Alex Huber
Forum Replies Created
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right you will want to shoot the rest of the project as 24p if you want to slow the 60i footage to 40 percent and get a frame for frame accurate drop in for the rest of the project.
Don’t sweat Canon’s “24f” label. It is 24p. Lots of 24p cameras actually shoot with an interlaced chip just like Canon does. It is more of a legal thing than anyone else. Basically Canon didn’t want to pay the royalty rights to Robert Faber (the inventor from the old “FilmLook” company) who had trademark protection on the process and the “24p” moniker so canon came up with the “24f” designation. It’s the same thing. Plus if they want the NFL Films look they will definitly want the normal speed footage at 24 not 60.
Speaking of which — keep in mind that the NFL Films slow motion was often very very slow. Back when they were shooting film they often used film cameras that would overcrank up to almost 500 frames per second. That’s more than 2000 percent of normal speed. So the slow motion was very very slow. You won’t get that out of the H1 even with frame interpolation. You might run a test so your client does not have false expectatons of what the gear can do.
If they really do want it that slow, the best choices would be to either shoot real film with a high speed camera, or book a Panavision Phantom 35/HD for the day if they want video.
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Well those tips are exactly correct — but only IF you shoot 60i and the rest of the footage and project is 24p.
If it is, then the math works and you can get acceptable slow motion.
60i x 40% = 24pIt looks pretty good. I don’t know if it is an HD or SD project but even if it is SD shoot with the H1 in HDV mode since you effectively lose half of the scan lines when coverting individual interlaced fields to full progressive frames.
One thing that you said though — you said you were going to be using long lenses. You said you may also use a Steadicam. Those two things don’t usually mix. You would probably never want to use long lenses with a Steadicam — they are best for medium wide or wider lenses. They are not really the look of NFL Films either which is predominately very long lenses.
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When revisiting the functionality of the program, keep in mind that videos are not all wide shots. Perhaps your program allows scalability or “zooming in” to use just a part of the virtual set, I couldn’t tell from your demo.
But if not, it definitely needs to, or have alternate background and foreground pieces that allow for tighter shots. It’s fairly rare that you will use a very wide head-to-toes view of talent like seen in your demo, except MAYBE in an establishing master shot — and certainly not as the only available POV for the entire video. For example in the “Lakeside Update” and “Sports View Online” scenes in the YouTube demo, it would be very unlikely that a director or producer would choose a shot that wide for anything other than an opening establishing shot or show intro. Mid-shots, closeups, and even extreme closeups would more likely be the norm.
Perhaps your software allows for that, but the demo doesn’t indicate such.
Of course with tighter shots the background would not need to be as sharp to complete the illusion. This could be accomplished by providing blurability, or alternate closeup backgrounds with a pre-determined blur, or just some simple instructions such as “When editing your final video use a blur filter in your NLE to soften the background layer for a more realistic effect.”
I realize that you only asked for marketing advice for your existing product, not how to change or improve it. But these are all things that would make your existing product more usable — and therefore marketable.
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hmmm actually I thought the Showtime guy WAS beau weaver. I don’t really watch Sho much except for Dexter. I’ll try to give it a listen.
I think Beau is with DPN — formerly ICM — or at least he used to be.
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[Mike Cohen] “Planning a shoot in a remote town in Germany – may go with UPS or FedEx for that one.”
May be a good idea — but be sure to check rates BEFORE you concrete the budget. Both FedEx and UPS shipping costs out of the country have gotten outrageous.
I recently sold a lens on Ebay to a buyer in Italy. The package was about a third the size of a shoebox and weighed about 12oz. Both FedEx and UPS quoted more than a hundred bucks for the delivery — FedEx was like $125 and UPS was about $119. Ouch. Can’t imagine the bill that heavy gear would rack up.
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Not to protract “beat up on Aaron day,” but I will pipe up —
I think this obviously just comes down to a personality conflict. You don’t respect (or probably like) your boss or his work — ergo, you don’t like working on his personal projects.
Consider this —
Imagine that it wasn’t his son or daughter’s wedding. Say it was a paying client that brought the wedding video in to edit. You would be doing EXACTLY the same project for EXACTLY the same pay.
Imagine that it wasn’t a personal windmill project. Say it was an outside paying client that had a vendetta against the windmill and contracted with the company to produce the video. Again you would be doing EXACTLY the same project for EXACTLY the same pay.
I think Brendan’s right. You don’t like being shuffled off onto the grunt work in favor of the higher-profile (and possibly reel-building) jobs.
Unfortunately, that’s life — and that’s business. You may indeed have a beef with your boss regarding compensation. Address that with him. Get paid what you are worth, or move on. You do NOT have a beef with your boss regarding the jobs you are given. Do them, do them well without complaining — or move on.
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Cool! — I LOVE Shag, have always been a big fan of his work. Great score!
Alex
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Nice video– will be so glad you did this.
Dog story was quite the downer– but enjoyed the rest.
A.
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Nice video– will be so glad you did this.
Dog story was quite the downer– but enjoyed the rest.
A.
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Dunno what gigs you’ve been working on, but–
[Christopher Wright] “can’t remember the last time a producer or director I worked for had control over lighting, camera placement, whether to dolly or not, composition, etc..”
Not the producer, of course, but the director should always have control over camera placement, camera blocking (dollys, etc.)… There are exceptions of course, especially with directors who are just very actor/story driven (Woody Allen, etc)., but in the rest of the world the director takes care of those things. The Spielbergs call their own shots, camera blocking, etc.—
A very good DP can have a very heavy responsibility in helping the director craft a look of a film, and they are always welcome to suggest camera blocking, camera moves, composition– and some are heavily relied upon, especially by directors who don’t like to do it or find that is not their forte. However those things are the director’s call. In the strictest sense, a DP is just that, the director of PHOTOGRAPHY– and is reponsible for lighting and recording the director’s image on film. I’ve rarely been on film sets where the DP had the call on camera blocking, composition, movement, or even lens selection– other than to say “this is the lens that will effect that field of view.” Those are the director’s jobs.
I’m not knocking either directors or DP’s– I have worked as both– sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes as both at the same time. But they are two very different jobs. Good directors already know what camera blocking, dolly moves, crane moves, and composition they want. It then becomes the DPs heavy responsibility to make those look good photographically.