At Sound & Picture we do a lot of video coverage at industry events and award shows like Cine Gear Expo, the Emmys, CAS, SOC, ACE Eddie, etc. This way, those who cannot attend at least have something to watch. For the majority of these shows, we wind up doing a lot of one-man-band work. For NAB 2015, it was no different. This time around we really wanted to test the limits of a small footprint to see what kind of result we’d get, and the technique we highlight in this article worked out exceptionally well. Full disclosure: none of the companies below sponsored us in any way. We just wanted to share a workflow that you may not have yet considered.
We’ve been attending and shooting video at NAB for the last five years, and since we know our final product will end up on YouTube, we’re comfortable with a 1080p workflow. This year, we chose the Samsung NX500 because it not only shoots some of the sharpest images for a “fit-in-pocket” camera, but the 28-megapixel camera shoots 4K 4096×2160 video at 24p. It’s a great little camera – to have the ability to switch from shooting stills to video instantly is perfect for events like these.
The NX500 records video to a H.265 codec, which is about half the file size of H.264, but to ingest it into our Adobe Premiere CS5.5 nonlinear editor, it must be first converted to a useable codec using software like Samsung’s free Movie Converter. We recorded our NAB footage at 4K, and when converting, chose to downsample to 1920×1080. The reason being, the laptop we edit on can handle 4K files, but not very efficiently. The render times are a bit slow, and when you need to get information out fast, you always want to factor in export and upload times. The NX500 does have options to shoot 1920x1080p at various frame rates, but we chose 4K for archival purposes and considered future work with the footage.
We approached our audio completely differently from years past. Since the NX500 does not have a microphone input, we knew we needed a separate system. We tested a workflow with the Tascam DR-100 mkII and Zoom H5 where we tried mounting the recorder on top of the NX500 and attaching a shotgun microphone – the problem there was that the audio setup ended up being longer then the camera lens. We then tried to clip one of the recorders to the backpack we’d be wearing; the issue there was dealing with a cable running down our arm to the on-board microphone attached to the camera’s hot shoe. This was a workable option, but we didn’t like the idea of being always tethered.
Since the NAB show floor can be brutally noisy, we considered using a wireless system and lav instead of an on-board mic. Most wireless systems use a transmitter and a receiver, but since the NX500 doesn’t have an audio input, we would need to send the receiver’s signal to an external recording device like a Zoom, Tascam, or Sound Devices unit – which defeats the purpose of a small footprint. What we ended up doing was using a Zaxcom ZFR300, which can record audio internally to a micro SD card. What’s cool about the ZFR300, besides its smaller size, is its ability to eliminate the need for a receiver. You literally lav your talent, hit record, and the ZFR300 does the rest.
We ended up pairing a Sanken COS-11D as our lav with the recorder, and if you’re wondering how to monitor the audio that’s being recorded onto the ZFR300, you can use the Zaxcom ERX2TCD to do so. Bear in mind, there is a range limit while monitoring the audio, about three feet, but in all honesty, we didn’t even monitor our audio (gasp) during shooting. Our prior testing gave us enough confidence that we didn’t need to. We did have an ERX2TCD with headphones on hand in case we changed our mind, but ended up not even using it. Our one suggestion is if you don’t have a wealth of experience laving talent or confidence reducing clothing rustle, you should use the ERX2TCD. With practice, you’ll begin to understand how lavs react to certain types of fabric and wardrobe.
In post, we needed to convert the audio files that were recorded on the ZFR300 because Zaxcom uses a proprietary file format called MARF which isn’t edit friendly. Zaxcom provides free downloadable software called ZaxConvert so you can export files as WAV or MP3. To sync the separate audio and video files, we used Plural Eyes. Knowing we were going to use Plural Eyes in our post workflow, we made sure to do a simple “hand clap” prior to the talent speaking as a slate. This makes it much easier on Plural Eyes to align the two files.
While the post workflow required us to convert both video and audio files before editing, it didn’t add a substantial amount of time for us to feel like we were slowed down. Both the Samsung Movie Converter and ZaxConvert programs are extremely fast. By the time we set up our timeline and prepped our graphics, everything was converted and ready to be imported.
Our production footprint was extremely small and that made us happy as hell – when you’re walking around a show floor for eight hours, the lighter the better. So if you’re working by yourself with a camera that doesn’t have friendly audio inputs, the ZFR300 is definitely an audio tool to consider. It’s not the only solution, but an option. It’s also a great choice for those out-of-receiver-range workflows. If you’re not sure what we mean, check out sound mixer Tony Johnson’s workflow on The Hobbit.
Our entire package was:
Samsung NX500
Zaxcom ZFR300
Sanken COS-11D
Transpore tape
Zaxcom ERX2TCD
Headphones
Laptop
NAB 2015 Videos