JULY 2015 Vol 215

David: No backlights, I went for that “single source”lighting and any other light was bounced – just a verysubtle bouncing of the light.

It was a big first step for me. For close ups we did bringin subtle eye lights. Up to that point, I had used lots ofsmaller lights in a traditional way and that was becauseof the budget jobs that I was on. This was my first TVfeature where, suddenly, I had a truck with bigger lights

It was a cinematographersevening in aid of Nepal whereDavid Paul told us about hisimpressive work life includingbeing DOP on ‘Hillary’, anupcoming TV drama about SirEd’s life. There were somepoints David made that Ithought “well, we can all learnsomething here.”

Ed: David, I want to startwith a scene that you showedfrom the movie Until ProvenInnocent about DavidDougherty that was in theprison when he was being firstinterviewed by his lawyer. Ilooked at that and I thought “isthat all natural light or did helight it?”

David: The prison scenewhere David was interviewedby Donna Chisholm was lit, butwe worked quite hard to makeit look natural light. It wasn’t astudio – there were no studiosin Wellington we could use, soit was actually a warehouse,which conveniently had hugediffused windows, and it was about putting lights out onthe footpath. We just massaged it and massaged it to gofor that real natural light look. I was really pleased withthe look in there and that’s my favourite scene. It’s stillone of my favourite films that I’ve shot as it was a veryconsistent film for me photographically.

Ed: So all the light was from outside through thosewindows – there were no backlights?

Cinematographer Action

David – fully loaded – on location.

and it made me nervous actually. Ithought “what do I do with big lights?”People think it’s easy, but when you’vespent your life using smaller lights tryingto create a big look and you suddenlyget the big lights, there’s a skill in howyou manage them. I relied on my gafferhugely on that – Adrian Hebron – he dida remarkable job on that film.

Ed: Do you think a lot of cameramenare scared of shadow?

David: I’m not sure if cameramenare … some possibly are, they like to fillin. I think that can be a variety ofthings, it can be the producer, it can bethe director who is scared of shadow;some DOPs may be scared of shadow.But there’s a lot of story in the shadowsand, quite often, it’s about what’s notseen, which is a challenge when you’recomposing your image or lighting something. But deepshadows may not suit the story so it’s not a fear ofshadows for many. It’s what does the story require. Ifa DOP lights quite flat that may be their creativedecision ... it’s not wrong at all.

Ed: Do you think it’s easier now because the camerashave got a great dynamic range – you can actuallybring things out of the shadow which you couldn’t dobefore?

David: Not necessarily. 35mm film sees the sameif not actually more than digital cameras are seeingnow. I’ve been caught out with 35mm film in highlightswhere I’ve thought “oh, the window’s blown out, I won’tsee anything outside” and I’ve had a crane holding upan 18K lamp and they’ve gone “the light’s in shot.” Isaid “don’t worry, it’s blown out, you’ll never see it”,and we get into post and the footage is processed andwe can see a crane out the window.

I have no idea how it was possible – it was like 7 stopsoverexposed out there, but we can see a bit of thiscrane arm. So I think it’s not necessarily easier,particularly because we have to watch our highlightsnow. We’re trying to overexpose a littlebit, but we have to watch our highlights,so as we try to do that, it’s easy toplunge into shadow. So you actuallyhave to really put a little bit of light intothe shadows which I’ve become more ofa fan of, which is the old film style –even if you wanted a good black, you putlight into the black and you got a muchricher black. But it’s more the recentcameras I think now, like the Sony F55and ARRI ALEXA which are really seeingdeeper into the shadow, so I think it’senabling us to light a little bit more likewe used to with film.

I think the cameras are there now,where we can provide single sourcelighting and let the ambience just bouncearound. But I have to say it’s not all

Page 2

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about latitude and dynamic range. You know good olesuper 8 film from 40 years ago looks great ... nottechnically, but aesthetically it’s emotive and I think thefilm versus digital debate is old now. They are 2different mediums, both are brilliant.

It’s good to be technically accurate but that’s not mymain mission when shooting ... it’s do I like the lookI’ve created, but always in my mind is where is the filmgoing. If for TV broadcast then naturally I manage mylook to suit the compressed broadcast images we get,otherwise what I do on set will never make it to the TVscreens. Perhaps you want deep black shadows with nodetail and blown out highlights. If that’s what you wantto do and you like it, then great. We can get too hungup on what’s technically correct, which does not meanyou ignore it but you manage it.

Ed: In your presentation, you said that you workedfirstly in 16mm film and then your first big productionwas with RED ONEs. How did you cope with thatchange?

David: I was fascinated by the RED ONE, it was animpressive camera. The change was not too bad for me

Gaol scene from ‘Until Proven Innocent’ (fg)

Gaol scene lit through windows (fg – frame grab).

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because it wasn’t thrust upon me. Being in Wellington,we hung out a lot and drank coffee at the RubberMonkey rental warehouse. It was a bunch of guys whospent a lot of money on buying cameras. We were justhanging out together and shooting short films with theirgear and learning it, so when the RED ONE arrived, Ihad lots of time to play with it before Until ProvenInnocent. Fortunately, our production office for UntilProven Innocent was straight across the road fromRubber Monkey so I had loads of time to do tests, whichis not always possible. Often with productions, you hireyour camera kit, you get it one week before, but I had alot of prep time and every time I had a thought, I couldgo straight across the road, the camera was in thestudio, I could light a scene with their lights, dragsomebody to sit in and try what I was thinking andtesting contrast, everything. So I went into the filmreasonably well versed on the camera. We still learnt alot while shooting with it, but it wasn’t too nervewracking in that sense. I was lucky, but I think if I hadbeen just given the camera one week before, it couldeasily have been a disaster.

Ed: Would you use a RED ONE today?

David: I wouldn’t necessarily use a RED ONE today… I would use RED cameras. I guess if somebody had afilm and they had no money and they owned a REDONE, I’d use it. It’s still an impressive camera and UntilProven Innocent was shot on it, I still look at that film,the grade on it is beautiful – it’s still one of the bestlooking films I’ve shot to date.

Ed: So again, the grade is great, it comes back tohaving that dynamic range that you can play with?

David: For the RED ONE, because it didn’t havethe same as we have now, it’s about managing it. Ifyou give me a Digibeta camera and I have 7 stops oflatitude, then I will light and manage that. So in thatsense, it’s about just knowing the equipment and youwork to its limitations and its boundaries. It’s not allabout the camera … you need to know your equipment,then you work with it.

Ed: You talked about “look” – finding your look inthose early days and that you found a particular look byplaying around with the camera’s menu. You didsomething off normal?

David: That was on The Insider’s Guide toHappiness. That was the first, slightly off-the-wall,wacky TV drama. We found the “look” as a team ofdirectors and DOPs.

Ed: So just to clear this up, it wasn’t a look that youwere wanting for your productions … it was a look thatyou collectively decided upon for this particular seriesand nothing else?

David: That’s right. It was a look for Insider’sGuide and we actually didn’t know what it was. Weknew we wanted a “look” but it was about finding it.My explanation is that it’s like blokes; we walk intohardware stores and wander around looking for thingsto make something. People ask us “can we help?” andyou go “no, you can’t”, because we don’t know whatwe’re looking for, but we will find it if we just keepwandering around. And that’s what it was. BrendanDonovan, one of the directors, brought that inspirationfor a look, so it was about us just bashing about tryingthings. At the time, I owned a Sony DSR450 and I took

Page 4

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it out with me on a recce one day andjust started shooting with it. We’d triedso many things within the menus of thecameras, where we’d get close butweren’t really getting there, and Brendanwas really pushing hard for a look withgreat ideas… I just went okay, lets goreally wacky and change settings that weshould never touch – the engineers hadsaid “you don’t touch that page, youdon’t go there.” So I thought well, I willbecause we’re running out of options –and we stumbled across the “look”.Adam Sondjei the colourist at GibsonGroup helped us to pull our camerasback to make them legal for broadcastplus added his skill / grading to completethe look. A total collaborative discovery.

Ed: Since then you’ve moved on andare using the Sony F55 as your maincamera these days. Have you developedyour own look for that, your own setupthat you put into that camera before yougo out on a shoot?

David: With all my cinematography,now I actually don’t create any looks inthe camera. I treat them like a film neg. So everythinggets turned off and the only thing I’m using in the F55is the S-Log and the S-Gamut – everything else isturned off. I don’t apply LUTs or anything in-camera,because I’m treating it like a negative. My look is incomposition and lighting – it’s hugely influenced bycostume design and art direction, the productiondesigner. Then, if I want any colour manipulation orinfluence, I love filters. I like doing things in-camera,so I go back to glass filters. In fact, for Hillary, it wasquite funny. I went to Panavision because there weresome filters I wanted to test. They were hugely helpful,but they sort of chuckled and said they had to go andfind the filters I wanted out the back, because they saidthese haven’t been used for years. I wanted yellowsand old black and white filters and things and I had abig pile of 30-odd filters. I went down there and justtested them all on colour charts. They said “but no oneuses them anymore, they do it in post.” I’m a fan ofdoing it in-camera – that’s the only way I willmanipulate a look ( in camera.) I don’t use LUTs, it’s inwhat we do on set on the day, and it’s typically how youshot film once upon a time.

Ed: Still with cameras, as well as the F55, you have aSony Alpha 7S. We’ve talked about the Alpha 7S inthese pages in the past, and it certainly has had a lot ofinterest from people as a second camera. Did thiscome from an earlier experience when you wereinvolved in the movie The Banker the Escort and the 18Million?

David: That was a documentary about StephenVersalko who worked for ASB and basically set up aPonzi scheme within the ASB, using ASB clients andmoney. That documentary which I ended up winningBest Cinematography for – it wasn’t a huge budget andI ended up using Sony EX1, EX3 – one of them with aLetus adapter and Nikon lenses – a Canon 5D and aCanon 7D, depending on what we were doing and howwe needed to operate. That put me onto probably thefirst documentary I shot with DSLRs, and that was afew years ago. The A7 series wasn’t out then I don’tthink. It was interesting because I did win BestCinematography for it and I sort of looked at it and theway we shot it was quite loose and random, but clearlythere was something in it that people saw. But theinteresting thing was that the shooting styles were allmixed up with the different cameras and I realised it’s

not necessarily just about the camera; it’s about howsomething is shot. Moving forward, I steered clear ofthe DSLR movement of the 5Ds and the 7Ds. A lot ofpeople were asking me to shoot on them and I wasn’tso keen.

Ed: Do you think they really knew what they wereasking?

David: No I don’t think they knew. I think it wasmostly based on money, budget, and they’d heardabout these cameras and they’d looked at YouTube.Everything looks great on YouTube; a GoPro looksamazing on YouTube … don’t ask me to put it in yourcinema film or your television feature. I won’t do it, Iwill not use it, and they look at me like I’m mad.They’ve seen it on a little wee Vimeo or YouTube. So,yeah, I don’t think they knew what they were asking,but it wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing. I’d donethe occasional 5D shoot and then I moved ahead.

I’m not even sure how I clapped onto the Sony A7. Itwas less than a year ago; I’m not sure what it was thatcaught my attention, but I went and bought one. My7D was getting a bit old and tired, it was time to moveon and I was sick of carrying around the weight of thecamera. I’d never really considered Sony as a stillscamera manufacturer, but I was hunting around and Iread that this thing could shoot HD video and I thought,that’s quite handy if I’ve got it in my bag and I want toshoot something, it’s possibly usable in broadcast. ButI really got it to be a lighter weight stills camera. I’mnot a megapixel fiend, I don’t need 24 megapixels. Thisis only 12 megapixels. So I bought it and played with itand suddenly realised what a gem I’d stumbled upon.It blew me away.

Ed: And you used it quite a bit in the latest Hillarydrama?

David: Yes. What I discovered is the low lightcapabilities of this camera and the impressive images. Ijumped inside the menu and sitting there is S-Log andS-Gamut which, lo and behold, is also in my F55. TwoSony cameras with the same matrix and gammasettings, they match incredibly well. I suddenly sawthis as a great wee second camera and, very early on inHillary, I wanted the camera to be on the journey withHillary. I didn’t want us to stand back on the outside ofhis life and watch it. I wanted to participate with himand that meant that, if he was inside a tent, I wanted to

Page 6

Somewhere in there is a Sony Alpha 7S.

be inside the two-man tent – which really we would calla one-man tent nowadays – with two climbers twicetheir body size ( as they were essentially wearing 3layers of really thick snow clothing ... imagine wearing3 x puffer jackets in an Auckland summer ), plus theboom operator, and myself and a Tilley lamp. And Iwanted to be there, because if I climbed Everest withthem, I couldn’t have a camera trap,( a special openingoften built into sides of sets to allow a camera access orsomewhere to place the camera slightly outside of theset ) so suddenly this camera came to life. I couldsqueeze in the corner with a little wee tiny camera andshoot. I recorded off-board to a ProRes recorder that

was the size of a cigarette packet, and I was essentiallymatching my F55 settings.

Ed: So this is an example of using the camera, not toget the best picture, but to get the content that youwanted?

David: Yes, it was about getting the content withan aesthetic that I believe suited. I was expecting to beeven rougher with it in the sense that I thought I’d besquashed and might have to lie down and shoot theseguys.

I was happy for the camera to be on odd angles, butbecause it was so compact, I was actually able tosqueeze in the corner of the tent and just shoottraditionally. It was so short and compact but still witha remote focus and a video sender. It was just so tinyand I could swing it around. Because it has the fullframe and the APS-C crop ability in it, and the quality isas good, I would often shoot most of my small tentscenes on a compact prime 25mm, 2.1 lens, either nolighting or very minimal lighting, 3200 ISO and that wasa very wide lens on full frame, but they are full framelenses, so they were stunning, and there’s not manyyou can shoot full frame with. Then we’d go MCU and Ijust went APS-C with my 25mm, jumped in, got a lottighter and be like a 50mm ( actually closer to a 40mmbut I’d move a tad closer as well ) in a sense and I’d getan MCU. So it meant that we were really quick.

Ed: “MCU” is a mid-close up for those of us not intojargon. But you didn’t use the sound off the Alpha 7?

David: No, we didn’t use the sound off the Alpha.Obviously it’s a drama, so the sound was recordedindependently. I don’t think we even put a guide track… there’s no guide track on any of it either.

Page 7

Alpha 7S with a close-up lens.

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On Hillary, we weren’t having to putsound equipment on the camera, evenon our main camera, and everything wassynced in post later, which actually setme even more free. It was amazing.The other aspect of using the A7s in thetents, besides it being small, was that Icould use the sensor crop from full frameto apsc instead of a lens change, so itmeant we could shoot really fast. Oncewe were in the tent, the little flaps wereclosed, we were essentially gettinggassed from these original old Tilleylamps from the 50s that burnt with ahorrendous smell, and the temperaturewould rise.

We were in Auckland summer, in thestudio, in a tent, myself and the boomoperator soaking wet and we were in T-shirts, but the actors were in the reallayers that they actually wore on Everest. That wasseveral layers, so the heat and the smell … we couldonly do a few minutes at a time. But sometimes I couldget three shots really quickly, we’d just shoot the wide,cut, sensor change size on the camera back of themenu, it would take me 2 seconds and we’re rollingagain. That was essential, couldn’t have done it on theF55, it would have been lens change, open up, get thewhole crew in, do the lens change and it would havetaken 5 times longer. So that was essential and I hadworked that out in preproduction that we needed to bequick once we got into the tents.

Ed: And no problem in post, mixing the two cameras?

David: Not so far, because I haven’t graded … I’mabout to find out if the two cameras mix. I did do testsand drop them in to Paul Lear at Images and Sound,who’s my colourist and I trust Paul – he looked at it andsent a note back “all good.” He’s happy, so no we won’thave any trouble.

Ed: Talking of mixing shots, you talked about Rage,the film about the Springbok tour, that it was verypassionate for you in that you felt a great sense ofresponsibility covering a critical time in New Zealand’shistory. You can tell us about that, but also that theproduction team intercut original footage with whatyou’d shot. Was that a case of you looking at thatoriginal footage and setting your “look” so that it wouldmatch, or which way round did you do it?

David: Rage … I was very passionate about thatfilm. It was important to me because, as youmentioned, I felt a huge responsibility to it, because thepeople who shot the original Springbok tour, orreported in the media, were the cameramen thattrained me or the cameramen that I looked up to. Theyhad gone through a lot and it was quite emotional for

them. They were on the front lines and sometimesgetting injured, so I felt a responsibility to try andportray what they had done. I didn’t want to let themdown so it was a big deal for me to shoot that film.Getting to the protest footage, everything was shot16mm back then, so we had the challenge where 16mmfilm does not meet HD broadcast specifications. It’s notthe film’s fault, it’s the compression for broadcast. Andso, if you get a repeated film grain, then you have amajor problem. I think you’ve got a 20% quota you’reallowed to use of non-HD footage in an HD delivery, andwe had to use some of that footage. We looked at a lotof that footage to see how it was shot and stuff.

I think, as far as the look goes, I shot that on an ARRIALEXA and shot everything with no manipulation in thecamera, because I knew I could pull it back to the16mm look in post very easily, which was the way weneeded to do it. It was probably more the style thateveryone shot in. At the time, they were handheld16mm cameras; a lot of them not the most comfortablethings on your shoulder – some of them were,depending on what camera model they had.

Ed: So you were handholding an ALEXA?

David: Yes, I was handholding the ALEXA with anEasyrig.

Ed: Would you handhold it any other way?

David: For a short amount of time, I can handholdan ALEXA. You can pick the camera up and use it for acouple of minutes, but if you do that all day long, youwon’t be doing very good handheld at the end of theday. My Easyrig also saves my back that I damagedearly in my career. But on the Rage thing, like I say, itwas a matter of just finding that style of the way it hadbeen shot. We actually had made a decision to not tryand be 16mm film but we shot it probably in very

Page 9

Scene from ‘Rage’ (fg).

similar style to the way it had been shot.It wasn’t a deliberate “we’re going tomatch this exactly” because we felt wecouldn’t. Subsequently, a lot of splitscreen was used and I think, if you stopand actually look at the footagetechnically and you studied it, you willsee the colours are different, thedynamic range is different andeverything, but we’ve had amazingfeedback from people … probably thebiggest feedback I’ve had is people going“wow, that was amazing how youintegrated that footage.” So a lot of thatwas in the editing and more the shootingstyle as opposed to the look. We didn’tdegrade our ALEXA footage to make itgrainy like the 16mm footage; but theediting style and the shooting styleworked well for the audience. Theylooked at it and didn’t see any differenceand we obviously placed our actors into certainscenarios from the archive footage. We recreatedsegments of particular scenes.

Ed: Now another film that you discussed was about

the Tangiwai disaster and that impressed me, especially

with the night shots. You managed to get shots of a

model train and it really did look real. But what I want

to bring out here is that you talked about making

decisions on set. You’d obviously done a huge amount

of preparation for this, but there were some things that

you just couldn’t do until you were actually there and

decided “I need that light positioned there”?

David: For Tangiwai, shooting the train crash wasmy first real true miniatures shoot, so it was a hugedeal for me. I had some wonderful guidance from AlexFunke ASC who is a remarkable miniatures director ofphotography and well known worldwide. He moved toNew Zealand for Lord of the Rings and never left. So hestayed and lucky Wellington has him. His wealth ofknowledge was called upon and he gave me about 3hours of his time and some amazing calculations,because it’s very mathematically based, determiningwhat you’re doing. We then tested and tested andtested with half the model train in the studio; we didn’treally have the lighting to test my lighting ideas so it

Page 10

How to make moonlight on ‘Tangiwai’.

was really about just planning andplotting. We went to the set on the dayto set up just based on a lot of planning,intuition and experience. And I leant onmy gaffer again, Adrian Hebron.

Ed: Because, I guess, once you crashthe train, you don’t get a second shot atit?

David: No you don’t. We had onetake for the train crash. The producersdid let me know I could do a second take… it was going to cost $70,000 I thinkand it would mean we probably wouldn’tget all the night’s shooting done becauseit would take 3 hours to reset and wecouldn’t do any other shots. So, yeah,we get there and we have to light in thedaytime, we need every dark hour toshoot and so it’s about setting upeverything according to our plans andour intuition in the daylight, and then you really are justrelying on your experience.

Everything was measured out – the Titan cranes will be50 metres back and they will be this high with thislamp.

Ed: You had fewer cameras than you really wanteddidn’t you?

David: I did. We only had 3 cameras whereastraditionally, you would probably want to put 5 camerason a shoot that you don’t really want to do a “Take 2”on. We could only afford 3 cameras so it was a lot ofpressure. Every camera worked, none of them failed.They were RED cameras which are known to have a few

bugs sometimes. But they all performed and evenwhen one of them got sent 50 metres back into apaddock in the darkness, we pulled it out of theprotection housing it was in, and it was still running andall the footage was good, no dropped frames, whichastounded us. The placement of those cameras couldonly be made on the night; the placement of the lightswe tried to do it according to our plan, but in daylight,for me on that shoot, I just felt we needed to changewhat we had pre-planned – and with a little mini-battlewith my gaffer and discussion, he disagreed, buteventually moved our big lamps which provided themoonlight. I think it was only about 10 feet, but Ithought that 10 foot move was important, and then

Page 11

Scene “it’s only a model” from ‘Tangiwai’.

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wait for night, turn the lights on and we didn’t have tochange anything. So for me, it was a really goodmoment.

Ed: Knowing what you know now, would you take onsuch a job again?

David: Oooh yes. I’d have to go and see AlexFunke again, because I’ve lost all the calculations andthere’s too much to know, but I would definitely take iton again. I actually quite enjoyed mathematics atschool, so I loved that aspect of planning things andthen I mixed it up with complete random organicshooting style for other things on other scenes on set.We had some scenes in Hillary I had plannedmeticulously because there was no room for error andno room to be random, and other scenes Danny thedirector and I would rock into the scene and see whatthe actors wanted to do, don’t give them marks, noblocking, the focus puller doesn’t get marks. I don’twant actors walking up to a bit of tape on the floor andstanding there to deliver their lines. If they made it towhere we roughly thought they should be, that’s great;if they don’t, they don’t – and myself and my focuspuller would find them. That was our approach on a lotof scenes – very random, very organic.

Ed: You said “you can do good work, but a lot of mycareer is due to making relationships. This is trust frompeople you know.” Is building relationships the mostvaluable plan that everyone should be following in ourindustry?

David: Yes. It can sound very shallow talkingabout relationships. I don’t think you should be formingrelationships if you don’t genuinely care about thepeople who your relationship is with. But naturally,through your career, you meet people who you connectwith and there’s some you don’t connect with, andthat’s okay, you don’t have to connect with everybody.You may get on well with the person socially.

Personally, I’m very loyal, and I’m very loyal to myproducers. If they’ve employed me, then I’m loyal tothem and maybe that loyalty has paid off. You stillneed to do good work for them, you can’t not do yourjob, but relationships have just really been a huge partof my career. I can pinpoint intersections all the waythrough my career, and I can name the people whohave put me onto a new path that’s taken me furtherahead. So, yes, I think we should nurture relationships.Internationally, there are directors, you know, the CoenBrothers love Roger Deakins; clearly a relationship hasbeen formed with them, as for all of our careers, we willall work with the same directors, the same producers,and that’s purely about relationships and trust. And if

you are trusted by your producerand your director and vice versa, Ithink it adds a huge amount to thequality of the work.

Ed: It comes down to trust againdoesn’t it?

David: Absolute trust, that’sright. Gareth, my dolly grip onHillary, was a new grip for me; I’dnever met him before, but hugelyexperienced. You give somebodythat trust and remind them thatthey’re a creative, they’re not atechnician. It was soon apparenthe had an eye and ear for storytelling so often I’d just let ‘G’ knowthis camera dolly move was hisand he’d place the cameraperfectly every time. Due to some

of our shooting style therewas not a lot of rehearsals

and often last minute blocking changes, so I’d relyhugely on Gareth to get me where I needed the camerato be, based on his instinct – he was always right, so forme operating it was great. You know your gaffer, yourgrip and your focus puller are creative positions and I’mvery wary of a gaffer or grip who think they’re onlytechnicians. Yes they are technicians, but they’recreatives and you give them that creative ball to holdon to … they’ve made a lot of films, the experiencedguys, they know good drama, they know where thestory is, they know where the camera needs to be and ifyou trust them, they’ll get you there. It becomes thissynchronicity and when you have a grip and a camera

Page 12

Paul Richards and David Paul (left) at the Cinematographers evening.

operator and a focus puller all working together and justsilently during a scene and you nail it, wow, it’samazing. I just get so excited by it because it’s peopleworking together. Love it. It’s not all about just theDOP, or the camera, or the operator – it’s not aboutthem, it’s about the whole team.

Ed: So then why wouldn’t you want to set up a teamyourself and form a production company … you’ve gotthe dream team, so surely you could make your ownwonderful movies?

David: No, I couldn’t make my own wonderfulmovies. I’m more and more specialising actually. As Isaid, my career moves on and you get older, and I findyou discover what you don’t know and you actuallyrealise you don’t know a lot more. If you want to takeon producing, you’re mad. I think it’s one of thetoughest jobs out there and I hugely admire goodproducers. It’s a horrendous job, so I would never tryand produce anything. I can’t write; I have directedmusic videos, could I direct a film … I don’t know. No, Iactually think films are made by people who specialisein their departments and they bring those skillstogether. A good producer, which was particularly soon Hillary with Carmen Leonard, has a gift at bringingtogether talented people. She will sit there and sheputs the team together and then sits back and justguides us gently through and watches the whole teamgel. And it was Katrina Hodge who did costume designand Miro Harre the production designer, DannelleSatherly make up and when you get us four workingtogether, all about the creatives there, and then weadded my gaffer Nick Riini, and my grip GarethRobinson, and my focus puller, Sam Mathews, it’s reallyexciting stuff, and a good producer sits there and goes“that’s the team.” But the producer brings us together,and then you have your director leading the vision. Ifyour director trusts all those people, which Danny(Mulheron) did on Hillary, then you have a greatfoundation for a good film. Our roles though are to helpour director realise their vision, interpretation of thescript / film. Then you add a superb cast as well. If theactors, trust you, which is critical as a director ofphotography – your actors have to trust you, becauseI’m going to do shots that they may not like, I’m goingto be in their space a lot and if they’retrusting you also with their emotions andperformances then you have quite a potentforce. But I would never want to try and doall that by myself. I want to be acinematographer, that’s my dream. I wantto be doing this when I’m 80. I hope I’ll bedoing my best films in my 70s.

Ed: Which leads me to my last question –you’re part of the New ZealandCinematographers Society … why?

David: For NZCS, I felt that we wereprobably one of the few developed countriesin the world that had no CinematographersSociety. It was a Kiwi thing, you just get onwith it, we don’t need recognition, we justget out there and crack on. One aspect Ithink that was good was that it helpedcreate a camaraderie and a sharing ofknowledge and experience, butinternationally, I thought it was importantalso. If we’ve got a government giving outrebates, we’re trying to attract internationalwork, and people look on our websites andwhat do they see? Film is a very Kiwi thing.We don’t stand up in New Zealand, we dohave the tall poppy syndrome issues still,but I thought for international productionslooking here, cinematographers societies

are recognised worldwide and you know, if you look at aname in another nation and they are accredited, you’reguaranteed of a certain standard of work, and a personof a certain amount of experience. I think if we wantinternational productions here, using ourcinematographers, we need to let them know that we’veset the bar and we require people to get there to beaccredited – as all the other countries have. I think it’simportant if we want to keep that work coming in,otherwise it’s “I’ll come in and get just any old body inNew Zealand?” No, they’ll bring their own people thatthey know. I think the NZCS initials at the end sayssomething internationally.

Ed: But you have to do something for that don’t you –it’s not just about taking that accreditation, you’ve gotto be involved in the Society yourself?

David: That’s right, yes. In the fine print of beingaccredited, you need to help further cinematography inNew Zealand which is always the challenge, because ascinematographers, we tend to be behind the cameraand I think most of us like to keep reasonably under theradar. We potter about doing our thing and often wediscover things ourselves, and yes we don’t necessarilyshare it that well, partly because we’re never togethervery often.

So I think NZCS actually is in a slow process ofencouraging the sharing of knowledge and discoverieswhich was for me during the evening the other night … Ihave never talked to other cinematographers aboutwhat I’ve done or how I did it. They’re things that areheld very closely because it was hard found knowledge.So NZCS is starting to work in that sense – we’restarting to share knowledge. I think in the past wefeared that we would just give the knowledge away andthen somebody else gets the work, but that takes youback to relationships. So I think we need to increasethat, keep sharing that knowledge, so it is working inthat sense. I think it’s very important for New Zealandand it’s okay to actually have some initials after yourname; it’s okay to know you’re okay at a job. I thinkit’s important for New Zealand.

Ed: And it’s okay to share?

David: It’s ok to share … it’s not always easy! NZVN

Page 13

Some of the kit on ‘Hillary’.

Son of DavidHis initials are JC but no, this is

not a biblical dynastic story but

one more earthy. It came to my

attention that the provider of the

very sporty and well constructedvideo clips at

https://vimeo.com/eivomedia

was none other than John ( son of

David ) Colthorpe. To see if he

had inherited any skills ( or

personality traits ) from his

father, I sought an interview with

the Colthorpe gentlemen.

Ed: John, you do think that yougot interested in video making

because of your father?

John: Yes, he lent me a

broken handycam with no LCD

screen and I started off filming;

taught myself how to use tape

and how to convert tape to digital

and then to edit. Then he gaveme a Sony Vegas licence and it

started off from there.

Ed: Has he had any creative input into what you do …

I hope the answer’s “no”?

John: No, he has not.

Ed: Oh well, you’ve learnt well from him, but you’ve

moved on and obviously have a creative talent there,

because you are doing great things from what I’ve

seen. But you’re doing sort of special work aren’t you –it’s very sporting in its nature – lots of mountain biking?

John: Yes. The majority of my work involves

internet based companies and web videos for Facebook

and social media, mainly revolving around brand

development for action sports companies and in the

equestrian world.

Ed: And you got into action sports because you and

your friends were interested in that early on?

John: I started off recording my friends

skateboarding on a Sony Ericsson cell phone, moved my

way up, kept on with skateboarding all these years and

then slowly my sport changed from skateboarding to

mountain biking. I’ve continued to record mountain

biking and other action sports to this day, making my

videos better and better, and slowly getting better

contacts and more work.

Ed: And in those early days, it was a case of bartering

– “I’ll take some video of your mountain bike if you give

me some pedals”, but you’ve moved on from that?

John: Yes – my first gig, which is a while back

now, was a trade of a good mountain bike for about 5

videos. The bike importer was getting a good deal, I

was happy just to make the videos for free, so at that

point I was stoked I was getting a bike. From there Ijust continued on with him and we’ve been working on

a proper business footing.

Ed: That’s always good because now you’ve got some

good material on sites that you can send interested

people to, to say “look, this is what I do and, if you like

that, well I can do that for you too”?

John: Yes. It’s great. The network effect takes

hold and the whole thing gains momentum.

Ed: So you are providing more than just pretty

pictures of mountain bikes; you have actually

incorporated something in that which, at the end of

watching, people hopefully will think “aaah, that’s the

sort of mountain bike that I want?”

John: The idea is to promote the product to the

max. For example not just the mountain bike, but the

rider and the rider’s sponsors and why he’s riding it and

Page 14

David and John Colthorpe.

why you should buy it … what makes it different. On

social media these sort of videos are so much more

effective than the approach used by some companies

that just decide to burn their money on magazine

articles, or others that decide to send a film crew

around the world at great expense.

Ed: What is it about the way you shoot it that gives

that little bit of extra corporate promotion, or marketing

to the video – it’s not just an enthusiast taking pictures

of young guys on bikes?

John: The difference between how I used to film

and now is I’ve changed up the whole cinematic style

and I’ve focused on different elements to show off the

product’s specific technical specifications and what

makes it good.

Ed: And the Sony FS7 that

you’ve just recently bought,

has that been crucial in

providing that extra look?

John: It started withthe VG10 from Sony – that

was definitely crucial. That

was my first sort of

“cinema” camera – it was

crucial for creating the look;

and from there, I moved to

the FS100 though I’ve used

an FS700 a few times. Myfirst big video that went mas

-sive with around 150,000

views was on an FS700

which I did for free just for

fun. I’ve found the FS7 to

be on another level again

and I’ve gained a lot of work

out of that – including some

big corporates such asOakley. I guess my

technique is to tell a bit

more story when trying to

sell say a bike, it’s more

about what the rider thinks about it.

Ed: So for that you do sound bites?

John: Yes, sound bites are a key part of any

promotional video. You’ve got to get the celeb talking

genuinely about what he thinks about the product.

Ed: And you keep going until you get him saying

something nice?

John: You get him going and make sure he says

something nice, that’s for sure.

Ed: So what is it about the FS7 that has really upped

your game?

John: The main reason why I wanted to skip the

FS700 was that it has a buffer on the slow motion; I doa lot of slow motion in biking and horsey stuff. With the

FS700 you’d be recording one rider coming down and

then you’d have to wait for the buffer to roll through

before you could shoot another rider, and then you’d

miss the rider that you wanted. It was just awkward

having that buffer. But with the FS7 having no buffer,

it makes it so much better. I can just roll and there’s a

much faster switchover … from standard speed to high

speed on the FS7 takes about a second.

Ed: Now the question I have though, with an FS7,

there’s obviously a short depth of field which is fine for

people who want that, and want to have the

Page 16

background out of focus, but how does that work in the

“run and gun” situation. Are you finding that, with

some of your clips, you haven’t actually managed to get

the focus in place in time and you waste that clip?

John: Yes definitely, but that’s all part of the fun!

You’ve got to work a lot harder to get the better looking

shots. That’s what makes it different to the guys out

there who are just shooting on EX1s and can geteverything in focus and get just okay shots. But at the

end of the day, it’s so much better to get cinematic

footage and great slow motion with depth of field.

That’s what people want to see these days.

David: Basically it’s that challenge that pushes the

envelope; makes you a better cinematographer.

Ed: John do you agree with father?

John: Yes, most definitely. I’ve been putting insome effort to make it work, finding focus when I’mrunning around and slipping through the mud andsetting up my tripod and levelling it all up with secondsto spare … it’s all part of the fun.

The main thing is that there are so many differentlighting conditions when you’re in a forest say or out inthe open. It’s always hard to choose the right aperture,get the shutter speed sorted and get a good shot in theseconds you have.

Ed: What sort of lens do you like to use?

John: My main lens is the Canon 24-105 f4. It’s

my “go to”. I use that with the electronic EF adapter.

I also use a 100mm f2 for any super far away and for

slo-mo, just to get little sections because I usually useit at f2 and I can’t get perfect focus throughout, as it’s

just way too hard. So I just use it to get high speed

shots for those few seconds of maximum drama.

Ed: Have you tried the Sony lens that comes in the

FS7 kit?

John: Well I chose not to get that as I already

had the 24-105. However that Sony bundled 28-135 f4

lens looks handy. It’s fair to say that it’s getting harder

and harder to pull focus and zoom at the same time

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with the lenses I have. The different

kind of jobs I’m finding are allowing me

to do more zooming in my work and,

with the 24-105, zooming is not really an

option, as once you zoom everything

goes out of focus. So I’m probably going

to be looking to find something that is

parfocal.

Ed: What about little short wide-

angles?

John: I’ve got an 8mm f3.5 for

those occasional fisheyes. Actually

father has a very nice Carl Zeiss 24 f1.8

that he lends me at any point … he

always asks for it back and I never give

it back!

Ed: Gosh, how understanding.

John: He’s a great dad.

Ed: Have you ever used a camera other than the

Sony?

John: At University we had to use the Panasonic

AF100. It’s okay … maybe some limitations being a

smaller sensor.

Ed: Oh dear, did you have to wash your hands in

Dettol when you came home?

John: Yeah, dad was quite amused! We also had

the Blackmagic pocket camera – if I had to comment I’d

say keep it simple and it’s fine. But don’t build it up.

Ed: Well … but I understand you do have a DSLR that

takes video?

John: Yes I recently grabbed a Canon 70D mainly

for stills and because it’s actually quite cheap.

It’s great for any backup filming – especially if you just

happen to have someone there who is not really a

proper filmmaker, but can grab a second shot, you can

chuck it on. It’s got a good autofocus and if you’re

somewhere remote and there’s someone there helping

and they don’t really have the filming experience, I can

just give them a quick rundown and they can get a B

shot if I’m doing an interview or something like that …

in just a few seconds.

Ed: But you’ve never taken the DSLR craze seriously?

John: I have to turn out cine style work quickly,

so to be honest their form, batteries, recording media

and so on don’t suit the work I do.

I’ve done DSLR projects and they are fine when you

have the luxury of time to setup.

Ed: Now I’d like to move onto probably

one of the more critical areas of business

as a freelance cameraman … well you’re

more than that aren’t you. You do the

camera work and you do the editing and

you publish this on the Interweb … what

is it that you think makes you the right

person to do this?

John: I see myself as a one-man-

band doing it all. So when someone

comes to me, I can do it for the best rate

because I can do it all myself. I can

shoot it, I can edit it, I can do the post

audio, do any graphics and work with a

music composition artist and then from

there take it even further and work out

everything for Facebook and social

media, get the thumbnail right and make sure that the

views come through that it deserves.

Ed: And how have you managed to work all of that?

John: Just through experience I’ve worked outhow to time it all out and I’ve built up social mediaplatforms for other companies and myself and I’velearnt how to get views and who to share it to – if youget the video to the right people and build a relationshipwith them, they’ll share the good videos for sure. Butthen when you put one that’s not so good – or it’s agood video, but it’s for a smaller company where theydon’t really need to share it so much, you build arelationship with them and they still share it for you, sothen you get the views and the client still gets the viewsand they like you just as much.

Ed: So it’s not just a case of putting it up there,you’ve got to work the social media side of it as well?

John: For me the job’s never done until I’m overlike the 50,000 views mark, and then the marketing’sall done and they’re happy. Once the views arethrough, they’re happy to use me again and keep usingme.

Ed: Do you use the same compression every time onyour Facebook presentations?

John: I use a whole range of compression codecs.Facebook and Vimeo and YouTube are all different, so Imainly upload to Vimeo and then embed onto Facebook.I try not to upload direct to Facebook unless the clientwants that, because they have substantial compression,even at 1080.

Page 18

Vehicle action (fg).

Rider action (fg).

Ed: Okay, so you don’t do direct to YouTube uploads?

John: I try to stay away from YouTube. I mainly

focus on Vimeo; I like Vimeo a lot more and Vimeo has

much better embedding software for Facebook. You

can view it straight through Vimeo and it’s all classy

and it plays well. It’s got much better viewing

statistics. It’s just a better player overall.

Ed: So how do you choose the compression that you

want for your programme … is it simply that you pick

the HD version, or what?

John: It’s always HD, but for Vimeo, I usually do

a 1080 and then Vimeo will compress it to 720, so that

hopefully it’s a really good 720 rather than uploading a

720 and having them compress it to what they think is

720, but really it’s probably at 600 or something like

that.

Ed: Aaah so there are tricks involved?

John: I’d say Vimeo do a good bit of compression

along as do YouTube, so I try to get it in the highest

quality I can without having too big a file, and then let

them work it out.

In the end, it always turns out like that.

Ed: And are you still using the Vegas that your father

gave you many years ago?

John: I think when I got it, it was about Vegas 6.

I’ve upgraded since then, now I’m on to Vegas 13. I’m

still using it and I’m happy with it for now although I’m

dabbling with other editors of course.

Ed: Do you need any support at any time?

John: No, I’ve learnt all there is to learn about

Vegas. There’s always more coming but I’m pretty solid

with it.

I think I’m going to go for a Sony Vegas accreditation

soon, just so people know that I’m pretty good with it.

Ed: However, you are finding some limitations with

Sony Vegas?

John: Well for me working freelance, Vegas has

no limitations.

It works perfectly for me, but I’m looking around …

some of the people I work for, such as Frontside who I

do some TV work for, they all use Macs and they like

Premiere and they would prefer that I edit in Premiere,

so any major changes they need to make last minute, I

could just send them their editing file and they could

work on from there.

Ed: Now I understand a fair bit of your action sport

work is out in the middle of nowhere, so you’ve got to

keep fit because you’re cycling or hiking long distances?

John: Yes, a lot of my work is definitely out the

back and very remote. The vehicle access only takes

you so far and then I’m on my own with the rider or an

assistant and we have to walk in for kilometres through

muddy bogs to get to the spots we need to. So

because of that I keep my kit quite light.

What I usually do is build up my camera and have that

in one hand, with one lens on – my 24-105. And then

in my other hand I’ve got my Miller Air tripod; then on

my back I’ve got my Camelback backpack and in there

I’ve got a spare battery and 2 other lenses and a few

cleaning things. That’s all I need and I’ll record all day

just with that small kit. No matte box, no follow focus,

no nothing. Keep it light and you can walk around all

day, no problem.

Ed: And you do all your recording to the onboard

cards?

John: Straight to an XQD – I like them. They

were quite expensive to buy in the first place, but I

think it’s worth the money – they’re fast and effective

and no problems.

Ed: You’ve never tried an off-board recorder?

John: I’ve used them at University and they were

quite nice – but for me, the XQDs work fast and they

give the codecs that I need, so it’s all good with XQD.

Ed: There’s no need to go RAW?

John: Not usually. Mainly I’m going straight to

web and web definitely does not need a RAW file. After

all, generally speaking it’s going to be viewed on

mobiles or tablets.

Ed: That’s very encouraging. Father, any last words

– are you proud of your son?

David: Of course. Frankly I still remain amazed at

his ability to follow focus, to actually frame and to

maintain a focus on the stuff that he shoots, and

knowing the depth of field that he’s got to play with

when he’s getting this great cine look. It seems like an

instinctual thing that you have or you haven’t got and

I’m forever amazed at that.

Ed: Well that’s the creative side of the family that

you’ve never been involved in?

David: Well I’m not so big on video these days for

personal stuff. I do like to shoot nicely composed stills.

John: When you get old you start shooting

photos.

Ed: I think you had better stop there John. Now if

someone wants to see what you’ve done John and have

their own programme or engage you as a shooter,

where can they see your work?

John: The best way to keep up with me would be

at my Facebook page, which is

Facebook.com/eivomedia –

or call me on 021-1133-213.NZVN

Page 20

John takes aim with his FS7.

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Audio Showcase Previewfrom Sound Techniques

We are here at Sound Techniques withStephen Buckland and a follow-up from NAB.

Ed: Stephen, there were some products wemissed that you’re going to be talking about topeople coming along to the Pro AudioShowcase which is coming up, very soon.

Stephen: It’s on July 22nd, 23rd at theEllerslie Racecourse. Just follow the signs andyou’ll get there.

Ed: You’ll see the signs …

Stephen: And the invitations.

Ed: Exactly, invitations will be in the mailand within the pages of NZ Video News. Right,now we’ve covered some of the product thatwe saw together at NAB, but you spent sometime on your own. Let’s start with SoundDevices and a very specialised use of the PIX270 as a 64 channel audio recorder?

Stephen: Well the PIX 270 is really a videorecorder with 64 tracks of audio recording. Now thereis an audio only version of the same recorder called the970. What we have here in Sound Techniques todemonstrate, is the 270 because we can show both thevideo capabilities and the audio capabilities.Interestingly enough, although they simply wanted anaudio recorder, Radio New Zealand bought the videorecorder version, because they could see that it allowedthem opportunities in the future should radio withpictures get a hold in broadcasting.

Ed: Well that’s already happened hasn’t it?

Stephen: I suppose it has to a degree. At SoundTechniques, we’re audio purists, but you can’t deny thepower of excellent sound coupled with good pictures.

Ed: We knew we’d bring you over to the dark sideeventually; also in the Sound Devices product line, thePIX-E. I think we saw one version at the show butthere will be more?

Stephen: There will be three versions. The first oneto come out is the PIX-EH and that’s the basic onewhich records or shows HDMI only. That’s a 5 inchmonitor. Forthcoming, there will be another 5 inchmonitor, but that will also take SDI in and out. All ofthese record to the mSATA drive; and not long furtherdown the track there is a 7 inch monitor which willrecord albeit in ProRes, 4K resolution pictures. Sothat’s the cinematographer special I suppose.

Ed: Okay, so whether you’re into maximum audiochannel recording with a bit of your video thrown in, ora nice little very solid on-camera recorder / monitor,then Sound Devices is certainly worth a look?

Stephen: Yes.

Ed: Now onto the Rycote stand and the two youngladies that we interviewed missed out on one importantdevice that their company has actually produced?

Stephen: I think they were overawed by the editor’spresence! But yes, they didn’t talk about or show the

two new models of the Cyclone windshield. Currentlythere’s the large Cyclone. In June, there will be themedium size one which will cater for most shortshotgun mics that are available now; and then towardsthe end of the year, there’s going to be a small onewhich will cater for the type of microphone which issimply just the capsule – or a shorter, a smallermicrophone.

Ed: But that’s not to say that you can’t use a shortmicrophone in the medium size for example … it’s just amatter of, if you have a particular need or you wantsomething that is ubiquitous, you could take the largerone or the medium one?

Stephen: I think the reason the large one came outfirst is because it was probably simplest to develop andcheck that it worked before making it smaller. Themicrophone would fit in any of the models, but the bulkof them would mean that if you didn’t have to have theextra size, you’d probably go for the one that suits thesize of your microphone better.

Ed: And there’s also been some microphone holderdevelopment?

Stephen: Yes, there are two microphone holders indevelopment. One is for a mid-side rig, so you’ve gotone microphone on top of the other; and the other oneis to allow “XY recording”, with a crossed pair ofmicrophones, and the beauty of that is that, as itstands, you can adjust the angle of the microphones. Ithink there are other versions on the market where theangle is fixed; this will allow … I think it’s 30-120degrees angle between the microphones. Both of thoseare in the same sort of suspension as is in the Cycloneand they’ve been devised so they will fit inside aCyclone windshield – I’m guessing the large or themedium one.

Ed: Now there’s another company that we’ve neverinterviewed at NAB, but you deal with their radiomicrophones, and that’s Audio Limited?

Stephen: Audio Limited is an English company and,in fact, the first radio microphones that I ever usedback in 1984 ( and they were sort of old then ), weremade by Audio Limited.

Ed: That was obviously in the baby monitor yourparents were using?

Stephen: That’s right, it was yeah … the babymonitor. Their radio microphones have always beenwell regarded, but they have generally come at a price

Page 24

Stephen and Diana at the Sound Techniques office.

premium, so overLectrosonics, butthey are in thethroes of devel-oping a digitalradio microphonesystem, which iswhat everybodyalways asks –“but why isn’tthere a digitalradio mic,” whichthey claim will bearound towardsthe end of theyear. Knowingthe audio quality

of their previous radio microphones, it will be superb,but we will wait to see … they had prototypes or mock-ups on display at NAB, but I’m not sure when we wouldactually see the finished item.

Ed: So that’s it – to me it reinforces that somebodywho is interested in this level of product, should bekeeping in close touch with you, reading yournewsletters that you put out on a regular basis andchecking their emails?

Stephen: That’s right. Yes, it’s an interesting worldbecause all this information is available but at times it’sa bit like a hurricane. If you keep in touch with us wecan certainly direct you.

Ed: Well you’re the filter Stephen?

Stephen: That’s right, we are the filter, yes. We tryto get above the dither, the noise floor and point peoplein the right direction.

Ed: K-Tek. We were upset not to see Brenda therethis year, but they had some interesting product?

Stephen: Well Brenda made a brief appearance butyou had to be in the right place at the right time Grantand I’m sorry you weren’t there.

Ed: Bother!

Stephen: K-Tek have actually got three new boomsand are also developing their bag line, and so they’vegot some interesting products there. There is theharness which was shown a year ago at NAB and is stillin development, but what they’ve done is they’ve takenon what people have said about it – criticism and such,and I think they’re making a much better harness,which will be considerably more suited to users. Forone thing, the original one was rather bulky and so itwould be very hard to put it in your suitcase and travelwith it. This one looks more compact though it stillkeeps the feature of having a spine along the back tokeep your back rigid and carry your gear. They’ve got awaist harness, a waist belt, so you can just latch yourgear onto that, and a lot of people prefer to carry theweight of the equipment on there, just on their hips.And also they’ve got a little ditty bag … is that what it’scalled?

Ed: No, no it’s a bag for accessories and the cleverside of it is?

Stephen: The clever side of it is that it’s got atransparent side to it, so you can turn the bag over andyou can instantly see which gizmo is in whichcompartment. And it’s configurable, it can be dividedinto four, but you can make the compartments biggeror smaller as suits. That will also latch onto any of theirbags or harnesses on probably other brands as well.

Page 26

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Ed: Do you have any other brands in the SoundTechniques’ range, or do you really focus on K-Tekbecause they’re the best for this industry?

Stephen: In terms of bags, we focus on K-Tek.Sound Devices present bags with their mixers and soforth, so we do stock them.

Ed: But generic bags that take a range of productfrom different manufacturers?

Stephen: The K-Tek bags are designed to takedifferent manufacturers’ equipment though they arespecific to audio gear. The issue with bags is thatthey’re like handbags – everybody wants somethingdifferent. The K-Tek ones are proving to be reliable andwell-made and so that’s why we will be carrying them.

Ed: So if you want to see any of those products andmore …

Stephen: We’d better getsome!

Ed: Come along to SoundTechniques in Mt Eden orvisit the Pro Audio Showcasecoming in July. We’ll seeyou there.

Stephen: That’s correctGrant, and we’ll see youthere too.

For Sale Sony PMW-EX1 camera with 3 x 16 GB and 2 x

8 GB SxS PRO memory cards and 2 x BP-U60batteries and charger.

Convergent nanoFLASH recorder with 2 x 64GB UDMA Delkin CompactFlash PRO cards(enables recording in XDCAM 422 up to 180Mbps). Includes mounting bracket and 2 x 14.8V4400mAh batteries and charger (can power therecorder and EX1 together).

Petcroff Matte box for Ex1 with 0.6 Grad andLinear polariser filters.

Kata camera case.

Sachtler FSB6 head with Zoom tripod legs andcase (slight damage on head but still functionsOK).

Manfrotto 503HDV tripod (no case; I used itwhen a lighter tripod was required).

Zylight Z90 with 12V 9amp hour battery packand charger..

Ikan VX7e HD-SDI 7 inch LCD monitor.

Priced to sell ( includes GST ) $5,500

Contact: Geoff McKay

Ph Mobile: 0274 988376

Landline: 06 3553156 (Palmerston North)

Email: geoff.mckay@xtra.co.nz

Page 27

NZVN

Yes, the bag has a transparent bottom.