General Introduction

Hylpener Hurdsilerij 2008 (left) and various 2009 shoots (right).

Dutch Indies conceive, plan, produce, shoot, edit and finish videos. We accomplish this either in close collaboration with specialist colleagues or simply by ourselves, depending, obviously, on the complexity and scale of the project at hand. In a wider sense we also perform as digital storytellers, whenever this is required, as when our work is embedded into more complex narratives which run across any combination of media (i.e. video, photography, music, the spoken and the written word). Our past work has been delivered to viewers through a variety of "channels" or media, including television, DVD, CD-Rom, tape, beamer-screens and the internet.

Dutch Indies are Huib J. Lirb, Feliz Coll and "their merry band of mercenaries". We draw on the talents and skills of a flexible group of accomplished video professionals, our fellow "indies", a range of friends and colleagues who share a wide experience in television, business-to-business and business-to-consumer communications, event videos and commercials. We can make a big noise or a gentle whisper. Whatever fits the occasion.

Feliz Coll & Huib J. Lirb shooting stock footage for Museion at Stonehenge in 2006 (left). Silence at last (Marsdiep) (right).

The Defence Line of Amsterdam

The complicated and comprehensive project on the Amsterdam Defence Line (De Stelling van Amsterdam) has kept us very busy for most of 2009. For this project, please see www.museion.nl

The Story of Dutch Windmills

The project on the history of windmills and watermills in the Netherlands has taken up most of our time in 2007. "Werken met Wind en Water" is a documentary series of six 25 minutes episodes. It has been aired by the national broadcaster AVRO in September and October. Our involvement was complete. After all, we conceived the series ourselves. Having taken the initiative as early as 2005, we have conducted our very own research and produced the whole thing in collaboration with our Museion partner John Twigt (for whose production and post production company, see Workstation).

For more information on this project in Dutch, please refer to www.werkenmetwindenwater.nl. The English edition of this series has now been published by Museion Media. It is enhanced with subtitles in English and in Dutch to the benefit of both the hearing-impaired and the students of the Dutch language. The translated version is entitled "The Story of Dutch Windmills" and it can be ordered from the project website at www.dutchwindmills.tv

A Brief Note on Gear

In 2008, Dutch Indies crews will have the choice of working either in Standard Definition DV using the Panasonic DVX100B camcorder or in DVCPro High Definition using the Panasonic HVX200. The latter records DVCPro HD video on P2 solid state cards in 1080i or 720P.

Setting up our "P2 Village" for the Museion Media registration of the Toon Roos concert at the BIMHUIS in Amsterdam, February 4th, 2008.
We deployed 4 manned and 2 unmanned cameras for this hybrid HD shoot. Cameramen included Max Rauch and Antoon Baede.
The concert was a huge success.

Please note that this technology relies on intra-frame compression only, unlike the HDV formats based on the MPEG2 streams which consist of Groups of Pictures, groups within which compression is achieved through reliance on inter-frame of temporal compression (Sony's HDV using long GOPs and JVC 's ProHD using shorter GOPs). The Panasonic DVCPro HD technology therefore maintains the integrity of every frame shot. (The implications of pixel shifting technology - for those who are interested in such technical matters - will not be discussed here; suffice it to say that the reduction of colour resolution due to pixel-shifting though not luma resolution has proven to be a most succesful outcome of the trade-off.) This results in what we believe to be superior imagery, clear and precise even when either the object moves or the camera. It is important to stress that the intra-frame compression of DVCPro HD is not at all comparable to standard DV compression. Like Digibeta, the familiar broadcast standard in Standard Definition, DVCPro HD uses 4:2:2 colour sampling.The DVCProHD chips have more values to assign to each pixel in the digital translation of the images received. As a result, the image will retain more colour information with a marked improvement in both the highlight and the shadow areas. And this is done on a true HD canvas.

Left: "Talk to me!" (Mr Reinier Hattink stategically positioned next to the DVX100). Centre: WWW crew conducting an interview on a boat, still using the DVX100. Right: Girls from the Hood (Texel 2007).

The HVX200 is a proper HD camera then. It is not a shoulder camera system, however, though it can occasionally be used as such, thanks to a variety of accessory items. For ENG styled shoots, therefore, more appropriate cameras will be hired along with their experienced cameramen. The HD formats used on such occasions will vary from anything within the HDV, DVCProHD, XDCam HD and HDCam families. At times we also, again by courtesy of Workstation BV, deploy secundary HD cameras from Panasonic recording in the AVCHD format.

Left: : directors prefer to travel light (Bimhuis Amsterdam). Centre: the sign says "no trespassing. Birds breeding season (...)" - we never ever do this, but we just had to make the shot. Right: Rigging of the tall ship Thalassa - a sneak preview!

To return to the gear we own. We stiil use a Sony CRT Field Monitor for SD video at times even on HD shoots. We use Sachtler and Cartoni tripods, as well as a Manfrotto Monopod. Proper audio gear (SQN and Promix mixers, Sennheiser, Sanken, Beyer Dynamic and AKG microphones) and lighting equipment (PAG and Ianiro kit; additional 2kW and 650's by courtesy of Workstation BV) belong to our standard kits but, again, additional gear can be hired as needed. We also own, and proudly so, a 12-foot Kessler Crane (4 metres long, the camera being carried some 3 metres up from the tripod) with lanc controller (though not yet with remote head) and a wonderful HD monitor from Nebtek.

Our Kessler Crane on location - we cannot, at this time, disclose which - on yet another Museion Media job. It was a pleasure to work with
Mr Teun Senders. The camera used in this case was the HVX200.

The Nebtek monitor will also travel without the crane so we are sure to stay focused! We usually get away with stacking the gear into a single Volvo, but on some shoot we form a convoy.

Lighting up a most luxurious cocktail bar with the help of the NEB70HDS. Centre: Going Places. Right: Onze Held (Jozua).

Learn More

Please click here to learn more about Dutch Indies, about the Dutch Indies name, and about our views on the significance of independent video professionals working in small outfits in the Netherlands. Our special commitment to the fields of history, archaeology, cultural landscapes, industrial heritage and oral history is reflected by our participation in the MUSEION Media initiative. This is the brand, "Museion" in short, under which Huib J. Lirb and John Twigt now team together to expand their cross-media publishing and production house as joint venture.

Left: Huib J. Lirb. Right: Feliz Coll.

You are also kindly invited to click here for more information on Huib J. Lirb. For a comprehensive list of his projects, only occasionally updated, please click here. For some online examples from Huib J. Lirb's personal portfolio, click here.

Selected Clips

Needless to say, the image quality of these flash video movies is no guide to the quality of the originals. Motion Graphics Imagery especially always suffers badly from the necessary encoding for web delivery.

		Leader for the NCRV Television programme Hello Goodbye. Nerdy but muscular factoid: the After Effects Canvas contained as many as 124 (!) Full-Sized PAL movies. Ouch! Also see Projects List, job nr. 0178. (The link refers to the Broadcaster's "Uitzending Gemist" page.)
		Leader for the NCRV Television programme Joris' Showroom. Also see Projects List, job nr. 0170.
		The Race of the Classics 2008. This mood video serves as a portal to a Videographic Ships Log in 25 entries. (Check the buttons below the page to which this poster refers.) This enormous web video project resulted in over 100 minutes of high grade flash video encoded from full HD source material. This is special interest, of course, but great fun for the 400+ participants. Most entries may well entertain anyone with a keen interest in sailing and in classical sailing ships. The site has been well visited. Also see Projects List, job nrs. 0158 and 0169.
		Excerpt from the first episode of the 2007 Werken met Wind en Water television series. Also see Projects List, job nrs. 0144 and 0146.
		One of three web video specials of varying duration. These web videos were directed by Maarten Verstraete, partly shot by the same and by John Twigt, and edited by Huib J. Lirb and John Twigt. The set was produced by Museion Media for ADC Heritage BV, a leading provider of archaeological services in the netherlands, and published at their website www.archeologie.nl. For the event to which the www.weekendvandearcheologie.nl. Also refer to Projects List, job nr.. 0157.
		Excerpt from a Motion Graphics Bumper incorporated into the moodfilm shot at the Anna van Rijn College in Nieuwegein, which featured quotes from interviews with teachers and students as well as documentary impressions from actual classes containing embedded references to the use of the celebrated mathematics instruction method from EPN Publishers (Rob van der Vet & Dutch Indies). The original has audio. Also see Projects List, job nr. 0132.
		Industriële Archeologie in het Guisveld. Another special interest web documentary on Dutch Economic History. From the Dossier section of the Werken met Wind en Water programme website, for which seeProjects List, job nrs. 0144 and 0146.