• Nino Leitner
• On August 24, 2012
• http://www.ninofilm.net

IBC 2012, Europe’s largest broadcast convention, is around the corner. As usual, it will take place in Amsterdam in September, 7th-11th to be exact. The exhibition is free to enter.

Vitec Videocom Mini Workshops

I have a long-lasting relationship with Vitec Videocom, the mother company of such traditional and essential broadcasting brands like Sachtler, OConnor, Anton Bauer, Litepanels, Petrol Bags and Vinten. Vitec was the main sponsor of this year’s Filmmaking Masterclasses in Las Vegas, Key West and lately Mallorca. Not only with tons of their gear for our participants to use, but also with the concentrated knowledge of one of their employees, who was there for the participants helping out at each of the 3-day Masterclasses.

OConnor OFocus Follow Focus at our Las Vegas Filmmaking Masterclass 2012

They asked us for ideas for their IBC stand this year – they were interested in doing things a little differently without constantly pushing their products. They really care about the community and want to dive into it head first, listening to people more than ever before. So I suggested that we could do mini workshops at their stand dealing with various subjects in the filmmaking world.

They loved the idea – and so it happens that I will be hosting some of these workshops, together with my friends Sebastian Wiegärtner and Philip Bloom. Each of the mini workshops will last about 30 minutes, with enough time for a Q&A session right after.

Nino Leitner with the Canon C300 while shooting with his team at the Key West Filmmaking Masterclass 2012

Click to sign up for the workshops!

Here are the two workshops topics that I will be covering:

Workshop 1:
Two different approaches at narrative filmmaking – (Friday, September 7th, 4pm):

The first topic I am going to cover deals with shooting narrative films. I will be looking at two very different projects I shot recently, the meticulously planned “Homophobia” (directed by Gregor Schmidinger – click here to watch it) and “13:59” (directed by Mario Feil – click here to watch it), a short shot within about 36 hours with a pre-production C300.

I will talk about the different planning that was necessary due to the strikingly different concepts. “13:59” was totally guerilla run-and-gun without additional lighting and mostly Canon zoom lenses, albeit with a rough script, but almost no dialogue. Meanwhile on “Homophobia” I had a gaffer and electricians for 5 shooting days, a concise lighting plan, and we only used Zeiss CP.2’s (except for only one shot), and about 70% of the film where shot during the night. It was scripted all the way through with a lot of dialogue.

During the short workshop, I will also cover the reason for some of the gear we used and why it was necessary to get the shots we needed. Please watch both “Homophobia” and “13:59” beforehand as we won’t have time to screen them at the workshop.

SIGN UP FOR THE WORKSHOP HERE!

Workshop 2:
Basic gear for DSLR filmmaking – (Monday, September 10th, 10am)

DSLRs democratized cinematic filmmaking, but essentially they are still photo cameras. So you still at least a few accessories to turn your DSLR into a filmmaking machine – camera stabilization, sound, lenses … I will cover the essentials and the reasons behind it in this mini workshop. This will also touch on product categories that are not sold by Vitec (e.g. audio gear and lenses), so don’t worry, it will be comprehensive!

SIGN UP FOR THE WORKSHOP HERE!

Sign up required, space is limited – lots of other workshops!

For many other workshop topics by Philip and Sebastian, click here and sign up. Please hurry up as space is extremely limited!!

There is a waiting list for these workshops, but don’t worry, even if you don’t get a space, recordings of the workshops will be put online after the show. I will post links to them here when they are online.

G-Technology talks (stand in hall 7, D.12)

I have recently started collaborating with G-Technologies, maker of some of the best RAID and hard disk solutions out there, bar none. They are part of the Western Digital family and I have used these drives for ages now, I trust them the most after a lot of bad experiences with some other manufacturers (disk failures) in the past.

G-Tech has invited me to hold informal talks at their stand at IBC (Hall 7, D12) about whatever I want – which is very kind, and I have taken up that opportunity:

G-Tech talk 1:
Shooting “13:59” & managing footage (Saturday, Sept 8, 2 pm)

The challenges, the outset and the result – plus how to manage footage from a shoot like this, what tools to use and which hard drives – archiving and backing up footage in the digital age!

G-Tech talk 2:
Backup strategies – survival of the footage! (Sunday, Sept 9, 2 pm)

G-Tech talk 3:
Shooting “Homophobia” & managing footage (Monday, Sept 10, 2 pm)