Learning something new every day

I don't think it's a newsflash to anyone that works in production that there's always something new to learn. Formats keep changing, there are dozens of cameras to keep straight and the menus...good grief, the menus.

But quite apart from the technical aspects of this industry there are always other things that one can learn. Having been out on location for the past couple of days (yes, I was set free from the office) I now know the following:

Big buildings are not as close as they appear.
Case in point: the distance between the Capitol and Union Station in DC. Looks like it should be a quick walk. Here's a map. Should be a piece of cake. 15 minutes of slogging to get to the New Jersey entrance of the Capitol turns that notion on it's head. And brings us to our next lesson of the day...

Always take a handcart to lug gear around.
So I was showing up this morning with a Panasonic HDX900 with a 16x6.3 HD lens on it and then a bag of assorted audio, video and power cables. Being an office wonk it never even crossed my mind that carrying that amount of gear a short distance (wrong...see above) might get really uncomfortable. When you're mentally working out the weight as you're walking, pretending that the shoulder strap isn't cutting your blood supply off to your arm and taking a real long look at crosswalks to catch your breath, er, make sure the road is clear you know that wheels are an essential item. Which segues nicely into...

Don't ever assume someone else will have the bits and pieces you'll need.
I'm never showing up anywhere ever again without the following pieces of kit:

• 25' Stinger
• Triple tap
• Ground lifter
  
• Set of screwdrivers
• Gaffer tape
• (2) XLRs
• (2) BNCs
• BNC coupler, splitter and BNC:RCA adapter
• Wheels

By the way, "anywhere ever again" includes ball games, house parties and baptisms. You just never know when you'll need to run power and make sure the cable's safe for pedestrian traffic.

Finally...

The hours suck in this business.
I had a 7am call time this morning. It's around 20 miles from my house to Union Station, so that's roughly 40 minutes of driving. I figured I needed to be wheels up at 6am, so that meant a 5:20am wake-up to make myself presentable. When you take into account that I'm more comfortable seeing 5:20 in the morning from the other side...well, let's just say that Starbucks was my friend a few times during the course of the day today. And I was off-set and done by 11am! Gonzo and the crew with him on the shoot for a WebMD on Monday had a 7am call in Baltimore and they didn't leave location until gone 10pm. And then he got up Tuesday and pulled another 11 hour day.

All in all, I think it would be good for anyone who wants to go into production to go out and have a couple of days like I've had this week. You'll realize that the problems you don't run into on location are because the crew has done it's homework, prepped accordingly and anticipated issues. You'll have a little more sympathy for the guys getting into the building five minutes late after having to haul carts of gear from the loading dock, through security and then go and park their vehicles. And you'll know not to wonder why they aren't jumping up and down with excitement at your project -- it's nothing personal, it's because the pre-dawn call time you gave them is their third that week.

Chris Cardno
Production Manager
Visual Edge Productions

Friday round-up

It's been a busy week for Visual Edge. We've had a fair few rentals, quite a few shoots, received some new gear in-house and celebrated a holiday created solely by the brew-making industry. Job done.

HD CAMERA RENTALS
The HD cameras have ruled the week, with the Panasonic HDX900, Sony HDW730 and the Sony Z1U being the most popular. That's not to say the SD cameras didn't represent themselves well -- the D600 Betacam just won't stop working. In addition, the Panasonic HD1400 decks have been out extensively.

SHOOTS
In addition to the jobs already mentioned, Bruce worked on an Animal Planet show, Dogs 101, with the wonderful team from Powderhouse Productions -- that was shot using the HDX900. He also shot for EFX Media, based out of Arlington, VA, using the Panasonic SDX900 and then today he was shooting for The Colbert Report's Better Know a District segment on Capitol Hill. Running camera alongside Bruce was Bill Donald, audio tech was Michael Coleman and our intrepid Production Assistant was Kristen "Nepotism" Liffiton. As you can see below, Stephen was thrilled to be working alongside her:
Finally, Gonzo's up in New York on a two-day, two-camera shoot for the Knights of Columbus. We'll post the details when he gets back.

All in all, a good week with a fun shoot at the end. We'll post or link to the Colbert segments when they air, which will probably be in a few weeks. As for next week, we start with a bang: Bruce is shooting DC b-roll for ESPN and Gonzo's going to be running around the National Shrine/Catholic University area on a multi-part shoot with the USCCB. Stay tuned and please pop over to www.visualedge.tv for more information about all the gear mentioned above.

What's 32 degrees, damp and dark?

The scene outside the Treasury Department last night, that's what. While most sensible people were catching up on their DVR shows or knocking back a few in their favorite bar, we were out shooting host segments, wraps and bumps for a Fox News documentary.

We were joined by an excellent crew and two very nice people from Fox, producer Rachel Feldman and host Bret Baier. Despite the cold, the light rain that lasted until 8pm, every plane ever made taking off from National Airport, a horse and carriage with jingling bells (seriously, who's taking a carriage ride in DC in March?!) and a fair few people who thought it was funny to yell "Woo-hoo!" as we were rolling...we got the job done.We shot with our Panasonic HDX900 and the camera was mounted on a Jimmy Jib provided by Cocklin Film & Video. Light and grip was provided by Annapolis Mobile Power, Potomac Light and Grip and the Washington Source and the teleprompter system came from Telescript DC. As for the crew, we had Don Aros, Kenny Harris and Patrick McAllister in lighting; Steve and Anne Cocklin with the jib; Ethan Spencer running the 'prompter; Michael Coleman providing audio and iPhone trivia; Chris Cardno as on-site Production Manager and foot traffic wrangler; and Bruce Liffiton as Director of Photography.

The show airs tonight (March 14, 2009) at 6pm on Fox News Channel so if you have a chance to check it out please do so. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to go and warm up.

It's our first time. Be gentle.

Welcome to the Visual Edge Productions blog. Actually, this is going to be more of a news site, giving us the chance to post photos, videos and stories about the shoots we've been involved in and the gear that we have in-house. If you'd like to see what we have, please head to our main site at www.visualedge.tv and you can check out the gear, download manuals and build the camera package you need for your upcoming project.

In a nod to the conventions of most blogs there will be some funny/lame YouTube videos posted at some point but we promise to keep them few and far between. Unless it's chimps in suits. That's always funny.

So, what are we up to at the moment? We're prepping for a shoot for Fox News that will take place outside the US Department of the Treasury, so if you happen to be wandering near the White House tomorrow feel free to stop by and say hi. We're also working with the good folks at WebMD this weekend for one of their webcasts and then next week...well, it's not confirmed yet but it should be one of the cooler projects we've worked on in quite some time.

There are some new additions to the Visual Edge inventory. We now own the Letus Ultimate depth of field adapter, which allows the use of 35mm lenses on boTh the Panasonic HVX200 and the Sony EX3. We also just bought a 64GB P2 card for the HVX200 and HPX2000, giving extended record times and reducing the need for frequent data transfers in the field. Call or email us for further information.

That's it for now but we're planning on updating this pretty regularly so check back when you can and we'll see what cool stuff we can find for you.