Onset Technical Coordinator

I have just got back from a shoot. I coordinated 5 teams; each team consisted of two Cameramen, Director, and Assistants. The show is a Live TV series and the main challenge was sending the media to the postproduction house without disrupting the shoot, as it was a 24/7 filming. The cameras were Ex3s and the audio was separate. I applied a Grade to all the viewing monitors on set to give the Director an idea of how it would appear.

The media was sent using G-Drives and it had to be meta-dated and accompanied with a text document that describes “what is what”. There were a few hiccups along the way but all in all the media was wrangled properly which really helped the postproduction house to catch up.  

(this should give you an idea of how much media was involved - this is only for the first day of filming )

Last Day at Leopard Films

This is my last day at Leopard. The 3 shows have been delivered and they have no new productions coming in for a while … I will be taking some time off plus I have got some research to do on colour space and Rec 709, I will also be working on some personal projects.

3D DIT (Digital Image Technician)

I was lucky enough to be picked for a 3D DIT training course, which covers how to DIT on Set for 3D features and commercials using two camera rigs. Either side by side or mirrored, the cameras that I have mainly used were mainly Red, Phantom and Arri Alexa cameras.

I have learned a lot from this course, I start my first 3D DIT next week.

If you are wondering what DIT is this is an explanation copied from Wikipedia.

A digital imaging technician (DIT) works in collaboration with a cinematographer on workflow, systemization, signal integrity and image manipulation, to achieve the highest image quality and creative goals of cinematography in the digital realm

Leopard’s First 3D production

(the earliest version of the logo )

Leopard produced its first 3D production “Swan Lake”. I was asked to create a 3D visualisation for Leopard’s logo that would animate and “come at you” for the opening titles at the Cinema before the performance started.

I successfully achieved the Creative Director’s vision for the 3D logo and it has now gone to be mastered for 3D TV and Cinema.

Freelance Editing

At the moment on weekends and Evenings I am editing a lot of corporate, YouTube and Broadcast shows. I am also working on an Arabic/English show using Avid mainly running the media of a LaCie Drive via AMA. I am also creating some graphics in after effects for the shows.

Show has Aired!

All of the shows that I was heavily involved with have aired successfully. I cant remember the last time I was home but I am glad they have made it on to the box.

There was soo much media to manage and deliver plus the deadline was very tight.

AMA linking…. NOT Linking!

Ok so the 45 mins shows are almost complete after running a few tests the linking process doesn’t seem to be working.

I have turned off the edit share that contains the 15:1 media and I am pointing the avid to the Matrix store which houses all the native media for the 45 mins show. The odd clip would link but not the media as a whole.

After running endless tests and troubleshooting, the best way to get the media to link is to give each clip a tape number. Basically you have to modify each of the clips in the sequence and give it a tape number, so for example Clip000343 (15:1) has a tape number of 0091 the native media resolution should have the exact same tape number and clip number for a smooth Link.

It is also worth mentioning that you should be running this off a good computer to avoid crashes and hangs.

Leopard Films Workflow

Leopard was shooting three different productions in a time scale of 6 months, which meant planning the work flow and how it was going to run was key for production to run smoothly down the line. There were a lot of meetings discussing the work flow to establish if it was best to edit in native resolution or 15:1 My idea was to go for DNXHD36 as it gives a HD picture while taking up less space than native. The agreed work flow was to go from Native resolution to 15: 1 resolution then upon completion of the show. The final sequence would get relinked via AMA to replace the 15:1 media to Native resolution then transcode the final sequence to DNX 185 to be ready for online. This does two things: • Saves a lot of space on the Edit share (storage space) • Runs the media more smoothly on the Avid machines • Faster exports for viewings Just to note briefly Leopard is running 9 edit suites with an Edit share and a new archiving media solution called the Matrix Store to store the native rushes on to.

Leopard Films conversion to HD and Workflow

I have accepted the offer from Leopard Films; Leopard is perhaps most famous for Cash in the Attic , but it does other variety of shows and has made dramas too.
I am now overlooking the postproduction and managing the edit assistants. In my first few weeks I have set up various seminars and presentations to talk to the production teams about HD, Tapeless Workflow best practices. The team and I have set up various checkpoints and milestones to track the progress of our conversion to HD and Tapeless.
That means managing, consolidating and Offsite storing many tapes and digi-betas and when I say many I mean 15 thousand to be precise
We are running on Avid Media Composer 5 now. I am still working on what kit is best to buy with the budget given to Edit in HD more updates on that soon.

end of contract and Leopard Films

My contract / the end of the program has ended at Optomen. I have been head hunted to work at Leopard Films as a Post Production Supervisor. The company wants to move to HD/ Tapeless Workflow and they expressed their interest in having me on-board.