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Relationship between Diffusion, Softening and Distance

I came across this interesting article by Ed Moore and Stephen Murphy, where they tested a lot of different lighting diffusion materials. I recommend checking it out: Here is the stills version and the video version.

Some selects from that post:

Half soft frost diffusion

Half soft frost, one of my favorite diffusions because it's most efficient, getting you the most softening for the least loss of output available. Not surprisingly,  that's what I use as the front face in Airbox Inflatable Softboxes.

Read the rest of this post...

Images of people lit by LED panels with Airbox Inflatable Softboxes on them

Lit only by LED panels wearing Airbox Inflatable Softboxes

People ask me, so why an  Airbox? What's it do?  This post is long overdue, some work samples of shooting I've done using just LED panels and Airboxes. It is notable that much of the time I light with my panels and Airboxes, I do use an extra layer of diffusion in the front pocket when I don't need all the output and I do want it a bit softer. Good thing precut gel + diffusion kits are available to fit our softboxes then!

Lighting used: 2 1x1 Litepanels with Airbox Model 1x1 Softboxes with extra sheet of diffusion in front sleeve and eggcrates), Switronix TorchLED with Airbox Macro, Dracast 160 with Airbox Macro kit with eggcrate

Read more...

Litepanels Astra review

Litepanels Astra Review

 4.5/5 stars

If you're into lighting with LED panels at all, you must have heard about the Litepanels Astra that came out last year. Litepanels were the first in the field of LED panel lighting for video, and after being thoroughly and extensively copied over the years, they've now released a spiffed-up design of their original product. They were also kind enough to lend me one, and here are my impressions after playing with it around the house and using it on several shoots.

•Output

What I noticed first is how bright it was. 
  

Read More...

LED panel comparison: color charts, vectorscopes, light loss

People ask me all the time, "what LED panels do you recommend?" "What's the color like on that panel?"and ""Does putting an Airbox Softbox on the light affect the color?", so I decided to do some testing, as scientifically as possible.  What you're looking at is footage shot of the DSC labs OneShot chart, where each of the color patches is carefully calibrated to match up to the six points on a vectorscope, as well as four skin tone patches that line up with the "skin tone" line on a scope.  A perfect light source and a perfect camera would land each of the dots right on the vectorscope targets.

Read the whole post...

More lighting and camera gear 2014: FS7, Sourcemaker blanket, Twintube Dolly, Gruvgear Muver

New lighting and camera equipment from 2014 that bears mention:

Sony's Fs7 has been one of the most ballyhooed releases this year. I recently got the chance to do some testing Adam Wilt and Art Adams. Adam Wilt wrote some thorough articles about it which are worth reading. I'm looking forward to reading Arts writeup when its done, but here's my really quick .02 - like the smarty handgrip. All those controls you can operate without taking your eye of the eyepiece! I was also very impressed with the dynamic range. S-log 3, we were actually short of hard pressed to create an indoor situation that exceeded what camera could still resolve. Granted,  our biggest light was an 800 joker, but it was still impressive that the camera could still see detail on the t/45 white curtains where the beam of light was hitting them as well as in the unlit T/1 patch of dark wood in the foreground, about eleven stops apart.  We'll wait and see the actual test results though once Art has done the edit.

Sony FS7, test shoot w/Art Adams and Airbox Lights

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE.......... 

Custom Catch Lights or Eye Lights

Lighting Exercise: Custom Catchlights

I've always had this thing for unusual catch lights in people eyes, something other than the usual rectangle or dot.  Catchlights, also referred to as eyelights, are generally understood by photographers and videographers to be important; people's eyes seem a little dead when there's no light reflected in them. Not coincidentally, the times there's no light reflected in someone eyes is usually when there isn't any light source in front of them, so they're usually a bit backlit or sidelit anyway, which might lead people to feel that the person looks a little gloomy. 


CLICK HERE TO READ MORE........

A Sneak Peek of Amsterdam's International Broadcast Convention.

IBC Attendees in Action (Image Courtesy of IBC)

This weekend marks the start of the International Broadcast Convention (IBC). The annual meeting serves as the premier world-wide event for professionals directly involved with the creation and distribution of visual entertainment.

So, just how big is this year’s convention? Well, they’re looking to host over 50, 000 attendees from over 170 countries before the conference wraps up on September 16.

The best thing about IBC? It's the place where companies go to roll out innovative new products. And this year's convention doesn't disappoint as Sony used it to debut the new Sony FS7.
Intended to compete with the Canon c300, the FS7 does some nifty stuff the C300 can't do.
For example, the camera has a built-n handgrip on an articulating arm for ENG-style shooting. It also has zoom control for eng style lens with user-definable shortcut buttons. You can read a detailed review by the guys at Newsshooter.com (who love our Airbox Inflatable Softboxes!) at http://www.newsshooter.com/2014/09/12/sony-pxw-fs7-4k-super35-camera-the-best-of-all-worlds/.

Yes, IBC 2014 is definitely going to packed with new lighting equipment and video gear, no doubt. But... we of Airbox Inflatable Softboxes aren't going, sadly. You might be able to see some of our cool inflatable softboxes for LED panels at the Dracast booth or the Litepanels booth, if you ask them!  Both of those companies do have some samples, since we have partnered together on several business projects. But you'll probably have to ask.

Our Model 1x1 fitted over Astra Panel

Speaking of  Litepanels. we’re huge fans of their new Astra 1x1 panel. Which, incidentally, works perfectly with our very own Model 1x1 as you can see here.You'll be able to see these at Booth # 11-E55, in the Vitec group area.

 I like the improved ergonomics of the yoke, that the heavy parts like the battery mount or power supply are mounted on the yoke where it meets the stand, rather than on the back of the panel, which has always been an annoyance since the weight cause s the light to tilt. I liked that the yoke is now angled forward, so the yoke doesn't get in the way of tilting the light down.  This is particularly handy when you've got a softbox on the front of it. It's truly a great product from the people pioneered   LED panel lighting.  Plus, it's reasonably priced,  costing around $1500.

If you’re not able to make it to the festivities, don’t fret as it you’ll be able to view  the 24-hour live stream on their site. You can catch all the excitement of the IBC  at http://www.ibc-tv.org.

Although we're not going to the convention, we're still offering up a pretty big deal for our valued customers. From now until September 18, every purchase of the Model 1x1 earns you 20% off on the Model 126. Just go to our Amazon store and use offer code I2432KA8. It’s a perfect way to really save big on two of our most popular products. 

Until next time!

Tom

Make women look beautiful!

This is proof, right?  That Airbox Inflatable Softboxes transform women from haggard to gorgeous in under 30 seconds!

 Exaggerations aside, Airboxes do work. And I hope people agree with me at NAB 2014, where I've got my own booth this year.  Exciting.  Expensive.  Wish me luck.

New gizmos from NAB? How about the stuff we already have.

NAB 2014 is right around the corner, and no doubt it'll be chock full of all kinds of whizz-bang stuff that will make us all think, "I must have that thingy!  It'll make my career skyrocket!"
The tools won't make your career.  Sorry. What I reckon would be more worth all of our while is trying to figure out more cool stuff to do with what we already have.
Here's an experiment I did with my trusty old  Panasonic GH2, a very small mirrorless camera that shoot great video.  The newer GH3 is no doubt a bit better, and the GH4 looks like it'll rise above the crowd, but I don't think that will remove the utility of the old GH2.




If you're going to NAB, please stop by the Airbox Lights booth and see what inflatable softboxes can do for plain old LED panels. See the new Model 1x1 and Model 126!  Make ugly into beautiful! Games! Prizes! Gear! All your questions answered!

Tom Guiney
Airbox Lights & Conviction Films, Inc.

Customer questions answered about Airbox Inflatable softboxes

Customer questions about Airbox Inflatable softboxes for LED panels answered:

#1 most common question:

"Why is there no anti-backflow flap inside the inflation valve? This makes it harder to get my softbox all the way inflated."

People ask me this all the time.   I tried out prototypes with both types of valve, and I settled on the valve without a backflow prevention flap.  I did this for two reasons.  One, I wanted it to be faster to inflate and deflate, and two, with that flap in the valve, its hard to get the softbox all the way deflated.  I was concerned that people would possibly damage the softbox by slamming a case lid shut on it when it still had some air in it.  This may be unfounded, I have yet to receive an email saying someone popped their softbox. Really, this decision was mostly about the speed of inflation and deflation though- I wanted Airboxes to be very fast to inflate and deflate.  If you can't get it all the way inflated because you lose a tiny bit of air when you close the valve, guess what-  That's ok!  An Airbox doesn't have to be all the way inflated to make a unified soft source out of all those little LED beams.  The way an Airbox works is by moving the diffusion layer several inches away from the face of the light, so the beams can merge on the diffusion plane ad become a new soft source.  This still works fine even if your softbox is a little saggy- the diffusion is still several inches away from the light.  You also might have noticed that it gets more taut as you use it, since the light heats up and expands the air inside the softbox.

#2 Does it work as a flotation device?

Yes.  They float.  You can also use them as a pillow. If I had a legal department they would tell me that I have to say that we're not responsible for the negative consequences of using Airbox products for anything other than as light modifiers.

#3. Are you going to make one to fit lighting unit X?

Send me emails about what sizes you want, and I'll see what I can do.  There is a partial but not exhaustive unit compatibility chart on the website. The strap setup on the Macro, the Model 126, and the Model 1x1 allow those three units to work on a pretty wide range of sizes, but there are a few that slip through the cracks.  The Macro will fit on almost all the small units, from 4" wide at the minimum and 8" wide at the maximum, and then the next size up is the Model 126, whose smallest compatible light is about 10" wide. The Model 1x1 was designed specifically to fit on 1' x1' panels, but you can get it on to some smaller ones, like the Cool-Lights 600, which is about 10" x 10", and I've squeezed it on to another panel that was about 13" wide.

#4. Have you tried filling them up with helium so they lift the light or the camera? 

I actually did the math on this; for an Airbox attached to an on-camera light to lift your typical broadcast/ENG style camera weighing 30 or 40 lbs, the softbox would have to be gigantic, like an 8' diameter sphere. Helium gas, being such a tiny atom (remember your periodic table?) is mostly empty space, and to get that kind of lift you need a huge amount of it.

#5: Do you sell Airboxes in country X?

Amazon.com ships to some countries;  I've seen orders go to the US, GB, CA, NZ, and AU and JP.  It doesn't seem to ship to mainland Europe.  For mainland Europe orders, Videobewerken.nl stocks our products, as does Proav.co.uk in the UK.  Proav says they ship worldwide.  IF you want Airboxes and it's not working for you through any of those channels, email me and we'll work it out.

yours
Tom Guiney
Airboxlights.com

Buying link

discount code:  XG273RVL

Realistically simulating ambient daylight when lighting video and still photography:

When lighting a scene, a commonly desired effect is to create a natural-seeming ambient light source through a window.  It's eminently achievable, but sadly it's more difficult that the usual tactic of plunk down a large HMI outside a window and put a 4x diffusion frame in front of it right at the window. That's a great source, eminently practical, but it doesn't really feel all that natural.  From the way the shadows spread out in a v-shape and from the rapid falloff of intensity (remember the inverse-square law!), it's obvious that the light source is close to the window, and it will feel "lit".

I am not writing of creating a direct-sunlight effect through a window; that's a different deal. This is about natural-feeling ambient daylight coming through a window, as if you're standing near a north-facing window.

To get a natural feel, think about what daylight is like: it's EVERYWHERE.  It's big.  It goes all over the place.  You're going to need a big source, an not just a flat one. The light needs to come from all directions at least a little bit.  One direction will be the brightest, where you're bouncing the unit, but its important that the light come from the full range of directions through the windows.  That's what real indirect light does; a bright sky outside your window is bright from all directions.

Make a big box of ultrabounces, griffolyns, beadboard, foamcore, v-flats, or whatever white stuff you have outside the window. Make it as big as is feasible for your shoot.  It doesn't have to be as big as the images here, but it does need to be big. Put a large head or two inside the box and bash it into the side, top, or back. If you don't point the light at a part of the box that has a straight-line path to the subject, it will feel even more diffuse, but you'll lose a bunch of intensity.

This is ideal- a 20x12 or 20x20 ultrabounce as the back,  a 12x20 ultra overhead, 12x ultras for the sides. If that's not feasible,   go a bit smaller- a 12x8 or 8x8 back, 8x sides and roof.

Still effective- two v-flats forming the sides and back with a 4x8 foamcore or beadboard on top. 

compromised: a couple of 4x4 beadboards out the window.

Your light will primarily be bouncing off of one spot, but to get that ambient feel, it's still very important to have the other white surfaces surrounding the one that you're hitting with the light.

You may ask, what about hanging some diffusion over the window as well?  I generally recommend against that for it to feel natural, because once you have a piece of diffusion right at the window, that diffusion becomes the source and it resets the inverse-square falloff, and once again it will be more apparent that the light source is close to the subject, indicated by flaring shadows and rapid falloff.
Interposing a 4x frame of diffusion between the hot spot of the ounce and the subject can be helpful if you are getting a funny double-shadow effect, where one of the shadows is from the hot spot and the other shadow is from the large general soft source of the box.  I do recommend not placing the diffusion right at the window for the reason mentioned above; put it out in the box somewhere, farther from the subject.  This double shadow can also be avoided by pointing the light at a spot in the box not directly visible from the subject.

Although this just shows the couch without any people in it, it gives you an idea of the overcast-day through a window feel that you can get with this technique.

When you don't have the means to make huge soft sources outside a window, like if you're a small crew lighting with LEDs, you can still get nice soft light. I manufacture Airboxlights.com inflatable softboxes for LED panels, ideal for tiny, fast moving crews.  They take the curse off of LEDs and make them feel softer and more natural.  Remember the basic concept of softening- the bigger the source, the softer it is.  Diffusion right on the face of the light is never going to get all that soft.

yours
Tom Guiney
Gaffer, DP, Bay Area
Inventor and Owner, Airboxlights.com

Funny commercial for Airbox Inflatable softboxes for LED panels.

With a little help from some friends, made this 30-second commercial for Airbox Inflatable Softboxes for LED panels. Really.  It's funny.  It does not exaggerate anything. Anything at all. It doesn't make any exaggerated claims about what our products can do for video lighting.




Doing a big sale for Cyber Monday- 20% off all our softboxes on Amazon!
Use this claim code:  9X43JTW5

Production discussion next time. Budget for whole commercial was under 2k.

yours
Tom Guiney
Airboxlights.com

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Off-topic, mostly nothing to do with video lighting or gear or LED panels or LED softboxes

This isn't about my usual topics, like cool video lighting gear or LED softboxes.

What's the right thing to do, when you're loading up your car with equipment for the day's shoot on a dark rainy morning, when all of a sudden you find someone pointing a gun at your chest? It's a funny feeling, surreal as much as anything else.  Like it doesn't make sense. Just finishing loading all the Jokers and Kinos and LED panels and and stands and everything else, and then you see someone walk up your driveway. You wonder who this stranger is, what they want, whether they need help with something, and then you see the silver shiny barrel of a handgun pointed at you. You might shout, you might run, you might freak out. You would certainly be late for work. You might shout once, but find that it sort of strangles in your throat, because you're not sure what this stranger is like,  this stranger with the bandanna over their face up to their eyes and the wool cap pulled down low over their forehead, the stranger with black-gloved hands aiming a gun at you, might get upset about you raising a hue and cry and shoot you down outside your daughter's bedroom window. It's an awkward thing, having a gun on you at 6:42 AM in the rain.

You might just hand over your wallet; what's worth getting shot for?  But how do you know what state the person is in, whether they're really in the mood to kill someone, or whether there are even bullets in the gun.

You might be pretty grateful that they just took your wallet and the 4$ that were inside, and didn't tell you to open up the vehicle and take something very expensive. OR even your phone, which would cost you a bunch to replace but he could only get a few bucks for an iphone 4s with a cracked screen.

So what do you do?  You hand it over, even though you're thinking what a pain it will be to cancel all the cards and get a new ID. Do you buy a gun?  Mace? Taser? Keep a baseball bat in your car? What good would that do, really? When there's someone on your, threatening you, are you going to have the presence of mind or the cojones to pull out a bat and attack them?   Install a bunch of outdoor lighting perhaps. Security cameras?  If you're not safe at home, then where?

The stranger was very professional, very fast, in and out.  He came in very fast, everything about him was covered up, no way for me to identify him. Other than that he was black, adult, maybe in his 30s, 5'10", 180-200 lbs.  If you can be this good a robber, why not do something useful?

The good news is that I got an email that the first batch of Airbox 1x1 Inflatable softboxes for LED panels are in the air on the way here. And I got another email that B&H is interested in selling them. And I wasn't hurt, nor did anything bad happen to my family, in bed just a few feet away from where this guy threatened me.

I think he was mad that there was only 4$ in my wallet. But once his back turned on me, I split.  I didn't stick around to find out how he felt about his take.

I love Oakland, but that sucks.  In my own driveway in my own house. What are you gonna do.  Get over it and move on. And install some motion-sensor lights and things like that. Very soon. Not a nice feeling to not feel safe at home.

And: this is a pretty cool video, an ad for a really good kind of rum. http://youtu.be/8Vv_M2jBDf4
They don't pay me, I just like their rum. And I saw this video. And it's pretty neat.

Airbox Lights going solo! Inflatable Softbox for 500 LED panels now on Amazon...

It's been a nutty few days-  made the agreement that I wasn't going to sell the 2 new Airbox Inflatable softboxes for LED panels through my distributor for the two smaller units, and all of a sudden a load of stuff is my problem, right now.  You've borrowed a lot of money to get the inventory, now sell it.  Sell it fast. Go.

So that's what's going on here- The new Model 126 is up on Amazon, and we're doing an early-adopter sale, 10% off.

http://airboxlights.com/products/model-126-page

Ok, we're doing it now. Business is getting real. No longer a hobby.

Holy Crap! Here come the 1x1 Airboxlights.com Inflatable Softboxes!!

The factory inflates them all before they ship.  That's quite a pile of awesome Airboxlights.com inflatable LED softboxes!

 

We shot a commercial for Airboxlights.com Inflatable Softboxes this past weekend also, it's going to be wicked funny.

Not to give it away, but here are two stills:

We're going to be selling the new units, the Model 126 for (6"x12"/6"x13") 500 LED panels and the Model 1x1 (for 1x1 LED panels, obv) directly now on Amazon. Store should be ready for business in a couple of days! Link forthcoming.  You can also email us to order.
yours
Tom Guiney

Laryngitis at a trade show...

Airboxlights.com At Photo plus, big NYC trade show. Lost my voice! Pretty useless. You know how hard it is to give a sales pitch using gestures only? Fortunately, I had my handy sales video that I could point to.  And my cool Inflate-O-Matic(see below).

Anyway, b&h is doing a show special on Airbox products til the 27th! 

Some redemption codes for you:

1507446759165600

1507446733561900

1507446744501190

1507446729414320

At least I have my sales video to speak for me- http://vimeo.com/60720449

And cool inflate-o-matic to show people they're inflatable!

Inflato-video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbdj8GXmopo

Grip Olympics; news from DTC Gear Expo

Airboxlights.com was at the DTC Grip & Lighting Gear Expo last weekend, and there was an event that we've all talked about but have never actually seen put together formally:

THE GRIP OLYMPICS!

The Sandbag Relay

DTC Office Staff winning sandbag relay

The team of ladies from the DTC office won the sandbag relay,  despite the best efforts of Steve Cardellini and his buddies.

Why throw them when we can roll them?

There's something you learn when you get to be an old grip:  Work smart, not hard.  The other teams obediently pulled sandbags from the muscle cart, tossed them to the next teammate, who passed the bag to the next teammate, who tossed it over the line.  Hard work, no? So the cagey old technicians just grabbed their muscle cart, pushed it to the finish line, and dumped all the bags out.  Much faster than the recommended technique and easier on the back. 

I was the dark horse competitor in the Cable Wrapping event. Everyone else in the event was well-known warehouse staffers or electricians, but then I came out of the booth and crushed everyone in my first heat.  Alas, in the final round, I couldn't prevail against a handsome and strapping young gaffer named Evan Davies. He's 16 years younger than me and in frankly much stronger and faster.  Plus I haven't wrapped any 4/0 in over 2 years.  But I got a bunch of good cheers!  People liked that an exhibitor got up in the competition.  Next year I'll show them.

We of Airbox Lights were at the Expo in a booth next to Arri:

 I was showing off a prototype of my new 1x1 Airbox as well as the new Model 126, both of which were very well received.  The larger LEDs like 1x1s and 6"x12" LEDs are a perfect match for Airbox inflatable softboxes, because they've got enough juice that they can afford to be softened up more and made into a larger softer source, and then made controllable with a folding eggcrate.
Here's a preview of the 1x1 Airbox quality of light on a 1st generation 1x1 Litepanel:

The only model available in a pinch.

Nice soft source!  No nasty LED quality here.

 GEAR AT THE EXPO

The gear that was there that I had a chance to see that I found noteworthy:

Newish lights from Arri:  the M90 , an update to the 6k par with a Max reflector, and the M8, an 800w update to the 575.  The M8 was cool, but the rep said it wasn't intended as a competitor to the Joker 800. It's bigger, has the efficient Arrimax reflector, and doesn't go bug-style like a joker.  Priced a little higher too, at about 8000$.

I liked the idea of a maximized HMI source that still works on 100A bates.  Who doesn't want more power in a familiar package?
The M8 I was less enthusiastic about- I feel like the M18 pretty much covers that ground already, plus I have a vested interest because I own an 800w joker.  Seriously though, it looked like a really good light.  It has a great flood to spot range and will no doubt be as rock solid as all of Arri's products.

Barger Baglites:  What I liked is some of the Lighttools crates he's carrying now. Besides the quick snap-open eggcrates and Octabank sized eggcrates, there's a new one they've got called a CUFocus soft eggcrate.  The fins of the eggcrate are all angled slightly towards the center, so that the light from the frame or the softbox is directed towards a subject close to the frame.  That's a clever innovation on the regular parallel fins in a soft eggcrate. 

The CU focus crates basically "funnel" the light towards one sweet spot, and occlude an increasing amount of light the farther away you get from the ideal spot. In that sweet spot, you'll still see the whole frame and thus have a nice sift source falling on you, but anywhere else the light falls off quite a lot.

BBS lighting is bringing out a companion to their exciting Area 48 Remote phosphor fixture....
a 1x1 LED Panel! Ummm....   I asked them why they wanted to get into that saturated space, and Toby Sali said that theirs looks the same, but is much brighter and better colored than the competition.  7000-800W tungsten equivalent, 95 CRI.  Ok, great, always happy to see the workhorse products improve. The brighter the better on that light shape.

Other than that, I was manning the booth the whole time.

See you at Photo Plus next week in NYC if you're there!

Award for Airbox! Light Breakup, milk crate management

The news:  Airbox Inflatable Softboxes has been getting some great press lately, most notably getting the DV excellence award from DV Magazine and creativeplanet.com.  I've put it all in one place on Pinterest.

What else has been happening?

Ok brain teaser:  What the heck is going on here?

An impromptu and odd rig I came up with at the behest of DP Dave Scardino.

It's some scraps of opal diff hanging in front of a light acting as a breakup, but to give it a little bit of life he was asking around for a fan.  The only fan I could find was the internal cooling fan in the 1200 ballast.  So ok, let's get that ballast up in the air and aim its exhaust vent at those scraps of diffusion!

Whatever works, right?





Here's another notably useful technique I've observed for managing large numbers of milkcrates. Make a furniture dolly by putting casters on the bottom of a piece of 3/4" plywood, with holes drilled out in the middles of two opposing sides.  Hook a ratchet or motorcycle strap into the two holes and strap it down over the top of the stack of crates.

The problem that it solves is a common one- lots and lots of milkcrates full of expendables or hardware and  needing them to be portable but still quick and easy to stage up or get into. You can easily load and transport them en masse, or you can break out the crates of just the materials you need.

Custom-made steel carts are great, but they don't subdivide and organize the way this system does, nor do they hold as many crates usually, plus they're quite expensive. Ari Boles, the LD on Top Chef and other Bravo shows, came up with this technique to organize the huge amount of expendables, bulbs, kino parts, hardware and other small parts that are essential to reality show lighting installations.

Links to dealers for Airbox inflatable softboxes

Tiny Tiny movie

MICRO MOVIE:
Something I worked on  has popped back up in a finished form. Does anyone remember this picture from 1989 in the newspaper?

 (Am I dating myself?)  That was when they figured out how to nudge individual atoms around on a plate of copper in a very cold vacuum.  Since then, they're still using the same type of equipment, the scanning tunneling electron microscope, but they've set their sights a lot higher- making a stop-action animation movie using individual atoms as the pixels. The atoms are actually carbon monoxide molecules, but those are smaller than most atoms, so I figure we should let this one pass.
Here's the 2 minute movie:

 Why is IBM doing this?  It's all about smaller data storage size. The quote from Andreas, the lead scientist, is that if this works out, you'll be able to store all the movies ever made on your iPhone.

So IBM booked the prestigious Ogilvy agency out of new York to come and make a behind the scenes doc about this microflick, and they came out from New York, but they needed another local guy to shoot some more stuff for them. And then some stuff was missing, and out I went to Almaden again.  And hmm how about some more nice shots of the microscope? Worked out pretty well in the end for me. The scientists in the Atom Lab were all really cool.  Each of them was from a different country, and you get the sense that each was one of the best in their field in that area, to land this apparently cool job at the IBM research facility. Who even knew that IBM was still around! I'm exaggerating, but they're out of the limelight.  Nevertheless, they have this massive high tech campus in southeast San Jose.  The Science-per-square-inch readings were off the charts.  Their chemical laboratories would have made Breaking Bad jealous.

Anyway, here's the flick.  I shot a lot of the B-roll, everything of the microscope, and some of the interviews.  Can you tell the 5D footage from the hacked GH2 footage?