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Taking videography to the next level Autumn 2013
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How to make your own promo video and shout about your services
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Hire before you fire!
Are you wired for sound?
Why renting is the ideal solution for cashstrapped moviemakers
The advice you need to make some sound decisions on audio
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NEWS ROUND-UP
CONTENTS
Find your market
4 News All the latest news and launches.
Welcome to the latest issue of HDSLR Moviemaker, our biggest to date, and it’s bursting with information and inspiration Still photographers have known for some time that they had the tools to produce professional quality video footage in their kitbag already but, for many, coupling that realisation with a clear idea of how to make commercial capital out of it was a connection too far. The assumption was that it might be possible to, perhaps, shoot a little video while covering a wedding to make some extra income here, but beyond this they were at a loss to see where other markets could be found. Of course, it is fair to say that video, while having much in common with photography, does require a completely different mindset, and there is no reason why someone who has vast experience of shooting and marketing still images should find it easy to understand where the demand for film production might come from. However, if you’re prepared to enter this market with an open mind and to look for opportunities in new areas then the refreshing fact is there are opportunities out there, and it is possible to find the work you need. One of the reasons for this is that while camera manufacturers have been handing us the tools to shoot HD video alongside our stills, the technological world has also been moving swiftly on several other fronts. One of the most important areas is the amount of data that it’s now possible to move around at high speed. The government, as we speak, is investing billions on upgrading the nation’s broadband capability, understanding only too well how crucial this will be for the development of the country in the future. Already it’s possible to stream movies and to access a whole range of services on our home computers, smartphones and tablets, and you
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10 Make sound decisions Everything you need to know to produce high-quality audio.
can bet that what we’re looking at now will appear impossibly outdated and ‘old tech’ in maybe just five or ten years time. The point is this: we’re already looking at an increasing number of websites hosting video content, and this area is going to explode in the next few years. The US is already, as usual, way ahead of us on this, which is why I found it so fascinating recently to interview Anton Lorimer, a videographer based in California. Anton hasn’t come from a background in photography, rather he was an engineer in Silicon Valley, but he had an urge to develop a creative career and a keen eye for an opportunity. He’s now making About Me short movies for a whole range of individual and corporate clients, and charging between $5000 and $10,000 for each production. Anton’s story appears in this issue of Movie Maker, and I urge you to take a look because it’s fascinating to see how he’s carved out his niche and how well he’s now doing. He finishes by telling how his market is “increasing by leaps and bounds”, and as someone who is at the forefront of technology he’s established a lead over others who might fancy a piece of this particular action. As I say, the US is always a few years ahead of us, and it’s certain that the demand for high-quality films is going to grow just as rapidly here. Get ahead of the game, be prepared and make sure that the world knows you’re out there, and you could be doing as well as Anton in the next few years.
Terry Hope Terry Hope Editor Photo Professional
16 Competition Win a Sachtler Ace tripod worth €990! 18 Shout about yourself! Promo videos introduce your business and you, so how do you make one? 24 Audio in Final Cut Pro X Get to grips with the basics of audio editing in FCPX. 35 Hire your way into video Try before you buy, tailor kit to a job – all good reasons to rent gear. 46 Accessory tests From computers to focusing aids, we check out the latest video accessories. 54 Group test: Stabilisers We test well-priced devices to help you achieve steady video footage. 62 Buyers’ guide: Monitors A round-up of some of the market’s best monitors and external viewfinders.
Editorial Team Editor Terry Hope Editorial Contributor Jamie Ewbank Advertising Team Business Development Director Dave Stone 01223 499462 davestone@bright-publishing.com Sales Director Matt Snow 01223 499453 mattsnow@bright-publishing.com Key Accounts Maria Francis 01223 499457 mariafrancis@bright-publishing.com
Publishing Team Publishing Directors Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck HDSLR Moviemaker Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire CB22 3HJ.
Cover image: Zacuto
Design Team Design Director Dean Usher Design & Production Manager Grant Gillard
When you have finished with this magazine, please recycle it • HDSLR Moviemaker is published 12 times a year by Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge CB22 3HJ. • No part of this magazine can be used without prior written permission of Bright Publishing Ltd. • ISSN number: 2045-3892 • HDSLR Moviemaker is a registered trademark of Bright Publishing Ltd. • The advertisements published in HDSLR Moviemaker that have been written, designed or produced by employees of Bright Publishing Ltd remain the copyright of Bright Publishing Ltd and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. • The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
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10 TECHNIQUE AUDIO BASICS
A sound approach Audio can be a new and alien area for those brought up on still photography, but it doesn’t need to be a technical nightmare. Eifion Jones explains the basics WORDS EIFION JONES
T
HERE ARE PARALLELS TO be found between HDSLR moviemaking and the early days of sound in cinema. Many visual purists from the silent era found the introduction of sound and its associated technology stifling, limiting their creativity and freedom. It was a huge sea change that defeated those who couldn’t come to terms with the new technology. Today many visual practitioners often respond to audio in one of two ways: fear and anxiety, towards a confusing technical nightmare world of wires, voltages, beards, dandruff and soldering irons, or neglect, consigning it to the role of arbitrary artefact which just ‘happens’ when we shoot video, often rendering it ugly, distracting and unprofessional. The bad news is, there are many examples out there to validate both responses. However, there is good news as well. It’s easier than you might think to reframe the way you look at audio and bring the so-called dark art out of the shadows. As visual artists, you already
have a descriptive language to help you understand the very basics of sound recording. As with photography and video, audio production is concerned with physics, mathematics and technology. Luckily, these days we can take advantage of the hard work done by engineers fluent in these disciplines to create powerful capturing devices. Some of us will not understand the science behind our favourite kit or techniques, but all of us understand the parameters we are working within to achieve the results we want. So what happens when we apply these to audio? The table (below) will help you get to grips with this, as will the following paragraphs. • Distance The distance from the subject will have a major impact on the level of your audio signal. The inverse distance law means that doubling the distance will theoretically half the sound pressure level; you can double your gain levels
How do you look at audio? IMAGE
AUDIO
DISTANCE
Distance from subject
Distance from subject
EXPOSURE
Light, aperture, shutter speed, ISO
Sound level, gain level, mic sensitivity
SELECTIVITY
Lens, depth-of-field, framing
Mic type, positioning
RESOLUTION
Pixels/sensor size
Bit depth/sample rate
ACCESSORIES
Filters, lens hood, tripod etc
Windshields and shock mounts
HDSLR MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2013
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but you’ll double the level of all audio, not just your subject. If you have to keep your mic on the camera, a more directional mic will cope with an increased distance better by reducing off-axis audio. However, getting in close on a boom or using a personal radio mic offers the advantage of reducing background noise. • Exposure If you imagine sound pressure levels to be light levels, then your ISO, aperture and shutter speed settings for audio will be your recording gain levels or your microphone sensitivity. Exceeding the dynamic range of your recording system results in distortions that cannot be corrected in post-production, so give yourself plenty of ‘headroom’. Conversely, if your record level is very low, boosting it in post is going to bring up the noise floor with it. Most HDSLRs have unbalanced inputs with poor signal-to-noise ratios; your dynamic range is greatly reduced, making quality audio recordings very challenging. • Selectivity Depth-of-field, lens choice and framing are often seen as creative and subjective choices in an image. If we accept that an image is not a document of reality but rather a representation of reality, taken from a subjective viewpoint, then let’s take the same approach with audio. If we wish to listen to a journalist standing by a road, we listen to the journalist not the cars. Using the correct
“If we wish to listen to a journalist standing by a road, we listen to the journalist not the cars. Using the correct mic type and positioning allows us to record in the same way” www.dslrmovie.co.uk
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TECHNIQUE
microphone type and positioning will allow us to record in the same way that we listen. How engaged do we feel sat at the back of a church where the words ‘I do’ coldly echo, lost amongst the coughs of elderly relatives and the cries of tired infants? The right lens can take us visually into the emotional intimacy of the scene, but our ears will subconsciously push us back out if we can’t tune in. Wherever possible your framing will feature only objects you wish www.dslrmovie.co.uk
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IMAGES It’s not easy to achieve good quality audio using the camera’s built-in mic, but a Rycote Micro Windjammer can help. Eifion works with an individual set-up incorporating a mixer to improve sound quality.
to be present, with other objects excluded because they’re distracting. Take the same approach with your audio and you will achieve a far more professional and rewarding product. By recording discrete audio channels, each focusing on a single subject, you will afford yourself much more control and creativity in post-production. For drama, you should seek to record different ambiences and spot effects to layer up your soundtrack in post-production. Isolated dialogue with little or no background noise
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leaves you free to build a background world of your own choosing Remember that silence is merely the background sounds that come to the fore when the foreground sounds are gone. Silence can be subjective and emotive, so make sure it suits the feel of your scene. For documentary and promos, always try to record at least one minute of ‘wildtrack’ or room tone on location; you can use this to smooth audio edits and transitions or to remove unwanted background noise without leaving a mute track. AUTUMN 2013 HDSLR MOVIEMAKER
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18 TECHNIQUE ABOUT ME VIDEOS
Shout About Yourself! As it becomes ever easier to host videos on your website, so the case grows for an ‘About Me’ film that introduces you to your clients. Anton Lorimer, who specialises in producing these videos, explains his approach WORDS TERRY HOPE
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HE DAYS OF WEBSITES hosting nothing but still images are well behind us, consigned to history by massively improved broadband speeds and the ability of website companies to offer fantastic facilities for hosting videos and also selling them directly to clients online. As the ability has arrived for viewers to peruse video content either through their computers or mobile devices, it’s now up to photographers to seize the opportunity and to incorporate this into their marketing strategy. One of the ways to do this is by investing in a top-quality ‘About Me’ video, that sits on the home page of the website. At the click of a mouse, it can introduce the visitor personally to the photographer and tell them
more about their character and personality than mere words ever could. These are not intended to be ‘hard sell’ productions: rather they should be quirky, captivating and highly watchable short films that, while covering the credentials of the photographer, also delve further to give the potential client a glimpse of the service that they might be considering buying into. The best introduction you can have to About Me videos is to visit the websites of some of the world’s top photographers, especially those based in the US, where About Me videos are more established than they are in the UK at the moment, just to see what they are all about. If you’re looking for a short cut, then head to the website of master
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IMAGES The About Me videos Anton shoots aren’t hard sells; they’re captivating short films introducing photographers and their credentials.
videographer Anton Lorimer to check out the growing collection of About Me videos – or ‘documentary-style promos’, as he prefers to call them – that he has produced for high-profile photographers such as Jasmine Star, Trevor Yerbury, Bob Davis, Jim Garner, Catherine Hall, Trey Ratcliff, Kevin Winseler and Jessica Ambats, You’ll also find commercial About Me-style videos here that have been produced for companies such as Loxley Colour, SmugMug (which employs Anton to produce all its commercial video work) and GraphiStudio. If you spend some time browsing the films, you’ll get a good feel for what you should be looking for in a top-quality production. The reason for doing this is twofold. For a start, it can give you a good idea of the level you need to be aiming for if you are considering producing an About Me video about yourself, and it will become clear very quickly that the standard is high. As with any kind of promotional venture, putting something out that is below par is way worse than not putting anything out at all: if you come across as being a little cheap or tacky, this will be the impression the visitor will have of your business. In these days of readily available HD-enabled DSLRs, most studios will have a camera to hand that could provide the quality of footage required but, as you’ll tell by watching the films on Anton Lorimer’s website, there’s a lot more to producing a short and highly watchable film than might at first be apparent. The second reason for taking an interest in what Anton is doing is that this is a rapidly growing area of the market. If you can become proficient at producing good-quality short films, there will be an increasing number of customers out there, in all kinds of small businesses not necessarily associated with photography, that could be looking to book you to put together a production for their own www.dslrmovie.co.uk
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24 TECHNIQUE
Audio in Final Cut Pro X
Move into video production in a serious way and you’ll find yourself coming up with the necessity to be on top of the audio side of things. Alex Snelling outlines a few of the important things you need to know when editing in FCPX WORDS ALEX SNELLING
I
F THERE’S ONE THING THAT photographers moving across to video tend to know very little about, it’s audio. Add to this the fact that most DSLR cameras were never intended to be dedicated video models, and you’re faced with one of the trickiest parts of the whole HD DSLR workflow. However, Apple’s Final Cut Pro X editing software makes working with audio easy and brings with it a rich suite of plug-ins and functionality. Here’s a brief introduction to working with audio in FCPX that will help to give you a heads-up on some of the basic tools. Shooting audio FCPX does contain some very cool tools for fixing problem audio. However, there’s not room in this brief guide to cover these functions, so we’ll work on the basis that you’ve managed to record good clean audio in the first place (no mean feat) and we’ll ignore surround sound and assume you have recorded mono or stereo audio.
The basics There are two essential things that you need to understand about Final Cut Pro X before you start working with it: Events and Projects. Events are where you store, view, log and sort your media. They appear at the top left of the interface in the Event Library and are marked by star icons as seen in the screenshot below on the left.
Projects are what you create: a Project is one film, one sequence or one scene. Projects appear in the Project Library. However, if you double-click a Project, it will open in the timeline where you will be doing all your editing. We will look at audio, first in Events and then in a Project timeline. It’s vital to understand the difference between these two methods.
ABOVE This is how your list of Projects appears in your Project Library.
ABOVE Double-click a project and it will open in a timeline, where you can edit it. LEFT A list of Events in your Event Library – each marked by a star icon.
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TECHNIQUE
Audio in Events Generally, if audio is recorded with video, FCPX will keep them together, as seen in the blue clips in the shot on the right. Waveforms denote audio. If you import separate audio-only elements, like music or voice-over, it will appear in green (again right). One of the most misunderstood things about audio is that it can be recorded in stereo but played back in mono (and vice versa), so it is vital to know how it was shot. In particular, if your audio was shot split track (eg. a clip mic on channel 1 and a camera mic on channel 2), this may initially be disguised. To view and change audio in an Event: 1. Select (click) a clip in the Event browser and open the inspector (command+4). 2. Choose the Audio tab and you’ll see the audio controls (right), where you can change the volume and adjust the mono/stereo configuration. In this clip, once it’s changed to Dual Mono (as opposed to stereo) you can clearly see the two channels and their differing waveforms (below left). Channel 1 is a voice track, whereas channel 2 is a more generic, wider atmos (camera mic) recording, as might be used in an interview. It may be best to simply turn off audio channel 2 and allow only channel 1 to be heard. Any changes you make to your audio in an Event clip before you start editing will be reflected in all the subsequently edited clips. In other words, changing something at this stage can save you a lot of time. Note that it can always be undone and is never permanent. The same method applies to audio-only clips; the only difference is that they are green.
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RIGHT Whether shooting mono or stereo, Final Cut Pro X deals with each channel, separately or together – just look out for it in green or blue.
Adjust volume
Change mono/stereo here Turn off individual channels here
“One misunderstood thing about audio is it can be recorded in stereo but played back in mono”
ABOVE Turn off audio channel 2 and allow only channel 1 to be heard to edit it and all subsequent clips.
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ABOVE An audio-only clip in the Channel Configuration window. You can turn off one of the channels to edit just one.
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PROKIT/CANON
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A foot in both camps Canon’s C100 picked up a nine-star rating in our spring issue and was recently showcased in a training day at Prokit’s London showroom. We went along to see how well it suits photographers moving over to video
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HE RISE IN POPULARITY of HD SLR videomaking has opened up a whole new potential source of income for photographers, as one piece of equipment can now be used for two different types of paying work. However, what happens when the demand for video becomes so overwhelming that you start to want a dedicated video camera, one that has all the advantages and familiarity of your DSLR? At Prokit’s training day in west London, the answer seems clear: you pick up a Canon C100. At the company’s Chiswick headquarters a free C100 training day drew a capacity crowd of around 30 people, and a quick show of hands by the audience was revealing: traditional videographers were a tiny minority in
the room. It transpired that around 90 per cent of the attendees were either full-time DSLR videographers or stills photographers moving across into video work. The man leading the Prokit session is Matt Davis of MDMA video, a corporate and events specialist. Unlike his audience, he doesn’t have a photographic background, and describes himself as an ‘editor who learned how to shoot’. Nevertheless, he can see why so many photographers are starting to add video to their CV. “There is now a market for video like there never has been before. The web is so hungry for it. I haven’t made a DVD in years because I’m 100 per cent web-based now. Of course, everyone still needs wonderful photographs, but sometimes you need
ABOVE & BELOW The C100 matches up to the expected quality of pro video equipment – with the best chips, lenses and DSLRtype ergonomics on offer.
“It’s the C100 that will make sure people who are earning money from their shots have the right tools at their disposal” HDSLR MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2013
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to tell more of a story, or you find you can’t capture enough body language in a photograph. “If you’re coming to this new world of web-based videography from a photographic background, it all makes perfect sense: just like a photographer edits his own photos, a videographer edits his own videos. It’s natural for photographers. Unlike the striated, hierarchical lines of old-fashioned production companies, where production never got involved with post-production, and a cameraman never got involved with sound, photographers have been used to doing it all. It’s good to see lots of cross-fertilisation going on, as long as you’ve got the story to tell and the tools to tell it.” Working with the Canon C100 In this case, the tool is Canon’s C100, the recently launched little brother to the C300 and C500. Where those cameras are best suited to cinema and broadcast productions, the C100 is the camera that does everything else, and it’s an ideal product for the working videomaker shooting events, weddings and corporate training videos. It’s easy to use, has the familiar form of a DSLR and all the advantages of a large sensor, but comes with none of the drawbacks associated with using a DSLR for video. It’s designed for www.dslrmovie.co.uk
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PROKIT/CANON
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hand-held use, doesn’t have recording cut-offs and offers video-oriented features like focus-assist peaking and XLR audio inputs. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II may have been the DSLR that first drew serious acclaim from videographers, but Matt believes the C100 is Canon’s attempt to deliberately serve a market that the EOS 5D captured by accident. “Canon must have been absolutely mortified at the reaction of all these pro-video people who were taking their wonderful stills camera and comparing it with things costing four times as much,” he says. “That wasn’t what it was designed for. You can just imagine them saying: ‘We just put video in to help photojournalists put a modicum of video on a website, we didn’t intend it to be a video camera’. From that point onwards, they asked ‘how would we do this if we did it again?’ and eventually they came up with the C100, which is a darned good video camera that tries to put the best of both worlds into the box. “They’ve got the best ergonomics from a DSLR, the best chips from things like the XF305 and really easy access to all the EOS lenses. I see it as Canon’s successful attempt to create the camera people were looking for when they chose to use DSLRs for video. From now on, it’s the C100 that will make sure that people who are www.dslrmovie.co.uk
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earning money from their shots will have the right tools at their disposal.” The event organiser, Prokit’s Stuart Dennis, agrees. “Whether you’ve been working in event videography, drama or corporate videos, there’s pretty much a camera for every market. Until recently, however, there wasn’t one single camera that fitted every market. With the C100 we’ve got much closer to having that, with such a wide choice of lenses, and we’re starting to be able to do what a half-inch or third-inch camcorder could do as well. Obviously you always get a better picture with a large sensor, and you’re often going to be shooting with quite a shallow depth-of-field and quite fast lenses. Cameras like the C100 let you try both sides.” Full-frame film-making Shallow depth-of-field was the fuel in DSLR video’s rocketlike ascent, but the gratuitous overuse of the effect has led to a backlash against what’s come to be known as ‘bokeh porn’ that can be a little unfair. As Stuart points out, the large sensor in the C100 allows users to shoot depth-of-field effects that are vital to working videographers. “Using an out-of-focus area creates composition; it creates form, it pulls your eye to certain things,” he says. “We live in a world of short attention spans, and people aren’t always
watching on cinema screens, or even particularly large screens. What you’ve got in this room is a whole bunch of people shooting for the web, and when you’ve only got a small screen, that makes shallow depth-of-field incredibly useful because it draws people straight to what you want them to look at. “What’s interesting about these new large-sensor camcorders is that the light sensitivity is so good. The C100, for example, offers ISO speeds up to 20,000, which means that you don’t have to open the iris all the time, giving you the opportunity to work with slightly deeper focus. One of the reasons people shoot wide open with DSLRs is just light sensitivity. However, DSLRs don’t really deal with deep-focus detailed images that well, because you get issues with aliasing. With dedicated video sensors that’s less of a problem and the increased light sensitivity means you can now stop down if you want. I’d like to see people thinking more about using depth-of-field rather than abusing depth-of-field.” As a former editor, Matt has other skills that he proceeds to impart throughout the day in his training session. “Sure, short depth-of-field is one trick,” he says, “but long depthof-field is another trick and panning is another. Moving a camera versus AUTUMN 2013 HDSLR MOVIEMAKER
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FEATURE
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COST-EFFECTIVE HIRING
Rent your way to success! Hiring is a sensible way to go for DSLR videographers, because it provides the opportunity to tailor kit to a specific job, to try before you buy, or to get your hands on that dream kit you’ve always wanted to use WORDS JAMIE EWBANK
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HOTOGRAPHERS, well, most of them, eventually develop a certain feeling of sentimentality towards their kit. They have a lens they think of as ‘old faithful’. They take any opportunity to trot out a beloved vintage Hasselblad and their Gladstone bag has more patches than a piebald mongrel. Such sentiment is fine for a hobbyist, but for a working photographer, especially one making the jump
into new fields like videography, equipment has to earn its keep. Buying enough gear to cover every eventuality can be financially crippling, and can leave you with kit that gets used once a year but depreciates every day. This is where rental comes in. Once the preserve of large production companies, equipment rental is now affordable for just about everyone, and a policy of hiring in what you need allows you to tailor your kitbag to the requirements of
“Once the preserve of production companies, rental is now affordable for everyone”
www.dslrmovie.co.uk
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BELOW Hiring kit for specific jobs is more affordable for sole operators now, and it’s fast becoming a popular modus operandi for DSLR videographers.
a specific job. Even if you’re the type that prefers to get to know your gear in a way that only comes with ownership, rental still gives you the opportunity to try out new kit under working conditions before you choose to invest. Hireacamera’s Guy Thatcher and Direct Photographic’s Steve Knight agree that DSLR video is now a big part of their workload. “Yes, we have seen an increase in that type of business,” confirms Steve. “At first, people were going for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, then the Mark III. It now seems more clients are opting for the EOS C300 or the Nikon D800.”
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SAMYANG
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Tailor-made If you’re serious about film-making it makes sense to use tools designed specifically for the job, and Samyang’s affordable range of cinema lenses combines quality with a set of videofriendly features
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generation of photographers who have been tempted into the world of filmmaking through the ability of HD-enabled DSLRs, has had to come to terms with the compromises that have naturally followed. One of these compromises has been the use of regular still-camera lenses that, although capable of delivering greatquality results, also come with a series of built-in handicaps. For example, the f/stop notation on a regular lens will be approximate, because there is no requirement for it to be any more precise when still pictures are being taken. With filmmaking, however, you could be filming with more than one camera and it’s essential that footage from different sources looks exactly the same. This is why a dedicated cinema lens will have
an exact T/notation as opposed to an approximate f/stop. The maximum f/stop on a cinema lens will also usually be extremely wide, to allow those gorgeous film-like narrow depth-of-field shots to be produced. Furthermore the apertures will be decoupled, allowing stepless changes to be made – so there’s no chance of the camera’s built-in microphone picking up the audible click. More importantly, however, it means that any changes in aperture can be done gradually, not necessarily in huge one-click steps that will be noticeable in the footage. The other big advantage that dedicated cinema lenses offer is that they are not designed with autofocus in mind. The motor driving the AF mechanism is again something that can be picked up on the soundtrack, but
ABOVE & BELOW Samyang’s VDSLR range currently offers five lenses, all designed specifically for use in movie-making.
“The lenses achieve a high-quality image, even in low light. They represent excellent value for money” HDSLR MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2013
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also the AF might well search at times before snapping into focus, and this will look terrible in film footage. Made for the job It’s clear then that a lens designed specifically for the job in hand is infinitely preferable to one adapted to do a different job. The problem up until now has been that dedicated cinema lenses come at a huge premium, largely due to the fact that they have to be even more precision built than their still cousins. It’s not uncommon to be paying three, four or five times the usual price of a still lens for its cinema-friendly equivalent, and for those who are looking to shoot video alongside their still operation that’s not a realistic outlay. However, the landscape is now changing, and the freshly launched Samyang VDSLR range of lenses is not only designed specifically with film-making in mind, but it’s also highly affordable, carrying just a small premium over regular lenses. Currently there are five optics in the range: an 8mm T3.8, a 14mm T3.1, a 24mm T1.5, a 35mm T1.5 and an 85mm T1.5, with a 50mm in the pipeline. These are available in Canon, Nikon and Sony fittings – the ‘big three’ HDSLR manufacturers. Considering that these lenses are www.dslrmovie.co.uk
12/7/13 10:12:40
SAMYANG
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so bespoke, the prices are remarkably reasonable. The 8mm is available for £314, the 14mm is £349, the 24mm £564, the 35mm £449 and the 85mm £299 (all street prices). Some idea of the premium being charged can be gained by looking at the prices, for example, for a Samyang 8mm f/2.8 lens for a conventional still camera, which works out at £284, while a Samyang 85mm f/1.4 is £284. The lenses in use Given its accessible price point, is the Samyang VDSLR range capable of living up to the expectations of the professional end user? Senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln, and formally a BBC film and video lighting cameraman, Brian Hall explains his institution’s decision to buy Samyang VDSLR lenses: “We teach right across the media skills board, everything from film and television production to photography, design, script writing, audio and animation. We take approximately 180 undergraduates each year and around 100 of these take film production as their specialist area. Students leave with a BA (Hons) degree in Media, and we also offer a postgraduate MA course in media production. “Those students taking the film production course study across the www.dslrmovie.co.uk
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skills bases; producing, directing, camera, lighting, sound, editing and post-production. They work together to produce practical projects underpinned by relevant theory and critical reflection of their work. The courses are very well subscribed, even though the annual fee has now increased to £9000 per annum.” Students are working with dedicated Canon C100 cinema cameras rather than DSLRs. Instead of partnering such bespoke tools with still lenses, the university looked to source dedicated cinema lenses, and the Samyang VDSLR range fitted the bill perfectly. “We wanted to buy large-sensor cameras specifically for the MA media production students and to equip them with a set of wide-aperture prime lenses to work with, and control, depth-of-field in their shooting,” says Brian. “The Samyangs were affordable and we bought two sets, each with 24mm, 35mm and 85mm lenses. “From the student work I have seen so far the lenses are achieving a highquality image, even in low light. One of the main attractions is that they have been manufactured specifically for use in motion-picture production with a geared aperture ring and a long throw geared focus ring. Still camera lenses do not adapt well to the demands of
focus pulling and aperture change during shooting. The Samyang lenses represent excellent value for money, and we could equip each camera with high-quality prime lenses.” Given the extensive use the lenses are now getting, it’s the perfect test of their suitability for the professional world, and the university has been so pleased with their performance that it’s now looking to buy further sets, for a full range of focal lengths. For photographers looking to take video production seriously there couldn’t be a better endorsement. It seems that the Samyang range has now opened the door to professional performance to a whole new audience.
More information www.samyang.co.uk
www.lincoln.ac.uk
www.intro2020.co.uk Samyang lenses available to hire and purchase at Calumet www.calumetphoto.co.uk and www.calumetrental.co.uk.
AUTUMN 2013 HDSLR MOVIEMAKER
12/7/13 10:12:58
46 GEAR CRUCIAL KIT
The essential accessories The accessories can make all the difference when you’re looking to use your DSLR to shoot high-quality video footage. Jamie Ewbank rounds up some of the latest and most innovative kit to hit the market WORDS JAMIE EWBANK In the world of HD DSLRs, there’s a gadget out there to enhance just about every shooting situation you can imagine, and while some can appear just a little fanciful at times, there are many others that would be well worth their place in any serious film-maker’s gadget bag. We’ve tested a selection of products that are guaranteed to make your life as a DSLR moviemaker just that little bit easier, by improving both your shooting and processing experiences.
Perhaps the most common problem encountered when shooting with a DSLR is keeping everything in focus, and this is something that requires both specialist kit and knowledge. That big, sensitive chip is ideal for shallow depth-of-field shots, but shallow depth-of-field makes focusing a fiddly business, so we’ve tested three devices that’ll help improve focus. They each retail for less than £200. On a slightly different tack, we’ve got the Soloshot – the result of a Kickstarter
project and the brainchild of some knowledgeable surfers. Designed for corporate videomakers and bloggers, the kit consists of an armband, transmitter, motorised tripod head and tripod that can follow your every move. It could make itself useful in situations ranging from sports shoots to videoblogs and more besides. Finally, for video editors, we’ve got an overclocked PC revving away on the starting line, the editing equivalent of a modified Ford Cosworth!
Soloshot You might expect a device that can track and respond to your movements to be a complex, demanding piece of kit, but the Soloshot, born of a recent Kickstarter project, is surprisingly simple to set up. Comprising an armband, transmitter, tripod and a special motorised tripod head, the Soloshot can be used to track the wearer of the transmitting armband, allowing the camera to follow their movements through a 360° pan at 40° per second. Although primarily intended to film action sports such as surfing or cycling, the corporate videography applications of the Soloshot are obvious: as you devote yourself to filming the MD’s talking-head piece, the Soloshot can be left unattended, capturing activity on the factory floor for use as day-in-the-life footage or for training videos. Intended for use at a range of 15 metres, but capable of working at significantly greater distances, the Soloshot takes about 15 minutes to warm up and five minutes to synchronise the transmitter with the base unit, after which it will be ready to follow your escapades. You can also synchronise multiple base units with a single armband for multi-camera shoots, and our tests found that the transmitter worked through a cycling jersey, so it’s possible to be discreet about your use of the Soloshot if the job demands it. The tripod itself is comparatively low on frills, but is easily solid enough to enable you to get away without a second, dedicated tripod on many jobs.
DETAILS www. soloshot.com €579
VERDICT Brilliant idea, and could save the cost of an assistant on some shoots.
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Hague Follow Focus/ Zoom Lever For zoom rings, focus rings or follow focus knobs that don’t have an optional crank handle, Hague’s Follow Focus/Zoom Lever will make it easier to manipulate your camera controls when shooting. Similar to the FocusMaker (see next page), Hague’s lever identifies a simple need and serves it. The adjustable 275mm strap will fit round lenses of up to 85mm in diameter, making it useful for practically everything short of broadcast lenses, and the adjustable length and tension mean it fits a variety of consumer lenses. The extra leverage it creates lets you smoothly adjust your lens barrel or follow focus while keeping the pressure off the camera, reducing the risk of camera shake or operator noise. At £10 it’s a snip.
VERDICT DETAILS www. cameragrip.co.uk £10
Sweet little accessory and very affordable too. It makes the business of focusing much easier.
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Lensse Follow Focus Shallow depth-of-field might be the flavour of the month in videomaking, but it presents obvious difficulties for the working camera operator. With sometimes as little as a few feet separating pin-sharp shots from blurred footage, a moving subject can be difficult to keep in the clear, which is why a follow focus often tops the shopping list of many converted photographers. Lensse’s belt-driven Follow Focus fits rigs or tripods with 15mm rods, and operates with a treacle-like resistance that’s ideal for direct control, although you can also use the snap-in crank handle. The Follow Focus can fit on the left- or right-hand side of your rig, and a star bolt tightens the tension on the rail runners. The gear itself can be pulled out and swapped from front to back instantly, without tools. In use, this device feels solid and precise, which results in reliable and repeatable adjustments. Even without the crank handle, the hefty adjustment knob transfers nuanced movements to the gears. The durability and precision is reassuring, and in a field where prices can stretch between three and four figures, the Lensse Follow Focus is great value for money.
VERDICT Great value for money and good quality for the price. The kind of simple but essential accessory every videographer needs.
RATING
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DETAILS www.lensse.co.uk £120
AUTUMN 2013 HDSLR MOVIEMAKER
12/7/13 10:15:02
54 GEAR STABILISATION DEVICES
Steady as she goes If you’re shooting video with a DSLR you don’t want to lose the advantage of portability, but it’s crucial to keep the footage steady. Here are five stabilisation devices that will help you to achieve professional results WORDS JAMIE EWBANK
Nothing makes video look more amateurish than wobbly footage. It’s like a professional photographer delivering out of focus pictures to a prestigious client: you just can’t do it and expect to retain any degree of integrity. And yet one of the main reasons for using a DSLR to shoot video in the first place is the sheer portability of the kit, and it would be a crying shame to lose that flexibility. The answer is to fit your camera into either a lightweight stabilisation device or a fullyfledged rig, which will allow you to walk around and follow the action while still achieving a stable result. In this article I’m looking at a selection of products that fall into that first category, and I’ll be moving on to full rigs in a future feature. The basic premise of stabilisation devices is that the camera is secured to a platform that is as free floating and friction-free as possible so that, with careful use, your own body movements will be isolated from the camera. In simple terms it will move to where you move, but it won’t move when you move. To do this, the camera has to be counterbalanced on its pivot, which is where an array of systems come in, adding and subtracting counterweights, adjusting the position of the camera in relation to the balancing arm and, on some models, adjusting the angle of the balancing arm itself. It’s a comparatively nuanced procedure, and the sheer variety of cameras and lenses that these devices are designed to partner means that there’s no fixed rule or handy guideline for setting them up: even zooming your lens slightly can throw the balance. The number of variables involved can often mean that your first attempt at using a stabiliser can feel slightly hopeless, but with a little practice, you’ll get to the point where you can set up and shoot tracking shots that are so smooth only thousands of pounds of kit investment could improve them.
HDSLR MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2013
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12/7/13 15:07:59
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12/7/13 16:20:54
62 GEAR BUYERS’ GUIDE:
External viewfinders & monitors While DSLRs offer quality and portability to film-makers, their small LCDs can come up short. Gavin Stoker picks a selection of external viewfinders and monitors that can maximise your shooting potential WORDS GAVIN STOKER
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NYONE SHOOTING VIDEO USING a DSLR is wholly reliant on the camera’s LCD screen when monitoring the shot and manually adjusting focus. But as we know, the combination of a smallish screen, manual focus and shallow depth-of-field makes it tricky to pinpoint focus accurately, while bright light and glare can also make viewing the camera’s own monitor difficult. This is where an accessory viewfinder and/or monitor can come in useful. Seeing the bigger picture in a very literal sense via such devices helps with composition, framing and focus. And the better your view of the proceedings, the better the results. Naturally, the reason seasoned professionals deploy monitors is to enable them to keep a check on what is being filmed as it is being shot. But even for the low-budget moviemaker, the options available for use with a DSLR are increasing. Whilst external viewfinders – used to avoid glare from lights or simply to provide a magnified view of the camera’s LCD – fit over the camera’s own screen, monitors are generally attached to the hotshoe of your DSLR. The alternative is, of course, to attach them to the rail or cage support system of a DSLR rig, should you deploy such a set-up. However, placing the monitor screen atop the camera means that, generally, the rig itself doesn’t obscure your vision. Another general recommendation is the bigger the screen the better, so this is something to consider when making your choice. You should also be looking at cost versus budget, screen resolution, and the number and variety of inputs and outputs a monitor might offer, HDMI being the industry standard. With the above caveats and considerations in mind, we’ve cast the net wide to haul in a suitable selection of monitor and viewfinder solutions, which are presented, as the Oscar committee might say, ‘For your consideration…’ HDSLR MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2013
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EVF Snap £460, EVF Flip £525, Z-Finder EVF £500, Z-Finder EVF Pro £680 • www.theflashcentre.com
Zacuto Snap, Flip & Z-Finder EVF monitors
Zacuto’s EVF solution is a 3.2-inch, high-resolution monitor for use with all cameras with HDMI output, such as the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Mark III, 7D, Nikon D800, D4 and Panasonic GH2/GH3. It can be utilised when shooting with your DSLR hand-held, as part of a shoulder mount or on a tripod with an extender viewfinder mount, allowing you to get your eye where it needs to be for optimum comfort. The simplest method of attaching the monitor is directly to the hotshoe of the camera, which allows the film-maker to look directly down into the viewfinder, as you would if using a medium-format camera. While that all sounds straightforward, there are four Zacuto models to select from: the EVF Snap, EVF Flip, Z-Finder EVF and Z-Finder EVF Pro. The EVF Snap is the standard option, with a Zacuto Z-Finder Frame built into the unit to allow for an optional Z-Finder Pro or Jr optical viewfinder to ‘snap’ on (thereby magnifying the view). The EVF Snap can either be used as a small on-board monitor or a stand-alone electronic viewfinder. The EVF Flip can be used as a monitor in the same way as the Snap, with the ability to attach magnifying viewfinders if desired. But it comes with a Z-Finder frame built into the unit which can be flipped up through 180°, thus enabling the image to be more easily shared with others, such as a director, if choosing to add either a Z-Finder Pro or Jr to it. A third all-in option, but without the flipping ability, is provided by the Z-Finder EVF. This includes the EVF Snap model plus 2.5x anti-fogging optical viewfinder. If, however, you want these attributes as well as the ability to flip up the screen, then go for the Z-Finder EVF Pro. This package includes the EVF Flip plus 2.5x optical viewfinder. All electronic viewfinders include a standard hotshoe EVF mount, HDMI cable, rechargeable battery, charger, lens cloth and protection case.
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M7 £346.50, M7plus+ £475.20 • www.limelite.uk.com
LimeLite M7 & M7plus+ HD Field Monitor
Available via Bowens or distributor Calumet, among others, and currently available in two iterations, the M7 is, as the model number indicates, a seven-inch monitor. Offering the versatility of multiple signal and power inputs, this compact, lightweight product can be mounted on camera or used with a camera rig or crane, stand or tripod for film-makers to preview their shot. A rotating hotshoe mount and tilting desktop mount are also provided. The M7’s screen provides a 16:9 aspect ratio, switchable to 4:3, with a 1024x600 native resolution or maximum 1920x1080. A flat-folding sunshine cover is also provided for easier viewing. HDMI and YPbPr inputs are provided to connect up the device to either a HD-shooting DSLR or full HD video camera, with a HDMI to mini-HDMI cable included as standard. Weighing 480g, the M7 has dimensions of 194x150x38.5mm (or 158.5mm with sunshade). Multiple battery adaptors are also provided, including Sony MPF and professional V-mount adaptors, as well as one for the Canon LPE6 EOS battery, thereby giving the ability to power the monitor using spare camera batteries when on location. There are optional Nikon D800, Panasonic and Sony MPQM camera battery mounts available. It also comes with a compact mains adaptor and can be powered via battery belts. With a wide range of user-adjustable menu settings and programmable function buttons, the M7 is claimed to be ideal for photographers making the leap to video. The more advanced M7plus+ alternative for an additional £130 is geared towards helping you achieve the perfect picture, with advanced functions including peaking, exposure and false colour filters. Dimensions, weight and specifications are otherwise broadly the same as the M7.
AUTUMN 2013 HDSLR MOVIEMAKER
12/7/13 10:19:50
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