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Panasonic AG-HPX170P Review by Adam Wilt

September 24, 2008 in Filmmaking with 3 Comments

I came across this review of the Panasonic AG HPX170 via FreshDV:

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/awilt/story/review_panasonic_ag_hpx170p_1_3_3ccd_p2_camcorder/

For me it is very interesting because it is one of the cameras I have wanted – that and a Red One, but the Panasonic is more in my price range (well not right now). The review is by Adam Wilt and makes a few comparisons to the HVX200, would be interesting to find out how different the HPX170 is to the HVX200A.

Every time that there is a need to hire a better camera it seems that everyone is hiring the Panasonic HVX200 and not the Sony EX1. So I have not had a chance to see how the HVX200′s 4:2:2 with 720p helps with my Blue or Green Screen filming. I know that the EX1 produces a cleaner and better picture than the the Panasonic – or so I am told – but the colour decimation is 4:2:0, hmmm. But here is the HPX170 that also has a much better picture but with 4:2:2 colour decimation (noting that that is the case for the HVX200A since they share the same CCDs). So when the HPX170 becomes available for hire then I think I’ll book it 2/3 weeks in advance.

So when did Panasonic add the 6 pin FW400 connector? Man I have been missing out on a few things.

Keying a Badly Lit Blue Screen

September 23, 2008 in Filmmaking with 1 Comment

One thing is for sure, and that it: it would be easier to light properly the first time round. The source must be the best possible, otherwise – well you know; garbage in garbage out. But don’t worry, the very talented and creative compositor will always find a way, right? hahahaha.

Anyway, there were reasons why the shot was so bad, mainly because of time and resources. So I just have to make this one work. Below is a shot of my tree that kind of made it work – actually it is a work in progress and I will have to spend more time tweaking the tree. Also there are before and after shots so you can feel for me

Node Haven

The tree is not complicated to big relative to some examples I have seen, like in the case studies found in Ron Brinkmann’s Art and Science of Digital Compositing. But is it biggish for me. After following some advice from Keying tutorials by Andrew Shanks (check Creative Cow) I decided to try creating a core, edge and garbage matte using KeyLight and on the different parts of the image where the light was different. I must say that it turned out a whole lot more successful that it seemed it would – based on the first attempt of just using KeyLight and a rotoscope (just shows you – compositing is not about applying a keying and pressing one button, it is about using tools at your disposal and coaxing out the effect you want).

I did have to use a rotoscope to create the matte around the legs – with a bit of blur added, because the lighting was worst there and there was an incredible amount of noise when the result was played back. Morgan was standing still in any case so this was quite possible.

Here are my before and after shots:

Ummmm, oooook

not too shabby

The Size is definitely up

September 22, 2008 in Filmmaking with 0 Comments

I see that today’s Final Cut Pro tip from Larry Jordan is about keeping FCP project down to a reasonable size. http://www.larryjordan.biz/tips/tip30.html

“Final Cut does not like really LARGE projects. Here are tips to manage things better.

As your Final Cut Project grows in size, certain editing functions can slow down. This is normally the result of either too many clips, or using clips with long durations (or sub-clips created from clips with very long durations).

To avoid potential performance issues, try breaking your project into acts, and only load the clips for that act into that project.

Also, try capturing in smaller blocks. Long tapes can be a problem, so break a one hour tape into fifteen minutes blocks.

Keeping the clip count and clip duration down should help keep FCP running smoothly.”

Hmmm, well, ahhh, It made me wonder. My Ten Before Project really should be managed better. Rather than clumping it all together it would be better to use a project by week idea, it’s just that I will be using so much of the same graphics and elements, hmmm indeed. Well here is a screen shot of my project, obviously I can’t twirl open every folder.

Too many files too little time

While pondering this it is worthwhile mentioning that there are people out there that are experts at this – at organizing that is and have good resources concerning that; like Shane Ross, check this out: Getting Organized in FCP

Sonnet Tempo™ SATA Pro

September 19, 2008 in Filmmaking with 1 Comment

Nice…

I use the previous one (non Pro) and have had issues with it recognizing one of my SATA2 external drives. But I have always wondered if the problem has been with the drive’s casing, hmmmm. That and if I eject the Sonnet Tempo without powering down the Sonnet then the WiFi goes down and stays down until I restart the MacBookPro, double hmmmmmmm. Thought 10.5.4 would have fixed this, wondering if 10.5.5 will, triple hmmmm.

Anyway, Sonnet Tech has announced this new card that is suppossed to 140% better/faster, ooooooo, that is very useful when editing.

“Sonnet Tempo™ SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 Sets New Standard for Performance in Mobile Capture/Edit Work”

http://www.sonnettech.com/news/pr2008/pr0910208_tsataproec34.html

At $299.95 it is not in my ‘Video Enthusiast’ budget at the mo.

The Next 10B4 Green Screen Shoot is Blue

September 8, 2008 in Filmmaking with 1 Comment

Update

Unfortunately we made a mistake in filming a few scripts. ummm someone forgot to record to ah video as well as the audio. oh dear. So we had so setup a snap shoot without the KinoFlos that had to go back. The results were less than desirable. There are many many reasons why good lighting is a must – especially for green/blue screen, and I came up along side one of them. Man alive it is difficult to light a blue screen scene with 3 x 150W DedoLights and 2 make shift lights that are used for effect and creating loud humming noises. ha ha ha. all part of the experience gulp. Fortunately, if it is that, only 3 scenes in the same script had to be re-shot.

Saturday, 13th September 2008

Me, Keith and Morgan

A early start as Morgan stretches his face

The, ahh, day of the shoot. Decided to Film with -7 detail level with the aim to add sharpening in post and used the Panasonic’s progressive mode. Capture was straight to the MBP which felt a whole lot quicker than the process of SxS eject, insert, copy, eject, insert, format/delete of the Sony EX1 at a quality loss. What I would give for a AJA IO HD and an HD camera with 4:2:2 or even better 4:4:4 that I could capture live.

Anyway the shoot went a whole lot smoother and faster than before. But I don’t think that we are stepping up to any new level here, especially with the use of a DV camera, hmmm.

The lighting was great, but I still struggle lighting the screen for a full body shot. I reckon that I will be rotoscoping the legs a lot (dark blue jeans will be an issue).

Friday, 12th September 2008

Picked up the lights today; 2 4ft-4bank KinoFlos and a Diva400. That together with the 3 150W DedoLights should be sufficient in lighting the blue screen and our presenter Morgan. We are going to stick to the script tomorrow which will pretty much be full, medium and close shots, but if we have time and opportunity I would like to attempt a few choreographed takes for some interaction with with CGI elements. Otherwise it is going to be an early 7am start for me cos I know for a fact that we will need to take time in getting the lights sorted out.

Thursday, 11th September 2008

No time for anything today, other than finishing off Pop Goes the Church by Tim Stevens – a very cool book about leveraging Popular Culture in the Church to reach real people in a relevant way. And it is sooo awesome that I am part of something like that, I mean hey – Saturday is Blue Screen Filming for Church. Anyway it has been decided that for budgetary reasons we are going to stick with DVX100BE and some KinoFlos to go with the DedoLights we have. Just so long as we evenly illuminate the screen and do proper molding of Morgan then it will all be good. We got Keith coming in to help with the Lights, what a relief. And with Morgan organizing and scripting and presenting all will be perfect. All about God, for His glory and to reach those in need of Him.

Wednesday, 10th September 2008

Just read through the scripts and made some comments and recommendations. Informed the key people on timings etc. Also really thinking of sticking with the Panasonic AG-DVX100BE of mine to film the Blue Screen hmmm. Otherwise I had Community Group tonight so my priorities were elsewhere. Besides that it was mine and Kathy’s Anniversary, Yayyyyyyyy. Flowers, Voucher for a facial – major brownie points. But tomorrow night its date night, nice.

Tuesday, 9th September 2008

Many things happening today or things that should have happen. Like I should have gotten something for my Wife because it is our Anniversary tomorrow, maybe I did – more on that tomorrow in case she reads this, hint hint. And it’s Apple’s Lets Rock event – probably only iPod nano updates, not Phenomenon or new Apple Cinema Displays pity. Anyway onto the topic on hand – it seems that we will be revising the scripts for our shoot, hmmm. Have still to confirm the camera rental – really holding out for a change in fortune :O. How awesome it would be to film on a RED One 4:4:4, man alive – imagine that, some day, some day soon. Otherwise I think that I will spend some time reviewing lessons leartn from other shoots and see where we can improve for the weekend. Interesting times.

Monday, 8th September 2008

That’s right, I am going to use a blue screen, a 20ft x 20ft one. Hard to imagine what I will do with all that material but it is going to be fun. Unfortunately the camera I wanted to hire; Panasonic HVX200, is not available this weekend so I will have to use the Sony EX1 again. Not that the Sony is a bad choice, just that I wanted to see if the HVX200′s 4:2:2 (DVCPRO50) is any different – which the Sony only has is going out as SDI . And so it is 4:2:0 all over again, mind you the 720p was a winner. Maybe this time I’ll try the 1080 option. But I will ultimately be outputting to a projector that has a native resolution just under 1280×720.

And sooooo, what I am going to do is give a daily update on the progress and planning as we get to the shoot, the shoot itself and all the editing that follows.

Learning To See

September 2, 2008 in Filmmaking with 1 Comment

If you stop and stare….(to borrow One Republic’s song title) at what you take for granted you will notice some amazing things, not just the play of light and shadows or the way seemingly random events take on an artistic form that can only be appreciated if you deliberately take notice of them – but also the hand of God in them.

Maybe we need to pause more often and notice.

Maybe we need to teach ourselves to see again; see the way different elements interact (positively and negatively) to form a composition that is just so much more real that the separate elements.

So where am I going with this? Good that you asked

I finished reading the chapter on Learning to See in Ron Brinkmann’s book; The Art and Science of Digital Compositing 2ed, where Ron discusses the need to take notice of things that we see, why we see them that way and ultimately to apply that knowledge (beside purely appreciating it) to create a better and more realistic composite for a visual effect. I really like the quote that he starts the chapter off with:

“This is the most difficult thing of all, though it would seem the easiest; to see that which is before one’s eyes” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Here are some examples from a Flickr sight of a Friend of mine; Deon

What stands out to me in this photo is it’s life, I mean it feels so real. If I could look at it and see nothing else then I could be there. It’s got so many things that we take for granted that give it that life; perspective, depth of field, light-shadows-reflections, occlusions and the mist. Try put together a visual effect like this and you’ll likely not think of may of the aspects that make this shot so real.

And sometimes it is the chaos and finding focus amongst all the chaos that makes it look real.

I think that from now on I’ll keep reminding myself to see, to look out for those things that make things real yet that I take for granted.

A CalDigit HDOne Review

September 1, 2008 in Filmmaking with 3 Comments

A CalDigit HDOne Review by Chi-Ho Lee (a film and television editor based in Boston, MA)

over at kenstone.net: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/caldigit_hdone_lee.html

Chi-Ho Lee show the awesome speeds that can be obtained at even 90% full.

Interesting to compare to Shane Ross’ review of the CalDigit HDPro over at the Los Angeles Final Cut User Group: http://www.lafcpug.org/reviews/review_hdpro.html

Here is a comparison, up to 2K, that show what each of CalDigit’s products can handle:

I can’t be sure which would be the best to use, if the option was between the HDOne and the HDPro – since they both seem to offer the same performance. However it does seem that the HDPro is geared for a more enterprise type of production house and is more scalable, although you can certainly use it as a stand alone.

Here is a comparison from CalDigit:

Useful Post Production Subscriptions

August 31, 2008 in Filmmaking with 0 Comments

Free

Post Magazine
Creative Cow
Studio Monthly
Larry Jordan

Not Free – but really worth it

Edit Well

Interview with Richard Marks (Hollywood Feature Film Editor)

August 28, 2008 in Filmmaking with 1 Comment

http://www.macvideo.tv/editing/interviews/index.cfm?articleId=102486

Wow he was editing in the same year I was born! In some really indirect way that could be slightly meaningful, ok maybe not, maybe just pushing it hey

Here’s a list of what Richard has worked on, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0548943/

Films like The God Father II (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), Timeline (2003), Spanglish (2004) and more recently Made of Honor (2008), Julie & Julia (Currently in Post Production)

Very Cool.

Directors Course

August 22, 2008 in Filmmaking with 0 Comments

FreshDV has a series a videos that can be viewed (not downloadable, so sad), check it out at FreshDV-TV or at this link. Here is the breakdown of the 5 parts (and it appears that there will be more) as quoted from the site:

“Part 1 was a 15-minute introductory video that discusses the basic qualifications, job description and overall tasks a director is responsible for in a production.

Part 2 deals with the script revision process, both in pre-production and on set. Whether a script change is sparked by a creative choice, a budgetary concern, or to fix a shooting problem, the Part 2 video segment covers the basic protocol and tangible essentials of how you can handle this in your next production.

Part 3 digs deep into the pre-production responsibilities of a Director and Assistant Director. Joe and Kendal discuss the process of breaking down a script by scenes and shots, assigning scene numbers, and building the day to day schedule. They show a sample script breakdown sheet and other necessary forms. Independent filmmakers by and large seem to have the attitude that planning doesn’t matter…but as Joe says in the video, pre-production should be 80% of a project. These tips and techniques will help you get a handle on the planning and pre-prod process, and help you come in under budget and make your shooting schedule.

Part 4 deals with daily production schedules, timesheets and the venerable callsheet…Joe’s “most beneficial information you can generate.” Joe and Kendal discuss planning, accountability, and working with the other members of a filmmaking crew to effectively reach the common goal…completing the project on time and budget.

In Part 5, the discussion transitions to the role of a Director and A/D in the casting and auditioning process. Joe talks about how he likes to run an audition and help faciliate the process, as well as what to look for in an actor’s audition. They also talk about making the offer to your actors, further table reads, and what to look for in the performances. These tips and concepts will help you better cast the roles in your next production.“

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