I’m always looking for new tools to help run my business more efficiently whether that’s software or hardware… at least that’s what I say, really I just love new gadgets. In fact on a recent trip, I was pulled aside by a TSA worker after my bag was scanned and was told my bag needed to be searched by hand. They said, “Sir you have a lot of electronics…” So I guess you could say I’m a bit of a gadget addict. My bag is getting pretty heavy these days with all the different tablets and computers I haul around. I do try to figure out a way to use them for work since that’s mainly what I do, work. Tablets and mobile computing is something I’m very much interested in since right now with LooseKeys I’m very mobile and love traveling and working. Most recently the marketing of Microsoft’s Surface was starting to peak my interest. Say what you want about the ads but they are all over the place, you can’t watch a show or walk down the street without seeing something about the Surface. 

Then after reading some reviews about how good the Surface is for drawing, I was considering picking one up. I was starting to feel like $600 was burning a hole in my pocket. I already have a couple different gadgets I use for drawing on the go, an iPad and a Nexus 7. The Surface may not have been a necessary purchase for me but it was potentially a better option for drawing than the others, so I wanted to test it out first, see it and get a first hand account. 

Finally at NAB I was able to see one and try it out for a moment. Boy, am I glad I didn’t just order one a month ago because it is not at all what I was expecting. This isn’t a thorough review or anything, I spent maybe 20 minutes at the booth. This is more of a first hand account with the device.

The interface is really nice and I’ve used a Windows phone before that I liked. The tiles and inviting look of the interface is great. I’m pretty tied to my Apple OS workflow so that would be a hurdle to get over but really the biggest downside was the size of this thing, it’s massive. I’m fairly sure I was looking at the Pro version at NAB and that comes in at nearly 2 pounds. The RT version is 1.5 pounds and an iPad is 1.44. Heck my 11’ inch MacBook Air is 2.38 pounds. Sure the Surface might be “more” than just a tablet but from all the commercials it looks like the surface is light and easy to carry around. At 2 pounds, I’m not going to be whipping it out of my bag that fast.

I really wanted to like the device, the idea of what it can do and offer is great but it just doesn’t fit into my workflow. And with all the other gadgets in my bag I don’t need the added weight.

More and more the LooseKeys team is being asked to execute live action shoots. Which I’m all for, it allows us to flex our creative wings and show that we can not only craft a great message and video with animation but with live action too. The videos we get asked to do typically focus on an application that lives on a smart phone, computer or tablet. Which usually isn’t an issue but since we’re shooting a screen, we often run into issues with the screen.

One issue that has been a problem for awhile was the refresh rate of computer monitors but that’s a pretty easy fix, all you do is set the refresh rate of the monitor and the frame-rate of your camera to the same setting, that should get rid of the flicker. Easy enough right, but tablets and smart phones don’t have this setting.

In our past shoots, to avoid any issues with the screen or not showing the correct screen, we’ve tracked and replaced most of the screens in post production. We don’t fill them with green or put a fake screen on it, we shoot it on black. This allows us to grab some of the reflections and that helps sell the shot more. This is often the most flexible solution and will give the best possible result but it does add more time to your post production schedule. It’s a lot easier to handle it this way instead of having to hear the clients tell you that you used the wrong screen and you have to re-shoot. A lot of commercials are done this way and you’ll see in the fine print something like “Screen Images Simulated”. The only issue is you don’t always get the right human interaction with the device. 

In the last video I was working on, we ran into the issue of moire on the screen. The iPhone 4’s Retina Display has been easy to shoot, the pixels are generally too small to cause moire. So I didn’t run into this issue until our last day of shooting for CamScanner. We used the Galaxy Tab 2 and ran into a lot of moire issues which took some time to solve. Our easy fix was just trying to turn the screen slightly until it was gone. It was a lot of trial and error. There are some other tricks like slightly taking the screen out of focus but that wasn’t an option for this since the screen and the device were the focus. 

I’m sure there are some other tricks you might have and please let me know. I’m typically not behind the camera, I work with Sergio Salgado a lot and trust that he’s going to figure out a solution for many of the issue that we run into like this but it’s always nice to offer up suggestions. So please let me now if you have a trick that works every time for you.