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New developments in mobile HD production

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When widescreen HDTV was first demonstrated back in the 1980s, the pictures were great but the size and price of the kit left much to be desired. Two decades on, broadcast-quality 1080i/720p HD cameras and recorders have reached levels of compactness and affordability that would have seemed impossible in those early days. When I designed the origin...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

SOOM under the Senegal sun

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No power – inconceivable for Europeans, but normal for the African village Ndelle. Situated six hours from Dakar, it is attainable only by dusty, sandy fields. However the approximate 800 village inhabitants have reason for joy: The company Solar 23 is building a solar plant in Ndelle. The German cameraman Jrgen Killenberger captured this project i...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

How and where to do your Post Production.

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The world of professional editing and post production has changed dramatically in the last few years. The biggest of the barriers to entry – (cost), has all but disappeared with the advent of desktop editing solutions. Manufacturers like Apple and Adobe and even Avid have made this possible with products like Final Cut Studio 2 and Adobe’s CS3 Prod...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

New editing essentials

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I like to think of myself as a bit of a pioneer at the frontier of the new age of HD Digital Cinematography. Investigating the best of the new technology available to our industry and evaluating its possible impact. I ‘d like to explain the impact of some of the particular examples of this today starting with:-XDCam EX Tapeless HD Camcorders. One w...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

Lightworks Editing

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It is said that “Variety is the Spice of Life” and the Lightworks Editing systems have been very spicey recently. The new season of the English Football Premiere League will once again see Perform Media Services Ltd. bringing their Lightworks “Softworks” editing systems into action. Perform have the contract to provide in match “near live” and dela...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

Behind the scenes at Big Brother 9

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Working 94 days with no day off is a hard task. It’s even harder for the TV equipment that has to keep going round the clock, every day, to keep all the viewing ‘addicts’ supplied with live footage and highlight editions. This is the situation that the Big Brother 9 team finds itself in. For those inside the house, there is actually a means of esca...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

Why should people take holidays

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As I sit here on holiday taking a well-earned rest in August – the month when most people in our industry feel they are captain of the good ship Mary Celeste – it is good to reflect on why people should take holidays and how and why they are good for your business as a whole. Re-charge and re-tuneThe first and most notable reason is that they do re...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

London to Capetown, by bike Part 3

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Brazzaville was still five hundred kilometers away and the road was still a little on the rough side but not as sandy. What it lacked in sand however, it made up for in water. The road had developed the particularly unattractive habit of having huge water-filled mud-holes at any place where it was impossible to pass on either side. So there was no...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

IBC top visitor tips

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From flower bulbs to North Sea ferries, here are some top tips from the people in the know…!Tip 1 - The funny smelling coffee shops don't generally sell good coffee!Tip 2 - Prostitution is legal in Amsterdam - not compulsory!Tip 3 - When crossing the roads, once you've safely avoided the cars, taxis, trams, bikes and rickshaws - keep an another eye...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

Lights, Camera, Makohead Action

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With the movie Quantum of Solace due to hit the big screens in October, audiences around the world are already gearing up for another huge blockbuster from the James Bond stable. The movie, which began shooting at Pinewood studios in November 2007, will undoubtedly include the spectacular action sequences that are the hallmark of James Bond films....

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

The largest fibre and Ethernet video SAN network in the w...

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Out of the Ashes of the old Anglian TV studios EPIC has risen like a phoenix to become not only a major broadcasting hub in Norfolk but to rival traditional studios throughout Europe. With the financial backing of Norfolk County Council and the East of England development agency, EPIC has converted the old TV studios and installed a state of the ar...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

Back in the days before microprocessors

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Back in the days before microprocessors, Character Generators were members of the Graphics Department armed with sheets of Letraset and cardboard. The finished caption cards were then handed over to the stage crew who acted as "Caption Pullers". For a title caption sequence, cards were stacked in shooting order alternately into two separate piles (...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Virtual Sets

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When I first started approaching people in the UK with Brainstorms Virtual Studio software I was surprised to have them shake their heads vigorously and explain that virtual studio systems were “far too expensive and too difficult to set up and run” Coupled with that was the lack of realism and who’s using them?In Spain where Brainstorm are based t...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Monitor Colour Calibration

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With the growing acceptance of LCD displays for high end picture monitoring it has become increasingly important that users can be assured that they are working to a known standard. The Xrite Eye-one is typical of the more simple probes available, and is similar to the probes used to calibrate computer monitors for reliable photographic processing....

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

When trouble looms phoenix your company

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So, the US Federal Reserve (broadly equivalent to the Bank of England – it influences the availability and cost of money and credit in the US economy) is about to bail out Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest US mortgage providers. This comes on the back of the Bank of England helping, in no small way, Northern Rock. One rule for them, anothe...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008