Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Not to sound like an elitest snob, but if you want to do stabilizing then Steadicam is the way to go. Glidecams and all the other wannabe clonecams sometimes work to varying degrees… but most pale in comparison to the real thing.
A fully-rigged top-of-the-line Steadicam Ultra will set you back more than I paid for my first house. But some of the smaller rigs are very affordable and work great… plus there is quite a used market for them, as Steadicam operators are constantly “trading up” to bigger/fancier units, so there are bargains to be had. I know this from personal experience… I’m currently on my third Steadicam rig… starting with the DV rig, moving to the Steadicam Mini, and now with the SteadicamSK (a no longer made model). There’s lots of trading and swapping going on in the Steadicam world as there is a very well-developed users group. I bought my first rig from Cinema Products, traded it in on my second rig from Tiffen, eventually sold that one to George Lucas (shipped it right to his house, no idea what he wanted with a small rig), and bought the SK from a DP in Los Angeles who was moving to a master series. The SK will fly up to 20lbs and if I strip my heaviest camera it still comes in under that weight, so hopfully I’m set for a while. So, as you see, a lot of horse trading going on.
And yes… even though it seems little compared to a “big” camera, trying to stabilizing a camera the size of an XL1 without a vest/arm would require a forearm of steel for any shot longer than half a minute or so…. or some major steroids.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well, I may be giving some conflicting advice regarding the shutter speed, depending on your end usage.
You say its “purpose of analyzing the head movements, eyebrow movements, eyeball movements, eye blinks, and eye squints accompanying their signs.”
If you plan to study individual frames, say toggle through the video very slowly, then yes, you might want to shoot with a higher than “normal” shutter speed (providing you have plenty of light, since exposure will start dropping like a rock when you crank up the shutter).
But… if you plan on primary usage to be viewing this video at “normal” speed, then I would never shoot at a higher-than-normal shutter speed (“normal” shutter being 1/60th of a second for 60i and 30p video, or 1/48th of a second for 24p video). If you shoot with a higher-than-normal shutter, then you motion is going to be very choppy and stuttery when viewed at normal speed. For something with a lot of movement such as sign language, I can imagine the end result could range anywhere from annoying to darn near unwatchable. Your brain will interpret the motion blur as “normal,” but a higher-than usually shutter would be very stroby and juddery. Higher shutter speeds should be reserved for specific applications… such as studying individual still frames, creating a specific look (i.e., “Gladiator” or “Saving Private Ryan”), or when shooting video that you intend to slow-mo later.
Just my opinion, of course… but I think one of the most annoying things you’ll often see is normal-speed video that was shot with a high-speed shutter… unless it was done for specific effect.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Sadly, not really.
The biggest problem with the sub-$1K monitors is resolutuion. Even though they say they are HD monitors, they aren’t… they just mean they can take an HD signal. If you look at the technical specs you’ll see that most of them display only about 300 lines or so. That’s pretty much true for all of the lower priced monitors.
These monitors are useful enough on location for framing, but are darn near useless for eyeball focusing. What seems to be a sharp image on the monitor can actually be fairly soft. This is especially problematic if you use a DoF converter where depths-of-field can be very shallow.
Even most of the the mid-priced Panasonics aren’t full 1080 HD either, but they display a lot more lines than the cheap ones (displaying 450 to 768 lines, depending on the model). But some of the Pannys do have a pixel-to-pixel button that you press and it will show you an HD image (or at least a portion of it), blowing up the image to full HD size. Some Panasonics also have a “red line” focus assist feature that really does work well.
My personal fav of the Panasonics is the BT-LH900A, but it’s about $4K. The BT-LH80WU (about $2K) is also very good.
NBC used tons of the Panasonics during last summer’s Olympics. After the games a large number of them made their way to being liquidated on eBay… they had only been used two weeks and were classified as “B stock” and still had full warranties. They were practically giving them away then… but I suspect they are all long gone.
Of course the “industry standard” HD 7″ish LCD TTF montior is the litte Astro, which looks great and does a great job. Unfortunately they are about $6K.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[grinner hester] “Well maybe pay him while he hits the class of his choice”
No, not his choice… mine. My dime, my call. Just didn’t know where.
[grinner hester] “I’d still have to see initiative before investing in someone elses education.”
I have, and I am willing. Obviously operate in very different ways, but hey, it’s all good.
I appreciate the unsolicited advice… but again, I wasn’t asking whether to send him to school, but rather where. If anyone has any more suggestions to that end, they are well appreciated.
Thanks,
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Rick’s right about Crank 2, all of his observations are spot on.
In addition, looks like a lot of the “regular speed” footage (i.e., the 24fps stuff, not the slow-mo) was shot with a narrow shutter. That is, a much tighter shutter than the “normal” 180° shutter when shooting film at 24fps. This gives crisper, choppier look since each frame freezes the action rather than allowing the motion blur that your eyes are accustomed too. Can help action sequences appear more…well… “actiony.” See “Gladiator” for more overuse of the technique than in just about any other film. I think that might be the effect you are asking about.
For the video equivalent, crank up your shutter speed from “normal” (which is 1/48th when shooting 24p, or 1/60th when shooting 60i) to something much higher. Of course when you do that exposure drops like a rock, so best to shoot wide open and limit its usage to scenes where you have plenty of light (i.e., sunny exteriors).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well whenever we can we try to gently strongarm clients into coming here to see there projects rather than taking ’em to them. Then it’s guaranteed they’ll see it right… plus saves time and keeps us from running around all over.
Usually say something like “So you get get out of the office and see it on a nice big monitor,” or “So if there are any minor tweaks you can help us do them right on the spot,” or “And if it’s good to go you can take the dubs with you,” or “That’ll save you the cost of making an approval copy.” I’d say probably 9 times out of 10 they do it, and most of our long-time clients actually prefer coming here… usually say “When can I come over?” rather than wondering when their project will be delivered. Given the option, most clients seem to prefer being able to visit and sit in a comfortable suite to watch their stuff.
When we do go to clients, we always take our own monitor and player. We used to take a Sony CRT, now we take an HD LCD. We have a “traveling setup” that all fits in a briefcase-sized case. If a client ever says “Oh you can just watch it here” pointing to the DVD drive on their computer, we just say “Oh you’ll enjoy it more on a real monitor.” Works for us.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yes, exactly, Mick… you hit the nail on the head.
This guy is already crunching video for us at least 40+ hours a week. His only breaks from that are when we pull him off of that to serve as a crew member on loction shoots.
Plus he has only a basic computer at home… and a wife, family, dogs, house, etc., to worry about in his off hours. I’m all for initiative (and this guy has plenty), but personally I prefer an employee who would rather worry about having a life when outside of the office than one who spends all off his off-the-clock time doing bascially the same thing as he does when on it. Those, imho, stay much fresher and less subject to burn out. There are a lot of production professionals (not not talking about the amateurs or hobbyists) who list “video production” under “hobbys” in their profiles on industry forums. Those that have an outside life (or at least the ones that I have dealt with) seem to be much more well-rounded individuals.
That was my main point in seeking AE school somewhere…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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It’s not an initiative thing, it’s a time and resources thing.
This editor is as fine a cutter as anyone would want, it’s just that he needs to take a jump forward within AE beyond his already reasonable AE skills. I’m not concerned about him taking new-found skills elsewhere, he’s been with us for years (“Best job I could ever want”) and is well compensated above the market rate.
We could buy him DVDs all day, but I know how we work and how the world here operates… 30 minutes into the first one he would get yanked away to do some “emergency” job here… then again and again. It’s just the nature of the fast-turnaround biz we have and the way things here have to work. I could say we’ll lock him in the suite for a week, but in practicality we’ll just never make that happen.
If we send him away to school, at least that will force the issue and we’ll have to deal with his real absence for a few days rather than his “faux absence” knowing he’s really just upstairs locked in his suite.
Plus, I know he would jump at the chance to be sent somewhere for AE training (and has told me so), and would be a nice perk for him and a pat on the back for a job well done.
Wasn’t really soliciting any observations about my editor’s initiative, but rather about the quality of any off-site training that might be available…. if anyone has any insight…
Tx,
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Sorry, Brydie… you are not going to find 24f, because it would appear you have a PAL camera, not an NTSC camera.
The native NTSC Canon cameras offer these frame rates in 1080 or 480: 60i, 30f, 24f.
The native PAL Canon cameras offer these frame rates in 1080 or 576: 50i, 25f.
Because you say you have a 25f option, that lets us know you have a PAL camera and 24fps is not an option.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hey Nick….
Hmmmm… I’m not familiar with Norman Rose… I’ll see if I can’t scare up some archival tracks on him.
It breaks my heart that I never got to work with Hal Riney before he left us about a year ago. I had one project I wanted to use him for a few years ago, but it never happened, for some reason.
We seem to be losing these guys… we did one of the last sessions with Don LaFontaine before this untimely passing last year, and John Leader retired on the same day.
Someday I really want to use Ed Grover, too (Visa… it’s everywhere you want to be), but the right gig hasn’t come up yet.
Again, thanks for pointing us to Peter Gil, he’s doing some more pickup tracks for us tomorrow…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com