All these years at the Institute and I never noticed. There are so many birds on campus. Here are a few that I managed to shoot one November morning at the Canteen. Details are from Wikipedia.

Ashy Prinia (Prinia socialis)

The Ashy Prinia or Ashy Wren-Warbler (Prinia socialis) is a small warbler. This prinia is a resident breeder in the Indian Subcontinent, ranging across most of India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and western Myanmar. It is a common bird in urban gardens and farmland in many parts of India and its small size, distinctive colours and upright tail make it easy to identify. The northern populations have a rufous rump and back and have a distinct breeding and non-breeding plumage while other populations lack such variation.

Oriental Magpie-Robin  (Copsychus saularis) juvenile

Read the rest of this entry »

The Gemini 4:4:4 is a professional, high-definition video recorder that fits in the palm of your hand. Gemini 4:4:4 functions as a high-quality monitor, a recorder, and a playback device.

As a recorder, Gemini 4:4:4 records in the ultimate highest quality possible—uncompressed, which can easily be incorporated into virtually any workflow using your favorite CODEC. Gemini 4:4:4 is also capable of recording, combining, and playing back 3D video (with paid upgrade).

Gemini 4:4:4 records to specially certified and tested 1.8” solid-state hard drives that can be purchased from Convergent Design through your local dealer.

Data Rates

Read the rest of this entry »

With all the reliability you expect from a Codex recorder, only in a smaller package, the Codex Onboard S Plus Recorder can record ARRIRAW, Canon Cinema RAW, uncompressed HD or wavelet encoded HD material – plus audio and metadata – onto a removable, solid-state Capture Drive. It is weather-resistant and weighs only 2.4lbs/1.1kgs.

With a Codex Media Station or Vault, shots can be delivered from the Codex Capture Drive in multiple industry-standard formats.

More product details here. Workflow for various cameras like Arri Alexa, Red, Canon, Sony are explained here.

The Samurai is a portable touchscreen-operated HD recorder, monitor and playback device for video professionals. It captures pristine 10-bit 4:2:2 video and audio direct from any camera with HD/SD-SDI output. The Samurai consumes very little power, ensures long recording times (up to 16.5 hours on a 750GB disk) and the efficient use of batteries.

Read the rest of this entry »

AMIRA features the same sensor and exceptional image quality as the ARRI ALEXA, recording superior HD 1080 or 2K pictures that are suitable for any distribution format. With a dynamic range of more than 14 stops, low noise levels, subtle highlight handling, natural color rendering, breathtaking skin tones and speeds of up to 200 fps, AMIRA will deliver beautiful, life-like images in any situation.

AMIRA records Rec 709 or Log C images using ProRes LT, 422, 422HQ or 444 codecs. By recording to in-camera CFast 2.0 flash memory cards with super-quick data rates, the route into postproduction is made as simple as possible. CFast 2.0 is an open format, easily accessible to anyone and delivering a fantastic price-performance ratio through incredible transfer speeds, long recording times and compatibility with standard IT tools. Costs per GB are brought right down and higher-than-broadcast-quality image pipelines are made available even to low budget productions.

More here..

VS9YK3YNCFTK

“We at GraFTII, the alumnus association of the Film & Television Institute
of India (FTII), express our concern at the increasing manifestations of
intolerance in our country. An immediate example is the brutal attack on
students of the FTII in Pune on the evening of 21st August, after a film
screening held in tribute to Dr Narendra Dabholkar, assassinated the
previous morning.

Intimidating tactics such as beatings and murders not only strike at the
roots of our democracy but get encoded as threats in the minds of all. Fear
places constraints on what might be said, written, read, shared, created,
shown or even funded. Creativity can only thrive if there is no fear in the
minds of those who work in the arts, sciences, social studies and all other
spheres of human endeavour.

Such acts of violence should be condemned by all who value India’s
cultural diversity and see the diminishing freedom of expression as a sign
of worse things to come. We assert that we will not be intimidated by such
tactics. Those guilty of such acts should be brought to justice and the
charges made against the FTII students be dropped immediately.”

The Master Anamorphic lenses have been jointly developed by ARRI and Carl Zeiss. The anamorphic lenses offer a unique optical performance, with optimized flare and bokeh as well as state-of-the-art lens barrels featuring improved dust and water protection.

Revolutionary new optical technology in anamorphic lenses:
- Virtually no image breathing
- No anamorphic mumps (fat face effect)
Optimized anamorphic bokeh:
- Evenly illuminated oval out of focus highlights
- New developed iris with 15 aperture blades
Pleasant out of focus areas with traditional anamorphic look and a unique image language
Anamorphic blue streak lines in a very unique new style and optimized flares and reflections for additional artistic look
Same reliable mechanics as the market knows from ARRI/ZEISS Master Prime lenses

Read the rest of this entry »

by Vinoo

Listening to music will be a much richer experience henceforth, thanks to music historian, Nalin Shah. Aptly titled ‘Yaadon ka safar’, Nalin Shahji brought to life one hundred years of Hindi cinema and the music through the ages. I turn on the radio next time and it is bound to be a much richer experience with one visual after the other and one anecdote after the other to accompany it. A listing of all the songs and the people associated with it, showcased in the course of the day, is all I have to do to make this an interesting read. That is the power of Nalin Shahji’s narration.

It was Alam Ara and the song ‘De de khuda ke naam pe’ that started it all, the beginning of sound in one hundred years of Hindi cinema. While Raja Harishchandra was made way back in 1913, it was not until 1931, and Alam Ara, that sound came to Hindi films. Who better to present the journey than Nalin Shahji who has been witness to it right through? Suchitra Film Society did well in bringing him to present Hindi music through the ages. To choose 125 songs from over 75,000 and to be able to tell us the story of music in Hindi films is an achievement by itself. There were the odd complaints, from the audience, about how Salil Choudhary or a Raj Kapoor and Shankar Jaikishen’s contribution was not mentioned, like I felt Hemanth Kumar and Manna Dey and quite a few others were ignored. But then, in Nalin Shahji’s own admission this was not about individuals. Else, how could he ignore someone like Madan Mohan for instance whose song appears only briefly in a medley. And, like Nalin Shahji mentioned, it is easy to say you did not include this music director, this singer and this song. But then, can you say that one particular song in the video did not have to be there? Well… the silence from the audience sure was acknowledgement.

Read the rest of this entry »

An absolutely stunning camera from Aaton, shoots 3.5 and 7k (with pixel shift), has an optical viewfinder and controls ISO through an innovative multi-slit mechanical shutter! Amazing. Aaton claims a very high dynamic range as well. The sensor is CCD, with a claimed 90% pixel fill.

In addition to allowing you full mechanical control over shutter-angle, the Penelope Delta allows you to switch from a traditional half-moon spinning mirror to another set of blades which transmit exposure through many tiny slits. This reduces the ISO 650/800 sensitivity of the shutter down to about ISO 80/100, all mechanically/optically, and without affecting the shutter angle itself. A render of this design, courtesy of Aaton, is pictured to the right. This method also circumvents the loss of dynamic range that occurs with the attenuation employed by DSLRs at sub-base ISOs.

The Aaton filmmaking experience brought to digital imaging

• The first optical viewfinder digital camera with an internal SSD recorder (DeltaPack*) for full rez CineDNG ucompressed RAW (the Adobe archival format based on open standards), and editorial-ready proxies.
  * DeltaPack is compatible with the codex® backstage and post station workflow.
• Lightweight: 7.5 kilos with internal recorder and two onboard 14V Li-Ion batteries. Two to five hours‘ autonomy; power dovetailing during changes.
• Designed for earthlings, Delta respects Aaton‘s first commandment : Cat on the Shoulder profile, plus wide flat base for tripod. No eye-strain bright viewfinder with large peripheral coverage. . Rotating mirror shutter; no rolling shutter artifacts.
• Main selector eliminates complex menu navigation and gives direct access to operating functions from both the operator and assistant sides.
• Location sound-mixer friendly, Delta is noiseless in both record and pause ( <19dB ) and offers AES42 input for digi-mics as well as RF transmitted mixdown from audio recorders.
• Unlimited number of cascadable preset 3D LUTs for RAW metadata on one hand, and for on-set control screens on the other.
• 14 stop dynamic range Super35 Dalsa® CCD sensor, 800 and 100 ISO sensitivities (patent pending) eliminate the need for special anti-IR neutral density filters. 90% pixel-fill allows for wide angle lenses with short exit-pupil distance.