Set4Film

What a great shooting project its been for me filming with a long standing client of mine Shane Wallace of Wallace Media who has gracefully taken me on board with my wonderful skills as Camera Operator and 2nd chief editor here in Ardara County Donegal Ireland.

It's been a fantastic five day shoot gathering up some of Donegal's amazing town locations and stunning landscapes that will just leave you breathless. The weather has been very generous to us which that has allowed us to capture the true historical feel yet classic Irish look for our clients project. I guess I would have to say the most remarkable moments had to be of the fashion shoot shot during what was a slightly over casted long Saturday along jaw dropping mountain tops looking down the lush green valley, romantic waterfalls, and stunning white sandy beaches connecting you to the Atlantic Ocean. Really it was like something out of a tropical paradise from the Goonies movie.

My client and personal friend Shane Wallace had just as much fun with his client, Denis CEO of Triona Designs in Ardara Ireland. He has really shown us such great Irish hospitality and giving us some inside tips on what makes a family run business successful today. I really have enjoyed meeting him along with this wife and daughter and everyone else within the company and feel that we have made a great connection with them over the 2 week project.

I would also like to take note that we had an intern / job shadow placement member present with us during the shoot, Shane Barr who is from Newtowncunningham and just turned 18. He has been looking at getting into the media business. Bad as it already was that clients always get confused from there being two Shane's on hand that adding a third one has thrown them for a loop so we had the make use of our last names in order to communicate with each other. Oh it was some craic i tell you watching the clients asking questions and all three of us are answering back or acknowledging or responding at the same like a bunch of lemur cats. I have to say that the intern did a fantastic job without a doubt throughout the entire day filming and we will look forward to having him back around again in the near future.

On the more technical side of things I would like to mentions some of the equipment that was used for the duration of the project starting with the camera kits. Our main kit consists of two Sony XDCAM cameras, the Sony PDW-320 and the Sony PDW-350. Both of these cameras are a shoulder mounted ENG style broadcast camera utilizing Sony's amazing XDCAM HD 35mb 4.2.0. codecs. The lenses that we have set up on the Sony cameras are Canon's FULL HD 2/3" servo mounted glass. These lenses just so happen to prove themselves in a large variety of situations and locations from grabbing some great scenic shots, sporting events, to interview sessions.

The next bit of camera kit would be Sony's PMW-Z1U Full HD 35mb 4.2.0. DV hand held camera. Even though this camera has been used to its limits and has a lot of set backs to it. This camera has been proven to be of great use to us especially for us on our on-board camera upon a single prop engine piper cub plane. This was a key camera of choice to use inside the cabin to grab some aerial shots along with some head shots of the pilot. We did have to fix the camera using a heavy duty suction cup to the plane as well to allow for even shots while still using the camera controls.

Thirdly in our bag of tricks we had used to GoPro Hero 3 cameras that we where able to use through out our entire shoot on the boats, the train, and plane, getting those close up critical shots that we couldn't get with the other cameras or even in low light situations or even the aerial shots from high above. These camera are truly a life savior in its self and produces some stunning images. Now even though these GoPro Hero 3 cameras are great they can also provide you with multiple options from 720p at 120fps, 1080p at now 48fps and 60fps and you also have 2K and 4K options as well. All of which depends on your shooting needs. The other thing about these GoPro cameras is that you are able to use them via your iOS devices or even with the wifi key that comes with the black editions like ours did. However when you want to control more than one camera you are only able to do so by using the wifi key which you can link up to 50 GoPro cameras at a time. When using the app you are unfortunately unable to use more than one at a time. This is a very big down side when you would like to use the app for not only framing the shots but also controlling them all at the same time.

Some other little bits and bobs that we used was the trusty Manfrotto 546 tripod with the 504HD fluid head and Vinton Tripod. Our Manfrotto tripod is great but its load capacity is not able to cope with the larger ENG style cameras very well. Another down fall is that while the 504HD head is great the 546 legs are not. There wonky and a pain in the arse for quick release and set up and often stick in times of quick set up. The Vinton tripod is great but heavy for what it is and could be much nicer in carbon fiber but its best point of it is the load capacity which will hold up to 50lbs with out a glitch.

Lastly we where able to use a new product to our line the Canon 60D DSLR with a 24mm-100mm Lens. This camera was great for taking our PR shots and grabbing some small shots that where able to grab quick for posting online and such.

Overall I have to say that this project has turned out to be a lot of fun in spite of the amount of work involved but working with Shane Wallace and the Triona Designs client was an absolute pleasure.

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