HyColour is a plugin borne out of frustration with the built in colour controls of Final Cut Pro X.

Colour correcting my edits is a part of the process of filmmaking that I look forward to. It’s a chance to put some music on and just ‘look’ at the images that have been shot. A sort of, calm, after the narrative storm of editing. So it’s incredibly frustrating that the colour tools in FCPX are awkward to use and require the user to flip between various tabs to perform, what are, minor colour tweaks to my footage. Just tweaking the exposure, saturation, colour balance and sharpness of the image requires many clicks of the mouse to perform.

I also shoot stills from time to time and have long admired the simple-to-use interface of Lightroom. And it’s this functionality that I was hoping to bring to FCPX.

Creating the plugin itself, took quite some time. I didn’t just want to publish effects from Motion to FCPX wholesale, without any thought as to how they functioned for me. The way the sliders react to inputs so as not to give really course adjustments, but fine adjustments, was really important to me. I genuinely wanted to make a tool that actually did save time and worked in the real world.

Additionally, I hit a brick wall with the green cast removal tool. I just couldn’t get it to remove the greencast completely. After many hours of struggling, I discovered the trick and couldn’t believe how effective it was. It was one of those high five moments that doesn’t often happen!

And it seems to have touched a nerve with users. Take up has been really encouraging and early feedback has been fantastic. I’m really thankful to the people who have taken the time to write and thank me for creating it.

At the moment, the plugin is in version 1.5. Extra to the release version is an overall exposure control and a sharpening/softening tool with easy and advanced controls.

Version 2 is being built and this will include some pretty cool extra features that users have suggested. With these new features I’m fairly sure that users will not have to use the in-built colour correction tools in FCPX ever again!

With this plugin, I’m committed to giving purchasers free upgrades, so at $25.00 it represents pretty good value for a tool that you can use on any job.

So, HyColour 1.5 is available now from www.hyfx.tv with free updates for life.

The client was sympathetic, but we had a lot to shoot and so we cracked on straight away.

The reason why I mention this is because in these situations, ‘creativity’ is almost always the first attribute to disappear in favour of just ‘getting shots’.

And this is frustrating.

We shot for almost 9hrs straight without a break. A series of interviews in ad-hoc situations with ever changing availability of interviewees. As well as load of supporting cutaways to get right.

And I couldn’t help thinking at the dead-end of the day, when the client has left an you still have empty rooms to shoot, ‘what would Philip Bloom do in this situation?’.

We were creatively dead on our feet, with little or no grip to spice things up and with empty rooms to shoot and cleaners to dodge… ‘how can I make this interesting?’.

And the answer is… ‘I’m not sure, quite honestly’. If he was in exactly the same situation, same camera, same grip, same light, same time constraints, what could he get from this that I can’t?

I’m guessing when I think ‘composition’. That’s the only thing that is the variable that can differentiate filmmakers.

I’m glad I studied Art as I think that gives me some advantage from others who have not. But it’s this skill that can make a bland, obvious shot, into an interesting, humorous, thought provoking or skilful looking shot.

So, maybe, it’s time to look again at this art form in itself. It’s like a muscle.

Use it, or you’ll lose it and I think Philip has a great eye for composition.

Maybe Philip could comment?

I often wonder how they find the time to work and blog, but I guess, they have made that choice to try and make it part of their businesses.

I say this as a pre-text to a post that hopefully will give you a idea of why I admire their dedication to blogging – I find it difficult to find the time. So I’ve tried to consolidate the summer’s activities into one post in an effort to be more efficient. And here it is, THE BIG SUMMER ROUNDUP!

Simon Fischer

The summer started out with filming Simon Fischer. An extraordinary violinist who has an amazing style and tone – having played on albums for Take That and various other contemporary groups as well as extensively on the classical circuit. He was making a training DVD for sale online. Myself and Rick Young shot him, his students and his £600k violin in a loft studio in London. Check out his site here www.simonfischeruk.com

Buying a crane

Also this Summer, I decided to buy a small crane to give my shots a little more production value. The Panasonic AF101 sites very nicely on the end, on top of the Manfrotto 546 tripod. And it really does shine. Quite quick to set up on location, it really does add a lot of production value, without a load of hassle.

Coachman Caravans

This is my second year of having the opportunity to shoot the corporate video of Coachman Caravans. They’re a great company, based in Hull and really love the products they make. There is a saying that shooting caravans on location in just a landscape shot spoiled, but I worked at trying to make the vans more kinetic by having them in action on the roads.

The shoot is divided into two parts – the studio shoot and the location shoot.

Here are some of the results:

Checkout www.coachman.co.uk

The Harvest

Never had a great deal of experience with farming, but this year was the year to win a farming contract with JSR Farming Group. Quite an amazing company that seem to farm substantial portions of East Yorkshire and have a real expertise in Pig Genetics (of all things!).

I will be filming the whole farming year and I was fortunate to start over the Harvest – the chance for some amazing shots.

Olympic TV Studios

London 2012 was extraordinary and one of the largest, most technical broadcasting feats of modern times. During the Olympics, I was asked to film for a television company that make TV studios. To create a record and case study of their infrastructure. They created a temporary glass studio overlooking the Olympic for their presenters. Similar to the BBC studio. So similar in fact, it was the floor below the BBC studio, in a ex-council block of 1960′s flats over looking the park.

Believe in Hull

Towards the end of the summer, I made a short film for the churches in Hull. It’s called ‘Believe in Hull’ and is named after their project that will happen in 2013. It’s an advert for the project that was a nightmare to organise and really simple to shoot. Trying the co-ordinate the diaries for a host of church leaders over the summer, was like a living nightmare. Still, I managed it and wrote the script, shot and edited the film just before the weather broke for Autumn.

Believe in Hull from Jonathan Richards on Vimeo.

Pig Processing…

Can’t show you this one – not sure if you’d want to see it either. But it involved a day in a abattoir watching the ‘process’.

It’s the smell that’s the worse thing…

Presented with screen grabs, logos and some artwork I set to work using After Effects and Cinema 4D.

Mograph in Cinema 4D is awesome at helping you create repeating patterns of objects and that’s what I used to create the Monopoly House town in the final shot.

I Hope you like it!

You may have spotted it – on www.hyfx.tv

It’s a pack of video transitions for Final Cut Pro X that replicate the custom transitions that the BBC use in TopGear. So you can save yourself loads of time and get a very similar look as the editors of the series do.

But you can’t demo the product by using shots of my wife’s 10yr old car. I needed a cool car to create a little demo film of the effects. Hopefully something that’s high up on the TopGear Cool Wall!

In steps my mate, Mark Kensett, with a contact to a guy who has this wonderful, bright yellow Caterham 7.

Perfect.

The weather?

Less than perfect.

But in the end. This rather works to my advantage.

If the HyGear transition pack can make this cool car in bad weather, look good. Then imagine a cool car in good weather…

See the logic?

Anyhow, here are a few pics of us faffing with cameras, sliders and tripods.

Many thanks to John Waters from Swanland Nurseries for giving his time for this. Top Bloke.

(Top Bloke? Hang on. That’s given me an idea for a new TV series… hmmm…)

Mark and I both look shattered. It had been a long day before we even started the shoot!

Nice…

It sounds as good as it looks

Panasonic AF101, Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens, Lilliput Monitor, Glidetrack

Who the funny looking bald guy?

I was asked if I was scared of Baboons. Wasps and Bees and anything with more legs than me – Yes. But Baboons – No. ‘Great’, said the producer on the other end of the phone. ‘They’ll be 150 of them and they’ll be inside a car and you’ll be in the enclosure filming them…’.

‘Hmmm… right… OK…’

So, it’s as simple as that. You get yourself a car, fill it with Baboons and you’ve got yourself a PR stunt!

It’s for the launch of the new Hyundai i30. They say it’s kiddie proof. To prove it, fill it with real monkeys and if it survives, then your little monkeys won’t break it.

To be honest, I was a little anxious about getting in there with them. I think we all were. But the viewfinder has a wonderful effect of making the subject you’re filming, somehow unreal. It was only when the big guys were walking around the back of me, that I got a little cautious. They have massive teeth!

We were working with the wonderful keepers and the manager of Knowsley Safari Park, but all they had to defend themselves with, was a four foot long stick! They said that if it all kicks off, then just run for the exit, or climb through the electric fence. The fence was switched off just before going in.

I think in our minds, we’d come to think it was going to be like this…

The reality was somewhat more down to earth!

Whistling the Jurassic Park theme before going inside the enclosure didn’t do wonders for the nerves of my producer though!

This is how the edit came out. No music, as it’s a news piece.

Here’s the latest little promo ditty for a client.

Be good to know your thoughts please!? Comment below (when you open this post in it’s own page).

Am I alone in being unmoved by the sleek curves and integrated loveliness of this camera?

Everyone seems to have taken leave of their senses? Seduced by RAW acquisition (just like the RED boys!) and low price point?

Sure, these things are, indeed, good. But there is so much missing from this camera.

• Lens options
• ND filters (remember the FS100, people?)
• XLR inputs
• Ergonomics (a handle?)
• A viewfinder
• Separate battery – integrated? Really Blackmagic?
• No overcrank

There’s the wonderful addition of DaVinci Resolve and Ultrascope, RAW recording in 2K onto SSD, fantastic post production workflow, but it’s not for me – not yet anyway.

If they add in the features above, then they’ll have a fantastic camera.

At the moment – it just isn’t exciting. It’s like a concept car that looks great at the motor exhibition, but no one has bothered to drive. It reminds me of the Aston Martin Lagonda. A car that really should have stayed on the drawing board.

What the shallow depth of field fraternity are asking for, seems elusive for most manufacturers it would appear. They seem to be circling around the golden egg of price versus features, but unable to find that killer mix of features and price.

I suspect it’s entirely achievable, but at the expensive of profit. Not a good business model…

NAB 2012: Blackmagic $2995 Digital Cinema Camera – Detailed Interview

NAB 2012: Blackmagic $2995 Digital Cinema Camera – Detailed Interview from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

The LCD panel on the AF-101 is pretty good and with EVF DTL switched on and with the red peaking turned on too, you can get a good idea whether or not you’re in focus.

But. I’ve missed a few shots recently, some that were a bit soft and it was becoming more obvious that I needed a field monitor to help out. Something that had a larger image and some aids to help in focussing (maybe a better pair of glasses?!).

After a bit of internet trawling, I came across the Lilliput range of monitors. There’s one in particular that seems to fit the bill and it’s this one.

http://www.lilliputuk.com/monitors/hdmi/5D-ii/

What’s astonishing about this monitor is the price. Delivered, I paid £231.99 inc VAT. Pretty darn unbeatable with the features it has.

It was designed for Canon 5D users but it just great on the Panasonic as well.

• 7inch LCD panel with LED backlight – 1024 x 600 native, 1920×1080 (maximum)
• HDMI in and out
• Built in sunshade
• Powered by with a standard Sony or Canon camera battery
• Focus peaking
• 1:1 pixel mapping
• False Colour exposure checking
• Zebras
• Histogram

Powered off a standard camera battery

Good set of additional controls

On playback, it shows the camera’s interface without HDMI LCD panel display mirroring switched on

A pretty cool feature about using a monitor, and something that I hadn’t realised, was that you can check you focus and exposure on playback.

That’s pretty cool I think. To be able to go back and check these things retrospectively is brilliant! Very handy.

The unit has some good colour controls to be able to match it to your camera LCD panel as well.

Focus Peaking

Check out the red outlines on the monochrome background.

False Colour

The higher up the colour spectrum the colours are (indigo through to red) the brighter the exposure is.

Histogram

 Pixel to Pixel mapping

Enables you to see the 1080p images natively 1:1

To sum up, for the price, I can’t recommend this field monitor enough. It does a great job, looks good and is a real asset in your toolkit to create properly exposed and in focus HD images.

I’ve been at the Emirates Stadium shooting footage for a client that wants a short montage of their promotional activities that have been happening on the concourse outside the stadium. All football and fitness related stuff.

I was curious how a large sensor camera would cope with this, normally quickfire, type of shooting. It’s ideal territory for an EX1 or EX3. Powered zoom and a bit of shallow depth of field if you want it.

The AF101 coped better than I thought. I took a bag of lenses in a Tamrac Adventure ruck sack and carried the camera. I also had my new Manfrotto 504HD head and 546BK tripod along for their first spin out.

The biggest headache with shooting on a large sensor camera, is being on the right lens at the right time. For sure, it slows you down. ‘hang on, just wait a minute while I change my lens’, doesn’t really work when there are thousands of people around you and you’re having to be completely self-contained. In fact, the biggest headache was the logistics of the camera and lenses. Additionally, I could have really done with a Cinesaddle as well. That would have been really helpful.

On the upside, the slow motion facility of the camera adds massively to the production value as does the focus pulling, matte box and filters and the overall look of the image.

I’m looking forward to getting the footage back in the edit and seeing what I’ve really got!

Lunch!

Shooting a little time-lapse sequence

The NEX-FS700E is a 4K-ready NXCAM camcorder with a superior Super35mm CMOS sensor, super slow-motion capability and an interchangeable E- mount lens system, offering unrivalled flexibility and creative expression.

High-end production functionality Based on customer feedback, the NEX-FS700E includes a number of features providing familiar professional operation and workflows, including 50/60Hz switchability, built-in ND filters, 3G-SDI interface and an enhanced exterior design.

4K-ready

The first 4K-ready Super35mm camcorder in its class – providing an assured upgrade path to 4K acquisition and delivery – with full HD 1080p for today.The camcorder will also have the capability to produce 4K RAW 3G-SDI output via a future upgrade.

Super slow motion at 10x at full HD or 40x at lower resolutions

Incredible super slow motion capability of up to 10x slow motion at full HD resolution or up to 40x slow motion at a reduced resolution, giving you creative options that were once only available with specialist high-end equipment.

Built-in HD filters

The NEX-FS700EK features built-in, ultra-thin ND filters, offering exceptional shallow depth-of-field on highlights. It also means less accessories to manage as no external ND filters are required.

3G-SDI interface and HDMI

A 3G-SDI output enables easy integration with highest quality recording formats.

E-mount interchangeable lenses offer a wide choice of lenses

The E-mount interchangeable lens system utilises an extremely short flange back distance allowing you to use a huge array of lenses via a range of adaptors giving you almost unlimited creative options.

SEL 18200 lens supplied

The supplied SEL18200 (E 18–200mm F3.5–6.3 OSS) with the NEX-FS100EK boasts 11x zoom power, a quiet AF motor for cleaner sound recording, and Optical SteadyShot™ image stabilisation with an advanced Active mode that lets you take steady handheld shots while walking around — even without a bulky stabilisation rig.

Additional A-mount lenses available

The Sony LA-EA2 A-mount lens adaptor allows you to use the wide range of high quality alpha lenses and take advantage of the auto focus function for quicker, more convenient operation.

Exceptional ergonomics

The NEX-FS700EK has a refined ergonomic design with a robust detachable handle and grip.

Switchable 50 Hz and 60 Hz shooting

The NEX-FS700EK is switchable between 50 Hz and 60Hz to allow 24p shooting in PAL areas and no PAL/NTSC limitations.

Selectable magnification and positioning of expanded focus

Expanded focus improvement allowing 4x and 8x magnification and a moveable area of expansion for easy focusing with shallow depth of field.

Camera profile settings storage on memory card

Up to 99 camera profile settings can be stored, allowing rapid adaptation to multiple shooting environments without time wasted adjusting parameters. Settings are also easily shared in multi-camera productions.

From their US micro site:

“This camera opens a new door to creative shooting,” said Juan Martinez, senior product manager at Sony Electronics’ Professional Solutions of America group. “You can record beautiful high speed full HD movies with the freedom of creative interchangeable lens choice. The NEX-FS700U, with its super slow motion mode, is ideal for promos, TV dramas, commercials and documentaries as well as sports and a variety of event shooting.”

The camera delivers full HD quality at 120 and 240 frames per second in a 16 or 8 second burst mode respectively. The NEX-FS700U’s high sensitivity and low noise shooting capability makes super slow motion shooting more convenient without the need for additional equipment. Its 480 fps and 960 fps at reduced resolution are available for faster frame rate recording.

The NEX-FS700U camcorder uses a new 4K “Exmor” Super 35 CMOS sensor (Total 11.6 million pixels). This high-speed readout chip is optimized for motion picture shooting, giving high sensitivity, low noise and minimal aliasing.

The NXCAM line’s E-Mount flexibility is designed to accept virtually all SLR and DSLR 35mm lenses, with the use of simple, inexpensive adapters without optical degradation. FS series owners can use their existing lenses and add more lenses without being limited to brands or mounts.

Users can capture high-quality still images with the NEX-FS700U. The camera also includes “face detection” and auto focus to help ensure that a subject is always kept in focus.

With the NEX-FS700U, operators can take advantage of the camera’s built-in ND filters, with a newly designed ND filter wheel that rotates across the sensor like a turret. The wheel includes positions for Clear, 1/4 (2 Stop), 1/16 (4 Stop), and 1/64 (6 Stop).

The camera is 60/50Hz switchable to give shooters the freedom of working in any geographic region without being restricted to only PAL or NTSC recording.

The NEX-FS700U’s 3G HD-SDI and HDMI connectors can output full HD 50p and 60p, in addition to standard HD 60i, 24p, 25p or 30p frame rates with embedded time code and audio. With 3G HD-SDI, it can output native 23.98, 25, 29.97 progressive signals. Users can elect to output PsF over the 3G HD-SDI. Thanks to flexibility of the digital ports virtually any external recorder can be paired.

Users can save up to 99 camera profile settings on a memory card, and can copy the same setting to multiple cameras. Compatible media includes SD and Memory Stick cards, and Sony’s HXR-FMU128 flash memory unit that attaches to the camera.

The NEX-FS700U features a robust detachable top handle, secured by a pair of screws (a cold shoe, plus two sets of 1/4 and 3/8 inch holes) to allow secure mounting for heavy accessories. The handle is attached with a rosette mount.

A key element of the handle is an “active grip” that features four buttons for commonly used functions – expanded focus, auto iris, still capture and recording start/stop. Function buttons are also enlarged to make operation easy even while wearing gloves.

The camcorder’s enhanced design also includes anchor points for compatibility with third-party accessories and a more durable design than previous models.

Sony is planning a future firmware upgrade that will enable the NEX-FS700U to output 4K bitstream data over 3G HD-SDI when used with an optional Sony 4K recorder.

The NEX-FS700U (body only) and NEX-FS700UK (with 18-200mm zoom lens) are planned to be available in June at a suggested list price less than $10,000.

I was shooting some footage to compare scene files, and I was out in full sun shooting a bunch of flowers in the garden. Now these large sensor cameras are fantastic in low light, but shooting shallow depth of field with a 50mm f1.4 lens was impossible in the bright sun of a spring afternoon.

I had a few choices,

1. Change my aperture – stop down but I’ll lose my shallow depth of field
2. Increase my shutter spec. But I wanted any motion to remain filmic so I stuck to 180 degrees on the shutter
3. Turn the ISO down, but I was already on the lowest setting.
4. Increase the neutral density filter setting. But it was already on 4 – the highest.

I don’t own a neutral density 4×4 filter for my matte box, but I do own an ND grad and a Polariser.

I’d forgotten that the polariser can take a stop or two of light out of your scene, so with this added, I was able to get the exposure I wanted.

An exercise in exposure control in direct sunlight with the Panasonic AF101 and a Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens.

A note on polarising filters

If you don’t know, a polarising filter filters out the polarising component of skylight. Reducing reflections and increasing contrast.

For the science, take a look on Wikipedia here Polarising Filters

You can see it working on the reflections in these pictures:

More eye candy for you here:

Here's the 'AF with the matte box on the front.

The filters in their cases as supplied. I added the large labels for speedy identification.

The polarising filter not filtering very much light at this angle.

Turn it two a different angle and you can easily see the effect it has on this sky.

...and the ND Grad.

This is how they both fit in the matte box. One is fixed and one rotates.

With the Polarising filter and the ND Grad combined, you can turn a typical boring sky shot into something a little less boring. These two pictures are straight out of the camera and haven’t been colour corrected. I tweaked the white balance a bit on the lower shot though.

Boring shot BEFORE using the filters.

AFTER. Better I think.

I hope this is useful in some way. For a lot of people, it may be kind of basic, but hopefully there may be people out there that find it helpful.

If that’s you, then please comment or tweet this link – that’ll be fab!

Thanks – until next time. Scene files…

But what if the film you’ve made is rather more considerate – thought provoking, intelligent even? And what if the trailer for it needs to convey the major story thread and lead people to invest in such a film?

Well (guess what), that’s been my task of these last few days for a film about Rwanda’s genocide and it’s under 17 football team. A complex story that has been cut to a 63min duration. My task was to cut it down to a 5 or 6min trailer that conveyed the story, setting the background and clarifying the complex storyline.

In practical terms, I was given a drive with the onlined edit on it (that’s to say the colour corrected edit) and with the audio already dubbed (mixed to broadcast standards). Essentially a finished edit except for the graphics.

It was cut in FCP7 and here’s what the timeline looks like for this kind of programme.

Just to be clear, the general workflow for cutting something that is ready for broadcast is this:

Review and log your footage – this helps to formulate the big picture.
Prepare a paper edit – figure out the general flow of the programme.
Hunker down and cut your 1st draft – use temp voiceover and music.
Review and cut your second draft – this will be shorter and tighter.
Final cut – add in the voiceover if needed and the final music.
Online the edit – colour correct each shot, add in any effects and graphics.
Dub – send the music mix out to a audio suite for the final mix down and tweaks.
Mastering – assembling all the pieces. Adding in clocks, bars and tone and the required black leaders, then laying off to tape. This is still a requirement for broadcast play out at places like Red Bee Media – a major play out service provider for the BBC and CH4 etc. My brother-in-law designed this room.

What’s in the timeline?

If you take a close look at the timeline above, then you can see that in video track 5, the whole edit has had a round trip to Apple Color and that the original edit has been locked on tracks 1 thru 4. Video tracks 7 & 8 are subtitles, graphics and lower 3rd added after the colour grading.

The audio has been separated out into 4 tracks of Sync (the actual video sound track from the clips), a voiceover track, a sound effects track and 4 tracks of music. This will then go into something like ProTools or into Apple Soundtrack for compressing and tweaking. Sound levels should aim to bounce around -12db with peaks to -6db. Compression is good for the Sync tracks and light compression for the music and voiceover.

What’s my approach?

• A good starting point is to watch the entire 63min programme. Let it soak in and look/listen out for a likely story thread.
• Talk to the client and ask them what they want the trailer to achieve. What do they think needs to be included?
• Does the client want the trailer to tell the whole story or to tease in some way?

In this instance, we needed to clarify the story so that the viewer ‘get’s it’ straight away. There had to be some element of tease, but the story was already quite complex, so a tease had to be fairly easy to understand. The aim of this trailer was to explain the whole story but leave a simple tease at the end.

Where do I start?

I start by creating a copy of the FCP project file and adding in a new sequence.

I then take out the colour graded track and the final mixed track to leave an edit that was a close as possible to the pre-onlined cut – the offline edit.

Scrubbing through the timeline I focus on the audio parts of the story – listening for soundbites that describe the key points. I’m trying all the time to get to the kernel of the story and strip away as much unnecessary narrative.

Once I’ve chosen my narrative (either Sync audio or Voiceover), I then try and get it as tight as possible on the timeline and illustrate the narrative with the necessary images.

What I’m aiming for is a story that has the basics. The setup, the key points and some sense of progression.

Crucially, if I can listen to it with my eyes closed, and it makes sense, then pictures are only going to improve the cut.

I think this is key for narrative based work like this.

In this particular trailer, I’ve decided to end it with a football sequence that leaves the viewer unclear as to whether the team is winning or losing. You need to watch it to find out more!

After the cut is approved, I onlined the edit and did a simple audio mix in Soundtrack.

I hope you like it! Take a look at the web site for this project to find out some more. www.rwanda17.tv

Whatever you think of this, it will never quite reach the dizzy heights of excellence that this is trailer…

I need coffee because I’ve been busy shooting for Sony around and about the show. More interestingly, I’ve been privileged enough to have had a chance to speak to some senior management about the Sony product philosophy and ideas they are having for the next few years. And I’m pleased to say that Sony are really listening and want to listen to people like myself. Very refreshing.

Suffice to say, I can’t talk about it without permission, but it’s great that within the world of professional moving image acquisition, Sony are putting time and energy into their business methods.

But of course, one of the major reasons to go to BVE, is the gadgets. And this little baby caught my eye.

I’m not even sure of the model name, but it’s a super cute little 3D camera. The LCD screen is 3D and it’s so light and versatile, that it makes you think about shooting for 3D on the road, maybe on an adventure shoot somewhere. Wouldn’t that be cool.

You can control convergence (the bit of the image that is popping into 3D), with a little thumb wheel down the side. Very easy. Don’t know any specs or any prices, but all I can say is I want one! Such a gadget.

Other highlights of the show were dropping by the stands and getting your hands on kit like the Miller tripods and the Atomos Samurai. Both confirmed as excellent and are added to the shopping list.

Finally, I took a picture of this…

… for no other reason than it had lots of buttons on it in lots of colours. Brilliant. No idea what it does, but my 10 year old son would love it!

I was shooting news against a deadline. So I had to shoot and edit an A-Roll finished piece as well as D-Roll to syndicate to various news agencies across the world. I decided to use the Panasonic AF-101 for versatility as well as for the SD card workflow.

Aside from the powered zoom feature of a broadcast 2/3rd inch camera, the AF-101 handled everything just fine.

On a technical note, I made the decision to shoot it slightly stopped down so that focus was less of an issue. Some of the shots are at f2.8 and less, but mostly I shot it around f8. Better safe than sorry!

Not easy to remove. If the shot had been largely stationary, then it wouldn’t be a problem.

I turned to After Effects and particularly to the bundled Mocha AE tracking software. It really is quite a remarkable piece of kit and got me out of this particular problem pretty easily – once I’d figured out a solution.

I’d seen the blurring of detail before with a corner pinning effect. Essentially, an area of the image is isolated and blurred to disguise the details.

This is what I had to start with.

Step 1 – Tracks the position of the logos

The first step is to track the logos on and off the screen using the Mocha planar tracking tools. This is a fairly straightforward affair but sometimes the targets wander off and you need to correct them back into place. For the logos that appear on screen later in the clip, you can track these backwards. The logos that wander off screen are OK to track forwards.

Step 2 – Transfer the position data into an After Effects composition

This data is then copied onto the clipboard and pasted into your After Effects composition. I extracted the Corner Pin data.

Step 4 – Create a blurred copy of the footage

Essentially, the trick is to blur a copy of the master shot and cut out a portion to cover the existing logos.

Step 5 – use the corner pin date extracted from Mocha

Using the data extracted from Mocha you can isolate when the logo is moving across the frame and blur away the logo. I used the Corner Pin data from Mocha, on a black solid. This was then used as a track matte to form a cutout of the blurred footage layer. If you simply paste the clipboard data on a solid, the corner pin effect is automatically applied along with all the coordinates. I then transferred the data into the Power Pin effect to make use of the extending edge facilities of the plugin.

Step 6 – Tweak the blurred layer to make it unobtrusive

Next, blur the logo some more and desaturate it to create a bland and unobtrusive ‘panel’ to cover the moving logos. My strategy was to make the area with the logo in it, look like some sort of frosted window panel on the machine.

Step 7 – Tidy up the edges

I then went back to Mocha and isolated the frame around the blurred section to help tidy up the region.

This was then put back into after effects to tidy up the edges.

The Results

With big budgets, celebrities, light and glamour, the lure of working in broadcast television is a driver for many people who enter the profession of filmmaking.

But the boundaries are seismically shifting. And I say seismically, because it’s a slow and fundamental shift in how we make a living, doing the things we like to do.

At the top end of the food chain, say a BBC costume drama (Downton Abbey) or long form documentary (Frozen Planet), there are big budgets available to producers to make extraordinary work, Also with huge entertainment formats such as X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, there is huge support financially for the production companies that makes these goliath type programmes.

Scratch beneath these mega-programmes and the picture is not so rosy for Broadcast.

I spent a large proportion of 2010 trying to get a broadcast series commissioned or independently funded for a BBC channel. In fact any channel. But BBC was were we felt it was best placed. I can’t go into the details too much of how we eventually made it happen, but we managed to get the 8 part series broadcast on the BBC World News channel. Financially, it didn’t make a return – probably never will. But it was aired and continues to be aired worldwide through a distributor.

For smaller production companies who lack the time to schmooze the TV execs, getting a TV programmed commissioned is very difficult. Despite a good idea, you definitely need a celebrity to front it for you. Without that, it appears you are onto a looser. If it doesn’t have a celebrity, then it needs to be sensational. Which is sometime an uncomfortable compromise to make if your programming idea wasn’t ‘sensational’ enough in the first place.

Suppose you want to make a wholesome, worthy and inspiring film?

Forget it. It’s too dull for TV and you won’t get it funded. That’s my experience with three programmes now. It needs to have celebrity, or be sensational or be a ‘format’. Without these it’s very very difficult to secure a channel and/or funding.

So how do you make a living if you don’t have these aspects?

If you go down the corporate or voluntary sector route are you selling out on your dream just to make a living?

Well, personally, I’m not so sure. A few years ago, before the advent of high quality internet distribution models, then I would have said ‘yes’. But these days, the corporate world is waking up to the idea of high quality video for their web sites and PowerPoint presentations. Particularly with the shallow depth of field cameras, we filmmakers can make very good looking short films and charge a living wage to the corporate community – and survive the changing and challenging times we are in.

Even the voluntary sector is picking up on this now. A lot of the larger charities have known about high quality video promotion for years, but the smaller ones are prioritising their budgets to include video. So it’s possible to pick up some income from them as well.

But is this selling out?

No. All the skills to make an interesting film are needed in the corporate and voluntary sectors. You still need to produce and direct, light, write scripts, acquire good audio, etc etc. In fact, it can be more of a challenge from a planning point of view. So, a good place to hone your skills. Often you need to educate you client in the basics of film making to make sure you both get the results you want. This is all very healthy to ensure you don’t stagnate as a filmmaker.

Corporate and Voluntary sector work isn’t the quiet back water is once was perceived to be. On the contrary, it’s a fertile environment of challenge and development!

Spend time to perfect your skills, develop your scriptwriting, refine your interpersonal skills.

And remember – it’s still ‘Broadcast’. If it’s on the internet, then it’s still broadcasting.

You have so may choices – YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion etc, or you can broadcast live with Livestream and UStream.

Be encouraged. Telling stories, creating amazing images and making a living is where it’s at. Whether it’s on a screen in the corner of the room or on a screen on someones desk or lap. What’s important is that the message is vibrant, entertains, engages and changes peoples mind or perceptions.

I bought an additional lens for my kit the other day, a Sigma 50mm f1.4. I was curious to see how good the sharpness was compared to my other lenses, and this led me to creating my own resolution test for all my lenses.

First off, this isn’t particularly scientific. It’s just for me to make a comparison. So the only control I had over the experiment, was to keep the resolution target (the image I’m shooting) the same, and to keep the lighting the same throughout.

I didn’t look at any of the manufacturers web sites for any tech details, I just used my eyes and summarised what I saw.

NOTE: In actuality, all these lenses produce nice results but it’s good to know the limitations of each lens to avoid disappointing results. Image quality is very subjective and depends on the what you are producing for. This test just represents my view of how these lenses perform to my eyes.

The Process

The chart used is an ISO 12233 resolution chart (downloadable here). This, I’m led to believe is as good as any in seeing the weaknesses of a lens. See this link for more information about the chart.

This was then printed onto A4 photo quality paper using a Canon iP4300 photo inkjet printer. You can buy expensive versions of this chart, but for the sake of cost and comparison, this inkjet version seemed adequate enough. In some of the finer areas of the chart, you can see the limitations of the printing process, but this is the best I could achieve using the tools available to me.

The chart was fixed to the wall and lit with a single light overhead. I framed up the test chart the best I could and then shot with the different lenses and different apertures to assess the difference between each lens – not to measure the resolution of the lens, only to see the differences.

The Lenses

I’m sure if I had more time (or less of a life) I could carry out a more accurate test of each lens. But this test was just for me to see where the differences lay between each lens.

The lenses I will be testing are:

Sigma 30mm f1.4 

Sigma 50mm f1.4

Sigma 50mm f2.8 Macro

Tokina 12-24 f4

Tamron 17-50 f2.8

Sigma 70-200 f2.8

So, as you can see, all fairly normal Nikon fit stills lenses. The AF101 has around a 2x crop factor with these lenses, so the focal lengths are effectively doubled. This has the effect of using the centre portion of each element in the lens and avoids the normal drop in resolution observed at the edges of the glass. This would be viewable in a full frame stills camera, such as the Canon 5D MkII. So I was curious to see how this looks in the real world.

The lens adapter I’m using (The MTF Nikon G to Micro 4/3rd’s adapter) doesn’t allow me to measure the aperture except for fully open and fully closed. Only two of the lenses have an aperture ring (the Sigma 50mm Macro and the Sigma 70-200 f2.8). So there are some approximate apertures in the test and these are indicated as such in the results.

Each lens was measured fully open, partially open (f2.8 for the wide aperture lenses) and also around f8-f11.

The Results

Sigma 30mm f1.4

f1.4		f2.8 approx		f11 approx

Sigma 50mm f1.4

f1.4		f2.8 approx		f11 approx

Sigma 50mm f2.8 Macro

f2.8		f11 approx

Tokina 12-24mm f4

f4.0 at 12mm		f4.0 at 24mm

f8 approx at 12mm		f8 approx at 24mm

Tamron 17-50mm f2.8

f2.8 at 17mm		f2.8 at 50mm

f8 approx at 17mm		f8 approx at 50mm

Sigma 70-200mm f2.8

f2.8 at 70mm		f2.8 at 200mm

f11 at 70mm		f11 at 200mm

Conclusions

The 30mm and 50mm f1.4 Sigma primes

The 30mm and 50mm Primes are sharper a couple of stops back from wide open. This is common knowledge I believe, but it’s good to actually ‘see’ it. They get even sharper as the aperture increases.

Chromatic aberration is present at wider apertures but is better controlled at smaller apertures. So if you are shooting high contrast things such as a leafless tree against a bright sky – watch out for chromatic aberration at wider apertures. Stop down to minimise.

In summary – expect softer results at f1.4 but get sharper results at f2.8 onwards.

The 50mm f2.8 Sigma Macro

The 50mm Macro is sharp at f2.8 and even sharper at f11. Quite a nice surprise for a cheap(ish) lens. Chromatic aberration at f2.8 is minimal and even less at f11. Nice.

In summary – this is a nice, sharp lens. Seems to have good optics for the price.

The Tokina 12-24mm f4 Wide Angle

Leaving aside the obvious barrel distortion at the 12mm end, the Tokina 12-24mm f4 exhibits quite a lot of blue diffraction at at f4 on the 12mm end but less so at the 24mm end at f4.

Additionally, when it’s stopped down, at 12mm, the aberration is blue and at 24mm it is pink. Weird.

In summary – this lens is quite sharp but exhibits chromatic aberration across the zoom range and throughout all apertures. Just be prepared for this.

The Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 Zoom

Nice lens this. It’s quite sharp throughout the zoom range. Perhaps a little softer at f2.8 at 50mm. Chromatic aberration is well controlled as well. The only thing of note is blue diffraction at the 17mm when stopped down.

In summary – this is my ‘go to’ lens as it is versatile and produces nice images for the money. Just be prepared for blue diffraction on the wide end when stopped down.

The Sigma 70-200 f2.8 Zoom

This is not the newer 70-200mm that Sigma now sell, so I’m sure there are better optics in that model. It’s also not the most expensive 70-200mm Nikon fit zoom lens out there. So I’m not expecting amazing results. And guess what, it’s not amazing. Principally, this lens seems to be quite soft at f2.8 with a fair amount of chromatic aberration. It’s especially soft at the 70mm end at f2.8. When stopped down the sharpness improves measurably as does the chromatic aberration.

Summary – try not to shoot at the 70mm end at f2.8.

The rail system comes with:

- Camera Quick release base plate
- Camera riser with X/Y adjustment
- Tripod Mounting Plate
- Height Adjuster (which I completely forgot to photograph – I don’t use it)
- Lens Support
- 150mm Extension Rails in 15mm dia
- 300mm long Rails in 15mm dia

Firstly, this stuff isn’t what you’d call a fine piece of modern engineering. Sure, the parts are CNC machined aluminium and steel, but it is quite heavy and the finish isn’t perfect.

However, for the price point, it is far far superior to not having a rail system, or indeed, superior to a DIY effort in an attempt to save money.

It hasn’t fallen apart yet, nothing has bent or come off in my hand. In fact, the general feel of the system is one of solidity over weight saving.

As you can see, the camera base plate is a good size and slides easily in the base unit. It has a lock and safety catch as you would expect to see. There is a good level of height adjustment as well.

Turning the unit over, you can see there is a good selection of mounting holes for your own tripod base plate. These two mounting units are machined from solid steel, so they make up a large proportion of the weight of rails.

Additionally, there is a front lens support which I use for my Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 lens. I had completely forgotten about the riser that comes with it as well.

All of the system is adjustable by hand or with an Allen key.

After some adaptation, my Formatt Matte Box fits on the system with the addition of a bracket bought from CineCity at the same time. The matte box was a screw on type and I had to add an adapter to allow the box to slide onto the rails.

In summary then, a good rail system that appears well engineered (not superb but good) that looks like it might survive a while yet.

Mu philosophy with this is that if it can get me through a few jobs, then it’s paid for itself and I can move on to better equipment. But quite honestly, at £150 including shipping, it’s a bargain and seems to be holding up well.