kata

According to:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=164

it's noisy.

anything by Uwe Boll.

actually, no. I would never watch it if it came on....

maybe some uni-cardioids on the floor pointed at the actors? the wind shouldn't hit them as much.

just a thought.

Should I take that to mean "looks like film" ?

ok, so it's been a while, been busy with other stuff, but hey...

I said I'd post a clip from this camera with (sort-of) proper white balance. this is shot indoors, practicals, halogens in suspended ceiling only. white-balanced on a sheet of paper.

Again, mostly interested in your comments about the grain and the DOF, not the fact that I'm slightly out of focus waving a cam at myself. it's the raw footage, 15 fps, cropped.

Linked here:

http://www.desperado.ca/4e.mov

comments appreciated.

from http://smssugarman.com/

The Use of Mobile Technology in SMS Sugar Man

SMS SUGAR MAN is a feature film that incorporates new cell phone technologies in a highly innovative manner.

The film is not only actually shot on cell phone cameras, in itself a revolutionary breakthrough, but the cell phone plays a vital role in driving the film's narrative - in effect functioning as a dramatic character.

All the lead actresses carry a cell phone and constantly film each other. Thus the traditional cinematic practice of having a "cast" who are invisibly filmed by a "crew" of technicians - is radically subverted.

In SMS SUGAR MAN cast and crew fuse - the actresses are in control of filming each other - and in monologue scenes, -themselves.

This conceptual leap mirrors the tremendous empowering effect that cell phone technology has had on our every day lives.

The plot of the film is entirely driven around the potential that cell phones have to enable us explore new forms of communication and new ways of representing ourselves. The consequences of these innovations are hardly studied as yet, and SMS SUGAR MAN makes a contribution to our understanding of how significant cell phone technology has been on our evolutionary social development.

Cell phone media have become so much part of our daily living that it would be impossible to conceive of an urban environment without them. SMS SUGAR MAN is a prescient glimpse into the near future when all our most basic relations with each other are informed by cell phone use, including sexuality and spirituality.

It is too red

HA! good one.

I'll try to post an actual clip, with proper WB as soon as I can shoot something without the camera freezing... man it's cold up here...

cost is definitely an issue. and the quality is there for HD, especially since it's broadcast material.

I guess it will depend on the equipment and the post-prod. they will need a semi-complete workflow change.

Greg, did you fly into montreal on a red and white dash-8 today? :-) (saw one go by, not a common sight) If you did, you must have enjoyed the rocky ride (!) ... 60 to 90 click winds... hehe...

try getting some that are rated 100a. that's the hardest you'll find. They used to make some skateboard wheels out of ceramic in the 60s I believe, but they stopped manufacturing them because they would shatter into dust on hard turns....

your best bet would be to do it at post-prod by overlaying frames.

you could try using a high-speed strobe (disco strobe, not photo flash) and low shutter speed, but you wont get a very long trail.

Greg, I know what a Dash-8 is, they just don't have a pukey smiley...

But hey, after flying on an 80's Banderante EM-100 with a cabin door that "sort of" stayed closed, over the Bahamas, i'll take a Dash-8 anyday :-)

that "?referrer=CR" at the end of the link looks like someone is trying to cash in on click thru hits.... <_<

Igor, thanks.

I dont think I'll end up at Sundance with this :-) but who knows, it does open up new avenues, especially for music videos. I like the fact that it's small, and you can turn it on and no one knows it's rolling.

the anti-shake is also very good (battery-drainer, need an AC adapter) but I think I'll definately do some serious tests with this. maybe set up a mini rail/dolly system... :-)

Greg,

Dash-8??? :wacko:

over/under: arm in front, flexed 90 degrees like holding a shoulder cam lens. pull cable over/thru hand, slip behind/under elbow, bring up to hand. continue. (coil cable with the "wrapping" hand)

is that correct?

In response to Greg, yep, I can set the white point to purple if I want to :-) , Ev +- 2 and contrast settings available (PS Harrisburg reminds me a lot of Montreal, must be the water and the Island park)

Thomas, I forgot to mention the camera... it's a Minolta A200. It also does 640x480 30p, but it looks a little more like 8mm 800ASA (ok, maybe not that bad...)

Greg, my first idea for this was a black and white conversion, but I haven't really experimented with the white balance yet.

unfortunately, i'm at a hotel and I dont have the camera with me, but I may go get it and do some tests as I have a few days off. :-)

just a thought. using a pully and shooting it backwards? starting just over the soldier and pulling up? you'd need to reverse the scene backwards and adjust the timing, but you would not damage the camera...

W/B has to be preset. auto, tungsten, fluo (2), daylight, flash ( ! ) I also have two "custom" slots I haven't checked.

I have no idea what the camera was set at.

On a side note, I did export the Quicktime to DV stream and it seem to hold up nicely.

the ccd is a 2/3, 8Mpx. The lense is a 28-200 (35mm equiv) f2.8-f3.5. Manual focus and zoom in movie-mode.

To me, it looks close to what i'd get shooting 16mm at 15fps. No?

Robert, thanks for the input!

I have a workaround for this kind of footage. Namely Avid Videoshop 3.0 circa 1995. It's basic, but pre-DV, so it handles the source as-is, without generation loss by converting to a workspace and I can export it to fully uncompressed Quicktime. I figure I can get all the work done in there and then just run the analog feed out to a deck or convert it to DVD mpeg2.

I have tried importing this kind of non-standard footage in FCP FCExpress and even iMovie, but they all have DV spaces with fixed aspect ratios and they can't give me what Videoshop can. I'm glad I never threw out that CD :-)

This way I should only get 1 generation loss at the final transfer and none between.

Download ffmpegX. you can customize a lot of settings in it, and convert pretty much anything to anything.

It can create your dvd.image for you, and you can use disk utility to burn it to your dvd.

Total cost? 0. It's open-source.

Can I have any comments on this image? It's a grab from a still camera shooting 800x600 15fps video. the depth of field is better than any video camera i've tested (from 2 feet away from my nose anyway)

It's a little grainy, (compresses to mjepg on the fly) but still, I like the grain. the image had to be compressed to upload, but I compared it to the original, and it's pretty close)

It still seems fluid at 15fps. Wondering if I should explore this option for videoclips.

(please dont judge lighting or composition, I just sat next to a 100 watt lightbulb and turned it on :D )

Thanks

Eric