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We are at the offices of Focal Holdings with MarcJamieson and we’re here to look at Kata bags –specifically backpacks because, for quite a long time,backpacks for video weren’t used much in New Zealand.Recently, they’ve become extremely popular as peoplesee the value in putting everything on their back,because cameras have got smaller, and especially theDSLR operators are finding that they can fit their camera,their lenses and all their bits and pieces in a backpackand it’s so much easier to chase the action.

With us here today, we have William He from Photofans( www.photofans.co.nz ). William is here for two reasons– one is that William is a reseller of Kata product mainlyin the photographic area, but he’s also a user of Katabags.

Ed: William, what do you actually look for in abackpack for the use you put it to?

William: I like all the gear with me and because Ihave quite a big lens, I need a big bag. I look forquality, durability and of course easy access.

Ed: Do you put it to the test in terms of it falling offyour back, or you bump into things, or why do you needit to be durable?

William: When you’re on location, the photo or thevideo is the most important part, so you don’t care aboutyour gear … you’re dragging it around, so you need thedurability, the quality.

Ed: Do you use the bag as a pillow at night?

William: Aaah no.

Ed: You’ve got a girlfriend for that. So what do youdo, where do you go – are you taking stills, or are youtaking video?

William: Mostly for stills. I originally started doingsome video stuff, but not too much. I go to themountains, beaches and sometimes the racetrack,because I bike ride as well. I go to Pukekohe andHampton Downs quite a lot to shoot motor sports.

Ed: And the backpack is more preferable than ashoulder bag?

William: Yes. The backpack is easier to carry … youcan imagine, if I put all my gear in a bag, it’s roughlyabout 20kg. So a shoulder bag for a short distance, drop

Backpacks are IN

DECEMBER 2012 Vol 187

it in the car, carry it in the car – fine. But, if you’rewalking around a racetrack, you need to carry all yourgear for a whole day almost, you don’t want a shoulderbag. Your shoulder will be tired after that.

Ed: So what is it about the Kata range that you find isparticularly suitable? I mean, you can buy a backpackfrom a camping store much cheaper than you could buyone of these, but what is it that makes it worth that extraamount of money?

William: I think the protection. The equipment I putinside this bag is very expensive so I want to protect it.

William is sporting today a Bumblebee 220 by Kata.

access the bottom part or the top part and take out thebits you need. But it also has a clever arrangementwith the zip pullers, because on the main compartment,the pullers there are what’s called the “parachutepuller” and as well as being easy to grip, they’re verygood because …?

Marc: It’s the strength of them. They’re allparachute grade zippers as you’ve correctly pointed out,but usually like with the cheaper backpacks, or with asuitcase, you would start somewhere with one zip andthen you would open it that way.

With the Katasystem, you’veactually got fourdifferent zips onthe main com-partment of thebackpack and ifyou put all thezips together,you can use thatas a lockingsystem. That’sideal if you weretravelling or ifyou were in anarea where therewas a high riskof theft. It’s important, if you have four zips, thatpeople aren’t able to access them from four differentareas.

No matter how tough I am with the bag, it’s gentle onthe gear, so I think Kata do ( especially for the Prorange ) really, really good protection.

Ed: Now Marc, in the Pro range, we’re specificallylooking here at the Bumblebee 220, but that’s not tosay there aren’t others in the Bumblebee range …you’ve got smaller ones and there are also larger bagsin the Pro series, but something like this, theBumblebee 220 is about the middle. This is somethingthat could take a smaller format camera, video cameraor the DSLR series and I guess to me, one of the keyfeatures is the ease of getting into it.

Marc: Yes, this is really easy to get into becauseonce you open it, you see all the gear, which is thenvery quick to put in or take out.

Ed: And the difference is that you don’t sit the bag. Abackpack you would sit on its bottom, and you wouldhave to take everything out from the top. Thisparticular bag has a different way of accessing?

Marc: You can access the Bumblebee 220 in a

couple of different ways – one, if you want to access all

the gear, you open all the zips and the whole face

opens out; or secondly, if you arrange the zips in the

middle of the bag, you can gain access to only the top

compartment or you can arrange the zips in a way thatyou could gain access to only the bottom of the

compartment. That’s great for security as well.

Ed: And that’s it – the backpack can be laid on its flatand completely open, so you’ve got access toeverything, or you can sit it on its bottom and just more on page 6

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Marc: Exactly and I believe that was strategicallydone; they placed it there because yellow is the bestcolour to identify items.

There’s no point in having a black interior; if you’ve gotblack lenses or black body or black whatever it’s notgoing to be that easy.

Ed: And you could even put a padlockthrough the four and it would keepeverything in one place?

Marc: Yes, you definitely could.

Ed: And the other pockets … there’s apocket there for a laptop, side pockets toput other things in and they’re identifiedby different zip pullers. So, just bylooking at the zip puller, you know whichpocket type you’re looking at?

Marc: Yes I guess that’s one of theother great things about Kata is theirattention to detail. Everything that Katadoes on their products is for a reason;nothing is just for show generallyspeaking. What they’ve done cleverly, isthey’ve made it so that even if you’re inthe dark, you know what you’reaccessing. The way that they identifythat is, to access the largercompartments of the bags they use theparachute zippers and then to access thesmaller compartments of the bags( maybe to get access to your memorycards or your battery charger orwhatever it may be ) they have buttons at the end ofthe zippers, so you can still identify them in the dark.

Ed: And the other great aid to night time access is ofcourse the Kata yellow on the inside, which is verypretty. You wouldn’t want a suit made out of it, but asan internal to a bag, it’s a fantastic colour?

The dividers are brilliant yellow and moveable.

It’s worth noting that Kata also have the lightweightprotection guarantee, which is a really bold statementto make. You see on the tag of this particular Kata bag,that they guarantee that this bag will be the lightestand most protective bag in its class, or they’ll give theuser their money back.

Ed: And they can keep the bag?

Marc: That’s a good question! They will refund

the money. It’s a bold statement to make, they’ve sold

millions of bags and to date they haven’t had one claim

for a refund.

Ed: Right, so if you’ve got a Kata bag out there, go

and test all the competition, see if you can find a lighter

one of the same size and class and call Marc – he’s got

cash waiting for you.

Okay, that’s the Bumblebee range, but Kata doesn’t

stop there. Obviously these are not suitable for large

cameras, so if you’re taking out your big shoulder

mount, you need something a little bit larger. Kata’s

got a backpack for that too?

Marc: Yes they do. They’ve revamped the Kata

510 from the previous GDC range and they’ve updated

it to some fantastic new looking 2012 style bags.

There’s two particular models – they have a Pro-V 410

and they also have a Pro-V 610 which is specifically

designed for the video market.

Ed: Well you might not fit an F65 in there but

certainly parts of it.

Ed: Or black sandwiches – you’d never find yourlunch.

Marc: And of course, the other valuable thing isthat the compartments on the inside are totally flexiblein terms of positioning because they’re all Velcroattached, so you can fit a DSLR camera in there and itwon’t rattle around, or you can move a couple of thecompartment dividers and you can fit in a larger formatcamera. And there are also nice little net bags forputting loose bits and pieces in, so nothing’s going torattle around.

Another feature is the straps. The material is a “croc-like” rubbery compound that obviously is going to lastand last; but it also fits into the back very nicely. I justput it on and it’s extremely comfortable. There arestraps that you would put around your waist and aroundyour chest to hold the bag firmly in position if you wereon a motorbike for example, or you were tramping upthe mountains, but you can tuck those straps away andjust use the shoulder straps when you’re going fromlocation to location at a short distance and without toomuch difficulty, so it becomes very easy to put on andtake off.

But wait, there’s more! There are a couple of includedaccessories.There is a Katarain cover andthere’s also alittle tripod hol-der. This is asimple pouchwhich clips ontothe base of thebackpack andenables you toslide your tripodlegs through andkeep it securelyonto the outsideof the bag. Soextra little piecesthat just make itthe perfect back-pack for videoand stills.

Ed: Okay, sothat’s the Bumblebee 220. Now if you go down into thesmaller size, they still have the same features but justless space?

Marc: Yes sure.

The Bumblebee family incorporates two different rangesof the bags, so you’ve got a Pro-Light series and anUltra-Light series – and you’re right, they generally docarry the same features, but just slightly different insize.

One of the important things to note about Kata is thatthey’re all about lightweight protection, so whilstWilliam has touched on the protection aspects of thebag, it’s really important to note that he said “whencarrying around 20kg or so worth of gear, it’s essentialthe bag is not another 20kg itself.” That’s importantwhen you’re buying a bag and one of the things thatour retailers are always giving us feedback on, is thatKata have gone the extra mile, they’ve taken a lot ofweight out of the bag. They are the market leaders interms of taking the weight out of the bags and I believeall the other competitors are playing catch-up. But Katastill keep the protection.

Marc from Focal Holdings with a Kata backpackfor the bigger cameras.

Go visit your Kata dealer and have a look at theirbackpack range. Test them out on the weightguarantee too. NZVN

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Technodolly at the HospitalWe are at South Pacific Pictures in Henderson, Aucklandand we’re looking at a Technodolly in action with theShortland Street postproduction supervisor, DylanReeve and Technodolly technician Marc Mateo.

Ed: Dylan, a simple question, what are you using thisTechnodolly for?

Dylan: We need establishing shotsof the hospital which, in reality, is ouroffice building. It is about four storiesshorter than the hospital is in FerndaleStoryland, so we need to shootestablishing shots and we then use visualeffects techniques to extend the heightof the hospital artificially to six floors.We’ve just redone some of the exteriorof the hospital, which means we need tocreate new establishing shots to usefrom here on out and, as part of that,we’ve got a Technodolly which is amotion control crane. It gives us theability to shoot more dynamic shots thanwe have before. In the past, it’s been alock-off shot, and we’ll do theestablishing, but it just means that everytime you see the exterior of the hospitalit’s exactly the same shot, exactly thesame frame size, everything’s the same– it never changes.

Ed: But you could move the position ofthe crane and all that sort of thing?

Dylan: Oh we could, but every time you do a shotyou have to build up the hospital set extension.

Ed: Oh I see, so every single frame shot that youtook before, you’ve got to do new graphics for it in yourbuild?

Dylan on the Shortland Street back lawn.

Page

Dolly Shop and we’ve got a RED Epic on the front of thecrane with a bunch of prime lenses. We’re doing oneshot at the moment which is just a static setup wherethe crane will “boom out”, but later on, we’ll be settingup tracks along the front of the hospital to create amuch more dynamic move, where the crane dolliesalong the front of the hospital as well as having theboom arm go up and down and move around. So it willgive us some pretty dynamic motion.

Marc: Setting up the move is pretty quick. Weare about to do a shot now which is a simple push in onthe telescopic arm, so we have sampled two positionscalled “keyframes”, and the machine has created asmooth motion between those two points we call “thepath”. Once the path is created, we can adjust it byadding further keyframes and by scaling the timebetween keyframes. We then switch the machine intoPLAY mode and it will move along the prescribed path inprecisely the same way every time. There are a lot ofother more complex features, but this move doesn’treally require them.

Ed: How long is this all going to take?

Dylan: It’s now 2pm and we’re scheduled to behere till 10pm. We’re going to grab a few shots fromthis setup before we go up and setup the tracks alongthe top and then we’ll stay there for the rest of the day.

Ed: Now there seem to be a lot of people standingaround here Dylan … 8 – does it need 8people to run it?

Dylan: Oh look, I’m sure you’d bebetter talking to Dennis about that … aTechnodolly operator is unavoidable, anexperienced grip for the crane isunavoidable – beyond that I guess it’d becrew choice you know. You could haveone DOP doing the camera, I think we’vealso got a can assist and an operator anda DOP and obviously the standardShortland Street accouchements of AD’sand First AD’s and people in the ArtDepartment; we’ve got people to wrangleextras. But this is a small crew byShortland Street standards.

Dennis Thompson from the Dolly Shophas his tuppence worth on the matter ofcrew numbers required.

Dennis: That’s right. In the simpleststructure, the DOP operates the cameraas he normally would, using either thepan bar controller, joystick or wheels.Our technician Mark samples the

Dylan: This time, what we’ve got is a motioncontrol rig, which means we can have a more dynamicshot and it will be predictable. Every time we do thisshot, different times of day and night, different things inthe foreground, the motion will be the same. So weonly have to create the move as it were, we only haveto create the set extension once, and we can keepreusing it for all the shots that we do with differentcontent on the same move.

Ed: Because I guess the metadata of the move,telling you how it’s moved in frame, you can actuallyimport that into a graphics programme and make thegraphics move to the same position?

Dylan: That is possible … we haven’t tested thatworkflow yet.

Ed: You heard it here first people!

Dylan: The plan going forward is actually to use astandard visual tracking system to build the 3D track,but there is also metadata off the crane that we couldimport. Most people say it’s probably easier just to dothe visual tracking and then the animation … because, ifyou import the data from the crane, then you also haveto import all the metrics about exactly how far away thecrane is from every item in the frame; whereas, if youjust track the frame, then obviously you’re building a3D picture from specifically what was happening in theframe. So we’re shooting with the Technodolly from the

more on page 17

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Dolly Shop technician Marc Mateo operates the crane.

an Epic camera which we never would have used. Onlocation, we’re usually shooting on a Panasonic two-thirds inch P2, so this is all very different.

Ed: So you’re using the Epic basically because there’sso much post?

Dylan: We’re using the Epic because of all thepixels – it’s got lots of them. So it gives us lots ofscope. Obviously we can do a little post zoom as well,so as well as all the moves we can build in a camerashot, we also have some scope to reframe some of theshots for different variations.

Ed: Now Dylan, post? You’ve got the RED Epic andyou’re using the RED RAW files, what do you put themon?

Dylan: Post work for us on this as a VFX job is theAdobe Creative Suite, CS6. So we’ll probably usePremiere CS6 just to wrangle the footage and all thecompositing will be done in After Effects, CS6 also. It’sgot a solid RED workflow and is a strong compositerthat we know how to use quite well – it’s certainly verycapable of doing what we’re doing. Also the new CS6introduced a very good 3D tracker which is obviouslygreat for this purpose because we can track the cameramoves.

Ed: But your main edit suites are?

Dylan: Everything we do normally for the show isAvid based hanging off an EditShare server; we’re avery EditShare centric workflow here. We’ve got quite aunique installation in the world – one of 3 or 4apparently. So we couldn’t make this show on anythingelse … well, we couldn’t really make the show onanything other than Avid at the moment – the othertools aren’t quite there for the types of turnaround weneed to do and the workflows we have to manage.

Ed: But you can take the footage out of Premiere intoyour Avids without a problem?

Dylan: Oh absolutely. At the end of this shoot, itwill be rendered as DNxHD files that we can just putinto our asset management system and treat them likeany other piece of footage.

Ed: So really you do have a lot of “mix and matches”it seems. Is this a budget thing or is it actually you’repicking the best tools for the jobs?

Dylan: It’s both. I mean it’s the best tool within areasonable budget. We don’t have a lot of call for VFXwork, so obviously it would be ridiculous for us to spendmoney on a …

Ed: Smoke?

Dylan: On a Smoke system or Nuke or anythinglike that, but After Effects certainly gives us enoughbang for our buck for all the types of work that wethrow at it, and it fits in perfectly well with our currentsystems.

Ed: Back to the Technodolly, is there no other cranethat could do this?

Dylan: Not readily available. The motion controlaspect of it is important, so that we can do a single shotmultiple times throughout the day, with the exact samedetails. We could use a standard jib or even aTechnocrane, but we wouldn’t be able to repeat themotion exactly, so it means every single variant of theshot we’d have would be a separate 3D solution, and aseparate composite building experience, which isobviously difficult. It just makes the job more difficult… we’re in fast turnaround TV, we just don’t have thetime in our postproduction schedule for that kind ofthing.

operator’s keyframes and makes any adjustments tothe flow of the shot – speed, length and the stops andstarts. A grip moves the Technodolly base and arm intothe positions that the DOP asks for. The Technodollythen smoothly follows the pathway of those presetpositions.

Ed: Dylan, I suppose it’s good that they all get to seeit and sort of know what it does?

Dylan: I think there’s probably a bit of that as well.I know there are a couple of people planning to pop inlater on just to have a wee nosy, because it is veryoutside the norm for us in terms of, for example, using

more on page 20

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Marc: Once a shot is created, it’seasy to go back to it at any time in thesame setup. You can move the crane tothe other end of the track or wherever anddo a completely different move, then veryquickly come back to the first move or anykeyframe in the move and continue whereyou left off. You can even manuallyoverride the move if you wanted to. Sofrom that point of view, it’s also a greatshot creation tool.

Ed: And you totally trust that it’s goingto repeat the motion; you’ve obviouslydone some tests?

Dylan: Oh absolutely. There’s noquestion that the crane is very capable ofdoing that. It’s done so for much biggerclients than us, so that aspect of it we’renot worried about. Everything else afterthis point, after we shoot it, it’s all a bit ofan experiment, but we’re confident we’vegot the necessary skills.

Ed: So you haven’t used it before …?

Dylan: No, I haven’t personally and Idon’t think any of us from the ShortlandStreet side of things has encountered itbefore. The first of these shots will beseen when Shortland Street comes back inthe 2013 season, so early-mid January2013 we’ll see these shots on air.

Ed: And I guess, if you really like it, youmight incorporate some other things in it… those high shots over the operatingtable?

Dylan: It’s the same with any ofthese things when we incorporate a newtechnology, a new tool we haven’t usedbefore. It’s always good to know about itfor future opportunities, so that ifanything does come up ( especially veryspecial occasion stuff ) then youunderstand that it’s there and it’s anavailable tool. We’ve done it before –we’ve used a radio control helicopter inthe past for aerial shots. We now knowthat’s a tool that we could use in future;something to put in the back of the mindfor when the right time arrives.

Ed: Well we look forward to the 2013season.

Dylan: It will be full of drama!

Some of the crew ponder the next move.A photo worthy of a caption contest?

Offices / hospital in the background.

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Page

Avid Audio at ProtelWe are at Protel with their audio specialist RenéBullinga and Stuart Newman from Avid Australia.

Ed: Stuart, there was a bit of an Avid Pro Audio showlast night in Auckland and you had one in Wellington.We all know about Media Composer, ProTools, etc but you’ve got someenhancements to that, that have justcome out now and you’re letting the NewZealand professional industry knowabout it. What was it all about?

Stuart: Well I guess in the last twoyears we’ve completely refreshed whatwe call our HD product range of ProTools hardware solutions. We’ve hadproduct with HD native in this space forabout two years and last year, weintroduced HDX which is our new DSPplatform for Pro Tools HD. They’ve nowbeen in the marketplace for 12 monthsand we’ve got a lot of our developersthat have recently brought out softwareto work on the system, so it was a goodtime to come out and show people wherewe’re currently at with the softwareworkflows and how people are usingthese audio enhancements. So we cameover with a guy called Tom Larkin …Tom’s actually far more into the musicside; he’s the drummer for the bandShihad that I’m sure everyone in New Zealand hasheard of. He’s based out of Melbourne and he runs hisstudio in Melbourne with Pro Tools. He’s got 25 yearsof production history with his band, with some of thebest producers in the world – out of Canada, the States,LA, Australia, and New Zealand. I think it was a reallygood event for users to be able to interact with him, askhim questions … maybe not so much technically inclinedin subject matter, but more so how does the technologyfit into his workflows and the way that he wants to goabout developing his sounds.

Ed: So how does he use the new Avid technology in aclever way?

Stuart: Pro Tools is obviously the backbone of whathe records to and then he can take his Pro Toolssessions to pretty much any studio in the world,because we’ve got about a 95% market share in prostudios worldwide. That’s not to say we’re the onlysoftware, but you generally have Pro Tools there as thecore, with other software there too.

Ed: But you’re saying this is just more than Pro Tools– this is a software upgrade or this is a hardwareupgrade?

Stuart: We haven’t specifically released a newproduct on this trip, but HDX and HD nativecompatibility from many of our third party plug-inproviders are really just becoming available now, sowe’re showcasing many of those products. We arebringing Pro Tools to 64 bit in the near future with theanticipated release of Pro Tools 11 next year, and thenew hardware actually enables us to set the platformfor that out in the field. We are continually releasingversions of Pro Tools that are bringing more advancedfeatures for users in the professional market.

Ed: Has this had a history in the Euphonixincorporation?

Stuart: The Euphonix acquisition has been a hugelypositive thing for Avid from the fact that manyextremely bright people came over from the Euphonix

working to hone down future products that hopefullywe’ll get released very soon.

Ed: So people who weren’t there last night to hearfrom Tom Larkin – how can they pick up on this? Canthey see this as a YouTube clip or can they read aboutthis on the web, or is it gone, they’ve missed out?

Stuart: Yes, they did miss out this time. In thefuture, we might actually record these things or do awebcast, we’ve certainly talked about it, but René and Iand Protel, we’ve been talking about doing user relatedevents like this on a more regular basis – maybe notnext time with Tom, but you know, there are so manyfantastic producers, engineers, mixers out there andvideo/post mixers too.

René: This session was less of a product focusand more of a user focus, so to actually have a user likeTom explaining “tips and techniques”, hismethodologies and thought processes behind theproduction, is a great learning opportunity for endusers. It really is an educational exercise, and we weredelighted with the response from those who attended.So look out for more sessions like this next year.People should make sure they subscribe to ournewsletter at www.protel.co.nz to ensure they areaware of future events.

Ed: Well that’s always good, so hopefully in thefuture, if you miss out on the live event you’re going tocover it in some way?

René: That is a possibility, but the bestexperience is definitely gained by being there on thenight, especially as there are always plenty of realexamples to be heard and discussed. So be sure tosign up for our newsletter to be advised of future eventsis the best advice!

If anyone is interested in discussing this event or any ofthe topics covered they are welcome to give us a ring orpop in for a coffee!

Ed: We’ll look forward to that.

company, the likes of Martin Stahl who was actually thearchitect at Nuendo; and we’ve got Martin Kloiber whowas the CEO of Euphonix, he’s now the director of AudioProduct Management worldwide. So we’re taking onelements of their products and developments that theyhad when we acquired the company and we’re now

NZVN

René and Stuart at Protel in Auckland.

Radio Spectrum NewsWireless Users NZ has updated its website (www.wunz.co.nz) with the latest developmentsin the roll out of digital TV in NZ and includes a spreadsheet showing the use of DTT byregion as of October 2012.

Wireless Users NZ recently contributed to a draft Radio Spectrum Five Year Outlook plan.http://www.rsm.govt.nz/cms/policy-and-planning/consultation/radio-spectrum-five-year-outlook-2012-2016/view) Its submission is here.

(http://www.rsm.govt.nz/cms/pdf-library/policy-and-planning/submissions/Submission%20from%20Wireless%20Users%20NZ.pdf)

Of note WUNZ asked for a single point of contact at Radio Spectrum Management and amore user-friendly interface so users can access information on what is transmitting wherewhen moving around New Zealand.

How do I search/confirm UHF frequencies in use and polarisation for eachDTV channel?

Visit the RSM Register of Radio Frequencies SMART (http://www.rsm.govt.nz/smart-web/smart/page/-smart/WelcomePage.wdk)

1. Select “search licences”.

2. In the channel field, enter the DTV channel e.g. DTV33

3. Click the “Search” button

Sound Techniques has good stocks of the RF Explorer in store. This handheld RF scanner isan economical way of getting an instant appraisal of RF in a working environment and can beused to diagnose radio microphone issues. NZ$199 + GST

For owners of iPhones or Android devices Sound Techniques recommends the FreqFinderapp available on either app store. Enter you radio microphone frequencies and check thatthere are no intermods interfering with transmission. Intermodulation is a non-linear source ofRF interference that arises when two or more transmitters at different frequencies areoperating.

NB: Check the website regularly, as the ballpark is being changed on us all the time.

Stephen Buckland

PRODUCTION | POST | VISUAL EFFECTS

* Trial products are subject to the terms and conditions of the license and services agreement that accompanies the software. Autodesk and Smoke are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/

or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at anytime without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2012 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

& Happy New Year from the team at DVT

merry christmasChristmas Hours: Closed 5pm Friday 21st Dec till 9am Monday 7th Jan


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


Page

Shoulder Mountsat Panavision

We are at Panavision with Tim Timlin todiscuss some new shoulder mount rigoptions.

Ed: Tim, we saw a little sticker on lastmonth’s ad from Panavision, “SYMPLA” iscoming. This a product from Manfrottothat, it’s fair enough to say, Manfrottohave waited until others have come outwith a rig like this, but they’ve done itbetter?

Tim: Yes, Manfrotto promised us thatthey would be bringing out a shouldersupport system for DSLR cameras and itwould be the best. Now it’s here, andcertainly it’s very versatile and could bethe best as you can see. They call it theSy-stem M-oving Pla-tform.

Ed: And also beautiful – that Italiandesign - and I’ve looked over it and canconfirm that it has some very cleverfeatures?

Tim: Yes. It’s interesting because it’s a“tool-less” system and it’s easy to adjust – the ideabeing that you can rapidly setup a camera and put itinto place. On the other hand, if you look at thisalternate rig I have here, I can show you how muchmore difficult it is to put a camera into it. It needs anAllen key to make adjustments and, although it’s lessthan half the price, it’s not nearly as convenient as theSYMPLA.

Ed: Well that’s it – you can take this ManfrottoSYMPLA rig and you can shoulder mount it and veryquickly you can change it to go onto a tripod or into aFig Rig so there’s a huge variety of ways to use it.That’s how most people use their cameras, they don’thave them in one setup the whole time?

Tim: Exactly, yes, so you need the versatility of a rigsystem that’s going to enable you to do what you wantto do quickly and make those adjustments.

Ed: I would think that if somebody wanted to havetheir DSLR mounted in a shoulder rig fulltime, thenthey’d buy a camera that was actually shoulder mount?

Tim: Probably.

Ed: Mind you, we don’t want to put words into DSLRowners’ heads you know … they might start thinkingabout what they’re doing.

Tim: You’ll see Manfrotto shows the Fig Rig versionwith a Sony camera in the catalogue, which isn’t aDSLR, possibly with that sort of thing … I guess they’retrying to show the range of cameras SYMPLA can caterfor.

Ed: Ahhh! So in fact, you can mount a Sony hand-held camera, such as the FS100 or FS700, or I imagineyou could mount one of the smaller EX cameras on it?

Tim: Yes I would think that any of those hand-heldcameras would be able to be put onto this system andenable you to put a matte box on it and it would bequite versatile. The matte box system with the SYMPLAsystem has a circular hood, borrowing from thephotographic field, and it’s a rubber concertina typehood rather than the traditional square rectangularhood of the standard matte boxes in the film industry.

Ed: But it still has the slots for filters?

Tim: It still has the slots for the filters. It has a sort of“bag at the back” fit, rather than different sizes of rings,again to make it fairly quick to adjust and change. TheManfrotto handles are replaceable by custom handles;remote control handles that Manfrotto offer as well.Either you can do a clamp-on remote LANC type ofcontrol, or the handle itself can be replaced, giving you

Tim with the Indi rig - less camera.

Simpl

SYMPLA is a professional modular video rig system that extends and complements new cameras, allows for stable support and framing, supports essential accessories features, offering versatility and high performance as well as comfort, safety and much simpler and faster set up than existing rigs.

SYMPLA is built for flexibility and speed, so you can change anything and everything easily and quickly: hand grip positions, counterbalance, camera body, lens, accessories, filters, light-shielding angle; shoulder-supported, hand-held, or tripod/monopod-mounted… whatever you need to get the shot, the second you need it.

SalesServiceSupport

Tim (09) 3608766

[email protected]

318 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland

(The) System Moving Platform by Manfrotto

Simpler

SYMPLA

Page

functions like zoom control and also trip the shutter forstill shots or for record / start / stop for video – and thefocus speed can be customised as well. So, very neatremote controls by Manfrotto that work very well withthe SYMPLA too.

Ed: Now what I particularly like about this is theadjustments for the plate where you mount the camerato. There is a very clever screw system for sliding thecamera sideways or moving it up and down, I guess sothat it all lines up perfectly with your matte box?

Tim: Yes, that’s the simple thing, but in fact when youwork with these things, people generally want to putfollow focus systems on to them. Manfrotto at thispoint don’t offer a follow focus, but there are obviouslyvery good systems from Chrosziel and O’Connor, whichprobably cost as much as the SYMPLA on its own, butthat’s where you need the height adjustment, to get thelens ( depending on the size of the camera body ) tomatch it to the follow focus. That actually seems to bewhere the critical adjustment needs to come.Generally, the matte box itself, if it’s aligned with thecamera, it merely requires a vertical up or down shift,and that’s relatively simple to arrange. The other thingthe SYMPLA system offers you is lens support, like acradle, so it will easily deal with very long lenses if youhave to mount them on these systems. You can jointhe rails together easily as they are threaded at bothends to lengthen them. So it certainly adds solutionsfor perhaps more difficult arrangements of cameraaccessories.

Ed: And that’s it, unlike shall we say the more basicrigs that are just designed for putting cameras into ashoulder mount position, Manfrotto has this history andother clamps and bits and pieces that join onto or canbe added to the SYMPLA rig to further enhance the usesto which you might want to put it?

Tim: Yes, very much so. There is also a V-Offsetavailable for bridging large height differences; it doesn’tnecessarily have a battery support at this stage, butagain there are the sockets or the threaded areas wherebattery plates can be added, if you like, as furthercounterweights – but there is a counterweight availablefor it as well. You can see that the shoulder supportcan be inverted to give you a brace which can be putagainst the body if you wanted to use it in that way.

There are two rod lengths available, a 300mm and a150mm so again you can make adjustments within thesystem quite easily depending on what you want to do.It’s also interesting the offset that it has … conventional

rigs tend to just have alinear same level offset, butthe SYMPLA has an angledone, so the shoulder stepsup or down to the cameraplatform with their type ofdesign. It’s vaguely sort of“S” shaped as you can see,which gives you again aheight adjustment straightaway.

Ed: So that makes it more

comfortable for the operator

to get that perfect position?

Tim: Yes I imagine this is

where Manfrotto must havedone some research

because the standard rigs

don’t have that angle built

into the offset. As far as I am aware, only Manfrotto

with the SYMPLA system do it this way.

Ed: That would make it easier to keep the perfecthorizontal position and still hold it in the mostcomfortable position, whereas in other situations youmight have to move a few centimetres up or down toget your camera in the perfectly horizontal position.But what’s the name of this basic rig that we’recomparing the SYMPLA to?

Tim: It’s called an Indi rig and it’s American made. Itcomes complete with additional carrying handle, mattebox, side wings and French flag; it comes with follow

The SYMPLA rig without the camera matte box.

For more information contact Syntec International Pty LtdFreecall 0800 100 755 [email protected] www.syntec.co.nz

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Page

focus, front handles and a shoulder support … all for theprice of around about $1,360 plus GST, which is quite alot of kit for that amount of money.

It is quite demanding to set it up – you need Allen keys- but once you have set it up, it’s perfectly serviceableand will work effectively as a shoulder rig.

Ed: That’s it – if you’re operating it all of the time,

once you’ve got it set up for yourself, you can easily

take the camera on or off and it’s set up ready to goand everything’s on there?

Tim: Yes. This type of rig is typically what you’ll findcoming from China as well. There’s a huge number ofdesigns as you’ve seen on various shows, manymanufacturers making rigs in various forms – some oflesser quality and some better … the fact is, you’ve gotto spend some time tweaking it to get it to fit yourparticular camera. Once your camera is set up on it,usually with a sliding plate like this one has, you’reready to go and it’s good enough. Whereas the SYMPLAoffers that versatility and tool-less approach that wouldbe much quicker to set up and use, and easier if youwant to whip it off and put it on a tripod or convert itinto a different sort of support, say with the Fig Rig orsomething like that.

Ed: So in that case, if you had your own matte boxalready, you could easily fit that to the Manfrottobecause the rods are standard, all the threading pointsare there and it’s easy to add those extra bits on?

Tim: Indeed, Manfrotto has used the industry standard15mm rod system here so, yes, you could add on your

own follow focus, your own matte box if it is set up for15mm already. So you would only need to buy thebasic SYMPLA system and add the bits if you had them.

Ed: And of course it goes very well on Manfrottotripods?

Tim: Exceptionally well.

Ed: But if all of that has confused you and you don’tknow which one to choose, there’s a very simplesolution … you come in and talk to Tim here at

Panavision andhe’ll show youboth rigs andyou can try yourDSLR or yoursmall hand-heldcamera on eitherof these and seeif it’s what youreally want.

Tim: Yes. Iwould be happyto show anyonethe rigs and theycould workthrough it anddiscuss any sortof options thatthey might wantto do with thesesystems. NZVN

To view the C300 in store today, visit one of ourCanon Cinema Authorised Resellers

Loudness Finallyunder Control

Our tempers have suffered long enough but now

there are new standards set for the loudness of

television commercials in New Zealand. The

major broadcasters have accepted the

guidelines from the NZ Broadcast Engineering

Group and they will come into effect on

1/1/2013.

To see the guidelines in full, go to the CAB

website www.commercialapprovals.co.nz and

search CAB News, Technical Standards then

download the PDF.

Loudness history goes back a long way ( as you

will have read in previous issues – November

2011 was a biggie ) but the big push has come

from the US of A with the introduction of their

“CALM” Act. We have sensibly followed their

lead as has Australia and others – apart from

the Europeans who are still fighting!

What’s it all about? Basically, as well as the

previous specs, there is now a requirement for

all commercials to have a target loudness level

of -24LKFS. LKFS is “Loudness, K-weighted,

relative to digital Full Scale”. An LKFS is as near

as equal to an LUFS if that helps and “K” is the

designation of the frequency weighting curve

used.

Need you bother? Well, you have to comply

with all specs or your ad will be rejected but

there are choices. Any of your usual broadcast

equipment suppliers will be very happy to

supply you with a measuring device or you can

get your favourite commercial file delivery

provider to fix each one you make for you.

They can also tell you of the new high def specs

enabling you to provide your commercial in at

least a form of high definition. Whether it will

play out in HD will depend on the broadcaster

and the channel – some things don’t change!

ED

Page

Ed’s Christmas PresentMy present is that you get to keep receiving NZVN forfree for another year. Despite “gloom and doom” insome corners, our advertisers are continuing tosupport us so we can keep telling you of all the good things they havethat will make your jobs better or easier.

Please continue to support them and tell them that you came to thembecause of NZVN.

The website is steadily getting more hits ( some issues over 200 )while the paper holds its own. I like paper, so we will continue.

No January issue as I’m on Great Barrier Island keeping well awayfrom technology.

Back in February.

Merry Christmas, Ed and elves

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

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

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Tim (09) 3608766

[email protected]

318 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland

SalesServiceSupport

now in stock!

manfrotto.com

NZVN December12

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