Wow what a day it has been, sadly couldnt go to BVE 2012, as you can tell I was looking forward to it, however something big turned up! Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from H Preston Media to let me know that our C300 would arrive today.

Luckily it arrived fairly early and heres my unboxing of the camera.

Now I did make one mistake, forgot to turn the plug on to put the battery on charge, so did end up having to wait an extra hour before I could use it, I also didnt have a CF card so I ended up having to go to Jessops to buy one, bit scary as they guy in the shop instantly knew I was there to collect a CF card (they must have spies)

Dan with the C300 on his shoulder.

Anyway Dan and myself played around with the camera and our first impressions are that we love it! I mean really love it, appropriate considering its Valentines Day, in fact I’m glad I’m single as I would have ignored a girlfriend all day playing around with this camera. We even managed to get it into a pretty good shoulder mounted configuration.

Below is me discussing the crazy low light ability and sharpness of the camera in a dark room, its a bit long but worth the watch.

Sorry about the low upload bit rate, didnt have time to upload the video in HD

So what do I like and dislike after one day of use.

Like:

• The picture quality is amazing, matches the best cameras I’ve seen in terms of sharpness and colour.
• The massive 4in screen is so handy, why dont all cameras come with a standard screen of this size?
• Not only is it big but you can point the screen in any direction, very versatile.
• EVF is good much better than any other built in one Ive ever used.
• Hand grip nice and solid, you can get a really good grip on this camera
• Buttons are nicely laid out, record buttons have a nice soft feel so you can tell its them.
• Rear LED screen is handy
• XLR audio built in, how I have missed thee
• Low light is crazy good, see video for more.
• ND Filters work great!
• Im sure theres many more, Il go into more detail in the future.

I only really have one dislike and its the connections from the LCD/XLR Module to the camera. These two plugs/leads are really hard to remove, they require a very particular twist which is scary as someone could easily break it if they pulled too hard trying to remove them.

Thats a long enough first post, many more will be going up over the next few weeks regarding the C300, make sure you keep coming back and following us on twitter. We will be filming in Birmingham over the next few days, throwing the C300 straight into the deep end, we will be posting plenty of behind the scenes via twitter.

 @mgvp

 @jonathanpalfrey

Its been very quiet on this blog along with my facebook page and youtube channel and applogies for that. Over the past year I have been very busy building my new company MGV Productions which I have mentioned on here before. Along with producing hundreds of videos for MGV the team have also started a new blog called blog4k. This is where I do most of my latest posts and updates.

When I started this blog the main aim was to give advice of what its like to be a student filmmaker, documenting and discussing all the new experiences I gain along with sharing any knowledge I’ve picked up. Only problem now I am working full time at a far more intese rate, discussing what I’m up to isn’t always possible, not to mention not as interesting (we’ve just spent the last 4 days getting shots of concrete, its not always glamours or bloggable!).

So where do we go from here, well a new focus on technology, equipment and advice, many blogs will be posted both here and on blog4k. The difference being I will also blog about popular media e.g films/games on blog4k while my site will stay far more technical.

That’s the path I plan to take with this blog, I hope you enjoy reading and watching all future entries. I promise it will be kept far more up to date and far more relevant. In fact in a couple of weeks our brand new Canon C300 arrives, one of the first in the world! I will include unboxing, review and behind the scenes content following are first few weeks with the camera. Also to look forward to will be a review of the Vinten Vision Blue Tripod, coverage of this years BVE and much more.

If you fancy keeping up to date with my blog remember to save a link to this site. As I said all these entries will appear on here and the Blog4K website so feel free to follow either. Blog4k also includes my pop media blogs along with brilliant TV/Film/Game Reviews from Lucy Smith and sports entries from Daniel Butler.

You can also follow me day to day on twitter. I’m much better at keeping that up to date and often put behind the scenes photos up etc.

Its really worth checking out as not only do I post far more than on here but you also get great film and TV review blogs from Lucy Smith and Sports from Daniel Butler.

Anyway a recent side project I worked on with the MGV Productions team was a 48 hour short film contest.

We had to make a short film in 48 hours with the breif being it must contain a key and the theme of a hero. Below is the resulting final product, it was shortlisted in the final.

For the film I was Co Director with Lucy, she focused on the story and screenplay while I was DOP and editor. A more in depth look and discussion along with a behind the scenes video blog will be coming soon, make sure you keep an eye out for it either here or at blog4k.

Also a camera bag review will be coming soon from myself.

Like many I had been looking forward to November 3rd, the day in which the camera industry would be revolutionised because of “historic” announcements from Canon and Red. Both camps hyped up the release of their respected cameras more than any other I can think of in the past, but the question is did they deliver?

In one word? No.

Now I will explain why I don’t think Canon or Red lived up to the hype that they themselves started. So what is wrong with these cameras your probably asking? To be honest not a lot, spec wise these cameras are impressive for the most part however the price point isn’t so impressive and that concerns me.

Some don’t like it but I think it looks pretty cool – Canon C300
The new Canon camera announced is the C300, this is a camera with a 4k sensor, outputting 1080p HD with a max frame rate of 60fps (in 720p? WTF Canon) and records to CF cards using Canons own XF 50mbps format. I think the camera is a clever shape (a fat DSLR basically) and I much prefer the handle/LCD than the Sony FS100. The camera also includes all the various plugs such as XLR, HD-SDI etc.

So far, so good, we have a good spec camera, in a nice form factor with all the plugs we need, so what’s the problem? Well its the price, $20,000! This is where I have a problem, who are Canon aiming at? clearly its the TV industry however why go for that market when the majority of EOS lens owners and Canon video DSLR users are looking for an upgrade. Thats the position we are in, like many others we use Canon DSLRs for our company video productions, they are great camera producing nice results, especially when your target delivery is the web, however they do have issue when used professionally, the main issues for us are separate audio recording and having to transcode all the footage.

A Sony FS100
Like many others we were hoping for the perfect upgrade from Canon, something which would give us these extra features, improved image quality and most importantly an EF Mount. After all that’s why we’ve all waited out for Canon to announce something, much easier, and cheaper, if we can use our current lenses without adaptors. Canon choosing to go for the +£10k market means that it really leaves us and many others with only one good option for upgrading and that is the Sony FS100. I have no big issue with this although its a shame it doesnt have built in ND or an ef mount, however this camera, because of these announcements, has just become very good value for money. Bang for buck the best out of all the Super 35mm cameras. Why Canon chose to abandon, even if its only temporary, its DSLR followers is beyond me as im sure many people like us will now be switching to Sony.

What about the Scarlet then? I hear you ask. Well I didn’t put much hope into the camera from the start as for too long it was vapourware. Too many promises were made by Red and ultimately although the camera is relatively cheap, the accessories are ridiculous! A working kit similar to the C300 would cost you about the same as the Canon, yes the Scarlet has some advantages but it also has disadvantages.

The RED Scarlet X (with not included 5in
LCD Monitor
4k is great, modular design is great, high fps is great and RAW codec can be great however for most people unless your in a film production situation don’t have the time to process Red RAW footage. Most people don’t want to spend huge amounts of money on batteries and SSD cards to be able to shoot and for those reasons I see limited appeal with the Red Scarlet X. Our company wouldn’t have any advantage using it as the transcoding would be too slow for what we do. Also the camera seems a bit under spec’d compared to the original announcement. I was really hoping for 120fps at 2k, at least in burst form, instead its limited to 1k which isn’t much better than the Sony FS100′s super slow mode!

So why am I’m complaining? Well I’m not really, just observing and a bit confused when the hype suggested something more. Common sense suggested that Canon would release a FS100 competitor however that seemed too much to ask. My biggest issue with these announcements is it feels quite the opposite it should be, neither of the announcements are “historic” neither are “revolutionary” both are just slight upgrades to what is already out there. It feels evolution in the camera industry could once again slow down to what it used to be with only small improvements every 3 or 4 years unlike the huge DSLR revolution we’ve seen in the past few years which, positively or negatively, shook up the industry.

Sony NEX 5N, one of the cheapest 35mm
video camera
My advice to anyone looking to buy a camera, if its just for fun or to learn with then get a Panasonic GH2, Canon 60D or a Sony NEX 5N. These are great cameras in there own right and although lack professional features are by far the best value for money cameras out there today.

If your in a position like us, a professional company or individual using DSLRs but wanting to upgrade then the Sony FS100 is the only true option. Its a very good option at that with stunning picture quality and I think cleaver design. The Panasonic AF100 sadly isn’t up to standard any more, despite being fairly new still the quality is no where near where it needs to be, its just a pimped up GH1, the GH2 is even better than it for far less!

If your in the TV industry and producing documentary or drama stuff which requires the 35mm look then either the Canon C300 or Sony F3 are good options. The Canon is better out of the box, on paper at least, but the Sony has more potential, with 4:4:4 output upgrade option.

And as for the Scarlet, well I see that as very much a B camera to the EPIC, after all EPIC owners and users will have already invested in the gear and they are set up for the workflow, it will be a great camera for commercial and cinema uses although I’d imagine if a company can afford to buy or hire a Scarlet for a shoot like that then why wouldn’t they just use an EPIC? That could be the Scarlet’s biggest downfall, it’s not affordable and diverse enough to use for day to day corporate and documentary shoots but also isn’t impressive enough to knock the big boys, such as the EPIC and Alexa, off the shelf for high end shoots.

Concept 4K DSLR
Anyway what ever you choose, like Philip Bloom said in his blog, it’s our creativity that’s important, any camera listed above can produce stunning results when used in the right hands, whatever you chose don’t bother spending more than you need to, just go out there and shoot!

Oh and by the way, this could be interesting, a concept 4k DSLR, however we will have to wait and see in the mean time hit the record button on your current camera rather than dreaming about another one!

If you follow Video DSLR news then your probably aware of the new Technicolor picture profile professionally developed by Canon and Technicolor.

Now many in the industry are very excited about this as it increases the amount of useable dynamic range of the Canon SLRs. This is important to give you as much choice in post production as possible.

If your here you probably already know that so I wont go through all the details, more information can be found on the subject at  Vincent Laforet blog.

My blog is for 550D and T2i owners who maybe finding some issues trying to install it on their cameras, this isn’t any major issues just some pointers so you dont get stuck wondering why you cant see it on your camera. Some forums have already discussed it but to save your time I thought I’d put it all in one place. Skip to the bottom of the page if you just want to watch the tutorial video.

First off make sure you have the EOS Utility (included on the disc that comes with your camera but also can be downloaded, however it can be hard to find!) on your computer and download the Technicolor profile, along with pdf guide, from here http://www.technicolor.com/en/hi/cinema/filmmaking/digital-printer-lights/cinestyle

Plug your 550D in via the USB and make sure you unzip the Technicolor profile.

OK easy so far but this is where I had my first issue and perhaps you may have had yours, hence the reason your here. You may notice that the “Register User Defined Syle” button under “Shooting menu” isn’t selectable. Don’t worry, all you need to do is to move the dial to a photo mode not movie mode. Once you have done this you can open EOS Utility again and select “Register User Defined Style” and continue to follow the guide off the technicolor pdf.

Now the next issue you may come across. Now you’ve installed it you turn your camera on and notice that the “User Defined” profile you set the style to isn’t there on the video mode, it’s still set to standard unlike on photo modes. Once again it’s an easy fix just might not be obvious at first glance. On the video mode press the “Menu” button, scroll right to the forth menu (last red one) and select “Picture Style”. Once selected a list of all the styles will come up. Press the “DISP.” button on one of the “User Def.” styles. Finally select “Picture Style” and now you can scroll and select “CineStyle” from the list to make this your picture profile.

And thats it. You now have your Technicolor CineStyle picture profile installed on your 550D/T2i.

I will do some tests over the next few days as I analyse how useful it will be for me. I currently use the Standard Picture profile in most of my shoots, this is because I often don’t have time to do extensive colour grading although for certain cases this profile will be handy.

Hi everyone,

Its been a month since I last updated my blog with the ‘making of’ video of our MGV Productions Promo and I thought it was time I post up something new.

Its amazing how little time you have to blog when busy producing videos and going to university. As many may know from following my twitter I’ve been working on various video productions with MGV Productions not only in the South West but in London as well.

We have now produced over a 100 videos at MGV Productions (many of them still not public yet) and the ones that our public havc totaled more than 10,000 views on youtube which is great! One very important contact we started working on at the start of April was to work with Hilton Hotels producing new recruitment videos for 13 of their hotels. I cant show them yet as final changes are being made before being signed off but I can say its amazing how different each video came out.

Visisting the 13 hotels allowed us to see various famous London locations from angles many don’t get to see. Great views included the resturant at the top of Hilton Park Lane which has incredible views of the whole of London and The Trafalgar’s roof garden which I think has the best view of Trafalgar Square.

The sightseeing and views wasn’t the only highlight of the week, the food and drinks we “sampled” were excellent as well. This included many cocktails including an interesting chili one at The Trafalgar. Also a Tandoori chicken meal and a banana dessert at Hilton Gatwick which are probably the best food I’ve ever tasted.

The week was stressful at times, shooting three hotels a day and traveling across London by car but the organising by Hilton and the new experiences we had and the people we met made this a great experience. Everyday I film I meet someone new, I see a new location and often get to try or learn something as well.

I think filmmakers don’t like the idea of  ’corporate’ video productions, seeing them just as something they must do to pay the bills rather gaining real enjoyment of producing them. Yes, some ‘corporate’ shoots can be a bit boring or may require not to be creative but I have found that in most cases that it can be extremely creative and enjoyable learning new things and meeting new people. Its so great when you can turn someones basic idea of what they want into reality.

With many of the Hilton videos we turned up without any preparation and with each hotel only having a small idea or no idea at all of what they want. In a matter of 10-15 minutes we helped expand that idea until two hours later it was all complete and filmed. This is the sort of film-making I love, coming up with ideas on the spot, constantly having to be creative and not having to stick to a pre-planned shot list.

While I was there I also shot some timelapses out of my room’s window at the Metropole, Philip Bloom style (well with one camera instead of 10!), which you can see below.

I will be updating with more blogs very soon, including a short ‘concept’ video I shot a few months ago (only just got round to upload) and a new student cameraman blog.

I actually used the project as part of my university work so as a result we had a lot of behind the scenes footage. Rather than just showing this content to the tutors I thought I’d share it with all of you as well.

The five minute documentary discusses the production process of the video along with influences learnt. Because of the limits on time for the course some parts are quickly discussed, I will do more in depth discussions (especially creating flares in Vegas) on another blog. There are also some links to videos discussed at the bottom of the blog.

The promo video itself.

The making of documentary.

Sky Sports News Presenters Advert July 2010 (1 Min)

Lots of cameras, big stands and hundreds of people, its BVE (The Broadcast and Video Expo) at Earls Court, London.

Myself and the MGV team went along to the final day of the expo. It’s the first time I’ve been along to the event but certainly not the last. My main aim while I was there was to test out the cameras and equipment we want to by for our company, along with playing with some of the more expensive gear of course.

We use SLR cameras in our video productions, they are great cameras and produce stunning images however they do suffer from several problems. This is were several cameras such as the Panasonic AF101 and the Sony F3 come into play.

We managed to have a play around with both at BVE. Because the Panasonic only has a micro 4/3rds sensor, I was concerned about how the low light and image quality would be however after seeing it at B.V.E I can say I want one! The camera is larger than I expected with all the buttons and inputs we need and has a wonderful large screen. I can see the camera being so useful for interviews and longer form videos such as weddings. We also had a play around with the F3, the image quality of this camera was incredible but then you’d expect that from a £10k camera. I do look forward to seeing how the Sony NXCAM 35mm camera turns out.

Along with large chip cameras we also tried some standard ENG cameras for event work we will be doing. We tried the Sony PMW-320, EX3 and JVC HM750. I was impressed with all three cameras, JVC had great balance, EX3 great picture quality and 320 the best of both worlds.

We had a lot of fun at this show, learned a lot and the various seminars as well playing with some very expensive gear (I really want a Phantom!) I look forward to going along again next year and recommend anyone else in the industry to go along as well.

Also a big thanks to Audio Network for giving us free smoothies!

For the shoot we had three crew members, myself, Daniel Butler (pictured below) and Lucy Smith. We chose to shoot on Canon 550D DSLRs as the shallow depth of field would better capture the magic of the day.

Myself (Right) and Dan (Left) while shooting in the centre of Torquay high street.

Another creative choice we made before going to film was to have the video in black and white. We did this for two reasons, first off despite the cold weather and the lights we felt that it still wasn’t quiet christmasy enough for the camera, black and white helps remove some of the reality of the film for the audience making it a more filmic and magical feel (much like the shallow depth of field). Also as we were shooting all day the colour temporarily would change from daylight to street light and this would be hard to match in post.

Live entertainment in the centre of Torquay

As for the choice in music, Primavera by Ludovico Einaudi is a great piano piece which flows perfectly with the style of video we wanted to create from the shots we captured. I did have to cut the song down a lot as it’s over seven minutes long, which is a shame as it’s a great piece although hopefully I have used some of the best parts to match with the calmness of some parts of the video with the exciment of others.

Overall we had a great day out in Torquay despite the cold, it was good to see a well planned day with multiple entertainment throughout the town in the middle of winter. Torquay and Torbay is very much a holiday summer resort and normally shuts down some what in the winter, nice to have a good event for the locals.

To see more of the photos check out the MGV Productions Facebook Fan Page

It’s been a while but finally here’s a new video blog with an update on what I’ve been up to. Including my graduation, setting up MGV Productions and re arranging my room.

Also testing the new iframe support on youtube so this video should work with devices that don’t support Flash.

Also Check out some of the videos we have been producing at MGV Productions.

You can see even more videos here at mgvp.tv