How We Keep the Studio Clean
Well, here we are, back to the busy season. We never really slowed down, so I guess we're in the extra busy season- which is great!!! One developing trend is a very clean studio. Now, you might think to yourself "Wouldn't being busy lead to a messy, unorganized studio?" Well, yes- but in our case, we're so busy, there's no gear left to become messy and unorganized. So, jackpot! This means great things for FiveSix' bottom line, and also, great things for ease of sweeping and mopping. So, we're all winners at the end of the day. Um... I guess I'll go mop- which is fun.
DJI Inpire 1 Quad Charger is a killer
We have been extremely happy with our DJI Inspire 1. It has been a very capable tool that we have used to capture some incredible aerials. We were very excited when DJI released their new quad chargers. As the batteries only last 15-20 minutes, we need a full stable of them for our shoots. One could spend all night babysitting the batteries as they charged individually.
Well we loaded up the new charger and to our dismay, it killed two of our batteries. The batteries are dead and look like the guts have exploded as the batteries are bulging out the sides. Now is the big kicker. I called DJI support and they said the batteries are just out of warranty so I'll need to pay for a repair or replacements. It doesn't matter to them that their charger malfunctioned and killed the batteries.
This has been the big concern for a lot of video professionals. How is DJI's professional service going to be when there is a problem? It took DJI 3 days to tell me that I was on my own. It's more than obvious that their support team is new and can't work off the provided corporate script. This is a huge disappointment for our team. We love our drone but we can't provide a service if the product or the company that build it isn't dependable.
We might replace our batteries and continue to fly our Inspire 1 but we have canceled our planned upgrade to the new camera system. We will wait and see what Go-Pro and the rest of the competition come up with while we wait on DJI's service quality to catch up with their product quality (Quad Charger Excluded).
Neon Vests
Yesterday, FiveSix Productions, along with one of our favorite free-lance DPs, captured the magic that is beverage and snack-food distribution. This b-roll package, that kind of found it's way into something a bit more special, focused on the sometimes dangerous, and always fast-paced world of taking the concessions we hold near and dear to our heart, and definitely our waistlines, and sending them near and far. The focus was on safety, but our eyes were on the prize: salty, bubbly, flavorful treats that can't be beat. With bright neon vests, ingenious devices to protect our little piggies, and of course goggles to protect our money makers, we explored the world of forklift operations, pre-shift stretches, and the danger zone that is the red zone. What a rush! What a sensation! What a day in the world of Las Vegas video production!
BoardRoom to Release Interviews
We have finished posting our full interview with Terry Martin. Because we have had such a great response the Boardroom team has decided to keep releasing our full interviews. Keep an eye out on our video production blog and we will be adding more clips each week.
Who would you like to see next?
Error: Contact form not found.
You can support our video production company by purchasing a copy of the documentary at www.boardroomfilms.com
Terry Martin - Hobie Surfboards Part 3
Here is the last segment of our interview with Terry Martin, surfboard shaper for Hobie Surfboards.
Special thanks to our production partner Cinebags and our very talent producer Robert Bell.
You can support our video production company by purchasing a copy of the documentary at www.boardroomfilms.com
Terry Martin - Hobie Surfboards Part 2
We know what your thinking. What is this Las Vegas video production company doing with all this great footage of surf history. It is a surprise to many of our clients to find out that we produced the best selling surf movie ever to be created in Las Vegas. To celebrate our success we are releasing our full interviews of these surf legends. Here is the second installment of our full interview with Terry Martin.
For those who don't know who Terry was, he was the premiere surfboard shaper for Hobie Surfboards. He is credited with shaping over 80,000 surfboards over his career. Unfortunately Terry past away shortly after our interview with him.
You can find the documentary at www.boardroomfilms.com, on Amazon, or Itunes. Part 1 of Terry's interview can be located here
We Party Harty!
We here at FiveSix Productions clean up pretty well when need be, but that doesn't mean we don't own a party hat or two. Recently, we donned our party hats and boots and set out for a ruckus celebration down at the Linq. In the neon shadow of the High Roller observation wheel, we rolled metaphoric film on a humdinger of a party put on by a pretty successful world wide web company. (Because what happens here in Vegas generally needs to stay here, I'll omit their handle.) This party included quite a bit of food, festivities, hipsters fresh out of the local haberdasheries, and an awesome concert headlined by DJ Zedd.
This concert was quite loud, but we had a job to do, and interviews to capture; enter one of our favorite pieces of audio equipment. The Sennheiser MD 46 handheld stick microphone- accept no imitators. The aspect we love so much about this particular mic is it's cleanliness even in the loudest of conditions. This is a mic you can give a reporter during a concert, sporting match, bad weather, or whatever other loud, ruckus event you can find your way to. Just throw some diffusion on top, and adjust your transmitter and receiver accordingly, and you're ready to rock and roll.
Party on Garth. Party on Wayne.
Terry Martin - Hobie Surfboards
So about a month ago we took a poll. We posed the question... Of all of the surfboard shapers we filmed for our documentary "BoardRoom - Legends of Surfboard Shapers" which one would you like to see the full interview of? Your choice (not surprisingly) was Terry Martin.
Here is part 1 of 3 from the raw footage from our interview. Stay tuned for the rest of the interview.
Order your copy of the Documentary at http://www.boardroomfilms.com/
A Renaissance For Final Cut Pro X?
Apple released the latest update to Final Cut Pro X on September 4th- and only time will tell how it will be received. When Apple released the original Final Cut Pro X, moving on from the wildly popular and successful Final Cut Pro, back at NAB in 2011, the initial and long-standing reaction was primarily negative. As Apple and it's world was blazing closer and closer to becoming their own universe, they saw fit to utilize their "all in one" formula for video editing; professionally, this resulted in backlash and jumping-of-ship. Jan Ozer (it wasn't Richard Townhill, Senior Director of Applications Marketing at Apple, our bad) was quoted saying: (source)
Of course, I understand how iTunes is ideal for inexperienced users, and that’s precisely the point. With iTunes and iPhoto, and the iPad and iPhone, Apple wasn’t selling to experienced users. It was opening new markets. In contrast, with Final Cut Pro X, Apple was trying to change the workflows of professionals who knew more about video production than any of the engineers who created the product.
You can only impose structure when a market is new or when the benefits of that structure are incremental. And the more structure you build into a product, the less it’s likely to appeal to experienced users of the product it replaces. That’s why most professional video producers jumped ship when FCPX was launched and why most won’t use it.
What can be surmised is that Apple was catering to the user friendly, even soccer mom and hockey dad can use it, as had and is true with their formula since day one. While the backlash from professionals, and semi-professional film makers is understood to a degree, perhaps you can't solely rely on Apple products for everything in your life.
Enter the latest version of FCPX, 10.2.2. Many of the frustrations from the early versions have since been addressed and changed to appease the professional user. The ability to create 3D titles within Motion 5 and work seamlessly with Pro X has been added, as well as improved motion graphics within. Color grading is also internal, as one can work with four scopes simultaneously during color correction. Expanded acceptance of multiple video formats from Sony and Panasonic is new; as well as advancements with RED. RED RAW footage, even up to 4K can now be done in application due to accelerated GPU support, so playback, rendering, and trans-coding are not so arduous (especially with a more powerful MacPro). RED RAW anamorphic formats are also displayed in their correct aspect ratios, so your widescreens stay nice and wide.
Some other new or improved features of Final Cut Pro X 10.2.2 include custom effect presets, library smart collections, single import window, and audition that allows you to choose multiple shots/clips, and audition them on the timeline all at once. Compressor 4, there are built in presets that allow you to optimize your compression specifically for iTunes, where you may load your trailer, film, closed captions, and more, then begin selling on iTunes immediately.
So, as previously stated, time will tell if FCPX ever finds it's way fully into the Hollywood landscape; but, with films like Will Smith's "Focus" being edited solely on FCPX, there's signs of life. I myself am a Premiere fan, but it's interesting to watch.
Diffusion- Ikea Style
Some of the most useful pieces of gear in the grip and lighting department are flags, scrims, bounce boards, and diffusion; however, they can be somewhat cumbersome to schlep around, especially if you're on the move. To follow up with the creative flagging piece, I would like to introduce you to a friend of ours... A great alternative to a full load of flags, bounce, and diffusion is an amazing product from Matthews Studio Equipment called Road Rags. Road Rags are compact, portable flags and diffusion that transform in an instant; they're easy to build and easy to package back up. There are single, double and triple black and white bobinett available for diffusing light without changing the color- and they're flame retardant, which is great for not burning the joint down! Matthews also offers black and white silks in three different forms for bounce and diffusion services; the China silk is not flame retardant or self extinguishing... so we might be burning it all down. Lastly, there are gold, silver, and checker board lames for balling out and reflecting beautiful light; these are self extinguishing, so flame on!
Enough of my rambling, check out the product here, order yourself a set, you won't ragret it- nope, not even one little letter.