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first HD job
I have my first HD to BD wedding job coming up. I have never filmed or edited in HD. I am using a Sony FX7 1080i camera and Vegaspro8.c
is there anything I need to be aware of or keep in mind when filming or editing? -
9 Replies
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>>is there anything I need to be aware of or keep in mind when filming or editing?
What’s your editing system look like? (CPU, RAM, HDD’s, etceteras)
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Have you ever shot 16:9 widescreen before? If not, then you really should get out there with the camera before the wedding and get use to having that extra space on the sides. You might want to frame some subjects a little more left or right of center than you would have in 4:3. For example if you are interviewing a bridesmaid you might want to frame her to the right with the church building in the background on left over her shoulder. This makes for more interesting shots rather than have your subject dead center as you might have with 4:3. It takes some getting use to.
If the FX7 shoots some form of 24p mode avoid it unless you’ve shot 24p before. You have to handle the camera differently in 24p and unless you are experienced at it, this is not the time to experiment. I would keep the camera in 60i mode. Also test the camera out in low light so see how much noise is in the gain. I can get my Z1 up to 18dB gain and still have a great picture. I don’t know how the FX7 performs in low light but you should make sure that you do before the wedding day.
Finally, use Sony HDV tape not some cheap DV tape. While drop-outs are not common, when they do happen they happen for a full 1/2 second. This is because HDV records a group of pictures (GOP) that is 15 frames long. When one goes bad, all 15 are bad so tape drop-outs are not just a 1 frame glitch anymore.
Like anything else, the more you shoot with the camera before the wedding, the more comfortable you will be with it the day of the event. HD is not that hard to shoot once you adjust to the 16:9 aspect. Good luck.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Yes I shoot everything in 16:9 and yes I am aware of the 24p I never use it because it never turns out right. And yes I shoot under low light the majority of the time with weddings. I guess what I’m more concerned about is, I keep hearing editing in HD is very difficult, is it? or is just more time consuming?
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I have an Intel core 2Quad CPU – 2.40GHz
300 GB of RAM (Memory)
600 GB HD separated by two diffrent HD’sis this sufficient?
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>>I have an Intel core 2Quad CPU – 2.40GHz
300 GB of RAM (Memory)
600 GB HD separated by two diffrent HD’sis this sufficient?
I am not an expert, but for HDV it probably is. However, John will know.
However, may I please confirm, how much RAM do you have?
And could you please explain your HDD situation in a little more detail? Are you saying that you have 600 GB free between a C drive and a D drive? Or what are you saying? And what RPM are the drives?
I do not know what you budget is, but Cineform codec is $99.00 and can help.
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Yes the HD is split up between a C and a D drive 300GB each. I have dedicated the D drive for editing and saving projects etc.
Here is a link to the specs on my comp. I did add an extra GB of memory so I do have 4GB of memory.
https://h10025.https://www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c01070924
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> I guess what I’m more concerned about is, I keep hearing editing in HD is very difficult, is it? or is just more time consuming?
It is not difficult at all if you have a computer that is capable of handling the format. Otherwise playback may be choppy. Since you are using HDV, any modern DualCore PC should be able to handle it smoothly.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
> Yes the HD is split up between a C and a D drive 300GB each. I have dedicated the D drive for editing and saving projects etc.
Just for the record, if you have one physical drive that is partitioned between C: and D: this is the same as having one drive. The purpose of having separate drives is so that the read/write heads of one do not conflict with the other. So when Windows starts to write to the swap file on your C: drive, it will stop reading from the D: drive because both partitions share the same physical drive heads. That’s the same as having everything on one drive. 🙁
What you really want is two physically separate drives. One for your OS and applications and the other for you video project media so that you have independent access.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Otherwise playback may be choppy.
That’s the *preview* playback. The compressed output will look just fine.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com
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