We’ve written about the music-licensing start-up Music Vine before. They are another player in the steadily growing music licensing industry and one that you should keep an eye on. Now the UK based licensing platform has teamed up with cinema5D and give you 5 free songs and licenses for any commercial web project. The music licensing world is ripe with platforms, offering a variety of business models. We probably are all familiar with the big players like PremiumBeat.com or The Music Bed, with vast, established music libraries and streamlined search engines. Music Vine is among the newer sites and they share the space with fresh start-ups like Filmstro, Art-List or soundstripe. Whichever platform serves your project best, the variety of offerings and competing pricing models are definitely a win for us, the filmmakers, as long as the artists on the other end of the deal are rewarded adequately. After all, let’s not forget, that this is really what music licensing platforms are about: To help us find and make a fair deal with music artists that support our projects with those creations they put their heart and sweat into. To hear more about this topic, check out our On the Go episode on the matter. Music Vine Giveaway In an effort to get Music Vine’s name out, they have agreed to give something of value to our readers. We hope you enjoy the music and licenses they offer and we’d love to see what you create with it, so feel free to share your work in the comments. If you haven’t grabbed the free song license yet, make sure to do it soon, because the giveaway will only be available for a limited time as Music Vine is ramping up to release the new version of their website soon. You can download the tracks and song license via the form below. Make sure you enter a valid e-mail address in order to receive the links. Note that we will not forward your e-mails to third parties and you can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time. Also make sure to click the download links immediately as they will expire within 24 hours. Last time we did a promo like that, hundreds of people ended up with expired links which had to be made available manually, so please do not wait with the process. [UPDATE:] The giveaway has ended.   For more information on Music Vine, read our news coverage or go to their website.

Do you work with a DJI Mavic Pro? Then you probably know that the footage from the DJI Mavic Pro camera is not particularly nice out of the box. In our DJI Mavic Pro review we took a closer look at the camera quality and created a DJI Mavic Pro LUT that we are giving away for free. DJI Mavic Pro LUT – cinema5D instaLUT FREE Note that this LUT is not made to be used on videos shot with the D-LOG setting. Instead this basic LUT should be applied on standard picture setting. It is ideal for people who don’t want to tamper around with the drone too much and who want to see the full colors and clarity during shooting, but still get a nice and filmic look in post. Download: [ulp id=”oe5TGdcm3uFUNSri”] To get our DJI Mavic Pro LUT we ask only that you subscribe to our newsletter and in turn you will get the download link sent to your e-mail. This is a double opt-in and will not work with fake e-mails. Your e-mail address stays with us. No spam or third parties and you can of course unsubscribe if you don’t like the weekly newsletter whenever you receive one. We hope you will enjoy our future content and stay on board. Here are a few shots where you can see the LUT applied to DJI Mavic Pro footage. These shots have the look applied with a 100% intensity and no other modifications. DJI Mavic Pro LUT (right) applied to original DJI Mavic Pro footage (left). instaLUT W3010 DJI Mavic Pro LUT (right) applied to original DJI Mavic Pro footage (left). instaLUT W3035 DJI Mavic Pro LUT (right) applied to original DJI Mavic Pro footage (left). instaLUT N3010 DJI Mavic Pro LUT (right) applied to original DJI Mavic Pro footage (left). instaLUT N3035 Note that this Mavic Pro LUT is optimized for landscape and aerial photography and is not ideal for skin tones. If you like this LUT, also check out our free Inspire 1 LUT. I recommend grading in Adobe Premiere Pro CC if you are familiar with it, but these .cube LUT files can also be used in any other software that supports LUTs on Windows or Mac. In my Mavic Review I applied both LUT with an intensity of 100% and did not change any other settings. You can always play with the look intensity and other basic setting to get nice look variants as desired. Note: If you don’t receive an e-mail after submitting, please contact us.

You know the scene: it’s a Friday night, and you’re sitting slumped in the couch, beer in one hand, box of tissues in the other, the raindrops that drip down the windowpane but a reflection of your own tears. You turn to your desk where your documentary, your baby – your first, perhaps – lies abandoned as a timeline in a screen, an incomplete caterpillar of clips and transitions going nowhere. OK, so perhaps the scene is not so bleak. But you will for sure agree that it is not uncommon to see creative projects grind to a halt well into their production process. If your thing is documentaries, and you’re struggling with the final touches, then you might be in for some good news. The Tribeca Film Institute has opened its application process for the annual Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, an initiative to provide financial aid for the production and finishing stages of documentary film projects with a strong focus on social issues. Since its creation, the fund has supported 54 films, providing almost a million dollars in funding. The fund provides grants in the region of $10,000 to $25,000 to between 4 and 10 films each year, with an additional award providing further funding for projects focusing on youth and women around the world and their contribution to their communities. The best part? Applications to the fund are open internationally, as long as the content has English subtitles and is suitable for an American audience. So, what do you need to apply? Apart from an online application, you need to provide a 3-page treatment introducing the major characters and plot points, and include an artistic statement and total estimated budget. Also, at least 7 minutes of A-roll to illustrate the subject, tone and approach of the documentary project. There is no entry fee to the application and even projects in the earlier stages of production are eligible, provided they fulfill these criteria. Submissions are accepted until 5th February 2016. Below you can find the trailer for the 2014 fund grantee “A Flickering Truth” (read a review here), a film whose subject matter will no doubt strike a nerve with filmmakers and cinephiles. For more information, visit tribecafilminstitute.org

For different camera manufacturers, there are different “gurus” who have emerged over the years, or often decades. Those are users who dived deep into the technology of cameras early on, and have loyally stuck with one manufacturers over all those years, and thereby becoming the go-to-guys for that brand. For example, you might know Alister Chapman (and his amazing blog XDCAM-User), who’s name is directly linked to Sony camera technology – he’s the one who always knows first and best about everything Sony. Alister’s equivalent on the Panasonic side of things is Barry Green, the man who gained prominence through Jarred Land’s DVXUSER.com, an amazing forum site that emerged when the original Panasonic DVX100 was released in the early 2000’s. The DVX100A was my personal first “professional” camera, spending a good chunk of my student savings at the time on that MiniDV camcorder (which was one of the first ones to be able to record progressive frames – in SD, of course). Barry became the go-to-guy for anyone who was using this camera, which became a smash hit – all the DVX100 users were on there, sharing tips and tricks. As the world moved into DSLR filmmaking and later other higher-end professional affordable video cameras, forums like DVXUSER have managed to stay relevant to a degree as one of the most civilized and useful forums in our industry. To make a long story short – when Panasonic release the “rebirth” of the legendary DVX100 in form of the DVX200 (a 4K solid-state camcorder with a fixed lens) earlier this year (here’s our news post), it was clear that it’s only a matter of time before Barry releases his thoughts and tips for the usage of this newly developed and quite feature-packed camera to the world. And now, excitingly, Panasonic released a 279-page Panasonic DVX200 book by Barry Green, available as a free download from the Panasonic website (click here). Whether you’re in the market for this camera or own it already, it’s certainly the best and most comprehensive resource for this still very new camera.   From Panasonic’s Press Release: NEWARK, NJ (December 10, 2015) – Panasonic has announced the immediate availability of Barry Green’s A Guide to the Panasonic AG-DVX200 Camera, a comprehensive reference e-book for customers and users of the new  AG-DVX200PJ  4K large-sensor, 4/3” handheld camcorder. The book can be downloaded free at http://info.panasonic.com/dvx200-ebook.html.   A Guide to the Panasonic AG-DVX200 Camera is an interactive digital book examining all the DVX200PJ’s features, settings and modes, as well as tutorials on some of the most common situations users will face. The book demystifies the functionality of all the DVX200PJ’s features, and explains when and why to use specific settings for best results. An extensive section of tutorials and essays covers a range of subjects from the simple to the advanced, including explanations on the benefits of 4K, working with the camcorder’s variable frame rates, using its VLOG-L mode, and how to use the waveform monitor and vectorscope. The full-color, 260+-page book has an abundance of photos, screen-shots and video examples of menu functions.   Barry Green is an Emmy®-award-winning producer with four Emmy nominations for writing and producing television commercials and public service announcements. His technical background includes 13 years as a professional computer programmer and producer for Westwood Studios, creating some of the most popular video games in history. Green writes and produces award-winning corporate and industrial films, commercials, screenplays and films for Fiercely Independent Films Inc. and tours extensively as a public speaker and instructor. He also serves as partner and moderator for www.DVXUser.com, one of the world’s largest online communities for filmmakers, shooters, and content producers of all types.

Do you work with a DJI Inspire 1? Then you probably know that the footage from the Inspire 1 camera is not so nice out of the box. Following the success of the Mastering Drone Footage tutorial series we’re giving away the LUT I used. Many people asked for the LUT I made as a help to grade their drone footage, so here it is. But first here are a few shots where you can see the LUT applied to DJI Inspire 1 footage. These shots have the look applied with a 100% intensity and no other modifications. DJI Inspire 1 LUT (right) applied to ungraded DJI Inspire 1 footage (left). Note that this LUT is optimized to boost green and blue colors and to neutralise clouds and sky magenta/yellow shift. It is not ideal for skin tones. I recommend grading in Adobe Premiere Pro CC if you are familiar with it. Import the LUT directly in the Lumetri Color Panel (Creative –> Look) and then adjust your settings for each shot as needed. For my film I usually applied the LUT with an intensity of about 50% and did the rest directly in the Lumetri Panel’s basic settings. This way you can get nice variants of intensity as desired. It will look great and filmic when saturation is lowered. To get my DJI Inspire 1 LUT we ask only that you subscribe to our newsletter and in turn you will get the download link sent to your e-mail. This is a double opt-in and will not work with fake e-mails. Your e-mail address stays with us. No spam or third parties and you can of course unsubscribe if you don’t like the weekly newsletter whenever you receive one. [ulp id=”VkntQiG7VPTFHcFD”]

Philadelphia-based director of photography Mitch Martinez has made more than 1,500 4K clips available for download for free on his website – including commercial use. All of the clips were shot on RED Epic Dragon, Epic MX and RED One cameras. The clips can be downloaded for free on a per-clip basis in MP4 format from archive.org servers, or alternatively as a whole multi-part .ZIP package with 120GB for $99, or sent on a hard drive. The clips are well organized into 35 categories, and he shot the footage all across the US. Clicking through a number of clips, I have to say that he has a great eye and talent for composition, so these are definitely very, very good stock footage clips that can be used in all kinds of productions. To prevent people from reselling his footage, Mitch requires people to fill out a license form just to tell him what the clips are being used for, if they are commercial projects. He reserves the right to decline but says he hardly ever does. We reached out to Mitch, asking him why he is giving away all these clips for free. His reply: For the commercial usage, the footage is still free (often a concern).  How it works:  the commercial use license agreements forms are requested by users on a per project basis through a page on my website.  It’s a quick form to fill out.  If a user has multiple projects, just fill out multiple forms.  I’ve seen a person submit ten different request forms in one day – and then a handful more the following day; all of those forms were approved.  I’m really easy going about the license agreement stuff but have it in place to make sure people aren’t trying to resell my content, trying get a blanket release form, or wanting to use every single clip I’ve ever created for every commercial project they’ll do in the future.  That’s pretty much why the license agreements I issue are per project – the issued license agreement grants usage of every single clip in the free 4K library for that specific project.  That’s a lot of content – I’ve seen music videos created solely from my stock content…  Since it’s free, the license agreements also help me keep track of how my footage is being used (thus the notable stock footage usage section).  Officially, no payment is ever required for the free 4K content – although donations are accepted and greatly appreciated.  :) I tried to set up a system that is user friendly.  The downloads are easy.  There are video previews for all of the clips.  The format for the free 4K content is mp4 files.  For those with needs for ProRes or RED files, I’ve made that format content available for available for the fraction of most industry stock prices.   The overall goal is to help the film community by sharing my footage with the world.  It evolved really organically – starting with just two clips of fire that I uploaded to my website in January 2013 and shared with my Facebook friends.  After time, Google search results led more and more people to my website so I needed to develop official license agreements due to the volume of clips and number of users.  Originally, each release form I issued was created manually in Microsoft Word to create the pdf, so it wasn’t long before I needed software development to help generate approved release forms for users.  A year ago, it would take me five or six minutes to issue one license agreement manually; now I can approve a license agreement and send it to the user in a matter of seconds.  This allows me to get the release forms to users promptly.  The latest addition has been purchasing/licensing options of ProRes and original R3D files for larger projects that need that extra quality (ProRes/RED clips aren’t free for various reasons including bandwidth issues). It’s very rewarding to contribute to the film community, the entertainment of people, and educational applications (I love issuing release forms to museums, orchestras, and other cultural resources).   All of the footage in the free 4K stock footage resource was filmed by me throughout the past 5 or 6 years.  I’ve had assistants for some of the shots – but there aren’t any outside DP contributors to the 4K content in terms of filming – nothing along the lines “John Smith filmed this category of content – or clips X/Y/Z”.  All of the footage was captured on RED Epic Dragon, RED Epic MX, or RED One MX for the earliest clips. A little about Mitch Martinez I’m a Philadelphia-area based DP and have been filming since 2003.  I started filming on RED in 2008 back in the original RED One days (pre-MX sensor).  I’ve filmed internationally for commercials and documentaries in four different countries; shot about 40 or 50 music videos to date (give or take); worked on a handful of features; and countless other miscellaneous projects (commercials/industrials/etc).  I have a very exciting project that will be released in a few weeks (more on that later).  :)  I love to work with advanced cinematography systems including motion control systems, moco time lapse, and other crazy stuff to push the limits of what I can do visually.  Overall, I love filming and creating imagery.

In an continuing effort to push sales of their first camera, the CION, AJA just announced that they are giving out free loans of their CION camera to interested shooters. My colleague Sebastian Wöber reviewed the camera earlier this year with very mixed results, with cinema5D being the first medium to cover the camera extensively. In a surprising move, AJA dropped the price by almost 50% in May, and now loans it out for free for people who want to test it on their own projects. It’s great to see a manufacturer reacting as open as this to criticism and user feedback. AJA has a long-standing history of providing reliable tools for the post production industry, but they are new to the highly competitive camera market, and as Blackmagic Design have already shown in their first years as camera makers, no expert has ever grown on trees – but everyone’s getting better over time. To sign yourself up for a free AJA CION loan, head over to the AJA #TRYCION website to fill out the form. There are separate programs for North America (click here) and EMEA region (click here). Of course, AJA reserves the right to deny this service to anyone, it’s only logical that they want to know a bit more about you before handing over an expensive piece of kit with a bunch of accessories for free. However the questions you need to answer are reasonable, simply telling them what kind of cameras you usually shoot with, what workflow you are using and what type of productions you specialize in. And of course, for how many days you would actually want a CION. If any of our readers tries the CION themselves, we’d be very happy to get your feedback about it and how the camera worked for you compared to our experience.

EDIT: Philip wanted to add in regards to his “fast access to audio levels” comment, that it can be done as follow: Settings-Custom key settings- Custom button (3 is easy to access)-Audio Rec Level. Now you can access your level directly. The Sony A7s has become the turn-to camera for many smaller run-and-gun purposes due to its size, its video functionality (including proper XAVC S codec, peaking, zebra …) and the incredible low-light performance. In fact, whenever I attend industry meetings like NAB or when I’m giving workshops I’m constantly amazed how omnipresent this camera has become in so little time, after it was introduced about a year ago. It certainly has taken over our cinema5D office here, with every team member using the camera constantly, and me personally owning 2 by now … The market is much different from 5 years ago, when the Canon 5D Mark II was first introduced, with many more large-sensor cameras to chose from. However, it is fair to say that the Sony A7s has taken the spot of the 5D in the same price bracket, which is easy to see considering how omnipresent the camera is these days. Late last year, my friend Philip Bloom has given a free Sony A7s workshop at our main site sponsor’s headquarters B&H in New York for a selected few. Attendees were to shoot a short film with the A7s in a short amount of time. Before they went out to gather their footage, Philip ran through the most important settings of the camera which you absolutely need to know in order to shoot proper video with the Sony A7s. People who are used to shooting with the A7s might know most of what is discussed in this video already. However, I urge every A7s user to watch it – there’s a few things that many people certainly weren’t aware of before: Some interesting topics covered in this free seminar, among many other things: • Different gamma curves in different Picture Profiles (e.g. Cine2, Cine3, Cine4 or SLOG2) • Detail/Sharpness settings • Dual video file recording with XAVC S and MP4 proxies (which can be transferred to your smartphone to be posted online right away) • How to expose properly with this camera (avoiding noise) • Setting up audio for internal and external recording (attention: Philip told me he made a mistake in this seminar – there actually is a way to change audio levels during recording, but you have to assign audio to a custom button to do that) • Frame guides for different aspect ratios • external HDMI quirks