JANUARY 2015
Vol 210
What we can look forward to in 2015 and beyond. Holidays are a time for reflection and forward planning which is where the excitement is. Here are some thoughts and news items I picked up between lying on the beach, golf and sleeping. In the sound area, there has been a foray into hi-res audio. This is in response to music artists complaining about their high quality original recordings being dumbed down to MP3 files to play on iPhone speakers. Sound familiar? The new file is a “flac” file and is much bigger than a CD quality wav file. Unfortunately for the manufacturers pushing this particular technology, the listening experience is apparently not appreciably better than wav in most situations and it’s not going to interest those who want all their music on one cheap card. Also sound familiar? More info at the “whathifi” site –
Technologies Software Defined Video Networking (SDVN) solutions. Evertz SDVN provides IP workflows which are format agnostic, easily supporting SD/HD/3G/4K and 8K video formats, and provide unprecedented scalability and reduction in operational costs.
http://www.whathifi.com/news/high-resolutionaudio-everything-you-need-to-know
Evertz will continue to expand on this range in 2015 and have recently a nno unc e d t he y are Collaborating with Sony on IP Interoperability
In the television market, CES ( Consumer Electronics Show ) unveiled “quantum dots” as a cheaper option to the beautiful but expensive OLED technology. There were also releases of yet more streaming devices that are not compatible with competing brands of TV – another workflow issue.
Elemental Technologies Quinto Communications. have produced Elemental® Delta which is a video delivery platform designed to optimise the monetisation, management and distribution of multiscreen video across internal and external IP networks.
My belief is that internet TV is going to become the major means of video content viewing but that it’s going to be a long journey punctuated by promising but flawed offerings. Just like paper is to stress free reading, broadcast is to relaxed viewing.
“Through just-in-time (JIT) video packaging and intelligent caching, Elemental® Delta enables a complete solution for time-shifted TV and real-time content delivery with advanced levels of customization and control, including network bandwidth optimization, profile manipulation and highly targeted ad insertion.”
What do others think? Quinto Communications Our prediction for 2015 is that it will be a big year for IP TV. In 2014 we saw broadcasters begin to transition away from baseband/SDI workflows with Evertz
Pete Fullerton from
Wohler Technologies continue to expand their awardwinning MPEG Series monitors which decode and provide convenient at-a glance monitoring of programme content from MPEG-2/4 ASI and Ethernet IP streams as well as 3G/HD-SDI inputs. Wohler are also rolling out a significant new version of their Tachyon® Wormhole™
media retiming solution. Tachyon® Wormhole™ enables the imperceptible re-timing of media by plus or minus 10% without having to go back to the edit suite and is designed to be used by Broadcasters and Content Creators. New Gear for 2015 In 2015 JVC are releasing their four new 4k cameras giving some awesome new low cost options for the indie doco/film maker. Of the four cameras, one the GYLS300, has a Super 35mm sensor with MFT mount, making it one of the most versatile 4k 35mm cameras on the market. Quinto are now the agents for Craltech. Craltech are a Spanish company offering attractive low-cost multiview solutions, video processors and broadcast monitors. For example Craltech’sQu4tre Mini QuadSplit turns any monitor into a quad split monitor with 16 characters UMD per each input, 4K Format support, Aspect Ratio Selection, Markers, Real time colour Waveform and Vectorscope, 16 Channel Audio Level Meters and Timecode display.
Protel “As you are all aware our industry and the products Protel supply and you use are being rapidly transformed. Performance of storage and processing power improves by a factor of 2 every 18 months, and as a result there are important long-term consequences to the industry. A factor of 2 every 18 months is equivalent to:
A factor of 10 every 5 years or;
A factor of 100 every 10 years.
These sustained long-term trends are responsible for transforming the computer industry and indirectly also transforming the Post Production and Broadcasting industries.
Professional Lighting Services Ltd I see 2015 as a year of expanding LED technology. We will hopefully see the "Trademe" quality equipment drop off as users start finding the truth to the old adage "You get what you pay for." Hopefully end users will be able to see through the "snake oil" peddled by some LED suppliers. This won't see a drop in the use of fluorescent fixtures for higher output softlighting applications. Chris McKenzie from PLS. LEDs will remain the go to for battery operation and up to 1kW studio type replacements. HMI will remain the best available daylight replacement lighting for the foreseeable future, especially in the ARRI M series type fixtures which deliver the extra F stop of light that we need for our sun here in NZ. The large budget productions seem to have started with a hiss and a roar this year, and will hopefully carry on into the future. Hopefully some of this will rub off into the TV arena and also into local production to keep us all busy.
Ken Brooke from Protel.
Remember when you first purchased your first video editing system, how much it cost you for unreliable low capacity storage SCSI drives all raided together? It cost a small fortune. Consider what you can purchase now for the same money and the raw processing power and huge amount of storage available today. The same technology and processing power is also being applied to every component in the Post Production and Broadcasting array of products we offer. Many of the products Protel offer incorporate the use of computer processors as well as high speed storage offerings; check out our product range and you will see what I mean. Just to start the year off, here are some of the new products employing processors and storage. Sony FS7 4K camera which is upgraded using software upload; the camera also uses high speed media storage cards. Atomos Shogun the latest 4k recorder using high speed storage. Livestream the software application, in addition to offering unlimited GFX now also offers Chroma Keying. The list goes on. Have a great 2015 using your high tech products and don’t hesitate to call us to discuss your future technology options.” NZVN
Our only concern is how the Chinese co-production deals will pan out, if we suddenly become a venue for Chinese crew and equipment to follow with productions into New Zealand. All in all, 2015 is looking a whole lot more positive than last year.
Readers help please. NZVN would like to share techniques of making video clips for the internet with all our readers, so if you are near Auckland and do a lot of this, please contact Grant on 09-527 6154 ASAP. Ed
Go www.finnzed.co.nz and follow the link to NZVN for more news. P4 How Green is my Green Screen? P13 Tim’s got more than C-stands. P14 It’s nearly D-day for Radio mic Change. P19 Filmmaking at SAE Institute. Page 2
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How Green is my Green Screen? We are here in Auckland at Lumiere Media Studio with Karen and Peter Bardach. It’s a bit hard to find so we’re going to put a little map in to show you where they are because it’s well worth coming for a tour. The first thing you are faced with when you walk in the roller door is a medium sized white CYC. It’s a bit noisy here but as you walk down the corridor, you’re into a very silent area with a very large green screen CYC. Ed: Karen, I guess this is the key part of what Lumiere offers isn’t it, the green screen? Karen: It is. The vision of the studio was always about the green screen. We believed in the beginning we could only have one, because we looked at a lot of spaces. Ceiling height mattered, so it was hard to find the right space. This studio came up and provided the opportunity to also have a white screen. So we can offer space to the advertising industry and the marketing people … it could be for digital still primarily, because it’s not a sound stage on the white screen, but our focus was always about the green. We were just really lucky that this space came up all ready partly set up, including being sound insulated by the Shopping Channel. Ed: Okay, so basically, you’ve taken over a facility that was set up by the Shopping Channel, but you’ve added a lot to it and what you’ve added has come from your knowledge of similar set ups in Canada, I understand? Karen: That’s right. When we came in and looked at it, we loved what the Shopping Channel had done with it – the sound insulation, the carpeting – the core of a good studio was here, but it wasn’t a green studio, it was a television studio. So what we had to do was convert it to something that we believed people would enjoy shooting in, not just that it is soundproof, it needed to be comfortable, it needed to be decorated, it needed to have the facilities, it needed to have what I would want if I was shooting something. Ed: But it also has to have a very high quality green screen. What are the features that you put into it that make it high quality?
Karen at the Lumiere editing facility.
possible. That’s to do with the paint, and because it’s such difficult paint, you have to handle it really well. It makes it easier to pull a good key and when you get your key it looks way better, so people need to know the difference. Chroma key is designed to be used for newscasters for weather broadcast, so for example, when you go to the Auckland Zoo, they have that and you stand in front of it and they put you in front of the elephant on a digital still. It’s very fast, very easy. That’s chroma key; but the digital green is meant for professional production. So we went with the difficult one, which is the digital green. Ed: Okay, so you’re saying, the difference between a chroma key and digital green is that the chroma key paint has a more forgiving response of green, as opposed to a digital green, which is one frequency response. It’s a little bit harder to handle, but a lot sharper in terms of setting your computer compositing to eliminate that particular frequency and nothing else? Karen: I think the difference is that the digital green paint is designed to work with the popular software programmes that are available now for doing your compositing and so they work well together. This is designed to do in postproduction; it is designed to work with the high end software to get a very precise key.
Karen: Well I guess the size is one of the biggest factors, and the fact that it’s three-sided. You know, there are people who will do a single wall and that works, as long as you’re not turning the camera too much. We decided to go with three-sided and make it as big as the room would fit. So we made it eight metres wide which is great and we have a proportionally decent ceiling height. The big choice was whether to go chroma key green or digital green, and I read a lot about the two. The chroma key paint is fast and easy to use, the paint is cheaper, the key is easier to pull. Digital green paint is really difficult to work with. We had some problems when we were painting the screen and we had to bring in a couple of people to make sure the screen paint became as even as
Karen, Peter and Levi on green. Page 4
Ed: And just in terms of the screen again, there are boards that extend the stage out the front, so you could actually put quite a number of people on here, or quite a big scene and have them all standing around and still key the whole scene?
certainly what’s available here. Now, you’re not only using this as a hire studio, you’re potentially doing some of your own work here and for that, you’ve gone and got yourself a Sony FS7, a Blackmagic Production Studio, a 4K monitor and an editing suite, is that right?
Karen: My vision of it was that, if we had the boards in the front, and people stood on them, it’s easier to replace a board than the whole floor of the screen, because you can take those boards out and replace them. But it turned out that by extending the floor outwards towards the camera, you can have somebody walk towards the camera, or you can have somebody walk a very long way, whereas because the screen is only three metres deep, they can’t walk very far and they’re off-screen. But this way, they can walk towards the camera and in addition, by extending the floor outwards, and we can go nearly full width, you can put more people on it. Ed: I can assure you that the lighting here is very even. They’ve got a very high quality range of fluoros that are lighting up the CYC and a fluoro backlight. So everything’s covered, with extra lights of course to light up the runway if you’re wanting to move in and out. Now you have said that it is a work in progress isn’t it Karen – you are adding to this as you go and certainly taking feedback from your customers. What have you heard so far … I know you recently had a film school in here and they were very positive about what they could do?
Karen: That’s right. We bought one of the new Macs for editing. It looks like a garbage can, so it’s the Cylinder Mac and I believe we probably got one of the first ones that came into the country. My opinion of that is it’s good for learning but I think, if we want to do serious editing, we need to upgrade to something better. But that’s fine, we can go to Protel or somebody else and start looking at what the next editing suite might be, because Protel is great to work with and they seem to always have what we want. We have a good working relationship with them. We tend to buying cutting edge stuff, so we’re always on a learning curve.
Karen: Yes, the first two customers did TVCs – one did a television commercial on the white screen; the other did a television commercial on the green screen, and the feedback from them was minimal, but very positive. It was just basically “yeah, we like the studio, definitely we’ll be back.” When the film school came in, they had a fairly large crew, so they had a lot of students and they had some instructors. They had a lot of equipment – it surprised me that they had so much equipment. Even though they had so many people and so much equipment, it was a very workable space with that number of people in it, and the feedback from two of the instructors was “this is a really nice studio – you’re going to be really busy.” Opening at Christmas wasn’t the ideal time, but February’s coming and I’m assuming people are going to get back to work and once we’re on the map, we will tweak things. As clients come in, we’re finding out what they need. We’re watching them to see what is it that they would want that they’re not asking for, and that’s an intuitive thing, knowing whether it’s to do with the kitchen or the makeup room, we’re constantly going to be improving the studio. Ed: That’s the thing, that’s why it’s important to come and have a look at the studio, have a tour, talk to Karen and Peter and Levi about what you might want, and
Ed: And you have a good relationship with Tim Timlin at Panavision I understand? Karen: Oh Tim’s great. He’s one of the first people who really helped us out a lot, because we went to him with a lot of questions. He didn’t always have what we wanted to buy, but he would always redirect us to where we could buy whatever it was and we did buy a few things from him – small stuff mostly – a couple of C -stands. He refers to his Australian counterpart where he can get us stuff and thus far, he’s helped out in the sense of problem solving. So when we had a problem with connecting our lights to the ceiling and we didn’t know how, because it needed to be retrofitted with something, he designed that for us. So he would make a part that would make our lights work with the ceiling rack that we’d put up. Tim’s been like a mentor; he’s very calm, he’s always very helpful and friendly and he seems quite open to helping other people like ourselves, at our level, knowing that we’re new to the country. Ed: Well I’ve actually heard that about Tim, so I can thoroughly concur with that. Now Peter, your part in this I understand is as backer and muscle – oh, and husband? Peter: Yes that’s right, I take direction from Karen because she knows more about this stuff than I do, but I built the ceiling racks, I put the rails up, I had to learn how to use a hammer drill to use the DynaBolts to affix it to the concrete. It worked out pretty good. And I’m up and down on the scaffolding to put lights up and move things around, so to that end I’ve been able to help. Ed:
Somebody’s got to do it?
Peter: Yes, somebody’s got to do it. I don’t know all the technical stuff that Karen knows, but I’m learning and I was able to help out at the Weetbix Kids Triathlon, being a camera operator and helping to carry stuff around. Ed:
But you also enjoy the lifestyle?
Peter: Yes, it’s a lot more laidback here than it was in Canada, so it’s nice. Ed: Oh, what part of Canada – I thought Canada was pretty laidback, so what part were you in? Peter: Ed:
We were in Vancouver.
So you’re used to the rain?
Peter: I’m not used to the rain now. We went back for a holiday to see our daughter who still lives in Canada and I’d forgotten just how much rain Vancouver gets. Ed: I was there for 3 weeks and it rained most days! Page 6
Peter: Yeah, well you have to get there in the summertime. They have a great summer, but 8 months out of the year it does rain a lot. Ed: Now Levi, you’ve been sitting there very quietly and patiently … as business development manager, where do you see the business going? Levi: Hopefully, over the coming year, we can get a few more clients through the door, as people start to realise that we’re here, and what we do, and we get a lot of those repeat customers as well. We also want to support the up and coming generation, which is why we want to work with the film schools because they are the people of tomorrow for the industry. If we help them out now, when they’re in jobs in 12 or 24 months’ time, perhaps they’ll remember our studio and think well let’s go there, because it was a great space to use.
offer to help them get going with their projects and things like that. Ed: Right, and have you had a look at any other studios available to confirm “we’re doing it better”? Levi: I personally haven’t but Karen has told me a lot. I know a bit about the other studios – the main ones and what they offer. Ed: In terms of location, you’re just a short step down from TV3. Is that because the Shopping Channel had a need to be close to TV3 and you just took it over, or do you see this as a positive? Is this something that TV3 should be interested in?
Ed: So you have a special offer for film schools? Levi: Yes we do – they get up to 40% off our normal rates, which is pretty good. Ed: Wow, that’s very good. But you wouldn’t give them that for a month’s hire would you? Levi: No … Ed:
It’s a tester?
Levi: Well there is a limit of four days out of a year but then they still get very good rates even after that, we can negotiate with them. But it’s just an Page 8
Karen: MediaWorks have shot in here already, so they found us. I was aware of a lot of places, but the thing is that there are so many places to approach and it comes down to how do you go about approaching them. MediaWorks shot something in December and they were very happy with what they got, and so I’m sure they’ll be back, because we’re going to try to build the business on repeat business. It’s much easier to build it that way, but we are open to music videos – high end music videos that would have production insurance, because that’s the key to everything – you’ve got to be at a level where you’ve got the money to have the insurance, to have the proper crew, because it is a very high end studio. You’re not going to be disappointed in what you get when you come here. I believe the reason the studio is here is because this is where the best spaces are. I think it’s more to do with the space, because we looked for 9 months … we had to look for a really long time to find the right place and we were in the right place at the right time to pick up the Shopping Channel facility because they had already done a lot of work to the studio. They had probably half converted it to what we wanted it to be to begin with, otherwise we would have had to spend a lot of money on the floor and on the walls, and we didn’t have to do that. The location is great, because I believe this particular area we’re in has the best spaces for this type of work, and I think that’s why people are here. Ed: In terms of parking, how many vehicles can you accommodate? Karen: We can park up to 6. We can park 2 in front of the roller door; you can actually drive a vehicle in if you really need to, if you have a lot of equipment or heavy equipment you can back in the roller door, unload your stuff, you can park in front of the roller door so you can keep all your equipment close to where you are if you need to. We have 1 space across from that and 3 underground. Ed: And Ruru Street’s a bit quiet, so you might find some outside parking as well? Karen: I think that you can, but it’s a quite a busy area. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s partly residential, but there is some street parking. Ed: Now in terms of production insurance, this is something that I’m sure many smaller operators don’t have themselves. I know I’ve looked at it and it’s just an horrendous cost. But for large operators, that’s not a problem, they probably have their own insurance company, but you do have a solution Karen? Karen: We do. Larger production companies have the annual policy and it’s never been a problem with
somebody who’s quite big. With the smaller people, they have small budgets, insurance is actually percentage wise, huge, so if you’ve got a $10,000 budget, it might be 5% of your budget; but if you have a huge budget it might be a half a percent. The solution is we talked to Apex Insurance; they came in, they listened to what problems we have when we want to bring in a small production. Their solution was “we can offer you a 1 day.” Yes it’s very expensive, but as time goes by they can drop their rate, once they have experience with our clients. This would not be our policy, it would be the client’s policy; they would be responsible for it. We can arrange that for them, but it’s an independent thing from us and it would work for any small production. Ed: And that’s it, these lights are expensive, somebody jumps up or a boom operator bangs a bulb, bang there’s the hire cost of the studio for the day gone – and more? Karen: Yes, because we went high end with the lights, if just one single light got broken, it would exceed the cost of what they might pay for one day. Ed: And also damaging the floor – that’s got to be a major expense, not only in repainting it, but also the downtime? Karen: Exactly, because it could take a week or two to get the floor or the wall fixed. It depends, because you can’t walk on the curves; they look like you can walk on them, but you really can’t. You can easily crack the curve of the green screens because we chose to not go with fibreglass. Our experience with it is that it’s shiny and we just decided that we’ll deal with damage as it comes up. Thus far, even with 12-15 people in here the other day, there was not a problem at all. People know not to walk on the curve. Ed: Well you’ve obviously done your research and you reckon you’ve come up with the most cost-effective solution for people who might want to use a green screen in terms of what you offer versus the cost of a daily hire? Karen: Yes, we looked at all angles and there are actually 2 great efficiencies with this studio … because it’s fluorescent, you know Kino Flo’s are fluorescent, the energy use is like $7. Someone came in and used it, we looked at the meter and it was under $10 to light this. So we don’t charge for energy, because it’s so energy efficient that I just can’t be bothered to bill someone $5. Now, if they switch to tungsten, it could get more expensive, but it’s not as expensive because we are using mostly fluoros and the whole studio is lit with fluoros. The other efficiency is this – my experience with other studios in Canada is that you get
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the screen, you don’t get any lights, you have to light the screen yourself. So we came here and decided we’re going to offer a pre-lit screen, otherwise we have to deal with people coming in and putting their own lights up and that’s time consuming for us, it’s time consuming for them. So what happened with our first client was they came in, it was the white screen, it was pre-lit, they rented two Kino Flo’s for the side, we set them up for them before they got here … they were able to start shooting very quickly and they don’t have to do strip down. So you save, say, an hour at the beginning; you save an hour at the end, therefore you can go a half a day. Yes, we’re hurting ourselves by doing that, but we’re not totally profit oriented. It’s about introducing the new technology and giving people the ability to afford it, and making it so that we’re working on a volume, as opposed to trying to hit everybody with a full day; you can come in and get in a half a day what you want, or go to another studio and shoot for a full day.
hours when you were here for 3. The whole point is efficiency and to get people looking at what you can do with what we put in front of you. It’s about you improving your projects by having something that will work better for you in a shorter amount of time, and you’re paying less for your crew. Ed: But we’re not going to suggest that people book a week and then use half a day? Karen: No, it doesn’t work like that! To find out how it works for yourself, arrange your own viewing of perhaps the best green screen studio in Auckland by giving Lumiere a call on 09 377 6699. NZVN
Ed: That’s got to be a no brainer? Karen: Well you would think – I was shocked, because the first client booked the full day. They booked the day, but they came in and got their shots in 3 hours. A half a day is 5 hours. Ed: So you charged them for …? Karen: A half a day. Ed: Oh, aren’t they wonderful. Karen: Well they said “no, no, that’s okay” and I’m thinking I can’t charge you for 10
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Tim’s got more than C-stands We are at Panavision with Tim Timlin because Karen at Lumiere waxed lyrically about Tim and how helpful he was, so we’re here with Tim to pat him on the back for providing such great service to our industry. Tim: It was very kind of them to say that. They’re new to the New Zealand situation and needed help with suppliers. They were having difficulty finding things and installing the gear that they’d obtained and I was able to sort out connections and accessories and bits and pieces for them, for which, obviously, they’ve been quite grateful. It’s generally in our interest at Panavision to try and support all our customers as best we can, even if we’re not necessarily going to make a huge sale. It’s the whole view of keeping the industry going and customer service is what we aim at. So we have many customers come in looking for solutions, who we will attempt to help with advice and supply, service, repairs … whatever it might be, because we believe in building a long-term customer relationship rather than just an instant quick sale. Ed: You can also comment on the subject of green screens in general, because I understand that you were involved years ago in one very, very large green screen? Tim: Yes … the whole issue of chroma green screens is a very interesting one. I would hesitate to call myself an expert, but we did supply a very large screen for Spartacus which involved something like seven linear kilometres of material – and that was very successful. On a smaller scale, we also supply a paper background made by Colorama which is a chroma green colour. It’s
a different green for the fabric, but they all seem to work well. It’s not clear which one is better because they both seem to work for the situations required, but it looks like a lot more research could be explored regarding the best features of the colour green to be used. There must be a paint pigment or paint – we know there’s a manufacturer that makes it, but we haven’t had any requirements to supply it in New Zealand yet, but I suspect that probably, as long as it’s a similar green to the fabric or the paper, it’s going to work effectively as a green key. As you said to me before, from your experience, different colour backgrounds, as long as they are plain, are probably going to work adequately in many different situations where a quick and simple solution is required. Ed: Obviously, it does come down to the production that you’re doing and the production values but, I would imagine however, when you’re going 4K, you’ve got that little bit of extra detail that perhaps the digital green would help with? Tim: Well again, I guess you need input from some colour expert on this. It might be something to do with the frequencies, but I suspect with 64 bit colour and 10 bit monitors, they can do millions of colours and I’m sure a skilled post operator will be able to match greens where necessary. I have seen post houses with scenes with multiple different coloured green screens in them, and that didn’t seem to give them any problem at all. So I’m not sure how critical that actually is. But as you say, if post work is critical, then maybe it suits to get a more even green screen colour for shooting certain things.
more on page 16
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It’s nearly D-day for Radio mic Change Well, you can’t say you haven’t had enough warnings that the spectrum for radio microphone use is about to change. Some questions have emerged since our initial article in June 2014 so I followed up with Len Starling from Radio Spectrum Management. Q1. Radio microphones need to move from the 700 MHz band by 11 March 2015. How is the transition going? As individual radio microphones aren’t licensed, it’s a bit hard for us to tell how many users have yet to move, but our general sense is that the transition is going well. While no-one welcomes having to move before they are ready, most people understand the need for the change and are getting on with it. We’ve been pleased to see that suppliers are getting on board, offering trade-ins and other specials to assist users in making the move.
Some targeted monitoring of spectrum is also done to proactively manage risks. Q4. Would it not be allowable to use individual radio microphones indoors at close range? Would there really be any interference to official users of the spectrum other than to nearby receivers of video signals on smartphones? Unfortunately, even at close range or indoors, radio microphone use may cause interference to, and will receive interference from, new 700 MHz 4G services. Cell phone networks have very sensitive receivers that operate close to the noise floor and are therefore very susceptible to interference from any other transmissions at the same frequency. 700 MHz cellular services will soon become ubiquitous and cannot co-exist with radio microphones.
Q2. Will anyone using a radio microphone in the 700 MHz band interfere with the new users of the band ( 4G cell phones?) And, if so, how would this be manifested?
Q5. Do you expect any more digital television channels to be used and, if so, when? Radio microphone users need to be aware that new television broadcasts could be established in the “available” frequencies at any time.
Yes. If radio microphones continued to operate in the band, there would be increasing problems as the new 700 MHz 4G networks are built and the numbers of 4G cell phones increase.
We recommend that purchasers of new radio microphones choose models that have a wide tuning range within the available frequencies, so they can be retuned if a new television service is established in their area. A chart showing digital channel usage can be found here:
The way the problem manifests would depend on the frequency the radio microphone is using. If in the upper part of the band, radio microphones will likely cause localised interference to cell phones and the microphones themselves are also likely to fail due to relatively high power interfering signals coming from the cell towers. In the lower part of the band, the radio microphones will experience intermittent interference from cell phones and may also block signals from cell phones to the towers, decreasing the effective coverage of the cellular network.
http://www.rsm.govt.nz/cms/pdf-library/resource -library/publications/table-of-digital-televisionchannel-useage-pdf Q6. How long will the frequency ranges marked “available” ( 502-606 and 622-698 MHz ) remain freely available to radio microphone users? The Government has no current plans to change the frequency ranges available, or the “free to the user” policy, for radio microphones. Q7. How does New Zealand compare internationally for radio spectrum available for radio microphones?
Q3. In your June 14 article, you say that compliance action may be taken against the user if they continue in the forbidden zone after 11 March. How will you detect misuse? Are you building detector vans like they had for people without television licences?
New Zealand is a “technology taker” and depends on equipment being available in international markets. New Zealand seeks to align itself with international spectrum bands as much as possible.
Radio Spectrum Management already has a team of Radio Inspectors stationed throughout New Zealand. These Radio Inspectors deal with a variety of interference issues using specialist equipment and vehicles that can quickly find interference sources and illegal transmitters. Radio Inspectors can remove interfering equipment, issue infringement notices (with fines) and, in serious cases, initiate prosecution. If radio microphones are causing interference to the licensed users of the band, those users will notify us and a Radio Inspector will investigate.
The current UHF Digital Television Band ( 502– 606 MHz and 622–698 MHz for New Zealand ) is widely used for radio microphones internationally and there is a large variety of equipment available. This band provides ample free spectrum for the time being. The Ministry is
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closely following international developments and, if new spectrum bands are opened up for radio microphones, we will assess if these can be used in New Zealand. Q8. What’s in the frequency bands below 502 and above 806? Could these be used for RF microphones? No. Unfortunately the bands below 502 MHz and above 806 MHz cannot be used by radio microphones in New Zealand. Immediately below 502 MHz is an emergency services band used for mobile radio. The services immediately above 806 MHz are microwave backhaul for power companies, railways and air traffic control. Both frequency ranges are used for critical radio systems and both types of services would be very susceptible to interference from radio microphones.
So, there you go. If you have any questions of your own, my best advice is to firstly contact your chosen audio supplier before trying the Ministry people in RSM. Having said that, Len has been particularly forthcoming with information ( and we thank him and his team for that ) so I have included his contact details above. We look forward to any new information from RSM on NZVN this topic and we will bring it to you ASAP.
Len Starling | Manager | Policy & Planning | Radio Spectrum Management Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment 15 Stout St | PO Box 2847 | Wellington 6140, NZ DDI +64 4 462 4221 | Fax +64 4 499 0969 Email: len.starling@mbie.govt.nz Web: www.rsm.govt.nz Page 15
Ed: Right, so for your green screen you can certainly come to Tim, but also what I always find when I come here is the range of little bits and pieces that you have; the connectors and support materials that you have for the industry? Tim: Yes, we try very hard to keep spigots, adapters, clamps, all those lock-offs, all those sorts of things in stock as much as possible. I’m always on the lookout for similar sorts of things that are likely to be of use to camera operators and people in the industry. Chrosziel make stuff as well as Manfrotto, and anyone else of course that we deal with, anything that they have we’ll generally try and get it in and have it in stock, Garry and Tim in the maintenance bay at Panavision. because it’s usually a thing that someone will browse, look at the rack with a particular problem in mind, and Zealand, but it’s not only selling the tripods, you also they might then sight the solution – and that’s part of provide an official service repair facility? our belief in being there to support the customers. Tim: Yes – besides being Sachtler agents, we are the Ed: Now also in that support basis, Sachtler … you are certainly the place to come to for Sachtler in New
authorised repair site in New Zealand and we are able to repair any Sachtler head and tripod.
Page 16
We look after MediaWorks tripods, TVNZ, and any other owner/operator who has Sachtler systems. Usually we sell the kit and then don’t see the customer for another 15 years, which is not great for sales, but it’s a testament to the quality that Sachtler provide in the gear. Of course, any working professional knows that something might be expensive up front, but in the longterm, if you get the right gear, it’s going to give you good service. Not much goes wrong with the Sachtler heads, but we are generally able to turn around in pretty short time, especially for someone who is based in Auckland, usually within half a day we will get them out again – providing of course we have stock and spares. We do keep a large amount of Sachtler spares in hand, and Garry Oliver, our technician, is extremely familiar with and qualified to work on Sachtler and certainly knows what’s going on. Ed: So it’s really not a case of repairing things that have failed; most of the time it’s fixing breakages? Tim: Yes. Breakages and I suppose eventually certain things wear out. There are spring balances in the heads
which might wear out 10 years later, after a lot of use. Otherwise things get dropped. We’ve had things like carbon fibre legs being left in an extremely salty water solution, which has swollen the carbon fibre rods and we managed to get that right. So there’s some odd things that happen, but again the issues that for example if the heads or whatever get into saltwater and they’re left, the tripod will be ruined, it won’t be recovered. So we’ve had everything from disaster to things that Garry has managed to pull back from the grave. We also do the servicing for O’Connor and supply spare parts and new product as people require. But similarly with O’Connor, they have a long life and usually not much goes wrong with them, they’re pretty solid, so it would only be breakages and that sort of thing. But we do offer a very competitive pricing on O’Connor to anyone else. It is the most popular head amongst the filmmakers at the moment on the big sets, big productions. Ed: So, if any of those take your interest, come and NZVN talk to Tim.
George Saad (left), SanDisk Sales Director ANZ & Indonesia, presents a car to John McCallum (middle), who purchased two SanDisk Ultra SD cards from Camera & Camera in Auckland.
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Filmmaking at SAE Institute We are here at the SAE Institute with Dr John Reynolds, academic co-ordinator, and Sam Kiwan, Head of Department – Film. This story has a connection to the interview at Lumiere with Karen and Peter Badach because, at the time I went in to see them, they had just had the SAE film school group in there doing a project with the green screen. Ed: Sam, how did the students appreciate the facilities at Lumiere? Sam: Well, we’ve been shooting on a green screen for a while now … Ed: This is your own green screen I guess, that you’ve set up here? What’s the difference to what Lumiere offer? Sam: The difference is the size and the space. We couldn’t achieve everything that the students’ script wanted without the bigger space. So by going to Lumiere, we realised that we could add more actors, more depth and rather than keep it to mid or close-ups, we could use wide shots at the same time. It has improved our production value greatly and has given the students more opportunity in postproduction to work with different variations, something that we are not used to in our own environment. So their facility is a great improvement to the local filmmaking community and we surely look forward to going down the road a lot more often. Ed: Can you “mix and match” your students’ material that they shoot here on the smaller green screen with the larger shots? Sam: Yes absolutely. We try to save bigger shots for Lumiere only doing the close-ups and cut-aways on campus. We do call upon them when we need those larger shots and their extra services. They lend out some of the gear, the cranes, grips mainly, lighting perhaps. I wouldn’t say that we can rely on it entirely because the film is a large element and it’s been divided into different shots, so whenever we need to shoot a sci -fi with alien invasions and so forth, then we need a larger screen for that. Ed: Now Karen made a big thing of the Lumiere studios having a true digital green as opposed to just a chroma key green. What do you have here?
John and Sam.
difficult for people wearing different shades of green to be superimposed on the background. But luckily our team at the postproduction facility, they basically said “don’t worry about a thing, we’ll fix it in post.” So yes, it does make a big difference for a beginner, but with the advancement of technology and the staff, not really. Ed: I also imagine it would make a difference depending on the technology you were using – whether you were using true film stock or the format that you might be recording in? Sam: Absolutely. We only use digital nowadays and it has come a long way since, say, 2002, 2003 where you really had to be very careful when working with the green screen. It had to be digital green if it’s for feature films it couldn’t be anything else. But like I said earlier, nowadays it really doesn’t make a difference. We’ve come a long way so these things are now trivial and we tend to overlook them. Luckily I’m surrounded by experts in post, so they make it easier for cinematographers to capture with freedom. Ed: Do you think, now that your students have tasted a big green screen, they’re going to write all of their stories based around “we have a cast of 50” or do they pay for it if they want it?
Sam: Chroma green – it’s a cloth basically. Whenever you’re working with material like fabric, you do have to keep it maintained, clean, no wrinkles or imperfections on the actual screen. Whereas if you paint the wall, maintenance is a lot easier and reflections are not as prominent. Ed: Any comments on the difference between chroma key green and digital green? Sam: Well on paper there’s a lot of difference. However, with the evolution of the software capabilities that we have and the hardware that we use it on, it has proven to be much easier to superimpose the digital images on any type of green. In the past, it was a lot more unforgiving; you had to really get it right and with this large range of frequencies and of pigments it made it Page 19
Sam: Yes – now that they’ve had a taste of it, they only ever want to go to that facility down at Lumiere studios. It’s a double edged sword. Ed: Now John, is SAE Institute purely a film and television school? John: No, SAE was originally the School of Audio Engineering, so our big thrust here was originally audio engineering. Ed: So you’ve let a few film and video people in just to be nice to them? John: Well part of my role when I first got here was to set up a film diploma and that’s why we brought Sam on board. The film diploma is a one year course, 48 weeks, and it’s been running since 2006. We’ve put quite a few students through that programme and many are doing well in the industry or working independently and we’re on the point now of offering a three year degree – Bachelor of Film Arts. We’ve had preliminary approval and we’re confident that we’ll get approval for this degree at some stage during this year, which will be a wonderful opportunity for the students to do a full three year study in film. But it needs to be emphasised that it’s not about understanding film, it’s not about analysing film, we’re not trying to turn out film … Ed: This is not media studies? John: This is not media studies. Ed: Oh, I’m so pleased. John: I’ve done media studies and I share your concern … there’s a place for media studies, but these
kids will go out of here, with the ability to analyse a film. They’ll know about the history of film and all those things, but they’ll be able to light a set, they’ll be able to write a screenplay, they’ll be able to direct, they’ll be able to post-produce in a whole range of areas, they’ll understand the role of music in film and everything else … and apply all that knowledge to filmmaking, so that they will be filmmakers, they won’t be film critics. There are not a lot of jobs for film critics. Now when we say “film”, that’s an interesting point as well, because “film” is a general term. We’re not shooting in celluloid at 24 frames a second; we’re shooting digitally. We call it digital film, and we’ve talked about this quite a lot, but when we’re advertising, people still understand what we mean by a filmmaker. A filmmaker is a person who goes out and makes a film. The format is really irrelevant. Ed: There’s quite a bit of use of the term “cinematic” in the industry when you’re talking about the differences between a video camera, a film camera or a cinema camera? John: Well they would know the difference, but we would teach primarily with digital cinema style cameras. Ed: So you say you want to teach them all about film. Are you wanting to make feature film makers, or are you wanting to make commercial videographers, or somewhere in between? John: Within a one year course, obviously you can’t turn out Peter Jacksons or some of the top cinematographers in the country … more on page 23
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Ed: Do you tell them that when they sign up? John: Pretty much. We say to them “we’re going to give you an overview, you’re going to learn all the basic skills and all the stages – pre-production, production and postproduction” because most of them arrive and you say what do you want to do? “I want to be a director”. They have no idea of what being a director involves, but some of them get turned on by scriptwriting, some of them start getting quite excited about sound and post-production sound, some of them about lighting, camera, others might move into the business side and become producers rather than directors. What we try and One of the audio classes in action. do is give them that other. Filmmaking is not a solo activity, and so overview, so that at the end of it, they’ve got a pretty good idea of what the key roles in the film industry are someone would help someone with a camera, someone and then they can direct their expertise accordingly. So else will do the lighting for them, someone else will help in their final film that they make – what we call their with directing or whatever … they’ve got to get actors “definitive film” – they can highlight the expertise that from various places, they’ve got to audition them and they’ve developed. If they want to go and do a green have run through them and dry runs and all that sort of screen and have vast numbers of aliens invading, that’s thing. It’s very much a team effort among the students fine; if they want to make a love story, that’s fine; if themselves and many of them go off and work with they want to write the music for it, they can show off each other in independent ways and so on as well. their newly acquired skills and so on. So it gives them Ed: What sort of range of technologies are they an opportunity to explore what they think they’re good exposed to and allowed to work with. Let’s start with at and hopefully discover other areas they didn’t even the cameras, what sort of camera choices do they know they were good at. have? Ed: Do you give them any limitations of genre when Sam: At the moment we’re using the Panasonic they’re allowed to make their final film – they can AG-AF100s with interchangeable lens capability. Our pretty much do what they like, “x” rated and all? lenses range from the conventional zoom lenses – John: Well no, we wouldn’t go quite that far, this something like 14 to 100 – to prime lenses with large is a family show after all, although some of them get a apertures bit raunchy at times. I do point out that there are other Ed: So these are single chip, cinema style cameras? words than the “f” word for expressing anger in the English language. But no, the final film, or any of the Sam: Yes, probably intermediate cinema films are done with our approval, but not as a censored cameras. Have you seen it … it looks like Da Vinci’s approval. We’ll sit down and go through their kettle perhaps, it’s not the prettiest thing … screenplay with them and say “well, fine, okay you’ve Ed: Right, so the main part of the course, as it’s a got this love scene on the top of Mt Ruapehu, this film course, you’re teaching them on a cinema style probably isn’t practical …” camera and this is a single chip, short depth of field, Ed:
... and you don’t need six women?
with interchangeable lenses, correct?
John: Yes that’s right, so unless your dad owns a helicopter company, this could be a problem. So we would monitor them, but it’s more a case of mentoring and guiding them, because the last thing we want to do is say you will make a film about this, here is the script, now you go and shoot it. We say, “okay, now write a script” – and that’s quite hard for some of them, they’ve never written a film script, a screenplay before, but they do come up with some really interesting angles on things. Ed:
So actually they learn about content?
John: Yes, and they also learn how to work together … Sam:
As well as form …
John: Form and content – and they learn how to work together, because they all have to help each
Sam: Correct, absolutely. Examples of assignments that they use this camera with would be a music video, television commercial, short dramas, documentaries, various other short films here and there, and the final definitive film which is a 12 minute short film fit for film festivals and competitions. Ed:
And there’s no handheld involved?
Sam: Oh, there’s a lot of handheld. We’ve got a few Steadicams that some students enjoy using, but they take a while to get used to. It’s not the same as hand holding, it’s a whole new technique. Ed: So when you teach them about hand holding a cinema camera, what do you explain to them? John: Well there’s hand holding for people who can’t be bothered rigging up a tripod and that will give you camera shake; and then there’s hand holding for
Page 23
the people who want to simulate the documentary look, and that’s a dramatic technique, but you can’t overdo it. Some of them aren’t even aware of it until you show them a film and say “do you notice anything about this camera?” One or two of them might say “oh, isn’t it moving a wee bit?” Yes, it’s hand holding, to give that simulated documentary or simulate the fact that we’re part of it, rather than rock steady. Ed: But you’re not doing The Amazing Race with a cinema camera are you? Sam: No, certainly not. Ed: So what would you use then? Sam: A Steadicam? Ed: No, no – so in your school also you teach television? Sam: For the television module, we go into the studio and there are two shows that we have to produce. The cameras are on tripods, it’s a multicamera environment, there’s a vision switcher, so hardly any handheld shots unless the script intends otherwise. For the majority of TV based modules, it’s basically the tripod, because it’s not about the camera per se, it’s about how we can collectively produce a show. We’ve got a music video-jockey style show, three cameras, a presenter and a few guests. Some students choose to shoot some background footage with a green screen or any pre-recorded material that happens outside of the studio; that would require some handheld shots. The students have already been instructed a few months earlier on techniques on holding the camera, purpose, where and when and how to basically try and choose a handheld shot versus a tripod. We even have a few monopods for any quick News style shots. We’ve got an assignment that is a News item and we try to make it as real as possible, although some of them are mock stories and something like a volcano erupted in Auckland, so we have to put the camera on our shoulders or handhold it to give us that natural shake of a reporter. So it’s really about the purpose. I couldn’t really define it into one particular thing. Some
students may go through the course and choose not to do handheld shots – I’ve seen that happen before. Ed: What about delivery. Do you teach them the different delivery methods of their final production and how they have to shape their production to suit the delivery method that they choose? Sam: That’s more for the degree. The diploma is a one year course and it’s more about the practical application of filmmaking. In the degree we’ve got a few modules that would tackle this. John: We do it in much more depth, because you’ve got two more years, so we would look at various delivery methods. They look at a whole range of areas. In the diploma, they can come upon the problem of the right method of delivery. Some students may choose to put up their music video online and they immediately face this problem – “why doesn’t it look good?” Then the postproduction lecturer would explain to them that this is not the right way because this has a few things that the web may not accept in terms of speed and bandwidth, so then they are told about it. However, later in the degree they would need to get a taste of it all and find out the different ways, different platforms, different methodology of how to do it, and even how to plan it in the first place, rather than shoot it and then hope to upload it in the best way, which tends to happen a lot in the diploma. Ed: You mean fix it in post? Sam: Yes. I’m trying to avoid that term because I don’t want to repeat myself. Ed: This is one of the bad phrases in the school is it? Sam: Yes. John: We won’t fix it in post; we’ll get it right the first time. Post is not about fixing stuff; post is the next level up in which you put it all together. Sam: But yes, we do encounter this problem a lot of the time and like I said, it’s the lecturer who sits down and says “well, this hasn’t been shot in the right way to begin with, therefore you can’t really optimise it in post. So here are the few steps you could take before you do it next time.” Ed: Do you teach them how to use DSLRs properly? Sam: DSLR.
In the television studio setting. Page 24
No,
we’re
anti
There’s a huge argument and almost a showdown between staff about this, but management and us, the film department, have agreed that no, they’re not the future, and time has proven us right. Five years ago we were so reluctant – should we, should we not, should we get them; but with research and experimentation and coming from cinema myself, I found the moiré effect just completely unacceptable, aliasing, and you could even hear the lens focusing – it’s just a big nono. However, I saw a lot of 18 year old filmmakers running around town with their DSLRs, thinking that they could produce a masterpiece – and I’m purely talking about form,
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John: Basically yes. We get students who have done very well at secondary school, and we also get students who didn’t do well at secondary school, but they are motivated by film or music or audio and for some of them, they suddenly realise they actually can achieve. Others who have done well, they’ll achieve anyway, so we get a very interesting mixture. Ed: Do their media study grades in NCEA have anything to do with their success at getting into this course?
The students at Lumiere on the green.
is no, we don’t teach them about DSLRs because it’s not the future and it wasn’t considered in the past for us. Ed: Well that’s good to hear. Now John, you said at the start, that SAE stands for School of Audio Engineering, so audio is a big part of what you do here? John: Yes, there’s a degree in audio engineering and there’s also a diploma in audio engineering as well. We stress of course that audio is a big part of our film course. There are other film courses that emphasise the video, the visual side, and they largely ignore the soundtrack. In my view, the soundtrack is crucial in shaping the video, shaping the pictures on the screen and that sort of thing. We spend quite a lot of time on audio within our film course and our audio students also learn about filmmaking.
John: I haven’t seen a direct correlation – I mean it helps because they’ve got a better idea of what it’s all about, but a student can walk in here with no media studies background, and if they’re motivated, if they’re enthusiastic, then they’ll succeed. Ed: That’s pretty much the same in any industry though isn’t it? John: Absolutely. I did badly at secondary school; I was a second year fifth who missed UE twice. That’s what I tell my students … but I’ve now got a PhD because I was motivated, so there you go. Ed: There’s hope? John: There’s always hope, and you put them in an environment where they want to succeed and they’ll succeed. And that’s what we’ve got here I believe. NZVN
Ed: I know my old friend Gerard Smith used to always say that if you close your eyes in front of TV and listen to it, you still get a sense of what’s going on, but if you just look at the pictures, you miss the thread of the story. John: That could be right – certainly when it’s a drama, because you’re picking up all the screenplay, even if you’ve got your eyes closed, you’re still hearing the interactions from the characters. And screenplay writing is one of the theories that I teach and it’s quite hard to do, to do a good screenplay. This is not a play for stage, it’s a play for screen, so it’s a different approach, but it’s a fascinating area to teach and a lot of students get quite turned on by it once they get the hang of it. Ed: So it’s still a very popular course, the audio side? John: Yes, we never have any trouble getting students and particularly our degree – we’ve really had to filter students out. They’ve all had to apply and then we’ve gone through the whole process of just who do we put in and who do we leave out, which is quite hard because there’s some very good people offering, but thanks to government policy ( we get to do a bit of politics here ) we have a cap on the number of students we can take, which I think is very short-sighted but so be it. But there’s a lot of interest in this whole area of creative arts … I mean the film industry’s worth what – 3 billion dollars to the country, and the music industry and all the other related areas are all doing very well in New Zealand, and you need good, high quality training and education. And that’s what we offer. Ed: And you’re happy with the quality of students that you’re getting out of secondary schools in NZ? Page 26