San Diego's Award-Winning Video Production Company for 35 Years
In April we produced a video for the Breathe LA organization of Los Angeles. Shot with two Panasonic Varicams and edited back at Sloan Productions in San Diego on our high definition non-linear edit system by Bob Sloan. Photographers were Jeff Landie and Jim O’donnell. See the video below.
Director of Photography, Bob Sloan shoots while Lauren Salituro of Intersport conducts an interview with Danielle Paskowitz of Surfers Healing, A Foundation for Autism. Lauren’s feature will air in the CBS Program “Courage in Sports”. Intersport is a long time client of Sloan Productions, relying on us for their many varied projects from commercials and promos to programming for their network shows.
On any given day Sloan Productions provides professional video production crew services to independent producers, corporations and networks such as ESPN. This is a typical setup for what we call “on-camera interviews”. For this production, we are preparing former NFL star Michael Strahan to be interviewed via speakerphone by ESPN producer Korey Kozak.
Photo Credit: Bob Sloan
For this shot a helium balloon with several daylight balanced instruments is tethered above the scene. The balloon light simulates the full moon by casting an even back/side light on the entire area. For more information on balloon lighting or night for night photography, contact us.
Photo Courtesy: Roger Henderson, Henderson Lighting & Grip (HLG)
Sloan Productions provides live television production off the Pacific Ocean. A technician aims a microwave transmitter antenna towards Scripps Institution of Oceanography as Sloan Productions produces the educational series, “Undersea Classroom“, a live event where elementary school children interact with divers undersea in the California kelp forest.
If a cameraman will have to spend a lot of time at his camera position and be elevated above the action, specialized platforms are available allowing much more flexibility and comfort, plus the ability to relocate with flexibility.
Camera movement adds visual interest and production value. For this industrial film we employ a “doorway dolly”, (yes, it fits through a door). The doorway dolly is one of the least expensive, easily deployable and repeatable means of getting the camera moving.
Proper make-up and hair-dressing are essential ingredients to compelling imagery. Michelle Streeter, one of San Diego’s best make-up artists, attends to our female lead character for a series training DVD’s shot and edited in the Digital Betacam format.
Chris La Palm directs while Bob Sloan shoots with the Canon 5D Mark II. One of the Canon 5D‘s advantage for a DP is that it has a full frame sensor which allows for very shallow depth of field to help isolate your subject from the background. You also have the entire line of Canon lenses to choose from, from 14mm to 600mm.
Many times we have incorporated our client’s PowerPoint slides into their video and DVD productions. Because computer displays and television displays are different, keeping a few things in mind will be of help to both of us.
PowerPoint presentations are optimized for computers. DVDs are optimized for television. There are a number of differences between high-resolution output for computers and low-resolution output for television. Basically, computer resolution is far greater than television’s resolution of 720 x 486 pixels (NTSC). Also, normal televisions at a minimum crop as much as 10% from around the edge (5% from each edge), resulting in a number of consequences when incorporating PowerPoint images into your video production and then to DVD. Keeping the following guidelines in mind when designing your PowerPoint presentation will help insure a good DVD experience as well.
These are as follows:
• Try to use 30 pt fonts or higher as small text may get lost on video.
• Use sans serif (e.g. Arial, Helvetica) bold fonts.
• Use no more than 4 or 5 lines of text per slide.
• Avoid the color red, use darker colors and greens and blues.
• Keep your graphics simple.
• Provide at least a 15% border around the edge.
We realize that these recommendations may seem limiting to you for your live presentation but it helps to be aware of this. In addition, audiences basically prefer simpler graphics. Too much information can cause them to disassociate altogether with the slide.
