Todd Terry
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Looks good, nice job.
I would just suggest that if there is any way to mask off the side walls (black curtains, or whatever) that might prove very helpful.
Depending on what you are shooting, if you don’t see the side walls and don’t need them for keying, then the green side walls aren’t helping… they’re hurting. They are going to reflect a bit of green back onto your talent. If you need the sides, then yes… it’s great to have them. But when they are not needed, it’d be best to have a way to get rid of them.
As Rick said in an earlier post said, you really only need green behind your subject… even if the green doesn’t cover the frame you can garbage matte out the rest in post. Anything more than that and you’re just creating a reflective surface to add an unwanted green glow to your talent… which won’t look good, and just as importantly can affect the quality of the key.
Good job.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yep, you are seeing phasing of the flo lights, I’m betting.
You might be able to correct that in post… although it would probably have to be done manually at every phase shift and would likely be fairly tedious. It might be easier than a re-shoot, though.
I think the XHA1 works electronically identically to the XLH1, which is the camera that I use… if so, then yes, shooting in “clear scan” mode would likely fix it.
If it is the same as the H1, then toggle your shutter speed up up up as high as it will go. The last setting you get to (right after 1/15000) will be “CS.” In the camera settings menu you can then define exactly the shutter speed for the clearscan mode. In north America under normal AC power the proper clearscan setting will probably be 60.5Hz.
In actuality though, the best choice is to not shoot under regular fluorescent lights… but sometimes that can’t be helped. If you have to shoot with the flos (and I’m talking about regular plain ol’ office fluorescents, not flicker-free instruments such as Kinos), then try to avoid mixing them with other types of lighting, such as tungsten. It’s the fact that the phasing is causing slight changing in the ratio of the mix of the lighting that is causing your color shifts.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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By “shift” are you meaning that the white balance is just a bit off? Or that it “shifts” and changes throughout time?
If it’s just a bit off, that should be an easy fix… tweakable by the color correction functions of most any editing platform.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I dug out my XL1 manual, and while I couldn’t find any mention in it there… I did see in other non-COW forums a couple of posts with reference to a “permanent burn mode” for date/timecode… mentioned as being useful for legal videographers who need a timecode stamp that can’t be removed or altered.
If that’s the case, you might be stuck with it.
Are you using the XL1 as a source deck into your NLE? And if so, are you taking the firewire signal in? If not, and you are ingesting video via the composite or S-video outputs on the camera, you might be able to turn that off if it is not a “permanent burn” mode thing. You could try toggling on/off the “on screen display.” With the XL1 turning this on and off must be done with the camera’s remote control (or as Canon calls it, the “Remote Commander”)… it can’t be toggled on/off on the camera itself, you have to use the remote.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yes, you will need additional lenses.
Using that combo, the Letus will attach to the front of your existing EX3 stock lens. Then, your 35mm lenses attach to the Letus.
You’d need 35mm format prime (or zoom) lenses… either real cine lenses or appropriately mounted SLR lenses.
When using the Letus, even though your lens is removable on the EX3, you’ll leave it in place. I believe the Pro35 from P+S Technik is the only 35mm DoF converter that can be used with the EX3 in such a way that allows you to remove the zoom lens and attach the converter directly to the camera body.
Even in that case, though, you do not use the camera’s stock zoom… you need 35mm lenses, which are a very different beast compared to the stock video zoom that came with your camera.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[clyde villegas] “first I’ll have to find the remote.”
I know the feeling, Clyde. I have and XL1 but haven’t used it much in the last few years… I recall the last time we needed to use it sans on-screen display there was quite a search for the remote before it finally turned up.
Good luck with the hunt…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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On your camera’s remote control there is a button (I think it’s labeled “OSD,” but I haven’t seen it in a long time and don’t remember) that toggles the on-screen display on and off.
If memory serves, you must use the external remote to turn off the viewfinder data from being displayed on the various video outputs… there are no controls on the camera itself that will turn it off.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Looks legit enough.
Obviously that’s the right adapter only if you have Arri standard mount lenses and only if you are needing to mount them to a PL mount camera or other device.
I’m a little puzzled by the description “stays on the camera and has quick release buttons on both sides so you can mount different lenses without changing the adaptor.” It looks to me that you’d have to remove the lens with the adapter attached, and then take the adapter off. I’m not sure it would work exactly per the description, but it’s not a big deal.
And no, can’t say that I have ever used one of those.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Sam Lesante Jr.] “I wanted to know if this song by Shirley Temple is still copyrighted.”
Yes.
Public domain music is any piece of music composed before (or an arrangement created before) 1922.
“On the Good Ship Lollipop” was written after that, in the 1930s.
Even if a piece of music is thought to be in the public domain, you still have to be very careful. Public Domain status applies only to the original composition. Any arrangements of the piece that were created by that time are still protected.
And of course, this applies only to the published score (the “sheet music,” as it were). Any recordings/performances of the piece also have their own copyright protection, regardless of whether it is in the public domain or not. For example, while a Beethoven symphony is obviously in the public domain, the recording you might have of the London Philharmonic performing it is not.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Can’t say for sure.. but it’s pretty flat lighting, a fairly uninteresting lighting design… just my opinion, of course.
Are all of those from the same studio? The pic at the top looks a bit harsher whereas the three at the bottom are super soft and flat. I think the one at the top is more flattering to the talent.
Frankly, I think overall it is not-so-good lighting, especially for a network show in a fixed set.
They would seem to have big soft light sources that wash the set.. I couldn’t say what instruments they are, but it could be flo lighting (KinoFlo or Videssence, etc.), or heavily diffused tungsten lighting… perhaps a big bank of softboxes (a television studio here in town has a big bank of probably 10 large softboxes on their news set, gives a similar look).
One thing I notice is the very very dim backlighting on the talent. I usually like more than that, a lot more. That would help the talent “pop” from the background. These guys don’t pop… they almost blend with the background, can make the whole scene look a bit mushy.
There are guys in here with a lot more experience than I have in lighting these kinds of sets… I’m sure they will chime in with better advice.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com