Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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I agree…. I think a stand-in is the way to go.
As a director you’ll want to be able to watch the blocking from the camera POV anyway, and lighting/blocking/rehearsals with a stand-in is the only real way to do that.
Storyboards can be good, but those are much more of a director’s tool to work out angles and potential problems… not really used so much as a blueprint to show a camera operator how/what to shoot. In fact, I can’t recalling ever seeing them used like that at all.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I think it goes back to what Timothy said… if you are a creative agency, you can use clipart as a logo, but why would you?
Apart from actually using the clip art, I’d be a little concerned about a creative agency who was actually satisfied with doing so… especially for their own logo.
But can you? Yes.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well just remember that star filters are typically used to create a specific effect… not to much as to distract from a different effect, although that might incidentally happen as well.
There are many people (me included) who would find that star filters, unless verrrrry judiciously used, would really be just more cheesy than helpful… sort of equivalent in the editing world to page turns and spinning video cubes and such.
If you want star-shaped flares that’s one thing, but to use them just in an attempt to distract the viewer from another problem is probably not their best usage… imho.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Don Colborn] “Is there some sort of loophole that enables them to do that”
Nope.
The same rules apply to this as any other project, and for each piece of music there are publishing, performance/synch rights that should be dealt with.
I’m willing to bet that any company that does those videos and says they “can use any song” is doing so illegally… they just know that due to the extremely limited distribution there is very little chance of ever getting caught.
Doesn’t make it legal though. Or right.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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While it is not a professional tool, yes you can use the HV20 or HV30 to shoot a professional-looking project.
Barry Green’s method of “tricking” the camera into more-or-less manual mode has long been used by lots of people (including me) with a good deal of success. It works.
What would concern me a little is the comment about that process “to me that’s too much to do.”
Ummmm, really?
If one wants to make a full-blown feature using just an HV20 or HV30, Barry’s few little steps are going to be one of the easier parts of the entire project.
If you question was actually “Can I use this camera to make an easy feature… well, there is no such thing.
There is simply not much about feature filmmaking (or videomaking) that is inherently easy. Features aren’t easy, pretty much by definition… and starting with a less than optimal tool for such a job is only going to make it more complicated, not easier. Can it be done?…sure. But if one is looking for the no-hassles boy-this-is-a-breeze method, this ain’t it.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hi Jerry…
Just in case you need a second opinion, Dr. John is absolutely right (as he always is).
I first read your post via email rather than here on the board, so I didn’t see the picture. Of course I thought “All he needs is a matte box with French flags, eyebrows and sides.” But after seeing the picture, nope. As John said, as long as the troublesome light sources are visible within the frame there’s really nothing that can be done about the flares.
Depending on the capability of your equipment, shooting with prime lenses rather than your video zoom lens could reduce the complexity of the flares (because primes have many fewer elements in them than a zoom) but they would still be there, just different. Using the wide-angle adapter (which I imagine is a screw-on front-of-the-lens adapter) actualy adds to the complexity of the flares because it is adding lens elements.
The vertical smears?… yes, as John said, a higher-end camera will eliminate some (maybe most, sometimes all) of that, but with your present equipment that just “comes with the territory,” unfortunately.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Kevin Herrin] “Speaking of back lights, what are you thoughts on their usage… I prefer the light to be on the head and fall on the shoulders a bit.”
I forgot to add this to my previous post.
A lot of the backlighting will be determined by your subjects, who they are and what they look like. A bald man or a very blond woman will have to be backlit differently than, say, a person with black hair.
You may be able to get away with just one backlight for both subjects if their hair is of similar color and their clothing isn’t drastically different from each other… if you can place the backlight high and far back enough that you get a desirable angle on both subjects from the same instrument. Otherwise, it will probably be best to go with one of each.
Personally, I like to see a little on the hair, and some spill on the shoulders. Even though the backlight is sometimes a very bright instrument, it should be used so that the effect isn’t overpowering. You’re just looking for it to cut the subject out of the background, and usually not much more than that.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Lighting of course is a big part of the issue…..
But largely here we are also dealing with just the aesthetics of blocking the shot.
When you have a two-shot interview situation, that’s ok if the conversation is lively and keeps bouncing back and forth between your two subjects. What happens frequently, though, is that one person tends to dominate the conversation… leaving the other subject sitting on screen with nothing to do, like a “bump on a log,” as my dad used to say.
Ergo, it’s probably advantageous in most situations to be able to do single shots if possible.
The best-looking way to do this is of course with two cameras. Keep one on the two shot, and the other on the CU, panning between the subjects. There may be times when you can just float the closeup camera from one to the other and it may be a nice move that you want to see on screen. Other times, it will be better to just whip pan from one to the other, and you’ll use the 2-shot to cover the move.
Another option is zooming…. which I hate, but it works. Start with a 2-shot, float in to whomever is speaking, float back out as needed, pan as needed. Personally I dislike zooms, they are unnatural and artificial (a zoom is the only camera move the human eye cannot reproduce), but lots of people use them and it is one option.
If your project just happens to be standard-def, you can always shoot the 2-shot in HD and crop down single shots out of it. We’ve done this before, but visually I don’t think it is ideal because there is no perspective change when going from the 2-shot to the closeup… people are used to seeing at least a little bit of perspective change, as in multi-camera shoots.
A good thing to do after the shoot is shoot single closeups of each subject not talking… just sitting there, listening, sometimes looking at the other subject, sometimes not. That will give you a lot of editing flexibility no matter which shooting method you choose.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hi Angelyn…
This forum is somewhat more geared to cinetogaphic lighting rather than theatrical, but I might have one suggestion.
You might get ahold of the folks at Theatrical Lighting Systems (tlsinc.com) and ask their advice. They are a gigantic theatrical lighting rental company, and while they don’t offer courses or classes (that I know of), they might know of someplace that does.
Their home office is here in Huntsville Alabama, but they also have a Nasvhiille office. Since both are only a couple of hours from you, maybe they know of some resources in your area.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well I just heard from a friend on another 35mm cinematography forum that I belong to. He has some Canon insight and a bit of inside info, and he explains the “30fps only” situation as such….
“The design was an existing controller board, processor, and tied to a given feed pattern. To change feed pattern is not just changing the fps, but change of the fps meant the feed pattern needed to be changed since it conflicts with the “double 60 equals 30 fps” they are using, and that means the controller card would not work– and it would become a 20k camera. That “double 60 equals 30″ capture is good, but it is hardware locked.”
Oh well… maybe in a future build. That sure would make it a lot more useful for conventional 24fps shooting and editing. 30fps can indeed look good, but still has the inevitable “videoy” look to it purely thanks to the high frame rate, no matter how shallow the DoF.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com