A lot of myths on the internet go unchallenged and last for years and years.  We’ve taught over 300 students in our Canon Boot Camps and we find that the myths that started three years ago about the 5D Mark II still spill over to the general perception of the Mark III.

There’s a number of myths about the Mark III that continue to float around.  Test your knowledge of the Canon 5D Mark III.  See which statements below you think are true:

1) TRUE of FALSE - You can’t record quality audio shooting video on the Canon 5D Mark III.

2) TRUE of FALSE - You can’t shoot usable green screen shots with the 4:2:0 color space of the Mark III.

3) TRUE of FALSE - ISO 250 has far less “noise” in the blacks than ISO 640 when shooting video.

4) TRUE of FALSE - The fastest way to get focus on a shot is to zoom in the lens, set focus and then zoom back out again.

5) TRUE of FALSE - If you set the Canon 5D Mark III’s ISO to “Auto” there’s no way to control it shooting video.

6) TRUE of FALSE - The histogram isn’t as good as a traditional, incident meter at determining optimum exposure.

7) TRUE of FALSE - The Mark III shoots files that are roughly 12 minutes long.

For the answers to the above, check back to next week’s Blog.

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/3#sthash.icERYS6E.dpuf

I had two great experiences that I want to share.  They unlocked the door to getting the kind of budgets you need to do a professional project.

I was pitching a video about a top secret helicopter.  There were a number of companies represented around the table because they were each kicking in a part of the budget.

I finished my presentation and told them the budget figure to accomplish the video I had just described.  The video was going to be a “double-wide”, 4 x 3 video projected on a widescreen video wall.  What that meant is that we were going to shoot it in cinemascope (anamorphic) 35mm film and then chop the image in half in telecine so that we’d have a LEFT show and a RIGHT show, each on their own 4 by 3 videotapes.  When the videotapes played back in sync at the convention video wall, it would leave the impression to the viewer that we’d somehow shot cinemascope video.  The video wall would be like watching two huge video screens next to each other.

The point is that it was a complex undertaking and many dollars would go to making it all work seamlessly.

So, the questions started coming from the company reps.  I fielded most of them and finally one came that set off a fight among the company reps.  One man slammed his fist down on the table and said, “Goddammit, we’re gonna fund this project and let this young man get to work on it right now.”

Now that’s a good closing line but one that I wasn’t in the position to use.  Here’s what had happened.  These company reps had been at this for weeks…arguing about the color of the bunting, or the number of chairs to be at the booth, the depth of the carpet and I’d unknowingly walked into the middle of an ongoing fight.  So when I got in trouble on the budget figure one of the reps championed my cause for me.  They voted to go ahead and off I went.

The second time was a similar thing.  I was supposed to meet with the president of the company but he was delayed, so I met with the operations manager.  I hit it off with him.  He was a video guy and had shot many videos himself, although in an amateur class, which he readily admitted.  But here was his chance to work with a professional production team from Hollywood (although our offices are in Burbank, we’re close enough).

So we went through the budget and the big item was the air to air budget. It was almost half as much as the rest of the entire budget.  But the GM knew the intricacies of air to air video shooting and knew that we wanted a gyro-stabilized platform if we were going to do this right.  So, he was closed.   We broke for the day and I went back to the hotel to await the president’s arrival the following day.

I went into the meeting a little on edge because the president was a bean counter and I knew he’d try to slash the air to air budget and basically chop out the vital part of the show.

Anyway, I took a deep breath as I ended my presentation.  To hedge my bets I said we could probably find some places to cut if the air to air budget seemed too steep.  But the president cut me off.  He said he’d already talked to his people about it and he wanted to go first class and get the best air to air shots we could give him.  So everything was approved before I even had to make my pitch.

What had happened in both cases?

I had unknowingly found allies that would fight the budget battles for me.  This made it immeasurably easy to get the kind of money I needed to blow their socks off.  I just hate to do a cheap video.  It impresses no one.  It shortens my career because new clients think all I do is crap so why call me.  I don’t want to show it to anybody. AND, most importantly, it doesn’t DO THE JOB for the client.  So they’ll never hire me again.  I can’t see a single reason to do a cheap video.  It’s like agreeing to take cyanide.  It’s too hard to find a client to let cheap budgets poison the relationship.

So find an ally whose as passionate as you are about doing a great video and sell him and then sit back and let them fight for the budget you need.  Don’t have an ally available? Better read this blog post on how to sell the value of video to your clients.

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/3#sthash.icERYS6E.dpuf

You can’t deny that the Master Painters knew lighting.  Our boot camp filmmakers told us learning better lighting was their #1 concern.

So when we saw Bill Bennett, ASC had traveled to Rembrandt’s studio in Holland and shot his “lighting setup”. article we thought we’d light like the master himself.  (see the complete article in Film & Digital Times – Sept 2012 issue.)

We blocked off the north-facing windows where we teach our Boot Camps for Canon DSLRs. And we draped a white cloth overhead to approximate Rembrandt’s sketch.

Rather than filming a crusty old Rembrandt Van Wyck look-alike, we decided to film our actress, Rachel, who we would costume to resemble ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earring’, Vermeer’s famous painting.  Just seeing her in Rembrandt’s north light with the sheet overhead was breathtaking.

Once in costume, Rachel, brought ‘The Girl’ to life.

Notice the light in the eyes.  We hope Rembrandt and Vermeer are smiling on us. Then we wondered if we could duplicate Rembrandt’s north light setup with a couple of Alzo’s PAN-L lite Quads.  Not that other fixtures couldn’t have done it but Drew had asked us to try some of their lights and this was a perfect opportunity.

We pulled the honeycomb grids out of two QUAD Pan-L lites and installed all 5600 K bulbs, and dropped the Alzo’s diffusing material over them.

Here’s the two lighting setups side by side.  We haven’t retouched them at all.

We wanted the Pan-L lite to be as wide as Rembrandt’s window so we put up two,  but I think we got a little more “wrap” with two Alzo’s side by side.  Our mistake.

This is just how the Canon 5D Mark III saw Rachel (EF 70-200mm f2.8 IS II USM @ 1250 ISO).

CLICK HERE to see a behind the scenes video of the boot camp’s lighting setup.

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As our digital filmmakers indicated, learning how to light is the key to great digital cinematography.  We have two workshops at the Palm Springs Photo Festival at the end of April.  Here’s a link to some of the lighting setups we filmed last year with the Canon 5D Mk II and the Canon 5D Mk III. (below - a scene from ‘Escape’, shot at the Palm Springs Photo Festival workshop.)

Shameless Plug – The PSPF is a delightful confluence of creative filmmakers and photographers in the Spring each year.  We’d highly recommend it if you want to get your creative juices flowing again.

Workshops will be held at the following two locations:

• the Palm Springs Photo Festival 

          (Basic DSLR Workshop April 29 & 30 and Advanced DSLR Workshop May 1 & 2, 2013)

• The Association’s studio next to Warner Brothers in Burbank on May 25th and 26th,.

Please sign up now as attendance is limited so each filmmaker can receive individual attention and enjoy the full benefit of the experience.

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/3#sthash.icERYS6E.dpuf

Too many times filmmakers get in a rut with their lighting.

So we decided to break out.  We did some lighting setups that really showed off the power and versatility of the Canon HDSLRs’ sensors.

In February, we held a Canon Boot Camp and later a HDSLR Lighting Workshop.  In both,  we experimented with more “filmic” lighting set ups.  We basically emulated the “Masters”, both with an artist’s brush and with a camera.

 (The shots below were all done with the Canon 5D MkIII and the magical 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II USM lens….the glass that captures modern filmmakers’  light paintings.)

We emulated Vermeer’s ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earring’.

(below) We changed the background…the rim, the fill…a china ball on camera left.    Alzo’s Pan-L Lite supplying the soft moonlight.

(above) We changed the color temperature to a warm romantic dinner. We bounced an MR16 desk lamp off a white disk below the actress’ face to give a pool of light to reflect in the eyes.

(below) “Rachel 2013′ (w/o Vermeer’s model’s clothing)

(below) And now for something completely different,  Rachel in a “morning” lighting set up.

So, five lighting set-ups that really showed off the power of the Canon 5D Mark III’s sensor’s ability to capture the magic of light.

Our filmmakers were happy to get out of the rut and try out some new fixtures.

We’ll be posting more of our filmmakers’ lighting setups.

I can’t tell you how utterly magical the Mk III is with that 70-200.  It takes your breath away.  Thank you, Canon!

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/3#sthash.icERYS6E.dpuf

The Top Ten Tips on How to Squander your Marketing Budget:

(What follows is the wreckage we’ve witnessed from other ad agencies’ failed campaigns over the years.  For example, those wonderful creative spots that you never forget but you can’t remember the product name and never would buy it in a million years. Just because an idea is edgy and creative doesn’t mean it’ll bring in any return on investment to the client. Some ad agencies just want to win awards.   An effective marketing plan starts with market research data collection…REAL market research where we actually talk to the target audience, not just facts gathered off the internet.)

So here we go. Let’s roll the dice.  The Top Ten Tips on how to squander your marketing budget:

Number 10 - Don’t define your target audience at the beginning of the project.

Number 9 - Don’t define metrics to measure the success of your marketing campaign.

Number 8 - Don’t survey your target audience to find out what they want, how they talk, what moves them, what turns them off i.e. what problem they’re interested in solving that you may have the answer to.

Number 7 - Hire a “cool” ad agency who “knows everything” (but doesn’t actually know your target audience.)

Number 6 - Go with their “cool creative” without testing it on focus group of your target audience.

Number 5 - Let the head of marketing pick the actors to be used instead of test marketing a range of actors.

Number 4 - Make only one commercial.  Don’t test a range of commercials coming from different “personnas*” to see which one moves most of the target audience to do what you want.

Number 3 - Don’t test the top commercial with various demographics.

Number 2 - Hire a production company you can blame if the creative concept fails.

Number 1 - Make a commercial that will win awards to advance your career.

* “persona – A “beingness” for the commercial, i.e. businesslike, or “out-of-the-box”.  For example compare how The Good Hands People sell car insurance versus Geiko or Progressive.  Different personas work with different audiences.

There’s a road to marketing success. While that road isn’t paved with the tips above, we hope they’ll at least be the warning signs to watch out for along the way. Read my counterpart article to find out how to take off the marketing blindfold and blow the top off your marketing efforts.

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/3#sthash.icERYS6E.dpuf

Some would argue that lighting is half the battle in telling a story with film. Really, we are telling story with light. So a technical knowledge of how to set up a camera is important, but it’s not the end all – it’s what you need to know after the shot has been properly lit.

Accordingly, we had many requests for a lighting class to go along with the Canon DSLR 5D classes we started several years ago. Having set the bar pretty high on the DSLR filmmaker training, the Chief Instructor, Fletch Murray, was determined to create a one-of-a-kind lighting workshop that met or exceeded the level of training we provided at the Canon Boot Camp. Many hours and late nights went into developing the course outline and related materials. In his mind, it’s not enough to just TELL students what to do – they need to actually do it hands-on, one step at a time, during the class. 100% proficiency was the goal.

History was made on 2 March 2013 when our first Lighting Workshop was held at our HQ in Burbank, CA. To get a copy of the Lighting Workshop Agenda, visit and “Like” our Facebook Page and simply download the PDF file. Just warning you – it’s two packed pages of hot lighting action.

Instead of going on and on about how great the workshop is, wouldn’t you like to hear from the students themselves? After each class ends, we ask the students to take a moment and give us feedback on various part of the class. So here’s a couple snapshots of the actual surveys two students filled out, so you can have it right from the horse’s mouth.

“Exceeded expectations” is the usual result at our Canon Boot Camps and we have successfully carried the same results over to our lighting workshops. The next lighting workshop is May 25 & 26. At the time of this writing, no other Lighting Workshops have been scheduled, so don’t wait, sign up for the May workshop before it fills up. Got questions? Call us at 818-841-9660 and we’ll be happy to talk to you.

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/4#sthash.FEZaGm4n.dpuf

Every filmmaker wants to “paint with light” for beautiful lighting setups. The ability of the Canon 5D, 7D, 60 D and even the “t’ series to “see” at higher ISO make using CFLs and LEDs tempting.  But with the new CFLs (Compact Florescent Lights) and LEDs it’s hard to get precision light and shadow needed for great filmic looks.

Using CFLs and LEDs is more like having a roller brush instead of the fine brushes that allow you to put highlights and shadows where you want them.   If you want to “paint with light” you have to have the right “brushes”.  In our Lighting Workshop last weekend, we let our filmmakers explore looks they could only achieve with fresnel-lensed fixtures, like Mole Richardson’s Mini-Mole Fresnel Tungsten Light.

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/3#sthash.icERYS6E.dpuf

We’ve all been through it.  We’re talking to the client and we get to the budget part.

They lean back (acting disinterested) and say, “We don’t have much money for the budget. What can you do it for?” Or worse, “We’re taking other bids. How much to shoot a three minute video?”

And you’re tempted to say, “$1,000. a pound.” But you bite your tongue and say something lame like, “That depends on a number of variables.”

Instead, try one of the great lines I’m going to tell you. First, you’ve got to address his question:

“A video is a lot like a car.  If I ask you ‘How much is a car?’ there’s no real answer, is there?  I don’t have a dartboard budget for you because we’re not going to give you an ‘off-the-shelf,’ cookie cutter video.  We are going to design a custom video production that will move your target audience to buy your product or service. And that’s how video can pay for itself. The majority of our videos pay for themselves. Some of them many times over because they’re designed to accomplish your goal.”

(This usually has magical effect on them.  Up ’til now, they’ve had the perception that the video’s an expense.  We’re changing that perception.  We’ll talk more about “perception changing” in a future blog post.)

Here’s the next “perception-changing” line.

“You know when you really want to impress someone you wear your best suit?  That suit tells the prospect everything about you.  So, this video is ‘your suit’ to the viewer.  What do you want them to think?  Audiences are very sophisticated these days. They see network shows with superb graphics and production values.  We’re not going to impress them with a cheap video.  The audience will think either you can’t afford quality or you don’t know what a quality video is. Neither one is very good.”

(Pause.)

“We plan to give you the best value for your money. With us you’ll have the best chance of paying your budget back.  Let us proceed with our creative development process so we can offer you a real budget (not a guess) based on a script custom developed to reach your target audience.  We’re not going to make you a cookie cutter video that doesn’t engage your target audience.  To make a video like that is throwing your money out the window.  Let’s design you a tool that’ll produce results and pay for itself. I hope you’ll let us proceed.”

Listen for the prospect to say, “Okay”.  And get to work on the next steps in the  process.  More on this in upcoming blogs.

Let us know if this was helpful to you.

(Fletch has personally closed clients for $450,000. contracts.  The tips above will be in his upcoming book, “How to Close Clients for 7 Times What They Expected to Pay”)

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/3#sthash.icERYS6E.dpuf

Heidi Marie is a still photographer who desired to add film to her portfolio of abilities. So she came to The Association’s Canon DSLR 5D Boot Camp to learn the video portion of her Canon. Here’s what she had to say after the 2 day workshop was complete and she’d received her Canon certification from us.

Heidi Marie – “Know the camera backwards and forwards.” from The Association/Canon Boot Camp on Vimeo.

I came to the boot camp because I was pretty comfortable with my camera as a still camera, but I didn’t know how to translate it into filming. So I wanted to learn how to use what I knew to make movies. I feel really comfortable with it now. I went home and bragged to all my friends after the first day, and the second day of actually filming, I feel much more secure in promoting myself as a DP.

I would definitely recommend it to anybody. It starts at, like, nothing, assuming you know not even what a camera is, and by the end you know the camera backwards and forwards. So there’s no required skill level. Which I thought was impressive! But if you have some skill, it adds on to it. So it kinda suits all different levels. I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in using a canon.

Need a Los Angeles based still photographer or digital filmmaker as part of your effective marketing plan? Heidi’s local to Los Angeles and may be reached through her website. She’s spunky, full of energy and enthusiastic about everything, and will help bring life to your photographic or video project.

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/4#sthash.FEZaGm4n.dpuf

There’s nothing like the personal touch when it comes to expanding your network. As much as social media is great for increasing the size of your network, if you still haven’t met people in person, they usually remain a stranger.

Just like any other business, culture or group, there’s no replacement for meeting people face to face. Got food? Even better. Liquor can help “improve” conversational skills;  I don’t drink alcohol so I have to rely on my own skills! But you probably know all this already, so what am I sharing today? Meetup.com. The networking social site that helps just about anyone meet who they are looking for, in person.

If you can’t find a group of people already engaged in a specific interest, activity or business, Meetup.com can help you start your own group. Other folks interested in your activity can locate your group on the site, request to join, and then join you in person at various venues. And since everyone on the site is networking, everyone’s already on the same page about getting together.

Here’s an example of how to use Meetup.com to make valuable connections for your business.

The Association has DSLR filmmaker training (think digital filmmaking) every month called the Canon Boot Camp. Now, most of our students already find us online, because we have very good visibility from our blog. I’ve already covered how we achieved such high visibility online through blogging in another blog post, so I won’t retell that story here. Like many other companies, we’ve found that traditional marketing with print and newspaper ads is not effective anymore. So that leaves in-person networking as an alternative to online marketing.

But where to find groups of people in LA that are interested in digital filmmaking? LA411 is not the answer for networking purposes. And if I find filmmakers, how will I connect with them in a meaningful way? Is there a way I can provide value to them first? And how can our first encounter be as non-threatening (not a sales pitch) as possible? Meetup.com has made all of this possible. I was already a member, but if you’re not a member yet, you’ll have to create a profile for yourself first.

After selecting a number of film and DSLR related interests (or whatever you are looking for – suggestions will be offered), Meetup.com will suggest some groups to join. When you find some groups you like, hit the Join button and follow the instructions. More often than not, you will be asked to complete a profile for each group you join. Take the time to answer the questions so that other people will know something about you. The little bit of information you supply can help facilitate the first conversation. Each group has one or more Organizers who run the actual events and maintain the group’s page. The Organizer may or may not need to approve your request.

Once you are part of the group, you have some opportunities to provide value and make a good first impression. The most basic way to participate as a valuable member of any group is to RSVP and actually show up! This helps the organizers plan appropriately, obviously. And you don’t want to be that one guy or girl that always says, “Yes” but never arrives!

Another way to provide value to a Meetup group is to offer a Sponsorships or Perks. Sponsors are able to provide a specific group with something of value to their members, such as discounts, a place to meet or supplies of some kind. Perks are much the same, but are offered to a number of groups through Meetup.com as a more general offer. For example, I offered a $50 discount off of our Canon Boot Camp for members of the Los Angeles Filmmakers Network. The Organizer approved my offer, and even posted it on their Facebook Page. Literally a few minutes later, I was contacted by a member of the LAFN asking about the class. It can be that fast.

Once you are a member of a group, you can contact other members directly and start a conversation by email. This can be useful to set up an in-person conversation at the next Meetup, if you locate someone that appears to be a good connection for your business. However, avoid starting with a sales pitch or spam as members may report you and you could be kicked out of the group, defeating the purpose of networking.

Is there another networking group or site you’ve had success using? Tell us about it in the comments box below, we’d love to hear your suggestions or tips.

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/4#sthash.FEZaGm4n.dpuf