Come out and meet us at the BIG info session & Program Expo!

If you’re interested in seeing what the BCIT Television and Video Production program has to offer, drop by BCIT’s Burnaby campus on Wednesday, March 2nd from 5-8pm.

The entire Broadcast Department will be set up in TownSquare A/B so visitors can meet our students and faculty, and have a look at the Television and Video Production program’s P2-HD production workflow combined with our new Broadcast Pix and EVS replay unit for live production!

By strange coincidence, the first two commercials this year are alcohol-related!

For a bit of background, each student production company (usually group of 5) is required to produce two 30-second commercials this term, and we stipulate that at least one of them must be a real client (to give the project a bit more of a reality-check).

First up was a project for Heineken Beer which illustrates the old saying about, boy meets girl, boy chooses the wrong beer, other boy who chooses the “right” beer gets the girl.

Second up, was a spot for Industry Bar & Grill in Richmond selling on the idea that no matter what might happen by accident, it’s all good for this bar’s patrons!

Switching gears slightly with the first-year Television & Video Production students, we’ve moved from training on live multi-camera production to single-camera electronic field production (EFP).  Check out our Gallery for more photos!

In order to develop these skills, our first-year faculty members, John Mills, David Griffiths, and Ashif Jivraj decided to model a small production for our students and shoot a 30 second commercial for Coast Mountain Bus Company (part of Translink).

This production process is not just about heading out to a location with a crew and a camera, but included everything from site surveys, to obtaining the necessary insurance and contracts to put this production together.  Make no mistake, this is a lot of work, and our students will be doing the same on their own productions!

The process introduced both sets of first-year students to the skills and on-set coordination necessary to work in the film and television industry.  While we’re not a film school (and we would argue that we are better), many of the same skill-sets apply no matter if you’re working with digital technology or film stock.

In this case, we are shooting on Panasonic HPX-300 P2 HD cameras.  The first day of shooting was in AVC-Intra 100 at 1080-24PN, and the second day in DVCProHD 720-24PN, just for the sake of trying something different.

The students will be producing their own commercials in HD in the coming weeks, check back for more updates and the final products that are uploaded to Vimeo and YouTube!

Using the built-in microphone isn’t an option for high-quality sound capture.

Did you know that you can use an inexpensive adaptor to feed microphone audio directly into the phone via the headphone jack?

Jeff Geerling has a great article up on his website that details exactly how to go about making everything work by creating a portable kit that can be used for capturing high-quality video with decent sound.

There’s another excellent on his site that focuses specifically on audio recording.

Having shot a number of videos on the iPhone 4 during my recent trip to Shanghai, the other major factor is that you will require a tripod or stabilizer.  The phone itself is just too small to hold perfectly steady when you’re trying to shoot something.

Many people are probably familiar with open-source software, but when was the first time you’ve seen an open-source HD Cinema camera?

The “Apertus” is being developed by a team of international enthusiasts to give total control over inexpensive HD imaging hardware, allowing filmmakers to potentially develop their own alternatives to commercial offerings from Sony, Panasonic, Red, etc.

While it’s definitely still a work-in-progress, this sort of project would’ve been cost-prohibitive a few years ago.  Now, the cost of the camera hardware (minus lens and audio) is only around $3,000 – and the software is free!

While it might not be as user-friendly or have a workflow as efficient as a camera from one of the major manufacturers, it does prove how quickly technology is changing, and how quickly people are exploring new options as they become available.

Check out a sample movie (click through to Vimeo for the HD version)

Post-production editing was also done on the iPhone 4 with the iMovie app – with the entire project being completed in 48 hours.

Click the link below the video to see the full HD version!

“Apple of My Eye” – an iPhone 4 film – UPDATE: Behind the scenes footage included from Michael Koerbel on Vimeo.

• 3/4″ VTRs
• Black and White Monitors
• Video Typewriters
• Amiga Computers
• Cassette Tapes
• Audio Carts
• …and more

And the reason for the inability to touch this equipment is that we’re getting rid of it all.  This is what our hallway looks like right now:

The guys who have to dispose of all of this old analog gear have their work cut out for them.

While some of this equipment has served us well over the years, we’ve been replacing it with networked video servers, new character generators, iMac edit suites, and High-Def Cameras.

(Apologies for the picture, the iPhone 3G just isn’t that good in low-light.)

While I still prefer Avid or FCP for editing, the tight integration between products in the Adobe lineup has always been one of their primary strengths, and they obviously know it…

With the new CS5 suite, they’ve taken it a step further.  From script development, through capture, post, and output, it’s a pretty incredible workflow.  If you need an all-in-one package to do everything, I don’t think it can be beat for the price (the academic price for CS5 Production Premium is $481.95)

The other item that caught my attention was the display at the Canon booth…

More Canon DSLRs being kitted-out for video.  While I still prefer the workflow with a full-size professional rig, these cameras pack a pretty amazing punch for the price.

The Canon 7D is still relatively expensive at $1750 for the body (without lens); a more inexpensive option is the Canon T2i, which can be purchased for under $1000 including an 18-55mm lens, and has similar video capabilities as it’s big brother.

I love my Nikon DSLR, but Canon has refined their video offerings quite a bit more at this point in time.

A number of software companies are also coming out with plugins and applications which perform automatic sound-sync between the audio recorded on the DSLR and a secondary recording device (Zoom recorder, DAT, etc).  Much easier than doing it by hand.

“Complicity” won for best Drama.

Written and Directed by Dylan Adkins, Produced by Lauren Weidel, Edited by Justin Li, Director of Photography – Jordan Lee, Assistant Director – Courtney Dunsmoor-Farley, Audio Supervisor – Denis Falardeau.

Judges’ Comments:

• Initial impression- STYLISH!
• Great sequences with good composition
• Superior use of music to create tension
• Excellent editing, music transitions/fx and timing
• Lighting was very good
• While the story was slightly campy and silly, it still grabs your attention, keeps you involved and is well constructed.

And their mockumentary, “Shadow Hands” won for Best Comedy!

Written by Denis Falardeau and Dylan Adkins, Produced by Courtney Dunsmoor-Farley, Directed by Denis Falardeau, Edited by Justin Li, Director of Photography: Jordan Lee, Assistant Director: Lauren Weidel, Audio Supervisor: Dylan Adkins.

Judges’ Comments:

• Great delivery- were they professional actors?
• Excellent!  Drew me in after the slow beginning
• Professional Actors?  Well crafted and good storytelling
• Very well done, truly enjoyed it!

It’s worth noting that their second production, Complicity, was shot in HD on the Canon 7D, our first production to use a digital SLR for a major project. Very cool!

Shadow Hands: A Mockumentary from Zut Alors on Vimeo.

Complicity from Zut Alors on Vimeo.