One of the highlights of the Las Vegas NAB show for me has been Post Production World. I mean seeing new gear is fun, but PPW is a great opportunity to learn from people who are at the top of the industry. When NAB was cancelled, PPW pivoted to go online. My team at UMD and I all signed up and are ready to learn.
Like everyone, we're watching a LOT of TV these days. And cooking. And thinking about how cooking shows are made. One show we've been binge watching and learning from is Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course. One production trick they're using is they introduce the ingredients for a dish using stop motion. Cool idea.
We thought we'd give it a try with smithing tools and the materials needed for a piece of jewelry. The stills were shot at 4k resolution on the Canon 5D Mark III.
The silversmithing studio set looked great, but I need to improve the tech for the next video.
All of the tripods and light stands are a hazard. I really need a grid to mount the lights and cameras, but with Blair's business shutdown funds are tight. I found a metal curtain rod in the storage room that had never been installed, so that will have to do for now. Thankfully, LED fixtures are so light the curtain rod can handle it. I also mounted the GoPro overhead to get an angle on the bench I couldn't get before.
One of the speakers at PPW was Alex Lindsay. He was interviewed on the topic of live streaming and virtual events. It was interesting, but one little tidbit at the end stuck out to me.
Well, eight days later here's our first edition of Tidbits and Tooltips. A lot of post, some additional b-roll after the scripted content, sound cleanup... all the things. The music bed is original, created in Digital Performer. To prep for future videos I created a bunch of variations on the main theme that can be looped and strung together.
There are a lot of things I will want to do to the set going forward, but with limited gear and still having a day job, I'm pretty happy with the results.
Well, it looks like we're going to be here for a while with this Covid thing.
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