Day 97: Section 44

Today I was nearly arrested for being a terrorist while filming Buckingham Palace with the prototype Panasonic AG-3DA1 3D camcorder .
Apparently the Queen is not too impressed by having an ominous black twin lensed possibly-a-rocket-launcher-on-a-tripod pointed at her house.
My customary wit and banter deserted me in the face of two armed police and a squad car, so I said "fair cop", and moved on.
More quizzically I was also asked to leave the surroundings of the London Eye. The camera looked 'too professional', I was told. (It does have a little 3D Professional badge on the side!). Professional people have to pay to film the wheel it seems.
I didn't think I looked all that professional in my shorts and star wars T-shirt, but I'd already got most of what I wanted by the time the rent-a-cops arrived, so again, I moved on without too much hassle.

Panasonic took over Trafalgar Square to mark '2 years until olympics' day, and I met up with Nigel and John who gave me the camera to rush off all over London getting stock footage for their promo.

Oscar had another Mummy day. We're having Daddy day soon.

Day 96: Three months and a baby

Three months have flown by, but on the other hand, I find it increasingly difficult to remember what it was like before we had Oscar.

Day 95: Once more unto the beach with friends (once more)

Today we ventured true Brit style onto Eastbourne beach despite the patchy sun and wind. We met up with an assortment of chums and had a picnic. Phil spent most of the day building a Canute inspired network of sand based walls in a vain effort to contain the sea.

It didn't really work, but then I'm pretty sure the journey was the destination.

Day 94: It's getting better every day

Tash thought Oscar slept from 9.30 until 7am. I guess Mummy didn't wake up when Daddy fed Oscar at midnight. Still 12-7 is good!

Day 93: Blur day

Neither of us can remember what we did today!

Day 92: But that I am forbid To tell the secrets... 22nd July 2010

Today I was asked if I wanted to visit Panasonic to see a new product they were excited about.

Hmm... would I be at all interested in getting my hands on what I had a big suspicion was going to be a 3D camcorder?

Yep!

As soon as I got there I had to sign an NDA, so for today that story is over.

After playing with the new toy I was asked to pop up to Paul Carrack's studio to shoot an interview about his new album with Peter Van Hook. It was pretty late in the day but PC still delivered a great interview and even bought me dinner!
This time I shot with the AG-3DA1 recording to a pair of P2 card recorders. They capture a 100mb/s data stream, far less compressed than recording to internal SDHC cards.

Oscar had another Mummy day.


*I'm a bit behind (about 10 days) with these entries so my review of the SDT750 has actually already been published here.

Day 91: Silent filming on hallowed ground. 21 July

Today I was shooting the Royal Philharmonic at Abbey Road studios along with singer Paul Carrack. http://www.carrack-uk.com/

It's funny going to work and having to push trough a crowd of people to get in. It feels a bit like running a picket line.

My AG3DA1 (http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/3d/ag-3da1/index.html) had a few software glitches (the others were fine of course) but that's what you get for playing with prototypes. Any way you slice it, it's an awful lot easier that lugging a twin camera / mirror rig around. So quick to set up you almost forget you're shooting 3D. Almost!

Once again I found standing in the middle of the orchestra in full flow a moving experience. Something about the reality of being right there, especially in that studio, where Star Wars, LOTR etc. were recorded. It's magical.

Oscar had another Mummy day!