Ensuring a sound workflow and smooth production; what technicalities do you need to know? 10:45-11:15, 26 Feb 2015 Welcome Peter Weitzel Hon Secretary SMPTE UK Andrew Foster Totem Films 1
SMPTE A worldwide Members Society founded in 1916 Based on Three Pillars Membership 6600+ in over 64 countries Education through MIJ, webinars conferences and section meetings Standards We set the Standards for Motion Imaging 28 sections 10 outside the USA SMPTE UK Reformed in 2012 Has 450+ members from 112 Holds Meetings in London 12/year 4 Clusters across the UK 2 or 3 /year/cluster Including 5 of 16 Standards Gp Chairs A Microcosm of all that SMPTE serves www.smpte.org/sections/united-kingdom 2
SMPTE UK For Students First year membership free And only ~ 23 ($35) a year after that Meeting others working in our industries -Section meetings Receiving the Motion Imaging Journal - -find out more Participating the Technology relevant webcasts FREE Access our archive -SMPTEs work over the past 99 years Able to webmail any SMPTE member Just being anactive member of the world s largest Members society for those working with the moving image, its audio and metadata- on any platform - Film, Television, Digital media www.smpte.org/sections/united-kingdom SMPTE Graduate Initiative Student members on Graduating join the Graduate Initiative Full SMPTE membership (at a discount) Plus members supporting them Two of them in Production to give you at good start and getting connected into our industries www.smpte.org/sections/united-kingdom 3
One SMPTE members views The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories & paint the pictures they want Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated. Digital technology is the same revolution as adding sound to pictures and the same revolution as adding color to pictures. Nothing more and nothing less. And that member IS GEORGE LUCAS This is a new world; it doesn't work the way the old world worked Photos removed to make Pdf smaller The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. 4
Two Members here! Andrew Foster - runs Totem Films Totem Films specialises in events coverage and the corporate video sector with clients ranging from pharmaceutical companies, to the UK Civil Service, and motorsport. The work is international, covering events in South Africa, Turkey, India, as well as around Europe and in UK. Peter Weitzel who introduced DV Shooting kits to BBC And... Search YouTube SMPTE George Lucas 5
Workflow Good Workflow the MOST important thing for "efficient and harmonious working" So what is a good workflow? And what technicalities must you know Design your workflow To fit you what you are shooting What the deliverables are What kit you are using Your business... 6
Your Workflows Create your own standards, templates, ways of working, and stick to them for every project: How you keep track of what you're shooting on location. How you handle the folder structure of your footage and other assets. Asset backups How you organize and work with the clips in CC Version tracking. Client deliveries. Closing a project off to archive Billing the Customer Capture Quality Understand colour profiles, for maximum control in post obviously make use of what s available, e.g. C-log on Cannon BUT But if you don't really need it, just get it right (or close enough) in camera, let the camera's basic profiles do the rest SAVES a lot of TIME in POST 7
Acquisition Codecs Choose what is appropriate If you are delivering for the web, why bother shooting 4k 100Mbit/sec. Unless you plan to use all that information in post of course (maybe you want to crop in, do a lot of colour work). Delivery Quality How will the client watch it? Make some h264 pre-sets which you know work. Final Deliverables Web like for web Better quality for Large screen playback Quality starts before the lens and well before the microphone 8
Efficient Planning Take kit to suit the job. Will you be shooting fast under pressure? Then a fiddly DSLR might not be a good idea. What lighting conditions Bring the right lighting to deal with it. What will the environment sound be like, bring the right mics-and put them in the right place What shots will you likely need for your edit, think about this before you even head out and shoot only the kind of shots you might actually need. (That's not so technical I guess) Your kit Keep it in good working order, and with your settings Learn how to maintain it, and how to fix it. Keep basic tools you might need to fix the simple things on location. That slipping tripod leg might be ok for now, but tomorrow 9
Understand your Camera When you change the shutter speed, or the aperture what does that actually mean for how the camera is recording the light coming into the lens. This is important so you can diagnose& fix issues where the camera isn't quite giving you the image you want. Understand Cameras Working with multiple cameras of different models...... learn how to best match them. Check what is in range of each camera angle. 10
Understand Audio Under level is always better than over. Use good headphones to monitor. Get a licence for your radio mic Shooting with DSLR - ext recorder best. Compressor / Limiter Monitor always Understand Lighting Do you know about TCLI? The TLCI takes a measurement of the spectral power distribution of a luminaire, using a spectroradiometer. It then analyses the performance of the luminaire in the context of television LED lighting is cheap, low power consumption, and durable. You will almost always get better results with other sources but consider the convenience and savings of LEDs 11
Understanding Live Comms are essential Use HDSDI Sound feeds from PA mix Always have a locked off Wide shot To get odd sources into your Mixer Use a DAC-70 or similar Understanding Streaming Know your encoder and codecs inside out. There is no best option, it is different based on requirements. ADSL or VSAT operations Its live broadcasting VTs and graphics 12
Understanding when it all goes wrong! Have you any questions??? Or we ll tell the saga of the Tomorrows World lawnmower... And warn you about Drones! Keeping up to date Talk to others who know things! Look at BBC Academy website Attend GTC or SMPTE meetings Look at Trends rather than Products Talk to a techie & buy him or her a beer! 13
Sum Up Good workflow Well planned Appropriate Quality Know kit... Understand... Keep aware and up to date More quotes from GL When you are a beginning film maker you are desperate to survive. The most important thing in the end is survival and being able to get to your next picture Film is a very tight little box. If you don't fit in that box, you're gone. Television, there's more room to move around. 14
What are you going to do? Its all up to you! Find us at www.smpte.org/sections/united-kingdom and SMPTE supports IBC Rising Stars Andrew Foster Andrew Foster Graduated in Film Production Technology at Staffordshire University in 2008 and founded Totem Films with three other students. Totem Films specialises in events coverage and the corporate video sector with clients ranging from pharmaceutical companies, to the UK Civil Service, and motorsport. The work is international, covering events in South Africa, Turkey, India, as well as around Europe and at home in the UK. At the start Andrew was an early adopter of low cost DSLRS to offer video production services on a budget, building a client base and growing the business. Then again in 2011 Andrew took advantage of the emerging PC-based vision mixing technologies and developed a flexible studio-in-a-box" solution. Providing services including vision mixing, live streaming, live video links, also using bonded 4G, and VSAT for the more awkward locations. Today, Andrew works on interactive live events, as well as video production, based in London. 15
Peter Weitzel Peter Weitzel has had a long career in Broadcasting mainly in the Projects area of the BBC /Siemens, in TV studios, OB, Central areas and connectivity.. He has worked in Strategic planning including going digital for major world broadcasters In the late 1990s he managed the teams which supplied about 500 DV shooting kits to Production teams in the BBC and to some freelances. The team spent a lot of its time explaining what technical issues were both one to one and in DV Master classes that the BBC offered. Since 2012 been the Hon secretary of newly reformed SMPTE UK section -which organises meetings events and Initiatives for all those interested in the technology moving image and its sound and metadata. He sits on the Advisory Panel of BVE. /united-kingdom https://www.smpte.org/sections/united-kingdom See some of Totem Films work Some short films for SMPTE Membership https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa2sz2rnxm0 Education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a98wnfe8lni Standards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9skvnr5guk8 IBC13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucbqyntepfs UHD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qprnhwcjw4c 16