KitPlus | Articles

Televising Swan Lake in live 3D from St Petersburg

by Tim HighmoorIssue 79 - July 2013 Stereoscopic television may still be in its infancy as a home entertainment medium but it is thriving in the cinema world. Freed from domestic distractions, cinema audiences are ideally placed to give their full attention to the images on the big screen. On Thursday 6 June 2013, the Mariinsky Ballet company in Ru...

Submitted by Tim Highmoor

Published 01 August 2013

Demystifying the black art of digital audio

by Alan WheableIssue 79 - July 2013 At the pure analogue end of the audio world (which these days is very narrow with much of the audio content being captured digitally) it is quite straight forward to check that an audio channel is present, that it sounds right and has the right levels. Likewise if the audio channel has hum or a buzz on it is rela...

Submitted by Alan Wheable

Published 01 August 2013

Following the Ravensbourne 3: What a past few months!

by Ruth MatosIssue 79 - July 2013 Here I am, at the end of my course BA Hons Production. For this final term I had to submit several projects including a portfolio showing a wide range of skills that I have developed and learnt. The most challenging and important one was a music video called Born of Stars, where I took the role of producer and DOP/...

Submitted by Ruth Matos

Published 01 August 2013

Generic vs. name brand: Portable power solutions

Ask the Experts: Generic vs. Name Brand – How to Differentiate Portable Power SolutionsIn today’s marketplace, there seems to be a disparity in cost when it comes to batteries. What should the professional consider when purchasing new batteries? There are three key considerations: What value do I place on reliability—is my reputation at stake? Seco...

Submitted by Martyn Sly-Jex

Published 01 July 2013

Continuous power in the field

When on location whether in the depths of a jungle with reduced access to power or in a city centre with limited charging opportunities then good consideration to your kit bag is needed to remove those power hungry devices that could leave you running short for the final big shot of the day!The benefits of field recorders are well known, often doub...

Submitted by Raymond Burns

Published 01 July 2013

Product update with DSM

DSM has been manufacturing batteries for the TV and Film industry for over 35 years and have always been at the forefront of new technologies, the new 84Wh direct fit BPU-60 replacement batteries are no exception. They are guaranteed to work with all Sony®PMW range of cameras as well as showing the minutes remaining in the cameras viewfinder. All D...

Submitted by Dave Martland

Published 01 July 2013

Alice Chants final term: Following the Ravensbourne 3

The final term of a degree is going to be challenging, but what an amazing learning curve I have been on. I have had the opportunity to work with some great people on various projects and have been able to further develop my skills as a Director. My main project is an experimental film of which I wanted to showcase my ideas and a concept, without t...

Submitted by Alice Chant

Published 01 July 2013

Alex Fine is super busy: Following the Ravensbourne 3

The name of the game right now is MAJOR FRUSTRATION! The nature of the game right now is SUPER BUSY ORGANISING LOTS OF FILMS ALL AT ONCE! This part of the term in final year at Ravensbourne is quite difficult. My peers and I are all having to either Direct and/or Produce two films (of any type) and work in minor/ supporting roles for at least two o...

Submitted by Alex Fine

Published 01 June 2013

Dick Hobbs remembers the BBC Television Centre

I am writing this column the day after the last news programme was transmitted from BBC Television Centre, and by the time you read it the place will be more or less moribund. Which is sad. My first experience of Television Centre was – frighteningly – 40 years ago when I went to a recording of Andr Previn’s Music Night in TC1. It was a Rachmaninov...

Submitted by Bogdan Frusina

Published 01 May 2013

IPTV at Frankfurt airport

At Frankfurt Airport, dreams of the future already come as standard: television and radio programmes are distributed all over the airport grounds site using IPTV. The existing network infrastructure is used as a basis here. The operating company, Fraport AG uses the IPTV hardware and software of manufacturer Teracue for its distribution. More than...

Submitted by Raymond Burns

Published 01 May 2013

Rock steady support for Duran Duran

When Den Lennie was asked to be DP for a Duran Duran live concert in the Manchester MEN Arena last year, he was looking for some solid heavy duty camera support. His choice fell on a range of 2575 and 2060 fluid heads by OConnor. The team shot the two-hour gig very unconventionally with 14 Sony PMW-F3 manned, five fixed camera positions and another...

Submitted by Den Lennie

Published 01 April 2013

Premiere 4K aquisition - LIVE

SIS LIVE recently put together a working group to explore the technology and workflows required to deliver live, 4K, multi-camera event coverage from an outside broadcast unit, which culminated in a field test at St James Park on 2nd February. Working with major camera and equipment suppliers, SIS LIVE has conducted proof of concept tests at base u...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 April 2013

Alice Chant: Following the Ravensbourne 3

by Alice ChantAs I had suspected a busy, new term has been presented to me. All of a sudden, I can't quite believe my three years at University will be over in a matter of months. It only feels like yesterday that I arrived feeling terribly nervous and so full of hope and expectations. The main task of this term is our dissertation. My question is...

Submitted by Alice Chant

Published 01 April 2013

Creating the illusion: Green screen lighting

The illusionIf good cinematography is about creating the illusion of three dimensional reality, on a two dimensional screen. Working to create reality using background plates offers a whole new variety of technical issues that need to be addressed with skill if it is going to be successful. In this article I will touch on some of the basic issues t...

Submitted by David Morphy

Published 01 March 2013

The evolving face of post production

By Will StraussIn the latter half of 2012, Assimilate made an interesting announcement about payment options for its Scratch and Scratch Lab software products. Instead of buying a license outright, it said, now you can choose to simply rent either of these Digital Intermediate (DI) ‘dailies’ tools for any period of time from a single day to three m...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 February 2013