Afghanistan’s female footballers from Ed Jones on Vimeo.

“Is this normal?” I strained to ask the US soldier opposite me, as the military transport aircraft violently pitched and rolled in the skies above Kabul, picking its way between the mountains.

I was returning to the Afghan capital following a two week embed with US forces in the country’s troubled southern city of Kandahar; a trip originally intended to coincide with a NATO offensive aimed at pushing the Taliban from their spiritual home. 

Now – with just over a week to spent at the AFP bureau in Kabul, I was keen to find a video opportunity which didn’t feature soldiers, weapons, or the bleak colours of desert camouflage. 

It’s not compulsory for AFP photographers to shoot video, but it’s something that I enjoy – and find myself doing more and more; not just short segments of news footage, but also fully-voiced features. 

A colleague had arranged a chance to visit the Afghan national under-18 women’s football team during training, and with the World Cup under way it seemed the ideal time to attempt a short video report on the team. 

It was a particularly hot afternoon as we made our way to the football ground, past hastily fortified police checkpoints and through the flour-like dust thrown into the air by the slightest breeze or vehicle – of which there were many, vying for passage along streets laced with razor-wire. 

Arriving at the sports ground on the fringes of the NATO headquarters in Kabul after a short but dehydrating walk felt like discovering a desert oasis: but in this case it was a quiet, verdant, field disrupted only by the distant patter of gentle competition and flecked with red tracksuits; a colour in harmony with the expanses of blue and green that lay above and below.

The girls, thoroughly enjoying themselves, were a poignant sight as one group took part in an informal game while another practiced shooting goals. I immediately set to work — there wasn’t long to shoot, and I wanted to catch the action while it lasted.

Ed on assignment in Afghanistan

I had two Canon 5DmkII’s with me, a 16-35L 2.8, and a 70-200 F4L IS which I had bought before my trip instead of the far heavier f2.8 version: I find the weight and image stabilizer on the lighter lens ideal for video, though I didn’t realise at the time that the sound of the stabilizer was picked up by the camera’s internal mic. Although it was not particularly loud, I could have been done without it.

I had gathered a good selection of action sequences and was framing up a long shot when, without warning, two US Blackhawk helicopters roared overhead, descending on the pitch and scattering its occupants. 

I had been shooting with the wide lens looking upwards, when a man appeared behind me and bizarrely grabbed my tripod mounted with one of the 5DmkII’s. I chased after him but he couldn’t hear me over the thunderous sound of the choppers getting ever closer, and carried on running away with my gear to the side of the pitch.

“No photo, no photo!” yelled the unidentified Afghan man as I frustratedly re-acquired the camera and tripod. I thrust my ISAF media badge at him, showing I was cleared to photograph the area, but he persisted with his slogan, so I changed position to continue shooting.

After landing for no explicable purpose, the helicopters promptly lurched back into the sky leaving the bemused footballers to regroup – and having suppressed my false sense of security.

I thought about using this as the centrepiece to the video, but when it came to editing I found a more endearing angle in the lighthearted narrative surrounding the observations of my interviewee – and I hope that viewers can relate to her comments, which show a down-to-earth, ordinary girl, but touch on the struggle faced by women in Afghanistan.

Many of the players were understandably reluctant to speak for the camera, and so I used just one subject for my sound bites. To record the sound I used a cheap Panasonic stereo lapel microphone plugged directly into the camera, its one-metre cable limiting my lens choice to the 16-35 2.8L on a tripod. 

The microphone, which I had picked up in New Delhi on my way to Afghanistan, works brilliantly and was extremely useful when, during the embed, I had been able to very quickly clip it on to soldiers either for interviews, or for on-the-spot briefs during operations.

A simple interview setup - Panasonic wired lapel mic

Click pic to see Ed's report from Kandahar using the Panasonic lapel mic

I edited the footage upon return to Hong Kong, where I wrote a script and spent many, many hours behind the microphone trying to get a good take: we all hate the sound of our own voice, right?

The result is extremely simple, short, and hopefully snappy enough to be ingested by viewers easily. Creating pace and rhythm to my videos is something I am keen to master – and I’m extremely fortunate to have the AFP TV department on hand to help me achieve this by refining my scripts and offering objective advice when I edit my footage.

The feature is not particularly creatively shot, because with all the time constraints I usually face during filming, the confidence to try a different approach has to come with more experience – much like it did when I first began taking photos. 

Included in the final edit are a couple of shots by Asrar Ghani, an AFP TV cameraman based in Kabul, of general street scenes: shots I had overlooked but should have remembered to get. But Asrar’s footage is great, and gives context to the finished video.

During my time in Afghanistan, myself and an AFP reporter visited policewomen and female students in Kandahar, and heard first hand of the inspirational determination of the country’s women to overcome years of repression. 

My video of footballing females will never be a game-changer in illuminating this struggle, but with any luck it will offer a tiny, but uplifting, glimpse of progress. 

Ed Jones is a staff photographer with AFP.

The changing world of Japan’s Geisha from Matthew Allard on Vimeo.

The changing face of geishas was one of the stories I covered on a recent assignment to Japan. For centuries their mysterious world was reserved for the elite, with wealthy men paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of a geisha’s company.
Times in Japan have changed and the modern geisha has had to adapt to survive. With the financial crisis that has swept across the world, the number of clients has greatly declined. Geishas or Maiko (the trainees) have now had to look for other sources of income. In Kyoto, beer gardens are now using them to mingle with customers and dance on a small stage. This is a far cry from the exclusivity the culture thrived on for generations. It has brought them out of teahouses and into the world of the common person.

Correspondent Steve Chao and I pre-planned to shoot this story on a DSLR. I usually shoot on Sony XDCAM HD cameras, but they are not great in low light and are big and heavy and don’t allow you to get that intimate with your subject. Our shoot involved filming at night in a rooftop beer garden and also in a small teahouse. It is very difficult and usually horribly expensive to film a geisha; we were very lucky and managed to find a young Maiko to shoot, but were given limited access and time. I wanted an intimate feel to the story, to take you into the geishas’ world but also show you how they have been forced to adapt to modern times.

Armed with a Canon 7D, 5Dmk2 and 7 lenses we got to work. The beer garden was crowded and dark, but the 7D allowed me to shoot in an intimate environment where the light wasn’t ideal. I don’t like using artificial light unless It is absolutely necessary and most of the shots in the beer garden were made using ambient light. On a few, I had Steve hold a Litepanels 1×1 light on a boom pole above the table. These are fantastic and produce a beautiful soft light that imitates ambient light. All the sound was recorded separately on a Zoom H4N using either Seinnheiser radio or shotgun mics.

The next part of the story involved shooting the Maiko doing her make-up in a small traditional Japanese house. This is extremely rare to get and I wanted to make it look as good as I could in the limited time we had with her. She would put her make-up on in front of a large mirror with traditional Japanese sliding doors in the background so I turned off all the lights in the room and placed two 1×1 Litepanel LED lights dimmed down on either side of the mirror. Given the small room and the size of the mirror I wanted to get 3 different angles of her transforming herself into a geisha. I placed the 5D with a Canon 16-35mm f2.8 lens at a low angle right underneath the mirror. This camera was going to record the wide shot for the whole sequence. The 7D was placed very close up to the edge of the mirror but it had to be far back enough that it couldn’t be seen in the wide shot by the other camera. This made the 7D very hard to operate as it was in an awkward position, but the compromise had to be made.

The 7D was running a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro (the non-stabilized version). I wanted to shoot very close details of the make-up being applied. I also wanted very shallow depth of field. I was unable to use my Zacuto Z-finder or a monitor due to the position of the camera.  I was also forced to continually rack focus as the shot was so tight and the talent was constantly moving. After 45 minutes my eyes were watering from having to concentrate so hard. To add to the difficulty, she couldn’t stop or repeat anything. I had one shot at it and if I got it wrong or out of focus I couldn’t do it again.

This shoot proved to be very difficult but I was happy with the end result. The 7D was set in 720p/50fps as I wanted to slow down the make-up sequence in Apple’s Cinema tools. It was cut on FCP and there was no use of Magic Bullet or fancy color correction programs. I’m shooting for international broadcast and I don’t want soft, overly colour-corrected images. The joy for me is getting it right when you shoot it and not having  to say….”I’ll fix it in post” I’m not sure if I just happened to get a great 7D, but I shoot on the standard camera profile and I’m more than happy with the image it produces. The DSLR still provides me with a lot of problems; bad moire, rolling shutter and – in almost all situations without a very good shoulder support – terrible hand-held results. The cameras provide spectacular bang for your buck but if you use them you have to know their limitations and plan accordingly. I travel almost every week to shoot stories across Asia-Pacific. This is only the third story I have shot completely on DSLRs because in most cases I don’t have the time or the limitations of the cameras make it too hard to use on many assignments. While they do have their place in my kit, I’m excited about the new breed of hybrid video/DSLR cameras that are on the horizon. I don’t ever see DSLRs getting proper audio, full HDMI out or all the features we crave. Technology is moving so quickly that a new breed of cameras will ultimately outdate the video DSLR.

Lenses used on this shoot were a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II, 50mm f1.2, 135mm f2, 24-70mm f2.8, 100mm Macro f2.8, 16-35mm f2.8 and a Tokina 11-16mm   f2.8. All interviews were shot on the 70-200mm.

About Matthew Allard, Aljazeera Senior Field Cameraman, Kuala Lumpur:
Matt has been a Camera/Editor in TV news for 20 years, previously working for both Channel 9 and Channel 10 in Australia. Twice Network Ten Australia’s cameraman of the year as well as being a Walkley Finalist for outstanding camerawork in 2006 (for coverage of the Cronulla Race Riots) and a Logie Finalist for outstanding news coverage 2006 (Bali 9). He has covered news events in more than 30 countries, from major sporting events to terrorist bombings. Based out of the Kuala Lumpur broadcast centre in Malaysia he is an avid user and follower of new technology, shooting stories on HD broadcast cameras as well as new Canon DSLR’s.

There’s rarely any planning when I shoot video – the fleeting nature of the news and feature stories I cover doesn’t tend to allow for it. That was certainly the case when I wound up on the set of a 3D porn movie recently.

I had initially rejected the idea of shooting video of the project in anticipation of the (copyright) complications which might be associated with gathering footage. But it became clear that the makers of the film were laid back enough to allow me to publicise their latest creation in whatever medium I wished.

And so myself and a reporter spent the afternoon observing the rehearsal and subsequent takes of a fairly tame love-making scene in a faux cave-turned-love-nest adorned with erotic artwork and constructed around a giant phallic fountain.

World’s First 3D Porn? from Ed Jones on Vimeo.

My video equipment is efficiently basic – a Canon 5d Mk II, a tripod and a Sony URX-P1 wireless lapel microphone for interviews. I don’t carry an LCD viewfinder, follow focus rig or external microphone for ambient sound, essentially because I haven’t found the need for these things yet (though I’m sure I may in the future). And for the moment I’m keen to keep my setup minimal, which makes things easier when rapidly switching between stills and video.

I went back and forth between the two formats constantly, trying to build a rough mental storyline for the video while simultaneously censoring what I shot in anticipation of the cultural sensitivities of AFP‘s global clientèle. I didn’t intend to document two and a half minutes of pixellated bodies writhing around the love-cave in its entirety, but hopefully to capture something more subtle and tongue-in-cheek.

As usual I successfully managed to ruin a couple of great shots by being indecisive and pressing the shutter in the middle of a video sequence for fear of missing an endearing photo – but once I got myself in check I was able to methodically gather the material, helped by the repetitive nature of the rehearsals and takes.

Once the safe shots were out of the way and I knew I had enough video to construct something watchable, I turned my attention to capturing more candid moments and began planning the positions for the interviews.

In the past I have conducted the interviews myself, but this time I coordinated with the reporter and we agreed an interview method. We would pause in between questions, allowing me to change camera angles, and the interviewee would start the answers with the question, providing more complete soundbites.

I have tried this approach before and found that too many interruptions can impede a natural-sounding interview. But for my Japanese adult video subjects, accustomed to fornicating on film, the sight of my less-than-intimidating lens was no cause for a sudden bout of self-consciousness.

Sony Radio mics were all that was used for sound

Despite the noisy surroundings, the URX-P1 wireless lapel mic I had brought along was more than sufficient to isolate excellent sound quality from the interviews; I had adjusted the levels in the camera manually first. Ambient sound quality using the camera’s built-in microphone was not really a concern, as I knew that the eventual voiceover would be the more prominent sound.

In any case, the relatively narrow dynamic range of the built-in mic was actually helpful in cutting out some of the less welcome low and high frequencies found on a busy film set in a reverberating warehouse.

Upon return to the office I immediately turned around a ‘webclip’ of the day’s footage, as the text and photos were slated to move to clients with the following morning’s features. A ‘webclip’ is a short, simple, 30-60 second series of unvoiced shots featuring descriptive captions that clients can embed within a website or cut with other footage to supplement a story.

The final video would be sent to broadcast and internet-based clients two days later on Monday, which left me the weekend to write a script and prepare three versions of the video: one voiced (complete with voiceover), one for natural sound (for foreign language translations), and one for web clients – the version which affords the most creativity because it is not likely to be altered or re-edited (like the previous two), but rather embedded within websites.

After ruthlessly culling all unnecessary information and sound bites from the script, it was sent to the news desk for subbing. Then I recruited two colleagues to provide the English language voices of the actors in my interviews and added my own voice to the rest of the sequence.

Ed Jones with his Canon 5DmkII kit

From the camera, the video files were downsized into a more manageable and editable 720 x 1280 format using the pro-res codec. The footage was edited in Final Cut Pro, using almost no colour correction, grading or ‘looks’. Minor levels adjustments were made to some shots, and compression was added to the voiceovers. Finally the sequence was exported using Final Cut Pro’s Compressor, keeping the dimensions but changing the codec to H.264.

Once this was done, a dopesheet detailing dates, names, a shotlist, and a transcription of the script and interviews was embedded in the IPTC information of the video file, before being handed over to the AFP TV department who checked everything over before beaming the package to the agency’s subscribers.

As the video hit the wires, I was able to watch the climax of a frantic weekend, as my own low-budget production popped up on websites, and hopefully TVs around the world. Other AFP bureaus in Europe, South America, and the Middle East were able to translate the feature for clients in their regions, giving added momentum to my two-minute insight into what is probably the world’s first 3D porn film.

Ed Jones is a staff photographer with AFP.

Snail Bonanza – World Snail Racing Championships from Rii Schroer on Vimeo.

Ready, Steady, Slow was the motto for this quirky little story. But as ever with newspaper work, I was on a tight schedule: shooting on a Saturday afternoon, driving back, and editing to meet a deadline of early Sunday afternoon. I prepared a list of important shots and a rough storyboard the night before, after having spoken to one of the organizers. Being a one-person camera, sound, reporter, and producer team means as much pre-planning as possible, while still leaving enough room for the events to unfold in front of you. Luckily for me, my friend Tansy Sibley was up to join me for this roadtrip to Norfolk and was invaluable for helping out with extra audio.

In the boot of the car were two Canon 5DmkII bodies with one Rode VideoMic and Zacuto Z-finder, Manfrotto tripod with fluid head, Monopod, Zacuto rig with follow focus, Glidetrack slider, Canon Timer remote controller, and my arsenal of Canon lenses plus the Carl Zeiss 100mm macro lens to try out. I’d also brought my stepladder and, still one of the most important assets, the Marantz audio recorder with Sennheiser ME66 shotgun microphone.

We drove two and a half hours through the pouring rain (I’d packed a roll of plastic bags, sellotape, other tape, rain trousers and jacket, and wished I worked in California!) but the downpour miraculously stopped the moment we arrived and, luckily for us, it stayed dry throughout the afternoon.
One pre-planned intro-idea was to do a timelapse sequence of the event being set up with the timer remote controller, but this got scrapped right away; there was not enough setting up going on, with the round table already standing in the middle of the village cricket ground. I switched to plan B, concentrating on the World Championship Snail Racing sign. Shot on the 70-200mm lens locked down on the tripod, pulling focus was done by hand on this one.

As I was there to shoot pictures as well, one 5DmkII dangled around my shoulder for stills while the other was rigged for video. In retrospect that was rather impractical, and I should have rigged up both cameras for filming. Changing plates repeatedly – with one for the Zacuto rig and another one for the Manfrotto tripod head – cost valuable time, and it would have been so easy to have used the camera rigged for the tripod for shooting stills as well. Another alternative would have been to rig up the Zacuto rig on the tripod in the first place. This would have allowed for use of the focus puller on the tripod too.

Rii with the Manfrotto tripodhead plate (L) and the 394 plate used on the Zacuto rig. Photo credit: Graham Fox

Nevertheless, one of the best little gadgets is a Miller key-chain mini screwdriver for changing plates, that I once got given at a trade fair. Invaluable, sturdy, and always with you (unless you lose your keys)!

The Miller keyring screwdriver. Photo credit: Graham Fox

The snail “racing” scenes were mostly filmed with the Zeiss 100mm f2 macro lens , which I tested on the day and got hooked on. Some nice focus pulling shots, alternating between the racing snails, did not make it into the edit as the material on the “humping” seemed to give a funny little twist to the story. Still, it was great to try it out. The longer arc of travel from minimum focus to infinity allows focus pulling to be more precise and smoother due to more resistance in the lens barrel.
Audio was tricky even with Tansy’s assistance as the sound around the racing ring went from quiet murmurs to enthusiastic shrieks. The speakers in the background – which were broadcasting line dancing, alternating with a brass band – did not help matters. It was the kind of situation when easy-to-reach audio controls are desperately needed, as are proper headphones. I managed to do the interviews with the snail racing enthusiasts pointing away from the line dancing/brass band action, and that worked rather well with the Marantz audio recorder and shotgun microphone. The hotshoe-attached Rode microphone without a controlling device can be handy for background sound and quiet interview situations, but could not have done this job on its own. Back home, the files were converted with MPEG Streamclip into Apple ProRes files and edited in Final Cut Pro 7.

I’m always looking out for a front page picture, but my hopes of exposing the Queen as a snail racing enthusiast (her summer residence, Sandringham, is only 3 miles away) were disappointed. The lack of doping controls should occupy the International Olympic Committee until 2012, but I didn’t spot any scandals. However, the Norfolk regional accent and warm welcome of the crowd certainly compensated for those let-downs.

There is always room for improvement on shoots. A smooth and fast workflow for rigging and changing the tools you want to work with is extremely important, especially when time is precious, as is quick focusing, and an always (!) steady hand with the rig support. I was a bit disappointed at not using the Glidetrack as originally planned for some crowd shots alongside the ring, but rigging it up on two stands (the long one-metre version) and hence carrying around even more equipment was just not practical in this case, particularly as there were space restrictions in the ring.

I hope you enjoyed the piece anyway. Comments, suggestions, criticism, and advice are appreciated and welcome.

You can contact Rii at:
RII VISUALS
www.riischroer.de
www.vimeo.com/user1008646

It’s six am and as the sun begins to rise over the Mongolian steppes I’m standing – 5DMkII poised – wondering if this time I’ve bitten off a little more than I can chew.  We’ve pitched a short film of the horse racing at the annual country wide Naadam festival to my bosses at The Guardian.  As ever with the newspaper I’m on a limited budget, with the crew consisting of reporter Tania Branigan and myself; there is no second camera, sound man, assistant or producer.   I usually prefer shooting solo as it allows for more intimate footage, but for this assignment I wish I had more help – I can only be in one place at one time and for a live race event like this there will be no second chances.

Getting to this point was hard enough. We arrived in Mongolia less than a day earlier so had little time to prepare.  I had briefed a local fixer ahead of our arrival that I wanted to follow a young jockey through his day.  But while he found a suitable child in the capital he could not find a local race where we could get sufficient access to the subjects.  Luckily I’d researched online and found a possible alternative, so taking a bit of a gamble we drove half a day out of Ulan Bator to the town of Kharkhorin (a bumpy ride despite the 4×4).
Luckily the local race organisers agreed to all our requests. Our next task was to find our subject. It didn’t seem that hard given the tens of competitors, but I should have known better. With weeks to befriend one it might have been different, but every child we spoke to was incredibly shy.  Tania decided it would be far to follow one of the horse trainers instead and managed to find Tsedendamba – an amazingly eloquent 61-year-old who has been in the saddle since he was four. He had a young jockey called Purevsuren who was racing the next day and we agreed to meet them just before sunrise.

I had anticipated just how hard it would be to get all the shots I wanted so I packed accordingly, bringing five HD cameras – a Canon 1DmkIV, 5DmkII, 550D and two GoPro HD cams.  As I was travelling light I also chose three slower, ligher weight, f4 aperture Canon L lenses – a 17-40mm, 24-105mm and a 70-200mm.   I also had a 50mm f1.2L and a Sigma 12-24mm lens which I intended to use on the 550D in cases where it ran the risk of getting damaged.  Even though I only had a 20kg checked baggage allowance I also managed to bring with me a Manfrotto 561BHDV monopod, Redrockmicro shoulder rig, Zacuto Z-finder, Steadicam Merlin, Juicedlink DT454, Sanken CS-1 shotgun mic, Sennheiser G2 radio mics and a Gitzo 2941LVL tripod with Manfrotto 701HDV head…with a bit of help from Tania.

After a few hours sleep in our ger – the traditional Mongolian round, felted tents that herders live in – we headed out to the location in the dark.  Tsedendamba had been up the whole night, preparing for the race, but greeted us enthusiastically.  We started to interview him as the sun began to rise, as this is when herders look to the skies to predict what kind of horse will win that day.

For the extreme close up of his eyes I used a Canon EF12 extension tube on the 50mm f1.2L. Normally I would use a 100mm macro lens but I had no room for it this time.  For audio I used radio mics into the Juicedlink DT454 on one channel and then a camera-mounted Sanken CS-1 shotgun mic into the other as a fallback.  Thanks to the Juicedlink’s headphone monitor I was able to hear what was being fed to the camera.  
For the long shots of the sunrise I fitted a Canon 2x convertor to the 70-200 f4L.   The resulting f8 maximum aperture wasn’t an issue because most of these shots were quite bright and shot as a silhoutte.  

Sunrise shot with Canon 70-200f4L IS and 2x convertor

Next I fitted a 550D with the Sigma 12-24 to a Steadicam Merlin and filmed some walking shots of the boy and trainer.  Even though I’ve had a little hands-on instruction with the Merlin from its inventor Garrett Brown, I still find it hard to set up and use in a hurry; hopefully my Steadicam skills will improve in time.  Setting the lens aperture at f8 allowed me to set the focus at around 2 metres and get pretty much everything in focus so I wasn’t constantly trying to adjust it.

One shot I was keen to get was of the boy and trainer walking off, from a high angle.  Sadly I didn’t have a Kessler Crane to hand so I had to make do.  I held up in the air my 5DmkII with the 12-24mm on top of a Manfrotto video monopod, wedging the monopod’s little feet against my body.  I started with it at head height next to the trainer and, as they walked off, slowly raised the camera to fake a jib effect.  It’s far from perfect but I think it was worth a try.  When I came to edit it I applied Final Cut Pro’s Smoothcam filter to iron out any minor bumps.

Next I had to quickly shoot a montage of shots to illustrate the festival itself.  The bulk of shots were on the 70-200 f4L IS, with the new Genus Fader ND and Zacuto Z-finder fitted, using the monopod and with the lens image stabilizer to help steady the image.  The focus pulls I did were all done by hand with no follow focus (again I had no room in my luggage); most were bad, but a couple came off okay.  For the slow motion shots of the wrestlers I switched the camera to 720p/50 and conformed the footage to 25p afterwards in Apple’s Cinematools.  I was allowed to go into the wrestling ring for only a few minutes to get the wide shots, so I had to go handheld using the 17-40mm lens on my Redrockmicro custom rig. Steadicam would have been better but was too hard to get right in the time I had.  Most of the time I was just trying to avoid the wrestlers so I couldn’t really get as close as I wanted either.

For the horse race I wanted to make sure I had enough shots to allow me to cut a fast-paced sequence that showed just how intense it was.  I also needed to make sure there was no additional danger to the jockeys from what I was doing – especially as there are ethical questions about whether such young children should be racing like this.  I had brought a pair of GoPro HD cameras with me for this very purpose.  The boy jockeys were very happy to wear them so we attached one on Purevsuren’s chest, and another on the helmet of another rider.  The GoPro’s record in 1080p but have no viewfinder so setting up can be a little tricky.  I guestimated the framing by looking at the reflection of the image in the lens head-on.  GoPros have an amazing battery life and can record uninterrupted for long periods.  This was important as I had to set the cameras running a long time before the race actually started.  Unfortunately it was very dusty and one of the cameras somehow got a smudge in the lens between setting up and the race – in the end I had to use the footage as I couldn’t shoot it again.

One other downside to the GoPros is that there is no easy way to fit Neutral Density filters (apart from a small custom one, which I didn’t have, which goes inside the case).   This meant that the GoPro was going to be using fast shutter speeds in the bright light of the race.  Luckily this wasn’t a complete disaster as I had made the creative decision to shoot all the race footage at high shutter speed anyway for an action movie feel.  I set the DSLRs at shutter speed around 1/2000th/sec when shooting the race.

Ready to shoot from the sunroof using Redrockmicro rig and Z-finder

We had arranged with officials for our 4×4 to follow the race along with the other escort vehicles.  For the race start I had Tania shoot a wide shot on my second camera.  This worked out well as I needed both wide and long shots.  I stood out of the car sunroof ready to roll.  We had to maintain a safe distance so as not to frighten the horses; as a result most of the shooting was on the Canon 70-200mm with the Redrockmicro shoulder rig for support.  The terrain was very rough and it was going to be impossible to get smooth shots for more than a few seconds at a time.  Focussing was going to be tough too, as much as I love faster apertures I decided to shoot at around f5.6 or f8 instead so that focus was not so critical.  I had also tested the Steadicam Merlin but there was no way to make it work in the high wind and with a long enough lens – I reckon the best way to do this properly would be a r/c helicopter mounted camera. I also equipped the 550D with a tripod for wide angle shots; the aim was to get ahead of the riders during parts of the race and put the camera down on its own near the track so the horses would come past it.  Occasions like this are perfect for the 550D as if it were to get destroyed by a stray rider or car it would not be as bad as a dead 5DMkII.

Our 4x4 needing a clean

When it came down to it, the whole race took less than half an hour.  I got almost enough usable footage to string together in the edit.  There were a couple of shots missing however and though we were only able to follow one race all the way though I was able to pick up some b-roll from static positions on a second race later in the day.

If I were to do it again I would certainly bring a bigger crew and more equipment. That said, I hope the end result is watchable and more cinematic that one of our regular news reports.  Let me know what you think.

LIGHTSCAPES Episode 1: Grand Ise Shrine trailer from Peter H. Chang on Vimeo.

I was introduced to Akira Hasegawa and his art during the filming of “Children of Enlightenment”, my documentary about Japanese youth counterculture. The renowned director of over 4,000 commercials and the pioneer of the Digital Kakejiku (D-K) art form, Akira is a true renaissance man. He is deeply philosophical and even brews spectacular sake. He is such a fascinating subject that I immediately decided to devote an entirely separate documentary to Akira in order to fully capture the essence of the man and his work. Based on the strength of my photography and film projects, he entrusted me to tell his story and bring his art to American audiences. Collaborating closely with Christopher Frey at Cross Media International, this led to the development of a new television series featuring Akira’s art.

The first step was deciding how to film it. Viewing one of my favorite films, “Baraka”, on Blu-ray was a revelation. It was shot in 70mm film, and I had seen it several times in 70mm, but I was startled at the image quality at 1080p. It turns out that they did an 8K scan from the original negative! It makes a big difference when you downconvert to HD from 4K or 8K, not to mention future-proofing your footage to some extent – 4K displays already exist and are the wave of the future. The picture is perceptibly sharper and richer. While our finishing format would be 1080i for broadcast and 1080p for Blu-ray, I wanted to start with the largest, highest resolution format possible.

Obviously, we did not have the budget for 70mm film. For the timelapse sequences, we needed a camera that could capture Akira’s art at night. We quickly settled on the Canon 5DmkII due to its huge full-frame sensor, low-light capabilities, and its overall image quality. We would capture the timelapse sequences at 5.6K RAW – more than ten times the resolution of standard 1920×1080 HD and near IMAX quality. For the real-time cinematography, we decided to shoot with the Red One at 4K RAW. We would use the Birger Canon EF mount and fast Canon L lenses to allow us to maintain a consistent look. I brought DP Paul Leeming onboard to handle the Red One, while I tackled the timelapse photography.

Our first shoot was at the Grand Ise Shrine, Japan’s most revered and sacred site. Akira’s D-K Live art installation took place at the entrance to the shrine – the historic Uji Bridge – as part of the re-opening and re-dedication ceremonies of the traditional wooden structure, which is rebuilt every 20 years. The event coincided with “Bunka no hi”, the Japanese national holiday celebrating culture and the arts, and was watched by a crowd of 250,000 on the banks of the Isuzu River.

It was a daunting shoot that lasted a day and a half. Akira’s D-K art had never before been captured in timelapse, let alone with this kind of technology. The D-K imagery changes once a minute, synchronized to the human heartbeat. It changes so slowly that if you are looking at it in real time, you may not notice it changing at all. It was critical to figure out proper exposures and intervals prior to the D-K Live installation. The only problem – Akira does not do test runs. We finally persuaded him to allow us a quick dry run the evening before, despite a light rain.

Setting up a timelapse shot on the 5DmkII

After a few scant hours of sleep, we were back out at the shrine at 4:30am capturing the sunrise. It was an honor to be given access to film at the shrine, so we wanted to respect the sanctity of the temple and environment. We had a very small crew, so we were able to operate in a very unobtrusive manner while remaining agile and mobile. Since we had a lot of ground to cover in a short time, it was critical that we be able to move quickly. Timelapse intervals ranged from 1 to 4 seconds.

One thing both Akira and I wanted to make sure to capture was the transition from day to night – as the sun sets, Akira’s D-K shines and rises. Having had no opportunity to test this, it was going to be a bit of a nail-biting shot in the dark. I would only have one shot at this. Rather than going with aperture priority and then removing the flicker in post, I decided to use multiple cameras shooting in manual, starting the shots one stop over, halting one stop under, then repeating. Length of exposures ranged from 1/3 to 1.3 seconds at 3 second intervals.

Peter H. Chang films Akira Hasegawa setting up projectors for D-K

During the D-K Live exhibition, I set up three cameras to shoot simultaneously at 3-5 second intervals. I found myself sprinting back and forth between the cameras, as two of them were placed on opposing river banks. The CF cards filled up quickly shooting RAW timelapse. Luckily, I had a Nexto DI eXtreme on hand, which allowed me to offload and back-up cards immediately and reuse them. It got a bit frantic at times. Next time I will bring more cards!

The shoot culminated with the spellbinding sight of thousands of people carrying candlelit red lanterns across the bridge. I wish we’d had more cameras rolling! It was tough to maintain a steady timelapse shot with the crowds of people swarming past since the tripod legs would constantly get bumped and the wooden bridge vibrated with all the pedestrians. For this scene, I used a 1/2s shutter to allow for a bit of motion blur and 1 second intervals for the timelapse. I attempted several pans, but due to interfering foot traffic they were unsuccessful.

Paul Leeming operates the Red One

Coupled with fast Canon L lenses (17, 24, 35, 85, 135, 70-200), the high ISO capabilities of the 5D Mark II excelled at capturing Akira’s kaleidoscopic D-K display with crystal clarity and minimal noise. One of our biggest challenges was capturing the low light real-time footage at night on the Red One. With the D-K art projection, candlelit lanterns, and a bit of moonlight as the only light sources, it was difficult to hold enough light to give the images clarity and color depth. However, the dynamic range of the Red sensor and shooting in 4K allowed us to downconvert the image to HD in post, resulting in less noise and a sharper image. While the Ise Shrine episode was shot on Red’s first generation camera sensor, subsequent episodes will be shot on the new Mysterium-X sensor, capable of greater dynamic range and much improved low light performance.

Paul Leeming films D-K in front of Uji bridge

In addition to the timelapse photography, I also captured 1080p video with the 5D Mark II throughout the shoot for the upcoming standalone Akira Hasegawa documentary. Altogether, for this first episode, we captured nearly 9 hours of footage on the Red, and over 15,000 still timelapse frames on the Canon 5D Mark II.

To post-process the timelapse stills, I used Adobe Lightroom 3 beta. This was a somewhat slow and cumbersome process – it took a week to edit and then export 15,000 RAW files. I then brought those sequences into Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 alongside the R3D files, which Premiere handles natively. As luck would have it, Paul was on the beta team for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 so we were able to use CS5 for color correction – it works much better with Red footage than CS4 because it incoporates the RedSpace color science that we shot with.

With the premiere episode of Lightscapes, I am thrilled to help bring both the Ise Shrine and the art of Akira Hasegawa to American audiences.

LIGHTSCAPES premieres Monday, June 21 on Discovery HD Theater at 7:30 AM ET / PT.

LIGHTSCAPES is produced for Discovery HD Theater by Cinefugue Productions and Cross Media International. http://lightscapes.tv

He tells of the technique used to create some stunning time-lapse sequences using just regular equipment and some lateral thinking.

I was shooting photos at the Shanghai Expo on assignment for Getty Images editorial and after the opening weekend I decided to stick around for a bit longer and shoot moving images of some of the more interesting buildings there. My friend Dan O’Connor and I had previously worked on a time-lapse piece shot in Beijing and I had been looking for opportunities to stretch my horizons – shooting in some different settings. Of all the buildings I had visited the Danish pavilion seemed like the most challenging – so I chose to try that one first.

The Danish Pavilion from Shanghai Expo Timelapse Machine on Vimeo.

First I did some general time-lapses of the whole structure, then I started to play with the idea of following the building’s spiral structure – its dominant element. I wanted to shoot a time-lapse moving the camera following the spiral, shooting towards the building’s centre. I first tried to slide my camera down the spiral with my camera on a clamp around the railing, using a towel between the clamp and the rail. This method turned out to be very unstable and I had to rethink. Next I figured that a better option was to place the camera on a tripod (Gitzo GT3541XLS with Manfrotto 405 head) and move it manually down the spiral – shooting a still every four seconds using a remote control timer switch. It took me a couple of test runs but as I practiced gradually the bumps disappeared. Once I knew I could do it well I made a double run following the infinite spiral shape of the building’s top deck.

For most of the time-lapses I set the camera to manual exposure mode, occasionally adding a ND filter to slow the shutter speed. If there was a significant movement or light change then I opted to shoot Aperture Priority exposure mode instead.

Seppe's 5DmkII ready to shoot timelapse

The main challenge at the Danish pavilion – and at the entire Expo – is to work with such a big crowd around you. The constantly changing subject in frame combined with the tough conditions behind the camera, such as the bustle and the heat, made shooting hard work. These conditions force you to think harder and I found this to be as much a positive as a negative element.

Each time-lapse sequence consisted of about 300 images. I assembled the video and time-lapses in Final Cut Pro and used the music to bring out the best of the images. Composer Wim Mertens’ music is ideal for time-lapses and this type of editing – I like to use the structure of the music to organize the images and determine pace and mood.

The regular video was shot on the Canon 5DmkII at 24p. Most of the lenses used were Canon L primes (24, 50, 100) together with some L zoom lenses (16-35 and 70 – 200). Unfortunately I don’t have any rig or shoulder support so most handheld video was done using a tripod with legs folded together, often upside down for extra stability.

Outside the Pavillion

I have only been doing time-lapses for a couple of months now, but it has been a very intense learning process, in which I have been exploring the format from scratch. I believe it doesn’t have to be all clouds and traffic. However, there are certain rules it seems – you need to have either dramatic change, a strong sense of direction or a strong rhythm in them.

In total I spent a week and a half on the Expo site in between my other assignments and managed to shoot around fifty time-lapse sequences. We have completed another Shanghai Expo piece, this time from the UK pavilion, shot in a very similar way with the same idea and setup. I hope you enjoy it.

The UK Pavilion from Shanghai Expo Timelapse Machine on Vimeo.

If you’ve been experiencing erratic behaviour from your Macro lens aperture in video mode on the 5DmkII then Canon may just have come up with a fix.

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/firm-e/eos5dmk2/firmware.html

Full list of changes from the Canon site:

“This firmware update (Version 2.0.7) incorporates the following improvements and fixes.

1. Fixes a phenomenon in which the aperture exhibits abnormal movement when shooting movies in manual exposure mode and Aperture Priority AE (Av mode) using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses).
2. Fixes a phenomenon in which the exposure level shown in the LCD panel differs from what is shown in the viewfinder when shooting still images in manual exposure mode.
3. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Wireless File Transmitter (WFT-E4 or WFT-E4 II) may not automatically power off when used for FTP transfers.
These phenomenon only occur with the Version 2.0.4 and Version 2.0.3 firmware.”

Below is a video of the issue that I hope the firmware fixes.

‘Children of Enlightenment’ is a documentary about youth culture in Japan, its uniqueness, its creativity, and its reflection of the state of Japan’s economy and society.

SYNOPSIS

‘Children of Enlightenment’ is a revolutionary documentary that aims to become the chronicle of a generation – namely, young Japanese people, who are in the process of leading their country into a creative renaissance. Rejecting – and rejected by – the secure corporate jobs of the past, Japan’s youth are asserting their individuality by diving into creative pursuits like art, fashion, and music. ‘Children on the Enlightenment’ guides its audience into this creative scene, following the youth to the places where they work, play, live, and create. The film explores the new lifestyles and new philosophies with which these young people experiment. Through interviews with older established artists the documentary reveals the history of this remarkable movement, and how the Japanese scene has changed over the years. It also explores the issues and difficulties facing the youth movement and the challenge that the movement poses to society.

CHILDREN OF ENLIGHTENMENT trailer from Peter H. Chang on Vimeo.

TECHNICAL NOTES

We were told that it would be too hot, but we planned an ambitious three week shoot in August 2009 that would take us all over Japan. In addition to securing one of the first production Zacuto Z-finders Steve Weiss at Zacuto sent over a Zacuto Sniper rig, Z-Focus and Z-lite weight for us to test on our shoot. We also had a full Redrockmicro DSLR Cinema Bundle to work with.

The Zacuto Sniper gunstock rig was fantastic, very well-balanced and a joy to use. Zacuto build quality is superb and their service exemplary. However, after some testing out in the field, we quickly realized that these shoulder rigs were a bit too cumbersome and conspicuous for run and gun guerrilla-style shooting in 90F (32C) degree heat and 90 percent humidity!

Shooting in a dense urban center like Tokyo made us prioritize mobility and maintaining a low profile. After a bit of trial and error, we stripped everything down to a version of the Tactical Shooter (now known as the Striker). However, for running and gunning with quick starts and stops, we needed to have fast access to the controls on the right side of the camera body. We modified the Tactical Shooter so that the handle was on the left side, with the right hand usually holding the camera body and having instant access to controls – essential for our run-and-gun style of shooting. With my still photography muscle memory, focusing with the right hand took some getting used to but it worked out really well. Overall, the rig felt more balanced and natural than the stock configuration.

The high heat and humidity did fog up the Z-finder on occasion, especially on Sado Island where we filmed the Kodo Earth Celebration Festival, but letting the eyepiece breathe periodically seemed to solve this. The latest versions of the Z-finder have anti-fog glass, so this is no longer an issue. The Z-finder was and remains an essential piece of kit.

For sound, again we wanted to streamline things as much as possible. We used the Juicedlink CX231 with Rode NTG-2 in our run-and-gun setup, and recorded double-system whenever it was possible.

Tramm Hudson’s Magic Lantern firmware, while still in its infancy then, proved critical for neutralizing the auto-gain control and providing zebras.

The innocuous form factor and appearance of the DSLR helped open doors for us – it allowed us to shoot in some incredibly tight spaces and it facilitated access in places where larger cameras and crews were forbidden or where they would have been too obtrusive (ie small art galleries or shops). Space is a premium in Japan. Disturbing the peace and interrupting the daily routine of Japanese citizens is frowned upon and generally not allowed. Finally, the low-light capabilities of the 5DmkII were pivotal in capturing concerts and outdoor events at night.

The documentary is still in production, and we are gearing up for more shooting this summer and fall. It will be released in early 2011.

GEAR LIST

2x Canon 5DmkII
Canon EF 24mm f1.4L II
Canon EF 35mm f1.4L
Canon EF 50mm f1.2L
Canon EF 85mm f1.2L
Canon EF 24-105 f4L IS
Canon EF 70-200 f4L IS

Litepanels Micro
Juicedlink CX231
Rode NTG-2
Zoom H4N Portable Digital Recorder

Zacuto Z-Finder v1
Zacuto Sniper
Zacuto Tactical Shooter

Fader Vari-ND
B+W ND filters
8x Canon LP-E6 batteries
4x Sandisk Extreme III 32GB CF cards

Gitzo GT2941LLVL Tripod
Gitzo G2380
Satchtler FSB4
Steadicam Merlin
Thinktank Airport International 2.0
Macbook Pro 15.4″ Unibody

MAKING ‘CHILDREN OF ENLIGHTENMENT’

From a journalistic standpoint, the primary challenge in making “Children of Enlightenment” has not been, as one might suspect, getting access to the subjects. On the contrary, Japanese artists and musicians of all stripes have proven to be extremely open and welcoming, utterly giving the lie to stereotypes of Japanese people as shy and retiring. It’s a bit like stories of the Summer of Love over there, only it’s real. Meeting the ‘Children’ themselves has often been as easy as talking to random people in the street – then following their networks to something interesting. There has been nary a whiff of artistic snobbery or hipster exclusiveness. In fact, this openness and warmth is something we think will powerfully connect with audiences; it will make viewers stop and think “Wait…why shouldn’t counterculture be open to anyone who wants to walk up and join?”

Instead, the problem has been simply one of scale. Our subject is enormous. Nestled in the nooks and crannies and backstreets and lofts of Japan’s unrivaled urban jungles are a million tiny pockets of creativity. Bars that only twenty people know about – spinning music that only fifty people have heard. Apartments of jazz musicians decorated like a combination of 50s beatnik cafe, 70s Wilt Chamberlain love pads and 1600s French boudoirs. Hairstylist shops with construction paper instead of furniture. Perhaps you begin to comprehend the scale of the work at hand. But though it is a problem in terms of finding the best subjects for the film, this amazing diversity makes the process of discovery itself an absolute joy. We were detectives, following a glitter-coated trail of candy-colored clues. And the payoff is something everyone back home will get to share.

The second difficulty we encountered was the remnants of corporate media control. There is not a lot of independent non-corporate wealth flowing around in Japan – artists are routinely given a stark choice between exposure and creative control. Big festivals like Fuji Rock, beautiful as they are, are corporate to the core; there is no Max Yasgur to offer his farm to the hippie masses. For us, this means a laborious process of climbing the ladder of access – quite a contrast to the urban jungle-hunt that we use to find the indies. Though the process is taking years, however, it will eventually pay off. “Children of Enlightenment” will penetrate the Japanese corporate firewall.

In the end, like any documentary of its type, “Children of Enlightenment” does take a lot of networking. But it also takes another, less well-known skill: the ability to ask the right questions. Take the Scarlet Brigade, for example (an indie band we filmed early on). Any documentary could capture their hyperactive, cheerful live act. Any documentary could show the unusual instruments, quirky music styles, original costumes, or show the band joking and laughing at the after-party. Of course, we show all these things. But we tried to go deeper, as well. We discovered that the band’s organizer made the band his life’s work, but doesn’t consider himself a professional musician; that he views the communities that spring up around a band, and not the music itself, as a force for change in society; that he believes that each of his band members have a “special power” that he identifies and praises. By asking the right questions, we discovered that this goofy mid-twenties dropout in a fedora was a deeply thoughtful and philosophical man, and a natural leader. Of course we suspected he might be, but to ask the right questions is no trivial thing.

BIOS

Peter H. Chang (producer/director/DP):
Peter is the director and producer of “Lightscapes”, an ongoing experiential television series airing on The Discovery Channel that captures renowned Japanese artist Akira Hasegawa’s unique “D-K” art form – large-scale, abstract painting-like images projected onto natural landscapes and architecture. Peter is also producing a feature film based on “Speed Tribes,” the bestselling book about Japanese motorcycle gangs and other subcultures. His credits include “Blink”, “Car Babes”, “I’m Seducible”, and “The Matrix Reloaded”. His work as a photographer has been featured in newspapers, magazines, movie posters, and online. He recently photographed Kathy Griffin and her mother Maggie for ELDR magazine, and was featured on the Emmy award-winning “Kathy Griffin Show” on BRAVO TV.

http://cinefugue.com
http://peterhchang.com

Noah Smith (director):
Noah studied Japanese during his undergrad years at Stanford. He moved to Japan from 2003-2006 to work as an editor and research assistant, during which time he fell in love with the Japanese underground art, music, and fashion scenes. In addition to maintaining the political blog Noahpinion and contributing to Observing Japan, he is currently completing a PhD in economics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

This video is of a conversation that took place on the show floor at NAB 2010 between the infamous video guru Philip Bloom and DSLR video shooter Khalid Mohtaseb. Just in case anyone missed it there has been a vigorous debate here on this very site about the rights and wrongs of a montage of footage the Khalid showcased – the debate even made it all the way to the Huffington post.

In this video Mohtaseb canvasses the views of Bloom, who spent 17 years as a news cameraman, about the issues around the use of cinematic techniques for news shooting.

Khalid Mohtaseb and Philip Bloom discuss Cinematic journalism and DSLR video from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Below – the video that started this whole debate has now had over 75,000 views on Vimeo -

Haiti Earthquake Aftermath Montage from Khalid Mohtaseb on Vimeo.

Thanks to Den Lennie and Scott Karlins of www.fstopacademy.com in shooting the conversation.