Canyon Spectral & Stoic project - Breakdown and BTS

If you follow Canyon bikes on social media at all, or any of their riders really, you will probably have seen snippets of work we have done with them in the past month. 

Aspect produced the two bike launch films for their new Spectral and Stoic bikes, so I thought I would put together a little blog post with some more info on the process of a job like this from the first email, to going live. 

Chances are its a bit more involved than the 2-4 minute riding edit you see online leads you to believe. 

Now like a lot of things in business, and especially the bike industry this was semi last minute, or about as last minute as you can get and still pull a project like this off... from initial contact to online in 3 months, 12 weeks!

This is where the importance of surrounding yourself with a team of other trusted creatives is key. 

Time management is key, and when we often have a few other jobs and clients on the go at any one time at different stages of pre/post production pipeline delegating, trust and communication are vital, with that said Chris and I took the lead on a project each, and would be the lead on "our" project from concept through to delivery. Chris got the Spectral, Jacob the Stoic.  

The Stoic film - Rider catching up with her mates/riding vids via social media while out and about before meeting up with them for real and going riding. Showing off the fact the bike can ride pretty much anything put in front of it. 

This project was shot in the south west of the UK with Freddy and James, North Wales with Kaos and in France for Tomas as well as Bristol for the city scenes.

Shout out to Maya for being the person on the phone, a real rider, who rides for Canyon so was rad to get her involved, gutted she was so fresh to the team having only signed her contract a week prior to shooting she didn't have any kit or bikes, soon come though!

 

The Spectral film - Again highlighting how the bike is really a do it all bike, from tech climbing, jumps, more DH style riding etc. 

From North Wales to multiple locations in France while riders were in Europe for the WC's, the USA and some studio bits in Bristol. Quite the feat to organise logistically but it all came off in the end. Again this is a prime example of where having a trusted network of creatives is key.

 

 

 

Timeline/breakdown: 

While this is the breakdown and timeline for this specific job, the process and general stages are fairly similar for most jobs, but obviously the time between stages can vary largely depending on any one of a whole heap of variables. 

A project like the Monster Energy film Between The Races (9 riders, 7 countries, days of filming with each rider, feature length plus shorter edits etc ) ...a year plus easy end to end.

Something more simple ( two riders, one location, 4 days, one filmer, one deliverable ) like the Focus Bikes Madeira? film...more like 2 months...

Timeline for this Canyon project:

Initial emails - September 2020

At this stage the client makes contact/us with them etc, we rough out potential dates for all stages of the process, chat roughly about riders, locations, basic tech stuff and go over and agree budgets. 

Conception/Pre production/planning  - September - October 

This is THE key part of any job and for this one, was especially so. 

Covid makes shoots a lot more complicated, but when you factor in the fact the riders are spread over some 10 locations in 3-4 countries, with 4-5 camera units, it gets a whole load of fun (read complicated) 

For this shoot we had two projects running side by side, one for the Spectral and another for the Stoic. They shared some riders, and some locations, but each had their own specific parts too. Lining up the shoots, riders, crews etc to make sure we got what we needed in the bag, as swiftly as possible was key for both fitting everything into a tight space of time, and as ever, time = money so keeping shooting days to a min and being clever with how things slotted in was key to staying on budget. 

A little overrun in budget is factored into most shoots, but if you can keep the budget in check the client is always appreciative.

A few pages from the deck/treatment to give you an idea of the kind of thing we bounce between all parties to make sure everyone's on the same page.

 

Shooting - First half of November

The principle photography on both projects was all done in the first half of November. We had all the crews with the riders in their specific locations, all prepped with what they needed to get, and just had to pray everyone got favourable weather.  

Muddy but happy Freddy while Jacob explains something or nothing in the back.

Mid shoot meeting and spade work.

The glamour of shooting in the UK in winter.

A key bit of kit on most shoots these days, a gimbal. This is the Movi M15 with a C300mk3 flying on it.

Making use of free high vantage points over the city and evening light.

This was looking back over the clips of Freddy's huge OTB in the Stoic edit. Too much laughing trying to understand how he tried it twice before accepting the kicker was a bit steep ha.

Post production - Second half of November

Again, a truly crucial stage of the process and one that often takes longer than planned, and if you rush, often shows in the end product...post!

We gave ourselves 2 weeks to get both edits turned around, with Chris working on the Spectral project and Jacob on the Stoic. 

We first needed to get the footage sent to us on drives/source footage uploaded ( not easy when its hundreds of GB's ) , then we edited up the videos, get them approved and picture locked with the client, then it was animation and VFX, then sound design and colour grading, before getting all the parts together and combing them. Sounds simple but that's a lot of people/decisions/conversations.

As well as the main edit, there were, as is now very much the norm some 20 ish other short edits of the content in various formats and dimensions for other outlets etc. 

Example of the timeline finished for the Stoic film. Can see the sound mix and finished grade layered in at the top and bottom. I then just turn off all the original audio channels and the un-grades source media is covered by the main graded master.

Delivery to client - End of November 

Get everything neatly packaged up, organised along with notes to the client with enough wiggle room to make any last minute tweaks if needed. 

The folder structure of deliverables for this. The main edit and all social media/web parts that reference an attached spread sheet explaining what videos are, what folder they are in and their dimensions, ratios and file sizes.

Deliverables online and live - First week of December 

Canyon push the content out across all major platforms, riders channels and their own outlets.  

Must have Steps/Documents:

So through that whole process, as you can imagine, there are lots of places where you could fall down, or a lack of good clear planning and communication could cause issues...

So here are a few tips that helped us get it all running as smooth as possible: 

- Budget agreed and signed off in writing/email before booking people in, or any work is done. I shouldn't need to explain why this is key... (unless its a personal project then just be up front with the fact its for the love)
 
- Decks and treatments to make sure client/production company/crew/riders are fully on the same page and in agreeance as to what the outcome should be. Nail down the look and concept.
 
- Shot list/production docs drawn up by the director/DPs to send to all the satellite camera units to make sure they know what they are getting and in what formats etc to make sure the production looks as cohesive as possible. 
 
- Information sheet/Deck sent to VFX, Grade, Sound with examples and notes on how the director/DP see the post side coming together. Can be done on the phone but having a doc/email for them to refer back to while working is usually appreciated.

 

 

So that's a bit more information on how a job like this comes together, and this only scratches the surface of the wealth of stuff to do organising a shoot small or large.  

Hopefully you might find something useful from all the above, that you can use on your next project.

At the end of the day though its a collaborative effort, and coming out with an end product that works with the brands image, shows off the product well and ultimately keeps the client happy is the aim. As long as those happen there isn't really a right or wrong way of going about things, just what works best for you. 

Happy client = More work! 

See below:

 

"These were great projects to work on with Aspect Media. From contributing some awesome ideas at the concept phase, and taking the reigns with shoot planning, through to the creativity shown with their camera work and editing - the guys killed it. In the end both of the finished products surpassed our expectations, and we really appreciate the effort Aspect put in. Thanks Guys 👍" - JACK NOY - MTB BRAND MANAGER - GRAVITY @Canyon Bikes

 Cheers, Aspect

Canon C300 Mk3 - Why this camera & what I have learned bulding out my kit.

The Canon C300 Mk3 - What I love, why I chose it and best working kit ive perfected.

The new baby with my Canon FD Cine lens on.

The perfect camera doesnt exist, but this one for me is scary close.

So the last year, or really the last 3 months have been super exciting for camera releases. It seemed like the last few years have just seen little steps here and there, and summer 2020 saw most of the big players really take a huge leap.

For the last few years I was using the Sony FS5/Inferno/Metabones combo which is a great setup. I got 5 years use out of that body which is great ROI wise and the images it produced at normal 24/25p frame rates where great and held up alongside the Red footage I often shoot with as well. When shot on the Inferno in Prores 422 HQ the image was great...b ut its time had come and the reasons I wanted to upgrade where: 

• Shooting along side a Red on most jobs and holding its own.
  
• Really solid 4K more important to me than higher resolutions that compromise 4K. 
  
• Need for 4k Slow mo at 120fps min.
  
• Internal raw and not needing the Inferno thus making kit smaller and lighter
• Better low light than the FS5. Clean ISO 3200.
  
• Better noise floor than the FS5.
• Smallish, lightish, and pro level audio.
  

So with that list of wants I did a LOT of reading into all the options, which where: 

 

1. Sony FX9 - Reason for not picking: 4k slow mo options not there, wrong shape.
   
2. Second hand Red Scarlett W - Reason for not picking: Old tech, average audio, no NDs, not good low light.
3. Red Komodo - Reason for not picking: No slow mo above 2k, No pro audio inputs, No nds etc
4. Zcam F6 - Reason for not picking: Semi unknown brand, Not full 4k slow mo, No internal raw, No pro audio inputs, No NDs.
   
5. Sony A7S3 - Reason for not picking: Too small, No NDs, No internal raw

So with all that said I landed on the C300 Mk3 and got a pre order in on the day of release and was one of the first people in the UK to get one. So I have already been shooting for a month with it, racking up some 20 shoot days already so feel like I am fully at home with the camera and ready to put a few thoughts down on paper.

Reasons why I chose it: 

• Great Canon colours. Subjective I know but I have always liked them.
• S35 sensor.
  
• Dynamic range. Canon claimed 15+ stops and from shooting with the camera in all conditions and having the image graded professionally along side Red footage from the same shoot, its right up there alongside it. 
• For a quote from Dan Moran, one of the UKs best colourists on the footage he has graded on a few of our projects recently see the end of this post. 
  
• Great 4k slow mo. 4K internal raw at upto 120fps, with NO CROP! and with full AF is mad good!
  
• Internal 12 bit raw. Not needing to worry about big, heavy, power hungry external monitors to get top level recording is a big plus.
  
• Low noise floor and super clean images.
  
• All in one style body with pro XLR audio ports on the small well shaped body, Built in NDs etc
• Solid trusted brand and support network. 
• Native Canon mount lens's
• Dual Pixel AF. A feature I didnt think I would use given I didnt feel like it was lacking on my FS5 set up but after my first month, super useful.
  
• Low light performance. Really good usable image upto ISO 3200 easy. 6400 if you push it and do some post work. 
• Great screen. Good size, great and easy to view without hood in bright sun, touch screen for AF, thumb control on the screen along with programmable buttons and a flip function. 
• Size and weight small enough to be easy to fly with, and get on a gimbal. I have the Movi M15 with extended vertical cage rods, only about 1 inch longer and it fits a dream. If I didnt have my little DIY bit it wouldnt need the extentions.
  
• Battery life. With 2 small BPA 90WH batteries I have a full day of doc style shooting with long form interviews and lots of slow mo/AF work.
• Turns on in 1 second flat. Means you can turn it on and off between shots thus saving loads of battery life, a huge plus over the Reds.
  

 

My set up, lessons learnt and what Ive bought for it:

 

So after buying, making some mistakes with third party batteries that the camera didnt recognise etc the things and kit I have landed on that just work, and have got me to a really comfortable, small shooting set up good for a full day of shooting lots both power and space wise are:

• - Extra long screen cable for gimbal use. Twice as long as the one that comes with the camera, and while not cheap, its a must for gimbal work so as not to put too much un-needed pressure and strain on the motors. Lets the camera move more freely. - £260 CVP 

 

• - Third party batteries. Hawkwood from CVP. The Canon offical batteries are great, but just a lot of money, so I was determinded to find a good third party option. I got some cheap ones off Amazon, and sent them right back as the camera nor charger would recognise them. So one rung up the ladder in price and I found the Hawkwoods which work great!
  

• £102 for the small 50WH giving me 55 min run time.
  
• £175 for the "large" 98WH giving me 184 min ( just over 3 hours run time! )
  
• The Canon offical 90WH one is £306 for comparison.

I have done plenty of big shoot days now, 14 hours etc, and the 3 batteries I have, Canon one that came with it and the 2 Hawkwood onces last all day. The fact you can turn it off between shots and know it will boot up again almost instantly is amazing. No big heavy Vlocks. 

Fully reccomended for extra power instead of the pricey Canon ones.

The 50 and 98 WH for size comparison.

The 50 WH sits nice and flush with the body making for a great tiny, light package but still giving you an hour run time.

Stick the 98WH in and you have 3 hours!

 

• Cards again third parties as well as more solid Sandisk:
  

1. Sandisk 512gb £690. Not cheap but I figured I would get my main card as a really high quality solid option. Gives me just over an hour of internal raw.
   
2. Integral 256gb £280. A lot cheaper, but I have used it more than once and it seems solid as a rock. If your on a budget Integral seem good. 

If you have the money the Sandisk is probs a safer bet, but so far the Integral has been every bit as good, so...

• Extra bit to allow it to go on gimbals faster. Custom made by friend. 

This extra DIY bit means that I can have the Movi rail mounted on the camera permanantly and I dont need to take it on and off with tools every time I swap between gimbal and top handle. Saves loads of time. I tried mounting it direct to the camera, but there wasnt room to get the top handle in. So I just needed a way of shifting the Movi rail a cm over to the side. Cheers to good pal Joe from Starling Cycles.

Super simple, steel with 2 counter sunk holes, and 2 threaded holes, smoothed and rounded off and sprayed black.

Makes swapping between setups super fast and easy.

Small touch, big difference.

Mic holder bodge to make it smaller. The arm that camer with the camera just stook up and out loads and made it hard to get into my bag fully built up. 

Looks semi ghetto up close, but nothing a client will spot and makes getting in the bag built up much easier.

Screen mounted with Ram mounts. Same issues as the mic holder. Keeps the kit small, easy to get in and out of the bag fully built and you can still move the screen about with it semi done up and it not flop about. Also means I can quickly swap the screen onto gimbals super fast.

Screen folds in flush with the body, not hitting anything all good to slot into the bag.

Ram mounts are on all my set ups for super easy fast swapping between.

 

• A shot of it, and a load of other kit in my Lowepro Whister 350AW for a sense of size and with my mods how easy it is to work with quickly in a high action enviroment.
  

 

C300 Mk3 built up and ready to shoot, a 70-200 2.8, 24-105 F4, 17-40 F4 and 2 spare batteries, and this is just the main compartment. 

• Shot of it all built up on the Movi M15. Light, strong, super stable and amazingly a lot lighter than my old FS5 on the Movi M5. The lack of need for huge heavy Inferno recorder, with big batteries on it etc makes all the diference. The Canon screen with touch AF is also super useful for quickly checking focus without leaning down and touching the lens, or doing simple focus pulls, or shooting from the back of a moving car and tracking a rider etc. Mega combo.
  

Movi M15 with 1 inch longer vertical cage poles. 98WH battery, Extra long cable to screen.

 

So there you go. I am super stoked with it, the camera is solid, produces great images and will like most Canon cine cameras be built to last and be a real workhorse. 

Thoughts from Dan Moran the colour grading wizard:

 

Dan Moran ( https://www.danmorancolour.com/ ) who has graded a few of the projects I have shot on it in the last month has this to say:

"The new C300 is far better than I ever expected, the DGO sensor gives a huge dynamic range and great highlight roll off. That paired with the Canon raw light internally recorded, not to mention everything else it can do and you have a seriously good camera that in my opinion competes with red and alexa easily."

 

Dan hard at work on a soon come edit. Baselight and full HDR set up, dreamy! Studio based in Bristol too which is always good for giving notes in person. Much faster than remote.

 

Lastly a screen grab of a shot showing just how mad the image is. Impressive! 

Canon Raw light - Clog2

Graded

The first video I shot with the camera, and only thing I have shot with it currently online. Keep an eye on our socials at the start of Sept for more work from the C300/Red combo. 

 

Nice to see Canon actually trying to make cameras again and not just smashing everything they make with the cripple hammer. 

If you have any other questions, or things you want me to test or check just ask.

Thanks, 

Jacob

New 2019 Aspect Showreel now live!

Bit over due, but better late than never, the new 2019 Aspect Media Showreel is now live! Huge thanks to all our clients old and new, friends and other creatives we work alongside. WIthout all of you we wouldnt get to do what we love.

Aspect Media 2019 Show Reel from Aspect Media on Vimeo.

Lighting BTS from a few recent shots

Recently here at Aspect we have been shooting some stills photography for various friends and clients using a range of lighting kit and after posting one or two up on social media thought i would answer a few people at once with this blog with some more info on the set ups used, kit and thought process behind the shots.

So first off I will get the nerdy kit questions out the way. All images are shot on the Canon 5D4 body with a range of Sigma art and Canon L glass. Edited in adobe LR and PS.

So lights wise we have a set of Elincrom Quadra lights. The ELB400 battery pack and the Quadra HS and Pro heads, while using their Canon on camera trigger that supports high speed flash sync allowing us to shoot flash at high shutter speeds, more on why that's great later. The flash receiver is located in the battery pack and allows me flash sync at up to 1/8000th of a second. 

The ElincromQuadra kit. The heads on the left, battery pack and trigger above.

So the Elinchrom Quadra lighting kit is amazing, can out power the sun, shoots hi-sync etc. While for a proper studio quality set of lights its crazy small and portable, its still no match for the humble speed light. Enter my battered and bruised but still working like the day I got them Nikon SB800s. Ill explain...

Nikon SB800 flashgun with the extra battery on the side and the Elinchrom Skyport receiver.

So many moons ago I used to shoot with Nikon cameras, and when I did I got myself a couple of nice Nikon SB800 flash guns, I then discovered they could clip an extra battery on the side to increase their power and recharge times. When you couple their super small, light weight form factor, with the fact that they can light most stuff, most of the time, especially if its dark woods etc and they are the go to for most simple shoots, and why change them for another brand when they work 100% for what I need. ( I got myself a Canon flash as well for use on camera when shooting weddings and corporate gigs etc ) The flash gun and SKyport receiver is limited to 1/200th of a second flash sync.

The main things to consider when choosing which lighting kit to use are: Size, Weight, Power, Flash sync speeds and size of light modifiers I can attach to both lights.

So that's the kit, and now lets take a look at one or two images and what went into making them lights wise:

Shot 1: 

So in this first shot the aim was a shot of Ben doing his thing for him to use on his website and in his marketing. The shot wanted to be pro looking and so I wanted to play with the nice natural light coming in the windows at the top of the room and flash light.

Ben Plenge in his gym.

So the light on the left was hidden behind the gym kit as not to be in shot, and was the SB800 on around 1/8th power just to pick him off the background. As soon as I use the SB800 the image is limited via flash sync to a shutter speed of 1/200th, which inside was absolutly fine. The light on right was the Quadra with a 100cm Octabox on at around 3 power setting.

Shot 2:

Scotty Hamlin at Dean Lane skate park, Bristol.

A slightly simpler set up for this one as it only needed the one light, but it had to be the Quadra kit as we where shooting outside on a sunny day and so not only did we need the power of that kit, but also the high flash sync to fully freeze the rider. Shot on full power and the light is up on the deck of the quarter. Shutter speed for this was around 1/1600th.

Shot 3:

Rowan Sorrell and some smoke bombs.

I have had a few shots in my head for a while now and this was one of them. I had some smoke bombs waiting for just the right shoot and the stars aligned. The light was streaming in through the trees, Rowan was warmed up and we had the shot without smoke dialled in, so I ran around like a mad man for a few seconds, scrambled back to the camera and fired off this frame before the smoke dissipated. Light wise there is a SB800 on the lip of the jump to catch his silhouette, and the main light on the right just out of frame is the 100cm Octabox Quadra.

Shot 4:

Nice and simple, 2 cross light set up. The left hand light was the key Quadra Octabox and the light on the right was the SB800 just filling in the shaddows.

Thanks for reading and as ever the best place to keep up with what we are up to is on our social channels. Jacob

Update on recent work from Aspect - Aug 2017:

I wont even start with the same old apology for not updating this thing more. Race season is in full swing and we are fairly busy with it all. I do how ever promise this blog will get some more love over the off season.

Till then though a quick update on a few things Aspect has been up to in the last few months. Starting with the biggest...

Deathgrip

If you have been under a rock for the last year then you may get away with not having heard of it, but if not, then I am sure you will know about Brendan Fairclough and Clay Porters film Deathgrip.

Aspect Media had a fair hand in it, with Aspect co founder Chris Seager being co-directer and DOP on the film, and Jacob being one of the photographers shooting still photos and some C/D cam video on the shoot.

See the official trailer for the film here:



and buy the full film here: http://geni.us/DEATHGRIP

Also check out the amazing photo book / magazine that goes with the film, packed with amazing images from all the photographers. Also lesser known fact is it was all designed by Ex Dirt designer ( from back in the good ol days ) Jon Gregory. Like going back in time, in a good way! :

https://deathgripbook.tv/ 

As well as Deathgrip, we have also been flat out covering the EWS as per usual. Some amazing venues, even better racing and pumping out some pretty top quality coverage, even if we do say so ourselves.

Enduro World Series 

For a quick glimpse of the coverage check out both a one minute highlights video, and the full 20 odd minute coverage below. To keep up with the coverage from every round look for either EWS coverage on Pinkbike front page, or the EWS Youtube around when an event is on.

One minute:



Full highlights:

Four Corners

Leading up to the Madeira round of the EWS the local organizers ran a film contest, and Aspect where lucky enough to get an invite. We got  Funny man and pinner Olly Wilkins from Focus Bikes, and good friend of Aspect and killer filmer Ben Walton together and went out to the Island MTB paradise for a week of filming and the film below is what we came away with:


FOUR CORNERS from Aspect Media on Vimeo.

Jake Nichols Moto Film 

Personal work this time. Jake Nichols is one of the UKs best Moto racers, and has a pretty amazing private training compound. So via some mutual friends we linked up, and went and filmed the film below. Simple aims, to stretch our creative legs, make something new, and also help push Aspect into the Moto world a little more. With some killer projects coming up with some big moto brands it worked well.


Jake Nicholls - Native 2017 from Aspect Media on Vimeo.

We have also done a million other smaller project here and there, both video and stills for a whole range of clients. Sports and corporate. Some part way through being finished up can update on those soon enough.

As ever the best way to keep up to date with what we are up to is hit us up on FB. Update much more than this blog I promise.

https://www.facebook.com/AspectMedia/

Will update again in another month or so once the season is over and we have room to breathe.

Thanks,

Jacob - Aspect Media

First 2 weeks with the Canon 5DMkIV

Gear isn't the be all and end all, and most of the time its not the only way to up your game.

How ever after 3 years of hard service ( and I mean hard ) my 5DMk3 was starting to flag. Nothing critical but the odd thing that was just a bit weird and showing its age, time to retire it to the job of back up. Step in the new Mk4. Tiny bit smaller, Tiny bit lighter ( very welcome ) and a fair bit more punch.

Video Nerds! Now when I got my Mk3 it was a camera I used it for two solid years to shoot both photos and video. I now have the amazing Sony FS5 for video, and so this new camera is much more a photo only body for me. I will add a bit on at the end for video though so skip down there if that's what your after. Back to photo stuff...

Nothing too life changing specs wise, but a few very nice improvements. Ive had the camera for a good few weeks now and shot with it pretty much every day since I got it, but mostly on a few jobs I cant show the world for a few months yet ( *Cough* Deathgrip *Cough* ) so I sadly cant show you loads of images that would really show what I am on about ISO/DR wise etc. 

How ever I have just got back from a few days in Spain shooting for old friends of Aspect RoostDH and now have one or two shots I can use to put this post up. Read on below for my few things I think are worth the upgrade:

The new toy. Small steps better than than a giant leap.

Low Light: The old Mk3 found its upper limit at around 1600 for Clean images, 6400 in a pinch and not above if you wanted to use the images for anything other than Instagram.

The new Mk4 pushes those limits way up. Now 6400 is Clean! , 8000 is more than ok, 10,000 is still very usable, and much above that I haven't even needed to use. With fast glass and ISO 10,000  you can shoot in the dark pretty much, great for the dark woods Im in all the time.

One thing to note is the ever annoying trade off in Dynamic Range vs ISO. Amazing in this new camera as ill mention below but only up till about ISO 1600 when it looks much like the older Mk3 at low ISOs.

Amazing steps up in ISO and Dynamic Ranger

Dynamic Range: This is the big one. I would say along with the ISO these two areas make it a worth while upgrade if your in the market for one anyways. If your Mk3 is all good, for now I wouldn't jump ship. ( wait for the price to come down a bit then jump )

If you shoot below ISO 1600 this new body now rivals Nikon and Sony in the DR stakes. If you use LR and PS well you can now pretty much do away with flash in a lot of place where you would have needed some fill flash before with the Mk3. Just makes all the images look so much crisper and more vibrant.

Nice bump in resolution as well.

Auto Focus: The new auto focus system was dubbed before release as a small step up, but in real world use its far better. Much more accurate especially noticeable at wide open apertures. On the shoots I have done so far with it I would say a solid 20-30% more shots tack sharp when using servo focus with a rider coming right at me. That's a pretty bold claim, but it is a good deal better.

Mega Pixels: Not a huge jump as 23MP was more than enough, but still nice to have that extra 7MP. Shots are that bit sharper, can crop in that bit more. Welcome but not revolutionary. 

Video: 

A pretty big improvement even from my very limited testing. I have only shot a hand full of shots on the Mk4 video wise and only looked at them in Premiere, not actually edited or exported anything but its a huge step up over the Mk3 off the bat.

Sharpness was always an issue with the Mk3, when you put it next to anything from Sony or Panasonic it looked like you had butter smeared over your lens but the new Mk4 is on par with a C100 sharpness wise. You have the ever amazing Canon colour space, no Clog but you can flatten off the PP in camera and it looks great.

No real video stuff like peaking or zebras which is a shame, but it does have Mic in and Phones out, it shoots in the All-I codec as well as the lower res you will know from the Mk3 and all in 8bit colour, and in 4K @ 30p ( Motion Jpeg codec ) , 1080 @60 and 720 @120. So not bad at all and if I was going off grid into the mountains and needed one body for stills and video it may well do the job.

If you have any other questions let me know, but so far so good.

Jacob 

End of the season & latest work

They say time fly's when your having fun, and in the blink of an eye the 2016 race season has come to and end.

Aspect Media have been flat out all summer, all over the world covering the EWS series as well as shooting clients projects away from the races in between.

Now we have about a week of down time before all our off season work starts in earnest so as always if you think we could work together on a project, be it photos, video or both dont hesitate to reach out.

Here are a few of the recent projects that have gone live out there on the internet over the last month or so while we have been a little busy to update this blog:

DMR DEATHGRIP 

Film we made for DMR bikes and the release of their Brendog signature grips. Studio/indoor dirt jumps, studio lighting and lots of smoke machines used to make something visually new and interesting, outside the normal stuff for the bike world. 



EWS COVERAGE 

For the last few summers we have been a large part of the production team behind the Enduro World Series. For 2016 we pushed the coverage along with Editor Nico Turner and Producer Richard Cunynghame to yet higher production values.

Main Film: a 20-30 min recap of the weeks racing, in depth, presenter lead. Online within 48 hours of the race end:

 

One Min: Short 1 minute long all action video out within an hour of the race ending.




HIPLOK AIRLOK

Hiplok are a great company that Aspect has worked with before and this is the crowd funding video for a new product they released. 

 

SCOTLAND IN 4K 

Flexing the muscles of the Movi Aspect has in its arsenal. 4K from capture to delivery.

Scotland You are Pretty When it's Sunny... 4K from Aspect Media on Vimeo.


TRAVEL VIDEO 

Proof its not all about the latest tech. Short holiday/travel/adventure video from one half of Aspect, Jacob Gibbins holiday with his other half round Canada and the USA. Shot on everything from his phone, point and shoot to the Sony FS5.


BC | NYC - 2016 from Aspect Media on Vimeo.


We now have a bunch of other shoots in the diary for the autumn which we cant wait to dive into, but as always we would love to hear from you if you think we can work together on something.

Thanks

Aspect 

Portrait personal work

I recently got some new flash kit and wanted to try out a few ideas regarding colored lights, styles and some more non sport studio based work to pad out that side of the portfolio.

With photography we are all so lucky to be in the position of if we are lacking a specific kind of subject matter from our book, all we have to do is go shoot it, and done. We now have work to show we can work in that style to use in pitches for commissioned work. 

So I gave good pal and killer designer Jay Robinson a call who needed some fresh shots taking for his portfolio and snapped a few things last night.

Just something a bit different and non bike for a change. Next up men in suits near big shiny buildings!

Latest work for May/June

The last few months have been pretty manic for Aspect, lots of what we have been working on wont see the light of day for a while yet but here are a few things that have hit the internet recently...

Will Weston - Imprint Grips: 

Brief: Short 1:30-2 min video showing off the product while not being too sales heavy and focusing on Wills riding. One day shoot with one filmer ( who also had to shoot some photos to go up with the video ) and as you can see the weather was far from playing ball.


Will Weston - Local Hill from Aspect Media on Vimeo.

EWS Rd 3 - Ireland 

A large part of our summer is the coverage of the EWS series, so this month it was Rd 3 in Ireland. Over the week the team out puts something like 5 videos but this is the main highlight show. 20 something minutes of race recap out within 48 hours of the last rider crossing the line. Nico Turner smashes these out the park. 



Deathgrip: 

Sadly this photo is all I can show you from this all time trip that the Aspect team went on recently. Chris Seager from Aspect is working with Clay Porter and Brendan Fairclough this year on a new full length film project. If you search for the #deathgripfilm on insta you can see the odd little sneak but its a black out till 2017! All time though, you just wait world! 

Hiplok FLX - Nikki Whiles

Hiplok make some pretty rad bike locks, I use mine daily. They asked us recently to help them make a film and shoot photos for the launch of their new FLX lock. So we got Welsh pinner Nikki Whiles out to the woods and made this:

Morvelo - Short Film

Over the last few weeks we have been down in Devon shooting for a new project with Morvelo. Lots of kinds of bikes and a real feel good message. Not going to be seeing the light for a good while yet but till then check out these exclusive screen shots: 

Anyway thats about it for now. Currently editing away on various projects and out in Les Gets in the Alps shooting for other ones.

Cheers

Aspect