Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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[Winelight Digital] “…not sure what format they are in… Is it important for the DVD?”
Yes, very.
Unfortunately the Ukraine is a bit of a mystery when it comes to television standards… some resources list the Ukraine as being a PAL country, while others say it uses the Russian version of SECAM. At any rate it is not going to be NTSC, which is what your video presently is.
It’s fairly important that you author the DVD in the format that is readable in the destination country. HOWEVER… depending upon their particular DVD player, they might be able to play the disc even if it is not authored in the right format… for example, we have found that some consumer DVD players will actually play PAL discs fine, even though they are NTSC players (and not advertised as “multi-format” or anything like that).
So, you might get lucky. First though, I would try to confirm from your friend exactly what format is needed. And if you have tons of footage and this project isn’t super time-critical, I’d probably make a short test disc and mail it to her to see if she can play it. You don’t want to spend hours and hours of work creating a shiny drink coaster for her, and then have to do it all again. If the project is really short and easy, you might just author it a couple of different ways and send her multiple discs in various formats.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[hdfilmmaker] “BUt that is not as good of quality as SDI? I have the KONA LH card.”
HD-SDI is going to be the way to go, if you can…. although I kinda doubt your eyeballs would be able to tell if it is much superior to component.
I’m guessing you don’t have the AJA KONA breakout box… which has direct HD-SDI BNC connector inputs and outputs on it…that’s the way we injest XLH1 video. Without the breakout box, I’m not sure how you can get HD-SDI into the KONA card. You might ask that over in one of the AJA forums.
Even if you can get HD-SDI video straight into the card, you might look into getting the breakout box just for convenience sake (it’s a slim rack mount box with bunches of BNC connectors, XLR audio ins and outs etc… and connects straight to the card with two cables). It’s not very expensive, if I recall.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Contact me off forum, if you like… we don’t maintain a logo section in our website portfolio, but I have a composite sheet I can send you…. todd@fantasticplastic.com
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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As to the ND, I would go ahead and get a .3, .6, and a .9. I personally find I use the .9 more than the other two.
Plus, if you are a bargain hunter it’s worth noting that several of the filter makers offer an ND set that contains all three of those… usually for substantially less than if you bought all three individually.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well, focusing using a DoF converter is certainly not impossible… it’s just more difficult than using your camera’s stock zoom where the depth of field is so deep that you practically don’t even have to think about focus. Perfect focus pulling is a skill in and of itself, and it’s one more thing to think about. For cinematographers who are used to doing it all the time, it’s no big deal… but many videographers who aren’t used to doing it much can find it a bit challenging at first.
The direct Canon adapter is useful as, yes, it gives you the creative freedom to use a much wider variety of lenses even without a DoF converter. And there are many people (myself included) that prefer to use prime lenses rather than a video zoom lens, so the Canon adapter can be useful there.
That type of direct adapter however does NOT affect depth of field in any way. In this case that may be a good thing… as I said earlier, still camera lenses can be somewhat difficult pull focus since their focus ring travel is very short, but since you will still have the very deep depth of field focus is not as critical.
Oh… and remember, 35mm still camera lenses were designed to cover a 35mm-sized frame… and since 1/3″ sensor in your camera is much much smaller, when you attach one directly to your camera (NOT using a DoF converter) you are really only using the center of the lens. Ergo, the effective focal length of any given lens is much greater. I don’t remember the exact math, but it is definitely more than two times. For example, your fairly wide 28mm still lens will be a mid-range lens on your video camera… and a 50mm “normal” lens will be quite telephoto.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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All well and good advice.
The basic question though seems to be, “Do I have to worry about releases for these people.” Short answer, “No.”
The client is the producer/owner of this project and they are providing the talent. Concurring with what Mark said, it’s their issue.
We almost always provide/cast all the talent in our projects, and release them properly. However we are about to do some big productions where the client is providing the talent… our contract with them simply has a line that states “CLIENT maintains responsibility for securing rights-usages agreements with owners of any physical property photographed, and talent-rights agreements (releases) with any talent whose images or voices are captured during production.”
Really, you have no more responsibility or obligation than that. However, if you wanted to be one of those “goes the extra mile” guys, you might provide the client with some proper blank releases so they an take care of it and are covered if an employee (or future disgruntled or ex-employee) decides to make it an issue later.
It might be a nice thing to do, espcially if this is a long-time client or one that you are courting for additional jobs.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[hdfilmmaker] “Are you using a Kona card to capture with?”
Close… I’m not a FCP guy, we use Premiere Pro2… inputing video via HD-SDI into AJA KONA breakout box for capture with XENA card either with Premire or Machina.
[hdfilmmaker] “And I wonder if that card would make a diff.?”
Probably not, if it’s the problem that I suspect. I just don’t think the deck is reading the tape’s 30f format. If I were you I’d test that first… just hook up a monitor directly to the deck and see if you’re “getting a picture” on playback.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[c1dumbkid] “…what do you use them for…?”
The vast majority of our work (I’d say 90%+) is broadcast commercials. The remaining is industrial, corporate, infomercials, etc.
We generally use the DoF converter with tightly blocked scripted scenes with actors (which is most of what we do). Sometimes we can pull depths of field down as narrow as a couple of inches, so it helps to have a good focus puller (as well as actors who can accurately hit marks!).
By the way, when DoF is that shallow, the HDV viewfinder is pretty useless for focusing…you pretty much have to have a real 1080 monitor on set to judge focus if you do it by eyeball (not one of the little TTF LCD monitors that say they are HD but really only have 480×800 resolution). Best focusing is the old-fashioned “Hollywood” way, with a tape measure.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I would have thought that would not be a problem, but apparently it is.
As many people know, some of Canon’s shooting combinations can only be played back for capture directly out of a Canon camera.
For example, we shoot with the XLH1 every day in 24f mode. If we shoot a STANDARD def project, the tape will play out of our Sony decks just fine. But if we shoot 24f in HDV, it will only and only play back out of the camera (or another Canon camera that supports 24f, such as the cheap little HV20).
Sadly, the simple fact is that none of the deck manufacturers (Sony, JVC, etc.) have chosen to make a deck that will support Canon’s format. I sure wish they did. “Why can’t we all just get along?”
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say (without the benefit of testing it) that Canon’s 30f is apparently suffering the same issues as 24f… and that is that it will not play out of your Sony deck, and there’s not much that can be done about it. I’m betting you will have to use the camera as a source deck for this project.
I hope I’m wrong.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I use a DoF adapter almost daily (a 400 Series P+S Technik Mini35)… and yes, they are great for the right application.
However, since the depth of field can be very very narrow, they are best used for narrative dramatic type shooting… i.e., a scene with carefully blocked actors and action. If you wanted to use one for any sort of unpredictable live event, best results would come from using a very good follow focus unit, and a very good AC whose only job will be focus pulling. Also, the best results come from using real motion picture lenses. Many budget-conscious shooters do use SLR still camera lenses with one of the less-expensive DoF converters such as the one from Redrock that you mentioned (and some get good results), but those lenses are very difficult to use, especially for focusing (because you only have to turn the focus ring a very short distance to go from near to infinity, whereas on a cine lens you turn the barrel almost a full turn).
A downside to lens converters of course is the cost… they vary wildly in price, and you really get what you pay for. On the very top end, the lens converter can cost quite a bit more than the camera itself. And good lenses can cost quite a bit more than the converter… so the dollars really add up in a hurry.
Another downside of the lens converters is that they are very light-hungry… that’s why they are best used with superspeed prime lenses. Many zoom lenses are too slow for them, especially for interior shooting. I can imagine it would be quite difficult to shoot a live event while constantly changing primes.
It’s very unusual for me to speak against DoF lens converters, as I love them and am a huge proponent. But in the case of shooting an unpredictible live event I think it could prove to be quite difficult.
I’ve probably said too much about them already, but if you’d like to read more I wrote a fairly long article about DoF converters available in the current edition of the COW magazine just released today.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com