[Rob Mcwilliams]

In the field. Hire a professional audio tech and get it onto tape the right way from the start.

Also, when in the field, recored 1k tone along with bars and when ingesting set up to the 1k tone. And if your sound person did his-her job, your good to go.

[Rob Mcwilliams]

What wattage and what color temperature? How tall is the ceiling and how much depth in the room where your setting up? And do you have a waveform?

Do you have access to HMI’s?

[Rob Mcwilliams]

Filmstudent:

I don’t have anything to sell so here goes.

Preset is fine if you are shoooting throughout the day on the same tape. There is no need to back up a few seconds after each scene. That only takes time and adds wear to the tape stock and your heads.

Now, if you have to change batteries while shooting with preset! Then you have to go in and select regen. Regen will pick up the last TC and conntinue on.

Also, if your putting in a tape (or continuing)from day before say, and you want continuious TC on that tape. Then regen is applicable there too. To do this rewind tape a few seconds so you know you’re near end and see TC moving, stop, then use end search to find exact end, then put camera into Regen, and she will pick up it up from there. That keeps TC breaks to a minimum.

Good Luck

[Rob Mcwilliams]

Nelson:

Why the ND? ND cuts transmission by about 30%. Your better off using spun diffusion or light frost pinned to barn doors.

The still doesn’t look that bad actually. Maybe a tad under exposed. Skin tone looks decent.

If you only have two lights you have a small dilema. Do you use the second light as a hair light or use it on the BG?

Using the zebras in camera, set them to 75 or 80%. Put flooded) key ( 8-10 feet from subject) on subject with diffusion and expose so your pretty near wide open on (manual) iris. (also, make sure to get subject away from BG so there is somewhere to throw shadow from key). If zebras are seen on face, back off key so they disapear. Don’t iris down. If you have to, iris down a tad, maybe half a stop. Try to keep the iris open as wide as possible assuming your indoors. This will help in the fact you only have two lights and brighten the overall scene. And since your only using one key, get some foam core to bounce and fill for subject.

Remember to always expose for skin detail not overall picture.

Now with the second light, either throw a pattern on BG or use it as a hair light. This will give you sepration and pop your subject. This is your choice!

Now once you’ve done this and your happy with overall look, take it to post and adjust chroma/color levels for the color pop your looking for.

[Rob Mcwilliams]

Like John said most hotel room have two circuits. One in main room and one in bathroom. They will either be 15 or 20 amp circuits.

Smartest thing to do is check with hotel mainteance or electrician. And when checking find out where breakers are for room your using.

Simple rule.

1000w light equals 10 amps.
500w light equals 5 amps.
Monitor about 2-3 amps.
If your in a hotel room with 30 amps total you do the math.

If your using 1k lights figure on only 1 and nothing else on that cicuit as they tend to heat things up quickly.

I use kinos and JOKERS so 30 amps is more than enough for standard talking head.

Also, be wary of sprinkler heads in the rooms, big wattage means heat and sprinklers don’t like heat.

Good luck

[Rob Mcwilliams]

Juan:

I have owned 3 DVX-100’s.

I have never had a problem with head clogs. I go by one rule and one rule only. Use only one type/brand of tape stock and stick with it. And use the highest quality you can afford. I use Panasonic MQ. And if possible, only master in camera and do playback in another. And whenever possible don’t play in another machine and then put back into DVX.

DV stock comes in all shapes, sizes and emulsions. Cross contamination is the likely cause to your problem.

Once a DV becmomes clogged and simple cleaning doesn’t fix the problem then factory service is needed. Then when its fixed keep to one type/brand of quality tape stock and keep playback to a minimum and you should be good to go.

Good luck.

[Rob Mcwilliams]

DP:

No matter what people say SP is still out there.

Even though I own a Varicam, DVX-100A, SONY HVR and lease an HVX-900 I still shoot with my HL-V59 almost daily.

On almost all b-rolls we do, myself and clients included, we still deliver on SP. It is still a viable format. Albeit, a dying one. I have been hearing Beta will be gone in 3 years for the last 10. LOL

And yes to your concern over posting footage. The best way is to put it (the dub) in their hands.

If your concerned about BetaSP, DVCam is your next best choice. I am a network shooter and use affiliates across the county for feeds, so I am in their control rooms allot, and I would say about 90 percent still have BetaSP. And almost all have multi-format DV decks.

Hope that helps.

Rob

[Rob Mcwilliams]

I trust John!

[Rob Mcwilliams]

I would assume you are acquiring in Varicam for later use for client? If your shooting Varicam just to shoot Varicam for a news b-roll, I wouldn’t.

I would capture in 30fps as stated above as 24 would not be acceptable for news rooms because of reasons stated above.

I would down convert and give them both 16×9 and 4×3. And as stated above, just slate each. Lots of newsrooms are in 16×9 but not HD, yet! So having b-roll come in in 16×9 SD might be an added advantage for your client to get their piece aired.

[Rob Mcwilliams]

thanks.

talked to Panasonic. Only real option is the 900.

Thanks