A Production Date with Alicia Keys

On Friday, Sarah and I filmed performing artist extraordinaire Alicia Keys for an upcoming exhibit at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab in NYC.  What a fun gig!

As her performance will be integrated with computer graphics and we needed to film her against a green screen so that the final images can be composited.

Alicia was great to work with, but our production day started 7 hours before she sang a single note. The black lacquer Yamaha piano might as well have been a mirror.  It reflected nearly every corner of the studio and we had to make sure that none of the green could be seen in any of those reflections.  In the end it looks like a simple shot.  Hah!  And that's just what it should look like.

Stepping back a moment, there were so many things that needed to be arranged for this shoot to go off as planned that it took weeks of preparation to make it all look so simple.  Sarah, in the role of senior producer was at the helm of this ship and organized everything and everyone, flawlessly.  From day one, we had the right people, asking the right questions so that everything would be in place on the day of the shoot.

Of course, it was more than just the act of filming her singing.  One of our first consideration was audio quality and to this end, Sarah decided to set the shoot up at a recording studio.  Why try to reinvent the wheel when a decent recording studio will have most everything in place for us?  For this, she set us up with Avatar Studio on 53rd Street.  A classic studio that has been host to major recording stars for years.

Her next step was contacting the Jedi Master, Grammy winning producer / audio designer Jeff Jones.

If the position of the microphone in piano is off by a couple of degrees, well, honestly I'd be talking out of my butt if tried to explain any of that stuff and with the Jedi on board, I was free to concentrate purely on the visual aspect of the production.

Sarah also contacted Kevin Hunt of Top Gear Lighting.  Kevin has worked with us on several major projects for Victoria's Secret and several other clients.  Like the Jedi, when Kevin is on the set, everything arrives on time and remains cool and calm.  He knows how to light, but much more importantly, he knows how to listen.   He's great to work with and one of the best reasons to not try to do it all by ourselves.

On a recommendation from Kevin, Sarah brought in John Chiaparti to operate the XDCAM F-800 that had been arranged for the shoot.  John is an experienced DP/camera operator and as my sole function was to be the director on this project, she wanted someone she and I could trust looking through the viewfinder.

Anders Sulisalo from IMS was in charge of the hospitality and rider and made sure that everyone was comfortable, well fed and that everything was presented beautifully.

Sarah had gathered a well crafted pool of talented, low maintenance professionals who managed to deliver excellent results without the least bit of friction.  That, is a talent in itself.

Piano tuner, special microphones, hair, makeup, clothing stylist, security, audio technicians, studio management, tele-prompter, production assistants... All of these elements needed to come together to make this a smooth production and I'm so proud of Sarah for pulling it all off without a hitch.

Tech Talk:

The F-800 is a stunning HD camera and part of the CineAlta line of Sony Digital Cinema cameras.  It recorded directly to optical disk at 1920x1080 4:2:2 50 mb and we were able to simultaneous record out of the HD/SDI port onto a Nanoflash digital recorder at 100 mb.  This gave us great quality and a backup recording at the same time.

The audio was being recorded separately with a feed returning back to the camera.  Jedi will work his magic on the mix of vocals and piano and later we'll match picture and sound with the help of a time code slate that marked the location of the audio as it was being recorded.

The last of the technical speak is about the monitors.  Sony provided us with a PVM-740 OLED monitor which has the truest reproduction I have seen in a long time.   Skin tones were accurate and it helped us create beautiful, clean lighting with an accuracy that has followed all the way through to the post production.  The monitor has a built in waveform monitor that helped us balance the lighting on the green screen and our talent.  The photo above shows us that the screen is brighter on the right and needs to be balanced properly.  What a great tool!

For our clients we rented a few Sony LMD-2450 studio monitors so that we could monitor the action from the control room.  This also aided in crowd control on the set.

All in all, Alicia was beautiful and terrific to work with.   And OMG that voice!
She recorded parts of "If I Ain't Got You", "For No One" and "Empire State of Mind" and we all got chills watching and listening to her perform.

It's one of those times that an extra take is a gift.

 www.duckyou.com
Chuck on Sony's VideOn Channel

Finding The Zone

Where did my mojo go?

Some days it's tough to get that creative flame ignited.  Winter is approaching and temperature is dropping down into the 30s again, making it that much tougher to get out of a warm bed and stand in the darkness waiting for the sun to rise.  Wind off the Hudson River is constant and biting.

It's 6:30 am and the city is enshroud in a blue-grey haze and I'm fairly certain that the sun - not interested in my desire to record its brilliance cutting through the mist - has decided to stay in bed a few minutes longer.

There is also the fact that I have not been out filming as much as I'd like.  Family and our daily production work comes first and recently, I have spent more time at the editing and photographing than filming.  Unlike falling off a bicycle, I do lose my focus if fall out of my usual routine and it takes a while before I can get back in the groove.   When I do return to it, I instantly want to jump in at the speed I was previously moving and that doesn't always happen.

Adding to the morning chill is the after taste of the camera issues I've been facing in recent weeks.  Several stunning sunrises had to be scuttled because the images appeared soft.  Not soft like Elvis singing "Love me Tender", more like "Killing Me Softly" or plain out of focus, which in HD is the death card.

Perhaps my EX3 was annoyed that I was using other the PMW-500 Sony let me borrow last month.  Certainly, it had been the top banana up until that day.

And of course, there's my day job.  After spending all day looking through the viewfinder and staring at monitors, do I really want to get away from it all and spend my personal time doing the same kinda thing?

So, what do I do when the urge to create isn't exactly feeling... urgent?   Well,  I do find that not unlike jogging, biking or any other activity, once I get out there, I'm usually pretty glad I pushed myself to do so and even though I might not have the slightest spark of inspiration, simply setting up the camera and looking through the viewfinder will give me some sort of direction.

Once, I resorted to flipping a coin to decide my shooting location.  Heads, I'm heading for the east side.

I've often read the same about writing.  You may stare at your blank page with absolutely nothing coming to mind, yet, you still have to discipline yourself to sit down and write something every day, even if the only thing you write is that you are sitting here with nothing to write.

Sometimes a new lens or tripod will inspire me to get out there to test it, but it's not a sustainable practice.  It's not only the expense of always needing the next great piece of kit,  I actually find it often gets in the way of creating decent imagery.  It's only after I get totally familiar with a piece of gear that it becomes transparent enough to enhance the picture rather than become it.  The recent over-concern for depth of field or over-use of camera sliders and follow-focus devices is pretty obvious evidence of this.

A few times, what seemed like a plain vanilla morning turned into a blazing sunrise and on one occasion the Queen Elizatbeth II glided past in the mist of the early dawn.  I was so excited that I almost forgot to press the record button.   It was certainly a day that I was glad that I didn't sleep in.

www.duckyou.com

Jones-ing for Great Sound

A Sound Investment

Over the years, I've invested thousands of dollars in newer, better cameras and lenses, each time in an effort to create the best visual product possible and it's fair to say that much of my effort has paid off.  Still, with all that effort, the best of my images will receive a poor rating if accompanied by crappy audio.

I have seen (and heard) some amazing video recordings of performing artists go right down the flusher as soon as the volume is raised to a level louder than an opening announcements.  The artist says "Ok, Now we're going to play our hit song" and as soon as the drummer's stick hits the skin... Wham!  A very cool video instantly becomes junk.

Sometimes,  it appears as of some camera manufactures intentionally designed their cameras to make as much bad audio as possible.  Cameras with built in microphones will not only pick up all the ambience and echo a room has to offer, often, it will also catch the subtle noises created by your camera's electronics or the motor focusing the lens.  The farther you are from your subject, the more noise you'll catch and if your camera has automatic gain, which means it adjusts the volume automatically, you might get large swells of white noise if nothing else is heard.  White noise is that swushing sound your TV makes when nothing but static is on the screen.

Some of these problems can be easily eliminated.  Moving closer to your subject will not only help you achieve better audio, it will probably give you less shaky video if you are hand holding your camera.  Some cameras allow the use of external microphone that can be closer to your subject and/or allow louder sound to be recorded without distortion.  If you know in advance that you are going to record in a rock club on the lower east side, call and ask the sound man what you need to bring in the way of a wire to get a feed from the audio board.  (A $20 tip will usually enhance his response).  Also, check the internal menu in your camcorder to see if there are any audio adjustments for very loud sound.

If you often shoot your footage outdoors, there are foam and furry microphone covers that will eliminate the harsh noise of wind hitting the mic.

But what about the audio situations that you don't have control over?

Has this ever happened to you?

Your client has asked you to record the CEO of a very large corporation.  A receptionist ushers you into a beautiful conference room and after you carefully set up your camera and lights, you realize that there is no way to turn off the air conditioning that is swushing through the vents on the ceiling.  No one is around so you ask your assistant to carefully step on the cherrywood meeting table and close the vent which then begins to whistle violently.  Oh dear!

This and a host of other common noise problems such as, steam radiators, aircraft, sirens, traffic, the folks in the next office and the ever so famous,"backing up UPS truck"  can absolutely kill the best take your talent has to offer.

This is where a decent audio sound designer can save your butt.  Sometimes your audio issue can be corrected with a simple adjustment to your EQ settings, available in most non linear editing systems,  but for anything more serious a good technician with the right assortment of hardware and software can take the pressure off your shoulders, by removing the noise from those air conditioning ducts.  Armed with the knowledge that you can "fix it in post" for real, will give you the confidence you need to get through some awkward situations.

Last week, Sarah and I were in just such a situation.  As part of a promotion, Sony asked us interview Francis Kenny, a DP with over 40 features to his credit.  When we visited the potential site as the setting for an interview, it seemed like the perfect location.  The room was absolutely beautiful with glass panels and copper-clad walls.  When we emptied the room for the production, the glass and metal walls created a strong ambience.  Regardless of type of microphone I tried, every sentence had a slight bit of echo, as if we were in a cavern.  But, it was too late.  Everything was in place and we had to proceed.  The sound we recorded was Ok.  We could get by with it, but that isn't be the way we work

I remained calm, but I knew that I would be calling the fixer.

"Extraordinary art takes extraordinary effort...."

Jeff Jones is an extraordinary recording engineer, sound designer, musician and producer, who, more than once, has bailed me out of an arresting audio problem.   Jeff Jones is well known in the music industry as "Jedi" and his tweaking is taken very seriously by many of today's most popular performers and recording artists.  Jones recently received a grammy for his live recording of Dr. John, "The City That Care Forgot".  He also engineered an album with Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson.  His engineering skills are intuitive and I am honored that on more than one occasion, he has help me out.

Although he likes explaining these things to me, the Jedi's techniques are not of this world and usually way over my head and I sort of like it that way.  He has successfully removed most of the common audio problems I previously listed, as well as noises that I didn't yet realize were present.  His ears are critically sensitive and his technique superb.  The coolest thing is that Jedi really loves what he does and Sarah and I love him even more for that.

I believe he will eventually recognized as an engineer on par with the likes of Rudy Van Gelder, who ears and technical sensibility is responsible some of the most important jazz recordings of our time.

Well, bottom line I sent Jedi a sample of the audio I felt needed some attention and he sent back the same audio clip free of any unwanted noise or ambience.  Once again he began to explain the ways of the force, but I knew it was way over my head.

I truly appreciate Jedi's magic and skill.  But most of all I appreciate his friendship.

The Crazy Duck Website 

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to try out a new "high-end" pro camera from Sony called the PMW-500.  There would be only one of these cameras in the United States and after listening to a brief description of the camera's capabilities, I jumped at the opportunity.

The camera is the top end of Sony's Cine Alta line of XDCAM, memory card based cameras and a big brother to my EX1 and EX3 cameras.

I'll spare you a ton of technical detail about the camera except to say that it it is a full size shoulder mount with interchangeable lenses.  It uses a 2/3 CCD imaging chip and outputs 4:2:2 50 megabit files that can be recorded on an SxS data card.  Although I consider myself a fairly decent image maker, I'm not much of an electrical engineer, but like gravity, I can't explain it, but I know it works and how to use it. 

To learn more about the technical specs of this camera you can look right here.  Sony_PMW-500  

If like me, you've used a camera like the EX3, you know that 50 megabit recording and 4:2:2 color space is important and a big leap forward in quality.   I had recently purchased a NanoFlash recording device for just that reason.  To tap the superior quality that the HD-SDI output of the camera supplies, before it is "dumb-down" within the camera's recording process.

So here was the deal:
1) I would only have a weekend with the camera.
2) I could not tell anyone any details about the camera.
3) It was a pre-production model, so there might still be a bug or two in it that needs to be worked out.
4) I would report my impressions honestly, positive or negative.
5) I could film anything that I wanted.

Of course,  I pointed it towards New York.

The camera was supplied with a beautiful zoom lens from Canon with a 2x lever that allowed me to double the focal length of the lens at any time.  The lens was sharp with excellent contrast and it gave me a brilliant range of focal length options, from very wide to extreme telephoto.

It's funny how Canon and Sony might be fierce competitors in one arena and the perfect match in another.

The first day, I filmed from pre-dawn until midnight targeting the types of issues that plague my current camera which is mainly lack of deep blacks and digital noise in low light. I

From the first moment I looked through the monitor is like  "Damn!  My EX3 is dog compared to this!"

It's like, being really happy with your well tuned, little VW or Nissan and then you sit down in a Mercedes or a BMW and pffftttt... it's all over.

That's the feeling I got with the PMW-500.  So, I immediately took the camera out to the streets and tested it under the conditions that give me the most problems with my current equipment.

Shooting directly into the sun is a problem for most any camera, but an extreme issue for a video camera, so I started there.  In my previous blog I refer to three intensive days of shooting and I was slyly using the PMW-500 to get all of my images.  So, starting in Hoboken at first light,  I filmed the sun rising just to the left of the Chrysler Building.  The detail in the image was phenomenal.  The camera's imager held the subtle tones of the morning mist hanging over the city.  Breathtaking.

As a side note to this experiment: The zoom range of the Canon lens allowed me to pick off details while the subject remained far off in the distance.  Using a telephoto lens in such a way compresses the subject and its background, often pushing them together in a unique way.  The ship cruise ship below was still a mile or two away when I first shot it in front of the financial end district of lower Manhattan.  Even with the haze and contrasty early morning light, the camera delivered excellent tonal quality and blacks.

The camera is supplied without a lens and if you don't already own one, you might be in for some sticker shock when you first open the lens catalogs from a few different manufacturers out there, but like anything else in this business, you have to spend it to make it and a good lens will last for years to come.

The next morning I hopped into the city to get a few early morning shots of streets and buildings.  Normally, much of the filming that I am doing around New York City is for Getty Images and I may not see an immediate financial return on my images for a while, so I am careful to be prudent with my expenses.   Filming in the city before and after parking restriction hours has saved me hundreds of dollars and when I do have to pay for parking, a little advance research will find the cheapest parking lots in the areas that I intend to film in.  

Even with all its sophisticated electronics, the camera was very simple to operate.  All of the controls were found in their traditional locations.  White balance, gain, time code setting, all the same as a traditional Betacam setup.  That's one thing I really like about the Sony professional products that I've owned and used over the years.  When things are working right, they leave it alone and only make improvements of the things that really need it. 

My tests included extreme contrasts in lighting, deep shadows and camera response time.  All passed with flying colors.  Their was no noise in any of the images shot at -3db and 0db gain.  The blacks were deep and rich while still holding detail.  This was the same in bright light and very low light.  Very nice.   

Unlike the EX3, the camera was ready to use in seconds.  The black and white viewfinder was bright, contrasty and sharp making fine focusing a breeze, even at long lens settings.

This prototype PMW-500 was supplied with 3 nickel-metal hydride batteries and although I carried all three with me, I only used one in over 5 hours of having the camera on and shooting, so power consumption was very low.    

Back at home, I was able to download my clips as native .mxf files right off the card to use them in my Avid Media Composer and by using the XDCAM transfer software, it was easy to open them as .mov files for use in Final Cut Pro.    The 4:2:2 quality was immediately apparent in the deep blacks and color saturation of my images.  Furthermore, the images held up better to color correction, yielding much less noise than usual in both Avid and FCP.

Again, for more detailed information on the technical specifications of this camera, you'd only need to do a quick web search and you'll be flooded with information.

As for me, some people can fix guitars and some can play em'.  I can't do either, but with this camera in my hands, I was able to create some spectacular images.  I want one!

The Crazy Duck Website
Chuck's Photography Website
Chuck's interview with Sony
Chuck as a featured DP on Sony's VideOn Network

The Lower East Side

This past weekend I dedicated several hours each day to filming around Manhattan.   If you've read my post or seen some of my films it's obvious that I am in and around New York City all the time, but it's almost always broken up, in between other projects.  

For me, there is a definite benefit in being able to immediately apply yesterday's experience to today and then, use it again tomorrow while it's still fresh in my mind.  One of the great perks of working on a long term project.

I started my first day around 5:00 am, by setting up my camera near a fishing pier in Hoboken, just south of the Empire State Building.  The view also afforded a clear shot of the Chrysler Building, which I knew this time of year would remain lighted until around 6:00 am.  My goal was to film the light on the Chrysler Building turning off and then film the sun rising behind it, while keeping the city deep in silhouette.   

To do this, I planned to expose for the sky and let the buildings go deep into shadow.  Usually, I would use a graduated filter to knock down the brightness in the sky and gain detail in the foreground, but today, I wanted the foreground to go very dark.

For these tests, I was using a camera that I was unfamiliar with and it was fortunate that I brought along a small LED flashlight to find some of the controls.  The light would increase very soon and there was already a soft blue glow growing rapidly in intensity around the buildings, but on my side of the Hudson it was still pretty dark.  

Finally, camera ready, focus set,  I'm in the right place at the right time to get the shot.  

I remain here for the next two hours.  The skyline is constantly changing with the movement of the sun.  Ferries and runner have appeared as if out of nowhere.  Dozens of interesting angles to be found without moving more than a few feet and I want to exhaust the shots in this area before moving on.   Fortunately, just before I am about to leave a very large cruise ship glides up the Hudson.  Excellent!

That night, I spent a few hours filming traffic movement on the west side of Manhattan.  The recently installed bike lanes provide safe platforms to shoot from, two lanes into the street.  Eighth Avenue between 23rd and the Village is brightly lit and well populated, making for good filming.  I experimented with time lapse and slow shutter speeds to enhance the constant flow headlights moving uptown. 

Saturday morning, I revisited the same area in hopes of getting some of the same angles that I filmed the night before, only now, in early morning light.  Having the same, or at least a similar image available in a variety of lighting conditions is very important when shooting for stock.  A television show or feature film might require an exterior shot to establish a location and/or  time of day.  

Keeping a journal of the previous day's location is key to the success of this technique.

That evening, I returned to Hoboken because I now knew that two more cruise ships would be departing

and I wanted to film them both with a variety of lenses.  It still amazes me to see an object the size of a shopping mall floating down the Hudson.   "The Macarena"must be the official music for a party cruise as it can be heard on nearly every cruise ship leaving the harbor. 

Scheduling is perfect and I have plenty of time to create some unique images. 

Sunday morning was not going to happen until Sarah kicked me, whispering, "Get out there."

The bed was comfortable, but I grabbed the gear and stumbled to the car.   

It was time to move from the west side, so with little or no pre-planning I drove through the Lincoln Tunnel heading for the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge.  At 5:45 am I expected the underside of the FDR Drive to be life-less, but to my surprise and delight, (relief) the area was filled dozens of people walking, exercising or fishing along the East River.  It was Sunday and fortunately, parking was available nearby.  I grabbed my rig and got out there.

The Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges are a spectacular sight in any light, but with one in silhouette and the other catching a red glow as the sun rose over the river, I felt blessed to have a camera in my hands.  Even more impressive than the bridges was the action happening below the highway.  With Chinatown nearby, the diverse population of the east side of lower Manhattan provided a wealth of images in the golden light of morning.  I filmed for two hours and still got home in time for breakfast.

To keep the gear in your hands for more than a few hours a week is essential.  With constant use the camera becomes transparent and you begin to concern yourself less with the technical aspects and become more involved in the images you desire to create.  

the Crazy Duck Website

Chuck as a featured DP on Sony's VideOn Network

Chuck's Photography

It's a fact, that in this business you can never be too well prepared.

Friday, Sarah and I were on set of "Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life" an indie film currently being shot on several location in NYC.   We were there to film promotional interviews with members of the cast and in particular, the film's star, Mira Sorvino.

The location was in Harlem and the cast and crew were staged in a gymnasium at the Riverside Church, about three blocks from the working set.  The actual set was a very small and very warm apartment and considering its size, it was filled with an amazing amount of gear and talent.

From experience, we know that filming or photographing actors, musicians and politicians often involves a whole lot of "Hurry up and wait".   Today was no exception.

Call time was 3:15 pm and as usual, we arrived about 30 minutes early, so as not to have to make any excuses about being stuck in traffic.  Justine, an associate producer on the film warned us that we would be carrying our gear to several locations and that some of them will be "walk-ups" and she assigned to us a production assistant to not only help move the gear, but also to keep an extra eye on it.  Something that you need to be careful with anywhere, but especially on the streets of New York City.

Marissa, our PA, certainly earned her pay that day.

At around 4:00 pm we are instructed to bring our gear to a location a few blocks away, where we could set up for our lights for Mira's interview.  This was a small, 2nd floor walk-up apartment that Mira is using as dressing room.  Unfortunately, the shoot schedule needed to be constantly revised (That's show-biz) and we were now to shoot one of the cast members back at the church, before she leaves for the day.

One of the film's producers insisted "Leave your lights as there is plenty of natural light in the makeup area."  So we ran back to the apartment, grabbed the audio gear and headed back to the church.
 

The lighting in the makeup areas was fairly dreadful and for anything more than a basketball game, pretty much useless.  Sarah and I grabbed some Japanese shoji screens and three of the clip-on lights that had been set up in the makeup area to create a soft light source and background.  It looked good on Sarah, it looked good on the talent.  Roll camera!  On to the next challenge.

Schedule change again and we would taping the film's lead character, Jeremy (Max Beer), in the same room as Mira.  "It just needed to look a little different".  Thank God for plants and flowers.

The room set aside for the interviews was approximately 8x10 and loaded with furniture and clothing for the set stylist.  The walls, a pale, semi-gloss blue and an small air conditioner screamed from the window.  Yuck!

Obviously, heat would be a huge consideration and it was important to keep the talent comfortable, especially after a long day of filming.  I used a small Lowell Omni light with a Chimera soft box, replacing the 600w halogen with a smaller, cooler 300w bulb.  We also used several battery operated Lite-Panel LED lights for any additional kick that was needed.  Excellent light quality with nearly zero heat.  At the very last second, the AC unit would be silenced.

As this was Mira's last day on the set, the director wanted to squeeze in as much face time as possible and we were informed the day might run long.  It did and around 11:45 pm she finally sat down for the interview.

I had a monitor standing by so that she could see herself on camera.  A professional with 30 features to her credit will know how she wants to be filmed and sure enough, concerned with the way shadows effect her deep set eyes,  she asked me to move the main light an inch or two lower.  She looked at the monitor and said, "That's pretty good".   I was able to breathe again.

Camera rolled and she gave a fantastic interview.  Difficult to believe that she had been on camera for the previous 14 hours.  What a pro!

The Crazy Duck Website

The Greatest Show on Earth for 10 Minutes

I'm a night person.  Check out any of my posts and you'll usually find that they were created late in the evening.  Although I've not spent more than a week at a stretch in California, I seem to have embraced their time zone.  It's not that I have a beef against early risers, it's just that my biorhythm is set for night.

Well, I've been trying to buck that trend for the last week or two.  I've been working on getting myself up and out of the comfort of my bed to film the sunrise over Manhattan.  

Like running or bike riding, once I'm out there, it pretty feels good and if the conditions are right the images  can be quite spectacular.   Ok, but I have to get out there at 5:00 am to appreciate it.  Ugh!

Strangely enough, the best conditions are not always a perfectly clear day.  In fact a clear blue sky can be a bit boring, photographically.  Instead, add some puffy clouds or or brilliant red sky of an approaching weather system and things might begin to happen, but often, only for a very short period of time.

A few days ago, I arrived at a location that I had previously scouted and in the few minutes it took for me to mount and power up the camera, I had already missed the most brilliant part of the display.   Although I researched the schedule of the sun and moon, I had not taken into consideration that finding parking could be a slight issue.  Even at 5:30 in the morning

From experience, I have found that I need to begin setting up in the dark, just prior to a period designated as "Civilian Twilight", which is usually around a half hour to 40 minutes before the sun actually peaks above the horizon.

One of the key elements to capturing a decent sunrise or sunset with your video camera or still camera for that matter, is having control over the brightest areas of your image.  Now in a skyline, that's usually (but not always) the sky.

In my situation, filming the sun rising up from behind Manhattan, the sky is always the brightest part.  To balance this I use something called a graduated filter, or grad filter for short.   As the name implies, the filter, which is a piece of glass in front of the camera lens, gradually gets darker, allowing less light to get through to the camera's sensor.   If you put the dark part over the sky, then it will darken just that.

Sometimes, if the sun is reflecting on the Hudson River, I need to use a second filter, upside down, with the dark area at the bottom of the image.  This way, I can reduce the amount of light coming from both the sky and the water in the foreground, leaving the city in the clear part in between.

This technique can often solve a myriad of problems and not only on the skyline.  I have used graduated filters to knock down the reflections on buildings, sidewalks and any other part of an image that needs to be evened out or even intentionally darkened.

Once you get into the edit room, it's often too late to fix the problem.  There are "digital grads" available as plug-ins for most edit systems, but if the bright section of the image is too bright, their is rarely much you can do to recover the detail that you have lost.

The strength of a graduated filters is conveniently measured in the same way as Neutral Density filters.

.3 = one stop less light
.6 = two stops less light
.9 = three stops less light
1.2 = four stops less light

A good set of filters is quite an investment.  I've purchased my filters from  a company called Formatt and I've found their quality control to be quite good and their prices a bit more reasonable than some other companies.  But, even at a reasonable price, they're not cheap, so gather them slowly.

Aside form all the technical stuff, just standing out there along the river with a skyline the looks like OZ looming in the distance is a beautiful experience.  The noise of traffic and construction will not begin for  another hour and it is just a magical time, especially now in the late summer.  It will be a bit more challenging at 15 degrees in the winter, but for now it's perfect.

A few runners, a fisherman and myself appear to be the only folks witnessing a giant ocean liner, pursued by two small tug boats,  slowly cruising into port.   The sight is breathtaking!

By seven o'clock, the sun is high above the buildings and the show is pretty much over until the following day.  Time for a cup of tea as I sit down to review the images.

Not every morning is golden, but everyone is different and with a little bit of luck there'll be a cloud or two and something great to shoot.  I can pretty much guarantee that the images will be one of a kind.
Crazy Duck Website

Back in the New York Groove

July has been such an incredibly busy month. (Thank God!)  So busy, in fact, that I've had difficulty finding the time to sit down and write about it.   Well, it's 2:00 am and I'm once again, experiencing the joys of jet-lag, caused by my second trip to the Hawaiian Islands in less than a month.   The flight was grueling but the locations of Maui and Kauai were both stunning, so, I don't really expect a pity party over my pain.

I'm taking advantage of this quiet time to gather more footage for our New York City HD collection rapidly growing and soon to be revealed by Getty Images.   This has been quite a learning process for us.   Getty's standards are higher than other stock agencies and necessarily so.

The EX XDCAM cameras that I use are terrific for most applications, but I've learned that it is very important to pay close attention to the internal profile settings of the camera as well as the exposure.  Images that look fine on a computer screen or even a 50" LCD may not look as good when they are blown up for use on large projection screens.

Proper exposure in a video camera is critical.  When the camera's sensor is not getting sufficient light, that area of the picture won't just be dark, it might get very noisy.  Noise in a video signal looks a bit like the kind of grain you might have gotten from high speed films like Kodak's Tri-X.

You do remember film, right?

If the camera's gamma setting is set to low or the detail is set to high, you might be plagued with subtle, digital noise in those dark areas of the image.   And if the exposure is too hot you run the risk of losing detail, as well.

Ordinarily, these issues may not affect your video at all, but if your images are to be used in a broadcast commercial, a television program or on 20-40 foot projection screens, that digital noise might stand out against the pristine images created with more expensive cameras.

Other factors may come into play, as well.  Sarah and I found issues with the way our Avid editing systems were processing the XDCAM files.  We found that in some instances, Avid's color corrector was adding a small amount of banding and other digital noise into our pictures.  Banding occurs when the blending between shades or colors appears more like bands of color rather than smooth, subtle transitions.  The digital noise appeared like excessive grain. The same as if you had the gain on your camera cranked to a high setting like 9 or 12db.  (Gain gives your image an electronic exposure increase)

When Sarah tested the same images using Final Cut Pro and Adobe's Premier editing programs, this particular problem did not occur.  So, for us it was a matter of finding which program worked best for the individual images.

Again, this matters a lot less if the final destination for your images is Vimeo or YouTube.

I tend to push the Sony EX3 far beyond its normal operating limits, often working under the extreme lighting conditions of a sunrise, sunset or moonrise while using auxiliary Nikon and Canon lenses, as well as neutral density and graduated filters.  In most cases the camera has worked just fine, but I've learned that I can achieve even greater results with a bit of research and experimentation.

One of the great things about the internet is that you can benefit from others experimentation as well, just don't take anyone's suggestions as law.  Sample the information out there and discover what works best for you and the way you like to film.  Perhaps digital noise is what makes your work come alive.

Of course, testing and experimentation takes on a big roll in any creative endeavor and although it can be quite frustrating at first, the results are that much more rewarding when you've taken a less traveled path.

With that in mind, I'm looking forward to several days of filming (and experimentation) in Manhattan this week.  With my jet-lag placing me about six hours behind the rest of the east coast, I figure it will be a perfect time to work on my night shots.

duckyou.com

Amazing Space and what to do with it.

Two weeks ago, Sarah and I were asked to photograph another production company at work at a location on the lower east side of Manhattan.  The parent company of Target department store chain had arranged a benefit  to aid the Food Bank for New York City and some friends of ours were brought in to stage it.

"Just a little something we threw together" is how Lisa put it.

Lisa Archambault and Andy Spray and are the owners of Palm Productions LLC in NYC and they seem to know everyone that can do anything.   Their cell phones contain more than enough connections to stage any size event from a stadium rock show to lighting up the Plaza Hotel with fireworks.

For this event, they converted a giant, dusty warehouse - formerly known as Basketball City - into Manhattan's largest food distribution center and indoor party.  Not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.

We often attend events like this and stand their in awe of the lighting, sound and decor, the total experience, without giving a  single thought as to how it all comes together.  That first "oh my gosh" when you walk into a concert or convention and see the stage, sets and giant lighting rigs.

Very few of us get to see just what is involved in making these events come together.  The logistics of getting the stuff you need, getting it to the place you need it to be and then getting it up and running in time for the event.  Then, when everything is over, taking it down and getting it back were it belongs.

Not a lot of sleep involved here.

Having filmed during several U2 and Garth Brooks tours, we've experienced first hand, the process of   getting a rock show out of the trucks and assembled in an arena in 6-8 hours.  No simple feat.  Then it's back in the trucks and broom clean in four hours.  Oh yeah, and don't forget to feed the cast and crew, as well.  We've time lapsed the process more than once and it is pretty amazing.

For this event, Target in conjunction with other corporations that had donated supplies, had stacked a few thousands empty boxes that were to be filled with food by a small army of volunteers and distributed to those in need.

Apparently, Target does this all around the country as part of there Other Community Giving program.

Here, in a space about the size of a football field, just getting it "broom clean" might be a major undertaking.  Building a stage, video projection screens, lighting, supplying power and even cooling for a space of this magnitude, a logistical nightmare.  By the time we walked in, most everything was in place and Lisa and Andy seemed pretty calm, considering the amount of balls they were juggling at that moment.

In our  "You're only as good as your last production" world, this event was a phenomenal success.
Thanks for inviting us!

NYC Food Bank
Palm Production LLC
duckyou.com

Chuck's work featured on Sony's VideOn site