nzvn march15

MARCH 2015 Vol 211

Bill: We were looking at an Australian built box at one

stage but we bought this one instead, because this was

pre-built and tested; rather than build a kit up, the

Australians do something slightly different.

Ed: So did you give Protel a strict list of products thatyou wanted, and how you wanted them glued together?

Bill: No, I went with the information that we had after avisit to KIISFM in Sydney and then we went to talk toKen. To be honest, I didn’t really know what I wastalking about, but he did and in layman’s terms, I tried to

We are at the Radio Network

iHeartRadio for Protel and we

have Anthony Crawford and

Bill Hays.

Ed: Now Anthony, shall we

start with you – what would

you like to tell us about what

you’ve got here?

Anthony: We were given a

brief in quite a short space of

time before the launch of the

Fletch, Vaughan and Megan

show was announced …

Ed: Sorry, the what?

Anthony: Fletch, Vaughanand Megan – they started withZM in April 2014. They werecoming over from anothernetwork and, that the showwas being repositioned to takein more of a video element, wewere obviously behind the “8-ball on this, so decided onstarting afresh with a newdesign.

With video being mentioned as an additional component

we approached Protel to see what they could do for us.

We had some ideas around streaming video and Ken

presented us with the Livestream solution, which we

implemented with the Panasonic PTZ cameras and then

built around that the LCD TVs that we use on the wall for

displaying video, livery or just graphics. The whole thing

was pulled together in a fairly short amount of time and

the actual build was done in three weeks.

Would you like Pictures with your Radio?

Bill and Anthony in the control room.

explain what we wanted andwhat we were looking to do andthen Ken formulated it all fromthere. He said “I think I can dosomething better.”

So he went away and cameback with Livestream.

When we saw a demo of it, we

realised that it would do for us

what they had in Australia, but

allow us to do more – way

more – because it gave us a

portable solution as well.

Theirs was very much locked in

the studio and that was its

purpose. We wanted more

because we had concerts to

consider as well, so it was

perfect.

At this point, a young man with

his cap back to front knocked

on the interview room door. It

was James Marbeck.

Ed: James, you look as

though you’re one of the artistic types that has to run

the set-up?

James: Yes more or less. I produce the show, so I

just run up the stairs.

Ed: So previously you produced it just in audio but

now you’ve got the job of doing it in video as well?

James: Yes, I still do it with audio. With the video

side, we usually get some of the boys in to help as well.

When we have a guest in, for example, we’d use the

visual mix from the fixed cameras in the studio and

they can also plug in others as well. They’ll usually run

it because they know how they’re going to cut it

together later. If we want to stream online as well,

they’ve got that capability.

Ed: So you’re producing all this, you’re gluing it all

together, but your main job is making sure that audio

mix, being the radio side of it, is 100%?

James: Yes, for sure. We’d usually go in with a bit

of a plan so, if there was going to be like a game in the

studio that we were going to do with a guest or with the

hosts, then we’d know from the outset that’s what we

were going to do and that would be, from my point of

view, the “produce” part, and then the video guys

would just make sure that they covered that off, to get

the best shots they could with the equipment in the

studio.

Ed: So you Livestream elements of the show but also

record other aspects of the show and then post it up on

your website later?

James: Yes, there’s that capability. We had Ed

Sheeran in the studio earlier last year and so with that

we had it streaming online at the time, so we could say

“on air at the moment; if you want to watch what’s

happening, you can jump online and see it there” and

then if you can’t, if you’re not at computer, it will be

posted up later on. They can edit it up to make it look

slicker for a later package.

Ed: So do you then give them a link on air, that thisis where listeners will find the stream or the post?

James: Yes, you just say “it’s streaming at ZM

online dot com at the moment” and then we’d make

sure that it was the first thing you would see when you

got to the website – there’d be a Livestream link on the

page.

Ed: So the second Livestream system, do you use

that for field events?

Anthony: Yes. We used that just the other day forthe Heidi Klum launch. We’ve actually also used it for in

-house presentations and streaming events to the entire

company. So when the launch of NZME was done, we

hired out the team and got all the staff from the

publishing part of the business and the radio part of the

business and also Grab One – they all came down and

CEO Jane Hastings did her presentation about what

NZME was all about and the company, and we used theLivestream to make a stream available for all our staff

down the country. It was really good for that and it’s

nice and flexible and small and so we just use the same

gear that we’d normally use – the Sony PMW200 and

300 cameras.

Ed: Now in your flyaway pack, you’ve got the

Livestream 500 plus your cameras, tripods, lights I

guess, is that all you need?

P10 At the Front with the FS7

P20 Dolly at the Pool

P27 Some questions for you

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Anthony: The only other thing we needed was a

Blackmagic 16x16 router, and we often find that we’re

feeding numerous sources. At an event, we’ll be taking

camera feeds in and then feeding them back to whoever

might be doing the vision for the event, so they’ll be

sharing their camera feeds with us or we’ll be sharing

our camera feeds with them. The 16x16 router has

been great, because you can use it as a DA or

whatever. So other than that, we’ve got mainly

Blackmagic gear – Blackmagic HDMI to SDI converters

and SDI to HDMI.

Ed: So Ken, why did you suggest the equipment that

you did?

Ken: I listened to Bill and Anthony and came back with

a solution which I felt met and I think exceeded their

operational and technical brief. The Livestream solution

is continually being upgraded with new software

features.

Bill: That would also be a good question for James as

well. We looked at it from the end user perspective.

We decided to build the new studio, so we never really

got a chance at consulting with talent, which is normally

a really important part of any design. So James, now

that you have used it, do we need to fine tune it or

provide more equipment so that you can do even more

with the set-up?

James: I think it’s been pretty easy to use. There’s

definitely enough there to be able to make it so that

you do get great shots. Where the fixed cameras are

situated at the moment, it means you can pretty much

see everything and then with the ability to be able to

plug external cameras in, we can set another one up on

a tripod to suit the situation – and the software works

really well as well. In my booth, there are two small

LCD monitors so that you can always see right in front

of you what’s being mixed by the guy next to you, so

you can help him out if you think there’s a better shot,

because I can see through the window. I think it’s

worked really well. Obviously, the more cameras you

have, the more options you’ve got, but with the fact

that you can plug into the wall, it’s worked really well as

far as I’m concerned.

Ken: Have you used the Skype capability – that is

brought in a guest speaker by Skype?

Anthony: We have tested it, but I don’t think we’ve

used it in any show.

Ed: Thinking about what you might like to do in the

future ... if you’ve got a stream coming out of the

studio, you could also have a stream coming from a live

presenter out in the field which you feed back into your

studio setup, so you can mix the two into one

presentation – live and studio?

James: Yes, it’s definitely on the cards. Say you

had a Red Carpet event, I think it would probably fit

quite well with the VMAs or something like that, and

you had someone down at Vector Arena, and then you

had the guy broadcasting in the studio … that could

definitely work if you had people wanting to see it

online and you could cover both things, I think it could

work. Yeah, it’d be neat.

Ed: You could have your own fashion police in the

studio?

James: Yes exactly. It’d be more or less just like a

normal TV cross wouldn’t it – it’s just that it’s coming

back through the studio and then going out onto the

internet, but I think that’s a good idea.

Ed: Well there you go, you can name it after me.

Endless possibilities – and James, it’s your job to think

of these things?

James: Well you’ve helped me out phenomenally –

I’m going to take that one back to the studio for sure!

Ed: It’s yours – now tell me about training … were

you just thrown in at the deep end and you had to learn

all these things, or did you bring in people who already

knew the video side, the streaming side, or did

everyone learn together?

Anthony: Ken kindly organised training for us and it

was done by Mark at Corsair in Australia via Skype. We

had half a dozen people in Ken’s office at Protel and

everybody came home empowered and knowledgeable

and knowing what the product was capable of.

Ken: I connected Mark as a Video/Audio networksource via Skype from my laptop to the Livestream and

set the Livestream unit to remote desktop mode so

Mark was able to remote control it from Australia and

show all the features and operation, at the same time

fielding questions from the Radio Network crew. And I

can say that I haven’t had one question on how to run it

after that. I’ve also sold the same Livestream kits to

other people who I thought weren’t quite as technically

savvy as the Radio Network staff, but once you sit downand use it, you’re up and running. Usually the hardest

thing is getting your network settings correct.

Ed: I guess the elephant in the room is that this is a

radio network; these are radio stations and people

listen to them and if they’re used to listening to it on

their wireless, they’re suddenly going to be given this

opportunity to see some pictures too … is this a chance

to find a new audience, or convert your grandmothers

to turn on their computers?

Bill: To start with, when Jane

Hastings came onboard as

CEO, we stopped being a radio

stat ion and became a

mult imedia environment.

Radio is a traditional form of

medium, broadcasting, we

have an audience, but wehave, if you like, a younger

audience that we’d forgotten

about or taken for granted, and

hence we were very lucky to

get Fletch, Vaughan and Megan

and James to come and join us

here. That was the start of the

revolution for us – it was the

changing of the ZM brand fromwhat it was to really going at

the young audience. The video

aspect was the point of

difference that we needed to

provide immediately. So as I

said earlier, the decision was

made to design a new studio – James loves his radio.

an audio studio – but the missing part was this new

element for us called video and live streaming.

These guys really are the perfect drivers for it, because

it keeps the young people who are listening to radio not

on the same device that you or I would – probably not a

transistor radio, maybe not even their car radio, but

certainly a Smartphone that’s got a screen and can get

an internet connection. Our Technology team needed

to learn quickly and get in the game.

Ed: So that’s it – with the Smartphone, you could be

listening to the radio side and then comes the broadcast

“go to the link” …?

Ken: Well you could be looking at it, it could be a live

video with audio; you could be listening to the audio

and go “oh, there’s the video …”

Bill: Our mantra is that we need to give these guys

who work in content everything that we can for them to

do the best that they can.

James: Everyone wants something immediately

and so, with a studio like ours where you have the

ability to do something at 6.30 in the morning and have

it online either immediately if you are streaming it, or

alternatively, edit it up and put out there on the

application that people are listening to it on, or media

terms like Facebook, or Instagram or anything … when

you’ve got that ability, it makes everything so much

easier. No one wants to wait; if you say you’re going to

put something online tomorrow, people will have

forgotten about it in an hour’s time.

So I think that’s probably the biggest point – when

you’ve got something like that, a studio that has the

ability to be broadcasting, talking about what you are

doing, but then also being able to just do it, it makes a

huge difference. It’s awesome to be able to have all

those tools there and to have all the people who know

how to do it and have stuff that is so easy to use – I

haven’t even done the training but I can use a lot of it –

probably in a very basic way – but it’s amazing – it’s

worked really well.

Ed: What happens to those viewers ( which they will

become ) once that particular stream ends … suddenly

their screen goes black?

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Corsair Solutions and Protel - Live Production Roadshow-March 10th 2pmCorsair Solutions in conjunction with Protel are excited to be on the road again, to show everyone the massive advances being made in the world of live video production and streaming media. We will be showing the latest products and solutions for some of our vendors such as Livestream, Grass Valley, Video Devices and tvONE. Protel will also attach other products as part of the Lives Production solution such as the new Canon C100MKII camera, Reflecmedia Chromakey Kit, Litepanels Lighting.

The event is informative and free, theres plenty of room for everyone, so let your friends and colleagues know about the roadshow and RSVP to [email protected] so we know who to expect.

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At the roadshow there will be a comprehensive demonstration of the Livestream Studio HD510 portable live production switcher and the latest features released in the past 6 months including Chromakeying, Connection Bonding, Remote Camera Sources, Multiple Aux Outputs, Animated Graphics, external data source functionality and an informative explanation of Streaming and Content Delivery Networks and more..

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James: It wouldn’t exactly just fade to black. First

of all, you’d know it was wrapping up because we wrap

it up and then there’d be edits and things that you

could push for later online. But because you’re already

at something like zmonline.com which is just a constant

News feed and has everything we’ve done before, if it

does end, the odds are you’re not just going to go “oh

that’s great” and then move on with your life, you’d

hopefully – we’d like to think – just keep scrolling down

and finding new stuff.

Anthony: That live stream is just one little widget on

the online site.

Ed: So once you’ve got them on that site you’ll then

link them to “hey, follow this, look at this”?

James: Yes, the idea is to get them there and then

once they’re there, if you’ve got the right stuff to

interest them, then they have no reason to leave I think

is probably the best way of putting it.

Ed: Like Hotel California eh?

Bill: I don’t want to embarrass these guys, but the

evidence shown by the hits on the page is phenomenal.

These guys do a tremendous amount of work behind

the scenes as well for other podcasts that are up there,

but probably put together with the help of the

Livestream boxes, the hits are huge.

James: Yes, it’s now No 1 by a long shot. I

couldn’t tell you the stats off the top of my head, but

there’s some amazing graphs which are going into all

sorts of things which show phenomenal numbers.

Yeah, it’s really impressive, it’s turned out well. And

once people are on the site, they’re obviously staying

because it is the No 1 site and it’s just kept climbing

throughout the year.

Ed: And you’re not upsetting your traditional listeners

who might only have a transistor radio and a cell phone

that doesn’t have a video screen?

James: No, because we make sure that everything

– you know if it does have a visual element we try and

make sure that it obviously sounds good on the radio as

well. Radio is the number one priority, and making

stuff look cool just subsequently happens.

Bill: One of the mediums

we drive everyone to listen

to all of our NZME.radio

stations is through iHeart,

so listeners are encouraged

to create their own custom

station or listen to any one

of the 50 plus streams onthere.

Again, the base is the

terrestrial radio, so I can

listen to this on my

transistor radio, I’ve got ZM

there, I can go to iHeart and

I can listen to ZM or I can

listen to podcasts of Fletch

Vaughan and Megan, I can

listen to any number of

other streams that are

specifically targeting the

various demographics on

there. I can also listen to

my sister stations in

America and Australia – so

any of the NZME affiliates

and clear channel radio stations can be listened to live

at any given time. That’s the one point of difference

that we have… we point people to this wonderful

platform iHeartRadio, and our premiere brands are front

and centre on that as well.

Ed: My wife is sometimes annoyed by her car radio.

Since we have a Sky recorder at home, she can go back

into the programme to see something she missed or

use live pause, but when she’s in the car and she’s

listening to the radio and something comes on, she

thinks “oh, what was that?”.– but she can’t go back.

With iHeartRadio …?

Bill: She can. Certainly the podcasts are available, so

we can go and find you content from Fletch, Vaughan

and Megan’s Brekkie shows from the past, and you can

find it yourself on the site, so on the ZM online site

you’ll find all of that information.

Ed: iHeartRadio is, in fact, an international brand?

Bill: Yes, it’s an application developed by the former

owners of Clear Channel Communications in the US, so

for their stable of radio stations; and it’s very much a

vehicle derived from intimate concerts in the Avenue of

America Studio Complex. They have a purpose built

theatre there, which houses up to 400 people and they

started doing lunchtime concerts where they would

have artists interviewing on The Zoo, which is probably

the world’s best known and most expensive commercial

radio station in New York. So that had access to a

stable of artists and they would then take them down

and there would be lunchtime concerts where people

would just walk off the street, so hence the iHeart

Concert brand was launched.

Ed: Have you tried anything similar here?

Bill: We were formerly the Radio Network and

NZME.radio had been lucky enough to stage concerts

with Lorde, Ed Sheeran, Stan Walker, Birdy – at

different venues, ranging from Vector Arena through to

the Civic Theatre, the Wintergarden, and we’ve now

taken the concert out and there’s been one in

Christchurch and Dunedin, and that was Neil Finn. He

performed in both those venues and that was under theiHeartRadio banner.

Ken points to the Panasonic pan and tilt camera.

Ed: So these are free, live streamed concerts that

you’re providing?

Bill: They are, they are and the Livestream kit is a big

part of it. Obviously we don’t mix the concert sound

ourselves because that’s very much under the direction

and control of the artist and their manager. There’s a

professional sound crew in and professional video crew

in, but we have an output that (a) we put on our

terrestrial radio so it’s broadcast live; and (b) more

importantly it is streamed live through the Livestream

kit. Prior to that it’s wrapped with banners so it’s the

concert, it’s banners, and we’re actually using quite a

bit of the capability of the Livestream box.

Ed: And you can see this continuing and growing?

Bill: Yes, absolutely. The aim is upwards of four

iHeart events a year.

Ed: But there’s no reason you couldn’t do smaller

events with your own kit, surely?

Bill: No, no. We’re looking to working towards a

smaller venue where lunchtime concerts would be had

so there would just be sole artists – we’re not talking a

huge rock band that’s going to fill a space, but we

would comfortably house 3-400 people stand up, just

popping in with their sandwiches and a cup of coffee.

Ed: And the good thing is, if you didn’t like that

particular music, you could just flick over to another

iHeart channel?

Bill: Absolutely, yes. The number of brands on iHeart

is growing. As I said, we have upwards of 50 New

Zealand streams alone up there, covering all the music

genres, as well as talk, and we also have alternative

sports channels on there. So that covers what is our

first foray into providing an alternate cricket

commentary through the chaps who are on Radio

Hauraki. That’s streamed live from every cricket game.

Ed: I know Ken loves his music have you got an

Eagles or Santana channel for Ken?

Bill: Well actually, Ken can make his own custom

Eagles station on iHeartRadio. Anyone who logs into

iHeart can make their own custom station and they can

select up their favourite artists – so for Ken it would be

Eagles – and then iHeart would go away and search into

the dust to find Eagles and say “oh Ken, if you likeEagles, then you must like this Santana, and you must

like this …”

Ken: Great I intend downloading the iHeartRadio app

to my phone and laptop.

Bill: And it builds a playlist and so people build their

own radio stations. You don’t get a complete track or a

complete album of one artist. If goes, “if you like this

person, you might like this”, and it builds it up and you

can say “no that’s crap, I don’t like that at all”, and itwill load another song in and say “do you like this?” –

and keep building on it.

Ed: I’ve never seen Ken so happy! NZVN

At the Frontwith the FS7

We are in the depths of Mt

Eden with rubber trees and

swimming pools … what,

that’s not a rubber tree – it’s

a magnolia? There you go,

that’s how much I know

about trees. We won’t talk

about trees; we’ll talk

cameras with Guy Quarter-

main from Keyframe Pic-

tures.

Following up from the

Christmas edition when the

FS7 was launched at the big

Sony show in Auckland, Iasked various dealers as to

who had bought an FS7 and,

in their view, is using it

properly. DVT kindly found

me Guy.

Ed: Now Guy, you’ve got yourself an FS7, you’ve

been out there using it in anger …

Guy: In the heat of battle.

Ed: In the heat of battle he says … so, why did you

choose the FS7?

Guy: It was a natural progression from my previous

camera, the F3. By the time I got to the end of the use

of my F3, I had so many bits tacked onto it to try and

turn it into an ergonomic camera, it was quite ridiculous

really, so every couple of days I would be there, drilling

into the aluminium baseplate to stick on some

accessory or other …

Ed: Not into the casing?

Guy: No, not into the casing. It is fun, I had Meccano

when I was a kid and that’s enjoyable – but the FS7

does all of those things out of the box at the right price

point, which is great, it’s a lot more lean. I looked very

seriously at an F5 but I don’t really like the form factor,

and for the price difference; I didn’t feel it was right for

the kind of work I want to do with it, which is mainly TV

and some corporate work – that’s what I do. So the

FS7 is very light, it’s very simple and it does everything

I want it to do and it gives great pictures.

Ed: So the form factor was a key reason you chose it.You told me earlier that you’ve just done a shoot inThailand so carrying a smaller camera is a big benefit toyou?

Guy: It is, although weight-wise, it’s actuallycomparable to the F5 once it’s rigged up, but the FS7 isabsolutely designed as a handheld camera from theground up, with all the controls on the handle, withyour record button and focus aids at your fingertips, allthe buttons in the right places.

It’s ergonomic and it’s designed to just sit on yourshoulder. Much like – not that I’ve used one – but anold Aaton I’m told … to sit on your shoulder, be snug,be relatively small.

Ed: So fitting the F3 on your shoulder was difficult?

Guy: Well actually, by the end of my Meccano project it

wasn’t too bad. I got to the point where it was ok, but

no, absolutely not designed for that. The F3 has a

lineage of both 3 chip consumer camcorders and semi-

pro camcorders and also with a nod towards box type

cameras like your RED cameras or the old ARRI studio

type cameras. So no, it was never designed to be

handheld or to sit on your shoulder at all.

Ed: And working back from the F3, what was the

progression – were you a film person or did you come

from the video side?

Guy: I started off in stills photography. I left school

quite young, at about 16 and did a 2½ year

apprenticeship as a professional commercial

photographer. Then I gradually worked my way into

the video world, I met some friends in Auckland who

were out there doing video production and I thought

“this looks quite neat, more collaborative, time-based

media is interesting”, so I bought myself a little Sony

camcorder and got a copy of Premiere Pro and off I

went and taught myself to use them. Of course, many

of the skills in still photography are the same, all of the

lighting and composition skills, many of the people skills

… I mean, this job is about making good pictures, but

it’s also about getting on with people and managing

people and directing people, and all of those skills are

portable from the stills world of course.

Ed: Did you find the move from the Sony handycam

where, obviously, you’ve got lots of depth of field, going

back to your stills photography, you were using quite

shallow depth of field – did you find then that the F3

fitted that photographic style?

Guy: Absolutely – it was just so nice to have control

back. In between the Sony handycam and the F3, I

also owned a couple of Panasonic cameras, both the

DVX100 which was quite a ground breaking camera at

the time, and an HVX200, the first solid state card

based camera. There was great colorimetry in those

cameras but I was always struggling to get my

interview subject 10 metres away and punching in the

long end of the lens to try and achieve some depth of

field. Shallow depth of field is just another tool; it is

not appropriate for every situation, and it’s not an end

in itself, but it does give you a lot of control over where

your eyes look and where you focus your viewers, and

Guy with Sony FS7 … and magnolia tree.

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that’s really important, that’s what we’re always trying

to do. We use composition to do that, we use colour to

do that, we use movement and of course light – with all

of these tools we’re trying to focus the attention of our

viewers on what we’re saying about the story, and

depth of field is a great tool to be able to do that – to

be able to selectively put the attention of your viewer

where you want it to be as the artist.

Ed: But you must have found some of the workflow

that you were able to do with those smaller handycams

with the small chips, you couldn’t do once you started

to explore that shallow depth of field again with a

cinema style camera?

Guy: What do you mean exactly?

Ed: In terms of your run and gun, that by having it

always in focus, you didn’t have to set up shots, you

could just take them?

Guy: Well that sounds like a pretty slack attitude for a

start! I would fire a cameraman who took that

approach. But, it is more demanding, I guess you just

get used to it, you adapt … I’ve got five children and

someone with one child will go “how could you ever

possibly manage that?” – but you adapt to it. I have to

be very scrupulous in checking focus; I perhaps have to

trust my editors more than I

did in the past – that they’ll

pick up on those mistakes

and of course, working in TV

production, unlike the

cinema world, I don’t have

the luxury of a focus puller

or a whole crew behind me

to watch my back. So I do

have to be careful in what I

do.

Ed: That’s an interesting

comment, that you have to

trust your editor to pick the

shots that you would pick

and not use some of the

ones that you have noticed

that they’re slightly out of

focus, but the producer

might turn round and say

“well, we actually need that

shot for this particular edit?”

Guy: Oh absolutely, although some of the editors

particularly think it’s very cool when stuff’s out of focus

so I guess you’re fighting that too, aren’t you? Of

course shots can be cool when they are out of focus,

but the intention has to be there!

Ed: Oh yes, I’ve seen a few of those but they say “it’s

Art” don’t they?

Guy: I think I can address what you’re saying though –

you’re alluding to the fact that you may miss key shots

because of the chip size, but I don’t find that’s the case

anymore with a full super 35mm chip size camera, than

I would with a 3 chip camera really.

Ed: Because you’re using that all the time?

Guy: Because I’m using it all the time and I’ve got

used to it, and I just don’t miss those shots. Also, you

can stop down. If you really want to achieve depth of

field, the base ISO on the FS7 is 2000. So it’s very

easy, if you really want to in most shooting situations

you just stop down.

Ed: And are you using predominantly a standard

zoom lens on that, or are you using prime lenses?

Guy: Predominantly zooms for the TV work. I own

various lenses – I have a set of Leica R primes that are

converted for Nikon mount, which is the mount on all

my lenses, converted for the camera with a Metabones

adapter.

Nikon have a mechanical aperture control still, so no

complex “live” mount is needed, which makes life easy.

The main lens I used through Thailand was a new

Sigma 18-35 constant 1.8 which again comes from the

stills world, very lightweight, largely par-focal and sharp

as a tack – it’s actually an unbelievable lens. A Tokina

11-16 which is commonly used in the DSLR and – how

would you put it – cheaper lens world I suppose. Great

super wide.

I would love to have the luxury on these productions to

use cinema zooms like the Cabrio for instance, to name

but one, but I think weight is a really big issue with the

larger cinema zooms designed for full chip cameras,

they just weigh too much, it’s impractical to carry round

and also most of the productions I work on would not

be prepared to pay the rates I would have to charge for

what is a $40-60,000 lens.

Ed: In the sort of shots that you’ve been taking with

this combination of lens and camera, are they shots

that you’ve been able to set up beforehand, or do you

have to just grab things while you can?

Guy: It’s a combination really. On this particular show,

we’ll often follow people around, so I’ll tend to do that

on very wide – maybe on the 18 or round about that.

Set up little situations, then cover / sequence them with

a combo of lenses.

Ed: So in other words, there’s a lot in focus at the

same time?

Guy: For the main actuality. Absolutely. We’ll set up

shots as well, so a lot of cutaways, I’ll try and shoot

textural shots for which I do use more extreme shallow

depth of field; so no, a combination really. It depends

on the director, what the director wants and what the

schedule involves, how rushed we are basically. The

slower the schedule is, the more time we’ll take to set

up the shots.

Obviously good in low light.

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Ed: Do you find that the producers you predominantlywork with understand how you work and give you thatlatitude to take the shots that they know you can get?

Guy: Oh absolutely. It’s very rare for me to work witha director who will say “Oh hurry up” you know, get onwith it kind of thing, which I guess I’m fortunate in. I’malways sensitive to time pressure; I’ve done a fairchunk of light commercial production myself and I comefrom a commercial stills background, so I understandthe money / time side of the business. Probably one ofthe things they like about me is I don’t faff aroundwhen it’s unnecessary and I do get the shots and I’maware that we’re ticking on a clock – it’s about art, butit’s also about money.

Ed: It is about money isn’t it - and quality, and onthat note, the recording system – are you using theinternal recording system on the FS7?

Guy: I am yes. I’m waiting with baited breath for theirProRes firmware to come out, which has been promised,as I’m a big fan of ProRes as a codec, I think it’sfantastic. A lovely organic kind of grain to it and whenyou do get noise it looks good. But yes, I’ve beenshooting in XAVC-I at 1925 / 1080 25p.

Ed: And everyone’s happy with it?

Guy: Oh it’s so clean it’s just unbelievable. It’s actuallyvery, very good. Having said I like ProRes, it’s nearlywon me over – it’s a very useful codec. Probably theonly flaw in it really, and that’s not a flaw in the codecas such, is it’s compatibility with older NLEs such asFinal Cut Pro 7, which a surprising amount of people are

still using. So there are a few legacy issues therewhere it’s a hassle basically, you have to transcode thefootage, which no one wants to have to do.. But no,very impressed, it’s a very robust codec.

Ed: And no difficulties data wrangling?

Guy: No, very simple. When we went to Thailand, Itook away five 1 terabyte drives and used a programmecalled ChronoSync to double backup check all the dataas I went along. I also used Premiere to check thepictures from time to time. So no, very easy, quitereasonable data rates too. By the end of the shoot, Ithink we had 11 shoot days and I used about 940 gigsof data for those 11 shoot days.

Ed: About how many hours of rough is that?

Guy: The longest day would have been about 2 hours40 minutes worth of rushes and I think the shortest daywould have been probably 1¾ hours.

Ed: So about 2 hours a day?

Guy: Yes, roughly. You’re always aware of the edit andthat you don’t want to overshoot, but at the same timeof course, when you’re travelling, you’re not going back,so one tends not to hold back and you try and shoot asmuch as you can.

Ed: Did you get any “money shots” where you went“Yes!”?

Guy: I did … I nearly blew up the camera actually in

the process! My favourite shots were probably when we

were in a place called Krabi and shooting at the Lae Lay

Grill I think it’s called, which is this fabulous restaurant

a lovely guy runs up on the hill above Krabi. Humid,

probably about 32 degrees, and a kitchen full of burners

with wok cooking going on … that’s actually the only

time the camera failed me on the whole trip – it

crashed.

I think the heat sensor would have gone “Oops no, thisis too much”, shut down and I lost about half a clip,which I was quite impressed by, but it looked very cool,I used the off-speed up to about 150 frames a secondon those shots.

Ed: That would have added to the heat internally?

Guy: It would have, so it was trying to record at afuriously high framerate, humid temperatures, bareflames … yes!

Ed: So you just put it in the fridge for a bit and shewas ready to go?

Guy: It was pretty quick actually. I had to take thebattery off, as it wouldn’t respond to turning off, just afrozen picture frame and no screen information. I justwent “Hmmm okay, what do I do?” So I just poppedthe V-lock off, and left it for 2-3 minutes, popped itback on and it was fine, hardly skipped a beat. Veryimpressive little solid state camera there Sony – welldone.

Ed: So as you say, you’ve used this in the heat ofbattle and you’re very pleased with it?

Guy: I’m extremely happy with it. The pictures havevery high dynamic range, lovely colour information, it’sgot a very nice look to it, it really has. No, for the priceyou absolutely can’t complain. I mean, there are always

things that one would like different and things aboutbuild quality and such things, but for the price – wellyou can always you know …

Ed: You mean in some places it might be a little bit

plastic?

Guy: Yeah, some of the buttons are a wee bit plastic,

but again I think for 12 grand for the body – I can’t

complain and if you want all metal buttons all over,

then go and buy an F65.

Perhaps also, when you look at the market, the

construction quality and price point accurately reflectsthe lifespan of these cameras – realistically 18 months

to 2 years, you know 2½ years is very old …

Ed: You expect it to still be going, but you’d think that

it will be superseded in terms of the technology?

Guy: In terms of the technology you’d expect it to be

obsolete, that’s right. Although I would hope that

cameras, like computers, are reaching a plateau in that

regard.

I mean, certainly for television work, there’s a lot of talk

about 4K and this camera is 4K capable, but no

television production company I have come across yet

either knows or wants to know about 4K, because the

data rate is too high and it’s too difficult. So one would

hope the pictures from this camera have legs so to

speak.

Ed: But your F3 is not being used as a sea anchor is it

… obviously sitting on a tripod it’s going to give youpretty comparable pictures to your FS7?

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Guy: No, absolutely not. The FS7 makes vastly betterpictures than the F3, noticeably higher dynamic rangeand quality of colour information, S-Log 3 is way better.

Ed: So you’ve totally retired your F3?

Guy: I’ll probably keep it for now; I may sell it, but Ido multi-camera work from time to time, so it’s still anamazing camera to just chuck in there as a widecamera or something like that.

Ed: So you could actually mix it with FS7 footage?

Guy: Well I would in a live production, given budgetconstraints. I’d love the cameras to be perfectlymatched, but … I have yet to play with that actually; Ithink the F3 could be tweaked to be close. S-Log 3 is avery different profile to S-Log; 2 and 3 are what theFS7 will do, the F3 is the original S-Log. So the shortanswer is no, they won’t match easily, but the longanswer is yes, with a lot of tweaking and a little bit ofpostproduction you’d probably get them close enough tobe good enough.

Ed: Now Guy, the FS7 is not the only camera thatyou’re really happy with at the moment is it – you’vegot another little Sony here?

Guy: Well yes, I’ve got another Sony called an Alpha7S which I took along on my Thailand trip as a Bcamera and as a stills camera. In the event, we weretoo busy to realistically use it as a B camera, so it didn’tget pulled out much for that, but it got used for stills alot, and I have used it as a B camera to the FS7 and it’san excellent match. It will shoot in S-Log 2; apart fromthe skew and rolling shutter which are not as good, it isin every way a superior camera to the F3, which is myold video camera, and this is a tiny … it is unbelievable.

Ed: You know you’re lowering the secondhand price ofyour F3 by this aren’t you?

Guy: I don’t think it’s worth much more than apaperweight anyway to be honest. Have you seen it?You haven’t seen it have you, I’ll show it to you …

Ed: I know what an F3 looks like, yes.

Guy: Well you don’t know what mine looks like! It istechnically a sort of semipro camera, the Alpha 7S andit is only 8 bit to be fair, but no, a fantastic tool, it reallyis.

Ed: And pretty high ISO?

Guy: It is, it will go up to half a million ISO, yes.

Ed: But would you take a picture at that?

Guy: No, the usable range in my experience seems tobe that up to about 40,000 is realistic.

Ed: That’s still a lot?

Guy: Yes. I took some footage with it on another jobaround central Dunedin not that long ago and it wasincredible. It was amazing to be able to walk around,use available light, we were using some Zeiss primelenses, and just get some very abstract, very prettyshots with no light at all. So a very, very cool little toyand a fun little stills camera too, it’s just so compactand very light to the touch and it kind of makes youwant to use it.

Ed: All right, a last question about the FS7 – howmuch of your time would you have that on yourshoulder as compared to on a tripod – but I guess,having asked that question, it depends on the job?

Guy: Well it does depend on the job and interestinglywith the F3, because it was so unwieldy, I would tendtowards a lot more locked off / tripod shots. With theFS7 in Thailand, I shot a lot more of the show handheldthan I would have otherwise, which was great for theschedule, because we were travelling a lot. But that’s avery interesting question because I think theergonomics really did affect the style and how I shot …very much so.

Ed: Does it have that good Sony stabilisation systemin it?

Guy: The sensor stabilisation – no, it doesn’t.Personally, I use all off-brand lenses; I believe you canuse stabilised lenses on it, but I don’t.

Ed: And now a tip for those who have been shootingThe Block and wobbling a lot?

Guy: Well shooting off speed actually hides a multitudeof sins, because you only have to hold it half as steady,plus it gives the editor twice as much to work with. So… yes, that’s it, that is definitely a tip, I mean usingshallow depth of field and doing handheld cutawaysparticularly. If I’m handholding a cutaway of someveges in the foreground or something like that, it

effectively gives you morestability. You also maintainsharpness. If you take theframerate up to 50 frames asecond, that effectiverefresh rate, you can getaway with a lot moremovement and still maintainsharpness.

Ed: And we finish off witha plug for the people whosold you this camera –you’re very happy with yoursupplier?

Guy: Yes I’m very happywith DVT – Chris has beenfantastic, they’ve got a pooltable, what more can youask.

Ed: And they return yourphone calls I understand?

Guy: They do, they returnmy phone calls which is justabsolutely one of those

simple lessons in business that I don’tthink everyone really gets. So, if youcall people back, generally it means youwant to do business!

Ed: It’s refreshing isn’t it?

Guy: It is refreshing, they’re very goodand very professional and they’ve got agreat range of products too.

Ed: I know you do a lot of researchon the internet, but you still do buylocally?

Guy: I have bought a lot of myperipherals online, but that’s changedover the last couple of years, because Ithink the dealers and the brands suchas Sony have woken up to the fact thatglobal prices need to be on a par fromcountry to country once you takeexchange rates into account. So I’veactually started going back to dealersfor a lot of the things like batteries andcards that, at one time or another, Iwould have just ordered in fromoverseas. I have to say that it isimmensely reassuring to have thebackup of dealers such as DVT, so thatwhen something does go wrong ( as it inevitably will ),you’ve got somewhere physical to take those productsto, and you’ve got good advice about shipments andwhen things are going to be available. It’s interesting,having spent many years being that awful guy that the

dealers think “Oh he’s such a bloody cheapskate”, I’vereally come back to my dealer relationship because, as Isay, I think both the dealers and the brands have reallycome the extra mile in making the price right andoffering great service. NZVN

And good for close-ups.

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UNIFIED PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT

Dolly atthe Pool

Hearing that the production

scene was starting to heat

up, I asked Dennis from The

Dolly Shop if he had any

interesting hires coming up.

“Would you like to visit Sky

Sport at Auckland’s West

Wave pool where they are

using our ciompact GFM Grip

Kit Dolly on 50 metre of

dolly track?”

The pool surrounds were

crowded with young swim-

mers waiting their turn in

the various events; the

stands held many vocal

spectators and a couple of

fixed cameras with long

lenses but the real action

was down one length of the

full sized pool.

Sam the cable runner kept the camera cable out of the

way of the dolly and the swimmers walking beside the

track while Adelle, the Sky camera op followed the

action. Well, she wouldn’t have been able to if it hadn’t

been for grip Simon Jones pushing and pulling the dolly,

on which she was very comfortably seated, backwards

and forwards on the track. I caught up with Simon

after the pushing stopped.

Ed: Simon, you’re puffed out, and with good reason.

Dennis gave you a really hard job tonight and I hope

he’s paying you a huge amount of money, because from

what I saw, you’re worth every cent?

Simon: This is certainly one of the busier jobs I’ve

been on. In the 25 years I’ve been doing it, that’s four

of the hardest hours I’ve ever experienced pushing a

dolly.

Ed: But Dennis told you it was going to be hard didn’t

he?

Simon: Aaah ... Dennis might have set me up on

this one, he’s lucky we’ve got history is all I can say!

Ha ha.

Ed: What’s your official title?

Simon: I’m a freelance key & dolly Grip in the New

Zealand film industry.

Ed: So you must be pretty fit to handle a 50 metre rig

like this?

Simon: ( still puffing ) I don’t know what to say to

that.

Ed: Well you set it up, so it’s got to run smoothly for

50 metre; you can’t have any bumps in it otherwise the

client might complain?

Simon: The trouble with a long track like this, is

that when you’re constantly running back and forth over

it, it will move over time. You have to be constantlychecking your wedges and keeping an eye on it. The

problem with this job is that, with only 43 seconds

between each race, there wasn’t enough time to get to

the opposite end of the track and back, to check all the

wedges.

Sam, Adelle and Simon.

Ed: But they held?

Simon: I think we did alright, yes. Wide lens is our

friend in this job.

Ed: They cure all sorts of ills don’t they?

Simon: They’re very forgiving.

Ed: Any other particular challenges in this job – apart

from the heat?

Simon: Yes, the heat, the humidity – I think it’s

just the constantness of it – if that’s a word. It didn’t

stop for four hours, we just went hard from one end to

the other, one end to the other.

Ed: And this is unusual for you, because I imagine

that, in the film industry, you’ve got some frantic action

and then there’s a bit of a lull while things get sorted for

the next setup?

Simon: Dolly grips are generally busy, setting up

for the shot required, then doing the shot. This was

pretty full on as far as it goes … good though, I’ve lost a

few k-gs.

Ed: So what other things do you do apart from setting

this one up. Was it just the 50 metre track that you

were setting up tonight?

Simon: For this job yes. I solely came in to be the

dolly grip. I did notice I was the only one there, so

obviously everyone else was wise to it and got out

early.

Ed: But you do have an assistant?

Simon: I do, Sam Toms, and he was very good.

He’s fairly new to this job, but he definitely shows

enthusiasm.

Ed: He was the cable runner?

Simon: He was the grip assist and cable wrangler,

yes. It’s very important when I’ve got that much cable

running behind me; I can’t keep track of it to make sure

it’s not going to get caught in the wheels or around a

chair, so he was pretty vital today.

Ed: How do you know how fast to move that dolly?

You’ve got a headset on so are you talking to the

cameraperson?

more on page 23

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Simon: Not always. What I do is look to where the

camera operator is shooting. I have a general idea of

the lens, I know the size, and then I just make my

judgment call on that.

For today’s job, generally, profile or three-quarter

profile in front of them. But the competitors set the

speed in this one and, unfortunately for me, there were

a lot of fit kids swimming tonight.

Ed: So that’s it … you’re not looking at a monitor to

know what’s been shot and therefore making those

judgments; you’re just looking at the camera operator

and feeling what she wanted?

Simon: Often I have a monitor on the sets – more

in the movies – but if you’ve been doing it long enough,

you know the lenses, you know the field of view and

you make your own decisions – “I think we got it.”

Ed: And this particular dolly arrangement that you’ve

got set up here, is that something that you would also

use in the film industry, or is it a bit lightweight for

that?

Simon: No, this is definitely a lightweight one

because of the length of the track and because we were

going to be travelling back and forth so often.

The bigger dollys, like the Chapman Hybrid or Fisher

10, would just be too heavy to be pushing backwards

and forwards at that speed all day. You’d need a team

of grips.

Ed: Not just one super grip?

Simon: Ha ha, Not just one broken-down old grip.

So yes, it was a lightweight dolly.

Ed: Did you always want to be a grip or where have

you come from?

Simon: I came from a theatre background. I

started off in theatre at a very young age through my

parents, starting as a stage hand then becoming a fly

floor technician doing all the rigging.

I toured with a few shows and then sort of edged my

way into film, found the gripping side was very similar

in a lot of ways to the theatre technician, and I’ve been

here ever since.

Ed: So it’s a myriad of talents that you have – you

could also work in the theatre as well as film or

television?

Simon: I think there’s a general crossover because

of the rigging involved – know your knots, know your

rigging. But they are both, highly skilled areas of

expertise.

Ed: What does the line producer look for when they

are wanting to set something up? What do they ask

you as the grip, or do they just tell you what they want?

Simon: In a job like this, it’s set. They know they

want 50 metre of track right down the end of the pool

following the athletes.

More often you will go on a reccie with the Director and

DOP, they have their vision and they tell you what they

desire and …

Ed: You tell them what’s possible?

Simon: We say “yes sir, we’ll make it happen.”

Ed: Uh-huh – is it that easy?

Simon: Trying to make it look easy – that’s the

magic.

Ed: Which other of Dennis’ toys do you get to use?

Simon: I’ve worked in conjunction with Dennis for

a very, very long time and been able to use most of his

toys. He’s got cranes, sliders, dollies, technodollies,

technocrane’s, helicopter mount’s, you name it …

Ed: So can you operate that technocrane?

Simon: Oh yes, we do it often. I’ve got it on

tomorrow – a 50 footer out at Bethels. We use them all

the time. More so in movies of course, but big

commercials will often have the budget for them and

they’re a great tool.

Ed: So you’ve got to go home and have a good sleep

now?

Simon: I’ve still got to wrap out that track!! Then

home to bed. 05.30 call at Bethels tomorrow so up

before the birds ...

Ed: I’d better let you get on with it.

Simon: Thank you sir.

In overall charge “poolside” was Janine Hancock –

probably the most important person in this whole

operation, because without Janine who is a production

manager and floor manager from Sky Sport …?

Janine: Yes, I’m doing both tonight.

The production has taken us probably about 4 weeks to

get this all going, organising all the crew, the camera

people, the audio people, and then also having to

organise the dolly track that runs alongside the pool, as

well as liaising with New Zealand Swimming to make

sure that they get what they want from us.

Ed: So New Zealand Swimming is the primary client?

Janine: Yes they are, that’s correct.

Ed: And then it goes up onto Sky Sport, so it’s got to

look good for the punters too?

Janine: Well it does. We were backwards and

forwards talking to New Zealand Swimming about how

this event runs, because it’s quite different from the

New Zealand Opens where we normally have heats in

the mornings and finals in the afternoon, but this is just

straight finals and quite a fun event for them as well.

So it’s something a bit different on TV also; we’re

waiting for points to come through for teams; as it

happens, it’s updated. And, as you saw at the end of

the event, we get quite a bit of excitement with the

relays and then only get the final totals towards the end

of the night.

Ed: Have you done one of these before?

Janine: Yes, I’m actually a swimming mum. So I

know swimming inside out. I’ve got a son in the State

swimming team.

Ed: You’ve been on that side of it, but

have you been on the production side for

Sky before, doing this same job?

Janine: Oh yes, I’ve been at Sky for

14 years. I’ve been in production only

for about 3 years, but I was also at OSB,

so I’ve been on their side of it as well.

You move around with Sky, it’s good. I’ll

probably stay in production for a while –

I love it.

Ed: So really it’s taken you a month

just to do this one production?

Janine: Yes, but in the meantime,

I’ve had other ones on the go.

Ed: I was wondering that they’d let

you have a whole month to do one

evening’s swimming. It doesn’t work like

that?

Janine: Absolutely not, no, you’ve

got several on the go at one time, so I’ve

Janine pool side.

got bowls on and I’ve got rowing events.

The rowing event isn’t live, but you’ve

still got ENG camera crew going down

and reporters and things, so they’ve all

got to be organised as well and transport

and accommodation and so forth.

It’s been busy. We did baseball back in

January and that was only 2 weeks to

organise that one, but it was fun, it’s

good. We’ve got a crew of about 9

production managers in the office and

everyone gets assigned different jobs

and sports to do.

So there’s someone who does the Super

Rugby starting, and that’s a huge job;

and then we’ll have others who do the

Netball and the League and so forth.

Ed: So apart from the 50 metre track

that Simon was operating this evening,

was there anything else that was special

about this particular event … I know

there was a slo-mo camera on the dolly?

Janine: Yes, we often have slo-mo cameras for

sports events.

With the cricket, you’ve got the drone happening now.

We can’t afford to have the Spidercam happening in

New Zealand; you see that a lot in America, but no, not

here. Just the slo-mos here.

We had a special camera up on the diving board that

looked through, and that took the whole pool complex,

so that gave us a good view as well of the whole event.

Ed: When are you going to have a submarine-cam?

Janine: There is one underwater. There was one

down the far end …

Ed: No, one that tracks them underwater?

Janine: Oh tracks underneath … that would be cool,

that would be awesome. I’ll have to tell the boss about

that one.

Ed: Well we could look forward to that next year

possibly?

Janine: We could, we could indeed.

Ed: But it could interfere with the swimmers – they

might think it’s a Great White!

Janine: It could yes – it might put them off.

Ed: I also notice that you were using the natural light

here. When the event started, you must have had

some daylight coming in, and then mixed with the …

well, what are these lights, they look like sodium

vapour some of them?

Janine: We have people in the truck who are

looking at the vision and making sure that it’s correct

and stays sort of the same all the way.

So yes, there are people in the truck who do that.

Ed: You don’t have to worry about lighting?

Janine: No, I’ve got enough to worry about on the

floor.

Ed: And it all went smoothly, everybody did what

they were supposed to at the right times?

Janine: Well it did; we had a fire drill to start with,

so we just made it on air …

Ed: You had a fire drill where – in the pool?

Janine: In the pool, the whole pool complex got

evacuated right through to the other pool.

Not good – 4 fire engines turned up, so it was very busy

for a while, but we managed to get on air and it was all

fine.

Rest assured, no swimmers or crew were harmed and

the event went off without further interruption. NZVN

A Sky crew in action.

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I have some Questions for you.But let's start with a grizzle which I'm surely allowed at

my age. What do I have to grizzle about? - lack of

feedback from YOU, dear readers.

I really do want some indication of the sort of stories /

articles / information you would like us to present. Last

month I asked for someone who does lots of web stuff

to contact me so we could do a story on codecs,

compression and delivery.

How many responses did I get? None.

I think that there are many of us ( me included ) who

would like to hear from someone who has made the

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because others have shared with you over the years

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This also goes for any other expertise you might have

gained through research or experience, especially in

areas where you have seen or heard others making

mistakes. Some people may not heed your advice, and

they may have their reasons, but others will be most

grateful for someone telling them a good tip or trick.

For example, I recently spoke with someone who was

about to order some very pricy colour balance cards so

that he could white balance his camera to give warm orcold looks. Not having a critical requirement, I

suggested that an A4 sheet of pale yellow and pale blue

120g paper will do a very good job for minimal outlay.

Am I right?

Product Reviews

I have been asked to do product reviews especially for

cameras. My response has always been "no"

because ...

1. it's a major job taking too much time to do it

well.

2. there are plenty of reports on the web to make

your own comparison judgement on

3. people use the same camera for different

purposes – often to give a "look" that may not be

one the manufacturer intended.

NZVN Policy Questions

1. do you agree with our policy not to publish press

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2. should we do reports on brands that are available

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