Phil Hoyt

50-Dollar Follow Focus

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:47:56 +0000

So it’s a little to late to be posting about the Kickstarter for the 50-Dollar Follow Focus, but I would still like to bring light to it. I was able to donate $60 to lock into getting one of what I hope to be the cheapest and most stable follow focus. There really isn’t much to say about the piece. It costs $50, uses belts but I guess it now has a gear option, made out of mostly metal, and relatively inexpensive and interchangeable parts making repair easy. It does require a 15mm rail system of some sort which I’m in need of getting. I’ll be sure to give my thought when it comes in and hopefully they will be available for sale still after the Kickstarter backers receive theirs.

http://www.hondogarage.com/

Favorite Free Text Editor (Mac)

admin — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:21:55 +0000

Komodo Edit

Trying to find a free text-editor for Macintosh that is a good replacement for Dreamweaver isn’t that easy. After using products like Coda ($99), TextWrangler and Others I determined that Komodo Edit is my favorite free text editor for Mac. I use Dreamweaver as my primary text-editor but I find myself popping some small files into it to make revisions. If you are looking for a great lightweight text-editor that is free for macintosh I highly recommend Komodo Edit.

Jared Abrams of Wide Open Camera does a Quick Take on the D|Matte

admin — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:36:33 +0000

I have been looking at D|Matte for a really long time. Jared over at Wide Open Camera got his hands on the clip on version and it looks pretty great. I look forward to seeing it with some flags and the rail version. I hope the D|Focus and D|Matte guys come up with some D|Filters as well.

Get Connected with Phil Hoyt

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:00:04 +0000

If you would like to stay up-to-date with everything I post you can follow my on the following social networks.

Also you can subscribe to my monthly news letter recapping everything that was blogged that month.

The Many uses of a Monopod

admin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:00:50 +0000

I found a post over at BeatingDownBoogie.com about the many uses of a monopods in DSLR filmmaking. Being that DSLR’s have a relatively small form factor they can be placed in many areas that you wouldn’t have been able to with traditional camcorders achieving shoots more unique to locked down tripod shots. The monopod gives a look somewhere in between handheld and steady cam. The monopod of choice in the article is the Manfrotto 681B Professional Aluminum Monopod with a Manfrotto 234RC Monopod Head. I personally have no experience with these models but I have never heard of Manfrotto producing anything bad. I went to my local Target and purchased a $15 dollar monopod just to see how well is held up. Surprisingly the cheap monopod increases your production value of any DSLR shoot by removing the vertical shake you would normally get from a handheld shot. I highly recommend picking up a monopod. Below are some suggestions.

Buy: Manfrotto 681B Professional Aluminum Monopod

Buy: Manfrotto 234RC Monopod Head

Buy: Dolica WT-1003 67-Inch Lightweight Monopod

Also check out the article over at Beating Down Boogie:

http://www.beatdownboogie.com/2011/01/18/the-amazing-camera-on-a-stick/

Best Portable Hard Drive

admin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:00:29 +0000

Calling the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB Ultra-Portable External Hard Drive might be a little bit of an over statement. But there wasn’t really a better way to say “the best cost effective portable hard drive that I have used to date.” I have used a large amount of portable hard drives over the years. For the longest time I was hooked on the Western Digital My Book 1 TB hard drives due to their price point and array of ports. But after having a few of them fail on me over the years and lack of portability I determined that I need a different approach. I went on a search for a portable hard drive that didn’t need external power, the capable of supporting USB 3.0, Firewire 800, and eSata, and under $150 dollars. At the time it sounded like I would have to settle for only a few of those features. But then I came across the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB Ultra-Portable External Hard Drive which has an interchange port slot to change the drive from USB 3.0, eSata, or Firewire 800 along with the addition of future technologies as they are released. I hope to see a Thunder Bolt adapter. This drive is great for large amounts of small and large files. I generally use these to move large video projects from machine to machine or work off them on a laptop.

Buy: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB Ultra-Portable External Hard Drive

Buy: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable FireWire 800

Buy: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable Powered eSATA

Cheap Canon T2i / T3i Batteries

admin — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:00:34 +0000

It is a good idea to purchase extra batteries for your Canon DSLR. Being an amateur you may not have the funds to buy the Canon brand batteries. I searched the internet for the cheapest batteries out there for my T2i and found these 2 Pack Of Replacement Batteries For Canon Digital Camera on Amazon. When I first saw the price I thought it was to good to be true, but they have faithfully worked for over a year of use. They seem to hold a charge just shy of the Canon LP-E8 Battery Pack and under $20 Dollars for two batteries they are well worth it. They LP-E8 series battery will work in both the Canon T2i and the Canon T3i.

Buy: 2 Pack Of Replacement Batteries For Canon Digital Camera

Cowboy Studio Shoulder Support

admin — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:00:30 +0000

I would like revisit an old favorite tool of mine, the CowboyStudio Hands Free Shoulder Pad. It is a favorite among amateur and professions for being a light weight and cost effective solution to stabilizing a dslr or other camcorder. Different from other traditional shoulder rigs the CowboyStudio Hands Free Shoulder Pad is a hands free experience and can be folded up for easy transport. Professionals such as Philip Bloom, Chase Jarvis and Gareth Edwards have all used this rig. Coming in just under $30 dollars there is no reason why you shouldn’t include the CowboyStudio Hands Free Shoulder Pad into your arsenal of filmmaking tools.

Buy: CowboyStudio Hands Free Shoulder Pad

Zeiss CP.2 35mm EOS Mount Quick Review

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:37:23 +0000

Quick Review of the Zeiss CP.2 35mm Lens with EOS Mount.

How I got my NoFilmSchool Hackintosh to Run

admin — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 01:53:52 +0000

If you are building a NoFilmSchool Hackintosh you may find yourself getting a tad bit stuck at step 13 and 14. “Install OS X.” Now the installing the OS is quite easy. Keeping it stable on the other hand was a nightmare for me. This is where things start to vary depending on different hardware and even different generations of said hardware. So here is a guide of how I got through these issues. (Note: The NoFilmSchool guide is always changing an updating. Try that way before attempting to do any of the following. Koo way more talented then I am!)

After successfully installing Snow Leopard I followed the NoFilmSchool directions yet again to the Multibeast where things changed again. A commenter on NoFilmSchool “Riggz” was super helpful in finding what DSDT to use.

Depending on what generation motherboard you own your version of the DSDT may be different. The DSDT that worked for me was

Gigabyte -> X58 -> GA-X58A-UD3R -> 2.0 -> FE

(Update: I have had some spotty crashes. I am attempting to find the issue)

“Riggz” also found a forum with solutions from tonymacx86.com forum user “jpa”. The forum is kinda confusing to read so I took the parts that worked for me and placed them below.

These are the Multibeast settings that worked for me. Be sure to place your DSDT file and the MultiBeast file on your desktop together.

Open Multibeast 3.1 – leave it open, not moving

Now you’re on the desktop.
- Install Mac OS X 10.6.6Update
- Not Reboot

Now Multibeast close automatically

- ReOpen Multibeast 3.1

–> UserDSDT
–> System Utilities -> Rebuild Caches
–> System Utilities -> Repair Permissions
–> Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Audio -> Realtek ALC8XX -> ALC8XXHDA
–> Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Audio -> Realtek ALC8XX -> AppleHDA Rollback
–> Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Disk -> JMicron36x (aka GSATA) -> JMicron36xeSATA, JMicron36ATA or JMicron36xSATA depending on wether you want internal or external GSATA ports (I am used Sata)
–> Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Miscellaneous -> NullCPUPowermanagement
–> Drivers & Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Miscellaneous -> USB 3.0
–> Drivers & Bootloaders -> Bootloaders -> Chameleon 2.0 RC5 – Prerelease
–> Customization -> Boot Options -> 32-bit Apple Boot Screen
–> Customization -> Boot Options -> PCI Root ID fix
–> Customization -> System Definitions -> Mac Pro -> MacPro 3,1
–> Customization -> Themes -> tonymacx86 Remixed
–> OSx86 Software -> Kext Helper, Kext Utility

Now install:
- Lnx2Mac’s ethernet drivers – install RealtekRTL81xx-0_0_67+.pkg

Download: RealtekRTL81xx-0_0_67+.pkg

After a restart and a installing the “tonymacx86 NVIDIA Update” and Cuda Drivers for mac I have a fully functional Hackintosh!

I then took a flash drive and loaded it up with all of this information.

MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.7
MultiBeast
DSDT-GA-X58A-UD3R 2.0 FE
RealtekRTL81xx_0.0.67
tonymacx86 NVIDIA Update
.txt file with nots on MultiBeast settings and steps

Think of it as a Hackintosh First Aid Kit. I would like to thank Koo of NoFilmSchool, “Riggz” a commenter on NFS, tonymacx85 forum user “jpa”, and who ever runs http://www.tonymacx86.com/! Thank you all so much.