I am alive, barely!

So it has been quite a while since I have posted, but for the best of reasons. I have been non stop filming, which will keep the tax man at bay for another year (I hope). I have also had the chance to not only bed down my existing rig but to also add a few more parts as well. 

Last post I had just received my RedRock Follow Focus (well it arrived on my desk the day after I left for OS) so I had to wait until I got back to pop it on my rig. This thing is a brute, the build quality is amazing. My only slight complaint is, because I am a little weird, I like to have my follow focus on the right hand side of my rig, not the left, this means that I need the reverse gear attachment for the Redrock to have the lens focus the right way around. Only problem is, the super solid and stable Redrock follow focus, becomes a little chintzy when you add the reverse gear, it seems like it was designed by the ProAim people not the RedRock people, when you add it to the Follow Focus, the feel is not as solid or direct. The reality is it works, and works well, but I have to be honest a few times I have seriously thought about taking it off and learning to focus in reverse. But all in all it was money well spent, the quick rail release on the unit also makes taking the Follow Focus off a very easy affair, not like the ProAim.

The other big addition is for the shoots I had booked, there was to be a lot of interviews, and I do mean a LOT. So I decided that even though the BeachTek had worked during the World Cup, the fact that I could not really monitor audio and also I could only record one channel of clean un-AGC'd audio meant that I would have to record dual system audio. So I ordered a Zoom H4n (pretty much the only recorder every DSLR shooter seems to be using). The shoot called for the talent to be mic'd with a radio mic all day and for the occasional situation where a second person would also be mic'd up at the same time, so we brought along two Sennheiser radio mic's (this turned out to be a very lucky decision, but more on that in a minute).

Luckily the shoulder mount part of my CPM rig has the belly plate that most CPM Rigs use for actually mounting the camera to the rails, since I use a custom made camera mount to attach the 7D to the rails, I have popped the CPM belly plate on the shoulder mount, this is a perfect place for two radio mic receivers to sit, I then mounted the Zoom on the threaded plate of the RedRock shoulder mount, this not only helped balance the camera on my shoulder (as the entire shoot was going to be shot handheld, not a single tripod shot) but it also meant the Zoom was right next to my cheek, making it VERY easy to look and make sure it was rolling, levels were good etc. I also added a small set of in ear headphones with a retractable cable, which kept them out of the way when I was shooting B-Roll but ready at a moments notice when I was to shoot an IV. The plan was to use a piece of software called DualEyes to sync the takes when I got back for post, DualEyes is the baby brother of PluralEyes, basically it is a very simple interface that allows you to select a series of native Canon video tracks and the corresponding WAV files from the Zoom, and it will either make a separate WAV file that matches the video, or produce a new video file with the sync'd audio replacing the on camera audio. I did some testing and found with a clear reference track it was spot on, as we would be shooting in some very noisy environments, I decided to help out the onboard mic of the 7D which pretty much records EVERY sound in a 2 mile radius, so I attached a small Rode shotgun mic to the CPM rig. Only important thing I found was I had to be VERY diligent to remember to turn the Rode mic on when recording the interviews else there is no reference track for DualEyes and then you have to sync the shots manually, lucky I only forgot once or twice.

The other thing that we did different this time around was I had a second body, a little 550D which I pretty much always had set to 720P 60 FPS, this means that I could pop the main camera off my shoulder and swap for the 550D when I needed to move quickly or get a different style shot, I almost always had the 10.5mm fisheye on the 550D, and it means I was able to get a wider range of footage than I normally would with the one body.

So the first two shoots went fine, the Zoom worked perfectly, and so we came home for Xmas to have a week off before the last of the shoots. Apart from the clips where I had accidentally not turned on the reference mic, DualEyes did a pretty good job on, I did find however it is a bit like when my wife asks me to do chores around the house, if she gives me one or two I am on it, and they get done, if however she just reels off a whole load of chores, I tend to zone out and nothing gets done, the same with DualEyes, if you just throw all your interview from a day and all the audio tracks, it tends to get confused and isn't to successful with syncing, but if you segment it a little it is spot on 99% of the time, I found using the folders function on the Zoom really helped, for each new setup I selected a new Folder I was then able to select only the audio that goes with a particular interview setup and then DualEyes was bang on.

And this is where things go pear shaped, due to my little brush with death by losing a radio mic, I decided I never wanted to get caught out again, and that I would bring a hard wired mic as a safety, so I patched in a small lectrosonics lapel that we have but it just wasn't working with the Zoom, that was until I turned on Phantom Power, then it worked great, awesome I think, pack the gear and we fly out to another open cut mine, this time in 40+ celcius degree weather. Well we landed, setup our first interview, I rolled the Zoom and we were off, after a couple of takes I look at the Zoom and it dead, no battery, hmmmmm, I could have sworn I looked and the batteries were fresh, oh well, lucky I always carry a few spares, so I swap AA's and we go again, after about 10 minutes of interview I look and once again the Zoom is almost out of battery. I start to get worried, especially after I swap the batteries out again and find that if the Zoom loses power whilst recording the file it is recording gets corrupted and is unusable. It was hot where we were shooting VERY hot, over 40+ degrees celcius and usually in direct sunlight. On more than one occasion I got the overheat warning on the 7D and the 550D, so I just assumed that the Zoom was also overheating and that was what was causing the batteries to die so quickly. So that was my life for the next two days, we would shoot in 7 minute chunks, with me buttoning off the Zoom after each and every take to guarantee I didnt lose any audio. We made it through, with approximately 60 AA batteries dead and me terrified that I had lost that GOLDEN take! It wasn't until I got home and started Googling how to recover corrupted Zoom audio tracks that I stumbled on the answer, remember how I had tested out the hard wired mic as a safety and had to turn on Phantom, well it seems the Zoom can only supply Phantom power off battery for VERY short periods (this should REALLY be in the manual, and on a giant sticker on the box and a warning in the menu when you turn Phantom on and you are on battery) I wasn't able to recover the corrupted takes but I was able to get my Zoom to last more than 10 minutes on battery. So the moral to the story is, Don't USE PHANTOM POWER ON A ZOOM! So that's it, the CPM rig with the DVTech pole allowed me to shoot for close two three weeks straight handheld with no problems (or a broken back).