FiveSix ProductionsFIVESIX Productions

Phoenix Arizona Video Production

Video Production in the Valley of the Sun - Phoenix, Arizona.

If you're familiar with us, you know we travel, a lot! While we love our two bases of operation in Las Vegas and Long Beach, we are a bit wanderlust. One of our most recent voyages took us to the Valley of the Sun. Like Vegas, Phoenix, Arizona is a melting pot in so many ways, there are visitors and part and full time residents of all ages, races, and points of origin. Similar in climate, and not much older than Las Vegas, Phoenix is quite different in culture. Phoenix and the ever-growing "Sun Belt Corridor" which includes the Phoenix Metro area and Tucson are rich in history and culture. From Hollywood Westerns to the hundreds of golf courses, classic desert landscape to the glitz of Scottsdale, you know Phoenix when you see it.

We teamed up with one of our favorite clients on a project at University Park downtown, to unveil some recent additions. The city utilized a generous donation to add classic games like Four Square, Corn Hole, Tether Ball, and Bocce Ball. Along with a city pool, awesome baseball field, and plenty of open space, this park will continue to serve the community for years to come.

We were so happy to be a part of the ribbon cutting ceremony, and can't wait to get back to Phoenix for the next project.

 

FiveSix ProductionsFIVESIX Productions


FiveSix ProductionsFIVESIX Productions

Untether Your Production

High end film production demands consistent results, from both crew and equipment. I recently wrapped up a 5 week feature film shooting at various desert locations around southern Nevada. The production took place mostly out doors, so we experienced high temperatures during the day and low, near freezing temperatures during the night. It was a challenging shoot due to a low budget and a rather short schedule, shooting mostly available daylight during the short winter months.

F11 rentals supplied the production with a brand spanking new Sound Devices 633, with Sennheiser wireless Microphones. This mixer/recorder allowed us to record in a double system setup, thus keeping the sound department from having to be tethered to camera. As a DP, my camera usually ends up having so many accessories and cables hanging off of it, so the less things that have to be plugged in to my camera the better! The whole production was very fast paced, and most of the film is shot hand held. Not having to have a mixer plugged in to the camera really helps to keep the set moving. The equipment and service provided by F11 was second to none, the gear was well maintained and we never experienced any downtime due to the equipment.

Whats the one thing a director always wants more of? Time. During a typical day on set, saving a little time here and there can add up to an extra take, or an extra moment to get the lighting and blocking just right, or even an additional setup you might otherwise have missed. One of the easiest ways of saving time on set is making sure you have good quality equipment. With F11 there’s never a question that you will have the latest and greatest at your fingertips!

-Clayton Moore (www.ClaytonMooreDP.com)


jazz-singer

Audio Odyssey pt.2: Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? #audiodepartment #lasvegasvideoproduction

Do you remember that scene in the film The Godfather when Don Corleone is granting requests "... on this, the day of my daughter's wedding..."? Right off the bat, the film has you on the edge of your seat, and you are engulfed by the drama, they mystery, the characters. Or how about the scene in A Few Good Men when Lt. Kaffee has Col. Jessup on the witness stand and they have their famous exchange. "I want the truth!" "You can't handle the truth!" This difficult scene incorporates soft speaking, yelling, fast talking and multiple characters speaking at once- not a walk in the park. Or, what about in Saving Private Ryan when Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) is inching his way up Omaha Beach in Normandy with thousands of bullets screaming by, mortars exploding just feet away, the screams and sounds of war overwhelming everything. The audio starts off muted and dull, but is still definitive. Did you notice the audio in any of those instances? Did you stop and say, what did he say? No, no you didn't. Do you know why? Because it was done perfectly, and you don't notice it, which is the goal of every experienced, quality audio team.

All jokes and over-dramatization aside, the audio department is the most under-appreciated and over-looked department, despite being one of the most important and difficult. In October of 1927, the film The Jazz Singer was released as the first ever talkie, using Vitaphone's sound-on-disk technology to run concurrent with the motion picture. Floods of eager movie-goers flocked in droves to local theaters to witness one of the coolest and most fascinating achievements in motion arts to date; yet, nearly ninety years later, audio is the shunned sibling of the film/video world. So, as a friendly and professional recommendation, take a moment to study the art, and appreciate all the difficulties, subtle nuances, and awesome achievements of this necessary craft. Ninety-nine percent of the greatest and most memorable moments in cinematic history, include audio- I think that alone merits some serious respect.

FiveSix Productions employs the services of multiple brands of audio gear, from Wendt mixers to Sennheiser microphones. We have a phenomenal shotgun mic in the Schoeps CMIT 5 U that is tremendously effective at eliminating even the most annoying and unwanted ambient noise. We had it on a windy golf course here in Vegas shooting an instructional video and with a simple windscreen that looked like a furry Chipotle burrito, we were able to capture crisp, clear audio that needed minimal help in post.

FiveSix is hired frequently to capture interviews, especially in the corporate setting; for these situations, we rely not only on our awesome Scheops shotgun mic, but also our very awesome, durable, and versatile Sennheiser EK/SK 100 G3 receivers/transmitters and lavalier microphones. These situations can prove tricky however, as placement of the lavalier microphone comes with challenges. Properly placing the microphone in the most effective spot means avoiding the rustle of clothing (especially, freshly pressed and starched suits), being as inconspicuous as possible, and occasionally, hiding the microphone from view behind a tie, under a collar, or on the inside of a blouse.

Another hurdle of the audio world is mixing. Most subjects we encounter are not professional actors, so the volume and clarity of the dialogue generally isn't optimal; balancing levels and tending to fluctuating circumstances is a never ending task.

There is so much more to audio, please take time to learn about it so you too can appreciate the science and art behind it. And, of course, please go easy on those poor audio folk- even if they are sometimes weird, creepy, and just a bit south of sanity.