KitPlus | Articles

When a lens is more than just a lens

Matching shots between different cameras can be tricky at the best of times. But how do you match lens characteristics between a live action shoot and a CGI composition? The CP.3 XD lenses from Zeiss offer an efficient solution to this with their frame accurate meta-data. The ZEISS CP.3 Cinema Primes have all the characteristics that have made ZEIS...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 02 November 2017

Misinterpreting complexity for sophistication

i Professor Niklaus Wirth was one of the pioneers of computing as we know it. He was responsible for the Pascal language, a project he completed in 1970. Wirth became professor of computing studies at ETH-Zrich, and retired in 1999, although he remains active to this day. He grew ever-more despairing of the complexities of computing systems, which...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 01 August 2017

Sully - Grading a miracle

We all know the story. On 15 January 2009 an Airbus A320 took off from LaGuardia airport in New York, heading for Charlotte. Just a couple of minutes later the plane flew through a flock of Canada geese and blew out both engines. Knowing the risk of crashing into heavily populated areas, Captain Chesley Sullenberger - Sully - aimed for the only lon...

Submitted by Maxine Gervais

Published 15 February 2017

Mr MXF thinks the future is bright

I have had the good fortune to spend some time with students at Southampton Solent, The University of Surrey, Ravensbourne and Godalming College in the last few weeks. Although student numbers are down on the technology courses, enthusiasm is high and the passion for the broadcast and media industry is evident in the eyes of the stars of tomorrow....

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 13 January 2017

Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Reviewed

The yeti finally arrived earlier this year - I call it so, because for almost twelve months until BVE 2016 we\'d only seen it in pictures! So getting my hands on one in a real word environment was an absolute no brainer, when Simon Tillyer dropped me a line offering the opportunity to review the camera for KitPlus. I\'ll cut right to the chase with...

Submitted by Ben Sherriff

Published 07 December 2016

Make a scifi film in the Mexican Desert

British director Nicolas Roeg once said to me that making a film is like horse racing. To start with you give the horse a nudge to get him moving, then as you gather speed there's a point where you have to trust the horse. You hold on and the horse will carry you across the finish line. I've just returned home from shooting a Sci-fi proof-of-concep...

Submitted by Edward Andrews

Published 26 September 2016

The Future of LED Lighting

From the moment the LED light entered the broadcast, media and entertainment world its key differentiator was its energy efficiency compared to traditional tungsten studio lighting. LEDs use far less energy in the region of 90% less than tungsten lights and produce less heat. In addition, they are far more portable and generally have a longer lifes...

Submitted by Rod Aaron Gammons

Published 25 August 2016

Canon C300 MkII Reviewed

The Tech It 's been just over eight months since the release of the updated C300 camera the C300 MkII and almost five years since Vincent Laforet shot Mobius with a pre-production C300. In a landscape dominated by self-shooters and the continued rise of internet video, the C300 perhaps surprisingly like it 's forefather the 5DMkII came to become a...

Submitted by Ben Sherriff

Published 14 June 2016

Females In The Broadcasting Industry

by Emma Clifford Issue 113 - May 2016 You\'re hiring. You\'re reviewing CVs.You\'re not bothered about names are you?What matters are skills, experience and the competencies of the candidates, right?Wrong! You probably have unconscious bias. A recent US study used 100 STEM professors (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) to review CVs. But h...

Submitted by Emma Clifford

Published 13 May 2016

Building Blocks

by Dick Hobbs Issue 112 - April 2016 That is the MIT Media Lab saying, in a typically American academic way, that they want to help producers make better content. That is what you find if you Google "object-based broadcasting". Which is what I did on your behalf this month, because BT Sport - which seems to have taken up the idea of innovation in b...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 25 April 2016

Grading Temple - Making the future look vintage

Cineground's Simon Allard and Nguyen Anh Nguyen reveal how they used Kowa lenses and an atypical approach to grading to give their new sci-fi cyberpunk thriller, "Temple\" a unique vintage look. Created by the same indie team behind "The Akira Project,\" a viral trailer which garnered more than three million views online in 2014, "Temple\" is a new...

Submitted by Simon Allard

Published 01 April 2016

Raising the bar at BVE

Azule's Peter Savage managed to drag himself away from his countless BVE meetings (and the show bar) for long enough to discover that ˜easy-to-use' was the tipple of choice at this year's show. Trade shows are funny things. When you arrange a lot of meetings, it is quite easy to spend an entire week at an exhibition and not see any kit or attend an...

Submitted by Peter Savage 2

Published 01 April 2016

Perfect Horizon Camera Stabilizer

by Brian Uranovsky Issue 110 - February 2016 PERFECT HORIZON CAMERA STABILIZERThe Perfect Horizon is an innovative camera stabilizer for land and sea, and regardless of bumpy rides or rough waves, this stabilizing device keeps your horizon perfectly stable. The Perfect Horizon (PH) won an ACADEMY AWARD as well as an EMMY for Engineering and Scienti...

Submitted by BRIAN URANOVSKY

Published 16 March 2016

EXIT PLAN - Creating an indi SCI-FI for less than 3000 do...

with Richard Oakes Issue 108 - Decmeber 2015 The director behind new indie short "Exit Plan\" reveals just what it took to write, crowd fund, shoot and grade his very own proof of concept for a science fiction feature with DaVinci Resolve, a Pocket Cinema Camera, and only four crew members on set For founder of Dark Fable Media, Richard Oakes, film...

Submitted by exitplan

Published 15 December 2015

Lenses cant be that complicated can they? Part 1

with Graham Reed Issue 108 - December 2015 Many people who use lenses have very little understanding in the complexity or the science that goes on behind them. I do not pretend to be an expert on optics but I have spent some time in trying to understand just how complex they are. I think its first just a good idea to remind ourselves of what light...

Submitted by graham reed

Published 15 December 2015