Clearhead Media are a creative media solutions studio dedicated to providing their clients with a simple and cost effective way to communicate their message.

We heard they were using Video DSLRs in their production workflow, and thought we’d go and ask them what they are like to work with, how their clients react to them using these cameras and what it has enabled them to do in the future.

Transcript

“When we started our company, when we started video making, there would be a relatively long drawn-out process. We’d have to buy the tapes. We would then have to go through and capture the whole tape, or batch capture with Final Cut Pro. You’d then have to make sure it’s all in there and all right, the sound maybe wouldn’t be very good. You’d then have to go through and it wasn’t even, a lot of the time, HD.”

“Now that we’ve transferred to using DSLRs to shoot video, it’s revolutionized our workflow.”

“We used DSLRs, kind of by chance actually. We’ve used the Sony Z1 for a long, long time, for a good 4, 5 years, and we purchased the DSLR, more on the basis for doing it for photography work, but we thought we might just try it for video and the results were amazing weren’t they? ”

“Yes, so we haven’t really looked back since. On every promotional film we’ve produced we’ve shot with the 5D Mark II. We originally purchased the 7D to go along with the Mark II, and yeah, we’ve been shooting everything with those cameras, and we’re looking at purchasing another Mark II, after the firmware upgrade, and just the image quality that is being produced from these cameras is so much quicker! I mean we’re turning around productions in two days that would have taken us a week before.”

“We’ve done some shooting in London for instance, with a lovely lady called Lulu Guinness and, probably maybe two years ago with our old cameras, it would have been a lot more difficult, not only to take the equipment, but also to shoot in the space that’s available, and I think that’s one of the best things about DSLRs.”

“And I also think the reactions that we get from the client, in terms of being in front of the camera, is a lot more natural I find, and a lot more comfortable, having such a low-profile camera rig, compared to a huge mounted shoulder-mounted camera rig with all the accessories. The client seems more relaxed and its easier to get content out of them, it feels natural, comfortable, and I think that’s a real benefit shooting DSLR over any sort of other camera.”

“And I think it’s allowed us to do loads of new types of jobs as well.”

“Yeah, so obviously being mainly a promotional film-based company, shooting corporate videos, we’ve now managed to be able to move into producing some music videos and we’re now going to be shooting documentaries this year as well.”

“The fact that we’re such a young company, it’s given us the ability to be forward-thinking, it’s given us an open mind in terms of how we run our business and what we should shoot with. I definitely believe that if we were an older company that had been around for years and years and years, we would have been stuck in our ways and wouldn’t even be bothered to shoot professional videos with DSLR cameras.”

“We’re sort of under the radar, but on the very crest of a wave when it comes to technology. We’ve been moving out into the world. We’ve hopefully got some work in New York, in Canada, we’ve got a documentary we’re going to be shooting in the Philippines, and so I think the future is bright and I think that the DSLRs are something we can definitely rely on.”