Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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[gary adcock] “I would check to make sure that everything is current”
It is.
[gary adcock] “How is Premier not functioning correctly a Xena hardware issue? this is a premier issue it has nothing to do with the card in the machine.”
Ummm… maybe yes, maybe no. I wrestled with incorrect alpha channels and incorrectly importing stills for weeks, while begging both Promax and Aja for help. Then finally was told by Aja more or less “Hmm, yep guess that’s a bug. It will be addressed in the next round of drivers… in a few weeks.” So, I think you can see how I might just as easily suspect this could possbily be an Aja issue.
[gary adcock] “you did not buy the hardware from AJA how is it their fault?”
Well, if I buy a new Cadillac and it doesn’t run right, it’s just as likely that it’s a GM problem, not the dealer’s fault.
[gary adcock] “why are you not posting this in the premier forum and bitching at Promax?”
Rest assured that I am.
No, I do not know that this is an Aja issue. But I also don’t know that it isn’t. When one has out-of-town clients who have flown in and expect a certain level of both professionalism and functionality one tends to get frustrated and yell at whomever will listen and might be able to help. I’m not sure whether to point fingers at Promax, Aja, Adobe, or even Bill Gates… no one has been able to tell me yet, even the seller who brought the system back in house for three weeks of diagnosis. If this was the first serious functionality issue that I have ever had with this system, I might feel otherwise… but this is, oh, the 20th at least.
It sounds like you are a die-hard Aja fan, who almost gets offended at any potential criticism of the product. If that’s the case, sorry to offend, but I’m not a happy camper. After going through five other systems through the years (which all functioned pretty much flawlessly) maybe I’m spoiled… but when a system costs more than ten times as much as my first car (or second one, now that I think about it), I need for it to simply work.
I don’t want to be an unsatisfied customer. Good products, great customer support, and helpful people like the great folks I have met on the COW help my frustration. Being chided for asking for help does not.
If anyone else has any suggestions, I am all ears and will be infitnitely grateful.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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First, let me preface this by saying that I am NO wedding expert by ANY stretch… I can count on one hand the weddings that I have actually attended (more than a couple of friends whose weddings I have missed are quick to point out this failing), and no one makes a gun big enough to hold to my head to get me to actually shoot a wedding….
But I have shot tons and tons of 24fps footage… 16mm, 35mm, HDV, and HD.
So…first of all, run some tests. I think you will find that on PLAYBACK on a real monitor it will look very different than what you see in the viewfinder (or on an external monitor when shooting live). I think you will find that playing back recorded 24p footage doesn’t look nearly as “stroby” as what you see in the finder.
Secondly, and perhaps more imporantly, I would address the “why”… i.e., why are you planning to shoot a wedding in 24P?
I shoot 24fps all the time, but it’s almost always for something that is dramatic or narrative in nature… because we are used to seeing high-end dramatic projects shot on film… at 24fps. On the other hand, the human brain is going to be more expectant of seeing something that is more a “live” representation of a real event in 60i, simply because that is what we are used to seeing (from home movies to news footage to everything in between). If your clients specifically requested the wedding to be shot in 24p, then do it…they must know what they want and the “customer is always right.” However, if they are not video savvy, say, not even knowing what 24p is… then they may be very surprised that their wedding video looks very unlike everyone elses wedding video they have seen.
To me, the decision boils down to this: I shoot 24fps when I wish I were shooting film, but budgets or time or whatever don’t allow it. In those cases I’m still very careful to have cinema-style lighting, very filmic camera moves, and blocking. The only thing different in a film shoot and a 24p shoot for me is the camera. You have to have control over all of those other things for 24p to be at its most effective… just flipping the switch from 60i to 24p doesn’t automatically make something look better… or make it look like film… more often it just looks like video that someone has “done something to.”
60i, however, is a mode I would shoot in when I was more trying to preserve a record of an event… be it a wedding or whatever.
This is one of the cases that I think I’d talk over with the client, maybe show them some samples and let them make the decision… since it’s well known that hell hath no fury like an angry bride.
And remember this: if you shoot 60i, there are several ways to pull it down to 24p…or at least give it a look at approximates that. BUT, if you shoot 24p, there’s NO way to go back to 60i.
Just my two cents….
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I’m sure that’s true. I THINK the Bauer one will though, although can’t swear to it. I cracked it open once just to see how much circuitry was involved (ok, I didn’t actually “crack it,” just took out the four screws). If I recall the “power tap” output was just a direct “Y” circuit right off the battery terminals. If that is the case then yes you could INPUT juice there as well as OUTPUT it. I haven’t done that though, and I would definitely open it again and look at it good before I tried it. The IDX is obviously designed differently, and steals it’s juice for the “power tap” at some other point in the circuit.
You can do this though: Get a dead IDX battery (you can probably find one that needs to be recelled on eBay or from your battery supplier) and gut it, take all the cells out so that you just have an empty shell that will snap into the IDX battery adapter for the XLH1. Then install a 4-pin XLR power connector right in the battery shell (or install a cable in the shell that terminates in an XLR connector outside the shell body). Then you just snap on your “dummy” battery and feed it 14.4 volts from your direct source… the adapter will just “think” it is getting juice from a battery and downconvert its voltage properly for the camera.
We use a similar setup with a “dummy” battery to power our camera for Steadicam use.
Again, make sure polarity is right. Double, triple check it.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hi back Brian…
Not to highjack your post, man, but I had another question about the Brevis35…
Does it have a way to control exposure (that’s the way I normally do it with the Mini35)? Or do you do that with the camera’s iris? (as opposed to the actual cine lens iris)
I’ve been doing DoF conversion with the P+S Technik for a little more than a year, I guess… and LOVE it. Sometimes I could benefit from a B-camera though (or just a smaller camera) and frankly I can’t justify the cost (or simply afford) another Mini35. I WILL say it’s just about the best-designed and built piece of hardware that I’ve ever seen… but then again it’s roughly the price of a good used Buick and I need a more affordable alternative for an additional camera (and I’ve heard nothing but negative comments about the cheapo Letus35, and I don’t think it will take PL mount lenses anyway). Everything I’ve seen from the Brevis looks pretty darn good though, indeed…especially at 1/10th the price which is mighty attractive. In our case the upsidedown image wouldn’t be too big a deal since it’s not for primary shooting… AND the little HV20 is more than small enough (and symmetrical enough) to simply mount upside down if we wanted.
Thanks for the input…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Looks good Brian… Quite good.
Before watching the clip, I was betting my advice was going to be “Backlight, backlight, then backlight some more,” but looks like you knew that.
Really my only observation would be that the rain doesn’t read that well in the two high downward-angle crane shots… but that’s to be expected. Might add a little rain in those two shots in post.
Oh… and you didn’t ask for a sound critique but I’ll give you one: her slap looks great, but doesn’t sound as dramatic as it looks. You might do a little SFX work and foley a sharper-sounding slap there.
BTW… how did you like the Brevis35? I shoot Canon XLH1 with the P+S Technik Mini35, which we love…but we also have a tiny Canon HV20 as a crashcam and I know you can put a Brevis35 on it, so I’ve thought about that as a B-cam. But I’ve never known anyone who actually owns one yet. Review?
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I don’t know of a DIRECT adapter that will do that, but if you are capable of doing some minimal electronics surgery (or alternately, just building a cable) it wouldn’t be a big deal to make one.
There is an adapter for the XLH1 (part QR-XLH) that allows it to use Anton Bauer goldmount batteries on the back… in fact we power our camera with nothing but bricks now (work great, by the way… last forever).
The adapter has the necessary electronics inside the goldmount to convert the 14.4 volts from the bricks down to the 7.2 volts required by the camera. It shouldn’t be a big deal at all to do a little bit of surgery to the adapter and install a 4-pin XLR input jack on it. Then you could pump 14.4 juice in from your Enduras and the Anton Bauer adapter would convert it down to 7.2 volts and pass it on to the camera, just as it would a brick. I think (if I’m remembering the way the circuitry routes correctly) you could even just use the built in “power tap” in the goldmount… instead of doing any surgery on the mount, you’d just need to make a little pigtail cable with a 4-pin XLR connector on one end and the power tap connector on the other.
Just make sure to get the polarity right!
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[John Schell] “24F from the Canon won’t play in any deck/camera but a Canon”
True… but again ONLY for high-def. Standard-def 24f plays fine (and looks like a million bucks) in our Sony decks.
Just to clarify…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Ahhhh…. the quandry.
Here’s the thing (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong, which I really hope I am), as far as I know if you record with the XLH1 in 24f and HDV mode, then NO ONE makes a VTR that will play back the tape. You MUST use the camera as a source VTR.
As I said, that’s AS FAR AS I KNOW. That’s not to say that there isn’t a deck out there that will do it… but lots and lots of Canon shooters (myself included) haven’t found it yet.
Now if you are recording in standard-def, you should not have a deck problem, no matter what mode. We have a variety of decks here (different models, although all of them are Sonys), and they have never had a problem playing back SD from the XLH1 no matter if it was recorded in 60i, 30f, or 24f. Similarly, most any HDV deck should also play the tape fine AS LONG AS IT IS RECORDED 60i. It’s only when recording HDV 24f that you run into this problem. Actually… I can’t speak to whether 30f is a problem or not, as we have never even once recorded anything 30f.
I HATE using the camera as a source deck, too. Firstly, it wears out the camera. Secondly, it’s just inconvenient and klunky. Thirdly, it ties up a camera that could be out shooting. An fourthly, if you work with clients in your suite you frankly just look like a goober playing tape out of a camera.
The only other solution that I know of (which some people do) is to buy one of the little ultra-cheap thousand-buck Canon camcorders such as the HV10 or HV20 and use it as a source “deck”… which actually aren’t bad little cameras, if you’d like an extra one hanging around (we bought an HV20 to basically use as a crashcam). The downside to that is that we like to intake via HD-SDI, and those little cameras don’t output that (they will output HDMI but not HD-SDI).
I’m wishing there was a better solution…. in fact I’m HOPING that someone corrects me, tells me I’m full of cheese, and lists a real deck that will work.
(P.S. Don’t let that dissuade you from the XLH1, though… it’s a GREAT camera).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yeah, that’s exactly what we tried some months ago, with no luck. I just now tried it again, same results.
Actually when I try to select Xena ASIO in Adobe Audition 2.0 I get this warning box:
…I’m recalling now that it was at this point the support guy at Promax (who built our Aja-based Boxx system) gave me the “Hmmm, I guess that won’t work” response. Very helpful.
Am wide open to any ideas here…
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Great, I think you will be happy with that A/B setup.
Now, if you are not already a Steadicam operator… practice practice practice. It’s defnitely not as easy as some people think. Garrett Brown himself has said he knows of only a handfull of guys in the world that he considers real “crackerjack operators.” It can be tough.
I wouldn’t really recommend going to one of the Steadicam workshops for the Flyer (they are expensive, and I think would be overkill), but after you play with it for a bit I would definitely recommend finding an experienced op maybe in your area that could give you a little guidance. There are some bad “Steadicam habits” that are VERY easy to fall into and do nothing but lead to fatigue and bad shooting.
If you ARE an experienced op… well, you knew all that anyway.
Shoot steady!
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com