So I’m at the Nordic Open Backgammon tournament in Copenhagen shooting web vids to be cut the same day and shot up on the website and YouTube channel for the event. I’ve done these kinds of events before and usually shot on an EX1 where the workflow from shoot to edit to upload is blisteringly quick. This time I’m here shooting on my full 7D kit. I did a little tester day shooting poker on tuesday and it didn’t go brilliantly. At every stage you’re dealing with many more decisions to make, many more boxes to tick, many more things to worry about. Everything you do, from keeping batteries on charge, lens decisions, switching everything on, media management, through to syncing and processing, it’s a huge and tricky checklist. The first day we struggled. The Redrock with the monitor on is a little cumbersome and the weight of the monitor makes it fall over when you put it down to rest. Knowing which lenses would give us the best results was also problematic plus with these jobs you always get into a rhythm after a few days but those first few shots and first few edits are always a bit of a pain. My goal with all this is to prove that the kit CAN be used to shoot this kind of work. Wedding and event videographers will probably tell me, well we’ve been doing this for months now, and yes, I salute you. For me, though, it’s the one man bandness of it, keeping your wits about you, and having the kit ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. Syncing audio has been problematic but we’re starting to work towards a system that works pretty well. We just leave the Zoom running while we’re shooting, regardless of whether we’re shooting video or not. Picture profile wise I used to shoot everything on the standard Sharpness -4, Contrast -4, Saturation -2 setting but I’ve recently started using the Marvels Cine profile which I find is the best compromise. The room we’re in is horribly yellow and we’re finding skin tones do nudge towards yellow making everyone look jaundiced but in better light conditions that profile is the best I’ve found. I’ve tried Superflat but it just makes everything look muddy.

Shooting in blocks of time you then try and cover off as much content in that block as possible. Then you dump everything as a block, sync it up with Pluraleyes and then hope that you’re not called to shoot something else suddenly. Initially we were encoding directly from the cards to ProRes LT, but we just found it was a horrid codec for editing and applying color correction so now we’re using standard ProRes. We end up editing until around three in the morning but we do get it done, creating around 20 mins of edited content a day.

Initially I really hated the setup and the equipment but, as is the way with these things, I’m getting used to it and starting to really enjoy it. Having the Marshall to focus off makes a massive difference and even though the rig is heavy and cumbersome just having that faith that you know when your shot is in focus means you can suddenly shoot with a ton more confidence. Initially I thought we’d be using the zoom lenses a lot more but as it turns out we’re shooting almost exclusively on my Sigma f1.4 30 and the Tokina 11-16 and the odd shot with the 50mm 1.8. This is more about speed than anything else but the 30mm is the cleanest and sharpest lens we have, as well as being the fastest and it’s perfect for shooting mid shots, perfect for voxpops. Also, if you’re trying to manage the rig, zoom and focus all at the same time it gets really tricky and though I know you can definitely do it, trying to manage all these processes simultaneously gets tricky.

I won’t lie, I was preparing to write a blog about how irritating all this kit is and how insanely ill-suited to shooting this kind of event it is, but I’ve come round massively in the last day and a half. The results we’re getting are just so good, especially with that Sigma 1.4 just make stuff that would normally be a bit ass suddenly feel nice and special. Yes, it’s cumbersome and it’s slow on the pickup and it’s annoying bringing it in to the computer and getting all synced, but I’m actually genuinely enjoying the quality of the work we’re able to put together. Its some kind of crazy masochistic thing but I actually enjoy putting that big bulky thing on my shoulder. It looks the business and you feel like a bitch ass cameraman and everyone wants to talk to you about it. It’s so lame, but I like that! We’re also using the Merlin for links and for those classic event fly-around shots. We’ve got the Glidetrack with us, but frankly I kind of hate it. I bought the 1m version and it’s just too long to sit on a tripod comfortably without bending. Mine has always been sticky and judders in unexpected places and even though I know it probably just needs to be bedded in I’ve not really been getting on with it. We shot an interview with it yesterday and just kept gettting shakes and wobbles that I had to paper over afterwards in the edit. As always, the Redrock Micro rig is just a joy. I’ve had to buy a few extra bits to make it more useable like the handlebar clamp and extra rods to mount the monitor but it’s invaluable, the Zoom mounts to it brilliantly and well, it works.

I’m kind of shocked by how manageable this process has become but there’s no doubt we’re managing to make it work. So can you. Just make sure you get a monitor. You really need it. This is my first job with the Marshall, and even though the signal out of the camera isn’t as good as it could be you still get a good enough picture to be able to make sense of what you’re looking at. If they can get full uncompressed HDMI out of the camera then you’ll be laughing.

I’m totally in love with the image this camera can create now. Shooting on primes has been a revelation and so the way forward. You have to move to where you want to shoot, rather than just zooming in but it makes you film in a more fluid way, which I like.

EQUIPMENT LIST: Redrock Micro Eyespy Deluxe with additional handles and handlebar clamp. Marshall XP70 monitor. Zoom H4N. Glidetrack Shooter. Libec tripod. Sennheiser Lavs, Rode NTG2 shotgun mic. Steadicam Merlin. LENSES: 30mm f1.4 (star performer), 24-70L, 18-135 Kit (not so good….) 50mm f1.4, Tokina 11-16 (star performer, as always, the lens that keeps on giving)