Our blog
Is the future already over?
November 1st, 2011 by martin
It seems like the last few years have been all about 3D. Big players like Samsung, Sony and the major film studios have seen 3D as a way of boosting income in market where content is regularly stolen online.
Is the fad over though? A new survey says film-goers are now 7 times less likely to see a film in 3D instead of in 2D, than they were at this time last year. 3D film is only at the beginning of its revival, yet already it is losing favour. This is bad news for all that investment.
As far as the broadcast future lies it seems that consumers are more interested in Smart TV than 3D TV. They want their televisions to be connected to the internet. They want to watch content on their home cinemas and flat screens. Vimeo the popular video site already has a “couch” button you can press so that the video is optimised to watch at home on your TV.
Topology Research Institute reckons 52.9m Smart TVs – televisions with internet access and the ability to download and run basic apps – will ship worldwide next year. This is a growing technology and 3D is fading.
The problem is that age old problem of supply and demand. it seems that media providers and manufacturers are caught in a familiar feedback loop of stagnation: the entertainment industry isn’t going to invest in producing 3D content when there aren’t enough viewers to warrant the extra expense. And manufacturers aren’t going to push the 3D TV sets until there’s enough content to bring out the consumers with open wallets. And in this economy, who’s rushing out to buy the latest fad in electronics? Unless, of course, it has a picture of an apple on it!
Which brings us neatly to that man…
Steve Jobs helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist’s obsession to a necessity of modern life. But for all the eulogies for business acumen and flair for designing products, I was moved the most by this …
“Steve’s last words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times.
Before passing away, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them.
Steve’s final words were: “OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.”
Winter is fast approaching and Here at CCG we are wrapped up warm and have been working hard…
CCG have Just completed two great shoots for pharmaceutical medical company Parexel. The shoots were multicamera PDW 800 XDCam HD, in Hamburg and we were filming doctors’ round table discussions in hotels.
Here in Frankfurt we produced a lovely shoot with live mixing for the London based company Merchant Cantos. The shoot was an Investor day webcast.
Also we have been working with long-time clients Manor Films from London . We shot with the Sony F3 and Canon 5d. The cameras were fabulous at producing stunning car footage – Mostly car interiors with both cameras and lights rigged inside the car. We shot at night around Frankfurt. This felt more like a feature film set up than video with all the attendant crew, producer, cameraman and director flown in from the UK and we provided equipment, camera assistant, media wrangler, precision driver, assistant director. The DOP Paul Barton shoots all the BBC Top Gear car programme stuff.
We also had to look our best for a great little shoot for UK based Mezzo films. The reason for this was making a film about princess Astrid at the royal palace in Brussels. She was addressing a charity she is a patron of. For this shoot we e sent our cologne based crew to shoot this on the XD cam with a teleprompter.
New clients are using us all the time because we come highly recommended and we are both professional and fun to work with. Connecticut based Roger Wilco productions found us on Google and hired us to crew for them on a TV show they are producing for the Speed channel in the USA. It is a one hour documentary about Mercedes, which is 125 years old this year. Our camera crew shot on Sony’s PDW 800 and even got to film the World’s first motor propelled car, the Mercedes Patent Motorwagen built in 1886.
Filmmakers App of the month
AJA DATACALC
Platform
Apple iPhone / iPod Touch
The AJA DataCalc computes storage requirements for professional video and audio media. Designed for video professionals, this application works with all the most popular industry video formats and compression methods, including Apple ProRes, DVCProHD, HDV, XDCAM, DV, CineForm, REDCODE, Avid DNxHD, Apple Intermediate, 16 bit RGB and RGBA, uncompressed, and more. Video standards supported include NTSC, PAL, 1080i, 1080p, 720p, 2K and 4K.
AJA DataCalc allows you to change settings and calculate storage requirements in a single screen with simple controls and a clear concise display. Media durations can be entered in units of days, hours, seconds, or even as precise as frames using time code mode.
For more recent productions check out our “Recent Productions” tab on this website.
raining cats and dogs… But now you can follow the sun
September 17th, 2011 by martin
September in Europe
September is the best month to be working or travelling in Europe.
August can be hellish – temperatures can get uncomfortably high – The entire populations of France and Italy, in particular, seem to pack up and head for the beaches. Then there are the northern European hordes descending on the Mediterranean, either with their factor 50 kids in tow or a desire to get as drunk as their Viking ancestors.
The best month to be in Europe is September. In recent years, Europe’s summer weather has gone a bit topsy-turvy. Some dismal Junes, Julys or Augusts have been followed by a great end to the summer. From what I remember of the last two years, September has provided pretty much unbroken sunshine…. But as I write this in Germany it’s raining cats and dogs. In case you’re wondering, that expression hails from medieval towns where streets were so narrow and with no drainage a heavy downpour would drown the poor animals.
Here at CCG we have been working hard whatever the weather – head over to our “recent productions “ section to see what how we’ve been assisting production companies all over Europe get the best possible results from the best kit and best people.
We like to keep an eye on useful apps for filmmakers.
Here’s a few.. more to follow in the coming months… suggestions welcome.
Helios
Helios is a Sun Position Calculator that graphically represents the position of the sun from dusk to dawn, on any given day, in any given place.
Designed as an aid to Cinematographers and Stills Photographers working in natural light, Helios is essential to anyone who needs to plan a day around the constantly changing character of sunlight. Helios works without a network connection, though some functions are enhanced when connected to the internet.
Gaffers, Grips, Location Managers, Production Designers and First Assistant Directors will already be aware of the value of this information. Other professionals, from Architects and Surveyors to Electricians and Landscape Gardeners can now predict sun exposure in the field, without the need for complex tables or graphs. This information can be emailed and then printed from within the application.
Helios operates in 4 modes:
HelioMeter View is a graphical representation of the sun’s predicted position on a compass dial (azimuth) for any time of day, showing the sun’s elevation and proportional length of shadow an object would cast.
SkyMap View represents both the sun’s path in the sky through the day and the direction of sunlight shown over a map of your location
Clinometer View shows the sun’s elevation at any given time in the day. Essentially an electronic inclinometer that reads in both time and angle. A compass in this view allows observation of both elevation and azimuth.
HelioData View provides numerical information where figures are preferable. This data can be sent via email from within Helios.
Movie Slate
Movie.Slate is a digital slate, clapper board, shot log, and shot notepad. designed for use with film, television, documentaries, interviews, and home movies. Movie.Slate provides an easy way to log footage and take notes as you shoot, saving you time later when you capture and edit the footage on your computer.
“Here’s a few highlights: It can log data from multiple productions, and export the data as Final Cut Pro XML files. It has a terrific interface for changing data on the fly. You can customize the hell out of it, including stick designs, colours, and fonts. You can save text, voice, and photo notes for each shot. You can rate the audio and video quality of each take. You can set markers within a shot to remember when something specific happened.
And here’s a feature that’s very impressive -You can wirelessly sync the running timecode of multiple iPhones running Movie*Slate over Bluetooth!”
Storyboard composer
Cinemek Storyboard Composer for iPhone is a mobile storyboard and pre-visualization composer designed for Directors, Directors of Photography, Producers, Writers, Animators, Art Directors, film students and anyone who wants to be able to visualize their story.
It is the world’s first mobile storyboarding application which allows you to acquire photos with your phone or by Artemis Directors Finder for iPhone, then add traditional storyboarding markups such as dolly, track, zoom and pan. You can even add your own stand-ins. The user can set a duration for each storyboard panel and then play it back to get real time feedback on pacing and framing.
More news… Va va voom…
So recently we have been consumed by all things cars – Shooting for Jaguar and many others at the Frankfurt Motor Show and also filming a new concept car in the Bavarian Alps for TVC.
We also provided crews and SNG for TVC London with live satellite uplinks of the motor show press conference plus live interviews of auto company CEOs.
TVS USA, shoot, edit and upload,
ZIG ZAG London, XDcam HD shoot,
Discovery Canada, XDCam HD shoot and live playout
Fresh minds London, XDCam HD shoot.
For RAI in Italy, 3 days of regular reporting across the board.
And for PRIME television London, Lamborghini and Land Rover XDCcam HD shoot, edit and upload on site.
Add to the heady busy mix a fancy Opel piece for London based Deeper Blue… shooting on the Rolls Royce of new digital cameras, the Alexa.
Look out for a piece on the Alexa in next month’s blog. It’s a fantastic piece of kit that directors and DOPs are raving about.
Finally GM shoot for London based Manor Films…
As you can see September really is a special month! October will be just as hectic hopefully.
We are in demand. We deliver the goods. Clients trust us and return again and again.
Let’s hope the rain stays away.
Next month on our CCG Facebook page we are running a special quiz on European cities. There will be a prize for the first person to answer them all correctly!
Reminders of the Quiz start date will be sent out on out twitter feed so get following us on
@camcrewgermany
Coming up.. Flash cars and shoot-em ups…
August 11th, 2011 by martin
CCG are gearing up for two exciting shoots in Frankfurt and Cologne.
In Frankfurt we are working with Prime TV, London and TVS Michigan to supply films for The International Motor Show. This will be the 64th edition of this world famous automobile trade fair. Germany has always been the hub of the automobile industry and this fair is the most comprehensive and internationally acclaimed motor show of them all. It will take place at Trade Fair grounds in Frankfurt/Main. This event will stretch over 11 days playing host to over 2000 exhibitors and thousands of visitors from across the globe.
In Cologne we are getting ready to shoot Gamescon for MTV. (MTVN Digital Entertainment).
This is Europe’s biggest trade fair for interactive games and entertainment. Here you can discover the latest and best games. Gamescom has 254,000 visitors, more than 4,400 journalists and 505 exhibitors from 33 countries attending the show.
This is Gamescom’s third year, having replaced the old Games Convention in Leipzig in 2008. It takes place inside the Koelnmesse convention centre through a period of five days from August 18-22
The Gamescom music festival which runs alongside it is also a great chance to hear new bands. I like this quote from the website
“After Gamescom close his doors Friday, Saturday and Sunday the live acts will rumble you hard.”
How can you resist?
The main event however will unquestionably be the launch of the much awaited Gears Of War 3 shoot-em up game. The Epic trilogy ender was missing from the show last year, but with the launch next month and a clean go-ahead from German censors, we don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t see this in Cologne.
CCG Tip of the month…”Saving money on phone calls abroad” … at CCG we like to save you money.
It might be worth checking out a new i-phone app ( the android version is coming). It’s called ONAVO. Fire up this app in a new country and it keeps you updated as to your usage and compresses data heading into your phone, thereby squeezing perhaps 50 per cent extra out of any data bundle. The app is free from iTunes for now, but charges are planned. Find a list of supported networks in almost 100 countries at www.getsatisfaction.com/onavo. An Android version is scheduled for release later this month. For now, the android based 3G Watchdog app tracks your data use; it’s free from the Android Market.
To avoid data bills altogether, switch roaming off before you leave. On an i-Phone, push the data roaming slider to off at Settings>General>Network.
Android users should uncheck data roaming at Settings>Wireless & Networks >Mobile Networks. This eliminates some of your phone’s functionality, but it doesn’t hobble it altogether – and has the odd benefit, such as extending battery life.
a busy June and July working with….
July 29th, 2011 by keith
Aljazeera News network
The women’s world cup 2011 and a closer look at the Sony PDW 800.
We provided a bilingual cameraman and bilingual fixer to work with Aljazeera English on their coverage of the Women’s Football World Cup in Frankfurt.
Frankfurt is a city on the rise. Exciting cultural highlights, a fantastic World Cup fan park along the River Main as well as a spectacular opening ceremony. Unique sightseeing attractions, superb shopping opportunities, traditional inns and taverns, trendy bars and countless open-air cafés combine to ensure that if you are lucky enough to shoot in the city you will feel right at home in Frankfurt.
For the shoot itself we used The Sony PDW800. From outside broadcasts and sports reporting, to newsrooms and documentaries, this state of the art camera is from the Sony XDCAM range – the most popular file base production system in Europe.
It continues to bring performance, flexibility and reliability to a number of productions. It makes it easier for users to accelerate their workflow with robust, nonlinear acquisition for both HD and SD production.
For the Women’s World Cup The fixer set up interviews and provided a storyline for the report. We then edited the XDcam HD footage immediately after the shoot in our Frankfurt studio and sent the finished report via ftp to Aljazeera.
Here at CCG we pride ourselves on using quality kit that you can trust to do the job every time whilst delivering the outstanding quality that our customers expect.
Quick, accessible, flexible. That’s the key these days. Everyone expects instant results. At CCG with our unique expertise and no language barriers we can deliver all these things and more.
