My report on the 20th anniversary of the Tianamen Square massacre. All interviews bar one from the US was shot the 5dmkII with a radio mic and auto gain (my edirol recorder wasn't working at the time for sync sound)

Sorry its only in low res right now, HD will follow on Youtube later.

Tiananmen Square: briefly, anything seemed possible | World news | The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/03/tiananmen-square-beijing-killings)

Dan

Hi Dan,

Fantastic (and sobering) material. I guess you leave it 30p for the web?

Do you feel sometimes the DOF may be too tight in interview situations, giving backgrounds a kind of glazed look? I shoot a lot of head shots too and I almost wonder if it's worth closing the aperture down a little and giving the background more definition.

Josh

Hi Dan

Can you let us know when the hi def is available for download from Vimeo so I can have a look? Cheers

Avey

Dan: have you tried getting some interviews on the square?

Nice job Dan, There were 150,000 people in Victoria Park, Hong Kong tonight remembering that day in June 1989

All interviews bar one from the US was shot the 5dmkII with a radio mic and auto gain

Dan, nice work -- I like the DOF during the interviews and especially the short snippet of the guard at Tiananmen Square towards the end.

However, the pumping noise-floor from the AGC during the interviews makes me cringe, and in the midst of it there are some VO commentary that are perfectly clean, (since I always use headphones, I certainly get it worse). As far as I could tell, next to the VO there was only one interview that had good sound, but that one didn't have the DOF (we could clearly see the books in the shelf behind him ;^)

Anyways, congratulation on a good job on an important event report.

-- peer

Dan, great work - as usual!

Care to share what lenses you used for most of the interview parts?

With control over the audio gain, this camera will be ready for almost anything.

I really liked this piece. I did not pay attention to the audio noise because the content is so good. A subtle thing I did notice was that the subtitles seemed to match the content of the speaking. Keeping the subtitles matched with the person's expressions really helps a different-language audience as it keeps the ideas in sync with the emotions. Great editing.

Dan, nice work -- I like the DOF during the interviews and especially the short snippet of the guard at Tiananmen Square towards the end.

However, the pumping noise-floor from the AGC during the interviews makes me cringe, and in the midst of it there are some VO commentary that are perfectly clean, (since I always use headphones, I certainly get it worse). As far as I could tell, next to the VO there was only one interview that had good sound, but that one didn't have the DOF (we could clearly see the books in the shelf behind him ;^)

Anyways, congratulation on a good job on an important event report.

-- peer

Yes, sorry about that, won't happen again. I'll use the Beachtek DXA5D next time.

Soeren,
The lens for the interviews was a 85mm f1.4 Contax/Zeiss lens.

There is now a second video in the series here Video: Tiananmen: a night of despair | World news | guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jun/05/tiananmen-square)

Yang Wen,
No interviews I'm afraid but here are my images from yesterday cut with archive footage from 20 year ago. Video: Tiananmen Square today | World news | guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jun/04/tiananmen-square-protests-1989-protest) This one was shot on a Panasonic LX-3.

Dan

Hi Dan,

Fantastic (and sobering) material. I guess you leave it 30p for the web?

Do you feel sometimes the DOF may be too tight in interview situations, giving backgrounds a kind of glazed look? I shoot a lot of head shots too and I almost wonder if it's worth closing the aperture down a little and giving the background more definition.

Josh

Yes its 30p, and yes I'd normally close down a bit more to around f4, it was just quite dark in most of the interviews and once I'd started in a certain look I didn't want to change it.

Dan

Dan, When you have a chance could you outline your "post" workflow.

Thanks

Bob

Love your stuff as always Dan, Thanks for sharing with us.

Did you say LX3 as in the compact?

Dan, you are the 22th century journalist!!! ;-D

I am baffled that people cares about lenses, adapters or tripods when watching your video-news. I would like to learn your narrative/visual skills, I don't care if you were f2.8 or f4.0!!!

Keep your good work!!!

I am baffled that people cares about lenses, adapters or tripods when watching your video-news.

Hi Xavier,

I know what you're saying... like millions of people, I often see Dan's work for the Gaurdian online - in that context content is everything, and the kind of journalism Dan does is very affecting. This particular piece is of great personal interest to me for a variety of reasons (as I know it will be for others), but it seems to me DVinfo is not the place to go there.

Quite aside from being a first rate journalist, Dan clearly loves his gear and the technical art behind capturing those great images... perhaps part of the reason stories like this one are so absorbing (and emotions are captured so well) is that beyond content, Dan gets his lenses, adapters and tripods just right.

Hi Josh!

I am as much about technique as anybody else. We are all day long working sometimes with, sometimes against our tools, trying to create/transmit some emotions. I also understand that DVinfo is more about technique...

But someone who after watching some work by Dan Chung is just worried about what FCP version he has or how many minutes his batteries last, should rather use their time for something more technical. There are thousands of technical hobbies, RC models, car/moto/boat/PC modding, etc.

There is a chinesse saying that goes more or less "When a finger points to the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger". Please, nobody take this as an insult, I am as interested about technical matters as anybody else. But if I had the oportunity to talk to Kubrick, I wouldn't ask him what tripod model he had... ;-DD

Dan works has it all, content, art and most of all: humanity. Let's try to copy that instead of his setup!!!

Hi Xavier,

Once more, I sympathise with your view, however...

DVinfo is a technical forum and Dan graciously shares technical info/advice. It's a compartively small audience here (relative to the number of people who see Dan's work), and one interested in gear/techique as well as content. The discussion here was about lenses and without trying to speak for Dan it's pretty clear from all his posts he loves his gadgets. I'd hazzard a guess Dan enjoys technical discussion and appreciation of his work on an aesthetic level, beyond his obvious skill as a storyteller and the power of content in stories like this (if you have a moment Dan chime in!).

Respectfully, I think it's unfair to suggest if one comments/enquires about someone's setup in a tech forum they've therefore missed the point of their work, or lack a desire to express humanity in their own.

For various family and work related reasons Dan's latest report affects me greatly - for several years I've read everything I can from every source on this topic - but beyond mentioning that his work is powerful, this forum is not set up to discuss such content. If it were, there are so many questions of a different nature I'd love to ask Dan, believe me.

It is however a place where one can freely ask about a lens choice or an audio issue.

Respectfully, I think it's unfair to suggest if one comments/enquires about someone's setup in a tech forum they've therefore missed the point of their work, or lack a desire to express humanity in their own.

...

It is however a place where one can freely ask about a lens choice or an audio issue.

Josh, sorry if I sound like I am judging or trying to decide something for others!!! This is a great forum with very nice people who can ask what they want, as much as Dan can answer everything he wants. It's not my intention to change/limit/judge this.

My comment is just that of all questions that come to my mind when watching Dan's work, the technical ones are the last... Nothing more!!! ;-DDD

I don't think it's against the rules to ask about non technical aspects?? I can be wrong! ;-)