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Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5 for the Mac

Well it’s a whole new world… FCP is, well, X’d… Like many others I’ve been clinging to my FCP 7 but with the announcement of Apple shutting down any future support or development for Color and many of the short comings of FCP X I am looking to other NLE possabilities.

After looking into many options I decided I wanted to find a “bundled” package similar to Final Cut Studio – Enter Adobe’s Production Premium Bundle: Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and the list goes on and on. I had been waffling because I didn’t want to spend the $1500 full street price and just then Adobe dropped the crossover price to $850 – Yeah!!! So I downloaded the 30 day free trial. (If you do this, make the time to give it a real good try. I was put off the first afternoon because I didn’t give it enough time to set in to my way of thinking.) I can officially say that after 3 weeks of testing and learning I have made leap and bought the bundle.

The cool things for me are round tripping with After Effects, Photoshop and Audition. Also the importability with many different CODECs and formats. I just dropped a bunch of footage from my EX3 in after choosing the right sequence settings and there it was in realtime – pretty nice.

I’m using mine on an older MacPro (2006) tower 2.66 Quad Core with a Black Magic Design Intensity Pro video output card. I just upgraded the driver to 8.2.1 and it seems to work fine. I’m going to upgrade the CPU soon and add an NVIDIA FX4800 GPU card to activate the Mercury Engine features of the package. I hope to have more info on that soon. For the mean time I am putting it up against my FCP 7 package and working through the similarities and differences. So far so good.

Until next time, good shooting or editing

TDTrey.com

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Porta-Jib Explorer

I have been following the Porta-Jib product lines for a few years now and am constantly impressed with each new creative tool they come up with. Most of my work revolves around talking head and product shoots. And usually are steeped in a long shot list with a short time frame. Creativity is generally the first casualty of the shooting day. With the Explorer system, I’m finding I can “buy back” some creativity / inspiration without much cost to the day.

I recently used the Explorer on a car review for Kelly Blue Book and was extremely pleased. The director said “Sure. Bring it along. But I don’t want to be slowed down or have to sacrifice shots while you are fiddling with adjustments.” I’m happy to report we finished 15 minutes early and had at least 5 extra shots in the can. He loved it!!! We never came off the system. We did both JIB shots and then worked the heck out of the TROLLEY / SLIDER config.

I’ve used the system with everything from a SONY Z7 to a SONY F3. (And that includes my 5Dmk2 and EX3). The Explorer system seems right at home in any environment. I see this system as a fantastically versatile opportunity to recapture some of the excitement and creativity we all enjoyed when we were first starting out.

Thanks Mark and Scott. Great Job!!!

Check out my video review – Trey’s Gear Review: Porta-Jib Explorer

Until next time, good shooting =)

TDTrey.com

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IR filters for the Sony EX cameras

Defining the problem
If you have used the Sony EX1 or EX3 in a setting with black or gray fabrics you may have seen a magenta shift in the picture. One little catch with the new Exmore sensors is they have a big sensitivity toward the Infra Red (IR) spectrum. We did a bit of testing here and found a good workaround with some screw-on IR filters.

As you can see in the pictures the uncorrected shirts have pretty a good magenta shift. The set is lit with one Diva 400 at 3200k. We found in interview settings under either 3200k or 5600k the shift still happens. We talked to a few filter manufacturers and narrowed it down to Tiffen and Schneider. Both had nice offerings for IR filters. Tiffen has their series call Hot Mirrors and Schneider suggests the 77E IR cut (486). We found that the 77E (486) worked the best on both our EX1’s and then the EX3’s. So far we have not noticed a need for the IR filters on our Sony F3. Yay =) Originally the 486 was sold as the best filter for the RED and the Hot Mirrors were the best for the EX cameras but as we tested the opposite was true and that’s why we went with the 77E (486) for our cameras.

Care and Handeling
At first we were putting the filters on when we saw the problem and then removing them after the shoot as they are almost $300 each… After a while we realized the potential to damage the filter when adding or removing it was greater than just replacing our UV filters with the IR filters permanently.

Playing well with others
The filters seem to work well in conjunction with other filters and 4x4s in line. We have had no problems using the IR filters and screwing our Polarizers on in front of the IR.

Best of luck with your filters and lens kits.

Until next time, good shooting.

TDTrey.com

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5DmkII All Grown Up

So since my last entry for the 5D I have added a few new goodies to the rig… As you can see (kind of) I have the whole enchalada mounted in an cage (love it) which makes grabbing this camera and using it a dream. The cage is made by Easom and this particular version is called the Halo. It provides 2 ribs for connecting the upper and lower sections and I have them staggered here. Their other model called the Solo has only 1 rib – an equally nice cage. Also I found a great D-Tap power distribution company: Hawk-Woods in the UK. They sell a kit that allows you to use you V-mount batteries with DSLRs by way of voltage regulating the power with the adapter that goes into your camera where the battery fits. Now I power my camera, monitor and any other goodies from a single B4B V-mount battery. This is a mid sized battery 6Ah/90Wh and lasts about 2 to 3 hours each.

To go with the “all growed up” look I added my RedRock follow focus and CA Vision matte box. I had to go up to 18″ rods to make everything fit and balance out but it all sits there nicely now. I put a small Pony clamp on the back of the cage handle and slid both of my Sennheiser wireless receivers on there for a tight cable package. I used XLR splitters to feed the mic’s outputs to both the ZOOM and the 5D at moc level. There is an XLR to stereo mini adapter cable in there going into the 5D itself.

Rounding out the system I have a Zoom H4n mounted to another part of the cage and my Marshall monitor is being held on my a Manfrotto mid sized articulating arm. It all fits… and comes in at about 16.2 Lbs…. ouch =) I have another Noga arm on order that should drop a pound or two off the total weight of the package. I’ll keep you posted.

TDTrey.com

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www.filmmakingwebinars.com

This new and not new site is terrific!!! They offer really helpful tips and tricks on digital film making, media managing and all sorts of other great tools for aspiring movie makers. So, I’m a little biased… they have asked me to do a segment on corporate events and how to cover them ENG style.

This company is a part of NewMediaWebinars.com which has been around for some time. Great work on bring info to the masses. This particular webinar that I am doing will focus on the steps used to do a successful coverage of a corporate event or retreat. We will talk about planing the shooting days out. Shooting for the edit. Camera choices and media management techniques. It should be helpful for viewer of all skill levels =)

The Webinar will be live February 17th from 10am to 11:30am PST and the be available for download starting the next day. There will be a small price for the download version but you will get a lot of extras that won’t be in the initial live airing. To listen and view check out www.filmmakingwebinars.com for all the latest info.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time,

TDTrey.com

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ZOOM H4n Digital Recorder

Recently got to use the new ZOOM H4n on a project to track GOPRO cameras in a car interior setting – Worked great. We first used them with the internal mics place near the interviewee – that worked OK but had a little too much road noise. Plan B, we already had the people miked from the other part of the interview process with Lectrsonic 195 systems so we just added the ZOOMs to our field mixer bags and set those in the back seat during the “on-the-road” interviews and used hand claps to sync them up later. Sounded great.

Things we learned:

  • 4gig – class 4 cards were fine
  • 48/16 WAV files fit right into the edit
  • Batteries would last almost all day – 10 hours
  • New front panel design was much easier to read and operate
  • Mic level in to the XLRs from the mixers worked great*
  • Gain staging mixer to H4n had plenty of wiggle and head room
  • Make sure you don’t bump the MIC/1&2 buttons – Silence… OOPs
*In preparation I had done a lot of reading up on the new H4n and most said “no line in”. I understand the combo inputs are designed to accommodate HIGH impedance signals from guitars and basses 10k. Well I did some testing after the shoot, -10 line out of my FP33 @ 0vu yielded a nice signal when the record levels on the ZOOM are set relatively low. No sonic coloration that I could hear – Tone and Dialog.

I have the H2 and the H4n. The H2 stays with my FP33 as a piggy back dual system recorder and the H4n stays with the 5Dm2. Nice kit to have…

TDTrey.com

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My 5D Mark II has arrived !!!

OK OK… So I held off as long as I could. The first time I saw the photos of the all rigged out 5DmkII I thought WOW!!! Then I told myself I was just judging a book by it’s cover. It looks very cool — but it’s not ready for video yet.

So I waited, patiently, with my EX1 and EX3 by my side. My trusty LETUS 35 Extreme always ready… Then it started happened. People I knew started asking for or using the 5D and 7D on their projects. TV shows started using them. Canon released the firmware updated for the 5D — now it was a whole different ballgame. Workable frame rates, better control over the sound (even if it’s just a scratch track in most cases) and Zeiss has adopted the EOS platform as a real entity. All hail the CP.2 lens set…where’s that winning lottery ticket….

I’m now into my third week of owning a 5DMKII. It took a week to figure out how to get it into video mode. My first subject – my big toe… Got almost a minute and a half out of that. Next it was on to real uses. I re-configured my RedRock rod system and V2 follow focus from the EX3 to work with the Canon 24 -70 2.8 L lens that I bought. Worked out the mount for my 7″ Marshall monitor and tracked down the elusive spare Canon LP-E6 batteries. I was able to make my CA Vision matte box just fit the tall form factor of the 5D with the battery grip on it.

I’m off to the races — or in this case an art showing for a friend to shoot a couple of interviews for the event. They turn out really pretty good considering the room was packed and I used only the light from a hanging PAR 64 blasting the art on the walls. I put the interviewees about 4 feet in front on the art and me about 3 feet in front of them. Not your ideal ratio – but it’s what the room could handle. The DoF was not bad when I looked at the footage later. Important safety tip Egone… Just because you can go WFO with these lenses on the 5D and get everything really shallow – doesn’t mean you should. The first interview went great because the interviewee stood still — at ƒ2.8. The second person repeatedly leaned in to make her points. I didn’t think it was that far… but she fell in and out of focus slightly through out the interview. To do it over, I would set my focal plane more forward or shoot an ƒ4.0. Still a good first outing.

I’ll keep you all posted. Should be a fun learning curve. Have a great weekend.

TDTrey.com

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To DIVA or not to DIVA… That was the question.

I have been working with tungsten based lighting forever and just recently got into KinoFlos and LED technology. Wow what a difference. Each technology has it strong points. I still love the way my open face pars wrap around people and objects — but the flexibility of the Divas to conform to any situation is really great. The instant color change out and the dimming capability is perfect for almost everything.

As more and more LED instruments are available we are certainly working in a great time for lighting. But, I believe you will still need some good fire power to keep up with daylight spilling into (or onto) your set if there’s no way to control it. The LEDs continue working there way up to the power of the Divas and the brute force of a Mighty Mole (at a reasonable price point) but will need a little more time to get there. Please send in a comment or suggestion if you know of some reasonably prices LED solutions out there in the 1K & 2K power range…

The bottom line is to use the instruments that work for you — but also to be open to new technology when it comes to lighting. I recently bought two DIVA 400s from a friend and love using them. They compliment my tungsten kits perfectly. I’m a little late to the game for this config, but keying with 56K and using 32K for kickers and background is an awesome combination. Plays really nice in mixed light situations. And, you get full “poop” out of all your instruments. Very cool…

‘Til next time,

TDTrey.com