KitPlus | Articles

The Pitfalls of buying second hand kit

by Peter Savage Issue 95 - November 2014 Last week a client, on the lookout for some second-hand kit, asked me about the basic ground rules when buying equipment. How could he be assured that everything was sound, and in an orderly fashion, and that he would be able to gain good title on the equipment? There are two ways to buy equipment: through a...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 December 2014

Media Management in Final Cut Pro X

by Larry Jordan Issue 95 - November 2014 Media management drives editors nuts. Since the beginning of computer-based video editing, trying to remember where your media is stored is a never-ending battle between "getting it done,\" and "doing it right."With the release of Final Cut Pro X 10.1, Apple made significant changes to media management; then...

Submitted by Larry Jordan#

Published 01 December 2014

EPG: Guiding content discovery

by Keith Bedford Issue 95 - November 2014 Digital TV is something that we\'ve become accustomed to, we don\'t think about how we search and select the vast volume of content that\'s now available to us, we just know that with the press of a button we can see what\'s on, record our favourite shows, series link them, select recommendations based on o...

Submitted by Keith Bedford

Published 01 December 2014

Monitoring made easy

by Beth Zarkhosh Issue 95 - November 2014 Making sure you capture the right sound correctly throughout your filmmaking is one of the most important aspects of the shooting process, an element that many seem to get wrong time and time again. Whether you\'re filming an interview, documentary or short film, the audio recording is an intrinsic part of...

Submitted by Beth Zarkhosh

Published 01 December 2014

Keeping up standards

by Dick Hobbs Issue 95 - November 2014 A couple of days ago, both the esteemed editor of this magazine and I were guests at an awards ceremony, in the romantic environs of the Wembley Hilton. The evening was a tribute to the democratising effect of the dinner suit. Receiving a lifetime achievement award richly deserved was Dr David Wood, who has de...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 December 2014

Manage and Monitor

Issue 94 - October 2014In the month that digital files become the preferred method of delivery for television programmes in the UK, it will come as a blessed relief to many in both post and production that one of the biggest bugbears of file-based delivery – how to deal with insert editing - may have been solved, just in the nick of time. It didn’t...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2014

How To Record The Perfect Voice Over

by Beth Zarkhosh Issue 94 - October 2014 Ever wonder how much time and effort goes into creating the perfect voice over and how to record them yourself? As most of us hear the voices on the screen we rarely think about the person who has recorded it or the professional level of technique used to create it. Where can you record? So firstly let\'s ex...

Submitted by Beth Zarkhosh

Published 01 November 2014

It is in the Can Bag

by Dan Rose Issue 94 - October 2014 As a freelance cameraman/director, like every one else, I\'m always looking for that money shot! And some times it\'s a ground shot or a maybe a moving shot from a vehicle window. The lower shots can be hard to keep stable using your hands, and I don\'t really want to put my cameras on a wet or stony surface, wel...

Submitted by Dan Rose

Published 01 November 2014

Exposed to ideas

by Dick Hobbs Issue 94 - October 2014 I did not get the chance to attend much of the IBC conference this year. But I did make sure I was there for the interview with Professor Brian Cox, which was excellent. He is witty, charismatic and exceptionally clever. Once a keyboard player in a rock band, Cox is now a particle physicist and one of the leade...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 November 2014

Capture and Produce

Issue 93 - September 2014 Amongst all the new cameras, support and other production kit being touted prior to IBC, it was a less tangible announcement that really captured the imagination: Atomos’ announcement that it wants to standardize its Start/Stop Trigger connectivity for HDMI by making it available to other manufacturers. Locking SDI interfa...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2014

Manipulate and Edit

Issue 93 - September 2014 Company mergers can be no fun. Staff panic about ‘efficiencies’ and therefore their jobs. The press speculates about ‘what really happened?’ And there are always lawyers involved. And no one likes that. When DiGiCo revealed that it would merge with fellow audio console manufacturers Calrec and Allen & Heath, following a bu...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2014

Manage and Monitor

Issue 93 - September 2014 In less than a month’s time, British television producers will be asked to deliver their programmes to broadcasters as files rather than tape. Some have been doing it for years. For others, it’s a whole new world. Fundamentally, the change is just replacing physical items like tapes, labels and VT reports with their zeros...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2014

The Power of the Rebrand

by Peter Savage Issue 93 - September 2014 This month as a change from the normal finance article the editor asked me to voice my views on rebranding as this is something the magazine is undergoing as I write. Rebranding is for businesses looking to revamp their image, customer base, or offerings. When done correctly, it offers a multitude of benefi...

Submitted by Ben Baldwin

Published 01 October 2014

How to Sell a Film Before it is Made

by Beth Zarkosh Issue 93 - September 2014 Independent filmmakers can produce some of the most gripping, compelling and original cinematic works around, but without funding it’s a real struggle to piece together the requisite resources for such productions to get the backing that they deserve. So what’s the answer? Simple - sell the DVD before you’v...

Submitted by Beth Zarkhosh

Published 01 October 2014

The brains behind a no brainer

by Thomas Dove Issue 92 - August 2014 It’s perhaps not surprising that a lot of professional video and audio editors don’t fully grasp the minutia of file-based media formats and delivery specifications such as those established by the Digital Production Partnership (DPP). After all, an editor’s job is to is to make compelling content, whether for...

Submitted by Thomas Dove

Published 01 September 2014