An NBA MVP in Las Vegas...
James Harden, the bearded-master of the between the legs crossover - fadeaway.
Las Vegas in July means three things: massive 4th of July fireworks shows, inhumane daily temperatures, and the NBA Summer League. While the Summer League has wrapped up, we're still excited about having filmed with the reigning MVP of the league. James Harden, in all his bearded glory (second best beard, behind Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies), came through town, and as such, had a bouquet of events to attend. One event, which we were a part of, was a photo and video shoot. One interesting challenge we faced, was keeping the lavalier microphones on the basketball players, even while they were running and jumping around. Mixing levels was also a fun challenge, as there was a big difference between their speaking voices, and their in-game yelling and hollering.
We can't go into the details of the shoot, as those NDAs are no joke, but it was a great experience. Harden showed off his amazing on-court skills, and his fun, easy-going personality. We certainly hope that we have future opportunities to work with him and all the other NBA stars next year. If your Long Beach or Las Vegas video production calls for the best, look no further than FiveSix Productions.
This Will Save Your Video Shoot!
This is going to hurt me more than it'll hurt you: clean, usable audio is as important as a great image.
I know... I know... that was rough. We all know that the audio department takes a little "guff" on set; and, justifiably so. I mean, those guys and gals are usually the best looking, smartest, and coolest on set; how can the camera department not get jealous? Well, I say, let's let egos and tempers cool, and discuss a vitally important subject that needs to be addressed. Recording audio into the mixer along with the camera is the smartest and best way to ensure a successful video shoot.
Ever since The Jazz Singer went and messed everything up for us, people are just gaga for "talkies". Now, there have been some brave and stalwart warriors who have tried vigorously to get audiences to let go of their desire to have audio and dialogue, but it's been in vain. This said, we must live with this nuisance and trudge on, begrudgingly or not, and give the people what they want.
The best tools to do that with, especially with the video productions we find ourselves part of in Long Beach and Las Vegas, are the Sound Devices 664 and 633. These recorders are compact, lightweight, and functional! The 664 offers six XLR inputs and six additional mini-XLR inputs, for an astounding twelve isolated tracks, left and right mix tracks, and two additional output tracks to send to the second camera, or your grandma, or whoever. The 633 meanwhile has half of that, with three XLR inputs, three mini-XLR inputs, left/right mix and two additional outs to donate to charity. The great thing about these mixers is the ability to control and direct which audio sources you send to which tracks, and then what you do with those tracks. If your camera operator is a "DP" (last I checked, a DP doesn't operate a camera, they're too busy lighting the scene) and they don't care to watch audio levels in their cameras, you can be sure to have a perfectly mixed isolated track to hand over to post. While the "DP" will swear it's not their job to do their job, and they totally mess something up, giving your in-camera mix a crunchy or hollow sound, you know that you did yours and delivered excellent iso tracks.
Like Looking Into the Heavens
Recently, we got to be a part of a very fun shoot here in Las Vegas. Why so fun? It's because we got to break out our awesome RED Epic Dragon and Schneider Cine-Primes and have them all making silky smooth moves on our Dana Dolly- we even invited our Sound Devices 633 to join in on the fun. Now, I can't even begin to tell you how sweet that 6K looked through those lenses, the bokeh was superb, the shot was crips and focused, and I could have sworn we were on silk, because the movement on the Dana Dolly was smoooooth! It helped having the one and only CMDP manning the lens, but, with a lineup like the one we had- even I could have made a little bit of magic. So, for your next Las Vegas video production, I would highly recommend adding the RED and the Schneiders to your order, you can always knock that 6K down to SD in post. Oh... the 633 was fine for audio, or whatever.
Pool Party!!!
What better way to celebrate on Labor Day weekend than by going to a pool party!? FiveSix Productions gathered some Canon C300s and our favorite SoundDevices 633 audio mixer, and headed over to the Foxtail Pool at the SLS Las Vegas. It was definitely a ruckus time as we soaked up the rays, and got down to the sounds of DJ Ikon, Tinashe, and our old pal, Charli XCX. Red Carpets, popped bottles, celebrities, and a lot of chlorine were all the rage this weekend, and gosh-darn-it, we were sad to leave it all behind; that's how life goes for us common-folk though. Well, we've got a full slate this week, so it's time to get back to it. Peace out, party people.
