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SHORTS MAGIC BULLET UPGRADED Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Suite 13 is a major upgrade to the popular colour correction, finishing and film-look software. The update is packed with powerful new features, and for the first time all the colour correction tools deliver real-time performance through Mercury Playback support in Adobe Premiere Pro. Every tool in the suite has been updated, and there’s now Bullet Renoiser, designed to give an authentic cinematic texture and grain to your footage. It costs $899 but you can upgrade from previous versions for $299. It works in Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and Final Cut Pro X on Windows and Mac. www.redgiant.com
GOPRO RECALLS KARMA DRONE Action camera giant GoPro has recalled its Karma drone after power failure problems while flying. Buyers will get a full refund. The firm issued a worldwide notice at the start of November after shipping approximately 2500 units in the USA. GoPro says there were no reported injuries or damage to property, but is not giving any date for the issue to be solved and the drone to go back on the market again. It’s terrible news for GoPro as the Karma is its first launch into the aerial camera market and was designed to be very user-friendly. www.gopro.com
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NEW BODY, SAME OLD HEART
Sony updates FS7 camcorder With its 4K capability, the FS7 quickly became popular. Will the new version swiftly follow in its footsteps? Sony’s popular 4K FS7 camcorder has been updated with a revised body design, electronic variable ND filter and a new lever lock lens mount to aid speedy lens changes. The heart of the camera – its sensor, codecs and focusing – is unchanged. Although the two-year-old FS7 remains in the range, the FS7 II has been tweaked for long-form shooting and production applications, especially for documentaries and independent filmmaking. And it can also record in BT2020 colour space, ideal for 4K broadcast. Instead of using a typical ND filter system that has obvious differences between stops, the large-sensor FS7 II now offers an electronically variable ND filter system in a 2-7 stop range. This means you can keep your desired shutter speed and aperture and change exposure by altering the ND filter during a shot, for example. The camera also has a revised E-mount with a lever lock which means you can change lenses by rotating the locking collar rather than the lens itself, so most lens support rigs will not need to be removed. All existing E-mount lenses fit, as do other mounts with an adapter. The FS7 II also supports the Sony A mount system of more than 70 lenses. The new mount is strong, and can support some pretty hefty optics.
The body has several ergonomic updates for more comfortable use in the field, based on customer feedback from the FS7. The number of assign buttons is increased from six to ten, while the new squaresection EVF mount arm and mic holder can be swapped for left-eye shooters. The telescoping arm offers more adjustment, allowing the FS7 II to be mounted closer to your body and you no longer need a tool for adjustments. And the handgrip now has a dial to alter the ND filters. The FS7 II continues to use two XQD memory cards, and there is a new 256GB version to record for up to 45 minutes at 4K 60p and 3.5 hours at 2K 30p. The camera will also be available in a kit with Sony’s new E PZ 18-110mm f/4G OSS stabilised lens, which covers Super 35mm and APS-C sensors, when it goes on sale in January. There has been no price announced yet. Some will be disappointed that the new FS7 does not record 4K Raw internally, but still requires the use of an outboard recorder which also allows 2K Raw recording at up to 240fps. The maximum frame rates that can be recorded internally remains at 180fps – one of the camera’s key selling points. www.sony.com
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RHUBARB WALLAHS!
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Walla is the American word for a sound effect used to replicate the atmospheric mumbling of an environment, where a listener can’t actually make out the conversations being had but can hear mumbled simulated speech with some real words, laughs and coughs added into it. Brits often call it rhubarb! The Walla Series Sound Effects has the murmur of background crowds from reallife situations – from house parties with boisterous background conversations to hushed crowds at formal events. Digitally recorded at 24-bit/96kHz, the Walla Series is available as 16/44.1, 16/48, 24/48 or 24/96 wav files. Download for £235/$295 from Sound Ideas. www.sound-ideas.com
to the shotgun microphone or other professional-level mic, wireless receiver or mixing console. There are separate volume controls for each channel plus gain and wind noise reduction and a mic/line input switch. The unit has a second cold shoe on the top and also a mic cable holder underneath to prevent issues with loose cables. The XLR adapter weighs 167g, the microphone is 60g and the kit costs £311.94/$299. www.saramonic.com
SCHNEIDER’S LATEST IS FAST AND WIDE Schneider Kreuznach’s new 18mm Xenon full-frame prime lens is the widest in its range and at T2.4 is the fastest in the market. It’s the fifth optic in Schneider’s range of dedicated cinema lenses and is available to preorder now at £5499/$6300. The lens is available marked in either feet or metre scales, and comes in Canon EF, Nikon, PL and Sony E Mount fittings but the mounts can be changed by an optical specialist. Weighing 1530g/3.3lb, the lens has a close focus of 0.4m/15.7in and is identical in size to the rest of the range, which allows for quick changing of lenses with no adjustment to a rig. Like the rest of the range, the 18mm lens has an anti-reflective coating and boasts an all-mechanical design for reliability and consistent manual focus. The bokeh at every stop is smooth due to the 14-blade aperture. www.schneideroptics.com
GET THE TOKYO SOUND If you’re in the market for ambient sounds of Japanese city life for your next project in either conventional 2D or 360 VR, then Pro Sound Effects has three and half hours of the sounds of Tokyo with recordings from the Yamanote railway and more general recordings from the Shuto Expressway and Keihin industrial region. Tokyo Ambisonics includes software that allows editors to position virtual microphones in any direction to match the setting of a scene. There are 46 high-quality recordings with an average length of five minutes in 24-bit/96kHz Broadcast Wave Files. You can download them for £79/ $99. www.prosoundeffects.com
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CASE STUDY JAMES DUNBAR
WILDLIFE FILMMAKING
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Think of wildlife filmmaking and you inevitably conjure up visions of exotic large-scale subjects, but James Dunbar is proving it’s possible to capture footage every bit as dramatic much closer to home WORDS TERRY HOPE
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f you’re a fan of science fiction you’ll know all about the super powers of aliens and the various dastardly methods they’ve devised to attack their human foes. These are, of course, all the product of a writer’s fertile imagination, but look more closely at the lives of the humble insects living all around us and you begin to realise where they might have found their inspiration. Take the jewelled cockroach wasp that lives in the African savannah for example. This beautiful but deadly insect goes hunting for its much larger prey, but it’s not looking for a meal. Rather its aim is to stun the cockroach and then to inject its
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eggs into its abdomen. Once the venom has worn off the cockroach recovers but it’s now a living source of food for the wasp’s growing brood, and the young will eventually hatch out before munching their way through to the outside world. Shades of John Hurt in Alien perhaps? One of those fascinated by this and thousands of other similarly remarkablebut-true scenarios from the insect world is British filmmaker James Dunbar, and he’s made it his life’s work to bring such stories to a wider audience. His film of the jewelled cockroach wasp captures the full intensity of the macabre life-anddeath battle that normally takes place
well away from the attention of humans and, despite the fact that it’s been put together on a tight budget on a specially created studio set, it makes riveting viewing. James has also made equally compelling productions that focus on subjects such as solitary bees and nestbuilding spiders, and he clearly has a rich seam of great subject matter to tap into. “I originally started out as a scientist,” he says, “specialising in the study of insect behaviour. Up until the age of 27 I planned to continue a career in entomology, but then I started taking photographs as a hobby whilst spending a year abroad. I enjoyed it and found
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JAMES DUNBAR CASE STUDY
that I took to it quite naturally, and then made the jump into filmmaking when I did my master’s in wildlife documentary production at the University of Salford. These days I spend pretty much all my time making films, but I still enjoy taking stills if I can find the time.” Chasing insects Given his background it was perhaps no surprise that when James was casting around for subjects to turn his camera on he should choose to focus on the insect world, and he came into this arena armed with extensive knowledge and a fund of ideas to explore. “I’m not entirely sure myself why I like filming insects so much,” he confesses. “I just know in my heart it’s what I want to do. Perhaps a large part of it is the fact
TOP Filming the insect world has required the perfecting of a host of macro and close focusing techniques LEFT AND BELOW Shots from 17-minute production The Solitary Bees.
“The thing with inverts is that they are basically just little robots” that I have always lived in a city, so the wildlife I’ve had the most contact with is the stuff in parks and gardens. I also like the way that, unlike with a lot of the bigger animals that wildlife filmmakers might want to cover, you can get very close to insects without affecting their natural behaviour. They have tiny, simple brains that will just get used to you if you stand over them for long enough. “They do come with their challenges, however. For a start, as you might expect, keeping a tiny subject in focus is no mean feat, and it becomes especially difficult if the wind happens to be blowing. The biggest issue I have by far is the fact that my subjects will rarely go where they’re supposed to or do the things I want them to do on cue. Spiders and bees are really awful at taking directions! “There are, however, ways around this. The thing with inverts is that they are basically just little robots. If you give them the right set of environmental conditions and cues they will execute particular behavioural algorithms, so it’s really just a question of knowing what these cues and conditions are and, if you are filming in captivity and have the control, providing them. If you’re filming in the wild you really just have to know
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CASE STUDY JAMES DUNBAR
where your subjects are and at what time of year they are likely to be doing something interesting. I get help from some fantastic scientists, and the advice I get from them is utterly indispensable in allowing me to capture interesting behaviour on film.” Maintaining focus on a tiny and potentially fast-moving subject is not easy and there are no sure-fire ways to solve the issue. James has built his own deep-focus rig to extract the maximum depth-of-field he can from a situation, and is understandably a little coy to reveal too much about the mechanics of this for fear of giving away all of his secrets. What he will reveal though is that it was made up from parts that were laying around his studio and that it was easier to create than people might imagine. “When you first move into the macro world, keeping everything in focus is tricky,” he says, “especially if the wind happens to be blowing and your depthof-field is being crunched down to less than a millimetre. I would say that around 90% of my footage ends up on the cutting
ABOVE The jewelled cockroach wasp’s life cycle is cinematic and so interesting to capture on film that it is reminiscent of a scene from Alien.
room floor, but as with everything, the more I practise, the luckier I get.” Filming is carried out with a vintage Panasonic AG-AF101A HD camcorder fitted with an Micro Four Thirds-toNikon adapter to enable James’s slew of Nikon lenses and extension tubes to be utilised. “The lens I use the most is my 105mm f/2.8 macro,” he says. “It delivers a great image quality and an impressively sharp picture. I might add the Nikon 200mm f/4 macro to this, since it’s an old D-series lens, which means it has a manual aperture ring, perfect for filming. “On the camera front I’m one of those 101 owners that’s been waiting for Panasonic to release a successor for years. Sadly, I don’t think it’s going to happen now: if they would only take a GH5 sensor and stick it in a 101 body with built-in ND filters and XLR inputs I would be delirious! As it is I imagine that I’ll jump ship and go for a Sony FS5 or FS7,
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as everyone else I know is doing. There’s undeniably a huge market for a flexible professional video camera for under £10k/$12,209.” Branching out These days James works as one-third of Team Candiru, which he helped set up in 2013. The outfit was established when he was looking to put together a 90-second film sequence in order to enter the British Wildlife Photography Awards, and he needed someone to contribute an original score. A friend put him in touch with Dave Gillies, who duly provided a beautiful piece of music, and the production went on to receive an Honourable Mention. “Shortly after, Dave contacted me offering to do some music and voiceover work on anything else I was working
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VIRTUAL INSECTS As well as traditional filmmaking, James is very involved in the fastemerging virtual world, having worked with a company called Focal Point VR. “They are really interesting to work with,” says James, “because they come from the games industry rather than a wildlife filming background. It means they have an entirely different perspective as well as skill base, which is incredibly useful given the relatively unknown territory that is virtual reality. “Already I’m totally sold on this technology, and believe it could have incredible applications for natural history filmmakers and photographers. I’ve spent more or less the whole of the second half of this summer shooting VR, and it’s very different but really cool. My aim one day will be to produce VR films in locations such as the Amazon or Indonesia, where they have some truly awesome insects as well as beautiful surroundings. I believe this is the kind of content that could propel VR technology into the mainstream.”
on,” says James. “As luck would have it I was actually out in the field at that time filming some harvestman spiders, and I had wondered how I was going to make this into a sequence. One thing led to another and Team Candiru was born. “In 2014 we roped Richard Mann in to become our time-lapse specialist and technical director and the three
ABOVE As a wildlife filmmaker James discovered a host of fascinating subjects all around him once he started ti look at the insect world, and the key benefit is that he can often work close to home. BELOW It’s not possible to direct insects, and so it’s crucial to understand the events that create known reactions and to be ready for the unexpected, such as resiliant aphids.
of us started working on our first film The Solitary Bees. Because of that film’s success we decided to incorporate ourselves into a proper company.” An ambitious 17-minute production that took a year to shoot and edit, the finance for The Solitary Bees was achieved using Kickstarter. “Because of this we knew that we would have an audience,” says James. “That’s the great thing about using this method to raise money: you get your audience when you secure your funding. It was brilliant to know that so many people wanted the film made and had faith in us to get it right. “Because this film was relatively long and featured lots of different characters and a predetermined story arc, we needed
to storyboard it. This was to ensure that we would achieve all of the footage we needed even if the bees didn’t play ball or the weather was awful, and it was just a case of ticking things off on a shot list. “If I’m making shorter films I generally have a storyboard in my head, since I’ll know what’s supposed to happen. However, you always need to be ready for the unexpected: with a sequence about jumping spiders I was filming I expected them to tear through some aphids, since that’s their prey. However, it turned out that the aphids were very capable of defending themselves, and this was surprising, but not unwelcome. Ultimately it gave me something to base the sequence around.” Given the success of The Solitary Bees, the follow-up film will focus on solitary wasps – there are some 9,000 species in the UK, all with interesting and diverse lifestyles. Material support has already been achieved through Custom Aquaria, who have provided bespoke filming tanks that will allow Team Candiru to get the shots of wasps building and stocking tunnels and hunting for prey. “The great thing about this time in history is that anyone can make anything and get it out there,” says James. “While some of my output is inevitably going to be more profitable or successful than others, I don’t think there is any way of knowing this for certain. So I just make something that I think is going to be interesting and hope for the best.”
More information www.jamesdunbarphotography.com www.teamcandiru.co.uk
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HEART OF THE ACTION
Documentary filmmakers are discovering that VR and 360 is the perfect medium for their storytelling, with major publishers and broadcasters now investing in pushing back the frontiers WORDS TERRY HOPE
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herever you look, VR is making inroads into the filmmaking community and these are fascinating times for those who enjoy rolling back the frontiers at the cutting edge of the medium. One of those who has declared himself enthralled by where all this technology is leading is Raindance’s founder Elliott Grove and, following the Venice Film Festival’s decision to incorporate virtual reality into its lineup with the inclusion of David Hanen’s work-in-progress Jesus VR — The Story of Christ, he decided to instigate a Virtual Reality Arcade as part of the recent Raindance Film Festival in London. This took the form of a suite at the Hospital Club in the heart of Covent Garden where a number of VR productions could be viewed, and a series of panels where producers of VR material debated aspects of this new and emerging craft in front of an audience. One of the most interesting seminars addressed the whole question of VR’s role in documentary filmmaking, and what emerged was a very clear picture of a sector that’s eager to explore this new box of tools and to use it to tell a story in an inclusive and eloquent new way. Three documentary films were showcased within the suite: The Economist’s RecoVR: Mosul, which
3D-mapped the cultural heritage destroyed by the war in Iraq; Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel, the BBC’s film about the Irish rebellion in 1916; and The Guardian’s 6x9, which recreates the experience of being in solitary confinement. Those behind these three films – Dan Tucker, digital editor and producer (BBC); Francesca Panetta, Guardian special projects editor and co-director of 6x9; and Will McMaster, head of VR, Visualise – were on the panel, and they explained why they considered VR to be such a powerful new way of telling a story. “With 6x9 we wanted people to be immersed in the story we were trying to tell,” Francesca said, “and to experience something of what it might be like to be inside a cell on your own. If you’re looking at a conventional film you can’t take all of that information in so easily, whereas with VR you’re experiencing something for yourself. “With regard to 6x9 specifically, virtual reality was a form we had been thinking about and wanted to experiment with. We had been covering solitary confinement editorially so the two things came together. Virtual reality is a medium that is all about space and solitary confinement is, too – albeit a small and very undesirable space. It felt obvious that this would be a good story for the form.”
ABOVE A still from The Guardian’s 6x9 –shot in virtual reality for a truly immersive experience, explains co-director and Guardian special projects editor Francesca Panetta.
“We wanted people to be immersed in the story, to experience something of what it might be like to be inside a cell on your own. If you’re looking at a conventional film you can’t take all of that information in so easily” JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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“VR is a very high-impact experience,” added Will. “There’s a feeling of being someone and of being with someone: a sense of presence in a place. It’s much stronger than a conventional film, where you can feel there’s a barrier between you.” It was pointed out that research has shown those who watch a VR film, as opposed to a conventional one, retain much more of the information they’re presented with, because instead of being asked to watch something and to take something from it they are recalling the experience as if they had actually been there, and so it becomes like a genuine memory. As such, it’s easy to see why those trying to get a message across through their films might be eager to explore VR in a more active way, because they can see it has the ability to evoke a far more powerful response. Telling the story Dan Tucker explained to me later on why the BBC is taking a lead in the world of VR, to the point where it’s initiated 16 productions so far this year. “I’m a traditional filmmaker,” he says, “and initially I was very sceptical about VR. It took a lot to win me over, but now I’m fully convinced, and I’m pushing very heavily, alongside Zillah Watson from BBC R&D and Tom Burton from BBC Studios, to make sure that the corporation is at the forefront of this new media.” Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel was made by the BBC in collaboration with London-based Crossover Labs, and
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Oscar Raby of VRTOV not only came up with the concept but also directed the film. This was based around the personal reminiscences of one William McNieve, a young Irish fighter who was in Dublin and was involved in the Rising. Twelve minutes long, the piece is based around a tape recording made by McNieve many years ago, redubbed to improve the quality. Designed as an educational piece, it was made to mark the Rising’s one-hundredth anniversary, and the viewer is taken through the main events that occurred over the six days of conflict, with McNieve’s dialogue explaining what’s happening as the film progresses. “No cameras were used,” says Dan. “Rather it was created using the Unity software programme, which is normally used to make VR and 360 games. It’s an interesting way to work: instead of the camera showing you what it wants you to see, you become the eye of the viewer and they have the freedom to look around at what they want. You have to leave behind a lot of the cinematic toolbox: there are no close-ups, no pulling focus and no moving of the camera. It’s all different in VR and instead you have to focus on the space you’re in and to choreograph the action.” Because the aim was to create something that had a sense of accuracy about it, the CGI recreation of the Dublin cityscape had to be faithful and it was pieced together using Google Maps. Object-based audio was employed, so that sounds were fixed to certain
“Instead of the camera showing you what it wants you to see, you become the eye of the viewer”
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“Distribution is the real challenge right now”
ABOVE The Guardian’s 6x9 project aimed to place the viewer in the situation of being placed in a solitary confinement cell. RIGHT Object based audio and an accurate CGI recreation of Dublin were key to creating the VR film Easter Rising,
objects and characters, adding yet another level of interactivity. “Last year was very much learning what it was all about because there were no serious headsets out there,” says Dan, “but this year we’ve seen Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung’s Gear headsets come to market and suddenly the market is there to explore and people are looking for content. Distribution is the real challenge right now: as yet there’s no real sense of a global community, but it’s coming. Easter Rising was shown using headsets in the National Theatre in London, it was available to view for a month in the Imperial War Museum, and it could be viewed at the BBC’s new headquarters in Birmingham and at a selection of festivals around the world. It’s also available to download via the BBC’s Taster site and can be viewed through the Oculus Rift headset, but at the moment it still won’t reach the kind of audience that broadcast will get.” Spreading the word Over at The Guardian, meanwhile, the interest levels in virtual reality have been stepped up still further following the success of 6x9, with the announcement recently made that Francesca Panetta and Adam Foley,
the newspaper’s commercial strategy director, are going to head up a new fulltime virtual reality team. The team will draw on expertise gathered from across editorial, project management, digital development, design and commercial areas of the company, and the aim will be to produce thought-provoking experiential projects. According to the publishers, their ambition is to bring audiences closer to Guardian journalism than ever before, and to deepen the collaboration between the digital, editorial and design teams. “For 6x9 we worked from firstperson accounts and documentaries as references for both cell design and spatial audio capture,” says Francesca. “The cell was designed in Unity by the Mill and all assets within the film were further developed in Maya. Environmental binaural audio was used which ensured the audio was tied in position in the environment, enhancing the sense of space and ensuring the sound continually moved with the viewer. “VR barriers were fully embraced, while blurred vision, hallucinations and a sense of floating (effects typical after long-term sensory deprivation) were played with to mimic a prisoner’s
experience of being locked away for 23 hours a day in solitary confinement.” With the creation of the new fivestrong team it’s very clear there will be plenty more virtual reality content coming out of The Guardian in the coming months and years, and it’s a sign that even the traditional paper press is having to think of new ways to reinvent itself in order to stay current, engaging and topical. Other newspapers are likewise taking note of what’s going on and will follow suite, and as the reach of virtual reality widens the call for more documentary content will keep on rising. Fascinating times indeed, and we can look forward to much more to come as increasing numbers of filmmakers start to look further into what VR has to offer them – and us.
More information RecoVR: Mosul http://portfolio.ziv.bz/ project/mosul/ Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel http:// www.bbc.co.uk/taster/projects/easterrising-voice-of-a-rebel/rate 6x9 https://www.theguardian.com/ world/ng-interactive/2016/apr/27/6x9a-virtual-experience-of-solitaryconfinement
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MOVIE MATTERS ASK THE EXPERTS
Our line-up of experts this issue covers a wide variety of topics, ranging from running a profitable drone business through to getting started on independent filmmaking and how to break into wildlife filmmaking WILD EYED Piers Warren, principal of Wildeye International School of Wildlife Filmmaking I love making wildlife films and dream of becoming a professional, and yet I know it’s a very tough industry to break into. Do you have any tips you can pass on? There are many different routes into the wildlife filmmaking industry, and many of these involve luck and chance. There is no set path that will guarantee success, but there are a number of things you can do to prepare yourself for the best chance. 1. Learn about natural history Study, read, watch TV and get firsthand experience in the field. A good knowledge of the world’s wildlife is desirable, as is a good grasp of geography. There may be aspects of natural history you specialise in; you can’t guarantee work in your field of interest, so a wide general knowledge can only be a good thing. Spend time in the field watching wildlife for long periods, make notes, understand what the animals are doing and start to learn fieldcraft so you can watch animals without being noticed. Practise tracking animals and building hides and make notes of shots you could have taken or sequences you’d like. This is useful whether you want to be a camera operator, or a producer, writer, picture editor and so on. 2. Watch TV I am amazed at the number of people I talk to who haven’t seen, or maybe even heard of, certain landmark programmes or series. So watch as much wildlife TV as you can. Subscribe to satellite or cable TV and tune into channels such as Discovery Animal Planet and National Geographic as well as any other wildlife programmes you can find. And don’t say you can’t afford
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“It is best to assume you have to be proactive in your job-hunting” satellite/cable – if you want to make wildlife films it’s a priority. 3. Get informed The more you know about the industry the better – so subscribe to the free monthly e-zine Wildlife Film News and read Wild Pages, the wildlife filmmakers’ resource guide. 4. Develop skills Communication skills are essential. Ensure your typing is up to speed and develop skills such as image manipulation, desktop publishing, video editing, website editing and interactive programming. Financial skills will be important if you are a producer in charge of the budget, or if you are self-employed. 5. Network It’s true that it’s often ‘whom you know’ not ‘what you know’ that gives you the biggest breaks. Networking is just meeting others in the industry, introducing yourself, getting your name and face known, selling yourself and seeking opportunities.
6. Ways in You are very unlikely to find an advert for your ideal job. Wildlife film production companies rarely need to advertise positions. Occasionally, jobs are advertised in Wildlife Film News or in the national press but it it’s not common! It is best to assume you have to be proactive in your jobhunting. Your life is your work of art. Make it a good one!
Piers is the founder of Wildlife Film News and former producer of wildlife-film.com. He cut his teeth in the industry as a sound engineer and multimedia producer, running a studio. He is also one of the founders of the international organisation Filmmakers for Conservation. Send questions for this column to experts@promoviemaker.net with WILDLIFE in the subject line. www.wildeye.co.uk/wild-pages www.wildlife-film.com www.wildeye.co.uk
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ASK THE EXPERTS GET A GRIP Mark Scotton, sales manager at Hague Camera Supports and Cameragrip. com In this day and age of evolving technology what use might I have for a jib on a film set? Is there something this accessory can do that others can’t? In theory, many jib shots could be created using a drone, but will the rise of this sector really be the death of jibs? No way, José! When people think of jib shots they often gravitate towards those large crane shots that generate a stunning bit of aerial movement, often going from ground level up to a high shot revealing what is around them. The thing is, that’s not what jibs are actually about. To start with there are what I’d class as traditional camera jibs, where you work at the camera end for a real, hands-on feel and to create small movements that bring shots to life. A perfect example can be found in Roman Weinzettl’s short film Rotkäppchen. Skip the first two minutes and you’ll see what operating at the camera end is all about. That type of movement and precise control would be near impossible with a drone and with a drone you wouldn’t be able to use your desired camera set-up. Drones are brilliant for following someone down a mountain but creating tight shots featuring smooth camera movement is not their forte. You could also end
up with the noise of the drone affecting the audio track. Even if you are using a slightly larger crane I still don’t see a drone necessarily being a better option as there are several factors, such as the need for a licence, camera set-up and usability, that come into play. It’s important to remember that drones have a limited flying time as well, so they are not always going to be consistently usable. Take a concert for example, where you have jibs being used for hours at a time, adding amazing shots to a production. This kind of performance couldn’t be replicated by a drone. I certainly love the shots you can achieve with a drone and I believe, when used correctly, they can add immense quality and diversity to your productions. I suppose, in a similar way to time-lapses, they need to be used in moderation to get the desired results. I think other filmmaking equipment such as jibs, stabilisers, sliders and tripods will be here for a fair bit longer and I don’t see this invasion of drones being the death of jibs any time soon.
Mark Scotton is a specialist in camera support equipment, having spent several years as the sales manager for both Hague Camera Supports and Cameragrip. His hands-on knowledge and expertise covers a broad spectrum of grip products. Send questions for this column to experts@promoviemaker.net with GRIPS in the subject line. www.rotkaeppchen-film.com/ makingof
GETTING OUT THERE Elliott Grove, founder of Raindance, which promotes every aspect of independent filmmaking I’ve just entered the industry and I’m wondering what the best ways are for me to meet other filmmakers, find a crew and get experience on a production? Filmmakers breaking into the business need to consider their personal branding. How do you want people to think of you? To make sure you’re creating the right impression you need to create your social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and populate these profiles with interesting posts so that readers can get an idea of your taste. Next you need to create a blog with samples of your work. Also get pages up on IMDb and Wikipedia that list your credits, bio and examples of your work. Any industry person will want to know what your special skills might be and you need to shout about them. Make sure your CV and ideally your personal website clearly state what you are really good at. Marketable talents include any communication and software skills. Finally, don’t hide your light under a bushel. Attend industry meet ups and networking events like Raindance’s Boozin’ N’ Schmoozin’ event, which is held every month in London and is free to attend for Raindance members. If you want to meet other screenwriters, actors, directors and producers hang out at film festivals. Be bold. Introduce yourself. Tell everyone in the industry who you are. It’s a great idea to have some business cards printed too, with filmmaker or cinematographer or whatever clearly marked on the front: it’s a statement of intent and self belief if nothing else. Whatever you do, don’t ever quit, because quitters never win and winners never quit.
Elliot Grove is a Canadian-born film producer who founded the Raindance Film Festival in 1992. The organisation he heads up now also offers a highly regarded teaching programme and the chance to take on a postgraduate course in filmmaking. Send questions for this column to experts@promoviemaker.net with NETWORKING in the subject line. www.raindance.org
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AERIAL FILMMAKER NEW OPPORTUNITIES
EYE IN THE SKY Some of the reasons that drones have become so popular are that they are versatile, flexible and they can open the door to moneymaking opportunities that are not necessarily linked to conventional filming WORDS TERRY HOPE
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hen you’re running your own business it can be a case of having to be constantly inventive in order to ensure a steady stream of work is coming through the door. Sometimes it pays to look at things in a fresh way and to question if there might be different means by which you can deliver value to your client. In the case of Grant Currie, MD of facilities management company Aerial FM, it was a case of looking at the increasing sophistication of the drones that were coming to market and seeing whether it might be possible to utilise them to make aspects of his service easier to provide. Along the way there was also the opportunity to deliver conventional filming and photography to meet the marketing needs of the company’s clients, including business owners, property developers, fellow FM contractors and roofing specialists.
“We discovered very quickly that we could send drones into areas that were deemed unsafe” 64
“Essentially facilities management is all about taking care of the non-core activities in a business,” explains Grant, “and the building where a business is based forms one of the largest elements of this. Facilities management covers everything from cleaning through to security, maintenance, repairs and catering, and my job involves managing a building’s fabric, roofs and internal services to ensure that it meets statutory compliance. We also need to ensure a safe workplace environment for our clients or their tenants.” Grant was introduced to the potential of drones when he had to find a way to inspect a building with an ageing asbestos cement roof. It had become very unstable and unsafe, meaning that it was almost impossible by conventional means to access roof-mounted equipment such as fans and vents. Using a drone solved the problem and Grant was astounded by the quality of the visuals that were coming back to him. “We discovered very quickly that we could send drones into areas that were deemed unsafe – and they were very much up to the task of performing inspections,” he says. “It’s also quicker for someone using a drone to check out a roof than sending an engineer up, so it started to
emerge as a cheaper, safer and quicker solution all round. “An unmanned drone can access the external envelope of a building more quickly, safely and cost-effectively than other forms of access. In terms of obtaining data, they can make the task a lot easier and more flexible. They can be used to conduct a general video or photographic assessment of the roof to identify any accelerated weathering, dislodged slate or stone tiles, damaged flashing and the condition of guttering and downpipes. “The strongest case for a drone is in the HSE statistics for deaths through falls from heights. Around 50% of deaths in the workplace are a result of people falling from roofs or through skylights. Using a drone makes the inspection of roofs and roof-mounted plants a lot safer as only the drone is operating at height, while the client and pilot are safely on the ground watching live footage via a video link.” Meeting a need Aerial FM assessed the results and reached the conclusion that it would make sense for the company to invest in training up two of the staff - one of whom was Grant - to become fully qualified drone pilots, approved by the CAA to carry out
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NEW OPPORTUNITIES
commercial work. They also purchased an Inspire 1 and a Zenmuse XT thermal imaging camera to enable them to offer a specific service that many in the building sector were anxious to access. “Fundamentally, an aerial thermal survey in the FM sector is looking for insulation breakdown in the building fabric or in the ducting or pipework services across roof spaces,” says Grant. “It can be used effectively in the energy performance assessments of a property, which are prevalent in the UK with current legislation on property resale or lettings. Thermal imaging is also beneficial in terms of tracking moisture below roof membranes and can be used in leak detection as well as in the planned inspections of solar panel technology. “Aerial thermal technology also allows energy assessors and landlords to obtain detailed thermal assessments of their building’s energy loss, and it can assist with the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) process. The ability to fly over a building at height to scan the thermal properties of the roof, building fabric and glazing is another significant advancement within our industry and makes for a much quicker and less intrusive assessment.” From small beginnings, around 10-20% of Aerial FM’s business is now delivered by
ABOVE Alongside the building inspection work Aerial FM is also now supplying conventional drone footage to clients. RIGHT Grant Currie, MD of Aerial FM.
drone stills and footage, and this approach forms a key part of the company’s annual inspections for clients. That ratio is growing all the time and it’s an indication of how a little lateral thinking is opening up new markets for drone operators. While Aerial FM considered this opportunity so inviting that it was prepared to make a sizeable investment, both in money and resources, there are many others in facilities management and associated fields who would likewise be interested in getting involved but who might be looking to hire qualified pilots to do the work for them on a freelance basis. For experienced drone operators looking to add to their client list it’s an obvious opportunity and something that might well prove to be highly profitable. Meanwhile the drone industry has realised the scale of this market and the number of specialist cameras available, not just for the Inspire 1 but competitor UAVs such as the Yuneec Typhoon H, is on the rise. Yuneec also has its own dedicated thermal camera designed to take the place of the conventional camera on the Typhoon H. Although specialist gear like
“It does open the door to a very exciting new line of work and could pay for itself very quickly” this isn’t cheap to buy – it will set you back around £3479/$4231 on top of the price of the drone itself – it does open the door to a very exciting new line of work and could pay for itself very quickly. For Aerial FM what started out as a very specific service has now expanded, to the point where the company is increasingly offering its clients drone-generated video and photography that’s designed not with a technical end in mind but a visual one. It’s how savvy businesses grow their market, and for filmmakers it’s also a tantalising sign that it’s possible to look beyond what you might consider to be your traditional sector.
More information: www.aerialfm.com
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GEAR CANON EOS 5D MARK IV
CANON EOS 5D MARK IV TESTED
The latest iteration of Canon’s much-revered EOS 5D camera adds a raft of new features, including 4K recording, which have been designed to appeal to filmmakers. Adam Duckworth takes a closer look WORDS: ADAM DUCKWORTH
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IN ASSOCIATION WITH
CANON EOS 5D MARK IV SPECIFICATIONS Price: £3599/$3499 body only Image sensor: 36x24mm CMOS, 30.4 megapixels with built-in low-pass filter Lens mount: Canon EF Focusing: TTL phasedetection AF system: 61 point/max of 41 cross-type AF points inc 5 dual cross-type at f/2.8 AF working range: -3 to 18EV Metering modes: Evaluative, partial, spot metering, centre spot, centre weighted average Metering range: 0-20EV ISO: 100-32000. Expandable to L:50, H1: 51200, H2: 102400 If there’s one camera that holds almost legendary status in filmmaking, it’s the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. It may not have been the first DSLR to offer movies, but it was the first affordable full-frame camera to do so and accordingly it sparked off a quite remarkable revolution following its launch in 2009. For the first time, a large-sensor digital movie camera was truly within the reach of most filmmakers and in such a small size, too. Shallow depth-of-field, cinematic shots were suddenly within the grasp of everyone and it encouraged a whole generation of still photographers to look beyond their traditional horizons. Almost single-handedly, the camera sparked off a whole cottage industry of DSLRspecific rigs, sliders, gimbals and viewfinders as serious filmmakers worked around the pitfalls of a stills camera to use for video, such as lack of XLR inputs, builtin ND filters and a small live view screen. It’s fair to say its success as a video camera surprised even Canon, who hadn’t really pitched it as a model for filmmakers. At launch, you couldn’t even change camera settings manually in video mode – a firmware upgrade added that later. Canon did embrace the shift to video with larger-size sensors, as proven with the
launch of the specific cinemarange C-series cameras such as the EOS-ID C and C100, 300 and 500 cameras. But when the EOS 5D Mark III was announced in 2012 it was very much an upgrade of the Mark II, with more resolution and faster speed but no seismic improvements for the dedicated filmmaker. Four years on and a new 5D, the Mark IV, is here. The camera doesn’t look much different to the old one and if you’re used to Canon handling and button placement, you’ll feel right at home. There are a few tweaks but nothing major, so it’s very easy to get used to. There’s now a locking button on the Mode dial and a new AF Area Selection button below the AF area joystick, which enables you to select the AF area modes and is a nice addition. Inside is a brand-new sensor with more resolution, up to 30.4 megapixels, and better weather sealing. There’s also a faster 7fps stills shooting rate, the 61-point AF system of the pro-level EOS-1DX Mark II, better connectivity via Wi-Fi and NFC and a 3.2in touchscreen. The important news for filmmakers, however, is that the new camera comes with some serious improvements aimed at them, such as a new Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus that allows you to refocus while
ABOVE Could the Mark IV’s improvements over the EOS 5D Mark III, such as Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus, mean it’s more likely to be found on a videographer’s tripod?
Shutter speed: 30secs1/8000sec, Bulb Viewfinder: 100% coverage. 0.71x magnification. Monitor: 3.2in touchscreen, approx. 1620k dots Movie types: MOV Video: 4K (17:9) 4096x2160 - Motion JPEG (internal recording only), Full HD, HD - MPEG4 AVC/H.264 variable (average) bit rate, Audio: Linear PCM. MP4 Video: Full HD (16:9) 1920x1080 - MPEG4 AVC/H.264, Audio: AAC Movie length: 4K and Full HD – max 29mins 59secs. High frame rate: MOV Video: HD - 1280x720 at 100 or 119.9fps. Recorded as 1/4-speed slow motion movie. 4K frame grab: 8.8-MP JPEG still from 4K movie Microphone: Built-in mono mic HDMI display: External monitor only. HDMI output: Full HD recording only, uncompressed YCbCr 4:2:2, 8-bit Focusing: Dual Pixel CMOS AF with Face Detection and Tracking AF, Movie Servo AF, Manual Focus Body: Magnesium-alloy, polycarbonate and glass fibre
“There’s a locking button on the Mode dial and a new AF Area Selection button below the AF area joystick, which enables you to select the AF area modes”
Dimensions (WxHxD): 0.7x116.4x75.9mm/ 5.9x4.6x3.0in Weight (body only): Approx. 890g/1.76llb
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