CES Is Coming Soon! #CES2016 #CESlasvegas
One of our favorite times of the year is just around the corner: CES! The International Consumer Electronics Show is one of the largest shows of it's kind in the world. Over 150K people from 150 countries will attend and see the over 3,600 companies displaying new innovations and technologies. We love sending our gear out with the various crews who will help cover all angles of this awesome event. Our gear is booking out fast, so make sure to contact us as soon as possible. Happy Holidays, and we'll see you in just a couple weeks!
Little Slider, Big Results #edelkrone #sliderPLUS #travel size
One of our favorite pieces of gear is our slider, it provides a huge boost in production value without having to use a cumbersome dolly. Sometimes a regular slider can be too much as well, especially when traveling or space is limited, enter the Edelkrone SliderPLUS. The Edlekrone SliderPLUS uses inovative technology to double the available slide space by utilizing retractable rails and a built in dolly. The SliderPLUS is capable of executing smooth moves even with a fully built Canon C300 with 70-200mm lens. The sliders are durable and well built and come in a variety of sizes. So, if time, space, and budget play a role in your production in Las Vegas, or wherever, give us a call and we'll get you set up with a great tool that will add so much to the value of your final product.
Servicing Your Lenses #CanonC300 #GearMaintenance
One often overlooked aspect of good production is having your equipment routinely serviced and cleaned. A wise investment is buying a service and/or protection plan above the manufacturers' warranty. Here at F11 Rentals for instance, we send our Canon C300s out for an annual cleaning and "sprucing up"; that insures that everything is running correctly, all the nuts and bolts are tight, and everything is clean, especially deep down. The fine folks over at Canon are trained and able to clean all the intricate and difficult parts of the camera that we here would rather not mess with. We certainly take pride in taking the best care of our products while they're here in house, but definitely don't underestimate the trained professionals that help keep our machine running smoothly. Here in the desert, our production rental gear needs all the care we can give it!
Keep Your Package Wrapped #Cinebags
Here at F11 Rentals, we always use protection (no one likes a burner), that's why we're no fools, and we wrap our tools with Cinebags High Rollers, Skinny (not ours) Jimmies, and the always ergonomic and eccentric lap top bag that loves to hold on tight to the high roller. All of our camera packages and rental accessories are packaged nice and tight in Cinebags. The best video production rentals should be delivered in the best production bags. Get your very own bag here.
Green Screen - Perfect for Corporate Video Production #greenscreen #videoproduction
St Patrick's Day, almost over, but I thought it might be a good time to talk about green screen. The video equivalent of a blank slate oozing with imaginative possibilities. Appropriate? When most people think of green screens, they think of big budget movies where the actors are flying around, destroying things or doing unbelievable super acts in fantasy worlds. They're used for that but they are used far more often in corporate video production and corporate storytelling than most people realize. We do a good amount of corporate video production and there aren't too many weeks that go by where we aren't either shooting with a green screen or sending out an estimate for green screen production.
In Las Vegas, there are so many conventions coming through town and it's a great place for corporations to either show off products, grab customer testimonials or gather together executives to speak on camera. Instead of using a boring convention room with blah coloring and no dimension, a green screen offers so many more options, it's tough to pass up. We key out the green and boom, you're creativity runs wild but mostly simple wild, nothing crazy. We have a few on hand from a simple pop out 6x6 to a paper roll 10 foot wide to a full on 10x20 wraparound fabric. These can all be taken on location and built to whatever specs the client is looking for. It's an effective and creative solution.
Green screen is not out of anyone's budget. That's another misnomer that people tend to have. It's an additional cost for sure but the quality and flexibility of post production because of it is far more valuable than saving a few dollars. If for your next production you haven't thought about it, ask us about green screen and you'll be glad you have fun options to play with down the line. If all else fails, you can always put the CEO talking about EBITDA in the middle of a corn field.
Now, in honor of St. Patrick's Day I leave you with one of my favorite themed commercials, even though it's a couple years old.
Our new camera bags - The High Roller
We decided on purchasing the Cinebags High Roller for all of our C300 and PMW-300 Camera Packages. The Lens Smuggler has been a great accessory to transport our lenses and additional gear as a carry on. The quality is what you would expect from a high end manufacturer. The Zippers and stitching are built to withstand heavy use. I personally love that there is a little more depth to the main compartment over the previous version the Camera Daddy. Because of the added space we can now store the C300 camera with the top handle as well as the 24-70 lens on the camera. This allows for quicker setups and I think the less we can take the lens on and off the body the better. Oh almost forgot... These new bags have a telescoping handle and wheels. No more lugging a 30lb. Camera bag on my shoulder running from plane to plane. Also, while we are on the topic of traveling. I have to mention the lens smuggler allows us to bring a variety of lenses and stash them under the seat very comfortably. It is slightly thicker than the laptop case but not one airline worker has given it a second look. A highroller and the lens smuggler are a great combination. One carry on and one personal item. We are very glad to have these new bags and I expect them to be a valuable tool for us for the life of our cameras.
We go with American
American Grip is our grip gear brand of choice. Their products provide a level of durability, versatility, and reputation that other manufacturers can't match. Our American equipment has served us well during recent shoots out on location.
C300 in Low Light
DP David Dalasta of FiveSix Productions, decided to use the Canon C300 for our latest commercial production. Our shoot included filming outdoors at night as well as some driving down the Las Vegas strip shots. We were amazed that we only needed to bump the camera to 6400 ISO to get a properly exposed image. The versatility of the C300 was outstanding and exceeded our expectations.
Our subject a female atop the eiffel tower was lith three LED panels and our Male talent was lit with one LED while driving the car.
Director Bill Aylward, also had us shoot some macro elements using the Canon100mm L Series Lens. We overcranked at 60@24P shooting 720P. Our clients saw the footage and requested an additional spot based just on this footage.
FloLight LED Panels
We bought a pair of Flolight panel lights about 6 months ago and I thought I'd wait a bit and see how they held up over half a year span. The lights we purchased are daylight balanced with an anton bauer battery adaptor on the back. We've taken these lights all the way from red carpets to the middle of the desert and the ease of use and versatility have made us believers in this type of lighting. For ENG, run and gun type productions, to be able to set up quick, toss on a battery and have 1000w of light without the hassel of cords was a life saver in many situations. Top lights sometimes don't cut it. We do plenty of quick shoots and I find myself packing a flolight more often then not.
There are a few problems I've found that should be shared. First off, all are lights come in balanced between 6000k and 6300k, not 5600k as advertised. The lights aren't built tough, meaning in the 6 month time period we've had them in for flicking, dimmer malfunction and one went toast and stop firing all together. The build quality isn't up to what I would consider production standard. The light can also be a little harsh so a couple pieces of diffusion are necessary if doing any sort of interview which drastically cuts the throw of the light. And, even though we have the gel adaptors, adding gels or diffusion isn't an easy endeavor. However, when we 'separately' purchase the barndoors that problem should be solved.
The most common question I'm asked is how do the Flolights compare to the LitePanels. We rented a couple of LitePanels for a shoot and while we had them we decided to do a few tests for comparison. The Flolights, despite being 6300k, had a more realistic daylight apperance then the LitePanels which didn't even make it to 5600k but closer to 5000k. They were almost twice as bright as the LitePanels and lit our subjects at much further distances. The LitePanels did appear to be studier and have a better build and a few more features like the dual color temps. Oh and the one Flolight costs about 1/3 the price of a LitePanel.
I'm not going to use them for everything but these lights do have a place in my packages and I will continue to use Flolights until I see another panel light that can give me the same value. And though they tend to have a few more malfunctions than I'd like, returning the poor units and customer service has been very good to this point.
The f-stops here.
New Cameras Coming to NAB 2012
We are very excited to see what new cameras are going to show up here in Vegas at NAB 2012.
ARRI will showcase its Alexa range of 2K cameras, the Alexa, Alexa Plus, Alexa M, and Alexa Studio, which boasts 14 stops of dynamic range, a base sensitivity of EI 800 and cinematic image quality. Their ergonomics, menu systems and functionality are based on film cameras to provide ease of use for experienced film professionals.
Canon USA will introduce its Cinema EOS Cameras, the Canon EOS C300 and C300PL, designed for digital cinematographers. Available in either EF- or PL-mount configurations, features include a Super 35mm Canon CMOS sensor, Canon DIGIC DV III image processor and 50 Mbps 4:2:2 codec.
Panasonic will showcase the HDC-Z10000, a twin-lenses handheld 2D and 3D camcorder, which is AVCHD 3D/Progressive standard compatible. Also on hand is the AG-3DP1, a 3D integrated twin-lens P2 HD shoulder-mount camcorder providing full 1920x1080 resolution AVC-Intra recording. Another camera debuting is the AG-HPX250, Panasonic's first P2 HD handheld camcorder with 10-bit, 4:2:2 independent-frame, full 1920x1080 resolution AVC-Intra recording.
P+S Technik will show the PS-Cam X35 camera, a combination sync sound workhorse and motion effects camera providing frame rates up to 450, using a 35mm-sized CMOS imager and a global shutter. The film-style digital cinematography camera can be utilized for normal video imaging, as well as slow motion, fast motion, ramped motion and time lapse motion.
Sony Electronics will roll out its F65 CineAlta digital motion picture camera, featuring Sony's 8K image sensor with approximately 20 total megapixels. It provides 16-bit linear RAW file output capability, creating a gateway to an end-to-end 4K file-based mastering workflow. Sony will also showcase its full line of Super 35 mm professional camcorders, including the PMW-F3 and the NEX-FS100U, as well as the HXR-NX70U rain- and dust-proof professional HD camcorder. Two 3D professional camcorders—the PMW-TD300 shoulder-mount model and HXR-NX3D1U NXCAM compact camcorder will also be shown.
It's really up in the air now on which one we will add to the shop here.