Mark Heath

Videos

Videoing Angie Collins Singing ‘Broken’ in 4k

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Local songwriter Angie Collins came in so I could video her performing a song she wrote, called ‘Broken’. While I have recorded several songs (sound only), it was nice to capture visuals as well. While sound recordings allow you to use large-condenser microphones, room treatment and portable isolation booths for better sound quality, video can be easier to share with others, particularly on social media.

The video was recorded with four Sony 4k Ultra HD cameras, using broadcast-standard Aputure LED lights. The piano was the Yamaha P-515. Vocals were recorded using a Neumann KMS 105 stage microphone into an Apogee digital interface at 192kHz 24 bit sampling.

To hear recent recordings of Angie playing piano, visit our article:

Recording Angie Collins Playing Piano

Seizing the Opportunities from Chromakey Video Capabilities

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In video production, ‘green screen’ (or Chromakey as it is more accurately termed) provides amazing opportunities to be creative and overcome the challenges of finding (and lighting) appropriate real-life backdrops. Many films rely upon Chromakey to avoid the need to travel to specific locations or to create imaginary worlds. Chromakey can be very useful for corporate videos and I find I leave my Chromakey screen up permanently. With care, results look very different to the tell-tale signs of fuzzy edges on old sci-fi TV programmes, for example. Below are two examples of videos produced with Chromakey.

The first video was produced for team building events company Creative Team Events for use on the front page of its website, and features Director Lisa Hunter. It was recorded in Ultra HD 4k using a Sony camera and with studio lighting used to evenly light the presenter and the backdrop. A suitable studio backdrop allowed integration with various video feeds. Autocue was used to minimise stress for the presenter.

 

The video below was created for Creative Team Events to promote a brand new team building activity called Animate. The video features Nathan Taylor. It was also recorded with a Sony Ultra HD 4k camera and several different backgrounds were used. Advanced video editing allowed the integration of various video feeds and interviews recorded on mobile phones.

 

For more information about Creative Team Events and the activities they offer, visit:

Creative Team Events website

Where Next for Superfast Broadband? (With Video)

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Visit of Ed Vaizey and VIPs to Spaldwick

Superfast broadband arrived in Spaldwick in July 2014. With take-up well above national levels, our village received a great deal of national attention, including a visit by Ed Vaizey – the then Broadband Minister – and senior figures from BT and Government.

I have seen Broadband Ministers come and go, and now over 80% of residents in the village in which I live subscribe to superfast broadband.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the Connecting Cambridgeshire team (above), who are a great bunch of people. I recently produced the following video for Connecting Cambridgeshire. It summarises the state-of-play with superfast broadband and looks ahead to possible improvements such as Fibre to the Premises (FTTP).

The video shows that superfast broadband is revolutionising how people access TV, which in many ways is the ‘killer application’ for high-speed broadband. It also shows that the technology used to deliver superfast broadband – known as Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) – has a major weakness. Because it uses the existing copper (or aluminium) telephone cables from the street cabinet, speeds typically reduce the further you are located from the street cabinet. A technology called Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) would address this. I intend to work with Connecting Cambridgeshire to help bring FTTP to rural areas of Cambridgeshire.

To get the most out of your broadband connection, don’t forget to visit my site, which contains lots of guides:

Increase Broadband Speed

Videoing Grease Rehearsals for Spotlight Productions in 4k

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The month of March is very busy for my friends Graham and Sarah Wilkinson as they prepare to put on their annual musical at the Performing Arts Centre (PAC) at Hinchingbrooke School. My daughter Rebecca and I popped in to video some of the rehearsals for ‘Grease The Musical’ using three matched Sony 4k cameras. Two group numbers are shown below: ‘We Go Together’ and ‘Summer Nights’. Given my past experience of the dingy, yellowy lighting of the PAC (shown on the photo above), I employed two newly-purchased broadcast-standard Aputure Light Storm C120d II LED spotlights, and the colours and skin tones looked much more natural. We used two Rode NT5 microphones and it sounded pretty good given the poor acoustics in the PAC. In hindsight, we could have done with two vocal microphones for the two leads (Molly Robinson and Corben Johnson) in ‘Summer Nights’. I later invested in higher-power flood lights for colour washes.

For more information about Spotlight Productions, visit the Spotlight Productions website.

 

We Go Together

 

Summer Nights

Videoing Ben Rice Singing at the Spaldwick Christmas Concert

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Ben Rice

At the 2018 Christmas Carol concert held in Spaldwick Church, Ben Rice sang ‘The Three Kings’ in German. At Kimbolton School, he was active in a number of musical pursuits, including the school’s Chamber Choir. He played the role of Javert in the school’s production of ‘Les Misérables’ and achieved a Grade 8 with Distinction. Ben was invited to join the Rodolfus Choir, which is one of the leading young choirs in the UK (with its members aged between 16 and 25). Ben now studies Music at York University.

The video clearly shows why TV companies bring and set up their own lighting in churches when they do recordings/live broadcasts, which was not feasible at the time. The church lights did not have a good CRI (Colour Rendering Index) and the low light levels meant that the lenses had to be used at the limit of their capabilities (typically F1.2 to F1.4) to avoid noise. This made it very difficult to maintain focus. Since this time, I have invested in bright broadcast-quality lighting! Audio was captured with a Zoom H6 recorder with built-in condenser microphones.

Videoing Rob and James Burton Perform at Christmas Concert

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It was lovely to see saxophonist Rob Burton and his brother James perform together at the 2018 Christmas carol concert in Spaldwick Church. Despite it being an amazing year for Rob, winning the Woodwind Final of BBC Young Musician and getting through to the final of the competition, it was great to see the two brothers together for the Christmas period just having fun and not taking themselves too seriously.

In the video below, saxophonist Rob Burton performs the piece ‘Hallelujah’, accompanied by James Burton on guitar. I posted this video online (including Facebook) as many people who were unable to attend the concert wanted to see it. Within a few days, the video had been viewed more than 4,000 times – many times more than the number attending the service in person.

In terms of video production, there is nothing I realistically could have done with lighting in the church. Subsequently, I invested in broadcast-quality lighting to give me the option of substantially light levels and quality for future events.

Other pages you may be interested in:

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