The Secret Behind Small Budget Filmmaking

The Academy Awards were on last night and Avatar was highlighted for its extraordinary innovations within technology. I am an independent filmmaker and I'm often asked how I do my special effects. Generally, I use professional programs like Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects, however I also use third party plug-ins and a very special website that can help any indie filmmaker look like a pro. Tons of web sites have tutorials on how to do this but Video Copilot has many extra plug-ins alongside their extensive After Effects tutorials. Their array of programs cover all aspects of post-production within 13 awesome add-ons...

Film making add-on's after the break!

Mac Heist - 7 Top Mac Apps for 20 bucks and for charity

Updated on Mar 9, 2010 by Brandon Davenport

Yes, this feels to good to be true - but it is true, and you have to check it out now! Say hello to the MacHeist nanoBundle. As Mac users, we find it hard to expose ourselves to new indie Mac Apps because of availability, not being easy to find, and sometimes price. MacHeist has come to the rescue with this new lineup of apps that are valued at $260, and they are selling them in a bundle for 20 bucks, and donating to charity!

More info after the break...

Seesmic Look - Maybe the best Desktop Twitter app Ever

A lot of the trouble with Twitter is that it relies on 3rd party sources to give you an experience - because the website itself can be pretty boring for some! Think about it - Twitter.com has never been your main way of tweeting because it doesn’t offer URL shortening or other special goodies; it’s just a box to type in. I am afraid though that at the end of this review you may want to re-think the way you use Twitter, forever.

Review after the break! 

A Twitter Capable Commodore VIC-20

Brandon Davenport Feb 16, 2010 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Hacks, Hardware, Internet, Twitter, software

Just when you thought your Eee PC was slow, and using Twitter was painful, this gem makes you want to stop feeling sorry for yourself. This Commodore VIC-20 is running software from a cassette tape, has only 5 KB of RAM, and a processor that runs at 1 MHz. Ancient we know, but it is back in buisness and ready to do everything in 140 characters or less.

Using custom software called TweetVER, the folks at the PC Museum will be accessing Twitter from this VIC-20, and loving every keystroke and @reply. You can read the first tweet on Saturday February 20th at 11am EST by following the museum's Twitter account. Its really cool that something so old, something so slow ( 3000 times slower then a personal PC ) is capable of using, and embracing something so new.

Google Chrome Extensions Now Available on Mac

Ricardo Trejo Feb 12, 2010 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Apple, Google, Internet, software

Google Chrome's extensions have turned everyone's newest browser into everyone's must have browser. Though, sad was the case of our own Nick Mahar, who would've loved to have gotten in on the discussion about Chrome's add-ons in a previous video we did about them -- but alas, he was unable to since he was running Google's browser on a Mac. Well Nick, this ones for you:

Since we released Chrome for Mac in beta last December, we've been busy adding new features. Today, after some incubation in the developer channel, we're happy to make some of these features more widely available. The new beta release of Chrome for Mac offers extensions, bookmark sync, and more.

With this new version, you'll be able to install any of over 2,200 extensions (and counting!) currently available in Chrome's extensions gallery. Extensions can add useful, informative,fun, or quirky functionality to the browser. You can manage your extensions by clicking on the Window menu and choosing "Extensions."

Google Chrome Mac Beta -- Download

Are you stuck with IE 6? Google Chrome Frame fixes most websites.

 

If you are using Internet Explorer, you are probably doing so for one reason or another -- you are 70 years old and just happy using AOL Mail, you are not sure if you can adjust to another browser, or you are stuck at work where everybody thinks that "IE is the most secure browser". Well if you are using IE for any reason, you are missing out. Lots of great websites are now dropping compatibility with IE including Youtube, Google apps and Facebook [...]

Attention: Windows 7 Release Candidate Beta Expires February 15th

Ricardo Trejo Feb 9, 2010 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Internet, Microsoft, software

If you're like me and got your hands on the RC build of Windows 7 you've been lamenting this day for a while now. Starting next Monday, February 15th, Windows 7 will begin cycling 2 hour shut downs, which not only will be annoying, but will impair the save feature when working in applications.

Don't get me wrong, I love Windows 7, but it just sucks having to officially buy something that I've been using for almost a year now. Though, I knew about this from the start when I first signed up and you should've too! So what are you going to do now - Go back to XP and Vista? Or will you fork over the cash to run Microsoft's new stylish OS?

Oh, and don't think you can outrun that 2 hour shut down process for long either! Starting June 1st your desktop will be replaced with a "This copy of Windows is not genuine" image, so there's much of a workaround. Just do the right thing and buy a legit copy - I think Microsoft deserves it for finally pulling through and giving us something we can actually work on without complaint.