SEPTEMBER 2015
Vol 217
A Bad Day at the Office A crew on a recent shoot in Auckland was interrupted by a lot of armed police. Yes, Auckland – not Cairo. To tell us the story, one of the crew, Michael Engelbrecht: Ed: What were you doing at the time Michael? Michael: I was on a music video shoot operating a DJI Ronin camera stabilisation rig from Staples Productions – we get all our gear from there. The thing about these rigs is that they’re kind of complicated to set up. Generally, we set them up the night before and then take them to the set the next day, ready to go. We were driving to location with it Michael’s not really a poster boy for “Armed and Dangerous Monthly” I would say. ready to go in the front seat. So it was there rigged up with the camera on it, sitting on my lap in the passenger seat maybe not too much to do, just seeing what these vans as we drove to set. This would have been about 6.00am are up to”, that’s cool. So we arrive at the location, we on a Sunday morning – 2 unmarked vans driving in start unpacking the vans and look up again and find the convoy in Mt Wellington to an empty office building. guy’s gone. “Ok, he’s checked us out and he’s not Admittedly, it must have looked a bit suspicious, because concerned”. an undercover cop started following us. About 15 minutes later, we were still unloading the vans; We noticed straightaway – he wasn’t too low key. We were just like “oh, that looks like a cop, but it’s 6.00am on a Sunday morning, he must be a little bit bored,
I’m in the back of one van pulling out this light stand and I hear “Turn around and put your hands in the air.” Just like an episode of Cops, I turned around and this
policeman with his handgun pointed at me just pops up from behind the other van. Then, all of a sudden, they start popping out of nowhere, all of them with their guns trained on us. There was me and the director, Tim, who were outside, and then our DOP, Dan, who was inside. So straight away, Tim and I had our hands in the air and then were face down on the ground, in a puddle – it had been raining a little. So, a lot of policemen, a lot of guns and a lot of barking: “How many of you are there? What are you doing here? Who’s inside?” All that sort of stuff. It was great talking to Dan afterwards about it, because he was inside, upstairs setting up and he just heard the yelling. He just thought “What’s going on? Have Michael and Tim started fighting already – they’ve only just met each other and we’ve got a whole day to work together!” And then he looked out the window and sees us lying on the ground with police over us, and he’s just like “what have they done, what is going on?” And then they all ran inside after him and brought him out …
Ed: And all the time, there was a cop with a gun trained on you? Michael: Yeah. I was face down on the ground so I couldn’t see, but I could hear him standing above me and talking and eventually when they realised we weren’t dangerous, he rather sheepishly told me “you can stand up now” and I was like “o-o-o-oh, okay, I’ll do whatever you want.” The reason for it all was that the undercover cop who called it in, called for armed backup because he thought we were armed. He said he saw me holding the handles and the handlebars in the front seat and, because it was still dark and we were driving, it looked a little bit suspicious. He assumed that this was some sort of weapon and he called for backup because didn’t want to approach the situation himself, unarmed. Ed: Is this what they told you at the time or did they tell you this afterwards? Michael: This is what he told us when it was all calming down and they were just doing the formalities,
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taking our details and that sort of stuff. great, he seemed very … uuum … Ed:
But it was
Apologetic?
Michael: Apologetic, yes. I guess it’s better safe than sorry, if he had a genuine concern, but it was pretty terrifying for us at the time. Ed: So you feel it was a justified response by the police? Michael:
Uuum …
Ed: You don’t want to dis the police, but … and it’s a big “but”? Michael: It was a bit extreme; it was a lot extreme. I counted six officers. Dan who was upstairs counted 10 and we’re not just talking handguns – some of them had big guns. I think the best part about it was that he was so embarrassed and apologetic. All the other police officers had already started giving him a bit of shit before they’d even left. They’re standing there with their big rifles saying “oooh that’s the gun you saw is it – that one there?” So you just know that he’s not going to live that down for many months. Ed:
Did you get free tickets to the Policemen’s Ball?
Michael: I wish – they wouldn’t even let us get a photo with them. It was definitely an interesting experience and I did get a great story to take from it. Ed: Okay, so next time you’re going to an early morning shoot in unmarked vans with a rig on your lap, what are you going to do different?
Michael: I’m not sure, because we really hadn’t done anything wrong. The interesting thing is this never happened when I was in Wellington, but we were out shooting again the other night and a policeman started following us and checking us out. We were just about to arrive at our location, so we just pulled over and they slowly drove past us with their light shining in our van just to see what we were … I don’t know, either it’s an Auckland thing, or maybe they’re just bored. Maybe they have never seen a camera before. Ed:
Perhaps you could put big signs on the van?
Michael: Yes, if we had a company van that would be great because it would be very clear what we’re up to. But I think they need a bit of education after seeing that a similar thing with a Ronin happened again in New Plymouth a couple of weeks ago. Maybe they just need a bit of education – they should come to one of our workshops. Ed:
What – you mean educate the police?
Michael: Yes just on what these are. I suppose to the untrained eye, if you’re not in the industry and you haven’t seen one before, then you’re going to be like “what is that, what am I looking at?” but it seems so absurd to us that this would look anything like a gun. Ed: Did you actually have the camera on it at the time? Michael: Yes. It was set up so it had the A7S and then a big cinema lens on the front. It was all ready to go, but … yeah, I don’t see it. I guess they must have thought there was something. Thank God it didn’t go
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further – no triggers were pulled or anything like that, which is always a good thing. A little bit terrifying at the time, but I got a great story from it, so no hard feelings there I guess. Ed: Did you policewomen? Michael:
meet
any
nice
No comment!
Aliesha Staples, whom you met last issue, was the one who tipped me off to this incident. Ed: Right Aliesha, that’s a very interesting story and I’m sure you don’t want this happening again with any of the rigs that you hire out – or in fact anybody who has got a rig shouldn’t have this happen to them? Aliesha: Yes, it’s not ideal. It was an interesting wakeup call that I had from Michael. It’s not something you want to have to deal with when you’ve got all these other things going on, on set; you’ve got strict time restrictions and budget constraints to get all this stuff done, and then you’re raided by the police. It’s not fun first thing in the morning. Ed: Is there anything you think you can do to minimise future risk, apart from painting your rigs fluoro pink?
Taken at the scene. One looks scarier than the other.
Aliesha: I don’t think even that would work. I think if it was mistaken for a machine gun now, there’s nothing you could do to it that would make it any more recognisable as a camera rig, because it just doesn’t look like a machine gun! I really don’t know what angle he saw it from but I guess, better safe than sorry. Ed: Obviously we don’t want this happening again, so education? Aliesha: It already has happened again. I don’t think it was specifically this DJI Ronin handheld gimbal rig that sparked a callout. I think two weeks ago, there was another armed offenders callout. It wasn’t in Auckland; it was for a film school shoot in New Plymouth or something. Ed: Right, so what advice can you give to anybody who’s approached by police with guns? Aliesha: I think what Michael did was probably the correct thing – just follow all instructions. I don’t think there really is any advice you can give someone … just hope that it doesn’t happen again. I asked the Police what could be done by both crews and Police to reduce the possibility of this response happening again.
what they believe to be a weapon. In all such instances, Police call takers will ask for as much information about an 'incident' as possible and will, generally, simultaneously dispatch armed staff to attend. Police treat all reports of firearms/weapons as real. It is often impossible to tell whether a 'gun' is real or imitation until it can physically be handled by Police. Similarly, if officers ( on or off duty ) see equipment they assume to be some sort of weapon in public, or in situations that give rise for concern, they are obliged, from a public safety perspective, to safely enquire further. In the event such equipment is discovered to be benign, they will advise that such equipment should be concealed when transported and/or stored in order to avoid generating unnecessary attention from Police or members of the public who might report their sighting to Police for a response. Q: Would you suggest that the operator put a cloth over this ( while still mounted ) when moving from location to location in a vehicle? A: Yes, the best idea would be to conceal/cover the equipment with an appropriate cloth or cladding when transporting. Q: Should the production crew advise Police that they are using/transporting such equipment anywhere a member of the public might view them in operation?
A Police spokesperson replies.
A: If you do the above, there should be no need to notify Police when you are transporting the equipment. Given there have only been two instances where the rig equipment has caused concern for either Police or public, it doesn't seem necessary to notify Police whenever it's being moved.
From time to time, members of the public contact Police and, in good faith, report they have seen a weapon or
So there you are. “Take care out there” is all I can add. Ed. NZVN
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Rarotonga TV We are at the studios of DVT in Ellerslie and we have Stuart Barnaby with us. Ed: Now Stuart you’re not looking particularly tanned, but you’re looking very relaxed. Why might that be? Stuart: Well we just had a contract to install a bunch of broadcasting equipment for the Ministry of Culture and Development in the Cook Islands at Rarotonga for the 50th constitution celebrations. Ed: And you just had to go over there to oversee the whole operation? Stuart: Well we spec’d the appropriate equipment for them and one of the staff members had to go over.
Many a fantasy expressed in this picture - not only Stuart’s.
Being the boss I thought well, you know, I can’t possibly put this upon the other members of staff – it would be pretty arduous. Ed: I can image Chris could have got into a bit of trouble over there, knowing what he’s like in Las Vegas?
Stuart: In fact if I’d known how much hard work it was, I would have sent him! Ed: But the results … they’re very happy with the installation you provided? Stuart: Yes, it was a wonderful experience to be able to go up there and help them get everything in
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So they’ve got a fair variety equipment that they can use. Ed: And system?
what’s
the
heart
of
of the
Stuart: The heart of the system’s the NewTek TriCaster, so they’ve got a permanent one of those fixed in the auditorium and a TriCaster Mini that they can take out in the field to do various things. We did an outside broadcast while we were there of the parade that they had leading up to the 50th celebrations and it was fun to take that out – very simple and easy to set up which was great. We had three cameras in operation, one up on a cherry picker where they could get a good elevated shot, and a couple down at the parade height as well, and it worked extremely well. Waiting for the parade.
place and provide the installation and the training that they needed to get up and running. They’ve got a fabulous system up there that’s truly world class and is going to be a valuable resource for them in the future. Ed: So this is a full broadcast centre at a suitable budget for the Cook Islands? Stuart: Absolutely. They’ve got a National Auditorium where they hold a large number of cultural events over the year and they were using the 50th celebrations as a catalyst to set up a full production and broadcast centre in the National Auditorium. They have field equipment as well to supplement that, so that they can actually go out and do live broadcast from the field and also use this equipment to document what’s happening in the Cook Islands over time too. Ed: So really it was a very wide brief that was a case of providing equipment for this event, but also for the future and for a whole range of options. So what sort of package did you come up with for them? Stuart: On your first point, it’s typical that organisations only get to spend budgets on certain things at certain times and so they wanted an allencompassing solution that will not just meet their needs for what they currently have to do, but will also stretch that to other activities in the future.
Ed: So we know the TriCaster’s very versatile, that it has a built-in recorder, it has its own graphics package, it has lots of things in there in one, but it also has a streaming ability. Did you set a streaming situation up? Stuart: The key with this particular event, apart from providing the vision mixing and the camera equipment, is it was the first time that the Cook Islands had broadcast an event on Rarotonga live to the entire Cook Islands. They were very excited about being able to allow the people on the outer islands to join in and celebrate what was happening on the main island. The Cook Islands is made up of 15 islands, and they’re very geographically dispersed. It’s a 4 hour flight from Auckland to Rarotonga and if you get on a flight from Rarotonga to the northern Cook Islands, it’s a further 4 hours. They’re very geographically dispersed, and as a consequence there’s no Telecom cables that connect the Cook Islands to the rest of the world. So everything that comes into Rarotonga or anywhere else in the Cook Islands is all via satellite. For this particular event, because it was such an important occasion, the local Telecom sponsored the event and provided links via satellite to be able to broadcast to the outer islands, which was quite a complicated setup. They basically took the vision mix that we did in the auditorium and
So in this particular instance it was about providing a fixed vision mixing and graphics recording solution in their AV centre inside the auditorium, plus we’ve supplemented that with three pan-tiltzoom cameras that they can remotely control, and that basically gives them the opportunity inside the auditorium to do events with a very low number of staff count controlling those PTZ cameras and doing the vision mixing in a smaller way. They’ve also got four field cameras that they can use to either supplement that inside the auditorium, or to take outside to use for the outside broadcasting system as well. Page 7
sent it via satellite up to Hawaii and then it came down via the Southern Cross cable network to Auckland and then Telecom here in Auckland broadcast it via satellite to all the outer islands – and it all worked exceptionally well. There were tests done prior to the event and everything went without a hitch, it was great. Ed:
In the future, is there any easier option for them?
Stuart: I don’t think so, the only way you can get that geographic spread of data is with satellite and of course there’s just not enough budget I guess to run cables between the islands. It doesn’t make economic sense, and of course the cost of satellite is coming down over time so that will become more affordable for them. But certainly for major events like this in the future, I can see them either getting sponsorship from Telecom or funding from somebody to help pay for those satellite links to make it happen. Ed: So they could use the streaming solution within an island, or intra-island?
Stuart: Oh totally. There’s no problem for them taking the streaming output from the TriCaster running a media streaming server somewhere on the island and streaming it to everyone on the island; but if anyone’s ever been to Rarotonga they’ll realise that it’s probably easier and more fun to jump on your bike and ride there in 10 minutes and watch the event live. Ed: Okay. Now I know from previous interviews I’ve done with the people from the islands, that there is a major issue with maintenance of equipment – with the high humidity and the salt in the air, especially delicate equipment, you’ve got to look after it. Did you provide any solutions for them in this area? Stuart: Oh absolutely, you know we definitely didn’t sell them any tape-based cameras. But yes the humidity of the environment in the Cook Islands and in fact many of the Islands is a serious concern, so we made sure that all the camera equipment that we sold them was in sealed plastic Pelican cases and all of the equipment that was in fixed installations had appropriate dehumidifying air conditioning set up in proper rooms etc. So we allowed for all of that … but in addition to that, we’ve also sold a product called Zrust to go into the field camera cases. It’s a bit like a moisture absorbent material, so as you close the case and seal it, it will suck any moisture out of the air – and there’s also another portion of the Zrust product range that actually emits a gas in a sealed environment to push humidity
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out of the case as well, so it displaces it. So we’ve taken all reasonable options that we can to allow for the humid environment that they’ll be operating in up there. Ed: And what about the cameras that you supplied to them. What did you supply there, apart from the point of view cameras? Stuart: We supplied them a couple of FS7 cameras and a couple of Sony X160 cameras. The idea behind the X160 cameras is they’ve got a lovely 25X optical zoom lens, so really good supplementary cameras for using inside the auditorium; because of that long lens they can get really great shots on the stage. Also if they are doing an outside broadcast of a sports event or a parade as we did, again that long lens is really handy for them to be able to be in different locations and yet still be able to get into the action. And then obviously, as I mentioned earlier on, they’re buying this equipment so that they can use it in the future to tell the stories of the people of the Cook Islands. The FS7 cameras are wonderful cameras to use for that documentary, current affairs type storytelling and so they’ll be able to take those to the outer islands and around Rarotonga and capture the stories of the people of the Cook Islands in the future. Ed: But with appropriate lenses they can still be used as studio cameras? Stuart: Yes absolutely. The FS7s that they got came with the Sony standard zoom lens which is a good general all-round lens – it’s very simple to operate from a video camera perspective so they don’t need to have highly skilled operators to operate those cameras in video mode. When we did the training for them we showed them mostly how you can set the camera up and either use it in automatic mode or take selective control over it in manual for different circumstances, and they all responded really well to that training and the quality of the pictures that you get there under the beautiful Pacific Island sun is stunning. It’s wonderful.
TriCaster central station.
Ed: And they appreciated the set of Zeiss master primes that you threw in? Stuart:
Yeah well that’s yet to come perhaps.
Ed: In terms of taking pictures, you’re very proud of the pictures that you’ve supplied to this publication for illustrating this great event that DVT has assisted with? Stuart: Nothing can compare to the memories of course, but yes. Ed:
Is this an unusual setup for you?
Stuart: No. This sort of equipment and the way in which it’s used is very common I guess. Quite often we’ll do a lot of this over time with customers – you know they’ll buy cameras one month and vision switching gear the next month and postproduction gear six months later. So we sell this equipment regularly. In this circumstance, when they had this opportunity around their 50th celebrations, we need to do it all at one time and have it installed and up and running and the timeframe that they gave us to do it all was very, very tight. But we work very closely with our suppliers here in New Zealand to be able to pull everything together and we were able to achieve all of that – all the equipment worked perfectly, we managed to deliver it on time, install it on time, everything worked when we got up to the Islands, the staff that they’d provided us with up there to do the training with were wonderful. There was a lot of work to be done and it was very busy, but everything went according to plan. We put a lot of effort in at the front end to do that planning, down to diagrams of how all the equipment would be installed and communicating with their staff in the Cook Islands prior to arriving, to ensure that the things that we needed were already in place. That preparation and planning is very important to make a project like this
Studio on location. Page 10
come off smoothly and I suppose everything did go really, really well.
to
our
credit
could do all of the things that they needed to do but yet still be easy and simple to operate.
Ed: And I suppose the major benefit that a New Zealand customer would have would be that you could add streaming to the mix to the whole of the New Zealand audience?
Ed: Because they’re so far away from any outside support?
Stuart: The whole of the world audience actually. Absolutely – the TriCaster is such an amazingly wonderful product in the fact that it does everything. It does vision mixing, it plays back content that you’ve recorded elsewhere – which is amazing at a live event to be able to show people what it is that you’re talking about, when it’s outside the event or it’s happened at some other time, or some other place. It can record everything that you’re doing, it can stream everything that you’re doing, it can do all the graphics, you can change the graphics on the fly. We were doing all sorts of things in the Cook Islands where we were wanting to change graphics at a moment’s notice and so we just had a PC with a laptop and we were Googling the Islands and throwing those images up into the TriCaster live while the production was happening. We were taking commercials at the last minute from people who were editing the commercials and feeding them into the TriCaster live while we were in the middle of a production. We had two TriCasters working at the same time – the output from one TriCaster coming as the input of another TriCaster. We were controlling pan-tilt-zoom cameras remotely; we had one guy driving three cameras at one stage. It was amazing to see all of that stuff come together and people really enjoyed being able to have the latest cutting edge technology to use and it made that job really, really good to do. Ed: So if you hadn’t had the TriCaster, would you have been able to supply any other product that could have done the same job? Stuart: There are a number of different product ranges that we do … Streamstar, Livestream, Blackmagic, Panasonic and Sony all have vision mixing, recording, streaming type solutions. When we consult with a client, we’ll basically get a list of their requirements and an indication of what their budget is and try and find a solution that will fit that. For the Cook Islands, simplicity was really important. We wanted to be able to provide them with something that
Stuart: That’s one aspect of it, but rather than trying to train somebody up on 10 different products that are all sort of interrelated, it’s far easier to train them up on one and they can get comfortable with that and just know how to configure each of the little aspects of it to do all of the various functions. And so the TriCaster in this particular environment was the right choice. There’s other things that we do where a big Blackmagic switcher is ideal and sometimes the solutions from Sony or Panasonic might be a better fit, and we also sell a lot of Livestream solutions, but really when you’re wanting an all-singing, all-dancing one box solution, the TriCaster is certainly ahead of the rest. Ed: So as well as installation you were there to do some training? Stuart: Yes absolutely. Obviously they wanted us to supply the equipment, to help them with the installation of that equipment, and the training of their people so that they can then get the most out of that moving forward. That was basically our brief and that’s what we worked to. Ed: And you might have to go back again do you think to sort of check up and make sure everything’s working and a little bit of supplementary training perhaps in the depths of New Zealand’s winter? Stuart: I actually think that’s probably highly likely, because they literally wanted two weeks’ worth of installation and training but sadly because this event was upon us and the timeframes were short, we spent most of that time doing mostly the installation part and less training than I would have preferred. With this sort of equipment, with new systems, new cameras, new gear, it takes a wee while to first get comfortable with the general operation of it, but to get the most out of these products. That’s where we’ve got a lot of expertise in saying have you thought about using it in this way or that way or let’s take your knowledge of the product to the next level and really allow people to get a lot more out of it. We’re constantly doing that with customers in New Zealand and I think that’s going to be a big aspect for the Cook Islands as well. Ed:
Someone’s got to do it Stuart?
Stuart: Well you know it’s a tough job, but exactly, somebody’s got to do it! NZVN
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Moving Images at Wintec We’re at Wintec in Hamilton with the Moving Image programme co-ordinator and tutor, John Mandelberg. Ed: John, what’s your background that’s brought you into this programme and tutorial role? John: Originally, I studied to be a graphic designer but was very interested in film. I grew up in Sydney and essentially, when I left Art School, I went and worked for the Australian Broadcasting Commission in editing and from there, I spent 30 years as a filmmaker, editing, directing, producing. The only thing I never did was edit News, but I produced documentaries and dramas. I taught at the Australian Film Television Radio School in the editing department for about 5 years and I taught in the TAFE system in the Film and Television School – not like the National Film School, but it was a similar sort of place like what we do here. I think I’ve got a good overview of the industry after all that. Ed: It sounds like perfect qualifications to me and you’ve found your niche here in Hamilton? John: Yes, I like Hamilton. I like the students here and I’ve enjoyed teaching a whole range of undergraduate and postgraduate students. I’m now teaching an Introduction to Moving Image in the first year, which I haven’t for about 6 years because I’ve been mostly teaching the 3rd year students and a lot of the postgraduate students who come here from international areas, I tend to supervise for their Masters. I’m also the programme coordinator for Moving Image, so I’ve got a bit of an overview of what everybody’s doing. Ed: So if you were to sell Wintec to potential students, how would you do it? There are plenty of TV schools out there, some better known than others, so what makes Wintec a suitable school for prospective employers to say “that’s the student we want”? John: Well I think our school does have a good reputation. For a long time our graduates in Moving Image and in Graphic Design and some of the other areas, have gone on to a lot of overseas destinations for work. I think that we can claim about 80% of our graduates end up working, in some form or other, in moving image – whether they’re working as independent filmmakers, or working part-time or freelance, and I can say that we’ve populated a lot of countries with our graduates. Because we have a strong culture of innovation; we’re interested in going forward; we’re interested in new technologies; we’re interested in the fact that we’re not providing students for a world that doesn’t exist anymore, like broadcast television. You know, they’re much more internet savvy, they’re making work that can go online, they’re producing work online and it’s not just for YouTube. I think that they’re multi-skilled – most of our grads can shoot, edit, direct, have a range of experiences in
working with clients even before they complete their study here, because we have a good client base in Hamilton that are happy to take our students on. Ed: I would see having a good range to be very valuable because, even though they might specialise in one area, at least they know the potential pitfalls if they get something wrong in that area, the flow-on effect it has throughout the workflow? John: I think that generally our students are aware of what everybody does, say in the “food-chain” of film production. It always seems crazy to call it “film production” – I can’t quite call it “media” and I can’t quite bring myself to call it “video” but I believe that understanding all the different roles and all the different responsibilities, makes a better practitioner and I think it helps them to understand how to support all the other roles. Even though you could say a lot of our grads are more entry level, many of them go a long way really quickly and that’s very exciting. I know that even 6 or 7 years ago, I was getting feedback from production people who have taken on our students as interns and have said quite rightly, “we’ll always take your grads because they know the language, they know how to do the work and they deliver”. That’s pretty exciting. Ed: Now as part of your course, I understand that you take some students to Auckland to Panavision to have a look and handle some of the top end cinema gear. Is that a good relationship for you? John: Our relationship with Panavision has gone on for quite a few years now and it’s always been a great opportunity for our 2nd year students to come up and have a look at the range of equipment that Panavision has. Obviously things have changed over the years … we used to bring them up and look at the latest film cameras and we’d hire some gear and we’d take them through that process. Now it is high end HD gear. The experience that they can get looking at stuff that probably we’re never going to be able to hire, has been really exciting and I think the students get a better appreciation of the sort of industry they’re becoming involved in, with Panavision being quite a strong part of that. By meeting the rental people, coming and seeing some of the gear that’s being tested – because of crews coming in and testing stuff – the students get the advantage of seeing what they’re doing. It’s opened the students’ eyes to
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something they hadn’t realised, which is the extent of the money invested in the industry that they’re interested in going into. They have little idea of the scale of our industry. You know, they see stuff on YouTube, on the internet, Facebook, whatever … Ed: Oh, I can do that on a DSLR? John: Yeah well, we always have that as a fallback position for our students, because that’s what they want to do, and that’s what they think is really professional. When they come and have a look and see what a place like Panavision has to offer, they’ve got quite a different appreciation I think. It doesn’t always change their mind. Ed: Well, there has been a big shift to the cinema style of shallow depth of field. How are you looking to bring that into your course – obviously the ideal way would be to equip your students with a whole range of cinema style cameras, but is that really necessary? John: Well I think that there is a misunderstanding that the film industry, television industry, media – whatever you call it, is always looking for the same style over and over again. To a certain extent, that’s not quite true. DSLRs have made a great inroad into film production because, using DSLRs can emulate that beautiful shallow focus with a full 35mm sensor that a lot of the video cameras are not designed to do. Everything is in focus from foreground right through to infinity, and it is quite hard to produce shallow focus. Although we’ve been teaching students about depth of field for years, how to create shallow focus, whether it was with film cameras or with video cameras, it was just always harder. We’ve just put in a claim for a range of cameras that are contemporary, that have full size sensors; we’re also looking at some 4K cameras which are going to give our students a pain in the neck for a long time, because they’ll have to transcode files, but somehow … Ed: But that’s the industry, that’s teaching them what the reality of the industry is – “oh no, this file isn’t actually compatible with our system, we have to convert it”? John: Our students are already using DSLRs, sometimes as a second camera on their shoots; sometimes they’re using them fully for their final production. Many of them have been using them for 2, 3, 4 years from high school onwards and I think they have an understanding, much more than what our students did, let’s say, 10 years ago, about the technology. The one thing I think that we want to instil into them is an understanding of everything that a camera can do, whether it’s a DSLR, video with full size sensors, or “run and gun” type cameras as well. Ed:
To know the difference?
John: Well I think not just to know the difference, but to also realise that a camera is a camera. They’ve all got the same controls, they’ve all got the same
mechanisms for focusing and exposure, so getting a new camera shouldn’t be like having to start back at the beginning again. They know the light they’ll use, they know focus and, to a certain extent, they’re going to work a bit harder when they get a new camera, but in essence they’re still going to be able to make good work with any camera. Ed: From what you’ve said, I gather that your Wintec Moving Image course is very broad in terms of giving a student the whole range of information they might need to go into the industry, rather than providing, like, a specific audio recordist. Now speaking of audio, you do have audio recording as part of your cinema course? John: Yes, from our 2nd year. Because the core courses take place in the 2nd and 3rd years, there’s an introductory course in 1st year, but in 2nd year we run a series of technical papers where the students will learn camera, lighting, sound recording, sound design – and the sound design is also in conjunction with our music department, so they go and do some of the courses there where one of the things that the music students do is produce music for film in their course. They’re writing scores and producing music for sometimes imaginary films, but they also can provide support for our Moving Image students. So our students, when they do the sound courses, can learn Logic Pro, they can learn Pro Tools and they can use those tools to produce their own sound design. We try to teach them to do good voice recordings – sometimes our students are very adept, and have been over the last few years, to do audio dialogue replacement, as you would normally in drama production, do Foley effects … Ed: Which you certainly have to do if you’re recording on a DSLR? John: Well absolutely, and in fact, it is kind of interesting that we go back to film processes where you’d shoot film and you’d shoot sound at the same time and you’d sync the rushes. We’ve got a situation right now where a student who is doing their final film and has been using a DSLR quite effectively for the last couple of years, has used our equipment up to date but has decided “I want to get that DSLR look”, so she’s about to embark on making her film with DSLR only.
Page 14
She’s also editing, so she’s prepared to transcode, she’s prepared to sync rushes … I’ve said to them that they must sync their rushes and view their rushes every day of their shoot, not leave it all to the end and realise that something’s missing. I think that we do have a range of students who develop skills in specific areas, but they also have a good overview of all the roles that are important to produce film. Looking after all the gear at Wintec’s Moving Image is Paul Nelson, technician.
Paul with some of the Wintec equipment.
Ed: Paul, you’re not that far away from the suppliers in Auckland, but do you find it a problem sometimes getting service from suppliers of your technical equipment? Paul: No, it’s really not a problem. Half the time, if it’s a big order, we just jump in a car and take a ride – especially with the new expressway now, it shaves another 15-20 minutes off the trip so it’s really not an issue. We’re happy not to courier things back and forth and all of our vendors are always pleased to see us and make themselves available if need be. In some ways, I think it’s actually of more benefit really. Ed: So your position here is to maintain the equipment to a certain level, but I guess you’ve got to know when you stop and when you send it off to Auckland for repair? Paul: Yes. I just do general upkeep and maintenance, managing gear bookings with students,
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but then also dealing with capital expenses, doing research and recommending new gear, or when to replace certain things or again, keeping relationships with vendors and seeing what people are going for, what’s new on the market, what’s in our price range and that kind of thing. It’s not always just repairs – it’s having that technical knowhow of how everything works so when a student comes in and says “how do I do such and such with this?” it’s providing that kind of support. Ed:
I’ve had a quick look through your equipment room and I see that there’s quite a range of cameras that you’ve got there – nothing incredibly new, but certainly that range would give your students a fair idea of what’s out there and the capabilities of different sorts of camera? Paul : We do have a range, ranging from handheld through to shoulder mount. We’re in the process of determining where to go from here because we’ll be replacing our shoulder mount fleet at some point as they’re aging – probably within the next year or 2. We’ll never be bleeding edge but we do like to have a variety of different gear there just to give a bit more exposure; give the students a bit of a sense that there are different cameras out there for different jobs and why you may or may not use one or choose one over the other.
Ed: But I imagine that the most important thing is to get the students to use a camera correctly, in terms of framing, lighting – the basics of camerawork – so that they can make their artistic decisions based on an understanding of the technology? Paul: Yes. That’s the main thing that our tutors and staff are trying to give to their students as a foundation. What’s important is knowing how to use a camera, like you say, getting the right shot, getting the exposure right, your white balances, your lighting. Once you’ve got that sort of foundation, then you can always take it to the next level. I mean, a camera is just a camera in the end. As long as you know what you’re looking for and how to use it properly really, I think that’s what we try and get across. Ed: So in terms of new cameras, are you looking at cinema style cameras or DSLR type cameras? Paul: Well that’s a bit of a debate at the moment. That’s not to say that a DSLR …
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Ed:
Oh I would, I would.
Paul: Okay. Well I think the Moving Image staff and myself included are always pushing for as high a level as we can possibly squeeze out of our wallet basically, because we’re an Institute of Technology and we think that … I mean any student can pick up their DSLR and do that on their own, so we really try to give them exposure to real buttons and real terminology and real connections and real workflows, and not just 48 hour weekend competition style shooting. Ed:
Well that’s heart-warming to hear.
Paul: It’s a struggle though, because you come across students who say “I don’t want to use that big camera, I want to just take my small camera out because it’s easier.” Yeah, well half the time the stuff’s not in focus, but … Ed: And this is it; you’ve got to explain to them that, in the artistic world, they do have a use, but in the commercial world, not a lot of use? Paul: Right. And that’s hopefully where I’m at – that right track. By talking to vendors and other people in the industry, we try and get a sense of what people are actually doing and we do realise that, in a lot of one -man-band operations, DSLRs are being used from big productions down to small ones, depending on what the budget is usually. But we do try to maintain a level … because that’s where our graduates go. They either go to TV or they go to smaller type production companies where no, they won’t be shooting on those kinds of camera.
Ed: Obviously your job’s not only about cameras. You’ve got to keep the batteries maintained, you’ve got to make sure that the lights are working and that everything’s there ready for the next shoot – and also, looking after the budget, you’ve got to spread that across the whole range of equipment. Which equipment do you find your students have the most difficulty in knowing how it’s used correctly? Paul: The cameras probably, especially the full shoulder mount style camera. They don’t usually get introduced to them until their second year, so they’re actually going down the moving image pathway and not just doing like an intro course where it’s a bit more flexible. It’s more to give them a taste of moving image rather than a career path. So once they get into that second year, then I think that’s when they get a bit inundated with technology because, not only are they getting introduced to the cameras, but it’s also hooking up microphones and microphone placement and then the lights come out and C-stands and clamps and getting their head around all these different accessories that go into making what looks like a very simple shot on camera. It’s that sort of “behind the scenes” … it’s some of the terminology. So it’s the cameras and getting all of that workflow working together is a challenge, because they’re not only the camera guy, they’re now a sound guy. To me it seems basic, just because I’ve been in the industry for a while, but it’s that jump from “I’ve just got a handycam that has a lot of automatic functions on it”, to moving to that next level of having to actually control everything yourself – getting critical focus and getting proper levels on audio and even just getting the exposure and the white balance right. Half the time, the first occasion that you send them out with a camera that isn’t on full automatic, they come back with all blue footage from shooting outdoors and it’s the simple sort of things. It’s just getting those basics right and getting their head around colour temperatures and this and that, and why you want to use focus assist or just real general things, but I think having them all at the same time, because it’s like “here’s a camera, here’s sound gear, here’s lights, now go get something that looks nice.” Ed:
Throwing them in at the deep end?
Paul: Yes, basically. I mean, we spread it over two semesters of the second year. We have a Technology 1 module and a Technology 2 and that’s where they’re gradually being introduced to these things and being given briefs where 2-3 or even I think 5 minutes is the max; but like little docos. They’re given a doco assignment and they have short little drama pieces in the second semester. Ed: So for you, in assisting the students with this, it is a backup role for the tutors. The first port of call is them explaining things, but you’re hands on with all this equipment all the time and obviously this is a chance for you to add to what they might have picked up from their tutors?
Students in action.
Paul: Yes, it’s reinforcing what they’re taught in the module, because especially in a 3 or 4 hour chunk where they’re getting all this information put onto them, they don’t necessarily absorb it the first go. Even if they do an in-class exercise, for a lot of time I’m on hand to support these things – I’ll either help set up the exercise or just be there as a second hand and make sure that people aren’t draping cables over hot lights – just looking out for safety issues and that sort of thing. They’ll come to me and say “well, we did get taught this thing in class, but I don’t quite remember where this Page 18
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our upper level modules, we’re going towards Media Composer to give them a bit more industry level experience and upper level monitors and machines and colour calibrated graded monitors giving them a bit more taste of working in an industry edit suite. Ed: Well that’s it – you’re obviously providing them with the tools that they will need once they’re out. There’s no point really teaching them how to edit on something that’s not currently used and I understand you used to be a Final Cut – pretty well all Final Cut? Paul: Yes, it was Final Cut across the board and then obviously when Apple changed a bit of their path, well we just had to make decisions really. There’s not necessarily a right or a wrong decision, but we just have to use something that’s current. NZVN
Live mixing.
goes. Can you just tell me how that goes again?” My big thing is that I just make it known that I would rather have everyone ask me the question and do it properly, rather than go out there and either do something unsafely or damage the gear, because obviously replacement and maintenance is one of our big expenses. Ed: And the good thing is if they ask you a question, then they’re telling you they want to know and therefore it’s going to stick? Paul: Yes, exactly. I’m one of those kind of people “the more you do it, the more ingrained it gets.” You can listen to somebody tell you how to do it all you want, but until you do it and you make the mistakes and get in there … that’s how a lot of them progress obviously. After a few blue shots from outside that haven’t been colour corrected … it’s all part of the learning experience really. Ed: Paul:
Learning 101? Yes.
Ed: Now one of the big expenses of course in any school is a set of radio microphones, because you not only need one, you need a set for the whole class. Have you had to upgrade all your radio mics in the recent months? Paul: No, we were lucky enough that the kit that we were buying at the time, the Sennheiser G3 kits I think they are, just happened to fall into the right band. They’ve got selectable frequencies within that band. We’ve just been lucky that we were buying the right kit and getting the right advice from vendors at the time. Ed: Now in terms of editing suites, I see there’s quite a range here. You’ve obviously got simple ones for starting out and then some dedicated suites. What about the software – where have you gone in that direction? Paul: Right now we’re a mixture of Adobe Creative Suite and Avid Media Composer. We have an enterprise licence to the Adobe Creative Suite so, in any of our labs, a student can sit down and either use Premiere After Effects, Photoshop, or whatever they want, across all media. In our intro Moving Image paper, we use Premiere because it’s a bit more forgiving and kind of lets you just throw anything at it. Then into
Media Technology Pacific announces second conference for 2016. Media Technology Pacific (MTP) is pleased to confirm that they have scheduled their second conference for 34 March 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand. The conference will focus on Media Technologies in the Connected World and also look at the future of Spectrum and Technologies for Terrestrial Broadcasting. The Minister of Communications and Broadcasting, the Hon Amy Adams, has agreed to provide the opening address. The 2016 Media Technology Pacific Conference will continue to explore new and emerging technology trends in the Media space. “We will look at how new and emerging technology trends in content viewing and listening are more and more focused around “apps” and where this may take technology,” states Gerry Smith, Conference Chair. The television eco-system is becoming much more complex as what was once just a screen is now morphing into a full technology hub. MTP made their mark on the Media industry by producing New Zealand’s first Media Conference for many years in 2014. The inaugural conference was well attended by 135 delegates from around the world. The Minister of Broadcasting, the Hon Craig Foss, provided the opening address. The two day panel boasted speakers from the likes of Telecom NZ, Gorilla Technology, Accedo, Optus, Channel 7 Australia, HWW Australia, Freeview NZ, Kordia, Ericsson, thePlatform, CombiTel, Switch Media, Brightcove, MetraWeather, Tektronix, Feenstra Audio, and SeaChange. Contact Gerry Smith, Conference Chair, gsassist@slingshot.co.nz with any presenting papers that fit the theme.
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Page 20
Finding Your Niche We are at Niche Cameras in Auckland with Julian Boshier. Ed: Julian, you’ve been around renting out cameras, lenses and accessories for many, many years. The big change I guess that everybody’s seen in the rental market is the move to cine style. Has this really changed the way you’ve operated? Julian: Well when I started out many years ago, the first camera I purchased was a VX1000 when I was working part-time at Rocket Rentals. I put it on the shelf to rent as an experiment – and rent it did. I reckon that camera was the beginning of the new age – as in new technology enabling a new or alternative way to shoot – it had been bulky Betacams for many, many years, and so yes, in my time the market has changed dramatically – and I’m talking the past 20 odd years. My company is primarily involved in supplying Super35 camera gear to television drama and TVC production. Ed: So the market has moved to the cine style cameras, as opposed to television cameras? Julian: Well you don’t often see a 2/3” shoulder mounted camera these days. At the advent of the owner/operator model, I could see that there was going to be a decline in the rental need for television style cameras. I think it came about when NZCREWS did the XDCAM deal with Sony. I thought aaah, okay; I did purchase two of those XDCAMs in that deal, but at the same time, I set about transforming my business. I decided to go to more of the high end, specifically Super35 mm equipment to service television drama and TVC production and that’s what I predominantly do today. Ed: Is this something that’s come about because you’re using this equipment yourself – you’re making your own dramas, documentaries – or is it something you’ve gathered from talking with people who are in the business of needing cameras? Julian: I’m more experienced in the film side of things. I used to be a focus-puller on features and short films and then I started shooting and DP’ing commercials and bits and pieces, but throughout all of that, I was producing and directing a lot of music videos. I was shooting the clips on 16mm and 35mm so, with that combination, I was always involved in more of the cine side of the business. I did shoot a couple of television documentaries but, because of my involvement and experience in the film side, I was just more comfortable, I sort of knew more about it and I found that side of the “cinema” business more interesting. Needless to say I’ve just finished shooting a very long term doco on an old school television camera. Ed: However, going into that side of the business, obviously you needed a lot of money behind you, because the sort of equipment that you need for drama and documentary – the cine style cameras and the lenses – there’s a lot of money tied up there. Was this a difficult decision for you? Julian: Well it’s been 20-odd years since Niche Cameras was born so it’s always been piece by piece over that time – of course, loads of the previous gear has since been busted, drop-kicked or sold, but you have to be patient, you can’t have everything at once, so I’ve just purchased slowly over the years, and yes, I’m talking hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenditure, so of course it takes time.
Julian with an AMIRA kit.
Ed: You must have to make big decisions when somebody comes out with a new camera at a trade show and you think “Wow, is that really as good as they say it is?” I suppose the only way you’re going to know is if you try it? Julian: Well there’s a lot of spin in the industry and that’s with a capital “S”, so you’ve got to be careful and mindful of that … you’ve got to navigate the spin. Ed: You don’t hear “spin” through NZ Video News though do you? Julian: Cough, cough – well there are many options out there, and you really have to have the ability to dissect and sift the info and sales talk; the sales guys have monthly targets to meet – and this competition in the camera space is just part of the landscape. I have made mistakes, but I don’t think I’ve made too many. I think I’ve always been quite good at navigating that spin and just working out things in my own mind. I do discuss products with a few DPs around town, to gauge their opinion, and if I’m looking at purchasing something, I tend to purchase three cameras at the same time … Ed:
Three of the same camera?
Julian: Yes. So the three ALEXAs were my first big purchase … well apart from three Panasonic HPX3000’s etc a few years back, and then I ended up with four RED cameras in pretty quick succession. The latest purchase has been the three AMIRAs. That’s after a lot of research and conversations around town with various people, of course taking into consideration the post ramifications, what’s out there from a post
Page 22
point of view for this new system, the longevity that the camera’s going to give me and, first and foremost, is there a market for it, is it going to go out the door?
I’m just more interested in RED and ARRI because they fit the direction of what Niche Cameras is about ... oh and Canon, ie the C300.
Ed: From that list, it seems as though you’ve gone ARRI big time with the ALEXA and the AMIRA, but they don’t seem to be terribly popular with the owner/ operators in New Zealand. It seems to be that both of these cameras are very popular with rental companies … why do you think that is?
Ed: What is it about the ARRIs and the REDs that make them your choice?
Julian: Well in my space, as mentioned before, I’m mainly involved in television drama and television commercials, so that’s the level of camera that that application tends to shoot in – that and RED. Those cameras and lenses are probably a bit cost-prohibitive for owner/operators; owner/operators probably don’t have the stomach for that level of expenditure when the inherent problem in this business is “how long is it going to last for? How long is it going to be relevant for until it’s superseded by the next model?” That is a problem for them, and that’s a problem for me – no doubt about it. Ed: But that doesn’t happen with the ALEXA certainly. The upgrades to the ALEXA over the years make it a new camera each time? Julian: Well no, not necessarily. I purchased three ALEXA Classics and, in my mind, the ALEXA Classics are a relevant camera today and should be for the next 10 years, but they do have limitations, those being that they’re 16:9 only; you can’t upgrade the Classics to 4:3 and shoot anamorphic. You can upgrade them to record RAW; and then the AMIRA comes out and the AMIRA is by no means a replacement for the ALEXA – it’s an alternative ARRI camera, also with its own limitations, such as no RAW recording and no anamorphic option BUT it can do other things the Classic can’t, such as record in UHD and record up to 200 frames per second … so you have to be in the “know” – you want an ALEXA picture, you can shoot 16:9 and can live with a max speed of 120fps – then the ALEXA is for you, and it’s cheaper to hire than the AMIRA. Or if you have to have 200fps, then you require the AMIRA, or a RED ha ha ha.
Ed: But we all know that there are other brands of camera out of Japan that will provide all of that recording capability at a cheaper price? Julian: Mmmm well, first and foremost, you can’t have everything, I learnt that a long time ago ( and in actual fact, you don’t necessarily want to have every camera available anyway – kind of dilutes your speciality if you have one.) I have a long shopping list, and I just have to be patient .. but with the way it has fallen over the last few years, I just haven’t seen an opportunity or a need to go out and buy another brand.
Julian: Well out there in international movie and television land, 95% of the time it is going to be shot on a RED, an ARRI or a Panavision “Panavised” camera and that also seems to be the choice in this part of the world. You know, DPs want to shoot on the best gear, and the same gear that HBO content is shot with, and that’s what we have, that level of equipment, the topshelf stuff. Ed: So when you get people coming in looking for a cine camera, they’ve got the choice of the ARRIs or the RED. What are the differences between them that let them make that choice – is it simply a cost exercise? Julian: Well a lot of camera decisions are driven by the producer of the project. Some producers resonate with the RED look; some producers resonate with the ARRI look. The producer also meets early with the DP and they discuss the nature, shooting style and mechanics of the shoot – a decision usually derives from those discussions. Other things come into it like how compact is the system; where is the system going to – is it a tripod based shoot, is it handheld, is it Easyrig, Steadicam, or a combination of everything. They consider all of the possible variables. So for South Pacific Pictures for example, they resonate with the RED; they like the look and they like the compact nature of the rigs. A lot of their shows are handheld, Easyrig and Steadicam. For instance Filthy Rich which I’m supplying the gear for at the moment, have gone for the AMIRA with master primes. DP Dave Cameron, likes the AMIRA look, he likes the master prime look; the rigs we configured also worked for his shooting style ( hand held in this instance ) so that’s the combination he chose. So I have to be in the position to facilitate these choices and supply that particular gear to the show. Ed: Say for example, somebody who’s a well-known DP and they like the RED look – do you give them the opportunity to come in here and play with an ALEXA or an AMIRA to satisfy in their own minds that this is not a better look for the future? Julian: A lot of the time, when I get a phone call from a DP or a production, they’ve already made up their mind what they’re going to shoot on or “what they want to shoot on” because they are shooting commercials, watching HBO and doing their own research. When they’re working, outside of a drama project, they may shoot RED on Monday; they may shoot ALEXA on Wednesday … they quickly get to know and learn the options, so when a drama comes around, they’ve already decided upon their preference. Guys do come in here with their Easyrigs and their Steadicams and they just want to check that they are making the right decision from a usability point of view, for a longterm production. If it’s a handheld show or an Easyrig show, they prefer to do this; they have to facilitate these rigs for 17 weeks; or in the case of Filthy Rich 26 weeks. So they need to make the right decision; they need to make sure that that decision is going to work out from a weight, size and movement point of view, it’s got to be fast, it’s got to be hassle free. They have to have the ability to chop and change lenses fast, and get those setups in the time allocated … so to answer your question, yes guys do come in here and they do muck around with the cameras, but the decision has usually already been made in their mind as to what
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they’re going to shoot on; they just need to talk the producer into it. Ed: Can you actually tell from looking at a final production whether that’s been shot on a RED or an ARRI or something else? Julian: Yes sometimes … I think I can. I sort of find the inherent nature of ARRI cameras to be that they kind of have this “pastely” look. Actually, you can tell when something has been shot on an ARRI camera because I think what happens a lot of the time is that they’re shooting in Log-C on set and that’s being fed out to the monitor on set and that is a very desaturated pastel look, if no LUT is applied. I think what happens sometimes is the agency or the director becomes used to that look on set and that’s the way the finished commercial ends up on television, which was not exactly the intention of the DP. So what I mean is they decided not to grade it and it is funny that happens sometimes because ultimately it was not supposed to happen from the DP’s point of view. That means the camera assist should have applied a LUT to the director’s monitor feed … his shout!
“studio” zooms are heavy lenses and you can’t really use those on an Easyrig or a Steadicam, so of course, you would use a lightweight zoom, which we have … both the Aluras and Optimos. For the majority of my jobs, they take a combination of zooms and primes and, for Filthy Rich, they’re shooting on a set of master primes complemented by a couple of Alura zooms. The Brokenwood Mysteries just wrapped a couple of weeks ago; they were shooting on Optimo zooms and Illumina primes, and Illumina primes ( well my ones ) they’re super speeds. They’re fast, and they give you a crazy interesting Russian flare. The Optimos are lightweight zooms, as mentioned, great for Easyrig or Steadicam. So again, it depends on what the variables are, what look resonates with them, where the camera is going – is it going handheld, on sticks, etc. Ed: Do you tell them if you think that they’re making a poor lens choice? Julian: Well we have discussions obviously, and sometimes they can’t make a choice, so I try and help make the decision for them taking into account the cost factor. You know, one of the biggest components is the speed of the lens. “What stop do they want to shoot at; what stop are they going to light the sets to?” Ed: Don’t you think there’s an awful lot of effort put into the look of a particular production with the camera, the lens, the lighting, the dressing of it – as opposed to, perhaps they should spend more budget improving the content? Julian: Ed:
Niche’s equipment room.
Ed: You’ve mentioned a couple of times there the look from the RED and the ARRI, but another major part of “look” these days with cine cameras is your choice of lens. At a Cinematographers Association event the other week, we were given a show by Cooke lenses – how the Cooke has a certain look – so now it’s a choice, you have to combine the look of the camera and the look of a lens when you’re choosing that “look” for a show? Julian: Yes. Les from Cooke who lives next door to Larry Page in the Caribbean. Ed: Can you expand on the “look” that you get from a lens … obviously you have a choice of lenses that you offer? Julian: Yes … so the camera decision has been made, but then the other side of it is “what lenses are we going to shoot on?” Primes, zooms, Zeiss, Cookes, Illuminas, etc – there are many choices … Ed:
Alura?
Julian: Yes, ARRI Alura zooms. We have seven of those – thanks Stefan! Stefan’s a good salesman – actually no, I’m just good at spending money. So zooms for television drama obviously speed up the shooting process, because you’re not having to chop and change so often, but on the other hand, long
Local or international?
Local
Julian: Well, apart from the fundamentals like the size of the camera, the weight of the camera – again, handheld, tripod use – I do think that we possibly do get a little bit too hung up on the technology of the system these days, but not forgetting television drama shot in New Zealand is often sold overseas. It’s got to find an international market, so it’s got to fit within the HD international standard. But sometimes I think we do lose sight of the big picture and it becomes too technology driven and maybe the lighting, the camera moves, the compositions should … oh I’ll get myself into trouble here … Ed:
No you won’t.
Julian: Okay, I’ll rephrase … the technology aspect is really driven by three factors: (1) the producer – “what is the life of the project to be, the local broadcast and then potential international sales?” (2) post – “yes we can handle those file sizes or no we can’t handle those file sizes.” (3) DP – “I want to create the best looking pictures I can, we are going handheld and I don’t want to break my back.” I guess when you come into a company like this, or look on the Niche website, you’re basically being given a menu, and on the menu are cameras and lenses. Well depending upon the budget, they usually want to go for the latest and greatest option; you know everybody wants to try the new camera, take it for a test drive so to speak. A great DP is a guy who understands story, understands the value of darkness and shadow and understands the value and beauty of natural light – and that a camera is a tool, just the same as a track or a light and that when all is used in the right combination, then hey presto!
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We have the technology in the cameras now, incredible technology actually, that part of it is sorted but remember movie or television making is a combination of many things, not just camera technology. Ed: What about filters – I see you’ve got a range of filters in your equipment room. Are they used less and less now that you can add all these effects in post, or are people going back to filters for, again, a special look? Julian: No, what I find is that the DP wants to do as much as he can in camera while he’s shooting and in that way he doesn’t lose control. Because when it comes to post, “sometimes” he will lose control. Some DPs aren’t involved in the grading process as the budget may not allow it, or maybe he has moved onto another job. But to answer the question, I think filters are possibly losing favour – IRND filters perhaps. With the AMIRA, it has a built-in ND wheel, so not as many ND filters go out with that camera, but the basics remain, the soft focus for just de-sharpening the skin a bit, polarising filters and NDs. The modern sensors are so sharp these days that, when you’re watching your “42 inch and up” UHD television in your lounge, human faces or skin are possibly not that attractive some of the time … Ed:
Especially in 4K?
Julian: Yes, UHD 4K. I know that softening filters are used quite heavily because of UHD. Ed: That’s another of my barrows that I like to push, this whole 4K / UHD – whatever you like to call it,
“look”. Do you think it’s going to last or is it that important? Julian: Well I would say that every second person who comes in here wants to have a discussion about numbers, and it does become slightly tiresome … actually not every second person, mainly the young guys, 5D guys; we’ve had 2K for the last 100 years of moviemaking and this obsession with “4K and beyond” is what these numbers discussions are about now. It used to be about 3D, but thank God we don’t talk about 3D anymore, it’s gone which is great. I never really liked the idea of domestic 3D. Ed:
No arguments here.
Julian: Yes – so now it’s all about 4K and UHD and we know it’s driven by the manufacturers; they need to sell TVs don’t they. They didn’t sell many 3D TVs so now it’s the turn of “4K UHD and beyond” to push the sales; you do have to wonder what “beyond” means … 8K, 16K I guess? I don’t know where it will stop. Obviously, it never will because we are in a constant state of evolution and invention but, as in a camera, resolution is not everything. They should be working on bio-degradable TVs, that’ll at least help out the landfills. Ed: Perhaps the numbers compared to the composition?
aren’t
that
important
Julian: Put it this way, any camera you pick up now is generally a great camera. Some are just better than others ha ha ha. But the resolution is there in all modern cameras, some just suffer from poor dynamic
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I may be short of director’s viewfinder, you know something like that. So I have to have the ability to call on the other companies to sub-hire their gear. Ed: Does your relationship with any of these companies extend to a financial connection?
1st AC Sam Matthews (top) and 2nd AC David Steel prep ARRI AMIRAs, Master Primes, Alura Zooms, and a whole lot of other stuff, for ‘Filthy Rich’ a 20-episode TV2 drama show.
range, hideous artifacting etc, and those deficiencies are only exacerbated by the high resolution. A rule of thumb, ignore the numbers and don’t go cheap. Ed: However, we come back to the whole aspect of shallow depth of field, so when you’re shooting with a 6K resolution camera, how much of your image is actually at 6K? Julian: Not many RED shoots are shot in 6K. A big component people forget about with UHD – and RED 6K – is the file size. The file sizes coming out of a UHD loaded AMIRA are huge. And what are you gaining from it? Well, if you’re doing green screen or CGI work, or a low ratio on a TVC then fair enough, but until our capacity to handle these massive file sizes improves “on a long form project” the wise-ones are continuing to shoot at a lower bit rate until handling those large file sizes becomes practical. Ed: Right, you’ve been doing this 20 years all on your own, how do you cope? Julian: wine …
How do I cope … oooh well, red wine, white
Ed: No, no, no, in terms of relationships. There are other people out there renting equipment. Do you have good relationships with other rental companies so that when you’re given a big project, you can say “well, I have 3 AMIRAs but you need 5 and I’ll get the others for you?” Julian: Relationships in this business are critical. You need friends and you need support. My lenses are all serviced at Metro Film because of my relationship with Andy Roelants of Metro Film. Panavision service my O’Connor and Sachlter heads amongst other items, so I work in with Metro Film, Panavision and New Zealand Camera Hire. I hire off them, they hire off me. Ed: Because you’ve got to look after the customer first and foremost? Julian: Well some pretty big jobs come my way and I don’t have absolutely everything all of the time. I have all of it, but when several jobs are going on at the same time, I may be short – I may be short of a zoom,
Julian: No, Niche Cameras is completely autonomous. There are some lenses on my website that do not belong to me, but I have a hire arrangement for them that benefits the owner of the lenses, benefits Niche Cameras and benefits my customers. So there are tie-ins like that, and those tie-ins work well with the right people, but no, there’s no financial tie-ins with any other company.
Ed: And in terms of ARRI, you’re getting good support from ARRI for the Alura lenses and the cameras out of Australia, or would you like to see a local representative handling all of that? Julian: ARRI Australia is close – that is the reason that all of my ARRI purchases have been made through ARRI Sydney. All servicing of ARRI cameras and Alura lenses is done by Melaney and Ray in Sydney. When I need to, I just courier an item over there; if I feel like going to Sydney, I go as well. No local representative required. Ed: You’ve said ARRI Australia provides you with all your ARRI equipment, but what about in other areas. Do you look for local suppliers or do you look on the internet for the cheapest deal? Julian: Some small items come via B&H Photo in New York. Large items, as in expenditure, I buy from local suppliers – all of my OConnor heads come from Panavision Auckland. My computer gear comes from DVT – it’s good to support the locals. The struggle here in New Zealand can be intense at times ( for me as well, ie when our industry is flat-lining ) and purchasing everything via the web only feeds that struggle for them, but you know the local suppliers do have to come to the party on price obviously. ARRI Australia, well Sydney, I consider to be local “almost.” Ed: What is the practicality of purchasing off local suppliers for you? Julian: Well the practicality is service as in workshop repair service. If I purchase an OConnor head off Panavision they will support it. First and foremost for me, I’ve got to be able to get the gear serviced and serviced fast. Quite often you only have a small window in which to get something repaired before it’s due to go back out; also purchasing local just goes towards maintaining good relationships, and building our industry and infrastructure. No suppliers, reduced infrastructure; well that equates to a banana republic doesn’t it. Ed: A lesson to be learnt for many people from that answer. Thank you Julian. www.nichecameras.co.nz
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