(Note: No students were blinded in the making of this science, but it was the best title I could come up with … The only other option was trying to find something that rhymed with “Bill Nye the Science Guy”)
Day 1 - Telus World of Science - Centre Stage
So what’s this about Science? We had the opportunity to take our production on the road and head down to the Telus World of Science to do a live production of their Centre Stage science education show.
This was our first live event production using the new Broadcast Pix production flypack that we’ve been introducing the students to this semester (check the blog history for info on our practise events back at the school).
We are actively looking for projects that students can produce with our equipment to get additional production experience. If you have a project you’d like to submit, please feel free to contact us.
Day 2 - Our "Control Room"
Details:
- 4 camera shoot (2 x Sony DSR 370, 1 x Sony DSR 400, 1 x Panasonic AG-DVX100BP)
- Broadcast Pix Slate 100 Flypack
- Crew (15 students, 3 Instructors)
- Load-in 10:30, Full Facs 12:45, Showtime 15:20, Wrap 16:00
I have linked a copy of our SW Technical Production Manual that includes some project planning details for aspiring production staff out there (some contact information has been removed for privacy reasons).
We expect students to provide this type of documentation (and more!) when planning their projects.
Following our successful tests last week of our new, portable Broadcast Pix production system, this week we trained our first year students on it.
We used the portable system to successfully replicate the same “Studio 1 Live” show that we produced earlier in the year with a full control room, audio room, and VTR room within the broadcast centre. The possibilities are very interesting indeed…
Had a chance to get our new Broadcast Pix switcher up and running last week! Our HD gear is commissioned now as well, so we’re going to be starting HD productions in the next few weeks!
We’re starting the training process in order to get students out doing live multi-camera switched productions in the near future! Students will be looking for production opportunities (read: non-profit projects) soon!
A Productive day!
With a small group of volunteers, we assembled our five new Panasonic HPX-300 P2-HD camera packages! Starting next term we’re going to be moving to HD productions and tapeless workflows.
Post production will be one one of our new Mac Pro edit suites which are loaded with both Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Studio, in addition to the Adobe suite of products to give TV & Video Production students the widest possible range of options for their post-production workflow.
The TV & Video Production program will also be shifting focus somewhat – in addition to our single-camera digital produtions (film style, but without the film!), we will be producing more live event programming (such as sporting events, theatre, music, etc).
To accomplish this, we’ve purchased a portable Broadcast Pix production package that we can take out to events to enable us to do multi-camera switched live programming. We will be looking for non-profit community events where BCIT students can bring their production skills to the project and provide clients with high quality end-products.
Exciting times!
What has been going on over the summer? New equipment and new instructors!
On the equipment side of things:
- We’re in the process of purchasing five new HD camera packages (we’re getting the Panasonic AG-HPX-300), which shoot on the P2 memory cards. This is hopefully spelling the beginning of the end of tape at BCIT. Of course these cameras will also come with all of the supporting hardware, new tripods, etc.
- We’ve also purchased 7 iMac computers. 6 for Final Cut Pro editing stations for news, and 1 for audio control 2 for playback into the News Magazine. We also purchased two 8-core Mac Pro systems for post-production on major projects (one for first year, and one for second year).
- In order to get more live-event production training, we’re getting a new Broadcast Pix portable production switcher package. The idea is that we can take this out to live events (sports, plays, non-profit, etc) so students can develop more live multi-camera production skills aside from our normal news programming
- The Facilis and Omneon server installation is progressing, and we will soon have network-accessible drives available for news and project editing. The Facilis is the “storage” server while working on your edits, while the Omneon is the “play-to-air” server that connects to the control rooms for direct digital playback (we’re phasing out tape).
All of this won’t be immediately available in September (heck, not much has actually been delivered yet). We understand students will want to play with use the new gear. Us too! But we also want to make sure everyone is properly trained in it.
What this will likely mean is “in-house” use for training purposes until we get all of the bugs/workflow resolved. Afterwards, we’ll get people using it ASAP. Some components will be rolled-out in September, some may not be available for groups or individuals to sign-out until January.
As far as instructional staff goes, Al Klein has decided to stay on as a full-time director with CityTV in Vancouver, therefore David Griffiths will be taking on the responsibilities of teaching first-year TV students with John Mills. Ashif Jivraj will be returning to BCIT Television as a full-time assistant instructor.
