Edmonton Film Festival?

Found this link tonight via Facebook. I might give it a go next year when I have my dump documentary done. Assuming of course I have a dump documentary done by next year!! Seems you have pay money just to be considered, seems that way with most photo contests/gallery/film submissions these days.
https://www.edmontonfilmfest.com/submit-your-film/

3rd Hard Drive Installed On My Editing Laptop

Tonight I installed a second 2TB internal hard drive on my HP Elitebook 8760W laptop computer. I now have 3 hard drives on this baby, a 1TB, a 2TB and another 2TB, along with 32GB of RAM. I will need tons of space to store my video files made in the dump for the film, especially if I decide to shoot everything in the RAW format.  The idea is to fill these hard drives up with video, and also have a back up of some kind, either on external hard drives or possibly online (might to large and take to long to upload).

I have now maxed out the capabilities of my laptop, got a hard ass big time machine. Hopefully it will work flawlessly for me in the coming few years. If I can make my movie on it, store the video footage, do the editing, then it will have done its job.  Lots to ask of this machine, I think it might just work.

Installed A Second Hard Drive On To My HP Elitebook 8760W Video Editing Laptop

This afternoon I received my DVD hard drive caddy today in the mail from China. I came to work, installed the 2TB internal drive in the caddy, then removed my DVD player from the Elitebook 8760W laptop and placed the new hard drive inside. I then found on line the steps needed for the computer to recognize this 2nd drive. The installation went well, everything works great and I now have a 2 drives on my editing computer a 1 TB and a 2 TB.

I have a second caddy and second 2TB hard drive in the mail, when those arrive I will install them as well. That will bring my computer up to its max capacity, 32GB of RAM and 5 TB of hard drive (3 drives). I saved quite a bit of money by buying my RAM/DRIVES/CADDIES online and doing the installation myself (thank you YouTube).

This laptop which is armed with Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas and Davinci Resolve (video editing software's) should be a great tool for me in Asia. I can shoot all day then download and edit all night. Or shoot all night and edit all day! By doing the editing in Thailand  I will have a clear understanding of what is working or not working as I progress  through the project day by day.

Now Have The Maximum 32GB Of RAM In My Editing Laptop

You got to love YouTube. Today I was able to use a couple of online tutorials to install 16GB more RAM into my HP Elitebook 8760W laptop. I wanted to upgrade the memory so that I could handle more high end work when doing the movie editing in Thailand later this year. Today I was able to do that.

Today's computer upgrade turned out well. I was a bit worried going in as I am not really a tech guy but it went very smoothly. I had to remove the computer keyboard to get at the extra 2 RAM slots but that went fine. 

I also purchased a 2TB second hard drive that I want to install. Am patiently waiting on the hard drive caddy I need (from China) to complete the installation. If that goes well I will try buying and installing a third hard drive (another 2TB job). The most difficult part for me is getting the caddies (they hold the drives in the computer) from China. Ordered 4 different cheap ones but 1 never arrived, 1 is the wrong style (ended up getting that free). I have 2 more on order now. I would also need to buy the second 2TB hard drive online as well. With 32GB of RAM and 5TB of hard drive space. I would have a kick ass laptop for video editing.

Update* I bought the second 2TB hard drive, the cost $94.99 USD plus shipping. Am going for the 3 hard drive option for my computer. 

BIG SD CARD BUY

Bought som more storage SD cards for the BMPCC bodies. The cards need to be super fast to keep up with the RAW data pouring in to them. The card that is recommended is the 64GB Extreme PRO SD SDXC Card 95MB/s Class 10. Last month I picked up 3 refurbished versions of these cards for $20 USD a piece plus shipping. After testing the cards in my cameras I found they were NOT dropping frames so today I bought another 4.

I now have 11 of these cards, 4 I got from the seller of my cameras off eBay, and 7 are these refurbished babies (guaranteed to be as good as new).

I was thinking of buying the 128GB version in fact I bought one online but the seller disappeared without sending me the card. I appealed to eBay who refunded my $41 USD (too good a deal to be true and it was). I rechecked the prices for the 129GB cards tonight and found them quite high. I am also not sure if the 128GB cards work in the BMPCC. Decided to play it safe and buy the smaller sized 64GB versions.

64GB is quite small for the amount of info I am recording. I will need to change cards quite often. If you are shooting RAW, I think each card will only old 20-25 minutes of footage. With 11 cards I should have enough storage space to record 3 hours and 40 minutes per day.

Hmm wonder if I should buy a few more cards?

Here is the eBay pricing for different versions of this SD card (I paid $20 USD each for my refurbished type cards)

NEW 95MB/S 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC Class 10 - $40.80 USD free shipping
NEW 95MB/S 128GB SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC Class 10 - $66.55 USD plus $2.29 shipping

Update: Bought another 5 cards. Thought I needed them just in case they break down, in case I lose them, in case I need them for a long days shooting, etc. I now have 16 cards, which is enough storage space to do 5 hours 20 minutes+ of video a day. Do not plan on doing that much recording but it is better to have backups to my backups than to be stranded and pissed off in Mae Sot trying to buy SD cards (very limited stores). I would also hate to have an important shooting day cut short because I ran out of storage space. I have run out of still film before and that always hurts! There will be times I plan on spending the night in the dump filming. When I am there all night I want to make sure I can film at will.

I will now shoot at ease, trying to get the good and important video I need for the movie. I still have to becareful I do not overshoot and be selective. Everything I shoot will have to eventually be stored on hard drives for later editing.  I can only buy so many 4TB hard drives for storage! 

Note* If I shoot in ProRes HQ instead of RAW I can store much more footage on a 64GB card, I think it is 40 minutes plus. Not sure of the exact numbers, depends on frame rates etc ...24 per second 30? Am still learning. Having too many cards is certainly better than not having enough! 16 should do me nicely.

My Tokina 12-24mm F4 Lens Has Arrived

I got my 12-24mm Tokina F4 lens from Japan today, there was no extra charges. Tonight at work I have the lens on my BMPCC body. The f-stop feature works flawlessly with the electronics of the Metabones EF Speedbooster. The angle of view 12mm-24 (about a 20.4mm-40.8mm on the camera) is quite wonderful. With the speedbooster the lens is effectively a f2.6 not fast but not bad. I really like the range of the zoom. I believe I will use this lens for 80% of my shooting. At the widest focal length of 20.4 there is little noticeable distortion, much less so than the earlier tested Rokinon 7.5mm (22.5mm equivalent).

Finally I can pay for everything and not buy any more major film making gear. It is time to start saving for the trip. My training to become a film maker continues on a nightly basis. Things are going pretty well as planned. We are on a positive roll towards the creation of the movie.

My "1296P Mini Camera Wearable Body Video Police DVR 140" Has Arrived

Got my new compact body cam today. This is not a hidden camera but more of a wearable body camera with an obvious lens. I was thinking of using it to record my daily activity in the dump and other PUBLIC places, to give a more personal up close viewpoint for the blogs. This unit is easier to wear than the go pro option. Hopefully it will help humanize my subjects that much more, furthering education and a continue raising awareness.

In the sample video I am hand holding it, in real time use in Asia, I would place it in a pocket and forget about it for the day. The recording time I believe is up to 4 hours on a 32GB mini SD card.

The body camera used for this video

Note* This video was made on Adobe Premiere (still need to learn so much there!).
Video Sample Clip On My Photo Blog