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Hollyland’s new Cosmo C1 offers wireless HDMI and SDI video up to 1,000ft with only 40ms latency

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Hollyland has announced their new Cosmo C1 HDMI and SDI video transmission system. Comprised of transmitter and receiver units, the Cosmo C1 has both HDMI and SDI connections on both the transmitter and receiver and can convert from one to the other – allowing you to use your SDI output camera with an HDMI-only monitor.

They offer a range of up to 1,000ft at a resolution of 1080p at up to 60 frames per second. Being on the 5.1-5.8Ghz frequency with automatic seamless channel switching, they don’t require a license to operate in most (all?) of the world and have an ultra-low latency of only 40 milliseconds.

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Russia is filming the first-ever movie onboard the ISS

Even though Tom Cruise wanted to make the first movie in space, the Russian film crew beat him to it. Actress Yulia Peresild, director Klim Shipenko, and veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov recently arrived at the International Space Station, where they will shoot “The Challenge,” the first-ever feature film in orbit.

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The story of the iconic Copa long shot from Goodfellas as told by the man who shot it

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It’s the most iconic scene from what is arguably the most legendary gangster movie of all time. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about that 1990 classic, Goodfellas. And more specifically, I’m talking about that three minutes and twelve seconds long take where Henry brings Karen into his world. It’s a fantastic piece of storytelling, but it’s not something for which Scorsese alone can really take credit.

The whole process of walking from Henry’s car on the street to sitting in front of the stage three minutes later and how it appeared on screen was largely down to Steadicam operator, Larry McConkey. And not just because he shot it, but because he provided so much creative input into how it was shot and transitioned from place to place. This video from CineFix walks us through the story of its creation, as told by Larry McConkey himself.

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This is the most difficult shot in movie history and here’s why it matters

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Movie and shot breakdowns are always a lot of fun to watch. Even breakdowns for bad movies are often quite interesting. That’s the case here, as film boffin Patrick Willems describes in this particular video. It describes a particularly bad movie (The Bonfire of the Vanities) by a particularly good director (Brian De Palma).

It was widely regarded as a pretty bad movie when it was released and it still is today. But there are elements of it that are quite exceptional. Such as one particular shot that De Palma said he’d never include in a movie. And that’s one of a plane landing – to signify that one of the characters has just travelled somewhere.

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How to make a Netflix style doc about anything – no matter how surreal

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Even if you’re not a Netflix user, you’ve seen this style of documentary. It’s pretty common these days outside of Netflix, too and often used for late night crime documentaries. The crime in the case of this example is that of the stolen jam on toast! Or, “jelly” on toast, for the Americans.

This hilarious tutorial video is brought to you by Paul E.T. and it’s a simple breakdown of how you can light, shoot and edit this style of documentary. It’s a straightforward approach that lets you simulate the look and make it look good for just about any potential topic or subject you might want to cover.

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Pre-production: How cinematographers should prepare for a shoot

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Shooting a video production, whether it’s for a Hollywood blockbuster, a YouTube video or anywhere in between isn’t as easy as you might think. Especially if it’s not something you’ve done before. Or maybe you have, but things didn’t go as you expected and you’re not sure how to fix it.

Well, have a watch of this video from the folks at In Depth Cine. The channel is dedicated to going in-depth into filmmaking and cinematography and the various processes that are part of that world and workflow. In this video, they talk about how a cinematographer prepares for a shoot.

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Is the Panasonic G85/G80 the best budget camera for filmmakers?

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When I saw this video pop up on my feed, I instantly recognised the camera – despite its logos being covered up. It’s the Panasonic G85. Or the Panasonic G81 in Germany. Or the Panasonic G80 for pretty much everybody else. And when I read the title of the video, I immediately concurred. You see, I bought three of these last year and in my opinion, they’re fantastic little cameras.

The video above comes from Nigel Barros, who’s transitioned through a bunch of different kit and produces some pretty outstanding work with it. The G85 was an attempt for him to bring his camera kit back down to the bare minimum to “do more with less”. Initially, he picked an old GH4 a few months ago, but after his community suggested the G85, he just had to check it out.

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Five things you’re probably not doing to become a better filmmaker

Not all photographers and filmmakers went to school for it. There are pros and cons of both formal education and learning everything on your own, but both can give you valuable knowledge and skill, that’s for sure. If you’ve decided to learn filmmaking yourself, there are many things you can do to learn and improve. But are you doing all of them? Jordy Vandeput of Cinecom suggests five things that you probably aren’t doing, but they can be great ways of improving as a filmmaker.

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The homemade DIY filmmaking gear Van Neistat can’t live without

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You might be forgiven for not knowing who Van Neistat is, but as the name might suggest, he’s the brother of filmmaker and YouTuber Casey Neistat. After their HBO series, The Neistat Brothers, the two took very different paths. Casey went full-on into YouTube and Van… well, he kind of disappeared. Recently, however, Van’s done an about-turn and finally created his own YouTube channel.

It’s filled with some pretty unique stuff compared to most of the content we see on YouTube these days and it still has that very raw feeling of Casey’s early YouTube videos and the work the pair did together. In his latest video, Van talks about some of the DIY camera gear he’s made for himself and how he finds it invaluable.

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This 3D printed motion control rig offers pro-level features at a DIY-level price

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I’m a big fan of DIY motion control rigs and we’ve featured quite a few here on DIYP before, including this crazy 6-axis (mostly) 3D printed one. But this one from Andreas Epp – who goes by FuzzyLogic on YouTube – is a really slick design. Not only is it a thing of mechanical beauty, but it also seems to rival many commercially available systems out there, too.

Andreas’ motion control system is 3-axis, including a slider and a pan-tilt head. It’s a setup that you wouldn’t expect to be all that difficult. But having had a go at building some myself, they can be quite complex beasts to nail down – especially when you’re relying on 3D printed parts.

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