Markee 2.0 Summer 2014 by Lionheart Publishing Inc.

Stock Footage Guide

Using Rental Houses

Using stock shots can make you a hero

Renting equipment can help your budget & production Summer 2014 • V.29|No.2

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Remote Aerial Cinematography Everybody is talking about using “drones” for aerial film and video.

C A N O N C O L L A B O R AT I O N S

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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

Summer 2014 Volume 29, Number 2

contents w w w. m a r k e e m a g a z i n e . c o m

features 8

Is Filming with a ‘Model Helicopter’ Legal? Everybody is talking about using “drones” for aerial film and video. By Tom Inglesby

On Stage:

Studios Cater to Various Market Needs Studios can prosper or crash based on their state’s incentives. By Mark Smith

20 Getting the Most from Renting Gear Producers are finding that renting equipment can help their Budget and their production. By Dawson Gaither Peden

20 26

22 4K Your Way 4K content needs storage capacity, on camera and in post. By G. A. “Andy” Marken

Spotlight: East and South

Independent Spirits There is more to the East and South than New York City and Miami. By Cory Sekine-Pettite

28 Getting the Most before Post 24 2

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From historical events to time-lapsed landscapes, stock shots can make you a hero. By Monica M. Burres Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

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Markee 2.0 is a results-driven magazine that has been published since December 1985. A nationwide survey of film and video industry professionals revealed that Markee 2.0 is at the top of their must-read list. Editorially, Markee 2.0 offers a wide range of content tailored for its diverse readership. Features span film and video production and postproduction topics to include must-read interviews with leaders in the creative community, the latest equipment and technology news, perspectives on innovative independent filmmaking, and in-the-trenches reports on shooters, editors, animators and audio pros – plus regularly-scheduled specialty supplements. Markee 2.0’s seasoned writers know the industry inside-out. That’s what makes Markee 2.0 compelling, informative and timely reading.

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columns & departments 4 From the editor 6 Making TV Starting The Blacklist How Yasu Tanida shot the pilot for one of television’s most popular dramas. By Michael Fickes [On The Cover] Producers and cinematographers have suddenly discovered unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly called “drones,” can act as remote camera platforms. What too many of them have not discovered is that using these sci-fi looking birds of prey is, today, illegal in the US. Why that is and should it change is an ongoing discussion. See page 8.

7 Making Commercials Psychedelic Tech Stardust creates a psychedelic extravaganza for Samsung By Michael Fickes

30 Stock Footage Guide 2014

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Summer 2014

| Markee 2.0

from the editor

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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

| By Tom Inglesby

www.markeemagazine.com LIONHEART PUBLISHING, INC. 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060 Tel: 770.431.0867 Fax: 770.432.6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com www.markeemagazine.com

Music in the Air

Publisher

While I cut my cinema teeth on a Mitchel BNC, Arriflex 16 and Éclair in the 1960s, I found my niche in audio. I was the “sound guy” on dozens of educational and documentary films, did studio recording and mixing for soundtracks, and generally made noise with a variety of Ampex, Studer, Nagra, and Tascam tape recorders. We dubbed tape-to-film and synced on a vertical Moviola. It was, to be sure, a primitive way of doing music and voice over for film compared to today’s digital wonderland. I came away from those halcyon days with two things: awards and memories. The memories, of course, are good and bad: Long nights in the studio, but the joy of watching your project come to life; take after take versus the pride of having gotten just the right take, regardless of how many it took. We’d use local studio musicians when we could afford it; we were also lucky to have some great musicians on staff, as well. I still have tapes – probably turned to oxide dust and acetate by now – of music and effects we cut late into the night, after our day jobs were over. And not all the excitement was from the music. We were in Chicago’s Boulevard Recording Studios late on the night of the protests at the Democratic Convention in 1968 and had to stop work due to the sirens outside. Tear gas even seeped into the control room as the police chased “hippies” through the streets. Although my memories of studio sessions are clear, I must admit we used a lot of stock music, too. Most educational films didn’t have the budget for original music and if they did, it was for a major theme, not for stings and bridges. But stock libraries had it all, conveniently arranged, labeled and with rights. Considering the vast music libraries now being used for everything from YouTube to theatrical features, it’s fitting that an award be created to honor those who best utilize this resource. Markee 2.0 is privileged to be the named sponsor of just such an award for best use of stock music in a film or video. The Markee 2.0 Magazine Award will join the list of honors presented by the CINDY Awards (“Cinema in Industry”) in the coming year. In 2015, the Markee 2.0 Magazine Award for innovation in the use of stock music will take its place with the others. As the rules and procedures are finalized, you’ll find more information on the Markee website and in our eNewsletter. If you use stock music, or if you know of an innovative user of music libraries, get ready to fill out a nomination form and join our little party. I can almost promise: no tear gas!

Highlights Coming In • Lighting • Stock Music Guide • Spotlight on Mountain West & Northwest IN EVERY ISSUE: Making TV • Making Commercials

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Fall 2014 Follow us on:

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John Llewellyn llewellyn@lionhrtpub.com Tom Inglesby tom@markeemagazine.com Cory Sekine-Pettite cory@lionhrtpub.com Michael Fickes Mark R. Smith Monica Burres monica@markeemagazine.com

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making TV

Yasu Tanida | By Michael Fickes

Starting The Blacklist How Cinematographer Yasu Tanida shot the pilot for one of television’s most popular dramas. It took 19 days to shoot the onehour pilot for The Blacklist. Typically, pilots require more time to shoot than the remaining episodes from a show’s first season. But 19 days? “We took more time to shoot than any other one-hour pilot on NBC,” says Yasu Tanida, the pilot’s cinematographer. “We needed time for extensive action scenes. One four-minute sequence showing an attack on a convoy on a bridge took four days. “We spent two days on the wide shots for that sequence,” Tanida continues. “On the third day, we shot on green-screen for a scene showing an SUV getting hit by a truck and knocked over. Special effects built a rig where the SUV could safely tumble onto its side. We took another day for inserts and details.” Additionally, pilots need more preproduction and planning, says Tanida. The crew doesn’t know each other or the director yet. The cast members have just met and are figuring out how their characters will interact. They must plan a look and color scheme, and develop a lighting concept. Because of all the details that must get worked out when making a pilot, many eventually great television dramas don’t hit their stride for several episodes. The Blacklist hit the ground running. Within several episodes it already was being listed as one of the most popular shows of the season — the only new show of the season on those lists.

Start With The Camera Tanida and Director Joe Carnahan chose the Sony F55 camera — it had just come out. “We tested it for a month before going into production, and The Blacklist was the first televi6

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sion series to shoot with it,” Tanida says. “We used Panavision Primo lenses and a set of Optimo short zooms for Steadicam and hand-held shooting. We shot 4K raw, and the DIT (digital imaging technician) color corrected on the set so we got the look we wanted.”

Then Shoot The Star

[Above] Cinematographer Yasu Tanida and Director Joe Carnahan plan a scene on location for the pilot for The Blacklist.

The Blacklist had a major Photo: David Giesbrecht/NBC/Sony Pictures Television advantage from the beginning: James Spader in the lead roll of Blinds cast shadows, and the backRaymond “Red” Reddington. ground behind the agents is chaotic. Reddington is a former governThe agents are supposed to be in ment agent who preferred crime to control, but they aren’t.” law enforcement and has eluded capAll of the scenes in The Blacklist ture for many years. In the pilot, he pilot are set with the same attention turns himself in to the FBI and makes to detail to create the characters and a deal to help the agency track down set relationships in motion. Reddington’s blacklist of the world’s The show’s relationships are mysworst criminals. We don’t yet know terious. Reddington lays down a conhis real reasons for that. dition: He will only talk to agent Reddington is a powerful presence. Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). Why? He dominates his FBI handlers. Most Only Reddington knows. Something is of his power comes from Spader. A off about Keen’s husband. He has a lot also comes from the way Carnastash of fake IDs in their apartment. han and Tanida set up and shot his She finds them and develops suspiscenes. cions, which Reddington fans. In one scene, Spader as Reddington The directing, acting and cinesits behind a boardroom table facing matography create all of these charthe camera, his back to the wall. Above acters and their mysteries in The his head on the wall is the FBI decal. Blacklist pilot. The two FBI agents are questioning As the first season ended, The him. He is a prisoner, but the lighting, Blacklist ranked eighth on Entertainment camera work, set design—and SpadWeekly’s list of the Top 50 broadcast er’s presence—make it look like he has network shows and had collected four taken over the FBI. nominations from three awards organizations, including best actor and best tel“He takes over with his dialog,” evision series. Tanida says. “We helped by lighting It takes a good pilot to accomplish all the agents with hard light coming through the big windows in the room. of that. Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

making Commercials

Stardust | By Michael Fickes

Psychedelic Tech Stardust designs and creates a psychedelic extravaganza to launch the latest Samsung Galaxy Note and Samsung Gear. If you have seen “Samsung Galaxy, London Collage,” the commercial that launched the latest Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone and Samsung Gear smartwatch, you might think the spot is composed of an animated band woven together with a psychedelic extravaganza of animated images literally flying through the frames. The way the band members move through the spot seems just a little bit off of realistic. In fact, the band images come from a live stop-action, green-screen shoot. The band is Palaye Royale, and it performs one of their pieces entitled “Get Higher.” The stop action technique gives the band an animated, paper cutout look that makes you wonder — and watch. The band also supplies the advertising part by carrying and using Galaxy Notes and wearing and using Gears. The spot was produced by Stardust, a design, animation and production firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York. The assignment came through Samsung’s advertising agency Cheil Worldwide Seoul, in South Korea. “Cheil liked a spot that we created for J-Power, Tokyo’s electric power development company,” says Dexton Deboree, managing director and co-owner of Stardust. Called “Nature,” the J-Power spot features animals, plant life and scenes from nature — hundreds if not thousands of images flying, racing, swimming and flowing toward and past the camera in a kaleidoscopic explosion of color. “The agency asked for something like the J-Power spot,” continues Deboree. It would run on motion billwww.markeemagazine.com

boards in London’s Piccadilly Square. The agency wanted the images to feature historical and current youth culture in Britain.” Since motion billboards were the primary media, images would have to carry the sales message. The audio track is only music. No voice over explains things.

Preproduction And Image Animation

[Above] Stardust shot the band Palaye Royale in stop motion against a green screen and then composited the band members into a number of animated scenes.

Stardust began by collecting images of British popular culture icons from the 1960s through today. They considered newspaper headlines, top 40 musicians, fashion, TV and film images, and other cultural icons. “We pulled a lot of imagery and crafted a story about 50 years of cultural history,” Deboree says. “We decided not to present the images chronologically. Instead, we showed a 60s image followed by a current image influenced by the 60s image. So the story flashes forward and backward.” The Stardust team laid the images out in timelines to reveal what influenced what. “Instead of asking animators to build images, we fleshed out the flat graphic images in Photoshop, and sent those materials to the animators,” Deboree says. “The animators built around the images and made everything move.”

Shooting The Band Seth Epstein, Stardust’s co-owner, director and creative director, directed the live shoot of the band performing “Get Higher.” Director of Photography Chris Walters used a Panasonic GH3 to get the stop-

motion footage. The GH3 can shoot up to 60 still frames per second, and Walters shot literally thousands of stills of the band against green screen over the course of the song. To create a scene for the commercial, Stardust selected several hundred stills from a particular sequence, digitized them and ran them in sequence. “We wanted the scenes to feel like a full graphic world; to create that feeling, we married the animated assets with the stills,” Deboree says. “We composited the rapid-fire series of thousands of stills. It wasn’t real complex. In fact, it was easy. We wanted the band to have the look of a paper cutout. So we composited the stills in and didn’t perfect or clean up. That gave us the look we wanted.” Even without cleaning up, it looks like a lot of work. “It wasn’t as complex as it could have been,” says Deboree. “That’s because we shot the band. Originally, we were thinking about using stock photos. Rotoscoping and animating stock photos would have been difficult. Going with the live shoot of the band made it much simpler.” Summer 2014

| Markee 2.0

Everybody is talking about using “drones” for aerial film and video, but not everyone understands what that entails.

BY TOM INGLESBY P H O T O S C O U RT E S Y O F J O R D A N K L E I N J R . A N D C H R I S O D O M

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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

Is Filming with a ‘Model Helicopter’ Legal?

NAB, Cinegear and probably every studio you care to name, people in the industry are talking about the great work someone they know is doing with a lightweight cine camera, like a GoPro Hero, attached to a multi-rotor model helicopter like the

DJI Phantom or Freefly Cinestar. Major shoots, it seems, are using these “multi-rotor aerial camera platforms,” as Freefly Systems calls them, to get those great aerial shots you just can’t get with a “real” helicopter.

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Aerial Alternatives

There are no shades of gray in FAA regulations.

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These are small, multi-rotor aerial vehicles that come in a wide variety of configurations. Sporting four, six, eight or even more rotors on shafts that extend from a center platform, they often are referred to by the name octocopters (eight rotors) or hexacopters (six rotors); unfortunately, the general public has been conditioned to call them “drones.” But the term drone has a built-in negative connotation; the first response to hearing the term often is, “Oh, those flying rocket launchers that rain down Hellfire missiles on evildoers!” Try to overcome that image by saying, “No, a radio-controlled model helicopter; no missiles, just a camera.” At NAB, we asked several vendors showing their multi-rotor craft if they were legal for filming in the United States. All admitted that they weren’t – usually with a quick, “But they soon will be, no question about it. So buy now, learn to fly them for the best quality results and be ready when the laws are changed.” Whoa, you mean all those YouTube videos are – careful now – illegal? Well, the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind (apologies, Bob Dylan). There are rules, you see, on how, when, where and why you can fly these relatively inexpensive camera platforms. On the other hand, the rules don’t seem to be enforced in every case, so people get away with a lot that is against the law. Radio-controlled model helicopters have been around for decades. The local hobby shop probably has dozens of versions from single-rotor Bell Jet Ranger look-a-likes to the heavy-lifting octocopter configuration. They incorporate a series of electric motors run from a rechargeable/replaceable battery pack, a radio receiver to control the pitch and speed of the rotors, and a ground control unit for the operator. What the cinema version adds, besides the camera, of course, is two-way communications, gimbal mounting, longer battery life, and many other items to make the copter fly better, longer, and with greater stability for the camera. The hobby shop associate might, if you ask, let you know there are rules for flying your new model aircraft. Rules? For a toy? Come on, you must be kidding! No, not kidding and neither is the FAA, the arbitrators of those rules. In its simplest form, radio-controlled model aircraft cannot be flown within five miles of an active airport, cannot fly higher than 400 feet, cannot fly over a congested area or large groups of people, and must remain in visual range of the operator. That’s the simple stuff. Where filmmakers get into trouble isn’t just flying a camera around taking pictures, it’s using those pictures. Besides the rules about where you can fly, there are additional rules regarding the commercial use of the results. The FAA has been working on commercial use rules since 2007 and expects to have them ready by September, 2015. In the meantime, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for commercial filming is almost impossible to do legally. The court case that brought this to the media’s attention was when a videographer, Raphael Pirker, was fined for using his ‘copter to shoot a commercial. In 2011, Pirker was asked to shoot aerial footage of the University of Virginia for a promotional video. Although representatives of the university, including safety officers, followed Pirker around to make sure university regulations were followed, when the resulting video was posted online he was fined $10,000 for not following FAA regulations. Later, a National Transportation Safety Board judge threw out the fine with the argument that the FAA doesn’t have the legal authority to impose or enforce its ban on small UAVs. The FAA immediately appealed, and on its website puts it this way: “There are no shades of gray in FAA regulations. Anyone who wants to fly an aircraft, manned or unmanned, in U.S. airspace needs some level of FAA approval.” By the way, that airspace starts at ground level, not 400 feet up. Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

The NTSB court’s ruling was stayed and the FAA has since received a waiver request from several aerial photo and video production companies asking for regulatory exemptions that would allow the industry to use UAVs with FAA approval. According to the FAA itself, “If the exemptions are granted, there could be tangible economic benefits as the agency begins to address the demand for commercial UAS operations. However, all the associated safety issues must be carefully considered to make sure any hazards are appropriately mitigated. The petitioner must still obtain operational approval from the FAA.” The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) facilitated the exemption requests on behalf of their membership. The firms that filed the petitions are all independent aerial cinematography professionals who collectively developed the exemption requests as a requirement to satisfy the safety and public interest concerns of the FAA, MPAA and the public at large. “The firms are asking [the agency] to grant exemptions from regulations that address general flight rules, pilot certificate requirements, manuals, maintenance, and equipment mandates,” the FAA notes. “They are also asking for relief from airworthiness certification requirements to let specific UAVs to fly safely in narrowly-defined, controlled, lowrisk situations.” As of now, almost all of the big production companies and studios such as Warner Bros., NBC-Universal, Fox, and Sony have a ban on using UAVs on their USA production sets because of the legality and liability issues. “Our customers are concerned about the legalities of the industry, but the urgency of ‘he is doing it, so I need to be doing it’ has spread throughout the film industry,” acknowledges Adam Gibson, business development manager at Ctrl.Me Robotics, Venice Beach, Calif. “It is even more because of the enormous cost benefits for a film’s budget. When it comes to saving money with technology, regulations are finding the slow lane to evolve as UAVs continue to innovate and cut costs for budgets of all types. As film jobs find their way elsewhere, it is great to have the tools to drive costs down to keep more production in California where it belongs.” But the UAV isn’t a perfect platform. “As an aerial DP, I have not yet had a shoot that could be accomplished by a drone,” claims Patrick Longman of Active Camera Systems, a traditional helicopter-using aerial photography firm in Florida. “Some of the drawbacks that I don’t see highlighted in the mostly glowing reviews by media are the limitations on camera, lens, stability, speed, distance and flight time. They also don’t ever speak about the success rate of using these drones, or the fact that many shots require them to be run through stabilization software which can only do so much.” He adds, “As a company owner who has millions invested in the latest aerial systems and cameras, I won’t be offering UAV systems until they are legal to operate commercially and I can have the proper insurance and safe guards in place. Like any tool, I think they will find their place in our industry, but right now it is a very limited tool that is not legal.” Jordan “Jordy” Klein Jr. is the owner and president of Jordan Klein Film & Video in Summerfield, Fla., north of Orlando. In early 2012, Klein teamed up with Mark “Ninja” Lynch, an Emmy award-winning DP who had spent a decade on the reality show Survivor, and they started Xcam Aerials. Xcam Aerials specializes in extreme environment remote controlled aerial cinematography and still imagery. Xcam has many different remotely controlled aircraft in its arsenal. The cameras used include GoPro Hero, Panasonic GH2/3, Black Magic Pocket camera, and the Red Epic. “The workhorse of the fleet is our Red Epic-equipped octocopter,” says Klein. “We have several of these aircraft armed with state-of-the-art brushless gimbals. These Octos can carry a Red Epic camera with a Cooke S4 Prime lens and our custom FIZ (focus/iris/zoom) controller for 12min of continuous flight.” www.markeemagazine.com

Summer 2014

| Markee 2.0

Aerial Alternatives

Klein believes in always having two of everything while on a movie set. “I learned a long time ago that if you got one, you got none,” he says. “I think the biggest problem with many companies that provide radiocontrolled aircraft for the entertainment industry is they don’t realize how much money is being spent on a movie set every second. If you do not show up totally prepared for any situation, then you are setting yourself and the entire production up for failure.” Xcam is currently building a new aircraft that will accommodate the ARRI Alexa and gimbals to accommodate two Red Epic cameras with 3D cinematography capability. “With the right tools and the right people, we can accomplish incredible imagery in a short period of time,” boasts Klein. Another UAV user is Richard Steinberger of Bailey, Colo. “I am a commercial photographer specializing in marine, architecture and hospitality markets. I’ve been involved in UAVs for over five years. I use a German Oktokopter system, but have different systems with the sole purpose of aerial photography.” Steinberger continues, “The technology is here, it is widely available and there is no getting the genie back in the bottle. The unfortunate part is that there are people who will be using them in a reckless manner, if not downright illegally. Almost every day I hear about UAVs that crash into people or buildings, or have near misses with various commercial aircraft. One of the biggest concerns we have is that a few idiots out there will ruin it for those of us who are responsible.” The FAA learns about most violations only from reports in the media, tips from rival businesses, or when companies film their drone flights and post them on YouTube. The latter is like sticking your middle finger up and waving at the FAA, but hundreds of people are doing it. Lots of these people were operating under the radar (pun intended) until Pirker. “Now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and who can blame them really?” says Steinberger. “The technology is incredible and is moving faster than the FAA can write their regulations. Obviously, I don’t think that UAVs can take the place of a regular helicopter for filmmaking just yet, but they are certainly able to get footage and images that would have been impossible with traditional tools. So yes, they definitely have a place in the industry and won’t be going away anytime soon.” Having said that, he then cautions, “I think there most definitely needs to be regulation for using them in a safe and responsible manner. There should be minimum qualification for professional/commercial operators and some sort of licensing. Otherwise, there isn’t any accountability. I don’t think it has to be as extreme as a private pilot license, but it should be better than what it is now.” Chris Odom, director of operations, Firefly Media Group in St. Petersburg, Fla., cautions, “Using these machines in this capacity requires a ton of specialized knowledge, primarily in the art of balancing the gimbal and camera package chosen for the project. The most valuable time spent are the days in pre-production making sure the gimbal and camera are stable and vibration free. Related to pre-pro, another huge factor to ensure success is being able to sit down with the director or DP and discuss the camera movements and desired results. So many projects I have worked on seem to think that we can just bring the machine on set, fire it up, and get exactly what they want. Sometimes, it just doesn’t work that way.” 12

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Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

Planning the flights, camera movements and expectations with the camera department is always the number-one priority. “I cannot stress enough how important it is for the pilot and camera operator to be on the same page,” warns Odom. “However, if a DP or director considers us a part of the camera department and understands the requirements and planning needed, we can produce results that are not attainable in any other way.” The cons of working with a UAV team come mostly from not having worked with one before and understanding how the team works and the limitation of the machines. “I have worked on numerous productions where no one has really considered the pilot and camera op as part of the camera department,” comments Odom. “We are usually booked for one or two days and expected to show up and know exactly what is needed, the vision of the director or DP. Yet one simple thing, communication, is the best way to getting the footage required for the project.” On the business side of things, finding insurance is extremely difficult. “We were fortunate enough to find Transport Risk out of Colorado,” recalls Odom. “Before getting insured, I had to go through an interview to determine my skill level. For the past yearand-a-half, my company has been insured with them for liability, and aircraft hull and camera damage. In our particular case, we carry $1 million in liability, $16,500 for the hull, and $7,500 for the camera. When a particular project requires higher limits, I can make a phone call and increase on a per-project basis. While not exactly cheap, it is a necessary part of being a professional.” One of the most active critics of UAV operations in US airspace—and not just related to their use in filming, is a 35-year veteran helicopter pilot and aerial coordinator who specializes in motion picture and TV work. Meet Paul H. Barth, owner of Camera Copters, and listen to his recent personal encounter with a UAV. “I was flying my helicopter with a Cineflex “Gyro” Stab camera system, filming a live event, the Red Bull Wings of Life Run, with hundreds of people on the ground below. We were up pre-dawn for the start, flying over a roadway in South Florida, when I saw a light in the distance. I thought it was another aircraft coming towards me, but wasn’t sure. I was flying at an altitude of 400 feet, where helicopters normally operate, and my cameraman and I identified it as a UAV. It came right at us and passed underneath, way too close.” He continues, “I immediately turned the helicopter around to follow it with our camera so I could know where it was and avoid a possible collision. To make a long story short, we videotaped the whole situation, right down to the point where the owner/operator landed it in his driveway. If that UAV had hit us, it could have possibly taken us down right on top of hundreds of people. Almost any foreign object hitting the tail rotor, main rotor, or even windshield of a helicopter in flight could cause it to crash.” A near miss, while flying any aircraft, is an unnerving experience. “A lot of drone guys think helicopter filming guys are just crying that they’re taking our business, they’re going to entirely replace us. That’s a bunch of baloney. They’ll never entirely replace what we can do and in many cases do better, with a real helicopter, a real aerial camera system, and a professional film pilot and cameraman. Think about the camera payloads that we carry, they weigh hundreds of pounds, and those UAVs aren’t going to replace that any time soon.” Barth adds, “I have to have a motion picture manual, I have to have a special waiver from the FAA, I have to have a certified aircraft, I have to be a certified commercial pilot, I have to maintain currency, I have to maintain an FAA medical, I have to carry $20 million in aviation liability insurance. I have to do all those things to legally fly over a film set to do a film job when there are people below me. But those UAV guys don’t have to do any of that right now.” To insure that UAV filming is done safely there have to be proper rules, regulation, training, licensing and accountability. “Even I realize that at some point, when the dust settles and the rules and regulations are in place, I will most likely embrace this technology and become a UAS owner/operator myself, admits Barth. “But in the meantime, if they are going to fly and film with their UAV, they better have a good lawyer nearby.” www.markeemagazine.com

“If that UAV had hit us, it could have taken us down on top of hundreds of people.” – Paul Barth

Summer 2014

| Markee 2.0

On Stage:

STUDIOS CATER TO VARIOUS MARKET NEEDS

[Above] Aerial view of EUE/Screen Gems studios, Wilmington, N.C.

Studios can prosper or crash based on their state’s incentives.

BY MARK R. SMITH 14

Markee 2.0 |

Summer 2014

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

Some studios have been in the film and television business for a long, long time. Some have faded away and returned, others that are newer to the game have hit the ground running and, in some cases, expanded in a relatively short time. Just how busy they are can depend on various factors. However, if they normally host feature films and television shows, the current situation with a state’s film incentives — and access to an experienced crew and plentiful services — often has everything to do with keeping the facility booked and the amount of investment made, be it of the infrastructure or technical variety, though there are exceptions. What are studios hearing from film and video producers? They want to determine the fit between their production and the soundstage and production facilities; on many occasions, back lots, locations and post-production capabilities are just as crucial.

[Above] EUE/Screen Gems Studio 10

Awaiting Word From ‘Wilmywood’ Hollywood and New York are still considered more traditional locales for movie and television productions, but incentives, crews, and services can make other locations just as appealing to producers. Take EUE/Screen Gems Studios, a large and long-time presence in the Southeastern coastal town of Wilmington, N.C. Spokesperson Susan Dosier says the studio has been “very busy” of late and is booked until the end of this year, but it’s what may (or may not) happen next that has veterans of the North Carolina television and film production scene concerned. At press time, the state legislature was still negotiating the passage of two bills: One that would keep the current program in place, which is a 25-percent refundable incentive for spend of up to $80 million per film; or another that would rely on a new grant program “that considerably scales the program back, affecting thousands of film workers in the state,” Dosier says. In short, dealing with the whims of a state legislature is a peril of the industry. “We are a Tier One film state,” Dosier says, “If we can’t keep that Tier One status, we won’t consistently fill all 10 stages on the Wilmington lot,” which notably includes the 37,500-square-foot Stage 10. All told, the complex offers 150,000 square feet of column-free shooting space, with ample support space for construction, screening, storage, etc. The studio significantly upgraded the digital and wireless infrastructure “to allow clients to collaborate digitally with teams around the world,” said Dosier. Among EUE/Screen Gems Studios’ more recent clients was Iron Man 3. Current projects include the CBS series Under the Dome and Fox’s Sleepy Hollow. ABC’s Secrets & Lies is filming its first season and a couple of pilots are in the works.

[Below] Fox’s Sleepy Hollow set at EUE/Screen Gems.

Incentives? No Prob However, one state where there hasn’t been any recent question about the reliability of the film incentives is Georgia, where EUE/Screen Gems launched operations in 2011 and “has been booked solid since the day we opened,” boasts Dosier. Built on the former Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta, the property’s original buildings, with Mission Revival architecture, have been rehabbed into studios “so they resemble structures built in Hollywood during the heyday of the big studios,” Dosier says. The facility, which offers 138,000 square feet of production space and 10 stages, includes Stage 7/8 which offers 37,500 square feet (and was built from the same plans used for Wilmington Stage 10). www.markeemagazine.com

Summer 2014

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Sound Stages and Studios

[Above] The paint shop on the EUE/Screen Gems Studios.

Just how successful has the Atlanta facility been? A major motion picture franchise that booked all 10 stages for the past year just wrapped; other productions include made for TV series, such as Devious Maids for Lifetime, and USA Network’s Necessary Roughness; the first season of Resurrection for ABC, and multiple programs for BET Networks; the movie Flight, starring Denzel Washington, for Paramount; and others. With a steady incentive program comes confidence; EUE/Screen Gems benefits from Georgia’s incentive package, which includes a 20percent tax credit for companies that spend at least $500,000 on a production with an additional 10-percent if the Georgia peach promo logo is included in the production.

Productions, Big ’n’ Easy

[Below] Second Line Stages, New Orleans.

Markee 2.0 |

Summer 2014

Heading deeper south, another happy tale is being told at Second Line Stages of New Orleans. Opened in 2009 by owner Susan Brennan and her partner, director of operations Trey Burvant, production has been rolling ever since. Working with a state legislature can be tricky even during the best of times, but Burvant and his colleagues in the industry see that as more of an opportunity. The Louisiana production community has worked with legislators “to create the strongest legislation possible,” he says: It consists of a 30-percent tax credit on a production’s in-state spend; plus an additional 5-percent on local labor hires. Located on the edge of the French Quarter in the Lower Garden District and marketed as a full-service, state-of-the-art facility — “the first LEED Gold certified studio in the country,” Burvant adds — Second Line encourages sustainability. “We recycle many sets and offer what we can around our community,” he says. “It’s a high consumption industry, so we do our part to get them to realize a cleaner footprint.” A medium-sized facility with three stages, the largest at 18,000 square feet, Second Line aims to give clients all of the conveniences the crews in California and New York are used to, including power, catwalk and grid systems, silent air conditioning, and NC

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

[Left] Interior of Second Line Stages studio.

25-rated sound. “For instance,” Burvant admits, “we get much more rain here in New Orleans than they do in California, so our roof system was designed as a true cover set. Not one of our clients has had to suspend filming at our studio.” Such attention to detail has paid off, as movies such as Django Unchained and The Butler have lensed under roof, as have recent reshoots for Percy Jackson; Fox’s American Horror Story, Second Line’s maiden voyage into TV, just wrapped season three and is in preproduction for season four. “We’re booked through the end of the year,” Burvant beams. Some recent technical updates include a new state-of-the-art ADR/mixing stage for post-production sound and an on-site equipment warehouse. Second Line is “always considering expanding,” he says. “It just depends on the right plan. We’d love to add two more big stages.”

Ready for Growth Another state that’s been a big player for several years in the incentive game is New Mexico. It offers a competitive package, including a 25-percent or 30-percent cut from the Refundable Film Production Tax Credit and the Film Crew Advancement Program. In addition, post-production services rendered in the state qualify for the 25-percent Refundable Tax Credit — even if the project is shot elsewhere. Offering such a package encouraged studios to put down stakes in the state, with a recent entrant being Santa Fe Studios. Opened in 2012 on 65 acres, they’ve only built on eight so far. President Jason Hool points to Phase 1: two 19,275-square-foot stages, with 24,000 square feet of production space with offices and support, including a 17,000-square-foot warehouse with mill space, etc. On-site vendors include MBS Equipment Co. for lighting and grip, Keslow Camera, and Absolut Video Assist. Recent projects include A Million Ways to Die in the West, from Media Rights Capital, which hit the silver screen this year; and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which airs on Fox TV. www.markeemagazine.com

Summer 2014

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Sound Stages and Studios

The state’s consistency with its film incentive program has made it feasible for facilities like Santa Fe Studios to make plans to accommodate anticipated growth. “Our need here is two more purpose-built sound stages of 26,000 square feet each,” said Hool. “We plan to break ground for Phase 2 later this year.” When you have land and space, you can do that. In addition to what’s under roof, Santa Fe’s backlot is wide open for whatever construction is deemed necessary for a given production; and, since the studio is in a Designated Media District, filmmakers can film at night, blow things up, tear things down, etc., without the need for special permits or alerting the neighbors.

A Midwest Catalyst

[Above Top] Building the Chicago P.D. precinct set on Cinespace Chicago Film Studio's Stage 10.

[Above] Cinespace's Center Studio Building.

[Below] Exterior shoot for The Playboy Club at Cinespace.

Speaking of expanding, heading north we find Cinespace Chicago Film Studios. They not only take advantage of Illinois’ healthy incentive program, the facility is proceeding with plans to expand by 1.5 million square feet on 50 acres near City Center, where it has also opened a brewery! During the past year, Cinespace has hosted “the regular mix of TV and spot production,” says managing member and CFO Mark Degnen. “The TV work has been 50/50 between Fox, with Mind Games and Crisis, both of which were cancelled after one season; and NBC, with Chicago P.D. and Chicago Fire, which are back this year for seasons two and three, respectively, with potential new series from Fox under consideration for the mix. On the feature side, most of Lionsgate’s Divergent, was shot at Cinespace, meaning the interiors and some location work on its campus, interspersed with exteriors from around the Windy City; ditto with Transformers 3 and Transformers 4. Under its expansive roof are 18 stages that average 20,000 square feet each, including the 60,000-square-foot North Stage 1 & 2, which offers a corresponding construction mill space, offices and parking. “We’ve had six projects going on here at once, which is about our max to provide the appropriate level of service,” says Degnen, adding that 250,000 more square feet within the existing facility may become the site of two more stages. But that remains to be seen, given the feast-or-famine nature of the production business. “Though the hiatus can allow us time for upgrades for when it gets busy again,” Degnen admits. He also notes the contributions of in-house support businesses like Keslow Camera, a tenant/partner; Cinelease and NBC Universal, for lighting and grip; and the on-site Periscope Post & Audio. Noting that Cinespace can “go from totally empty to hosting 1,000 people in two days,” Degnen says that there are “enough busy days to make plans,” while hailing the state’s politicians for making them possible. “We’ve had great support from Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. When we opened three years ago, the state was generating about $75 million in general revenue; now, that figure has reached about $360 million, with about 4,000 new jobs,” says Degnen. “It’s not all due to our facility, but we like to think we were a catalyst.”

History and More Back east, Kaufman Astoria Studios is an iconic name in one of the industry’s iconic locales. Management employs a forward-thinking approach as it markets not only the industry, but seemingly everything surrounding it. 18

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Summer 2014

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

“We’re trying to create the best production facility in the business,” said CEO Hal Rosenbluth. The studio has its roots in the Paramount family tree reaching back to the silent film-era and the Marx Brothers. Almost a century later, Kaufman Astoria is home to Orange is the New Black, which just started shooting season three for Netflix, as well as season seven for Showtime’s Nurse Jackie. Also in production is season one of Flesh & Bone for Starz and season two of Amazon’s Alpha House. Of course, what’s generating all of the action at the Long Island City studio is producer-attracting incentives, in this case called the Empire State Film Tax Credit. “It’s the single greatest marketing tool that the state has ever been given,” Rosenbluth said. Its rebate of 30-percent of below-the-line costs creates demand for the market’s strong labor force and use of its ample infrastructure. Kaufman Astoria’s larger than 300,000-square-foot main building features its 26,000square-foot Stage K. Recently, the studio closed adjacent 36th Street to create its backlot; also in the works are plans for the 18,000-square-foot Stage N, which is planned to rise in unison with adjacent residential and office space — demand for which will be created by the studio. That nod toward economic development in what’s known as the Kaufman Arts District is part of what separates the studio, which has been the home of Sesame Street for more than 20 years, from The Big Apple’s other facilities. “What we do is create an environment that people want to be in,” Rosenbluth said. “We’re not isolated. We’re even dog-friendly.”

[Above] A location shoot during Season 1 of Chicago P.D. at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios.

Another Dimension Let’s say that you wanted to set up a VFX studio in Southern California many years ago, and your client base ranged from La Jolla to North Hollywood. To meet them in the middle, you set up in Carlsbad, between L.A. and San Diego. That was what Legend3D did. Legend3D recruits and trains talent from San Diego county, giving them their first jobs on major Hollywood films. The company’s Carlsbad facility is where Legend3D worked on producing the 3D elements for The Amazing Spiderman 2, Man of Steel, Maleficent and films from Michael Bay’s blockbuster Transformers franchise. Today, L.A. is a prime 3D hub for filmmakers, and the studio can “give directors real-time control over the 3D look of their films,” says Matt Akey, Legend3D’s executive producer, of its new 3,800 square foot Hollywoodbased 3D Hub and review facility. The new Hollywood location boasts an 18-foot screen and a large 20–seat screening room, with both 2D and -3D projection capabilities, and 5.1 Surround, plus a 3D DI solution, utilizing SGO’s Mistika, for real-time depth grading and reviewing 2K or 4K conversion work in continuity. “There are not many 3D-capable facilities in L.A.,” says Akey. “They are set up from scratch many times, since productions are chasing the tax credits … we’re offering a solution that keeps all of the 3D hubbed in L.A., near the studios and filmmakers, and in a comfortable, state-of-the-art workspace.” The work is already flowing at the Hollywood facility, as Legend3D is working with MGM on its first major 3D movie, and has already booked a full feature conversion for the fall to be hubbed there as well. “The need for a centralized 3D facility for our studio partners has been here for some time. With filmmakers now deciding to save time and money by shooting in 2D and then converting, we are expecting more stereoscopic conversions in 2015 than any year prior.” www.markeemagazine.com

Summer 2014

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Getting the Most from

Renting Gear

Motion picture and video producers are finding that renting equipment is important to making their money work in today’s era of smaller budgets.

oday’s market is filled with camera systems, from the Canon C300 to the ARRI Alexa XT, and cinematographers demand even more camera and lens options. That brings producers in to many camera rental companies across the country. Producers’ budgets can vary in order to meet tighter deadlines, plus they must deliver more format options for the public’s ever-expanding entertainment needs. Content providers must reach viewers in many ways that make a producer’s work that much harder after they wrap the production.

Before you rent: Ask the right questions

BY D AW S O N G A I T H E R P E D E N

Markee 2.0 |

Summer 2014

Going into a project, a producer will often talk to the client, distributor, editor, and director before hiring the best cinematographer for the project. The next step is to determine from where the camera equipment will come. Producers rely on owner/operators, production companies, and advertising agencies or, of course, camera rental companies. When choosing the correct gear, there is a mix of all parties that comes into play; at the end of the day, the rental house is the best choice for most productions due to cost, variety of equipment, rigorous maintenance, and age of the equipment. When you pick a camera rental company, you need to ask a lot of the right questions before deciding on your rental package. Know what you need and have a detailed camera list from your cinematographer. If he or she asked for a Canon C300 with a PL lens, make sure that’s what you’re getting so there are no problems later. Ask how the company services their lenses and camera bodies, and make sure they complete this process after each rental – you don’t want to end up with filthy equipment. Make sure the rental period is from one to three days based on your shoot days; Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

normally, three billing days equal seven days of use. Also, if you have production insurance, make sure the company doesn’t charge you a fee for that on top of your equipment rental rates. Make sure your camera crew protects and takes care of the rental equipment, because if it gets damaged, your production will have to pay for the repairs. You may also want to keep your equipment inside a safe location when not shooting and in a professional camera van when traveling from set to set. Always hire seasoned camera assistants to work with your rented gear; this will help your production move along. And always make sure your camera crew cleans the equipment before returning it to the vendor since many rental houses charge for returning dirty gear. The last tip I suggest is always return the equipment before the deadline so you don’t incur more costs or another day’s rental charge.

shooting 1080p to 4K-image capture and 4K archiving for future distribution. There are more specialty add-ons like remote camera drones, camera sliders, low-angle prism lenses, ladder pods, camera stabilizing systems, alternative dollies and short jib arms to help make the image move, float or look different in a non-traditional way. No matter their professional background or equipment preferences, cinematographers all have an eye on what they feel is the best way to share their vision with the world. Some are able to move from their cellphone and personal video cameras to ARRI and Panavision film camera systems. I find that all cinematographers have at least one common trait – a vision of how they want to capture an image using a certain type of camera system and lens choice. They all feel these must be used to complete the story they are telling. Dawson Gaither Peden is a motion picture rental manager at Cineverse Miami.

Avoiding common pitfalls Some of the pitfalls I’ve seen include where producers have production assistants call in the camera order without checking the order for themselves or sharing it with the cinematographer until the day of the camera prep. Inevitably in these situations, almost everything needs to be changed before it leaves for the shoot. Some producers worry about their budget instead of the best equipment for their production, and in post find they made a big mistake. I’ve seen producers go from shooting with the 4K Red systems to an ARRI Alexa 2.8K with 1080p images and not realize until post that they can’t zoom into the image as they did when dealing with the 4K files. Some inexperienced producers want to use a camera system way out of their budget range and they end up failing to complete their project because they ran out of money. I suggest carefully selecting the correct camera technology that fits the budget for your project. The rental market offers camera systems starting at $500 per day and go all the way up to $5,000 a day. Most productions will be better served to rent rather than purchase camera equipment. When you own equipment, over a two- to three-year period after the warranties end, manufacturers’ parts and repairs can cost as much as the original cost of the equipment. If you have a long-form project and plan on shooting it with a DSLR camera and lens system, as opposed to a cinema-based PL-lens 3K to 4K system, then you may consider purchasing since the total cost will be one you can afford even when adding service and repair cost. Lately, cinematographers have been using vintage camera lenses such as uncoated glass, older Angenieux zooms, anamorphic primes, or even damaged filters for a specific look, while using workhorse cameras such as the Red Epic, ARRI Alexa, Sony F55 and Canon C300 for most TV show and commercial productions. The trend is www.markeemagazine.com

[Clockwise from Opposite Page Top] Equipment rental house Cineverse in Miami displays its wares in a variety of settings.

Summer 2014

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4K Cinematography

4K Your Way

hanks to the brilliant work of Alfonso Cuarón and his son Jonas with Gravity, television set companies showed off content befitting the beauty of their 4K UHD (ultra-high definition) screens at NAB this year. Folks seemed more interested in seeing the picture-perfect presentation up close and personal than they were in the movie’s 3D execution because everyone realizes that 3D is best used sparingly and they have pretty much reigned in their over-exuberance for the format. The difference between 4K and HD content is apparent to even the most untrained eye, shooting/production equipment isn’t outrageously expensive, and studios and broadcasters know the new generation expects high-quality content. More importantly, there are more distribution options available to content owners and channels. However, some have been quick to point out that the infrastructure for 4K hasn’t been built out (yet), there aren’t huge libraries of 4K content available (yet), and the gatekeepers (also known as cable folks) don’t have the pipes to handle the higher bandwidth content (yet).

High Quality, Low Cost

BY G. A. “A N D Y ” M A R K E N

Markee 2.0 |

Summer 2014

Independent studios and videographers have found they still can have optimum creative control without going deeply in debt. Economic 4K cameras ($400 -$10,000), such as those by Black Magic, AJA and Red, as well as very economical production and postproduction systems are putting the technology into more professional hands – studios, independents and even businesses that focus on education, training, service/support. Cirina Catania is an indie who used three of Blackmagic’s newest cameras for her projects: the Wounded Veterans, Furnishing Hope, and the United States Veterans Educational Institute. She recently completed shooting a documentary in the desert/mountain areas of Nevada and said the cameras and Other World Computing (OWC) SSDs took a beating in the rugged terrain, even though she was careful. Every frame was captured and saved. “Yes you can say 6G SSD is more expensive than a bigger hard drive,” she commented, “but most people who do this for a living say it’s cheap when you consider the cost of trying to go back and reshoot even a few scenes … if that’s even possible.” Andrew Disney, director of the indie film Intramural that was featured at this year’s Tribeca/ESPN Film Festival, says his group rented the RED Epic because “it just delivFilm • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

ered the dynamic 5K quality the crew wanted.” Disney explained that immediately after each day’s shoot, the content would be rushed to Kody Gibson (editor) and his team who would do the post on a wide array of OWC drives because RAW 5K “has a real appetite for storage” that can test the performance of systems and storage, but the combination of Gigabit Ethernet and Thunderbolt-interfaced hard drives can meet the needs for online editing.

Wait a minute! There are gazillions of Petabytes (PBs) of content sitting in studio and station libraries/warehouses as well as in indie closets around the world. True, it isn’t 4K, but it wouldn’t take much work, much time, or a big bankroll to convert and repurpose all of that HD material to 4K for the Internet, cable/satellite and airwaves. Organizations that maintain tight control on their quality image and reputation are using a more comprehensive conversion approach and working with services from production studios such as San Francisco-based 4K Studios. This entails using Ultra HD scanners for 35mm or 16mm film and making multiple digitization of each frame of the film at different light levels in red, green and blue, creating an HDR (high-dynamic-range) 4K image for every frame of the film. Next, editors repair the defects, such as scratches in the film, and compensate for the frame-by-frame variations in texture, color and lighting. This process has even been used to make dramatic improvements to films originally mastered in 4K.

A resolution solution The key to cost-effectively producing cleaner, crisper results is using the right combination of resolution and contrast. Higher camera resolution and a narrower dynamic range of images simply decreases the image contrast, which cable firms say is necessary to attract and retain viewers. European Broadcast Union (EBU) studies have shown that more pixels don’t necessarily deliver sharper images, which are a perceived value to people. In fact, the best combination of resolution and contrast can be produced by backing off camera resolution so a wider dynamic range of video content can be captured. SMPTE fellow Mark Schubin calculates that increasing the data rate from 8-bit to 10-bit, or 10-bit to 12-bit, doesn’t produce better results when compared to a higher dynamic range. It calls for the use of a color gamut that is significantly larger than the current HD TV standard, Rec. 709.

[Above] Cirina Catania, pictured with her BlackMagic camera, donates her creative talent to build awareness of the challenges and successes of physically and mentally disabled military personnel reentering the world they left behind to serve their country.

[Opposite Page, Left] Gravity: image courtesy of Warner Brothers 2013

It’s better to produce pristine imagery at the outset and then efficiently deliver the content to today’s 4K UHD TV sets, rather than doing what the cable companies want, moving all of the heavy processing down to the TV set.

Don’t Force It A one-hour compressed 4K film is about 160GB and would take 7-1/2 hours to download on a 50 Mbit/s connection. However, by processing it using multiple codecs and advanced post methods, videos can be flawlessly streamed even over 6 Mbit/s pipes. The streaming distribution solution has become so important that CBS is making more of its content available to people who stream their entertainment at a time that is convenient for them, rather than the broadcaster’s schedule. CBS has put about 50 percent of its content online because streaming allows “the elusive younger audience” that they want to access the network’s programming. The devices and services also have opened the way for studios, indies and businesses/institutions to reach the larger new and specialty audiences. By converting their content, studios and content owners can quickly and economically breathe new life into their films and TV shows. All without having to wait for cable companies to up their services.

• 4K RAW (4096 x 2160), 24fps, 10-bit: 253.125 Megabytes per second – 15.2 Gigabytes per minute – 911.3 Gigabytes per hour • 4K RAW (4096 x 2160), 24fps, 12-bit: 303.75 Megabytes per second – 18.2 Gigabytes per minute – 1.093 Terabytes per hour • 4K RAW (4096 x 2160), 24fps, 16-bit: 405 Megabytes per second- 24.3 Gigabytes per minute – 1.46 Terabytes per hour

www.markeemagazine.com

Summer 2014

| Markee 2.0

Spotlight

[Clockwise From Above] Glen Kantziper

East and South

Independent Spirits

Image Associates Pixeldust Studios Ryan Lightbourn / Sleepwalker Studios

Spotlighting small companies with moxie and unique voices Once again, we shine our Spotlight around the country, looking for people doing interesting work in film and television production, animation, commercial production, and additional services for our industry. The companies profiled below represent a diverse mix of specialties and an array of attention-grabbing projects.

B Y C O RY S E K I N E - P E T T I T E 24

Markee 2.0 |

Summer 2014

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

Ryan Lightbourn / Sleepwalker Studios Ryan Lightbourn is fueled by passion and the love of filmmaking – and horror movies. The Bahamian native and Orlando, Fla. resident runs his year-old Sleepwalker Studios as the primary director/DP/editor. As this issue goes to press, Lightbourn is completing his company’s first feature-length film, Sleepwalkers. He describes the film as “a backwoods creature feature.” Lightbourn loves the horror genre. In fact, his next movie, a sword and sorcery feature, is lined up for a November 2014 release to video-on-demand (VOD) outlets. And he currently is writing a Predator-style Sasquatch film that he expects to release in 2015. “Typically, with a low-budget film, you’re stuck with what you shoot during your main production schedule,” said Lightbourn. “However, over the past five years of freelancing, my producer Tim and I have amassed all of the necessary gear to shoot a professional product so it costs very little to improve our films via second unit. With Sleepwalkers, there was one fairly long scene where we just weren’t getting the performance we wanted, so we scrapped it and patched it up with something bigger and better when we shot second unit. We will always have very strict quality control over our films.” Lightbourn began his career in 2009 as a “one-man show,” directing short films and music videos. He shot a few videos for some well-known hip-hop artists, including Big Sean, Travis Porter, Plies, and Slum Village, which were featured on MTV and BET, and one of them even shows up in an episode of Showtime Network’s Ray Donovan. But Lightbourn’s passion always has been narrative film, especially scary ones. So, during his time making music videos (He estimates he shot more than 100 of them.) from 2009-2012, he also was working on long-form projects. For example, he wrote and directed a short film in 2011, called Roid Rage, which did well on the horror festival circuit, he said. The trailer received more 3 million views online. “I became a filmmaker to share my ideas with the world, so last year I decided to reboot my career and start from scratch,” Lightbourn said. “The music video and DP gigs had become my bread and butter, so it was a difficult decision, but Sleepwalkers turned out exceptionally well for the budget; it’s receiving a lot of press based off the trailer and it has already been requested by a number of top studios and agents.” Though he works mostly within driving distance of his Florida home, Lightbourn does occasionally venture into international work. “As a native of the Bahamas, I’ve shot a wide range of music videos and commercials on many different Bahamian islands,” he said. “I also had a photo shoot for a reggaeton artist in Puerto Rico a while back. I shoot a lot of stock footage, so many of my shots that do well are from the Bahamas. Once you venture away from the major city/island, Nassau/New Providence, it’s a truly mind blowing experience. www.markeemagazine.com

[Above] Ryan Lightbourn on set, as well as two scenes from his original film, Sleepwalkers.

“The film commission is extremely supportive of locals, so I’d love to go back there and shoot a feature film some day,” Lightbourn continued. “There’s an old legend about a halfbird/half-man creature called Chickcharney, who lives in the swamps on the island of Andros. I have many ideas to expand on that concept.” Lightbourn says he plans to be extremely busy over the next couple of years. “A lot of blood, sweat and tears will be poured into my films to retain high levels of both quantity and quality. The money is secondary for me; I’m not doing this to make millions. I’m just happy that I get to make a ton of films.” Did we mention the blood? Summer 2014

| Markee 2.0

Spotlight Image Associates (www.iaproductions.com)

Image Associates (iA) is a Charleston, W.Va.-based firm that specializes in TV commercial production, long-form video, aerials, and ENG/EFP crews. The award-winning company (more than 20 Telly Awards, Batchy Award, ADDY’s) has a staff of 12 and works mostly in the Mid-Atlantic region. From a two-person documentary crew to a 40-person, feature-style video production, iA has the experience, relationships, financial capacity and infrastructure in place to effectively plan, staff and equip any size video production shoot, the company boasts on it Website. Additionally, iA asserts its dominance as the most complete field production equipment package in West Virginia, which includes a multi-instrument HMI lighting package, a Bell Jet Ranger with a Cineflex mount fitted with a Sony HDC-1500 high- definition camera for aerials, and a remodeled edit suite for 2D and 3D animation, color correction and effects, and more. For more than 15 years, iA has been producing the bulk of the West Virginia Lottery’s spots, and it regularly works for ad agencies, networks, and corporate clients such as Discovery and Entertainment Tonight. Image Associates also provided production services for J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 movie, the History Channel’s Men Who Built America and The World Wars, and the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures Live. “We began as a production company, but due to market size grew into the agency side of the business,” said Bill Hogan, iA creative director/managing member. “Over half of our production work is generated by our agency side.”

Pixeldust Studios (www.pixeldust.tv)

Since 2004, Bethesda, Md.-based Pixeldust has been making waves in the industry with its work in content and programming, commercials and video production, 3D animation and VFX, web design, motion graphics, and Spanish productions. Along the way, it has earned 36 Emmy nominations, 12 Emmys, 15 Telly awards, acceptance into eight NY festivals, and multiple ADDY’s and other awards. “We are very good at storytelling through animation,” says Pixeldust Co-founder Elizabeth Andrade, who founded the company with Ricardo Andrade. As Elizabeth explained Pixeldust’s origin: Ricardo was the director of the art department at National Geographic TV. Under his supervision, the full26

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Summer 2014

East and South According to Hogan, iA provides production services for features, crews and equipment for visiting producers and network assignments, but the company’s principal business is commercials. Current projects include a spot for Frontier Communications, videos for the West Virginia Housing Development Fund and United Way of Central W.Va., and commercials for a dental franchise. Incidentally, Image Associates has the only true grip truck in West Virginia and is the only 4K shop in the state, Hogan says. “4K is here and agencies and others expect it.” [Below] For more than 15 years, Image Associates has been producing the bulk of the West Virginia Lottery’s spots.

service art and animation department provided concept development, 3D animation, visual effects supervision, and digital compositing for more than 60 hours of programming annually for National Geographic Channel, MSNBC, PBS, and Fox Specials. “To make a better use of his talent and experience, we saw the opportunity of working with other entities like Discovery, NOVA, Smithsonian Networks, as well as expanding into museum exhibits, government, corporate, and non-profit firms,” Elizabeth said. “We combined our strengths, creative and administrative.” “We have been blessed with the opportunity of working in many high-end productions, like The Fabric of the Cosmos, with Brian Green, a four-part series in NOVA based on Green’s book, where we depicted very complicated princiFilm • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

ples and theories like Multiverse, quantum leap, time and space,” continued Elizabeth. Additionally, Pixeldust worked on the animation for Alien Deep with Bob Ballard, a five-part series for National Geographic. The company produced animation to show deep ocean exploration, rogue waves, and theorized life on Mars. Currently, the company is working on many projects, including a museum travel exhibit, a film about Whistler, best American fighter planes, and several corporate and non-profits productions. Pixeldust has clients throughout the country and around the world, from Los Angeles to Atlanta, and from Mexico, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Elizabeth said the company’s work overseas is mostly animation for documentaries, open sequences, and graphics packages. “With globalization and the expansion of social media, our audiences have become more sophisticated in what they expect to see on the screen, either Web or TV,” Elizabeth said. “We understand that! Audiences want to see on television and Web the same quality of animation as Hollywood movies, but they don’t care to think of the difference in budgets. Our motto is simple: If our name is going to be on the credits it has to be amazing! Sometimes [that work ethic] is not good moneywise, because we end up spending more time than was budgeted, [but it] is a matter of pride.” [Below] A Pixeldust staffer working on the fine details, and an image from The Fabric of the Cosmos.

Glen Kantziper (KPSR.com)

If you ask freelance lighting videographer Glen Kantziper about the keys to his company’s success, he might tell you “quick evaluation of a shooting situation and how to proceed in a timely manner requires experience. Having a camera and lighting package that is extensive but very portable, flexible and organized is essential for success in location work. I provide such a service to new and regular clients on a consistent basis.” Kantziper Production Services & Rental, Inc. (KSPR) is based in Jamestown, N.C., where Glen has been assisting local and regional producers, plus fellow DPs for more than 20 years. A graduate of journalism school, Kantziper began his career in broadcasting before branching out into corporate communications with a North Carolina-based production company. It was there that he began working his way up the production ladder, gleaning skills from experienced freelance DPs before embarking on his own freelance career in the early 1990s. “Network and cable network jobs made for a couple decades of work interspersed with many corporate productions, mostly single camera, but also multi-camera productions,” Kantziper said. “Lately, the occasional commercial or broadcast shoot provides variety in mostly corporate production work ranging from educational videos to underwear model shoots.” Kantziper’s work has included shoots for The Science Channel, Al Jazeera America, Hanes Brands, Champion Brands, and a recent collaboration with Panasonic professional video products. Flexibility in his schedule and working style is another key his career success, says Kantziper, because many of his projects are last-minute assignments. For example, during his interview with Markee in June, he said, “This week, I’ve shot a corporate training session and I’ll cover a press conference tomorrow. Next week, I’ll be on vacation if nobody calls, ha! The week after that, who knows? It has been more than 20 years of what I have the good fortune to call a career of ‘an endless series of unrelated events.’ “I will likely go 4K in the coming weeks for an aerial shoot coming up in a few months,” Kantziper continued. “If nothing else, the 4K camera will allow for reframing in 1080 space and that’ll come in handy for some of the ‘talking head’ work I do – sort of like shooting with one camera in two different focal lengths simultaneously.”

[Above] Glen Kantziper

www.markeemagazine.com

Summer 2014

| Markee 2.0

Summer 2014 • V. 29 |No. 2

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

2.0

Stock Footage Guide

Photo courtesy of: WPA Film Library

Getting the Most before Post The term stock footage refers to clips that have been filmed specifically to emit a particular feeling or represent an idea. This footage is used in numerous media productions including commercials, feature films, music videos, and informational videos. Stock video is not always comprised of simple shots and can include anything from shots of employees enjoying their work to fast-paced cityscapes or a mudslide ravaging a small town. Using stock footage has various benefits for users, including lowered production costs, decreased production time, high-definition film quality, an aid in the storytelling process, and access to difficult shots as well as events that have come and gone. Stock shot houses are available to aid those filmmakers in need of finishing up a project or a little something to spice up what they’ve already shot. From historical events to time-lapsed landscapes, stock shot houses are the lesser-known hero of the media industry. Users of stock footage save a ton of money, as paying for stock footage is much cheaper than usual production costs. Stock video adds to the production value of a media piece, and essentially possesses the ability to be the establishing shot or shots of a production. Selecting the right footage can save exterior shooting in distant locations or provide historical perspectives of locations that can’t be shot today. Niche stock houses are beneficial to productions as some footage is difficult to schedule, and can even cause liabilities. According to Martin Lisius, cinematographer for Storm Stock, “It’s difficult to schedule footage like a tornado, and if a production films the footage on their own it will take a ton of time to get what you need. Production of storm footage can take anywhere from two days to a hundred days, and you have to pay for a crew, not to mention the risk. I was hired by an ad agency in Dallas, one of their clients is Salvation Army, and they wanted b-roll shots of the Salvation B Y Army aiding in Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike, and they did not just want to send a regular B U R R E S group down there.” No matter what type of shot you are looking for, there is probably a stock footage house out there with shots ready to go, or teams ready to film whatever you desire.

From historical events to time-lapsed landscapes, stock shot houses are the silent hero of the media industry.

MONICA M. 28

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Summer 2014

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

“As a culture, we are very focused on the visual. We are a post and TV world where everyone has a camera phone now and everyone is used to documenting our world in media. Stock footage really supports that,” says Roxanne Mayweather of SearchWorks. Stock footage is a critical tool for most productions, and project managers usually realize they need stock footage in post or if a film that has been picked up needs a few changes before release. Stock is valuable for a multitude of reasons, and in particular if a certain request cannot be shot by the production itself for reasons such as weather, the location is just not what they want, or footage they need is of a historical event. “We are working with a museum right now, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, in which a period piece is needed to inform and entertain guests. Stock is going to be used to recreate places and experiences so the guests will be given a perspective of what was going on historically...” stated Mayweather. Stock footage is not a one-trick pony. Stock footage houses are a business, so benefits are not strictly for users; stock houses can become the third or even second unit to a production, forming an association with feature filmmakers and videographers. “It becomes a nice relationship — they have you in their pocket.” says Linda Giella, sales manager of Blue Sky Stock Footage. “While we have the copyright to everything, footage users possess rights to the footage that are disclosed in the contract. Typically, TV shows and feature films possess the majority of rights, while TV commercial rights depend on how long the footage is aired.” “Steven Spielberg once said the most important phase in production is pre-production. All you do in pre-production is plan.” quoted Lisius. Planning is the cornerstone to getting the most out of using stock footage. “Clients are in a hurry, sometimes you have a last minute thing to shoot and there is no pre-planning to back it up...commercial productions send material for a commercial spot and it might be airing in three or four days, and TV news is extreme and they’ll want it within two hours or less. The best material comes from working with someone on the staff; you can get a much better product if the client interacts with a person rather than working straight from the Website.” The key to getting the most from using stock footage in a film or video is talking early on to footage providers as this saves from traveling to locations and even gives filmmakers new ideas. “People come in post and can’t find what they need, and it is too late to start production again. If you start early working with a company where you are not just searching online, most companies will do free research and give suggestions.” stated Giella. A good stock researcher can help anyone get the most from their stock footage experience; inexperienced producers sometimes do not realize that it pays to buy a person’s expertise and experience. A production is never in need of a waste of money, so “you don’t want somebody looking for archival footage going to a contemporary library.” says Mayweather. Also, getting in touch with the clearance department of a company can aid in making sure there are no qualms after a production has been released. “Back in the day, people didn’t realize the value of imagery like we do now, and companies are unable to give you rights that they themselves do not have access to. Clearance experts are the advanced forces for the legal teams of the studios and production companies — we keep them out of trouble,” according to Mayweather, “saving companies money in the long run.” There’s an advantage for television production in that these companies can use leftover funds originally laid out for post-production budgets to have customized footage created, further decreasing cost. Blue Sky Stock Footage has been hired to cover cities so that editors may have a palette of the colors they will be working with during both day and night, as well as establishing shots that they may use in their production to move the story along. One really cannot give a research company too many parameters, or else that’s called a “shoot-it-yourself” project. “There are amazing cinematographers in the stock world, and really cool shots from many libraries, but if you go in to a research company or a stock shot house with something that presents itself as a production shot, you have to shoot it yourself.” says Mayweather, “Stock footage is a tool, it’s not there to replace your vision — it’s there to enhance your vision.” www.markeemagazine.com

Summer 2014

| Markee 2.0

Stock Footage Listings 24FRAME.COM

213-745-2411

CREW WEST

888-444-2739

www.24frame.com/contact-us

ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE

212-456-5421 abcvideosource@abc.com

ABCNEWS VideoSource is the footage licensing division for ABCNEWS. We feature most categories of video content including: current events, politics, business, crime, entertainment, sports, disasters etc. In addition to our user friendly website that features thousands of assets, our research and sales staff are ready to help you tell your story. The VideoSource collection spans from 1896 to the present.

ACTION SPORTS/ALL-STOCK

310-459-2526

Sales@stockvideovault.com

Stock Video Vault offers the highest quality 1080-HD, 2K, 3K, to 4K video and photography. Our contributors are the finest the world has to offer and we pay them a higher percentage than other stock footage sites. We provide the best in real-time video and time-lapse of natural landscapes and urban settings, and our underwater footage is exceptional. Rights managed.

DOCUMENTARY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

DOLLARHIDE FILM INC

AERIAL HD STOCK LLC/CAMERA COPTERS 888-463-7953 The Aerial HD Stock LLC collection, shot by cinematographer Steve Cassidy and co-produced with Camera Copters owner/pilot Paul Barth, features a diverse mix of day and night cityscapes, scenic beauty, industrial, energy production, urban, agriculture, and more from locations all across the USA and Caribbean. Shot with the Cineflex aerial system in 1080 24P, new material is constantly being added. Aerial HD Stock LLC footage is represented exclusively worldwide by Getty Images.

AIR SEA LAND PRODUCTIONS

617-926-0491

601-946-8407 jim@dollarhide.net

DOUBLETIME PRODUCTIONS

cassidy@cassidyinc.com

516-869-1170 info@doubletimeproductions.com

ECHO FILM PRODUCTIONS

208-336-0349 echofilm@mindspring.com

EFOOTAGE, LLC

626-395-9593 info@efootage.com

EEF PRODUCTIONS

970-479-6333 hayden@eefhd.tv.com

718-626-2646

305-237-7731 info@wolfsonarchives.org

MAMMOTH HD INC

303-670-7973 info@mammothhd.com

MEDIA BAKERY

805-682-9325 Sales@mediabakery.com

docued@der.org

info@actionsportsstockfootage.com

LYNN AND LOUIS WOLFSON II FLORIDA MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVES

MICHAEL MAY MEDIA SERVICES

808-372-7292 mmmay@me.com

MOTION ELEMENTS PTE LTD

+65-6336-5352 contact@motionelements.com

NATURE FOOTAGE

831-375-2313 support@naturefootage.com

NEW & UNIQUE VIDEOS

619-644-3000 cpp@newuniquevideos.com

NEW HAMPSHIRE MOVIES

603-463-5900 info@nhmovies.com

NHNZ MOVING IMAGES

+64-3-479-9832 images@nhnz.tv

asl@airsealand.com

F.I.L.M. ARCHIVES INC AM STOCK-CAMEO FILM LIBRARY

212-696-2616 info@filmarchivesonline.com

310-479-4800

NICKERSON RESEARCH

323-965-9990 info@nickersonresearch.com

researcher@amstockcameo.com

FISH FILMS FOOTAGE WORLD AMERICA BY AIR STOCK FOOTAGE

818-905-1071 footageworld@aol.com

800-488-6359

NORMAN KENT PRODUCTIONS

386-446-0505 info@normankent.com

footage@americabyair.com

FOOTAGE BANK ARTBEATS

ATLANTA VIDEO

info@footagebank.com

info@artbeats.com

Premium rights-released clips specially selected from content producers around the world. Specialties include locations, team sports, aerials, playback, and more. Free clip bins, great service, and competitive pricing.

404-523-9660 wbrow02@gmail.com

BENNETT-WATT HD PRODUCTIONS

310-822-1400

541-863-4429

800-327-2893

FOOTAGELAND

ODDBALL FILMS

415-558-8112 info@oddballfilm.com

PARTNERS IN MOTION HARMONY DISTRIBUTION

604-506-7646

jstecyk@partnersinmotion.comcpp@newuniquevideos.comNew & Unique Videos

818-370-8441 footageland@aol.com

Info@bennett-watt.com

PHOTOVAULT

707-775-2562 www.photovault.com/contactmail.php

BLACKLIGHT FILMS

323-436-7070

FRAMEPOOL

800-331-1314 americas@framepool.com

smiller@blacklightfilms.com

POND5.COM

646-233-2155 contact@pond5.com

BLUE SKY STOCK FOOTAGE

310-305-8384

GLOBAL IMAGEWORKS, LLC.

201-384-7715 info@globalimageworks.com

sales@blueskyfootage.com

PRODUCERS LIBRARY

818-752-9097 research@producerslibrary.com

BRIDGER PRODUCTIONS, INC.

307-733-7871

HBO ARCHIVES

877-426-1121 footage@hboarchives.com

info@bridgerproductions.com

CAMERA COPTERS/AERIAL HD STOCK LLC 888-463-7953 cassidy@cassidyinc.com

The Aerial HD Stock LLC collection, shot by cinematographer Steve Cassidy and co-produced with Camera Copters owner/pilot Paul Barth, features a diverse mix of day and night cityscapes, scenic beauty, industrial, energy production, urban, agriculture, and more from locations all across the USA and Caribbean. Shot with the Cineflex aerial system in 1080 24P, new material is constantly being added. Aerial HD Stock LLC footage is represented exclusively worldwide by Getty Images.

HBO Archives collections include: Sports – exclusive sports imagery and top athletes. Contemporary – stock shots from HBO Films. Archival – anchored by The March of Time documentary series. Wildlife – wildlife and scenics from exotic locations around the world. Entertainment News – exclusive behind-the-scenes and other footage covering music, comedy, television and film celebrities. Our website features high-speed video and text searches and offers low-res video downloads. We also provide free research.

HIGH PLAINS FILMS

PUBLICDOMAINFOOTAGE.COM

301-471-8058 info@PublicDomainFootage.com

SEARCHWORKS

323-469-3783 research@searchworks.com

SONY PICTURES STOCK FOOTAGE

310-244-3704

www.sonypicturesstockfootage.com/tools/contact

SOUTHEAST STOCKFOOTAGE

404-685-2806

contact@southeaststockfootage.com

406-543-6726 yak@highplainsfilms.org

SPORTS CINEMATOGRAPHY GROUP CELEBRITY FOOTAGE

310-360-9600

HOTSTOCKFOOTAGE.COM

info@celebrityfootage.com

john@jsptv.com

STOCKFOOTAGE.COM CLASSIC IMAGES

310-277-0400

INTERNATIONAL HISTORIC FILMS

sales@classicimg.com

651-642-4576 archive@conus.com

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801-362-7229 www.stockfootage.com/contact-us

773-927-9091 info@historicfootage.com

STORMSTOCK CONUS ARCHIVE

310-962-2200

sportscinema@earthlink.net

303-721-6121

JOURNEYMAN PICTURES LTD.

+44-208-398-4616

817-276-9500 info@stormstock.com

info@journeyman.tv

Film • Video • Animation • Audio • Locations • People

advertisersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; index page# company phone & website 32

ABCNEWS VideoSource

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32, C4

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29, 32

S TAY CONNECTED TO MARKEE 2.0!

WPA Film Library 800-323-0442 www.wpafilmlibrary.com

You can visit our website, www.markeemagazine.com, for exclusive news and trade show coverage. You can also sign up for the Markee 2.0 eNews and follow us on Facebook and Twitter! www.markeemagazine.com

Summer 2014

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Stock Footage Listings STREAMLINE FILMS, INC.

Stock Footage Galleries

212-925-2547 decroix@streamlinefilms.com

STREAMWERX

704-421-3595 aerials@streamwerx.com

TETON GRAVITY RESEARCH

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THE FILM GATE LLC

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THE SOURCE STOCK FOOTAGE LIBRARY

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TIMESTEPS PRODUCTIONS, INC.

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TROPICAL VISIONS VIDEO, INC

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VIDEOHELPER

ABCNEWS VideoSource ABCNEWS VideoSource is the content licensing division for ABC NEWS. Our extensive collection, superior customer service, and competitive pricing makes VideoSource the perfect choice to fulfill all of your content needs. P: 212.456.5421 • 800.789.1250 www.abcnewsvideosource.com abcvideosource@abc.com

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WGBH STOCK SALES

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WIDE AWAKE FILMS

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WILDVISIONS INC

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WPA FILM LIBRARY

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WPA supplies high-quality footage on topics as diverse as history, pop culture, politics, celebrities, landmarks, home movies, Americana and more. Highlights include the entire British Pathe Newsreel Library, WETA’s coverage of political events, over 6,500 exclusive rock ‘n roll, soul and classic country music performances a growing HD collection and historic auto racing. WPA offers FREE expert research and free screeners, competitive pricing and a fully searchable online database with more than 30,000 viewable clips.

HBO Archives HBO Archives is a full-service stock footage library offering free research and screeners. Our collections include Sports, Entertainment News, Archival, The March of Time Newsreels and Documentaries, Contemporary Stock and Wildlife. P: 877.426.1121 • F: 212.512.8018 www.hboarchives.com footage@hboarchives.com

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Aerial HD Stock LLC

FootageBank

A diverse mix of day and night cityscapes, scenic beauty, industrial, energy production, urban, agriculture, and more, in 1080P. Represented exclusively worldwide by Getty Images. Shot by cinematographer Steve Cassidy and coproduced with Camera Copters owner/pilot Paul Barth.

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WPA supplies high-quality footage on topics as diverse as history, pop culture, politics, celebrities, landmarks, home movies and Americana. Highlights include the entire British Pathe Newsreel Library. We provide free research and screeners. P: 800.323.0442 • F: 708.460.0187 www.wpafilmlibrary.com sales@wpafilmlibrary.com

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