FEBRUARY 2014 Vol 199

Welcome to 2014 one and all and let’s hope that we allenjoy some busy times this year. Starting us off isBrendon O’Hagan because Brendon’s got a Canon 1D C.My interest in this camera is because I was veryimpressed last year when I saw a short film made withthe 1D C and I thought that finally, here’s a hybridcamera that puts out very good video.

Ed: Now tell me Brendon, you have a history in stillphotography?

Brendon: Yes, I’m predominantly a still photographerand then, about four years ago, we started doing videoas well, just before the Mark II came out.

Ed: So this was with a what …?

Brendon: Originally I was with Sony actually. I had anEX1 – that was my first video camera which we used todo a relatively big project. Then I got a 5D Mark II and itworks with my workflow very well because we still dostills as well as video and we’re able to switch betweenthe two very easily and keep two of them going.

Ed: Because the form factor … I mean, for somebodywho has come from the video side, going to this formfactor of camera is a transition, but for you, I guess, theEX1 was a transition?

Brendon: Yes it was, but then going to the Digital SLRsafter using something like an EX1, you automaticallyknow the disadvantages to it. So you know that it’s gotno XLR inputs, it’s got no decent sound and of coursethat’s a big thing for a still photographer to learn –you’ve got to suddenly learn this third dimension thatyou’re not used to.

That was a big thing. I was doing a lot with super yachtswhere I didn’t need to worry too much about ambientsound or sound in general. We’d use the Sony EX1 whenwe needed the sound and we’d use the 5D Mark II fordoing all the other stuff, and then I could shoot stills andbuild up the stills library with that as well. For me, I’vegot a Canon 5D Mark III as well and now I’ve just gone

Canon 1D C Action

to the 1D C. I’ve always had the 1D series cameras,but this is the first time I’ve spent a little bit more andgone the 1D C way instead of getting a 1D X.

Ed: Just go back to the EX1 – if you compare the

video pictures you were getting out of the EX1

compared to the 5D, how were they?

Brendon: Yeah, yeah, I guess that’s not a big thingfor us most of the time. The majority of our work isweb videos – like 90% - so we don’t worry too muchabout compression. But then, we do have some highend clients – my super yacht clients all want 4K andthey want the lot, hence we’ll be using this on a coupleof super yacht jobs.

Ed: So you don’t think the 1D C is an overkill forweb?

Brendon: No, there’s a few things that we have usedit on where we’ve actually cropped in quite a bit andthat was one of the reasons we’ve gone that way aswell, because it just gives us that little bit of flexibility.Last year, we did a lot with the America’s Cup and therewere certain things that, you’ve just got to put it inthere and you don’t have too much control over how

things work. When they do come to meand ask for 4K, you’ve got to be able toprovide it for them.

Ed: Do you find your still photographytraining easily transferable into the videoworld?

Brendon: No. It took me a long timeto learn – I was lucky that I had my wifethere who could teach me a fair bit.

Ed: So apart from the sound, whatwere your problems?

Brendon: I’m terrible at doingsequences of shots, because I’m used tojust going in and framing it all up anddoing it in one hit, so I’ve had to learnthat very well.

Ed: So to give you continuity, thosecut-aways?

Brendon: The cut-aways and all thosesorts of things.

Ed: You’re not doing “nodding heads”though are you?

Brendon: No, I’m not doing that.Composition wise, we’ve got that prettymuch sorted and exposure wise, we

know how to do that. It was a matter of learning what Icould do in editing because, when I shoot a picture instills, I quite often will shoot it with what I can do inPhotoshop in mind. I can drop the sky down, I can doso much, whereas with video, I don’t have that degreeof freedom and that was quite a transition for me.

Ed: Okay, what are the specifics with the 1D C thatyou find make it a big step above anything you’ve usedbefore?

Brendon: Well having Canon Log is quite good. Idon’t use Canon Log a lot, because it can slow us downin post, whereas we’re all about turning out our contentvery, very quickly, that’s our market. So we don’t havetime to spend in post, but the tests that I have done,I’m quite impressed with. It matches up very well withall my other gear, which makes it a lot easier that I canhave my C100 going and it matches up very, verynicely. It’s an excellent stills body you know, it takes

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Brendon: They were okay. They are prettycomparable. I mean, you had a little bit more latitudewith the EX1. The big downfall for me was, it wasn’twide enough lens wise, because I’m used to shootingwith wide lenses when it wasn’t really happening in thevideo world. So we struggled with that quite a bit but,no, quality wise it was great. Luckily we use editorswho know how to handle the footage, which makes abig difference.

Ed: Oh tell me, what are the things your editors knowthat some seem to have problems with?

Brendon: The guys that we mainly use are used tothem and they know the disadvantages of them – likethey crush the blacks quite a bit and, because we shootdifferently than like a video operator would – we shootvery much like a still operator – so whenever we’re

doing jobs we’ll often have two operators going at once.A still photographer – and I’m guilty of this, I don’tshoot like a normal operator, I frame everything all upso it tells a story in one frame, because that’s what I’vebeen used to doing for 20 years …

Ed: The BBC have been doing that for centuries Ibelieve.

Brendon: Then we hire a video guy and, because my

wife’s actually an ex-TV3 camera operator, she knows

their stuff as well, so we’d mix in between, but it

actually works out quite well, you get a very different

look to your video piece because we have a differentstyle than others out there.

Ed: But that’s a very good option these days withcompression because, if you keep that frame still andyou have the bits moving in between, you’remaximising your compression?

The 1D C capturing cricket at Eden Park.

fantastic stills pictures. The auto focus is quitesensational. I also do a lot of stills, I’m 50/50 down themiddle. So it fits me in both worlds and it was purelythe 4K that sold me on the 1D to future proof myoffering, plus the high ISO is very good as well – thehigh ISO is a lot cleaner than the 5D Mark III.

Ed: What about extra bits and pieces. I see you’vejust got the camera and a lens here, there’s all sorts ofaccessories you can buy for these things?

Brendon: Yes, but with having the C100 I can putmore of the sound work through that. I don’t actuallylike rigging up the Digital SLRs. By the time you’vegone through and brought all the accessories for it, youjust might as well go out and buy a C100 or whatever(4K aside), because you can spend $5-6,000 on the rigsetc and I don’t think they’re worth it. I’ve got a verybasic rig that I hook it up onto. For me, the way that Irun my business, because we run a stills side and avideo side, I have a few people working with me on thevideo, so the gear’s got to be transitional. My rule ofthumb is that I won’t usually buy anything unless it’sgot dual purpose. Hence, for me, the 1D C can do stillsand video and a lot of our business is like that.

Ed: So you’re buying video tripods?

Brendon: Yes we’ve got video tripods. We’veconverted all the heads so they’re all cross-compatiblewith all systems and we use the Kessler crane systemsand they’ve been really good. We do a lot of time lapsetoo – time lapse is a big part of my business, so wehave motion rigging as well. A lot of images are dividedoff and sent for stock library images so I’m constantlyshooting and we have different markets for the rangewe produce.

Ed: Canon lenses throughout?

Brendon: Yes, I’m all Canon, I’ve only ever beenCanon. I’ve pretty much got one of every Canon lens.

Ed: Have you tried other manufacturers of lenses?

Brendon: No, I thought about it until I saw the priceand decided it’s not cost effective for the market we’rein. At the moment, we’re predominantly creating webcontent with some high end product – super yachts, butI use all high end lenses – the L series lenses with thestills and I can’t really fault them. It’s not really a goodbusiness decision for me to go out and buy a bunch ofCine-lenses, because it just doesn’t translate the costfor me at this stage.

Ed: For your business model?

Brendon: For my business no, it doesn’t.

Ed: So you find that, in certain situations, you canmix and match the pictures from the 1D C and the C100and it works?

Brendon: Yes it works well. We did our first decentcomparison the other day and you’d struggle to tell thedifference between the two.

Ed: Yes but not looking at the 4K side of it?

Brendon: No, not looking at the 4K side of it. I’vedone a few jobs in 4K now …

Ed: Because you can upscale things you know?

Brendon: Yeah, yeah, but it looks crap; it just doesn’tlook right. I mean you’ve got to remember we comefrom a stills background where 5000 pixels is no longerstandard. There’s some correlation between the stillsand the video, but with stills we’re used to having somuch more resolution and detail in the blacks, more

Page 4

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that we can manipulate, which we justdon’t have in video. I guess if you wentto a higher end Cine camera with 4KRAW and log, you might have moredynamic range but, for our sort ofmarket, it’s not needed. The 4K thatwe’ve done is all wide-angle. We’ve hadto mount the camera somewhere andjust let it run, and then we’ve been ableto zoom in and grab. I actually attachedit to the roof racks of my car leading abunch of bikes hooning down a hill atabout 70k an hour and it was fabulous.

Ed: Did you use rubber suckers orclamps?

Brendon: I had a clamp. It was goodand it worked well.

Ed: When you’re shooting video withthis, are you always shooting progressiveor are you interlace?

Brendon: Always progressive.

Ed: Because you’ve got it locked off?

Brendon: Pretty much yes. The onlydownfall I’ve got with it is that it doesn’tdo 2K, it’s 1080 or 4K, so I would haveliked it somewhere in the middle because when youhave it on 4K, it’s pretty demanding on storage.

Ed: But 1080 is very close to 2K?

Brendon: Yes, but it just gives you that little bit moreflexibility. If I zoom anything or rescale anything and itdoesn’t work for me, I hate it. I think the quality’s toomuch of a drop. Maybe that’s just the background Icome from, but we don’t like cropping, we don’t likerescaling.

Ed: I was just going to ask you what would you likeCanon to add and obviously you’d like them to add 2K?Anything else?

Brendon: Yes, I’d like 2K. I wouldn’t mind autofocus.I’ll be interested to see how the C100 autofocus systemis going to work with the new firmware update. I’ve gota Canon XF300 as well and the autofocus on that isactually pretty good. We do a lot of sporting eventsand the likes of that, so it would be quite good to have.

Ed: Does the 1D C have autofocus?

Brendon: No, D-SLR’s in general either haven’t had itor haven’t been high performers in that areatraditionally but, as with any technology, it’s only amatter of time. But the C100 firmware upgrade comingwith AF should be quite good. I’ve only had the 1D Cfor a couple of months and we’ve already put about10,000 still frames on it. It’s very easy to use, all themenu systems match across the kits now, which isreally good. I really like that, and you can customiseyour own settings on a menu page for the regular jobs,that makes it very quick to use. You can assignbuttons, so you can setup everything like a normalcamera. I’m going to look at getting an Atomos Ninjaand hook that up as well.

Ed: So that might give you the 2K option?

Brendon: It might do, yes.

Ed: So did you look at the C500 in comparison?

Brendon: No, that’s out of my price range for thework I produce. I looked at the C300 and I honestlythought that, because of the way we work, is that whatwe need to take two kits with us?

We take a C100 kit and I’ll take a still kit so I can doone or the other if I’m away, because we do travel a lot.Our whole design now is that we have lightweight gearfor travelling and easily load it all into a car. We’ve got

different kits lined up for exactly what we need, and thiscan be our lightweight kit quite happily. I did a job inVietnam where I just took the Digital SLRs and it wasokay, it was very lightweight and easy to carry, becauseeverything I took, I had to carry, but it had its downfallsas well.

Ed: What about lighting … do you need any lightingwith this?

Brendon: We do a bit. We’ve got a set of lights, wedon’t use them a helluva lot. Quite often we’ll set upreflectors – that kind of comes back to our stillbackground – we don’t use a lot of lights there either,you don’t really need to, and especially with a high ISO,it’s got very good sensitivity …

Ed: Just to get that mood sometimes?

Brendon: Yes, but once again, like I said, a lot of ourwork, we just don’t have the time for that.

To give you an idea of what we do – a lot of run andgun, sports, we have location changes at the drop of ahat – you can’t be worrying about lights! It’s very, veryquick. For bigger interviews and the like we do uselights, but while we have a set, the majority of ourshoots don’t give us that luxury, it’s very quick, in andout.

Ed: So basically you’re happy with Canon and theirproduct?

Brendon: Yes … well it’s good for me because I’ve gotevery lens from 8mm to 500mm, so I’ve got a prettynice coverage there and there’s not much that we can’tdo. I would like a slightly higher frame rate though –that would be nice. I think that’s where Canon islacking at the moment, the higher frame rate we woulduse quite a bit.

Ed: We’ll make sure we tell Gordon.

Brendon: Oh I tell Gordon on a regular basis I canassure you. It’s interesting though … I mean they’redropping in some pretty good firmware updates now, soit will be interesting to see what comes up.

I tried a C300 for a while and I quite liked that, but Ireally rate the C100. It fits my workflow just perfectly– really, really good, especially now if we get an AtomosNinja or an Atomos Blade, that will give us 422 output,which would be really nice! NZVN

Page 8

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865 7

Dolly-up Your ProductionWe are on the set of “Step Dave” with DennisThompson from the Dolly Shop.

Ed: Dennis, there are lots of people here, there arelots of lights and cameras, there’s all sorts of equipmentand in amongst the lot there is some Dolly Shop gear.What are they using?

Dennis: We’ve got a GFM dolly, their grip kit dollywith a bazooka …

Ed: Is this the one on the rails?

Dennis: It’s the one on the rails, yes. In addition tothat we’ve got the Silent Cat Slider, which is a 60cmlong slider they use for just small moves off a tripod oroff a high hat. We’ve also got something called a SolidGrip System, which is similar to a slider – it sits onscaffold pipe on a couple of lighting stands and justgives you the ability to build a track to whatever lengthjust off a lighting stand.

Ed: Now the reason we’re here today is because Iknow Dolly Shop has got some really high techequipment – we’ve seen the Technocrane for exampleas to what you can go to – but with even greater costconsciousness coming into television and screenproduction, there are alternatives available?

Dennis: Yes there are many options out there withmore cost effective ways of achieving cameramovement. As you say, you don’t need to be going tothe high end hydraulic dollies or electromechanicaldollies like the Panthers and Chapmans, you can useones that have a lot of accessories that allow you toadjust your height, to get down low seating and runnice and smoothly.

Ed: I guess the downside is that they either take alittle bit longer to set up or you need more skill?

Dennis: Not at all, they’re lightweight so you’re ableto move around a lot more easily and set up a lotquicker than you would with a heavier dolly. Withheavier dollies, you’re restricted a little bit with some ofyour locations where you can take them, so theseprovide the ability to pretty well go anywhere and get alittle bit of movement whether it’s in a vehicle, on aboat or on a normal set or location.

Ed: What are the advantages of a heavier dolly?

Dennis: A heavier dolly gives you the ability tomore easily get up and down movement. A camera ona slider is at a fixed height, you can’t adjust the heightwhile you’re moving; similarly with the GFM dolly you’reat a fixed height, you can’t adjust it, so the Pantherdollies and the Chapman dollies for instance, offer anability to raise and lower the height of the camera whileyou’re actually filming. So that’s of greater productionvalue.

Ed: So it’s like what we see in the television studioswhere they have those pedestals that move around.They can move across the floor and also raise and lowerat the same time?

Dennis: Well similar – effectively yes.

Ed: But that requires that very smooth floor and quitea bit of technology?

Dennis: Oh usually if it’s a reasonable floor they canrun them on the floor; they put down what they call“dance floor” which is a laminate over the floor to get anice smooth surface, or they run track, and they woulddo that with even a simple dolly. We do have a castorsystem where you can run it over a floor just for quickrepositioning but not for “in shot” moves. What they’ve

got here is certainly reasonably priced and it offersthem 80% of what they would get out of the higher enddollies.

Ed: So these are creative options for people in thetelevision industry who perhaps are just using a tripod,so they’ve got locked off shots and have people movearound. Dollies or sliders give you that little bit more“oomph” to your production – just a bit of movement –it makes it look so much better?

Dennis: Well what you achieve with these simpledevices is that “high end” look but cost effectively.Whereas in the past, you would have been fixed on atripod, we’ve got a whole raft of different options for areasonable price. I think our cheapest dolly is around$65 for instance …

Ed: For a day?

Dennis: For a day, yes.

Ed: Because I imagine also with these sliders, you

can put them on an angle, even the one that you have

on your scaffolding, you could actually move it, you

don’t have to have it totally horizontal?

Dennis: You could put it on an angle – it depends

what you’re trying to achieve. If you want the camera

to remain level even though the slider’s on an angle,

you’d have to adjust it in a way that gets it back tobeing level. We’ve got other sliders, the Kessler ones,

they have bracketry, you can undersling them for

instance, so you can have the camera underneath the

slider and running right across the floor. So if you’re

down shooting really low, these little brackets enable

you to do that. The cheapest slider I do for $75 a day.

Ed: For a whole day?

Dennis: For a whole day, yes.

Page 10

Dennis with one of his dollies.

Ed: And all you need to do is addyour camera to it, or your tripod head… I guess you have to have your owntripod?

Dennis: No, we supply twoManfrotto tripods with it – without ahead, just the stills tripods. Peoplegenerally have their own heads, so wedon’t supply them.

Ed: So for someone looking at theirproduction schedule, they could saveall the shots that might look better ona slider, get all of their locked offshots done and then just come alongand do all the slider shots in one day?

Dennis: No, not really …

Ed: Alright, I know you want alonger hire Dennis, but …?

Dennis: Well it’s just practicality.You’re there, you want to be shootingeverything at the same time, sothey’d tend to shoot everything whilethey were on that particular location.It’s practical and cost effective to do itat the time. The other thing I wasgoing to say with the Kessler slider is that we add aremote head to it too. Everything is motorised so youcan get time lapse. The camera movement becomescontrollable and repeatable, including the remote head.So if you’re doing a typical one of the night sky or evenjust day with the clouds, you are able to pan and tiltduring the course of your time lapse movement. Theyused it on a cooking show, just to show the wholeprocess of what they were doing with the meal theywere creating.

Ed: So you can show a roast being cooked in 10seconds?

Dennis: Effectively, yes. GoPro did a launch andthey were here for about a month shooting and theyused the slider quite a bit for that launch.

Ed: Now one thing I don’t see on this set is a craneand I know, at the Dolly Shop, you’ve got lots and lotsof cranes – the big Technocrane we talked about, butalso pretty small one man jobs?

Dennis: It’s often the nature of the show. It mightbe quite a close, tight sort of drama that isn’t veryexpansive in what it has to show, so the requirement toget a bit more expansive with your shots isn’t there.Over the years, different jobs at South Pacific Pictureshave had a higher requirement because of the nature ofwhat they’re trying to shoot. With Outrageous Fortunefor instance, they used quite large cranes to scene setand to conclude scenes as well.

Ed: So if people want to see what some of thisequipment can do, the crane or the slider, they can goonto your website, have a look at the types that you’vegot available, but can they actually see how some ofthem work?

Dennis: There is footage from the cranes and I’verecently added some for the sliders. With the Slidersyou are basically moving the camera from one end toanother to show how they are used. Generally, it’sabout getting small moves – you know, maybe youwant to get a tiny wee push in easily, quickly. It’salready on, attached to the tripod, you don’t have toput it on a dolly, the cameraman can create the wholemove himself, he isn’t having to deal with a grip andthe grip hitting their mark, or they’re shooting at thetime and doing an over the shoulder shot.

At this point, I handed the recorder to Dennis and let

him loose with his questions for Rewa Harre and Marty

Smith, the co DOPs on the shoot.

Dennis: Rewa, what affected your overall grip

equipment decisions on Step Dave?

Rewa: Camera movement for me is all about

creating emotion, adding a third dimension, and

production value. Step Dave, the current show I am

working on, being a drama/comedy, lends itself to a

variety of shooting styles. We use a lot of handheld,

but also Steadicam and dolly movement. We needed a

compact and lightweight grip package to complementthe Steadicam we have permanently on set.

I became familiar with the Solid Grip Systems scaff

dolly only about six months ago and was impressed by

its simplicity and smoothness. It takes up very little

floor space on set, can be moved around very quickly

and can be used in underslung mode for table top shots

and very low angles.

Marty: When we were prepping Nothing Trivial 3and Gary showed me the Solid Grip scaff dolly, I was

sceptical at first, as it was so simple and could run on 2

pieces of scaff pipe. Many sliders trap dirt and dust in

the channels and need frequent cleaning. The

skateboard wheels collect none, and the pipes can be a

bit rough and pitted and the system still works

smoothly. It's also completely silent, which is very

important.

With the quick change brackets that Dennis made, youcan swing it to whatever length tubes you need. Three

metres is probably the longest we've done, and

naturally there's a bit of support required in the middle.

The 1'1/8 spigots on the brackets mean you can use it

on light stands quite easily. It's superb for getting over

the top of subjects ( looking down at people in bed )

and requires a much smaller footprint than using a dolly

and jib for the same shot. In tight locations, apart from

not being able to rise in shot, you can get moves intomuch smaller spaces than you can do with a dolly. You

can almost track wall to wall in a room with no dolly

base to accommodate.

Dennis: What about the Silent Cat Slider?

Page 12

Rewa Hare on the set of “Step Dave”.

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Rewa: At the speeds we are working at, it’s verynice to be able to throw in a dolly shot at the lastminute!

Dennis: And the GFM Grip Kit Dolly?

Rewa: The GFM dolly kit can be quickly carried inby one person, laid and ready to go in minutes.

Marty: It’s extremely versatile withits modular design and is easy to movearound. The gas riser allows quickheight changes.

Ed: Thanks Rewa and Marty – I’ll getback to Dennis now.

Moving on to a wider field, I know you’reheavily involved in the screen industrythrough the Cinematographers Associa-tion and there’s certainly been a lot ofdiscussion recently about the doldrumsof the screen industry. It sounds asthough there’s a little bit of movementthere, but is it a last gasp of our screenindustry or do you think there is life yetto come?

Dennis: It’s a moving feast. Nothingremains the same, it’s changing.

Ed: And the people need to changewith it?

Dennis: Basically that’s the bottom

line. For instance, there’s a shoot

happening in Malaysia at the moment

and it’s employed a whole heap of Kiwis

with good experience in long form drama.

Ed: And that’s only been possible because there is nowork here or is it that the producers are looking for theexperience of the New Zealanders?

Dennis: Well we’re not talking about one or twopeople; we’re talking about quite a few, so that’s basedon reputation. So they’re grabbing people because oftheir skills and their expertise. There would be otheroptions out there with these people, because we’ve gota bit of a track record of doing this stuff now.

But there’s a little bit of concern about drama going

forward with TV3. Because of the commercial

imperative there of making a profit, there’s a bit of a

question mark about how much they will continue to

support television drama because some of them haven’t

been as successful as they would have hoped. So

whether they will continue to commit to New Zealanddrama is uncertain. They really need to make a profit,

these shows need to succeed.

Ed: So not necessarily as a comment from the

Cinematographers Association, but from someone of

long experience, what can the industry itself do to help

get out of this situation?

Dennis: Well it’s just as it continues to do, seeing a

variety of sources of income for us. We see it out of ashow like Step Dave, this one, a television drama; we

see it out of local television commercials and overseas

commercial shooting here; then we see an increasing

number of just general television programming.

There’s a Cadbury show that TV3 is doing at the

moment – the slider that you saw before, the Solid Grip

Systems slider, we had that on there and they loved it.

TVNZ have just done a programme last year on

architects and it went all round the country. It waseasy for them to take it on a plane, set it up in a

location anywhere around the country and they got a bit

of camera movement out of it. And the internet, we’ve

done a few jobs using some of the high end gear for

things that will only be seen via the internet, they won’t

go to television at all.

Ed: So the industry really has to move with the

times; it’s got to, using the old cliché “think outside the

square”, think of new avenues?

Page 14

Marty Smith operates the Solid Grip System.

Dennis: In the end, to an extent, wedepend on that phone ringing. We aren’tgenerators of programming; we aren’tgenerators of work. We are theproviders to whomever … all we can do isoffer what we already have and respondto whatever their needs may be goingforward and those will change.

What’s happening, as I’ve tried to showyou today, is there’s definitely amovement towards smaller, lighter,nimble equipment that can be used in amedium range sort of television dramalike this, in a real low end music video,short film, television programme,whatever – just a general informationalprogramme where you want to get a bitof extra camera movement. That’swhere it’s going. It’s definitely a trendtowards a lot of smaller productions withrelatively small needs, but who have adesire to add value. Of all the thingsyou can do, camera movement is the one that generallysays “oh, there’s a bit more value in what I’m watchingthan a static camera.”

Ed: What do you think of handheld Dennis?

Dennis: Well unless it’s for a dramatic purpose,

generally it suggests that maybe the budget isn’t there.

It has traditionally suggested that.

Ed: Do you think there’s a bit too much of it these

days?

Dennis: I’ve got to be careful because these guysdo quite a bit of handheld … I think if it’s used properlyit’s fine, and I would say sparingly too, but it dependson the nature of the programme. If you’re shootingsomething that’s very intense and a lot of energy in it,handheld’s totally appropriate. As a rule of thumb,using it all the time, I wouldn’t have thought so.

That’s television according to Dennis. Go towww.dolly.co.nz and see some of the kit that couldenhance your next production. NZVN

Page 15

Silent cat slider awaits.

ProactiveLighting Team

We are at PLS with ChrisMcKenzie and another twogentlemen, Clive Shingletonand Cory Shultz.

Ed: Chris, some monthsago, you took on two newsales staff who, one wouldhope, are now doing goodthings for you?

Chris: Yes they are.We decided that we neededto up our sales efforts with abigger team and so …

Ed: What, actually getpeople out on the road?

Chris: Yes, out on theroad, rather than expectingour customers to fall off thebus as they went past. Wehave Clive doing outsidesales, going round and doorknocking our unsuspectingcustomers, and Cory whowill probably be the first voice on the phone when youcall us.

Ed: So why is it necessary to have somebody outdoor knocking? Surely people can go on your websiteand see everything you’ve got?

Chris: To a point yes, especially now that we haveour new website up and running, glossy, shiny and allthings to all men, so don’t forget that. We have stayedaway from the sales model of doing web sales becausewe want to talk to our customers. We want to be ableto help them with their decisions, rather than themmaking the decisions and, without being rude to most ofour customers, they do need help with their decisionmaking.

Ed: I would concur with that; I’m in that categorymyself and I would say that I’ve had excellent advicefrom PLS in the past, so good thinking.

Chris: Thank you Grant – and I was looking at youas I said that! So it’s an old fashioned concept but wefind that it works. Clive’s finding that most of ourcustomers are fairly receptive to stopping and having achat, but we’re also very aware that a lot of ourcustomers are working from home and particularlyfreelance people are very protective of their “away fromwork” time, so we keep an eye on that. We don’t wantto annoy them, customers are customers and we dowant to make sure that they’re happy talking to us.

Ed: What’s the website?

Chris: www.kelpls.co.nz

Ed: And that’s because it’s got Kenderdine Electricalin there as well as PLS?

Chris: Yes, the “kel” part is Kenderdine and thePLS … it’s a common website but at the opening page itsplits into the two companies. If you want rental prices,there are two obviously different schedules for the twocompanies, and then links out to all of our suppliers,plus we’re adding more and more resources. We hadquite a lot of resources on the original page, but it wasa fairly “John Deere” looking page that we’ve had forclose to 10 years and it needed upping to the 21st

century look and more links. More interlinks into whatour suppliers are doing as well, because a lot of themare very good at putting up information and tutorials on

Page 16

what they can do, what their kit can do and questions –the idiot questions that people don’t necessarily want toask the supplier, but if they can go onto the YouTubelink and find the answer then that’s good and it savesus dealing with the obvious questions.

We don’t mind doing that, and that’s again going backto why we want to talk to our customers. I had theexample yesterday of a guy “I want to buy an LEDhardwired.” Well yes sir, we’ve got a range of them.“Oh well I’ve had a look at this one and I like that one.”So I was able to have a 15 minute conversation withhim and say well here’s the opportunities, what are youdoing, what do you actually want to achieve …

Ed: And in the end he bought a BBQ?

Chris: He did … he went “no, I’ll go and spend mymoney somewhere else thanks.”

Ed: Oh, are you not selling BBQs anymore?

Chris: No, no, this season of MasterChef is over.Anyone interested in that sort of kit will have to comeback probably in December this year and we’ll have anew line of ex-kitchenware available!

Ed: Right, that’s enough of him. To bring somesanity to this interview, Clive, in your visits tocustomers, what have you gathered to be the mainneed out there?

Clive: Probably information, keeping up to date,new products, new lines, what’s going on. It’s aneducation. A lot of them are used to what they havebeen using and it’s a case of “well, this is a newproduct, this is better, this is LED” – so it’s aneducational process; and also reminding them that weare still around.

Ed: Is there a lot of interest in LED?

Clive: Yes, there is. I find a lot of film peoplereluctant to make the move at the moment, butcertainly on the other side, museums and that …

Ed: We don’t deal with museums; we’re just into theprofessional television industry here.

Clive: It’s certainly coming on board, yes. Peopleare getting to know it, they’re using it, and they’reliking it.

Cory and Clive in the PLS showroom.

Phone: 09 302 4100 Email: info@kelpls.co.nz Website: www.kelpls.co.nz

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Ed: Oh, so you’ll actually let them take it out and tryit?

Cory: Yes, if they can put a good case forward!

Ed: And what about your background?

Cory: I’ve worked for ICT in software sales forIBM and I sold Big Data for NZ Post and I’ve soldBusiness to Business plans for various telcos, but I’vealways wanted to get closer to film and TV and this wasa good opportunity.

Ed: So lighting’s something new for you?

Cory: Very much so.

Ed: Well I guess you’ve got a good teacher herehaven’t you?

Cory: Oh absolutely, absolutely. Chris is one ofthe best in the industry. What an opportunity foranyone.

Chris: I think I’m going to be ill!

Ed: And you’ve also been given the task of doing theads for NZ Video News I understand?

Cory: I have, yes, a real opportunity to use someMicrosoft Paint and some Microsoft Word and somePhotoshop skills.

Ed: Now coming back to the master – Chris you’reobviously happy with your apprentices?

Chris: Yes, well, they both passed their 90 dayperiod.

Ed: So you’re now paying them?

Chris: Yes, and we’re now paying them. They’reboth very fit for the purpose and both fast learning.One of the real benefits of taking these guys on wasthat it forced me to document a lot of information that Ihad to pass over, so we now have some large video filesof Lighting 101 to about 103. These guys are not goingto last forever – either us with them or them with us, sothere will be new people, or as the business growsexponentially we’ll be taking on thousands more staff.

Ed: Neither of them have had a real lightingbackground, but that actually can be a positive becauseyou’re not trying to correct what they thought theyknew?

Chris: Yes, that’s very true. We’ve previouslyalways employed from within the industry, but this timewe consciously went for people who had salesexperience and had a track record in sales, and both ofthese guys came up with that. I mean, Clive’s look at

Page 18

Ed: Do you get a chance to look at their setups andadvise them as to maybe what could be added to theirsetup to make it better?

Clive: Certainly the studios … yes, we have alook, see what they’ve got, see how we can improve it.Sometimes it’s just a matter of updating small things.But, as I say, it just comes back to keeping theminformed about what’s out there.

Ed: So by going out there and talking to them,they’re prodded to think about what they might need?

Clive: Yes. It’s reminding them that there arebetter options now. If one gets into their day to dayrunning of things and they perhaps don’t read all thepublicity, read all the input that comes through, youjust go and jog their memory and hopefully they’ll comeback to us.

Ed: How far afield have you been travelling – haveyou done Bluff yet?

Clive: No, no, not quite. I’m still trying to getthrough Auckland. There’s a lot of work in Auckland atthe moment, but we’ll get there.

Ed: I guess it’s a fairly hard technology to learn forsomeone coming from outside the television and filmindustry?

Clive: It is. For the tricky things I get them totalk to Chris!

Ed: Probably a very wise choice. What about talkingto Cory? Does anybody talk to Cory apart from me?

Cory: Every now and then … a lot of thecustomers come in here, they know we have awonderful showroom with all the really good products,so they’re keen to come and get a “hands on” look at it.

Ed: And you’re able to show them everything?

Cory: Yes absolutely. We have all the best of theMatthews and Dedo and ARRI and Kino and Lowel stuffset up in our showroom and we have all the newestgear from around the world, so it’s good. And they canbring their cameras in and really do a proper test, youknow play with the new bicolour LEDs etc.

Ed: So that’s a good thing, actually having that studiosetup so people can bring their own camera and do thetest with their own gear to see the difference?

Cory: Yes that’s right. You need to let peopleknow how it’s going to work with their equipment; a lotof the new low light sensors in the latest cameras needtesting to see exactly what you’re going to get fromyour one foot panels and your 150 WattDedos, etc.

Ed: Is there any common thread?

Cory: I think those that have usedinferior products are quite impressed bythe difference they can immediately seewhen they use something like a Dedo LEDwith a high CRI in it and a good sort of softwash.

So people who have used maybe cheapergear, who are considering upgrading, theycome in and see what’s available at themid and top end and they can immediatelysee a difference.

Ed: Do you offer them the chance to rentit for a while?

Cory: Well they get the whole shophere at PLS obviously, so they can chooseto rent it or if they have a specific need andthey can put a case forward to try to use itfor a night to test it out in their own realworld scenarios, then we’re open to havingthose conversations. Cory surrounded by a light selection.

the electrical industry was a help to a point where hehad some understanding; Cory as a rabid filmmaker isthe only person I know who went to 38 films at the FilmFestival and he also indulges in the 48 hour FilmFestival. He understands “roll” and “cut” and “dolly” sowe’ve given him a bit more of the jargon and I’mguessing that in the next 48 hour, our hire

department’s going to be fairly empty.We’ll see how that goes, but no, it’s goodand they’re both very enthusiastic aboutwhat they’re doing and sucking up theinformation.

Ed: Lastly, as a bit of a tease, I believethat there’s a new product line that youmight be bringing in?

Chris: Well it’s another evolution inLED lighting.

We’ve been looking long and hard at 2 or3 suppliers and we’ve settled on onesupplier who seems to be doing the bestwork. They’ve offered to come out anddo a bit of a road show, so you never sayno.

You have to realise that they areEuropeans and that February is thecoldest part of the year for them, sowe’re expecting a few more approachesfrom our European suppliers too, to comeout and have a bit of warmth for a weekor so, but you’ll get the invite Grant.

Ed: And also, at any of these events,they get to meet you, they get to meet

these guys and a chance to have a look through thestudio here?

Chris: Yes well that’s right, and this particularcompany is relatively new. We’ve known them for afew years in another guise and where they’re going withtheir product is very interesting and quite exciting whatthey’re intending to do with what they’re doing. NZVN

Page 20

Clive trying a tune on his tie.

Page 21

Issue 200 of NZVN is next month!To celebrate this publishing milestone, we have had a number

of ideas.

Write or email us with a few words on –

1. Something you first saw in NZVN – and just had to buy –

that really improved your workflow ( or was just a really neat

toy.)

2. Some technique or operation method you learned

through reading our interviews.

3. Just an interesting story that somehow relates to what

you have read over the years in NZVN.

4. Suggesting some new topic that you would like to hear

more about in the next hundred issues.

5. A favourite photo from years back that you would think

others might like reprinted.

6. A past topic that needs further investigation or

explanation.

Do let us know before the end of the month so that we can

include your reader feedback in issue #200.

Email finnzed@xtra.co.nz and put “NZVN” in the header.

Thanking you in anticipation. Ed.

NZVNThis is what I was doing when NZVN started.

PLS INVITEYou are cordially invited to an evening with the NZCS with Jelle Moerman fromBrother Brother and Son in Denmark.

PLS are introducing the BBS Area 48 LED softlight along with other products in theBBS line to the NZ market for the first time.

Time: 1800 (6PM) onwards on the 13th February 2014 at PLS 66 Cook St.

For Wellington customers, visit details contact me.

Chris McKenzie

66 Cook St, CBD, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand.

Ph:+64-9-3024100 DDI:+64-9-3740247 Fax:+64-9-3024102 Mob:+64-21-658475

Skype: Chris.McK

New Year Picksfrom DVT

One of the thoughts I had over theholidays was a topic runningthrough various issues and that’s“ -- does it -- than anyone else”but we’ll get onto that a little bitlater. First though, Stuart has gota nice little camera here at DVTthat we saw at IBC. Now theproduction model is in stock andStuart has one here that you cancome and have a look at and try itout but, by the look of it, if you’refamiliar with any of this particularbrand of camera at this level,you’ll say “oh, I know how thatworks.”

Ed: Stuart, it looks a veryfamiliar form factor?

Stuart: Yes absolutely. It’staken on the same form factor of alot of the medium sized cameraslately, which is the handle on thetop and the LCD screen mountedon the top as well, so similar tothe EX1 and the PMW-200.

Ed: Are we actually going to tell the readers whatcamera this is?

Stuart: Why not! This is the new Sony PXW-Z1004K camcorder style camera. From a functionalperspective, anyone familiar with the mid-sized Sonycameras would be able to use it straightaway; sametypes of menus, button layouts and the battery systemis similar as well.

Ed: Is it in fact the same battery as the EX1?

Stuart: Yes it is. The ”U” series batteries, theBPU60s and BPU90s, that sort of style of battery.

Ed: So this really fits in that niche, an entry level 4Kcamera, but shall we say this has more potential thanother people’s entry level 4K?

Stuart: Yes, this 4K camera has got a very goodcodec ( XAVC ) that it records inside the camera on thecards. It also allows you to shoot today in HD if youwant to, or to shoot 4K. For anyone looking at buying anew camera, if they’re considering a PMW-200 forexample, this would be something that they wouldseriously look at if they think that they might need tohave 4K production capabilities in the future.

Ed: So it is using the EX codec for the high def, but ithas its own codec for the 4K?

Stuart: It uses the XAVC codec for HD and 4K. It’sa full broadcast spec camera in terms of its highdefinition recording, and in 4K it’s using the new XAVCcodec which is the same codec in use on the F5 and theF55 cameras as well.

Ed: And this is a codec that, in that 4K form, is

editable by all the major platforms currently?

Stuart: Yes absolutely. There’s workflows forAdobe, for DaVinci Resolve, for Autodesk Smoke – sojust about anything you’d want to do you can edit quiteeasily in that method. If you want to edit in somethinglike Avid Media Composer, they don’t support 4K, soyou’d need to use one of the HD codecs instead, ordownconvert to HD to be able to edit Media Composer,but Media Composer’s really an offline tool, so if youwanted to online it you’d do it in …

Ed: Media Composer’s a what?

Stuart: Well it can’t edit 4K, so you can’t online inMedia Composer; it’s not designed for that. In fact,Avid’s solution for onlining was their DS system, whichthey’ve now discontinued. They actually don’t have anonline tool, so you’d need to go into something likeAdobe Premiere or Autodesk Smoke that can do stuffnatively in 4K.

Ed: What about those out there who are holding ontotheir Final Cut Pro 7’s?

Stuart: Yes, Final Cut Pro 7 is good, but it’s gettingincreasingly difficult to keep that product alive and youcan’t do 4K in that either; you need to use Final Cut ProX, which has 4K support, so it’s a very, very powerfulpackage for doing 4K editing.

Ed: So Final Cut Pro X has now undergone somechanges and is potentially a good product?

Stuart: Yes absolutely. One of the bad things thatApple did is that they discontinued Final Cut Pro 7,brought out Final Cut Pro X, deserted a bunch of reallykey features that the community came to rely on inFinal Cut Pro 7 and, as a consequence, have alienated ahuge raft of the population. There are, of course, somepeople out there who are still commercially using FinalCut Pro X regardless of all of that and, in the last 12months, Apple have done a lot of work putting a lot ofthose refinements and extra features back in,supporting all the new codecs, 4K, and particularly withthe use of the new Mac Pro, they’ve redesigned FinalCut Pro X to better support the new Mac Pro and 4K anda whole bunch of other workflows as well. So it’s a verycapable product but most people in the commercialworld have moved on to either Media Composer ifthey’re just doing editing, or to the Adobe range ofproducts if they’re doing editing and grading andcompositing and other bits and pieces as well, or toother higher end applications like Autodesk Smoke orResolve for grading.

Ed: Right, now this sort of continues our story thatDVT have all of these options available here and youcan take people through and show them, and now weget onto the product that I want to put in this new

Page 22

Stuart has the Sony 4K camcorder, the TriCaster and a cup of coffee for you.

Lacklands LP | 09 6300753 | sales@lacklands.co.nz

category, and that is “TriCaster does it better than anyother switching solution studio in a box”. We talkedabout TriCaster at DVT in our December issue, but thebig news is …?

Stuart: Well the big news now is the new range ofTriCasters that were launched and we talked about lastyear, are now on the ground in New Zealand and thesesolutions are really a studio in a box. They doeverything from character generators to animatedgraphics buffers to media players, media recorders,streaming devices, all the way through to advancedcontrol surfaces to control all of that. They’reextremely sophisticated and very, very easy to use andthere are wonderful training resources available to getup to speed with them as well. So when you look at thecosts of individual aspects of that, it would cost youmany, many more times than the cost of a suitableTriCaster to do the job, so it really is an awesomesolution and the customers that are getting theTriCasters now are just absolutely ecstatic about whatthat allows them to achieve in their businesses.

Ed: And the good thing is you’ve got one here and soyou can show people how it works?

Stuart: Yes, we’ve got a demo version here, so it’savailable for them to come in and have a good look atit. When you see the awesome power that you get outof the capabilities of these TriCasters, particularly withmultiple mix and effects buses layered on top of eachother, they have an enormous amount of power andallow you to very easily set up a production that youcan then do live in a very sophisticated fashion, withouthaving to get too carried away with complexity …they’ve done a remarkable job with the new interfaceand the new models that they’ve released to make thathappen.

Ed: What’s the level of the one you’ve got here – is itthe top end or middle, or where?

Stuart: The only difference between the top threemodels, which are the TriCaster 460, the 860 and the8000, is really just the number of streams that it has.The model that we’ve got has four camera inputs, thetwo models above it have got eight camera inputs, butin terms of the functionality, they’re all very similar. Sowe can certainly show all of the capabilities of theanimated graphics buffers for example, or the CGsystem, or the mix and effects buses on the unit thatwe’ve got here and that’s why we’ve chosen the unitwe’ve got, so that we can show all of the features of aTriCaster 8000 – we just can’t layer eight mix andeffects buses together, we can only do four.

Ed: And it wouldn’t take 4K surely would it?

Stuart: No. These switchers are all SD and HD atthis stage. Blackmagic have some options available for4K but in terms of mainstream live production 4K is notall that practical. 4K is certainly capable to dodocumentary, drama or feature film type productions noproblem. Would you use 4K in a live switchingenvironment? Potentially not. HD is probably the righttool for that job currently, because still there’s areasonable amount of complexity in terms of piping 4Karound.

Ed: We’ve talked about future proofing in previousissues and over the years with various formats and ithas been the buzz word that some manufacturers havecome out to say “oh, you buy this device and you’regoing to future proof your archives” but 4K really is afuture proof product?

Stuart: Not only is 4K future proof, but it really is a“now” product. You can do everything in 4K if you wantto. So this Z100 camera is a good example of a lowcost 4K acquisition solution. You can go out and film a

corporate video on this in 4K; you can then take thecards out of the camera, put them into an iMac, transferthe data into it, open it in Adobe Premiere natively in4K, you can get a Blackmagic UltraStudio 4KThunderbolt adapter which will give you a 4K output;you can take that 4K output and plug it into any of thenumber of 4K TVs that are available on the markettoday – the big screen teles that they’ve now beenselling for the last six months in New Zealand.

Also now you can take 4K out of the system intocomputer type displays. So for example, at a consumerelectronics show this year, a range of electronicsmanufacturers such as Dell and LG and Samsung haveall come out with 4K computer desktop monitors, whichrange in size from 27 to 30, 32 inch type size that youcan have on your desktop, so that again you can look atthat content in 4K.

So you know it is possible to shoot, edit, grade 4K,display 4K either on a monitor locally on your desk, oron a big screen for clients to watch, and then you canencode that 4K content using either the existing H.264type codecs that we’ve been using now in our Freeview,My Sky and Blu-ray distribution systems, or you couldmove onto the newer codec, the new high efficiencyvideo codec and encode in that as well, which is theH.265 codec.

So there are ways of being able to produce thatcontent, edit it, grade it, encode it – you can evenupload your 4K stuff onto YouTube if you want to beable to distribute it that way. So it really is an optionnow to do everything in 4K if you so choose to or havethe requirement to do it.

Ed: And to me the good thing is that this is actually a4K video camera, as opposed to a 4K cinema camera,so for us video users, we finally have a very userfriendly 4K video camera. Comment Stuart?

Stuart: Yes that’s correct. We’ve actually seen achange in the last 5-6 years of people wanting to have

Page 24

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larger image sensor cameras so that they get ashallower depth of field and make their images whatthey used to call “more cinematic looking” but now ofcourse, that doesn’t fit everybody in the market. Somepeople just want to be able to product normal videotype images …

Ed: And lots more should, I might say here.

Stuart: Potentially – certainly for some applica-tions. So you know we’ve always had standarddefinition camcorder type cameras, then when highdefinition came out, we had high definition camcordertype video cameras, and now 4K has come out we’vegot the same thing. If you were going to shoot a realityTV show, these Z100 cameras would be ideal for that,because they do have a larger depth of field which youwill want if you’re unable to run around and focus on

things, or if you’re shooting scenery and stuff like thatwhere you actually want to be able to see everything,you don’t want only one tree on the hillside to be infocus and everything else to be blurry. So they’d begreat cameras to choose for that application.

Ed: But for some people, having most of the pictureout of focus is an artistic choice isn’t it?

Stuart: Well that’s right, this shallow depth of fieldstuff is great for specific applications, you knowinterviews and things like that, it’s awesome, butsometimes you want to see more in the shot thatyou’ve got. That way you need a larger depth of fieldand these cameras are perfect for that.

Ed: So you can come in and try it at DVT and seewhat it really looks like?

Stuart: Absolutely. It’s an awesome camera, you’llbe amazed at how simple and easy it isto use because we’ve been using thesetypes of cameras for decades now andthere’s only a few things to think aboutwith 4K. It’s not that difficult, we’ve alldone the transition from standarddefinition to high definition and goingfrom high definition to 4K is actually a loteasier. Also, in terms of editing, all ofthis stuff and the workflows that you usefrom a postproduction perspective,they’re exactly the same types ofworkflows we’ve been using for yearswith all of our solid state based highdefinition cameras. So it’s a doddlereally. NZVN

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Finally. Editing Meets Effects.

PRODUCTION | POST | VISUAL EFFECTS

Autodesk Smoke is now available from DVT. Download our free product guide at www.dvt.co.nz

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Digital Video Technologies (NZ) Ltd | Phone: 09 525 0788 | Email: sales@dvt.co.nz | 45 Fairfax Avenue, Penrose, Aucklandwww.dvt.co.nz