Steve Crow
Forum Replies Created
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Actually matching a T2i and a 7D shouldn’t be too much of an issue given the simple lighting. Both cameras are nearly identical when it comes to the video mode so first of all make sure you shoot in manual mode for video and use the same settings on both cameras in terms of ISO, shutter speed, aperture and any custom picture profile you may be using.
Frankly most viewers will never even notice if shots don’t match – keep amy faces in roughly the same exposure and all your color matching “mistakes” will probably go unnoticed by 90 percent of viewers/
The major thing is going to be a consistent white balance so study up on how to set a custom white balance on the Canons, it’s not that hard and basically involves taking a still picture of a white reference card, importing that image as a your custom white balance reference image. There are plenty of tutorials on the web on how to do this, using the same still image for both cameras custom white balance would be ideal. YOU WILL HAVE UPDATE THE CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE FOR EVERY SCENE AT THE VERY LEAST OR EVERY TIME THE LIGHTING CHANGES, EVEN FOR THE SAME SCENE
Use the histogram function on both cameras to double check a consistent exposure – an external monitor for checking exposure and focus would be very helpful here too but you would probably need one for each camera – if you can afford to rent two of them then consider that.
Be very careful of protecting your highlghts, meaning don’t let anything in the frame be so overexposed that it goes to pure white – after that there’s nothing you can really do to fix those super overexposed areas.
I might be tempted to steer you towards shooting with a flat custom picture profile on both cameras as flat profiles are specifically designed to guve you the max flexiibiility when color grading. However since you are so new I have to tell you that shooting flat is much more difficult and requires experience particularly when it comes to focusing. So I’d suggest you look up the Philip Bloom settings for Canon DSLRs and follow those or choose the Neutral picture profile.
I’m sure Premiere will have some tools like Final Cut to make the color matching job much easier or you can check out the free DaiVinci Resolve color grading suite.
Steve Crow
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I am going to take just a common sense approach here so other ideas are welcome.
I guess it depends on what editing or color correction software you are using and how well you know how to use it. Final Cut Pro X has a easy “match color” function, not sure what other editing packages offer in terms of similar functionality.
I think the problem you are going to run into is that the Canon T1i operates in auto mode only when filming video so you can’t control aperture, iso, shutter speed – which means all matching will have to be done in editing, basically. Of course, since you are filming both cameras under SIMILAR but not the exact same lighting conditions
(different angles and focal lengths between the two cameras could easily result in different lighting conditions) –
it will probably be pretty close to begin with if your scene isn’t very contrasty and all the lighting is coming from one big ambient source, like the Sun. If there are parts of your scene in shadow or mixed lighting then you just have to make the best of what you can in editing unless you can change the lighting conditions before filming.
Steve Crow
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No worries Melanie. The other, similar, approach are dslr “cages” which you can combine with rails and even shoulder pads. Cages can also give you an easy way to add a top handle if you see yourself doing lots of low to the ground handheld type shots.
The cages have many connection points to attach accessories but for me I needed to be able to work with two lavalier audio receivers at the same time and while it’s probably possible to do so with a cage, I think some workarounds might be required.
Steve Crow
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Oh here’s a link to an old video of mine showing the setup I was talking about:
and the thingy I was trying to describe is like this (Multi-Function Ball Head or Ball Joint or….? ):
Steve Crow
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I use a bracket from Bracket 1 to hold two lav mic rcvr packages but it could just as easily be the Zoom if i attached a mini cold shoe pivot thingy – cant come up with the right name but its about 2 inches long
Steve Crow
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That’s terrible advice
Check out this article for some ideas
https://www.provideocoalition.com/how-to-pick-the-best-cameras-for-your-live-tv-studio
There are also interesting things happening with “drop cams” that record video wireless to the cloud
https://www.engadget.com/2015/11/16/netgear-arlo-q-camera/
Steve Crow
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Plural eyes isnt an editor but a tool you use to sync the audio captured by the camwra – low quality – to the high end audio captured by your pro microphones. For this to work you do need some kind of camera audio to sync to.
I think what you are looking for is a video switcher, which can be either hardware or software.
Steve Crow
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Your list looks good but I would reconsider the premise of always filming in the studio for these interviews. Although I very much understand the challenges involved in field production and the lighting/sound issues that come with that, I think the trouble is all worth it.
Don’t you think after a while the videos are going to get pretty boring visually since they would all be essentially the same?
Perhaps a midway point would be to film lots and lots of custom B-roll in their labs, classrooms etc for each interview subject so that the viewer isn’t always looking at the “talking head” of the scientist.
Steve Crow
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I think the main problems are not so much technical but more on the creative side. I will say that the shot appears to me to be overexposed (but still within legal limits) and I think a lot of this is caused by a strong shaft of light coming from screen right and going diagonally screen left crossing the electrical box in front of the wooden wall. This shaft is causing some overall glare. One thing you can do in editing is to lower the exposure of the highlights.
Creatively, the real problem is that the shot is simply boring and much too long – it appears to be a wide establishing type shot showing someone waiting? at a busy street corner.
You have deep focus so there’s nothing that interesting in the frame to capture my attention – I think that’s why it looks like DV video.
I don’t know if you were asking for this kind of feedback but I’d cut this down to 2- 3.5 seconds total for the sequence and think about how I could use maybe 2 or 3 shots to get across this idea in a more interesting way. For instance. what if you had a close up of the waiting man’s hands anxiously flipping the newspaper’s pages, then maybe a quick shot of his darting eyes and head movement to show that he is not really interested in the newspaper at all – but is waiting or watching out for someone. Then you can have the wider shot showing the overall street scene but very short.
Steve Crow
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For a run and gun entry level solution look at a rode video mic pro. It’s going to be much better than no external mic at all but still you will want to remain close to your subject and try to minimize wind noise and other distracting sound.
Get a furry cover for the mic and make sure you are always always monitoring the sound live with headsets as you film otherwise you WILL one day regret it.
Steve Crow