Videography Help and Workshop Thread

[shanerielly]

Hey, just wondering if anyone would be interested in any tutorials? Maybe things like colour correction in After Effects or any other things you guys may want to know. If you're amped then just make some suggestions and I'll see what I can do...
Tuts for photography would be cool to if anyone's keen on that...
There are a lot of tutorials around already that I can post links to, but I could also make some using bodyboarding footage so it's more specific if necessary.

Let me know your thoughts/suggestions...

Programs I'm currently using that I could do tuts for:
After Effects
Premiere Pro
Illustrator
Photoshop
Lightroom

[lachlan palmos]

Not sure if you've gotten yourself a camera yet, but a good way to go is the Canon HV40 - it's a consumer model and goes at a relitavely reasonable price, but it is great value for money. Right now there are some really good VDSLR's (Video Digital SLR) like the Canon 7D - It shoots HD video at various frame rates and is a Pro stills camera so you get 2 cams in one really. If you're shooting stuff other than BB then it's great because you can get really shallow depth of field and a very filmic look because it has a big sensor and you can put on any lens you want. The 7D is a lot of cash, but it's insane value for money. You do have to buy at least one lens for it though, but the kit lens you can get with it is pretty decent.

For the PC and Mac question I'm not sure if you're asking about changing which program you use and how different they are, or how it is using footage between the two?
If you asking about footage - Macs (FCP) use .mov files and PC's use .AVI mostly, but you can try a free converter called MPEG Streamclip - http://www.squared5.com/
In terms of changing the program you use it's not a huge change - the principles are all the same so it's just a case of learning where all the functions are really.

I hope that helps!

Sick post man; what do you reckon it would be like shooting vid with an SLR style camera? I've been looking into the 7D just thinking it might be pretty awkward with the way the eyepiece is...

[shanerielly]

Sick post man; what do you reckon it would be like shooting vid with an SLR style camera? I've been looking into the 7D just thinking it might be pretty awkward with the way the eyepiece is...

Yeah, it definitely isn't a full on video cam so it will be a bit awkward in certain situations since it lacks a lot of video cam functions.

For shooting in the water it would be pretty great I reckon - you can switch between photo and video mode so you could get top quality pics for the mags to make some dollar and get full hd video to use in your video productions. If the housing had a window at the back you could also watch what you're shooting on the LCD screen and get your framing tight.

Shooting BB from land wouldn't be great though I don't reckon and here's why:
- No viewfinder - you can get attachments, but they are static so the cam has to be at eye level to use like that - http://www.lcdvf.com/what.html. You can get external monitors, but they're pricey.
- No zoom function. You have to zoom using the wheel on the barrel of the lens.
- No auto focus. This is a pretty big deal since your subject moves so much when shooting BB.
- Rolling shutter (sometimes called 'jello-cam effect'). This is when you see vertical lines bend when you pan with cam or move it horizontally. It's very obvious when you have a long lens on because movements are so exaggerated when you're zoomed in tight. Not so obvious/almost eliminated when you have a wide lens on, which is why it would be ok shooting in the water. The reason for the rolling shutter effect is the sensor that the cam uses. All cams use either CCD or CMOS chips. CCD chips have the image 'burned' to them in one go - instantly. CMOS chips 'scan' from top to bottom so the top of the image is captured before the bottom. This means that if you pan quickly to one side then vertical lines in the shot 'bend' the oppiste way that you're panning. VDSLR's all have CMOS sensors...

The cam is great for shooting non-BB stuff - Like the stuff on Ep1 of the Dave Winchester Series. We shoot a bunch of other stuff other than BB so we have one for that and to shoot photos, but have a Canon XHA1 to shoot BB from the land.

The cam is awkward handheld too so you need something like this - http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.472981/it.A/id.1209/.f?sc=2&category=4286 - if you're going handheld.

Hope that helps man!

[lachlan palmos]

Awesome man, thanks for the reply!

[kingmaker]

Thanks for the information.. I think now i know how to record a video of myself surfing.. I need help from my mates though...

[doclach]

Hey Shane,
A few of us are mucking around with the new GoPro HD cams. There area variety of settings. most of our boog barrel footage will be shot on the 720 setting (r3) at 60 fps (all others are 30 fps).
so i went out in crap conditions the other day (so Im not stuffing around on a good day) and shot in 2 different modes. Only short, but no point processing heaps cos they will show a difference, if any.

What I'm trying to assay is if once it is loaded up to vimeo, there is much difference in the final quality on the higher res settings.

As shown in the vid, first section is the default setting of r4. tallest HD Video Max overall view 4:3 960p (1280 x 960)

Second section is r5 setting , Full HD, highest resolution 16:9 , 1080p , (1920 x 1080)

As a further note (if you're unfamilliar with the new GoPro HD's) the the r5 'full HD' setting has a narrower shooting angle of 127 degrees, as against the fisheye angle of 170 degrees for the other settings.

I'm wondering if I could draw on your pro eye to have a lok and see if you can see much difference?
also how much does Vimeo homologise the original shooting differences?
I use a mac (imovie) and the frames looked way different on the original footage in the computer. Not sure that much of that has translated onto the vimeo screen?
cheers mare,
Doc

[shanerielly]

Hey Doc,

Yeah, you can definitely see that the 1080p (r5) setting has a narrower angle of view - stuff looks closer to the camera than in the r4 setting (like the section of rocks you ride towards) and the horizon line is way less distorted (it's less curved in the 1080 footage), but I don't think it's too much of a big deal.
Here are what I think are some of the nice, and not so nice things about each of the settings:

* r3 (1280x720) - this is a recognised HD format and, until recently, the highest resolution supported by vimeo. I would still create video for vimeo at this size to keep file size down. 60fps is nice because you can slow it down to 30fps or 24fps for some nice slow motion stuff. On the other hand 60fps and 30fps are NTSC frame rates so living in Oz or South Africa the frame rates don't gel so well with the 25fps used in PAL video - so mixing the GoPro footage with your land-based footage shot with a PAL camera could be a mission. If you have a camera that shoots 24p I'd say go for that because it's easier to conform your GoPro footage to 24fps.

* r4 (1280x960) - As you mentioned this uses a 4:3 aspect ratio. The problem with this is that all HD formats are widescreen. But on the plus side you can crop the top or bottom bit (or a bit of each) off to combine with the 720 stuff if there is some stuff in your shot that you want to eliminate. Also it will be easy to scale/crop to use with regular 4:3 SD footage if your land camera isn't HD.

* r5 (1920x1080) - Cool because you can use it with full HD from another camera used on land. Also cool because you can scale it or crop it to fit with the 720 footage and you can do the same to use it with the 960 footage if you want your final output to be in the 4:3 aspect ratio for some reason. The 30fps doesn't give much room for slow motion, if any, so that suck a bit, but not everything should be made slow so it's all good.

I reckon the best way to go is to set your project to 1280x720 and then crop or scale the other formats to gel with that. Then upload the final output to vimeo. I'm not sure how iMovie handles the different sizes. It may have 'stretched' your 960 footage to fit with the 1080 stuff, but I can't really tell from the clips because the wide angle creates so much distortion already. I reckon it's looking pretty good!

I hope this helps! Just let me know if I missed something or didn't understand the question properly

Oh, I almost forgot - if you need to conform your footage to other formats or frame rates you can use this programe - http://www.squared5.com/ - it's free and works on Windows and Mac. It works really well on a Mac. I'm not sure, but I think the GoPro records to .AVI files so you could use this to convert to .MOV before editing on a Mac.

[doclach]

Ah Man, cheers for the indepth feedback. Yeah it looks like the 60 fps r3 setting is the go pretty permanently, just good to investigate the worth and applications of the other settings. The cam has an internal setting for ntsc/PAL - which I've set to PAL - does this change the frame rate the GoPro camera shoots at to 24fps? Or does it modify it in some way to be compatible with PAL?

All this stuff is 'Greek' to me , so it's a steep learning curve, so all help is pretty necessary due to 'dumbass' factor, haha.

for mine, The files get converted to .mov files and play in quicktime b4 I put them in imovie. That is by defaut, not by any brain-scheming from me. The program seems to handle the different formats fine. the example above i just plugged them straight in and it all worked fine. this little laptop runs the Leopard o/s and it seems to have stepped up its processing capabilities from when it was Tiger o/s.

I don't shoot land, just using the GoPro stuff for some fun and on its own, so in my case I don't need to blend footages, but some of the boys definitely will. I think some 'onboard' footage looks really fresh in the mix with land and water footage all combined at a pro level.
Nothing like seeing the kegs from the inside. Just would like to have the aspects sorted so when our big winter swells roll up, we're good to go to get rewarding footage for our efforts and to relive the moments and stoke on!

[background_music]

My two cents worth - Anyone serious about filming should strongly consider getting a camera like the 5d mk ii or 7d..there are still issues like Shane mentioned, but you will learn more from these cameras and the accessories they are compatible with that any high or low end HDV camera available. Not that many surf shots require overly fast panning, unless you are shooting tight from a breakwall or something similar, so if you plan your shots i dont think the rolling shutter is much of a problem. And as far as handheld, its do-able with these cameras but at the end of the day its something you should avoid doing too much of anyway. I recently did an overseas trip(non surf related) without a tripod and came back with some amazing footage - handheld using wide lenses, timelapses with the camera sitting on a step, ledge, ground, anything stable - i think the best thing about these cameras is that they make you think outside the box.. think more like a cinematographer. Also.. shooting timelapses using still shots is simple, and will blow your mind, and comparable ones simply cant be done on video cameras. Also back what Shane said about MPEG streamclip - an amazing free piece of software i use daily. Fast, simple, easy to do batch conversions. Start it up and walk away.

[waLurker]

Hey Shane, I know you're on Windows NLEs but FCP is giving me a hard time editing in 60p on my Mac - doesn't recognise it. Handles the 30/720p .mp4 codec fine it seems. Apparently the best way is to convert it to an XDCAM file (whatever that is ) and then import it into FCP. You wouldn't happen to know about how to go about editing my shiny new footage without losing half the frames, would you? Any help would be much appreciated, mate.

And I read somewhere that it actually films in 29.94fps, (NTSC standard) and therefore maybe 59.92 for 60p if that helps [EDIT: actually 29.97 and 59.94]

[waLurker]

All good, I did a little reading. Requires (free) MPEG streamclip and cinema tools (part of FC studio). Basically it involves converting the 60p into a readable 60p file, then using the appropriate software to make the clip into a 2x slow motion 30p clip (actually 29.97) which is what I wanted.

Link: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/jvc-gy-hd-series-camera-systems/83228-overcranked-slow-motion-samples-hd200-250-a.html

[shanerielly]

Sorry for not replying mate! For some reason I didn't get a notification email of your post and I haven't been on in a while... Glad you got it sorted though!

[shanerielly]

My two cents worth - Anyone serious about filming should strongly consider getting a camera like the 5d mk ii or 7d..there are still issues like Shane mentioned, but you will learn more from these cameras and the accessories they are compatible with that any high or low end HDV camera available. Not that many surf shots require overly fast panning, unless you are shooting tight from a breakwall or something similar, so if you plan your shots i dont think the rolling shutter is much of a problem. And as far as handheld, its do-able with these cameras but at the end of the day its something you should avoid doing too much of anyway. I recently did an overseas trip(non surf related) without a tripod and came back with some amazing footage - handheld using wide lenses, timelapses with the camera sitting on a step, ledge, ground, anything stable - i think the best thing about these cameras is that they make you think outside the box.. think more like a cinematographer. Also.. shooting timelapses using still shots is simple, and will blow your mind, and comparable ones simply cant be done on video cameras. Also back what Shane said about MPEG streamclip - an amazing free piece of software i use daily. Fast, simple, easy to do batch conversions. Start it up and walk away.

Nice post man! You made some great points! I'm still loving my 7D and leaving for a big trip in a few days so I'm amped to start shooting all over the place. I'll be in Australia in just over a month - it would be cool to meet some film/booger guys while we're there if anyone's up for it.

[doclach]

G'day shane, sick to see you 'round man. Did your missus end up getting that ink booking?
lemme know if you don;t get more thread notifications and we'll get It to look into it. Cheers for caring man.

[shanerielly]

Thanks Doc. No reply from the tattoo artist yet unfortunately, but I gave it a good shot
We leave for the US on Monday so we'll see how it goes...