New Corporate Video & DSLR's

A bit of a late New Years update here. My latest video is now on line, A corporate how to video for Ian Kenny Framing Ltd. It is by no means the most exciting video ever made but it served as a good opportunity to work using a DSLR and assess its strengths and weaknesses. So here's my take.

First of all the pros. It is small and light and because it is a stills camera it doesn't freak people as much as a prosumer cam corder. You have the ability to change lenses which is huge if you are a no budget filmmaker. You have full 1080p at 25fps and 720p at 50fps. You also have a small file size due to it using the H.264 compression standard, so you roughly get 47mins on a 16GB HCSD card or compact flash.

Now the Cons. Useability is the main problem. Your hand has to be really steady when attempting handheld. I tend to strap a monopod to it for a bit of a counter weight. Most serious DSLR users buy a rig to combat this issue but this eliminates the compactness of the camera. Also the controls are hard to work with at times. Since you are working with white balance presets it is common to not have your balance correct. This happened a couple of times in this video and it is easily rectified in editing so its no biggy as long as the balance isn't way off. The biggest and most limiting con for me is you can't control the sound levels. So if you want seriously good sound you need to invest in a digital recorder like the Zoom H4n or if you are loaded a 4-channel Marantz. This again is a problem because you'll have to make sure to mark your shots every time (which you should do anyway) and realistically you'll need a second member of crew to act as a sound operator. It could be possible to do all of this yourself but it would slow you down and I guarantee that you'll fuck something up at least once. The final issue is that you are limited to a 12 minute clip length. This is only an issue in some instances when working on a documentary but when filming live it can cause a lot of fucking about trying to get the synch correct in editing.For a live performance I would not even thing about using a bunch of DSLR's to film the entire thing.

My overall impression is that DSLR's are another piece of the puzzle for a professional looking video/short/documentary. They are not the answer and anyone who says otherwise is just a fanboy of the tech. If you view yourself as a professional you have to look at equipment with an objective eye. I think the closest we have to the total solution is Panasonics new prosumer model but at £4,000 is it really that much better than a £700 to £1,300 DSLR I am unsure. Rant over now back to the video.



As you can see the video quality is immense. What you see is more or less unaltered from what was actually shot. As for the actual content of the video it does the job. It shows what it needs to and fits the brief. I think I actually liked the making of it more than the end result. It was pretty laid back and meeting the guys Andrew and Craig was fun. The only other thing I'd like to add is that you can tell by the Rangers shirts being mounted that it was filmed in Larkhall. I was tempted to colour replace the shirts with green in editing. I'm sure that would have went down well with the locals. Till next time, cheers.

Hard Rock Hell IV + HRH V promo, Attica Rage videos

I am roughly two weeks removed from returning back from Hard Rock Hell IV on what is most likely my final festival/road trip with Attica Rage. It has been a fun ride but everything has to come to an end and it certainly finished in style. By style I'm meaning a 3 camera shoot of Attica's main stage opening set which will hopefully be additional content with the rockumentary film, due hopefully some point around the summer. In the mean time here are a couple of tracks. Thanks goes out to Roddy MacAudio for making the videos sound pretty damn good with his technical wizardry.





As well as filming Attica at the festival I was given the job of preparing the trailer for next years festival. So I managed to film bits of Airbourne (who were awsome by the way), UFO, MSG, and Skidrow. I also got to film Saxon, helping out a crew filming a documentary for UKTV/channel 4 which I believe was a complete waste of my time since they haven't contacted me about the footage. Overall I wasn't impressed with their conduct especially when the dude running things pulled me out of the pit while I was filming, completely uncaring of the fact that I am also shooting the HRH promo video. Overall it hasn't helped improve my opinion of industry people any. Typically the technical crew are sound, directors and producers are difficult (for the most part at least). It leaves me thinking that maybe being independant is a better fit for me than working for institutions like the BBC/ITV (not that they're knocking on my door anyway).

It's unfortunate I didn't get to see more stuff and chill out at the festival but at the end of the day if any of this stuff opens a door or a window it is worth the stress.

So since returning I've been snowed in, editing stuff. I've got my second corporate video near completion for Ian Kenny Framing Ltd. (guess what they do!) a local owned company operating between Larkhall and Hamilton. The video has allowed me to experiment with the Canon 550D and the results have been quite good so far. It is by no means the greatest corporate video ever made but it does he job.

So that is more or less me. I'll just leave this post by saying Merry (and hopefully sober) Christmas and I'll hopefully update this thing in the New Year. Cheers.