MARCH 2015
Vol 211
Would you like Pictures with your Radio? We are at the Radio Network iHeartRadio for Protel and we have Anthony Crawford and Bill Hays. Ed: Now Anthony, shall we start with you – what would you like to tell us about what you’ve got here? Anthony: We were given a brief in quite a short space of time before the launch of the Fletch, Vaughan and Megan show was announced … Ed:
Sorry, the what?
Anthony: Fletch, Vaughan and Megan – they started with ZM in April 2014. They were coming over from another network and, that the show was being repositioned to take in more of a video element, we were obviously behind the “8ball on this, so decided on starting afresh with a new design. With video being mentioned as an additional component we approached Protel to see what they could do for us. We had some ideas around streaming video and Ken presented us with the Livestream solution, which we implemented with the Panasonic PTZ cameras and then built around that the LCD TVs that we use on the wall for displaying video, livery or just graphics. The whole thing was pulled together in a fairly short amount of time and the actual build was done in three weeks.
Bill and Anthony in the control room.
Bill: We were looking at an Australian built box at one stage but we bought this one instead, because this was pre-built and tested; rather than build a kit up, the Australians do something slightly different. Ed: So did you give Protel a strict list of products that you wanted, and how you wanted them glued together? Bill: No, I went with the information that we had after a visit to KIISFM in Sydney and then we went to talk to Ken. To be honest, I didn’t really know what I was talking about, but he did and in layman’s terms, I tried to
explain what we wanted and what we were looking to do and then Ken formulated it all from there. He said “I think I can do something better.” So he went away and came back with Livestream. When we saw a demo of it, we realised that it would do for us what they had in Australia, but allow us to do more – way more – because it gave us a portable solution as well. Theirs was very much locked in the studio and that was its purpose. We wanted more because we had concerts to consider as well, so it was perfect. At this point, a young man with his cap back to front knocked on the interview room door. It was James Marbeck. Ed: James, you look as though you’re one of the artistic types that has to run the set-up?
The Livestream is at the centre of all.
James: Yes more or less. I produce the show, so I just run up the stairs. Ed: So previously you produced it just in audio but now you’ve got the job of doing it in video as well? James: Yes, I still do it with audio. With the video side, we usually get some of the boys in to help as well. When we have a guest in, for example, we’d use the visual mix from the fixed cameras in the studio and they can also plug in others as well. They’ll usually run it because they know how they’re going to cut it together later. If we want to stream online as well, they’ve got that capability. Ed: So you’re producing all this, you’re gluing it all together, but your main job is making sure that audio mix, being the radio side of it, is 100%? James: Yes, for sure. We’d usually go in with a bit of a plan so, if there was going to be like a game in the studio that we were going to do with a guest or with the hosts, then we’d know from the outset that’s what we were going to do and that would be, from my point of view, the “produce” part, and then the video guys would just make sure that they covered that off, to get the best shots they could with the equipment in the studio. Ed: So you Livestream elements of the show but also record other aspects of the show and then post it up on your website later? James: Yes, there’s that capability. We had Ed Sheeran in the studio earlier last year and so with that
we had it streaming online at the time, so we could say “on air at the moment; if you want to watch what’s happening, you can jump online and see it there” and then if you can’t, if you’re not at computer, it will be posted up later on. They can edit it up to make it look slicker for a later package. Ed: So do you then give them a link on air, that this is where listeners will find the stream or the post? James: Yes, you just say “it’s streaming at ZM online dot com at the moment” and then we’d make sure that it was the first thing you would see when you got to the website – there’d be a Livestream link on the page. Ed: So the second Livestream system, do you use that for field events? Anthony: Yes. We used that just the other day for the Heidi Klum launch. We’ve actually also used it for in -house presentations and streaming events to the entire company. So when the launch of NZME was done, we hired out the team and got all the staff from the publishing part of the business and the radio part of the business and also Grab One – they all came down and CEO Jane Hastings did her presentation about what NZME was all about and the company, and we used the Livestream to make a stream available for all our staff down the country. It was really good for that and it’s nice and flexible and small and so we just use the same gear that we’d normally use – the Sony PMW200 and 300 cameras. Ed: Now in your flyaway pack, you’ve got the Livestream 500 plus your cameras, tripods, lights I guess, is that all you need?
Go www.finnzed.co.nz and follow the link to NZVN for more news. P10 At the Front with the FS7 P20 Dolly at the Pool P27 Some questions for you Page 2
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Anthony: The only other thing we needed was a Blackmagic 16x16 router, and we often find that we’re feeding numerous sources. At an event, we’ll be taking camera feeds in and then feeding them back to whoever might be doing the vision for the event, so they’ll be sharing their camera feeds with us or we’ll be sharing our camera feeds with them. The 16x16 router has been great, because you can use it as a DA or whatever. So other than that, we’ve got mainly Blackmagic gear – Blackmagic HDMI to SDI converters and SDI to HDMI. Ed: So Ken, why did you suggest the equipment that you did? Ken: I listened to Bill and Anthony and came back with a solution which I felt met and I think exceeded their operational and technical brief. The Livestream solution is continually being upgraded with new software features. Bill: That would also be a good question for James as well. We looked at it from the end user perspective. We decided to build the new studio, so we never really got a chance at consulting with talent, which is normally a really important part of any design. So James, now that you have used it, do we need to fine tune it or provide more equipment so that you can do even more with the set-up? James: I think it’s been pretty easy to use. There’s definitely enough there to be able to make it so that you do get great shots. Where the fixed cameras are
situated at the moment, it means you can pretty much see everything and then with the ability to be able to plug external cameras in, we can set another one up on a tripod to suit the situation – and the software works really well as well. In my booth, there are two small LCD monitors so that you can always see right in front of you what’s being mixed by the guy next to you, so you can help him out if you think there’s a better shot, because I can see through the window. I think it’s worked really well. Obviously, the more cameras you have, the more options you’ve got, but with the fact that you can plug into the wall, it’s worked really well as far as I’m concerned. Ken: Have you used the Skype capability – that is brought in a guest speaker by Skype? Anthony: We have tested it, but I don’t think we’ve used it in any show. Ed: Thinking about what you might like to do in the future ... if you’ve got a stream coming out of the studio, you could also have a stream coming from a live presenter out in the field which you feed back into your studio setup, so you can mix the two into one presentation – live and studio? James: Yes, it’s definitely on the cards. Say you had a Red Carpet event, I think it would probably fit quite well with the VMAs or something like that, and you had someone down at Vector Arena, and then you had the guy broadcasting in the studio … that could definitely work if you had people wanting to see it
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online and you could cover both things, I think it could work. Yeah, it’d be neat.
an audio studio – but the missing part was this new element for us called video and live streaming.
Ed: You could have your own fashion police in the studio?
These guys really are the perfect drivers for it, because it keeps the young people who are listening to radio not on the same device that you or I would – probably not a transistor radio, maybe not even their car radio, but certainly a Smartphone that’s got a screen and can get an internet connection. Our Technology team needed to learn quickly and get in the game.
James: Yes exactly. It’d be more or less just like a normal TV cross wouldn’t it – it’s just that it’s coming back through the studio and then going out onto the internet, but I think that’s a good idea. Ed: Well there you go, you can name it after me. Endless possibilities – and James, it’s your job to think of these things? James: Well you’ve helped me out phenomenally – I’m going to take that one back to the studio for sure! Ed: It’s yours – now tell me about training … were you just thrown in at the deep end and you had to learn all these things, or did you bring in people who already knew the video side, the streaming side, or did everyone learn together? Anthony: Ken kindly organised training for us and it was done by Mark at Corsair in Australia via Skype. We had half a dozen people in Ken’s office at Protel and everybody came home empowered and knowledgeable and knowing what the product was capable of. Ken: I connected Mark as a Video/Audio network source via Skype from my laptop to the Livestream and set the Livestream unit to remote desktop mode so Mark was able to remote control it from Australia and show all the features and operation, at the same time fielding questions from the Radio Network crew. And I can say that I haven’t had one question on how to run it after that. I’ve also sold the same Livestream kits to other people who I thought weren’t quite as technically savvy as the Radio Network staff, but once you sit down and use it, you’re up and running. Usually the hardest thing is getting your network settings correct. Ed: I guess the elephant in the room is that this is a radio network; these are radio stations and people listen to them and if they’re used to listening to it on their wireless, they’re suddenly going to be given this opportunity to see some pictures too … is this a chance to find a new audience, or convert your grandmothers to turn on their computers?
Ed: So that’s it – with the Smartphone, you could be listening to the radio side and then comes the broadcast “go to the link” …? Ken: Well you could be looking at it, it could be a live video with audio; you could be listening to the audio and go “oh, there’s the video …” Bill: Our mantra is that we need to give these guys who work in content everything that we can for them to do the best that they can. James: Everyone wants something immediately and so, with a studio like ours where you have the ability to do something at 6.30 in the morning and have it online either immediately if you are streaming it, or alternatively, edit it up and put out there on the application that people are listening to it on, or media terms like Facebook, or Instagram or anything … when you’ve got that ability, it makes everything so much easier. No one wants to wait; if you say you’re going to put something online tomorrow, people will have forgotten about it in an hour’s time. So I think that’s probably the biggest point – when you’ve got something like that, a studio that has the ability to be broadcasting, talking about what you are doing, but then also being able to just do it, it makes a huge difference. It’s awesome to be able to have all those tools there and to have all the people who know how to do it and have stuff that is so easy to use – I haven’t even done the training but I can use a lot of it – probably in a very basic way – but it’s amazing – it’s worked really well. Ed: What happens to those viewers ( which they will become ) once that particular stream ends … suddenly their screen goes black?
Bill: To start with, when Jane Hastings came onboard as CEO, we stopped being a radio station and became a m ul t i me di a e n v i r o nm e n t . Radio is a traditional form of medium, broadcasting, we have an audience, but we have, if you like, a younger audience that we’d forgotten about or taken for granted, and hence we were very lucky to get Fletch, Vaughan and Megan and James to come and join us here. That was the start of the revolution for us – it was the changing of the ZM brand from what it was to really going at the young audience. The video aspect was the point of difference that we needed to provide immediately. So as I said earlier, the decision was made to design a new studio –
James loves his radio. Page 6
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Bill: One of the mediums we drive everyone to listen to all of our NZME.radio stations is through iHeart, so listeners are encouraged to create their own custom station or listen to any one of the 50 plus streams on there. Again, the base is the terrestrial radio, so I can listen to this on my transistor radio, I’ve got ZM there, I can go to iHeart and I can listen to ZM or I can listen to podcasts of Fletch Vaughan and Megan, I can listen to any number of other streams that are specifically targeting the various demographics on there. I can also listen to my sister stations in America and Australia – so Ken points to the Panasonic pan and tilt camera. any of the NZME affiliates and clear channel radio stations can be listened to live James: It wouldn’t exactly just fade to black. First at any given time. That’s the one point of difference of all, you’d know it was wrapping up because we wrap that we have… we point people to this wonderful it up and then there’d be edits and things that you platform iHeartRadio, and our premiere brands are front could push for later online. But because you’re already and centre on that as well. at something like zmonline.com which is just a constant News feed and has everything we’ve done before, if it Ed: My wife is sometimes annoyed by her car radio. does end, the odds are you’re not just going to go “oh Since we have a Sky recorder at home, she can go back that’s great” and then move on with your life, you’d into the programme to see something she missed or hopefully – we’d like to think – just keep scrolling down use live pause, but when she’s in the car and she’s and finding new stuff. listening to the radio and something comes on, she Anthony: That live stream is just one little widget on the online site.
thinks “oh, what was that?”.– but she can’t go back. With iHeartRadio …?
Ed: So once you’ve got them on that site you’ll then link them to “hey, follow this, look at this”?
Bill: She can. Certainly the podcasts are available, so we can go and find you content from Fletch, Vaughan and Megan’s Brekkie shows from the past, and you can find it yourself on the site, so on the ZM online site you’ll find all of that information.
James: Yes, the idea is to get them there and then once they’re there, if you’ve got the right stuff to interest them, then they have no reason to leave I think is probably the best way of putting it. Ed:
Like Hotel California eh?
Bill: I don’t want to embarrass these guys, but the evidence shown by the hits on the page is phenomenal. These guys do a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes as well for other podcasts that are up there, but probably put together with the help of the Livestream boxes, the hits are huge. James: Yes, it’s now No 1 by a long shot. I couldn’t tell you the stats off the top of my head, but there’s some amazing graphs which are going into all sorts of things which show phenomenal numbers. Yeah, it’s really impressive, it’s turned out well. And once people are on the site, they’re obviously staying because it is the No 1 site and it’s just kept climbing throughout the year. Ed: And you’re not upsetting your traditional listeners who might only have a transistor radio and a cell phone that doesn’t have a video screen? James: No, because we make sure that everything – you know if it does have a visual element we try and make sure that it obviously sounds good on the radio as well. Radio is the number one priority, and making stuff look cool just subsequently happens.
Ed:
iHeartRadio is, in fact, an international brand?
Bill: Yes, it’s an application developed by the former owners of Clear Channel Communications in the US, so for their stable of radio stations; and it’s very much a vehicle derived from intimate concerts in the Avenue of America Studio Complex. They have a purpose built theatre there, which houses up to 400 people and they started doing lunchtime concerts where they would have artists interviewing on The Zoo, which is probably the world’s best known and most expensive commercial radio station in New York. So that had access to a stable of artists and they would then take them down and there would be lunchtime concerts where people would just walk off the street, so hence the iHeart Concert brand was launched. Ed:
Have you tried anything similar here?
Bill: We were formerly the Radio Network and NZME.radio had been lucky enough to stage concerts with Lorde, Ed Sheeran, Stan Walker, Birdy – at different venues, ranging from Vector Arena through to the Civic Theatre, the Wintergarden, and we’ve now taken the concert out and there’s been one in Christchurch and Dunedin, and that was Neil Finn. He performed in both those venues and that was under the iHeartRadio banner.
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Ed: So these are free, live streamed concerts that you’re providing? Bill: They are, they are and the Livestream kit is a big part of it. Obviously we don’t mix the concert sound ourselves because that’s very much under the direction and control of the artist and their manager. There’s a professional sound crew in and professional video crew in, but we have an output that (a) we put on our terrestrial radio so it’s broadcast live; and (b) more importantly it is streamed live through the Livestream kit. Prior to that it’s wrapped with banners so it’s the concert, it’s banners, and we’re actually using quite a bit of the capability of the Livestream box. Ed:
And you can see this continuing and growing?
Bill: Yes, absolutely. iHeart events a year.
The aim is upwards of four
Ed: But there’s no reason you couldn’t do smaller events with your own kit, surely? Bill: No, no. We’re looking to working towards a smaller venue where lunchtime concerts would be had so there would just be sole artists – we’re not talking a huge rock band that’s going to fill a space, but we would comfortably house 3-400 people stand up, just popping in with their sandwiches and a cup of coffee. Ed: And the good thing is, if you didn’t like that particular music, you could just flick over to another iHeart channel?
Bill: Absolutely, yes. The number of brands on iHeart is growing. As I said, we have upwards of 50 New Zealand streams alone up there, covering all the music genres, as well as talk, and we also have alternative sports channels on there. So that covers what is our first foray into providing an alternate cricket commentary through the chaps who are on Radio Hauraki. That’s streamed live from every cricket game. Ed: I know Ken loves his music have you got an Eagles or Santana channel for Ken? Bill: Well actually, Ken can make his own custom Eagles station on iHeartRadio. Anyone who logs into iHeart can make their own custom station and they can select up their favourite artists – so for Ken it would be Eagles – and then iHeart would go away and search into the dust to find Eagles and say “oh Ken, if you like Eagles, then you must like this Santana, and you must like this …” Ken: Great I intend downloading the iHeartRadio app to my phone and laptop. Bill: And it builds a playlist and so people build their own radio stations. You don’t get a complete track or a complete album of one artist. If goes, “if you like this person, you might like this”, and it builds it up and you can say “no that’s crap, I don’t like that at all”, and it will load another song in and say “do you like this?” – and keep building on it. Ed:
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I’ve never seen Ken so happy!
NZVN
At the Front with the FS7 We are in the depths of Mt Eden with rubber trees and swimming pools … what, that’s not a rubber tree – it’s a magnolia? There you go, that’s how much I know about trees. We won’t talk about trees; we’ll talk cameras with Guy Quartermain from Keyframe Pictures. Following up from the Christmas edition when the FS7 was launched at the big Sony show in Auckland, I asked various dealers as to who had bought an FS7 and, in their view, is using it properly. DVT kindly found me Guy.
Guy with Sony FS7 … and magnolia tree.
Ed: Now Guy, you’ve got yourself an FS7, you’ve been out there using it in anger … Guy: In the heat of battle. Ed: In the heat of battle he says … so, why did you choose the FS7? Guy: It was a natural progression from my previous camera, the F3. By the time I got to the end of the use of my F3, I had so many bits tacked onto it to try and turn it into an ergonomic camera, it was quite ridiculous really, so every couple of days I would be there, drilling into the aluminium baseplate to stick on some accessory or other … Ed:
Not into the casing?
Guy: No, not into the casing. It is fun, I had Meccano when I was a kid and that’s enjoyable – but the FS7 does all of those things out of the box at the right price point, which is great, it’s a lot more lean. I looked very seriously at an F5 but I don’t really like the form factor, and for the price difference; I didn’t feel it was right for the kind of work I want to do with it, which is mainly TV and some corporate work – that’s what I do. So the FS7 is very light, it’s very simple and it does everything I want it to do and it gives great pictures. Ed: So the form factor was a key reason you chose it. You told me earlier that you’ve just done a shoot in Thailand so carrying a smaller camera is a big benefit to you? Guy: It is, although weight-wise, it’s actually comparable to the F5 once it’s rigged up, but the FS7 is absolutely designed as a handheld camera from the ground up, with all the controls on the handle, with your record button and focus aids at your fingertips, all the buttons in the right places. It’s ergonomic and it’s designed to just sit on your shoulder. Much like – not that I’ve used one – but an old Aaton I’m told … to sit on your shoulder, be snug, be relatively small. Ed:
So fitting the F3 on your shoulder was difficult?
Guy: Well actually, by the end of my Meccano project it wasn’t too bad. I got to the point where it was ok, but no, absolutely not designed for that. The F3 has a
lineage of both 3 chip consumer camcorders and semipro camcorders and also with a nod towards box type cameras like your RED cameras or the old ARRI studio type cameras. So no, it was never designed to be handheld or to sit on your shoulder at all. Ed: And working back from the F3, what was the progression – were you a film person or did you come from the video side? Guy: I started off in stills photography. I left school quite young, at about 16 and did a 2½ year apprenticeship as a professional commercial photographer. Then I gradually worked my way into the video world, I met some friends in Auckland who were out there doing video production and I thought “this looks quite neat, more collaborative, time-based media is interesting”, so I bought myself a little Sony camcorder and got a copy of Premiere Pro and off I went and taught myself to use them. Of course, many of the skills in still photography are the same, all of the lighting and composition skills, many of the people skills … I mean, this job is about making good pictures, but it’s also about getting on with people and managing people and directing people, and all of those skills are portable from the stills world of course. Ed: Did you find the move from the Sony handycam where, obviously, you’ve got lots of depth of field, going back to your stills photography, you were using quite shallow depth of field – did you find then that the F3 fitted that photographic style? Guy: Absolutely – it was just so nice to have control back. In between the Sony handycam and the F3, I also owned a couple of Panasonic cameras, both the DVX100 which was quite a ground breaking camera at the time, and an HVX200, the first solid state card based camera. There was great colorimetry in those cameras but I was always struggling to get my interview subject 10 metres away and punching in the long end of the lens to try and achieve some depth of field. Shallow depth of field is just another tool; it is not appropriate for every situation, and it’s not an end in itself, but it does give you a lot of control over where your eyes look and where you focus your viewers, and
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that’s really important, that’s what we’re always trying to do. We use composition to do that, we use colour to do that, we use movement and of course light – with all of these tools we’re trying to focus the attention of our viewers on what we’re saying about the story, and depth of field is a great tool to be able to do that – to be able to selectively put the attention of your viewer where you want it to be as the artist. Ed: But you must have found some of the workflow that you were able to do with those smaller handycams with the small chips, you couldn’t do once you started to explore that shallow depth of field again with a cinema style camera? Guy: What do you mean exactly? Ed: In terms of your run and gun, that by having it always in focus, you didn’t have to set up shots, you could just take them? Guy: Well that sounds like a pretty slack attitude for a start! I would fire a cameraman who took that approach. But, it is more demanding, I guess you just get used to it, you adapt … I’ve got five children and someone with one child will go “how could you ever possibly manage that?” – but you adapt to it. I have to be very scrupulous in checking focus; I perhaps have to trust my editors more than I did in the past – that they’ll pick up on those mistakes and of course, working in TV production, unlike the cinema world, I don’t have the luxury of a focus puller or a whole crew behind me to watch my back. So I do have to be careful in what I do. Ed: That’s an interesting comment, that you have to trust your editor to pick the shots that you would pick and not use some of the ones that you have noticed that they’re slightly out of focus, but the producer might turn round and say “well, we actually need that shot for this particular edit?”
Guy: Predominantly zooms for the TV work. I own various lenses – I have a set of Leica R primes that are converted for Nikon mount, which is the mount on all my lenses, converted for the camera with a Metabones adapter. Nikon have a mechanical aperture control still, so no complex “live” mount is needed, which makes life easy. The main lens I used through Thailand was a new Sigma 18-35 constant 1.8 which again comes from the stills world, very lightweight, largely par-focal and sharp as a tack – it’s actually an unbelievable lens. A Tokina 11-16 which is commonly used in the DSLR and – how would you put it – cheaper lens world I suppose. Great super wide. I would love to have the luxury on these productions to use cinema zooms like the Cabrio for instance, to name but one, but I think weight is a really big issue with the larger cinema zooms designed for full chip cameras, they just weigh too much, it’s impractical to carry round and also most of the productions I work on would not be prepared to pay the rates I would have to charge for what is a $40-60,000 lens.
Obviously good in low light.
Guy: Oh absolutely, although some of the editors particularly think it’s very cool when stuff’s out of focus so I guess you’re fighting that too, aren’t you? Of course shots can be cool when they are out of focus, but the intention has to be there! Ed: Oh yes, I’ve seen a few of those but they say “it’s Art” don’t they? Guy: I think I can address what you’re saying though – you’re alluding to the fact that you may miss key shots because of the chip size, but I don’t find that’s the case anymore with a full super 35mm chip size camera, than I would with a 3 chip camera really. Ed:
Ed: And are you using predominantly a standard zoom lens on that, or are you using prime lenses?
Because you’re using that all the time?
Guy: Because I’m using it all the time and I’ve got used to it, and I just don’t miss those shots. Also, you can stop down. If you really want to achieve depth of field, the base ISO on the FS7 is 2000. So it’s very easy, if you really want to in most shooting situations you just stop down.
Ed: In the sort of shots that you’ve been taking with this combination of lens and camera, are they shots that you’ve been able to set up beforehand, or do you have to just grab things while you can? Guy: It’s a combination really. On this particular show, we’ll often follow people around, so I’ll tend to do that on very wide – maybe on the 18 or round about that. Set up little situations, then cover / sequence them with a combo of lenses. Ed: So in other words, there’s a lot in focus at the same time? Guy: For the main actuality. Absolutely. We’ll set up shots as well, so a lot of cutaways, I’ll try and shoot textural shots for which I do use more extreme shallow depth of field; so no, a combination really. It depends on the director, what the director wants and what the schedule involves, how rushed we are basically. The slower the schedule is, the more time we’ll take to set up the shots.
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Ed: Do you find that the producers you predominantly work with understand how you work and give you that latitude to take the shots that they know you can get? Guy: Oh absolutely. It’s very rare for me to work with a director who will say “Oh hurry up” you know, get on with it kind of thing, which I guess I’m fortunate in. I’m always sensitive to time pressure; I’ve done a fair chunk of light commercial production myself and I come from a commercial stills background, so I understand the money / time side of the business. Probably one of the things they like about me is I don’t faff around when it’s unnecessary and I do get the shots and I’m aware that we’re ticking on a clock – it’s about art, but it’s also about money. Ed: It is about money isn’t it - and quality, and on that note, the recording system – are you using the internal recording system on the FS7? Guy: I am yes. I’m waiting with baited breath for their ProRes firmware to come out, which has been promised, as I’m a big fan of ProRes as a codec, I think it’s fantastic. A lovely organic kind of grain to it and when you do get noise it looks good. But yes, I’ve been shooting in XAVC-I at 1925 / 1080 25p. Ed:
And everyone’s happy with it?
Guy: Oh it’s so clean it’s just unbelievable. It’s actually very, very good. Having said I like ProRes, it’s nearly won me over – it’s a very useful codec. Probably the only flaw in it really, and that’s not a flaw in the codec as such, is it’s compatibility with older NLEs such as Final Cut Pro 7, which a surprising amount of people are
still using. So there are a few legacy issues there where it’s a hassle basically, you have to transcode the footage, which no one wants to have to do.. But no, very impressed, it’s a very robust codec. Ed:
And no difficulties data wrangling?
Guy: No, very simple. When we went to Thailand, I took away five 1 terabyte drives and used a programme called ChronoSync to double backup check all the data as I went along. I also used Premiere to check the pictures from time to time. So no, very easy, quite reasonable data rates too. By the end of the shoot, I think we had 11 shoot days and I used about 940 gigs of data for those 11 shoot days. Ed:
About how many hours of rough is that?
Guy: The longest day would have been about 2 hours 40 minutes worth of rushes and I think the shortest day would have been probably 1¾ hours. Ed:
So about 2 hours a day?
Guy: Yes, roughly. You’re always aware of the edit and that you don’t want to overshoot, but at the same time of course, when you’re travelling, you’re not going back, so one tends not to hold back and you try and shoot as much as you can. Ed: Did you get any “money shots” where you went “Yes!”? Guy: I did … I nearly blew up the camera actually in the process! My favourite shots were probably when we were in a place called Krabi and shooting at the Lae Lay Grill I think it’s called, which is this fabulous restaurant
Page 14
up on the hill above Krabi. Humid, degrees, and a kitchen full of burners going on … that’s actually the only failed me on the whole trip – it
things that one would like different and things about build quality and such things, but for the price – well you can always you know …
I think the heat sensor would have gone “Oops no, this is too much”, shut down and I lost about half a clip, which I was quite impressed by, but it looked very cool, I used the off-speed up to about 150 frames a second on those shots.
Guy: Yeah, some of the buttons are a wee bit plastic, but again I think for 12 grand for the body – I can’t complain and if you want all metal buttons all over, then go and buy an F65.
a lovely guy runs probably about 32 with wok cooking time the camera crashed.
Ed:
That would have added to the heat internally?
Guy: It would have, so it was trying to record at a furiously high framerate, humid temperatures, bare flames … yes! Ed: So you just put it in the fridge for a bit and she was ready to go? Guy: It was pretty quick actually. I had to take the battery off, as it wouldn’t respond to turning off, just a frozen picture frame and no screen information. I just went “Hmmm okay, what do I do?” So I just popped the V-lock off, and left it for 2-3 minutes, popped it back on and it was fine, hardly skipped a beat. Very impressive little solid state camera there Sony – well done. Ed: So as you say, you’ve used this in the heat of battle and you’re very pleased with it? Guy: I’m extremely happy with it. The pictures have very high dynamic range, lovely colour information, it’s got a very nice look to it, it really has. No, for the price you absolutely can’t complain. I mean, there are always
Ed: You mean in some places it might be a little bit plastic?
Perhaps also, when you look at the market, the construction quality and price point accurately reflects the lifespan of these cameras – realistically 18 months to 2 years, you know 2½ years is very old … Ed: You expect it to still be going, but you’d think that it will be superseded in terms of the technology? Guy: In terms of the technology you’d expect it to be obsolete, that’s right. Although I would hope that cameras, like computers, are reaching a plateau in that regard. I mean, certainly for television work, there’s a lot of talk about 4K and this camera is 4K capable, but no television production company I have come across yet either knows or wants to know about 4K, because the data rate is too high and it’s too difficult. So one would hope the pictures from this camera have legs so to speak. Ed: But your F3 is not being used as a sea anchor is it … obviously sitting on a tripod it’s going to give you pretty comparable pictures to your FS7?
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Guy: No, absolutely not. The FS7 makes vastly better pictures than the F3, noticeably higher dynamic range and quality of colour information, S-Log 3 is way better. Ed:
So you’ve totally retired your F3?
Guy: I’ll probably keep it for now; I may sell it, but I do multi-camera work from time to time, so it’s still an amazing camera to just chuck in there as a wide camera or something like that. Ed:
So you could actually mix it with FS7 footage?
Guy: Well I would in a live production, given budget constraints. I’d love the cameras to be perfectly matched, but … I have yet to play with that actually; I think the F3 could be tweaked to be close. S-Log 3 is a very different profile to S-Log; 2 and 3 are what the FS7 will do, the F3 is the original S-Log. So the short answer is no, they won’t match easily, but the long answer is yes, with a lot of tweaking and a little bit of postproduction you’d probably get them close enough to be good enough. Ed: Now Guy, the FS7 is not the only camera that you’re really happy with at the moment is it – you’ve got another little Sony here? Guy: Well yes, I’ve got another Sony called an Alpha 7S which I took along on my Thailand trip as a B camera and as a stills camera. In the event, we were too busy to realistically use it as a B camera, so it didn’t get pulled out much for that, but it got used for stills a lot, and I have used it as a B camera to the FS7 and it’s an excellent match. It will shoot in S-Log 2; apart from the skew and rolling shutter which are not as good, it is in every way a superior camera to the F3, which is my old video camera, and this is a tiny … it is unbelievable. Ed: You know you’re lowering the secondhand price of your F3 by this aren’t you? Guy: I don’t think it’s worth much more than a paperweight anyway to be honest. Have you seen it? You haven’t seen it have you, I’ll show it to you … Ed:
I know what an F3 looks like, yes.
Guy: Well you don’t know what mine looks like! It is technically a sort of semipro camera, the Alpha 7S and it is only 8 bit to be fair, but no, a fantastic tool, it really is.
Ed:
And pretty high ISO?
Guy: It is, it will go up to half a million ISO, yes. Ed:
But would you take a picture at that?
Guy: No, the usable range in my experience seems to be that up to about 40,000 is realistic. Ed:
That’s still a lot?
Guy: Yes. I took some footage with it on another job around central Dunedin not that long ago and it was incredible. It was amazing to be able to walk around, use available light, we were using some Zeiss prime lenses, and just get some very abstract, very pretty shots with no light at all. So a very, very cool little toy and a fun little stills camera too, it’s just so compact and very light to the touch and it kind of makes you want to use it. Ed: All right, a last question about the FS7 – how much of your time would you have that on your shoulder as compared to on a tripod – but I guess, having asked that question, it depends on the job? Guy: Well it does depend on the job and interestingly with the F3, because it was so unwieldy, I would tend towards a lot more locked off / tripod shots. With the FS7 in Thailand, I shot a lot more of the show handheld than I would have otherwise, which was great for the schedule, because we were travelling a lot. But that’s a very interesting question because I think the ergonomics really did affect the style and how I shot … very much so. Ed: Does it have that good Sony stabilisation system in it? Guy: The sensor stabilisation – no, it doesn’t. Personally, I use all off-brand lenses; I believe you can use stabilised lenses on it, but I don’t. Ed: And now a tip for those who have been shooting The Block and wobbling a lot? Guy: Well shooting off speed actually hides a multitude of sins, because you only have to hold it half as steady, plus it gives the editor twice as much to work with. So … yes, that’s it, that is definitely a tip, I mean using shallow depth of field and doing handheld cutaways particularly. If I’m handholding a cutaway of some veges in the foreground or something like that, it effectively gives you more stability. You also maintain sharpness. If you take the framerate up to 50 frames a second, that effective refresh rate, you can get away with a lot more movement and still maintain sharpness. Ed: And we finish off with a plug for the people who sold you this camera – you’re very happy with your supplier? Guy: Yes I’m very happy with DVT – Chris has been fantastic, they’ve got a pool table, what more can you ask. Ed: And they return your phone calls I understand? Guy: They do, they return my phone calls which is just absolutely one of those
Page 17
simple lessons in business that I don’t think everyone really gets. So, if you call people back, generally it means you want to do business! Ed:
It’s refreshing isn’t it?
Guy: It is refreshing, they’re very good and very professional and they’ve got a great range of products too. Ed: I know you do a lot of research on the internet, but you still do buy locally? Guy: I have bought a lot of my peripherals online, but that’s changed over the last couple of years, because I think the dealers and the brands such as Sony have woken up to the fact that global prices need to be on a par from country to country once you take exchange rates into account. So I’ve actually started going back to dealers for a lot of the things like batteries and cards that, at one time or another, I would have just ordered in from overseas. I have to say that it is immensely reassuring to have the backup of dealers such as DVT, so that when something does go wrong ( as it inevitably will ), you’ve got somewhere physical to take those products to, and you’ve got good advice about shipments and when things are going to be available. It’s interesting, having spent many years being that awful guy that the
And good for close-ups.
dealers think “Oh he’s such a bloody cheapskate”, I’ve really come back to my dealer relationship because, as I say, I think both the dealers and the brands have really come the extra mile in making the price right and offering great service. NZVN
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Dolly at the Pool Hearing that the production scene was starting to heat up, I asked Dennis from The Dolly Shop if he had any interesting hires coming up. “Would you like to visit Sky Sport at Auckland’s West Wave pool where they are using our ciompact GFM Grip Kit Dolly on 50 metre of dolly track?” The pool surrounds were crowded with young swimmers waiting their turn in the various events; the stands held many vocal spectators and a couple of fixed cameras with long lenses but the real action was down one length of the full sized pool.
Sam, Adelle and Simon.
Ed:
Sam the cable runner kept the camera cable out of the way of the dolly and the swimmers walking beside the track while Adelle, the Sky camera op followed the action. Well, she wouldn’t have been able to if it hadn’t been for grip Simon Jones pushing and pulling the dolly, on which she was very comfortably seated, backwards and forwards on the track. I caught up with Simon after the pushing stopped. Ed: Simon, you’re puffed out, and with good reason. Dennis gave you a really hard job tonight and I hope he’s paying you a huge amount of money, because from what I saw, you’re worth every cent? Simon: This is certainly one of the busier jobs I’ve been on. In the 25 years I’ve been doing it, that’s four of the hardest hours I’ve ever experienced pushing a dolly. Ed: he?
But Dennis told you it was going to be hard didn’t
Simon: Aaah ... Dennis might have set me up on this one, he’s lucky we’ve got history is all I can say! Ha ha. Ed:
What’s your official title?
Simon: I’m a freelance key & dolly Grip in the New Zealand film industry. Ed: So you must be pretty fit to handle a 50 metre rig like this? Simon: that.
( still puffing ) I don’t know what to say to
Ed: Well you set it up, so it’s got to run smoothly for 50 metre; you can’t have any bumps in it otherwise the client might complain? Simon: The trouble with a long track like this, is that when you’re constantly running back and forth over it, it will move over time. You have to be constantly checking your wedges and keeping an eye on it. The problem with this job is that, with only 43 seconds between each race, there wasn’t enough time to get to the opposite end of the track and back, to check all the wedges.
But they held?
Simon: I think we did alright, yes. Wide lens is our friend in this job. Ed:
They cure all sorts of ills don’t they?
Simon:
They’re very forgiving.
Ed: Any other particular challenges in this job – apart from the heat? Simon: Yes, the heat, the humidity – I think it’s just the constantness of it – if that’s a word. It didn’t stop for four hours, we just went hard from one end to the other, one end to the other. Ed: And this is unusual for you, because I imagine that, in the film industry, you’ve got some frantic action and then there’s a bit of a lull while things get sorted for the next setup? Simon: Dolly grips are generally busy, setting up for the shot required, then doing the shot. This was pretty full on as far as it goes … good though, I’ve lost a few k-gs. Ed: So what other things do you do apart from setting this one up. Was it just the 50 metre track that you were setting up tonight? Simon: For this job yes. I solely came in to be the dolly grip. I did notice I was the only one there, so obviously everyone else was wise to it and got out early. Ed:
But you do have an assistant?
Simon: I do, Sam Toms, and he was very good. He’s fairly new to this job, but he definitely shows enthusiasm. Ed:
He was the cable runner?
Simon: He was the grip assist and cable wrangler, yes. It’s very important when I’ve got that much cable running behind me; I can’t keep track of it to make sure it’s not going to get caught in the wheels or around a chair, so he was pretty vital today. Ed: How do you know how fast to move that dolly? You’ve got a headset on so are you talking to the cameraperson? more on page 23
Page 20
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Simon: Not always. What I do is look to where the camera operator is shooting. I have a general idea of the lens, I know the size, and then I just make my judgment call on that. For today’s job, generally, profile or three-quarter profile in front of them. But the competitors set the speed in this one and, unfortunately for me, there were a lot of fit kids swimming tonight. Ed: So that’s it … you’re not looking at a monitor to know what’s been shot and therefore making those judgments; you’re just looking at the camera operator and feeling what she wanted? Simon: Often I have a monitor on the sets – more in the movies – but if you’ve been doing it long enough, you know the lenses, you know the field of view and you make your own decisions – “I think we got it.” Ed: And this particular dolly arrangement that you’ve got set up here, is that something that you would also use in the film industry, or is it a bit lightweight for that? Simon: No, this is definitely a lightweight one because of the length of the track and because we were going to be travelling back and forth so often. The bigger dollys, like the Chapman Hybrid or Fisher 10, would just be too heavy to be pushing backwards and forwards at that speed all day. You’d need a team of grips. Ed:
Not just one super grip?
Simon: Ha ha, Not just one broken-down old grip. So yes, it was a lightweight dolly. Ed: Did you always want to be a grip or where have you come from? Simon: I came from a theatre background. I started off in theatre at a very young age through my parents, starting as a stage hand then becoming a fly floor technician doing all the rigging. I toured with a few shows and then sort of edged my way into film, found the gripping side was very similar in a lot of ways to the theatre technician, and I’ve been here ever since.
Ed: What does the line producer look for when they are wanting to set something up? What do they ask you as the grip, or do they just tell you what they want? Simon: In a job like this, it’s set. They know they want 50 metre of track right down the end of the pool following the athletes.
Ed: So it’s a myriad of talents that you have – you could also work in the theatre as well as film or television?
More often you will go on a reccie with the Director and DOP, they have their vision and they tell you what they desire and …
Simon: I think there’s a general crossover because of the rigging involved – know your knots, know your rigging. But they are both, highly skilled areas of expertise.
Ed:
You tell them what’s possible?
Simon: Ed:
Page 23
We say “yes sir, we’ll make it happen.”
Uh-huh – is it that easy?
Simon: magic. Ed:
Trying to make it look easy – that’s the
Which other of Dennis’ toys do you get to use?
Simon: I’ve worked in conjunction with Dennis for a very, very long time and been able to use most of his toys. He’s got cranes, sliders, dollies, technodollies, technocrane’s, helicopter mount’s, you name it … Ed:
So can you operate that technocrane?
Simon: Oh yes, we do it often. I’ve got it on tomorrow – a 50 footer out at Bethels. We use them all the time. More so in movies of course, but big commercials will often have the budget for them and they’re a great tool. Ed: So you’ve got to go home and have a good sleep now? Simon: I’ve still got to wrap out that track!! Then home to bed. 05.30 call at Bethels tomorrow so up before the birds ... Ed:
I’d better let you get on with it.
Simon:
Thank you sir.
In overall charge “poolside” was Janine Hancock – probably the most important person in this whole operation, because without Janine who is a production manager and floor manager from Sky Sport …? Janine:
Yes, I’m doing both tonight.
The production has taken us probably about 4 weeks to get this all going, organising all the crew, the camera people, the audio people, and then also having to organise the dolly track that runs alongside the pool, as well as liaising with New Zealand Swimming to make sure that they get what they want from us. Ed:
So New Zealand Swimming is the primary client?
Janine:
Yes they are, that’s correct.
Ed: And then it goes up onto Sky Sport, so it’s got to look good for the punters too? Janine: Well it does. We were backwards and forwards talking to New Zealand Swimming about how this event runs, because it’s quite different from the New Zealand Opens where we normally have heats in the mornings and finals in the afternoon, but this is just straight finals and quite a fun event for them as well.
So it’s something a bit different on TV also; we’re waiting for points to come through for teams; as it happens, it’s updated. And, as you saw at the end of the event, we get quite a bit of excitement with the relays and then only get the final totals towards the end of the night. Ed:
Have you done one of these before?
Janine: Yes, I’m actually a swimming mum. So I know swimming inside out. I’ve got a son in the State swimming team. Ed: You’ve been on that side of it, but have you been on the production side for Sky before, doing this same job? Janine: Oh yes, I’ve been at Sky for 14 years. I’ve been in production only for about 3 years, but I was also at OSB, so I’ve been on their side of it as well. You move around with Sky, it’s good. I’ll probably stay in production for a while – I love it. Ed: So really it’s taken you a month just to do this one production? Janine: Yes, but in the meantime, I’ve had other ones on the go. Ed: I was wondering that they’d let you have a whole month to do one evening’s swimming. It doesn’t work like that? Janine: Absolutely not, no, you’ve got several on the go at one time, so I’ve
Janine pool side. Page 24
got bowls on and I’ve got rowing events. The rowing event isn’t live, but you’ve still got ENG camera crew going down and reporters and things, so they’ve all got to be organised as well and transport and accommodation and so forth. It’s been busy. We did baseball back in January and that was only 2 weeks to organise that one, but it was fun, it’s good. We’ve got a crew of about 9 production managers in the office and everyone gets assigned different jobs and sports to do. So there’s someone who does the Super Rugby starting, and that’s a huge job; and then we’ll have others who do the Netball and the League and so forth. Ed: So apart from the 50 metre track that Simon was operating this evening, was there anything else that was special about this particular event … I know there was a slo-mo camera on the dolly?
A Sky crew in action.
Janine: Yes, we often have slo-mo cameras for sports events. With the cricket, you’ve got the drone happening now. We can’t afford to have the Spidercam happening in New Zealand; you see that a lot in America, but no, not here. Just the slo-mos here. We had a special camera up on the diving board that looked through, and that took the whole pool complex, so that gave us a good view as well of the whole event. Ed:
When are you going to have a submarine-cam?
Janine: There is one underwater. down the far end … Ed:
There was one
No, one that tracks them underwater?
Janine: Oh tracks underneath … that would be cool, that would be awesome. I’ll have to tell the boss about that one. Ed: Well we could look forward to that next year possibly? Janine:
We could, we could indeed.
Ed: But it could interfere with the swimmers – they might think it’s a Great White! Janine:
It could yes – it might put them off.
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Ed: I also notice that you were using the natural light here. When the event started, you must have had some daylight coming in, and then mixed with the … well, what are these lights, they look like sodium vapour some of them? Janine: We have people in the truck who are looking at the vision and making sure that it’s correct and stays sort of the same all the way. So yes, there are people in the truck who do that. Ed:
You don’t have to worry about lighting?
Janine: floor.
No, I’ve got enough to worry about on the
Ed: And it all went smoothly, everybody did what they were supposed to at the right times? Janine: Well it did; we had a fire drill to start with, so we just made it on air … Ed:
You had a fire drill where – in the pool?
Janine: In the pool, the whole pool complex got evacuated right through to the other pool. Not good – 4 fire engines turned up, so it was very busy for a while, but we managed to get on air and it was all fine. Rest assured, no swimmers or crew were harmed and NZVN the event went off without further interruption.
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I have some Questions for you. But let's start with a grizzle which I'm surely allowed at my age. What do I have to grizzle about? - lack of feedback from YOU, dear readers.
120g paper will do a very good job for minimal outlay. Am I right?
I really do want some indication of the sort of stories / articles / information you would like us to present. Last month I asked for someone who does lots of web stuff to contact me so we could do a story on codecs, compression and delivery.
I have been asked to do product reviews especially for cameras. My response has always been "no" because ...
How many responses did I get?
None.
I think that there are many of us ( me included ) who would like to hear from someone who has made the mistakes and has learnt some better ways. From a reasoned discussion, we can each decide what is good for us and our clients. So, please share with others because others have shared with you over the years through these pages. This also goes for any other expertise you might have gained through research or experience, especially in areas where you have seen or heard others making mistakes. Some people may not heed your advice, and they may have their reasons, but others will be most grateful for someone telling them a good tip or trick. For example, I recently spoke with someone who was about to order some very pricy colour balance cards so that he could white balance his camera to give warm or cold looks. Not having a critical requirement, I suggested that an A4 sheet of pale yellow and pale blue
Product Reviews
1.
it's a major job taking too much time to do it well.
2.
there are plenty of reports on the web to make your own comparison judgement on
3.
people use the same camera for different purposes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; often to give a "look" that may not be one the manufacturer intended.
NZVN Policy Questions 1.
do you agree with our policy not to publish press releases unless they are paid for as advertising?
2.
should we do reports on brands that are available in NZ but who are not contributing to NZVN by advertising?
3.
would you be prepared to pay for NZVN in printed form to be mailed to you? If "yes", how much per year? $20 / $30 / $40
Please email your answers / suggestions or comments directly to me. They will not be published or individually shared with any attribution. ED
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