What’s your “q” connection?

My mum went to high school with Dorothy. And then three years ago when I was going into school, they had a high school reunion, and they met. And my mum said “oh my son’s just going into film” and Dorothy said “oh that’s crazy I have a film company in Toronto”. And my mum knew I had an internship in third year, so she told Dorothy. And then third year rolls around and my mum suggested I call Dorothy. I did – and then my mum called her behind my back too. I guessed they liked me. And now I’m here. (laughs)

What do you like most about working at q?

It’s very laid back. I come in just like I’m coming from school, I’m not dressed-up or anything. They’re not strict about that kind of stuff. I come in later, because it’s easier for my drive, and I leave later, and I go for lunch whenever I can – there’s no one monitoring that. No strict rules about that stuff. It’s not regimented. It’s nice.

If you had a whole day free, just for yourself, how would you spend it?

What I’d want to do is be productive, clean my car and you know get everything done. And fix things. But I would probably do is loaf, go to the gym, go out and pretty much do nothing productive at all.

What did you like most from the 80s (ie the tunes, the TV, the clothes, ect)?

Probably not being born yet is my favorite thing from the 80s.

What is something quirky about yourself?

I say a lot of really pointless things I guess. A lot of my stories and jokes and stuff are just completely off topic.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be?

A lawyer, but I don’t know why. I don’t know, I always thought it didn’t seem that hard I guess, and then you’d have money, and then you could do the things you want. I mean you can’t win the lottery, let’s be realistic, so you’ve got to be a lawyer if you want to be rich. So I was like “I’m going to be a lawyer”. And then I end up in film – it’s pretty much the complete opposite. I think – I was a smart kid so I figured I could argue for a living. And then as I became older I became less smart, so I decided that arguing was not something I wanted to do anymore. (laughs)

You’ve just won an Academy Award.  What’s it for?

Cinematography, because I remember this one time I was watching something – and I didn’t even know the name for it – I had to ask ‘what’s a cinematographer?’ Someone explained it was the guy holding the camera and I thought ‘cool’.

And what would be the opening line of your acceptance speech?

“I’m not very good at public speaking.” And then I’ll just walk away, that will be the whole thing.

If you could live the life of character from a movie, who would it be? Why? 

I would live the life of Paul Rudd from I Love you Man. Because he gets to meet and be friends with Jason Segel. That or I’d be Ricky Bobby.

How would you describe life at q media solutions to someone interested in working here?

You get a chance to do everything – which is really key because in school we did everything and then they try and narrow it down, but at the same time you’ve found some interests, so it’s nice to have more time to figure out what’s right for you. Like I shoot and I do media, and then I do editing, and I do data management and I do DIT stuff. I get to keep my base knowledge quite broad as opposing to going and deciding to be a camera assistant, and just being a camera assistant. And then someone asks you if you can cut something, and you can’t – but you can put lenses on, you know? I can do more stuff – and I know that’s something my friends would really like too. Plus it’s just a cool place. AND you get lunches on Fridays, which is pretty awesome.

Five years ago, 1080p was the pinnacle of hundred thousand dollar SONY professional video cameras. Now you can shoot 1080p on an inexpensive consumer camera, or even on your new iPhone. Pretty remarkable when you think about it. And terrifying if you’re a tech-person who invested the hundred grand in a camera. Off-the-shelf consumer cameras are causing havoc in production circles.

Yesterday evening I went to hear David Hockney speak at the ROM, introducing his ‘Fresh Flowers’ series of paintings/drawings/doodles. Why the category confusion? He made the pieces on his iPhone with a ‘brushes’ app. Were they paintings? Drawings? Works of Art? Inevitably questions came  up about the process of monetizing a digital work. Hockney, in his typical Yorkshire directness said he didn’t care – he plans to send them to friends as a little morning present.

Hockney has experimented with media for much of his career – painting for for stage design, creating photo collages and fax art and now iPad art. His insights into media and the screen are interesting. One of the comments was that iPad art isn’t permanent – it’ just 1’s and 0’s, hence it’s somehow not art. Hockney’s response, ‘Well lots of art is ephemeral, think of a play. It’s over when the play’s over. We’re ephemeral. To dust we shall return. Paintings are just slightly less ephemeral, but will eventually be dust themselves. Who cares – the drawings are simply art – nothing more.’

Later in the discussion, Hockney was discussing his photographs and the subject of 3D came up. I had to smile. He dismissed the concept entirely, ‘It’s not very interesting. What interests me is perspective. With all of these screens and inexpensive cameras it’s possible to film a subject from a number of perspectives simultaneously.’ Hockney went on to say how he’s experimenting with a 9 Camera (or 9 Perspective) system – in order to make bigger pictures with multiple screens – almost like a cubist painting brought to life. The possibilities of the tech proliferation is enormous, especially if you have a creative bent.

Hockney calls this tech proliferation a revolution. For 500 years, he says the church controlled the distribution of art – think of all that religious painting. In the 20th century, media distribution was controlled by networks and companies. But now, you can take out your iPhone, record a conversation and email it or post it to over 1,000 recipients, virtually instantaneously. Look what happened with the Arab Spring.

Thought provoking stuff. I came away from the day – slightly nervous, but tremendously optimistic. We (q media) own lots of cameras and editing systems which will be virtually worthless in the near future. But, the possibilities that cheaper cameras and systems offer is incredible. And for 3D – well it’s 3D. The things we are going to see on multiple screens is going to be incredibly exciting.

Click here to see one of David Hockney’s multiple perspective photos.

• A digital present from David Hockney, drawn on his iPhone:

• And remember those fun gap ads shot with rotational staging (multiple cameras side by side in a semi-circle):

• And the new NIKON Underwater camera.  Imaging linking nine or more together and filming simultaneously:

The possibilities are endless.

What’s your “q” connection?

Hmmm. Well my last name begins with ‘q.’ I went to Queens. Our first office was on Queen street. Lots of connections. It’s a cool letter.

How would you describe life at q media solutions to someone interested in working here?

I think we have an interesting group. Creative people – and caring people. Actually I hate that word caring, it sounds so church basement. But we do a lot of work for not-for-profit organizations and our team really steps up for these opportunities.  I’m proud of them for that.

If you had a whole day free, just for yourself, how would you spend it?

Well – I have the attention span of a gnat, so it would involve a few things – a little swimming, tennis, angry birds, hanging out with friends – and that would be the morning.

What did you like most from the 80s (ie the tunes, the TV, the clothes, ect)?

Our Mac computer.  What a machine. 1 mg of RAM and 20 mg of memory. We thought it was the most incredible invention.

What is something quirky about yourself?

“And now for a massage from the Swedish Prime Minister.” Yes, I loved Monty Python as a kid.

Father: “One day son, all this will be yours.”

Son: “Whot, de curtains?”

When you were a kid, what did you want to be?

James Bond, or Q. It was a bit of a toss up.

Did you ever pursue it?

There were never any ads for double 00’s in the paper so I chose Q.

You’ve just won an Academy Award.  What’s it for?

Best Movie.

And what would be the opening line of your acceptance speech?

“First off, I’d like to thank the Swedish Prime Minister.” Of course I’d have to say it in a silly voice. I find the whole Academy Awards thing so over-the-top I’d love to tweak the nose of the whole thing.

If you could live the life of character from a movie, who would it be? Why? 

James Bond. I’d want to get all those cool toys from Q.

Pick two people (dead, alive, famous, etc) that you would love to have dinner with.

Well Nelson Mandela would definitely be one.  The next would have to be a William. Blake, Churchill, Shatner, Shakespeare, Stevenson, maybe Ted Williams. Maybe just a William party – that would be something.

What do you like most about working at q?

As a kid I loved playing with lego, building space ships and making up stories.  While I’m not making space ships I feel that I’m using incredible technology and telling stories. We’re lucky, we get to tell stories about a lot of incredible people.

Part of what makes q Media Solutions so special are the people that work here. We are a family. We know each other’s strengths, weaknesses, fears and passions. It takes a community to raise a barn, but it takes a family to put together content that is evocative, emotional, informative, awe-inspiring and polished.

Each of our editors, producers, writers and cameraman bring something different and new to the table. Which means that to really understand our company, you must first meet us. Throughout the next few weeks, we will be publishing profiles on each member of our “q family”. Each profile has some “important” background info like how we ended up at q, our movie heroes and what we loved about the 80s. Check out the latest HERE.

What’s your “q” connection?

I ended up working here because when I was at Enbridge, I used to hire Richard to direct and write for me. And then they got busy, so I got outsourced to Xerox. I started freelancing in their basement suite, when they still worked at the house. And then Dorothy became part of q, so I left Xerox and came full time on a 6 month contract….I met Richard through Jeff Rockburn, one of our writers.

How would you describe life at q media solutions to someone interested in working here?

You get to work with two great people who truly care about you and want to give you the best they possibly can, provide the best opportunity for you they can. That’s who they are, they always put you ahead of the company.

If you had a whole day free, just for yourself, how would you spend it?

I would golf. Or hang out in my basement and play my guitar.

What did you like most from the 80s (ie the tunes, the TV, the clothes, ect)?

WKRP. Its a radio show. Its a sitcom, about a radio station, with Howard Hessman, Loni Anderson, it’s a great series. And I like the cheesy 80s music.

What is something quirky about yourself?

I have issues with germs. I wash a dish before I use it in the [q media] kitchen. I always give it a rinse before I use it.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be?

A pilot. I would just love to fly. Always loved it.

Did you ever pursue it?

I started to, I didn’t do very well in math.

You’ve just won an Academy Award.  What’s it for?

Editing.

And what would be the opening line of your acceptance speech?

I’d like to thank my wife. (laughs) Because when Richard and I were working together, we won a Duchess Choice award for corporate TV, and I thanked everybody but Kim. I forgot. And I guess for ass-kissing purposes, I would thank Dorothy and Richard next.

If you could live the life of character from a movie, who would it be? Why? 

Ricky Bobby. Because I love racing and his confidence.

Pick two people (dead, alive, famous, ect) that you would love to have dinner with.

Springsteen is someone I would like to meet. Because he’s so idolozed, but he’s so down to earth and normal. Buddy Holly, he was always being innovative and trying new ways to record and get different sounds.

What do you like most about working at q?

The variety. The chance to do something different. I like to get out in the field and sometimes hide in the office. I just like to do a little bit of everything.

So we decided to follow their journey – and that included wanting to film them on a plane. We felt that requesting to shoot with a regular video camera would be impossible, but felt the airline might be more amenable to a smaller DSLR camera.

They were, although there was the caveat that we’d have to check with the chief steward.

Predictably the steward reacted with skepticism – until he saw the camera. Hesitancy gave way to curiousity. When we showed the flight crew a bit of the footage there was a general sigh of disbelief.  The footage looked great. Simple images – kids reading, talking or playing games with their mom or dad, moments that would have been difficult to capture with a larger camera. That led into a conversation about the project – and an invitation to shoot as much as we liked.

The sheer size of the CANON 5D has been one of its big advantages. It’s easier to use in cramped spaces.  It’s light – which means it is easier to move, which means smaller cranes, car mounts, steadicams and equipment like sliders are replacing dollies. A whole production service industry has popped up to service these new cameras.  If you’re a documentary shooter, you can take a whole production kit and stuff it in a backpack – which we’ve done for a number for remote shoots in places like Africa. And these cameras are relatively inexpensive, even with the add-ons you’ll inevitably buy: Zacutos, Zoom recorders, Lenses, Filters, Matte Boxes and more.

There have been bumps along the way – lots of them. When we first started using the camera early in 2009 – for a CANON corporate video we shot double system, recording audio on a regular video camera – awkward to say the least.  It helped that one of our young directors, Matthew Bennett, (a true camera geek) was passionate about the possibilities the camera represented (he even built homemade cameras rigs for handheld work – rigs that influenced Zacuto’s DSLR viewfinder set-ups (check out http://vimeo.com/4044623 at the  1:42 mark). Having that kind of insight in-house was invaluable.  What’s been interesting about our whole DSLR experience has been the fact that it’s our young interns, editors and directors who have taught a number of us old-timers new production tips and tricks.  It’s really had the effect of integrating the production team and breaking down the traditional lines between producers, directors, DOPs and assistants.

Production has become a much more collaborative process. In many cases simple problem solving has led into extended conversations of ‘what if.’ Everyone walks away feeling pumped.

As cameras and technologies continue to proliferate – it’s going to be impossible to stay on top of all the new gear – or expect your cameraperson to. More and more, your going to find yourself sitting down with a high school or university filmmaker and asking them how they set up an impossible looking shot.

A revolution? That may be stretching things, but it’s certainly a shift in how many of us approach production.

In a production environment there are lots of reasons to want extra equipment, (extra cameras, lights, tripods, etc.) since every shoot is unique and it’s impossible to entirely predict what kind of unique problems a location might offer.

This is one of the reasons that most camera people come with an entire mini-van full of equipment.  At q media, we felt this was overkill for many production situations, so we bought a video camera with a basic sound and lighting package for smaller shooting situations.  This gave us the capability to offer clients better prices on smaller productions, especially on videos for not-for-profit organizations on tight budgets.

Initially our basic kit was able to fit into the trunk of a car. But inevitably equipment creep began to set in. DIVA lights, a favourite of the higher end crews were purchased to augment our basic lighting kit.  But with DIVAs, grip stands were necessary – and with grip stands sand bags became necessary for stability.  Suddenly the trunk was stuffed and equipment was going into the back seat.  Then new, smaller SLR cameras came along. A solution right? Not exactly. Since the cameras were so small – they could be easily mounted on a small crane to give us great moving camera shots.

Well the crane was the tipping point (and the mini-van we had to buy to transport it) – all of a sudden we had replaced a traditional approach with a slightly different traditional approach. Owning all of this equipment gives us incredible capability – we can shoot multi-camera commercial quality work with our in-house team, but inevitably we were falling into a production trap.  Extra equipment means extra people to operate – which means costs rise.

Inevitably, reality intervenes. In our case it was the opportunity to follow a medical team from SickKids going to Ethiopia to train foreign surgical teams. The budget was very tight. So tight in fact that we could only send one person – director Graeme Mathieson. Extra bags would have meant extra baggage fees and the stress of managing multiple bags in an unfamiliar environment.  So we set ourselves the goal of sending Graeme with one production bag – a backpack and a bag for clothes and personal items.

Stripping down the production package to its essentials was a great process. Throw in the added challenge of shooting in Africa. What happens if a camera breaks down? That meant redundancy was necessary.  The result of the process was a backpack with 2 CANON 5D DLSR camera bodies, 2 lenses, 2 lavalier microphones, reflectors, power adapters, extra cards, etc. It all fit into one backpack. The meant that Graeme could shoot and carry his equipment at the same time.

The result – was a powerful video shot and produced in full 1080p HD. It looked great. Twelve months later Graeme was back in Africa –to produce a series of videos, again for SickKids – this time focusing on their efforts to train pediatric nurses in Ghana.

In this video – you’ll notice a couple of things. First it looks great – since we are shooting on great cameras. But secondly – you’ll notice a level of intimacy that is difficult to achieve in the most ideal situations.  Because of Graeme’s minimal equipment set up – he was able to react to the situations around him.  The kids were a nervous but curious.  And because of language barriers there was no asking for extra takes.  Bottom line – a traditional production approach likely wouldn’t have worked.

The production was a great lesson for all of us – a reminder to analyze shooting situations, choose the appropriate tools and not to fall into the trap of ‘equipment creep.”

The reemergence of handlebars, fu manchus and Clark Gables can only mean one thing, it’s Movember!

The q staff has banned together to get some wicked facial hair, raise some funds and celebrate the importance of prostate cancer research and awareness. And don’t the q men look great after one week of growth?

Want to donate to the q Mo team? Click HERE to find all the details!

Nighttime career: DJ.

I recently presented my monthly party SoulSkank and was approached by someone on the dance-floor about a ska song I played… then the conversation began:
“Riddims” (rhythms, but you really need to pronounce it “riddims” when talking about it in this context – trust me, you’ll be ejected out of context if you say it any other way).
The song was the Baba Brooks Band doing ‘Shank I Sheck’. A classic instrumental ska track from 1964! This is foundation.
The riddim discussion thus ensued…

Riddims are when a producer/artist/band produce a base instrumental song, sometimes intended for a specific artist to sing over top of. The instrumental is then re-used by other artists to create “versions” of the song (‘Shank I Sheck’ in particular was versioned slightly for a slower reggae “downbeat” as transitioned from its original ska “upbeat” style). This riddim being called the “Shank I Sheck” riddim.
• here’s the original Shank I Sheck riddim by Baba Brooks Band
• and here are the versions of the riddim

First instincts may be obvious copyright issues, but that’s not the case as its seen as a form of respect and the legacy of your riddim living on.

This is fairly a common practice in the reggae & dancehall world. And it gives us DJs the opportunity to “ride a riddim” with several consecutive songs.
My favorite riddim to play when DJing is the “Stalag” riddim with its multiple versions:
• Stalag riddim

Some other notable riddims from throughout the years:
• Sleng Teng riddim
• Real Rock riddim
• Queen Majesty riddim

Be sure to also check out my weekly radio show, StolenSouls
Wednesdays 6-8pm EST on CHRY 105.5