DGA added a set of zeiss primes and they went right to work on the AF-100 for ESPN on a Mickey Ward/Patriots story!
Thoughts on Memorial Day
Memorial Day 2011
In 2008 I discovered this poem in my father’s WWII papers.
He wrote it while serving as a member of the Army Air Corp in the South Pacific. The words came to him just after he made his first landing in Finschhaven, New Guinea. As he prepared for further combat, he toured a cemetery of freshly dug graves; each containing the men who died taking the beach a few days before.
My father received the Bronze Star for valor during WWII and served for 25 years. On September 14, 2009. Lt. Col. Thaddeus W. Maliszewski, passed away. On this Memorial Day please remember him, along with the soldiers buried in Finschahaven New Guinea, and in the many places Americans have fought and never left.
Thanks for all who serve. Thanks to the families that give that which they value the most, for us all.
A YOUNG G.I. VISITS FINSCHAVEN, NEW GUINEA CEMETERY
I gazed at the gleaming crosses
With sad, reflecting eyes,
For my heart felt the crosses speak
Of last unheard goodbyes –
The silent souls who grace this place,
I heard their anguished cries!
The crosses seemed to hum a hymn
Of sad remorsefulness,
And I thought of the lives they led –
Of the soldiers’ noblesse,
Of the sweethearts whose love was past
Of mothers now sonless.
In this jungle garden of souls,
Aussies and Yanks have met
And the ancient Star of David
Lies there less we forget
That over races reigns supreme
The brotherhood of death!
Copyright Thaddeus W. Maliszewski
————————————————————————-
Panasonic AF100 & GH2 in NYC for Marie Robinson/Colorist Cure
____________________________________________________________________
Triple Winner Projects Shot on Panasonic AF-100 & Lumix GH2
Please remember to support the Triple Winner program at your local Giant and Stop and Shop supermarkets. A dollar may not seem like much, but if we all play a small part we can make a big difference. Participate in the fight to beat childhood cancer.
____________________________________________________________________________
Comments Off
Week with the Panasonic AF-100 and Lumix GH2
If you are considering buying either of these cameras, read on.
I had the opportunity to shoot with both of the cameras on a long-form documentary this past week. The shoot involves chronicling families with children undergoing cancer treatment, and their caregivers at John’s Hopkins, Sloan Kettering and Dana Farber medical facilities.
Stop & Shop/Giant Foods have risen over fifty million dollars for pediatric cancer research over the past 21 years. The next time you are asked by a cashier to donate one dollar to cancer research, rest assured it will be put to good use.
Prologue
I anticipated the arrival of the AF-100 the same way I did when we bought our first Panasonic Varicam six-years ago. The Varicam did not disappoint. When I described using it to producers, I told them how beautiful and rich the picture was, and how good it made everything look, right out of the box. It is with trepidation that I considered using the Panasonic AF-100 for a project that I had shot on the Varicam for the past 5 years. If the Varicam ain’t broke, why replace it?
After spending a week of documentary shooting – interviews, B-roll, here are my impressions
The arrival of the Panasonic AF-100
The good, the bad, and the…Beautiful!
First the good
First impression is that it is an HVX-200 with micro 4/3 sensors. The viewfinder is still perfectly placed in the ergonomically ridiculous center of the camera. For a Cyclops, this position is perfect. The flip-out screen is very nice. The camera is light.
Iris control is same as HVX-200 (not easy to find when you REALLY need to). Switches are largely the same as HVX-200.
One important change is the ON/OFF switch. It is buried amidst many other switches and difficult to find in a hurry.
On-board mic is adequate. Time-code good. Menu is different than other Panasonic cameras, but easy enough to learn. XLR inputs, good. Headphone jack for audio monitoring, good. HDSDI out very good.
14-1400mm Kit Lens – The Bad
The kit lens (14-140mm) is pretty bad. Unlike the HVX-200, there is no servo-zoom. (Not that the servo on the HVX was ever smooth). Unlike the HVX-200, you can take it off. That’s good, because you will want to! What’s sad is that there was an opportunity here for this camera to really differentiate itself from the DSLRs it is competing with by having a good, all-purpose documentary lens with a built-in servo zoom. The 14-140 is the lens listed in the manual as the only lens that will work with the AF-100’s electronics. It is a converted DSLR lens that zooms IN THE OPPPOSITE direction of all other professional lenses I have ever used. This is especially unuseful for documentary shooting. All the manual-zoom muscle memory you’ve developed over the years of shooting is reversed. Imagine Chevy reversing the Brake and Accelerator peddles on the 2011 Suburban and you’ll see where I am coming from. I can make lousy shots completely on my own thank you! The lens is cheap feeling and SLOW. F4 on wide, F6 zoomed in. I found myself shooting b-roll at F6.0 in order to avoid an undesirable iris shift when zooming in for a close up. Shooting at F 6 makes finding focus difficult. It also defeats the purpose of using this camera in the first place – BOKEH, Where’s the Bokeh? Oh yeh, Bokeh’s lives with the other lenses in your kit! After a bit of practice, I was able to make peace with the lens. Not a ringing endorsement. Truthfully, the lens is not worthy of the Panasonic moniker and it puzzles me. In my estimation this lens severely limits the camera’s usefulness for documentary shooting. Why Panasonic would rely on other manufacturers to solve their camera’s shortcomings is a mystery.
I should mention here that my company, DGA Productions, owns eight Panasonic cameras. We drank deeply from the Panasonic trough. The previous models are great cameras for the purpose they are designed for. Each one made advances. If cameras are poker chips, and the players are Sony, Panasonic, and Canon et al….
AVCHD and the small SD cards.
In the technology poker game between a Canon 7d and Panasonic AF-100, the Panasonic AF-100 is saying to Canon’s 7d, “I see your 24 mbs, and….. I’ll HOLD!”
I am puzzled why Panasonic would choose AVCHD for this camera. It shows extreme laziness. Their mantra “I will give you the same bit-rate as Canon’s DSLRs, and not one Megabit more!” Sure I can put another (cumbersome) recording device on-board, and raise the megabit rate here. I can also just use another camera. Why can my HPX-370 shoot 1080p intra, or my HVX-200 shoot DVC Pro 100mbs, and my shiny new AF-100 needs NanoViagra to achieve similar Mbs? The back-end of this camera is not equal to the sexiness of the front end. Why not offer both AVCHD recording on SD cards, and P-2 slot for that 64 gig P-2 card I ALREADY OWN! Thanks Panasonic. You’ve made it possible for me, and others I suspect (maybe I am the only one!) to have a conversation with our loyal customers that starts off like this: “See, there’s this new camera we bought, we can use great lenses on it, really cinematic looking and, what’s that, what does it record onto, eh, er……AVCHD? And the client responds, “isn’t that what my home camera records on?” “Yeh, but we can put a NanoViagra on top and record in….” It makes my head hurt. Again, Panasonic relying on someone else to make the camera work to it’s full potential…
Sexy front-end: THE BEAUTIFUL
We blew the dust off of some old Cooke and Angenieux 35 mm glass that we have owned for years and, with an adapter, used it on the AF-100.
This is the joy of this camera. A fifty plus year old Cook panchro 50 mm and the AF-100 make quite an image! I put this side-by-side with the Varicam and it is just not fair. These lenses come to life with the AF-100. As Bogart says to Claude Rains in Casablanca, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship..”
I can see using the AF-100 for interviews and commercials. For documentary shooting, not so sure this is the best choice. Still, we’ll make room for it on our inventory.
Epilogue
The feedback I received from client was most positive. Interviews looked great and he was pleased with the camera’s ability to get into tight spots not possible with the Varicam.
The biggest shortcoming of the camera is lack of a good zoom lens.
Until the Birger adapter is available, and I can use my Canon DSLR lenses, I will limp along with the 14-140. It is an opportunity for someone out there to design a decent hybrid, zoom lens that has a servo for Documentary/eng shooting.
The AF-100 is good. Like many things in life, I just wish it were a little better.
Coming soon GH2 review
Live-to-Tape
Being a Documentary Cameraman suits my personality well. Don’t get me wrong, from time-to-time, I enjoy the camaraderie and expertise, the food and the luxury a big commercial, or feature crew provides. It stands to reason that given a director, focus-puller, lighting director, etc… that the director of photography should be able to create impressive images. But the real test of a DP, in my opinion, is this: Can they deliver the necessary goods without a large supporting cast? As my mentor of many years, Dean Gaskill would tell me, “It is not enough just to be good, a lighting cameraman needs to be fast, personable and good.” If you can do it well on your own, you’ll be able to do it better with a supporting cast.
Live-to-tape interviews:
Recently I worked the divisional playoff game between the N.E. Patriots and N.Y. Jets with ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio. At the end of the game we rushed the field to do a Live-to-tape interview. Sal saw Bart Scott. Take a look at the piece we did.
Live-to-tape’s can be quite challenging. Running into the chaos and celebration on the field, trying not to become separated from your talent, or crew, vying for a coveted player interview. Over the years I have developed a few rules I adhere to that I thought I would share.
1. Be clear with your talent as to how many questions they plan on asking the player BEFORE the end of the game. Usually they will say something like, “Start on a two-shot (talent & player), as I ask the first question, push in to a single-shot of player, I’ll ask three questions, then pull-out to a two-shot and I will throw back to the studio.”
2. Ask your talent and producer what players you are looking to interview. Ask for player numbers, they are easier to spot.
3. Have a fresh battery on the camera. Have a back-up battery and media/tape.
4. In recent years I have eschewed the camera light for shots like this. They can kill your camera battery halfway through the live-to-tape and the moment is ruined. Even shooting with standard-def, an acceptable exposure is possible and you’ll have the piece of mind that the camera won’t die mid-answer.
5. White balance camera.
6. Roll the camera just before the game ends. If you have loaded a fresh tape, or media, there is no way you will shoot more than fifteen minutes max before the field activity dissipates. Rolling will be one less thing to remember to do when your talent says, “Are you rolling?”
7. I also set my camera-lens to minimum focus, about six-feet right after I white balance. Again, one less thing to worry about when I begin my push to the single shot. This also allows my hand to open up my iris slightly during the push AND maintain focus simultaneously – a feet that is physically impossible for the operator to do at the same time. We have all seen live-to-tape shots where the player becomes soft-focus when the camera zooms to a single-shot.
8. This is an important point. Always have your talent on your left. My reasoning here is that when you push to your single-shot of the player, you can look at talent with your left-eye. This is important as you can judge what your talent is up to. Are they going to ask four, or even five questions? Are they going to cut the interview short and ask only two questions? You will have a better gage because you can see them. If talent is standing on your right side, the camera is between you and you get no feedback. It also can make for an awkward zoom-out to two-shot.
New Gear
DGA Productions welcomes the Panasonic AG-HPX370, Sony Handycam NEX-VG10, and a Marshall 7inch field monitor to accompany our DSLR packages.
____________________________________________________
Panasonic AG-HPX370
Sony Handycam NEX-VG10
___________________________________________________________
Comments Off
A Day With Shaq
Worked with Boston Celtic Shaquille O’Neal today for ESPN. After seeing the famed British Royal Guards this past summer, Shaq challenged himself to remain still-as-a-statue while sitting on a bench in “the pit” at Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is one of the most amazing assignments I have had the pleasure of working on in my career.
The shoot day began with a 9 am crew call at DGA Productions in Watertown, MA. The DGA-hired crew of production managers Catharine Uyenoyama, Talia Krohmal, cameramen, Michael Andrus, Ken Fraser, and audio tech Ryan Barrett met with ESPN producer Danny Arruda to go over details of the shoot.
Catharine, Danny, Ryan and I met Shaq and his assistant, Tony, at Shaq’s home in suburban Boston. We shot a brief show open with Shaq and Tony, then Shaq tweeted that he was on his way to Harvard Square. Ryan and I hopped in Shaq’s tricked-out van with mixer, HVX-200 and a list of questions for Shaq to answer. The remaining two cameras would meet us at Harvard Square
.
As we got into the van I mentioned to Shaq that I was there, with camera, at Reebok World Headquarters, 18 or so years ago, when he made an appearance after signing as sneaker deal.
Shaq was a great interview. He was gracious, cooperative, creative, spontaneous, self-deprecating, and just really fun to work with. He has a sense of humor and personality equal to his gigantic frame.
We arrived at Harvard Square. He did what he said he would – he sat, still as a statue, for almost an hour. The only time he reacted was when a jokester in the crowd got him to react by repeating, “Shaq, you are my father”. He momentarily smiled, then returned to form.
I have never seen a celebrity put himself or herself out there like Shaq did. It was crazy, and with his silence, Shaq spoke volumes about the person he is.
Thanks Shaq, Tony, ESPN and DGA Productions for an unforgettable day at the office!
* Footage shot by Talia Krohmal
Comments Off
America’s Test Kitchen Beauty Shots 2010
Some food beauty shots from Season 11 of the Emmy Nominated cooking show America’s Test Kitchen. All shots done with the Canon 5d using a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 lens. The 5D’s shallow depth of field made the test cook’s delicious creations look almost as good as they taste.
************************************************************************
******************************************************************
For more information on America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country you can visit Chris Kimball’s Blog
