As a renowned cinematographer and a member of the Hong Kong Directors ’ Guild , and president of the Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers , O Sing Pui has directed and photographed several blockbusters including : Before the Crescent ; Made in Hong Kong ; You Shoot , I Shoot ; Heros in Love ; and The Pye Dog .
His most recent project saw O co-produce Weeds on Fire , the winning project for the Higher Education Institutions Group of the First Feature Film Initiative ( FFFI ), and which is based on the true story of the Shatin Martins , the first baseball team in Hong Kong to win a league in the ’ 80s .
FFFI was launched in March 2013 by CREATE Hong Kong ( CreateHK ) of the Commerce and
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Economic Development Bureau to support new directors and their film production teams .
For Weeds on Fire , Sony ’ s PMW- F55 served as O ’ s main camera . He described : “ Although it is designed as small and lightweight , the camera body is sturdy and I did not fear that the camera would break apart when shooting action scenes .
“ In terms of operability , I was extremely impressed by the intuitive one-touch interface and customisable user menu of the F55 , which was pretty easy to manoeuvre .”
Besides the F55 , Sony ’ s NEX- FS700R was also used on the set of Weeds On Fire , where O found its ergonomic design to be particularly useful in shooting action footage . As a bonus , he was also able
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to attach a wide range of lenses on the FS700R , which provided O with the flexibility to creatively express himself .
He added : “ The FS700R , with its superb dynamic range , supports RAW file shooting and thus gives a great range to do colour grading . I felt this was extremely useful for post production .”
And while both cameras gave O the option to shoot in 4K / Ultra HD ( UHD ), which he described as “ brilliant in terms of the resolution ” the decision was made to shoot in 2K to attain footage consistency . “ Not only does it save a significant amount of storage space , 2K footage was [ also ] more appropriate for this movie , which reflected Hong Kong in the ’ 80s ,” he explained .
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Cinematographer O Sing Pui worked with Sony cameras for Weeds on Fire , which tells the true story of a baseball team in Hong Kong in the ’ 80s . |
US-based Pro Sound Effects ( PSE ), which produces sound effects libraries for media production , has released Chicago Ambisonics , its second Ambisonics library .
Having deployed TSL Products ’ SoundField microphones for last year ’ s release of NYC Ambisonics , PSE once again turned to the SoundField microphones to capture Chicago ’ s ambiences from all angles .
David Forshee , library specialist at PSE , said : “ TSL Products ’ SoundField microphone is an accurate and reliable mic for easily capturing entire three-dimensional soundscapes .
“ The ability to adjust the position of the mic in post production is a major advantage of the Ambisonics format , and the intuitive interface of the SurroundZone2 software makes it easy to incor-
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TSL Products ’ SoundField microphones and SurroundZone2 software allowed the ambiences of Chicago to be captured for a new Ambisonics library .
porate this into any sound editor ’ s workflow .”
Chicago Ambisonics also utilised TSL ’ s SurroundZone2 software
, which allows sound editors and mixers to change position of “ virtual microphones ” in any direction with a variety of polar patterns
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for greater control and creativity .
Thanks to SurroundZone2 software , sound effects can be customised and then decoded to mono , stereo , 5.1 , 7.1 and beyond as required . This gives users an “ unprecedented level of control ” over a wide range of microphone parameters from a single intuitive user interface .
Additionally , PSE would have had to use multiple microphone arrays to capture surround soundscapes , if not for the SoundField microphone . SoundField eliminates such a set-up , which is timeconsuming , and can produce audio that suffers from phase incoherency . This , according to TSL Products , creates several problems when the 5.1 audio has to be “ collapsed ” to create a stereo soundtrack for broadcast over SD or legacy networks .
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A differentiated sound effects library , Chicago Ambisonics gives editors the mixers the ability to creatively manipulate the surround space to precisely match the visuals . By supplying the original B-Format audio file from the SoundField microphone , as well as a TSL SurroundZone2 plug-in , the ambience can be completely adjusted to fit the requirements of the scene .
“ The B-Format files give users the ability to tweak perspective of the city ambiences with software in real time to specifically match the setting of a scene ,” Forshee concluded .
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