Michael Coleman has an enviable job shooting documentaries about the music industry. The California based independent director has been working behind the camera professionally since 2003 and has many exciting clients like Dolby Laboratories, Apple, Golden State Warriors and Lucasfilm.Coleman’s camera setup of choice is the Sony FS7 with the Atomos Shogun Inferno. “I love my FS7 and I shot my first feature film with it. I’ve been using it for the past three years and I’m really happy with the images it produces. I also love combining the FS7 with Shogun Inferno as it gives me essential monitoring and I also love that I can review footage on the Shogun Inferno instantly on location.”
Coleman’s camera setup of choice is the Sony FS7 with the Atomos Shogun Inferno. “I love my FS7 and I shot my first feature film with it. I’ve been using it for the past three years and I’m really happy with the images it produces. I also love combining the FS7 with Shogun Inferno as it gives me essential monitoring and I also love that I can review footage on the Shogun Inferno instantly on location.” At a recent music festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, he ran the setup handheld using a Bright Tangerine Titan arm to secure the Shogun Inferno at a comfortable viewing distance. Filming bands like Metallica and Cage the Elephant, he was able to frame, focus and expose in the daylight using the Atomos screen.
On other occasions, Coleman captures documentary-style interviews, often asking the questions and filming at the same time. For this, he uses the Shogun Inferno mounted on a stand in front of him so he can keep an eye on what the camera is doing at all times.Working on tight deadlines with irreplaceable footage means that its essential for Coleman to have a solid data solution for his daily shoots.
In his home office, he has an Apple MacPro hooked up to a 4-bay G-SPEED Shuttle with EV Series Bay Adapters. This storage solution has 20TB of disk storage onboard alongside the EV Series Reader Atomos Master Caddy Edition and an EV Series bay adapters. “With my setup reviewing and transferring footage is so fast,” Coleman shares. “When I get home I simply slot the Atomos Master Caddy 4K into the EV reader and then transfer the data to the G-SPEED Shuttle’s internal storage. Nothing could be simpler.”
It was not always like this and Coleman does not miss the ‘good old days’. “Gone are the bottlenecks and the speed humps”, he says. “There’s flexibility now thanks to the superior drive technology. The speeds that you get from the caddy and the drives that I am using is amazing. I’ve never had an issue with it.”Coleman’s philosophy is that getting the workflow right is an investment in yourself, your gear and your projects. “The details matter because they show up,” he says. “Transferring footage in half the time is more time that I can spend working on my edit.”He concludes that “working with Atomos and G-Technology drives allow me to spend time focusing on the creative aspects of my work instead of worrying about my data.”
