JULY 2015
Vol 215
Cinematographer Action It was a cinematographers evening in aid of Nepal where David Paul told us about his impressive work life including being DOP on ‘Hillary’, an upcoming TV drama about Sir Ed’s life. There were some points David made that I thought “well, we can all learn something here.” Ed: David, I want to start with a scene that you showed from the movie Until Proven Innocent about David Dougherty that was in the prison when he was being first interviewed by his lawyer. I looked at that and I thought “is that all natural light or did he light it?” David: The prison scene where David was interviewed by Donna Chisholm was lit, but we worked quite hard to make it look natural light. It wasn’t a studio – there were no studios in Wellington we could use, so it was actually a warehouse, David – fully loaded – on location. which conveniently had huge diffused windows, and it was about putting lights out on David: No backlights, I went for that “single source” the footpath. We just massaged it and massaged it to go lighting and any other light was bounced – just a very for that real natural light look. I was really pleased with subtle bouncing of the light. the look in there and that’s my favourite scene. It’s still It was a big first step for me. For close ups we did bring one of my favourite films that I’ve shot as it was a very in subtle eye lights. Up to that point, I had used lots of consistent film for me photographically. smaller lights in a traditional way and that was because Ed: So all the light was from outside through those of the budget jobs that I was on. This was my first TV windows – there were no backlights? feature where, suddenly, I had a truck with bigger lights
and it made me nervous actually. I thought “what do I do with big lights?” People think it’s easy, but when you’ve spent your life using smaller lights trying to create a big look and you suddenly get the big lights, there’s a skill in how you manage them. I relied on my gaffer hugely on that – Adrian Hebron – he did a remarkable job on that film. Ed: Do you think a lot of cameramen are scared of shadow? David: I’m not sure if cameramen are … some possibly are, they like to fill in. I think that can be a variety of things, it can be the producer, it can be the director who is scared of shadow; some DOPs may be scared of shadow. But there’s a lot of story in the shadows and, quite often, it’s about what’s not Gaol scene lit through windows (fg – frame grab). seen, which is a challenge when you’re about latitude and dynamic range. You know good ole composing your image or lighting something. But deep super 8 film from 40 years ago looks great ... not shadows may not suit the story so it’s not a fear of technically, but aesthetically it’s emotive and I think the shadows for many. It’s what does the story require. If film versus digital debate is old now. They are 2 a DOP lights quite flat that may be their creative different mediums, both are brilliant. decision ... it’s not wrong at all. Ed: Do you think it’s easier now because the cameras have got a great dynamic range – you can actually bring things out of the shadow which you couldn’t do before? David: Not necessarily. 35mm film sees the same if not actually more than digital cameras are seeing now. I’ve been caught out with 35mm film in highlights where I’ve thought “oh, the window’s blown out, I won’t see anything outside” and I’ve had a crane holding up an 18K lamp and they’ve gone “the light’s in shot.” I said “don’t worry, it’s blown out, you’ll never see it”, and we get into post and the footage is processed and we can see a crane out the window. I have no idea how it was possible – it was like 7 stops overexposed out there, but we can see a bit of this crane arm. So I think it’s not necessarily easier, particularly because we have to watch our highlights now. We’re trying to overexpose a little bit, but we have to watch our highlights, so as we try to do that, it’s easy to plunge into shadow. So you actually have to really put a little bit of light into the shadows which I’ve become more of a fan of, which is the old film style – even if you wanted a good black, you put light into the black and you got a much richer black. But it’s more the recent cameras I think now, like the Sony F55 and ARRI ALEXA which are really seeing deeper into the shadow, so I think it’s enabling us to light a little bit more like we used to with film. I think the cameras are there now, where we can provide single source lighting and let the ambience just bounce around. But I have to say it’s not all
It’s good to be technically accurate but that’s not my main mission when shooting ... it’s do I like the look I’ve created, but always in my mind is where is the film going. If for TV broadcast then naturally I manage my look to suit the compressed broadcast images we get, otherwise what I do on set will never make it to the TV screens. Perhaps you want deep black shadows with no detail and blown out highlights. If that’s what you want to do and you like it, then great. We can get too hung up on what’s technically correct, which does not mean you ignore it but you manage it. Ed: In your presentation, you said that you worked firstly in 16mm film and then your first big production was with RED ONEs. How did you cope with that change? David: I was fascinated by the RED ONE, it was an impressive camera. The change was not too bad for me
Gaol scene from ‘Until Proven Innocent’ (fg)
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because it wasn’t thrust upon me. Being in Wellington, we hung out a lot and drank coffee at the Rubber Monkey rental warehouse. It was a bunch of guys who spent a lot of money on buying cameras. We were just hanging out together and shooting short films with their gear and learning it, so when the RED ONE arrived, I had lots of time to play with it before Until Proven Innocent. Fortunately, our production office for Until Proven Innocent was straight across the road from Rubber Monkey so I had loads of time to do tests, which is not always possible. Often with productions, you hire your camera kit, you get it one week before, but I had a lot of prep time and every time I had a thought, I could go straight across the road, the camera was in the studio, I could light a scene with their lights, drag somebody to sit in and try what I was thinking and testing contrast, everything. So I went into the film reasonably well versed on the camera. We still learnt a lot while shooting with it, but it wasn’t too nerve wracking in that sense. I was lucky, but I think if I had been just given the camera one week before, it could easily have been a disaster. Ed: Would you use a RED ONE today? David: I wouldn’t necessarily use a RED ONE today … I would use RED cameras. I guess if somebody had a film and they had no money and they owned a RED ONE, I’d use it. It’s still an impressive camera and Until Proven Innocent was shot on it, I still look at that film, the grade on it is beautiful – it’s still one of the best looking films I’ve shot to date. Ed: So again, the grade is great, it comes back to having that dynamic range that you can play with?
David: For the RED ONE, because it didn’t have the same as we have now, it’s about managing it. If you give me a Digibeta camera and I have 7 stops of latitude, then I will light and manage that. So in that sense, it’s about just knowing the equipment and you work to its limitations and its boundaries. It’s not all about the camera … you need to know your equipment, then you work with it. Ed: You talked about “look” – finding your look in those early days and that you found a particular look by playing around with the camera’s menu. You did something off normal? David: That was on The Insider’s Guide to Happiness. That was the first, slightly off-the-wall, wacky TV drama. We found the “look” as a team of directors and DOPs. Ed: So just to clear this up, it wasn’t a look that you were wanting for your productions … it was a look that you collectively decided upon for this particular series and nothing else? David: That’s right. It was a look for Insider’s Guide and we actually didn’t know what it was. We knew we wanted a “look” but it was about finding it. My explanation is that it’s like blokes; we walk into hardware stores and wander around looking for things to make something. People ask us “can we help?” and you go “no, you can’t”, because we don’t know what we’re looking for, but we will find it if we just keep wandering around. And that’s what it was. Brendan Donovan, one of the directors, brought that inspiration for a look, so it was about us just bashing about trying things. At the time, I owned a Sony DSR450 and I took
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it out with me on a recce one day and just started shooting with it. We’d tried so many things within the menus of the cameras, where we’d get close but weren’t really getting there, and Brendan was really pushing hard for a look with great ideas… I just went okay, lets go really wacky and change settings that we should never touch – the engineers had said “you don’t touch that page, you don’t go there.” So I thought well, I will because we’re running out of options – and we stumbled across the “look”. Adam Sondjei the colourist at Gibson Group helped us to pull our cameras back to make them legal for broadcast plus added his skill / grading to complete the look. A total collaborative discovery. Ed: Since then you’ve moved on and are using the Sony F55 as your main camera these days. Have you developed your own look for that, your own setup that you put into that camera before you go out on a shoot? David: With all my cinematography, now I actually don’t create any looks in the camera. I treat them like a film neg. So everything gets turned off and the only thing I’m using in the F55 is the S-Log and the S-Gamut – everything else is turned off. I don’t apply LUTs or anything in-camera, because I’m treating it like a negative. My look is in composition and lighting – it’s hugely influenced by costume design and art direction, the production designer. Then, if I want any colour manipulation or influence, I love filters. I like doing things in-camera, so I go back to glass filters. In fact, for Hillary, it was quite funny. I went to Panavision because there were some filters I wanted to test. They were hugely helpful, but they sort of chuckled and said they had to go and find the filters I wanted out the back, because they said these haven’t been used for years. I wanted yellows and old black and white filters and things and I had a big pile of 30-odd filters. I went down there and just tested them all on colour charts. They said “but no one uses them anymore, they do it in post.” I’m a fan of doing it in-camera – that’s the only way I will manipulate a look ( in camera.) I don’t use LUTs, it’s in what we do on set on the day, and it’s typically how you shot film once upon a time. Ed: Still with cameras, as well as the F55, you have a Sony Alpha 7S. We’ve talked about the Alpha 7S in these pages in the past, and it certainly has had a lot of interest from people as a second camera. Did this come from an earlier experience when you were involved in the movie The Banker the Escort and the 18 Million? David: That was a documentary about Stephen Versalko who worked for ASB and basically set up a Ponzi scheme within the ASB, using ASB clients and money. That documentary which I ended up winning Best Cinematography for – it wasn’t a huge budget and I ended up using Sony EX1, EX3 – one of them with a Letus adapter and Nikon lenses – a Canon 5D and a Canon 7D, depending on what we were doing and how we needed to operate. That put me onto probably the first documentary I shot with DSLRs, and that was a few years ago. The A7 series wasn’t out then I don’t think. It was interesting because I did win Best Cinematography for it and I sort of looked at it and the way we shot it was quite loose and random, but clearly there was something in it that people saw. But the interesting thing was that the shooting styles were all mixed up with the different cameras and I realised it’s
Somewhere in there is a Sony Alpha 7S.
not necessarily just about the camera; it’s about how something is shot. Moving forward, I steered clear of the DSLR movement of the 5Ds and the 7Ds. A lot of people were asking me to shoot on them and I wasn’t so keen. Ed: Do you think they really knew what they were asking? David: No I don’t think they knew. I think it was mostly based on money, budget, and they’d heard about these cameras and they’d looked at YouTube. Everything looks great on YouTube; a GoPro looks amazing on YouTube … don’t ask me to put it in your cinema film or your television feature. I won’t do it, I will not use it, and they look at me like I’m mad. They’ve seen it on a little wee Vimeo or YouTube. So, yeah, I don’t think they knew what they were asking, but it wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing. I’d done the occasional 5D shoot and then I moved ahead. I’m not even sure how I clapped onto the Sony A7. It was less than a year ago; I’m not sure what it was that caught my attention, but I went and bought one. My 7D was getting a bit old and tired, it was time to move on and I was sick of carrying around the weight of the camera. I’d never really considered Sony as a stills camera manufacturer, but I was hunting around and I read that this thing could shoot HD video and I thought, that’s quite handy if I’ve got it in my bag and I want to shoot something, it’s possibly usable in broadcast. But I really got it to be a lighter weight stills camera. I’m not a megapixel fiend, I don’t need 24 megapixels. This is only 12 megapixels. So I bought it and played with it and suddenly realised what a gem I’d stumbled upon. It blew me away. Ed: And you used it quite a bit in the latest Hillary drama? David: Yes. What I discovered is the low light capabilities of this camera and the impressive images. I jumped inside the menu and sitting there is S-Log and S-Gamut which, lo and behold, is also in my F55. Two Sony cameras with the same matrix and gamma settings, they match incredibly well. I suddenly saw this as a great wee second camera and, very early on in Hillary, I wanted the camera to be on the journey with Hillary. I didn’t want us to stand back on the outside of his life and watch it. I wanted to participate with him and that meant that, if he was inside a tent, I wanted to
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was the size of a cigarette packet, and I was essentially matching my F55 settings. Ed: So this is an example of using the camera, not to get the best picture, but to get the content that you wanted?
Alpha 7S with a close-up lens.
be inside the two-man tent – which really we would call a one-man tent nowadays – with two climbers twice their body size ( as they were essentially wearing 3 layers of really thick snow clothing ... imagine wearing 3 x puffer jackets in an Auckland summer ), plus the boom operator, and myself and a Tilley lamp. And I wanted to be there, because if I climbed Everest with them, I couldn’t have a camera trap,( a special opening often built into sides of sets to allow a camera access or somewhere to place the camera slightly outside of the set ) so suddenly this camera came to life. I could squeeze in the corner with a little wee tiny camera and shoot. I recorded off-board to a ProRes recorder that
David: Yes, it was about getting the content with an aesthetic that I believe suited. I was expecting to be even rougher with it in the sense that I thought I’d be squashed and might have to lie down and shoot these guys. I was happy for the camera to be on odd angles, but because it was so compact, I was actually able to squeeze in the corner of the tent and just shoot traditionally. It was so short and compact but still with a remote focus and a video sender. It was just so tiny and I could swing it around. Because it has the full frame and the APS-C crop ability in it, and the quality is as good, I would often shoot most of my small tent scenes on a compact prime 25mm, 2.1 lens, either no lighting or very minimal lighting, 3200 ISO and that was a very wide lens on full frame, but they are full frame lenses, so they were stunning, and there’s not many you can shoot full frame with. Then we’d go MCU and I just went APS-C with my 25mm, jumped in, got a lot tighter and be like a 50mm ( actually closer to a 40mm but I’d move a tad closer as well ) in a sense and I’d get an MCU. So it meant that we were really quick. Ed: “MCU” is a mid-close up for those of us not into jargon. But you didn’t use the sound off the Alpha 7? David: No, we didn’t use the sound off the Alpha. Obviously it’s a drama, so the sound was recorded independently. I don’t think we even put a guide track … there’s no guide track on any of it either.
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On Hillary, we weren’t having to put sound equipment on the camera, even on our main camera, and everything was synced in post later, which actually set me even more free. It was amazing. The other aspect of using the A7s in the tents, besides it being small, was that I could use the sensor crop from full frame to apsc instead of a lens change, so it meant we could shoot really fast. Once we were in the tent, the little flaps were closed, we were essentially getting gassed from these original old Tilley lamps from the 50s that burnt with a horrendous smell, and the temperature would rise. We were in Auckland summer, in the studio, in a tent, myself and the boom operator soaking wet and we were in Tshirts, but the actors were in the real layers that they actually wore on Everest. That was several layers, so the heat and the smell … we could only do a few minutes at a time. But sometimes I could get three shots really quickly, we’d just shoot the wide, cut, sensor change size on the camera back of the menu, it would take me 2 seconds and we’re rolling again. That was essential, couldn’t have done it on the F55, it would have been lens change, open up, get the whole crew in, do the lens change and it would have taken 5 times longer. So that was essential and I had worked that out in preproduction that we needed to be quick once we got into the tents. Ed: And no problem in post, mixing the two cameras? David: Not so far, because I haven’t graded … I’m about to find out if the two cameras mix. I did do tests and drop them in to Paul Lear at Images and Sound, who’s my colourist and I trust Paul – he looked at it and sent a note back “all good.” He’s happy, so no we won’t have any trouble. Ed: Talking of mixing shots, you talked about Rage, the film about the Springbok tour, that it was very passionate for you in that you felt a great sense of responsibility covering a critical time in New Zealand’s history. You can tell us about that, but also that the production team intercut original footage with what you’d shot. Was that a case of you looking at that original footage and setting your “look” so that it would match, or which way round did you do it? David: Rage … I was very passionate about that film. It was important to me because, as you mentioned, I felt a huge responsibility to it, because the people who shot the original Springbok tour, or reported in the media, were the cameramen that trained me or the cameramen that I looked up to. They had gone through a lot and it was quite emotional for
Scene from ‘Rage’ (fg).
them. They were on the front lines and sometimes getting injured, so I felt a responsibility to try and portray what they had done. I didn’t want to let them down so it was a big deal for me to shoot that film. Getting to the protest footage, everything was shot 16mm back then, so we had the challenge where 16mm film does not meet HD broadcast specifications. It’s not the film’s fault, it’s the compression for broadcast. And so, if you get a repeated film grain, then you have a major problem. I think you’ve got a 20% quota you’re allowed to use of non-HD footage in an HD delivery, and we had to use some of that footage. We looked at a lot of that footage to see how it was shot and stuff. I think, as far as the look goes, I shot that on an ARRI ALEXA and shot everything with no manipulation in the camera, because I knew I could pull it back to the 16mm look in post very easily, which was the way we needed to do it. It was probably more the style that everyone shot in. At the time, they were handheld 16mm cameras; a lot of them not the most comfortable things on your shoulder – some of them were, depending on what camera model they had. Ed: So you were handholding an ALEXA? David: Easyrig.
Yes, I was handholding the ALEXA with an
Ed: Would you handhold it any other way? David: For a short amount of time, I can handhold an ALEXA. You can pick the camera up and use it for a couple of minutes, but if you do that all day long, you won’t be doing very good handheld at the end of the day. My Easyrig also saves my back that I damaged early in my career. But on the Rage thing, like I say, it was a matter of just finding that style of the way it had been shot. We actually had made a decision to not try and be 16mm film but we shot it probably in very
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similar style to the way it had been shot. It wasn’t a deliberate “we’re going to match this exactly” because we felt we couldn’t. Subsequently, a lot of split screen was used and I think, if you stop and actually look at the footage technically and you studied it, you will see the colours are different, the dynamic range is different and everything, but we’ve had amazing feedback from people … probably the biggest feedback I’ve had is people going “wow, that was amazing how you integrated that footage.” So a lot of that was in the editing and more the shooting style as opposed to the look. We didn’t degrade our ALEXA footage to make it grainy like the 16mm footage; but the editing style and the shooting style worked well for the audience. They looked at it and didn’t see any difference and we obviously placed our actors into certain scenarios from the archive footage. We recreated segments of particular scenes. Ed: Now another film that you discussed was about the Tangiwai disaster and that impressed me, especially with the night shots. You managed to get shots of a model train and it really did look real. But what I want to bring out here is that you talked about making decisions on set. You’d obviously done a huge amount of preparation for this, but there were some things that you just couldn’t do until you were actually there and decided “I need that light positioned there”?
How to make moonlight on ‘Tangiwai’.
David: For Tangiwai, shooting the train crash was my first real true miniatures shoot, so it was a huge deal for me. I had some wonderful guidance from Alex Funke ASC who is a remarkable miniatures director of photography and well known worldwide. He moved to New Zealand for Lord of the Rings and never left. So he stayed and lucky Wellington has him. His wealth of knowledge was called upon and he gave me about 3 hours of his time and some amazing calculations, because it’s very mathematically based, determining what you’re doing. We then tested and tested and tested with half the model train in the studio; we didn’t really have the lighting to test my lighting ideas so it
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was really about just planning and plotting. We went to the set on the day to set up just based on a lot of planning, intuition and experience. And I leant on my gaffer again, Adrian Hebron. Ed: Because, I guess, once you crash the train, you don’t get a second shot at it? David: No you don’t. We had one take for the train crash. The producers did let me know I could do a second take … it was going to cost $70,000 I think and it would mean we probably wouldn’t get all the night’s shooting done because it would take 3 hours to reset and we couldn’t do any other shots. So, yeah, we get there and we have to light in the daytime, we need every dark hour to shoot and so it’s about setting up everything according to our plans and our intuition in the daylight, and then you really are just relying on your experience. Everything was measured out – the Titan cranes will be 50 metres back and they will be this high with this lamp. Ed: You had fewer cameras than you really wanted didn’t you? David: I did. We only had 3 cameras whereas traditionally, you would probably want to put 5 cameras on a shoot that you don’t really want to do a “Take 2” on. We could only afford 3 cameras so it was a lot of pressure. Every camera worked, none of them failed. They were RED cameras which are known to have a few
CineAlta magazine
Scene “it’s only a model” from ‘Tangiwai’.
bugs sometimes. But they all performed and even when one of them got sent 50 metres back into a paddock in the darkness, we pulled it out of the protection housing it was in, and it was still running and all the footage was good, no dropped frames, which astounded us. The placement of those cameras could only be made on the night; the placement of the lights we tried to do it according to our plan, but in daylight, for me on that shoot, I just felt we needed to change what we had pre-planned – and with a little mini-battle with my gaffer and discussion, he disagreed, but eventually moved our big lamps which provided the moonlight. I think it was only about 10 feet, but I thought that 10 foot move was important, and then
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Stunning images created by Claudio Miranda, ASC working with the F65 and F55. Anamorphic F65 A.I. Behind the scenes on sci-fi thriller “Ex Machina” with DoP Rob Hardy, BSC. Colour, Softness and Freedom! The hallmarks of shooting on F55. Young cinematographer Claire Mathon, ASC discusses her work on feature “Mon Roi”, screened in Sélection Officielle at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Earth, Wind and Camera. Bob Poole, on shooting in the wild with the F5 and F55. Game Changers. A profile of two production executives and their use of Sony’s F55 cameras to augment the in-venue fan experience .… and more! All CineAlta magazine issues can be accessed from the ISSUU home page here: http://issuu.com/sonyprofessional
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you are trusted by your producer and your director and vice versa, I think it adds a huge amount to the quality of the work. Ed: It comes down to trust again doesn’t it? David: Absolute trust, that’s right. Gareth, my dolly grip on Hillary, was a new grip for me; I’d never met him before, but hugely experienced. You give somebody that trust and remind them that they’re a creative, they’re not a technician. It was soon apparent he had an eye and ear for story telling so often I’d just let ‘G’ know this camera dolly move was his and he’d place the camera perfectly every time. Due to some of our shooting style there Paul Richards and David Paul (left) at the Cinematographers evening. was not a lot of rehearsals and often last minute blocking changes, so I’d rely wait for night, turn the lights on and we didn’t have to hugely on Gareth to get me where I needed the camera change anything. So for me, it was a really good to be, based on his instinct – he was always right, so for moment. me operating it was great. You know your gaffer, your Ed: Knowing what you know now, would you take on grip and your focus puller are creative positions and I’m such a job again? very wary of a gaffer or grip who think they’re only David: Oooh yes. I’d have to go and see Alex technicians. Yes they are technicians, but they’re Funke again, because I’ve lost all the calculations and creatives and you give them that creative ball to hold there’s too much to know, but I would definitely take it on to … they’ve made a lot of films, the experienced on again. I actually quite enjoyed mathematics at guys, they know good drama, they know where the school, so I loved that aspect of planning things and story is, they know where the camera needs to be and if then I mixed it up with complete random organic you trust them, they’ll get you there. It becomes this synchronicity and when you have a grip and a camera shooting style for other things on other scenes on set. We had some scenes in Hillary I had planned meticulously because there was no room for error and no room to be random, and other scenes Danny the director and I would rock into the scene and see what the actors wanted to do, don’t give them marks, no blocking, the focus puller doesn’t get marks. I don’t want actors walking up to a bit of tape on the floor and standing there to deliver their lines. If they made it to where we roughly thought they should be, that’s great; if they don’t, they don’t – and myself and my focus puller would find them. That was our approach on a lot of scenes – very random, very organic. Ed: You said “you can do good work, but a lot of my career is due to making relationships. This is trust from people you know.” Is building relationships the most valuable plan that everyone should be following in our industry? David: Yes. It can sound very shallow talking about relationships. I don’t think you should be forming relationships if you don’t genuinely care about the people who your relationship is with. But naturally, through your career, you meet people who you connect with and there’s some you don’t connect with, and that’s okay, you don’t have to connect with everybody. You may get on well with the person socially. Personally, I’m very loyal, and I’m very loyal to my producers. If they’ve employed me, then I’m loyal to them and maybe that loyalty has paid off. You still need to do good work for them, you can’t not do your job, but relationships have just really been a huge part of my career. I can pinpoint intersections all the way through my career, and I can name the people who have put me onto a new path that’s taken me further ahead. So, yes, I think we should nurture relationships. Internationally, there are directors, you know, the Coen Brothers love Roger Deakins; clearly a relationship has been formed with them, as for all of our careers, we will all work with the same directors, the same producers, and that’s purely about relationships and trust. And if Page 12
operator and a focus puller all working together and just silently during a scene and you nail it, wow, it’s amazing. I just get so excited by it because it’s people working together. Love it. It’s not all about just the DOP, or the camera, or the operator – it’s not about them, it’s about the whole team. Ed: So then why wouldn’t you want to set up a team yourself and form a production company … you’ve got the dream team, so surely you could make your own wonderful movies? David: No, I couldn’t make my own wonderful movies. I’m more and more specialising actually. As I said, my career moves on and you get older, and I find you discover what you don’t know and you actually realise you don’t know a lot more. If you want to take on producing, you’re mad. I think it’s one of the toughest jobs out there and I hugely admire good producers. It’s a horrendous job, so I would never try and produce anything. I can’t write; I have directed music videos, could I direct a film … I don’t know. No, I actually think films are made by people who specialise in their departments and they bring those skills together. A good producer, which was particularly so on Hillary with Carmen Leonard, has a gift at bringing together talented people. She will sit there and she puts the team together and then sits back and just guides us gently through and watches the whole team gel. And it was Katrina Hodge who did costume design and Miro Harre the production designer, Dannelle Satherly make up and when you get us four working together, all about the creatives there, and then we added my gaffer Nick Riini, and my grip Gareth Robinson, and my focus puller, Sam Mathews, it’s really exciting stuff, and a good producer sits there and goes “that’s the team.” But the producer brings us together, and then you have your director leading the vision. If your director trusts all those people, which Danny (Mulheron) did on Hillary, then you have a great foundation for a good film. Our roles though are to help our director realise their vision, interpretation of the script / film. Then you add a superb cast as well. If the actors, trust you, which is critical as a director of photography – your actors have to trust you, because I’m going to do shots that they may not like, I’m going to be in their space a lot and if they’re trusting you also with their emotions and performances then you have quite a potent force. But I would never want to try and do all that by myself. I want to be a cinematographer, that’s my dream. I want to be doing this when I’m 80. I hope I’ll be doing my best films in my 70s.
are recognised worldwide and you know, if you look at a name in another nation and they are accredited, you’re guaranteed of a certain standard of work, and a person of a certain amount of experience. I think if we want international productions here, using our cinematographers, we need to let them know that we’ve set the bar and we require people to get there to be accredited – as all the other countries have. I think it’s important if we want to keep that work coming in, otherwise it’s “I’ll come in and get just any old body in New Zealand?” No, they’ll bring their own people that they know. I think the NZCS initials at the end says something internationally. Ed: But you have to do something for that don’t you – it’s not just about taking that accreditation, you’ve got to be involved in the Society yourself? David: That’s right, yes. In the fine print of being accredited, you need to help further cinematography in New Zealand which is always the challenge, because as cinematographers, we tend to be behind the camera and I think most of us like to keep reasonably under the radar. We potter about doing our thing and often we discover things ourselves, and yes we don’t necessarily share it that well, partly because we’re never together very often. So I think NZCS actually is in a slow process of encouraging the sharing of knowledge and discoveries which was for me during the evening the other night … I have never talked to other cinematographers about what I’ve done or how I did it. They’re things that are held very closely because it was hard found knowledge. So NZCS is starting to work in that sense – we’re starting to share knowledge. I think in the past we feared that we would just give the knowledge away and then somebody else gets the work, but that takes you back to relationships. So I think we need to increase that, keep sharing that knowledge, so it is working in that sense. I think it’s very important for New Zealand and it’s okay to actually have some initials after your name; it’s okay to know you’re okay at a job. I think it’s important for New Zealand. Ed: And it’s okay to share? David: It’s ok to share … it’s not always easy!
Ed: Which leads me to my last question – you’re part of the New Zealand Cinematographers Society … why? David: For NZCS, I felt that we were probably one of the few developed countries in the world that had no Cinematographers Society. It was a Kiwi thing, you just get on with it, we don’t need recognition, we just get out there and crack on. One aspect I think that was good was that it helped create a camaraderie and a sharing of knowledge and experience, but internationally, I thought it was important also. If we’ve got a government giving out rebates, we’re trying to attract international work, and people look on our websites and what do they see? Film is a very Kiwi thing. We don’t stand up in New Zealand, we do have the tall poppy syndrome issues still, but I thought for international productions looking here, cinematographers societies
Some of the kit on ‘Hillary’. Page 13
NZVN
Son of David His initials are JC but no, this is not a biblical dynastic story but one more earthy. It came to my attention that the provider of the very sporty and well constructed video clips at https://vimeo.com/eivomedia was none other than John ( son of David ) Colthorpe. To see if he had inherited any skills ( or personality traits ) from his father, I sought an interview with the Colthorpe gentlemen. Ed: John, you do think that you got interested in video making because of your father? John: Yes, he lent me a broken handycam with no LCD screen and I started off filming; taught myself how to use tape and how to convert tape to digital and then to edit. Then he gave me a Sony Vegas licence and it started off from there.
David and John Colthorpe.
Ed: Has he had any creative input into what you do … I hope the answer’s “no”? John:
No, he has not.
Ed: Oh well, you’ve learnt well from him, but you’ve moved on and obviously have a creative talent there, because you are doing great things from what I’ve seen. But you’re doing sort of special work aren’t you – it’s very sporting in its nature – lots of mountain biking? John: Yes. The majority of my work involves internet based companies and web videos for Facebook and social media, mainly revolving around brand development for action sports companies and in the equestrian world. Ed: And you got into action sports because you and your friends were interested in that early on? John: I started off recording my friends skateboarding on a Sony Ericsson cell phone, moved my way up, kept on with skateboarding all these years and then slowly my sport changed from skateboarding to mountain biking. I’ve continued to record mountain biking and other action sports to this day, making my videos better and better, and slowly getting better contacts and more work.
Ed: And in those early days, it was a case of bartering – “I’ll take some video of your mountain bike if you give me some pedals”, but you’ve moved on from that? John: Yes – my first gig, which is a while back now, was a trade of a good mountain bike for about 5 videos. The bike importer was getting a good deal, I was happy just to make the videos for free, so at that point I was stoked I was getting a bike. From there I just continued on with him and we’ve been working on a proper business footing. Ed: That’s always good because now you’ve got some good material on sites that you can send interested people to, to say “look, this is what I do and, if you like that, well I can do that for you too”? John: Yes. It’s great. The network effect takes hold and the whole thing gains momentum. Ed: So you are providing more than just pretty pictures of mountain bikes; you have actually incorporated something in that which, at the end of watching, people hopefully will think “aaah, that’s the sort of mountain bike that I want?” John: The idea is to promote the product to the max. For example not just the mountain bike, but the rider and the rider’s sponsors and why he’s riding it and
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why you should buy it … what makes it different. On social media these sort of videos are so much more effective than the approach used by some companies that just decide to burn their money on magazine articles, or others that decide to send a film crew around the world at great expense. Ed: What is it about the way you shoot it that gives that little bit of extra corporate promotion, or marketing to the video – it’s not just an enthusiast taking pictures of young guys on bikes? John: The difference between how I used to film and now is I’ve changed up the whole cinematic style and I’ve focused on different elements to show off the product’s specific technical specifications and what makes it good.
background out of focus, but how does that work in the “run and gun” situation. Are you finding that, with some of your clips, you haven’t actually managed to get the focus in place in time and you waste that clip? John: Yes definitely, but that’s all part of the fun! You’ve got to work a lot harder to get the better looking shots. That’s what makes it different to the guys out there who are just shooting on EX1s and can get everything in focus and get just okay shots. But at the end of the day, it’s so much better to get cinematic footage and great slow motion with depth of field. That’s what people want to see these days. David: Basically it’s that challenge that pushes the envelope; makes you a better cinematographer.
Ed: And the Sony FS7 that you’ve just recently bought, has that been crucial in providing that extra look? John: It started with the VG10 from Sony – that was definitely crucial. That was my first sort of “cinema” camera – it was crucial for creating the look; and from there, I moved to the FS100 though I’ve used an FS700 a few times. My first big video that went mas -sive with around 150,000 views was on an FS700 which I did for free just for fun. I’ve found the FS7 to be on another level again and I’ve gained a lot of work out of that – including some big corporates such as Oakley. I guess my technique is to tell a bit more story when trying to sell say a bike, it’s more about what the rider thinks about it. Ed:
Challenging lighting conditions.
Ed:
So for that you do sound bites?
John: Yes, sound bites are a key part of any promotional video. You’ve got to get the celeb talking genuinely about what he thinks about the product. Ed: And you keep going until you get him saying something nice? John: You get him going and make sure he says something nice, that’s for sure. Ed: So what is it about the FS7 that has really upped your game? John: The main reason why I wanted to skip the FS700 was that it has a buffer on the slow motion; I do a lot of slow motion in biking and horsey stuff. With the FS700 you’d be recording one rider coming down and then you’d have to wait for the buffer to roll through before you could shoot another rider, and then you’d miss the rider that you wanted. It was just awkward having that buffer. But with the FS7 having no buffer, it makes it so much better. I can just roll and there’s a much faster switchover … from standard speed to high speed on the FS7 takes about a second. Ed: Now the question I have though, with an FS7, there’s obviously a short depth of field which is fine for people who want that, and want to have the
John do you agree with father?
John: Yes, most definitely. I’ve been putting in some effort to make it work, finding focus when I’m running around and slipping through the mud and setting up my tripod and levelling it all up with seconds to spare … it’s all part of the fun. The main thing is that there are so many different lighting conditions when you’re in a forest say or out in the open. It’s always hard to choose the right aperture, get the shutter speed sorted and get a good shot in the seconds you have. Ed:
What sort of lens do you like to use?
John: My main lens is the Canon 24-105 f4. It’s my “go to”. I use that with the electronic EF adapter. I also use a 100mm f2 for any super far away and for slo-mo, just to get little sections because I usually use it at f2 and I can’t get perfect focus throughout, as it’s just way too hard. So I just use it to get high speed shots for those few seconds of maximum drama. Ed: Have you tried the Sony lens that comes in the FS7 kit? John: Well I chose not to get that as I already had the 24-105. However that Sony bundled 28-135 f4 lens looks handy. It’s fair to say that it’s getting harder and harder to pull focus and zoom at the same time
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with the lenses I have. The different kind of jobs I’m finding are allowing me to do more zooming in my work and, with the 24-105, zooming is not really an option, as once you zoom everything goes out of focus. So I’m probably going to be looking to find something that is parfocal. Ed: What angles?
about
little
short
wide-
John: I’ve got an 8mm f3.5 for those occasional fisheyes. Actually father has a very nice Carl Zeiss 24 f1.8 that he lends me at any point … he always asks for it back and I never give it back! Ed: John:
Gosh, how understanding.
Rider action (fg).
He’s a great dad.
Ed: Have you ever used a camera other than the Sony?
media, get the thumbnail right and make sure that the views come through that it deserves.
John: At University we had to use the Panasonic AF100. It’s okay … maybe some limitations being a smaller sensor.
Ed:
Ed: Oh dear, did you have to wash your hands in Dettol when you came home? John: Yeah, dad was quite amused! We also had the Blackmagic pocket camera – if I had to comment I’d say keep it simple and it’s fine. But don’t build it up. Ed: Well … but I understand you do have a DSLR that takes video? John: Yes I recently grabbed a Canon 70D mainly for stills and because it’s actually quite cheap. It’s great for any backup filming – especially if you just happen to have someone there who is not really a proper filmmaker, but can grab a second shot, you can chuck it on. It’s got a good autofocus and if you’re somewhere remote and there’s someone there helping and they don’t really have the filming experience, I can just give them a quick rundown and they can get a B shot if I’m doing an interview or something like that … in just a few seconds. Ed:
But you’ve never taken the DSLR craze seriously?
John: I have to turn out cine style work quickly, so to be honest their form, batteries, recording media and so on don’t suit the work I do. I’ve done DSLR projects and they are fine when you have the luxury of time to setup.
And how have you managed to work all of that?
John: Just through experience I’ve worked out how to time it all out and I’ve built up social media platforms for other companies and myself and I’ve learnt how to get views and who to share it to – if you get the video to the right people and build a relationship with them, they’ll share the good videos for sure. But then when you put one that’s not so good – or it’s a good video, but it’s for a smaller company where they don’t really need to share it so much, you build a relationship with them and they still share it for you, so then you get the views and the client still gets the views and they like you just as much. Ed: So it’s not just a case of putting it up there, you’ve got to work the social media side of it as well? John: For me the job’s never done until I’m over like the 50,000 views mark, and then the marketing’s all done and they’re happy. Once the views are through, they’re happy to use me again and keep using me. Ed: Do you use the same compression every time on your Facebook presentations? John: I use a whole range of compression codecs. Facebook and Vimeo and YouTube are all different, so I mainly upload to Vimeo and then embed onto Facebook. I try not to upload direct to Facebook unless the client wants that, because they have substantial compression, even at 1080.
Ed: Now I’d like to move onto probably one of the more critical areas of business as a freelance cameraman … well you’re more than that aren’t you. You do the camera work and you do the editing and you publish this on the Interweb … what is it that you think makes you the right person to do this? John: I see myself as a one-manband doing it all. So when someone comes to me, I can do it for the best rate because I can do it all myself. I can shoot it, I can edit it, I can do the post audio, do any graphics and work with a music composition artist and then from there take it even further and work out everything for Facebook and social
Vehicle action (fg). Page 18
Ed:
Okay, so you don’t do direct to YouTube uploads?
John: I try to stay away from YouTube. I mainly focus on Vimeo; I like Vimeo a lot more and Vimeo has much better embedding software for Facebook. You can view it straight through Vimeo and it’s all classy and it plays well. It’s got much better viewing statistics. It’s just a better player overall. Ed: So how do you choose the compression that you want for your programme … is it simply that you pick the HD version, or what? John: It’s always HD, but for Vimeo, I usually do a 1080 and then Vimeo will compress it to 720, so that hopefully it’s a really good 720 rather than uploading a 720 and having them compress it to what they think is 720, but really it’s probably at 600 or something like that. Ed:
Aaah so there are tricks involved?
John: I’d say Vimeo do a good bit of compression along as do YouTube, so I try to get it in the highest quality I can without having too big a file, and then let them work it out. In the end, it always turns out like that. Ed: And are you still using the Vegas that your father gave you many years ago? John: I think when I got it, it was about Vegas 6. I’ve upgraded since then, now I’m on to Vegas 13. I’m still using it and I’m happy with it for now although I’m dabbling with other editors of course. Ed:
Do you need any support at any time?
John: No, I’ve learnt all there is to learn about Vegas. There’s always more coming but I’m pretty solid with it. I think I’m going to go for a Sony Vegas accreditation soon, just so people know that I’m pretty good with it. Ed: However, you are finding some limitations with Sony Vegas? John: Well for me working freelance, Vegas has no limitations. It works perfectly for me, but I’m looking around … some of the people I work for, such as Frontside who I do some TV work for, they all use Macs and they like Premiere and they would prefer that I edit in Premiere, so any major changes they need to make last minute, I could just send them their editing file and they could work on from there. Ed: Now I understand a fair bit of your action sport work is out in the middle of nowhere, so you’ve got to keep fit because you’re cycling or hiking long distances? John: Yes, a lot of my work is definitely out the back and very remote. The vehicle access only takes you so far and then I’m on my own with the rider or an assistant and we have to walk in for kilometres through muddy bogs to get to the spots we need to. So because of that I keep my kit quite light. What I usually do is build up my camera and have that in one hand, with one lens on – my 24-105. And then in my other hand I’ve got my Miller Air tripod; then on my back I’ve got my Camelback backpack and in there I’ve got a spare battery and 2 other lenses and a few cleaning things. That’s all I need and I’ll record all day just with that small kit. No matte box, no follow focus, no nothing. Keep it light and you can walk around all day, no problem.
John takes aim with his FS7.
Ed: And you do all your recording to the onboard cards? John: Straight to an XQD – I like them. They were quite expensive to buy in the first place, but I think it’s worth the money – they’re fast and effective and no problems. Ed:
You’ve never tried an off-board recorder?
John: I’ve used them at University and they were quite nice – but for me, the XQDs work fast and they give the codecs that I need, so it’s all good with XQD. Ed:
There’s no need to go RAW?
John: Not usually. Mainly I’m going straight to web and web definitely does not need a RAW file. After all, generally speaking it’s going to be viewed on mobiles or tablets. Ed: That’s very encouraging. Father, any last words – are you proud of your son? David: Of course. Frankly I still remain amazed at his ability to follow focus, to actually frame and to maintain a focus on the stuff that he shoots, and knowing the depth of field that he’s got to play with when he’s getting this great cine look. It seems like an instinctual thing that you have or you haven’t got and I’m forever amazed at that. Ed: Well that’s the creative side of the family that you’ve never been involved in? David: Well I’m not so big on video these days for personal stuff. I do like to shoot nicely composed stills. John: photos.
When you get
old
you start
shooting
Ed: I think you had better stop there John. Now if someone wants to see what you’ve done John and have their own programme or engage you as a shooter, where can they see your work? John: The best way to keep up with me would be at my Facebook page, which is Facebook.com/eivomedia – or call me on 021-1133-213.
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Audio Showcase Preview from Sound Techniques
We are here at Sound Techniques with Stephen Buckland and a follow-up from NAB. Ed: Stephen, there were some products we missed that you’re going to be talking about to people coming along to the Pro Audio Showcase which is coming up, very soon. Stephen: It’s on July 22nd, 23rd at the Ellerslie Racecourse. Just follow the signs and you’ll get there. Ed: You’ll see the signs … Stephen: And the invitations. Ed: Exactly, invitations will be in the mail and within the pages of NZ Video News. Right, now we’ve covered some of the product that we saw together at NAB, but you spent some time on your own. Let’s start with Sound Devices and a very specialised use of the PIX 270 as a 64 channel audio recorder? Stephen: Well the PIX 270 is really a video recorder with 64 tracks of audio recording. Now there is an audio only version of the same recorder called the 970. What we have here in Sound Techniques to demonstrate, is the 270 because we can show both the video capabilities and the audio capabilities. Interestingly enough, although they simply wanted an audio recorder, Radio New Zealand bought the video recorder version, because they could see that it allowed them opportunities in the future should radio with pictures get a hold in broadcasting. Ed: Well that’s already happened hasn’t it? Stephen: I suppose it has to a degree. At Sound Techniques, we’re audio purists, but you can’t deny the power of excellent sound coupled with good pictures. Ed: We knew we’d bring you over to the dark side eventually; also in the Sound Devices product line, the PIX-E. I think we saw one version at the show but there will be more? Stephen: There will be three versions. The first one to come out is the PIX-EH and that’s the basic one which records or shows HDMI only. That’s a 5 inch monitor. Forthcoming, there will be another 5 inch monitor, but that will also take SDI in and out. All of these record to the mSATA drive; and not long further down the track there is a 7 inch monitor which will record albeit in ProRes, 4K resolution pictures. So that’s the cinematographer special I suppose. Ed: Okay, so whether you’re into maximum audio channel recording with a bit of your video thrown in, or a nice little very solid on-camera recorder / monitor, then Sound Devices is certainly worth a look? Stephen:
Yes.
Ed: Now onto the Rycote stand and the two young ladies that we interviewed missed out on one important device that their company has actually produced? Stephen: I think they were overawed by the editor’s presence! But yes, they didn’t talk about or show the
Stephen and Diana at the Sound Techniques office.
two new models of the Cyclone windshield. Currently there’s the large Cyclone. In June, there will be the medium size one which will cater for most short shotgun mics that are available now; and then towards the end of the year, there’s going to be a small one which will cater for the type of microphone which is simply just the capsule – or a shorter, a smaller microphone. Ed: But that’s not to say that you can’t use a short microphone in the medium size for example … it’s just a matter of, if you have a particular need or you want something that is ubiquitous, you could take the larger one or the medium one? Stephen: I think the reason the large one came out first is because it was probably simplest to develop and check that it worked before making it smaller. The microphone would fit in any of the models, but the bulk of them would mean that if you didn’t have to have the extra size, you’d probably go for the one that suits the size of your microphone better. Ed: And there’s also been some microphone holder development? Stephen: Yes, there are two microphone holders in development. One is for a mid-side rig, so you’ve got one microphone on top of the other; and the other one is to allow “XY recording”, with a crossed pair of microphones, and the beauty of that is that, as it stands, you can adjust the angle of the microphones. I think there are other versions on the market where the angle is fixed; this will allow … I think it’s 30-120 degrees angle between the microphones. Both of those are in the same sort of suspension as is in the Cyclone and they’ve been devised so they will fit inside a Cyclone windshield – I’m guessing the large or the medium one. Ed: Now there’s another company that we’ve never interviewed at NAB, but you deal with their radio microphones, and that’s Audio Limited? Stephen: Audio Limited is an English company and, in fact, the first radio microphones that I ever used back in 1984 ( and they were sort of old then ), were made by Audio Limited. Ed: That was obviously in the baby monitor your parents were using? Stephen: That’s right, it was yeah … the baby monitor. Their radio microphones have always been well regarded, but they have generally come at a price
Page 24
premium, so over Lectrosonics, but they are in the throes of developing a digital radio microphone system, which is what everybody always asks – “but why isn’t there a digital radio mic,” which they claim will be around towards the end of the year. Knowing the audio quality of their previous radio microphones, it will be superb, but we will wait to see … they had prototypes or mockups on display at NAB, but I’m not sure when we would actually see the finished item. Ed: So that’s it – to me it reinforces that somebody who is interested in this level of product, should be keeping in close touch with you, reading your newsletters that you put out on a regular basis and checking their emails? Stephen: That’s right. Yes, it’s an interesting world because all this information is available but at times it’s a bit like a hurricane. If you keep in touch with us we can certainly direct you. Ed: Well you’re the filter Stephen? Stephen: That’s right, we are the filter, yes. We try to get above the dither, the noise floor and point people in the right direction.
Ed: K-Tek. We were upset not to see Brenda there this year, but they had some interesting product? Stephen: Well Brenda made a brief appearance but you had to be in the right place at the right time Grant and I’m sorry you weren’t there. Ed:
Bother!
Stephen: K-Tek have actually got three new booms and are also developing their bag line, and so they’ve got some interesting products there. There is the harness which was shown a year ago at NAB and is still in development, but what they’ve done is they’ve taken on what people have said about it – criticism and such, and I think they’re making a much better harness, which will be considerably more suited to users. For one thing, the original one was rather bulky and so it would be very hard to put it in your suitcase and travel with it. This one looks more compact though it still keeps the feature of having a spine along the back to keep your back rigid and carry your gear. They’ve got a waist harness, a waist belt, so you can just latch your gear onto that, and a lot of people prefer to carry the weight of the equipment on there, just on their hips. And also they’ve got a little ditty bag … is that what it’s called? Ed: No, no it’s a bag for accessories and the clever side of it is? Stephen: The clever side of it is that it’s got a transparent side to it, so you can turn the bag over and you can instantly see which gizmo is in which compartment. And it’s configurable, it can be divided into four, but you can make the compartments bigger or smaller as suits. That will also latch onto any of their bags or harnesses on probably other brands as well.
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For Sale
Yes, the bag has a transparent bottom.
Ed: Do you have any other brands in the Sound Techniques’ range, or do you really focus on K-Tek because they’re the best for this industry? Stephen: In terms of bags, we focus on K-Tek. Sound Devices present bags with their mixers and so forth, so we do stock them. Ed: But generic bags that take a range of product from different manufacturers? Stephen: The K-Tek bags are designed to take different manufacturers’ equipment though they are specific to audio gear. The issue with bags is that they’re like handbags – everybody wants something different. The K-Tek ones are proving to be reliable and well-made and so that’s why we will be carrying them.
Sony PMW-EX1 camera with 3 x 16 GB and 2 x 8 GB SxS PRO memory cards and 2 x BP-U60 batteries and charger.
Convergent nanoFLASH recorder with 2 x 64 GB UDMA Delkin CompactFlash PRO cards (enables recording in XDCAM 422 up to 180 Mbps). Includes mounting bracket and 2 x 14.8V 4400mAh batteries and charger (can power the recorder and EX1 together).
Petcroff Matte box for Ex1 with 0.6 Grad and Linear polariser filters.
Kata camera case.
Sachtler FSB6 head with Zoom tripod legs and case (slight damage on head but still functions OK).
Manfrotto 503HDV tripod (no case; I used it when a lighter tripod was required).
Zylight Z90 with 12V 9amp hour battery pack and charger..
Ikan VX7e HD-SDI 7 inch LCD monitor.
Priced to sell ( includes GST ) Contact: Ph Mobile: Landline: Email:
$5,500
Geoff McKay 0274 988376 06 3553156 (Palmerston North) geoff.mckay@xtra.co.nz
Ed: So if you want to see any of those products and more … Stephen: some!
We’d better get
Ed: Come along to Sound Techniques in Mt Eden or visit the Pro Audio Showcase coming in July. We’ll see you there. Stephen: That’s correct Grant, and we’ll see you there too. NZVN
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