News

Working with High Deliverable Counts

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 09:27:00 Z

A Sea of Sizes

To the everyday person, if you asked them what “size” a video might be, they’d probably have a few answers come to mind. For youngsters, they might hop to “Vertical” or “Horizontal”, or even “YouTube” versus “Tik-Tok.” For the millennials you might think of “Standard Def” versus “High Def,” or even “16x9” versus “4x3” if you’re among the nerdier of us (You know, my people. I see you.).

Ah, that sounds nice to only have a few choices. If only.

But at PEG, our specialty is quite the opposite of only a “couple of options.”

Another Day, Another Spec

There are really two main types of high-deliverable count projects — “multi-channel” and “venue-specific.”

For this blog, we’re focusing on “venue-specific” projects.

The core challenge of these projects is, quite simply, that in large venues (i.e. arenas or stadiums) there is an ever-increasing amount of video boards. If you attend any sporting event, you know this is true. And if you look at their dimensions, they’re often the farthest possible thing from “16x9.”

Sometimes it’s an ultra-wide main video board (a big trend for the last several years), sometimes it’s a specialty column that’s super tall and it’s almost always at least a few super long, super short LED ribbons or “fascia” boards. Those can end up with sizes like 20,500px x 72px. When a sports team, or even a corporate client who has a sponsorship with a sports team, reaches out to us about doing a project for a venue it could be any mix of those.

Add to the mix that we are usually creating multiple assets or multiple looks for all the various board sizes and these numbers add up quickly. For the NHL Winter Classic, our team created over 400 different pieces. 400!

Building for Any (and Every) Size

These projects can be either video or animation-based, but they mainly follow the same requirements. First, the content needs to be designed for all the different board sizes. This may sound simple at first, until you receive all the board sizes, which is a real-world scenario that comes across our desks often.

To add complexity on top of that sometimes a size that has another asterisk to it, like that board changing heights part way down, or physically connecting into a full 360-degree halo, which requires thinking about the animation in a whole new way.

Our approach is usually to design a main board element first, and then break the elements out into the numerous other board sizes. To be able to see everything all together, we generally create what we call an "all-boards" mock-up so our team and the client can see how everything will work together throughout an arena.

Safety is a Top Priority

Put your OSHA handbook down, not that kind of safety. To add another layer of complexity into the mix when you’re working on board sizes for venues you’re often working around specs for what are called “safe areas.” Generally in sports venues, we are accounting for a space that gets covered up during certain times.

For example, when making graphics for a basketball team they could have an info bar that gets put up during gameplay to show the crowd the current score and stats. In instances like that, content needs designed so it works whether those areas are covered or not, all while still making sense to the viewer and not showing a big gap or blank spaces.

There are also times when a safe area accommodates a unique crop. For instance, we make graphics for teams where the output of their show must make sense both as a “full-size” 16x9 frame (for concession stands and general TVs) as well as the “main board crop” where only the middle ⅓ of the screen is shown on an ultrawide board. (See above)

Each instance is different, and once you feel like you’ve seen every strange way you have to work with a venue’s boards, the next thing you know someone gets creative and installs them in a new, unique way.

Sounds Complicated

That’s because it is, and that’s what we’re here for.

PEG has Account Managers who have seen it all when it comes to board sizes and specs, and help keep things in-check and easy to understand. Through spreadsheets, constant communication, project management tools and an organized online folder structure, our team can keep track of what needs to be done, and what the final deliverable should be for each board.

We have worked in every aspect of sports and have seen all sides. We have helped produce pre-built content for teams and have been in the thick of a control room production. We understand how each venue’s quirks require a tailored approach to make sure your brand is displayed as well on the “Main Board” as it is on the “Concourse Left Side Ad Tube.”

What is “Future-Proofing”?

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 08:28:00 Z

It sounds like a buzzword, right? Something in the sci-fi world and not in your video content strategy.

And how can anything really be “Future-Proof?" Especially with tech like video?

Well, in reality nothing can truly be 100%. But for us, helping you future-proof your video content means making sure you can capture today and use it as far into the future as possible.

Here are some of the most important things to think about as you make sure that footage is as future-proof as possible.

The Best Resolution

In today’s world, 4K has gone from a luxury to the standard. And we fully embrace that. In fact, our latest camera addition, our RED V-Raptor XL actually shoots in up to 8K at high frame rates (aka “slow-mo”).

Without getting too in the weeds here with nerdy video talk, people are already starting to have the conversation of "how high of a resolution can the human eye actually see?" Especially if we are looking at things on phones and other small screen sizes. So, while the video world has moved very quickly from standard def to 1080p to 4K, it is likely that we have hit a plateau for a bit on how much higher the resolution will go right now.

So with that being said, capturing 8K footage today likely means that you will be able to use that footage for the foreseeable future. At least long enough that it's easier to justify the budget spend on the 8K footage that you can likely use for the next three to five+ years.

As a general rule of thumb, we almost always shoot to the highest resolution a camera possibly can specifically for the purpose of making sure that footage lasts as long as possible for our clients. And with cameras like our RED V-Raptor XL and other new top-of-the-line cameras, capturing that footage on 8K makes sure it's as "future-proof" as you are going to get.

Cropping In On 8K

So what does 8K give you, and why should you spend more money on it? Well, basically, by filming in a resolution larger than we'd typically create the final video in (4K) it lets us build a footage library of content that can be used in a lot of different ways, not only now, but for years to come.

In our experience, this conversation happens a lot. “Hey, we’re doing a Quarterly Update and our CEO is talking about the big Plant B expansion we had you guys film several years back. You can just use a piece of b-roll from that shoot in the current video right?”

Well, by filming in the highest resolution we can at the date of filming, it safeguards us (and you) for down the road when we need to answer that question. And by filming in a higher resolution, like 8K, we can even crop in if needed to get rid of background items like old logos or a sign that has the slogan you stopped using two years ago. It happens! And we can crop in to make adjustments and not lose any quality as we go.

Most importantly, because we didn’t have to come back out and re-film it, that little bit of extra cost to bring the 8k camera the first time actually saved you money in the long run.

But Will You Still Have That Footage?

All of this really only matters if you still have your footage years later. At PEG, we essentially keep your footage “forever” unless you ask us not to. So when we use that example above, where we grab that old clip and slot it in, that’s a very real world situation that we do all the time.

And yes, 8K footage takes a lot of storage space to store. Often, our clients don’t even want a copy of the footage for their computers because it’s so large they don’t want to worry about the file space requirements. And that’s fine, we are happy to hold onto that for you far, far into the future.

Voiceover Sessions: What To Expect

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 12:48:49 Z

Whether you work in the industry or not, nearly anyone is familiar with the storytelling device of the voiceover. While you hear them constantly in web, TV and radio content, most people don’t think about the intensive process. It takes a lot of effort to searching for, review and select the perfect VO artist with the exact right tone, inflection and demographics. Now, let’s say you’re one of our clients, and that legwork has already been done. We have the talent selected, terms settled and you’re getting ready to be on your first VO recording session. What should you expect?

Getting Connected

You might actually go to the studio and sit in the session, but that is becoming less common for many reasons. So, you will most likely need the method to get connected. Sometimes this is a dedicated, purpose-built online platform for VO recording. But most times this is a traditional phone call or Zoom call with you, our team, the VO talent and a sound engineer to handle the recording. Typically the sounds engineer will generate this meeting invite, and loop everyone in.

Voiceover Prep Work

Before the call we’ll have given the VO artist and the sound engineer a finalized script and, if possible, the actual video with a “scratch track” in place, so they can see the timing and get used to the pace of the piece. A question that comes up sometimes is “Can I bring a script revision to the VO session?” And the answer is yes, but with an asterisk. If you’re bring a revision we’d generally recommend you record the script as-is first. Then the artist can do an alt take with your change(s) in place.

During the Voiceover Session

Generally these sessions start out with some typical chit-chat. When it’s time to get down to business, we’ll lay out some info for the VO artist. Oftentimes, this will include why we selected them for the piece, info about the end audience and any items to watch out for. You, as the client, can also get into these details if you’d like. We’ll then answer follow ups from the VO artist, and once the up-front info has been settled the sound engineer will start the full quality recording, the artist will go into their first take.

Giving Feedback During the record, you’ll hear the artist going through the script from top to bottom. Don’t be afraid of the quality of the call if it’s via phone call or zoom, the sound engineer is recording the full quality audio on the backend. If at first it doesn’t sound exactly how you like it, resist the urge to interrupt the read. It’s considered good practice/manners to let the artist finish their take, and then present compiled feedback for the next run. Feedback will often come from all parties on the call - us, you and even the sound engineer. But after that first read is finished, don’t be afraid to ask the artist to modify tone, pace, speed, inflection, etc. That’s their job, and they’ll (with few exceptions) be happy to do it.

Focus on Specifics Something to keep an ear out for are words, phrases and acronyms that are specific to your company and industry. While we, as the creative agency, can provide feedback for many aspects of a read, the one thing we can’t as easily relay is info that’s highly specific to the audience. Simply put, you will be the most knowledgable about that one specific acronym or that one hard to pronounce word. So, the more you can assist with that aspect, the better the session will work out.

Get Multiple Takes The last bit of advice I’ll give is ,to again re-iterate, don’t be afraid to as the artist to do multiple takes, including alternate reads of specific lines (called “alts” in the biz). It’s not uncommon to have an artist to do 10+ takes at one script before even getting to the alts. Make sure you’re getting exactly what you want out of the session. Just keep mindful of the schedule and stay respectful of the timing.

What Happens Next?

And that’s it! Once you have all your main recordings and alts, everyone thanks each other, says their goodbyes, and rides into their own sunset. Within a few days (or even hours, if it’s a rush-job) the sound engineer will cut together all the best takes (including any alts you specifically said you liked on the call) and deliver one final polished voiceover to us. Our team places it in the final video and it is ready for approval.

Myth Busting: Live Event Myths

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 13:15:04 Z

Over my career I’ve been a part of a staggering number of live events. It’s hard to count, but it’s easily into the hundreds, and if you took the time to count and you told me it was over a thousand, I can honestly say I wouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been a part of everything from the Olympics to WWE WrestleMania, NBC shows, Cleveland Indians, all the way over to Large Scale Corporate Meetings, and everything in between. Now, as the resident “Quote Guy™” at PEG I’ve also quoted tons of live events, and I’ve heard plenty of myths and questions about live events. In this blog, we put to rest some of the most common ones.

Live Event Myth 1:
“We Don’t Need Comms”

Whether you’re watching a small local theatre production or a major nationwide sporting event, the unsung hero of all live events are comms. But I’m sad to say, one of the first things that people ask when they want to reduce the budget or scope of a live event is asking to eliminate comms. For those who don’t work in the nitty gritty of live shows, “comms” refers to how the crew working an event talks to each other. The most typical way for comms to be handled are wired or wireless belt packs. Basically every crew member gets a small device the size of your palm that goes on their belt or a desktop and you plug a headset into it. In that headset you can hear the entire crew (it gets fancier on bigger shows, but let’s keep it simple) and talk to anyone in the show, whether they are right next to you or miles away. Now, why they get cut. The thing is, people attending live events don’t see comms. They see the event, they see the stage, they see the video board, they hear the speakers. So when it comes to receiving a quote for a live event, they have no problem paying for those things that have made an impression on them in shows they’ve personally attended. But they see comms on a quote list and think “Eh, that’s probably just a luxury.” It’s the opposite. Comms are the most important thing in a show. Without comms, the entire production falls apart. How do I know? Because when you do hundreds or even thousands of shows, you end up being a part of shows where there’s bad comms or no comms. And the whole thing unravels. Communication first, glitz and glamour second.

Myth 2:
“We Don’t Need a Load-In/Build Day”

Now, this one has some exceptions. If you tell me you want to do a small show with one or two cameras, in a venue we’ve worked in before, especially if we’ve done the format before, sometimes you can get away with a same day load-in (But bring your coffee, it’ll be early). But most times, this is what really happens. When we put together a quote, there’s naturally the time, equipment, and crew of the actual show day(s). But on productions of any significant scale, there’s often time a load-in day. This is a day where we come on-site prior to the event and setup all the video, audio, lighting, and (yes, see above...) comms, and make sure everything works. Now, often times when we put together a quote, after our good friend comms above, the first thing that’s proposed to be on the chopping block is the load-in day. This is for a number of reasons. It could be budget, it could be that the staff to let us in doesn’t have time, it even often is simply that with the client’s smaller events that they handle internally they generally don’t do a load-in day, so it’s a foreign concept. But the load-in day is a vital part of most shows. It’s the day where if there’s any sort of problem - it can be discovered and fixed. Yes, sometimes this is that one of our cables are broken or missing, and we need to replace it. But oftentimes it’s actually most beneficial for the client side. Sometimes the set is 99% perfect, but there’s one added touch they didn’t know they’d want until they see it all built. Other times a last-minute change by a higher-up requires a change in format. As an example: “Yesterday we decided we want to do an audience Q&A, can you setup a few mics in the crowd?” Of course! But that’s always easier to do when there’s a buffer in case equipment that’s not on-site needs brought in. Another reason that pops up are run-throughs. It’s very common during the build day that a presenter wants to come run through their slides. That’s no problem, that’s part of the gig, and being prepared is better for the presenter and for us. Often times when that happens on a build day a presenter finds they have part of their presentation that doesn’t work as well as they thought when they actually say it out loud. With a load-in day, they now have the ability to revise that part of their presentation and make it work the way they thought it would in the first place. Now they’re happy and prepared, and it’s a smoother show for everyone. The last, and sometimes most important consideration, is that you can do internet tests on a build day. With a build day we can do a test and confirm the in-house connection isn’t dropping frames and will be stable for a stream. That alone can worth its weight in gold, because often the main connection to the building is actually more than capable, but the I.T. department just has to make a few changes to the configuration of a particular port we’re plugged in to. Easy to do the day before, potentially chaos if done on-the-day. Live events are fun to produce, but do require a lot of planning and coordination. Taking these two busted myths into consideration will definitely help make sure your live event is a success!

Remote Client Communication: How it Works

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 14:33:24 Z

When it comes to the modern video process, we’re no longer tied to the mentality that clients need to be on shoots in a video village on-set or watching from a conference room. Instead, we’ve got a number of tools to add flexibility and the ability to make the whole video process for client communications that make it much more mobile and everywhere-friendly. Here are some of our go-tos:

During the Shoot

Zoom with Remote Interfacing

Especially during the most intense parts the last year, we often got the requests from outside production companies for help with shoots or requests from clients who were unable to travel. No problem! They’d send us a script and/or shot list, and they wanted to watch the shoot remotely and provide live-time feedback if needed. To do this, our tool of choice was often a BlackMagic Design’s WebPresenter and a laptop running a Zoom call. With the WebPresenter, we could send either a single camera feed (with audio) or even use a multi-viewer in-line to show the client multiple cameras - even items like a confidence cam and a teleprompter feed straight from set - and the laptop would see that input as a simple webcam. That makes it easy to connect and share. Then we’d have the client mute their mic unless they had a comment and we’d pipe their audio from the call through a speaker or other output so everyone on-set could hear the comments and feedback straight from client.

Behind-the-Scenes of a Studio Shoot with the Client Viewing Remotely from California

Overall, this makes for a great client experience, even from far away. They can even bring in multiple people for oversight at one time. Just add another Zoom member, and just like that, another person can contribute to the shoot, too.

During the Reviews/Edits

Google Docs

For us, nothing beats Google Docs for simultaneous collaboration on things like scripts, shot lists, narrative documents and more. Particularly when we were all working from home, this tool and software suite was vital to allow our team (as well as our clients) to see the editing process in real-time. The ability to leave comments and feedback was vital for efficient turnaround, and taking the “writer’s room” remote.

Frame.io

There’s probably no tool that we use more on a daily basis than Frame.io. This web service joins the likes of Wipster and Vimeo’s Review tools in offering internal and external users the ability to view and leave feedback on versions of graphics, storyboards, videos, you name it. Basically our clients get a Frame.io link, they put in their name (No profile or log-in required), and they can quickly start to leave messages, draw on the screen to point out issues and get responses from us directly. Fast, user-friendly, and ever-evolving, this tool is a must have for remote collaboration.

Zoom Editing Session

Sometimes, it's easiest to walk through changes live-time with a client and editor. Zoom again makes this kind of face-to-face interaction possible! Through the power of screen sharing and video chats, clients are able to sit with our team from anywhere in the world and look at projects, discuss edits and problem solve as they go. Not exactly like being in one of our editing suites, but the next best thing!

Video Costs: Maximizing Your Money

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 12:19:05 Z

Maximizing your money is important for any project, and we know video is no different. In my last blog entry, which you can find right over here, I discussed what factors go into the price of a video production quote. (TLDR: Hours, Crew, Gear, and how I’m feeling that day. That last one is probably a lie, but I’ll never tell.) But now that you know how the price of a quote is determined, what are some tips I have for maximizing your money and getting the most bang for your buck?

Maximizing Tip #1: Put an Emphasis on the Message, Not the Runtime

Now, more than ever, attention spans are short. So, whenever possible, your message should be, too. Oftentimes, we’ll get a client request that a video “must be 3-6 minutes,” but then when reviewing the information they want to get across, it's clear the message could be told in 30-90 seconds. Sometimes, it’s easy to assume that if you’re going to do a video that you need to get in everything we capture, and to make sure we hit every single checkbox on a list that has some optional items on it. But in most cases, less is more. (And even if we don't use all the footage in one video, we can keep it a video content library for you to use later. See Tip #3!) Plus, as you saw in the previous blog (I’m sure you read that, right?), editing hours are the largest factor when determining a project price. Longer video = longer edit time. So, kill two birds with one stone, and keep it compact.

#2: Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Options

This a two-part tip. First, and this is always helpful for us, let us know if you have a budget number in mind. We are always willing to work with you and find options that fit in your budget and still accomplish your goal. So, never be afraid to give a number upfront! Secondly, and here’s something that comes across my desk all the time: A client wants to do a video that goes through several segments, let’s say three in this example. They want the full-length video, but since there’s three segments, they think it would be a good idea to have not only the full length, but also three breakout videos that are comparable to the main but will require a little re-editing. They don’t have an immediate need for those breakout videos, but they think somewhere down the line they might need them, so they want us to do them all at once. And they want that all in one price. Now, this is totally doable. And we do it often. But with an ask like that, there’s always going to be an increased editing time (and therefore, cost). While it won’t be the same costs as if those three extra videos would be edited from scratch, there’s always time and effort needed to increase the number of deliverables, even if some of them are derivatives of an existing piece. So, how do you do it for less? Well, you could have us include those breakout videos as a separate option, so you can see the price difference and make the call at that point whether you want to proceed or not. Or you could simply do them later. At PEG, we keep your footage essentially forever on our protected, redundant storage arrays (Again, see Tip #3). So there’s nothing stopping you from doing that main video now and if the need arises for the breakouts later, we call always revisit them.

#3: Using Us as a Content Library

We have quite a few clients at PEG where we handle almost all aspects of their video work. Pre/production shoots, Live Events, Animation, You name it. One of the key advantages there is the fact that we have access to all the raw footage we’ve ever filmed for them. This can be really helpful for maximizing your money. For example, let’s say you wanted to do an interview with a CEO and you wanted b-roll used to break up the video and keep it feeling dynamic. If we’ve done previous shoots for you and you’re on a budget, it’s quite possible that we could use existing b-roll from a previous shoot for the b-roll component. So, instead of it being a day to two day total shoot with the footage review to go along with it, it could potentially be a half day interview/on-cam shoot, with us using existing pre-sorted existing footage for the b-roll component. This can cut costs significantly. We can even use the previously captured footage to create new content pieces all together when a video shoot isn't an option or isn't in the budget. Great examples of this are header videos for your website or a hype piece cut together for a trade show or for social. There are lots of ways to use these elements to create new pieces, even if they content isn't brand new. Our team can assist in other ways with that footage, such as pulling stills. It’s a common request that someone at the client’s company views the video, and realizes we got a shot that they’d like to have a “photo of”. The client can send us timecode from that video, and since we often capture footage at a much larger frame size than the video is created at, we can then take that source frame and create a high-quality still image of it. No extra shoots or coordination required, just a little bit of time to do the process on our end. Have other questions about video costs or how to maximize your video budget? Let's talk.

Video Costs: What Goes Into A Quote

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 15:43:36 Z

When you reach out to PEG to do a project, it sets in motion a carefully refined process. Early in that process, often (but not always) after some early discovery and potentially some concepting, it comes time to do the step that no matter how big or how small the project, always needs done to determine the video costs: The Quote™ At PEG, I’m the resident “quote guy.” Over the last 10+ years of business I’ve easily put together hundreds of quotes, and if you said it was in the four figures, I would 100% believe it. When making these quotes, like all good things in business, there has to be a process. So, what all are the ingredients that make up a quote you receive from PEG?

Video Costs #1: Hours

Unlike other industries where you may see a model such as “We make an X that costs $XX to make, and we must sell it at $XX” – creative work primarily is billed by the time it takes to make it. When you hear “time is money,” that’s very true for video production. At PEG, these production hours are broken down into tasks, such as Scripting, Concepting, Video Creation, Revisions, the list goes on. The way we price a project when it comes to hours is almost entirely determined by what we find out in the discovery phase. So let’s say, for instance, during the discover phase, a potential client tells us they’d like to do a 30-second narrative broadcast TV spot. We can take that info (along with a whole load of other notes about the project) and figure out the hours it’ll take to make it. We lean on our experience of similar past projects and the real-world time it took to make them (this isn’t our first rodeo, you know) as well as getting with our creative team to accurately estimate the amount of hours your project will take. For some projects, such as fully animated projects, the quote stops here. Nice and simple (-ish). But many of our projects also require filming and acquisition. In fact, some projects require almost no hours at all, for instance if we were filming content for an out-of-state production company who is handling the edit back at their place (Yep, we do that too). Which brings us to….

#2: Crew

Crew is one of the easier aspects of a quote: How many people are needed to do the shoot or event, and how long is it going to take them to do it right. You want to shoot a 30-second narrative TV spot with a fully-built set, multiple-cameras, a video preview area, hair and makeup….yeah that’s going to be a crew of 5+ people easily. But you want a photographer to grab some highlights of an event? That may be as small as a single person. We’ve done crews of all shapes and sizes, and naturally the bigger the crew, the higher the price. There are also some crew positions that bill for more than others – such as a FAA Commercially Licensed Drone Pilot, a Live Event Producer or an Engineer. Those positions require years of experience and technical mastery, and therefor, bill for more than other roles. And, of course, what’s a crew without….

#3: Gear

There’s no denying it, video production and live events require a lot of hardware. Just like crew, the gear we specify can scale up or down depending on what is needed to accomplish your proposed project. Gear adds in other variables, quality levels and capabilities. For instance, if you’re doing a 30 second narrative TV spot and you want it to be beautiful 4k with the ability to easily monitor every shot from a distance, that’s the type of shoot that might get a RED Digital Cinema Camera with proper Cine-Prime Lenses. But if you’re doing a quick non-profit interview on a simple white backdrop, a Sony Mirrorless Camera with a mid-range photo zoom might be more than enough for your needs and budget. We handle the nerdy lensing and lighting talks on our end, and when we present the quote we lay out exactly which tools we think are best for the job. Don’t be surprised if it’s more than you think, especially if you don’t work with video every day. But our team is always willing to work with you to find the right balance of needs and video costs. If you know your budget going into a project, always let us know and we can figure out the best solution to match. It is a collaboration between our team and the client to make sure we get the best possible finished product, but always stay respectful of the investment being made. And speaking of – in the next part of this series, we’ll talk the best advice we have to maximize your investment and make the most of those video costs.

Good Audio Matters for Good Video

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 11:56:30 Z

When someone reaches out to us and says “We want to make a video” - it’s easy to start thinking only about the visuals. What camera angles? What kind of b-roll are we going to need? Is there a drone component?

These are all things our clients ask about, and are interested in. And we are too! But most people don't start out by asking about the audio. It's rare a client asks “How are we going to mic this person?” or “Will this room be too noisy to record in?”

There’s a reason for that. There are some things in the world of production that you know you’re doing right when no one notices it. Like a crew at a live event. If you’ve gone to a concert or other live event and you enjoyed the show, unless you work in the industry, almost no one ever says “Wow, those LED screens looked amazing tonight” or “Did you see how subtle the camera operators were behind the talent?” BUT if something goes wrong, you can bet the crew gets brought up.

That’s how sound works with video. Just like with a live event where you can’t focus on a show if a video screen is constantly flickering. Without perfect sound, you can’t focus on the core message. If you have a beautifully shot and edited video, but your audio sounds wrong, your audience will focus on the imperfection and your message will get pushed aside.

That’s why we spend the time to address that up front - most commonly during a location scout or project launch. When we scout a location, one of the things our team is looking at is the sounds in the shooting environment. If we’re filming an interview - is the HVAC able to be turned off? If it is, who is the person to talk to about that? Can they confirm that real quick, and can we try it to make sure that’s working? Will they be here on the shoot day? If not, can they show us how? If it can’t be shut off, can we deaden it? Is there an alternate location?

HVAC and things might seem small, but these are just some of the considerations we take into account when planning a production. Behind the scenes, our team discusses the best approach to sound for every shoot, and we maintain an extensive collection of audio gear to make sure we have the right tool for the job. Sometimes all it takes is a little pre-planning and discussion. Other times, bringing the right microphone can be the difference between a smooth recording where everyone leaves with a smile and a noisy mess where you hear more of the surroundings than you do of the subject.

With a plan, a knowledgeable crew and the right tools for the job, audio becomes exactly what you want it to be: something executed so naturally, no one thinks twice about it. And that leaves room for your audience to focus on what you want them focusing on: You.

3 Ways to Reuse B-Roll Footage

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 13:50:29 Z

Over the last 12+ years, we have filmed a lot of b-roll. Well, maybe not right now, but typically, we film a lot of b-roll. Whether intentional or not, oftentimes we actually end up having a pretty sizable b-roll library for most of our clients.

Since our shoots can be 1+tb of storage space per shoot, oftentimes our clients prefer for us to simply keep a continuously growing collection of b-roll from each shoot as we do them. And thanks to our ever-growing storage systems, we’re happy to help!

So let’s say you’ve done a number of projects with us, or even just one, and we have some extra footage. What are some creative uses of that footage so you can get the most bang for your buck?

B-Roll Reuse 1: Breakout Videos

A common occurrence for us is for a client to do a long-form video that gets approved and published – and then they like the concept and reception so much they decide they want to “multi-purpose” it. For example, we could make a video consisting of 4-5 people who each talk to a specific area of interest, and then use that footage to make a 2-4 minute video.

That might be great for an event, but that is generally too long for social media usage. So then we will take additional b-roll and “break out” the 4-5 people into their own individual videos. We use the b-roll to fill the gaps and close up the narrative, and the client then has multiple videos they can use in different situations. Long form for meetings, short form for social, etc.

Reuse 2: Hero Videos

It’s a popular web design trend for web pages to have muted, continuously looping video on key pages of their website. These are often called “hero” videos and they’re usually made up of a collection of beauty shots and placed in a prominent, “heroic” spot on the page. Oftentimes these are a mix of drone exteriors, slow-motion collaboration shots, complex machinery at work, etc. Well, those types of shots are exactly what we film for other videos! So oftentimes if a client is looking for a hero video, we can compile one rapidly, with no additional shoot cost needed. Win-win.

Reuse 3: Sizzle Pieces

Sometimes our clients are looking for a fast-paced, “demo reel” type of video. These are often used for catching attention – like at a trade show or a lobby display or are combined with a VO or on-screen animations and graphics to create a high-energy, narrative piece. Since these videos typically rely on fast cutting and highly stylized edits, a large library of b-roll is key to doing them correctly. We have historically had great success with these types of projects, because from our client’s perspective their involvement can be pretty minor.

For example, if a client says “in the middle, work in a few shots from Shop Floor #2”, if they’re a long time client, we probably have folders and folders of content from Shop Floor #2, so we can slot it in easily, with plenty of options.

There are plenty of other options out there to reuse footage we already have or assets you can provide to create a video that feel fresh and new – and most importantly right now – doesn't require a video shoot. So reach out, let's talk and together we can keep making great content no matter what.

3D Printer Projects around the Office

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 08:36:07 Z

Like probably most people, throughout my life my hobbies have changed several times. However, one thing has remained a constant. Whether it was one of my first interests, paintball, or cars, or computers, there’s a common thread: parts. In all these hobbies, I’ve always found myself looking at all the upgrades and customizations that companies have to offer. So, when I first saw a video about 3D printing, I was interested for a few reasons.

But unlike other hobbies, it wasn’t because of the parts I could buy to put on the printers. Rather, it was the ideas that I could make parts. In the world of video production, we had a lot of components on a shoot. Oftentimes these are low-volume, highly specialized parts. It’s not unusual to spend $250 for a viewfinder cable or $300 for an adapter that exists to connect one part from a manufacturer to another. Naturally, when you buy these parts, you’re also stuck with “what you get”. If you don’t like how that RED microphone mount works, too bad, because unless you have an $50,000+ injection molding machine and the source files, you’re not getting a V2.

This is why when I saw how 3D printing works, it caught my eye. The basics of FFF (the most common type) 3D printing are simple. First you get some filament, which is essentially a continuous long strand of raw plastic, and you get it on a spool. Then you feed it into a part that essentially grips the strands and pushes it into a hot nozzle, where it melts. You put that nozzle on a moving carriage, and give it the ability to move left/right and forward/back, and you have 2D printing. Take that whole assembly and allow it to “climb” as well, and suddenly you have a 3D mechanism. You then find a 3D model, and run it through software that cuts the model into separate layers, and figures out what moves the printer needs to do to successfully make the part. You “slice” it, and give those commands to the printer, where it uses those to execute the print. Layer by layer the printer pulls in filament, moves around the printer bed, and at the end you have completed 3D print. You can approach 3D printing in a few ways. You can certainly use a 3D printer and not know how to 3D model. To do that you simply find pre-built models online, download them, and take them right to the slicer software. However, if you’re like me, that gets boring quickly and ultimately doesn’t help the end goal of not just using the printer as a toy, but rather as a tool. So my next goal was learning CAD, which is a type of industrial software that allows you to make one or multiple 3D models and parts. Nearly everything we use is made in CAD now-a-days, and learning it has allowed me to really open up my ability to put the machines to work for prototyping and eventually final manufacturing of parts for the PEG office. So what have we made? So far I’ve primarily used it to “fill in the gaps” of items at work where there just literally no one making the part we needed. For instance, we purchased some small devices that allow us to sync timecode between cameras, audio recorders, and other production equipment while filming. You would imagine that these devices would attach to our cameras with a screw, or maybe a bracket they’d slide into. But they don’t, and instead the manufacturer simply suggests we stick them on with double sided tape. Well that simply won’t do, so I designed a case that you first attach to the camera and then you simply slide the devices into that, which holds it securely in place. Much more elegant, and no replacing tape every shoot.

So what’s next in our custom fabricating plans? In my opinion, it’ll be evolving from “filling in the gaps” to “let’s make something from scratch.” First on my list, a fully wireless dolly system that I have some big plans for when it comes to stage-follows at live events. Keep an eye out, I’ve got the prototype in my head.

How It's Made: Vegas Golden Knights Intro Video Lighting Effects

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 08:00:25 Z

PEG Creative Director, Jeffrey Pritt, walks through how our team used After Effects to create some special lighting effects in the Vegas Golden Knights Intro Video.

Video Transcription:

Hey everyone, and welcome to How It’s Made, where we walk you through some of the techniques we use to create the looks and effects you see in our final products.

Let’s take a look at what we’re going to be exploring today.

Pretty cool-looking, right? Let’s take a look at it one more time.

Alright, well, it obviously doesn’t look like that when it comes off the camera—so let’s walk through how we created some of those looks.

We’ll start with the shot of the Luxor.

To begin, we’ll jump into our Luxor composition. Here we’ve got two layers, and one of those is a composition full of many other layers. Let’s dive into that and begin at the bottom.

First up: the raw clip straight off the camera. We shot this on our RED at 5K resolution. To accomplish the movement, our team actually filmed it from an elevator on the side of the Delano, looking toward Vegas. That elevator ride gave us a sort of fake jib effect, which looks pretty cool.

This version has already been color graded, so now we’re ready to start adding effects.

Obviously, the beam isn’t something that came out of the camera, so let’s add that in.

To begin, we track an object in the scene—the focal object here being the Luxor itself. We need to find a high-contrast area that’s not moving, like the tip of the pyramid. The sides have lighting that changes, which wouldn’t work well for tracking, and the darker sections don’t give us enough contrast.

So we track the tip and use that to create a reference point that we can link other layers to. You can see it tracing along with the movement.

From that tracker layer, we’ve created the beams that go up the sides. These are the beams you see in the final clip, creeping up and down the edges of the pyramid.

To do this, we used a plugin for After Effects called Saber. Saber is fantastic for creating energy effects and beam lighting. With a combination of Saber and some additional effects layered and composited together, we created this nice orange glow. It matches the Luxor’s color scheme while looking like lightning or high energy.

These beams rise to the top of the pyramid—and at that point, we wanted a big, strong beam to emerge from the top, as if all the energy had combined into a single massive pulse.

We accomplished that using another layer: Luxor Beam Top. This also uses Saber, plus some other compositing effects, to give us that large beam shooting from the top.

At first, it didn’t look quite right—the tip of the pyramid didn’t seem to be reacting to the energy buildup. So, we added:

An orange tip layer to colorize the top of the Luxor and match the beam color.
A glow layer to simulate light emission from the energy pulse.

These additions help sell the idea that all the energy is converging and bursting from the tip.

You’ll also see a point light layer. It’s not used for illumination but rather as a reference object. By linking a lens flare to that light and using some other plugins, we create a big glare element on the left and right of the frame. Because it’s parented to the tracker, it moves convincingly—just like you’d expect when pointing a camera at something as bright as the sun.

This effect mimics the kind of lens flaring and dirty lens textures you’d see on a lower-end consumer camcorder—another way to make it feel more real and grounded.

But the sequence still lacked that impact. It kind of fizzled out instead of delivering a punch.

To fix that, we added a layer that creates a ripple and bulge effect around the edges. You can see it better frame-by-frame—it’s the kind of thing you’ll see in movies when there’s an energy pulse. It visualizes that burst effectively.

Even then, we wanted more punch. So, going back to our main comp, we added:

Position keyframes to simulate a handheld shake—like the camera was reacting to a shockwave.
A light adjustment layer to simulate the city's lighting reacting—flickering on and off with the pulse.

That combination gave us the dramatic moment we were looking for.

Many of these same techniques are used throughout the rest of the Vegas sequence.

Let’s look quickly at the New York New York shot.

Here we’ve got the Statue of Liberty. It starts as a simple tilt-up, also shot on RED. We added a tracker at the tip of the torch, and a reference light just like before. Then we layered on another light shine effect, added some dust and lens artifacts, and boom—you’ve got a huge bright light source bursting from the torch.

Same thing with the Paris shot. We used the Eiffel Tower base, did some color correction, added reference flares, flickering lights, and simulated handheld movement to give it that amateur, documentary-style look.

Now the Bellagio—this one was a little trickier.

Initially, it looked fine. But if you look closer at the raw clip, you’ll notice:

The “A” has lights out.
A strip light on the right side is completely dark.

The more we looked at it, the more it bugged us. So, we had to fix it.

Shoutout to Amanda Ake from our team who painstakingly handled the building "maintenance" in post.

Here’s what she did:

Toned down the building’s saturation for consistency with the other scenes.
Used light filler layers to patch the right side light strip. We copied a working section, mirrored it, and blended it over the broken area.
Rebuilt the “A” using four layers—two to fix light spill, and two with matched typefaces to restore the lettering perfectly.

With those on, it looks flawless. Turn them off? Not so much.

We also added light fillers to the top of the tower, simulating an energy ball inside. Combined with radial blur, it makes the windows blow out, as if something is glowing intensely from within.

Then, the lens flare layers—customized to match the dirty look from earlier shots but still keeping the overall aesthetic consistent.

We also reused our tracker and reference light combo, along with the position shakes and flickering lights, just like in the other clips.

All together, it looks like the Bellagio was fully lit, pulsing with energy—just like the rest of the Vegas Strip—as it joins in celebrating the Vegas Golden Knights on their opening night.

So that’s that. Similar techniques across the sequence help keep it visually unified, but we also varied our execution to suit each scene’s needs. From fixing architectural lighting, to color grading across multiple camera systems, to simulating high-energy pulses—we brought it all together to deliver a powerful visual piece.

Thanks for letting us show you some of the techniques we used to create this great piece for our friends at the Vegas Golden Knights. See you next time!

Tips for Working with Voice-Over Talent

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 12:00:12 Z

One of the most common storytelling methods in video is a “voice-over,” which is basically a narrator’s voice speaking over the visuals, providing information and context. This is most often seen in informational videos, but we’ve even seen it sneak into everything from sports intro videos to animated pieces. On most projects with a voice-over (VO), we provide our clients with a curated list of our recommended talent options and then they’ll narrow it down to one choice from there.

That one choice will then either go into a VO recording booth locally or (on occasion) into a remote location and everyone will hop onto a phone call/Zoom call/etc. to run through the script. With all parties present on the call - including the VO talent, the audio engineer, PR/Marketing Agency, other creative team members - everyone can provide input and prevent snags in real-time. But how do you select that talent and then what should you expect when coaching them?

Selecting the Voice-Over Talent

Selecting the talent most often revolves around tone, and how the talent’s speech patterns and inflections align with the piece. Male Voice vs. Female Voice. Upbeat Vs. Somber. Do they have an accent or speak in a specific dialect? But the most important thing is having the right tone, whatever that tone may be, to match the video. So, you will want to set the overall feel of the video first. Once that’s set, the VO talent can be selected to match.

Coaching the Voice-Over Talent

Once the talent is chosen and they’re in the booth, it’s important to get the voice capture correct. This involves several aspects, first of which is content. Typically, this is handled by a combo of the client and the agency, since they ultimately know the content best. This is usually just following along a script, but there’s small nuances like making sure products with difficult names and numbers are read in the correct pattern and cadence. These small details can lead to a difficult editing experience if they’re ignored, as inevitably someone who’s job is to safeguard the product’s name and brands will surely call out the issue (as they should) and possibly necessitate a redo on the VO session. And then we come back to the matter of tone. Sometimes it’s harder than expected for the VO talent, who is ultimately reading a script about content they’re usually unfamiliar with, to understand which parts should be read “up” and which parts “down.” An easy way to help with this is walking them through and actually asking “Can you say it like this?” and then giving them a line read. While line reads can be frowned upon in some circles, in VO sessions sometimes it’s the only way to efficiently get the cadence correctly conveyed.

Alternative Takes

It’s also a good idea to get alt-takes. For instance, a common pitfall is to have the VO talent read an exact URL off a call-to-action slate at the end of a video, and not get other options. It’s very common for a storyboard and script to include an end slate like “For more info visit info.com/product1”. Which sounds great, except when halfway through the video edit you get a note to change that to “For more info visit info.com”. When that happens (And it will, trust me) you’ll be far better off if you have a take of the VO talent saying that line just like that versus trying to cut them off early and potentially having an odd tone in the end product. Remember, on the call/session is the easiest time to get alt-reads, and the VO talent’s job is to deliver the product you request, so build that backup read in and save yourself some headache down the road.

How It's Made: Phone Flip Effect

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 08:57:27 Z

PEG Creative Director, Jeffrey Pritt, walks through how our team used After Effects and Cinema 4D to turn a real cell phone into an animated transition for a GE Intelligent Buildings video.

Video Transcript:

Everyone, welcome to another episode of How It's Made here at PEG. Today, we're going to look at an interesting transit route we did for a GE video a few years back.

So let's take a look at the final product.

"The convergence of smartphones, LED lighting, and high-speed Internet access makes this..." (And one more time...) "…delayed the relative placement of people and things. The convergence of smartphones, LED lighting, and high-speed Internet access."

Very cool.

So yeah, a really unique transition. Let's take a look at how we did that.

As you might imagine, this all starts out with some green screen footage. No, he's not actually standing in that store.

As you can see, we have our green screen footage here. We've done a garbage matte on it to take out some of the parts we don't need on the outside edge, and we've kept the rest.

If you take a look at the footage, we did not, of course, 3D model that phone into his hand. He is literally throwing one of our iPhones out of frame.

A little scary, but you know—at the shoot, we basically just had somebody with pretty good hands catch that. We put some pillows around just in case. You don't want anybody running to the Apple Store after a shoot to get a phone replaced.

Once we see that phone go out of frame, let's take a dive back into our main composition. We can sort of see what's happening if we go frame by frame, which of course helps hide it.

He throws the phone, and we go from the actual footage to our 3D-modeled and rendered footage of an iPhone.

To do that, we took a reference clip and brought it into Cinema 4D. As he throws the phone, our 3D phone follows the exact same initial path and then has its own path that brings us up to that icon position.

Now, if you look closely in that final clip, one of the things you'll see is that it initially looks like a regular phone with the normal coloring—and then it becomes an icon.

So how did we do that?

We basically made one project that had all the correct coloring, and then made a secondary project with the exact same motion path. The only difference is that it exists as a pure icon coloring.

All we need to do from there is render both of those out and bring them into After Effects.

As you'll see here, this is the regular iPhone coloring, flipping and then going up. We've got some keyframes here that bring on the second iPhone look.

If we go frame by frame through just these two layers (which are not isolated), you can see the phone come up and then slowly dissolve into the icon look.

Let’s show that frame by frame with our regular footage on. The motion blur—like a lot of things in special effects—is covering the transition.

So at full speed, it looks like one smooth toss. It looks like the phone magically stops, hovers, and becomes an icon.

Pretty cool, right? A unique transition—something you don't see very often—and it was definitely eye-catching at the trade show it was used in.

That's pretty much it!

From Jeffrey here at PEG, thanks for joining us once again, and we'll see you on the next episode of How It's Made.

Tips for Being on Camera

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 09:29:47 Z

So, It's Your First Time Being on Camera

In the video, one of the first questions is “How do we tell the story?” In a narrative piece, that is typically done with actors delivering lines, but in the corporate arena that’s often done with a someone being on camera interviewed and prompted by a director.

Most people are familiar with a “talking head” on video, basically someone on-screen to deliver a statement, tell their story or simply answer questions, which we then use to compile the story in post. But often the people we ask to be in front of the lens are inexperienced with the process, and in some cases, it’s their first time. So, what can you do to prep for being on camera? Here are a few things to think about...

What to Expect

With most interviews, the setup will have some common themes. There will typically be artificial lighting, and now-a-days that’s usually a LED “softbox” light kit. Basically, you’ll be surrounded by multiple soft “squares of light” that the video team will use to achieve the look they’re going for. While they’re bright, there’s a softening filter that will make sure you’re not blinded. And you’ll also be happy to hear that, for the most part, the days of “hot lights” are over. LEDs run cool and consistent, so you won’t be talking in a sauna. There will typically be an interviewer, which could be from our team or sometimes from a separate client team (It’s ultimately the preference of the client). And while there are other elements in the room (like the other crew members, lights, microphones, monitors, etc.), in most interview scenarios your goal will be to pretend like those distractions don’t exist. Instead, focus on the interviewer, and when you answer try to answer directly to them as if you’re in your own separate conversation.

Let’s Get Started

Generally speaking most interview answers need only one universal quality: Answer as a complete thought (re-using the question if needed), not a one-word answer. For instance, if asked “What’s your favorite coffee place?”, a bad answer would be “Starbucks!”. A good answer would be “My favorite coffee place is Starbucks” and continue from there. The reason is simple, think about it from an editing perspective. As an editor, I can’t start a clip with “Starbucks!” because there’s no context to the response, I need the “My favorite coffee place is…” to inform the viewer to what we’re talking about. Another good tip is simple makeup application. Especially on more budget-minded projects there won't be a makeup artist on set. And while modern lighting is more forgiving than the harsher lighting typically used in video 10+ years ago, some basic makeup to cut down on oily-reflections is never a bad idea and can make a lighting designer’s job much easier on set.

Final Word of Advice

Last word of advice, if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask! It’s always a better interview when everyone is comfortable with one another. It’s not our first rodeo, even if it is for you, so let us help you and together we’ll make it as painless as possible!

How It's Made: Trick Golf Shot

Fri, 13 Jul 2018 12:00:47 Z

PEG Creative Director, Jeffrey Pritt, walks through how our team used After Effects to create a trick golf shot for a Veroot Brand Video.

Video Transcript:

Hey everyone, and welcome to another edition of How It's Made!

Today, we're going to be looking at one of those fun situations where we truly did have to "fix it in post." I'll start by showing you the end result clip here:

“At Veroot, we created a vendor management platform designed to meet all your needs. No other software could handle collecting and—”

And one more time:

“At Veroot, we created a vendor management platform designed to meet all your needs. No other software could handle collecting and managing.”

Cool! I’d say that’s a pretty neat-looking end result shot there. So let’s take a look at how we made it.

In this case, the original script in the video actually called for the ball to completely miss the hole. It was supposed to be a comedic relief moment, where our on-camera actor here—well, I could just show you the original. The actor is supposed to come into frame, hit this ball, and it’s supposed to completely miss the hole.

Basically, he’s the last person, full of confidence, trying to hit the ball one-handed—and then totally misses.

Well, afterward, we were asked whether or not we could actually make the ball go into the hole. The master shot didn’t include that, and it wasn’t in the script, but we decided to take a crack at it—and we managed to make it work.

So let me show you how we did it.

First things first, we had to do some pretty complex tracking—primarily of the floor—to get as many points as we needed. This is actually a dolly shot, and we were trying to do motion tracking on top of that, so it took a while to get the perfect track points.

You can see some of the tracking data used here—very complex. You’ll see it down in this bottom area: it’s a multi-point track. So yeah… lots of fun.

Next, we had to make some layers to cover up the ball when it passed beneath them. You can see there’s a floor patch down here that fills in one part where the ball rolled through—that exists to cover a small area at the bottom. There’s also another patch area here that shows the main part of the hole.

And then, of course, we needed the ball itself. So we cut out the ball, and we also added a shadow for the ball. You can’t really see it on black, but it is there.

Essentially, we placed the ball over itself for the first part of the clip. Then, when the ball rolls into this portion of the clip, what we do is have it duck underneath those cover layers. From there, we can make the ball go wherever we want it to go.

In this case, we had it curve back—something that would be pretty much impossible in real life—and drop into the hole. So, our actor, who was supposed to be missing the shot, now looks superhuman.

It’s a different kind of funny. Instead of a total miss, he’s just so good that he can make the ball navigate back into the hole, even when it’s about to roll away.

And that’s really all there is to it. That’s a simplified explanation of a long motion tracking process—we won’t go too deep into that.

Let’s just say: this is one of those times when fixing it in post really did save the day.

Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us on this episode of How It’s Made with PEG. See you next time!

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 5)

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 10:19:42 Z

At PEG, we do video shoots. A lot. Like, sometimes 3-5 per week a lot. And oftentimes, due to the nature of our clients, these shoots can be incredibly diverse. We’ve had weeks where we do a corporate interview shoot, a drone-based shoot and a run-and-gun sports shoot back-to-back-to-back. With this experience in mind, we know that it’s not always $5,000+ camera lenses that make a difference on a shoot, it’s the little things too. In this series, we explore the smaller items that make a big difference on shoots.

Position: Camera

Wireless Video Transmitter

What we use: Teradek Bolt On shoots that require monitoring, the Teradek Bolt is a great little item to have in the gear bag. Consisting of a transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter attaches to one of our cameras, and receives power and video from the main camera body. Then the receiver attaches to either a small director’s monitor or a larger client preview monitor, both of which can be powered by AC or standard camera batteries. We attach ours directly to our…

Client Preview Monitor

What we use: SmallHD 2403 HDR When a shoot requires multiple people viewing camera(s) at once, a client preview monitor is a huge plus. Our 24” preview monitor has 1500+ NIT brightness, which basically means it’s easy to view in bright areas, like a clear sunny day. It can be battery powered and has integrated mounts for our Teradek Bolt, making it a nice clean package.

Camera Handle

What we use: FS7 Camera Handle Let’s keep it simple. Short of the $1,000+ handles that companies like Arri make, the FS7 comes with the best camera handle ever made. On the FS7s, the handle interfaces perfectly and allows for incredibly flexible hand-held shooting. The handle is so good, in fact, that we often use it on camera rigs that it doesn’t even technically go with, like our RED. While it can’t trigger or control those cameras, it’s so comfortable to use sometimes it’s worth using even if you have to reach up and manually trigger the camera.

ProRes Recorder

What we use: Atomos Shogun At PEG, unless we’re shooting RAW, it’s always our preference to shoot footage to a ProRes digital format. The reason is simple. It’s quick to edit, takes color grading well and works flawlessly on Apple computers (which is all we use). By using the Atomos Shogun monitor/recorder, we can record SDI + HDMI to 1080p or 4k in ProRes native format, a massive advantage versus in-camera AVC-HD/MXF recording.

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 4)

Tue, 13 Feb 2018 13:30:19 Z

At PEG, we do video shoots. A lot. Like, sometimes 3-5 per week a lot. And oftentimes, due to the nature of our clients, these shoots can be incredibly diverse. We’ve had weeks where we do a corporate interview shoot, a drone-based shoot and a run-and-gun sports shoot back-to-back-to-back. With this experience in mind, we know that it’s not always $5,000+ lenses that make a difference on a shoot, it’s the little things too. In this series, we explore the smaller items that make a big difference on shoots.

Live Events

Earplugs

What we use: 3M Earplugs One of the easiest to forget and most “missed-when-you-don’t-have-them” items during a live event are earplugs. Typically during live event, you’re wearing headsets, and certain positions like handheld camera operators really don’t want to hear anything but the producer. Throw one of these in whatever ear doesn’t have a headset on it, and you’re ready to rock.

Portable Clip Light

What we use: Fullest Book Light While many switchers, mixers, and lighting boards come with gooseneck lights, some don’t. When that moment comes, and the house lights go out, you’ll be happy you have a clip light. This particular model has a small battery and is USB powered, for extra bonus points.

Power Bank

What we use: Omnicharge 20 Often times Live Events involve flights, and nothing makes a long flight on an older aircraft bearable like a good power bank. Our favorite is the Omnicharge 20, thanks to its 20,000+ mAh rating and 110v plug that allows us to power standard AC items in a pinch. Speaking of which….

HDMI/SDI Converter + TPG

What we use: Decimator MD-Cross V2 Sometimes referred to as “rattlers”, these small converters are endlessly useful. While we first started by using converters by BlackMagic and AJA, we must admit that Decimators are our new go-to when it comes to mini-converters. This particular model works with SD/HD-SDI and HDMI simultaneously, plus can kick out a Test Pattern for quickly testing signal paths.

Sharpie

What we use: A Sharpie Easily the most-used item during events. Enough said.

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 3)

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 11:40:21 Z

At PEG, we do video shoots. A lot. Like, sometimes 3-5 per week a lot. And oftentimes, due to the nature of our clients, these shoots can be incredibly diverse. We’ve had weeks where we do a corporate interview shoot, a drone-based shoot and a run-and-gun sports shoot back-to-back-to-back. With this experience in mind, we know that it’s not always $5,000+ lenses that make a difference on a shoot, it’s the little things too. In this series, we explore the smaller items that make a big difference on shoots.

Shoot Position: Lenses

Dust Removal Tool

What we use: Giottos Rocket Blaster This is an item that I, personally, didn’t think we needed for a long time. When we first started to pick up nice glass, we stuck to lens wipes and cleaning solution. And don’t get me wrong, those work, but here’s the hidden secret about lenses: The best way to not scratch a lens, is to not touch it. That the beauty of this tool. Especially if you primarily do indoor shoots, you can roll for quite a while with just using a blower to keep a lens clean instead of a cloth and solution.

Protection Filters

What we use: Tiffen UV Proector Filters You know those people that won’t touch their new phone until it has a screen protector on it? That’s what you should be doing with your lenses. So, what are these? Pretty simple, it’s a clear piece of glass that threads onto a lens and offers a nice cheap surface to scratch and replace, before something hits the actual expensive front part of your lens. A rock chips your filter? No problem, for $15 the problem is fixed. Compare that to shipping out your lens for repair, and it’s a no-brainer. Worth mentioning: The disadvantage is that lenses take longer to clean. Yes, dust will slip around them. Yes, you will need to take them completely off every once in a while to maintenance them. But, again, $15 vs. $200+. Also, if your lens has no threads (I’m looking at you, Zeiss CP.2s) these will need added via matte box.

Video Vest

What we use: PortaBrace VV For those reading every one of these, you may think, wait, wasn’t this in the Grip post? Yes, it was, but it’s just as important for lenses. One of the things we get tasked with quite often at PEG is run-and-gun shoots, meaning basically we start the shoot by dumping gear into a room, then loading up what we need into our vests, and then we leave it for 5+ hours and work with only the equipment we can carry on our shoulders. Now, with that in mind, think about the moment right before you run out onto a NBA court, looking at your grip, and asking them to switch you from a telephoto lens you were using for gameplay coverage to a medium lens to cover a promotion. The first thing they’re going to do it put a lens cap onto your existing lenses, then pull the lens off, and cap the other side. Then the new lens goes on, lens caps go into vest pockets, and away you go. Easy right? Yeah, until you and your grip don’t have extra pockets and you realize that lens cap is back with the gear bags, and now you’ve got a grip who’s either sprinting back to a room or holding a lens like a precious gem trying not to damage the glass elements. Take the easier way, get some more pockets.

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 2)

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 11:49:49 Z

At PEG, we do video shoots. A lot. Like, sometimes 3-5 per week a lot. And oftentimes, due to the nature of our clients, these shoots can be incredibly diverse. We’ve had weeks where we do a corporate interview shoot, a drone-based shoot and a run-and-gun sports shoot back-to-back-to-back. With this experience in mind, we know that it’s not always $5,000+ lenses that make a difference on a shoot, it’s the little things too. In this series, we explore the smaller items that make a big difference on shoots.

Shoot Position: Lighting

Sandbags

What we use: Porta Brace Sandbags The unsung hero of the video shoot, sandbags are one of those things you don’t know you need until you don’t have them. Sandbags are simple, just some durable material that contains anywhere from 5-50 lbs. of play sand. You can drape them over things, hang them off the end of a C-stand to balance a setup, use them to flatten out a backdrop - the list goes on and on. Our word of advice here: don’t be fooled by cheap ones you can pick up from places like Amazon. Just because it’s a simple idea, doesn’t mean they’re all created the same. And if you want something that’ll throw a wrench into the middle of a shoot, it's sand all over a client’s carpet.

Flex-fill

What we use: 5-in-1 Collapsible Reflector An endlessly usefully little helper, a flex-fill is basically some semi-opaque cloth stretched out over a fold-up steel frame. On top that frame is a cover that usually has a variety of materials, like full matte black, silver, gold, etc. Basically, they fold up to the size of a large dinner plate, and once you pop them out, you can use whatever combo of materials you need to get a job done. Typical examples from shoots include shining the sun through the semi-opaque part to soften shadows and using the full black material to block out non-switchable on-site overhead lights.

Blackout paper

What we use: Savage Widetone Seamless Background Paper Use it to block out whole rooms of overhead, non-switchable lights, or even a quick and dirty total black background. The unfortunate part: it can be hard to source, depending on where you’re located.

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 1)

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 02:48:33 Z

At PEG, we do video shoots. A lot. Like, sometimes 3-5 per week a lot. And oftentimes, due to the nature of our clients, these shoots can be incredibly diverse. We’ve had weeks where we do a corporate interview shoot, a drone-based shoot and a run-and-gun sports shoot back-to-back-to-back. With this experience in mind, we know that it’s not always $5,000+ lenses that make a difference on a shoot, it’s the little things too. In this series, we explore the smaller items that make a big difference on shoots.

Shoot Position: Grip

Video Vest

What we use: PortaBrace VV This is one of those items that we purchased somewhat on a whim because we frequently do run-and-gun shoots and carrying lenses was becoming nearly impossible with standard bags. We now own multiple of these vests for our production team members, and it’s hard to think of a shoot they don’t come on. Having the weight distributed and large, quality pockets is clutch when you’re in the middle of a time-crunch and just need places to stow smaller items. Yes, it’s pricey, but it’s PortaBrace, and ours haven’t taken a single snag or had an issue since the day we put them into the field.

Spike Tape

What we use: ProTapes Pro Spike Whether it’s laying a stage mark for a live event, or simply marking the floor for a “talking head” style shoot, spike tape is invaluable for keeping a shoot moving smoothly. Pro-tip: Get a roll of it in black, too. It fits better in a vest than 1" Gaff Tape, and your camera won’t stick out like a sore thumb with a bright pink strip holding a cable down.

Razor Knife/Multi-tip screwdriver/Leatherman

What we use: Milwaukee FastBack 2, Klein Tools mini-screwdriver, Leatherman Wave Get them at Home Depot, enough said. You don’t think of it until you need them, and don’t have them.

Spring clips, high-test fishing line

What we use: This one is kind of self-explanatory Another thing you don’t know you need until you need it, and don’t have it in the bag. For $1-ish per clamp, you can get a variety of durable spring clamps at Home Depot or any local hardware store. The uses are endless, and you can combine them with the fishing line for a more durable solution than twine or nylon rope that’s nearly invisible once you get any depth of field into the picture. For fishing line, we simply use the highest test available in-store.

My Creative Inspiration: Jeffrey

Tue, 24 Oct 2017 10:47:37 Z

In our ever-evolving world of creative, it’s always vital to stay inspired. We work on all kind of projects here at PEG - sports, corporate, high-energy, low-energy, you name it. So, from project to project, how do we find that inspiration? For me, I take inspiration from things we’ve never done before. While sometimes we certainly work on videos that appear as part of a series, they’re rarely over a 5-10 video set. And most times videos in the series debut within a six-month span.

This is a huge opportunity, because it means we’re rarely locked into matching a certain style of video. So, when we’re approaching a project, usually my first thought is “How can we make this unique? Something we’ve never done before?” Sometimes, I luck out. A project is described to me, and the whole look and feel pops into my head immediately. And that’s great, and easy, but unfortunately, it's hardly an every-time occurrence.

Other times, I get a half-formed idea that I can bounce off our team and after some brainstorming, poof, we’ve got something to work off of. And then there are times I do all that, and I’m still looking an empty slate. When that happens, I’ll start watching things that are similar and see if I can pull some pieces of inspiration and ideas. A little bit from here, a little bit from there.

Inspiration is like a recipe

I used to think that was cheating, like if I couldn’t come up with a brand new style from start to finish than that wasn’t authentic. However, now I look at it like cooking. In order to make a great dish - you need the ingredients, you need proper equipment, and you need a solid idea of what the final dish will be. We’re lucky enough now-a-days at PEG to have a team that’s capable of always producing high-end content (the ingredients), and the right gear (proper equipment) to back it up. But all that doesn’t create the “start-to-finish” plan. When working off inspiration pieces, it is like any good recipe you’ve used. If you think about it, most times a good recipe consists of tried-and-true combinations, put together in a unique or timeless way, to create a stunning final product. Using various inspiration pieces is all about thinking about what the final product needs to accomplish, and making a recipe with the right ingredients, techniques and processes that will leave the client, and the viewing audience, coming back for more.

My Editing Playlist: Jeffrey

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 09:00:04 Z

At the heart of most editors workflow, beneath all the plug-ins and go-to cutting techniques, is their most powerful tool: Their playlist. I, like most editors, pop up a playlist as soon as I get into a part of a project where I just need to focus and get through a specific area. My listening choices fall into two categories, podcasts and music. These two categories do not mix easily. Instead, I use them differently depending on what part of a project I’m working on at the time.

Podcasts

For me, this makes up the majority of what I listen to while working. If a project doesn’t require careful audio monitoring, I’ll pretty quickly go to my preferred podcast app (Overcast for iPhone, check it out) and pull up one of my favorite. Most of my go-tos are purely conversational, such as some of Kevin Smith’s on the Smodcast Network. Most of their shows, like Tell ‘Em Steve Dave (My favorite), are pretty simple in format. It’s just a few guys who sit down at mics once a week and talk about whatever comes to mind. No structure, rarely specific topics and no storyline. To me these are simply good background noise, especially since many of them I’ve listened through the whole library. So, the conversations are basically just ambient sound to keep my mind active. I find when there’s no noise, my mind goes blank easily. Why not listen to a funny conversation to fill that void?

Music

When I’m working on a project where I need to focus on typing (For some reason my mind doesn’t do well with Podcasts and typing at the same time), or if I do need to go back and forth from audio mixing to other sources. Then I fire up Spotify for some actual music. My music choice is admittedly hard to describe. I find I don’t select from one specific genre, or artist, but rather I just fire up my Spotify saved songs and let it go. These song span pretty much every style, speed, and variation of lyrics/no lyrics, and I just skip through as ones pop up that I’m not feeling that day. A time I do get specific, though, is that I tend to fire up some more EDM-type tunes for the occasional late-night edit. Another exception is when I'm editing hype videos. When working on those, my “Now Playing” turns into a whirlwind of artists who really get tones and rhythms that work to build a video piece to a crescendo. That’s my take on audible bliss. What do you listen to when you work? Leave us a comment below and let us know what you spin while you’re busting through an edit.

Getting to Know PEG: Jeffrey Pritt

Wed, 28 Jun 2017 08:08:03 Z

The Getting to Know PEG series continues! In the fourth episode of our series you can learn about me and how I got started in the production world.

NAB 2017 Review

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 09:00:08 Z

Ah NAB, the Mecca of the video production world. This year was the first time we made the trip out to Vegas, where all the biggest (and smallest) names in the industry come out to show off their newest gear. The other big selling point is the classes, where the NAB staff curates industry leaders and influencers to teach about the top trends.

For this year, VR and Drone were the words floating around every other booth, and that was apparent if you took a look at the class options. So overall, what did we think of it? Is it worth making the trip out?

I think it’s easiest to separate it into two areas, the show floor and the classes.

The show floor at NAB

First, the show floor. The diversity of vendors and displays were, frankly, daunting. You’d be hard pressed to find a major vendor that wasn’t in attendance. Some stand-outs were DJI, Canon, and Zeiss.

DJI’s booth featured a live demonstration of their newest drone tech, including an impressive display of drones hovering in a narrow indoor cage while never hitting the edges. They also had a Ronin 2 available for testing including a hands-on demo, which was quite interesting for us as we use a Ronin 1 frequently, so really digging into the advancements was pretty eye opening.

Canon’s and Zeiss’s booths were also good visits, as it’s rare to be able to get your hands on either of those vendors’ full range of optics in one place and really see the differences in person.

A notably missing vendor was RED, who we were hoping to visit to see their latest and greatest. They opted to focus on a different trade show, which means unfortunately we didn’t get to talk a lot one-on-one with the experts that created our newest toy around the office.

Overall though, I’d definitely call the NAB show floor a win.

The classes at NAB

Second, the classes. There’s quite a few different attendance packages available. We ultimately opted to do two of the three-class Post Production World passes, one for Andrew and one for myself. We both attended different classes, and got different impressions on the usefulness of the lessons.

The most useful class that I attended was “From lead to finish”, a class from an experienced project manager where she walked the class through how she handles projects from the starting point all the way through final delivery. That class delivered a number of insights into how other teams handle workflows and processes, something that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough.

So what’s our recommendation? Go to the show, or stay home and watch the highlights on B&H’s web series?

In my opinion I’d say “Go”, and I’d recommend one of two routes:

Go and just do a show floor pass. You can grab a $50 or free pass from most vendors, and the show floor is big enough that you could easily spend 2-3 days just getting your hands-on equipment and talking to vendors. Especially for the price, that’s a great experience.
Go and do the Post Production World all-access pass. We did the 3-class option instead of all-access, which was nice, but with the all-access pass, you could take as many classes as you want which is way better bang for your buck. If you book early enough Vegas isn’t a crazy expensive place to stay, so you may as well stay all week and do as many classes as possible/you want, and really get the most for your money.

RED Scarlet-W First Impressions

Fri, 02 Jun 2017 09:30:34 Z

A couple months ago, we took delivery of an item we’ve been waiting on for quite a while here at PEG, our first RED camera. We’ve been wanting a RED for some time now, for the obvious reasons of “RAW is better” and “RED cameras set the pace of what is considered good in the industry,” as well as more real-world reasons of “LOG workflows are kind of a massive pain.”

For the last 3-5 years we’ve relied on Sony cinema cams as our day-to-day workhorses, starting with an FS700, then adding a FS7 when Sony pushed that, and finally adding an additional FS7 for multi-camera shoots mid-2016. We’ve had great results, and even after working with REDs and getting our hands on a few ARRI rigs, I’d still argue that the FS7 is the best run-and-gun cinema cam on the market, short of the rare AMIRA rigs you see running around. But they’re not perfect.

RAW is basically impossible, so you have to rely on using S-LOG 3 for acquisition that really lets you use the full capability of the sensor, which if you’ve ever exposed with it in-camera, is not the easiest process. On top of that the convenience of having a camera body with everything built right in has the trade-off of the overall body length being too long to use on practically any unmodified gimbal, plus the lens mounts don’t swap so you’re left adapting Sony’s rarely used lens mount and adding lens supports (Bigger, longer, heavier….). Over several years those annoyances start to add up, and coupled with the image quality difference, we decided to look towards RED as our next camera purchase.

After taking it out for our first big shoot with it recently, in Denver, here are our top pros and cons of our new RED Scarlet-W 5k camera, with everything being relative to our 3+ years of experience with Sony’s cinema line. Pros: - This thing is a transformer As mentioned, the FS7s we’re coming from (And especially the old FS700s) have the problem of not really being built up or down. Their bodies are long, and that’s just how it is. The beauty of the RED modular system is that it can be built very small for gimbal or specialty usage, or built up quite a bit larger for handheld and studio operations.

In the field on our last shoot at a brewery, we had a variety of scenarios, and the RED’s ability to transform mid-shoot was vital to capturing a huge variety of footage all in one day with a relatively small shoot. - Graded from the start It may not sound like a big deal from an outside perspective, but the ability to check exposure easily in-camera is a massive upgrade from Sony’s S-LOG workflow. Especially in certain edge-case scenarios with the FS7s, you literally need to switch modes just to check exposure using a LUT, set your exposure with a “normal” pre-graded image, and switch back to 4k mode, where you monitor your shot in an ungraded S-LOG view. That’s a huge pain, and it costs valuable time on-set.

With the RED, you’ve got the ability to set your exposure ALWAYS using a pre-graded, “REDcolor” image. Pair that with the fact that you can white balance it in the field (Again, I’m looking at your Sony) and the flexibility of the REDCODE workflow in post, and the RED easily pulls ahead of the pack. Cons - No internal NDs Coming from a world where ND filters are built right into the camera, the RED is quite the headache when the situation calls for a filter. On many cine cams, including our Sonys, if you need to get neutral density into the shot it’s as easy as a quick switch on the side of a camera.

But as previously mentioned, RED wants everything modular. Which is great, except when you really just want to flip that switch on the camera to get the shot, and instead have to rely on a matte box or screw on filters to get ND into the mix. Given how fast most of our shoots move, it’s just a pain, honestly, but given RED’s approach to filters it seems it-is-what-it-is. - Batteries. This thing eats batteries. No, seriously.

We use Anton Bauer batteries on pretty much everything at PEG, and with our old FS7 models when we first started using them they all ran with ATOMOS Shoguns or Blades on them for ProRes capture and easy monitoring. With that build-up we got only a few hours of life out of them. Mid-2016 we added Sony’s ProRes modules to the backs of the cams (Which made them even longer, sigh….) which allowed us to drop off the ATOMOS gear on many shoots. This brought our battery life to sometimes as long as 2-3 hours, which was a lifesaver on run-and-gun setups. On our last shoot with the RED, on Anton Bauer Dionic-HCs, we would be lucky to get an hour out of the RED, even with no external components. Matter of fact, they discharged the batteries so fast when we pulled the bricks they were noticeably hot to the touch and required a cool-down period to get to a rechargeable state.

Needless to say, for future shoots we’re going to have to double our normal battery supply on-set or really invest into specialty batteries like Anton Bauer cinema series. All in all, the positives far outweighed the negatives, and as we continue to get even more experienced using our new RED, we can’t wait to see how many more things we’ll learn and how many incredible shoots we’ll be able to take it on.

News

Working with High Deliverable Counts

A Sea of Sizes

Another Day, Another Spec

Building for Any (and Every) Size

Safety is a Top Priority

Sounds Complicated

What is “Future-Proofing”?

The Best Resolution

Cropping In On 8K

But Will You Still Have That Footage?

Voiceover Sessions: What To Expect

Getting Connected

Voiceover Prep Work

During the Voiceover Session

What Happens Next?

Myth Busting: Live Event Myths

Live Event Myth 1: “We Don’t Need Comms”

Myth 2: “We Don’t Need a Load-In/Build Day”

Remote Client Communication: How it Works

During the Shoot

Zoom with Remote Interfacing

During the Reviews/Edits

Google Docs

Frame.io

Zoom Editing Session

Video Costs: Maximizing Your Money

Maximizing Tip #1: Put an Emphasis on the Message, Not the Runtime

#2: Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Options

#3: Using Us as a Content Library

Video Costs: What Goes Into A Quote

Video Costs #1: Hours

#2: Crew

#3: Gear

Good Audio Matters for Good Video

3 Ways to Reuse B-Roll Footage

B-Roll Reuse 1: Breakout Videos

Reuse 2: Hero Videos

Reuse 3: Sizzle Pieces

3D Printer Projects around the Office

How It's Made: Vegas Golden Knights Intro Video Lighting Effects

Tips for Working with Voice-Over Talent

Selecting the Voice-Over Talent

Coaching the Voice-Over Talent

Alternative Takes

How It's Made: Phone Flip Effect

Tips for Being on Camera

So, It's Your First Time Being on Camera

What to Expect

Let’s Get Started

Final Word of Advice

How It's Made: Trick Golf Shot

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 5)

Wireless Video Transmitter

Client Preview Monitor

Camera Handle

ProRes Recorder

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 4)

Earplugs

Portable Clip Light

Power Bank

HDMI/SDI Converter + TPG

Sharpie

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 3)

Dust Removal Tool

Protection Filters

Video Vest

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 2)

Sandbags

Flex-fill

Blackout paper

Small Gear on Shoots that Makes a Big Difference (Part 1)

Video Vest

Spike Tape

Razor Knife/Multi-tip screwdriver/Leatherman

Spring clips, high-test fishing line

My Creative Inspiration: Jeffrey

Inspiration is like a recipe

My Editing Playlist: Jeffrey

Podcasts

Live Event Myth 1:
“We Don’t Need Comms”

Myth 2:
“We Don’t Need a Load-In/Build Day”