Alan Lloyd
Forum Replies Created
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Good stuff. Nice solution to the moving/shooting/lighting conundrum.
Thanks for posting the followup.
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I am not (yet) familiar with the most current edition of OnLocation, though my CS3 has time-lapse as part of its feature set. If you can install the camera long-term someplace, can you then also install a computer with OnLocation and program it to do just that?
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Does this other person have Quicktime installed on their PPro CS3 machine?
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Oh – thought you were looking for a facility.
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I don’t know where you’re located, if it makes a difference. A friend works for The ADS Group in Plymouth, MN. They have a very large facility, I know they do Blu-Ray.
They are found at:
https://www.theadsgroupdifference.com/
Can’t hurt to contact them.
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Is there a turbo-encabulator in her future?
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My error – you mentioned a Lowel kit kind of in passing.
Highlighting you can do in post, but there’s nothing like a streak or splash of light to turn a flat slab of painted metal into something nicely textured, and you don’t have to roto around someone’s hand pointing at something.
It also offers very nice separation between planes in an image, creating depth where it may not be apparent.
I have become a real fan of the little Lowel “L-lights” – they have doors and can take a standard screw base, so you can use the 100 watt MR-16 screw base lamps they’re designed for, or a regular 20-100 watt bulb, or (because they have ceramic sockets) a 300W photoflood in a China ball for soft, flattering daylight. They’re very small, and will go just about anywhere. I have three in my basic kit, along with two 300W Arri Fresnels, an Arri 150, a 650W open-face with both doors and a Chimera ring, and a Tota with a ring. I use them as accents in interviews, and for small splashes on a web-based adult-oriented vampire puppet show I work on as a “labor of love” project. One of those on a Cardellini will go almost anywhere.
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Mark said:
Nobody in an audience looks at a video or movie and says: “Oh, I can tell that was cut specifically on an AVID, because it was good”. Doesn’t work like that.
Sad but true: I was in (correspondence) discussions on something a few years ago and the “other folks” were mentioning, in the midst of their endless, semi-grinder-y circumlocution, that they wanted HD.
Iffy project going in, but what the hey…
(Me): OK, fine, what are you looking for? P2? HDV? Something else?
(Other dude): “Well, we’re using Final Cut Pro, so HDV won’t do.”
(Me): Says nothing further, discontinues discussion with sanity intact.
They are out there.
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Lots to talk about here.
First off, there are people who do very good work with Vegas, as well as Avid, Final Cut, and Premiere Pro. What you are seeing is the output of someone who is still not quite an editor, and it has more to do with storytelling and pacing than the particular tool used for the job.
After Effects is just that – effects. I would not like to try and cut a show in it, though it’s incredibly useful for specific parts of shows.
The Premiere Pro you’d get with a full CS5 purchase is a very powerful and capable editing program – as much as anything in the market today. It also integrates very well with After Effects, Photoshop, and Encore – much better, in fact, than anything else out there will.
I think you’d find On Location useful with a bit of experience. You get your recording right there, as a file, without having to capture, plus having the monitoring and test instrumentation is a very strong positive – you can see if your signal and image are what you want them to be, and it also has good file management capabilities for sorting good and bad takes.
You mentioned nothing of lighting. It’s critical, without it you’re making radio. I’d look at getting a good number of smaller instruments, for this reason: If you’re doing training video on various pieces of equipment, it’s rare that you’d be showing the entire thing at once, other than for an intro and close. You’ll be concentrating on specific parts, and highlighting them/achieving separation/visual definition is what you’ll be looking for. It’s amazing how useful small, easily mounted heads can be in those situations. Also look into a variety of different clamps and mounts for this purpose.
A greenscreen can be nice, if you have a lot of need to put someone into an environment you can’t get them into in practical terms. The inside of a machine, perhaps? Here is where On Location will really help, as you will be able to see very clearly if your greenscreen is lit evenly and the exposure is correct. I would not make it a priority, though. Lighting, editing (both craft – first – and software), and audio for any narration would take precedence.
And do feel free to keep asking questions. If we don’t ask questions, how will any of us ever find anything out?
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What Ann is referring to is nesting the sequence of photos – not rendering it and then changing the speed. Create a new (second) sequence and place sequence #1 in that. Again, do not export it as an AVI. That will introduce some unpleasantness.