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We had a call from Siemens Enterprise Communications to go down to London and film their Flashmob that was linked to their #AmplifyTeams initiative.
It was very short notice, and the request was for a single camera, but us being us, we decided to bundle in a couple of others to capture audience reaction.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Aganto had been wanting to complete a timelapse of the build process of one of their temporary buildings, but the weather and the build schedule never co-incided!  Welcome to Great Britain…

Because they had plenty of decent photographs, we decided to create the building layer by layer in After Effects, and then use the photos to bring context to the different stages.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As this was destined for an exhibition, we decided to also periodically switch to full screen photographs so the change in image would catch the eye of visitors.

We personally feel this approach brings to life the build process in a way powerpoint never could, and neatly got around the awful rain and snow we’ve been “enjoying” recently!

In th future it would be good to be involved in mixing new video and 3D in a more cohesive way so you could drift in and out as you moved round the building, allowing a more X-ray feel to it.

Aganto are delighted with it, and how it communicates to their customers, and we look forward to expanding on this idea in the future.

Continue reading »]]> Click here to view the embedded video.

We had the pleasure of working with Siemens Enterprise Communications, earlier this month at their Milton Keynes office during the launch of the Amplify Teams initiative which focuses on the disparate, disconnected communication tools we all use and how these have developed into a fragmented mess! Even as an SME, BigAnt Video sometimes struggles to communicate with all our team when we are scattered around the world.
There was good attendance with businesses from all sectors and all sizes enjoying presentations from Chris Hummel CCO at Siemens alongside interactive demonstrations and a tour of the top secret demo room!

Although we were working we were impressed with the dramatic shift in the way teams can interact using Amplify Teams allowing Visual, audible, vocal, tactile, Cognitive, Intuitive and Mobile communications through one system.

“Vibrant Conversations” is Siemens vision of a better way to collaborate. It’s a completely new approach that weaves together multichannel communications in a fluid, immersive manner, enabling teams to work much smarter and more effectively.

Exciting stuff, and in the long term this should help all of us in the way we communicate and how efficient it is.

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We recently went to London to film some major landmarks for a client in Derby. One of the commissions was the beautiful Battle of Britain Sculpture by the Thames by amazing artist Paul Day.

These sculptures have to be filmed as it’s only when you track around the sculpture that you appreciate the way the lives captured in the material reach out to you. Amazing.

Later we ventured out at night to get the Eye and Big Ben at night. The detail in the stonework is immense, and the proportions of the tower are beautiful. It’s never as big as I imagine – more elegant in fact, so I had to take a photo that made it look deceptively big!

As we were filming, it started to snow pretty hard. However Londoners are a tough breed and apart from the cancelled train (the snow was the wrong kind of snow…) everything pretty much went as planned.
Next day I couldn’t resist getting a few more pictures of the Eye – it really is pretty cool when you are right by it.

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We first met Gary Anderson from Team GB Bobsleigh when filming in Bath back in October 2010. Gary expressed an interest back then about having a video made to promote Bobsleigh in the UK. We stayed in touch via email and Twitter and then had a meeting almost 2 years to the day at HIPAC Athletic Centre, Loughborough. We were extremely pleased when Gary told us that he had been following our work and wanted us to be a Team GB Bobsleigh Performance Partner and contribute to the making of a documentary detailing the highs and lows of the Bobsleigh team getting to Sochi 2014, the next Winter Olympics.
Our journey back to Derby started on a high – then the questions started popping into our heads!

• Were our camera’s suitable for extreme weather conditions?
• How do we ensure filming capability even if our hold luggage goes missing?
• What do we do to make everything compact, but have enough gear to capture everything?
• How do we manage to get the gear up a 1500m ice track to the start line?
• What life will the batteries have in -6 degree ( and less) temperatures?
• How do we avoid having to put expensive cameras in the hold of an plane?
• What did we know about Bobsleigh apart from watching Cool Runnings!

All things to consider, but they still couldn’t dampen our pleasure at being asked to work on such a project!
A couple of weeks later most of the questions were answered (don’t you just love Google!)

The Panasonic AF101 with external recorder was redesigned to make it modular as possible. This meant a strong carbon-fibre frame, which allowed easy mounting of the External recorder, EVF, batteries, lights and matte box.  Our Sony HXR-NX5E which we were using for high speed analysis was compact anyway, and having SDI’s on both cameras meant long cable runs for remote monitoring if necessary was no problem.

It may not look pretty, but works really well!

HDMI (I hate HDMI!) connections on the EVF were protected and held in place by my favorite fixer – hot glue.  This is wonderful stuff – non-conductive, very strong, but can be completely removed if necessary. It also adds a high degree of weather-proofing and reinforcement to delicate connections – just be careful not to get any in any sockets!

The Canon SLR which we were using for Hi-Res photographs we made lighter by removing the double battery pack.

Sachtler tripod in action

We also took a Sachtler tripod for the main camera, but opted for a Manfrotto monopod for the Sony, and Canon SLR.  This pod has 3 small feet and a ball joint, and allows smooth pan and tilts.  It can also deal with a heavy camera, but is small enough to fit in a tube, with the Sachtler and light stands. It has a fluid head suitable for video too.

Manfrotto video monopod – small footprint, light, strong and incredibly useful!

For lights we used battery powered LED’s.  These run off Sony batteries, and 1000 lumens a piece and are tiny.

For camera storage we used 5 320GB 2.5″ drives and a 240GB SSD for when the going got bumpy.  All the other cameras ran off 32GB class 10 Sandisk Xtremes.  We also brought a Hi-Spec i7 laptop with 1TB storage to act as backup.

So for most of our kit, we managed with 2 cabin-sized camera rucksacks, and the extra batteries, camera frame, extra lens and lights all fitted in a larger bag along with the tripod case, and went into the hold.  This meant that even if our hold luggage went missing, we would still be able to get footage.

The good people at Team GB had managed all the travel and hotel arrangements for us, so with our equipment modifications we were ready to tackle the weather and icy slopes at the Olympic Sliding Centre Igls Austria

SportHotel, Igls, Austria

Equipment – did we get it right?

On the whole, Yes!  but with a few caveats.

Changing prime lenses on the slopes is not a great thing to be doing, so for that reason we have invested in a fast zoom for the Af101.  It is 28-70 which is perfect on a crop sensor, and is a fairly constant aperture – F2.6 to F2.8.  This is fast enough, and allows zooming without too much aperture adjustment.  The lens barrel does not extend so allows fitting of the Follow focus.

EVF now mounted from top handle to free up FF

I have changed the EVF mount from the rails to the top handle. This is because it blocked the use of the Follow-Focus, and although the FF is not mandatory, it does make the focus more precise, and less prone to drift due to camera shake or hand movement.

The 2.5″ laptop hard drives were amazing.  Completely contradictory to everyone’s expectations they never failed – no dropped frames, data corruption or problem of any kind.  We had road tested them before we went and found them to  be great, but we talked to a lot of doubters.  However we generally dual recorded anyway so we always had a backup.

Gratuitous video capture showing the fab location.

When filming the bobsleigh action we found the best settings were to over-crank the AF101 to 60fps, and record simultaneously on the Atomos.  This got round the ‘no-sound’ issue on the over-crank, and also gave us (albeit 1080i) backup of the progressive footage.

The Sony was great at the 200fps, but generally you were better off triggering a 3 second burst as the quality was higher than the 12 seconds and was ample for capturing the start.

Sheila took a lot of photos on the Canon, and although the burst mode worked fantastically well, the zoom she had was not adequate.  We have since upgraded to a 55-250mm which gives her much greater scope to get closer to the action, but without getting in the way of my shot!

Nice shoulder mount, also showing little jackets we made for the batteries that turned out to be redundant.

Batteries – this was the greatest surprise.  They all lasted incredibly well, even at -12c.  The only ones I had an issue with were the Canon 7.2v for the EVF.  However a 12V Li-Ion 6800ah battery pack ran it for a whole day and solved the problem nicely.  I have since found that Lithium Ion batteries are supposedly able to operate even at -60 – it was the Nickle Metal Hydroxide (NimH) and Nickle Cadmiums (Ni-Cad) that used to suffer shortened life span.  The only thing Li-Ions hate is extreme heat apparently.  Well – luckily they cannot Bobsleigh in the Sahara!

Finally – a good shoulder mount system is unbeatable for ease of use, and speed of response to changing circumstances.  By fitting a downwards rod from the frame, I could almost spin round without needing to hold the camera, and it made it feel weightless.

Vertical bar rests against upper body, and gives extra point of contact.

Would karate kid be possible with a standard tripod or shoulder mount? Mr Miyagi says no!

There are a few people to thank for making the trip the experience it was

Lauren Forrow from Team GB Bobsleigh @LonForrow – putting up with daft questions, and answering them!

Sir Andrew Ridgway – for giving us the bigger picture of Bobsleigh and for very entertaining company!

Gary Anderson – Bobsleigh Performance Director – for having faith in us and our capabilities!

Jo Burnham from TASS @TalentedAthlete – sharing her knowledge of Bobsleigh and sport in general

Neil of Racer Ready Ski Mag for showing us great spots to film from despite his working at light speed!

Lee Johnston WYOG and Development Coach and all the Athletes – regardless of the pressures on them, they all accommodated our requests for filming time and interviews – Thanks Everyone!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Continue reading »]]> The weather this morning was better than yesterday – very misty on occasion, but quick to clear. No more rain, and the guys at the track had done a great job getting the ice smooth again.

Early reports from the Skeleton racers confirmed that the ice was smooth and fast.

The warm up was tricky because the large area on the right of the track that the athletes use to exercise on was pretty icey and skiddy, so a definite risk of injury. Our teams used the salted road leading up to the run, and despite the difficulties, morale was good.



Lee and Nikki lifted the sled on the track for the first run, and gave encouragement to the youngest team ever put on ice by Team GB – combined age of 77!

It is hard to show in photographs the sheer force and drive exerted by a 4 man bobsleigh team, but hopefully this set of pictures might help!

In the words of Gary Anderson – Performance director:

Good steady result from GBR 1 and GBR 2 on World Cup this morning.
Jackson 8th just 0.01s behind Olympic Champion Holcomb and ahead of two Germans, two USA and all Canadians.
Even more encouraging when you consider that we have two of our top brakeman out with illness/injury – Ben Simons stepped in just 1 hour before race after Andy Matthews struggled with bad sickness.
Lamin was a creditable 17th in his first World Cup 4-man.

Our ranking remains 5th in the World.

As for Big Ant Video, Lauren Forrow and Sir Andrew Ridgeway who had stoically braved the cold and cheered on the team until we could barely talk? We went into the beautiful Innsbruck to check out the Christmas market!

Continue reading »]]> Well lunch time came and along with it torrential rain – not good news for the guys racing this afternoon. We made our way up to the start of the track where all the teams assemble to prep the sleds before the inspection pre racing. Once the sleds have been checked for runner size and had a coat of acetone applied to them, nothing or no-one is allowed to touch the runners before the sled hits the ice.

Whilst the officials were checking the sleds the Team GB Bobsleigh Athletes started their warm up process – essential for ensuring top performance. The rain wasn’t helping as the guys had to “warm up” in the rain!

GB were 6th to start and the following photos show the power these lads need to find within a couple of seconds
to get 390kg moving as fast as possible!

After the first heat we moved further down the track to get a different view – Steve even had time to practise his Karate Kid impression whilst waiting!

As you can see though the fog had really started rolling in which delayed the start of the 2nd heat considerably.

Against strong teams from Germany Switzerland and Russia, as well as the track weather conditions being far from ideal, the guys came in at a credible 11th and 17th.

Continue reading »]]> Definitely warmer to day – all the snow has melted off of the village roof tops and the biting wind seems to have dropped for the moment, although there is a mist rolling in from the West. We had a leisurely breakfast this morning, enjoying the traditional continental spread laid out by the lovely Sporthotel Igls

We were filming Sir Andrew Ridgway, Chairman of the Great Britain Bobsleigh Team at 10.30, as well as Gary Anderson the teams Performance Director, so that gave us a little time to wander round the village of Igls and admire the scenery.

We chose a backdrop with the village of Igls in the background as well as the spectacular mountains behind.
Gary and Sir Andrew were a dream to film an only needed one take each! Both talked confidently about the hopes and aspirations for the current teams as well as the upcoming Futures Program, designed around recruiting the next generation of Bobsleigh medal winners!

Continue reading »]]> The previous day the mens junior team had been up early to tune the sleds.

Olly fine tuned the steering on the sled in the morning whilst the Will and the other lads checked runners and added the little components that make all the difference.

Today, with the sun out and the temperature rising this afternoon it wasn’t going to be too much of a challenge to pop up to the Olympic Sliding Center to see the British Bobsleigh Mens Team in practice this afternoon.

The Mens Junior World Championship starts tomorrow afternoon, so the practice training sessions are an essential part of the overall prep that is needed to get the teams up to speed.
Watching the ritual that each of the athletes performs prior to the initial push off from the start line, makes you understand how seriously these guys take their sport. The fine tuning and the mechanics behind the maintenance of the sleds is another aspect of this sport not fully appreciated. All though these sleds look very strong there is a lot that needs to be done before and after each competition and training session to maximise Team GB Bobsleighs destination of reaching medal status.

I think I was more nervous at the start than our GB athletes! They seem indestructible, calm and collected.

However, after a shout and a few slaps, the adrenaline kicks in and the calm changes into a huge surge of power propelling the sled down the ice.


The pace was good today, and all the athletes seemed well prepared mentally and physically for the competition tomorrow.

Continue reading »]]> The weather has warmed up slightly today, it’s 0 degrees, but there is no sun and a stiff breeze so feels a little cooler. This morning we headed into Innsbruck itself to capture some of the beautiful scenery in and around the town, and soak up some of the Christmas Market atmosphere.
The new Manfrotto monopod certainly earned it’s wages today, by being lightweight transportable and very maneuverable.
The Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof)in the old town, was shining beautifully in the warm sun that had appeared and the smell of Gluhwein was very enticing.


The town was busy with everyone dashing between shops for last minute presents. We didn’t have long to get some footage, before back to the Olympic Sliding Centre for this afternoons training session with the men’s team.