HLP Day Thirteen :: Bowden Creative Space

We finally got to set up a more impressive array of cameras today. We were aiming for 16 cameras (the maximum the Breeze software will allow using a single computer) but only managed to wrangle 14. Still, more than double the number we have worked with before.Needless to say it took quite a few hours to log & check each camera, rig it and then check & manage the synchronisation. I had 2 MAPS (Hamilton College) students with me to manage the array (Mik & Mira) and they were absolutely brilliant. I basically let them get on with it and they did a brilliant job of coordinating everything & problem solving as required. Peter Stanley was also on set to connect up his more developed (fancier) controller, with switches for various functions, and the ability to manage the firing of 16 cameras. Anyway, by 2pm we were ready to start testing and I think we started shooting around 3pm. We had a glitch in th ematrix as a result of shooting such Hi-Res files, with bottlenecking dropping frames in the array on the first take. So we decided to shoot at a smaller Raw file and had less problems after that. It was still a carefully managed timing system which was a bit restrictive, but we are starting to warm up to working with the array.

Here is a crew shot we took using the array at the end of the day..

Thanks to the crew for a great day!We would never have managed to gather the number of cameras we had if it wasn't for the imcredible support and generosity of Pete Hall from Urban Cine, who scoured the film industry for people with 5Ds that were available for us to use. Not only did he arrange them, with lenses and batteries etc, but he also ran around town to collect stray gear and dropped them off for us. Really wonderful - thanks Pete!!

I also need to thank the following people for their gear:: David Zhu, Ben Liew, Leanne Rovray, Carradean Farley, Des Berwick, Taryn Brumfitt, Sara Huffen & Clelend Jones. Thanks again guys!!

14 cameras on the arrayOK, will post more later, including array outcomes..