John Sharaf
Forum Replies Created
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I often shoot chroma keys at 30 fps, but we’ll shutter to 1/100 or 1/120 to get sharper frames in case they want to clean up some individually with less blur!
JS
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While I’m not knowledgeable about the particular kit you’re talking about, in general, downconverters allow a choice of side cut, letterbox or squeeze. These three accommodate all uses, just refer to your instruction book for the appropriate menu setting.
JS
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If you tell your crews anything, I’d suggest you tell them to show you a clap stick slate at the head of the first roll. This will let your editors determine proper sync offset if any.
JS
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You will not be able to connect a HD-SDI monitor to your laptop without a device like the AJA HD iO (which I don’t think has been delivered quite yet).
JS
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Steve,
FYI, the newer generation of DVCPRO100 decks such as the 1200A and 1400 (in addition to the HDX900 camera) have a smaller recording head “gap” than the Varicam; 18 mictons vs, 9 microns, such that the same tape lasts twice as long in record mode. A 126 minute “yellow lable” for example that is 32 minutes in the Varicam, is 64 minutes when recorded in these decks!
JS
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Wynn,
The simple answer is yes! When you shoot at 24 or even 30fps you want the shutter to be half or 180 degrees as it would normally be in a film camera, especially to mimic the “filmlook” motion. Don’t take my word for it, but observe the difference with the shutter on and off. This is the best way to emblaze the correct look in your mind; otherwise if you just do it by rote you’ll likely make a mistake by forgeting the “rules” at some future time.
The same applies when you are shooting 60fps for slow mo.
If you leave the shutter off at 24fps you’ll be getting a shutter speed of 1/24th of a second, and you’ll probably notice too much motion blur; this would really screw you up if you were shooting a chroma key and needed to cleanup the edges in post, you’d find them too blurry to do so.
Of course there will be occasions when you might consider turning the shutter off to regain the stop of exposure, where you won’t be hurt by the motion effect, such as a scenic of the city at night, etc.
JS
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Steve,
Not to worry! The decks (1200A/1400) will take both sized tapes for recording and playback and with an adapter will even handle the small tape such as used in the DVX/HVX.
JS
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Matt,
Maybe it’s that the TC is coming in via the RS232 connector? I’m sure AJA Tech Support could clarify this.
JS
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Ray,
Thanks for your reply, but just to clarify, the lighting gaffer works under the direction of the Cameraman (in this case me) who specifies the placement and choice of units (in this case 4 foot Kinos for the interviews).
I had a terrific lighting crew of eight guys out of PRG in Las Vegas for the two music videos we did of Chris Issac and Miranda Lambert and in that case, because I had never used moving lights (Varilites) before I did seek creative input from the Moving Light specialist on the crew.
All-in-all I was really pleased with the look we were able to create and bring to the small screen, albeit in High Definition. To me, this is exactly the application for which the Varicam was designed for and excels at.
As far as our stay in Las Vegas, the only unpleasant part was the drive in the grip truck up and back from Los Angeles. On one trip it was 115 degrees as we passed the big thermometer in Baker, Ca.
JS
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TC out of 1200A/1400 HD-SDI through Kona to FCP – no problem!
JS