Behind the Scenes: 5D MkII shoot

On Wednesday, April 7, Bruce and Chris headed out on a shoot for a client to capture footage of three statues in Washington, DC. The client had requested the Canon 5DMkII as the camera for the project and we shot in 24p, taking advantage of the recent firmware update from Canon. We took a decent number of lenses with us and a new toy, picked up the client at Union Station in DC and then headed out to start the day.

The problem most people are aware of with the 5D is it’s inability to deliver an HD signal via it’s HDMI output when recording begins. As such, we chose to simply take the standard def output from the camera and fed that into a Panasonic BT-LH900 HD monitor — the Hoodman was an absolute must have with the sun beating down on us! The monitor also allowed our client to see what we were shooting and offer input so that they got exactly what they wanted.

We were also playing with a new toy — the 3′ Shot Shifter from Bright Devices. It’s a slider dolly that utilizes your tripod as the base and then your fluid head screws into the bowl adapter on top. Regular light stands are then used as support under the ends, allowing for a smooth move all the way through. Quite bluntly, this was THE tool for the job. It allowed us to get moves on the statues we were shooting without the time and hassle of setting up dolly and track and also gave us a much smaller footprint which, in downtown DC, is absolutely key. And although we were using it with a DSLR, the Shot Shifter is rated for larger cameras so can be used with a Varicam, CineAlta, or any 2/3″ system. Brilliant. There’s also a 22″ version for interviews, allowing the operator to perform subtle moves with the interview subject, and the mondo 5′ version.

Here’s the complete list of the gear that we used on the shoot:

• Canon 5DMkII DSLR – we love this camera.
• Canon L-series 50mm 1.2 – beautiful, beautiful lens.
• Canon L-series 16-35mm 2.8 – a fantastic wide lens.
• Nikon 85mm 1.4 – one of our cine-modified primes from RP Lenses.
• Nikon 135mm 2.0 – again, cine-modified from RP Lenses.
• Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 – we borrowed this lens for the shoot and we’re still dreaming about it, just gorgeous.
• Zacuto Z-Finder, follow focus, DSLR plate, Z-American arm and lens gears – there isn’t anyone making better quality accessories out there at this time and the Z-Finder is essential. Again: ESSENTIAL.
• Chrosziel 5×5 mattebox with the Zacuto flexible donut – shooting in the sun with a fast lens and camera made it imperative for ND filters in front of the glass, along with the requisite Polarizer.
• LightCraft Fader ND – screws right on the front of the 50mm lens and allows for very easy adjustments to the amount of ND filtration you need.

The shoot was a success, the client left happy and we sent them a hard drive with all the raw footage via FedEx the next day, after we brought it back to Visual Edge and made a back up copy.

The emergence of DSLR film-making has really been a stunning development in this industry and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. For more information feel free to give us a call at 301/530-8210 or email us at info@visualedge.tv

New Colbert Report film

Back in December, right after Christmas, Bruce and Michael flew out to Utah to shoot a segment for the Colbert Report -- Stephen challenging Olympic speedskater Shani Davis to a race. After he got some basic training on, well, how to speedskate:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Skate Expectations - Speedskating Team Training - Tucker Fredricks
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

Part two airs tonight on Comedy Central at 11:30pm.

New ESPN film - Terrell Suggs: Unmasked

Well, after the beatdown put on the New England Patriots yesterday I suppose I should throw up a piece we shot for ESPN a couple of months ago:

Terrell Suggs Unmasked from Chris Cardno on Vimeo.

The piece was shot with two Panasonic Varicams, with one outfitted with the Letus Ultimate and B4 Relay Lens. WE also had with us our Matthews Doorway Dolly and Long Valley Seven jib. The background was painstakingly built by Bruce by cutting out the squares from large piece of foamcore and then attaching sheets of Opal. Finally, we had a flicker generator and a smoke machine for effect.

Big thanks to ESPN for having us be part of a really fun shoot and thanks also to the folks at the Baltimore Ravens for being so generous with their time, especially Terrell Suggs who was a blast to work with.

Justice Department video

Embedded below (original page here) is a video that Bruce shot for the Department of Justice:

The interviews were shot with the Panasonic HPX2000, Letus Ultimate with B4 Relay lens and our Nikon primes. Much of the b-roll was shot using our Fujinon 13x4.5. We shot AVC-Intra 100 in 1080/30, transferred to a Lacie Rugged drive on location and handed the footage off to the client. They actually cut a few spots out of the two days of shooting:

Hope you enjoyed the pieces -- if you're interested in renting any of the gear mentioned please do click on over to www.visualedge.tv.

Chris Cardno

Production Manager

Visual Edge Productions

A Community Expanded

Back in the first quarter of 2009 I was on record as calling Twitter "the most egotistical thing ever invented." 140 characters to spew forth whatever was on your mind? No chance, I thought, this is a fad and a particularly stupid one at that. At a New Year's Eve party I said to someone that I thought Twitter was the biggest game-changer of the year and an invaluable resource. So, yeah, I've reversed my position somewhat.

Quite bluntly, if you're not on Twitter you're playing catch-up and in an industry whose tools are becoming computers with lenses that's a disastrous place to be. Twitter has become a breaking news feed with the added bonus of commentary from people active in the field: the contextualization of the information elevates it.

However, there is another aspect to Twitter that might be overlooked. The sharing of information, expertise and experience is something that I've never really experienced before in this industry. Don't get me wrong, I've learned a lot from others but the free-flowing information on Twitter and the willingness to share has blown me away. Twitter appears to have attracted a group of people who not only enjoy their work but are excited by the possibilities of the tools they have and that excitement spills over.

Paranoia and competitiveness has always been a part of the film/video industry, be it over clients, techniques or even equipment. There is a small pool of people that are up for every job and considering that rates are always negotiable (must be nice to be a plumber and know that the rate is the rate -- apart from that whole clogged toilet thing...) I know that everyone has lost a job because someone came in $50 under your quote or agreed to a 12-hour day with no OT. With production budgets getting slashed loyalty from your clients is a luxury these days and I've talked to many people who don't really have regular clients any more, it's a revolving door of jobs. Which makes the people who discuss, evaluate and share information on Twitter all the more remarkable. They're discussing the tricks of the trade, the same tricks that get them paid, keep a roof over their heads and have earned them the reputations they have. AT NO COST!

Now, I'm not going to be naive, Twitter is a powerful marketing tool and I'm sure that many of the people active on Twitter have, at the very least, received a phone call from an interested potential client. However, the sense of community that is being engendered is heartening. In a given day I know what people are up to in Bavaria, Buffalo, England, New Zealand, Toronto, Boston, Washington, DC... I know what cameras they used, what accessories they had with them, what worked, what didn't, what they wished they'd had on set in addition to what the temperature was and if they got a meal break. And if I'm intrigued by something mentioned? Send a message, get an answer -- build a relationship.

While the value of Twitter has surprised me what has been a bigger thrill has been a newfound sense of enthusiasm for the industry of which I'm a part. It's easy to get jaded dealing with rookie producers, cheap production companies and renters who don't know that there's more than one camera with '900' in it's name. Hearing from people from around the world who still think this business is cool (which is what we all thought working in film and TV was when we were young) is invigorating and, bluntly, it's made me better at my job.

So, without further ado, some shout-outs to the folks out there on Twitter that make it a fun place to be:

www.twitter.com/philipbloom Not sure if you need an introduction to Mr. Bloom, he's become something of a web celebrity in addition to being a fine DP. Answers questions, reviews gear, hangs out with the folks from LucasFilm occasionally...oh, and he's English, which immediately gives him a leg up on everyone else.

www.twitter.com/tomguilmette As of this writing Tom is off on a mountain somewhere doing something epic with timelapse. Or he might be mountain biking. Difficult to tell with him but he's probably cold either way. Tom gives great insights into different types of production and, like Philip, is happy to share tips and techniques.

www.twitter.com/rodneykiwi Yes, he's the DP for 24 and I'm a 24 nerd but his feed is not just a look behind the show for fans. Instead, Rodney Charters seems to be as big a geek about new production toys as we all are even though he gets to play with the BIG toys on a daily basis. Great to follow.

www.twitter.com/timescapes Tom Lowe put a video on Vimeo that has literally stopped everyone that I've shown it to in their tracks:

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

Now, click through to watch that in HD and then follow Tom on Twitter.

www.twitter.com/vincentlaforet Vincent Laforet has won a Pulitzer Prize for photography. That should be a good enough reason to follow him but he's also the chap who really made people sit up and pay attention to the possibilities of DSLRs for film-making.

www.twitter.com/tylerginter That would be 1st Lt. Tyler Ginter, 55th Combat Camera, US Army. This is a man who tested out a 1DMkIV while he was preparing to jump out of an airplane.

This is a really small sampling, obviously, but it's a good place to start for those in film & video. The fun of Twitter is following the conversations and then following the people who are discussing what you enjoy. Pretty soon, there's a community of people in your feed and, as I said at the beginning, it's a community that's expanding. Hopefully you'll find it as valuable as I do.

Chris Cardno

Production Manager

Visual Edge Productions

www.twitter.com/VisualEdgeChris

Working with Stephen Colbert again

We usually have fun with the team from the Colbert Report when they come to town. This shoot was no exception. However, in a first for us, Stephen decided that some action sports would be a good idea in the halls of power:
As always, thanks to the production team in New York and Stephen.

But they told me size didn't matter!!!

Is that title professional? Nope, but it's making me chuckle every time I look at it so it's staying.

A few weeks back I wrote a mini-column in a newsletter in which I said that "the ever-shifting technology landscape is going to create a much larger, louder and bitter debate" than the one that occurred at the onset of HD cameras between the film devotees and those who were in the video world. This wasn't difficult to predict, but the speed and volume has been surprising (although maybe it shouldn't be in this world of Twitter, online forums and 24/7 in-your-palm web access.)

Here's a really quick timeline of the past couple of weeks:

Nikon finally announces their new still camera, the D3s, which many had hoped would offer the video functionality of the Canon 5dMkII if not radically improve upon it. It doesn't. Grumblings around the web point out that it's not full frame and doesn't shoot 1080p. It's just a really good stills camera with video capabilities. The horror... This is the first real sense of how petty the arguments are going to become, in my opinion.

Jim Jannard announces that there will be a RED announcement. Reaction not dissimilar to the Beatles landing at JFK occurs. Suggesting that RED is now reacting to Nikon and Canon would not go down well, I'm quite sure.

In a surprise email, Sony says that they will have a BIG announcement on October 20th. The web starts to buzz -- could the giant be stepping into the large sensor video camera world? Could they be adapting their Alpha line for the EX cameras?

The anniversary of the Canon EOS line is October 20th, so people wait to see what they will announce. After the success of the aforementioned 5dMkII there are high hopes.

At the stroke of midnight Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Vincent Laforet posts a film on his site that he shot with the new Canon 1dMkIV. Nocturne (which has since been pulled at the request of...Canon...gotta love those multi-nationals and their bureaucracy...) highlights the insane low-light capabilities of the camera. However, grumblings around the web (yep, again) point out that it's not full frame and costs $4,000. Which is less than the HVX200 costs, but still...

After a day of leaks Sony officially announce...a revised EX1! And a big 2/3" EX3! Reaction is somewhere between pleased and complete and utter apathy.

We're now all waiting for October 30 so we know when RED is going to jump in. Or say they are going to jump in. Or will announce that they plan to jump in at some point but, you know, everything changes...

And that's really where we are: everything is changing. The emergence of V-DSLRs should force the traditional camera powerhouses to stop looking at different ways to repackage what has been done before and start looking at introducing technologies that have never been considered for video. Processing power is only increasing, storage capabilities are no longer a concern and the days of standard definition and heavily compressed codecs are going to go the way of dial-up and cassette tapes. Over the course of the next year we're not going to be talking about 1/3" or 1/2" or 2/3" cameras: we're going to have to learn all new terminology. Thankfully, a very nice chap named Tyler created a web page with some very handy explanations of all the different options that we have to look forward to. The downside of having all these options suddenly opening up to us is that there is going to be some of the loud and bitter debate that I originally mentioned in this post: snide comments regarding sensor sizes, aliasing, compression artifacts and rolling shutters are going to be quite commonplace.

But, given the choice, I'd rather be part of a loud conversation than sitting in silence. This is going to be exciting.

Chris Cardno
Visual Edge