Matt Gerard
Forum Replies Created
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We took delivery of our HPX-2000 2 months ago, and its great camera. Just waiting for the Intracodec board, and we will be happy little clams. we are starting to shoot stuff in HD just so we can reformat enlarge and reframe in our ntsc timelines.
matt
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Well, because FCP is doing what it was designed to do. It is outputting anamorphic video as *suprise* anamorphic video, to be dealt with by the proper display. All the reasons that you can do it from other apps are bandaids for not having the proper gear.
Besides, if you want to display the 16×9 version of your anamorphic video on a 4×3 screen, wouldn’t the video be scaled down? That wouldn’t be good either.
Matt
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Thanks for the basic info, that will get me started. So should I save the settings that are in the camera now, then reset all the settings in the camera to the factory defaults?
Just looking for a source to be able to set this camera up on my own, I want to be able to troubleshoot this thing on set, the boss has added VIDEO ENGINEER to my job description!
Thanks all!
Matt
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Fair enough-
I am mainly a postproduction guy. Editing, color correction, animation, design.
On the set I am a fairly capable audio op and grip. I can set up and rig lights and all associated accutrements, but I don’t know alot about the art of lighting itself.
I am probably best characterized as a novice camera operator. I can operate a camera for interviews, simple pan and zoom, and if I’m having a good day, a simple follow focus. I know the basic operations of most cameras, ie- focus, iris, gain, white balance, basic menu options.
Now, what I don’t know about is deeper stuff like gamma settings, individual color adjustments, pedestal, shutter speeds and when to use them, and how to save scenes to the SD card for various situations. I am more technical than creative, so I should be able to get a hold of this camera fairly quickly, but I’d rather read or ask about it instead of scrolling through all the menus and screwing it up even more.
For example, we just got done shooting 2 scenes, one a lady on greenscreen, in full bore 1080i HD, and it looks noisy, like the gain was at +6, which it wasn’t. The other was a silver medical device over black, and the blacks look washed out and noisy. I don’t trust that the shop we bought th camera from did the proper “set up” procedures, so i need to go through all the settings and make sure that they are where they need to be.
Is there anyone that can save me thier scene settings so I can load it onto my cam, and see what the differences are?
i really appreciate the offers for help. i don’t want to badger people with rookie questions, so if therre is a reference that I can read or a book, i will happily do that was well. THEN I’ll come back and bug y’all.
Also, what should I get as a test target? What is the standard to use when setting these up?
Matt
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[Mitch Ives] “Perhaps, but it misses the larger point. First, my screen is calibrated, but let’s pretend it isn’t. Second, historically ALL consumer gear has greater color saturation, automatic brightness, etc… so if you really want to maytch their screens, the argument could be made that you NEED a glossy screen.”
If you have a properly calibrated screen, why should it matter if the screen is matte or glossy? And, if you want your screen to match the consumer gear out there, according to you it will be out of calibration anyway. What is your reference? The NTSC standards or what your audience actually sees? The manufacturers of consumer gear don’t seem to mind if their color and brightness levels are out of whack compared to the NTSC standards.
[Mitch Ives] “The speakers in the large screens are much improved these days… and a great many people have external sound systems on their TV’s, since they start at $99 now.”
My mistake, I should have clarified that my audience is probably not the same as yours. 90% of my stuff is played back on laptops or business based computer screens with audio from the laptop speakers or those little shatty free ones that come with the computer, not broadcast. I don’t think my clients go home and play their sales training videos in the the home theater… So, my audience is a little different than yours, and I would agree with you if they were the same as yours.
[Mitch Ives] “You make good points, but it’s still our job to make broadcast correct video, regardless of where it goes. The reason: precisely because every single TV is different, so we have to have some kind of a standard we can all agree on.”
I completely agree with you on the standards front. We need them. But my video looking good on a glossy screen and not good on a matte screen really doens’t have much to do with the NTSC standards. Both can be completely within the standard, but one looks better than the other.
I think this is more about knowing your target audience and catering to them. this is why i preview my video on 3 different monitors when I do my color corrections, ( my dell computer screens, a sony 27″ LMV-232 pro LCD monitor, and a sony tube screen, all “calibrated” as best as they can be) just to make sure it looks the best I can make it on all 3.
I think that we both have valid points, and would agree on most things if our target audience were the same. I enjoy hearing differing views, more often than not it causes me to rethink how I work, and make adjustments accordingly.
Matt
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What we are losing sight of here is our target audience. 99% of the flatscreens out there are matte, so do you want to create graphics and color correct your video on a glossy screen that “provides sharper more intense colors” and then have your client look at it on their $99 Lenovo computer flatscreen that looks like crap? Personally I would rather know that they are seeign the best crap I can make without having a false sense of what they are seeing. (Does that make any sense????)
I’m not one to shoot for the lowest common denominator either. But I don’t want a false sense of security thinking that my graphics and video look extra good on my glossy screen, then send it to my client’s matte screen and have it not look as good.
Little side story- I was an intern in the post department on the Barney Show (yes the big purple dino). We had all the best equipment for audio remixing and recording. I would sit in the back of the mix suite and watch him work on the best audio monitors and mixing consoles. But, when he finally did the final mix master for distrobution, he turned off the nice big $8000 Genelec monitors, and did the final mix to a pair of 5″ single coil $100 Auralex monitors. Confused, I asked him why, and he said “What kind of speakers are in your TV?” Clever man, and that year we won the daytime Emmy for Audio mixing and mastering live to tape. So, always remember your target audience, and what their experience will be. I only do industrial video training, nothing exciting. But thinking about this stuff makes us sucessful.
Wow, that was corney….
Matt
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The color gamut of your PS doc is way larger than the NTSC color gamut. The poster than said to do the multiple trys with various color corrections probably has the right idea in your case. I’ve done that before, but remember that every TV you play it on will look different. Most people’s tvs in theier houses have the brightness and color controls cranked up.
Use the NTSC color filter in PS to see what the NTSC color space will do to your photos.
Or, just start doing everything in HD;-)
Mattski
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I have a dual 2.5 for my office system, and I have a MBP 17″ (Matte screen) and a 20″ Cinema display in a pelican case for my instant shows. Works great. I use an xserve at work, and I use a SansDigital dual bay raid on the road, although I looking into a eSata enclosure for that.
the MBP works great on the road, need the 2nd monitor though, I would go batty scrolling through thousands of clips in a little 6 inch window.
As for security, don’t lock it down, and don’t keep anything critcal on the internal drive. I work in ballrooms and hotel rooms alot, and I hide the raid in its case under a mishmash of cases and boxes. I had a buddy who locked his up using one of those cable locks in the slot on the side, one laptop they took anyway, must’ve tore the lock out of the side of the case, and the other (His 17″ MBP), they couldn’t get, so they used it as a tether ball around the leg of the table he had it locked to. Personally I’d rather have them jsut walk away with it.
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Campfire in the parking lot. invite the clients. Hotdogs, brats, smores, beer.
Good times…
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I usually just delete the contents of the CONTENTS folder on the card, and don’t seem to have any issues.
If I’m going to be shuffling lots of cards, though I use P2 Genie