Scott Sheriff
Forum Replies Created
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[Gerardo Flores] “I know you will think is impossible what I want but if I done get some equipment I will never
really learn how to use them… i will like to expend between 2000 and 5000 dollars or in the worst case
10000… but less is for me better.”Heres my 2 cents. If you knew you had regular, specific jobs, it might be good to tailor the gear to those. But for a generic starter kit, I like tungsten lights. I think they are the most versatile, so that is where I would start.
I wouldn’t spend it all at once. Maybe start with:
A kit with 4 lights, stands, barndoors. Fresnels are better, but a bit more fragile. Open face lights like Lowel DP, Omni, Tota are less delicate, less expensive, easy to field repair, but the don’t look as good as Fresnels.
3-4 C stands with gobo arms.
A softbox attachment like a Chimera.
A selection of gels, ND, and color correction filters, screen.
Spare bulbs, lightmeter, C47’s, leather gloves, voltmeter, high quality AC cords, sandbags, dull spray, cinefoil.
Buy other things as the need arises.Not an ‘end all, be all’ list, by any stretch. Just some basics I could think of.
“what I will like to get.
– strong light to illuminate big spaces at night”
HMI, rent as needed. Maybe buy if you end up renting a lot.“- couple of lights to shoot portraits ( individual to small groups )”
Pretty easy to do with 2-4 lights. Bounce card, softbox, umbrella. Or go with a Kino Flo type set-up.“-light for the camera like those ringlite from litepanels”
I have no experience with these. For jewelry, coins, things like that I rig up a small light tent instead.– small led lights to put in small places like inside the cars or boxes etc
These are super handy for this type of use, but not cheap. And the bigger panels are even more pricey. This would fall into that “buy if I shoot it a lot” category.“imagine that you are gonna
travel to make a video and you can NOT take all your lights with you….
you are gonna make footages on location and maybe some in studio… you got a lot of equipments but you got space just for 6 – 8 light units: Which of your lights you will take with you???”I really don’t have that much stuff, so I always take all of it, unless:
I need to rent nicer or bigger lights, or working in a studio with a grid which will always have their own lights, or the gig has a budget for a grip truck.If you have to travel light, it helps to know what your facing if you really can only take the bare necessities. There are plenty of ways to economize on the number of instruments by careful planing, but it is nice to have a selection to choose from. And spares.
The nice thing about lights and grip gear is if you buy decent stuff, it will last forever. And it really doesn’t go out of style.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[Gerardo Flores] “I will like to know the best models ( price – performance ) and the more more expensive ones to compare them… links with examples are welcome”
It just isn’t that simple. That is like asking someone, whats the best house?
Best model for what? What do you generally shoot? Where? Whats your budget? You’re going to need a couple grand just to get started with the most basic entry level set-up, if buying new. Or you can rent.
There are people in this industry that do nothing but light. So that should tell you it isn’t a simple subject you can become an expert in overnight. Not to mention that dealing with lights is a hazard and liability that should not be taken lightly. Everyone that has done this for any length of time will have stories of something bad happening. And it often happens to the inexperienced. Florescent is less problematic in liability issues, but even they can present hazards.
In tungsten lighting there are really two choices for types of instruments. Open face instruments vs fresnels. There are pros and cons for each.
And then there is florescent, which again has pros and cons.
LED is pretty much for that ‘sun-gun’ type of use.
And then there are discharge lights like HMI, which even more expertise is needed to operated properly and safely.“as well if will be possible if the lights can works with this generation of batteries and not be depending
if we have or not electricity connection in the location where we want to make to pictures.”Yes, if you just want a single on camera light for that ‘breaking news’ sun-gun look. Otherwise no.
In fact it is normal to need multiple circuits for even the simplest set-up.“I will love to get some lights which allow me to control the quantity and the temperature of the lights more red like in the low lighting shots and more white similar to the daylight.”
That is what gels and filters are for, and often some of this is now done in post.
There are other technical, and artistic requirements. Cameras all have an exposure range, that must be kept in mind when lighting. And in video/film, the look, or the mood is more often dictated by the amount light and dark in the shot. The location of highlights, shadow density, fall off. This is why you will also need a large selection of light control devices.There are a lot of posts in this forum discussing the various merits of different brands/types of lights, you should check them out. The “what light should I get” question gets asked a lot.
One of the best ways to learn about lighting is to work for someone as an assistant.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[Craig Alan] “One shot gun for most plays won’t cut it.”
Might work for “Death of a Salesman”. Only one I could think of where one mic would work.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[Dennis Radeke] “A decent Mac will allow you to edit H.264 fine. Is the scrubbing buttery smooth? Absolutely not, but many people find it more than acceptable. It’s a personal opinion that you make based on time saved (by not transcoding) vs. edit experience, though many disagree with me.”
I wouldn’t disagree with that straight away. I’ve tried it before with my octocore and yes you can edit h.264, but there are a lot of ‘if’s. If your timeline isn’t very long, if all your going to do is cut, if the source frame size is not very large, if you don’t mind the sluggishness and seeing the beach ball a lot, if you don’t mind rendering for every little change you make. OK I’ll quit there.
But editing often involves more than just cutting, and when you start to apply any filters, put in dissolves etc. that is when it really starts to fall apart quickly. Render times skyrocket, adding plugins and filters will make your project a crash-o-matic which can (and will if it happens enough) then corrupt project and media files, and possibly corrupt your FCP installation. Look at all the stories of woe from people that have ignored (or were unaware) the advice to transcode h.264 stuff and had a unending stream of kernel panics.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[Justin Ford] “I know H.264 takes a toll on rendering speed. Great codec, just takes a lot to make it work.”
*face-palm*
H.264 is a great codec…for distribution.
For acquisition and post, not so much.
Hence the “just takes a lot to make it work”.You can pound a square peg in a round hole. I have done it.
It takes a big hammer, and a lot of muscle.
Not the most efficient way to go about it though.
To each his own…Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[Geoff McDonald] “installed four 2 terabyte, 5400rpm drives”
Depending on what codec you’re trying to edit I think you will find these drives sluggish.
7200rpm constant speed drives would be the recommended norm for video. But hey, whatever works.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[Jason Brown] “This is the root of the question I’m asking…is pal and NTSC only used to reference SD video?”
Technically yes. ATSC is the American digital broadcast standards, NTSC was the SD standards for Audio, Color, B&W and Transmission.
This term has really been ‘genericized’ like xerox. But instead of a brand name, an acronym has become the general term meaning in this case, some type of North American video, or TV format and/or spec. It seems to be context driven, assuming the person your speaking to knows what the context is.
Nine times out of ten, I would say it is a reference to the frame rate if we are speaking of digital media. NTSC=29.97fps.
I’m guessing people use PAL in the same way to mostly indicate 25fps.
But you have to pay attention. There is still a lot of archive material out there that is SD, and even some places where analog and SD xmission is still going either over the air, or cable.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[John Martin] “It’s a com. spot for a client out here. A specific delivery spec, it calls for “IRE” standards. I’ve mostly dealt with broadcast safe mode, not the scopes in FCP, or measuring IRE.
DO you know of a feature (or third party software) to help monitor IRE standards?”
Do you not know what this is? Are you the editor on this project, or perhaps the producer? I would expect an editor to know what this is, and how to evaluate it.
OK, are you delivering for NTSC (that would be weird) or ATSC?
And actually IRE specs can include a lot more than just luma/chroma levels. What about front/back porch, blanking, sync, burst levels, what line test and reference signals are embedded in, etc?
IRE as a unit of measure is one thing, but as a spec or a standard it is a lot more.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[Richard Brooks] “I generally film in 1920 x 1080″…”You must excuse my naievity, I am predominantly a cameraman but have started to edit my own projects now.”
I was wondering what ‘film stock’ you use in a 550D?
The answers to all your questions are actually in the manual. Since your new to editing and predominantly a “cameraman” it would be in your best interest to read it in its entirety.
I also agree with a Steve Eisen in that it would be impossible to not find this info on the forum as it is one of the most over-asked, redundant topics covered in the last 18 months.There are lots of things that are “so easy a caveman could do it”, but editing and cinematography are not really on that list.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[zeke meginsky] “Is there anything I should know when I send it Compressor? Lately, I’ve been selecting DVD Best Quality for whatever time length it is.”
There is a forum for Compressor.
There is a search function on the forums.
There are tutorials on the forums.
Final Cut has a comprehensive manual.
Consider doing some short tests to see what looks/works best, you will learn a lot by doing that. That goes for your entire workflow, not just the output.
The reason I say this, is that you seem to have some gaps in your basic knowledge based on a couple of your posts.
But I don’t want to be accused of not answering a direct question, so here goes.Considering your level of knowledge, go with the ‘best’ preset. You can make changes in the settings or do it manually, but it is also possible to end up with a coaster if you don’t know what your doing. There is good real world info on maximum bitrates, CBR vs VBR, etc in the Compressor forum if you want to experiment.
Keep in mind that ‘best’ is making an assumption that your material is the proper length for the disc. There is no magic bullet that will make compressing 150 min of material look as good as 60 min.After reading this, and an earlier post about how to obtain best quality in you work “Good tips for post production, DV footage.“, a couple of thoughts come to mind.
There is only so much post can do with DV footage, and you even said that in an earlier post. Nothing has changed since then. DV is still DV. Stacking a bunch of filters, or plugins in an attempt to ‘improve’ your material will probably degrade it, not improve it. The best way to have a high quality final, is to start with high quality footage that doesn’t need extensive post fixing.
And unless you’re shooting with a 2K plus frame size, or doing extensive composite work, going PR422HQ, or 444 will not make your DV footage look like it was shot with a Panavision Genesis and is complete overkill and a waste of time and space. Nor will a dozen plugins. I would have to agree with Shane, that if you want the very best grading, let a pro do it. But for a DV acquired project going to DVD, that too may be overkill. It is possible to DIY in either FCP or Color, but there is a learning curve. The less ‘help’ your material needs, the easier it is to DIY the grade. If your stuff just needs levels tweaked a bit, and your shots are reasonably close to matching, the 3WCC might be all you need.
And if you really want better quality final, start by improving your acquisition and quit shooting in DV. It’s a fifteen year old format that doesn’t hold up well in post, and isn’t a quality acquisition format at all.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed…