Michael Slowe
Forum Replies Created
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I always understood that sticking to one codec throughout the operation is good practice. What is the final destination of the SD production? The reason that matters is that at some stage you are going to have to downscale your finished edit to SD. The Media 100 downscale is not the best but if you’re going to DVD the BitVice encoder for DVD includes a very good downscale and I would go with that. If you are going to tape then either use Media 100 or maybe one of the Matrox pieces of kit, others on this forum will doubtless advise.
Michael Slowe
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Not a lot of shooting over here in the UK Clint, but I do recall 55 years ago during my military service having great problems, both with the NCO instructor and the rifle! Cameras are rather less lethal thank goodness.
Michael Slowe
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It is such a pain for us ‘lefties’, I have tried many systems in order to be able to view the EX1 screen through an eyepiece only to be foiled by the ‘leftie’ syndrome. I now merely try and ensure that the screen is shaded as well as possible and use the ‘expanded focus’ whenever there is time.
Michael Slowe
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Chocolate Bunny Rabbit, the only person who can ensure that you make videos good enough to enter and win competitions is YOU! What kit you use, either to shoot or edit, makes little difference to the artistic quality of your work. Having said that I suggest that you try and get an hour or two in front of a Media 100 edit system, preferably on a Mac. It is (imho) the most intuitive and easy to learn edit software. You must have heard this otherwise why post to this forum? The $150 max does pose a serious problem though.
Michael Slowe
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I have had both SD DVD’s and Blu-Ray projected in a cinema and provided they have an upscaling Blu-Ray player your DVD should look pretty good. Obviously it would be preferable to project a BD but not critical. If you’re shooting and editing in HD why not do your own BD’s? I just got the Lacie stand alone burner which goes into the MacPro through a USB 2 connection and it works fine. I use Toast 10 (with the BD plug in) to encode and burn and the results are great. Post houses charge quite a lot for stuff quite easily done by us in our edit suite.
Michael Slowe
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I remember someone had this EXACT problem and posted to this forum. I think it was about eight months ago, you may try and search for it. They were advised on a clever way to get the card out but I can’t remember what it was.
Michael Slowe
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I don’t like using Compressor for encoding. A far better software for this is BitVice,and by the way, if you are downscaling from HD for an SD DVD, BitVice does this better than any method I’ve tried.
I disagree with the man who wrote that the max bit rate should be low. I always have mine at 9, with an average of 7.5 for a double pass VBR. My ac3 audio is prepared within BitVice at 256.kbps. Never, ever had a DVD stutter or freeze on me. I encode with BitVice, format in DVDSP 4 and burn in Toast. I also use the high quality Verbatim DVD-R Printable discs.
Michael Slowe
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I’m doing interviews single handed all the time. I prefer not to rely on radio mics because of the danger of interference, particularly by mobile phones that have not been switched off. If you’re in control of the environment I suggest either a lapel mic connected to the camera with a cable easily routed inside the shirt. Provided the shot is waist level and above there’s no problem. If you prefer not to see a mic in shot then I place either my camera mic (removed from camera) on a stand close to the speaker or my Sennheiser M66 also on a tripod or stand directed towards the speaker which need not be quite so close if you want a wider shot. Placing both mics would be preferable (using both input channels) then you have a choice of tracks when editing. As to lighting, here again it depends on the control that you have but I often use daylight from a window with a small fill light set to 5600 Kelvin.
One thing not mentioned is the desirability of having a shallow DoF thereby isolating the subject from the background. I prefer using a long focal length and an open iris which means getting well back if there is space to do so. Otherwise really close and placing the subject as far from the background as possible. Still with a wide open iris, which may mean using the built in ND filter on the EX1. All elementary photographic principles which seem to be a mystery to the modern day videographer.
Michael Slowe
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I’m doing interviews single handed all the time. I prefer not to rely on radio mics because of the danger of interference, particularly by mobile phones that have not been switched off. If you’re in control of the environment I suggest either a lapel mic connected to the camera with a cable easily routed inside the shirt. Provided the shot is waist level and above there’s no problem. If you prefer not to see a mic in shot then I place either my camera mic (removed from camera) on a stand close to the speaker or my Sennheiser M66 also on a tripod or stand directed towards the speaker which need not be quite so close if you want a wider shot. Placing both mics would be preferable (using both input channels) then you have a choice of tracks when editing. As to lighting, here again it depends on the control that you have but I often use daylight from a window with a small fill light set to 5600 Kelvin.
One thing not mentioned is the desirability of having a shallow DoF thereby isolating the subject from the background. I prefer using a long focal length and an open iris which means getting well back if there is space to do so. Otherwise really close and placing the subject as far from the background as possible. Still with a wide open iris, which may mean using the built in ND filter on the EX1. All elementary photographic principles which seem to be a mystery to the modern day videographer.
Michael Slowe
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I heartily echo these positive comments. Having also completed the survey I couldn’t really think of much else I would want Media 100 to do for us. Maybe pan and zoom rather more easily but it’s such a fantastic editing tool, so intuitive and quick to use. Thank you again Boris, bless you!
Michael Slowe