Pre-Prod. help

January 30, 2004

Hi, I'm new to this forum and I was hoping you all could help me out. I'm looking into shooting a feature on mini-dv with a Sony VX-2000 and editing it with Final Cut Pro. What I want to do, though, is shoot lip-sync concert footage on film (perhaps pro8mm), then have it transferred to mini-dv to combine it with the other footage.

My question is, and I apologize if this has been addressed before, in order to have the film footage sync up with my pre-recorde digital audio, is there anything special I should do with regards to shooting film speed, transfer film speed, or altering the film speed in Final Cut?

Also, I'm looking to get really saturated reds and blues with the concert footage (similar to the Radiohead footage from Meeting People is Easy). I've thought about going with a high speed pro8mm stock. Should I look into bleach bypass or cross-processing (I'm somewhat familiar with bleach bypass, but I'm not really familiar with cross-processing. I know it was used in Three Kings, but I'm not really sure what the effect is). I'll probably plan each concert shot and have the performers lip-sync, so using only a 2 1/2 minute super8 (pro8, that is) isn't a problem.

Wow, that's a lot. If anyone has any information that could help me, I'd appreciate it.

Nathan

Leon Rodriguez · February 2, 2004

I'll try to help although I've never shot Pro 8; so tell me, Does Pro 8 shoot at 24 f/s for real time? If it does, I'd assume that it would work the same as shooting wild (unsynced) on 16mm or 35mm.

Know what frame rate you're shooting on the 8mm and talk to the lab about your transfer and tell them what you want to do. When the lab does the transfer to DV, you'll get real time at 30f/s or a 3-2 pull up. The process in effect creates 6 synthetic frames from a special sequence of repeated fields to scale it to allow it to sync with your DV's native 30f/s from the film's native 24f/s.

In editing, your challenge will be to identify matchframes. I'm assuming that the Audio is locked to your DV, right? Don't let the film clips run too long in one consecutive shot. In other words cut back to the DV and then go back and get a fresh matchframe sync point for the next film clip. You should be OK. I've used mixed mediums for music videos and have managed to lipsync pretty well. Look for action that would simulate what you would get from a clapper like a guitarist hitting the strings of his guitar at a known point in the tune. Or a drumstick hitting a drum at a known point. That would be a matchframe. Put those two frames directly above each other on your NLE (final cut) timeline, choose in and out points... Well from there I'm sure you know the drill.

As for your saturated colors, understand that 8mm is not lot of surface area so don't expect a lot of crispness. Use your meter. Don't overexpose too much. For the reds I'd use an enhancing filter and for the blues Use CTB like an 80A, 80B or 80C depending on how blue you want to go. Remember to put those filters in front of your spot meter when your taking your reading so that your exposure is consistant with your measurement. If your concert is at night, you might have to shoot a pretty fast film.

Sounds to me like you are going to finish in a Digital format so you might want to consider shooting it as clean as possible and manipulating the color in post digitally.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about bleach bypass and cross processing to advise you. I've had directors order that done to film I've shot and it was interesting looking enough but I don't kow how to optimize those processes. I've never really explored those, in fact, I'd be open to hear about that discussion myself.