[P. j. Severtson]

You may already be locked in to an agreement with the school, but here are a few thoughts to consider when dealing with schools and student photos/videos:

1) You are essentially a “school photographer”. This type of activity has been going on since Moses was a pup. Perhaps if you check out some sample contracts on the web (e.g. http://www.lawdepot.com) you might find something of use. There may be some that are suitable for your state. You may also contact other school photographers to see how they work out their contract with the school.

If you are not qualified in business law, you might wish to consult with an attorney about your contract. Trust me. The school has attorneys looking out for their best interests, too.

2) Make sure that your copyright notice is clearly contained in the contract. Your copyrighted art work (the edit) is yours and not usually owned by the school. Check with legal counsel for any legal advice, however, as your due diligence. You definitely want to seek legal advice to protect your art work from copyright infringement.

3) Your arrangement with the school may be different, but school/wedding/portrait/etc. photos or video sample clips of students are usually posted on a web site so that students can order their copies. The posted clips are water marked so that no one can download them. This is usual for wedding videographers as well. What ever is sold, you get paid for, prior to sending it out.

4) Other sources of income: a. Can you do highlights of each game for students, parents, etc. to order from your web site? b. Might the local TV or cable station wish to purchase your coverage? Fans can also purchase your DVD highlights from your web site for their favorite team?

5) The original negs/tapes are always retained by the photographer or videographer and the contract with the school states that your work is copyrighted and only copies of the work are sold. This is a source of income for you.

These are just a few thoughts. If they are of some use, feel free.

[P. j. Severtson]

Thank you for your most excellent post with lots of fine advice. If I may, I would like to add something I never read about in forums regarding the “film look”. It’s called perspective. This is a subject tought in basic 35mm still photography and is used heavilly in 35mm film work.

Prospective is the perceived relationship between subject planes in the image and has to do with the focal length of the lens. A normal length lens (say 50mm for a 35mm SLR)sees the image as one’s eyes do, in a normal prospective. A long (telephoto) lens compresses the subject planes closer together. A wide angle lens spreads the subject planes farther apart. Both the long (telephoto) and the short (wide angle) lenses create forced perspectives. This subject is the normal stock in trade of a cinematographer when using prime lenses. For some reason, I never see this discussed in videography forums, but directors in feature films use it every day.

Here’s a link to an informative article on the subject:
https://www.videomaker.com/article/1375/

I would submit that this is a tool to be experimented with and understood, on the part of a videographer who has a zoom lens on his/her camera, as an aid to direct the viewer’s attention where he/she wants it to go.

As you have stated, a zoom shot is rarely used in motion picture photography in place of camera movement.

[P. j. Severtson]

You are right. The HD-100/250s are excellent for hand holding. Ask anyone who’s used a 25 lb. camera sholder mounted all day. The HD-100 is a breeze. The little handi-cam form cameras are not usable for fast-moving ENG style shooting, in my view.

Hand holding and getting good shots is a matter of skill and muscle control, mostly isometrics. It’s kinda like marshal arts. There’s no substitute for drilling, drilling and drilling. It can be hard to get good hand held stuff as a “week-end warrior”. The secret professionalism is drilling.

Also, as we know, the HD-100/250s are the only cameras in their class with real pro lenses with pro controls. The Sonys and Panasonics don’t have the same controls. Those little wheelie thingie iris controls just don’t make it for fast moving ENG-style shooting.

[P. j. Severtson]

We have three HD-100s and and HD-250. For those of us who don’t know, can you tell us what a pixel compensator program is, how it works and where we can get one, in the event of a dead pixel? (If I understand you correctly.)

[P. j. Severtson]

Thanks for the info. That helps.

[P. j. Severtson]

Hay! Why not contact Sure Fire and get product placement or advertisement placement deal with your next film? Heck, write it into the script and send it to a product placement agency. What is there to loose? Might get some free flash lights for the crew.

[P. j. Severtson]

Unless you’re going to use a jib often, it may be better to rent so you can find out what you like. You may also wish to consider a monitor so that you can see your image when your camera is 6 feet up.

[P. j. Severtson]

In case anyone is interested in calibrating their TV or professional color reference monitor, here is a nice link to an article on the subject that should cover a broad spectrum (no pun intended) of professional monitors or consumer TVs so at least there’s some hope of the customer seeing the same the editor sees on his reference monitor or TV.

We’ve all seen a wall of TVs at Best Buys, etc., where each TV has a slightly different color quality.

https://spareroommedia.com/video/monitor_setup.html

[P. j. Severtson]

When wide open with the stock lens, he will get as shallow a depth of field as anything else at f 1:1.6. What would make a so-called professional camera with 1/2 inch chips camera a shorter depth? (George)

Thanks for asking. The same question has been asked by may others.

I could be wrong, but personally, when using a video camera at an event with a 2/3″ imager, I have found that depth of field is less and focus is more difficult to maintain than with a 1/2″ imager, all other factors being equal (target size, distance from camera to target, f-stop and lighting conditions). I have made the same observation when working with a

[P. j. Severtson]

DV and DVCAM are definately not equal to each other in all aspects though they share the same standard.

Although they both record to the Rec 601 standard and have a 5:1 compression with a 4:1:1 sampling rate, DVCAM has a switchable true drop frame and non-drop frame time code where DV does not. The format is also a bit more robust and there is more professional gear to take advantage of the differences. See Sony’s DVCAM web site:

https://www.sony.ca/dvcam/support.htm

If one cares to compare the related formats further, here is a nice link to compare the differences between DV, DVCAM and DVCPRO:

https://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-tech.html#DVformats

Hope this helps.

P. J.