The Gingerbread House is typically associated with Christmas but I don’t see why you couldn’t use a gingerbread design to celebrate many of the Holidays we share this time of year.  It doesn’t even have to be a house, the beauty of gingerbread is you can carve it and make it into just about any design you desire.

Now it all starts with a good, simple recipe that is easy to cut into shapes and holds those shapes well when it bakes.  I found this one on Epicurious.  This makes plenty of gingerbread to build a good sized design.  If you plan to eat the gingerbread, I would add more of each of the spices.  It’s good as is, but for my tastes, it would be better with a bit more spice.  Oh and you don’t need to let the dough sit for 6 hours.  1 hour is really all the dough needs.  So start out by making your dough and get it into the fridge to chill.

Now create a design.  That same recipe offers a great starting point with a simple house.  I recommend actually drawing out their house on paper or cardboard and assembling it to give you a sense of scale and how much the gingerbread will build.  I felt like I had enough gingerbread to make about 2 of those houses from the amount of gingerbread the recipe made.  Now that you know the scale of the original house, design something yourself.

I was inspired by a classic 1970’s TV home.  No particular reason other than it seemed like a silly, fun thing to build.  So I started by drawing and cutting out the various pieces.

You really need to draw it all out AND assemble the house to make sure it all comes together.   I highly recommend an Xacto or Sheetrock knife to cut the paper using a straight edge.   Just tape the pieces together and make sure it comes together like you want it to.  Oh and label all the pieces so you remember what they are when you break the template apart to cut the gingerbread.

The roof was the trickiest part because it’s a two piece roof with a long slope on one end of the front of the house with a side roof coming in at a steep angle.   I was able to make it work, not perfectly but good enough to cover the mistakes with icing later.

Now it was time to cut the shapes into gingerbread.   I put parchment paper on either side of the dough as I rolled it out to keep it from sticking to the board and the roller.  Then laid the template shapes onto the dough and cut through both layers of parchment.  Remove the top layer of gingerbread, but LEAVE the bottom layer attached to keep it from sticking to the baking pan.

Something to keep in mind is that any pieces that will be inside the house and not seen, such as supports for the roof, can actually be cut out of stiff cardboard.  There’s no need to bake interior supports.  This was my very first gingerbread house so I didn’t think of that, but I will next year!

Now you bake the pieces, let cool completely and start assembling.  Well actually I recommend you do a bit of the decorating while the pieces are flat as it’s easier.  The royal icing was always a bit too thick, it really does need to be a bit thinner to be more sticky to hold the pieces.  Just cut the corner of a ziplock bag to use for piping the icing.  As you assemble, anything that you have pre-attached to the walls may fall off, but you can just stick them back on.

Be sure to have a nice solid platform to build your house on such as a thick cardboard base.  I cut a piece of thick cardboard and covered it with parchment paper.  This makes it easy to move the house around once it’s built.

I’ll admit the initial assembly of the house was a bit ugly.  Could not get the first three walls to stand up square.  I ended up putting a piece of cardboard in as support to help these first pieces stay up and used a few coffee mugs to keep the very heavy “gumdrop wall” from falling forward.  Then it was actually fairly easy to get all the walls up.  Some of the baked walls didn’t quite line up, but that’s what icing and decorations are for!

For trimming the baked pieces, you need a REALLY sharp knife, such a straight razor knife and a light touch.  Just let the sharp blade do all the work with just a little pressure.  It took me about 10 cuts across the gingerbread to get it to cut all the way through, but I didn’t break anything and got clean cuts.

So this project took one day.  A lazy Sunday afternoon and it was fun.   It was a reminder that the Holidays should be fun.  So get your hands a little dirty, make something silly and have a little fun!  Save the stress for when you’re back in the office.

Oh and in case you’re wondering, it was “The Brady Bunch” house that was the inspiration for my design.  I drew my design from this photo.  Why be normal, right?

The post Take Time for Fun over the Holidays! appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

The snow is finally starting to melt, well except in Boston, so that means it’s time for the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention.   I’ve gone so many times it’s more like a family reunion than a trade show anymore.  Here’s my 2015 edition of “Tips from an NAB Veteran to make the best use of your time.”    

Hello Las Vegas. Time for another “family reunion” also known as NAB

Bring Your Business Cards and Plenty of Them!.

More than anything else, this is the largest Networking event for creatives in the world.   I have met so many wonderful people who I now call friends and whom I call upon for answers to my questions.  Some I even collaborate with.   So beyond just trying to maybe connect with someone to get a job, connect with people who can help you out when you have questions.

Limited time to visit?  Come later in the week.

If you’ve already made your plans, it might be too late for this, but if you really want to get hands on with equipment and software in the booths and ask questions, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days.   Monday and Tuesday the crowds are the largest.   Especially Thursday the crowds are always much smaller giving you much better access to the booths.

If you are going to be there all week, my advice is to avoid the “big booths” Monday and make discoveries in the outlying smaller booths in all the halls.  Especially lighting and audio always seem to have the smaller crowds and they make great areas to visit, especially Monday all day.

Also take in the outdoor exhibits between South and Central Hall where there are remote production trucks, satellite uplinks and other very cool displays.   While you may never have the need for a remote production truck, just walking through one and seeing how they have managed to configure an entire production facility in a very small footprint can certainly give you some ideas for designing your own production space.

In Central Hall I always go in to check out what’s the latest in microphones and field recording because when a show idea comes up, for whatever reason I start thinking about the microphones I saw and how we can use them.   It was here that I first learned about Countryman Audio for example and have since started using their products.

ScreenLight was in the Start-Up Pavilion last year. Great guys, awesome tool!

Getting to and from the show.

NAB does a great job providing free shuttle transportation to and from the show via many of the hotels along The Strip.   Whether you stay in one of these hotels or not, as an attendee, you have access to these busses.   So look at the NAB Bus Schedule and pick a hotel nearby to pick up the shuttle, be sure to have your convention badge on you as you generally have to show it to the bus driver to get on.  Now in 2014 I did notice that traffic was MUCH worse getting to the show in the morning so I started hopping the Monorail in the morning.   If you get a one week Monorail pass, it’s a pretty good deal and I usually end up using it throughout the week to go to down to MGM / New York New York or all the way up near where Sahara used to be.

Sunrise from the Flamingo looking past the High Roller

At the end of the day, I always take the Las Vegas Monorail from the show.   Busses can get swamped at the end of the day and while the Monorail costs money, it tends to move more people faster out of the event.   Even if looks like there are tons of people headed up to the monorail, they move you though pretty well onto the monorail to get out.  I just hop off at the hotel the closest to mine on the way back.  The best hotel for monorail service on the Strip is the Flamingo.   It has the shortest walking distance from hotel rooms to the station of any of the monorail based hotels, less than 10 minutes to your room if you’re on the monorail side of the hotel and about 12 minutes to your room on the other side.  It’s generally my “go-to” hotel for the show.

2016 Update: I no longer stay at the Flamingo.  Severe elevator issues in 2014 and 2015 have made me look elsewhere.  I won’t be staying there any longer.

Dress for comfort, especially your feet!

NAB is a big show.   Let me rephrase that.   NAB is a HUGE SHOW.   As in thousands upon thousands of square feet of exhibition space.   Let me say that again.   NAB IS A MASSIVE SHOW!   You may have been to big trade shows before, but imagine walking through and around 4 football stadiums (US or European) to see everything and that kind of gives you a sense of how large this thing is.   In other words, you’re going to be walking….. a lot…… forwards, backwards, up, down and all around.

Note the shoes are designed for comfort and walking. LOTS of walking. With a lot of mesh fabric for air flow to my feet.  Forget dressing for success at this show.

It cannot be said enough that comfortable shoes are a MUST at this show.  I wear running shoes that have fabric that breathes.  Women…. how in the heck do you wear heels?   I have no idea, yet I see you walking the show floor every year like it’s something you have to do.  No, you honestly don’t.  Same with the men wearing wingtip business shoes.  Why?  They are simply not comfortable to walk around 4 football fields or to even stand still for hours at a time.    The NAB show floor is not the place to make a fashion statement so just relax.   Remember your feet will swell up standing and walking all day long, keep the shoes comfortable!

For dress, I tend to go with comfortable jeans and t-shirts or short sleeved button down shirts.   South Lower, where most of Post Production is housed, can get a little warm on Monday / Tuesday just because of the thousands of bodies in the hall.   Check the weather forecasts before you come for nighttime temps, as oftentimes a light sweater or jacket is good at night when the temps drop.   While 60 degrees might sound nice and warm with just a T-Shirt, with no sun and a 10-15 mph wind, that light jacket you brought along will feel much better.

Beyond the jeans, the only event I know of that really requires any sort of “dress code” is the annual AJA Party which is held in an exclusive nightclub usually and does require an invitation to attend.   Other than that, it’s generally just “come as you are.”

Incredible artist Mary Poplin. You can find her demonstrating Mocha Pro at the show. Very happy to call her a friend.

Plan Ahead, Check out the Changes, Use Reference Points and check .

A big key is to plan ahead and then prioritize your plan.  There is so much to see that it’s easy to get overwhelmed at the show, it’s literally the biggest toy box for all of to play in with everything we’d ever need to make great shows.   All the stuff you read about on the internet and in magazines is on display.   It’s easy to get caught up spending way too much time on some really super cool toy that you don’t need, can’t afford, would never use, but it’s just so freakin’ cool and before you know it, two hours are gone.

So pick the toys you REALLY want to see, then prioritize them in order of what’s the most important thing you need  all the way down to those that would be fun to see, but it wouldn’t matter if you missed them.   You will accomplish much more and see those things that will make a difference for you in the next 12 months.

If you’re thinking “Well I went last year so I know where everything is” think again.   Most all the vendors are shuffled every year except the HUGE booths like Blackmagic Design.  There have also been quite a few changes this year.  A new Aerial Robotics and Drone Pavilion has been added. The New Media Expo is co-hosting in the North Hall for content creators, I’ll definitely be checking this area out for my content.   Check out the NAB Show website to do searches on all your favorite destinations using this handy Exhibitor Search page.  Type in the name you’re looking for and it will bring up the building and finally the booth location.

The show floor oftentimes makes no logical sense.   Booth numbers that go smoothly from number to number suddenly veer off into nonsense and you stand around saying “Well it should be right here, it’s the next number in sequence.” 

If you have a smartphone or tablet you can access the My NAB Show tool.  And they’ve just released their NAB Show 2015 App for smartphones.  Search your app store to find it.  I’ve used their My NAB app for the past few years, but I’ll try this tool set this time as I don’t see the regular mobile app available on my phone.  This should offer you a good map view and also allows you to put your entire show schedule into the app to keep track of what’s going on.

Big theaters like this one at the Adobe Booth are always a great reference point. They’re good meeting points too, it cannot be stressed enough how HUGE this show is. Reference points are important especially when meeting other people.

Another great way to help with navigation on the show floor and to find your way back to location is to use reference points.  Pick a banner, a booth, whatever that has a high sign that you can clearly see to use as a reference point to find your way around.   I often use the AJA Video Systems booth, the Adobe Theater and one of the music libraries in South Lower as my reference points for example.    I can visually see that point and if I know a booth I’m looking for is in the general area, I can use that to find it.

In particular, use these reference points to find the bathrooms.   Small thing I know, but at least in South Hall, they are along the far left and right walls and finding these easily is a good thing.  

One of my favorite people, Al Mooney from Adobe. One of the most unique and fun people you’ll ever meet.

Stay tuned for the Sunday announcements.

Many companies presenting at NAB will either have press events or issue press releases on Sunday announcing their latest toys that will be on display in the exhibition halls.  Websites such as CreativeCow.net have great news feeds that help you follow along with the almost dizzying array of releases.

Make notes of the releases that are of special interest to you so you’ll know what that company is debuting, locate their booth number, and prepare some questions.  Yeah, write your questions down or put them in your phone / tablet because you’ll definitely forget what you were going to ask when you get to the booth.    EVERYTHING sounds incredible in the press release, seeing it on the show floor and asking the right questions can get you a better picture of what the toy can and cannot do.  Pay very close attention to what the product does NOW and what might come in a future release.  There’s a lot of difference between what’s ready to go now and what “might” happen at a later date.

Most of the manufacturers on the show floor are very frank about what their products CAN’T do.  They want to make sure the right information gets out and they want you to be a satisfied customer.  So don’t just take everything at face value, ask questions!   And here’s the best question to ask,  “Is this shipping now and if not when will it ship?”  Some companies have developed reputations of demonstrating really awesome stuff that’s still not available when NAB comes around again.  Heck some of it never gets released, hence the term “vaporware.”

Getting blocked on Sunday afternoon. Some things you just can’t show until Monday Morning.

Eat Your Breakfast!

Eat a good breakfast before headed to the Convention Center.  The main food choices at the Convention Center range from crappy to lousy.  In over 12 years of attending NAB, the convention center has never managed to improve the food quality.  The barbecue outside of Central Hall is about the best food on the entire property.

The lines at these food locations between 11:30am – 1:00pm is going to be ridiculously long too.  You’re best off getting a snack or a pre-made sandwich somewhere.   There’s a sandwich shop in the back of South Hall that’s usually pretty quick.

So fill up on breakfast and bring some snack bars with you or grab a quick snack / sandwich at a vendor.

Monday Morning.

UPDATE: NAB Exhibits will open at 10:00am on Monday.  Not 9:00 as before.

Here’s my yearly reminder: You do not have to start lining up at 9:30am Monday morning to be the very first one into the convention hall.   Things do not start disappearing at 10:01 am.   Once again, last year, there was a huge mob of people just lining up outside the gates at South Hall waiting to sprint into the convention.  Those of us working the booths call this “The running of the bulls.”  You don’t win points for being first.   Just relax, grab a cup of coffee or tea at the Starbucks and when the gates open, there will be plenty of room for everyone.   The place holds something like 100,000 people, so relax, let the mob run in ahead you and then you can just meander in behind them.

A GREAT way to avoid the mobs on Monday morning is to walk directly to the back half of the convention hall first thing.  It’s always quiet back there Monday morning because folks get hung up at the huge booths up front .   Lots of equipment and personnel available in the booth out back to get your hands on and questions answered.   Then you can wander back up to the front after lunch.

Another great tip, walk the outside walls on the left and right side of the halls, especially South Hall.  Walking down the middle is basically rush hour all day, every day, especially at the front of South Hall.  So walk along the outer walls to get around the show floor more easily.

FINALLY meeting up with Angie Taylor at the 2014 Media Motion Ball. Just an amazing artist and incredible creative professional.

I’ve also found some really cool widgets, software and tools for my work that I never would have found without just strolling “off the beaten path” as it were, such as my incredibly awesome Anthro edit consoles.   For Post Production, the Plug-In Pavilion is always a great place to see what’s out there for effects and time savers.  There’s also something called the Start-Up Pavilion with brand new products often debuting at the show from smaller companies.  Always great to see what they have to share with us.

Pace Yourself, stay hydrated.

Unless you are only in Vegas for one day (because your cheap boss wouldn’t spring for at least two days) pace yourself, nothing is going anywhere for four days.  It’s not like those stupid day after Thanksgiving sales, there’s nothing that’s going to disappear except maybe some of the free swag that you’ll probably throw away when you get home anyway.

Many of the larger booths have chairs, small theaters with presentations throughout the day which are great to just sit and take a break for a few minutes.   Sit in on some of the presentations that are about the toys you are considering.   Sure these are well planned 15 – 30 minute presentations, but watching them can give you a good sense of whether the toy is what you expected it to be.  In addition, the presentations allow you to form questions to pose to the folks working these toys in the booth.   And there’s that sitting down for 15 – 30 minutes part that’s a good thing for your feet.

And above all stay hydrated, drink lots of water.   The air is very dry in Las Vegas and it’s easy to get dehydrated with all the walking around you’re going to be doing.   Not just at the convention, walking around the streets of Vegas will wear you out if you don’t stay hydrated.    One of my first stops every year is to CVS pharmacy or small shop on the street to pick up a 6 pack of bottled water that I can refill as the week goes on.

Remember that Vegas also uses a lot of forced perspective, so things that appear to be right down the block are actually 1/2 mile or more away.   For example what looks like a short walk from New York, New York Casino to Treasure Island is more like a 50 minute walk up the street.

Shane Ross is one of the coolest guys I have the pleasure of calling my friend. We’re longtime veterans from the Creative Cow pastures.  Note the ‘classic’ Automatic Duck lanyard.  All the cool kids have them.

Evening Events.

Many manufacturers and groups have evening and after hours events.   These are as simple as meet and greets to the world-renowed AJA VIP party.   Some are free and some cost to attend.  For the most part they’re fun and these are generally the best place to simply hang and meet up with your peers.   You’ll find many of the bloggers, the writers, and folks who post on the various forums and tweet away all year long.  And don’t be shy at these events, just walk up and say hello.

Now the same suggestions for the main show, also apply to the evening events.  Primarily, pace yourself.   There are a LOT of evening events, pick and choose a few, if you don’t make them all, so what?   It’s ok.   And manage your intake of alcohol.   Yes everyone likes to party and have a beer or two, but I’m amazed at the number of folks revert back to frat college days and get completely wasted to the point where you really don’t even want to be around them.   Remember, you are representing yourself at all times and it’s best to remain coherent and professional when you’re in public.  As many of the beer companies remind us, “Drink Responsibly.”   And at most of these you’re going to do a lot of standing, so again, wear comfortable shoes!

Hanging with Andrew Kramer at the Adobe event. Amazing artist and a really fun event.

My absolute favorite event each year is the Media Motion Ball.  It’s a smaller gathering, costs a bit more money because they serve a very nice buffet sit down dinner and is more low key than some of the other larger gatherings.   It’s quieter so we can all chat and it’s a very friendly atmosphere.   The sponsor tables are also usually in the same room and are very approachable.  Often you’ll find the folks from the “big booths” like Blackmagic Design where you can meet more one on one with the product folks than out on the floor.

The biggest event for the Post Production industry is always the SuperMeet.  Part carnival, part demonstration, always entertaining.  Home of the one of the largest raffles in all of NAB.   It’s also a great place to find out if there are any Post Production User Groups in your area as they do a parade of user groups as part of the event.  Personally I go for about the first 1/4 to 1/2 of the event spending more time out in the sponsor area as it’s a great place for me to catch up with a lot of my friends and to meet many of you from the CreativeCow, my blog and Twitter.

For those of you arriving by Sunday, #PostChat will be hosting a casual meet up at 8pm. Check out their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter for details..

#PostChat meet up Sunday night with Jesse Averna and Monica Daniel. Two AWESOME people in Post Production and what a super fun event!

Most manufacturers and groups will have events posted on their websites or at the booths so check them out and decide if anything works for you.  And if you don’t want to go out and party, then don’t, there are so many great restaurants and food joints all over town, go enjoy yourself at one of those.

David McGavran from Adobe and Eric Addison photobombing us from behind at the SuperMeet.  David’s one of the masterminds who makes the Adobe tools work so well for all of us.

I forgot my hard drive, power cord, etc… and portable cell phone chargers

I found a super cool selfie camera stick on the strip last year to make WallyCam that much better!

The Fashion Show Mall (weird name I know) located near Treasure Island and the Wynn hotel has an Apple Store and other electronics stores that should have whatever you left behind or lost on your way to Las Vegas.   Other good stores and a great food court in there as well.

Your Cell Phone will NOT last through the entire day.  NAB Show days and nights are LONG!  So bring a few back up batteries so you can recharge your phone during the day.  There are many USB portable charger units around like these, I have three of them here and plan to bring all of them to have on me during the day.  (Thanks to Dylan Reeve for the reminder on this tip)

By the way, bring a small power tap or power strip so you can recharge all that electronic gear you need at night.

Beyond the Show, my suggestions for food and fun.

You’re in Las Vegas, there are literally tons of things to do besides gambling.   Quite honestly gambling bores me, I used to work in the largest casino in the world and slot machines and such never interested me.  I do place one bet each year on the weekend NASCAR race, but beyond that, not much else.    So here’s some thoughts beyond the obvious gambling and drinking.

Enjoying the Media Motion Ball with Yoke Desmet from Flanders Scientific. Love hanging with the FSI clan, they’re super awesome people!

I can’t over emphasize how good the restaurants are both on and off the Strip.   Buca de Beppo is wonderful off the strip.   Our favorite buffet has been the Spice Market Buffet in Planet Hollywood although the Bacchanal Buffet in Caesars Palace was just insanely good last year.  Pricey, but amazing and it features ice cream from our good friends at High Road Craft.    

The best grouping of restaurants in one hotel is the Venetian with Wolfgang Puck’s Postrio being the standout, but there are a lot of great choices in that one hotel including the Grand Lux and an awesome Mexican Cantina.  If you go downstairs in the Shoppes at Palazzos you’ll find an absolutely killer Espressamente Illy coffee house / gelato shop.  My favorite coffee in Vegas.

One fun thing that presents tons of photo opportunities is the Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum in the Venetian Hotel.   What makes it so fun is that nothing is behind glass, it’s all out so you can stand and pose with the wax people.   It’s silly fun with something like 54 celebrities or so to get your picture with in a walk at your own pace style.

Of the “big shows” in I’ve seen in Vegas, “O” at the Bellagio simply takes the cake for spectacle.  I spent as much time enjoying the show as I did marveling at the staging and just trying to figure out what sort of a warped mind can actually create some of this.  Simply stunning both creatively and technically.  Mystere at Treasure Island is still my favorite Cirque show and although I’ve yet to make it, The Beatles Love at Mirage is supposed to be spectacular.  Penn & Teller come out to the lobby after every show to meet and greet for any guest that wants to say hello.

Team Adobe at the Hard Rock Live event downtown. Yeah, we’re having that much fun!

The show is what you make it.

Simply put, NAB Show is what you make it.  You’re around somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 people for a few days.   The way you make connections and the way you network is to walk up and say “hello.”   That’s how I got to know so many people over the years.   I’ve read their blogs, their articles, watched their companies grow, etc….  and when I saw them on the show floor, I just walked over and said “hello” and gave them my card.

Some folks I never heard from again.  But those that did reach out have turned into some of the most valuable resources and best friends I could possibly ask for.   Networking and meeting new people is the main reason I attend most years.   Yeah, Vegas itself gets to be boring when you go every single year, but what keeps me coming back is simply getting the chance to see everyone in one place each year.

So don’t be shy, don’t be rude either, but if you want to say hello to folks, say hello.  If you want to say hello to me, you can find me on the show floor, at the #PostChat event and definitely at the Media Motion Ball.  I’ll post my schedule in a separate blog when my schedule is finalized.

If you want to get a sense of how much fun NAB is, just search #WallyCam in this blog for a slew of my selfie videos from the show both last year and in 2013.  This one with Marco Solorio is one of my favorites from last year.  

There you go, some tips and tricks from a veteran of the Las Vegas NAB Scene.   Again: Bring lots and lots of business cards, shake a lot hands and make yourself some new friends you can call upon when need advice.   Most importantly have fun.  We’ll see you there!

The World Famous SuperMeet.

The post NAB Show 2015: Annual Tips from a Convention Veteran appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

For some reason when I look at risks, usually BIG risks, and I always see the opportunity.   I’m aware of what can happen if the risk doesn’t pay off, but the opportunities for success are what intrigue me.   The fun factor is also an influence.   I mean why do something if you’re not going to enjoy it?    It might stressful as all hell, but if there’s some fun to be had in the risk, well that is something to be considered. I’ve been really quiet on this site, the Creative Cow and many others because I’ve been working hard towards a great risk that comes with some incredible rewards and a whole heaping lot of fun.  After I finish my 8 hours or so at the office, I spend another 5 hours or so working on “the risk”  and on weekends usually at least another 8 – 12 hours.   So when I think about writing articles and doing tutorials, well I’m plumb mentally exhausted.

We’ve heard for so many years, “Content is King.”   Well now, especially as we move into 2015, “The Content Creator Is King.”  No longer are we beholden to the “established networks” and their need to shock the maximum audience size they can at 8pm on a Thursday night. No more being rejected because the people in your pilot are “too hipster.”   Yes, that was a real comment from a real network on why they rejected a series.  “Great show, great production value, but your main characters are too hipster for today’s audience.”  If you can figure out what that means, please tell me and my agents.     Basically if it’s not a shocking reality show or some competition show that can be produced super cheap (see: Party Down South) the networks really don’t want to touch it.

Especially in the lifestyle space, good quality edutainment is no longer wanted.   Shows like “Good Eats” with Alton Brown which are highly entertaining but at the same time share lots of really useful information the audience can actually use.  I can’t even tell you how many things I learned from him both as a fan and a crew member on the series.   So much of what I do in the kitchen and on the grill is still influenced by what Alton taught me.   So what the broadcasters don’t want, opens an avenue in the digital world.

Sure you know about YouTube but other distribution options that you might have heard mentioned are MCN or OTT.   Multi-Channel Network and Over The Top.   Essentially building a television network minus the cable and satellite distribution ecosystem and costs.   I first learned about this in early 2014 as I was researching to launch a channel either via YouTube or Vimeo.   I had never heard the terms MCN or OTT until a former colleague took me to lunch one day and in about 10 minutes it made total sense.  The technology and resources were already in place to build something so much larger than a simple YouTube or Vimeo channel.   Sure those would still come into play as marketing elements, but I can literally launch an entirely new type of “television” network using off the shelf components.

Yeah it sounds easy, and now that I’ve got all the pieces in place, it really IS surprisingly easy, but getting to this point and getting it launched as you can imagine involves a great deal of risk on my part.   And the part of my lovely and patient wife.   You’re looking at someone who’s never really put together a serious business plan before, hired folks to run financial projections, gone after investors, put together an executive team and all the things that go with launching a major venture.   I’m a content creator, I can design and oversee 12 original series simultaneously without much thought.   But putting together an investor pitch for a “shark tank” type of presentation and I’m sweating bullets, completely out of my element.

So I had to look outside my normal circle, my comfort zone and find the right people to surround myself with.    The only way to do that is to simply ask your network of friends and colleagues for help.   Some false starts along the way and fast forward to November and January and suddenly I’m in those “shark tank” moments actually enjoying the chance to present and asking people to give me money to launch a new venture.   Boy, that’s a long way forward from a video editor in 1990 at CNN to standing in a room full of investors as Founder and Executive Producer of Contemporary Living Network.

I learned a long time ago, I can’t be afraid to Dance.  When an opportunity is presented, or I see the chance to create an opportunity I don’t let the possibility of failure stop me.  After consideration, if there is a good practical reason not to proceed I don’t.  But if “the possibility of failure” is really the major reason not to do something, I have never let that stop me.  From making career choices, to expanding my operation to taking on the role of Executive Producer.   There’s a confidence that comes with taking risks and even failing in those risks.  Because from failure comes the lessons to move forward and be successful tomorrow.

In 2015 resolve to Dance.  I’m not saying to go out and take a huge risk, but do something you never thought you would do.  Write, Direct, Photograph, Dance, Draw, Paint whatever.  Get outside your comfort zone.   You might like it and those baby steps can lead to larger opportunities.   And if it doesn’t work, learn from what went wrong, dust yourself off and move forward.  Never stop moving forward, never stop learning and never stop believing in yourself.

“I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance,  
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.  

Dance….I hope you dance. “

The post Learn to “Dance” in 2015 appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Big shout out to Carl Olson for all his help these past two years setting up the site.  He’s a great designer and a good friend.  Be sure to check out his DCP podcast with great interviews with many industry leaders.

Walter

The post Changing WalterBiscardi.com to a free site! appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

This first shoot was set up to accomplish two main objectives.  Start production for my new Contemporary Living Network and to serve as a camera / workflow test for 4k UHD.  I’ve read and researched as much information as I can on the various cameras (Marco Solorio and Erik Naso especially have great info out there) but there’s no real way to know what is going to work unless you try them out.  In our case, we’re producing lifestyle programming that can lead to all sorts of lighting and production situations.  As with any other format, there is NOT a “single camera fits all needs” out there yet for 4k UHD. We’re probably going to end up with multiple cameras and send them out depending on what the production situation will be.  Let me give a great shout-out to LensRentals.com where it’s quite affordable to test out cameras, lenses and lots of other production gear before you buy.  Rent some gear, try it yourself and make your own decision if a camera will work for you.

And keep in mind, I’ve been an editor for almost 25 years and Post is my primary expertise.  The shooting thing has kind of happened as the cameras have become smaller.  I really know what I want to see in the edit suite and this evolution of small camera and high quality image has really helped me bring my editor’s eye to both directing and cinematography.   So here’s a first look at our entry into the world of 4k UHD shooting.

Two complete GH4 rigs from LensRentals.com

For this first shoot, we decided to go with the Panasonic Lumix GH4 for our primary hand held cameras.  Two camera shoot, shooting 4k / 24p (23.98) at using Panasonic’s highest quality 100mbps  setting.  Through LensRentals.com I rented two GH4 cameras with Wooden Camera cages, got 4 extra batteries with 2 chargers, 4 of the 64GB SAN Disk 280mb/s cards, and 2 Lumix shotgun mics which are great because they use phantom power from the camera.  For lenses I went with Panasonic 12-35mm with stabilization for both cameras plus one 35-100mm zoom to have one hand in case we needed it.    The 64GB cards will shoot 1 hour, 23 minutes at the 4k / 24p / 100mbps settings on the camera.   The batteries run a long time too.  We were going 3 hours at least before switching batteries.   I also purchased two of the Vello triple hot shoe adapter so we could mount the shotgun mic and mini camera light on the same camera.  In addition we used my Digital Juice MiniBurst 128 LED light on the camera.

One lens actually arrived with a bad crack right in the middle of it, LensRentals overnighted us a new one, but we had to start shooting the first day with one of my old Canon 28mm FD lenses from 1983 via my Metabones FD to Micro 4/3 adapter / speedbooster.   It worked surprisingly well.

GH4 with my Vello hot shoe adapter and the Digital Juice MicroBurst 128 LED light

In addition, we took delivery of a new Blackmagic Design 4k Production Camera which we didn’t expect to arrive so quickly.  That camera is a bit unwieldily for handheld shooting without at least a basic cage around it plus we have to set up external batteries for it since you can’t swap out the internal one.   We simply didn’t have enough time to rig it correctly for handheld shooting so we used it locked down on a tripod as our “wide expose the set” camera using a Canon 15-55mm EF lens.   I purchased a 480GB SanDisk SSD for this first shoot using the specs for the drive in the BMD Operators Manual.  In 4k ProRes, I could get approx. 1 hour 24 minutes recording.  In 4k ProRes LT I could get 2 hours 40 minutes recording.  We went with the ProRes LT setting for this shoot since we’ll most likely use a black and white / grainy effect on this camera.  In case you’re wondering, in 4k RAW there’s only 25 minutes record time on that 480GB SSD.  I also purchased a USB 3 SSD Dock to transfer the data.

“Fork U” Producer April Simpson checking the shot on the 4k Production Camera

I also packed up about 8TB of external drives to make sure I had PLENTY of room to dump and backup all the data.   In addition, I picked up a new SanDisk card reader that included a slot for the MicroSD cards that are used by the GoPro Hero 3.  They seem to work better reading directly from the micro card when you don’t have to use an SD card adapter for them.

About 8TB of FW800 and USB3 drives for both transferring and cloning the data.

Shooting with the GH4

If you’ve shot with DSLR cameras in the past and feel comfortable with them, the GH4 will be a very natural shooting camera for you.  I personally prefer using the onboard viewfinder vs. the LCD screen on the back as I feel like I can control the focus better that way.   The focus is very tight with these lenses with a lot of DOF.  As I have to continually adjust focus during the action, I find it easier to stay concentrated on that work when looking into the viewfinder.   The viewfinder on the GH4 is very sharp and does have a focus adjust so you can set the focus for your eyes.

The MOST annoying thing about this camera is a “focus assist” box that automatically appears when you touch the focus when the camera is not recording.  If you’re just trying to set a shot or look at a setup, the moment you start focusing, the “focus assist” box comes into view and honestly gets in the way of setting just looking at the scene.  I could not figure a way to disable that feature, might be there, but I let it go since we were renting the cameras.

Through all the reviews, I knew the GH4 was not a great low light camera so that was going to be the main thrust of our testing with the camera, how low does the lighting have to be for the picture to be “bad?”.  We shot in all sorts of locations including a large farm market, multiple retail stores and a tavern.  We only used GH4s for these locations and they performed extremely well.  We never got into what I would really consider a “low light” situation, there was always enough light on-hand between what was available in the stores and the little MiniBurst LED light.  Certainly non-optimal lighting in some cases, but nothing terribly low.

The other issue I was concerned about with the GH4 is the rolling shutter.  A rolling shutter means the entire frame of the image is not recorded at once.  A portion of the image is recorded microseconds ahead of the rest of the image, generally the top portion of the image.  You see this clearly when a camera flash goes off in a room and you see the flash across the top of the image first and then the rest of the image.  Where it can also be an issue is during quick pans and zooms.

Shooting Fork U with Cheryl Collins

Fortunately, we saw no issues with the rolling shutter and I even did some snap pans and zooms specifically to see if it would show up.  Going frame by frame on playback in the edit suite later, did not show any evidence of rolling shutter problems.   That was a nice find.

The white balance controls were particularly awesome allowing us to simply dial the lighting temperature to whatever we wanted.  We would just look at the situation we were in, bring up the manual white balance adjustment and just tweak one of the cameras till we hit the color we liked.  Then dial the other camera to match.  Super easy and super clean.   Colors looked great back in the edit suite.

One thing Erik Naso warned me about, and came to pass, was locking down the shutter wheel.  It’s on the back of the camera where your right thumb sits if you’re holding onto the camera itself.  While shooting, my thumb kept hitting that wheel and making changes on the fly to the shutter speed.  Our goal was to stay in 180 but every so often I would look down and see that it had changed in one direction or the other.   Erik recommends taping that wheel down once you have the shutter set and I concur.

On Erik’s recommendation we kept the ISO setting as low as possible shooting from 200 – 400 only.   We didn’t have the need to go any higher.   He doesn’t recommend going over 800 and I don’t really see a reason for that either unless you’re going for a grainy look shoot.

We set both cameras up to roll time of day timecode and that seems to have worked quite well.  Timecode shows up on all the clips and they’re pretty darn close to each other.  No jam sync’ing, just setting the clock and letting it go.   By using time of day timecode that means we could have someone logging our shoot on the fly using a clock.  Sure the TC wouldn’t be frame accurate but it’s close enough for us to find the good takes and where shots are that we’re looking for quickly.

Shooting with the BMD 4k Production Camera

As I said earlier, we didn’t expect this camera so quickly (thank you Blackmagic!) so there was no time to rig it correctly for handheld shooting.   We locked it down on one of my photography tripods to do a wide ‘expose the set’ type of shot using an EF lens from my Canon 30D still camera.   That worked surprisingly well.  Just snapped the lens on and away we went.

Setting up the 4k Production Camera on location

Actually the first location we used it mounted on top of a Gorilla Pod that’s missing one of the legs (tree fell on it) and shoved the camera back into a kitchen cabinet.   The kitchen was pretty small so it was the only spot to get the overhead shot I was looking for.  Blackmagic putting a record button the FRONT of the camera was a huge help in this situation since I couldn’t see or access the back of it while it was in the cabinet.

Blackmagic 4k “Cabinet Cam”

The camera features a touchscreen on the back for all the settings and menu controls.   With the latest updates we can finally format the drives inside the camera which is awesome.  Changing all the camera and record settings is quite easy and efficient using the touch screen. When the camera is in regular operation mode, simply touching the screen brings up the slate.  This is great when you’re handling the camera normally where you can see the back of it.   When it’s mounted inside a kitchen cabinet where you can only access the front, well that can cause a bit of a problem.  Every time I reached up to move the camera position I would invariably touch the back of the camera.  This would bring up the slate and when the slate is visible, you can’t record.  The slate does NOT appear on the SDI output from the camera so the only way I knew the slate was up was to hit the REC button and nothing would happen.  Minor annoyance that we worked around.

One other annoyance was that the Time Remaining on the SSD did not display on the SDI feed either.   Everything else did and I had the Menu setting to “Display All” information from the camera down SDI.   Again, since I couldn’t see the back of the camera, we used a iPhone timer to roughly calculate how much time we were recording on that camera during that one day of shooting.   It was in there all day so every so often I would pull the camera out to double check the time remaining.

SDI output to the Flanders Scientific 1770W.

The SDI output from the camera can be downconverter to HD which is what we did to feed the on-set Flanders Scientific 1770W monitor.  Beautiful picture even in the downconvert.

The biggest issue with the BMD camera and trying to use it “naked” as Marco Solorio would call it, is that the display screen has a VERY narrow field of vision.  You have to be looking STRAIGHT on to that screen for it to be useful.   Once you move off to the side, it becomes very dark very quickly and very tough to use it to even just set up a shot.    Marco has an awesome book called “Rigging the Cinema Camera” which I’m going to use to rig this camera up for ENG / shoulder mount style shooting complete with a proper eyepiece viewfinder which will take care of that situation.

The 4k Production Camera does feature a global shutter which records the entire image at once, so no issues with rolling shutter.  High speed camera moves and high speed action in frame are no issue with this camera in terms of creating a “torn image” ala what a rolling shutter could create.

BMD Touchscreen

Marco recommended staying 800 ASA or below and that’s what I did.   I brought it up to 800 in a tavern we shot in the very last day as it was the darkest location, but the image still looked beautiful.  I simply matched the white balance temperature on the BMD to what we set with the GH4 and the image was remarkably similar.

Not too much else to say about this camera yet as we pretty much just locked it down and let it roll.   Once we get it rigged up properly for handheld shooting I’ll have a lot more to say.

Lighting the Set.

Lighting for the sets was ridiculously simple.  I have this three light Impact kit which features three soft boxes that each hold four fluorescent lights.

The kit comes with twelve 5000k bulbs of 100 watt equivalent but I find that makes the lighting a bit too blue.  Especially in field locations where most of the lighting is still incandescent for the most part.   So what I did was purchase six 2700k light bulbs, 100 watch equivalent from the local hardware store.   For each lightbox I install two 5000k bulbs and two 2700k bulbs which essentially “puts a gel” on the lightbox and softens the blue to a more natural lighting color.   Works extremely well and depending on the situation we used two or three of these lights and if any fill was needed, we used the MicroBurst 128 or an Ikan LED light I rented from LensRentals.com.

Using the Impact lights at a Tavern location. Only needed two to give enough light.

All in all we didn’t have to use anything different in the lighting as if we were lighting for an HD DSLR.  The 4k cameras didn’t seem to require anything special or “much more” in the way of lighting than what we were used to.   We shot in two different home kitchen locations and in both cases, a combination of available, natural and fluorescent lighting worked out perfectly fine.

Recording Sound.

For sound recording I recently purchased the Zoom Handy 6 recorder which features 4 discreet microphone inputs along with a stereo natural sound recording pair.  These are great little field recorders and they have a handy shoulder strap mounting point to wear it over the shoulder.

Producer April Simpson manning the Zoom H6

We set up a shoulder strap with three pieces of industrial velcro and simply velcro’d the three wireless mic receivers to it.  Made for a SUPER efficient sound recordists setup so they could walk around easily, yet be fully wired up with headphones and easy access to the audio controls.   For the headphones I pulled out our awesome Sennheiser set we use in our audio booth.  These are the “suck to the head block out all external sound” headphones which are critical when you’re out in the field.  If you hear it in the headphones, then it’s in the audio.  Oh, a shoutout to my good friend Marion Laney for letting me borrow his wireless mics.    Still trying to figure out which ones to buy and he let us try out his for this shoot.   Super nice guy and an AWESOME D.P.

Syncing the Sound.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, beats a proper audio slate when shooting multiple cameras with externally recorded audio.  In our case we generally had the three cameras rolling and on occasion we added a GoPro Hero 3 to the mix.  Hand slaps are good, but getting a good, crisp CLAP from a proper audio slate is priceless.  I picked up this little 7” x 7” from B&H for around $30.  The only negative to it is the magnet in the clapper to help hold it shut so you have to be careful not to put it around electronics or your cards or harddrives.  I’m planning to extract that magnet out soon, but it’s a great tool.

Marking a take

Also remember to do an audio slate too.  Such as “Fork U, Scene 101, Take 2” audibly into a microphone before you mark the take with the slate.   This makes it very easy to find takes via the Zoom recorder which records files as “Zoom 001”  “Zoom 002” etc…..  Simon Majumdar was especially good at this.

Final Thoughts.

All in all a very smooth transition from what I know and have produced in HD to the 4k world.   Files are a lot larger, you need more hard drives on the set and need to allow more time to transfer the data.  If possible, take more camera cards and SSDs so you don’t have to transfer as much.   The single SSD for the BMD 4k really was insufficient so we had to be careful and minimize roll time because it would take too long to transfer the data, over an hour, and I couldn’t have the crew sitting around waiting on the data transfer.

Chef Simon Majumdar handing Cheryl Collins some steak while rolling. No fourth wall on Contemporary Living Network

All of this is being edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 8.1 on a combination of Mac Pros, PCs and even my MacBook Air.   Sync’ing is going brilliantly.  At the moment we’re editing with AJA Kona cards and IoXTs but Blackmagic is sending down some 4k Decklinks and thunderbolt devices for us to test out using the actual 4k output.  Playback has been good so far and the imagery is simply gorgeous.  Some areas where there might some noise issues, but that will be for another post after we have a chance to actually edit and complete an episode.

As I mentioned early in the article, the only way to know how 4k UHD works is to get your hands on some gear and test it yourself.  Take advantage of services like Lens Rentals, go out and play for a weekend.   Special thanks to Keith Schroeder, April Simpson, Terry Simpson, Cheryl Collins and Simon Majumdar for all their help this past week in production.  The results so far are simply delicious!

Incredible steak prepared by Simon Majumdar and the GH4 on the “Fork U” set

The post First 4k UHD Field Production: I LIKE IT! appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

As I’ve noted in my blogs, for the Final Cut Pro editor migrating over to Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5, the transition really could not be much easier. I often refer to PPro as “Final Cut Pro 8” because it feels like the natural progression from FCP 7.

But there are a few quirks within the application that will drive you absolutely bonkers. So before you pull your hair out and start swearing up a blue streak, here’s a few of the “gotchas” that got me and how to avoid them.

One great thing about Adobe is that they ARE listening to feedback. So if you would like to offer input as Adobe prepares CS6, be sure to go to their website and give info on their feedback page.

And if you really want to learn about Adobe Premiere Pro, be sure to pick up this book by my buddies Richard, Robbie and Jeff!

The post Transitioning: FCP to Premiere Pro “Gotchas” Part 1 appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.