KitPlus | Articles

TV-BAY Questions

Name & Title? Den Lennie, director of photography/Producer/EducatorWho are you? (about yourself and who you work for)? I am a director of photography and one of the world’s leading coaches on the new wave of digital filmmaking. What do you do? What does your company do? I run an online film school at fstopacademy.com and specialise in small group f...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

Review of Kinoflo Celeb 200

Good quality lighting is at the heart of all great photography, when we use the sun we are at the mercy of the weather and need to take into consideration all the variables from time of day to position of sun to name a few, importantly however we can trust the source to provide a complete spectrum. However when we are shooting with tungsten or with...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2012

Revolutionary Rotolight Anova Shoot at BBC Studios

The Worlds Most Advanced LED Floodlight the Rotolight Anova (www.rotolight.com) was recently the light of choice for a shoot at the home of British Television, with Philip Nash, Multi-Award Winning Photographer and Videographer(www.nash.net) shooting both Video and stills with one of the worlds leading models. The shoot was both indoors against pho...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2012

tv-bay Questions

Name & Title?Giles Harvey DoPWho are you? (about yourself and who you work for)?With a degree in photography and BBC trained I run my own camera agency LUTTRELL PRODUCTIONS LTD providing crew for TV and film, documentaries and advertising. I tend to do most of my work for the terrestrial broadcasters as well as some of the largest ad agencies but a...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2012

Summer of 3D

Having put 3D to one side for a few months it was very interesting to jump back into the third dimension. With 3D not making the headlines much, if at all, you might be lulled into thinking it has faded away, but that’s not the case. Many events are being shot in 3D, including the Olympics and, although there has been nothing happening that could b...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Watch out for dead pixels

A dead pixel in a camera imaging sensor can manifest itself in a number of ways. Implying black, 'dead' is not necessarily the correct term for a pixel failure. This is because imager defects include hot pixels, sparkles, noisy or lazy pixels. These problems usually arise during the chip manufacturing process. Defective pixels can appear as unusual...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Testing times of a 4K world

The term '4K' applies to some five slightly different picture formats with around 4,000 pixel horizontal resolution: all much bigger than HD. In fact roughly four times the total pixels required for 1920 x 1080 pixel high definition. 4K has been around for some years but was until recently only affordable by producers with mega budgets. Advances in...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

TV-BAY Questions

Name & TitleJohn R Williams, Director Oscus Media in EdinburghWho are you (about yourself and who you work for)?This is a hobby that has got out of control! I was always keen of Tape recorders, and my son who is now 24, has followed the same pattern with an edit suite at aged 10. I have had no formal training and so I’ve have had to learn from the...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

X 10 or X 3? - That is the question

X 10 or X 3? - That is the questionFor many years now, the sports programme producer has benefited from a triple speed (75fps) super motion replay facility. Initially replayed via specially modified BVW tape decks but once the industry standard EVS server acquired the ability to record the three phases of such cameras and supply a continual record...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2012

NAB 2012 Kit Review used by BroadcastShow

NAB kit review:-So pre-NAB we are all very busy organising interviews with 70 exhibitors over 4 days covering 4 halls and in our case around 28 miles. Late last year we developed an online interview booking system at www.broadcastshow.com which allows exhibitors to book one or more 15 minute slots, enter stand information and questions they may lik...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

Ask the experts - Fibre optic distribution and content de...

1- With the increase in bandwidth requirements for signal distribution systems, which infrastructure provides greater benefits — copper or fibre? Can you explain why?Both copper and fibre each have their place in today’s broadcast infrastructure. As we know, the useable bandwidth of coax cable is a function of both its physical construction and the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2012

STAYING AHEAD OF THE BBCS QUALITY CURVE

At True Vision TV, our tagline is “Films that make a difference” – and it’s been our guiding ethos since the company was founded in 1995. We strive to make television that engages viewers with issues that matter, and we produce character-led documentaries that entertain, but also inform and educate. As such, we’ve built a particular reputation for...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2012

Lights, Camera¦Action

Rotolight was recently used as the light of choice for a high profile Shoot that took place at the Silverstone F1 Track. The Autosports awards shoot saw some of the best young future F1 stars competing in the gorgeous McLaren MP4-12C Supercar, Formula 2 Cars, and Mercedes DTM cars all afternoon, with the winning driver rewarded with the opportunity...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2012

Light weight 3D side-by-side production

Whenever you see a typical publicity picture of a 3D production shoot, it invariably includes a very bulky and expensive-looking mirror rig. This can look daunting for the new initiate coming into 3D production and is not the sort of kit you might not want to risk using outdoors. The mirror rig arrangement allows two (usually large) cameras to be p...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012

A new era in slow-motion?

Those readers who watch sports programmes on a regular basis may have noticed that many productions now have high speed cameras providing so called “ultra-motion” replays as a part of slow motion sequences. These cameras have been in use for many years in such areas as crash testing and sports training, but until recently the quality of the image h...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012