Recently my brother and I have been doing some filming on the highways, byways and shopping malls of our fair country. Even in London this is an activity which usually draws a casual glance and often provokes strangers to conversation. However we’ve noticed a change in what they’re talking about. In the past, when a stranger stopped us to ask about our filming they’d generally be asking about the subject matter. “Is this going to be on TV then?”, “Is…

Tonight filmmaker Jim Owen is screening his short film “Can We Talk” in South London’s finest tucked away cinema, the Shortwave. I’ve managed to double book myself and so can’t make it however my newly bald brother is going and you should too because “Can We Talk” is an exceptionally funny movie that showcases Jim’s deliciously dry style… If you are going to go then here’s a link to Jim’s blog about his adventures in Sundance where the film received…

OK if you’re interested in the new DSLR revolution then you’ve probably already seen this, but just in case – click on this link to see some pretty astounding evidence of how these little cameras hold up against film… http://www.zacuto.com/shootout

This is the follow on of the previous entry which, because of the way the internet works, is of course published below. I split them up to make it easier to digest and because they are clearly two halves of a single point so it’s up to you, you can either scroll drown and read the first one first or start here and do your own private version of Memento… Perhaps now the vanilla version of the NPA has crumbled…

Having stuck around a day more in Paris after the end of The European Independent Film Festival so that I could mooch around Le Jardin Luxembourg and find out that Lucien Freud is just as much of a fan of dogs as I am, I arrived home yesterday to find a small cross over in film culture had occurred. Tuesday marked the release by Canon of a firmware update enabling the 5D Mark II to shoot in both 24 and…

More RED techie thoughts, this time from underwater cameraman and RED expert Andy McLeod… Can’t see the video? Click here – http://shootingpeople.org/blog/category/bensblog/2010/03/andy-mcleod/

Geeks click on the link to read prolost… Developed following feedback from photographers and cinematographers, Firmware 2.0.3 further enhances the EOS 5D Mark II’s excellent video performance. The addition of new frame rates expands the camera’s video potential, providing filmmakers with the ability to shoot 1080p Full HD footage at 24fps (actual 23.976fps)—the optimum frame rate for cinematic video. 25fps support at both 1920×1080 and 640×480 resolutions will allow users to film at the frame rate required for the PAL…

And last in my round-up of current competitive delight… the grand daddy of them all… the superb MO FILM competition which, being good members of Shooting People, is enhanced for you by the additional chance to win a Canon 5D. All the information you need is here http://shootingpeople.org/mofilm. International, serious names attached and offering a seriously career changing prize… if you’re entering one competition this month or next then it has to be MO FILM. Doesn’t it?

When filmmaker Alex Jacob’s arrived in Jersey for the Vauxhal Branchage 48hr Film Challenge he was unlucky enough to draw the genre Fantasy and the unwieldy title Dashes Of Yellow. I thought we had our work cut out with a war movie but if there was genre/title coupling I’d rather not have had this is it… However Alex and his team rose to the challenge, click on the picture to see their response… Chris and I came up with idea…

And just when we were hitting our stride with the first draft of our new film script… I disappear to Paris for a week… However I’m back now so the gallery of fun will shortly continue… in the meantime here is proof of the double wonder of the new Canon 5D, which looks like a stills camera but bites like a motion picture… And for those of you not reading this on the original site you can find the clip…