Welcome
Jun 8th
I’m a freelance camera operator based in Sheffield, working mostly in the corporate sector but I’ve worked in Theatre, Broadcast and Live Events. I’ve got 8 years of experience in a wide range of countries and industries.
I work mostly with my FS700 but also with DSLRs and more regular cameras like the EX3, NX5, PMW-320. I have a wide range of equipment, including lighting and sound recording. I edit using Final Cut Pro X on a Macbook Pro Retina.
World Water Bombing Championships
May 31st
A short highlights edit for a recent event I covered for MacMillan Cancer Support.
Shot with two FS700 kits and a bunch of GoPro 2s and 3s.
Stroke Association
May 19th
Here’s a little video I helped shoot about Jay McGeneghan, his VW Caddy and his work to support the Stroke Assocation.
Extraction
Apr 4th
Here’s a little short action film I shot with my Sony FS700.
DJI Phantom Quadcopter
Apr 4th
So a little while ago I bought myself the DJI Phantom Quadcopter. Designed for the GoPro it really is a remarkable device. Here’s a little video of my first few flights wikth it and one of my GoPros.
A Decision
Mar 5th
Sony FS700 has arrived!
Jul 21st
So I came very close to buying the FS100 – but I held out and I’m glad I did. I’m now the proud owner of the FS700. I’ve used it on a whole bunch of projects so far and I’m increadibly impressed with it. Using it with the Metabones EF Adaptor and my collection of Canon lenses produces some stunning images.
I’ll try and put up more info and maybe some sort of review but right now I’m too busy shooting with it!
Here is a quick little edit I put together of some Slow Motion test shots on the second day of owning the camera:
Peru & Bolivia 2011
Jan 1st
I spent most of August and some of September over in Peru and Bolivia. After some close calls with airport security (they don’t like you carrying two cameras and five lenses) I got in and got some fab photos and video. What with all the work getting in the way it took me a while to edit the video but here it is at last. Edited in FCPX, shot on a 550D and a GoPro.
More of the photos can be seen here.
DSLR Video vs Sound
Nov 16th
DSLRs allow for amazing picture quality (when handled right and paired with good glass…. I don’t mean to say it’s easy). I don’t think DSLRs are the be all and end all, but my 550D does a great job, on certain jobs.
It’s pretty well reported that most DSLRs fall down in a few areas. Clip Length, Sound, Video Output etc. Personally I believe there is no right or perfect camera. Just the best for the job. When you are using a DSLR, you can improve things, with extra tools, like Magic Lantern, rigs, EVFs, Sound Recorders.
This post was prompted by an improvement to my choice in Sound Recorder, Tascam’s DR-100. It’s a smashing bit of kit, made even more smashing: Cinescopophilia
I don’t treat the DR-100 as a sound recorder. I treat it like a back up device. It’s primary task is as a Pre-Amp, used in a similar fashion to JuicedLink’s boxes of tricks. On my rig (Jag35) I mount my DR-100, and connect up whatever microphones/inputs I want for the job – could be a wireless lapel mic receiver, could be a shotgun mic, could be a reporter vocal mic, could be a combination. What I then do is take the Line-Out (minijack) from the DR-100 and connect it to the Mic Input on my 550D. I use magic lantern to set that up as a stereo line level input, and tweak the gain so that the VUs on the 550D match those on the DR-100 (or sometimes a bit less). I also disable AGC.
This means, my 550D gets a nice, clean, noise free signal from the Tascam. It’s not *quite* perfect, but it’s damn close. Most of the time I just use this when editing, which means no Pluraleyes, no syncing at all – it’s as if it was shot with a ‘proper’ camera would you believe! Then, should I get it wrong, say it’s peaked out or distorted, I have the WAV file recorded by the Tascam as a lovely backup – and because they’re the same mics, it’s usually a doddle to sync it up. Lovely.
It also, by the way, gives me a headphone socket on the DR-100, which I use to monitor the sound whilst recording.
Now – I do have a gripe with the DR-100 – which is possibly fixed in the MKII. I often don’t have enough gain. With the pre-amp set to ‘High’ and gain maxed out to 10, my NTG-2 mic will still come in a bit quiet. Usable, but quiet. Hey, like I said at the start – nothing’s perfect – but for me, the DR-100 is the best solution for DSLR Sound.
I hope this was helpful to someone – if you have any questions on my setup, just drop me an email!
Obligatory FCPX Post
Jun 29th
Apple released a new app, called Final Cut Pro X. It’s pretty stunning but not necessarily in a good way.
I’ve used it for only a few days but have completed a project inside it already. It’s very different and there is a learning curve but for this particular project, it worked brilliantly. It was a short (75 second) corporate product promo video for a vending machine. I needed to cut clips together, add some titles, voiceover and background music. Throw in a bit of colour correction and simple motion graphics (logo) and I just created the full video in one app in just a few hours. I’m happy, my client is happy.
Once I get clearance for this video I’ll add a link here.
It has some problems and missing features. My list of missing features is probably very different to another editors but I won’t go into that, you all know what it’s missing.
My point is this, most camera operators choose the right camera for the job. You don’t use a GoPro to shoot a feature film, nor a red for a budget corporate promo. You don’t use a dslr to film a conference but it’s wonderful at many other tasks.
The same should be true for editing suite. You choose the right one for you and your sector. Film editors are not going to use FCPX, anyone who deals with multiple angles won’t use FCPX (until they add multicam). However I work in the corporate sector, filming on DSLR, mostly interviews and product promo pieces. For me FCPX does nearly everything I want and it’s in one app.
It would be wonderful if there was an all encompassing mega app that suits everybody, but there isn’t, not from anyone. FCP7 is slow, Premiere has only minimal colour correction, no alpha transitions.
What I will say is that I still plan to keep and use Premiere, it’s a very impressive system but there are some things that I think FCPX does better (yes, I really said that). However for what I do, I doubt I’ll continue to use FCP7 on a regular basis.
Conclusion
FCPX is in it’s early days but right now it’s good for certain sectors but it’s rubbish for others. That does NOT make it a non-pro app, in the same way that a Red is still pro but not for live tv broadcast.