Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

GoPro on a Land Yacht & my history with “on board” video production

Friday, March 16th, 2012

We have been capturing some really interesting footage with a GoPro HD Hero for various clients projects for over a year now. Last weekend I finally had the opportunity to mount it on a Land Yacht for the first time capturing some of the excitement of one of the sports I love – Land Sailing.

I have been land yacht sailing in Western Australia since I was 12 years old. I would actually say it is one of the reasons I become involved in Video Production. I always had an interest in photography and video and as a kid was keen to capture the relatively undocumented sport of land sailing which became the first video I ever edited.

The old original "Land Yacht Cam" during the 2005 land sailing championships

Way before GoPro and other high quality small digital cameras, this is a camera suspension and mount system I developed in the 1990’s to capture some of the worlds first steady, good quality on board footage of land sailing. Prior people had only used low quality “lip stick” style cameras or simple hand held a handy cam leaving you with shaky “Blair Witch” style footage.

In the early days some of the original problems posed by trying to capture video footage on board a land yacht included the fact that land yachts have no suspension creating huge vibrations. Also damage from sand, mud, rock impacts, salt and water depending on the surface you were on and also that video cameras were VERY expensive meaning no one wanted to risk their camera.

The plan was to have rig, not only weather proof but strong enough that the if the camera broke off at high it could crash to a stop and survive. My final design to achieve this included a sealed weather and impact resistant steel enclosure, with thick clear acrylic front and back for both the lens and viewfinder. The inside contains foam padding and then the enclosure is completely suspended by rubber within an outer “cage” to adsorb shock and dampen vibration.

My farther and I later adapted the set up to rotate the camera 360 degrees and also include a water jet to wash the lens clean of salt build up, which then allowed it to be mounted in various positions on the land yacht.

Although I haven’t used the set up since the world championships in 2005. I imagine the set up will still be very pratical with some modifications to use it for higher quality HD cameras like the Canon 5D Mark 2 which would be interesting to try one day.

I will have to upload some of the old original footage some time but for now here is some footage of land sailing via the GoPro Hd Hero. Featuring a helmet mount and also clamp mount.

Also if you are interested in Land Yacht Sailing check out the clubs website here.

Interesting Fact – Land Yacht Sailing was first done in Western Australia over 100 years ago at Lake Lefroy, Kambalda.

Craig & Kristen have had a healthy baby boy!

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Nate James Turner, Born 8th March 2011 weighing 3.8kg (8lb 6oz)

Some of you may have already heard through facebook (We have been busily catching up with current projects and haven’t yet had a chance to send this out.) However at 12:25 am on 8th March 2011 weighing 3.8kg (8lb 6oz) Kristen and I (Craig) welcomed our son Nate James Turner into the world.

We do thank everyone for their patience with us with any disruption in getting in touch with us as we did take a couple of weeks off just to settle our new arrival in at home. However we are now back in action 😉

And yes, of course a tribute video is in the making. We are going to put something together in our (now very limited) spare time which we will post on facebook in coming months.

Just a few pics for your interest:

We almost made it to the Sundance Film Festival – well kind of

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

On July 24, 2010, thousands of people around the world uploaded videos of their lives to YouTube to take part in “Life in a Day”, a historic cinematic experiment to create a documentary film about a single day on earth. Always keen to share life experiences on video we took part and captured some of our day. Late last year we were excited to hear that our footage had been shortlisted into the top 100 hours of footage, for the 90 minute documentary, out of more than 4500 hours of footage received by the editors! Although we didn’t make the final cut, the documentary by Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald, is well worth checking out and was recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival. It will be released officially later this year. www.youtube.com/lifeinaday

City of Mandurah Promotional Video

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Mandurah Promotional Video Production, Lake Clifton, As passionate West Australians we always jump at the opportunity to share on film any part of our beautiful state. Over the last month we had the opportunity to work with the City of Mandurah on producing a promotional video to highlight the well known and lesser known tourist attractions of the peel region. This video which is currently in post production, will soon be available online and will also be screened on a loop within the tourist centre as well as on Mandurah’s inner city buses video system.

Baby number 2 is on it’s way. It’s a boy!

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
Ultrasound Image

In Shot Productions owners, Craig & Kristen's soon to be born son

As some of you may already know we are expecting a new arrival shortly! We were pleasantly surprised to find out that it will be a boy this time. The baby is due March 17 (less than 3 weeks away!) so please excuse us if there are any delays in communication as we will be taking a little time off to settle the bub in at home. We will be sure to keep everyone up to date with the announcement of the birth when it does happen. Also If you haven’t seen it through our blog and are interested feel free to check out our tribute video to the birth of our first child Jasmine here. Between a couple of versions of the clip online, her video has actually received over 50,000 views worldwide (now ahead of Craig’s Top Gear video at 45,000 views) making it our most viewed online clip. To avoid sibling rivalry I guess we will be putting something together for the next baby too.

We take out an award in the 2010 Australian Video Producers Association Awards

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

In Shot Productions, 2010 National Award winner, DVD Presentation Although a lot more pressed for time these days, we still managed to get a few last minute entries off to the 2010 AVPA awards. Well it paid off as we are very excited to announce we took out the award for DVD presentation. A big thank you to the AVPA and the members of the association.

Attention Perth small to medium business owners

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

After much planning we will soon be launching a number of set priced, website promotional video packages to help business owners grow their enterprise. Combining high quality production values with a results driven online video marketing strategy, these website video packages are designed to increase your customer conversion rates as well as generate new leads. Follow us on facebook and keep an eye out for our email with more information soon. Also feel free to contact us to express your interest in our preliminary special offers.

Did you know? “Relevant online videos are 53 times more likely to get a first page Google ranking than a conventional webpage” Forrester Research

 

Thank you to our actors

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Thanks to the talented actors we had the pleasure of working with recently who all managed to deliver a lengthy script direct to camera. We didn’t even need to get the autocue out in the end.
The production was for a clever interactive training resource for educating Home & Community Care workers which was developed by Evolve Curriculum Development & Training,
with video components including location shots and “green screen’ video scenarios provided by us. This all coming together to create a memorable training package to engage viewers.

Esperance’s lakes are Drowning

Monday, January 24th, 2011

We have recently had the pleasure of completing post production on the documentary “Wetland Wonderland – The story of the Lake Warden wetland system”. Produced & Directed by Serena Shaddick, the video looks into the threats to the Esperance wetland system. Featured is the impact that the last 100 years of land clearing in the area has had in causing excessive ground water levels which is flooding the lakes. This has resulted in an increasing loss of bird habitat and the drowning of the surrounding vegetation.
The film was arranged by the Esperance Regional Forum as a medium to engage the wider community and land owners. We are happy to hear the film has already received great community feedback.
The film will be available to view online soon. If you are interested keep an eye on our facebook page for details.

Wetland Wonderland The story of the Lake Warden wetland system Esperance western australia

Wetland Wonderland - The Story of the Lake Warden Wetland System

Greener Horizons – Wheatbelt farmers securing their future with tree crops

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

This corporate video which we just finished filming and editing, features five Western Australian Wheatbelt farmers telling the story of their journey in adopting a particular tree crop or tree crops.

Here is the intro clip for the video which explains what the rest of the video is about.



It has been really fun going to these remote locations, seeing how the farmers live. It was an eye opening experience and such beautiful places.



The above pic is of Craig and I waiting for a time lapse to be finished.

The farmers and their families were kind enough to let us into their homes, feed us and put a roof over our heads for the night. Here are some pictures that Craig took along the way and some good behind the scenes pictures too.