Excerpt from the Canon Boot Camp Manual

How Big Is Big?

It’s interesting to point out here that the 5D’s sensor is as big as the RED Epic.

Take a look at the illustration below:

The lavender area is the size of Canon’s 5D sensor.

In other words, the Canon’s 5D is HUGE.

Find the Alexa’s sensor (2880 x 1620). The RED Scarlet has a sensor measuring 3072 x 1620. Even the new Canon C300 is smaller, at 3840 x 2160. The 5D is bigger than all of them, at 5616 x 3744 pixels. It just can’t push a sensor full of data at 30 frames per second . . . YET!  That will probably take faster circuitry which means heat, which means fans and a different camera body.  Even Canon’s new C300 doesn’t have a sensor as big as the 5D Mark II.

Many expect that the Canon 5D Mark III will improve the output specs of this camera, which is already a favorite in Hollywood. Canon introduced their new cinema camera, the C300, with a sensor dimension of 3840 x 2160. That’s 34 percent bigger than the Alexa.

The C300 is also capable of shooting at 3200 ISO with no noise. In fact, skin tones look their best in camera tests at 3200 ISO. It has tiny fans to cool the sensor! AND it has less problems with moiré patterns.

The Canon 5D Mark II still beats the C300 with a 5616 x 3744 sensor image. So in a way, the 5D is still a great choice for filmmakers on a budget.

Download the full Canon Boot Camp Reference Manual from our Facebook Page.

Pretty much anyone involved in custom video production is going to tell you video is an important part of any effective marketing plan. And we’ve all seen those videos with millions of views that make it to the top of the list. With that kind of example, the idea of having a viral video can get tweaked in the wrong direction.

First off, a viral video doesn’t mean that it has to have millions of views. That’s good for small business owners. If you own a small coffee house with a local clientele, is it really going to help you if millions of people see your viral video?

Here’s another problem. What determines when a video will be viral? Many of the viral videos went viral due to their entertainment value. Funny, amazing, interesting or whatever it was that clicked and it just got shared by a LOT of people all at once. Some of those moments just happened to have been captured on camera and weren’t rehearsed.

And how many funny commercials have you seen that everyone can talk about, but they don’t remember what company or product was being represented. They remember the video, but couldn’t tell you the product.

What’s the point of all the promotion if it doesn’t lead to sales? NOTHING!

I offer you this advice. Get busy creating content on a blog, including video content. Make sure you include written descriptions on YouTube or wherever you’re hosting your content since search engines can’t “read” video, which hinders indexing (for search results).

Here’s the hot tip. If you share all of that content on social networks like Facebook people have the chance to share the content. If you write and video about OTHER people and share it with them, they sometimes share it with their friends who share it with their friends.

Even if you don’t get millions of hits, you can get twenty, thirty or more hits you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Free exposure. Who’s to say what might happen if you do it consistently? And if it’s being shared, even by just a view, it still is viral. It might not be famous, but it’s viral.

On of the most popular blog posts we had was written about an actor we’ve used in our Canon Boot Camp several times. I interviewed her, wrote a blog post promoting her work with us, and the other projects she was doing, and shared it with her on Facebook after I posted it on our blog. She went on to share it with her network, and before long, we’d had nearly 100 hits on the article.

So just consistently create and share content and you’ll win out over about 80% of your online competition.

And while you’re here, if this article helped you in any way, please share it on Facebook or Linkedin!

Excerpt from the Canon Boot Camp Manual

As you squeeze down a 21 megapixel picture 10 times to fit the 2.0 megapixel picture High Def TV (HDTV) requires, lines of information begin to overlap. This is extraneous information not needed to form the much smaller HDTV picture.

The HDTV frame size was so small that Canon could actually eliminate the two-thirds of information it was processing. This further reduced the demand on the circuit boards.

So Canon’s 5D (and 7D) circuits only output every third line and still retain a High Def TV (2.0 megapixel) picture.

5616 pixels wide / 3 = 1872 pixels wide

3744 pixels tall / 3 = 1248 pixels wide

Then, they worked a little magic and give or take a few pixels, Canon had a 1920 x 1280 picture.

RECAP: They reduced the volume of data coming off the sensor, making it possible for the circuitry to process HighDef, 30-frame-per-second video without putting cooling fans and faster processing cards into the Canon 5D. It’s called line skipping.

LINE SKIPPING: The 5D Mark II and the 7D are “line skipping” cameras when in movie mode. They skip two-thirds of the lines of information. The 7D’s sensor is physically smaller than the 5D’s but still holds 5184 x 3456 pixels.

Download the full Canon Boot Camp Reference Manual from our Facebook Page.

Excerpt from the Canon  Boot Camp Reference Manual

Canon EOS Cameras – The 1D, 5D, 60D, 7D, T3i, and T2i are in the family of digital still cameras. Hundreds of Canon lenses are available for these Canon cameras.

EOS stands for Electro-Optical System. There are electrical contact points on these lenses so the camera’s computer can operate the lens f-stop and focus. Data about the camera settings also passes from the lens to the picture data.

The EF lenses have an “Electronic Focus” capability. Data from the sensor is transmitted to the lens to adjust focus until the sharpest picture is found. The EF lens is popular and other manufacturers make EF lenses.

Canon EF lenses are available all over the world. You can rent them easily and you’re never far away from a back-up lens if you need one.

Download the full Canon Boot Camp Reference Manual from our Facebook Page.

Does your marketing development strategy ignore women?

According to The Nielsen Company, the majority of visitors to social networks and blogs are of the fairer sex.  The highest concentration age-wise is the 18-34 year range. If you think about it, it makes sense because in real life women are naturally better networkers anyway. Well, at least the ones I know are better networkers!

Check out the messages going out on your Facebook Pages and the articles on your blogs. Would they be appealing to women as well as men? Obviously, if the entire site is dedicated to women already, there’s probably no issue. But what about business like auto repair, typically a male-dominated industry pre-internet, or even a sort of “neutral” business like pet stores?

I’m not suggesting that all of your enterprise social media posts and articles be aimed at women exclusively – just suggesting you review or audit current and past postings to assess who you’re really talking to 24/7 online.  And follow it up with content and altering your website to appeal more to women as well, if necessary. Because once people find your blog or social presence, landing on your website is usually just a link away. So the rest of your presence needs to be congruent as well.

Not sure how your content comes across? Well, ask your female friends for their opinion! Then listen to them and take action.

We have been busy busy at the Canon Boot Camp.

Three years of training hundreds of students, and boy do we have it down. We’ve been exceeding training expectations at our Canon DSLR 5D Boot Camp longer than anyone in town. This isn’t training for the faint of heart either! It’s fun and students really appreciate our hands-on approach.  The Canon Boot Camp is down and dirty training and students walk away with, not only “dirty hands,” but amazing footage they can use on their own reel.

And they get our Canon Certification as well as a listing on our website.

Check out our most recent short film,  a romantic one to boot, created from Canon Boot Camp footage, entitled, “The Sonnet.”  And there’s more short films on the way. Make sure to stay tuned and sign up for our newsletter if you’re not already getting our updates!

Over the past three years, we have worked constantly to upgrade and improve the class as much as possible. There is a specific result we are going for in each student. We don’t want to just listen to ourselves talk. We’ve all been to one of those seminars, right? No, we want you to walk out the door with increased ability and a certainty that your money was well spent. So hundreds of hours (maybe even a couple thousand if you include the on-the-ground-work and training we’ve done) have gone into course improvements.

Take the Canon Boot Camp Reference Manual, for example. Did you know you can get a preview of Pro Level I before you take the class, for FREE? Yes, you can download the Canon Boot Camp Reference Manual right from our Facebook Page, at no cost to you.

Once you’re at the class, we take a lot of care to ensure each person, beginner and pro, really understands AND CAN APPLY the course information.

During this 3-year developmental period, we have kept the cost of the class low. But now we find that in order to expand, we must raise the investment required by each student slightly so we can continue to improve and expand. So the cost of each boot camp will raise incrementally by $75 each month until January 2013, where it will stabilize at the new higher amount.

We’ve created registration forms for each class from now until Jan 2013. If you’ve been considering coming to a Boot Camp, you can still get in at the current investment of just under $700 (covers both days, including lunches) by attending the August Boot Camp. But after the August boot camp the amount will go up.

If you’re reading this prior to January 2013, the upcoming events are all listed on the right side of this blog. Just find the date you’re interested in and click on it, and you’ll be able to access the new pricing. And of course, you may always contact us via email or by phone.

Considering signing up for the Canon Boot Camp, but wondering what we cover exactly? Read the Canon Boot Camp Reference Manual and find out!

We are into our third year of training people on the Canon HDSLR. As part of our mission to educate amateur and industry pros alike, we have created a reference manual to accompany our hands-on “Active Learning” method. It was written just before the Canon 5D Mark III came out, so most of the references are to the 5D Mark II. The cameras don’t vary that much in the topics being discussed. A Mark III does shoot at 60 frames per
second and the Mark II can only shoot up to 30 frames per second. Other characteristics mentioned are not that different between the cameras.

The Purpose of the Canon Boot Camp Reference Manual

The purpose of this reference manual is to prepare students for the Canon Boot Camp, orient you to the HDSLR, and lay the groundwork for the drills we’ll do. It may answer questions you’ve always had about this area. It also includes an appendix with useful information pertaining to the Boot Camp, but the appendix is only available to students who sign up for the two day class.

Have you ever been in a class where the words go in one ear and out the other? That happens when you’re unfamiliar with something the person is talking about. This reference helps keep that from happening. It prepares students for the Boot Camp, orients them to the HDSLR, and lays the groundwork for the drills we’ll do. Download your own free copy of the Reference Manual from our Facebook Page.

Why don’t we just tell you what to do?

We don’t like people who tell others what to do. You’re not a robot. How well you can use your camera depends on your understanding of it. Plus, another person’s solutions may work in certain situations, but they may not necessarily work for you. You should decide for yourself, based on your own understanding. That way you’re at cause over the camera, and not a robot. That’s why we do hands-on learning with our course checklist.

You’ll “learn by doing.”

Lectures can be boring. We take a different route to learning—a revolutionary route. The Canon Boot Camp is all about you learning the camera by doing drills. Doing the drills ensures that you understand and can apply what you’ve learned.

What is a checklist?

When you take the Boot Camp, you’ll be given a course checklist—a list of the steps you’ll take to complete the Canon Boot Camp Pro Level One. We’ve included a checklist for this Reference Manual too. It’s designed so you can go through it at your own pace and understand each step. the classes are a lot of fun and I hope we’ll see you at the next Canon Boot Camp.

What’s the end result of the Boot Camp?

It’s simple—the end result of the Boot Camp is a student who knows and can successfully apply the knowledge contained in this course to operate the Canon HDSLR effectively. But don’t take our word for it! Our graduates will be happy to tell you themselves:

In these modern times, every step seems to bring us vis-à-vis with yet another advertisement. Some ads are cool, some are boring and some are lame, but we are subjected to them just the same. I’ve heard the average American will see 3,000 to 6,000 marketing messages just in a day.

Whole industries have come about just to help us avoid getting interrupted. The latest I’ve heard about is The Hopper, from Dish.com.

This DVR can record up to 6 HD channels at once and skip ads altogether. No more fast forwarding. Cool! Now if I only watched TV, maybe I would get one. But my point is this; it’s only a matter of time before consumers fight back when they are constantly interrupted in the middle of something they like. This puts advertisers in a difficult position, apparently. The old method of advertising, the “tried and true” is to interrupt your victim briefly with your ad in the hopes that he or she will bound to the telephone and immediately purchase.

That is, if they aren’t interrupted by another ad while on the way to the phone.

How in love are people with being constantly interrupted? I don’t know of anyone who enjoys interruptions. So how to get around it?

By using the two biggest tools in your marketing arsenal. If these two big guns are sitting on a shelf in your closet, it’s time to get them out and dust them off:

1. Google Search
2. Email Newsletters and Event Marketing

Google Search

If you have a person who’s able to access the World Wide Web, you have someone who’s at least somewhat familiar with searching on Google. Pretty much regardless of age. They may not know all the tips and tricks of search, but they know they can write what they are looking for in the little white box, and get a bunch of instant (and free) answers back. There’s only two questions you need to be able to answer “YES!” to after that search happens:

• Do you know what search terms your potential customers use when Google searching for a solution to their problem? A solution they would pay you to provide if they could find you?
• Does your web presence show up in the top 10 results for search phrases relevant to your business?

Google search is an important tool because everyone online uses it.

Email Marketing

This one is even more important if you’ve been around for awhile and have an existing customer base.

Ask yourself: What’s the first online tool you wanted to have that would allow you to communicate almost instantly with other people, instead of waiting for a letter to be mailed across the country (or across the street).  Did you think of AOL? “You’ve got mail!” Yep, that’s it. An email account, right? Email has been around a LONG time. So long, in fact, that pretty much everyone has an email address, even if they don’t use the Internet for anything else.

An email address belonging to a potential customer OR a past customer is extremely valuable. It puts your company in the driver’s seat because you can reach out and, without interrupting, tap people on their virtual shoulder to remind them you’re available as a resource. If current and potential customers don’t have a way to sign up for information they are interested in, you are throwing money out the window when you market and attract interest.

Email marketing is an important too, because everyone has an email address. Even if they aren’t on Facebook (God forbid!).

Social media is great, but it has a couple of built in problems.  In most cases, the profile accounts are free, so you don’t own your account. It could be deleted at any time. That would be awkward. And the social media landscape is only going to get more cluttered as the “Big Budget” companies crowd in on the small business owners who managed to get social first.

The Solution? Blogs and Email Marketing.

The simple explanation is that blogs show up well in search results (even if you suck at SEO you can still get good results by writing engaging content relevant to your audience).

Email marketing puts you in control and can help you drive business to your sites and offers as long as you have a valid email address and a product or service worth offering.

Stay tuned to this blog to learn more about email marketing and content creation tips, or feel free to comment below with your questions or areas of concern.

So what do we do at boot camp? What do we learn? How do we learn it? If you had any of these questions in your mind, then you’re in luck! although the class is far more detailed than the breakdown below, this will give you a general idea of how our December 10th Pro Level l day went, so that you can see what goes on in the workshop! 

12:00 – Fletcher Murray, President of the Association and one of the boot camp teachers, introduces himself, his apprentice and aid Celine Duong, and cinematographer Tom Myrdahl. We explain what we at The Association actually do and our boot camp’s purpose. 

12:15 –  Fletcher shows us a video about what the company does with the 5D/7D. Right after that, we ask you what your reason for taking the class is so that we can get to know you and understand your specific needs. 

12:30 – Camera Orientation! Our teachers go through, in detail, the basics of your camera and have you demonstrate as we go along. 

1:00 – Camera Operation! How do you set up your camera to get a good shot? You get to demonstrate this after the lesson to let us know you understood it. 

2:00 – Break 

2:20 – *The Drill* How to keep your cool in a high anxiety situation. We’ll teach you how to stay focused when a producer is on you tail while you’re trying to fiddle with the camera. 

3:20 – Our assistant teacher, Celine Duong, teaches our students how to offload shots to hard drives . 

4:00 – Break 

4:20 – Guest Speaker Dana Christiaansen talks to students about his work, gives us tips, and shows us a cool film he DP’d that demonstrates the EOS C300. Q & A afterwards. 

5:20 –  We  talk to our students about Digital Filming workflow. 

5:30 – We go over a list of things that could really screw you up, and teach you how to avoid them!

5:45 – Time to take your exit exam and demonstrate how much you’ve learned.

6:00 – You’re done. We take a group picture and you get to display you’re awesome certificate.  

Our students left with much more knowledge than they came in with, and were able to demonstrate that knowledge. We really believe in this program, not only because we make sure to include every relevant lesson you can think of, but because it produces great results. We really hope to see you there!

As the Producer of our Canon Boot Camp events, I always look forward to the contributions of our sponsors. We just recently added a sponsor, Zabolight, and received two 1X1 panel lights just before our last boot camp. And we put them to good use!

Thomas Myrdahl, our DP extraordinaire, mentioned Zabolights to us after using them on a shoot, which was how we came across them in the first place.

“I used the Zabo lights on a web commercial. We were in a mixed light environment, and the Zablolights with their variable kelvin dial and dimmer allowed us to work fast and keep our look constant. I really like the Zabolights.”  Tom Myrdahl, Director of Photography

Zabolights are getting popular, and for good reason. We really enjoyed having them on the set for the Canon Boot Camp. They are extremely portable and lightweight, being LED lights. The battery pack lasts forever, but you can still use the adapter to plug in if required. The  built in dimmer switch saves us time and being able to dial in more tungsten color or daylight color with a knob is especially handy.

Here’s a short video highlighting a couple aspects of the Zabolight, such as it’s bicolor feature.

When I looked into these lights further, it turns out they are already being used on a number of productions. I just wished we’d heard about them sooner!