KitPlus | Articles

HD camera market

With the low cost HD market taking an ever firmer grip on the industry, we asked for Hireacamera Managing Director Guy Thatcher’s opinion on the changes taking place. So is anyone still hiring DV/DVCAM equipment anymore?Certainly in the area we specialise in, since the arrival of the Sony HVR-Z1E nearly four years ago, we have slowly watched the ma...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2009

Fine design for post.. The IKEA story as told by EDIUS

There can be few companies in the world with greater brand awareness than Swedish-based IKEA, the business that has brought Scandinavian furniture design to the world. IKEA is now bringing its corporate history together in a series of videos and, as befits a highly design conscious company, it has chosen the Thomson Grass Valley EDIUS editing platf...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2009

What do Location Managers do all day?

It’s a question that is often asked by my family who fondly believe I spend my time in idle chit-chat and gossip with high-powered film and media executives sipping skinny-latte Mocachinos (whatever they are!) and eating sushi. But consider the following exciting ‘James Bond’ style scenario. “Our hero and heroine are on the run, driving fast throug...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2009

Good cop, bad cop

Peter Savage looks at the tricky subject of asking customers to honour their commitments and, possibly, debts – without ruining your customer-supplier relationship or losing what you are owed. How do you keep your customer sweet whilst making sure they pay?This is a question that I have been asked numerous times over the last few months, as draggin...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2009

Behind the scenes at Big Brother 9

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

Virtual Sets

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

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

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

London to Capetown, by bike Part 2

Continuing Frank’s journey after leaving Nigeria….. I arrived in Cameroun at the beginning of the wet season and it had been raining constantly for a week before I got there. The road was in a horrendous state. It was a two hundred kilometre long mudbath, in some places the mudholes were two metres below the normal road height. My bike fully loaded...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Getting the best out of your LCD

Getting the best out of your LCDs?Many people who use CRT picture monitors have found the introduction of LCD displays disappointing. Getting the best out of your LCD may not be as simple as it may seem. With a wide choice of vendors and models all proclaiming broadcast quality, it can be difficult to determine which product is most suitable for yo...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Chyron interview with tv-bay

Chyron has moved into the online content creation space. What is driving this shift?The foundation for this new division is Chyron’s recent acquisition of AXIS Graphics, a unique web-based graphics system that has pioneered online graphics production. Chyron and AXIS bring innovation to graphics creation workflow and production - and most important...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

London to Capetown, by bike part 1

South Africans are known for being to the point, so when I was told that I had done the whole thing ‘Arse Backwards’ I wasn’t unduly upset, but I did feel a need to justify the way I had approached this project. I had just arrived in Cape Town and was rather pleased with myself, having just completed a year long journey through some of Africa’s mos...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

Scriptwriting

“Is the pen mightier than the sword?”As a writer myself and having penned a few scripts in the past, mainly for TV commercials, corporate presentations and voice overs, it always amazes me 'when a film actor, whether it be a known or an up and coming potential' just seems to utter those mortal words “It was such a great script...I just had to do it...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2008

Is it cool to use cool lighting

Is it cool to use cool ?The term ‘cold lighting’ is used within the film & TV lighting industry as a generic term for energy efficient, Fluorescent, LED, and Plasma (panel) lighting sources which emit little or no radiant heat. HistoryThe technology is not so new; Evidence exists of neon lighting being used on a film set in Teddington Studios Engla...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2008

A hidden beauty

The lifestyle of the Wildlife cameraman (and woman) you’d have thought, and I was hoping, was all exotic locations and beautiful scenery. Except for me the reality was a murky, water filled quarry during a very cold winter and early spring of 2006- 07. But to come face to face with a real homegrown legend I was more than ready to take the plunge. T...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2008