Books on Los Angeles History

While I'm ranting on the subject of LA's apathy towards its own history, let me recommend these two books:

Lost Hollywood by David Wallace

An excellent look at where history happened in Hollywood. Not only does Wallace memorialize locations that have been lost to "progress" and time, he also highlights historic landmarks that have managed to survive incognito. For example, this Public Storage building in Echo Park is actually a 35,000 square foot Keystone Studios stage. That's right, people are storing their shit in Mack Sennett's office.

and Hollywood: Then and Now by Rosemary Lord

Before and after photography, beautifully done.

Speaking of Conservancy

If you live in Los Angeles, and want a way to help identify historic places in your community, check out MyHistoricLA.org.

MyHistoricLA, is a fun way to submit your great ideas, help others improve their great ideas, and ultimately determine the best ideas for your community.

Too often, great community ideas are lost because residents don't know how or don't feel comfortable getting involved. MyHistoricLA empowers people to improve their community, all from the convenience of their own home.

For example, here's their page on Pickfair. The site is run by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, and as such is a bit convoluted, but for a city that has already lost The Ambassador Hotel, The Brown Derby, Schwab's Pharmacy and many more, something is better than nothing.

Demolition Begins at Pickfair

Disgusting. Just disgusting. And yet, so in keeping with LA's attitude towards conservancy. How could you not save a place like this:

Legend holds that a tunnel once connected the soundstages to a bar across the street — the Formosa Cafe — so that stars like Errol Flynn could slip off for drinks between scenes without being pestered by fans.

Fairbanks had a steam bath and gym and is said to have had a private outdoor area where he could exercise in the nude.

Eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who kept an office at the studio during his movie-making days, had a secret garage he could wheel into from Santa Monica Boulevard and park without anybody noticing.

One studio building was said to be equipped with an ornate wooden door hand-built by Harrison Ford, who was working as a studio carpenter when he was "discovered" by filmmaker George Lucas.

Check out this site and sign their petition. And while you're at it, visit LA Conservancy and see what you can do to help.

Gizmodo on the Mark III

Gizmodo's review of the Mark III was also very positive, but they weren't impressed with the next generation video features.

The 5D Mark III, as a whole, is a definite step up from the Mark II. But Canon hasn't done a lot to improve its video capabilities, which is odd. Indie filmmakers first embraced the 5D Mark II, and Hollywood later took notice. In years since, the Mark II has since filmed countless films and TV shows. They even shot an entire episode of House with it. You'd think that Canon would have considerably beefed up the 5D Mark III's video capabilities. But the improvements there are only marginal.

Curious, considering the title of their article: "Canon EOS 5D Mark III Review: The Best DSLR for Shooting Video."

Engadget on the Mark III

Speaking of the Mark III, here's Engadget's largely positive review.

...if you've been considering a 5D Mark III purchase, don't hesitate -- it's worth the investment, we promise. And if you've already placed your order or have one in the mail, get ready to have your world turned upside-down -- this thing is simply amazing, in every way.

Phillip Bloom Reviews the Mark III

Phillip Bloom has posted his full video review of the Canon 5D Mark III, and it's well worth a watch. He's honest about the camera's shortcomings, but more or less confirms a suspicion of mine: that naysayers are comparing the Mark III to an invisible what-if camera that just isn't out there. When compared to other cameras that have actually shipped in the same price range, the Mark III does quite well.

You Look Nice Today Returns

If you love podcasts, and I do, this is great news for you:

We’re finally returning to regularly-scheduled new episodes of You Look Nice Today.

Check it out.

Flanders: an Oldie but a Newie

Neal Rogers at VeloNews has a nice piece on the new Tour of Flanders route, and the controversy surrounding the changes.

For the record, I'm a traditionalist at heart, and think that changing a race's historic parcours just to provide better VIP viewing is a terrible idea. That's not to say we should be stuck in the past. The Tour de France route changes every year, and that's a positive thing. But somehow I don't see ASO choosing to have the Tour finish on a runway at Charles de Gaulle because they could sell more VIP tickets than on the Champs-Élysées.

Trek Launches the Domane

Ahead of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, Trek has launched a new road bike designed (more or less) specifically for Fabian Cancellara and the cobbled classics. It's the same top secret frame that Fabian has been seen training on and rode to victory at Strade Bianche earlier this year, and it looks to be a killer.

VeloNews has more.

5D Mark III Unboxing

Planet5D has posted an unboxing video of the Canon 5D Mark III. Watching made me jealous.

Marco Arment on MacBooks and Ivy Bridge

More proof that people who are surprised by Apple's product announcements simply aren't paying attention. I think Marco nails it.

My guess is that they pick two: they make a 15” Air that drops the Pro’s discrete GPU and downgrades to dual-core 17-watt CPUs, effectively pairing Air-class performance with a larger screen. In a 15” Air-like chassis, this could be very cool-running and quiet with a great battery life and a significant weight savings from the 15” MacBook Pro.

My favorite part though, was in a footnote:

And of course, the new Xeon E5 means new Mac Pros any day now.

I think I speak for the entire post-production community when I say, "I hope he's right."

Hollywood is Dead. Long Live Hollywood.

Miles Beckett over at eqal.com has an interesting piece on new media and LA-based startups. I'm not sure I agree with the idea that Southern California is going to rival Silicon Valley in the tech space, but I do think he has a point about serious content creation coming out of Hollywood because that's where the talent is:

Contrary to what many in Silicon Valley believe, creating great content is hard. Really hard. There’s a reason why there are so many cat videos and laughing babies on YouTube. This is why Youtube, Hulu, and Netflix are collectively spending billions to finance the production of high quality content for distribution on their platforms. Most of this money is going to LA-based companies and startups because the talent is here.

Check it out.

Canon 5D Mark III Studio Comparison

You can check out a studio scene comparison between the 5D Mark III and several other cameras over at dpreview.com. It's pretty cool. You can select a portion of the image, then load a comparison between the Mark III and Mark II or Nikon D800, Sony A900, etc.

You can judge for yourself, but the results are pretty impressive. What's most interesting to me is that the Mark III's closest competitor appears to be, for my money, the 5D Mark II.

Speaking of Music

Musopen.org is another source for free music. It's mostly classical, and entirely free.

We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free.

Check it out.

The Apple TV Remote Needs One More Button: a Home Button

In our house, we've cut the cord on cable. (That's not entirely true, we actually get $10 worth of cable to take advantage of a $20 bundling discount, but the channels we get for that $10 are the same ones we'd be able to get with an HD antenna.) So, most of our TV consumption comes from non-traditional sources. The Apple TV is often at the center of our media experience, serving us purchased iTunes content, iTunes rentals, Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, MLB and AirPlay content from iPad and iPhone apps. So, suffice it to say, we use it a lot. I don't have a new, 1080p Apple TV yet, but I do have the new interface installed on our A4 powered 720p version. I like it a lot, in spite of reports that Steve Jobs rejected it years ago.

But after using the new interface for a while, I'm even more convinced that the biggest missing feature of the Apple TV isn't in the software, and it's not on the box. It's on the remote. Apple is famous (infamous to some) for its minimalist approach to remote design, and there are a lot of folks who don't like the remote that comes with the Apple TV. (John Siracusa dissed it on last week's episode of 5by5's Hypercritical.) I actually don't mind the remote, and find myself using it far more often than I reach for my iPhone or iPad and launch the remote app, but it's definitely missing a button. The missing button is an essential one, and Apple knows it. How am I sure that Apple knows my missing button is essential? Because it's the only physical button on iOS devices:

The Home Button

Last night I had been watching a series of YouTube videos, following a chain of suggestions appearing after my last-watched video. I think it's a pretty common viewing experience for YouTube: you watch "David After Dentist," then YouTube suggests you watch "David After Dentist Remix," so you do, and so on, and so forth. (Note: this is just an example, I hate remixes. A lot.) Then I decided to switch over to Netflix, and watch something there. So, I hit the menu button and it backed up to my previous video. I hit menu again. And again. And 394 more times. (Alright, it wasn't 394, but it was a lot of times.) Finally, I got back to the Apple TV home screen. I selected Netflix, selected my instant queue, and selected something to watch.

I don't care how many buttons are on your remote, there's nothing minimalist about that number of keystrokes being required to get from one place to another. Hitting one button a dozen times is not simpler than hitting two buttons one time each.

Home and restore are key principals of the iOS experience. The home button takes you directly to the home screen, and when you launch an app, you expect it to restore you to what you were doing when you left. Let's go back to my experience last night, and this time imagine that the Apple TV remote has a home button, and restores the way iOS apps do. So, I've just watched "David After Dentist," and YouTube has suggested I watch "David After Dentist Remix." But I don't want to watch it right now, I want to watch Netflix. I hit the home button. Boom. I'm at the home screen. I select Netflix, and rather than having to select my instant queue, I'm taken right there because that's where I left it. I select something to watch and I'm off. Then, my movie or TV show ends, and I decide, "Hey, maybe I've been too hard on remixes. Let's give 'David After Dentist Remix' a try." So, I hit the home button again, select YouTube, and am taken right back to where I left off.

None of this is new or revolutionary. It's exactly how Apple's own iOS works, and the Apple TV should work that way too. Plain and simple.

Moby Gratis

Music is constantly a challenge for low-budget filmmakers. Some of us are lucky enough to have relationships with very talented composers who consistently save our asses and enhance our projects. But for those whose budget just won't support hiring a composer, or licensing a track from Pump Audio or the like, Moby has provided a library of music you can legally use for little to nothing. (Yes, that Moby.)

Mobygratis.com offers a selection of tracks to filmmakers working on non-commercial or non-profit films, free of charge. If you're working on a commercial film, you can apply for an easy license and any money generated will be donated to the Humane Society. You just create an account, browse the available tracks, and request a license. Easy and useful.

iOS Apps for Pro Content Creation

Dave Girard over at Ars Technica has published an excellent list of iOS tools for professional content creators from still photographers, to cinematographers, to digital imaging techs, to CG artists.

In addition to covering the slate apps and depth of field calculators out there, he also found this gem: Sun Seeker, a 3D Augmented Reality Viewer.

This augmented reality app taps into the camera, GPS, accelerometer, and compass in iOS devices to give photographers and cinematographers a more visual version of PhotoCalc's sunrise tool. It overlays sun tracking info over your camera image to present a clear picture of how you can utilize light now and in the not-too-distant future.

I've long worn a watch with a compass built in to keep track of the sun, but this is even better (and at $4.99, considerably less expensive).

Why Fountain and Highland Aren't for Me

Everything I write on this site, I write in John Gruber's Markdown. For those with a life, Markdown is a syntax that allows you to write in plain text, and then convert that text into valid HTML for publishing on the web. The primary benefit of Markdown is that your writing looks like writing, not like code. So I was understandably intrigued when I heard about Fountain, a similar syntax that allows you to convert plain text into a properly formatted screenplay, developed by John August and Stu Maschwitz. Highland, then, is a Mac app (currently in beta) that will convert screenplays written in Fountain into Final Draft and PDF formats.

(For Angelenos, yes, Fountain and Highland are in fact named after Fountain and Highland.)

I've doodled a bit in Fountain, and it's very well thought out. The syntax is intuitive, and I love the idea of writing scripts in a no-fuss text editor like WriteRoom.

"But wait," I hear you saying, "the title of this article is 'Why Fountain and Highland Aren't for Me.'" Sounds like you love Fountain and Highland.

In many ways, I do. And if I was still using Final Draft as my primary writing tool, I'd probably have switched to Fountain on day one. But I'm not. These days I write in Scrivener.

Maybe it's because I'm also an editor, but I want my primary writing tool to be more than just a word processor. I want it to be a central hub that can collect ideas and pieces of ideas, and then let me rearrange and expand upon those ideas in a non-linear way. I want to easily take scene 112 and move it to scene 3. Final Draft never did that well, and Fountain isn't going to make it any easier. Scrivener does. What I love so much about Scrivener is that it's like Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer for screenwriting. An app that collects your ideas and stores them in one place, then allows you to jumble them up, move them around, etc.

Now that's not to say that I won't be using Fountain at all. Proprietary file formats are an enemy to future-proofing, and I'll probably convert all my old scripts to Fountain to ensure that I can still open and read them years from now.

If you're the kind of writer who sits down and bangs out a draft, I highly recommend you check out Fountain. But if you're like me, and you want to collect ideas, then massage those ideas into a story, Scrivener is for you.

Speaking of the Mark III

Stu Maschwitz over at Prolost.com did a quick grade of some low-light Mark III footage, and posted the results. Check it out.

Phillip Bloom on the 5D Mark III

Phillip Bloom has had the 5D Mark III for a few days, and has posted his thoughts.

Loads for me to look at and digest. Disappointing in many areas, pleasing in others. A bit of a mixed bag really. The problem is the mk2 blew us away. In 3 and a half years our expectations have been raised enormously. We have been dreaming of things, of improvements…things that won’t make us better shooters BUT will make our life easier. After all the full frame image for me is still a thing of incomparable beauty that even the C300 cannot replicate!