[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Thanks Gary.

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Great question, sounds a bit familiar, but I hope someone answers.

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Good info here, but now I have a question.

Can the HVX200 be connected to the firewire out (of FCP or whatever) and be used to feed an HD set (LCD or CRT) via HD-component out for real-time previews off the timeline — like we currently do with SD cameras like the HVX100?

As far as I know the Sony HDV cameras can’t do that. You need to print to tape first to view the material as HD.

Thanks in advance.
Jeff

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

That would be perfect if it does. Since this camera can be “overcranked/undercranked” (I assume that is the correct term) and if it can record in short “bursts” it offers lots of cool artsy options not found on any other camera in this price range.

On a side note: how does someone view footage shot at, say, 60 frames per second? With Varicam there was some sort of plug-in required for your NLE, right? I apologies if this has been covered before. Perhaps I should do a forum search.

Thanks.

Jeff

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Noah thanks for the reply. (I was sort of rude in my last post – I’m sorry)

I could pull a series of stills, but it would add to the workflow doing a stop-motion movie. (I have pulled stills from progressive video before, but the camera had an interval record feature for 1/4th of a second making it easier to guess where the next *new* frame would be.) I’ve also done some stop-motion animation using a digital still camera, and it works great since it names the frames sequentially and thus they show up in that order on the timeline in post. However, I still like using a motion picture camera (digital or film) because it allows the animator to cheat by actually running the camera at speed instead of one frame at a time. I had spoken with a rep at DV RACK and he said that it might appear in a future release of their software, so that could be an option.

I had hoped since the new Panasonic has a variable frame rate feature, that it might also take single frames thus allowing those of us still sick enough to do stop-motion to create animations.

-Jeff

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Obviously, I mean a single frame of whatever size the camera normally records at – not a 5 mega pixel image, or a frame larger than 1080. And no, pulling a frame grab in post wouldn’t work, and yes, I understand that a digital still camera is better. I’m hoping for a single frame record, sort of like a Bolex (you do know what that is – right), you know, snap one frame at time for animation. Obviously this was a problem with linear tape, but with solid state and HD, its pretty easy (in theory).

Thanks.

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Ron, your friend reminded me of this quote from this site:

https://www.despair.com/disservice.html

Not to plug that site, but despair.com has some funny stuff that should hang in every production office, period.

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Tim,

Great points. Part of this was a learning process for me and my clients to see if this system would work, so I went low, but not too low.

I like you idea about not using half day shoots very often. I mean, if I have a shoot at 9:00 – 12:00, I really can’t booking anything else that day because A) the first shoot could go long and B) it’s just too tiring and stressful to be running all over town doing multi shoots in one day.

Thanks again.
Jeff

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

I see your point, Galt. I think I managed to combine both #1 and #2 in my invoice to my new client. I gave them a grand total, then proceeded to break down the shoot line-by-line without giving actual individual prices. Seems sort of dumb, but I think it might work and if they have issues I can give them the separate day rates. I put:

Thursday: travel day
Friday: half shooting day
Saturday: competition day (technically I was off on sat)
Sunday: full shooting day
Monday: travel day

Total: xxxxx

[Jeffrey F. krepner]

I agree 100%, always get the money & contract stuff agreed upon up front. This is a new client I usually just do post for, but they had a shooter cancel so off I went to Vegas to cover their butts. They’ll basically pay whatever I ask and they are already taking care of the expenses.

Half of me wants to send them an invoice for one sum amount and give them no breakdowns, thus completely avoiding the issue of billing for the “hangout” days. Sometimes giving the client too much info gives them the chance to nit-pick on the bill. On the other hand, it’s good to give them a detailed breakdown so they can better schedule me for future shoots.

Thanks.