DECEMBER 2015 Vol 220

We are on Vincent Street inAuckland with Sam Walters,TVNZ cameraman on the‘Breakfast’ show. We’re hereto have a look at the lights heis using.

Ed: Sam, obviously you havea bit of a range of naturallighting from a 6 o’clock crossto your 8.30 cross. How doyou cope with that – whatvariety of lights do you use?

Sam: It all depends on how theday’s going – if the sun’s out orif it’s overcast like it is today.For 6 o’clock, it tends to bedark so we use the Lupo for abacklight …

Ed: This is the Lupo Fresnel?

Sam: Yes that’s right. I usethat as a backlight with theLED panel acting as a key light.

Ed: Why do you use it in that combination?

Sam: You can dim this one right down and spot it out,

compared to an LED panel where your spread doesn’t

have barn doors or anything like that, so you can’t spot

that. This Lupo is awesome for a backlight.

Ed: I see you’re running it on battery; the same with

the flat panels?

Sam: Yes, everything for our Breakfast show is pretty

much run on battery … easy, no more cables and when

it’s wet, it still works.

Ed: Were you shooting in the days when you had to

have HMIs and mains power?

Lupo in the News

Lupo lights up ‘Breakfast’ on location.

Sam: Yes, that’s when I was just starting off. We werestill using HMIs … I do still prefer to use HMI when I canbut …

Ed: You’ve got a dial-up phone have you?

Sam: Yeah, exactly. It all depends on the situation. Ifit’s just a normal scenic location and it’s a really brightday, then I will use HMI if I can but this does just as gooda job most times.

Ed: I notice that in between shots, and when Matty wasreading the weather, your assistant was able to quicklypick up the Lupo on the stand and move it down the roadso you’re ready for the next shot … no cables involvedand it didn’t look heavy?

Sam: It’s perfect for that situation –easy, light, very portable, it’s awesome.

Ed: And it doesn’t easily get damagedwhen you throw it in the truck at the endof the morning?

Sam: No, we have a Pelican case that itlives in and travels all around the world.

Ed: And you travel around the worldwith it?

Sam: I do take it around when I goround. I’ve only just gone on my firstoverseas trip a couple of weeks ago.

Ed: Afghanistan?

Sam: Not quite … Brisbane.

Ed: Almost as dangerous!

Sam: Almost as dangerous … well thesun’s just as dangerous for me.

Ed: So you still were able to use this inthe bright sun of Brisbane?

Sam: Yes, I used it for our “lives” overthere and I also used a flecky to diffuse the sun, so stilljust as good as an HMI.

Ed: Again, it’s not just a case of lighting the subject,it’s a case of getting a scene that has a good lightbalance and that’s where you find the Lupo Fresnelreally good for that?

Sam: Yes, today it’s overcast, so it’s perfect for whatwe need. Not too bright, does the job, whereas therewas one time the other day I had to have it rightspotted up against his face to get what we wanted. Thereporter wasn’t too happy, because it made his eyeswater.

Ed: But reporters are tough?

Sam: Exactly, exactly.

I moved on to another location to talk with Phil Melville,a TVNZ cameraman of long standing who’s on duringthe day.

Ed: Phil, you’re shooting for the 6 o’clock News andother things?

Phil: Mostly 6 o’clock, a little bit of Seven Sharp andsome of the other shows … Fair Go, Sunday, but mostly6 o’clock.

Ed: So pretty well, you’re a roving cameraman andsomeone tells you “we want you there, there and thereto do this” – and away you go?

Phil: Yes. We follow the News and sometimes wemake the News. Often we’re reacting to what’shappened during the day, so we won’t know where we’llbe or what conditions we’ll come across.

Ed: And for the very uninitiated “during the day”doesn’t mean that you’ve got daylight sufficient for yourcamera, although camera manufacturers will tell you“oh yes, this is very low light and you can shoot in anylighting conditions” … you pretty well always use alight?

Page 2

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Phil: I would say I’d use a light or a light source on

probably 90% of my jobs. That’s from inside offices to

outdoors and it will be a mixture. You’re always

supplementing your available light; we never have the

tools to completely block out and light an entire space

ourselves. So you’re supplementing what light’s

already there. On a day like today, which is grey and

overcast, you could go out there and shoot a piece tocamera quite happily, but it would look a little flat and

dull. You “pop” on someone’s face and it just brings

them up, raising your production levels a little bit.

Ed: But it’s not always the face is it – there are other

areas where you’d use light as fill?

Phil: Yes. If you got the chance, you might light a

background – especially if it’s dark! You do your best to

throw a bit of light on what’s happening behind you.

Ed: So how do you decide where you’re going to put

the light?

Phil: For your standard sit down interview, it’s a very

simple formula which normally goes “light, reporter,

camera” and that’s where you put your light on the

outside of your reporter and the way it hits the face of

the person you’re interviewing is normally … that’s the

general rule you know.

Ed: It’s a hard question isn’t it?

Phil: It’s a basic key light question. A key light goes

left or right of frame, depending on which way the

person is looking.

Ed: But then the intensity of that key light is

important?

Phil: Yes, there’s no point in calling up a gigantic greatbig light and having a lot of light hitting someone’s faceif the background then turns into darkness, becauseyou’d have to iris down. It’s a balancing act. Mosttimes, like I say, you’re supplementing what’s available.

Sam ready for action.

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You might go into an office and there’s plenty of light –there might be exterior light coming through, theremight be overhead lights – they could be differentcolours. I’d have to switch some interior lights off, putour light up, because you’re in the office for 10-15minutes, you don’t have a lot of time.

Ed: Does the lighting choice you make depend on thecamera that you’re using or are you pretty much usingthe same camera all the time?

Phil: We are, and generally the ENG cameras we useare very, very sensitive, even the ones that are 8 or 9years old. You don’t normally need to use …

Ed: You don’t need light for having an image in otherwords?

Phil: No, other than deepest darkest night time wouldyou need to put a light on. But it’s all about makingpeople look good on the tele.

Ed: Have you had any experience of using these shortdepth of field cameras, the cinestyle camera, whereyou’ve got just the face in focus, everything else out offocus. Do you light differently for that?

Phil: The same rules apply. You are still looking forthe face to pop out a little bit. Having that shallowdepth of field will help … the face is always going to popout because your background is going to blur, so theface will sit out there quite nicely. But then you stillmight want to pop a little bit of light in there just togive it a bit of shape or just to make a more consistentcolour on the front. If anything, for those cameras youmight need less light in terms of a mount, but there’s

still the same guidelines, still standards, always nice tohave something just to give a little bit of a sparkle inthe eyes.

Ed: There’s interest in shadows too isn’t there?

Phil: Yes, depending on how dramatic you want yourinterview to look. You might actually end up blackingout a room and then taking the time to light fromscratch. That’s a minimum half hour job.

Ed: When you’ve got the luxury of time, that’s whatyou do?

Phil: Yes – and that will only come with long formatinterviews with your Sunday programme and, to alesser extent, Fair Go. Everything else has to be a lotquicker.

Ed: Now moving on to your kit, and I see yourcamera’s all set up with a little panel on the front, butyou carry some other lights in here too. What’s therange of lights you carry and what do you use them for?

Phil: Depending on what programme I’m shooting forwill depend on lights I take out of the car.

Ed: Is that a time constraint thing?

Phil: Yes. With Sunday, we are given a time to turn upand light a room and, on a quick job, you might be ableto do it in 20 minutes, but often it’s closer to 30-40minutes, and you might put up 6 lights or 6 lightsources. You might have a key light, a bounce lightfilling it in, a back light, 2 lights on the background andyou might have had to black out a room with blackmaterial. When that happens, that’s a half hour job.

Ed: Okay, so that’s the arrangement of the lights,now the actual physical lights themselves. Are they allLED – your whole kit is an LED kit now?

Phil: Mine isn’t, some people’s are. The attraction withLED is the ability to easily shift colour, if you’ve gotcolour shiftable ones which we generally like.

Ed: Including that little rectangle on the front of yourcamera?

Phil: Yes, that little sun gun is shiftable from 3200through to 5600. The attraction for it is that it cancome off, you pop a battery on the back and you canthen use it as a backlight. You can use it as a soft filllight from underneath. I used it yesterday for a pieceto camera in the airport. I had a different light on thefront, I took that one off, popped it on a light stand,had it at the back, no cables on the ground, no need tosource electricity, everything was battery powered, Icould adjust the colour temperature on the lights tomatch the light inside Auckland International Airport.In the old days, you’d be running cables across theground, gaffering them down, you’d be gelling lights toget the colours quite right. This was a much simpler,much quicker operation.

Ed: So nowadays, when you want more light, you stilllike the idea of the Fresnel, but you’ve got a very nicesimple Fresnel in your kit?

Phil: The LED Fresnel that we use – I think there’s 3and they float around the pool of cameramen.

Ed: So whoever gets the Lupo first?

Phil: Yes.

Ed: Is that right – it’s highly sought after is it?

Phil: It’s a competitive sport, lighting! You can neverhave enough gear, you know that.

Ed: Yes. So you really like this Lupo Fresnel?

Phil: Oh the punch it gives you, it’s pretty close to anHMI – it’s pretty close and, cost-wise, you’re looking

Page 4

Phil sad to not have his own Lupo Fresnel always.

anywhere between $5-6-7-8,000 for a 400 Watt HMI sothis is a considerably cheaper option. Not only that, itdoesn’t throw out any heat …

Ed: No cables?

Phil: No cables, no ballast, no really expensive HMI

bulbs and it can run off a camera battery – and that’show we normally run it. I don’t think I’ve ever run it off

mains. It gives us flexibility in that, potentially now, as

we move towards a more live view based live system,

using bonded 4G transmitters rather than satellite gear,

we will be going to places without satellite trucks and

without live trucks.

Ed: So no mains power?

Phil: No mains power, no generator, no nothing. So

you’d want everything to be battery driven. You’ve gota battery driven transmitter, you’ve got a battery driven

series of lights.

Ed: Now there must have been a time between using

the HMIs and using the Lupo Fresnels – for example, I

saw on one Breakfast shoot a few years back, they were

only using the square LED panels?

Phil: Panels are nice, yes. Panels are again a relatively

simple and soft option, you know a bit of diffusion onthe front. They’re colour shiftable so if you’re on

Breakfast you might start with horrible tungsten

overhead lights, so you want to be round the 3200K

and by the time you come off air, it’s bright daylight, or

you’ve left the same light up, all you’ve done is changed

the colour temperature to match what’s happening. It’s

very attractive.

Ed: So there was a time when you were just using

those flat panels and you didn’t have the option of theLupo Fresnel?

Phil: The Fresnel is a relatively recent development.

Having that extra punch in the Fresnel is nice, but up to

that point, you might have had to put up 3 panels, or

you might have used an HMI … you probably would

have used an HMI if you needed it. Nowadays, you can

walk around with it, you’re not constrained by where

your cables are. There’s a lot more freedom and the

presenters and producers like that.

Ed: And it’s light?

Phil: Yes, it is. You’d still sandbag a light stand, but I

think the case weighs more than the light.

Ed: And you’re not going to pop a bulb?

Phil: No, that’s the great

thing about it – none of this

having to wait for it to cool

down and store it in a

certain way so that a bulb

doesn’t … no $1,000 bulb

replacement there.

Ed: You made the

comparison of having 1 LED

Fresnel as opposed to

needing 3 LED panels.

What’s a situation where

that would occur?

Phil: As an example, on abright sunny day if you’re

looking to fill in the face, the

panels generally won’t put

out enough and you might

have to have them a foot

away from the person’s face

for it to be making any difference and, even then, its

barely noticeable. Yesterday, I had one up outside andyou wouldn’t have known. It was about 1 inch outside

of shot and about 2 feet away from the talent’s face.

Ed: Because somebody got to the Lupo before you?

Phil: Yes, to be fair. I was a bit slow on that one.

Ed: You could always take it home?

Phil: Oooh taking it home … oooh that’s dangerous

territory now. There have been a couple of times when

I really wished I had it; you know, when you really

struggle without having that extra punch that it cangive you.

Ed: And talking of the punch – it’s not just the

intensity, it’s the focusability of it. You can bring all

that light down into a small area, whereas with your

panel – what, you’ve got 65 degrees or so?

Phil: Yes and you’ve got a dimmer function, but you

can’t spot it, you can’t spot a panel. It’s not like you

can barn door it off and wind it up, no.

There’s been a number of times … I can think of onelive in particular at a cricket ground and I would have

been pulling my hair out if I had any. I was just

thinking “I need a Fresnel with some punch here just to

fill in the face; it’s just too hard without everything

else.” We had light, we had panels, we had reflectors

and I just thought this is awful, I definitely need

something with a bit more punch.

Ed: There’s only so much of the background you canburn out?

Phil: Well yes and it was a live shot for 6, it was with a

guest as well and I would have had to light 2 people

and the sun was setting across the field, so it was a

really, really bright background.

Ed: Well that’s the test of a great cameraman isn’t it?

Phil: Yeah – not my best work to be fair. Sometimes

you’ve just got to do your best and move on … go to

the next job.

Ed: Hey, it’s News – what is it, “tomorrow’s fish and

chip wrapper”?

Phil: It’s more like … news, updated regularly onlineat the following URL, you won’t believe what happened

next!

<https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news?gclid=CPTn4LiWnskCFQsQvQodhwoD2w> NZVN

Page 6

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ExcellenceWe are in a very, very newstudio – in fact, there’s notalent, no cameras, nomicrophones; just theworkers – and ChrisMcKenzie to explain the roleof PLS in this venture.

Ed: Where are we Chris?

Chris: This is the newNZME production studio …

Ed: And NZME is?

Chris: New ZealandMedia and Entertainment.It’s a conglomeration formedout of APN buying RadioNetwork and deciding to putall of the operation into onebuilding. We werecontracted to fit out thelighting for their videostudio, having previously done the smaller one in theiroriginal building in Albert Street for APN Online.Starting about 4 years ago, we were working with SteveOsbourne who was their “go to” man at the time.Steve’s an ex-TV cameraman, producer, shooter – doesall of the APN Online content with some of hiscolleagues.

Ed: This one looks about 4 times the size of thatAlbert Street studio?

Chris: Yes it is. It’s an odd shape, but it’s a shapethat can work. As you can see, there’s a large glasswall across one end which faces into the Newsroom ofthe whole operation, like you see on a lot ofinternational News operations these days. The studiosits in front of the Newsroom and there’s a bustlingNewsroom going on behind it.

Ed: It gives the passing staff a chance to do ablowfish on air every now and again?

Chris: All of that … there’s weird and wonderfulthings can turn up.

Ed: But of course, they didn’t want any reflectionscaused by your lighting design?

Chris:No and you’ll notice that the glass is angled atabout 15 degrees to take care of that. One of thechallenges we had in here was that, because it’s anacoustically designed building and an acoustically

designed floor, we didn’t have anywhere that we couldfix our lighting suspension, so we’ve had to make thewhole grid a freestanding scenario, which has probablymade it a little more complicated than it needed to be.But it’s done the job, and it allows us to hang curtaintrack and obviously to hang lights where we need,within the space. The initial brief was a 5 headedinterview setup. The desk that we’re currently lookingat here is going to be replaced with a smaller one. It’sa little bit over-specified I gather.

Ed: But in terms of specifications, if you were lookingat the ideal scenario, they could have called you inearlier before they designed the room?

Chris: Yes, and normally you do get in at the veryearly design stages. We’ve been involved in other fitouts like this where we’ve been at the absolute designstage and, 4 years later, we come in and hang lightswhen they’ve finished building. This one I’m not surewhere the design process went, but we came inpresented with a finished space.

Ed: You seem to have a mixture here of ARRIs andKino Flo’s … the reason?

Chris: The reason is that fluorescent is still themost efficient way of making soft light. The secondaryreason is we have to balance the colour temperature ofthis room to the existing lighting in the Newsroom

Page 8

Chris under lights.

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Chris: Yes very uniform. I’ve used a lot of the

ParaBeam 400s, which are a square configuration, at

TV3, TVNZ and a number of other studios around the

country.

They are using ParaBeams because they do have that

parabolic reflector and they have a punch.

Ed: How many tubes in each?

Chris: Two tubes – it has two 55 Watt tubes. Inthat fitting they also do a 4Bankversion which is doubled up vertically,but we just didn’t have the height torun that.

Ed: Surely though, with 2 tubesparallel along the full length, you’regoing to get 2 focal planes?

Chris: Not really. The way Kinohave designed the reflector is that the2 sources integrate very well in thehorizontal plane. So if you look atthe horizontal wrap of the soft light,it’s very uniform over a 1200 widesource … the 4 foot 4Banks that Kinoare known for, that’s the sort of lightsource that people like where you getthat horizontal wrap of the lightsource.

Ed: And then along with that, itlooks as though you’ve got about adozen ARRI spots?

Chris: You may call them spotsGrant, but a true professional would

recognize them as Fresnels. A fixture with a Fresnellens allows you to project a sharply defined beam forgood shadow formation, and the ability to shape thearea lit with the barn doors. Yes, we’re using the ARRIL5C which is a colour tuneable LED Fresnel fixture. Thebrief was to keep the temperature down in herebecause the air conditioning is only “office rated”. Thebeauty of the L5 is that it’s colour tuneable to anycolour temperature and any colour balance. I was

Page 12

Cory as close as he will ever get to fame.

concerned when I looked at the LED sources in the restof the office, that we may have to add a wee bit ofgreen in to match it to the external sources. We havelooked at it on camera and it’s looking pretty good atthe moment, so we probably don’t need to do that.One of the other advantages with the L5C is that it canbe colour tuned to any colour. So if they decide theywant to do something a bit fruitier, they can put somerock ‘n roll colours in. I don’t know what the Christmasparty plans are … but also there’s a 6 metre greenscreen going either on the side wall or on the wallacross the window, so the ability to colour tune yourback lights to make keys work is an additional bonus.

Ed: Right – so the 12 lights aren’t just to light up thedesk?

Chris: No. There are 5 positions at the desk and2 positions against the side for a digi green screensetup. With the truss, we’ve also done all the curtaintrack and the curtains. There will be black drapes inhere, there’ll be a 6 metre green screen, and that canall slide round so they can put blacks behind the desk.They can shoot the Newsroom, or they can put chromakey behind the desk. Or they can shoot a weatherscenario against the side wall. So there are about 5 or6 positions catered for at the moment. There are bitsof grid that are not being currently used, but as thisspace evolves, I’m sure they’ll find other positions towork in. These places are always a moveable feastonce people actually get the experience of using thespace.

Ed: Having the flexibility to be able to adjust thecolour on the ARRIs would become really important if,for some reason, they decide to change other lighting –you’ve got to have that balance?

Chris: Yes that’s right, and being able to do itremotely. The people who are going to be operatingthis studio are going to be cameramen, so we will setthem a bunch of presets and then we’ll show them howto do some straightforward stuff. As they get more intune with what they’ve got, then they can start doingsome different things but, as you well know yourself,there’s always pressures to get the product out and“don’t worry about the sharp edges.” But as the setupbecomes more polished, they’ll get rounded edges andthey’ll hopefully start using what we’ve given them. Interms of energy use, the biggest thing in here is, withall these lights burning, we’re probably burning akilowatt of power. Everything is running off standardpower points – there’s no heavy duty power supply inhere. By the same token, there’s no requirement forlarge amounts of HVAC.

Ed: Now I guess the key question is “was this a hardsell” because you’ve got Kino Flo, you’ve got ARRIs,you’re at the top of the range here. Surely manycustomers are keen to go for cheaper brands whenavailable, and this is just a studio setup. Was offeringthe “best of breed” a hard sell?

Chris: No it wasn’t. We pitched it at the top endand the customer obviously realised that it was worthspending the money. They’ve made a large investmentglobally in this whole building and it would be a pity toundersell what they’ve put into this. We certainly wentin with a top end proposal and I was very pleased thatthey accepted our recommendations and accepted it atthe value we pitched to them. So it wasn’t a bigargument to get this system in. There was also atimeframe on it – this studio will be going to air, I think12th of December, so we had to be able to meet thatdeadline as well, which we will have. The studio’s not

totally complete, but by a week before their deadline, itwill be complete and you’ll see cameras … we’ll do sometraining and we’ll do some testing with their staff.Obviously, we’ve got to train their staff in the systemsso they know what they’re doing.

Ed: You mean the lighting control system?

Chris: The lighting control system and what we’ve

delivered them in terms of a lighting solution, so that

they know where the sweet spots are to put people, and

if they need to tweak it around. If suddenly a position

we’ve lit for 1, turns into a 5 head position, then how dothey adjust it to get to cover it for that scenario. We’ve

tried to anticipate that with the amount of equipment

we’ve put in here. A bean counter might look at it and

go “why aren’t those 2 lights on?” Well, because those

2 lights are standing by for something else when shit

happens.

Ed: And it does. Now we’ve got Cory sitting in the

host’s seat – has he had any part in this particularenterprise?

Chris: He hasn’t been involved other thanstanding round looking pretty, but our new sales guy Elihas been down here hanging lights. There’sphotographic evidence of him doing that on Facebook.It’s been good – we used one of our other contractorsand the grid was done by ShowQuip who are probablythe best supplier of trussing in this country. NickBarnfield, their engineer, knows hanging stuff in crazyplaces inside out, so he was a lifesaver on this job interms of me being able to wave my hands and give hima rough sketch and say this is what I want to achieve.

Page 14

Ed: Now Chris, there’s a huge varietyof lighting equipment available at PLS, sofor the non-media moguls are you ableto fit out smaller studios who have fewerdollars to invest?

Chris: Yes absolutely. I mean, thisone really is a Rolls Royce studio and itwas nice to have this opportunity but,yes, there are cost effective solutions forevery pocket.

At the end of the day, you might not begetting an LED solution, you might haveto fall back to a tungsten solution … Iwas talking to a customer the other daywho went “yes, I‘d like that, but what’sthe tungsten option” so there are stillthose budgets, but if you want energyefficiency, LED and fluoro are the way togo. Fluorescent soft light is still the bestway to make a soft light. As I’ve said toyou on many occasions, there’s a lot ofsmoke and mirrors about LEDs but the

efficiencies are getting there; they’re just still not asgood as some other sources.

Ed: And if you want really good colour?

Chris: Yeah well that’s it … fluoro is still really

good, tungsten is still the best, HMI is still the best, LED

is getting there. We have LED sources that are 95

colour rendering, but those are the pricey ones. If you

go to the Trade Me solutions then you’ll be getting

green and magenta, but we don’t mind because we can

sell you colour correction gel for that as well! NZVN

Page 15

Nick delivered the goods in terms of the truss rig thathe’s created for us.

Ed: And hopefully it can be reassembled because Idoubt if you’d get that out the door?

Chris: Not all of it. At one point, they had theglass out of the big window, and we did actually bringthe 4 metre lengths of truss in through that hole. Idon’t think those pieces of truss will ever be going outof here without the application of a hacksaw! The restof the grid could be removed, but we have set it up as apermanent installation.

Rocketson Target

We are in the offices ofRocket Rentals in Aucklandwith the manager, LeeAllison.

Ed: Lee, you joined theteam in July as the facilitiesmanager so my firstquestion is “tell me yourhistory in this industry thatgives you the experience orability to be a facilitiesmanager at Rocket?”

Lee: I have 20 plus yearsas a freelancer, as a cameraassistant, focus puller andcamera operator. I’ve madea lot of industry contactsalong the way. I've workedwith a lot of film andtelevision makers and hadexperience with a lot of dif-ferent camera systems on a large number and varietyof productions.

Ed: So just to expand that a bit – the job of cameraassist / focus puller isn’t just on the shoot when thebutton’s pushed … you do a lot of prep work and a lot ofpack down work?

Lee: Yes, there’s testing the camera for a shoot,prepping it, making sure you have everything you’regoing to need and that it all works. Basically, on-set,you’re the guy in charge of the running of the camera,making sure it’s going to work – changing lenses,changing filters, batteries and essentially keepingeverything running smoothly … as well as keeping theright actor in focus at the right time.

Ed: And making sure the rain doesn’t get on thecamera?

Lee: Yes, keeping your equipment dry and safe isessential. Making sure it doesn’t get damaged and thecamera just keeps running all day and keeps getting theshots.

Ed: And then at the end of the day, you put it awaysafe and warm, ready for the next day?

Lee: That’s right – it’s the focus puller’s responsibilityto look after the camera.

Ed: Well that sounds like perfect credentials for doinga job like this, so why aren’t you still out there pullingfocus and camera assisting?

Lee: Well as much as I loved it, having done it for 20something years as a freelancer, I thought it was timeto move away from freelancing. It’s great when you’reworking, but the downside is when you’re not working,because there’s obviously a lot of uncertainty withfreelancing. So I thought after 20 plus years it was justtime for a change.

Ed: Did anybody else have a say in this?

Lee: My partner did, yes. She was definitely quitekeen for me to find a fulltime position within theindustry.

Ed: So you now enjoy the stability of regular officehours?

Lee: Yes, I like the stability of it. Occasionally I missbeing on a film set, but I’m sure I’ll get the opportunityagain …

Ed: But sometimes you do have to go out and takegear to a set?

Lee: Yes – hopefully I don’t have to do that too often,because that usually means there’s a problem!

Ed: Well they might have forgotten something?

Lee: Yes, they might have forgotten something, butgenerally, if you don’t hear from them while they’re ona shoot, that’s a good thing.

Ed: And you’ve been on some pretty big productions?

Lee: Yes – I’ve been on a lot of big productions overthe years. In the early film days, I was a clapper loaderon Once Were Warriors and The Piano and a focus pulleron Xena for 3 years, and The Lord of the Rings; a NewZealand film called Fracture, Chronicles of Narnia, Tintinas well as numerous dramas, TVC's, music videos andshort films.

Ed: So that all goes to give you those credentials thatyou can handle some pretty high level gear and also awide range of gear?

Lee: Yes. When I started, it was all film. It’s allchanged now – it’s gone digital and the technology isvery different, but the basic understanding of lensesand cameras is still there. It’s a job where you’reconstantly learning and having to train yourself everyday; you’re continually studying up on different, newcameras and technology. You never really stoplearning.

Ed: So it’s not just a mad rush at the start of the daywhen stuff goes out and then a rush at the end of theday when stuff comes back, and you sit in yourarmchair for the middle part?

Lee: Not at all, no. I’m prepping or getting ready forthe next job, quoting jobs, maintaining equipment ordoing the necessary paperwork. It’s a very busyposition.

Ed: I guess there must be quite a few people in thisindustry who arrive at the front door to pick up theircamera and say “Oy, what are you doing here?”

Lee: Yes, there’s been a few of them that have comein and were surprised to see me here because they’veknown me as a focus puller or an operator. I think it’sdefinitely a bonus that I know a lot of them. It makes it

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Lee Allison and Jamie Goodwin from Rocket Rentals Auckland.

more on page 19

easier for them because they know Ihave an understanding of a production’sneeds and of the requirements of theircamera department. It also gives uspiece of mind when I know they have anexperienced team involved.

Ed: Have you got a nice coffeemachine here?

Lee: No – I need to talk to Nic aboutthat!

Ed: Well if you had a nice coffeemachine some of your friends mightcome in and visit and be tempted to hiresomething?

Lee: Exactly. I think a free flat whitewith your hire is a good idea.

Ed: So is there anything you’d like toask Nic for?

Lee: Yeah – a coffee machine.

Now we move to Wellington to hear fromDavid Morrison who has been workingwith Rocket for many years and is nowthe GM of the company.

David: Yes, I started out in the industry with FilmFacilities many years ago, working my way up the ranksin the camera rental department. We rented mainlyARRI 16mm, 35mm film cameras in those days as videowas still only an emerging technology back then. FilmFacilities eventually morphed into Panavision. Aposition became available at Rocket working with PeterHudson (Rocky), one of the country’s top DoPs who hadworked with film and was now building up a sizeablevideo rental company.

Ed: How has the camera rental industry changed overthe years and how has that impacted on the camerasRocket now rents?

David: When I first joined Rocket, we had a rangeof low to high end electronic cameras. While videocameras were widely used in our industry, high end TVdrama, commercials and features were still being shoton film, as electronic cameras couldn’t match thelatitude and richness in detail of film.

This was a time when film was still seen as thepinnacle. Video technology was however improvingand, as you know, video cameras and systems have

been continually evolving since then, and the tableshave now turned with the electronic camera more orless in complete dominance. All Rocket’s cameras todayare now computer based digital image acquisitionsystems which produce better pictures cheaper thanever.

A great example of this is the two new Canon C300Mark II kits that we have just taken delivery of. Wehave set them up for TV drama with ARRI Pro Cine top/base systems, HD sidefinder EVFs and PL/EF switchablemounts.

Ed: So tell us about the C300 Mark 2 switchable EF orPL mount options, as that sounds interesting?

David: Canon has thought the lens issues throughquite well and the C300 Mark 2 has an interchangeablelens mount system so it’s fully interchangeable and canrun with either EF or PL lenses. This gives ourcustomers a greater choice of images and looks thatcan be produced from the one camera. This camera isa perfect example of the technical changes that justkeep on happening – 4K, great image quality, slow mo,EF/PL interchangeable, and light-weight.

Ed: How has the proliferation of formats and newcameras impacted on your customer base?

David: It’s meant that cameras and gear thatcreate great looking images are more available thanever, so some production companies have purchasedtheir own kits. The flip side is that, because there areso many different cameras and formats available now,many camera operators and production companies stillprefer to rent the camera gear that fits the job. Mostproduction companies nowadays create images for awide range of applications, from quick friendly relaxedweb based feeds to very high end quality footage andproduction values, so they have a need to be able toaccess gear that’s appropriate for a range of budgetsand applications. This is where Rocket is able to help.I’ve been working in the industry for a while now andchange is actually the one constant. At Rocket, we allembrace that and it’s all just par for the course withinthe technical equipment side of the production industry.

Ed: With the fall off in people shooting film forfeatures and the like, has this meant you have had toinvest in the very high end digital cameras?

Page 19

David with a C300 Mark II.

Entrance to the Auckland office in Virginia Ave East, Eden Terrace.

David: Yes. We took the plunge some time ago

with RED One. We have been with RED from the

beginning and now have 3 RED Dragon kits available for

hire.

More recently, we purchased the ARRI ALEXA XT Digital

camera to service our high end work. It’s a beautiful

piece of kit that is capable of out-putting really stunning

images. We have supplied it into a number of features

and top end commercials. It’s the same level and build

quality that I started out on in my Film Facilities days

when working with ARRI film cameras, and I really

enjoy the technical side of working with top end

cameras.

Ed: Rocket hires out camera crew as well; how has

that side of Rocket’s business been adapting to the

technical gear changes over the years?

David: Production companies will pick a particular

DoP for a number of different reasons. High level

shooting skills that are applicable to the job at hand

combined with a personality to match the project and

client would be one of the main drivers. Being able to

give aesthetic in-put into the project, combined with an

ability to get the director’s

vision in the can is also

super critical.

Each shooter has their own

set of styles they can call on

and, over time, our

customers have got to know

our guys well. They are well

thought of within the

industry and have shot a

hell of a lot of great

material.

The gear and technical

changes have just flowed

through and over our

crewing operation, with one

advantage being that we can

offer our guys with a broad

range of formats and

cameras and they always

have the most up to date

gear available to work with.

Ed: I have heard your

crew have done a lot of work

for the feature film industry,

EPK etc. What other areas

do they concentrate on?

David: These days, the requirements of ourcustomer base are very broad, so our guys shoot ahuge and varied range of jobs. We have worked on alot of commercials, TV shows, short films and musicvideos this year, along with plenty of corporate workand have more in the pipe for next year. Docos arealways a favourite as our DoPs love to explore a styleand aesthetic over a longer shoot period. Shootingshows like WOW always stimulates them as there is aton of creativity involved. Then there is a lot of goodsolid bread and butter work that they enjoy working onas well.

Ed: Ok, well it sounds as if Rocket has a come a longway and is looking in good shape moving forwards?

David: Yes, we have seen a lot of changes overthe years, technology has had a big impact and haschanged the face of the industry in many ways. It’s notgoing to be slowing down any time soon either. Ascomputers get more powerful, they will just keep ondriving the technical changes. We are looking forwardto getting our hands on some of the new gear that isslated to come on the market over the next year or twoand being able to add it to our inventory. NZVN

Page 20

In fact, David has a whole range of cameras for you - from either office.

Page 21

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Merry Christmas from Ed and his elves and we will be back in action

mid February …

unless the excesses of holiday cheer lead to Ed’s total moral collapse. It’s possible, butunlikely.

The Italian TouchA well-constructed email intrigued me enough to seek

out a recent arrival to our country, Francesco Calderone

from Italy. Francesco is here on a work visa and he’s

looking for work. Now we’re always interested in new

talent – people coming in with fresh ideas, but first of

all, we have to make sure that Francesco understands

our language and some of our New Zealand culture.

We begin by asking him some questions about NewZealand.

Ed: Francesco, what is the most common farm animal

found in New Zealand?

Francesco: Kiwi – I know that.

Ed: No, we don’t farm kiwis yet! This one is white

and fluffy and you make jackets out of its wool?

Francesco: Ahahah, it’s sheep.

Ed: Very good. The main colour of the New Zealand

flag?

Francesco: Maybe red?

Ed: Not yet. Perhaps only one week here is too earlyto pass the New Zealand test. Your English is certainly

very good but we’ll see how you go on the television

questions. Round one … editing platforms. You say

you’re an editor so tell me about the platforms you are

capable of editing on?

Francesco: I can edit with Final Cut Pro X and

Adobe Premiere. I can also do a bit of motion graphics

with After Effects.

Ed: What sort of work have you done on these

platforms?

Francesco: I’ve been editing commercials and

documentaries. In Italy, I was also directing small TV

shows and I was editing those as well. In addition, I’ve

been shooting my own short movies, but mainly I’ve

been working for other companies.

Ed: What stage of Premiere were you working on …

the latest Cloud version?

Francesco: Yes, the Premiere PRO CC – the

latest version.

Ed: What’s your preference for an editing platform?

Francesco: I find myself more comfortable with

Final Cut because I’m a Mac user so it’s easier for what

my needs are.

Ed: And you’ve never tried an Avid?

Francesco: Not yet. A lot of people ask me that,

but I’ve never had the chance to try it because I reallydon’t feel the need to change platforms right now. I’m

very comfortable with Final Cut.

Ed: But maybe there’s a job for an Avid editor?

Francesco: Yes, so I shall learn it as well.

Ed: Alright. Other areas of expertise … I understand

you’re a keen photographer or have done commercial

photographic work?

Francesco: Yes, I’ve been working as a

photographer for documentary productions on Italian

National Television. I’m also a traveller, so I like to

take lots of landscape pictures. I really enjoy nature.

But I can work on other kinds of photography as well. Ihave even worked on weddings, which I don’t like so

much … it’s too commercial and less artistic.

Ed: Tell the bride that … she’s trying to look beautiful

and that’s surely the job, especially for an Italian

photographer, to make every woman look beautiful?

Francesco: Yes, that’s for sure, but it was a little

bit stressful.

Ed: Just like this interview?

Francesco: No, I am enjoying it, it’s a nice

conversation.

Ed: We’ve just started. Right, that’s still

photography, what about television cameras, motion

picture cameras – any experience there?

Francesco: About filming … not really. Just for

myself, not in a professional way, because I only have

my own Canon 6D camera which is a DSLR camera. I

don’t own a big camera but I’ve been working together

with big productions so I had the chance to see this

kind of work.

Ed: Any other skills in the television industry?

Francesco: I was running a YouTube channel. It

was about reviewing Italian songs, but I’m not much of

an actor, I was just having fun in my free time. It was

quite successful though, I had lots of followers.

Ed: Other areas … I believe there’s some scriptwriting

interest?

Francesco: Yes, I’ve also been writing – I’m a

novelist actually. I wrote a book, it’s a treatise about

social interactions between people which was published

in 2012. I’ve also been doing some scriptwriting for TV

shows and short movies. But everything that I have

done is in Italian, so I really would like to improve my

English skills by starting to do that also in English.

Sadly my English is not good enough right now.

Miss Hellfinger interjects from her battered Imperial

typewriter: He’ll do me. I’ve had far worse that you’ve

landed me with.

Page 22

Ed: But surely there’s an opportunity here forcompanies, especially those who have tourism videoswho want, not only to do a presentation that would suitan Italian audience, but also to make sure that theirtranslation is correct?

Francesco: Now that I could totally do and itwould also be a very interesting job because I like thetourism and travel industry. So yes, that would bereally nice if I could find a job like that.

Ed: So that would be the best mix of your Italianlanguage skills and your Italian knowledge of thetelevision industry?

Francesco: Yes – at least in the beginning, itwould be kind of a dream job, but my long-term goal isto settle here for a while, a longer period than one year,and find a way to produce my own movies or whateverI would like to produce.

Ed: So what is your connection with New Zealand … Imean this is a long way away from Palermo and I knowthat the last New Zealand-Italian connection was whenwe drew with you at the World Cup. I believe therewere a lot of tears back in Italy at the time?

Francesco: Yes, I know. That was a sad day forItaly.

Ed: It was a great day for New Zealand.

Francesco: I’m sure about that. I actually haveno connection at all. It was just the furthest place Icould find on the map …

Ed: So you’re running away?

Francesco: Not running away, but I like to travel

in countries far from my home. I’ve been almost

everywhere in Europe and I wanted to see a different

culture. I’d been travelling around Iceland for a month

and I met a guy, who is now a friend of mine, and he's

from Auckland. He told me that the nature in New

Zealand is really similar to the Icelandic one, but alsohere you have a warm environment, not only the ice.

So I thought: yes, maybe it’s worthwhile to see it.

Ed: So the final question has to be, you’re not tied to

Auckland, you could move anywhere within New

Zealand – even Gore for example?

Francesco: Yes, why not. I can go anywhere. I

like New Zealand so I think I can manage to stay for a

while. I like the place and I like the people. You Kiwiguys are very friendly!

Ed: So if Gore Television, or anyone else, has a place

for Francesco, we will put Francesco’s details at the

bottom of this. Give him a call.

Mobile: 021 130-9059

Email: cenerebianca@gmail.com

PHOTO PORTFOLIO:

www.flickr.com/photos/124353103@N06/albums

VIDEO SAMPLE:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D81IRR3yhyc NZVN

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