NZVN August 2014

AUGUST 2014 Vol 205

Get Your Feet a’Tapping

Ed: We won’t go too far into politics here Gerard, but

I’m sure there are a lot of people on our side of the

screen who would agree with you. But that’s it, isn’t it –

you’ve got to get a return for what you do and to do 250

episodes, you must have been able to convince your

We are in the studios of The Beat Goes On with the host,

founder and bon vivant, Gerard Smith. I’m here because

Gerard’s been around a long time – so have I; NZ Video

News has published its 200th newspaper, but Gerard has

now done over 250 weekly television chat shows, in fact,

he produces the longest running chat show in New

Zealand.

Ed: Gerard, you’ve been on the air for decades and

you’re still looking gorgeous?

Gerard: Oh thank you Grant. If you hadn’t put that

little part in I don’t think I would have continued! We’re

still going … I feel like the Energiser bunny. Why do we

keep going? That’s the bigger question isn’t it? We keep

going because we do love having a weekly television

show with all the peripheral activity surrounding that one

hour of putting out a show every week – the new guests

that come in, the regulars – there’s just a good swirl of

happening and it keeps life interesting.

Ed: Really, to keep going after 250 shows, you must

have a successful formula?

Gerard: There is a formula working. There are

basically two formulas working in New Zealand – you can

go the New Zealand On Air route. That’s that journey

and you go with an idea and they give you up to $50,000

an episode for 13 weeks, and away you go. But there’s

never any guarantee that you’ll ever be renewed or you’ll

get back on that station again. So you’re at the mercy of

the whims of the constantly changing bureaucrats all the

time. Most shows are stopped before they properly

evolve.

The other formula, the way we do it, is that we take an

idea and we get out and sell it in the hard, cold, ruthless

marketplace – the place that New Zealand On Air is

supposed to protect you from!

there, and that’s how you keep your audience or youbuild your audience, by always being there 45 weeks ofthe year.

Ed: Now, the hard question is, how can you produce a

weekly programme like this, which is a commercial hour,

and there’s not a lot of advertising time taken off that, so

it is pretty close to that hour, and you produce it for a

very small budget and you do it week after week? Where

do you think other people are spending excessive

amounts to make their programmes?

Gerard: “Haha”, he laughed defensively.

Ed: Well, your workplace is also your home. That’s

one, a large part of your home is the studio here …?

Gerard: Well there’s a saving for a kick-off. I thinkthe next thing is to edit the show yourself. Editing can

be very expensive and, of course, to edit ashow that’s 1 hour long, we’re talking 20-30 hours of work, so if I edit the showthere’s a big saving.

Ed: So you’re not paying yourself a hugeamount for your own editing time?

Gerard: Not really. Just a good living.

Ed: Nice desk ... did you get it new?

Gerard: Not new in fact, and a bigthanks to TVNZ and their currentrefurbishment. We intercepted the truckon the way to the tip. Desks, chairs,tables, all sorts.

Ed: And I must say that the lighting here… to be kind, shall we say it’s “industrial”?

Gerard: Ooh you are so cruel Grant.You’ve mentioned that unkind word before… yes, but it does the job.

Ed: It’s not what one would call“professional lighting”, but the way you’vegot it set up, I would say that anybody who

watches the programme would not pooh-pooh thelighting, you know, unless you’re looking at it supercritically. There is a bit of a shine sometimes on certainpresenters’ pates, but …?

Gerard: That’s my trademark. Bald is beautiful.

Ed: Okay, and now your three cameras. You boughtthese new, they’re high definition at the minimum levelbut still, for the market, for Face TV, for the level ofbroadcast you’re at, they work?

Gerard: My Panasonic’s, love them.

Ed: And monitoring, I see some good old CRT monitorsover there?

Gerard: Yes, yes, we are replacing them very soonby mounting large screens on the wall, but it’s one ofthose sorts of jobs that you mean to do every week, andyou never get round to it. We have made a couple ofcalls to start the process.

Ed: Your headphones look very domestic, everything’sdone by cable, but you are able to keep going because

P8 Activity in the Deep South.

P16 EDIUS in Action.

P24 And the Winner is … continues.

DISPLAY & CLASSIFIED ADVERTBOOKINGS BY WED 3 SEPT

ADVERT COPY BY FRI 5 SEPTUP ON THE WEB BY FRI 12 SEPT

Go www.finnzed.co.nz and follow the link to NZVN for more news.

advertisers that this is a worthwhile place to put their

advertising dollar. The advertisers must have seen a

return?

Gerard: Well, we’ve got two regular advertisers whohave been with us for six years and they don’t advertisewith us because they like Gerard Smith; they advertisewith us because they’re getting results, and that’s whatit’s all about. Companies are very careful with theirmoney and, if it’s not giving them a result, they’re notgoing to come back. One advertiser is a travel companyand travel is a big baby boomer product. Baby boomersretire and they’ve got money in the bank and theytravel. There are some industries that we could go toand they wouldn’t even look at us, because they’re notbaby boomer oriented. We don’t operate in theirdemographic.

Ed: Face TV is where one finds your shows and I’msure that there are a lot of people out there who havenever tuned in to Face TV, but they’re missingsomething?

Gerard: Of course they’re missing something Grant.Every week they’re missing a great one hour weeklychat show for people over the age of 50.

Ed: But, having said that, the types of programmethat are on Face TV really are niche programmes. It’s asmall audience, but it’s an audience that you’vecaptured for The Beat Goes On?

Gerard: It is a small audience – you know possiblyin the six years we’ve had about 150,000 baby boomersat some time watch The Beat Goes On. That’s certainlynot 150,000 watching every week, but it’s maybe 10-15,000 watch every week, but a year later it can be adifferent 10-15,000. People come and go, but what I’vealways tried to say about The Beat Goes On is what Icall the “Coronation Street Syndrome” – that it’s always

Sir Bob Jones being nice to Gerard.

Phone: 09 302 4100 Email: [email protected] Website: www.kelpls.co.nz

The new Slider Stand from Matthews.

A strong, wide-based stand with a low working height for those using camera Sliders, Monitors, Speed Rail/Pipe Dolly etc.

Working Height 61cm to 117cm

Operating Capacity 36.3 kg

Incredibly stable with dual adjustable legs

Stylish Aerospace Inspired design

Welded Junior (1-1/8") Receiver

Stand Adapters can convert to; (sold separately) o 5/8" baby pin (16mm) o 3/8" Tripod Mount o 5/8" Magic Finger

“Try this, you’ll like it, I guarantee it” Ed Philips, CEO Matthews.

Matthews Range Price Reduction @ PLS Thanks to the currently high NZ Dollar we’ve revised our prices

across the entire Matthews range. Contact us for a quote now.

Works great with the big lights and pairs well with the new DIT Laptop tray

you haven’t gone crazy and spent a huge amount ofmoney on equipment that you’re not getting a returnon. Have you learnt from past experiences?

Gerard: The less said about that the better ( helaughed defensively.)

Ed: Alright, so with the success of The Beat Goes On,this has encouraged you to branch out into other areas.What else have you started?

Gerard: We do a wedding show now, we do a showon cars – Automotive News; Shane, who was on TheBeat Goes On for the whole six years, he now has hisown show. It’s called Rockin’ the Planet and everyweek we film a band at the Commerce Club in Remuera,then they come into the studio some days later for aninterview with Shane and then it’s all weaved together.I love doing that show, it’s great, because I’m an oldmuso from way back.

Ed: So are they groups that the baby boomers know?

Gerard: We rang up Cold Play and they said no. Wejust get very good New Zealand bands that are outthere in the hinterland, playing fabulous music everyweek, but of course the way the television service is inNew Zealand, they never get anymainstream recognition … I’m talkingabout groups like the Flaming Mudcats,Roundhouse, Che Orton or the GrooveDiggers – absolutely fabulous bands.You just stand there in awe and you go“Wow, here are these great bands andnobody’s ever heard about them.” Butthey’re out there, and they’ve got theirfan base and they are the people thatfollow them, but they just haven’t hadthe coverage. The New ZealandTelevision Service, which is supposed tofeature New Zealanders on air, has badlylet them down.

Ed: So when you look at the cost ofproducing this sort of show, it’s obviouslyprohibitive on the main channels forthese smaller bands, but in the workflowthat you’ve developed here with TheBeat Goes On, this is the sort of show that you can do?

Gerard: Well it’s a formula – it doesn’t matter what

the topic is. We’ve got a real estate show starting in

July; we’ve got a Pacific show starting. When the

people talk to us, we know that this is the price that we

can produce a programme for and they are astounded

that we can do it at such a price and yet make a very

good programme for them.

Ed: But that’s not to say that all of these programmes

are going to succeed long-term are they Gerard?

Gerard: Well the reality is that 9 out of 10 will work

on a long-term basis.

Ed: You can tell Gerard is an optimist.

Gerard: They do … when I say “work”, we can do

runs with these programmes. We might do 20 at a time

and then we regroup to resell the advertising and

they’re back again the following year, because once

you’ve established the two presenters that are on the

show, they also become drivers of the show. So it’s not

just you, it’s the people who are the presenters on

these shows; they’re itching to get going again. They

grow to love doing their programme.

Ed: And you’ve got to have a passion for it, don’t you.

If you’re just looking at the dollars and cents you

wouldn’t do it?

Gerard: No, you wouldn’t do it. It’s a good lifestyle

– you meet great people, there’s a constant swirl of

activity going on and it’s great to be alive.

Ed: So how does one go about getting on to The Beat

Goes On as a guest?

Gerard: Well we’re always looking for who would be

an interesting guest for baby boomers.

Ed: You’ve had Laila Harré on recently?

Gerard: Laila Harré came on the programme …

Ed: Well she’ll go anywhere at the moment won’t

she?

Gerard: Well this is the time to shine if you are a

politician. Look, I just can’t think of all the guests

we’ve had, 250 in total. There’s a guest this week,

Chris Skellett from Dunedin. He has written a book

called The Power of the Second Question and we’ve

been asked to interview Chris, so a lot of it comes to usnow. In the early days it didn’t of course; we were

always looking for people, but book publishers, people

who are making a CD, they want free publicity too.

When a group comes to New Zealand, the first choice of

course is to get on Seven Sharp or Campbell Live. The

next choice is you get on Good Morning New Zealand …

you’d love to get on The Paul Henry Show, but if you’ve

missed out on all those, there’s always The Beat Goes

On. In August, when this magazine’s coming out telling

our story, there’s an example.

I met Chris Mullane who’s a wedding celebrant, he wason the wedding show and I happened to chat to himand I find out that he’s quite a fanatic on the First WorldWar. Well guess what – in August, it’s the 100th

anniversary of the start of the First World War, so we’veorganised Chris to come on the show and tell us allabout how the First World War started. Now from ababy boomer point of view, that’s very interesting; I’minterested in that myself, I think that’s fascinating. I’mat the age now where it’s amazing how these thingsstart. So there’s always something happening, and ifwe get to the stage of “Oh gosh, we haven’t got a guestthis week” just one read of the papers and you’ll seesomebody “Oh that’s interesting.”

Ed: So it isn’t a case of somebody’s written a bookand they come along here for a bit of free publicity, youdo select your guests. You’re not going to just pickanybody, it’s got to be of interest?

Gerard: About four weeks ago, we had Graeme Laywho’s writing a trilogy of books on Captain Cook. He

The experts in 4K workflows

PRODUCTION | POST | VISUAL EFFECTS

DVT has solutions available from production to post to help you take advantage of the quality, productivity and creativity that the new 4K cameras from Sony offer. Our integrated solutions get you straight from the lens to the screen with workfl ws that are high quality, efficient and cost effecti e.

If you are interested in pushing your production and post production processes to the next level with the high resolution and high frame rate on these amazing new cameras then get in touch with the experts at DVT today.

Sony PMW-F55

Sony PMW-F5

Viewfinde Sony DVF-L350

Viewfinde Sony DVF-L700 LCD Viewfinde

Sony DVF-EL100 0.7” OLED

PL Lens KitSony SCL-PK3

AccessoriesSony SCL-PK6 Lens Set

CINE-ALTA 4K Cameras and accessories

Digital Video Technologies (NZ) Ltd | Phone: 09 525 0788 | Email: [email protected] | 45 Fairfax Avenue, Penrose, Auckland

www.dvt.co.nzLike DVTNz to stay up-to-date

with the latest promotions and industry news.

came in to promote his second book of the trilogy. Ihadn’t read the first, but we had a great interview, itwas great to talk to Graeme, but then I went away andread this book in the meantime, and I found itabsolutely fascinating. So I wonder, would I have everheard about this book and Graeme Lay if I hadn’t beendoing The Beat Goes On. I met Graeme Lay throughanother one of our shows that we do … in fact the moreshows you do, the more in contact you are with thecreative part of our population.

Ed: Well that’s important for you to keep going and

make that 300th?

Gerard: 300 … why stop there Grant. Why stop at

300? No, I’m feeling fine and like it’s not manual labour

is it, just talking to people. It’s pretty simple.

Ed: And you’ve never had an approach from the main

broadcasters to tell your story there?

Gerard: The only thing we’ve had from the main

broadcasters is deathly silence!

Ed: Well maybe this could stimulate a little bit of

interest and we’ll see you on the big screen sometime

soon?

Gerard: Well I don’t know, it’s a different ballgame.

And we have a very satisfying niche, why should we

leave it.

Ed: What’s the channel number we look for?

Gerard: Tune in to Sky Channel 83 every Monday

night at 8pm, repeated Friday at 10.30pm and once

again on Saturday morning.

Now within Gerard’s interview, we mentioned “Rockin’

the Planet” as one of Gerard’s co-productions with

Shane, and tonight, live at The Commerce Club, we

have Shane.

Ed: Shane, has this television formula been successful

for you too?

Shane: Yes, well Gerard and I have been great

buddies for years and years and years and we were

always looking for a new way out for a show. Ever

since Gerard started The Beat Goes On, I’ve been with

him all the way and here we are celebrating show 252

today. You look at TV now, and like him and like me,

we’re baby boomers, we’ve looked at it all. I would

have 100 channels on my TV and I still can’t find

something to watch except the News.

But I’m loving my new music show

Rockin’ the Planet.

Ed: And you’ve had enough of this

current crop of talent shows have you?

Shane: I don’t even watch them

anymore, and I started off in talent

shows, but no one got abused like they

do now. I was lucky, I won mine and I

moved on from there and I had a

successful career.

Ed: And now you’re helping others get

started aren’t you, because this is what

I’ve noticed – here tonight we’ve got the

Shirleybyrds, I’ve never seen them or

heard of them before in my life. They’re

a nice band and, through your

programme, they have a chance to be

seen.

Shane: They’re a fantastic band andthey deserve to be seen and the only

way they’re going to do that is through TV shows likeours that promote local talent. You can go to all theother TV channels and, believe me, unless you havemade an expensive video, you don’t get on TVanymore. There’s no old-fashioned way of doing it like“let’s have a group on and play live and listen to themand enjoy them.”

Ed: Sort of Battle of the Bands type thing?

Shane: Not really, one band at a time, one bandfeatured each week. I’m just trying to break newtalent, as well as look after the older talent – I’m talkingabout people who have been around a long time, paidtheir dues, they’re still getting on TV. You can’t do thaton our normal TV. I shouldn’t call it “normal” becauseit’s abnormal TV now. Overseas, they look after theiracts, they’re held in high esteem, people like LedZeppelin or whoever it is, right through all the bandsfrom the 60s, they’re working in England and TheSearchers are over here on tour soon … they workevery day of the week around the world. They neverstop, those guys, they’re “road dogs” and they’re stillearning a huge living out of their music. But over here,the industry seems to put them to one side, their “useby” date’s over and it’s not fair, I don’t think it’s good toall our artists who have given us so much. And somany people out there, like you and me, the public, wewant to see those bands. I love all those bands fromthe 60s and 70s.

Ed: So it’s great that you’ve got a good sponsor?

Shane: Fantastic – Music Planet, nine music storesthroughout New Zealand, they’ve been fantastic to us.

Ed: Do they also support these bands, the bands thatappear on your show?

Shane: Heck yes, they put their money where theirmouth is, but in the end they want musicians to shop at

Music Planet. Loyalty goes two ways, and that’s how it

all works. You know we’re creating a community with a

music show and the music fraternity is all the musicians

in New Zealand. Now we’re on TV we have a voice, and

we’ve got our own thing going – and Music Planet want

to do that, and that’s great. They see what we’re doing

and they see it’s a great move.

Ed: And it’s still good working with Gerard?

Shane: He’s my mate, we’re going to be buddiesfor the rest of our lives, I know that. NZVN

Gerard and Shane.

Blackmagic URSA is the world’s fi rst high end digital fi lm camera

designed to revolutionize workfl ow on set. Built to handle the

ergonomics of large fi lm crews as well as single person use, URSA

has everything built in, including a massive 10 inch fold out on set

monitor, large user upgradeable Super 35 global shutter 4K image

sensor, 12G-SDI and internal dual RAW and ProRes recorders.

Super 35 Size Sensor

URSA is a true professional digital fi lm camera with

a 4K sensor, global shutter and an incredible 12 stops

of dynamic range. The wide dynamic range blows

away regular video cameras or even high end broadcast cameras,

so you get dramatically better images that look like true digital fi lm.

The extra large Super 35 size allows for creative shallow depth of fi eld

shooting plus RAW and ProRes means you get incredible quality!

Dual Recorders

Blackmagic URSA features dual recorders so you

never need to stop recording to change media.

That’s critical if you are shooting an historical event,

important interview or where you just cannot stop shooting! Simply

load an empty CFast card into the second recorder and when the

current card is full, the recording will continue onto the second card,

allowing you to change out the full card and keep shooting!

www.blackmagicdesign.com/au

Introducing Blackmagic URSA, the world’s fi rst user upgradeable 4K digital fi lm camera!

User Upgradeable Sensor

Blackmagic URSA features a modular camera turret that can

be removed by unscrewing 4 simple bolts! The camera turret

includes the sensor, lens mount and lens control connections

and can be upgraded in the future when new types of sensors are developed.

This means your next camera will be a fraction of the cost of buying a whole

new camera! Choose professional PL mount, popular EF mount and more!

Built in On Set Monitoring!

Say goodbye to bulky on set monitors because

you get a massive fold out 10 inch screen built

into Blackmagic URSA, making it the world’s

biggest viewfi nder! The screen is super bright and features an ultra

wide viewing angle. URSA also includes two extra 5” touch screens

on both sides of the camera showing settings such as format, frame

rate, shutter angle plus scopes for checking levels, audio and focus!

Blackmagic URSA PLBlackmagic URSA EF

A$7,235 A$7,839Blackmagic URSA PLBlackmagic URSA EF

,235Blackmagic URSA EF

biggest viewfi nder! The screen is super bright and features an ultra

Activity inthe Deep South

I am in Dunedin with Wayne Johnsonfrom Pizzini Productions because, afterdiscovering what he’s done by readinghis story on his webpage, I thought “nowhere’s somebody who’s done a variety ofthings and has obviously learntsomething out of it and has got somelessons for other people, includingmyself.”

Ed: Wayne, let’s start with the earlyyears – you say you were in adventuretourism?

Wayne: I worked as a guideinstructor, did some study and a diplomain Outdoor Recreation Management andleadership, then got into instructing atOutward Bound for several years. Overthat whole time, I had a camera, which was fun tomake little short films while I was going through it. Soadventure tourism, I was actually a safety kayaker –that was a big part of it, four years safety kayaking,probably another 4-5 years sea-kayak guiding inMilford, so stunning.

Ed: So in that time you had a camera, you’re doinglittle video things and then you thought “hmmm, I’mactually enjoying this” – so what did you do next?

Wayne: I started editing at the same time, linearediting, playing round with tape – Digital8 was a bigadvancement in the day from my analogue VCR. I wentoverseas and shot a few lifestyle docs of my own, justlittle projects and that really pushed me forward to dosome big edits, 50 minute. I didn’t actually realise whatI didn’t know of course, as per usual, so I did make aprofessional video ( and I won’t say where ) and now Ilook back, “oh my gosh!” Someone came back to meand said “I can see you had a lot of passion for theproject” and I was like “oh dear, what does that mean?”

When I first started getting paid to make videos, I wasat the time, a safety kayaker on the Shot Over river inQueenstown. A chap turned up with a Sony PD10 and adigital mixer. A friend and I started working for him.Our assignment was to create a trip video for thepaying guests. We had a series of shots to get on theway to the river ( the bus ride, scenery etc. ) as well asrecord interviews with the guests. Then jump in akayak and race down the river filming the rafts run keyrapids whilst all the time commentating ( trying to bewitty and funny but not rude! ) We edited in cameraso, if you got a bad shot, you had to rewind the tapeand record over it on the spot. After shooting the finalrapid, I would race back to base, add music andgraphics then present it to the clients, whilst theyenjoyed a cool ale of course. Then attempt to sell acopy or two. It was pretty bloody hectic!

Then in 2001, I started studying with SouthlandInstitute of Technology doing a digital film diploma.

Ed: So you didn’t actually go into school, you did thisonline?

Wayne: I did it online and with materiel posted tome. During the day, I was managing a sea-kayakcompany, I had the evenings free, it’s quite quiet in TeAnau over winter so I would wrap up in a sleeping bag,hat and gloves, because of course it was a bit chilly,and start doing the assignments. I did three papers ata time, so I had quite a few assignments, up to about10 or 12 assignments a week to hand in, so it wasreally busy.

Ed: And this was all paperwork, there was nopractical?

Wayne: No it was practical actually – there weremany different papers like screen writing which was alltheory, all writing and reading and then basic cameraskills; that’s like 101 Camera Skills – go out and shootwides, close-ups, mediums handheld on a tripod, thinkabout the light, composition. It was brilliant.

Ed: But you never actually had one on one with atutor?

Wayne: No, I never met my tutor.

Ed: And it was actually worthwhile?

Wayne: It was very worthwhile, yes. It just gaveme the rules to know which ones to break kind of thing.It showed me what the expectations of the industrywere, which was brilliant and it gave me practical thingsto do, because I think, even now, unless I’m making

something, I’m not using my gear or editing or thinkingthat way, so that gave me a lot of the projects to do.

Ed: So you went on from there, gave up sea kayakingas a business and started making videos. How did thatstart?

Wayne: I came to Dunedin, met my wife over hereand had to make a decision whether to continueworking in outdoor adventure or get into filming. I tookthe filming option and got a job with Taylormade Mediaas a camera operator, and also as a creator of props. Ialso helped the director come up with concepts for theproject which was called Super Squad a segment on achildrens programme Studio 2 for TVNZ.

We went around the country and looked for the kind ofelite athlete, the best performer, brain box and daredevil. We went to heaps of schools, filmed andinterviewed 20 students at a time, 80 for each school.We used two cameras and then took it back to Dunedin,cut it – I didn’t cut it, Lisa Hastie cut it. We did that fora year and it was great; we had a grand finale, which Ididn’t make, because I got called down to Antarctica fora trip. Missing the Super Squad finale was a shame forme because it had been a big year and we had anexciting combination of activities organised including aTriathlon in Auckland. I received a last minute emailfrom a good friend, Graham Charles asking if I could gowith them and if I was to accept the job I only hadabout two weeks before having to leave! I showed mywife, with our 6 month old son. I said “look at this for alark, there’s no way I can possibly go” but she said“well, you should try” and I accepted.

Ed: What was your role?

Wayne in Antarctica - not Dunedin!

Wayne: It was the first time for Peregrine Shippingto take a videographer to Antarctica and shoot a day byday diary of the passengers’ experiences. There were100 passengers on a Russian ship and, for the size ofsome of the cruise ships down there, it was reasonablylow key, but it was still a big ship, quite stable. Thefirst trip was Falklands, South Georgia, AntarcticPeninsula. So I was very busy. I filmed 3 or 4excursions per day on shore and from a zodiac; I wasmeant to be guiding as well, but in the end, themanager who had come down from the Peregrine officewas liking the result, so he said just keep filming anddon’t worry about the guiding so much, which was arelief because I didn’t know anything about the place,I’d never been down there before. I hadn’t done anystudy, because I had two weeks to get organised andget out of here.

Ed: And you had to edit that onboard as you went?

Wayne: Yes, I had an iMac bolted to the cabin deskwhich was very necessary as we had several force 10storms. I lived with this crazy Scotsman for a couple ofweeks. He snored quite loudly, so I’d be editing withmy headphones on up until 3 o’clock in the morning. Iwould have anything up to 45 minutes of footage perexcursion that I’d have to cut back to about 4 or 5minutes with voiceover. I would have to present a DVDto the passengers at the end of their trip.

I took with me a very cheap little fluid head tripod, adirectional mic and they gave me a little JVC HDcamera. I had to get creative with a zip lock plastic bagand ducktape as I had no water proof housing and onlyone video camera on board.

The mic is probably sitting on the shore of ElephantIsland, maybe – it’ll be corroded by now. There was a

big wind and I was trying to get some shots from thefront of the ship and I took the mic off and stuffed itdown the front of my jacket and never saw it again.

It was a brilliant, brilliant trip though – an amazing sixweeks of filming, the light, the animals. We weresupposed to stay five metres away from the wildlife butthere just wasn’t a chance. I had king penguins comingup to me and pecking my tripod … it was amazing.

Ed: Well it’s the kind of trip you just really don’t turndown. But now, if we come up to the present day,you’ve been doing a large project with your wife Iunderstand. Something to do with babies?

Wayne: Yes, it’s called Wearing Your Baby and it’san instructional DVD / downloadable files, on how touse the different slings to carry your baby. It was verypopular 1,000 years ago, it was kind of the way to goreally, and it’s had a comeback recently. When pramscame in, people stopped carrying their babies … that’sthe short history.

My wife was writing a book, she got through the historypart and said “you take videos, let’s make a YouTubevideo” and I was like “sure, do I get a budget for acamera?” “Sure.” So I got a little budget and bought acamera. Previous to that I just hired cameras.

Ed: And there’s enough material for a big DVD?

Wayne: Yes, well when you break down themultitude of carriers out there like Asian carriers, softstructured carriers being the more kind of pack type clipsort of carrier, a 5 metre piece of material that youwrap a baby up with, they’re called Wrap Around Slings…

Ed: And how many hours long is this DVD?

Wayne: Too many hours long! It’s 3.30-3.40, witha little interview section.

Ed: Three hours 40 Wayne, you’re planning to releasea 3 hour 40 DVD he asked, hoping he’d misheard?

Wayne: Well it is, it’s done, I can show you theDVD.

Ed: Oh, is that the time?

Wayne: But it is instructional, so please don’t watch3 hours 40 of it, just pick your …

Ed: ... it’s got chapters?

Wayne: It’s got chapters – the odd chapter, so youcan take it 20 minutes at a time.

Ed: But that’s the hard part isn’t it. You’ve put it alltogether with much care and thought, and you look at itand you say “that’s far too long, what do I do now?”

Wayne: Well yes, I looked at my director ( beingmy wife ), and said “yes, dear.” That’s what I did.

Ed: He’s a wise man – not brave, he’s wise.

Wayne: Anything for you my dear.

Ed: Wow! Luckily she’ll never read this, so you’resafe Wayne.

Wayne: She does actually! It comes in the mailand I pop it beside the bed.

Ed: Tell her you were misquoted – that works for me.Right, now, your cameras of choice. You’ve obviouslyused a very wide variety of camera over the years.

Wayne: I’ve got a GoPro and I’ve got a PanasonicGH2 which I’ve got here.

Ed: It looks like a DSLR Wayne?

Wayne: Yes, admittedly, and it’s an old one now.There was a bit of a movement with Panasonic GH2s 3or 4 years ago, but why do people use them? There’sone reason, and I’m past my warranty, but this ishacked, so I can get a high bit rate up to a crazyamount – 220 megabits if you really want to go there,but I don’t see the point in that.

Ed: But before this you had a sensible camera. Youhad a Sony Z5?

Wayne: Yes – I’ve actually been using an EX3recently, which was just before finishing my last job,and that’s a lovely camera too; and the Z5 is fantastic,I’ve used that since they came out.

Ed: And you’ve still got your Z5?

Wayne: No, it was a University work camera. Wehad three of them, and we had EX3s in the studio,which I managed to get out in the field for a project,which was great. That was a steep learning curve.Why have I got a GH2? How can I justify this? I likethe depth of field – aaargh! I bought a little fast lensfor it, it’s great in low light, it’s sharp, it’s quite astunning image.

Ed: I guess the test is that you’ve experienced it nowand you’ve found the good points and the bad points,the question would be, if you’re going to buy anothercamera, what would you buy?

Wayne: That’s a really good question. I’m lookingat a GH4 which is 4K and I’ve already got the lensesfrom my GH2. So it would be either that or a videocamera. I’d love to go for an EX3 or something likethat, just so I get a reasonable amount of control overit, or the latest Z5 would be absolutely fine too, andprobably more in my budget really. There’s no doubtthat, with the GH2, I’ve got to have a lot of bits andpieces on a rig to get the camera shooting good audioand video at the same time, so a bit of a pain in theneck really.

Ed: So then why do you persist?

Wayne: Because that’s what I’ve got and I’m on a

very tight budget. I’ve just got back into working

freelancing and I don’t have any money to spend on

gear right now, so I’m persisting; I’ve got what I need

and it’s good for me, it makes me work harder. I’ve got

to light it well or use the light well and I’m getting quite

a nice image out of it; I’m quite happy with it eventhough it makes me work harder.

Ed: Alright, so that’s one hair shirt … in terms of

editing, you’ve been using Final Cut for many years,

although Premiere at one of the places of work?

Wayne: Yes, I’ve always been Final Cut Pro right

from the beginning and occasionally delved into

Premiere. I use Photoshop in the Adobe suite quite a

bit. Premiere was good. It was easy to step toPremiere from Final Cut and I was using that because I

was working with wmv files actually and I just thought

it was simpler. It just seemed a quicker workflow to

use Premiere and a better result with the wmv files, and

I liked it and got used to it, but I privately stuck with

Final Cut. And then when Final Cut X came out, I

purchased it but hardly used it in its first year; I kept

the Final Cut 7 and went through the astonishment of

the move that Apple made and waited for it to developinto something useful. Then the last project I did with

the University, I thought “right, I’ll just dive into it” and

I love it, it’s good. The magnetic timeline I wanted to

turn off right at the beginning like most, and now I’m

completely used to it and I’m a lot faster on Final Cut X.

– mainly because of the magnetic timeline actually. It

just keeps things flowing, especially when you’re cutting

a lot of footage, it’s really very quick.

Ed: So it’s not limited by not being so compatible withPhotoshop as Premiere would be?

Wayne: Well I use Motion a lot. I haven’t done a

lot of text and graphics recently, but Motion’s fine, I can

open up a project in there and edit it and relink back to

the Final Cut. Basically, I usually export my Photoshop

files finished. It’s been interesting making a DVD

recently because I hadn’t made one for some time. I

had to go back to the old iMac and use that, and I stillwent back to DVD Studio Pro because it’s a fantastic

application and I never really got to know the Adobe …

what’s it called?

Ed: It’s called Encore, and you’re probably better off

not knowing it.

Wayne: Yeah, I figured the same. I did try it; I’ve

made DVDs through Encore but I haven’t since. So now

in Final Cut X, I’m chapter marking everything on the

timeline and I can index it through chapter marks,

which was brilliant near the end – just to make quick

final cuts and re-timing of graphics ( there’s a crazy

amount of graphics and menu pages in our DVD.)

Ed: Now you’ve also got a job during the day which

pays most of your bills, and that’s at the local Polytech.

What’s involved there?

Wayne: That’s two days a week really, apart from

parenting. I’ve picked up a few contracts since coming

back to Dunedin ( I was away for a year working at a

different job ) and I’ve had several projects, just as

simple as recording a presentation with PowerPoint, to

making vet nursing teaching resources. So recently I

recorded a couple of Staffordshires in operations getting

their testicles removed, which wasn’t particularly

pleasant on the close-ups.

Ed: Well it depends what was for lunch?

Wayne: Yeah, yeah I didn’t have lunch, I flagged itthat day.

Ed: As long as it wasn’t mountain oysters on themenu?

Wayne: No, no, not very filling!

Ed: Now the interesting thing aboutthis though is that it’s a bit of a hybridjob because you’re not just an employee,you’re actually providing some of thetechnology?

Wayne: Yes I shot it with the littleGH2 actually and I tell you what,brilliant, lovely.

Ed: Because you were in a studio andyou had lots of light?

Wayne: No, I took some big softlights. I have to take them everywhere;it’s a ridiculous amount of gear I’mcarrying …

Ed: ... because you’ve got a GH2?

Wayne: I don’t know actually; doyou reckon a Z5 would be as good in lowlight? We should do a little comparison.I’m not sure … I’d love to take a Z5 inthere and see how it performs, I’m sureit would be fine; it would be a lot easier.

Ed: So basically, you’re a contractedgun and you supply the technology anddo the material for them?

Wayne: Yes, from sitting down to planning whatthey want to do, producing it and directing it – selfdirecting. I heard of something good recently –“educate your client” – I think it’s a fantastic line,because I’ve had to educate a lot of different clients.None of them are directors or anything, but they want avideo and they want it shot well and looking good.

Ed: So you think that’s actually an

important step, in that relationship

with your client, that you first sit

them down, listen to what they have

to say and then be proactive in telling

them “well, these are the good things

about what you want, but these are

the bad things, and this is what I

recommend?”

Wayne: Absolutely. And actually

give them a breakdown of what the

day’s going to be like.

I think it’s so important that they

don’t go in not knowing that I’m

going to be stopping and starting and

asking them just to hold a second, so

I can get this shallow depth of field

focus right.

Ed: Do you feel that some people in

our industry might be a bit scared of

that in that they don’t want to tell the

client “no” because the client might

get upset and think well this guy’s no

good, and go and get somebody else?

Wayne: I think I kind of gauge

what they’re like, how much they can absorb, and then

from there, I’ll manage my conversation with them and

tell them what’s important for them to make decisions

about. I don’t often say “no, I’m not going to give you

that”; I’ll just work around how we can get the

information they need to be presented in a way that

works for the audience.

Ed: And they’re accepting of what you tell them,

more and more?

Wayne: Yes, I think the more I know what I want to

do, they kind of tend to agree. If I’m making sense,

they seem to follow along pretty well. I haven’t had too

many clients who have told me “no, we’re going to do it

this way”.

I think because I’ve worked in a variety of locations

with different people from adventure tourism in

Queenstown, to five years at the University, which is an

institution, so you need to learn that whole process of

working with 2,000 staff you know …

Ed: And bureaucrats?

Wayne: Thank you – no comment! So working withsuch a variety of people was really interesting.

Ed: It sounds as though your expertise is reallyvaried; that over the years, you’ve learned a whole lotof skills and you’re able to put together a package for aclient that helps the client deliver what they want todeliver, but they hadn’t thought of it?

Wayne: Yes, ideally, you always give someone alittle bit extra, so they’re like “wow, that’s a bit morethan I expected”.

I know from mistakes, and not asking the right

questions at the beginning, I didn’t get it right, so I’d

have to go back and spend a lot more time getting it

right, and it was just the simple questions really; you

know, “how do you see it looking at the end?”

They might not know, but once you start talking

through a few things, they start getting a picture,

especially if there are certain television programmes

they like …

Ed: Yes, they want Lord of the Rings don’t they?

Wayne: Absolutely.

Ed: And they want a big dragon in this scene?

Wayne: Yes, that’s right. So I try to give them

what they want. In fact, I’ve just recorded a job a

week ago and I sat down in someone’s house yesterday

and we looked through the footage and it was a good

process.

I front loaded the meeting explaining “this is what

you’re going to see here”, which was the test shoot

really and we don’t always get that luxury of having a

test shoot, but there’s quite a few hours in this job, so I

knew we could get some B roll, we could look through it

and go “right, now you can see that’s not quite in focus

because you said that you wanted that ‘now’ and I

turned around and shot and it wasn’t quite in focus.”

Ed: That’s where the Z5 might have made a

difference?

Wayne: Yeah, maybe. Hard to say really, hard to

say.

Ed: Oh well, you stick with your DSLR, you know,

work hard at it.

Wayne: Finally a story about DSLRs – and a cheap

one too.

Ed: Yes well that’s standard for DSLRs isn’t it?

Wayne: Yes, cheap results, right. Ha!

Ed: My work is done – we’ll stop it there!

NZVN

Wayne adds “off air” – one of the reasons NZ VideoNews works for me is that it is a New Zealandmagazine. This makes a big difference when you’reinterested in the local industry – what’s happeningand who is involved. It hits the spot with current andrelevant information from across the world with goodhumour to boot. Also, being a paper copy, I can readit where I choose and when I choose, without havingto sit in front of a screen again!

Wayne with GH2 and talent.

EDIUS in ActionWe are in Christchurch at the offices ofAVA with Mike Symes, a tirelessproponent of EDIUS and he has been formany years. Mike said “actually, theman you need to talk to is this youngchap Rik Roberts.”

Ed: So Rik, you didn’t actually startwith EDIUS, you came from a Liquidbackground?

Rik: Yes – but actually, before that wasSpeed Razor, which was a long time ago.I used Liquid for many years and editeda few short films and training videos onit, and then moved onto EDIUS when itcame out.

Ed: But Liquid, you loved it at thetime?

Rik: Yes, I thought it was fantastic. It was prettyflexible, it had a lot of features in the integrated DVDauthoring. That was a big selling point, as you could doall your editing on the timeline and then all your menuson the timeline, make the DVD and it just worked. Itwas really great. It had all the multi-format and theautomatic saves, and everything you did savedinstantly, there was no loss of work if your computercrashed or things like that.

Ed: But then, as with other software, nodevelopments – nothing changed, nothing improvedand the rest of the world moved on, so you had tomove on too?

Rik: That’s right,. There were several new formatscoming out as time went on and, obviously, newWindows operating systems and faster processors, butAvid Liquid didn’t seem to keep up with the changes, soyou got to the point where there were massiveproblems. I remember getting up at 3am to check onmy render, because I knew that, 8 times out of 10 itwould crash halfway through, I’d have to start it againand clients are waiting for their project, so I had a fewsleepless nights doing the big renders and things likethat.

So enough was enough and Mike said I should tryEDIUS and that was when version 4 was out. I tried itand initially I hated it. I guess it’s the same with anychange – you’ve been using something for so manyyears and then try something new. But I perseveredand thought “no, no I’m going to try it again” andbasically after I did my first project with it I loved it. Isat down and just went through the whole edit of thisproject I was working on, and by the end of it, I wasthinking this is pretty good.

Ed: And you didn’t have any rendering problems?

Rik: No, that’s the thing … and it wasn’t until I triedgoing back to an old project in Liquid that I realised howmany work a-rounds I was doing just to get Avid towork, whereas EDIUS would just work – you start it up,load the project, and away you go. So I guess the thingthat was really cool with EDIUS was that any media youwant, just throw it in the bin, throw it on a timeline,real time rendering, it just works. You can even take aVOB straight from the DVD …

Ed: Oh you’re not supposed to do that though areyou?

Rik: Sure, as long as you own the copyright of thematerial on DVD, that’s fine!

Ed: However, EDIUS isn’t well known, certainly not inNew Zealand. I know in Japan it’s regarded as theediting platform of choice and I’ve certainly seen it inAmerica in TV stations, being used as their main editingplatform, but New Zealand has never really taken to it.Do you know why?

Rik: I think there are a couple of things – themarketing of it is one big reason. If you compare it tothe most talked about NLE’s, either Final Cut or AdobePremiere, I think the reason those two are often talkedabout is because they are what they teach at theuniversities and schools; that’s what they use. It’seither going to be Adobe or Final Cut because, if you’reMac based, then you’re Final Cut; if you’re Windows,then you’re probably going to have Premiere. AndAdobe do quite a bit of marketing around the wholeintegration piece. A lot of people use Photoshop; a lotof people use After Effects, so it’s kind of natural to use

Premiere too. I’ve used Premiere aswell, because I do a lot of After Effectswork, but it’s not the be all and end all interms of editing. It’s nice, but it’s notthe best pure video editing platform Idon’t think.

Ed: Do you think it’s easier to movefrom Premiere to EDIUS than it wasLiquid to EDIUS?

Rik: Yes. I used EDIUS before I wentto Premiere and now I mix between thetwo and I think they’re pretty similarnowadays in feature set. In fact therewas a point ( and actually I think therestill is ) where the EDIUS developerswere very responsive to the market;they’d bring out updates and fixes a lotmore often and earlier than Premieredid. Having both installed, I’d see all thefixes coming out. So often you’d seenew supportive functions in EDIUS longbefore you’d see them in Premiere.

Ed: Do you have to pay for those fixes?

Rik: No, it’s all part of it. I mean, every now and thenthey do a big, like a 6 to a 7 or I’m guessing one day 7to 8 – they’re the big “pay for” upgrades, but all thefixes and the changes in the market are included withinthe free upgrades as part of that dot version. So yes,mixing between the two is a lot easier, because they doshare common layouts nowadays and common themesand things, but in terms of performance, EDIUS beats ithands down.

Ed: Are you able to transfer files between the two -–files that you might have created in one and thought“aah I want to take that clip with those effects etc,everything I’ve done, and bring it into the other one”?

Rik: Export them, import them, there are no problemsthere. They both support a lot of formats, but EDIUSseems to support them without any little quirks or littlework a-rounds. I guess all the NLEs these days arecatching up to each other pretty quickly, but I think thestrongest feature for EDIUS is the fact that it’s just sosimple and fast. Like with the whole JKL forward /

Rik with an EDIUS pupil.

more on page 20

PMW-F55 CineAlta Digital Cinematography Camera

PMW-F5 CineAlta Digital Cinematography Camera Super-sampling: Spectacular HD, 2K or 4K4K/2K RAW optionsVast exposure latitudeRetaining maximum grayscaleCenter Scan modeCache recordingViewfinders as revolutionary as the cameraModularity and versatilityShoulder-mount ENG/documentary dockChoice of recording formatsHigh speed: 240 fpsMore than just a pretty interfaceThe connections you needLong-life Olivine BatterySony's 4K universeSony cameras comparedSony camera accessoriesConnectivity, flexibility and longer cables

F5 Bundle

Protel and Sony are pleased to offer two special

discount bundles for the PMW-F5 with selected

accessories.

New Price

$18,480+GST

See our website for more details

Professional Audio and Video Solutions

www.protel.co.nz

Sony Price Reductions effective 1st July call Protel for details.

Shoot spectacular HD, 2K or 4K4K on-board recording—and three other formats4K/2K RAW optionsElectronic frame image scanVast exposure latitudeS-Gamut color systemRetaining maximum grayscaleCenter Scan modeCache recordingViewfinders as revolutionary as the cameraModularity and versatilityShoulder-mount ENG/documentary dockHigh speed: 240 fpsMore than just a pretty interfaceReal-time 4K output and other vital connectionsLong-life Olivine BatterySony's 4K universeSony cameras compared4K live production via fiber adapterSony camera accessoriesConnectivity, flexibility and longer cablesF55 Body Price Now $32,560+GST

PXW-Z100 4K Handheld Memory Camcorder I Both 4096x2160 and 3840x2160 resolution recording supported

I XAVC recording format up to 4:2:2 10bit 4K 60p. All intra frame 600Mbps same as PMW-F55.XAVC HD 223Mbps is supported. Upgrades will add 4K Long GOP and AVCHD 2.0 recording formats

I 30mm to 600mm 4K tuned G lens and 1/2.3 type Exmor R CMOS sensor

I New high speed recording media XQD cards

I ‘Wifi-remote’ - Focus, zoom, aperture, record start/stopcontrollable from the browser function of a smartphone or tablet

I 3G-HD SDI / HDMI output. HDMI has 4K output capability

I ‘Paint function’ for picture adjustment, gamma curve,black level, skin detail, colour and other parameters

I Professional camcorder functions such as XLR Audio, ND filter,ASSIGN button , Slow and Quick (HD only) etc.

reverse, it’s just so responsive. I sit there with acontour shuttle and I do one-handed editing, so I’ve gota massive one hour clip, I can just go fast forward clip,cut, cut, cut and within no amount of time at all, I’vegot my trimmed down version, whereas in Premiere, alot more mouse work, a lot more waiting, so you hit“pause” there’s a slight delay; you rewind, slight delay.EDIUS is just instant – and it goes back to simplicity,there’s no fancy rendering, or no requirements from avideo card, it just uses the CPU.

Ed: In terms of telling your clients this is the editingprogramme I’m using, they have never heard of it andthey’d say “oh, why can’t you use an Avid” – have younever had that situation?

Rik: Not really. I guess at some of the demos andstuff I’ve done, I’ve talked about EDIUS and donedemonstrations and people have asked the questionswhat about this feature, and what about that feature,but I think you can’t sell it on features alone – it’s theexperience that I think is more key. So you have a

Ed: So Mike, is it good to have Rik here being able todo the demos for you?

Mike:Absolutely. He’s always been very generous withhis time, but it’s very important that the customers canactually just give him a call and he will give themadvice. He’s also doing other things too, with peoplewho have got other platforms who have had issues andproblems – he’s converted video for them, particularlyin the old days with Adobe Premiere, the earlierversions with the audio issues, he’s done a lot ofconversions for people in that area, so no problem.

Ed: But it’s good to have him as your “on the ground”support for EDIUS?

Mike:Yes, absolutely.

Ed: Well those are great words from Mike aren’t they.He obviously values your presence in this community?

Rik: I’ve been working for him for a long time. Iremember as a kid, dad used to come here and look tobuy a video camera and I’d be really excited – youknow, “I get to see Mike Symes and hear about a newtoy” and things and so it all started from there. You getto play with the cameras and then the editing software.

Ed: So do you have a Mike Symes poster on your wallat home?

Rik: Not quite – just the life-size cut-out!

Ed: Right, we’ll put in our order later. But that leadsus onto the other side of your business, videoproduction – what’s your camera of choice at themoment?

Rik: I’m currently shooting on a Sony EX3. I’ve hadthat for five years now. I really like it and it seems tobe quite a popular camera, but I’m now looking to getinto the shallow depth of field with the FS700, because Iactually have two jobs – I work full time as an ITsolution architect, but I run my business as well,Precision Studios. I’ve been making short films since Iwas 15. I’ve won a couple of awards, so hopefully I’mdoing something right in that area. I also createtraining videos, wedding videos, promotional onlinevideos and things like that.

Ed: So you’re not married?

Rik: I just got married last November to my amazingwife Bridget.

Ed: And you’re still allowed to do all this?

Rik: Yes, my wife knew what she was taking on – atleast I think she did.

Ed: Time will tell. Now, shallow depth of field, FS700,how is this going to affect your workflow do you think?

Rik: I think for the more creative stuff, especially thefilms and the wedding stuff, it will be quite cool to havea new take on things, however for when I’m filming liveevents or training videos and things like that, it’s goingto be a bit more work involved on the shoot day, justbecause you’ve got to get that focus bang on.

Ed: So why wouldn’t you use the EX3 in thosesituations?

Rik: I probably would for a lot of those, but I’d like toget more creative in a lot of my shots; I think I’m a bitold-school with a few of the things I do, so I want to geta bit more creative with everything really – as much asyou can.

Ed: And do you think your clients will appreciate thatextra effort you put in?

Rik: I think it’s knowing the client and knowing whatthey want, so if it’s a live event, or training videos andthings like that, certainly it’s safer to stick with the EX3but if they want something extra, or a bit of a point of

product that’s going to be extremely fast, easy to use,you do not have to do little work a-rounds, you can justwork through, save your project, edit it, export it. Likein Premiere for example, you’d throw on a bit of footageand it will pop up an alert saying “your sequencingdoesn’t match this format, do you want to change it –yes/no”? If you hit “yes” that means your real timeplayback is degraded, so more rendering is required.Whereas in EDIUS, it doesn’t care, you just put anyformat up on the timeline and carry on. There are nopop ups, no warnings, it just handles it. So little thingslike that don’t stop your workflow, you’re just working.When you’re trying to create something you want yourtool to help you in that process, not hinder you.

Ed: So you say you’re doing demos – you’re actuallya trainer for EDIUS I understand?

Rik: Yes … I wouldn’t say I’m an authorised one …

Ed: You’re the best available in the area?

Rik: I’m not sure if there’s anyone else inChristchurch, so I get quite a few calls “come round andshow me how to do this.” I can do it remotelynowadays using the Internet, which is quite cool.

Ed: So there are quite a few EDIUS users inChristchurch?

Rik: Yes, EDIUS and EDIUS Neo. Neo’s like thereduced feature set, the more prosumer “lite” version.With both of those products, there are featuredifferences, but the experience is the same, nice, fastand simple.

Rik on a stabilized shoot.

Lacklands LP / 09 6300753 / [email protected]

difference, then I bring both along, do these extra cut-aways, do the B roll, show that with the shallow field.

Ed: And of course, you’ve got no concerns about anyof the footage that you take being able to be edited onEDIUS?

Rik: No problems at all. It will just handle it. I thinkEDIUS was the first to support 4K before anyone else,and the FS700 is 4K ready, so you can get the bolt-onattachments to go 4K and I’m confident that, when Iget to 4K, EDIUS is there ready to handle it. I’ve beenmucking around with shallow depth of field for a longtime; I ended up buying those adapters you bolt ontothe front of your camera with the prisms and thespinning glass and things like that.

Ed: It’s called a Letus or something?

Rik: Letus35 ... I purchased the Redrock Microversion. Cool idea, back when large sensor cameraswere really expensive, but it was just too bulky andimpractical to use; whereas now, for around the 10Kmark, you can get a camera that’s 4K ready, largesensor, changeable lenses, and takes SD cards, so it’spretty good these days.

Ed: So what else are you looking forward to when yougo to 4K?

Rik: I do a lot of interview work and with being asingle camera, it’s tricky sometimes to get extra shotsto make the interview not so monotonous. Having 4Kmeans you can zoom in and crop your image and get afake second angle out of the same bit of footage,without losing any quality. So you can still go down to1080, even though you’ve only cropped to a quarter ofyour original image. So that’s quite good.

Ed: And I guess, to finish this off, since Mike has beenso nice about you, do you have any nice words to sayabout him? You can say no if you like.

Rik: Oh I’m sure there are one or two nice things I cansay. As I said before, I‘ve known Mike for many years,since I was a wee fella. Over the years, it’s been quiteclear that he’s very knowledgeable about all theproducts and what other products are up to, so he’salways up to date and across everything. And alsowithin the Christchurch area and beyond, he’s alwaystalking to …

Ed: He’s always talking, yeah!

Rik: He’s always talking, but he’s always in touch withthe schools, the universities, the polytechs and whatthey’re teaching there and suggesting improvementsand alternatives. He’s talking to clients all the time andif he sees a problem, he suggests things you can do. Iguess being in touch with the market gives you thatdepth of knowledge that he can help a lot of his clientsout. They might be struggling for weeks or months witha problem and they don’t know that this solution exists,but Mike will know.

Ed: So he’s given you some good advice over theyears?

Rik: Yes, lots of golden nuggets there. He’s alwaysletting me know about the next version of this, theupgrade to that – or the challenges this editingcompany is having both politically and philosophically;he likes all the new toys and new gadgets coming outand likes to share the love I guess – share theknowledge.

NZVN

Editing Solutions Experts

Atomise Limited is proud to supply and support the Post Solutions for leading NZ facilities including:

The Hobbit – Avid Media Composer | Avid ISIS 7000 | Apace VSTOR OctopaNatural History NZ – Avid Media Composer | Avid ISIS 5500

Unitec – Avid Media Composer | Avid ISIS 5500

Apace Systems

The experts providing end–to–end editorial solutions to New Zealand’s film & television industry

Authorised Elite Reseller for the complete Avid Video, Interplay & Storage ranges.Official New Zealand Distributor for Avid Media Composer, Avid ISIS & JMR Storage.

We are proud to have been selected as one of Avid’s top 100 partners worldwide.

www.atomise.co.nz | [email protected] | 04 380 5010

Avid Media Composer 8.1 Available Now!New features include: • Toggle clips and tracks on and off in the timeline • Expand digital intermediate and multicam workflows with native support for DPX files —no transcoding required. • Speed up editing with new timeline enhancements. • 64-bit AAX audio plug-ins and the new Master Audio Fader. • Edit ARRI AMIRA footage directly, with color transformations applied automatically from the embedded ARRI metadata. • Edit easier with new AMA features and enhancements and many more new features!

New licensing options:Monthly or annual subscription, Floating or Permanent .

Essential information for existing Media Composer owners:

Avid has changed the way upgrades are sold. They are now available only with a current Avid Support contract; which is cheaper than ever before and cheaper than upgrade costs have previously been too. If you own Avid MC you have until 20 December to have your license confirmed as under support. After that date it will not be possible to purchase Support or up-grade your license and a new purchase will be required to access new versions. Avid Support starts at $350 + GST* per year for commercial licenses.

Call us today for further information or a quote.

Avid ISIS Shared Storage for media professionalsThe Avid ISIS shared storage family is the cornerstone of media collaboration, providing the power, reliability, and storage capacity you need to sustain real-time workflows in the most demanding environments — regardless of workgroup size. Get unrivalled performance and collaboration with ISIS online storage, and extend your capacity further with nearline storage to make the most of your media. And with the new ISIS 5500, you can take media production to a whole new level, with greater performance and scalability than ever before.

From $31,900 + GST* (16TB direct connect ISIS 5500) * Conditions apply. Pricing is subject to change without notice.

8

Phil Keoghan tells me more

about why he has chosen

the camera technology he

has for various jobs.

Ed: Manufacturers have

said, over the years, that

their particular product is a

future proof product, but in

this case it’s really true, that

a good solid 4K recording

will stand the test of time

and the flexibility of a range

of outputs?

Phil: Absolutely and you

know, I’ve had lots of

conversations with people

about why and when you

would choose to use 4K,

how much you would invest

in a piece of equipment and

then, consequently, the

glass. The piece of glass on the front of this image

capture device has such a profound effect on the end

result …

Ed: Say that again for some people who don’t quite

get that Phil?

Phil: Well ultimately, photography is really as simple

as light going onto some device that captures that light.

What that light runs through to get to that image

capturing device affects obviously the quality. So you

could have the best capturing device in the world, but if

you put a crappy piece of glass between the light and

the capturing device, you suddenly have dumbed that

image down to the weakest link which now happens to

be this crappy piece of glass on the front. We were

lucky enough to be sponsored by the French lens

company Angénieux, who fell in love with what we were

doing. They had these beautiful new Optimo lenses and

they gave us a half a million dollars’ worth of their best

lenses to put on the front of this beautiful F55 camera.

We were spoilt for a month and when we came back,

we have our own F55, we were looking at what lenses

Phil at the Sony press conference with local Sony dignitaries.

we were going to get and obviously we would love to go

out and purchase a half a million dollars’ worth of

lenses, feature beautiful feature lenses, but …

Ed: There’s just not that much money in documentary

making?

Phil: No, we were spoilt. Now what’s great about the

55 is that, with the different mounts, you can use

different lenses and, depending on the application of

what it is you’re shooting … for instance, if we’re doinga sit-down interview, I can take my Nikon lenses. I

have Nikon lenses going back to 35 years from when I

was a kid. I have an 80-200 2.8 Nikon lens and with

the mount I can put that on, it’s a lovely long lens, I

can open it right up and I can do sit-down interviews

with one of my own still lenses.

Now there is a company in Los Angeles that actually will

take your old lenses, like your old Nikkor lenses, take

the casing off the outside and re-engineer them to be

cinematic lenses, so that they have rings and that they

have a nice weight in the focus and they have a nice

weight in the zoom, so a very different feel from still

photography where you’re not

manipulating the zoom or the focus while

you’re actually taking an image; you set

it, you shoot. Cinematically of course,

that’s very different.

But I think this whole idea of “why shoot

4K?” ... people have got to ask

themselves, why? And what is the end

result, where is it going to, what’s the

shelf life, everybody looks at the front

end, at the image and goes “Oh my God,

it’s incredible, it looks so much better

than HD” and that’s very true, but if

you’re squeezing quality like that down

through a pipe and you pump it out

through a straw, like you know, it starts

off the size of a football and then you

squeeze it down into the size of a straw,

it’s sort of like “why are you doing it at

that front end?” Now if you’re doing it at

the front end because you’re archiving,

Photo: Doug Jensen.

And the Winner is … continues

more on page 27

Do you need more power foryour camera set-up?

The V-LCD-71MD7” Camera-Top Monitoroffers a high brightness700-nit, full resolution1920 x 1080 LCD panel.

Modules can be added atany time in the field byany time in the field bythe user.

The modular design allows youto determine the I/O combinationsyou want.

High precision waveform, vectorscope and gamut displays Real-time picture monitor Comprehensive SDI input status information Audio monitoring capabilities SDI physical analysis including eye-pattern and jitter displays

Full resolution picture monitoring Comprehensive SDI input status information Waveform, vectorscope and gamut displays SDI physical layer analysis including eye-pattern and jitter displays

Fly legally with all the UN-tested batteries you need.

The world’s most technologically advanced battery system, with an unconditional 2-year warranty. Thebest value for money in the industry.

Get longer run-times fromlinked Li-Ion batteries

For all camera set-ups,whether you need 96What 8A, 192Wh at 12A,288Wh at 12A, or ideal if you want to hot-swap.you want to hot-swap.

7” Full Resolution 1920 x 1080Camera-Top Monitor

OTM 1000 Waveform Monitor and Signal Generator

OTR 1001/1003 Advanced Signal Generatorand Waveform Rasteriser

For more information contact [email protected] - (09) 486 1204 - [email protected] - (09) 486 1204 - quinto.co.nz

For more informaon contact us

because the product can actually have a

shelf life and you think it could be

saleable for a very long time and you’re

preserving it for the future, then it

makes a lot of sense because where we

are right now, in 2014, we’re kind of

where HD was in 2004.

One of the first productions that we did

in HD – we were shooting HD before a

lot of productions were investing in HD –

it cost us a little bit more, but the reality

is that that content is still saleable 10

years later, whereas other people who

were only shooting in SD then, nobody

wants a 4x3 SD image.

Ed: In the decision to shoot 4K, if you

can’t afford the glass to go with the 4K,

you’re probably better off shooting HD

because you’re going to get a better

resolution at the HD level than you

would with 4K with poor glass?

Phil: Well again, it depends on the application; it

depends on what you’re doing; it depends on whether

you’re going to see the quality of the lens. There are

lots of different lens options – where you really see the

difference in the really high quality lenses is when

you’re shooting in extreme lighting conditions or where

the camera is put in an extreme situation where, maybe

you’re running with the camera or you’re moving,

you’re panning the camera very quickly over a

landscape. But if the application is still or let’s say it’s a

drama or you’re shooting a film or something like that,

you can make some compromises with the lenses. It’s

just that I’ve seen people use lenses that are really so

inferior that it’s not worth it. But there are still lots of

good lens options without having to go to say

Angénieux lenses where you can get great results. I

mean, you’d be hard pressed to see the difference

between my Nikkor lens and an Angénieux lens; the

eye, the regular person watching that in a sit down

interview, you’d be hard pressed to see it. That doesn’t

Photo: Doug Jensen.

Photo: Doug Jensen.

mean that people can’t see it, but it’s just that the

average viewer’s not going to see that.

Ed: You were talking just then about the “run and

gun” situation where you were doing quick pans, you

were doing lots of movement – this brings up the

question of the large single sensor and shooting

progressive. How do you get around that; how can you

shoot progressive in a “run and gun” situation?

Phil: You know, that might be outside my bandwidth of

knowledge to know how to do that. I do know that,

using the lenses that we had, and using the

configuration that we had and shooting the XAVC files

that we shot in HD, that we got phenomenal results.

Now I don’t know enough technically to be able to say

where you’d be making compromises with that material.

I do know that the way we were set up it worked fine

for what we were doing.

Ed: So what frame rate were you using?

Phil: We went with 30p, and the reason we went with

30p is that last time we shot our film in HD in 24p, but

we really could have done with those extra frames at

times where we wanted to slow things down. We took

with us an FS700 camera which can shoot full 2K up to

120 frames per second and we did shoot some slo-mo

stuff there and the idea is that we’re going to bump that

up to 4K and it’s in slo-mo – it actually looks quite nice.

That was what we decided was the best; we tested

various frame rates and for what we were doing and

documenting and for many different reasons we decided

ultimately that that was the best for us. Because of

course, the great thing about post is, sometimes people

limit themselves at the front end, when we have so

many options at the back end in postproduction. If we

want to spit out a 24p version of the film down the line,

we can, it’s not a problem. But that’s what we started

with. The primary outlet for this would be in television,

so we went with 30p.

Ed: And the primary outlet’s American television?

Phil: Well no, in this particular case it’s going to be

much more of an international outlet, we have a lot of

interest from France obviously because it’s a French

story; I hope we get interest for it in New Zealand

because it’s a New Zealand story.

Ed: Then why not shoot it in a PAL format?

Phil: Because ultimately, the bulk of the eyeballs will

be in the United States. We have our last film on

Showtime right now, it was in theatres here and again,

it’s not going to be a problem, we tested outputting this

as a PAL format, it’s not a problem. There are so many

options technically now that you’re not as restricted as

you used to be in the past, with having

to lock yourself in at one format – it’s

amazing now what you can do.

The deliverables that we had on our last

film – I think somebody said that in

Avatar, James Cameron had 72 different

deliverables for his film. The other thing

was, a lot of the archive material that

we’re working with is also at 30p,

because we have archive material going

right back to the 20’s.

You know, you can always look back in

hindsight and say we could have done

this, should have done that, but at the

end of the day …

Ed: It’s what you’ve got, you’ve got to

make it work?

Phil: Yes. The Amazing Race is a show

that I got asked to host back in 2001,

produced by Bruckheimer Television,

World Race Productions and CBS. Over

the years, I’ve become a co-executive

Amazing Race right now. I mean I’m sure people pull it

out and watch it occasionally, but it’s much more of a

topical type of a show. It’s like a sports event, people

still will go back and watch the 1989 World Cup, but

really they’re interested in the latest World Cup.

Ed: They’re even watching Mr Ed dubbed in Maori

now.

Phil: Oh is that right – are you serious?

Ed: Sad but true. Well anyway, do you feel more

comfortable having that optical disc than temporarily on

a stick?

Phil: Well initially, yes. Initially, it was just weird to

me that I would be wiping something that I’ve shot!

Initially, I was really frightened to wipe something but,

having worked with this media manager that we had

away with us, he was very savvy with the technology,

and because we haven’t had one issue, I now feel way

more comfortable. It’s one of those things, sometimes

you just have to do it to sort of … you know there’s also

so many pieces of software now that will protect, make

sure that your files are all intact.

Ed: But did you ever backup your optical discs?

Phil: Oh yes, we always did, but that became the first

backup. The master was the first backup and then I

made a copy. Now when you shoot on these SXS cards,

you make a copy then you make another copy, and

when you have two copies, then you go back and you

wipe the original. But you only wipe the original once

you know you’ve got two. So I don’t even wipe it after

I’ve got one … I make sure that there’s two before that

original gets wiped.

Ed: Do you use the Cloud at all?

Phil: I’ve been shown ways to use it. I’ve uploaded

files and proxies from the F800 when I’ve done News

pieces, but I haven’t really had the need to do it. I can

see how there might be a project in the future where I

would use it, but at this stage, with the stuff that I’ve

done, I haven’t really had the need.

Ed: Okay, so what’s the next step – another big

documentary coming?

producer and I also write my scripts and I work with a

small team to produce my pieces. I was always very

interested in seeing The Amazing Race shot in HD, just

because of the nature of the show – it’s in 100 countries

and it’s the perfect show to show off the world.

The challenge for many years was shooting The

Amazing Race in HD around the world is very different

from shooting a show that’s based in one place, where

you have access to equipment. It wasn’t that long ago

that you couldn’t just go anywhere in the world and find

an HD camera, so we would rely a lot on local

equipment in various countries that we were in, and

predominantly the camera of choice around the world,

whether it was PAL or NTSC, was a Beta SP. So it was

harder for us to make that transition than, say, another

show that was shot just in one country or maybe, you

know, Survivor was shot on an island and you fly all

that equipment to the island and you shoot. But

cameras break, they get lost, sometimes you arrive in a

country and equipment doesn’t turn up and then you’ve

got to rent local equipment, and imagine if your

deliverable is HD and then you suddenly can’t find

equipment and you’re in Botswana or something. Now

we’re shooting on XDCAM and the predominant camera

now that we use is an F800.

Ed: So that’s onto a disc?

Phil: Yes.

Ed: And again, XDCAM is something that has become

ubiquitous?

Phil: Today that’s like the Beta SP of 10 years ago, you

know what I mean. You go all round the world, you’ll

see XDCAM cameras. You can pretty much find one of

those just as easily as you used to be able to find Beta

SP cameras and that file format makes a lot of sense for

us, because of the fact that you’re shooting on a little

disc. They’re incredibly durable and I actually take

those discs with all my stand-ups and I do a stringer for

the editor with timecode and I give him all my keeper

takes. I love working bare with all the files and the

thumbnails, I can go in and keeper all my takes. So for

what we do it makes a lot of sense. The show has just

added an F55 to shooting

some of the dressing shots,

but again, for right now, it’s

not really an option for

running and gunning with

the teams. That may

change with the fact that

they’ve now adjusted it, but

at the end of the day, it’s

very different shooting a

reality show from say

shooting a film, because I

can’t tell you whether

season 20 of The Amazing

Race is still going to be

watched in 10 years from

now. It’s very different from

shooting something where

you know – like The

Godfather will probably be

watched forever and a day,

or any of Bruckheimer’s

movies. But I don’t know

how many people are

watching season 1 of The Photo: Doug Jensen.

Phil: Well we’re planning on riding the length of New

Zealand … a travel special.

Ed: On bicycles?

Phil: Uh-huh – and using the cycle-ways. That’s

something that we’re thinking about doing and we’d

like to do it in 4K as well. I think it would be a great

tourist piece for the country and that’s definitely a

piece where … you see, even if you look at Tourism

New Zealand’s material, they have all this incredible

footage, every few years they update their footage

right? They go and shoot the footage. But there’s a

perfect example of where Tourism New Zealand or

anybody who is into promoting New Zealand, should

be shooting with the absolute latest technology every

time they update that material, because they want

that material to last as long as possible before they

have to upgrade it, because like now all their stuff is

in HD. There was a time I remember when I was

sourcing stuff to do News stories, where they only

had SD, then they upgraded to HD and now we’re

going to 4K, so they need to be on the very edge …

that’s an example where you absolutely want to be

right at the very edge of what technology is

available.

Ed: And that’s going to be a lot more tricky for

you, because you’re not going to be able to take a

motorcycle on the cycle-ways, let alone a car, as

your camera truck?

Phil: Yes … we may get some concessions. We’re

going to work with the cycle-way people – we’ll have

to work out how to shoot it. Maybe just shot from

different ways. We might have to use a different

method of shooting, maybe aerial stuff, we don’t

know. There’s always a way, like Sir Ernest

Rutherford said “We didn’t have money, so we had to

think.” There’s always a way.

Ed: And you’re not tempted to do anything in 3D?

Phil: No … I don’t. I could be wrong, maybe people

will embrace it, but I’m not there with 3D yet. I may

end up being wrong about that but if I’m not

mistaken, some feature films, even though they

didn’t shoot intentionally for 3D in the beginning,

they’ve converted to 3D – is that right?

Ed: Um, well, yes.

Phil: I don’t know how they do it … I guess they offset

the two images or something and create some depth, but

I don’t know, I’m not convinced. All the TVs are coming

out with 3D now aren’t they?

Ed: Well some have, but having seen 8K from NHK –

have you seen that yet?

Phil: No but I will. Potential?

Ed: Definitely. NZVN

NZVN ADVERTISING RATESNZ Video News is posted free to New Zealand video production professionals - if youknow someone in the business who would like NZVN too, tell them to write or phone us

Rates from April 2008 NZVN AD RATES: - EXCLUDING GST

Advertisement A6 (must be set portrait) $ 80A5 (must be set landscape) $140 for one $270 for two in the same issueA4 (must be set portrait) $260 for one $250 each for more than one in the same issueSpot colour - a supplement of $120 per A3

Full colour - a supplement of $420 per A3

Classified 40 words pre-paid cash $ 20 ($23 including GST)

Loose Inserts are accepted conditionally

AD COPY REQUIREMENTS: To qualify for listed rates, all copy and artwork must be submitted in photo copy readyform - black on white, as an Adobe PDF file - print optimised. Email to <[email protected]>

AD DEADLINES: SEE FRONT PAGE Pay by cheque or direct credit to ANZ # 010242-0160111-00

ARRI is your perfect partner in the film, television, commercial and multimedia industries. The close collaboration of ARRI Cine Technik, and ARRI Media Services (comprising ARRI Film & TV Services, ARRI Rental, ARRI Productions and ARRI Worldsales) production solutions. Unique synergies, savings and services are available when it comes to project planning and support, production equipment and post-production – everything, in fact, to ensure the technical and creative realisation of your project.

gives you access to a complete and cost-effective set of

TRULY CINEMATICCAMERA SYSTEMS

CINE LENSES

PRO CAMERA ACCESSORIES

ARCHIVE SOLUTIONS

LIGHTING SOLUTIONS

RENTAL & LOGISTICS

ON-SET SERVICES

2D & 3D POST-PRODUCTION

VISUAL EFFECTS

SOUND

DIGITAL CINEMA MASTERING

LAB WORK

ARRI is your perfect partner in the film, television, commercial and multimedia industries. The close collaboration of ARRI Cine Technik, and ARRI Media Services (comprising ARRI Film & TV Services, ARRI Rental, ARRI Productions and ARRI Worldsales) production solutions. Unique synergies, savings and services are available when it comes to project planning and support, production equipment and post-production – everything, in fact, to ensure the technical and creative realisation of your project.

gives you access to a complete and cost-effective set of

TRULY CINEMATICCAMERA SYSTEMS

CINE LENSES

PRO CAMERA ACCESSORIES

ARCHIVE SOLUTIONS

LIGHTING SOLUTIONS

RENTAL & LOGISTICS

ON-SET SERVICES

2D & 3D POST-PRODUCTION

VISUAL EFFECTS

SOUND

DIGITAL CINEMA MASTERING

LAB WORK

NZVN August 2014

Documents

Transcript of NZVN August 2014