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3MAy/JUNE 2009

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Michael Fickes

Mark r. smith

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HJK PUBLICATIONS, INC.

President John Hutchinson

Vice President Janet Karcher

Vice President Jon t. Hutchinson

MEMBER OF

Tahoe Films, Ltd. – Director/

Camerman Thomas Opre

shooting Monty Marcus

jumping his snowmobile in

Farmington, Utah for the

company’s Extreme Velocity:

Sled Heads DVD series.

ContentsMAY/JUNE 2009 VOL 24 NO 3

In the next Issue of markeeHIGH DEF • SOUND STAGES • MOBILE PRODUCTION • THE EAST • LOCATIONS GALLERY • MUSIC AND

SOUND GUIDE

24

ON THE COVER

FEATURES7 Sports Production

And BroadcastingBy Mark R. Smith

20 Lighting TechniquesCreative Innovationsby Christine Bunish

24 MidwestRoad Trip by Christine Bunish

SPECIAL SECTION13 Stock Footage Guide

oops! In the March/April issue we inad-

vertently listed the web site for the El

Paso Film Commission incorrectly. It

should have read:

www.visitelpaso.com/film.

Our apologies for the error.

DEPARTMENTS4 Biz Tips

5 Making A Scene

6 Broadcast TV

29 Classified

30 Inside View

7

online extrasAcross America

World Business

4 MAy/JUNE 2009

Is the economy’s glass half full yet?

Or is it still half empty?

BIZ TIPS

s the recession over yet?

No. But you can probably come

out from under the bed. A number of

economic indicators are beginning to sug-

gest that the recession may be winding

down and probably won’t become “Great

Depression: The Sequel.”

The May 11 issue of Advertising Age

ran an article entitled: Five Reasons to Start

Feeling Optimistic (Maybe). The article

noted a big jump in the Reuters/University

of Michigan index of consumer sentiment in

April, following a surprise increase in con-

sumer spending in the first quarter of the

year. Rising consumer sentiment leads to

rising consumer spending, which prompts

companies marketing consumer products

to make advertising.

Ad Age’s second reason for hope

was, in fact, a possible rebound in some

consumer product company advertising

spending. Procter & Gamble and Unilever

are said to be looking beyond the reces-

sion with plans to spend more on market-

ing during the second half of this year.

Jobs are next. April’s loss of about

540,000 jobs, while large and frightening,

is significantly less than the job losses

reported in the previous five months.

Fourth: the stock market rally. Since sink-

ing to 6,470 in March, the Dow Jones Industrial

Average has risen 33 percent to 8,575.

Fifth and perhaps most important, the

housing market that started the recession

is showing signs of recovery.

There’s more. On April 9, the Wall

Street Journal reported that economists

responding to the Journal’s most recent

forecasting survey now expect the reces-

sion to end in September. This is June.

September starts in three months.

It was the first time that the survey

results didn’t move the date of recovery

further into the future.

Of course, the end of a recession is

usually just as invisible as the beginning.

Remember, no one really knew a reces-

sion was going on until six months after it

began. And no one made an official

announcement that we were in a reces-

sion until more than a year after it had

begun. Still, the end of the recession will

mark the beginning of recovery.

Another positive signal is sharply

falling business inventories. They have

been falling for months now. When inven-

tories fall past some point, businesses will

begin to restock. Factories will hire and

start producing again. At what point will

that happen? Sooner rather than later sug-

gests the Journal survey.

Remember the stimulus bill? The

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

(ARRA)? According to a prepared state-

ment issued on May 10 by the Associated

General Contractors of America (AGC),

construction companies nationwide are

reporting that the stimulus bill is making it

possible to hire new workers.

“Early reports indicated that the infra-

structure piece of stimulus is beginning to

do exactly what was intended: put con-

struction workers back on the job,” Ken

Simonson, chief economist for the AGC,

said in the AGC statement.

Simonson went on to name several

companies who were hiring back people

that had been laid off thanks to the acquisi-

tion of projects funded by ARRA. He also

noted that many contractors were canceling

planned layoffs thanks to stimulus projects.

Why is the construction industry

important to advertising production and

postproduction companies? It is important

because about one-fifth of all lost jobs,

about 100,000 in April have come from the

ranks of the construction industry. When

that industry reduces its sky-high 18.7 per-

cent unemployment rate and goes back to

work, the paychecks they spend on con-

sumer goods products will replenish the

marketing budgets that buy film and video

production.

The bad news is that it’s not over yet.

The good news is that good things are

happening in the economy. And if you’re

still here and hanging on, tighten your grip.

Find a way to get through this month and

then another and another. Start to believe

that the glass is half full again. Tune up

your reel, and start looking for work. It will

pay off when the recovery gets here. n

Getting to Recovery

I

by Michael Fickes

5

by Michael Fickes

MAy/JUNE 2009

makInGAsCene

Re-Discovery ChannelThe visual rebranding of Discovery Channel

is itself a kind of discovery.

iscovery Channel’s new branded

look begins with a photograph of a

scene from an upcoming show.

Before you can get a close look the screen

divides into rectangles abutting each other,

sort of like a puzzle in which all the pieces

are the same shape; without missing a

beat, the rectangles over here begin to

rotate, revealing themselves as three-

dimensional rectangular boxes with pieces

of images on all sides. Next, the rectangles

over there flip over, revealing their dimen-

sions and imagery. All of the motion occurs

in time to music from the show – some-

times fast, sometimes slow, always in tune

with the mood of the show.

By the time the first effect finishes, it

seems as if most – but not quite all – of the

original photo has flipped itself over and

morphed into a second photograph, in

which a grid pattern of rotating boxes

morphs into another image. For a viewer, it

is a process of discovering Discovery

Channel as it exhibits its repertoire of high-

energy images of an upcoming show.

The re-branding package includes

more than show promos. It includes five-

and 10-second network IDs, menus listing

shows on Discovery tonight, what’s on

next week, what’s on next, bumpers and

all the rest of the tools used by networks to

herd viewers to shows and keep them

informed of the channel they are watching.

The rotating Discovery boxes are hyp-

notic and fun to watch. At the same time,

you might wonder how Discovery’s artists

can possibly create and manipulate all of

those three-dimensional

animations for all of the

promos and menus and

so on that the network will

need every day.

“That was part of the

assignment,” says Jayson

Whitmore, a co-creative director and part-

ner at Royale, the Los Angeles-based

motion design and production studio that

handled the project. “Discovery asked us to

create a visual concept that gets at the idea

behind the word discovery, while providing

a re-branding look that the network’s artists

could easily update themselves for years to

come. To make it easy to recreate, the con-

cept only creates the illusion of depth.”

If you look closely at the screen grab

above, you can see that the boxes are lay-

ered over top of the image being revealed.

It only looks like three-dimensional boxes

revealing image after image by spinning

into new patterns.

“It is all an illusion,” says Brien Holman,

also a co-creative director and partner at

Royale. “None of the images are altered or

effected in 3D space in any way. They were

just matted out. Then there was a shadow

path placed on top to make it seem as if it

was changing.”

“Royale showed amazing technical

savvy in creating a simple interchangeable

system generating unlimited combinations

of visuals,” says Amie Nguyen, a

Discovery Channel art director.

Whitmore, Holman and the Royale

team animated the interchangeable system

of rotating boxes manually – in what seems

to be an amazing feat of concentration.

But the manual approach was the

second attempt. The first attempt didn’t

work as hoped. In that effort, the animators

used Cinema 4D, a three-dimensional pro-

gram with a plug-in capable of generating

random patterns, to automate the process

of rotating the boxes. “It looked robotic and

stale and didn’t come across with the

dynamic feeling we were looking for,”

Holman says.

Looking for an alternative, Holman

and Whitmore set up a grid of dozens of

boxes and asked the animators to use

Photoshop to set up rotation key frames

for each box.

Then the animators rotated each box

individually and a little differently – some

were faster or slower. Others rotated up,

down or diagonally. Each animator had to

imagine a pattern for a transition and

design it in his or her head on the fly in a

way that got at the story being told, whether

through a network ID or a program.

They didn’t sketch out an idea first

and then create the animation by looking

at the sketches? “No,” Whitmore says.

“They created the patterns in their heads

while they were animating. It really didn’t

come naturally to some of them.”

Adds Holman: “Hundreds of squares

can become a mess very quickly so it was

key to have good solid animators with

keen design sense. We had to determine

how the images and storylines would flow

from one to another in the most visually

compelling way.”

The end product includes five different

sets of three-dimensional boxes. Royale

named each, using terms that describe the

basic look: bricks, Mondrian, fish, diamond

and hinge. Each set includes two IDs and

three navigational patterns.

“Finally, none of the patterns ever fully

resolves into a complete still image,”

Whitmore says. “There is always a couple

of cubes that fail to turn over. Some cap-

ture a hint of color. These touches add

depth and communicate the idea that there

is always something more to discover.” n

D

6

ost commercial production companies have handled spots for

green products and services. But how many just talk the talk

without walking the walk of green production?

When Stanley Larsen, director and owner of the Seattle-based

Stanley Larsen, Inc. commercial production company, signed on to pro-

duce commercials connected to The HGTV Green Home 2009 Giveaway,

he didn’t feel right about promoting green products for a green program

without making a green production effort. “I decided we should do a green

shoot – so we wouldn’t be hypocritical,” says Larsen.

If you haven’t heard of the Green Home Giveaway, it complements

the HGTV Dream Home Giveaway, an annual sweepstakes for which the

winner receives a new dream house.

The Green Home Giveaway, created last year, gives away a green dream

home. HGTV announced the 2009 Green Home Giveaway winner on June 5.

Prior to the announcement of the winner, HGTV aired an hour-long

program that showed off the green home and introduced commercials

about the green products supplied by the sponsors. Carter Oosterhouse,

host of the network’s Carter Can series, walked viewers through the

2,430-square-foot contemporary Spanish-style cottage with three bed-

rooms, three baths and a rooftop herb garden.

During the show, commercials for the sponsors – Shaw Flooring,

Sears, Kohler, SC Johnson and GMC – promoted the green products that

they had contributed to the house.

Stanley Larsen, Inc. produced the commercials, each of which has

three versions. These are the commercials that Larsen decided should be

made using a green production process.

What does that mean? When the idea first came up, Larsen says, there

were no green television production experts to turn to – at least, no one knew

of any. So Larsen, the crew and vendors worked out the details themselves.

“We wouldn’t make any green decisions that slowed the production

or created overtime charges,” Larsen says. “But whenever possible and

practical, we would use green techniques and products.”

Next, Larsen, the crew and the vendors brainstormed and came up

with a set of green goals:

Reduce paper consumption: Instead of printing dozens of scripts,

call sheets, schedules and pre-production books, the production compa-

ny made everything available on a web site. There was no ban on print-

ing. When it was inconvenient to check the web site, anyone could

request a printed document. By and large, everyone who could work with

the web site did. “The idea conserved an enormous amount of paper as

well as ink, time and energy,” Larsen says.

Use hybrid vehicles: Whenever possible, the production rented

hybrid vehicles to conserve fossil fuels. “We also made a point of carpool-

ing whenever possible,” Larsen says.

Use environmentally friendly items: From catering to craft servic-

es to props and production supplies, the production company tried to

select items from an envi-

ronmentally friendly point

of view, meaning that they

were packaged in recycled

materials or made with

environmentally friendly

ingredients. For instance,

the caterer used stainless

steel utensils and water

bottles as well as reusable

dishes. The company also

studied the U.S. Environ-

mental Protection Agency

(EPA) Energy Star pro-

gram and worked to abide

by its recommendations.

Local items: A key

sustainable principle calls

for the use of local materials

that don’t require expending fossil fuels by long-distance shipping vehicles.

Double up: Production assistants agreed to share hotel rooms to

reduce the use of energy.

Recycle: The production company also hired Waste Pro, a local

waste hauler with recycling capabilities, explained the recycling goals for

the shoot and asked for advice. “They were all over the idea,” Larsen

says. “They gave us guidelines for separating waste and provided bins for

recyclables, non-recyclables and food waste.”

Larsen also chose the camera for the shoot with sustainability in

mind. “I’ve always shot 35mm,” he says. “This project was all about pret-

ty pictures, exteriors and interiors, and we needed that beautiful film look.”

But film processing requires the use of non-green toxic chemicals.

So Larsen turned to the RED ONE camera. With a sensor chip as large

as a 35mm slide, the RED ONE enables shooters to use 35mm lenses.

“That gives you the ability to use depth of field, low lighting and all the

techniques used to shoot high-end motion pictures,” Larsen says.

But there’s no film, no chemical developing and no large costs to buy

film – or tape for that matter. Larsen recorded the digital video directly onto

disk drives.

Larsen judges his green shoot to be a success. It created few incon-

veniences and added no costs. In fact, Larsen believes that most parts of

the shoot cost either the same or less than a conventional shoot. Paper

costs were down. There were no costs to purchase or develop film.

Accommodations cost less thanks to doubling up. And the hybrid vehicles

saved gas.

Best of all, Larsen doesn’t have the strange feeling of profiting from

a spot about green but failing to do anything to help the effort. n

To Get Green Spots, Turn Green

by Michael Fickes

m

BroaDCast Tv

Do you pride yourself on the commercials you produce about green

products and services? Do you also practice green production?

MAy/JUNE 2009

MAy/JUNE 2009 7

Windfall at the finish line

Broadcasting track and field means logistical

challenges, including covering multiple events that

take place at once. But when President Ralph Mole

of Windfall Productions in Haworth, New Jersey,worked on the 115th running of the Penn Relays in

late April, he was also shooting at the sport’s oldest

track: Philadelphia’s Franklin Field.

So working that event, which aired on ESPN2

(opposite the NFL Draft yet), from that venue made it

“enormously harder” to produce, he says. “There is no

clean-cut shot of the finish line unless you hang a

robotic camera from the underbelly of the upper deck,”

he notes. “So that’s how you shoot a photo finish.”

Also, the event isn’t for the faint of heart – or

the bad of back. “It runs from early in the morning

until dark, so we have to work all day and hoist our

equipment all over the place,” Mole says. Not that

he’s complaining about shooting in the venerable

facility located on the University of Pennsylvania

campus. “It’s a charming old place,” he reports.

Windfall worked from one SD truck, Game

Creek Video’s Olympic unit, which holds eight cam-

eras: two robotics from Fletcher, the Jimmy Jib, two

handhelds and three stationaries, all of them Sony

BVP-900s, 500s and 550Ps with Canon tripods and

Canon 70:1 lenses.

The live on-the-air card of relays ran from 4 to 6

Sports ProductionAnd Broadcasting

T he fans at home are ready to watch a sporting event with thepress of a button, and perhaps the pop of a bottle cap. Butthey rarely think about the efforts of the production crew

that brought them this coverage: how they selected equipment,followed the action, addressed challenges and found solutions atlocales as varied as the Egyptian desert, a fabled running track,Pike’s Peak and Hawaii’s surf. By Mark R. Smith

continued on next page

above, clockwise from top left: John SandyProductions – Pike’ s Peak Climb TV show;Tahoe Films – from their SledHeads series;Jalbert Productions – wakeboarding scene forJosh’ s Idea; Windowseat Pictures – VansTriple Crown of Surfing

COVER STORY

MAy/JUNE 20098

pm with the broadcast interspersed with taped high

school highlights. Some went to air on the new ESPN

Rise, which focuses on high school sports.

And another logistical concern loomed for

Windfall: ESPN2 aired the Drake Relays the next day

– although that event was run at the same time as

the Penn Relays. So Mole and company had a satel-

lite interlink (via Game Creek’s Southern Cross

truck) feed the Drake preview during the Penn

Relays broadcast.

Boogie in the sand

Jalbert Productions, in Huntington, NewYork, offers production skills for a sport known to a

relative few: wakeboarding, of all things; shot in

Egypt, of all places.

The sport was featured in an episode of Josh’s

Idea, which aired on Rush HD last August and now airs

in other countries, says Jay Jalbert. The premise was to

illustrate how Josh Sanders, an Australian pro wake-

boarder, built a rail slide, which boarders slide their

board over to gain momentum during a maneuver.

The show was “like a reality sports doc, but it’s

a big event as well,” Jalbert notes. “To prepare, we

built a 100-foot rail slide then two 100-foot [water]

pools on either end. Josh gets pulled from one end

to the other on a rope that is attached to a winch.

That’s the trick.” The five-camera production offered

the breathtaking backdrop of the Great Pyramids

shot from “private land not far from it,” he reports.

An ARRI3 35mm, shooting at 60 fps, was set up

on a platform straight down the barrel of the trick,

with the Pyramids full-frame in the background.

“Then, at 45 degrees, we had a Panasonic VariCam set

on a tripod; a handheld Sony F900 for reactions at

both sides of the rails; and another F900 with a wide-

angle lens on a 30-foot jib to follow Josh,” Jalbert

explains. A Panasonic DVCPRO HD P2 camera was

locked on the athlete’s father for reaction shots.

The cameras “held up fine” during two weeks of

shooting in the desert, he says. “Sony F900s are rocks,

solid and dependable in any type of weather. The

up-to-110-degree heat was never a big problem.”

But something else could have been. “Security

is important there when you bring $250,000 worth of

equipment,” Jalbert points out.

More action in the sand

At about $12,000 per show budgets for

shooting beach volleyball are low compared to

many other sports, according to Paul Burack of

Psyched About Sports in White Plains, New York.

He would know – he shot the recent Extreme

Volleyball Professionals (EVP) Tour, which aired on

Comcast SportsNet nationwide, Altitude in

Colorado and other affiliates.

That’s not much budget for HD, “though we shot

mostly on Sony V1U cameras” recalls Burack. The

shows air in SD, “and when you downconvert to Beta

SP, you can hardly tell the difference” between formats.

No trucks were required for the beach volley-

ball tour, which was lensed at various venues

nationwide. “There are [usually] just two handheld

cameras on location, and the events last all day,” he

says. “We produced a half-hour show and made

those two cameras look like 100 because we had

time to change our perspectives.”

Beach volleyball is easy to shoot “because it’s a

small court and a large ball. A wide-angle lens allows

the shooter to capture all the action, especially at the

net. That’s where you see spikes and collisions, and

the action is more in the frame that way.”

It’s also good television when the cameraman

is 20 to 30 yards back from the court, “because you

can go for a telephoto shot,” Burack says. “It’s cool to

see spikes and blocks in the frame.”

Live shows differ from the packaged product

(such as highlights shows), he notes, because they

require a high camera at mid-court, a jib behind the

baseline and at least a couple of handhelds at

ground level. But Burack says packaged produc-

tions make post easier because they can simply

reposition a single camera all day.

A laptop Avid Media Composer plus an Avid

Adrenaline are key to a compelling finished show.

“It’s all about the editing,” he says, “because we

include match action, interviews and profiles of the

location and the venue.”

This ain’t easy work

Swann Valley, Montana sounds like the per-

fect locale for Thomas Opre of Tahoe Films to

acquire content for his snowmobile and ATV DVD

series. But he can be found shooting in HD any-

where from Alaska to Colorado and as far south-

west as Texas for ATV events.

Opre and company are up to Volume 5 of the

extreme sports series that he distributes on DVD,

Extreme Velocity: The SledHeads. “We shoot in HD on

Panasonic P2 [cameras]. About half of our content is

shot handheld and the rest with a tripod,” he says.

Some of that handheld content is garnered from a

helicopter with a gyro and a harness – with Opre

hanging out of the side, standing on the skids, follow-

ing snowmobiles up rock-lined avalanche chutes.

Such shoots normally require a two-man

crew. “Everything has to go up the mountain on a

snowmobile for setup,” he reports, beginning with

mounting a bracket on the back of the snowmobile

for a Pelikan case for the camera gear, which

includes a 2x extender.

Opre also carries two ICamDVR.com lipstick

cameras in his backpack that end up on helmets,

sleds or elsewhere plus food and the most necessary

safety equipment: an avalanche beacon, a probe, a

shovel and a first aid kit. “We head up the mountains

for day shoots and come back down around dinner-

time” to cut video on Apple’s Final Cut Pro HD.

The hardest thing about his chosen profession,

he says, is simply getting the shots. “We are in

extreme locations and finding that right spot to

shoot from at 5,000 to 12,000 feet can be precarious,”

Opre notes. “Sometimes we walk on snowshoes, but

on most occasions we rely on the snowmobile.”

And yes, he’s almost fallen off of a cliff before.

“This is extremely dangerous” work, he says. “There

is always the threat of avalanches. This type of work

is not for the average shooter.”

Climbing high

The extreme sports genre opened up a whole

new world for sports broadcasting and has allowed

companies like Denver’s JSP TV to take part in

events like the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb

for autos and motorcycles.

The competition aired on Altitude, a regional

sports net, plus various Comcast affiliates, IP chan-

nels and the web. “It’s unique in that the course is

12.42 miles long, which calls for a multi-camera

shoot,” says JSP’s owner, John Santucci, who

employed eight Sony Z1Us and 10 three-chip Sony

POV cameras which all recorded to hard drive.

Camera positions included the starting line; the

first turn, on a 24-foot Jimmy-Jib; various stations

between major turns; the finish line and even heli-

copter aerials. The climb, which lasts from four to six

hours, can be a grueling event to cover. In fact, it took

each mobile camera operator 15 to 45 minutes to get

up the mountain, depending on camera position.

“Remember, they’re racing up the hill, and the

altitude at the finish line was very thin,” says

Santucci. “The cameramen all had to be on the

course three hours before the start, and there was

no movement allowed after the opening gun.”

Using a Tyler-mounted Sony Z1U from the Bell

Jet helicopter enabled the crew to keep the produc-

tion flowing, “because you can’t follow the autos

between all of the zigs and zags [called switch-

backs] on a mountain from start to finish on the

[almost] 12.5-mile course,” he explains. “When the

start of a race is at 7,000 feet and the finish line is at

14,000 feet, you need that helicopter.”

All told, the full crew spent three days on the

mountain; a producer/writer and crew also took about

five days to acquire B-roll, interviews and other content.

Surf, stoke and aloha

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is not only a

unique event, it’s also one of the most time-con-

suming: Production takes place during a seven-

week span on the North Shore of Oahu, which is

known for the huge waves that pound its shores

during the winter months.

The Triple Crown marks the end of the World

Championship Tour, says Moz Mirbaba, the produc-

tion’s executive producer at Windowseat Pictures.Each contest, which takes place on the island locales of

Haleiiwa, Sunset and Pipeline, has a two-week holding

period with three or four days of actual competition.

“We check www.surfline.com, a weather part-

ner, and coordinate efforts with a local meteorologist

through the event organizer to predict the swell pat-

tern” of the waves before the broadcast, says Mirbaba.

continued on page 10

COVER STORY

MAy/JUNE 2009 9

10 MAy/JUNE 2009

So the crew that works the event, which airs on Fuel TV, is on call every

day. “When the contest is on, we get the call at 6 am” to set up multiple fixed

cameras on the beach and rotate two mobile shooters (due to the rigors of the

event), he reports. Some lensmen shoot from a jet ski (and are miked, on occa-

sion, like some surfers), while others paddle out.

The crew deploys the RED ONE, the Panasonic HVX200 DVCPRO HD and

Sony XDCAM EX-1 cameras at various times in the water; on land, the team uses

Panasonic HPX170, HVX200 and HPX500 HD cameras.

The production involves a four-man heat and a shooter is typically out in

the water until the camera battery wears out or the P2 card gets filled.

In the end, the crew ends up with 30 TB of footage. Over the following two

months the show is cut together on Final Cut Pro HD at rented space on the

North Shore and at Windowseat’s LA headquarters.

continued from page 8

I n sports coverage, the use of the word “broadcast” can be somewhat relative these days. It usually refers to traditionalviewing through the Magnavox or Panasonic set in your home, but it can also mean screening content on your comput-er or, increasingly, on handheld devices. As these distribution channels continue to evolve so does the array of sports

available to fans.

An ocean away for NEPAny reason is a good reason for a trip to Hawaii and, fortunately for Glen Levine

and NEP Supershooters of Pittsburgh, the 2009 PGA Tour kicked off on the Islandof Maui this season with The Mercedes Championship which aired on Golf Channel.

Levine, the vice president of mobile engineering, says that NEP has been

partnering with Golf Channel since day one and operates a department dedi-

cated to the cablenet. “We’ve provided facilities and support to Golf Channel

for numerous events in Hawaii for several years. In fact, we just updated our 53-

foot Expando [ND-2] that lives there to an HD truck.”

For the Mercedes Championship the NEP crew showed up on the

Saturday prior to the Thursday opening to set up. “We [shipped] Supershooter

14 and Support Truck 17 [the NEP Golf Channel truck] from the West Coast

[and] used those two units for the Mercedes on Maui; with the ND-2 already on

Oahu, we also sent Support Truck 11 to gear up for the Sony Open [which] we

were setting up [for] by the end of the Mercedes.”

NEP provided 23 HD cameras for the Mercedes: They included a combina-

tion of Sony HDC1000s, Thomson LDK6000s and six Sony 1500s as wireless

handhelds to roam the course. The company also supplied eight EVS XT2s,

launched a new graphics package with the Chyron Duet Hyper X2 and

employed a Calrec Alpha audio board with a Neve submix console.

The Mercedes, Golf Channel’s first HD event in Hawaii, called for “an enor-

mous amount of planning,” presented logistical challenges and required addi-

tional equipment needs, notes Levine. Additional enhanced graphics from Vistas

Technologies offered more visual illustrations, and a company called TrackMan

offered software that “tracks the airborne ball off the tee and calculates the angle

of trajectory, distance and ball speed,” Levine explains. “It’s the radar of golf.”

NEP started setting up for the Sony Open “the day after the Mercedes

ended in Oahu,” he reports. “With back-to-back events, it’s key to have another

mobile unit ready to go due to transport issues.”

One + one = dual feeds

From MIRA Mobile TV’s base in Portland, Oregon, Frank Taylor recentlycompleted negotiations on a sweet deal: The company became the vendor to

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (CSNBA) and its various teams.

The regional sports carrier provides dual feeds, meaning a feed for the

home as well as the away telecaster, simultaneously. “And not out of one truck like

COVER STORY

MAy/JUNE 2009 11

the FOX SportsNet dual-feed model, but with what

they call side-by-side dual-feed trucks,” explains

Taylor, MIRA’s general manager and partner.

CSNBA “prefers that the home show has its own

dedicated production environment. That helps to

eliminate the potential for conflict. And while the

concept was not new to us, it was the first time we

put that concept together in a working scenario.”

At the time that MIRA got the CSNBA contract

it had only one dual-feed capable truck which was

built to accommodate the FOX SportsNet model.

“So we had to build M8HD specifically as a side-by-

side dual-feed truck that would work in tandem

with [our existing] M7HD which was to become the

CSNBA home truck,” Taylor points out.

The new M8HD is a standalone, seven-camera

HD truck with Sony 1450s and Fujinon lenses,

including two 88xs and three 72xs. It increases

MIRA’s fleet to nine: one analog expando, three dig-

ital trucks (two of them expandos) and five HD

expandos, including M7HD and M8HD.

The first time CSNBA used the dual-feed set

up was for the Major League Baseball season open-

er between the San Francisco Giants and the

Milwaukee Brewers at AT&T Park; the game was

part of a defining event for the sportsnet which

launched its new HD studio on the same day.

Taylor notes that although there are “typically

just 10 cameras” between the two mobile units

serving CSNBA’s MLB games, a few more were on

hand for the special occasion. Both M7HD and

M8HD boast EVS LSMs and EVS ROs, as well as the

EVS X-File, Calrec audio boards and GVG Kalypso

switchers with Chryon Duet HyperX 2 graphics.

“It wasn’t a challenge familiarizing the experi-

enced crew with the trucks, so everything went

well,” Taylor says. “Tear down isn’t any more compli-

cated or lengthy, since both trucks have their own

crews. It just took a bit longer on opening day due

to the extra cameras.”

Lyon gets share of mixedmartial arts

It’s not often that a production crew is present-

ed with the opportunity to create a broadcast for a

new sports league. But Lyon Video in Columbus,

Ohio, made the most of that chance when it was con-

tracted to cover Mixed Martial Arts.

Lyon sends two mobile units to cover the new

league, Bellator, whose events emanate from various

locations like the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino

in Hollywood, Florida, says Account Manager Chad

Snyder. Shows air in the US on ESPN Desportes.

“We started with our own 53-foot Expando

HD unit and lots of rented audio gear, EVSs and

additional VTRs,” says Snyder, noting that the April

event from Florida marked “the first time the new

league had been produced for TV. Our crew’s expe-

rience broadcasting boxing on ESPN was benefi-

cial; still, this effort was produced by the ‘seat of the

pants,’ since the league is new.”

Key to the initial broadcast was Lyon’s collab-

oration with Bexel Equipment Rental. Lyon and

Bexel built two feeds: one primarily in Spanish for

ESPN Desportes and an English feed primarily

geared to Bellator.com’s Wednesday webcasts.

The setup included 10 Grass Valley LDK8000

Worldcams and one LDK6200 that was used with a mul-

tichannel EVS with Super Motion software. All told, Lyon

employed two hard cameras on a platform positioned

in front of the ring, a second at a 90-degree angle to the

primary camera, one on a jib, three handhelds circling

the ring, a rover and an unmanned beauty camera for

wide shots with graphics.

In addition, two POV cameras were employed for

scoring/data and the athletes’ entrance; the EVS network

consisted of seven LSM servers between the two feeds.

“We used a single mobile unit on the first and

second shows,” says Snyder; the second event was at

the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. But for the

third event, at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman,

Oklahoma, “instead of renting more equipment from

Bexel, we simply sent a second truck, a 28-foot HD

Expando,” he explains. It’s outfitted with a GVG

Kalypso switcher, an EVS, a Midas Heritage 1000 con-

sole and an Adams intercom system.

Shooting in the Seminole Hard Rock that was

not precabled wasn’t a big challenge, since Lyon uses

its triax home runs that range from 250 to 500 feet.

“We learn how to streamline the broadcast

more each week,” he reports.

continued on next page

Crawford transmits microbroadcast

Primary delivery of sporting events via televi-

sion can be considered old hat in some cases. Take,

for example, an NCAA basketball game that was

played last winter between the University of

Minnesota and Cornell University.

The contest was “broadcast” by CrawfordCommunications’ client ESPN 360, the sportsmammoth’s web portal that offers viewers/fans the

opportunity to watch games that would not neces-

sarily be broadcast by the network or even locally –

like seeing their teams play in early season non-

conference games, for instance.

In that case, “Setting up for us was about the

logistics of getting the truck and all of the equip-

ment,” says Randy Horenstein, Crawford’s senior pro-

duction engineer. “We travel with a support vehicle

with the main production truck that contains the

uplink; the hook for us is that the truck and the uplink

are the same vehicle, which reduces our footprint on

location. But we still have our support van, too.”

After a quick walk-through and cable runs,

Crawford and ESPN set up the main unit’s five Sony

DXC-D50 cameras: one handheld under each basket,

two more at high mid-court (one for game action, the

other for tighter shots of the action), and the fifth, called

a “slash” camera, in a corner of the arena directed at the

court for lensing wide- and off-angle shots. “Bigger

shows can include many more cameras, depending on

the magnitude of the event,” Horenstein says.

Then came setting up the announcers’ table:

Monitors for slo-mo shots, plus audio gear for the

announcers. “We also had a position for someone

to check stats, which are sent back to the truck for

graphic enhancement by the network,” he reports.

At that point – finally – came preparing the

truck for transmission by deploying the dish and

locating the proper satellite to send the content

back to ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.

BCS innovates with LowerySatellite Services

In college sports, events don’t get bigger than

last January’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Game,

when Orlando’s Lowery Satellite Services provideduplink services from Miami for FOX Sports for the

clash between the champion Florida Gators and the

Oklahoma Sooners.

While the BCS game has always been tele-

vised, streaming it for the web is new. Company

owner Glen Lowery calls multi-channel multiplex

backhaul for streaming “a growing trend. We take a

standard Ku-band SNG truck and reconfigure the

video encoder system to include an 8-channel pack-

age of eight encoders and a statistical multiplexer.

That combines all 8 channels onto one carrier.”

Then the carrier is received at the Global

Media Services downlink location in Englewood,

Colorado. Global “provides the Internet interface to

place the images on the FOX Sports BCS web site,

so the surfer/user can select the stream of their

choice,” Lowery explains.

Overall, Lowery provided eight network feeds

from the broadcast, including camera shots that were

unavailable to TV in real time – such as images of both

bands, end zone pans and selected ISO-camera shots.

The streams were delivered via a portable

multiplexer system from existing cable TV equip-

ment; that facilitated Lowery streaming the output

directly to its satellite modulators. “With a single

transponder, we can provide eight broadcast-qual-

ity signals,” he reports.

Best of all, the entire system was controlled by

two laptops: The multiplexer system was run by

one while a second monitored the Asynchronous

Serial Interface system, which afforded Lowery

audio and video for any of the 8 channels.

Setup/tear down was easy. “Each case is less than

100 pounds and the whole system is packed into three

fly-away cases. We can ship air or ground or easily pig-

gyback onto a network backhaul truck,” Lowery says.

The service is managed by FOX Sports’

Emerging Technology division. “FOX calls it

‘enriched service,’” Lowery states.

“We’re pioneering [streaming major sporting

events] and worked on the earliest versions for the

Championship Auto Racing Teams [CART] with

their in-car camera,” he says. “It’s attracting consid-

erable attention from network executives. It’s just

too cool not to be employed for major events.” n

12 MAy/JUNE 2009

COVER STORY

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REELIN’ IN THE YEARS PRODUCTIONS 619-281-6725dpeck@reelininthe years.com

REENACTMENT STOCK FOOTAGE 804-683-0937info@reenactmentstockfootage.com

ROBERT BERNING PRODUCTIONS 504-834-8811rberning@berning.com

ROCKETCLIPS INC 562-438-6300sales@rocketclips.com

ROYALTY FREE HD 781-449-6282info@royaltyfreehd.com

ROYALTYFREESTORE 503-521-9004info@royaltyfreestore.com

SAGEBRUSH VIDEO PRODS 402-874-9229rachel@sagebrushvideo.com

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SCREENSCOPE INC 202-364-0055screenscope@screenscope.com

18 MAy/JUNE 2009

FILM VIDEO HD CD/DVD

MAy/JUNE 2009 19

SEA PHOTO TAPE LIBRARY 619-466-2002seaphototapelibrary@cox.net

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STUDIO 1 PRODUCTIONS INC 386-788-6075studio1@studio1productions.com

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TELLURIDE STOCK 970-729-0122customersupport@telluridestock.com

TETON GRAVITY RESEARCH 307-734-8192stock@tetongravity.com

THE BOEING COMPANY 206-662-1551imagelicensing@boeing.com

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20 MAy/JUNE 2009

Veritas takes lighting to the movies

A full-service production company with offices in Phoenix and LA,Veritas Pictures has increasingly helped develop creative for spot clients aswas the case for Movie, a two-minute commercial, direct, from the non-profit Catholics Come Home.

Shot by Veritas Director/DP Frank Di Bugnara, Movie depicts thenewly-deceased pausing on their way to the afterlife to view home movies oftheir lives filled with moments of joy, conflict, helpfulness and hurt as theycontemplate the role of faith in their lives.

Di Bugnara was tasked with lighting an enormous set, a former air-plane hangar with huge doors, and the actors who watch their lives unfoldin home movies. As his base lights he chose four ARRI 18Ks, “some asbounces, some direct,” and some mounted on 40-foot scissor lifts.

“Never did I use so many thousands of watts of light to produce such adark final result,” he notes. “The challenge was to not make the space look likea hangar. We needed the dark feel of a movie theater but with highlights andtextures so we wouldn’t get a flat, dark mush.” Di Bugnara shot daylight-bal-anced Kodak 5205 35mm film with an ARRI 535B camera.

“The hardest part was lighting the background. We needed big instru-ments not for intensity but for spread. So we used scrim and a series ofexternal nets to knock down these very bright instruments raking a hugewall so the wall looked evenly lit and not source-y,” he explains.

He simulated the unseen projector with ARRI 2500s and programmedMartin Mac moving lights to provide subtle film flicker on faces. The light-ing kit was rented from Reel Men in Phoenix.

Earlier Di Bugnara spent two days on location using modified Pro 8mmcameras to capture the home movie content. He deployed “a lot of rawsources: open-face lights put into bounces, ceilings or white walls” alongwith Kino Flos “to bring up the light level.”

But he preferred to “let the romance” of the home movies come fromthe film itself rather than from any creative lighting technique. “I added a bitof shape but basically tried to get a healthy exposure,” he reports. “The 8mmformat added the rest.”

Hiatt creates color ‘noir’ look for cop legend

Last fall Shawn Hiatt of Honolulu’s Edge City Films acted as DP forDirector Michael Wurth’s six-minute The Legend of Chang Apana, a pilot fora short-film series intended for podcasts and other modes of digital delivery.Based on a real 1920’s Honolulu police officer known to have inspired thefictional Charlie Chan, the pilot was shown at the 2008 Louis VuittonInternational Film Festival in Honolulu and is currently on the festival cir-cuit and gaining interest from major distributors.

Hiatt described the stylized look of the short film as “a color ‘noir’ ver-sion of Sin City,” featuring CG virtual sets for every interior. He tapped twoPanasonic VariCams which he often ran at 60 and 48fps for fight scenes andwhen Chang cracks his whip – he doesn’t carry a gun.

Hiatt approached the lighting as if he was shooting black and white to“establish a very high-contrast look.” For an outdoor scene between Changand a drunk who leads him to a female reporter in distress, he used MoleRichardson 1200 HMIs “often mounted low and through different frames or

Whether encompassing tried-and-true instruments orinnovative new fixtures, the lighting techniques devisedby these DPs and cinematographers solve problems forcommercials, TV programs and web features.

by Christine Bunish

21MAy/JUNE 2009

with a chimera on front to give direction and asoft quality to the eye light.” He likes to use nega-tive fill, which he calls “a good technique for real-ly deep shadows on actors. 

“Sometimes I’ll use bounce cards to fill inshadows, but I also love to do the opposite byusing negative fill,” he explains. “By using blackduvetyn, from 2x3 feet all the way up to 20x20feet, you can suck away all the light from one sideof the actor  or object. You can create shadowsthat way or deepen them even further for an inkySin City look.”

Hiatt was challenged throughout by the low-brimmed hat worn by actor Cary HiroyukiTagawa who played Chang. “I loved the hat,but getting light to Cary’s intense eyes was impor-tant to me, so his key light was always mounted atwaist level using a warm china ball or a 2x2 KinoFlo for an intense eye light that didn’t take awayfrom all the moody lighting we were doing.” Healso deployed a Mole Richardson Biaxx, a smalldimmable fluorescent unit, for eye light.

For the crucial bar scene shot on the smallgreenscreen stage in the Oceanic Time WarnerBuilding, Hiatt used the ARRI fresnels in the gridas down spots and Kino Flos in the grid as back-lights with a big sheet of diffusion hung in front tosoften them. The white-coated villain Mr. Blackglowed under one ARRI fresnel becoming “the hotspot in the scene your eye is drawn to,” he notes. Ared-gelled dimmable fluorescent off to one sidegave a neon look to the shot.

“It’s exciting to me that as camera systemsand lighting instruments become more advancedthey allow us to create anything we can dreamabout for every commercial, every film and everydocumentary,” Hiatt observes.

LEDs shine in Przyborski’sshoots

Director/Cinematographer Glenn Przyborskiof Przyborski Productions in Pittsburgh beganexperimenting with LEDs four or five years agobecause their cold light was great for food shootsand their ease of use and low-voltage requirementswere ideal for hospital commercials. Setting uplights in an  active  operating room (OR) is veryrestricted.

He’s especially pleased with the performanceof the TerraLUX TLE-300, a 500+ lumen LEDflashlight head that has been billed as the world’sbrightest small light. He’s deployed them as backlights and rim lights in OR-based shoots. “They’rerugged, easy to use and work very well,” he says. “Ifa doctor is looking at something in his hands, wecan bounce into a nearby white surface and getmore than enough light to illuminate his face.”

The TLE-300 operates on 6 to 12 VDC,is  color balanced at about 6500K and is perfectfor filming perishable foods, he adds. “I frequent-ly use them as accent lights on commercials forEat ‘n Park Family Restaurants.”

Przyborski shoots all the spots for the WestPenn Allegheny Health System which insists thatany concept calling for OR photography shows areal surgical procedure, not a staged one. “Theintensity of real faces doing life-saving work actu-ally looks so much better,” he agrees. 

He uses his Sony F900R CineAlta HD cam-era for these shoots and thinks out of the box toovercome limitations to the lighting he can bringinto the OR. For a recent commercial he laid eight“standard shop light” fluorescent fixtures aroundthe perimeter of the OR floor and covered themwith a blue gel. It created “a high-tech blue baselight” which didn’t get into the doctors’ way. The

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opposite: Edge City Films – shooting AIG Car Crash

CRTs and LCD panels of the OR’s medicaldevices served as the primary light on the doc-tors’ faces.

Przyborski also armed two assistants withbattery-operated TLE-300s. “They maintainedtheir distance from the doctors, but even from 12feet away, the LEDs produced the perfect edge orrim light,” he reports.

Przyborski cautions that the TLE-300 getsvery warm when operating at 12 volts, but, atabout $60 each, what shooter can’t afford to addthe daylight-balanced fixture, which he calls “verysimilar to a tiny HMI,” to his toolkit?

Synergetic frames a solution

Producer/Director Ron Friedman, whoowns Syracuse, New York’s Synergetic Produc-tions, has “learned to solve a lot of problems”over his film, video and SFX production compa-ny’s 33-year lifespan. “But not on the client’sdime,” he hastens to add.

For a series of commercials for a Syracuse-based law firm, a longtime client, a large, softsource was required for a nighttime jib shot of theattorney spokesman walking to camera in thecity’s downtown area. Synergetic Director Mark

D’Agostino helmed the spots using Panasonic’sHDX900 camera.

“The client likes shooting at night for moredrama, but night shoots pose challenges,”Friedman notes. “We coordinated with buildingsto leave certain lights on in the background. Wedidn’t want the commercials to have the tabloidlook of one harshly lit area with the rest black –wanted to see lots of detail in the area – so weused three of our own ARRI 1200 HMI PARs forefficiency and because the city preferred that wedidn’t use generators at night. We were able touse power drops to fire the lights.”

To make sure that the attorney was litattractively for his close ups, “a soft source with asense of directionality” was needed but “we don’town and the budget didn’t allow for the rental ofa 6x6 frame with diffusion,” Friedman recalls. “Sowe built our own out of one-inch PVC pipe.”

The frame was easy to assemble without tools,he reports. “We purchased grid cloth and addedgrommets and zip cord to easily attach it to theframe. PVC pipe added to the sides allowed us toslip the frame over two long grip poles to easily andquickly adjust the angle of the frame. And becauseit’s so lightweight, we were able to use smaller,lighter stands. The whole thing could be set up andready to go in five minutes by one crew person, andit breaks down quickly to throw on the truck.”

In addition, “the grid cloth is quiet,” he says,“so there’s no awful racket with a breeze or windon sync sound shoots.”

The frame “also makes for a wonderful wrapof light for interview setups by sending a 4K soft-box through a couple layers of grid cloth,” hereports. In fact, Synergetic has already deployedthe frame on its 3,000-square foot soundstage.

Producers Choice goesback to school

When As The Bell Rings, the DisneyChannel’s comic vignette series about high schoolkids, changed Austin locales from one season tothe next the producers still wanted to emulate theoriginal lighting style, reports Charlie Seligman.Partnered with Bob Lewallen in Austin’sProducers Choice Lighting, Seligman served asthe show’s gaffer brought in by DP WilsonWaggoner. Seligman furnished his company’s 3-ton truck and lighting for the series.

“The concept is a camera outside the schoollooking through a window into a common areaand down a hallway,” he explains. “Each shot isone long take with the camera constantly movingslowly on a stinger arm.”

The show shot weekends in a real school forthe first two series of shows shot about sixmonths apart. Seligman used Kino Flos loadedwith cool whites to supplement the building’sexisting fluorescent lighting. “Because soft fluo-rescent lighting goes everywhere we put up extradiffusion or teasers to control it the best we

could,” Seligman recalls. Tungsten instrumentswere gelled half-blue and one-quarter plus greento match the school’s fluorescents and rigged inthe ceilings as accent lights.

Last year the show moved onto a school setwhere Seligman was tasked with “matching thelighting in the original school.” He installed KinoFlo bulbs in built-in lighting fixtures on the 60-foothallway set which had a translite at the end tomatch the look of the original 120-foot corridor.

He lit the common area set with Kino Floshung from trusses and deployed a MoleRichardson 5K fresnel through a chimera as thekey light through the window, two ETC Source 4swith gobos to create textures on the wall outsidethe window and a Mole 750w soft light as an eyelight. “Most of the dialogue and action happenedat the window, so we had to get it right,” Seligmanexplains. “There were also Kinos on the truss sys-tem that worked as a backlight for the windowarea.” An array of Mole babies, tweenies, miniMoles and Mickeys was also on hand.

“One of the challenges is that the showmoves very quickly; there’s no time to resetlights,” he says. “If a light isn’t right in the com-mon area we walk in standbys, place them andresume shooting. Everything is done on the flybut ends up looking pretty good.”

DP Waggoner used a Panasonic HVX200DVCPRO HD camera shooting 720p native to lenstwo or three shows per day. The efficient P2 work-flow meant “they had a rough cut of the first show ofthe day done by the end of the day,” Seligman notes.

Musto layers light fordimensionality

The interior of a Victorian house served asthe backdrop for customer testimonials in a spotfor Northeastern Eye Institute on which TomMusto acted as DP for Director Tom Baldonadoof Network Affiliates, Denver.

Musto, a director/DP with his own TomMusto Productions in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,lensed the commercial with a Sony CineAlta HDcamera. He took a layered-light approach to thehome where a kitchen led to an open dining roomwhich in turn revealed a living room with a fire-place; each room had abundant window light.

“A lot of directors see lots of light comingthrough windows and their first reaction is ‘let’s getHMIs’ because there’s already a lot of light,” he notes.“But once you introduce daylight as the key light it’shard to add any other color.” And Musto wanted toadd color to “introduce more interest into the shotand build exposure density over the white walls.”

So he decided to block the windows in theforeground kitchen area and set up tungsten-bal-anced key, fill and rake lights for the subjects giv-ing testimonials. He opted for a Barger G6 (6K)through a 3x4-foot softbox as the key light and aBarger G3 (3K) for fill adding a 1K WestcottSpiderlite with soft box as a shoulder light.

“Having white balanced the camera for 3200degrees Kelvin, I wanted to allow the blue daylightto flood the background area furthest from thecamera,” he recalls. “Using a light meter, it took onlyseconds to read the light flooding the back wallsand make corrections to the exposure by adjustingthe window blinds. Since we were utilizing the bluedaylight, we didn’t need to correct color from win-dows and using the blinds to adjust intensity elimi-nated the need to use neutral density gels.”

For the middle dining room Musto blockedwindows and added a light warmer than the keylight for a golden hue. He selected a Source 4

Junior with CTO warming gel and cookie whosepattern broke up the white walls. Finally, he gelleda large window  in the living room  with neutraldensity and a CTO warming gel to add relief tothe blue background.

The result was a cleanly-lit subject with aslightly warmer light behind him and a cooler back-ground in the distance. The contrasting lightingschemes allowed the viewer’s eyes “to journeythrough the frame, not just focus on the person,”Musto explains. “I love seeing three dimensionsand depth in framing. I look for any opportunity tolayer light.” n

24 MAy/JUNE 2009

R E G I O N A L P R O D U C T I O N R E P O R T

Despite the recession, production and postproduction companies in the Midwest are moving ahead with new and

enhanced services and capabilities. Most are maintaining at least a steady pace of business, and some have

wrapped unexpectedly busy winters. >By CHRISTINE BUNISH

Midwest

Davo creates new divisionTROY, MI – Davo Photograph-ic has created a new division:Midwest Matrix. The newventure revolves around aproprietary control systemthat allows for any number ofdigital SLR cameras to be trig-gered in any sequence. Timingbetween cameras can be pro-grammable milliseconds or aremote scroll wheel can beused to allow the program tim-ing to be manually advancedto match the speed of any liveaction.

news

& Updates> by Jon T. Hutchinson

IA, IL, IN,

KS, KY, MI,

MO, MN, ND,

NE, OH, SD,

WI, WV

Steady Pace in the Midwest

Hair raising VFXMINNEAPOLIS, MN – motion504recently created VFX andbackgrounds for a beautyspot for Dualiste, the next rev-olution in hair care productsby Nexxus. The spot show-cased custom offerings fromthe Dualiste line includingcolor protection, hydration,volume and anti-breakage.motion504 was responsible forpost supervision, creating thetype treatments, invisible VFX,and compositing.

Mr. Art Critic honoredTRAVERSE CITY, MI – RichardBrauer’s latest feature film,Mr. Art Critic, is being fea-tured in the inaugural collabo-ration of TBS and the GeneSiskel Film Center’s Just ForLaughs Festival, where itreceived the ChristopherWetzel Award for Independ-ent Film Comedy. Brauer andseveral actors from the filmwill be present for a Q & Asession at the Chicago pre-mier screening on June 19.

roaD triP

ward-winning Jeff Barklage ofCincinnati’s Barklage Cinemato-graphy, Inc. shoots features, com-mercials and music videos worldwidealthough spots have predominatedthe last two years. The owner of twoRED One cameras which he uses

with his set of Cooke primes and zooms, he’s seen themarket shift “dramatically” in favor of the new medium.

Barklage’s recent commercial work includesnational spots for Nationwide and State Farm insur-ance; P&G’s Charmin, Bounty and Tide; and what hebelieves was the first RED campaign for Long JohnSilver’s featuring customers swept by a giant CG wave.He also lensed Marlboro commercials in Montana andUtah for the European market and a KentuckyBourbon image film in 16 and 35mm.

The cinematographer, who previously shot theCoen Brothers film The Naked Man, Bud Light SuperBowl spots and Sci Fi Channel movies in Croatia, says2008 was probably his company’s “best year ever.When the RED started to hit we were screaming alongfor the last two quarters. We were so ridiculously busythat we were turning down shoots.” January remained

busy then the pace of work “hit the skids,” althoughadvertising often slows in the first quarter, he reports.

Still, Barklage is optimistic about an upswing. “Ihear a lot is percolating, and people are asking forupdated reels.”

Gemini offers stellar facility

Cleveland’s Gemini Video Productions, Inc. isan Emmy and Telly Award-winning facility with script-to-screen or a la carte services for corporate, commer-cial and broadcast clients. It offers a drive-in, 45x45-foot studio with curved hard cyc and greenscreen, JVC250 DVCAM-format cameras, full lighting and sceneshop; film transfer for 8 and 16mm; three Final Cut Proedit rooms; graphics and animation with After Effectsand Final Cut Studio; DVD authoring; and field pro-duction with JVC 200 DVCAM cameras.

The company did a script-to-screen approach forthe non-profit Cleveland Foundation about a housedemolition alternative which was distributed on DVDand the web; it provided field production, studioshoots and finishing for Medicus golf club and SMCSmart Tools DVDs; and crafted five marketing videoson retail LED lighting for the GE web page.

Gemini just launched its Eastern Christian Media

ABarklage sees RED boom

Blue 60 Pictures – Greg Winter shootingwith the RED ONE on location in El Pasofor Medtronic

25

division to create broadband and cable pro-gramming for the Eastern Catholic, orByzantine Catholic, churches. It debuts withbiweekly programs available on the www.east-ernchristianmedia.com web site.

President Bob Kasarda says Gemini is also“branching out to bring other independentcompanies in with us,” such as Media Group forlive streaming capabilities and dynamic webcontent and Bell Tower Productions for assis-tance in running the studio operations.

“Business could be better,” he concedes,“but things are starting to percolate. I feel thesecond quarter will come around, and by thethird we’ll be back in the swing of things.”

CVM trucks it to the races

In Mishawaka, Indiana CVM Productionsis a full-service video and audio productioncompany serving corporate and broadcast mar-kets. President Ron Vander Molen shootsPanasonic DVCPRO; the company has a remoteproduction trailer for live events, a 30-foot cam-era boom, full lighting and grip and locationsound. On the post side it offers two Avid editsuites with a Media Composer and Adrenaline,Lightwave 3D, a Pro Tools post audio room withVO studio, DVD authoring and duplication, andweb compression services.

“Business has been slow the last sixmonths but it’s picking up a bit,” reports VanderMolen. “Maybe the sun shining has put every-one in a better state of mind.”

CVM kicked off the spring by taking itsproduction trailer to seven Midwest venues forshort-track sprint car races telecast on ComcastSportsnet out of Chicago. “We are providing allthe production and post services, includinggraphic design,” notes Senior Producer JoeStiles. During the presidential campaign lastyear the truck and crew supported BarackObama’s visit to Marion, Indiana for Fox NewsSunday with Chris Wallace.

CVM also does a lot of regional commer-cials for clients such as car dealerships, retailoutlets and small colleges plus promo and mar-keting pieces for non-profits like the UnitedWay, says Stiles.

KDN Videoworks coversairwaves

KDN Videoworks, Inc. in MadisonHeights, Michigan primarily provides broadcastservices to national news and entertainmentnetworks from its suburban Detroit location. Itoffers HD (Panasonic VariCam, Sony PDW-700and Panasonic HDX900F cameras) and SDpackages with lighting and support gear; a25x40-foot studio; a Vyvx fiber line and liveroom; an Avid and Final Cut Pro edit room; andDVD creation, mastering and duplication.

The company is well-known for its MobileTV Studio, created by Vice President andTechnical Director David Newman, which opensto feature a 240-square foot studio with picture

window for single head shots ortwo- to four-person interviews in aweatherproof, climate-controlledenvironment. Recently introducedare three Mini Mobile TV Studios –two trailers, one truck – for smallerlocations. “We’re talking to a com-pany about doing a live game showout of a Mini Mobile in Manhattan,”Newman reports. Paul Dzendzelacts as the studios’ camera/audiotechnician. Two Uplynx KU uplinktrucks are based in Michigan andSeattle.

KDN Videoworks coveredBarack Obama at the DetroitInstitute of the Arts during the presi-dential campaign, had crews record-ing March Madness in Detroit for theNCAA, and sent its satellite trucks tothe Frozen Four (NCAA ice hockeyfinals) and the NCAA women’s bas-ketball regional playoffs. Its Mobile TV Studio andMini Mobiles are in demand throughout theMidwest and the East Coast for live trial coverageon Tru-TV (formerly Court TV).

KDN Films, the content creation divisionheaded by Bill Kubota, produced two docswhich aired nationally on PBS: Luston: TheHouse America’s Been Waiting For and Kuroki:Most Honorable Son. It’s currently in post on adoc about the ash bore insect.

Business was steady through March,according to Newman, with “no big downturns.We’re getting some business thanks toMichigan’s production incentives, includingshoots for Entertainment Tonight of the moviesworking in town.”

Chicago HD increasescapabilities

Spots now dominate the post work atChicago HD where there’s lots of news from co-owners Steve Panning and Gary Chang.

Last year the company added another FinalCut Pro room so it now offers full uncom-pressed HD and 2K editing in two suites; it’salso capable of processing and transferringPhantom high-speed HD footage in thoserooms as the format grows in popularity.

Panning reports that Chicago HD’s post-production rental business remains strong. Itoffers HDCAM, HDCAM SR, D5, DVCPROHD and SD decks and converters to post hous-es and independents; it recently added 4:4:4capabilities to its HDCAM SR package “for bet-ter color sampling for customers doing high-end spots and chromakeys,” he explains.

Chicago HD provided creative editorial,color correction, graphics and finishing for asix-spot TradeStation Securities package andcolor correction and finishing for a Four WindsCasino package. The company is now workingon the theatrical version of The ProvidenceEffect, a feature-length doc about a WestsideChicago high school with a high number of Ivy

League placements for its black and Latinograduates. Chicago HD previously color cor-rected and finished the doc for festival and DVDdistribution.

Although business is slower this year thanlast it remains steady, Panning says. “I wish wewere busier, but I’m not worried. We’re seeingmore RED projects come in.”

Yellow Dog gets teethinto new business

At Madison, Wisconsin’s Yellow DogProductions the focus has shifted from corpo-rate work and broadcast news for hire to provid-ing video services to faith-based non-profits,

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MAy/JUNE 2009

Crow Ridge Productions – Rick VanNess provides location sound forThe Wake; Matt Klundt, Labyrinth Films, on RED ONE withactor/Director Tristan Barnard

26 MAy/JUNE 2009

says co-owner Marv Turner, an Emmy-winning TV shooter; wife Beth isan Emmy-winning major-market news anchor.

They’ve already done Christian and secular versions of a fundraisingDVD for Carenet distributed to healthcare professionals; the projectabout empowering single mothers was shot 24p 16:9 on miniDV. Theyalso provided script-to-screen services for a DVD and web content onWisconsin Right to Life’s Man Up program. A Final Cut Pro room is onhand for editing and finishing.

A big part of Yellow Dog’s mission is mentoring video professionalsthrough its Guns For Cameras program in Africa. Turner made three tripsto Mozambique and the Congo last year showing how video can build selfworth in villages. A Congolese TV station will include one hour a week ofTV programming made by the Guns For Cameras students in Bukavu.

“There’s no place we can’t reach with video,” Turner says. “We hopeto get some major manufacturers on board, and we’re getting calls aboutdoing the program elsewhere.”

Blue 60 strong in spots, corporate

Minneapolis-based Blue 60 Pictures is a production companyowned by Executive Producer Ridge Henderson, Producer/Director FritzBasgen, Director/DP Greg Winter, and Writer/Director Tom Bloom.Henderson and Winter usually handle commercials and Basgen andBloom corporate projects. But all “pitch in” as needed; says Henderson,“There’s an awful lot of expertise among the four of us.” Blue 60 also rep-resents Twin Cities native Richard Klug, a director/cameraman, for com-mercials in Minneapolis.

For TV commercials Blue 60 still shoots more film than HD video, butcorporate communications’ production is largely HD; Henderson says thecompany has been “shooting a lot with RED in the last 10 months.” In thelast year, Winter has directed spots for Target and Cox Business as well asSyngenta’s Avicta herbicide. Klug has lensed commercials for Hood, PitneyBowes, Shaws, Hewlett Packard and the Christian Science Monitor.

Corporate communications’ credits include a video to aid fundrais-ing efforts for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, patient andphysician education videos for Medtronic, an opener for a Honeywellautomation controls sales meeting, educational and corporate image proj-ects for the Mayo Clinic and community relations projects for Target.

“We did a dozen short videos for Target’s web site called Dream inColor,” featuring notable people of color, like Debbie Allen, Iman, JohnLegend, actor Tony Plana and designer Sami Hayek sharing stories of theirsuccess and inspiration, says Henderson.

This year got off to a slower start than last but business has still beenfairly steady, he reports. “ I think companies are being thoughtful about theprojects they’re doing: They’re not shutting everything down. They’re smart.They realize they need to communicate and communicate well.”

One stop Drive Thru

In Minneapolis Drive Thru Production and Post is a “one-stopshop” for national and regional spots, and longform and Internet projects,says Executive Producer Mark Setterholm. He co-owns the company withBob George who handles the editorial side of business.

Drive Thru represents up to eight directors “matching the best tal-ents with the creative opportunity.” Timothy Kendall shot the Buffalo WildWings campaign that aired during the Final Four, two spots for MinnesotaTourism, three spots for McDonald’s featuring St. Louis Cardinals players,and eight spots for the Cards’ new season. Jb Carlin recently finished anAmerican Family Insurance commercial for the Hispanic market in SanDiego, and Director/DP Ken Seng lensed two Scheels retail spots inAuburn, California. The company largely shoots spots in HD with its ownPanasonic HV200 cameras or rents RED as needed.

On the post side Drive Thru boasts three creative edit suites, finish-ing with Smoke and Flame, and 3D animation with Maya. It’s partneredwith Co3 for real time color correction from their Santa Monica and NewYork facilities via the Internet with their IP-to-IP system.

While Drive Thru typically posts the spots it shoots, it also providedcreative editing and finishing for a “very moving” doc by Hoop DreamsDirector Steve James about Harlistas, Latin America’s dedicated Harley-Davidson riders. The company also posted Subaru, YMCA and H&RBlock commercials and numerous web banners. “Agency content is oftenmulti-purpose,” Setterholm points out.

He says he doesn’t “want to jinx” things when he reports he believesDrive Thru just had “the best first quarter ever.” The 24-year old compa-ny recently moved to a 6,500-square foot penthouse space in its building.“We started on the ground floor here, so we’re moving up!” Setterholmdeclares.

MIDWEST

Through A Glass Productions – DP Jeremy Osbern frames a shot with the REDONE fitted with a prime lens during a music video shoot in Lawrence, Kansas

MAy/JUNE 2009 27

Avatar stirs up new roux

St. Louis-based Avatar Studios is an award-winning full-serviceproduction and post facility for corporate communications and commer-cials; its newly launched Roux Interactive division handles web develop-ment and design for regional ad agencies and corporate clients.

Avatar primarily shoots with a pair of Sony CineAlta HD camerasand has a 16-foot grip truck for location work. It offers a 45x65-foot stagewith set building and storage, three Avid Adrenaline editing rooms, aNitris DS room and a Final Cut Pro room, plus two audio/sound designrooms with Pro Tools and Sony Vegas software.

President Bill Faris, who is also a director and DP, calls 2008 “one ofour better years, although it was a rollercoaster.” Avatar excels at turnkeyprojects, bringing in outside directors as needed. Among its recent cred-its are spots and a national sales meeting video for Monsanto via Osborn& Barr/St. Louis and a video for Boeing, produced by Faris’s partnerDennis Bracy, about computerized energy grids which featured cross-country shoots in California, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis.Roux has done web development for Anheuser-Busch and 901 Tequila viaWhitespace.

While Faris admits that the first quarter was “a bit of a challenge,” hesaw business picking up in March and looking good into April. “We firm-ly believe that the convergence of the core business of Avatar and the webis finally happening,” he says

Metro offers full-service storytelling

Operating 24/7 and often in a turnkey fashion, Metro Productionsin Kansas City, Missouri considers storytelling the core aspect of its pro-duction and post business. “We interpret the client’s message and deliverit in a visual form” whether it’s a promo, doc, spots, VNRs or features,notes President/CEO Tim McGovern. The company maintains a 50-50balance of agency and B-to-B work; about half the agency work, he esti-

mates, is web-driven and B-to-B web work is growing, too.Metro’s 10,000-square foot facility boasts a soundstage with 40-foot

seamless cyc and greenscreen, four networked Avid Adrenaline HD andFinal Cut Pro edit suites, a Pro Tools-based audio recording/editing/sounddesign room, and a 1-ton grip truck with full location lighting package.Acquisition is primarily with Sony’s XDCAM HD format.

Recent work includes animal health projects for Bayer, Pioneer andTriforce and a Colgate consumer health project for trade shows and otheruse; a Microsoft 360 game platform job from new-media agency vml.com;and commercials for Kansas City’s The New Theater which draws topnational acting talent.

Metro likes to give back to the community and has done pro bonomedia projects for the city’s 18th Street Fashion Show and webisodespoofs featuring local female actors shown on-line at www.unrealhouse-wivesofkc.com.

McGovern says Metro kept busy during the holidays and into thenew year but business slowed afterwards. “Now we’re getting moreinquiries and feel the market is coming back.”

Through A Glass busily

Through A Glass Productions (TAG) in Lawrence, Kansas offersproduction and post for a wide array of clients. “The vast majority of workis HD these days; I can’t remember the last time our 35mm camera wasout. We use its lenses with RED,” says Chris Blunk who’s partnered withJeremy Osbern in the company.

“We’re big fans of tapeless workflows and working with native files,”notes Blunk. TAG’s Red Room is a Final Cut Pro edit suite, and its GreenRoom is a Pro Tools-based audio suite with VO and Foley capabilities.

Indie features and short films have been keeping TAG busy lately.Osbern shot the short film Candy for Director Misti Boland; Steve Deaveredited and Blunk did sound editing and sound design. Osbern also shot the

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feature Last Breath for Director Ty Joneswith Deaver and Blunk getting editing and postsound credits for the film which premiered inApril at the Kansas City Film Festival. Osbernused RED to lens the short Lady in My Life forLA-based Director/Writer Malik Aziz; Deaverand Blunk again furnished post.

Osbern served as DP with Matt Jacobson onThe Only Good Indian which Director KevinWillmott shot in Kansas and which premiered atSundance this year. TAG has produced its own musi-cal feature, Air, which Osbern directed and shot and

Blunk produced. It hasbeen a winner on the festi-val circuit and is now seal-ing deals for theatrical,DVD and on-line release.

Blunk supplied loca-tion sound recording forthe web reality series Next!spoofing casting directors.TAG also took a script-to-screen approach for atraining/motivationalvideo for a manufacturer ofacoustic material for cars.

According to Blunk,business always slows inwinter and some filmwork is pending for laterthis year. “We’re not feel-ing the signs of recessionto the degree you hear about on the coasts,” he says.

Crow Ridge flying high

Rapid City, South Dakota’s Crow RidgeProductions is unique in its part of the countryoffering crews and equipment to movies, TVand spots; it also specializes in location soundand creates its own content.

Crow Ridge has the only 3.5-ton grip truckin 350 miles and shoots with a Sony Z1U andtwo Panasonic HVX200 HD cameras pluslights, jibs and dollies. “We always run lean andprovide more services than clients ask for,” notesPresident Christine VanNess. “Producers likecoming here because of the attention they getand all the wonderful locations in the area.”

Business tends to be seasonal (spring, sum-mer and fall) but “the first two months of thisyear were the best ever,” she reports. Projectssince January include shooting an episode ofDino Body and hiking to the top of Washington’shead on Mt. Rushmore for Decoding America,both on Discovery Channel; accompanying thereturning PBS History Detectives to the CrazyHorse monument; and furnishing two crews fortwo shows shot simultaneously in the Badlandsand various museums for National Geographic’sPrehistoric Predators.

Crow Ridge also provided live locationsound for the CBS Morning Show and for a web-

cast from Mt. Rushmore for Elderhostel. Earlier,the company worked on interviews in PineRidge for the documentary Reel Injuns aboutIndians in the movies, and shot DVD extras onMt. Rushmore and in surrounding areas for KenBurns’s new The National Parks: America’s BestIdea and Untold Stories which airs on PBS start-ing in May. VanNess’s husband, Rick, was loca-tion manager for Sylvan Lake for NationalTreasure II which extended its shoot in the areafrom three days to three weeks.

Crow Ridge has also finished its own shortsci-fi film, The Awakening, which it hopes willbe the first of a 10-episode web series.

“We expected a long winter but January andFebruary were great, and we’ve had inquiries for thelast half of June and August already,” says VanNess. n

MIDWEST

28 MAy/JUNE 2009

BUsiness CarD

Film commissions

Iowawww.traveliowa.com/film

Illinoiswww.filmillinois.state.il.us

Indianawww.in.gov/film

Kansaswww.filmkansas.com

Kentuckywww.kyfilmoffice.com

Michiganwww.michigan.gov/filmoffice

Minnesotawww.mnfilmtv.org

Missouriwww.missouribusiness.net/film

North Dakotawww.ndtourism.com

Nebraskawww.filmnebraska.org

Ohiowww.discoverohiofilm.com

South Dakotawww.filmsd.com

Wisconsinwww.filmwisconsin.net

West Virginiawww.wvfilm.com

Avatar Studios – DP Marc Luther shooting a Monsanto corporate program

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MAy/JUNE 2009

By CHRISTINE BUNISH VIEWNamakula, creative editor

INSIDE

Markee: You’re a rare combination of a cre-ative editor who also has a flourishingcareer as an actor, writer and voice-overartist. How did you become an editor?Namakula: I was studying theater and film atNew York University’s Tisch School of theArts and Hunter College and began editingshort films on a flatbed – a great way tolearn – but I never thought about editing asa career. Then I was working as a hotelconcierge and got a summer internship atP.I.G., a commercial editing house in SoHo.I didn’t know anything about the advertisingworld when I started, but I learned that awhole other career cutting commercials wasavailable. So we kept in touch, I graduated,they needed an apprentice editor immedi-ately and I accepted the position. I didn’twant to be another actor who was waitingtables between jobs. I wanted to learn acraft and work with industry professionals.

Markee: Since 2004 you’ve been a free agentediting commercials, music videos and long-form projects under your own MUSU ban-ner. Why do you prefer freelancing to a staffediting position?Namakula: I feel that I’m at a point wherebeing able to have more control over myfree time and being able to travel is a neces-sity for me to pursue my other talents, soit’s better to freelance than be on staff. Overthe years, I have spent a lot of time inSpain, specifically Barcelona [where I] wasrepresented by a casting/modeling agency[that] sent me out on castings, and for awhile I lived almost in an alternate universeworking in Spain, while maintaining myediting career and contacts in NYC.Currently, I am in the process of getting awork visa for Spain as I have contacts andwork opportunities, both in acting & editing,in Madrid. I have also been offered a role

[and will be doing a bitof editing] in an Indiefilm that is going to beshot in Hungary at theend of the summer.Despite the worldwiderecession, there arestill opportunities tolook into.

Markee: Does being aperformer influenceyour work as an edi-tor?Namakula: Yes, but Ialso think it works theother way around. Alot of actors takethings personally ifthey don’t get a role.Working with advertis-ers, producers anddirectors over theyears, I know thatcommercials are oftenabout juxtaposing peo-ple or types within aframe. And at times,the casting does nothinge completely onthe performance. A lotof actors don’t under-stand that.

But performingand editing are tiedtogether. If one is slow

it makes me creative in other ways. It givesme opportunities to open discussions aboutnew situations which makes it fun and chal-lenging, rather than simply daunting.

Markee: You’ve just signed an exclusive rep-resentation deal in Florida with Miami’sVapor Post where you recently cut a pack-age of general market spots for CovenantWomen’s & Children’s Hospital in Lubbock,Texas.Namakula: Vapor Post and I are on the samepage in our understanding of clients’ needs,the creative process and the business side ofthe industry. And I’m all for maintaining thekind of intimate environment that VaporPost has, that’s been missing in big editorialcompanies. The Covenant spots were a fun,creative process – a great first experiencethere.

Markee: What’s the most fun about being aneditor?Namakula: It’s really nice when you make aconnection with people and develop anopen and creative vibe with the client ashappened with the Convenant campaignand the creatives at Yaffe Deutser [agency].Generally speaking, you [may] get materialand there isn’t a real clear vision for it, sothe client is looking for your interpretationof it. Having them appreciate and trust youis truly rewarding.

Markee: What spots are you most proud ofediting?Namakula: I did some Hershey spots fromDDB/NY for the US Hispanic and interna-tional Spanish-speaking markets withMexican singer/actress Thalia. The wholeshoot was Q&A – most of her answers werein Spanish – about what she liked aboutchocolate. My Spanish at the time was pret-ty good – it’s stronger now. But after goingthrough the dailies, it was a challenge tograsp everything. Even a Mexican friend ofmine, who’s a Spanish teacher, had difficul-ties. But I went through the rushes andspent hours translating everything and thentyped subtitles for the agency creatives[viewing the edits] who didn’t speakSpanish. It showed me that I could workcomfortably in a second language, some-times under duress, and remain focused andinnovative while satisfying the desires andneeds of the client and often surpassingtheir expectations. n

amakula’s editing credits include campaigns forSmirnoff, Levi’s, XBOX, Hershey, Coca-Cola,American Express, AT&T, Bank One, Hallmark,and Neat Sheet.

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