[John Sharaf]

If I understand correctly, you’ll have narrative dialogue to cover the sequence of still photographs (?). If this is correct, I highly advise you to not defer the sound to later, but record and edit it first and then use it as a template on which to construct the visuals. You will have a much happier experience. This is how all animation is produced, and what you are doing is very similar.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Daniel,

The new F3 is a terrific camera (I have two already) but hand holding it is still an issue, as third party supports systems are not yet in the market. I’ve seen a Vocas unit that’s pretty good, but I suspect you’ll be at the mercy of what the rental company has.

I mostly use my Zeiss 15.5-45 LWZ with this camera, and I highly recommend it, both for its quality and light weight (4.4 lbs). I would suggest you use this as your primary lens and supplement it with a 50, 85, 100 and (possibly) 135 or longer prime lens set that you can use for your interviews and other more telephoto tripod shots, and also when you need a faster lens.

As I say, the camera is terrific and makes a beautiful film like picture, and with two 64Gb cards you’ll be able to shoot all day (500 minutes!). It does white balance a little green so I suggest you set the R-Offset (in the Picture Profile) to +3 (on both A & B AWB positions) and also roll out the detail a little, to -15 to minimize the the video look. Outside the Cine 2 is the most aggressive setting to crush the highlights.

Have fun!

JS

[John Sharaf]

Bill,

I feel your pain, but must say that these new PMW-F3 cameras are much more complete broadcast devices than any DSLR will ever be. As I mentioned they have complete Remote Control capability, all NTSC and PAL formats, connectors for TC, Genlock, Dual link, all the computer stuff (including HDMI) and take PL mount lenses. When I first heard about these cameras I poo-pod-ed them too, but now that I’ve got my hands on several, and have had a chance to use them I am sold. When they are finally enabled with Dual link 444 output and S-Log capability they will be everything and more than the Red hoped to be.

JMHO,

JS

[John Sharaf]

Thanks for the compliment, but no.

I did the Oscar Hosts last week with Robin Roberts for GMA, set in the Architectural Digest Greenroom, which I thought looked real good. In fact I inaugurated the use of my new Sony PMW-F3 camera with 35mm sensor to shoot the two-shot, and amazingly the softness of the background matched very nicely to the closer single shot on a 2/3″ camera.

The lighting setup you refer to has pretty much become a “comfort food” classic with the Diva 400’s as keys (although personally I still use conventional 2’Fourbanks with KF 2900 tubes), and is very easy to replicate with a small footprint of gear, easily transported in a van or station wagon.

These new Sony cameras, which shoot all HD and SD formats including recording DVCAM (which we still use at ABC!) to SxS cards, and are capable of hooking up to RMB150/750 Remote Control Units, will become very popular in this type of feature broadcast news and other multicam environments because of their low price and unique look. In addition they are nominally 640-800 ASA at 0 Db, and as you know, that has significant implications for lighting.

JS

[John Sharaf]

The higher you are able to rig the lights, the shorter the shadow. In a perfect world you’d have a silk roof far enough away from the back wall to control the spill and even lighting above the silk. Then you could “ditch” the backlights low to eliminate any floor shadow but still have nice edges on the dancers.

Many ways to skin a cat.

JS

[John Sharaf]

That sounds like the dance of three shadows! If I had the assignment of lighting a dance in a studio like this with 3 DP’s I probably would beg off, but because I have a truck full of lights I could still pull it off.

That being said; if forced to do it I’d use two units mounted high and wide back cross keying the action area, such that each lit a different space (so no double shadows) with the shadows that are created falling to the outside of the frame, and I’d take the third unit into a 4×8 foamcore in the middle of the area as fill. The foamcore would be rigged about six feet above the floor horizontally so the camera would not create its own shadow. Gain the camera up as necessary.

In addition to the lights, you’d need some diffussion and clothes pins to put on the back cross keys, appropriate hangers for them, a ladder to get them up and down and two c stands and sandbags to hold the foamcore and onr light stand for the floor light into the foamcore.

Also be careful to split the power of the three 1k’s into two circuits, and it might be a good idea to find the fuse box location before you turn anything on.

Cook til done!

JS

[John Sharaf]

Damn that spellchecker! Interpolation.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Actually not, there’s more “interrelation” required from 720 to 525/480 than from 1080.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Greg,

Think about it; if every frame is different at 60p (mostly so with aggressive motion) then the compression engine has to recalculate every frame. If it’s 30p the math is half as hard, with much less chance of blocking up.

Furthermore when you shoot 60p and author to DVD you’ll be converting to 30p anyway as this is the native frame rate in order to fit twice as much material (and to write twice as fast). The hardware within the DVD playback converts it to 60i for display, or you can choose to stay progressive and it simply repeats each frame to maintain the proper timing.

JS

[John Sharaf]

This is exactly what I don’t recommend; 60p stresses the compression more than anything. 30p is the ideal frame rate for the web as it allows the compressor the time of two frames (1/30th of a second) in which to do its business.

JS