YES, CAROLINE, THERE IS A (insert name)

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE

John Wayne, one week for $100K

SAN RAFAEL, CA JUNE 2010 We’re out on our deck. Caroline has come to see my homemade pole camera.  She’s about to leave for eight months shooting in China. She’ll be producing, directing and doing the camerawork. Brave girl. Minor problem: she can’t speak Chinese.

Over the chicken salad, Tricia says, “Have you seen 2046?”  “No, why?” “It was shot by an Australian cameraman. He’s based in Hong Kong and is fluent in Chinese.” I chime in, “Oh Chris Doyle. He’s brilliant – amazing. But you’ll never get Chris Doyle.” What did I just say? Am I crazy? He could be tired of features, love Caroline’s project; like to do a documentary. Worth a try.

Over lunch, I tell Caroline two true stories…

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA 1968 Ruth has a problem. “Ruth, we need someone famous to open the new resort. A big name. Maybe a film star.” Ruth makes TV commercials, she’s is in the media – so Ruth, “Go find a big name movie star.”

“You mean like John Wayne?”  says Ruth. “John Wayne, yes – he’d be perfect. One more thing – we can’t spend more than $100,000. But you’ll never get John Wayne!”

You’ve got to agree that any normal, sane person would hesitate to offer John Wayne $100,000 to fly to Australia and open a hotel. Not our Ruth. She locates his agent and makes the international call.

“Hello, my name’s Ruth Sainsbury. I work in Sydney, Australia for Lintas, an advertising agency. One of our clients is opening a resort on the Australian Gold Coast. We were – err – I was – wondering if Mr. Wayne would like to visit Australia. We’d show him around, see the Great Barrier Reed, visit Ayers Rock, learn how to throw a boomerang – and cut the ribbon to open the resort. It would be a real holiday.”

And you know what? John Wayne is in between films – needs a break – has never been to Australia – wants to go. Money isn’t important. Ruth tells me he had a wonderful time.

WARWICK UNIVERSITY UK 1969 Tricia and I have been booked a documentary about students adjusting to life at Warwick University. We move into student accommodation at Warwick. There’s no script. No planned events. We just wander around. No lights. No tripod.

Go to lectures. Evening singsongs. Enjoy student parties. I carry my Éclair 16mm NPR. Tricia has a Nagra quarter inch and a couple of radio mikes. If it looks good, we shoot it. Bliss. My kind of job. People get used to seeing us around. Ignore us.

One day our client, Beryl Stevens, visits.

“How’s it going?”

“Great. Almost there. I’m trying to work out how it will slot together. What music to use.”

In the background I hear music from the Beatles Abbey Road.

“Beryl, here’s an idea – we’ll use Abbey Road.”

“Come on Stefan, you’ll never get The Beatles!”

Music from Abbey Road – $500 gets it all

NEVER GET THE BEATLES! Thems is fighting words. If Ruth can get John Wayne, The Beatles will be a push over.

I write a hand written, plain paper, letter to Dick James Music. The letter goes something like: “Dear Mr. James, I am making a film with students at Warwick University. It is to show new students what’s in store… making new friends, getting lost, drinking coffee, listening to Beatles music, going to boring lectures… I want to make it very real. Can we use some tracks from Abbey Road in our production?”

Surprise! A few days later, a reply from Dick James himself, typed on official Northern Songs letterhead. Says, he’s spoken to the Beatles (oh yeah). They’d love us to use anything we want from Abbey Road. Just fill in the standard MCPS form, attach a copy of this letter, pay minimum rates.

Beryl checks it out with her legal people. Does it cover both publisher and mechanical copyright? Yes, it does; works out at less than £250 – about 500 dollars.

My timing is amazing. A month later, Dick James sells out. I like to think he gave it to us as a farewell present.

Want to shoot your pop video in the White House? Use Lady Gaga as a voice over? Remember these true stories. Nothing is impossible.

Never get Chris Doyle? Stay tuned…

View six minutes of Warwick University 1970: here

Posted in 2010, Production Diary | Comments Off on YES, CAROLINE, THERE IS A (insert name)

WHISKERS ON ROSES – August 11, 2010

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

My favorite things from The Slime of Mucus — not cameras, tripods or lights but the interesting, nitty-gritty things that never get any glory. In no particular order, here we go:

NORAZZA CD & DVD DESTROYER
The video jobs I don’t write about are internal meetings, new products – stuff that’s confidential. My clients don’t want it in DV magazine nor on a dud DVD.

Often it’s not my fault – the guy we filmed last week just got fired – “Take him out.” Damn, I already made 25 DVDs.

Death and destruction: Yes, please. The Norazza DD3000 does the job. Zzzzzzzz-zing! Boy, that feels good! I bought mine for $42.50 from Adorama.

How about hard drives? Enter Norazza’s model DD9000. Insert the drive, press the green button. In 10 seconds, there are four holes drilled right through the drive. What fun. See the truly awful YouTube video.

FOLDING STEP STOOL
I’m 5’ 10” – the head of the Trust for Public Land is 6’ 4”. I want the camera to be on eye height. Up go the tripod legs but I can’t see through the viewfinder. Just as well we always pack folding steps.

You can buy these babies on line at Markertek.com but go to Bed Bath & Beyond where they are a little cheaper.

ALL HAIL THE DOUBLE A!
A year ago I would have told you that lithium batteries are the way to go. I WAS WRONG!

Sure, lithiums last a zillion times longer than your average AA or PP3; so long, that you believe they’ll last forever. Then right in the middle of a shoot, the radio mike dies. Gone! No warning. Nothing. Just eerie silence. The mike transmitter is on the speaker. He’s way over there, up on the stage. You’ve had it with a capital “F” and a lower case “d.”

After a mega disaster, I give up on lithium. Buy the cheapest batteries I can find – Ikea, Rite-Aid, CVS – use ‘em once then give away to friends, relatives, passing strangers… “Like a used AA?” Maybe I should go rechargeable…

Here’s Apple’s $29 “low vampire draw” AA charger. Vampire draw – whoever thought of that? Take a prize. Means that once the NiMH batteries are charged, the input power drops down to almost nothing. According to Apple’s hype, the old fashioned chargers keep sucking away – even in daylight. Suck, suck, suck…

But my radio mikes use 9 volt PP3s. An Apple PP3 charger? Not a chance, as no Apple keyboard, mouse or touch pad runs on PP3s. Nope, I’ll pass on Apple.

The Lenmar PRO541 5-in-1 is a better choice. It does AA, AAA, C, D, and 9 volt PP3. And it’s nine bucks cheaper than Apple’s offering. Staples has them @ $19.99. Talk about low vampire. I just unplug. Zot! Not even a little suck.

BLACKOUT FOIL AND GAFFER TAPE
There’s a lot written about lighting but very little about removing light or “negative fill.” Pulling the curtains often isn’t enough. And what if there are no curtains?

I won’t go out without black foil and a roll of gaffer tape to hang it up.

Black Foil 2’ x 25’ is from FilmTools, while Markertek has a great deal on gaffer tape.

X-KEYS PROFESSIONAL
Colored “editing” keyboards are for wimps. You can buy them configured for FCP, Premiere Pro and After Effects. But please don’t.

Here’s the problem. Take the letter “V.” In FinalCut Pro: ⇧ (shift) V is PASTE INSERT, ⌃ (control) V is ADD EDIT, ⌥ (option) V is a PASTE ATTRIBUTES, ⌥ ⌘ (option, command) V REMOVES ATTRIBUTES, ⌘ V is normal PASTE. And V by itself SELECTS the edit point closest to the playhead. It’s impossible to put all that info onto one keycap and still have the symbol V showing.

A great resource for shortcuts is here – not only FCP 7, but for Avid Media Composer 5, Motion 4, Color 1.5 etc.. Thanks to Zak Ray who put it together.

I’ve memorized most of the usual commands and mapped the exotic ones, like EXPORT USING QUICKTIME CONVERSION to function keys – on my keyboard, it’s F13. I could map four more events to F13 using ⇧⌃⌥ ⌘ modifiers but that would fry my brain. No worries. I’ve found X-Keys.

I started with the 24 key version – soon realized 24 wasn’t nearly enough. They took it back and upgraded me to the 58 key USB “Professional.”

Grab a short cut, say ⇧ K, program it into X-Keys software. Bingo, one key does GO TO NEXT KEYFRAME. Click! Another key takes me back to the previous keyframe.

Need Color Correction 3-way? Used to be a series of mouse moves: up to EFFECTS, down to VIDEO FILTERS, across sideways, down to COLOR CORRECTION, across sideways, down to COLOR CORRECTION 3-WAY – or if I could remember the shortcut ⌃⇧ 2 (who on earth can remember that? Maybe Zak ⌃⇧ 2 Ray).

Now with X-Keys, I just press one button. Done. What a boon for the busy editor.

If you’re right handed, put X-Keys to the left of your regular keyboard; that way your right hand stays on the mouse. P. I. Engineering also makes foot controls. Now you can edit with two hands and both feet!

Buy from P. I. Engineering. Their software is for both Windows and Mac. Yes, Jerry, it works on Windows Premiere Pro.

MY KC&CO BOX
Here are four XLR barrels that I keep in my “Keep Calm and Carry On” box.

XLR MALE & FEMALE GENDER CHANGERS
I am at a huge hall in San Francisco and the PA guy offers me a feed. He’s been on staff forever and is a real old pro. Unwinds this long audio cable with a female XLR connector on my end. A female XLR? He must know my camera, anyone’s camera, needs a male.

Out with my KC&CO box. I quietly add a male to male gender changer.

Later, he says, “Everything OK?” “Fine, the level’s perfect.” I’ve also added my Sescom hum killer and my Terry pad (see both below). He was playing games. He knows that I know, that he knows that I know that he knows; a very funny game if you been doing PA in a city hall for donkey’s years.

I had an engineer in London who would purposely re-patch monitor YUV feeds into YVU. Instead of calling him in, I’d fix it myself. “Everything OK?” “Fine, Les, no problems.” Used to drive him nuts, especially when I put it back to UVY.

I always carry male to male and female to female XLR gender benders. Buy them via Google. Cheap as dirt.

XLR SESCOM IL-19 AUDIO HUM ELIMINATOR
It’s so easy to pick up hum on a location shot. Often you can’t hear it on your headphones. You can remove hum in post with filters but it’s far better not to record it.

The Sescom IL-19 to the rescue. A gift @ $44.99 from my Markertek friends.

XLR CENTRANCE MICPORT PRO

I’m lazy. Here’s a snip of the maker’s copy: The CEntrance MicPort Pro is the easiest way to capture a professional-quality vocal take, communicate with clarity over Skype or record studio-grade instrument samples. Much more than a simple XLR to USB adapter, the MicPort Pro is the only portable mic preamp with a built-in, 24bit/96kHz, broadcast-quality A/D converter.

I use it for recording voiceover straight to my MacBook. There are cheaper units but this one is the best. Read the review in DV here.

XLR SHURE A15AS

I am recording Terry McGovern, a professional voice over talent. He really wants to work close to the mike and let it all come out! Sounds distorted in the headphones. I’ve never had any actor overload the system. I didn’t believe my ears but overload it, he did! Go Terry!

That’s when I bought this mike pad. You can dial in 15, 20 or 25 dBs of attenuation.

I call it my Terry pad.

HYPERMAC BATTERY
I don’t know about you, but my ambition is to work on location with as few power cables as possible. None would be good.

I love my radio mikes. No wires. I usually run my cameras from batteries even if there’s nearby power. No wires.

If I had $10K I’d buy four 1 x 1 Litepanels and run them off clip-on batteries. No wires.

My HyperMac battery runs my laptop for 15 hours. No HyperMac and my MacBook dies in a couple of hours. Going, going, gone.

I make a short lead from the HyperMac battery to a four-pin XLR. Then another from the XLR to an in-line connector. Now the battery runs both the MacBook and the AJA IoExpress box. I can even power my Ikan VX9 monitor from the HyperMac battery and charge my iPod at the same time.

All together, everyone, say, “Cool.”

Dear Mr. Sargent, we read your excellent article where you mentioned our 1×1 Bi-Color variable color temperature Litepanels. We’re thrilled and would like to send you, no charge, four Litepanels with complementary batteries. Keep up the good work!

Dream on, Stefan.

Posted in 2010, Production Notes | Comments Off on WHISKERS ON ROSES – August 11, 2010

HAVE CAMERA, WILL LAPTOP – July 14 10

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

Updating, it’s a drag.

The solution is IIWDFI. Who needs that upgrade? Not me…

Microsoft Office 2004 suits me fine. I make my Web sites with obsolete Adobe GoLive CS2 and still use Visual Hub even though it’s a dead as a Dodo.

I’m really happy with my outdated Sony V1 cameras.

I’m hot, my Sony V1 is not.

I’ve got two V1s. I need two as I’m always doing multicam shoots. Should I upgrade? No — well, not just yet. You see, I have this very simple “Four Times” rule: An upgrade can’t be just twice as good; it’s got to be four times better.

I’m not the only one who uses it: The new iPhone 4 has four times the pixels of the earlier iPhones. (Hey, Steve, that’s my rule, I thought of it first, 30 years ago.)

It’s 2001, I’m demonstrating the Sony PD150. It’s a PAL camera. Pre 9/11, I commuted to the U.K. for work.

My previous camcorders were a Sony PD150 (PAL and NTSC) and a Sony PDX10. Both standard-def. The PDX10 was my favorite. It did 16:9 native widescreen, while the more expensive PD150 needed an anamorphic attachment.

For a couple of years I had the use of Burton’s two Sony HVR-Z1s. They’re HDV cameras and I really enjoyed using them until I was fired by Burton. He hired a different cameraman, fired him and then re-booked me. I’ve been fired three times. This year, I’m in favor again. I made the Susanne Somers video on his Web site.

MOVIN’ ON UP
In late 2006, with the apparent loss of Burton, I needed to upgrade from SD to HD. Buying the two HVR-V1s was a no brainer. And yes, they were four times better than the PD150/PDX10 combo.

What happens? After a year, Sony brings out the PMW-EX1. I’m very pissed. At least with Apple, you know that next year there’s going to be a new iPhone, but that it’s not an $8,000 upgrade.

I look at the EX-1 specs. The data rate is up to 35Mb/s compared to my V1s 25Mb/s. That’s not four times! The chip is bigger, but not four times bigger. Nowhere is anything four times better. I contact my camera guru, Adam Wilt. He says, “In most real-world situations they’re very hard to tell apart.”

I give in. Back to IIWDFI. I sit on my hands.

UPGRADING: THIS AIN’T NO FUN, SON

A Convergent Design nanoFlash unit mounted on a Sony PMW-EX3.

Maybe a Convergent Design nanoFlash? Hmmm — I could add that. The Sony V1 has an HDMI port that gives out the purest video, you know, full of good old-fashioned 4:2:2, exactly the thing you need for excellent chromakey. NanoFlash records to a CF card at over 100Mb/s. Four times the HDV’s data rate of 25Mb/s. Fits into my Four Times rule.

The downside? First off, the nanoFlash is just under $3,000 and then there’s the cost of cards. Last week, I shot 16 interviews in two days. To have enough storage for a single day, I’d need a minimum of four SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB cards @ $700 each. Ouch! That’s $2,800 plus the nanoFlash @ $2,900. For a little more, I can buy the Canon XF305; it’s 50Mb/s and has 4:2:2.

GOT THE ITCH, I’M TWITCHY
We’ve got two big jobs coming up that are all greenscreen. I have a MacBook Pro, there must be a way to feed my camera’s HDMI output to my Mac.

Matrox MX02.

A couple of years ago, Matrox brought out their MX02. Like the nanoFlash, it takes the HDMI camera output, but instead of recording to CF cards, it records straight onto a MacBook Pro via the Express 34 port. DV magazine’s, Ned Soltz reviewed the MX02 here. He gave it an Award of Excellence. I’m sure it’s a great product.

But… I have a totally unreasonable grudge against Matrox.

In 2004, I bought a graphic card, the Matrox RTMac. Along comes Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger) and Matrox walks away. No support. Sorry. Bye. We don’t care. The card dies. I’m left with a year-old $700 card that doesn’t work. $700 straight down the drain! I am not alone. Full credit to Matrox for leaving these disparaging remarks on their own site (or maybe they just don’t know). Despite Ned’s glowing review, it will be a while before the pain has gone. I forgive slowly. Give it another 10 years.

THE CAVALRY IS COMING
But wait! AJA Video Systems has a competitive box, the IoExpress — and it’s only about half the price of the original Matrox.

I like AJA. They live in Grass Valley, CA. I love Grass Valley, CA. It’s beautiful country. Call me irrational and emotional, the choice between Matrox and AJA is easy. I’m only human.

The road into Grass Valley, CA. Mmmm… smell that pine.

I get a good deal from Dan at Markertek. If the AJA Io box doesn’t work, I know Dan will take it back. A day after my order: Knock, knock. The FedEx man always knocks twice. Camera out. Wire from camera to AJA. Wire from AGA to MacBook. Switch on.

AJA IoExpress control panel – all working as planned.

The IoExpress panel says there’s an HDMI camera signal there. But will it work in FinalCut Pro? I read somewhere that MacBook Pros with their duo-core processors cannot capture HD ProRes. We’ll see…

FinalCut Pro powers up. I set the FCP capture to Apple ProRes 422 (LT). There’s my camera image in the capture window! Wow, I’m excited. Hit RECORD! Yes, it works! I’m recording HD at 110Mb/s onto the laptop’s internal hard drive. The picture looks fantastic!

My shoot in Salt Lake is only two days away. I keep testing. I try a 30-minute recording. Perfect! Try a little edit. The day before the flight, I have it all out again — test, test, test.

THE LIFE OF BRINE

The Salt Lake shoot — Io Express (bottom left) is connected to the 15″ MacBook Pro.

We’re on the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, working for the company that “harvests” the salt and turns it into fertilizer. They’ve located the company’s founders and flown them in. My colleague, John, likes long interviews. My MacBook has 250GB of free space on its drive. I’m running tape as a backup. By the end of the day, I’ve shot five 63-minute miniDVs and recorded just over 200GB on the laptop.

The company’s founding engineers go back to the spot where it all happened 40 years ago.

The next day I’m shooting on the lake. I shoot to HDV tape. It’s impractical to record to an open MacBook. I wish I could – but I can’t. Maybe one day…

That night at the Ogden Holiday Inn Express, I transfer the MacBook shoot to a FireWire WeibeTECH enclosure with a 500GB drive. John likes to review his interviews and create his own sub clips. In the old days (like last week) I’d have to transfer five hours of tape to disc. Now, I just give him the drive. To sum up: four times better picture quality and five hours of transferring saved.

Movin’ on up is fun — if you DIY.

BACK HOME
How do you use a MacBook with the lid closed? Google. It’s called “clamshell mode.” Of course. You need both an external keyboard and external monitor — that’s it. Close the lid, tap the keyboard and wake it up again. Oh, it will only work with an external power supply. Bummer. That’s a real challenge.

I fool around. Get nowhere. Give in. Buy a battery from HyperMac. Now it works with the lid closed. Did anyone say “clamshell”? Good. One down.

I move my efforts to the external monitor problem. The MacBook is closed but I’ve got to see the FCP capture window and be able to start and stop the recording.

I’ve got a HD Ikan VX7 monitor. Maybe I could switch between MacBook VGA output and the camera’s HDMI. Naw, it just ain’t elegant.

Then I find the Mimo USB touch screen monitor. TOUCH SCREEN and only $126. I can float a virtual keyboard over the FCP computer display. Getting a working keyboard on the MacBook screen is easy. Go: system preferences – keyboard – show keyboard in menu – (from top bar menu bar) show keyboard viewer. Voilà! A touch screen keyboard. Who’s a clever boy?

I map open capture window (command 8) to F11 and record (shift C) to F12. In theory it should work. The monitor is coming UPS Ground. Scheduled to arrive Thursday.

BLACK THURSDAY
My junk e-mail exceeds my good email by 10 to 1. Even my good e-mail has a request from an unknown person to be my friend on Windows Live.

The iMo touch screen monitor arrives. I set up my camera, MacBook, AJA Io, HyperMac battery to try it out. The new monitor is in a sealed box that refuses to open. I need a box cutter. Once open, I discover another box inside. The instructions go like this (their spelling not mine): Besides, the controller identification and deviceactivation shall be done first.

The next three hours are spent with the iMo manual, “when user use a mouse in the controller list window.” Huh? I need some fresh air and a stiff drink.

I visited Moscow some years ago. The lady who invited me takes her boy friend and me to a Russian steam bath. Within minutes I’m in a hot, steam-filled room, face down, stark naked, being whipped with birch branches by her naked BF. When he’d finished flogging my back and buttocks, he says, “Roll over,” and proceeds to whack my sensitive areas. Ouch! Finally, we jump into a barrel of ice-cold water. That’s exactly how it feels when installing the iMo touch monitor, only worse.

By 11:30 that night it’s barely working. The virtual keyboard doesn’t like the iMo and has lost all the letters on the keys. Doesn’t like my finger either, prefers a stylus… The FCP capture window keeps wandering from the iMo back inside the closed MacBook. Aaaahhh!

TGI FRIDAY
In case you’ve lost the plot: I’m trying to build a location recorder using my camera HDMI output to my MacBook Pro. The battery part is easy, getting all working in a streamlined, sling it over your shoulder — pressing the red button to record is tough, maybe impossible. Clamshell mode, touch screen monitors, virtual keyboards – all useless. I may be crazy but not crazy enough to know when I’m beaten. This is not it! Time to walk the dog.

Oh dear, why didn’t I buy an AJA Ki Pro recorder? I know why: It’s $3,995. I spent just over a quarter of that and the end result is almost the same. It’s the reverse of the four times rule.

So I have to use my MacBook with the lid open. Big deal. A minor setback to a huge breakthrough. Now I can record stunning ProRes 422 (LT) direct to FinalCut Pro on my laptop. My chromakey composites are amazing.

It’s a temporary solution anyhow. One day there will be a camera that records ProRes 422 at 100+ Mb/s without a $4K Ki Pro or a $1K Sargent lash up.

Wait on, there is:

The ARRI Alexa. A mere $56,000.

Maybe iPhone 5 will record ProRes 422 at 100Mb/s. I do love surprises.

Posted in 2010, Production Notes | Comments Off on HAVE CAMERA, WILL LAPTOP – July 14 10

COME ON BABY, LIGHT MY RIG – June 2010

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

Way back in June 1982, I opened four new edit suites at Molinare. The cost? About a million each with Grass Valley and ADO digital effects. All four suites looked like this but with different paintings. We charged $600 an hour for a basic three machine edit plus $200 an hour for digital effects like ADO (Ampex Digital Optics).

What you see is just the tip of the iceberg. The Grass Valley 300 vision switcher with Mark II DVE at the far end is really just a remote control panel. The rack of electronics is elsewhere in air conditioned luxury. Ditto the CMX340 editing electronics — plus VTRs of all shapes and sizes, in another room on another floor.

Here’s a shot in the same room taken from behind the vision switcher. Same edit suite but with dressed with people. I’m there at the back sitting crossed legged on the expensive Roche Bobois sofa wondering if it will ever pay for itself.

Center frame is editor, Phil Stone, programming the GVG switcher, which is fired off by the CMX 340 editor – its panel is the small keyboard on far left, near the pretend client. Out of sight are 20 VTRs of all shapes and sizes, all route-able to this or any other edit suite.

Making the whole thing work are racks and racks of electronics on the next floor up plus a collection of VTRs, tape ops. and engineers. All on the scrap heap now, the hardware – not the people.

But let’s go back to the color photo. Look at the top left hand corner. See the lights in the ceiling? Here’s a blow up – I’m sorry the print is old and scratched. The suite’s lighting was designed and built by my own precision engineer, Bill Curtis,

Two 5000°K daylight fluorescent Curtis fittings are fixed to the lighting track.

Bill made at least 20 of these light fittings for our editing suites, telecine rooms and outside broadcast trucks. The shaft of light is the correct daylight color temperature, doesn’t hit the monitors or shine in people’s eyes. Besides the chairs, the coffee flask and mugs, this light the only item in the color photo that’s still any use today.

My 1980 Molinare video on YouTube has several Curtis lights in it.

RIG OF THE DAY
Every morning, I go to my favorite Web pages. Now, this may seem like a diversion, but, trust me, it’s not.

I always wind up at Final Cutters and go to “Rig of The Day.” A rig is what we used to call an edit suite. Good, “rig” is much better. Edit “suite” always sounded pretentious.

Rig of the Day is an inspired idea from Martin Baker, the “brains” behind the site and their head company, Digital Heaven. According to Martin, the term “rig” is all Mark Raudonis’s fault. Wordsmith Mark has a day job at Bunim-Murray Productions, which makes reality shows.

EDITING LIBERATED
I love Rig of The Day. Thank you Martin. It’s living proof you don’t need to spend big bucks to edit video. Here’s my 2008 submission, as published here.

I’m in Sydney, Australia, editing in HD ProRes for my wine film. To the right of the photo is an OWC box with 2 x 1 TB drives connected to a MacBook Pro via a Sonnet SATA card thingy.

Compare my 2008 HiDef rig with my million dollar 1982 Standard Def rig. It’s a joke isn’t it? On the 2008 MacBook I can do digital effects and color grading. I could never do that way back then.

So I lurk on Rig of the Day to see what other filmmakers are doing. Everyone has a different way of working, there’s some crazy stuff going on.

Editing with a table lamp shining in your eyes? Come on. Can anyone work like that?

A Home Depot clamp light shining right onto the screens with, once again, the wrong color temperature. The monitors are blue. Why? Read on…

It looks cozy but just ain’t right. Look at those lights. See how the three screens are blue. That’s telling you that the room is lit with household tungsten light. Those all important monitors are daylight color temperature not artificial. Your overhead rig light should be daylight to match. The camera does not lie. You want colorless grey screens, not blue.

NEED LIGHT, NEED BILL
Now it’s time to build my own edit suite in a spare room. I need a Bill Curtis type light. Tough. He’s retired and lives the UK. I am here in the States.

I fool around and make one myself. Here’s how. It won’t look the same as Bill’s, he’d never dream of using Velcro; we had some left over from my pole camera jib project.

Fluorescent tube (center photo): Philips F15T8/NATURAL SUNLIGHT 18″ (46 cm) 15-watt 5000°K T8. I bought mine at Home Depot @ $7.97

Light Fixture (in photo – far right): GE Fluorescent Light Fixture 18″ Basic standard plastic T8 (comes with an unwanted warm white tube) Home Depot @ $9.77

Egg crate plastic diffuser: white louver Home Depot 2′ x 4′ @ $11.87

Side panels (sprayed black – left in photo): two aluminum sheets 6″x 24″, .025″ thickness mill finish by Steelworks Boltmaster – mine cost $9.47 each from Jackson’s, a local hardware shop — but easy to find on-line.

Velcro Sticky-Back tape Industrial Strength. Buy from Joann Fabric either in store or on-line @ $3.29

Black Spray Paint @ $5.96

CONSTRUCTION INSTRUCTIONS
 Starting with the GE light fitting: open it up and pull out the rocker switch. You will need to cut the switch wires. I drilled two holes at the top and fed in new power wires on either side. Join it all up and check out.

Spray the aluminum sheets black, both sides. Too easy. So here’s the hard bit.

Cut a 2′ by 3 squares deep strip from the sheet of white plastic egg crate. Tricia used her garden secateurs… snip, snip, snip. She took the rough nibs off with her Dremel.

Cut strips from your Velcro rolls.

Put the strips on to both sides of the GE light fitting. Stick one side down. Attach the matching strip, sticky side up. Tear off the backing ready for the aluminum plate.

Velcro strips on the grid. Ease the final plate down. Yeah! All done. Hang it up.

UP AND WORKING

I hate flash photography but with natural ambient room lighting you can’t see the fitting. My ceiling is draped with Auralex acoustic foam from Markertek. It really cuts down reverb. and lets me record studio quality voice overs. We hung the foam with strong twine. To add the rig light, we slid in a black wood batten with two cup hooks under the twine.

No camera flash, just my homemade rig light plus a little daylight from a window on the right. See how my edit bench is lit but the light misses the monitors. Want it brighter? Just drop the rig light lower.

My FinalCut Pro monitors are grey, not blue. My room lighting is perfect. Gloat.

Besides the overhead task light and natural daylight from the window on the right, I have OttLight High Definition Clip-On lamps (model 8298291). List price is $79.99, but Joann regularly has 40% off, making them $47.99 each. Ottlights are the same color temperature as your new rig light. Lash out and get two. I did.

This is a Tungsten-Free Zone. It’s all 100% full-spectrum daylight.

Looks so good, I’d better get back to work.

Posted in 2010, Full Length Articles, Production Notes | Comments Off on COME ON BABY, LIGHT MY RIG – June 2010

IT’S ONLY ROUND THE WORLD (BUT I LIKE IT) July ’10

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

Writing last month (read all it here) about an unexpected round-the-world job made me go all misty. An RTW! Yeeooww baby! Those were the days!

SAVILLE ROW LONDON 1986 I am in a boardroom with Mr. Big. He wants a shoot in Europe, the States, Australia, Malaysia and India. A mega round-the-world. It will be my first RTW.

Mr. Big: “Give me a price.”

Me: “I’ll need a few days – I have to work out the airfares, hotels, car rentals.”

Mr. Big: “You want the job? Give me a quote now.”

Ray wins both the waitress and our PA. I get the mop boy who doesn’t speak English.

He’s a multi-millionaire. We’re playing a game. Quick, think of a number.

Me: “£110,00” (about $220,000 in ‘86 – $400,000 today).

Mr. Big: “Why the £10,000?”

Me: “For negotiation”

Mr. Big: “OK. £100,000.

Me: “Let’s split the difference.”

Mr. Big: “£105,000 and we have a deal. You start tomorrow.”

I hire a crew to do the local and European shoots. An editor and assistant to log and cut rushes each day. Book the RTW flight – first stop JFK. It doesn’t get better than this.

Here’s the plan: we arrive, rent a SUV and drive to the motel nearest to the location. Next morning at 8:00, we are collected and taken to the office. We shoot – leave by 3:00. Catch a 5:00 plane – arrive, rent a SUV, drive to the motel. All depends on packing up by 3:00; which usually means no lunch.

PARSIPPANY, NJ It’s a long flight from London. Avis has screwed up the car. No SUV. Ray, my cameraman, insisted my renting two 2K lights in shiny aluminum cases with stands (none it ever used). Eventually they find us a VW van. We’re off: JFK – Manhattan – Parsippany.

The drinks waitress at the hotel really likes Ray. Why I don’t know. We’re all spaced out from the flight and the long drive. For us, it must be 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. She has a room across the road. Here’s her room number…

“Ray, you’re crazy. It’s a big day tomorrow. We need you.” I can’t stop him.

Next day, he’s all smiles. Lucky bastard.

I decide to remember every name. The guy who collects us – Joe, #1. The manager’s PA -Sue, #2. The manager – Kevin, #4. The security chief – Brian #5. The guys we film – #6, 7 & 8. Hey, I did it. Eight names!

3:00 Goodbye time. “Thanks Brian. Will you tell Kevin it went well? No need for Joe to take us to the airport. Say goodbye to Jerry, Bill and Max from me. Oh, I forgot, say ‘bye to Sue in the office.”

BOSTON, MA Siobhan, our fiery PA arrives – two days late.

Today, we’re in a university science lab. A young Hispanic is cleaning the lab and mopping the floor. There’s nothing exciting happening. After a while I realize he can’t understand me. I’ll try French. “Avez-vous envie un bon temps avec le mop?” Nope. I’ll have to show him un bon temps myself.

I take the mop and give it all I’ve got. “Now you try!” He’s better but not good enough. I do it again with real passion. “Roll camera”. He’s got it! “Cut. You were terrific!”

A man comes over. “Hello. I’m the professor here. I just want to congratulate you on your direction. It was amazing how you got that performance. Well done.”

“I used to make feature films. My last was a flop. I’ve been demoted to making mop films. One day, I’ll get back.”

“Don’t worry son. You’ve got talent. You’ll be back on features soon.”

“Oh, I hope so. Thank you. Thank you. You are so kind. ”

Siobhan and Ray try not to laugh, then crack up once we’re outside. She really likes Ray. What has this guy got? We save on motel rooms.

RTW FATIGUE Four continents – a different city each day – it all takes its toll.

I get a call. “Hi Stefan, it’s Kevin.”

“Kevin?”

“Kevin from Parsippany.”

“Parsippany? I was in Parsippany?”

HOME Mr. Big is happy. Ray is in love. And me? Please God, more mop films of the RTW kind (just don’t tell the kind professor).

Posted in 2010, Production Diary | Comments Off on IT’S ONLY ROUND THE WORLD (BUT I LIKE IT) July ’10

LIFE’S A PITCH Down and Out In Dorking Jun ’10

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

Despair; no work this year. Saved! There’s a job in Dorking. I’ll pitch…

LONDON, JANUARY 1995. It’s the beginning of the year and I’m in misery. My best client, Entertainment Productions, has gone bust. I’ve got no work for the whole of ’95. I’ll starve. We’ll have to sell the house and live in a caravan.
But wait, I meet a friend: “Stefan, I know of a £25,000 [$50K] job that’s going begging.”

“Begging?”

“Yes, it’s a travel agency in Dorking.” [A quaint market town about 25 miles south of London.] “Her name is Susan Beamish. Give her a call.”

DORKING #1. No freeway. An hour and fifteen to get to Dorking. I wait. Ms. Beamish isn’t in — called away on urgent biz. Two young assistants see me. They want a corporate video about their travel agency. It’s a specialist agency that works with large businesses. I tell them that I make videos for a chemical company, ICI. They have a travel agency in their HQ building in London.

“That’s us!” says Girl Assistant A.

“Great, I know your people there. I’ve done several overseas shoots for ICI. Do you know Janet?”

Boy Assistant B: “You’ve worked with Janet! Terrific. Well, you know all about us. You seem to be the perfect person to make the film. There’s a budget of £25,000.”

Me: “I know. Where did it come from?”

A: “Susan read that in Televisual magazine; it says £2,000 a minute is average.”

Me: “I was interviewed for that article. A month before, that journalist was writing for a meat trade magazine. He knows nothing. You can’t quote by the minute. Let me come up with a proposal and a proper budget. It could be far less £25,000.”

B: “You’re the only person who’s said that.”

Me: “Only person?”

B: “It’s a competitive pitch. Susan has nine other companies presenting.”

Me: “Ten production companies all after the same job! I really don’t think I want to do this.”

A: “Please try. I shouldn’t say this. But you’re the best. You really are far more experienced than any other of the candidates.”

I’m a candidate? Pitching against nine others… even if I get the job, do I want it?

Me: “OK, I’ll write a treatment and do a budget. Here’s my showreel and a couple of one-hour documentaries I’ve made.”

I drive back. That’s the best part of my day gone.

DORKING #2. See Susan. Practice active listening. Another day blown away.

ICI HQ’s BUILDING, LONDON. I visit Janet at the travel agency. Get good background stuff. I bet none of the other candidates know as much. I write a one-page treatment. That’s three days gone. Twins A and B have it. They want me back.

DORKING #3. “We shouldn’t do this, but we want you to get the job.”
They dump onto the table a collection of scripts and storyboards. The storyboard is amazing. Pages of detailed, beautifully painted frames. It’s a remake of Around the World in 80 Days. These guys must be nuts to waste so much effort on a lousy pitch.

B: “Would you like to see some scripts?”

Girl Assistant A hands me one. It’s a finished shooting script. The first line is EXT. OUTER SPACE. The mind boggles.

Me: “Please, no. I can’t read other people’s pitches. Look, I really appreciate your faith in me, but Susan’s got my reel, I’ve written a treatment.”

Next week: “Good news. You’re in the top three! Susan wants the finalists to meet our management.”

Oh no, last heat of DORKING IDOL.

DORKING #4. A disaster. I’m out. Susan says I don’t understand the concept. My big “Huh?” moment. I’m finished. My career is over. Dead in Dorking.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE. Two days later, I get a call from an old client, Rob Jones. He’s landed the ICI World Conference. Needs 10 “best practice” videos. Locations are Spain, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Melbourne, West Coast and East Coast U.S. Am I available? Woo hoo! I’m back! I’m back!

Rob: “ICI has a travel agency in their HQ building. Go there. See Janet, she’ll book the flights.”

Janet tells me the news. Dorking is in ruins. The travel agency film is off. So is Susan.
Me? I have a round-the-world ticket, business class — and 50% advance payment in the bank. 1995, what a great year!
I love this business.

Posted in 2010, Production Diary | Comments Off on LIFE’S A PITCH Down and Out In Dorking Jun ’10

THE DICEMAN COMETH May ’10

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1968. I’m editing The Change at Groote, a documentary about mining manganese on a tiny island off northern Australia. Big business wants the precious mineral on a remote island. The natives are unhappy. “They’re mining in one of the sacred areas,” says an aboriginal elder. Nothing the local aboriginals can do about it. Manganese is used for making steel. Let’s blow the island up. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s Avatar 42 years ago in 2D B&W. Except it’s real life. Kangaroos to the rescue?

I have a ton of truck-passing and conveyor-belt shots. I want to demonstrate that the mining operation is 24/7. Maybe a 30-second musical montage…?

Here we go: Daytime shot, nighttime shot, wide shot, close-up, conveyor belt, headlights at night, aboriginal truck driver, etc.., etc. Boring. Boring.

I slave away. I’m cutting 16mm film, so, to make changes, I have to unpick the tape splices. Do it again. Night shot WS, night shot CU, day shot. Mundane. It’s not getting anywhere.

AWARD-WINNING EDITING. I unpick all the shots. Put them down flat on a clean tabletop. A jigsaw puzzle of short strips of film. Then in a moment of crazy inspiration, I mix them up. Both hands. Whiz. Whiz. Without looking, I join up the shots with tape splices. Amazing! It’s perfect! There are a couple of almost identical shots following each other. Normally, I would shave separated them. Yet, together, they reinforce the repetition of 24-hour mining. I’m shocked — the result is infinitely better than anything I could have done conventionally.

A few months later, the Australian Film Institute gives me the award for the Best Edited Film of the Year — not just for documentaries, for all films. It’s the Aussie Oscar for editing and I won it with my eyes wide shut.


Wait three years and Luke Rhinehart publishes The Dice Man, a book about a psychiatrist who makes life decisions based on the roll of a die.
I didn’t use dice to cut Groote, but the idea is the same. Forget rational decisions — roll the dice and see what happens.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 2009. I’m cutting a piece for for WildCare, a non-profit that rescues injured birds and animals for release back into the wild. My client has picked the shots. We do an edit together. After she leaves, I look at the cut. It’s alright, just alright. Lacks something. Perhaps a different order? Maybe shorter shots? Perhaps more cute li’l critters? Here I go again.

I have hours and hours of critter rushes. Don’t think about it, just do it. Re-arrange the shots on the timeline. I try to do it without thinking. The computer workflow sort of works but my manual film shuffle of 40 years ago was far better.

I want an editing program that will shuffle shots just the way I used to do.

RAINER TO THE RESCUE. I had heard of Rainer Standke because of his “wiggle” program — curiously called, yes, Rainer’s Wiggle. (Where I come from, “wiggle” means only one thing.) I dig up his Web site. See, he’s a film-and-tape editor who has created lots of useful tools for Final Cut Pro.

I e-mail: Hi Rainer, here’s a crazy idea that you might like. I do a lot of montages…

He replies: That sounds like a fun idea! Thanks for asking me, it’s doable.

THE DICER. Two weeks later, he’s done it. As a test, I create a sequence of one-second shots. Click the “dice” icon and zap! A new sequence is created with re-arranged shots. Roll the dice again: another new arrangement. I can’t stop. Trouble is all the new timelines are just called DICER.

Hi Rainer, can you ID the new timelines? A few days, the next version arrives with each timeline dated.

Hi Rainer, I’d like to change the shot length. Another new version; now I can add or subtract frames. This is fun.

Now to try it out on a real job: A stylized motorcycle accident. Roll the dice. Nope. Roll it again. Again. Again. Yes! Much better!

I am The Dice Man (you can be too, after you download it from www.xmil.biz).

Posted in 2010, Production Diary | Comments Off on THE DICEMAN COMETH May ’10

2-D OR NOT 2-D May ’10

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

My first NAB piece was a fun review of the LAFCPUG’s SuperMeet, my second is where I found my 2010 OMG spot and here’s my third and final piece. No surprises, it’s about 3-D at this year’s NAB.

The great thing about NAB and all the associated events like SuperMeet is that everyone comes away with their own discoveries and chance happenings. It’s different for everyone.

The people I feel sorry for are the boys and girls stuck in the exhibit stands. This year in the Sony 3-D set there are two models playing mini-golf, hour after hour after hour, for four and a half days!

And there’s Peter Barber stuck in the Blackmagic booth, doing the same DaVinci demo time after time, answering the same god awful questions, time after time. “Can you buy the $995 software and just use a mouse?” Yes, apparently you can, and there are some cheap control surfaces in the works. Does he mean iPad? He’s not telling.

Panasonic’s 3-D line business manager Jan Crittenden (above) is already frazzled on Wednesday morning when I had a firm appointment with her. Throughout our filmed interview people keep interrupting Jan with questions. How much? When’s delivery? Can’t they see I’m shooting? Go away!

Interview over, Jan tries to make an appointment to see a prospective buyer and discovers she doesn’t a time slot left in her diary. “Can you come to our office in Secaucus, New Jersey?” She’s not joking. He shrugs and slopes away.

DID JEFFREY THROW UP?
Talking about chance happenings: I’m walking down the long never-ending corridor in the North Block and see a line of people sitting on the carpet obviously waiting for an event. As I’m passing this pathetic line, I enquire, “What are they waiting for?” “A talk by Jeffrey Katzenber but you’ll never get in.”

Then out of the blue, an NAB person appears and says, “Marge, he’s got a NEWS MEDIA badge.” I’m duly led away and placed the VIP line. It’s still a line but we are standing upright and all wannabe VIPs.

The crazy thing is I was only asking, never wanted to see Katzenberg (the CEO of DreamWorks, as if you didn’t know) or to be in this privileged line. To be honest, I was looking for the Rest Room. And it’s there, right next to our line. “Can you keep my place?”

Once in, I plunk down in the front row. Always interesting people to talk to. On my left are two 3-D veterans from the View-Master days. They’ve been working in stereoscopic 3-D for 30 years and now it’s all happening again. We chat and then the show starts.

The first thing that’s odd is that David Wertheimer, the guy asking the questions is facing the audience which means that the star turn, Katzenberg, is either in profile or back of head. “Hey David, we want to see Jeffery – not you.” Having shot a zillion interviews, I’m tempted to stand up and ask them to swap seats.

Poor Jeffrey K. (not actually poor, at last count he’s worth $800 mill.) – poor Jeffrey had got real with the editors of Variety magazine and said some home truths that must have offended his Malibu colleagues. He badmouthed both Warners and Warner’s studio chief Alan Horn over their decision to hastily release Clash of the Titans into awful, pretend 3-D and then charge moviegoers an extra five bucks. DreamWorks is committed to 3-D and Warners let the team down”

We’ve seen the highest end of 3-D in Avatar and you have now witnessed the lowest end of it in Titans. You cannot do anything that is of a lower grade and a lower quality than what has just been done on Clash of the Titans. It literally is “OK, congratulations! You just snookered the movie audience.” The act of doing it was disingenuous. We may get away with it a few times but in the long run, moviegoers will wake up. And the day they wake up is the day they walk away from us and we blew it.

So now he’s here at NAB to, well maybe, say sorry. But he doesn’t. He skirts around the issue of Titan by saying that 3-D is the industry’s greatest opportunity, a shot in the arm, the goose that laid the golden egg but we must keep the standards high.

Reminded me of my Boy Scout days. We would shout “DOB DOB DOB.” Meaning – do our best, do our best, do our best. Get the message Warners?

During the following Q&A, a brave audience member says the T word, Titan. Mr. K. replies, “I’ll pass on that.”

Next question is about converting 2-D into 3-D. The questioner is horrified that his beloved Citizen Kane might one day become Citizen Kane in 3-D. Jeffrey says that conversions must be done with the involvement of the original artists and filmmakers, says that Lucas and Cameron are, respectively, working on 3-D tests of Star Wars and Titanic.

“I’ve seen the tests on one of them and it’s spectacular.” A conversion takes at least a year and a half to do with a budget of at least 20 million.

Technology is moving fast. “You will in five to seven years to see medium to small size 3-D TV monitors without glasses,” he confidently predicts.

The final question comes from a person who had taken a friend to see a 3-D movie and the effect had made his friend ill. Katzenberg acknowledges that a small percentage of people can’t handle 3-D.

Ages ago I made films about flight simulators. The flight cockpit is mounted high on hydraulic pistons. The pilot sees a simulated image of the outside environment. If the visual landscape tilts, the pilot expects to feel the plane lean too, that’s why the simulator has the motion system.

When I was shooting, the motion system would be turned off. The pilot always felt nauseous. I guess 3-D is the same. The eyes are giving information to the brain which is expecting additional input but doesn’t get it. The result is that queasy, seasick feeling. Hasten Jason, bring the basin.

“I’ve always worried about a business which as a result of doing it you makes your customers throw up?” jokes Jeffrey. “I have a sensitivity to highly, highly active 3-D. At our studio I’m the bar they come to find out…”

“Did Jeffrey throw up?” quips David.

“Yes, I’m what they call ‘the hurl-meter.’”

3- D RIGS
I love a new toy but I can’t see 3-D fitting into my business.

A few years ago, I bought two new HDV cameras to shoot HiDef. Out of 15 clients in the Bay Area, how many have wanted a HD Blu-ray copy? Answer: exactly none. I’m having a hard time stopping them from ordering VHSs.

I bought extra speakers and amplifiers for Dolby 5.1. Again, zero interest from my client base. I simply can’t imagine any existing client of mine wanting 3-D. I hope I’m wrong.

Obviously, the manufacturers think otherwise. Everywhere you go at NAB there’s 3-D mania.

Grass Valley excelled with this imaginative presentation. Quick get out your red and cyan (not blue) anaglyph glasses. No glasses? Make your own here.

The unstoppable Blackmagic Design announced their 3D capture and playback board – a snip at $995.

And everywhere I look there are 3-D camera rigs of all shapes and sizes.

Here’s the Freestyle Rig from P+S Technik. You can use almost any two cameras from digital SLRs to RED Ones. If I were a punter, I’d go for the SI-2Ks. Dream on, Stefan.

For $67,000, there’s Technica’s Quasar camera platform. Again, cameras are extra: RED ONE, SI 2K Mini, Panavision Genesis, Sony F23/35 and Phantom. Take your pick, but don’t forget to buy two.

Stand after stand has 3-D rigs like this one using two Arri Alexas. I look for, but cannot find, Vince Pace’s Fusion system using two Sony HDC-1500 cameras. [It was hidden at the Fujinon booth! — Ed.]

PANASONIC AG-3DA1 3-D CAMERAIf I were to shoot a 3-D corporate this is probably the camera I’d use, a Panasonic AG-3DA1. I need $21,000. Donations welcome.

The 19 AG-3DA1 cameras on display at NAB are all work-in-progress prototypes. Panasonic line business manager Jan Crittenden readily admits it’s only 65% finished. In my interview I ask what’s the closest focus distance on the wide angle. She replies that the wide and telephoto specs. are still “still under discussion.”

The lens separation is fixed at 2.5″ – convergence (toeing in) is adjustable.

This is a frame from my Pinot documentary. Had I shot it in 3-D, the focus and convergence would be at about 4′. I like to get in close, probably too close and too wide for the AG-3DA1. While I was shooting, I heard running footsteps behind me and did a whip pan left to this view – same continuous shot.

Both focus and convergent in 3-D would need to change instantly from 4′ to infinity. Can this be done on the Panasonic? I don’t think so.

The next grape harvest is in September. Good timing, as that’s when the camera is planned to be released. How about it, Jan? Lend me a AG-3DA1 for my next harvest shoot.

See my 2-D interview with Panasonic’s Jan Crittenden here and learn why 3-D can be both good and bad. “Don’t do that!” says Jan.

Posted in 2010 | Leave a comment

MY 2010 OMG SPOT Apr ’10

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

You all remember my search for the elusive NAB OMG spot at the NAB Show? You can read my April 2010 Production Diary here.

You did read it, didn’t you?

So there I am wandering around aimlessly, looking for free hand out or two, and zap – my 2010 OMG spot! The Penelope-∆! Only the pseudo-intellectual French could add the Greek symbol ∆ Delta. Get it? Delta for Digital and Greek mythology.

Before you read on – here’s my disclaimer: 16 CFR Part 255 Disclosure
Aäton never gave me a memory stick, took me to lunch, flew me to the Grand Canyon, took me to a Las Vegas show, lent me a camera or have promised to give me a camera. They’re real mean. Any of the above, especially the new Aäton ? camera would be gratefully accepted.

A BRIEF HISTORY – ÉCLAIR
Way back at the dawn of movies, around 1907, a French production company called Éclair was born. After a few years, they built a film laboratory and started building their own cameras. Lots of different cameras, each one better than the one before.

After the end of WWII, Éclair produced their first masterpiece, the Caméflex CM3 (Camerette in the U.S.). The market leader was the German Arriflex IIC. The IIC was a great camera. Kubrick bought one. Many years later I bought one. Was it Kubrick’s? I don’t think so.

Kubrick shoots A Clockwork Orange.

The big difference was the snap on and off magazine. With the Arri IIC when the film ran out you’d have to open up the camera and lace up the new film inside. If it was freezing, raining — or if you were on a moving boat or plane — this was nigh impossible.

Claude Lelouch shooting A Man and a Woman (1966) with his Caméflex CM3.

With the CM3, it was just click – click. Two seconds flat. You could even leave the motor running! Another breakthrough was that the same CM3 camera could be either 16mm or 35mm.

Naturally the French loved it – Jean-Luc Godard’s classic Breathless was shot on a Caméflex.

Raoul Coutard shooting Breathless with a Caméflex CM3.

The Caméflex and Arri were noisy 35mm cameras. The Caméflex sounded like a coffee grinder with steel pellets. Most of the dialogue in Breathless needed to be re recorded.

I’ve shot with both cameras – “wouldn’t be great if there were a film camera that ran silently.”

In the TV world of 16mm, there was one: the Auricon. It was dead quiet and recorded sound on film. However there were drawbacks — the early Auricons weighed 36 lbs. Ouch! It was also top-heavy and ungainly:

Auricon noiseless 16mm news camera.

At Sydney TV station, ATN7 I went out on news shoots with an Auricon. No fun. Back home I owned a 16mm Bolex. With my Bolex I would climb trees, ride canoes, lean of car windows and shoot. I could shoot high-speed, slo-mo and in reverse. Not so with the unwieldy Auricon. I hated it.

In 1963 Éclair came to my rescue with their sensational 16mm Éclair NPR, noiseless, portable, reflex.

Stefan and his darling; an Éclair NPR – circa 1971

I bought the ultimate 1960s shooting kit: an Éclair NPR and a Nagra tape recorder. I was out shooting every day. I got so used to shooting shoulder-held that I often forgot to take a tripod.

Cinematographer-turned-director Haskell Wexler’s 1970 film Medium Cool features a news cameraman protagonist using a 16mm Éclair NPR…

Medium Cool star Robert Foster, holding an Éclair.

Meanwhile, Wexler largely shot the movie with a 35mm Caméflex:

Wexler gets a POV boxing shot – the Caméflex is inside a padded box.

Wexler gets a POV boxing shot – the Caméflex is inside a padded box.

Éclair’s downfall came when James Bond producer Harry Saltzman bought the company to take advantage of English tax incentives. Production moved to London and the company went into a nosedive. R.I.P Éclair.
.
ENTER AATON
Skipping back a few years, in 1967, a young filmmaker named Jean-Pierre Beauviala, based at Grenoble University, was trying to make his own film. Unhappy with the Arriflex, he set to work on making improvements, concentrating on syncing sound to picture. Éclair saw his work and snapped him up.

Jean-Pierre Beauviala

Eventually Jean-Pierre left Éclair, convinced other engineers and filmmakers to join him, moved back to Grenoble and founded Aäton.

J-P Beauviala in 1972. The first Aäton,

In ’73, he released the first 16mm Aäton, the 7A. It was like the Éclair only better and even more important, the company was run by enthusiasts, not by British businessmen.

American filmmakers Pennebaker, Leacock and the Maysles brothers, were all Aäton believers.

Albert Maysles (Aäton LTR), David Maysles (shouldering a Nagra audio recorder).

This year’s Oscar winning The Hurt Locker was shot by five Super 16 Aätons.

The camera crew of The Hurt Locker with their Aätons. DP Barry Ackroyd has the little A-Minima.

AÄTON GOES 35MM
French New Wave director, Jean-Luc Godard wanted a small 35mm movie camera, something better than a Bell & Howell Eyemo. Godard gave Beauviala some money to build a pocket 35mm camera. Godard even moved from Paris to Grenoble to help design it.

Jean-Luc Godard in 1979, pretending to like the camera that was designed for him.

His dream 35mm camera was a prototype and stayed that way. Godard’s concept was scrapped and, predictably, the two fell out.

Beauviala continued to design a 35mm camera, the Aäton 35. There were three models imaginatively called Aäton I, II, & III. Then in late 2008, Aäton introduced a spectacular all-new 35mm film camera, Penelope.

One of her unique qualities is the ability to shoot either three perf. or two perf. Techniscope, the format that was used in the 1960s to shoot widescreen with huge film stock savings.

Penelope, the film camera…

Penelope, the film camera…

From the outset, the camera was planned to have both film and digital magazines, a true hybrid camera.

And OMG, here it is at NAB 2010, the Aäton digital camera, Penelope-∆. (Delta, remember?) It’s here working but not in finished form. The production model will be ready in June 2011.

The concept: shoot with 35mm film, swap magazines, and lo, it’s a 4K+ digital camera with specs. exceeding the new Arri Alexa.

Now I’m not sure why anyone would want to do that. But it’s a boon for the rental houses. Want a 35mm camera? We’ll rent you Aäton’s Penelope. Want an ultra high end 4K digital camera? No problem, we have the Penelope-∆ with its digital magazine.

It’s the first film camera that’s gone digital.

Penelope-∆, the digital camera…

CAN A VIDEO CAMERA BE LIKE A FILM CAMERA?

In the past, video camera manufacturers have attempted to go the other way, to make video look like film. First was Ikegami’s EC-35 coming out in 1983. Was it really like a film camera? Nope. It was floptacular, the Edsel of all video cameras.

Ikegami’s EC-35 – a floptacular

EC-35 (1983) …an electronic cinematography camera that rivals the film look of 35-mm cameras- without the cost of developing film. Now you can have video convenience but with film quality…

Sony introduced its CineAlta F-23 in 2006. The film-like results were much improved but the copywriters said the same old things:

CineAlta F-23 (2006) We aspired to build a digital camera that met the highest expectations of film cinematographers…

Sony’s CineAlta F-23

Sony introduced its CineAlta F-23 in 2006. The film-like results were much improved but the copywriters said the same old things:

CineAlta F-23 (2006) We aspired to build a digital camera that met the highest expectations of film cinematographers…

Ikegami (1983) now you can have video convenience with the quality of film…

CineAlta F-23 (2006) it offers a powerful combination: the advantage digital with the operating style of film…

And ergonomics? You’ve got to be kidding. But what do you expect for $200,000?

While no one can doubt that the F-23 captures sensational pictures, it is still HD being good-old-fashioned 1920 x 1080 – way smaller than 4K, outdated by Arri’s Alexa and Aäton’s Penelope,  it is destined for the scrap heap – real soon now.

CAT ON A SHOULDER

Aäton’s core belief is that a camera should be like a cat on a shoulder. The Penelope-∆ follows that tradition.

Un chat sur l'épaule

The specs. for Penelope-∆ are awesome, a word I thought I’d never use. She will capture “beyond 4K” in uncompressed RAW DPX format to inexpensive 2.5″ SATA raid drives. For off-lining, a push in SDHC card simultaneously records DNxHD-36 for instant Avid editing. Too bad it’s not ProRes for the FCP editors. Maybe that’s coming as an option.

When I’m shooting, one thing that drives me nuts it going from bright exteriors to low light inside. The standard solution is to add stacks of neutral density filters and then take them off. Not so with Penelope-∆. Behind the lens is a custom CCD sensor from DALSA that can drop from 800 ASA to 100. Goodbye ND filters.

Martine Bianco, Aäton’s executive vice president, at the NAB Show

Watch Aäton’s Martine Bianco on YouTube. I asked her how much it would cost to buy the full film and digital kit for the Penelope-∆. “Ah, it would cost you a fortune!”

I love the French! OMG!

Posted in 2010, NAB | Comments Off on MY 2010 OMG SPOT Apr ’10

NAB SUPERMEET Apr ’10

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Stefan Sargent

The Final Cut Pro User’s Group ninth annual Las Vegas summut is tonight at the Rio Hotel and Casio. Great. But where’s the Rio? It’s way off the LV Strip, which is a drag. There are free shuttle buses from Caesar’s Palace and a few other strip hotels but nothing from the NAB Show at the Convention Center, which is where I am.

Problem solved: I take a $20 taxi ride with a friend. Ten bucks each vs. waiting for two free buses. A no-brainer.

Enter the Rio. Where’s the SuperMeet?

There’s a huge banner saying “Lingerie Show.” Well it’s obviously not there. We disappear into the depths of the Rio.

SuperMeet? SuperMeet?

“Back down the hallway.”

Nope, only the Lingerie Show entrance. Go outside. My friend thinks it might be a different building. We ask around.

It IS the Lingerie Show entrance:

I’ve got to tell you, the Lingerie Show looks amazing. Too bad it’s just closed. It’s huge – stand after stand with seductive clothing and complementary toys. The long walk to the SuperMeet site is festooned with life-sized posters of models wearing, well almost wearing, sheer lingerie — some outfits are so sheer that only the seams are visible.

Finally, we get to the SuperMeet location and the event begins:

CANON
First up is Canon. I sit through the presentation and what do I see? The same videos I saw earlier at the NAB Canon stand. Groan. Everyone here is from NAB — we’re all seen these videos.

That said, the XF300 and XF305 cameras look great – 50 Mbps at 4:2:2 color space. Why buy a Convergent nanoFlash tack on box at almost $3,000, when you can get this kind of data rate and color space native with the camera by itself. I’m sold. I want one – only $8,000.

Then the Canon show goes haywire. It’s kind of “forget everything I just said – you can use a Canon 7D DSLR instead – and it’s only $1,700.” Okay, I confess, he didn’t say those exact words but that was the message that came across – if it wasn’t, why bring in Alex Buono, the DoP for the NBC Saturday Night Live Film Unit. Suddenly the Canon 5D MkII and 7D steal the show.

I have to laugh, as way back in 1986, I wrote an article for Televisual magazine in the UK when I said that consumer equipment is getting so good that the line between broadcast professional and consumer will blur and ultimately disappear. And it’s what’s happened. Canon, Sony, Panasonic and all of them have shot themselves in the foot with Best Buy products that are as good as the real pro stuff.

Anyhow Alex Buono is great. Why? Because he’s a real person out on the street using the kit. He shows us videos we haven’t seen before and they’re funny. Yes, the 5D and 7D look terrific. If manufacturers had any sense they’d keep suit product managers in the office and let on the job enthusiasts like Alex do all the presentations.

The conundrum of the $8,000 video camera versus the $1,700 DSLR is never resolved.

ADOBE
Jason Levine is Adobe’s secret weapon. He prances around and shares the love. They should bottle him.“64-bit, pure Cocoa!” You can’t help liking him – well, sort of. But I’d seen the same demo before on the NAB Adobe stand. He’s worth watching twice. Three times is too much.

Here’s Jason in full flight – just seven minutes – I shot it from my camera on my lap.

The Roto brush for After Effects CS5 is worth the dance and the high kicking.

AVID
Next is Avid, and they are in front of an audience of 100% FCP fans. It’s going to be tough.

The Avid corporate suit cleverly brings in an outside editor, Misha Tenenbaum to talk about how Avid’s AMA speeds up editing. It is a bit confusing but it seems that Misha had a Sony F800, XDCamHD (A Cam) and Canon 7D (B Cam). Huh? I’d never do that in a million years.

His demo is showing how by using Avid’s AMA he can import both formats painlessly.

Seems to me, if he’d shot the sequence using two identical cameras he would have saved hassle and not needed AMA.

Then the Avid suit says to Nice Guy Misha:

“How much time did you save by using AMA?”

“Maybe two days”

“How much is a day of edit time”

“Um, er, about $800.”

“There you go, you save money with Avid.”

Yeah. Avid saves money. Now all you FCP people in the audience, scrap the system you know and love. Go buy an Avid with AMA.

Fat chance.

APPLE
Darling you gotta let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

Should he stay in Cupertino? Or go to SuperMeet? Big decision. Steve Bayes is the senior product manager for Final Cut Studio, ProRes, Logic, etc., and a super-smart, great guy. I bought his Avid book. He has my money and my respect.

If he stays in Cupertino, he will disappoint the FCP community. If he goes to SuperMeet, he’d better have some news about what’s coming up next in FCP.

Should I stay or should I go? He goes.

Steve takes to the stage with cheers and whistles as if he were the other Steve at MacWorld.

“We’re not showing new products at the show,” Steve says, “But I have a secret to share with you; Final Cut Studio keeps getting better all the time… that’s what I’m excited about”

That’s it? That’s his secret? It’s getting better all the time?

Steve puts up his first slide. He is “very excited” that Redrock Micro has produced a remote focus device for DSLR cameras. A deadly hush falls over SuperMeet — like a comedian coming on stage to huge applause, telling a joke, and nobody laughs.

Steve: That’s so cool… It’s really cool…

Oh, I get it. The Redrock thingy works using an Apple iPhone. Apple makes FCP and iPhone.

What? Redrock is an FCP partner. Come on, we want to know about FCP not Redrock.

Steve is obviously rattled and he has another 10 minutes to fill with FCP non-news.

Now he’s telling the 800 strong FCP editor audience that many of 2010 Oscar winning movies and documentaries were cut on (guess what?) Final Cut Pro. A bit like a Christian minister telling the local church congregation “a lot of important folk are also Christians.”

ARRI
At NAB it would be hard to miss that ARRI has a new digital camera, the Alexa.

At SuperMeet, there is one on the stage pointing at the audience “shooting at 800ASA.” The picture looks brown and murky. No matter, the big deal is that the camera outputs ProRes which will drop right into Final Cut Pro. (Hey, look ma, no AMA!)

Pop! And there it is. Big round of applause. More demos like this please.

Sadly, we now get to see an oh-so-long production shot on the Alexa. When will Europeans learn that the average American, raised on 30-second commercials and MTV, has an attention span of just 4 minutes. The average FCP editor has a span of half that. Anything over two minutes and they start Twittering: I’m watching a pretentious video shot on the Alexa camera. The camera costs $50,000, so I would expect it to look good. Why do I have to sit through the dreary never-ending video? Lemme outta here.

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN
Finally, we get what we came for. Peter Barber of Blackmagic gives a first-rate demo of their new Da Vinci Resolve color grader. It blows Apple’s Color out of the water. Personally I gave up using Color as it never did what I wanted it to do.

I saw the original Da Vinci in Hollywood, Florida in 1980. Ken Chambliss, the owner of VTA, couldn’t stop talking about it. I visited Ken two or three times and watched it develop. After Blackmagic bought Da Vinci last year, they ported it to the Mac OS and dropped the price to $995 (for a software-only version).

Da Vinci’s motion tracking is just amazing and brought numerous rounds of applause. Peter left the stage waving a MacBook Pro saying that it will work on a laptop. More applause.

At present Da Vinci only works with EDLs – so no round-tripping using XML. Pity.

Reminds me of what Steve Bayes said an hour ago when talking about interchange with Autodesk’s new Smoke For the Mac. “All this rich metadata just opens up. You don’t need EDLs anymore, I mean EDLs are so 1974.”

DASHWOOD CINEMA SOLUTIONS
I am not expecting Tim Dashwood and don’t know what to make of the red-and-green 3D glasses we are given. Aren’t those days gone? Like many clever people, Tim assumes that we’re on his wavelength.

Perhaps he needs a product manager to dumb the message down. Here’s my version of the Dashwood deal: It’s an offline product to help you edit stereo 3D cheaply in FCP. The 3D specs are there to let you know it’s all working.

You shoot with two cameras — or even use Panasonic’s new $21,000 AG-3DA1 camcorder — import into FCP, edit with Tim’s $311 plug-in. Export out to the master format of your choice and — lo it’s playing along side Avatar with regular REALD glasses.

THE WORLD-FAMOUS RAFFLE
The SuperMeet finishes with the famous raffle where $80-90,000 worth of kit is raffled away. “If you win something you don’t want, please don’t sell it. Give it to someone who really needs it,” says Michael Horton, founder and head of the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group.

Top prizes are a Canon EOS 7D, an AJA Kona 3 Breakout box, and an Apple iPad.

I win nothing. Nobody gives me their prizes. Time to leave.

The cardboard Lingerie Show models are still in the hall. The novelty toy brochures are scattered on the floor. We exit through the Rio casino. A girl is dancing on a small stage. Video poker players are smoking and taking no notice of her.

Back in my hotel at midnight, I order the upgrade from CS4 to CS5. Will it really change the way I work? Maybe. The more it changes, the more it… well, you know the rest.

Posted in 2010, NAB | Comments Off on NAB SUPERMEET Apr ’10