Lisa Farr
Forum Replies Created
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I don’t know if we’re shooting in HD or not, or exactly what format the festival needs for projection. Needless to say these are my first two burning questions on this project! I’m hoping I don’t have to do any frame rate conversion. I’m pretty sure the output is standard def. The good news/bad news if we shoot in HD is there will be much more data to deal with.
I’ve had good luck with FCP’s ‘log and capture’ feature. If I need to reconnect the media FCP can do it directly from tape again. This only works if the camera people don’t rewind to check a shot and forgot to leave enough space at the end of the take to preserve the timecode. I’ll be sure to log everything just in case.
Yes, a lot of my sanity on this project will depend on my ability to “manage up”. I’m already concerned about squeezing an 11 page script into 8 minutes of finished product plus two minutes of title/credits. It’ll definitely be an adventure.
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How many pages? – 11.
How many locations? – 4. Two indoor, Two outdoor. One outdoor has day/night segments.
What’s the shooting ratio? – Unknown. The crew are all volunteer so I’d guess it’ll be around 10:1.
How many actors? – 15.
What medium, film or video? – Video. -
Mark, GREAT advice! Thank you!
I believe this is single camera, if not I’ll be sure there’s a clap or strobe so I can use FCP multicam to resynch the clips. Taking high quality pictures of the setup and location is a great idea, as is the highlighter script marking system. Sounds like I’m going to be busy!
Very very helpful. Thank you so much!
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Make three folders: To Do, To Read, and To File
Choose a time once a day, preferably in the morning, to ‘do’ email. Every email in your inbox goes into one of the three folders or the trash. Using filters will help do this automagically.
To Do file emails get dealt with in priority order. To Read emails are good for those little chunks of time between other tasks, like waiting around for a meeting or an airplane. Any email in the To Read file for more than a few weeks gets trashed or filed.
To File emails get put into a proper filing system when I have a ‘filing’ day, which could be every week or every month depending on how slammed I am. At least I have one place to look, and if I’m lucky enough to have an assistant this is a great task to delegate (elance.com anyone?).
This system works for paperwork as well.
Another pitfall with email is that it will expand to fill all available time. When I’m getting tons of email, I limit my email time to when I ‘do’ email first thing in the morning, once after lunch, and once toward the end of the day. If I’m dealing with something time critical I’ll *gasp* use the phone. Only checking email a few times a day I’m dealing with a bunch of emails at once and not the onesy-twoseys that arrive constantly. It’s counter-intuitive to spend less time on email the more email you’re getting, it worked really well for me.
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I can recommend the Scan-Do as well. Had an issue with one of the solder joints breaking from rough use, another time we got some interference because someone jammed our box up against a bunch of audio and WiFi equipment. Other than that it’s been very reliable, durable, and easy to use.
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My recommend is to shoot in 60i to get the cleanest possible shots of fast moving action. You can always go to 24p in post if you want that look, and even add blurring/streaks if you want. Yes, it’s somewhat of a pain and you may get some artifacts.
If it’s imperative to have perfect looking 24p footage and you don’t mind streaks and the lighting supports a reasonable shutter speed, then you may choose to shoot in 24p. It’s a tradeoff.
I’m a big fan of getting the best possible footage, and grunging it up later. You only get one chance to capture the shots.
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There’s a trick you can do using longitudinal time code (LTC) and FCP multicam. I haven’t tried it myself, YMMV.
Longitudinal time code puts the time code information on the second track of audio on a tape. You can record your music on an LTC capable camera in black. This will put the music on your first audio track and timecode on your second. Capture both channels and export the music/timecode mashup to an iPod. You can then take the iPod on location, feeding the timecode channel into the camera’s audio and the music into a speaker for the performer. Import your media to FCP and sync up using multicam.
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Howdy! When shooting outside you don’t have much control over lighting, so instead of ‘fixing’ the lighting you have to think in terms of controlling the contrast. Adding fill lights and reflectors to bring up the shadows on your subject is a good start. You can also use scrims to knock down your backlight.