Mat Gallagher interviewed Matt Hopkins:

Filmmaker Matt Hopkins first crossed our radar with his portrayal of the London riots back in 2011 and has just released a series of documentaries entitled England Your England. This personal project comprises a collection of films and references George Orwell’s essay of the same name that sought to document the characteristics that made the British who they are.  ‘The inspiration really comes from the characters’ Matt tells us. ‘I really wanted to show how many incredible people there are out there, who have stories that are actually quite important and inspiring, but who would never usually be given the time of day to talk about them.

Patrick from England Your England on Vimeo.

‘When I had to think of a name for the project I started re-reading old Orwell books; I had always loved his social realist works (Road to Wigan Pier, Down and Out in London and Paris) and the way they documented the details of struggle of the everyday person. The Lion and the Unicorn (the book which holds the titled essay) stood out as a strong name, but England Your England had a lot more poetic subtlety, and as the content of the essay was about trying to define and document a nation, I went for it.’

The project was mostly a solo venture for Matt and after making a couple of the films, looked for a way to link the stories together. ‘I prefer to work alone with the subjects’ he says, ‘shooting on DSLR, keeping it low-key a grabbing the moments wherever possible’. Matt then called in Ben Lankester to shoot ‘Leon’ and Dan Graves and Simeon Clarke to compose the music and master the audio.

Richard from England Your England on Vimeo.

Each film took around 2 days of shooting and required a great deal of flexibility. ‘I’ll start by spending a bit of time with the person’ he says, ‘and then start shooting. If I know the person already we’ll do the interview early in the shoot and then edit that before shooting more visuals. It’s important that I’m able to create cinematic moments, so sometimes that requires spontaneity (Mark walking through crowded streets in Tottenham) and sometimes planning. As Mark works in prisons I tried for months to get access to him working there but couldn’t get clearance for a creative project – Instead I followed him to a meeting at a shiny building in Victoria, which worked really well.’

Mark from England Your England on Vimeo.

Matt mainly shoots with a Nikon D800 and an old Nikkor prime lens. ‘I love this camera’ he says ‘the picture quality far surpasses that of the 5D, which I was previously using, without being too much of a departure from the settings on a Canon.

‘With Ben Lankester on board, we shot the fourth film with a Red Epic. We had it hired in for another job so used a spare day to shoot Leon. Although the picture quality was much better, it’s not a discreet camera that allows you to film pretty much anywhere. However, we got some great tracking shots at 120fps out of the back of my car with it!’

Leon from England Your England on Vimeo.

The films were edited in Premiere CS6 and graded in Magic Bullet. For the logo design, Matt called on fellow Brighton-based designers’ fentonforeman.com. ‘We’ve tried to keep the EYE logo on every film title so that people recognise the brand’ he says.

Though each film is little over five minutes in length the stories are extremely powerful and are beautifully shot. In addition to the initial four in this project, Matt is planning to release at least one new film each month this year, so it is worth keeping the site bookmarked and checking back regularly. See the films in full at www.englandyourengland.tv

Guest post by Spencer Chumbley:

Filming the Wisconsin Foodie

Wisconsin public television has a secret. It’s not a dirty secret, nor an embarrassing one, but a little-known documentary food show called Wisconsin Foodie. Now in its fifth season, Wisconsin Foodie is an Emmy-nominated independent television series dedicated to discovering the stories behind the food we eat.

Before becoming involved in the show last summer, I read an interview with creator Arthur Ircink. One quote stood out to me. When asked about what inspired him to create the show, he said that it was his goal to “to make ‘local’ television cool”. Ircink seems to be succeeding. Wisconsin Foodie currently airs on PBS affiliates statewide, and on public television stations in Chicago and Minneapolis.

It was this forward thinking that led me to the show—and I knew the innovation would continue when Ircink agreed to let me introduce my Nikon DSLRs to his production workflow. The show has been traditionally shot on Sony’s EX1, but the shallow depth-of-field offered by the DSLRs really allowed the food—the show’s main character—to shine.

I worked with Wisconsin Foodie on several shoots throughout this summer using various incarnations of a Nikon DSLR rig. This footage now appears in the latest season of the show, available via traditional broadcast and web release on Vimeo.

Check out the episode below. The footage featuring shallow depth-of-field was shot on either a Nikon D7000 or a D800 in segments 1 and 3 of the BBQ episode below, and segment 2 (Black Earth Meats) of the second episode.

Wisconsin Foodie – Milwaukee’s North Side from Wisconsin Foodie on Vimeo.

Wisconsin Foodie – Pinn-Oak Ridge Farms from Wisconsin Foodie on Vimeo.

While I am not a seasoned filmmaker, Dan Chung has been gracious enough to let me write here about the equipment I’ve been using since making my foray into the video journalism world. I discovered my passion for journalism—at the time it was mostly photojournalism—halfway through grad school in London, amid the fall 2010 tuition fee protests. With all the raucous action in the streets and on campus, video became an obvious choice.

I bucked the Canon trend (mostly by mistake) and traded my Sony DSLR in for the Nikon D7000; I also invested in the Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. Owing to that initial investment, and Nikon’s most recent release of the D800 and D600, I have solid roots in the Nikon camp for the foreseeable future. I used the D7000 from March of 2011 until June 2012, when I upgraded to the D800.

Traveling with the D7000

For a “prosumer” body in the hands of a novice, the D7000 can pack a punch. I used the Nikon D7000 to launch a video-based independent media project in Milwaukee, make on-location short films for the NGO Plan International in the Philippines, and cover the Timorese presidential elections as a freelance photojournalist. The D7000 performed despite some glaring and all too common drawbacks, the worst being the inability to control aperture settings while recording or in live view. Moving up to the D800 has been a real pleasure, but I’ll leave the technical reviews to the site’s editors.

With the Nikon D800 all ready to roll

Shooting with Wisconsin Foodie last summer gave me an opportunity to field-test additional equipment I bought since shooting in the Philippines on the D7000. As a twentysomething, I often opt for products with the highest value-to-price ratio I can afford; use the equipment until I’ve saved enough for an upgrade; and then sell what I have to finance the new gear. As such, my rig for the run-and-gun documentary production of Wisconsin Foodie consisted of:

Nikon D800 (or D7000 prior to upgrade)
Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 FX
Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 FX
Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 DX (on D7000)
Beachtek DXA-DSLR Pro audio adapter
Rode NTG-2 or Rode VideoMic Pro
LCDVF Viewfinder
Promaster Variable ND Filter
Manfrotto 561BHDV-1 Fluid Video Monopod

As is evident, I prefer the versatility of zoom lenses and one-button audio recording. This is mostly due to the fluid subject matter and the cinema verite-style of Wisconsin Foodie.

I want to highlight the Manfrotto 561BHDV-1 Fluid Video Monopod as an excellent tool for the run-and-gun DSLR shooter who is not partial to shoulder rigs. (I purchased it after seeing this excellent short video review.) The Manfrotto allows for traditional static shots, pans, tilts, higher vantage shots, and other interesting fluid movement. It can also be positioned creatively under your arm (see photograph) to allow the camera to be used more like a traditional video camera for verite-style shooting. Best of all, it’s compact enough to fit in a medium-sized duffel bag.

As for the camera itself, using a DSLR on Wisconsin Foodie was a wonderful way to highlight the food itself in a new and interesting manner. The shallow depth-of-field offered by DSLRs cannot be matched by traditional HD video cameras. (Of course, there can be consistency problems when marrying two different cameras in the edit.) When color, texture and visual appeal overall is needed to highlight the local culinary culture of Wisconsin, DSLRs may be the way to do it. It’s likely that Wisconsin Foodie was the first public television show in the state to utilize HD-DSLR technology.

The ever-declining cost of DSLRs is allowing young filmmakers and visual journalists at all levels to make their impact on the visual landscape, whether at the local level, on public television, or at an international level, through traditional news reportage.

To find out more about Wisconsin Foodie visit www.wisconsinfoodie.com.

Spencer Chumbley is a photo/video journalist and is currently a fellow at Fault Lines, Al Jazeera English’s documentary program (which just happens to be shot exclusively on DSLRs and cinema cameras such as the C300). Follow him on twitter @SpencerChumbley or visit his website.

By technical editor Matt Allard:

JuicedLink Riggy Micro RM333 Review from Matthew Allard on Vimeo.

The Juicedlink Riggy-Micro RM333 is a low noise pre-amp primarily designed for use with the latest video capable DSLRs that feature built-in headphone output and manual audio controls. It allows you to hook up professional XLR microphones with or without phantom power to your camera – recording audio direct to the camera and not a separate external recorder.

Why not just hook up your mic direct to the camera? because the audio pre-amp circuits in pretty much all DSLRs are not the highest quality and tend to give noisy results when you apply gain in camera (turning up the recording levels). In technical terms the DSLR audio circuits have a bad signal-to-noise ratio.

The RM333 aims to solve this by using higher quality pre-amps to amplify the signal instead of using the DSLRs. The name of the game is to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio by using cleaner amplification in the RM333. This allows you to set the camera’s internal gain to a minimum – hence reducing the amount of amplification the camera’s own electronics has to do.

The RM333 in the field

There are several other DSLR pre-amps on the market but the things that I think are really cool and unique about the Riggy-Micro RM333 are:


- It is small and lighter than previous DSLR audio adapters. That’s because it rips out the stuff that modern cameras like the Canon 5D mkIII and Nikon D800 don’t need anymore like meters, AGC Disable and headphones. Both these camera have all these functions already in the body.

- Super long battery life, since you don’t need to power a meter or headphones output. The RM333 also has features to help extend battery life: a selective power down (when not using all the XLR inputs) and finer granularity in the low battery indicator with the Alkaline/LithiumPolymer threshold switch. A single 9v alkaline battery will run the device for 12 hours, a rechargeable battery for about 18 hours.


- Camera overload protection with Audio Output Bracketing – you can have the same signal go at two different levels into the left and right channels in case of audio peaking.

- For the videojournalist, the Riggy-Micro really helps lighten your load with a small/light preamp and you won’t need to carry more spare batteries than necessary. It is so small and light it can mount straight onto the camera’s hot shoe.

The optional RB200 Riggy Cold Shoe Top Mounting Kit

- With the RB200 accessory kit you can add cold-shoe mounts to the preamp box itself. This way you can add mics or wireless receivers while the preamp is mounted in the hot shoe. Set up this way with the preamp no longer on the bottom of the camera, you can actually cradle the DSLR for run-n-gun like a traditional DSLR, in the palm of your left hand with your fingers manipulating the focus and zoom of the lens.

- The RM333 has three XLR audio inputs which can be down-mixed to two for recording in camera.

More details on the Riggy-Micro RM333 check here.
There are more tips in the RM333 user manual online here.
As a point of reference for what you can achieve in terms of signal-to-noise, here’s a link to two sample MP3 files.


If you have an older DSLR without a headphone output then there are several other options from Juicedlink such as the DT454. For more details check out the Juicedlink website.

I do not have any commercial agreement with JuicedLink or Canon. The opinions and thoughts are those of my own and not of any company or organization.

About Matthew Allard, Aljazeera Senior Field Cameraman, Kuala Lumpur:
Matt has been a Camera/Editor in TV news for more 20 years, previously working for both Channel 9 and Channel 10 in Australia. Twice Network Ten Australia’s cameraman of the year as well as being a Walkley Finalist for outstanding camerawork in 2006 (for coverage of the Cronulla Race Riots) and a Logie Finalist for outstanding news coverage 2006 (Bali 9). He is a multiple ACS (Australian Cinematographers Society) award winner. His Sword Maker story that was shot on a 7D won the prestigious Neil Davis International News Golden Tripod at the 2011 ACS Awards. He has covered news events in more than 35 countries, from major sporting events to terrorist bombings. Based out of the Kuala Lumpur broadcast centre in Malaysia he is an avid user and follower of new technology, shooting stories on HD broadcast cameras, the Sony F3 as well as new Canon DSLRs.

By site editor Dan Chung:

Zacuto have been busy with a couple of new announcements this week. First is the launch of their adhesive 3.2 inch Z-finder frame designed for cameras like the Canon 5D mkIII and it’s larger rear LCD display. It will also fit the Nikon D800, D4 and Canon EOS-1D X. Here’s the info from Zacuto:

Zacuto’s popular adhesive frame system is available for cameras with 3.2 inch screens. This fast, simple frame is a no frills solution for moving your z-finder quickly between cameras. This frame is compatible with every Z-finder on the market.

PLEASE NOTE: The 3.2” adhesive frame currently ships with one extender frame. In order to fit our standard Z-finder to wider LCD screens, we have modified the way it connects for this new frame. It snaps into the frame with tabs on the side. This new connection method requires the use of an extender frame in order to connect securely.

The frame attached to a Canon EOS-1D X

To use, simply take the mounting frame and peel off the adhesive protection, then slowly bring the frame down to the LCD screen being careful to align the edges of the frame to the edges of the light LCD image. Before applying pressure make sure that the frame is aligned and square. Apply pressure with some weight such as a book for 24 hours too fully cure. After 24 hours, the Z-Finder will snap on and off the frame.

You can buy the frame for $9 from the Zacuto website.

EVF Firmware 3.0 Features from Steve Weiss on Vimeo.

Users of the Zacuto EVF will have a range of new features added today with the launch of new v3.0 firmware. It adds better support for cameras like the Canon C300, 5D mkIII and Nikon D800. Zacuto also claim the new firmware gives even better colour accuracy than the previous firmware version. Given that the previous firmware already had good colour reproduction compared to many competing products I am keen so see how much better it can be. Here’s the info from the Zacuto website:

Firmware 3.0 includes the following updates:
- Added color presets per camera
- Added Canon 5D mkIII preset.
- Added Canon C300 preset
- Added Nikon D800 preset
- Added Nikon D4 preset
- Added 1280x848p60 support for RED ONE, EPIC & SCARLET
- Added 3 levels of Underscan
- Added 2.66 frame line
- Fixed loopout color space inaccuracies
- Added an Unsupported Signal screen
-Created a more robust signal detection software
- Added Playback Scale to the list of programmable user buttons
- Fixed multiple bugs

The new firmware can be downloaded here.

There is a full FAQ on the Zacuto EVF here.

Full disclosure: Dslrnewsshooter is an affiliate of Zacuto