APRIL 2016
Vol 223
The View from Timaru We are in Timaru, it’s a beautiful day and I’m here because one person out of all of you out there actually emailed me to say “yes, I’d love to talk to you Grant, when you’re on your South Island travels.” That person is Brian High and I thank you for that Brian and I hope this interview goes well. Ed: Brian, you’ve been in the industry since the film days, and we’ve got a lovely shot of you with a Bolex – what was the model? Brian: I don’t know – it’s a black and silver one! Ed: As you can see, this is not going to be a technical interview, but Brian, I discovered in my pre-interview talk, is more of an artiste than Brian with a treasured memento from the days of windup and chemicals. a technical person and, of Ed: Ah well, you’ve got to take the rough with the course, to take good pictures, you need to be an artiste. smooth. You’re in this position where there’s no one However, I’ve also discovered he’s very personable, and around to help you, you’re a lone cameraman doing to be a good interviewer and lone cameraman, you need stringer work for the broadcasters. You don’t have the to be personable, because you’ve got to gain the luxury of a reporter, so you’ve got to be the confidence of the person you’re interviewing. Is all of cameraperson, the interviewer and the producer, all in that correct Brian? one? Brian: I guess it is. I mean the reason that I asked you to come down here was to have a cup of tea and to congratulate you for what you do. I wasn’t anticipating this to be quite honest.
Brian: Yes, and it is a little bit like playing tennis against a brick wall with a brick, because you don’t get a lot of bounce off. But it’s not all the time; sometimes we
get reporters down and sometimes a full crew. Just the other day, I was doing something for Story and I was just second camera on a shoot that they were doing. Not all my work is for television – a lot of it these days is for corporates and documentaries and commissioned work, so you’ve got to accommodate the broad spectrum of different types of people. Ed: But when you get that phone call from the broadcaster to say something’s happening somewhere, go there, get what you can, you’ve got to provide all of those services in one? Brian: That’s pretty much it. I’m really lucky in that a lot of the people who I work through in Christchurch, at TVNZ in particular, but also TV3 – Phil Corkery, the editor there, and all the editors that I’ve worked for at TVNZ, ( Steve Bloxham the current one ) all pretty well know that I can just “jump and run” and get the product back to them. The problem tends to be when you get hooked through to Auckland and there’s new people there that you don’t know and they don’t know you – but the Christchurch crew pretty much lets me just get on with it and I’ll go and get the story and come back with the goods. Ed: And that’s it – “the goods” are not just nice pictures? Brian: No. At the end of the day, the goods are a story. Whether it’s a still picture or a video picture, all you’re doing is you’re telling a story and you’ve got to get all the components – the audio and the vision that tell the story. A lot of that is filming people and so you
“Safety first” in a harness.
have to know what the story is and the background to it and I have to encourage people to tell me the story. Ed:
Just like what I’m trying to do now!
Brian:
Yes, and I’m not doing it very well am I?
Ed: Well, we’re not used to being on this side of an interview are we? I’m the same, don’t try and interview me. But I can sense that you have that ability that, when you’re thrown into a situation with someone you’ve never met before, you point a camera at them and you can get them to tell you a story in 40 seconds? Brian: One of the things that works to my advantage down here is that most people do know me and there is that element of trust that people have, just from the fact that I’ve been around for quite a long time. Quite often, the stories that you’re asked to do are to do with tragedy and you have to approach people treading softly and being sympathetic. They come first. Ed: Let’s talk cameras. I am sure you have had a long association with the Betacam format? Brian: Yes, I loved Betacam. It was so reliable and it gave the best pictures for the time. It just kept going. One memorable instance was when I went through Africa with a reporter – just the two of us – following the troubles there in 1992. We were well away from civilisation and any technical help. It was hot, dusty and the roads were rough. We were there for 6 weeks and never once did I have a breakdown or lose any footage. The main problem we had was the cost of getting the locals to help us, because we happened to be close in the footsteps of Michael Palin and a BBC crew of about 30 who must have been handing out huge wads of cash, so when the locals saw us they expected the same. Sadly for us and
Cameras for all occasions.
Go to https://sites.google.com/site/nzvideonews/ for more news. P9
Creative Production
P15 Keeping Focus in Queenstown P21 Rosco at PLS Page 2
DISPLAY & CLASSIFIED ADVERT BOOKINGS BY WED 11 MAY ADVERT COPY BY FRI 13 MAY UP ON THE WEB BY FRI 20 MAY
them, the production budget did not match that of the BBC. Ed: Since Betacam, you’ve had a progression of cameras to now the Sony FS7. So when you chose the FS7, you chose the Sony zoom lens along with it? Brian: Yes it was all down at Mike Symes’. I must admit I’d like a better lens – wouldn’t everybody – so it’s more than likely the next thing that I’m saving up for is a lens. Ed: Well I guess that depends what you’re doing with it, that’s the thing? Brian: Well creatively, you do tend to get the good juice out of a good lens. I quite often like just working with a standard 50mm. Ed:
Why is that – what’s special about the 50mm?
Brian: There’s a more human thing in how you see a scene … it’s something to do with your brain and how it takes in the image. Ed: Isn’t 50mm the lens that suits the human vision, so when you look through a camera with a 50mm lens, you see the identical picture? Brian: I think that’s it. It’s just how you naturally perceive things and then, with a real wide angle, you’re distorting your perspective, and the same with a long lens. They’re good for effects, but if you’re telling a story, you don’t really need the zoom lens, you walk up to the subject and reframe it or if you want to get back you move back further and get all that you can in with the 50mm.
Ed: Now you’ve also got an editing system here for your corporate work, so you’re not only shooting, but editing too. What are you using here? Brian: There’s a big black box over there and there are 3 screens … it’s 10 grand’s worth of stuff in the back of a black box. Ed: Do you know the brand name of the editing software you’re using? Brian: Adobe Cloud something or other. With the Cloud system, you’re meant to be online and you pay a yearly fee and it updates everything itself. I’m not online because I’m a technophobe and I’m terrified of viruses and things crashing. I just like what works. Ed:
So Mike wasn’t able to sell you EDIUS?
Brian: He did! It was on here but I didn’t like it. I was one of those people who took a long time to transfer from film to digital as well – in fact way, way past my use by date. I very reluctantly gave up my 2¼ cameras – I shot a lot of panorama stuff on a Technorama and a Fuji Panorama. I hung on for way too long and then I had to take on a massive learning curve of digital. My archives from that time are terrible just because I didn’t really know what I was doing. I’ve got God knows how many terabytes of data sitting round behind there, you know, in black boxes that I don’t really understand or know what they are. Ed: So are you archiving your wild footage in any way? Brian: Everything that I shoot I do archive onto external hard drives.
Page 4
Editing Solutions Experts The experts providing end–to–end editorial solutions to New Zealand’s film & television industry Authorised Elite Reseller for the complete Avid Video, Interplay & Storage ranges. Official New Zealand Distributor for Avid Media Composer, Avid ISIS & JMR Storage. We are proud to have been selected as one of Avid’s top 100 partners worldwide.
8
Apace Systems
Contact us today for product info, demos and pricing Wellington - Head Office Richard Kelly Ph 021 863 394 richard@atomise.co.nz
Auckland Theo Gibson Ph 021 863 324 theo@atomise.co.nz
Ed: it?
But of course, all your tape is still archived isn’t
ping, pong, crunch” and just ate it and wouldn’t give it back.
Brian: Yes, yes, it’s sitting on the shelves here archived. It’s on shelves, it’s in the walls, it’s under the house … you know I have a massive archive of footage.
I had to take it to a guy in Christchurch, who’s been my saviour forever, at TVNZ – Mike Graham who’s the technician up there – and he found what was likely the last pinch arm roller in the country and replaced it and got me up and going again. So it’s scary stuff every time you fire the thing up now. Ed:
So you got the footage you needed?
Brian: Ed:
I got the footage I needed, yes.
But you just hope that doesn’t happen too often?
Brian: To be quite honest, I’m so busy going forwards, I don’t do this very often. I am flat out, I’m not really coping with the amount of work that I’ve got at the moment and so it’s not very often now that that happens. I have unseen stories sitting in my archive here going back many years. One of the best ones was when the calicivirus was released here. I take on these long-form stories and that was about 4 years’ worth of footage with the rabbits, the build-up in the massive explosion of rabbits in the McKenzie country and I knew something was happening. It’s funny, the old cockies up there, they knew that I knew that they were doing something, but they weren’t going to tell me and so I just kept on doing it, and in the end, I basically got the whole story of the calicivirus and how it was released – but nobody’s ever seen it. Ed: It wouldn’t get anybody into trouble if they did see it, would it? Brian: Ed:
It may do!
Aaaah, best kept hidden then?
Brian: More likely, because they’re good old buggers those cockies, which is another thing. A couple of years ago I went to Arizona with a guy who’s invented this very unique aircraft and this has taken 5 years of me filming the development of it and nobody knows about it. The US Military took it to Arizona to this secret testing ground, way out beyond, a place called Yuma. It’s not even on the map and we were out there filming this thing. So another untold story. Ed: I guess the bad dreams are if somebody comes and wants to have a look at that penguin mating footage from 1993? Brian: Well I did actually have that situation just last week, that somebody said “there’s a bit of footage that you shot 20 years ago, I was wondering if you could get it out and put it onto a flash drive for me?” I can normally do that, so I fired up my old Betacam SP – and shoved it in there and it went “ka-dink, ka-donk,
Ed: So you apprentice?
haven’t
thought
of
taking
on
an
Brian: I have, and I have in the past, but it is difficult. In this day and age, I find that to do good stuff, just takes a lot of time. It’s slow, methodical and meticulous work – particularly in the editing suite here, but to some degree, the same out when you’re shooting. You stay out long way beyond when everybody else has packed up and you get the good shots. I haven’t really found anybody who’s persevered
Page 6
… I did take one person out, and she’s a top cameraperson in her own right now. She came out with me as a job experience thing and we went to a fire … this was the high-band U-matic days, and she persevered and went that extra mile and stayed with it. I thought “yes, you’ve got the makings” – and she has, and she’s gone on to be a top cameraperson. That sort of encourages me every now and then to take somebody on to have a go, but I haven’t found anybody recently. You need a bit of magic to be able to get good shots, to be able to tell a story, to have empathy and sympathy … Ed:
I think it’s called “passion”?
Brian: Yes, it more than likely is passion. It’s like when you see a shot and you go “oh, that’s good” … Ed: Yes, and then you try and quantify it and you can’t? Brian: Yes, and that’s why I’m hopeless with words you know. The reason I took on being a photographer and then a cameraman is that I can never make my words say what I want to, but I find it easier to make my pictures say what I want to. Well I had a pair of “Stubbies” back then too.
Page 7
Ed: That’s alright Brian – trust me, I know what I’m doing. NZVN
PRODUCTION | POST | VISUAL EFFECTS
The experts in 4K workflows DVT has solutions available from production to post to help you take advantage of the quality, productivity and creativity that the new 4K cameras from Sony offer. Our integrated solutions get you straight from the lens to the screen with workflows that are high quality, efficient and cost effective. If you are interested in pushing your production and post production processes to the next level with the high resolution and high frame rate on these amazing new cameras then get in touch with the experts at DVT today.
CINE-ALTA 4K Cameras and accessories
Sony PXW-FS7
Sony PMW-F5
Lens Accessories
Viewfinders
PL Lens Kits
Batteries
www.dvt.co.nz Digital Video Technologies (NZ) Ltd | Phone: 09 525 0788 | Email: sales@dvt.co.nz | 45 Fairfax Avenue, Penrose, Auckland
Like dvtnz to stay up-to-date with the latest promotions and industry news.
Creative Production We are in the Auckland offices of Locus Creative with Ryan Baigent but not his brother Jared. We will talk about Jared because he’s part of this dynamic duo but he is away shooting today.
Ryan: We use After Effects, Media Encoder and Photoshop – those are the main ones. Ed: Oh come on, there’s lots more there? Ryan:
Yeah I know … Ed: Well I know one in there, and it’s called Audition – the audio editing software – but I understand you don’t use it? Ryan: No, I haven’t actually touched it. I’m a Pro Tools man through and through, that’s what I studied on. I actually studied on Logic and Pro Tools, but Pro Tools is what I’ve mastered and I’m fast on it and I know it back to front. Ed: This is the Pro Tools software version only?
Ryan relaxes with his ADAM monitors.
Ed: What interests me is that you guys are into video production, you have your own suite here, and you’re doing things for broadcast, doing things for the web and you’re doing pure audio things. So it’s a combination of the skills of both of you that’s enabled you to cover the bases, shall we say? Ryan: Yes, very much so. Jared’s background is in TV – he’s been in production for about 10 years, and I’ve been in audio for about 15 years. Ed: And your expertise is in the audio side? Ryan: Yes. I studied at MAINZ here in Auckland graduating with a Diploma in Audio Engineering and Music Production. As soon as I graduated, I went to Wellington and worked at TVNZ Avalon Studios for 2 years as a sound operator. Then I went to Dubai and worked in production over there for 3 years, which was a lot of fun but crazy hot. Ed: So you’ve come back to New Zealand to make your fortune? Ryan: Not exactly my fortune, but it’s where home is. I love it here and we seem to have got some traction in what we do – an all “in house” audio and video production company, so we make a good team. Ed: Right, so your production workflow – in your system here you have Adobe Premiere as your one and only editing platform. Who uses that? Ryan: Both Jared and I use that. For television, Jared’s doing all of the editing and for corporate, we’re both sharing the workload. Ed: And you find Premiere and your customers find Premiere perfectly adequate? Ryan: Yes, it’s been good. We were Final Cut 7 and then they brought out Final Cut X and we didn’t like a few things … Ed: I think you weren’t the only ones! Ryan: I know, I know, we quickly made the switch and have been happy with it. Now we’re just used to it and, with Creative Cloud, it’s made it really good to have the whole smorgasbord of applications at our beck and call. Ed: What other applications from the suite do you use?
Ryan: We have the 003 Rack for hardware; that’s back when it was Digidesign.
Ed: So this is rather an old box? What does it actually do that’s of value? Ryan: It has 4 mic preamps which is more than enough for our usual single or dual voiceover sessions – I’ve had it for about 10 years and it just makes life a bit easier for us for connectivity. Ed: I guess the main thing is that Premiere talks to Pro Tools and Pro Tools talks back to Premiere seamlessly? Ryan: Yes it is seamless, we haven’t had any issues. So all of our audio no matter which application runs through the 003 Rack and out of our ADAM A7X monitors. Ed: Oh, ADAM monitors, now here’s a chance for a plug for Mr Buckland. You’ve chosen these ADAMs – well you call them “monitors” I’d call them “speakers”, but monitors/speakers, potatoes/po-tar-toes … so you’ve chosen them because you’ve had experience with them? Ryan: Yeah, I hadn't mixed on ADAMS before, but I’ve only heard good things and I had a friend who had some ADAM monitors and he raved about them, so I got a Sound Techniques demo pair and tried them out. I was just blown away by the sound quality. Ed: What do you mean “sound quality”? What was it about the sound that you liked? Ryan: Just the clarity. Basically it’s got a really good range right the way through. We did have Wharfedale’s in here before we could afford to upgrade and we did a comparison when we demo’d the A7X’s – they were phenomenal. We gave them a really good run through. Ed: So is it that you hear the good stuff, or is it that you hear the mistakes or the things that need to be fixed better with these ADAM’s than you do with a cheaper speaker? Ryan: Yes, very much so. They have ribbon tweeters in them which give you super clear and crisp top end, as opposed to a dome tweeter – you just hear all the imperfections … well I do anyway, and most other people just don’t bat an eyelid at it. Having the clarity through the frequencies means I can have a more accurate mix, especially with voice.
Page 9
Ed: And if you’ve got the luxury of time you can then fix the audio track? Ryan: Yes, definitely, fix it as needed. Most of the time I make time to fix imperfections. Ed: Oh okay, you don’t get obsessive about this though do you? Ryan: No, I’ve learnt not to get obsessive – as every audio engineer knows, you go through a phase early in the learning stage where you just get obsessed with getting that perfect sound. You can just spend days and days and end up going backwards if you’re not careful and it can really be destructive. Having good reference material like other production mixes really helps if you’re struggling. After a while you become really in tune with your monitors (speakers) and can accurately mix knowing your output will sound great without a reference. Ed: Of course, this is sound that could have come from a Go Pro on a race track and you know how it comes out to the audience don’t you? Ryan: Unfortunately yes. Ed: Out of a little speaker on the side of a television set, and there are probably lots of crunching chips and beer bottles clanking in the background? Ryan: Yes, very much so … Ed: But you’re doing this for your art aren’t you? Ryan: Yes and no, there still needs to be a level of professionalism. Generally the average listener won’t actively notice a good mix and will just enjoy the show but if there is something that sounds un-natural then people will start feeling uncomfortable and agitated. There is always going to be someone with a nice home
cinema setup watching, so if I can mix and output to sound great on the ADAMs A7X’s then I can be confident it will translate to a home cinema setup as well as a standard TV. If it’s sounding good on the A7X’s, then I’m happy. Ed: Okay, let’s get down to the nitty gritty –when Jared’s done his edit in Premiere, how does he then pass on this material to you? Ryan: He’ll have 2 outputs that he’ll give me; one is an H264 .MOV generally compressed to 720p. Ed: So that’s just a movie file and you’re not allowed to play around with the video at all? Ryan: Well I can’t. Pro Tools won’t let me edit it, it just comes in as a solid track. Ed:
And Jared won’t let you edit it?
Ryan: No, he won’t. Basically, it’s just for reference for sync and to keep me amused while I’m editing, otherwise it can get pretty boring looking at waveforms and automation. Ed: As well as that MOV file, you get all the audio tracks? Ryan: Yes. So the second file that Jared outputs is an OMF file. The OMF contains every audio track from Premiere and the sections of audio as well, so I can trim various bits and pieces. I clean up the audio tracks and then just start listening and mixing. Ed: So it brings in all of the original audio with the clips marked, showing you where the video edit took place, but you can play around with those, expand them, contract them, do what you like with them – all the original audio is there from all the tracks?
Page 10
Ryan: Yes. I don’t play around too much with the duration of the audio coming in, because they are synced with the video edit points. Ed: And then you put the voiceover if a voiceover’s required – you record all of that here? Ryan: Yes. We just use the basic .MOV audio output as the reference for somebody coming in to voiceover, and they’ll just stand in the booth and be able to hear what’s going on as well as lay down a voiceover while watching the MOV or a script at the
same time. We have talkback setup and aircon in the booth for comfort. Ed: And in the booth you have another of Mr Buckland’s products? Ryan: Yes, the Neumann TLM 102. It’s quite a small Neumann … but this one packs a punch for its price. Ed:
But you get a good deal there don’t you?
Ryan:
Oh yeah, oh yeah – a very good deal. Ed: Now you talk about tweeters with the ADAM’s – Neumann a ribbon microphone?
ribbon is the
Ryan: No, it’s a large diaphragm condenser. We did a lot of research looking for a great voiceover mic and then got in touch with Sound Techniques again for a demo and put it through its paces, then did some proper production voiceovers with it. We were very happy with it, and ended up investing. Ed: Because again, this is just going out on broadcast television or on the web, but you’ve got a better product there in behind if it’s needed? Ryan: We wanted to be able to have a set up here where we’re not restricted. We just want to have some good gear that will help us produce a better product at the end of the day. Ed: Okay, so once you’ve done your audio edit in Pro Tools, how do you get it back to Jared?
In the audio booth with Neumann. Page 11
Ryan: With the new Pro Tools, I can do an offline bounce which dramatically reduces output times unlike the previous versions of Pro Tools that would bounce in real time. So I’ll do a stereo bounce and then he’ll load that back into a final session in Premiere and then do the output. Ed: So does Jared do some further audio levelling or mixing or anything? Ryan: No. Ed: He’s not allowed to touch that? Ryan: No, he’s not allowed to touch it, just like I’m not allowed to touch the video. Ed: Okay, so then that gets put together and you fire that off to the network … if you’re doing it for the web, is there any difference when you make a separate audio mix for the web? Ryan: No, we’ll just output the same pretty much. Sometimes for the web, I will output a higher level. For TV, I’m aiming at -12db. For the web, I’ll go right up to -6 to -4, depending on what I’m mixing. Ed: Do you do any loudness monitoring? Ryan: I do for broadcast TVC’s which is at the OP59 standard, and limit to the desired level for TV production – so I do basically what is required for compliance, otherwise it just gets thrown back our way and we have to re-output it. Ed: But for your TV programme, is loudness an issue? Ryan: Well not for us. Ed: But you’re looking at that as you’re doing something, so when a V8 comes past and blows its engine, it’s not going to deafen people?
off. I’d compress something first, automate if it needs to be brought up or down, and then you get smoother transitions from varying volume levels, which is what I do in Pro Tools anyway. So try and keep changes in volume as smooth as possible when you come to mix. Ed: Are there any particular sites that you can go to, to learn more about this. I know for example with Premiere you can go to Audition, click on “help” and then you can go to forums and tutorials about Audition and learn how to use that particular product … are there other areas where you can go and learn more about basic handling of audio files? Ryan: Yes. Avid have some online videos and tutorials; they’re probably a little more for the intermediate/advanced audio engineers, but YouTube has some great beginner “how to’s”. Generally if there’s something that I don’t know, I’ll Google it and then find somebody who’s explained it well, watch it and learn. There’s a great number of tutorials online; it’s an amazing resource. Ed: And some of your work is in fact pure audio? Ryan: I do external TVC’s and mixes for broadcast as well. I love doing sound design but I don’t do enough of it. I love sound design and the creative process, it’s just a different field; you can really get creative and play around with different elements and enhance the visual story. Ed: Now let’s just finish off with the visual side of your business. You’re running a Sony FS7 and a Sony A -7R II. Just tell us how that works? Ryan: Because Jared’s based out of our head office in Auckland and I’m based in Hamilton, I have the
Ryan: No, it’s not. When I’m mixing, I use automation, limiters and compressors to manage track levels, so when it does finally get to the master fader, it’s basically hovering around the level which we want it to output at, and then I use a light mastering limiter so it won’t go above the desired level. Ed: In many editing programmes including Premiere, there is “normalisation”, so you can click on an audio clip and just normalise it to -12db. Is that a valid thing to do? Ryan: If you’re going to separate audio post, it shouldn’t matter … if you’re doing everything in Premiere, if you have to do a mix and you’ve got a quick output for a client, then I guess so, but I don’t like short cuts. I like getting all of the audio files as is and then doing everything in Pro Tools. Ed: For the average punter who doesn’t have Pro Tools and they just want to make things sound better, if they just take their audio track and normalise it to 12db, what are the downsides to doing that? Ryan: Depending on how low the audio is. If they’re normalising and then it brings the level up, then you’re raising the noise floor, you can get a whole lot of hiss which you can EQ out but it will compromise the clarity. You’ve just got to use your ears basically. Recording a good level when you are shooting is crucial, make sure you know the dynamic range of what you are capturing and avoid overloading while maintaining a strong signal. Ed: Is it better, for example, to go through your audio clip and make sections of that audio clip and then normalise those separately if the audio happens to be louder in one place than in another. Is that a simple option? Ryan: No it’s not – it’s better to automate, compress or limit, otherwise you’ll get volume changes where the cut is; it will all of a sudden jump up or drop Page 12
A-7R II and my own self-contained kit for corporate work, and Jared has the FS7 for broadcast and corporate. At the moment we’re in our motorsport season as well as filming our show Fishing & Adventure and he’s away most weekends shooting. We’ve done a few shoots where we’ve needed both the cameras and they work really well together. We just do a little bit of tweaking to match them, but generally we’ve been really happy. Ed: Are you using the recording in both situations?
onboard
Ryan: Yes we are. Coming from the cameras I had before the A-7R II, a Blackmagic pocket-cam and a Canon 7D, I was thinking about an external monitor/recorder … the 7D after 5 or 6 years of use just gave up and I found that I could get a good image out of the pocket-cam but the battery life on it is just ridiculous so you need an external battery. I just wanted something like a DSLR that had a little bit more diversity. I can utilise it for stills and video, because I do a little bit of still photography so that’s why we got the A-7R II. We do a bit of aerial stills and video as well, so we wanted something to cover the bases. Ed: And your operation here, you’ve got some other people that you bring in. When I arrived there was a
Ryan on location.
chap here with a drone and you’ve got a graphics person, so you’re quite a little community here? Ryan: Yes. We’ve got some great guys beside us, other small business owners that we’ve teamed up with and we know them really well. As a complete in house production company we wanted to create a space here where we could work with likeminded creative businesses and offer a one-stop-shop. It’s working NZVN great so far.
Page 13
Keeping Focus in Queenstown We are here just out of Queenstown, overlooking the beautiful Shotover River – and we will have to speak louder every time a Shotover jet whizzes past because Miss Hellfinger’s ears ( although still shell-like ) are not what they once were. I’m here with Mike McLeod, Widescreen Productions, put on to me by Mike Symes from Christchurch, because this Mike is another one of that Mike’s very happy customers. Ed: Mike M, before we get to your current state, just tell us a little bit about your background. You’ve been in this business since you left school I understand? Mike: Yes, I started straight out of school with the NZBC as it was then – just before they went to split up into TV and radio. That was at the end of 1973. I joined the film camera section there catching the end of the black and white film era. It was in the following year they had the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, and that’s when they started broadcasting in colour and from then on we started shooting … still a lot of black and white, but started shooting some colour as well. Ed: So what are the disciplines you learnt from those early days in film that you still find valuable today? Mike: The key one probably was “discipline” – not just to shoot everything. You couldn’t afford to when you went out with often 200 feet of film in a magazine, which would be 5 minutes of film and you’re expected to get a story with that. If you came back and had shot 400 feet of film, you were probably going to be told off. But you had to know how to shoot a sequence and you thought about it before you shot it. You’d get your establishing shot, your close-up and you’d work out with the reporter how you were going to do it and what was important in the story. So there was probably a lot more thought went into what you were shooting. You didn’t go out and roll on everything and it gave you great story telling skills. Ed: Are you still in touch with any of the people that you were with in those early days? Mike: There are a number of them who are still in TVNZ that I see reasonably regularly. One of my mentors when I started there was a guy called Max Quinn who now works for the Natural History Unit in Dunedin – a wonderful cameraman. I’ll see Max occasionally, but there’s a few of the old team still around – Waynne Williams, Mike Fitzgerald and Ron Madden in Christchurch. Ed: Okay, in those early days you were in Christchurch and then …? Mike: … then I married Tsehai Tiffin, a TVNZ reporter who got the job for TV One News in Sydney as their Australia Correspondent. I went over there as the cameraman for her. It was the first time they’d trialled having a cameraman in Sydney. Before that, they just used the freelancers and a producer but the producer had resigned so I was able to do both. So that was 2 years of fun and a different experience – on video by then obviously. We came back from there and Tsehai went to Auckland to work on the Holmes Show and so they offered me a job up there on the sports desk, working as a sports producer, because I’d done a lot of the sport in Sydney.
Mike with Shotover River behind.
Ed: Then Queenstown called and you wanted to move here and you did as a fulltime TVNZ person, but then things looked a bit tough and you had an interview with Mr Ralston I understand? Mike: Yes. We came down on staff for 2 years and then there was a big restructuring and we were asked if we wanted to move to Auckland because they were going to shut down the Queenstown bureau. We didn’t like that idea so decided to stay and go freelance, and negotiated a contract with them to just continue doing TV One’s work here for 3 years, and that got us established as freelancers. Ed: And things have changed yet again. The broadcast work is in decline, but you’ve established yourself in the freelance community and have some links into tourism so, again, you’ve got to take what comes, but still using the discipline that you learnt in those early years, producing what the clients need? Mike: Yes absolutely, and we have tried to sell ourselves down here as storytellers. There’s a lot of similarity between a News story, ( which is on average about 90 seconds long ) and something which fits neatly on a website, and a lot of the organisations who are putting video on their websites were just putting up a bit of raw footage, very random in nature. It wasn’t telling a story and I think, to engage viewers on the internet, you need to create a quick piece, but you need to tell them a bit of a story too, so that they come away thinking “oh yeah, that’s good.” So we’ve tried to sell that idea down here and with some success. I think, yes, there is a real crossover of skills between News work and website work. Ed: What do they find difficult … do they perceive it’s a greater cost or what? Mike: I think the perception has always been that video for websites was expensive and that you had to have the big production number to have your big video up on your website, which you’d spend thousands and thousands of dollars on. We were saying that, if you had an event, if you had something which was of interest, we could come and shoot it as we would a News story; shoot it and edit it in a day and have it on your website that night or a day later, and it doesn’t have to cost the earth. So it was more trying to get a shift in thinking from a lot of the tourist operators. The other thing that we pushed too was, because of our contacts in TV, and because budgets are getting tighter in TV, they love free stuff! So it seemed that like, if a more on page 18
Page 15
mediums, so I had a yarn to Mike and he put me on to EDIUS … Ed: He’s known to do that. Mike: Yes, yes – Mike can’t understand why everyone in the world isn’t using it. But to be fair, it suited me perfectly because I can pump anything into it and I can pump it out in any format – and it was easy to use. He’s got a trainer up there, Rick, who was very helpful as well, so that’s good. But being down here, obviously you never know when you’re going to have a major gear problem or issue, but if you’re thinking in advance about what you need, and what you need to buy, it’s not too bad.
I don’t know the story behind this shot, but it looks good.
tourism company – whether it’s Shotover Jet down there or whatever – if they’ve got an event, if they’ve got somebody travelling on their boat or it’s an anniversary or something like that, we’ll come along and record it. Now the broadcast news channels are not necessarily going to send a crew down to cover it with a reporter, but we could go and shoot it. The company pays for it, we’ll shoot it, and because we’ve got good contacts in TVNZ and TV3, we could send the footage up to them. If it’s interesting or spectacular and FREE the broadcasters will use it. The client will probably get something on air, which is priceless publicity for them, and they’ll have something for their website. So they’re getting a double whammy and that’s happening more and more. Ed: And you make sure there’s a bit of subtle branding in there somewhere? Mike: We tell them that you can’t be too obvious, but it’s usually easy to get a bit of branding in there. For instance, this last weekend the National Mountain Bike Championships were on up at Cardrona and there was no interest from the media to go and cover this event, particularly one – the cross-country event – so they employed me to go up and film it. I sent vision up to TV One and to TV3 and it was national news and got on both 6 o’clock bulletins, and they’ve got footage for their website. So it’s a win-win. I just need more of it!
Ed: But malfunctions seldom happen these days do they … I find problems mainly occur when there is an upgrade in some software and other things don’t work because of that upgrade?
Mike: Yeah … I’m not that tech-savvy, I’m still a film cameraman at heart you know, and there was never anything very technical about them. If things are working, I’m happy; if they’re not working, then I just have to get on the phone and ask somebody to make it work. Ed: So being out here a little bit isolated, did you have to go down the path of upgrading all your radio microphones? Mike: Initially I bought my kit off TVNZ, so I had a radio mic and everything with that, which was fine for News work. I’ve since bought other bits and pieces. I think my old TVNZ camera was one of the first generation of the XDCAM disc cams – extremely reliable, still just sings along if I’m using it. But for the tourism work, they all want HD of course, so I bought a Sony 350 off Mike and that’s suited my purposes up until now. Now everybody wants 4K and they want this, that and the other thing, but they’re not going to get it from me! They don’t need it. Ed: No of course not but, being in Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand, you must have a suitcase full of Go Pro’s and at least 2 drones? Mike: I’ve got 1 Go Pro which is probably underused and no, I don’t have a drone and I’m not planning on getting one. If I do need a drone for a
Ed: Now logistically, you’re here in Queenstown, you’re a long way from any supplier, the closest one is Mike in Christchurch and that works for you – he provides a service for you? Mike: Absolutely, yes. Mike’s been good. When I was down here working for TVNZ, we were one of the first to start FTP’ing our stories, which was pretty fraught back then, because your internet speeds were pretty slow and you’re up against a deadline. Trying to find a hotspot that you could get your pictures up reasonably quickly didn’t happen. So that was tricky but I was provided with an edit system and things by TVNZ then. When I went freelance … Ed: You had to give it all back? Mike: I kept it but it didn’t really suit my purpose, because I was doing more tourism stuff. I found I was getting footage on all formats, all
Mike and Tsehai interviewing. Page 18
particular shoot, then there are a lot of guys out there who can operate them really well and I’ll just get somebody in to do it. Ed: Young guys who have been using their thumbs for a long time on PlayStations and so on? Mike: That’s right, yes. Ed: Right – other challenges from here. You said in the early days FTP’ing from here was a problem – nowadays it’s not a problem? Mike: No, nowadays I do it from home – I’ve only got VDSL, but it’s fast enough to be able to upload big files pretty quickly. There were some seriously stressed times back then, trying to get it up there for 6 o’clock. You know how Telecom used to have the hotspots round the place, there’d be one at the Millennium Hotel, there was one at the airport, but the airport was usually shut by the time we were feeding. We’d have to drive to one of those, park outside, log into it and feed … that was a nightmare. Another challenge down here is winter – just a lot of the stories that TV want are weather based and so you’re out in the snow, you’re putting chains on, you’re going up mountains … it’s more of a young man’s game I think. Ed: You’re not taking on an apprentice? Mike: No I don’t think so, the erratic nature of the work down here would make it pretty hard. Ed: So, in summary, what I’ve gathered from our talk so far is that, just a bit like Brian High from Timaru who you might have read about in a previous story, you’re not highly into technology, but you know what you like and obviously people still employ you because, well, you’re actually getting a story out and the images, the sound, that’s all just part of telling the story. Would I be right? Mike: Yes. When I was starting off as a News cameraman, one of the things that they would say, was that being able to frame-up a shot and get it in focus and get the exposure right, was only part of the job. You actually had to be working with the talent and with the reporter to tell the story as well, and you had to be able to get on with people – that was the other key thing. You had to be able to relate to people and just get on with anyone, whether it was somebody out on the street or a politician or royalty. So I think those are still big parts of the job – just being able to relate to people and you’re not going to get a story out of somebody if you can’t communicate with them. So yes, getting the pictures is important, but there’s a lot of other stuff here too. In terms of technology, I’m not great; I’ve got a website, but it needs a bit of work – must get onto that! Ed: In terms of some of the action work you’ve done in Queenstown, you’ve been out on a jet boat with a camera?
Choice locations around Queenstown.
Mike: I’ve been out on the jet boats here, yes. There’s a lot of helicopter work, just getting to emergencies or getting to places – if you’re down in Fiordland there’s only one way to get in there really. Ed:
What about shooting out of a helicopter?
Mike: Yes – my wife insists I wear a harness. For TVNZ nowadays, you have to have a Health and Safety Plan which we didn’t have in the old days. As long as I knew the pilot and I knew the company, I’d much rather choose who I go with and trust them to keep me safe. Ed: They’d be exciting pictures collected a camera after the fall?
though
if
they
Mike: It would be. I got hit by a car once and they collected my camera off the road. That was just out of Rakaia but I don’t think the pictures on it were up to much. Ed: What about from a hang-glider, have you done that yet? Mike: Haven’t done the hang-glider, no … put the Go Pro on there. Ed:
And you’re really not interested in going to 4K?
Mike: No, I kind of know what I’m good at, and I’m just going to stick to my knitting until I hang it all up. Ed:
And then you’ll spend your time doing what?
Mike: Travelling – I’ve got a lot of travelling to do and it'll be nice doing it without large cases of camera equipment. Tsehai and I might shoot some travel videos but that will be it. Ed: Mike:
Page 20
That’s the way out. It is.
NZVN
Rosco at PLS Rosco is a well known name in the cine world – renowned for their gels and backdrops – but the group assembled in the showroom of PLS in Auckland were to hear of some innovations to the standard product line as well as some totally new product. Tom Swartz of Rosco started us off. We have an innovative product called "Rosco View" which is a 2-part cross polarised system for balancing available daylight from windows in a studio. The incoming light might be very bright or variable due to passing clouds. By placing our RoscoVIEW film ( or acrylic sheets covered in film ) over the window glass and having our RoscoVIEW glass filter in front of your lens, you can rotate the filter to very quickly adjust and balance the outside brightness with the inside brightness. This is independent of any key or frontal light you artificially place on your subject. The camera RV filter is a 1 stop filter and the window filter or panel is 1 stop. The result is that now you can use a low power LED to balance the outside light. Another use for Rosco VIEW is to shoot "day for night" scenes without having to build a black tent outside.
Tom, Ruthie and Chris.
have passive cooling. There is a single square panel too called LitePad VECTOR. These are made in the USA or Canada and come with a high TLCI rating and a 2 year warranty. Also, Rosco are committed to supporting their products so that if a user has any problems, they will fix it or replace it from their Sydney office in as
Another Rosco innovation is in a new backdrop material call SoftDrop. Traditionally, backdrops are made of non -transparent vinyl and are heavy. The SoftDrop is lighter, is made of woven cotton, flat matt, easy to light and seamless. This drop shown is what we call a “Day/ Night”, meaning that with the frontlighting up, the day scene is visable, and by taking out the frontlight and bringing up the backlighting the night scene is visible. Drops are custom printed from photos we take or from those taken to our specifications. A daylight photo is printed on one side and the exact same frame taken at night is printed in perfect registration on the back. All sizes of backdrops are possible and if you don't need a custom scene, Rosco have backdrops for hire. They also give advice as to the lighting that should be used. As we are well known for gel, gobos and other scenic products, Rosco made a decision to begin manufacturing our own LED lighting products. We recognised that variable colour temperature lights were causing our gel sales to decline, as with other gel manufacturers. The need for polyester colour was and is starting to decline in theatrical production as well. The next presenter was Remo Stander from Roscoe’s Sydney office who introduced their LED lamp range starting with a Silk 210 wide panel ( almost the size of two "foot square" panels ) with variable colour temperature, 24 Volt, all the accessories possible; it has DMX connections and is of sturdy construction. The panels are flicker-free at high frame rate recording and
Page 21
and multicoloured. The strips are ideal for set decoration and lighting, as they have high TLCI ratings. There are kits with a range of short strips. Uses are varied and up to the creativity of a lighting person. They can be used in cars, bathrooms and other places where space is limited. Lastly on show was the Cube range of architectural lights named Braq 100w, Miro 50w, and Pica 20w. These are powerful LED units which are small and look domestic enough to be left in shot. They deliver variable white, RGBW and UV with wireless remote control and are DMX NZVN capable.
Remo with Silk 210 LED panel.
short a time as possible. Tom then showed us a range of high quality but affordable LED ribbon up to 5m in length. Rosco can supply dimming power supplies, battery packs and wireless remote control units for them too. Strips can be daylight, tungsten, waterproof
The audience had a chance to experience the strip lights personally.
For more information, contact the team at PLS in Auckland www.kelpls.co.nz Phone: 09 302 4100 Tom with strip LED and controller.
Page 23
Email: info@kelpls.co.nz