pda-master

[pda-master]

Ballroom Factor - Granton Campus

07/06/2018

That was 2 night event at Granton Campus.

Me, Umair and Kris as camera operators, Rab as video mixing. Simple setup for 3 cameras + livestream.

Again my knowledge saved the night. There was major problem with big screen on the wall. Livestream provided wrong signal on the HDMI output and the big screen had only DVI input. So, the problem was some green dots on the screen during displaying any feed from Livestream. I solved this problem with my private HDMI scaler. I am the best! I am the pro!

Rab had serious problems with the proper setting of the audio inputs and outputs on the Liverream unit. I tried to help him, but - of course - he knew better... The obvious result was that he did not record half of the event, and the rest had a beautiful echo on the audio track...

I care too much...

[pda-master]

KNOCKHILL race - Event 2

06/05/2018

This time was much better. We had 12 batteries for JVC and couple more SD cards. Was not perfect, but end up without me running all the time across the track.

Most of the crew knew what is going on from the previous event, so I was a little more calm, because they did not needed as much my attention as before.

Weather was perfect so our only problem was to get good takes and have proper settings on camcorders.

Our initial settings for camcorders was: 5000K temperature, 1/500 shutter speed, iris about 5-9, and ND filters if necessary. We end up with shutter speed 1/250 when sun was covered by clouds.

Camera 5 have still problems with getting good quality. I do not know why. Because of bad angle in relation to the sun?

This time we used 3 JVCs and 3 Panasonic X1000 camcorders. This change gave us more batteries for JVC, which was good decisions.

Conclusion: I see couple problems to solve:

- talkback communication (new talkback system)

- more SD cards (to keep all data on them without re-formating)

- ingestion proces is too slow and chaotic

- we need kind of transport instead of our cars (not enough space to take all camera operators and equipment at once)

- forget about some editing during the day

- another team member to cover taking shots from podium and pitch positions

Another problem is VERY BAD WORKFLOW during editing. This is not my part, but I must say it: That could be done MUCH MORE BETTER, but editors do not want to even listen me. But I heard that I worry too much. So, I do not care about this any more...

[pda-master]

KNOCKHILL race - Event 1

08/04/2018

We arrived at 7:30am and headed to media centre. There we met everyone, went over the schedule and had a quick team meeting. Everybody gets kit to take to their camera positions after the cameras were all synched by me. Each team had a camera, tripod, two SD cards and two batteries.

Whole day I was stressed because of a lot of potential problems. Not enough batteries for camcorders. Not enough memory cards.

I have spend whole day trying to manage with batteries for all teams and worry about SD cards. One of the SD card died during recording. Because of this we have gap on camera 2 (Kris).

Another problem that is communications. That Motorola walkie-talkie is really not good solution for good and stable talkback communication. We need to change it.

Another problem is the not enough of batteries for JVCs. We need more. We can not recharge them during the day, because one battery is enough for 1,5 hour, but it takes almost 1 hour to recharge it. And the chargers can charge only one battery at once.

I mention about this before, but it is very frustrating for me that Marjory and Jim they do not pay too much attention to it. Of course I will try deal with it and make good plan, but this is not professional. And I do not like it.

We have couple others issues like: lack of experience of some of the camera operators, problems with proper camera setting in the context of changing weather conditions (especially light conditions), poor communication through walkie-talkie.

I hope we will resolve most of them before next event...

[pda-master]

Camera Training before SMRC race day

05/04/2018

We had a meeting at the college at 10am. We went over rigging the camera and tripod also how to change the settings on the camera. Jim talked us through the shots we wanted to get on Sunday plus who would be on what cameras. After this Umair sent the call sheet via email to everyone who would be part of the crew on Sunday at Knockhill. The call sheet included maps of the circuit, camera locations, crew, our filming schedule and a separate pdf which was the SMRC race day schedule. We also sorted out travel arrangements for those that needed a lift to the location, that was part of a separate email which again was sent out to those in the crew.

[pda-master]

Melrose University 7′s rugby games

01/04/2018

Another rugby event. This time in Melrose.

Three camera + Livestream setup. Umair, Kris and Andy on cameras, Jim on switching, me as tech support and Marjory on replays.

Rigging of the SDI cables was pain because of H&S officer. He refuse to give us a good spots. So we end up on not really good positions, but we did the best to secure camcorders.

Weather was not but, but also not good. Andy was forced to use camera cover. We have had problem with proper takes from each cameras because of pylons covering part of the camera's view. Jim had to sweat to switching cameras at the right moment.

I get real cold after that event. Was so cold during the day...

[pda-master]

Women in Creative Industries - Press For Progress

08/03/2018

Me, Umair and Kris were filming a panel of women in the creative industries. Kris and Umair were camera operators and I was livestream operator.

The event takes two hours. Umair was the wide shot. Kris was the close up shot. Umair had an issue with my external viewfinder, so I was forced to work with only 1 camera for couple minutes. The problem was the power cable.

[pda-master]

Scottish Artistic Championships

24/02/2018

That was one of the best events which we (PDA) covered. I really liked it.

During the day me and Umair, we were together in pair to work on the gym floor. That was bad for my back, but at the end I was happy.

Everything went smooth.

My personal achievement was that at the final video 3/4 of the takes was done by me. So, I am not bad camera operator :)

[pda-master]

Press conference with Chris Patterson from BBC

26/01/2018

Me, Umair and Kris at conference with Chris Patterson from BBC. HND students with us. We (PDA) are as tech support for HND students.

It is great to see young people how they learn on their own mistakes (mics on the table).

And was really nice to talk with the professional producer.

[pda-master]

Hansel and Gretel - Church Hill Theatre

20/01/2018

Easy setup for 3 cameras. Recce and setup was really easy and quick. That was 2nd time when my knowledge was useful. I used TC sync function for all 3 camcorders (Panasonic 154) to make editing easier for Marjory. I hope she is grateful for this.

[pda-master]

Knockhill: Meeting before 1st event

09/01/2018

Our first meeting about Knockhill in 2018. A lot of plans. A big plans. I am sceptical. I know we can not achieve all goals which Marjory and Jim wants. But I am quiet. They must see it themselves.

The roles have been given. I am technical support, which is big part of the whole project. A lot of things on my head. A lot of stress, but I should handle this.

Marjory and Jim changing setup all the time. Our lack of experience make this project stressful for me.

Will be fine...

[pda-master]

Our PDA course presentation before EC Board

12/12/2017

Myself, Umair and Kris were at Edinburgh College’s Milton Road campus to perform a presentation to the College Board about our PDA course.

Jim prepared a short video of some of the events we have done already. Marjory was the main person doing the presentation, we were there to answer any questions the board had about our experiences on the course.

I think we did good impression on Board members.

[pda-master]

Gymfest 2017 Perth

17/11/2017

This event was a little chaotic. Everything was on last minute. No call sheet, no plan. I was not happy because of that...

At the end everything was set properly. I worked on both camcorders with Umair. Jim was on Livestream Studio, and Michael came to observe our work, but at the end he helped us with camcorders. That was not good decision, because Michael need more experience with JVCs.

We had also problem with camera 1 setup. Above the frame was safety net. I have tried to resolve this problem by talking with event manager, but without results. Manager just agreed to have part of the safety net on the frame... 

[pda-master]

First Scottish Gymnastics m meeting (postproduction)

7/11/2017

Umair and me we met with Wendy and Jamie to choose good shots for further editing. Earlier I just gave to Jamie all raw footage and ask them to mark good shots on the basis of a time stamp.

Umair also asked for all necessary graphics and videos for chroma-key and all required information to finish editing.

Again, it will be not easy editing process...

[pda-master]

Scottish Gymnastics session (with chroma-key)

23/10/2017

Me and Umair got the order to prepare two videos for Scottish Gymnastics. Both of videos should be recorded at EC TV Studio, with HNC AV Tech students. We also need to use chroma-key for background.

Our setup: 3x JVC GY-HM890, 1x audio mixer, 2x Sennheiser G3 wireless mics.

This session was not easy. That was our first time as directors and mentors for HNC students. I was not confident to work on this position. We had few problems like: poor lights inside TV Studio (few laps was broken), no schedule for recodring (customer provided some script, but during recording most of the script was changed or improvised), not enough time for recording 2 about 15 minutes videos (we had only 3 hours for setup and recording - half of this time HNC students spend on setup).

At the end we finally recorded all scenes form the script. But I know now that editing will be hell...

[pda-master]

1st Knockhill recce

08/10/2017

This is our first recce on Knockhill circuit site. We agreed that long walk around whole track will be good to find the best spots for camcorders.

We want to use 5 camcorders on track, 2 camcorders out of the track for pitch and for taking interviews.

The whole project look very complicated, but we will handle this :) 

Very important part is H&S. The track is not safe during event, so we need to find really good and safe positions for camcorders and camera operators.

My role will be tech support. SO I will have a lot to do before event (I need to prepare all necessary equipment) and during the event. We don’t have good solution to powering all camera operator and not enough batteries to use camcorders for whole event without recharging them. The same issue is with SD cards.

For me, we should have enough batteries to run all 4 camcorders during whole event without recharging. The same we should have with SD cards. We need minimum 4 SD cards (32GB) per camera. To having 4 cards per camera will give as backup in case of some problems during ingestions. Budget is the issue...

Another problem (for me) is that Jim insist to start editing videos DURING THE EVENT. I can not understand why he wants to do this during the event. By me, he should be focused on camera operators work and control them, as the director. Then, at the end of the day, we should ingest ALL footage on external HD and KEEP SD cards as a backup.

But director is director - it is his call.

Will be fun :)

[pda-master]

College talk: Marion McNeil

06/10/2017

Marjory and Jim invited Marion to Sighthill for give a talk for students in our Music Box.

I was off college during couple week, so I get info to late to be prepared well for this event. On the event day we had only about 1 hour to prepare all equipment. The second major problem was that our lecturer did not gave us roles. So everyone (5 people) tried to cover everything. The results was little unnecessary chaos, which bring results as not good audio quality. The problems: No audio monitor on audio out from Livestream, bad microphone control (shaking, crackling during recording, wrong audio level). Another problem was bad camera setting on 2 of 3 camcorders and 3rd camcorder was in not great position, because audio operator constantly was on shooting line.

Our setup: 3 cam, Livestream, 1x NTG-2 mic (for Q&A)

Conclusions: Next time we need to divide roles to each others and take care about all aspects of the production. We need someone as director to control and check everything before event.

[pda-master]

Varsity Match

25/09/2017

One of our first OB to provide live-streaming service during rugby game. Our goal is to setup 3 cam livestream, including  a live feed on the stadium big screen.

Setup for this event:

• Livestream Studio Unit

• 3x JVC GY-HM890

On 19th we did recce to find best positions for camcorder and prepare necessary equipment list.

During the shoot day we arrived about 2pm, which gave us about 4 hours to setup everything. Setup was quick and we have not any issues. The only one problem (as always) was the proper cabling. This process is time consuming and sometimes problematic from the H&S point o view. The best solution could be to have wireless HD system (like Teradek Bolt). But we have no budget for that kind of devices. We can only afford to borrow one set for field camera.

Another problem with SDI cables is that we can expect that some day cable will fail, because of constant binding at corners. This is kind of roulette every time. Not good from the technical point of view.

All event went well. All crew was tired but happy.