BVE2013: Tiring but successful...

Thanks to all who came to see us at BVE2013. The freelance seminar, in particular, was a huge success. Even though the seminar room was at least twice the size as previous years, there were still about 30 people standing, most of whom stuck it out to the end - so, sorry if you ended a tiring day even more tired than you should have been.

We got a great response, with lots of people asking further questions as we packed up, and some very nice messages on Twitter after the event, such as:

Nelly Diancova ‏@DiamondsNickles
@UrbanFoxTV Marvellous presentation today. I am so driven to follow all the pieces of advice you shared with the audience. Big Thank you !

Giuseppe Cifaratti ‏@CifGiu
My favourite seminar at today's @BVExpo was @UrbanFoxTV . Really valuable advice! #bve2013

Jamie Montgomery ‏@scuuk
@UrbanFoxTV hey Christina, many thanks for the great seminars over the last couple of days at BVE.

Jayne Topping ‏@JayneTopping1
@UrbanFoxTV Hi Christine - seminar yesterday was very helpful. Can you point me in the direction of the seminar info please? Thank you.

For anyone else, like Jayne, who wants to view the presentation to get all the links and information they couldn’t scribble down, the PDF of the PowerPoint is available at http://www.urbanfox.tv/seminar/

The earlier Skills Zone session down on the exhibition floor was also rather packed, although in much more limited space it was never going to be easy for everyone to crowd around or be able to hear everything. However, it was good to be able to answer people’s questions directly.

That was also the purpose of the previous day’s Ask The Experts seminar, where we had an excellent panel (thanks to the experienced producer/director Matt Davis - www.mdma.tv, post production guru Alex Gollner - www.alex4D.com, and audio consultant Nick Way - www.nickway.co.uk). Incidently, Matt has an excellent post on BVE2013 on his blog.

Unfortunately, the room was less than a third full, partly, it seems because the brochure description of the seminar didn’t really explain what it was about, according to some of those that came. However, there were more than enough questions to push us ten minutes over our time slot, so we hope that anyone who did come along got something out of it.

BVE itself certainly managed to draw the crowds, despite the move to docklands, although, like us, most arrived later in the morning than they did previously. Still, there was lots of interest on the show floor, some very good deals available, and lots of people to meet that we hadn't seen in ages....

Come see us at BVE - free seminars

Broadcast Video Expo is Britain’s best conference and exhibition for anyone working in the video industry. It has lots of interesting FREE seminars to attend, and is probably the single best place to find out what is happening and make new contacts.

Previously it took place at Earls Court, which was ideal for those of us in what is a west-London-centric industry. However, this year it moves to the Excel Centre in distant east London, so it’s lucky that the seminars we’re taking part in aren’t early in the morning…

There are apparently 283 seminars in total (including those in specific manufacturer’s theatres), so BVE is a great opportunity for some free training. There are also supposed to be 331 exhibitors, so there is a lot to see and do – it’s worth making the journey.

We’ll be taking part in three sessions:

The Digital Clinic – ask the experts

When we’ve done Q&A sessions at previous BVE conferences they have always been packed, so we’ve got another “ask the experts” session this year (Tuesday 5pm), with the assistance of some well known names to answer your questions on any aspect of production and post-production, covering cameras, audio, lighting, editing, and general production problems you may have.

We’ve got a group of independent experts to answer your questions, all experienced industry professionals and media trainers. The current line-up includes the ebullient Matt Davis - www.mdma.tv, the effervescent Alex Gollner - www.alex4D.com, and the ever audible Nick Way - www.nickway.co.uk (although as they are all freelance, that might change….), as well as ourselves. So do come along and bring your questions.

The clinic will be held in the Producers' Seminars Theatre from 17:00 - 17:45, 26 Feb 2013.

Running your own business

Christina will be taking part in one of the drop-in Skills Zone sessions on Wednesday at 4pm, to answer questions about running your own media business. The Skills Zone is worth checking out if you want to develop your career, as there are sessions about CV writing, tax, contracts, script writing, pitching, and starting out in cameras.

The seminar will be held in the Skills Zone Theatre from 16:00 - 16:45, 27 Feb 2013.

Thriving as a freelancer

On Wednesday (5pm) Christina is giving her ever-popular talk on how to survive and even thrive as a freelancer in a digital, self-shooting world (this is always packed - as seen in the photo from last year, so come early if you want a seat….). It is particularly useful for anyone starting out in the industry, but there will probably be many things that will be useful for people who have even been freelance for several years.

It will cover all the essentials from getting work to getting paid, including the three most important lessons she has learnt as a freelancer…

The seminar will be held in the Producers' Seminars Theatre from 17:00 - 17:45, 27 Feb 2013.

By David Fox

Vinten Vision blue3 tripod head

Vinten will show the third pan and tilt head in its Vision blue range at BVE in London next week. The Vision blue3 sits between the original Vision blue (payload range 2.1-5kg/4.6-11lb) and the recently launched Vision blue5 (5.5-12kg/12.1-26.5lb), balancing intermediate payloads of between 3.0-6.6kg (6.6-14.6lb), making it ideal for 1/3-inch chip camcorders and DSLRs.

The Vision blue range has all of the key features associated with Vinten’s heads, such as infinitely adjustable Perfect Balance and LF drag technology to provide smooth control and consistent movement quality.

“The Vision blue range has been designed to make the filming process effortless, enabling the camera operator to release his or her creativity. The new Vision blue3 completes the range and brings uncompromised professional performance to the broadest range of users, regardless of the payload of the camcorder and its accessories,” said Andrew Butler, Vinten’s strategic planning and project manager.

The Vision blue3 will be shown publically for the first time on Vinten’s stand #F022 at BVE 2013, which takes place at Excel London on 26-28 February, where, as usual, we'll be taking part in some of the free seminars.

Meet us at BVE – Free seminars

As usual, we’ll be giving talks at BVE/The Production Show at London’s Earls Court next week (14-16 February 2012). Our five sessions will be part of an extensive free seminar programme, with more than 300 seminars across the three days.

We’ll be doing our Production On A Budget sessions every morning (10am) in the Production Theatre with lots of advice on buying equipment and what to look at while you’re at the show, while Christina will do a session on How To Survive As A Freelancer at 3pm in the Producers Theatre (on Tuesday) and in the Production Theatre (on Wednesday) – both theatres are in the Production Show section right at the back of the Earls Court 2 exhibition centre.

The Production Theatre will also feature sessions on Shooting Sub £15k Music Videos by Den Lennie, budget feature film production, underwater filming, shooting in the cold for Frozen Planet, Fathoming the Fundamentals of Formats from Prokit, and how to make the most of Blackmagic Design's Atem switcher.

The Producers Theatre will include the 99-minute Film School (in less than half that time…), with Raindance Film Festival founder Elliot Grove (who will also do a session on Writing For Low Budget Filmmaking), plus seminars on Strategies for Survival in a Freelance World, virtual production, how to win commissions and funding, motion control DSLRs and special effects make-up.

There is also an Arri Production Skills Centre [Free tickets required], with lots of sessions on lighting (including two each day by Jonathan Harrison), as well as seminars on using the Alexa and colour grading.

In the main Broadcast Video Expo section of the show, there will be 11 theatres/seminar areas, dealing with big picture issues such as the next steps for 3D, new developments in religious broadcasting, cloud computing and brands becoming broadcasters, to practical hands-on workshops.

The 3D Revolution [Free tickets required] will look at the latest developments and where 3D might go next, with keynotes from William Sargent, founder of leading Soho post house Framestore, and Dave Blackham, MD of Esprit Films (who will discuss shooting wildlife and caves in 3D). Panasonic’s Peter Van Hooke will present sessions on the recent Elbow concert shot live in 3D. There’ll be several case studies and sessions on when 3D is worth using and how to use it best.

The Audio Room [Free tickets required] also covers 3D, with a panel discussion on immersive audio systems led by Pieter Schillbeeckx, Head of R&D at Soundfield. There is a wide range of practical advice on audio recording, including Phil Coates on working in extreme locations, Graham Boswell from SADiE on how to eliminate pops and glitches, and Jo Tyler of Bournemouth University on the sonic potential for radio, and sessions on loudness metering, HD Voice (for mobile audio) and audio post.

The Post-Production Theatre [Free tickets required] has one of our favourite trainers, Larry Jordan, with: a practical overview of Final Cut Pro X; Creating Motion Graphics that Don't Suck; Compressing Your Video for the Web - and Making It Look Great; and What Creative People Need To Know About Storage. Other sessions include: the making of a Top Gear Live commercial, and lots on tapeless production.

Broadcast Meets IT picks up the tapeless theme, with Mark Harrison, Controller of BBC North, discussing the issues of file-based production and Shane Warden of IMG World presenting tapeless workflows at the Rugby World Cup. Dr John Zubrzycki of BBC Research and Development will discuss Super Hi-Vision for London 2012, and Phil Rutter of AndCubed hosts a debate on 4K production and delivery.

The Institute of Videography will offer sessions in the IOV Theatre on how professional videographers can get involved with local TV stations, what videographers need in their post-production toolkit, and lots on weddings, including Shooting the Marryoke Wedding Sequence.

The Content Delivery Theatre will deal with all sorts of online and other methods of delivery and making money, connected TV, the use of second screens (such as iPads) while also watching TV, broadcast playout using channel in a box systems, and social TV.

There will also be one-day sessions dedicated to various aspects of a specific topic. Religious Broadcasting on Tuesday 14 February; Demystifying the Cloud on Wednesday; and Brands Becoming Broadcasters on Thursday.

The Sony Experience Masterclass Theatre includes sessions on the FS100 by Den Lennie, the F3, F65, and using XMPilot to speed up logging on the BBC’s Escape To The Country.

Added to these are practical sessions offered by Avid [Free tickets required] and Adobe, and FCP X sessions run by Soho Editors.

There's also the opportunity to try out lots of new equipment...

Free registration is available at www.bvexpo.com/register using Priority Code EBPR2.

By David Fox

Free seminars - Join us at BVE 2011

If you are visiting BVE 2011 or The Production Show in London this week (Earl's Court 2 – 15-17 February), please come and say hello.

We'll be delivering our usual seminar (totally revised), Production on a budget, in the Production Theatre every morning at 10am – handy if you want to know which cameras you should have a look at later in the exhibition. We'll be talking about how to choose a camera for different budgets and for different types of production, and offering some tips on how to get the best from the technology. We will be putting up a pdf of the presentation after the first session on our main UrbanFox.tv website.

Also, on Tuesday, Christina will be telling How to survive as a freelancer (at 3pm in the Producer's Theatre – not the same place as our morning seminars), with advice on how to address such important aspects as getting paid, making a name for yourselves, and coping with taxes.

You won't need to pick up tickets for either session – just come along. Previously we've had lots of people standing at the back, or sitting on the floor, so it's probably worth coming early if you're interested (the picture above shows those who came early enough to get seats last year...).

There are many other worthwhile sessions available, free, in a load of seminar areas, although some will require you to queue up for tickets from the Seminar Registration desk (afternoon tickets can't be collected until after 12.30).

At the Production Theatre there will be sessions on multi-camera 3D, 3D commercials, file-based workflows, production management, shooting with a DSLR, and (at the end of each day) How to avoid becoming one of the 95% struggling Digital Film Makers from Den Lennie of F-Stop Academy.

At the Producer's Theatre there will be more on 3D (but aimed at producers), visual effects, getting programmes commissioned, casting, data workflow, drama production, and women in TV.

Also in the Production Show area is the Arri Production Skills Centre (which requires tickets), with sessions on the Arri Alexa, using filters, and lots on lighting, including Lighting on the Run and Energy Efficient Studio Lighting Techniques from the always enlightening Jonathan Harrison.

There is an even more extensive seminar programme at Broadcast Video Expo itself.

The 3D Revolution Programme (tickets required) includes sessions from such notable names as Phil Streather, CEO, Principal Large Format, Steve Schklair, CEO, 3ality Digital, and Chris Johns, Chief Engineer, BSkyB. There will be case studies, sessions on all aspects of 3D production and presentation, and a look at the future of 3D.

The Total Delivery Theatre (no tickets required) will look at IPTV, HTML5, Flash, mobile and online video. It will include a session on Thursday (13.30) by Rick Young, of Mac Video, on Broadcasting to the iPhone and iPad.

Broadcast Meets IT (tickets required) is aimed mainly at broadcasters, with many interesting and expert speakers on such topics as workflows, standards, cloud services, networking and infrastructure, Super-Hi Vision (Ultra HD), and several case studies.

The Audio Room (tickets required) will host a Radio Day on Tuesday, and over the following two days will look at such issues as sound recording, loudness measurement, workflows, wireless microphones, monitoring, audio over IP, and more.

The Post Production Theatre (tickets required), will have lots on 3D post, workflows, codecs, and where the industry is going (on Tuesday and Wednesday). On Thursday it will be devoted to Avid.

Sony's workshops will deal with: 3D Live Production; 35mm World; OLED Monitoring Technology; XDCAM File Based Acquisition; and Professional Audio.

Blackmagic Design will host DaVinci Resolve (colour grading) workshops, while Adobe's seminars will deal with all aspects of its CS5 suite (Premiere, Photoshop, After Effects, etc.).

3D stereoscopic workflow at BVE

Holdan, Panasonic's UK distributor, will demonstrate a complete stereoscopic content creation workflow from camera to edited programme at an affordable price, at BVE 2011 in London next week (15-17 February).

Its starting point is the AG-3DA1 3D camcorder, feeding a HP Z400 workstation running Grass Valley's Edius 6 - the full system costing less than £18,000.

The AG-3DA1 HD 3D camcorder has dual lenses and two sets of 1920x1080, 2.07 megapixel 3-MOS imagers. It also has dual 32GB SD cards and interfaces include dual HD-SDI outputs and HDMI (v1.4). It includes automatic correction for horizontal and vertical displacement allowing it to recalibrate without the need for external equipment, so that you can shoot 3D more easily. 

Taking the dual HD-SDI feed from the camcorder will be a Blackmagic Design HDLink Pro Display Port 3D that converts the signals to side-by-side, field by field, top and bottom or frame-packed 3D formats. The editing system, based on an Intel Xeon HP workstation and Edius 6 will demonstrate 3D cutting techniques. Edius works natively with professional formats without the need for rendering or transcoding. This philosophy has been extended to stereoscopic, with support for synchronized left and right field editing built into the latest version (which costs less than £600).

The demonstration will also include a Grass Valley T2 hard disk recorder, playing out 3D signals (manually or from a playlist) so that users can display or project high quality 3D.

Panasonic will also be showing all of its 3D products, in its own workflow demo on its stand, as well as the new AG-AF101 large sensor camcorder, which is in high demand thanks to the ability of its Micro Four Thirds sensor to produce shallow depth of field, as the sensor has about four times the area of a broadcast 2/3-inch sensor, although it can't go as shallow as a Super 35mm-size sensor (as used in Sony's new F3 and any APS-C DSLR) at the same lens settings.

The AF101 (AF100 in the US) can be fitted with a wide range of lenses, including Zeiss Compact Primes and stills lenses via adaptors. Unlike HD DSLR cameras it has no visible aliasing or moiré effects, thanks to an optical filter that reduces the resolution of the sensor (to HD resolutions) and smoothes out any possible defects. It also has lots of video features, such as peaking, waveform display, various gamma modes, internal optical ND filters, uncompressed audio with XLR inputs, and timecode input/output, which are not typically available on DSLRs. 

It records 24Mbps AVCHD onto SD cards, but has HD-SDI and HDMI outputs for 4:2:2 recording. There is also variable frame rate recording.

By David Fox