Blog Archives
Amazing 1 take steadycam video
Want to know what can be achieved with a camera mounted on a steadycam? Check this out. All filmed in 1 continuous take which makes it quite amazing.
Fonts for video projects
If your ever looking for fonts to enhance your video production then you may be interested in visiting this great site. There are hundreds of fantastic fonts which are really easy to download and add to your font library.
Some of the Fonts are chargeable for commercial / Free for personal use but there are a good number that are completely free to anyone to use.
There are great visuals of the font so you can get a good feel for what it will look like.
There is everything from cartoon to serious, fancy through to simple.
I’m off to use one I have just downloaded for my current video project.
Behind the scenes of Sous Productions video production – Values Based Education
A few images of the crew hard at work on a video production shoot. The video is all about Values – Based Education.
We filmed for 1 day covering the whole of the school day from arriving through assembly and classroom work. The video includes interviews with the students, teachers and external people such as parents.
The young pupils were fantastic if not slightly distracted by us using a Jib to shoot a number of the clips including the assembly. A very inspiring school and video subject.
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| Values-Based Education Video Shoot |
The video is also being published as a DVD for showing at conferences and schools around the world. You can see the video here… Values Based Education
Sous Productions
Sneak Preview – “What the hell is a Jib”?
YouTube – Sneak Preview – What the hell is a Jib Balancing.
Sous Productions spent a day down at our video equipment hire company, Mad Dogs Television in the New Forest last week filming “What the hell is a Jib”? and What the Hell is a Track and Dolly in what proved to be a fun and interesting days work. I am not sure we can really even call it work.
One of the things I found I was being asked a lot was exactly that question. What the hell is a Jib? So my colleagues and I decided we would set about answering that very question for you and the plan is to do a few more over a period of time. Time and funds allowing!
Our day started by arriving at Maddogs for around mid morning to meet Andy & James from Mad Dogs Television who were going to host us for the day. Mad Dogs provide most of my equipment hire needs and I know that Andy is an excell
ent Jib operator having used him on one of my recent projects.
The plan was to film the Jib and then a Track & Dolly being built while I ask Andy for some key about the value that each piece of equipment might bring to a clients production and also provide shots taken on the equipment to demonstrate what can be achieved.
James set up two timelapse cameras to record the full build (I hope to see the results later this week) while I had Ben Harding operating the PD170 to capture the build and conversations between Andy & I regarding the Jib. Of course, once the Jib was built we also had the shots coming from the Sony DSR camera mounted on to it.
To take full advantage of the occassion, I also wanted to take some pics on my iPhone and tweet as we went. Unfortunately this wasnt so easy as the reception in the new forest is not so good and I was rarely able to get enough signal but we did manage to get one or two pictures out.
The weather was threatening to let us down with a light but constant drizzle but by the time Andy had the Jib built and was ready to mount the camera, the sun came out to play.
With the all important balancing of the Jib completed we were ready to go. Andy provided examples of the camera drifting over foreground and in to a reveal with me doing a piece to both the static and Jib cameras. It amazed be how the 18 ft reach of the Jimmy Jib could look so graceful in motion and when I saw the resulting shots it looked even smoother again.
Andy went on to provide various other shots to create the effect of movement in the foreground to make a shot look more interesting that it would from a tripod mounted camera.
The day went extremely well. I am very pleased with the results although I now have a video somewhere in the region of 25 mins long and I only really want about 5 mins! I havent quite decided on how the edit will be styled but the basics are in place and below is a link to a short section to give you a flavor of what is contained.
Thank you to Ben Harding for his camera work and thank you to Mad Dogs Television for providing the equipment, location and skills to help get the film done.
Watch out for the post on the filming of the Track & Dolly. We also did a “What the hell is a Voice Over”? later in the day with Matt Hopper and I will be adding that video in to the series too.
If you have an recommendations on what items of equipment to include in our “What the hell is a “? series then let me know.
3 Ways to Leverage the Power of Online Video
Some interesting statistics in this article to support the need for using video to help in the promotion of your organisations products, services and events.
3 Ways to Leverage the Power of Online Video : Page 1 of 1 : Target Marketing##.
No one wants to see a grown man beg…
Oh it hurts not to win a new prospect.
I put my hand up here, I was definately smitten with this new potential client. I loved the concept of the promotional video they were discussing. I also liked the idea of this client (a corporate) being a business to build a long term relationship with and certainly there was the potential for this to happen.
Sadly, email received today has said the project wont being happening. Thankfully the email went to some length to explain that Sous Productions would indeed have been the preferred supplier and that the client was impressed with the approach, advice and support of Sous Productions.
I guess it helps to know we were well received but will I ever get over the disappointment of losing out on a new prospect? No. Probably not because truth is, it always matters.
Moving on!
Invoicing, terms & conditions
A presentation I listened to recently, reminded me of the importance of getting terms and conditions for you doing business with a client clear and upfront and way before you start pointing the video camera.
I am glad to say I have not so far had any real issues but that is not to say they wont happen. I have heard many stories from companies of all types not just video production, where they have been left with bad debtors or seriously overdue accounts.
For example, a video production that includes all the post production editing can leave you at risk. There are productions that need the camera work to be done quickly due to any number of circumstances but you can find that the post production editing can go on way beyond reasonable timescales.
I did a one day shoot on location in London recently. The bulk of the editing only took a day but it has been a month on and I still don’t have all the details to go on the closing screen to close off the video.
In this particular case the invoicing terms were in fact agreed up front and I have not been overly exposed financially but it could so easily have been a different story. If you have to cover the costs of crew and equipment hire then this will seriously impact on your cash flow and cash flow can be a business killer.
To ensure you don’t fall foul, here are my top tips on managing your payment terms if you have not already done so.
Put all your term and conditions on your quotations. Spell out the payment timescales be they 7 days, 14 days or 30 days etc. You may also like to arrange stage payments such as Invoicing for the production work and the final invoice after the editing is completed. Another common approach in other industries is to get a % payment up front before you even lift your cameras out of their cases.
Check the purchase order: When you receive the purchase order check to see if your payment terms have been detailed or if the client has overridden them with their own standard terms. If you don’t take up issue with this now you will have significantly less chance later on to argue that your invoice is due.
Accounts contact info: Make sure you obtain the specific contact details of where the invoice is to go and who it will be paid by. Companies love to use the excuse that the invoice was sent to the wrong place. If you can get an email address and send it direct to it that’s even better.
Repeat terms and conditions on your Invoice. Make sure your terms & conditions are carried consistently all the way through to the invoice. Make the payment terms and your account details very easy to see.
Check it was received and that all the information is correct. If the accounts team tell you it is all OK they wont have any comeback.
Know when payment go on the system: Most companies will not start the payment clock untill the invoice is on the system. Just because you have sent it doesn’t mean the clock is already counting down your 14 days.
Check in advance: Advance calls to check all is OK with the invoice payment schedule will establish if there are any problems in advance of the payment date. Ask if the invoice is on the payment run and what date payment will be.
Put payment due dates in your diary: If you can be organised enough, I would recommend that you put a date in your calendar to remind you when payments are due. Check your bank account and if there is any delay then get on top of it as quickly as possible.
Throughout this process remain polite and professional. Make an effort to get on well with the clients account payable team. You are perfectly entitled to ensure your payment will be on time just as your client is entitled to ensure you will deliver your finished video on time and on budget.
Let me know if you have any stories, positive and negative that might help others get a better grip on their finances.
Duncan
Video Case Study – Editing Stage
Live project being edited
Draft v1 of the video case study is done and uploaded to YouTube for client to view and comment. I am editing for the 1st time in Adobe Premiere CS4 and so far so good. There are few things I havent quite figured but I am getting round them well enough.
The client has given me some guideline instructions on what is required for the video by indicating the shots he would like to see used which is really helpful and I am glad to say I agree with the majority of the selections. I have dropped in some of my own thinking such as the design of the title block for the person being interviewed. I have also created a 2nd version of the video with a music track which the client hasn’t done before so it will be interesting to see if that gets accepted. I think it really adds an important depth to the video.
I get the majority of my royalty free music from www.shockwave-sound.com and they have never let me down.
The tricky bit with setting in music is getting the volume levels right throughout. You need to have enough of the music to get the benefit of it being there but you have to keep the volume at just the right level when the interviewee is talking so that it doesn’t drown them out. I also need to play a bit more on the speed by which you put the volume levels up and down between the person speaking. DJ’s do it really well on radio!
YouTube encoding
I used the in-built encoding standard for YouTube. I’m not sure I think the quality is right and it may need a bit of customising to get it right. What I am impressed with is the speed it did the encoding. It’s only a 5 min video but my i7 64 bit processor just flew through it. I have a private account on YouTube where I upload the video to and the client can watch the video through and provide me verbal or written feedback.
Will update the project shortly and provide some images from the video.
Video shoot at new RFU offices in Twickenham
What a beautiful sunny day to film. I met my cameraman for the day, Steve and made our way to the offices. Soon realised we would have to carry all the kit from car park to offices as you can’t pull up right outside. It’s quite an impressive place and certainly a lot more attractive outside than the old perimeter fencing that used to be there.
Shoot went fairly well although I think somethings could be improved on. We should always feel that way I think. Always good to learn and think of even better ways for next time.
The bright sun was quite low and did present some exposure issues for Steve but created some nice shadows that I feel added nicely to some of the shots. It’s a fairly busy working environment so all the usual problems of working around people had to be considered but I don’t think we caused too many problems.
I think my main lesson was that the Steadicam wasnt the best tool for the job of filming in office interior. It might be that better results could be achieved but I suspect it is just not as good as track and dolly for getting moving shots in among static walls and furniture etc. Be interested in other peoples experiences.
Steve, had an awkwardness about him when using the steadicam which mainly comes from being positioned on the wrong side of it and forcing him to cross legs as he walked and I struggled to get him to change his positioning.
The interview went well. The subject did a great job and we didn’t really have to do much in the way of retakes which really sped up the process.
Below is a selection of shots from the day:
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