Microphone Buyer’s Guide page 20

YOUR GUIDE TO CREATING AND PUBLISHING GREAT VIDEO JULY 2018

Canon
EOS M50

Mirrorless 4K
Flip Out Screen with Touch Focus

i a l
Soc ia
Long Battery Life
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Connectivity

e
M dyd Small and Light Weight

Bud
reviewed page 7

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ContentsJULY 2018 Volume 33 • Number 01

Features
20 Microphone Buyer’s Guide 32 NAB Show Wrap Up
Whether you’re recording audio for a commer- Every year, dozens of trucks jampack a million square feet
cial, a wedding or your next feature film, the of the LasVegas Convention Center with cool new cameras,
way you acquire that sound can make all the lights, gadgets, stabilizers and other doo-hickeys to enter-
difference in the world. So, what kind of micro- tain, amaze and help video folks make better content.
phone should you buy? by Russ Fairley
by W. H. Bourne
36 Best of NAB 2018
26 Video Reference Monitor NAB 2018 brought us some exciting new products in the
Buyer’s Guide video production space.
Not all monitors are created equal. This guide by the Videomaker Editors
will help you ask and answer the right ques-
tions, so you can pick out the best video tool for
42 Crowdfunding Success and Failure from a
Producer’s Perspective
your needs.
How my crowdfunding triumph was also my biggest flop.
by Jeff Chaves
by Mike VanHelder

26 42 52 50 7
On the Cover Columns Departments
Canon EOS M50 2 Viewfinder 4 What’s On Videomaker.com
Are you a pro? 5 Quick Focus: Mobile Apps
by Matthew York 6 New Gear
50 Hacks
Cheap DIY Stabilization Methods Opinion
by Mike VanHelder
64 Vlogs are Documentaries, Too
52 Editing by Nicole LaJeunesse
A Case Study in Slow Motion
by Chris Gates
Reviews
54 Legal 7 Canon EOS M50
Video Misuse and the Law Mirrorless 4K Camera
by Mark Levy and Roman Zelichenko by Chris Monlux
56 Directing 10 Westcott Solix
Next Month The Dos & Don’ts of Adaptations Portable LED Light
• 5 Ways to Hide a Lav By Antonio Pavlov by Sean Berry
• How to Shoot a Video by Yourself
• Panasonic HC-VX1 Reviewed 58 Distribution 12 Sachtler flowtech 75 MS
• The Production behind Canada’s C3 Expedition
5 Reasons to Start a Newsletter Carbon Fiber Tripod
by Jeff Chaves by Chris Monlux
On Sale: July 24, 2018
contents 60 Shooting 14 SmallHD Focus OLED contents
5-inch Field Monitor
Taking on Time-lapse Challenges
by Chris Monlux
full screen by Kyle Cassidy full screen
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 VIEWFINDER
b y Ma t t h ew Yo rk
Are you a pro?
At surface level, the terms “profes-
sional” and “amateur” may seem
simple enough to define. But in the
video production universe, the distinc-
tion is not as clear as it used to be.
One might assume that the obvious
difference is one of whether a person
is paid or not. But wait, if the only
difference between an amatuer and a
pro is whether or not someone makes
money making video, what does that
make a YouTube creator who receives
an AdSense check for a low-quality
yet highly popular smartphone video?
Should our definition of a pro instead
be someone who makes a living by
making video? Still, there are creators
who earn a full-time living by upload-
ing poorly produced videos viewed by
loyal fans. Does the amount of money
they make justify their work as being
“professional” quality? Surely not.
I remember a day, not so very long
ago, when video production equipment,
and video producers themselves, were
categorized into two broad categories:
professional and consumer. Profes-
sional gear was characterized by heavy
duty construction, greater ability to ma-
nipulate manual settings, and a higher
image quality. Of course, with these
professional tools came a much higher
price tag. The antithesis was consumer
gear, characterized by lower quality
and lower cost. These products were
flimsier, had fewer manual controls and
generated lower quality video. But even
hobbyists with no aspiration to make
money making media desired to own
and work with professional equipment.
As the line between professional and
hobbyist blurred, some in the indus-
try even coined a new name for these
skilled and well-equipped media mak-
ers: prosumers. The name prosumer did
contents not last long or travel far, but it was an
accurate and valid term for describing a
full screen specific type of advanced amateur.
When terminology did not serve to
print
describe reality suitably, people chose
2 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
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publisher/editor
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Matthew York
Patrice York
director of content Mike Wilhelm
web developer Katherine Gabales
managing editor Nicole LaJeunesse
multimedia editor Chris Monlux
art director/photographer Susan Schmierer
contributing editors Sean Berry
Peter Biesterfeld
Kyle Cassidy
Chris “Ace” Gates
Blag Ivanov
Mark Levy
director of sales and
business development Terra York
account executive Lindsay Cox
to change the language to make it telephone (530) 809-4514
more accurate. As we observe these
words, “professional” and “amateur” marketing/fulfillment
in the media space again today, we manager Tiffany Harness
must once again evaluate how we customer service
/fulfillment coordinator Sascha Bloom
use these words and re-evaluate their
adequacy to accurately describe
media. There is no longer a single director of finance Stephen Awe
standard by which professionalism accountant Ryan Awe
can be determined. In each case, we
must clarify the context in which the
statement is made. We must ask sub-
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July 2018
What’s on Videomaker.com Flow Speed Control iMotion
This month, while digging
(iOS, Free) (iOS, Free) through the video
Advice Wanted Videomaker Plus production section of the
Question: Videomaker Plus membership This combo iMotion is a
peteComposium: Trying to decide gives you more of the tips, camera and popular app App Store and Google
between the Canon XF-400 and the tricks and tutorials you need video edit- for iPhone Play, we found a number
XF-405. The only difference is the to make outstanding video. ing app is all time-lapse
SDI port, but I can't seem to get a Choose the level that works
of interesting apps
about time photography,
good understanding of what the SDI for you! Sample our online manipulation. allowing image
dedicated to compressing
port is. Can someone explain what library and get your digital time — whether that’s
You can cap- capture in
this does and what the benefit of it Lighting Basics | Videomaker subscription with the Starter,
is? Thanks! Learn the rules for lighting your videos, Basic or Creative tiers, or, for
ture video directly within the app four different modes: time-lapse, through simply speeding
at different speeds, or speed up manual, Wi-Fi remote or photo
both indoors and outdoors. about the cost of one of our up a video clip or serving
videomaker.com/r/901 or slow down existing video with a library import. With a variety of
Reply: training videos, get Videomaker
variety of time remapping options. handy tools like manual exposure as an an intervalometer
Kenny Stokes: The really simple Plus Professional for full access
version of it is this: It is a video cable to our library and a free pass Edits show up instantly, making it control and onion skinning, this for your phone. If you’ve
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that can also send data from the to all webinars. Sign up now at ever wanted to try your
camera. It is typically used in large videomaker.com/plus Then, you can export and publish time-lapses and stop motion ani-
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hand at time-lapse video,
camera or a video mixer is being CORRECTION: form of choice. or landscape orientation at up to these time-lapse creation
used. It can also be used to send In our review of the Samsung full HD resolutions, then share to apps are for you.
video to an external recording unit C49HG90 on page 20 of the June
Facebook, YouTube and more.
or production monitor. 2018 issue, we erroneously listed the Intervalometer
If it's just you and you don't have, Sony a7 III – Test footage monitor’s typical sRGB coverage as (Android, $1.99)
or are not thinking of getting, a nice 95 percent. In fact, the typical sRGB
We shot the Sony a7III in Las Vegas. We
external video recorder or a nice tested s-log2 and s-log3 in UHD 4K and
coverage for the monitor is 125 TimeLapse Calculator
Not itself an
production monitor, I would get the shot 120fps in HD. We also tested the
percent with a minimum of 120 per- (Android, Free)
cent. We also omitted the unit’s peak image capture
XF-400. camera's low light capabilities. Watch the
brightness rating, which is 600 cd/ app, Intervalom- This app is
See more at videomaker.com/r/909 video to see the test video. m^2. We apologize for any confusion eter claims to for those who
videomaker.com/r/905 these errors may have caused.
work with any already have a
camera app to traditional cam-
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The Videomaker team is at it again with a new issue of You- Follow us on Twitter you to choose the camera app and just want a little help doing
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contents contents
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4 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 5

 NEW GEAR
Entering New Territory
These On-ear Headphones Can Become Over-Ear in a Matter of Seconds
Master & Dynamic is releasing an updated model of its
MW50 headphones, the MW50+. The new headphones
can switch between on-ear and over-ear styles.
Often times, it’s hard to choose between on-ear or
over-ear. They both offer a number of benefits: On-ear
are great when you’re on the go, but over-ear are best
suited for those times when you want to focus by isolat-
ing yourself from outside noise. It makes sense for a
pair of headphones to be able to switch between these
two styles depending on the situation.
With the MW50+, you can do just that. The MW50+’s
swappable on-ear and over-ear pads attach and de-
tach with magnets, so it should be fairly easy to swap
out the earpads. The default earpads for MW50+ are
on-ear, but the pair comes with a second set of open
over-ear pads.
Other than the swappable earpads, the MW50+ look
to be the same as the MW50. The pair has the same
40mm drivers, a touted 100-foot Bluetooth range, 16-
hour battery life and USB-C charging.
Meyer-Optiks Claims Its Nocturnus 75 f/.95 is the 'World's Fastest' 75mm Lens
German lens manufacturer Meyer-Optiks Görlitz is
adding a new 75mm lens called the Nocturnus 75 to
its f/0.95 aperture lens line — and folks, it’s a fast one.
Meyer-Optiks claims that the Nocturnus 75 has the
widest aperture for the focal length available that will
still capture sharp details when it’s wide open. This
lens features a clickless aperture ring and a 15-bladed
iris that should create a great bokeh effect for those
working in portraiture.
“The combination of 75mm and the unique aper-
ture of f/0.95 creates images of an unmet aesthetic
especially when shot wide open, generating a three
dimensional appearance where the subject seems to
contents
be stepping out of the image. The bokeh is smooth
and under the appropriate condition may contain
full screen
some sharp edged light circles,” says Meyer-Optiks
print
6 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
The MW50+ are made with heavy grain leather on
the exterior of the headband and ear cup accents. As
for the interior of the headband and ear pads, they are
made with a softer leather.
The MW50+ headphones are out now from Master &
Dynamic for 399 dollars. Master & Dynamic is also of-
fering the swappable over-ear pads separately for those
who already own MW50 headphones.
According to the press release, Meyer-Optiks’ trained
expert staff makes each Nocturnus 75 by hand. “The
Nocturnus 0.95/75 is a handmade masterpiece,” the
company claims.
Meyer-Optiks’ Nocturnus 75 is expected to start ship-
ping in December 2018 for about 5,500 bucks. The lens
will be available in Leica M, Sony E, and Fuji X mounts.
T he Canon EOS M50 is Canon’s first
mirrorless 4K camera. However, it’s
far from a flawless piece of equipment.
Costing just 780 dollars, the M50
gives you 60 frames per second (fps) in
HD and 24fps in UHD 4K. Although it
has an APS-C sized sensor, it has a 2.56
times crop when shooting in 4K —
that’s significant. Additionally, it suffers
a lot from the rolling shutter effect.
Can you say Jello city? It’s not all bad
news for the M50 though — in fact, it’s
mostly positive. The camera has a great
image quality and has a fully articulat-
ing touch monitor. When shooting in
HD, it has the industry leading dual
pixel autofocus (AF) and has combina-
tion 5-axis image stabilization.
The M50 has a 24.1 megapixel APS-
C CMOS sensor and a DIGIC 8 image
processor. It features a 2.36m-Dot
OLED electronic viewfinder (EVF) and
a 3-inch 1.04m-dot vari-angle touch
screen. Its lens mount is EF-M, which
means you’ll need a 200-dollar lens
adapter to use any EF or EF-S lenses.
It offers a microphone input, but no
headphone jack.
What’s it up against?
Canon leads the industry in this price
range with the Rebel T7i. However, the
REVIEW
Canon
EOS M50
by Chris Monlux
The Social Media
Buddy
Canon
www.Canon.com
T7i rebel is a DSLR and offers the EF
mount. Both the T7i and the M50 of-
fer a fully articulating screen; howev-
STRENGTHS
er, the T7i lacks the ability to capture • Long battery life
• Good image quality
4K. Additionally, the M50 has 5-axis
image stabilization and shoots four • Flip out screen
more frames per second than the T7i
in burst photography mode. The M50 WEAKNESSES
is also a bit lighter, weighing 3 ounces • Significant rolling shutter
less than the T7i. All that said, if you • 2.56 times crop shooting 4K
desire a larger grip and more buttons,
the T7i should be considered. SUMMARY
The Canon EOS M50 is a compact mir-
As Tested
rorless camera that shoots 4K. It has
We tested the M50 with the EF-M 15-
an affordable price tag, but suffers
45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM, which costs
300 bucks. Or, if you get it in the kit, from significant rolling shutter.
that will add 119 dollars to your pur-
chase, putting the total cost of the kit at RECOMMENDED USERS
899 dollars. This lens is okay, however • Enthusiast filmmakers and
its variable aperture isn’t optimal for Home-video shooters
video shooters. Additionally, the lens is • YouTubers and social media
externally zooming, yet it doesn’t fully enthusiasts
collapse at any focal length, making • Travel videographers
it a bit awkward. Needing to use EF-M
• Educators
lenses is a big bummer for this camera.
• Let’s players
Yes, you can get an adapter for a little
over 200 bucks that allows you to use contents
EF lenses, but it would be wonderful
if it wasn’t required since a big draw full screen
for Canon cameras is the breadth and $780 body only
quality of their lens selection. print
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 7
 REVIEW
Canon EOS M50
The Elephant in the Room
Although the 4K footage looks great,
it has a 2.56 times crop factor. To put
that into context, let’s look at a micro
four thirds (MFT) sensor. MFT cameras
offer a 2 times crop. Even the Pana-
sonic GH4, with its MFT sensor, only
increased the crop factor to 2.3 times
when shooting in 4K. It’s strange us-
ing the word only here, but compared
to the 2.56 times crop of the M50, the
2.3 time crop factor of the GH4 feels
more manageable.
The 15-45mm lens we used for
this review, with the 4K crop factored
in, is an effective focal length of 38-
115mm. Even Canon’s widest EF-M
lens, the 11-22mm, has an effective
focal length of 28-56mm. Looking
outside of Canon’s offerings, Opteka
offers a 6.5mm f/2 prime for 130 dol-
lars. That would give you an effective
focal length of 16.5mm. If you require
a wide angle, look to off-brand primes.
Because of the huge crop factor
for 4K, shooting a selfie with a wide
angle of view might be difficult. If you
have a selfie tripod or long arms, you
could capture a tight two-shot as long
as the subjects are willing to be cheek
to cheek. When shooting HD the crop
factor is the same as any APS-C sen-
sor: 1.6 times.
Overall, 4K is nice to have, but we’d
expect most users of this camera to
only shoot HD with the M50. In addi-
tion to the large crop factor, dual pixel
AF is not available when shooting
in 4K. The M50 is just a better video
camera when shooting in HD.
In Use
The M50 is a small, lightweight
camera with loads of features. From
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, a
screen that flips completely out and
dual pixel AF when shooting in HD,
the M50 is a great choice for social
media mavens. It takes beautiful
pictures, is small enough to take with
contents you and when video is needed, and it
can shoot 60fps in HD or 24fps in 4K.
full screen A pro could consider it for a strong
C-camera, or for when a small form
print
factor fits the work.
8 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
For a begin- Connect via HDMI
ner looking for
a strong first
camera, the M50
would be a good
pick. Since it is an
interchangeable-
lens camera, it
gives you more
flexibility than a
typical point and
shoot. If you want
2.5 times slow mo,
it can be achieved
shooting HD in 60fps and slowing it
down to 24fps.
At this price point, a headphone
jack is typically not included, and the
M50 is no different. A way around this
is getting a reference monitor that has
audio monitoring via the HDMI, such as
the SmallHD Focus. However, that will
greatly increase the cost of your setup.
It wasn’t difficult getting a great
looking image out of the M50. The
articulating screen comes in clutch
when in full sun. Additionally, if you
are a vlogger, the flip out screen is
key. The touch function of the screen
is equally handy. You can tap on the
screen to focus on your face, if shoot-
ing a vlog, or use it for an easy-to-
execute rack focus.
The menu system is targeted at the
beginner and is easy to navigate. With-
in minutes of pulling the camera out
of the box, we were ready to shoot.
More advanced shooters might view
the menu as limited, but because the
camera doesn’t have many advanced
features, it’s just fine.
Once out shooting, it became very
apparent that the M50 had a rolling
shutter issue. It’s bad — the worst this
reviewer has seen. If action shooting is
your thing, look past the M50 — it will
disappoint. Mirrorless cameras have a
history of bad rolling shutter; Sony for
example had significant rolling shutter
in early Alpha mirrorless cameras.
However, after a few generations, they
have been able to reduce the effect.
Let’s hope that over time Canon will
be able to do the same with their mir-
rorless offerings.
For most of our test shoot, we were
outside with either full sun or diffused
sun from clouds. To supplement that
shooting experience, we needed to see
how the camera operated in less than
desirable amounts of light. We tested
its low light performance by adjusting
the ISO and shutter speed to counter-
act each other so we could keep the
same exposure. This allowed us to
identify at what ISO noise is introduced
into the picture. We started at ISO 100
and doubled it till noise was noticeable.
There is a clean signal up to ISO 800,
but at ISO 1600 noise became notice-
able. At up to ISO 3200, noise in the
image can be easily reduced with noise
reduction software like Red Giant’s De-
noiser III. At ISO 6400, sufficient noise
reduction would result in a significant
loss in sharpness.
When researching the camera, we
found reports of the battery life being
around two hours. We found those
reports to understate the battery life,
seeing as much as three hours of
battery life with no overheating is-
sues. We were able to shoot for three
consecutive hours with the moni-
tor against the body in a room at 78
degrees Fahrenheit while shooting 4K.
For such a small battery, we are glad it
doesn’t overheat like other 4K mirror-
less cameras, such as the Sony a6300,
a6500, a7R II and a7S II.
The biggest issue we have with the
battery is that no matter what tripod
plate we connected, we could not ac-
cess the battery or the SD card. This is
an issue with smaller cameras with an
affordable price tag. If the SD card slot
TECH SPECS
Lens Mount: Canon EF-M
Camera Format: APS-C (1.6x Crop
Factor)
Pixels Actual: 25.8 Megapixel
Effective: 24.1 Megapixel
Max Resolution: 24 MP: 6000 x 4000
Sensor Type / Size: CMOS, 22.3 x
14.9 mm
Still Images: JPEG, RAW
Movies: MP4, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
Audio: AAC LC
Memory Card Type: SD - SDHC, SDXC
Video Format:
• 3840 x 2160p at 23.98 fps
• 1920 x 1080p at 59.94 fps60 Mb/s
• 1920 x 1080p at 23.98/29.97 fps30
Mb/s
• 1280 x 720p at 120 fps52 Mb/s
• 1280 x 720p at 59.94 fps26 Mb/s
Video Clip Length: Up to 29 Min 59 Sec Weight: 13.65 oz / 387 g with battery
Built-In Mic: With Video (Stereo)
was in a different location, it would be
easier to excuse, but because both bat-
tery and SD card removal is blocked
by even a small mount plate, we found
it to be a pain in the butt.
The last test we did was for moiré.
Using a DSC labs SineZone chart,
we got sharpest focus and did a pan
and tilt. There were no issues that
we could see. Although the camera is
Convenient controls
REVIEW
Canon EOS M50
The Canon Rebel T7i costs 750
Autofocus Points: dollars. It does not shoot 4K, but is
the leader at the price point. It offers
Contrast Detection: 143 a 24.2MP APS-C CMOS sensor with
Phase Detection: 99 the DIGIC 7 image processor. It has a
Viewfinder Type: Electronic 3-inch 1.04m-Dot vari-angle touch-
Display Screen: 3" Rear Touchscreen screen and will shoot up to 60fps in
HD. The monitor offers full articula-
Swivel LCD (1,040,000) tion for use for vlogs or selfies. It
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 100-25600 also offers dual pixel AF, Wi-Fi, NFC,
(Extended Mode: 100-51200) Bluetooth connectivity and internal
time-lapse capture.
Shutter: 30 - 1/4000 Second
Next, is the Sony a6300 for 900
Built-in Flash: Yes bucks. Its 24.2MP APS-C Exmor CMOS
Connectivity: 1/8" Microphone, sensor is paired with the BIONZ X
HDMI D (Micro), USB 2.0 Micro-B image processor to shoot UHD 4K.
It has a 2.36m-Dot OLED EVF and a
Wi-Fi Capable: Yes 3-inch 921.6k-Dot tilting LCD monitor.
Battery: 1 x LP-E12 Rechargeable However, there’s no fully articulat-
Lithium-Ion Battery Pack, 7.2 VDC, ing screen on the a6300. It does offer
875 mAh S-log3 Gamma, better than typical
low-light performance. Wi-Fi and NFC
AC Power Adapter: ACK-E12 (Optional) are also included, and it has a weath-
Dimensions (W x H x D): 4.6 x 3.5 x er-sealed body.
2.3" / 116.3 x 88.1 x 58.7 mm Last, is the Fujifilm X-T20, also for
900 dollars. With its 24.3MP APS-C
X-Trans CMOS III sensor and X-Pro-
and memory card cessor Pro image processor, it cap-
tures up to UHD 4K at 30fps. It has a
2.36m-Dot electronic viewfinder and a
sharp, it didn’t show anything con- 3-inch 1.04m-Dot tilting touchscreen
cerning when it comes to moiré. LCD; however, the monitor is not fully
articulating like that of the M50.
Marketplace
The M50 has a few main features that Final Thoughts
allow it to be compared to a wide array and Recommendations
of other offerings. The first is a flip-out The Canon EOS M50 shoots a beauti-
screen. If you need one for vlogging ful image, but is has a rolling shutter
or similar uses, you’re unlikely to problem. It can shoot up to 60fps in
consider a camera without one. Ad- HD, but both the battery and SD card
ditionally, the M50 are inaccessible with a tripod plate
is mirrorless, but mounted. If you need 4K occasionally
its price competes and need to be able to shoot yourself
with entry level and see the shot on a monitor, the
DSLRs. Lastly, it M50 is a good option.
shoots 4K — high- Overall, the camera worked quite
ly cropped 4K, but well and would fit the needs of some-
4K nonetheless. one who aspires to do a little bit of ev-
Considering all erything and has a smaller budget.
this, let’s look at
three offerings: the contents
Chris Monlux loves a good pastrami sandwich.
Canon Rebel T7i, He is also Videomaker’s Multimedia Editor.
the Sony a6300 full screen
and the Fujifilm You can comment on this article by going on-
line: www.videomaker.com/article/19441 print
X-T20.
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 9

REVIEW
Westcott
Solix
by Sean Berry
Powerful and Portable
T here really isn’t anything quite
like Westcott Solix available on the
market right now. The Solix is a por-
of power. This give the light a unique
compact form factor; it proved to be
somewhat of a challenge to compare
table round LED fixture that connects the advantages and disadvantages
to a wall outlet for its primary source that the Solix offers over other lights.
It’s trailblazing new territory in light
Westcott production.
www.fjwestcott.com Nevertheless, we found the Solix to
be a solid LED that’s capable of oper-
ating in a number of situations with a
STRENGTHS
reasonable price tag of just 449 bucks.
• Lightweight
• Easy to setup and use Easy Setup
One of the high points of the Solix is its
WEAKNESSES sheer simplicity. Out of the box, the So-
• Limited dimming capability lix was pretty much ready to go. Once
we had the light fastened to a light
SUMMARY stand, all we had to do next was attach
For what the Solix strives to be, it the Solix’s included frosted diffuser cap
succeeds. It’s a great soft light that and barn doors. Both accessories at-
gets the job done. It’s both easy to
tach magnetically, so those pieces were
on in a matter of seconds. The magnet
use and highly portable. There’s also
system actually works very well; the
nothing like the Solix and for just 450
cap and the doors snap snugly into
dollars, the Solix positions itself to be place and don’t shift unless you inten-
a great addition to any studio or set tionally move them. After that, all that
production. was left was to plug it in.
The entire setup is so simple that
RECOMMENDED USERS even people who’ve never touched
• Journalists a light in their lives should be able
• Corporate filmmakers to figure out how to put the Solix up
contents without any guidance.
• Commercial producers
The light also includes an integrated
full screen speedring that can rotate a full 360
$449 degrees and has clearly marked con-
print nection points for attaching things like
10 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
REVIEW
Westcott Solix
shadows and wrappy light. In our
TECH SPECS studio, we found that the Solix filled Diffusion cap
Output: 2100 lux at 3.3' in the shadows of the subject in ques-
tion with a soft and pleasant transi-
CRI: 96; TLCI: 97 tion from light to dark. We also saw
Color Temperature: 5600K that it kept the micro-shadowing soft
Beam Angle: 120° — besting some of our other studio
lights, including Westcott’s Flex.
Integrated Rotatable Speed Ring
Though the Solix can be used in
Flicker-Free Dimming to 960 fps other lighting positions beyond the fill
Power Consumption: 60W light, it doesn’t work as well. Since it’s
D-Tap Connection: AC or DC a soft light, it’s not nearly as effective
as a key light or backlight. You can use
Power
a soft key light, but for those doing
dramatic narrative work, the Solix
not always be able to get the light as dim would fall flat as a key light because it
as you need it to be. can’t achieve stark shadows.
With its diffusion cap on, we found Also, the Solix’s barn doors weren’t Marketplace
that, at about a seven foot distance, as effective at shaping the Solix’s light It’s tough to compare the Solix to other
the Solix ran at 200 lumens at its low- as we’d like. The doors work as well lights because it’s really in a class of
est brightness level and went to up as they can, but they weren’t able to its own, so we’ll compare the Solix to
strip
strip banks
light
banks and
aa receptacle
light for
and softboxes.
receptacle near
softboxes. There’s
near the
for attaching
There’s also
the bottom
bottom of
attaching umbrella
of the
the
umbrella mounts.
mounts.
also to 795 lumens at its highest. You can
remove the diffusion cap for a brighter
light, if using a softbox.
make a huge difference since the Solix
is a soft light. Most of its light just
moves around the barn doors.
another lightweight light from West-
cott, the Flex. Both lights run at a color
temperature of 5600K, but the Solix
just inches out the Flex’s CRI rating
Brightness
Brightness Temperature Portability of 95 by sporting a CRI or 96. Both
The
The brightness
brightness on on the
the Solix
Solix is
is adjustable
adjustable The Solix runs at 5600K and unlike The Solix is fairly light to carry. The are portable, but the Flex is actually
through
through aa dual-purpose
dual-purpose dial dial located
located at at with a lot of LEDs, that temperature is light itself weighs just 3.3 pounds. It lighter than the Solix. The Flex costs
the
the back
back ofof the
the light
light that
that controls
controls bothboth fixed, meaning there’s no way to adjust also comes with a nice carrying case 700 bucks, making it about 350 dollars
the
the power
power and
and dimming.
dimming. The The Solix’s
Solix’s the color temperature on the device. that’s compact enough to easily lug more than the Solix, and it doesn’t
brightness
brightness range,
range, which
which isis displayed
displayed on on This does make the Solix slightly less around, but also sturdy enough to include its available battery pack. Over-
aa small
small screen
screen above
above the the dial,
dial, runs
runs from
from versatile when compared to other op- keep the light safe during travel. all, you’d be saving money with the
00 to
to 100,
100, but
but that
that doesn’t
doesn’t mean
mean thatthat the
the tions, but this isn’t detrimental to the Portability is put on the back burner Solix and would be getting about the
light
light dims
dims from
from 100 100 percent
percent allall the
the way
way light’s overall value. You just have to when it comes to power source. The same, if not a better, quality of light.
down
down to to zero
zero percent.
percent. In In our
our tests,
tests, we
we be aware that it can only be used for Solix is AC/DC operable out of the Another portable light we can
found
found that
that the
the Solix
Solix can
can ultimately
ultimately only only daylight lighting unless you use color box, but Westcott does offer a battery compare is the Ikan Mylo. It comes in
go
go up
up or
or down
down twotwo stops
stops across
across itsits en-
en- gels, which can be attached using the pack for the Solix. The battery has to options of bi-color or daylight, adding
tire
tire brightness
brightness range,
range, meaning
meaning you you may may magnetic diffusion cap or barn doors. be bought separately for an extra 319 some flexibility. The Mylo is portable
bucks, almost doubling the Solix’s 449 at 6 pounds, and it costs 550 for the
Barndoors to shape light
Color Accuracy dollar total price. daylight model or 600 dollars for the
The color accuracy ratings for the Solix bi-color option. While it is slightly
clock in at 96 CRI and 97 TLCI. CRI and What You Get more expensive than the Solix, the bi-
TLCI are different measures of color When you get the Solix Compact Kit, color model offers a good value and is
rendition accuracy: CRI deals with the which is what we received for this re- more versatile.
color rendition as it appears to the na- view, you will get the Solix light head,
ked eye and TLCI deals with the color a travel case, a frosted diffusion cap, Final Thoughts
rendition as seen by a camera. A good barndoors, a PowerStrap by Tether The Westcott Solix is a great soft light
light usually has a CRI rating of at least Tools, a power adaptor and a power that’s easy to use and highly portable.
95 and has a minimum TLCI rating of cord. It costs a total of 449 dollars. With its solid color rendition, the Solix
90. The Solix is above both of these Like we said before, the portable D- is a good option if you need an afford-
minimums, so it’s going to be rather Tap battery pack is going to cost you able soft LED light.
accurate at rendering colors both to the an extra 319 if you’re looking to take
human eye and on video. this portable LED out to locations contents
Sean Berry likes to make up his own words
where there isn’t an outlet available. when he can’t find ones that fit. He is also one
In Use You can also tack on a D-Tap Cable of Videomaker’s contributing editors. full screen
The Solix is a soft light, so it works for 39 dollars and a 10-foot stand for You can comment on this article by going on-
line: www.videomaker.com/article/19445 print
best as a fill light where you need soft 59 dollars.
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 11

REVIEW
Sachtler
flowtech
75 MS
by Chris Monlux
What took so long?
T he lightweight Sa-
chtler flowtech 75
has an innovative design
and a price tag that reflects
its value. The flowtech 75
Sachtler features a 75 millimeter bowl
www.Sachtler.com and two-stage, three-section carbon
fiber legs adjustable from 10.2 inches
STRENGTHS to 61.8 inches, but it isn’t your typical
• Easy to extend tripod. All of the leg length adjust-
ments are controlled with three levers
• All adjustment at top of tripod
positioned at the top of the tripod. It
has a mid-level spreader that can be
WEAKNESSES quickly attached or removed so that
• Higher price tag the tripod can almost pancake all the
way down to the ground.
SUMMARY The big question is why it has
Sachtler came up with a new tripod taken so long to make a tripod that is
design, and we like it. Simply and controlled at the top of the legs. Who
quickly deploy its legs and you’re knows why, but we are glad someone
ready to shoot. finally made one; it makes the tripod
much more usable.
When purchasing the flowtech 75,
RECOMMENDED USERS
the legs alone costs around 1,300 dol-
• Indie & Enthusiast filmmakers
lars. For an additional 100 bucks, you
• Documentarians & can include the Sachtler Ace XL head.
Event Videographers For this review, we used the FSB 6
• Commercial & Corporate filmmakers head. With the FSB 6, the system costs
contents • Travel videographers & Journalists a little more than two grand.
The flowtech 75 MS supports up to
full screen 44 pounds and comes with remov-
$1,285 able rubber feet to cover its dual
print spiked feet. It has independent leg
12 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
movement and adjustment along
with a magnetic transport lock.
In Use
When we fi rst opened the fl
first owtech 75
flowtech
up, we didn’t know what we had. Sa-
chtler just said they wanted to send us
a tripod, and who are we to decline?
Our initial reaction was, “This is so
cool! Why doesn’t this already ex-
ist?” Seriously, how many times have
you fought with a tripod for the right
height? I know I owe the swear jar at
least a few dollars for my interactions
with various tripods over the years.
Cooler yet, fl owtech legs are super
flowtech
quick in addition to having convenient
adjustment levers.
The legs are carbon fi ber — the
fiber
right material to live up to hard use
and abuse. When deploying, the legs
go out with a rattle, giving the impres-
sion that they won’t provide good
support. However, once you engage
the lock, they feel sturdy.
We used the fl owtech with four
flowtech
different cameras: the Panasonic EVA1
and GH5s and the Canon C200 and
1DX Mark II. The heaviest camera
setup we tested was the Canon C200
with an Atomos Shogun and a Canon
16-35 f2.8, weighing 8.2 pounds. The
lightest setup was the GH5s with the
TECH SPECS
Leg Stages/Sections: 2-stage (3-sec-
tion)
Height Range:
With Mid-Level Spreader:
24.8 - 61.81" / 63 - 157 cm
Without Mid-Level Spreader:
10.24 - 60.24" / 26 - 153 cm
Collapsed Height: 26.8" / 68 cm
Load Capacity: 44 lb / 20 kg
Head Attachment Fitting: 75 mm
bowl
Legs: Carbon fiber
Head Attachment Fitting: Aluminum
Leg Lock Type: Lever clamp
Weight: 6.4 lb / 2.9 kg
Olympus M.Zuiko 7-14mm f2.8 at
2.62 pounds. Regardless of the weight
of our setup, the tripod handled it
well and made adjusting leg height
fast. The mid-level spreader can be
removed or replaced simply and eas-
ily, and each leg has a button that will
allow the legs to spread farther out,
giving it a much lower shooting level.
The tripod arrived in a nice bag for
easy transport. It’s the same design as
other Sachtler offerings. The mid-level
spreader is nice, but not always neces-
sary. Depending on what you’re shoot-
ing, its likely to be left off. The rubber
feet are typical for Sachtler tripods.
Keep track of where you put the rubber
feet if you remove them— a new set of
three will set you back 142 bucks.
Marketplace
Although the flowtech 75 legs are
unique in design, their build materi-
als and specs are very similar to other
products already on the market. We are
going to look at three options, starting
with Miller. We’ll also look at options
from Manfrotto and Secced. To be con-
sidered against the flowtech, the tripods
must be carbon fiber, have a 75mm
bowl and support at least 44 pounds.
First up is the Miller SOLO DV Car-
bon Fiber 2-Stage for 700 dollars. This
REVIEW
Sachtler flowtech 75 MS
Convenient lock levers
is the most expensive option outside
of the flowtech that we are going to
look at. It has a 75mm bowl and a
capacity of 44 pounds. Its maximum
height is 63 inches and minimum
height is 9 inches. It’s built of carbon
fiber but has no mid-level spreader.
Next up is the Manfrotto 535
Carbon Fiber for 550 dollars. It has
a 75mm bowl and supports up to 44
pounds. With three sections, it has a
maximum height of 67 inches and
minimum height of 11 inches.
Last up is the bargain, the Secced
2-Stage Carbon Fiber for 460 dollars.
It has a 75mm bowl and supports up Master:
to 44 pounds. It can go as high as 58
inches and as low as 16 inches. It’s
Choosing a Music Video Genre
Forming Ideas for Music Videos
built out of carbon fiber and has a
floor spreader. Contracts for Music Videos
Pre-Production for Music Videos
Final Thoughts
The Sachtler flowtech 75 MS carbon Directing Music Video Shoots
fiber tripod legs are very nice. They Editing Music Video
are quick to set-up and easy to use.
They are a bit pricey when compared
Find the right concept and your video will
to the marketplace, however they
appeal to audiences and show off the
have a new and innovative design.
music to its best ability. But that's only the
Like with most Sachtler products, this
first step. You'll also need to understand
tripod is high-quality with a high price
the nuts and bolts of putting the video
tag. We really liked using the flowtech
together, directing musicians, editing for
legs. They are a great pair of sticks.
music and even protecting yourself with
an ironclad contract. Available in DVD or contents
Chris Monlux is forgetful at times. He’s also
Digital Downloadable Formats.
Videomaker’s Multimedia Editor.
Learn more at: full screen
You can comment on this article by going on-
videomaker.com/VideosThatRock
line: www.videomaker.com/article/19444 print
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 13
 REVIEW
REVIEW SmallHD Focus OLED

SmallHD the capability of the camera even be-

fore we view anything in the monitor.
ratios. It can preview safe area lines,
cross hairs and cross hatch guides,
In the Box
The Focus OLED comes with the

Focus
Focus OLED was also nice to use too. It has a color picker and focus as- 180-degree tilt arm mount, screen
with the GH4 since we typically want sists like peaking. Plus, you can over- protector, four cable clips and a mi-
to shoot in v-log with that camera. lay an image, LUT or audio meters on crofiber cleaning cloth. You also get

OLED
Within SmallHD’s OS 3, it was easy to the screen. For cameras that require an 8-inch micro-HDMI male to HDMI
add a v-log to REC709 preview LUT. scaling for a full screen image, it does type-A female adapter cable, a one
This was most helpful with getting that, too. The best part of all the add- foot micro-HDMI male to micro-HDMI
proper exposure, as log shooting can ed tools is that they are easy to apply, male cable and a foot long micro-USB
be difficult to assess. access and save into profiles. With the male cable.
When using it with the Canon 1DX swipe of a finger, you can go back and The big thing that is missing is a
Mark II, the Focus OLED was a nice forth to different customized profiles battery. The L series battery is a very
addition because the monitor on the with any combination of functions for common battery and can be pur-
camera is fixed and is highly reflective. whatever application you need. chased from numerous manufactur-
by Chris Monlux Though the Focus OLED is also quite On the downside, the screen has ers. Depending on what brand you go
reflective, the included articulating arm quite a lot of glare to it. SmallHD does with, it will set you back anywhere
almost totally eliminated this issue. supply an UltraClear Screen Protector from 50 to 130 dollars. If you are like
OLED oh My! Regardless of what camera you
use, the Focus OLED has all the shot
that has more matte finish than the
screen, but it shows scratches easily. We
us, you may already have a plethora
of these batteries, so we thought we
assist tools you need. It has false color, prefer to use it without, but worry about ought to try all of them out. We tested
zebras, LUT preview, a histogram, a the durability of the screen with it off. four different manufacturers at two
waveform monitor and a vectorscope. Additionally, when adding the screen different sizes, including batteries
SmallHD
www.SmallHD.com
W ith a higher resolution and a
denser pixel count, the SmallHD
Focus OLED HDMI offers upgrades
source
source of
no
The
of light.

The darker
light. This
no brightness
brightness when
darker the
This means
means there
when displaying
there is
displaying black.
the display
display is,
is, the
is
black.
the lower
lower
It also offers overlay frames for dif-
ferent applications for various aspect
protector, the usually superb touch
function response is greatly diminished.
from Anton Bauer, Sony, Kastar and
one that is brandless. The Sony and

and updates to SmallHD’s best-selling its

its power
power consumption.
consumption. This This creates
creates aa
STRENGTHS product ever, the original Focus. The wider
wider color
color gamut
gamut and
and richer
richer blacks.
blacks.

Become a professional
• Can power a camera new Focus OLED is priced at 700 dol- Additionally,
Additionally, response
response time
time isis typically
typically
• Uses common battery lars and has a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 much
much shorter,
shorter, and
and because
because there
there is
is no
no
• Easy to use operating system

wedding videographer
touchscreen display. The monitor backlight,
backlight, the
the display
display can
can be be slimmer
slimmer
connects via HDMI, or upgrades to SDI than
than other
other panel
panel types.
types.
WEAKNESSES for an additional 100 bucks. The Focus
• Reflective screen OLED has 402 pixels per inch and gets In
In Use
Use
• Proprietary HDMI cable up to 350 nit brightness, with a 160 The
The Focus
Focus OLED
OLED is is very
very versatile
versatile To
To be
be aa professional
professional wedding
wedding videographer,
videographer,
degree viewing angle and 60,000:1 when
when itit comes
comes to to the
the cameras
cameras you you can
can you
you need
need toto show
show up
up prepared
prepared to
to do
do things
things
contrast ratio. It’s powered off a Sony connect
connect itit to;to; just
just make
make sure
sure to to get
get
SUMMARY
L-Series battery with the option to the
the correct
correct connecting
connecting cable cable for for your
your
right.
right. The
The award
award winning
winning Wedding
Wedding Videography
Videography
The SmallHD Focus OLED is small, will
will make
make sure
sure you
you can
can handle
handle any
any curve
curve ball
ball
power the connected camera through camera.
camera. The The micro-HDMI
micro-HDMI port port on on the
the
easy-to-use and can expand the capa-
a dummy battery. Attach the Focus Focus
Focus has has been
been designed
designed to to make
make the the the
the big
big day
day throws
throws at
at you.
you.
bility of your camera. Although it has OLED to a camera without a head- typically
typically fragile
fragile connection
connection stronger.
stronger.
a few flaws, it might just be the right phone jack, and you gain the ability to However,
However, ifif you you lose
lose the
the cable,
cable, you’ll
you’ll This
This complete
complete six-part
six-part training
training DVD
DVD covers
covers every
every aspect
aspect of
of the
the wedding,
wedding, giving
giving you
you
tool for the job. monitor your audio with its head- be
be in
in trouble
trouble and and will
will need
need to to order
order the
the inside
inside scoop
scoop onon the
the extra
extra details
details that
that separate
separate the
the serious
serious wedding
wedding videogra-
videogra-
phone out, tapped from the HDMI another
another — — standard
standard cables
cables don’t
don’t fitfit pher
pher from
from the
the amateur
amateur with camera. Videomaker's
with aa camera. Videomaker's trusted
trusted editors
editors will
will walk
walk you
you
RECOMMENDED USERS output. Going even further, the Focus into
into the
the connection
connection point. point. We We putput aa through
through every
every facet
facet ofof wedding
wedding videography,
videography, from
from navigating
navigating the
the legalities
legalities ahead
ahead of
of
• Enthusiast filmmakers OLED has an SD card slot for image piece
piece of of gaffer’s
gaffer’s tapetape onon ours
ours to to keep
keep itit time
time toto adding
adding post-production
post-production effects
effects after
after the
the ceremony.
ceremony.
• YouTubers capture, overlay or to input a LUT. seperate
seperate fromfrom the the many
many other
other similar
similar
Telly d Segments
Segments include:
include: Legalities,
Legalities, Pre-Ceremony,
Pre-Ceremony, Audio,
Audio, Ceremony,
Ceremony, Reception
Reception and
and Post-Production.
Post-Production.

Awar er!
• Documentarians & Indie filmmakers Lastly, the Focus OLED comes with a standard
standard cables
cables we we have.
have.
super-handy tilt arm that attaches to During
During our our review,
review, we we shot
shot with
with

Winn
• Commercial & Corporate filmmakers Learn
Learn more
more at
at www.videomaker.com/weddingDVD
www.videomaker.com/weddingDVD
your camera’s shoe mount. three
three different
different cameras:
cameras: the the Canon
Canon
• Journalists & Travel videographers
As noted in its name, the Focus 1DX
1DX MarkMark II,II, the
the Panasonic
Panasonic GH4 GH4 and and
OLED has an organic light-emitting di- the
the Canon
Canon M50. M50. TheThe M50
M50 is is aa great
great
contents ode panel versus the in-plane switch- pairing
pairing forfor this
this monitor,
monitor, though
though the the contents
ing LCD panel in the original Focus. camera
camera and and monitor
monitor do do come
come in in at
at
full screen The big thing that makes OLED differ- about
about the the same
same price.
price. Because
Because the the full screen
$700 ent is that, unlike in typical displays, M50
M50 has has no
no headphone
headphone jack, jack, combin-
combin-
print each pixel on an OLED is its own ing
ing itit with
with the
the Focus
Focus OLED
OLED expands
expands print

14 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 15

 REVIEW
SmallHD Focus OLED
TECH SPECS
Panel Type: Touchscreen OLED
Diagonal Size: 5.5" / 14 cm
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Pixel Density: 402 ppi
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Brightness: 350 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio: 60,000:1
Color Gamut: 105% NTSC
Color Depth: 8-bit
Viewing Angle: 160°
Inputs: 1 x Micro-HDMI
Audio Out: 1 x 3.5 mm stereo mini-
jack
Kastar batteries are 8700 milliamp
hours (mAh) and the Anton Bauer and
brandless batteries are 5200 mAh.
Regardless of the manufacturer or
size, the batteries worked flawlessly.
The larger 8799 mAh batteries made
the rotation of the monitor on the
mount limited because of its size, but
it otherwise functioned the same.
There is one accessory that, if
compatible with your camera, should
be a no-brainer — a power adapter to
let the monitor power your camera.
For just 60 bucks, you can power your
Canon, Panasonic, Nikon or Sony
Included articulating mount
contents
full screen
print
16
Other I/O: 1 x Micro-USB
Anamorphic De-Squeeze: 1.33x,
1.5x, 1.66x, 2.0x
Audio Metering: Up to 8 channels
Power Input: 1 x NP-F (Sony L) bat-
tery bay
Power Output: 1 x Barrel: 3.5 mm
outer, 1.1 mm inner
Storage: 1 x SD card slot
Mounting Threads: 3 x 1/4"-20
Dimensions (HxWxD): 3.45 x 0.77 x
5.54" / 8.76 x 1.96 x 14.07 cm
Weight: 9 oz / 255 g (without battery)
directly from the monitor using the
adapter that connects to your camera
via a dummy battery. If your camera
runs off the Canon LP-E6 and LP-E9,
the Panasonic DMW-BLF19, the Nikon
EN-EL14 or the Sony NP-FW50, the
adapter is for you. You’ll get a longer
battery life, and because of the dummy
battery, you’ll also reduce the heat
build-up in the camera.
Focus vs Focus OLED
Because the Focus OLED is only 100
bucks more than the original Focus and
offers most of the same features, we
thought we’d talk about the differences
between the two models directly. The
Focus OLED has a .5 inch larger screen
but is 450 nits less bright. However,
when in the sun, we didn’t experience
any benefit from the additional 450 nits
on the original Focus over the OLED.
The Focus OLED resolution is 1080 ver-
sus 720 on the original Focus, and you
get over 100 pixels per inch. The most
notable improvement is that the OLED
has 105-percent NTSC gamut coverage,
whereas the original Focus only has 70
percent. Lastly, the overall dimensions
are a bit larger at .15 inches taller, .29
inches wider and 2.9 ounces heavier.
Marketplace
We looked at several other 5-plus-inch
OLED monitors with at least 1080
resolution that offered shot assist
functions. Some of the options are
VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
also recorders. Let’s look at monitors
from TVLogic, Convergent Design and
Transvideo.
The TVLogic VFM-055A 5.5-inch
OLED High-Contrast 3G-SDI & HDMI
monitor costs 1,500 dollars. It has
The Largest Commercial Drone Event in North America
a 5.5-inch 1080 monitor with 3G-
SDI and HDMI inputs. This monitor
September 5 -7, Rio Hotel, Las Vegas
features waveform, vectorscope and
audio meters and has a 160 degree
viewing angle and a 17,000:1 contrast
ratio. It offers multiple safety area and
marker functions and supports popu-
lar camera LUTs. It comes with a 3.5
millimeter stereo audio jack and gets
USB-based firmware updates.
The Convergent Design Odys-
sey7Q+ OLED Monitor and 4K
Recorder costs 1,495 dollars. It’s a
7.7-inch 1280 x 800 OLED touchscreen
monitor with DCI and UHD 4K record-
ing over HDMI or SDI. It captures to
ProRes 4444 12-Bit RGB, ProRes 422
and uncompressed DPX 10-Bit and
12-Bit. It includes image analysis tools
and has built-in LUTs and custom 3D
LUT support. Join thousands of UAV professionals at the largest and most comprehensive drone conference and
Last up is the Transvideo StarliteHD exposition in the United States. Over the course of 3 days, you’ll learn from the best and brightest
5-inch Monitor and Recorder for
1,600 dollars. It’s a 5-inch SDI moni- and meet face-to-face with innovative hardware and software vendors reshaping the industry.
tor with waveform, histogram and
vectorscope. It records in H.264 and
has a 1-to-1 pixel zoom. It has HFLIP
160+ 115+ 100+
and VFLIP with 3G-SDI input with re-
clocked 3G-SDI out. Lastly, it supports
Sony Metadata via HD-SDI.
Final Thoughts
We really liked the Focus OLED. The
operating system has all the bells and
EXHIBITORS SESSIONS SPEAKERS
whistles you need to improve your
shots, and depending on what you
shoot on, it can extend your camera’s
capabilities as well. The screen is a quite
reflective, but because it can be repo- ENTERPRISE TRACKS
sitioned, this isn’t a big issue. Lastly, its
price is good for a touchscreen OLED.
If you are shopping for an easy-to-use,
Agriculture Public Safety
quality monitor, you should consider
the SmallHD Focus OLED. Construction Energy Inspection
Chris Monlux loves to whistle when he is happy contents
and finds it odd that some can’t whistle at all.
He is also Videomaker’s Multimedia Editor.
Surveying and Mapping Infrastructure Inspection
full screen
You can comment on this article by going on-
Visit us at interdrone.com
line: www.videomaker.com/article/19443 print
 REVIEW
REVIEW Illuminati Wireless Light and Color Meter

Illuminati
Wireless Light
TECH SPECS Storage case included

Type: Incident meter for ambient, Flash Sync Outlet: 1/8" / 3.5 mm jack
flash, and color Operating Range: Approx. 78.75' /

and Color Meter Exposure Metering Range: 1 to

1,000,000 lux, -1 to 18 EV
24 m
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE)
ISO: 3 to 409600 Supported Devices:
by Chris Monlux Shutter Speed: 30 to 1/64,000 sec Apple devices running iOS 8.1
Aperture: f/0.5 to f/144 or higher
Simple Design, Color Temperature: 1600 to Android devices running 4.3
Seamless Use 20,000K or higher
Metering Modes Power: 2 x AAA batteries
Ambient: Manual or continuous Dimensions: 3.1 x 2.8 x 1.2" / 78 x 70
x 30 mm (including dome)
a measuring range of -4 to 20 EV and
monitoring, flash with sync cord,
a color temperature range of 1500-
wireless flash with pre-flash rejection Weight: 2.2 oz / 62 g (with batteries) 20,000K. It also has a illuminance
range of 0.15-250,000 lux.
Next up is the biggest name in light
In Use
Use
M ore than just a light meter, the Il-
luminati Wireless Light and Color
Meter measures both the light your
In
There are
There
aa light
are aa couple
light meter.
couple typical
meter. The The first
typical uses
first isis to
uses for
to get
for
get help
help
ture of the Fresnels, we matched all
our other lights to them.
We shot both before and after
We then needed to set the key and
fill lights for our A-roll. We wanted a
bit of contrast between the two sides,
meters: Sekonic. The Sekonic Speed-
master L-858D-U costs 600 dollars.
It has incident metering for ambient
lights emit and its color temperature. with exposure,
with exposure, especially
especially for for photog-
photog- balancing our lights’ color tempera- but nothing super dramatic — just and flash. Like the Illuminati, it has an
It will even suggest a gel to help unify raphers working
raphers working with with aa strobe.
strobe. The The tures with the Illuminati meter and enough to allow for contour and input for framerate and adjustments
the color temperature across lights Illuminati has
Illuminati has aa light
light sensor
sensor to to trigger
trigger the results were quite interesting. We depth. Because the Illuminati has a for shutter angles. The L858D-U has
that don’t match. For 300 dollars, it’s a aa strobe
strobe reading,
reading, so so you
you knowknow what what tested the change with a Canon C200, lux interpretation, we could easily a measuring range of -5 to 22.9 EV
great value and super useful. light you’re
light you’re working
working with with even even when
when Panasonic EVA1 and Panasonic GH4. get a reading of the intensity of each and a illuminance range of 0.1 to
The Illuminati meter started out as your lighting
your lighting is is not
not continuous.
continuous. The The Before the color balance, when set light. Turning on each light one at a 2,000,000 lux. When compared to the
Illuminati Instrument Corp. a Kickstarter product in April of 2017. next typical
next typical use use forfor aa light
light meter
meter is is to auto white balance, each camera time, we were able to easily dial-in the Illuminati, it’s missing the ability to
www.illuminatiinstruments.com In just 30 days, the project reached its to execute
to execute aa contrast
contrast ratio.
ratio. ItIt could
could did an alright job at choosing the desired contrast ratio. No fuss, no trial get a kelvin reading.
goal, and since then, Illuminati has be that
be that you
you areare trying
trying to to recreate
recreate aa average color temperature. They gen- and error, just a simple process that Last up is the Sekonic C-700-U
been working diligently on the meter. lighting setup
lighting setup used
used at at aa prior
prior shoot,
shoot, or or erally got pretty close. By contrast, got our lights dialed-in quick. SpectroMaster for 1,500 dollars. It also
STRENGTHS
In this review, we test the final produc- maybe you
maybe you areare trying
trying to to set
set aa contrast
contrast when we manually set the white has incident metering for ambient and
• Easy to use
tion model available for everyone. ratio with
ratio with aa new
new setup.
setup. Regardless,
Regardless, the the balance of each camera at 5600K, the Marketplace flash. It has a illuminance range of
• Indicates color temp in kelvin The meter offers incident meter- meter tells
tells you
you thethe power
power of of each
each light
light
meter image did not look good. The result To see where the Illuminati Wireless 1-200,000 lux and can measure color
• Affordable ing for ambient and flash lighting in luxor
in luxor foot
foot candles,
candles, so so it’s
it’s easy
easy to to was very green and not flattering to Light and Color Meter fits into the temperature from 1600-40,000K.
with an exposure meter range of -1 figure out
figure out the
the contrast
contrast ratio ratio between
between skin tones. At that point in our test, marketplace, let’s look at the Lumu
SUMMARY to 18 ev. As any light meter should, it two lights.
two lights. the average color temperature of the Color and Light Meter, the Sekonic Final Thoughts
If you ever wondered how to set your will give you one of the three values Going further
Going further than than aa normal
normal light light scene metered in at around 5220K. L-858D-U and the Sekonic C-700-U. If you have ever needed a light meter,
camera’s exposure, a light meter will needed for setting proper exposure: meter, the
meter, the Illuminati
Illuminati meter meter also also gives
gives Because we assumed the lights were These meters are all priced between the Illuminati will do it for you and for
give you the exact settings to use. ISO, shutter speed or aperture. Set the the kelvin
the kelvin value
value of of any
any given
given light.
light. 5600K and had set the white balance 300 and 1,500 dollars. a really affordable price. With its abil-
Additionally, the Illuminati offers ISO and shutter speed, and it will tell For us
For us at Videomaker, this
at Videomaker, this allowed
allowed accordingly, we got a worse outcome The first competitor is the most ity to tell you the kelvin value of your
loads of other great features for vid- you the aperture. It also offers color us to
us to unify
unify thethe color
color temperature
temperature than auto white balance in the end. similar product to Illuminati meter. light, support for an infinite num-
temperature metering between 1600 across all
across all the
the lights
lights in in our
our studio.
studio. However, once we balanced the room The Lumu Power Color and Light ber of meters controlled by a single
eographers.
to 20,000 degrees kelvin (K). It con- Our studio
Our studio is is mostly
mostly 1x1 1x1 bi-color
bi-color to the same kelvin value of 5100K Meter costs 300 dollars. It also works mobile device, and its easy usability,
nects wirelessly to an iOS or Android soft LED
soft LED panels.
panels. However,
However, we we also
also and set each camera to that value, the with an iOS app — but only iOS — you might find yourself looking for a
RECOMMENDED USERS device with around a 78-foot range. use aa few
few LEDLED Fresnels
Fresnels that that areare day-
day-
use color being captured was much more and connects via a lightning connec- reason to buy one.
• Anyone For more complex setups, you can use light balanced.
light balanced. Not Not one
one of of our
our lights
lights accurate than before and looked bet- tion. The big difference between this
contents multiple meters at a time; there is no is actually
is actually 5600K
5600K when when balanced
balanced for for ter than using auto white balance. and the Illuminati is that one is physi- contents
Chris Monlux loves a good light. He is also Vid-
limit to the number of meters you can daylight according
daylight according to to the
the Illuminati
Illuminati Without having the Illuminati meter, cally connected to a phone and the eomaker’s Multimedia Editor.
full screen use. Additionally, the Illuminati has a meter. Color
meter. Color temperatures
temperatures ranged ranged we might have never known that our other is not. The Lumu has exposure, full screen
$300 magnet on the back for easy mount- from 5350K
from 5350K to to 5700K.
5700K. Since Since we we lights were so far off from what we illuminance and color metering for You can comment on this article by going on-
print ing when the situation requires it. line: www.videomaker.com/article/19442 print
couldn’t adjust
couldn’t adjust the the color
color tempera-
tempera- thought they were. both ambient and flash lighting. It has

18 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 19


Whether you’re recording audio for a commercial,
a wedding or your next feature film, the way you
acquire that sound can make all the difference in
the world. There are many considerations when you
record audio, ranging from the placement of your
microphone to the microphone itself.
So, what kind of microphone should you buy?
BY W. H. BOURNE
contents
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20 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
E
ver watch a low-budget movie
and wonder, “How did this film
make the cut?” The cinematog-
raphy may have been average,
the story derivative but — the sound!
The quality of the sound design may
be the reason the film made it onto the
screen. Surprisingly, many film festival
programmers rate sound quality as
the element they weight most heavily
when looking at entries. In fact, sound
in film can be very deceptive.
Techniques that many films use
— such as audio editing, automated
dialog replacement (ADR, also known
as dubbing or looping), remixing and
sound sweetening — occur in post-
production and can be very time-con-
suming as well as expensive.
For most productions, it’s impor-
tant to get audio right the first time
— although it’s equally important to
have reasonable expectations about
the type of sound you can obtain with
Buyer’s Guide
the right audio gear in specific types
of environments.
There are several basic types of mi-
crophones you can use in production.
Handheld Microphones
Whether wired or wireless, handheld
microphones are held by an inter-
viewer or talent. They’re great for
getting run-and-gun interviews in noisy
environments where you don’t have
the time for a lavalier. Handheld mics
can also be used on a stand to pick-up
audio from a subject who will not be
moving around. Handheld mics can
deliver a very rich full sound. However,
if you don’t want your microphones to
be seen in your shots, a lav or shotgun
mic would be a better option.
Lavalier
This tiny microphone is typically
clipped to a lapel or shirt, but some-
times it can be completely concealed
under the talents’ clothing. Lav mics
come in both wired and wireless forms
and can be helpful at times in blocking
outside noise because of their close
placement to the sound source; howev-
er, the noise created by your subject’s
clothing moving around while wear-
ing a lav can make the audio captured
by the microphone unusable. Lavalier
mics typically don’t produce as rich of
a sound as handheld or shotgun mics.
If it’s possible, using a shotgun mic in-
stead of or in addition to the lav would
often be a better choice.
Shotgun Mic
This long, thin type of microphone
can be mounted to a stand, boom pole
or your camera rig. Shotgun mics can
be placed much further away from
your subject than lavs or handheld
mics, while still doing a good job at
rejecting outside noise. These mics are
sensitive to handling noise, however,
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8
which can make using one mounted
to a camera rig or even on a boom
pole challenging.
Microphones in Post Production
Microphones used for ADR or narra-
tion vary from handheld microphones
to large condenser mics. While many
have XLR outs to connect with pro
audio gear, some are now being built
to connect directly to computers via
USB. Foley — the background sounds
in film and TV productions — is often
recorded with a large variety of mics
depending on many variables, includ-
ing whether the recording is in a stu-
dio or outside and the type of sound
that you’re going for.
Tech Specs to Consider
This is a quick and dirty breakdown.
It’s important to note that audio
recording is an art unto itself, similar
to cinematography. Many chapters of
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21

many books have been written about
types of microphones, construction of
mics and their pickup patterns.
Condenser vs. Dynamic Mics
The way a microphone element or
capsule is built to pick-up sound af-
fects how it performs. There are many
types of microphone elements; how-
ever, due to cost, durability and func-
tion, there are only two that should be
considered for production and post:
condenser and dynamic.
In the most basic sense, condenser
microphones use electrical current to
power a series of plates that vibrate
when sound waves hit them. The ob-
vious con to this type of microphone
is that it needs power at all times in
order to work. Phantom power is used
in pro audio systems to send power
down the microphone cable to con-
denser mics without interfering with
the audio signal. Otherwise, the mic
will need a battery.
Condenser mics can be very sensi-
tive, allowing them to pick up audio
from a distance. A good example of
this use is shotgun microphones. This
same sensitivity can result in a con-
denser mic picking up a lot of extra
wind noise and background noise,
which is why a good windscreen is
also a vital accessory for your shotgun
mic. It’s also important to note that
condenser mics can be a bit delicate.
Dynamic microphones use an
electromagnetic coil and diaphragm.
Azden SMX-30
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22
While that may sound a lot more
delicate than a condenser, it’s not.
Dynamic microphones are the most
rugged mics available. They do have
a limited sensitivity, which actually
is not always a downside; however,
dynamic microphones are usually not
found with as tight of a polar pattern
as many condenser mics have.
Polar Patterns
Polar patterns, also commonly known
as pickup patterns, are the areas in
which a microphone will be sensitive
to sound. The common polar patterns
used in production recording mics are
omnidirectional, cardioid, hypercardi-
oid, supercardioid and line. Some mi-
crophones can even switch between
polar patterns.
An omnidirectional mic has a polar
pattern that is round in shape, while a
cardioid polar pattern is heart shaped.
The line polar pattern used for shot-
gun mics is almost completely in front
of the mic and very directional. This
helps explain the shotgun’s rejection
of noise along the sides of the mic and
its popularity for use on film shoots.
Cardioid and hypercardioid are
commonly used for lav and hand-
held mics. They offer a good balance
between wide pick up and rejection of
outside noise.
Frequency Response
Frequency response is perhaps the
most overlooked element when shop-
Røde VideoMic Pro+
VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
Manufacturer List:
ADK Microphones MXL
ping for a new microphone. Frequen- the crowd behind him. If you see the www.adkmic.com www.mxlmics.com
cy response is a measurement of the crowd making a lot of noise behind
AKG Nady Systems Inc.
audio frequencies, usually expressed the subject of the interview, but you www.akg.com www.nady.com
in Hertz (Hz), that a microphone is can’t hear the crowd making noise,
most sensitive to. Each model of it’s going to be rather awkward for Audio-Technica Neumann
microphone will have a different viewers to watch. In this case, record www.audio-technica.com www.neumannusa.com
frequency response and you’ll have to from a pair of microphones. Use the
keep in mind how you plan to use it. built-in mic your camera might have Audix Røde
www.audixusa.com www.rode.com
For example, if you’re only recording or a built-in mic in a portable audio
spoken word, then you only need a recorder to pick up the crowd and Azden Royer Labs
microphone that has good reproduc- your handheld mic to pick up your www.azden.com www.royerlabs.com
tion down to around 75Hz since most subject. This will allow you to have a
people’s voices when speaking are sense of ambient sound to your loca- Behringer Samson
not any lower than that. On the other tion without overpowering the track www.music-group.com/brand/ www.samsontech.com
from your subject in your mix. behringer/home
hand, many audio engineers feel that
Sanken
accurate reproduction of up to and in Beyerdynamic www.sanken-mic.com
excess of 15,000Hz (15kHz) is impor- The right mic is only half the job. www.north-america.beyerdynamic.com
tant for good intelligibility and a feel- Once you’ve determined the right Schoeps GmbH
ing of clarity of the spoken word. mic(s) for a job, you’ll need to focus Blue Microphones www.schoeps.de
on microphone placement. There are www.bluemic.com
Wireless vs. Wired entire books that have been written on sE Electronics
CAD Audio www.seelectronics.com
As a rule, wired microphones are microphone placement for recording. www.cadaudio.com
more reliable than wireless; wireless Taking the time to learn mic placement Sennheiser
always runs the risk of having radio techniques will likely improve your Canon www.sennheiser.com
frequency interference. There are new audio more than better gear. www.usa.canon.com
wireless systems that help eliminate Sony
many of those interference issues, Mics and Money Countryman www.sony.com
www.countryman.com
making the difference more about It’s often thought that if a product is
Telefunken-Elektroakustik
money. Wireless systems are typically harder to make or made of materi- DPA Microphones Inc. www.telefunken-elektroakustik.com
much more expensive. als that cost more, this will drive up www.dpamicrophones.com
the price. This can be true for micro- Voice Technologies
Choosing the Right Mic phones, but there are other factors Electro-Voice www.vt-switzerland.com
The right mic for the job may be using that affect price. Like many products, www.electrovoice.com
more than one microphone. For in- mics made in Asia tend to be less ex- Shure
Fostex www.shure.com
stance, say you’re doing an interview pensive than many made in Europe or www.fostex.com
on the sideline of a football game us- North America. Another factor that’s
ing a handheld mic, and you can hear often overlooked is how common a Lectrosonics
the subject holding the mic but not mic or mic type is. The more popu- www.ectrosonics.com
Tascam TM-2X Sennheiser evolution wireless 100-p G4
contents
full screen
Samson Go Mic Mobile print
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 23
 lar a style of microphone is, the less high-pass filter. Lastly, the included re- a low-cut filter. The TM-2X can swivel cardioid
cardioiddirectionality
directionalityand
andgood
goodside
side pickup pattern for good side noise AVX series wireless kits — both lav
expensive it’s likely to be. chargeable Li-Ion battery can sustain up to 180-degrees and connects via a noise
noiserejection.
rejection.Offering
Offeringa afrequency
frequency rejection. The AT8015 can run on and handheld — is the way they
over 100 hours of use before needing 3.5mm jack. response
responseofof20Hz
20Hztoto20kHz,
20kHz,the theSMG-
SMG- phantom power or a AA battery and deal with frequencies. With a tra-
Azden SMX-30 to be recharged. 250
250features
featuresa alow-cut
low-cutfifi
lter
lterand
andcan
can retails for 300 dollars. ditional wireless kit, if you started
The Azden SMX-30 is a video micro- Samson Go Mic Mobile be
bepowered
poweredwithwitheither
eithera aAAAAbattery
batteryoror to get interference on the channel
phone with both mono and stereo Sennheiser evolution wireless 100-p G4 The Samson Go Mic Mobile is a 2.4GHz phantom
phantompower.
power. AKG C214 Large you were using, you would have to
capabilities, offering two separate An update to the industry-standard digital wireless mic system touting Diaphragm Microphone interrupt the recording so that you
capsules for switchable function. evolution wireless mic system series, low latency audio transmission that Shure
ShureSM58SM58 The C214 is a cardioid condenser mi- could change channels on both the
Have some dialogue to capture? Put Sennheiser claims that the user inter- promises to eliminate video sync is- The
TheSM58
SM58wired
wiredhandheld
handheldmic michashas crophone built for capturing rich vo- receiver and the transmitter.
it in mono mode and you will have face of the 4th-gen ew 100-p series sues, making it a good choice for film- long
longbeen
beenknown
knownasasone oneofofthe theworld’s
world’s cals. It’s great to use in ADR, narration The AVX series handles any needed
a camera-mounted, supercardioid will allow for faster set-up and better makers and video producers. The dual most
mostrugged
ruggedandandaffordable
affordableprofes-
profes- and voice-over recording work. The frequency changes automatically
shotgun mic. Need to capture the control thanks to 12 compatible fre- channel receiver can mount either to sional
sionaldynamic
dynamicmicrophones.
microphones. C214 has a 20Hz to 20kHz range and without interrupting the flow of audio
atmosphere for your scene to come quencies. Additionally, the ew 100-p an Android or iOS smartphone or to a The
TheSM58
SM58isisa acardioid
cardioidmic micwithwitha a a built-in 20db pad. Retailing for 400 to your recording device. The AVX-
alive? Switch it to stereo mode and output power goes up to 30mW. The camera via its cold shoe adapter. frequency
frequencyresponse
responseofof50Hz 50Hztoto15kHz.
15kHz. dollars, the mic comes with a suspen- ME2 kit retails for 700 dollars. The
you’ll record a stereo image with housing for the SKM 100 G4 has also The Go Mic Mobile is available in AsAsa awired
wiredmic,mic,ititretails
retailsfor
for100
100dol-
dol- sion mount and a metal case. AVX-835 kit, which comes with a
120 degrees of coverage via two been made with lighter aluminum for three different wireless configurations: lars,
lars,but
butyouyoucan
canopt opttotoget
geta awireless
wireless handheld mic, is 800 dollars.
cardioid mics working in tandem. easier use. a handheld mic, a lavalier mic with kit
kitoutfi
outfitted
ttedwith
withthe theSM58
SM58capsule
capsuleforfor DPA Microphones SCO61-N
With a frequency response of 40Hz Included in the latest ew 100-p series beltpack or a shotgun mic. Flexible 500
500dollars.
dollars. Necklace 4061 Microphone Final Thoughts
to 20kHz, this camera-top mic con- offerings are a 135-p G4 Portable Hand- audio output options include switch- This lavalier from DPA is unique in Many microphones require acces-
nects via a 3.5mm stereo mini plug held Set and two Portable Lavalier Sets, able 3.5mm headphone/line and USB Blue
BlueMicrophone
MicrophoneYeticaster
Yeticaster that it’s mounted on a soft rubber sories such as a windscreen, pop
and is powered by two AA batteries the ew 112-p G4 (omni), the ew 122-p audio outputs with volume control. With
Withthe
theYeticaster,
Yeticaster,Blue
Bluetakes
takestheir
their necklace, eliminating the need for a filter, zeppelin, shock mount or even
or phantom power. G4 (cardioid). Also available is the ew popular
popularYeti
YetiUSB
USBmicrophone
microphoneand and clip. It features a 20Hz to 20kHz range a boom pole. Purchase them with
100 G4 ENG Combo Set, which offers Azden SGM-250 combines
combinesititwith
witha aCompass
CompassPremium
Premium and an omnidirectional patterned con- your mic so you don’t find yourself
Røde VideoMic Pro+ both plug-on and bodypack transmit- The Azden SGM-250 shotgun micro- Broadcast
BroadcastBoom
BoomArm Armand
andRadius
RadiusIIIIII denser capsule. The 4061 microphone facing an overnight shipping situation.
The VideoMic Pro + is a camera- ters with an omnidirectional ME 2-II phone, measuring in at 250 millime- Custom
CustomShockmount
Shockmounttotogive givevideo
video can be adapted to XLR for wired use Remember that proper placement
mounted shotgun mic. It has a 3.5 clip-on microphone. The new systems ters or about 10 inches, is designed producers
producersa apro
prosetup
setupfor
forstudio
studio or for use with most major wireless of your new microphone can make
millimeter mini-jack output with a are compatible with all previous evolu- to fit nicely atop DSLR cameras when recording
recordingororlive
livestreaming.
streaming.The TheYeti
Yeti kits. It retails for 530 dollars. a huge difference; don’t settle for
detachable cable that also supports tion wireless systems. needed while still providing super- features
featuresBlue’s
Blue’sproprietary
proprietarytri-capsule
tri-capsule acceptable audio when you can have
dual mono output. Also featured is a technology
technologyalong
alongwithwithfour
fourdifferent
different Sennheiser AVX-ME2 Wireless sensational sound.
20Hz to 20kHz frequency response Tascam TM-2X Blue Microphone Yeticaster pickup
pickuppattern
patternsettings
settingsandandcontrols
controls Lavalier Kit
and a Rycote lyre shockmount. The Tascam TM-2X is a camera for
forheadphone
headphonevolume,
volume,mutemuteand and This wireless lav kit comes with an W. H. Bourne is an award winning documentary
filmmaker. She is currently in post on her first
New to the VideoMic Pro + is the mountable stereo condenser micro- microphone
microphonegain.gain. on-camera receiver and small belt narrative feature.
addition of a safety channel that re- phone. It uses two capsules that are pack. The included ME 2 lavalier
cords at 10 decibels lower to give you arranged in an XY pattern and fea- Audio-Technica
Audio-TechnicaAT8015
AT8015 has an omnidirectional condenser You can comment on this article by going on-
more headroom and prevent clipping tures switchable sensitivity as well as The
TheAT8015
AT8015isisan
an18-inch
18-inchlong,
long, capsule with a 30Hz to 20kHz range. line: www.videomaker.com/article/19447
in case your subject happens to get condenser,
condenser,Line
Line++Gradient
Gradientpattern
pattern The real standout feature with the
loud suddenly. It has a high-frequency shotgun
shotgunmic.
mic.The
Themic
michas
hasa arange
rangeofof
boost and a selectable 150hz or 75hz 40Hz
40Hztoto20kHz
20kHzand
andhas
hasa avery
verynarrow
narrow

Azden SGM-250 Audio-Technica AT8015 AKG C214 Large Diaphragm Microphone

contents contents

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24 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 25

 Not all monitors are created equal. This guide will
help you ask and answer the right questions, so
you can pick out the best video tool for your needs.

Video
Reference
Monitor
buyer’s guide
BY JEFF CHAVES

A
video reference monitor, in
some cases, is a really nice
thing to add to your produc-
tion kit. In other cases it
might be an absolute essential. Your
camera, environment, project and
even eyesight may warrant adding
another screen to your toolset. This
buyer’s guide is designed to help you
ask the right questions so you can
make the best choice possible.
Not all video
monitors are
created equal.
Each will have
positives and
negatives,
depending on
your situation.
We’ll explain
some of the important terms so that
you can understand how to compare
contents units and decide which features are
right for you.
full screen We’ll also highlight a few options
to help you understand what’s out
print there. There are lots of monitors and
manufacturers to choose from. These
just a few representative samples.
We’ve avoided the super-cheap
models that might disappoint and
the super-expensive ones that might
break the budget.
Who needs to see it?
Your first question is going to deter-
mine what type and size of monitor
you’ll need. Does the camera operator
YOUR FIRST STEP IS TO DETER-
MINE WHAT TYPE AND SIZE OF
MONITOR YOU’LL NEED.
alone need to get a better view? Does
a director or producer need to view
what’s being shot? Are you a colorist contents
who will be referencing the monitor
in the edit bay? full screen
If the monitor is just going to be
viewed by a single person located print

26 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 27

 Video Reference Monitor
buyer’s guide
close to the camera, a smaller camera-mounted
unit would be the first choice. These are gener-
ally the least expensive models and many have
some impressive functions. It’s important to
find out what type of hardware will be needed
to connect the monitor to your specific camera.
Often, monitor mounts will lock into the shoe
mount located on the top of the camera. If it’s
not being used by the operator, look for hard-
ware that will swivel to the right position.
The more people you have viewing the moni-
tor, the larger the screen size needs to be. Think
about trying to watch a video on your smart-
phone with a crowd of people. Larger monitors,
referred to as studio monitors, can be placed on
THE MORE PEOPLE YOU HAVE
VIEWING THE MONITOR, THE
LARGER THE SCREEN SIZE NEEDS
TO BE.
a stand or even on a table. They can be located
with the camera or at a distance in what’s re-
ferred to as a video village, where various crew
members can gather to get a view of the shot.
In some cases, you will see one large screen
and a group of smaller screens labeled with
each camera. If you need this type of setup,
look for “loop through” connections on the
monitor. This allows you to connect one moni-
tor to another.
You’ll likely also want a larger screen for
previewing your work in post-production, but
there are likely other factors, such as resolu-
tion and color accuracy, that will influence your
purchasing decision more drastically if you are
doing a lot of color critical work.
How will it connect?
After deciding on size and form, the next ques-
tion is about the connections needed. What
kind of connections does your camera or work-
station have? If only a single camera needs to be
contents connected to a single monitor, the connection
question is pretty straightforward. If you need
full screen multiple cameras with different connections, it
can get tricky. Can you or should you mix con-
print nection types? Would a special adaptor be used?
28 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
Some Stand-Outs
Listed below and on the next page are a few of the standout monitors with prices.
Prices may vary and do not include cabling and hardware.
Field Monitors Recording Monitors
As with cameras, monitors have specific in-
puts. Most commonly, you will find HDMI or SDI
inputs on field monitors. Some studio monitors
and color-critical reference monitors used by
colorists and other post-production specialists
include inputs like HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI and
now, Thunderbolt 3. Some monitors give you the
ability to connect multiple inputs. You can then
switch back and forth between the sources.
HDMI has different connection types, like stan-
dard and mini, and there are different configura-
tions of SDI. Depending on the resolution, you
may find monitors with 12G-SDI or 3G-SDI. Make
sure you have the right cables with the right
connections. Adapters are available, but image
quality can be reduced at each exchange.
A relatively new feature is the wirelessly con- SmallHD FOCUS OLED - $700 Atomos Ninja V - $695
nected monitor. Some are small, like a camera
mounted unit. Some have handles so you can
view images without your fingers blocking the
screen. The biggest advantage is that you don’t
need to be directly tethered to the camera. A
small attachment is connected to the camera
itself to transmit video to a receiver on the moni-
tor. Like all wireless devices, there is always a
chance of interference and a loss of signal.
Where will it be viewed?
Next, you need to determine the environment
in which the monitor will used. Is it for indoor
or outdoor use? Will weather be a factor? How
much light is going to fall on the screen? These
questions will help you determine how rugged Marshall V-LCD70W-SH - $510 Blackmagic Design
the unit needs to be, as well as how bright the Video Assist 4K - $895
screen need to be.
As a rule, smaller camera mounted solutions
are more rugged than the studio monitors. If you
need the size of a studio screen and you’re going
to be outdoors, you might consider a tent to pro-
tect the device. You can get weather and shock
resistant cases or consider a more rugged — and
more expensive — solution.
As far as brightness goes, manufacturers talk
about lumens and nits, but those terms mean
two different things. You will see video projec-
tors compared by lumens and that is a good
comparison. A lumen is the amount of light that contents
is projected from a screen onto another surface.
Generally speaking, a nit is the measurement of full screen
how much light a screen delivers to the eye. The Ikan Saga S7H - $750 Convergent Design
two measurements are calculated differently. Odyssey 7Q+ - $1495 print
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 29
 Video Reference Monitor
buyer’s guide A
For reference,
For

This is
This
reference, 500
A standard
standard laptop
is not
500 nits

not aa measurement
nits is
laptop screen
measurement of
is roughly
screen is
roughly 1713
is about
1713 lumens.
about 200-300
of screen
lumens.
200-300 nits.
screen quality,
nits.
quality, just
just
is properly set. One of these tools is zebra strip-
ing. This is a helpful function that highlights
area of the shot that are overtly bright with a
of brightness.
of brightness. You You want
want aa veryvery bright
bright screen
screen ifif itit striping effect. Other features you may find
studio Monitors is to
is to bebe viewed
viewed in in direct
direct sunlight.
sunlight. A A screen
screen that
that include waveform, histogram or vectorscope
is considered
is considered daylightdaylight viewable
viewable will will come
come in in atat monitoring tools. These help with monitoring
around 1000
around 1000 nits.
nits. exposure and give you much more information
To better
To better evaluate
evaluate imageimage quality,
quality, look
look atat the
the about your image, allowing you to make better
pixels. The
pixels. The greater
greater the the number
number of of pixels,
pixels, the
the bet-
bet- creative choices.
ter the
ter the image
image quality.
quality. ThisThis is is expressed
expressed in in pixel
pixel Bit-depth, contrast ratio and HDR compat-
density or
density or pixels
pixels per per inch
inch (PPI).
(PPI). Another
Another pointpoint ibility will also factor in if you’re looking for the
of comparison
of comparison is is screen
screen resolution.
resolution. Ideally,
Ideally, youyou best and most accurate image quality — espe-
want aa resolution
want resolution that that isis the
the same
same as as the
the highest
highest cially if your camera captures at those higher
resolution you’ll
resolution you’ll be be working
working with, with, especially
especially for for bit-depths or in an HDR format. Likewise, LUT
post-production work.
post-production work. For For fifield
eld monitors,
monitors, resolu-
resolu- previewing capabilities will come in handy when
tion is
tion is less
less important.
important. If If color
color reproduction
reproduction is is you’re shooting in log formats. Being able to see
also aa factor,
also factor, look
look forfor monitors
monitors that that coverage
coverage aa what an image will look like once graded helps
wider color
wider color gamut
gamut or or offer
offer aa higher
higher bit-depth.
bit-depth. tame the impulse to continue adjusting a flat log
AA larger
larger question
question regarding
regarding qualityquality andand bright-
bright- image after exposure has been set.
ness can
ness can be be found
found in in the
the difference
difference between
between LCD LCD When using a reference monitor in the edit
and OLED.
and OLED. LCD LCD stands
stands for for liquid
liquid crystal
crystal display,
display, bay, color accuracy is likely to be even more
and it’s
and it’s the
the most
most common
common type type ofof display
display when
when important. As you shop, you’ll see color accu-
itit comes
comes to to video
video monitors.
monitors. LCD LCD monitors
monitors are are racy expressed as the percentage of the gamuts
fifine
ne for
for most
most situations,
situations, but but somesome shooting
shooting covered or number of colors reproduced. Profes-
scenarios may
scenarios may callcall for
for aa brighter
brighter screen
screen or or richer
richer
Viewsonic VP2780 4K - $565 LG 27MD5KB-B
LG 27MD5KB-B UltraFine
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5K -- $1270
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colors than LCD LCD technology
technology can can offer.
offer. This
This isis
when you
when you might
might look look at at OLED
OLED displays
displays instead.
instead. ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS
OLED stands
OLED stands for for organic
organic light light emitting
emitting diode.
diode. WILL HELP YOU NAVIGATE
OLED displays
OLED displays are are considered
considered superiorsuperior in in both
both
quality and
quality and illumination.
illumination. With With OLEDOLED technology,
technology,
THROUGH THE SELECTION PROCESS.
each pixel
each pixel isis aa unique
unique lightlight source.
source. OLED
OLED means
means
aa brighter
brighter screen
screen but but the
the technology
technology comes comes with with
aa higher
higher price
price tag.
tag.
sional colorists may need a calibrated monitor,
Why do they need to view it? or one that features calibration tools.
We have
We have the
the questions
questions of of form,
form, size,
size, connections
connections Finally, there are some monitors that also
and brightness
and brightness answered.
answered. Now Now we we need
need to to get
get serve as recorders. These will often come with
to the
to the question
question of of function.
function. WhatWhat is is the
the purpose
purpose a higher price tag, but can greatly expand the
in having
in having thatthat additional
additional screen?
screen? Is Is itit simply
simply capabilities of your camera.
so an
so an additional
additional personperson cancan view
view thethe shot?
shot? Do Do
you need
you need any any additional
additional reference
reference tools tools on on the
the Making the Choice
NEC EA295WMI-BK - $640 screen? How
screen? How important
important is is accurate
accurate color?
color? Is Is Answering the above questions will help you
HP Dreamcolor
HP Dreamcolor Z32x
Z32x -- $2200
$2200 there aa need
there need forfor anan additional
additional recording?
recording? navigate through the selection process. While
Most video
Most video production
production monitors
monitors come come withwith you shop, consider where and how the moni-
aa host
host ofof reference
reference toolstools built-in.
built-in. SomeSome of of the
the tor will be used, why you need one and what
most common
most common are are frame
frame andand action
action safe safe guides.
guides. extra tools will come in handy on set or in the
You may
You may alsoalso fifind
nd guides
guides thatthat cut
cut the
the frame
frame intointo edit suite. Armed with that knowledge, you’ll be
thirds or
thirds or even
even smaller
smaller grids.
grids. This
This is is toto help
help with
with ready to find the perfect monitor to add to your
framing things
framing things properly
properly and and to to keep
keep continuity
continuity production tool kit.
from shot
from shot to to shot.
shot. Most
Most fifield
eld monitors
monitors also also offer
offer
features that
features that allow
allow youyou toto zoom
zoom in in onon aa particu-
particu- Jeff Chaves is the Chief Creative Officer of Grace Pictures Inc.,
lar area
lar area ofof the
the screen.
screen. This
This isis great
great for for checking
checking which he co-owns with his wife, Peggy. He got his start as
focus or
or looking
looking at at tiny
tiny details
details that
that you you might
might an Army Broadcaster in the 1980s and spent 12-plus years
focus working in broadcast television. Jeff left the industry to pur-
contents normally miss.
normally miss. You
You maymay also
also fifind
nd tools
tools like
like fo-
fo- sue full-time ministry. contents
cus peaking
cus peaking — — another
another way way to to make
make sure sure your
your
full screen image is
image is in
in focus.
focus. You can comment on this article by going online: full screen
Some monitors
Some monitors go go even
even deeper
deeper with with tools
tools to to www.videomaker.com/article/19448
print Dell U3417W - $690 Eizo ColorEdge
Eizo ColorEdge CG277
CG277 -- $2450
$2450 make sure
make sure your
your color
color isis correct
correct or or the
the exposure
exposure print

30 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 31


E
very April, the trucks rumble
into Las Vegas carrying the
tools of our trade. Cameras,
monitors, external GPUs, mass
shared storage devices and anything
else necessary to make pro video
settles into about a million square feet
of the Las Vegas Convention Center
for the world’s largest event for video
producers, the NAB Show.
What is NAB?
To start from the beginning, according
to Wikipedia “The National Associa-
tion of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade
association and lobby group represent-
ing the interests of commercial and
non-commercial over-the-air radio and
television broadcasters in the United
Every year, dozens of trucks jampack a million square feet of the Las
Vegas Convention Center with cool new cameras, lights, gadgets,
stabilizers and other doo-hickeys to entertain, amaze and help video
folks make better content.
States. The NAB represents more than
8,300 terrestrial radio and television
stations as well as broadcast networks.”
What that translates to for us gear
heads is this: NAB Show is those guys’
contents annual conference, and it features
1,700 exhibitors showing off the very
full screen latest audio and video technology to
somewhere north of a hundred thou-
print sand attendees.
32
BY RUSS FAIRLEY
It is the land of new product an-
nouncements, live demos, (mostly)
cheesy booth swag, hands-on exhibits
and fun after parties.
And why should we care?
For those of us in video produc-
tion, the event is the world’s largest
candy shop. Are you into shooting
video? Lay your hands on every
camera Canon, Sony, Panasonic, JVC,
Blackmagic Design and ARRI make.
Interested in external recorders?
Atomos has a booth the size of most
camera stores. Editing and post?
Visit Adobe, Autodesk, AVID, Grass
Valley, and — well, you get the idea.
Every major company comes to NAB
Show to show off the very best they
have to offer.
What was the focus this year?
Each year at NAB Show, there’s an
unofficial focus for those of us in
video production. There was the year
of the drones, last year was big on
VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
360 video and virtual reality (VR), and
this year felt like something differ-
ent altogether: It felt as though video
production at all levels has reached a
place of maturity.
Video producers at any level and
nearly any budget had myriad options
of suitable gear. Major camera com-
panies augmented the launch of new
models with iterative releases of exist-
ing and successful models. The focus
felt much more like “we’re still in a
really good place and now we have
some real options for consumers and
professionals alike” instead of “buy
this and it’ll be great until we release a
WAY better version next year.”
Examples were evident all over the
show floor. Bi-color LED light pan-
els weren’t the new thing — they’ve
graduated to seriously innovative new
shapes and designs, priced for any
market instead of only the very high-
est and lowest end of the industry.
2018 also felt like a exciting year
for gender parity in the industry.
Not only did the demographic at the
show and industry events outside of
the convention center feel closer to
balanced, but there were groups such
as Women in Media walking the show
floor en masse and participating in
panel discussions as they continue
their mission to improve the gender
imbalance in the entertainment indus-
try. Additionally, 3D software makers,
MAXON, featured a “Women in Mo-
tion Graphics” table discussion at their
off-site press luncheon moderated by
multi-award winning creative director/
director Tuesday McGowan.
This year, the fascination with VR
and 360 degree filmmaking
filmmaking contin-
ued, with new cameras, better 360
footage integration in software and
more experts on-hand to weigh in on
the state of the medium.
Generally, the show felt more
harmonious than in past years.
Companies seemed more at ease and
comfortable in their offerings. Those
of us perusing the gear felt more
comfortable having another year of
4K workflows.
workflows. According to multiple
executives around the show, their
perception was that the show “felt
a bit less populous but the crowd
seemed extremely engaged” and that
it was a “very high quality” attendee
population.
Workshops, Classes and Discussions
NAB Show had plenty to show off
for the entire video industry, from
acquisition and production to display
systems, to distribution and delivery,
to management, to online video and
more. Making sure attendees came
away with a richer experience also
meant educating and integrating.
In addition to the impressive show
floor, NAB Show offered plenty of
events, discussions and learning ses-
sions to help attendees get the most
out of their experience. These included
a breakfast workshop about the reality
of VR video, on-floor programs about
maximizing the value of content across
platforms, discussions about future
tech and its impact on filmmaking and
viewer interaction, a session on mak-
ing content data-rich, and much more.
It seemed like everywhere you looked
there was some sort of demo, learning
session or open discussion.
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8
The potential to come away from
NAB Show with new knowledge is
truly vast.
What was the coolest new stuff?
So we know the show was great, in-
cluded plenty of neat stuff, taught us
lots, occasionally served us breakfast
if we were willing to listen and pro-
vided a platform for industry groups
to speak up and be heard.
But what about the goods? For
many attendees the show is simply
the world’s largest hands-on show-
room, and NAB Show 2018 did not
disappoint. While it would take a
thousand of these articles to cover
everything interesting, innovative or contents
amazing, here are a few of the stand-
outs for video pros. full screen
Blackmagic Design dazzled as
usual with a couple of intriguing print
33
 Our favorite camera at this booth — and the
Sony rolled out a handful of new entire show, for that matter — was Sony’s FS5 II
additions to their XDCAM series

new offerings. The first is the Pocket Adobe has added improvements to well
well as as the
the highly
highly anticipated
anticipated a7R a7R IIIIII
Cinema Camera 4K. It may require their lineup of video tools, including mirrorless
mirrorless camera,camera, but but our
our favorite
favorite
a larger pocket, but they put that some powerful new color features camera
camera at at this
this booth
booth — — and
and thethe en-
en-
extra space to good use; the PCC4K in Premiere Pro like one-click color tire
tire show,
show, for for that
that matter
matter — — waswas thethe
features a 4/3 size sensor, 13 stops grade matching and side-by-side shot Sony
Sony PXW-FS5
PXW-FS5 II. II.
of dynamic range and dual native comparisons. They’ve also improved The
The successor
successor to to the
the popular
popular FS5, FS5,
ISO up to 25,600, and it can capture the graphics workflow and added the
the FS5FS5 IIII adds
adds newnew frame
frame raterate op-
op- Canon’s showstopper this
in RAW or in ProRes at up to 120 powerful audio features. After Effects tions
tions andand VENICE
VENICE color color science
science as as year was the EOS C700 FF
frames per second. The new camera also received some updates such as well
well as as an
an Instant
Instant HDR HDR Workfl
Workflow ow on on
also sports a mini XLR input and a Master Properties, which allows users top
top of of S-Log2/3.
S-Log2/3.
USB-C expansion port which enables, to create multiple variations of a single Litepanels
Litepanels introduced
introduced aa beautiful
beautiful
among other things, external record- comp and adjust properties such as new
new 2x1 2x1 Gemini
Gemini softpanel
softpanel light.
light. The
The
ing to a USB-C drive. Tack on a mas- text, position and color, in context, panel
panel cancan dial
dial in
in any
any color
color from
from itsits
sive 5-inch touchscreen, and it starts meaning there isn’t the need to open 360
360 degree
degree color
color wheel
wheel and and allows
allows
getting tough to wait until fall to get a precomp to make changes. Also for
for true
true daylight
daylight andand tungsten
tungsten lighting
lighting
our hands on one. updated is a more advanced puppet with
with green
green and and magenta
magenta fifine-tuning
ne-tuning to to point, this year’s booth was out in the
Also from the folks at Blackmagic tool, improvements to data-driven match
match ambient
ambient color color temperatures.
temperatures. ItIt blazing Las Vegas sun with displays
was DaVinci Resolve 15, their lat- animations and deeply integrated 360/ features
features battery
battery or or AC
AC power,
power, as as well
well showing off crystal clear images, even
est iteration of the industry standard VR tools to allow for an immersive VR as
as on-board
on-board or or remote
remote controls.
controls. under direct light.
colorist-turned-do-anything tool. In editing experience. Oh,
Oh, it’s
it’s also
also been
been tested
tested totally
totally Also dazzling this year was edelk- credible value to time spent this year
addition to professional editing, color Canon’s showstopper this year was flflicker
icker free
free at at any
any frame
frame rate,
rate, shutter
shutter rone’s lineup of motorized devices. at NAB Show. There were events for
and Farlight audio tools, Resolve the EOS C700 FF, a full-frame version angle
angle or or with
with the
the light
light set
set at
at any
any inten-
inten- Beyond the always cool SliderPlus, video pros, regardless of their spe-
now includes fully built-in Fusion — of their 4K powerhouse cinema cam- sity
sity — — serious
serious flflexibility.
exibility. the SliderOne Pro is a backpack sized cialty, including parties for colorists,
Blackmagic’s visual effect and motion era. The first-ever full-frame camera to Other
Other amazing
amazing devices
devices on on the
the show
show motorized slider with app controls to editors and motion graphic design- busy, frenetic, exciting, bombastic —
graphic application. join the ranks of EOS Cinema Camera flfloor
oor included
included Samson’s
Samson’s Go Go Mic
Mic Mobile
Mobile control slide movements and motion ers. Go-karting, pinball parties and but what it really felt like this year,
line, the C700 FF has a 5.9K sensor Wireless
Wireless Lavalier
Lavalier setset and
and optional
optional time-lapses. Other motion control mixers abounded. more than other years, was refined.
that is larger than its competition at handheld
handheld wireless
wireless mic.mic. This
This wireless
wireless devices included the motion control While most of us tried to squeeze The products weren’t playing catch-
ARRI and Sony. mic
mic kitkit turns
turns anyany smartphone
smartphone into into aa and time-lapse capable Motion Box in every event the show had to offer, up. They were refining. Getting more
Sony rolled out a handful of new highly
highly capable
capable capture
capture device,
device, fromfrom an an and the Surface One, a tiny two-axis one definite standout was the IMUG’s comfortable in their own skin. The
additions to their XDCAM series, as audio
audio standpoint.
standpoint. motion control device. MediaMotion Ball. Now in its 21st camera lineups, whether cinema,
Show
Show favorites
favorites SmallHD
SmallHD launched
launched Storage company Glyph Produc- year, the MMB is the longest running camcorder, mirrorless or other, felt
aa handful
handful of of new
new monitors,
monitors, including
including tion Technologies had a bevy of not for profit, all volunteer organized full and capable from top to bottom.
DARE TO DREAM multiple
multiple daylight
daylight viewable
viewable devices
devices likelike cool storage solutions, but their new user event at NAB. At its heart, it is a Mobile solutions, such as external
the
the Focus
Focus OLED.
OLED. To To accentuate
accentuate their their mobile options were truly awesome. 400-person sit-down dinner where GPU boxes and capture devices,
Every car magazine augments their practical fam- ily car reviews and minivan comparisons with The Atom SSD is a 1 or 2 terabyte (TB) the who’s who of motion graphics made working with massive footage
articles about supercars so incredible that they ignite our childhood dreams. Most of us still USB-C solid state drive that is about merges to network, learn, win prizes, from a laptop a reality. Monitors, re-
can’t walk past a Lamborghini dealership without glancing through the window at the incredible half the size of your wallet. Slightly eat, drink and enjoy a few hours off corders, tripods, gimbals, drones and
machines that lie beyond our reach. This feeling, that excitement that big dream items conjure, is larger is the Atom Raid SSD, which of their tired feet. It’s one of the few stabilizers all appeared to be mean-
stirred up regularly at NAB. Sony had an LED display that was as big as the side of a house. Giant is a 1, 2 or 4 TB SSD RAID drive with opportunities to rub elbows with ingfully updated from past models.
drones, massive satellite dishes and other monster production tools littered the show floor. transfer speeds up to 860 megabytes Andrew Kramer and Harry Frank out- Nothing felt beta.
For some of us, this is daily use equipment. For some of us, perhaps it’s the goal for a next phase. For a lot per second (MB/s). side of the frenetic pace of the NAB The industry seemed healthy,
of us, it’s pie-in-the-sky stuff of dreams. Along with our pick for Best Field Show. Their raffle is becoming pretty as well. Booths were constantly
Perhaps a little closer to Earth, but probably larger and more expensive than the average freelance video pro needs, is the Monitor/Recorder, the Ninja V, Ato- legendary as well. engaged with potential consumers,
drool-worthy FSI XM650U professional reference monitor. It’s a 65-inch Ultra HD monitor designed for color critical work. It mos showed off the Shogun Inferno Also not to be missed was the 17th groups within the industry had a
supports 4K UHD and HD signals and offers up those signals on a beautiful large format OLED panel. recorder and Sumo 19 studio moni- Annual Las Vegas SuperMeet. Founded platform and were celebrated, and
The XM650U has incredible black levels and picture performance, being fully capable of SDR content mastering as well as tor, both having bleeding edge ProRes and hosted by the Creative Pro User the fellowship at events before, dur-
PQ and HLG HDR monitoring. Like other FSI monitors, this beauty ships pre-calibrated from the factory, and if you’re willing RAW capabilities. They also win the Group Network, the SuperMeet isn’t ing and after the show was warm
to part with your monitor for a few days, they’ll happily recalibrate it for you in the future. award for noisiest — and most enjoy- your average evening event. Take and positive.
Also like other FSI monitors, the XM650U features waveform and vectorscope video scopes. It also has marker overlays able — raffle of all time. a user group meeting with about a If one had to step back from this
with selectable colors that can be shown as lines, translucent overlays or solid overlays. thousand attendees, add in a handful year’s show and take a state of the in-
On top of all that, this monitor also has professional 12Gbps SDI connections, supports advanced 12-bit 4:4:4 YCbCr, RGB When the Lights Go Down in Vegas of top industry expert speakers and a dustry, it has to be said that our future
and XYZ signals, and can provide a real-time downscaled HD resolution output along with clean 12Gbps SDI loop outs. This All of this talk about the feel and vibe staggering 110,000 dollar raffle, and looks bright.
allows users to feed UHD signals into the XM650U while pushing out an HD signal to scopes or monitors without having to at the show might make one think you have an idea of what this inspired
contents rely on a standalone downconverter. that the show is the only highlight of night is all about. Russ Fairley is a writer, video producer and contents
The image on this thing is like nothing I’ve seen before. Plenty of brilliant 4K footage was playing on a trio of these this trip to Sin City. Such is definitely motion graphic designer.

full screen 12,995-dollar beauties in the FSI booth, and plenty of on-lookers stood in front of them, unable to remove our jaws from the not the case. In Conclusion You can comment on this article by going on-
full screen
carpeted floor. Off-site events, both NAB-sanc- To wrap up, NAB was, in many ways, line: www.videomaker.com/article/19463
print tioned and independent, added in- what it always was — loud, tiring, print

34 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 35

 BEST AUDIO RECORDER: ZOOM F1-SP

Brian Valente of Redrock Micro with Videomaker’s Best of NAB Award

BEST ADVANCED SUPPORT:
REDROCK MICRO DIGIBOOM

for Best Advanced Support: Redrock Micro DigiBoom

BY THE VIDEOMAKER EDITORS

BEST HEADPHONES: AUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-M60X

Our Favorite
The F1 comes in two different mod-
els, one with a lavalier mic and the
other with a shotgun mic. The record-

New Video
er itself is the same across models. It
can recorded 24bit/96kHz to WAV files
or a variety of mp3 formats. Record-
ings are written to a microSD card as

Production stereo audio files. Dedicated buttons

on the front of the device mean you
don’t have to navigate through menu-

Tools from
dives to perform basic functions. You
can also mount it onto your DSLR and
get both internal recording and audio

the Show
out to your DSLRs audio input.
The F1 offers a pre-record fea-
ture that allows for two seconds of
continuous recording to be buffered

A s we do every year, the Video-

maker editors trekked from booth
to booth to discover the most useful
From niche tools for and innovative new video production
tools on display. To grab our attention,
award contenders must in some way
specialized workflows to push video production technology for-
ward to offer more value to filmmak-
cameras everyone can ers and videographers. Here are twelve
of our favorites.
drool over, NAB 2018 Best Audio Recorder: Zoom F1-SP
The Zoom F1 is a pocket-sized audio
brought us some exciting recorder that supports all of Zoom’s
contents proprietary 10-pin mic modules. Zoom
before you hit record. It also features
a 1.25-inch monochromatic display.
The Zoom F1 runs on two standard
AAA batteries, which Zoom says al-
lows it to last up to 10 hours using a
lavalier mic — or you can use a AC
adapter instead.
For the shotgun mic version, it
comes with a SGH-6 mono shotgun
mic module, a shock mount, a wind-
screen and a cable for connecting to a
DSLR. It’s priced at 249 dollars.
Best Headphones:
Audio-Technica ATH-M60X contents

full screen
new products in the video claims that the Zoom F1 is “the perfect
solution for videographers who need
The Audio-Technica ATH-M60X
Professional Monitor headphones full screen
to capture the nuance of every word offer an impressive amount of clarity
print production space. with professional quality audio.” throughout an extended frequency BEST TRIPOD: SACHTLER FLOWTECH 75 MS print

36 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 37


range, using the same proprietary 45
millimeter large-aperture divers found
in the ATH-M50X headphones.
The ATH-M60X are low-profile
closed-back, on-ear headphones, of-
fering “excellent isolation and fit” ac-
cording to Audio-Technica. They also
feature a low-impedance design that is
said to deliver high output levels from
any headphone output.
The earpads are made out of
memory foam, so they should be
fairly comfortable to wear, even after a
few hours. The earpads and headband
also detach so they can be replaced if
something happens to them or they
wear down.The headphones come
with three interchangeable cables: 1.2
- 3.0 meter coiled, 3.0 meter straight
and 1.2 meter straight – each with a
3.5 millimeter mini-plug. The set also
comes with a 6.3 millimeter screw-
on adapter and a protective carrying
pouch. Audio-Technica’s ATH-M60x
Headphones go for 199 dollars.
contents
full screen BEST MOTION CONTROL SYSTEM:
EDELKRONE MOTION BOX
print
38
Best Tripod:
Sachtler flowtech 75 MS
Sachtler teamed with Vinten to cre-
ate the flowtech 75 MS. The tripod is
built with carbon fiber and features
a mid-level spreader and rubber feet.
Sachtler claims that the Flowtech 75
is easier and faster to deploy than any
other tripod. They say these sticks are
the fastest around thanks to a unique
ergonomic design that moves the tri-
pod’s quick release brake levers to the
top where they are easier to access.
Sachtler also claims the tripod has
exceptional torsional stiffness because
of its extra-wide leg design. The two-
stage tripod also uses a versatile hinge
lock mechanism that allows users
to capture “extremely low and high
shots,” according to Sachtler.
BEST MOBILE STORAGE GNARBOX 2.0
BEST NAS: PROMISE ALTAS S8+
VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
The tripod’s height range without
the spreader is 26 to 153 centime-
ters, or 10.2 to 60.2 inches. With the
mid-level spreader, the height range is
63 to 157 centimeters, or 24.8 to 61.8
inches. Sachtler’s flowtech 75 MS is
available for 1,285 dollars.
Best Motion Control System:
edelkrone Motion BOX
The diminutive Motion BOX is surpris-
ingly versatile in its applications. With
a collection of expansion kits, the app-
controlled Motion BOX can function
as a pan or tilt head, a camera skater,
a one-axis head for the edelkrone
SliderONE Pro or a product turntable.
The Motion BOX can be used in
conjunction with a tripod, slider or
other support, but it can also serve
as a standalone device, making it ap- BEST FIELD MONITOR/RECORDER: ATOMOS NINJA V
pealing to photographers and videog-
raphers who don’t want to carry a lot
of gear. At the same time, the Motion
BOX, with its aluminum body, can
support cameras up to 15 pounds.
In order to get control over both
pan and tilt together, you’ll need a
second Motion BOX. The two devices
will pair up over Bluetooth for coor-
dinated movements. With the Skater
Kit, the Motion BOX can transform
into an app-controlled tabletop dolly
with curve adjustment. The Motion
BOX is also designed to integrate
with the SliderONE Pro for a com-
pact setup for panning while sliding.
Finally, the Product Turntable Kit
allows the Motion BOX to be used for
capturing product B-roll.
The Motion BOX is controlled using
the edelkrone app, promising easily
programmed and repeatable move-
ments. The app runs on both Android
and iOS mobile devices.
The edelkrone Motion BOX is
priced around 300 dollars.
Best Advanced Support:
Redrock Micro DigiBoom
The Redrock Micro DigiBoom is a ver-
satile new gimbal-stabilized hand-held
camera rig that aims to combine the
power of jibs, drones and handheld
stabilizers into a portable package
targeting small crews.
Redrock Micro collaborated with BEST MONITOR: HP DREAMCOLOR Z27XG2 STUDIO DISPLAY
Disney/ABC Television Group and Dis-
ney Research to develop the DigiBoom,
which aims to provide fluid movement collaborated with Redrock Micro and per second through USB-C, users can
from ground level to 8 feet, or up to Disney to expand the Micro Studio “quickly perform backups without
12 feet with an optional extension. Camera 4K to allow for direct camera your phone or tablet in one touch” by
The DigiBoom’s fully powered gim- control via the DigiBoom’s hand grips, using the on-board OLED screen and
bal promises to enable the capture of thanks to the camera’s expansion buttons, according to Gnarbox.
unique perspectives with total control port. Pricing has not yet been an- The Gnarbox 2.0 is IP67-certified,
over camera angle and position. nounced as of this writing. meaning it is dust-proof and can be
The rig features integrated con- submerged in up to one meter of water
nections for professional audio and Best Mobile Storage Gnarbox 2.0 for 30 minutes. Gnarbox claims that
power, and its modular design makes The Gnarbox 2.0 is a rugged backup this device is packed with the same
the rig flexible for use in a variety of device made just for traveling content power as a laptop. It includes an Intel
shooting situations. creators who don’t want be lugging processor, NVMe SSD, 802.11ac WiFi,
Though the DigiBoom can be used their laptops back and forth between SD card slot and two USB-C ports. contents
with any appropriate camera and the field and the studio. The starting price for the Gnarbox
display, the Blackmagic Design Micro With backup speeds of up to 75 2.0 SSD is 299, which getd you the full screen
Studio Camera 4K and Video Assist megabytes per second when using 128GB version. Capacities as large as 1
are recommended. Blackmagic Design the SD card slot, or 450 megabytes terabyte are also available. print
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 39
 drives for total capacities up to 112
terabytes. Eight and 10 terabyte hard
drives are also available. The Thunder-
bolt 3 version of the Atlas S8+ offers
two Thunderbolt 3 ports, four 1Gb Eth-
ernet ports, five USB 3.0 ports and one
HDMI output. The 10gBaseT version
swaps in two 10Gb/s Ethernet ports for
Best NAS: Promise Altas S8+ the Thunderbolt 3 connections and
The Promise Atlas S8+ is a network allows data to be accessed through
attached storage (NAS) solution for existing network infrastructure.
small teams who need fast access to Both configurations feature an Intel
shared assets. Core i5 Quad-Core processor and 16
The NAS is configurable with up to gigabytes of DDR4 RAM, upgrade-
eight 14 terabyte 7200rpm SATA hard able to 32 gigabytes. An optional
BEST MONETIZATION TOOL: VIMEO OTT
contents
full screen
print BEST LENS: SIGMA 14-24MM F/2.8 ART
40 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
SSD module allows for data caching. to
to switch
switch between
between systems.
systems. The
The HP
HP across platforms. The Enterprise tier is dering of highlights and skin tones
Along with the NAS, Promise includes DreamColor
DreamColor Z27xG2
Z27xG2 Studio
Studio Display
Display is
is the most robust, and pricing varies. while still leaving room for flexibility
enterprise-level data services, data priced
priced at
at 1,370
1,370 dollars.
dollars. in post-production. Along with this
protection and management soft- Best Lens: Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 Art new color science, the FS5 II features
ware. The Atlas also comes with a Best
Best Monetization
Monetization Tool:
Tool: Vimeo
Vimeo OTT
OTT The Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 Art wide- S-Log2 and 3 as well as a new Instant
three-year warranty. Vimeo
Vimeo OTT OTT — — over
over the
the top
top —— allows
allows angle zoom lens is the newest addition HDR Workflow that Sony says can be
users
users toto easily
easily launch
launch aa subscription
subscription to Sigma’s line of popular Art lenses. used to produce HDR content in HLG/
Best Field Monitor/Recorder: video
video service
service through
through which
which they
they can
can Sigma says that the new lens has BT.2020 mode without the need for
Atomos Ninja V distribute
distribute andand monetize
monetize content
content on on been made for 50-megapixel-plus color grading.
The Ninja V is a 5-inch daylight the
the web
web andand inin custom
custom apps
apps across
across aa cameras and offers “top-level optical The new FS5 II expands on the high
viewable 1000 nit portable monitor/ number
number of of mobile
mobile and and smart
smart TVTV plat-
plat- performance throughout the zoom frame rate recording capabilities of
recorder. It’s built with an aluminum forms.
forms. InIn addition
addition to to on-demand
on-demand videovideo range.” It incorporates three FLD glass its predecessor with support for up
body for greater durability, but it still streaming,
streaming, Vimeo
Vimeo OTT OTT also
also supports
supports elements, three SLD glass elements to four seconds of 120 frames per
only weighs 350 grams. It’s screen is live
live streaming.
streaming. and three aspherical lens elements, second (fps) recording in 4K and eight
viewable in daylight and offers a “near Depending
Depending on on the
the subscription
subscription tier,
tier, including one large-diameter aspheri- seconds of HD 10-bit 4:2:2 recording
edge-to-edge anti-reflection screen,” the
the service
service includes
includes access
access to
to Vimeo’s
Vimeo’s cal element that the company says at up to 240 fps. Continuous recording
according to Atomos. customizable
customizable video video player,
player, payment
payment “enhances the corrective effect of of 120 fps in full HD is also supported.
With the Ninja V, you can record up processing,
processing, branded
branded app app support
support and and the FLD and SLD glass.” The optical Users can also pair an external
to 4Kp60 10-bit HDR video directly advanced
advanced selling
selling options
options like
like ad
ad sales
sales system promises to minimize trans- recorder with the FS5 II to shoot con-
from your camera’s sensor over HDMI and
and digital
digital rights
rights management
management tools. tools. verse chromatic aberration and other tinuously at up to 240 fps at 60 hertz
2.0. The video can be stored in ProRes Vimeo
Vimeo alsoalso touts
touts aa flflexible
exible API
API that
that optical aberrations. or 200 fps at 50 hertz in 2K RAW or at
or DNxHR on SSD drives.This monitor/ allows
allows developers
developers deeper
deeper customiza-
customiza- The lens’s optical system is also up to 60 fps in 4K RAW. Four seconds
recorder displays 10+ stops of dynamic tion
tion options.
options. reported to essentially eliminate of 120 fps 4K RAW capture is also pos-
range in real time from log, PQ or HLG The
The Standard
Standard plan plan provides
provides support
support distortion, reducing it to1 percent or sible when using a recorder.
signals. The display can be calibrated for
for web
web subscriptions
subscriptions starting
starting at
at 11 dol-
dol- lower. That’s practically unheard of for Like other cameras in Sony’s Large
with playout to HDR or SDR TVs. lar
lar per
per month
month per per subscriber.
subscriber. Pricing
Pricing 14-24mm lenses. This results in points Format Sensor line-up, the FS5 II fea-
Atomos designed the Ninja V with for
for the
the next
next tier
tier starts
starts at
at 500
500 dollars
dollars of light actually appearing as points tures an ergonomic modular design,
a built-in modular expansion slot and
and adds
adds support
support for for app
app integration
integration without streaking from the center to making it suitable for a variety of uses
so users can expand on its features. the edge of the image. including gimbal and drone shooting.
Expansion modules will dock onto the Sigma’s also offering the new Front A built-in electronic variable neutral
battery slot of the Ninja V and offer Conversion Service for the 14-24mm density filter and ten available picture
“advanced features” like continuous lens, which is a service where Sigma profiles add to this flexibility. The FS5
power. The company says that bidi- converts the petal-type hood of the II uses the Sony E-mount.
rectional high speed video, audio and lens into a exclusive round piece. The new Sony FS5 II is priced at
power are available. The Ninja V sells Altering the front structure in this 4,750 dollars for the body only and
for 695 dollars. way gives the lens greater freedom in 5,250 with a kit lens.
multi-came VR videography, according
Best Monitor: HP DreamColor to Sigma. Congratulations!
Z27xG2 Studio Display The lens is available in Canon, As we look back at all the great prod-
The HP DreamColor Z27xG2 Studio Nikon and Sigma mounts. ucts on display at this year’s NAB, we
Display is a 27-inch diagonal color want to thank every single brand that
critical display. The monitor features Best Camera: Sony PXW- FS5 II took the time to meet with us and
a pop-up sensor for self-calibration, Sony’s follow up to the PXW-FS5, the show us their latest video produc-
making this a great choice for color- new FS5 II adds new frame rate op- tion tools. We saw tons more awe-
ists who need to be able to trust their tions and VENICE color science as well some products not featured here and
monitor’s color accuracy. The integrat- as an Instant HDR Workflow on top of learned a lot along the way.
ed calibration engine also allows for S-Log2/3 recording. And finally, we’d like to offer a big
the creation of custom color spaces. The FS5 II records in resolutions congratulations to all the brands and
Offering a 7 millisecond response up to DCI 4K via its Super 35 Exmor products that took home awards. Well
time, this 10-bit QHD monitor monitor CMOS sensor, which integrates new done! We can’t wait to see how these
can reproduce up to 1.07 billion colors color science acquired through the innovative offerings will be used by
and offers a 1000:1 contrast ratio. development of Sony’s latest Cine-Alta video professionals in the field. contents
The new display also incorporates camera, VENICE.
onscreen markers, remote manage- Sony promises a more refined You can comment on this article by going on- full screen
ment and “the world’s first” integrated picture tone with more natural ren- line: www.videomaker.com/article/19464
keyboard-based input switching KVM BEST CAMERA: SONY PXW- FS5 II print
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 41
 COSPLAY DEFINED
Recreational costuming, commonly
known as “cosplay” (from “costume
play”), is a popular hobby across the
world. Cosplayers build costumes
based on their favorite characters
from films, novels, cartoons and
comic books, and then come
together at conventions to trade
tips, show off and enter costume
competitions. Though the hobby
in its organized form originated at
science fiction conventions in the
United States in the 1930s, it didn’t
achieve popularity in this country
until it was exported to Japan in the
1970s, and then re-imported to the
US via Japanese animation fans in
the early-to-mid 1990s.

All images from Anna Fischer’s “The Wild Places”

CROWDFUNDING SUCCESS
and FAILURE from a
PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE
How my crowdfunding triumph
was also my biggest flop

BY MIKE VANHELDER

A
few years ago, a
talented director and
photographer named
Anna Fischer came to
me with a great idea.
Anna had been docu-
menting the recreational costuming
subculture in North America at cos-
contents tume, animation and science fiction
conventions all across the country
full screen for about fifteen years. The bulk of
recreational costuming (also called
print “cosplay”; see below) happens at
these conventions, which are almost
always in urban areas. As a result,
most of Anna’s work, and the work
of other costuming documentarians
was shot mostly in and around con-
vention centers and hotels. Anna’s
proposal was to take the show on
the road. Instead of shooting at a
convention center, why not bring
costumers out into the great out-
doors and shoot an art project in the
high desert of northern Arizona and
southern Utah?
As a long-time fan of costuming,
the concept excited me. As a producer
of low- and microbudget commercial
films, I had some doubts. I knew how
logistically challenging and expensive
shooting on location could be. Anna
had huge ideas: desert vistas, waterfalls,
dramatic sunsets and snowy mountain-
tops. Even though scenery is free, get-
ting a cast and crew to the scenery isn’t.
Neither Anna nor I are independently
wealthy, so how could we afford to fund
such an ambitious production?
Cosplay is a popular hobby, but in
the grand scheme of things it is still
a fairly niche interest that does not
have massive commercial appeal. This
project didn’t have much chance of
making a profit, so trying to fund the
shoot by selling it to a studio or deep-
pocketed private investor would be
very difficult.
Enter the Crowd
Our solution was to try a then-novel
form of creative fundraising: crowd-
funding. Specifically, Anna decided
that we would use a Kickstarter
campaign to finance our project.
Crowdfunding seemed like an excel-
lent fit for several reasons: It would
would allow us to access the cosplay
hobbyist and fan market directly.
Instead of trying to land one or two
big investors, crowdfunding would let
us try to recruit dozens or hundreds
of small investors. Asking someone
for a thousand dollars is tough, but
asking 50 people for twenty bucks is a
lot easier and more likely to succeed.
Offer them so-called backer rewards
for contributing to your project,
something like a postcard or sticker
in exchange for their 20 dollars, and it
makes it even more likely still.
Another advantage was that even
though our backers would be inves-
tors of a sort, they wouldn’t exercise contents
creative or logistical control in the
way that a studio or single private full screen
investor might. Yes, the crowd in a
crowdfunded project is ultimately print

42 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 43

 CROWDFUNDING SUCCESS
and FAILURE from a PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE
your client, but in most cases they
don’t get to dictate what you do, or
why. They give you money to execute
your vision and trust you to hold up
your part of the deal.
I advised Anna to set our sights
pretty low. Nobody that we knew
of had tried to crowdfund a cosplay
project of this scope before, and we
had no idea what the potential market
for something like this was. I was also
concerned about our ability to create
and fulfill our backer rewards, which
were initially small photo prints, post-
cards and photobooklets.
I sketched out a very modest ver-
sion of the project, with a commensu-
rately modest budget: two crew mem-
bers and two costumers would travel
in a rental car. We would cover airfare
and a hotel room, but not meals or
other day-to-day expenses. We would
shoot with equipment that we already
owned, so no equipment rental fees,
and with such a small crew we could
probably avoid needing to purchase
permits by being too small and agile
for the authorities to notice. Factoring
in the cost of backer rewards (more on
that later), our total budget would be
about 3,000 dollars.
Anna’s vision was a lot grander than
what $3,000 dollars could buy, but she
understood why we needed to set our
sights realistically. She also asked me
to sketch out larger-budget versions of
the shoot. What could 4,000 dollars
buy us? What about if we doubled our
goal and raised $6,000? I privately
thought that doubling our goal was
wildly unrealistic, so when Anna
asked me to do a 10,000-dollar ver-
sion of the budget — more than triple
our goal — I thought she was aiming
for the sky!
What I had not anticipated was the
crowdfunding campaign going viral.
Going Viral
It’s tough to anticipate what will and
contents won’t go viral on the internet. Some
people think it’s just a matter of luck
— a bolt of lightning hits the zeitgeist
full screen
at just the right moment and suddenly
print your hashtag is trending on social
44
WE WERE ABLE TO AFFORD EVERY PROMISE WE MADE
AND I ENSURED WE HAD A FINANCIAL BUFFER FOR IF
AND WHEN THINGS WENT WRONG.
BUT I HAD MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.
media and Ellen Degeneres is on the
phone asking you if you’re free tomor-
row afternoon. While there is some
truth to the idea that viral success is in-
herently unpredictable, there are things
you can do to increase your chances of
success. You may not be able to predict
when and where lightning will strike,
but you can make sure you’re out there
in the thunderstorm with an iron key
tied to your kite when it does.
In our case, the real secret of our
success was that we had a lot of social
capital to spend. Anna had been out
there in the costuming community
building our reputation, making con-
tacts and collecting favors for decades.
People knew Anna’s name. They liked
her, trusted her work and knew that
she has a relentless work ethic. We
cashed in some favors to get some
positive coverage in the hobbyist
press, then asked our friends and col-
leagues to post those stories to their
social media to get the word out.
Additionally, because Anna and I
were known to be competent and reli-
able, we were able to sign some of the
most recognizable and highest-profile
models in the hobby to feature in the
project. This had the effect of multi-
plying our reach several-fold, since
each model had a substantial follow-
ing of his or her own to spread and
reinforce our message. It’s a sad truth
that as famous and talented the people
behind the camera might be, the talent
that works in front of the camera will
almost always have a bigger draw.
So we made the most out of our re-
sources and hoped we’d get lucky, and
we did. In the end, we raised just shy
of 27,000 dollars-- almost nine times
our initial goal.
Be Careful What You Wish For
When we met our goal, we were
thrilled. Then, we watched our total
VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
funding double, then triple, then
quadruple and it just kept going.
When we blew past 10,000 dollars in
just a couple of days, we began to add
stretch goals to the project. In crowd-
funding, a stretch goal is a promise
that you make to your backers, that if
you exceed your initial funding by a
sufficient amount, you will expand or
enhance your project.
As the money rolled in Anna started
to go a little wild with our stretch
goals: more backer rewards, more
cast, more crew, more crazy locations,
more equipment. We added a reward
tier so that one deep-pocketed backer
could, for enough money, be allowed
to tag along on the shoot like a tour-
ist. We’d rent a boat, and if we hit
an even higher target, we’d rent two
boats. We’d shoot in medium format
and HD. We’d even ship some truly
extravagant and outrageous costumes
across the country.
In the end, we wound up with five
crew members, twelve models (each
with multiple costumes), two full-size
passenger vans, two boats, a whole lot
of high-end rental gear and a tough
five-day shooting schedule.
Still, every step of the way, I kept
my eye on the bottom line. Anna
was the creative driving force, but
I made sure that the books stayed
balanced and the logistics remained
feasible. Ultimately, as producer,
that was my job — to be the brakes
on this ride, to figure out how to
stretch a dollar to meet Anna’s vi-
sion, to know when I could and tell
her no when I couldn’t. For the most
part, I was successful. Our shooting
schedule was ambitious, but it was
doable. We were able to afford every
promise that we made and I ensured
we had a financial buffer for if and
when something went wrong.
But I had made a terrible mistake.
In the Mix
On any shoot, you have to expect the
unexpected. Whether you want to call
it Murphy’s law, bad luck or just the
universe’s inexorable march towards a
state of entropy, inevitably something
is going to go wrong. Part of being a
good producer is the ability to antici-
pate the problems you can predict and
adapt on the fly to those you can’t.
On a crowdfunded project, you
have the additional responsibility of
keeping your backers informed of
your progress — your backers are
your investors and your patrons. They
understand when things go wrong,
especially if you’re up-front with
them about the risks beforehand, but
they will not tolerate being kept out
of the loop. Whether it’s a success or
a setback, they want to know about it.
We had several ways to communicate
with our backers — Kickstarter itself,
a private blog, Twitter and email —
and we used them.
No, failing to keep the backers in-
formed was not my terrible mistake.
When one of our most popular
and prominent models decided to
flake out on the shoot with less than
24-hours notice because she had
UNFORTUNATELY, I DID NOT HAVE A CONTINGENCY
PLAN IN PLACE FOR A SHIPWRECK, BUT WE MANAGED
TO WORK AROUND IT. NO, FAILING TO HANDLE A
MINOR SHIPWRECK WAS NOT MY TERRIBLE MISTAKE.
gotten a better offer elsewhere, we
rewrote our shooting schedule on
the fly. We had listed flaky talent in
the “risks and challenges” section of
our crowdfunding page, and I had the
model in question write an apology to
her fans on our behalf. This was a sig-
nificant blow, and I’ll never work with
that particular model again no matter
how many social media followers she
has, but it was a contingency we had
planned for.
No, failing to anticipate no-show tal-
ent was not my terrible mistake.
During the aquatic leg of our shoot,
one of our boats grounded itself on
a sandbank deep in a remote can-
yon, out of reach of cellphones and
radio. Unfortunately, I did not have
a contingency plan in place for a
shipwreck, but we managed to work
around it. Our cast and crew got some
downtime while I took the other boat
back to civilization for help. It threw
our schedule off by eight hours and
caused some consternation in the
cast, especially when we started to
run low on Goldfish crackers and pea-
nut butter sandwiches, but we worked
around those challenges. Thanks
to some late-night white-knuckle
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8
BREAKDOWN OF HOW
WE SPENT OUR BUDGET
+$26,649.00 total budget
-$2,669 Kickstarter and Amazon
processing fees
-$4.3K Kickstarter backer rewards
-$1K backer reward shipping
-$2.2K airfare
-$520 XL costume shipping
-$2.8K land transportation
-$600 gasoline
-$4.1K boat rental, fuel, waste
disposal, marina fees
-$1.6K hotels
-$1.1K shooting permits for state and
federal parks
-$2K transportation, permits,
monitors for Navajo Nation locations
-$500 commercial shoot insurance
-$1.4K camera gear rental and
insurance
-$1K petty cash
-$900 miscellaneous pre- and post-
production expenses including
website design and hosting
• All labor from cast and talent was
donated.
driving, we still made it to the next
shooting location in time to catch the
morning golden hour.
No, failing to handle a minor
shipwreck on my watch was not my
terrible mistake.
Overall, despite shipwrecks and
wasps and heat stroke and a concus-
sion or two, the shoot was a great
success. We got all of the shots that
we wanted to get, and everyone made
it out with the same number of fingers
and toes as they had going in.
The Terrible Mistake
The terrible mistake actually had contents
nothing to do with the shoot itself.
It had to do with what came after- full screen
wards, after we got back home. You
see, I had failed to account correctly print
45
 CROWDFUNDING SUCCESS
and FAILURE from a PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE
for our backer rewards. I don’t mean
financially — I had created budget-
ing spreadsheets that automati-
cally deducted the cost of rewards
for each backer’s pledge and they
all balanced. As an aside, if I have
one tip for aspiring producers out
there, it’s to become an expert with
contents
full screen
print
46
Microsoft Excel. Spreadsheets are
your best friend. I had also priced
out the cost of producing prints,
photo booklets, stickers and so on
with several different vendors and
accounted for all packaging and
shipping fees.
No, my mistake was thinking that
fulfilling 27,000 dollars worth of
backer rewards was just going to be
just like fulfilling 3,000 dollars worth
of backer rewards, only it would take a
little longer. This proved to be an aw-
ful miscalculation.
At first, when we were shooting for
3,000 dollars in backing, I had antici-
pated we’d have at most, 150 back-
ers. Collating 150 sets of postcards,
booklets and prints, then shipping
and packing them is something that
three people can reasonably do in a
living room in an afternoon or two of
envelope stuffing. This is what I had
WHEN WE ENDED UP WITH 700 BACKERS INSTEAD
OF 150, I THOUGHT THE AMOUNT OF WORK WOULD
SCALE LINEARLY. INSTEAD OF TAKING AN AFTERNOON
OR TWO, IT MIGHT TAKE A LONG WEEKEND.
VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
anticipated and budgeted for. It was
basically an afterthought.
When we ended up with 700 back-
ers instead of 150, I thought that the
amount of work would scale linearly.
Perhaps instead of taking an afternoon
or two, it might take an entire long
weekend, or two weekends at most.
I added a month to our production
schedule just to be safe and thought
we’d be fine. I was very wrong.
What I had not taken into consid-
eration was that when we had started
adding stretch goals, we also added
additional reward options, like a free
die-cut sticker for the first 100 back-
ers, various different print size options
including poster-sized museum-quali-
ty photoprints, personalized postcards
and behind-the-scenes polaroids and
other souvenirs from the set. In the
end, instead of 150 backers with a
fairly simple set of rewards, we ended
up with over 700 backers, each of
whom had with a dizzying array of
different deliverables. We didn’t have
enough space, time, manpower or
THE BEST OF TWO WORLDS
an efficient system in place to keep
everything straight. It turns out that
the work it took to fulfil 700 backer
rewards didn’t scale up linearly from
150. It scaled exponentially.
We were victims of our own suc-
cess. The fulfilment process we had
thought would take weeks ended up TVS-1582TU
taking months instead. Some back-
ers got incomplete reward packages,
or the wrong package altogether.
Eventually, we figured everything out
and every backer got what they were TS-453BT3 TVS-1282T3
promised, but it took way too long
and there was a lot of dissatisfaction
all around. While there were some
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photobook going out of business
after taking our deposit but before
Subscribed
delivering any products, the bulk of
the delay was on us. More accurately,
it was on me for not realizing the
logistics of the reward fulfilment was
beyond our scope. It turns out that
I’m a competent, professional pro-
to Videomaker?
ducer, but as a crowdfunding project
manager I was caught unprepared View this issue
and found wanting. on your favorite
Today, there are various companies
that you can contract to manage your mobile device,
crowdfunding reward fulfilment, and for free.
I would strongly recommend using
them. Back when Anna and I ran our
project, that wasn’t an option, and so
we managed to burn a lot of the social
capital we had spent decades accumu-
lating. Crowdfunding can be a power-
ful tool to pay for your next project,
but it can be more complicated than
traditional funding opportunities. Like
the old saying goes, if you think hiring
a professional is expensive, try hiring
an amateur.
If you are currently a paid subscriber, take a moment to
contents
Mike VanHelder is a working writer, photogra-
pher and videographer in Philadelphia, PA.
install the Videomaker app on your tablets and smartphone
- so you can access this issue wherever you go! full screen
You can comment on this article by going
online: www.videomaker.com/article/19296
Learn more at : Videomaker.com/TabletAccess print
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 47
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 HACKS
HACKS
JULY 2018

by Mike VanHelder

Cheap DIY Stabilization Methods

THE EVIL DEAD (Sam Raimi, 1981) — Official Trailer (NPD)

place
place on
on your
your model
model ofof camera
camera and
and gives
gives itit aa
different name — for example, on a Panasonic
different name — for example, on a Panasonic
HC-X1000,
HC-X1000, it’s
it’s called
called Hybrid
Hybrid Optical
Optical Image
Image
Need a way to stabilize your Stabilizer,
Stabilizer, but
but on
on aa Sony
Sony PXW-X70,
PXW-X70, it’s
it’s called
called
SteadyShot
SteadyShot — — soso you
you may
may have
have to
to dig
dig out
out your
your
handheld shots but don’t have
thousands of dollars to spend INNOVATIVE AMATEUR FILM-
on a gyroscopic stabilization rig? MAKERS HAVE BEEN MAKING
Keep reading! THEIR OWN HOMEMADE DOLLY
CARTS FOR DECADES.
Most of the time, shaky handheld
video is a problem. That isn’t always instruction
instruction manual
manual to to understand
understand how how to to switch
switch
true, since there are sometimes valid itit on
on and
and how
how best
best toto use
use itit with
with youryour camera.
camera. Before drones were available for achieving smooth shots in hard-to-reach
stylistic reasons to have an unstable There
There are
are also
also options
options to to fix
fix jittery
jittery videos
videos locales, Sam Rami rigged a camera to an inflatable raft for smooth camera
camera. Yet, most days, you don’t in
in post. Most of the major video editing
post. Most of the major video editing suites
suites movement through a creepy swamp in “Evil Dead.”
want your Aunt Rhonda’s wedding have
have built-in
built-in stabilizer
stabilizer features,
features, like like Stabiliza-
Stabiliza-
toast to look like a fight scene from tion
tion inin Final
Final Cut
Cut ProPro or
or the
the Warp
Warp Stabilizer
Stabilizer inin
“The Bourne Identity.” If the video Adobe
Adobe Premiere.
Premiere. Fair Fair warning:
warning: how how wellwell these
these of dolly tracks. You can view several of these
that you are shooting is jittery, un- work
work depends
depends aa lot lot on
on the
the lighting,
lighting, contrast,
contrast, clever tricks in action in Raimi’s first hit film The
steady and all-around shaky, the best video is practice, practice, practice. constant practice under his belt to get frame
frame raterate and
and other
other attributes
attributes of of your
your original
original Evil Dead, made for a modest 90,000 dollars bor-
way to fix that problem is by spending Practice shooting. Practice good to that point. The Copa Shot, inciden- video,
video, so so sometimes
sometimes they they will
will work
work seamlessly
seamlessly rowed from friends and family (gross box office
a several thousand dollars on a Steadi- handheld technique. Practice zoom- tally, is not to be confused with the and
and other
other times
times they
they can
can create
create aa realreal digital
digital receipts: 2,400,000 dollars).
cam rig and a few thousand more for ing with your feet, panning, tilting, equally famous dolly zoom shot from mess.
mess. There are also third-party plug-ins that
There are also third-party plug-ins that If you don’t want to lube up your camera with
classes on how to use it. But for those pedestaling up and down. Whether or the same movie — but that’s an entire promise
promise better
better results,
results, most
most notably
notably LockLock & & vaseline and drag it into a swamp just for the sake
of us who don’t have that kind of cash not you believe Malcolm Gladwell’s article in itself. Load
Load from
from Coremelt
Coremelt and and BetterStabilizer
BetterStabilizer from from of smooth video, which is entirely understand-
lying around, there are easier and claim that mastery takes 10,000 hours CrumplePop.
CrumplePop. They They aren’t
aren’t free,
free, but
but at at 99
99 dollars
dollars able, consider instead what you may already own
cheaper ways to stabilize your video of work to achieve, you will never get Technological Assistance they
they deliver a pretty good bang for your buck
deliver a pretty good bang for your buck that has wheels on it. Innovative amateur film-
that will work almost as well. good at shooting stable video if you Of course, even if you put in the and
and cancan definitely
definitely be be worth
worth the the money
money depend-
depend- makers have been making their own homemade
don’t put in the time. Sure, camera hours, it doesn’t mean that you can’t ing
ing onon the
the type
type and
and volume
volume of of video
video thatthat you’re
you’re dolly carts out of hand trucks, skateboards, office
The Cheapest Option operator Larry McConkey had the use a little high-tech help. Most shooting.
shooting. chairs, shopping carts, RC cars and bicycles for
Like the old joke about how you get advantage of a Steadicam rig when he modern cameras have stabilization decades. Check out designs for DIY dolly tracks
to Carnegie Hall, the best, cheapest pulled off the famous Copa Shot from or anti-jitter features as an option, DIY
DIY Solutions
Solutions or table dollies for some ideas that are well within
and most effective way to get steadier Goodfellas, but he also had 15 years of and you might be surprised at how Mind
Mind you,
you, even
even the
the most
most digitally
digitally stabilized
stabilized the average video enthusiast’s reach. Even with-
many amateur shooters could really handheld
handheld footage
footage can’t
can’t compare
compare to to the
the steady,
steady, out wheels you might be able to slide a hardback-
gliding
gliding motion of a Steadicam or dolly shot.
motion of a Steadicam or dolly shot. book-mounted camera across the back of your
That
That doesn’t
doesn’t mean
mean youyou have
have to
to break
break open
open couch, or put your camera on a folded-up towel
MOST MODERN CAM- the
the piggy
piggy bank
bank toto try
try to
to replicate
replicate this
this quality,
quality, and run it (carefully!) down your staircase ban-
ERAS HAVE STABILIZA- as
as long
long asas you’re
you’re not
not afraid
afraid of
of aa little
little creative
creative ister. Look around you for any smooth surface,
problem-solving.
problem-solving. and think about what you can use to pass your
TION OR ANTI-JITTER Sam
Sam Raimi,
Raimi, the
the Hollywood
Hollywood A-list
A-list director,
director, camera across it.
FEATURES. started
started off
off making
making zero-budget
zero-budget homemade
homemade mov- mov- With the right combination of techniques,
ies
ies with
with his
his friends.
friends. HeHe managed
managed to to simulate
simulate technology and gaffer’s tape, jittery video is a
expensive
expensive camera
camera tricks
tricks with
with aa combination
combination of of solvable problem. Why not give some of these
use that feature but never switch clever
clever editing
editing and
and DIY
DIY chutzpah.
chutzpah. Lacking
Lacking the the techniques and solutions a try? Aunt Rhonda
it on. There are several different money
money for for aa Steadicam,
Steadicam, he he bolted
bolted his his camera
camera won’t know what hit her.
technologies used to stabilize your across
across a 2x4 for “shaky-cam” shots, put
a 2x4 for “shaky-cam” shots, put aa cam-
cam-
contents image in-camera, so you may see era
era on
on an
an inflatable
inflatable raft
raft and
and pushed
pushed itit through
through Mike VanHelder is a working writer, photographer and film contents
buff in Philadelphia, PA. He once built an overhead camera
it described as optical, mechanical, aa swamp
swamp (the (the “sam-o-cam”),
“sam-o-cam”), and and created
created thethe rig out of a turkey frying derrick.
full screen electronic, digital or hybrid stabiliza- “vas-o-cam”,
“vas-o-cam”, whichwhich combines
combines aa carpenter’s
carpenter’s saw- saw- full screen
horse, You can comment on this article by going online:
Final Cut Pro X, along with most other editing software, offers digital stabilization that can tion. Furthermore, every manufac- horse, gaffer’s
gaffer’s tape
tape and
and aa whole
whole lotlot of
of vaseline
vaseline www.videomaker.com/article/19380
print be applied in post. Though not ideal, this could save your shot in the right circumstances. turer hides this feature in a different for
for fast,
fast, even
even tracking
tracking shots
shots without
without the the expense
expense print

50 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 51

 EDITING
EDITING
EDITING
JULY 2018

by
by Chris
Chris Gates
Gates

A
A Case
Case Study
Study in
in Slow
Slow Motion
Motion Slowing Things Down
The slow-mo sequence is cut as a montage, no
Sure, it’s noted for gratuitous doubt an homage to the Odessa Steps sequence
from Sergei Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin.”
explosions and long runs on the The shots are hard cut between action shots
beach in the typical summer of guns firing, reaction shots, close-ups of the
baby carriage wheels bouncing down the steps,
blockbuster, but when it’s done the baby laying in the carriage, the screaming
woman and Stone running to aid Ness. What
right, a compelling slow motion helps to make this sequence work is the dual
sequence adds to the weight of narrative that takes place between the peril of
the baby and the danger presented to Ness. The
a film and becomes a powerful baby carriage’s journey down the stairs sets the
storytelling device. timing and pace for the entire shootout. The slow
motion action cuts between the baby’s descent
and the shootout raise the scene’s tension above
the sum of its parts.
Spoiler Alert! Audio also plays a crucial role in making the
In this article, we look at a breakdown scene work. When Ness and Stone first enter
of the Union Station shootout scene the station, the quiet stillness of the station is
from Director Brian DePalma’s 1987 amplified by every footfall. An ominous musi-
crime classic, “The Untouchables.” We cal score underlays Ness as he surveys the
will reveal plot points deep within the potential suspects and victims. When the baby
movie as part of our analysis. carriage enters the scene, a second musical
“The Untouchables” is a fictional The Setup the
thebaby
babyup upto tosafety.
safety.As Asthey
theyclimb
climb theme is introduced, a music box style lullaby
take on Eliot Ness and the exploits The entire scene lasts for approxi- the
thestairs
stairsCapone’s
Capone’smen menenter enterand and that plays simultaneously with the dark score.
of his task force, the Untouchables, mately ten minutes, with the slow take
takepositions
positionsatatthe thetop
topand andbot-bot- Although the two tracks play together, they
as they work to take down famed motion sequence beginning about tom
tomof ofthe
thestair
staircase.
case.NessNessisisvisibly
visibly are separate. The lullaby fades out when Ca-
gangster Al Capone. The Union Station six minutes into the scene. Those six shaken
shakenby bytheir
theirpresence.
presence.Just Justasashe
he pone’s men take to the staircase and the dark
shootout scene plays a pivotal role in minutes are used to set up the slow gets
getsthe
thebaby
babycarriage
carriageto tothe
thetoptopofof score swells as the rhythmic banging of the
“The Untouchables” as it comes when motion sequence, when all the action the
thestairs,
stairs,aathug
thugwho whopreviously
previouslyhad had carriage’s wheels strike each step. When the
all apparent hope is lost for Eliot Ness. unfolds. The setup of the slow mo- aadirect
directrun-in
run-inwith withNess’
Ness’fifiststenters
enters slow-mo sequence begins, the audio is a ca-
The film centers on the Untouch- tion sequence is a big part of why the the
thestation.
station.He HeandandNess
Nesssimultane-
simultane- cophony of gunshots, footsteps, the score and
ables working to arrest Capone, pri- scene works. ously
ouslyspot
spoteach
eachother.
other. the carriage. The pace of the carriage on the
marily through charges of tax evasion. The scene opens with Eliot Ness Ness
Nessand
andthethethug
thugpull pulltheir
theirguns
guns steps increases throughout as the action builds.
Eventually, the Untouchables take into and George Stone entering an empty and
andthethestart
startofofthetheshootout
shootoutalso also At the end, Agent Stone slides into frame, sav-
a custody one of Capone’s thugs who is and voluminous Union Station. Stone sets
setsoff
offthe
theslow
slowmotion
motionsequence.
sequence. ing the baby carriage as Ness takes out the last
willing to testify against him. The only departs from Ness and heads down The
Thesteps
stepsarearenownowfifilled
lledwithwithan an remaining threat. At this moment, Ness checks
problem, Capone has the thug and one the stairs to cover the south entrance assortment
assortmentof ofcharacters;
characters;there thereare
are on the baby and the dark score transitions to
of the Untouchables executed before to the building. Ness takes post at fifive
vearmed
armedthugs,
thugs,the thebookkeeper,
bookkeeper, the music box lullaby and the scene transitions
the court date. Without a witness, the the top of the stairs. The scene is the
themother,
mother,the thebaby
babyin inthe
thecarriage,
carriage, out of slow motion to real time.
district attorney’s office is contemplat- interrupted by a lone mother with aacouple
coupleof ofsailors,
sailors,an aninnocent
innocent “The Untouchables” Union Station sequence
ing throwing the case out of court. No her crying baby in a carriage. Her bystander,
bystander,and andof ofcourse
courseNess Nessand and is a beautiful example of cinematic editing
problem, Jim Malone (Sean Connery) presence disturbs Ness, as he can see Stone
Stonewhowhorushrushto toaid
aidin inthe
thefifight.
ght. through the use of slow motion. It’s a tech-
is Eliot Ness’ right hand-man and has mother and child are at risk in what’s There’s
There’saalot lotfor
forthetheaudience
audienceto tokeep
keep nique that can be easily exploited, but when
plan. Unfortunately, Malone is execut- about to go down. As the mother tries track
trackof,
of,ininaddition
additionto tothethenarra-
narra- set up correctly, slow motion can grasp hold of
ed as well, but with his dying breath to comfort the child, every person tive
tivegravitas
gravitasof ofthe
thescene.
scene.IfIfNess Ness the audience, build tension and keep them in
he informs Ness of where to find entering the station is either a sus- and
andStone
Stonedon’t
don’tget getthe
thebookkeeper,
bookkeeper, anticipation of what will come next.
Capone’s bookkeeper — on a train out pect or at risk. Vignettes of innocent Capone
Caponegoes goesfreefreeandandtheir
theirfriends
friends
contents of Chicago. At approximately one-hour bystanders pass through the station die
dieininvain.
vain.ForForthis
thisreason,
reason,slow slow contents
Chris “Ace” Gates is a four time Emmy Award-winning writer
twenty-six minutes into the film, Eliot as the mother struggles to pull the motion
motionisisusedusedto tohelp
helpthe theaudience
audience and producer.
full screen Ness (Kevin Costner) and George Stone baby carriage and her luggage up the follow
followwhat’s
what’sunfolding,
unfolding,as aswell
wellasas full screen
(Andy Garcia) go to Union Station on a stairs. Concerned with their safety totobuild
buildtension
tensioninto intoallallthe
the actions
actions You can comment on this article by going online:
print last ditch effort to arrest the bookkeep- and the imminent danger, Ness leaves that
thattake
takeplace
placewithin
withinthosethosecouple
couple www.videomaker.com/article/19204 print
er in order to keep the case alive. his post and helps the mother pull ofofseconds.
seconds.
52 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 53

Video Misuse and the Law
Most people who share videos
to online platforms are just
looking for an outlet for their
creativity. There are some, how-
ever, who misuse these sites to
cause harm to others.
Cyberbullying and nonconsensual
pornography (otherwise known as
“revenge porn”) are two of the most
common ways in which videos are
misused online to harm others. Arm-
ing yourself with knowledge of the
laws, policies and legal developments
surrounding these types of video mis-
use can empower you take action or
help someone who may be affected.
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is bullying that occurs
through direct text messaging, in fo-
rums, on social media or via any other
online platform or website where
people can view, participate in or
share content. According to stopbul-
lying.gov, a website managed by the
U.S. Department of Health and Hu-
man Services, “cyberbullying includes
sending, posting, or sharing negative,
harmful, false, or mean content about
someone else [and can] include shar-
ing personal or private information
about someone else causing embar-
rassment or humiliation.”
Bullying can take many forms,
including video content. A bully can
post a video disparaging or making
fun of his or her victim or upload an
embarrassing or personal video of the
victim without consent. Or, as was
the case in Los Angeles in December
2016, a bully can physically attack a
victim, have the attack videotaped and
contents then post that video online as a form
of cyberbullying.
full screen Jordan Peisner, a 14 year old from
the Los Angeles neighborhood of
print
West Hills, was sucker punched by
54
LEGAL
by Mark Levy and Roman Zelichenko
another teenager while a third per-
son stood by recording the attack.
The punch resulted in a concussion,
skull fracture, ruptured eardrum,
hearing loss and more, but that
didn’t stop the bullies from post-
ing the video on Snapchat where it
went viral. The attacker was subject
to criminal prosecution but the
videographer was ultimately not
held accountable. Local lawmakers
THERE’S A NETWORK OF
ANTI-BULLYING LAWS
AND POLICIES COVER-
ING ALL 50 STATES.
were upset with this lack of account-
ability. They proposed a bill dubbed
“Jordan’s Law” that would make the
malicious recording of such an as-
sault a felony, and deem the videog-
rapher an accomplice in the act. It
was proposed in early 2017, shortly
after the attack, and became Califor-
nia law in October of 2017.
While this case of cyberbullying
included physical harm and there-
fore subjected the bully to criminal
VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
prosecution, most anti-bullying laws
and policies are aimed at school
administrators, teachers, and par-
ents, and therefore don’t criminalize
cyberbullying but instead define it
and provide information about how
to deal with and prevent it. In fact,
stopbullying.gov states that “there
is no federal law that specifically
applies to bullying.” Instead, there is
a vast network of anti-bullying laws
and policies covering all 50 states
and most U.S. territories, and almost
all include cyberbullying provisions.
This is a good start, and a success-
fully passed state law that addresses
specific harm caused by cyberbul-
lying can get nationwide attention
and perhaps lead to federal legisla-
tion down the road, as in the case of
Jordan Peisner.
Nonconsensual Pornography
More colloquially known as “revenge
porn,” nonconsensual pornography
(NCP) is defined by the Cyber Civil
Rights Initiative (CCRI) as the “distri-
bution of sexually graphic images of
individuals without their consent.”
CCRI is a non-profit organization ad-
vocating for technological, social, and
legal innovations to fight these online
LEGAL
JULY 2018
abuses. The reason revenge porn is less ac-
curate than the broader term, NCP is that NCP
is not always motivated by revenge or necessar-
ily any personal feelings toward the victim and
merely alludes to posting pornographic content
without consent.
There is currently no federal law against NCP,
leaving state legislatures to their own devices.
According to CCRI, 38 states and the District of
Columbia have so-called “revenge porn laws” on
the books today, though not all the laws are cre-
ated equal. Some states consider revenge porn a
misdemeanor with perhaps a slap on the wrist,
while others deem it a felony that can land per-
petrators in jail.
Where state legislators aren’t moving quickly
enough, local lawmakers are stepping in to fill
the gap. New York State’s revenge porn bill, for
example, is stalled in the state’s legislature, so
New York City voted in November 2017 to make
revenge porn a crime. Every major content sharing site offers a way to report malicious content.
This state-by-state solution may not be ideal, YouTube, like many other sites, also provides prevention resources and advice
but it’s a step in the right direction. to the victims of cyberbullying.
Policies, Community Guidelines
and Online Social Platforms down. Facebook even teamed up with CCRI and
Social media and video sharing sites all have published a guide called “Not Without My Con-
community guidelines that help users spot sent” to “offer tips and advice for anyone who
and report abusive content, and often provide may encounter abusive content” related to NCP
information about what you can do if you’ve or revenge porn.
been victimized.
YouTube, for example, has a page dedicated Conclusion
to harassment that describes cyberbullying, We all need to work together to protect vic-
provides information on what to do about it tims, eradicate abusive content and ultimately
and links to a reporting tool that allows users stop online abuse from happening in the first
to report harassment. Facebook has a robust place. As lawmakers continue introducing leg-
safety center with a bullying prevention hub islation and websites do their best to respond
that educates teens and parents, gives guid- to user complaints, we video viewers and
ance on thinking before sharing, and provides content creators need to do our part, too. If
information on mental health, privacy, and you see video content that appears to be bul-
safety concerns, among other things. Snap- lying someone, especially someone you know,
chat’s safety center, similar to Facebook’s, has report it. If you know someone who wants
community guidelines that define harassment to upload a video that can be categorized as
and bullying, gives tips on how to avoid being bullying, urge them to think about the harm it
bullied, and provides resources for victims, could cause to the victim as well as the legal
including a short questionnaire that helps users trouble they can get into.
easily report abusive content.
When it comes to NCP, policies and guidelines Mark Levy is an attorney admitted to practice in New York
tend to be largely the same. PornHub, a popu- State and Florida who concentrates on intellectual property
law. He has won numerous awards as an amateur movie
lar pornographic video sharing website, has a maker. Roman Zelichenko, based in New York City, is a writer
page dedicated to the removal of nonconsensual and entrepreneur with intellectual property experience, and contents
content. Less obvious sites like Google, Reddit, has drafted legal opinions and articles on the subject. Follow
him on Instagram: @rzelichenko
Facebook, Twitter and Bing have been used to full screen
post and search for NCP as well and all have You can comment on this article by going online:
www.videomaker.com/article/19310 print
ways in which users can flag content to be taken
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 55

The Dos & Don’ts of Adaptations
Adapting literary works for the screen
can be a great way to bring your
favorite printed stories to life — but
be careful. Not every story is suitable
for the feature film format.
2017 saw some of the biggest film
releases for the action genre with such
titles as “Dunkirk” and “War for the
Planet of the Apes,” as well as many
others. But 2017 was also a huge year
for the horror genre with films such
as “Get Out,” which has maintained a
99 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes
since its release in March. We also saw
several horror adaptations this year,
with Stephen King adaptations “The
Dark Tower” and “IT” both being re-
leased less than a month apart. Dispite
the similarity in source material, there
is a large difference in the ratings for
each of these films. “IT” stays strong
with 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes
and is considered one of the best hor-
ror films of the year. “The Dark Tower”
is on the total opposite side of the
spectrum with a 16 percent rating and
many negative reviews. This raises the
question of how two films based off of
literary work by the same author can
be received so differently by audiences.
To help us find the answer, we looked
In “IT,” a group
of boys encount a
frightening crea-
ture living in the
underbellly of their
hometown. The lo-
calized events of the
story make it easy
to condense into a
contents feature film.
full screen
print
56
DIRECTING
at the strengths and weaknesses of
each film and compiled this list of dos
and don’ts for literary adaptations.
Do: Make sure your story is at a
suitable length for adaptation.
A large factor that determines the
difference between these films is the
source material. “IT” is based on one
novel, which makes it easier to adapt
into a screenplay and make into a visual
piece. Source material such as this can
be written in a way that fits within the
length of a feature film, while keeping
the crucial plot points on screen and
allowing the audience to have an under-
standing of what they are watching. The
VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
Ant onio Pavlov
by Antonio
original “IT” television mini-series was
released in 1990 and had two episodes
where the first
first follows the story of the
fighting
group of childhood friends fighting
against the mysterious being known as
Pennywise the Clown and the second
episode follows them years later when
they are adults and are once again faced
with Pennywise. A story such as this
works well in two parts as it allows for
an easy build up to the story and then
follows with a resolution in the second
part. This remake will also be followed
with a second part that will continue
the story years later, just as the original
adaptaion did.
Don’t: Oversimplify plot points in
fits the
order to make a story that fits
length of your project.
As you might guess from the length
of the original book series, “The Dark
Tower” adaptation attempts to cover
a long and winding narrative. When it
came down to adapting for screen, there
were many parts that had to be left out.
Do: Look through the story
carefully and be certain it will
work well on screen.
Long stories are often also quite
elaborate, making them even more
DIRECTING
challenging to adapt properly. An overly-elab-
orate story has many plot devices and points
that make it incredibly difficult to convert into a
format that works on screen. With complicated
stories, there is always a choice to be made:
which parts of the story to include in the screen
adaptation and which to leave out. “IT” has a
simple and localized story that is easy to follow
and adapt. The basis of the story and the resolu-
tion can be summarized within the length of
film without undue simplification.
Don’t: Change story elements to help fit into
the screen adaptation you have created.
“The Dark Tower” source material stretches
through eight books and is therefore an incred-
ibly complicated story to adapt into a screen-
play. This is why many audience members
who haven’t read the books found it difficult to
understand the story. There are some aspects that
seem to jump ahead and bypass parts of the story
in order to fit it all into the acceptable length for
a feature film. Compressing a long story like this
into a single film will result in such jumps and
can lead to low ratings and bad reviews. When it’s
a long story, the best way to adapt it for screen is
to do it episodically, much like the way “The Lord
of The Rings” films were done.
Do: Include all the important plot points
that contribute to the story.
With all adaptations, audiences will often
compare what is and isn’t included in the films
compared to the books. The story of “IT” was
very well represented in the new adaptation,
though some parts from the book were left out,
largely because of their sensitive nature. Many
fans of the book had noticed that certain scenes
were left out, but there was an understanding as
to why they were missing.
Don’t: Rearrange and combine plot points
that don’t really tie in together.
On the other hand, “The Dark Tower” film made
some large leaps in the story and has thrown ele-
ments from several of the books into the film. This
mixing of elements lead to an over-extended film
that, for many, didn’t deliver the narrative satis-
faction of the books. Though the adaptation was
done with the intention of being the first in the
cinematic franchise, many characters and loca-
tions that come later in the books appear in this
first installment and are portrayed very differently.
With adaptations like this, it is quite difficult to
V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8
JULY 2018
Image: Sony Pictures
“The Dark Tower” is a winding fantasy narrative that sprawls over eight
books. The scope of the story makes it much harder to effectively adapt for
the screen.
compare storylines because some parts of the story
technically come later on in the series. Fans of the
books may consider this a disservice to the original
narrative, while those who haven’t read the series
may simply be confused or disengaged.
Producing Effective Adaptations
When it comes to adapting literary works into a
format for the screen, there are several important
factors to keep in mind. You must always makes
sure that the story you’re adapting is not too long
to fit into the length of the production you’re
making, whether it is a feature length project or
short film. With a long story, you will more than
likely be forced to cut some parts down or bring
some plot points in ahead of the story in order
to fit it all in. If the story you are adapting is too
long, consider adapting it into an episodically
structured project. Complicated stories are also
difficult to write for the screen because, one way
or another, some parts of the story will have to
be rushed or changed, which can result in the
audience not being able to follow the story very
well. Before you take on an adaptation, make
sure that the story is suitable for screen.
Antonio is always looking for new ways to expand his film-
making knowledge, from cinematography to editing; there is
always something new he is trying to learn. Now, with feature contents
film work under his belt, he is ready to share the knowledge
he gathered with the world.
full screen
You can comment on this article by going online:
www.videomaker.com/article/19297 print
57
 DISTRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION JULY 2018

by Jeff Chaves

5 Reasons to Start a Newsletter may not want all their competitors to

To grow your production busi-
ness, you need to let people
know about your work. An email
list and newsletter is a great, cost
effective way to do that.
An email newsletter is considered one
of the most direct and cost-effective
marketing tools. If you need proof, just
go to your inbox and see how many
you have received in the last week.
Does a video production company or
an individual need to create an email
list and have a regular newsletter?
Ultimately, it’s a question of market-
ing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a large
company, a small start up or even an
Ideally, you’ll want to include an im-
age or two to give people a glimpse, but
use unique ideas from their project.
4. It’s a place to show off
new tools and techniques.
New tools can also mean new viewers
or clients. Did you just add a drone to
your arsenal? How about new editing
or graphics software? Did you start
producing in 4K? All of these could be
great material for a newsletter.
An email newsletter with shots
from a project featuring your latest
gear shows that you are improving
and keeping up with the technology.
Yes, even your video fans want to see
you get better. Let everyone know
what you’re using.
5. You can start immediately
with little or no money.
Perhaps the best reason to start an
email newsletter is that you can cre-
The rule dates back to the 1930s. Today,
because of the constant advertising
ate one right away and it only costs
you time. Depending upon your client
base, you can search through previ-
ous emails and come up with a list.
You may even want to create two lists
and two newsletters. One could be
for potential clients and the other for
fans of your work. Make sure you craft
your newsletter with links to all your
social media and video channels to
help people keep in touch.
Final Tips
To keep your email from ending up
in the spam filter, you’ll have to send
your emails out individually. You can’t
just create one and address it to a
dozen emails. If your email list is ex-
tensive, you may want to consider an
email marketing service like Constant
Contact, Drip or MailChimp. Most of
these charge for their services, but
some let you start for free — or you
can experiement with creating a mail
merge from a spreadsheet. And don’t
create a PDF file and attach it. That is
the same same as sending out a snail
mail newsletter. All of the content and
links have to be part of the email.
Remember that the goal is to gain
the reader’s attention. Use catchy titles,
good graphics and interesting lead sen-
tences. A newsletter can help legitimize
your business in the minds of poten-
tial clients, so don’t send them sloppy
work. With a well-composed newslet-
ter, you’ll be on your way to growing
your audience and your business.
Jeff Chaves is the Chief Creative Officer of Grace
Pictures Inc., which he co-owns with his wife,
Peggy. He got his start as an Army Broadcaster
in the 1980s and spent 12 plus years working
on broadcasting. Jeff left broadcast television to
pursue full-time ministry.
You can comment on this article by going online:
www.videomaker.com/article/19316

More Free Training Resources

independent producer; you need to gen- don’t give away any spoilers; you want barrage of print and online media, esti-
erate both viewers and clients who will
hire you. In both cases, an email list and
them to click through the links you
include to get to the content on your
mates glean that more like 20 exposures
are necessary to spark interest. No mat- More
newsletter can help. Here’s why. website or elsewhere. Email targets
should include anyone who has en-
ter how great your work was to a viewer
or a client, they will forget your name
Available from
Available from
1. It helps build an audience. joyed your work in the past or anyone unless you keep it in front of them.
The first target for any video producer’s you might think is a potential viewer. They may not read every word of Did you
Did you know
know that
that Videomaker
Videomaker has
has aa whole
whole library
library of
of free
free training
training
newsletter is viewers. We create in a Don’t forget to include a suggestion to the newsletter, but just having your downloads available to anyone interested in making better
downloads available to anyone interested in making better video? video?
visual medium, and the bottom line forward your email to a friend. name in their inbox will be a regular
will always be the people who watch reminder. Maybe the reader doesn’t
our work. This is true for your YouTube
channel just as much as it is for cable
2. It reminds people about
your work.
need another video produced right
now, but when they need you, they
Available Reports
Available Reports
and broadcast TV. A newsletter can be In advertising, there is an old principal will remember your email and what- ••55Advertising
AdvertisingTricks
Tricksfor
forYouTube
YouTube
a great tool to generate interest about called the “Rule of 7,” which suggests ever cool project it showcased. ••Master
MasterYouTube:
YouTube:GetGetViewers
Viewersand andMake
MakeMoney
Money
your next great release or even past that a person has to see or hear an ad • Optimizing Your Video For YouTube
• Optimizing Your Video For YouTube Search Search
projects that don’t get clicks any more. seven times before they gain interest. 3. It inspires new ideas. ••The
TheEssential
EssentialGuide
GuideTo ToBuilding
BuildingAAHome
HomeStudio
Studio
Sending out a regular newsletter is a • The Top 5 Accessories for A DSLR Video
• The Top 5 Accessories for A DSLR Video Shoot Shoot
MailChimp and great way to show clients your work, ••88Tips
Tipsfor
foraaStellar
StellarFirst
FirstVideo
Video
other similar ser- potentially giving them an idea for ••How
HowtotoMake
MakeaaViral
ViralVideo
Video
vices streamline the their next project. For example, if you • Screenplay Writing: How totoFormat
• Screenplay Writing: How FormataaScreenplay
Screenplay
email sending pro- are in the wedding video business, • How to Make a Storyboard
• How to Make a Storyboard
cess and help make what’s usually the next step? Having ••Understanding
Understandingthe theNew
NewBreed
Breed
sure your newslet- babies! Why not send a screenshot New titles
New titles of Digital Cinema Cameras
of Digital Cinema Cameras
ter isn’t caught up and a link for a gender reveal video continue to
to be
be ••Best
BestTypes
TypesofofLightweight
LightweightTripods
Tripodsfor
forCameras
Cameras
in the spam filter. that you just produced? continue • Cinematography Techniques:
• Cinematography Techniques:
contents You never know how a project that added, so
added, so check
check TheDifferent
The DifferentTypes
TypesofofShots
ShotsininFilm
Film contents
• How to Make a DIY Green Screen
you’re currently working on may in- back often.
back often. • How to Make a DIY Green Screen
full screen spire someone else. Of course, if you’re ••Multi-Camera
Multi-CameraShooting
Shootingfor forEvent
EventVideography
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working commercially, some discretion • What’s the Best Video
• What’s the Best Video FormatFormat
print may be in order. Your current client ororOnline
OnlineDistribution?
Distribution? print

58 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 Go to Videomaker.com/FreeReports V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 59


Taking on Time-lapse Challenges
Even a few years ago, consumer
video equipment was relatively
limited — but that’s all changing.
One thing that’s built into most
cameras today but not often
used is the time-lapse function.
One of the great things that video can
do is show us our world in a way that’s
impossible or very difficult for humans
to see otherwise — things seen very
closely through a microscope or from
very far from a drone or a helicopter.
We can capture things in intense dark-
ness with infrared light or things that
happen extremely fast, like a balloon
popping — all these things change the
way we see and understand our world.
Time-lapse compresses time, mak-
ing things that aren’t normally observ-
able easy to see — like the movement
of the hour hand on a clock, the
construction of a building, or even the
movement of a glacier. The technique
has been around for a long time —
it was first used by French cinema
pioneer Georges Méliès way back in
1897, and since then, it has been used
to make some really stunning videos.
Today, we’re going to look at some
of the challenges and rewards of this
type of videography.
contents
Time-lapse can make things that are otherwise boring appear interesting. Here, a stage
full screen
crew disassembles a set after a production. While no one wants to spend five hours
print watching it happen, it makes for an interesting 36 seconds.
60
SHOOTING
What makes for
an interesting time-lapse?
Things that take a lot of time — some
examples: football games, flowers
opening, a building being built or de-
molished, snow accumulating, a dog
exploring a yard, the tide coming in
or going out, the sun setting and the
stars coming up.
Where to Shoot: Scouting Locations
It’s always best to have an intricate
familiarity with your location — what
time does the sun rise? What direc-
tion does it come from? Are there
VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018
SHOOTING
JULY 2018
by Kyle Cassidy
of people photographing or shooting
video in the places you’re headed to,
and simply learn from their mistakes.
it. Be sure to turn off the rear LCD if
you’re shooting for a long time; it’s a
power hog.
balance, but these can all be changed
later. RAW files also have enormous
exposure latitude, which means that
if something’s too dark, you can still
Do you need any special gear? How many photos pull a lot of detail out of it. Even if
An intervalometer: Many cameras do you need to take? something’s too bright, you can often
today come with intervalometers If you’re shooting ordinary video, restore some of the highlights. The
built-in, but if your camera doesn’t every 30 frames becomes one second, downside is that RAW files are HUGE.
have one, lots of companies make so If you’re shooting one frame every
external ones that will control most minute, an eight hour day is com- Dealing with Changing Light
new cameras. pressed into sixteen seconds. What’s Whenever possible, use manual ex-
A tripod: Use the heaviest one you the minimum amount of video that’s posure entirely. Allowing the camera
can manage because slight variations interesting to watch? Try for at least 15 to set the exposure will result in very
from wind will be apparent if your seconds — so 450 photos. So if you’re small changes between each of your
frame is moving. Some tripods let you shooting one photo every minute, be frames, which causes flickering. So
hang a weight from the center post to prepared keep yourself amused for at manually set everything — your ISO,
provide extra stability. least seven and a half hours. your f-stop, your shutter speed and
Power: Depending on how long also your white balance.
you’re shooting, be prepared for Shoot RAW This means that if you’re shooting
your battery to die. If you can’t use Camera RAW files are straight out during a time when the light changes,
external power, make sure that the of the camera’s sensor; the camera such as from daylight through sunset
tripod you’re using will allow you to will apply temporary default settings and into the night time, you’re going
change batteries without unmounting for things like sharpness and white to have to gradually, and manually,
lights from a nearby parking lot that
ruin any night photography? But you
can’t always do that. If you’re headed
• Washed-out Color • Shaky Camera Work • Hisses and Hums • The Visible Boom Mic
to a national park thousands of miles
away, how do you keep from wasting
your time?
This is the question Turkish photog-
These are a Few of Our (Least) Favorite Things!
rapher Aydın Büyüktaş had when he Chances are that you encountered one or more of these the very first time you
decided to photograph the American edited video. We’re sorry to say, no matter how careful you are, you’re sure to encounter
West from a drone. He knew he’d
have a short time to get to all the best
them repeatedly over the course of your video career.
places, but living in Istanbul, he didn’t
have a lot of time to look around. So Learn more at videomaker.com/flaws
he used Google Maps to tour the coun- These problems plague all videographers,
try. That’s one clever way to scout but good ones know how to stop them dead
locations and there are many others.
Lots of places worth photographing
in their tracks. Videomaker’s How To: Fix It
have been photographed before, just In Post instructional video teaches you how
maybe not in the exciting way you’re to fix the six major problems that we hear
going to do it. Flickr.com boasts 75
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V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 61
 SHOOTING JULY 2018
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62 VIDEOMAKER >>> JU LY 2018 V I D E O M AKE R > > > J ULY 2 0 1 8 63


OPINION
by Nicole LaJeunesse
Vlogs are Documentaries, Too
While the label of documentary is often applied to a particular type of
filmmaking with an educational bent, the original definition is actually
much broader — broad enough, even, to include the vlog format as
just another type of documentary.
I didn’t know what to expect upon
entering the classroom for the first
meeting of a course titled the History
of the Documentary. It was a required
course for Film Studies majors — a
fact that was reflected in the already-
bored expressions of my classmates
as we settled into our seats.
We were surprised when, after
a brief introduction to the course,
our professor dimmed the lights
and queued up our first example for
study on YouTube. He hit play, and we
watched as a backcountry skier failed
to outrun a minor avalanche.
Don’t worry — the skier was fine.
The video lasted less than a minute
and showed only the first person
perspective of a helmet-mounted
GoPro. When it was over, the profes-
sor brought the lights back up and
looked over his confused but engaged
audience. “That,” he announced, “is
documentary.”
We often think of documentary
filmmaking as a laborious process
that results in a feature length produc-
tion that is informative if not terribly
exciting. Even if you don’t know Ken
Burns by name, you’ve certainly felt
contents
full screen
print
64
his influence in defining the docu-
mentary form as understood by the
average viewer. His sweeping histori-
cal documentaries and their deriva-
tives have come to represent the entire
documentary genre in the minds of
the general public.
On the other hand, looser, more
experimental forms are not always
recognized as true documentaries,
and the specter of objectivity con-
tinues to inform our definitions of
the format. Recognizing this ten-
dency, our professor forced us to
immediately confront and dismantle
our preconceived notions of what
documentary films can and should
achieve. As the course progressed, we
watched plenty of films that fit more
easily into standard definitions of
documentary, but we also considered
reality TV and home video record-
ings. These, too, were documentary
works worthy of study.
John Grierson, the film pioneer
credited with coining the term docu-
mentary, defined the genre as “a
creative treatment of actuality.” By
this definition, we can argue that any
recording of real events, whether pre-
sented through
an educational
lens or simply
as a record of a
particular period
of time, is, in fact,
a documentary.
Documentaries
can be simple
or elaborate.
They can strive
for objectiv-
ity or embrace
bias. They can
require months
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They can even come about some-
what accidently, as in the case of
our avalanche video. None of these
variables make them less worthy of
the documentary label. This includes
the daily vlog format.
The abbreviated length and gener-
ally lower production quality of a vlog
may leave some inclined to dismiss
the format as amateur and therefore
not worth discussing. Likewise, the
potential for omissions and reenact-
ments may make some viewers ques-
tions the validity of including vlogs in
the more prestigious category of docu-
mentary filmmaking — nevermind
that objectivity even in traditional
documentary is fraught with unavoid-
able caveats and pitfalls.
I argue, however, that vlogs, in all
of their various forms, fit perfectly
into Grierson’s original definition of
the documentary genre. Vlogs provide
a record of real events that has been
edited and annotated to reflect the
creative influence of the person pro-
“8 Tips for a Stellar First Video” is a clear and concise free download for even the
ducing it. They present an actuality re-
corded on video through the perspec-
tive of the vlogger. With this in mind,
vlogs become just another manifesta- greenest video lover, with tips that you can start applying the moment you pick up a camera.
tion of the documentary impulse — to
preserve a moment and to share an Learn:
experience or perspective. Documen- • How to make sure that, before you even start, you have everything needed to finish.
tary filmmaking can take many forms;
vlogging is just one of them. • How to organize your thoughts into a video story.
• The secret to shooting footage that looks good on any screen.
Nicole is a weird media enthusiast. She’s also • How video is different than real life... and how to take advantage of that while editing.
Videomaker’s Managing Editor. contents
• The single most important tip for keeping an audience interested. This remarkably simple editing tip will free
you from your old style of thinking so you can see the world the way the video pros do. full screen
You can comment on this article by going online: • The two easy steps to handling your video camera like a pro and capturing the best possible footage.
www.videomaker.com/article/19490 print
• The mistake that can sink a first video and how you can avoid it.
Get hooked on making stellar video at: videomaker.com/8tips