Leaps in Technology

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Colbridge

When we started our video production company back in December 2009 we began in earnest by recording onto DV tape, capturing audio with the on-board camera mics and edited the footage with the non-linear Final Cut Express 4.0 program on one computer. The products we produced were in standard definition with mono soundtracks. What may have been acceptable in the marketplace then is not acceptable now. Technology has made several leaps and bounds in the short time we have been running our business and we have to ensure we keep up with latest developments as well as improving our professional practices.

Firstly our workflow has increased from one computer to three, we capture video on SDHC cards, edit on Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premier Pro and Lightworks (as well as FCP7 on legacy projects), colour grade on Da Vinci Resolve and output in 1080p High Definition and 4K UHD. Audio is captured using Rode lavalier mics on portable devices using the Rode app, Sennhieser wireless microphones and a Tascam recorder to ensure comprehensive, independently recorded coverage to create high quality stereo soundtracks in post production. For live events we record multiple channels of audio captured directly from the house mixing desk or sound board.

Here is a table of technological milestones we have gone through to keep up with changing formats, improve audio recording, evolve our product delivery and expand on our practices and equipment used:

Year Format/Resolution Audio Delivery Practices

2009 SD 576 Mono DVD
2010 2.0 Stereo Steadicam
2011 HD 720 Glidecam
2013 Jib & Crane
2014 HD 1080 Blu Ray
2015 35mm Full frame Online & USB Aerial drone
2016 4K (UHD) Osmo Gimbal
2017 5.1 Surround

Although we have ceased producing physical products in favour of going digital we will still supply DVD and Blu Ray versions by request and at additional cost but now clients can access, stream and download their wedding films, events and promotional videos online through MediaZilla or Vimeo and play on any device at any time, anywhere in the world. However with each technological advance comes a signficant cost as we have to upgrade equipment to not only film but to edit and display video in 4K.

At this stage we do not intend to offer 3D video production, 360′ content, VR (Virtual Reality) or 8K UHD anytime soon but in this business you never know what will be the next big thing.

I Can See Clearly Now HD Has Gone

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Colbridge

We started, like most video companies, editing and delivering our work in standard definition (576) then moving over to high definition a few years later, first with 720 HD ready format then in 1080 full HD resolution. With that came upgrades in equipment, editing software and computers. Over the last 5 years or so we have tried to convince our customers of the benefits of high definition compared to standard definition. In reality this meant ditching the restricted confines of the DVD format and investing in a Blu Ray player. Only on Blu Ray, and now as a digital download, can you truly see the benefits of reliving your wedding film or event in glorious high definition. However for some there didn’t seem to be much of a difference, it was a lot of fuss about nothing and they saw no reason to change from the tried and tested format of DVD. After all many had made the brave leap from VHS video tape to the high tech world of digital discs and that step was enough thank you very much. Now you’re asking us to leap again into an unnecessary format called Blu Ray! This is often how the argument went but going from 576 lines to 1080 there clearly is a difference. A fundamental factor that escapes a lot of people is how retailers made consumers think they were buying HD TV’s when in fact they were buying HD ready TV’s, so the leap from 560 to 1080 was softened by an inbetween format of 720, therefore the improvement in definition was not always apparent. However there is a new kid on the block that is about to change all of that.

For the past couple of years the 4K (2160) resolution, or revolution, has been gathering momentum in the marketplace, a format which produces 4 times the clarifty of high definition. This Ultra High Definition (UHD) format is now in high demand, just pop into your local Currys store and you’ll find that most of the buying options for a new TV are almost exclusively in 4K. Not only can you see a real difference in clarity with 4K but the technology upscales both SD and HD formats making a 4K UHD TV a great investment. At last consumers are getting closer to a real cinematic experience in their own homes with 55″ – 70″ screens retailing at affordable prices and 5.1 surround sound systems further immersing the viewer with lifelike sound. Other things to look out for when upgrading to 4K are features like HDR, IPS, ColourPrime, Quantum Display, HDR10 and Dolby Vision.

For us as a video production company it means making another significant shift and reinvesting in software and equipment to produce and edit in 4K. While we haven’t seen a great demand from our customers as I write this in 2016 the next few years will see an inevitable increase therefore we have to future proof our operation as momentum gathers. This has been coupled with the decision to dispense with physical discs, because of the resolution restrictions, and move solely into online delivery with the exchange of files rather than discs. However it is yet another leap for the consumer to make but with Smart TV’s, digital players, tablets and computers in most homes downloading a video is now a fast and convenient way to watch, access and share video when coupled with super fast broadband. This is the future of video delivery and in 2017 we will be offering our services in 4K with optional 5.1 surround sound. We have come a long way from standard definition 576 to ultra high definition 2160 and we hope you will join us to experience the clarity of 4K.

By Libron – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25976260

You can see from the above graphic that it doesn’t stop there, just around the corner is 8K, but that’s another story for another day and the market hasn’t caught up with that yet. Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon are only just coming into the 4K market along with subscription services like Sky and Virgin with Sky Q and the new TiVo box. Online video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo now offer 4K as an upload and playback option and 4K discs and players are also on the horizon. For the moment at least we are quite happy to produce 4K downloadable content to give our customers a cinematic experience like never before through their Smart TV, computer or digital media player.

Be Nice….Turn Off Your Device

Posted on August 30, 2016 by Colbridge

You’ve done all the hard work, you’ve planned your wedding, booked your suppliers, invited your guests and you’re feeling really good about yourself. Your big day is almost upon you and you’ve thought of everything, right up to the very last detail, or have you? Imagine walking down the aisle and instead of seeing the happy smiling faces of family and friends you are greeted instead by an army of mobile phones, tablets and cameras of all shapes and sizes being shoved into your face. It looks like everybody wants a piece of you and some will go to any lengths to get it. Instead of seeing the familiar faces of loved ones and special guests you’ve unwittingly invited your own paparazzi.

Of course we live in a modern digital world where we all use technology in our everyday lives. For many it is unthinkable to even leave the house without having some kind of mobile device on our person to phone, document or entertain but for your wedding day it really doesn’t have to be that way. It is your day after all and it is up to you to decide how you want your guests to behave. You need to establish a set of ground rules from the outset and ask them to observe a certain etiquette. Most guests will comply because they love you, they respect the occasion and they want to do whatever it takes to make your day a special one.

For us working as professional videographers we want to do the best job possible but more often than not we find ourselves competing with guests on the day who will not think twice about whipping out their mobile devices to completely obscure our view. There’s only one take, one chance of getting it right before that special moment is gone forever so we need every chance to get the shot. Only the other day at a wedding I was asked in no uncertain terms to move out of the way by a guest, having setup my camera for the speeches, just so she could takes a few pictures of the groom whilst sitting in her seat. Never mind that the bride and groom had paid for me to be there to get the best view in the house for the sake of their official wedding video. So long as that guest got her shots that was all that mattered.

I’m sure professional photographers have similar issues with guests getting in their way or making unreasonable demands but at least photographers have some authority in asking people to move out of the way, as they often mobilise guests to set up shots and organise the shoot as to how they want it, but for videographers we often film things as they happen to keep everything natural so tend not to marshall guests around or ask them to move.

It would not be unreasonable to ask your guests to turn off their mobile phones (or at least switch to silent), leave their tablets at home and put away their cameras so they can enjoy your wedding and be in the moment with you instead of experiencing it through a screen. Tell them you have hired professionals to capture your day and you want them to participate as guests instead of being amateur photographers or videographers. During some weddings we’ve literally filmed the bride through the screen of an iPhone being held up in front of us instead of filming the real thing which is just crazy.

By having no recording devices present on your wedding day, except for the professional ones you have hired, you are going ‘unplugged’. People are all too eager to share their status on Facebook and upload photos of your big day which can be upsetting for the bride, especially if it has been plastered all over social media without their consent or it spoils a surprise for the evening guests. There has even been instances of bridesmaids taking photos of the bride before the ceremony and posting it onto Facebook only for the groom to see his bride-to-be in her dress before she walks down the aisle.

You don’t need to be heavy handed about it either, just make it clear from the outset at the invite stage that this is an unplugged wedding and then put up a few playful signs at the Church and venue as a gentle reminder. Your photographer and videographer will be grateful that you did and so will you when you see the results.

2015 – it’s been emotional!

Posted on January 3, 2016 by Colbridge

The whole Wedding experience brings out different emotions in different people at different times, and it’s not just the preserve of the bride to show a display of emotion. In fact in 2015 in particular it was the men who were shedding most of the tears and showing how they felt at some of the weddings we filmed. We’re not just talking about the grooms either, we saw best men and fathers of both bride and groom getting out the hankerchiefs and being overcome by the occasion.

Brides usually reach their most emotional point of the Wedding whilst walking up the aisle and later when reciting their Wedding vows, especially at the part where they are asked to say ‘as I take you to be my husband’. This moment is usually the culmination of everything brides have thought about their Wedding day since they were 7 years old. Brides are expected to get all emotional but we don’t always expect it of grooms, but why not? After all it is their big day too.

Grooms do show emotion at the sight of their bride walking up the aisle but more and more are revealing their true feelings during their speeches. Maybe the champagne has a part to play in making the groom feel more relaxed and comfortable to open up in front of gathered family and friends. Understandably nerves kick in when delivering a speech to a 100 or so guests so a few drinks beforehand helps get them through it but this is the moment when grooms really wear their heart on their sleeves.

In 2014 the Royal Mail conducted a survey for Fathers’ Day and found that men were much more emotional than women but were just a lot better at hiding it. Being an emotional man does of course go against the grain of the male stereotype pervaded in society, it is perceived to show weakness and ‘not what men do’. Emotions that men feel often show themselves in art instead, such as poetry, films and music. Some of the most heartbreaking, emotional, romantic and tear jerking songs ever written have been composed by men (Burt Bacharach, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John, James Blunt, Sam Smith). However when it comes to the Wedding day that emotion has nowhere to hide.

I admit that as a groom myself I was suddenly overcome with emotion during our Wedding but to this day I don’t really know why. I put it down to a number of factors and not just one thing. Weddings are emotionally charged occasions because of high expectations, a lot of organising, the consecration of love between two people, the coming together of everyone you’ve known in your life, an outpouring of love and goodwill, heartfelt messages, the relief that the day has finally come – there are so many things to provoke emotion and the bride and groom find themselves at the epicentre of it all.

These moments are often raw and tender, sometimes written as part of the speech, sometimes poured out in a stream of consciousness, Filming these intimate moments are a privilege to see and emotional to film. We often stand behind our cameras with lumps in our throats at such an outpouring during a heartfelt speech or a moving backstory.

This kind of storytelling is a powerful thing and something we love to do. Weddings provide all the ingredients for such emotive storytelling and this is why it is so important for couples to capture these special memories because they will never be repeated in quite the same way again. Before the Wedding it’s all about the flowers, the dress, the venue, the photo booth and chair covers. After the Wedding when it’s all gone the only thing left is the memories and your Wedding film is the only thing that can truly capture these natural, unscripted moments and show the real emotion of the day, so be sure to book your Wedding video with us before it is too late.

It’s like squashing your 3 tier Wedding cake into 1 tier

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Colbridge

If I turned up at a Wedding and squashed the happy couple’s beautifully made 3 tier Wedding cake into one tier I don’t think the bride and groom would be too happy, do you? But this is in effect what they are doing to their Wedding video by insisting on having it on a standard definition DVD instead of high definition Blu Ray.

Let me explain. Most modern TV’s now display in 1080p true HD. Forget HD ready TV’s, they display at a lesser 720p and are not true HD, despite what retailers will have you believe when you bought one. So you can guarantee that a bride will sit down with their newly arrived proof DVD and expect it to look razor sharp and ultra clear on a screen designed to display full HD. What they will see is a great image but just not high definition so it won’t be as clear as it could be had they opted for the Blu Ray version. DVD by default is SD (standard definition) and can only be upscaled so much by an upscaling DVD or Blu Ray player. Blu Ray discs on the other hand can hold more information and will playback the Wedding film in all it’s full HD glory, just the way we shot it.

It’s all about compression. For Blu Ray we can export natively and keep the dimensions and stored gigabyte information intact to go directly onto the disc without any loss in quality. For DVD we have to compress all of that lovely HD footage down 4-5 times so it fits onto a standard definition disc (on average that’s 20GB being compressed down into a 4GB file) and with this an inevitable loss in quality. It’s like taking your beautiful 3 tier Wedding cake and squashing it down into one tier (no, make that half a tier!) Would that be acceptable? Of course not, you want to see it in all it’s 3 tier glory.

However as videographers we have found a way around this. We have made the decision to give every bride a free USB with a HD version of their Wedding film loaded onto it. So if they choose to have it on DVD they will always have a high definition version of it in their possession. Smart TV’s and Blu Ray players are equipped with a USB slot so you can simply plug a USB memory stick into it to play at the touch of a button. Even modern DVD players can playback HD with a USB providing it is connected to a TV via a HDMI cable and not a Scart lead.

And although clients still have the attitude of ‘well I’ve played DVD’s for years and they’ve always looked ok to me’ they will soon realise that the new TV set they just installed is trying to desperately upscale their SD DVD and not looking quite right. Sure it looked fine on the old HD ready TV sets but not on the new true HD 1080p one.

Our USB solution will at least compensate for this if they really don’t want to have Blu Ray. We obviously want all of our brides to see their Wedding day in the best quality possible, it’s just that many brides don’t see it coming until it’s too late. During the consultation process brides often glaze over when trying to point out the pros and cons of digital formats, they just want to talk about what flowers they are having, the colour scheme they’ve chosen and what the bridesmaids will be wearing. Grooms often need less convincing but usually we find that it is the couple that are making compromises not for themselves, but for others. They are thinking about their parents and grandparents, some of whom have just got used to using DVD, and how they can best share their big day with their family.

Some videographers have gone as far as dropping DVD’s from their packages altogether in favour of USB so it’s only a matter of time before everything goes completely digital. We don’t want to be preachey or heavy handed about this because utltimately it is the client’s decision but we do have a duty to inform and educate the customer so they can at least make an informed choice.

And the winners are….

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Colbridge

New Year, new day, new blog. We would like to thank all of our customers and clients who made 2014 one of our best years to date. Our job is quite varied as we get to travel around the country to see a lot of venues, experience different Weddings, get a front row seat to many events and meet some great people along the way not to mention liaising with some of the best professionals in the entertainment, events and media industries. So just for fun we thought we would put together the Colbridge Films special mention awards for 2014….

Most Entertaining Vicar of the Year goes to The Rev David Tudor from the Parish of Canvey who made everyone laugh throughout the renewal of Jean and Brian Sleap’s vows at Red Brick Barn in August with his charming wit, slick delivery and warm repartie sounding more like a stand up comedian at times than a Vicar, especially when he told the congregation to sing 3 lines of Amazing Grace and anyone caught not singing would be made to stand up and do a solo. Humour can of course calm the nerves and be a welcomed relief to the formalities. At other Weddings this year we heard another Vicar encourage a couple to use Twitter to keep the lines of communication open and another who compared the groom to Homer Simpson in his talk about growing old together.

Most Impressive Venue of the Year has to go to the 16th century Tudor manor house Hengrave Hall near Bury St. Edmunds. It has an impressive driveway leading up to the house, a Catholic Church set within the grounds, magnificent architecture, lawns and a courtyard. Not many venues have taken our breath away but this one did and we felt honoured to have been commissioned to film the Wedding of Elizabeth and Michael at the venue.

Most Original Soundtrack for a Wedding Film was chosen by Stuart Provan when we came to edit his Wedding to Martha. We usually ask couples to put together their own soundtrack to go with their Wedding film and choose songs that mean something to the both of them. While a lot of couples go for the tried and tested popular ones (at the moment it’s Ed Sheeran ‘Thinking Out Loud’, John Legend ‘All of Me’ and Ellie Goulding ‘How Long Will I Love You’) Stuart surprised us with a refreshingly electric mix of new and old tracks such as Louis Prima’s ‘Just a Gigolo’, Josh Ritter ‘The Curse’, Paolo Nutini ‘Pencil Full of Lead’ and TV On the Radio ‘Family Tree’ to name a few.

Most Impressive Wedding Cake in our opinion was the Beauty and the Beast cake made by a relative at Ellen and Glenn’s Wedding, with it’s fine attention to detail it fitted in nicely with the Disney character themed reception.

Best Original Speech has to go to Mr. Jowett, the father of the bride at the Wedding of Stuart & Martha, who captivated the audience with his eccentric wit and unscripted comments producing spontaneous roars of laughter from the unsuspecting guests. This made a refreshing change to the many speeches we hear at other Weddings that sound almost identical as the groom and best man all too often lift their speeches directly off the internet word for word and, although it isn’t always apparent to the gathered crowd, we know who the culprits are having sat through many (but we won’t be naming any names!)

Most Impressive Bridal Suite is undoubtedly the spacious and opulent room, complete with pillars, at the Grade I listed mansion house Gosfield Hall. It certainly has the wow factor and never fails to impress guests who get to see it at the end of the evening when we usually set up our cameras in there to record personal messages from guests.

Our Bucket List Moment this year was filming at the world famous London Palladium for the first time in the heart of London’s West End for Theatretrain. We’ve been lucky enough to film at some of the largest and most famous venues in the country but this one, now owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful group, really resonated with all it’s history and a who’s who of the entertainment industry who performed there going as far back as Laurel & Hardy. Having watched the Royal Variety Performance and many other shows being broadcast from the Palladium on TV over the years it was a real thrill to be able to film there ourselves.

Most Touching Moment for us at a Wedding this year was when the Groom’s best man, who was just 15 years old, made a heartfelt speech about how much the groom, who was also his Uncle, meant to him growing up and how he missed him when he was away in the US Air Force. Earlier in the day he had forgotten his Air Force blue trousers to match the uniform he and the other members of the groom’s party would be wearing that day. Luckily the Wedding photographer Stephanie Cara was on hand to call her other half and instruct him to buy a pair of blue trousers from Burtons Menswear asap. Within half an hour they were promptly delivered and matched the rest of the uniform just in time for the ceremony, so Stephanie wins the person who went Above and Beyond the Call of Duty award.

Talking of awards thank you to all those who voted for us in the Wedding Industry Expert Awards for 2014 in the Best Videographers in Essex category which we won.

There were many more memorable moments that we could have mentioned and it would of course be unfair to single out things like the best bride, or best performance or best dress, etc but it’s true to say that every Wedding, celebration and event is unique and special to those involved. It’s all about making memories, being part of memories and capturing those memories. We are looking forward to 2015 and continuing to do more of the same whilst meeting some great people along the way. To book us for your Wedding, celebration or event call 01206 860090 as we are getting booked up fast.

Making John & Stephanie’s Wedding video

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Colbridge

Last summer we had the opportunity to get creative and produce something unique for this couple. Stephanie, who owns a vintage style catering and china hire service called Serendipity Street in Suffolk http://www.serendipitystreet.co.uk planned the day to perfection with her beautiful attention to detail. She consulted with us in making a vintage style Wedding film, similar to the old Super 8 cine style footage, but after viewing the completed film on Blu Ray they decided to keep it in high definition rather than distress the footage to make it look old. Instead we compromised and came up with a romantic, sun-drenched dream sequence that we had originally planned to film on the Wedding day in fields of barley. It helped that they actually live and work on a farm as this provided the beautiful backdrop to their video and indeed the whole Wedding day. However you can never rely on the British weather and true to form the Wedding day itself was a mixture of bright sunny spells tempered with thunderous showers. The consequence of this meant that the fields were soaked with rain and no time was left to create what we had envisaged. The Wedding film itself was more or less in the can but we wanted to utilise the farm more and film a romantic sequence in the fields. The only thing to do was to return to the farm and for John & Stephanie to recreate part of their day by putting on the suit and dress again when the weather had improved. However weeks went by before we were able to find that perfect summer evening to capture the warm golden glow of the sun setting over the farm. It was also a race against time because John had only a matter of days before he had to harvest the fields and cut down the barley which would be gone for another year. When the day finally did arrive we had a two hour window to get the footage we needed. The filming itself involved shooting directly into the sun to overexpose the image which gave it an ethereal quality, then to adjust the colour and contrast in post production, slow the footage down and create a beautiful dream-like sequence to the music of The Icarus Account with a track called ‘My Favourite Girl’ (licensed from The Music Bed).

Rubbing shoulders

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Colbridge

For us 2013 has been an interesting year, a little uneven at times, but we saw our corporate work increase signalling an underlying confidence in business that looks set to improve as we go into 2014 with a stronger economy and demonstrating the importance businesses are putting on video as an essential tool in their forthcoming marketing strategies.

This year also saw us rub shoulders with some household names and celebrities, nothing big league, but it gave us a little buzz all the same. We started off in January sharing the stage with R&B singer Beverley Knight, former X Factor winner Alexandra Burke and Britain’s Got Talent finalist Connie Talbot at The O2 Arena in London filming Young Voices. Then in March we filmed a Wedding in Hertfordshire where the MC was 80’s soul singer and TV presenter David Grant along with his wife and TV presenter Carrie Grant as their guests. Playing in the Church during the signing of the register were electronic string quartet String Fever, as seen on ITV, performing their ‘history of music’ routine.

In April and June whilst filming a few more Weddings we met a footballer from Sky One’s Dream Team and Tom Keane, presenter and antique dealer of BBC1’s Cash in the Attic and Bargain Hunt. When asked to shoot a Marryoke at a Wedding reception in August Olympic swimmer and Strictly Come Dancing star Mark Foster was up for doing a bit of ‘I’m Too Sexy‘ for the couples’ music video who was there as their special guest.

Whilst filming a Prom for this years William de Ferrers school leavers at the Three Rivers Golf & Country Club in July we found ourselves appearing on French TV as a film crew turned up from France 2 to make a TV programme about the phenomena of proms in the UK. So we were filming them, filming us, filming them!

Also during the summer we made a promo for the Secret Vintage Fair where former Eastenders and Hollyoaks actor Carli Norris was displaying her excellent Chocodolly range of cakes and did a piece to camera. The Autumn saw us working with QVC TV presenter Charlotte Spooner, who owns Astara dance classes, whilst filming her promo and former BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Louise Perry, who manages her band One Foot in the Groove and Louise Perry Weddings, filming promos for her businesses. Whilst shooting the official Toastmasters International Conference DVD at Five Lakes we also spotted Big Brother psychologist and TV presenter Geoffrey Beattie (no relation) in the lobby.

We ended the year filming a promo for fashion label Cako who promoted our video in time for their big launch night in London where a sprinkling of X Factor celebs, former Apprentice winner Stella English, actor Jude Law and Daybreak presenter Kate Garraway attended.

In January 2014 we will be joining the Young Voices tour again to film I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here winner, singer and TV presenter Stacey Solomon, who is just one of the artists singing with 100,000 children from around the UK. The shows also raise money for the CLIC Sargent charity.

However the true stars of our videos are you the customers who have hired us, supported what we do and bought our products throughout 2013. May we wish you all a Happy New Year and we look forward to working with some of you again in 2014.

Are you damaging your brand with opportunist photos and video?

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Colbridge

Since the advent of the iPad, camera phones, cheap digital cameras and consumer camcorders it is tempting for people to take a couple of snaps or shoot video whenever and wherever the opportunity arises and publish them on Facebook and YouTube. This is fine if it is for personal use but when it comes to a business is this acceptable? I fear not and it could be damaging to a product or brand and to the integrity of a company. It seems like some business owners feel the urge to get the images out there at all costs irrespective of quality. You only have to trawl through a couple of business pages on Facebook or look on some YouTube channels to find such examples of poorly produced imagery. Why do some companies settle for shaky amateur footage or out of focus stills to represent their business? It may be about capturing the moment but unless that moment is exceptionally captivating and has wide appeal it is just going to look shoddy, cheap and unprofessional.

Being a video production company we would argue that having a professionally produced video for your company website or Facebook page is better than a DIY video using your own camcorder but there’s good reason behind it. An ill conceived amateurish looking video can be a turn off to potential customers. We are not just talking about shaky camera work or out of focus shots, it is more to do with the production values of the whole piece where employing editing techniques, adding titles and graphics, using transitions, music and live audio is just as important as the quality of the cameras, lenses and recording equipment being used which turns an amateur opportunist video into a professional production.

It never ceases to amaze us how much jaw dropping, bad home made footage appears on Facebook from companies who either think it is totally acceptable just to get it out there or want to prove how easy it is to do their own video. In doing so they are missing the point and just shooting themselves in the foot. Professional video has become less expensive in recent years and with the increase in demand from users there is no excuse to go amateur just to save a few pounds because at the end of the day those few pounds saved could cost you twenty times more in lost custom in the long run by going cheap.

Video could be the most valuable marketing tool you will ever have to reach your target audience because not only does video keep your customers interested in you and induce a loyal following it creates an emotional response and the ability to connect with your customers like no other medium can. That’s why companies have been doing it for the past 60 years on commercial TV networks but instead of having to pay thousands of pounds for a couple of seconds you now only have to pay a fraction of that cost to reach these customers by using platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, your website and many other avenues on the world wide web.

Your Brain needs to fill in the Gaps

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Colbridge

You can have too much of a good thing, especially if we are talking about Hollywood’s obsession with CGI or the more recent invention of virtual cinematography where the viewer is immersed into a fabricated reality created by a computer. Many fantasy and science fiction films employ these techniques where visual artists create breathtaking new worlds or make adjustments to own our reality. CGI is also used to subtlely enhance what we already know to be real. For example a behind the scenes tour of The Great Gatsby reveals that virtual cinematography was used extensively to create the 1920’s period backdrops (check out the featurette here). So it’s not limited to just creating alien worlds, it can dramatically enhance a scene without the audience even knowing. Where it once took hundreds of craftsman, technicians and artists to build giant sets on the studios back lot a movie set can now be built inside the memory of a computer if all of the action is filmed against a green screen.

The Great Gatsby and many others like it are great examples of how visual artists employ technology to add something to our reality to enhance the scene and compliment the actors. However my problem is with science fiction blockbusters like Avengers Assemble where the audacious action and extreme cartoon violence bends the laws of nature so we know we are in an alternative reality. This concept is ok in itself but because the visuals are so stunningly real, visually slick and expertly manipulated it is often more difficult to concentrate on what is supposed to be going on because all of the work is being done for me. Our brains are like computers but much more complex. It wants to compute the world around us and make sense of everything we see. If it has very little to figure out the brain will begin to switch off and this is exactly what happens with the perfection of CGI and some of the latest Hollywood blockbusters.

How many times have you sat down to a Ray Harryhausen film on a wet Sunday afternoon such as Jason & The Argonauts or the original Clash of the Titans and, after scoffing at the low tech special effects, found the whole experience much more satisfying? I know I have and it’s because my brain has had to fill in the gaps and re-imagine the scene to compensate for those dodgy looking dinosaurs or less than perfect animated models pretending to be huge monsters. My brain has had to do some work to accept what I’m seeing and suspend my reality. CGI works if used in the right way and doesn’t tip the balance over into absolute perfection. George Lucas got carried away with technology and shot Star Wars Episodes 1-3 digitally which arguably gave these films a colder, less engaging aesthetic. I guarantee that most Star Wars fans prefer the original trilogy (Episodes 4-6) because of the very point I’m making. They were made in a different technological age where models had to be employed, rubber suits with actors in them was the only way to create feasible looking aliens to interact with the actors, and so on. There is something tangible and more real about this that our brains can interact with. We like to smooth out the imperfections. If the imperfections are already smoothed out we have nothing to do but watch, but watching isn’t enough. We need to engage with what we are seeing to turn it into a satisfying experience. Engaging with a film is key to it’s success.

Steven Spielberg got the balance right with Jurassic Park by using a combination of CGI and full sized models so we feel a tangibility and engage with the story throughout. That is why I have a problem with Peter Jacksons’ Lord of the Rings trilogy, and to a lesser extent the Harry Potter series, because there is an over reliance on technology to tell the story. Sure it’s an amazing technological achievement but the visuals look too perfect therefore my brain hasn’t got much to do but to watch and stare in amazement, but that’s not enough. I preferred Peter Jackson when he was making less than perfect movies like Bad Taste and Braindead because you can see the creativity that had to go into them to pull off the low budget special effects and for that reason my brain has plenty to do and enjoy.

I sometimes feel the same about video shot with DSLR cameras because the perfect visuals look great for the first 5 minutes or so but then the brain starts to tune out over a longer period which is why I don’t think DSLR works for a Wedding film. Engagement to this level of perfection can’t be maintained over a long period of time. We use professional high definition cameras but they’re not DSLR yet the visuals look stunning on Blu Ray. DSLR is a great technique to include in a production but not exclusively so. It’s all about getting the balance right to give our brains something to weigh up.

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