My Blog

A Brand New Vinten Vector 700

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:35:06 -0400

I love brand new TV gear. I have a lot of respect for high quality equipment and I acknowledge the fact that someone had spent a ton of money to put it into service.

I believe that the friction head or fluid pan /tilt head is the single most important piece of gear to a sports camera operator. So what if you have a 101x Fujinon telescope of a lens...you can’t do anything with it if your pan head sucks!

What do I mean? Well, if you are using an old, beat up pan head you can’t do your job. It is like giving a brain surgeon a dull, rusty scalpel. He can do the operation, but it won’t be pretty. This is also true when shooting sports with a crappy pan head.

I once used a old Vinten Mark three pan head with no pads. I had no friction at all! I could not control my camera and the thing was whipping all over the place. I was very frustrated and just had to shoot wide and conservative. I swore a lot that day.

I have also used an old beat up Vinten fluid head and found it to have areas we camera guys like to call “dead spots”. These areas in the pan or tilt cause the tripod to dip unexpectedly or “stick and slip”. These tiny abnormalities may be subtle, but when you are full telephoto, they are amplified ten fold on the tv screen.

In my opinion, the best hard camera pan head ever made was the Vinten Vector 70 fluid pan /tilt head. This head has been around for years and replaced the old Vinten friction pad heads. The Vector 70 changed the way people shot moving objects. The pan head was so silky smooth, the operator was able to shoot super tight and have instant feedback in the viewfinder. There was simply no surprises when paning/tilting/zooming and camera operators were able to lock on the an object and cover the high speed subject with great precision.

An example of this would be the way a cameraman follows a golf ball off the tee. The pan head is perfectly calibrated and the operator is able to zoom in so tight you can read the brand name and see the dimples on the ball. The camera operator is then able to land the ball perfectly on the green, with absolute precision, stopping the tilt as the ball hits the short grass.

Vinten released the Vector 700 and the 750 a few years ago and these pan heads where just like the Vector 70. The only difference was the drag inside was a thin film rather than a mass of fluid found in the 70.

The Vector 70 was discontinued. Darn...

Around this time, Vinten also released the Vector 900 and man did it suck. The 900 was the first time Vinten removed some of the physical size of the Vector pan head. They made it sleeker and lighter. It fit into smaller road cases and TV truck guys liked that. Less weight on the road and more space in the belly bays.

But the pan head was bad, camera guys hated it. I used one and became so upset with the design that I wrote a letter to Vinten in England. I told the Vinten chaps that the Vector 900 tried to improve on an already perfect design. The 900 was impossible to balance and the heavy hard camera did not function well on the new narrow pan head footprint. Perhaps my letter made a small difference. Many truck companies like Game Creek removed them from their truck fleet and replaced them with the beefier Vector 700 and 750’s.

Now to the point of this blog. A few days ago I got to break in a brand new Vinten Vector 700 pan head shooting my favorite sport, Lacrosse. Major League lacrosse at Harvard in Massachusetts to be more specific.

I was asked a few months ago by Cox Communications about pan heads. Cox wanted to buy a new one. They asked my advice and I simply said, “Buy a Vinten Vector series, but what ever you do, don’t buy the 900!!!”

The guys at Cox decided to buy a brand new Vector 700. They paid around $14,000 for it. And I was the first to use it.

It is always nice to see an expensive piece of equipment in a tough road case. This case is made by Anvil and it hold the pan head in the big compartment and the pan /tilt handles in the small left compartment

This pan head does not have a scratch on it. I did not want to mount my Ikegami HL-387 hard camera head on this perfectly clean, brand new Vector 700! But I need to break her in....

Look at those shiny pan handles. No freelancer has touched them yet and used them as a hammer to remove that pesky locking washer. Or use them as a weapon on a tape guy who does not like to replay anything...

That is an old standard definition Ikegami HL-387 hard camera with a beat up Canon 55x super tele lens. Those sticks are from a Japanese television station. I think Cox bought them off eBay. Look at that black beauty holding the entire package together. That pan head is the most important part of the entire setup.

I set my thin film drag at “7” for both my pan and tilt. Shooting lacrosse is very demanding. I was the “tight” camera for this show and having a pan head that was highly responsive and super smooth made my job much easier. I was able to whip with the ball tight as the players shot at over 100 miles an hour. The pan head allowed me to stop the lens exactly as the ball hit the back of the net.

This is the game camera with a Vinten Vector 70. It was right next to my tight camera for the multiple camera coverage of the Lacrosse game. We had a total of five camera in the stadium. A game, tight, high endzone, low slash and a hand held that worked the benches. As I said before the 70 was the best pan head ever made. The three Vector 70s that travel on the Cox mobile truck are in great shape. I did not tell anyone that the truck had a brand new Vector 700. I was all over it.

Here is a side by side comparison of the Vector 70 (left) and the new Vector 700 (right). The biggest change is the color, but Vinten kept the physical form of the pan heads the same. The drag system is different but the thin film is nice and smooth and I like it. If I posted a picture of the dreaded Vector 900, you would see a narrow version of the black 700. Trust me, the 900 was garbage and I hope to never see it again.

I look forward to working on the Cox truck on future games and fighting other freelancers for the one and only Vector 700.

Cox Charity Bike Race - New Sony HDV Cameras

Sat, 2 Aug 2008 22:05:59 -0400

I was hired by Cox Communications to shoot a bike race in Providence, Rhode Island. The bike race took place on June 28th, 2008 and I am just getting around to blogging about it.

The race track moved though the streets of Providence and was oval shaped. The riders were from all over New England and the world.

The coverage was all done with Sony HDV cameras. We had five cameras positioned in strategic locations around the course to cover the action. The cameras being used were the old trusty Sony HVR-Z1U, three brand new Sony HVR-S270U cameras and one brand new Sony HVR-Z7U.

My first impression of the Sony Z7U was positive. I really like the feel. It is much like the EX1 in many respects. The biggest differences were the Z7’s detachable lenses and the fact that it records to HDV miniDV tape stock.

The Sony 270 did not impress me. I call this camera a “fake” shoulder mounted camera. If you want the real thing, just throw more money down and buy a real Sony XDCAM like the 350, 355 or the new 700 series. The 270 feels like cheap plastic and the light weight and stubby design does not fit well on the shoulder.

Other thing I don’t like about the 270 is the low res LCD viewfinder, the slow and sluggish zoom lens and the focus is servo, not manual. You can put a “real” piece of glass on the 270 but it will cost you.

I do like the fact the the 270 is able to record on the 140 minute large DV tapes for extended shoot times.

I used the trusty Z1U on this shoot because I was asked to shoot b-roll before the race. The Z1 was the only camera with a wide angle lens attachment (Sony screw on type .7). I then shot with the Z1 in a semi-fixed location at the bottom of a grueling portion of the race track. I shot the riders as they pedaled up a hill. I shot a few chains flying off the expensive bicycle drivetrains in this spot.

Here are a few pictures from the shoot. We sync’d timecode using time-of-day so that the edtiors would be able to cut this together later in post.

This is the Sony HVR-S270U “full sized” shoulder mounted HDV camera. This camera has the option to shoot on 2GB plus sized Compact Flash media cards for a tapeless alternative to DV stock. There is also a Sony branded hard drive unit that you can attach via firewire to record HDV footage directly to the disk.

The Sony HVR-Z7U. I really liked this camera. This is like a poor-mans EX1!

This shoot was staffed with freelancers from the Boston area. I work with most of these guys on a regular basis and I did what I could to help them with the operation of these new cameras.

This was Jim’s position just after the start / finish line. He shot with a Sony 270 on a JLG lift.

This is the view from the bottom of that hill I was talking about. The bikes come in from the right and head up this hill and then take a left and roll back down a block from here.

The old workhorse Z1U with the Sony wide angle lens. I shot from a tripod at the start and then ran up and down the hill to mix up the shots. I had about three minutes to re position my shots before the leaders came flying past me.

Crazy Weather and David Ortiz

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:39:01 -0400

I do not have any pictures or video to go along with this post, so I will be as descriptive as possible.

I witnessed one of the coolest moments in my career thus far. And it actually had to do with baseball!

David “Big Papi” Ortiz is a legend in baseball. Most people know this. He plays for the Red Sox and he is known for his clutch long ball hitting. Yesterday, he made his minor league debut at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He is currently rehabbing a wrist injury with the triple A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, the Pawtucket Paw Sox. During his second at bat, he drove a ball to right, and into the bull pen for a homer. The near record setting crowd of 11k plus rattled the structure as Big Papi rounded third and headed homeward. The Paw Sox scored 16 runs that day and guess what, that was enough to win.

That is baseball. That is David Ortiz. The googley-eye luster for me has long since worn off. I have seen so much baseball in my career thus far, and I am ready for change.

But what I experienced tonight, I will never forget.

The day started like all others at McCoy Stadium. Show up at 3pm, unbag my hard camera at the high first position, make sure everything is working and head to lunch. The air is thick and it is very warm. The sky is a hazy shade of blue and the sun is filtered as if shining though silk. The Paw Sox are playing the Mud Hens...thats just terrific.

The ball park is once again sold out. There are actually scalpers wander the stadium perimeter looking for families who could not get tickets to watch their favorite Red Sox super slugger. Little kids sporting Red Sox garb line the seats and rails with “Go Big Papi” or “Welcome to McCoy, David” or “Get Well Papi” signs scribbled on white poster board.

The place is electric and every time David Ortiz steps out of the Sox dugout and toward the on deck circle, the crowd erupts into life as one obnoxious beast. David hits another home run, this time over the left field wall. The place goes nuts and Ortiz is greeted with huge smiles when he returns to the dugout.

I am keeping an eye towards the sky. I see the sun low to the west, but I also see some unusual cloud formations. I shot a video at this ball park called “Sundown In The Minors” and caught a spectacular sunset with my EX1 camera a few weeks ago. You can see it here: http://www.tomguilmette.com/Site/EX1_Letus_Videos/Pages/minors720.html. But, tonight is different. These clouds look like thunder heads.

The night is very sticky and the humidity is high. I did not look at the radar before jumping on camera, but I always have a protective jacket for my camera and a GoreTex jacket for me at the base of my tripod just in case. New England weather can change in seconds and I am prepared for that.

At around 9pm in the seventh inning, the Paw Sox are up 6 to 1. Vivid cloud to cloud lightning is making the crowd, “ooooh and ahhhh”. I ask over headset if there is something on the radar and my answer is, “we will check”. The grounds crew did not seem to be overly concerned. The tarp is ready to roll out, but they are not near it.

I get my weather answer just as David Ortiz steps to the plate. The graphics guy in the truck says over headset that there is a nasty storm cell headed right towards the ball park. At this same moment, I see the head grounds crew guy call the first base umpire over to the fence and whisper something into his ear. The wind is really starting to pick up and I see large lightning hitting the ground over the wall in left, due west. But Big Papi is up at bat.

I look over at David, in the batters box. I see him with his bat ready for the pitcher to throw him a ball that he is going to crush. The wind is really picking up. Plastic bags, empty beer cups and other debris swirl around David, but he is focused on the guy standing on the mound. A hugh twisting wall of dust nearly takes out the left fielder and an umbrella in the stands shoots upward into the sky as if it sprouted wings. A large lightning bolt cracks nearby and the pitcher throws the ball.

I am wrestling with my rain cover trying to get it over the massive network camera. I am not shooting anything at the moment, but during my struggle, I am caught up in this mighty icon of baseball standing focused while the torrents of rain fill the air, highlighted by the bright light towers. Ortiz is still standing there hungry for a fastball. Another flash of lighting and everything touches darkness. The lights are out and the rain and wind is all I know. People run for cover and I look towards the batter’s box, Ortiz is gone. I see a popcorn box rip across home plate.

David did not hit a home run. But it was the moment leading up to that possibility that will be forever locked in my mind as a moment I will never forget. The combination of his larger-than-life status and the power of nature hit a chord with me. I wondered if I would have been able to capture that moment on videotape, if I had all my camera gear and weather protection. In my haste to protect the network camera gear, I was not able to watch the entire event play out. I wish I could have, as a fan of baseball and of the power of nature.

When the electricity is restored and the storm has passed, the mercury vapor lights slowly regained their white intensity like a ghostly sunrise. The field is only half covered with the tarp. Third base area and some of second base are exposed, and that part of the infield is a small muddy pond. The storm came in so quick that the grounds crew were unable to fully protect the diamond.

The game is cancelled and official favoring the home team. The 11,000 fans went home with wet clothing and shoes, but they got to see their Big Papi swing the bat with the flash of lightning and the sound of thunder.

Downhill Mountain Biking with Matchstick Films - Attitash

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:07:11 -0400

I am tired. Very tired. Most of my body aches and I have not showered in three days.

I love to add a little story now and then to my blog so here goes.

The last two days I have been tearing up Attitash Mountain (http://www.attitash.com) on my Iron Horse Sunday down hill mountain bike. The bike is basically a dirt bike with out the motor. But who needs a motor when you let gravity take you down the hill?

My story starts late friday night. I camped out near Attitash so that I could get up at first light and hit the trails. I got up at 6am, saw a great sunrise and headed to the mountain. Saturday was just another great sunny day riding the lift-service terrain. I saw a black bear dart across the trail. I met up with a few riders who were as good as me (haha) and we rode for eight hours straight. I lost count after the twenty plus runs I got in.

Saturday night I camped out in the same place, under a trap (no tent), and was woken up at about midnight by heavy rains. My fire was swamped and I was attacked by bugs. Also, to make things worse, I picked a bad place to sleep and was flooded by a river of cold water, sticks and leaves. I moved my camp and all was well. But woke up a few times and only got about three hours of sleep. I was just too wet and tired and did not try to get another fire going. It was a long night to say the least.

Now to the fun part, I hit Attitash for my second day and while I was getting checked in, I was told a television crew was shooting on the mountain. Sweet! (Mountain biking and television, a great combo for me!)

The top of the mountain was wrapped in fog and I figured the trails who be terrible after all the rain, but I went to find the film crew.

I spotted them early from the lift, but I was having a great time flying down the mountain cranking the music on my ipod. The trails were fast and I felt strong.

I kept riding for a few hours and then decided to hit a trail where I knew the crew was shooting.

Aaron Chase, Cameron Zink and a few other famous and talented mt bikers were on the mountain shooting a tv show produced by Matchstick Productions for Rush HD. The show was called “Focused” and it follows world class action sports athletes around world telling their stories as they jump out of planes, shred ski slopes or hit huge jumps deep in the wilderness. They had the entire world to ride, so why where they at Attitash Mountain in Bartlett, New Hampshire?

I got to speak to cinematographer, Guillaume Tessier (http://www.mspfilms.com/company/tessier?size=_original) and producer/cameraman, Nate Nash, (http://www.mspfilms.com/company/nash?size=_original). I found out that both of them worked on the “Ski Movie”, one of the best ski and snowboarding films of all time. Guillaume was shooting super 16 film with an Arri Flex and Nate was using a Sony 750 HDCAM with a set of Sac sticks. He also had a Fuji wide-angle lens he mounted for a few shots. These guys have shot some great footage for MSPfilms.com and the creative company’s very successful extreme sports film series.

Nate used a Lowe Pro bag to travel the HDCAM with the Anton Bauer Dionic battery at the bottom of the pack and the lens at the top. I zipped past him a few times as he walked the rig down the trails in the large rectangular backpack. He did have access to a four-wheeler (thanks to Nate Waterhouse) to get the gear from place to place.

I stopped at one of the shooting locations near the botton of the “holy Shoot” trail and heard one of the guys say, “So would you rather push papers across a desk in an office, or push your bike up the mountain”. The rider quickly replied, “I’d rather push my bike up the mountain all day”. I would say that during this shoot, all five pro riders pushed and hiked their heavy down hill bikes up the mountain 80 percent of the time and got to ride only 20 percent of the time. Multiple takes, one camera. These riders are use to it. They are making television. I have to say, these guys are fearless and once they drop in, they almost always hit it in the first take. The cameraman has to ask them to do it again so he can set up for a different angle.

The crew broke for lunch and I found out that these guys are doing a motorcycle road trip for “Focused”. They had a trailer full of mountain bikes and Harley Davidson motorcycles. They were going to hit the Mount Washington Auto Road (sketchy road that goes up the mountain with unreal views) tomorrow with the gas powered bikes and Nate and Guillaume were going to document it. Great gig!

As for me, I managed to ask a few questions about the extreme sports video/film trade and share some of the stuff I had done. I shot a quick video at the end of my two days of riding with my crappy point and shoot still camera. I have no idea why the sky is purple. It is not easy to adjust the camera with my left hand while holding on for dear life with my right hand. And, since it looked so bad shooting video, I did not mind running it over with my bike...

If you managed to read this far, then you will be interested and delighted to hear that I will be shooting a video for Attitash with the EX1, Letus Extreme, my dolly system, my jib and a few other new toys later this summer. I am headed to the mountain this Saturday with my buddy, TJ to scout it all out. I will bring the EX1 and the Letus to do a few tests with local riders. I just might post some tease vids to my blog a few days later. Stay Tuned!

Fenway Park HD Camera - Video Blog

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:34:20 -0400

I shoot the Red Sox for a living in HD. I enjoy working with expensive and state-of-the-art television equipment.

A few people emailed me recently and asked me if I could shoot a video blog of my very expensive HD camera that I use to shoot for the networks at Fenway Park. Well, here you go!

I use a Sony HDC-910 camera head with a 75x (9.5mm to 700mm zoom 1:1.7) Canon HD lens with an optical image stabilizer. The camera head new has a retail price of $94,700.00 and that does not include the viewfinder or the lens! The lens is almost as much! The camera is mounted to a large fluid head on Miller sticks. The fluid head is the Vinten Vector 70 and I would ague that this is the best hard camera pan head ever made.

I brought my PMW-EX1 to work today and during my lunch break, I shot a quick video explaining the camera the best I could. I had a million other things I had to do that day. I did not spend much time on this, but this short little film should answer the questions I was asked.

Keep watching until the end. I got a shot of the moon rising over the right field seats and I think you will like it. I shot this during the game a few days ago and TV color analyst Jerry Remy even stated that it was “the best shot he has ever seen on NESN” (New England Sports Network). Now keep in mind, this shot had nothing to do with baseball or sports for that matter. Go figure.

I see shots like this on the Discovery channel all the time!

The moon shot I added to this video was off a dvd copy of the clip. In crappy standard def. I up-converted it to 720p in Final Cut. I did not have a chance to get a HD version yet.

Email me any questions.

Deadliest Catch - After The Catch Shoot In Gloucester, MA

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 23:47:40 -0400

I had the opportunity to work on the wrap up show for the number one cable television show, “The Deadliest Catch” produced by Original Productions (Burbank, CA) for Discovery.

The name of the production I worked on was “After The Catch II” and it was basically a wrap up show for the entire fourth season of Catch. Most of the boat captains and deck hands were there including the narrator, Mike Rowe. They also did mini features on local Gloucester fishermen and had them on as guests.

I was honest with people from the start. I wanted to get off my summer gig on the Red Sox home broadcast for just three days so I could work for Discovery for four days. I really wanted to meet Mike Rowe.

I had followed Mike’s career since his first “Dirty Jobs” episode aired a few years ago. I was always amazed at how professional and witty he was on his show and after watching a few episodes, I though to myself, I would love to work along side Mike, Doug Gover, Dave Barsky, and Chris Whiteneck on the dirtiest show on television. There was just so much talent working on such a unique show. I respected the show so much because it payed respect to the hard working people in this country who work their butts off doing crapy jobs that the rest of us would never want to do. But these jobs are essential so we can live civilized lives. That is basically the “Dirty Jobs” motto.

So I took the job to meet Mike Rowe. I did and I must say, he is exactly like he presents himself on television. A fun guy you would want to work with and then drink a beer with at the end of the day. I was so relieved that he was not a jerk. He was a true pro.

As for this gig, I was just a studio camera guy. Very easy, no stress. I just took the opportunity to network with people. I did have the privilege of working with a great mobile truck, Metrovision out of New York. This HD truck had Sony HDC-1500 720p/1080i selectable cameras and it mastered everything on Sony HDCAM. There was a super expensive Sony HDCAM SR uncompressed HD deck on board to feed some “Deadliest Catch” elements into the production stream.

The show format was a bunch of boat captains sitting around a round table in a bar. They drank like fishermen, smoked like chimneys and told fish stories from the Alaskan seas. Sometimes it got emotional, other times it got heated and in some cases they were all laughing out loud.

Mike Rowe hosted the show and kept the guys on track.

I operated a camera in the bar shooting through a small window where beer and other drinks are served. I got to use a C 40 Italian dutch head mounted on my Sac 30 pan head. This allowed me to dutch shots (throw the horizon off) as I snapped from the plasma screen out of roll-in videos. I also used the head slightly dutched about 5 degrees to the right and slowly pushed into guys seated at the table. I did not over use this, but the times I did use this unique camera shot, it really stood out and added to the production.

The show will air on the Discovery channel as 6 hour long episodes. It begins very soon, June 17th in the US during prime time.

I have posted some pictures below...

This is the Metrovision truck we used. This truck was working Fenway the next day for the Japanese feed. Mike Rowe signed the inside! It had Sony HDC-1500 cameras with sleds so that you can mount big lenses to them to shoot sports. The inside is well laid out and it is filled with HD equipment that I could never afford to buy.

Special thanks to Paul Wolf, a very talented Engineer In Charge for some of these production stills.

You can see the director, Matt, from New York pointed to a monitor as he directed Tim (right) to punch up the cameras. Every camera was iso recorded to Sony HDCAM and they also recorded the switched line cut. Editors will later tighten up the show and add shots that did not get punched into the line cut.

Inside the Bar, this is what I saw for four days of shooting. I am standing behind my camera. I am shooting from the beer taps into the main room of the building. This place use to have a pool table and some tables. Now it has a round table lots of tv gear, lights and a bunch of set props. Lobster traps, buoys, netting, rope, ect. They also added a hugh salt aquarium in the back.

I think this dolly might be a little better than my home made PVC pipe dolly system! A guy from Connecticut named Brian ran this camera. He had a dolly assist named Rick working with him. Brian and I talked tv stuff for a while during our breaks. Brian was the only guy I ever met who has shot with the RED ONE camera. He showed me some RAW clips on his Apple MBP. Amazing.

I was camera five. This Was the Sony HDC-1500 with a HD color LCD viewfinder in top and a Fujinon 22x HD lens. I swapped the lens with a sweet Fuji wide lens for a few shots during the four days. Look closely and you will see the c 40 dutch head mounted on my Sac 30. That was fun to operate!

I had some down time so I checked my email on my MBP.

This 1500 was mounted to a pipe to get the “Sky” cam shot of the round table. This camera was fixed and did not have an operator

This shoot was like a movie set. We had art directors, props and we blocked stuff. I had beer in front of me every day and I could only watch it sweat and get warm! I used it as fore ground in many of my shots. The Letus Extreme would have came in handy here.

The show also had a jib peering through two wood trimmed windows looking into the main set. The guy who ran the jib was from New Hampshire. His name was John. Good guy. His jib moves were awesome, even with the short arm and tight space.

Mike Rowe was great. He was funny and very easy to work with. He ad libed his way through the show and kept everything under control even as the people he talked to were getting drunker by the second. He took some time off to sign a boating chart of Gloucester. I plan to get this framed. I am certain I will get to work with him again down the road. “Why does everything sound so credible when you speak into a pipe.” I asked him that, but he did not have a good answer.

Outside the bar, the crowd we building. Local newspapers where printing stories and posting pictures of the event. This was big for this small fishing community of Gloucester. The movie “The Perfect Storm” was shot out here a few years ago. This was where the Andrea Gail was docked before the tragic end.

Left to right: Edgar Hansen, Watty, Sig Hansen, TV Tim, and me after the show.

Edgar and Sig are brothers and they run the NorthWestern in the “Deadliest Catch”. Great guys. Sig was really funny with a few in him after we wrapped up.

See what I mean, Sig was arm wrestling one of the art directors. He has had a few beverages.

This show was fun. I got to meet a bunch of people from a few of the production companies who create excellent tv for the Discovery Channel.

I also met some of the top people at Discovery channel. I hope that this gig served as a stepping stone into a new career in television for me. I have always dreamed of shooting for this network. I love the content they focus the cameras on.

It has been a while...

Tue, 27 May 2008 07:29:26 -0400

Sorry, I have not been able to post much to my blog over the last two weeks. I have the excuse of work. I work all the time.

A few things to report. I am working on a motorized system to preform very slow dolly moves to add cinematic slides to my time lapses. I am also working on a few “instructional” videos where I use the Surviorman multi-camera technique to talk about my Letus Extreme (specifically the $350 acromat kit), my homemade jib and my homemade dolly system.

I got a gig with “Deadliest Catch” and I will finally get to meet Mike Rowe. I will be shooting just north of Boston for the Discovery channel during the first week of June. I will try to do at least one Blog and maybe even a video blog.

I am sorry if I did not answer your emails. I receive many each day asking questions about my work, the Letus and the Sony EX1.

Please join my forum. It is easier for me just to post my answers in there so I do not have to keep answering the same questions over and over.

That is all!

Video Blog - Fishing and Lobstering in Gloucester

Wed, 7 May 2008 09:15:47 -0400

This is a rough behind the scenes video blog. Vimeo link: http://www.vimeo.com/989635

Today I got up at 5 am, packed a bunch of my TV gear and headed out to Gloucester, Massachusetts to shoot for a hockey TV show on a lobster and fishing charter boat. This was the same area the Andrea Gail set out during “The Perfect Storm”.

So what does this have to do with hockey?

'The Chief' Johnny Bucyk and ‘Pieface’ John McKenzie were on board.

Bucyk retired as the Boston Bruin's team leading scorer, a mark that was surpassed by defenceman Ray Bourque in 1997. The Chief remains Boston's goal scoring leader, compiling 16 seasons of 20 or more goals, receiving two Lady Byng Trophies, and appearing in seven NHL all-star games. He was the fifth NHL player to score 50 goals with 100 points in a season.

McKenzie played in 691 NHL games, totaling 206 goals, 268 assists and 917 penalty minutes. His teammates called him “pieface” because of his acne that lasted into his twenties. Hockey players can be so cruel.

I brought along my Sony HC3 to shoot during the downtime (there was not much) and after I was done edited this, I just watched the film and talked about the visuals in a very conversational way. I added it like a directors track on a movie DVD.

For the broadcast shoot I brought my Sony Z1U with a wide lens (and was asked by the client to shoot in standard def 4:3 DVCAM), about ten tapes, a monopod, a vinten vision 3 tripod, two sennheiser evolution wireless systems, two Sony ecm-77b lav mics, an audio technica shotgun mic, a bunch of batteries, water tight pelican cases, foul weather gear, a/c charger, gaff tape and a magic arm to mount the camera in the wheelhouse.

I shot five 40 minute tapes and got a lot of great footage with the Z1U. I was amazed at how still the ocean was. I was able to get great rock solid tracking shots from the boat deck as we drifted by the old fishing ships and the old New England lighthouses. I did not get sick...this time.

I shot most of the TV show either on a monopod or run and gun handheld.

We caught four Cod and two Haddock while deep sea fishing and we also pulled in one troll line of twenty lobster pots. We were able to keep about 30 lobsters out of the near 60 we must have trapped in the pots.

Lobstering is defiantly dangerous. We all had to pay close attention to what was going on around us.

I cannot post any of the video I shot with the Z1U because of copyright issues. I am not editing this TV show. The tapes are sent to New Jersey to be edited for broadcast.

TRT 4 minutes 43 seconds

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Video Blog - Vignetting and the Letus Extreme

Mon, 5 May 2008 23:44:00 -0400

I decided that I would share whatever knowledge I have in my brief time with my EX1 and Letus Extreme 35 mm lens adapter by doing a video blog. I am not an expert, but I have logged some serious hours on both of them.

I created this website to get my name out to potential clients and sell my television skills as a freelancer. I have found work because of this website, but I have also found that there is a huge community of people who are interested in producing quality television. Most of them have commented on my videos and send me comments through my chat room, forum and email.

Many people have emailed me and asked me several question regarding my dolly system, my telescope panning time lapsing, features on the ex1, color grading using Magic Bullet and shooting with the Letus Extreme.

I have found it very difficult to email answers to these questions. The best way to help people understand is to show them.

This is what I am planning to do with Video Blog entries. This is my first.

I have shot a video in the “Surviorman” technique with multiple cameras alone in the wild (where I like to shoot). I decided to answer the vignette question that many people have asked me. I own cheap lenses, so some of my vignetting could be inside the film lens and not in the Letus. This “webisode” details using the EX1’s zoom lens to push past the Letus innards and remove the black on the sides of the frame. It is important that the ground glass window is close to center in the frame as you push through it. You will see that it is not and I need to calibrate it. This is beyond the scope of this webisode.

I am currently having trouble with edge sharpness. This is because I adjusted the Letus back-focus and by doing so, the ground glass plate is not perfectly straight anymore. I will try to fix this (or I may have to send back the Letus to be fixed).

One thing to look at here is the fact that the EX1 blows the Sony Z1U and the Sony HC3 HDV cameras away in color and imagery. When I was cutting this together, I could not believe how bad the Z1U looks against the new Sony CMOS chips in the EX1.

I tried to be as clear as possible, but if you have any questions, please use my forum. For more information on the Letus Extreme (or to purchase one) please check out http://www.letusdirect.com.

Spring on the Kancamagus - Production Stills

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:16:33 -0400

I add a detailed description to most of my films that I post on my website or on Vimeo. I do not, however, add any of my behind the scenes production stills to the video descriptions. I save all these cool pictures for my blogs.

Today, I went to the Kancamagus highway with my Sony PMW-EX1. Of course, the Letus Extreme was attached to the front.

The Kanc is route 112 and it runs right through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It will get you to Lincoln from Conway or vise versa. There is nothing in between. No gas, homes or business for almost 30 miles! Cell phones do not work and the drive is steep and dangerous.

There are hundreds of hiking trails and the mountain views are beautiful....when they are not cloaked in fog.

I started at 6 am. My first stop was a mountain tarn. A tarn is a small pond locked high in the mountain tops. This place is very clean and the water is crystal clear. I had hoped to nab a shot of some wildlife here.

I hiked in dolly track, my Vinten tripod, lenses and my camera. Anytime I do this sort of stuff alone, I have to make a few trips to get the gear in and out.

I used my long lens to get shots of the lonely duck sleeping on the rock. This is a Nikon Nikkor 300mm f4 telephoto. By using this long lens on the EX1 and Letus, I was able to get tight shots of the sleeping duck from far across the pond. I also used this lens to get some of the shots of the mountain tops and exposed valley in the middle of the short. I had to add an extra support I bought from Letus to hold the weight of this lens and place it on the rail system.

I did not get any pictures of the Sabaday Falls setups. Sorry about that. I was scrambling to get it all shot before the rain got heavier.

The above picture is how I laid the 1 1/4 inch PVC pipe down in the stream. This was not easy. I pulled rocks from the stream and built up a “railroad tie” support to hold the rails in place. I did not want the dolly to shift and dump the camera in the drink. The rocks were slick.

I do not have a rain cover, as you can see, so I used an 11 cent trash bag to protect my investment.

One other thing I have to say is that my boots were full of icy cold water, my hands were freezing and since it was pouring rain, the stream was turing into a raging torrent by the second. I had left the dolly track in the stream for about five minutes while I was drying the camera and when I returned to it, the water had risen and was washing over the plywood decking! The rain must have been falling even heavier upstream at higher altitude.

Wet and cold feet. My boots were water proof, but when the water gets so deep that it goes over the top of the boot, the water proofing only hold the water inside. Got trench foot?

Headed home on Rt 93 towards Boston. Heavy rains made rush hour traffic even more enjoyable. I can’t wait to shoot another video on the Kanc!

Email me if you have any question

Day Game - Behind the Scenes

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:23:13 -0400

First off, I want to give credit where credit is due.

My idea to do this type of blog was inspired by Philip Bloom. I was amazed at his knowledge and his style of shooting. I was very impressed with his website. He not only produces excellent content and imagery, but he explains his technique in his blogs. He is a teacher as much as he is a great shooter and editor. His website is located at http://www.philipbloom.net.

Another friend of mine, TJ Powers, gave me the idea of using a telescope motorized pan head to shoot panning time lapse. I thank them both for getting my head outside the sports television viewfinder.

Now let me talk about my short, “Day Game”.

I set up this time lapse in the very same spot I set up my first Fenway Park time lapse, “One Day at Fenway”. This time, I had fixed my back focus and I was shooting a day game. I ran the camera off the supplied ac power adapter. I had to plug it into the utility power in my hard camera because they never installed an outlet on this roof!

I pointed my hard camera at the time lapse so that I could keep an eye on it from inside the TV truck just in case someone wanted to mess with it.

I framed for the sky, hoping for sweet cloud movement, but got stuck with total and infinite deep blue.

This is a shot of the bracket I bought for 2 bucks at Home Depot. I pulled the telescope off and tossed it in the closet. I only wanted the pan head. The telescope model is the Celestron 114 GT telescope. It has a key pad that I can use to program the pan speed and it runs on eight AA batteries.

This is the controller that came with the Celestron telescope. I use this to dial in the pan speeds. This pan head was designed to follow the stars in the sky as the Earth rotates. I had to figure out a way to make it work for my application. It was easy. I just set the rate to “one” and press the right arrow. I then unplug the CAT3 cable from the pan head (unplugging the keypad) and the pan head continues to pan very very slowly on its own. The only way to stop it is to unplug the battery pack. I like this method because it removes one more cable from the pan head that could get tangled up during the six hour time lapse pan. I cannot tilt with this due to the weight of the camera rig.

The fans have entered the ballpark and are enjoying the game. The pan head has moved about 100 degrees so far and is pointed into right field. I had started at the green monster about three hours ago! It moves kinda like the hour hand on a watch dial.

This was an ideal place to preform the long time lapse because I could keep a close eye on the camera and yell at the drunk fans as they tried to rest a full beer on the top of the Letus!

I have learned this about drunk baseball fans: They all want to be on TV and the way they break the ice is by asking, “...is this game on TV?”

The key to ending a conversation with a drunk while you are trying to shoot a baseball game is to ignore them. If you yell at them, they get angry and if you talk to them they never stop talking and become your best friend.

I never had to deal with this in my last 8 years at Fenway. I had this entire roof to myself! When they added these new seats, they added a bunch of curious fans who sometimes are not interested in the game. But man can they drink.

I digress...

I mentioned in my video description that I had some trouble with my Letus motor. This is a shot of the ground glass inside the Letus. I had opened up the Letus before to adjust the back focus. I had to tug on this 16:9 piece of frosted glass and pull it out (from it’s three points) a fraction of a millimeter to gain infinity on my film lenses. I also open this thing up to clean it out as dust tends to collect on the ground glass.

I knew that the motor was just below the GG. So in order to get the motor spinning, I tapped it with my finger and on she went, vibrating the ground glass to produce a clean film-like image. This little piece of info just might help you out if you own a Letus Extreme or plan on buying one.

Email me with specific questions and I will try to help you.

Fenway Cameraman

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:16:43 -0400

I had a crazy idea and it was slightly narcissistic. I wanted to point the time lapse PMW-EX1 XDCAM at myself as I worked. I wanted to see just how many times I whipped panned, tilted up, got a red tally, moved around the platform and touched the controls on my hard camera at Fenway Park.

The end result was what I would assume a rabbit would look like if given a pound of caffeine and a few lumps of sugar. I do like Red Bull.

I placed the camera on an old Vinten Vector 100. I extended the tripod as far as I could so that it would place the lens up over my shoulder and frame me with the game action going on in the background.

I also used my letus and a star filter that produced a four point star.

You can see the first set up (of two) where the EX1 is pointed at my hard camera. The green monster was in the background behind me.

Ahh.... I do love the golden hour. Great light hitting the EX1. I have said that the Sony PMW-EX1 with the Letus Extreme 35mm film lens adapter is worth its weight in gold. I absolutely love shooting with them both.

I set the camera to record one frame every ten second that passed by. I still have not experimented with the under cranking feature on this camera. The technique I had used on this short was called interval recording. I hope to try the under cranking method on a future time lapse. I think it may show the rapid motion of my camera in a more smooth and realistic way.

I looked up to the light tower to my left and saw “The Hawk”. This is the very same hawk that attacked a girl on a Fenway Tour about a week before opening day. This red tailed hawk had a nest just below the press box and was defending her one egg. The nest was moved by environmental officials and relocated. I think the bird is still pissed off. One of my favorite parts of the game is watching the hawk flying over the crowd with a dead bird or rat in it’s talons. There are two of them.

You can see that I have a telescope for a zoom lens. The camera had a 75x telephoto zoom with an extender that doubles that! It is pretty sweet!

Perhaps someday somebody will pay me to follow a bird of prey instead of a Rawlings laced baseball.

Another Day at Fenway - Behind the Scenes

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:15:58 -0400

I brought my EX1 with the Letus and my motorized telescope pan head to Fenway to shoot my second time lapse. Here are a few pictures to show you my set up.

My last time lapse, “One Day at Fenway” was shot from the left field seats. This time, I set up on the right field line and shot towards the west. This time lapse includes a great sunset.

The camera started to the right and slowly panned to the diamond on the left. I was surprised that the heavy vibration on the roof did not effect the quality of the panning time lapse. You can see that early in the day, some of the Red Sox players were hanging out in right field. This time lapse spanned about 6.5 hours from 4 pm to 10:30 pm.

I taped the focus and the exposure to avoid any slippage due to the vibration. I made sure I turned on the motor for the ground glass before I left the camera.

This is a tight shot of the motorized telescope head. The model is the Celestron 114 GT telescope. It has a key pad that I can use to program the pan speed and it runs on eight AA batteries.

This shot gives you an idea of the type of camera platform I had set up in. It is a bunch of steel that sticks out over the crowd. There was a lot of vibration and I made sure I tied the camera down just in case it fell over. I did not want the entire rig to fall on the baseball fans below.

If you have any questions about this set up, please feel free to email me. I plan on doing a few more of these time lapses at Fenway Park so keep an eye on my website.

Boston Marathon 2008

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:56:12 -0400

Yea, I know. The helmet makes me look like an idiot.

Today, I shot two of the participants in the Boston Marathon for the Discovery channel. I got to ride on a full electric motorcycle for half the race. I sat on the back and a guy named Dana took me down the streets of Massachusetts as we headed to the finish line in Boston.

I hung off the back with a Sony HVR-Z1U camcorder covering Lynn and Jamie Parks as they put the miles behind them.

Lynn and Jamie have a very unique and inspiring story.

Lynn was in a car accident a decade ago and this tragic event occurred just after Jamie asked Lynn to be his wife. The accident took almost everything from Lynn but Jamie stayed by her side.

They have been a team ever since and do everything together despite Lynn’s disabilities.

Discovery Health wanted to make a documentary called “Marathon Love” and hired me to be one of the shooters. It will be finished in June 2008.

The pictures above show the electric motorcycle. This was the first marathon these state of the art bikes were used on.

I must say, these bikes were great. Super smooth and very quiet. I was able to hang off the back and get awesome shots of Lynn and Jamie as they moved through the course.

The electric bike was so quiet, that I was able to get up next to Jamie as he pushed his wife in the wheelchair and ask them both questions! I got some great sound from the two of them as they pushed themselves to the limits in the Boston Marathon.

A friend of mine, Eric, was one of the other film crews on the project. Eric and I were fitted with Z1U’s with wide angle lenses and our own audio kits. We both wore vests that held wireless receivers, lens wipes, cell phones and two-way radios.

This was my point of view off the electric motorcycle. You can see the Z1U in the bottom left of the frame. My shotgun was all I needed to get up close and get sound bites from Lynn and Jamie as they moved down the suburban streets of Ashland Massachusetts. This was around mile marker 4. The race was 26.2 miles long!

The was a self portrait shot when we reached our designated pull off. That helmet was not very comfortable, but at least it protected my mellon. At this point, I left Dana and his electric bike and headed to a parked vehicle. I met up with my Production Assistant and we drove to the finish line.

I did not take any other pictures because I got too busy to do so! Let me just say, the traffic was miserable and I slept through most of it. I had just came off working a double the night before, early Red Sox and then Game 1 of the Celtics NBA finals. I was functioning on two hours of sleep.

When we got to the finish line, I just had to get one other shot. Jamie and Lynn’s daughter was going to join them for the last mile of the race. It was a great moment. I got the money shot and the field producers were very happy. The documentary should be good and I look forward to seeing it on the Discovery Health channel later this summer.

Long Lens for Lake People Short Film

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:48:02 -0400

A bunch of people emailed me after I posted “Lake People” and wanted to see my set up. I did not take any pictures of the dolly system. If you want to see it, check out my blog on “The Warehouse” short.

The red backpack in the picture above is the way I travel all my lenses. It is a great padded compartmentalized pack made by Lowe.

The picture below shows you the Nikon Nikkor 300mm f4 lens I bought off eBay. The lens works great and if you look closely, you will see that I ordered a second support for the weight of the lens from Letus. This gives me piece of mind when shooting with the hefty glass. It puts the weight on the rail system and not on the nikon mount connected to the Letus Extreme.

Email me if you have any further questions.

New Sony Camcorder - The PMW-EX3

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:08:16 -0400

I got an inside guy at NAB. His name is TJ and he is giving me the inside scoop. It looks like Sony will be releasing this sweet new camera in their PMW line of solid state SxS camcorders.

I hope to continue to break news (or almost break news) on my site thanks to TJ. I wish I was there!

I don’t have much information on this camera, but I do know that you can hook a 60GB hard drive to it by plugging it into the side of the SxS slot.

It also appears to be a camera that you can mount on your shoulder.

This is the hard drive. It can be powered off the same batteries that the camera itself works on. This will really help keep the recordings going. I hope this works on the PMW-EX1 as well. I will find out soon.

Here is the PMW-EX3 and the PMW-EX1 side by side. I own the EX1. The EX3 will be more expensive and is not yet available to the public.

It looks like the eye piece can flip up to reveal the LCD screen. Also, the camera has a few more BNC connectors on the back. Perhaps a genlock, a timecode and maybe this camera can even accept incoming HD signals so that it can function as a deck?

Opening Day at Fenway Park - NESN

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 21:55:01 -0400

Today was opening day at Fenway Park and I am entering my eighth year at my position on the left field wall.

The only problem was they have totally redesigned the left field roof. My camera position no longer exists as I remember it. But, it is not that bad.

Here is what my first impressions were.
Not that bad of an angle. I could not really notice the difference in height, but I did notice that I am off the left field foul line, deeper in the stands. I am also closer to the Green Monster wall, so it looks smaller and less intimidating. Very little vibration on the roof. Dugout visible.
The railing are short. I am able to set up my camera very low, and not get blocked. I like to be able to see over my camera.
Large area to work. I hope they don’t try to cram an extra camera in there. I may share the place with one wheel chair at times.
I can actually talk to girls instead of just rats running under my old platform.

8am on opening day. A very adventurous climber scales the flag pole and adds some hardware to allow the World Series 07 flag to be raised later in the day.

It was cold and windy. The guy was yelling stuff to other guys who fed him cable from the dirt of the warning track.

This is the new Coke-A-Cola corner. You can see my new camera seven position just under the “a” in Cola. I am now near the crowd and I had to put up a chain to make a fence to keep fans from trying to get near my camera to snap photos or find a good place for their standing room ticket.

My old position is almost dead center in the above photograph. Before they added the seats, I was all alone on the roof set up on a metal platform. The position was destroyed this past winter and now a staircase lives where I spent seven summers.

I had to climb underground on the other side of the park to locate a fiber optic cable. This place stunk and there were rats scurrying around.

This was taken in June of 2004. You can see the old camera angle in this shot. No foreground, the advertisement signboard was blocking some of my shot to the right. In this old shot, I am also closer to the action and lower. I can shoot down the line.

This was taken today. This is the new camera position. I will have company on occasion. To my right, in the empty area, one wheelchair and a companion. But not everyday.

I have much more foreground to work with. The crowd goes nuts and I can get their reaction in the lower portion of my frame. The sun still sets behind me, so I use card board to keep my viewfinder dark.

I look forward to the summer months up here. Today was about 35 degrees with a very cold wind. This picture makes the seating area look huge! They added about 1,000 seats to the ball park this year.

Things I don’t like about the new position:
No Electricity
No Internet hard line
No bolt in the concrete to chain down my camera
Drunk fans over my shoulder
Being higher seems more windy and “closer to lightning”.
I lose a lot of the third base foul line.
I shoot down on the monster seats, not into them.

I will post more in my blog as the boys of summer are back in Boston.

Misty Brook Letus Short Film Behind the Scenes

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 22:32:56 -0400

I shot at Ashland State Park today and got some more great footage using the PMW-EX1. I also used the Letus.

I over-saturated this footage and used the over cranking feature on the camera at 59.94 frames per second.

I used just one lens, the Nikon 50mm f1.4 and kept it wide open. The depth of field was great and the pictures were very sharp.

I have attached a few production stills to this blog. I used a plastic bag to help keep the camera dry and only had one 8 GB card. My battery only lasts about one hour and I need to get a larger one.

Most of the shots were off the tripod. Sorry I can’t go into more detail, but I am very busy!

The camera survived the rain and the mud. I need to get a working rain cover.

TAX TIME!

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 22:35:18 -0400

I cannot add to my website or shoot with my new EX1 camera because I am doing my taxes.

I am literally buried in receipts. Thousands of them.

Every year at this time, I lock myself inside my home and work without interruption on my favorite thing in this world, my tax return.

See you on the other side. I have been thinking about new videos to shoot and I will be on a lobstah boat off of Glostah Mass this Sunday. I will not shoot with the Letus, just with my Z1U with the Sony wide angle lens. I’m an certain I will be hurling off the side. Ever see the movie, “The Perfect Storm”?

I will take pics and blog about it. Back to the mileage log spreadsheet...

I got the Sony PMW-EX1

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:20:40 -0400

I now own a Sony EX1 XDCAM EX camera.

I have wanted to upgrade for quite some time, but did not think solid state media was cost effective. Now with flash memory dropping and Sony offering a free media card with the purchase of this camera (by the end of March 08), I decided to pull the trigger.

I must give a very special thanks for my friend TV, the guy who helped me pay for this camera.

I will not go into great detail about this camera right now (since I have yet to use it), but here are my first impressions.

This camera is worth every penny. It is a REAL camera. It has a manual lens (not removable) and iris ring. It is evenly balanced. And best of all, the LCD viewfinder is very, very High Def! My Z1U had a analog-like lcd. This EX1 lcd is super sharp and easy to tell what is in focus and what is not.

I like the menu system. Very easy to use (for me anyway) and since I had read the instruction ops manual for this camera a month ago, I already had a head start.

I will shoot my first outdoor footage on the included 8 gb SxS card on Sunday. This card will allow me to shoot about 28 minutes of HQ 720p or 1080i HDTV. I will post the video to the “EX1 Letus Videos” page.

That is all for now. As you can see, I have moved the Letus from the Sony Z1U and put it on the EX1. I am ready to go!

The Warehouse Short Film - Behind the scenes...

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:39:32 -0400

Today we shot a short film back at the old warehouse. I say we, because this time, I was not alone. I wanted to go back to this place with actors, a director and some sort of story.

Joe Francazio, Adam Gotsens, Anthony Guerrero and I shot “The Warehouse”. This was a story about two childhood friends who visit an old warehouse that they spent time playing in during their youth. Now, twenty years later, the two 30 plus year olds want to see what has happened to the rotten place. They find that it has been gutted, abused, and weathered. They also realize that they are not alone.

I brought my dolly track (made from 1 1/4 inch PVC pipe) and my platform (made with 16 skateboard wheels in a V-configuration) to ride down the track. This allowed me to drift left or right, forward or back to give the uneasy feeling that I wanted in this piece.

I added a few items in the nasty foreground, like this old tire, to give the shots composition and depth.

Using the tips of my fingers, I carefully slid the contraption to the right. I was careful that small twigs or pieces of debris did not enter under the wheels. I wanted the shot super smooth. A small bump would be unsightly and it would have driven me nuts every time I watched the film.

The cool thing about this dolly system and the 28mm lens I was using was that I could also hang the camera over the front edge of the carpeted platform and push the entire thing forward down the tracks. I begun this shot after just clearing the dolly pipes at the bottom of the frame. I love this effect. It works even better when using a tripod on top of the platform.

Notice the wireless receivers for the microphone systems to the right of the camera on the dolly platform. I was constantly focusing my attention to audio hits and dropout. I was worried that the audio might not sound that good since we buried the lav mics under the actors jackets. You do hear a crackle here and there. We will have much better audio on our next project.

I gave some direction, but Joe told the actors what to do and how to speak their lines. Sometimes I would have to explain my camera move to the actors so that they could understand the shot and hit an invisible mark I placed on the ground. Adam and Anthony were excellent, and they often nailed it in the second take.

One of my favorite shots in the film was the composition of the actors standing at the warehouse’s entrance. It was cold this morning and as you can see, there was ice on the ground under my dolly track. This reflective surface at the bottom of the frame was perfect and the slow creep I did with the dolly made the shot.

Here is the camera and the Letus35 Extreme. I have a Star-D crappy 28mm f2.8 wide angle lens on the front with a circular polarizer filter. I shot the entire film through this lens and filter. I left the filter on the camera even under the lowest lighting conditions to see what would happen. The result is a slight haze and a softness to the bright beams of sun that broke though the skylight, rusted roof and broken walls. This camera works very well in low light and in a few of the shots, I bumped the gain to 9 dB.

Special thanks to director Joe Francazio for taking these production stills. Unfortunately, we got so cramped for time (shot the entire film in 3.5 hrs) that the production photos stop here. I wish I had gotten a shot of the four of us together to finish this blog.

But I have something even better. Below are a few quick out takes. Missed lines, Joe and I giving direction and other good stuff.

Bose Commercial Shoot - Wave Radio and Headphones

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:36:53 -0400

This morning I travelled to Natick, Massachusetts to shoot product drop ins for a Bose commercial. The products were the Bose Wave radio and headphones. A sample video from this shoot is available for viewing at the bottom of this page.

I brought my Sony HVR-Z1U with my Letus35 Extreme film lens adapter, a Lowel DP light kit, my homemade jib, my homemade dolly, a Vinten tripod, a bunch of film lenses and my bag of support gear.

I was sent a still image of the Bose products in a well lit white environment. I was asked to recreate this lighting so that these product shots would match the older Bose commercials. I could do this, but with my manual 35mm camera lenses and the Letus, I could do better.

I shot in the office of the production company. They did not have a studio available. This presented a big problem. Windows...and lots of them looking out to the street. Before I got there, the production house had build a seamless white set next to the windows using a three foot wide roll of white paper. This white set was picking up spill from every direction. I had to have a pool of white only where the Bose products would sit and a darker area of fall off in the background. This was impossible with the windows.

So instead of hanging black drape from the tall glass windows, we decided to put all the black material and flags together to create a fleece hut where no light could get in. This enclosed the entire white set and allowed me to light the Bose products and get the falloff requested by the client.

I used a Nikon 50mm f1.4 lens. Old, but very nice.

As you can see, they set up the area with lights that I did not use. All I went with was one Lowel DP 1k with a Chimera soft box and honey comb insert. I placed this light off to the right and put it on a dimmer. I had it set at about 70 percent running the lens wide open at f1.4.

I did use dolly track and my homemade jib, but I found that the jib was not very effective using the prime lenses. Running a jib with a camera zoomed would not look good. Using a fixed 50mm lens was not wide enough to get smooth and acceptable moves. I opted to just use the Vinten pan head most of the time. A few of the shots were jib drop downs and others included a slow dolly left with a slow pan right.

The depth of field that I got using the Letus35 Extreme helped to make the shoot very successful. Having a nice Nikon fast prime lenses was also important. I did not have any vignetting trouble even with the lenses irus full open. The lens was sharp, even under the most scrupulous eye.

Things went well and the Bose representative on the scene was very happy. The client was able to use Firewire and dump the footage right into their Final Cut Pro system and edit the video on the spot. The Bose guy liked it. The commercial will now be uploaded to an FTP server for final approval from Bose.

The video above is not the actual footage used in the commercial, just a sample representation. This footage was shot on a separate tape and not intended for broadcast.

Left For Dead Short Film Behind The Scenes

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:08:47 -0400

I had this crazy idea. But I had to make sure that the disgusting ruined building was still there. It was late and with no moon, very dark.

Last night, after shooting a High School basketball tournament in Rhode Island I drove my car to an area of Franklin, Massachusetts that is unlike all other areas of Franklin. I went to the old warehouse off Fisher Street and as I pulled up to it, the dark windows were like deep black eyes. I threw it into reverse and got the hell out of there. At least, the next day, the shoot day, was suppose to be sunny. I found the place by accident a few years ago while cross country mountain biking around the town center. I followed some high tension electrical lines to an old rail road bed. I followed the bent and rusted rails to a remote wooded area and there it was. A nasty byproduct of human progress and desertion.

An old, beaten down warehouse. There was a big tree growing right through the middle of it! It had mossy loading docks, old rusted chemical and fuel tanks, and a rotten trailer with a bathtub full of rusty nails. This place was cool. This place was a real world example of what happens to an industrial structure made of iron, concrete, brick and wood after 25 years of neglect. 25 years free of human maintenance. Mother nature was trying to reclaim this as her own. But it was not just nature destroying this structure. Human vandals had taken a toll as well.

I was all alone.

I had a knife. But would that
have made a difference?

I could have been killed.

I parked my black Jeep behind the building so that no one could see it from the tracks. I began to pull my gear from the car around 10 am this morning. It was about 32 degrees F and I was excited to lay some dolly track.

Actually, it was not dolly track at all, it was 1 1/4 inch pvc pipe that I had bought at the Home Depot. I had four ten foot spans and used a smaller diameter (1 inch) pipe as an inline seamless joint attachment. By doing this, I could use the entire 20 feet of pipe if I wanted to. The platform was custom made by me and is a very simple design. A piece of plywood, some bendable metal, and v-channel. I added a scrap of rug to “nice it up”. All of this material can be bought at a hardware store. The dolly has sixteen hard skateboard wheels attached to the metal v-channel with bolts through the wheel axles. This worked great. I used shims and bricks to level the track and even purposely ran it uphill so that the dolly would work with me in the shot! Special production thanks to gravity.

My camera was fitted with the Letus35 Extreme. This little wonder is a work of art. I am still not sure what is going on inside the thing to make it work. All I know is that when I attached at $30 28 mm f2.4 old Nikon mount SLR lens to the front, I was amazed at the shallow depth of field. Even in low light with no vignetting!

The secret is to use the camera’s focus to set the “back focus” and then use the SLR lens to set the depth of field and focus near or far. I keep the SLR lens aperture (or iris) wide open. I use the camera’s zoom to push past all the Letus innards and frame up the shot. My camera zoom was set to about 70 percent. I could still use the camera zoom to push through more of the SLR lens if I wanted a tighter shot. The depth of field was unaffected! All vignetting was done with Magic Bullet Looks in post.

 

This place was huge. Aside from the smell of rotten flesh and the threat of falling bricks, I felt like I was in a Hollywood sound stage.

I had to bring my own electricity. This place has been off the grid for years. My Honda EU1000i whisper quiet 1000 watt generator was perfect for this production.

I ran one 500 watt Lowel DP light and positioned it around the warehouse as needed to light dark areas. Other than that, all the light you see was natural. Only two of the shots in this film were lit. The first was the water reflection room and the second was the rusty old iron support.

I did bring a fog machine, but I plugged it into a just-started genny and it shut it down with a grind and a sputter. I should have let the motor warm up for a few minutes before putting it under heavy load. I did not realize that the fog machine was 700 watts! I am pretty sure I burnt out the fogger, so I will have to get another at about 50 bucks. i just wish I was able to add some atmosphere to the place. There were many areas where sunlight was breaking though rust holes in the roof or blasting in from broken skylights. I would have liked to shoot with shallow depth of field including these foggy rays of sunlight. Next time.

Everything is done. I finished the entire project in just one day. Pre-production, production and post production all completed in about six hours. I set a deadline for myself and got her done. I did not include the render or export time for the files. I escaped a potentially hazardous situation shooting a film alone in a place where that psychotic someone would love to kill another human being.

I hope you enjoy the film. I do not plan to be in the next one. I had to be in this first attempt. I will be doing many more with help from my friends.

Oh yeah, what was I running from?
Answer: A drunken box car hobo who dropped his viddles and chased me through the warehouse, I pulled my knife but the raging rail runner shot me with an old German pistol.

Want to watch the film again? Click Here.

Sit Down Interview Lighting Technique at UNH

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 20:48:05 -0500

Today, I shot a series of interviews with my Sony Z1U HDV camera at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. My Waltham based client asked for the project to be shot in standard definition. I set the camera to DVCAM and used the grayed out area on the sides of my viewfinder for 4:3 reference. These interviews will be used for a documentary that will chronicle the 25 years of Hockey East. Hockey East is a premiere hockey league in College Hockey that has been the training and proving ground for many professional hockey players over the years.

But this blog is about lighting.

I own a four fixture Lowel DP light kit and I have an extensive assortment of gels, diffusion, silks, reflectors, french flags, black wrap and other lighting support. I have six large pieces of black fleece material that I use as a background and to block out unwanted light from fixtures and windows. I made my own dimmer packs from electrical gear that I got from the Home Depot. I built one 1k and two 500 watt rated dimmers.

Look at the picture above. Note the deep blacks and areas engulfed in shadow. Each light has a purpose. My biggest concern when I light is Control. Spill is a mistake, especially in my dramatic sports doco lighting where “pools of light” are vital. If light spillage occurs, areas that I want super black, turn gray and washed out. This high contrast lighting results in very desirable results.

This was what the background looked like. The more controlled the soft key lighting, the fewer imperfections in the background stand out. The dark areas remain dark and the letters on the jersey fall off due to the textured light hitting them. As for the background, I create a black hole in the center between the blue and the jersey where I will place the head of the person being interviewed. The UNH jersey was in the look-space and the blue was subtle over his right shoulder.

Speaking of texture, a great way to break up light is to punch holes in a flexible metal material called black wrap. By doing this, the light projected on the letters “UNH” have a rough and broken up quality to them. Note the clothespins holding everything together, very important to an LD.

My set up is simple. One Chimera soft box key powered by a 1k Lowel DP. I insert a 45 degree honeycomb to help control spill and keep the soft light only on my subject. It is important to keep the top flap open to dissipate heat from the 1,000 watt lamp. I used back foam-core poster board and a spare light stand to create a french flag. This light blocking device keeps almost every foot candle of light off the background and only focuses it on the person being interviewed. A flex fill reflector bounced some of this light back to the subject’s right side to help fill.

Other than the key light, the other three lights used were only 500 watts each. If I used all 1k’s, I probably would have blown a circuit and heated the room up to 100 degrees! That much light is just not necessary in this application. The back light and jersey light were on dimmers at about 50 percent each and the blue effect light was plugged directly into the wall. I placed some thick tin-foil like back wrap on the effect light to keep blue spill off the jersey. See the picture above. Note the french flag partially blocking the key light in the background by the chairs.

The resulting shot was what you see above. The blue was much deeper over the subjects right shoulder than this picture is showing. Look at the UNH jersey and note how the black wrap “cookie” cut out has added texture to the letters. Look at the subjects shoulders and hair and you will see the result of the dimmed backlight, a nice warm glow. Finally, look at his face and the amount of fall off on his right side. The reflector took a little of the edge off, but the intentional darkness on the face added some drama and gave him a three dimensional look.

Ten other things that were important to this successful sit down interview:

Room din
Sound of an air handler or a loud locker room next door can destroy a good interview. It was important for the producer to pick a room and a time that worked out for audio. Monitor the interview with a nice pair of studio headphones. Don’t go wireless with your lav microphone. Just use an XLR and play it safe.

A large room to shoot in
I always ask for the biggest room possible to shoot in so that I can use the end of my lens and open the iris as much as possible. Why? Depth of field. By using the end of the lens, the depth of field is very shallow. This resulted in the subject in focus and the background out of focus. This was difficult to achieve with this small camera. Full sized cameras with real lenses are easier to mess with depth of field. Putting in a little neutral density is sometimes an option, as long as you have enough light.

The Magliner cart
I have a lot of tv gear and I needed a way to get it from my car to the interview site. One of my most valuable pieces of equipment is the rolling cart. The Magliner brand cart was sturdy and large enough to carry the light kit, camera, tripod and support gear. I even used the cart on the background of the set. The jersey was hung from the cart in the background. All I did was stand up the cart, cover it with black material and place the jersey with no hanger on the handle of the Magliner.

Electricity
I hate using long extension cords. I like a lot of outlets and I always hope the room is not on just one 15 amp circuit. A good way to check this is to put one light on an outlet in the front of the room and one light on an outlet in the back of the room. Turn both lights on and then turn one off and on. If the other light dims slightly during this power cycle, you know they are on the same circuit. You can put about 1500 watts on a 15 amp and 2000 watts on a 20 amp circuit before it will blow.

No windows
A room without windows was easy to shoot in shadows. I like natural window light for some applications, but in this application I wanted to shoot in a cave. It was also a bonus that the light switch on the wall shut down all the lights in the room. That is not always the case. And I hate those brightly lit red exit signs too.

Drop ceiling
I can hang almost anything from the main run in a tiled drop ceiling. In fact for this interview, I clipped a special Lowel scissor mount to a main run in the drop ceiling to hang my backlight. I even used a piece of rope as a safety chain incase the light came loose and gravity pulled it toward the head of my producer.

Spare lamps
They are called lamps, not bulbs. I had spare 1k’s and spare 500 watters just in case. If you change a lamp, don’t tough the glass with your fingers, it will shorten the life of it. And buy extra clothespins, they are almost as valuable as space lamps.

No batteries
If you can shoot sit downs on a/c power, do it. The last thing you want to do is change a battery during an interview. Keep your tape stock close, that is the only thing that should be changed.

Test out that tripod
I made sure my tripod head was ready to slowly tilt and pan if I needed it to without any surprises. If the guy we interviewed bobbed or weaved, I was ready.

Light meter
I used a very basic light meter to help balance the amount of light on my subject. By using this inexpensive tool, I was able to evenly light the face, set the backlight properly and make sure my background was the proper intensity. The human eye is naturally drawn to the brightest part of the picture and I wanted to make sure the “UNH” lettering was under exposed. It was also important to make the subject feel comfortable. Too much light would have caused the person being interviewed to sweat and squint his or her eyes. My light levels were as follows:
Subject: 60 foot candles
Backlight: 20 foot candles
Background lights: 20 foot candles

Silence!
Oh yeah, and turn off that damn cell phone.

Snowmobiling in New Hampshire

Sun, 2 Mar 2008 22:06:21 -0500

I built this website to talk about television, my work, cool equipment and what I have learned over the years. I did not want my Blog to be like so many others. People who ramble on and on about politics or their favorite pet cat. But sometimes I will make an exception. This is one of those times.

I enjoy the outdoors and I respect the environment. However, sometimes my enjoyment of the outdoors has a negative impact on the environment.

I use to own a 1999 Polaris 600 XC SP red snowmobile. I sold it in 2003 after putting only about 500 miles on it. I would trailer it to NH only about three times a winter. All that has changed with my Wentworth, NH land purchase and the building of “Camp Wentworth” in 2007. I recently bought a used sled from my New Hampshire neighbor Bruce. It is similar to my Polaris in size and color but it is a Yamaha.

Today, my neighbor Bruce and three of his friends, Todd, Tim and Phil hit the trails in the Baker River Valley. We made it as far as Franconia Notch and travelled almost 100 miles in 7 hours. The conditions were EPIC. Best some of these people have seen around here for decades. I would guess that there is about 3-4 feet of snow on the ground in the woods and the groomers have packed it down nicely on the trail system.

As for the environment, snowmobiling is loud and dirty. The 2 stroke engines only burn about 70 percent of the gas, the rest goes right out the exhaust pipe. Blue exhaust smoke fills the trails and burns the eyes. As far as treading lightly, the sleds do limited physical damage to the trails. Off road 4x4 ATVs in the summer time dig deep ruts and rip out water bars aiding erosion. I don’t own one of those...yet.

Check out these videos below shot with my Kodak Easy Share v705 point and shoot camera. This is the same camera I used to capture my pictures in the photo gallery section of this site.

It is not easy to run a sled with one hand and shoot video with the other. Perhaps next time I will mount the camera on my helmet or something. If I do that, I can justify talking about snowmobiling in a blog designed around television.

Bruins In Standard Definition - The good old days

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:04:36 -0500

I am searching for all of my old video from the past and came across a shot from a Bruins game in early 2000. I was operating the handheld camera behind the glass ice level on the left. Camera number 3.

The camera in operation at the time was the Sony BVP-70IS. It was a beast and if you read any of my other blogs on the Bruins, you would know that due to seniority issues, I always got stuck with the inferior lens. The picture above is similar to the camera head we use to use when shooting standard definition for NESN. I never took a picture of the actual camera. The camera is dockable which means it can be installed with a Betacam deck, a power supply back, or like what we had, a triax back. The picture above shows a 70IS camera head with a 26 pin multicore back. The triax back is bulkier and sticks off the back farther. The camera I used looked like Franken-Cam and was very heavy.

The video below is my all time favorite goal. I love the back hand and the puck follow to twine. The way the hero slides into frame at the end is the best part. #27 Glen Murray with a wicked backhand beats the defender...

Here is some technical info on the BVP-70IS camera from the Sony website.

Incorporating Hyper HAD sensor, the BVP-70IS/70ISP boasts the incredibly high sensitivity of F8.0. The Frame-Interline-Transfer method used in combination with the structure of this new CCD sensor virtually eliminates the smear phenomenon which is inherent in conventional CCD cameras. This makes the BVP-70IS/70ISP ideal for picture acquisition even under low light conditions as well as being able to deal with situations where high contrast handling is necessary.

Picture quality of the BVP-70IS/70ISP is remarkable. The camera features a very high horizontal luminance resolution of 700 TV lines, an exceptional signal-to-noise ratio of 62dB (NTSC)/6OdB (PAL) and superior color reproduction. An electronic shutter has been included to maximize the BVP-70IS/70ISP's superb picture quality.

Maximum system versatility is yet another benefit that the BVP-70IS/701SP provides. It can be used stand-alone, assembled as a Betacam SP Combo or interfaced with multicore or triax CCU's.

The BVP-70IS/70ISP, providing the highest possible picture quality available, presents the ultimate in current camera performance for advanced ENG operations, high quality EFP and even for studio operations.

This will be a collectors item very soon. They sell on eBay for under two grand!

More High Speed Bruins Footage at 90 FPS

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:23:37 -0500

I shot again tonight with the Sony HDC-3300 HD Super Motion camera and thought that I would share more footage with you. The Bruins beat up the Penguins 5 to 1 and there was plenty of high speed action to capture at 90 frames per second. I got a great slap shot from the point as the puck traveled right toward my lens and hit just inside the pipe. Also, I nailed another backside and followed the puck through a screen and just over the keeper’s out stretched glove.

This camera system was released just about two years ago and it was the first system to do true HD at 90 FPS. It was not made available until early spring of 2007. The retail price of the camera system is $270,000.00. Yes, the camera is almost 300 grand, not including the lens. More info on pricing and features click here.

Here is some technical info on the HDC-3300 camera from the Sony website.

HD Super Slow Motion Camera: The HDC-3300 camera can capture full-resolution 1920 x 1080 HD images at three times the normal frame rate of 1080/180i (59.94i) and 1080/150i (50i) and 1280 x 720 HD images at three times the normal frame rate of 720/180p (59.94p) and 720/150p (50p). The slow-motion image this camera captures is extremely high quality and enhanced by Sony's state-of-the-art techniques to minimize the flicker that can be an issue for slow-motion images.
 The HDC-3300 camera allows captured data to be transferred as high-quality wideband signals to its companion HDCU-3300 camera control unit at a high data rate of 10 Gigabytes per second. This is achieved only through an SMPTE standard optical fiber cable, giving users a practical, yet outstanding high-quality transmission system. The HDCU-3300 camera control unit allows these signals to be recorded onto a compatible third-party server via three HD-SDI outputs.
 In addition to its high-quality, slow-motion images, the HDC-3300 camera also provides high-quality, normal-speed images - thanks to a signal-processing LSI that's dedicated to processing images in this way. The HDCU-3300 Camera Control Unit can output normal-speed images for live transmission simultaneously with Super Motion images allowing users to employ the HDC-3300 for both slow-motion and standard shooting purposes for increased versatility.
 The HDC-3300 and HDCU-3300 camera system is compatible with other Sony broadcast camera peripherals including the RCP-700 series remote controllers, CNU-700 network command units, MSU-900/950 master setup units and HDLA buildup kits.

More camera information available from Sony Broadcast. You can reach their website by clicking here.

Bruins Hockey shot at 90 frames a second

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:43:47 -0500

I work as a freelancer and one of my biggest clients is the New England Sports Network or NESN for short. NESN carries the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Bruins.

I have worked at the TD Bank North Garden in Boston covering the Bruins for almost 9 years. In that time I have seen a lot of technology move through the building (and building name changes). One of the biggest changes was the shift to brand new equipment because of HDTV.

Years ago, I use to shoot with Sony BVP-90 SD cameras with horrible beat up canon lenses. The truck finally got a nice and fast zoom sporty canon IF 21x lens, but of course, being at the bottom of the seniority list, I got stuck with the sluggish and sticky old Canon 18x.

All that has changed. Over the past 5 or so years, our TV vender, National Mobile Television, has invested in high quality HDTV gear. The cameras I work with are state-of-the-art and, in my opinion, works of art. The handhelds are the best I have ever used in my career, the Sony HDC-930 with Canon IF HDex 21x lenses. These lenses are snappy zoom fast with a digital drive motor and they are very sharp. The viewfinders are true 1080i black and white crts with excellent detail and contrast.

The cameras are powered and send and receive HD signals with data over SMPTE fiber. With all the faults of using glass fibers to transmit sports television, I have a great amount of respect for the quality of the picture and the return video back to my viewfinder. I would choose fiber over copper triax any day of the week as a camera operator.

During the Red Sox season last year, NESN acquired one of the few true 1080i HD “Super Mo” high speed cameras for use of the broadcast. This camera is a Sony HDC-3300 and carries a serial number of number 4. The fourth camera to be produced in this product line. The camera was used as the tight center camera angle to show off pitch rotation at 90 frames per second. The video was excellent and other than a little noise in the blacks, the camera was a welcomed addition. The live pictures from the HD super mo camera could be cut in and mixed with the other HD cameras because it matched so well. You could not tell that the tight images of the batter were being created from a camera running at 90 FPS.

I now have that camera head on my shoulder behind the glass at the Garden to shoot high speed of the Bruins from a low vantage point. I could not be happier. The game of hockey is so fast, and when I follow a puck from tape to twine, I can’t wait to see it at 90 FPS in HD Super Mo.

Take a look at the video example below from tonight’s game.

The second replay in the sequence was shot by me from the “backside”. This means I am almost at the end of my zoom range shooting the other end of the ice. Preforming a proper puck follow from start to finish shooting backside is very difficult. I shoot aggressively when running handheld for hockey. The high speed camera really preforms well when you stick the puck in the center of the frame during its flight. Tight, but not too tight. Keeping players in the shot is important most of the time. The puck flight at 90 FPS shows any deflection or redirection and can be the definitive look for the announcers to call a play.

So why do I run the camera with the lens hood off? Most hockey handheld camera guys do. The simple reason is that if you run the camera aggressively with the rubber hood on, when you whip pan to follow the action, the rubber hits the glass and ruins the shot. Shooting without the hood is much more reckless because it open the lens to potential damage. I am very careful and always aware of where my lens is at all times, especially during transport. Lens flare really does not seem to be a problem without the hood on.

My favorite part of my job...working with Rob Simpson, aka “Simmer”. Rob is a talented reporter, sports play-by-play announcer and television show host. And he is funny as hell behind the scenes. Since his arrival over two years ago to NESN, I have really enjoyed myself and I respect him for his professionalism and his great sense of humor. Yes, you can have both. I take full credit for his hire since I shot his evaluation tape a few years ago. I forgot to white balance on all the other applicants videotapes. Just kidding Rob. Put me in your blog now please.

Sony Press release:

SONY UNVEILS HIGH-DEFINITION 3X SPEED SUPER SLOW MOTION CAMERA SYSTEM

PARK RIDGE, N.J., Feb. 20, 2006 - Expanding its range of multi-format high-definition technology for high-end studio and sports broadcasting, Sony is introducing a new 3x HD super slow motion camera system.

The new HDC-3300 system achieves 3x speed slow motion effects in full HD resolution, a significant benefit for sports broadcasts and other high-end content creation applications.

"The growth of HD sports broadcasting has placed more demands on all the tools available to sports producers doing SD broadcasts," said Rob Willox, director of content creation marketing for Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Production Systems Division. "The ability to do 3x super motion fulfills the need for quality motion analysis and adds immensely to the HD viewing experience."

Designed for use by OB vans and production or rental houses, the new system can also output normal speed signals simultaneously for live feeds through separate digital signal processing.

The new camera includes three 2/3-inch High Speed Progressive CCDs and enables recording at 1920 x 1080/180i or 150i as well as 1280 x 720/180p or 150p.

The new system also features several other in-camera functions, including flicker reduction, shading correction, white balance and auto iris detection. The system achieves reduced power consumption of the camera head by keeping the main signals on the camera control unit side (model HDCU-3300) and enabling 10 Gbps digital transmission from the camera head to the CCU.

The camera can be used with standard SMPTE fiber cable at runs exceeding 2,000 meters, depending on system configuration.

The HDC-3300 camera system is planned to be available at a suggested list price of $270,000.

I put the YES in Orono

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:26:12 -0500

I just got back from the Boston area freelancer’s most dreaded travel destination: Orono, Maine.

And not because Orono is a horrible place. I like it there. Well, except for the harsh weather and frigid temperatures. The food is good and I get to stay at a Ramada with free WiFI. So why do I avoid it like the plague? Because of the drive, of course.

Driving to Orono is like driving to Canada. In fact, for me, it is about the same distance. Or if you are a fisherman, driving to Orono is like motoring to the Flemish Cap deep in the Atlantic. George’s Banks is just not good enough. Might as well steam to Portugal, or drive to Orono. The Orono trip takes me 4 hours and 30 minutes during optimal driving conditions. The conditions are almost never optimal, especially during the winter.

So why go there? In short, good college hockey and nice people. Plus, I work all the time to try to meet a goal I set for myself: Retire at 35.

The client was ESPNU and the truck vender was Cox Communications. Inside, I worked a hard camera known as a “Slash”. In my case, a right slash, camera number 4. The purpose of this position is simple, stay wide and when the play is whistled dead, get tight shots of players on the ice or bench. Whatever the announcers are talking about. And on a penalty, snap zoom to the Ref.

My camera was an old Ikegami 387 SD beast with a 66x zoom lens. In film terms, it zooms like 9.5-650mm. Quite the telescope, but very tired and beat up. The extender was broken. I got to use my favorite pan head, the Vinten Vector 70 and I had a servo zoom.

I was situated in the student section with the band. Very loud and the bleachers shake. Hard to use the entire lens, especially one without an image stabilizer.

The game want well, U Maine beat U Mass 5-4 in overtime. Yea, overtime in Orono is usually the case. Strike was uneventful, the weather was nice and the temps hovered just above freezing. This meant the copper in the power cables were soft enough to form coils, unlike the last time I was there.

Total miles logged was just under 600. I am ready for some sleep now. Driving the 50 miles into Boston tomorrow will be a breeze.

Following the ball at Fenway Park

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:23:54 -0500

I know it is the middle of February, but I am already thinking about the summertime and Red Sox Baseball.

I have mentioned on this site that I work as a freelancer for New England Sports Network (NESN) in Boston, Mass. NESN covers the Boston Red Sox and I have been operating Camera 7 on the left field roof for about 8 years. During this time, I have followed countless baseballs over the famous Green Monster and right field bleachers. I can remember when the Monster Seats were not there, and a guy had to climb the ladder on the wall to get the baseballs out of the netting at the top. I also saw many windshields get cracked in the parking lots that line Lansdown Street.

Many have asked me how I do it. How do you zoom so tight and keep the little white rat in the frame? Well, since I now have a Blog, I will tell you everything that I know.

It comes down to four major factors, in this order of importance:
The pan head.
Setting the camera low on the sticks so you can see over it.
A servo zoom demand handle.
Setting the pan handles in the T-Rex mode.

Lets first start with the pan head. This is the most important part of being a “good cameraman”. The camera sits on this device and this fluid head is responsible for the smooth pans and tilts. The most valuable part of a good pan head is one that allows a camera operator to start and stop with no surprises during the pan/tilt movement. In other words, if there is a dead spot in the pan/tilt head, you have no control, as a camera operator, and really have no idea if the camera will bob or weave or stick or slip. Having the perfect balance and being able to adjust it without a special tool is also key. Best pan head ever made for a Sony HDC-910 HDTV Hard camera: the Vinten Vector 70 or 700. Vinten made a fatal error when they released the Vector 900. They made it narrower and lighter. TV truck companies are slowly pulling this pan head from their fleets. I hope my angry letter I sent to Vinten in the UK (summer 2006) regarding this new model helps to discontinue this horrible revision on a great thing.

The second secret to the Fenway Home Run Ball Follow is how you set up the physical camera. I like the low-rider method so that I can be like an alligator in the water with my eyes just over the viewfinder hood (thanks to Rick MacLeod for this alligator analogy). By setting the camera low, you can live outside the viewfinder. I have a skill to be able to watch the batter with my own two eyes, pick up the ball and then look at my viewfinder to finish the shot. Wearing polarized Oakley sunglasses helps to remove the glare during day games from the glass CRT viewfinder and also helps me to pick the ball out of the bright sky.

The servo zoom handle. An old school guy I work with, Joe, likes to use the mechanical zoom spinning “crank”, as they call it. This contraption spins like a pin-wheel and forces the inner glass elements of the lens in and out. This physical force drives the zoom mechanically. The faster you spin the crank, the faster the zoom. Spin it one way, zoom in. Spin it the other, zoom out. I don’t know how Joe does his job with the thing. The key is the solid grip I can get with a servo and access to my returns for watching program in my viewfinder. A crank is hard to crank and pan and tilt with. You have to spin the thing to zoom in and out while you apply pressure on the device as you pan or tilt. Not easy to be precise, the camera and lens together is the size of a hot water heater. The zoom demand, however, is only operated by the thumb, the rest of the hand is wrapped around the handle for full control. I love the silky smooth zoom and instant user feedback I get from a servo. My brain tells the thumb how hard and for how long to slide the servo rocker switch from side to side. The only thing that I can think of where a crank is better would be in heavy rain. The crank has no electronic parts, a servo demand does and can be crippled by moisture. Joe would argue that the user feedback of the mechanical crank and muscle memory for a certain number of quarter to half turns of the crank makes it more precise when covering sports. But try to do a slow creapy zoom, the crank jutteres and pops during the slow push/or pull. User preference, I guess.

Finally, my last secret to operating a Hard Camera at Fenway is the way I set up the pan arms. These arms screw directly into the pan head and provide a means for applying human force to make the camera move. The arm on the left has the focus control and the arm on the right, has the zoom servo demand. I learned from Bob Tomaselli, the fine art of running a camera like a T-Rex. Much like the dinosaur, Sully, as he is called, puts his right zoom arm high and his left focus handle almost straight up. This forces a camera operator close to the camera giving them optimal control and mimics the short bent arms of the T-Rex. The camera almost becomes a part of your body and you can even press your head into the viewfinder hood to give you three-point control. Sully has been around for a long time and everyday I work with him, his left focus arm seems to point more vertically toward the sky. Perhaps someday, they will develop a pump to help the blood in his left arm get up to his fingers. I also run my hard camera like this, and it helps to have the handles high when I point the lens to the sky to follow a towering fly ball. The pan handle bar ends almost touch the ground!

That is pretty much it. Other than a few things like making a sun shade for my viewfinder with an old french fry cardboard box or adjusting the viewfinder peaking, contrast and brightness, those four paragraphs above sum it all up. I wish truck venders would stick to real hard camera one piece bodies and stay away from sleds and build ups, but know the latter provides more handheld camera heads for different productions. True hard cameras are easy to balance and the setup is much easier than piecing together handheld cameras in bulky sleds.

Well there you go, I have revealed my secrets to the fabled Fenway ball follow from the left field roof camera.

As of 2008, my camera position has changed drastically. The left field tar paper roof is no more. I will be part of the Coke-a-Cola Corner and positioned in a handicapped section. Life for me at Fenway will never be the same. I hope for the best, but fear the worst. I had a good run. Mike Narracci and Russ Kenn are the best Director and Producer team I have ever worked with.

I waited my whole career for what you are about to see in the video below. I never thought it would happen, but in 2007 it did.

R.I.P. camera 7 platform. 1974-2007. Many talented camera operators over the years graced your presence. The old green rusted iron platform was probably dumped off a barge to sink to the bottom of the Atlantic. Right now barnacles are probably forming where I use to grab hold during heavy winds. At the end of last season, I brought a hack saw in and cut a small piece of the green painted iron to save and someday show the kids.

A rare day off...

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:22:31 -0500

I have today off.

I don’t say that very often. I do enjoy working for the most part, but I really value some time for myself.

One of my favorite places to go is Ashland State Park. I hike, bike, skate, kayak, fish and walk my dog there. This place is like a little piece of New Hampshire stuck in the middle of Massachusetts. My first two entries in my photo album are shots taken at the park.

Today I took my dog for a walk in Milford, then drove to Ashland to check out the ice at Ashland Reservoir. The sound of ice cracking and the sun dropping in the cold sky was very relaxing. Trail was very icy.

I took a few pictures and added them to my digital photo page. You can see them here: http://www.tomguilmette.com/Site/Digital_Photos/Pages/Cold_Sunset.html

My dog broke through the ice and got all muddy. He stinks now and will need a bath. He enjoyed himself, perhaps more than I.

My first Blog entry, Ever!

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:20:11 -0500

February 17, 2008. The day I publish my website using iWeb and my new iMac apple computer. This day also marks my first ever web log, or as the interweb masses call it, a Blog.

I though my first posting would include a video. This shot is the result of seven years on the left field roof at Fenway Park. Don’t push play quite yet.

I am a cameraman and I work for the New England Sports Network, NESN for short. I have shot countless Red Sox games, but here is the problem...I am not a baseball fan. Actually, ironically, as I am a sports cameraman, I really do not have any feelings towards the sports I shoot. I think I am one of the few sports cameramen who do not like what they shoot for a living.

So what keeps me going? Television. Specifically, High Definition Television. And a baseball flying towards my 75x 900mm $90,000.00 HD camera lens at Fenway Park. Manny Ramirez never got the chance to apologize. You can play the video now.

The transition to HDTV from SD is like the transition from black and white television to color TV. I was not alive to see that, but I would guess that my feelings toward HD would have been similar to the days when we finally saw color images.

I look forward to posting some of my daily experiences on this Blog. If you work outside television, this page is a waste of time. If you work in this field, you just might find some of my posting useful.