California based Hive Media shot all last week at the biggest Photography Trade Fair in Europe, the Photokina in Cologne. They came from Studio City with Director and DP and we provided a local 4 man support crew including Gaffer, Grip, full lighting kit, Sound recordist with kit and an Interpreter. Hive Media saved a huge amount on transportation and costs by hiring our trusted local lads.
photos: Photokina
Every year we send our cameraman in Scotland to shoot the Braemar Gathering & Highland Games. After the shoot we did a rough cut and sent the footage to our London-based client SNTV.
A new addition in our collection of weird & wonderful sports events is Headis – table tennis please with your head! Our local cameraman shot the event in Münster and we did a rough cut and uploaded the footage for our client SNTV in London.
Managing IP requested a local cameraman/editor to cover a conference in Munich. He edited the footage straight after the event and ftp’d it to our client in the UK – a speedy turnaround!
US based Kurt Dalziel regularly requests our local Frankfurt-based crew to shoot for TE Connectivity in Bensheim. This time we provided a 2 man XDCAM HD crew with a PMW 200.
Gaucho Producions in London saved on travel costs and accommodation by hiring one of our local bilingual sound recordists for a shoot they had in Cologne recently. It is quite common for oversees producers to send a director and cameraman to Germany and they then pick up local support crew to keep within budget.
For London based SNTV we sent our cameraman all the way up to Lancashire to shoot the weird & wonderful World Gravy Wrestling Championships. Our shooter got right into the action and delivered great footage which we FTP’d to the client straightaway.
London based TVC is regularly requests crews from us in Germany and this time we spent a couple of days shooting a promo for GE funding. We supplied local talent from Berlin consisting of 2 Sony F5 crews, drone with Gopro, make up and English-speaking producer.
A golden oldie on our calendar of wacky sports events is the crazy “Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling” competition. We shot this for London based Omnisports and FTP’d a rough cut to them straight after the event, so the world could sit back and have a good laugh instead of hearing horror stories about the Middle East, Ukraine and Cliff Richard.
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
Toronto based Daily Planet requested we send our Vienna based camera crew to film the wacky Austrian inventor Peter Mondl. We shot XDCam HD and ftp’d the footage straight back to Toronto for a speedy turnaround.
Video source Peter Mondl
Wales-based Green Bay Media requested a crew and fixer to shoot at the impressive castle “Burg Eltz” near the Rhine river in Germany. Beautiful images and glorious scenery (we lucked out with the weather) all made for a great shoot. We shot XDCam and the footage is part of a larger programme called “Castle Builders”, which Green Bay are producing for the BBC.
We had another bumper weekend shooting several nutty and wacky sports events. The Worthing Birdman and Tough Guy Race in the UK and the ultimately filfthy Prutmarathon mud race in North Holland. All good clean? fun:)
US-based Eye Magic Productions, Jill Woo, came back again with a request to shoot an item for the medical research information platform WebMD. This time we found ourselves in Dresden and shot with 3 of our Sony F5 camera crews, a mix of local heroes based in Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin.
Fins are pretty wacky and always game for a laugh. They come tops too with their Wife Carrying World Championships which has been going on for many years now and beats all other similar events! We shot XDCAM HD, did a rough cut onsite and then FTP’d the footage to our clients in London.
The Canadians are keeping us very busy and like lots of other outfits from overseas all they need is a sound recordist to complete their crew. Our hand-picked crews all speak English and German so the clients get a free translator and being as they’re local they know where to get the best beer in town. On this occasion we used our local heroes in Hamburg, Schleswig, Braunschweig, Leipzig and last but not least in Salzburg, Austria.
Another evergreen in our long list of bizarre sports shoots in the UK: the good old Knaresborough Bed Race!
Red Bee media requested an English-speaking runner for a BBC shoot they were working on in Düsseldorf, Germany. We accessed one of our local guys there and the BBC ended up with a translator and runner at a bargain price.
Sound recordists love hiding microphones on female talent!
CNN London requested a cameraman with C300 kit for a 2 day shoot in Nuremberg, Germany. We sent a Frankfurt based crew there which is about a 2 hours drive away.
Another standard request from a client in the USA, shooting a corporate interview on a Canon C300 in Frankfurt, the affordable camera kit offers stylish images which can make the most boring board rooms look interesting.
Our old and trusted friend Jill Woo from Eye Magic Productions USA requested an EX3 camera crew to shoot a corporate for one of her customers just outside Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its one of the oldest affordable HD camera models but still finds its place on many lowish budget corporate productions, which don’t want the large sensor shallow depth of field look.
London based Motion Picture House requested a support crew from us on a shoot they were doing about Usain Bolt in Munich recently. We supplied a local DIT, Sound recordist and Make up person, saving them a lot of travel and accommodation costs. This is one of our mainstays for oversees producers
Bloomberg requested we use the portable uplink package LiveU for their recent coverage of the European Central Bank interest rates announcement. We spent a day testing the relatively user friendly kit and then spent all day broadcasting live pieces to camera and interviews. We broadcasted world wide all day without a hitch and can definitely recommend this sng in a back pack solution to all our colleagues
This guy got it right recently when the European Central Bank was invaded by clunky SNG crews with tons of equipment broadcasting the latest to the big wide world. This one man band did the same as the others with minimal effort.
I guess many of you feel the same pain when you have to ditch all those analogue devices which used to cost an arm and a leg. Its not worth trying to sell the stuff and it ends up being binned. Brave new world.
We seem to write variants on this post almost every other day. Needless to say Green Screen shoots are the order of the day and have been for a long time. This one was in Frankfurt and was somewhat more elaborate than the usual head and shoulders shot. We needed head to toe shots to be incorporated into a virtual studio type set up. We shot xdcam with teleprompter and recorded 4.2.2. 10 bit to a pix 240 for greater color depth.
WAR STORY is a new, landmark, television series for HISTORY featuring little-known stories of Canadians in combat, told entirely by the men and women who were there.Toronto based 52 Media came back to us again on their most recent interview for that show over here in Germany. We provided a bilingual sound recordist and transport to help the canadian crew out.Always a pleasure working with Bryn and Barry.
We were asked by the PR agency Scholz and Friends in Bulgaria to shoot a clip about supporting the Bulgarian Social Democrat Party as part of the European Union elections recently.We linked up with the German SPD and shot this during a rally at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz.
This Bank Holiday Monday Hoo Farm in Shropshire attracted visitors from far and wide for the Famous Sheep Steeplechase. The sheep with names such as Woolly Jumper or Welsh Rarebit wore knitted jockeys on their backs and hurdled a furlong to the finishing line. Very, very funny. After the event our local camera crew ftp’d the footage to our London based client SNTV.
The sleepy village of Ingelheim near Frankfurt is famous for its red wine. It is also home to the pharmaceutical giant Böhringer. UK-based Catherine Turner Ltd. regularly requests our Frankfurt based crews to shoot testimonials for her there and this time we shot XDCam HD
The USA based International Automotive Components group requested a support crew for a corporate shoot they were producing in Luxemburg. We sent our Frankfurt based english speaking gaffer, spark, autocue operator and sound recordist to help the main group from the USA. This is a kind of regular request whereby the core crew from abroad needs local talent not only to save on costs but also to benefit from their local knowledge
photo source: David Evers
London based European Tour Productions (IMG) requested at short notice a camera crew to film the new Ryder Cup Bank Note which is being produced at a money making outfit in Leipzig of all places. We shot XDCam HD.
Congratulations to Conchita, spanish vulgar for “pussy”. As most people know Wurst is sausage in german. Hence Congratulations “Pussy Sausage”:)
Roll up, Roll up, our studios are 5 minutes walk from the forthcoming Imex Trade Fair in Frankfurt and we still have a few camera crews and photographers available to shoot for you. If you need to edit and upload your footage we have a very fast uplink.We’re taking bookings now!
We crewed up for yet another Opel shoot this week for London-based Deeper Blue. We had a big crew with tons of gear so we used the incredible VW Crafter to shunt everyone around between locations.
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
Green screen shoots are the order of the day in the corporate world and this time we hit Munich for US-based Ripe Melon Productions. We shot with that old favorite the Canon C300.
Milan based Mediaset requested a camera crew to film with their journalist in Munich, a thwarted interview with the controversial FC Bayern München football trainer Pep Guardiola. We shot XDCam and did a speedy edit at the Munich Marriot Hotel and played out directly to Milan.
Our UK crews were out in force again this Bank holiday. Good Friday for the annual Marble Championships bash in Sussex, and Easter Monday several hundred miles away in Yorkshire for the Coal Carrying Championships. We had a variety of clients, the German mega broadcaster ZDF, the London based sports programmer TWI and the international newswire SNTV. As always, the order of the day after the shoot is a short rough cut and ftp upload to the clients for a speedy turnaround
Having fun shooting testimonials in Frankfurt…
Inky Dinky Worldwide from Connecticut USA requested a Director/DoP and support crew to produce a film about an award winning scientist in Tübingen, Southern Germany. We sent our Frankfurt based cracks to film on XDCam HD … as so often the motto of the day was “interviews and b-roll”
London based Merchant Cantos sent a DoP/Director to Frankfurt to shoot interviews and b roll for a corporate film about Pricewaterhouse Coopers. It’s not unusual for production companies to search for local support crews to save on travel and accommodation costs. This is where we step in with our large pool of friendly, bilingual technicians. This time we helped out with a fully equipped sound recordist and teleprompter operator.
London-based Merchant Cantos requested a Frankfurt-based camera crew and teleprompter for a shoot at Pricewaterhouse Coppers. Here’s our guys putting our answer to Magliner through its paces.
London-based Darlow Smithson Productions required a support crew for a week long documentary they were doing about the Berlin wall. They saved not only on travel and accommodation costs by taking a local crew, they also benefitted from our guy’s local knowledge and translation skills. We provided a driver/fixer, van and sound recordist with kit.
For the Philips Lighting conference in the Marriott Hotel in Frankfurt, London-based Merchant Cantos requested a camera crew at short notice. We provided them with a cameraman and sound recordist and shot the event according to their specs.
London-based Deeper Blue Ltd. came to the home of Opel in Rüsselsheim and requested a 2nd cameraman, autocue operator and sound recordist. It was a fancy Sony F55 shoot and we helped them immensely with our support crew.
photo credit: Visual Impact UK
The Italian broadcaster RAI is the flavour of the month and they requested a crew for yet another project. This time it was portraying 2 former German football stars Wolfgang Overath in Cologne and Hansi Müller in Stuttgart. We saved RAI travel expenses by accessing local crews for both locations.
photo credit: Nationaal Archief Fotocollectie Anefo
Multinational technology consultancy Accenture requested an Amsterdam-based crew and producer to film testimonials at their local branch in The Hague. Accenture sent us a comprehensive brief which our local producer followed closely and we even shot it with the golden oldie EX3.
The Italian broadcaster RAI is a regular client of ours and this time they requested a 2 man XDCAM crew for a vintage car fair in Essen. Our car enthusiast cameraman jumped at the job!
London-based Nucleus Central requested a cameraman with 2 XDCAM camera kits in Nice to shoot a conference so we provided them with our local crew there which is bilingual and familiar with the location.
photo credit: Tobi 87
