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The World of HD Minicams...
is changing all the time
Prime Television has been supplying the latest minicam technology on all types of media productions for over 15 years. When it comes to minicam facilitation we have seen it, done it, got the T-shirt (cleaned and ironed the T-shirt) and perfected the service. Already this year we have completed a wide variety of productions and TV series including the many hidden camera scenarios for Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, an ITV special called 'Secret Dates' as well as numerous fixed minicams scenarios in 'Emmerdale' and secret pinhole camera filming for 'Dispatches'. And it's not just TV that's gone minicam crazy, we have already filmed a pop video and three TV commercials this year.
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Shooting in the Dark
Ever thought about filming in complete darkness? We have done a number of productions using infrared cameras cameras in the past but none more critical than the recent Ant and Dec Saturday Night Takeaway Undercover shooting Bear Grylls at the Dans Le Noir restaurant in Clarkenwell, London. As the dining room is in 100% darkness the critical part of this production was that all infrared lighting needed to be completely invisible, no giveaway red glow from normal 850nm LED infrared lighting would be acceptable so we went for ten of the invisible 940nm light panels and spots to cover the action areas in the restaurant. Using our new Panasonic AW-UE-70 PTZ's and fixed Canon XF-105's cameras in Infrared mode the results were better than we expected… See for yourself.
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New Pinhole Camera
Prime has just taken delivery of a new pinhole/button camera that is made for broadcast. This excellent piece of kit is the first real quality pinhole product we have come across that is solid and rugged enough to go the distance and beyond. Unlike other button cameras this one does not connect with Mini-HDMI or 3.5mm jack plug, all connections are made using locking Hirose style connections. Ideal for small hidden camera use, such as a button camera, the unit comes with a small recorder battery pack and its own professional Cos11 Wired Microphone. The camera has 12 million pixels at 1080/50p and records in MP4 up to 28Mbps. Battery life is whopping 8 hours and with a 64GB card, record time is at least four hours. No more plastic toys, this is the real mccoy.
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Secret Dates
Secret Dates was a TX pilot for ITV2 produced by Crook Productions that required up to twelve minicams at five different locations. As with many of our hidden camera hits it was not just the cameras that were vital to the success of these shoot but the hides as well. We used various custom made hides with ND glass to house our new Panasonic AW-UE70 PTZ Cameras, and used CCTV type hides for some of our fixed cameras. For one scene we even fitted hidden cameras in a helicopter! The hits required rigging, shooting and de-rigging all in the same day so we had our work cut out for us, but with the great staff from Crook and a very funny concept the show was great fun to work on. Lets hope the commissioning editors at ITV2 feel the same way.
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