Pre-production on a video outside the country. What's required?

Ben and I started out the year with a number of video projects. They've been well received. Unfortunately, I can't post them here as some are for an international company's in-house use while our longer, narrative project is still wending its way through approvals and final tweaks. A nice result of our success with the first flurry of work this year is that I've been booked to do the same sort of videography in early February, in Canada. While I have flown into, and worked, in many different countries over the years I have never traveled to Canada on business. So I started doing my basic research.

Various people have told me that I'll need a work visa or some other documentation to work there. According to the Canadian Customs website one does not need a temporary work visa for film or advertising projects that last fewer than 7 days. This is nice but I will proceed with my usual travel strategy of getting a letter, on company letterhead, from the U.S. company that is hiring me and will be paying me, outlining the project and the assertion that my unique skills are necessary for the project.

The second speed bump that many savvy travelers mention is that one can experience difficulties not with taking cool cameras and video gear into Canada but, rather, in the process of bringing the gear back through U.S. Customs. Since the U.S. dollar is strong, right now, against the Canadian dollar the U.S. customs people are making sure people are not bringing in camera gear purchased in Canada without paying taxes/tariffs.

The solution is very simple. One needs only to take their gear to a local U.S. Customs office and request a form #4457. Fill out the form with the models and serial numbers of the gear you will be taking out of the country. An agent will inspect the gear and confirm the serial numbers, stamp your form and wish you a bon voyage. You can show this form on your way back into the country as proof that the gear in question is already owned by you and not subject to taxes.

It's always a luxury to produce photography and video in your own town, or within 100 miles of home, because you can bring along anything you can jam into the car, or strap to the roof. When Ben and I worked on our previous projects we had a full complement of lights, along with plentiful light stands and modifiers, a Tenba case full of microphones of various types, two big tripods, sound absorbing blankets and much more crammed into the studio CRV. We also carried along multiple camera types in case we had the urge to shoot something in a different format or a different way.

Sadly, when doing streamlined travel, I'm forced to narrow down the gear list to the basics; the essentials. Otherwise I'll never make it from the front door of the airport to the car rental shuttles....

I've already selected my three cameras and my lenses but winnowing down the lights and microphones will take more discipline that I have today.

We had great success with three different cameras on the last video/photo shoot. I loved the RX10iii for a second angle camera, and for lots and lots of tele-compressed b-roll stuff. Ben wielded that camera with great alacrity. I found the a6300 to be a perfect "A" camera for me = when used with an outboard monitor to give me a headphone output. Our A7Rii was the perfect still camera and would be the perfect back-up in video for the a6300 (sounds counter intuitive but both cameras are at their best when shooting in 4K and the A7Rii makes the nicest files when used in the APS-C mode and 4K. This puts both cameras on very even footing, for video.

I'll tote along four lenses: The dynamic duo of the 24-70mm f4.0 and the 70-200mm f4.0 G lens. These two are perfect for the stills I'll need to take and can be pressed into service, if needed, for video. I'll also bring the 18-105mm f4.0 PZ G lens as it will work with either camera in the APS-C mode. Finally, I'll take along a 50mm f1.8 (probably the Zeiss Contax) for those times when I want a faster aperture along with the more limited depth of field.

If I were to pare down even more I'd just grab the RX10iii and the RX10ii and stuff them in my bag. In 4K they are very close in performance to the bigger cameras. The only downside is the limited depth of field control. Still, used wide open at a longer focal length, the model two can do a convincing job of dropping backgrounds out; provided they are far enough away....

The kludgy stuff to pack and transport are heavy, bulky things like light stands, tripods and the like. I'm contemplating getting in touch with a rental facility for the stands and tripods but I'll see just how efficiently I can pack first. The primary rule of photo logistics is to make sure every case has wheels.

With good gear, a shot list and good subjects to interview we should be able to do some really fun visual/audio content. I guess I should also pack a coat and some gloves.....

It's Sunday evening here in the world of objective facts. I'm packing for a preliminary scouting and "lite" photography at the design rehearsal of, "The Great Society."

It's been an odd and disjointed weekend. I spent Friday afternoon getting to know my RX10iii more intimately. To that end I created a small, hand holdable rig with a shoulder mount, a microphone mixer/interface, a Sennheiser MK600 microphone and, of course, the camera - fitted with a variable neutral density filter. My goal was to use the political demonstrations on Congress Ave. as practice event in becoming more fluid with my handheld and spontaneous use of the RX10iii's video capabilities. 

Right off the bat I'd have to say that the bigger silhouette of the rig, et al, will take a bit of getting used to. Twenty minutes into my walking journey to downtown I was ready to jettison the shoulder rig and try my luck handheld. I'm glad I didn't because the shoulder rig proved to be a very good and very inexpensive way of holding the camera much steadier than I had been able to in my hands alone. 

I was also intent on shooting in the 4K mode all day so I could see for myself if the various active modes available for 1080p were some how equal to the improvement in quality of the more detailed files in the larger format. My observation is that, in 1080p, the active stabilization is very good but the addition of the shoulder mount, along with the regular 3 axis image stabilization that comes in the 4K setting, is pretty much equally good. 

The afternoon was bright and sunny and the shade on the shadow side of the street was "Kodak" shade. It was a great situation in which to experiment a bit more with the video profiles. I selected PP5 which is a bit flatter than most and has a "cine" (softer curve) gamma. I also went into the profile menu and turned down the sharpening for that selection. The stuff I shot in full sun was right on the money. Good clean highlights, with no burn outs, and shadows nicely open and detailed. For where I am in the colorist's learning curve right now I would not want to go for the "full Monty" of PP7 (S-Log) right now because I'm not sure I could great it back to the real world. 

One big change I've made on the RX10iii is to change the preset on the center button of the four way controller on the back of the camera. I've changed it to MF/AF toggle. I can leave the camera set in AFS-C, put a target on my subject and wait until I am certain I have good focus, and then hit the button with my right thumb which switches the system into manual focus. I know when I've gone into MF because the focus peaking indicators appear on the screen. It's a quick and convenient way to lock focus and seems to be the cousin to the "push AF" back button process beloved by DSLR shooters. 

I spent three hours walking through downtown shooting, recording, trying different focusing ideas and, occasionally, stopping to interview and interesting person. We can talk about how good various video cameras are but here are a couple takeaways from my adventure: I shot some protesters with signs under some large shade trees and I could get decent exposure on them and still preserve detail in the sky. Very cool. The 4K video is very sharp and drops into a 4K timeline effortlessly in FCP X. The files are not too large and the program can read them directly, without the need to transcode them on ingestion. Were I to edit for a client I would convert them to ProRes 4:2:2 just to squeeze the nth degree of quality out of them.

The battery in the camera lasted me for well over an hour of run time which meant: no battery change necessary during my three hours on the downtown anti-Trump parade tour. 

I know it might seem strange to people who feel compelled to archive everything they shoot but after I came home and scrubbed through the footage, examined the files at 100% (in motion) and generally digested what moves and focus strategies worked, and which did not, I pulled the card out of the card reader attached to the computer, stuck it back in the camera and reformatted it. I didn't have any use for the footage and I'd made the discoveries I was working toward. 

Tonight I'm heading over to the theatre to sit through the design rehearsal of Zach's new play. Everyone will be in costume, the lighting set and the stage fully finished. It's a chance to see the blocking and the light cues and a chance to take images from a freer range of angles. It's like reconnaissance for Tuesday's dress rehearsal with the added benefit of also being able to cover some of the images we'll need for marketing. 

Which cameras will I take? Oh, just the two RX10's. The two and the three. Another test to see just how well they do under contrasty stage lighting (again). I have some ideas based on the video profiles. We'll see how it all works out. 

I had a cold most of last week. Shook too many hands the week before. But I finally made it to swim practice yesterday in time for a burly distance set. Didn't cough to much between the 400 yard freestyle repeats but the nap on the couch in the mid-afternoon was most welcome. 

A crazy week coming up. Let's get going.

Some quick thoughts on two cameras I'm pretty sure I won't be reviewing.

Will with the original Fuji 100.

This week both Fuji and Leica introduced cameras that sound sexy and cool and interesting. But the target they were aiming at when they went into development three or four years ago has evaporated; moved on. Would I like to have one or both of these cameras, along with a group of appropriate lenses? Sure, who wouldn't? But would I pay the asking price for either of them because they represent something so new and different that I feel like I have to have them? Not a chance. 

Let's start with Leica's offering: The M10 is a continuation of the rangefinder camera style that debuted in 1954 with the M3. For about $6500 you get a basic rangefinder camera with a 24 megapixel sensor, the option to add an EVF after the fact, and battery life for 210 photographs. Your basic 50mm lens will cost you another $2200. For $8700 you can go out and shoot kinda like Henri Cartier Bresson. While the lenses are probably the best one can get you are paying an awful premium to achieve that last 1.052% of potential image quality. (I say "potential" because you'll need to make sure your rangefinder is correctly calibrated and that your basic handling skills are enough to put the camera and lens in a position to excel). It's basically a camera designed to be handheld with lenses, the real value, can only be realized with the system locked down on a tripod. 

I shot with the Leica film rangefinders for decades but they were affordable and amply available used. Leica's new idea of pricing is aimed squarely at a lux market that most working photographers are not part of. If I bought an M10 and a trio of useful lenses I would still have a hard time using this system for the work I do most of the time. The longer and faster the lens you need the less optimal the system becomes. It's a camera for people who are either without the operating constraints of clients or for photographers who do a kind of art that is specific. My hat is off to the second species for finding a paying market for doing exactly what they love. 

It's funny. I write this blog as a peek into my life as a working photographer. I don't write from the presumption that my readers are doctors, lawyers and captains of industry (although I know that some are). With this being the case it seems a bit hypocritical of me to join the parade and promote cameras like this, knowing that the vast majority of my readers, and certainly the majority or working professionals, would have no interest in buying one of these cameras. It's almost like buying into mercantile conspiracy to push a market that has no logic of its own.

I have a fantasy that, when I stop paying for college tuition and expenses, sell my Austin home at an extreme profit and finally retire, that I will buy a camera like this along with one perfect lens and spend the rest of my life traveling the world taking glorious images that no one else could match. But doesn't that play right into the worm of feeling inadequate in my own skills/vision and hoping the "magic" equipment (or locations, etc.) will make me a better artist? That way lies madness......and lots of cameras bought and sold. 

At any rate, much as I like the design of the M3, as represented for the nth time in the M10. I'll take a pass on buying or reviewing this product because I could never justify the expense or the return. What was supremely useful in the film days has lost most of its relevance in the present.

Now the Fuji GFX is a slightly more alluring enticement of a camera. Behind all the advertising and marketing is the implicit message that this camera is, de facto, medium format and brings along with it all that conveys. The idea that you'll immediately see big differences in making depth of field razor thin. The suggested promise that the "massive" sensor will provide a much richer level of color and detail and so much more. But again, how true is any of this? 

While the price of the Fuji GFX is about as good as we've seen (in terms of affordablity) for a "medium format" camera I would suggest that it's just another rangefinder style, digital camera with a slightly bigger sensor (in geometric terms) but with only scant bit more resolution and perhaps color and tonality that's already being delivered by 35mm styled cameras like the Nikon D810, the Canon 5DSR and the (amazing) Sony A7Rii. 

I think Fuji will find a fair market amongst those who don't do math well or who really believe there is something magical about a Sony sensor that's just a little bigger than other Sony sensors from the same technology generation. The dimensions of the sensor are barely larger than the 24 x 36mm size of full frame sensors and the range of current lenses is....interesing in its banality.

Perhaps Fuji is reconstituting their introduction philosophy along the lines they pursued with the X-Pro_1. Create a visually covet-worthy camera with great specs and then spend the ensuing years iterating lower and lower priced versions that get better and better (performance wise) with time. So, maybe in a year and a half we'll see the GFX-10 and it will have the same sensor, minus a few features and sell for $4995. Then we'll see the GFX-20 and it will also be a nice, step down model but with an even more attractive price.

The reality is that both of these cameras will likely be good performers and there will be a (smallish) market for them. But equally, if the only difference for the Fuji is the incremental increase in sensor size, and the only difference from Leica is the promise of simple elegance and potential good imaging, I think most people will quickly understand the skewed value propositions presented and continue buying from their current brands of choice. And I think that would be a smart move. We're moving out of an era when we were happily obsessed with our hobby and into a more complex environment for arts producers. And environment that requires constant learning and re-figuring. Getting locked into the specification paradigm of a past nostalgia can be counter-productive. Both for the mind and the wallet. 

You get a lot less wear out of an expensive tuxedo that you do from a basic business suit. 

Circling back to the Leica for a second... I just flashed on why I loved the film ones so much and never warmed up to the digital Ms. It's because the mechanical bodies promised the ability to shoot anywhere at any time without ever having to worry about being sidelined by a dead battery. It's the switch from mechanical to electronic that sucked the magic out of Leica Ms for me. Never really got that before. Funny what you think about when the world changes... It was all about the self reliance of the camera. 

210 exposures? Anxiety in the middle of an event....

Firing a bad client and then spending a quiet afternoon photographing a few interiors at Zach Theatre. The RX10iii is my all purpose camera of choice.

Being dorky and snapping a selfie in the Serra Lounge mirror.

During a typical day in the photography business I understand that I'll have to deal with Austin traffic, juggled schedules, last minute cancellations and lots and lots of problem solving. We all do that, but one thing we should not put up with is a client bent on manipulating a deal so that's it's totally in their favor and offers you little to no value. I had a potential client who booked me to shoot a future project over a month ago. At the time we agreed to a schedule and to a fee. It was a small fee. 

But nothing sucks the profit out of a job like a really bad client. Here's the first warning sign:

An interview with Vincent Hooper who is playing the role of "Stokely Carmichael" in the Zach Theatre production of, "The Great Society."

Vincent J. Hooper reflects on "The Great Society" from ZACH Theatre on Vimeo.

Vincent is an incredible stage actor and was a wonderful interview subject. I worked with Zach's P.R. person, Lauren, to ask the right questions. With good talent and a good interviewer I sometimes feel like it's enough for me just to light scenes and run the camera.

Just thought I'd share the stuff I did and referenced in this previous post: https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2017/01/using-sony-a6300-to-create-video.html

We were obviously shooting a noisy location but I thought the background noise from the sirens was pretty cool.

We also did an interview with Meredith McCall, the actor who will be playing "Lady Bird" Johnson in Zach Theatre's upcoming play, "The Great Society."

Meredith McCall reflects on "The Great Society" from ZACH Theatre on Vimeo.

I love Meredith's interview but I do hear some car noise outside. I guess it's a balancing act when it comes to either stopping a good interview and trying to wait for sounds to clear or just realizing that you are on a "live" location and taking whatever comes.

We shot the interview with two of the Aputure Light Storm 1/2 lights. One through big diffusion and the other as a background wash. The camera was a Sony a6300 set to shoot 1080p. In retrospect I wish I had shot in 4K and down sampled. I've been testing the 4K capture lately and it's so nice.

Hard to get the room sounding perfect when you are faced with metal ceilings, concrete floors and metal overhead doors.... Ah....location work.

The danger of being "over-prepared."

There is a process that some of us in the business of photography go through in order to be extensively prepared for potential jobs that may be in our futures. The process consists of doing relentless, voluminous research about best practices in the genre, followed by creating lists of the gear "candidates" that are best suited for the particular projects, followed by the acquisition of the gear, followed by obsessive practice with the gear, and then, after all this work, the gear and training meet the realities of the actual job and everything just pops like a soap bubble as we come to understand that we could deliver AMAZING but that the client just has the budget and inclination for GOOD ENOUGH. 

This is not intended to be a  screed against clients, per se, but a mea culpa of our own complicity in the hallucinatory process of preparation that's fostered by the stories and fabrications of (authentic???) practitioners of our craft on the web. 

Of course, the underlying reason for the existence of the web has changed from a being a portal for the democratic dissemination of information and opinions into a giant selling bazaar, hawking everything from porn to the latest camera. The selling requires the creation of the intertwined twins, need and want. In order for you to want a new camera you need to become convinced that your existing camera (or lens, or light, or tripod, or car....) is now not sufficient to do a process that will ultimately profit you. You read "articles" about how a new product enabled some likable and jocular imagined competitor provide clients with end product (the result of using the new product) that is demonstrably superior to the product from your woefully outmatched, current product. There has to be an implicit promise that the new product will generate more happiness for you by making you more competent and more proficient. The new product should also "lift" your stature in the eyes of your clients. If you have clients...

Here's an example: We get a call requesting that we shoot some video for a product that a person wears while walking over rough terrain. The video will be of a man walking over uneven ground and going up and down hills.  We immediately go into research mode and start looking at videos, done by others, for similar products. We see lots of video of incredibly smooth and stable tracking shots (shots where the camera is following alongside the moving subject) and we dive into researching this style of tracking shot. We see videos that show this shooting method using Steadicams, Dollies with track, hand held gimbals and more. We bore down to find the best of the best scenario. In a shoot on scrambly terrain it might be the use of a Steadicam. That leads us down into a thorny thicket of options, from relatively cheap to ones a dear as a house, and we spend the time trying to find that fictive divide between budget and production value. 

Then we talk budget with our client. "So, we're pretty sure we can get a SteadiCam operator and his assistant for about $3,000 a day and use this camera package at $650 a day because according to the operator it works best on his rig... And so we'll need a camera assistant to set up the camera and that's going to set us back $1,800 and we'll need some support crew in case we need to light and also a digital tech to pull the footage off the camera wirelessly and make sure it's all okay." 

And you look over at your client because they have a curiously blank, almost fearful expression on their face and they have obviously stopped listening to what you are saying. You realize that you allowed yourself to stumble into a marketing driven rabbit hole and you were unsuccessful in pulling your client in along with you. Then the client tells you that they used to shoot this stuff with the video on their iPhones but they kinda thought it would be nice to have something a bit better, you know, if the budget isn't too crazy.  

At this point it (should) dawn on you that what they really wanted (but didn't know how to describe) was for you to put your nice camera on a tripod with a fluid head and just do a paning shot while the talent walked though parts of a nice, hilly park. And, NO, they don't want the final footage in 4K because they aren't set up for that; and NO they don't need to have you arrange for craft service because it's just going to the the three of you and there's a nice Whataburger Restaurant about a half mile from the park. 

I've been through this a number of times. It's really more about listening to the actual needs of the client before anything else. 

But it is easy to drive ourselves nuts in our mania to be "ultimately" ready for anything. I remember a conversation I had with a very good sound engineer a while back. I was trying to get him to tell me exactly what wireless microphones I should get to do my video work with. He asked me what my primary use would be. I told him that I mostly do single person interviews in corporate locations or in the studio. He told me I'd get better sound with a nice supercardioid (shotgun) microphone. I told him "EVERYONE IS USING LAVS!!!" He thought that was a cute idea. 

I bought two sets of Sennheiser wireless microphones. About $1500 bucks worth of stuff. Then I listened to a really great video that the sound engineer had worked on. The audio was perfect. Rich and detailed but with no apparent noise at all. My wireless mics sounded flat. Like the equivalent of low dynamic range in audio. The sound I was getting was boring. 

I went back to the sound engineer and peppered him with questions. He suggested I get, and learn how to use, a decent shotgun microphone and a boom pole. I did. He was right. It sounded better to my ears but the microphone didn't sound nearly as good as his video had. He asked to see my microphone and I pulled out my shiny new Sennheiser. He asked me to show him how I used the microphone; how I placed it. How far from the talent?  

He suggested that we test it. I did it my way and then he did it his way. He got closer, he angled the microphone down a bit more towards the talent's mouth. He set his levels a bit lower. His test made the microphone sound so much better. His last shot was this: "A decent microphone, used with knowledge and skill, will sound so much better than a costly microphone in the hands of someone who doesn't know what the hell they are doing...!" And then he stared right at me until the exchange became a bit uncomfortable. 

My compulsive desire to be "ultimately" prepared for getting audio led me down the same path that we hate as photographers. It's that moment when someone looks at one of your images and asks, "What camera did you use to get that picture? It's great!"  Since most of us are "technically inclined" (gear nerds) we seem to love stuff that's wireless even when the people who make the big money in the business love stuff that's hard-wired. 

I'm not saying we shouldn't be prepared but that preparation starts with understanding the client's budget and needs and not by trying to be prepared to shoot the next Star Wars episode. There's a range. It's good to know where in the range your project falls and then to make it successful given your time and budget. If the camera is the magic bullet in the equation then I would say you are already starting behind the eight ball.

The bottom line is that the need that creates "over preparation" probably comes from some feeling of technical inadequacy. We're trying to compensate for our imagined (or real) shortcomings by buying our way through a job. In fact, in most cases, the gear is secondary to the skill set. 

Who needs really great gear? The guys who already know what they are doing and are doing at such a high level that the difference between a $5,000 tripod head and a $12,000 tripod head makes their job even better. I'm not there yet. Not by a long shot....