Joe Shapiro
Forum Replies Created
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I’m puzzled about your question. You metered the subject, right? Why not go manual on that reading and ignore the light meter when everything’s on?
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Joe Shapiro
Director / Freelance FCP Editor
206-420-6411https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1497731/
https://JoeShapiro.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_(film)
https://NWFilmForum.org/PoliceBeat -
I’ve been making this choice myself over the last few months. Right now I’m going with the
T2i
Got one at Costco with an extra kit lens – 55-200 – for $850.I’m generally a Nikon guy and got the 5100 first but discovered that there’s currently no manual mode for movie recording. The best you can do is hit Exposure Lock. The 5100 felt great as a still camera but lesser for video and at $300 more it didn’t compute.
I agree that, as a video camera, the GH2 is the best choice. However, it’s spendy. And the slow kit lenses plus the lesser iso performance makes non-u43 lenses almost required. At which point you lose the lens-related auto features of the camera. I also didn’t find the EVF quite bright/crisp enough. I didn’t try to adjust this though so it may be just a setting.
So for me, I chose the less-expensive T2i and am keeping my eye out for the GH3 to see what develops. Heard a global shutter rumor. Real? Dunno. Better ISO and EVF plus better encoding are almost certain to be there.
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Joe Shapiro
Director / Freelance FCP Editor
206-420-6411https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1497731/
https://JoeShapiro.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_(film)
https://NWFilmForum.org/PoliceBeat -
Nice guide to DSLR filmmaking. Very well-said.
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Joe Shapiro
Director / Freelance FCP Editor
206-420-6411https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1497731/
https://JoeShapiro.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_(film)
https://NWFilmForum.org/PoliceBeat -
For run and gun the kit lenses are fine. I have them both – the 18-55 and 55-200. The image stabilization is a lifesaver. For handheld video it’s a must-have for any lens longer than about 35mm.
The main thing a better lens will get you is speed (wider apertures). But that gives you even shallower DoF which is what you need to avoid in run and gun.
One last thing- on Canon DSLRs it’s important to use only ISOs divisible by 160. All the others give you lots of extra noise. Google this for details. A program called Magic Lantern can help with this if you want to dive in to such. Good luck!
Joe—
Joe Shapiro
Director / Freelance FCP Editor
206-420-6411https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1497731/
https://JoeShapiro.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_(film)
https://NWFilmForum.org/PoliceBeat -
I’m wondering what you gain over a video camera like the HVX-200 in this situation?
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Joe Shapiro
Director / Freelance FCP Editor
206-420-6411https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1497731/
https://JoeShapiro.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_(film)
https://NWFilmForum.org/PoliceBeat -
Hi Folks
I understand that FCP isn’t anywhere near ProTools for audio post right now. But, from my point of view, there are a few changes that could be made that would allow the editor’s sound design to be much better, and would allow the final mix, stil done in ProTools, to use all the editor’s work.Imagine an FCP that could display the native plugin GUI and could use all the plugins that come with Soundtrack Pro. Or ProTools. Like Waves for example.
Imagine that FCP didn’t treat audio in a frame-based fashion in the viewer but rather a sample-based fashion. At that point, the viewer, when loaded with an audio clip, would be quite a bit like a Soundtrack Pro waveform view.
I suspect you’d still have to go out of FCP to destructively change the waveform, but for applying plugins and doing precise automation you’d have a much more powerful tool.
And, of course, you’d want FCP to properly export all the automation and plugins so that STP and, one REALLY HOPES, ProTools, could see all the work the editor had done.
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Joe Shapiro
Freelance FCP Editor (narrative features and shorts)
Seattle WA
206-290-8482 -
Yup, the sound is synced in the media files so I could certainly use match frame to fix each edit one-at-a-time. That’s my current – though quite labor-intensive – backup plan. I’m just hoping for an automatic way to do this.
Can one write a script yet in FCP that actually touches the FCP data structures? As in looking at and modifying the timeline? Vegas is particularly good at this and I’m hoping that FCP catches up real soon now…
Note that FCP is my platform of choice and I’m in no way trying to start a flame war here.
Joe Shapiro
Freelance Editor
Seattle WA -
Hi Bryce
I do indeed hope you have a cunning plan! 😉I am quite aware of the workings of Cinema Tools. I have a Cinema Tools DB constructed from the telecine’s logfiles (FTL rather than FLEX format).
The reason I’m in this pickle in the first place is because I’m starting with an EDL from an Avid project. The Avid project was done in 24P so Automatic Duck doesn’t support it. I’ve managed to, by hand, get the EDL out of Avid and into a form that makes FCP happy.
The Avid media files were captured at low-res and without audio so I’m recapturing from the telecine Beta SP tapes.
The capture of the telecine tapes was done on a deck that doesn’t support deck control so I just did a Capture Now and then set the timecode on each tape by hand based on the window burn. It’s actually a bit more complex than that but I’ll leave it there for now.
The clip names in the EDL point to files that were derived from the Avid telecine ingest rather than the ingest itself. So the clip names are essentially “junk” as there is no correspondance between them and the FLEX files.
Is that enough reason for you? If not, I’d say that, in general, EDLs require timecode but clip names are just “suggestions.” It’d be a great feature for FCP if one could take an EDL and a bunch of files with media that covered the timecode in the EDL and just say “hook ’em up.” I’ve seen plenty of circumstances where this would be a real boon.
Joe Shapiro
Freelance Editor
Seattle WA -
Fair question, Walter.
The answer is twofold. First, someone else constructed this edit as an Avid 24P project. So I’m importing an Avid project into FCP. And it’s a 24P project so Automatic Duck doesn’t support it.Second, the original telecine did NOT have the DATs on it. No sound. But the audio post guy who is now involved in the project was helpful enough to sync the DATs with the dailies and write the audio track onto the Beta SP telecine tapes.
I recaptured all these tapes WITH sound and now am trying to recreate the timeline in FCP. I’ve got the picture edit there but now have to get the sound onto the timeline.
Hope this makes sense. It’s not exactly straightforward but it really is coherent.
Joe Shapiro
Freelance Editor
Seattle WA -
I’m having what sounds like the same problem with a 10 bit uncompressed clip captured from a DigiBeta deck. Trying to remove the pulldown with FCP 5.0.2’s CinemaTools takes a 2hr clip and turns it into a 1.5hr clip!
Things look OK for the first ~5min but then it starts removing too many frames, resulting in this jumpy, sped-up look. Looks like I shot it at 18fps!
When I try the same thing on FCP 4.5 HD’s CinemaTools it DOES NOT change the length of the clip.
I have an additional problem in that the pulldown (which starts off looking like AABBBCCDDD) ends up looking like AABBCDDD – note that the C frame is still interlaced. This is true for both FCP 4 and 5 versions of CinemaTools. Yow!
Anyone have any insights on this?
Joe Shapiro
Freelance Editor
Seattle WA