BlackMagic Design Goes Big at NAB2023
10,000 square feet didn’t seem like enough. There were people stacked on each other trying to get a look at the new products, watch demos of the new tools, and just take it all in. That was the scene at the BlackMagic Design booth at NAB this year. Massive!
Cultivating Creativity in Children: Best Practices for Parents
Fostering creativity in your children isn’t about raising the next Pablo Picasso or Georgia O'Keeffe: It's about giving your little ones the freedom to use their imaginations and express themselves through painting, sculpting, drawing, storytelling, and music. All of these skills are major bonuses in filmmaking and the arts!
A Space to Create: Tips for Setting Up an At-Home Performing Studio Space
If you’re a filmmaker or performing artist and you need a space to create, it may be possible to convert your existing home setup into an artist’s studio - here are some tips on how.
Waterman Broadcasting Studio Gets a PTZ Makeover
Waterman Broadcasting was a 12-year-old ABC studio that needed a fresh face for local viewers, who have come to regard the station as their news and weather information fountain. Bob Hannon, Senior Production Engineer, was tasked with making it happen.
Why School Newsrooms Are Moving To PTZ Workflows
A school tv-station needs to reflect and emulate real-world studios in an effort to realistically prepare students for the workforce. Since the late 1990s, there has been an upswing of PTZ camera-based newsrooms popping up all over the world. Following suit, schools have also been switching to PTZ workflows. PTZ-based school newsrooms offer high-quality video, use the same technology as the professionals, and increase consistency and efficiency.
Making Your Locations Read: Set Design Tips
When shooting in a gym, try to have a section of bleachers or a backboard within your frame. Thinking about interviewing a teacher? Make sure there is a blackboard or some desks behind them. Choose your background wisely when you are interviewing someone in the field. It conveys information and authenticity, even if you have to add some touches to make reality look more real.
Do Not Fear Color
Up thru the 1990’s TV broadcasters needed to be timid about colors because the analog TV technology produced such unreliable results. One brand of cameras produced acceptable cool colors and earthy tone but throw a yellow or red at them and the TV set would look as though the image was on fire, while another brand could tame the tearing red, but washout the remaining parts of the color wheel. But we’ve come a long way.
In Plain Sight: Finding Inspiration for Set Design
I have been designing studio scenery for TV productions for a very long time, close to 2000 productions, from the grand to the prosaic. Just like any person who has ever had to put a pen to paper or a brush to canvas with a deadline clock ticking, I have my personal sources, computer folders, scrapbooks and old books. But I often find my best inspiration in the aisles of my local home center.
Designing a Middle School TV Studio
Adobe’s Visual Communicator provides a teleprompter, video creation capabilities, and an entire library of customizable graphics, effects, titles, music, and templates.Most notably, the green screen and teleprompter features make this a very powerful, and effective program. Its ease of use makes it the perfect system for elementary and middle school broadcasts and mimics the way professional studios write and present news.
Casting Shadows
Did you ever think about where you wanted to place the shadows or how you could add shadows to your images to make them look less flat and more realistic? TV is a two-dimensional medium. In this article, we will focus our attention on the shadow - how you can manipulate its look and density - and we'll look at some ways in which you can cast it to create a more three-dimensional feel to your images.
Interviewing Tactics and Techniques
Drawing people out - getting them to speak from the heart - is one of the journalist's most challenging tasks. Interviewing is both an art and a science. Good interviewers get better material because they are able to put the people they interview at ease, establish a rapport, and win their trust.
Building Flats: Step-by-Step Guide
A step-by-step guide to building muslin flats for your school theatre productions. The advantages to muslin are that it is light-weight, cheap (when bought in bulk), and has a very nice finished surface that tends to absorb stage-lighting more.