[Dan Brockett]

Thanks Steve:

I have never shot with the DSR300 but I have shot with the 570 a lot and I told Jim the same thing. Going from a shoulder mount professional cam that cost $12k back in the day to a prosumer camcorder that costs $5k is going to entail some loss of professional feel, features and low light capability.

I use the 170 daily for professional work that airs as well as for lots of DVD documentary material while I love it and it is a great camcorder, the HPX500, with the its form factor and 2/3″ CCDs seems to be a more logical move from one coming from a DSR300. Or get a Sony F350 or 355, that is also a nice camcorder.

I went the other way years ago, I owned the BVWD600 and sold it off and bought the DVX100A. A big step down in some ways but it made much more sense financially as Beta SP died out. And I have to say, I have made some great programming with the DVX100A that I am very proud of.

Dan

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[Dan Brockett]

Jim:

You might find this review article helpful https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hpx_170_evolution_brockett.html

I shoot with the EX1 and the HPX170 quite a bit and they are fairly close in low light capability. The 170 in general is pretty good, I rate it at ISO 500 at 24fps with a 180d shutter. The HVX200 was about ISO 320 at the same settings.

My advice to anyone looking to spend $5k or more on a camcorder is to rent one for a day and try it out. I think it is insane to spend that much money or more with hands on shooting in a real location, not a dealer’s showroom.

Best,

Dan

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[Dan Brockett]

Hi all:

Here is a link to my first user report with Richard’s new Coolights LED 600s. They are pretty impressive.

https://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=147772&page=8

Dan

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[Dan Brockett]

I agree with Terry, I own a K3 and while I have had some good shoots with it, it is a little too primitive to really do quality work on.

The loads are very small, the windup key will break or sprain your thumb if you shoot a lot of rolls in one day and the gate weave gives your shots a very nice Super 8 “Zapruder film” quality, in other words, tons of gate weave. It is also noisy as heck and makes a racket so forget shooting sync sound with it.

Terry, is the Kinor quiet enough to shoot sync sound with?

Anyway, I would check out the Kinor and the Cinema Products CP16R and the Eclair NPR are also available for reasonable prices now that S16mm is not shot very much anymore https://www.whitehouseaudiovisual.com/04multi_camera.html

I love shooting film but I have to say that carefully shot footage from my HPX170 looks about the same to clients, or sometimes even better. I think that many of us who are in the business can see the difference but shoot with a quality camera and add some Magic Bullet and few clients will know that they are not looking at film. But if you are doing it for arts sake, yes, S16 looks amazingly cool, I used to shoot it a lot and miss it but budgets are just too low these days to shoot much film anymore.

Best,

Dan

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[Dan Brockett]

Hiya:

Not sure if this is your exact issue but I ran into a similar problem last year on a shot with a kid wearing a bright red shirt. The shot looked okay in NTSC, but anytime I would use Magic Bullet on the shot, the shirt would instantly turn into red, vertical Lego blocks. Really bad.

Since you have shot in the MiniDV codec, use the “color smoothing 4:1:1” filter in FCP. It’s in your Effects tab, in the Key folder. It should help. It won’t eliminate all of the artifacts but it should smooth them out and knock them down.

It worked really well on my show.

Dan

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[Dan Brockett]

Thanks Shane! So at least it sounds if I have a viable work flow without having to shell out $4,000.00 for a new Mac Pro.

I really appreciate your advice.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Hi Shane:

What if I used my MBP dual 2.2 Ghz to ingest and convert, then transferred the media to the RAID and the G5. Would the G5 have the horsepower to just edit with Pro Res 422, if I have a pretty fast SATA RAID? It benchmarks at around 450mbps average with a half full RAID.

Just trying to figure out if I have to buy a new MacPro for this project. I suppose I could edit on my MBP, but I hate editing on laptops, I much prefer the G5, dual Dell 24″, Kona 3, etc.

Thanks for the words of wisdom.

Dan

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[Dan Brockett]

Hi Tom:

I do have an MBP dual 2.2Ghz so I guess I could use that to ingest/convert in FCP, then transfer the media over to the G5?

Perhaps I need to run some tests with my G5 and how it handles ProRes. I do have fast drives, my RAID benchmarks at around 400-450mbps but my dual 2.3Ghz PPC CPU is outdated and slow. The MBP is my writing, travel computer, while the G5 is back in the bay with the RAID and Kona and two Dell 24″ monitors so it is better setup for editing. Ughh, really don’t want to drop $4k on a new CPU until I sell one of our series, they just outdate themselves so quickly after you buy them. My new maxim is to “wait until the last possible” minute with digital electronics. That’s even why I am waiting on the HF11. CES is this week, Canon may update the models in the consumer line so I might as well wait and see what happens. The project doesn’t shoot until May.

Same issue with my still stuff, bought my Nikon D300, then two weeks later the D90 hits, I would have probably been okay with the D90 instead but I had a paying project that required the frame rate of the D300, so I bought it. Great camera, but almost twice the cost of the D90 and the D90 images are about the same.

Thanks for the advice.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Not sure if many of you saw this but here is the most classy and artistic way to handle forms but you had better be a good artist and good in AE. What an engaging way to look at a document. https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_blogs/story/getting_animated_about_human_rights/

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Some of the posters bring up a good point here and that is, “does it work to have more than one person at a time on camera?”. I find that a lot of the time, my clients or sometimes a producer will decide that we should interview x and y together. Unless there is going to be some interaction between the two talent or if they visually need to go together, you will usually end up with a more solid looking interview if they are shot separately.

Earlier this month, I shot groups of animators being sort of interviewed and discussing different subjects with each other for a popular Fox show. Three talent, two cameras, all lit and shot by myself. I put them at the end of a curved conference table, facing at 3/4 angles to each other. They would look over at the interviewer to answer her questions but some of the best stuff we shot was with the animators, character designer and director all riffing off of each other. I had my hands full but it turned out great, great sound, good lighting. The table was made of polished cherrywood so I not only had all three on camera in the master, I was able to arrange the talent and the camera so that I had a nice “iTunes/iPhoto” matching reflection of each of the talent in the gloss of the tabletop.

This was a case of it being the best decision to shoot the groups all together.

But for the same project, I interviewed the EP alone with the same black BG. They all intercut beautifully. I liked having the EP/creator alone because he was of a higher level in the hierarchy of the show so it made sense.

But the best observation is that when you interview two or three people at once, often one person dominates the answers and often the other talent in the shot looks bored or their eyes glaze over. Then, when everyone sees that shot sequence, master to CU of the talker, then cutaways of reactions, the viewer is usually thinking, “why interview these people together?” IMHO, I will only usually do it if there is rapport, interplay and good conversation on-camera. If there isn’t, you are wasting your efforts because multiple talent and cameras is a lot more work and hassle.

So my vote is no interviewing couples or triples unless it is going to work emotionally and with dialogue between them. If not, why do it?

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs