Cocklins Video

User Report: AJA Ki Pro Mini at Cocklins Video Service

By Steve Cocklin, Cocklins Video Services

Ki Pro Mini with PMW F3 camera

We brought AJA’s Ki Pro Mini digital recorder in house a few months ago, pairing it with the Sony PMW-F3 camera. We do all of our editing and finishing on Avid Media Composer 6.0.

I first heard about the Ki Pro Mini last year when we put in our order for the F3. The F3 camera captures natively XDCAM 8bit 4:2:0 35Mb/s but outputs via HD SDI or HDMI 10bit 4:2:2. We wanted a recorder capable of recording at 10 bits with the 4:2:2 sample rate because most of our clients want broadcast standard or higher.  At the time the Ki Pro Mini was the only 10bit recorder available and was within our price range.  I had never edited in ProRes before, and after reading Apple’s whitepaper I was clearly impressed with their approach to the codec. When I got the Ki Pro Mini in for testing I was blown away. ProRes is a great codec and the output from the Ki Pro Mini is very high quality. (continue reading…)

We were recently contracted by the Hirshhorn Museum to photograph a moving sculpture by Jean Tinguely, “The Sorceress”. Tinguely is best known for his sculptural machines or kinetic art in the Dada tradition, known officially as metamechanics and his kinetic sculpture“The Sorceress” was intended to partially self destruct. Tinguely’s art satirized the mindless overproduction of material goods in advanced industrial society.  (continue reading…)

These interviews were shot using the Sony PMW F3 camera. The digital files generated by Cocklins Video are both XDCAM (F3 Native) and PRORES out of the AJA Ki Pro Mini.
Lenses used were the Zeiss 85mm and Zeiss 50mm.

Due to time constraints minimum lighting was used, two Kino Flo Divas were used as Key and Fill and a 200w Mole In-Betweenie was used as a back light.

ProMod Dragsters from Steve Cocklin on Vimeo.

A small preview of a project we have been working on here at Cocklins Video. Shot with the PMW F3, SDI out to the AJA Ki Pro Mini, Zeiss 85, 50, 21, Nikon 17-35, Nikon 70-200 and Tokina 11-16mm lenses were used. We used a Go Pro for a few of the shots. Music “Pure War” from Sonicfire pro 5. All editing was done on Avid Media Composer 5 and runs just under 2 minutes.

Corporate Video; VSCPA Scholarship Fund from Steve Cocklin on Vimeo.

A short presentation we did for Kearney & Company with the CEO Ed Kearney. We used the Sony PMW F3 with a Zeiss 50mm lens and recorded to the AJA Ki Pro mini at PRORES 4:2:2 145Mb/s. We used two Diva lights for the lighting and used out teleprompter to aid Mr. Kearney in his delivery. The video was edited on Avid Media Composer and color corrected using Magic Bullet Looks. Graphic elements were produced in After Effects. Compression was done using Sorenson Squeeze to the recommended settings as per Vimeo.

Sheehy New Hire Video from Steve Cocklin on Vimeo.

“This is Your Sheehy”
Sheehy Auto Stores, Fairfax, VA
Steve Cocklin, Photographer & Editor
Anne Cocklin, Associate Producer & Sound
Anne Sessions, Producer
Shot using the Canon 5D 1080i

Sheehy Auto Stores is an $800 million company operating in the Washington DC region with over 40 dealerships and franchises. Cocklins Video was hired to produce an 18 minute video to advertise the business to potential recruits and as a company overview for new hires entering the company.

Over a period of 4 days, we used the Canon 5D and shot in 1080i to create this recruitment/informational video. The objective was twofold: one to recruit potential employees and the second to present an overview of the company combining the history of the company, present day advantages and benefits (health, etc.) offered. We divided the video into chapters creating Chapter One as a standalone recruitment video able to be viewed alone or as the introduction to the rest of the video. (continue reading…)

PMW F3 Camera Test from Steve Cocklin on Vimeo.

I took our new PMW F3 out last Saturday evening to do some test shooting. The results were good using the camera’s native codec. Once I receive delivery of the AJA Ki Pro mini I expect the results will be even better.

Excerpts of Government Video shot with Canon 5D Mark II camera from Steve Cocklin on Vimeo.

“A Day in the Life of a PVA”
Anne Cocklin, Associate Producer & Sound
Rebecca Abrahams, Producer
Steve Cocklin, Photographer & Editor
Shot using the Canon 5D 1080i

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is a government agency that computes the pensions of retirees for companies that have gone bankrupt or are in financial trouble. We are the video vendor for PBGC and from late August to November 10, 2010 completed two 15 minute training videos including “A Day in the Life of a PVA” including scripting, videotaping, edited and all deliverables were compliant with Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Over a period of 5 days, we used the Canon 5D and shot in 1080i 30P to create this training/informational video of a sub-contracting division, the Post Valuation Administration (PVA), which performs work for the PBGC. The objective was to explain to the PBGC employees at their November 2010 conference what the Post Valuation Administration does and to include as many employees as possible.

The PBGC loves the video. We came in on time and almost $2,000 under budget.

1. Problem: What could we do to make the video of an office setting more visually interesting?
Solution: 1. Use of a dolly and mini-jib allows us to get movement into a static office environment. We frequently mounted the jib (is a small crane with the camera on one end) on the dolly for high moving shots. Both the jib and dolly fit well into a work environment. 2. The dolly gave us the ability to go down hallways, move into rooms, etc.

We could not disturb the working environment of the employees while they worked in their office cubicles, all of the lights needed to remain on. With the 5D we could use tight Zeiss primes to compress the images leaving the subjects in sharp focus allowing the background to go soft. Lighting of the subjects consisted basically of one or two Kino Flo Diva lights. Later in the edit we used Red Giant Software Magic Bullet Looks to color correct the image which gave us some very good results.

With 25 interviews we had 156 pages of transcription to go through and select the sound bites we wanted to use in the video. As Producer/Writer Rebecca Abrahams devised the flow of the video by dividing it into sections and included sound bites from the 25 interviews in about 4 days.

Creative editing was done with time lapse photography, and each section has an introductory graphic bumper.

The deliverable was on DVD, standard and Blu-ray format but we also compressed the video into Flash for use on the PBGC intra-net. The program is also closed captioned.

Filmtools car mount rig from Steve Cocklin on Vimeo.

Indi Dolly with straight and curved track

We have added the Indi Dolly system to our production package, it comes with straight and curved track. It is an easy setup and has a very smooth ride.

Indi Dolly cases