The MPC Feed @ Washington College

iStockPhoto.com awards $40,000 is cash/prizes next month for the second annual Worldwide Punctum Day. These awards go to the top voted stock files on iStockPhoto.com. To get a feel for what they are looking for, you can see last year’s winners online:

• Photo of the year
• Vector of the year
• Video of the Year
• Flash file of the Year
• Design of the Year

It’s not too late to upload and enter your files!

Tags: awards, Design, Flash, iStockPhoto.com, prizes, stock photography, vector, Video

Are you an aspiring motion graphics designer? Here is some inspiration from 2 accomplished designers to get your creative juices flowing:

Eden Soto - http://www.edensoto.com
Demo Reel

Vitamin Devo - http://vitamindevo.com
Demo Reel (2004)
Mini Reel (2005)
Flash demo for his DJ work (2005)

Tags: 3D, after effects, creative inspiration, Demo reel, Flash, motion graphics

Are you an incoming first year or transfer student!  Do you have an interest in filmmaking and/or photography?  Don’t miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Registration is now open for the Filmmaking and Photography Pre-Orientation Session, but seats are limited to only 12 participants!  Go to the Forms and Resoruces page, scroll down to Pre-Orientation Forms, print out the Pre-Orientation Registration form, and mail it in today!

Why should you attend this particular workshop?

• You’ll learn a TON of great info about photography and video production
• Classes are taught by award winning staff, including a workshop by Paul and Holly Fine, with 75 regional & 10 national Emmy Awards, 4 Peabody awards.
• We’ll be working individually and as a team to create a film that will be featured before all the pre-orientation sessions at the Prince Theater, as well as be entered into other industry competitions, featured on the WC homepage, WCMC.tv, iTunes U, Youtube, etc.
• You’ll get your hands on high end equipment, both items in our loaner pool, as well as professional gear that we don’t lend out.
• You’ll learn skills that will directly apply many academic assignments during your 4 years here, and may give you an added edge over your classmates.
• You’ll get to meet other like minded people who you’ll surely want to team up with in the future for MPC challenges or independent projects.
• When else during the year can you dedicate 4 solid days to anything without it conflicting with your academic or social calendar?

Tags: Boot Camp, Filmmaking, Paul & Holly Fine, Photography, pre-orientation, workshop

Metacafe.com has teamed up with podcaster Israel Hyman, who has been production Izzy Video podcasts for some time now.  Metacafe has a collection of videos that address many topics, including:

• Directing
• Shooting
• Lighting
• Sound
• Editing

Tags: Izzy Video, podcasts, Tutorials

There’s a ‘film music‘ section on moby.com where independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short can listen to and request to use original Moby sound tracks at no cost.

The music is free as long as it’s being used in a non-commercial or non-profit film, however if you want to use it in a commercial film or short then you can apply for an easy license, with any money that’s generated being given to the humane society.

Moby has found a nice way to help a cause that is near and dear to him, while also helping film makers for free or cheap. Thanks Moby!

Tags: film, Free, gratis, moby, music, score, soundtrack, Video

Chase Jarvis is an amazing Seattle based photographer who, in his mid thirties, is both a Nikon and Hasselblad Master Photographer. This short video “Frames” shows every frame of a 4-day photo shoot, pausing on a few featured images. Chase has several videos online that show a glimpse of the man behind the curtain, so to speak. These tutorials and demos have helped countless aspiring photographers advance their skill. I highly recommend checking out his website for inspiration, and his blog and videos for education.

Tags: Chase Jarvis, commercial, fine art, Hasselblad, Photo shoot, Photographer, Tutorial

Need to pull a public domain video from YouTube to edit into your next documentary? You can do this and tons of other online and offline conversions with the links found here:

http://shorterlink.com/?V7H7WP

Tags: , conversion, download, transcode, video file converters

Gotoandlearn.com has a ton of very well produced Flash video tutorials. Definitely worth checking out, and the price is right (free)

http://www.gotoandlearn.com

Tags: Adobe, Flash, interface design, Tutorials, Video

Using infrared (IR) light pens and the Wii Remote, it is possible to create very low-cost multi-point interactive whiteboards and multi-point tablet displays. Johnny Chung Lee, Carnegie Mellon University.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ

Tags: Hacks, open source, Video, Wii

Using an IR led array and some reflective tape, you can track fingers in thin air using the Wii Remote by Johnny Chung Lee, Carnegie Mellon University. The grid software is a custom program written using a C# wiimote library and DirectX.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0awjPUkBXOU

Tags: , 3D, Hacks, Video, Virtual Reality, VR, Wii