Your Vision Goes Here

I love snow days. They disrupt the expected and shake up creativity. On Feb 3, 2012, Denver and the surrounding areas was rocked by 12-18 inches of snow. Cabin fever rose everywhere… so did creativity. Like any artist, I had to release this inspiration, and it came in the form of a video. Having recently picked up a Sony FS100, I decided it was the perfect camera (due to the S35 sized sensor and 1080/60 frame rate) for the job.

Ergonomics on the FS100 are something to be simultaneously admired and hated. It doesn’t have the comfort of a prosumer camcorder or a DSLR… it’s somewhere in the middle. But, on a good note, the camera does strip down to a reasonably small size, allowing for some high tech weatherproofing

The ziplock bag worked a treat. Camera was absolutely dry despite the heavy snow. NICE.

The AVCHD codec held up surprisingly well in the conditions. Small snow particles moving quickly in front of a nest of twigs and dead branches might be disaster for some cameras, but the files look fine, even at 1080/60. Sadly, this online version doesn’t do the original files justice. Enjoy,

Looking forward into 2012, I’m proud to announce that I now offer a Sony FS100 in house to compliment the other camera systems.

The intent is to use the Sony FS100 to replace my beloved and often used Canon 5D camera system. The camera sports an S35 sensor, crazy low light capabilities, resolves more resolution and retains more sharpness than current DSLR video cameras. It also has 2 XLR audio inputs, which saves a bit of time on the editing/post side of things.

Not retiring the 5D yet, but it will become more of a “B” camera for now!

This is the first blog post in a series of x blog posts

Amongst the varied types of projects I work on, I have the pleasure of working with a diverse group of corporate clients on a regular basis. Each client has different takes on the type of content they prefer to use. Some relying heavily on photos and graphics, others are interested in shooting relevant b-roll, some want stock footage, some want staged material… the list goes on. But the cornerstone of most corporate videos is the interview. It is a simple, fast and (deceivingly) easy way to deliver information, add personality and emotion to a message, and engage an audience interested in your topic. The interview permeates many varieties of video, so it is absolutely critical for producers/videographers/filmmakers to master the it. I’ve spent the last 6 years shooting professional video content of all types, much of that interviews, and I’d like to spend the rest of this post sharing some of my best practices I’ve learned and discovered along the way.

There are a few necessary conditions for an interview to really take off.

1. They have to be comfortable

2. They have to be passionate

3. Sometimes surprise

4. They have to be honest

If these conditions are in place, we have the opportunity to capture some great stuff. So the interviewee is there in front of the lens… They’re now at the mercy of the questions. There are no hard and fast rules here. Sometimes the simplest yes or no question can lead to an intimate insight. Often, a well phrased and relevant question falls flat. If you have an infinite budget and time, it’s best to do a heck of a lot of research on your interviewee, the subject(s) they’re speaking to, the context they’re talking in, etc etc. It’s immensely helpful to meet beforehand. A phone conversation can do the trick, but I’ve learned that you can’t replace a casual face to face. My goals in these early meets tend to vary depending on how media-ready the interviewee is and the type of content we’re after. On a recent documentary project for a non-profit, much of the project centralized around the hardships that the interviewee had experienced. We spent 3 days getting to know each other before we shot the video. The emotion and vulnerability that was expressed in that interview is what really sells the story. Yet it wouldn’t have been emotionally possible without making the investment of time with the interviewee, building trust and ensuring that I was treating the hardships with the required attention.

In corporate videos, there often isn’t much time to establish a relationship with the interviewee. Instead of days or hours, some instances only allow for minutes before the camera begins to roll to develop a bit of repor. The attention has to shift to becoming acutely aware of who I’m speaking with and their role before stepping foot in the room. Seems like such an obvious point, but it’s surprising to see how many interviews I’m a part of (maybe just shooting, not organizing) that are missing this piece.

Occasionally, I’ve run into the situation where another interview needs to be taped (or captured…) last minute. No prep, no meets beforehand, just start rolling.

In the next blog post on this series, I will be discussing specific questions I try to ask for almost every interview.

Comments/questions?

Inspired by the other  large shootout of high end expensive cameras, my buddy Kyle Bush and I decided it was time to do some real world head-to-head with cameras from the streets.

We grabbed cameras we had access to and took them out. We attempted to be as scientific as possible, but there are quirks. Lots of quirks. For example:

• The GoPro has no manual exposure. Or Focus. Or White Balance. Or a monitoring screen (sans lcd bacpac) It just…shoots. So…. it has almost nothing in common with the other cameras other than it shoots in 1080 (and at 30fps at that!) In all honesty, we just wanted to throw it in the test
• The EX1R does not have a removable lens
• The sensors are all different sizes
• Picture Profiles were wildly varied (and also N/A…GoPro…)

Canon 7D

Canon T2i

Shot over 2 months, I forced myself to occaisionally break away from the busy daily schedules and find inspiration in the incredible morphing shapes above.

Variation of wind speed, color, types of clouds, altitude, weather, and time of day make shooting clouds, a seemingly flat subject, fascinating. On the tech side, choosing the proper speed, anticipating cloud movement, and finding the perfect vantage point complicate what seems to be a simple shoot.

The video doesn’t quite do justice to the amazing Colorado skies.

Shot on the Sony EX1R

Music: Death Cab for Cutie, Brothers on a Hotel Bed

HDV had its time and place. For documentary work, there’s really no media that gives you the sense of security like tape. You walk off set with real, touchable pieces of plastic knowing that your footage exists in a physical piece of plastic. Solid state cameras remove that reassurance and you instead marvel that your days, weeks, or months of shooting only exist on a hard drive…which could fail or be formatted at a moment’s notice.

However HDV has it’s well-documented flaws. The camera heads have to constantly be cleaned, tape cameras have a (relatively) large number of moving parts which means more potential problems (had tape transport jams twice on a shoot once), and HDV itself was… well, 4:2:0 DV bitrate in HD. Ouch. Still, videographers everywhere made good use of HDV. I remember reading that Planet Earth was utilizing HDV… if it’s good enough for those guys, what do I know??! (granted they were using it for slow moving shots)

I digress. The one piece of the HDV workflow that always bugged me was “capturing”. Several years ago, I worked as a technical assistant at a web/video company. Part of my job was to log and transfer countless hours of DV/HDV tape into the computer. I have no problem with log and transfer. Editors should know their footage well. What bugged me was the play>pause>reverse a few seconds>play>pause>reverse a few frames>play>capture sequence. Once footage was loaded into an NLE, in and out points were easy and instant… but setting 20 in/out points on tape in capture seemed to turn a 60 minute tape into a 90 minute capture. Though I was paid hourly for the work, I often thought to myself… “there has to be a better way”.

Funny enough, when starting my business, I started with an HDV camera. Recently, it came time for an upgrade (aside from the DSLR revolution). Weighing my options carefully, I choose the Sony EX1R as my solid state camera system, which uses the XDCAM codec.

From a workflow perspective the XDCAM codec is great for several reasons:
1) It’s a mere 35mbps in camera, with the option to record 10 bit to an external recording, allowing fairly long recording times on manageable media (16, 32 GB cards) as well as higher end codecs for professional applications.
2) The XDCAM codec is supported by Avid, Adobe, and FCP so it fits into many different types of workflows and can go from Mac to PC easily.
3) The cards are hot swappable in camera so you can constantly dump and shoot.
4) Timelapse work is a breeze with the single-frame interval recording feature
5) Pro audio in, no need to sync second system audio
6) Each time you start/stop recording, a new file is created. A new system of log and transfer.

I’ll often pair the EX1 with a Canon 5D/7D, maintaining the tapeless workflow (though the DSLRs do add complication in post).

My goal with the new tapeless workflow is to keep it simple with as little obstruction as possible.

Record -> Transfer -> Log -> Edit -> Export

Thoughts?

Short piece shot and edited for the good people at Suss Buick GMC The video will be showcased on their website (though I think they’re still working on the new updated version)

We shot the project over 2 days in a variety of locations around Denver.

James Drake Films, Denver Video Production

‘Good enough’ is never, and will never be acceptable at James Drake Films. In that line of thinking, I purchased the Sony PMW-EX1R, adding it to the collection of available cameras.

The EX1R is the first camcorder to be included in the famous CineAlta by Sony (cameras like the F35 and F900 are in that group!).

Additionally, the EX1R has an HD-SDI output meaning if you need to shoot content that must meet international broadcast requirements, I can get an external recorder and surpass the standards that BBC and Discovery currently have.

Let’s go shoot!

James Drake Films, Denver Video Production

It begins on the coast of California, finally ending on the East coast in Georgia.
2605 miles.
10 states.
Zach Crees is a burn tech and surgical assistant inspired by stories like Don’s and will ride his bike across the US to raise funding and awareness for burn survivors starting July 2011.

This video features Don Keller, a triumphant survivor of a fire that has found inspiration through cycling.

You can give to the Burn Unit by visiting this link

Shot on the Canon 5D Mark II with Technicolor’s Cinestyle picture profile.

Tim Tebow has taken the front and center spotlight not only in Denver, but around the US. I had the opportunity to work with Fox shooting an interview before the thanksgiving football games, 2011. I was hired as a camera operator, but also fulfilled many roles as the crew was small.

We shot on three Sony F3 cameras with Ultra prime lenses (love that glass) and about 15 lights spread around the Broncos indoor training facility in Denver.

Let’s talk prosumer large sensor cameras for a moment.

The Sony NEXFS100 is a tremendously tempting camera for the HDSLR generation (or it should be, anyway). Price-wise, the Sony F3 is probably a camera to rent with nice glass and a Gemini recorder, but the FS100 seems like a reasonable buy for the HDSLR shooters considering the features and quality.

However, while the FS100 offers a load of great features, I’m waiting for the Canon 5D Mark iii. Heres why:

1. I’ve dropped cash on a rig.

Over the past year and a half, most of my “production fund” has been geared toward making my 5D Mark ii a comfortable camera to shoot with. It took some time and it’s still no perfect. Rails, matte box, ND, counterweights, monitors, lenses, audio recorders just to name a few. At NAB one of the selling points that a Sony rep was pitching me was the idea that the FS100 is ready to go out of box, whereas you’d have to “spend a lot of money to get your DSLR ready for video”. He’s right, but I’ve already spent that money!

2. Image Quality

Though we currently know little about the 5D Mark iii’s feature set, the worst case scenario is that it’s as good as the 5D Mark ii video with better low light performance. But let’s be realistic here, Canon released the 5Dmkii in 2009. With a single Digic IV processor, the camera absolutely rocks. Shortly thereafter they released the 7D with DUAL Digic IV processors, enabling 720 60p. Then they stuck that same single Digic IV in the 5D into their Powershot line, some of which are less than $300. It’s now 2011. The RED Epic is the size of a Hasselblad recording 5K at 120 fps. Sony released the F3 (and soon the FS100) that shoot very clean at 30dB (ISO 6400). And all the while, Canon watches and waits.

I’m really hoping for  a clean video signal from the new 5D. I was amazed at the response with my  call to action post a few weeks ago. The biggest common feature request was clean video, and I couldn’t agree more! Venturing into the vastly hypothetical for a moment… imagine the 5D mark iii DOES have clean video 1080/24 out…. and you pair that with a $2000 Kipro mini (which also has pro audio in) recording Prores…. Did we just create an Alexa for around $5000? Quite possibly!! Obviously missing some features from the Alexa, but you get the idea.

3. Form Factor

A sometimes forgotten benefit of the DSLR is that they are small enough to sneak in almost anywhere and they provide you amazing stills AND amazing video… how can you beat that? Having traveled with larger production kits in the past, let me reitterate… I LOVE travelling with my DSLR over any other system. Period. In a world where small counts, the DSLR wins big points here.

4. Easier editing in the future

In a month or so, Apple will release Final Cut X to the world. At the world premier, Apple mentioned the ability for FCP to analyze AND sync your audio on import based on waveform. (I hope Apple is somehow helping the guys at Singular Software) Suddenly XLR inputs on the camera aren’t quite as important. Sure, it would be great to have an I/O module to hook up to the 5D. But I’ve gotten fairly used to recording second system.

5. Price

Need I say more? I guess I can’t really speak to price since the 5D mk3 has no price yet, but I can’t imagine Canon is going to hike the price multiple thousands for a camera with the same name in the same line. The original 5D was around $3000, the much more powerful, better 5D Mark ii was originally $2699 . Seems to me the price will be in the same avenue. Assuming a $3000 body-only price tag, I could pickup a few batteries AND a nice L series lens for the price of the FS100 and still have my rig that makes the DSLR a working professional setup. Or, ditch the lens and batteries and buy the AJA Kipro (if we get clean video out) and start recording prores from the camera.

Sorry Sony, but the Canon 5D Mark iii is still worth waiting for. Dear Canon, please continue to be revolutionary. We will buy your lenses.