NZVN February 2016

FEBRUARY 2016 Vol 221

We begin 2016 at DVT in Auckland with Stuart Barnabyand we’re discussing camera evolution because, as a newcamera appears along, it generates a gap in the market.Sometimes, the competition fills itor the manufacturer later comesout with another camera that fitsin that slot. Now it looks asthough we’ve found a new areawhere there was a gap that hasnow been filled, and it’s in the 4Kmarket.

Ed: What are we looking at hereStuart?

Stuart: There’s been a bit of ahole in the 4K market for a while.

When 4K first came out, it was onhigher end cameras that requiredinterchangeable lenses and com-plex rigging to set them up –whether that was driven for theDSLR market or from the morecinematic 35mm market – therewere 4K options in both of thosefields but they were quite complexsystems. But what’s happenedlately is that 4K has now well andtruly come into the standardhandycam style of camera.

Ed: And 4K is being supportedright through the workflow in somany areas. It’s not a case of justfutureproofing by recording in 4K, you actually have theability to record adequate amounts of material on cardsand you have the possibility to edit it and even release iton the internet. So 4K is a standard that’s here to stay?

Camera Evolution

The other real key thing that makes 4K easy is thatpurchasing 4K technology today is no more expensivethan purchasing HD technology was 2-3 years ago; justas purchasing HD was no more expensive than SD

Stuart: Absolutely, just as HD was when that cameout. It wasn’t a question of how soon HD would come inor whether it would come in. Inevitably it has, and HDbecame the standard, and 4K is now rapidly moving thatway as well.

Chris and Stuart with some of the camera range available at DVT.

technology 5 or 6 years earlier. So the cost of these 4Khandycam style cameras is no more expensive than theHD or SD handycam style cameras we have had in thepast. One of the really good things is that the cost toshoot, edit, grade and deliver 4K is a significantly easiertransition from HD to 4K than it was going from SD toHD. So there’s really no reason to be concerned about4K as far as cost implications with post production. 4Kis a wonderful production and post production tool to beable to use. Then of course, you can alwaysdownconvert for the particular delivery platform thatyou’re working with – whether it’s SD on DVD orYouTube delivery or web delivery or for broadcast.

Ed: With 4K in the handycam style camera, thebiggest difference has to be in the sensors. I know inthe HD era, and even in standard def, having 3 chipswas the way to go. But with 4K, 3 chips are not anoption?

Stuart: Just as we saw changes in image sensortechnology in the past with the change from CCD imagesensors to CMOS image sensors – and there were someissues with CMOS image sensors with the rolling shutterissues and other things that we all had to grapple with –there’s an inevitable change in technology as we movefrom HD to 4K. It requires different image sensortechnology. All 4K cameras have a single larger imagesensor, but with these handycam style 4K cameras theimage sensors are not 35mm image sensors – most ofthem are typically 1 inch so it gives you a slightlyshallower depth of field over what would traditionally bea 3 chip, 1/3rd inch camera. But it’s not super dramatic– it gives you a few more creative opportunities – youcan get a slightly shallower depth of field in interviewsituations, but it’s certainly got a big enough depth offield to do “run and gun” type productions, which thesehandycam style cameras are ideal for – whether it’swedding or event videography or you’re doingcorporate, product or training videos, and you want toput these sorts of cameras in the hands of people thataren’t necessarily experts in high end production, butcan just get out there and shoot some really goodpictures.

Ed: So a 1 inch sensor is equivalent to 25mm, so 25as opposed to 35 – you’re looking at about two-thirdsthe width of that sensor. I know in some of the smallerhandycam HD cameras, there was interpolation goingon, so the actual pixel array wasn’t full HD such as withthe HDV format … are these 1 inch sensors a full pixelarray?

Stuart: Yes absolutely, they’re full 4K no holdsbarred image sensors. As everyone knows, 4Ktechnology has now been around for quite some time.Manufacturers of 4K image sensors have been doing itlong enough now to be able to bang out appropriateones for these more handycam style cameras. Whatthese cameras give you that some of the other optionsdon’t is just simple ease and convenience of use. It isthat “run and gun” type thing, you can pick up thecamera, turn it on, all the audio options are there, thecontrol of it is all there, it’s an integrated lens, so you

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don’t have to change lenses or worry about any of thelens mounts or any of that sort of stuff. So it’s simple,convenient, but the quality of all of the componentsinvolved in this new range of cameras is extremely high– they have good quality lenses, really great recordingmechanisms, very simple ease of use operation, menusystems that we’re all familiar with as well.

Ed: Now one of the points that I’ve often made aboutthe 4K cameras that have been out before these, wasthat they’re really cine cameras – and I would define acine camera as one that has a very shallow depth offield. Now I know it’s not just me who bangs on aboutthis and I’ve certainly heard from cinematographerswho say they’re great if you know how to use them, butit is quite a learning curve, they’re not video cameraswhere everything can be in focus all the time. You dohave to work with them, you do have to be more carefulhow you shoot, otherwise you’re going to wastefootage. With these handycam 4K, you still have theability to have a shallow depth of field, but it’s lessdifficult to take everything in focus all the time?

Stuart: Yes, people need to be skilled in theoperation of their tools, and cameras are no different.For example we’ve had an HD camera, the Sony PXW-X160 which has a 25x optical zoom lens. When youzoom in on that, you have to pay attention to yourfocus because it’s very, very shallow when you get thatlong on the lens. With these 4K handycam cameras youneed to work on focus as well, but it’s no harder tofocus these cameras than it is a PXW-X160. So youknow they’re very simple and convenient, but the depthof field you get out of them is nowhere near as shallowas you would out of a 35mm camera. It’s nothing to betoo concerned about but absolutely, we would makesure that all of our customers are paying attention tofocus and we’d also make sure they’re paying attentionto exposure, audio, white balance and everything elsethat they need to do to drive the camera properly.

Ed: So this is a very easy transition for someonewho’s got an EX1 or an EX3 – would that be right?

Stuart: Absolutely, very, very simple. It’s acamera with a card that you record onto; everyone’sfamiliar with those workflows. The overhead in terms of

post production is not too dramatic if you have amodern system. The cost of storage has dramaticallyplunged over the last couple of years, so it’s very easyand convenient to get plenty of storage to be able tomanage these things. And then the results that you getby being able to say “well actually, I can shoot, edit andmaster everything in 4K now” which means you build alibrary of content that’s available for all future use and,as we know right now, when you go and buy a bigscreen tele, they’re all Ultra HD. It’s not like it’s thechicken and the egg thing, the screens are already inpeople’s houses now, so this is just really a questionthat, if you’re a video production professional, then youshould use the best equipment you can for the job.

Ed: If you are transitioning the Sony way from anEX1 or an EX3, what’s the model that we’re looking athere?

Stuart: For example Sony have the PXW-Z100 4Kand PXW-X70 ( 4K with a paid upgrade ) handycams.When you look at these cameras they are very similarto all of Sony’s recent HD range of cameras, so in termsof the operational capability, controlling the audio,putting cards in, formatting them, recording – all ofthose functions would be almost second nature toanyone who’s come from a previous Sony camera.

Ed: So for someone who is progressing to this 4Kcamera, they could, if they were doing an HDproduction, easily mix and match their EX1 or EX3 withthis?

Stuart: Yes that’s right. If you’re doing a liveproduction, these cameras will all shoot HD just as wellas they will 4K. So in that regard, you can actuallyrecord 4K on the camera and output HD through an HD-SDI cable live into a production switcher if you need to,so plenty of options.

Ed: But along with the 4K, what other improvementshave there been in the camera?

Stuart: Apart from the fact that they shoot 4K, alot of the other operational capabilities of the cameraare very similar. Each camera has its own uniquefeatures and we discuss these in detail with customersto ensure we are able to assist them to get the rightcamera for their work. However, the big thing is simplythe familiarity and ease of use that comes with thehandycam style body and single fixed lens camera.

Ed: So in fact, it really is an easy transition becauseyou pick it up and you know instantly how to use it, ifyou’re a Sony user?

Stuart: Absolutely. Anyone stepping into the 4Kcamera from the EX1 all the way through to the currentrange of Sony cameras, would be almost immediately athome. The main difference is really around therecording formats, so this uses the far more modernXAVC type recording format versus the older MPEG-2 ofthe earlier Sony cameras. And then obviously you canshoot in 4K modes as well as HD modes so there’s alittle bit to learn around that, but it’s not a hard learningcurve at all.

Ed: Now from Panasonic – their HD camcorder, whatwould they have used at that point?

Stuart: Well it might have been an AG-AC160 HDcamera for example, or an older AG-HMC42 or AG-AF102.

Ed: … and now?

Stuart: And now you can look at the AG-DVX200which again is a handycam style 1 inch image sensor 4Kcamera that can also shoot HD.

Ed: So the Panasonic transition – buttons pretty muchin the same place?

Stuart: Yes very similar in style. ExistingPanasonic users will find the menu system’s similar, allthe buttons pretty much where they always have been.Things like audio on these cameras is identical acrossjust about every Sony, Panasonic and every othercamera on the market, so there’s not a lot of changewhen you come from one type of technology to another,it’s really good. But of course there is that ability toshoot 4K and be able to master in 4K and doproductions that way.

Ed: So it looks as though the camcorder market iscertainly sorted – the smaller, perhaps you’d call them“mini handhelds” have been out for some time rightacross the range and some of those are even availablein 4K if you want it?

Stuart: Exactly. Sony have had a PXW-X70 cameraavailable in the market for quite some time. It’s got a 1inch 4K image sensor in it, but when they launched thecamera, they only had it available in HD. Now you canbuy a firmware upgrade to it to convert it into 4K andthat’s got a very small consumer handycam style form

factor. It does have an audio adapter and handle thatyou can bolt onto the top should you wish to have ashotgun microphone mounted on it as well as balancedaudio inputs, so you can make it a bit more flexible forbetter audio. But if you just want to shoot really good4K pictures and you want something really small andcompact and portable, you can take the handle off andrun around and do some great shooting with it.

Ed: Well I think this is a big leap forward because I’venever been totally convinced that the cine stylecameras were the way to go for everybody. I could seethat, for those who are serious shooters, who have thetime to set up their shots and really just concentrate onthe image of a production, then yes, they’re a greattool. But for those of us who are involved in getting theshot, setting the frame, getting the lighting right,recording the audio and all the time listening to what’sbeing said so we know that we’re actually getting thecontent we want, these camcorder style 4K camerashave been long overdue and it’s great to see them here.Are you getting a lot of interest in these Stuart?

Stuart: Yes absolutely. Bigger 4K cameras werethe first to come out – and there was a lot of buzzabout the F5 and the F55 and the Canon C300 andC500 and that style of camera, and more recently theFS7 and now the FS5 coming along – these cameras arewonderful and they shoot beautiful pictures and ifyou’re doing a TV commercial or a high enddocumentary or a short film or a feature productionthey’re wonderful tools for doing that sort of work. Or ifyou’re doing high end interview work with some people,they’re great cameras. But when you just want to beable to grab a camera and quickly and conveniently goout and record an interview with a teacher and the

reaction from the student or do event videography andyou want something simple and compact but with all ofthe professional functions that you’re used to, that’swhere these handycam style 4K cameras really comeinto their own. So I think it’s about now where youactually have choice across the range, regardless ofwhat sort of application you’ve got, it will fit your needsperfectly, and you no longer have to sort of shoehornyourself into a particular type of camera whether it’s aDSLR or a bigger F5, F55 style camera, if you want toshoot 4K. If you’re doing more event videography,corporate, product, training, educational videos – thatstyle of video and you want to be able to do it forlongevity so that you can preserve that content, make itavailable on Ultra High Definition teles which are nowthe standard, whether that’s around your campus oryour clients want to have it in their foyer and havethese beautiful 4K images playing on it – these sort of4K handycams allow you to go out and get thoseimages with a minimum of fuss. They make 4Kacquisition very easy and convenient for anyone.

This leads us nicely onto a follow-up story to Stuart’svisit in September last year to the Cook Islands.

Ed: Stuart, they must be happy with you becausethey asked you back?

Stuart: Yes, the second trip to the Cook Islands inone year … it’s great, really, really good.

Ed: But you didn’t spend much time on the beach thistime did you – I mean after that last episode with thegrass skirt, etc?

Stuart: This time I have real photos for you so youdon’t need to resort to Photoshop Grant. They are quiteeffective at putting me to work when I’m up there,

which is good and it’s very enjoyable. Thefocus of this trip was that they’d finishedtheir Broadcast Centre in the NationalAuditorium, so we had to move the gearinto that, plus it was a great opportunity todo extra training for their staff.

Ed: What were you training them in,camerawork?

Stuart: Training them in the variousaspects of doing full production, soeverything from the camera technology andhow that works and going more in depthinto that – explaining to them exactly howthe ins and outs of cameras work, plus thelive vision mixing …

Ed: But with the cameras, you suppliedthem some what I would call “videocameras” and some cine cameras. Wereyou explaining the difference to them?

Stuart: Yes absolutely. They basicallyhad 3 different types of camera – the PTZcameras that were mounted permanentlyinside the auditorium; they had some FS7cameras that they’re using to tell the storiesof the people of the Cook Islands in a moredocumentary sort of style; and then they’vealso got some Sony X160 cameras whichthey’re using for live events. They’ve got agreat long zoom lens on them, very goodfor event videography as well as doingparades or sporting events – that sort ofthing.

So with the training, we were explaining thedifferent aspects of those cameras, butpredominantly, it was more fundamentalcamera understanding about how to controlexposure, how to control the focus, how to

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compose shots, how to look after lightingand the audio – all of those basiccapabilities of the cameras.

It was fascinating to watch a reasonablegroup of people who had moderate tolow camera understanding, but by thetime we’d gone through those cameratraining courses, they all came out theother end understanding the variousplaces where you would use the differentcameras. Also, there are far moresimilarities between cameras when youlook at them from a fundamental level,than there are differences. So obviously,the shallower depth of field that you getout of a large format image sensorcamera like the FS7 – they understandthat they’re great for interview work,great for doing documentary short films,you know, telling the stories of thepeople of the Cook Islands. It’s a greatcamera for that job, but if it’s for a fastpaced parade that’s going down the roador they’re chasing sports action orthey’re wanting a really good long lensfor shooting people on the stage in the auditorium, thenthat’s what a good old high quality HD camera like theSony PXW-X160 is really good for. Plus PTZ camerasare awesome – one person controlling 3 cameras withpreset positions, exposures and focuses. It’s aphenomenal way of having one person man 3 camerasand getting multiple shots just at the push of a button.It was really great to be able to train them up intohaving a good understanding of all the different aspectsof those cameras.

Ed: Do you think there’s a possibility of doing such atraining course here in New Zealand – a day course forexample?

Stuart: Potentially there is – a lot of our customershave got experience of cameras, so whether we’d dothat fundamental stuff, but yes we’ve certainly donecamera training in the past.

Ed: Well as a refresher. There are people who havebeen in this industry for a long time and haven’t hadexposure to the modern cameras, so as a refresher 1day course, do you think it’s possible?

Stuart: Oh absolutely, yes for sure. If we getenough interest we’d be more than happy to do it.

Ed: Excellent, so email Stuart and we’ll put his emailhere for you to give him an email to say “yes, we’dpotentially be interested.” Now the other aspect of thetraining was the stage work, because there’s a bit of adifference in “stage for stage” and “stage for tele”?

Stuart: Yes, they were doing a live internationalbroadcast event while I was there, the Miss PacificIslands contest, and this is more a management thingfrom the guys who are actually producing the show –they needed to understand that, first and foremost, thisisn’t a stage show, it’s a TV show. This means that youcan’t stop halfway through while you rearrange thestage and then carry on again. The audience in anauditorium will understand that, if you close thecurtains and say “we’re just having an intermission,”that’s fine; but of course in a live broadcast you can’tdo that every 5 minutes. So we were working hard withthem to just change their mindset into thinking that,when it is going out live to 4 countries, it needs to bethought of first and foremost as a TV show. So if theydo need to do things behind the scenes to get organisedfor the next section, they will need something to fill thatin – a bit of pre-recorded content that was shot earlierin the week out in the field can cover that; you could

have an MC covering it, talking about what’s coming upnext … those various things. It’s just that change inmindset, plus also the differences in the stage lightingas well. When you’re lighting it up for a stage show andnot thinking about the camera, you’d light it quitedifferently to the way you would when you’re looking ata camera’s view. So again, we were working with thelighting people in the auditorium to make sure that thelighting was set up correctly so that it was primarily forthe cameras, because the bigger audience was actuallythe ones viewing television, not the ones in theauditorium itself.

Ed: Did you get a spot as a guest judge?

Stuart: I did not, no, but I got to see quite a bitfrom the Broadcast Centre upstairs.

Ed: That’s good that you saw quite a bit. Now,lighting … you didn’t manage to supply them lightingkits. What are they doing for lighting?

Stuart: Well they’ve obviously got plenty of lightinginside the National Auditorium which was their primaryfocus. Out in the field, you’re talking about Rarotongawhich has got plenty of light and quite often it’s more aquestion of providing them some expertise in how totake advantage of the natural light that they have anabundance of, to ensure that if they are filming thingslike parades or sporting events, there’s not much youneed to worry about. But if they are doing interviewsoutside and they need to be able to manage the talentthat they’re filming, there are very simple techniquesthat you can use to pull those people into the right spotwherever you are, to just make sure you’re making themost of the natural lighting that’s around you, withouthaving to carry lighting rigs around or even bounceboards. There are tricks that you can use to get awaywithout even bounce boards, if you just ask your talentto move. Funnily enough, if you’re standing there witha camera and a microphone, you have this air ofauthority and most people, if you ask them to, will quitehappily move.

Ed: Now this was another event where the TriCasterwas the centre stage because of the internationalbroadcast. Was this the first time or perhaps thebiggest audience that you’ve been involved in with theTriCaster?

Stuart: Yes. The first time we were just providinga video output to the local telco up there which wasBlueSky and they were taking care of the broadcast to

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the outer islands. On this event, we were doing a liveinternational broadcast and earlier in the week, wetested a few different ways of streaming. We managedto successfully test a live link directly from the NationalAuditorium in Rarotonga back to TVNZ’s streamingservers here in Auckland. TVNZ act as the PacificBroadcasting Hub for many of the South Pacific Islands,so if you can get TVNZ in Auckland, you can prettymuch get it anywhere in the South Pacific. So that wasa good test to do and that would stand well for themdoing future events if they need to do that. But thetechnique we used to send this Miss Pacific Islandsevent live to Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga andPapua New Guinea was using the Livestream service

and again, we were able to successfully do that wherethe signal was coming from the TriCaster via theinternet connection given to us by BlueSky via satelliteto Livestream servers in America and from there viavarious methods out to the Pacific Islands.

That was successful as well, so it’s a good opportunityto test that next layer of livestreaming, both to TVNZ’sstreaming servers and internationally.

Ed: So what’s left for the third trip?

Stuart: Well the other aspect of this was to provide

more in depth training to their staff on all of those

aspects. When you look at something like the

TriCaster, it’s not just how to do vision mixing, it’s how

to get pre-recorded content onto the TriCaster, how totake what the TriCaster’s recording off of it, how to do

editing with that, how to create motion graphics for the

TriCaster as well, with images and text and all of those

sorts of things. There was quite a bit involved in that.

So it was a really good opportunity to do that, plus the

in depth camera training that we talked about earlier

on, now sets them up in a really good position to be

able to move ahead and they’ve got a good body of

people trained up. I’d love to go back if they needsome more advanced training, but it’s nice to know that

every time I go we’re bringing them leaps and bounds

ahead of where they were before we went the last time.

Ed: Excellent – so send your emails in to Stuart andperhaps we can have a training session here inAuckland to explain the latest technology and cameratechniques. Email [email protected] with your trainingrequest. NZVN

Studio with TriCaster.

Stand and Deliver!Delivering your programmes orlive signal is becoming easierand cheaper with improvingtechnology but when qualityand reliability are paramount,you need professionals doingthe business for you. Signaldelivery providers Kordia arebroadening their range so I metwith Dean Brain and Alan Pondin an inner-city Aucklandcarpark. We start with Dean.

Ed: Now Dean your title is?

Dean: I am the head ofContent Services which meansthat I’m responsible for all ofour occasional use video linkingas well as Parliament TV and afew other bits and pieces of theKordia business – mainly thelegacy linking side of thebusiness.

Ed: And Kordia we knowfrom years back came off TVNZ?

Dean: Well it was the transmission arm of BCL orthe transmission arm of TVNZ, which was turned intoBCL many years ago and then about 5-6 years ago,changed its name to Kordia. Now we are a lot moretelco focused as well as broadcast focused.

Ed: NZ Video News hasn’t really covered signaldelivery much at all because, up until recently, you’vebeen there with the big players who have been involvedin delivering material from the ground to satellites andthat continues to be a major part of your business. Butrecently, things have changed and now you offerservices pretty much right across the board. But let’sstart off with your main business?

Dean: Our main business is looking after thelinking for Sky New Zealand. We’ve got a contract withSky that basically has our vehicles chasing their HDvehicles round the country for all the sporting eventsthat they may do, or any other events actually. Thatkeeps us pretty busy – we’re doing close to 360 outsidebroadcasts a year with them, and that means thatwe’ve had to outlay quite a significant amount ofinvestment to keep up with improving technology. Weprovide diverse circuits for them anddiverse paths for them, so there’s alwaysa backup circuit running on pretty muchall of their events.

Ed: That begs the question, “why don’tSky do this themselves … why don’t theyset themselves up with a transmissionarm?”

Dean: There are two reasons – oneis that transmission is a real black art.It’s not as easy as it looks. They’vecertainly got the ability there to do it;their engineers are very clever people,and secondly, a lot of what we do forSky is based on our fibre network. Youhave to own a network and we’ve got afairly large and very expensivenationwide network that we use to utilisethat service on.

Ed: So it’s not all satellite?

Dean: No it’s not all satellite, no,no. A small part of it is satellite but themajority of it is fibre running on our

Kordia backbone network which has grown out of thedistribution of television content and other servicesround the country. We’re all IP based, so we do a lot ofour transport streams on IP; we’ve got diverse fibreright down the full length of the country as well.

Ed: But there are other people with fibre networksaren’t there?

Dean: There certainly are, yes.

Ed: But this is where the “black art” comes in?

Dean: Well that’s right. Our pedigree isbroadcast; we’ve got people here who have had yearsand years of experience of broadcast delivery andunderstand that, if something goes wrong, it’s got to befixed now, not in a week’s time.

So there’s a lot of experience in this team and certainlywith Sky running Dolby E, that can be a tricky thing toget through. It loses lines or will change lines sothere’s a real art involved in making sure that we getthat delivered in the correct way it needs to be.

Ed: I have seen a Kordia truck onsite with a Skypresentation and the chap there was constantly lookingat monitors and scopes and was ready to react as soon

Dean and Alan from Kordia.

They certainly draw the crowds at some venues ...

Dean: That’s absolutely correct.We can partition that off and make surethat the 20 MEG, 50 MEG whatever we’redoing – 2 MEG – is there constantly,ready to go all the time.

Ed: Is that an expensive service?

Dean: It’s probably price com-parable with what’s out on the market atthe moment.

Ed: So you’re offering a broadcastservice and a streaming service?

Dean: Yes, we’re offering abroadcast service and a streamingservice for one of our biggest corporatecustomers. We provide receive sites offthe satellite, but off a different satelliteto what your domestic users use, at 6 or7 of their offices round the country. Sowhen they do a corporate announcementor any production, we will go up on thesatellite and then drop it down into theirbuildings rather than using their internetnetwork to do that. They have an

internet infrastructure that goes out through their headoffice in Auckland and that can get quite congested if alltheir staff go to look at video internally.

From that, we will stream it for them as well, so if thereare people out in the field, or somewhere that isn’tserviced by this satellite service, then they can go inand view that there. From our point of view, we don’taccept failure, and the reason we don’t accept failure isbecause we believe we do it the proper way.

Ed: Can you tell us why a major New Zealand travelcompany chose you as a provider rather than doing itthe way they used to do it?

… but other locations can be quiet.

as something went wrong, but luckily over the – I thinkit was 3 hours continuous – nothing went wrong.

Dean: It’s quite funny actually – over the 7-8years we’ve been doing it for Sky we’ve had virtually nooutages at all based on what we deliver for them.There’s occasional little RF issues that just come withgoing 36,400 km into space to a satellite, but generally,all in all, I would say we’d be 99.95% reliable for Sky.

Ed: And none of that’s influenced by people’scellphone usage or radio microphones not beingcompliant?

Dean: No … there’s a lot of that around isn’tthere? I think we’re more of a nuisance to those peoplethan they are to us to be honest with you.

Ed: What, because your signal’s stronger?

Dean: Exactly, yes – and we own the frequenciesI suppose. It’s all part of it!

Ed: Right. Now let’s talk about the corporate work.In our recent pages, we’ve certainly covered manystories about streaming as a way of not spending hugeamounts of money on broadcasting your programmesor your channel, so people have moved to streaming.What is it that you offer that would give people a betterdeal?

Dean: Because we own a network and because weown trans-Tasman capacity across to Australia and thenfurther afield, we have the ability to provide non-contestable streaming for many of our clients.

Ed: What do you mean by “non-contestable”?

Dean: Non-contestable is that we can virtuallyguarantee someone a VPN service across our network.It means that when the school kids come home at 3:30in the afternoon, people start to go on the internet tolook at content or whatever, that’s when your bufferingcomes, the internet becomes quite congested. We canoffer an outward going service that isn’t going to beaffected by that. We can’t control what’s happening atthe end user’s end – we just don’t know whatconnections they’ve got – but a lot of our clients willhave a Kordia network going into their building anyway– we provide a lot of telco services to a lot oforganisations and we can go into the back of that andput a VPN directly into a client.

Ed: So really, if you’re big enough, you can actuallyhave your own dedicated line that is not subject to OTT– the “over the top” service that many people get withtheir internet?

Dean: It’s a classic example of where they did avideo conference to their staff internally through theirinternet connections and when the staff hooked in, thecapacity to the world reduced and they had somesignificant issues with other parts of their businessoperating at the same time – that’s why we’ve putdifferent infrastructure in place to take it away fromthat part of the service.

Ed: I can add to this with my own anecdote thatmany, many years ago when I was working for TheWarehouse, we did a presentation and we brought inbroadcast trucks and delivered to 3 different venues. Itwas supposed to be a great event where everyone couldsee everyone and they could share informationbackwards and forwards, but one of the venues was

totally disconnected and one of the other ones could geta feed one way only. So pretty much half of thecountry was not covered and the whole cost was about$20,000. That was 20 years ago. Is it nowconsiderably more for the same sort of service thatyou’d provide, but with 100% coverage?

Dean: Look, if we got $20,000 I’d be dancing offthe trees! That certainly would be a huge event if weever did one for 20 grand. It’s quite a bit less than thatthese days depending on the requirement.

Ed: Now in the corporate area – you have some arebig players – can you also offer this service down theline where you’re bringing in or providing a service toproduction houses, or you’re doing it all yourself andbringing in freelance cameramen?

Dean: Yes, that’s exactly right. Ifwe’re doing a bigger production, we mightpartner with OSB, bring in one of theirtrucks or one of their small OB light trucks.We have a really good partner-ship withthem via our Sky contract. If it’s a bitsmaller than that, we might just, as yousay, hire in a local cameraperson. All weneed is embedded SDI and video productioncompanies will provide that to us. Wherethey have a skill shortage is probablydelivering it from A to B and that’s wherewe come in. We’re working quite closelywith a lot of those video production housesto help them come up with solutions for thisside of the business. We’ve done eventsfrom a small church in Naenae, Lower Hutt,taking a signal out from a preacher there allthe way to Africa and delivering it down inmany churches in Africa. We’ve done quitea bit of surgical work at Auckland Hospital –New Zealand still leads the way in heartsurgery in the world, and there have beensome procedures where we’ve worked witha third party to get their pictures anddeliver them to – believe it or not – steakrestaurants right across America, filled withsurgeons sitting there eating their steaks and watchingoperation procedures here from New Zealand up on thebig screens. So we can scale; it was scalable and weunderstand everybody’s got a budget and we can workto their budget.

Ed: Not colonoscopies over dinner I hope?

Dean: No, we haven’t done any colonoscopies atthis point, although there’s a few guys in my team thatprobably think I deserve one from time to time!

Ed: It sounds like Kordia is getting close to being aone stop shop, because as well as all this, you have avery close relationship with Freeview and an internetversion of that?

Dean: Yes, we do run the Freeview transmissionon behalf of Freeview; it’s on the transmission arm ofour business. We have the ability to put popupchannels up on Freeview and that is something thatwe’re working to, moving forward, especially for thingslike educational TV or church services, corporate things– if people want to go out with a message to themasses that can happen.

We used to be involved with TVNZ OB inthe early days doing the big Fonterraproductions, which were massive. Theywere huge, they really were – 9 locationsround the country, two-way com-munication back to a central point. Sothat’s one end of the scale; the otherend of the scale is one camera, oneuplink going up to the satellite, going toone computer. Believe me, that’s hap-pened; we’ve actually done coverage ofa soccer game in Wellington that wentout to a country in the middle east forone person to view in his house.

Ed: It’s a nice job if you can get it?

Dean: Yes, right.

Ed: Now Alan, you’ve been very quietin the corner … your role in all of this?

Alan: I’m the assurance manager.Dean will go out and “sell the sizzle” tocustomers then my job is to make thatactually work.

Ed: Do you actually go out with thetrucks?

Alan: I go out with the trucks, I do a lot ofplanning as well.

At the moment I’m involved in figuring out how to getgolf from Queenstown to Japan in March which is a bittricky. So, yes, those sorts of services … and thatscalability that Dean talked about where we can go outon the satellite and stream as well. An example isParliament TV which we broadcast and then, last year,we started streaming that for them as well.

We’ve now got our own CDN system for streaming so ifpeople don’t want to go on Freeview, they want thisfrom the internet, we can provide that. They don’t haveto go off the American YouTubes, they can come to us.That’s a part of our business we hope to build and it’smy job to figure out the scalability of it and to make itreliable. My buzz word is “we’re not the cheapest butwe are the best” and I’m proud to make that reallyhappen.

Ed: Well there are certain things in life that you don’twant to fail like going to the dentist. You don’t want

Alan checks the gear.

Setting up near some burrows in Matamata.

something to go wrong and I guess, when you’retransmitting something like the Soccer World Cup thisyear, you don’t want things to go wrong ontransmission?

Alan: No that’s right, so what Kordia does is toput all that new technology to get the signal there, butquietly in the background, we will put the old networkinto play as a backup. No one else can really do thatand sometimes every now and then, like the tennis acouple of years ago when someone put a spade throughour fibre, our old-fashioned radio link gets us going.

Ed: Now Alan, just expand on this “one stop shop”,because I understand you’ve got a particularly majorjob coming up for the Japanese?

Alan: Well I’m off to Samoa tomorrow morningfor the Parker fight in Samoa, so that’s got its ownchallenges as well because we’re going up there forSaturday for the “pay per view” on Sky and it’s notsomething you want to fail because you’ll be paying $50to watch that. Then, as you say, we’re planning forNHK and other overseas companies coming here for theTPP signing as well as golf coming up in Queenstown.

Ed: But what was the brief from NHK – basically theydon’t want to project manage the production herethemselves?

Alan: Yes, the one stop shop. When they cometo New Zealand, they don’t want to have to hire you as

a cameraman, someone as asoundperson, sort out locations and howto set up a link. So our good salesmanMerv is trying to offer them a one stopshop where they can just call one guyand focus on that, and he can arrange allthe individual components of the signaland whatever service they need. Thenthey don’t have to blame that person forthat link, or that person for that camera,or that person for not turning up … it willall be Kordia’s responsibility.

Ed: So what happens when themanagement says “now we want to go4K” – do you run screaming from thebuilding, or simply say “yes we can?”

Alan: I’m a technologist so I lookforward to that day – the morecomplicated it is, the better it is I believefor Kordia and our business goingforward. Anyone can stream, but if youwant to do 4K and you want to do 20channels of audio and you want to get itacross the world and you want it to bereliable, that’s where we come into itreally. So no, I’m looking forward to 4K.

Ed: Brave man. So we’re now going to have a littlecompetition here on what the future is and we’ll getDean to go first.

Dean: Thank you very much … I was hoping thatAlan could go first and then I could just agree with him,but it will be the other way round. What is the future?The future of OB is a question that you’d probably needto ask the likes of NZ Live and OSB. From where wesit, I think that the market trend internationally is thatthe bigger sporting venues in New Zealand will haveinfrastructure built into them and possibly send cameracontrol and camera feeds back to a purpose builtproduction facility somewhere either at Sky NewZealand or NZ Live, depending on who is doing it at thetime; so therefore eliminating the need for a full OBtruck onsite, and I think that that is definitelysomething that is coming. We’ve certainly got theability to carry that data and that information across ournetwork and I think what it will mean is that there’ll bemore smaller nimble agile OB trucks running round withthe traditional side of cameras …

Ed: Where there isn’t a fibre connection?

Dean: That’s correct, or smaller venues – school-boy rugby, schoolgirl netball or any of those sorts ofsports that Sky or whoever’s got the contract with thosesuppliers or those sports wants to supply. That’s mygut feeling on the OB production thing at this point.

“Action!”

But we’re in a real fastchanging industry.

This industry changesminute by minute and sothere could be somethingelse coming down the roadreal fast.

Ed: And what do you think

that is Alan?

Alan: I believe that

it’s going to change a lot as

Dean says so I think Kordia

needs to be as open as

possible with equipment.

When you’re talking about

4K, I believe that quality is

going to be a major driver

because 4K TVs are getting

cheaper so people are going

to start demanding not

highly compressed YouTubes

but high quality stuff.

I believe that 4K has got a future for us, so that is

going to be the next thing – higher quality and more

screens and more abilities back.

I also think that, because of bandwidth getting cheaper

around New Zealand, we might be able to put

uncompressed video back to Sky and to other clients so

that could be a game changer for us if we can do that,

so we will be able to do OBs and things straight back to

Sky or back to other clients. That will dictate whether

we have an OB van there or not.

It’s very hard, as Dean said, to see which way we’re

going, but we have to be ready for everything and see

which way it goes. NZVN

… and the signal is delivered.

Filthy Rich

on SetMany thanks to the New

Zealand Cinematographers

Society for inviting me to

attend an evening on the set

of a new drama series for

TV2 called ‘Filthy Rich’. Dave

Cameron ACS is the cinema-

tographer for the show and

was the presenter for this

event. Some of the

questions are mine but

others are from knowledge-

able audience members.

Dave: The idea from

the network was a fresh new

drama series that could

compete against shows like

Masterchef and X-Factor.

They wanted to create a

multi-night drama series that you watch back to back

on say, a Tuesday and Wednesday, with a cliff hanger

each night so that you keep coming back. It is kind of a

“hyper drama”.

My first port of call was meeting with Pete Burger who

is the lead director and executive producer of Filthy

Rich. He has been a key driver of the show from the

beginning, directing four blocks in total. He said he

wanted the show to have energy and momentum, and

he also talked about the schedule – which was going to

be very tight.

Most one-hour TV dramas I’ve worked on, take about

seven to eight days to shoot an episode, but this was

going to be six days. Also, we had less money per

episode than most other dramas, so it was really kind of

stretching things out further than I was used to.

Usually, having less time and less money can make a

show visually dull because to keep things moving at a

fast pace you have to keep things static. But Pete and I

wanted to stay away from that kind of static approach

completely.

Pete had two reference points for Filthy Rich – one wasa show called Empire which is a big,glossy American series, which Peteliked for the tone of the perform-ances. However, we knew we werenever going to be able to achievethe visual style of Empire, becausein that show every actor has theperfect backlight and the perfecthot slash of light across their body– they had lots of money to throwat it. Pete’s second reference,which was more about the look,was a series called Boss which is alittle rougher around the edges, alittle more real, but it’s a greatseries; I recommend checking itout.

The thing I love about Boss is the

momentum of the camerawork. It Candlelit scene from ‘The Monster of Mangatiti’.

‘Filthy Rich’ set visit inside the Mansion Courtyard. Dave at right.

is mainly handheld, so you follow the actors around and

you actually feel you are participating in the scenes –

which is really exciting. We thought, “Why don’t we

take that approach? Keep the camera moving, keep the

actors moving, try and tell more story with less shots,

as a way to make it more interesting.”

Then came the challenge of lighting. We knew that if

you are doing a standard scene, you would block it,

decide on the coverage, light the first shot, shoot the

shot, and then turn around and light the next shot. But

we were never going to have time to do that. So I

decided to create lighting “environments” with no

hardware on the set – there were no C-stands or

lighting stands or cutters or gear in the way. The actors

could move around knowing they were taken care of

anywhere they went. It opened it up to the actors and

directors to use the space as they wanted.

Once I sold Pete on that idea, we tried to use only

practical lighting sources for the show, which is

something I became a big fan of after I did a tele-

feature – The Monster of Mangatiti – earlier this year.

Essentially, I had this cabin location and there was

supposed to be no electricity in the cabin, so we chose

more on page 21

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Low profile fitting designed for low ceiling studios

to light the night scenes purely with candles. During

the daytime we didn’t use any lights at all; instead we

just used the natural ambience coming through the

windows. So, again, that is going to open up your set

so that both the actors and the camera can move

through it and not run into hardware.

We extrapolated that lighting concept into the studio

environment and built it into the set design. I spent

about four weeks with John Harding, the production

designer, making sure the sets were laid out in a way

that was going to work for us. I wanted to make sure

every room had windows that would bring light in the

right way, and also that throughout all the sets there

were practical lights, like desk lamps and bedside

lamps, that did good work as actual lighting sources –

they weren’t just dressing in the back of shot. The only

things we sometimes brought on set were a piece of

poly or small battery powered fixtures that would add

eye lights or little accent lights.

Traditionally I am a DP who likes to

light, and this show was a real

exercise in restraint for me, as I

tried to just augment what was

there naturally. It was incredibly

exciting, because the more I

worked that way, the more excited

I got about it, and we just kept

pushing it further and further

throughout the series. I think now

we are probably far better at it

than when we started, because we

all really embraced it. But it was

the work I’d done on The Monster

of Mangatiti that gave me the

confidence to know that, as a

concept, this would work.

How did you light these sets?

Initially I had planned for 10Ks for all the windows,

because some of the window openings are quite large

and I thought we needed 10K faces to fill them. That

would have been great, but the cabling and lamp

hireage alone was going to be way too expensive for

the whole series, because we are talking about 25

weeks, so multiply everything times 25 and it starts

stacking up quite quickly. In the blink of an eye, we

went from 10Ks to 5Ks, and then boosted our camera

ISO from 800 ISO to 1280 ISO. But again, I’d shot a

lot of stuff at 1600 ISO in candlelight for The Monster of

Mangatiti and the results were really good, so we knew

it was going to work. On Filthy Rich our focus pullers

were under immense pressure, because by opening up

the sets to the actors and the directors, essentially we

were shutting those guys out of the set, so they were

sitting in a separate room, pulling focus off the little

monitor, with a layer of image noise because the

camera has been cranked up to 1280 ISO, plus we were

shooting with our lenses wide open most of the time!

I was a little bit nervous about whether we could pull off

that level of critical focus throughout a long job under

those conditions, so one of the things we did was a full

test shoot. I had done it before on another show and it

was invaluable for figuring out your visual language,

and then trying out that methodology on set. By taking

a scene from shooting through to editorial, to grade,

and then presenting it to the network, it meant they

A “found moment” from B camera operator, Grant McKinnon.

could look at it during preproduction and go “oh that’s

awesome,” or “we hate that,” rather than saying that

during the first week of shooting.

It would have been traumatic to go back and reshoot

stuff because everyone was on a different page, and the

last thing we wanted was the network saying “I know

we all talked about it, but we didn’t think it was going

to look like that.”

This was a two-camera shoot?

Yes, we shot two cameras on virtually everything,

because we get so much more gold if we do it that way.

Grant McKinnon, my B camera operator ( and gaffer ),

would pop out from behind something and grab these

little magic moments – again, because the show has got

a real momentum to it, and having those extra little

cuts, those interesting shots that spice up the scene,

really makes a big difference.

How did the low levels of light affect your choice of

lens?

The ARRI AMIRA cameras and the Master Prime lenses

were signed off really early in preproduction, because I

knew I needed them. On The Monster of Mangatiti I

had an “Ah hah!” moment when I realised how much

this camera and lens combo opened up opportunities for

me to work in a way that I had never been able to

before.

In what way?

It is the sensitivity and dynamic range. The camera

sensitivity, combined with the speed of the lenses,

means that you can work with incredibly low light

levels, and still get a healthy exposure. With the

camera at 1280 ISO and the lenses close to wide open,

a 60 Watt bulb in a lampshade starts to do the work of

lighting a scene, rather than having to supplement

things with film lights all time. And then there’s the

amazing dynamic range of the camera too. The AMIRA

handles highlights so well that when you get windows or

hot practicals in frame, rather than burning out in a

savage way, they just bloom nicely.

But you’re also going to need quite a depth of field

aren’t you, with all these large sets?

Well no, we went against that. We wanted very little

depth because we knew it would give us a look, and to

be honest, we didn’t have any other option, because of

the lighting budget. But that became part of the style

of the show, because I originally planned to shoot with

a lens aperture of maybe T2, and then when all my 10K

lights became 5Ks, we opened up to T1.4 which of

course reduces the depth of field even further. But

then, things start looking pretty sexy with a depth of

field that shallow. It made it hard for the focus pullers,

but they did a cracker job, and we had the look.

So you didn’t lose a lot of footage because it was out of

focus?

You’d think that but no. My focus pullers Sam

Matthews and Dave Steel are amazing, and to be

honest I actually don’t know how they did it!

Sometimes focus comes and goes, but again with the

energy of the style of our show, you can get away with

it. There was a shot the other day that is a great

example of the kind of pressure these guys are under.

It was our B Camera 1st AC Dave Steele who was at 500

mm wide open on the 45-250 mm zoom with a doubler.

He had no rehearsal with someone walking directly

towards the camera – one take, bang, done.

So, in the second series, if they would double your

budget, what would you do differently?

I would get 10K lights because it would allow us to work

at 800 ISO rather than 1280, which would help the

focus pullers straightaway. These guys are looking at

white noise on top of the image on their monitors and

because the noise in the picture has also got peaking

added on top of it, it makes it much harder.

The other great thing about Filthy Rich is that we had

only three directors for the entire series, so everyone

took ownership of the show. It wasn’t as if someone

came in for a block, did their thing, and then walked off.

They all started getting the feeling of the show and then

wanted to push it further and experiment more,

because they’d already done a block and learnt some

things. So they got more and more adventurous which

was great, and it kept it interesting for us too. This was

vital, especially when you think about doing a

predominantly studio based show for 25 weeks, where

the actors have a lot of dialogue and you have got to

try and keep it fresh and interesting all the time, and

not just go: “Okay actors, walk in, sit at the table, and

we’ll shoot a wide shot and

two close ups and move on.”

You said there were threedifferent directors that wouldcome in – why have three?

Logistics really, becauseyou’ve got a directorprepping, a director shoot-ing, and a director cutting.And there is no lag time.Once they’ve finished editing,they go straight into prep forthe next block. So you couldhave more, but then they’dbe standing down for a blockwaiting for their turn to comeback up again.

Given that you’re usingwindows for lighting, doesthat mean you’re blockingrelative to windows?

Long office set.

During prep, I said to the directors, “If you want the

actors to look a certain way, you’re going to have to

block them to make that happen”, and they were into it.

But, funnily enough, as the show progressed, it became

less of a concern. Or if it was thought about, it was

almost subconscious, because you know how someone

will look if they are back-lit versus side-lit, versus front-

lit. Sometimes there was a little bit of finessing – we

would want things to be moodier, so we were not

blocking the actors so their key light was coming from

directly behind camera. Instead, we would flip it

around and play with back-light or flares. But that is a

good question because that is where the layout of the

sets really comes into play.

John Junior’s set is a pretty simple example of this

because it’s essentially a long rectangle shape with

windows running right down one side and then a large

window at one end. With this kind of layout, you know

you can’t go wrong, because an actor can move pretty

much anywhere and their lighting will still have shape.

But if we had windows, say, running down both of the

long sides, we were going to end up with a light

sandwich which is never going to look good. That is

where, in a studio environment, you can make good

decisions up front that are going to help you all the way

through.

Another set is the Truebridge Corporation, which is one

of my favourites because it is really long and narrow

and has full ceilings. It was a little tough initially

because we had 5K lights through the windows instead

of 10Ks.

When we first did camera tests in here, we didn’t have

enough level coming through the windows, so to fix this

we had to drop the lights down low enough that they

would reach in and hit the actors directly, which meant

that the light coming from the windows was harder than

I wanted. But then, the overhead strip lighting in the

ceiling looked great on camera, but had to be dimmed

down so it didn’t overpower the window lights.

However, when you dim down tungsten lamps the

colour temperature goes warm. So all of a sudden, we

had to correct for that. It was a real balancing act! The

biggest challenge was the mansion courtyard because

of the diffusion material we used for the ceiling. This

was essentially the cheapest vinyl

with the biggest span that we could

find. The light that comes through

it is beautifully soft which is great,

but it adds a colour cast which

meant we had to gel all our 5K

exterior lamps warmer to balance

that out and get skin tones looking

normal, otherwise all the cast were

going to go orange. If you had cast

with heavy layers of make-up in

these scenes, one actor might look

amazing, while another would pick

up that extra warmth in the light

and start to look unnatural. Yes,

colour temperature was a chal-

lenge, but we got there.

What made a huge difference was

that I managed to grade a bit of footage from every set

using our LUTs ( our pre-set looks ) before we actually

started shooting, so I knew we were on track. But I

varied colour temperature as the show went on. The

look has developed too, we pushed it further in the

grade, and then we started liking the blues more and

more, so we started cooling things down more on set to

kind of hit that road early on rather than having to dial

it in later. I’m a big fan of trying to get your images

looking as close to the final product on set, rather than

leaving it all to post production.

How did you collect the audio?

Carpark scene.

Loads of radio mics. The sound department would radio

mic the actors as a starting point and then try and

boom where they could. For example, the pin ups set is

a tough set for sound because it is all top light so it’s

hard to get in there without casting shadows on

everything, especially if actors are right underneath the

light. Radio mics also meant we could do wide shots

and tight shots at the same time.

Luckily, our sound recordist Richard Flynn is really cool

and he understood what we were trying to do with our

fluid shooting style. Then there is the rain which led to

a bit of ADR, but surprisingly little considering this is

not a soundproof studio by any stretch of the

imagination.

What about lighting the scene in the abandoned

carpark?

That scene was primarily lit by a couple of battery

powered 1x1 LED tiles and the headlights of the cars.

We lined up a couple of cars, one was Snake’s car

pointing one way and one was Karl’s pointing the other

way, and we just put a diffusion frame in front of one of

them to soften it off a little bit. Sure, we had some of

our lamps striking detail in the background, because we

had to paint the environment a

little bit, but in terms of the key

lighting of the scene, it was done

with the headlights and the LEDs,

which again is a testament to the

lenses and the camera.

Those are the opportunities I’mtalking about, where the propsyou’ve got on set are actually doinga lot of the work rather than havingto light the scene from scratch.

When you pick up these batterylights and move them anywherewith no cables and nothing else inthe way, it means you can movereally quickly, and we had no otheroption – we had to move fast.

For the boxing scene, there are a

lot of different shots in there. How much did you

storyboard out your composition and your lens choice

beforehand, and how much did you just make it up as

you went along?

Usually there’s no time to do any specific storyboarding

for scenes, because my prep time is limited. So it was

about blocking it out and seeing what feels natural for

the actors, and then finding a way to cover it. There

was only one sequence in the whole show that we

storyboarded out because it was quite complicated, and

that was in the first episode. It was part of the opening

sequence where we had to drop a stuntie on to the

Boxing scene.

bonnet of a car, and because the rig that did that was

quite cumbersome, we really had to know what our

shots were going to be.

As the time to air on TV2 approaches, I follow up with

Dave Cameron in the sun on the Te Atatu Peninsula.

Ed: Dave, it was a wonderful evening with the New

Zealand Cinematographers Society and I guess the

major impression I got out of your presentation was

that you’re not interested in pretty pictures per se,

you’re interested in pictures that tell the story?

Dave: Yes, with Filthy Rich, we had so many

constraints time-wise and financially that I thought, we

have to make sure we keep the show visually

interesting, and also make sure it is all about the

performance, because if those performances aren’t

fantastic, then nothing’s going to work.

In saying that, there’s a certain responsibility to

maintain a level of gloss in a show about super-rich

people, but the primary focus was to try and allow the

camera to move freely, allow the actors to move freely

and not be too fussy with the lighting.

Ed: Let’s come back to your choice of camera – was it

your choice of camera to run with two AMIRAs?

Dave: Yes, of course. I chose the ARRI AMIRAs

and Master Prime lenses well before anything else.

That was based on my experience with a tele-feature

I’d shot earlier in the year where I’d used the same

combination of lenses and camera and had great

results, so I wanted to head down that road again.

Ed: When you say “great results” in what way?

Dave: First of all, they’re a great camera

ergonomically, so they are really comfortable to

operate, and the sensitivity of the sensor, in terms of

light sensitivity, meant we could shoot with candles, or

we could shoot with practical household bulbs or we

could shoot with car headlights – those kinds of things.

Coupled with a great dynamic range, that meant we

could handle hot win-

dows or areas where we

weren’t going to be able

to control the light all the

time.

All of these things

combined with fast Master

Prime lenses, meant that

we could go places andshoot things that we

would normally have to

spend a lot of time

lighting and getting right.

We could just use what

existed and I thought the

results were really

beautiful.

Ed: But there are other

cameras that are lighter

and have more dynamic

range and perhaps go up

into that 4K mode – they

weren’t an option?

Dave: No, I really

enjoyed working with the ARRI AMIRA and Master

Primes – they’re my “go to” gear at the moment. I like

the images that come out of them; I like how

comfortable they are to work with – it’s a really fast

camera to use in terms of the menu structure, I can get

in and change things quickly whether it be ISO or ND

filtration, which is built into the body so you’re not

having to chuck pieces of glass in front of the lens all

the time.

And in my opinion, I think the images out of the ARRI

cameras have yet to be beaten in the digital world.

Ed: You’ve used the ARRI ALEXA before, but in this

situation, you wanted the AMIRA?

Dave: Yes. I used the ALEXA for the first time, I

think, on Go Girls series five. That was the first time I

got that camera on for a drama series and it was

reasonably new in New Zealand at the time. I think the

rental house bought them all brand new specifically for

that job. Again, I loved the images out of them. I

suppose they’re a little bit heavier than, say, a RED

Epic, but the pictures were superior in my opinion.

The ARRI AMIRA was the next step – a smaller version

of the ALEXA that is lighter, easier to throw on your

shoulder, and also a little bit quicker to work through

the menu structure if you were going to manipulate

things on the fly.

Ed: Because it’s all in one piece – you were using the

on-board recording capability?

Dave: Yes. There are two CFast 2.0 card slots in

the body and it meant that, when our camera was built

up in its full production mode, it was still small, light

and mobile, and we had a video sender as well so that

we could keep completely wireless.

Ed: But all the production footage was taken from the

cards on-board?

Dave: Yes, all recorded on-board which is really

the norm – the ALEXA does the same thing.

A brace of AMIRA’s with all the trimmings.

Ed: Well there’s a lot of people who don’t trust those

on-board recorders and they like to take stuff off-board

into other fancy recorders.

Dave: I think that tends to be with the lower

spec’d cameras where the on-board recording is

actually highly compressed, but some of those same

cameras will allow you to output a higher quality stream

of data which you can capture with an off-board

recorder.

Ed: Which would have enabled you to go to 4K?

Dave: Well we could have done that anyway. The

ARRI AMIRA has got an Ultra-HD option in it, so it will

allow you to shoot, in theory, 4K or what they call 4K

Ultra-HD.

Ed: I like that “what they call 4K”?

Dave: Well the sensor is 3.2K and then the

camera up-reses it to Ultra-HD.

We looked at doing that because going down that road

would open up a few features

in the camera that would

have been quite good, but

the data involved was going

to cause our post budget to

blow out.

You know, we’ve got two

cameras shooting for 125

days so the amount of data

starts getting exponential.

So we decided to go with 2K

and the results are great. In

my mind, especially for tele-

vision, it’s not all about

resolution.

Ed: Really? (I express

mock surprise).

Dave: Yes.

There is an obsession with

resolution – or there was, I

think it’s changing a little bit

now, but it’s not necessary to

shoot 4K resolution when Dave Cameron on set.

you’ve got a 1920x1080 HD

delivery.

Some people might use it forspecial applications – likecropping in or digitallyzooming within the picture,but for us, we were focusedon shooting reasonablystraightforward drama, cap-turing performances andtrying not to let technologyget in the way of that.

Ed: And so now we’re goingto see it on our screens eitheras this publication goes out,or very soon after – is this anervous time for you?

Dave: Oh no, this is the

exciting time.

The thing is, once it is finished you can’t do anything to

make people like it more.

You’ve just got to hold true to the reason why you shot

it a particular way, and believe in the motivation behind

the whole thing.

If people like it – great; if they don’t, well it was the

choice you made on the day, and as long as you still

believe in that choice, then that’s all you can do.

Watch Filthy Rich on TV2 starting February 15.

Scene lit by practicals alone.

NZVN

http://tvnz.co.nz/filthy-rich/index-group-6433880

This is the site for ‘Filthy Rich’ on TV2, whichstarted on Monday 15 February.

See more of Dave Cameron’s work at

http:/www.davecameron.co

NZVN February 2016

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Transcript of NZVN February 2016