Heritage Studios has begun a new training video for the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA. The video will explain the methods of food preparation, distribution within the tank and individual feeding techniques for specific types of fish at the aquarium. The instruction is provided for divers, mostly volunteers, who have to feed the fish in the aquarium’s main tank twice a day, every day of the year. Each feeding requires five divers who distribute different types of food throughout the tank.

This was an early morning shoot and we were on location at 6 AM in order to get our work done before the aquarium opened to the public. Shooting was done in a number of locations outside the tank from the public viewing areas as well as from within the tank with our own diving videographer. The outside shots used the Sony 270 while the underwater shots used the Sony Z1U in a special dive casing.

Robert Nord worked the Sony 270 while Robert Titus, of Ocean Video Productions got the underwater close-up shots.

This will be a rather long project, not only due to the great detail necessary to explain and illustrate the procedures but the underwater working conditions that will require a number of shoots to complete.

Sony 270 setup for main tank shot

Volunteer dive crew and aquarium staff.

Somewhere within all the fish is a diver.

The rays feed right on the window and create a suction that pulls the food into their mouths.

Feeding this large grouper can be dangerous.

Watch your fingers! And your hand and arm!

Coral fish have to be fed small pieces of food sprinkled into the coral head.

A squeeze bottle full of worms is always a favorite.

A handful of chopped fish is very tasty too.

The herbivores like lettuce and broccoli.

More fish parts.

Heritage studios was hired to photograph and video record Jim’s 70th birthday party. Robert Nord headed the team and photographed the event while Delicia Castillo video recorded it simultaneously. Another former student of Nord’s, Steven Richards wanted to assist and worked with Delicia Castillo helping to record sound and later shooting some of the video as well.

Expecting limitations for the working space as well as the large crowd, video was shot using the Sony PD150 mounted on a monopod. The client desired an SD DVD and with the low light capabilities of the PD150 it was the obvious choice for the job. Photography was done using the Canon 30D.

We’ve been working on the NCL Senior Presents project since February. Karyna Martinez and Robert Nord started with Voice Overs from each of the graduating seniors. These were recorded and edited for insertion into a total of 22 photo montages along with their music choices. Kayrna put most of the effort into scanning, cropping, photo-editing and video editing the photo montages. Robert did the audio editing for the VOs and music as well as authoring the DVDs for review. These went through several NCL committee meetings to insure they were perfect before they were approved.

Karyna Martinez and Robert Nord also attended a rehearsal for the seniors and their parents one week before the actual program. The rehearsal is always informal and makes an entertaining video montage at the end of the DVD. Once again, Karyna did most of the video editing for this montage.

The pre-produced photo montages are shown during the live presentations on dual 9×12 rear projection screens. The screens and projectors were subcontracted through our friends at FBN Productions headed by Larry Barnett. Heritage Studios has worked with FBN on many occasions for over ten years and have always found them to be very professional.

For the actual Presents production Heritage Studios had Robert Nord as director, Michael McGready as Stage Manager/Photographer, with Jany Poitras, Karyna Martinez and Barbara Ishida as videographers. Everything ran smoothly, we even had time for dinner! The DVDs were delivered on time and the client was very happy.

Heritage Studios shot the event with three cameras, a Sony HVR S270U, a Sony DSR PD150 and a Sony DSR PD250. The shoot was done in SD. The PD150 was mounted on an Advanta-Jib to get the height needed to shoot over the large crowd. Since the program ran about two hours, the PD150 recorded to a Focus Enhancements FS4 DTE recorder. The PD150 and S270U both recorded to tape using Sony T184 tapes. Audio was recorded using on camera mics as well as direct from a DJ’s speaker. The only issue was that we could not gain entrance to the room until 3:30 pm and we had to be ready to roll by 5:00 pm so getting the screens functioning, cameras setup, sound checked and computer setup was kind of a push but the whole team got it done.

Time for another group meeting. During the session Karyna Martinez and Robert Nord discussed a recent training video. This was produced for OC Pools Plus and gave us a good opportunity to use a variety of production tools as discussed in the blog previously. The group was able to see the new camera support device, The Lowrider. We also went over some new software used for morphing and warping, Morpheus Photo Animation Suite, available from Smith Micro. This is a simple to use morphing application that is capable of doing a reasonably good job, especially for the price.

Another reason to get together was to celebrate Fina Bentley’s birthday. Happy birthday Fina! Fina Bentley works for Time Warner Cable as a field reporter, producer and editor as well as having her own production company, FLB Productions.

Robert Nord traveled to Palm Springs, California to photograph a surprise 70th birthday party for Steve.

Friends and relatives gathered from all across the country to celebrate Steve’s birthday. A Scottish theme was selected for the party since Steve’s heritage is Scot. Kilt’s were distributed to those who were not properly attired and a Scottish Bagpiper appeared, entertaining everyone.

In addition to the general photography and prints, a printed album book was also prepared. These books are becoming very popular for significant events, vacations, etc. At least half of Heritage Studio’s photography assignments include books. They’re not just for weddings anymore!

The shoot was done using the Canon 30D.

OC Pools Plus is a pool service and maintenance company in Orange County, California. Jared, the owner, wanted to produce a training video he could market nationally via his web site and locally for his potential customers. “Pool Cleaning 101″ is a ten minute, seven step video on how to clean your pool like a professional. Robert Nord and Karyna Martinez worked on the production. Robert Nord operated the cameras while Karyna Martinez used the Apple MacBookPro to run the script through the teleprompter and kept track of logging all the scenes and checking the shot list.

The video was shot in HDV using two cameras, the Sony 270U and the Sony Z1U. The entire video was shot using a Sennheiser wireless microphone for sound. On the opening shot we used a self made dolly/tracking system to dolly into the subject on his introduction. A teleprompter from The Prompter People was used to provide the script for the intros and outro. While the 270U was mounted on a Bogen tripod, the Z1U was used with the Bogen Fig Rig. A new piece of gear was used in the shoot, The Lowrider. This is a custom contoured styrofoam pellet filled bag that is used as a camera support for a wide variety of situations where conventional camera supports are not suitable. A very versatile piece of equipment. Setup, tear-down and shooting took six hours. The final product was edited in Final Cut Pro using Apple’s ProRes 422 and output in standard definition, letterbox. This allows us to move to Blu-ray high definition at a later date without much effort.

Jared is a returning customer, Heritage had shot his wedding in 2001!

February 24th found Heritage Studios back to our friends at Smith Micro Systems to record another presentation for their intranet. Assisting with the production was Barbara Ishida, Delicia Castillo and Robert Nord.

The project was shot on the Sony 270U. Mr. Smith was wired with our Sennheiser wireless system with a Shure wired lavalier mic as a backup. Another Sennheiser wireless system was used for the handheld during the question and answer session. Mr. Smith’s mic was connected directly to channel 1 while the others were mixed through a Mackie 1202 and fed into channel 2. We used our traditional gray mottled background and lit the scene with a Lowel 44 softlight. This is typically a same day edit situation and Barbara Ishida demonstrated her outstanding editing skills in editing the shoot and integrating an accompanying Power Point presentation to illustrate the speech.

After the Heritage Studios meeting earlier in the day, Robert Nord and Karyna Martinez went to the Pinning Ceremony for the Santa Ana College School of Nursing. We recorded the event with three cameras. The Sony HVR-S270U HVD camcorder, Heritage Studios’ newest video camera, and the ever reliable Sony 250 and 150 cameras. We stationed the 270 centered in the rear and locked it down for a wide cover shot and used the 250 and 150 to record the entrance of the graduates down the two separate aisles. After the initial entrance, Robert Nord returned to the 270 to manually operate it while Karyna Martinez remained in the front to shoot some of the initial activities from a second angle.

Although we brought along a Marantz real time CD burner, there was no soundboard to pickup a clean track from the mics. We took the ambient sound from the 270 located in the rear which worked fine.

A nice little easy video job that edited together quickly. We’d all like to have one of these every day!

December 18th and most of the group was able to attend a meeting held at Delicia Castillo’s Studio D. Last meeting was the introduction of the Canon 7D camera. This time Heritage Studios has added a redrockmicro eyeSpy Deluxe Bundle. This is a very versatile system because it allows the shooter to use the digital SLR camera in much the same manner as a shoulder mounted video camera. This means better and easier freehand shooting for stationary, panning and tilting shots. Not only is this very versatile for video but works equally well for still shots. Very importantly, the eyeSpy has a tripod mount built directly into it allowing a quick release camera plate to be added for a variety of tripods.

A delicious lunch was prepared by Delicia Castillo and Karyna Martinez. Jany Poitras baked a great carrot cake in honor of Robert Nord’s birthday! John Radu, Michael McGready and Fina Bently were also in attendance. Everyone had a great time enjoying the meal and one another’s company for hours.