Rick Wise
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COW Coin
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You may be able to improve your video in post using a Neat Video Noise Reduction plug-in: https://www.neatvideo.com/. You can try it free. I’ve never used it but it may help.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
I think you are sweating too hard over this issue. The true test: does it cut so that the viewer knows where the characters are in relation to each other? Or do we become confused and disorientated. You can always cut to a wide shot to clear up any confusion. You can, as is done here, also cut to extreme closeups of guns, eyes, etc. When you have more than 2 people in the scene, the screen direction can get much more complicated. Imagine what happens when you have 5 or six. Directors will sometimes cover close-ups with the actors looking in opposite directions just to cover their buts in post. Things get even more difficult when an actor is NOT looking at one of the other characters.
I think there are a couple of times in your Good, Bad clip when the screen direction is not observed. As Clint might say, there are two kinds of editors: those who are slave to the rules (and have no bullets), and those who make films.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Like all “rules,” the 180º rule is meant to be broken. The true test: does the cut work, or does it confuse the viewer? There are many, many ways to “break” the rule and get away with it. One you site: cut to a very long shot on the “other” side. Then cut back in, now on the other side, or possibly even on the old side. Also, cut to a detail of something in the scene, then cut back to the dialog on the “other” side. For example, one of the characters is holding a book and talking about it. Cut to his/her pov of the book, then cut back to the “other” side. Etc.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
The higher the CRI number, the “cleaner” the light. A CRI of 100 would have no unwanted green or other spikes in it.
With gels such as 1/8 or 1/4 minus green, you can usually correct a cheaper fluorescent unit. However, even with the gels, it’s never as clean as a Kino Flo. How important this depends a lot on how you use the units. If you light everything in the scene with the same units, then in post it’s easy to pull out the unwanted green. However, if you are mixing these fluorescents with clean tungsten or daylight, you will probably have a difficult time cleaning up the spikes. Pull the excess green from the scene, and the area lit with the other units will suddenly go magenta. So you end up masking areas of the scene, which gets really complicated when you pan, tilt, or dolly the camera.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Well you are certainly jumping off into very deep waters. I presume you have a stash of cash to tide you over. I presume you already know how to edit (FCP?) well and can handle a camera well. If that’s not the case, I would not go ahead with your plans unless you can hire experienced people to perform the work. If you do that, you do not want to be investing in any gear at all.
Indeed, your experience seems to be in sales. So why not build up a stable of shooters and sound guys and editors you can call upon when you land the jobs?
As for your specific gear questions:
–The EX3 is a dandy camera, and works well in low light. Some people prefer one of the newer Panasonics. It is, however, not a shoulder-mount camera. Almost all the weight goes on the arms. There are various shoulder braces you can use with it.
–I edit on a Mac operating in Windows mode, and use Sony Vegas, which I consider a more friendly NLE than FCP and every bit as powerful. (Also half the price.) For Vegas, it’s important to have the camera files on a hard drive that is different from the one where the program itself resides. I imagine FCP also works better that way, so you need either 2 or more internal hard drives of large capacity, or external ones. Remember you also need to be able to backup all your data and edits to yet another drive, or else risk having to start all over again if the drive you’ve been using crashes. They all crash some day, just like us.
–In the US, Blue-Ray is still not widespread. If you see yourself needing that format, contact your Mac retailer. They can tell you instantly if any Macs come with it. If not, there’s another expense you may or may not want to take on.
–Sound is crucial. Good mics, a boom person, good audio in post all can ruin or make a video. If you are green here, hire a pro. (Again.)
–As to the value of NAB, if you can afford it, go and enjoy. But you can get all the important information later from free industry magazines which fall all over each other to report on the latest hot camera, etc.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
When we shoot table-top with film, we shoot at 30 fps to avoid that 2/3 pull-down. On very tight, table-top close-up moves, 24-frame pull-down can kill the move. At times, when shooting a pan across a label, we’ll shoot 60 fps. In telecine transfer, that becomes one frame of film for each field. Really helps (and also chews up film fast.)
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
You have put your finger on one of the conundrums facing us all. You are delving into mixed media. Film shot at 24 fps is usually viewed in 48 glimpses/second. That is, the usual shutter on a film projector is a butterfly shape, so that each frame is flashed on the screen twice (sometimes split in 1/3rds so each frame is flashed 3 times.) Our eyes have become accustomed to reading this screen as smooth, continuous action. What you are seeing on a DVD is actually 60i: each film frame is duplicated into two fields, and for some of the time, each frame is also duplicated to four fields so that the total per second is 30 frames or 60 fields.
24p video is seen at 24 times/second. Less information from frame to frame.
There are some of heretics, including me, who find that shooting video 30p is more like 24-frame film than 24p video as far as apparent motion goes.
There are many more hoops video shooters have to jump through to achieve a “film” look. Frame rate is only one.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Zacuto promotes itself heavily. They loudly claim their products to be “the new standard” and “the leader.” Their products seem to be sturdy, well machined, often heavy, and very expensive. Before I bought anything from them, I would look around for other solutions. It is possible I view them with too jaundiced an eye. Take my comments with the usual several grains of salt.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Looking at my drawing again, I see that it is somewhat wrong. For maximum effect, the sun’s rays should be first striking the 4 x 4 shiny board directly, not through the 1/2 grid. Those rays that hit the shiny board(s) then kick back toward the subject, diffused through the 12 x 12 1/2 grid.
Of course, you could also place the shiny board(s) closer to the rag and, depending on the angle of the sun, be able to bounce back just some of the sunlight penetrating through the 1/2 grid. Which is what the drawing suggest. That method would produce a softer and less intense fill or key.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
I would think it best to shoot the entire project in one format, or the other; either all PAL or all NTSC. I gather the final use will be in NTSC so best to stick with that format. Perhaps more to the point: the HVX 2000 and the HDX900 have many different possible gamma etc. settings. If you are the boss DP, decide on what settings you want, and have the Israelis mimic that as best they can. I would imagine that if they are shooting exteriors, they will have lots of high-contrast situations to cover. In that case, settings that reach best into the shadows and also handle the highlights would be called for.
Hopefully in post you will have the time and means to color/contrast correct, shot by shot, so that subtle differences between your footage and the overseas footage can be balanced out — or else, it could be that stylistically it would be a great idea for the Israeli footage to look strikingly different.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com