EVAN STULBERGER

FILM / TV PRODUCTION

Category: Behind the Scenes

Gear Experiment

I just started shooting on the Panasonic PX270, and this puppy has all of the latest features. 

Wifi, USB 3.0, MicroP2, AVC Intra…

Oh yeah, and it shoots video too. 

One thing that is missing is Bluetooth connectivity. Now, I know what you’re thinking–  why bother with that on a professional camera?
Three words folks: wireless audio monitoring. 

I’m tired of getting tangled in a mess of wires when I want to be fast and nimble with my camera. I want to be able to check a light or peek at my cutaway camera and still make sure my lav mic hasn’t kicked the bucket. 

So I’m trying this-

 

Altogether it’s about $50 worth of gear. 

A set of Bluetooth earbuds and a mini plug to Bluetooth audio transmitter. The PX270 has both a headphone jack and an audio line out, so I’ve dedicated the line out to the Bluetooth transmitter. A little strip of Velcro helps keep the transmitter out of the way. Oh, and by the way, the thing is absolutely tiny

I need to do more experimenting. It’s a work in progress. One downside is battery capacity. These suckers should last for 5-6 hours on a full charge. Not great if your shooting a City council hearing all day, but usually enough for most standard shoots. I always keep a spare set of standards wires earbuds in my bag, so worst case I can use those as a backup. 

There’s also about a half second delay. I’m going to test it out in the field to see if the lag is a deal breaker.

Spell It Out

20140706-232640-84400193.jpgI-Team: Generics Not Always the Same as Brand Name Drugs

We have a whole slew of ways to highlight words and phrases in documents, but sometimes we need to put emphasis on a difficult word or concept that’s not printed on a sheet of paper.

When it’s absolutely vital to get a concept across, I like to put text on the screen to reinforce the idea.

Continue reading

I-Team: Generics Not Always the Same as Brand Name Drugs

“While many patients believe that generic drugs are exact copies of their brand name brothers, the body often absorbs generic medication at a different rate, and federal regulators do not routinely disclose the slight chemical differences.”


BEHIND THE SCENES:

Obscuring an identity is something we face all too often. With this piece, we were asked to meet our subject in Central Park. This location gave me a number of opportunities to make our interview visually interesting, while still protecting the subject.

You can see a number of different angles used here. The park offered a variety of objects to place in between the camera and the interview. These foreground/background shots help set the location, and they also give the viewer something to look at besides a blurred mush of pixels.

With these situations, it’s vital to get some reaction shots of the reporter. Having those shots helped me avoid jump cuts and kept the editing nice and smooth. When shooting the reversals, I like to “dirty up” the shot (relax, it’s a film term). I make sure to frame part of the subject close enough to the camera so they’re out of focus. This supports the already established location of the subject and reporter in the frame. Having a dirty frame also helps to orient the viewer to the reporter’s eyeline, avoiding confusion.

© 2024 EVAN STULBERGER

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑