The kit shown includes:
    •    Canon 5D with genus, Jag35 and Zacuto rigs - for stable DSLR based filming.
    •    Sennheiser Shotgun mics - for pro audio sound quality.
    •    Stickypod Director Pro Vehicle Mount - for action shots of vehicles and cyclists.
    •    Marantz PDM 661 Audio Recorder - for field audio recording.
    •    Canon XH A1 camera - no hard drive = no jumping!

Special thanks to the guys at www.ratherbecycling.co.uk who did the guiding for the event.

So when you're looking for outdoor adventure filming, give us a call and get in contact.
Spartmedia!

This video has a pretty funky intro with music from our musical consultant Baz. Enjoy!

In this image you can see myself surrounded by the equipment needed to do a proper job. There's shotgun mics, proper lighting, HD cameras and my assistant Franka who's doing a great job! I'll post the video on here once I've finished the post production and it's uploaded to youtube.

We've created a flowing flag animation blending his brand logo into the Japanese flag. We'll let you know when the project goes live. To find out more about Nick and his work abroad, you can visit www.nickkemptraining.com.

We love cycling at team Spartmedia and we love action so getting to film cycling including doing the cycling was a real pleasure! And the guys at StudentAdventures really know how to run an event. In fact I enjoyed filming it so much I went back the following weekend and did the whole ride again as one of the guides!

This picture shows two of the HD cameras having their dailies (the footage from the day) pulled down onto hard drives via a MacBook Pro in our hotel room.

Here's my review:

The key features are already well documented such as 12 FPS continuous shooting, dual CF slots, 61 AF points etc. But there's other cool stuff when you dig a bit deeper into the menu.

Two features that really caught my eye:

Multiple image blending modes

This camera has a range of modes for blending multiple images as well as the usual additive default. This means we can get more creative for multiple exposure shots. It also optionally lets you discard the original images.

Quicker response shutter release

There's normally a slight delay between pressing the button and the picture firing. The reason is that as you press the button you cause a slight movement on the camera. But you can switch this off and get a faster response. This might introduce more movement but if you're locked down on a tripod or shooting very fast speeds then this shouldn't be a problem.

Other Hightlights from the event

The Adobe team were on hand (main image) doing a series of demonstrations of the new features in the CS5.5 suit. And there was also the usual Canon hand's on stalls where we could play with different cameras such as the FX305 (inset image). It's been a quiet year for film camera development it seems but with another Canon announcement due round the corner who's to tell what's next?!

3D Film Cameras? Hello? anyone there?

One highlight was the complete lack of 3D film camera rigs and software solutions. Last year it was hard to move around without tripping over a Heath Robinson looking 3D rig. This year... nothing just a 3D void! which I'm pleased with. Don't get me wrong, it's fascinating technology, but it's not 3D. And with 3D cinema sales dropping I think more and more people are appreciating that 3D is, for now, a gimmick with little or no real world value. As Ash said "I'll get excited when we have holographic projection". And I agree, so I was glad to see more focus on relevant technologies and a complete absence of 3D.

What we're looking at here is approx 24 hours of work time (over 3 days) condensed down to 10 mins. And as one client said... "you make it look effortless" but that's because this is what we do and we know how to use the cameras, software and hardware to get the end results.

To see the Pete Swims Documentary go here.

For those media geeks out there, the screen capture was done using iShowU HD Pro and editing in Adobe Premiere where it went through 2 rounds of time ramping up totaling 1,000,000% speed up.

I then laid the audio vocal track over the top in one take using a Sennheiser K6+ME66 mic through the Marantz 661. For a bit of fun I made the opening animation in After Effects 5.5.

Enjoy

This was a really tight delivery schedule. We filmed it on Wednesday morning and finished the editing on Sunday evening! It's an hour long and is shot in high definition. To find out more about the making of this video have a look here.

It's only been on youTube for about 2 hours and it's had 50 viewings already!

There's a lot that goes into post production and in this documentary we have the following footage and sources to bring together:

• Video from a flip camera (HD) taken by the talent.
• Video from a mobile phone taken by the talent.
• Music privided by the client (who is a musician).
• Film footage from 3 canon cameras (HDV 1440x1080) (HD 1920x1080) and (HD DSLR 1920x1080).
• Still images from various cameras.
• Generated Graphics.
• Mutliple composited sequences.
• Screen captured footage from web browsers (for twitter feed etc)

So as you can see it's quite a complex little beasty! The story follows Pete Windridge-France who swims the channel to raise money for charity and you can find out more at http://www.justgiving.com/peteswims. At the moment I'm just finishing the colour grading which is one step in a long list of steps needed to produce the final video:

1. Shooting
2. Editing
3. Compositing (titles, animations effects)
4. Sound and Audio effects and levelling
5. Colour Grading
6. Rendering
7. Uploading to youtube

Taking a couple of Zacuto rod connectors with spuds, and a rod and handle from the JAG35 I make this compact little rig. The Shotgun mic is a Sennheiser K6+ME66 affair and I'm using a custom made Neutrik XLR-XLR short lead. The recorder is a Marantz PMD661 Solid State Recorder with the following setup: PCM-16 16bit 48kHz mono channel. For headphones, I had to travel real lite so I didn't bring my big cans, instead I'm using Sennheiser CX300 mkII's which are fantastic! They normally go for about £70 but amazon were doing them at 70% off a while back! I wish I'd got two pairs!

Right, adios! I'm all set so I'm going to wonder into town now and see what Cusco has to offer in the way of backing soundscapes! :)

It's like going to a prison! There's only one road and there's a security checkpoint. Then once you arrive and "de-bus" - you've got to love those Americanisms! you go through passport control! yep that's right you need your passport and a ticket to get in. One of our party has forgotten her student card and this causes a 5 min queue and I'm thinking of that Clint Eastwood film "Firefox" where the guard stops him and says something like "your papers are not in order...". Anyway no one is arrested, deported, killed or otherwise in hollywood fashion taken off and interrogated and our party gets in!

Once through there is a stall for the tourists where you can get your passport stamped with an official Macchu Picchu stamp! (and yes like the tourist I am, I got mine done - well you only live once!)

I'm going in with the filming rig and audio equipment in the backpack and the 5D Mk II slung over my shoulder with the Canon EF 24-70mm 1:2.8 L series USM lens with a Fader ND Mk II filter. The 5D is not a small camera especially with the battery grip on but it's also not that big and so it doesn't get unwanted attention from the guards at the gate. Why would that be a problem... well you see if you're a professional then you may need to pay for a filming permit. I wouldn't mind but this is a charity gig and I'm doing this bit out of the goodness of my heart - there's no cash invovled so technically it's not a job and I'm just a tourist, but I don't need the hassle!

Back to Machu Picchu... it's .... BEAUTIFUL! There's still a low mist and the mountains are shades of grey! Makes for some stunning abstract black and white shots. Hey I always shoot in RAW full colour but I can imagine what the black and whites will look like. This is a photo opportunity that's worth the tired legs! My guide tells me to keep the rig in the bag for now, we'll use it later... fine! I'm in photography mode right now! But here's how I see life... There's probably been millions of people stood here with cameras and they're all taking the same shot... that's not for me. I don't like being predictable and Banksy's graffiti in London which says "This is not a photo opportunity" springs to mind and so I stop and get out of tourist mode and back into pro photographer mode. I'd rather go away with 5 pictures that make me tingle than 500 that anyone could have taken. I start looking around me, thinking about the movement of the sun, the way the clouds and mist are evolving, where the people are and where they are not... I do that thing that photographers do that is more intuitive than logical and you start putting yourself in various places and seeing from those spots... I wonder off from my group a little so I can start to take pictures that tell more of a story than "I was here".

We headed up to Sun Gate which is about an hours treck uphill and en rout we discovered that the Discovery Channel were there shooting for three days. They had a 3D filming rig and also some standard (very cool) stuff. Sad to say our guide had to tell some of their crew off because they were standing on the ancient walls. It'd be like a Peruvian film crew coming to the UK and walking on the roof of Canterbury Cathedral... come on guys! filming a place does not make you special or give you a right to disrespect another cultures historical artefacts! Better watch that I don't make the same mistake! Still round the corner from the Disco boys I set my rig up and carried on up the hill. My guide laughed and said "you can just say you're one of their team now" - thanks I think :).

We film a couple of mini documentaries about the Inca belief systems, symbols and such with my guide making a willing and quite good presenter. Lots of scenery footage which is easy in a place like this. I also do a little behind the scenes skit which I may release one day and then we de-rig and head back to the main tourist hubub. I once visited Muir woods in San Franscisco and my friend and guide told me that something like 95% of Americans never make it further than 100m from their cars when they visit nature. I don't know if that was true or not but you get the feeling that's true for most people. The site closest the entrance is naturally heaving and so I take fewer pics as I'm after the sense of scale of the place. I did ask my guide to take a quick snap of me with the main site below (which is the picture shown) just to prove I was there... the rest of the proof will be in the video I'm going to edit when I'm back in Blighty.

Footnote:

If you're thinking of going... GO! It really is an amazing place and saddly it may be shutting to the public soon as the rocks are subsiding and becoming unstable. The charity organisers I'm filming for are Student Adventures in the UK and I think they do non-student trips too so look them up.

You Need Great Video AND Audio For The Best Results

The great thing about our filming rig is that it's versatile. So we've dropped the shouder mount, one of the handles and attached the Marantz PDM661 pro audio recorder with Senheiser K6+ME66 shotgun mic under the belly of it all. This rig still has 3 points of contact (eyepiece, handle and follow focus) which allows us to capture great quality images and also audio while being compact and easy to handle and carry.

The camera is not shown in the picture but what you do see (big black piece with two metal tips) towards the left of the picture is the battery grip mounted. By removing the camera at the grip point the camera could be quickly freed to become a stills camera making this setup even more versatile!

It's all about the final shot

In the film industry there's a saying that "The world is held together with gaffer tape and cable ties" and there's certainly a lot of truth in that. What this rig demonstrates is that sometimes you have to adapt and change the way you use kit to make sure you get the best results no matter the conditions. Thinking out of the box is part of the fun when it comes to solving the challenge of getting the right footage. In the past we've:

• Wrapped cameras in clingfilm to protect them from dust while filming on building sites
• Mounted cameras to people to capture sport
• Mounted rigs out of sunroofs, rear & side doors of moving vehicles to capture action
• Then there was the time I put a camera inside a fridge freezer... but that's another story - got a great shot though ;)