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P11 “X” marks the end.
P16 The ghost of SMPTE past.
P26 Canon in Perpetua.
P35 How the Aussies do it #2
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SEPTEMBER 2011 Vol 173
Two new faces have appearedrecently at Gencom so we thoughtwe had better intro-duce them toyou.
Ed: Now Ray, you’ve made a bigdecision in your life – to take itmore easy, which is probablysomething a lot of us who knowyou … we’re really happy about.So how have you reduced yourworkload?
Ray: Well actually this is not theprime motivation. It’s not aboutme taking it easy, and I wish torefute that assumption. It’s aboutme freeing up some bandwidth todo more and other things thatneed to be done, and so it doesn’tmean I’m backing off or taking it easy, I’m justredeploying myself onto other stuff that has been gettingaway from me, so that’s really what it’s about. So I justwish to refute that.
Ed: OK, so how are you freeing up your “bandwidth”?
Ray: Well I’d like to introduce David Barnard who’s ournew Chief Operating Officer. David’s role is to assist meto do the other things that I need to be doing. I’ll befocusing on business development – the offshorebusiness in particular – and also marketing and strategy,while David will be doing a lot of the background work tosupport the whole organisation – stuff that I used to do,probably not very well.
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Ed.
9
6
2
Responseto date
Fresh Bloodat Gencom
David and Ray.
Ed: Oh no, that’s not possible. Now David, people can’t
tell from this interview, but you have an accent that we
don’t hear around here much?
David: I do, I’m from California, fresh off the boat so
to speak, but very excited to be here. I’ve got about 20
years of background in the film and television industry and
I’m looking forward to coming to New Zealand and putting
that experience to work in a new challenge.
Ed: What did you know about Gencom before you got
off the boat?
David: I actually knew quite a bit about them.Fortunately, I had the privilege of working with Ray and
Page 2
Nicki and everyone five years ago when I was inbusiness school at UCLA Anderson. We did a six monthfield study with the company, helping them craft theirstrategy. It was a real treat for me to come down here,get to know some of the people and learn a lot aboutthe company. We’ve all stayed in good contact sincethen, so when this opportunity came up, I knew it was agreat chance for me to work with a great group ofpeople.
Ed: Have you brought any family with you, or are youlooking?
David: Looking for a family? I wasn’t told this wasthat kind of magazine! As of yesterday, I’ve broughtthree dogs down with me, which proved to be thebiggest challenge of all, but now that’s over with andmy wife will be joining me next month.
Ed: So the dogs first – I’m glad you’ve got yourpriorities right.
David: Well they require less furniture … no, no,she’s finishing up some business things of her own andI’m very much looking forward to her joining me nextmonth.
Ed: Are you looking forward to embracing the lifestyleof Auckland?
David: Oh absolutely. We’ve already gone out andgot sheep! Sorry, I couldn’t help that.
Ed: We’d better not say anything more about yourwife at this point had we?
David: You can edit this, right?
Ed: No, no, I can’t.
David: Yes, absolutely, I love New Zealand, I lovethe people and the beautiful country around here, andI’m hoping that I might get some time out from all thiswork to enjoy it. I’m already enjoying it as a matter offact, especially with the great weather now.
Ed: So, in terms of your previous experience, what doyou plan to bring from California to the market here inNew Zealand?
David: I think one of the really valuable thingsthat I bring is a lot of experience with more IT andsoftware focused solutions for video service providersand broadcasters. I’ve had a lot of experience in thatarea, and looking at where the market for internetpowered television and file based workflows is headed.I think that one of the things I can contribute here is tohelp drive some additional growth in that area with thiscompany, and help craft its strategy to address the veryrapidly changing television industry.
Ed: Well Ray it looks as though at least he’s got a
sense of humour?
Ray: Absolutely – we wouldn’t have employed him if he
didn’t have a sense of humour.
Someone else joining the team with a smile on his faceis Peter Fullerton.
Ed: Peter, I’ve been looking through some old issuesof NZ Video News from way, way back, and there Ifound a photograph of you at Rocket Rentals. Whatwere you doing for Rocket?
Peter: I worked for Rocket for about 3-3½ yearswhen I came back from the UK, as their technician intheir Auckland branch, looking after repairs andmaintaining gear.
Ed: Were you looking after TV stuff before that in theUK?
Peter: In the UK, I worked for a company thatdesigned, manufactured and installed air trafficcommunication systems – both for the domestic UKmarket and for overseas as well. Before I went to theUK I was with TVNZ OB and before that, BCL (nowKordia). I’ve been in the New Zealand TV industrysince 1994.
more on page 6
Page
Ed: That’s the technical side – from Rocket you …?
Peter: From Rocket I left the broadcast industry; Istill did some OB work part-time in the weekends, but Iwent to a small scientific test and measurementcompany and ended up testing autoclaves, walk-inrefrigerators and large warehouses for humidity andtemperature.
Ed: So a bit of everything – and then Panasonic?
Peter: Yes, after deciding that the outside worldwasn’t really for me and that I liked the broadcast industry
a lot better, I started with Panasonic as the Product SalesManager for their Broadcast products. And that’s what Ihave been doing for the last six years.
Ed: Okay, so you’ve had a background that’s givenyou a grounding in box products – the cameras and theassociated products – but now, coming to Gencom,you’ve got an even broader view I imagine, and abigger range of products yet again?
Peter: Yes, Gencom has a huge range of solutionsfor the broadcast industry and that’s something that I’mreally excited about, learning about the new productsand the challenges that that brings along with it; butalso the ability to offer a wider range of options tocustomers. Panasonic are primarily in the acquisitionbusiness – monitors and cameras – whereas Gencomare in acquisition, production, postproduction anddeliverables.
Ed: One of the key areas that Gencom is involved in( and you’re going to dabble in this a little bit ) is theintegration side, but I imagine that in some of yourwork at Panasonic, you were involved in integrationprojects?
Peter: Yes. The type of sales that we do in thisindustry or at this level, are solution based sales. It’sabout listening to the customers’ wants, figuring outwhat their needs are and producing something thatmeets those needs and is going to continue to meetthose needs for the period of time that they require.Sometimes when a customer comes to you and says “Iwant this” it may not be the best product for theirapplication. We are always happy to provide exactlywhat the customer wants; we’re also here to listen towhat the customer has to say, and make suggestionsfor better ways to achieve the same result. This isbased on extensive product knowledge and is workingwith the customer. So it’s solution based sales and, ifthat’s a single box unit, say a battery or a Fujinon lens,then that’s fine; but if that’s also an entirepostproduction chain, or if that’s an entire televisionchain, then we can do that also.
Ed: And I guess that’s a big difference, because atPanasonic, if somebody came along looking for acamera, it would be a Panasonic camera, end of story;whereas if they come to you as a Gencom person, Iwould imagine you’d suggest they look at JVC at thestart, but if that wasn’t really the best solution for thecustomer, you would suggest something else?
Peter: Yes, as I said, it’s about listening to thecustomer and deciding what the best option or solutionis to meet the customer’s needs or wants at that time.If you want that person to be happy and to keepcoming back, you listen to them. That’s why Gencomhas such a good reputation in the industry, becausethey match up what the customer’s needs are to theright equipment to keep the customer happy. And
Page 6
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AFTERMATH
What platform will you choose?
Thursday 22 September | 7.00-9.00pmDVT | 45 Fairfax Avenue | Penrose
Register online for this special DVT event
www.dvt.co.nz/aftermath
Following the demise of Final Cut Pro as a professional editing application,
digital editors are left with some big questions.
RMATHMATHAFTERAFTERAFTAFTERRMATHRMATHRMATHRMATHAFTERMATHAFTERMATHAFTERMATH The Battle for hearts and minds
Page
prosumer has got this link from the cameras in theSmartphones directly to these products?
Stuart: Absolutely. Apple has the ability to put alot of work into creating a new version of Final CutStudio for ( depending on what statistics you listen to )maybe two million customers of Final Cut Studio whowould all happily embrace and support a $500 upgrade.However, coming out with a $400 version of Final CutPro X that they can market to every customer thatthey’ve got with MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, iMacs thelot, is a much, much bigger market for Apple, and asthey’re focusing on delivering products through theirApp Store and driving products directly to the consumermarket, that’s their clear focus. They’re really notinterested in providing higher end niche products toniche markets any more – that’s not their focus.
Ed: Oh dear, so where’s that going to leave you … Imean you’ve lost one of the major editing platformsthat you used to know, love and supply to millions?Has this left you in the lurch?
Stuart: Not at all, as always we are here to helpour customers. It’s an interesting step for Apple, whenthey’re looking at their profit and loss statement andlooking at how much money they make out of iPhones,iPads, MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, iMacs and thenthey look at this little noisy stuff they’ve got down inthe corner, which is their professional apps. Sostepping away from that to allow them to completelyfocus on consumer-based products makes some sense,but to a certain extent, having Final Cut Pro leave theprofessional market-space allows a reasonable amountof simplicity in terms of the decision making processesthat digital content creation professionals now need tomake, and both Adobe and Avid are still strongly rootedin this community. They have both built wonderfulproducts over the last decade and stand ready to fill thebreach. So anyone doing short form work, corporateproduct training, educational videos could possiblyconsider using Adobe Premiere for those types ofproductions. Of course, it’s got wonderful integrationwith After Effects for doing something a bit more fruityand also with Photoshop for doing graphics. However ifyou’re doing any type of long form work, then really theonly application that you would consider is Avid MediaComposer, because of its strong reputation and
Page 11
“X” marks the End!We are sitting here in very comfortablesofas in DVT’s showroom and I wasexpecting Stuart to be a little bit sort ofdespondent and unhappy because ...well, Final Cut Pro has gone “X”.
Ed: Now the “X” stands for “not muchuse anymore” is that right Stuart?
Stuart: Yes Grant, some people arecalling it “X Final Cut Pro” rather thanFinal Cut Pro X. It’s an interesting movefrom Apple’s perspective to have broughtout what they consider to be an upgradefrom their previous professional product,Final Cut Pro 7, and yet remove most ofthe professional functions that much ofthe professional community have reliedon for many years.
Ed: This isn’t a case of Apple comingout and saying “we are moving out ofprofessional production” but it’s a case oflooking at the specifications of this newproduct and saying “this is not a pro-fessional product?”
Stuart: I think by releasing the product and lookingat the feature sets, Apple have given the professionalcommunity a pretty clear indication that they are nolonger interested in focusing on the workflows that thecommunity’s been using for the last few years. They’vebasically taken the product and made it a prosumerproduct. For what it is, it’s a competent, capableediting application, but it just lacks the video IO that weneed to be able to really see the images that we’ve goton professional monitors; the lack of XML workflowsthat people have come to rely on to be able to get thematerial in and out of other systems is gone …
Ed: Yes, I’ve seen a huge list on the Web of thingsthat it doesn’t have and not many things that it doeshave, but it must have a use … they must have someclever reason for going this way. Is it a change indirection?
Stuart: I think to really understand where Appleare going with Final Cut Pro X, you’ve got to look atwhat they’ve been doing with a lot of their otherprofessional products. And, of course, one of the greatthings with Apple 5-6 years ago, was that they wereworking strongly with the creative community to buildproducts and platforms that we could all use. So theybrought out things like the Xserve server platform, theXserve RAID storage platform, the Xsan storage areanetworks that you could tie together with theirprofessional editing application, Final Cut Pro, and puttogether proper workflows and work group solutions fordoing high end, long form, complex editing. Whatwe’ve seen from Apple over the last few years is adefocus on that. Obviously their consumer business hasgrown exponentially – you know the success of theiPhone, the iPad and their Notebook range ofcomputers, the MacBook Air and MacBook Pros, hasbeen absolutely stunning, and so, at the same time, Iguess they’ve been defocusing on that original creativecommunity that they setup these products for. Sowe’ve seen the discontinuation of the Xserve RAID, thediscontinuation of the Xserve and currently now we’reseeing them stepping sideways, away from professionalediting applications as well.
Ed: So this is really a move up for iMovie and it fits innicely with their iPads and their laptops that the
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AFTERMATH
What platform will you choose?
Thursday 22 September | 7.00-9.00pmDVT | 45 Fairfax Avenue | Penrose
Register online for this special DVT event
www.dvt.co.nz/aftermath
Following the demise of Final Cut Pro as a professional editing application,
digital editors are left with some big questions.
RMATHMATHAFTERAFTERAFTAFTERRMATHRMATHRMATHRMATHAFTERMATHAFTERMATHAFTERMATH The Battle for hearts and minds
Page
capabilities both on the Mac and the PC platform to dolong form editing work.
Ed: And it’s compatibility?
Stuart: Yes exactly – it’s got well establishedworkflows, great integration with a huge range of otherproducts, full support for all current video formats and,of course, because Avid are focused on it, will continueto have full support for all upcoming video formats thatmay come out in the future.
Ed: That’s very good for Avid, and now you aresupplying Avid?
Stuart: Yes we are now Avid resellers and we havea good understanding of Avid Media Composer and theworkflows that surround it. We have sold a range ofSony products over the years that all integrate withAvid Media Composer and we’ve done a lot of technicalsupport around this. So we’ll certainly be talking tomost of our customers about migrating across fromFinal Cut to Avid workflows over the next 6-12 months,so that they put themselves on a professional platformthat they can move forward with.
Ed: But is there some incentive for them to actuallymake a purchase decision sooner rather than later?
Stuart: Yes absolutely – both Adobe and Avid havegrasped the opportunity to take existing Final Cut usersand …
Ed: ... are putting the knife in the dying Apple?
Stuart: Pretty much. It’s a great opportunity forboth Avid and Adobe. Avid have got a 60% off deal forAvid Media Composer and Adobe have got a 50% offdeal for Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium if you alreadyown a licence of Apple Final Cut Studio. We’ve got somany customers of course who have all of the products,it’s very typical. Nobody’s running Avid MediaComposer without a copy of Adobe After Effects andAbobe Photoshop – that’s a standard workflow; and ifthey’ve got Apple Final Cut Studio as well, the ability tomove and add Avid Media Composer and add AdobeCS5.5 Production Premium to that is really good. Soanyone with an Apple Final Cut Studio licence is in agreat position to be able to expand their softwareproducts for very little money and that’s something thatwe’re going to be spending the next 6-8 weeks doing –getting that message across to our customers andmaking sure that they’re all able to take full advantageof that.
Ed: But it’s one thing to sell the product … we knowthat you’ve been involved with Adobe and the productsthere for a long time, and certainly you’ve built up thesupport and you offer the training and the help withAdobe, but Avid? What are you offering there forpeople who want to migrate to Avid?
Stuart: We’re have a training programme that we’llbe implementing over the next few months to enableour Final Cut customers ( and Adobe customers shouldthey wish to ) to get up to speed with Media Composer.We are working with Andy Day to provide local one onone and classroom training for Avid Media Composer atDVT. Andy is a certified Adobe trainer and will becertified to do Avid training for us as well. This willenable us to run training courses specifically forcustomers who are switching across to Media Composerto get them up to speed. Also the online resourcesfrom Avid are extremely good. They’ve got a hugerange of “Getting Started” tutorials that you can watchthrough and that’s really the modern way for trainingnow – online based training; whether you wantsomething basic that’s free off the Avid website, or
something more advanced from people like fxphd,there’s plenty of online resources available to get up tospeed quite quickly as well.
Ed: And Adobe have got the Lynda training that offerone month free with every new licence?
Stuart: Yes, there’s a huge amount of Adoberesources in the same regard, so everything from entrylevel stuff from tv.adobe.com through to lynda.comtotal training, and again onto fxphd. If you’re reallyinterested in high end motion graphics with AfterEffects, then the fxphd courses are worth their weight ingold. They’re fantastic. And of course then there is oneon one and classroom based training available fromAndy here at DVT. So whatever your training needsare, we have you covered.
Ed: And what about the Apple hardware – I mean, ifsomebody’s gone and got themselves the latest Appleplatform, then can either Adobe Premiere or MediaComposer work on that platform?
Stuart: Yes absolutely. Adobe obviously workswith all of the Matrox, AJA, Blackmagic IO devices – youknow there’s some really exciting stuff happening withApple with their new Thunderbolt IO coming up. We’llexpect to see products released in the next month thatwill allow the new iMacs and MacBook Pros to take fulladvantage of those with all the Adobe products. Avidare actively supporting other third party IO devices,they already support Matrox MX02 Mini and the AJA IoExpress, so the cost of getting professional IO out ofMedia Composer is as cost effective as any otherproduct now.
Ed: And talking of hardware, the latest hardware iscapable of running Autodesk Smoke?
Stuart: Yes. Many people, who are looking at thefull postproduction capabilities that they require, neednot only editing or motion graphics, but they needgrading, finishing, visual effects, the whole range ofother requirements and Autodesk Smoke is the highend finishing product that provides those capabilities.An iMac will run everything from the Adobe MasterCollection all the way through to Avid Media Composerand Autodesk Smoke all on the same machine. Itprovides you with a very integrated high performance,very productive, and extremely creative platform to runthose key applications.
Ed: Are you going to have a big show shortly toexplain all of this to the wider Auckland public?
Stuart: Yes, we’re running an event here at DVT.This is a not to be missed event to get the scoop oneverything Adobe, Apple, Avid and Autodesk.
Ed: What else will you be covering?
Stuart: There’s also some wonderful changes tohardware platforms that have come along – you knowthe performance that we’re getting out of these newCore i7 iMacs with Thunderbolt drives is truly stunning;the MacBook Pros work just as well as the iMacs and itreally gives people a great opportunity to get a lot moreproductivity into their workflows ( and for very littlemoney as well ) by taking advantage of these new cross-grade deals, taking advantage of these new low cost,high performance workstations that they can get into.So we certainly want to get that message across to ourcustomers in the next few weeks.
Ed: Oh, have you got a date yet?
Stuart: Sure do, mark the 22nd September in yourcalendar for the most exciting and informative event ofthe year!
Page 13
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Page
The ghost of SMPTE pastI’ve never been bothered to go because NAB shows allthe new toys and, well, it is Vegas! But as you willread, that attitude might need to change. We are atGencom with Ray Sanders for a debriefing, becauseGencom was ( and probably has always been ) atSMPTE in Sydney.
Ed: Now as far as trade shows go Ray, this is a prettysmall affair isn’t it?
Ray: Well for us it’s not; for us it’s one of the mostsignificant ones that we exhibit at, because it servesAustralia and New Zealand, it’s only every two years, soit requires a major effort to properly address it. For us,it’s as big as Broadcast Asia.
Ed: So what do you do there – I’ve never been – tellme about your stand?
Ray: Well firstly I think you should attend because it’sdirectly in your sphere of operation.
Ed: Nobody’s invited me!
Ray: You’re always welcome … we’d never turn youaway if you turned up. We’d even give you a free pen.
Ed: I guess it’s also important for the people who yourepresent, to actually meet some of your customers andget an idea of what they actually do with the productthat they’re buying from you?
Ray: Absolutely, yes. The customers come usuallyfocused on a few key things that they’re interested in,but we hope to also capture their imagination with someother things that they might not have realised that wedo, or that they haven’t seen before – particularly thosewho haven’t been to NAB and the bigger shows.
Ed: How do you get on with products that you mightrepresent very well in New Zealand, but in fact youdon’t have the agency for in Australia, and vice versa?
Ray: At SMPTE, we focus on the manufacturers werepresent in Australia. In many cases they are thesame manufacturers in New Zealand; there’s very fewthat we do in Australia that we don’t do in New Zealand.So it works pretty well for us.
Ed: Any major announcements for Gencom as a result
of meetings and activity at SMPTE?
Ray: Not in terms of projects that I can talk about at
the moment …
Page 16
Just what one needs at the end of a tough show — champagne!
We exhibit with many of our manufacturers that we
represent, particularly in the Australian market, and so
we provide a platform essentially for communication
and demonstration and so on, and I think we had
around 14 different manufacturers there this year with
us on the booth, and probably 20-something people
between our own staff and those groups on the booth.
Ed: So I guess that’s really a key point isn’t it … it’snot actually the display that you have on the booth, but
it gives a chance for your customers to actually talk to a
person from one of the companies that you represent?
Ray: Yes. They get to demonstrate equipment, but
obviously they can’t always have everything they make
there, but there will be some key elements. More and
more of it is software these days, so that’s a bit easier
to demonstrate; but we also make sure that we’ve gotmeeting tables so that we can sit down and discuss
people’s requirements and issues – it’s a liaison point
for manufacturers, customers and ourselves.
Ed: But you seldom talk about the future projectsRay; you do tend to keep things very close to yourchest?
Ray: I could talk about projects that are completed orwell underway and so on, but I can’t talk about projectsthat we haven’t achieved, or that we’re biddingobviously.
Ed: But it was good for you?
Ray: The show – absolutely. It was good for us; weshowed a lot of people product that they hadn’t seenbefore; we had some new manufacturers on the booth,people like BMS who make wireless camera systemsand people with new software; we had OpenMedianewsroom systems there, we had B4M systems, we hada number of manufacturers there, some of whom havenever been to a SMPTE with Gencom before, so fromthat standpoint it was great.
Ed: And it was valuable having Nicki on the stand
there with you?
Page
Ray: As always, yes. Nicki ensures that all the cus-
tomer liaison is happening, and keeps everyone
focused, so that’s always good.
Ed: So you were there handing out the champagne
were you Nicki?
Nicki: Well, yes, at the end of the show I was ...
actually SMPTE is a far more relaxed show as well – I’m
comparing this to Broadcast Asia where generally the
meetings are all very formal, but the Australian and
New Zealand customers tend to wander in and just go
up to the manufacturers and it’s all very relaxed. It’s a
great show – it really is great, you do need to come in
2013.
Ed: I’ll take that as an invitation! But it’s not just a
trade show about champagne and showing new
products is it Ray? There’s some paperwork that goes
along with it?
Ray: Yes. The prime motivation for SMPTE is actually
a conference organised by the SMPTE organisation and
as such, it’s to impart knowledge through the whole
organisation, or through the industry, and the
conference that is attached to the trade show is most
important. There are a lot of key papers delivered
there from manufacturers and other industry people.
Ed: So any papers presented by your suppliers?
Other SMPTE attendees were David Epstein and BonnieParker from A2Z.
Ed: David, you’re an old hand, you’ve been therenumerous times, what excited you?
David: It’s always good to catch up with all ourprincipals and this year we were able to see some newproducts by some new suppliers. Exciting things thatwere happening were the Blackmagic products – theyhave a video mixer called ATEM Switchers that is allcomputer based, so someone wanting to switch videonow can actually do it from a computer. Anotherproduct by Blackmagic wasthe SmartView Duo, twoside-by-side 7” LCDmonitors that are rackmountable and cost yousomewhere in the region of$NZ995; and it was verygood to see the release ofthe new HyperDeck Shuttlewhich is a solid stateuncompressed recordingunit to record data raw off acamera. So three veryexciting products fromBlackmagic.
Ed: These were shown atNAB, but in fact they’vereleased them at SMPTE sothere’s a bit of a lag there?
David: Absolutely, andto see them as workingproducts really does helppromote the product here inNew Zealand.
Ed: What about the showitself – you must have metsome of your own cus-tomers there?
Page 18
David and Bonnie.
Ray: Yes, a couple of our suppliers delivered papersand they always get a great reception. The papers arenot a sales pitch, they’re a technology update and assuch, there’s some great debate. For example, two ofour manufacturers who delivered papers – one was T-Vips who make equipment for delivering video over IPin a contribution format. It’s very high quality videodelivered over IP in a JPEG2000 format. T-Vips isalready in use quite a lot in Australia and it gives otherpeople an opportunity to see what the updates are onthat. Another company which delivered was LinearAcoustic that make equipment for multi-channel audioprocessing and loudness control. Its President, TimCarroll, was there and Tim is a world renowned expertin the area of loudness control and encoding and so on.He was associated with Dolby before he was associatedwith Linear Acoustic. He was well received there,because he’s very, very knowledgeable in that space.
Ed: Don’t tell me there’s actually been a standard putup for loudness has there?
Ray: There are various ongoing standards for loudnessI suppose. There are a number of initiatives evolving,but it’s happening very quickly in the US becausethere’s now regulation about loudness in broadcastingthere.
Ed: But no sign of it in Australia or New Zealand yet?
Ray: No, not as such, but I think the day will come. NZVN
David: We did indeed. The show was not as big asit used to be; Sony, by their own admission, had had areduced stand and had some of their product on theLemac and VideoCraft stand, so that was a bit unusualto go to other Australian dealers and demonstrateproducts on their stands by the suggestion of Sony.However, due to the tsunami only half the productswere available and half the budget for SMPTE this year.
Ed: Okay, what about some of the products that you
represent solely, such as the Miller tripods – anything
new there? more on page 22
Page
David: The Compass 12 is a new product that’sbeen released in the marketplace to offer a costeffective tripod for the ever reducing cost of cameras.So the new Compass 12 comes with three positions ofdrag for both pan and tilt and four positions ofcounterbalancing – available immediately, andsubstantially reduced in cost either with telescopiccarbon fibre or aluminium sticks, or the traditional styleof two-stage alloy tripod. Another distributorship thatwe picked up at SMPTE was the Genus matte box andshoulder mount rigs. These have been developed in theUK, so designed by English engineers, but nowmanufactured in our favourite little destination upnorth, that being China. We’ve just landed our firstshipment of matte boxes, shoulder mount rigs, followfocus units and a new product called “Nun’s Knickers”which is the interface between a matte box and any sizecamera lens on the market, so if you haven’t got theright reduction ring, a set of Nun’s Knickers is thatinterface to enable you to use your matte box withmultiple lenses and not have light coming in from theback side of the matte box.
Ed: So why do you have to go to SMPTE to showthese products to your customers? I mean, surelyyou’ve got a showroom here, you’ve got everything ondisplay, they could come here and see them, and havea personal demo in the offices of A2Z – why do youhave to go to Australia?
David: As a dealer, we need to be continuallyupdating with “hot off the press” products. We need tobe communicating with the dealer principals, and alsohave training for new product on the spot, for example,the Blackmagic product in Australia and the variousTriCaster products in Australia – they’ve got the expertsonsite and unless we go and get trained up and havethe meetings with these principals, it’s very hard tolearn every product from scratch here in New Zealand.
Ed: But in terms of your customers that buy fromyou, you obviously did some demos while you were inAustralia?
David: Yes … it’s such a cost advantage to go overto Australia for many clients, and they just can’t affordthe time off to go to one of the other shows – i.e NAB –that’s a big cost factor and it does take a week out ofyour livelihood, whereas for Sydney, you can nip over inthree hours and do the show effectively in two days ifpressed to do so.
Ed: And somebody who went for two days was Bonniewho will now tell us something about her first timeimpressions?
Bonnie: It was nice to go over there and meet allour suppliers, put a face to a name, after emailingpeople for years and then not actually meeting them.That was great. We also got to see a lot of the productsthat we had on back order, obviously hadn’t reachedNew Zealand yet, like the Teradek Cube for instance,which is a wireless H.264 transmitter to enable video tobe passed from Point A to Point B without any cables.It can also transmit to an iPad and an iPhone over Wi-Finetworks, which is pretty amazing and pretty cool tosee in action over in Australia.
Ed: But what were your feelings … I mean you walkedinto the show floor the first day, and you saw all thesepeople and all these stands – what did you feel?
Bonnie: It was just really exciting to see all thistechnology and a lot of the products which the guys hadseen at NAB which I now got to see at SMPTE that
haven’t yet made it to New Zealand – all the steadicamsset up really well, the rigs – rigs like the CobraCranewhich we’ve got in stock that we’re just about to set up.
Ed: So it sort of gave you a greater overview of thewhole business that you’re in?
Bonnie: Yes, to see everyone using the productsthat we sell and putting them to different uses thanwhat we sell them for as well.
Ed: And did you talk to some of the people and getthem to explain things to you?
Bonnie: All day, every day. I went over there (a) tomeet customers and show them products; (b) to meetour suppliers and put a name to a face, learn moreabout the products that David and the guys herecouldn’t necessarily explain to me without the productitself; and (c) to socialise.
Ed: So you had a good time, there was a good partyor two?
Bonnie: That’s not the right question to ask me,that would be a Sharon question – I’m a Nana! It wasvery nice to go out to the official SMPTE dinner withFujifilm. One of the high points was the “gustationmeal” at the Sydney Exhibition Centre with 12 differentmeals and 12 different wines to match every mealwhich Fujifilm New Zealand invited us to. It wasamazing!
Ed: And are you planning to go again?
Bonnie: I’ll go in two years’ time if Rex will let me.
Ed: I guess I’ll see you there then. NZVN
Page 22
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Canon in PerpetuaNo, they don’t go on forever, it’s just that we are atRieger’s and we are interviewing Rob Harradine fromPerpetua Productions as to how he’s using his Canoncamera.
Ed: Rob, you have a favourite Canon camera?
Rob: I do – it’s the XF300.
Ed: And what made you choose that out of all thecameras that are available at that price bracket andcapability?
Rob: Well, I needed to upgrade anyway, but I wasgetting more demand for stuff being in full HD. A lot ofthe footage I take for the corporate world will never beviewed in full HD; it will be compressed for on-lineviewing, but my clients like to future proof the work incase they need some of it again repurposed for otherprojects.
Also, I record a lot of plays and shows and they’re quitedemanding on the camera because it’s a lot of variablelighting … we don’t set these up, they’re shows that areactually happening, they run for like an hour or two andwe record them on the fly. So the lighting situation isquite demanding and I didn’t feel that my cameras gaveme great low light. So I wanted a camera that wasbetter in low light and was full HD. I’d done a fair bit ofresearch online and talking to different camera storesetc, and other people who were recording … it soundspretty lame, but the real decision maker for me wasthat the BBC went and bought a couple of hundred fordocumentary making. That was the thing for me – Ithought “if it’s good enough for the BBC”, I’m sure whatthey’re making will be more demanding in terms ofbroadcast quality than what I’m making. So I’d beenthinking about the camera anyway, they’d bought acouple of hundred of them, I’ll get one. I got the 300instead of the 305, just because of the price difference.Although the 305 has additional offerings, a lot of thoseare for broadcast and they’re for live work and I don’treally do it often enough, and I figured for thedifference in the cost, if I need that functionality, I’lljust hire a camera as and when, and I’ll use this as myregular camera.
Ed: Okay, so prior to this you were recording in HDV,so what’s the format that this records in that you find isa better format?
Rob: Well the great thing is, I’ve still got HDV camerasand the Canon still records in HDV if I want. So I canstill do several camera shoots using my originalcameras. I haven’t had to ditch cameras, but this canthen become my main camera. It will record in 19201080p and it records at 50 megabits a second. You cansee the difference when you’re watching it at fullresolution and I guess I believe I can see a differenceeven when I’ve compressed the files, because I thinkthey start with better colour, they start as a muchbetter representation of the light that I’m recording andagain, because I record a lot of plays, I record a lot ofskin tones in artificial light.
I think the Sony V1P struggled with those colours andI’ve had to do a lot of tweaking of that camera to getreasonable skin tones, whereas with the Canon, I’llrecord in manual, but I’ve not tweaked the coloursettings at all. The colour settings that it comes withare the colour settings that I record in and I think therepresentations of “like for like” in terms of what I’mrecording, look the same when it’s finished. I just do
some colour tweaking in postproduction as opposed totweaking with the camera.
Ed: Now I’m intrigued about the codec capability ofthis camera – you say it has a number of codecs?
Rob: Yes. This is set up at 50 megabit a second, that’sfull 1080 ( this is actually 1080i ) but you can changethose settings in the menu to record at 1080p or otherframe rates. So you can record at 25p or 50i and thenthe bit rate resolution you can change, so here you cansee you can record at 50 megabits a second that’s1280x720 and then all the way down to 25 megabits asecond in 1440x1080 which is the same as the HDV.
Ed: That’s an odd codec – 50 megabit per second?Canon supplies a plug-in for NLEs do they?
Rob: Yes, so I add that on Final Cut Studio, Final Cut 7
… you can download the plug-in for it. The camera
comes with a disc with the plug-ins on it as well, so it’s
pretty seamless. It comes with a utility that you can
use to offload files onto your hard drive, but you can
just log and transfer straight into Final Cut, so you don’treally need the utility that it comes with unless you
want to store the raw MPEG2 files somewhere, because
of course, when you import them into Final Cut as a log
and transfer, it changes them into movie files, so it
actually imports them into a format that’s readable by
Final Cut, because it doesn’t read the raw MPEG2 files.
Ed: Okay, but as you say, when you’re doing acorporate that is long form and you know it’s going togo up to the Web, you will record that at a much lowerformat. Is the lowest available the HDV?
Rob: Yes, so I’ve just set that up to be the lowest bitrate in the smallest file type, so that’s that 1440x1080which is the same as the HDV. With 32 Gig memory
Page 26
Rob with his Canon.
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cards, you can get 153 minutes per card, so when I’mout on an all-day shoot which I do on a reasonablyregular basis, where you’ve got to go around and see alot of the clients, customers doing a testimonial video,it’s a lot of footage in a day and a lot of wasted footagebut you still need that time. Also, at that point, I don’thave to take out a laptop and another hard drive tokeep offloading all the files.
Ed: So is it using proprietary cards or are theystandard cards?
Rob: It’s a SanDisk Extreme CF card. You can buy thesame sized cards with the same capacity for a fewhundred dollars less, but they don’t have the sametransfer rate as the SanDisk Extreme. The card saysthat it transfers at way more than 50 megabits asecond anyway, but I just wanted to be sure. With theExtremes, you can write to them thousands of timeswithout any hassles apparently. Now I’ve had thecamera for a year and use it very regularly … I was oneof those guys who worried about going from tape basedto file format, I was like “is this going to be painful” andafter I’d had the camera for a week, I was then “whyhas this taken me so long, this is insane.” I’m nowuploading an hour of footage in ten minutes and I neverget a break, I never get like timecode breaks which Iused to get … every fifth tape I’d get a timecode break,and some of the stuff I record, there’s no going back. Irecord like a live play and if I’m using this particularcamera for the sound feed and I’m taking the soundfeed from the desk into one camera and I get atimecode break, it’s a major, major deal, because then Ihave to take the open mic on the other camera that’srecording the sound in the theatre and try to reworkthat sound to sound like the mixing desk. It’s a majordeal. So going to file based was very smooth and oneof those transitions where you think “I should havedone this a couple of years back” – mind you, a coupleof years back that $400 card would have been aboutfour grand, so maybe that’s why I didn’t bother.
Ed: So what other features of this particular Canoncamera have endeared it to you?
Rob: Well I guess there’s some features that come withthe camera that are new to me as a user of the camera,that I don’t think I really needed previously. One of thefeatures that I would use on an “every shot” basis isthat which enables you to get perfect focus. I find itnecessary on this camera because it’s full HD; you cansee the tiniest bit of detail, so if you’re a tiny bit out inthe focal range, you can see it. When I was recording
before, I was using the Sony V1P and I think it’s a bitmore forgiving, as in the definition’s not there, so theedges are always a little bit soft; whereas on thisCanon, you can really define the edges as you can see,using graphs to give you more precision than you cantell with the naked eye, to get you that “spot on”definition. So that’s one of the things I would use onpretty much every shoot. If I’m shooting somethingthat’s static, like a person to camera that’s three metresaway, always.
And there’s quite a few things in terms of thefunctionality that have shifted to the outside of thecamera. I’m often changing mics, I’m often going fromhaving a camera mic’d up with a shotgun mic, ortrailing cables to other mics that need phantom power,or then switching to a tie clip mic, and I can just switchbetween line, phantom power on the built-in mic with aflick of a button. It’s just one of those time savingthings, particularly when you’re out with a client who’scoming out with you for the day and they don’t want tostand around while I set shots up for two hours.
Ed: And the battery life’s pretty good?
Rob: Yes – I have the standard battery that comeswith the camera. If the battery says it’s got 30 minutesleft, it’s got 30 minutes left. I think you get about 250minutes off just a standard battery, so it’s pretty good.
Ed: And in terms of mixing with your other HDVcameras on a multi-camera shoot, it’s pretty seamless?
Rob: Yes, I’ve spent a bit of time setting the cameras
up to give me the closest look to get them the same in
terms of colour. The Sony comes with a number of
presets that you can plug preset shots into, so I’ve set
all of those up so they will match. With the Canon, Ijust turn up and turn it on and I don’t really change the
settings apart from the gain or the shutter speed – as in
I’m not tweaking all the colours and I’m not tweaking
the knee point or I’m not tweaking the black stretch,
which I found I was doing all the time with the Sony.
Ed: So you actually let the camera do all that sort ofwork for you, because it knows best?
Rob: Yes. The only thing I’ve found with this camera is… it’s funny because I’ve read a few reviews that sayit’s great because it’s got a full auto option, but I find itreally bad on full auto. It may be because I record insome quite demanding lighting situations as in often Idon’t have lights, I’ll often go out and shoot what’shappening in the street or what’s happening in a theatrewithout adding light to the shot. So I don’t know if
Page 28
Ed: Well other people have asked the same question
and I haven’t got an answer on that one, I’m sorry.
And just on that topic, the current interest is for
cameras with depth of field and that’s where the DSLRs
were sort of big, but now, there are video cameras that
have a high depth of field. Having said that, you’ve just
shown me that with your Canon XF300, you still can get
a reasonable depth of field when you’re doing an
interview?
Rob: Yes, I mean it just takes an extra minute to set it
up and, as long as you’re mic’ing somebody up
properly, you can just step back a couple of metres and
zoom in and you can create reasonably decent shots
with depth of field where, within a couple of metres,
something will be out of focus.
Like I was just saying, depending on the kind of thing
you’re shooting, you’ve got to ask yourself “how much
do I want to use that anyway?” If the
person you’re interviewing leans forward
by a foot, they’re out of focus. I do a lot
of corporate work and I don’t do much in
terms of creative record so I think for
me, I don’t know if extreme depth of
field would actually be an advantage. If
somebody I’m interviewing, who isn’t
actually talent, they actually work for a
company – if they lean forward a couple
of inches, they go out of focus. I’m
going to end up with a lot of out of focus
shots because I’m catching people in the
middle of their day job to do an interview
which might be a testimonial for Nivea.
So I might record the CEO in NewZealand and he’s kind of not really set upto say “well I’ve trained for years to dothis”, he’s literally got ten minutes in themiddle of his day and I don’t have timeto say “can we retake that because youleant forward”?
I think actually, that might be adisadvantage if I was relying on that tobe what makes my shots good, youknow.
Ed: So what are you relying on to make your shots
good?
Rob: Actually I rely a lot on content pre-production. In
terms of the camera, I need a camera that gives me a
shot that looks like what I’m recording. I need
representation of real life; I need skin tones to look like
skin and not to be blown out orange and red; and I
need to be able to turn it on and shoot in five minutes
what somebody can say in two minutes.
I don’t have lots of time to set up, I need a camera that
works well under low light, that works well under
sunlight, indoors, outdoors, that I can just kind of … I
guess it’s kind of almost like documentary recording, I
don’t have the chance to say to somebody “do that
again” because at an event, if I want to get this special
moment that happened when somebody throws their
head back and laughs on the stage, it aint happening
again, I can’t go back and set it up, so it’s got to look
good first time. That’s what’s important to me in a
camera.
Ed: And it’s got to sound good?
Page 30
that’s kind of making it a bit more demanding on thecamera, but when I put it in full auto, it seems to notquite know whether it should be changing the shutterspeed or changing the gain or changing the iris, and soyou end up with quite an inconsistency in shots, andyou’ll end up with some shots that look really dirtybecause it’s shifted the gain up to 12dB; and then someshots it will flick the shutter speed right down and youjust kind of end up with a mess.
I never use it – ever – whatever I’m recording, I
manually set the camera up. All of the settings that I
might change on a regular basis, are right here on the
body of the camera – the shutter speed, the gain, the
white balance, the iris – you know, they’re all there
right in front of your hands, which means, when I’m
recording, I can change them on the fly without having
to dig deep into the settings of the camera – and those
things I very rarely change.
Ed: Now of course, a lot of people are using other
Canon cameras in video production, and that’s the
DSLR range, but you’ve never used them?
Rob: No – I did chat extensively to somebody who’d
made quite a few live music videos on them, and he
showed me some of the stuff he’d done on it and it
looked fantastic, but for what I shoot, I need to be
steady, I need stability … I mean I haven’t tried it, so
I’m just making a few assumptions based on things that
I’ve heard and read, and I guess just common sense,
and that is if I’m recording … like I’ll record a live event,
so it might be a party put on by a particular company
and I go along and record it, and I just don’t see me
getting steady shots for two hours with an SLR.
Whereas with this, even if I’m just handholding it, I can
do a pretty decent job.
I’ve recently added a body harness; I drop this on and
that gives me a real steady shot and it’s smooth as. I
don’t do stills photography, so it seems a bit weird to
buy a stills camera that also takes video, when I’m a
videographer – do you know what I mean?
Page
Rob: Yes – actually I’ve got a Sennheiser setup for tieclip mic, but I think I ended up with a Sony shotgun micto go with this. I mean, I don’t use the built-in mic –well I use it when I know I’m not going to need theaudio, like I use it to make notes for myself, when I’monly going to use the video footage. It’s alright but it’snot a great mic – you wouldn’t use it to ever give theaudio to a client on that mic, but it’s handy to have itand not have to set it up, because like, I record tutorialvideos, so I record somebody to camera, then I recorda whole load of cutaways. When I record the cutaways,I don’t have to think about setting a mic up, I can justuse that mic and I know where I am in the cutaways.So that’s not really part of the camera, but audio is animportant thing, yes.
Now the place where Rob bought his Canon camera isRieger’s in Dominion Road and David Honore is here totell us that he’s been a Canon camera supplier for anumber of years.
David: Yes, we’ve been selling Canon cameras nowfor over 20 years and we’ve sold quite a range of theirproducts in that time.
Ed: In fact, it’s just one of the cameras in your rangeof a number of manufacturers, and I guess it’s a caseof, a customer comes in with a particular use and youfind the camera that fits what they want to do?
David: Yes that’s correct. Canon has three maincameras in their range – one quite a compactprofessional camera, mid size and then the largerprofessional camera that attracts high end users.
Ed: And obviously Rob was one of those high endusers who wanted the best?
David: Well he looked at several cameras that wehad and selected that to be his choice and it’s beenworking out very well for him.
Ed: Are there any particular general features aboutthe Canon that set them apart from othermanufacturers – I know people have said in the pastthat the Canon lens is really a very strong point in theirfavour?
David: I think that withthe 300 series, the camerasdo have a very good qualitylens, they have got a goodfollowing amongst a certaincategory of customers, andalso they have the MPEG-2Full HD 4:2:2 50 Mbpscodec which helps to givethem the edge.
Ed: And in terms of aftersales service, the ability tolook after Canon cameras …I mean obviously they’rerepresented in New Zea-land?
David; Yes, Canon NewZealand give backup to allthe Canon cameras that wesell, and we’ve found thatthis support has been verygood.
Ed: And there are plentyof accessories to go alongwith the cameras as wellthat you have from Canonand from other suppliers?
David: As you’re probably aware, there’s a fullrange of accessories, as you can see round the shop, tosupport these cameras. They don’t necessarily comethrough Canon, but some of them do, and mostcustomers can find what they need.
Canon has three models of HD Video Cameras in theirProfessional Range.
Their latest model is the Ultra compact XA10 Full HD(AVCHD) camera with Professional features includingFocus ring, 2 XLR inputs, microphone holder, 30 mmWide Angle HD Video lens and Infra Red Shooting. Ithas 64 GB internal Flash Memory and dual SD MemoryCard Slots.
Canon has a Compact Professional Camera XF100 withProfessional features, ⅓” CMOS Sensor, MPEG-2 Full HD4:2:2 50 Mbps codec, industry standard MXF formatsupport recording to dual compact flash memory cards,Wide Angle lens 30.4 – 304 mm and 10x Optical Zoomwith a Super Range Optical Image Stabiliser, and 2xXLR Inputs.
There is also the XF105 with industry standard ter-minals HD / SD SDI, Time code and Genlock.
Canon’s flagship model, the XF300 series, has beendesigned through feedback from professional cameraoperators and is ideally suitable for eventvideographers, film makers and news gatherers. TheXF300 is very mobile and has excellent balance betweenoperation and weight; features 1/3 inch 3CMOSsensors, genuine Canon 18x HD Video L-Series lens,MPEG-2 Full HD 4:2:2 50Mbps codec, utilises MXF filesupport recording to dual compact flash memory cards,and 2x XLR inputs.
Another camera in the same series, the Canon XF305,has Industry Standards Terminals, Genlock, HD/ SD SDIand time Code for seamless integration into multi-camera live switch shoots.
All of these Canon products are available from RiegersCamera and Video, Mt Eden. Call David now.
Page 32
David Honore with helper David Dollaga (left).
NZVN
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Ed: And that brings me to ask about the range ofwork that you’re now doing. I guess you’ve doneeverything in the past, but now you’ve got yourselfestablished?
Adam: Primarily we do TV commercials and a lot oftop end music videos as well. We do a little bit ofcorporate work here and there, but that’s not our corebusiness. I do a lot of conforming and onlining forpeople, like television programmes, television seriesand I colour feature films and music videos and TVcommercials and what anybody else brings in the doorhere that they want to get out looking nice.
Ed: And the TV commercials, it’s a full service, it’s acase of help with the creative and …?
Adam: My company works in a number of differentways. We’re a full service creative agency, so peoplecome here with a product or a service and we come upwith the ideas, we write the scripts, we’ll book thetalent, we’ll do everything – cast it, the whole lot.Other creative agencies might come to us and say “hey,here’s a script, can you make this for us?” We don’treally care, just so long as we get a bite of the pie.We’re not greedy!
Ed: Where do you see it going, more of the same?
Adam: Oh look for us, we don’t really competewith anyone, because we generate our own business. Ifsomeone rings up the network and says “look we wantto get a TV commercial made and get looked after,”we’re the preferred supplier. So that’s handy, becauseI’ve got another part of my business as well, wherewe’re a full service advertising agency, and between mybusiness and my partner’s business, we book millions ofdollars worth of advertising space, so it actually paysfor everything that you see here as well. If I was livingjust off production, I’d be bankrupt by now. You can’tlive off production alone at my level, not any more.Unless you work at the top end of the marketexclusively – I’m the top end of the mid-market, and Ilike being there, because I don’t want to shoot everyday, I don’t want to edit every day. I can walk roundhere, the boys are busy upstairs, but like this roomhere ( Avid Symphony DX / DS )probably works maybe 20 hours a week,and that’s all I need it to work. I don’twant to shoot every day – would youwant to shoot every day; it’d do yourhead in wouldn’t it? When I do the stuffthat I do, I really enjoy what I do, sopeople come here because I’mspecialised and boutique and they knowI’m going to give them a special servicethat they can’t get anywhere else.
Ed: A niche in the market. Now, RED,you’ve been out today looking at a REDEPIC? You like the format?
Adam: Yes I do. I wasn’t keen onthe very first RED because it obviouslyhad a few problems. Red is a totallydifferent setup to anything else. You’vegot to treat RED as 35mm film. As soonas you start treating it as a videocamera, you’re going to fail and fall apartstraight away. That’s what the problemis. People think that they can buy a REDcamera for 25 grand, pick it up and pointand shoot and they’ll get awesome
pictures! If it was that simple, shit everyone would bedoing it. It’s because I’ve come from a background thatI understand film. I’ve been a photographer primarilymost of my life, and got into the video side and the filmside of it. I understand about exposures and lightingand all that sort of stuff, but you can’t just pick up aRED and put a video camera light on the top of it andshoot with it. It’ll look shit; you might as well shootwith an EX1 or a handicam. One of my father’s bestfriends is a lens technician and a motion pictureengineer, so we’ve been doing some really unusualthings with RED here. For instance, that’s a 1950sHasselblad lens right, and he’s made me up custommounts so I can mount this on my RED. You should seethe pictures that we’re getting out of this stuff. We’rehaving a lot of fun with glass at the moment.
Ed: And that’s the key to it, isn’t it – it’s the glass?
Adam: It’s the glass, it always has been about theglass. I’ve just been out on a shoot, so I don’t knowwhere anything is … that’s one of my new toys …crashes and bangs
Ed: Adam’s just pulled out a very large head.
Adam: Yes, this is a top of the line O’Connor
2575D. That’s why, with RED – like you want to feel
the weight of this thing …
Ed: I believe you, it’s heavy. Why do you need such
a big head?
Adam: Because RED’s so big. O’Connor is my
favourite brand of choice for tripods and it always has
been. But if you put it on a 100mm system it’s just too
heavy for it … more crashes and bangs … I’ll pull out a
RED and show you. Have you ever played with one?
Ed: Aaaah, no. Right, Adam’s just given me a RED to
hold and, yes, it’s a heavy little sucker, and then he
admits – what’s your admission?
Adam: I handhold RED all the time, because I’ve
got an EasyRig. Do you know what an EasyRig is?
Ed: The one with the cord coming over the top like we
saw at the K-Tek stand at NAB?
Page 35
Danny making clever graphics.
How the Aussie’s do it — Part two (see August issue for part one)
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PagePage 37
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Adam: Yes, I call it like – it’s a fauxsteadicam. It’s basically six grand for apiece of string, but it does work and itdoes save your back, and even when Ishoot on the ENG cameras like the 700or the 800, I still use it a lot, becausethat’s my style. I’ll shoot with a reallylong lens and handhold it as long as Ican possibly go. As you know, at fullzoom, a little bit of movement amplifiesa thousand times in the other end, butwith the EasyRig it gives you thisbeautiful “floaty” look.
Ed: But, having all this technology,these very high spec lenses and camerasand doing it to the nth degree that youdo, isn’t this an overkill, when you knowthat those ads are going out standarddef?
Adam: Well I’ll quote somethingfrom Jim Jannard from RED. He’s beensaying this for a long time now – why hesays 4K is the future, and why peoplelike RED so much, is because you can’tget back resolution. If you’re shooting at4K and finishing at 1080, so a quarter of the size of it,the stuff looks amazing. You can be slightly out offocus but it doesn’t matter, it’s like film. If you look at35mm film, all the stuff’s soft when you see it, butwhen you put it through a telecine, they can sharpen itup, they can do whatever you like. Well you can’t gobackwards and do it the other way. You can’t get aJPEG and turn it from a couple of hundred K into acouple of Meg, it will just look terrible. Things likedepth of field and skin tones and colours and definition,its all there. Also, a lot of people with RED buy the REDPro primes and they are not bad for 20 grand, but theRED zooms in my opinion are a bit soft and full ofchromatic aberration.
Ideally, if I could afford it, I’d love to get a set ofmaster primes – that’s going to cost me half a millionbucks! And you say what’s the point of putting amaster prime on an F3? It’s a waste. My currentlenses are the Arri Zeiss Mark 3 super speeds, becausethe colours and the sharpness of those lenses are justamazing; I also have a set of Zeiss Compact primes asthey are perfect for my steadicam as they are verylight.
Even though I love my Sony XDCAM cameras, and Ihave the best glass money can buy ( I use Fujinon ),some people say two-third inch is an inferior format.Well, if you put it side by side with a RED it isn’t, it’s gota different look about it, and that’s what people need tounderstand. It doesn’t matter what camera you’reshooting with – like I can make the 700 look like a REDby using a P &S Technik adapter and using my 35mmlenses. It’s just “horses for courses”.
The best advice I can give anyone either starting out, oreven a veteran in this field is this …
Always under promise and over deliver, set aside asmall proportion of your profits every year to use onupgrading equipment, and always buy equipment thatyou like, not what other people like. The new Canon5Ds have really opened up the market and in someways have made it more difficult to get jobs over theline … but at the end of the day, you need a goodworkflow in production / postproduction and it shouldn’treally matter if you are shooting on 5D or even 35mmfilm, if your clients are happy and you are delivering
Adam weightlifting with his RED.
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Page 39
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