Nels Chick
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John you are awesome! Thanks for your insight. I don’t know why this information has been so hard for me to dig up elsewhere, but the Cow forums always seem to provide the best information. Thanks for taking the time to spread some wisdom to the ignorant 🙂
– Nels
inconveniencethemovie.com
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John,
Thanks so much for your response. I agree that we need to bring in a lighting professional to help us make this decision. Eventually I hope to learn enough about lighting that I would feel confident in this arena, but I think I’ve got some time to go (years) before I get there. If you have any recommendations, I would appreciate it. We are based in Eastern Idaho, if that helps at all.Thanks,
Nelsinconveniencethemovie.com
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Thanks so much for the advice! It sounds like HMI lighting would be overkill in my situation, and fluorescent would be a better choice. There will be no real windows (maybe a fake one) in our studio setup, and almost every shoot will be one or two person interviews on a couch or chair in a fancy “home-like” setting. I can’t see us shooting wide for these interviews.
A few more concerns are:
Green Spike? Will I need to gel all of my lights? It’s not that big of a deal if the answer is yes, I just want to know what I’m getting into.
Background Lighting? Can I use a cucalorus and expect good results, or will it be too soft? Along with this, do fluorescent work well as hair lights or rim lights? If not, should I get a joker bug to do some of this work along side the flos, or will a blue gelled tungsten spot be adequate?
Why would I want a bank of lights, like a Kinoflo offers, verses a soft box like Lowell offers?
Unfortunately, here in Idaho there are not a lot of opportunities to use these lighting options. I just want to get as much input as I can before I rent something to try it out.
Thanks again!
inconveniencethemovie.com
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Those steppy edges really ticked me off the day I bought my 7D! I shot at 720 60p, and every straight line had jaggies! It’s called aliasing, and it has to do with how the imaging chip samples a scene.
Stu Maschwitz posted some good information about this on his blog:
https://prolost.com/blog/2009/12/3/you-didnt-believe-me.htmlIt seems to me that the faster the chip has to scan, the more likely you’ll see aliasing. It is much more pronounced in 50 and 60 fps footage, than it is in 24 fps footage. The 7D is able to give us beautiful footage with a very shallow depth of field for a fraction of what a RED One costs, but there are a few drawbacks. To scan fast enough for these frame rates (this is a still camera after all) the 7D chip has to skip lines. This is where we start to see aliasing and moire. I’ve noticed that the the more organic looking a scene is, the less pronounced the aliasing is. But if there are hard straight edges, there’s a good chance you’ll get stair steps, especially shooting at higher frame rates.
That’s what we get for our $1600. I’m cool with that. We can make it work, as long as we understand what we can and can’t do with the technology.
inconveniencethemovie.com
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That warbling is the first thing I noticed when I tried out a Nikon D90. Although the 5DII and the 7D still suffer from “jello-cam” they seem to handle it much better than the Nikon HDSLRs. Is there a way to speed up the scan with these chips? Would that help eliminate some of the “jello-cam” problems? You are absolutely right John, if we steady our shots with support gear, we’ll see a lot less of this warble. As far as vertical lines bending when I pan, I also don’t give a crap. It’s a moment, and then it’s over. The benefits of shooting with a 7D strongly out weigh the disadvantages in my work.
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The only reason I don’t usually use ProRes HQ is to keep my files smaller. By transcoding to HQ, you will likely have more information to play with while doing FX or Color work, but remember that this information is intelligently created by the software, not native in from the camera. By the time the camera compresses the footage to H.264, it has baked in the look, and has thrown away any information it deemed useless.
inconveniencethemovie.com
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I was actually writing my post while you were posting yours, so I probably reiterated what you’ve already posted. Compressor is an awesome tool!
inconveniencethemovie.com
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Sorry it took me so long to get back on this one. With my 7D, I just copy the .mov files from the card to my hard drive, then open them all using Compressor. With all of the clips selected I right-click one of them and select: New Target with Setting> Apple> Formats> Quicktime> Apple ProRes 422.
I usually change the output to a new folder and leave all of the other settings as they are, then submit the batch.
Now, that is with 1080 24p footage from the 7D. I haven’t done anything with the 5DII, but I believe you will just need to adjust the frame rate in Compressor from 30p to 29.97p. This is done in the Inspector pane, under the Encoder tab. Where it says video, click the settings button. A window with a bunch of options will pop on the screen. The only thing you will need to change is the frame rate from current to 29.97. Click OK and remember to copy these settings to each item in your batch, then submit.
In theory you can convert to 24p through this same process (choose custom and type 23.976 in the box), but you’ll want to spend some time in the Frame Controls tab within the Inspector. Turn the controls on by clicking the little cog button and selecting On from the drop down menu. Skip the Resizing controls, and go to the Retiming controls. First change the Rate Conversion to Better (not Best, it takes too long, and the quality improvement from ‘Better’ is minimal). Now you have a few options, you can leave the timing the same by selecting the top option, 100%, or you can slow down your footage by selecting the last options, which plays the 30 frames back at 23.976 frames a second. The top option will take longer to transcode, but will allow you to keep the speed at 100%.
Once again, I haven’t worked with 5DII footage, so this is only a theory. Try it and let me know how it works out.
As far as editing, if you are using Final Cut 6 or later, you can just import one of these clips into the browser and drag it straight to the time line. Final Cut will ask if you want the sequence settings to match the clip settings. Click yes, and away you go.
Good luck! And Johnathan, thanks for watching my trailer!
inconveniencethemovie.com
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I use Compressor to transcode my 7D footage. I’ve been very impressed with the quality, and ProRes is an excellent codec to use. I use Mpeg Streamclip all of the time, but usually when I need to have more control over the quality, I use Compressor, that is, if Compressor can see the footage, because sometimes it can’t, depending on the codec.
inconveniencethemovie.com
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Cineform may be the best solution for Sony Vegas editors with 7D footage. Check out their site: https://www.cineform.com. It will cost you, but not too much. Mpeg Streamclip may be able to do what you need, but I wouldn’t transcode 7D footage to the DVCPro codec. Stick with higher quality, full resolution options and you will be much happier in the end.
Good Luck!
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