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 7 years of experience in a wide range of countries and industries.
I work with DSLRs and the ever popular EX3 and also the NX5. I have a good range of equipment, including lighting and sound recording. I edit using Final Cut Pro on a Macbook Pro.
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.
New Showreel
Jun 2nd
So here is my latest Showreel featuring clips shot in the last 12 months, all in HD on Z7, EX3, 550D and GoPro HD.
The Deckchairs
May 19th
Promo for the Earls Barton based band ‘The Deckchairs’
Shot on 550D (just one, just me) using:
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Sigma 30mm f/1.4
PA & Sound from soundsounds.com
Lighting from myself – operated by Chris Green
It’s taken me quite a long time to get this edit done. I chose to do it in Premiere as an experiment. I won’t be using Premiere again for anything other than basic cutting together of clips. It may be fast – but it smells funny.
These little cameras never cease to impress me… the colour saturation (most clips ungraded) and clarity of the shots for something so small and cheap is increadible. I guess that’s not news but it still impresses me. I did the entire gig handheld, with no rig (despite owning a nice Jag35 setup) as I needed to be ultra portable but also tiny to fit in the little gaps on stage.
You can see the photos from the night here: Flickr
House Skate Park
Feb 28th
House Skate Park – Pro-Shot.net
This is a short promo video I shot a few weeks ago. Just thrown it together in a quick simple edit.
All shot on 550D at 720p50 and edited in CS5.
Music: Cake – Short Skirt Long Jacket.
Cheap DSLR shotgun mic
Dec 2nd
A quick look at and audio test of the Shengu SG108 Microphone.
All in all, it’s not bad, but it’s not great either. It seems to have a pretty continuous hiss throughout and this isn’t due to the AGC in the 550D. It is however a lot more directional than the built in microphone. So I guess if your close up you’ll do better with the built in, if your not close up you’ll do better with this mic.
I should point out, I bought it as a ‘get out of jail free’ card. It’s small and cheap so I can just leave it in my Peli case and it’s there should I need it. I have Sennheiser G2 wireless kits, lapels and also Rode boom mics for normal use.
I did this test mostly for my own knowledge but thought I’d edit it up and share incase it’s useful for other poeple too.
Curtains Timelapse
Nov 24th
First usage of my new Intervalometer built into a Battery Grip for my 550D. Lens is my Tokina 11-16mm. Quite pleased with the results of it too.
This is a promo for one of my companies: stage-curtains.co.uk
Meltdown Bingo
Sep 24th
This is an old promo video I shot using my Canon XL2. I’m AM going to be re-hashing it shortly adding in some footage shot with my Canon 550D/T2i which using some fast primes tends to get nicer footage in the dark.