Chris Durham
Forum Replies Created
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This is a wonderful way of putting what I’ve felt for years. I’ve always hated switching gears in the middle of the day because it throws progress off so much. This is coming from a technical background, but with a creative mind.
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Well you guys are scaring the Hell out of me. I’ve agreed to shoot a wedding in August – actually helping a friend: He’s tired of shooting them and his wife’s the photographer. I’ve already edited one for him before and it was the dullest thing I’ve ever done. Oh well, it will be interesting if nothing else.
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I don’t always, but occasionally I stripe tapes to avoid timecode breaks starting the code over. If you’re not careful on some cameras, if you eject a tape, or even review footage from the camera, and switch back to recording on the same tape, timecode will jump back to 0. Striping can prevent this.
If you asked me to explain why I really couldn’t, but I’ve done it before. Might just be an issue in prosumer cameras, or really with mine.
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Frame rate shouldn’t have anything to do with the quality of the key. My listing that as a consideration was for 2 considerations: 1) Clients are likely to want keying for 24p, 30p, and 60i to match whatever format they’re using; and 2) 24 frames is 6 less per second to process – 20% faster
Of course you can handle either issue with more work, but versatility in the camera is king.
As far as codecs go I’d guess that HDV is better than either h.264 or MPEG4, but really we’re looking for the best worst case here, right? A sub-3k camera for keying is a matter of compromise to begin with. The 5dII isn’t ready for prime time in pro video, let alone VFX applications. I’d still consider it a value add on a still camera.
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5DmkII puts out an h.264 encoded image, certainly not suited for VFX, compositing, or keying. It also doesn’t do 24 frames which is what I imagine a lot of work will be in.
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Well, I’d hardly call the HVX a decent camera for keying (I hardly call it a decent camera – it’s over-rated and over-priced). You’re going to have a hard time finding much in that range that’s really all that good for the task. The Sony’s have 4:2:2 chroma but those are out of your range, and some of the mid-range P2 cameras have it as well. For sub-3k you’re not going to get the best in chromakeying. If you want something in that price range the competes very favorably with the HVX go for the Canon XH-A1. It’s discontinued, but you can still get them new at b&h for around $2,700.
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Richard pretty much said the things I was going to say. The edit’s nice and clean and if I weren’t looking at it as an editor, or with the intent to critique I probably wouldn’t notice these things. I have the feeling that some of this may be out of your control, but the piece definitely relies too heavily on OTS shots. There are points where the non-speaker’s reaction is certainly important, but I’m slightly distracted by just watching the speaker’s jaw wag from behind. A good medium 2-shot would have fixed this, but, like I said, I suspect that’s not your doing.
You got the beats right which is most important, though I did notice a spot or two where, on a cut, the new subject seems to pick up dialog too quickly. It’s probably just a frame or two and, again, I think I wouldn’t notice it if I weren’t looking for it.
Overall though, nice job. It’s a neat little piece and I think it was shot well even if it might not have been covered properly.