Canon saying goodbye to camera operators? Not quite, but this is some crazy cool new technology from @canonemeapro and shows how the future of PTZ could mean a whole new approach to filming events and live broadcasts. 😮😮
This tech makes use of the Canon PTZ range and XC protocol, which is a communication protocol allowing cameras to send information and be controlled remotely. A computer analyses the scene in real-time using body position and facial recognition, and then analyses what camera coverage there is of each person. If a camera reframes, then the software / AI / whatever you want to call it, will change the PTZ angles to ensure every person has a clear shot. 🎥🖤
We do a lot of livestream events where this system could be super useful, freeing up camera ops to get more creative and unique shots knowing that the PTZ’s are covering the scenes and giving the vision mixer safety shots of each person. 🔥🔥
Let us know what you think of this new tech demo and how you see yourself using it…
Stackable batteries! Not our obvious first choice for exciting kit, but one of the highlights of stuff we saw at IBC this year. 🔋🖤
@coreswx launched the PB Edge Snap this year, a stackable battery that charges via USB-C and is magnetic. The stackable feature for us is really interesting as it means being able to hot swap batteries. The batteries will discharge with the furthest away from the one drawing power and therefor if you have on attached your camera rig, as long as you have another Edge Snap attached to the first one, you’ll never need to power down. 2 PD USB-C ports and 2 D/P Tap ports, along side the new cables Core SWX have launched with it, this is an all-round great solution for powering your kit. 👌👌👌
It’s got a few mounting options such as a 1/4” thread in the centre, but more importantly a cheese plate that makes use of the magnetically on each battery unit.
We were a big fan of these, thinking on to location shoots where in the past we’ve had to wake up half way through the night to swap charging batteries over on our chargers, whereas here you can charge them all stacked up.
We’re at IBC looking at some awesome new bits of kit, and this one in particular caught our eye.
This is the @nanlux_global Parallel Beam Reflector. There’s a few brands launching similar modifiers that primarily are used to project light onto reflectors and bounce the beams back into the scene. An example of this would be if you were trying to light a room on the 5th floor of an apartment block through the window and can’t get a light up that high, so you rig up some bounce outside and use a parallel beam reflector on to the ground to project a bright and controlled beam onto it. With higher powered LED lights this is becoming a great solution to location lighting, as well as lots of studio setups where this could be super useful.
This will be retailing for around $3,000 and will be available end of this year. We’re excited to test it out!
Here’s a super effective product lighting setup that you can use on almost any tabletop product. 💡🤌
All you need is a mirror and some diffusion paper. By placing a light behind the diffusion you can create beautiful gradients and blends of colour in the reflection. 🎥🖤
Here we used an @nanlite_global Pavoslim 60CL as the main colour source, and then a small spotlight to counter it with daylight and create hot spills of light. As the keylight, a Nanlite 120C set to daylight to keep colours consistent. 💡💡
Shot on @blackmagicnewsofficial Cinema 6K Full Frame, @venuslaowa 24mm Probe and @schneiderkreuznachcine ISCO lenses with @hollylandtech Pyro 7 monitor.
Wireless transmission got you confused? It’s pretty easy, Kofi (our tech guru) explains how we handle monitoring with audio wirelessly for a two camera talking head interview. 🎥😎
We’ll be making another one of these covering how we handle playback and different feeds from one camera for director and client. If there’s anything you’d like us to cover then drop a comment down below. 🖤👌
We use the @hollylandtech Pyro series for all our monitoring now, as it’s such an easy system to use and so versatile for the price. Highly recommend giving them a go if you get the chance. 🥳
We built a cupboard for a shot! Probe lens + fake cupboard + slider + @nanlite_global lights = 🤌🤌
See how we built the inside of a cupboard for a fun whip pan shot as part of a Vax advert. 🖤🖤
Directed by @elle_dimond
Producer Dawn Scipio (SM)
DoP Nathan Ryan (SM)
A-Cam Joe Turp (SM)
AC @_.lauratv
Gaffer @andrew_busby_photo
Spark Josh Mallinson-Malvern (SM)
Art styling @nikitainfilm
Art Assistant @kimcollicutt
MUA @isabelwhile_makeupartist
Runner Tom Jankso
Shot on @ursamini with @laowa.cine 24mm 2X probe and @schneiderkreuznachcine Xenar Cine III, with @mytworks slider and @manfrottoimaginemore sticks.
We’re heading off to the next shoot, guess where 🖤🎥📷
Testing out the portable smoke machine (Lesgo Fog Smoke S) on some small trains from @thelondontoyco with a probe lens and two strobes. Incredible what a little bit of smoke can do to the style of an image 🖤🔥
Mixing this with the probe lens gives a completely different feel in both perspective and vibe. The smoke machine we used had a few attachments so you could affect the smoke style, from having it sit on the surface level to a misty effect like a hazer. That allowed us to mix it up and set some ground fog as well as the atmospheric haze.
Our take-always from using the smoke machine in the macro scale:
- Make sure there’s little movement around what you’re shooting. Even moving my hand to trigger the camera made the smoke on the table move.
- Of course the more backlit you are the stronger the smoke will stand out, but we found that when the fog was sitting on the surface level, we got more volume from it by lighting from the side.
- We ended up getting both the product and the front element of the lens covered in smoke juice and residue. This stuff cleans off easily enough from your average surface but on a lens it was nightmare to remove. Be careful when hazing an area close to the lens. ⚠️⚠️
Our latest campaign work for @hollylandtech for the Hollyland Lark Max wireless microphone system.
All shot in the studio here at StillMoving 🎥🤘🔥
Visually speaking the product was a lot of fun to shoot, with the colour monitor and metal finish it meant we could play around with probe lens shots and light passes 💡🔥
Our team were given creative freedom but a very limited amount of time, so we settled for 3 storylines all shot around the studio that showcase how this microphone kit can be used in different ways by different people. 🎥🖤🤘
A very rainy day on location, but that’s what we’re used to in England ☔️🖤
After a few people reaching out and asking how we handle shooting in the rain, here’s our top 5 tips:
1. Pack for every weather. This is something you learn with experience, you may start the day in bright sun but it can quickly change. We always pack an umbrella and some waterproof covers when shooting outside of the British summertime period. Even a few plastic bags can go a long way in quickly protecting a camera or a light.
2. Make sure your crew are dressed sensibly. All our shoots have a call sheet which tells everyone what weather we’re expecting, and has a friendly reminder to wear solid shoes, waterproof tops and often hats etc. As well as this, always encourage people to pack spare socks and shoes on a rainy day, they’ll thank you once you wrap and they finally get nice dry feet.
3. Bring a large tarpaulin that you can use to quickly cover all your equipment if you can’t work from your vehicle or a sheltered area. This has saved us countless times. Throw it over all your bags and kit and you have one less thing to worry about as the rain comes down.
4. Use equipment that you can trust in conditions like rain and frost. This comes with a degree of trial and error and your own comfort of risk, but for example we have a good sense of how wet our Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro G2 can get before we start facing problems. Same goes for our batteries (we use @coreswx) and they have never had issues in even heavy rain or frost.
5. Communication is key, as is team morale. There are two important parts to this, the first being that it’s essential that you can easily keep people informed of changes in weather and changes to the schedule. Most productions (even small ones) use radios to keep comms flowing, on our smaller shoots we use @hollylandtech C1 Pro headsets that are pretty splashproof. It’s also critical to keep people motivated and engaged, our team will be t
Mixing some flash and long shutter duration for awesome effect with motion blur 🔥📷💡
A little peak into life on set with StillMoving 🖤
Who says you can’t have equipment in shot? 🎥💡 Using a massive broncolor Para 222 as a feature backdrop for some fashion work. Paired with some awesome lens filters, the effect is insane 🔥🔥
This was shot as part of an advert for @manfrottoimaginemore , launching their new tripod range back in 2020. We love these creative shoots 💪🖤
Kit:
Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro G2 4.6K
Schneider Xenon Primes
Schneider Filters
Core SWX Neo 9
Manfrotto 645 Tripod
