R|com Creative Blog

We’ve added a Canon EOS 7D to our production equipment inventory. Already, I’ve found multiple occasions to use it during the first week we’ve had it. It is a fabulous production tool. It also represents a major breakthrough in some respects, but it is not, as some would tell you, a fix-all for video production.

First of all, a few initial comments for anyone not familiar with the Canon EOS 7D, or why we’d write about it. This is a digital SLR (D-SLR) still camera that also happens to record lovely 1080p video images. It is one notch below the Canon 5D MKII, and is competitive with a number of other DSLRs on the market.

As a still camera, it offers a new 18 megapixel sensor, a fantastic three inch viewfinder that displays 100% of the frame (many cameras show 90 or 95% of the frame). It includes a flexible AF system with a dedicated processor for focusing – so it’s fast. The shutter system is also new, permitting an impressive 8 frames per second (in still mode). As with other Canon products, it features the EF / EF-S lens mount system. Sensitivity is also terrific, with Auto ISO (100 – 3200) or manual ISO from 100 – 6400 in 0.3 or 0.5 EV increments. It offers nearly all of the professional features you could imagine for a camera of this type, and a great place to see a review of its still capabilities is at dpreview.

As a video camera, it’s also pretty amazing. It has standard video outputs in both NTSC and PAL, plus HDMI output for HD video. It includes a built-in microphone and has an input for an external mic as well (mini plug). The camera will shoot 1920×1080 at 29.97, 25, or 23fps. It will shoot 1280×720 at 59.94, 50fps or even (but why?) 6340×480 at 59.94, 50fps. It records using H.264 in a QuickTime .Mov wrapper. Note however, that the QuickTime wrapper does not mean any NLE will recognize the footage. More on video reviews in a bit.

There are three ways to use this camera: As a still camera. As a video camera. As a film-style camera.

Image shot with EOS 7D - Battalion Chief Kawai

When using this as a still camera, it’s a joy. Many people wrestle with the Nikon vs. Canon brand issue. In my experience, I see both everywhere. However, it does seem that when you’re a portrait photographer, there are reasons to use Nikon products, and if you’re a journalist or sports photographer, Canon offers some benefits.

This camera is easy to hold. It’s easy to read. The menu system is a snap, and you can pre-set commonly used menu elements. As a result, getting high-quality stills is literally a snap. As a photographer, you can really focus (sorry!) on the image to be captured – framing, lighting, depth, etc. A fantastic review of the camera can be found at Rob Galbraith’s blog. Additional reviews for photographers can be found at Alexa.

As a video camera, this is a bit of a different animal. You can’t (obviously) shoot with a vertical orientation, as you can with stills. The camera is heavy to hold for video motion, and a tripod or camera rig is an absolute requirement over the long term. However, this doesn’t make it unusable in “camera format.” Some things work differently, but it is still quite capable with just Canon lens and related support gear. Simply put, you can point and shoot and get really nice images.

There are some things you can do to improve the immediate video capabilities of the camera. One is to add a proper microphone. Rode makes a stereo mic that mounts to the shoe and plugs into the body. We purchased a Rode with the camera and it has been fantastic. Philip Bloom, the noted British DP has recently produced a really nice video package with the 7D and the Rode mic – right here in California at Venice Beach. It’s a really nice video story and highlights the EOS 7D.

It’s when you think of the 7D as a film camera that it really changes the landscape (again, sorry!) for producers. This is a camera that starts at perhaps $2,000 with a nice lens. You can start to add various bits and pieces to it, including a mic, follow-focus, matte box, remote trigger, etc. Suddenly, it’s a complete motion picture camera rig – for less than $5,000. And the images it creates are full-on cinematic quality – no “cinema mode” crap either. To see a great example of the camera rigged for news video, check out this Matt Jasper 7D video clip.

The difference is the glass. This is a camera that allows total control over the Z-axis as well as the overall frame. As such, you can dial in a lovely depth of field that permits you to shoot video with a realistic, natural, film look. You can add a prime lens to the Canon. In fact, there are a few firms already making PL mount conversions. While that may only be useful to anyone who already owns a suite of PL glass, the knowledge that you can pick a lens for any specific shot is a breakthrough event for most videographers. In fact, if Panavision rented glass without a camera, you could really lose your mind. Check this out.

In my initial shoots with the 7D, I found the camera to be very balanced. The image was crisp and as with any HD camera, the critical issue was and is focus. But the ability to shoot with such a nice depth of field is eye-opening (I’m so sorry!). Even in the first day of shooting, I was thinking, “oh this is sweet!” as I was rolling chip. That’s another thing: no tape. The EOS 7D uses CF cards (UDMA only, type 6 or faster). And with a 32GB card, I can capture more than 80 minutes at the highest resolution.

We have been really busy with production the past few weeks, so publishing our own 7D clips will have to wait for a few weeks. Rest assured, however, that we will publish a variety of 7D clips. We’ll also share opinion regarding the workflow overall and our use with editing software.

In the meanwhile, here are some fantastic examples of the 7D at work:

Canon EOS 7D at 30p – by Philip Bloom

Dublin’s People – by Philip Bloom

Around Rome – by Shawn Landersz

R|com Creative is pleased to announce the launch of a client website for AutoPacific. The autopacific dot com website is a corporate presentation of the company’s research capabilities. With headquarters in Tustin, CA, and regional support in Michigan, AutoPacific delivers a wide range of services, including forecasting and custom research.

The new website was developed using our WebManager Pro content management system (CMS). WebManager Pro is a fully functional, multi-dimensional content driven web publishing application. AutoPacific staff may create their own content, edit, publish, archive, etc., all without asking for any assistance from a web designer or engineer. In addition, new content in new areas, including the creation of new pages, sections or other core components can be developed without demanding the assistance of a vendor.

R|com also supports development of other web-based solutions for AutoPacific, including their online research/survey application, and their industry leading automotive evaluation solution.

I’ve come across a really cool gadget that is really awesome for anyone using an HD camera these days. But, before I can explain it, some background is really in order…

One of the things that most video cameras don’t do is deliver the kind of imagery film cameras provide. Or, more accurately, the kind of imagery film lenses deliver. The cocktail of performance, durability, cost, and longevity conspire to create products that deliver crystal clear pictures, but without some of the key capabilities more expensive product provide. As one example, a Prime lens on an Aaton camera will allow you to create a visual image that draws the viewer to a specific spot in the frame – based on something called “depth of field.” In a typical high-quality HD video camera, the entire frame will look almost real. The difference, however, is that when telling a story, you might not want the viewer to take in the entire screen.

Imagine a couple discussing a plan to rob a bank. They’re sitting at a coffee table in the foreground of the scene you’re shooting. In the background, a woman is applying makeup before leaving her table. She’s busty, dressed in red, and is wearing lots of jewlery. So, what is the audience supposed to look at?

If you can shorten the depth of field of the shot, you can help the audience focus in on the subject you want them to pay attention to. The couple are discussing robbing a bank. When the partner on the left is speaking, she is perfectly in focus. Her partner on the right is slightly soft, while the background is a colorful blur. When the partner on the right speaks, he is perfectly in focus, and she is slightly soft. It may be very subtle, but it really helps the audience follow the story. And, if you shoot with video, you have had limited options without spending significant money on add-on gear.

Enter JAG35. The company’s primary products are adapters for video cameras that permit the use of 35mm still camera lenses. Once installed, these lenses create the same effect as a very expensive motion picture lens – i.e. highly controllable depth of field. Because still camera lenses are very fine quality, adding them to an adapter will not create a poor quality image. In fact, in reality, if you use one of these products, your video camera will essentially be taping a projection of the image the still camera captures on a highly ground bit of glass. It may sound like hocus pocus, but it’s effin’ fantastic. Take a look at this video clip to see how the Jag35 helps the audience focus in on a single element of the screen…

What makes this even cooler is the price. There are some cool 35mm adapters out there, and I’ll even chat up about one or two in the coming few weeks, but they are typically more expensive than the HD camera to properly kit out. The JAG35 products are typically under $500. That’s really fantastic. And, it means none of us have an excuse any longer to not control the look of our images. One note about this – the use of these adapters is based on shots that are deliberately set up and arranged. The run and gun “cinema vérité” style of shooting is not what these lenses were designed for. But, combine one of these devices with some other cool stuff and your shows will be really fantastic. In fact, our shows will be really fantastic. Even better than our old shows. And those were pretty good, too.

Oh, and one other thing… the JAG35 products will make even a small HD camera, like the CanonHV30 (street price is about $780) shown above, look like a totally pro rig. So, now you don’t have to get a lot of big cameras with bad output and weak chips. Get a cool small camera and a JAG35 bit of kit and you’ll be putting a block on your phone with all the calls coming in.

The back end of this blog entry

This is a question that comes up more often these days. Several years ago, when blogging was becoming popular, most blogs were just that: personal web journals, or web logs (hence blog). People would share their thoughts with friends and as that led to politics, religion, sex, automobiles, etc, a marketing medium was born.

Today, many personal blogs are now tweets. Twitter is today’s quickie blog. And, there’s a reason, too. Blogging has become time consuming. And, if you’re successful, it can be a lot of work. Of course, many people want to make money from their blog. That’s a different story, but one we’ll cover soon.

Setting up a blog can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days, depending on the software used, the design implemented, plug-in support, and so on. But, once the blog is in place, content is king.

The act of creating a blog entry is pretty simple. This blog, for example took 27 minutes to create. Here’s the breakdown:

• authoring: 15 minutes
• tagging: 1 minute
• adding links: 5 minutes
• editing: 5 minutes
• publishing: 1 minute

What took time for this blog was the research and “thinking” part of the entry. And, come to think of it, the many conversations that led up to the writing of this entry. So, maybe this entry had a day of my time invested in it. And that has nothing to do with managing the site. Oh, and when you’re busy creating an entry, time flies. I really thought this took me ten minutes. Ack!

Aside from writing and publishing, we do a lot of other things related to the blogs we work on. For this blog, here are a few of the things I do each day that I work on this blog:

• read related blogs: 1 hours
• manage our stats: 10 minutes
• respond to comments, questions: 20 minutes
• research content, photos, etc.: 15 minutes
• discuss blog content with team: 10 minutes

So, not including the authoring part, I personally spend at least nearly two hours a day on this blog alone. Thankfully, I don’t personally work on a lot of blogs, but just this one requires a lot of attention, which is why I don’t post every day. There are just so many hours in the day.

And, this is not a high-traffic blog (yet) either. As your blog becomes more popular, the need to post daily and even more than daily will increase as well. As you begin to add Google ads, other resources, and art to your blog, your day will disappear before you realize it. Wham. It’s dinner time. Or worse, it’s Letterman time (for you oldsters). For me, I often forget to go to sleep and it’s almost time to get up. Whoops!

If your blog is to become successful, there is a lot more than just creating entries. Tags are hugely important. And, it’s not just the tags themselves, it’s knowing (and learning) what people will type into search engines.

Titles are also huge. We’ve done a lot of experiments with titles and not only does that affect the amount of traffic your post gets, it impacts the overal popularity of the blog. Titles must describe the content of your post, and in such a way as to answer the question: do I want to read this?

And, a good blog entry won’t be too long. So, I’ll wrap this entry up with a reference to another blog story that’s related, and although it’s two years old, it’s still valuable. Read on.

The inauguration of Barack Obama earlier today was a milestone in the history of this country. While we like to keep politics out of our business communications, there were some notable things in play that are worth mentioning, as the peaceful transfer of power was not the only thing evident on this crisp Washington D.C day.

Our world is much smaller now. Smaller than ever before. It is so because of technology, and we must be ever vigilant about it, or it will pass us by. All of those things we’ve talked about in our businesses for the past decade as, “things for the future” are now upon us. And never was it more evident than in the inaugural coverage witnessed by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

CNN invited the world to submit photos. They had cameras across the country and we watched each other watching – in high definition. When the president-elect walked down the steps prior to the swearing in, nearly everyone, his daughter included, was busy snapping digital photos – and in many cases, sending them to family and friends. So much so, that cell service in the Metro DC area was compromised for a time both yesterday and today. People were using flickr, twitter, facebook, myspace, their own blogs, and even CNN. The era of the iReporter is upon us.

CNN also invited people to watch the post-inagural parade and other activities via computer. Literally. “Watch CNN on your computer – www.cnn.com” was displayed on-screen multiple times. And overall, the graphics we see now move, change shape, and are presented in computer-display clarity. The move to push people to watch was most likely a calculated marketing move as well. Once the inauguration was over, people headed to work. By promoting viewership via computer, CNN was essentially encouraging people to watch from work. And, if they watch today, what about tomorrow?

And the technology outreach via the web wasn’t limited to CNN. More than ever before, the use of technology is being used to communicate with everyday people in this country and across the planet. CNN is also partnering with Facebook and users of the system provided real-time impressions of the event. Those impressions appeared in a “facebook” window on the cnn.com website. According to the Los Angeles Times, there were more than 1.3 million concurrent connections via Facebook. By 10AM, CNN reported it has delivered more than 10.7 million video streams this morning, a new record.

CBS and its anchor Katie Couric will host a webcast in which anyone with web access can submit questions. Fox News has decided to use a third-party web service, Hulu to stream the event. Following today’s activities, Hulu will make the entire inaugural and all such speeches an on-demand product.

Even the New York Times, long known for its traditional approach to things, will stream their own or subscribed video via their websites. MSNBC will allow people to embed video streams in their websites, no doubt borrowing a page (literally) from YouTube.

The result is that live television is no longer a couch potato pastime. It is now an interactive, mobile, office, auto, and interactive television experience. These tools are important for promotion. They’re important for research. They’re vital for product marketing. And, they’re good for saying hello and staying in touch, too.

And the White House is now with the program as well. At approximately 12:03PM, once Barack Obama was officially President (but before he completed being sworn in), a completely new White House website was launched. It reflects the “with it” web 2.0 technology awareness that the President is already known for.

This has significant meaning for all of us. It’s now time to evaluate the use of these tools as a component of your 2009 business model. For us, we’re more committed than ever to recognize and help our clients realize the potential of viral and Web 2.0 technologies.

For the past seven years, my wife and I have been involved with several organizations that involve public safety, but until the past few years, we were at a distance. For the past two years, we’ve been actively involved in the development of public safety education and fire safety training materials. It is a daunting, but rewarding position to be in.

A series of school children after experiencing a public safety fair in Los Angeles, California

I think the first thing that comes to mind relative to this work is how important it is to reach adults through children. I am amazed at the lack of interest many adults have when presented with issues of personal or home safety, only to show genuine interest when the same issues are brought home by their children. And make no mistake, nearly all of us can benefit from some form of education on fire, earthquake, heart attack and other matters.

Many of our clients are about performance and return on investment. It’s a money thing. Totally understandable – and part of what we all do. When working in public safety, it seems that there is never enough money, and the rewards are related to saving a life, rather than making a profit. For some, that would be a no-win scenario. For both my wife and I, however, it is something that we feel strongly about. And, with every new DVD, online video, or training website, we feel more connected to the community and to the people we live around.

The new LAFD Museum website uses the Rcom CMS solution.

The Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial has launched a new website, created using the R|com Web Manager Pro solution that we provide. This was a big step forward for the LAFDHS, which previously had relied on a combined Moveable Type and static-page solution.

We developed the site so that minimal engineering effort would be required when working with news and updates for the museum. Many of the volunteers are not computer-savvy, so giving them a solution that permits easy access and word-processor simple content creation was key. In addition, the organization hosts a number of events, has photo galleries, and is eager to promote history related to the fire service. The Rcom CMS solution gives them the ability to quickly and easily implement any event details or other content they might like to publish.

Every time an organization takes advantage of a solution like this, it makes me smile, as the ability to clearly take charge of Internet-based communication is so important in today’s hectic social environment. And, since the introduction of the system last month, the museum’s website has had more traffic than it had in the previous ten months. A good step forward.

Our team provided design, engineering, installation and now supports the site with hosting and content publishing. We enjoy supporting the organization and hope you get a chance to check them out: www.lafdmuseum.org

One of the things I love about our team is their ability to adapt to changing situations. In 2005, we produced a one hour documentary on a cross country solar car race. The North American Solar Challenge took our crews across the U.S. and Canada as well. We were shooting on public highways, covering 20 teams, and each hour of each day brought about unexpected surprises.

Cameron Barrett focuses on the action

It would be easy to miss key events, and we probably did miss a few. Overall, however, combining the use of radios, text messaging, and multiple camera crews, we were able to stay on top of the action. This was also our second one-hour HD production, and we shot more than 150 hours of video. If only today’s tapeless workflows existed for a reasonable price back then!

Every time I see this show, I think about how important it is to have talented shooters. Cameron Barrett was fantastic at knowing how close to get so the action lept into the lens – without her intereferring with team, drivers, or safety issues. Our assignment shooter, Jim Lahr, was terrific with motion shots, and overall, being able to grab what we needed, when we needed it was a joy to behold.

The key to this show was taking the time in pre-production to assess all of the possibilities that could arise while on the go. We often shoot in a run and gun style, so it’s important to know that we might run into. The experience of this cross country jaunt will help us with a variety of new projects as we move forward. There’s no replacement for experience.

I’ve always wondered what to expect when visiting the promotional-style websites of various entities. Some sites are polished, and some are filled with products and services. Often, the Internet eliminates the instinct one gets from in-person experiences. Does this feel right? Is this a good fit?

To help our clients and prospects better understand why working with us can be a positive and beneficial experience, we’re launching a blog to share our experiences in video, web, and related services. Follow along as we describe what we do and with whom. Our team travels all over the world, so that in and of itself makes our company a bit different than many boutique production and service organizations.

And, we welcome your comments and questions, too. So, browse away, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

David