[Brad Weiss]

Thanks for the response Ann & Eric.

So my multicam sequence copy and pasted inside a new 1280×720 sequence, but then isn’t the nested sequence the multicam cut is built on is still only 720×480.

I believe i tried this last night but when i dropped the footage into the new sequence and tried to scale up footage it was restricted to the 4:3 aspect ratio of the original nested sequence and will not fill the frame.

If i copy my nested sequence into the new 1280×720 sequence (which i have begun doing) i would have to redo all my multicam edits, wouldn’t I?

Or is there a way to re-link which nested sequence i am pulling from?

To Clarify:
Me:
Sequence 1 – Sync Map/Nested Sequence of all footage (720×480)
Sequence 2 – MultiCam Edit based on Sequence 1 (also 720×480)

Your suggestion (if i am reading you right):
Sequence X – Resized sequence (1280×720) with Sequence 1 footage copied into it. Then…nest footage again and re-cut the multicam?

The step i’m trying to avoid here is the re-cut of the multicams for each song/track if it can be avoided.

[Brad Weiss]

Randy,

Thanks for sharing you clips. I can certainly see the ghosting effect in your first and third clip, which provides an interesting warping effect on the wings (if you desire that effect) but the ramping in the second clip (starting around 0:16) was most impressive as you were able to get full wing movement with little to no motion blur! Were there any changes in camera settings or post production tweaking between the first and second clip?

I have an observation that may account for the difference between clips 1&3 and clip 2, which is the body position of the hummingbird in relation to the camera

In clips 1&3 the birds are in profile to the camera, and thus showing the full “stroke” of the wing. In clip 2 the hummingbird seems to be almost head on with the camera, and therefore the action and speed of the wing movement is less exaggerated making it easier for Twixtor to interpret the frames inbetween.

I’m going to revisit my clips tonight and see if i can’t find a similar shot to test this myself and will get back to you with my results.

[Brad Weiss]

Randy i’d be interested to see some of your test footage from your Sony A77 and see how it turned out. I have to admit i’m a little confused – as Dave mentioned – when you refer to “frame rate” did you by chance me “shutter speed”?

This would make more sense to me. Instead of double the shutter speed (120) when shooting at 60fps, you are tripling or quadrupling it.

I can post a test clip of what im experiencing…but the results were less than i was hoping for. Part of the learning process though!

clip to come.

[Brad Weiss]

Thanks for the quick reply guys. I know i can always count on the COW for well informed advice.

I figured this might have been the case when i first started playing with the footage. As much as i love shooting with my DSLR i realize its limitations, though im always looking to push them.

That said im still going to play around with what i have and hopefully will post a link to it soon. Would have loved to have shot the birds with a Phantom HD, but considering i was just at the cottage on vacation, the $2500/day rental price just wouldn’t have been worth it.

[Brad Weiss]

Thanks for the response, Jo Han. Will definitely check out that UAE site. I’ve also found out through a Production Coordinator friend of my that you can often contact production companies in the host countries to act as sponsors to help with the invitation into the country (places like Saudi Arabia require this).

As for the “what they cannot see” comment… we do wrap our cameras in weather protection, and in most Western friendly countries you won’t have any issues aside from questions from curious police, but i highly discourage this from countries with unknown filming laws.

Vietnam is a perfect example of this. Though many tourists film here, i read an article a week before i went here where videographers were simply filming an intersection (for those who dont know the traffic here is like nothing else in the world) and were detained and arrested by Viet Traffic Police because they thought they were being filmed. Gear and tapes were confiscated, and heavy fines paid. Although their setup was a little different than ours, that doesn’t mean we didn’t run into our own problems there. Lesson learned!

Moral of the story: dont assume you can just run and gun in every country. Get to know that country’s stance on public filming before you go, or at least make generic inquiries to the local film bureau to know what your options are.

[Brad Weiss]

Thanks for the insight. Cameras are mounted externally to improve image quality and avoid shooting through extra glass of the windshield.

To this point, my company has generally gone with the “run and gun” mentality, as we dont fall under a full scale “film production” as we are only one vehicle using public roads and those don’t require specific location permits.

We encountered some issues in Vietnam when local police saw them. Apparently filming laws are very strict there, as it was okay for us to mount and shoot one camera, but not multiple cameras.

We’ve been dealing with Film offices going forward and some are a nightmare to work with, where others are extremely laxed. In the end, its for our own personal safety so i dont mind the extra work, but in the end i think it’ll only end up costing us more.

[Brad Weiss]

Also, in case anyone is wondering, i’m running on a Mac Pro w 2 x 2.26Ghz Quad Core Intel Xeon processors, and 6 GB of DDR3 ram.

The total file size of the current videos is just under 19GB.

[Brad Weiss]

Hey,

Couldn’t help notice you had the same problem i did i few months back, except mine was in reverse. I tried getting large HDV files from my Mac, onto a portable hard drive to use and edit on PPro system on my PC.

Because of the problems with the FAT32 and its limited file size, i tried a trial version of MacDrive for Windows XP.

Essentially, you make your portable hard drive Mac compatible by partitioning it on your Mac, then using the MacDrive software, Windows is able to write and read from the drive as if it were a regular PC drive.

Like i said, i just downloaded the trial version, but search MacDrive on Google, and the manufacturers website will come up.

Hope this helps,

Insane Raven

[Brad Weiss]

Awesome, great inside news! I am looking to do the same thing this summer, while i’m working on a feature. I want to put together a strong, mobile editing package and want a solid platform to operate on. Let me know if hear anything new.

Thanks.

[Brad Weiss]

Excellent… hopefully there will be a benchmark test to see how efficient MC performs. If anyone hears anything about in the near future PLEASE keep me posted.

Thanks,
Brad