Walter Graff
Forum Replies Created
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You don’t need anyting fancy to make the same type of spot. Shoot greenscreen wtih a DV camera or an Hd camera. Format matters little. Then in post select matte output when you key the shot. That will give you a black and white inmage. Then downstream key any color you want in the peroson or the backgrond. That is the basis for how it was done in the real thing. I show how to do such an effect in my latest DVD “Greenscreen for Idiots”.
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So how are you guys burning HD onto standard disks? I have tried it with DVD studio pro with no success.
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I think you answered it Bob. When you walk into a lab you do see a bunch of folks wearing lab coats. Problem is everyone thinks white is your enemy. It is not. In such a situation the simplest and most effective way of illuminating them it to see what it is about a natural setting such as this and simply recreate it. THat usually involves large sources such as a diffusion frame and/or a bounce light. Worry less about the white and more about the entire picture.
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THis effect has more to do with good audio than anything else. A simple blue gel on a dimmer works well visually, as does flicker boxes, and an assortment of other techniques but it’s the sound that makes it work, that tinny TV sound that says hey he’s watching TV. .
https://www.bluesky-web.com/gone.mov
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“Of course there are advantages to the open face, namely that it puts out more light for a comperable wattage, because in the fresnel the glass itself absords some light. ”
Minor addition to this statement. The glass on a fresnel does not “absorb” light. The reason a fresnel does not cast as much overall light as an open face has to do with the reflector. Look inside a fresnel and you will see a smaller more polished reflector. The reflector in this case is designed to reflect light forward towards the lens. On an openface fixture the reflector is much larger, creates much more specular light reflection and hence makes the fixture more efficient.
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“The reason the consumer is getting screwed is because both of these new cameras are skimping on features that they’ve already released in other flavors previously, simply to protect their upper lines.”
I don’t think that is true. Read on…
“The Panasonic camera has no variable framerates and doesn’t even offer 24p – the single biggest claim to fame they have in the last five years.”
I would not use the term “claim to fame” as much as would use the term “gimmick”. I own a varicam. I shoot lots of video with it and rarely if ever is variable frame rate useful or necessary. In fact I had a discussion recently with a large group of cinematographers who agree, it’s cute feature but it doesn’t make or break a camera. But I see the marketing folks at some of these manufactures have made it seem like something one can’t live without. So all over the web I see folks asking if a new camera has variable frame rates as if you can not shoot without them. I look at it as a feature that has little use except special occasions in the professional world I work in. Perhaps your experience is different.
” If the $6,000 HVX can do both 24p AND selectable framerates, then their new $30,000 offering darn well ought to as well.”
It’s sort of a naive statement as I see it. I think even the manufactures sometimes are confused in the way they present their products. For this camera as someone pointed out the literature can’t seem to decide if this camera is for filmmaking or for broadcast, but when you look at the facts it’s a broadcast camera anyway you slice it. P2 in many folks mind now means no budget filmmaking, but remember it was for broadcast before the HVX and they are still trying to sell it for broadcast in addition to having added it to the consumer/prosumer HVX. 24p and variable frame rates are useless for the purpose of an ENG camera so it makes perfect sense that this camera does not have them as features. This camera seems identical to two other broadcast versions they made a few years back, albeit SD. So this is simply an HD version of an ENG broadcast camera. I think some folks don’t realize that 90% of all professional video cameras are for broadcast and independent video use and the “film” use and need for these cameras is miniscule so these features that you think should be included are not because they are not selling points for those industries and the larger percentage of use for the cameras.
“To use your analogy, they have now offered a Dodge Neon with a four cylinder engine, and it seems pretty rediculous to announce a brand new Hemi at five times the price with half the features (yet that’s exactly what they’re doing). ”
Actually I think they are simply offering a car designed as a family van that you want to use as a sports car.
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I don’t understand how consumers are getting screwed? All the consumer HD cameras make a great picture. In fact a fantastic picture. What more someone wants is beyond me. Television was invented with savings in mind. It’s the reason it was interlaced. It didn’t need to be anymore. The mind saw the information it needed to. It did what it had to do. That statement about getting screwed to me is the equivalent of saying it’s ridiculous for Ford to put a 2.0 liter four cylinder engine in a Dodge Neon when they make a 5.7 liter V-8 Hemi. They really are ripping people off because they don’t want you to have the power in the small car. But the engine in the small car fits the small car perfectly. The reality is the HVX is performs very much like the HDV formats, both have some strengths and weaknesses, but both are limited by the small form electronics. The HVX sounds great on paper but it suffers from some ills that make it very much in the same range as the HDV alternatives. For instance anyone that has shot with the HVX knows you have to crush blacks most of the time because of macroblocking in shadows. When you take the compression concatenation of the camera
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So teach me something? What have you found using XDCAM that is objectionable with editing?
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Just make sure that before you make an authoritative statement, that you have used a product in question or your statement doesn’t mean much.
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That seems to make sense to me. I would imagine this camera is designed for broadcast television stations and independents, and if so, 24p does not add any value to it. Would that be correct? From my persective, very few people actually need 24p and even less variable frame rates I have a Varicam and have used VFR’s less than the fingers on one hand. The biggest part of the market is has always been TV stations and independents
The HVX seems to be a good option for both 24p and variable frame work in the 1/3 inch size for those that need it in the Panasonic flavor.
Since all thus HD stuff is in its infancy, you’ll have to wait a few years while manufactures figure it all out themselves to see what works, what does not, and what folks want. RIght now what we have out there in many offerings may even disappear in few years for even better ways of doing things.
Walter Graff
BlueSky Media, Inc.
walter@bluesky-web.com
http://www.bluesky-web.com
Offices in NYC and Amherst Mass.