ON once using its remote, then the iPod Touch’s “Remote” application takes over for the music control, and when we need to turn it OFF we just use the AppleTV remote again (long press on the play button puts the AppleTV on standby). Audio quality is punchy, CD-quality, much better than the iPod/Zune dock’s line-outs.

So far, so good! Only thing missing from the “Remote” app is the ability to rate songs (the UI is there but the rating mechanism is not implemented — maybe it comes in a future version)!

I don’t use the AppleTV for video playback, since the Sony PS3 is a much better solution for that (better support for formats and 1080/30p). But it’s perfect for our music, and maybe even for some streaming internet radio (new feature in the AppleTV 3.0 firmware).

Some have suggested that we could use a small laptop/PC with MPD in it, but there is a certain installation/configuration/annoyance associated with that. Turning ON the laptop/PC from standby would require to physically go close to the device, and then we would have to use MPD remote applications that simply don’t have the elegance of an Apple-designed app. Instead, the AppleTV just works, and we are able to _easily_ sync it with our iTunes installation too. That’s a major bonus since we use iTunes. Even more interestingly, the AppleTV is *cheaper* than a dedicated small laptop/PC running MPD.

So basically, for us at least, the “Remote” application is what made the whole difference for us, not necessarily the AppleTV itself. It’s one of these times that a side-project like that app is, brings value to other products!

Here’s a list of science fiction-themed or simply scifi-titled songs found on my iTunes library. The songs listed were released in the last 3 year period, and for the ones that have a link there’s a free, legal, download too. Enjoy them just as the uber-geek yours truly is.

* Blitzen Trapper – Sci-Fi Kid (my favorite song on this list, don’t miss it)
* Cage the Elephant – Tiny Little Robots
* Radiohead – Bodysnatchers
* Asobi Seksu – Walk on the moon
* Deastro – Greens, Grays, and Nordics
* The Moog – You Raised A Vampire
* My Robot Friend – Robot High School
* The Faint – The Geeks Were Right
* Fighterpilot – Astronaut
* Golden Bloom – Doomsday Devices
* Girls are Robots – Girl, you are a Robot
* Maritime – For Science Fiction
* The Killers – Spaceman
* MGMT – Of Moons, Birds & Monsters
* Muse – Supermassive Black Hole
* Muse – Knights Of Cydonia
* Kanye West – RoboCop
* Thriving Ivory – Alien
* Shiny Toy Guns – Major Tom (2009 version)
…and an oldie…
* Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark – Walking On the Milky Way

I decided to enter the Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase competition last June, and apparently I won! A small QVGA OGG version of the following video will be part of Ubuntu’s Creative Commons showcase in the new distro version, under the “examples” folder (there is a 2.5 MB limit, that was the real challenge). The bulk of my videos are licensed under the liberal Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, and I hope more videographers do so too.

This is the first time I ever won anything, and it’s a pretty good feeling, since I felt a bit beaten down the last few days, after my music video shoot last weekend (apparently we need to re-shoot some scenes with the artist and possibly re-cast our female model).

Anyways, many thanks to the Ubuntu team! Can’t wait for the new release (my husband switched to Ubuntu recently too, in both his work PC, and at home currently).

I am spending way too much time hunting down legally free independent alternative rock music, but it’s paying off: I now have about 2,000 such songs in my library. About 50% of them have 3 stars in my iTunes library, 30% have 4 stars, and about 20% have 5 stars. Here’s how I find them: every morning, I visit the following sites to preview their legal, free download collection:

* StereoGum
* Better Propaganda
* AOL Spinner
* RC.RDBL
* FingerTips
* InSound
* KEXP Radio
* PitchFork Tracks
* PitchFork Forkcast
* XL8
* Magnet Magazine
— Not chronologically sorted —
* Spin.com
* PureVolume (download from “Pro” artist accounts only)
— Live sessions —
* Daytrotter Sessions
* HearYa Sessions

And then of course, if you would like to go cherry pick the best songs yourself manually, there’s the various artist’s official web sites, and indie labels that usually host loads of mp3s, like SubPop, Vagrant, Matador, Merge, etc etc. And finally, there are the PR companies, like IODA, Beggars, Tool-Shed and many more! Yup, all legal, and most of it, exceptional!