Muckle Hen

We make great films easy

JackGemmell

Do we have the right?

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As film becomes more widespread and everyone is making films, using cameras, setting beautiful images to music, posting them on Vimeo and YouTube, and many other sites too numerous to mention, it strikes the hen; do we have the right?

Not do we have the right to make films, of course we all do. It’s a fantastic outburst of occasionally stunning creativity. But film making used to be an event, an effort that required people to consent to being involved. With the new technology that consent has disappeared.

There is a film posted on vimeo that is a beautifully shot, with a great soundtrack and great editing. It’s London shot from a bus. Some of the people may have known they were being filmed, although very few I’m sure knew what for, but many had no idea at all. For most this may not be an issue, but it includes at one point a woman, completely recognisable and totally oblivious to the camera, breastfeeding a baby at a bus stop. Now I absolutely agree we should be championing the right of women to breastfeed anywhere they want, but do we really have the right to film them while they are doing it? Do we have the right to film anybody for entertainment without their knowledge or consent?

At what point should the cameras stop rolling?

Reviewing the Atamos Ninja

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The chicken hasn’t done many reviews, we can’t normally get our claws around the buttons, but this week is different. We are reviewing the ProRes 422 recorder from Atamos; the Ninja.

First off I should say that we bought an Atamos Ninja, but only had it for a very short time. We were I think almost the first chickens in the UK to have a Ninja, and we bought it because we were in the middle of shooting a series of films for the Scottish Council for Law Reporting, using the Canon 5D Mk2. Now the 5D produces wonderful pictures (especially in the hands of DOP Dave Miller and with the addition of a set of Zeiss prime lenses) but the post production work flow is quite complicated.

The Canon produces files in the H.264 codec, which isn’t handled particularly well by Final Cut Pro. Up to now we have been undertaking what is the recognised workflow for cutting 5D footage in FCP. We take the files into Final Cut and convert them to ProRes 422. It works but it is an extraordinarily slow process.

Then we heard about the Ninja. Originally it promised that you could take the HDMI output from the camera directly into the Ninja, bypassing the compression placed on the footage by the camera, and record straight into one of the three ProRes 422 codecs, that the Ninja supports. You can then take those files straight into FCP. Fantastic we thought – sounds the business – so we bought one.

It arrived, and came out of the box. It’s a great box, and the Ninja itself is sturdy and incredibly easy to use. It comes with two batteries and a touch screen with only three or four buttons. The fact that it was easy to use was just as well, because it didn’t come with any instructions. However after a few minutes we got it up and running, and did a test.

It doesn’t work with the 5D. The 5D, when recording, doesn’t provide a clean feed through the HDMI cable. If you put a recorder such as the Ninja at the end of the HDMI cable the 5D output keeps the focus box on the image all the time, so you end up recording your image straight into the Ninja, perfect for editing, but with the focus box on it.

Except even the image the Ninja records isn’t usable. And this has nothing to do with the Ninja. It turns out that the output from the 5D (or any of Canon’s DSLRs) through the HDMI cable isn’t a lovely uncompressed raw image; it is actually only 1380 x 700 (although some blogs claim –I think wrongly – that’s it’s even less than that.) I have no idea why Canon has set all its cameras up like that, but it has!

So – to sum up the Ninja; potentially a great bit of kit; it’s sturdy, easy to use and does what it says on the box – unless you are using a 5D. To be fair to Atamos, since we bought one they have changed their website to flag up this point, and maybe we were just too keen. We did get it almost the day it was released. But for us it’s back to the old, slow way of preparing 5D footage!

Come for breakfast…

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The internet is great. It lets me publish this for one thing – ok so maybe not so great!

We know it is an excellent tool to communicate with clients and potential clients. It is a wonderful medium for offering great content that your clients are going to find helpful and useful and that is going to help build on the relationship that exists between you and allow you to demonstrate your expertise.

However, there is a dichotomy. As the internet begins to take over the communication between companies and their clients, friends and neighbours and even sometimes children and their parents; we have to remember that there is still a place for all getting together and actually getting to know one another. Sometimes, there really is no better way of cementing that relationship than meeting people face to face.
Which is why we are going to be hosting a breakfast meeting; to discuss ideas for getting the most out of your internet presence, out of the social media and online video opportunities that exist, to help you develop and build on the relationships you have with clients and potential clients. You know for instance that you should be using webcasts, podcasts and video to offer your clients access to up-to-the-minute advice and support. You should be using twitter to point those clients to your webcasts or even to useful and relevant information elsewhere on the internet. So that when the time comes for a face to face meeting, those clients see you as a partner, a trusted adviser, an expert and not just an expense.

We will have a guest speaker, Sarah Wheeler from Green Hat Media, an expert on the targeted use of social media, and our creative Director, Andrew Macintosh will show how that links in with a content marketing and online video strategy.
The breakfast will be delicious, but the meeting bit of it is aimed particularly aimed at solicitors, accountants, investment houses, those who want to build on the ongoing relationship they have with their clients, but anyone is welcome. If you have any questions about the meeting, are interested in attending or would like to find out more about connecting with your clients, email us on sales@mucklehen.com or call Andrew on 0131 555 0945

Finding time to learn

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When working for a small company, in a creative industry that seems to be changing more and more rapidly, its often hard to keep up to speed with the latest thinking and ensure your skills are up to scratch.

It’s always those things that you know deep down will only take 10minutes to find a solution for that you weirdly view as “time wasting” – like when you know there must be a quicker tool in Photoshop that will undoubtedly save you hours of cursing at the screen.  However when you’re working to a deadline, you can never seem to justify the few moments it would take go and work it out.

Skillset have been a huge help to us Muckle Hens this year, assisting us with funding to undertake some excellent advanced training!  We undertook a range of courses….

Andrew braved a Prince2 Project Management Course

Victoria tackled a “Hot Shot” Photoshop Course

…and Flora went to the London Film Academy to study a Producing Foundation course.

Besides the obvious benefits of all the extra skills and knowledge an employee gains from training, we also all found it very invigorating to be exercising our brains again, and flirting with new creative ideas that were fed by our experiences.  We’ve all brought something back to the hutch to share, and have really been enjoying the benefits it has brought to our daily routines.

So in light of all this clucking about learning… here’s a really helpful website that offers fantastic online software training – www.lynda.com.  If you can find a few minutes spare today – then it may well teach you something that will save you hours of time in the future!

New Muckle Hen Showreels!

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We have certainly gone overboard on the spring cleaning in the hutch these past couple of months.  We’ve been optimising our site, (with the help of the lovely Sarah Wheeler from Green Hat Media), we’ve been writing new white papers, and we’ve been enjoying engaging with people across social media sites… but as well as all this, the fabulous Vicky Taylor has cut together our new Corporate & Commercial Showreels.

We have produced a varied and creative bunch of commercials over the past three years, shot on both film and digital media, as animation and live action.  For a taste of our recent commercials in less than 2 minutes, watch this…

If you are thinking about using film or video to launch a new product, engage with your colleagues, clients or stakeholders, or simply tell your company story, then you’ve met the right Hen.  This showreel highlights some of our corporate work….

101 things to do with an Egg – No. 3: The Magic Muckle Mask!

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*Reader discretion. Header image does not reflect this mask. If your face mask looks like this, you have done something wrong.

Summer is upon us, the beach is calling and us chicks are desperately trying to look our best.

So, as part of our ongoing series ‘101 Things to do with an Egg’, we decided to give the organic egg face mask a try! Why I hear you ask? Well eggs contain protein, vitamins and minerals, which will not only nourish, but will also cleanse and tighten the skin.

Warning – Eggs may carry salmonella bacteria. So be careful not to get raw egg in your mouth, eyes, or nose.

So here are the 7 eggy steps to more beautiful skin.

Step 1 – Separate the yolk and white into different bowls.

Step 2 – Beat the egg white until frothy, then spread over the face.

Step 3 – Wait 15- 30 minutes for the mask to dry , you should feel it getting tighter.

Step 4 – Wash the mask off with warm water, this will in turn open your pores!

Step 5 – Beat the egg yolk and repeat step 2 .

Step 6 – Wait 15-30 minutes

Step 7 – Wash off the yolk with cold water, as this will close the pores, pat dry with clean towel.

And there you have it 7 steps to The Magic Muckle Mask! Let us know if it worked as well for you as our radiant creative director…