A fantastic Promotional Video to highlight the Short Film Awards 2014. Produced by Limerick Institute of Technology Student and previous Award Winner,Stephen Hall, it shows that imagination is the key in film making.
Check Stephen’s website here for more of his great work:
On the 11th July 2013 The City of Culture Team hosted ‘FIND OUT MORE’ about City of Culture for the General Public in Number 2 Pery Square (The Georgian House). The event provided an opportunity for the public to take a sneak preview of the premises ahead of the official programme launch later in the year, there was also an opportunity to meet the cultural providers in Limerick and find out more about some events planned for 2014 by local organizations.
We were there representing the Limerick Film Festival and took the opportunity to record some of the day.
Behind the Scenes want to raise money to send a BTS (members only) team to 48 hour film project Dublin: http://www.48hourfilm.com/en/dublin/. The funding is to alleviate some of the cost of participating in the event. So we are having a Table quiz to fundraise!
The Event takes place on Thursday 19th of September at 8:30pm at the George Boutique Hotel.
For more information check out the Behind The Scenes Website HERE
An exciting and inspirational festival takes place in Limerick next weekend that must not be missed.
Elemental is in its second year and features the arts in all its forms. There are multiple venues across the city and something for every one.
Check out the online brochure HERE
and a video on last years festival with was edited by yours truly.
Elemental Arts & Cultural Festival 2012 from Simon McGuire on Vimeo.
This week we were delighted to work with Canon Bob Hanna on a short documentary detailing the communities of Drumcliffe-Ennis, Kilnasoolagh-Newmarket-on-Fergus and
Kilfarboy- Spanish Pt.
Locations included, ennis museum… st columbas church and kilfenora (pic)
Herbert Knowles of Kilnasoolagh Parish was also on hand to take behind the scenes photos.
Editing is underway.
Hi Filmmakers,
Today office is on the grounds of the City Hall for the National Day of Commemoration 2013.
With an 80 piece choir and many guests this annual event is growing in size in the past 3 years.
We are here recording the ceremony which will be put on DVD.
S.
By Simon McGuire
The rainy weather today didn’t deter the strong turnout for the first Broadcast Video Production Show at the Stillorgan Park Hotel in Dublin.
Its not often that a show of this type comes to Ireland (not including BVE North) and with a line up including Canon, Sony, Tiffen (Steadicam), Lacie, G-Technology, GoPro and many others this was an event not to be missed.
I decided to attend the Tuesday (as shooting and editing schedules allowed it) and was very impressed with the range of vendors and equipment on display. There is something important about a touch and try venue… it allows you to formulate more questions for the vendors that might not normally come to mind in a phone conversation or email.
The show was organised by product resellers D&P Products or Camerakit.ie as most people in Ireland and the UK will recognise. Colm Egan and the team were on hand all day to point out stands of interest for their customers which gave an almost bespoke feel to the experience.
What was interesting was the presentations by a number of the big companies in attendance.
Below is a brief run through on some of the main ones that I attended:
JVC with Kris Hill
A very enthusiastic Kris introduced the new camera to the JVC range, the GY-HM650. Now this has been in the mix for a number of months and back in October 2012 when it was announced I was very interested in what this camera had to offer for the ENG shooter.
The first feature Kris gave us was the x23 Optical Zoom Lens on this 3x CMOS sensor device; a nice touch considering the other cameras in this range. (Sony PMW 200)
The camera hosts a number of other features including the option for WIFI streaming which sets this camera apart from the competition. I could see a lot of workflow applications for the ENG shooter with this option. The only draw back to this is that the wireless broadband in this country will have to improve in order to get the full benefit of this feature. However the idea of sending a copy of low end content to be cut back a base and then upon returning you can then do a Autoconform of the full res footage on the offline cut does have a speed advantage. Using this to full effect with say Avid Interplay Share or Interplay Central and Media Composer 7 would make a very effective workflow for any ENG environment.
Including VAT the 650 was retailing on the day at €4790.85 (Special Show Price, contact D&P for latest Prices) which is not a bad ticket for a camera aimed at the broadcast market. The BBC seem to think so as they have invested in multiple units quite recently.
LACIE with Michael Eyraud
Storage is something close to my heart as an editor and you can never have too much of it. The main issue I have with external hard drives is the worry about reliability. Not with a Lacie though. Over the past 20 years editing I have gone through all the brands of storage external devices but it is always Lacie, I go back to for that very reason… reliability.
Michael demoed the latest from Lacie in their Thunderbolt connection range… Yes thunderbolt seems to be definitely the new Firewire.
The impressive Lacie Rugged drive allows for quick transfer in the field with USB 2 and 3 connections available but for the desktop uses amoung us it was the 2 Big and 5 Big Thunderbolt drives that were impressive with the likes of James Horner (Spiderman) promoting them on the powerpoint slides for Film Music Production.
Canon EOS Cinema with Andrew Cummins, Lighting Camera Man.
Canon always go one extra and today was no exception. The cool and collected Andrew introduced us to the C300 and C500 cameras available from the EOS Cinema Range from Canon. With a PowerPoint presentation and multiple examples of work he has shot recently (see below) Andrew talked about the benefits of shooting with this type of system. These included; size, flexibility, lens range etc.
With 4K recording on dual CF Card slots the option for dual recording is a real seller giving the shooter the option of an extra backup of content, valuable in todays fast paced environment. On a Sandisk Extreme Card you can get up to 84mins of 4:2:2, 50mbs/s
But the camera is more than shallow Depth of Field. The size allows for easy rig and de-rig from tripods and other stabilizers and it is not bad with handheld too. Andrew demo’d this and also showed how easy it was to adapt the camera to different shooting situations by changing prime lenses in a matter of seconds.
Also the camera is very good on battery power and weight.
Andrews final advise on using the Canon EOS C300 was: “The Camera tests the way you shoot… it echo’s back to the traditional procedures in filming and removed the auto functions a lot of camera operators are use to. You WILL have to change the way you shoot… but its so worth it”
Avid Media Composer with Ben Davison, Solutions Specialist
The final presentation I attended was one that’s close to my heart. Avid Media Composer. I’ve been using Avid since 1998 so I am a little bias in this but the software has come on leaps and bounds in this latest edition.
Released on 27th June 2013, Avid have gone and made a number of changes to their flag ship software, and for the better too!
Firstly the new low price. Now available for around the 1K mark (depending on vendor) It now makes professional NLE editing more affordable for the freelance editor as well as the high end post production house. The Academic price of around €299 is going to remain the same but hey you get 4 years support from Avid as well as 4 years of upgrades free. That’s not to be sniffed at if you are a student editor and serious about your career in the industry.
A new feature that caught my eye was Frame Flex. This allows 4k and even 8K res content to be scaled for editing to 1080p. Nice if you want to relieve the processor of the workload in the offline. You can then upscale to the 4k res later for grading and online.
Colour Space Conversion is now real-time. Look up tables and colour decision lists too.
They have completely rewritten AMA (calling it AMA2). Now the content transcodes in the background while you work on your offline cut with the AMA content. A “Powerful Workflow” as Ben put it.
Background processing is also possible without Avid Media Composer even running with the ability to manage jobs in a list too.
Audio enhancements are the big one though. There is a New Waveform, Clip Gain Timeline adjustment, New Master Fader Support and a configurable audio mixer too. This coupled with the interoperability of Pro Tools too makes Avid Media Composer a very attractive piece of kit for the edit suite.
Well that’s it. I didn’t get time to attend all the presentations but it was well worth the trip to Dublin to get to talk with the vendors and listen to the presentations as well my favourite part in getting my hands on the equipment.
The show is running again tomorrow, Wednesday 3rd July in the same venue, Stillorgan Park Hotel, so if you are around make sure you get in there and catch the presentations.
Simon.
The Lifesaver Project is a Garda led initiative which was launched in Limerick back in November, 2008 in an effort to reduce the number and severity of road traffic collisions and to improve road safety awareness. It is a collaborative effort between Limerick County Council, Limerick City Council, An Garda Siochana, Limerick County and City Fire Services, Ambulance Services and the Health Service Executive.
This road safety event, is divided into two parts. The first of which took place in the car park of the South Court Hotel and students witnessed firsthand what the scene of a fatal road traffic collision is like. The emergency services were deployed as if it were a real road traffic collision
.
The second part of the show took place in the Hotel Conference Centre in the form of a PowerPoint presentation with input from local emergency service personnel. It included road safety ads from around the world, a personal account from one road collision survivor and input from families who have lost loved ones as a result of road traffic collisions.
We are currently in the final stages of the editing of the promotional video for this project.
S
Make sure you register your crew on the Behind the Scenes website HERE
Even if you don’t have a crew but either have a script or want to take part, u can register as an individual where you can select the crew role category and wait to see where you’ll get snapped up.
Remember you must be registered to take part and its free to do so.
Cya there,
(Registered Editor)
Simon McGuire 