Robert Ikenberry
Forum Replies Created
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Opps = Looks like maybe I just need to render the clip to clean up the duplicates. Will take a while but I’ll give that a try…
Rob Ikenberry
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Thanks Sam!
That’s exactly the kind of hint I was looking for. I did use the easy set-up for DCVProHD 24 capture, but still ended up with duplicate frames. I’ll try importing into the timeline and getting it to play smoothly. When I tried that before, the playback was mostly jerky garbage, like FCP couldn’t decode it properly in a 24p timeline, but I’ll play with various start frames.
-testing-
Unfortunately, I just placed a clip in a 24p timeline and adjusted the start frame, step by step through about 10 frames and never could get it to play clean. It cycles clean/static at about 3 cycles per second. 10 frames should go through the entire 3:2:2:3 (or 3:2:3:2) sequence and get the right frame cued up at some point….
I also could not get the DVCPro Framerate Converter utility to work on these clips, I get errors stating: “An error occurred during processing. Unable to conform source media”.
I never got any dropped frame messages or any errors during capture and the clips play fine in Quicktime outside FCP or in a FCP 60p timeline. Stepping through them they are obviously 60 fps, but the image only moves every second or third frame…
What if I put the clip on a 60p timeline and output (export) a DVCProHD24 quicktime – will it re-encode and cause another generation of compression?
Rob Ikenberry
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Fortunately for us, my co-producer had strong ties with Nat Geo, having done a couple dozen shows with them over the past several years and our subject just happened to fit right in with a new series they had already planned, so once we hooked up, the sale was not a problem.
I was not directly involved in the sale process, but as with most stuff in the Business, I suspect who you know, and who knows you, is probably the most important thing. Keep networking!
Rob Ikenberry
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Ron: No pitch. We did this show totally on spec. No contact or commission from anyone. We had all primary shooting done and a 45 minute rough cut (the result of about 6 months of editing) before we got in touch with them.
The show sold on its merits and the fact that it fit well with their needs. This was for us, and I suspect for them, a fairly unique arrangement. Don
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John:
Thanks for your kind words. We had a lot of fun and are pretty pleased to see our show get aired!
Regarding the time lapse: (this may really belong in another forum – Cinematography? Final Cut? please help with suggestions if this needs to be copied somewhere else)
We originally planned to use the HVX-200 for time lapse due to its interval shooting capability, but we loved the versatility of the unit so much we used it for a B-roll camera extensively and shot all our time lapses with still cameras. Most of the time lapses in the final show were shot with a Canon D20 and a supplementary intervalometer to trigger the shutter. The individual frames were downloaded and assembled into a QuickTime movie with QT Pro. We also found a point and shoot camera from Pentax, the W10 (now replaced by the W20 or W30) which had the plus of being waterproof, having the ability to take interval shots with its own timer @ 10 sec to 99 min intervals, and would go to sleep between shots. We could leave the camera locked off and unattended for up to about 500 shots before the battery died, and if clamped to a solid structure (not on a tripod) we could replace the card and battery without disturbing the framing so we could get shots over longer periods (up to two weeks – see the sequence at the end of the show). For a $300 camera it was a find! Unfortunately, I’ve looked lately and can’t find any more locally.
As far as the zooms, since we had large still images of 3-8 megapixels, we could tell QT Pro to make a larger than HD resolution movie (our show was shot 720p24) which we could then import into Final Cut Pro and use Motion to create pans or zooms.
I think it was helpful to have the time lapses. They’re a fair amount of work and sometimes something failed (battery died, out of memory space, unknown glitch) but we got a number that were useable and several made it into the final show.
Hope that helps. This is getting pretty long so I’ll stop here and gather my thoughts…
Rob Ikenberry
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Thanks Ron & John (ChicagoShootr). I’ll be happy to post a bit about our show at Business & Marketing. For those who are interested, please look there…
Rob Ikenberry
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Thanks for your interest, Shane. I would appreciate your comments if you can catch the show. Next airing is Thursday 11/8/07 5pm – I think that’s likely eastern time, so it may be TIVO is needed for those of us on the left coast.
Rob Ikenberry
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Matt:
Most of what aired was actually shot with the Varicam, but I’d be happy to give you more info on our experience with the HVX (all positive). Send me an email at rikenberry at cecmain.com and we can corespond directly.
Rob Ikenberry
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Shane:
It’s been very interesting to see how the show changed during the final client edit. We wanted a documentary where the participants told most of the story in their own words and highlighted the historical aspects of our project, wanting to avoid the “extreme engineering” type of show, which we thought was a bit formulaic and had a “voice of god” kind of narration.
When it was done, the final show eliminated most of our interviews and participant VO (wanted to avoid “talking heads”) in favor of narration and cut much of the historical to focus on the core story of the demolition and it’s risks.
It’s now an engineering show, but I think, a good one. They stayed true to our storyline and all the footage is ours (except for a small amount of historical or stock stuff) so, while it isn’t the show we sent them, it’s what they wsnted/needed, and after all they did buy it!
Let me know what you think.
Rob Ikenberry
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Kyle:
I was speaking strictly about HD clips. I have had little occasion to use the P2 cards for SD shooting.
The inability to play full screen never created a problem for using the computer as a field tool to download cards and verify that the data was captured. It just doesn’t work well for verifying focus.
It’s time to replace my laptop, let us know what you decide and, if you can, why…
Robert