Category: industry notes

  • 3 Shoots in 3 States on 3 Video Formats

    This was a fun one. It’s not often that you get a chance to do three completely different jobs – all challenging and interesting – in three different states on the same day. Throw in three different video formats and you’ve got a party.

    8:30am – Philadelphia, PA – XDCAM EX

    I started with a media training shoot on XDCAM EX with my friends from Bellevue Communications Group. I shoot the trainees being interviewed and then we play them back for critique. The idea is to present them with a stressful scenario, train them to give appropriate answers and show them how to improve. The beauty of XDCAM EX is that I can shoot an interview, pull the card from the camera, pop it in my MacBook Pro, and play it back immediately in high definition. Sweet.

    2pm – Wilmington, DE – DVCAM

    Who doesn’t love a good mystery. My mid-day shoot was at the headquarters of TIGHAR, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. A media outlet in Toronto, Canada hired me to shoot an interview and b-roll with Ric Gillespie. He has spent the last several years trying to unlock the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in the South Pacific. Very, very interesting stuff. In a nutshell, Gillespie is using science to build the case that Earhart landed safely on an uninhabited island (Gardner Island, now Nikumaroro in the Republic of Kiribati), sent distress signals for several days, and eventually died there.

    5pm – Camden, NJ – BETACAM SP

    Philadelphia based Nobis Productions hired me to shoot a party to celebrate the achievements of Tom Corcoran and wish him well as he leaves his post as CEO and president of the Coopers Ferry Development Association in Camden, NJ. Corcoran was hired by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to head up the new Delaware River Waterfront Corporation. Corcoran and his team have spent the last 25 years developing Camden attractions like the Adventure Aquarium, The Susquehanna Bank Center, Campbell’s Field and the River Ferry to and from Philadelphia.

  • Dealing With Workflow

    I’m shooting a media training session today with the good folks from Bellevue Communications Group. We’ve been working together for several years now and they’re real pros.

    As we all make the transition to high definition video, we can expect many things to get easier and some things to throw us a curve. Issues arise from new workflows and that leads me to today’s shoot. After a few months of using tapeless cameras, I’m back to using my DVCAM gear. (more…)

  • Sony SxS Drivers Now Support Latest MacBook Pro

    Woo hoo! I bought a new MacBook Pro last fall in anticipation of a 5 camera XDCAM shoot at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. The EX series of XDCAM cameras are tapeless, storing their images on what is essentially an ExpressCard. All of that HD video data results in some pretty big files and that can mean long transfer times.

    Sony’s USB readers just don’t cut it compared to using the ExpressCard slot on a MacBook Pro. The problem is that Sony’s cards (they call them SxS cards) aren’t natively recognized by Mac OS X. I was crushed to find out that while the driver would install on my new MacBook Pro, it rendered the maching nearly unusable. With 5 cameras shooting for several hours, that can be a real problem. I had to suck it up and use the USB readers that we had.

    Well, now Sony has released version 1.0 of the SxS driver and I’m thrilled to report that it works perfectly with my MacBook Pro! I have had it installed for nearly a week with no issues of any kind.

    Happy ending. Happy editing.

  • Crime of the Century – Taking Pictures

    For people who make a living shooting stills and video, the pushback from law enforcement, cheap security guards and even the general public has long been an issue. The tourist has generally been left alone when it comes to snapping and taping in public places. Professionals, however, have always been harassed, intimidated and told to turn the camera off. But in this post 9/11 world things are spiraling out of control.

    Take the deliciously ironic story of Dwayne Kerzic, the man at the center of an uber-ridiculous photo-controversy. Kerzic was participating in an annual Amtrak photography contest that asks “shutterbugs” to photograph Amtrak trains and submit them for cash and notoriety. Seems harmless enough. (more…)