Monthly Archives: September 2007

Backpack Filmmaking Gear List

September 26, 2007 in Backpack Filmmaking, film making

Producing videos on the road requires the minimum of gear. When I travel I must carry all my gear myself. On the ‘El Camino’ in Spain, I walked 750km with 17 kilograms of gear. On my last trip overseas, I think I was lugging close to 30 Kilograms, including laptop.

Here is a list of my current backpack filmmaking kit:

I am currently using the Canon XH-A1. I like this camera because it has a 20x lens, a great optical stabilizer and despite it’s small size, has the same imaging sensor as the more expensive XL-H1.

xh-a1

For my style of filming, I like a camera that doesn’t look expensive and allows me to get candid ‘street shots’ without detection, verite style. I’ve looked at reviews of various HDV 1/3 chip cameras, and all are fairly similar in picture quality. For me the Canon wins out mainly on the strength of it’s class winning huge zoom.

I also use a hoodman for the LCD monitor, and my custom made shoulderlander, so I can rest the camera on my shoulder and get nice steady shots.

High Definition requires quite a bit of computer grunt, at least 2 GB of RAM. I’ve been a mac man since 1998, when Apple revolutionized video editing by bringing out the imac, the first computer built from the ground up to handle firewire loading of video footage. I have an Apple Mac Book Pro and edit with Final Cut Pro Studio.macbookpro

My travel kit also includes one shotgun microphone (Sennheiser ME 66), one lapel wireless mic (Sennheiser EW100 G2) and one lightweight tripod (Velbon CX-686)

This influences my filming style, I don’t have a proper fluid head tripod, so I tend to avoid pan (panoramic) shots, or do them from the shoulder.

The Sennheiser is a great mic, but stands out like dog’s balls, not something you always want to do when filming in the rough end of town! A smaller Rode mic may be more appropriate for those purchasing a new kit.

To the untrained eye, 1/3 chip mini dv or HDV cameras capture footage that looks the same as their more expensive 1/2 chip big brothers. But where they do fall down is in scenes of high contrast. To avoid this problem, I travel with a small light kit, the paglight C6.

Finally, one of my most important piece of kit I travel with is my old Akubra Cowboy Hat. Seriously, sometimes I believe wearing my Hat has saved me from being mugged, people don’t know how to take a guy traveling round the world in a huge hat! It gives me a crocodile hunter-like mystique.

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Video Art

September 23, 2007 in film making, Internet Video, online video, Youtube

Some good news recently for Australian Video Artists….there is now such a thing as Video Art!

Recently a slo-mo five minute film of a guy skating at Bondi Beach, with a stormy sea as a backdrop, became the first video artwork to be auctioned in Australia. It was sold at Sotheby’s for $84,000. more info here and here

This is fantastic, video being recognised as an art form! I can assure you I will be trying my hand at this video art game, although, unlike the above artist, Shaun Gladwell, I haven’t spent years at University to become an Artist so may not be able to bluff my way into the art world!

I find the explanation of what the video represents by Peter Fay, who commissioned the piece, rather amusing:

‘it becomes almost a pointillist, almost an impressionist painting, as the blurring, still with this figure eternally circling almost like an angel or some celestial body ready to return to another void; to another planet; to another world.

And taking its leave in this last gyration, which just goes on, and on, and on. It’s quite mesmeric, quite simple in its dynamic, and yet the poetry and the intensity, and the sense of drama that is captured.’

I think I have found my own undiscovered artist, a homeless man living in Los Angeles.

Below is a video he made which I believe is true art, here is my attempt to ‘artspeak’ about the piece:

Marquis de Jolie, the poet laureate of the disenfranchised. His video piece ‘The Mad Turk’ encapsulates the artist’s struggle. The beat voiceover, recorded in the depths of the city’s underbelly, has a niggling alter ego, whispering sweet evils, ‘Give up, Give up!’.

The Giant Rat, a dream, the willowing footage, glimmering like a mirage. The improbable, moving further and further out of frame, juxtapositioning with the dragstrip analogies.
Desire and Chance….spinning out of reach.


The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
Carl Jung (1875 – 1961)

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To Blog or not to Blog!

September 9, 2007 in Internet Video

Setting up your own vlog site

When I first set up this site I was going to keep it very professional, just the videos, no personal comments, no shots of me, ranting to the camera in my bedroom, as a lot of online MEdia has been about.

I like this parody video on bedroom vlogging.


But I have found, my comments and observations about internet video and backpack filmmaking techniques rate really well, people are interested in knowing where this whole user generated media phenomena is heading and how to make their own stuff.

So I have decided to start adding posts about internet video, as a resource for people wishing to vlog.

For a start, I don’t think you can go past wordpress as a platform from which to setup your website. Web 2.0 has changed everything; Need an e-commerce solution? A contact form? A mapping solution? All you gotta do is download a free plugin!

Next step is getting your videos out there! Now this can be quite a time consuming process, so it is good to see one website tubemogul allows you to upload your videos to all the major sites, in one go.

Then you probably want to join some online vlogging community like this yahoo group which I find a handy resource.

There are also early adopters I like to watch, to see what works and what doesn’t. I like this one, featuring African wildlife, Kim Wolhuter’s wildcast, it uses all the latest Web 2.0 gadgets, and has a good grasp of what narrowcasting is all about.
kim wolhuter lion

I particularly like Will Video For Food. Nalt’s makes humorous videos, has a day job in marketing, and is really pushing the boundaries in regard to trying to make a living from his video making. So much so that he has attracted the attention of a group on youtube called the ‘underground’, who have frowned upon his blatant attempts to monetise his video content. They wish to see Youtube stay unique from mainstream media and it’s reliance on advertising.
kevin nalts

This is all a new arena and I think Nalt’s is just an early adapter, experimenting with different ways to try and make his hobby pay for itself, some of these methods may work, some may not.

The Real News could be showing the way forward, as are the guys at showinabox.tv whereby viewers make a pledge to give $$ support to have unique programming made.

The growth in user generated content will lead to the situation whereby groups and individuals outside main stream media, can make a living from their work, by filling niche programming needs.

At the moment, the online community are deciding how they want this new outlet to evolve.

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