4K is A-OK

Producing High Quality Video With Less Equipment

MTI has worked for IBM often in the past few years on various jobs. When the call came to provide video crew and production equipment for a shoot, we were ready. The job was shot at the IBM Innovation Studio in Washington, D.C.

4K: Benefits of High Resolution and Considerations

The assignment was a basic read-to-camera job. IBM’s Page Becker would read the script from a teleprompter. A key factor was that we would shoot in 4K. This high-resolution format is often used when there is only one camera on the shoot. If you have two cameras, one will be a wide shot and the other a close-up. But 4K quality allows the client the flexibility of two cameras while saving money. The editor can zoom in on the footage to get different angles while still maintaining a superior image.

One important thing to remember when shooting in 4K is that the files are so much larger, and transferring them to the client can take much longer. Even with good upload speed, an 80 gigabyte 4K video file can take up to 12 hours to transfer. This time needs to be factored into the schedule.

The Right Crew Gets the Job Done

MTI’s crew was videographer John Murphy, audio engineer Shawn Chadwick, and prompter operator Justin Klein. IBM provided the script and Steady Now handled the editing.

Equipment was the Sony FX6 camera, Aputure lights, a Zoom audio mixer, and boom and lavalier microphones.