1000 miles and were home, Doc one done!

At 4am yesterday we finally made it back to Falmouth after filming for the last four days for the documentary - The Unthinkable Truth 

It has been a great experience, working with the contributors and travelling around the Shropshire/Welsh boarders on the hunt for UFO's. 

I have filmed in a variety of locations including a night-shoot in the welsh valleys and again picked up great experience in filming for the television industry. It has been difficult at times because ninety percent of the filming has been on location and the weather has, for once, been incredibly sunny. This made it difficult to film because of harsh shadows, ever changing light conditions and changes in colour temperature throughout the shoots and to make things worse we didn't have a light because the store don't have any portable camera lights, to overcome some of the problems I took a reflector which was an essential and I could not have filmed without it.

I used a mixture of Canon 1D and Panasonic P2 cameras to film this piece. to help the narrative along I filmed a couple of time-lapse's to use in the edit to give the sense of moving through time and to take us from day through to night as well. Because of mixing two camera types I will have to work with the editor and colour grade the footage to help the two combine well and for it not to be too noticeable.

This documentary has been a fun project and I have enjoyed working on it, the main contributor was fantastic to work with and I'm sure we will work again with him in the future.

Day of rest today after a 20 hour working day yesterday and then its straight back into it with the BMX Doc - Hoodies to Heroes early next week.......

Filming on DSLR

Anybody that has tried their hand at filming with a digital SLR camera will know there limitations. One of the biggest challenges is the LCD screen on the back of the camera. they are small, poorly placed and impossible to see in bright sunlight. 

The answer to this problem is to use a LCD viewfinder, or loupe as they are sometimes called, but with so many available and prices ranging from £20 to £299 its hard to know which one to buy.

I have used the Zacuto Z-finder PRO for a while now on my Canon 1D and it is an excellent piece of kit but its £279 price tag is a lot when starting out and trying to purchase lenses, rigs and various other pieces of kit. Also when used on a Canon 1D you don't get the use of the fantastic machined bracket as found on the 5D. 

I previously purchased a cheap alternative (£20) which used an elastic strap to hold it in place. This was  useable but only just, the viewfinder optics were poor and the stability that is offered from having a eyepiece is lost because the strength and structure of the viewfinder is limited. Add to this the elastic straps getting in the way of buttons and the poor optics means for me it isn't really a viable option.

I decided to research a little more and try and find a happy middle ground and after some internet trawling I found an interesting option with a more acceptable price tag - The seagull LCD Viewfinder 

At £79.99 or thereabouts, it a serious contender. I ordered one and was very surprised with its optics, quality and fitment. It comes complete with a stick on mount for your LCD screen and a carry bag to keep it safe when not in use. It is modelled very closely to the Zacuto - in fact the images on the box it comes in are of a a 5D with a Zacuto viewfinder and it fits perfectly onto the Zacuto mount as well!

Having it all set up I tested it at the UCI World Championships and I can really find no fault with it. The lens of the viewfinder does fog up in hot conditions but thats the same as most but all in all for the price I think it is hard to beat!